{2013 TBR Pile Challenge - Review} The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

ISBN #: 978-1400078431

Page Count: 227

Copyright: February 13, 2007

Publisher: Vintage; 1st Thus. edition

Book Summary:

(Taken from Amazon)

From one of America's iconic writers, a stunning book of electric honesty and passion. Joan Didion explores an intensely personal yet universal experience: a portrait of marriage - and a life, in good times and bad - that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child.

Kathy's Review:

(Copied with her permission from her personal blog, Grown Up Book Reports)

I don’t know what has taken me so long to write this review. Usually I want to document my feelings on a book as soon as the words of the last sentence have finished echoing in my brain. But this one, I finished over the weekend, and perhaps it’s because I’ve injured my right hand (cat bite; don’t ask) and have had limited mobility and thus, diminished typing skills, that I haven’t been as eager to take to my blog with my thoughts.

But it’s also because I’m just not sure how to write about this book.

This is my first time reading Joan Didion although her name is certainly legen – wait for it – dary. (Sorry, I just started watching “How I Met Your Mother” on Netflix due to not being about to do much else with just one functioning hand.) And probably, this was not the appropriate piece of her work to begin with, as it is an autobiographical piece dealing with the death of her husband, John Dunne, who passed of a massive heart attack in 2003. Her account of the year following his death travels back and forth between memory and current grief. It is heart wrenching at times, and at other times beautiful and a true testament to strong marriages, soul mates, and someone who just makes you feel complete.

Certainly her writing is masterful, calling to mind famous quotes on death, on grief. And her writing brings her down to a human level – she kept his shoes! Because she believed that he might come back. The denial that someone is truly gone – it’s a very real feeling that many have experienced with the loss of a loved one, especially if the loss was unexpected.

Reading about death and grief isn’t exactly my idea of a fun Saturday afternoon read, but I sped through this book, simply because Didion’s writing is so compelling. I didn’t mind the morose topic. It may be something I come back to when I experience a deep loss of my own (hopefully not anytime soon). And I will definitely be adding more of her work to my must-read list. Maybe even some of her late husband’s work, as well.

{Review} A Door I'll Never Enter by H.C. Turk

ASIN #: B00E63HCWQ

File Size: 398 KB

Page Count: 230

Copyright: July 25, 2013

Book Summary:

(Taken from Goodreads)

A cross-genre literary novel of contemporary fantasy, magic realism, and jaw-dropping hilarity, A DOOR I’LL NEVER ENTER follows the adventures of Bill, Jane, Dan, and their interstellar comet (disguised as a watermelon) as they travel from kitchen sink to cannibal canoe in search of a Leprechaun’s pot of FAIL. Finding friendship on the way, they learn that failure might be best when the goal is ultimate destruction.

Kathy's Review:

You know when someone starts telling you about their dream and for a while you’re kind of entertained, especially if you’re in the dream, but then you just want them to stop talking about it? Yeah, that’s this book in a nutshell.

This isn’t really a story as much as it is a journey from one nonsensical scene to the next, following protagonist Jane, a man she meets at the grocery store named Bill, a leprechaun named Dan and last but not least, a watermelon with a mind of its own.

This book might make sense if you get really, REALLY high and then try to read it. Maybe. I am not willing to try it to find out. (That’s a door I’ll never enter, to quote the title of this book.) Or, maybe if you are some kind of smart that’s not even on the same plane of existence as I am - maybe it makes sense to those people. To me, the average reader, it’s a jumbled, hot mess.


*An ecopy was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

{2013 TBR Pile Challenge - Review} The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris

ISBN #: 978-0316034005

Page Count: 320

Copyright: September 14, 2010

Publisher: Reagan Arthur/Back Bay Books; Reprint Edition

Book Summary:

(Taken from Amazon)

Tim Farnsworth walks. He walks out of meetings and out of bed. He walks in sweltering heat and numbing cold. He will walk without stopping until he falls asleep, wherever he is. This curious affliction has baffled medical experts around the globe - and come perilously close to ruining what should be a happy life. Tim has a loving family, a successful law career, and a beautiful suburban home, all of which he maintains spectacularly well until his feet start moving again.

What drives a man to stay in a marriage, in a job? What forces him away? Is love or conscience enough to overcome the darker, stronger urges of the natural world? The Unnamed is a deeply felt, luminous novel about modern life, ancient yearnings, and the power of human understanding.

Kathy's Review:

(Originally posted on her personal blog, Grown Up Book Reports, on 10/20/13)

This is going to be one of those novels that I don't remember a month from now. So let me front-load this review with a plot overview. Basically there's this guy, married lawyer with a teenage daughter, who has this affliction where he starts walking and can't stop. His wife has to pick him up wherever he is when his legs finally quit on him. He's been to doctors, he's been featured in the New England Journal of Medicine, and tried multiple forms of therapy. Nothing works.

As the novel progresses, Tim's condition becomes worse and his body deteriorates as a result of the walking thing. Exposure to cold leaves his fingers frostbitten. He experiences hallucinations. Organs fail. Mentally, he loses touch. He has to quit his job and leave his family behind, occasionally checking in with them, but without control over his body, he doesn't want them to have to chase him all over kingdom come.

"The Unnamed," I think, refers to all of the moments that pass us by without us really noticing. All of the little details in life. Later in the novel, after many years have passed, Tim comes to visit his cancer-stricken wife in the hospital. She asks him what he saw when he was walking. He confesses that he wasn't paying attention, so he makes a conscious effort to focus on the details so he can describe it to her.

How did I feel about The Unnamed?

Ambivalent, actually. I had read Then We Came to the End, a wonderful novel by Ferris, and expected great things from this book, which I chose as part of the TBR Pile Challenge. While it is spectacularly written, I was just not as engaged in Tim's story as I was with the gaggle of co-workers at the center of his earlier novel. And like Tim's walks, the book meandered on without any seeming direction. Even though Tim is a sympathetic character, there's nothing compelling about him other than his affliction. I can't even remember his wife's name and I just finished this novel last night. His daughter is a teenager when the book begins, but an adult with a son at the book's end. We miss all the in-between.

So, not completely giving up on Ferris' work, but he's had one amazing and one dud as far as I'm concerned.

{Book Blog Tour - Review} An Amish Country Christmas by Charlotte Hubbard & Naomi King

ISBN #: 978-1420131888

Page Count: 352

Copyright: October 1, 2013

Publisher: Zebra

Book Summary:

(Taken from Amazon)

In Willow Ridge, Missouri, the Christmas season is a time when faith brings peace, family brings warmth and new romance brings sparkling joy. . .

Twins For Christmas

For spirited Martha Coblentz and her twin Mary, the snow has delivered the perfect holiday and birthday present to their door--handsome brothers Nate and Bram Kanagy. But when unforeseen trouble interrupts their season's good cheer, it will take unexpected intervention--and sudden understanding--to give all four the blessing of a lifetime. . .

Kissing The Bishop

As the year's first snow settles, Nazareth Hooley and her sister are given a heaven-sent chance to help newly widowed Tom Hostetler tend his home. But when her hope that she and Tom can build on the caring between them seems a dream forever out of reach, Nazareth discovers that faith and love can make any miracle possible. . .

About the Author:

Charlotte Hubbard sold her first historical romance in 1990, and she's been a slave to her overactive imagination ever since. As she writes, her stories invariably take on a life of their own, different from the way she proposed them: unforeseen characters and plot twists come along, and they keep her guessing right along with her readers!

Charlotte has lived in the Midwest most of her life. When she's not writing, she loves touring historic homes, trying new recipes, crocheting, and playing with her Border Collie, Ramona. She's a Presbyterian deacon, sings in her church choir, and plays in the percussion ensemble. She's married to a fine man who--bless him--has never once suggested she get a real job!

Mandy's Review:

I loved this intermingling of the two series (characters from Naomi's Home at Cedar Creek series and from Charlotte's Seasons of the Heart series) in this book. It's nice to see some of the usual background characters come to the forefront so the readers can get to know them better.

In Twins for Christmas the matchmaking and falling in love did happen pretty fast, even for a short story, but when things just fall into place like God's own hand is on the situation, well then it'd be pretty silly not to pay attention, ain't so? (I just HAD to go Amish on that one!)

Mary and Martha are some troublemakers, for sure and for certain, but they're well-intentioned. They let their human nature win out over their Amish faith occasionally, but they usually see how they did wrong and set things right. They're just so lovable and kind-hearted that it's easy to see how Nate and Bram fell in love with them so quickly.

As far as Kissing the Bishop, well that just sounds outright brazen for a title concerning an Amish story, but it's well past time for it to be happening. I've grown fond of Tom as I've been reading the Willow Ridge series. He's extremely kind, yet fair, and rules the people with a gentle hand as opposed to the iron fist they were used to with their former Bishop. He's also a man whose wife left him, and the Amish faith, to be with an Englischer. According to the Ordung, Tom cannot marry again until his current wife is deceased, even though she's with someone else. Personally, I don't know if I'd be able to follow that rule but as a Christian I can kind of understand where they're coming from.

Nazareth came to Willow Ridge with her sister Jerusalem for a wedding about a year ago and they've stayed on ever since. Both sisters have declared themselves maidels since a wedding for them didn't seem to be any nearer to them now than when they were in their courtin' years. As Nazareth and Jerusalem have been helping Tom with his housekeeping, Nazareth has grown rather fond of Tom (and vice versa) even though both know there's nothing they can do about it ... until a rather important letter arrives.

It's nice to read about the younger generation falling in love and starting families, but there's something extra sweet about watching two older people navigating the romantic waters as well. I am happy for both Tom and Nazareth.

I'm telling you, if you're a fan of Christian fiction, you need to pick up Charlotte Hubbard's and Naomi King's books. They just make you feel wonderful-gut after reading them ... and maybe a little bit Amish. =)


*An ARC of this book was provided by the author for the purposes of this tour and in exchange for an honest review.

{Review} The Storm Protocol by Iain Cosgrove

ASIN #: B00BM17C8Y

File Size: 887 KB

Page Count: 438

Copyright: February 26, 2013

Publisher: Iain Cosgrove

Book Summary:

(Taken from Goodreads)

Imagine creating the perfect drug; all of the highs with none of the lows. No side effects, no painful physical withdrawal, no drawbacks.

Or are there ...

Deep in the Louisiana bayou, Thomas Eugene O'Neill a.k.a. The Street, an Irish immigrant mob enforcer, waits patiently with his gun amidst the sweltering heat of a southern storm. His employers, Italian American drug lords Guido and Ernesto Mancini, have a guaranteed formula to create the perfect narcotic and Thomas knows too much.

But he is not alone.

Detective Charles Roussel, ex hot-shot city lawyer turned small town Louisiana lawman, is investigating a strange case at the old plantation house he used to call home. He gets drawn inexorably to Ireland, as all his research begins to guide him to the same inevitable destination; Cork.

Agent Dale Foster, unorthodox New York DEA agent and victim of one too many bogus leads, hears murmurs of the next big thing; a drug without equal. The whisperings lead him to one last tumultuous confrontation with his superiors, who compel him to take an enforced vacation. As his plane lands in Ireland, and he follows the trail of rumours to Cork, he knows his professional instincts are leading him to the biggest bust of his life, or ending his career forever.

For Thomas, the middle-aged hit man, all roads seem to lead back to Cork; the city of his birth and the ghosts of his past.

He has plenty of questions and needs some answers, and all the while the words echo in his head.

'Be careful what you wish for!'

Kathy's Review:

This is not my genre of choice. I thought the book was extremely well written, but suffered from two flaws as far as I was concerned: first, too many characters to keep track of, and second, too long. I also found the shifting POV to be a bit confusing.

If you like gunfire, explosions and plenty of action, then this book will be right up your alley. Think Tom Clancy, James Patterson and the like. For me, it was entertaining but like I said, a bit confusing at times with the POV shifts. I would have preferred a focus on 2-3 characters, with a first person POV section for each, and then the other characters receiving minor mention. I think the story would have been considerably easier to follow.


*An ecopy of this book was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.