The Widow's Walk by Robert Barclay (audio)

★★

Architect Garrett Richmond has always been drawn to the ocean.  He purchases an old house known as Seaside and quickly begins to restore the place to what it was in its prime almost two decades ago.  But, then he spots a mysterious women named Constance and learns that she is the original owner of the house and has been trapped in between life and death for the past 170 years.  Now Garrett must risk everything to save her before she disappears.

This novel sounded really interesting - old house, history, time travel, romance, - but found it mostly repetitive and annoying.  The dialog seemed much too formal and fake and I just didn't buy Garrett randomly falling in love with Constance after about twenty seconds of seeing her.  The story wasn't very developed and was lacking in detail in several areas.  There was one part towards the end where Garrett and Constance are trying to figure out how to solve the problem of her being trapped among the living.  Garrett talks to a fellow professor who gives him the name of a women who can help.  They visit the women who mysteriously has the exact book with the exact information that they're looking for. Way too perfect and perfect for my tastes.  I was expecting there to be a big search for the research on what they were looking for - nope.  And there were a lot of aspects that just didn't add up: Constance couldn't be seen by anyone but Garrett, and yet she constantly talks about having to sneak around?  And she says she learns things from watching TV, but she knows what a donut is and not a credit card?  I wasn't buying any of it - especially the ending which I figure out in about the third chapter.

It was a good effort, but this book didn't offer me anything.  The storyline had a lot of potential and the historical background kept my attention, but I felt a disconnect from the characters throughout most of the book.

* Top Ten (2015)

Top Ten Books of Past Years:

2012

2013
2014

2015 was an interesting year for me!  I started the year taking two different literature library courses for grad school - LIS 642: Reading Interests for Adults and LIS 631: Young Adult Literature.  I really enjoyed both of these courses, but LIS 642 was by far my favorite!  Each week we explored a different genre of adult fiction and I was able to be introduced to lot of different types of books that I normally don't read.  I also discovered a lot of amazing books - many of which made this list - such as Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler, Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, and Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet.  Even though I was on maternity leave during most of the semester, having to read at least 3 books a week for school pretty much took up the majority of my free reading time until the middle of May.

The first month after my daughter Isabelle was born at the end of January was a bit overwelming, but after she was about a month old I was able to work in some reading with her and it quickly became part of our daily routine. The first book I read to her was 'Goodnight Moon' by Margaret Wise Brown and a lot of children's book soon began to appear on my reading list!  

Isabelle with our copy of 'Goodnight Moon'

A couple month later I signed up her for the '1000 Books Before Kindergarten' program at the Waukesha library.  We finished the program at the end of last month and I am planning on trying to read 1000 new books this next year.  I started keeping track of our book that we read together on a separate goodreads page and have been making a list of our favorite books each month on our blog.  Since she always wanted be on the go now, we read a lot of simple picture books and board books - which she loves to pick up herself! - but when she was really little, I read to her a lot of longer children's books such as The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh, Beatrix Potter: Complete Tales, Little House in the Big Woods, and a few collections of fairy-tales.  It was so much fun to go back and read some of the classic books that I grew up with and I can't wait to keep introducing her to more this year! 

Isabelle's Graduation form the 1000 Books Before Kindergarten 

at the Waukesha Public Library

This summer also brought about a lot of changes - a new job, moving to Lomira, WI, and completing my internship at the Germantown library - but I was able to slowly get back into reading for fun again.  Luckily, Isabelle has been an extremely good sleeper at night so I am usually able to find in a little time to read every night after she goes to sleep!  I was able to keep up with the new books by some of my favorite authors like Kristin Hannah, Jodi Picoult, Alice Hoffman, Kate Morton, and Philppa Gregory and discovered some great new authors such as Jennifer McMahon and Liane Moriarty.

In September I was offered a wonderful opportunity and started working at the Germantown Community Library as an administrative assistant and adult service librarian.  I worked for the first few month working at the circulation, children's, and references desks and managing the large print collection and started full-time this December when I took over the administrative tasks and the adult fiction collection.  I now get to select, catalog, and process all of the large print and adult fiction books and love being able come across so many great books and authors.  I couldn't have asked for a more perfect job where I get to deal with and talk about books everyday and cannot wait to continue my work at the library - it also means that my 'to-read' list continues to grow bigger my the day!!!

In 2015 I was able to - somehow - read 70 books, including a lot of audio books on my now half-hour commute and chapter books and story collections that I read with Isabelle.  I have been doing pretty well keeping up with my goodreads lis and blog, but would love to put everything together on my facebook page which I recently started to keep track of library, book, and author updates.  Next year, I am hoping to continue to become introduced to new authors - especially ones that I popular with the library patrons that I have not read yet - and read all of the books on my physical bookshelf that I haven't read yet (somewhere between 8 and 10 at the moment).  I am hoping to get to reading the books I got for Christmas this year - specifically 'Outlander' which I started twice already - and finish a few longer books that I have started with Isabelle including 'Anne of Green Gables' and 'The Complete Brother's Grimm Fairy-Tales.'  

And, lastly, I would love to get back into being in a book club.  I really miss being able to discuss books in a little bit of a more formal setting and also being encouraged to read some titles that I normally wouldn't pick up on my own.  I am planning on going to the month book group at the Germantown library starting in January - we will see if I am able to fit that into my schedule between all of the craziness of working full-time and being a wife/mom!  Oh, and I would LOVE to be able to finish grad school by the end of this year, but time will tell if that is going to be able to happen as well!

Happy 2015 everyone!!!  And, last but not least, here is my top ten list of books I read this year.  Happy reading!

10. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

The novel is a combination of text and images that creates a truly unique and magical story.  The intriguing plot draws readings in from the very first page and the author reveals small details to allow for thrilling journey through Hugo’s adventures and the history of film. I brought this book with me while my husband and I were staying in the hospital a few days after our daughter was born and read it in one sitting. I thought all of the illustrations were extremely well done and did a wonderful job of complementing the text.

9. Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult

I listed to this as an audio book and really enjoyed it.  I felt that it took a different path than Picoult's usual style, but still kept many of the same characteristics of her as an author.  The book focused a lot on mother/daughter relationships that was incorporated with elephant behavior.  I found the parts about elephants really interested and gained a new perspective of animal behavior in general.   I'm still not sure how I felt about the ending.  I didn't see it coming at all and it was a little to unrealistic for me (at best), but I still loved the book.

8. The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon

Part history/thriller/horror/mystery - this novel has everything needed for wonderfully engrossing page-turner that I couldn't put down.  Luckily my husband was up north hunting all weekend and my daughter went to bed early so I was able to stay up way-to-late finishing it!  The writing was beautiful and brilliant and I loved the historical aspects.  

7. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

This was a book about books and love and loss. And people that fall into your life at the most unexpected times and change you in the most unexpected ways.  This was one of those books that I couldn't put down.  I read the first pages and fell in love with the story from the very beginning.  It was one of those books that seemed to have a little bit of everything in it - mystery, romance, literature.  And I loved the incorporation of short stories at the beginning of each chapter.

6. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

'All the Light We Cannot See' is a beautiful story of two children who grow up during the war.  Two children that grow up during unspeakable times having to make unspeakable decisions way beyond their years. The novel alternates between the two characters in very short chapters, making the almost 600-page novel go by much faster than expected.  The imagery was wonderful and was, essentially, what makes this book such a masterpiece.  Breathtakingly beautiful, but a little hard to follow throughout an entire novel.  Especially since the chapters were so short and the development of each character's story was woven to intricately with the other.

5. Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler

This was an incredible book and I'm so glad that I picked it up!  The book is essentially a love song to life - to friendships, to family, to love, to forgiveness, and to small-town rural Wisconsin.  Shotgun Lovesongs is a truly remarkable book and a tribute to American live and is filled with rich storytelling and finding hope against all odds.

4. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

This post-apocalyptic novel focuses on the character of Snowman, previously known as Jimmy, as he begins to cope with the idea that he may be the last human on earth.  I really enjoyed this book.  It was very engaging and had a perfect mix of technology and interaction between the characters.  I loved how the author used flashbacks to slowly reveal to readers how the events unfolded.  The second and third books of the trilogy didn't exactly live up to my expectations, but enjoyed them no-the-less.

3. The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty

I usually am not super into reading this type of book, but I was hooked from the very first page.  The writing was wonderful and witty and the plot left me wanting to turn the pages faster than I could read them.  The dialogue and dynamics of the novel is pure brilliant.  And I absolutely loved the interaction not only between the characters but the inner dialog that was the driving point of the story.  Was this book perfect?  Not at all.  The characters were more-often-than-not superficial and there were way too many coinsidances to make this story at all believable.  But, all that aside, I thought the novel was extremely well done and I couldn't put it down.  Very creative and thought-provoking and not at all what I was expecting.

2. The Lake House by Kate Morton

This one took me a little while to get into, - there was a lot of things going on in the beginning that took sometime to come together - but after a few chapters, I was hooked.  Kate Morton has the wonderful ability to connect story

1. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

I have always been a fan of Kristin Hannah, but she became one of my all-time favorite authors with her first historical novel, The Winter Garden, a few years ago.  I couldn't wait to read her new novel and it was so worth the wait!  It was beautifully written and is one of the best books that I have read in a long time.  The story is essentially was 'war-time' story of Nazi occupied France during World War II.    It is a story of family and love and war and sacrifice and takes readers on a indescribable journey from the very first page to the last.
 lines in both the past and the present with seamless effort.  Her fairy-tale like description of her settings are beautiful and captivating and this novel was not exception.  And the characterization is spot on - by the middle of her novels, I feel so absorbed in the characters and, as much as I can't stop reading the book, there is always a huge part of me that doesn't want it to end because I will inevitably have to leave the characters behind.

The Lake House by Kate Morton

★★★★★

"Life was like that, doors of possibility constantly opening and closing as one blindly made one's way through."

I have loved Kate Morton's books ever since reading 'The Forgotten Garden' a few years ago - with her most recent being 'The Secret Keeper' and could not wait to read this one!  I literally had a count down to the publication date, but life has a way of distracting me lately and I ended up waiting a month or two to read it.  Well worth the wait!

In usual Kate Morton fashion, The Lake House, is full of intrigue, family secrets, and unexpected connections - with some history and a little romance thrown in there as well.  The novel weaves back and forth between 16-year-old Alice Edevane in 1933, living at her family's estate, the 'Lake House' and a young women named Sadie seventy years later who, while on leave from her job as a detective, stumbles on the old house.  Left in ruins after the family's baby son, Theo, mysteriously disappeared on the night of the annual Midsummer party, the house is full of secrets waiting to be unraveled.  Coping with her own troubled past, Sadie begins to dig deeper into the Edevane's past and soon finds herself absorbed in finding out exactly what happened to Theo on the night of the party.

This one took me a little while to get into, - there was a lot of things going on in the beginning that took sometime to come together - but after a few chapters, I was hooked.  Kate Morton has the wonderful ability to connect story lines in both the past and the present with seamless effort.  Her fairy-tale like description of her settings are beautiful and captivating and this novel was not exception.  And the characterization is spot on - by the middle of her novels, I feel so absorbed in the characters and, as much as I can't stop reading the book, there is always a huge part of me that doesn't want it to end because I will inevitably have to leave the characters behind.

A wonderful book by an amazing author and storyteller!  I can't wait to see what else Kate Morton is up to next.

This book was #2 on my top ten list of 2015.

Our Favorite Christmas Board Books of 2015

This year, my daughter Isabelle and I - now ten months old - have been busy reading all sorts of Christmas books together.  I've always loved holiday picture books and it has been so much fun re-reading some of the classics and finding new authors to enjoy.  Isabelle loves to be on the move and doesn't have a very long attention span, so we have been reading a lot of board books.  Board books have been great for us - they are a lot sturdier then traditional picture books, usually have short phrases or words and lots of bring pictures, and they are the perfect size for her to hold and help turn the pages.

There are so many great books to choose from, but here are some of our favorite Christmas board books that we have read this year:

#5 Fa La La by Leslie Patricelli
A cute and simple book about baby's first Christmas.  The story follows baby as he gets ready for all the fun of Christmas including decorating the Christmas tree, making presents, and singing carols.  The book uses simple words and phrases and is full of holiday spirit.


#4 A Christmas Carol: A BabyLit Colors Primer by Jennifer Adams & Alison Oliver (illustrator)
I loved the BabyLit Primers series because it introduces classic literature in board book format - and also teaches basic concepts like colors, shapes, and numbers.  This one focuses on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol and is filled with bright colors.


#3 Christmas in the Manger by Nola Buck & Felicia Bond (illustrator)
This is the perfect book to introduce little ones to the story of Jesus's birth and the first Christmas.  The book uses simple rhymes to show how each of the animals - and a few important people as well! - were part of the first Christmas.



#2 Llama Llama Jingle Bells by Anna Dewdney
Ever since reading Llama Llama Red Pajama, we have loved reading the Llama books!  They have short and simple text that has a wonderful rhythm and the board book versions are perfect for little ones.  Plus there is always a subtle lesson to be learned!  We also read the Llama Christmas picture book Llama Llama Holiday Drama.

#1 Where is Baby's Christmas Present?: A Life-the-Flap Book by Karen Katz
There books are perfect for babies and toddlers and includes sturdy flaps on each page!  In this one, baby is looking for his Christmas present and finds all sorts of holiday surprises along the way.  Other holiday board books by Karen Katz include Baby Loves Snow and Counting Christmas.


Happy Holidays!!!

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah (audio)

★★★★★

" 'Oh for heaven's sake, Isabelle.  Paris is overrun.  The Nazis control the city.  What is an eighteen-year-old girl to do about all of that?' "

"If I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: in love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are."

"Men tell stories.  Women get on with it.  For us it was a shadow war.  There were no parades for us when it was over, no metals or mentions in history books.  We did what we had to during the war, and when it was over, we picked up the pieces and started our lives over."

I have always been a fan of Kristin Hannah, but she became one of my all-time favorite authors with her first historical novel, The Winter Garden, a few years ago.  I couldn't wait to read her new novel and it was so worth the wait!  It was beautifully written and is one of the best books that I have read in a long time.  The story is essentially was 'war-time' story of Nazi occupied France during World War II.    It is a story of family and love and war and sacrifice and takes readers on a indescribable journey from the very first page to the last.  I read a lot of historical novels set during the war, but Kristin Hannah as the wonderful ability to capture a new aspect - much like she did in The Winter Garden.  

I won't give away too much of the plot, but the center of the novel is on two sisters - Isabelle and Vienne - and they're determination to survive the war one day at a time.  As the novel progresses, each is faced with unthinkable decisions that they will live with long after the war is over.  One of my favorite parts of the novel (besides the breathtakingly beautiful writing) is how each of the sisters grow and develop throughout the book.   The relationships are intense and are made even-more-so by the constant horrors of wartime France.  A wonderful and unforgettable story!!  I loved every second of it and cannot wait to see what Kristin Hannah has planned next!

This was #1 on my top ten list of 2015.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

★★★★

"So how, children, does the the brain, which lives without a spark of light, build us for a world full of light."

There is not too much that I can say about this book that hasn't been said before.  An instant best seller, still #8 on the New York Times Best Seller List almost a year and a half after it was published, and the winner more awards that I can count - including the Pulitzer Prize and the Goodreads Choice Awards to name a few.  

This novel is essentially about childhood and war and growing up in a world torn by war.  Marie-Laure  lives with her father in Paris. When she was six years old, she became blind and her father teaches her to learn to navigate the streets by building her an exact replica of their neighborhood.  She is twelve years old when the Nazis occupy France and her and her father flee to the country to live with Marie-Laure's great-uncle for the remainder of the war.  Werner is an orphan growing up in a small mining town in Germany.  He grows up with his young sister listening to the radio and dreaming of bigger and greater things than spending the remainder of his life as a minor.  When the Nazis begin to recruit for the Hitler Youth, Werner sees this as his only opportunity out.  He quickly gains a reputation as being the only one who can fix new instruments critical in the advancement of the Nazis.  As he receives one special assignment after another, Werner slowly realizes that cost that his work has on human life.  Work that will also one day lead him to Marie-Laure.

'All the Light We Cannot See' is a beautiful story of two children who grow up during the war.  Two children that grow up during unspeakable times having to make unspeakable decisions way beyond their years. The novel alternates between Marie-Laure in very short chapters, making the almost 600-page novel go by much faster than expected.  The imagery was wonderful and was, essentially, what makes this book such a masterpiece.  It was also what made it hard for me to rate this book as amazing instead of simply wonderful.  The writing was almost too beautiful - I kept thinking that I was missing something.  It was almost like reading literate poetry.  Breathtakingly beautiful, but a little hard to follow throughout an entire novel.  Especially since the chapters were so short and the development of each character's story was woven to intricately with the other.

I did really enjoy this book, but I don't think I was able to appreciate it in it's entirety.  I tend to read way to fast and so I wasn't able to grasp as much of the detail as I would have liked.  I think this may be one of the few books that I will have to re-read someday!

This book was #6 on my top ten list of 2015.

Big Little Lies by Liana Moriarty (audio)

★★★★★

"Everyday I think, 'Gosh, you look a bit tired today,' and it's just recently occurred to me that it's not that I'm tired, it's that this is the way I look now."

"Reading a novel was like returning to a once-beloved holiday destination."

After finishing Moriarty's The Husband's Secret, I didn't think that this book could be any better.  But it was.  I don't know if I would say 'better' exactly - I still can't decide which book I liked 'better.'  They were different but equally wonderful.  I just think that I was more able to relate to this one because the characters were a bit younger and were going though times in their lives that were more similar to mine as oppose to the first book.

I loved this book - and the narrator was wonderful as well.  At the surface, this novel is about three women whose children are in the same kindergarten class.  There connection are further explored through out the novel, but that's basically it.  I normally don't read 'these types of books' - I usually find them a bit lacking of substance to say the least - but somehow the author was able to take a novel about 'kindergarten moms' and turn it into a complex and intreging story that I didn't want to put down. Ever.  

The author has amazing insight into the small-but-important daily details of wife and motherhood.  The thoughts and conversations that these women had were witty and thought-provoking and just down right hilarious at times.  I cannot remember reading a novel that had so much realistic truth to it.  The only one that comes close is 'Girls in White Dresses' that I read in my early 20s and captured perfectly that 'in-between' period where you should have your shit all figured out but don't.  

Was this 'chick-lit?'  I don't know, probably.  Should I have walked away wanting something with a little more 'substance' and a little less middle-aged 'mommy-drama."  Maybe.  But it was so much more than I was expecting and it didn't matter one bit once I started reading.  This book was honest in every sense of the word.

An outstanding and real and heartbreaking novel.  I can't wait to see what else Liana Moriarty has up her sleeve.

The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty (audio)

★★★★★

"None of us ever know all the possible courses our lives could have and maybe should have taken.  It's probably just as well.  Some secrets are meant to stay secrets forever.  Just ask Pandora."

This is the first novel that I have read by Liane Moriarty and I was pleasantly surprised.  I picked this up at the library as an audio book and had no real high hopes for it.  I had seen it on the best seller's list and some other lists in the past and didn't really have anything else that I wanted to listen to at the time. I was planning on it being some sort of 'chick-lit' average book that would - at the very least - pass the time on my way to and from work for a week or so.  Wow, was a wrong.

This novel is told from the point-of-view of three very different women whose lives begin to slowly come together.  At the center of it all is the secret of one women's husband and the ultimate question of how well you can ever really know someone - specifically your spouse.  Like the book, I wasn't expecting to like the characters as much as I did.  They were all significantly flawed and made a lot of bad choices, but each one began to grow on me.

I usually am not super into reading this type of book, but I was hooked from the very first page.  Even though the 'husband's secret' is the center of the book, figuring out the secret is not.  The secret is actually revealed fairly early on in the book.  I wasn't super surprised by it.  Which was fine because the real focus of the novel was not the secret itself, but how it unfolds and the people that it effects along the way.  The writing was wonderful and witty and the plot left me wanting to turn the pages faster than I could read them.  The dialogue and dynamics of the novel is pure brilliant.  And I absolutely loved the interaction not only between the characters but the inner dialog that was the driving point of the story.

Was this book perfect?  Not at all.  The characters were more-often-than-not superficial and there were way too many coinsidances to make this story at all believable.  But, all that aside, I thought the novel was extremely well done and I couldn't put it down.  So that gives it a 5 stars in my book.  Plus there was the epilogue.  Wow - just wow.  Very creative and thought-provoking and not at all what I was expecting.

Liane Moriarty is now one of the best new(ish) authors that I have read in awhile and I can't wait to see what else she has in store!

This book was #3 on my top ten list of 2015.

House Rules by Jodi Picoult (audio)

★★★

"It's never the difference in people the surprise us.  It's the things that, against all odds, we have in common."

About every year or two I usually find myself going through a 'Jodi Picoult' phase - usually when I find myself in need of a audio book because the new ones that I want to listen to are still on hold at the library.  Including this one, I have read 11 out of her 21 novels (I think...), not including her two YA books or collections of short stories.  I generally enjoy them and they make great audio books for listening to in the car - engaging stories with relatively simple concepts and storylines even though they usually carry a lot of emotion, unthinkable choices, etc.  I like hearing the story from the view point of multiple characters and find it interesting to read about 'hot topics' that make readers think about things that aren't all that fun to think about.  

Her latest book, Leaving Time, was quite different than usual.  Very good, but very different.  That was what originally got me back to reading Picoult again in the first place.

Anyways...

This book focus on a young man named Jacob who has Asperger's syndrome and the effects that it has on him and his family - specifically his mother and younger brother, Theo.  Jacob is currently on a detective/crime fix and we soon find him caught up in his own crime scene where he is the suspect in the murder of his social skills tutor.  The middle of the novel gets into a lot of typical behaviors of Asperger's effects Jacob in court.  In usual Picoult fashion, reader's aren't sure if Jacob is actually guilty or not as the trial is takes place and there is the usual unsuspected twist at the end - even though I can't for the life of me remember exactly how the ending went.  I guess I need to stop reviewing books nearly a month after reading them!!

All in all, this was an enjoyable book - interesting storyline and premise - but nothing amazing.

I also have a problem with the cover.  Beautiful design, but is it just me, or does the kid in the photo look to be about 8 or 10 instead of 18??

The Taming of the Queen by Philippa Gregory

★★★★

" 'He's coming for you,' is all she says. 'This is how he always does it.  He's coming for you, Kat, and I don't know how to save you.  I'm packing Bibles and I'm burning papers, but they know you have been reading and writing, and they are changing the law ahead of me.  I can't make sure you obey the law because they are changing it faster than we can obey.' "

I first fell in love with Philippa Greogry after reading The Other Boleyn Girl' about four years ago and have since read pretty much everything she has written...except her earlier and more contemporary novels.  I haven't read any of those yet and don't know that I will.  I just finished reading 'The King's Curse' - which was marketed as the sixth of her Cousins' War novels, but which also serves as somewhat of a prequel to her Tutor Court novels as well.  It was a really interesting transition and I'm glad that I waited awhile to read this so that I could start it right after finishing 'The King's Curse.'

This novel - technically the fourth in the Tutor's Court series - follows Henry VIII's sixth and final wife, Kateryn Parr from right before her marriage to the King up until his death in almost four years later 1547.  Even though I have read a lot about Tutor history, I did not know much about Kateryn Parr before reading this book.  I under the impression that she was not in danger from the King and I was surprised how close to death she became.  One has to wonder, if Henry VIII had lived longer, if he would have changed his mind - yet again - and set her aside to marry a new queen...or even ordered her to be put to death.  

A central theme in this novel was the reformation of the English church.  I don't know much about this topic, so I'm not exactly sure if everything was accurate or not, but I was really interested to read more about the history of the Church of England.  I had previously thought that the change in believes were focused on Henry VIII being able to divorce his second wife, Anne Boleyn in order to remarry.  Although this was a factor, the novel went into much greater detail of the many changes that the reformers wanted to see in England to convert back to a more truer religion that better represented God's teachings.  It was fascinating to read about a women who was so instrumental in the events that took place and had thoughts and ideas of her own that were among some of the first to be published by a women.  

I greatly enjoyed this book, but I've come to a conclusion that Philippa Gregory's books aren't at great as I once thought they were.  I'm not sure if her writing has changed or if it is mearly that I have grown as a reader.  Sometimes I feel like a lot of her characters blend together and aspects or dialogue is repeated - but I suppose that's what happens when writing one novel after another set in similar historical periods and place.  I usually find myself taking awhile to get into one of her new novels, but once I do I finish it in a few days.  I still love reading her books and was really interested in new characters amongst those mentioned in her previous novels.  She has a knack for taking lesser-known women in history and crafting engaging characters and story lines set in the historical backdrop of some of the most interesting time periods of history.

I am looking forward to seeing what she comes up with next...

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult (audio)

★★★★

"You don't need water to feel like your drowning, do you?"

I've read a lot of Jodi Picoult books in the past - 10 according to my Goodreads account - but I somehow missed this one along the way.  I'm not sure how I overlooked it.  Other than 'My Sister's Keeper' it is probably one of Picoult's most well-know books so far.  I kept thinking that I had read it before, but I guess not.  Overall, it was a good book, but it wasn't one of my favorite of the author's novels.

The story centers around a teenage girl named Josie and a school shooting that happened at her high school where her use-to-be best friend Peter killed 10 students and injured 19 others - all in the time span of 19 minutes.  The novel goes back and forth between when Peter and Josie were young children and the present where everyone in the town is trying to deal with the aftermath of the shooting: Josie who has lost her boyfriend, Josie's mom Alex who is involved in the case, Peter's parents, parents of the killed and injured students, the student's themselves, and of course Peter.  

The argument that Peter made behind the massive murder of innocent teenager was that he had been bullied from literally day one of attending kindergarten.  As the story progresses, it is evident that Peter had been badly bullied and much of the bullying came from Josie and her popular group of friends.  Peter was always seen as 'different' and never really fit in.  As the trial begins to play out, the author leaves the reader to question if Peter's actions were justified.  Of course, killing innocent people is never ok, but we begin to understand how awful Peter was treated all throughout school.

This novel brings up a lot of questions.  Why do troubled teenagers (or adult) involved in mass murders do what they do?  Is it because of their parents?  Or how they were treated at school?  Or something entirely different?  And, most importantly, how - as parents, educator's, etc. can we prevent this from happening - both centering around Peter's violent actions and on those of the students that bullied him to the point of causing him to take innocent lives?  Lots of things to think about...

I remember high school - as I'm sure we all do.  It wasn't always fun and teenagers can be downright awful towards other students.  It's been almost ten years, but Jodi Picoult's vivid writing of how high school brought back a lot of thoughts and feelings from my own high school days.  I wasn't bullied a lot per say, but I had a lot of friends who were 'different' and it wasn't always walking through the hallways or, in my case, getting picked last for gym class (do they still do that anymore??)  Luckily, I didnt' really care.  I had my own interests and friends and I couldn't really have cared less what the popular crowd thought.  It left me wondering how a certain instance of bullying can barely effect one person, but cause extreme issues in another.  Throughout the story, I wanted so badly to tell Peter that it gets better.  That his whole world isn't always going to be walking through the dreaded high school hallways.  I'm still not quite sure how to portray that to young students these days.  You can say 'it gets better' all you want, but when you're living in the moment, just an entire day can feel like a life time.  Peter thought like this and didn't see any other way out.  

This book was an important one on many levels and I'm glad I read it, but I would have liked to see a slightly different ending.  I'm not sure what exactly, but there seemed to be so much build up and the conclusion seemed to fall a little flat for me.  After reading the book, I am still left with a lot of questions as to why certain characters did what they did.  Not to give too much away, but I cannot understand Josie's thoughts and actions throughout a majority of the last half of the book.  It just didn't add up for me.  I guess I was expecting something a little different, but still a book worth reading nonetheless.

We Never Asked for Wings by Vanessa Diffenbaugh (audio)

★★★★

This is the second novel I have read by Vanessa Diffenbaugh that I have read - the first one being 'The Language of Flowers' back in 2013.  I equally enjoyed this book as well.  I really like the author's use of language and ability to craft an intriguing and realistic novel.  

This book focuses on many deep issues that people today regularly face, particularly love, motherhood, and growing up and raising your children in a world that isn't always what it should be.  My favorite part of this book, besides the beautiful language, was the development that all of the main characters went through during the novel.  The choices that they made and the challenges that they faced were able to impact them in a positive and encouraging way. 

The King's Curse by Philippa Gregory

★★★★

"Life is a risk.  Who knows this better than me.  Who knows more surely that babies die easily, that children fall ill from the least cause, that royal blood is fatally weak, that death walks behind my family like a faithful blood hound."

Cousins' War #1 - The Lady of the Rivers

Cousins' War #2 - The White Queen

Cousins' War #3 - The Red Queen

Cousins' War #4 - The Kingmaker's Daughter

Cousins' War #5 - The White Princess

I have been a huge fan of Philippa Gregory ever since I read 'The Other Boleyn Girl' back in 2008.  I read all of the Tutor novels, the Wideacre Trilogy and some of her other stand along books, and then dove into the Cousins' War series a few years later.  I somehow missed that she had two recent books out and finally had the time to go back and read this one before reading 'The Taming of the Queen.'

This is the sixth book in the Cousins' War series and tells the story of Margaret Pole - daughter of George, Duke of Clarence (brother to King Edward IV and King Richard III) and Isabel Neville.  She was also the cousin of Elizabeth of York (King Henry VIII's mother) and lady in waiting to Katherine of Aragon.  She pretty much sat on the sideline of every major event of the time period and was constantly on guard for her family's safety after both her father and young brother were put to death for treason to the crown.  

I didn't always like Margaret, but this was a really interesting book to read.  She did whatever she could to remain in favor with whoever was king at the time (often at her own family's expense), but I suppose this is a direct result of constantly being in fear of being suspected of going against the King, particularly Henry VIII.  After having read all of Gregory's previous novels, it gave a whole different perspective on several of the characters she wrote about.  It took me awhile to get into the book, but by the time I got to the middle, I finished the rest in a few days.  It was a little annoyed at some aspects of writing - especially the focusing on key historical characters before they played a significant part in history and explaining every one's relationships in the dialog, but I was usually able to see past this and cough it up to Gregory using this to allow the reader to follow the complex history spanning several decades. 

One of my favorite aspects of this novel, was the unique connections to both the Cousins' War novels and the Tudor Court series.  The book was able to draw so many different connections between all of the main figures in Tudor history as well as many lesser known individuals - especially women - who played a major role in England's intriguing history.  It could just just as easily been written as a prequel to 'The Constant Princess' and made me want to reread all of the novels again - maybe someday!  

And now onto 'The Taming of the Queen'...

The Spymistress by Jennifer Chiaverini (audio)

★★

"Hope is never false.  One's hope may not be fulfilled, but that doesn't mean it was wrong to hope."

Set in the confederate civil war, this novel tells the story of Elizabeth Van Lew - known in the story of Lizzie.  Educated by Quakers in the north, Lizzie and her family are local to the union.  When the civil war breaks out they secretly work to aid the north by tending to prisoners.  At a great cost to their reputation, they eventually becoming involved in the Richmond Underground and in transferring information to the northern army.

I have been meaning to read something of Jennifer Chiaverini's for awhile.  It seemed interesting and I was excited to read this book, but it didn't live up to my expectations.  I enjoyed some parts, but it took me awhile to read and generally annoyed me.  Lizzie seemed super naive and whinny.  I must have missed her earlier connections to the north as a child, but it just didn't seem to add up that her and her family were so pro-union amongst so many southerners.  I have a feeling that this was true to historical fact, but the author was not able to convince me.  There also didn't seem to be much of a plot line.  I was bored by the climax (if you can even call it that) and I found myself not really caring what happened to the characters by the end of the book.

Chiaverini's books get checked out all the time at the library and a lot of people really seem to enjoy them so I'm not going to give up on her quite yet.  Maybe it was just the wrong book. Or the narrator.  I'd like to read Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker at some point or maybe one of her Elm Creek Quilt novels.

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard (audio)

★★★★

"The truth is what I make it.  I could set this world on fire and call it rain."

I was almost ready to give up on this one in the beginning.  I felt like this story had been done so many times already - the dystopian world, the unprivilaged youth, being chosen for something greater that doesn't have the 'fairy-tale' ending that it was suppose to, the love triangles.  After having just read The Selection, I didn't know it I would read the same story again.  But, I kept reading and it started to grow on me.  The characters seemed a lot more dynamic and I started to really enjoy the world that Aveyard had created.  It was... different somehow.  It wasn't perfect, but it definitely kept my interest and left me wanting to read more.  A lot of the plot twists also really surprised me - which is always a plus!

Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult (audio)

★★★★

"I think grief is like a really ugly couch.  It never goes away.  You can decorate around it; you can slap a doily on top of it; you can push it to the corner of the room - but eventually, you learn to live with it."

I listed to this as an audio book and really enjoyed it.  I felt that it took a different path than Picoult's usual style, but still kept many of the same characteristics of her as an author.  The book focused a lot on mother/daughter relationships that was incorporated with elephant behavior.  I found the parts about elephants really interested and gained a new perspective of animal behavior in general.  

I also really liked how Picoult developed the characters throughout the book.  Without giving too much away, I wasn't too sure about the main character of Alice but I grew to really like her as the story progressed.  I love how the details of the story unraveled slowly enough for readers to process both the characters and events.  I was set to give the book 4 1/2 stars - or maybe even 5 at some points - but the ending took me by surprise.  I'm still not sure how I felt about the it.  I didn't see it coming at all and it was a little to unrealistic for me (at best), but I still loved the book.  It was beautifully written and I couldn't put it down!

This book was #9 on my top ten list of 2015.

At the Water's Edge by Sara Gruen (audio)

★★

"The monster - if there was one - never revealed itself to me again.  But what I have learned over the past year was that monsters abound, usually in plain sight."

After reading (and loving) Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants several years ago I was really excited to read this!  Sadly, I was rather disappointed.  

The author is a great storyteller - I love her creativity and description of language.  But, in the case, the story was not at all appealing for me.  It felt like she was pulling from too many different angles.  There were marriage problems...and an identity crisis...and the was...and then throw in the lochness monster into the mix and it was all a little too much for me.  And then there were the characters. Ugh. I find hardly anyone in the story even remotely interesting or find myself caring about what happened to them.  

There were some ok parts that I enjoyed, but overall I was expecting a lot more from the book.  I finished the book a little over a week ago and I honestly can't remember what happened at the end.

The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon

★★★★ 1/2

"Madness is a wonderful excuse, don't you think?"

When Ruthie's most mysteriously disappears, she and her sister must find a way to get her back.  In doing so, they discover the hidden diary of Sara Harrison Shea from over a century ago - and they suddenly find themselves in a modern-day ghost story of their own.

Part history/thriller/horror/mystery - this novel has everything needed for wonderfully engrossing page-turner that I couldn't put down.  Luckily my husband was up north hunting all weekend and my daughter went to bed early so I was able to stay up way-to-late finishing it!  The writing was beautiful and brilliant and I loved the historical aspects.  And it completely freaked me out more than a couple of times.  There goes my dream of wanting to live in the middle of the woods. Eh.

This book was #8 on my top ten list of 2015.

The Selection by Kiera Cass (audio)

★★ 1/2

"True love is usually the most inconvenient kind."

This one has taken me awhile to read - and I'm glad that I ended up deciding to listen to it because I'm not sure that I would have finished it otherwise.  I'm not going to get into what this book was about, but it was pretty much equvilent of watching The Bachelore while reading The Hunger Games books - rich, but super hot guy has televised contest for finding the love of his life.  Except their in this dystopian world.  Or something like that.  

The story was sort of cute (ish) and kept my attention (most of the time).  I enjoyed reading it and am mildly interested in what happens next.  But probably not interested enough to actually read the rest of the series.  

It wasn't an awful book.  It just wasn't super amazing or anything.  Every time I would think I knew what was going to happen, I was completely wrong.  Not sure if that was a good thing or not.  And the world building was very much lacking.  Their decades (or more?) into the future, but hardly anyone has a cell phone?  Highly unlikely.  I felt like the technology just stopped developing in the 1990s. Um, no. And the prince was just sort of dumb.  He was so oblivious.  Which I guess was probably the point, but it still annoyed me.

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

★★★★

"What an unequaled gift for disaster you have."

This enchanting tale tells the story of Agnieska -  a young girl taken from her quiet village to serve the Dragon for ten years time.  No one knows what happens to the girls he takes, but they come back changed.  Agnieska was never suppose to taken and finds her self in a world of magic and mystery as she attempts to figure out what the Dragon wants from her.  And the she has to save her family - and the entire village - from the evil Wood that is slowly destroying them.

The book draw me in from first couple pages - the first couple of sentences actually.  I loved the writing style and the perfect mix of fairy-tale and humor.  My favorite thing about the book was the relationship between Agnieska and the Dragon as they learn to work together and (surprise!) fall in love.  It was essentially an more adult and developed version of Beauty and the Beast.  Both of the characters were so charming and together they created this unexpected, but wonderful chemistry.  The book was also extremely funny.

I would have loved for the book to continue to focus mainly on Agnieska and the Dragon's relationship.  The author did an amazing job, but I felt like there was so much more to explore.  I also would have enjoyed learning about the other girls that the Dragon took.  But, alas Agnieska had to develop her magical powers and go save the world from the evil trees and corrupted royal family (or something like that...).  That's where the book sort of lost me and I lost interest for awhile in the middle.  But, overall I thought it was a wonderfully written story and I'm always a sucker for fairytales.  I also thought the ending was pretty much as close to perfect as you can get!  

Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan (audio)

★★★★

"Writers should find out where joys and give it a voice."

In a similar style to Loving Frank, Nancy Horan tells the story of Fanny van Grift Osbourne. The year is 1875 and Fanny sees studying art in Paris as the only way out of her less-than-ideal marriage.  Travels with her three children and their Nanny, but being on her own is more complicated than Fanny expected.  She is denied admission to art school because she is a women and is constantly looked down upon.  Soon Fanny meets the inspiring writer Robert Louise Stevenson and she eventually finds love and a whole new set of challenges.

I felt that the book was a bit slow and drawn out at times, but I overall enjoyed it.  I loved the description and learning about the life of Robert Louise Stevenson.  The book gave a lot of interesting insight of what it was like to be an author and a women during the time period.  The whole "independent women" theme got a bit redundant at times (very much like the author's first book), but it brought out a lot of unique aspects on the limited choices that women had.

I tried reading Treasure Island to Isabelle, but it was way too wordy and long for her at the time.  We made it through the first few chapters though and it was a interesting companion to the novel.  I would like to read The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at some point as well.

MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood

★★★★

"There's the story and then there's the real story and then there's the story of how the story came to be told.  Then there's what you leave out of the story.  Which is part of the story too."

The third (and final?) books in the MaddAddam Trilogy left off right where the first and second parallel stories ended.  The first book was told by 'Snowman-the-Jimmy' and the second alternated between the two female characters of Ren and Toby.  The third novel is mostly told from the perspective of Amanda and her stepfather Zeb.  The previous characters are mentioned as well, but the read doesn't really get an inside view into what they're thinking or feeling about what is going on.  There is a lot a back story that explains how the 'Waterless Flood' happened and Crake's history.

For me, this book feel somewhere in the middle of the other two.  I wasn't as impressed by it as the first, but I felt it was a much better story than the second.  I enjoyed reading about how the lives of the characters continued and how everyone interacted once the were reunited.  They basically built their own post-apocalyptic colony and had to face all of the challenges of living in a world where basically everyone has been destroyed.  They also had to figure out how to co-exist with the Crakers, a more gentler species of humans left to inhabit the earth.  The situations that the characters are faced with are very real and I was very captivated by the continual world-building that Atwood created in the first novel.  I felt like most of the questions were answered but, I still am left wondering how all of these different people survived - were they all given an antidote or did I miss something?

So overall - not as good as the first, but well worth the read and I'm glad I finished the series.