French Lessons by Ellen Sussman- I don't have much to say about this book, I'm writing this only a few weeks after I read it and although I remember liking it enough, I can't remember too much about the book which I think says a lot. Three French tutors share the story of one day in their world and the people they meet. The "students" get to share from their perspective too which is where you get more rich details and a background on some of the characters which holds interest. I liked it enough but there wasn't anything different or special about it. It was borderline romance novel too which I really dislike. It had some good moments though with the individual characters and well it took place in Paris so that's a huge plus always if you ask me, that just shouldn't be the only plus.
Anything you Say Can and Will be Used Against You by Laurie Lynn Drummond- An interesting fiction story of several women in the police force playing various roles. Each woman gets a section of the book and some of them within that section get to tell several stories. I liked that some of the women's lives intersected at times and that the story was consistent within the same setting. Some of the book went into very graphic/gory detail which I could have done without. I liked though that it was more realistic then the Law and Order police we tend to see on TV. I don't think it's a secret that being a female police officer is difficult to say the least, I liked the personalized take on what this means not only for the force/on the job, but also at home in their personal lives.
Mothers and Other Liars by Amy Bourret- So back to July's theme, this book wasn't quite what I expected it to be. The concept was unique, a woman finds a child in a dumpster takes it home with her to raise instead of involving the police, thinking the family clearly does not want the child. 9 years later the woman reads an article knowing it's about her "daughter" and it turns out she wasn't tossed in the dumpster by her own family but by her kidnappers who really only wanted the car she was in and not a baby too. Interesting concept very unique, a bit "Face on the Milk Carton"ish but with it's own twist. Then the book got a little odd. The non bio mother is pregnant and the bio parents wanted their daughter back but have trouble bonding since she isn't an infant anymore. The non bio mother to the girl has formed a new relationship with a Latino man who is the father of her unborn child and when she decides she wants to, forgive me I don't know how else to write it, "trade" children, he and his family are against it. So now we have kidnapped children, court cases of kidnapping, court cases of grandparents rights, nature vs nurture, foster care, oh and the lesbian couple. The woman also made friends with a lesbian couple who have become her greatest support system and weigh in on their rights, or lack thereof, to parent. Are you confused yet? I think this book had great potential to be a good book, but it's almost a case of too many ingredients and not enough substance. It jumped around from this storyline to that storyline and then surprise here's something new for the mix. I liked all the subject matters, but if only a few had been focused on instead of the always adding more it may have been much better to read. I also disliked the near ending for how unrealistic it was. Overall I was disappointed because the potential was so right there, but ultimately just didn't pan out.
Joy For Beginngers by Erica Bauermeister- This is the story of a woman who survives cancer and is challenged by her daughter to go white water rafting the following summer in celebration of her life. Her friends beg her to accept the challenge and she does provided they too accept a challenge from her. It's a great story, though not terribly unique an idea. That being said I liked reading about the characters and their challenging tasks. The trouble I had with this book was that just as you were getting to know a character and really enjoying reading about them, their chapter was over and it was on to the next one. This book may have been better written all together rather then each individual chapter being a different person. I did like though that if you thought ahead sometimes you got a clue in the chapter before, or a couple chapters before, of what the next characters challenge would be, as they were not revealed in the first chapter but only as you continued on through the book with the characters.
Amaryllis in Blueberry by Christina Meldrum- I love love loved this book. I feel bad for the book I read next because it can't compare to this one. When you read as much as I do it's hard to love every book you read and most go into "I liked it" or "I didn't like it" categories. But this book really stood out. It was so unique in both the story telling and the story itself. The plot is about a woman who is on trial in Africa for murdering her husband. She and her husband went to Africa as missionaries with their four daughters. Each of the powerful women characters from the youngest, Amaryllis, to the mother share their secrets with the reader and develop as characters throughout the book. The story telling starts at the "end" of the novel and weaves in and out from the beginning to the end. Each character shares a bit at a time about what is happening linearly but throughout the novel is interrupted with moments from the "end" or the middle or the beginning so the reader gets the information at different times, sometimes before the characters have it. I should not have liked this book filled with religion, romance gone wrong, adultery, etc. but the way the author weaves the story in and out had me so sucked in. I looked up after the first 6 pages and said, wow a book has never sucked me in like this in the first 6 pages. I am super sad that this author only has one other book for me to, hopefully, enjoy.
Quote from the book: "Love is not what I thought. Love is impatient. It's not always kind. It does envy, it does boast. At times it is proud and rude and self-seeking. And easily angered. It does, now and then, keep a record of wrongs. And it doesn't always avoid evil or rejoice in truth. It can't always protect. It doesn't always trust or persevere: sometimes love fails...And while I knew hate and love sometimes mixed-that love could be peppered with hate and yet still be love- I hadn't realized hate is integral to love, that it's within the reach of love's expanse. I hadn't realized what makes love Love is not it's consistency but it's malleability, its magnanimity. It's abundance: love holds it all. Love is ugly and full of hate even as it's tender and kind. There's nothing pure about love. it's the impurity that is love... Love hopes to be patient. It hopes to be kind. It hopes to not envy or boast or be proud. It hopes to persevere. But love is not perfect."
Second Chance by Jane Green This was a typical "high school reuniony" story where one member of an old group of friends from school dies and the rest of the group rekindles their friendships. What I liked was that it wasn't typical in that it followed them further after the friend's death then just the immediate aftermath. Most of the stories center around the event that brings them together and then you get to look back in time but not so much forward. This novel started more or less with the character Tom's death and then moved forward. The characters not only looked back into their old friendships and reconnected, his death also had a profound impact on their current lives and the novel was about the changes they made in their lives because of the tragedy. It wasn't an awarding winning book by any means, but I'm starting to like this authors simplicity but also creative story lines.
