Summer Reading Challenge: Close, but Not Quite

Well, here it is. The last day of summer and I am part way through my 17th book. My own personal challenge was to read 20 books this summer (Memorial Day to Labor Day). While I know the first day of autumn isn't until September 22, my life is about to go crazy.
I will only have Sundays off in which to frantically cram in my homework. I already know that I have a group project in one class and I know my availability is far more severely limited than anyone else in the group. I'm feeling overwhelmed and stressed already.
I am disappointed that I did not reach my goal of 20 books this summer. I know I put in a fair effort towards reaching it, but I also know that my goal of 50 books this year is almost certainly not going to happen now. It was going to be a stretch even if I had made my goal.

Do you all have any goals you set for yourself during the year or season? Did you reach them?

Book Review: "Summer Rental" by Mary Kay Andrews

Synopsis (from GoodReads.com):

Sometimes, when you need a change in your life, the tide just happens to pull you in the right direction….

Ellis, Julia, and Dorie. Best friends since Catholic grade school, they now find themselves, in their mid-thirties, at the crossroads of life and love. Ellis, recently fired from a job she gave everything to, is rudderless and now beginning to question the choices she's made over the past decade of her life. Julia—whose caustic wit covers up her wounds--has a man who loves her and is offering her the world, but she can't hide from how deeply insecure she feels about her looks, her brains, her life.  And Dorie has just been shockingly betrayed by the man she loved and trusted the most in the world…though this is just the tip of the iceberg of her problems and secrets. A month in North Carolina's Outer Banks is just what they each of them needs.

Ty Bazemore is their landlord, though he's hanging on to the rambling old beach house by a thin thread. After an inauspicious first meeting with Ellis, the two find themselves disturbingly attracted to one another, even as Ty is about to lose everything he's ever cared about.

Maryn Shackleford is a stranger, and a woman on the run. Maryn needs just a few things in life: no questions, a good hiding place, and a new identity.  Ellis, Julia, and Dorie can provide what Maryn wants; can they also provide what she needs? 

Five people questioning everything they ever thought they knew about life. Five people on a journey that will uncover their secrets and point them on the path to forgiveness.   Five people who each need a sea change, and one month in a summer rental that might just give it to them.

One of Library Journal's Best Women’s Fiction Books of 2011

My Thoughts **spoiler alert**:

I really enjoyed this book. It is absolutely a summer read (and is advertised as such!), but the author has such a talent for description that she made me feel like I was AT Ebbtide and in Nags Head with the characters.

Ellis seemed to fall a little flat to me: I understood her angst, her torment over joblessness and manlessness. At times, it almost seemed like she was the main character, even though the story was supposed to be about the three friends- Ellis, Dorie and Julia. 

Dorie also didn't do much for me. I could appreciate her unique life situation with her husband leaving her for another man just as she learned of her pregnancy, but as a person, I didn't really feel much for her. Julia, on the other hand, procrastinator, model and pot-stirrer was a bit better. She certainly threw a few wrenches into the plot. 

The person I was most interested in, however, was Madison/Maryn, the woman on the run from her abusive and embezzling husband. Funny thing is, she was supposed to be a "sub-plot" but she was the most real of all of the characters. 

Of course, this isn't supposed to be a work of literary genius: it's pure entertainment. And entertain, it does! Recommended for a quick, easy, amusing beach-read.

Final Word: B+

Book Review: "Keeping the Moon" by Sarah Dessen

Synopsis (from Barnes & Noble): 

"Fifteen-year-old Colie has never fit in. First, it was because she was fat. Then, after she lost the weight, it was because of a reputation that she didn't deserve. So when she's sent to stay with her eccentric aunt Mira for the summer, Colie doesn't expect too much. After all, why would anyone in Colby, North Carolina, want to bother with her when no one back home does?

But Colby turns out to be a nice surprise for Colie. Almost without trying, she lands herself a job at the Last Chance Bar and Grill. There she meets fellow waitresses Morgan and Isabel -- two best friends who teach her what friendship is all about, and help her learn to appreciate who she really is."

My Thoughts: 

Something to keep in mind: This book is definitely written for middle to high school aged readers. There are often books that I find in this genre of "Young Adult" literature that I think, "This really could be shelved in the general 'Fiction' section - it was really good!" This, however, is not one of them. Not that it wasn't good, it just was very juvenille.

I certainly would recommend it for readers who are in 7th - 10th grade who are feeling the oh-so-common angst of that age. It might help them gain a new perspective to have a main character as relatable as Colie. It is certainly a "surface read" - that is, what you see is what you get. There isn't a whole lot of "deeper meaning" to be found within these pages, but with the target audience presumably having their own adolescent traumas occurring, that might be a good thing.

It is fairly well written, but again, very simplistic. It touches on friendships, romances, and self esteem among other popular teenage topics. My favorite character was Aunt Mira: self assured, eccentric, creative, heart of gold. But overall I felt the story was a bit cloying and I lost interest a few times. Cute gift for the misfit teen in your life...

Final Word: C+

Book Review: "A Great and Terrible Beauty" by Libba Bray

Synopsis (from GoodReads.com): 

A Victorian boarding school story, a Gothic mansion mystery, a gossipy romp about a clique of girlfriends, and a dark other-worldly fantasy--jumble them all together and you have this complicated and unusual first novel.

Sixteen-year-old Gemma has had an unconventional upbringing in India, until the day she foresees her mother's death in a black, swirling vision that turns out to be true. Sent back to England, she is enrolled at Spence, a girls' academy with a mysterious burned-out East Wing. There Gemma is snubbed by powerful Felicity, beautiful Pippa, and even her own dumpy roommate Ann, until she blackmails herself and Ann into the treacherous clique. Gemma is distressed to find that she has been followed from India by Kartik, a beautiful young man who warns her to fight off the visions. Nevertheless, they continue, and one night she is led by a child-spirit to find a diary that reveals the secrets of a mystical Order. 

The clique soon finds a way to accompany Gemma to the other-world realms of her visions "for a bit of fun" and to taste the power they will never have as Victorian wives, but they discover that the delights of the realms are overwhelmed by a menace they cannot control. Gemma is left with the knowledge that her role as the link between worlds leaves her with a mission to seek out the "others" and rebuild the Order. 

My Thoughts: 

This book felt familiar to me, as if I had read it before. But after I got into it a bit, I realized that it must have been a book I started at some point and then put down. I’m honestly not too sure how I did that (if that is truly the case) because I really felt myself wanting to read on and on and on! The author spent just enough time on detail and descriptions that I felt like I could get a feel for the characters, but it moved at such a pace that it kept me interested and wanting to know more.

While it is an easy read and takes place in the late 1800’s, it deals with some very real issues that are still relevant today. For example, the loss of both parent and friend are addressed as well as social issues like cliques, self-injury and bullying. There is also a theme of forgiveness and a focus on increased understanding throughout the story in regards to both family relationships and friendships. 

I’d like to share one quote I found particularly well written: 

            “But forgiveness...I’ll hold on to that fragile slice of hope and keep it close, remembering that in each of us lie good and bad, light and dark, art and pain, choice and regret, cruelty and sacrifice. We’re each of us our own chiaroscuro, our own bit of illusion fighting to emerge into something solid, something real. We’ve got to forgive ourselves that. I must remember to forgive myself. Because there’s an awful lot of gray to work with. No one can live in the light all the time.” 

I believe the target audience this author was intending this story to be for is a bit younger than me, however it is an interesting and entertaining read for teens and adults alike. I’m glad it’s a trilogy - I can’t wait to get the next installment! 

Final Word: A-

Book Review: Mountains of the Moon by I. J. Kay

I won the book Mountains of the Moon by I. J. Kay from GoodReads First Reads (along with another, which I'm reading now!) and I was really excited to read it. Here's why...

Synopsis (from GoodReads.com): 

A highly original novel about a young woman’s journey from shattered youth to self-discovery.

After ten years in a London prison, Louise Adler (Lulu) is released with only a new alias to rebuild her life. Working a series of dead-end jobs, she carries a past full of secrets: a childhood marked by the violence and madness of her parents, followed by a reckless adolescence. From abandoned psychiatric hospitals to Edwardian-themed casinos, from a brief first love to the company of criminals, Lulu has spent her youth in an ever-shifting landscape of deceit and survival. But when she’s awarded an unexpected settlement claim after prison, she travels to the landscape of her childhood imagination, the central African range known as the Mountains of the Moon. There, in the region’s stark beauty, she attempts to piece together the fragments of her battered psyche.

Told in multilayered, hallucinatory flashbacks, Mountains of the Moon traces a traumatic youth and explores the journey of a young woman trying to transform a broken life into something beautiful. This dazzling novel from a distinctive new voice is sure to garner the attention of critics and readers alike.

My Thoughts:

Sounds pretty intense and interesting, right? I was so wrong...

I don't want to say it was "terrible" because it wasn't atrocious. However, I did not enjoy this book much at all. The hallucinatory and fractured way in which the story is told is so complex and multilayered that even when paying attention, it's nearly impossible to follow. Add (intentionally) misspelled words, (unfamiliar) British slang and fragments of song lyrics to the mix and it's a complete nightmare. Maybe it's just not my "cup of tea."

If I had not read the synopsis, I would have absolutely no clue what this story was all about. Even after reading it I feel the description is a bit of a stretch. If you are going to read this book, read the synopsis right before you begin the book and then again immediately following. It will help put everything together. 

I will say this: the author is gifted with descriptions. Even though I usually had absolutely no idea what was going on in the story, I felt like I was there (where ever "there" is...) I wish I could say more about the story, but I couldn't really follow it so I'll just leave it there.

Final Word: D

Book Review: Bitter is the New Black by Jen Lancaster & Summer Reading Challenge Update

If you've been following, you know I set a challenge for myself back in early June to read 20 books this summer. This is to help fulfill my yearly challenge or 50 books. I failed miserably last year and thought if I took advantage of my time off in the summer, I could get a lot more read. 


I'd like to think that I'm right on schedule: I just passed the 10-book mark! I have not reviewed them all (yet) but the one I just finished is "Bitter is the New Black: Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smart-Ass, or Why You Should Never Carry a Prada Bag to the Unemployment Office: A Memoir" by Jen Lancaster. 


Here's a synopsis (from Goodreads): 


This is the story of how a haughty former sorority girl went from having a household income of almost a quarter-million dollars to being evicted from a ghetto apartment... It's a modern Greek tragedy, as defined by Roger Dunkle in The Classical Origins of Western Culture: a story in which "the central character, called a tragic protagonist or hero, suffers some serious misfortune which is not accidental and therefore meaningless, but is significant in that the misfortune is logically connected."

In other words? The bitch had it coming.


My Thoughts:


I had high hopes for this book. It is the first one I have read by Jen Lancaster and her titles are always so funny. I will give her credit - she can be a pretty comical person. And she's honest: condescending, egomaniacal and self-centered are all very good words to describe her. The first chapter alludes to "the bitch had it coming," so as I was continuing with the book, I was hoping that at some point a lesson would be learned, she would change her ways or thoughts about others, etc. In the final chapter, she says something along the lines of "I've learned nothing." It's unfortunate and, again, true.
I found myself horribly irritated and trying to get through the middle part to find out how this horrible person would change for the better. I never fully got my wish. Granted, she does learn that money isn't everything and learns to find value in small things in life (and even makes a major career change due to her learning) but the "I'm better than you" and "You're disgusting, homeless, filthy, immigrant hippies" part about her never seems to go away. I can understand a certain level of aversion towards certain populations, but honestly much of this book bordered on offensive.
Maybe it's just because I'm a worthless, cretin social worker (surely, in Jennsylvania this would be true...) and I have an ounce of empathy for others, but I just did not find her mean spirited comments or self pity that entertaining or hilarious. I suppose if that's your type of humor, you'd enjoy this book. As for me, if I decide to read anything else by this author, I'll be getting it from the library (you know, where the poor people go?) and not spending $13 on the download. Disappointed.


Final Word: C-