little earthquakes

little earthquakes
jennifer weiner
contemporary fiction/chick lit
washington square press
published 2005

Becky is a plump, sexy chef who has a wonderful husband and a baby girl, a restaurant that's received citywide acclaim - and the mother-in-law from hell.  Kelly is an event planner who's struggling to balance work and motherhood while dealing with an unemployed husband who seems content to channel-surf for eight hours a day.  Ayinde's basketball superstar husband breaks her trust at her most vulnerable moment, putting their new family even more in the public eye.  Then there's Lia, a Philadelphia native who has left her Hollywood career behind, along with her husband, and a tragic secret to start her life all over again.

When I was younger I experienced times with my fellow females that instilled in me this idea that girls are evil.  In fact, as I grew up into adolescence and adulthood I would always say 'Men do awful things to you because they're stupid.  Women do awful things to you because they're evil.'  And a lot of times, that's true.  Men are just clueless sometimes and women can be more calculating.  Over-analyzing.

When we moved to our town I was surrounded by the mommies who always remembered to bring snacks to the park and wore makeup, dressed like models and hell, they looked like models too.  Volunteered for the PTA (though we call it something else here) and all their kids pulled $170 wheeled luggage to school.  And here I was, generally forgetting to bring the diaper bag much less snack while wearing my standard baggy-except-for-the-waistline jeans and the holey, faded grey sweatshirt I stole from Erin who stole it from Kathy who stole it from Diane back when we were 22.  And make up.  Ha.  It was a miracle if my hair was brushed.

So I would see these women and remember the mean spirited girls who made life not so fun and imagine they were the same.  Luckily for me some of them are much more friendly and look beyond the 'I Probably Hate You' t-shirt and start a conversation.  Also, Emma will talk to anyone and her myriad of friends forced me to talk to mothers to arrange play dates and what not.

What I discovered was these perfect, gorgeous, together moms were some of the most genuine, caring and amazing women I would have the privilege of knowing.  They have become my closest friends, my emergency contacts and at times, my life lines.  They brought food when I was out of surgery, picked up my kid from school, cried when I found out all my cancer was gone and remind me that I'm a good mom.

I read a couple of reviews while in the midst of reading Little Earthquakes and was surprised by how many people were dubious of how a group of women could become so close in such a short time.  They said it lent to a suspension of reality for surely women do not make friends like this.  But I got it.  Nothing bonds you like motherhood.  Nothing humbles you, scares you, elates you like being a parent and unfortunately as annoying as it my sound no one else understands this except other parents.  And as you get older, friendships are different.  You don't bond over Trapper Keepers or Irish Car bombs and Washington Apples anymore.

So yeah, I got it.

Becky, Kelly, Ayinde & Lia met at the perfect moment when the opportunity for friendship was just right.  While women may be evil sometimes we are only that because we are emotional beings.  So seeing another woman in pain we want to help.  Especially, when at any time, we know we can and probably will become that woman.

Weiner's characters were not perfect.  They made mistakes.  They broke hearts, including their own sometimes.  They were there for each other when they could be even when it wasn't a good time.  They tried not to judge, but of course, that's impossible.  But when they did, they tried to catch themselves.  They helped heal each other, hold each other up and help each other move on.  Lucky.  If you could have one friend, just one, like these women find you are lucky.

I am the luckiest of all.

goodnight nobody

goodnight nobody
jennifer weiner
contemporary fiction/chick lit/mystery
atria
published 2005

For Kate Klein, a semi-accidental mother of three, suburbia has been full of unpleasant surprises.  Her once-loving husband is hardly ever home.  The supermommies on the playground routinely snub her.  Her days are spent carpooling and enduring endless games of Candy Land, and at night, most of her orgasms are of the do-it-yourself variety.

When a fellow mother is murdered, Kate finds that the unsolved mystery is the most exciting thing to happen in Upchurch, Connecticut, since her neighbors broke ground for a guesthouse and cracked their septic tank.  Even though the local police chief warns her that crime-fighting's a job best left to the professionals, Kate launches an unofficial investigation - from 8:45 to 11:30 on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, when her kids are in nursery school.

As Kate is drawn deeper into the murdered woman's past, she begins to uncover the secrets and lies behind Upchurch's picket-fence facade - and considers the choices and compromises all modern women make as they navigate between obligation and independence, small towns and big cities, being a mother and having a life of one's own.

A murder mystery.  Quite a departure from her usual fare and it shows.  There's still the complicated mother/daughter relationship, feelings of inadequacies, the slightly overweight female character, the good looking and fearless best friend...but there was something missing.  The like-ability of the main character maybe?  Even now, having just finished the book 5 minutes ago I couldn't remember the name of the main character!

Kate.  She wasn't believable, she wasn't fully fleshed out.  She lost her mind over this man she never had a relationship with and married the first man who came along after.  Then she complains about being dissatisfied.  She goes off half cocked every time she gets just a tiny idea of something and it's wrong.  Every. Time.

But what more than that, I never felt like she loved her kids or her husband.  Or even Evan, the one that got away.  She just wanted to do whatever she wanted to do and damn all to everyone else.

Alone, it's not a horrible book, but compared to In Her Shoes or Good in Bed this was entirely lackluster.

rewind challenge

The Rewind challenge works a little like the TBR challenges, but from what I can tell you don't actually have to own the books.  This is for books that you were excited to read when they came out, but then just didn't get to them for some reason or another.  As long as the book was published before January 1, 2014 you're good to go.  If you have an ARC that was given to you before 2014, but isn't being published for public consumption until 2014 it doesn't count!

Other rules are the same as everything else.  You don't have to have a blog, but you do need to state your intentions and post reviews somewhere like Goodreads or Amazon or something like that.  Books of any format count too!  You can check out our host at Coffee Bean Bookshelf and sign up here.  There's some information on prizes too.

*****My goal for this challenge is 24 books*****

1. The Serpent's Tale - Ariana Franklin
2. Dust to Dust - Tami Hoag
3. The Darkest Evening of the Year - Dean Koontz
4. Cocktails for Three - Madeleine Wickham
5. Because I'm Worth It - Cecily von Ziegesar
6. All I Want Is Everything - Cecily von Ziegesar
7. I Like It Like That - Cecily von Ziegesar
8. God-Shaped Hole - Tiffanie DeBartolo
9. Farm Fatale by Wendy Holden
10. Ashes to Ashes by Tami Hoag
11. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me - Mindy Kaling
12. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
13. A Fatal Grace - Louise Penny
14. Every Secret Thing - Laura Lippman
15. Never Go Back - Lee Child
16. Cross My Heart - James Patterson
17. Still Life by Louise Penny
18. The Cruelest Month - Louise Penny
19. Always Watching - Chevy Stevens
20. The Hangman - Louise Penny
21. Night Film - Marisha Pessl
22. Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight
23. The Spectacular Now - Tim Tharp
24. Tiger Lily - Jodi Lynn Anderson

mount tbr

I have a TBR challenge for my ebooks, one for books that have been in my pile for over a year and one that is for books that are on my TBR list, but I might not actually own yet.

The Mount TBR Challenge is being hosted by My Readers Block and you can sign up by clicking here.

Books must be owned before January 1, 2014.  Any format is okay (although I will be using this challenge primarily for physical books) and you don't have to have a blog to sign up.  You can sign up until November 2014 and you'll need to pick a level to start with.  You can't go down, but you can keep climbing up.  You can list your books ahead of time, but you don't have to.

Here's the levels:

• Pike's Peak - 12 books
• Mount Blanc - 24 books
• Mt. Vancouver - 36 books
• Mt. Ararat - 48 books
• Mt. Kilimanjaro - 60 books
• El Toro - 75 books
• Mt. Everest - 100 books
• Mount Olympus - 150 +

I'm starting with Pike's Peak

1. The Serpent's Tale - Ariana Franklin
2. Dust to Dust - Tami Hoag
3. The Darkest Evening of the Year - Dean Koontz
4. Cocktails for Three - Madeleine Wickham
5. Because I'm Worth It - Cecily von Ziegesar
6. All I Want Is Everything - Cecily von Ziegesar
7. I Like It Like That - Cecily von Ziegesar
8. God-Shaped Hole - Tiffanie DeBartolo
9. Farm Fatale by Wendy Holden
10. Ashes to Ashes by Tami Hoag
11. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me - Mindy Kaling
12. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

the last dragonslayer

the last dragonslayer
jasper fforde
ya/fantasy
hmh
published 2012

In the good old days, magic was indispensable - it could both save a kingdom and clear a clogged drain.  But now magic is fading: drain cleaner is cheaper than a spell, and magic carpets are used for pizza delivery.  Fifteen-year-old foundling Jennifer Strange runs Kazam, an employment agency for magicians - but it's hard to stay in business when magic is drying up.  And then the visions start, predicting the death of the world's last dragon at the hands of an unnamed Dragonslayer.  If the visions are true, everything will change for Kazam - and for Jennifer.  Because something is coming.  Something known as .... Big Magic.

Jennifer.  Quite a common name for such an interesting character.  Maybe that's why Fforde gave her the last name 'Strange'.

There are funny bits.  Like how money is called 'moolah' and just all around silliness.  There is adventure and mystery.  Sweetness and sadness.  It has all the elements to make a really good book, but it was just okay.  I never really could get into it.  I can't say why, I just found my mind wandering in spots.  I wasn't really paying attention.  Even now, I can't think of anything that I really loved or felt a pull towards in the book.  It wasn't bad, it was just okay.  And I guess every once in a while okay is enough.

one moment

one moment
kristina mcbride
ya/romance
egmont usa
published 2012

This was supposed to be the best summer of Maggie's life.  Now it's the one she'd do anything to forget.

Maggie remembers hanging out at the gorge with her closest friends after a blowout party.  She remembers climbing the trail with her perfect boyfriend, Joey.  She remembers that last kiss, soft, lingering, and meant to reassure her.  So why can't she remember what happened in the moment before they were suppose to dive?  Why was she left cowering at the top of the cliff, while Joey floated in the water below - dead?

As Maggie's memories return in snatches, nothing seems to make sense.  Why was Joey acting so strangely at the party?  Where did he go after taking her home?  And if Joey was keeping these secrets, what else was he hiding?

The beginning of this book was so promising. Although I don't know what I expected realistically.  There are places in the book where the writing kind of comes off as forced.  As if the writer wasn't exactly sure how teenagers act so she just blurted something out.  But that's not my biggest issue with the book.

*****SPOILER ALERT*****

I cannot believe that Adam finds Maggie crouched down at the top of the cliff, memory repressed because she found out HER BOYFRIEND WAS CHEATING ON HER.

Ugh.  That's beyond pathetic.  It all boils down to this:  She discovers her boyfriend is cheating on her at the most inopportune time, basically kills him (albeit accidentally), represses the memory of what she discovered, mourns his loss as if they were married for 50 years, finds out he's an asshole but ignores it, finally stops ignoring it, remembers what she forgot and falls in love with another guy.

Maybe I could believe the whole amnesia thing.  I mean, she's a teenager and they're prone to hysterics, right?  When you're a teenager you feel everything so much.  Every teenager is basically emo.  But then after all that nonsense she falls right in love with her best guy friend, her boyfriend's best friend and happy ever after.  I wanted to slap Maggie silly.

It was a disappointment all around.  Maggie was pathetic and self-centered.  Her friends were clueless and/or backstabbers and her boyfriend was a class-a asshole.  I liked no one.

love you more

love you more

detective d. d. warren #6

lisa gardner

fiction/thriller/mystery

bantam

published 2011

One question, a split-second decision, and Brian Darby lies dead on the kitchen floor. His wife, state police trooper Tessa Leoni, claims to have shot him in self-defense, and bears the bruises to back up her tale. For veteran detective D. D. Warren it should be an open-and-shut case. But where is their six-year-old daughter?

As the homicide investigation ratchets into a frantic statewide search for a missing child, D. D. Warren must partner with former lover Bobby Dodge to break through the blue wall of police brotherhood, seeking to understand the inner workings of a trooper’s mind while also unearthing family secrets. Would a trained police officer truly shoot her own husband? And would a mother harm her own child?
 
For Tessa Leoni, the worst has not yet happened. She is walking a tightrope, with nowhere to turn, no one to trust, as the clock ticks down to a terrifying deadline. She has one goal in sight, and she will use every ounce of her training, every trick at her disposal, to do what must be done. No sacrifice is too great, no action unthinkable. A mother knows who she loves. And all others will be made to pay.

This book was like Commando, but with a petite, yet tough woman instead of Arnold Schwartzenegger.

This was a constant ride of terror.  You're never really sure what's happening, if a little girl is dead or kidnapped, if Tessa is guilty of murdering EVERYONE....you're basically hanging throughout the whole book.

And it was awesome.

Things happen that make D. D. not so....annoying.  It's one thing to be tough and maybe play the bad-cop now and then, but D. D.'s way over the edge there and it's off putting.  I don't need her to be sensitive and sweet, I just need her to be human-like.

But Lisa Gardner writes a dang good book and getting Bobby Dodge for a whole novel was pretty sweet too!

lies beneath

lies beneath

lies beneath #1

anne greenwood brown

fantasy/ya/romance/thriller

delacorte press

published 2012

Calder White lives in the cold, clear waters of Lake Superior, the only brother in a family of murderous mermaids. To survive, Calder and his sisters prey on humans and absorb their positive energy. Usually, they select their victims at random, but this time around, the underwater clan chooses its target for a reason: revenge. They want to kill Jason Hancock, the man they blame for their mother's death.

It's going to take a concerted effort to lure the aquaphobic Hancock onto the water. Calder's job is to gain Hancock's trust by getting close to his family. Relying on his irresistible good looks and charm, Calder sets out to seduce Hancock's daughter Lily. Easy enough, but Calder screws everything up by falling in love--just as Lily starts to suspect there's more to the monster-in-the-lake legends than she ever imagined, and just as the mermaids threaten to take matters into their own hands, forcing Calder to choose between them and the girl he loves.

One thing's for sure: whatever Calder decides, the outcome won't be pretty.

This was much better than I expected!

Kind of Twilighty with the whole dangerous guy, girl falls for him anyway, but other than that it was unique and fun.

Mermaids and mermen, or rather, merman.  Lots of betrayal and mystery surrounding Calder and his sisters.  At first I was a little bummed to find out this was the first in a series, but after reading it I felt like we just scratched the surface and I'm interested to see where Brown goes with this.

But if you didn't want to start another series you could just read this one and be pretty satisfied.  I think it ends well, leaving it up in the air a little, but at the same time there's closure there too.  Like I said, I'm interested to see where she goes with this so I'm in for the next one whenever I can get my hands on it!

the kill order

the kill order
the maze runner #0/4
james dashner
ya/thriller/dystopian
delacorte press
published 2012

Before WICKED was formed, before the Glade was built, before Thomas entered the Maze, sun flares hit the earth and mankind fell to disease.  Mark and Trina were there when it happened, and they survived.  But surviving the sun flares was easy compared to what came next.

Now a disease of rage and lunacy races across the eastern United States, and there's something suspicious about its origin.  Worse yet, it's mutating, and all evidence suggests that it will bring humanity to its knees.

Mark and Trina are convinced there's a way to save those left living from descending into madness.  And they're determined to find it - if they can stay alive.  Because in this new, devastated world, every life has a price.  And to some, you're worth more dead than alive.

About halfway through I realized I was done with this book, but I read all the way through.  I wasn't hoping it would get better, I just had to finish it.  The Maze Runner was really good.  Really, really good and I would say that I wished it was a stand alone novel, but it did leave you on a cliffhanger and the story was a lot more than could be summed up in just one book I suppose.  But it wasn't until The Scorch Trials that I realized Dashner's writing wasn't that fantastic.  By the time I got to The Death Cure I really didn't like anyone anymore.

But The Kill Order was a prequel and I thought I would want to know how it all began.  What I didn't think about was how depressing it would be.  I mean, we already know things don't end up going so great for those who were around when the flares began.  So the whole time I wasn't wondering if Trina and Mark and their friends would die, I was wondering when.

So the first half was okay, but then the writing started to fall apart.  Conversations he added just to fill in the time were stilted and strange.  People don't talk like that, especially not people in dire situations.  By the end of the book I was tempted just to skip ahead and see how it ended.  Pages upon pages of fighting crazed people.  Punching, kicking, scratching...twice we had to read about Mark almost falling out of THE SAME WINDOW.  Well, maybe not the same one, but still.

It just wasn't good.  I wish I had stopped reading after The Maze Runner.

snow flower & the secret fan

snow flower & the secret fan

lisa see

fiction/chinese/period/women

random house

published 2005

Lily is haunted by memories–of who she once was, and of a person, long gone, who defined her existence. She has nothing but time now, as she recounts the tale of Snow Flower, and asks the gods for forgiveness.

In nineteenth-century China, when wives and daughters were foot-bound and lived in almost total seclusion, the women in one remote Hunan county developed their own secret code for communication: nu shu (“women’s writing”). Some girls were paired with laotongs, “old sames,” in emotional matches that lasted throughout their lives. They painted letters on fans, embroidered messages on handkerchiefs, and composed stories, thereby reaching out of their isolation to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments.

With the arrival of a silk fan on which Snow Flower has composed for Lily a poem of introduction in nu shu, their friendship is sealed and they become “old sames” at the tender age of seven. As the years pass, through famine and rebellion, they reflect upon their arranged marriages, loneliness, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood. The two find solace, developing a bond that keeps their spirits alive. But when a misunderstanding arises, their lifelong friendship suddenly threatens to tear apart.

In the beginning of Snow Flower & the Secret Fan we learn all about foot binding.  I had gone to the Field Museum in Chicago years ago with my brother and saw shoes that women whose feet had been bound wore and I couldn't wrap my mind around it.  Reading about it was both fascinating and horrifying.  Looking at pictures of women's bound feet on Google was worse.  When talking about her aunt's feet Lily says:

Her bound feet were not very small, maybe fourteen centimeters long, twice the size of what mine eventually became.

Just in case you're not sure what that is in inches it's 5.5 inches.  Which means Lily's feet end up being about 3.25 inches long.  And if you're like me and had to Google how many inches is 14 centimeters you might have seen that below the answer, the second link was a Wikipedia article on the average male's penis size.  Weird.

Anyhoo....that just nearly blew my mind.  At one point she describes someone's foot as being about the size of a thumb.  A tiny, Chinese woman's thumb.

This is chick lit at it's finest.  A story not about a woman's quest for love, children and happiness, but about the most important relationship a woman will ever have.  That with her best friend.

I love the way that Lisa See wrote the story, through the mouth of Lily as she is remembering her life now that she is in her 'Sitting Quietly' days late into her 80's.  Sometimes she remarks on how she cannot explain how she felt at some point or how she can never get that feeling or image out of her mind.  Her honesty is her atonement for what she let go in her life.  At times I could see myself in both women, although I could see my faults were similar to Lily's.

I thought about my mother and how she's been best friends with my Auntie (who is not really my Auntie) since they were girls.  Like old sames.  One Japanese, one Chinese.  They've seen each other through so much and they will always been sames.  I think that they even went to see this movie together!

Love.  What it all came down to is women's love.  The love we yearn for from our mothers, the love we have for our friends, our sames, and love that we try to show our daughters when we sometimes are being harder on them than they understand.  It's showing our mother-love.

live to tell

live to tell

d. d. warren #4

lisa gardner

fiction/mystery/crime/romance/thriller

bantam

published 2010

He knows everything about you—including the first place you’ll hide.
 
On a warm summer night in one of Boston’s working-class neighborhoods, an unthinkable crime has been committed: Four members of a family have been brutally murdered. The father—and possible suspect—now lies clinging to life in the ICU. Murder-suicide? Or something worse? Veteran police detective D. D. Warren is certain of only one thing: There’s more to this case than meets the eye.

Danielle Burton is a survivor, a dedicated nurse whose passion is to help children at a locked-down pediatric psych ward. But she remains haunted by a family tragedy that shattered her life nearly twenty-five years ago. The dark anniversary is approaching, and when D. D. Warren and her partner show up at the facility, Danielle immediately realizes: It has started again.

A devoted mother, Victoria Oliver has a hard time remembering what normalcy is like. But she will do anything to ensure that her troubled son has some semblance of a childhood. She will love him no matter what. Nurture him. Keep him safe. Protect him. Even when the threat comes from within her own house. 

The lives of these three women unfold and connect in unexpected ways, as sins from the past emerge—and stunning secrets reveal just how tightly blood ties can bind. Sometimes the most devastating crimes are the ones closest to home.

Whoa.  This book was intense.  Dealing with very psychologically disturbed children, Live to Tell doesn't pull any punches.  We switch narrators between Detective D. D. Warren, Victoria, the mother of a violent son and Danielle, the only survivor of a family annihilation.  That in itself sounds pretty heavy, but then you add in time spent in a children's psychiatric ward you're pretty much wrung dry.

I have very little to complain about Lisa Gardner's writing.  I was at the edge of my seat, the pages flew by.  I was both enthralled and horrified.  But Warren was sooooo dang grumpy in this book!  I truly don't remember her being this obnoxious.  While the crimes were awful and she had to face them I didn't feel like she was emotionally disturbed by the crimes themselves, but more that she was pissed off that they weren't as clear cut as she thought and she was really horny and not getting any sex.

I counted the number of times she 'scowled' at someone.  It was 13.  One thing that drives me nuts in books is repetitive stuff and the scowling was too much repetition for me.

But really, that was it.  I loved Danielle, went back and forth with Victoria.  Sometimes I felt she was an idiot, that her ex-husband was right and other times I thought she was the hero and in the end I found she was the strongest one of all.

Definitely not a story for everyone.  Definitely full of stuff people don't want to think about actually existing in their world, but it was a good read if you're up for it.

the night circus

the night circus

erin morgenstern

fiction/fantasy/scifi

anchor

published 2011

The circus arrives without warning.  No announcements precede it.  It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.  Within the black-and-white striped canvas tnts is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements.  It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway - a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors.  Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will.  Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love - a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

The book jumps back in forth in time to tell the story of before and during and then and while it should be confusing with a jumble of different characters it's not.  You yearn to know how everyone is intertwined - because you know they must be - and you revel in each little step taken through their journey.

Sometimes when I'm reading a book where there is an ensemble of characters I get frustrated when the focus shifts from one character to the next.  Inevitably there is always at least one character I don't care where their story take them.  That is not so with The Night Circus.

I'm enthralled by Bailey, Poppet & Widget and their mysterious adventures.  What Bailey's future holds for him and Poppet & Widget's easy acceptance and friendship.  Isobel is at times seemingly bitter and cunning, but then maybe that's just what I expect her to be and not what she really is.  Of course, Celia and Marco.  Tsukiko, Chandresh, Tante, Lainie & Tara, Mr. Barris, Herr Thiessen....they're all incredibly fascinating and add bits and bits of revelation to the mystery at hand.  

I found Hector/Prospero to be completely horrid.  Alexander showed more love for Marco than Hector ever did for Celia.  Everything Hector ever did was done to Celia, not for her.  The affection he showed her was merely a fake face.  Alexander was the genuine one.  Though that doesn't make him exempt from his choices it does make him more human.

I did get a little confused during October 21-November 1, 1901 & 1902.  Because it was switching back and forth so quickly I would have to double back and see what year I was in.  There were questions and mysteries I felt were never answered, but for some reason I wasn't disappointed.  Some mysterious are better left as mysteries.

good in bed

good in bed
cannie shapiro #1
jennifer weiner
fiction/chick lit/romance
washington square press
published 2002

For twenty-eight years, things have been tripping along nicely for Cannie Shapiro. Sure, her mother has come charging out of the closet, and her father has long since dropped out of her world. But she loves her friends, her rat terrier, Nifkin, and her job as pop culture reporter for The Philadelphia Examiner. She's even made a tenuous peace with her plus-size body.

But the day she opens up a national women's magazine and sees the words "Loving a Larger Woman" above her ex-boyfriend's byline, Cannie is plunged into misery...and the most amazing year of her life. From Philadelphia to Hollywood and back home again, she charts a new course for herself: mourning her losses, facing her past, and figuring out who she is and who she can become.

There are times when a review of a book does not need to be detailed and pondered upon.  This is one of those times.

I loved it.  You should read it.  Go now.

spider bones

spider bones
temperence brennan #13
kathy reichs
fiction/anthropology/forensics/mystery/suspense
pocket books
published 2011

John Lowery was declared dead in 1968—the victim of a Huey crash in Vietnam, his body buried long ago in North Carolina. Four decades later, Temperance Brennan is called to the scene of a drowning in Hemmingford, Quebec. The victim appears to have died while in the midst of a bizarre sexual practice. The corpse is later identified as John Lowery. But how could Lowery have died twice, and how did an American soldier end up in Canada?

Tempe sets off for the answer, exhuming Lowery’s grave in North Carolina and taking the remains to Hawaii for reanalysis—to the headquarters of JPAC, the U.S. military’s Joint POW/ MIA Accounting Command, which strives to recover Americans who have died in past conflicts. In Hawaii, Tempe is joined by her colleague and ex-lover Detective Andrew Ryan (how “ex” is he?) and by her daughter, who is recovering from her own tragic loss. Soon another set of remains is located, with Lowery’s dog tags tangled among them. Three bodies—all identified as Lowery.

And then Tempe is contacted by Hadley Perry, Honolulu’s flamboyant medical examiner, who needs help identifying the remains of an adolescent boy found offshore. Was he the victim of a shark attack? Or something much more sinister? 

There was so much going on in this book it gave me a headache.  So many names, so many bodies and it was truly just too much of a stretch that everything was related.

You can't just skim over stuff in the book, otherwise you'll find yourself completely lost.  There's so much information and so much of it technical that I swear I'm at least 10 IQ points higher than I was when I started.  While I like learning the ins and outs of forensic anthropology this one started to lose me after a bit.

I did like the human interest part of it.  Lily & Katy were a breath of fresh air, but Tempe's hesitation with Ryan and Charlie is starting to get kind of old.  There was a Patricia Cornwell moment that I hope never happens again.  At a climactic part of the book Tempe runs out to help and I have to wonder, what does an intelligent woman think she's going to accomplish out there?  She's unarmed, untrained and unnecessary.  All she would do is become a distraction and a liability.  It was a bizarre way to keep eyes on the action since the story is told from her point of view I suppose, but it read as 'Tempe is an idiot' to me.

sushi for beginners

sushi for beginners
marian keyes
fiction/chick lit/romance
william morrow
published 2003

Prada-wearing magazine editor Lisa Edwards thinks her life is over when her "fabulous" new job turns out to be a deportation to Dublin, launching Colleen magazine. No more jet-setting to the fall collections. No more fabulous parties and photographs in the society pages. The only saving grace is that her friends aren't there to witness her downward spiral. Might her new boss, the disheveled and moody Jack Devine, save her from a fate worse than hell?

Ashling Kennedy, Colleen's assistant editor, is an award-winning worrier, increasingly aware that something fundamental is missing from her life -- apart from a boyfriend and a waistline. And then there's her closest, oldest friend Clodagh "Princess" Kelly, who is apparently living the domestic dream in a suburban castle. So why, lately, has Clodagh had a recurring urge to kiss a frog -- sleep with a frog, if truth be told?

Set in the sparkling -- and serpentine -- world of women's fashion magazines, as well as the hilarious underground comedy club circuit, Sushi for Beginners is about searching for happiness. And how, if you let things bubble under the surface for too long, sooner or later they'll boil over.

It's been quite awhile since I read a Marian Keyes book and I forgot how much I love her.  She seems to effortlessly write realistic and over-the-top characters.

Lisa is the Miranda Priestly of Colleen magazine, except less nutso and more believable.  Sure, she was a bitch and all about how she was ruined by this move but even in her bitchiness I found something to like.  As she grew into her own self-discovery I liked her more and more.

Ashling is the everyday girl.  She's everyone's friend, always trying to make everyone else happy and so desperate not to be her mother that she finds herself there anyway.  Her slow descent into depression was painfully heart wrenching.  It happens, just like that and I didn't want it to happen to her.

And, minor spoiler*****Clodagh deserved everything she got.

****Spoiler Over.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book.  This is only the second non-Walsh family book of Keyes that I've read and I found that I could love the characters as much as I love the Walsh sisters.

deep down

deep down
jack reacher #17.5
lee child
fiction/mystery
random house llc
published 2012

Summoned by Military Intelligence to Washington, D.C., Reacher is sent undercover. The assignment that awaits him: The army is meeting with its Capitol Hill paymasters for classified talks on a new, state-of-the-art sniper rifle for U.S. forces. But vital details about the weapon are leaking—straight from the Capitol and probably into the hands of unidentified foreign arms dealers. The prospect of any and every terrorist, mercenary, or dictator’s militia getting their hands on the latest superior firepower is unthinkable. That’s where Reacher comes in. His task: infiltrate the top-secret proceedings and smoke out the mole. His target: a quartet of high-powered Army political liaison officers—all of them fast-track women on their way to the top.

According to his bosses, it’s a zero-danger mission. No need to draw a gun . . . just chat over drinks. But Reacher knows that things are rarely what they seem. And he’s learned the hard way never to underestimate an opponent. Or four. Lessons that will come in handy when he starts digging for the truth—and gets his hands a lot dirtier than he expected.

I don't even know what this was.  I mean, I know it was a short story, but I don't know why it had to be done.  It was too quick to give you time to get involved in any part of the story and by the time you caught onto what was happening it was over.  At least with Child's other short, Second Son we got to see Reacher as a kid and see where his badassery came from.  Here it was just nothing.

stopping time & old habits

stopping time
old habits
wicked lovely series between #2 & #3
melissa marr
harper collins
published 2010 & 2011

Leslie walked away from the Dark Court, determined to reclaim her life and live it on her own terms—even if it meant leaving behind the two faeries who love her. She knows Niall and Irial watch over her, and she would give almost anything to keep them from hurting. But she resists the pull to be with either one of them. Someone knows about Leslie's past, however, and is intent on using her to reach the fey. And he doesn't care who gets hurt.

Recently anointed king of the Dark Court, Niall struggles to forge a new relationship with his subjects—and with the former Dark King, Irial, his once-friend, once-enemy, and now possible-advisor. 

Of the fae, when a mortal touches Gancanagh they become obsessed and begin to wither away from want.  That's pretty much how I feel about the Wicked Lovely series.

In retrospect, these books were ridiculously unnecessary, but I loved them.  When I finished Ink Exchange I wasn't ready to be done with Leslie, Irial and Niall's story.  I thought more could be told and this was perfect.  I can see how both of these set up the next stories and it only makes me want to read them more!

divine by choice

divine by choice
partholon series #2
p.c. cast
supernatural/fantasy/romance/horror
luna
published 2006

Shannon Parker has finally come to terms with life in the mythical world of Partholon.  She loves her centaur husband, her connection to the goddess Epona and the pampering that comes with both!  She's almost forgotten her old life on Earth - especially when she discovers she's pregnant...

Then a sudden burst of power sends her back to Oklahoma.  Without magic, Shannon can't return to Partholon - and so she needs to find help.  Trouble is, it might take the form of a man as tempting as her husband.  And along the way she'll discover that being divine by mistake is a lot easier than being divine by choice....

I have a love/hate relationship with this book series.  I hated PC Cast & Kristin Cast's House of Night series, but I thought since this was only PC Cast's series it would be better and it is, but it's still kind of annoying and hokey.  At some point the story will get interesting and I'm pleasantly surprised by it, but then just as quickly she writes something so awful that I can hardly keep reading.

I don't really like Shannon/Rhea all that much.  And I really can't get behind the idea that there's a mirror image that she should fall in love with in both worlds.  I also spent much of the time in disbelief that anyone actually likes to eat Arby's.

*****spoilers*****


We do get to learn the reasoning behind why Rhiannon is not a great person and get treated to a brutal rape scene under the guise of a religious ceremony.  What makes it even more sickening is that Rhiannon is blamed in her own rape because she didn't drink the date rape potion.  You know, being a teenager and all rebellious.  I had a hard time rooting for Shannon & co. after that.

It irritates me that she can just fall into bed with Clint just because he's her husband's mirror image.  She's already remarked on how mirror images are different personalities depending on different factors so it wasn't like she was sleeping with her husband.  But the powerful Epona said she should so.....

I don't know.  It was just a very sad and disappointing series of scenes, especially coming from a female writer.  Nothing like rape and infidelity to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

waiter rant

waiter rant
steve dublanica
autobiography
ecco
published 2008

According to The Waiter, eighty percent of customers are nice people just looking for something to eat. The remaining twenty percent, however, are socially maladjusted psychopaths. Waiter Rant offers the server's unique point of view, replete with tales of customer stupidity, arrogant misbehavior, and unseen bits of human grace transpiring in the most unlikely places. Through outrageous stories, The Waiter reveals the secrets to getting good service, proper tipping etiquette, and how to keep him from spitting in your food. The Waiter also shares his ongoing struggle, at age thirty-eight, to figure out if he can finally leave the first job at which he's truly thrived.

Similar to the synopsis describes, Waiter Rant is 20% funny stories about working in the restaurant industry and 80% psychobabble and reflections by Waiter on why he's still a waiter.

Not to say that this was a bad book, far from it.  Steve Dublanica writes very well, but this wasn't really what I was expecting.  I was expecting a book full of funny, horrifying or sad stories about being a waiter in a high end restaurant.  Instead, I got a book about a man going through an early mid-life crisis bemoaning the fact that he was still, at 38, a lowly waiter.  The Waiter will quickly admit his faults, but one I think he's even slow to understand is that he does have a serious disdain for waiters.  He does believe that they are unworthy and have something to be ashamed of.  It comes across in his voice throughout the book.

He spends most of the book talking about his life.  What he did before becoming a waiter, what he'd rather be doing instead of being a waiter, what he hopes to be doing instead of being a waiter, etc.  He strives to show the reader how well read he is, how smart he is and how he knows everything.  It gets kind of boring after awhile and I found myself skimming over paragraphs about how he contemplates.  He says that word a lot (or at least it felt like it though when I did a search for 'contemplate' it came up with 5 different instances).

And revealing the 'secrets to getting good service' and all that jazz?  That's part of the '40 Tips on How to Be a Good Customer' thrown in at the end of the book as an Appendix.  He's also given us '50 Ways to Tell You're Working in a Bad Restaurant' (in which I'm pretty sure I could check off at least 70% of those).  And then finally there's 'Items a Waiter Should Carry at All Times (or Have Close By)'.  Both funny and slightly depressing.  I think I was expecting the book to be more like his blog, but it was more of the journey from his blog to this book and that's okay. 

The book brought back memories, both good and bad, of my waitress/cocktailing/bartending/managing experiences.  I wouldn't trade those days for anything, but sometimes his broad generalizations of how shitty things can get were spot on.  There were certain truths that made me miss working in a restaurant, having that group of co-workers unlike any other place I've worked.  Sure, you have the catty bitches you can't stand just like anywhere else, but there has never been a job where the people I worked with felt more like my family than my own family at times.

marshmallows for breakfast

marshmallows for breakfast
dorothy koomson
fiction
bantam dell
published 2007

How do you explain those unexpected moments of love?...When Kendra Tamale returns to England from Australia she rents a room from Kyle, a separated father of two, and begins a new job. She's looking forward to a fresh start and a simple life.

Kyle's six-year-old twins, Summer and Jaxon, have other ideas and quickly adopt Kendra as their new mother - mainly because she lets them eat marshmallows for breakfast. Kendra eventually becomes a part of their lives, even though she's hiding a painful secret that makes her keep everyone - especially children - at arm's length.
 
Then Kendra bumps into the man who shares her awful secret, and everything falls apart: she can't sleep, she can't eat, she's suspended from work, and the kids are taken away by their mother. The only way to fix things is to confess to the terrible mistake she made all those years ago. But that's something she swore never to do...


There are sometimes books that I buy that sit on my shelves forever.  I don't read them.  Something else comes along first and since I own these books I don't have to read them right away.  Finally, I pick one up and read it and kick myself for having waited so long to get to it.

Marshmallows for Breakfast is one of those.

My sister-in-law gave me My Best Friend's Girl years ago.  It was Dorothy Koomson's first US release and it tore me in half.  I think I cried through most of the book.  Marshmallows for Breakfast was different, but no less stunning.  There was so much going on and it felt like it happened so quickly.  It was a constant series of gut punches.  And you thought you knew what was happening, but you didn't.

Koomson writes the most realistically flawed and perfect characters.  There is something you can instantly relate to in everyone.  They become friends, people you know or wish you did know.  Their hurt, their joys, their fears are absorbed into you and you are better for it.  There were times when I found myself touching the words on the page wishing I could comfort Kendie or Summer or Ashlyn or someone, anyone.

I didn't cry like I did when I read My Best Friend's Girl.  This book was happier, even with the sad parts.  But I loved it just as much I think.  These aren't romance novels, though they deal with love.  There is always something more in them.  Something that aches.  They aren't just about loss or grief or terror, they are just about people and the choices they make and how they live with those choices.

There is no way that I can't read all of her books now.  After the first book I went online and found that despite her having written 5 books at the time only My Best Friend's Girl and Marshmallows for Breakfast were available for purchase in the US.  I fear I must now stalk the interwebs until I can find them all!