Fiction Review: Girls on Fire

YA and middle-grade author extraordinaire Robin Wasserman has published her first novel for adults, and it has all the zip and suspense of her novels for younger people. Girls on Fire is chilling, fast-paced, and decidedly not for kids. I listened to it on audio, and it was perfect for my RIP XI Challenge.

The novel opens in 1991. Hannah Dexter is watching TV with her parents when she hears that a high school classmate of hers, a football star named Craig, was found in the woods, apparently dead from suicide on Halloween night. Although Hannah has known Craig most of her life, he lived in a different world than her. His girlfriend, Nikki, is Hannah’s nemesis; she never misses a chance to taunt Hannah or humiliate her in front of their peers. Up until then, Hannah’s life was boring routine – school, parents, TV, loneliness.

Then, Hannah meets Lacey, a new girl who moved to their school about a year ago. Lacey rescues Hannah from a particularly nasty incident with Nikki and stands up for her. Lacey is different from anyone Hannah has ever met: she dresses in flannel shirts and Doc Martens, listens to (and worships) Kurt Cobain, and doesn’t let anyone tell her what to do or who to be. And after the Nikki incident, she starts to hang around with Hannah and make her over in her own image.

For starters, she renames her Dex and introduces her to Kurt. The two girls begin to spend all of their time together, driving around in Lacey’s beat-up old car with the music cranked up, drinking heavily, and rebelling against everything and everyone. Their bold, wild actions build, getting bolder and wilder, as Dex and Lacey become best friends.

At first, it’s a lot of fun, and Dex is thrilled to finally have a real friend – and not just any friend, but someone as cool as Lacey. Their escapades escalate, and soon, a little part of Dex is wondering if maybe they’ve gone too far. Does she really want to do everything that Lacey is involving her in? But the pull of Lacey is magnetic, and the two girls are spinning out of control.

Chapters alternate between Dex and Lacey (and Nikki gets some chapters, too), and slowly, bit by bit, the reader learns of Lacey’s secrets. She has plenty of them, things that Dex doesn’t know, can’t know. The girls’ wild activities contribute to a town-wide panic that started with Craig’s death. The adults in town suspect satanic rituals are taking their teenagers, and Dex and Lacey have fun feeding that fear.

This is way beyond Girls Gone Wild. Although its protagonists are teen girls, Girls on Fire is definitely not written for kids. It is very dark, with plenty of graphic violence and sex. The entire novel is pervaded by a sense of dread: you know that things will not end well for Dex and Lacey. You hold your breath waiting for them to crash and burn.

This story is filled with surprising twists at every turn. It was riveting to listen to on audio, with multiple narrators for the girls. I could feel the tension building and was waiting for the train wreck I knew was coming. It is a dark and original story, about what can happen when teen girls recognize their power and use it for wicked purposes. I was captivated from the beginning to the end of this unique and frightening story.

HarperAudio 

Teen/YA Review: The Drowning

Rachel Ward became one of my favorite YA authors when I read her Num8ers trilogy (Num8ers, The Cha0s, and 1nf1n1ty) – a creepy paranormal story with an original, riveting premise. So, when I saw she had a new stand-alone novel, The Drowning, published in 2014, I got a copy. I finally found time to read this spooky, suspenseful ghost story, just in time for Halloween!

The story opens as fifteen-year old Carl is lying in the rain watching his older brother, Rob, being zipped into a body bag. Carl is loaded into an ambulance, along with the girl who was with the brothers. All of them were in the lake, but other than what he sees in front of him, Carl can’t remember anything. He has no idea how his brother drowned, what they were all doing at the lake, or even who the girl is. He doesn’t even remember who he is.

Carl is sent home from the hospital with his mum, but he doesn’t remember her or his home, either. The doctors tell him he’d been hit on the head and that his memory will come back, but right now, everything is very confusing. Small bits of memory begin to come back to him in fragments, when he sees the room he shared with his brother, when his mother slaps him in the head, and when he has nightmares from the lake.

Besides pieces of memory slowing coming back, though, Carl also hears his dead brother whispering in his head. At first he wants to believe, as his mother suggests, that it’s the normal grieving process. Soon, though, Rob is taunting him (as he often did in real life) and saying things that make Carl very nervous. Then, Carl begins to actually see his brother – a watery, transparent outline that won’t leave him alone.

Carl is being haunted by his brother, who wants him to do terrible things. He feels desperate to remember exactly what happened at the lake. He finds out who the girl is, but that only complicates things further. Throughout the story, the sky is dark and cloudy and rain falls in record-setting torrents. All that water just reminds Carl of the events at the lake and his brother’s drowning. How will he ever get rid of his brother and make these terrifying – and possibly dangerous – visitations end?

As with Ward’s earlier novels, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book (especially this past week!). The mysteries of the drowning and Carl’s brother slowly come to light, as Carl’s memory returns and the tension builds to an exciting climax. The dark, stormy atmosphere of the story mirror its building suspense and add to the sinister tone. This gripping, thrilling story kept me riveted, as I finished reading it in record time. I can’t wait to see what Rachel Ward comes up with next!

266 pages, Chicken House (an imprint of Scholastic)

TV Tuesday: Designated Survivor

When the political debates superseded some of our favorite TV shows recently, leaving us all caught up with nothing to watch, my husband and I decided to try a new show, Designated Survivor, starring Kiefer Sutherland. We binge -watched the first three episodes, and it quickly became a new favorite. We have seen five episodes now, and we are hooked. Apparently, we aren't the only ones - several recent articles indicate it is one of the most popular new shows on TV.

Kiefer Sutherland stars as the secretary of Housing & Urban Development (HUD), a mild-mannered and apolitical guy who quietly does his job. In the first episode, the U.S. Capitol is bombed during the President's State of the Union Address, killing everyone in the line of succession (well down the list) plus almost all of Congress. Apparently, the U.S. has a real-life policy of selecting a Designated Survivor - a member of the Cabinet - to be absent from an event in which all others in the line of succession are together, just in case of such a catastrophe. So, the TV show is based on this possible real-life scenario, in which Sutherland's character, Tom Kirkman, was watching the State of the Union address from a secure location away from the Capitol Building (the HUD Secretary has been the designated survivor before in real life).

So, when this bombing occurs and almost the entire leadership of our country is killed, Kirkman, dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt, is suddenly sworn in as President. As in real life since 2005, Congress also has a Designated Survivor, so there is just one member of Congress left, Senator Kimble Hookstraten, played by Virginia Madsen. Kirkman must jump into the role of President immediately, with no warning or preparation, and start making huge decisions with little advice or direction. He seems to be a really good guy - honest and ethical - but he has no experience with this kind of leadership, especially in his new role as Commander in Chief.

The Secret Service quickly picks up Kirkman's family - his two kids and his wife, Alex, played by Natascha McElhone - and whisks them to their new home at the White House. Meanwhile, the show also follows the FBI investigation of the bombing, with Maggie Q in the role of Hannah, one of the investigators, who suspects the case may not be as straightforward as it first appears. Kal Penn also stars in the show (and is excellent) as Seth Wright, the president's speechwriter.

We are loving this show so far. It is fast-paced and full of action and suspense, with the threat of additional attacks imminent and chaos reigning across the country, but it is also thoughtful and intricate. Considering these terrifying what-if questions adds to the drama and suspense. Kirkman - as is true for any President - often finds himself in difficult, sometimes impossible situations, expected to make a quick decision when he has no experience to guide him. Of course, Sutherland is wonderful in this role. The acting is great, the writing is top-notch, and the premise is original and captivating. We can't wait for the next episode!

Designated Survivor is currently airing on ABC Wednesdays at 10 pm eastern time. You can catch up on episodes On Demand (as we have done), free on the ABC website, or on Amazon for $1.99 an episode (link below).

Movie Monday: Bridge of Spies

We've been on a movie streak lately! After months without seeing a movie, we've seen 3 of them in the past two weeks. We enjoyed The Girl on the Train in the theater last week and Bridge of Spies on DVD here at home.

Tom Hanks (one of our favorite actors) stars in Bridge of Spies as James Donovan, but Donovan is no spy. He's a lawyer working for a NY-based law firm in insurance law in 1957 when the partners asked him to act as defense lawyer for Rudolph Abel, played by Mark Rylance, who has recently been arrested as a Soviet spy. Everyone is certain Abel is guilty, but they want to make a good show of a "fair trial" so there is nothing that can be appealed later. In defending Abel, Donovan comes to respect the quiet, artistic man who says nothing to defend himself or to provide any information to the authorities. Donovan makes a good effort, but Abel is quickly found guilty.

Meanwhile, a young military man, Francis Gary Powers, played by Austin Stowell, is covertly tapped by the CIA to run top-secret flying missions over the USSR to gather information with high-powered cameras.  Powers is shot down by the Soviets and held prisoner.

A prisoner exchange is planned in 1962 - Abel for Powers - and they ask Donovan to negotiate the exchange, despite absolutely no experience, because of the honest, committed way he handled the court case and his cordial relationship with Abel. The government sends Donovan, woefully unprepared, to Berlin. He goes back and forth between East and West Berlin (no small feat at the time), talking to Soviets at their embassy, and doing his best to negotiate an exchange. Of course, he runs into all kinds of unforeseen problems, not the least of is just getting back to the West after visiting East Berlin.

This is not your typical action-packed spy movie but a thoughtful and mildly suspenseful look behind the scenes of a real-life historical event (the real James B. Donovan). This glimpse into the Cold War  is fascinating, and Tom Hanks is, as always, wonderful in his role as the sincere, determined Donovan. Mark Rylance is also excellent as Abel, showing a glimpse of a regular guy who happens to be a spy - no James Bond here. Alan Alda plays a small role, and Amy Ryan (one of our favorites from The Office and The Wire) is great as Donovan's frightened wife. My husband and I both enjoyed the movie very much and found plenty to talk about afterward.

Note: Another fascinating aspect to the movie was the scenes in Berlin. I just recently read - and was engrossed by - a middle-grade novel about the Berlin Wall, A Night Divided by Jennifer Nielsen. It's about a family who is separated when the wall goes up and provides details of what life was like in East Berlin after the wall. It's a chilling, powerful novel - highly recommended for older kids, teens, and adults, too!

Bridge of Spies is currently available for streaming on Amazon for $14.99 (link below) or on DVD (Netflix has the DVD and we rented ours at Redbox for $1.50).

It's Monday 10/31! What Are You Reading?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

I just love Halloween - it's one of our favorite holidays! Our sons are now 18 and 22 and living at college, so my husband and I really miss the days of trick-or-treating with them (all four of us usually dressed up in costume - often in a common theme!) This 2015 Saturday Snapshot shows some highlights of our best family costumes - more impressive when you realize I can't sew at all! Our sons still love to get dressed up for Halloween and both went to parties this weekend. During the week, they came over for dinner one night, and we all carved jack-o-lanterns together - we love that they still want to carve pumpkins with us & we had a lot of fun!

So, besides Halloween, it is also Monday! We've been enjoying reading for the season this past week:

• I got about halfway through my book group book, Nathaniel's Nutmeg: The True and Incredible Adventures of the Spice Trader Who Changed the Course of History by Giles Milton before we met on Wednesday. It's a nonfiction book about the spice trade in the 1500's and 1600's. It was OK but not great. I learned a lot and it was interesting, but it wasn't particularly well-written. I prefer narrative nonfiction, and this read more like a textbook, reminding me why I disliked high school history classes! It did spark a good discussion, but I set it aside after the meeting and didn't finish it (a rarity for me).
• I was excited to get back to my spooky seasonal reading for the RIP XI Challenge! After my book group meeting, I dove into a YA novel, The Drowning, by one of my favorite YA authors, Rachel Ward. I LOVED her Num8ers trilogy. This was just what I wanted! It's creepy, dark, and even involves ghosts - perfect for this week! I just finished it last night and really enjoyed it.
• For my spooky fix last week while I was still working on Nathanial's Nutmeg, I began reading a slim paperback of Edgar Allen Poe short stories, Tales of Mystery. To give you an idea of how old this falling-apart paperback is, my husband bought it for 10 cents in a used bookstore in his hometown...and it's original price, new, was 50 cents. I'm currently reading The Fall of the House of Usher - Poe is perfect reading for Halloween day!
• I am still listening to another creepy book on audio, Girls on Fire by Robin Wasserman, an adult novel about teen good girl, Hannah, who becomes friends with the wild and dangerous Lacey, and the havoc they wreak in their town together. It's very good so far - chilling and suspenseful.
• My husband, Ken, is still reading Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King. Last year, we inherited my dad's collection of Stephen King and Dean Koontz books, but the first book in this series was missing. So, Ken bought a copy on our vacation last month and is enjoying reading this novel that my dad liked so much. We both miss him a lot, and reading his favorite books helps us feel close to him.
• Jamie, 22, is still reading book 3 in the Scott Lynch series Gentleman Bastards, The Republic of Thieves, which he bought this summer. He loves this series (so does my husband) and says it is about con men in Medieval times.

Last week's blog posts:

Movie Monday: The Girl on the Train, an excellent adaptation of a complex & suspenseful novel!

Fiction Review: A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick, a dark story of love & revenge

Teen/YA Review: The Hunt by Meghan Shepherd, an action-packed & suspenseful sci fi novel

Saturday Snapshot: Assateague Island - Kayaking & Wild Horses

What are you and your family reading this week?    

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date, so head over and check out her blog and join the Monday fun! You can also participate in a kid/teen/YA version hosted by Unleashing Readers. 

Our Finished Jack-o-lanterns!

 

Saturday Snapshot 10/29: Assateague Island - Kayaking & Horses

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads. 

OK, one last group of photos from our vacation last month! Last weekend, I shared some beach photos from the ocean side of Assateague Island National Seashore. While we were there (a lovely place), we also went kayaking on the bay side of the barrier island, among the salt marshes, and saw the famous wild horses plus other wildlife, too.

Look carefully at this first pic (click to enlarge) - there were 2 mares, 1 stallion, and a newborn foal, less than 24 hours old! It is just standing up in this photo - we also saw it running around its mom for the first time!

Newborn baby foal with two mares & a stallion nearby

Kayaking among the salt marshes at Assateague

We saw dozens and dozens of white egrets among the marsh grass

We paddled right past many wild horses, munching on marsh grasses

The sky cleared for a while - lovely, warm day!

Kayaking Selfie!

Portend of the huge storm that was heading our way that night!

Hope you are enjoying a wonderful weekend!

Teen/YA Review: The Hunt

Earlier this year, I thoroughly enjoyed the unique and intriguing YA novel The Cage by Megan Shepherd. I just finished listening to its sequel, The Hunt, and enjoyed this suspenseful and action-packed novel just as much as the first book.

Explaining book 2 is a bit tricky, since I don’t want to give any spoilers in case you haven’t read the first book yet. Here goes…

In The Cage, a group of teenagers found themselves on a far distant planet, captives of a race of beings that said they had captured the teens and brought them there in order to save the human race. The six teenagers were in a sort of habitat, created for them to mimic Earth, and were watched by the aliens through mysterious dark windows, as if they were in a zoo.

In book 2, the teens have been removed from that habitat. Several of them find themselves in another artificial environment designed to mimic Earth, but not for their own comfort. This place, called The Hunt, is one of many areas that mimic someplace on Earth purely for the entertainment of the aliens, who seem to be fascinated with Earth’s varied history and cultures. The Hunt mimics an African safari lodge, complete with a fake (indoor) savannah and real wild animals imported from Earth.

Cora, the main character from the first book and the most desperate of the group to escape, is assigned to The Hunt. Her job is to work in the lodge, singing on stage to entertain the aliens as they sip their drinks and look out over the “savannah.” Much to her delight after being separated from the others, Lucky soon joins her there, working with the animals to take care of them and revive them after they’ve been “hunted” with tranquilizer darts. Within a few chapters, we find out what is happening to the other original Earth teens and where they are each being held.

The teens have by now learned a lot more about this alien world, though they are still piecing together, bit by bit, the aliens’ plans for the humans they have captured. One big question is whether or not Earth still even exists, as the aliens have told them that humans destroyed it shortly after these six were abducted. Once again, Cora leads the group in planning an escape from their current imprisonment, strategizing on how to beat the aliens’ own system if they can.

As with the first book, The Hunt is filled with action, suspense, and imaginative situations. This alien world is well thought-out and unique. The aliens in charge use telepathic abilities and see humans as a less intelligent species because they don’t. The world and its many inhabitants is endlessly fascinating and complex. The human characters are familiar by now, and I was rooting for them, though there are still plenty of questions to be answered…I can’t wait for book 3!

HarperChildren’s Audio

Fiction Review: A Reliable Wife

When I saw that my library’s book group was reading A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick this month, I was happy for an excuse to pull this novel off my TBR shelf and finally read it (even though I ended up missing the discussion). My mother had enjoyed it and lent it to me. This dark, creepy novel of betrayal and revenge also fit in perfectly with my RIP XI Challenge this month!

As the novel opens in fall 1907 in rural Wisconsin, Ralph Truitt is nervously waiting on a train platform for his new wife to arrive from Chicago. Ralph is a very successful businessman in his 50’s who owns all of his town’s factories and industry, and most of its residents work for him in one capacity or another. Ralph, however, was lacking a wife, so he placed an ad in a Chicago newspaper looking for “a reliable wife.”

He received letters from several candidates, but the one he chose was Catherine Land. Her first letter to him described herself as “a simple, honest woman,” and the two had exchanged more letters. Now, she was on her way to him on the train, ready to become his wife.

As Catherine rides toward Ralph, her musings on the train are intriguing. She is a determined woman who says that all she needs from life are love and money. However, her actions on the train are puzzling: dressed in fine garments and jewelry, she takes everything off and tosses her beautiful clothes out the window. She dresses in a plain gray dress of low quality and sews her jewelry into its hem. It is clear that she is not as honest or as simple as she says.

We soon find out that the one item Catherine has brought with her, besides the cheap clothing and a tattered suitcase, is a bottle of poison, so it seems that she has some sort of plan in mind to kill Ralph. As the story unfolds, though, we have no idea why she plans to do this or what she is hiding from Ralph. Ralph treats her very kindly, and things seem to be going well between them, but there is that unspoken threat behind the scenes, adding a note of suspense and dread to the story.

Catherine’s plans for Ralph and her own background are revealed bit by bit, with plenty of surprises along the way. It turns out that Ralph wasn’t completely honest, either, and has his own surprises in store. As the novel progresses, the plot gets more and more complicated, with details of both their lives before they met each other and both of their secret plans gradually revealed.

I enjoyed this mildly suspenseful and unique story of two people both thinking they are conning or using the other. It is a dark story, set during a gray, snowy Wisconsin winter, with both main characters keeping secrets. There is a constant thread of sex throughout the novel, too, though it is not graphically depicted. Ralph is somewhat obsessed with sex, though he has denied himself for a long time, and Catherine has her own secrets in that regard. While the characters are not very likable (though they each have their redeeming moments), the plot of the novel is twisty and intriguing and pulls you along. It’s a dark and compelling story that is perfect for a cold, dreary fall or winter season.

291 pages, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill

Movie Monday: The Girl on the Train

We had a Big Event here last week: my husband and I went out to dinner and a movie on $5 Tuesdays at our local theater. What got us off our couch and recliner? The Girl on the Train, the recent adaptation of a novel by Paula Hawkins (review at the link) that we both enjoyed reading last summer. We both loved this twisty and suspenseful movie that stuck pretty closely to the the book. This movie also fits perfectly with my R.I.P. XI Challenge, to enjoy spooky, creepy, suspenseful fare during this Halloween season.

Emily Blunt stars as Rachel, a woman whose facade of having it together quickly falls apart in the first scenes of the movie. She rides the train back and forth into NYC each day, presumably commuting to work, dressed in a suit and carrying a water bottle. But we soon see that she fills her water bottle with vodka! Rachel likes to stare out the windows at the backs of houses that abut the train tracks, catching glimpses of other people's lives.

One house in particular catches her attention. Its occupants are a man and woman who look to Rachel like they have the perfect relationship & the perfect life together. She watches every day as they come out on the upstairs balcony or walk into the yard or kiss in the window. She even names the couple in her mind, thinking of them as Jess and Jason. Then, one day, Rachel sees "Jess" outside on the balcony in her bathrobe, kissing another man who is definitely not her husband. Rachel is horribly upset by this.

That night, Rachel gets drunker than usual in the Grand Central bar (I love that bar overlooking Grand Central!) and impulsively decides to get off the train at the station where "Jess and Jason" live. By now, we have found out that Rachel's ex-husband, Tom, lives on that same street and that Rachel is also obsessed with him and his new wife, Anna, and their baby. Rachel wakes up the next morning covered in blood and mud, with little memory of what happened after she got off the train at that stop. She thinks she might have encountered Anna, but she can't clearly remember anything. Then, she sees on the news that "Jess" - whose real name is Megan - has gone missing, and her frantic husband, Scott, is looking for information on her whereabouts.

From there, the story spirals ever-darker and more complicated, as the viewers learn, bit by bit, more about Rachel, about Megan and Scott, and about Tom and Anna - and Tom's history with Rachel. Rachel inserts herself into the police investigation, getting questioned by the police because she was seen in the neighborhood - drunk - that night, and taking it upon herself to tell Scott about Megan's other man. It's a complex mystery with plenty of twists and turns, and through it all, we are as confused as Rachel as to whether she did something that night or not.

I remember when I read the novel that I suspected a different person of Megan's disappearance with just about every new chapter! The movie does a great job of sustaining that suspense and recreating the uncertainty of the story in the book. Neither my husband nor I remembered all the details (it's a complicated plot line), so we were totally engrossed in the movie.

All of the actors do a good job here, but Emily Blunt is absolutely amazing in her role as Rachel, the ultimate in unreliable narrators. She plays drunk and confused and falling apart remarkably well, especially considering that she was pregnant during filming and not drinking at all! We were confused as to why the movie's creators decided to move the story's setting from London to NY - especially with a British lead actress - but we had to grudgingly admit that it worked. If you like mystery and suspense, this is a dark, twisty tale that will pull you in and not let you go until the final breathless moments.

The Girl on the Train is currently in theaters, with the DVD scheduled for release in January 2017.

It's Monday 10/24! What Are You Reading?

Whew, crazy Monday morning - hope this isn't a preview of the rest of the week! Just found out my 91-year old father-in-law's first PT session was scheduled this morning (they were supposed to call me!), so I rushed over there first thing. But son #1 took my car this morning back to campus because his is in the shop, so I had to borrow son #2's car & hope he didn't wake up and need it before I got back (a good bet since his only Monday class is at 3 pm). And, of course, he left the gas tank on empty.

OK, deep breaths. Back home now & trying to return to my regularly scheduled quiet Monday morning!

We had a very busy family weekend, with both sons and my father-in-law here, but we still found time to enjoy our books last week:

• I finished - and enjoyed - a review book, The River of Kings by Taylor Brown, a novel with an intriguing mix of adventure, family drama, and historical fiction. It's about two brothers in Georgia who are kayaking the length of a river to honor their father's memory. He lived his whole life on the river, and they are carrying his ashes on their journey. Chapters of their kayaking trip alternate with flashbacks of their father's life on the river and scenes from the 1500's when the first French settlers came to this area and encountered Native Americans, illustrated by real drawings made by those explorers. It was very good - due out in March.
• Now, I am reading my next book group book, Nathaniel's Nutmeg: The True and Incredible Adventures of the Spice Trader Who Changed the Course of History by Giles Milton. It's a nonfiction book about the spice trade in the 1500's and 1600's. I wasn't too thrilled with this choice (I voted for an exciting thriller set in Saudi Arabia!), but it's not too bad so far (about 100 pages in) - just not my first choice kind of book, especially in the middle of my favorite spooky reading season!
• I finished listening to The Hunt by Megan Shepherd, a teen/YA novel and sequel to The Cage, which I enjoyed. This series takes place in another world, where a group of teens from Earth are being held captive. Gripping suspense and intriguing concepts!
• Now, I am listening to another creepy novel on audio, Girls on Fire by Robin Wasserman, an adult novel about teen good girl, Hannah, who becomes friends with the wild and dangerous Lacey, and the havoc they wreak in their town together. It's very good so far - chilling and suspenseful.
• My husband, Ken, is still reading Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King. Last year, we inherited my dad's collection of Stephen King and Dean Koontz books, but the first book in this series was missing. So, Ken bought a copy on our vacation a few weeks ago, and is enjoying reading this novel that my dad liked so much. We both miss him a lot, and reading his favorite books helps us feel close to him.
• I believe Jamie, 22, is still reading book 3 in the Scott Lynch series Gentleman Bastards, The Republic of Thieves, which he bought this summer. He loves this series (so does my husband) and says it is about con men in Medieval times. 

 Last week's blog posts:

TV Tuesday: Frequency - a cop show with a twist, communicating with a dead man

2016 Big Book Summer Giveaway - a bit late, but Jade of Sort of Beautiful won the giveaway for my Big Book Summer Challenge this year!

Fiction Review: Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel, a unique & compelling story!

Books Read in September - a record reading month for me with 9 good books!

Saturday Snapshot: Assateague Island National Seashore - the beach

What are you and your family reading this week?    

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date, so head over and check out her blog and join the Monday fun! You can also participate in a kid/teen/YA version hosted by Unleashing Readers.

My family and I at our local pumpkin farm this weekend

 

Saturday Snapshot 10/22: Assateague Island - the Beach

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads. 

More photos from our recent trip to Maryland. We started on the Eastern Shore (on the Chesapeake Bay) at Janes Island State Park, then we moved our camper to Assateague Island National Seashore, on the Atlantic.

We enjoyed more kayaking among the salt marshes of the bay, with the wild horses all around (those pics next week!) and also the beautiful ocean and beach. My husband's not too fond of the ocean (he grew up in Oklahoma), but I love it. The last of these photos shows our blissful ignorance, having been off the  grid all week: we had no idea there was a HUGE storm coming that night! Heavy rain and winds up to 50 mph that lasted for over 12 hours...and we were right on the ocean! Quite an experience in our little pop-up camper. But before the storm hit, we enjoyed the beautiful beach:

Our campsite, tucked among the dunes at Assateague Island

I love the ocean!

A cloudy, overcast day but warm & pleasant

Day 2: we saw how rough the surf was...little did we know what was coming!

Blissfully ignorant of the coming storm!

Hope you are enjoying a wonderful weekend!

Books Read in September

September was a great reading month for me, with the last of my summer reading - including one last book for my Big Book Summer Challenge - at the start of the month, transitioning to some dark, creepy reading for fall and the start of the RIP XI Challenge.

Here's what I finished in September (my reviews at the links):

• The Many Lives of John Stone by Linda Buckley-Archer, a teen/YA novel (NY, UK, France)
• The Summer Guest by Alison Anderson, adult novel on audio (Ukraine) 
• The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, re-read of a Man Booker Prize-winning novel (UK)

• The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell, adult novel (India, Scotland)
• Drag Teen by Jeffrey Self, teen/YA novel on audio (FL, NY)
• They Are Trying to Break Your Heart by David Savill, adult novel (UK, Bosnia, Thailand) - due out in March 2017

 

• Swing Sideways by Nanci Turner Steveson, middle-grade novel on audio (NY)
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, classic novel (UK)
• Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel, adult novel (CO)  

Nine books in all! Possibly a record for me. The month started with a long weekend readathon and ended with a week-long vacation, so that explains the extra reading time! I read all fiction in September, which is really not a rarity for me! I did, however, read a nice mix of middle-grade, teen/YA, and adult novels and with widely diverse topics, genres, and tones. My favorite was Sleeping Giants, an amazing and wholly unique novel that you must read!

Progress on 2016 Reading Challenges:
This is my favorite part of my monthly summary - updating my Reading Challenges! I read 4 more TBR books in September for my Read Your Own Damn Books Challenge - that's a total of 17 so far this year. For the Monthly Motif Reading Challenge, September was Sci Fi/Fantasy month - Sleeping Giants fits that category (though don't let that dissuade you from reading it if you don't normally read sci fi - like The Martian, it has broad appeal & is very well-written). I added no new nonfiction books to my 2016 Nonfiction Reading Challenge, and one more classic for the 2016 Classics Challenge - I'm up to 3 now! For my Travel the World in Books Reading Challenge, I added books set in Scotland, Bosnia, Thailand, and Ukraine (though many of my books this month were set in NY or UK). I am also tracking the states my books are set in, even though there is no Where Are You Reading challenge this year, but I added no new states this month. And I kicked off the RIP XI Challenge with three books.

Finally, I filled 20 spaces on my monthly Bookish Bingo hosted by Chapter Break - my best month yet! (you can join the fun any month without officially joining a challenge). Here's my Bingo card for September:

My books filled these spaces:

The Many Lives of John Stone - Shelf Love, lawyer
The Summer Guest - note/letters, vacation, run/alcohol
The Sense of an Ending - library book
The Many Lives of John Stone - Shelf Love, lawyer
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox - affair, recommended to you, boat/ship, step family, child, secrets/lies
Drag Teen - debut novel, friendship, pink on the cover, free book
They Are Trying to Break Your Heart - tattoo
Sleeping Giants - alien, in a series
Free space

What was your favorite book read in September? 

Fiction Review: Sleeping Giants

Since spring, I had been hearing rave reviews about Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel, so I got it for my husband for Father’s Day. He loved it, too! I finally got a chance to read this wholly unique, compelling novel for myself and can’t wait for book 2 of this new series called The Themis Files.

In the prologue, an 11-year old girl in South Dakota is out riding the new bike she got for her birthday. She leaves her bicycle on the side of the road for a moment to investigate a sound in the woods and falls into a huge hole in the ground. When rescuers find her, she is at the bottom of a big rectangular pit, lying in the palm of a giant metal hand, unlike anything anyone has ever seen before. Along the sides of the rectangular hole are huge panels, covered in strange symbols. All of it – the hand and the panels – are glowing with a brilliant turquoise light.

Then the novel opens 17 years later, when that little girl is now a woman named Dr. Rose Franklin, a professor with a PhD in Physics at the University of Chicago. By a strange twist of fate, she has been put in charge of a joint program between the university and NSA to study the hand and figure out what it is, what it can do, and how it got into a hole in South Dakota. The military didn’t make any progress with the hand years ago, and now she has been given a small team to study it.

Other members of her team include Kara Resnick, a skilled but sometimes abrasive Army helicopter pilot whose helicopter mysteriously stopped in mid-air and crashed while flying over Turkey. The project also includes Kara’s co-pilot from that same mission, Ryan Mitchell. Rounding out the team is Vincent Couture, a scientist from French Canada who is brilliant with computers. Unlike the military team 17 years earlier, this team begins to make headway.

I won’t say much more about the plot because this is one of those books whose secrets are gradually and deliciously revealed, bit by bit, as you read, so that you can hardly bear to set it down. The whole story is told in an epistolary style, with each chapter representing the transcript from an interview, an experiment log, a journal entry, or other type of document in the case file. Part of the mystery of the book is that it is filled with interview transcripts of all the main players on the team, but we don’t know whom the mysterious interviewer is.

All the rave reviews I heard about this novel are true…and more. The action starts fast and continues to build momentum with every page. The more the team learns, the more it is clear that this thing they are investigating is almost certainly a game-changer, something so high-tech that nothing like it has ever been seen – or dreamt of – before.

Besides action and suspense, this novel is also thought-provoking and asks the big questions: about the price of scientific development, the balancing of the needs of the many over the sacrifices of a few, and what is to be the fate of humanity. This hand is clearly non-human made, and the deeper the team digs into its origins and use, the more the moral and ethical questions pile up. It is an engrossing story that will pull you deep into its depths. Just when you think you understand what’s going on, the book ends with a twist that leaves you dying to read the next book in the series. I can’t wait to see what Sylvain Neuvel dreams up next in book 2!

Book 2, Waking Gods, is due for release April 4, 2017.

304 pages, Del Ray (an imprint of Random House)

P.S. Movie rights to Sleeping Giants have been purchased (yay!), but nothing concrete is in the works yet.

NOTE: If you have not yet read the first book, don't read the description of book 2 - spoilers!

 

     

2016 Big Book Summer Giveaway!

Better Late Than Never?

That's pretty much my life motto, and it certainly applies here. It just occurred to me recently that my Big Book Summer Reading Challenge finished up at the beginning of September, but I never did the end-of-challenge giveaway! Well, that will just make it more special for the winner now, right?

I considered everyone who participated in the challenge, both bloggers who left their sign-up links on the challenge page, and readers from Goodreads who signed up in the Big Book Summer group there. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to include those living outside of the U.S. - the shipping costs are just too high (more than the value of the book!). I used the random number generator at random.com, and the winner is....

Jada of Sort of Beautiful

Congratulations, Jada!

Jada has a wonderful blog featuring book reviews and other bookish fun, so head over there to check it out!

Jada, you get to choose one Big Book from the following list. They are all over 400 pages, and they have all been (gently) read and enjoyed but are in good shape:

• NOS4A2 by Joe Hill, a horror thriller read by my husband (Hill is Stephen King's son)
• The Secret History by Donna Tartt, a drama set on a college campus with a murder at its center
• The Marvels by Brian Selznick, a unique middle-grade novel told in drawings and text that I read for Big Book Summer this year and loved.
• The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer, a drama that follows a group of friends from art camp in their teens through their adult lives - I read it for last year's Big Book Summer & enjoyed it.
• The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater, YA fantasy novel and book 4 in The Raven Cycle.
• Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese - an epic story about twin brothers who grow up in a hospital in Ethiopa.

Hope you will join the fun for next year's Big Book Summer Challenge!

You may now return to your regularly scheduled fall...