Ape House by Sara Gruen- I really liked this book, and I didn’t expect to. My expectations were very low because I couldn’t see how the plot could possibly be written out well but for some reason I still checked it out and I’m glad I did. The story is about an ape lab that gets targeted and the apes go missing. They then randomly show up on their own reality show. The story is narrated by the woman who worked in the lab with the apes. The concept could very easily have been taken too far and made into just a mess of a book. Somehow the author here made it all work out and seem believable so that as a reader you really felt like what was happening could be real. I liked the not so subtle commentary too on reality television and our own evolution and how humans seem to behave on these shows and the comparison to another species in a similar situation.
Between You and Me by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus- This was the story about a young woman, Logan, with a famous cousin, Kelsey, with whom she used to be very close to but hadn’t been in a long time. Randomly the cousin wants to reconnect and Logan is hired to be her assistant and comes on board while still battling all her old feelings on the family and childhood memories she hasn’t quite gotten over or sorted through. Logan very quickly gets sucked back into the awkward family situations that arise with Kelsey and her parents and the demands of her fame on the family. While I liked the characters and found myself rooting for both woman, the problem for me with this book was that it tried to tackle too much. Any one of the random tangents the book went off into could have taken us down the road to the ending, but instead the book took many twists and turns of which just seemed to be too much. I did like the way Logan was able to make peace with her past and move forward with acceptance.
Citizen Girl by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus- This is the story of just about anyone struggling to make it after graduating from college. The main character is only called “girl” and I liked the way that added to the idea of anyone out on the streets struggling. We follow girl through her moves around New York City with boyfriends and job struggles and the everyday decisions being made in the “real” world. I liked reading the adventures and embarrassing things that happened and how the character kept picking herself up and getting back out there. It became a little dull though after awhile and hard to follow what was happening since most of the story was really generic to keep it to the character really being anyone struggling. I like these writers and the book wasn’t bad at all but it just wasn’t really my favorite of theirs.
Blossom Street Brides by Debbie Macomber
With my own wedding coming
up in July, I seem to have wanted to grab any book that was about weddings or
had “bride” in the title. For the most
part this has been a mistake, and this book proved the same. This was about 3 different woman with a local
knitting store as the common thread. One
is in a long term relationship but that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere so
she makes a bold decision. Another is
struggling with her adoptive daughter and business while in a happy
marriage. The last one is in her second
marriage happily but it is a long distance marriage and her ex husband who has
decided he wants her back is nearby.
Overall I just didn’t feel like the characters were developed that well
and though they were somewhat likeable I just didn’t like them enough to really
care what happened with each of them.
The wrapped up sappy sweet ending was a little too “happily ever after”
for me too.
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
Boy did this book deliver a shocking
twist. The story is about Louisa, a
woman in her mid 20s who really has no direction in life. The other main character is Will, who has lost
so much in life after living to the fullest extent before an accident that led
to him being a quadriplegic. I actually
disliked the book for probably the first 1/3 or so especially with it’s
unrealistic portrayal of Louisa going from odd jobs to being a care taker for
Will as her next job. The unlikely, but
predictably needed for the story line, friendship/romance that becomes between
the two is interesting but a stretch especially at first. When it becomes clear that the book is about
the controversial subject of assisted suicide the book really drew me in. I think it should have come sooner but once
that part of the story came up the novel really developed into much more then
what I had anticipated. I liked the
contrast between the characters and their lives and the lessons that were
delivered to each character by the other and then also to us as readers. I’ve now read a few books by this author and
seem to like her more and more each time.
The Illusion of Separateness by
Simon Von Booy
This was such a good
book. A random find I picked up off the
shelf and am glad that I did. The book
is about all the ways we can be connected without even knowing it. The short novel weaves the story of
character, Martin, in present 2010 and of a character named Hugo in 1981. The story also goes back to WWII and the
after affects of the war and displacement of so many people. It was a short read that kept you turning the
pages to find out what would happen next for the characters and how they would
wind up connected.
Dwarf by Tiffanie DiDonato
This is the true story of
the author’s struggle with dwarfism and her controversial decision to do invasive
limb lengthening surgeries to add more height.
DiDonato shares her struggles as a child with dwarfism and her family
and her decision to do painful limb lengthening surgeries several times. I know these surgeries can be seen as
controversial and other people think they have the right to weigh in on other’s
life choices, but I applaud the author for her bravery. Sometimes decisions are not easy and the
choices you make are going to be called in to question by complete
strangers. The way she courageously
defends her choice and shares why she and her family made these decisions is
inspiring. I really enjoyed reading
about her struggles and her positive attitude that got her though making tough
choices, which led to tremendous pain.
It was really great to get to know her and I appreciated her
honesty. Even knowing ahead of time what
the ending more or less would be, there were unexpected twists in the story
that kept me turning the pages.
The Bride Wore Size 12 by Meg Cabot
I read the Heather Wells
series some time ago and couldn’t resist picking up a book about her as a
bride. Heather is an ex pop star now
dorm hall director that had a few mysteries on various murders occurring in the
dorm she oversaw. Overall the novel just
offered a light-hearted read about Heather’s upcoming wedding and of course
another murder mystery in the dorm room.
Not the best book of all time of course but a fun read that took me back
to Fischer hall and a likeable main character who you want to not just solve
the mystery but also to win overall.
The One and Only by Emily Giffin
I like this author and
accept that her books are light and easy to read and aren’t really meant to be
anything more then that. That being
said, this book was bad. I kept waiting
for it to get good and it just never did.
The main character Shea is an avid college football fan for her alumni
team which just happens to be the team her best friend’s father coaches. Her best friend’s mother has recently died
from cancer and the book takes us through the next season of football. We follow Shea as she somehow is dating a pro
football player who turns violent and then tries to date her friend’s dad, the
guy who just lost his wife and is the coach of her favorite team. It’s just too much and it never flows or
works in any believable. I guess
ultimately the moral of the story is about change and the need for it and to
not stay stuck in our ways and be able to move forward but it was a very
disorganized journey to the message.
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