Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares- So in all honesty this book was probably not read in May. I know I read it before I read the last one in the series this month, which is what alerted me to the fact that I hadn't blogged about it, but I have no note of it. Odd. Anyway though I did like book four. The ending was a bit odd but better then I expected it to be and I think it was fitting. This one was originally meant to be the final book in the series too so in that respect Brashares did a nice job wrapping things up and concluding the characters. I'm fairly certain she did not intend to revisit them later on as she ended up doing.
Everyone But You by Sandra Novack- I think I enjoyed this book but it did not leave a lasting impression as I sort of forgot what it was when I typed it in from the list (which has also led to me thinking maybe I need to blog about the books much sooner after I read them). This book was a collection of short stories that were centered around family/love. Some of the stories I flipped through and really didn't enjoy and then there were some that really got me hooked and I wanted more from. This is usually my problem with short story collections. Sometimes a short story is really all you need but if it's really good you get invested in the characters in such a short time and then you want more and by the time you discover that the story is over. My other issue with short story collections is that sometimes they flow very nicely together and then other times it's like your reading 15 different books instead of 15 stories in the same book. I think all the stories in this collection had a similar theme, and there were connections between say story (random numbers being used) 1 and 10 or 5 and 7 but no real connection that linked them all other then loosely similar theme.
Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah- So I've heard a lot about this author and I'm pretty sure I've read some of her other books. Recently I've heard her labeled more as a romance writer and disagreed with that statement a lot. I almost didn't listen to this book because I was worried it would get all romancy but the plot was about female friendship over the course of a lifetime and I really thought that would be an interesting listen. I'm glad I didn't shun it just because of her label. It really was an interesting listen and I liked the way the author brought the music of different decades in as she took us through the lives of the two main female characters who became friends in early childhood and stayed friends throughout their adulthood until a major falling out. The falling out does not turn out to be as predictable as the reader guesses it to be, or maybe because I was in the mindset of "romance novel author," that this reader thought it would be. I liked that it wasn't so predictable but I really didn't like the ending and thought it was unnecessary. Even after thinking about it and trying to figure out why the author would end it in such a tearjerker way, I still don't quite get why that was necessary. Certainly made me think about my own female friendships, the ones going strong and the ones that have fallen away for one reason or another.
Comfort and Joy by Kristin Hannah- This book, as I sort of knew it would, lived up to the romance novel label I mentioned above. It was only 5 discs so I made my way through it even though after disc 1 I wanted to throw it back in the library bag and return it. The story is of a woman who recently separated/divorced her husband and it's Christmas time and she has the urge to get away from her life. Her marriage ended because her husband ended up with her sister so she feels all alone and can't deal. She ends up buying a seat on a chartered plane that crashes and then ends up walking away from the crash. The crash scene is very odd and surreal and had me wondering it was actually happening the way it was being described, but for most of the book you are following the main character after the plane crash. I suspected in the beginning that she was really in a dream sequence of some sort but after 3 discs of it I figured nope this must actually be happening. She ends up meeting a young boy and his father who are trying to reconnect after the boy's mother died. Then it does turn out that my original thought was true and she was in a coma the whole time and never met these people. But then the last disc of the story was all about her trying to find these people from her coma. I won't give away the all too sappy ending (unless I might have just done so) but I will say I wish I hadn't wasted even the few hours I did waste listening to this book and was ready to throw it out the window when it finally concluded.
We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver- This book was really challenging to get hooked on. I stuck with it only because I really wanted to read it and I wanted to read it before I saw the movie. After getting hooked on it, it was much easier to stick with and then I couldn't really put it down. I think it took me a moment to get invested because it wasn't quite what I expected. I was very excited to be reading a novel based on the fictional perspective of a parent who was responsible for a high school killing massacre. I have read lots of books on Columbine and similar situations, both fiction and non fiction but what I've always wondered about was the parents of the murderers. Obviously the main attention goes immediately to the victims as it probably should, but perhaps it's the professional side of me or just my own personality that always makes me wonder about the parents. And not in the typical "blame the parent's" way that so many others think about them in, but in a compassionate way of wanting to understand what happened in those households, good or bad, that led to this outcome. So I was very excited to read this book when I learned of it, but was immediately disappointed because the author makes it especially difficult in the beginning for the reader to have compassion for the mother whom we are hearing the story from. The author paints this picture of poor parenting skills and a cold mother who did not want her child. At some point in time this did come together and make sense with the story but I think I'm still disappointed it wasn't quite what I thought it would be. The authors writing style is impressive though and she can clearly tell a story. I've been browsing her other books to see what else of hers might interest me.
Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares- I think at least part of the reason it took me so long to read this final book in the series is because I was skeptical of how the author would define the characters relationships all those years later. On the one hand I was rooting for them to still all be best friends, and then on the other hand (the more realistic hand) I really didn't want them to be because well it just isn't always reality. I'm not sure if I liked the final conclusions drawn, but I'm also pretty certain I couldn't have done any better then the author did in concluding the series. It went a little too romancy for me at some points but I do feel like each of the characters came full circle and got their own conclusion that felt right for the series.
The Red Book by Deborah Copaken-Kogen- I haven't read anything by this author before and now all of her books are on my to read list. It's not so much that this was the greatest book ever or anything but it was an interesting story, I really liked how she shared it with us as readers, and I enjoyed her writing style. This novel shares the story of Harvard grads coming back to their 20th reunion and gives us the stories of 4 main female characters, but also of other classmates along the way. It's clearly a story of the paths we didn't know we would take in life and the looks backward and forward individuals take when they get to middle age. It's not a new concept by any means and the book jacket even mentions some of it's inspiration found elsewhere in movies/books, but her take was original and had some surprise twists and turns that were unseen. It was very relatable too as we all look back on our pasts and perhaps take a look at where we thought me might be at various points in our lives. I loved the ending too which then forwards to the 25th reunion and concludes what the next five years held for the main characters. It was nice to see how they changed aspects in their lives in those five years.
