The New Neighbors by Claire Douglas

We all overhear things sometimes, and sometimes those scraps of information might sound sinister when they are really just mundane.  Missing the nuance of the rest of the conversation we may think the worst.  Recently separated Lena has new neighbors.  They seem respectable, but are the Morgan's really who they appear to be?

Lena's son is using borrowed audio equipment to record night sounds for a school class, but his microphone picks up a conversation between the couple that worries Lena.  At first she turns it off because she is worried about invading their privacy, so only a part of their words are picked up, but they sound as though they are planning to harm someone and that it is not their first time doing so.

Lena leans into her best friend, her estranged husband, her son, and her son's new guitar tutor with her concerns.  

The psychological suspense keeps the pages moving quickly.  I read this in two days because I wanted to know if my predictions were correct.  My book club is discussing this next month and I am interested to see what other people's thoughts were.  This author is new to me, though I have noticed her name in posts from other readers.  Based on this book I would be interested in reading more books by Douglas.

The Teacher by Freida McFadden

 

I listened to this audiobook while I was at the beach, taking walks around town and listening as I listened to Eve who seems to hate her job as a teacher and her teacher husband Nate, who really, really loves shoes and misses her mentor who lost his job due to rumors.  Then there was Addie, a student in both Eve and Nate, who is at the heart of last years rumors and is being shunned by her best friend and bullied by the most popular girl at school.  At times you get to hear it all from Nate's point of view as well.

As I was walking around town I was wondering if I liked any of them and who I disliked the most, no spoiler for which one  but by the end there was one of them that I really did not like and had little sympathy for.  I liked that we were seeing it from each of their sides so when you were in Eve's head you knew all she knew, when you in Addie's you knew all she knew, Nate didn't come in until a bit later, the beginning of the book was the other two, but you got a much clearer picture of it all when he was added in there too.

Since this is Freida I knew there would be some twists and some darkness and those are definitely there, I wanted to love it but have to say I did not which mainly had to do with some of the events and situations, the issues were just too much for me at times.

So who can you trust and who do you go to in a school when you are having trouble?  What do you do when what you think is real is not?  Or when you find out that you aren't the first one who has been in this situation?  

If you want to read this twisty story and make your own decisions about it you can reach it here

Summers at the Saint by Mary Kay Andrews

 

For many of us summer has started, it officially started last week, but for some school has been out for a bit longer.  One of my favorite things to do in the summer is read!  Of course, it is one of my favorite things to do in the other three seasons as well, but there is something about the lack of structure in the summer that makes it ideal for reading!

Last week I decided I wanted to read something to put me in the summer mood and I picked up Mary Kay Andrews book Summers at the Saint.  I loved that it was a mystery and brought best friends back together, I loved the underdog making it to the big time and I loved the setting!  I also discovered in listening to an interview with the author that she writes under a pseudonym  using her children's first names, which was a fun new fact for me.

So the hotel is in a small town and you can be from the right side of the tracks or the wrong one, and if you are from the wrong one the reason you might be at the hotel is because you work there.  Years ago Traci and her best friend were lifeguard there.  Traci fell in love with the son of the owner and her friend lost her job after a child died in the pool and lost touch with her friend.  Fast forward a couple decades and Traci has lost her husband and is fighting his family to keep running the hotel the way he wanted to while his brother manages the land interests for the family.  Add in a group of young people living in a dorm setting working at the resort, some drugs and murder, some missing mattresses and liquor, and some uncovering of family secrets and you have a fun summer read.  While I did not read this on a beach, it would make a great beach or poolside read.  I loved her summer book last year too!

I would give this four or five starts, I think on Goodreads I said 4 but thinking back I really liked the mystery element and might need to go back in and make a change.  I can recall many a summer that I would read library mysteries on my bed after coming home from the pool, warm and tired from the water and would immerse myself in solving a mystery.  This was a great start to my summer reading!

Link for Amazon:  here

Drowning by T.J. Newman

 

From Goodreads: Flight attendant turned New York Times bestselling author T. J. Newman—whose first book Falling was an instant #1 national bestseller and the biggest thriller debut of 2021—returns for her second book, an edge-of-your-seat thriller about a commercial jetliner that crashes into the ocean, and sinks to the bottom with passengers trapped inside, and the extraordinary rescue operation to save them.

Six minutes after takeoff, Flight 1421 crashes into the Pacific Ocean. During the evacuation, an engine explodes and the plane is flooded. Those still alive are forced to close the doors—but it’s too late. The plane sinks to the bottom with twelve passengers trapped inside.

More than two hundred feet below the surface, engineer Will Kent and his eleven-year-old daughter Shannon are waist-deep in water and fighting for their lives.

Their only chance at survival is an elite rescue team on the surface led by professional diver Chris Kent—Shannon’s mother and Will’s soon-to-be ex-wife—who must work together with Will to find a way to save their daughter and rescue the passengers from the sealed airplane, which is now teetering on the edge of an undersea cliff.

There’s not much time.

There’s even less air.

With devastating emotional power and heart-stopping suspense, Drowning is an unforgettable thriller about a family’s desperate fight to save themselves and the people trapped with them—against impossible odds.

My thoughts:  Last year I read Newman's first book, Falling, and really enjoyed it, so I was excited to give this one a try.  Both books were very fast paced and hard to put down.  There was a palpable sense of hurry and worry as you wondered how the characters would get through each of the challenges they encountered.  I love how Newman uses her knowledge of air planes and flying from her time as a flight attendant in the books.  It feels real, she really makes the time on the plane real.  I wonder if maybe the scenarios she comes up with are fears she had while she was working on planes.  

One of the big themes I saw was trust and the strength of relationships.  On the plane that crashes into the water there is a newly wed couple on their honeymoon and a couple who is celebrating 50 years together.  There is a father and daughter on their way to her first off island camp, one she thought she was old enough to fly to alone and that he wasn't ready to send her off to unaccompanied.  

On the crew trying to save them from the crash there are both military and civilians and a mom who has a lot invested in the outcome of the rescue operation as her daughter and estranged husband are aboard.

I found lessons in perseverance and pivoting.  How creative can you be and how much can you rely on your instincts and trust others?  Just as with her first book, it all happens within a pretty short span of time, racing along with some flashbacks to give us background information.

I would recommend this book!  If you use the link below you can grab it on Amazon.  If you use my link I will receive a small commission from your sale at no cost to you. 

Buy on Amazon Here : <a target="_blank" href="https://www.amazon.com/Drowning-Novel-T-J-Newman-ebook/dp/B09JPHKVTZ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2EG5YHKCV4QFC&amp;keywords=drowning+tj+newman&amp;qid=1690556280&amp;sprefix=%252Caps%252C180&amp;sr=8-1&_encoding=UTF8&tag=booksbookseve-20&linkCode=ur2&linkId=59c86a2fa3e412b2f714ac1938f102c5&camp=1789&creative=9325">Drowning by T J Newman</a>

Do Not Disturb by Freida McFadden

 

My work friends had been raving about this author all school year.  We have  a book group on Facebook where people post recommendations and her books were consistently there so, with the start of summer, I decided to try one out and this was the first one that I read.  I loved Alfred Hitchcock movies when I was in high school.  Rear Window was my favorite one and this had a bit of a feel of that to me.  There is a woman in a window next door who is always watching who never comes downstairs.  The Baxter Motel where hte main character stops when the snow gets too bad to continue her trip reminded me of the Bates Motel.  The tensions was there, with Quinn on the run from a crime.  I loved, then, when the story changed to a different character, four different characters tell their side of the story from their point of view and with each one you gain an understanding of the story of the ones who came before.  Information that those narrators did not know, gaps in their knowledge being filled in for the reader as the full story emerged. Flaws being revealed to make them more real and to show the good and bad of many of them.

Later I read some articles about the author and this one was often rated the best or as one of the best of her books so I was glad that I decided to start with it.  Reading this one made me decide to jump on the bandwagon for Freida McFadden and I have since read some more.  I also found it inspiring that McFadden is a medical doctor specializing in traumatic brain injury.  That she can maintain a full time job and write and publish novels makes me feel more hopeful that I can go after my dreams as well, that the time is there if you want something bad enough you make the time to make it happen,

From Goodreads:

Quinn Alexander has committed an unthinkable crime.

To avoid spending her life in prison, Quinn makes a run for it. She leaves behind her home, her job, and her family. She grabs her passport and heads for the northern border before the police can discover what she’s done.

But when an unexpected snowstorm forces her off the road, Quinn must take refuge at the broken-down, isolated Baxter Motel. The handsome and kindly owner, Nick Baxter, is only too happy to offer her a cheap room for the night.

Unfortunately, the Baxter Motel isn’t the quiet, safe haven it seemed to be. The motel has a dark and disturbing past. And in the dilapidated house across the way, the silhouette of Nick's ailing wife is always at the window. Always watching.

In the morning, Quinn must leave the motel. She'll pack up her belongings and get back on the road to freedom.

But first, she must survive the night.

Do Not Disturb is a Hitchcock-style psychological thriller that will keep you tearing through the pages until you reach the shocking conclusion!

Buy on Amazon Here:  <a target="_blank" href="https://www.amazon.com/Do-Not-Disturb-addictive-psychological-ebook/dp/B09CN5LBGK/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2LWJPPGT82OZY&amp;keywords=do+not+disturb+freida+mcfadden&amp;qid=1690556547&amp;sprefix=do+not+disturb+fr%252Caps%252C114&amp;sr=8-1&_encoding=UTF8&tag=booksbookseve-20&linkCode=ur2&linkId=317297f19c46ad678986e25c267cb653&camp=1789&creative=9325">Do Not Disturb</a>

Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan

 I found myself enjoying this book more than I thought I would.  I have read quite a few of Picoult's novels and some I have loved, while others dragged a bit for me.  This one goes into the "loved it" category.   On Goodreads I tend to give a lot of 4's.  Even if I really liked a book sometimes it is just isn't enough to make me think, "This deserves a 5!", but this one did.

According to the Goodreads synopsis, this book is:

A soul-stirring novel about what we choose to keep from our past, and what we choose to leave behind.

Olivia McAfee knows what it feels like to start over. Her picture-perfect life—living in Boston, married to a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon, raising a beautiful son, Asher—was upended when her husband revealed a darker side. She never imagined she would end up back in her sleepy New Hampshire hometown, living in the house she grew up in, and taking over her father's beekeeping business.

Lily Campanello is familiar with do-overs, too. When she and her mom relocate to Adams, New Hampshire, for her final year of high school, they both hope it will be a fresh start.

And for just a short while, these new beginnings are exactly what Olivia and Lily need. Their paths cross when Asher falls for the new girl in school, and Lily can’t help but fall for him, too. With Ash, she feels happy for the first time. Yet at times, she wonders if she can she trust him completely . . .

Then one day, Olivia receives a phone call: Lily is dead, and Asher is being questioned by the police. Olivia is adamant that her son is innocent. But she would be lying if she didn’t acknowledge the flashes of his father’s temper in him, and as the case against him unfolds, she realizes he’s hidden more than he’s shared with her.

Mad Honey is a riveting novel of suspense, an unforgettable love story, and a moving and powerful exploration of the secrets we keep and the risks we take in order to become ourselves.

Who can you trust and how well do you know even the people you are closest to?  Olivia has done a remarkable job starting over again in her hometown in the house she grew up in.  She loves her son and his girlfriend.  When the unthinkable happens and Asher's girlfriend is found dead and he is brough in as a suspect she starts to doubt both herself and even him.  Could his father's abusive temperament have been passed down?  Did he see enough as a child to rewire his brain?  Who would have wanted Lily dead?

Going back into the past in people's memories and seeing more and more about Lily and her life before coming to New Hampshire starts to paint a much larger picture, but there was a twist that I did not see coming that seemed like it answered the question of why Lily was killed, but at the same time did not.

I read this over the course of just a couple of days because I wanted to see the conclusion of the mystery.  I didn't even realize until I went to write this up that there were two authors for this book.  I listened to the audiobook and the thumbnail was super small for the book.

<a target="_blank" href="https://www.amazon.com/Mad-Honey-Novel-Jodi-Picoult-ebook/dp/B09Q7XH3N8/ref=sr_1_1?crid=39LHEGUOGZ740&amp;keywords=mad+honey+jodi+picoult&amp;qid=1680897956&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=mad+hone%252Cstripbooks%252C79&amp;sr=1-1&_encoding=UTF8&tag=booksbookseve-20&linkCode=ur2&linkId=f4dfcc64cefb943eebde5514ffe3a029&camp=1789&creative=9325">Mad honey</a>

Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafron

 

This book has been on my want to read list for quite some time.  One of the book clubs I attend picked it for this month's read and I was excited to dive in, but I didn't like it quite as much as I thought I would based on the star ratings on Goodreads.  I felt a bit like I was in a soap opera, walking along in the present with the main character.  Daniel starts out as a ten-year-old boy and gets to be age 18 in the main part of the story.  The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, where Daniel went with his father was enchanting.  Just the right book was waiting for you among it's stacks and it would speak to you and let you find it.  Each book was there to be preserved for others.  So starts Daniel's desire to find out more about the author of his chosen book, Julien Carax, and to find more of his books.  But someone has been finding the few books there were and destroying them by setting them on fire.

The blurb from the back cover from Goodreads says:

Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals from its war wounds, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer's son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julian Carax. But when he sets out to find the author's other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax's books in existence. Soon Daniel's seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona's darkest secrets--an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love.

Barcelona came to life in a dark way, the Barcelona of 1945 did not strike me as a place I would have wanted to visit.  It seemed like in the shadow of recovery from the war there was a lot of fear and darkness, all the homes and apartments that were visited were dark for the most part.  Some of the characters were very believable, but people falling in love in one day to me was not.  Being able to ascertain that a woman was pregnant one day after having had sex was not.

I both read a paperback copy and listened to an audio version and it was interesting that they were two different translations.  The print copy I have is the one the picture above came from, but the translators used different word choices in multiple places.  I wonder how the experience would have been if  I were able to read it in Spanish as it was written.  

I am not sure if being on a timeline to finish is what took some of the enjoyment out of it, but I do not think I will be hunting down more books in what appears to be a series about the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, though that was the part I most liked about this book so maybe I will change my mind.

Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney

 

I listened to this book over the course of 24 hours, I just couldn't seem to walk away from it. It kept pulling me back in. According to Goodreads, "

The New York Times bestselling Queen of Twists returns…with a family reunion that leads to murder.

After years of avoiding each other, Daisy Darker’s entire family is assembling for Nana’s 80th birthday party in Nana’s crumbling gothic house on a tiny tidal island. Finally back together one last time, when the tide comes in, they will be cut off from the rest of the world for eight hours.

The family arrives, each of them harboring secrets. Then at the stroke of midnight, as a storm rages, Nana is found dead. And an hour later, the next family member follows…

Trapped on an island where someone is killing them one by one, the Darkers must reckon with their present mystery as well as their past secrets, before the tide comes in and all is revealed.

With a wicked wink to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, Daisy Darker’s unforgettable twists will leave readers reeling.

I thought I had the twist figured out a time or two as I could recall the twist in Sometimes I Lie and Rock, Paper, Scissors which were a bit similar in their twists, but this one was not what I was expecting. I got some things right, but others all wrong which to me makes it an even better book, I like when the clues are there, but maybe not enough to come around to the totally correct solution.

I really liked Daisy and Nana, they were probably my favorites. Some of the others seemed a but like caricature at some points, but maybe that was so that I wouldn't feel bad as one by one the family members died at the stroke of the next hour.

The house was cut off from the mainland during high tide and only accessible by boat at that time. It had no cell service and Nana had recently canceled her phone line. The perfect recipe for a murder to come around, during a storm, when everyone is trapped in the house or nearby land and unable to reach anyone else.

It would be the perfect read on a cold winter night with the wind outside, you'd feel like you were inside the book with Daisy and her sisters trying to figure out who was picking them off one by one!

The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware

My thoughts:  This is the fourth Ruth Ware novel I've read.  There are definitely some similarities between books, but somehow the settings and the issues the characters encounter are varied enough to still be interesting.  This one may just be my favorite of the four or else it is just my most recent.

Hal is lost, her mother died a few years before.  She has no friends, still lives in the flat she shared with her mother and runs her Tarot Card reading table at a local pier.  Right after her mother's death she borrowed some money from a loan shark who is now demanding a repayment of 6 times what she borrowed, which she doesn't have.  Then, she receives a notice saying she has an inheritance from a grandmother.  Except the name of her grandmother is wrong, last name is good, but the names her mother told her were different.  But, she is broke and hopes that maybe she will get enough to pay back the loan and maybe take a small vacation or get ahead, so she boards a train to go to the funeral and will reading.

She meets her three uncles, but not uncles as she doesn't believe she is the daughter of their sister as they think, and finds herself in a drafty, huge country house relegated to an attic room with no heat and locks on the outside of the door and bars on the window even though it is on the top floor of the house.  A crusty old housekeeper who hates everyone and some odd events.

When the will is read and she has inherited the whole estate there are issues, guilt on her part and disbelief on the part of the uncles.  Then odd things happen, her light bulb and that in the hallway to her room are smashed.  The housekeeper warns her away.  Her uncle gives her an old  photo that contains the uncles as well as their sister and a distant cousin and her mother is in the picture!  Her mother was there, but it doesn't make sense.

Pieces keep getting put together and it is like you can almost feel her reaching an aha moment as calamities occur and you wonder exactly who is working against her and why. 

I enjoyed the suspense and found myself wanting to keep listing to see what she discovered next!  I owned a copy of this book and had in on my shelf for about a year,  but ended up borrowing the audio version from the library and finishing it in just a few days!

Chances Are by Richard Russo

My thoughts: I read this book for an upcoming book club and when I checked it out of the library I wasn't sure I was looking forward to reading it.  I would read a bit before bed each night, but never felt like it was hard to put down and even mixed up the three main characters a bit.  The beginning was a lot more telling than showing and letting you get to know the characters in their own time, but then I got into it.  I know a lot of people wouldn't have pushed past the beginning, but I am glad I did.  Three men in their sixties meet on Martha's Vineyard for the weekend at the end of the summer in 2015, which is how they ended their time at college at the beginning of the summer in 1971, except that time the woman they were all in love with was there with them.  The college friend who was a part of their group of Musketeers, but also the one they all hoped to be with.

After that weekend she disappeared and no one knew what had become of her and her memory haunts the men more than it has in years because it feels like her ghost is there, maybe actually there if some theories are to be believed.

Going into this I did not realize  it was going to be a mystery that they were going to be unraveling.  Each of them had crystal clear memories of some things and had forgotten others, but together they worked to put the pieces together.  Each of the chapters is written from one of the men's pov, so you get to see how they think and what their inner life is like.

I had a lot of questions about how the women of their mother's generations had lived their lives and if it was by choice or due to the habits and attitudes of the time they were born and grew into. 

I went from easily putting this book down to reading the second half over the course of a day because I wanted to find out what really happened and put all the pieces together.  I've never read one of Russo's books before and I see in other reviews that some readers feel like this is different than his other books,  but I may give another one a try.

Happy New Year!

You know how we all set goals for the new year and then you hear that most people stop attempting to meet them by the fourth day of the year?  I must miss that memo every year, because I keep working all the way to the end of the year.  I don't always make the goal, there are times I fall short or have set backs, maybe I make it half way and then somehow turn the other direction, but I am still working towards the goal even with the back sliding.  This year I set a goal to read 75 books and to also keep better track of my reading.  In 2019 I read at least 55, but I think it was more and my tracking methods were off.  I have a new way of tracking on paper and two apps so we'll see if I am able to keep up this year!  As of this morning I reached 10 books finished in 2020.  10 out of 75!  So, right now it is looking to be an achieveable goal.  Who knows, maybe I will get busy and barely have time to read or maybe I will read so much I will exceed my goal.  So along with that goal, I also want to actually make the time to share what I've read and what I think about it.  This is a goal I've set and fallen short of quite a few times, but again, maybe this time is the time it will stick!

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

From the authors website:

THE BLOCKBUSTER HIT—A #1 New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly Bestseller

Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family’s Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge—until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children’s Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents—but they quickly realize the dark truth. At the mercy of the facility’s cruel director, Rill fights to keep her sisters and brother together in a world of danger and uncertainty.

Aiken, South Carolina, present day. Born into wealth and privilege, Avery Stafford seems to have it all: a successful career as a federal prosecutor, a handsome fiancé, and a lavish wedding on the horizon. But when Avery returns home to help her father weather a health crisis, a chance encounter leaves her with uncomfortable questions and compels her to take a journey through her family’s long-hidden history, on a path that will ultimately lead either to devastation or to redemption.

Based on one of America’s most notorious real-life scandals—in which Georgia Tann, director of a Memphis-based adoption organization, kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families all over the country—Lisa Wingate’s riveting, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting tale reminds us how, even though the paths we take can lead to many places, the heart never forgets where we belong.

My thoughts:

This family really tugged at my heart and made me wonder if this was based on real events.  This family is fictional, but the Tennessee Children's Home Society was real and really did procure children through all sorts of methods to adopt out for a fee.  Some were kidnapped, some coerced from poor families, some taken when parents signed papers they didn't understand.

I like how the story unfolded, while part of me just wanted them to spill who was who and what had happened to them,  it unfolded in just the fight way.  

What kind of mark does it leave on children to be treated as they were in that home and to wonder for years what had happened to siblings?  Why did they feel the need to hide the truth from even their families?  Did the stigma still linger?

This book and this family were so real I wanted to find out more about the real survivors of the TCHS.

The Terrible and Wonderful Reasons Why I Run Long Distances by Matthew Inman

Overview from Barnes and Noble:

Praise for #1 New York Times best-selling author Matthew Inman, AKA The Oatmeal:

"All runners wonder, at some point or another, why we do what we do. Mr. Inman's explanation is the best I've ever seen. And the funniest. Because he is clinically insane."
-Mark Remy, editor at large, Runner's World, author of The Runner's Rule Book

"He runs. He sweats. He heaves. He hates it. He loves it. He runs so hard his toenails fall off. He asks himself, why? Why do I do this? Here, gorgeously, bravely, hilariously, is Matt's deeply honest answer."
-Robert Krulwich, NPR

"Finally! A voice that sings with the Blerches of angels!"
-Christopher McDougall, author of Born to Run

This is not just a book about running. It's a book about cupcakes. It's a book about suffering.

It's a book about gluttony, vanity, bliss, electrical storms, ranch dressing, and Godzilla. It's a book about all the terrible and wonderful reasons we wake up each day and propel our bodies through rain, shine, heaven, and hell.

From #1 New York Times best-selling author, Matthew Inman, AKA The Oatmeal, comes this hilarious, beautiful, poignant collection of comics and stories about running, eating, and one cartoonist's reasons for jogging across mountains until his toenails fall off.

Containing over 70 pages of never-before-seen material, including "A Lazy Cartoonist's Guide to Becoming a Runner" and "The Blerch's Guide to Dieting," this book also comes with Blerch race stickers.

My thoughts:

I found this saved in my drafts from 2015 when I got this book as a Christmas present.  I recall it being a fun read showing how sometimes long distances are fun and sometimes they suck.  I started running again this summer, but my longest run lately was 5 miles.  I hope to feel the urge to run further, but for the moment I'm fine with my 2 to 5 mile runs a few times a week.  I've moved into more HIIT and weight training, but I still enjoy running as well.

Product Details

• ISBN-13: 9781449459956
• Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
• Publication date: 9/30/2014
• Pages: 148

Meet the Author

More by this Author

• How to Tell If Your Cat Is Plotting to Kill You
• My Dog: The Paradox: A Lovable Discourse about Man's Best Friend
• 2015 Oatmeal Wall Calendar
• Why Grizzly Bears Should Wear Underpants

TheOatmeal.com is an entertainment Web site full of comics, quizzes, and stories. The site gets more than 7 million unique visitors and 30 million page views a month; 250,000 blogs and Web sites have linked to it. TheOatmeal.com is written, drawn, and coded by Matthew Inman, a king of all trades when it comes to the Web. Matthew lives in Seattle, Washington. He subsists on a steady diet of crickets and whiskey. He enjoys long walks on the beach, gravity, and breathing heavily through his mouth. His dislikes include scurvy, typhoons, and tapeworm medication.

Green Angel by Alice Hoffman

From Goodreads:
"The startling, universally acclaimed breakthrough YA novel from master bestselling author Alice Hoffman, now in paperback.

Left on her own when her family dies in a terrible disaster, fifteen-year-old Green is haunted by loss and by the past. Struggling to survive physically and emotionally in a place where nothing seems to grow and ashes are everywhere, Green retreats into the ruined realm of her garden. But in destroying her feelings, she also begins to destroy herself, erasing the girl she'd once been as she inks darkness into her skin. It is only through a series of mysterious encounters that Green can relearn the lessons of love and begin to heal enough to tell her story."

My thoughts:
I didn't realize that Hoffman had written YA fiction until I picked this book up from my shelf.  I have really enjoyed some of her other books and this seemed like a perfect size to read in a day on a not so busy weekend.  It seemed like it came to an ending, but on Goodreads I see that there is a sequel.  Now to wonder if I want to find a copy to read.  For the moment I think I am okay with where this one ended.  I also have to wonder why this was not just written as one book since it was only a bit over 100 pages.

Please don't take that to mean I didn't like this one, I did, but it came to a satisfactory conclusion in my mind and I finished it a week or two ago not left wondering what would happen next.  I love how Hoffman weaves magic into her stories.  

I found myself wondering if the terrible disaster was a parallel to the attack on 9-11,  maybe because it is almost that date again.  At the same time  it seemed like a simpler time so I wasn't sure.  How do we go about protecting ourselves from  danger and how much of that protection changes who we are and how we see ourselves?  How fast does the illusion of society fade in times of crisis?

It seemed similar to my last review because something terrible had happened, many people had died and we saw the disaster from the point of view of a teenager.  I am used to encountering a lot of either romance or end of the world topics in YA, I may need to explore some more and see what other genres are encompassed by YA.

the shade of the moon by Susan Beth Pfeffer

From Goodreads: 
"The eagerly awaited addition to the series begun with the New York Times best-seller Life As We Knew It, in which a meteor knocks the moon off its orbit and the world changes forever.

It's been more than two years since Jon Evans and his family left Pennsylvania, hoping to find a safe place to live, yet Jon remains haunted by the deaths of those he loved. His prowess on a soccer field has guaranteed him a home in a well-protected enclave. But Jon is painfully aware that a missed goal, a careless word, even falling in love, can put his life and the lives of his mother, his sister Miranda, and her husband, Alex, in jeopardy. Can Jon risk doing what is right in a world gone so terribly wrong?"

My thoughts:

I read the first three books in this YA series right in a row.  I listened to the first one on audio and then borrowed the next two from the library.  This one I found at the Dollar Store so I grabbed it to have on hand, and then took almost a year to get to.  Once I got going I read it in a weekend.  I'm not sure what was stopping me from reading it.  Sometimes it feels like it needs to be the just the right time for a book.

Since it had been a little bit of time since the first three it wasn't all right at the top of my memory, but the author did a good job with adding in reminders without saying her is what happened which I appreciated.

In book one we met Miranda and her family and learned about the chaos that happened when a meteor hits the moon and moves it closer to earth.  In book two we meet Alex and his family in NYC and see what the events were like in a city versus a more rural area.  In book three the two groups meet and end up working to survive together.  Now we are at an enclave with an us versus them feel.  Those living in the enclave have purified air, schools, homes and servants, and plentiful food.  Those who live outside the enclave are the ones who work in the greenhouses and mines, they drive the buses and work as the domestic help to clean the homes, cook the food and take care of young children.  Jon, his stepmother Lisa and step brother Gabe are able to live within the enclave with the passes Alex and his sisters were given by a family friend.  Alex, ,Miranda and Laura (Miranda and Alex's mother) live in an unlocked apartment in town and work to earn their way.

A lot of parallels can be drawn about the way the clavers, those who have ids that allow them to live within the enclave walls and have fresh food and clean air, and the grub who are bussed in to do the menial work for the clavers.  The attitudes and treatment are something Jon hasn't really thought about much until a new doctor and his daughter Sarah move to the enclave.  Then he starts to see things with a fresh perspective that he isn't fully comfortable with.

When his sister Miranda has a baby even more questions are raised leading to some big decisions for all of the characters.  The authors note at the end had me wondering if there was a 5th book in the series, but her blog says she retired from writing in 2014 with this being the last book that she wrote, so I think it will be up to the reader to imagine how things will go for the characters who are part of the conclusion.

Here is the link to the author's blog about this being her final book:  http://susanbethpfeffer.blogspot.com/

The Rumor by Elin Hilderbrand

The Rumor 

by Elin Hilderbrand

From Amazon.com:

A friendship is tested in this irresistible page-turner from New York Times bestselling author Elin Hilderbrand.Nantucket writer Madeline King could not have picked a worse time to have writer's block. Her deadline is looming, her bills are piling up, and inspiration is in short supply. Madeline's best friend Grace, is hard at work transforming her garden into the envy of the island with the help of a ruggedly handsome landscape architect. Before she realizes it, Grace is on the verge of a decision that will irrevocably change her life. Could Grace's crisis be Madeline's salvation? As the gossip escalates, and the summer's explosive events come to a head, Grace and Madeline try desperately to set the record straight--but the truth might be even worse than rumor has it. 

My thoughts:

I am mourning the end of summer, so I needed a beachy read to try to hold onto it  for  a little longer.  I have had this book on my shelf for some time, but I actually decided to listen to the audio book from the library which allowed me to pass along my hardcover copy to  a friend.  

Rumors can be very damaging and it is surprising how much people are willing to believe things they have heard through the grapevine.  In this novel there are multiple rumors, mostly about Madeline, her best friend Grace and their families.  The funny thing is some of the bigger and more juicy stories are happening under the radar as false rumors spread  around the island of Nantucket.  

An author in need of an idea for her next novel, who is worried about an advance she invested, her best friend who is feeling ignored by her husband and daughters as she works on a garden paradise, twin teen aged girls who have drifted apart, a pilot,a realtor, a garden architect and the way people talk about those they think have it all.  This book kept me listening and wanting to find out what would happen next.

I think this would make for a fun book club read, I hate spoilers so I won't add any here, but it would be fun to pull apart how each of the rumors was started and the motivation of the one who started it, along with how the ripples from the rumor spiraled out into the lives of the characters. It helped to see how people felt about the rumors, or if they were even aware of them by having the chapters from different characters points of view.  This added to the story as we actually knew what each of them really thought and felt about things.

Honestly I was a little sad when it ended.  I think I will be trying another book by this author.

I know I started with a blurb from Amazon, but I also need to plug my favorite indie bookstore which is where I do most of my book purchasing.  I love having a bookstore in my community to shop at.  They also have an online store, so you can order books and have them delivered to you.  I hope avid readers already know where their independent bookstores are, but in case you don't have one, i highly recommend Let's Play Books (https://www.letsplaybooks.com/).  I have both ordered online and shopped at the store and I have never been disappointed.

Bellweather Rhapsody by Kate Racculia

Overview

"For its darkness and its glee, I loved this novel."  —Robin Sloan, author of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore

A high school music festival goes awry when a young prodigy disappears from the most infamous room in the Bellweather Hotel, in a whip-smart novel sparkling with dark and giddy humor

Fifteen years ago, a murder-suicide in room 712 rocked the grand old Bellweather Hotel and the young bridesmaid who witnessed it, Minnie Graves. Now hundreds of high school musicians, including quiet bassoonist Rabbit Hatmaker and his brassy diva twin, Alice, have gathered in its cavernous, crumbling halls for the annual Statewide festival; Minnie has returned to face her demons; and a colossal snowstorm is threatening to trap them all in the hotel. Then Alice's roommate goes missing—from room 712. The search for her entwines an eccentric cast of characters: conductors and caretakers, failures and stars, teenagers on the verge and adults trapped in memories. For everyone has come to the Bellweather with a secret, and everyone is haunted.

Bellweather Rhapsody is a genre-bending page-turner, full of knowing nods to pop culture classics from The Shining to Agatha Christie to Glee. But its pleasures are beautifully deepened by Kate Racculia's skill with her characters, her melancholy, affecting writing about music, and her fearlessness about the loss and darkness that underline the truest humor. This is a wholly winning new novel from a writer to watch.

My thoughts:

I read this book for a book club and, since the author lives in the area, we were lucky enough to have the author come to the club when we met to discuss it.  The meeting was unusual since we were able to ask Kate about the book and why she wrote things certain ways, where she got the ideas from and anything else we might have been wondering about the book.  I used to read mysteries all the time in high school, but not so much in recent years.  I enjoyed going back to my mystery roots and seeing what I was able to figure out as I read.  There were twists and turns, especially towards the end, some of which I saw coming and some that I did not!

Rabbit has a secret that he hopes to reveal to his twin sister at the festival, but when her roommate disappears and Minnie and her dog appear, he decides to bide his time.  I loved how everyone has their own private demons that peak their heads out and decide how much out in the open they want to be.  How civilized someone can seem when inside they are anything but and how not everyone is working with the same moral compass. Many of the adults were working from a position of how to work though what happened in their past and how to move towards a future they can look forward to.  Whereas the students are all sure that they are the best at what they do and have bright futures ahead of them, but do they?  How many of these musicians  will still be at their craft in ten years?  How many of them really have a chance to make a life at it and should the adults encourage them to reach for the stars or suggest they think about ways music can be a part of their lives, but maybe not their career.

Along with all these personal concerns there is the issue of the missing first flute.  How can she have disappeared in a hotel in the middle of nowhere in a blizzard?  Where can she be and who took her?  I loved how there were so many stories going on at the same time, sometimes together and sometimes in opposite directions, but moving along.  I loved the high incidence of twins, which was on purpose, starting with Alice and Rabbit and going from there.  I really can't say more without revealing answers to mysteries and I hate when people do that!  I am so glad this was a book club pick because I'm not sure I would have found it on my own.  I'm loving being involved in a book club because it is getting me to read books that I might have missed.

I'm Back!

I have been reading like crazy, but never seemed to get around to blogging about it.  Then about a month ago I decided I wanted to and I couldn't get into my account.  It was so frustrating!  Tonight I decided to give it another try and I got in!  Not sure what I was doing wrong then, but I am happy to be back and hope to make the time to start posting about all the great books I've been reading.

Over The Moon (Mageverse series) by Angela Knight, MaryJanice Davidson, Virginia Kantra and Sunny

Overview:  Three bestselling superstars and one exciting new voice in paranormal romance in a hot new anthology. 

When it comes to sexy werewolves, fairies, and magic, there's only one place for readers to go this winter: Over the Moon. 

Angela Knight ventures to the borders of Mageverse, a land ruled by vampire knights. 

MaryJanice Davidson returns to the wicked lair of the Wyndham werewolves. 

Virginia Kantra finds magic and wonder in a strange fairy kingdom. 

And Sunny discovers a Mixed Blood Queen in command of a new realm.

My thoughts:

I picked this book up for the beach because I love the sarcasm used by MaryJanice Davidson.  I haven't read her in a while and I was intrigued to see what I had missed.  I almost just read her story, but decided to give the others a try.  Out of the four three I liked and one I did not care for at all, but none of them impressed me overly much.  It seemed like you needed to have the world these authors have created already known to you to get into them.  Short anthologies are not always my favorite because they don't have enough time to really get to know the characters, especially in ones like these that are adding in paranormal beings that have all sorts of powers and changes.  Getting their power from the moon, keeping royalty lines going in were populations, hunting down vampires that ruined your life and such.  It was fine for the beach, but not all that memorable.  It has been a couple weeks and I had to really think to recall one of the four stories.  

Untied: A Memoir of Family, Fame, and Floundering by Meredith Baxter

Overview

“I remember Sarah asking me, when I’d just begun therapy with her, what I looked for in a man.  After a few moments of silent, tense deliberation I had it.  ‘Hair,’ I blurted. ‘He has to have hair.’”
 
Meredith Baxter is a beloved and iconic television actress, most well-known for her enormously popular role as hippie mom, Elyse Keaton, on Family Ties. Her warmth, humor, and brilliant smile made her one of the most popular women on television, with millions of viewers following her on the small screen each week. Yet her success masked a tumultuous personal story and a harrowing private life. For the first time, Baxter is ready to share her incredible highs, (working with Robert Redford, Doris Day, Lana Turner, and the cast of Family Ties), and lows (a thorny relationship with her mother, a difficult marriage to David Birney, a bout with breast cancer), finally revealing the woman behind the image.

From her childhood in Hollywood, growing up the daughter of actress and co-creator of One Day at a Time Whitney Blake, Baxter became familiar with the ups and downs of show business from an early age. After wholeheartedly embracing the 60s counterculture lifestyle, she was forced to rely on her acting skills after her first divorce left her a 22-year-old single mother of two. Baxter began her professional career with supporting roles in the critically panned horror film Ben, and in the political thriller All the President's Men.

More lucrative work soon followed on the small screen. Baxter starred with actor David Birney as the title characters in controversial sitcom Bridget Loves Bernie. While the series only lasted a year, her high-profile romance with Birney lasted 15 volatile and unhappy years. Hiding the worst of her situation from even those closest to her, Baxter’s career flourished as her self-esteem and family crumbled. Her successful run as Nancy on Family was followed by her enormously popular role on Family Ties, and dozens of well-received television movies.

After a bitter divorce and custody battle with Birney, Baxter increasingly relied on alcohol as a refuge, and here speaks candidly of her decision to take her last drink in 1990.

And while another ruinous divorce to screenwriter Michael Blodgett taxed Baxter’s strength and confidence, she has emerged from her experiences with the renewed self-assurance, poise, and understanding that have enabled her to find a loving, respectful relationship with Nancy Locke, and to speak about it openly.

Told with insight, wit, and disarming frankness, Untied is the eye-opening and inspiring life of an actress, a woman, and a mother who has come into her own.

From the Hardcover edition.

My thoughts:

This was another one of my beach reads last month.  I remember starting it when I got it and then putting it down for some reason, so this time I started over at the beginning again.  While I am not familiar with Baxter's early television work, I recall seeing her every week on Family Ties.  I may or may not have seen some of her TV movies too.  I love reading about and peaking into other peoples lives.  From the outside they can seem perfect or to have it all together, but that is rarely the case and it is nice to know that everyone runs into bumps in the road and detours.

Baxter's mother was a very focused on having a career as an actress and divorced early, often leaving her children alone or with their step father and having her children call her Whitney instead of mom so she could appear younger.  This early rejection seems to have had some long lasting repercussions in her life.  From getting together with men because they thought it was a good idea, to living in some sketchy and unsafe homes and apartments, to taking to alcohol to escape the unhappiness at home to finding that she prefers to be in a relationship with women Meredith discusses it all.  

I've found that in books by celebrities, and maybe people in general, there tends to be a certain amount of repetition.  Chapters later they are going back to something that they already discussed and making it a focal point again.  That happened here, but it could be that it is hard to show things without their backdrop from the past.

Who would have thought that Elise Keaton, who seemed like a mom who had it all together, was driving home drunk from rehearsals and shows because of issues at home?  I think it is telling that she was so nervous about coming out to the public, but at the same time wanted to do it to help other people who are in the same position.  Will this affect her ability to find employment or embarrass family members?  

Nothing is ever perfect and it is important to realize that much of what happens in life is governed by how we react to it and what we do with it.  I am glad that Baxter has found the life she is happy with and no longer feels the need to hide it.