I finally finished this book! It took me nearly a month, but I did it.

There’s so much to this book, that I can’t really give it a good book review. I was never good at book reviews anyway. It’s a story about a group of people from all walks of life that find themselves living in the cathedral town of Kingsbridge Priory.

While a cathedral is being built, politics and pettiness of enemies get in the way. People fall in love. People make bad decisions. People die.

The book was nearly 1000 pages, yet I still felt rushed at the end. I’m wondering if the author would have told the story better if he made this a trilogy or series. Overall, I felt it was a good book and would recommend it.

Dr. Jenny Paige returns to her small town home of Snowfield after picking up her sister Lisa. Immidately they notice the town is quieter than normal. When they enter Jenny’s home, they find the housekeeper dead with some strange affliction. Something strange is going on in Snowfield.

When they’re finally able to call the sherrif of a local town into Snowfield, they find even more terrifying clues. Severed hands and severed heads. The entire town is either dead or missing.

More and more it’s looking like the Devil himself has visited Snowfield. And he’s still there. Playing with them like a cat plays with a mouse before he kills it.

A page-turner and not quite as horrific as it may seem. Koontz always develops his characters extraordinarily well. There’s some strong human emotions and even some humor found in this book. I could barely put it down.

I picked this book up at Zuly’s recommendation. Normally I don’t like books where murder is involved to any degree, so I was a bit skeptical going into this one.

The author has a unique writing style. The book is written in first person narrative, where the narrator is Nina, the mother. It is also written in third-person from the viewpoint of all the main characters (all of them EXCEPT Fisher, Nina’s attorney). In between chapters it also contains little memories written in first person by Nathaniel, the son.

Perfect Match is a story of a mother trying to protect her son. She is a prosecutor and has handled many child molestation cases only to come home one day and find out her own child has been molested. She knows that the legal system does not work in the child’s best interest in these sorts of cases, so she decides to take the law into her own hands.

I didn’t care for any of the main characters. I thought all of them were completely selfish. The ending of the book has a twist, but it doesn’t really make the book any better in my opinion.

All in all, it was a WONDERFUL book. Definitely one of my new favorites.

I don’t know what it is I liked about this book. It doesn’t tell an extraordinary story, but Elizabeth Berg seems to have a way with words. She makes the most ordinary things seem interesting and compelling.

I listened to this book way back when I had an Audible.com subscription. I highly enjoyed the book the first time around, even though I wasn’t actually reading it.

The second time around I was mostly annoyed with it, however. Maybe it was because I was reading it so quickly. Maybe it was because I already knew what was going to happen. I’m not very good at watching or reading things multiple times.

It’s hard to believe that there are people who care so little about their own children. The fact that this book was written by real-life nannies makes the plot even more stomach-wrenching.

Maybe I’m just a sucker for nice, frilly chick-lit books, but this one didn’t leave me satisfied and frankly, just left me completely depressed.

This is a ghost story and love story all rolled into one. A tale about life coming full circle on itself. The chapters alternate between the storyteller, Hannah and the history of a family that touches Hannah’s life one summer in a small town in Maine.

The history starts in the early 1800s when Claris Osgood is 10 years old and already feels completely different than her close, loving family members. She meets a boy named Danial Haskell and they fall in love. They marry against the Osgood’s wishes. Danial lives on the island and the Osgoods don’t want Claris taken so far away from them. They question how well Danial will treat her. They want what’s best for Claris, but she won’t hear any of it.

Claris soon finds out Danial isn’t the person she thought he was at all. He is cold and heartless. Claris loses her first two daughters in a miscarriage and when she finally has a son, Amos, he is her pride and joy. Danial never cared much for Amos mostly because he reminded Danial of the Osgoods. He was musically talented, but Danial would have no music in the house. A few years later, Claris has another child, a girl named Sallie. Sallie takes after her father’s side and it is apparent her mother doesn’t love her as much.

Hannah Gray tells the story of one summer spent in the small town in Maine where Claris once lived. Her stepmother doesn’t care for her and her father is never around. Hannah’s mother grew up in this town and everyone sees fit to tell her how much she looks like her mother.

Hannah begins to see a ghost in her summer home. The ghost is always weeping, but it isn’t to be pitied. It’s ugly with piercing eyes and Hannah is very clear that it is a THING, not a person. She spends the summer investigating the origin of her house, which used to be the schoolhouse on the island. She finds out about the Haskell’s and about the strange events that led to Danial Haskell’s murder.

On her journey, she comes across a young man named Conary Crocker. They are immediately taken with one another and quickly fall in love. Conary has run into the ghost before as well and is the only person Hannah can turn to with her findings.

This is their story, as it is the story of the Haskells. What happened that summer and what happened long ago and how they are connected. The book ended with me wanting more. I wanted to know more about Hannah’s life after that summer and more about the motivation behind the Haskell’s. A very quick read, not scary at all for a ghost story and highly recommended!

I read Gregory Maguire’s Wicked and absolutely loved it. I adore the idea of taking a common story and putting a twist on it. I was excited about this new book, so I reserved it at the library before it had even been published.

I was sorely disappointed and that is being kind. I felt like I missed something important in the story telling process that would explain what was happening. The basic plot of the story is easy enough to follow.

Bianca de Nevada’s name literally translates into White from Snow (Nevada being a snowy region). Bianca is the daughter of a landowner, Vicente, who’s mother died during childbirth. She lives with the cook, Primavera who acts as her nanny and Fra Ludovico, a priest. While draining a lake for irrigation purposes, they find a mirror laying at the bottom and put it up on a wall in their home.

One day a campaign comes through and the Borgia siblings, Cesare and Lucrezia pay Bianca and her father a visit. The Borgia’s are historical people, known for their wicked ways. Cesare sends Vicente out on a quest to find the lost limb of the Tree of Knowledge.

The quest spans a decade and while Vicente is gone, Lucrezia drops in from time to time under the pretense of making sure Bianca is safe. She doesn’t like the girl, but is never malicious toward her until her brother, Cesare comes along and is aroused by Bianca’s beauty. Lucrezia is jealous of the attention Cesare gives to her and is bent on killing her.

She employs Primavera’s grandson, a hunter, to take her out into the forest and kill her, bringing back her heart. The hunter takes her out to the forest and tells her to run away, which she does.

This is the part where I get a little sketchy because somehow Bianca falls into a deep sleep that spans several years. While she is sleeping, dwarves look after her. The dwarves are not those that appear in the Disney cartoon, they are completely separate and odd creatures. They are not really aware of themselves as unique individuals until Bianca comes to them. They are stone shape-shifters, obviously not human. There’s nothing really interesting or endearing about the dwarves.

When Bianca wakes up, there is an odd scene where her menstrual fluid comes out in one big spurt, as if it was being held back all those years. I’m still not exactly sure what that is supposed to symbolize.

Bianca is quick to “befriend” the dwarves, although that isn’t really the correct terminology because they are not her friends. They name themselves for her with names like Heartless, Gimpy and MuteMuteMute. They speak of an eighth, their brother. He has followed Vicente on his journey. The goal was to get their mirror back. Yes, of course, the mirror that was found at the bottom of the lake belongs to the dwarves. They created it in order to study humans so that they, themselves, might become more human.

Vicente comes back from his journey with the limb. The limb contained three apples. One was left in another place for safe keeping. When he comes back, he learns his daughter is dead and Primavera has lost her tongue. Although it never states why, it is evident that Lucrezia had it cut out so Primavera wouldn’t speak the truth she knew about Bianca. Lucrezia takes one of the apples and offers a slice to the stone dwarf that is following Vicente. The creature eats the slice and then takes the rest of the apple when it is offered to him by Lucrezia.

The dwarf then leaves and returns to his brothers. They all eat from the apple. It seems to make them more human. It makes them age and change like a human would.

Lucrezia learns that Bianca is still alive from the gooseboy who saw her in the forest. The gooseboy is supposedly Lucrezia’s son, but that is another detail I missed the explanation for. Lucrezia becomes mad and tries several different ways to kill Bianca. She finally takes the last of the apples she was given and puts poison on one side of it. She gets Bianca to eat the apple by tasting from the non-poisoned side first.

Bianca goes into another deep sleep lasting for years. The dwarves recapture their mirror and take the glass out to place over her coffin. Vicente stumbles upon her and just sits there for years before wandering off and dying. The gooseboy stumbles upon her and takes the glass off her coffin and asks to kiss her. The hunter, Primavera’s grandson, comes back and stops the gooseboy and takes the pleasure for himself, awaking Bianca.

Meanwhile Lucrezia wants to be happy and will stop at nothing for it. She is obsessed with the apple and feels that if she could have only had more of it, she would be happy. She remembers the third apple Vicente spoke of and sets off to find it. When she gets there, she finds a man who is using the apple himself. He has it in place of his heart.

The end – that’s it. The whole sordid tale doesn’t make much sense to me. The story is too hard to follow and no one seems to be motivated to act the way they’re acting. Things just happen for no good reason. Nothing is really explained very well.

As mentioned before, this is a disappointment compared with Wicked. No magical world was created for me filled with wonder and emotion, friendships and excitement. Just a hard-to-follow story that is trying desperately to be exactly like, yet hardly familiar to the story of Snow White.

Another Chick-Lit book. In this one a girl named Jackie is dumped by her boyfriend via email. The description sounded promising. Jackie knows what she really wants and sets out to find it, only the problem is that she doesn’t.

There were too many scenes at the club. So many in fact that sometimes I felt like I was reading the same chapters over and over again.

The book was good, but Jackie spends too much time focusing on men. Too much time pining. For once I’d like to read a chick lit book that involved a strong, independant woman. Although Jackie comes together somewhat in the end, I still felt she was weak.

All in all it was a fun read and gave my mind a little break. Very enjoyable and mostly not annoying.

I felt guilty reading this book for some reason. I can’t help but imagine that the life of a geisha around the time of the second World War would have been especially troubling. Reading a book written by an American man retelling the fictional story of a geisha though, almost seemed wrong. I understand that Arthur Golden did a tremendous amount of research on the topic on top of what he already knew of the subject of Japanese history, however as much as I want to believe that this could possibly be even remotely accurate as historical fiction, I can’t.

I feel guilty mostly because I know so little about Geisha in the first place. I don’t know whether or not I can believe Mr. Golden when he tries to reassure me that he was indeed accurate in the day-to-day life of a Geisha.

Supposing he was correct though, the information was amazing. The story wasn’t anything spectacular. In fact, the basis of the story has been told over and over and over again. Poor girl endures hardships and ends up with a happy life. The history behind the story and the detail that goes into describing what it means to be a geisha is why the book should be read.

I would have preferred it if the book didn’t take place around War World II though. I would have been more interested in following a geisha throughout a life not interrupted by the pangs of war. It would have been interesting for Sayuri to take an apprentice under her own wings and allowed the story to come full circle in that way.

The one thing that seemed most artificial about the book was Sayuri’s infatuation with The Chairman, a character she encounters once during her childhood and can’t ever get from her mind. He showed her kindness when he first met her and had probably been the only person in her life to show her true kindness, so her early infatuation with him was understandable. As her life continued though, the whole thing just seemed unnatural.

I could have stopped three quarters of the way through the book and been happy. I didn’t really care for the last hundred pages or so and just kept reading to get through the book. Overall though, this is one of the best books I’ve read so far (if not the best book) If you have any interest in history at all and haven’t yet read this book, it’s an absolute must.

The Lovely Bones is about a girl named Susie who is brutally raped and murdered when she is fourteen. Susie goes to her own individual heaven and she can see everything happening on earth. She can see her family greiving their loss and she can see her killer, a neighbor no one but her father is willing to suspect.

Susie watches her classmates and younger brother and sister grow up while she remains the same fourteen year old girl. She is fixated on Earth below instead of trying to focus on her new life in heaven.

What I found amazing was Susie’s calm and general lack of emotion throughout the events of the the book. She is killed in a disturbing manner and Susie casually speaks of it as if she were describing someone making a peanut butter sandwich. She is far too comfortable with her own death and murder for my liking.

It was certainly a unique book and a very good read, but the last hundred pages or so seemed very sluggish to me. It was almost as if the writer were told she needed to make the book longer, so she tacked on the pages. Thankfully it came together nicely in the last couple of chapters.