The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

This is the book Twilight wishes it could be. It is a vampire love story as it should be. It is full of gore because after all vampires are dangerous blood-sucking undead creatures who just happened to have been human at some point. There is danger, intrigue, romance, blood, and stakes. There is no going out in the daylight because when there is then there is smoldering, burning flesh, and a pile of ash.

AND THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO SPARKLING!!!!!


Tana wakes up in a bathtub after a party and all the other teens at this party are dead. The only other souls (or soulless) left alive (relatively speaking) are her pain-in-the-ass ex-boyfriend and a vampire who she feels drawn to save even as she is terrified of him.


Along the road to a Coldtown there is blood (it is after all a vampire story), mystery (who is this vampire and why isn't he trying to drain all the blood form Tana's still living body?), and betrayal. But there is also romance. And this is the least sappy romance I have ever read. And I loved it.


Very well written and fresh even while it might feel familiar because it follows years and years of accepted vampire lore.

Take a trip to Coldtown, you won't regret it.

(Finished December 27, 2014)

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

As in Eleanor & Park Rainbow Rowell creates characters who feel broken in some way. But she does it in such a way that draw you and make you cheer for them to win.

In FanGirl you meet twin sisters Cather and Wren. They are freshman in college. Wren is confident, sassy and outgoing. She wants to try being a person apart from her twin even if they are going to the same college. Cather is an introvert who is having a hard time leaving home and being apart from her twin.

The girls have a mother who walked out on them when they were 8 and a bipolar father who did his best to raise the girls on his own.

Outward appearances can be deceiving and sometimes those who seem the most put together are the ones falling apart in the worst way. And how we see ourselves isn't necessarily how others see us.

What Rainbow does so well is write in such a way that you feel like you are in the skin of her main characters. Healing, honest, heartbreaking.

Cather is such an amazing young woman and it takes her a long time to figure out her worth. Along the way you will fall in love with her.

(Finished December 26, 2014)

As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride By Cary Elwes, Joe Layden

Cary A.K.A. Westley isn't a writer, he is an actor but that doesn't make this book any less enjoyable. In fact it adds to the charm. The pages are peppered with blurbs by his Princess Bride cohorts.

From his casting in the roll of poor farmhand turned pirate Westley As You Wish is a peek behind the scenes and it was wonderful to get the glimpse.

Everything about this book is a pleasure. Even the dust jacket is wonderful. There is printing on both sides.


Cary shares the details on the training for the sword fight, the hard time he had keeping a straight face working with Billy Crystal, and the amazing way Rob Reiner ran the show. The parts about Andre the Giant are very moving.

That this movie was a project of love to all those involved is clear, most of the cast and crew came on board as fans of the book and found it an honor to bring it to life in movie form.


A little on the saccharin side but not unpleasantly so.

(Finished December 23, 2014)

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

My dear friend Eileen is walking across Spain and she posted an update that said she pretty much devoured this book while on this trek. I knew then that I had to run out and get a copy. I started this at 8am and by the end of the day I was done. I wasn't going to bed until I was done, I just needed to get to the last page of Eleanor & Park's story. I had to know where, what, how, they were...And I closed the book with so many feelings. Now the next morning I find myself missing them and wanting more.

The story of teen love isn't your typical cheesy, gooey love story. It is about the relationship that grows between this girl with big red hair and the half Korean half Irish boy who reads comic books. But it is also about how we see ourselves and how the outside world sees us, it is about the toxic things that can be happening behind closed doors that no one can or wants to talk about. It is about finding the person who grounds you to the world so your life and its pain doesn't make you float away, as insignificant as a piece of dust floating in a sunbeam.

Read this. NOW!!!

Then share it with someone.

(Finished September 3, 2014)

The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian

I read a review of this book quite some time ago and it went on my list. Then a couple of weeks ago I saw it on the buy 2 get 1 free table (I'm a sucker for this table, LOVE IT) at Barnes & Noble, remembered it was on my to read list and picked it up to read the back cover. Main character went to Mount Holyoke, SOLD!!!

I picked it up from my pile this week and the timing was fortuitous. The book takes place at the start of WWI and this week is the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the war.

Elizabeth heads to Syria with nothing but her Mount Holyoke degree, some light nursing training and good intentions. She witnesses some of the horrors of the genocide of Armenians. She learns to stand on her own two feet, and she falls in love.

But this isn't some cheesy love story with war as its setting. The story goes back and forth between modern times to 1915. Elizabeth's granddaughter is the narrator and she tells her grandparents story and the story of the Armenian people. She doesn't learn the story of how her grandparents met and fell in love and what the war did to them and others until they were long gone.

The story is told in the form of threads from different prespectives in the past and present and come together in the end in a way that felt satisfying and natural.

I'l admit I didn't know anything about this genocide and it is heartbreaking. While this story is fiction what happened to the Armenians is not. What is told here contains fictional characters but what they witness and experience is not. At times it is quite brutally described. The history lesson, interesting story telling style and the really well told tale make it worth the read.

(finished August 5, 2014)

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

"They don't walk like ordinary dogs, but leap and somersault like an apostrophe and comma."
"They grow up and they grow down and grab the earth between their hairy toes and bite the sky with violent teeth and never quit their anger."

It's lines like those that make this a pleasure to read. Sandra Cisneros draws you in right from the introduction. You want to see things with her eyes. And that is exactly what happens in the pages of The House On Mango Street. It's like someone is talking and you can see what they are talking about but then you blink and the story and scenery change, then you blink again and another story and scenery change, blink-change, blink-change....And each time you are drawn in. Sometimes it is funny, sometimes it is lovely and sometimes it is really sad. But always it is something you want to look at carefully, taking in each and every detail and you want to listen so closely you can taste the words, you want to do this before it changes again because while you can't wait to see what's next you don't want to leave the current story.


I found this book on a table of beach reads. The blurb on the back of the book felt like a challenge, "Acclaimed by critics, beloved by readers of all ages..." so of course I had to grab it. What a good thing I did.

(Finished July 31, 2014)

The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin

This was a book club pick and was on my radar so I gave it a go.

Let's get out of the way the did or didn't I like it question...yes, I liked this book very much. It was well written and very quickly does it make you forget that it is a novel. Melanie Benjamin writes in such a way that it makes this very readable and draws the reader in.


Now, the content. Using actual events and non-fiction writing about Anne and Charles this novel tries to paint a picture of Anne Morrow Lindberg and her life as the wife of one of the most famous men of the day.

She starts out the shy daughter of a diplomat and becomes the wife of the most famous pilot pretty much ever. He isn't a warm man, he doesn't show any real emotion and despises it in Anne and so forbids it. Even when their child is kidnapped and killed.

The story here touches on how he controlled her, including making her share his views and she allows it. She doesn't find her own voice and strength in time to tell him she doesn't share his views on Hitler and Jews. She isn't innocent, she knows it is wrong but doesn't (can't?) stand up to him.

He is not a likable character/person and at times it becomes difficult to like her. But in the end I found I did like her very much. I know what it is like to feel weak and have that reenforced by those who it benefits to have that feeling remain in place. In this telling she finds her footing and begins to stand up to him in her own way. But through it all she seems to realize she loves him even as she dislikes him.

(finished July 30, 2014)

The Silkworm (Cormoran Strike #2) by Robert Galbraith

This is the second book written by J.K. Rowling using the name Robert Galbraith. The first was The Cuckoo's Calling.

Here again is a mystery that will please those frustrated by always figuring out who the big bad is very early on. The relationship/chemistry between Robin and Strike is wonderful. Not too much tension where you spend the entire time wondering if they are going to fall into bed but not too cold that it feels forced or fake. There is what feels like a real friendship growing. It remains to be seen if it will go the way of Bones, Moonlighting or when Harry Met Sally. Ok, that last one isn't a crime fighting team but they did start as friends and fall in love. 

In this story a writer who isn't very well liked, rightly so since he is kind of a douchecanoe, is found murdered in a horrific way. Was it because of the manuscript he had recently finished? Was it because he stepped on one too many toes? Was it the wife, spurned once too often?  

I'm not telling. I will say that I am looking forward to reading more about Robin and Strike. 

(finished July 28, 2014)

The Cuckoo's Calling (Cormoran Strike #1) by Robert Galbraith

I grabbed this book awhile back when, like many HP fans, I found out that Galbraith was J.K. Rowling writing under a pen name. I didn't read it until now because, to be honest, I couldn't get into and still have not been able to go back to Casual Vacancy and I didn't want to dislike anything she wrote. But now that I have finished this one I am so glad I pulled it out of my stack.  


The Cuckoo's Calling was everything a mystery should be and everything the first in a series should be. The character of Cormoran Strike is fleshed out enough here to make you want to come back and spend more time with him. His assistant Robin is really likable and she represents the reader who wants to be the Watson to Sherlock as she becomes very valuable to Strike.

The story was well done and did the "who done it" splendidly. I usually figure out the "who" pretty early on when reading mysteries but not this time. I am not ashamed to admit that for the first time in a very long time I didn't see it until the reveal began. And I love that!

I will be starting book 2, The Silkworm, the right away.


(finished July 22, 2014)

An Invisible Thread: The True Story of an 11-Year-Old Panhandler, a Busy Sales Executive, and an Unlikely Meeting with Destiny by Laura Schroff, Alex Tresniowski

Who knew that brown paper bag lunches could be a way of saying "you're loved" but to 11 year old Maurice that is exactly what they say.


Busy single well off white woman Laura almost walked past the boy destined to be her child because she was, like so many, immune to the daily sounds of the world beyond her bubble of personal space. But something about the boy calling out for spare change on that NYC street corner stopped her and she went back and offered to by her him lunch.

What began with a Big Mac that day turned into a lasting relationship that saved them both. Maurice learned what it is to feel human and Laura learned her troubled upbringing led her to help a young boy the world would have otherwise tossed aside. In return she was saved too.

At the end of this book I was crying, there is a letter from Maurice to Laura and it is powerful.


I almost walked past this book in the store but the NYC skyline always tugs at me and there it was on the cover. I stopped, picked it up, read the back, saw the NoKidHungry (something the Congressman I intern for is a huge supporter of) stamp on the cover and had to grab it. From the opening lines of the introduction I was hooked.

It's nice to read about normal people doing something just because it is right. Laura did that. And her and Maurice both were changed for the better because of she stopped that day in 1986.

(finished July 16, 2014)

My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor

I grabbed this when I found it on the Barnes & Noble buy 2 get 1 free table. I find Justice Sotomayor fascinating and she is a fellow New Yorker so I was excited to read her story in her own words. And I was not disappointed it.

While at times it felt like she started one place and then was way off track it soon became clear that it was her style of story telling. It is quite conversational in fact. During a story she would go off on a side trip but it was to give background, kind of how you might talk to someone and need to pause to explain some sort of relevant history or introduce people in her life and how they entered her life. After the first couple of stories I started to get a feel for her voice and it really felt that I was getting to know her.

From her mother's hard beginning in Puerto Rico to her swearing in as a Supreme Court Justice by way of growing up in the projects in Bronx NY, her time at Princeton and Yale, a stint in the NYC DA's office and then private practice, my admiration of and respect for Sonia Sotomayor was deepened by the reading of My Beloved World.

(finished June 9, 2014)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter, #3) by J.K. Rowling

My youngest is taking me on a journey back to Hogwarts. He is 8 and after having listened to the books on cd a bunch of times and watching all of the movies over and over he asked for (and got) his own set of the books so he can read them. Then he asked me to join him and we are taking turns reading to each other. I'm not sure who is enjoying it more, me or him. Today as we finished this one, our time was up and we had to start getting ready for school/work and we had maybe 10-12 pages left and he pleaded with me to finish, he wanted to get to the last page and not leave it for tomorrow.

Highlights from this piece of the story of the boy wizard who defeats the darkest dark wizard included time travel, Draco getting a little bit of a slap down, flying on a Hippogriff and a book that bites.


Tomorrow we start The Goblet of Fire, and we are so excited!!

(finished June 5, 2014)

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)

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2) by J.K. Rowling

This is a re-read. I am in the process of reading them with Joshua. He has heard them all on cd a bunch of times but now we are sitting together with print copies and reading to each other. It is such a joy to share them with him and see books that I love so much through my 8 year old's eyes. He loves pointing out things he finds interesting and I love hearing his perspective. He points out differences between the books and the movies. Sometimes he is ok with the differences and sometimes he outraged.

Together we loved Dobby, found Lucius Malfoy even worse than his git of a son, discovered the origin of Lord Voldemort's name, cheered on Fawkes, flew with Harry & Ron in a car, got creeped out my spiders and spent some really great hours together. We are now on to book three.


(finished April 10, 2014)

The Twentieth Wife (Taj Mahal Trilogy, #1) by Indu Sundaresan

Indu Sundaresan uses words in a lovely way to being to life the images of India from the late 1500's into the early 1600's. I enjoy fictionalized versions of real people and historical events and that is what The Twentieth Wife is. I wish those two facts combined to make me love this book but I just didn't feel sucked in to the point where I couldn't put the book down. At times felt I had to force myself to continue. It was made worse I think because about halfway through I realized I wasn't enjoying the book enough to read the rest of the trilogy and so felt even less motivated to finish.

The story follows Mehrunnisa from her birth to her place as the 20th wife of Emperor Jahangir at the age of 34. In between she is married to someone else against her wishes but goes along because she loves her father so much. She spends the years learning at the feet of an Empress, yearning for a child and being a good and devoted daughter. 

I truly didn't hate this book, I actually liked it, I just didn't love it.

(finished April 27, 2014)

Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant by Daniel Tammet

I was so surprised by reviews I read of this book that complained about the writing style. There were criticisms that said it was to dry, to matter of face, and lacking emotion. Well forgive the immaturity of this but duh! The man is Autistic and as I read this I just got it. And if you have someone in your life who has an ASD then you will recognize the style and find it makes perfect sense. The glimpse into the mind of Daniel was for me a chance to understand more my own child and how his mind works. Of course it isn't exactly the same, different people, those with an ASD and those without are individuals, but there are some common traits.

I was moved and encouraged by the way Daniel was able to embrace his abilities and make a life for himself that was full and wonderful even when it was difficult and challenging.

If you don't know anyone with an ASD I would hope that rather than complain about the writing you try to understand that this is what it would be like to speak to someone like Daniel and to some degree is very typical. There is a lot of fact and information, the language can be formal and lack contractions, and emotion isn't going to be a large part of the exchange, it might even feel cold and detached. But that doesn't mean there are no feelings, just different feeling than you are used to.

I was moved by Daniel. I was incredibly fascinated by the way he sees numbers and colors and patterns. I appreciated the insight.

(finished April 3, 2014)

Where We Belong by Emily Giffin

Chick-Lit often gets a bad wrap. It's treated like junk food, tastes really good but not really worth the calories. But like any genre there are good books and not so good books.
I find Emily Giffin books to be among the really good ones. They are more then just light and fluffy cotton candy, they are more substantial, think a really good gelato.

Where We Belong is a story about what it means to be a family set against the story of a teenager, Kirby, who has always known she is adopted feeling like she doesn't fit in with her family and so upon turning 18 chooses to find her birth-parents, Marian and Conrad.

Learning to find out who you are and where you belong, how to forgive and be open, what is means to love, isn't easy at any age and in the most normal of families. Add in all the additional stresses that happen when biological families and the families that adopted their baby try to become one and it's so much harder. That's the story that Giffin tells here.

(Finished March 23, 2014)


Other books by Emily Giffin I have read:
Heart of the Matter
Love the One You're With
Something Borrowed
Something Blue
the diary of darcy j. rhone

While We Were Watching Downton Abbey by Wendy Wax

I was drawn to this because of the Downton Abbey connection.

Three women, Claire, Samantha and Brooke, live in the same apartment on Peachtree St. They are different ages, at different stages in their lives and from different economic backgrounds. Samantha is married and has two really bratty siblings she raised after her parents died. Claire is an author and single mom whose daughter just let for college. Brooke is a stay at home mom who is divorced from a man she dubs, well deservedly, his assholiness and has 2 young daughters.

The new concierge in their building is an Englishman named Edward who organizes a weekly gathering in the building around the watching of Downton Abbey.

The three women become friends and the process of their personal growth and the growth as friends is the story that Wax tells.  Nothing too heavy here. Just a well told story that has likable characters you well feel drawn too and unlikable characters that you will really want to punch joined around an interesting hook, a show I love and know many of you do too.

(Finished March 22, 2014)

The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II by Denise Kiernan

You might expect that because this is a book about the creation of the atomic bomb and everything that went into compiling the materials needed that it would be dry and boring. You would be very wrong.

I had to keep reminding myself that this was all real and these women were all real. The writing is so engaging and well paced that it felt like a story about some amazing women with WWII as the backdrop. 

The story of The Manhattan Project and the testing of atomic bombs in New Mexico is pretty well known. What is lesser known is the story of Oak Ridge Tennessee and the community that sprung up there in almost complete secrecy. No one knew exactly what and why they were doing things, they only knew what to do to get their job done. It was forbidden to talk to each other about what you did at your job. And people complied. The people who came to Oak Ridge to work believed in their mission, to help end the war and bring their men home.

Kiernan doesn't sugar coat the story of Oak Ridge. One of the women whose story she writes about is a black woman names Kattie. Because of her skin color she was not allowed to bring her children or even live with her husband who also worked there. The white families were allowed to bring children, married couples were allowed to live together. The food served to the white population was better, many of the black residents got sick from the poor food they were served. The housing conditions were much better for the white residents. White residents lived in dorms, trailers and prefab houses while the black residents lived in crowded sub-par structures. The pay for the same job was less for the black workers than what was paid to their white counter parts. Part of Kattie's story was how she managed to get a worker to make her some biscuit pans out of scrap metal and she was able to make cornbread and biscuits and used them to bribe the guards so she wouldn't get hassled for visiting her husband and for cooking in the hutments even though it was forbidden. She was a loving wife and mother, a very patriotic woman who did her job above and beyond what was expected of her and just wanted to help her country and make money to support her family. She never complained.

This was a really interesting story and a part of history that should be remembered.

(Finished March 20, 2014)

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

I don't even know where to begin in describing this book. It was gruesome. Painful. Spiritual. Lovely.

A porno actor, director, writer, womanizer, druggie gets into a horrific car accident and is terribly burned but rather than kill him it starts his life.

He meets Marianne Engel who just might be certifiably nuts. She spins the most amazing tales that are full of love and lessons on living.

Marianne's story is incredible and shoe gives it out in small pieces but the stories she shares about others are just as amazing. But are they true? Maybe. Maybe not. But after all is said and done it doesn't matter, it's better to just take it in and enjoy.

I found this to be a well written, heartbreaking yet lovely read.

War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning by Chris Hedges

This book was assigned for my Propaganda and War class and am glad because I would have been missing out on a powerful and important read.


Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who spent over a decade reporting from the battlefield. In War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning Hedges writes with gut wrenching honesty about the cost of war on those who fight and those who get caught up in the crossfire. He shares insights from what he witnessed, what those he spoke to in all the war torn areas he was in shared with him, and from the literature he spent a long time finding refuge in.

War is like a drug, it becomes addicting and draws both reporter and service personal back time after time. Many, including Hedges find it difficult to come back to the world of everyday living once they have lived the adrenaline fueled life of war.  Sanity, familial and other relationships, and often the physical health of the returnee are the high price paid.

Not a pleasant read but very well done, this book sheds light on the myth of war, the problems caused by nationalism taken to the extremes and the cost beyond money that war inflicts on society.

(Finished February 22, 2014) 

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children #1) by Ransom Riggs

For as long as he can remember Jacob's grandpa filled his head with stories of life on an island living in a children's home during WWII. The stories were filled with children who could do amazing and odd things and monsters hiding in the shadows. As Jacob gets older he begins to doubt the truth of these stories even though his grandpa has shown him pictures of these children.

Then tragedy strikes and Jacob goes in search of the truth. What follows is a well spun tale filled with a growing sense of tension and becoming a bit scary. The characters are fascinating and well drawn. The odd and old pictures scattered throughout the book add a really nice dimension to the story. Don't let the fact that this is a YA book fool you into thinking this is fluff or going to go easy on you. While it isn't horror or gore like Koontz or King it ventures towards that level and I found myself feeling a bit anxious and tense.  

The book ends with a very big cliffhanger making the need for the next part of the story feel like a craving.

(Finished February 8, 2014)

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

While I have seen the film version many years ago this was my first read of the novel. It was assigned for my Propaganda and War class.


I found the thought of living in the world in this book to be horrific. I couldn't stand to live in a world where books were outlawed and getting caught with them means they would be burned along with my home. I think I would be like the woman in who couldn't just watch her precious books go and so burned them and herself along with them.


I think that had I read this in junior high or early high school it would have mostly gone over my head. There is a bit of a hyper active feeling to the writing, like things start out a little slow and quickly begin to spiral out of control until Guy ends up with the outsiders who I have thought of ever since seeing the film as the book people. And I think that is part of the point here, how once you become aware of the problem and want to act that things begin to move and move quickly at times.

I don't remember the film ending the way the novel did and was a little shocked, but it has been over 20 years since I saw it.

Not the easiest of reads but rather quick and very thought provoking.

(Finished February 7, 2014)

Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime by John Heilemann, Mark Halperin

Heilemann and Halperin have an accessible and easy to get into writing style. They shine a light on the behind the scenes play that is a political campaign revealing the good, bad, ugly and stupid. I read their second Game Change book before I read this, their first and knew I wanted to go back and read it. Then I saw the HBO movie based on the parts of this book and knew I had to go back and read it.


Some of the stuff revealed here sound like the makings of a good soap opera, sex, scandals, fits of rage and acting like a child, except these are real people asking us to vote them into positions of power. 

Heilemann and Halperin were able to get some really deep access to the campaigns and those involved and the results aren't always flattering but that's the way life goes so I'm not sure I should have enjoyed this book. There are some (John Edwards & his wife, Sarah Palin) that are really exposed here for their bad behavior. But I really enjoyed it.

There was a downside however. My opinions about some of the people featured might need to be reevaluated given the things they have said or done during the course of the 2008 election season. It's a good thing to have more information, to really think and rethink what we believe, know and feel. That doesn't mean it is easy or pleasant but it's important.

(finished February 3, 2014)

 
  

How to Love by Katie Cotugno

How to Love is a love story. But it isn't just a boy meets girls and "stuff" happens love story.


The jumping off point for the story is Reena getting pregnant at 16 and Sawyer taking off. The chapters in this book alternate between Before & After. The "before" is before Reena got pregnant at 16 and Sawyer leaves town. The "after" picks up in the present (two years after Sawyer left) with Sawyer's return.

Reena has known Sawyer pretty much forever and has had a crush on ever since she was old enough to start liking boys. She loves her best friend Allie, her parents and her brother very much. However Reena is not very open about her feelings and this makes for a lot of hurt and resentment she holds in for a very long time.

I enjoyed the way the story was fleshed out in pieces and the back and forth worked. None of the characters are perfect cookie cutter people and so come off the page flawed and human which is something I appreciate and find makes a story more enjoyable.

(finished January 20, 2014)


 

Tip and the Gipper: When Politics Worked by Chris Matthews

As a staffer for Speaker of the House Tip O'Neil Chris Matthews had an inside view of the working of the House and the relationship between Tip and President Reagan during the six years their time in office overlapped.

There is mention of scandal and trouble (Iran/Contra) but not much deep detail. Instead the focus is on how two men with such different sets of convictions and from such different schools of political thought managed to work together, keep the government working without shutdowns, filibusters and dirty play.

Matthews talks of the respect each man had for the others office and position while still doing what they felt they needed to do to get what they felt was best for the country they both loved. They weren't always kind to each other in the press or face to face but they were never nasty or backbiting.

At the end of the day these were two men who served our country in ways they believed was for the best interest of us citizens and agree or not with their idea and ideals is not relevant to respecting their years of service.

This is really a love story about the days when politics was about getting things done. It's about a time when those in congress fought for their stance, said what needed saying and then voted. If you won you celebrated, if you lost you got up, dusted yourself off and moved on to tried to win the next fight. Governing was not about being proud of doing the most nothing.


(Finished January 19, 2014) 

The Hunt (Predator Trilogy #2) by Allison Brennan

I more than liked this but less than really liked it, I would have given it 3.5 stars if I could have.

This was a well done who done it with a bit of psychological fallout from child abuse at the core of the crime. What we do to our children does a lot to form who they become and when the children are so badly damaged the fallout can be deadly. That is what happened in The Hunt. The result is the chase to stop a brutal kidnapper who rapes, tortures and then hunts to kill his victims. 

As with The Prey there is a flip side to the story. There is a woman character who has been severely hurt and has to find her strength and courage to survive and help solve the crime. While that sounds like it could be cliche it works in Brennan's here. Not Shakespeare by any means but a decent read that doesn't give away the "who" in who dunnit too easily.

(Finished January 14, 2014)

So Me by Graham Norton

I've read a few memories (some being Rob Lowe, Dawn French, Stephen Fry, Malala Yousafzai, Jim Gaffigan, Nujood Ali, Melissa Francis, John Barrowman) and have enjoyed reading them.

I love Graham Norton. I love his chat show and thought he was great hosting I'd Do Anything. I wish I LOVED his book. I almost did. I think the reason is that it is not very deep. There are moments it almost gets there but then he pulls back. The only time he really goes all in is when he shares about his father's death.

After reading So Me I get the impression that the Graham we see on TV is the real him and he isn't playing a part, he is who is and I like that.

Over all interesting and entertaining even if slightly sugar coated.

Oh, there is a lot of wanking in the pages of this book so be forewarned.

(Finished January 12, 2014)

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

A classmate was reading this for a class and I had never read it or seen the movie so she offered to loan it to me.

I started and finished this one day, I have read plays that weren't very readable and that I didn't enjoy (Top  Girls) but this one was more along the line of A Raisin In The Sun as far as ease of reading what was on the pages and in following the story.  

I started disliking Blanche but by the end, while I still didn't like her I felt quite bad for her. I spent most of the story liking Stella but thinking she was really not too smart to stay with a man like Stanley, but given it was a different time and it isn't easy to see things when you are inside I wasn't going to judge her too harshly. Until that is she says she couldn't believe Blanche and stay with Stanley. She did know he was a jerk and still chose him over her sister and over choosing neither of them and taking care of herself. From the start I found Stanley slimy and a bit creepy.


Overall I liked the story and the imperfect characters, imperfection makes a story more interesting. When no one is completely likable it makes it harder to know who if anyone to care about or sympathize with.

(finished January 10, 2014)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter #1) by J.K. Rowling

This was my fourth time reading this book, this time with Joshua. We did a read along together and took turns reading. It was magical to see it fresh through my 8 year-old's eyes and spending time with him talking about the story and comparing it to the movie. He had some profound moments of thought like when he said very seriously and thoughtfully that he really believed Dumbledore was lying about seeing socks in the mirror of erised.  

Over the years we have listened to the entire series as audiobooks but this was the first time he actually had the book in his hands and read it.

I can't say enough wonderful things about Harry Potter. Considering the popularity and age of the series I don't really need to do a summary. I will just stress the wonder and excitement of Rowling's work bringing the wizarding world to life.

His reaction upon finishing was that this was much, much better than the movie, he loved it so much and is so excited to get onto book 2.

(Finished January 8, 2014)

2014 Book List

1. Doctor Who: Summer Falls and Other Stories ~Amelia Williams, Melody Malone, Justin Richards
2. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter #1) ~J.K. Rowling
3. A Streetcar Named Desire ~Tennessee Williams   
4. So Me ~Graham Norton
5. The Hunt (Predator Trilogy #2) ~Allison Brennan
6. Tip and the Gipper: When Politics Worked ~Chris Matthews
7. How to Love ~Katie Cotugno 
8. Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime ~John Heilemann, Mark Halperin
9. Fahrenheit 451 ~Ray Bradbury 
10. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children #1) ~Ransom Riggs
11. War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning ~Chris Hedges 
12. The Gargoyle ~Andrew Davidson 
13. The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II ~Denise Kiernan
14. While We Were Watching Downton Abbey ~Wendy Wax
15. Where We Belong ~Emily Giffin
16. Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant ~Daniel Tammet
17. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2)  ~J.K. Rowling 
18. The Twentieth Wife (Taj Mahal Trilogy, #1) ~Indu Sundaresan
19. Bark: Stories ~Lorrie Moore
20. Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War ~Mark Harris
21. The Divorce Papers ~Susan Rieger
22. A Fighting Chance ~Elizabeth Warren 
23. Love Life ~Rob Lowe 
24. We Were Liars ~E. Lockhart
25. Me Before You ~Jojo Moyes
26. Mr. Churchill's Secretary (Maggie Hope Mystery #1) ~Susan Elia MacNeal    
27. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter, #3) ~J.K. Rowling    
28. My Beloved World ~Sonia Sotomayor
29. An Invisible Thread: The True Story of an 11-Year-Old Panhandler, a Busy Sales Executive, and an Unlikely Meeting with Destiny ~Laura Schroff, Alex Tresniowski
30. The Cuckoo's Calling (Cormoran Strike #1) ~Robert Galbraith
31. The Silkworm (Cormoran Strike #2) ~Robert Galbraith 
32. The Aviator's Wife ~Melanie Benjamin
33. The House on Mango Street ~Sandra Cisneros
34. The Sandcastle Girls ~Chris Bohjalian
35. Eleanor & Park ~Rainbow Rowell
36. As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride ~Cary Elwes, Joe Layden
37. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
38. The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black
39. The Secret Place (Dublin Murder Squad #5) ~Tana French
40. The Ice Dragon ~George R.R. Martin

Doctor Who: Summer Falls and Other Stories by Amelia Williams, Melody Malone, Justin Richards

Three short stories (one by Amelia Williams, a Melody Malone mystery, and one featuring Madam Vastra, Jenny and Strax), an introduction by Amelia Williams and an excerpt of an interview with Amelia make this a treat for Whovians. 

If you're not a Whovian the stories are still worth reading. Nothing heavy here, just a nice little bit of story telling. 

The Angel's Kiss is worth a mention. It's set in NY in the 1930's and has the feel of an old fashioned pulp mystery. 

This was really just a quick, light and fun read. Best part for me was that I enjoyed it and so will my 8 and 13 year old kids. 

(Finished Jan. 1, 2014)