Mr. Churchill's Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal

The first in the Maggie Hope series.

I liked this a lot!! It was nice mix of history and mystery. Maggie Hope is a mathematician and code breaker in a time when women were not valued for their smarts but were supposed to be wives, mothers and at most typists.

Maggie wants to do more but she takes a job at 10 Downing as a typists for Winston Churchill. With the start of WWII as the backdrop Mr. Churchill's Secretary is a smartly done war story about the people of London during the start of the German bombing the city, who done it, and tale of what women can do.

(finished May 28, 2014)

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Only seconds have passed since finishing this book and starting to write this. I'm wrecked, in the way really good books can leave you wrecked.

Me Before You a story about real and selfless love, love that makes you sacrifice for the needs of the one you love even as it means you are hurting yourself in the process.

I love Lou. The character was so well written she stepped off the pages and into my heart and imagination. She sparkled with potential and I wanted to hug her and give her pep talks. Her boyfriend and family weren't always very nice to her but with her family you got the sense they loved her but were awfully blunt. They reminded me of Natalie and her family in the movie Love Actually.

And Will...I really felt so torn on how I felt about what he wanted, I loved what he was doing to Lou's life and she to his. But I think of course that is the point of the story so I won't say more...

This goes on my list of best books I've read, EVER.

(Finished May 24, 2014)

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

we were liars is a quick and powerful read. It's the story of a family and the things we do to each other. It is the story of love and greed, love and jealousy and love and forgiveness.

It is also the the story of what our minds can do to protect us from ourselves and from the hoods of loss and tragedy. 

Cadence is a mess. She is recovering from something, she can't remember what exactly and no one will tell her, not her mom, not her aunts or grandfather, not her little cousins and not her four closes friends, her 2 cousins close in age to her, Johnny and Mirren and not Gat who is the boy she loves. As she does remember the truth comes out. I didn't see it coming. I had all kinds of theories about what really happened and I missed it, and I am glad I did. It was an emotional punch when it was revealed. 

(finished May 22, 2014)

Love Life by Rob Lowe

Love Life is Rob Lowe's second book, I guess you could call it a follow up to his first memoir, Stories I Only Tell My Friends.

The title might sound like this is going to be all about his sex life but no...It is a love letter. Picking up this book and starting to read was like picking up a conversation paused at the end of the last book. In this go round Rob shares more intimate thoughts.

The conversation flows and the emotions are so close to the surface. It becomes clear how much being a husband and father has made him feel complete. The book is a love letter to his sons, his wife and his sobriety, a love letter to life. While there are some tidbits of the characters he has played since the end of The West Wing and getting about as far from Sam Seaborn as he could, shows like Californication and the HBO Movie Behind The Candelabra. Not because he didn't love being Sam, he did, but because he was growing and exploring his range.


As with this first book, I thoroughly enjoyed my second visit with the ever adorable, much deeper than he seems, Rob Lowe.

(finished May 19, 2014)

A Fighting Chance by Elizabeth Warren

I love Elizabeth Warren, let me just say that right up front. But objectively, I would suggest you read this book regardless of your political leaning. It is in and of itself a good read.

Part history of the finical collapse and housing bust part autobiography, A Fighting Chance is really interesting. For sure there is a lot less of the personal stuff that the policy and campaign stuff but what is there gives a great insight to who Elizabeth is. And some pieces are gems, like how right from their first meeting she thought her husband Bruce has great legs and hidden in the acknowledgments she tells the world he is a good kisser. She shares the pain of losing her parents, the pain of losing her much loved dogs, and her complete love of teaching. She cares about families, all families not just democrats. She wants to fight for medical research for cancer, Alzheimer's, autism, diabetes and other diseases; she thinks that funding these endeavors is more important than tax loopholes for the mega-wealthy. She thinks that small businesses need more protection even though they don't have the lobbyists big industry has and she will fight for them.

I found the Elizabeth between the covers of this book smart, charming, funny, a little dry at times, but caring and very interesting.

(finished May 17, 2014)

The Divorce Papers by Susan Rieger

Leaving behind "normal" layout of  chapter filled with paragraphs that lead to the next chapter filled with more paragraphs Divorce Papers tells the story, in such a clever way, of Mia & Danny's divorce, the impact on their daughter Jane, Mia's father and the life of Mia's lawyer Sophie the criminal lawyer working her first and last divorce case. The entire story unfolds inside the file for Mia's divorce in the form of emails, hand written notes, interoffice memo, and court filings.

One might think that this format would keep the reader from going below the surface and really getting to know the characters. Not so. Susan Rieger (Mount Holyoke class of 68) manages to get to the heart of characters. Why does Sophie hate working a divorce case? Is Mia more than her bitter anger?

Divorce Papers draws you into the story and you end up getting to know Mia and Sophie. While not a traditional writing style, it gets to the heart of who they are. I really liked both women. While not perfect they felt real and relatable.

(finished May 11, 2014)

Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War by Mark Harris

For my Propaganda & War class I had to watch a couple of Frank Capra's Why We Fight series. Threaded throughout this book was the story of the making of those films and the how and why added to what I saw by watching them.


Mark Harris does an amazing job of telling the story of WWII from the view point of five Hollywood men who were too old to fight the war but each of whom wanted to, for very different sets of reasons, contribute to the war effort. The best way they could was to use their gifts in the art of making movies. Frank Capra, John Ford, William Wyler, John Huston, and George Stevens entered the military as powerful Hollywood film makers. They left their big paychecks, their careers places on hold, said goodbye to their families and went out to film the war. Five Came Back tells the stories of their years of service and then tells what kind of men they came back as. They were all to some degree changed, some more drastically and deeply than others, but all changed none the less. 

George Stevens was at Dachau when it was liberated. He was forever changed and scarred but what he saw their. He filmed hours of footage and put together two films that were used as evidence at the trial of . When I read the chapter on the liberation and the graphic description of just some of what Stevens saw I was sobbing. I can't even begin to imagine how much worse it was being their, seeing what was done there, the sights and smells.... Stevens wrote in his journal how he was feeling so guilty because while they wanted to help the walking dead they discovered there was a repulsion at being touched by these skeletal, louse covered people grabbing at them begging for food or even death. 

With each passing day there are less eyewitnesses to the events of the WWII which makes well done books like this all the more important. 

(Finished May 9, 2014)

Bark: Stories by Lorrie Moore

A book of short stories that were a bit odd. They were the style of short story I enjoy, the kind where you get dropped into the middle of the lives of the characters and you get a small glimpse of what is happening before you are then booted out. I like these brief moments with the shadow of the past and future playing around the edges but not fleshed out. You get to wonder why this is happening and what will happen later but focus on the moment. These stories are like that but they are also kind of strange. Not in a bad way but strange none the less. 

In one story you meet KC and her younger boyfriend as they are struggling to make ends meet as their music careers have fallen flat. KC meets and old man in the neighborhood and he takes to her and it changes her life. 

In another story you get to overhear a conversation between people at a dinner in DC after 9/11 and before the wars that followed. It is stilted and awkward which adds some realism to the moment.

There is story that gives guilt solid form after the death of a longtime friend. 

I didn't totally love this book, I'm not even sure I liked it all that much, I often felt uncomfortable while reading it. But maybe that is the point since these moments were painful and awkward. It was a real fly on the wall set of experiences. 

(finished May 4, 2014)