Thursday, April 30, 2015

The Good House


The Good House
Ann Leary
3 / 5


Published 2013

First Sentence
"I can walk through a house once and know more about its occupants than a psychiatrist could after a year of sessions.
"
Publisher's Description:
A riveting novel in which an engaging and wildly irreverent woman is in complete denial — about herself, her drinking, and her love for a man she's known all her life.

The Good House tells the story of Hildy Good, who lives in a small town on Boston's North Shore. Hildy is a successful real-estate broker, good neighbor, mother, and grandmother. She's also a raging alcoholic. Hildy's family held an intervention for her about a year before this story takes place — "if they invite you over for dinner, and it's not a major holiday," she advises "run for your life" — and now she feels lonely and unjustly persecuted. She has also fooled herself into thinking that moderation is the key to her drinking problem.

As if battling her demons wasn't enough to keep her busy, Hildy soon finds herself embroiled in the underbelly of her New England town, a craggy little place that harbors secrets. There's a scandal, some mysticism, babies, old houses, drinking, and desire — and a love story between two craggy sixty-somethings that's as real and sexy as you get. 

An exceptional novel that is at turns hilarious and sobering, The Good House asks the question: What will it take to keep Hildy Good from drinking? For good. 

Dear Reader,

Okay -- is it REALLY that illegal to sleep with a former patient? One you only saw professionally like once before you become involved and thus didn’t treat anymore? Totally unethical, yes. Ugh because they were also both married. Risky to his professional career, yes. But - illegal? I don’t buy it as being such a big thing as they are making it out to be! (Okay, I have learned after doing some research that there are states (anywhere from 15-23 of them) which do have laws criminalizing sexual therapist-patient relationships, and I do get that - there is a vulnerability there which can certainly be taken advantage of - but again, if a person removes themselves from the doctor-patient relationship for that reason, is it then illegal? - of course, we know that the characters in this book could have done no such thing officially, since they were both married…) Anyway! What an odd thing for me to focus on, but I just kept not being able to get past that while reading. Apparently, I should have - it is in fact the reason the author even wrote the book: originally, it was the story of the illicit relationship, but evolved into being the story of a recovering alcoholic, and the reader then sees affair story through her eyes.

In other news, I could not STAND Hildy. She and her daughters clearly hated each other 99% of the time. Why were they even in each other’s lives? And she was so self-righteous even when she was clearly in the wrong. And so entitled! Believing she deserved a real estate listing just because she’d known the seller for so long. Granted, okay, I did believed she deserved it too, because she was the only local agent, but...it was just annoying. How she almost threatened Peter over it! I really disliked her right then.

Part of it must have been the narrator’s voice. She always sounded so freaking SMUG, about everything! I don’t think she read the book right. Plus, if she wasn’t smug, she sounded like she was just about to laugh with everything she said. I like that SOMEtimes. Not with every single sentence of the book! And let’s not get me started on how awful I thought her Frank voice was…!

However, I can’t say I disliked this book, particularly because it was not about the character of the narrator so much as it was her story of recovery - and I understand that the author wrote her very much the way she did so that she could show the true nature of denial and pride that many alcoholics hide behind. So I did appreciate that aspect of the book, and why Hildy had such a grating personality. (I guess I just  couldn’t see why everyone in town seemed to like her, too, though! Maybe it was just her longevity in Wendover...)

Oddly, this was the second novel I have read this year where the protagonist has to sort through the broken memories of an alcoholic blackout in order to remember whether a crime had been committed!

One of the things I loved best about this book was the strong connection to witchcraft - in a not-fantastical way. As in, Hildy had ancestors who had been tried as witches in the Salem trials, and she felt as if she still had a bit of that nature in her own blood. She was able to “read people’s minds” (a parlor trick she was quite good at) and she called her pet dogs her “familiars,” which I found cute. There was a bit of that old New England feel about the whole town, which I felt connected to - I especially appreciated that it was a story which took place in the North Shore of Boston. It felt cozy and comfortable and familiar to me. 

I’d recommend this to a book club, as I think readers will have much they want to discuss. I think it is the perfect book for a group, with all of its layers and subplots. While not a favorite, an enjoyable and well-written read.

Yours,
Arianna

P.S. Until typing out that first sentence above, I hadn't recalled its portentousness!


The Good House

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Monday, April 27, 2015

My Sunshine Away


My Sunshine Away
M.O. Walsh
4.5 / 5


Published 2015

First Sentence
"
There were four suspects in the rape of Lindy Simpson, a crime that occurred directly on top of the sidewalk of Piney Creek Road, the same sidewalk our parents had once hopefully carved their initials into, years before, as residents of the first street in the Woodland Hills subdivision to have houses on each lot.”
Publisher's Description:
It was the summer everything changed... 

My Sunshine Away unfolds in a Baton Rouge neighborhood best known for cookouts on sweltering summer afternoons, cauldrons of spicy crawfish, and passionate football fandom. But in the summer of 1989, when fifteen-year-old Lindy Simpson—free spirit, track star, and belle of the block—experiences a horrible crime late one evening near her home, it becomes apparent that this idyllic stretch of Southern suburbia has a dark side, too.

In My Sunshine Away, M.O. Walsh brilliantly juxtaposes the enchantment of a charmed childhood with the gripping story of a violent crime, unraveling families, and consuming adolescent love. Acutely wise and deeply honest, it is an astonishing and page-turning debut about the meaning of family, the power of memory, and our ability to forgive.

Dear Reader,
This book caught me so off guard. But it hooked me almost instantly. I fell in love mostly with the nostalgia of it; it's strange to see people writing about the childhoods of MY generation, now! I am so used to reading of those of my parents, and while I do have a soft spot for the '50s and '60s, I have to say it was really moving to read about the '80s. Granted, the narrator was slightly older than me, but not by enough that it really mattered. He painted this incredible image of the innocence of growing up in that era, and how it was shattered by events like the explosion of the Challenger and, in the book, the rape of a neighborhood girl in a place where such things just did not happen. I did not grow up in a neighborhood like the one Walsh describes, but I knew of them well: burgeoning developments where young parents moved in order to raise their families near their peers. At one time, I was quite jealous of my schoolmates who would talk of running around with the other neighborhood kids in a pack, exploring or playing Kick the Can or Capture the Flag until dinnertime. I grew up on a street which was not designed as a neighborhood, one which did not have many other children. We didn't have that same experience. While now I wouldn't change my childhood for anything, I know there were times when I was younger that I wish I'd experienced the camaraderie. So this book was especially interesting to me in how it managed to capture my "nostalgia" for something I never even personally experienced. But it did so quite well. I felt like I was one of the neighborhood kids, running around with the rag-tag gang, experiencing their discoveries, joys, and sorrows along with them.

Overall, this book is at its core a story about the transition out of innocence. The narrator grows from harboring a pure, unadulterated boyhood love into puberty, where love becomes commingled with adult lust, and everything changes. Those times are difficult and confusing for all of us, and we often find ourselves unmoored during that transitional stage. To have the loss of innocence of a neighborhood girl - the very object of his crush - become intertwined with simply trying to grow up? That just made everything worse, particularly when the narrator himself became a suspect in the rape. Throw into the mix several other innocence-obliterating situations, and this book truly explored the depths of the often aching pain of growing up. And I have to say, I have a serious soft spot for those sorts of stories (Stand By Me or The Outsiders, anyone?).

This book is also, as many others have pointed out, a love song to Baton Rouge. I did not grow up in the South, but I really loved this depiction of it. I love that the author was willing to examine in depth both the happy and darker sides of his hometown. He wrote with as much joy of the late summer night crawfish bakes as he did pain at the neighborhood’s loss of innocence. Walsh clearly loves his native state, and the reader loves it through his eyes. (It made me wonder often how much of this tale was the author’s own, and how much fiction.)

I clearly can’t write enough about what moved me so in this book - perhaps I am just going on in an attempt to pin it down, myself! In any case, let me just leave you with one of my absolute favorite parts of the book, one which others might overlook because it is found in the Acknowledgements section:

“The first person I’d like to thank is you--anyone who took time to read this--for your generosity and spirit. Thank you for reading every single book you’ve ever read by any author from anywhere. It’s important.”

How great is that?? I think I love this author. I look forward to seeing more from him.

Yours,
Arianna

P.S. I also love the title...it evokes for me the (haunting, if you think about it the right way) sound of a young child singing that line solo...


My Sunshine Away

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Friday, April 24, 2015

The Cuckoo's Calling


The Cuckoo's Calling
Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling)
3.5 / 5


Published 2013

First Sentence
"The buzz on the street was like the humming of flies."
Publisher's Description:
A brilliant debut mystery in a classic vein: Detective Cormoran Strike investigates a supermodel's suicide. After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office. 
Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, thelegendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man. 
You may think you know detectives, but you've never met one quite like Strike. You may think you know about the wealthy and famous, but you've never seen them under an investigation like this. 

Dear Reader,

Wow, JK Rowling. That was totally unexpected! I have to say I was impressed by a mystery which misdirected me until the very end. The characters were great and they all just jumped right off the page, they were so vivid. There wasn’t a single boring person in the book, and rarely a boring moment. I thought Rowling really fleshed out Strike’s (pretty original) backstory well while also keeping focused on the mystery at hand. What a great touch that the man who hired the detective (John) did so because Strike & John’s brother were old childhood friends.

I am not a huge Harry Potter fan or anything (I liked the series well enough!) but I did enjoy The Casual Vacancy, so I figured I would give the author’s mysteries a try. This was of course a lot more like her first adult novel, and much less like her young adult wizardry series. So I did like it similarly to how & why I liked TCV, and almost as much. Rowling recalled a modern day Chandler to me, which was great! - I have a soft spot for those down-and-out, hard-boiled detective types who have seen it all.

One thing I didn't love was the name of the main character - I couldn't help thinking (even though his name was Cormoran and not Cormorant, which it often sounded like!) of a bird attacking every time I heard his full name!
from http://www.opb.org/news/blog/ecotrope/bald-eagles-decimate-tern-and-cormorant-colonies/
I just thought that was amusing, though. But I suppose his name fit him quite well. I loved the detective despite his flaws...or perhaps because of them? He was human, much like many of those Philip Marlowe-eqsue characters. I think that is part of why I love them so much. Despite their flaws, and the subjects on which they work, they often struggle to see the best in humanity. They want to look past all the detritus and see that there is a happy world out there somewhere, even when all evidence points to the opposite. And yet, somewhere deep inside their gruff exteriors, they keep hoping. It gives me a soft spot for them. 

Yours,
Arianna

P.S. Somewhere I saw that someone thought that Karen Gillan would play a super Robin, and now I can't stop thinking of her in that role. They are right: she'd be perfectly perfect.


The Cuckoo's Calling

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Tuesday, April 21, 2015

West of Sunset


West of Sunset
Stewart O'Nan
4 / 5

Published 2015

First Sentence
"That spring he holed up in the Smokies, in a tired resort hotel by the asylum so he could be closer to her."
Publisher's Description:
A “rich, sometimes heartbreaking” (Dennis Lehane) novel of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s last years in Hollywood

In 1937, F. Scott Fitzgerald was a troubled, uncertain man whose literary success was long over. In poor health, with his wife consigned to a mental asylum and his finances in ruins, he struggled to make a new start as a screenwriter in Hollywood. By December 1940, he would be dead of a heart attack.

Those last three years of Fitzgerald’s life, often obscured by the legend of his earlier Jazz Age glamour, are the focus of Stewart O’Nan’s gorgeously and gracefully written novel. With flashbacks to key moments from Fitzgerald’s past, the story follows him as he arrives on the MGM lot, falls in love with brassy gossip columnist Sheilah Graham, begins work on The Last Tycoon, and tries to maintain a semblance of family life with the absent Zelda and daughter, Scottie.

Fitzgerald’s orbit of literary fame and the Golden Age of Hollywood is brought vividly to life through the novel’s romantic cast of characters, from Dorothy Parker and Ernest Hemingway to Humphrey Bogart. A sympathetic and deeply personal portrait of a flawed man who never gave up in the end, even as his every wish and hope seemed thwarted, West of Sunset confirms O’Nan as “possibly our best working novelist” (Salon).

Dear Reader,

I don't know why I keep ending up reading books about F. Scott Fitzgerald, even though the dude is not my favorite author. I am not a huge fan of The Great Gatsby or anything (although I did love The Beautiful and Damned!). I suppose I am just fascinated by the man's roller coaster of a life story. Especially for being such a cherished American author. But the time during which he lived allowed him to taste fame and fortune, yet also destitution and despair (and ordinariness).

Plus, there's the whole Stuart O'Nan thing. I thought I had read more of this amazing author, but apparently I have to jump on that bandwagon more often! I remember loving reading The Circus Fire when I was a teenager; of course, it was quite intriguing because it was about Hartford, the capital of my home state. And this book, too, was so well written. I think Salon is onto something there when they brand O'Nan with the title of "possibly our best working novelist" today. Granted, I have many other favorites who I think are equivalent in talent. But O'Nan is just so good.

What I think really hooked me into this book once I'd started it was that it was almost the perfect follow-up piece for Z by Therese Anne Fowler, which I read last August. Opening West of Sunset felt like picking up the thread of an old friend's storyline, albeit from a different perspective. (Apparently for a true Fitzgerald-phile, there are a lot of books about the passionate and strained love between the two; there is also Zelda's novel as well as the letters the two exchanged. Phew! One could read - or watch - on this subject indefinitely!)

In any case, the story drew me back in like I was reading a sequel, and I was fascinated to see how the last several years of the Fitzgeralds' marriage played out. I had not known about Sheilah Graham, Scott's Hollywood lover. I hadn't known that he tried so hard to juggle his budding romance with taking care of his unstable wife, and struggled dearly between both. I hadn't known he and Humphrey Bogart were such good friends! I was intrigued by the glamour and glitz of 1930s Hollywood, with all of its caricature-like characters.

I also loved learning that (how did I not know this?!) Scottie Fitzgerald attended Vassar, at the urging and encouragement of her father. (Recently, too, her papers were donated to the school - I am eager to explore the collection!) What's even niftier is she also attended the Ethel Walker School in Simsbury, CT, which is just a town away from where AmberBug & I both grew up!

So, clearly, I felt quite a connection to this book, in so many different ways. Luckily, it did not disappoint my high hopes: O'Nan wrote the struggled of Scott intimately and sympathetically: the man and his entire life had tumbled from apex into chasm, and he kept trying to find himself a foothold from which to push his way back out. He was humbled in his own time, and unlucky enough not to see the honor and recognition we now give such a great author. He is fortunate, however, that we as a country mostly manage to overlook his rough time in California at the end of his life, when he worked against deadlines to doctor terrible movie scripts just to pay his debt, when he had to step carefully around his wife and daughter (and force these remnants of their family together), when he fell in love and engaged in an affair with someone who wasn't his wife. These were his low times, and unfortunately he never managed to find a way out. O'Nan's novel was tragic and heartbreaking. But oh so good.

Yours,
Arianna


West of Sunset

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Saturday, April 18, 2015

Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own


Spinster:
Making a Life of One's Own

Kate Bolick
4.5/5


Published April 21st, 2015

First Sentence
"Whom to marry, and when will it happen—these two questions define every woman’s existence."

Publisher's Description:

A bold, original, moving book that will inspire fanatical devotion and ignite debate.

“Whom to marry, and when will it happen—these two questions define every woman’s existence.” So begins Spinster, a revelatory and slyly erudite look at the pleasures and possibilities of remaining single. Using her own experiences as a starting point, journalist and cultural critic Kate Bolick invites us into her carefully considered, passionately lived life, weaving together the past and present to examine why­ she—along with over 100 million American women, whose ranks keep growing—remains unmarried.

This unprecedented demographic shift, Bolick explains, is the logical outcome of hundreds of years of change that has neither been fully understood, nor appreciated. Spinster introduces a cast of pioneering women from the last century whose genius, tenacity, and flair for drama have emboldened Bolick to fashion her life on her own terms: columnist Neith Boyce, essayist Maeve Brennan, social visionary Charlotte Perkins Gilman, poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, and novelist Edith Wharton. By animating their unconventional ideas and choices, Bolick shows us that contemporary debates about settling down, and having it all, are timeless—the crucible upon which all thoughtful women have tried for centuries to forge a good life.

Intellectually substantial and deeply personal, Spinster is both an unreservedly inquisitive memoir and a broader cultural exploration that asks us to acknowledge the opportunities within ourselves to live authentically. Bolick offers us a way back into our own lives—a chance to see those splendid years when we were young and unencumbered, or middle-aged and finally left to our own devices, for what they really are: unbounded and our own to savor.



Dear Reader,

Spinster was such an unexpected surprise for me! The author, Kate Bolick, is a very talented writer and I wasn't prepared for that. Perhaps it was the subject of the book or the cover that had me thinking this would be a girly empowering book written by a NYC socialite. Totally wrong. Kate Bolick grew up in New England, and she really knows how to describe the area. She talks about finding her love by reading about love (or lack of) among some of her most cherished writers/poets. Each chapter flips back and forth between her own life, the life of one of her idols and some very intriguing facts about marriage, women, expectations and traditions. This format made for a very smooth reading experience, it broke up the monotony felt with that pattern quite well. Just as I was getting tired of hearing about her love life, she switches gears and goes back to a strong female writer that broke boundaries of her time. Really fantastic.

Let me start with complaining how much Kate has increased my to-read list. She name drops and gives such a glorified background on many talented female authors that it was near impossible to not want to add them. I've decided to create a goodreads list of all the titles I highlighted while reading, feel free to add to that list (if you've read it). Just click that link and check out the list, you'll understand what I'm talking about. The history she shares about oppression, coercion and brainwashing that happens when dealing with marriage and children is stupefying. I couldn't believe that during the depression, companies were encouraged to fire the female workers to hire males, "By 1932, married women were prohibited by law from working in twenty-six states". Looking back, it makes sense but doesn't make it right. Taken slightly further, society viewed menstruation as so debilitating that it held women back from working full-time, "therefore rendering them undeserving of full wages." There is some great history here of women rising in the workforce after some terrible setbacks.

The history isn't all about marriage though, she covers motherhood and the pressure women go through to have kids. "Throughout the 1600's & 1700's, it was common for a woman to give birth nine months after her wedding and continue on every two years, until she reached the end of her fertility or died (whichever came first)." What I truly found fascinating was her insight into how our culture uses reproduction to tie a woman into thinking a certain way. A man grows up without that pressure. Kate even asks the question of what it would be like for a girl if we grew up like a boy, "with marriage an abstract, someday thought, a thing to think about when she became an adult, a thing she could do, or not do, depending?" I would LOVE to see a world that treated us equally in that way. YES, women are given the miracle of birth, of carrying a child... but there is so much sacrifice to be had there. Our minds get trapped into the thought of life having no other meaning besides this. "Rare is she who doesn't at least occasionally succumb to the nagging fear that if she remains childless, she'll live to regret it." I feel this way all the time. I'm happily coupled with my long time "life-partner" boyfriend and extremely happy. We don't need a giant wedding or kids to make us happy or fulfilled. Why then do I still feel that pressure? Not only among our parents and family but inside myself as well? It's a terrible feeling and completely unfair because it is very one sided. Kate Bolick truly hit the nail on the head when it comes to the pressure women have to deal with. Her ideas to overcome this and create a "new" thinking on relationships and coupling are very modern and appealing. I stand behind her 100%.

I could go on and on about this book, I have piles of notes. I want to share something that Kate says that really stuck with me. This is less about marriage, equality and forward thinking but relates to a memory I had as a child, one that was brought to mind by her own description of her childhood. She is talking about growing up in New England and how being in her room reading was a comfort, "For me it was being alone up in that bedroom, reading or lazing about, one ear forever tuned to the orchestra of family life." THIS! This was my childhood. I remember reading books in my bedroom to the background noise (downstairs, below me) of my family chattering on, muffled voices with no meaning. This was the soundtrack to my childhood reading, what was yours?

Happy Reading,
AmberBug

Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own

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Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Someday, Someday, Maybe


Someday, Someday, Maybe
Lauren Graham
3.5 / 5


Published 2013

First Sentence
"'Begin whenever you're ready,' comes a voice from the back of the house."
Publisher's Description:
A charming and laugh-out-loud novel by Lauren Graham, beloved star of Parenthood and Gilmore Girls, about an aspiring actress trying to make it in mid-nineties New York City.

Franny Banks is a struggling actress in New York City, with just six months left of the three year deadline she gave herself to succeed. But so far, all she has to show for her efforts is a single line in an ad for ugly Christmas sweaters and a degrading waitressing job. She lives in Brooklyn with two roommates-Jane, her best friend from college, and Dan, a sci-fi writer, who is very definitely not boyfriend material-and is struggling with her feelings for a suspiciously charming guy in her acting class, all while trying to find a hair-product cocktail that actually works.

Meanwhile, she dreams of doing "important" work, but only ever seems to get auditions for dishwashing liquid and peanut butter commercials. It's hard to tell if she'll run out of time or money first, but either way, failure would mean facing the fact that she has absolutely no skills to make it in the real world. Her father wants her to come home and teach, her agent won't call her back, and her classmate Penelope, who seems supportive, might just turn out to be her toughest competition yet.

Someday, Someday, Maybe is a funny and charming debut about finding yourself, finding love, and, most difficult of all, finding an acting job.
 

Dear Reader,

Did I rate this book more highly because it was written by AND the audiobook was read by Lauren Graham, whom I adore? Yes. Did I also kind of love the nostalgia factor, which made the book super fun even though it wasn't written extremely well? Absolutely. I'll 'fess up to these things! I still had such a great time reading this book, and I couldn't wait to pick it up again every day.

The story centers around a twenty-something woman living in New York City in the mid-'90s. She is doing her best to break into the tough acting world, aided by her good friends, her fellow acting classmates, and the support of her father and family back home. She is real; she gets frustrated but tries to stay positive. Just like the Lauren Graham I am most familiar with in her role as Lorelei Gilmore, she overthinks EVERYthing and worries as much as I do! (Part of why I love her - she will vocalize even the silliest & most insecure thoughts.) She spends the book learning who is right for her (boyfriend, agent) as she makes mistakes on the way, being often too dazzled by costume jewelry glamour to see the true but unpolished gems she is passing over.

The best part of the book was probably a lot of her trademark snappy dialogue, which occasionally had me laughing out loud. (While walking my dog. And probably looking crazy in the process. Ah, well.)

While nothing in this book felt really fresh or unique, and the story tended to be pretty predictable, I really just did love reading it. I had so much fun, and I think anyone who is a fan of Lauren Graham will certainly hear her in this semi-autobiographical novel (even if they are not listening to her narrate!). Her voice and personality truly shine through, and so it felt like sitting down with an old friend, listening to her relate her struggling early years in the business. Truly, if you are a fan, pick this one up.

Yours,
Arianna

P.S. It was also fun to try & guess the famous people behind a lot of her characters!


Someday, Someday Maybe

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Friday, April 10, 2015

Get in Trouble


Get in Trouble
Kelly Link
2.5/5


Published 2015

First Sentence
"Fran's daddy woke her up wielding a mister.

Publisher's Description:

She has been hailed by Michael Chabon as “the most darkly playful voice in American fiction” and by Neil Gaiman as “a national treasure.” Now Kelly Link’s eagerly awaited new collection--her first for adult readers in a decade--proves indelibly that this bewitchingly original writer is among the finest we have.

Link has won an ardent following for her ability to take readers deep into an unforgettable, brilliantly constructed fictional universe with each new story. In “The Summer People,” a young girl in rural North Carolina serves as uneasy caretaker to the mysterious, never-quite-glimpsed visitors who inhabit the cottage behind her house. In “I Can See Right Through You,” a middle-aged movie star makes a disturbing trip to the Florida swamp where his former on- and off-screen love interest is shooting a ghost-hunting reality show. In “The New Boyfriend,” a suburban slumber party takes an unusual turn, and a teenage friendship is tested, when the spoiled birthday girl opens her big present: a life-size animated doll.

Hurricanes, astronauts, evil twins, bootleggers, Ouija boards, iguanas, The Wizard of Oz, superheroes, the Pyramids...These are just some of the talismans of an imagination as capacious and as full of wonder as that of any writer today. But as fantastical as these stories can be, they are always grounded in sly humor and an innate generosity of feeling for the frailty--and the hidden strengths--of human beings. In Get in Trouble, this one-of-a-kind talent expands the boundaries of what short fiction can do



Dear Reader,

I heard there was a fan club for Kelly Link? I love hearing that, I enjoy seeing a group of readers binding together from great feelings a book or Author emits. I wish I could say "Get in Trouble" grabbed me into the conga line, shaking my hips with excitement. Nope. I missed that bus. Maybe this was the wrong book to be introduced with? Short stories are probably the weakest books to try and capture my attention. You have to REALLY fascinate me, resonate with me or give the collection an overall theme to get me hooked.

Before I go into which stories gripped me (I did love two of them) and give a little love to the Author, I want to discuss a major gripe with audiobooks. I don't understand WHY a book is broken down poorly into chapters that don't make any sense. Worse than that? When you are listening to a group of SHORT STORIES and the chapters don't get broken down that way. Not only can I look to the index of a physical or digital book for the chapter (story) titles, but I can't even determine how long a story is if the audiobook doesn't piece them out that way! I love short story collections on audiobook for the simple reason that I can look at my audible app and see how long a certain story will take and pick which one I should listen to based on the length of my drive. I felt very disjointed while listening to this, many times finishing up a story in the middle of a drive and hardly completing the next one, so they merged in my mind, watering down the effectiveness. I would like to fault whoever is responsible for the publishing but I really don't know who does what.

On another note, the audiobook did have a complete cast, which was a great change. I loved certain narrators over others and maybe that also played into the likability of specific stories over others. The first story about the "Summer People" sticks out in my mind (even though it was the first one) as really gripping. I almost wish "Summer People" could evolve into a novel, that would be so much fun to read. My favorite story of them all was the third one, about a teen who goes to a hotel (hosting a dental and superhero convention) to meet up with a guy she met online in an MMORPG. Kelly Link has a wicked imagination and I can definitely see why people cling to her newest release and shriek with excitement, I'm hoping to go back and read a much loved book of hers to feel that same magic I did in those two stories. I know it's there!

Happy Reading,
AmberBug

Get in Trouble

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Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Wolf Hall


Wolf Hall
Hilary Mantel
4.5 / 5


Published 2009

First Sentence
"'So now get up.'"
Publisher's Description:
Tudor England. Henry VIII is on the throne, but has no heir. Cardinal Wolsey is charged with securing his divorce. Into this atmosphere of distrust comes Thomas Cromwell - a man as ruthlessly ambitious in his wider politics as he is for himself. His reforming agenda is carried out in the grip of a self-interested parliament and a king who fluctuates between romantic passions and murderous rages.

Dear Reader,

Looking back, I probably shouldn't have audiobooked this novel. The narrator was really great, don't get me wrong, but I could really have used the index in the front of the book which lists all of the names, relationships, and titles for the characters in the book. What a complicated & complex read! Gentry at that time went by so many different titles and names that it was difficult to remember who was who.

However, despite even that frustration, I really enjoyed this book! Who knew that Thomas Cromwell's story would be so interesting? I knew the story of the Boelyns and all of the intrigue that went along with that, but I had no idea of the extent of Cromwell's involvement, both with the church (his patron Cardinal) and the king and both of the Boelyn women. I love when an author can liven up history for me like this; I almost felt as if I was reading a fantasy tale, it was that enjoyable. While there were of course slower moments that dragged a bit (what would you expect from sometimes dry history?) and there honestly wasn't much action to speak of, the book was engaging because of its cast of characters, most especially those who lived under Cromwell's roof, I thought. I rooted for all of the children he raised, both his own and those he adopted.

I am no history buff, so I cannot speak to the truth of this story, but it does appear the author had done extensive research in preparation for this novel. In any case, whatever the series' level of truthiness, I look forward to reading further with Bring Up the Bodies.

Yours,
Arianna

Wolf Hall

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Monday, April 6, 2015

The Story of a New Name (L'amica geniale #2)


The Story of a New Name (L'amica geniale #2)
Elena Ferrante
4/5


Published 2012

First Sentence
"In the spring of 1966, Lila, in a state of great agitation, entrusted to me a metal box that contained eight notebooks."
Publisher's Description:

The Story of a New Name is an extraordinary novel about two young women, Lila and Elena, growing up in Naples in the early 1960s. At sixteen Lila marries the shopkeeper Stefano. She is filled with pleasure at her new wealth, and horror at the life she has chosen.

Elena's own attempts at romance seem to be sabotaged by Lila's turbulent affairs. As she tries to plot her way out of poverty via academic and literary success, her constant anxiety is that she is just a shadow of the brilliant Lila.

The sequel to My Brilliant Friend, The Story of a New Name continues the enthralling chronicle of a friendship that is obsessive, loving, complicated, hurtful, enduring and constantly startling. It is an exhilarating reading experience.

Dear Reader,

This is the second book in the Italian series done by Elena Ferrante. I'll admit that I usually shy away from series but I got caught up in this one (mostly thanks to the Tournament of Books). As much as I enjoyed the first book in the series, "My Brilliant Friend"... with this one I felt a little love and a little hate. I enjoyed the time the girls spent together on vacation by the beach. The friendship between the girls fascinates me and drives me to continue on with the series. As soon as the story split the two up, things went downhill for me. Maybe it was the academia sections but I started to realize that I don't really "know" who Elena is. I can pinpoint who Lila is without a doubt, so much focus is on her character. I wish we could almost see Elena from the perspective of another character to get a stronger feel from her. I don't feel that connected to her life (separately from Lila) and I couldn't wait for them to be brought together again. I only hope that the third book in the series brings back the magic that shines when the two girls/women are together.

Happy Reading,
AmberBug

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4)

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Friday, April 3, 2015

Home


Home
Carson Ellis
5/5


Published February 2015

First Sentence
"N/A"

Publisher's Description:

Influential artist Carson Ellis makes her solo picture-book debut with a whimsical tribute to the many possibilities of home.

Home might be a house in the country, an apartment in the city, or even a shoe. Home may be on the road or the sea, in the realm of myth, or in the artist's own studio. A meditation on the concept of home and a visual treat that invites many return visits, this loving look at the places where people live marks the picture-book debut of Carson Ellis, acclaimed illustrator of the Wildwood series and artist for the indie band the Decemberists.

Dear Reader,

This is a beautiful book. I love the concept too, I think it's important for children to learn how many different kinds of homes are out there. I remember when growing up, going over to my friends house and how strange it felt. However, there isn't much diversity in a community/school district, so you'll find mostly similar types of homes. It wasn't until after high school, when I started making friends outside of the town/state that I started to learn more about social class and how much homes can differ. This is about the same time you have the shock of moving out of that special home you grew up in, and move into a dorm or apartment, usually a smaller place you have to get used to. I'm now at that age where I just bought my first traditional home and starting to feel the "cozy" about having that kind of home. This is a very important book for kids and one I'll be purchasing for those little ones in my life. I highly recommend it and I want to thank Raquel over at Candlewick for sending out an advanced copy for me to read and review. I was extremely happy with this one and Candlewick has yet to disappoint.

Happy Reading,
AmberBug

P.S. - The Author is a member of "The Decemberists" - LOVE!

Home

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