Review | What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

Author: Liane Moriarty
Published: May 2010 (January 2009)
Publisher: PanMacmillan Australia
Pages: 487
Format: Paperback
Genre: Romance, Women's Fiction
Rating: ★★★★☆

[Show Synopsis]
Synopsis
Alice is twenty-nine. She is whimsical, optimistic and adores sleep, chocolate, her ramshackle new house and her wonderful husband Nick. What's more, she's looking forward to the birth of the 'Sultana' - her first baby.

But now Alice has slipped and hit her head in her step-aerobics class and everyone's telling her she's misplaced the last ten years of her life.

In fact, it would seem that Alice is actually thirty-nine and now she loves schedules, expensive lingerie, caffeine and manicures. She has three children and the honeymoon is well and truly over for her and Nick. In fact, he looks at her like she's his worst enemy. What's more, her beloved sister Elisabeth isn't speaking to her either. And who is this 'Gina' everyone is so carefully trying not to mention?

Alice isn't sure that she likes life ten years on. Every photo is another memory she doesn't have and nothing makes sense. Just how much can happen in a decade? Has she really lost her lovely husband forever?

Review
Not exactly an original idea. Girl has family troubles, she falls down, gets amnesia, and forgets all about any family problems, but it was a pretty good book. It didn't end anything like I expected it to though.

I liked younger Alice more. She was more carefree, maybe a little too much though, and actually listened to her kids instead of assuming she knew everything. Younger Alice kind of reminds me more of my mom. I always felt sorry for the kids who had parents like older Alice.

Review | The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian

Author: Chris Bohjalian
Narrator: Cassandra Campbell, Alison Fraser
Published: July 17, 2012
Publisher: Random House Audio
Format: Audiobook
Length:  11 hrs 9min
Genre: Adventure, Historical Fiction, Romance
Rating: ★★★★☆

[Show Synopsis]
Synopsis
(from Goodreads)
When Elizabeth Endicott arrives in Syria, she has a diploma from Mount Holyoke College, a crash course in nursing, and only the most basic grasp of the Armenian language. The First World War is spreading across Europe, and she has volunteered on behalf of the Boston-based Friends of Armenia to deliver food and medical aid to refugees of the Armenian genocide. There, Elizabeth becomes friendly with Armen, a young Armenian engineer who has already lost his wife and infant daughter. When Armen leaves Aleppo to join the British Army in Egypt, he begins to write Elizabeth letters, and comes to realize that he has fallen in love with the wealthy, young American woman who is so different from the wife he lost.Flash forward to the present, where we meet Laura Petrosian, a novelist living in suburban New York. Although her grandparents’ ornate Pelham home was affectionately nicknamed the “Ottoman Annex,” Laura has never really given her Armenian heritage much thought. But when an old friend calls, claiming to have seen a newspaper photo of Laura’s grandmother promoting an exhibit at a Boston museum, Laura embarks on a journey back through her family’s history that reveals love, loss—and a wrenching secret that has been buried for generations.

Review
I'm kind of mad at myself for not writing this review earlier when I finished the book. I had a whole page of notes and comments about this book, and I can't find it. I think I must have left it in the book when I returned it to the library.

This book was somewhat of a shock to me. It was recommended to me by my Grandmother. I knew it was about a world war and since she is so interested in World War II, I thought it was going to be another escape the Nazis book, so I was really surprised to find out it was about World War I. Most people don't know too much about the first World War. The Holocaust is so publicized that they don't realize that the first World War also contained a genocide of massive proportions. As it was called in the book, "The Genocide You Know Almost Nothing About."

Review | A Vintage Affair

Author: Isabel Wolff
Published: January 19, 2009
Publisher: Harper
Pages: 432
Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Romance, Women's Fiction, World War II
Rating: ★★★★☆
Reading Guide from LitLovers

Synopsis 
(from Goodreads)
Every dress has a history. And so does every woman.

Phoebe Swift’s friends are stunned when she abruptly leaves a plum job to open her own vintage clothing shop in London—but to Phoebe, it’s the fulfillment of a dream, and her passion. Digging for finds in attics and wardrobes, Phoebe knows that when you buy a piece of vintage clothing, you’re not just buying fabric and thread—you’re buying a piece of someone’s past. But one particular article of clothing will soon unexpectedly change her life.

Review | Devil in the White City

Author: Erik Larson
Published: October 17, 2002
Publisher: Crown Publishers
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 447
Genres: Mystery, Non-Fiction
Rating: ★★★★★
Reading Guide from LitLovers

Synopsis
Burnham had a vision. A vision of Chicago being the center of attention of the whole world. And he got his wish, in more ways than one.

In the late 19th century, Chicago was voted to become the home of the Columbian Exposition World's Fair. There was a lot of work to be done before the fair could open. It was one of the grandest times in US history, filled with wondrous inventions, architecture, and art, but while Chicago was experiencing one of it's greatest moments in history, it was also experiencing one of it's darkest.

Just a few blocks from the fair, Dr. H.H. Holmes built his castle. A castle of death and deception. Women went in and were never heard from or seen again. But no one suspected the charming, young doctor. And the longer he remained undetected, the more confident he grew, and the more fun he had.

Review
This was a wonderfully well written book. It's obvious that a lot of time and research went into the making of it. It was a bit frustrating to read since it's such a long book. It seemed to take even longer since there is so much information that you can easily go into information overload, but having all that information is what made this book good. It brought it to life. Larkson had a very descriptive writing style that made everything easy to imagine. All the missing commas were rather annoying though.

Review | The Light Between Oceans

Author: M.L. Stedman
Published: April 9, 2012
Publisher: Scribner
Pages: 343
Genres: Drama, Historical Fiction, Romance, Women's Fiction
Rating: ★★★★☆

Synopsis
(from Goodreads)
After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day’s journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season and shore leaves are granted every other year at best, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby.

Tom, whose records as a lighthouse keeper are meticulous and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. But Isabel has taken the tiny baby to her breast. Against Tom’s judgment, they claim her as their own and name her Lucy. When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world. Their choice has devastated one of them.

Never Let Me Go

Find Never Let Me Go on Goodreads
Genres: Fantasy, Romance
Rating: ★★★☆☆

(finished March 31st)

I found the beginning really hard to get through. If I had picked up this book on my own, I would have dropped it and never finished it. But since I want to read every book we pick for the book club, I forced my way through. In the end though, it was a pretty good and thought provoking book.

As for the "beauty in this book," I liked how everything unfolded, and you didn't find out everything until the very end. I love stories like that, but I didn't like the way it was written. It had too slow of a start. It also wasn't written in a way that made me very interested. Looking back now, I like the plot, but it wasn't very captivating to the reader.

From the beginning, the school the children attended was rather suspicious. The teachers are called guardians rather than teachers or professors, none of the children have parents but they’re not at an orphanage, and none of them will be able to have children of their own when they become adults. When I discovered that last piece of information, I thought, “Whoa, wait now. How do they know this? Did they do something to these children to make them sterile?”

Echo Park (Harry Bosch #12)

Find Echo Park on GoodReads
Genres/Themes: Mystery
Rating: ★★★☆☆

Not my kind of book, but it was good for a one time read. I don't think I could read it again let alone the entire series.

It had a really slow start. Since I was reading this for a book club, I set myself a daily page goal in order to finish on time since I was having problems getting into it. It wasn't until about half way through that things really started picking up and two-thirds of the way through before it got exciting. Much of the slow beginning is groundwork for the climax to come, but I think some of it could have been cut out/down or made more exciting to help draw the reader in, but then if you're reading book 12 after the first 11, you're already drawn in. 

The Thirteenth Tale

Find The Thirteenth Tale on GoodReads

Genres/Themes: Fantasy, Mystery
Rating: ★★★★☆

(finished May 4th)
At the beginning, I had a hard time getting into the book. It has a bit of a slow start, but as the story started twisting around, and as it presented more and more questions, I found it hard to put down.

When I started reading this book, I hadn't read anything about it yet. I just knew that a lot of people were reading it (and my book club chose it). I was expecting something like a fairy tale. At the end, Vida Winter relates the story to Cinderella. In that case, it is the most twisted Cinderella story I've ever read. (And I thought Cinder was different!)

I found it interesting that both stories told in the book were stories of twins. Twins aren't usually a common topic for books. Vida Winter's twin tale was strange, shocking and sad. Margaret's was strange and sad in another way. I found the camera/mirror scene kind of weird.

The ending for me was a surprise. Some people I have talked to said they guessed at it, but it wasn't until just before it was revealed that I figured it out. A wonderful twist of an ending, though I felt sad for Emmaline.

I'm rather surprised by all the high ratings this book has received on GoodReads. It seems to me that this is the type of book that would have more of an even spread over like, neutral, and dislike. If you find yourself not liking the book, try to make it to when the twins are born. I thought it got better after that.

Anne of Green Gables (Anne of Green Gables #1)

Find Anne of Green Gables on Goodreads 
Genres/Themes: Classics, Historical Fiction, Romance
Rating: ★★★★★

I've seen the movie for this book, but until now hadn't read it. I loved the movie very much and hopped the book would be half as good. It was much much better.

Anne is a very lovable and cute character. You just can't help wanting to read on to find out what kind of trouble she's going to end up in next.

It was very interesting to see how Anne learned from her mistakes and matured. By the end of the book, she was a young lady. Almost sad really. She was no longer the clumsy trouble making girl she was at the beginning to of the story.

It was also interesting to see how Matthew and Merila changed and evolved throughout the story. Merila was much different from the seemingly hard woman at the beginning who wanted to adopt a boy. And although still shy of women and quiet, it was interesting to see how Matthew opened to Anne and to see the little things he did for her at the objection of Merila.

Altogether, it was a fun read. I can't wait to read the next book.

The Hobbit

Find The Hobbit on Goodreads
Genres/Themes: Adventure, Classics, Fantasy 
My Rating: ★★★★☆

This book wasn’t as good as I remembered. Maybe it’s because I’m also reading Game of Thrones which is very action packed, but the story of The Hobbit just kind of…went. It was kind of like: “This happened, then this, oh and this also happened, and that happened, but that’s another story.” It was like a monotonous journal or a documentary. I wasn’t drawn into the story, I was able to recognize the words. Normally when I’m reading a good book, I don’t even realize that I’m reading.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Find Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet on Goodreads
Genres/Themes: Historical Fiction, Romance, World War II
My Rating: ★★★★☆

I wanted to rate this book lower because of the time discrepancies (Internet support group? Laser digital copying? In the 80s? I don't think so), but I just couldn't do it. The last 5 chapters were the deciding factor. I would like to recommend that if you are going to read this, pretend that every time it says 1986 it actually says 2001.

The plot was very good, but could have been written better. The transition between time periods could have been done better, but that aside, it was a very touching love story. Sometimes life doesn't turn out the way you want it, and that's what happened with this story, but that doesn't mean that you can't have a happy ending.

So much I want to say, but so many spoilers, so enter at your own risk!
[Show Spoiler]
The love between Keiko and Henry was so sweet, I wanted to see them together so much, but you know it won't happen since he'd been married to Ethel for so many years. I should have seen it coming, but I didn't realize that the post girl was Ethel. I really like how they ended up meeting, though I thought he gave up on Keiko too fast. Especially since he thought he saw her in the crowd. I was glad that in the end they ended up meeting. I was even more excited that she had the record. I was so upset when Henry found it broken. I didn't want Sheldon to die without hearing it.

The ending had a very nice turn to it. You thought it would go one way and it would turn and turn again. At one point I was so mad thinking, "I'm going to hate this ending," then it turned. I ended up liking the ending and the conclusion to the romances better than if everything had turned out the way I had originally wanted it to. I don't often cry for any reason. This is one of two books that I have read that has caused me to tear up. A very emotional and satisfying ending.


From Book Club Discussion:

Anyone ever notice that when people talk about the war, the Holocaust and Jewish concentration camps are mentioned, but no one ever says anything about the Japanese camps we had here in the states? Yeah they weren't as bad, but there was a lot of bad stuff that happened there too. How much did you learn about them in school? All I remember is a brief overview of them during one or two days of History and a couple weeks spent on the Jews. And the conditions of the camps were just glossed over.

http://www.densho.org/densho.asp
http://la8period3.pbworks.com/w/page/25942447/Living...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_American_internment
http://vimeo.com/29012607

1. Did you like this book? Why or why not?
I liked the book. I can’t say I loved it though. 

The first thing that bothered me was that Marty was part of an internet support group in the 80s. There were a couple of other time discrepancies that made reading this frustrating. Once I imagined that the year was 2001, I was a lot happier reading. That wouldn’t have made Henry too old either, so everything would still be plausible (more so even).

The author also didn’t seem to know when to switch back and forth between time periods. Sometimes the switch would happen at a good stopping point, most times not. And sometimes I was left wondering why it hadn’t switched yet.  I liked the idea that the author was going for, but I don’t think it was executed very well.

The other thing that got me, was that even though all this looting and trash talking and imprisonment was going on, everyone was too happy. The Okabes just took everything as it came and contributed it to patriotism. I don’t care how patriotic you are, you may still act patriotic and take it, but there is going to be some grumbling behind the scenes.

2. Who was your favorite character and why?
Keiko, she was just so cute. Whenever I think of her character, I imagine her in her pink dress at the club staring bright-eyed at the musicians playing.

3. Father-son relationships are a crucial theme in the novel. How is the relationship between Henry and his father different from that between Henry and Marty?
First, I would like to say that Henry’s father drove me nuts. He was so contradictory! He wanted his son to be American, so he had to speak English, go to a white school, and would get mad if Henry behaved too Chinese. But then Henry had to follow Chinese traditions and finish his schooling in China, and when Henry wanted to live as an American, his father threw a fit. Make up your mind! Let the kid be a Chinese American.

Anyways, building on that, Henry and his father seemed to have a strenuous relationship. Henry’s father wanted the relationship of a traditional Chinese family, but his wanting his son to be American didn’t really fit into that picture well even though he wanted it to and caused a lot of problems.  You can’t have it both ways 100%, you’re going to have to give somewhere.

The relationship between Marty and Henry seemed pretty good but distant. Henry let Marty grow up as an American but in doing so he kept his past from Marty. In doing so, he kept a part of himself from him too.

4. Many characters in the novel make sacrifices in pursuit of their dreams for themselves and for others. Which example resonated with you the most? Do you think any characters sacrifice too much, or for the wrong reasons?
Keiko’s sacrifice of freedom to stay with her family (more than once) resonated with me the most. She didn’t know what the internment camp would be like or how long they would be there or how they would be treated, but even though she wanted to be free and with Henry, she decided to stay with her family. I really like that since family is so important in my family too.

Another sacrifice that resonated with me was Sheldon giving the last record to Henry for Keiko’s birthday. Although, if they sold so well and fast, I don’t see how there wouldn’t have been enough money to produce more, but whatever.

The father sacrificing his son for his pride over Henry’s love of Keiko was too much and for the wrong reasons. He’s your son, forgive him, and learn to compromise.  Though I understand why it happened that way. Filial piety in China is absolute. In Henry’s father’s eyes, Henry dishonored him, but then forgiving him is a step in becoming more American and understanding.

The Language of Flowers

Find The Language of Flowers on Goodreads
Genres/Themes: Romance, Women's Fiction
My Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Not quite sure why this book is rated as high as it is. Even the people in my book group mostly seemed to love it. I found it depressing from beginning to end. Victoria was so stupid about many of her choices. I couldn't connect with any of the characters at all. I pretty much wanted to slap everyone all the way through, especially Elizabeth. 




From Book Club Discussion:

The Winter Sea

Find The Winter Sea on Goodreads
Genres/Themes: Fantasy, Romance
My Rating: ★★★★★

Thanks to my book club, this is yet another book I never would have picked up on my own that I absolutely fell in love with!

I love that the historical stuff is as historically accurate as possible with the exception of Sophia, and 2 other characters. It was a different/cool way to write the book from the point of an author writing the book instead of just writing the book "herself". It definitely made it more interesting and fun to see the two stories parallel each other.

I even read the afterward, which tells you a brief history and the accuracy of the novel. I rarely read those! The writing style of the author was just amazing.

If you love romance (even just slightly) and history (especially Scottish/English), I think you'll love this book. I also think anyone who liked Pride and Prejudice will also like this book.


From Book Club Discussion (spoilers):

The Dovekeepers

Find The Dovekeepers on Goodreads
Genres/Themes: Historical Fiction, Women's Fiction
My Rating: ★★★★☆

This book was much better than I expected. When I started this book, I was having such a hard time reading it. I wanted to just drop it and give it 2 stars. Don't!

The first story, I didn't think was all that good. I just wanted to strangle Yael. The second part featuring Revka was much better. The third portion with Aziza was my favorite. I could relate to her a lot more than the others, but I can see where different women would find it easier to relate to one of the other women of the story. The last part with Shirah was also very good. After finishing the story, I googled Masada to get a better picture of where the main part of the story took place. Putting the images together with the story just ripped at my heart.

I would definitely recommend this book to any woman, especially if you are interested in history or religious history.


From Book Club Discussion (spoilers):