The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht

The time: the present. The place: a Balkan country ravaged by years of conflict. Natalia, a young doctor, is on a mission of mercy to an orphanage when she receives word of her beloved grandfather’s death far from their home under circumstances shrouded in confusion.



Remembering childhood stories her grandfather once told her, Natalia becomes convinced that he spent his last days searching for "the deathless man," a vagabond who claimed to be immortal. As Natalia struggles to understand why her grandfather, a deeply rational man, would go on such a far fetched journey, she stumbles across a clue that leads her to the extraordinary story of the tiger’s wife.



I'm pretty sure this entire book went over my head. It is beautifully written, but I felt through the whole thing, especially at the end, that I was missing something the author was trying to convey. It was interesting, but the whole thing about the tiger's wife was completely beyond me. I mean, I understood it, but I think there was a deeper meaning that I didn't pick up on.



2 stars

Iron House by John Hart

An old man is dying.



When the old man is dead they will come for him.



And they will come for her, to make him hurt.



HE WOULD GO TO HELL

At the Iron Mountain Home for Boys, there was nothing but time. Time to burn and time to kill, time for two young orphans to learn that life isn’t won without a fight. Julian survives only because his older brother, Michael, is fearless and fiercely protective. When tensions boil over and a boy is brutally killed, there is only one sacrifice left for Michael to make: He flees the orphanage and takes the blame with him.



TO KEEP HER SAFE

For two decades, Michael has been an enforcer in New York’s world of organized crime, a prince of the streets so widely feared he rarely has to kill anymore. But the life he’s fought to build unravels when he meets Elena, a beautiful innocent who teaches him the meaning and power of love. He wants a fresh start with her, the chance to start a family like the one he and Julian never had. But someone else is holding the strings. And escape is not that easy. . . .



GO TO HELL, AND COME BACK BURNING

The mob boss who gave Michael his blessing to begin anew is dying, and his son is intent on making Michael pay for his betrayal. Determined to protect the ones he loves, Michael spirits Elena—who knows nothing of his past crimes, or the peril he’s laid at her door— back to North Carolina, to the place he was born and the brother he lost so long ago. There, he will encounter a whole new level of danger, a thicket of deceit and violence that leads inexorably to the one place he’s been running from his whole life: Iron House.



Awesome, awesome book! Family secrets, hit men, the mob, enforcers, this has it all. There is only one thing keeping me from giving this book 5 stars: Elena. She annoyed the hell out of me. Possible minor spoiler coming up......................................how could she even think to ask Michael to chose between his brother and her? I know she was pregnant but come on! And she was such a whiner! She found out who Michael really was, decided to go with him, and then had a fit every time he did something illegal. Make up your mind. I wish she would have left early on in the book to go to Spain because her little tantrums and drama made me freaking insane. Otherwise, this book is Hart's best by far in my opinion. It rocked!



4 stars

Reign of Madness by Lynn Cullen

Juana of Castile, third child of the Spanish monarchs Isabel and Fernando, grows up with no hope of inheriting her parents' crowns, but as a princess knows her duty: to further her family's ambitions through marriage. Yet stories of courtly love, and of her parents' own legendary romance, surround her. When she weds the Duke of Burgundy, a young man so beautiful that he is known as Philippe the Handsome, she dares to hope that she might have both love and crowns. He is caring, charming, and attracted to her-seemingly a perfect husband. But what begins like a fairy tale ends quite differently. When Queen Isabel dies, the crowns of Spain unexpectedly pass down to Juana, leaving her husband and her father hungering for the throne. Rumors fly that the young Queen has gone mad, driven insane by possessiveness. Who is to be believed? The King, beloved by his subjects? Or the Queen, unseen and unknown by her people?



First of all, I did not write that summary, I was afraid if I did I would give something away. Reading books like this always make me realize that if I had been born in this time period I would have most likely been beheaded very soon because I would not have been able to hold my tongue. I felt so sorry for Juana, and oh how I hated Phillipe. As soon as his name turned up on a page, I could feel my blood pressure rise a little. Another great historical fiction read by someone who is becoming one of my favorite historical fiction authors. Can't wait to read more by this author.



4 stars

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town of Crosby, Maine, and in the world at large, but she doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around her: a lounge musician haunted by a past romance; a former student who has lost the will to live; Olive’s own adult child, who feels tyrannized by her irrational sensitivities; and her husband, Henry, who finds his loyalty to his marriage both a blessing and a curse. As the townspeople grapple with their problems, mild and dire, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life–sometimes painfully, but always with ruthless honesty.



I am not too sure how I feel about this book. Some of the stories made absolutely no sense to me or had no resolution or little details and I kept waiting for the characters to pop up again but they never did. I liked Olive a lot; she reminded me of myself. It also made me take a step back and look at the way I treat my parents now that I am older. That is the part that resonated with me the most. The way we behave and act toward our parents may seem like no big deal to us and we see nothing wrong with it, but it affects them deeply, and hurts them. I kind of felt like crap when I finished reading it, but it was interesting enough to hold my attention on vacation which is a feat.



3 stars

Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan

The story of 3 generations of the Kelleher family and the drama that unfolds at the family beach house in Maine one summer. There is Alice, the matriarch, who is still suffering over the death of her husband 10 years earlier and for which she blames her daughter, and the tragic death of her sister at the Coconut Grove when she was young for which she blames herself. Then there is Kathleen, Alice's oldest daughter, the one Alice blames for her husbands death. Kathleen is a recovering alcoholic who lives with her boyfriend on a worm farm in California. She always swore she would never return to that beach in Maine, but circumstances beyond her control make her go back on the proclamation much to her dismay. Finally there is Maggie, Kathleen's daughter, who's in her 30's, just broke up with her loser boyfriend, and found out she is pregnant with his child. On the sidelines is Ann Marie, wife to Kathleen's brother, who just won a dollhouse competition (she's in her 50's) and thinks it is her sole purpose to care for Alice, much to Alice's chagrin. These women converge at the house in Maine one summer to confront their demons, come to terms with each of their deep secrets, and try not to kill each other.

I had a really hard time giving this book a rating. I wasn't rushing home to read it, but once I picked up reading it I didn't want to put it down. Every character in this entire book is self absorbed and insufferable. Alice is a tyrant, and knowing the truth of what happened that night at the Grove didn't make me change my opinion of her. It was sad and tragic, but her actions through the whole book could not make me pity her. Kathleen, who is 59, needs to grow up and get over herself, however out of all of them she is the one I liked the most and that isn't saying much. Ann Marie is just incredibly bizarre and reminded me of a Stepford wife with a savior complex. Then there is Maggie. I think she may have been the absolute worst character in my opinion. The things she did to spy on her boyfriend, the whining, her complete dependence on a guy who doesn't care for her and is obviously an asshole and the way she pines away for him made me sick.

However, there were parts that had me cracking up out loud. If you have read it or plan to read it, remember the Canadians. Just thinking about that part makes me smirk even now that I've finished it. The story of Alice's sisters death was one of the most tragic things I've read and made me pity her, until the next time she opened her mouth that is. No one really ends up with any redeeming qualities. I wish Alive would have told her family the story if her sisters death; I think that would have made for good reading. I'm really on the fence with this one and the more I think about the less I'm decided.

3 stars


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The Last Letter from Your Lover by Jojo Moyes

When journalist Ellie looks through her newspaper's archives for a story, she doesn't think she'll find anything of interest. Instead she discovers a letter from 1960, written by a man asking his lover to leave her husband - and Ellie is caught up in the intrigue of a past love affair. Despite, or perhaps because of her own romantic entanglements with a married man.
In 1960, Jennifer wakes up in hospital after a car accident. She can't remember anything - her husband, her friends, who she used to be. And then, when she returns home, she uncovers a hidden letter, and begins to remember the lover she was willing to risk everything for.
Ellie and Jennifer's stories of passion, adultery and loss are wound together in this richly emotive novel - interspersed with real 'last letters'.

I am not one for love stories, romance or any other kind of mushy topic, in books, T.V. or movies. I find them corny and pathetic. I bought this because I thought it had a really cool title and sounded pretty interesting. I was amazed by how much I loved this book. It almost made me cry, and that is a feat in itself. I was up late many a night reading it trying to find out what was going to happen to Jennifer and her ill fated love affair with Anthony. If I could ever have a love of my life, I would want it to be like theirs. The only reason it didn't get 5 stars is because in the beginning, you stay in the 1960's, but it flashes back and forth from before Jennifer's accident and after, and it took me about 75 pages to realize that is what was happening. Be prepared to be swept away in their beautiful and heartbreaking story.

4 stars (I wish it was 5!)

Good Neighbors by Ryan David Jahn

This is a fictional account of the Kitty Genovese case from the 1960's. After coming home from work she was attacked outside her apartment and stabbed. She managed to get away and run to the courtyard where she was attacked again. There were 38 people in the complex that watched it happen and not one of them called 911 or tried to help. After her attacker fled the second time, she managed to drag herself back to her apartment only for him to come back for the final time. This book tells individual stories of the little dramas unfolding in all of the apartments.

I read this true story a few years ago and was appalled by it and I didn't feel any different after reading this book. It gives me chills. Great story, wonderful writing, you won't want to put it down. Just don't hope for a happy ending because there isn't one sadly.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone