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Composing Amelia by Alison Strobel

Posted on February 3, 2012
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Reason for Reading:
  • I honestly have no idea why I picked this book out.

I recommend:

Summary from GoodReads:

Composing Amelia, is a journey through the introduction of mental illness into a young marriage and the resulting havoc that can be wreaked by the disease. A young Los Angeles marriage is put to the test and two careers are threatened when Amelia’s husband Marcus is hired as a pastor at a remote Nebraska church. The move results in resentment and sparks the onset of mental illness in Amelia. Can Amelia’s faith stand up to the oppression in her mind and the dysfunction in her relationship with her workaholic pastor husband? Will Marcus recognize the mistakes he’s made in time to make things right—or will the darkness in Amelia’s head push her off the edge before Marcus can be the husband he’s meant to be? And how can God use such broken people to turn around the lives of the small flock of believers to whom He’s led them?

My Review:

I.. get the feeling this book was supposed to be about mental illness.  Instead, what I got was a story about an incredibly immature couple who make unrealistic choices over, and over again.  This book paints Christianity, rather.. Christians, as being incredibly naive, and selfish.  Then – story aside, the characters were annoyingly two-dimensional.  There was nothing but fluff there – and don’t get me started on the musical references when it comes to Amelia.

All I have to say about the musical aspect of the story is this – if you do not have access to a professional, classical musician when you write a story like this, then get access to one.  Having played piano, played classical music (as in, the kind Amelia would have been playing at Julliard), you could not catch me with a keyboard for my permanent practice.  There’s too many different sizes of pianos (if you absolutely cannot have a Grand).  This is just one of the things that hit me and, yes, I know I’m a music snob, but it really brings the story down and makes me wish that there’d just be more research done into it (by the way, a “song” has words, classical pieces do not).

Then there’s the husband, the minister, who’s been offered a position out of nowhere in Nebraska.  Really?  And because there’s not enough tension between him and Amelia, we have to throw in complications and.. ugh ok, this review is so disjointed by this point and honestly, I just don’t care about this book enough to go back and re-write it. This is Christian “fluff”- it’s feel-good nonsense that’ll give you a warm and fuzzy feeling as long as you don’t look too deep for a message, because it’s just not there.

Don’t just take my word for it! Check out what these bloggers say!

Cat’s Thoughts

Michelle’s Book Review Blog

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Night Swim by Jessica Keener

Posted on February 1, 2012
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Reason for Reading:
  • There’s just something about a family that’s messed up.

I also recommend:

Summary from GoodReads:

Sixteen-year-old Sarah Kunitz lives in a posh, suburban world of 1970 Boston. From the outside, her parents’ lifestyle appears enviable – a world defined by cocktail parties, expensive cars, and live-in maids to care for their children – but inside their five-bedroom house, all is not well for the Kunitz family. Coming home from school, Sarah finds her well-dressed, pill-popping mother lying disheveled on their living room couch. At night, to escape their parents’ arguments, Sarah and her oldest brother, Peter, find solace in music, while her two younger brothers retreat to their rooms and imaginary lives. Any vestige of decorum and stability drains away when their mother dies in a car crash one terrible winter day. Soon after, their father, a self-absorbed, bombastic professor begins an affair with a younger colleague. Sarah, aggrieved, dives into two summer romances that lead to unforeseen consequences. In a story that will make you laugh and cry, Night Swim shows how a family, bound by heartache, learns to love again.

My Review:

This book surprised the heck out of me.  I don’t know what I loved more – Jessica Keener’s descriptions of the world contained within the book, or her ability to really capture the voice of each and every individual character. When I picked up Night Swim and started to read, I struggled a little bit to find a groove, figure out what Keener was doing, but man – once I got into a groove I couldn’t put this book down, to the detriment of the stacks upon stacks of homework I had to do.

A sort of coming-of-age story, but also a story about relationships between parents and children, different races and classes, religions, and more. This was a hodge-podge of everything that is dynamite in a story, and instead of overwhelming that story with too much, it worked very, very well, creating a compelling story that’s been stuck in my mind since I put the book down.

Every once in a while I pick up a book that I wouldn’t normally pick up in a book store.  The biggest complaint about this book is the cover, I find it way too boring and bland considering the content it’s hiding.  If I had seen it in a bookstore, I just wouldn’t have been interested – but I didn’t.  Instead I was hooked by a description and that hook was enough to get me to look past the cover and find the story.

Y’all, this one was very much worth the read.

About the Author

For more reviews on Night Swim by Jessica Keener, please follow the book tour.

 

 

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Red Ruby Heart in a Cold Blue Sea by Morgan Callan Rogers

Posted on January 28, 2012
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Reason for Reading:
  • The title – such an interesting one!

I recommend:

  • Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson

Summary from GoodReads:

A captivating debut, introducing a spirited young heroine coming of age in coastal Maine during the early 1960s.

When her mother disappears during a weekend trip, Florine Gilham’s idyllic childhood is turned upside down. Until then she’d been blissfully insulated by the rhythms of family life in small town Maine; watching from the granite cliffs above the sea for her father’s lobster boat to come into port, making bread with her grandmother, and infiltrating the summer tourist camps with her friends. But with her mother gone, the heart falls out of Florine’s life and she and her father are isolated as they struggle to manage their loss. Both sustained and challenged by the advice and expectations of her family and neighbors, Florine grows up with her spirit intact. And when her father’s past comes to call, she must accept that life won’t ever be the same while keeping her mother vivid in her memories. With Fannie Flagg’s humor and Elizabeth Stroud’s sense of place, this debut is an extraordinary snapshot of a bygone America through the eyes of an inspiring girl blazing her own path to womanhood.

My Review:

This book charmed the heck outta me.  Right away, while reading a description of a time long past, a coast I’d never seen, and a girl and her mother making a spontaneous trip, I fell in love.  Red Ruby Heart in a Cold Blue Sea is the perfect coming-of-age story for an older generation of women, and for the younger generation as well so they can get a glimpse of what life was like.

Here’s what I love the most about this captivating little story.  There are no neat endings, no tidy wrap-ups, and no cliches.  Instead there is heartfelt emotion, and it’s raw.. and it hurts, and I wanted to rage right along with Florine at the unfairness of life – but bravo to Rogers for making life unfair, because that’s what made this book real.  It was so real I could smell the salty air, and I could see the hot tears on Florine’s face, and feel her rage as she acts out against the adults in her life, you know – the adults who actually stuck around for her.

When I first finished this book, I sat it down and I looked at it and I thought.. that was okay, but .. do I want more?  And now that I’ve had time to sit back and think, to let the story settle, I am really, really appreciating this story for being the gem it is.

Don’t just take my word for it! Check out what these bloggers say!

Chicks Dig Books

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Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro

Posted on January 21, 2012
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Reason for Reading:
  • I’ve been trying to delve more into short stories, and this one just caught my interest.

I also recommend:

Summary from GoodReads:

In this sublime story cycle, Kazuo Ishiguro explores love, music and the passage of time. This quintet ranges from Italian piazzas to the Malvern Hills, a London flat to the “hush-hush floor” of an exclusive Hollywood hotel. Along the way we meet young dreamers, café musicians and faded stars, all at some moment of reckoning.

Gentle, intimate and witty, Nocturnes is underscored by a haunting theme: the struggle to restoke life’s romance, even as relationships flounder and youthful hopes recede.

My Review:

I generally have a really hard time with how authors portray musicians in books – especially classical musicians.  I set aside my trepidation, because I’d had previous experience with Ishiguro’s work, and I figured if anyone could do this right, he could.

Folks, he knocked it out of the ballpark.

This selection of short stories has one thing wrong with it.  It’s too short.  Every single story had me wrapped up, so intent on what was happening that I didn’t want to put the book down.  I greedily devoured stories of street musicians, homely musicians, and even fake musicians.  At the end of each story I eagerly jumped into the next, ready to be whisked away again.  It wasn’t until recently that I began to appreciate the power that the short story has, and between Daphne du Maurier and now Kazuo Ishiguro, I think it’s going to be very hard to find other collections that can measure up.

Brilliantly written, simple yet complicated, and a collection that deserves a place on the most critical of bookshelves – I highly recommend you pick this one up soon.

Don’t just take my word for it! Check out what these bloggers say!

Medieval Bookworm

Yat-Yee Chong

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Faith: A Novel by Jennifer Haigh

Posted on January 17, 2012
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Reason for Reading:
  • I’ve seen this one on several book blogs and jumped at the opportunity to review it for tour.

I also recommend:

Summary from GoodReads:

When Sheila McGann sets out to redeem her disgraced brother, a once-beloved Catholic priest in suburban Boston, her quest will force her to confront cataclysmic truths about her fractured Irish-American family, her beliefs, and, ultimately, herself. Award-winning author Jennifer Haigh follows her critically acclaimed novels Mrs. Kimble and The Condition with a captivating, vividly rendered portrait of fraying family ties, and the trials of belief and devotion, in Faith.

My Review:

I was surprised by Faith.  I’ll admit it.  And I’ll refrain from any corny puns about my lack of “faith” in a book titled Faith.  Oh well.. well, I tried!

So I figured this to be yet another story about the scandal of priests and young boys.  I’ve seen the Lifetime specials, the award-winning movies, and I thought I was been there, done that with this issue.. but I’d heard so much buzz about Jennifer Haigh’s story that, when the opportunity presented itself, I had to sit down and give it a shot.

What really made me appreciate this book was the lack of emphasis on the actual accusation, and the focus, instead, on the impact and reactions of those involved in Father Art’s story.  Several points of view were brought to the forefront, fleshed out, and really given a voice.  I felt genuine conflict as I read, trying to figure out who to believe, who to trust, and who to, ultimately, have faith in.  Every character in this novel packs a punch – filled with flaws, strengths, and quirks, I couldn’t tell you which character had a greater impact on me.  I do think the blurb to this book is somewhat misleading, because although the majority of the book is told from Sheila’s point of view, there is no central character, unless you count the character upon whom disaster has fallen.

This is a book of sincere, gut-wrenching family drama.  It studies with minute detail the relationships of a blended family, the resilience of faith, the faults in organized religion, and the defects we all face in our own character whenever a difficult decision is placed before us, and we’re unable to avoid the temptation to say “yes”.

About the Author

For more reviews on Faith by Jennifer Haigh, please follow the book tour.

 

 

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The Bone People by Keri Hulme

Posted on January 11, 2012
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Reason for Reading:
  • This book was given to me by an English professor of mine this past semester – it’s a Booker prize winner, which we had been discussing in class.

I also recommend:

Summary from GoodReads:

At once a mystery, a love story, and an ambitious exploration of the zone where Maori and European New Zealand meet, Booker Prize-winning novel The Bone People is a powerful and unsettling tale saturated with violence and Maori spirituality.

My Review:

Honestly, I do not feel in any way worthy to review this book.  It was handed to me in a classroom, starting a semester-long tradition of “Free Book Friday”, in which books were brought in and given away to the class at large, and this title was specifically chosen to be given to me – due to an expressed interest in the Booker prize books.  When it was handed to me, I read the first page, and that led to me not wanting to put the book down.

Unfortunately, my reading schedule didn’t allow for me to read it right away.  However, I fit it in as soon as I could, and sure enough – I was sucked right back in.

Normally, I read quickly.  I’m able to easily digest stories without having to read and re-read parts to understand what was happening.  However, The Bone People begged to be read slowly, something that was both exhilarating and maddening all at once.  I needed to know what happened, but oh how I wanted the journey to last.

The style of writing in this book is unlike anything I’ve ever read.  The strange customs, language, and traditions had me feeling out of my depths until the characters drew me in.  I was fascinated by each voice, but never felt as if I was fully welcome – which made me feel a longing to be part of the story.

All in all, this was a reading experience unlike any other I’ve had.  And when you consider the 1000+ books I’ve read in recent years, that really tells you something.

Check out these reviews!

Raging Bibliomania

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Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

Posted on December 27, 2011
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Reason for Reading:
  • I was a big fan of Anna and the French Kiss by the same author and, honestly, Stephanie Perkins is SO HYPED by the book blog community, how can you be a part of it and not read her books!?

I also  recommend:

Summary from GoodReads:

Budding designer Lola Nolan doesn’t believe in fashion . . . she believes in costume. The more expressive the outfit — more sparkly, more fun, more wild — the better. But even though Lola’s style is outrageous, she’s a devoted daughter and friend with some big plans for the future. And everything is pretty perfect (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the dreaded Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return to the neighborhood.

When Cricket — a gifted inventor — steps out from his twin sister’s shadow and back into Lola’s life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door.

My Review:

I’m going to jump on the Cricket bandwagon.  I. loved. him.

However, I do not love his name. Cricket, Stephanie?  Why Cricket?  And here I thought you couldn’t get worse than Etienne St. Clair.  I mean, you have these awesome, traditional, if somewhat old-fashioned, girls names with Anna and Lola.. but what is going on with the boy names?!  It’s just so hard to take a guy named Cricket seriously.

Speaking of Anna and St. Clair – LOVE the cameo’s here.

So the things I didn’t agree with, or that gave me a bad feeling from Anna and her story were still a bit present in this one.  I’m not sure why these stories need to have an element of breaking hearts through the whole flirting-with-cheating storyline, but I am really hoping the third companion book to these will see an end to that little bit.  I didn’t like it in Glee Season 1, I don’t like it here.

But I do love everything else.  I love Lola’s sense of fashion, her two dads, her family dynamics, the tension with Calliope, the best friend, the gorgeous boy next door, the history between them … I could go on and on, but most of all it boils down to just digging with Stephanie Perkins does to make what might otherwise be a hum-drum, teenage story into something like a party in between the pages.

Because that’s what this book is.  It’s a book party.  It makes me happy, giddy, and feel like I”m 16 years old again.

If you loved Anna, you are gonna love this book.  You haven’t read either of them?  Then get off your butt and do so! Libraries, book stores, and friends (I’m sure) will have them laying about, so fix it!

 

Check out these reviews!

Johan Unwound

Geeky Girl Reviews

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The Falling Away by T.L. Hines

Posted on December 24, 2011
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Reason for Reading:
  • This was a finalist for the 2011 INSPY awards.

I also  recommend:

Summary from GoodReads:

Native America Dylan Runs Ahead is running away. He ran from the Crow Reservation where he grew up because he felt responsible for his sister’s disappearance. He ran to the Army, but after his leg was mangled and his buddy was killed when a bomb exploded, he had to escape from those memories too. Now he’s gotten mixed up in the wrong line of business and he’s running from people who would prefer him dead.

But then he meets a woman named Quinn. She claims to see things that others don’t and tells him that he’s “chosen.” Oddly enough, his buddy in Iraq kept telling him the same thing. Before Dylan Runs Ahead can figure out what that really means, though, he’s going to have to stop and face the demons–both literal and figurative–that he’s been running from.

My Review:

Okay – first of all, I really loved the Native American aspect of this book.  Among other things, it really reminded me that I need to devote some time to reading some Native American literature.  I really have no excuse right now, because one of my professors wrote her dissertation on a Native American author, as well as wrote an Encyclopedia of Native American works and authors.

That said, The Falling Away is part-thriller, part-supernatural, part-just-plain-creepy-Twilight-zone-esque, story.  It has got it all, folks. Murder, running from the law, spiritual warfare, crazy cults, science fiction, drugs, smuggling – you name it, it’s an edge of your seat, this book is not going to let you put it down thriller.

It also won the 2011 INSPY awards.

I was really impressed, overall, with the quality of books being nominated this year, and I really, really enjoyed this piece of fiction.  I’m not always the biggest fan of Christian or Inspirational literature – so I consider myself to be rather tough on these type of books, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one – which tells you something!

That all said, I will say – in the interest of full disclosure, that there were parts that had me a bit confused.  The whole “chosen” bit, and the warriors seemed really vague – almost as if Hines didn’t want to cross any lines by making it seem like corny Christian-speak.  I got that Quinn was considered to be a type of “Warrior” against the dark agents (I almost said force, y’all, I really have been watching too many Star Wars reruns on TV).  But until things started to get knitted together at the end, I admit to being in a bit of a fog and fairly confused as a result.

Still, The Falling Away is a worthwhile read, and the perfect book to those who love both inspirational as well as science fiction/paranormal type books.

 

Check out these reviews!

Johan Unwound

Geeky Girl Reviews

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A Watershed Year by Susan Schoenberger

Posted on November 30, 2011
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Reason for Reading:
  • The description caught me – letters after death and Russian adoption – two things I haven’t really experienced in my reading.

I also recommend:

Summary from GoodReads:

Two months after the death of her best friend Harlan, Lucy remains haunted by the things she never told him including her deep love for him. Then she begins receiving emails he’d arranged to be sent after his death, emails that will change the course of her life. One email in particular haunts her — he tells her he is certain she is destined for motherhood. Thus begins her watershed year.

It is said that out of despair comes hope and in her grief, Lucy finds that the possibility of adopting a child offers her a new chance for a fulfilled life. When she travels to Russia to meet four-year-old Mat she sees in him a soul that is as lonely and lost as hers. Slowly they learn to trust one another and each begins healing. It is when Mat’s father comes to America to reclaim his child that a truth about Mat’s past is revealed, a truth that might shatter Lucy’s fragile little family forever.

My Review:

People, this is not a little book. It’s 320 pages long. I started reading it at 9:30pm thinking I’d get a few chapters in.  Next thing I knew I was closing the book and looking at my clock where the time of 4:30am was looking at me with accusation.  I haven’t stayed up like that to read a book in one setting, or I should say, to read an adult book in one setting, in… never.

I was simply blown away by this story.  Susan Schoenberger flawlessly moves between the past and present, connecting the story of Harlan’s death to Lucy’s life and the decisions being made.  Add into the equation the realistic portrayal of the difficulties of adopting, especially from another country, the struggles of dating and the coping of grief from unfulfilled love and you have a knockout of a story.  And in spite of all these elements, not once did I feel overwhelmed, or that there was too much stuff going on for the story to be effective.

I wept and rejoiced with Lucy, I fell in love with Mat, I grieved for Harlan and felt the sting experienced by Louis as Lucy struggled to adapt to her new life.

If you are looking for a book that will knock your socks off and grab you by the shoulders and shake you until you cry, this is it.  By far, one of the best books I’ve read this year.

About the Author

For more reviews on A Watershed Year by Susan Schoenberger, please follow the book tour.

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Carrier of the Mark by Leigh Fallon

Posted on November 26, 2011
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Reason for Reading:
  • The cover, and I’ve seen this book around on blogs.

I  recommend:

Summary from GoodReads:

From the moment she sets foot at her new school in Ireland, Megan is inexplicably drawn to the darkly handsome Adam DeRis. But Megan soon discovers that her feelings for Adam are tied to a supernatural fate that was sealed long ago—and that the passion and power that unites them could be their ultimate destruction.

My Review:

I’m really conflicted on this book – because first of all, it read like a big-time Twilight rip-off, and second of all… I was entertained by it.  That entertainment means I’m not going to go all crazy in my review, because, frankly, there are quite a few reviews out there that do that for me.

However, I do want to say this – if you are an author looking to write a book to appeal to the young adult crowd, think long and hard before making an “instant” relationship happen between two teens.  It’s unrealistic and it sets a really bad example and I don’t see it well received well at all in reading reviews and looking around the blogosphere (this is also in general, not just with this book – although it is guilty).

Now – I will admit I was fascinated by the magic system in this book, and aside from the relationships, everything else seemed pretty solid.  The setting was fantastic, the group of friends plausible, and the writing pulled me in and kept me entertained, despite the lack of original story-line.

All that said, I cannot blame Fallon for taking inspiration from the Twilight books. They are a huge success.  I think for those people who love the story, this book will be a great read for them, and for those who had some of the issues I had (the breaking of rules, the implausibility of parts of the Twilight story), you might actually enjoy this one more.

Check out these reviews!

Reading with Tequila

Books and the Universe

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