Things We Didn’t Say by Kristina Riggle – Book Review

Jun 302011

Things We Didn’t Say by Kristina Riggle
Published by William Morrow Paperbacks, in imprint of HarperCollins

Family isn’t always easy, and the Turner family has their own special problems. Michael Turner is trying to make things work with his live-in fiance Casey, but his mentally ill ex-wife Mallory doesn’t make that easy, particularly when Michael must worry about his three children every time they visit their mother for the weekend. Casey has demons of her own – the death of her brother, her recovering alcoholism – and is no longer sure that her love for Michael is enough. She’s ready to walk out the door, never to return, when she gets a call from the high school that Dylan, Michael’s middle child, attends, saying that he never showed up for school. Suddenly a complicated situation is made all the more complicated by a missing teenager, and the Turners must decide just what sort of family they really are.

Riggle is at her best when she is living inside the messy reality of modern families, and Things We Didn’t Say is full of some of her most deliciously flawed characters yet. All six of the major characters – Casey, Michael, Mallory, and the three children – narrate at least one chapter in their own voice. As opposed to her first book, Real Life & Liars, which also featured a family, but in which most character’s chapters were in the third person, each family member actually gets to narrate their chapters in first person, bringing the reader closer to even the least central members of the family. Particularly effective is one of Mallory’s chapters, her smug and destructive attitude practically oozes from the pages, leaving the reader feeling furious, and perhaps slightly contaminated by her bile.

Things We Didn’t Say is a fascinatingly intimate look at the lives of a single, ordinary family during a time of extraordinary crisis. It is rich and engrossing, a read that will captivate your very heart. I read almost the entire thing in two sittings, and would have easily sat long enough to read it in a single sitting, had my own life not intervened. Things We Didn’t Say is a beautiful book; highly recommended.

Disclaimer: Please note, I have spent some time in a friendly manner with Riggle at various book events, but this has in no way influenced the content of this review. I loved this book wholeheartedly because it is great book, and not because I occasionally chat with Riggle on Twitter.

Buy this book from:
Powells | Indiebound*

Source: Publisher
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

The Statues That Walked by Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo – Book Review

Jun 292011

The Statues That Walked: Unraveling the Mystery of Easter Island by Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo
Published by Free Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster

If you have read Jared Diamond’s Collapse, you know that the natives of Easter Island caused the collapse of their own civilization in the course of building their famous statues, causing the deforestation of their island by cutting down trees to transport the giant heads. Hunt and Lipo did not set out to disprove this widely accepted truism when they ventured to Easter Island, called Rapa Nui in the local language, but disprove it they did and, in the course of doing so, they unraveled many of the mysteries surrounding Easter Island: from the true cause of the deforestation of Rapa Nui, to the social structure that supported statue building, to the statues themselves and how they were moved.

One need not be an archaeologist to find The Statues That Walked fascinating. Hunt and Lipo lay out their arguments for the past of Rapa Nui in a clear and articulate manner, providing just enough evidence to lend them credibility, but not so many technical details to lose their lay readers. Assuming their science is valid – and Hunt and Lipo give the reader no reason to assume it is not – this team seems to have made great headway in explaining the history and basic culture of the people of Easter Island, not least the explanation that the statues were moved by ‘walking’ them.

The only real problem with The Statues That Walked is the extent to which its authors inserted themselves in their story, which was either too much, or not enough. In no way did they introduce themselves or give any sense of who they were, and yet they referred to their findings, their state of mind going into the research, etc. Inserting oneself into a story such as this one can lend a greater sense of narrative flow and make it easier to engage readers, but in order to do that, an actual sense of the personality of the authors must come through. The writing was clear and engaging enough that the authors were not a necessary plot device to keep readers interested. In the end, their random insertion served only to distract from the fascinating picture of Easter Island painted by The Statues That Walked.

A solid work of nonfiction, odd insertion of the authors not withstanding. Recommended.

Buy this book from:
Powells | Indiebound.*

Source: Simon & Schuster Galley Grab.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Eat Slay Love by Jesse Petersen – Book Review

Jun 282011

Eat Slay Love by Jesse Petersen
Published by Orbit Books, an imprint of Hachette

This is the third book in the Living With the Dead series. My reviews of Married With Zombies and Flip This Zombie.

Sarah and David have survived the zombie apocalypse for longer than really seems possible, particularly since they are traveling and fighting zombies instead of sitting quietly inside a survivor’s community. Now they’re finally approaching the fabled Midwest Wall and possible salvation. Only a few things are slowing them down now: their hitchhikers, a tv tabloid reporter (think TMZ) and a batty aging rocker; David’s odd reaction to the zombie serum he was given in Flip This Zombie; and, of course, the zombies themselves.

The Living With the Dead series exists to entertain, and it does that beautifully. Petersen mixes survival, interpersonal relationships, and government conspiracies adroitly with witty and sarcastic repartee to create a fun and engaging story that will make you alternately laugh and cringe. Is this the book that is going to make you think deeply about the world and your place in it? No, if that is what you want from your zombie books, check out Mira Grant’s Newsflesh series Feed and Deadline, but Eat Slay Love and the entire Living With the Dead series provides very high entertainment value, and for that, I recommend it.

Buy this book from:
Powells | Indiebound.*

Source: Publisher, via Netgalley.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Cool Down with Agatha Christie – Endless Night discussion

Jun 272011

This is part of the Cool Down With Agatha Christie summer extravaganza. Three participants in today’s discussion will win a copy of next month’s readalong book, And Then There Were None, as well as an Agatha Christie mystery prize pack. Next month we will be reading And Then There Were None, if you would like to join us, please sign up on the Google form.

Today we are discussing one of Agatha Christie’s later standalone works, Endless Night.

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When penniless Michael Rogers discovers the beautiful house at Gypsy’s Acre and then meets the heiress Ellie, it seems that all his dreams have come true at once. But he ignores an old woman’s warning of an ancient curse, and evil begins to stir in paradise. As Michael soon learns: Gypsy’s Acre is the place where fatal “accidents” happen.

Agatha Christie tends to use third person narration, the only exceptions I am aware of being The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and, of course, Endless Night. What did you think of her use of first person here?
The way that this story advances is also very different from the way most of Agatha’s stories advance, with no dead body for quite some time. What were your thoughts while reading, did you find it suspenseful?
With whom did you most identify while reading, Michael or Ellie?
When the dead body finally did show up, what did you think was the ultimate cause of death? Did you suspect anyone?
Endless Night ends with a big twist, did you see it coming? What did you think of the way Christie chose to end the story?

Cool Down with Agatha Christie – And Then There Were None giveaway

Jun 272011

AC ReadingGroup TileAds StandAlones picture If you are interested in discussing And Then There Were None with us on Monday, July 25th and still need a copy, sign up on the Google form below and five winners will be selected at random.

If you’re interested to see how the discussion work, please check out today’s discussion of Endless Night.

andthentherewerenone picture

US and Canada mailing addresses only, please. Enter by midnight Central time on Thursday, June 30th.

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TSS: Birthday Wishes

Jun 262011

This has been a crazy week, we were on vacation for the first part of it, and have come home to Daniel’s birthday extravaganza! Our trip home also involved the fairly devastating loss of Daniel’s beloved Cookie Monster doll, which he sleeps with every night and the inability of United Airlines to return my phone call to the department of items lost on planes coming into O’Hare and let me know if they had it. Luckily, we got a replacement yesterday thanks to Sarah from Nerdy Apple Bottom.

Between getting some good reading time in on vacation and being too tired to do much else besides read in the afternoons this week after traveling with a toddler, I got a ton of reading done this week, including finishing two audiobooks:

statuesthatwalked picture thefirsthusband picture anaccidentalmother picture endlessnight picture

restoration picture alicebehindwonderland picture

And what I reviewed:

Where’s Baby’s Birthday Cake? – Saturday Story Spotlight

Jun 252011

Welcome to Saturday Story Spotlight, my feature where I discuss books my husband and I are reading with our son, Daniel. These are books that he, we, or all of us particularly enjoy.

Where is Baby’s Birthday Cake? by Karen Katz
Published by Little Simon, an imprint of Simon & Schuster

It occurred to me recently that I haven’t shared any Karen Katz for Saturday Story Spotlight, and I’m not exactly sure how I committed such an oversight.

Daniel loves Karen Katz’s books featuring ‘Baby.’ In most of them, Baby (not always the same baby, by the way) is looking for something, looking behind, under, and inside things to find it. This is accomplished by the reader lifting the flaps and looking at the shiny things beneath them. In Where is Baby’s Birthday Cake? Baby looks under the bed and finds presents, behind a chair and finds balloons, and in the refrigerator and finds ice cream.

Karen Katz’s books are basically 100% guaranteed to captivate Daniel. He loves anything with flaps to list, and Katz’s books are extra good because of all of the shiny elements. I appreciate that the babies alternate gender from book to book, but always are sort of nondescript, other than a pronoun here or there. I do wish, however, that she had more diverse babies. Looking through the covers of her books, I can see that Katz has a few babies of African descent, and certainly some of the babies have slightly darker skin than others, but the vast majority of her babies appear to be Caucasian.

We enjoy Karen Katz and Daniel has been particularly enjoying reading Where is Baby’s Birthday Cake? in preparation for his own birthday today; if only she would start publishing a greater diversity of babies in her books I would be an undying fan.

Buy this book from:
Powells | Indiebound.

Source: Personal copy
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Faith by Jennifer Haigh – Audiobook Review

Jun 242011

Faith by Jennifer Haigh, narrated by Therese Plummer
Published in audio by Harper Audio; published in print by Harper Books, both imprints of HarperCollins

Synopsis:

It is 2002, and Sheila McGann has never regretted leaving the Catholic Church less – nearly the only thing the news reports talk about these days are the priest sex abuse scandals. That these things happen is not particularly a surprise to Sheila, but that her beloved elder brother Art has been accused is a shock bar none.

Thoughts on the story:

I think it is best, actually, to go into Faith without knowing too much about it; at its most basic it is the story of a family whose world view is being severely challenged and whose life is being torn apart. Not only that, it is one of the best books I have read in a long time. Haigh has amazing pacing, and even better characterization and storytelling. I didn’t have a single issue with the plot, the writing, anything while listening. It is a deeply emotional story that rockets the reader deep inside the inner lives of the McGanns, a story you won’t want to put down.

Thoughts on the audio production:

Plummer’s narration is extremely strong, emotional but not overwrought; she hits every note perfectly. The audio production of Faithis so fabulous I was searching high and low for something, anything to do that would give me more listening time. It would not be an overexaggeration to say that I tried my best to plan my life that week around getting more time to listen to Faith.

For a more in-depth review of the audio, please see my review for Audiofile Magazine.

soundbytes picture Overall

Faith was simply amazing and it will without question be making my ‘best of’ list at the end of the year, thanks in equal part to Jennifer Haigh’s writing and Therese Plummer’s narration.

Very highly recommended.

Buy this book from:
Powells: Print*
Indiebound: Print*
Audible: Audio

I’m launching a brand-new meme every Friday! I encourage you to review any audiobooks you review on Fridays and include the link here. If you have reviewed an audiobook earlier in the week, please feel free to link that review as well. Thanks to Pam for creating the button.

Source: Audiofile Magazine.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

The First Husband by Laura Dave – Book Review

Jun 232011

The First Husband by Laura Dave
Published by Viking Adult, an imprint of Penguin

Annie Adams seems to be in a pretty good place: her job as a travel writer sends her all over the world, she has an adorable dog, and she and her live-in boyfriend Nick have been together for five years. Everything seems to be going well – until Nick tells her that they need to have a break, that he might have feelings for a girl he grew up with. After a fair amount of time wallowing in self-pity over the break-up of what she thought was a very steady relationship, Annie puts on her most magical yellow dress, and heads out on the town for a drink and meets charming, thoughtful Griffin, a chef from Massachusetts in LA temporarily. By the end of their three month whirlwind romance, Griffin is proposing and Annie is moving with him to Massachusetts as his wife. Once there, however, she wonders if her marriage is simply a rebound, and if she really belongs in this new life. And, if not, does she still belong in her old life either?

Annie Adams is an immediately relateable character. How often do we ignore the warning signs that our life is no longer what it used to be, surprised to suddenly find that everything has fallen apart? Annie’s life had been relying largely on inertia when Nick introduced his friction. How many of us, when faced with a life-wrenching change, have thrown ourselves immediately into something different, without immediate thought to whether or not it is right for us? And again, how many of us would eventually question that decision, based solely on the fact that it did come after such a drastic change? Is this real? Is it just a rebound? These are the questions that guide Annie’s life in The First Husband, and they do so in an incredibly realistic manner. Nick and Griffin were somewhat less fully fleshed out, but The First Husband takes place so much in Annie’s head, that this seemed like a reasonable choice: Annie is questioning how much she really knows either man, so why should the reader know them any better?

Dave has succeeded in writing a book that is incredibly life-like and that readers can relate to whether or not they have ever been in the exact same situation. Recommended.

Join the conversation July 14th

Laura Dave will be joining the SheKnows Book Club to discuss The First Husband on Thursday, July 14th. All are invited and welcome to participate on the SheKnows message boards.

Buy this book from:
Powells | Indiebound.*

Source: Author
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Grace Interrupted by Julie Hyzy – Book Review

Jun 222011

Grace Interrupted by Julie Hyzy
Published by Berkley, an imprint of Penguin

The first book in the Manor House Mystery series, please see my review of the first book in the series, Grace Under Pressure.

Things are finally settling down for Grace Wheaton and Marshfield Manor after the death of the head curator. The quiet only lasts until two women are caught trespassing near a group of Civil War re-enactors on the premises, wishing to do harm to one of the men, Zachary Kincade. Surprisingly, though, when Zachary turns up dead, these women aren’t the main suspects; Grace’s potential beau Jack Embers, previously accused of killing Zachary’s brother, is the one under suspicion.

Grace continues to be a compelling character. In Grace Interrupted she is dealing not only with another murder, but with accusations against the man she loves – okay, the man she has sort of a crush on and would like to finally get out on a date with.

As always, Hyzy does a great job crafting her mystery. Her murderer makes perfect sense and she does scatter clues, but the culprit is not so obvious that the reader isn’t kept guessing.

Grace Interrupted is just as lovely and fun as I expect of Hyzy. Recommended.

Buy this book from:
Powells | Indiebound*

Source: Publisher.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Older Entries

Devourer of Books

Things We Didn’t Say by Kristina Riggle – Book Review

The Statues That Walked by Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo – Book Review

Eat Slay Love by Jesse Petersen – Book Review

Cool Down with Agatha Christie – Endless Night discussion

Cool Down with Agatha Christie – And Then There Were None giveaway

TSS: Birthday Wishes

Where’s Baby’s Birthday Cake? – Saturday Story Spotlight

Faith by Jennifer Haigh – Audiobook Review

The First Husband by Laura Dave – Book Review

Grace Interrupted by Julie Hyzy – Book Review

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