Two reviews - one dud and one winner, and I share what I'm currently reading:

I'll cover the dud first. Innocent Little Crimes by C.S. Lakin sounded somewhat promising. A wealthy, wildly successful comedienne calls together her college drama group for a weekend reunion at her palatial home on an island in the Pacific Northwest. Of course, all isn't as it seems and the reader quickly finds out that Lila has several motivations for inviting the specific guests to her revenge-driven event. I just couldn't get into the mean-spiritedness of so many of the characters. I didn't really want to root for any of them, as they raced through the island's forests and beaches on a quest to not be killed during the "game" Lila devised. Even the epilogue was just "meh." Skip this one. 

Donna Gephart's young adult novel Lily and Dunkin is important because it addresses issues that impact young people today; these concerns influenced young adults in the 50s too, but they certainly weren't ever talked about: one character is transgender and the other has bi-polar disorder. At the heart of the novel is how alone and scared teens feel when they know they are different from the majority of their peers. Gephart handles the content confidently (her son is bi-polar) and with sensitivity, and she steals your heart as you come to know Lily (formerly Tim) and Dunkin (formerly Norbert), as well as their many supportive and non-supportive family members. I think what I liked best about this book is that it strips away all of the labels I've mentioned above and allows you to see Lily and Dunkin for who they are, while also showing how much pain they are in, even as they outwardly appear to ably navigate life. This book touches on several other mental health issues, but I won't go into detail because I don't want give anything away. It is quick read, told in alternating voices. Don't think you would enjoy reading anything about transgender people? This book will surprise you, and you probably should keep a box of tissues nearby as the ending wraps up. 

Currently reading: The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson. Ignore the cheesy book cover, and strap yourself in for a ride reminiscent of Gone Girl.

Lily Kintner is an intelligent, attractive, and compelling female character. When she was a pre-teen, the male houseguest who came to stay in her bohemian parents' home that summer left one day, without saying goodbye. Or did he? Lily is cool, collected, analytical and does have a sense of right and wrong, especially when it comes to people who deserve punishment. She may have met her match in the beautiful, enigmatic Miranda, who has her own motivations for building a luxurious mansion on the Maine coast, while working extremely closely with the contractor Brad (her husband Ted continues to grow their wealth back home in Boston). How do these stories connect? Check out the book - so far it has been hard to stop listening, and I'm having a tough time predicting the ending!

Here's a quick review of two books that couldn't be more different. One is sure to please and the other will definitely elicit negative opinions, even as it stands on literary merit.

A Man Called Ove: A Novel (Frederik Backman) was simply a delight to listen to, and my friends and family who have read the print version enjoyed it just as much. Covering the present and past of Ove (pronounced ooh vuh), the book peels back the main character's layers to help you understand why he's such an irascible old bastard who seemingly hates everyone. Set in Sweden, the author both tells and shows how Ove evolved into his cranky old man persona. I found myself tearing up during certain chapters because I might just know an Ove or two in my own life. Ove likes his house, car (a Saab, of course, because everything else is crap) and neighborhood to be "just right" and goes to great lengths to make sure the proper rules of life are enforced at all times. This is a wonderful story about love, both conditional and unconditional, and it has redemptive qualities that make you feel hopeful about our world, especially now with so much pervasive violence surrounding us. It is also quite funny! There is also a film adaptation of the novel.

Feeling like reading a shocker of a novel, one that might even make you feel the need to take a bracing shower to get the story's creepiness off of you? Check out All the Ugly and Wonderful Things: A Novel by Brynn Greenwood (from just down the road in Lawrence, KS). Take a white-trash family who runs a ramshackle meth lab in rural Oklahoma, throw in an extremely bright daughter who rarely speaks or eats, and mix in a helpless little brother and you have the backbone for this strange love story. At age eight, Wavonna (Wavy) manages to mother her little brother Donal and to lay low when her parents are fighting, making up in the bedroom, tweaking on meth, or all three. One of the lab workers, a hulking, tattooed 20-something, notices Wavy's situation and takes an interest in her and her brother. Kellen doesn't seem very bright to anyone and he's an ex-con, but Wavy takes to him right away and he works hard to make sure she stays in school and isn't harmed by her parents. A few years pass and Wavy decides she wants to be with Kellen the rest of her life. All sorts of hell breaks loose once the only responsible adult in the family, Wavy's aunt Brenda, learns that Wavy and Kellen have a "thing" going on.

This story is unseemly on many levels, yet you will find that you can't stop reading it, and not just because of the startling relationship between Wavy and Kellen. You'll appreciate your nice clean sheets, hots meals on a table during meal time, parents who are genuinely invested in their children, and a host of myriad other everyday niceties after you immerse yourself in Wavy's sad, bleak life. I kept wondering how this story would end and have to say that it definitely wrapped up differently than I'd predicted. 

Warning: this story depicts graphic sexual behavior between an adult man and a barely 14-year-old girl. It is disturbing. The book, however, is beautifully written and extremely compelling. You'll be thinking about Wavy and her warped world for quite some time after the story ends. 

I hadn't read any of Ruta Sepetys books before, even though I'd heard several recommendations for her earlier book Between Shades of Gray. A colleague was very enthusiastic about her newest book, Salt to the Sea, so I decided to give it a listen, pressing my iPod into play, and couldn't stop! Set in a snowy, perilous landscape, this story is a beautifully written work of art. As an aside, it is also one that will likely make you feel frivolous for all the times in your life that you may have complained about being cold. 

This novel covers four perspectives of a ragtag group of teens and adults grasping at straws as they are trapped between Russian and German forces as World War II is slowly grinding to a bloody end. Told through each character's voice, the story unfolds secrets and motivations only barely hinted out when the tale begins. Based on true events, the story moves from East Prussia to the worst maritime tragedy in history. Sepetys' storytelling sweeps the disparate and desperate characters along their paths, sometimes making the reader cringe because he or she can't do anything to help them. If you enjoyed All the Light We Cannot See, you'll also enjoy this excellent novel. 

I didn't expect to enjoy The Traitor's Story by Kevin Wignall as much as I did. The author takes espionage, betrayal, regret, and a missing 15-year-old and wraps it up neatly in a fast-paced novel that takes the reader on a thrilling, whirlwind trip through Europe. Finn Harrington is a former spy turned author of non-fiction history. He's put his old life behind him, and has started to feel like he's slipped off the grid and can finally relax when a teenage girl goes missing. Reluctantly, Finn agrees to help the family, and finds himself dealing with shady characters that align with a series of cataclysmic events that happened several years ago - events that had devastating results, causing Finn to feel bitter and betrayed, and rightly so. The confrontational scene on the frozen lake will remind you of the exquisite spy v. spy stalking action in the French countryside in The Bourne Identity. The novel is written with alternating chapters capturing the past and present as the events spiral towards the final confrontation. 

I'm going to try to continue to update this reviewing blog more frequently. Here's some extremely short book reviews:

1. Only Time Will Tell: The Clifton Chronicles by Jeffrey Archer. Harry, raised in poverty, gets a chance to go to boarding school with sons from more fortunate families and learns much about the class struggle and honor and friendship; takes place in England between the wars. First of seven in the series. I love Jeffrey Archer! This isn't terribly deep stuff, but he's a thoroughly entertaining writer.

2. The Edge of Lost by Kristina McMorris. Coming-of-age tale of Tommy who learns how to reinvent himself amid many adventures from Ireland to New York to Alcatraz Island. He is such a likable, adaptable character that you'll find yourself cheering for him through every mishap.

3. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng. Chinese American Ohio university professor's family seems to fit into an idyllic lifestyle in the college town until their A+ daughter disappears. Many secrets become unfurled as they discover what happened. All is clearly not what it seemed.

4. The Lost Wife: A Novel by Alyson Richman. Historical fiction that taught me much about Terezin and the art movement that happened there during the Holocaust. A terrific, moving, redemptive love story set during the most terrible of times.

5. The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley. Carrie, in Scotland researching the Jacobean uprising, finds herself slipping back in time and becoming a participant in events at a now abandoned castle. This is a very intelligent book, not one of the "Outlander" rip-offs you see so often. You'll learn a lot of history and also get swept up in a romance all set in a castle on a cliff above the brooding sea.

6. The Woodcutter by Reginald Hill. This story follows Wolf Hadda, who suddenly finds himself imprisoned for acts that he swears he did not commit. The story moves back and forth from his hard-scrabble childhood years, to his first love, and to his current court case. I LOVE THIS BOOK. Let's just say revenge is indeed a dish best served cold.

7. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. This book is incredibly long and detailed and I loved every second of it. Follows six different storylines, in six different points in time, and is shared in six different writing styles - such a unique book. Each story is so compelling and clever, and just as you get swept up in one tale the author moves you on to one of the other five stories. The movie version is fun, but leaves out an incredible amount of material.

8. The Passage by Justin Cronin. This is a book about the government's botched plan to create "super humans" and the devastating effects of their mistakes on all of humanity. The book starts off with great storytelling about an event, moves a long a bit, then switches forward 100 years in time. Stick with it. The writing is superb, the horror is terrifying, and the entertainment factor is high. When I finished reading it I was devastated that I'd have to wait for a few years for the sequel.

9. You by Caroline Kepnes. Okay this book is SO not for everyone. Really. It is about a truly warped, nutcase guy who is over-the-top obsessed with a girl who wanders into the bookstore where he works. It is gruesome, shocking, and written in a thoroughly fresh way. The crazy thing is that as the main character shares his every inner thought about the world and people in it, you can almost begin to sympathize with him. There is a sequel, but I need a long break because this book is quite disturbing.

10. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. One of the saddest books I've ever read. Four young men come of age while attending university in NYC. One of them, Jude, suffers from extreme depression (including cutting behaviors) and as the book unfolds you learn why he is so sad and diminished. The friends all wander in and out of each other's lives, but Jude is the touchstone. Very disturbing material, and a tough ending, but the writing makes it worth the journey. People seem to either love it or just literally hate it.

Finally, consider delving into Haruki Murakami. He is just the most delightful, creative writer and the translations of his novels read beautifully. He often explores the human condition, parallel worlds, strange happenings, and above all else: love. He also wrote a great book about why he's a runner. Check him out. IQ84 is my favorite, but be prepared for a very long read (1,000+ pages).

Bellweather Rhapsody by Kate Racculia is the perfect book to curl yourself around on a cold, windy winter weekend. If I had the time, I would have read it in one day. As it was, it took me a couple of weeks to read this novel, and I don’t deny that a huge part of the appeal of coming home for lunch, on days I could manage it, was that I would get to unpeel another layer in this fun, creepy, murder mystery/coming-of-age novel.

The year is 1997. Take a pair of musically gifted, high school twins: add in a regional music competition at a crumbling old gothic hotel, a fanatical, crazed conductor, a handful of flawed characters, an impending blizzard, and you’ve got yourself one rollicking good time. The depth of some of the characters and their private agonies and joys surprised me, as did the general snarky tone and the reveal-upon-reveal as the story plays out. Teenaged Rabbit Hatmaker may just be my favorite character of the year, as he faces his inner self and tentatively (and then competently) stretches to come out of the comfortable little shell in which he has lived in his sister Alice's shadow.

The book starts out with gusto: fifteen years into the past, a young girl attending a wedding at the hotel wanders off and accidentally chances upon a fresh murder scene in Room 712 – a new bride has shot her husband and then hung herself. Strap yourself into a seatbelt as this story takes off from a variety of angles and then manages to (mostly) wrap up the loose ends. You'll enjoy the late 90s references from the novel's setting, and you'll also wonder when Racculia’s next book is coming out.

I've read a few books since my last post. Here we go:

The tagline for Ken Grimwood’s Replay reads: What if you could live your life over again? And over again? And over again? This is a time travel novel that will appeal to those of you who have pondered how useful it might be to be able to go back to a certain date or year and to use known historical events in one’s favor. The protagonist, Jeff, is an unhappily married 43-year-old who is considering leaving his wife when he suddenly has a heart attack. As he fades out of consciousness, he realizes that he has missed on out all of life’s opportunities and that he’s just simply going to die without ever leaving a mark on the world.

Instead, however, he wakes up in his college dorm room as an 18-year-old, and gradually comes to understand that he’s been given a second chance to live his life all over again. Jeff tries to live his former college lifestyle for a brief time, but quickly abandons studying when he sees that he could make a tremendous amount of money by making bets on sporting events and at casinos. This new life is wildly different than his previous one, and when he begins to think he’s learning how to be happy again, he had another heart attack, again rues all of his past mistakes, and winds up waking up at college again. Instead of finding himself in his dorm room bed again, he reawakens on an outing with friends, a time that occurred just a bit later than when he originally awakened in his room…what does the lapse in time mean, and has Jeff been given another chance?

I’m a sucker for time travel books. Jeff is an appealing character, and is also in many ways very sexist, as evidenced by his behaviors. With the passage to time, and time traveling, Jeff learns to evolve emotionally. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and hated to see it end. If you enjoy time traveling scenarios, check out the classic Time and Again by Jack Finney (you’ll never think about New York City the same way) or Kate Atkinson’s haunting Life After Life, wherein the heroine lives her life multiple times in strands that always seem to be cut short just as she’s learning how to manage her life and circumstances.

I just couldn't put down The Martian by Andy Weir and I read it in one day. Space stories are the modern take on the Western and I love both genres equally.

The basic story is this: an astronaut and his team are investigating soil samples on Mars when a sudden dust storm sweeps them away from their station. One of them, Mark Watney, appears to be gravely injured. The commander manages to get the rest of the team to the transport and back to their ship, the Hermes. They head home, filled with sadness for the loss of the fun, intelligent, and irreverent botanist they left behind. Mark wakes up and while he is indeed injured badly, he manages to get into their temporary station, the Hab, and to clean up and stitch his wounds.

Then the reality sets in. Hermes is gone. Another scheduled fight to Mars won't happen for years. Mark has enough food to last him 400 days. Then, he'll slowly starve to death. Mark immediately begins assessing how he might survive, and with MacGyver-like skills, he starts making decisions and taking actions that will give him the best odds for survival. He is extremely resourceful, and also has an incredibly snarky sense of humor that helps him cope. Being a botanist comes in handy, because he quickly figures out how he can grow a potato crop in the Hab. Will he figure out how to communicate with Earth to let them know he is still alive? Will he be able to survive the extreme cold on Mars? What will it take for one man facing certain death to rise up and fight with every fiber of his being? This book is a hell of a fun ride. Just be prepared to ignore everything else going on because you'll want to find out what is happening to Mark each time he shares a new journal entry. Shamelessly, I hope this one gets made into a film!

Thornwood House by Anna Romer takes place in the 2006, and involves single-mother Audrey and her daughter, 11-year-old Bronwyn. They have recently inherited an old, weatherbeaten home in rural Queensland, and decide to move there as an adventure. While there, Audrey confronts both her own past (her daughter's father never wanted to marry her, and he also later committed suicide), and also the past lives of the inhabitants of the house. Audrey uncovers some nasty secrets that cause trouble for her and Brownyn, and she starts wondering if making the move to Thornwood House was big mistake. This modern gothic story includes suspense, murder, and a bit of romance. It is very entertaining, and would make for a terrific beach or vacation read.  

The idea of losing a sibling is unbearable. How then, might a twin feel when she loses her sister, who is her very soul, and deals with that loss by recreating all of the horrible actions that led to the sister's downfall and death?

Her by Christa Parravani is a memoir, and a painful one to read. I had to put it down a few times because the emotions were so raw and challenging.

Christa always loved Cara more than anyone else. Cara was her lifeboat in an shaky, dysfunctional family situation. When Cara got married, Christa thought she'd die of sadness, yet the twins still managed to be present in each other's lives. A horrible crime besets Cara, and she is simply never the same as her life spirals out of control. Christa does everything within her power to help her sister, and the eventual loss of Cara nearly kills her.

Christa is an amazing photographer and you can see photos of her and Cara that she took over a period of years when they were young adults. They are also featured on the cover. This memoir is redemptive and ultimately uplifting, but what a tough, tough journey the author traveled to get to that point. Emotionally exhausting.