BOOK REVIEW: The Luckiest Girl Alive + The Best of Me

I've been listening to/reading a LOT of different books lately.  My problem has been, however, that I'm getting bored somewhere in them and it's taking me so much longer to finish each one.

I WAS reading In Her Shoes at work during lunch, but put it aside to read JAWS during Shark Week (I LOVE Shark Week).  In the midst of that, I had attempted to listen to Never Let Me Go on Audible, but it was just moving too slow for me (and I don't care for the narrator) and had to leave it for a while.  I also started to listen to Broken Dreams, but it's getting a bit ridiculous and had to leave it for a bit, too.

BUT...I did manage to get through two books recently...

one was pretty great and the other was so predictable that it quite pissed me off.

 

Saw this one mentioned in a blog post over at Bubblegum Chic and I thought to myself:  yep, that sounds like something I should be reading!

It's been compared to Gone Girl, and I guess it is sort of similar in that the lead character is a bit of nut job (actually, she's a HUGE nut job)...but in this story, we learn WHY she is the way she is...as opposed to Gone Girl where the woman is just bat-shit crazy for no reason.

At first glimpse, you're thinking "Geez, this lady's a stuck-up, shallow, rich bitch", but then once you get to know her and learn the events that led up to her current life, eventually you change you're opinion to "Geez, this lady's a stuck up, shallow, bitch...but at least she's legit!"

It gets dark and dreary...and then it gets darker.  There are some hard-hitting issues in this book that some of the reviewers on Amazon said "exploit this nation's tragedies"....but it's a novel...a work of fiction..so get over it!

Right in the first chapter, you get a sense of this woman's inner monologue (and the fun writing):
"Bickering.  It's so much uglier than a heated, dish-smashing fight, isn't it?  At least after that you have sex on the floor of the kitchen, shards bearing the braid of the Louvre pattern weaving an imprint on your back.  No man feels very much compelled to rip your clothes off after you inform him, bitchily, that he left one lone turd floating in the toilet."

A great read, a great story.  Pick this one up, you'll enjoy it!  

(SIDE NOTE:  There's a LOT of foul language in it...so if you get the audio book, do NOT listen to it in the car with your kids!)

I'm a sucker for Nicholas Sparks.  But I tend to prefer the movies over the books because the books tend to get a little...too much, you know what I mean?  

I can handle predictable movies...I cannot handle predictable books.  This particular book was predictable.  It was so plainly obvious what would happen to the two main characters (long lost lovers reunited...surprise surprise Mr. Sparks) and it was even more obvious once the end came near as to what would transpire.  I remember even telling a coworker of mine that if the book ended the way I suspected it was going to end, I'd be pissed.  Well guess what? I was pissed!  It ended exactly how I knew it would.  Stupid book.  

The movie, by the way, was different than the book, but ultimately the same outcome.  Cute movie...but if you've read the book, no need to see the movie.  The movie was, in my opinion, a let down...not the actor's fault...I was already biased to not liking the story.

I'll let you know about JAWS when I finish it.  I'm telling you now, there are definitely weird things in the book that are not in the movie (thankfully).  

Book Review: Attachments

This review will be short and sweet :)

As you may recall, this book was on my Summer Reading List.  I read the whole thing on my 9,000-hour trip back to GA after spending the week with family in Wisconsin laying my sweet Grandpa to rest.  OK, so it was more like 16 hours or so, but it felt like 9,000.

The book was cute, but could have been cuter.  The main character is Lincoln, the computer security guy who get's to read everyone's emails, even though he hates his job, and pretty much everything else in his life.  The two women in the book (who's only conversations we see are the email messages that Lincoln reads) are funny and witty and their messages read like something my best friend and I would text to each other (Jacki, we're in a book!)

If you're bored and have nothing else to read...go ahead and read it.  But don't expect fireworks or anything...at least their weren't any for me.   A cute, short, easy read.

Not quite sure what I'll be reading next...I'm thinking of taking my lunch book home because, I'm not going to lie, I'm totally a Nicholas Sparks fan and even though I can pretty much guess what's going to happen in this book, I still love it and I"m dying to finish it so I can see the movie :)

Fab Friday Five: SUMMER READING EDITION

I know my brother just loves when I write things about books :)

Sorry I'm late...I was sick most of the weekend, thanks to the perfect cocktail of tree pollen and mold spores we have going on down here.  Seriously springtime...enough!

Now that the weather is getting warmer, it's time to start developing your summer reading list!  Fall, winter, and spring are seasons meant for reading hard, gripping, insightful books.  But summer...summer is for reading fun, cutesy, beachy, lovey-dovey kind of books.  The books you could get through in a day or two if you had nothing else to do but sit poolside all day long and sip on pina coladas.  The kind of books that you pack for vacation and know you'll be finished with them before you get home.  The kind of light, easy reads that keep a small smile on your face the whole time you're reading them.  No Gone Girl or The Book Thief allowed....just fun, easy, light reads!

So here are five books that I'm hoping to indulge myself in this summer.  What's on your summer reading list?

purchase >> here  (or maybe you'll get lucky and find it at a discount store)

I saw this book just browsing through the sale racks at 2nd and Charles a few weeks ago and remembered seeing it on a list of top 100 books to read in 2015 or something like that.  The reviews mentioned that it was non-fiction and was a first hand account of a man and wife on an athropology trip to a remote island somewhere in the Pacific.  It apparently tells of their extensive misfortunes while on this trip and is supposedly absolutely hilarious and "LOL funny".  Well it was only $2, so of course I bought it :)

purchase >> here

A man is hired as "internet security specialist", but his job is to read every email that gets sent to and from every employee in the company.  And then...he falls in love with one of his coworkers as she's sending emails back and forth with one of her girlfriends in the same company (or so that's the gist I get from the Amazon description).  Looks cute!

purchase >> here

I just love Chelsea Handler!

purchase >> here

Did I say fun, light reads?  Well...I'll just sneak this one in!  First off, I didn't even KNOW the movie was based on a book, so that's exciting.  Second, in reading the reviews, the movie strayed so far from the book that reading it is like reading a whole different story.  So that's neat!! I'll be sure to read this one when I'm NOT sitting on a beach somewhere!

purchase >> here

This is a sequel to Broken.  Not gonna lie, it's ... mature.  But hey, ya gotta have a little filth on your summer reading list, am I right?!  Who doesn't love cowboys?

You have some of my list...now go get started on yours!

Book Review: Lone Wolf

It took me forever to finish it, but I've FINALLY finished my lunch book at work!  Lets be honest, a girl can only get so much reading done in 30 minutes in a busy break room with a ton of chatter, all while trying to stuff my face with whatever tasty leftovers I have.

Purchase on Amazon >> here

All in all, a decent read.  It was my first Jodi Picoult book...I've been reluctant to read her because I've heard that all of her books are tearjerkers.  I mean, I've seen "My Sister's Keeper" (a Picoult book-based movie)...supposedly all her books are like that.  I enjoyed the book, but I'd say about 1/3 of it was mildly boring.

This book wasn't as bad as I was expecting.  Maybe it's because I just couldn't get too attached to the characters.  Or perhaps it's because each chapter was told by somebody different, so I didn't spend forever reading just one person's story.  Or maybe it's because it took me over two months to get this done that I got so detached from it in general and developed more of a "just finish it" rather than a "what happens next" mindset.

The basis:  There's an accident and Luke Warren's life hangs in the balance.  His two children, 17 year old daughter who's been living with him for four years and his estranged son who moved out and of the country 6 years ago and hasn't been home since, have to decide what Luke's wishes would have been if he were awake enough to voice his opinion.  The problem:  his kids disagree on what they think the outcome should be.

Throughout the whole book, there's commentary about wolves (because Luke Warren was a wolf conservationist).  To be honest, I could have done without that.  I feel as if it took away from the story.  I know that learning about everything he did with the wolves was supposed to help the reader also form an opinion of what Luke would want in the end...but I really feel like most of it just illustrated how much of a crazy man he was.  I mean, the man went to Canada to hopefully be accepted into a pack of wild wolves, and subsequently lived with them, fighting and eating alongside them, for two yeas!  To me....crazy.  

Anyway...give it a shot.

Have a great Monday, folks!

(my next lunch book:  The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks...summer's almost here, time for a fun, lighthearted summer reading list!)

Book Review - THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN

This book was fabulous and I totally recommend it!

At first, I wasn't quite sure...in fact, I even took a break a couple chapters in.  BUT...so glad I stuck with it!  It was suspenseful and the whole time you're listening to the story trying to figure out who exactly did what...which memories are real and which are imagined...where was this character and when?

To sum it up (without spoiling it):  A woman takes the same train every day in and out of London.  She is, by the way, a flat out drunk.  A woman goes missing and the woman on the train realizes that she has seen this woman before.  A long string events ensues that is clouded and blurred by drunken memories of "THAT Saturday night" and it all comes to a head by the end.  It's brilliant and I loved it!

The ONLY thing I didn't like was that two of the characters were left with their stories unfinished, at least in my opinion.  When I finish a book, I like to see all my loose ends tied in a nice lovely bow...and these two loose ends are still floating out there, leaving me to wonder whatever became of them.  Oh well...I've got a pretty good imagination!

If you read Gone Girl and loved it, give this one a try!  It's in a similar category!

Happy reading!

**The next book I'll be listening to is DON'T LET ME GO by Catherine Ryan Hyde**

Book Review: EVERYTHING I NEVER TOLD YOU

This book...it wasn't for me.  Maybe it'll be better for you, but it just wasn't my thing.

Maybe it was that the narrator's voice (I listened to the audiobook in my car) was not emotional enough for me and a little too breathy and I feel that she would be better suited reading a romance novel ("she pulled the crossword across the table" should not cause my husband to say "Honey! What are you listening to?!").

Maybe it was because the story was told in third person and not first person (I really prefer books to be written in first person...I find it easier to insert myself without all the "he said, she said" nonsense).

Maybe it was the fact that it was difficult for me to decipher if we were in the past, present, or future (could also, again, have been the narrator's fault for not properly pausing if the pauses were built into the transcript).

Maybe it was because the book was more of a character development novel than something plot-driven (cue to that horrible mess of a book Catcher in the Rye...blech).

What Amazon says:
"Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet . . . So begins the story of this exquisite debut novel, about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio.  A profoundly moving story of family, history, and the meaning of home, Everything I Never Told You is both a gripping page-turner and a sensitive family portrait, exploring the divisions between cultures and the rifts within a family, and uncovering the ways in which mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives struggle, all their lives, to understand one another."

"Gripping page turner" .... No, not quite.  In fact, I struggled with the urge to contact Audible to get a refund on this purchase. 

"Sensitive family portrait" ... yes, I'd agree with that.  It was beautifully written and you really do get a sense of the feelings each character is feeling (despite the narrator's ridiculous monotone voice that showed no sort of excitement or sorrow).

I'm not sure what exactly I was supposed to take away from this novel, but this is what I got:

Parents, stop pressuring your kids to do everything you wanted to do in life without noticing that your kids really have no interest at all.  Pay attention to your kids.  If something happens to your kid and you find out all kinds of things you never knew about said kid, then you weren't paying enough attention to THEM...you weren't really seeing or hearing them.  There has to be full transparency between a child and their parents.  At least one parent should be able to really listen to that child and understand what they're saying and asking for.  When you pressure your kids like that, that's when that kid gets to college and ends failing out and pregnant by the end of the first semester....or worse. And then you're left wondering "How did this happen?" only to find out that she had no friends, was hanging out with an older boy you didn't even know, and was secretly hoarding cigarettes and condoms.

Kids, stop trying to please your parents in every thing you do....it's OK to disappoint your parents in order to follow your own dreams and aspirations.  It's OK to tell them that you're not enjoying a subject or a sport that they're pushing on you.  It's OK to ask for help, even if you're afraid you'll disappoint.  Kids need to be made that they can feel comfortable when coming to their parents.  And if they don't, that's a problem.

A quote from the book (I actually wrote it down) that, to me, sums up the whole basis of the story:
"Attention came with expectations...that, like snow, drifted and settled and crushed you with their weight"

One thing that drove me nuts during the entire story was that we never find out WHY Lydia was the favorite child.  She was the middle child...nothing extraordinary about her circumstances...but for some reason, her parents fawned over her and ignored the other two children.  Little did they know that the oldest was counting down the days until he could get out of the house and out of the family and the youngest (the quiet little girl who sneaked around and pilfered things) knew and understood more than the others.

I also hated that nobody spoke up for themselves.  None of the characters explained themselves to the others...they all kept everything inside, buried down deep.  That kills me!  It wasn't until the very end when the youngest decided she would be the first to take an active role in making everyone else see the big picture.

Next, I'll be listening to The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins.  It's supposedly enjoyed by those who liked Gone Girl (which, I might add, I LOVED).

Have a good day, folks!

Book Review: THE HUSBAND'S SECRET

Back at the beginning of the year, I had mentioned that instead of making resolutions, I was going to adopt challenges for myself throughout the year.  One of those challenges was to read at least one book every month.  I figure the best way to keep myself accountable to that challenge is to do a book review when I finish a book.  I started a few books in January, but I haven't really had any concrete time to sit down and READ!  I spend most of my day doing two things:  working and driving.  I can't read when I'm at work except at lunch, but I can certainly listen to an audio book in the car while I'm driving! I listened to this book via the Audible app...thank you technology!  I mean, come on....nothing makes driving (or sitting in awful Grovetown traffic) go faster than listening to a book!  I have also found that I drive a little slower while listening, probably because I don't want to get to where I'm going for fear of having to stop listening to the story.

I'll admit I'm not a literary genius...and I was never really good at analyzing hidden themes and symbolism and all that jazz in all my literature classes...but I feel like I can grasp a pretty good concept of the book, even if I miss all the underlying "gems" that are the real reason as to why I like a book or don't like it.  In my honest opinion, I'd prefer a book where those sorts of things are not explicitly spelled out.  I like knowing that a book touched me on a subconscious level without fully understanding HOW it did that (ignorance is bliss).  I don't really care about all that.  I care about if the writing was at a level I prefer, if the characters were relatable, and if the story was entertaining, engaging, and enjoyable.  Sometimes I really hated in high school when we would spend so much time dissecting the elements of a story rather than talking about the content.  There were times when I found the story quite enjoyable, but the constant talking about it and all the hidden meanings really put a sour taste in my mouth for it.  I think that's why I STILL don't like the Scarlet Letter.  I read for the same reason people watch movies:  I like to be entertained.  Sue me if I don't care about the necessary literary aspects...but I just flat-out don't care.

Anyway!  Review!

Purchase at Amazon >> HERE

Just a few sentences in the description of this book made me want to read it:  "Imagine that your husband wrote you a letter, to be opened after his death. Imagine, too, that the letter contains his deepest, darkest secret—something with the potential to destroy not just the life you built together, but the lives of others as well. Imagine, then, that you stumble across that letter while your husband is still very much alive. . . ."

I mean, come on!  Who wouldn't feel like they NEEDED to read it after reading that?  Even if you're simply driven by the desire to find out what was written in the letter, you're still going to be drawn to it!

The entire book takes place in one week in Sydney, Australia.  There are several main characters that, in one way or another, are intertwined in the same story.  I tell you this so that you don't all of a sudden feel a little lost when, in the first couple of chapters, you're seeing different stories...one involving the Berlin wall.  The main characters are women....wives, mothers...who are all seemingly normal but all have something extraordinary occurring (or occurred) in their lives.  The characters are so well-developed that I feel like I've always known these women.

The course of each character's individual plot line really examines how even the strongest of women, deep down, has weaknesses.  And at times when those weaknesses are exposed, it takes a great deal of inner struggle to put on that brave face and keep pushing through your day as if nothing has changed.  And that's one reason why I loved this book:  it really showed REAL human relationships and struggles that can happen in every day life....they're not just a bunch of characters who, even though it's never described, are rich and have everything awesome happen to them and everything always works out.  Because guess what?  It doesn't always work out and it does take a struggle to survive in this life.  Call me a pain, but I feel like it's unfair to read all these book with this ladies who came from rich backgrounds and have everything handed to them on a silver platter.  Life rarely works that way and I find it refreshing to read a book that examines that.  

One thing I really took away from this book was missed opportunities, whether good or bad.  Throughout the book, I kept thinking to myself "oh, I wonder what would have become of this character if they'd done that differently"  Maybe it's an actual theme in the book, I don't know...but I found myself really paying attention to the details on the decisions these women made and why they made them.  I especially found myself drawn to the idea of good people vs. bad decisions.  Can a good person make an incredibly bad decision?  Can a good person make a bad decision that impacts another life?  In everything that goes on in the news, we wonder to ourselves: "What kind of person would do that?"  The truth is:  any sort of person.  Good people CAN make horrible decisions, just as terrible people CAN make great decisions.  This book examines that at it's core.

By the end of the book, most everything has been resolved and the loose ends have been tied (with the exception of one, but I didn't care much about her anyway).  The Epilogue is quite possibly my favorite part of the story (partly because it confirmed something I had been thinking throughout the book) and offers different perspectives on "If this hadn't happened..."

A beautiful story.  The first book by Liane Moriarty I have read, but I'll definitely read some more! Give it a read, let me know how you felt about it!

What I'm currently reading:

Reading in my (minimal) spare time at home

Reading on my lunch breaks at work

Next month's book I'll be listening to in the car