Beautiful Ruins | Book Review

STATS:
Author, Jess Walter
Paperback, 337 pages
Published, April 2, 2013
Publisher, Harper Perennial

Description from Goodreads:
From the moment it opens—on a rocky patch of Italian coastline, circa 1962, when a daydreaming young innkeeper looks out over the water and spies a mysterious woman approaching him on a boat—Jess Walter's Beautiful Ruins is a dazzling, yet deeply human, roller coaster of a novel. From the lavish set of Cleopatra to the shabby revelry of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, to the back lots of contemporary Hollywood, Beautiful Ruins is gloriously inventive and constantly surprising—a story of flawed yet fascinating people navigating the rocky shores of their lives while clinging to their improbable dreams.

Description from Amazon:
The acclaimed, award-winning author of the national bestseller The Financial Lives of the Poets returns with his funniest, most romantic, and most purely enjoyable novel yet. Hailed by critics and loved by readers of literary and historical fiction, Beautiful Ruins is the story of an almost-love affair that begins on the Italian coast in 1962...and is rekindled in Hollywood fifty years later.


My Thoughts: I added the descriptions from two different places because I am not sure that either of them really give you an idea of what takes place in this book.  There are so many things happening and so many characters that it is hard to narrow it down. It all starts in the 1960's in Italy in a small, remote village hotel.  It takes you back and forth between the 60's and present day.  It also gives you a few chapters of seeing what happens to the main characters during the 70's, 80's, and 90's to explain where they ended up. I am a huge lover of Historical Fiction and I love the fact that it had history and present day in order to get some closure for the events that happened in the 60's.  I did feel that the complete back stories of the smaller characters in present day was a little irrelevant.  They weren't the characters that I was dying to find out about. Overall, I really liked the book.  I didn't love it.  I did love the characters of Dee and Pasquale though and I really enjoyed the ending to their story.

The In-Between Hour | Barbara Claypole White

Stats:
Paperback, 384 pages
Published, December 31, 2013
Publisher, Harlequin MIRA

Description from Goodreads:
What could be worse than losing your child? Having to pretend he's still alive...

Bestselling author Will Shepard is caught in the twilight of grief, after his young son dies in a car accident. But when his father's aging mind erases the memory, Will rewrites the truth. The story he spins brings unexpected relief…until he's forced to return to rural North Carolina, trapping himself in a lie.

Holistic veterinarian Hannah Linden is a healer who opens her heart to strays but can only watch, powerless, as her grown son struggles with inner demons. When she rents her guest cottage to Will and his dad, she finds solace in trying to mend their broken world, even while her own shatters.
As their lives connect and collide, Will and Hannah become each other's only hope—if they can find their way into a new story, one that begins with love.

My Thoughts:
First, I need to thank TLC Book Tours and Barbara Claypole White for providing me with a free copy of this book to review. And I love the fact that Barbara took the time to autograph the copy before sending it out.
When I started the book, I was hooked.  It is beautifully written and characters and places truly come alive with her writing. 
The had a few themes that I think are really important.  One of those is mental illness.  Will's father is suffering with Alzheimer's.  He remembers the past, but not that his grandson has died in a car accident.  From the descriptions, Will's mother also most likely suffered from being Bipolar.  Hannah's father and grandfather had a history of depression and now her adult son is also dealing with depression and has recently attempted suicide.  It also shows us that what happens in childhood can affect us as adults.
Will has to return to his childhood town to take care of his father due to the fact that his father has been thrown out of the nursing home.  He and his father rent a cabin from Hannah and their lives begin to intertwine.
Will has to face the fact that his son is dead and not only grieve him but also his father that is being lost to disease.  Hannah has to try to help her son after moving him home.  And Will and Hannah soon find comfort in each other.
It really was a wonderful book and I cannot recommend it enough. I look forward to reading more from Barbara Claypole White.

Other stops on this tour:
Find them here.

Barbara Claypole White
Connect with Barbara on her website www.barbaraclaypolewhite, Facebook, or Twitter @bclaypolewhite.

My Favorite Books of 2013

I really enjoyed reading in 2013. I found new authors to love and also new genres that I enjoyed. I signed up with NetGalley and was able to read books that I would have otherwise passed over or never known about. So - I decided to do my favorites of the year.

* A Favorite New Author - Sarah Jio. I read all her books this year. I would be completely happy if she wrote a novel a month. I love her writing that much. The Bungalow, The Violets of March, Blackberry Winter, The Last Camellia, and Morning Glory. They were all wonderful.

* A Surprise Like - Sharp Objects by Jillian Flynn. This is not a genre that I read often. I never pick up horror-thriller-suspense on purpose. I read great reviews on this book and saw it at Target and brought it home. Completely disturbing, but awesome.

* Best Historical Romance - (not to include Sarah Jio novels) The Lavender Garden by Lucinda Riley. I had read not so wonderful reviews on her The Orchid House, so I was a little hesitant to read this one. But I was able to get it from NetGalley and I was pleasantly surprised. I loved it! It just goes to show that reviews are not all they are cracked up to be at times. Just because someone else doesn't love it, doesn't mean that I won't.

* Favorite Christian Fiction - Forever, Friday by Timothy Lewis. This was the sweetest book. Who wouldn't like a husband that sends them a love postcard every Friday for 60 years?

* Favorite Holiday Read - Mistletoe and Magic by Katie Rose. This was a lovely little Christmas story with a touch of ESP.

And what do I look forward to in the reading world for 2014?

* The next Sarah Jio novel - Goodnight June
* Getting back to reading Diane Chamberlain. She has never disappointed me. In fact, The Secret Life Of CeeCee Wilkes is still a top favorite of mine.

* Reading more Sarah Addison Allen. After reading and loving The Peach Keeper, it is a real nobrainer that I would give her another try.

* Reading the last published Kate Morton novel. I loved all three of her novels when I read them and I can't believe that I have put off The Secret Keeper this long.

* I am also excited about working with TLC Book Tours.

Book Club Friday | Those Who Save Us

This Week I Read: 

Description From Goodreads:
For fifty years, Anna Schlemmer has refused to talk about her life in Germany during World War II. Her daughter, Trudy, was only three when she and her mother were liberated by an American soldier and went to live with him in Minnesota. Trudy's sole evidence of the past is an old photograph: a family portrait showing Anna, Trudy, and a Nazi officer, the Obersturmfuhrer of Buchenwald.
Driven by the guilt of her heritage, Trudy, now a professor of German history, begins investigating the past and finally unearths the dramatic and heartbreaking truth of her mother's life.
Combining a passionate, doomed love story, a vivid evocation of life during the war, and a poignant mother/daughter drama, Those Who Save Us is a profound exploration of what we endure to survive and the legacy of shame.

My Thoughts:
I saw this book reviewed last week and it happened to be at the used book store when I went on Saturday.  I thought maybe it might be a sign.
All the other Holocaust era books that I have read have been from a Jewish point of view. I loved that this book is told from a German point of view instead of a Jewish point of view.  
I like that the book in no way tries to say that what happened in Germany during WW2 was not the fault of the German government.  I believe that it was but I also believe that there were good Germans that tried to do the best they could.  People seem to forget that they could be killed also for going against the SS and Hitler.
It is great story of survival and just how far a person will go to stay alive and protect a child.  It is so worth the read.  Even to me who likes all things cleared up in the ending.  This one just leaves you with an understanding that sometimes the past is the past and you can't judge someone when you don't know what they have been through.

I am linking up with:

Book Club Friday | Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet & Sharp Objects

This week I read:

Description from Goodreads:
In the opening pages of Jamie Ford's stunning debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Henry Lee comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle's Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II. As Henry looks on, the owner opens a Japanese parasol.
This simple act takes old Henry Lee back to the 1940s, at the height of the war, when young Henry's world is a jumble of confusion and excitement, and to his father, who is obsessed with the war in China and having Henry grow up American. While "scholarshipping" at the exclusive Rainier Elementary, where the white kids ignore him, Henry meets Keiko Okabe, a young Japanese American student. Amid the chaos of blackouts, curfews, and FBI raids, Henry and Keiko forge a bond of friendship - and innocent love - that transcends the long-standing prejudices of their Old World ancestors. And after Keiko and her family are swept up in the evacuations to the internment camps, she and Henry are left only with the hope that the war will end, and that their promise to each other will be kept.
Forty years later, Henry Lee is certain that the parasol belonged to Keiko. In the hotel's dark dusty basement he begins looking for signs of the Okabe family's belongings and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot begin to measure. Now a widower, Henry is still trying to find his voice - words that might explain the actions of his nationalistic father; words that might bridge the gap between him and his modern, Chinese American son; words that might help him confront the choices he made many years ago.
Set during one of the most conflicted and volatile times in American history, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is an extraordinary story of commitment and enduring hope. In Henry and Keiko, Jamie Ford has created an unforgettable duo whose story teaches us of the power of forgiveness and the human heart.
My Thoughts:
It is about lasting friendship, romance, hope, and the relationship between a father and a son, and forgiveness. 
The relationship between Henry and his own father played a huge roll in where Henry's life ended up.  He made decisions for his son that not only impacted him, but those of others. 
I must say that I really liked this book.  I didn't love it, but I liked it.  I could find a few things that weren't completely cleared up for me in the end.  
 The story is mostly told by Henry.  It is told in the present day, which in this case is 1986, and in the 1940's during WW2.  WW2 is one of my favorite time periods to read about and since it also had a bit of mystery, it made it worth my time.
*********************************************************************
I also read:

Description on Goodreads:

WICKED above her hipbone, GIRL across her heart

Words are like a road map to reporter Camille Preaker’s troubled past. Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, Camille’s first assignment from the second-rate daily paper where she works brings her reluctantly back to her hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls.

NASTY on her kneecap, BABYDOLL on her leg
Since she left town eight years ago, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed again in her family’s Victorian mansion, Camille is haunted by the childhood tragedy she has spent her whole life trying to cut from her memory.

HARMFUL on her wrist, WHORE on her ankle
As Camille works to uncover the truth about these violent crimes, she finds herself identifying with the young victims—a bit too strongly. Clues keep leading to dead ends, forcing Camille to unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past to get at the story. Dogged by her own demons, Camille will have to confront what happened to her years before if she wants to survive this homecoming.
With its taut, crafted writing, Sharp Objects is addictive, haunting, and unforgettable.

My Thoughts:
This is not the type book I usually read.  I would pass it over a hundred times at the bookstore.  But after reading reviews of it last week, I picked it up Friday night.
Once I started reading, I loved it!  I mean and I really loved it.  Parts of the story were pretty easy to figure out.  One to many psych classes for me.  But the ending was a little tricky.  I loved that what you thought was the truth, just might not be.  I would totally recommend it and I can't read to others by Gillian Flynn.

I am linking up with  -

Book Club Friday | The Violets of March

Description from Goodreads:
A heartbroken woman stumbled upon a diary and steps into the life of its anonymous author.
In her twenties, Emily Wilson was on top of the world: she had a bestselling novel, a husband plucked from the pages of GQ, and a one-way ticket to happily ever after.
Ten years later, the tide has turned on Emily's good fortune. So when her great-aunt Bee invites her to spend the month of March on Bainbridge Island in Washington State, Emily accepts, longing to be healed by the sea. Researching her next book, Emily discovers a red velvet diary, dated 1943, whose contents reveal startling connections to her own life.
A mesmerizing debut with an idyllic setting and intriguing dual story line, The Violets of March announces Sarah Jio as a writer to watch.   My Thoughts: This was my third novel by Sarah Jio.  I now have to wait for her new book to come out.  And I can't wait. I loved this book.  From the moment I picked it up, I could not put it down and read it in a little over a day.  It had the perfect mix of history, mystery, and love.  Which all of Sarah Jio's novel have in common. I love Emily and Bee.  Their relationship changes throughout the book and both come to terms with their pasts.  It was a great read!   *** If you love Sarah Jio, she has two books that I know of that are being published in 2013.  The Last Camilla is coming in late May, and Morning Glory in November.    I am linking up with Book Club Friday and Literary Friday.  

 

Book Club Friday | Two Books This Week

This week I read:

Description from Goodreads:
While in the midst of a breakup-induced depression, Aurélie Bredin, a beautiful Parisian restaurateur, discovers an astonishing novel in a quaint bookshop on the Ile Saint-Louis. Inexplicably, her restaurant and Aurélie herself are featured in its pages. After reading the whole book in one night, she realizes it has saved her life—and she wishes more than anything to meet its author. Aurélie’s attempts to contact the attractive but shy English author through his French publishers are blocked by the company’s gruff chief editor, André, who only with great reluctance forwards Aurélie’s enthusiastic letter. But Aurélie refuses to give up. One day, a response from the reclusive author actually lands in her mailbox, but the encounter that eventually takes place is completely different from what she had ever imagined. . . . Filled with books, recipes, and characters that leap off the page, The Ingredients of Love by Nicolas Barreau is a tribute to the City of Lights.  

My thoughts:

I picked up this book at Target.  I had not heard anything about it and bought it solely from the jacket description.

It was a bit slow in the beginning but I was glad that I stuck it out.  Aurelie is very likable and you have to feel for her at times.  The characters are great, the story is sweet.  There are a few phrases in French, but they are mostly common and well known.  The last few pages of the book are even the recipes to the special dinner that occurs in the book.

It is not on my all time favorite list, but it was a nice read.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I also read:

Description from Goodreads:
The author of Bird in Hand and The Way Life Should Be delivers her most ambitious and powerful novel to date: a captivating story of two very different women who build an unexpected friendship: a 91-year-old woman with a hidden past as an orphan-train rider and the teenage girl whose own troubled adolescence leads her to seek answers to questions no one has ever thought to ask.
Nearly eighteen, Molly Ayer knows she has one last chance. Just months from "aging out" of the child welfare system, and close to being kicked out of her foster home, a community service position helping an elderly woman clean out her home is the only thing keeping her out of juvie and worse.
Vivian Daly has lived a quiet life on the coast of Maine. But in her attic, hidden in trunks, are vestiges of a turbulent past. As she helps Vivian sort through her possessions and memories, Molly discovers that she and Vivian aren't as different as they seem to be. A young Irish immigrant orphaned in New York City, Vivian was put on a train to the Midwest with hundreds of other children whose destinies would be determined by luck and chance.
The closer Molly grows to Vivian, the more she discovers parallels to her own life. A Penobscot Indian, she, too, is an outsider being raised by strangers, and she, too, has unanswered questions about the past. As her emotional barriers begin to crumble, Molly discovers that she has the power to help Vivian find answers to mysteries that have haunted her for her entire life - answers that will ultimately free them both.
Rich in detail and epic in scope, Orphan Train is a powerful novel of upheaval and resilience, of second chances, of unexpected friendship, and of the secrets we carry that keep us from finding out who we are.

My thoughts: 
This is another Target find that I stumbled upon.  I knew the second that I read the jacket, it was a book right up my alley.  Mystery, love, history & present day, all together.
The fact that there were orphan trains in the early 1900's was very interesting and sad at the same time.  Vivian is wonderful.  You feel so sorry for her and can't wait for her to get some happiness.  The same is true for Molly. 
I was unable to put this book down once I started, and absolutely loved it!

I am linking up with Book Club Friday and Literary Friday.

The Bungalow | Book Club Friday

I read:  The Bungalow by Sarah Jio.

The Desciption from Goodreads:   In the summer of 1942, twenty-one-year-old Anne Calloway, newly engaged, sets off to serve in the Army Nurse Corps on the Pacific island of Bora-Bora. More exhilarated by the adventure of a lifetime than she ever was by her predictable fiancé, she is drawn to a mysterious soldier named Westry, and their friendship soon blossoms into hues as deep as the hibiscus flowers native to the island. Under the thatched roof of an abandoned beach bungalow, the two share a private world-until they witness a gruesome crime, Westry is suddenly redeployed, and the idyll vanishes into the winds of war.
A timeless story of enduring passion from the author of Blackberry Winter and The Violets of March, The Bungalow chronicles Anne's determination to discover the truth about the twin losses-of life, and of love-that have haunted her for seventy years.
My thoughts:  I loved this book.  In fact it is the first book that I have read this year.  I am not getting off to a great start.  :)
I love Historical Fiction and books set during World War II are always a favorite of mine.  This one was great.  It is told from Anne's point of view and memories.  It shows that small misunderstandings an secrets can change the direction of your like in more ways than one.
I completely recommend it.  And I will be reading more by Sarah Jio.

I am linking up with Book Club Friday.

Book Club Friday

This week I am reading:

Here is the description from Goodreads:
It happens quietly one August morning. As dawn's shimmering light drenches the humid Iowa air, two families awaken to find their little girls have gone missing in the night.Seven-year-old Calli Clark is sweet, gentle, a dreamer who suffers from selective mutism brought on by tragedy that pulled her deep into silence as a toddler.Calli's mother, Antonia, tried to be the best mother she could within the confines of marriage to a mostly absent, often angry husband. Now, though she denies that her husband could be involved in the possible abductions, she fears her decision to stay in her marriage has cost her more than her daughter's voice.Petra Gregory is Calli's best friend, her soul mate and her voice. But neither Petra nor Calli has been heard from since their disappearance was discovered. Desperate to find his child, Martin Gregory is forced to confront a side of himself he did not know existed beneath his intellectual, professorial demeanor.Now these families are tied by the question of what happened to their children. And the answer is trapped in the silence of unspoken family secrets.

My thoughts:

I have to admit that I am not finished with this book yet.  Basically - my new medicine is working and I have not been in pain this week.  Not to mention that all the tv shows that I watch are having their season finales.  I am slacking on the reading.

But - I am loving this book.  I love the way that Heather Gundenkauf writes.  I mentioned it before when I reviewed These Things Hidden.  Each chapter is about a character and told from their point of view.  It is a great way to get a feel for the people and the way that they see the situation.  It also makes the characters believable and you better understand what they are doing and why.

Calli is just great.  And I love Lou and Antonia. 

I can't wait to get another book from this author.

I am linking up with Blonde, Undercover Blonde and The Nerdy Katie for Book Club Friday.



Book Club Friday

This week I read:

Here is the description from Goodreads:

A deeply evocative story of ambition and betrayal, The Paris Wife captures a remarkable period of time and a love affair between two unforgettable people: Ernest Hemingway and his wife Hadley.

Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a quiet twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness—until she meets Ernest Hemingway and her life changes forever. Following a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for Paris, where they become the golden couple in a lively and volatile group—the fabled “Lost Generation”—that includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. 
Though deeply in love, the Hemingways are ill-prepared for the hard-drinking and fast-living life of Jazz Age Paris, which hardly values traditional notions of family and monogamy. Surrounded by beautiful women and competing egos, Ernest struggles to find the voice that will earn him a place in history, pouring all the richness and intensity of his life with Hadley and their circle of friends into the novel that will becomeThe Sun Also Rises. Hadley, meanwhile, strives to hold on to her sense of self as the demands of life with Ernest grow costly and her roles as wife, friend, and muse become more challenging. Despite their extraordinary bond, they eventually find themselves facing the ultimate crisis of their marriage—a deception that will lead to the unraveling of everything they’ve fought so hard for.
A heartbreaking portrayal of love and torn loyalty, The Paris Wife is all the more poignant because we know that, in the end, Hemingway wrote that he would rather have died than fallen in love with anyone but Hadley.

My thoughts:

It took me a few chapters to really get into this book.  I had it on my list for a while and even had it reserved at the library for months before I got it.  After getting a little into the book, I had to keep reading and totally feel in love with Hadley.  I love that the book was written from point of view and gave us a look at what Ernest Hemingway's early life in Paris would have been like.  Even though he had many wives after her, he always spoke highly of Hadley and if you read this book, I think that you will see why.  I also loved how they ended the book and Hadley's story.

I am linking up with Book Club Monday at Blonde, Undercover Blonde,

And with Sweet Green Tangerine for her Book Chat on Vacation Reads.

And click here to follow me at Goodreads!  

Book Club Friday

This week I read:

Here is the description from Goodreads:
Summer 1924
On the eve of a glittering society party, by the lake of a grand English country house, a young poet takes his life. The only witnesses, sisters Hannah and Emmeline Hartford, will never speak to each other again.
Winter 1999
Grace Bradley, ninety-eight, one-time housemaid of Riverton Manor, is visited by a young director making a film about the poet's suicide. Ghosts awaken and old memories - long consigned to the dark reaches of Grace's mind - begin to sneak back through the cracks. A shocking secret threatens to emerge, something history has forgotten but Grace never could.
Set as the war-shattered Edwardian summer surrenders to the decadent twenties, The House at Riverton is a thrilling mystery and a compelling love story.


What I thought:
 I love Kate Morton.  I completely loved The Forgotten Garden and The Distant Hours.  The only thing that I don't like about her books is that they are pretty long.  Over 400 pages long.  I tend to feel like I am reading forever.
With that said, I always feel like it is worth it.  I loved the characters of Hannah, Grace, and Emmeline.  The parts of the book that take place in the 1920's are my favorite and I can't help but picture Emmeline as being exactly like Daisy from The Great Gatsby.
I completely recommend this book.

Today I am linking up with Blonde, Undercover Blonde for Book Club Friday.

Speaking of reading...

I am completely in love with reading again.  I have not really read in years, but in my high school and early adult years, it was something that I really enjoyed.  Life got in the way and it was one of things that I gave up.  Now, I can't imagine why.
I love the Book Club Friday linkup at Blonde, Undercover Blonde.  It helps me find a lot of new books that I would otherwise never think of or read.  Which brings me to Goodreads.  I so love Goodreads.  I joined a few years back and never learned to use it to my advantage.
As I look at Book Club Friday, I have the screen to Goodreads open.  As I see a book review that looks good, I add it to the "To Read" shelf on Goodreads.  It works out great.  Except that I have a lot of books on that list already and I am pretty sure that I will be reading forever to cover them all.
Goodreads also works out great with the library.  My library has a card catalogue online and reserve ability.  I open up the library in one screen and Goodreads on the other.  Then I start the process of seeing what books are in and add them to my list.  My library even pulls those for me and has them at the desk when I get there.  It makes me feel very VIP, and is great when you are in a hurry.  Just drop off and grab.
Goodreads has a 2012 Reading Challenge. I signed up with my goal of 12 books for the year and had to increase to 30.  I think that I may just have to increase that again.  Yeppie!

ALSO - Goodhousekeeping has a monthly book review with suggestions.  I love reading the reviews and I have found a few greats books that way. Here is the link, just in case you don't get the magazine at home.

Do you have any places that you find great book recommendations?
And - if you have time- follow me at Goodreads.