Bookin' It Thru Life

A friend who is a reader recommended this one and said she could not put it down.  I agree that I could not put it down, but more because I am on vacation and its like 18 degrees outside and I have done my shopping and groceries and house cleaning and the kids are enjoying their Christmas presents so why shouldn't I just curl up and read this book kind of way, not that I found the book un-put-down-able in and of itself. That said, I did enjoy it and I immediately looked up other books by Ng to add to my "To Read" list. The story revolves around two families, one a traditional family with deep roots in the community, the other a single mom and her daughter recently arrived in town.  It had hints of Big Little Lies to it so if you liked that book, this one will be right up your alley.  Here, the relationships are between the teenage children in both families and between the children and the moms.  The "Dad" is largely absent, the money maker whose main job in t

Billed as a ghost story of sorts...a year after their baby disappears, he reappears in their house for just "one more day"...anyone who thought this was going to be a straightforward missing kid story misread the cover.  Over the course of the book I thought lots of different things about the mom and dad of the missing kid-she made a dumb mistake that cost her everything-but I had a hard time connecting with her.  The dad was creepy, not in a "I kidnapped and killed my own kid" kind of way but in a "I have some stalker blood in me good thing my wife is a little wacky else she'd realize I'm a little out there" kind of way.  I finished the book because I kind of wanted to know what happened but not because I actually cared.  It was more like I wanted to find out what happened in the book and not what happened to these actual people.  The Sixth Sense this was not.  I'd recommend a hard pass on this one. Rating:  Eh, #7

The synopsis indicates a page turner of a book rooted in family lies and betrayals...which I suppose it was, but its really about a girl and her family and the complications that are buried in just about everyone's past, at least within six degrees...there were some characters who never got the comeupance to which they were due, there were some plot points that never really resolved, there were some story lines that were never quite flushed out...this was a flawed book which tried to sell itself as more than it was capable of being. Was it terrible?  Nah, and as a beach read when there is not much around, sure, you'll probably like it well enough.  Don't read that much?  Skip it.  Pick up State of Wonder or Calypso or Devil in the White City or A Gentleman in Moscow ...there's better fish in the sea.  Rating:  #5 Good Enough

I read this last summer when I was on my Robin McKinley kick.  This fell somewhere on the scale lower than Deerskin and the Blue Sword but well above Beauty.  Its a vampire book and in my opinion so superior to Stephanie Meyer's trash that it really shouldn't be in the same genre.  Its also described as "urban fantasy" which I suppose it is too-again, superior to most such.  In the book, Sunshine is an everyday girl facing the same issues as every other young adult trying to figure out their place in the world until boom-she is dropped into a vampire gang's torture game, meets the most compelling Constantine (of course he has a cool name) and starts to recall some not-so-normal things from her own past.  I like McKinley, I don't hate vampires (Meyer's books notwithstanding), fantasy is right up my alley and all in all, I liked this book quite a lot.  Worth the read.  Rating:  #4 Liked It

Do you like fairy tales?  That are a bit dark and twisted?  And dogs?  Lissar is the heroine of this one and boy is she put through the ringer.  The author's note at the end of the book indicates that the inspiration for the book was a story by Charles Perrault called Donkeyskin which, because of its subject matter, is often not included in collections of fairy tales.  There is a reason-no one would read this story to a child! That said, and accepting that this is NOT your child's fairy tale, the book was very good.  The story one of redemption and finding oneself and one's place in the world.  Of taking time and accepting help when its needed and in taking ownership of your life and your path when you are ready.  It was also a love story between a girl and her dog and also a little bit of the more traditional love story.  As I made my way through this book I realized that I had read it before, likely many years ago, but that did not deter me from continuing to read it. I d