What are you reading (21)?

It's Monday! What are you reading this week? is a weekly event now hosted by One Persons Journey Through a World Of Books. It's helpful way to take a look at what you have read and what you want to read!

I didn't get a chance to even post last week, my life has gotten so busy.  With the holidays approaching, I've been trying to get my Christmas shopping done so I don't have to waddle through huge crowds come December.  I'm almost finished, and know exactly what else I need to buy so it shouldn't take me much longer.  This week was especially busy for hubby and I.  We had our baptismal class for the baby, a birthday party, dinner with family, and then our baby shower was this past weekend.  It was amazing and turned out wonderfully.  We got a ton of gifts and almost all of the big stuff that we had registered for.  We couldn't be more thankful for the amazing friends and family that we have!  My mom is coming over next Monday to help me wash baby clothes and blankets and put everything away so the room is completely finished and we are ready for his arrival (and I'll definitely be ready...I'm completely miserable and now have legs that look like large tree trunks with the amount of water I am retaining!!)

So here's the run down of the books I read in the past two weeks.  Most of them I finished during the first week.  I didn't have a ton of reading time these past few days (click on the titles for link to review):

• Viola in Reel Life - Adriana Trigiani
• The Wife's Tale - Lori Lansens
• Lost and Found - Jacqueline Sheehan
• The Girl Who Chased the Moon - Sarah Addison Allen
• Arcadia Falls - Carol Goodman
• Case Histories - Kate Atkinson
• The Alchemists Daughter - Katherine McMahon

This coming week will be a busy one again.  I have a follow ultrasound on Wednesday.  The way the baby is laying is making it difficult to get really clear pictures of his heart.  He's being stubborn so I have to go to a specialist where they have "a really awesome ultrasound machine" according to the girl at my OBGYN's office.  The Drs are pretty sure he's laying breech so I'm hoping beyond hope that he decides to turn!  My brother is also home for the week, and we have a very busy Turkey Day but I'm looking forward to spending the day with family.

Here's my reading plans for the week (all titles linked to Goodreads):

Lamb by Christopher Moore - I started this one last night and so far its pretty humorous.

Audio of The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom - I started listening to this one on Friday at work and was almost sad to see five o clock come because I had to stop it.  It was absolutely amazing!!

Garden Spells - Sarah Addison Allen

Audio of The Language of Secrets by Dianne Dixon

That's my week.  What do you have planned?

Audio Review: Arcadia Falls

Title: Arcadia Falls
Author: Carol Goodman
Listening Time: 12 hrs and 37 mins
Rating: 4/5

In debt after her husband's unexpected death, Meg Rosenthal secures a job as a teacher at an upstate New York boarding school. Leaving suburban Long Island, Meg and her teenage daughter, Sally, embark on a new life in Arcadia Falls, a beautiful but isolated small town and the inspiration for a number of magically eerie fairy tales. With a hurtful rift growing between her and her daughter, Meg is hopeful that the change of scene will provide them with a fresh start. But it soon becomes clear to Meg that this isolated community hides deeply rooted and deadly secrets. And after a mysterious death, Arcadia Falls begins to reveal a disturbing dark side (Cover Blurb).

I borrowed this audio strictly for the cover.  I thought it was beautiful and gothic and really grabbed my attention.  I'm glad I went with the impulse, and thought this book was really spectacular. 

Arcadia is a small private art school that was started in the early 1900s by two women, Vera Beecher and Lily Eberhardt.  The two women were deeply devoted to each other, but each of their lives were shrouded and secrets and betrayal, especially Lilly Eberhardt.  In the present day, Meg Rosenthal comes to Arcadia after the death of her husband, which left her penniless and desperate.  After being offered a job to teach English, especially the history of fairy tales, Meg moves with her daughter Sally into the cottage of Vera Beecher and Lily Eberhardt and it is here where the mystery begins.

Soon after Meg's arrival, one of the students at Arcadia is found dead in the ravine, eerily mirroring the death of Lily Eberhardt so many years ago.  Troubled by the death, Meg begins to delve into the lives of Lily and Vera, finally finding the journal of Lily Eberhardt which has remained hidden for many years.  It is at this point that the novel begins to twist and turn, releasing secret after secret, keeping the reader on their toes.

Intertwined throughout the story, is the fairy tale of The Changling Girl originally written by Lily.  The story mirrors Lily's own journey and it's interesting to see how it fits in with her life.  One of my favorite aspects of this story was the mix between the past and present day.  Along with the changling story, we also were able to experience Lily's journal and travel with her through her struggles.  I loved the descriptions of her life and how everything happened.  There were a few times where my mouth just fell open as I pieced everything together.

I'm looking forward to reading more of Carol Goodman and hope that ther other books are half as good as Arcadia Falls!

Audio Review: The Girl Who Chased the Moon

Title: The Girl Who Chased the Moon
Author: Sarah Addison Allen
Listening Time: 7 hrs and 1 min
Rating: 4.5/5

Emily Benedict came to Mullaby, North Carolina, hoping to solve at least some of the riddles surrounding her mother’s life. But the moment Emily enters the house where her mother grew up and meets the grandfather she never knew, she realizes that mysteries aren’t solved in Mullaby, they’re a way of life: Here are rooms where the wallpaper changes to suit your mood. Unexplained lights skip across the yard at midnight. And a neighbor, Julia Winterson, bakes hope in the form of cakes, offering them to satisfy the town’s sweet tooth—but also in the hope of rekindling a love she fears might be lost forever. Can a hummingbird cake really bring back a lost love? Is there really a ghost dancing in Emily’s backyard? The answers are never what you expect. But in this town of lovable misfits, the unexpected fits right in (sarahaddisonallen.com).

I was really excited when I saw this one available on the library's website and instantly added it to my cart.  I've been interest in reading something by Allen for a while, but always seem to be distracted by something else.  Audio books have allowed me to finally get to all the books I've been meaning to read!  I can't wait to go back and read Allen's backlist of Garden Spells and The Sugar Queen and she's definitely on my must by list now!

Allen's books fall under the genre of magical realism.  Set in the South, The Girl Who Chased the Moon, is a fast paced, moving story filled with lovable characters and bits of mysticism.  The Girl Who Chased the Moon focuses on two main characters - Emily and Julia.  Emily is a seventeen year old girl who has recently lost her mother.  She comes to Mulberry to live with the grandfather she never knew existed.  Julia fled Mulberry eighteen years ago, only to return after the death of her father.  Julia is running from her own secrets while Emily is just discovering those of her mother.

Intertwined throughout the story is a bevy of secondary characters all with their  own quirks.  These secondary characters where so well developed, that I wished there were more of them throughout the novel.  They helped bring a deep richness to the story that would have been lacking otherwise.  Along with great secondary characters, Allen intertwines descriptions of food that will make your mouth water (especially if you are six and a half months pregnant and always hungry)!  Julia's baked good sounded scrumptious and now I am craving BBQ.

I highly recommend this audio and can't wait to dive into the pages of more books by Sarah Addison Allen!

Audio Review: The Wife's Tale

Title: The Wife's Tale
Author: Lori Lansens
Listening Time: 11 hrs and 33 mins
Rating: 3/5

It’s the eve of her twenty-fifth wedding anniversary and Mary Gooch is waiting for her husband, Jimmy, to come home. But Mary isn’t just waiting for Jimmy. She is waiting for a mother who accepts her, children she is unable to have, a life beyond the well-worn path from her bedroom to the refrigerator. Mary is waiting for her life to start.

As she waits for Jimmy, the night passes into day and it becomes clear that he isn’t coming home. A letter left in the mailbox confirms her worst fears and Mary is left alone to make a difficult decision. Should she break free from her inertia and salvage her marriage? Or is the pull of the familiarity of her home, the predictability of her daily routines, too strong to resist?

For the first time in her life, Mary decides to leave and boards a plane to California. She flies across the country in a desperate attempt to find her husband. The clothes, the marriage, the home that had given her a place to hide for so long are all gone. Mary soon finds that the bright sun and broad vistas of California force her to look up from the pavement, stop waiting and start living. What she finds when she does is an inner strength she’s never felt before. Through it all, Mary not only finds kindred spirits, but reunites with a more intimate stranger no longer sequestered by fear and habit: herself (randomhouse.com).

I'm having a hard time figuring out exactly how I feel about this book.  On one hand, I think parts of the book are a five star read.  On the other hand, I think parts of it are one star.  So I met in the middle and gave the book as a whole three stars.

One reason why I think I had such trouble with this book especially in the beginning was because I found Mary to be such a hard character to like and get to know.  Even at the end of the book, I still didn't have a deep fondness for her.  At times I found her existence to be almost sad, and I few times I viewed her as pathetic.  I had visions of slapping her a few times!!  Other times, I cheered her on as she fought again the "obeast" as she refers to her obesity and begain to find herself again after a lifetime of letting herself go.

I think the biggest struggle I had with this book was how easily it seemed that Mary was able to make friends, and ask so many people for help.  When Mary was home in Canada, she could barely go to the grocery store and talk to anyone, let alone ask a total stranger to help her.  When she came to the US, she was much more open and seemed to make friends almost easily.  I do believe that the author did this to show the audience how Mary was growing as an individual, coming out of her shell and opening up in the world.  I just had a hard time with how quickly things changed.

This is the first book I've read by Lori Lansens and I was a bit taken aback by the writing style.  For some reason, I thought it would be different.  Plus, a few of the scenes made me extremely uncomfortable, especially listening to them on audio at work.  I'm curious now to read The Girls and see how it compares to The Wife's Tale.  I will say, I find the description of the The Girls to be more entertaining than I found that for The Wife's Tale.  It seems like it might be more up my alley.  Despite being a bit "shocked" by some of the scenarios in the book (I think I'm turning into my mother...ahhh), I thought the writing was truly superb.  I also thought this was a beautifully presented audio that I enjoyed listening to.  That's one reason why I felt the book may have deserved a higher rating, but my dislike for the main character kept me from going above a three.

Review: Lost and Found

Title: Lost and Found
Author: Jacqueline Sheehan
Pages: 278
Rating: 4/5

A poignant and unforgettable tale of love, loss, and moving on . . . with the help of one not-so-little dog

Rocky's husband Bob was just forty-two when she discovered him lying cold and lifeless on the bathroom floor . . . and Rocky's world changed forever. Quitting her job, chopping off all her hair, she leaves Massachusetts—reinventing her past and taking a job as Animal Control Warden on Peak's Island, a tiny speck off the coast of Maine and a million miles away from everything she's lost. She leaves her career as a psychologist behind, only to find friendship with a woman whose brain misfires in the most wonderful way and a young girl who is trying to disappear. Rocky, a quirky and fallible character, discovers the healing process to be agonizingly slow.

But then she meets Lloyd.

A large black Labrador retriever, Lloyd enters Rocky's world with a primitive arrow sticking out of his shoulder. And so begins a remarkable friendship between a wounded woman and a wounded, lovable beast. As the unraveling mystery of Lloyd's accident and missing owner leads Rocky to an archery instructor who draws her in even as she finds every reason to mistrust him, she discovers the life-altering revelation that grief can be transformed . . . and joy does exist in unexpected places (harpercollins.com).

I bought this book a few years ago based strickly on the cover.  I'm a sucker for any type of book that has to do with dogs and the black lab on the cover of this book is absolutely adorable.  However, like so many books it was pushed aside for other books that seemed to be more exciting, more interesting, or the it book of the moment.  When I was picking out my books to read this week from my TBR pile, this cover again caught my eye.  Once I read the description I was even more intrigued and moved it from the TBR pile to the I am reading now pile :)  I'm quite happy I did.

Rocky was a hard character to get to know, and it made the book a bit difficult to get into at first.  However, once I realized what her personality was like, and broke through the outer shell I flew through the rest of the pages.  Lost and Found is a book filled with grief, hope, tragedy and mystery.  All of these elements are molded together into one moving, beautiful story that pulled at my heart strings.  Of course my favorite character in the book was Lloyd, the beautiful, but injured, black lab that captures Rocky's heart.  There are three chapters in the book told from Lloyd's point of view and each chapter is more moving than the last.  It made me look at my two little doggies in a different light.  I only hope that they view me the way that Lloyd viewed Rocky.

I recommend this book to anyone who has a love for animals and is looking for a good strong story that will keep you turning pages long into the night.  I'll be looking for and definitely picking up Sheehan's newer book Now and Then in the coming weeks.  This is definitely a new "must read" author for me!

Audio Review: Viola in Reel Life

Title: Viola in Reel Life
Author: Adriana Trigiani
Listening Time: 6 hrs and 17 mins
Rating: 4.5/5

I'm marooned.

Abandoned.

Left to rot in boarding school . . .

Viola doesn't want to go to boarding school, but somehow she ends up at an all-girls school in South Bend, Indiana, far, far away from her home in Brooklyn, New York. Now Viola is stuck for a whole year in the sherbet-colored sweater capital of the world.

Ick.

There's no way Viola's going to survive the year—especially since she has to replace her best friend Andrew with three new roommates who, disturbingly, actually seem to like it there. She resorts to viewing the world (and hiding) behind the lens of her video camera.

Boarding school, though, and her roommates and even the Midwest are nothing like she thought they would be, and soon Viola realizes she may be in for the most incredible year of her life.

But first she has to put the camera down and let the world in (harpercollins.com).

Viola in Reel Life is Trigiani's first novel written for the young adult audience, and I thought she did a wonderful job!  I was immediately captivated with Viola and I thought the premise of the novel was extremely fun.  Also, Trigiani's voice as a writer is amazing.  I could kick myself for waiting so long to read something by her.

My favorite character is Viola, our main character.  She's snarky and fun and her sarcastic manner is light hearted and helps keep the story moving at an even pace.  Viola is an only child whose parents are documentary film makers.  Because of a project they are working on, they send Viola to the Prefect Academy, a boarding school in South Bend, IN.  Viola is housed in a quad with three other girls.  Things are a bit rough in the beginning, but once everything works out, the girls find themselves as close as sisters.

One of the complaints that others have had about Viola in Reel Life was the language of the novel.  They found the dialogue to be too "young" for high school freshman.  I, on the other hand, found it to be refreshing (I must be getting old!).  I thought the dialogue fit the age group and flowed smoothly. 

This has been my favorite audio so far that I have listened to.  I adored the narrator, and felt she brought a real uniqueness to the story.

This is the first in a new series by Adriana Trigiani.  The next book, Viola in the Spotlight, comes out in April of 2011 and I'll definitely be grabbing it.  The cover is equally cute :)

What are you reading (20)?

It's Monday! What are you reading this week? is a weekly event now hosted by One Persons Journey Through a World Of Books. It's helpful way to take a look at what you have read and what you want to read!

This was an amazing reading week for me.  I enjoyed almost all that I read and listened to, and am quite enjoying November and its longer evenings.  There's a bit of a chill in the air, and the mornings are quite crisp.  I just don't think there's anything quite like snuggling up in my favorite chair on a chilly fall day and getting lost in a book!

Here's what I read and reviewed this week (click title for link to review):

• Love You Hate You Miss You - Elizabeth Scott
• Chicken Soup for the Expectant Mother's Soul
• Fever 1793 - Laurie Halse Anderson
• Something Like Fate - Susane Colasanti
• Second Honeymoon - Joanna Trollope

I also watched and reviewed Masterpiece Theater's rendition of Jane Eyre.  My review is here.  I very much enjoyed it and think everyone should check it out, even if you've never read the book!

Here's what is on my reading list for this week:

The Alchemist's Daughter - Katherine McMahon --- This is a repeat from last week.

Audio of Viola in Reel Life - Adriana Trigiani --- I'm over half way finished with this one and really enjoying it!

Audio of The Wife's Tale by Lori Lansens - I've heard really great things about this one

Lost and Found - Jacqueline Sheenan

Case Histories - Katie Atkinson

That's my week.  What do you have planned?