Top Ten Characters I Would Like to Check In With

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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

This week’s topic is

Top Ten Characters I Would Like to Check In With

(This was actually the topic a few weeks ago, but I missed it and wanters to do it!)

1.  Minerva, Molly, Luna- HP Series

We get a little wrap up for the major character at the end of Deathly Hallows, but what about the secondary characters??  Did Minerva ever retire?  Is her portrait hanging in the headmaster’s office?  Is Molly enjoying her many grand kids? Did Luna ever find all of her shoes?

2.  Lizzy & Darcy- Pride & Prejudice

Did they fill Pemberly with children, or do they fight like cats and dogs?

3.  Offred _ The Handmaids Tale

This is a little iffy-no?

4.  Lisbeth Salander- The Millennium Series

While I would love to know what comes next for her-and Blomqvist- not sure if another author should be doing it.

5.  Nick & Amy Dunne- Gone Girl

Are they together?  Alive?  Are they raising the next generation of psycho?

6.  Stan & Frannie– The Stand

Are they still in Maine?  Lots of kids?

The Sound of Glass by Karen White

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The Sound of Glass

by Karen White

published by NAL

May 12 2015

I received an advance review copy of this book from the publisher through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Review

I have been on a role (knock on wood) lately with my ARCs from Net Galley.  I have been reading some pretty awesome books and I am so thankful for it!  This might have been one of my frecent favorites.  I have read some other books by this author, but I like this one best.  In it, she truly evokes life in the Lowcountry, and how beautiful and different it is to live there.

I loved the characters here- Merritt, who has suffered greatly in the past and is trying to start over in the family home of her deceased husband in Beaufort, S.C.- Loralee, her very young stepmother, who shows up uninvited on Merritt’s new doorstep, with her 10 year old son in tow- and Gibbes- her unknown brother in law, who wants to understand what happened to his family years ago.  We have southern mansions and mystery as the story is told through Merritt, Loralee, and Edith, Gibbes’ grandmother who’s death left Merrittt the house.  If you enjoy tales set in the Lowcountry, you will love this book.  I would love to know what comes next for these characters.

Summary

It has been two years since the death of Merritt Heyward’s husband, Cal, when she receives unexpected news—Cal’s family home in Beaufort, South Carolina, bequeathed by Cal’s reclusive grandmother, now belongs to Merritt.

Charting the course of an uncertain life—and feeling guilt from her husband’s tragic death—Merritt travels from her home in Maine to Beaufort, where the secrets of Cal’s unspoken-of past reside among the pluff mud and jasmine of the ancestral Heyward home on the Bluff. This unknown legacy, now Merritt’s, will change and define her as she navigates her new life—a new life complicated by the arrival of her too young stepmother and ten-year-old half-brother.

Soon, in this house of strangers, Merritt is forced into unraveling the Heyward family past as she faces her own fears and finds the healing she needs in the salt air of the Low Country.

The Bookseller by Cynthia Swanson- a mini review

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The Bookseller

by Cynthia Swanson

published by Harper

March 2015

Review

I was excited to read this book because it had so many things that I love in a story.  I am a sucker for books about people who love books and reading.  I loved how Kitty was living a quiet, but mostly satisfying life- working in the bookshop she owned with her best friend, and enjoying the company of her mom and dad.  When she starts to have dreams of an alternate life- where she met and fell in love with a wonderful man and has a beautiful home and children, we realize that Kitty definitely feels there is something missing in her life.  As the dreams continue, we see that neither life is really perfect.  Kitty sees how lonely she really is, and understands that in her dreams, Katharyn’s life has problems too.

I loved the way this story unraveled.  It kept me engaged to the very end.  I was torn as to which life I wanted to be real.  Poor Kitty/Katharyn.  Nothing is perfect.

 

Summary

Nothing is as permanent as it appears . . . 

Denver, 1962: Kitty Miller has come to terms with her unconventional single life. She loves the bookshop she runs with her best friend, Frieda, and enjoys complete control over her day-to-day existence. She can come and go as she pleases, answering to no one. There was a man once, a doctor named Kevin, but it didn’t quite work out the way Kitty had hoped.

Then the dreams begin.

Denver, 1963: Katharyn Andersson is married to Lars, the love of her life. They have beautiful children, an elegant home, and good friends. It’s everything Kitty Miller once believed she wanted—but it only exists when she sleeps.

Convinced that these dreams are simply due to her overactive imagination, Kitty enjoys her nighttime forays into this alternate world. But with each visit, the more irresistibly real Katharyn’s life becomes. Can she choose which life she wants? If so, what is the cost of staying Kitty, or becoming Katharyn?

As the lines between her worlds begin to blur, Kitty must figure out what is real and what is imagined. And how do we know where that boundary lies in our own lives?

 

Bookish (& Not So Bookish) Thoughts

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Bookish & Not So Bookish Thoughts

is a weekly meme hosted by Christine over at Bookishly Boisterous, where we post things that are on our minds.  Head over there and check it out!

1.  Did you ever have “that” kind of a day- where everything is BLAH?  I am having one.  My solution- I am going to the library.

2.  Does anyone have the Kindle Unlimited?  I am tempted-but-Is it worth it?  I figure I impulse buy at least $10 worth every month any way.

3.  I started reading The Martian yesterday- I am only 5% in-my question is- Does it get good?  I am up to the part where he is figuring out how to make water.  My eyes are glazing over like they did back in high school during Chem class.  I hated Chem.  I actually hated Walter White BEFORE he started making the meth.

4.  I am listening to The Illiad narrated by Matthew Crawley (Dan Stevens), the new Beast.  I love him, but am not sure his proper, clipped British accents gels with the rough and tumble Agamemnon and Achilles.

5.  Speaking of the Beast, did you see the complete cast for the upcoming live Beauty and the Beast?  It is AWESOME! Click here.  Be my guest.

6.  Last night my father in law came over and I made a nice big dinner- sauce with meatballs and sausage, manicotti, Italian bread, and salad, with cheesecake for dessert.  I had a meatball.  :-((

7.  I went to my first high school track meet this week.  My son decided to give it a try this year to keep in shape.  He is doing hurdles and high jump.

That was two hours of my life I will never get back.

8.  We are shipping up to Boston (aahhhh) to visit some colleges.  I am very excited- to not make beds for a day or so.

Off to the library to feel better!

Top Ten All Time Favorite Authors!

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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

This week’s topic is

My Top Ten Favorite Authors of All Time

Yeah!  Very excited by this, but it did make me stop and think.  I have many authors I love, but have really only read one book by ( I am looking at you Arthur Golden).

So here are my favorite authors that I have read several books by-

1.  J.R.R. Tolkien

I have read and reread The Hobbit, The Lord of The Rings, and The Silmarilion several times in my life, and they get better each time.

2.  J.K. Rowling

The Harry Potter series is 7 of my favorite books.

3.  Stephen King

Took me more than 40 years to work up the courage to read The Shining, but once I did, I couldn’t get enough of King.  I do have to be careful, or I will go overboard, and too much of a good thing blah blah blah.  I have It sitting on my Kindle taunting me.  I think I will wait until there are more daylight hours though.

4.  Carlos Ruiz Zafron

The Shadow of the Wind and it’s sequels are such rich, beautifully written books.  I need to do a reread soon.

5.  F. Scott Fitzgerald

I find the 20’s irresistible, and Scott is the embodiment of this era.  My favorite- Tender is the Night.

6.  William Shakespeare

I might love Shakespeare because I was really into Theater during high school and college.  Whatever the reason, these are some of the best plays written.  Twelfth Night is my favorite comedy and Macbeth my favorite tragedy.

I saw the performance in NYC last year with Mark Rylance and Stephen Fry.  It was awesome.

7.  C.S. Lewis

The Narnia chronicles are amazing.  I read them all- in the order they were written.

8.  Dennis Lehane

It started with Mystic River, then Shutter Island, and then I tried to read anything he wrote.  I love the grittiness of his settings and characters.  Can’t wait for his new one!

9.  John Grisham

Aside form Calico Joe, I have read everything he has written.  Some say it’s too formulaic, but I think it’s all good.  The only one I didn’t love was his last-Gray Mountain.  My favorites-The Pelican Brief and Sycamore Row.

10.  Jane Austen

Though she did not write very many books, I have read and loved all of them (except Sandition, which sits on the Kindle giving me the stink eye).  I love them all, but my least favorite is Mansfield Park.  My favorite is Pride & Prejudice, followed by Persuasion.  

The Girl on The Train- some thoughts….

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The Girl on the Train

by Paula Hawkins

published by Riverhead Books

January 2015

I know most of you have heard of- or probably read- this book, so I decided to not write a whole review, but rather just share some thoughts and quotes.

-I love books with unreliable narrators- and this one has 3!!  All three female narrators are hiding something.

– I was taken back by the brutal description of Rachel’s repeated downward spirals into alcoholism.  To see someone that young and alone continue to destroy themselves was harsh.

– I found it hard to feel bad for Rachel, and it made me wonder about how we feel pity, or empathy for certain people but not for others.

– So many twists- but I felt like the hype surrounding the book sort of made it less thrilling than if I had just found it on the shelf in the library and decided to read it because it sounded cool.  Sometimes you enjoy the books you stumble upon the most.

 

Quotes

“There’s something comforting about the sight of strangers safe at home.”

“I have never understood how people can blithely disregard the damage they do by following their hearts.” 

“I have lost control over everything, even the places in my head.”

“I can’t do this, I can’t just be a wife. I don’t understand how anyone does it—there is literally nothing to do but wait. Wait for a man to come home and love you. Either that or look around for something to distract you.”

Summary

Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. “Jess and Jason,” she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost.

And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel offers what she knows to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in what happens next, as well as in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?

A compulsively readable, emotionally immersive, Hitchcockian thriller that draws comparisons to Gone Girl, The Silent Wife, or Before I Go to Sleep, this is an electrifying debut embraced by readers across markets and categories.

Bookish (& Not So Bookish) Thoughts

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Bookish & Not So Bookish Thoughts

is a weekly meme hosted by Christine over at Bookishly Boisterous, where we post things that are on our minds.  Head over there and check it out!

1.  I am heading to an author luncheon this afternoon and I am very excited.  My sister and Mom will be there too.  The author is Regina Calcaterra and her Book is Etched in Sand– about her difficult childhood in Long Island.

This is actually my first author event and I am very excited!

2.  I picked up the audiobook of The Illiad at my library yesterday because it is read by Dan Stevens (Matthew Crawley from Downton Abbey) and everyone seems to think I am crazy.

3.  My husband continues his audiobook reading and I couldn’t be more excited.  After he finished The Stand, I had a problem finding a good one at the library for him to read next, so I grabbed The Paris Architect– a historical fiction I had read last year and enjoyed.  Next up is The Book Thief for him.  I will bring him over to our side!

4.  I am rereading The Handmaid’s Tale (again) because my daughter is reading it for her English class.  While at first I thought it might be a tough read for 15 year olds, I applaud the teacher for picking it.  I am excited to see how my daughter and her friends like it and what they think about it.  She just started and already had a cool insight- the handmaids are named after their commanders.

5.  I think spring might actually be here in Northern NJ!  My daffodils have finally bloomed and I sat outside and read yesterday afternoon.

6.  The hubby and I are celebrating our 20th anniversary this June and decided to celebrate by renting a house on the beach in OBX with the kids and the dogs.  While not terribly romantic, it makes sense- they are teenagers and this will probably be the last big anniversary with them living at home.

7.  We are toying with the idea of renewing our vows on the beach.  My daughter will be the maid of honor and my son the best man.  The yellow lab will be the flowergirl and the chocolate the ring bearer.  Sound cheesy, but I am actually getting a little excited by the idea.  Now I just need to make it happen. Ideas are much appreciated.

8.  And because of #7, I have to get in shape quickly!  When I told my daughter, she didn’t understand why.  She said this way there was more of me to love.  She should go into politics.

9.  Tomorrow I am off to Atlantic City.  This is probably one of my least favorite places to visit, but my Mom LOVES it and it is her birthday.  To celebrate, we are staying over and going to see Frankie Valli.  Yes, it seems he is still alive.  There had better be LOTS of wine involved.

10.  And the NHL playoffs have begun, which means I get a whole lot of reading time in the evenings- excerpt when the NY Rangers are on of course.  We actually scored tickets to Saturday nights game- so excited.  My daughter was invited to this big party by a very popular girl.  She was so excited to be invited and immediately said sorry, she can’t make it- wouldn’t want to miss the game!

Inside the O’Briens by Lisa Genova

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Inside the O’Briens

by Lisa Genova

published by Gallery Books

April 2015

I received an advanced review copy of this book from the publisher through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

My Review

I loved Still Alice and Left Neglected by Lisa Genova, so when I saw she had a new novel coming out, I was really excited to read it.  I was not disappointed! Inside the O’Briens is the story of an Irish Catholic family from Boston.  Joe is a Boston cop, patrolling his hometown of Charlestown and he is married to his high school sweetheart, Rosie.  Their four children, all in their 20s, live with them on separate floors of their triple decker home.  Joe begins to have some strange symptoms he cannot explain- muscle tics, explosive rages.  When he eventually screws up at work, unable to run through drills because his legs aren’t fully under his control, a good friend reached out to Rosie with his concern. Joe promises her he will see a doctor and is shocked to learn, after genetic testing, he has been diagnosed with Huntington’s Disease.  This is a degenerative neurological disorder that is 100% fatal.  As if that wasn’t hard enough for Joe and Rosie, they also learn that there is a 50% chance that their children have inherited the disease.  Now the kids have to decide if they want to find out if they have the gene, which they can then pass on to their own future children.

This book reminded slightly of Still Alice, where the main character is diagnosed with an untreatable degenerative disease that could be passed on to their children.  In that book, the main character in an intellectual shoe is suffering early inset Alzheimer’s Disease.  in O’Briens, the main character is a tough as nails Irish Boston cop, who is not only losing his own ability to control his body, but is also incapable of protecting his family from the same fate.  Both are moving stories, and so informative about the disease that centers them.  I loved the O’Brien family, with their foibles and quirks.  Genova avoids making the characters stereotypical, but manages to give a real glimpse into not only the life of a Boston police officer, but also a Huntington’s patient.  The author has certainly done her research and it shows.  This is a wonderfully well written book that I definitely recommend.

To learn more about the author visit her website at –http://lisagenova.com

To learn more about Huntington’s Disease, you can visit- http://hdsa.org

Summary

Joe O’Brien is a forty-four-year-old police officer from the Irish Catholic neighborhood of Charlestown, Massachusetts. A devoted husband, proud father of four children in their twenties, and respected officer, Joe begins experiencing bouts of disorganized thinking, uncharacteristic temper outbursts, and strange, involuntary movements. He initially attributes these episodes to the stress of his job, but as these symptoms worsen, he agrees to see a neurologist and is handed a diagnosis that will change his and his family’s lives forever: Huntington’s Disease.

Huntington’s is a lethal neurodegenerative disease with no treatment and no cure. Each of Joe’s four children has a 50 percent chance of inheriting their father’s disease, and a simple blood test can reveal their genetic fate. While watching her potential future in her father’s escalating symptoms, twenty-one-year-old daughter Katie struggles with the questions this test imposes on her young adult life. Does she want to know? What if she’s gene positive? Can she live with the constant anxiety of not knowing?

As Joe’s symptoms worsen and he’s eventually stripped of his badge and more, Joe struggles to maintain hope and a sense of purpose, while Katie and her siblings must find the courage to either live a life “at risk” or learn their fate.

 

 

Top Ten Quotes

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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

This week’s topic is

Top Ten Inspiring Quotes

1.  “I celebrate myself, and sing myself.”- Leaves of Grass

2.  “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.” – Atticus Finch- To Kill a Mockingbird

3.  “Get busy living or get busy dying.”- Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption

4.  “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” The Great Gatsby

5.  “It is a truth universally that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”- Pride & Prejudice

6.  “Tomorrow I’ll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day.”

7.  “As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.” – The Fault in Our Stars

8.  “Always.”-Severus Snape- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

9.  “Shadow is only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.” – The Return of the King

10.  “But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.”- Brave New World

Bookish (& Not So Bookish) Thoughts

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Bookish & Not So Bookish Thoughts

is a weekly meme hosted by Christine over at Bookishly Boisterous, where we post things that are on our minds.  Head over there and check it out!

1.  I have been totally absent from blogging for 2 weeks (actually for over a month now) and I am sorry.  I have been busy, but I mostly blame laziness.  I am hoping that the warmer weather will inspire me to clamp down and get motivated!

2.  I am starting to stress a little about the whole college thing with my 16 year old son.  Why?  Because he is totally disengaged!!  He is an extremely smart kid, but he really wants nothing to do with starting the whole process.  I can’t believe it.

3.  With all the stress, I decided I needed to get myself back to exercising.  I went for my first real run in almost 6 months, and finally went back to yoga today.  I was getting relaxed, until some woman decided to start making what I can only call sounds of “interns pleasure”.  At first, I laughed.  Then, I was a little jealous.

4.  I felt like I was in a reading drought, after it took me so long to reread The Stand, I am cruising now!  Among other books I have read these past two weeks, I finished The Little Paris Bookshop and The Magician’s Lie- both were so awesome!  Now if only I can make myself sit down and write reviews.  I blame Trivia Crack to be honest.

5.  I have to take my son to the ENT for chronic nosebleeds and clogged ears.  Maybe when he is fixed he will be excited about our upcoming trip to visit schools in Boston.  Or I can leave him there.  In Boston.

6.  I have a Book Club meeting at the high school next week.  The teacher picked a book I haven’t read and do not plan to- Alice Paul: Claiming Power.  My library doesn’t have it, and its over $15 for the kindle.  Not gonna do it.  Has anyone read it?  Share some key points?

 7.  I am in need of some good recommendations for audiobooks for my husband.  He finally finished The Stand, and I want to keep him going.  HELP!!

8.  Since he is reading audiobooks and I like to also, I was considering joining Audible.  $22 for two books a month sounded pretty good.  Any opinions?  I am not sure if it is worth it, but my library has an astoundingly bad selection of audiobooks, so I need to do something.

Hope to be posting much more next week!