The First Rule of Swimming

Sycamore Row

8 Comments

Posted on January 20, 2014

Sycamore Row

by John Grisham

published by Doubleday

2013

Summary

Seth Hubbard is a wealthy man dying of lung cancer. He trusts no one. Before he hangs himself from a sycamore tree, Hubbard leaves a new, handwritten, will. It is an act that drags his adult children, his black maid, and Jake into a conflict as riveting and dramatic as the murder trial that made Brigance one of Ford County’s most notorious citizens, just three years earlier.
The second will raises far more questions than it answers. Why would Hubbard leave nearly all of his fortune to his maid? Had chemotherapy and painkillers affected his ability to think clearly? And what does it all have to do with a piece of land once known as Sycamore Row? (Goodreads)

My Review

I admit to having a soft spot for John Grisham novels. It started when I entered college and didn’t really have a lot of time to read for pleasure. Grisham’s books were easy reads, yet interesting and fun. I think I have read almost everything he has written, with the exception go Calico Joe. That being said, I was very excited when I heard he was writing a sequel to one of my favs, A Time to Kill. I loved that book, and it doesn’t hurt that I think of Matthew McConaughey whenever I think of Jake Brigance. Sycamore Row picks up with Jake and all the original characters three years after the Hailey trial. Jake become involved in the trial to challenge a handwritten will of a white man who killed himself, and left almost everything to his black housekeeper. It might seem at times that Grisham follows a formula to write his courtroom dramas, but this is a fun, captivating, fast read. If you enjoy legal dramas, and a look into sour country’s complex race relations, I word definitely recommend this book!

My Rating

4 out of 5 stars

Bookish (& Not So Bookish) Thoughts

4 Comments

Posted on January 17, 2014

Bookish & Not So Bookish Thought

is a weekly meme hosted by Christine over at Bookishly Boisterous, where we post things that are on our minds.

I haven’t been able to participate in this meme for almost a month-whew! Here are some thoughts-

1. I feel like I am not getting on the ball here. I thought I would hit the ground running in the new year, with interesting challenges, read alongs, etc., but I am not. I am struggling just to get a few posts out and responding to comments. I promise I will do better. On the other hand, I am reading lots and loving every minute of it, though my old eyes are VERY tired.

2. I saw a post on FB about 16 movies that are coming out, and how you should read the books before they do on Buzzfeed– such as Divergent, The Monuments Men, The Fault in our Stars, and Gone Girl. Part of me was all like, Cool, I can’t wait to read that, and that. Then I realized, that part from The Monuments Men (Clooney and Damon-sigh) and Gone Girl (Affleck-sigh), it is very unlikely I will see ANY of those movies. Why? I’d rather just read the book and be done with it. This is how I usually feel about adaptations.

And what is this I hear about Gillian Flynn rewriting the ending of Gone Girl for the movie????

3. Is anyone out there on Booklikes? I went over there and I like it. I think I might join. Let me know what you think of it.

4. One of my resolutions for 2014 is GET ORGANIZED. Sounds like a good idea, right? But how? Anyone have any good organization tips for book blogging?

5. My sister sent this to me-she said it made her think of me.

6. That is the last though I might have for awhile- coming down with that “flu” thing going around-ugh.

Have a great weekend!!

Top Ten Resolutions for 2014

17 Comments

Posted on January 14, 2014

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke & the Bookish. It’s awesome. Every Tuesday, the lovely ladies over there give us book bloggers wonderful and fun topics to create our lists! Check out what others have posted by going over there! http://brokeandbookish.blogspot.com

I missed last week’s TTT, so I decided to do it this week. Here are my

Top Ten Goals/Resolutions for 2014

1. Get Organized.

When I went away last month, I actually sat down for a few hours and wrote out about 8 posts in advance and scheduled them. It was awesome. I have to put time aside each week to do that. Usually I post like I am now, the day I want it out, whenever I grab a few minutes in front of the computer. Too piecemeal.

2. Join up with the Book Blogger Hop that is hosted by Coffee Addicted Writer.

You answer one cool question a week. I can commit to that.

3. Use Better Graphics.

I hear lots of people use Pic Monkey. I went over there and I am still unsure how to use it. I should write this blog in a notebook- that’s how tech savvy I am.

4. Reread Harry Potter.

I have been meaning to do this for a long while. Everytime I say I will, I find about ten new books that I also want to read.

5. Join The Classics Club.

Been meaning to do this too. I need to commit- enough already!

6. Attend BEA?

I am considering attending this year, especially since I can do it in a day trip- I live about 40 miles outside of NYC. I want to, but I am not sure if I should. Are many of you going? I might go if I at least knew a few people that were there.

7. Relax

Not every book I read HAS to get reviewed, right? Sometimes I read just for fun (just got the 20th Stephanie Plum-guilty pleasure). Also, the posting has to be fun-not a chore. If I don’t want to write, I won’t.

8. Increase Followers

I really haven’t actively done much in this area up until now. Any suggestions??

I really have no idea.

That is pretty much it for bookish/blog resolutions.

The Invention of Wings

16 Comments

Posted on January 13, 2014

The Inventions of Wings

by Sue Monk Kidd

published by Viking

2013

I received this book as a digital ARC from the publisher through Net Galley in return for an honest review.

Summary

Hetty “Handful” Grimke, an urban slave in early nineteenth century Charleston, yearns for life beyond the suffocating walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke household. The Grimke’s daughter, Sarah, has known from an early age she is meant to do something large in the world, but she is hemmed in by the limits imposed on women.

Kidd’s sweeping novel is set in motion on Sarah’s eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership of ten year old Handful, who is to be her handmaid.We follow their remarkable journeys over the next thirty-five years, as both strive for a life of their own, dramatically shaping each other’s destinies and forming a complex relationship marked by guilt, defiance, estrangement and the uneasy ways of love.
As the stories build to a riveting climax, Handful will endure loss and sorrow, finding courage and a sense of self in the process. Sarah will experience crushed hopes, betrayal, unrequited love, and ostracism before leaving Charleston to find her place alongside her fearless younger sister, Angelina, as one of the early pioneers in the abolition and women’s rights movements.

Inspired by the historical figure of Sarah Grimke, Kidd goes beyond the record to flesh out the rich interior lives of all of her characters, both real and invented, including Handful’s cunning mother, Charlotte, who courts danger in her search for something better.
This exquisitely written novel is a triumph of storytelling that looks with unswerving eyes at a devastating wound in American history, through women whose struggles for liberation, empowerment, and expression will leave no reader unmoved. (from Goodreads)

My Review

Thank you so much Viking and Net Galley!! This was an amazing book and I would even say a must read. Sue Monk Kidd, the author of The Secret Life of Bees, has given us a very powerful, beautifully written novel that follows the lives of two girls from childhood into womanhood. We meet Sarah, the middle child of a large aristocratic family in Charleston, S.C. in 1803. Her father, Judge Grimke, has authored much of Charleston’s judicial code on slavery and the family relies heavily on slaves in both their home in Charleston and on their nearby plantation. For her 11th birthday, Sarah is given a slave of her own, Hetty (Handful), but unlike the rest of her family, she has very strong convictions about slavery and almost immediately tries to free her. Unsuccessful, she instead teaches Hetty how to read. We watch both these young girls grow into women, though into very different lives. Sarah struggles to live according to her beliefs, and finds she must leave home to do so. Through Hetty, we see the cruelties and injustices of slavery make a strong willed girl into an even stronger willed woman, very ugh like her mother, Charlotte.

The author based her novel on the real lives of Sarah Grimke and her sister Nina, abolitionists who were much hated in their hometown. I loved that the author took time at the end of the book to explain her research and how she came to write about these amazing women. To learn more about the Grimke sisters, look here-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimké_sisters

It was ironic that I started reading this book while vacationing in the Charleston area over the holidays. I loved being able to walk the streets of the story I was in the middle of reading. Charleston is a beautiful city and one of the places I would recommend to everyone.

My Rating

5 out of 5

What do you think? Will you read it? Did you like it?

Please leave a comment-I love hearing from you!

Reconstructing Amelia- a review

6 Comments

Posted on January 10, 2014

Reconstructing Amelia

by Kimberly McCreight

published by HarperCollins

2013

Summary

A stunning debut novel in which a single mother reconstructs her teenaged daughter’s life, sifting through her emails, texts, and social media to piece together the shocking truth about the last days of her life.

Litigation lawyer and harried single mother Kate Baron is stunned when her daughter’s exclusive private school in Park Slope, Brooklyn, calls with disturbing news: her intelligent, high-achieving fifteen-year-old daughter, Amelia, has been caught cheating.

Kate can’t believe that Amelia, an ambitious, levelheaded girl who’s never been in trouble would do something like that. But by the time she arrives at Grace Hall, Kate’s faced with far more devastating news. Amelia is dead.

Seemingly unable to cope with what she’d done, a despondent Amelia has jumped from the school’s roof in an act of “spontaneous” suicide. At least that’s the story Grace Hall and the police tell Kate. And overwhelmed as she is by her own guilt and shattered by grief, it is the story that Kate believes until she gets the anonymous text:

She didn’t jump.

Sifting through Amelia’s emails, text messages, social media postings, and cell phone logs, Kate is determined to learn the heartbreaking truth about why Amelia was on Grace Hall’s roof that day-and why she died.

Told in alternating voices, Reconstructing Amelia is a story of secrets and lies, of love and betrayal, of trusted friends and vicious bullies. It’s about how well a parent ever really knows a child and how far one mother will go to vindicate the memory of a daughter whose life she could not save.

(from Goodreads)

My Review

I heard lots of good thing about this book, and though the subject is very sad, I decided to read it. This was a completely heart wrenching story for me. As a mother of two teenagers, the premise of a teenager throwing themselves off of the roof of their school, after being accused of plagiarism scares the hell out of me. This is the story of successful lawyer and single mom kate, and also that of her daughter, Amelia. As the book begins, Amelia has gotten into trouble at school and Kate must leave a very important meeting to go pick her up. When Kate arrives at the posh private school in Brooklyn, police are everywhere. Kate soon learns that it seems Amelia, distraught over her suspension, has committed suicide by jumping off the roof of the school. As Kate mourns and attempts to pick up her life, she begins to doubt that Amelia really jumped, that she might have been pushed. Kate delves into Amelia’s life, discovering there was much about her daughter that she didn’t know.

This was a very quick read and I would recommend it. I have heard it compared to Gone Girl, which I am not too sure about. I t did have a little element of mystery, but we already know WHAT happened to Amelia, just not HOW. The hard part of this book is that to find the answers, we also feel Kate’s pain. When she discovers things that are going on at Amelia’s school it sent shovers down my spine. Parents try to raise their kids and eventually need to let them stand on their own. The difficult phase of this is usually the teen/high school years, as children become adults and make choices and decisions for themselves. We know they will make good and bad ones, and try to help them navigate these hard times, all the while being less involved in their lives.

(I actually thought the part of the story about the secret clubs in the high school would make a very good cautionary tale for a YA book)

I would love to hear your thoughts- please leave a comment!

My Rating

4 out 0f 5

Hello Again!! Happy New Year

4 Comments

Posted on January 6, 2014

I just wanted to post a quick hello out there to everyone! I have been away from my blog for the better part of two weeks now, since we have been in South Carolina visiting family over the holidays. I prescheduled my posts, but I feel bad that I haven’t been able to respond to any of the awesome comments so many of you left here. I promise to get back to everyone as soon as I can.

We had hoped to be home Thursday morning, but were grounded by the weather in the North (for 3 more days!). Not complaining- it was much warmer where we were.I am very thankful we were able to get home before this next batch of freezing weather that is defending on us tonight! If you are affected by this deep freeze-Please stay warm!!

Looking forward to reading all your posts that I missed and get back into the blogging groove!

All You Could Ask For

4 Comments

Posted on January 3, 2014

All You Could Ask for

Mike Greenberg

published by Harper Collins

2013

I borrowed a copy of this book from my library.

Summary

Three women are about to find their lives intertwined in ways none of them could ever have imagined…

Brooke has been happily married to her college sweetheart for fifteen years. Even after the C-section, the dog poop, the stomach viruses, and the coffee breath, Scott still always winks at her at just the right moments. That is why, for her beloved, romantic, successful husband’s fortieth birthday, she is giving him pictures. Of her. Naked.

Samantha’s newlywed bliss is steamrolled when she finds shocking evidence of infidelity on her husband’s computer. She has been married for two days. She won’t be for much longer.

Katherine works eighteen hours a day for the man who irreparably shattered her heart fifteen years ago. She has a duplex on Park Avenue, a driver, a chef, and a stunning house in Southampton, and she bought it all herself. So what if she has to see Phillip every single workday for the rest of her natural life? Brooke, Samantha, and Katherine don’t know one another, but all three are about to discover the conquering power of friendship—and that they have all they could ask for, as long as they have one another. (from Goodreads)

My Review

It wasn’t until after I finished this book that I found out it was written by one of the co-hosts of ESPN’s Mike & Mike, though I knew the author was male. The story introduces us to three women at different points in their lives. Brooke is the wealthy SAHM living a charmed life in Greenwich, Conn., with her adorable twins and handsome hubby. Samantha, a newlywed on her honeymoon, discovers a terrible secret that jeopardizes her two day old marriage. Katherine is a successful business woman in New York, who realizes on her 40th birthday that her career is the only thing she has, and runs away for a much needed break to Aspen. In the second part of the book, all three have been diagnosed with breast cancer. Each reacts to this in very different ways, though through a breast cancer forum, they become friends and support reach other.

Honestly, I enjoyed this book. It was well written and a fast read. Greenberg decided to write this book in memory of a close friend of his and his wife, who died of the disease. At the funeral, he found that his friend Heidi had “developed these incredibly intense relationships with a group of women from a cancer support website, women she called her ‘breast friends’.” All proceeds from the book go to a fund called “he id’s Angels”, which I think is amazing. Congratulations Mr. Greenberg!

I would recommend this book. Though there were small faults-the women were a bit too perfect, especially Brooke ( really? whenever hubby wants it, you give it to him?)- which made it a bit unrealistic. Also, parts of their diagnosis and treatments weren’t really delved into. The focus was more on the support they could give each other. Other than those small things, it was a great story and you should read it!

My Rating

4 out of 5

Photo by Pamela Einarsen

Mike Greenberg

Mike Greenberg is cohost of ESPN’s Mike & Mike and the author of two previous New York Times bestsellers. He is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and a native of New York City. He lives with his wife, Stacy, and their two children in Connecticut. In conjunction with the release of this book, Mike and Stacy have created a foundation called Heidi’s Angels, through which all of the author’s profits from the sale of this book will be donated to The V Foundation for Cancer Research to combat breast cancer.

All You Could Ask For (bookaliciousmama.com)

The Longing of Wayward Girls- a review

7 Comments

Posted on December 27, 2013

The Longing of Wayward Girls

by Karen Brown

published by Washington Square Press

2013

I received this book as a digital ARC from the publisher through Net Galley in return for an honest review.

Summary

It’s an idyllic New England summer, and Sadie is a precocious only child on the edge of adolescence. It seems like July and August will pass lazily by, just as they have every year before. But one day, Sadie and her best friend play a seemingly harmless prank on a neighborhood girl. Soon after, that same little girl disappears from a backyard barbecue; and she is never seen again. Twenty years pass, and Sadie is still living in the same quiet suburb. She’s married to a good man, has two beautiful children, and seems to have put her past behind her. But when a boy from her old neighborhood returns to town, the nightmares of that summer will begin to resurface, and its unsolved mysteries will finally become clear. (goodreads)

My Review

This is the third book I have read this month that I experienced a strange thing- a dislike of the characters and their decisions. The story alternates between the summer of 1979 and the summer of 2003, all set in a quaint New England town. Sadie Watkins is the main character and we go back and forth with her between these two pivotal summers. In 1979, the adolescent Sadie makes choices that will haunt her for the rest of her life. I actually enjoyed the descriptions of growing up in the 70’s. Though I am not as old as Sadie, I too grew up in the era. The flashbacks were honestly the more interesting parts of the book, though I had a hard time liking Sadie at any point. I would have enjoyed more of that story, rather than the constant sense of ennui and repeated poor choices of the adult Sadie. I found it easier to take a 12 year old doing stupid and harmful things than a grown women and mother of two children. That being said, the book was well written and I would look forward to reading more from this author. I did find the whole story line with Sadie’s mother captivating. It balanced out the Loomis storyline, which kind of went nowhere.

My Rating 3 out of 5