The Girl on the Train

If you're looking for a psychological thriller that you won't want to put down, then The Girl on the Train is the book for you. This is the first fictional book published under the author's real name, Paula Hawkins. She also writes under the pseudonym of Amy Silver.

The Girl on the Train is told from the perspective of three different women: Rachel, Megan and Anna. Rachel is the main protagonist and the girl on the train. She's a lonely, divorced woman with a serious drinking problem. She suffers from black-outs and does things like call her ex-husband or show up on his doorstep while intoxicated.

Every morning and evening, she rides the train into London for her job. The train stops briefly each morning behind Rachel's old neighborhood, where she and her husband Tom lived before the divorce. Now Tom lives there with his new wife Anna (the third narrator of the story), and their new child, while Rachel rents a room from a former college friend, Cathy. The few months she expected to reside there has turned into two long years.

Four houses away from her old home, a "perfect, golden couple" live, whom Rachel has named Jess and Jason. Jess, who's really Megan, is the second female narrator of the novel. Rachel's become obsessed with this beautiful couple, always looking for them when the train stops on the tracks. From her seat, Rachel imagines how Jess and Jason live their lives, what their hobbies might be along with their occupations. Then one day, Jess disappears. Rachel's pulled into the investigation and the plot begins its suspenseful twists and turns.

I thought that The Girl on the Train was a very, good read.  It has a Hitchcockian feel to it a la Rear Window with its voyeuristic tendencies; instead of a photojournalist laid up with a broken leg in a wheelchair, we have a depressed drunk seated on a train. Quite a few times, I wanted to reach into the book and shake Rachel. Everyone lies in this book and the reader doesn't know who to trust. For me, this book was an addictive page turner, engrossing and well-paced. I couldn't wait to find out what happened on the next page and how the story ended.

The author, Paula Hawkins, revealed in an interview her premise for writing this book:   I’ve done lots of train journeys, and I’ve always thought how interesting it would be if you actually got to witness something. Because you never really do – I’ve never seen anything interesting! You look at these houses, and most of the time you never see people; you see things that maybe bring images to mind – for example, toys in the back garden that have been abandoned – and that starts you thinking about something.

In addition to being a bestseller, The Girl on the Train has also been made into a movie, premiering October 7th, with Emily Blunt in the lead as Rachel. More info on the movie can be found here. 

Thanks for stopping by,
Michelle

The Disappeared by Kristina Ohlsson

I always love when I find a book that's so good, I don't want to stop reading. Kristina Ohlsson has written such a book in The Disappeared.  A college student named Rebecca goes missing on her way to a party and now, two years later, her body's been found buried and dismembered in the woods. The police keep digging and discover that Rebecca isn't the only body in the grave.

There's a quite a few suspects in the murder of Rebecca that the police need to narrow down. And what about that second body in the grave? Forensics date this body's death at least thirty years ago. Is this the work of a serial killer? Are there more bodies buried here? As the police work on the suspect list, several of the characters' lives become intertwined with each other in unsuspecting ways.

Our heroine is Fredrika Bergman, an investigative analyst, who's just returned from maternity leave early because her live-in boyfriend's been suspended from his job as a college professor. As Fredrika delves into Rebecca's past, she discovers that at the time of her disappearance, Rebecca had been doing research for her thesis paper on a children's writer named Thea Aldrin. Aldrin had spent time in prison for murder and was suspected in the disappearance of her own son. Now out of prison and residing in an assisted-living complex, the police can't question her as she's chosen to be mute and refuses to speak.

There are two male protagonists. The first is Fredrika's boss, Alex Recht; recently widowed and still mourning the loss of his wife. Alex originally worked Rebecca's missing person case and still keeps in touch with the young woman's mother. Then there's Peder Rydh, a colleague of Fredrika's and on the investigative team searching for Rebecca's murderer.

Ohlsson has skillfully woven together a complex tale of suspense. There are so many layers created by the author that the reader finds herself swept up into the lives of all the characters; each layer providing more detail to the story.

I really enjoyed reading The Disappeared. It's one of the best murder mysteries I've read in awhile. Not only that, but it's part of a series. So far, this is the only one I've read (and it works out fine as a stand-alone book), but I'm excited to go back and read the other ones by Ohlsson.


Thanks for stopping by today,
Michelle

That Old Black Magic

I finished reading That Old Black Magic by Mary Jane Clark yesterday. This is the first book by Clark that I've read. That Old Black Magic is part of a murder mystery series with Piper Donovan, a cake decorator and aspiring actress, as the heroine.

Opening lines: Piper was sipping a cocktail, but she couldn't taste it. Her sights were set on the tattered cloth doll. It was dancing frantically, tangled in yellow police tape. The more the doll jerked, the more snarled up it became until finally, the strangled doll collapsed motionless on the floor.

 

Piper Donovan is twenty-seven and works at her parents' bakery in New Jersey. Piper travels down to New Orleans right before St Patrick's Day as she's won a contest to "apprentice," for a couple of weeks at Boulangerie Bertrand, a famous bakery located on Royal Street, in the French Quarter. After Piper's arrival, a local merchant is found murdered, strangled and whipped, with signs pointing to voodoo. A local radio host dubs the killer as the Hoodoo Killer. In the midst of all this, Piper gets a two day acting job, which leads to flashbacks of an incident the month before (from the previous book). The Hoodoo Killer doesn't stop at one death, but continues on with more deaths related to voodoo.

I enjoyed reading That Old Black Magic. Though this book is part of a series, it stands alone as a read. It's well written, the plot makes sense, but most of the characters reach only two-dimensional status, which is of course, better than one-dimensional.

The one thing I liked the most about the book is how there are no swear words. It's actually refreshing to read something where the author doesn't constantly take GOD's name in vain, which is the one thing I find the most offensive when reading books.

My only nits is that there were a few pages that the book didn't need. One example: Piper's boyfriend thinks she had PTSD. So he calls a friend and then there's a discussion on PTSD. This is completely unneccesary to the story.

Be prepared! Food is discussed throughout the book, especially bakery items. I craved sweets like there was no tomorrow while reading That Old Black Magic.

I'm linking up to:
Book Beginnings at Rose City Reader

Thanks for stopping by!

The Necromancer's House

This week I read The Necromancer's House by Christopher Buehlman. I picked this book up because of the title. I love books about the supernatural and after reading the description inside the jacket, I was hooked.

From the jacket: Andrew Ranulf Blankenship is a handsome, stylish nonconformist with wry wit, a classic Mustang and a massive library. He is also a recovering alcoholic and a practicing warlock, able to speak with the dead through film.

Opening lines from the Prologue: The old man walks from the cabin to the porch behind, palming his whiskey glass from the bottom and swirling the ice in it.

Our protagonist is Andrew Blankenship, a male witch who prefers the term magus to witch. He lives in Dog Neck Harbor in a house hidden by magic from most people. The house is also protected with charms, booby traps, against people who would seek to harm him. We don't find out Andrew's full story and history at once. It's fed to us throughout the novel like special treats. Eventually, we find out why his house is hidden and filled with traps.

Andrew is a recovering alcoholic and regularly attends AA meetings. Andrew's friend Anneke also attends AA meetings. She is luminous, a term used to describe those who have magic within them. Andrew is trying to teach her how to tap into her luminosity. Things start to go bad for Andrew when his rusalka (a mermaid) drowns one of his neighbors, an old Russian man, with connections to the past Andrew doesn't want to remember, (hint: Baba Yaga is involved).

The Necromancer's House is a well-written novel with fully fleshed-out characters. Buehlman has even brought to life minor characters that another author would have left one-dimensional. His writing style leans toward the flowery, which isn't a real criticism, though I did have to re-read a few sentences a second time to pick up the meaning. All-in-all, an excellent read.

I'm linking up to:
Literary Friday at Art @ Home
Book Beginnings at Rose City Reader


Thanks so much for your visit!
~Michelle

Homicide in Hardcover

I just finished reading Homicide in Hardcover by Kate Carlisle with the tagline of A Bibliophile Mystery.

Opening lines: My teacher always told me that in order to save a patient you'd have to kill him first. Not the most child-friendly way of explaining his theory of book restoration to his eight year old apprentice, but it worked. I grew up determined to save them all.

One of the reasons I was attracted to this book was the fact that the heroine is a rare book expert, who restores and conserves old books; two other reasons are: I love murder mysteries and it's set in San Francisco.

Brooklyn Wainwright is the main character who finds Abraham, "her mentor lying in a pool of his own blood." With his last breath, he whispers "Remember the devil" and gives her Goethe's Faust. Abraham had been working on The Winslow Collection of books for an upcoming exhibit. One of the books in the collection is Goethe's Faust, which, legend has it, is cursed. All who've owned the book have died. Brooklyn is asked to take over the restoration project and finish Abraham's work with the Faust.

We are introduced to several characters who may or may not have a motive for killing Abraham including: Minka, Brooklyn's nemesis from college; the Winslows; Abraham's rival Enrico; and Brooklyn's own mother. Then there's the British Derek Stone, a former military operative, who now runs his own security company and is in charge of The Winslow Collection. Derek also gets to have a romantic moment or two with Brooklyn.

My only nit with this book is that there's not a lot of actual mystery-solving or investigating happening with the main characters. It's focus is more on Brooklyn's life (who grew up on a commune), her family, (who still live on the commune) and people trying to harm or kill Brooklyn.

Overall, I enjoyed reading Homicide in Hardcover. The book is a fun read and the first in a series of books. It's well-written with definitive characters and plot. I'll definitely be reading others in the series.

I'm linking up to the following blogs:
 Literary Friday at Art @ Home
 Book Beginnings at Rose City Reader
Saturday Review at Semicolon

Thanks so much for stopping by :)

The Marseille Caper

A few days ago, I finished reading "The Marseille Caper" by Peter Mayle. The book is set in the south of France and stars Sam Levitt in his second Mayle outing. The first Sam Levitt outing is "The Vintage Caper", about a Bordeaux wine heist.

Sam and his girlfriend Elena travel to France at the request of Reboul, a "friend" of Sam's. There is a seaside area that the town of Marseille wants to develop. They're down to choosing among three development projects. Two projects are high rise apartments geared more toward the wealthy and tourists. One is represented by Lord Wapping, a British fellow and the other is represented by a Parisienne, Gabrielle.

Reboul's project is the third one, a low-key apartment complex, which would blend in better with the environment. Sam's hired by Reboul to present his land development deal to the town's committee, headed by Patrimonio, an enemy of Reboul's over a woman. Mayle tosses in lots of Marseille facts and delights in the restaurants' menus. Of course, there's a bad guy or two, mixed up in all of this, who causes mayhem (or attempts to anyway) for Sam and his project.

At first, I found Peter Mayle's writing style to be choppy, which made it difficult for me to stay interested in the plot. It took a few chapters for me to want to continue reading. The plot's light and definitely on the frothy side, while the characters need to have additional depth. In other words, more flesh on the characters and less whipped cream in the plot, please!

Once I overcame Mayle's style, the story moved pretty fast, though at times it read more like a travelogue than a novel. This book is definitely an easy read.

Thanks for your visit today!
~Michelle

Linking up to Literary Friday, hosted by Ricki Jill

Skios

Skios is a delightful farce written by Michael Frayn. It's set on the fictional Greek island of Skios, which is brimming with ancient temples, artifacts, whitewashed houses and blue skies.

 

The Fred Toppler Foundation is preparing for the highlight of its annual two week meeting: a lecture by the very distinguised Dr. Norman Wilfred. Nikki, Mrs. Toppler's assistant, is to meet Dr. Wilfred, a middle-aged gentleman with years of academia beneath his belt, at the island's small airport. However, the youngish Oliver Fox, with his floppy hair and delightful grin, is mistaken by Nikki as Dr. Wilfred. Of course, this isn't helped when Nikki asks Oliver Fox if he's Dr. Norman Wilfred to which he replies, "I cannot tell a lie.".

By the time Dr. Norman Wilfred exits the airport, there is one lone taxi. After trying to communicate with the taxi driver, Dr Wilfred allows himself to be driven to a villa he mistakes for the guest quarters of the Fred Toppler Foundation. This villa belongs to friends of Annuka, the girlfriend of Oliver Fox. Oliver had arranged to meet another girl there, Georgie, as Annuka had recently kicked Oliver out of her apartment. Georgie's boyfriend thinks she's in Switzerland with her old friend Nikki.

There is more mistaken identity, lost luggage, getting lost on pathways and general mayhem. I thought this was a fun book and a great read. I was disappointed in the ending. I thought it was too "out there", but then again, this is a farce, so maybe the ending does fit the book.



Linking up to Literary Friday at Art @ Home.

By Myself, Lauren Bacall

I recently read "By Myself", the autobiography of Lauren Bacall. This book was published in 1978 by Knopf. I was lucky enough to find it at one of my library's book sales for only a quarter. Our library has about a dozen book sales each year. The books come not only from the library shelves, but from people who donate books they no longer want or need.

This is a great book about Lauren Bacall's life, including both of her marriages (Humphrey Bogart and Jason Robards). It's a fast read as Ms. Bacall isn't into flowery words and long descriptions of how the sun set each day or how the smell of roses lingered in the air. She's straight to the point. When she "name-drops", she's very casual and matter-of-fact about it.

I really didn't know that much about Humphrey Bogart or her relationship with him until I read this book. Casablanca is one of my favorite films, so I really enjoyed reading about Bogart. Bacall's start in show business was as a model, which morphed into acting. Bogie was still married to his third wife when they started seeing each other. There's also a lot of drinking that goes on, but I guess that was standard for the time period. They were good friends with Spencer Tracey and Katharine Hepburn, whom Bacall calls Katie. Tracey and Hepburn visited Bogart every night, after his discharge from the hospital, until he died. Warning: The section that deals with his death is a tear jerker.

This picture made the cover of Harper's Bazaar. My fave of the two of them. This is a scan of the back cover, which looks like a poor quality picture since the book's so old.

Thanks for your visit today!
Michelle

Linking up to Art @ Home for Literary Friday.

Literary Friday~Fifty Shades of Grey

"Fifty Shades of Grey" is the first book in a trilogy by E L James. The other two books are "Fifty Shades Darker" and "Fifty Shades Freed".  I read the first one and about half of the second one in this series.

These books read like badly written Harlequin Temptations. This trilogy started out as fan fiction for the Twilight series, entitled "Master of the Universe", with the names of Edward Cullen and Bella Swan as the main characters. Under the 50 shades umbrella, the names were changed to Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey.

Ana is a college student, near graduation, when she meets Christian Grey, a billionaire at the age of 27. Christian has her sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement. After she signs the NDA, Grey gives her a contract to sign. He wants her to be his submissive, which means during their sexual encounters, Ana would be obedient to Grey, her Dom. So if she's disobedient, then she'll be punished as he sees fit. Grey wants to do things to Ana like tie her up, blindfold her, spank her, etc,  during their encounters. This is where all the book's hype comes into play. Some people may be offended with these descriptive encounters, but it's hardly anything more than what you may find in a Harlequin romance novel.

In book two, "Fifty Shades Darker", I only made it about half-way through. It's horribly written, worse than the first book. If possible, the heroine, Ana Steele, becomes even more wishy-washy.

Paraphrased examples of sentences from EL James: 
Example 1:  He takes off his shoe, he takes off his sock. He takes off his other shoe, he takes off his other sock. He takes off her shoe, he takes off her sock. He takes off her other shoe, he takes off her other sock. And these sentences do not occur just once, but almost before every sexual encounter.

Example 2:  Ana's inner goddess: I don't know why, but anytime Ana is experiencing an emotion, her inner goddess pops up into the moment, which does nothing but distract the reader from the action (such as it is). Ana's inner goddess sits up on her chaise lounge and takes note. Ana's inner goddess' mouth falls open. Ana's inner goddess starts dancing. Then somewhere along the way, "inner goddess" gives way to "my sub-conscious".  Quote from book II: "My sub-consicous stares at me over her half-moon specs."

In addition to the bad writing, there are far too many ridiculous, unbelievable things happening to the characters.  I don't want to spoil the story for someone who may want to read this series, so I won't go into detail. I did like the flirty exchange of emails between Ana and Grey. However, in today's age, I believe text messages would've worked better.

If interested in this series, here are the links to them on Amazon:
Fifty Shades of Grey
Fifty Shades Darker
Fifty Shades Freed

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Many thanks to Ricki-Jill for hostessing Literary Friday at Art@Home.

Thank you for your visit!
 

The Drop by Michael Connelly

Michael Connelly writes this great series about an LAPD detective named Harry Bosch. In this book, The Drop, Harry Bosch is called in to investigate what looks to be an apparent suicide. However, the dead man's father is Irvin Irving, a city councilman and Harry's former boss in the department.

 

 

Harry and Irving have disliked each other intensely for many years, so Harry is confused by Irving's request that he work the case. Irving doesn't think his son, who made his living as an attorney, would kill himself. Some internal politics pop up, among them companies who've hired the councilman's son to win contracts from the city of Los Angeles, which Harry investigates because Irving is on the city council.

 

The second storyline running through The Drop is a rape and murder case from 1989. New DNA evidence emerges, but points to a guy who's only 29, which makes him 8 years old at the time of the crime. Harry re-opens the case and begins to chase down new leads not only for this case, but for the councilman's case as well. 

I wish Michael Connelly had given the second storyline more pages in his book. I found it to be, not only the more interesting, but the better of the two stories. As a sidenote, the author doesn't write well for female characters. Some of the things the female characters say sound more like what a guy would say to a woman, instead of the other way around.

 

I love Michael Connelly's books. They're gritty and they have a sense of realism to them. Of couse, I've never worked in law enforcement or a related environment, so this is just my opinion :)   Harry Bosch is most definitely one of my favorite characters in literature.

 

Maybe one day they'll make a Harry Bosch movie like they did for Mickey Haller, Connelly's other character series.

 

Thanks so much for dropping by!

 

Be sure to pop over to Ricki Jill's blog for Literary Friday at Art @ Home.

 

 

Archie Sheridan-Gretchen Lowell Series

A couple of weeks ago, I was browsing at my local bookstore and found a book that looked interesting. Then I read on the cover that it was part of a series. I made a note of the author, Chelsea Cain, then trotted off to the library to begin the series from the beginning.

So far, there are five books in the series. The first book is Heartsick:  Archie Sheridan, our hero, is a Portland detective and Gretchen Lowell, is the serial killer, he tracked for 10 years. Gretchen says she killed close to 200 people, but the police have only connected her to a few murders. She cuts a deal and gets a life sentence, instead of the death penalty. In return, she'll reveal the names of her other victims to Archie as long as he visits her every week. Before Gretchen was arrested, she kidnapped Archie, torturing him for ten days.

When the book starts, it's been two years since Archie was tortured by Gretchen. He's been on medical leave, but now there's a new serial killer terrorizing Portland and he joins a task force to help hunt the new killer down. Due to Gretchen's torture, which is told in flashbacks, Archie becomes addicted to painkillers, specifically Vicodin.

Out of the two plot lines (new serial killer story and Gretchen & Archie's story) the Gretchen and Archie story is the most interesting. There are also two other main characters in the book: Susan, a newspaper reporter who is constantly changing her hair color-- pink, turquoise, berry; and Henry, a Portland detective and friend of Archie. Henry and Susan are in all the sequels as well.

Sidenote: I love the TV show Grimm. It's set in Portland and it's main character is Nick, a Portland detective. Since Archie is also a Portland detective, I keep picturing Nick, the actor, from the TV show as Archie, in the books, while reading.


David Giuntoli as Nick in NBC's Grimm

The second book in the series is Sweetheart and takes place about two months after Heartsick ended. Gretchen's escaped from prison and is on the loose. For a sequel, it's not too bad. However, for a series, with a detective as a main character, there certainly isn't any real detecting going on. Susan keeps having epiphanies about dead bodies the coroner hasn't identified yet, such as their identities. Plus, the plot literally becomes ridiculous in places. Susan: slams her head on the bathroom sink; almost dies due to carbon monoxide poisoning; is in a car wreck but isn't injured; walks a gizillion miles in only a few minutes and so on.

The third book is Evil at Heart. This book starts with Archie at a mental hospital. He's trying to kick his painkiller habit and Gretchen addiction. Gretchen is still on the loose. Dead bodies start turning up. There's either a copycat killer or Gretchen is killing again. This is an OK read.

The fouth book is The Night Season. Portland floods and dead bodies surface. I'm having trouble reading this one. The plot line is already ridiculous and I'm not even past page forty.

The fifth book is Kill You Twice, which came out in August. I haven't read this one yet.

Thanks for reading!

I'm linking up to Ricki Jill for Literary Friday at Art @ Home.

"The Gilly Salt Sisters" by Tiffany Baker

From the Publisher:

The author of the New York Times bestselling The Little Giant of Aberdeen County returns with a magic-tinged tale of dreams, family secrets, and betrayals on a New England salt farm.

In the isolated Cape Cod village of Prospect, the Gilly sisters are as different as can be. Jo, a fierce and quiet loner, is devoted to the mysteries of her family's salt farm, while Claire is popular, pretty, and yearns to flee the salt at any cost. But the Gilly land hides a dark legacy that proves impossible to escape. Although the community half-suspects the Gilly sisters might be witches, it doesn't stop Whit Turner, the town's wealthiest bachelor, from forcing his way into their lives. It's Jo who first steals Whit's heart, but it is Claire--heartbroken over her high school sweetheart--who marries him.

Years later, estranged from her family, Claire finds herself thrust back onto the farm with the last person she would have chosen: her husband's pregnant mistress. Suddenly, alliances change, old loves return, and new battle lines are drawn. What the Gilly sisters learn about each other, the land around them, and the power of the salt, will not only change each of their lives forever, it will also alter Gilly history for good.

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At the start of this book, I had a hard time connecting with the narrative. What threw me the most was the book is set around 1980, but the author doesn't own up to that and leaves it to the reader to figure this out for herself. Nothing would've been lost, if the "present" year of 1980 was given to help the reader connect more quickly to the events as they unfolded.

In the beginning of the book, it's mentioned how the Gilly women are outcasts, yet that concept is never fully explained. Is it becasue they're poor? Is it because they work on a salt farm? This line is not addressed either, "Although the community half-suspects the Gilly sisters might be witches," . To say the salt is magical and predicts the future isn't enough.

On the plus side, the book is well-written and the main characters are fully developed. The author explores the bonds of family very well: there is the relationship of the two sisters, Jo and Claire; the relationship between the two sisters and their mother; and the bond between the Gilly women and the land.

My biggest issue is that the author loses track of the information she provides to the reader. She seems to have the most problems in remembering the ages she gave her characters when certain events happened in their lives.

The ending was a little weird. I know you should suspend your disbelief when reading fiction, but I found the end too unprobable and too easily tied up into a bow.


I'm linking up to Ricki at Art @ Home for Literary Friday.

Thanks for reading!
~Michelle

Reading Challenges for 2012

I love to read. I really do. However, I've really fallen off the reading wagon this last year. This year, I've decided to sign up for some reading challenges which hopefully will keep me motivated.

Please click on any of the links to go to the sign up page for that challenge and to read the rules. I love the supernatural, so of course, I'm on board for this 2012 Witches and Witchcraft Reading Challenge

I need to be shaken out of the type of books I normally read, so this challenge will be good for me. 2012 Book Blogger Recommendation Challenge

Mystery and Suspense Reading Challenge --Whodunnits are my all time favorite type of book. I love trying to figure out "whodunnit" before I get to the end.

Southern Lit Challenge --Books set in the southern states. What can I say? I'm a southern girl.

2012 100+ Books in a year reading challenge --Wow. 100 books in a year. I'm up for it. I am.

This seems like a lot of books for 2012. Luckily, many of these books will cross over onto other lists, so not as many books to read as you'd think. Well, except for that one for 100 books... that's about two books per week. I feel a trip to the library coming on.

Oh, and I'll be doing two poetry reading challenges:
2012 Fearless Poetry Exploration Challenge
and
Read More/Blog More Poetry Challenge.

I really need to read more poetry. Last year, I read two books in March and flipped through an anthology this past summer. That was it. So this year I decided to amp up my poetry reading.

Thanks for stopping by :)

Mary Modern

I just finished this book called Mary Modern by Camille DeAngelis.



The main character, Lucy, is a 27 year old woman, who's a scientist and lives in an unbelievable fantastic house, a Queen Anne Victorian. Her boyfriend, Gray, moves in with her and then Lucy decides to have a baby, but she can't conceive. So, Lucy finds an apron with her grandmother's blood on it and clones her own grandmother. Wait, there's a surprise for Lucy! Instead of having a new baby, she gets her grandmother, Mary, at the age of 22, who isn't too happy at being brought into this world.

At the beginning of the book, there's alot of setup for this madcap plot, including the romance of Lucy and Gray and tidbits from Mary's life. Mary is the most developed character in this book. Gray tries to be well developed, but retains his one dimensional status throughout the novel.

Downers: I'm not sure what politics have to do with Lucy's shenanigans, but the author, Camille DeAngelis, felt the need to throw in her political views. I confess I skimmed through those passages. And near the end, there's a "showdown" with a preacher, which I also felt unnecessary to the plot. All the politics and minister scenes did was add pages to the novel.

Overall, I enjoyed reading "Mary Modern" and would definitely recommend it!

What are you reading?

Our weather here has been so blah over the last couple of weeks. We've had far too much rain! So I decided to lose myself in some fiction. Here's what I recently picked up:


Mostly, when it comes to fiction, I read mysteries. This is the first time, in a few years, where I've read romantic fiction (outside of Marian Keyes). So far I've only read the Jude Deveraux book "Scarlet Nights". When I read fiction, I do so to escape reality. This book wasn't too bad, but it was definitely not the best book that I've read by this author. It had a few cute moments and a plotline that was easily followed. However, when I read romantic fiction, I want to be swept away and for the hero to be a fantasty-type man. Not quite so, in this particular book by her.

This weekend, I'll be tackling one of the Madeline Wickham books.


After the library, I then popped into my local bookstore, where I promptly gave into temptation and bought "The Weird Sisters" . This book combines two of my favorite things: Shakespeare and sisterhood! I have two sisters, so I love, love, love books about sisters.


I also picked up the latest issue of Elle magazine and another book called "First Grave on the Right", which I'm really looking forward to reading. I picked this book up because I liked the cover, and after reading the first page, I was totally hooked.


After arriving in the mail a couple of weeks ago, my Vogue magazine is patiently waiting to be read. Vogue is definitely my favorite magazine.


OK... now I'm off to blot out the rain and to close my eyes against the snow that's started to fall and get my read on!!!

Thanks for stopping by:)