September 6

The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling- An interesting story with many stories within the story.  This novel shares the story of a small town and it's political elections due to a vacancy seat on the parish council due to the untimely death of one of the council members.  There are many characters involved and many unique individual story lines going on at the same time with the main story being about the election.  We as readers know more then the towns people know about one another and can see things more objectively because we see the background stories of the characters.  The one thing I didn't like was how graphic the novel was.  I don't mind sex scenes but I feel like the author was trying to prove something with her first adult novel.  Some of it just was not necessary and was too much detail.  Other then that I really liked the book

The Other Family by Joanna Trollope- I didn't care for this story.  It was about two families.  One with 3 young women and the mom and dad and one with a single mother with an adult son.  The dad dies unexpectedly which brings the two families together in some ways since the single parent and adult son were his first family.  The story had potential but it was very slow moving and I still don't quite get what the point of it was.  The characters weren't likable and the story didn't really move anywhere. 

The One I Left Behind by Jennifer McMahon- I like this author because her books are unpredictable and take twists and turns.  This one's main character is named Reggie and when she was a young girl a serial killer was in her town.  The killer would cut off the victims hand leave it to be found and then 3 days later the rest of the body.  Reggie's mom was a victim but her body never turned up.  25 years later her mother shows up in a hospital/homeless shelter and she has to confront her past and how it affected her future.  A good mystery that kept me guessing until the end, I definitely could not have predicted how this one would end.  

The Good Luck of Right Now by Matthew Quick- The main character, Bartholomew, has lived with his mother for 38 years, after she dies Bartholomew has to figure out life on his own.  The book is a series of letters to actor Richard Gere who the character's mother seemed obsessed with and now the character is.  It's never said but the character seems to have something wrong with him mentally.  It was interesting to read about Bartholomew's adventures trying to navigate the world and make friends after so many years of isolation.  I was pretty confused on the ending though and what the book's message was overall.  

The Accidental Bestseller by Wendy Wax-  It's a book about an author who needs to come up with a story to turn in to her publisher but hasn't written anything and who's husband ends up leaving her so she doesn't seem able to get the novel done.  Her 3 writer friends try to rescue her by creating characters but the characters are based on themselves.  The women have an agreement not to tell that they helped write the book so the book ends up being about 4 women friends each struggling with something and keeping secrets.  I got a little lost to be honest.  It was a book within a book but it just didn't work overall.  I liked the realistic pieces where the story didn't just have a great happy ending but I didn't really understand the overall point either.  

A Widow for One Year by John Irving- Really liked this book and now this author.  The main character of this book is Ruth and we follow her through her childhood and adulthood.  The book starts with Ruth being 4 years old, the summer her mother leaves her family.  Ruth's father, a writer, takes on an assistant for the summer and he narrates parts of the book as well.  Ruth grows up in the shadow of her dead brothers who died when they were teenagers before she was born.  Ruth's mother leaves her and her father that summer and we follow Ruth and her family and the young assistant through the next decades of their lives.  I just loved the author's writing style and how many stories within the story there were.  Each worked in it's own unique way and I never felt lost trying to connect the characters.  As a reader I identified with each character when they were narrating and wanted to know more about what would happen for their lives.