U is for Undertow, by Sue Grafton.Sue Grafton started her "alphabet" mystery series with A is for Alibi back in the '80s and hasn't looked back since. Her novels, featuring P.I. Kinsey Millhone, still take place in the late '80s, this one in 1988, where Millhone can frequently be found typing away on a Smith-Corona typewriter. This book, as in all...
Friday, December 25, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
The Lovely Bones
The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold.These were the lovely bones that had grown around my absence: the connections - sometimes tenuous, sometimes made at great cost, but often magnificent - that happened after I was gone. And I began to see things in a way that let me hold the world without me in it.Great book, and now I definitely want to see the movie...
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Soon to come
I have been reading a lot of Kristin Hannah books, which is why I haven't written many reviews lately (I try to write reviews of books by different authors, not just the same one over and over). However, I have two Kristin Hannah books left to read and then I will be reading The Lovely Bones, the bestseller by Alice Sebold that is now a major motion...
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Double post: A Desirable Residence & Say the Word
I've been neglecting this thing ... hence, a double post.1) A Desirable Residence, by Madeleine Wickham.It must be nice in the summer, she thought, forgetting that this still was, to all intents and purposes, the summer. Her mind always worked at least half a term ahead.Wickham is better known as Sophie Kinsella, the author of the "Shopaholic" series,...
Friday, November 13, 2009
Her Fearful Symmetry
Her Fearful Symmetry, by Audrey Niffenegger.The problem was located in the word how: he would live, but without Elspeth the flavour, the manner, the method of living were lost to him. He would have to relearn solitude.This is the second novel by the author of The Time Traveler's Wife, which was recently made into a movie (sidenote: both the novel...
Friday, November 6, 2009
Best Friends Forever
Best Friends Forever, by Jennifer Weiner.If time was a dimension, and not a straight line, if you could look down through it like you were looking through water and it could ripple and shift, I was already opening the door. This had all already happened, the way it always did; the way it always would.Weiner is the author of 7 novels, only one of which...
Monday, November 2, 2009
Love or Something Like It
Love or Something Like It, by Deidre Shaw.It occurred to me then that for the first time that we were getting older, that our pain and misfortune might not always be erasable, that our lives going forward might hold some disappointment, the adult kind, the kind that mattered.I liked this novel a lot, probably because the narrator and main character,...
Friday, October 30, 2009
Admission
Admission, by Jean Hanff Korelitz.The flight from Newark to Hartford took no more than fifty-eight minutes, but she still managed to get her heart broken three times. This was a feat at once pathetic and, bizarrely, something of an underachievement, Portia thought making a painful note on the reader's card of an academically unadmittable Rhode Island...
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
True Colors
True Colors, by Kristin Hannah.Loss like theirs should leave a mark - summer grass gone suddenly brown, dark clouds that refused to leave, a tree split by lightning. Something.This is the first book I've read by Hannah - she has written a few others - and it was very good. The book tells the story of the Grey sisters, who lose their mother at an...
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Intensely Alice
Intensely Alice, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.Naylor has written 120+ books, and one of the series she writes is the Alice series, which I have been reading for a long time. Alice "tells it like it is", which is one of the reasons I like her as a character, but in this book, she seems more naive then usual. I don't know if the reason I think this is...
Friday, October 16, 2009
Hope in a Jar
Hope in a Jar, by Beth Harbison.One of the reasons I don't usually buy books is that I read too quickly ... this book is 340 pages and I finished it in 1 day, about the span of 12 hours or less. Probably about 2-3 hours total. I am a big fan of Harbison's books - try reading Secrets of a Shoe Addict or Shoe Addicts Anonymous, also by her, and you'll...
Secrets to Happiness
Secrets to Happiness, by Sarah Dunn.This book was hilariously written, and was interesting to read. There were a few paragraphs at which I laughed out loud. Here's one example of this:Holly's mother Fiona called her once a week, usually on Friday afternoons, before she left for her mahjongg game but after she came home from MOPS. Holly wasn't one...
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
The Last Song
The Last Song, Nicholas Sparks.There's a reason why four of Nicholas Sparks' books have been made into movies - they are just THAT good. Granted, I have read almost all of his books, save for the one he wrote with his brother, so I am a bit biased, but I thought that this book was as good as all of his previous ones, and could definitely be made into...
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Swoon
Swoon, by Nina Malkin.I don't know what to classify this story as - certainly not a "ghost story," but it's more than just a possession story too - but it was entertaining. Dice (short for Candice) has just moved to Connecticut from New York City to live in Swoon, the same town that her cousin, Pen (Penelope), and her family live. Dice's parents...
Thursday, October 1, 2009
That Old Cape Magic
That Old Cape Magic, by Richard Russo.I read a great review of this book in People magazine, and immediately wanted to read it. Unfortunately, since I was moving out about a week later, I couldn't request it at the Ann Arbor library; so, a month or so after that, I got it from the WB library, and just finished reading it today.I had never read any...
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
The Wednesday Sisters
The Wednesday Sisters, by Meg Waite Clayton.I heard of this book through a U of M alumni newsletter - the author, Meg Clayton, is a UM Law School alum. This book is one of the best I've read in a while. The "Wednesday Sisters" are a group of women, mostly mothers, who get together originally on Wednesdays, in a park in Palo Alto, CA, and eventually...
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Life Without Summer
Life Without Summer, by Lynne Griffin.Sad book, with a shocking ending, but the writing is tight and the book is overall enjoyable. The author is apparently a "nationally recognized expert on family life" (so says the back cover bio) and contributes to Boston's "Fox 25 Morning News." This was her first book and was very good, in my opini...
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Along for the Ride
Along for the Ride, by Sarah Dessen.Admittedly, I am a big fan of Dessen's, and I like most of her books. This one was no exception, though I don't think it was as strong as some of her previous novels, such as This Lullaby. Auden (named after poet W.H. Auden) goes to live with her father, stepmother, and new baby half-sister, Thisbe, for the summer,...
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Carter Finally Gets It
Carter Finally Gets It, by Brent Crawford.Not only was this book hilarious, it was like a chick lit novel - except for guys, and written by a guy! It's Crawford's first book, apparently, and I hope to see many more from him. The main character, Will Carter (who goes simply by "Carter"), is entering his freshman year of high school, and Crawford really...
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Commencement
Commencement, J. Courtney Sullivan.I felt like this book ended abruptly, but other than that, I have nothing but good to say about it. It reminded me a bit of Prep (Curtis Sittenfeld), except that it was set at Smith, an all-women college, and followed the four women more throughout their "adult lives" (when they graduated from college to the present,...
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Hollywood is Like High School with Money
Hollywood is Like High School with Money, Zoe Dean.Another entertaining chick lit novel by the author of "The A-List" series, which is basically "Gossip Girl" but set on the West Coast (California). Dean has written many non-"A-List" books, and this is her best to date. One of the minor characters is named "Magnolia," which I've never heard before,...
Sunday, August 30, 2009
The Beach House
The Beach House, Jane Green.This novel took place in Nantucket, MA, and now I want to move there! I've never been there but have heard it's beautiful. Something unusual about this book was that it was written entirely in the present - normal for a chick lit novel, but it was more just a "regular book" than chick lit. Jane Green has written a bunch...
Monday, August 24, 2009
Hollywood Car Wash
Hollywood Car Wash, by Lori Culwell.A nice, breezy chick lit novel. The Michigan scenes were set at U of M, which was kind of funny, but I feel like the author didn't really do her research on it - one line depicts the lead character crossing the "quad", and if I (or any Michigan student or grad, really) was writing this book, they would've definitely...
Friday, August 14, 2009
The Music Teacher
The Music Teacher, by Barbara Hall.Apparently she's written some books for teens too. Excellent book ... makes you think about life. Being a violin player, I particularly enjoyed it (the narrator/main character is a violin teache...
The Visibles
The Visibles, by Sara Shepard.Also the author of the "Pretty Little Liars" series for tee...
