Review: The Likeness by Tana French

Book/Author: The Likeness (Dublin Murder Squad # 2) by Tana French
Publisher/Year: Viking Adult, 2008
Pages: 466 pages
Where I got it: bought at Borders
Buy It: Amazon

Summary (from Goodreads): Six months after the events of In the Woods, Detective Cassie Maddox is still trying to recover. She's transferred out of the murder squad and started a relationship with Detective Sam O'Neill, but she's too badly shaken to make a commitment to him or to her career. Then Sam calls her to the scene of his new case: a young woman found stabbed to death in a small town outside Dublin. The dead girl's ID says her name is Lexie Madison (the identity Cassie used years ago as an undercover detective, and she looks exactly like Cassie.

With no leads, no suspects, and no clue to Lexie's real identity, Cassie's old undercover boss, Frank Mackey, spots the opportunity of a lifetime. They can say that the stab wound wasn't fatal and send Cassie undercover in her place to find out information that the police never would and to tempt the killer out of hiding. At first Cassie thinks the idea is crazy, but she is seduced by the prospect of working on a murder investigation again and by the idea of assuming the victim's identity as a graduate student with a cozy group of friends.

My thoughts: I read Tana French's In The Woods a few years ago and I absolutely loved it. I final got the chance to pick up the sequel this October and was not let down. French has a gift for creating suspenseful situations. I'm not usually too interested in murder mystery novels but this series has me hooked. I will definitely be putting the third book, Faithful Place on my wishlist for this holiday season. The Likeness starts out with a bang as detective Cassie Maddox is called to the scene of a murder where the victim is shockingly identical to her. Thus begins the undercover operation to discover who killed this mysterious doppelganger.

This book took me longer to read than I would have liked but it was not for lack of interest. I was itching to pick it up at any free moment I had. The relationship development between Cassie/Lexie and her roommates was so descriptive and interesting to me. They were SO close, I was holding my breath so many times because I was worried that she would be discovered as an imposter. As the story unfolds, the secrets slowly pour out of the walls of their old house. 


The one thing that really bugged me about this novel is that Lexie had stolen the identity of a false identity made up by Cassie years ago. It was never addressed how exactly Lexie came upon that identity or how it was possible they could look and sound so much alike but not be related at all. Other than that, The Likeness was a great psychological thriller that definitely messed with my mind. Even if you don't typically read mystery novels, I would suggest stepping out of your comfort zone with this. I doubt you will be disappointed!

My rating: 4 stars 

Review: The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson

Book/Author: The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson
Publisher/Year: Ecco/ August 2011
Pages: 309 pages
Where I got it: received for review from the publisher
Buy It: Amazon

Brief Summary (from Goodreads): Mr. and Mrs. Fang called it art. Their children called it mischief.

Performance artists Caleb and Camille Fang dedicated themselves to making great art. But when an artist’s work lies in subverting normality, it can be difficult to raise well-adjusted children. Just ask Buster and Annie Fang. For as long as they can remember, they starred (unwillingly) in their parents’ madcap pieces. But now that they are grown up, the chaos of their childhood has made it difficult to cope with life outside the fishbowl of their parents’ strange world.

When the lives they’ve built come crashing down, brother and sister have nowhere to go but home, where they discover that Caleb and Camille are planning one last performance–their magnum opus–whether the kids agree to participate or not. Soon, ambition breeds conflict, bringing the Fangs to face the difficult decision about what’s ultimately more important: their family or their art.

My thoughts: The Family Fang is a story about a dysfunctional family of performance artists, the Fang's. Art has always been the most important thing to Caleb and Camille Fang, until they have children and suddenly have other responsibilities. The Fang's learned to incorporate the kids Annie and Buster, or Child A and Child B, into their "art" butas the kids grew up they weren't as willing to be a part of their parents mischief. This book was full to the brim with conflict and it reminded me of the family dysfunction in television and movies such as Arrested Development and The Royal Tenenbaums (in fact the blurb on the back of the book mentions this similarity to the Wes Anderson film). It was highly entertaining but often uncomfortable.

The Fang's artwork was always about the reaction of others and much of it was cruel or just plain wrong. I have to give props to Buster and Annie for both turning out relatively normal after having parents as bizarre as Caleb and Camille. I felt so bad for them because it was clear that their parents would always choose their artwork over them and that rejection is a pretty terrible thing to deal with for any kid. For the most part I enjoyed the wacky antics that went on in the novel, although the horrible parenting drove me nuts. I didn't particularly care for any of the characters, they were more of a love to hate bunch. The public displays that the Fang parents created were often at the expense of their children's privacy or innocence. A and B never got a choice whether or not they wanted to be a part of their parents creative process and now as adults they are finding out not only are they still a part of it but they have become victims of the Fang's craziest piece yet.

For much of the novel I was entertained but nothing was really making me want to drop everything to pick up the book. There was a bit of a twist ending that pulled me back in and caused me to blow through the last 50 or so pages. Overall, I thought The Family Fang was a fun read with a peculiar premise. I'd recommend this to anyone with an interest in reading books with a mix of flawed characters and comedic situations. It's not necessarily a laugh out loud book but it's one that will have you thinking on a much deeper level about society, families and what's important in life.

My rating: 3 stars

Review: Then We Came To The End by Joshua Ferris

Book: Then We Came To The End by Joshua Ferris
Published: 2007, Little Brown & Company
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 387 pages
Where I got it: received as a Secret Santa gift a couple years ago
Buy It: Amazon

Brief Summary (from Goodreads): For anyone who has ever worked in an office, hating everything and everyone in it, yet fell apart when it was time to leave -- this book is for you. Heartbreaking, yet hysterically funny, Then We Came to the End is the definitive novel about the contemporary American workplace.

My thoughts: Then We Came To The End has been on my to read list pretty much since it's release but for some reason it took me almost 4 years to actually pull it off my shelf. With any book that I wait that long to read, there was a huge amount of hype leading up to it for me. There was nothing that wowed me about this novel, but I found it to be an entertaining read that was very relatable for anyone who has ever worked in your typical office environment. There were many points where I was laughing out loud because I could picture some of the events happening in my own office. There were a lot of things that were a little outrageous but they still were so funny to picture. It's easy to see that author Joshua Ferris' view of corporate America is a bitter one, but he's able to poke fun at that in his debut novel.

I enjoyed the use of first person plural and how we never find out who the narrator is. He/she speaks on behalf of the group and refers to all of the employees of the ad agency where this book takes place as the collective "we". The characters were all so entertaining, from the crazy ones, to the slackers to the workaholics. There have been a lot of comparisons to The Office and Office Space in other reviews, and it's definitely very much along those lines but I would say more like if the employees of Dunder Mifflin were all on crack.

While there were plenty of funny moments, there were also a lot of really depressing ones. The characters were waiting with bated breath to find out who would be the next to be laid off. They were all aware that their jobs as advertising creatives basically turned them into soul sucking demons. As someone who goes to work most days dreading what lays ahead, I know how terrible it feels to have a job you absolutely can't stand but you need it to survive. Ferris wrote Then We Came To The End shortly before the economy got really bad, so I imagine that if he had waited to write this just a year or two later, it would be so much worse. There's not much you can do other than to laugh though when you realize you're not the only one who hates their job or works with a bunch of crazies.


My rating: 3 stars

Review: Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson

Book: Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson
Published: June 14, 2011/ Harper
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 368 pages
Where I got it: received as an ARC from the publisher
Buy It: Amazon

Brief Summary (from Goodreads): 'As I sleep, my mind will erase everything I did today. I will wake up tomorrow as I did this morning. Thinking I'm still a child. Thinking I have a whole lifetime of choice ahead of me ...' Memories define us. So what if you lost yours every time you went to sleep? Your name, your identity, your past, even the people you love - all forgotten overnight. And the one person you trust may only be telling you half the story. Welcome to Christine's life.

My thoughts: What an exciting page turner Before I Go To Sleep was! I love books that read like a diary but even without that aspect, this would have been just as addicting. I started this on a plane and before I knew it, I had read half of it. Christine suffers from amnesia after an accident that occurred in her twenties and now she can't remember anything about her life. With a little help from her doctor, she begins keeping a journal that helps her remember little pieces about herself and everything she goes through each day. Watson's novel fascinated and terrified me at the same time. I could not imagine what it would be like to wake up every morning and have no idea who I am or where I am.

Christine's relationship with her husband was such a roller coaster ride as she went through the motions of getting to know him and trust him, despite a note in the front of her journal written in her own handwriting telling her not trust him. I felt so bad for her each time she relearned of her son's death and the other misfortunes she had in the past. Even just waking up in the morning, she did not recognize her own body. To her, it seemed as though she had aged 20 years overnight. When I discovered that the author is actually a man, I was very impressed at his ability to write from a female perspective in such an effective manner.

Before I Go To Sleep was a thrilling and fantastic debut novel for newcomer S.J. Watson. There is a twist that I kind of anticipated from the beginning, but Watson did a great job at making me believe it wouldn't actually happen and then BAM! It did (although it wasn't quite what I thought) and I was left stunned. It's hard for me to write this review without giving too much away, so do yourself a favor and go read it! This will be one of those books I recommend a lot this summer to people looking for a thrilling page turner.

My rating: 4 stars 

Review: My Favorite Band Does Not Exist by Robert T. Jeschonek

Book: My Favorite Band Does Not Exist by Robert T. Jeschonek
Published: Clarion Books, July 2011
Genre:  Fiction
Pages: 272 pages
Where I got it: e-book from NetGalley
Buy It: Amazon

Summary (from Goodreads): Sixteen-year-old genius Idea Deity believes that he exists only in the pages of a novel written by a malevolent, omnipotent author . . . and that he will die in chapter 64. Meanwhile, an older teen named Reacher Mirage sings lead vocals for the undercover rock band Youforia . . . a band that exists in Idea’s world only as an Internet hoax that Idea himself perpetuated. Then there’s beautiful and mysterious Eunice Truant, who links their destinies. When Idea and Reacher plunge into the reality of Fireskull’s Revenant, the twisted epic fantasy novel they’ve both been reading, chapter 64 bears down on them like a speeding freight train on an unstoppable collision course. Being trapped in a bad book can be a nightmare. Just ask Idea Deity.

My thoughts: Wow. This was one of those books that was just not for me. Going into My Favorite Band Does Not Exist, I expected something much more focused on music. I wasn't quite sure what was happening for much of the first half of this book. Once I caught on and was able to remember which character was which, I had pretty much lost any interest I had. I only finished it because of that nagging I get when I try to throw a book into a corner, forgotten. I attempted reading this on my Nook, but it kept crashing it and I think I should have gotten the hint when that first happened. I ended up having to read it on my laptop which made it much easier for me to get distracted. I've never played Dungeons and Dragons nor do I really know anything about it, but for some reason the premise of this book reminds me of what it would be like to play a game like that. For some, it may be an exciting adventure to read this book, but that was not the case for me.


In My Favorite Band Does Not Exist, Idea Deity believes he is trapped in the book he is reading, Fireskull's Revenant. In an alternate universe, Reacher Mirage is reading that same book. Both characters believe that they will die in Chapter 64. When Idea and Reacher's lives clash and they switch places, I thought it had potential to turn itself around for me, but I still couldn't get into it. I was hoping for something more than a sci-fi, Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy-esque story. The book is described as "School of Rock meets Alice In Wonderland" and the book cover is what got my attention in the first place. Sadly, this one fell flat for me.

My rating: 1 star 

Review: Greyhound by Steffan Piper

Book: Greyhound by Steffan Piper
Published: AmazonEncore, 2010
Genre: YA
Pages: 240 pages
Where I got it: ordered from Borders.com
Buy It: Amazon

Summary (from Goodreads): Ushered out from his Stockton, California home by his emotionally detached mother and her latest boyfriend, twelve-year-old Sebastien Ranes must fend for himself and travel two thousand miles across the country. He is on his way to live with his grandmother and sister in Pennsylvania. Along the way, he will learn that sometimes caring, guidance and understanding can come from some unlikely people.
Marcus, a fellow bus passenger, is a man who has been neglected more by society than his family. As a young black ex-con, he is not the epitome of the person most would pick as a chaperone for their child's cross country trip. Yet rather than be held apart by their differences, Marcus and Sebastien are drawn together by the things that make us all alike.
Along the way, he acts as both guide and protector, as Virgil was to Dante and Jim to Huck Finn. Imparting his own style of wisdom, he shows Sebastien that, despite the darker parts of the human condition, people can and do care for one another. This is a modern day journey not just from one house to another. This is a journey taken by a young boy into manhood, and by the reader into his world. Like every trip, there are many stops along the way. But this journey differs in the way young Sebastien arrives at his destination. Greyhound is the story of this journey.


My thoughts: I love reading about cross country road trips so when I heard about Greyhound, I was definitely interested in giving it a try. Then when I saw the book design featured an old cassette tape, I just knew I was going to love this. Sebastien Ranes was such a loveable leading character which made it all the more enjoyable to read his story. A day before his 12th birthday, his mother puts him on a bus to travel from California to Pennsylvania all by himself. Throughout the four days of his trip, Sebastien encounters more excitement and drama than many people do in a lifetime and also manages to do a lot of growing up in such a short amount of time.

Along the way, he befriends the ex-con Marcus, who takes Sebastien under his wing for the remainder of the trip and actually saves his life at one point. The adventures these two men have kept me on the edge of my seat and had me laughing out loud quite a few times. They may have been an unlikely pair but I thought the friendship they developed was so cute. I admired the way Marcus looked after Sebastien and let him in on some of life's little secrets. It was touching and sad thinking that this was the most genuine friendship Sebastien had ever had. For someone who came from such terrible parents, he was amazingly level headed and curious. If Sebastien's story had continued, I could definitely see him doing some wonderful things with his life.

In Greyhound, Piper did a great job of eliciting emotion from the reader. One minute I was so angry about the way Sebastien's mother treated him, the next I was disgusted by the creepy guy in the suit and then right after that I was oohing and ahhing at how adorable Sebastien was. I felt as though I was occupying the third seat in the back of that bus, right next to Sebastien and Marcus. I found myself very protective of him as well. Anytime there was a hint of danger, my senses were heightened, like I knew something bad was coming but I had the ability to keep him safe.

This was a nice change of pace from what I've been reading lately and I would highly recommend it to anyone who needs a quick fix for their wanderlust!


My rating: 4.5 stars

Review: Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King

Book: Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King
Published: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2010
Genre: YA Pages: 336 pages
Where I got it: bought at Borders
Buy It: Amazon


Summary (from Goodreads): Vera's spent her whole life secretly in love with her best friend, Charlie Kahn. And over the years she's kept a lot of his secrets. Even after he betrayed her. Even after he ruined everything. So when Charlie dies in dark circumstances, Vera knows a lot more than anyone—the kids at school, his family, even the police. But will she emerge to clear his name? Does she even want to?


My thoughts: I put off reading Please Ignore Vera Dietz for quite some time because I was worried it was one of those books that got too much hype. I have to say that while I enjoyed it overall, I really thought this was going to be a 5 star book for me. I enjoyed the way the story was told, jumping between the present and flashbacks to her past with Charlie, with interjections thrown in from her Dad, Charlie from beyond the grave and the architectural anomaly that is the Pagoda. I like books that take awhile to tell the story, giving us a few tidbits at a time because it gives me that extra push to keep reading, even if I have something else I should be doing.


I thought the relationship between Vera and her father was very true to life for a single father/ daughter relationship. Throughout the book, they were struggling to get along with one another but in the end they had a huge breakthrough that was so inspiring. I feel like so many of the books I've read lately are chock full of spunky characters and this was no exception.

The main reason I had trouble with Please Ignore Vera Dietz was the way Charlie was portrayed. Vera was undoubtedly angry with him because of the way he treated her shortly before his death but she also was in love with him. Charlie seemed like a total creep to me and I couldn't get past that. I understand that he had issues at home and he was probably acting out and rebelling because he wanted the intention (at least that's what all of my psychology teachers would have told me) but selling your worn underwear to the neighborhood pedophile is severely messed up. However, I'm so so glad that he got to explain his side of things because it helped me see how Vera could have been in love with him. There was a lot of darkly humorous parts of this book, especially in the ways he would control little things to happen and Vera would know it was him.


I think Please Ignore Vera Dietz is the perfect example of learning from your mistakes and letting things work themselves out in their own time. Vera had to go through a lot of crap to get to where she ended up, but it was all worth it because she was able to clear her best friends name and make peace with him as well as with her Dad. We saw her grow from an overworked teenager who was unable to face her problems to someone who learned how to deal like an adult. There was a lot to take away from this once I was finished which is always a sign of a hype worthy book.

My rating: 3.5 stars

Review: Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan

Book: Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan
Published: Dutton Juvenile, 2010
Genre: YA fiction
Pages: 310 pages
Where I got it: got an e-book for my Nook
Buy It: Amazon

Summary (from Goodreads): One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two teens—both named Will Grayson—are about to cross paths. As their worlds collide and intertwine, the Will Graysons find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, building toward romantic turns-of-heart and the epic production of history’s most fabulous high school musical.

My thoughts: It seems like there has been an influx of collaborative novels for young adults recently. I find it so fascinating the way two authors are able to create such a coherent story by writing their sections seperately, sending it off to the other and continuing on with the rest of the story in that manner. It reminds me of one of those choose your own adventure books. As long as we're being honest here, my friends and I used to write Hanson fanfiction in middle school in this same way (hahaha....) Yes, I was a huge nerd. The difference was that ours didn't make much sense when thrown together.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson takes the collaborative novel a step further by giving both characters the same name. Typically I think this would get pretty confusing but they make it easy to tell the difference by using proper capitalization for one and all lowercase for the other. This is one of the first books I have read where one of the main characters is so openly and fabulously gay. John Green's Will Grayson (capital WG) was much more entertaining for me. I loved the struggling friendship between he and his best friend, (the not so tiny) Tiny Cooper. Tiny's musical, "Tiny Dancer", added plenty of humor to some pretty heavy subject matter. The flirtatious relationship between capital WG and Tiny's friend, Jane was incredibly adorable. It reminded me so much of how it felt to be a teenager and have a new crush on someone.

It took some time for me to warm up to David Levithan's Will Grayson (lowercase WG). I thought he was too angsty and overall came off as not a very nice guy. I started liking him better when the two Will Grayson's meet. Their meeting was all sorts of hilarious and awkward and I loved it. They get to talking and lowercase WG is introduced to Tiny, who of course falls for him and introduces him to his wonderful gay world. I thought it was somewhat unbelievable that after this meeting it was fairly easy for lowercase WG to come out of the closet to everyone, although I did think it was nice to see a character I hadn't previously cared much for have the guts to make such a bold move. I still found him a little annoying at times but he really made it for it when he made such an effort to show Tiny how he felt in the end and was able to work together with capital WG.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson throws a lot of emotions at the reader but it's got enough comedy and anticipation that it's not a book you feel like you have to muddle through. I enjoyed the different love stories and the ups and downs of the friendships. It was a very realistic look at how friendships and teenage romance can change so drastically in high school. I think it's harder to read a book like this now that I'm in my mid-twenties and don't really relate to the angsty teenage crap anymore. As a teen, I would have most likely given Will Grayson, Will Grayson 4 or 5 stars.


My rating: 3 stars

Review: Amy & Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

Book: Amy & Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson
Published: Simon & Schuster, 2010
Genre: YA fiction
Pages: 344 pages
Where I got it: bought at Borders
Buy It: Amazon

Summary (from Goodreads): Amy Curry thinks her life sucks. Her mom decides to move from California to Connecticut to start anew--just in time for Amy's senior year. Her dad recently died in a car accident. So Amy embarks on a road trip to escape from it all, driving cross-country from the home she's always known toward her new life. Joining Amy on the road trip is Roger, the son of Amy's mother's old friend. Amy hasn't seen him in years, and she is less than thrilled to be driving across the country with a guy she barely knows. So she's surprised to find that she is developing a crush on him. At the same time, she's coming to terms with her father's death and how to put her own life back together after the accident. Told in traditional narrative as well as scraps from the road -- diner napkins, motel receipts, postcards--this is the story of one girl's journey to find herself

My thoughts: Amy & Roger's Epic Detour is my kind of book. I loved everything from the characters to the road trip to the blooming love story. Author Morgan Matson uses mixed media to give a visual for the reader which made the reading experience more fun. There are tons of mix tapes with excellent music, photos from their trip and little snippets from Amy's travel journal. While I was reading, I put together some of Roger's mixes on my iTunes so that I could listen along with Amy and Roger on their trip. This book brought out so many emotions while I was reading. It's heartbreaking but uplifting at the same time. I never wanted to put it down!

Of all of the travel stories I've read recently, this one is definitely my favorite. Back in 2006, I actually helped my boyfriend move back home to Connecticut from California and we took a very similar route to the one taken by Amy & Roger on their trip. This book was a fun way for me to relive that feeling I had of being young and free, with nothing but the open road ahead. I loved following Amy's progression from shutting herself out from society after her father's untimely death to learning to let people in again and slowly heal. I also found myself crushing on Roger. His music taste was phenomenal and the way he was described through Amy's eyes made him seem like someone I would crush on in real life.

I also enjoyed the way her father's accident was told piece by piece in short flashback chapters throughout the book. By not revealing what happened right away, there was more suspense as to why some things upset her, like having her own pair of sunglasses, going to Graceland or driving a car. There were also bits of Amy's relationship with her twin brother, Charlie and with her mother revealed in ways that wove them in with what was happening in the story. Overall, I thought that for a debut novel, Matson hit the nail on the head with this one.

I thought the end of this book and their road trip was written perfectly. After their first detour to Yosemite, the rest of the trip became about spontaneity and resolving things, but not knowing where they would go next. The same wound up being true for Amy and Roger in the end. They don't what is in store for them in the future and that's the way it should be.

Amy and Roger's Epic Detour is the perfect start of summer book and I believe I'm going to read it again when June rolls around.


My rating: 4.5 stars

Review: The Diviner's Tale by Bradford Morrow

Book: The Diviner's Tale by Bradford Morrow
Published: January 2011, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 320 pages
Where I got it: e-book from NetGalley
Buy It: Amazon


Summary (from Goodreads): Walking a lonely forested valley on a spring morning in upstate New York, having been hired by a developer to dowse the land, Cassandra Brooks comes upon the shocking vision of a young girl hanged from a tree. When she returns with authorities to the site, the body has vanished, leaving in question Cassandra’s credibility if not her sanity. The next day, on a return visit with the sheriff to have another look, a dazed, mute missing girl emerges from the woods, alive and the very picture of Cassandra’s hanged girl.
What follows is the narrative of ever-deepening and increasingly bizarre divinations that will lead this gifted young woman, the struggling single mother of twin boys, hurtling toward a past she’d long since thought was behind her. The Diviner’s Tale is at once a journey of self-discovery and an unorthodox murder mystery, a tale of the fantastic and a family chronicle told by an otherwise ordinary woman.
When Cassandra’s dark forebodings take on tangible form, she is forced to confront a life spiraling out of control. And soon she is locked in a mortal chess match with a real-life killer who has haunted her since before she can remember.

My thoughts: I have been trying to write my review of The Diviner's Tale for a few days now and have been having trouble figuring out what I want to say. Cassandra Brooks is a diviner- that is she dowses the local land in search of water and minerals. I don't think I've ever read a book quite like this one and I never really knew what diviner's do until now. It was an interesting topic, although it took me awhile to get invested in the book. Once I did I was racing towards the end to find out what happened.

I think the mystery behind Cassandra's vision of the hanged girl should have drawn me in more from the beginning, but it wasn't until I got more details of Cass's past and the troubled Roy Skoler that I found myself truly engaged. It's unfortunate that it took so long for me to get into it because I think otherwise this would have been at least a 4 star book for me. I loved the relationship between Cass and her twin boys. There was a different dynamic between them than what you read of mother and sons in most books. I liked that they played things so cool most of the time and it was often like they were taking care of her more than she took care of them. Most boys at their age resent their parents but these two acted more like she was their sister in the way that they looked out for them. The relationship between she and her father, Nep, was also very touching. His struggle with Alzheimer's made me really sad and had me reflecting upon my relationship with my own father and grandfather.

When Cassandra sees the hanged girl and we find out that she used to see other things that had her questioning her sanity, the story gets much more interesting. There's that sense of mystery but also that character struggle in our protagonist as she tries to figure out more about herself and her abilities as a diviner. I thought that Laura's character was a little weird and there was a lot of buildup with her going missing a couple of times for somewhat of a disappointing resolution. I would have liked to see more development between Laura and Cassandra and less unnecessary love story between Cassandra and Charley. Overall I found The Diviner's Tale to be an enjoyable read filled with interesting relationships between family and friends with a little mystery wound in.



My rating: 3 stars

Review: The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Book: The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Published: Amy Einhorn Books/ Putnam, 2009
Genre: Fiction
Pages:  464 pages
Where I got it: got an e-book copy for my Nook
Buy It: Amazon

Brief Summary (from Goodreads): In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women—mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends—view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t.

My thoughts: I've heard nothing but wonderful things about The Help since it's release in 2009, so I'm not sure why it took me this long to read it. I don't read much historical fiction aside from books on the Holocaust. I think how much I enjoyed this proves I need to branch out and add more historical fiction to my TBR list!

The Help is set in the deep south during the 1960's. While much of the rest of the country was progressing where race issues were concerned, Jackson, Mississippi was one of the worst places to live if you were black. The book is told through the perspectives of three strong women who boldly come together in the hopes of making a difference. I loved all three of the main characters, but Aibileen was my favorite. Her character felt very real to me and I loved the way she connected with Skeeter. Any scene with her and the little girl she helped look after was so touching.

I won't pretend to know how bad things were in the south during the 60's. I'm aware of the things I've learned from my history books, but I never realized the extent of it. The Help opened my eyes to the many difficulties these women faced as the hired help of rich, white southern women. They raise the children and love them as if they are their own. They try to teach them all they can about equality, but in the end the children grow up to be just like their mothers in the way they think and treat their maids. Skeeter's ability to think independently of her parents and her friends was so admirable, as was the group of maids willingness to participate, although for many it took a lot of arm twisting to get there, and rightfully so.

I can't say enough good things about this book to justify how much I enjoyed it. For a book written by an unknown, white author, Stockett did a great job narrating from the point of view of the maids. Often times I find books written in this style of alternating narrators to be confusing or time consuming but it was very easy for me to follow who was speaking at what point. I felt like each narrator developed their own individual voice and personality that shined through. As I got closer to the end of The Help, I found myself reading slower in order to savor what was left. I thought the ending was perfect because it wasn't completely happy nor sad, there was just the right amount of balance. There's been plenty of buzz about this book since it's release, but if for some reason you've been living under a rock and have not heard how good it is, go get yourself a copy! I can almost guarantee you will learn something from these brave ladies.


My rating: 4 stars

Review: Great House by Nicole Krauss

Book: Great House by Nicole Krauss
Published: W.W. Norton & Company, 2010
Genre: Fiction
Pages:  289 pages
Where I got it: the library
Buy It: Amazon

Summary (from Goodreads): A powerful, soaring novel about a stolen desk that contains the secrets, and becomes the obsession, of the lives it passes through.

For twenty-five years, a solitary American novelist has been writing at the desk she inherited from a young poet who disappeared at the hands of Pinochet's secret police; one day a girl claiming to be his daughter arrives to take it away, sending her life reeling. Across the ocean in London, a man discovers a terrifying secret about his wife of almost fifty years. In Jerusalem, an antiques dealer is slowly reassembling his father's Budapest study, plundered by the Nazis in 1944.

These worlds are anchored by a desk of enormous dimension and many drawers that exerts a power over those who possess it or give it away. In the minds of those it has belonged to, the desk comes to stand for all that has disappeared in the chaos of the world-children, parents, whole peoples and civilizations. Nicole Krauss has written a hauntingly powerful novel about memory struggling to create a meaningful permanence in the face of inevitable loss.

My thoughts: Nicole Krauss is quickly becoming one of my favorite writers. I absolutely adored The History of Love and although I wasn't completely head over heels for Man Walks Into a Room, I thought it was a good first novel. Krauss' third novel, Great House, had me captivated from page one. There is something so poetic about her writing. I love the way she is able to interweave the stories of so many people, connecting them through this one object that traveled across countries and seas. Although there were times I felt confused about the time line or how they could have all had possession of the same desk at one time, I wasn't too caught up in the logistics of it because the back story of the four different narrators was so interesting. The effort Krauss puts in to the detail of her characters is so admirable. I feel like the plot of her novels aren't very complex, which would normally bug me. In her case, they don't have to be due to her ability to create an interesting story just by putting the right words together on paper. She truly has a gift.


Great House was heartbreaking at times, but somehow I still came away from it feeling very positive. I loved the idea of the desk and how much an inanimate object could hold so much weight for various people. It gave me a sense of nostalgia for some of my favorite possessions both now and in the past. The section that resonated with me most was that of the antiques dealer in Jerusalem, Weisz, trying to rebuild his father's office with the original pieces that were taken by Nazis during the war. Weisz explains what he does as an antiques dealer in this quote- "It's true, I can't bring the dead back to life. But I can bring back the chair they once sat in, the bed where they slept." It's funny how something so seemingly unimportant can bring back a flood of memories for a person but it's so true.When I went home for Christmas this year, sleeping in my old bedroom at my parents house was exactly what I needed after moving so far away from my family and the city I grew up in.

Whether you are a fan of Nicole Krauss or not, please do yourself a favor and check out her website. It's currently designed for the release of Great House and it's just fabulous! The piano on the right hand side is genius. It was such a small piece of the book but it made me happy to see it integrated into her site design (if you've already read Great House, you'll know what I mean). I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a story full of beautiful language and great detail. Krauss is also married to the wonderful Jonathan Safran Foer and I feel like they have similar writing styles, so if you're a fan of his, definitely check this book out! Also, if you haven't read The History of Love, go do so now. Please and thank you :)

My rating: 4 stars 

Review: Hate List by Jennifer Brown

Book: Hate List by Jennifer Brown
Published: Little, Brown and Company, 2009
Genre: YA
Pages:  405 pages
Where I got it: got an e-book copy for my Nook
Buy It: Amazon

Summary (from Goodreads): Five months ago, Valerie Leftman's boyfriend, Nick, opened fire on their school cafeteria. Shot trying to stop him, Valerie inadvertently saved the life of a classmate, but was implicated in the shootings because of the list she helped create. A list of people and things she and Nick hated. The list he used to pick his targets.
Now, after a summer of seclusion, Val is forced to confront her guilt as she returns to school to complete her senior year. Haunted by the memory of the boyfriend she still loves and navigating rocky relationships with her family, former friends and the girl whose life she saved, Val must come to grips with the tragedy that took place and her role in it, in order to make amends and move on with her life.

My thoughts: I've been on a really great streak of captivating young adult novels lately. Hate List was another book that I could not put down. Brown tells Valerie's story by alternating between present and past which had me hooked from the beginning. The subject matter is tough, especially after all of the issues with bullying that have come to light in the last couple of years but the story will really leave you stunned. Valerie kept a notebook full of things she hated, including people, places and inanimate objects. When her boyfriend, Nick, found out about the list and began adding things to it, she thought nothing of it. Soon Nick started mentioning suicide and killing people in great detail until one day he finally carried out the plan he seemed to have hinted at for months before, killing several classmates and a teacher before turning the gun on himself.

Thinking about the way Valerie must have felt about being an indirect cause of the shooting makes the story all the more interesting. She had pretty natural thoughts for a teenager, like wishing she could get revenge on the people who make her life hell at school. I know I have said things in the heat of the moment that I never truly meant, but Val's boyfriend took the hate list that they started literally. Despite the fact that so many people treated her like a criminal and her role in the shooting wasn't completely determined, I really liked Val's character. I felt so bad for her and how she really had no one on her side other than her therapist. In addition to dealing with the ramifications of the shooting, Val also had to deal with her crumbling family and the loss of the guy she loved. It was amazing to me that she even went back to the same school at all.

The ending of Hate List was fantastic. Valerie went through so much during her senior year and this book made me feel like I had experienced it all with her. When she is finally able to graduate and present the project she was working on, it was very touching. She grew as person and was able to get back into a good place with the important people in her life. It was nice to see a happy resolution to such a terrible situation. I'd recommend anyone read this book!

My rating: 4 stars 

Book Review: The DUFF by Kody Keplinger

Book: The DUFF by Kody Keplinger
Published: Little Brown/ Poppy, 2010
Genre: YA Fiction
Pages:  288 pages
Where I got it: got an e-book copy for my Nook
Buy It: Amazon

Summary (from Goodreads): Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper is cynical and loyal, and she doesn’t think she’s the prettiest of her friends by a long shot. She’s also way too smart to fall for the charms of man-slut and slimy school hottie Wesley Rush. In fact, Bianca hates him. And when he nicknames her “the Duff,” she throws her Coke in his face.
But things aren’t so great at home right now, and Bianca is desperate for a distraction. She ends up kissing Wesley. Worse, she likes it. Eager for escape, Bianca throws herself into a closeted enemies-with-benefits relationship with him.
Until it all goes horribly awry. It turns out Wesley isn’t such a bad listener, and his life is pretty screwed up, too. Suddenly Bianca realizes with absolute horror that she’s falling for the guy she thought she hated more than anyone.

My thoughts: The DUFF (Designated Ugly Fat Friend) is a story about self esteem during the teenage years. If you talk to pretty much any young girl with a group of girlfriends, you'll find out that she has felt like the duff at one time or other. When Bianca Piper meets the hot, womanizing Wesley Rush, it's clear he's only after one thing. He is looking to score with Bianca's good looking friends and chatting up the duff is a good way to score brownie points with her friends. He introduces the term "the Duff" to her and continues to address her as such throughout the book. Bianca is a smart girl who doesn't fall for guys like Wesley. When her family life starts to go downhill, Bianca finds that kissing him is the perfect distraction from her troubles. Eventually she finds herself starting to care about Wesley and getting jealous of the other girls he's seeing. The DUFF was a fun, quick read for me (I read it in just a few hours), although a little predictable at times.

The DUFF had it's depressing moments, like when Bianca would get down on herself for the way Wesley was calling her the duff (although he usually didn't treat her like he thought of her that way). It was sad to read about the developing troubles with her parents. I liked Bianca even though I felt like I probably shouldn't. She was a promiscuous hypocrite when it came to Wesley and was kind of the downer of her group of friends, but her snarky attitude was what won me over. Her two best friends were polar opposites of her, both peppy and popular. I could not stand Bianca's crush, Toby Tucker, and thought there were certain parts of their brief relationship that were odd. He didn't seem like her type at all, other than them both being smart kids who don't typically follow the trends that the other students do. I was rooting for Bianca and Wesley in the end and I'm happy with the outcome of the story.

I was amazed to find out that Kody Keplinger wrote this book when she was a senior in high school. I think that her characterizations of high school students were pretty spot on, so I guess I shouldn't have been so surprised. She's definitely a young, new author to watch. I'm looking forward to reading her next effort.

My rating: 4 stars 

Book Review: The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler

Book: The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler
Published: A Plume Book, 2004
Genre: Fiction
Pages:  304 pages
Where I got it: bought it at a thrift store
Buy It: Amazon

Summary (from Goodreads): In California's central valley, five women and one man join to discuss Jane Austen's novels. Over the six months they get together, marriages are tested, affairs begin, unsuitable arrangements become suitable, and love happens. With her eye for the frailties of human behaviour and her ear for the absurdities of social intercourse, Karen Joy Fowler has never been wittier nor her characters more appealing. The result is a delicious dissection of modern relationships.

My thoughts:  I read quite a few negative or mediocre reviews about The Jane Austen Book Club before picking it up off my shelf. I was hesitant to read it, but I actually enjoyed this novel for the most part. The title is a bit off putting; once you start reading you will see that this is not a novel about Jane Austen, but about the people in the Jane Austen book club. I found the characters to be interesting, if not a little pretentious. The women of the book club were very snooty when it came to discussing the works of Jane Austen. Some of the thoughts they had about the man in the club, Grigg, bothered me. They accepted him into their group but often turned their noses up at his ideas because he wasn't as familiar with Austen as they were.

The beginning of the book had more discussions about Austen and quotes from her novels. I was enjoying how Fowler applied the events in whatever Austen novel they were reading at the time to the stories she told about the lives of her characters. About halfway through The Jane Austen Book Club, I felt like that really dropped off and it became a book about the characters completely. It didn't seem as cleverly written anymore. The relationship between Jocelyn and Grigg bugged me. It seemed to me that Jocelyn was just settling in the end. There wasn't very much chemistry between the two until she found out he had a crush on her. It felt very middle school to me. Fowler meant for there to be a happy ending, between Jocelyn & Grigg, and Sylvia welcoming her husband back home and into their book club. However, I couldn't shake the feeling that it was another matter of convenience for them to get back together.

I think too many people were expecting a book all about Jane Austen and her writing and this really wasn't that. If you are able to go into it knowing that, you will probably enjoy it more for what it is. Most of the characters are likeable and it was a relatively quick read (for me). If anything, I have an urge to read all of Jane Austen's novel, and in order. If you enjoy a story about the lives and relationships of people, most who happen to be book snobs, I'd suggest you give The Jane Austen Book Club a try.

My rating: 3 stars 

Book Review: No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories by Miranda July

 

Book: No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories by Miranda July 
Published: Scribner, 2007
Pages: 224
Genre: Fiction
Buy It: Amazon

Summary (from Goodreads): Award-winning filmmaker and performing artist Miranda July brings her extraordinary talents to the page in a startling, sexy, and tender collection. In these stories, July gives the most seemingly insignificant moments a sly potency. A benign encounter, a misunderstanding, a shy revelation can reconfigure the world. Her characters engage awkwardly -- they are sometimes too remote, sometimes too intimate. With great compassion and generosity, July reveals their idiosyncrasies and the odd logic and longing that govern their lives. No One Belongs Here More Than You is a stunning debut, the work of a writer with a spectacularly original and compelling voice.

My thoughts: I think I missed the part about this book being "sexy" when I first heard about it. No One Belongs Here More Than You is a collection of short stories by the filmmaker Miranda July. I've seen her movie, Me, You and Everyone We Know and really enjoyed the awkwardness in it. However, the stories in this collection I found to be a little too bizarre most times. I first started listening to this as an audiobook back in July when my boyfriend and I were on our road trip across the country. We were both pretty weirded out by some of the stories and had to listen to them in bits because so many were depressing. We got through about half of the book on that trip and then I recently checked it out of the library to finish the second half. There were a couple of stories toward the end that I enjoyed enough to make up for where others were lacking. Many of the characters were awkward to the point that it made me uncomfortable for them and I had to push myself to read on. There were also quite a few sex scenes (mostly imagined by the characters) that I felt didn't belong because it took away from the innocence and naivete that July had spent time building up in each story. I really wanted to enjoy this collection after hearing many rave reviews and being a fan of July's film. It just didn't live up to the hype for me.

The verdict: 2 stars