The Beginners by Rebecca Wolff

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


*Some Spoilers contained* Well, I finished it. It was almost painful to do so at times, but I plowed through. There was a lot of potential with the story line and with the actual characters, but the majority of a time, I felt like I was listening to someone relate their dream after they'd been awake for a few hours and they kept forgetting the point of the dream.

Cherry and Ginger are high schoolers in a small, idyllic Massachusetts town, caught between being kids who play make-believe all day and women who are interested in sexual relationships and social structures. A mysterious couple comes to town (Raquel and Theo) who take an interest in them and they are suddenly enveloped by these strangers. When Cherry starts to recognize that they're not healthy people to be around, Ginger continues to become more and more enmeshed in their dysfunction and so the story goes.

There was one point, about 200 or so pages in, when Theo makes a confession about their true 'story' and I actually said out loud 'What?!' because I didn't see it coming. However, Wolff did not take the opportunity then to use that plot twist and move the story forward. To the end, I kept waiting for a great twist or for something to finally click into place but it just didn't.

She definitely has a great handle on use of language, it's poetic (duh, she's a poet, right?) but there were so many holes in the story that had to be filled in. I feel like I have a pretty good imagination, but there were times I had to re-read a page thinking I'd missed something-nope.

I closed the book and wanted to fling it because I was annoyed that I plowed on for virtually nothing. As my History professor once said on a paper that clearly needed more fleshing out '...if you ever again make me slog through seven pages, there had BETTER be a point.'


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A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Goolrick's novel, an idea which was first explored after he read Wisconsin Death Trip in the 70's, is another of those quick reads that's got a lot of depth at the same time. I flew through this book in two days, mainly because I couldn't wait to see if what I thought was going to happen would.

Ralph Truitt is a Wisconsin businessman living in the small town of his family's name. A man haunted by the ghosts of deeds and relationships past, he puts out a want ad for 'a reliable wife.' Answering the call is Catherine Land, a woman who also has her share of dark corners and regrets.

Together they explore the landscape that may or may not become their lives. Set in one very long Wisconsin winter, the novel delves into an array of relationship dynamics with twists and turns while also giving a glimpse at some of the vignettes that inspired Goolrick to write about a Wisconsin winter in the first place.

The lives that go terribly wrong in the turn of a thought, minds gone mad when the snow sticks around too long.

While it could easily have been a very bizarre tale that took everything just a step too far, I felt like he kept a nice balance between predictable love story and a novel with deception and twists; sex and sexual themes seem to have a heavy hand, but it didn't feel gratuitous.

No spoilers, this is one to delve into post-haste.

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Born To Run

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I honestly haven't had a book that was, if not life-changing, then thought-changing like this book. I'm currently in the midst of training for my first half-marathon, and just thinking about the body mechanics, mind-set and absolute joy that the Tarahumara find in running makes each run go a little more smoothly, and has forced me to push myself WAY outside of my former comfort zone.

I've improved my time by almost two minutes per mile, and actually look forward to those long Saturday runs.

Coincidentally, this is the first time I've spent a lot of money on shoes...and that was because this is the first time I've felt on the verge of injury. I'm hoping that with ice, ibuprofen, lots of quality time with the foam roller and time, it'll resolve itself.

Some day, I may even invest in a set of the Five Finger 'shoes' that they feature in the book and my friend's husband bought after reading the book.

This is a must-read for every runner, or anyone who's even thinking of taking that first step. It's ridiculously inspirational and a phenomenal cultural read on top of that!

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Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home by Rhoda Janzen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really liked this memoir. I loved that it was the kind of read that you could pick up and finish in a couple of days, but not because you'd done nothing but read for those two days.

Rhoda Janzen is a Mennonite who 'left the fold' in the religious sense only. Following the dissolution of a long-term marriage when her mentally ill, sometimes abusive husband left her for 'Bob from gay.com' she is further broken, literally, by a car accident that leads her to take some much-needed solace and rest in the home of her parents, who are devout Mennonites; her father was actually once the head of the North American Mennonite Conference for Canada and the United States.

Full of humor, explanations of some of the philosophies of the faith and lots of talk about the food that comforts, there were several times that I actually laughed out loud. I know it's such a cliche, but this really is 'laugh-out-loud funny'.

Throughout, she is respectful of her parents' religion, but is still able to point out the things that are ridiculous to her in a way that is humorous without being bitter.

She clearly loves her family, and everybody likes a good story about getting back to your roots, even if you never really strayed very far.

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The Not So Big House

The Not So Big House: A Blueprint for the Way We Really Live by Sarah Susanka


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I absolutely loved this book! I first checked it out from the library and have added it to my amazon wishlist, as it's one of those I'll refer bak to over and over. The Not So Big concept is not so much about the square footage of your home, but in maximizing the usable space in it.

If you're a family that will always eat your meals in the kitchen, no matter how much you have to extend the table in your nook but are scrambling for office/studio space-why would you waste over 100 precious square feet on a formal dining room?

Not So Big House is really all about making a house a home and loving every inch of it, nomatter how big, or Not So Big, it may be.

There are a ton of ideas from this book that I'll be implementing in our new home, and I hope you find inspiration for yours in it as well.

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In The Woods

In the Woods by Tana French


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I had really mixed feelings about this book. Really, I felt like it was about 100 pages too long. By the time it got to the crux of the story, I was thinking "FINALLY!" instead of being curious to the end. I don't mind that it didn't end up with all the loose ends tied up, because I like having more to think about, but it was a little bit tedious at times, and sub-stories that felt unnecessary and unresolved. Additionally, there's a fantastical element that, in the end, is never really addressed.

Set in present-day Ireland, In The Woods is a 'you can never go home' type tale in which Andy/Rob is the sole survivor of a childhood tragedy in which he and two of his friends went to play in the woods one day, and two of them never came out. His family left, sent Andy to boarding school after which he changed his name to Rob to avoid further media and police contacts. He had no memory of the event, or several years leading up to it. As unbeknownst to his boss and co-workers, and is assigned a murder investigation that appears to have close ties with his own unresolved case.

Perhaps what was most disappointing is that the character that's supposed to be the 'surprise psychotic' is really not surprising at all. Rosalind is fairly transparently manipulative, and it's surprising that a seasoned detective was completely snowed by her when it was obvious to me, as the reader. Had she had more characteristics that were similar to Jamie, hence a reason for Adam/Rob to have a soft spot for her, I could see it, but otherwise it just doesn't fit.

Even though I wasn't wowed by this novel I would still recommend it to others, and would like to have it be part of a book discussion so that I could get different readers' perspectives. Overall, I think it's a great first novel, but it's not ground-breaking, and I look forward to reading the next book in my queue by her to see if her stories become more sophisticated and the characters less transparent.

But, as another reviewer on goodreaders so eloquently put it "Or could it be that weaving an engrossing, eclectic, multi-layered tale of murder, mythological spirits, and memory is a hell of a lot easier when an author goes into it knowing there's no way and no need to wrap it up? Because that's just lazy. "

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Salem Falls

Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
I really enjoyed this book. I've read several Jodi Picoult books, and my favorites have been Nineteen Minutes, Salem Falls, Harvesting the Heart and My Sister's Keeper.



I had read Nineteen Minutes as my first intro to Ms. Picoult, so was excited to see the return (or origination of) Jordan McCafferty and Selena.



In this book Jack is a Columbia educated History PhD who was teaching and coaching soccer at an all-girls prep school when he's falsely accused of having a sexual relationship with one of his players after her father finds a diary full of sexually explicit entries featuring Jack, and a package of birth control pills. Excited by the idea that they could be true, she quickly falls into the role of victim, and it's too late to turn back.



The book opens as Jack is released from his eight-month jail sentence and vows to start over again. When he reaches the sleepy town of Salem Falls, things fall into place for him, and he tried to do everything right, including notifying the Detective of his residence in accordance with his obligation to report as a sex offender.



From there, word spreads and a modern-day witch hunt ensues. Throw four teen-aged Wiccan girls, and the half-truths, mis-representations and false accusations build. It was really interesting to me to see how easily a false allegation can get out of control, but I thought she also did a very good job of not minimalizing the trauma or rape, or of making it sound like there were a large percentage of allegations that ended up being false.



****Spoiler****Spoiler****Spoiler*****Spoiler



There was one relationship dynamic which was really not addressed that I picked up on right away (between Gilly and her father, Pharmaceutical giant Amos Duncan). I don't know if it's because of my former job, or if there was just some really obvious foreshadowing, but I was a little disappointed that the "could be a relative" DNA issue wasn't picked up on by the defense attorney, the DA's office or any of the law enforcement. I know that in that line of work, we're all cynical enough to explore that angle if things don't fit. I don't like including spoilers in my review, but I had to include this because I kept waiting for that to be the answer of the missing DNA link, and it never happened. The "dynamic" (Read: ABUSE) isn't out-right identified until the last line of the book, so all you cheaters who like to read the last page or last chapter first, you'll already know.


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The Piano Teacher

Since re-discovering the library, I can't seem to read enough these days. I've always been a voracious reader, but lately it's even moreso. Flying through the Twilight series, engrossed in the Kay Scarpetta series by Patricia Cornwell about a chief Medical Examiner in Virginia to sate my morbid curiosities (though I question the sanity in doing that, as I often have to put it down and read something else late at night if I've already checked the locks on the windows and doors more than twice, looked in closets and even under my bed....), or more instructional tomes like Knitting Circles Around Socks I've reinforced that books will always be an intrinsic part of my life; continually connecting with characters on paper that you wish you knew in real life.

I had read reviews for Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford and The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee in a magazine and put them in my request queue at the library right away. The Piano Teacher came almost immediately and it was amazing! It just came out last month so run, don't walk, to your local library and check out a copy.

Not often does a book leave such a lasting impression. Set in World War II Hong Kong, and then a decade later, the stories of the women who are the lovers of Will Truesdale, a British man in Hong Kong, unfold on the pages with rich language that isn't wordy for wordy's sake and tell of two women whose lives are very different, but have Will as their center.

What struck me the most was that the in the second 'life' he is only a decade older yet the war has so changed him, making him a much older man. Throughout, I just kept thinking about our current situation and how we, as citizens of the US, are often so insulated from the everyday grisly details of war. Yes, we have the news media now but I imagine they still can't do justice to the in-person experience; the sights, smells and tastes of the depictions in the book are so vivid, that it makes you again feel at the least, fortunate, to live where we do if only geographically.

I loved this book, and would read it again if only to see what pieces I may have missed in the rich tapestry that she wove throughout to lead you to the final scenes. I won't include any more details because I wouldn't want to spoil any surprises.

*Cross-posted at Sex and the Knitty