It's almost laughable to try to come up with only five books I want to read before the end of the year - I have more than that sitting in a pile next to me as I type, after all. That being said, there are a handful of books that I'm determined to move off my TBR sooner rather than later, primarily because they are (or will soon be) sitting on my actual book shelf.
This is one that's taunting me from my shelves as we speak (and has been for a couple of months now). Hannah is the queen of British suspense and this book sounds like a doozy. A mother finds that her daughter has written a disturbing story for a school assignment that tells of murders in their home. Once she starts poking around she discovers that her daughter's best school friend seems to be unknown by all of her teachers. Then the anonymous phone calls start. This sounds so deliciously creepy!
This is another book sitting on my shelf...waiting to be read. The story revolves around the two survivors of a private plane crash - a young boy who is heir to an extensive family fortune and a down on his luck painter. Moving between the aftermath of the crash and the backstories of the passengers, certain coincidences begin to appear that point to the crash not being an accident. I love a good mystery and this sounds like it will be exactly that. Plus...look at this gorgeous cover!
I know - another Sophie Hannah book - but it's also a Hercule Poirot mystery and there's no way I'm not reading this the minute I hold this book in my hot little hands. A wealthy woman hosts a party with the sole intention of letting everyone in attendance know she is cutting off her heirs and instead giving all of her money to an invalid who is expected to die within the month. When a murder is commited, Poirot finds that the victim chosen makes no sense at all. This sounds like vintage Poirot - a "locked room," a house full of suspects, and what will no doubt be a twisty plot that I'll devour, looking for clues, hoping to solve the mystery before the world's best detective.
This book is a chunker at 740+ pages so fitting this one in might require some dedication and a few quiet nights on the deck before the weather turns. A plague that causes spontaneous human combustion is sweeping the land and only an enigmatic man known as The Fireman can stop it. Normally this kind of "post-apocalyptic" sci-fi/fantasy tale isn't something I'm chomping at the bit to get to but I read the first chapter standing in Target and was tempted to go grab some Starbucks, sit down right there on the floor, and keep reading. I'm hoping this will be a nice meaty book I can savor a few chapters at a time through the fall.
My final choice shouldn't come as a surprise. I'm in love with Flavia de Luce and her clever mysteries. In this new installment, Flavia is returning home for Christmas and, upon finding her father ill, decides to make a visit to the village. There she finds a door ajar, a body hanging upside down from the rafters, and a cat who seems undisturbed by the whole scene. Flavia - of course - investigates. The fact that Flavia is a child and a science-obsessed genius makes this whole series both intellectually satisfying and a whole lot of fun. I'm counting down the days for this one.
What books are you determined to finish before the year ends? Tell us below!
*The Top Five Wednesday book tag was created by Lainey from GingerReadsLainey on YouTube and is now managed by Sam from ThoughtsOnTomes, also on YouTube. You can find the topics in their Goodreads group, Top 5 Wednesdays, here.*
The Couple Next Door
by Shari Lapena
Hardcover, 320 pages
23 August 2016, Pamela Dorman Books
4.5 stars
"Everyone is faking it, all of them pretending to be something they're not. The whole world is built on lies and deceit."
When their babysitter cancels, Anne and Marco decide to go ahead next door to a dinner party with the neighbors anyway. After all, they share a wall, they'll have the baby monitor with them, and they'll take turns checking every half hour. When they return their baby Cora is gone without a trace.
From that point the book takes off like a freight train and never applies the breaks. This was a book I read over the course of one two-hour sitting and I couldn't have put it down if I wanted to (and I did...I finished around 1:30am!). Around the half-way point you start to get a handle on what's going on but the pace doesn't slow down at all. This is a novel that maintains the suspense all the way to the last line.
The book is a touch melodramatic but I didn't find that to detract from the story in the least.(I watch a lot of Law & Order: SVU so maybe that's why?) The narration happens in an emotionally distant present tense making for some unsettling storytelling. Everyone around Cora seemed to have both a motive for the crime while simultaneously seeming innocent. Even though you know what everyone is thinking you can't tell who is telling the truth at any point. It all combines to create a pulse-pounding read.
Though it had some flaws this was a great debut and I can't wait to see what Ms. Lapena will come up with next.
(Thank you to NetGalley and Pamela Dorman Books for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.)
Behind Closed Doors
by B. A. Paris
Hardcover, 304 pages
9 August, 2016, St. Martin's Press
4 stars
This is the first book being compared to Gone Girl that has lived up to the hype – not because they were anything alike in terms of writing style, plot, or book construction, but because it was the first book since Gone Girl that I couldn't put down. I sat down one evening and read the first half, only stopping because it was time for bed, and then I waited grumpily all day until I could sit down again and finish it. It was incredibly fast paced and, as fast a reader as I am, I was still irritated that I couldn't read it faster. That earns it the comparison, in my opinion.
This debut novel presents the perfect couple, Jack and Grace. They met one day in the park when Grace's younger sister Millie was dancing by herself and Jack stepped in to be her partner. After a whirlwind romance they were married and rushed off to an exotic honeymoon in Thailand. Upon their return Grace loses touch with her friends and quits her job, seemingly content to stay at home in the beautiful mansion that Jack bought for them and decorate, garden, and enjoy her new wonderful life. Soon, their friends notice that Grace and Jack are inseparable and Grace is now unavailable for lunch dates alone.
Do you see where this is going? Don't worry if you don't because Paris shows you before long. By the time that happens you won't care, though, because you'll want to know how the situation is going to resolve itself. The story flips back and forth between two timelines, the first following Grace as she meets Jack, falls in love, and accepts his proposal, and the second as she details what her life is like in the present. This moved the story ahead in a way that highlighted the frantic rush Grace was in. I also genuinely enjoyed the scenes with Millie, too. Her portrayal as a person with Down's Syndrome but still as smart as a whip, fun, and present in her sister's life felt very authentic.
The book was not without flaws. Without giving too much away, it did require a slightly higher-than-normal suspension of disbelief because one of the characters was SO extreme. The circumstances were so perfectly plotted that it seems impossible for anyone to be as well-coordinated as would be necessary to pull off their plans. There are a lot of trigger warnings in this book – nothing graphic but a lot of allusions to things – and they're scattered liberally throughout the book (not problematic but something to keep in mind before deciding to read it).
I recommend it but don't pick it up when you have places to be or things to do. You won't be able to put it down.
(Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.)
Gone with the Wind
by Margaret Mitchell
Hardcover, 1037 pages
1 September 1936, Scribner
5 stars
This book has become a classic - but the twist that I love is that Scarlett is something of an anti-hero, and the book is set in the American South before, during and after the Civil War, so there are strikes against it being such an amazing, moving book, but it won the 1937 Pulizer Prize, inspired a movie that utterly swept the Academy Awards in the same year that The Wizard of Oz was released.
Cheers,
- Karli
We all know that opening lines can set the mood for a book and give us a taste of what to expect. Just like first impressions, good first lines can make you decide to stick around. This week's top five is all about our favorite opening lines in books.
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."
I'm sure this line is on most "best first lines" lists but it really does set the tone for this novel. As everyone in Regency England knew, a good marriage was the main concern of every mother across the country. It's slightly sarcastic tone gives us a hint of the personality we're going to find in Lizzie Bennett, a Regency mother's worst nightmare. Everything considered, you can almost forgive Mrs. Bennett for being off her rocker over her daughter's marriages. Almost.
"All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
Again, not the most unusual line to find on this kind of list but for a good reason. Tolstoy's philosophical examination of happiness and the idea that what makes us human also makes us unhappy gives us a glimpse of what we can expect from this sweeping novel - a host of families that are unhappy precisely because they have gone against societal expectations and behaved in painfully human ways.
"Fear presides over these memories, a perpetual fear."
In Roth's alternative history novel, a young Jewish boy is remembering back to his childhood in which Charles Lindburgh is elected president, an "understanding" is reached with Adolph Hitler, and a program of anti-Semitism is adopted by the American government. This opening line highlights the reality of what this kind of environment would be like for a child - perpetual fear.
"There are places I'll remember all my life - Red Square with a hot wind howling across it, my mother's bedroom on the wrong side of Eight Mile, the endless gardens of a fancy foster home, a man waiting to kill me in a group of ruins knows as the Theater of Death."
I guess when your main character is a super-secret international mega-spy it's not reasonable to expect a quiet opening line. This one, though, sets the stage for Pilgrim's intense adventure through multiple countries and countless adversaries. It packs a punch that you feel all the way to the end of this book.
"Nick Naylor had been called many things since becoming chief spokesman for the Academy of Tobacco Studies, but until now no one had actually compared him to Satan."
Buckley's hilarious satire of DC lobbyists, corporations, and media coverage is off to a snort-inducing start with this line. You start to feel bad for Nick, despite the questionable morality of his job. This line perfectly prepares you for a front-row seat to poor Nick's moral quandaries.
What are your favorite opening lines? Comment below and tell us!
*The Top Five Wednesday book tag was created by Lainey from GingerReadsLainey on YouTube and is now managed by Sam from ThoughtsOnTomes, also on YouTube. You can find the topics in their Goodreads group, Top 5 Wednesdays, here.*
We all know that opening lines can set the mood for a book and give us a taste of what to expect. Just like first impressions, good first lines can make you decide to stick around. This week's top five is all about our favorite opening lines in books.
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."
I'm sure this line is on most "best first lines" lists but it really does set the tone for this novel. As everyone in Regency England knew, a good marriage was the main concern of every mother across the country. It's slightly sarcastic tone gives us a hint of the personality we're going to find in Lizzie Bennett, a Regency mother's worst nightmare. Everything considered, you can almost forgive Mrs. Bennett for being off her rocker over her daughter's marriages. Almost.
"All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
Again, not the most unusual line to find on this kind of list but for a good reason. Tolstoy's philosophical examination of happiness and the idea that what makes us human also makes us unhappy gives us a glimpse of what we can expect from this sweeping novel - a host of families that are unhappy precisely because they have gone against societal expectations and behaved in painfully human ways.
"Fear presides over these memories, a perpetual fear."
In Roth's alternative history novel, a young Jewish boy is remembering back to his childhood in which Charles Lindburgh is elected president, an "understanding" is reached with Adolph Hitler, and a program of anti-Semitism is adopted by the American government. This opening line highlights the reality of what this kind of environment would be like for a child - perpetual fear.
"There are places I'll remember all my life - Red Square with a hot wind howling across it, my mother's bedroom on the wrong side of Eight Mile, the endless gardens of a fancy foster home, a man waiting to kill me in a group of ruins knows as the Theater of Death."
I guess when your main character is a super-secret international mega-spy it's not reasonable to expect a quiet opening line. This one, though, sets the stage for Pilgrim's intense adventure through multiple countries and countless adversaries. It packs a punch that you feel all the way to the end of this book.
"Nick Naylor had been called many things since becoming chief spokesman for the Academy of Tobacco Studies, but until now no one had actually compared him to Satan."
Buckley's hilarious satire of DC lobbyists, corporations, and media coverage is off to a snort-inducing start with this line. You start to feel bad for Nick, despite the questionable morality of his job. This line perfectly prepares you for a front-row seat to poor Nick's moral quandaries.
What are your favorite opening lines? Comment below and tell us!
*The Top Five Wednesday book tag was created by Lainey from GingerReadsLainey on YouTube and is now managed by Sam from ThoughtsOnTomes, also on YouTube. You can find the topics in their Goodreads group, Top 5 Wednesdays, here.*
Try Not to Breathe
by Holly Seddon
Hardcover, 368 pages
23 February 2016, Ballantine Books
3.5 stars
"Some secrets never die. They're just locked away."
In this debut novel Alex Dale is a young journalist trying to hold her life together. Consumed by her alcoholism she has destroyed her family and career and is drifting from day to day in a haze, freelancing here and there, trying to remain functional and barely holding on. While writing an article about a doctor who is using brain scans to detect consciousness in coma patients she comes across a young woman who was brutally attacked as a teen decades ago and has shown signs of being somewhat aware of her surroundings. Alex remembers this girl, Amy Stevenson, and the case, being the same age as Amy when the attack occurred, and feels a connection to her. She decides to look deeper into Amy's case to tell her story and, at the same time, face down the addiction that threatens to end her life.
Despite being told from multiple points of view and moving around in time from 1995 (the date of Amy's attack) through to the present day, this book wasn't in the least bit hard to follow. I generally enjoy books that are able to successfully show the motivations of multiple characters and Seddon pulled it off here quite nicely. The glimpses into the neurological ward and patients seemed well-researched despite Seddon's admission that she took some creative liberties with Amy's condition and treatment.
I thought I had guessed Amy's attacker and, while close, didn't quite hit the mark. I always find that a nice surprise, though in this case I was a bit put-off when the attacker was revealed. The actual perpetrator and the motivation behind the attack wasn't really touched on until almost the end, creating a frustrating inability for the reader to follow along with the mystery. As a result, the book would have to be classified more as a "suspense/thriller" than a mystery. The character development was so good, however, that I would have been okay with whatever ending Seddon settled upon. The plot was paced well, descriptive, and while the motivations were a bit unclear for the behavior of some characters, it was overall so believable that I was fully immersed in this story. I can't wait to see what Seddon does next.
What to Drink: Red wine - Alex's favorite.
(Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.)
