2.27.2017 - Dis Mem Ber

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read and review this book!

I'm not typically a big fan of short stories but when they are written by Joyce Carol Oates, they're hard to resist. And these are creepy, Twilight-Zone territory stories. Widows and teenagers play big starring roles in these stories and don't look for neatly tied up endings - these all leave much to your imagination. But the writing is pure Joyce Carol Oates - gorgeous!

2.26.2017 - The Forgotten Girls

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read and review this book!

This is one of a series involving two FBI agents charged with investigating violent crimes. It was my first introduction to this series - although some background on the agents that would have been gained by reading the other books would have been interesting, it certainly wasn't necessary to read this book.

Now, a book about a serial killer probably isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I enjoyed this thriller. The agents are tasked with looking into a young girl's murder on the High Line - the train system running through the northern most part of the country. As they investigate, they learn that the rumors of a ghost running the rails and targeting and killing young women seem to be true. The victims are the forgotten in our society - runaways, Native American girls, prostitutes - so no one is looking real hard and connecting the dots.

There is a lot of action taking place in the frigid wilderness and you feel the cold as you read this book. I'd now like to go back and read the beginning books in this series!

2.25.2017 - You Can Have a Dog When I'm Dead

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read and review this great book!

In the same vein as Lisa Scottoline, this is a book of newspaper columns about life from a Canadian journalist. I'm sure I missed lots of the Canadian references, but any book that makes me laugh and cry, often at the same time, is a worthy read. When it's about those life experiences that we all go through, even better. If you are a boomer, you'll appreciate all the milestones experienced in this book through laughter - the colonoscopy, kids moving out, caring for parents, summer vacations...it's all here to relate to.

This is one of those books that's easy to just pick up, read a quick passage and go about your day with a little bit brighter smile.

2.23.2017 - The Elegance of the Hedgehog

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read and review this book!

I had a bit of a hard time with this book but the ending really made the difference for me and left me with a higher opinion.

This is one of those books that made me feel I definitely wasn't smart enough to read it - it waxes on about various philosophies, art, music - plus it takes place in Paris so there were some language and cultural issues.

But it was a sweet story at the heart of it all - Renee is the concierge of an apartment building filled with rich and pretentious people. She makes no impact on their lives except to fill a role. She plays that role well - to them she is gruff, unattractive, watches too much TV. However, she is a self-taught intellectual who loves music, art, philosophy.

Paloma is a 12-year-old in the apartment building who is extremely intelligent and is planning on killing herself before her 13th birthday. Like Renee, she plays a role - doesn't appear too smart, exasperates her family with her quirks.

Things change in the building when a wealthy Japanese man, Ozu, moves into the building. He is able to see through them both.

This takes some time (and in my case, some skimming of long paragraphs!) but the end is worth the read.

2.22.2017 - Ill Will

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read and review this book!

This book takes you down many paths and leaves you with many feelings and mysteries unsolved - and the writing style will probably cause some to give up reading. But I definitely think it's worth sticking it out, even though the ending won't be given to you wrapped with a bow.

The book is set in Northeast Ohio and involves two mysteries - one in the 1980s and the other in more present time. The first mystery involves a grisly murder scene - two married couples all shot. Their children, Dustin and his two older twin cousins, Wave and Kate, were outside sleeping in a camper. However, there's even more behind the scene. Dustin was a very gullible, malleable child whom his cousins enjoyed exploiting. Dustin's family had adopted Rusty, a troubled youth from an abusive background. He was accused of committing the crime and Dustin and Kate's testimony was what put him behind bars. But was it true? How can we know what the truth is?

In the present-day, Dustin is now a psychologist raising his own teenage boys with a wife who is ill from cancer. A patient comes to him with the second mystery - which involves a series of college-age students who seem to be heavily intoxicated, leave their friends, and are discovered later drowned in a nearby body of water. The police dismiss these deaths as "death by stupidity" - they were drunk, these things happen. But do they? This patient becomes Dustin's only friend and they join together to find out what happened to these boys.

The writing style is very unique - adding to all the mystery. There are text bubbles, pages written in columns that you have to flip back and forth to read, and sentences that just stop - showing how Dustin had the tendency to speak.

Quite the ride!

2.19.2017 - June

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this book!

This book was just released in paperback - the perfect opportunity to pick up a great read! This one languished on my NetGalley shelf for awhile; after reading it, I was disappointed I didn't read it sooner!

This story just worked for me. Set in fictional St Jude, Ohio, it switches timelines between 1955 and 2015. In 2015, Cassie is fresh from a breakup and a life in NYC when her grandmother dies and leaves Cassie her mansion in St Jude. The house, however, is falling down around Cassie who can't garner enough energy to even pick up the mail that is accumulating inside her front door. A stranger comes to the door one day to tell her about an inheritance from a stranger.

In 1955, June (Cassie's grandmother) is 18 and on the verge of marrying a man because she feels it's her duty. Lindie is the girl from across the street, motherless and a tomboy, who worships June. When Hollywood comes to shoot a movie in St Jude, it brings movie stars and complications to June and Lindie's life.

I loved these characters - their messy lives, their loyalties and desires, and loved falling into their world for awhile. Highly recommended!

2.17.2017 - The Harvest Baker

What a gorgeous book!  I bookmarked so many recipes to try - love all the different breads to try.  The pictures are gorgeous and I'm sure some of the stock photos will be replaced in the actual book to make it even more gorgeous!

But the writing about the recipes and ingredients is top notch.  Lots of suggestions and helpful hints.  I only wish there was a nutrition guide, but maybe that will come with the final version too.

Highly recommended!

2.17.2017 - The Orphan's Tale

Thanks so much to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this book.

For all the books I've read concerning the horrors of the Holocaust, you'd think you couldn't be surprised by atrocities but of course you're wrong. This story basically incorporates two true happenings of that time and combines them into an amazing novel - infants rounded up and put on a train car headed for concentration camps and the German circus that helped to hide Jewish people.

Noa is a young Dutch girl, pregnant from one night with a Nazi soldier, and forced to leave her home by her father. She goes to a home where she is forced to give up her baby boy - in yet another program to take young German babies and give them homes. When her baby doesn't look like the German ideal, she has no clue what will happen to him. She is forced to try and earn a living cleaning and sleeping in a railway station. She happens to hear faint crying one night and sees the horror of a whole train carful of infants, most dead or dying. Without thinking, she grabs one little boy who is alive and takes off running through the woods. She is found by circus workers and taken in by the owner. In order to stay, she must learn the trapeze, and her tutor is more than reluctant to teach her. Astrid has her own secrets - and being saddled trying to teach Noa makes her angry, which she takes out on Noa.

This is an amazing story of hope, despair, love, survival - all in the horrid shadow of the war. I am not a big circus fan but just as in Water for Elephants, there is something that draws you closer. I thought the writing was wonderful - highly recommended.

2.15.2017 - Combustion

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read and review this book!

I had not read any of this author's previous books, but I now count myself as a fan! This was a fast-moving, intriguing mystery with a nice twist.

Taking place in Southern California in the midst of dry season with wildfires looming, a dried-up pond gives up a dead body - that of a wealthy businessman who had disappeared weeks ago. The detective investigating soon finds himself with a long list of people who didn't like the deceased.

The detective, Ron Starke, is a great character. On his own since his wife died, he lives a lonely existence while also caring for his father with dementia. When a new police chief comes into town and gets the job he thought he deserved, more tension is added to the story.

A great read!

2.13.2017 - Since She Went Away

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read and review this book!

This was a good thriller - I read it quickly to figure out what was going on. Jenna is a single mom raising 15-year-old Jared. She arranges a late-night meet at the park with her best friend since they were young, Celia, just to feel like her younger self again for the night. But she ended up being a few minutes late and Celia never showed. Jenna finds herself obsessed with finding out what happened to Celia, partly because she feels so guilty that she was late.

Then Jared meets the new girl at school and is infatuated with his first love. But there's something not right with Tabitha. Her dad is extremely strict and Jared starts thinking that something is not right.

Throw in lots of media people doing whatever they can to get the next story lead and a detective who is trying to get to the bottom of all the mysteries and you have a great read with plenty of twists along the way.

2.12.2017 - Baby Doll

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This is promoted as a thriller but it's really more of a family drama - one starring a couple pulled-from-the-headlines plots. The story begins when Lily, held captive in a cabin basement for years, escapes with the child fathered by her kidnapper. We never learn too much about what happened in the cabin, other than that there were "training periods" where her captor broke her into behaving the way he wanted.

Most of the story is what happens when Lily is reunited with her family - her twin sister, Abby, her mother, Eve, and her boyfriend at the time of the kidnapping, Wes. I was intrigued enough to keep reading to find out what happened and thought it was a good story - it just wasn't the thriller that it could/should have been.

2.10.2017 - Still Here

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this book!

This is the story of 4 Russian immigrants who come to the US and their lives are linked through either love or friendship - although those links change as the book goes on. I never got real into this book - it seemed to have promise and there were parts that I really liked. It was intriguing to read about the perceptions of the US that these immigrants have and their reactions to their new world.

Social media plays a big part in this book as 2 of the main characters are trying to develop an app called Virtual Grave - a way to keep an online connection alive to a person that has died. Fairly creepy. But I did like some of the characters' perceptions of social media in general - how we all put on our best faces to the rest of the world and how fake that feels at the end of the day.

I just had a tough time getting into these characters and caring about what happened to them. None were real likeable.

2.8.2017 - Setting Free the Kites

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I kind of dove into this book, only emerging for life's normal interruptions. This is a great coming-of-age story with lots of lessons about family, friendship, loss and grief.

The book is set in coastal Maine, and the author does a wonderful job of making us feel that we are there by the ocean. Robert Carter is a teenager, not really fitting in at school where he's being horribly bullied. A new student, Nathan, comes to his rescue and they become fast friends. Robert's dad owns a small amusement park in their little tourist town, held together mainly by his perseverance and dedication. Robert's brother Liam has a life-threatening illness that encompasses their entire family. Nathan comes into his world and teaches his about letting go, fearlessness, hope and friendship.

I probably would have given this 5 starts except for the one incident with Robert's dad late in the book - just left a bit of a scar on my heart and seemed out of character and out of place in the story.

But a great read - would be a good book club read with lots to discuss.

2.6.2017 - 4 3 2 1

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I have to admit to a few things up front - when I started seeing reviews of this book through various sources, I thought it sounded so intriguing and was thrilled to get an advance reader's copy. Then I saw it was 880 pages! That's a huge commitment but I was determined. I have also never read any of this author's works before so had no preconceived notions of his writing.

I'm also a little ambivalent about my review - I really liked the first half of the book but the second half seemed to get way too bogged down for me. And I'm not a prude but there was way too much sex of all varieties in this book, even though I get that it's about young men!

That being said, this was one of the most creative books I have read and I started talking about it right away. A young boy is born and from there, the book explores 4 different paths of his life. The lives of all the Fergusons are spelled out in different chapters taking place in different times of his life. So all the beginning stories are listed in chapters such as 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 while we explore the 4 different paths.

The author uses paragraph or longer length sentences and it can be somewhat confusing to keep track of which Ferguson you're reading about, although the author does a great job of giving enough clues to figure it out. Plus, the same basic characters come in and out of Ferguson's life in all its versions.

While some might not, I really liked the ending so as I'm writing this I'm giving it 4 stars. If you would have asked me about 3/4 of the way through, I might have gone with 3. There is SO much information here - Ferguson in all lives is a huge movie and literature buff and the setting and time periods allow for much exploration of the political and racial movements of our time, especially during the 60s.