Stray City – Chelsey Johnson
Rating: 3 stars
Cliff Notes: It was fine.
Full Summary: I think I would have liked it better with more in depth POV chapters from various characters.
The River – Peter Heller
Rating; 3 stars
Cliff Notes: It was fine.
Full Summary: I think it would make a better movie, I hope they make it into one. I did not understand descriptions of fly fishing and hunting and survivalist stuff.
Wunderland – Jennifer Cody Epstein
Rating: 3 stars (would be 3 1/2 if Goodreads had partials)
Cliff Notes: I love all books about WW2 so I might be biased.
Full Summary: I have always had a fascination with books about World War 2 so when I saw this book‘s review in People Magazine I knew I wanted to read it. It did not disappoint. It was a a little different in that the 2 girls were teenagers during the Nazi-era vs most of the books I read where the characters are adults. Plus it went in reverse time through part of it and also had flash backs and flash forwards so that was interesting, but made it confusing at times.
True Blue – David Baldacci
Rating: 3 stars
Cliff Notes: Quick Beach Week read
Full Summary: I liked the sisters and plan to go to Baldacci’s backlist to see if there is a book that covers Mace’s kidnapping, etc. I could have done without about 100 pages of Psycho, Tyler, Razor, etc. I don’t think it would have spoiled the plot at all.
The Girls in the Picture – Melanie Benjamin
Rating: 3 stars
Cliff Notes: It was fine. I got bogged down in name dropping and movie titles. I do want to look up the movie Fran did about women in WW1.
Full Summary: I liked the theme woven throughout this book – that women need to band together and support each other. I believe that a high tide raises all boats. But it also showed how hard we are on each other at times and how we let men waylay our goals, relationships with other women, and / or both.
The Fallen – David Baldacci
Rating: 3 stars
Cliff Notes: I really like the Amos Decker character, but I could have used this book to be shorter by about 75 pages and less of a skip off into the sunset.
Full Summary: Not much more to add to the review, really. I don’t need much personality woven into my Amos Decker stories. It was sweet how he connected with Zoe, but it did not change the rating for me. I will continue to read the Memory Man series!
Odd Apocalypse – Dean Koontz
Rating: 2 stars
Cliff Notes: Omg I should have quit this damn book. I threw this one when I finished it. I may never read another Odd Thomas.
Full Summary: It usually does take a bit to get into the action in an Odd Thomas book, but this was extraordinarily long. Then when the action hit, it was effing time travel!? No thank you. Don’t muck up my Beach Week reading with science fiction. Blergh. I spent 512 pages on this puppy so you better believe I threw it when I was done. I generally don’t believe in book abuse, but when I get tricked into not abandoning stuff like this – BYYYYYEEEE!!!
A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini
Rating: 3 stars
Cliff Notes: I have heard great things about this book for years and was excited to pick it up at a recent book sale.
Full Summary: It took me a little longer to get through because of the foreign names of geography and culture (food, clothing, celebrations, etc). I also got bogged down at times with the in depth details of the conflict in the region.
But the stories of these women. Holy cow. The resilience and courage these women showed throughout the novel is humbling, especially knowing that the situations that these women endured are probably taken from actual events. And are probably still happening today.
Secret Daughter – Shilpi Somaya Gowda
Rating: I would rate it 3.5 stars if I could.
Cliff Notes: I loved all of the Indian culture present in this book. The author did a great job describing it in great detail. The themes of motherhood and what that means for women really struck a chord with me, making it hard to read at times.
Full Summary: I don’t think this is spoiler-ish at all, but read the review at your own risk. Somer could not have kids and struggled with that infertility and what it meant about her as a woman. It really struck a chord with me as I have had these same thoughts. Not that I struggled with infertility, but as a woman who does not have biological children of her own.
Throughout evolution, one of the main “purposes” for women is to procreate, to carry children, nurture them, work with other women to foster a community in which to raise the children. This is not my jam. I am about as nurturing as a porcupine, although it has gotten a bit “easier” as the kids have gotten older. Teenagers don’t really want to cuddle – they actually don’t even want to be on the same level of the house with us. I put “easier” in quotes because let’s be honest – the bigger the kid the bigger the problems. We certainly have had our fair share. But I am specifically talking about my ability to be maternal and nurturing. Or not be maternal and nurturing, as it were.
When I first became a step mother and we made the choice to not have children of our own, I did struggle with the idea that I had no purpose as a woman if I was not going to have my own kids. What was broken in me that I did not long for that? Over time I have come to see different ways. I can make a difference in the lives of kids – my nieces or my step kids. Friends’ kids and such. Not everyone needs to birth kids in order to make an impact in their lives. Nurturing can look many different ways.
Nights in Rodanthe – Nicholas Sparks
Rating: 3 stars
Cliff Notes: Super cheesy, but sometimes you just need an escape. I loved how the story ended.
Full Summary: The copy of this book that I read is the one where it had the movie characters on the front so the whole time I just pictured Richard Gere, which I generally don’t like to do because I want to use my imagination. Because that is pretty much the point of books, right!?
Anyway, so this was super cheesy – I am not sure how you fall in love like this in a weekend. But how the relationship played out was RIGHT UP MY ALLEY!! I do want to watch the movie so watch for the review of that. I see a new hashtag coming – Book to Movie Adaptation. Hint: The books is always better.
