The Last Two Years in Books Part V

This has been a bit of a whirlwind project to recap the 65 books I've read in the last two years, and I'm pleased to announce this is the penultimate installment in the series. Yeah, almost there!  

25. Attachments by Rainbow Rowell ☆☆☆☆

Rainbow Rowell does chick lit very well. This was a highly entertaining love story about a down on his luck sort of nerdy man who falls in love with a co-worker whose emails he is charged with monitoring at work. It's a fun, creative premise, and it makes for a highly entertaining novel. Pack this one up for your next vacation. 

24. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell ☆☆☆☆
So this novel represents another one of my forays into young adult literature, but in my defense, I didn't really know that before I started reading it. Rowell is just a highly entertaining writer, and I loved this. This is the story of two awkward young teenagers in love. It's also a little heartbreaking, but in a good (not sappy or overly sentimental) way. It's also slightly better than Attachments if you're deciding between the two books. I guess that means Rowell does young adult even better than chick lit....   

23. Cockroaches by Jo Nesbo ☆☆☆

This was definitely an improvement over Nesbo's debut Harry Hole novel, The Bat, but it still didn't quite meet my high expectations for this series. This one takes Harry to Thailand where he investigates the murder of a Norwegian ambassador. I'm still waiting for Nesbo to hit his stride and really rope me in. So far I like these enough to keep at it.

22. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green ☆☆☆☆

I REALLY should have hated this book. It's about two teenagers who have had cancer, which means it has the potential for being emotionally manipulative, sappy, and/or melodramatic, but it's not. Green handles the subject matter really well; although, you should still be prepared and have some tissues handy. I also liked that the novel is also about the transportive quality of books. Both teenagers have books that helped them through their most difficult times, and they share these books with each other and form an intense emotional bond in large part based on the fact that they both "get" the other person's book. I like that.

21. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Dominique Bauby ☆☆☆

I love lists. They appeal to my anal retentive nature. Anyway, I found this list online, 32 Books That Will Actually Change Your Life (http://www.buzzfeed.com/erinlarosa/books-that-will-actually-change-your-life), so of course, I put a lot of these on my "to read" list. I've now read 15 of the 32. See, that's my love of checking things off of lists.... I'm not sure I agree that they have all changed my life, but it's a good list. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly was the first one I decided to tackle. At only 132 pages, it's a quick read, but this short book is very powerful.  Jean-Dominique Bauby was the editor-in-chief of French Elle and the father of two young children. Then quite suddenly he suffered a rare stroke of the brainstem and was almost completely paralyzed save his ability to blink. Through blinking he was able to communicate and wrote this amazing story of hope and a tribute to the power of imagination and memory. Be warned, you will kind of feel like a bit of a jerk for complaining about anything in your life when you read this, and I think you will be a bit inspired by his amazingly positive attitude. This is almost a four star book and certainly worth your time.  

20. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson ☆☆☆☆

Jackson might be the most twisted of modern writers.... This is horror without the blood and guts and without the supernatural. It's really a tale of madness told from the perspective of a young woman who is totally unhinged and becomes increasingly more so over the course of the book. Our narrator, Merricat, and her beloved sister Constance live in relative isolation with their elderly and sickly uncle at Blackwood House, the site of the rest of their family's poisoning some years earlier. Merricat performs her daily rituals and is always fearful of outsiders. When their cousin Charles, a gold digging swindler, arrives on the scene, Merricat takes steps to protect their isolation and her own rituals. The results are not what you would expect. You didn't think I would spoil it all, did you?       

19. The Hypnotist's Love Story by Liane Moriarty ☆☆☆

So let's say you started dating someone and you learned early on that they had a stalker. Wouldn't you be pretty curious and find a picture of them online or maybe just turnaround in your chair at the restaurant to scout said stalker out? Yep, me too. Well, apparently the hypnotist protagonist in this novel is not like you and me because she does none of these things, which leads to her unknowingly treating said stalker as a patient in her house. It's just so unbelievable and odd that it kind of ruined it for me. Overall, pretty mediocre.

18. Where Memories Lie by Deborah Crombie ☆☆☆☆

If you have been reading this blog, you know I'm a fan of Crombie's Gemma James and Duncan Kincaid detective series. This is the twelfth installment, and it is fantastic, which frankly is so refreshing since so many other authors hit on a good thing and just start churning out lazy, formulaic installments later in the series. It's nice to see that Crombie is still keeping it fresh. This novel couples a great back story about one couple's escape from Nazi Germany with a good modern day mystery. If you aren't willing to commit to the entire series, then just pick this one up and check it out. Going in order is not critical (though it will make you more interested in the detectives and their little side stories).    

17. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafan ☆☆☆☆☆

I loved everything about this book. Set in Barcelona just after the Spanish Civil War, a boy (Daniel) becomes engrossed in a mysterious book that he finds under bizarre circumstances on a secret outing with his father (a book dealer). The book is entitled The Shadow of the Wind written by Julian Carax. Daniel sets out to find Carax's other books only to learn that someone has been burning all of them, and Daniel's copy of The Shadow of the Wind just might be the only copy of any Carax novel that's left. The book is historically and culturally rich in its context and descriptions; the story is compelling, inventive, and filled with murder, revenge, and secret love; and the characters jump into your imagination. This is the first book in a trilogy, and I'm not quite ready to read the second installment because I know this is a  series I won't want to end. I certainly didn't want this book to end. This is a must read and stands well on its own if you aren't willing to commit to ANOTHER trilogy.    

16. Never Let Me Go by Kazou Ishiguro ☆☆☆

This was another one on the list of books that will change your life. Let's just say that it didn't. It has an interesting premise, set in the future where children grow up in boarding school like settings then go on to serve as organ donors. It's a little more complicated than that obviously, but hey, I only have a paragraph, and it's late. The story unfolds without answering many questions or providing many explanations, but that works because this is told by one of the donors, and frankly, for most of the story, she knows very little about her own situation. Overall, I liked this. I think I just wanted it to end differently, and I felt like there was so much potential for this to have been great.     

The Last Two Years in Books Part IV

35. Wonder by RJ Palacio ☆☆☆

This is the story of a 10 year old boy with a facial abnormality who enters school for the first time. The writing style is very simple, which I liked because it's told from a child's perspective (for the most part), so that makes sense. What I didn't like was how neatly this tied together at the end. Kids are cruel, and I think life would have been much more difficult for this little boy than it was in this book (not to say things weren't difficult for him). That being said, this is a book written for young adults, and tying things together and not dwelling on how mean spirited children can be to each other probably isn't a bad thing for this audience. I feel bad giving it only three stars when I acknowledge that I am decidedly not the intended audience, a fact I didn't realize until after I had started reading. I would recommend this for friends looking for a good book for a middle school aged child, as I think it explores a lot of important themes and could be a good discussion piece for parents to engage their children about how to treat people and about bullying.  

34. Insurgent by Veronica Roth ☆☆☆

This was a bit of a disappointment after Divergent and caused me to lose some steam for this series. 

33. These Is My Words by Nancy Turner ☆☆☆☆

This is a remarkable, captivating story of survival, endurance, and love. I previously wrote about what a feisty and endearing protagonist Lily Casey Smith of Half Broke Horses was, but Sarah Prine is a true rival, and let's face it, an even BETTER female protagonist. I confess I was a little put off by the title of this book and thought the voice was going to be really off putting, but that wasn't the case at all. Sarah has a thirst for learning, and as she becomes increasingly educated, her grammar improves, which I thought was a nice detail. 

I am not a huge fan of western movies (though I admittedly LOVE Larry McMurtry), but pioneer stories are part of my DNA, so it turns out that despite my initial misgivings, this book was totally up my alley. Since I was about seven I have been making up stories in my head before falling asleep at night. It helps clear my mind and usually helps me drift off fairly quickly. It's like reading a favorite book with the lights out. At age seven until probably 12 or so, it was a pioneer story. I've always found this habit a little embarrassing, and it was YEARS before I one day told my mom about it. Well, it turned out that when she was a child (she outgrew the habit unlike me) she did the same thing, and she also made up pioneer stories. See, DNA?

32. The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty ☆☆☆

I can't quite figure out if Moriarty is a chick lit or mystery/suspense writer.... I don't quite think her books fit into either category. This is the story of a woman who finds a letter from her husband that is addressed to her with instructions to open in the event of his death. He's not dead but is acting odd, so in a moment of weakness, she opens it and learns his deepest, darkest secret. Nice premise. Good book. Nothing mind blowing, just good. I wonder what my husband isn't telling me.... Hopefully nothing like this! 

31. Allegiant by Veronica Roth ☆

What happened Veronica Roth??? This book was just a hot mess. After starting off so strong, how did she end here? The writing is crappy. The chapters are supposed to alternate perspectives between the two main characters, but there is no discernible difference in the voices. The plot kind of unravels, and then she does something with the story that really just pissed everyone I know who read this book off. After all of the anticipation after reading the first book, I didn't even go see the first movie in this series when it came out. I just couldn't be bothered. Kind of like how Roth and her editor couldn't be bothered to spend another month or two on this book before churning it out to capitalize on the series' popularity and make some money. Boo.    

30. The Goldfinch by Donna Tart ☆☆☆☆

I know this book has been very polarizing, but I loved it. This is a coming of age story about a young boy, Theo, whose mother is killed in a terrorist bombing at a museum. Theo survives the bombing and walks away from the wreckage almost absentmindedly with a small but valuable painting. With his mother's death, he is left with nowhere to go and no clear first choice caretaker. In the following years, Theo is passed from one temporary guardian to the next all the while harboring intense feelings of guilt about his mother's death, clinging to her memory and to this painting, The Goldfinch, which is his one last piece of her. The best part? I've mentioned my love of good character development before, and Tart is an absolute master. There is no possible way I could pick a favorite character -Hobie (the Lower East Side antiques collector who lost his partner in the bombing), the protagonist Theo, Theo's ne'er-do-well gambling addict father and his trashy Las Vegas girlfriend, the snooty and socially elite Park Avenue family he briefly lives with.... They. are. all. so. good. I understand that some readers may find this book much too slow and a bit too long. Because the novel is slow, and it is long, and frankly, not that much happens. But I didn't mind one bit because of the characters. I wanted more of them even if they were doing something relatively mundane. If you are a character junky like me, read this. If you need a quick paced plot and a lot of action, you will probably be in the camp that just doesn't get what the buzz is about.  

29. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline ☆☆☆

Desperately seeking all 80s enthusiasts! This book is sheer fun and is apparently being made into a movie, which I will definitely see, and which my husband will probably see 500 times with his brother because it's about everything from our childhood, classic video games, and a guy who is a total video game dork. It's also set in the future and a little science fictiony in a way that will appear to any computer enthusiasts. In other words, there was absolutely nothing about this book (aside from the 80s pop culture references) that should have appealed to me. I still thought it was enormously fun, and I zipped through this.   

28. The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd ☆☆☆☆

This novel is told by two different narrators. The first is Sarah Grimke, a member of the Charleston elite, and the second is her housemaid slave, Hetty. The story begins on Sarah's eleventh birthday when she receives Hetty as a birthday present from her mother, and it tracks the two women into their adulthood. From a young age Sarah recognizes the inherent wrongs associated with owning slaves, but she is constrained by her age, her class, and her sex from doing anything about it. She secretly teaches Hetty to read, and the two develop a close friendship over the years. As they enter adulthood, their paths diverge, and they both encounter heartache, disappointment, and societal barriers. Kidd explores the two women's very different quests for freedom, one searching for the most fundamental physical freedom and the other for freedom of the mind. The juxtaposition is perfectly done.  

Shortly after reading this, my book club heard Kidd speak at SMU (I love my book club), and that was when I learned that Sarah Grimke was a real person, which honestly just made me appreciate this book a little bit more. Sarah and her younger sister, Angelina, were early leaders in the abolitionist and women's rights movements. Kidd was inspired by their story, and she built a story around them, inventing two other powerful female characters, Hetty and her mother Charlotte, to flesh out their remarkable story. 

27. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion ☆☆☆

This is the story of Don Tillman. Don is a genetics professor and has an undiagnosed (and what seems like a fairly severe) case of Aspergers. Don embarks on The Wife Project with plans to use a very scientific method of finding the perfect partner. Enter Rosie who is everything Don is NOT looking for but who is on her own mission (The Father Project) to find her biological father. Who better to help her in this quest than geneticist Don? The result is an unorthodox love story. It made for a quirky, fun read, but at times I had the sense that I was laughing at someone behind their back and worse yet, the person I was laughing at had Aspergers and didn't know it. That was a little unsettling. That being said, this book has a 4.02 rating on Goodreads, so maybe it was just me.  

26. Beneath a Marble Sky by John Shors ☆☆☆

I loved this book. I initially gave it four stars. It's the story of the Taj Mahal, a monument one emperor built in memory of his beloved wife, but which was designed by a young architect who falls in love and has a secret affair with the emperor's daughter. It's also a story of betrayal, as the emperor's sons feud for their place as leader. It's historically rich and a wonderful love story. OK, so why did I give this three stars here? None of it is true, and that just really irked me. Don't get me wrong, I didn't expect the part about the architect and the princess to be true, but there were just so many MINOR historical inaccuracies that I discovered on wikipedia when I finished reading this. Would it really have been so hard to remain a little true to history without jeopardizing the story, and if not, then the author should have just made the entire story fiction. This is my own personal issue, so if you are in the market for a good story and don't care a lick whether it's historically accurate, then I recommend this book to you.  

The Last Two Years in Books Part III

I'm feeling a little sheepish about this string of high marks, but I promise I am not looking back with rose colored glasses, this was just a period marked by really great book selection. This list of books 45-34 from the last two years includes two more five star rated books and six more four star rated books. For anyone who has been anticipating my return to blogging (I joke), I've got some good ideas for you....

45. Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes ☆☆☆☆

Be ready for full on addiction, and absolutely do not pick up this psychological thriller 30 minutes before you are planning to walk out the door or when you have a house to clean, you'll never make it to your previously scheduled activity. This is a true page turner. 

44. The Light Between Oceans by ML Stedman ☆☆

I'm not sure I have ever walked away from a book feeling so emotionally manipulated before. Even now looking back on this book, I feel a bit like you might feel upon remembering a particularly icky date. I'm thinking specifically of that guy who leaned in and licked my nose after dinner, but I digress.... At first I enjoyed the premise, a solitary lighthouse keeper who only receives news of the outside world when the supply boat comes ashore once each season. Creative, right? Then he gets married; his wife starts having miscarriages; a dead man and a baby get washed ashore in a boat; and the lighthouse keeper and his wife decide to keep the baby and pass it off as their own (otherwise known in many circles as kidnapping). Of course, they later happen upon the poor mother of the baby who has suffered the loss of both her husband and her child and is totally devastated as a result.   

So what's the problem? The description of this book on Goodreads (which incidentally rates this book as a 3.96) includes the following: "we are swept into a story about extraordinarily compelling characters seeking to find their North Star in a world where there is no right answer, where justice for one person is another's tragic loss." Hmm.... I'm not sure that deciding not to report that you "found" a baby really falls into the grey area of moral ambiguity. It seems pretty clearly wrong, which is fine. I don't expect my characters to be moralists or infallible. I acknowledge that would be boring. However, I don't like this imaginary sense pervading the book that the choice was really a moral quandary. I also don't like reading anything that screams, "I'm sad! Hey, look at me, I'm sad! I would make a great sad movie!" Yuck Ms. Stedman. Just yuck. If you want to write something that ultimately ends up being said, fine. Just don't make it so manipulative and formulaic. All that being said, I finished this quickly, and that also makes me feel a little icky.

43. The Night Circus by Erin Morgensten ☆☆☆☆

This is so imaginative and delightful, I could almost give it five stars. The story is about a mysterious night circus starring two extraordinary magicians. Kind of. Because the circus isn't really a "circus." I just lost about half of you, which is a lot considering I think I have only 4 or 5 readers, but this is really a wonderful story. It's fantasy, but not in a Lord of the Rings kind of way because it's also a love story (sort of), and it's told in a way that you might believe it actually happened even though it's totally fantastic. This is another one that I wish I had taken the time to review as soon as I finished it because there are so many layers, and it's unlike anything else I have ever read, so I am finding it hard to describe, which I LOVE because who doesn't like to be surprised? This was like happening upon a totally new genre of fiction complete with amazingly rich characters and nuanced plot twists.      

42. Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick ☆☆☆☆☆

I feel like I'm losing readers as I work my way down this post. Two stars to an almost four star rated book on Goodreads? Then four stars for a book about a magic circus? And now five stars for a book about North Korea? I can almost feel the eyes rolling now. Stick with me. 

I confess that when it comes to current events I am sometimes laughably out of touch. I learned so much about a country that is constantly the subject of public discussion and political scrutiny from reading this book. Moreover, there is nothing dry about this book. Demick is a talented story teller and writer, and you are in good hands as her reader. This is a collection of stories about real North Koreans who have escaped to South Korea, and they give both a fascinating look at what is happening inside the country as well as the problems those who are fortunate enough to escape face in trying to assimilate. This explores so many things that will be foreign to Western readers, e.g.,  what it's like to literally be starving to death, to be brainwashed, to not trust anyone - even your closest friend or family member, to believe in something from the time you are tiny only to learn it is all a lie, to escape from constant fear and poverty to be forever an outsider. On top of all of that, it's also a story of hope and survival. This is one book that I am still thinking about a year later. It's one that I have recommended over and over, and I have always received positive comments from those who were willing to take the leap and actually read this book.  

41. The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly ☆☆☆☆

This is a wonderful coming of age book set inside one boy's powerful imagination. David's mother dies, and his father remarries and has a second child. The new family is forced to escape London for the countryside during the blitz, and while there, David escapes into a world of fairytales and books. This is a book about the power books can have on our lives. It's one part The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, one part Wizard of Oz, and one part Huck Finn with a thousand fairytale and fable references thrown in for good measure. In other words, it's familiar, yet it's totally new. I thought it was so much fun and just a great read for either young adults or adults.     

40. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini ☆☆☆☆☆

Hosseini is such a powerful writer, and this is the most compelling and memorable of all of his books (all of which I give four stars or higher). This is a fascinating chronicling of Afghan history and culture, and I was surprised to learn how progressive Afghanistan once was with respect to its views towards women. It's scary how quickly that changed and in only a single generation. Imagine being an educated female lawyer who regularly wears western clothes, and virtually overnight being compelled to give up your job, completely shroud yourself from public view, and be essentially made a prisoner in your own home unless you have a male escort to accompany you. Incredible. On top of this rich historical narrative Hosseini creates compelling characters and a complex story about women. I confess, I am always surprised when a male writer is able to capture the female mind so accurately, and Hosseini does that without missing a beat. This is one of the best books I have read in the last 10 years.

39. The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan Philipp Sandker ☆☆☆☆

A young New York lawyer travels to Burma on a quest to find her missing father, and she uncovers the fascinating story of her father's past. I find the story within a story literary device to be often overused and more often that not, it's not done well, as one of the stories is kind of a snooze or really doesn't add much to the overall concept. However, that is not the case here. Both stories are compelling, and they work together to make this novel much richer than it otherwise would have been. The father's story is one of heartbreak and enduring love and a struggle from abject poverty to great success. The daughter's story is a journey of self-awakening and a search for her father who she never really knew. I did find some parts of this a little overly sentimental, but I was generally able to overlook that and still give it four stars.   

38. The Bat by Jo Nesbo ☆☆☆

This is the first of the Harry Hole novels. I really wanted to read The Snowman because I keep hearing what a great mystery it is, but because I am RIDICULOUSLY anal retentive, I thought I should start with the first book in the series and work my way up to The Snowman (seventh in the series). I acknowledge this is insane, but back to the review.... I expect a detective who is incredibly smart and a little quirky and maybe sort of a social misfit, and I guess that's all true for Harry Hole, but he's also a total mess and such an alcoholic he can't make it to work a lot of days. I guess I like that he's not formulaic and just a little bit gritty. I'm not sure that this left me longing to read more about him though. He's not that sort of detective, and in hindsight, there was probably no reason I couldn't have just picked up The Snowman out of turn. The mystery element of the book was good but not great. I liked this enough to continue on in the series but not to the point where I had to use a lot of mental restraint not to automatically download the next novel to my Kindle the minute I was finished reading. I also suspect that Nesbo was still feeling his way around a bit with this novel, and I expect the series to get better with time. 

37. And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini ☆☆☆☆

Khaled Hosseini

Just after reading this book I had the opportunity to hear Hosseini speak at SMU's speaker series with my book club. Hosseini, a physician, wrote his first book, The Kite Runner, essentially in the mornings before going to work at his family practice. After the book became wildly popular he took some time off and eventually wrote his follow-up book, A Thousand Splendid Suns, which was even better than his first, wildly popular book. On top of that he's handsome, well spoken, and charming. Oh, and he comes across as incredibly humble and gracious. It's ok to hate him just a little bit. I loved hearing him talk about his process (his wife is his biggest critic) and what his Afghan heritage means to him. Dallas isn't all honky tonks and wide open pastures. 

This is a story about families set across multiple generations and continents, and it reads a bit like a collection of short stories that tie together by interconnected threads woven throughout the entire book. Because there are so many characters and stories, Hosseini doesn't achieve the same level of character development as he does in his other two novels, both of which explore two characters and their relationships with each other. That's not a criticism, more of an observation. Ultimately, this just didn't have the same lasting impact that The Kite Runner or A Thousand Splendid Suns had on me, but it was still fantastic and solidly four stars. 

36. Divergent by Veronica Roth ☆☆☆☆
Readers be warned, we are about to embark on a period of young adult "literature." I was coming off some pretty heavy reading material, so I gave myself a bit of a brain reprieve. I started with Divergent, and I have to say, I tore through it and found myself anticipating the other two books in the trilogy and the upcoming movies. It was highly entertaining reading. I might have even liked this more than The Hunger Games, which I also confess, I loved and made my husband read. 

The Last Two Years in Books Part II

And the recap continues with books 55-46 from the last two years, and what a great period of reading this was with two five star books and four four star books on this list: 

55. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald ☆☆☆☆☆

I loved The Great Gatsby when I read it during my senior year in high school about 19 years ago, and I loved it again when I read it for a second time in the spring of 2013. This is such a masterpiece. There is really nothing I can say about this book that hasn't already been said, so I won't even try. What I will say is the fact that this book is not on the list of Pulitzer Prize winners is totally shocking, and frankly, it makes me think less of the entire Pulitzer selection process (particularly in light of some real stinkers that made the list). But I'm sure something equally wonderful and well known won that year. Right? Umm.... No. The winner instead of The Great Gatsby was Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis. To be fair, I haven't read Arrowsmith, but seriously??? To even say that The Great Gatsby is not one of the 10 greatest American novels would, I think, be controversial, so the fact that it didn't win the most prestigious award reserved for American novels is completely crazy.  

54. Anna Karnenina by Leo Tolstoy ☆☆

This had been on my to-read list for quite some time, and of course, I was already familiar with the train scene and the general plot before finally picking this up. I'm glad I finally read it, but I was generally underwhelmed and a bit surprised at how popular this novel still is today. I liked the characters, and I always enjoy a good love story. That being said, I have a really serious bias against stories about mothers abandoning their children under any circumstances. This has nothing to do with being a mother, as it's a bias I have long held. My mother and I are extremely close, so it's also not something I have ever dealt with on a personal level. I just find the entire idea so unsettling and upsetting, and I find it hard to relate to a female character who would abandon a child. That was my first issue, and I probably could have gotten past that if there weren't so many other issues. My second issue was the length. Don't misunderstand me, like I said earlier, I'm good with more. I don't mind a long book if the length is justified by character or plot development. I don't think this novel falls into that camp. It was just long and unnecessarily so, which gets a little boring and which made this feel a little dated. No author today would be afforded so many additional pages to so little end. Finally, I understood that Tolstoy had a lot to say about Russian politics and the plight of the Russian peasant, but frankly, as an American reader in 2014, I just didn't really care about that aspect of the book, and that comprises a lot of the book. I could appreciate how revolutionary this must have been at the time, and I respect that. I just didn't enjoy it as a reader.   

53. Mystic River by Dennis Lehane ☆☆☆☆

I saw this movie years ago before I ever discovered Dennis Lehane as an author, and thank goodness I didn't remember it because I absolutely LOVED this book and am so glad I didn't know what was going to happen with each turn of the page. I read this in the summer of 2013 when I travelled to Paris with my then 4 month old daughter to visit my mother who summers there every year. This was so wonderful for the plane ride over and on evenings when I was snuggled up in our cozy little apartment with my daughter sleeping soundly in the tiny kitchen. I have such a great memory associated with reading this book but that doesn't play into the four stars one single bit. Dennis Lehane is just such a master.  

52. An Uncertain Place by Fred Vargas ☆☆☆ 

I have almost completely forgotten this novel in just over a year, which is surprising since it's a mystery involving vampires, which really doesn't seem like the sort of thing one forgets, but alas, I have. I gave it three stars at the time, but perhaps I should downgrade it for being so forgettable.

51. Defending Jacob by William Landry ☆☆☆☆

In this page turner, when the district attorney's son is accused of murder, he does everything he can to protect his child and to uncover the truth. It's a mystery, an exploration of family, and a courtroom drama all rolled into one. My husband (also a lawyer) doesn't understand why I like reading and/or watching legal dramas in my free time, but it's not like I ever do anything this interesting in my real job. I represent companies, not murderers. As far as escapist thrillers/crime dramas go, this was terrific. Add this to your list of books to take on your next vacation.      

50. Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls ☆☆☆☆

I loved The Glass Castle, so I was excited when my book club selected Walls' follow-up book, Half Broke Horses, the fictional account of Walls' maternal grandmother, Lily Casey Smith. Lily was a pioneer feminist, and she is one of the feistiest female protagonists I have ever had the pleasure of reading about. She was a rancher, a teacher, a bootlegger, a rodeo rider, a poker player, and a wife and mother. I loved reading about all of Lily's adventures, and I loved that this was in many ways a memoir/biography more than a novel. This also gives some context about Walls' own mother (Lily's daughter) that those who read and enjoyed The Glass Castle might also appreciate. I would love to hear Walls speak or maybe just grab a drink with her. Anyone out there who can make that happen?  

49. Who Killed Palomino Molero by Mario Vargas Llosa ☆☆☆

This is a detective novel set in Peru in the 1950s featuring somewhat apathetic detectives who are hamstrung by the fact that they don't have a car in which to conduct police business and investigate the murder of a local airforce man. You know, just your typical detective story. I liked it well enough, but I think I went into with expectations of a murder mystery, and this is more of a commentary on corruption, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, just not what I was expecting or (perhaps) wanting.     

48. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes ☆☆☆☆

Beware, this book is probably way too sentimental or shmaltzy for any book snobs out there. This is the story of a girl who is coasting through life, working the same job, living with her parents, and dating the same boyfriend, all a result of complacency rather than the result of any real passion. She then meets a man who lived a charmed life until a tragic accident renders him completely paralyzed and hopeless. The cynics out there just threw up a bit after reading those two sentences, I know. The unlikely pair comes together and learns much about life and love as a result. The fact that Moyes is able to do this without making her readers roll their eyes at every turn of page is a testament to the story, which is compelling, engaging, and thought provoking. I really enjoyed every minute of this, and despite the fact that I have a heart of coal, I even cried a bit. Moyes is one of the few "chick lit" authors who really is a testament to the genre. 

47. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand ☆☆☆☆☆

That's right, five stars for a nonfiction book. This is TOTALLY out of character for me. It's really that good. Hillenbrand is a wonderful storyteller, researcher, and writer. She also selected a story that really just tells itself. Louis Zamperini was an athlete who made it to the Olympics and then had his running career cut short by World War II. He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force only to crash in the Pacific Ocean and survive for 47 days on a life raft before he reached land where he was greeted by his enemies, taken prisoner, and subjected to inhuman conditions in a POW camp for 2 long years. With as much as we know and learn about the German concentration camps during World War II, I was shocked at how little I realized I knew about what was happening in the Pacific theater during the war and the cruelties suffered by Japanese POWs. This is one of the most compelling and inspiring nonfiction stories I have ever read, and I recommend it to everyone. At the very least, see the movie when it comes out. This is a true American hero who deserves to be recognized. 

46. Calling Me Home by Julie Kibler ☆☆☆

This is a story of a forbidden love affair set in the 1930s between an affluent white girl and a poor African-American boy that is interwoven with the unlikely story of a modern day friendship between an aging woman and a down on her luck hairdresser. It's a quick read, mostly fun but, of course, a bit a tragic. My bet is that this is one that gets made into a movie. 

Two Years & Sixty-Five Books Later

There once was a girl who started a blog. Then she had a baby, read 65 books, and realized 2 years later that there was absolutely no way to catch up but that someone somewhere seemed to be reading her ancient posts. So here goes, here's the last two years in books in batches of 10, and then I will get back on track with more detailed posts because it's fun thinking and writing about books....

65. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn ☆☆☆☆
I am an absolute sucker for a good thriller. I think it must be in my DNA. If you ask my mother (one of the biggest readers I know) what she likes, she will tell you she'd pick "a nice soothing murder" any day of the week. You can have your chick lit, and I will stick to the thrillers. And, wow, was this a good one. Gillian Flynn is decidedly twisted, and I can appreciate that. There were twists that I never saw coming, and this was an absolute page turner. My mom and I just saw the movie a few weeks ago, and I thought it definitely lived up to the hype. In fact, I've heard from some that the movie is actually better if you have already read the book, and as a reader, I like that. 

64. The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler ☆☆☆

This was part of my Pulitzer Project, which I confess has not been going as smoothly as previously planned. I blame it on a lackluster selection of books, which caused me to lose steam. Maybe I will get back to it with a bit more enthusiasm now that I am back to blogging, but hey, I have less time now and am really trying to prioritize what makes me happy and what's easy rather than adding to my endless list of "tasks," so maybe I won't. Anyway, this was fine, nothing special. Honestly I had actually forgotten about it until I started back to blogging. There are certainly some memorable characters, but I'm not sure that the story is ultimately that compelling.  

63. Water Like a Stone by Deborah Crombie ☆☆☆

I really love this entire series of "British" mysteries written by Texas author Deborah Crombie. This is number 11 in the series, and I confess that I read these just as much for the mystery, as I do to find out the latest happenings of detective duo Gemma and Duncan. I recommend reading the series in order just so you can really properly fall in love with the detectives even though it's not necessary to enjoy the underlying mysteries. This one takes the detectives on holiday in Cheshire for Christmas. 

62. Killing Me Softly by Nicci French ☆☆☆☆

I will not belabor the point about my love of Nicci French, as I have already made my feelings known. What does surprise me is that others don't generally seem to share my complete enthusiasm as evidenced by the good but not spectacular reviews on Goodreads.com. I will say that I thought this was one of their best ones. As I look back on my reading selections at this time (January 2013), I'm noticing a decided preference for thrillers and mysteries during what would have marked the last month of my pregnancy. These books helped take my mind off the anticipation of the baby and the sheer size of my belly that frankly left it hard to breathe.

61. The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis ☆☆☆

I started this book with so much enthusiasm, but it just didn't quite live up to my high expectations. Each chapter focuses on a different one of Hattie's children, which was interesting from a literary perspective, but slightly annoying as a reader. Just as you became invested in a character, that would be it. They might pop back up in a story about another child, but they might not. I should probably take this moment to mention that I'm not a huge fan of the short story. If the story and character is engaging, I always want more. "MORE, MORE, MORE" as my daughter likes to say. This book just wasn't enough. 

60. The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling ☆☆☆

I'm going to say something unpopular (maybe even controversial) now. I liked this book. There, it's out there. I did. I liked it. I didn't love it, but I liked it. Phew. There's something to be said for catharsis in honesty. I think Rowling did a wonderful job creating compelling and likable characters. I LOVE good characters. Good characters can make up for any other matter of wrongs in my book. Maybe I wasn't as disappointed as other readers because I never really got into the Harry Potter books, so I didn't have enormously high expectations for this before I ever actually picked it up. Expectations are always important to acknowledge in assessing how good a book or a movie actually was. I am often guilty of slamming something that never, ever could have met the exceedingly high expectations I might have developed after watching one single trailer or anticipating a follow-up book. As a personal aside, I was reading this book when my daughter was born. I read it at odd hours while I was exhausted and euphoric and nervous. 

59. Sacred by Dennis Lehane ☆☆☆

In addition to my love affair with Nicci French and my schoolgirl crush on British detective duo Duncan and Gemma, I am over the moon for Dennis Lehane and his detectives Kenzie and Gennaro. He's so gritty and clever, and I just really, really love him. He has written so few books, I jealously guard these, allowing myself to read them very rarely, so I won't run out. This is the third book in this series, and it was a little bit underwhelming. See what I mean about expectations??? I thought he tried to do a little too much. Don't get me wrong, this is still a major page turner, but it's not as over the top wonderful as the other books in the series. Taken in isolation, it probably deserves four stars instead of three, but I'm not willing to compromise. Sometimes when you are this good, high expectations aren't a bad thing.  

58. Possession by A.S. Byatt ☆☆
So I read this when I was feeling a bit sheepish about only reading mysteries, and I decided I needed to read something "smart." If you are a tenured English professor studying obscure authors, I think you would absolutely love this book. Otherwise, this is slow, and I mean slow. I was reading this at a time when I was up all hours and spending hours upon hours stuck in a chair nursing every single day, and this took me a LONG time to read. There's a good(ish) story buried in there, but you have to slog through a lot of poetry and literary discussion to get there. I originally gave this three stars on Goodreads.com, but I am downgrading my rating to two stars. I feel exhausted just thinking about reviewing this book. And, by the way, while I'm still on my soap box, isn't it a little self indulgent to write some poetry and then write an entire book around how brilliant the fictitious authors of said poetry were? Yep, I thought so too. 

57. The Round House by Louise Erdrich ☆☆☆

I liked this. Several of my reader friends in my book club gave this five stars and couldn't wait to buy every single book Louise Erdrich has ever written. I didn't have such a strong reaction. The story was good. The characters were good. And Erdrich certainly has something to say, and she does it well. This is a coming of age novel set in the context of a horrendous crime. It's also an exploration of an often overlooked and under recognized segment of our society, Native Americans who live on reservations. I learned so much both from a historical and legal perspective, which as a one time history major and a lawyer, is totally up my alley. This is one I wish I had taken the time to blog about when I first read it because there was so much there.  

56. The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner ☆

I give up. This was my second failed attempt at reading this book. I just can't do it. What the heck is this about? I have no idea. And, frankly, after two attempts in the last 15 years, I just don't care anymore. 

Where'd You Go Bernadette Is a Wonderfully Quirky and Fun Book

Some of my reviews have praised authors for their prose, their character development, their ability to make me think, but this isn't one of those. Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple is just plain fun. To write some lengthy review analyzing this book would ruin that a bit (or maybe I'm just being lazy).

That being said, I loved the quirky characters, the offbeat story, and the way it is told through snips of emails, letters, official correspondence, and other bits and pieces. You can tell from the beginning that Semple is wildly creative and funny, someone with whom you might want to grab a cocktail and have a good laugh. She is a screenwriter with television credits (Arrested Development, Ellen, Mad About You, and Saturday Night Live) that you make you say, "yes, of course!" after reading this book. If you're looking for something light and fun, pick this up.  

The Submission: How Would You Feel?

A jury gathers at Gracie Mansion in Manhattan to consider blind submissions for a memorial to those who died on 9/11. Two finalists are considered in these opening pages, and the jury makes their selection. Relieved to be finished with the discussions and deliberations, the jury anxiously awaits the big reveal to learn the identity of the architect behind the winning submission. However, the jurors soon learn the ordeal is far from over when the envelope is opened to reveal an American Muslim as the winning architect. 

The Submission considers what happens next. Racism and fear are, of course, pervasive. The winning submission, a garden, is labelled by many (including members of the intellectual elite) as a Muslim garden, and it is viewed by many as a further slap in the face to all Americans. Everyone has a personal stake in the decision of whether this memorial will ever be built. 

As someone who lived in Manhattan on 9/11, I have spent a good deal of energy avoiding literature, movies, retrospectives, and conversations regarding that tragic event. This was a leap out of my comfort zone when I opened the first page. Surprisingly I didn't find the book difficult from a historic perspective, but I think the book did make me feel slightly uncomfortable in other respects (as I'm sure was the author's intent). How would I have felt at the time? My snap answer is, I wouldn't care. I'm no racist. I'm open minded and a thinker, someone who scoffed at those on TV who cried out "bomb them" in the days after 9/11 without having any idea of who "them" was. But would it have mattered at all? If the New York Times and not USA Today speculated that the memorial was some sort of celebration of Muslim culture, would that have mattered? I think, ultimately, the answer is no, but the author, Amy Waldman, gets bonus points in my book for engaging me in such an internal dialogue and forcing me to acknowledge that I'm not always as open-minded as I like to believe.  

I like a novel that forces its reader to reflect or perhaps face uncomfortable truths. For these reasons I appreciated the novel. However, there were times when I found myself frustrated with the characters or thinking that the story wasn't progressing quite fluidly or quickly enough. The novel follows many different characters, some much more compelling and likable than others. My favorite was a young, illegal immigrant who loses her husband when the towers collapse. However, I think Waldman tried to do too much, and many of the characters fail to truly flourish. Ultimately, the idea of the novel is much more compelling than the novel itself.