The Girl in the Spider's Web

The Girl in the Spider’s Web (Millennium Series, #4) by David Lagercrantz
Fiction
2015 Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Read by Simon Vance
Finished on December 7, 2015
Rating: 3/5 (So-so)



Publisher’s Blurb:

Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist return

She is the girl with the dragon tattoo—a genius hacker and uncompromising misfit. He is a crusading journalist whose championing of the truth often brings him to the brink of prosecution.

Late one night, Blomkvist receives a phone call from a source claiming to have information vital to the United States. The source has been in contact with a young female superhacker—a hacker resembling someone Blomkvist knows all too well. The implications are staggering. Blomkvist, in desperate need of a scoop for Millennium, turns to Salander for help. She, as usual, has her own agenda. The secret they are both chasing is at the center of a tangled web of spies, cybercriminals, and governments around the world, and someone is prepared to kill to protect it . . .

The duo who captivated millions of readers in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest join forces again in this adrenaline-charged, uniquely of-the-moment thriller.

I have now read all four books in the Millennium series. I had a tough time getting interested in the first (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), but wound up giving it a rating of 4/5. I enjoyed the next two installments much better (perhaps seeing the movie of TGwtDT helped) and gave them both ratings of 4.5/5. When this fourth installment was released, under a new authorship, I was a bit hesitant. Could Lagercrantz pull it off? Well… yes and no. I enjoyed the audio production (Simon Vance does an excellent job of reading and accents), but once it was all said and done, I’m not exactly sure what took place! It was just a tad bit convoluted. The good news is that I couldn’t see any difference between Larsson and Lagercrantz’s writing, and, the book was entertaining. Just confusing!

Final Thoughts:

I think the only reason I finished this book (and it took me almost an entire month!) is due to the excellent narration by Simon Vance. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have stuck with the print edition after a chapter or two. The Millennium series has been fun, but I don’t plan to read any more.

You can read my thoughts about Stiegg Larsson’s books (and movies) here.

Saturday Beans & Sunday Suppers

Saturday Beans & Sunday Suppers: Kitchen Stories from Mary's Farm by Edie Clark
Nonfiction - Essays
2007 Powersbridge Press
Finished on December 7, 2015
Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)




It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others. So it happens that when I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love of it and the hunger for it... and then the richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied... and it is all one. ~ M.F.K. Fisher

Publisher's Blurb:

Life-saving iced tea, Indian pudding "as it should be," dandelion wine made in the days when flowers mean peace, roast lamb on an Icelandic farm, baked beans from those who know best, cod cheeks and ale. Take this journey from the early 1960s all the way to the present and visit all kinds of kitchens on the way through the decades. In Saturday Beans & Sunday Suppers, you'll discover a delicious collection of thoughts, memories and recipes, all about food, written by one of New England's most treasured writers. Here, food is not just sustenance but life and spirit and communion all in one. Guaranteed to inspire an appetite, for life and for good food, happily prepared.

What a delightful book! I enjoyed each and every chapter. My dear friend, Nan, gave me this book several years ago and I decided to give it a try, starting on the day before Thanksgiving. It was the perfect sort of book to read during the busy holiday season and I read one or two chapters each night. Each chapter includes a recipe and I marked all but one or two to try. Here's a list, just for fun:

Not Aunt Peg's Fish Chowder
Aunt Peg's Iced Tea (with lemons and oranges)
French Onion Soup
Vinegar Cake (chocolate cake, from The I Hate to Cook Book by Peg Bracken)
Indian Pudding (cornmeal, molasses, milk & eggs)
Mushrooms Provencale
Vermont Baked Beans
Chicken and Dumplings (I already have a wonderful recipe, but I'd like to try this one since it's meant to be cooked in a crockpot)
Beef Stew
Cold Cucumber Soup
Orange Couscous

Nothing fancy or elaborate, but her remarks about these recipes made me eager to try them. 

On food and memory:

When I sat down to write this book, I believed I was going to write about some favorite New England foods and include the recipes for each. But as the book progressed, I realized that food cannot be separated from place and memory, family and events from the past. In a way, then, there is no more powerful memoir than the food itself, a sensory cue strong enough to conjure the past as present, the present as past.  Aromas and touch can bring back the pageant of what came before.

and

Food, made by our own hands or passed to us from loved ones, is, without parallel and without guise, our lifeblood. It is what creates us, mind and body and spirit. Some food is simply nourishment, passed to us through a window of a fast-food chain and eaten from our laps as we navigate traffic. This is hardly food, only fuel, and even that is questionable nourishment. Food created by us and for us is our substance, the essence of love and reminiscence.

Final Thoughts:

I knew nothing about Edie Clark before reading this culinary delight and now I'm curious about The Place He Made, her memoir about her husband's death from cancer, as well as The View from Mary's Farm, an earlier collection of her essays. She has that writing style of familiarity, reminding me of a cozy afternoon spent with a good friend, sharing a cup of hot tea and meaningful conversation. Highly recommend!

Food is an adventure, food is communion, food is comfort, food is love. Food is a very big way that we live our lives. We might as well make it good. ~ Edie Clark

Please visit Beth Fish Reads for Weekend Cooking.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend.

The Language of Flowers

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
Fiction
2011 Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Read by Tara Sands
Finished on November 4, 2015
Rating: 3/5 (So-so)




Publisher’s Blurb:

The Victorian language of flowers was used to convey romantic expressions: honeysuckle for devotion, asters for patience, and red roses for love. But for Victoria Jones, it’s been more useful in communicating mistrust and solitude. After a childhood spent in the foster-care system, she is unable to get close to anybody, and her only connection to the world is through flowers and their meanings. Now eighteen and emancipated from the system with nowhere to go, Victoria realizes she has a gift for helping others through the flowers she chooses for them. But an unexpected encounter with a mysterious stranger has her questioning what’s been missing in her life. And when she’s forced to confront a painful secret from her past, she must decide whether it’s worth risking everything for a second chance at happiness.

The Language of Flowers has been extremely popular with readers and book clubs, so I decided to wait a while and let all the hype die down a bit before reading it myself. I wound up listening to the audio, which was ok, but I don't know what all the excitement was about. I didn't think it was anything special and wonder why so many readers loved it. It held my interest, but it didn't wow me. It’s been four months since I finished and if pressed, I wouldn’t be able to tell you a single fact about the story. Not a one!

Final Thoughts:

Meh. Maybe it was better in print.

The End of Summer

The End of Summer by Rosamunde Pilcher
Fiction
1971 St. Martin's Paperbacks
Finished on September 11, 2015
Rating: 2/5 (Don't Recommend)





Publisher's Blurb:

When you read a novel by Rosamunde Pilcher you enter a special world where emotions sing from the heart. A world that lovingly captures the ties that bind us to one another--the joys and sorrows, heartbreaks and misunderstandings, and glad, perfect moments when we are in true harmony. A world filled with evocative, engrossing, and above all, enjoyable portraits of peoples lives and loves, tenderly laid open for us...

After years in the United States, Jane returns to the tranquil Scottish estate, Elvie, where she spent a magical childhood. Memories of Elvie had always summoned the image of Sinclair, the rakish man Jane had once dreamed of marrying, but now that she is home, she finds Sinclair a different man. His charm has a purpose, and Jane can no longer trust him... or herself.

Rosamunde Pilcher has been one of my favorite authors since I first discovered her famous novel, The Shell Seekers, back in the early '90s. I've read several of her shorter novels, but none have provided me with anything close to the great enjoyment I've experienced in reading her longer sagas. I continue to read these novellas, however, ever hopeful that one will surprise me. Unfortunately, The End of  Summer isn't the one. I was terribly disappointed in the story and probably shouldn't have wasted my time, as I was eager to finish and move on to something else.

Final Thoughts:

If you haven't tried any of Rosamunde Pilcher's books, I strongly recommend The Shell Seekers, as well as September and Winter Solstice. Sadly, I can't recommend any of her short stories, including The End of Summer.

Murder on the Orient Express

Murder on the Orient Express (Hercule Poirot #10) by Agatha Christie
Mystery
1934 (original copyright)
2013 HarperCollins Audio
Read by Dan Stevens
Finished on September 10, 2015
Rating: 3/5 (Good)


Publisher's Blurb:

"The murderer is with us - on the train now..."

Just after midnight, the famous Orient Express is stopped in its tracks by a snowdrift. By morning, the millionaire Samuel Ratchett lies dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times, his door locked from the inside. One of his fellow passengers must be the murderer.

Isolated by the storm and with a killer in their midst, detective Hercule Poirot must find the killer amongst a dozen of the dead man's enemies, before the murderer decides to strike again...

I've become quite a fan of thrillers and mysteries since I began blogging 10 years ago and I love getting recommendations from other readers, whether for a new series or a standalone. Agatha Christie's crime novels have been around for almost 100 years and I've never read one single book! This past summer, I decided it was well past time to give this famous title a try. I enjoyed the audio (the reader was very good) and Christie kept me guessing and changing my mind about the identity of the killer until the very end. I was more than surprised by the denouement, as not only have I never read any of Christie's crime novels, I've never watched any of the movies based on her books, either. So, now to watch the 1974 film. With an all-star cast that includes Albert Finney, Sean Connery, Lauren Bacall, Anthony Perkins, Michael York, Jacqueline Bisset, Vanessa Redgrave, and Ingrid Bergman, to name a few, how can it possibly disappoint?

Interesting tidbits from Wikipedia:

Murder on the Orient Express is a detective novel by Agatha Christie featuring the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 1 January 1934. In the United States, it was published on 28 February 1934, under the title of Murder in the Calais Coach, by Dodd, Mead and Company. The U.K. edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence and the U.S. edition at $2.00.

The U.S. title of Murder in the Calais Coach was used to avoid confusion with the 1932 Graham Greene novel Stamboul Train which had been published in the United States as Orient Express.

and

The Guinness Book of World Records lists Christie as the best-selling novelist of all time. Her novels have sold roughly 2 billion copies, and her estate claims that her works come third in the rankings of the world's most-widely published books, behind only Shakespeare's works and the Bible.

I prefer the original cover art to the updated version, don't you? 

Final Thoughts:

I enjoyed Murder on the Orient Express and I look forward to reading more by Agatha Christie. Which Poirot should I read next?

Lost & Found

Lost & Found (Rocky Pelligrino #1) by Jacqueline Sheehan
Fiction
2007 William Morrow
Finished on September 5, 2015
Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)



Publisher's Blurb:

A poignant and unforgettable tale of love, loss, and moving on . . . with the help of one not-so-little dog

Rocky's husband Bob was just forty-two when she discovered him lying cold and lifeless on the bathroom floor . . . and Rocky's world changed forever. Quitting her job, chopping off all her hair, she leaves Massachusetts—reinventing her past and taking a job as Animal Control Warden on Peak's Island, a tiny speck off the coast of Maine and a million miles away from everything she's lost. She leaves her career as a psychologist behind, only to find friendship with a woman whose brain misfires in the most wonderful way and a young girl who is trying to disappear. Rocky, a quirky and fallible character, discovers the healing process to be agonizingly slow.

But then she meets Lloyd.

A large black Labrador retriever, Lloyd enters Rocky's world with a primitive arrow sticking out of his shoulder. And so begins a remarkable friendship between a wounded woman and a wounded, lovable beast. As the unraveling mystery of Lloyd's accident and missing owner leads Rocky to an archery instructor who draws her in even as she finds every reason to mistrust him, she discovers the life-altering revelation that grief can be transformed . . . and joy does exist in unexpected places.

I'm not ashamed to admit that cover art plays a fairly large part in my decision-making process when choosing a new book to read. Unless it's one that has received glowing reviews, I generally ignore the ugly, generic covers that show only the title and author's name against a colorful background. Likewise, a sappy cover, even one with a cute puppy, rarely gets more than a passing glance. So how in the world did Lost & Found wind up on one of my bookshelves? It all but screams "sentimental fluff," don't you think? But someone must have raved about this book and I'm glad I listened. I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of the novel, coming to care about Rocky almost as much as I did Lloyd.

On being a dog:

But in this life, he is dog. His life is ocean, stick, ball, sand, grass, ride in the truck, sleep by the bed, look deep into the eyes of humans, lure them outdoors, greet them with a burst of joy when they come home, love them. Fill this brief life with more. And more.

Final Thoughts:

Do you judge books by their covers? I wonder how many great books I've passed up simply because I didn't like the cover art. Conversely, I know I've been disappointed on more than one occasion when I've chosen a book for its gorgeous cover. I've become quite a sucker for books about dogs, and in spite of the cutesy cover, this one didn't disappoint. While not the same caliber as The Art of Racing in the Rain or The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, Lost & Found is a step above brain candy and I quickly devoured it in just a few short days. There were a few loose ends, but overall, it was very enjoyable. I look forward to reading more by Sheehan. Recommend!

In a Dark, Dark Wood

In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware
Thriller
2015 Scout Press (Simon & Schuster imprint)
Finished on August 30, 2015
Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)




An NPR Best Book of the Year, 2015
A ShelfAwareness Best Book of the Year, 2015
A Publishers Weekly “Top Ten Mysteries and Thrillers” Pick

From the Executive Editor’s note in the ARC:

Leonara (known to some as Lee and others as Nora) is an extremely private person. A crime writer by trade, she is suspicious of everything and everyone, and prefers to be alone, holed up in her cozy nest of an apartment, as isolated as possible from the outside world and from certain… incidents in her past. But when an email arrives with an invitation to a weekend away in a remote house in the English countryside, she is thrown for a loop. The sender is a person from her past whom she hasn’t spoken to in ten years. And try as she might to ignore it, her curiosity gets the best of her… and we all know what curiosity did to the cat.

Forty-eight hours later, Lee (Nora?) wakes up in a hospital bed with severe injuries and a foggy memory. But most alarming of all is that her first thought isn’t, “What happened?” but “What have I done?”

In the bestselling tradition of Asa Harrison’s The Silent Wife and S.J. Watson’s riveting national sensation Before I Go to Sleep, this gripping literary debut will have you on the edge of your seat until the very last page.


In a Dark, Dark Wood is everything you want in a psychological thriller: Strange noises in the middle of the night, footsteps on a landing, a door opening very softly, a creak on the stairs, unexplained footprints in the snow, and an isolated house with a wall of windows looking out into dark, dark forest. The creepiness begins after Nora’s arrival at an old friend’s hen party and I was immediately pulled into the tension of the narrative, holding my breath and wishing I could somehow cover my eyes with a blanket during the scary parts! There’s nothing supernatural about the book, but I kept thinking of Stephen King’s novels and how the details and setting can create a sense of terror when maybe there’s really nothing to be afraid of.

For some reason his words made me shiver. Perhaps it was the tree trunks, like silent watchers in the growing dark. Or perhaps it was the lingering chill that Tom and Melanie had brought with them from the outside. Either way, leaving London, I’d thought the weather had felt like autumn. Suddenly, so much farther north, it felt like winter had come overnight. It wasn’t just the close-growing pines shutting out the light with their dense needles, nor the cold crisp air with its promise of frost to come. The night was drawing in, and the house felt more and more like a glass cage, blasting its light blindly out into the dusk, like a lantern in the dark. I imagined a thousand moths circling and shivering, drawn inexorably to its glow, only to perish against the cold inhospitable glass.

Final Thoughts:

Ruth Ware’s debut thriller is quite an intense read. I enjoyed the build-up, but felt the final revelation to be a bit anticlimactic. Nonetheless, I look forward to her next endeavor and, in spite of the scary nature of the book, I’m anxious to see what Reese Witherspoon does with the movie she’s developing, based on the novel. Fans of The Girl on the Train, Luckiest Girl Alive and Gone Girl will not be disappointed with this page-turner. Recommend.

Luckiest Girl Alive

Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll
Fiction/Thriller
2015 Simon & Schuster Audio
Read by Madeleine Maby
Finished on August 25, 2015
Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)




Publisher’s Blurb:

HER PERFECT LIFE
IS A PERFECT LIE.

Ani FaNelli seems to have it all: a glamorous job at a glossy magazine; an enviable figure with the wardrobe to match; and a handsome fiancé from a distinguished blue blood family. But Ani FaNelli is an invention, that veneer of perfection carefully assembled in an attempt to distance herself from a shocking, sordid past.

As her wedding draws near, a documentary producer invites Ani to speak about the chilling incident that took place when she was a teenager at the prestigious Bradley School. Determined once and for all to silence the whispers of suspicion and blame, Ani must weigh her options carefully, when telling the whole truth could destroy the picture-perfect life she's worked so hard to create.

With a singular voice and a twist you won't see coming, Luckiest Girl Alive explores the deep-seated desire to fit in and the unbearable pressure that so many women feel to "have it all." Ani FaNelli is a complex and vulnerable heroine—one whose sharp edges protect a truth that will move, scandalize, and surprise you.

It wasn't until I was well into this book that I became completely engrossed. I didn't read any reviews or spoilers (do NOT read the Publishers Weekly review if you want to avoid spoilers), so I was shocked at the turn of events in Chapter 12. I think listening to the audio version of the book had an even greater impact on me during this chapter. All in all, a good read. Maybe not as good as The Girl on the Train, but certainly entertaining.

Final Thoughts:

Even after re-reading the publisher’s blurb and my notes, I still only have a vague recollection of this thriller. (And, I have absolutely no idea what happened in Chapter 12!) I’m tempted to drop the rating down a notch, but I’ll leave it as is since I did find it entertaining at the time. In a word, brain-candy.

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
Fiction
2014 Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Finished on August 11, 2015
Rating: 4.5/5 (Terrific!)




Publisher’s Blurb:

We are not quite novels.
We are not quite short stories.
In the end, we are collected works.

A.J. Fikry’s life is not at all what he expected it to be. His wife has died; his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history; and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. Slowly but surely, he is isolating himself from all the people of Alice Island—from Chief Lambiase, the well-intentioned police officer who’s always felt kindly toward him; from Ismay, his sister-in-law, who is hell-bent on saving A.J. from his dreary self; from Amelia, the lovely and idealistic (if eccentric) Knightley Press sales rep who persists in taking the ferry to Alice Island, refusing to be deterred by A.J.’s bad attitude. Even the books in the his store have stopped holding pleasure for him. These days, he can only see them as a sign of a world that is changing too rapidly.

And then a mysterious package appears at the bookstore. It’s a small package, though large in weight—an unexpected arrival that gives A.J. the opportunity to make his life over, the ability to see everything anew. It doesn’t take long for the locals to notice the change overcoming A.J., for the determined sales rep Amelia to see her curmudgeonly client in a new light, for the wisdom of all those books to become again the lifeblood of A.J.’s world. Or for everything to twist again into a version of his life that he didn’t see coming.

As surprising as it is moving, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry is an unforgettable tale of transformation and second chances, an irresistible affirmation of why we read, and why we love.

We readers do so love books about books, don’t we? And as a bookseller, I love reading about bookstores, with all the remarks about handselling, ARCs and galleys, and of course, customers. I think I fell in love with Gabrielle Zevin’s novel before I even opened up the book to the first page. The cover art, as well as the back cover blurbs, grabbed my attention and I couldn’t wait to dive in!

On reading tastes:

“Like,” he repeats with distaste. “How about I tell you what I don’t like? I do not like postmodernism, postapocalyptic settings, postmortem narrators, or magic realism. I rarely respond to supposedly clever formal devices, multiple fonts, pictures where they shouldn’t be—basically, gimmicks of any kind. I find literary fiction about the Holocaust or any other major world tragedy to be distasteful—nonfiction only, please. I do not like genre mash-ups a la the literary detective novel or the literary fantasy. Literary should be literary, and genre should be genre, and crossbreeding rarely results in anything satisfying. I do not like children’s books, especially ones with orphans, and I prefer not to clutter my shelves with young adult. I do not like anything over four hundred pages or under one hundred fifty pages. I am repulsed by ghostwritten novels by reality television stars, celebrity picture books, sports memoirs, movie tie-in editions, novelty items, and—I imagine this goes without saying—vampires. I rarely stock debuts, chick lit, poetry, or translations. I would prefer not to stock series, but the demands of my pocketbook require me to. For your part, you needn’t tell me about the ‘next big series’ until it is ensconced on the New York Times Best Sellers list. Above all, Ms. Loman, I find slim literary memoirs about little old men whose little old wives have died from cancer to be absolutely intolerable. No matter how well written the sales rep claims they are. No matter how many copies you promise I’ll sell on Mother’s Day.”

On keeping up with the times:

“Why must I? What is so great about the times?” A.J. has often reflected that, bit by bit, all the best things in the world are being carved away like fat from meat. First, it had been the record stores, and then the video stores, and then newspapers and magazines, and now even the big chain bookstores were disappearing everywhere you looked. From his point of view, the only thing worse than a world with big chain bookstores was a world with NO big chain bookstores. At least the big stores sell books and not pharmaceuticals or lumber! At least some of the people who work at those stores have degrees in English literature and know how to read and curate books for people! At least the big stores can sell ten thousand units of publisher’s dreck so that Island gets to sell one hundred units of literary fiction!

Final Thoughts:

I loved The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry. It’s a delightful book that made me laugh out loud and tugged at my heartstrings. Highly recommend!

Go here to listen to a NPR interview with Gabrielle Zevin.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
Nonfiction - Self-Improvement
2015 Tantor Medio (Audio)
Read by Emily Woo Zeller
Finished on August 7, 2015
Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)




Publisher's Blurb:

This guide to decluttering your home from Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes readers step-by-step through her revolutionary KonMari Method for simplifying, organizing, and storing.

Despite constant efforts to declutter your home, do papers still accumulate like snowdrifts and clothes pile up like a tangled mess of noodles?

Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes tidying to a whole new level, promising that if you properly simplify and organize your home once, you’ll never have to do it again. Most methods advocate a room-by-room or little-by-little approach, which doom you to pick away at your piles of stuff forever. The KonMari Method, with its revolutionary category-by-category system, leads to lasting results. In fact, none of Kondo’s clients have lapsed (and she still has a three-month waiting list).

With detailed guidance for determining which items in your house “spark joy” (and which don’t), this book featuring Tokyo’s newest lifestyle phenomenon will help you clear your clutter and enjoy the unique magic of a tidy home—and the calm, motivated mindset it can inspire.

I've been an organizer since I was a very young child. Not only was my bedroom neat and tidy, but so were my brothers' rooms. Over the years, however, I've gotten less obsessive about my housework and I'm no longer as organized as I'd like. Hidden gifts and Christmas gift wrap and cards that I purchased at the end of the previous year are apt to be forgotten or overlooked for several years. My paper clutter is out of control. I can't even talk about how far behind I am with my photo albums.

Marie Kondo's slim book appealed to my inner neat-nick and after perusing it at work on more than one occasion, I decided to download the audio and see what tips I could glean from this bestseller. While she is a little out there (who thanks inanimate objects for a job well-done?!), I have to admit the book is very inspiring. I've already gone through all my clothes and recently tackled my books. As you can imagine, this was quite daunting. How in the world do I part with unread books? How do I decide which favorites to keep or toss? Going through them one-by-one (this means removing every single book from each shelf), touching every single book, makes a huge difference. I lost track of how many books I took to HalfPrice Books, but it was in the hundreds. I made a whopping $178 and still had four large grocery bags of ARCs (which can't be sold) to pass on to a friend. Now all I have on my shelves are my absolute favorites and the books I really want to read. Purging one's belongings is quite addictive and I'm actually tempted to give the closets and bookshelves another overhaul!

Final Thoughts:

"Does it spark joy?" has become my new mantra. While it may sound silly to think in these terms, it actually does work, at least with regard to reducing the junk around our house. I may not fold my clothes the way Kondo recommends, but my drawers and closets are no longer crammed full of things I no longer enjoy wearing. My bookshelves have space for photographs and cherished items, as well as all the books I still want to read. Now to tackle the basement before the neighborhood garage sale in early May. I don't own a copy of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, but eventually it might be worth a second listen, as I'm sure I'll need a refresher in a few years.

How about you? Have you jumped on the KonMari bandwagon? Have you read her new book, Spark Joy?

Our Souls at Night

Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf
Fiction
2015 Knopf ebook
Finished on August 1, 2015
Rating: 4.5/5 (Very Good!)





Publisher's Blurb:

A spare yet eloquent, bittersweet yet inspiring story of a man and a woman who, in advanced age, come together to wrestle with the events of their lives and their hopes for the imminent future.

In the familiar setting of Holt, Colorado, home to all of Kent Haruf’s inimitable fiction, Addie Moore pays an unexpected visit to a neighbor, Louis Waters. Her husband died years ago, as did his wife, and in such a small town they naturally have known of each other for decades; in fact, Addie was quite fond of Louis’s wife. His daughter lives hours away in Colorado Springs, her son even farther away in Grand Junction, and Addie and Louis have long been living alone in houses now empty of family, the nights so terribly lonely, especially with no one to talk with.

Their brave adventures—their pleasures and their difficulties—are hugely involving and truly resonant, making Our Souls at Night the perfect final installment to this beloved writer’s enduring contribution to American literature.

Another winner by the late Kent Haruf. I started this novel back in June, but set it aside to read a month later on my flight to Oregon. I wound up reading it on the flight home and the time passed very quickly. I love Haruf's spare prose and familiar settings and quickly came to care about the characters in this gem of a book. My only complaint is that it was too short. I wanted more and was surprised when I reached the last page. (I never pay attention to my place in a book while reading an ebook!) 

Final Thoughts:

This one's a keeper and worthy of several re-reads. R.I.P. Kent Haruf. You left us at the top of your game.

Leaving Time

Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult
Fiction
2014 Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Read by Rebecca Lowman, Abigail Revasch, Kathe Mazur, and Mark Deakins
Finished on July 15, 2015
Rating: 4.5/5 (Very Good!)




Publisher's Blurb:

A mother's love.
A daughter's search for truth.
A mystery that will not rest…

Throughout her blockbuster career, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult has seamlessly blended nuanced characters, riveting plots, and rich prose, brilliantly creating stories that "not only provoke the mind but touch the flawed souls in all of us" (The Boston Globe). Now, in her highly anticipated new book, she has delivered her most affecting novel yet—and one unlike anything she's written before.

For more than a decade, Jenna Metcalf has never stopped thinking about her mother, Alice, who mysteriously disappeared in the wake of a tragic accident. Refusing to believe that she would be abandoned as a young child, Jenna searches for her mother regularly online and pores over the pages of Alice's old journals. A scientist who studied grief among elephants, Alice wrote mostly of her research among the animals she loved, yet Jenna hopes the entries will provide a clue to her mother's whereabouts.

Desperate to find the truth, Jenna enlists two unlikely allies in her quest. The first is Serenity Jones, a psychic who rose to fame finding missing persons—only to later doubt her gifts. The second is Virgil Stanhope, a jaded private detective who originally investigated Alice's case along with the strange, possibly linked death of one of her colleagues. As the three work together to uncover what happened to Alice, they realize that in asking hard questions, they'll have to face even harder answers.

As Jenna's memories dovetail with the events in her mother's journals, the story races to a mesmerizing finish. A deeply moving, gripping, and intelligent page-turner, Leaving Time is Jodi Picoult at the height of her powers.


It's been a while since I've read a book by Picoult, and even though I started to figure out the surprise ending before it was revealed, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this audiobook! I'd love to go back and re-read the book from the very beginning to see what clues I might have missed.

One minor quibble: The three readers were all very good, although I do wish they read their individual parts even during the alternating chapters (which are told by one of the other two characters). It was a bit jarring to listening to one reader use a different voice for one of the characters after getting used to that particular character's voice.

Final Thoughts:

I loved this book! Picoult is a consummate storyteller and I've yet to be disappointed by any of her novels. Leaving Time is thought-provoking and one to read more than once and share with friends. It would make for a great book club discussion, too.

Go here to watch a National Geographic interview with the author.

The Husband's Secret

The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty
Fiction
2013 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Read by Caroline Lee
Finished on June 30, 2015
Rating: 3.5/5 (Good)



 
Publisher's Blurb:

At the heart of The Husband’s Secret is a letter that’s not meant to be read

My darling Cecilia, if you’re reading this, then I’ve died. . .

Imagine that your husband wrote you a letter, to be opened after his death. Imagine, too, that the letter contains his deepest, darkest secret—something with the potential to destroy not just the life you built together, but the lives of others as well. Imagine, then, that you stumble across that letter while your husband is still very much alive. . . .

Cecilia Fitzpatrick has achieved it all—she’s an incredibly successful businesswoman, a pillar of her small community, and a devoted wife and mother. Her life is as orderly and spotless as her home. But that letter is about to change everything, and not just for her: Rachel and Tess barely know Cecilia—or each other—but they too are about to feel the earth-shattering repercussions of her husband’s secret.

Acclaimed author Liane Moriarty has written a gripping, thought-provoking novel about how well it is really possible to know our spouses—and, ultimately, ourselves.

Entertaining, yet easily forgettable. So much so, that I'm struggling to remember exactly what was the secret! I enjoy Moriarty's writing and snappy dialogue, and loved What Alice Forgot, but these are not the sort of books that I'll ever read a second time. In a word, beachread!

Etta and Otto and Russell and James

Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper
Fiction
2015 Simon & Schuster
Finished on June 23, 2015
Rating: 4/5 (Very Good!)




Publisher's Blurb:

"Otto, I've gone. I've never seen the water, so I've gone there. Don't worry, I've left you the truck. I can walk. I will try to remember to come back."

Eighty-three-year-old Etta has never seen the ocean. So early one morning she takes a rifle, some chocolate, and her best boots and begins walking the 3,232 kilometers from rural Saskatchewan, Canada eastward to the sea. As Etta walks further toward the crashing waves, the lines among memory, illusion, and reality blur.

Otto wakes to a note left on the kitchen table. “I will try to remember to come back,” Etta writes to her husband. Otto has seen the ocean, having crossed the Atlantic years ago to fight in a far-away war. He understands. But with Etta gone, the memories come crowding in and Otto struggles to keep them at bay. Meanwhile, their neighbor Russell has spent his whole life trying to keep up with Otto and loving Etta from afar. Russell insists on finding Etta, wherever she’s gone. Leaving his own farm will be the first act of defiance in his life.

Moving from the hot and dry present of a quiet Canadian farm to a dusty, burnt past of hunger, war, and passion, from trying to remember to trying to forget, Etta and Otto and Russell and James is an astounding literary debut “of deep longing, for reinvention and self-discovery, as well as for the past and for love and for the boundless unknown” (San Francisco Chronicle). “In this haunting debut, set in a starkly beautiful landscape, Hooper delineates the stories of Etta and the men she loved (Otto and Russell) as they intertwine through youth and wartime and into old age. It’s a lovely book you’ll want to linger over” (People)

Don't you just love it when you discover (or a co-worker helps you discover) one of those "under-the-radar" books and it turns out to be one of your favorites for the year? This is what happened when I picked up Emma Hooper's debut novel, Etta and Otto and Russell and James. Lately, I've found myself drawn to books about older characters, and not knowing a whole lot about Saskatchewan (in spite of being Canadian), and falling in love with the quirky cover art with the postmark and the hiker and dog, this novel appealed to me before even cracking the spine.

Final Thoughts:

Told in alternating points-of-view and spanning the years from WWI to the late 20th century, this page-turner deserves attention. Part fantasy, part poetry, and part historical fiction, Etta and Otto and Russell and James is a beautiful tale about love and memory. A very enjoyable debut, which begs to be discussed with friends. I look forward to more by Emma Hooper!

Dead Wake

Dead Wake by Erik Larson
Nonfiction
2015 Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Read by Scott Brick
Finished on June 18, 2015
Rating: 2/5 (Meh)





Publisher's Blurb:

From the bestselling author and master of narrative nonfiction comes the enthralling story of the sinking of the Lusitania

On May 1, 1915, with WWI entering its tenth month, a luxury ocean liner as richly appointed as an English country house sailed out of New York, bound for Liverpool, carrying a record number of children and infants. The passengers were surprisingly at ease, even though Germany had declared the seas around Britain to be a war zone. For months, German U-boats had brought terror to the North Atlantic. But the Lusitania was one of the era's great transatlantic "Greyhounds"—the fastest liner then in service—and her captain, William Thomas Turner, placed tremendous faith in the gentlemanly strictures of warfare that for a century had kept civilian ships safe from attack.

Germany, however, was determined to change the rules of the game, and Walther Schwieger, the captain of Unterseeboot-20, was happy to oblige. Meanwhile, an ultra-secret British intelligence unit tracked Schwieger's U-boat, but told no one. As U-20 and the Lusitania made their way toward Liverpool, an array of forces both grand and achingly small—hubris, a chance fog, a closely guarded secret, and more—all converged to produce one of the great disasters of history.

It is a story that many of us think we know but don't, and Erik Larson tells it thrillingly, switching between hunter and hunted while painting a larger portrait of America at the height of the Progressive Era. Full of glamour and suspense, Dead Wake brings to life a cast of evocative characters, from famed Boston bookseller Charles Lauriat to pioneering female architect Theodate Pope to President Woodrow Wilson, a man lost to grief, dreading the widening war but also captivated by the prospect of new love.

Gripping and important, Dead Wake captures the sheer drama and emotional power of a disaster whose intimate details and true meaning have long been obscured by history.

My husband loved Dead Wake, as have many of my friends, so I had high hopes when I began listening to the audio book, which is read by Scott Brick. I've enjoyed Brick's narration of other books (The Passage and The Twelve), but this time I was disappointed. I'm not sure if it was his delivery or the writing which fell short, but I found my mind wandering on more than one occasion. I did learn a bit about this historical event, but I feel that the details of Larson's account of the final voyage of the Lusitania were more superfluous than compelling. One reviewer stated the following, to which I most heartily agree:

If anything I would have preferred that he edited out some of all the details presented. I don't need to know a passenger's ticket number or that Mr. X wore a pink vest or the dimensions of a book brought on board. I believe Larson was trying to recreate the atmosphere on the boat, and he certainly did, but the details were excessive.

Final Thoughts:

In a word, lackluster. Print vs. audio? Perhaps the former is the way to go with this one. Or better yet, wait for the movie. I'm sure there will be one in the near future.