Truly, Madly, Guilty - Liane Moriarty

I liked this book slightly less than Big Little Lies (you can read that review here), mostly due to the pacing, but Liane Moriarty really does write rich, full stories, with complex characters. This one was no exception. This particular story begins with a bit of a mystery. 

We are introduced to three couples, Erica and Oliver, a stuffy, precise couple; Clementine and Sam, a fun couple which includes a female cellist and their two adorable daughters; and Vid and Tiffany, rich neighbors of E&O who also have a daughter, Dakota. The book begins with Erica and Clementine, childhood friends who have an odd competitive, complicated history and the set-up includes mentions back to some event, a barbecue that has changed the course of these characters lives. 

As we get further and further into the book the barbecue mystery deepens, takes shape, unravels, and then becomes clear again. I felt like this portion of the book took a bit too long and it seemed the author let the characters take on a bit too much - as in she allowed too many of them to have their own POV chapters that ended up feeling a bit unnecessary. So the first half of the book, first 60% really was a bit of a frustrating experience for me. While the last portion hit me on a pretty personal level, and having just finished it, is pushing me to give a 4-star rating, I have to recall again that the first part was so frustrating. 

But again, Moriarty gives us such rich characters who are complex, and rather than become caricatures of themselves, she allows their past and their parenting and their influences to shape wonderfully flawed and human portraits. It's a pleasure to think about the characters and what they are going through and have them react to situations like real people, rather than two-dimensional figures pushing forward a plot point.

3.5/5 Stars.. 

V is for Vengeance - Sue Grafton

Back in April of 2012, I read the first of Sue Grafton's Alphabet series in about six days. The books have become a bit more sophisticated since then, and longer, so this one took a bit longer to read. Every year for the past four years, I've thought that maybe I'd get to the end of the series or at least catch up to Grafton, who continues to write these books as if the 80s never died. This actually may be the year. X came out last year and it's patiently waiting in my kindle to be read. So there is only W standing between me and the current end of the series. 

V finds us hopping around in narrative view point between Kinsey, a quasi gangster named Lorenzo Dante, and a bored socialite, Nora Vogelsang and it all begins with Kinsey shopping for underwear. While at the store, Kinsey spots Audrey Vance slip a couple pairs of very expensive pajamas into a bag. Because she has an overly developed sense of justice, Kinsey turns the woman into the store clerk and an eventual arrest is made. When Audrey Vance turns up dead after taking a spill off a local bridge and into a ravine, Kinsey is hired by the woman's former fiancee to unravel what happened. 

This leads Kinsey into a very organized retail theft ring headed by Lorenzo Dante. Because we have Lorenzo's point of view, we know early on that Audrey was helped in her trip over the bridge by Lorenzo's bumbling but violent brother Cappi. Most of Dante's portions of the book are meant to humanize him. He's a gangster with heart. He never orders any of the violence Cappi performs, he's sorry for those things. He had a close relationship with his mother, who left the family when Dante was young. His father was violent and beat Dante as a child, and now Dante has fallen in love with Nora. The sections from Nora's point of view, in hindsight, seem the most irrelevant and unnecessary in the book, but because the book is set up like a mystery novel, you're not sure of this until the very end. The thing that didn't work for me, was that as judgmental as Kinsey was about the harm that retail theft does, she seemed awful quick to want to forgive Dante for his hand in the entire thing, which was to actually be the head of it all. 

Thrown in is a side drama involving Pinky Ford, who gave Kinsey her set of key picks which come up about once a book, and his wife Dodie. Why Kinsey feels so inclined to stick her neck out for Pinky in this book is a mystery in and of itself and seemed more like a stretch to make a plot point work. 

This was definitely not my favorite of the alphabet mysteries. Most of them get a solid 3 stars, but since this one had so many off elements, it's only getting two.

2/5 stars.

The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah

This poor book was one that I received from the library in the middle of listening to something else, then tried to rush through in a few days, then realized it wouldn't happen, then waited three weeks for it to come back around so I could finish it. But I'm so glad I finished it - so very glad.

This is a story of two French sisters during World War 2 who make their own contributions to the resistance effort. Vienne is the older sister, with a daughter of her own and a husband at the front. Isobelle is the younger, more impulsive and impetuous sister. After the death of their mother at a young age, the two girls are estranged from each other and their alcoholic father. Isobelle grows up angry and desperate for love and notoriety. At the start of the war she is impatient to make her mark. She becomes "The Nightingale" ushering downed Allied pilots across the Pyrenees and into Spain to freedom.

Vienne is fearful for her child and her home. A German officer is billeted at her home during the occupation and Vienne must be careful of everything she says and does. Through the heartbreaking moments - and there are many many heartbreaking moments - the sisters' courage, shown in two decidedly different manners, is what carries the story. The ending was a bit too predictable and saccharine in comparison with the rest of the novel, but it didn't take away too much enjoyment from the reading.

I cried. Yeah yeah, I'm a softy. But the emotional moments were bought and paid for by the characters so they earned it. I really enjoyed this book and how it highlights the efforts of women during WWII. I can't wait to visit Paris again.

4/5 Stars.

The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt

This is a book for readers. Correction, this is a gift for readers. For those who love escaping in the pages, and find themselves caring deeply about the characters who are revealed within them. This is a gift. A big, heart thumping, book so real you can feel it gift. 

That The Goldfinch won a Pulitzer Prize is not a surprise to me. It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. It's a finely crafted, gracefully written, surprisingly accessible piece of masterwork fiction. I have a suspicion it may just be the best book I'll read this year. 

The story follows Theo Decker, a young teen whose mother is killed in a horrible terrorist attack. In the midst of the attack at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Theo escapes the grisly scene with a copy of Fabritius' The Goldfinch (you can read more about the painting here). A 1654 masterpiece whose story and description were lost with time, as Fabritius himself, and much of his other works were destroyed in a fire at his studio.

As a reader, we know only what Theo knows. We are shown the world through his eyes, and Tartt does a magnificent job telling us only what we need to know. She doesn't over explain, she doesn't extrapolate. We can think outside Theo's sphere, but not because the author herself has made any attempt to add in a narrator's interpretation. So there are some details of events in the book that seem so limited, but in a way, perfectly true to the story and the world created through Theo.

Theo is a flawed character, and I loved him the better for it. I never felt he was out of opportunities to make his life better, to overcome his trauma and the short shrift he was given in the life department. And Theo himself is aware of all this as well. It's like sharing in on a good friend's shame, and loving him despite all of it. 

There are so many twists in Theo's life, but Tartt knows just when to cut ahead in time and save us some of the banal sorrow that would have drug the piece down into tedious pace.

5/5 Stars.

2016 Review

In 2016 I read 57 books, or 18,395 pages (I also recently have a string of half-finished audio books that returned to the library before they could be finished and I'm patiently waiting for them to turn back up in my account - so the page number is a little higher). This is a dramatic increase over last year when I read 39 books, or 11,683 pages. I credit the increase in books read to the fact that I discovered audio books to aid in my half marathon training runs and a couple of long car rides that necessitated entertainment. All the reviews this year on the blog were my own fresh from 2016. I'm hoping to enlist a few guest reviews this year.

Longest Book: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. The surprising thing was not how long this book was, but how short Chernow managed to make it given the source material and the endless fascination to be spurred by the details of Hamilton's life. I mean, the guy died in a duel with the Vice President of the United States. I know Dick Cheney shot someone too, but it wasn't on purpose. Chernow was the first author to uncover many of Hamilton's writings from his time living in St. Croix and other details from his early life in the Caribbean. To say this is the book that launched a thousand memes is an understatement. It's the book that launched a musical phenomenon and saved Hamilton's face on the $10 bill. Quite an accomplishment. You can read my full review here.

Shortest Book: Short Stores from Hogwarts of Power, Politics and Pesky Poltergeists by J.K. Rowling. I came upon this by accident, but it was very cheap from Amazon one day and I'm basically a sucker for all things J.K. Rowling touches, so I got it. It's length didn't merit a full post, but you can read additional thoughts here.

Best Book: American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I can't explain it, but this book felt very important to me when I was reading it, and it made me think of America and Gods and religion in a different way. I loved the idea of it, and how it was executed. I'm so excited this is becoming a TV show (check out a promo video here). I hope the TV show doesn't suck, because I'll probably watch it anyway and hate myself for it. I told everyone I knew this year that they should give this book a chance. You can read my full review here.

Best Character: This was the hardest one for me to decide. Shadow from American Gods was a great character. He's thoughtful and honest and being with him at the unraveling of the theocratic structure of our country was quite a ride. I also was a big fan of Newt Scamander from the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them Screenplay (you can read that review here). I'm partial to any Hufflepuff who manages to make it big, so to speak. And finally, there's A. Ham himself. I've spent part of 2015 and all of 2016 engrossed and obsessed with all things Hamilton. It kind of reminds me of my pre-teen fascination with The New Kids on the Block, only high-brow. I don't have pins or posters from Teen Beat hung up in my room, but I did actually buy a paper copy of Rolling Stone Magazine this year and I saw the musical twice - once in New York (you can read about that experience here) and once in Chicago. Oh I also read both the biography and the story behind the musical.So in the end, I think I have to go with Mr. Hamilton. Ambitious, tragic, flawed, could have been President of the United States had he managed to get out of his own way at the time. He's fascinating and since he inspired the best piece of pop culture in my lifetime, I think he wins hands down.

Worst Book: Deliver Us From Evil by David Baldacci. I should have known this one was bad when I realized I had read the prior book and had no memory of it whatsoever, despite having reviewed in on Goodreads. I wasn't impressed with the first book either. This book had crappy characters, a crappy plot, and unbelievable motives. Plus, I was 10 pages away from finishing it on vacation when my eldest woke my youngest up from a nap and we proceeded on a cranky four hour car trip through the Canadian Shield. We were all fed up. So then I finally finished this book and put us all out of our misery. You can read my full review here.

Biggest Disappointment: Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware. After coming off reading In a Dark Dark Wood (you can read that review here), I was pretty stoked to read Ruth Ware's follow up. The previous book had made for some good running material as I was completely engrossed and seemed to not notice I was running for hours at a time. But this was was hugely disappointing. The main character was not tolerable, not barely tolerable, she was NOT tolerable at all (see below). So I put on my big girl pants, since the main character was not going to, and finished the book. Only now I feel bad because somehow my mom started reading this on my purported recommendation, and I can't believe I screwed up so badly as to lead her down this path. You can read my full review here.

Worst Character: Lo Blacklock, The Woman in Cabin 10. Typically unreliable narrators are okay for me, but they have to be someone I at least could be in the same room with. Big no for Lo Blacklock. Big big no. See above.


Honorable Mentions:  I should say there were a few books that didn't make the above list but were so good, I wanted to throw a shout out to them. Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad (review here) was excellent, as was Justin Cronin's City of Mirrors (review here) - rounding out his trilogy that began with The Passage.I'd highly recommend either of these books.

Goals for 2017: I've set my goal of 52 books for this year. I know it is doable since I blew that away in 2016. I'll be training for another half marathon soon so I'll have the time to listen. 52 books is a book a week and I know I'll get my Ploughshares love in three times this year.

Will George RR Martin get around to publishing Winds of Winter (signs are pointing to yes!- check out this update), I'm not counting on it (I was similarly disappointed last year) or I would have set the goal at 45. But if it ruins my reading goal for the year, I'd be okay with that.

Dead Wake - Erik Larson

Nerd alert. I love history and I love military history, but my brain always seems to jump from the American Civil War to WWII. I recently read a book about the Napoleonic Wars in Europe (you can read that review here). After reading this book, it seems that Europe was still confused about whether they were fighting the Napoleonic wars in 1915. 

Trench warfare is awful.

Anyway, a lot of the assumptions I had about the Lusitania were wrong. I thought the US went to war right after the Lusitania was sunk. Wrong. I thought the Lusitania was a US ship. Wrong. 

So amid all of these wrong facts, I somehow forgot that in May 1915, the Lusitania was filled with people. Mothers, fathers, children, babies, sons, wives, Vanderbilts! And that's all so sad and tragic. Larson really hits home with the descriptions of families trying to stay together as the ship went down. Even though the water was warmer than the Titanic sinking, the speed at which the ship sank, the 55 degree water, and the distance from shore really made surviving difficult for the passengers. 

The narration of the audio version was slightly irritating as it was a bit too over dramatic, but all in all I really liked this book and learning more about the events precipitating WWI.

4/5 Stars.

Mini Reviews - Filling my Days with Harry Potter Shorts

I know it seems like all I've been doing lately is reading Harry Potter related things (like the play Cursed Child, or the Screenplay for Fantastic Beasts). I probably am due to go ahead and re-read the entire 7 book original series. There's a certain catharsis in reliving all the Harry Potter moments. But when Kindle offers me a $1.99 deal on reading some Harry Potter shorts, well, then, just take my money Amazon. Just take it.



A good collection of Pottermore descriptions which I appreciate being put into an anthology so I don't have to dig around on the site to find.

I'm a total sucker for anything that includes J.K. Rowling's name (or let's be honest, even her fake name) on it. This collection is a testament to the rich world she created with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's (Philosopher's) Stone. 

Keep creating J.K. I'm ready for anything.





This was a short volume Rowling wrote to raise money for Comic Relief. Written in full Harry Potter world form, the book gives the history of Quidditch from the middle ages through present day. 

It was fun to read about the possible fouls and early forms of Quidditch. A short delightful read for anyone who loves the world of Harry Potter.