Category: Book Reviews

Welcome Back!

I just finished reading the book
The Homesman
by Glendon Swarthout

The Homesman is a devastating story of early pioneers in 1850s American West. It is about the brave women whose hearts and their minds were broken by a life of bitter hardship. A “homesman” must be found to escort  four  woman back to Iowa to a sanitarium. When none of the men steps up, the job falls to Mary Bee Cuddy.  Brave as she is, Mary Bee knows she cannot succeed alone. The only companion she can find is the low-life claim jumper George Briggs. Thus begins a trek east, against the tide of colonization, against hardship, Indian attacks, ice storms, and loneliness—a timeless classic told in a series of tough, fast-paced adventures.

I am not a huge fan of 1850s, Western time period books, but I really got into this book. It tells of four woman that have lost their minds due to devastating events that took place in their lives. Their families have decided the best option is to send the women back to their families or to a sanitarium, but none of the husbands (in this case) want to make the journey back to Iowa. That is when Mary Bee steps up. Her dedication and care of the women is heartwarming and at the same time heart breaking. The book is a fast read due to wanting to know what will happen next to the women, Mary Bee and George Briggs.

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

 

Welcome Back!

I just finished the book
Force of Nature by Jane Harper.

From Amazon
When five colleagues are forced to go on a corporate retreat in the wilderness, they reluctantly pick up their backpacks and start walking down the muddy path.

But one of the women doesn’t come out of the woods. And each of her companions tells a slightly different story about what happened.

Federal Police Agent Aaron Falk has a keen interest in the whereabouts of the missing hiker. In an investigation that takes him deep into isolated forest, Falk discovers secrets lurking in the mountains, and a tangled web of personal and professional friendship, suspicion, and betrayal among the hikers. But did that lead to murder?

I was so excited to start this book because I loved the previous book by this author, The Dry .  The story caught my attention right from the start and hung onto it to the end. Love the twists and how the author makes you believe something is going on, when there’s really nothing there and vice versa!!  I love the characters in the story and how the author rolls out their personalities and back stories slowly. There were a few unanswered questions, but nothing that left you hanging. Maybe I missed something or was done on purpose. If you liked The Dry, you will enjoy this read, too.

I would give this book 4 out of 5 starts.

Welcome Back!

I just finished the non -fiction book
Educated by Tara Westover.

Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her “head-for-the-hills bag.” In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged in her father’s junkyard.
            Her father forbade hospitals, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when Tara’s older brother became violent.
            Then, lacking any formal education, Tara began to educate herself. She taught herself enough mathematics and grammar to be admitted to Brigham Young University, where she studied history, learning for the first time about important world events like the Holocaust and the civil rights movement. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home.

Oh. My. Word. One of the best books I have read. You have all the feels and all the emotions and all the questions.
I think my biggest struggle with Tara’s story is how her mother picked her “abusive (verbally), nonchalant, un-protective” father over her children. Her mom knows these things are going on,  but stands beside her husband while her children are longing for her to be a mom. Just when you think the mother is going to step up (finally) she lets Tara down once again. I kept thinking how the ones you love the most, hurt you the most.

This is just one of the many stories going on in this memoir. There’s the brother who turns violent on a dime and takes it out on his siblings. Again, the father wants proof, while the mother looks at the floor. (I wanted to punch the mom.) There’s the two brothers that “escape” the mountain and go onto college and encourage Tara to do so also. But the father and mother only recognize the talents of only one of the three  children. There’s the story of the sister who reaches out to Tara, but is threaten to be pushed out of the family, so reverses her story. Just so much going…and this book will stick with you for some time.

5 out of 5 stars

 

Welcome!

I just finished the book
The Broken Girls by Simone St. James

I needed a change from the typical thriller or missing children, so I picked up this ghost story!!

The story goes back and forth between Vermont 1950 where four roommates go to a spooky boarding school named, Idlewill Hall…

Vermont, 1950. There’s a place for the girls whom no one wants—the troublemakers, the illegitimate, the too smart for their own good. It’s called Idlewild Hall. And in the small town where it’s located, there are rumors that the boarding school is haunted. Four roommates bond over their whispered fears, their budding friendship blossoming—until one of them mysteriously disappears…

And a journalist living in Vermont 2014, trying to “solve” the mystery of her sister’s already solved death and why someone wold want to restore and reopen Idlewild Hall.

Vermont, 2014. As much as she’s tried, journalist Fiona Sheridan cannot stop revisiting the events surrounding her older sister’s death. Twenty years ago, her body was found lying in the overgrown fields near the ruins of Idlewild Hall. And though her sister’s boyfriend was tried and convicted of murder, Fiona can’t shake the suspicion that something was never right about the case.

Through the entire book I kept thinking, “Please Please Please don’t make this story be a traditional ghost story where the ghost is put to rest and “released” and happy at the end.” Let me just say, it has a good ending.  I really liked the story about the four roommates and how they are also included in them 2014 portions of the book. Unfortunately, I really don’t know why there’s a ghost in the story. It didn’t take away from the book, but didn’t add much either. Maybe I missed something!

I would give this book 3.5 out of 5 stars!!  (Would give it 4 if I could have figured out the ghost part.)

Hello!

Just finished the book
Sometime I Lie by Alice Feeny.

From Amazon
Amber wakes up in a hospital. She can’t move. She can’t speak. She can’t open her eyes. She can hear everyone around her, but they have no idea. Amber doesn’t remember what happened, but she has a suspicion her husband had something to do with it. Alternating between her paralyzed present, the week before her accident, and a series of childhood diaries from twenty years ago, this brilliant psychological thriller asks: Is something really a lie if you believe it’s the truth?

This book was great! It really catches your attention and easy to follow, great story that leaves you wondering what was happening and at times yelling at the family that is sitting in her hospital room. And then I got to the last third of the book.

At this point I would give the book 5 out of 5 stars.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I love a good twisty book, but this books twists so hard and left me wondering…what? I had to reread and get my mind wrapped around the “new” story.  And then I started to feel as if the author tried way too hard to make a good twisty story.

At this point I would give the book 2 out of 5 stars.

But once I accept the twist, got my mind wrapped around it, I was good to go to the end and actually enjoyed the not expected ending.

Overall, I would give this book 4out of 5 stars.
(Phew!)

Welcome Back!

I just finished the book Unbelievable by Katy Tur.

From Amazon:

Called “disgraceful,” “third-rate,” and “not nice” by Donald Trump, NBC News correspondent Katy Tur reported on—and took flak from—the most captivating and volatile presidential candidate in American history.

From day 1 to day 500, Tur documented Trump’s inconsistencies, fact-checked his falsities, and called him out on his lies. In return, Trump repeatedly singled Tur out. He tried to charm her, intimidate her, and shame her. At one point, he got a crowd so riled up against Tur, Secret Service agents had to walk her to her car.

Unbelievable is her darkly comic, fascinatingly bizarre, and often scary story of how America sent a former reality show host to the White House. It’s also the story of what it was like for Tur to be there as it happened, inside a no-rules world where reporters were spat on, demeaned, and discredited.

Many times, I wonder why doesn’t the media do this or why doesn’t the media do that? Well, I did get some answers in this book, told by Katy Tur who followed Trump through his campaign trail.  There’s a lot more to Trumps campaign that followed his father’s rules and why he constantly is talking about the “Dishonest Media” and “Fake News.”

Trump’s father’s rules that are ingrained in him.
1. Never use your own money. (Build the wall)
2. Steal a good idea and say it’s your own.
3. Do anything to get publicity.
4. Repeat it until they believe it. (fake news, dishonest media)
5. Remember that everyone can be bought.

One thing that opened my eyes was the effect on the media while Trump spouts the words fake news by the dishonest media continually….it turns his followers against those in the media. Literally. The media was put in the middle of many rallies with fences around them. Almost like caged animals and Trump would make sure to his followers knew how he felt about those people in the “cage.”

Eventually, ALL media people, except Fox News (huh) had to have secret service with them at all times due to threats from his followers. Nice. Trump then goes on attack of Tur herself. Calling her out in rallies. She became a target in public and actually spit on from Trump supporters.  When the cameras were off, he would treat her in a completely different manner… Calling her over to talk while walking his golf courses!  Nice.

Tur states in her prologue that she hired a fact-checker, went through volumes of documents, e-mails, and videos and checked her memory with other reporters to insure that her book is accurate. The result is a well-developed and unbiased-as-possible account of what she saw throughout the Trump candidacy and ultimate victory party on election night.

I must say, the book is straight facts. Tur doesn’t say she dislikes Trump or loves Hilary or vice-versa, it is just straight facts on what happened.

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Hello!

I just finished reading the book “The Dry” by Jane Harper.
It was my vacation read!

We were on vacation from Friday to Friday and I finished this up on Monday morning!!  I had started to read it at home and was about a third of the way done when we went on vacation and couldn’t put it done!  Thank goodness for a pool day and sleep in day for the boys!

From Amazon:

After getting a note demanding his presence, Federal Agent Aaron Falk arrives in his hometown for the first time in decades to attend the funeral of his best friend, Luke. Twenty years ago when Falk was accused of murder, Luke was his alibi. Falk and his father fled under a cloud of suspicion, saved from prosecution only because of Luke’s steadfast claim that the boys had been together at the time of the crime. But now more than one person knows they didn’t tell the truth back then, and Luke is dead.

Amid the worst drought in a century, Falk and the local detective question what really happened to Luke. As Falk reluctantly investigates to see if there’s more to Luke’s death than there seems to be, long-buried mysteries resurface, as do the lies that have haunted them.

I really liked this book! It grabs you in the first chapter and has great unexpected twists. Yummy!! If you like all the police forensics to prove a crime and proof due to evidence, this book doesn’t have that, but I guarantee  you won’t question who did what.  The author does an amazing job of answering ALL your questions.

What I really liked was how the author wrote the flashbacks. The flashback were included in the chapter, just written in italics.  I really liked this type of writing, because a flashback is usually an entire chapter. This type of writing helped the story from being so choppy and going back and forth.

I would highly recommend this book to all and I can’t wait to read Jane Harper’s new book that came out in February.

⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of 5!

 

I just finished the book
The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks.

When you read this book, you will make many assumptions.
You will assume you are reading about a jealous ex-wife.
You will assume she is obsessed with her replacement – a beautiful, younger woman who is about to marry the man they both love.
You will assume you know the anatomy of this tangled love triangle.
Assume nothing.

How can that not get your attention!
This book had a great twist in Chapter 18…if you can get there! It does seem like the same old husband leaves wife for younger gal, wife can’t get out of bed, wife plans revenge, which we have all read 100 times before, but there are some twists and turns which keeps the reading interesting. There’s a big twist at the end that caught me off guard, which I love, but it left me with a few questions about what was really happening, especially with husband’s sister.

I really don’t know how to rate this book, because it is a good read, I loved the twists, but some of the twists in the second half of the book were too twisty making me feel as if I was missing something. So I am giving this book, 3.5/4 out of 5 stars.

Hello!

Just finished another mystery thriller called
Two Girls Down by Louisa Luna.

From Amazon:
 When two young sisters disappear from a strip mall parking lot in a small Pennsylvania town, their devastated mother hires an enigmatic bounty hunter, Alice Vega, to help find the girls. Immediately shut out by a local police department already stretched thin by budget cuts, Vega enlists the help of a disgraced former cop, Max Caplan. Cap is a man trying to put the scandal of his past behind him and move on, but Vega needs his help to find the girls, and she will not be denied.  With little to go on, Vega and Cap will go to extraordinary lengths to untangle a dangerous web of lies, false leads, and complex relationships to find the girls before time runs out, and they are gone forever.

This book kept my attention and read it fairly quickly. I really liked the Vega and Cap characters and I think the author will write more books with these investigators. I also enjoyed the mother, Jamie, of the two young girls that disappeared…she knows she isn’t the best mom and feels like they are a burden at times, but we watch her go through all the emotions and devastation when her girls disappear. Overall, it’s a great read and would recommend it to all that like a good mystery thriller.

The things that lower my 5 star rating to a 4 star rating is that there are so many characters introduced and revisited it was difficult to remember who was who. You may want to keep a cheat sheet as a book mark!  When the mystery is solved, the book goes very dark and I didn’t see that ending coming at all, which is a good thing, but almost too far out in right field. Is the ending believable…yes, do that investigators need to go down all the routes to get to the ending, yes. It’s just that you will not see the ending coming at all. This book will definitely keep you guessing!

Overall, I would give this book a 4 out of 5 stars!

Hello!

I just finished the book This Is How it Always Is by Laurie Frankel.

I loved this story! It gave me all the feelings!
I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.

I am going to share pieces of a review that I read due to the fact that it words my thoughst perfectly:
As Rosie and Penn’s fifth child, they had learned to take their children’s many quirks in stride. Claude is a sweet little boy, the youngest in his family of five boys. Claude is a happy well-adjusted, precocious child who knows what he wants. He wants to wear dresses, carry a purse for a lunchbox, play princess, and be a girl when he grows up. Rosie, Penn and his brothers want Claude to be happy with whoever he is, but there is no road map for how to do this. When it became apparent that Claude’s yearning was more than a phase, they didn’t panic as many parents might. Instead, Rosie and Penn did all they could to help Claude be the person he felt himself to be, Poppy. When it became too difficult in the small Wisconsin community where they lived, they moved their family to Seattle for a fresh start. I so loved the way the entire family took everything about Poppy in stride. Her brothers were amazingly off-handed about it, but never to the point where it didn’t ring true. Poppy was just another piece of their busy lives. Soon the whole family is keeping secrets to protect Poppy. Secrets too big to be secrets for long.

There is a part where Rosie and Claude/Poppy go to Thailand. (Not giving anything away.) I questioned this part of the book and thought it wasn’t really relevant, but…This section of the book helped me understand the hopelessness that Claude/Poppy felt. That last section allowed the reader to learn that transgender people are accepted in some cultures.(Earlier, Poppy even taught her parents about gender variations in some animals.) The Thai part showed that there are other issues much more critical in life and allowed Poppy/Claude to help others and thus gain strength and accept herself.

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