TSS: In Which I Succumb to the Flu

So you may have noticed (or not) that the blog has been quiet this week. On Wednesday I was diagnosed with bronchitis, yet I still hopped on a plane for a business trip that afternoon. As you know, airplanes are pretty much airborne cattle cars, overflowing with germs and illness. I was sent home by my supervisor after spending two days in Milwaukee and began a twenty-four hour insane attempt to get home. I left Friday afternoon, finally arrived home yesterday afternoon. My connection in Charlotte was cancelled, forcing me to stay the night there before catching a flight the next morning. This is the point I should mention that I was feverish, coughing, and felt like I’d been run over by a truck. After finally arriving home yesterday afternoon, after my husband’s insistence, I returned to the doctor. I knew my bronchitis had advanced to something much more; after taking antibiotics for four days I wasn’t feeling a bit of relief, I was actually feeling worse.

So, I have the flu. It’s not pretty. I don’t remember ever feeling as bad as I do right now. They can’t treat the flu, just hopefully lessen the symptoms a bit. The doctor says I’m on the cusp of the “worst days.” If what I’m experiencing now is supposed to be light, I have a problem. While I’m getting quite a bit of reading done since I don’t have the energy to do much else, please be patient while I catch up with my posts.

With that, I’m retiring to my reading chair, a mug of coffee, and a good book.

 

Posted in The Sunday Salon | 6 Comments

Review: The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro

  • Hardcover: 368 pages
  • Publisher: Algonquin Books; 1 edition (October 23, 2012)
  • ISBN-10: 1616201320
  • Source: Publisher

Claire Roth is a struggling young artist, making ends meet by reproducing famous works of art for an online art retailer. Desperate to get out of her occupational rut, she agrees to a shady deal with the owner of a prominent art gallery, Aiden Markel. An expert in Degas’ masterpieces, she agrees to forge a painting stolen in largest unsolved art heists in history in return for a lucrative fee and a one-woman showing in Markel’s gallery. Yet when the painting arrives in Claire’s studio she begins to wonder if it, in fact, is a forgery itself.  While studying the history of the artist and his work, Claire discovers the truth about the painting, uncovering centuries-old secrets whose answers may help save not only her career, but her very life as well.

A truly intense literary thriller, Shapiro’s The Art Forger not only provides readers with an intense read, but also a truly fascinating glimpse of art history. Never a fan of art history myself (I know, I know) I was a bit wary when I received this book for review. That said, the thriller lover in me was rewarded, the level of suspense prevented me from tearing my eyes away from this book, allowing me to finish it in mere hours. Additionally, the characters are as multidimensional as the plot. Claire is desperate to rebuild her name after an incident with her former lover/artist casts doubt on her integrity as an artist. She’s  desperate enough that she is willing to risk even more in order to obtain the opportunity to showcase her own art. Readers earn quite early on just how flawed her character is and rather than being repelled by this characteristic, one cannot help but feel sympathy for what she has been dealt.

In addition to the suspense and the incredible art history there is a good deal of steamy romance. Normally, this would put me off but I found myself becoming quite involved and invested in Claire’s love life, alternating between rooting for and yelling at her for her actions.

Bottom line, fans of both suspense and art history alike will be drawn into this incredible novel. Highly recommended.

 

Posted in Algonquin Books, Mystery/Suspense, Review | Tagged , , | 12 Comments

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading This Week?

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading This Week? This is a weekly event to list the books completed last week, the books currently being read, and the books to be finish this week. It is hosted by Sheila from One Person’s Journey Through a World of  Books so stop by and join in!

Books Completed Last Week

Kinsey and Me: Stories by Sue Grafton
The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro
The Good House by Ann Leary
What’s a Ghoul to Do?: A Ghost Hunter Mystery by Victoria Laurie

Currently Reading

The Lawyer’s Lawyer by James Sheenan
Proven Guilty (The Dresden Files #08) by Jim Butcher (audio)

Books to Complete This Week


Level 2 by Lenore Appelhans

What are you reading this week?

Posted in It's Monday What Are you Reading This Week | 3 Comments

Frightful Friday: The One I Left Behind by Jennifer McMahon

Frightful Friday is a weekly meme in which I feature a particularly scary or chilling book that I read that week. Feel free to participate by posting a link to your frightful read in the comments!

This week’s featured book is The One I Left Behind by Jennifer McMahon:

  • Paperback: 432 pages
  • Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Original edition (January 2, 2013)
  • ISBN-10: 006212255X
  • Source: Publisher

Reggie is just thirteen years old when her world is upended, life forever altered.  It was the summer of 1985. Reggie lived with her mother, Vera, a woman who had her own issues, namely being there when Reggie needed her. Instead, Vera spent most of her evenings out drinking, doing who-knows-what with a host of men. That summer, a serial killer referred to as Neptune begins abducting and killing woman. He cuts off their hand and leaves it on the steps of the police department. Five days later, the women’s bodies are found somewhere in town.

One evening, Vera fails to return home after an evening of festivities. This wasn’t abnormal but with all that is going on, Reggie is concerned. This concern is warranted, for Vera’s hand shows up on the steps of the police department. Five days later there is still no body and Neptune disappears without a trace.

Fast-forward twenty-five years. Reggie fled the horrors of her home town and now lives as a successful architect.  She’s tried hard to forget her past, including her remaining family and friends. When she receives a phone call from her aunt stating her mother has been found alive, Reggie is forced to confront all her horrid memories. Neptune also returns and Reggie realizes that she is the only one who can track down and put an end to his brutal killings.

Alternating between Reggie’s viewpoints as a teen and as an adult, The One I Left Behind is an incredibly haunting character-driven novel. A fan of everything McMahon has penned, this novel may very well top the list as my favorite. As with her other novels, McMahon’s main character is a young, unruly girl, a character type this author excels at writing about. McMahon is able so expertly capture the triumphs and tribulations of Reggie’s young life, realistically capturing each and every emotion she experiences. Additionally, McMahon throws so many loops to storyline and the possible identity of Neptune, readers are left guessing his(her!?) identity to the very end.

What I appreciated most about this novel was the examination and exploration of characters and relationships, mainly the relationships Reggie has with her mother and her best friend, Vera. It was quite interesting to see how these relationships shifted with time, completely transforming from their original state.

Bottom line, McMahon is simply a genius when it comes to writing literary suspense. With each novel she writes I grow to love and appreciate her writing even more. I cannot wait to see what she comes up with next. Highly, highly recommended.

Posted in Frightful Friday, Mystery/Suspense, Review, William Morrow | 1 Comment

Review: Everything Was Good-bye by Gurjinder Basran

  • Paperback: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Pintail; Reprint edition (December 31, 2012)
  • ISBN-10: 0143186817
  • Source: Publisher
Meena is the youngest of six daughters raised by a widowed mother. Her family, native of India, continues to hold on to many of their culture’s customs. A young woman in her last year of high-school, Meena struggles to continue to honor tradition while living the life of an American young woman. Her older sisters were restricted by these traditions but Meena refuses to become a victim of the same fate. She must decide what is more important: tradition or following one’s own heart. The choice Meena ultimately makes has lasting, irreversible effects.

Everything Was Good-Bye is, at its very core, a incredibly emotional, brilliant examination of a young woman trying to seek a voice, an identity, while living in two vastly different cultures. Basran excels at building a truly genuine character in Meena that is both challenging and sympathetic. She so masterfully details the struggles Meena experiences in her strict, traditional Indian home, struggles that many of us outside the culture cannot comprehend. The reader follows Meena as she matures from a young high school girl to a more mature, more independent adult. The growth she experiences is tremendous, solely made possible by her hard-headed desire to live beyond the life planned out for her by her mother. What Meena experiences at each stage of her growth is certainly not easy, for she is forced to overcome more challenges in the span of a few years that many don’t face in an entire lifetime.

Though this novel is brief in pages, the content within is vast, an epic story told in a condensed manner. My challenge as a reviewer is that I want to give much more detail about the storyline, but doing so may spoil the experience for readers. Though this review is brief it is certainly not due to my lack of feelings and response to this novel. My only qualm with this novel was the ending; I wanted to know more about Meena and her future. To me, the ending seemed a little rushed, abrupt, when I wanted more detail. Nevertheless, this title destined to make an appearance in book clubs for Basran’s debut novel will have a lasting effect on its readers. Highly, highly recommended.

Posted in General Fiction, Penguin, Pintail, Review, Women's Fiction | 2 Comments

A Month in Review: December 2012

I actually hoped to post this earlier. It seemed I thought December had more days in it than it actually does!  Oh well, carry on!
Books Reviewed

Total books read: Approximately 15 (read multiples of many of the cozy mystery series featured)

*Pick of the month: Why do I even try? Ok, narrowing this down to three because this is my blog and I can :). Favorite general fiction: Me Before You; memoir: Elsewhere; cozy mystery: Fonduing Fathers.*

Special Events

In December I featured what I hope was the first of many annual Cozy Mystery Weeks. I discovered so many favorites, old and new, that I need an excuse to read more of these sort of books!

Upcoming Events!

Nothing immediately right around the corner but that’s not to say I don’t have my thinking cap on!

So what says you? How was your reading month? What were your favorite reads? What are you looking forward to reading in 2013?

Posted in Month in Review | 2 Comments

A Year in Review: 2012

Each year, I dread selecting my favorite books of the year. I read quite a bit and narrowing that list down to my “top” favorites is oftentimes impossible. This year, when I contemplated how I was going to accomplish this task I perused my blog, hoping for a solution. It wasn’t long before it hit me; wouldn’t it make sense for the books I nominate as my monthly favorites populate this dreadful favorite books of the year list?  So, ladies and gentlemen, that is what I have done. How is it possible to reduce a list of over 100 books down to just ten? How is that fair to all the books I loved and appreciated this year? So instead, I present to you a rather lengthy list of books I adored this year:

Apocalyptic Fiction

172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad
White Horse by Alex Adams

General Fiction

American Dervish by Ayad Akhtar
A Good American by Alex George
A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash
A Simple Thing by Kathleen McCleary
Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend by Matthew Dicks
The Trial of Fallen Angels by James Kimmel, Jr.

The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty
The Far Side of the Sky by Daniel Kalla
Hemingway’s Girl by Erika Robuck
The Midwife of Venice by Roberta Rich
The Technologists by Matthew Pearl

Horror

Assassin’s Code by Jonathan Maberry
Bloodman by Robert Pobi
Dead Harvest by Chris F. Holm
Zombiestan by Mainak Dhar

 

Suspense/Thriller

Broken Harbor by Tana French
Dare Me by Megan Abbott
Defending Jacob by William Landay
Edge of Dark Water by Joe R. Lansdale
Freak by Jennifer Hillier
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Helsinki White by James Thompson
Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes
Kill You Twice by Chelsea Cain
The Next One to Fall by Hilary Davidson

Love Stories

Overseas by Beatriz Williams
Me Before You by JoJo Moyes

That about wraps it up! What are some of your favorite books from 2012?  Don’t forget to check out my “Best of 2012: Nonfiction” post from last week!

Posted in Bookish Chatter | 11 Comments

Review: Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

  • Hardcover: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books (December 31, 2012)
  • ISBN-10: 0670026603
  • Source: Publisher

To put it frankly, Louisa Clark is an incredibly dull, normal girl. She has a steady boyfriend and still lives with her mom and dad in the same village in which she was born. After losing a job she loved, she’s desperate to find another. It is her income that helps support her parents and her sister, a single mother.

The opportunity that comes available to her is so unlikely: working as a caregiver to the wealthy young quadriplegic, Will Traynor. Bound to a wheelchair after a brutal accident, Will has lost his life as a young active man, world traveler, participating in a host of extreme sports. Will is extremely volatile, incredibly harsh and moody. At first, Lou things she’s in over her head.  After giving up a few times, however, the two form the most unlikeliest of connections. When Lou learns of a life-altering decision Will has made, she strives to provide him a life worth living.

Admittedly, I was quite wary of this book when I read the synopsis. Loyal followers will acknowledge that I’m not exactly a fan of romance. Despite these feelings, I dove in to reading this novel after quite a bit of encouragement from individuals whom I trust who adored this novel. And….I’m so glad I did. Perhaps it’s because Me Before You is the most unlikeliest of “love stories” I have read. Two completely different individuals who would have never crossed paths had it not been for the horrific accident that brought them together. While unlikely, the relationship they share is quite realistic and believable, not sugar coated in the least. Without giving away too much the ending, while difficult, is truly genuine and not at all the fairy tale ending of many love stories. All of these things combined with the truly sympathetic (while sometimes infuriating) lead characters, Moyes has created a truly rewarding, heartfelt, memorable novel.

Let it be known that I had no intentions of posting any more reviews this year. That said, I was so desperate to include this novel in my “Best of 2012” list to post tomorrow, I just had to write about it. I’ll admit to sobbing quite a bit while reading this book, and not the soundless sobbing but the gasping, messy sort of sobbing. While truly emotional it is more uplifting than depressing.  So I implore you to embrace the beauty in the unlikeliest of love stories I discovered in Me Before You.  It is a novel that has moved me, with a message that will carry on with me for some time: Just live well. Highly, highly recommended.

Posted in General Fiction, Review, Romance | 7 Comments

Best of 2012 Books: Nonfiction

As 2012 comes to an end, I reminisce about the books I read this year, narrowing down my favorites to accomplish the task I actually dread doing each year: “best of” lists. In years past I’ve dreaded this task so much that I’ve refused to do it. I read nearly 175 books every year. Narrowing that down to my top 10 list is nearly impossible.  Last year I came up with a method I actually look forward to. Rather than attempting to narrow down my list of favorite books to ten titles, why not simply spotlight all of my favorite books?

This year, I’ve decided to start off with my favorite non fiction titles. Non-fiction is definitely a segment of books I really need to explore more and each year I try to resolve to read more of it. It is definitely the shortest of my favorites list, but that certainly shouldn’t take away from the impact each of these books. So, without further ado. My favorites of 2012 Nonfiction List. Each of these books are vastly, vastly different as you will soon see:

 

Stay tuned for rest of my “Best of” books list, coming over the next several days.

Posted in Bookish Chatter | 5 Comments

Frightful Friday: Safe House by Chris Ewan

Frightful Friday is a weekly meme in which I feature a particularly scary or chilling book that I’ve read that week. Today’s featured book is Safe House by Chris Ewan:

  • Hardcover: 448 pages
  • Publisher: Minotaur Books; First Edition edition (December 11, 2012)
  • ISBN-10: 125001256
  • Source: Publisher

Rob Hale awakens in a hospital room after barely surviving a motorcycle accident. Instead of being concerned about his own well-being he asks about Lena, the beautiful blond passenger riding with him. The doctors and police insist he was the only victim found at the scene. Having lost his sister, Laura, to suicide in the last year, his family believes he is projecting memories and feelings about Laura into this fictional individual, Lena. Desperate to discover the truth on his own, he is soon joined by a private investigator, Rebecca Lewis, hired by his family to investigate his sister’s suicide. Rebecca has some secret connection to his sister, and in turn, the mysterious Lena.

Set on Isle of Man, Safe House is an extremely dynamic and well-plotted thriller. The setting, a small island in the Irish Sea between Great Britain and Ireland, plays an integral role in the storyline. With a population of near 80,000, its remote location allows residents to feel isolated, but soon Rebecca and Rob learn that even even the most close-knit locations can be overflowing with secrets.Much like the Tourist Trophy (locally referred to as the “TT”) motorcycle race the island is known for, Ewan takes readers on a full-throttle, intense ride throughout the entirety of this novel.

One of the most redeeming things (and there are many) about this book is the main character, Rob Hale. He’s your average Joe, just trying to get on with his life after the devastating loss of his sister. He doesn’t have a lucrative job (he works in heating and cooling) his passion, like many residents of the island, is motorcycle racing. It all started with a nice motorcycle ride with a beautiful blonde…and then Rob is forced to become embroiled in a truly terrifying series of events.

This is my first taste of Ewan’s writing and I must say it will not be my last. A truly heart-pounding thriller, I cannot wait for more. Highly recommended.

Author Chris Ewan on how he writes:

A sample of the audio book production from AudioGo:

Posted in Frightful Friday, Minotaur Books, Review, Thriller | 3 Comments