The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe

New Author/2017 Reading Challenge (Book About Books)

My mom loved this book and wanted me to read it long before I got around to do so.  I finally put it on my TBR and due to the 2017 Reading Challenge of a book about books it moved up quickly to the top of the stack.

A book I could relate to on so many levels - my personal love of reading, the shared love of reading between my mom and I (who are in an actual book club together as well as the reading challenge and in general share books all the time), and the shared love of reading between my mom, my grandmother and I.  The book touched an even more personal note as my mom and grandmother shared their love of books recently in my grandmother's final years/months as my mom was her live-in caretaker, uploading books to gramma's kindle for her to enjoy and often reading books to her.

The book's subtle political tones, while written in 2012, were very relevant today as Mrs. Schwalbe was active in the arena of refugees.  I can only imagine how heartbroken she would be with the current "presidency" and ban on refugees and immigrants.

Quotes: "One of the many things I love about bound books is their sheer physicality...printed books have body, presence.  Sure, sometimes they'll elude you by hiding in improbable places:  in a box full of old picture frames...or in the laundry basket, wrapped in a sweatshirt.  But at other times they'll comfort you, and you'll literally stumble over some tomes you hadn't thought about in weeks or years.  I often seek electronic books, but they never come after me.  They may make me feel, but you can't feel them.  They are all soul with no flesh, no texture, and no weight.  They can get in your head but can't whack you upside it."

"The world is complicated...You don't have to have one emotion at a time."

"...people aren't here for you; everyone is here for one another."

"Evil almost always starts with small cruelties."

"To be an American is to be a believer...They're [refugees] just people like us who've lost everything and need another chance.... it takes so little to help people, and people really do help each other, even people with very little themselves.  And its not just about second chances.  Most people deserve an endless number of chances."

"...books are the most powerful tool in the human arsenal, that reading all kinds of books...is the grandest entertainment, and also is how you take part in the human conversation....you can make a difference in the world and that books really do matter:  they're how we know what we need to do in life, and how we tell others....books can be how we get closer to each other, and stay close..."

The Book of Lies by Mary Horlock

Debut Novel/2017 Reading Challenge

I am trying not to judge books too harshly for I feel that much of my struggle of late is due to my own anxiety and lack of focus.  Nonetheless, I found myself only partly liking this book.  Maybe I was expecting too much; I mean I picked it up mainly because it had Guernsey as its locale and I LOVED The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

At first I found the footnotes of the narrator, Cat's, asides cute and informative, but over the course of the book I was annoyed with having to breakaway from the main story to read the footnote. I'd find myself getting to the end of the page and seeing the footnote, having missed the damn * to then have to go back up the page to find the damn * and re-read it to figure out how the footnote applied.

I vacillated between almost liking and having empathy for the teenage protagonist, Cat and being annoyed with her.  The book was billed to be a gripping tale, but I felt both Cat's tale and her father's translation of his brother's tale were way too drawn out (again, this could be my own lack of focus).

The Wicked Girls by Alex Marwood

Guilty Pleasure

My "guilty pleasure" choice is suppose to be a fun read.  Not too challenging, not to deep, a book I can't wait to get my hands on and jump into.  And this one seemed a perfect choice!  Found it on display in an independent book store on Cape Cod. With tag lines like, "How well can you know anyone" "Utterly compelling" "I couldn't put it down" I thought this was a sure winner!  Wrong!

While I'm not always opposed to reading English authors, I do approach them with hesitation and I should have done so with this one.  There were constant cultural references to England that I was clueless about, English terms and vernacular that left me stymied and I got tired of having to stop and look these up in what should have been a casual cover to end read for me.

The book was also more gruesome than it needed to be - oozing brain matter was rather popular with Mr. Marwood.  I kept reading the book long after I wanted to scrap it simply because I wanted to know how the mystery end.  The last 30 pages or so did provide some thrills (and of course more brain matter), but it certainly wasn't enough to make the entire read compelling.  Very disappointed.

Burning Marguerite by Elizabeth Inness-Brown

"I" Author

When asked while reading this book if I liked it, I couldn't say if I did or didn't.  It is a fairly short, and slow moving book of character development of 2 main characters: James Jack and Marguerite in a slow moving locale.  I liked both characters, I liked their stories, but I read this book in fits and spurts; walking from work, waiting at an office, on a lunch break, etc.  It is much better suited to be read in one sitting, one weekend, with a pot of tea, cozy blanket while the brisk wind blows outside or rain pelts the windows.

Quotes:  "My mother had made quilts.  Growing up, I had taken them for granted, had slept under one as if it were any blanket, worthy of no more respect than a piece of scratchy wool..her quilts had been warm, durable, not unpleasing to the eye, but mainly frugal.  Made for the body, not for the soul.  In contrast, these quilts were works of art....I wanted to take one home with me and warp myself in it."

The Whip by Karen Kondazian

Historical Fiction

Wow!  Just Wow!  What a great piece of history made all the more readable, intriguing and inspiring by Kondazian.  Kondazian created a fictional background which gave heart and soul to the mysterious character of Charley Parkhurst.  Regardless of the truth of her past, she was still a person of remarkable strength in the times of the Wild West. Short chapters make this a quick read.

Quotes:  "Life's gonna do that to you missy.  Gonna upset your wagon, not just once but many times.  And you got to choose who's sitting next to you.  Someone you can trust...or not"

"Friendship, true friendship is a curious dance.  Why does one recognize and embrace one soul and yet not another.  What is that? That something unspoken.  Perhaps it is a long ago remembrance of another time, another place, those same familiar eyes shining out.  Always we are searching for those recognizable eyes...so that we might at last be recognized ourselves."

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

Debut Novel

It took me awhile to finally pick up this bit of a tome (562 pgs.) but I'm glad I did.  A coming of age story, you can't help but fall in love with Edgar and the Sawtelle dogs!

The story had some suspense, or in my case, some anxiety ridden times as I kept expecting something bad to happen.  More often than not things turned out just fine during Edgar's travails.

Now excuse me while I go spend some time with my dog, Leo!

Quotes:  "Time thickened like wet cement"

"Just when normal life felt almost possible - when the world held some kind of order, meaning, even loveliness, some small thing would go awry and the veil of optimism was torn away, the barren world revealed."

The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse

New Author

A haunting tale (made more so by my reading it during a thunderstorm!) that did have me wondering if I could "tell true from false".

Mosse does an amazing job of describing the frost covered land without prolonging the descriptions.  There is a suspensefulness that is not like those found in suspense/thrillers, but a calm questioning of what the reader will discover upon the next page.

I will certainly seek out more books by Ms. Mosse!!

Dreaming Spies by Laurie R. King

Series

I once again fell in love with Sherlock and Mary.  Their wit, their deductive skills and their companions.  This time we traveled to Japan and the case revolves around a book.  Cherry blossoms, a tome and intrigue - how can you not be hooked!!

 
        Garment of Shadows  -  Laurie R. King

                        Series  -  #12


We are in Morocco after Mary's stint in the movies

Mary has amnesia.  She does not know who she is , where she is, or how she even got to Morocco.

Sherlock does not know where Mary is either.  So how can he help her!!!!

We meet up with some characters in past books, and some interesting new ones.  Again, Laurie describes the country as if you were there with Mary and Sherlock.   Cloak and dagger, spies,   the typical Mary Russell story.  Good read.

     The Magician's Lie -  Greer Macallister
       
                          Debut


Arden in a female illusionist.  Her speciality is being the only woman who saws a man in half.  One night after her show, a man is found murdered.  Yep, you got it,  he was cut in half by an axe!!!

Arden runs.  She is caught by a young police office and proceeds to tell him her life story.

A spoiler alert if your really like the illusion of magic.  The author tells how some of the illusions are actually done.  Bummer!!!

             Surrender, Dorothy  -  Meg Wolitzer

                        new author


Not my favorite kind of book.  Character development.  

Sara is killed in a car accident early on in the story.  The rest of the book is about how her mother and friends deal with her death.  As a mother myself, I should have had stronger feelings for this loss but the author did not make me feel any connection to the daughter or the mother.  

Oh well, on to the next book on my toppling bookpile!!

    The Last Runaway    -   Tracy Chevalier

             Historical Fiction


The year is 1850.   The place is near Oberlin, Ohio.   The main character is an English Quaker, Honor Bright.

We start in England, take a rough sea voyage to America, and travel to Ohio .   Here we encounter many differences from England,  from newly discovered birds; a hummingbird, insects ; a lightening bug, to many colorful people.

A nicely written book about the Quaker faith, early Ohio and the underground railway. Honor Bright struggles with doing the right thing and doing the lawful thing.

I enjoyed meeting Honor, Jack, Donovan, and Belle, and Mrs. Reed.  It was an enjoyable journey.

The Cure for Grief by Nellie Hermann

Debut Novel

I can't say I didn't like this book, but I can't say that I loved it.  It was very middle of the road for me.  Coming of age book centered around a young girl and the tragedy that befalls her family.

I never really connected to any of the characters, but I was interested in them enough to keep reading.  With so many other books out there to read, including many with coming of age and family tragedy plot lines, I probably would not recommend this book.

        Face of Betrayal  -  Lis Wiehl

              Guilty pleasure


I was hooked at the first paragraph.  When Katie went missing.
But the writing was rather weak for me.  It reminded me a lot like James Patterson's "Ladies Murder Club "  Three female friends, an attorney, an FBI agent, and a reporter are all working the case.

Katie is a 17 year old Senate page, home for the Christmas break. She goes out to walk the dog and doesn't return home.  The usual suspects are father, boyfriend, someone in DC.  It is an easy read with some twists and turns but it also has some irrelevant side stories that I am sure were supposed to add to some intrigue but were to weak or non-essential to the book.

Not my favorite read.

    Pirate King   -    Laurie King

             Series

I learn way more than I had any desire to learn about pirate ships!!!
Mary Russell goes undercover as firm makers assistant to try to discover why crimes are being committed.

Unfortunately, I would get so bogged down with all of the details of the masts, and riggings of the ship that I would sight of what we were looking for.   It was a little confusing when the plot was about a film director making a film about a film director making a film about pirates pretending to be pirates but using real pirates.  See, confusing.!!!!

Anyway, not one of my favorite Mary Russell stories . On to the next one!!