Sheryl's Booklist: December 2014

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Review: This is Where I Leave You

This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jo recommended this to me - and it's a current movie starring Jason Bateman. I liked it a lot - it's about a family whose patriarch dies and his dying wish is that the family sits shiva for him - that is, stays together in the house for a week as is Jewish custom.

The family of grown adults, however, are pretty dysfunctional - particularly as a clan. The main character's marriage is falling apart because of infidelity. He has three siblings: one struggling with infertility and bitterness, one whose marriage is helplessly unhappy, and one who is dating someone highly inappropriate. Their mother has secrets of her own. Still, they spend the week together and just barely manage not to kill each other.

The story was well-written and fun to read. Best of all, the ending was good. Lately, too many books I've read have tidy endings, and this one doesn't. This ending is a resolution, but it isn't tidy. Which, given the characters, seems very believable. My only criticism is that parts of the book felt too obviously like they were being written for a movie script. Which....maybe they were.

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Review: Maxed Out: American Moms on the Brink

Maxed Out: American Moms on the Brink by Katrina Alcorn

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I heard Alcorn speak at the Massachusetts Conference for Women and thought her story was interesting enough to buy her book. The book was ok - it was a memoir of how she became overwhelmed as a working mother. She details how her anxiety and panic grew as she took on more responsibility at work and added a second, and then third child to her family. Finally determining that she needed a break from work, she takes time off, only to discover many other women in similar circumstances.

Interspersed with each chapter of her story was a short 2-3 page section about research supporting things she was going through - like maternity leave in different countries, or the percentage of women with undiagnosed post-partum disorders. While she explained in the preface of her book that she did that to make it more interesting than just a memoir, that's where I felt like the book failed. I wanted to hear someone's personal story, not read the same statistics and facts that I keep seeing in the news.

While I applaud her for both finding a solution that worked for her family as well as sharing the personal details of her story with a large audience, I didn't love the book, mostly because it purported to be more than that, when that would have been more than enough.

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Review: Orphan Train

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was great - I think Jo may have recommended it to me. It's about an actual train that used to take orphans from the streets of New York City and bring them to the Midwest to be adopted by families who either wanted children or wanted cheap labor during the 1920's and 1930's. The book follows one particular girl through her journey and the different families she ended up living with, many of whom were abusive, and only one of whom ever treated her kindly as a member of their family.

This story is unwinding at the same time as another young woman in the 1990's is slowly aging out of the foster care system. As community service for a petty crime, she ends up helping an elderly neighbor clean out her attic, where they find the elderly neighbor's history is as one of these orphans.

While some of the parallels are obvious to the reader and some of the plot rather predictable, overall this book held my attention as I rooted for both orphans to find happiness.

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Review: The Night Circus

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I tried with this book - I really did. The premise was cool - a strange circus that arrives unannounced and only operates at night. The circus is actually the site of a decades-long competition between two rival magicians' proteges, which they are only somewhat aware of. The setup was so interesting that I was eager to read the book.

It just got too darn weird for me. Too much supernatural and fairy-tale, not enough character development. I spent half of the book convinced that two female characters were the same character, which didn't make my experience any better, but did make me feel like I was right about character development being lacking. The ending seemed like a cop-out with minor characters suddenly having major parts.

The author, I recall reading, sees herself as a crafter of modern fairytales. If that is the case, she did a good job with that genre - i just didn't care for it.

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Review: An Echo in the Bone

An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am sad to be catching up to Gabaldon in this series (I read them faster than she can write them) because they are always so.darn.good. This one has Claire and Jamie in the US as the Revolution begins, but soon they leave for Europe - although at 800+ pages, that certainly doesn't go as planned. Some new characters begin to get more air time as well.

Meanwhile, Brianna and Roger have returned to modern times to cure their daughter's health problems, and they are adjusting to life. They learn how Claire and Jamie are doing through a cleverly sent set of letters, but soon they are into their own problems with neighbors and colleagues at work.

With the same meticulous research and character development that fueled the first 6 books, this one continues to enthrall me as a romance and an adventure.

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Review: Maya's Notebook

Maya's Notebook by Isabel Allende

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don't know why I've been so intimidated to read something by Isabel Allende - she's been on my "I should read something by her" list forever. Well this was one I found on a Barnes and Noble trade paperback table and I ended up really liking it. It had great plotting, nuanced characters, and (thwarting my worst fears) absolute readability.

The story is about Maya, a young woman who is raised in her grandparents' home. She ends up as a troubled teenager, in with the wrong crowd, then suddenly in the middle of a dangerous world of drugs and prostitution. To help her escape, her grandmother sends her to a remote island off the coast of Chile, where Maya begins to rebuild her life.

This was a book I was reluctant to put down because it was so compelling, starring a damaged but compelling main character. Also - I'm no longer afraid of Allende. :)

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