ARC review: Lies You Wanted to Hear by James Whitfield Thomson

 

Many thanks to Net Galley and Sourcebooks for providing me with the advanced reader's copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

 

Synopsis(via Goodreads):

 

When Lucy meets Matt on a blind date, Matt is instantly hooked; he sees Lucy as the fun, sexy, and wickedly smart girl of his dreams. Although she’s still getting over an old lover, Lucy is won over by Matt’s sweet, thoughtful nature. But 20 years later, alone in an empty house trying to imagine the lives of her two young children, Lucy comes to realize that the little lies you tell can create more damage than the truth you’re hiding.

 

This insomniac's opinion:

 

This novel started of with promise. I was immediately hooked and wanted to know who Lucy would end up with and why she no longer had her children. Did they die? Did she lose custody? The novel was full of promise.

 

However, the novel lost steam before the halfway mark and never regained it. It wasn't a bad novel, just mediocre and full of characters that weren't terribly likeable or interesting.

 

Worth staying up all night to read?

 

It wasn't for me, but then, it wasn't bad either.

 

Rating:

 

3 stars. Neither here nor there.

ARC review: The Deepest Secret by Carla Buckley

 

Many thanks to Net Galley and Random House publishing for the advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

Book Synopsis(via Goodreads):

 

A riveting, poignant family drama perfect for readers of Defending Jacob and The Memory Keeper's Daughter, which explores the power of the secrets people keep-the darker, hidden facets of our lives, and what happens when they come to light.

Diagnosed with XP, a rare medical condition which makes him lethally sensitive to light, Tyler is a thirteen-year-old who desperately wants just one thing: to be normal. His mother Eve also wants just one thing: to protect her son. As Tyler begins roaming their cul-de-sac at night, cloaked in the safety of the darkness, he peers into the lives of the other families on the street-looking in on the things they most want hidden. Then, the young daughter of a neighbor suddenly vanishes, and Tyler may be the only one who can make sense of her disappearance…but what will happen when everyone's secrets are exposed to the light?

 

 

This insomniac's opinion:

 

This novel was a fantastic, nail-biting read. It was a roller-coaster ride of a novel, full of suspense and twists but also full of heart. At the end I was left wondering exactly how far I would go if I was placed in a similar situation. My only complaint was the ending, which didn't quite feel buttoned up and I would've liked a more solid conclusion.

 

Worth staying up all night to read?

 

Yes!

 

Rating: 4 stars

 

 

                                                                           

ARC review: Ham: Slices of Life by Sam Harris

 Many thanks to Net Galley and Gallery books for the advanced reader's copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This book will be published on January 14, 2014.

Book Synopsis(via Goodreads):


For fans of David Sedaris and Chelsea Handler, these stories and essays about friendship, celebrity, growing up and getting sober will have you laughing and crying in equal measure.With a wry style that evokes comparisons to Carrie Fisher, David Rakoff, and Steve Martin, Sam Harris proves that he is a natural humorist. Even The New York Times, in a review of one of his musical performances, called his stories “New Yorker-worthy.”


Brilliantly written, these sixteen stories span Harris’s life from growing up gay in the buckle of America’s Bible belt to performing on Oprah’s first show after 9/11. In “I Feel, You Feel” he opens for Aretha Franklin during a blizzard. “Promises” is a front-row account of Liza Minnelli’s infamous wedding to “the man whose name shall go unmentioned.” In the title story, “Ham,” he describes how he was upstaged by a young child actor, unknowingly addicted to the spotlight.


Taking on issues as diverse as addiction, fame, and parenting with his hilarious and deeply human voice, Harris’s entertaining tales trace an arc of personal triumph that is universally accessible and inspiring

This insomniac's opinion:

See the glowing review above comparing this compilation of stories to seasoned authors and comedians? Makes you want to read the book, doesn't it. How unfortunate that none of the above comparisons were even in the smallest bit accurate. Sigh.

I tried to like this book. We always want to love a book, don't we? I had no idea who Sam Harris was before reading this book, but he seems like a lovely fellow. Admirable, even. However, this book was just not well-written and seemed to be mostly a bunch stories about nothing, held together with abrasive celebrity spottings here and there. This book may read well to those who are fascinated with 70s and 80s celebrities and want to hear stories about how awful they were(with a few exceptions- he really seems to like Oprah, Liza and Bette).

I truly wish the author well in his life and with his family and am very sorry for the discrimination he had to overcome as a gay man in a society that wasn't kind to him. However, this book was not my cup of tea.

Worth staying up all night to read?

No.

Rating. 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3 for Goodreads.

ARC review: The Wives of Los Alamos by Tarashea Nesbit

 

Many thanks to Net Galley and Bloomsbury USA for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

 

This book will be published February 25, 2014.

 

Book Synopsis(via Goodreads):

 

Their average age was twenty-five. They came from Berkeley, Cambridge, Paris, London, Chicago—and arrived in New Mexico ready for adventure, or at least resigned to it. But hope quickly turned to hardship as they were forced to adapt to a rugged military town where everything was a secret, including what their husbands were doing at the lab. They lived in barely finished houses with a P.O. box for an address in a town wreathed with barbed wire, all for the benefit of a project that didn’t exist as far as the public knew. Though they were strangers, they joined together—adapting to a landscape as fierce as it was absorbing, full of the banalities of everyday life and the drama of scientific discovery.

And while the bomb was being invented, babies were born, friendships were forged, children grew up, and Los Alamos gradually transformed from an abandoned school on a hill into a real community: one that was strained by the words they couldn’t say out loud, the letters they couldn’t send home, the freedom they didn’t have. But the end of the war would bring even bigger challenges to the people of Los Alamos, as the scientists and their families struggled with the burden of their contribution to the most destructive force in the history of mankind.

 

 

This insomniac's opinion:

 

I truly loved this story. It took a chapter or two to acclimate to the first person plural that the story is written in, but I feel that it really lent a unique perspective to the story which spoke of both the unity and the discord amongst this community of women. It was a moving story of sacrifice, secrecy and ultimately, both pride and shame at being a part of the making of the first atomic bomb. I lost myself in the lives of these women and will never forget their stories.

 

Worth staying up all night to read?

 

Yes!

 

Rating: 4 stars

Eyes Wide Open by Ted Dekker

 

Many thanks to Net Galley and Worthy publishing for providing a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

 

Book synopsis(via Goodreads):

 

Who am I?

My name is Christy Snow. I'm seventeen and I'm about to die.

I'm buried in a coffin under tons of concrete. No one knows where I am. My heart sounds like a monster with clobber feet, running straight toward me. I'm lying on my back, soaked with sweat from the hair on my head to the soles of my feet. My hands and feet won't stop shaking.

Some will say that I m not really here. Some will say I'm delusional. Some will say that I don t even exist. But who are they? I'm the one buried in a grave.

My name is Christy Snow. I'm seventeen. I'm about to die.

So who are you?

In a return to the kind of storytelling that made Black, Showdown and Three unforgettable, New York Times bestselling author Ted Dekker drags that question into the light with this modern day parable about how we see ourselves.

Humming with intensity and blindsided twists, Eyes Wide Open is raw adrenaline from the first page to the last pure escapism packed with inescapable truth. Not all is as it seems. Or is it? Strap yourself in for the ride of your life. Literally.

 

 

 

This insomniac's opinion:

 

I've heard about the writing of Ted Dekker from several fellow readers and was excited to give one of his novels a try. Unfortunately, it is not for me. At all.

 

The characters were insipid and not well fleshed out. The novel is supposed to be scary, but it so unbelievable that I was not, in any way, frightened. For any situation to be scary, you have to believe it could actually happen, right? This was a convoluted tale that was reminiscent of a bad horror flick that was made for teen audiences And, the Christian spin at the end? Unimaginative and cheesy. Pass on this one, friends.

 

Worth staying up all night to read?

 

Um, no.

Rating: 1 star

 

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

 

Book summary(via Goodreads):

 

On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born, the third child of a wealthy English banker and his wife. Sadly, she dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in any number of ways. Clearly history (and Kate Atkinson) have plans for her: In Ursula rests nothing less than the fate of civilization.

Wildly inventive, darkly comic, startlingly poignant — this is Kate Atkinson at her absolute best, playing with time and history, telling a story that is breathtaking for both its audacity and its endless satisfactions.

 

This insomniac's opinion:

 

I found this to be a very inventive and enjoyable read. It took quite some time to get into, as the "Groundhog Day" effect of starting over and over again was very abrasive, but that did get better as I read through. I can honestly say that I have never read anything like this novel, and considering how much I read, that is quite an accomplishment. I would have loved to give this novel 5 stars, but there were very few endearing characters and quite a few loose ends. Still a great read, though!

 

Worth staying up all night to read?

 

Yes, but I recommend reading it over several sittings. It is thick and not entirely smooth to read.

 

Rating:

 

4 stars.

 

Songs of Willow Frost by Jamie Ford

Book summary(via Goodreads):

Twelve-year-old William Eng, a Chinese-American boy, has lived at Seattle’s Sacred Heart Orphanage ever since his mother’s listless body was carried away from their small apartment five years ago. On his birthday—or rather, the day the nuns designate as his birthday—William and the other orphans are taken to the historical Moore Theatre, where William glimpses an actress on the silver screen who goes by the name of Willow Frost. Struck by her features, William is convinced that the movie star is his mother, Liu Song.

Determined to find Willow, and prove his mother is still alive, William escapes from Sacred Heart with his friend Charlotte. The pair navigates the streets of Seattle, where they must not only survive, but confront the mysteries of William’s past and his connection to the exotic film star. The story of Willow Frost, however, is far more complicated than the Hollywood fantasy William sees onscreen.

Shifting between the Great Depression and the 1920s, Songs of Willow Frost takes readers on an emotional journey of discovery. Jamie Ford’s sweeping book will resonate with anyone who has ever longed for the comforts of family and a place to call home.

This insomniac's opionion:

I'm having a love affair.

 SHHHH!Don't tell my husband!

My love affair is with *swoon* the work of Jamie Ford.

I rather adored Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. But, this novel. This novel- oh my goodness. It's a masterpiece, bookish buddies!

This is one of those novels which is full(oh so full) of heartbreak. And, yet it is written in such a romantic and endearing way that your soul rises up to meet the pages and you are forever changed. Read it, friends. And, don't forget the Kleenex.

I do think it is worth saying that this novel is not going to be for everyone, and I foresee some truly disliking this novel.

Worth staying up all night to read?

Oh my goodness, yes!

Rating:

5 stars

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

*Many thanks to Penguin Group/Viking and Net Galley for the advanced reader's copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.*

Book synopsis(via Goodreads):

Hetty "Handful” Grimke, an urban slave in early nineteenth century Charleston, yearns for life beyond the suffocating walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke household. The Grimke’s daughter, Sarah, has known from an early age she is meant to do something large in the world, but she is hemmed in by the limits imposed on women.

Kidd’s sweeping novel is set in motion on Sarah’s eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership of ten year old Handful, who is to be her handmaid.We follow their remarkable journeys over the next thirty five years, as both strive for a life of their own, dramatically shaping each other’s destinies and forming a complex relationship marked by guilt, defiance, estrangement and the uneasy ways of love.
As the stories build to a riveting climax, Handful will endure loss and sorrow, finding courage and a sense of self in the process. Sarah will experience crushed hopes, betrayal, unrequited love, and ostracism before leaving Charleston to find her place alongside her fearless younger sister, Angelina, as one of the early pioneers in the abolition and women’s rights movements.

Inspired by the historical figure of Sarah Grimke, Kidd goes beyond the record to flesh out the rich interior lives of all of her characters, both real and invented, including Handful’s cunning mother, Charlotte, who courts danger in her search for something better.
This exquisitely written novel is a triumph of storytelling that looks with unswerving eyes at a devastating wound in American history, through women whose struggles for liberation, empowerment, and expression will leave no reader unmoved.

This insomniac's opinion:

 Oh, how I adored this novel. It is written with such honesty and manages to be languid and gripping and horrific and wonderful all in the scope of the same novel. The character's are both loveable and hateable. This was not an easy read by any means- it is painful to read at times, made even more painful by the knowledge that events similar to these actually happened in this country. The relationship between Handful and Sarah is not saccharine sweet, but a much more believable kinship and I was rooting for their friendship from the very beginning.  I was so involved in the novel that I found myself speaking aloud, telling the character's the secrets that they did not yet know.

 An impeccable read from Sue Monk Kidd.

Worth staying up all night to read?

YES!

Rating:

5 stars

8 Bit Christmas by Kevin Jakubowski

*Many thanks to Net Galley and DB press for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. *

Synopsis(via Goodreads):

It's 1980-something and all nine-year-old Jake Doyle wants for Christmas is a Nintendo Entertainment System. No Jose Conseco rookie card, no GI Joe hovercraft, no Teddy friggin' Ruxpin--just Nintendo. But when a hyperactive Shih Tzu is accidentally crushed to death by a forty-two-inch television set and every parent in town blames Nintendo, it's up to Jake to take matters into his own hands. The result is a Christmas quest of Super Mario Bros. proportions, filled with flaming wreaths, speeding minivans, lost retainers, fake Santas, hot teachers, snotty sisters, "Super Bowl Shuffles" and one very naked Cabbage Patch Kid. Told from a nostalgic adult perspective, 8-Bit Christmas is a hilarious and heartfelt look back at the kid pop culture of the 1980s.

This insomniac's opinion:

Many thanks to my bookish buddy Jenni for recommending this read. It was truly delightful!

This book is mildly reminiscent of the movie "A Christmas Story", only taking place in the 80's. The author takes his memories of childhood and spins them into a humourous tale that all children, regardless of generation, can relate to- bullies that only become bigger with memory, parents who could be firm but also incredibly loving and teachers whom you still love or hate all these years later. This book is especially lovely for those of us(yes, this includes me, friends) who actually grew up in the 80s and remember the era with equal fondness and loathing.

Worth staying up all night to read?

Yes. Quick, simple read with lots of humor.

Rating:

4 stars

Perfect by Rachel Joyce

*Many thanks to Net Galley and Random House publishing for this advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review.*

Synopsis(via Goodreads):

In 1972, two seconds were added to time. It was in order to balance clock time with the movement of the earth. Byron Hemming knew this because James Lowe had told him and James was the cleverest boy at school. But how could time change? The steady movement of hands around a clock was as certain as their golden futures.

Then Byron's mother, late for the school run, makes a devastating mistake. Byron's perfect world is shattered. Were those two extra seconds to blame? Can what follows ever be set right?

This insomniac's review:

I was thrilled to receive this advanced reader's copy as I adored Rachel Joyce's superb novel The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. And, friends- Ms. Joyce did not disappoint!

Perfect is, well- perfect. It is more somber than Harold, and distinctly different. I quickly lost myself in the characters and the author's prose. I didn't come up for air until the last page was turned. Wonderful.

I do have to admit that I did not like it quite as much as Harold, but very close. And, kudos to the author for writing two such distinct novels.

Worth staying up all night to read?

YES!

Rating: 

5 stars