Julie's Review: And The Mountains Echoed

Summary: An unforgettable novel about finding a lost piece of yourself in someone else. Khaled Hosseini, the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, has written a new novel about how we love, how we take care of one another, and how the choices we make resonate through generations. In this tale revolving around not just parents and children but brothers and sisters, cousins and caretakers, Hosseini explores the many ways in which families nurture, wound, betray, honor, and sacrifice for one another; and how often we are surprised by the actions of those closest to us, at the times that matter most. Following its characters and the ramifications of their lives and choices and loves around the globe — from Kabul to Paris to San Francisco to the Greek island of Tinos — the story expands gradually outward, becoming more emotionally complex and powerful with each turning page. ~powells.com

Review: When you've waited years for one of your favorite authors to release a new book and the day has come where you get to read it, you hope it won't let you down. All I can say is And the Mountains Echoed lives up to my expectations and exceeds them. It is simply poetic. There is no other author I read that writes like him.

And The Mountains Echoed takes us to Afghanistan and the struggles of every day people. It is the daily strife of life, the subtle and heart-wrenching prose, the collection of narratives that are all intertwined, familial connections that make this book stunning.

The characters are so real that you feel their struggles, pains and hopes. The story that moved me the most was Abdullah and Pari. The love and affection that they had for each other transcends anything that I've read before. They are spiritually connected like no other siblings I've read about. Theirs is a story of love, hope, loss and second chances.

What Mr. Hosseini makes abundantly clear is that any one decision has long lasting effects and can span many generations of one family. It is about forgiveness and understanding the why of decisions, even if those decisions had irreparable outcomes.

There isn't really much more I can say other than pick up And the Mountains Echoed and read it. It will move you and make you believe in the resilience of humanity.

I can only say that I hope it's not another 6 years before his next book. In fact, I hope he's writing while he's on tour!

Mr. Hosseini is now on Facebook, where you can follow his stories. And the Mountains Echoed is on sale from fine booksellers on 5/21/2013.

Final Take: 5/5

Please enjoy the video of Mr. Hosseini talking about And The Mountains Echoed.

Thanks to Riverhead Books for my ARC of the novel.

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Alice's Review: The House at Belle Fontaine: Stories

Summary: The powerfully intimate stories within The House at Belle Fontaine span the better part of the twentieth century and almost every continent, laying bare apprehensions, passions, secrets, and tragedies that resonate across time and space. In crisp, spare, and penetrating prose, Lily Tuck unveils and suppresses personal truths as her characters navigate exotic locales and immediate emotional territory: an artist learns that her deceased ex-husband had an especially illicit affair seventeen years before his death; a young couple living in Thailand worries about the mental stability of their best friend, a U. S. army captain; on a ship bound for Antarctica, a retired couple strains to hold together their forty-year-old marriage; and a French family flees to Lima in the 1940s with devastating consequences for their daughters young nanny. ~powells.com

Review: I am a fan of short stories.  I have always believed that writing a short story is more difficult than a novel because you have a limited amount of words in order to get your point across.  Some writers struggle with this, however others are wildly successful.  I believe Lily Tuck is truly gifted.

There were several stories that I especially liked.  Those are The House at Belle Fontaine, Lucky and My Music.

This collection encompassed stories that were very different with the common denominator being Ms. Tuck’s prose.  She writes factually but with certain poetry.  She chooses her words carefully so they have the strongest impact.  Her characters are memorable as well with my favorite being Helen from Lucky.  She was strong, sad, beautiful.

If you enjoy a wonderful collection of short stories, I highly recommend picking this up.  This is perfect for the novice short story reader as well.  I look forward to reading Lily Tuck in the future.  The House at Belle Fontaine:Stories was simply breathtaking.

Final Take: 4/5

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Julie's Review: The Other Typist

Summary: One of the most fascinating, unreliable narrators you’ll read this year, for fans of The Talented Mr. Ripley and Rules of Civility. It is 1923. Rose Baker is a typist in the New York City Police Department on the lower east side. Confessions are her job. The criminals admit to their crimes, and like a high priestess, Rose records their every word. Often she is the only woman present. And while she may hear about shootings, knifings, and crimes of passion, as soon as she leaves that room she is once again the weaker sex, best suited for making coffee. It is a new era for women, and New York City is a confusing time for Rose. Gone are the Victorian standards of what is acceptable. Now women bob their hair short like men, they smoke, they go to speakeasies. But prudish Rose is stuck in the fading light of yesteryear, searching for the nurturing companionship that eluded her childhood and clinging to the Victorian ideal of sisterhood. But when glamorous Odalie, a new girl, joins the typing pool, despite her best intentions Rose falls under Odalie’s spell. As the two women navigate between the sparkling underworld of speakeasies by night, and their work at the station by day, Rose is drawn fully into Odalie’s high stakes world and her fascination with Odalie turns into an obsession from which she may never recover. ~powells.com

Review: You are in for a ride when you crack open The Other Typist. It weaves and twists from the first page. It is a little slow to start but once you get about 50 pages in the pace begins to pick up. We are quickly taken back to a time when women are finally entering the workforce but still only allowed to do certain job and being a typist/stenographer is one of those jobs. The narrator of the story is Rose. She is a prim and proper lady. She's not to be mistaken with those girls who have cut their hair off and raised their hemlines. No, she is a true, dignified lady. She takes her job at the police precinct very seriously and admires the Sergeant greatly.

We are quickly introduced to Odalie the new typist for the precinct. Odalie is the opposite of Rose in the way that she embraces the new culture of the world. She's open to the new world for women. Her hair is cut into a bob and she wears frilly clothes. There is something about Odalie that is not to be trusted but there is also something very off about Rose as well.

We are quickly taken into Odalie's underworld of speakeasies and glamour. It is quite easy for Rose to want to get absorbed by Odalie's world because she's never experienced it. It is easy for Rose to bask in the glow of Odalie's friendship because she's never experienced that before.

Not even halfway in the novel the narrative starts to shift and this is where the intrigue begins to set in. Ms. Rindell does an excellent job of switching gears and making the reader scratch their head in wonder. Is Rose to be trusted? Are we seeing the real Odalie through her eyes? Is everything as it seems?

As the book begins to draw to a close your mind as a reader goes in several different directions. I have to say, I  figured a bit of it out but was thrown by the very last sentence. (So for you people who read the last sentence of books first, don't.) There are a few things that didn't tie in the end that have left me hanging but other than that it is an stellar debut.

This is definitely a book that lends itself well to be discussed. There are a lot of layers to The Other Typist and Ms. Rindell handles it very well. It is the sort of book that builds on itself.

For those of you who like to solve riddles, The Other Typist is for you.

Final Take: 4.25/5

You can check out our Hashtag Book Club discussion by searching on #TheOtherTypist

Thanks to Amy Einhorn Books for my ARC of the novel.

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Julie's Review: A Conspiracy of Faith

Summary: Detective Carl Mørck has received a bottle that holds an old and decayed message written in blood. It’s a cry for help from two young brothers, tied and bound in a boathouse by the sea. After floating in the ocean for years before turning up, the bottle sat forgotten, unopened, on a police department windowsill, before the seal was cracked and the gruesome message, written in Danish, was analyzed. Could it be real? Who are these boys, and why weren’t they reported missing? Could they possibly still be alive? Carl’s investigation will force him to cross paths with a woman stuck in a desperate marriage: Her husband refuses to tell her where he goes, how long he will be away, what he does while he’s gone—or even what he does for a living. Isolated after choosing him over family and friends, she waits for days on end, and when he returns she must endure his wants, his moods, his threats. But enough is enough. She will find out the truth, no matter the cost to him—or to herself. In this heart-pounding thriller, Carl and his colleagues Assad and Rose must use every resource available to uncover the horrifying truth set adrift in that bottle all those years ago. ~powells.com

Review: I always look forward to a Department Q novel and am so thrilled that A Conspiracy of Faith is finally here! Being that this is the third in a series, I definitely recommend starting in the beginning because there are some character quirks and interpersonal relationships that take some background.

The case in this one is as dark as The Keeper of Lost Causes, if not a little harder to take since innocents are involved. The criminal suffered at the hands of his father and is now making those like his father suffer. If you have a hard time with any kind of violence against children, then this is not the book for you.

Assad continues to be a mystery and at this point I'd like a little more about him to come to light. He and Carl are the perfect yin/yang partners, even if Assad is just an assistant.

I enjoyed this one but it wasn't as tautly written as the previous two novel. I'll admit to having a hard time getting into at first. That being said, once the story got moving it was hard not to keep reading. This one seemed to go off on a few tangents that didn't quite fit into the whole scheme of the novel or the overall arc. I'm still scratching my head about Rose and Yrsa.

Carl continues to be a bit of a mystery as well, especially when it come to what happened in his case with Hardy. I'm waiting for us to finally get the whole picture on this one and perhaps see Carl move past his guilt.

I can't recommend the Department Q novel enough for those of you who love crime and police centered novels.

Final Take:  4.25/5


Thanks to Dutton Books for my ARC of the novel.


 

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Jenn's Review: Beautiful Darkness

Blurb:  Together Ethan and Lena can face anything Gatlin throws at them, but after suffering a tragic loss, Lena starts to pull away, keeping secrets that test their relationship. And now that Ethan's eyes have been opened to the darker side of Gatlin, there's no going back. Haunted by strange visions only he can see, Ethan is pulled deeper into his town's tangled history and finds himself caught up in the dangerous network of underground passageways endlessly crisscrossing the South, where nothing is as it seems.

Review:  I knew things were going to be bad for Ethan and Lena, I just didn't know how bad.  I must say though, I loved the way it was written. Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl did a marvelous job of keeping it realistic without being over the top.

Though I groaned at the addition of a new character when she first appeared, I found that I adored Liv.  I think she brought balance to the story and filled a guidance roll that was slightly lacking in the first book.  I was thrilled that we got more answers... even though more questions inevitably ensue.  I liked that there was a sufficient denouement... nothing irritates me more than a hasty ending.  I must admit though, I am going to have to go back and re-read the climax of the novel before picking up Beautiful Chaos because it was so intense I was speed reading through it.  The only part I'm not sure how I feel about is the Ridley dichotomy.  I know there will be more to this part of the story, but it almost felt like a bit of a plot device that was too easy.

I suppose this review is rather cryptic to those who haven't read the first novel, but I don't want to spoil anything for anyone as this is a series worth reading.  It won't be long before I pick up Beautiful Chaos.

Final Take:  4.0/5

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Children's Corner: Power Rangers Super Samurai Official Guide

Review: Who knew there was so much to know about Power Rangers Samurai!?!! I didn't. This was another book fair find for my son. It's good thing it's broken up in sections/chapters because it would take me at least 3 hours to read it cover to cover. For those who have kids into this tv series then this is the book for you. Now that we've read it, over the course of 5 nights, he often goes to it to look up the Nighloks the Rangers just battled.

It is great for beginners because it gives a brief summary of each ranger, their Zord, their battle discs, etc. It does the same for each of the various Nighloks. It goes into the history of the Rangers as well.

Saban's Power Rangers Super Samurai Official Guide (Power Rangers Super Samurai) is a great resource for those kids who enjoy this show and the books. I am sure this is something my son will continue to reference.

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Julie's Review: Wedding Night

Summary: Lottie just knows that her boyfriend is going to propose during lunch at one of London’s fanciest restaurants. But when his big question involves a trip abroad, not a trip down the aisle, she’s completely crushed. So when Ben, an old flame, calls her out of the blue and reminds Lottie of their pact to get married if they were both still single at thirty, she jumps at the chance. No formal dates—just a quick march to the altar and a honeymoon on Ikonos, the sun-drenched Greek island where they first met years ago.  Their family and friends are horrified. Fliss, Lottie’s older sister, knows that Lottie can be impulsive—but surely this is her worst decision yet. And Ben’s colleague Lorcan fears that this hasty marriage will ruin his friend’s career. To keep Lottie and Ben from making a terrible mistake, Fliss concocts an elaborate scheme to sabotage their wedding night. As she and Lorcan jet off to Ikonos in pursuit, Lottie and Ben are in for a honeymoon to remember, for better . . . or worse. ~powells.com

Review: For this reader, I can almost never go wrong with a Sophie Kinsella novel. I've loved her since the first Shopaholic book came out. She makes me laugh and shake my head at the characters she writes.

In Wedding Night we are introduced to dreamy and romantic Lottie, who is sure her boyfriend of 3 years is about to propose to her. I think you know it doesn't go as planned. This launches her into a spiral of emotions and irrational behavior. Luckily for us the reader, we can get a few good laughs because of her antics.

Enter Fliss, Lottie's older sister and a bit bitter due to her impending divorce from a scoundrel of a husband. She's trying to balance work and a young son plus now she's got to manage Lottie. It's not easy and you can tell that she needs a release. Enter Lorcan.
As in all of Ms. Kinsella's novels hilarity ensues. I couldn't help but seriously laugh at some of the things that happen to Ben and Lottie. It would be enough to make anyone a little mad and a bit crazy.

What I loved about this novel was the sister aspect of it. How different Fliss and Lottie were but how they truly cared and loved each other. As an older sister I related to Fliss but admired Lottie's spontaneous personality.

If you've never read Ms. Kinsella's books( why?!), Wedding Night wouldn't be a bad place to start. Although I recommend having a chunk of time so you can read it cover to cover.

Final Take: 4.25/5


 

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Children's Corner: Olivia ...and the Missing Toy

 The other day my daughter asked, "Where's my Olivia book?"

This surprised me, because we haven't watched Olivia in a long time.  I led her to her book case and showed her the several books that are spin offs of the television show, but she said none of them were right... she wanted the black and white one.  I knew immediately what she wanted... the book that used to have a spooky cover... when I told her it was a library book, she said, "But, Mommy, I want to have it to keep."

I was a little amazed.  This is the first time my daughter has ever asked to own something we've borrowed from the library... we own several things we've borrowed from the library, but those were things I thought we enjoyed.  This was the first request from her.

There are a ton of Olivia books out there but this is one of the original books by Ian Falconer that started it all.  I must say, the television show and spin off books are great, but there is nothing quite like the original.  I love the simplicity with which Olivia is portrayed.  To me the television series is through the eyes of an adult, while the Ian Falconer books are through the eyes of the child.  I think that's what my daughter appreciates about it too.

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Alice's Review: What A Mother Knows

Summary:  An unsettling, emotional and suspenseful novel of the unshakable bonds of motherhood, in which Michelle Mason not only loses her memory after a deadly car crash, but can't find her 16-year-old daughter, the one person who may know what happened that day. But the deeper Michelle digs, the more she questions the innocence of everyone, even herself. A dramatic portrayal of the fragile skin of memory, What a Mother Knows is about finding the truth that can set love free. ~blurb

Review: What A Mother Knows is a compelling new novel by Leslie Lehr.  Imagine having a car accident so severe your road to recovery includes a medically induced coma and memory loss.   That’s exactly what happens to Michelle Mason.  She doesn’t remember the past few years of her life, let alone the accident or that she had a passenger in the car.  Her traveling companion was 19-year-old Noah, an up and coming musician who was tragically killed.  As Michelle tries to piece together what happened, she is further plagued with a desperation to find her missing daughter Nikki.

This novel has a lot to offer.  Ms. Lehr provides her readers with many revelations and plot twists that keep us interested and turning the pages.  There are wonderful support characters, like her son Tyler and her mother Elyse. 

One thing I found is that I didn’t like Michelle.  Considered she just came back from a near death experience, she could have used a little humility.  I can’t imagine what it must be like to not know where your child is, but her efforts to find her were appalling.  She put blinders on and forgot everything else including her son.  I think that is what did it for me.  She was willing to chance sacrificing her relationship with her son to find her daughter.  The only time I truly felt compassion for Michelle was when she was interacting with her mother Elyse.  Elyse was wonderful and all kinds of messed up crazy.  I love that.

Overall, I didn’t quite know how I felt about What A Mother Knows until the very end.  Something happened in that last chapter that made me solidify my stance.  It was a wonderful ending to a good novel.  

Final Take: 3/5

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Jenn's Review: Chosen at Nightfall

 Blurb:  When Kylie Galen entered Shadow Falls Camp, she left her old life behind forever and discovered a world more magical than she ever imagined. A place where you’re two best friends can be a witch and a vampire…and where love doesn’t happen the way you’d expect.

When Kylie’s most powerful enemy returns to destroy her once and for all, there’s only one way to stop him—to step into her full powers and make a stunning transformation that will amaze everyone around her.  But her journey won’t be complete until she makes one final choice…which guy to love.  Should she choose to the werewolf who broke her heart but will give anything to win her back, or the half-fae who ran from their attraction before they had a chance?  Everything she’s learned at Shadow Falls has been preparing her for this moment—when her fate will be revealed and her heart claimed forever.

Review:  This was a bittersweet read for me because I adore this series.  I was anxious to find out how things would work out, but also sad to see it's conclusion.    Thankfully, C. C. Hunter has a spin off series in the works....

I'm actually not overly fond of love triangles in books, that is, unless they are written really well, and this one is.  It helped that it wasn't the focus of the series until this final novel, but it is mostly because C. C. Hunter  writes intriguing characters that can't help but draw you into the story.  I adore Kylie.  I love the way she thinks things through and understands people.  She's emotionally mature for her age ...and mature enough to know she's not ready to have an adult relationship yet.  I will say that I was routing for the other guy, but Kylie went through things in such a rational way that I found myself okay with how things worked out.  (That in and of it self says a lot for Ms. Hunter's writing.)

I did wish that there had been more focus on the other aspects of the story, but I don't think I'll ever get enough of Shadow Falls, so I think I'd find myself wishing that even if Ms. Hunter had written volumes.  I want to know more about Kylie's kind, and the FRU, and the whole family of people I've encountered through C. C. Hunter's writing.  That's why I'm thrilled that Ms. Hunter plans on continuing Kylie's best friend Della's story.  I've wanted more of her story since the first book in the series.  She deserves to have her story play out.That and, I'm just not ready to say goodbye to these characters.  I will re-read and revisit them all again in the near future and I can't wait to share the Shadow Falls series with my daughter when she's older.

Final Take:  4.75

 

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