Left Neglected by Lisa Genova

Left Neglected is the second Lisa Genova novel I've read. I loved Still Alice so much that I was really excited to read this one.

Sarah is a busy career mom with too much to do and not enough time. Her multitasking during a commute results in a terrible accident that leaves her with a traumatic brain injury. The resulting condition is left neglect, a syndrome where the mind doesn't see anything on the left. She doesn't feel or move the left side of her body and she can't see or draw the left side of objects.

Her life has completely changed. Used to being a highly efficient woman, she can no longer do anything for herself. She struggles to work through her illness and become more independent, learning what is important in life along the way.

I will admit that it is difficult to fully fathom the scope of this illness. It doesn't really make sense. But...it is a real condition, Genova did her homework. I literally looked up the condition on the internet because I thought there was no way such a thing existed. It is odd to think that she cannot see the left side of objects. If someone moves out of her vision to one side, okay...that makes sense. But literally looking at an object right in front of her and just flat out not seeing the left hand side? Weird. Especially the fact that she doesn't register not seeing the left hand side. She thinks she's seeing everything because her brain more or less duplicates the right side. She thinks she's seeing everything just fine.

Understanding the condition was the roughest part of the book. Once I was able to look past the inability to really understand the whole idea, things moved smoothly. I like Genova's writing style. She does a great job at focusing in on her main character. The supporting characters are very peripheral, but they aren't simple...they still could potentially stand on their own. It's a great balance.

I read the book rather quickly and really only took as long as I did because of the aforementioned issue with the disorder. Though it wasn't as good as Still Alice, I still really liked Left Neglected. I rated it 4 out of 5 stars.

After You by Julie Buxbaum

Ellie's best friend, Lucy is dead. Worse, her murder was witnessed by Lucy's young daughter, Sophie. Ellie drops everything to fly across the ocean and help console Lucy's family in England.

Sophie is scarred by the image of seeing her mother killed and stops speaking. Lucy's husband is a wreck. Greg can't focus on eight-year-old Sophie; he can't deal with the grief of losing his wife. He retreats into his work and assuages himself with alcohol.

With things so out of balance, Ellie can't fathom leaving the two of them alone and flying back home, even though her husband has told her that the time has come. As she tries to balance holding another family and her own marriage together, Ellie starts to learn things about Lucy's life that she couldn't have imagined. They were best friends, and yet maybe Ellie didn't know Lucy as well as she thought.

Though it was sad and at times difficult to read, I really enjoyed After You. The writing is simple to follow and the plot moves quickly. True, it was a little predictable at times, but sometimes it's nice to have a book just go where you want it to.

I loved Ellie. I thought she was such a sweet character. I struggled with how to view her husband's opinions and couldn't get past what I felt was just selfishness on his part. I love that she stuck to her guns and she did what she felt needed to be done. She cared for Sophie as if she were her own daughter and she dealt firmly with Greg's abandonment without being overly callous.

This book just read so easily and just felt like it worked so well. I was a little disappointed in the ending, but Erin has pointed out to me that I tend to judge endings more harshly than she does. I say phooey. I will however admit that it did cause me to drop my rating. After You by Julie Buxbaum receives 4 out of 5 stars.

The Secret Lives of Dresses by Erin McKean

The Secret Lives of Dresses by Erin McKean was one of the cutest books I read in 2012.

Dora is a university student getting ready to graduate and enter graduate school. She works at a coffee shop on campus where she is the right-hand-lady to the manager. The place just wouldn't run the same without her. Unfortunately, as much as Gary appreciates her help around the shop, he doesn't give her the time of day beyond that. Dora is stewing in her secret crush on him.

While helping out at the coffee shop during break, Dora receives a call from home, letting her know that her grandmother, Mimi is in a coma after suffering a stroke.

Dora rushes home to see Mimi. She takes over Mimi's vintage clothing shop in town in order to keep things up and running while Mimi is ill. While selling a dress to a customer, she is introduced to the pile of their "secret lives". Many of the dresses are sold with a romantic or heartbreaking story detailing the life of the dress before it arrived at Mimi's shop.

Dora starts finding herself falling in love with the store, with the clothes, and most of all with the stories. She feels more comfortable and at home than she ever did at school. When her high maintenance aunt and cousin come into town with the idea of taking the shop over for themselves, Dora suddenly finds a purpose in life. She knows that she needs to do something to keep the dresses, and their stories, safe.

The Secret Lives of Dresses was really cute. It was a simple, smooth-flowing read and I really enjoyed it. I loved Dora. I thought she was a very lovable character, even though I really wasn't a fan of her name. The whole thing is very chick lit and can get a little whiny now and then, perhaps even a little overly dramatic, but overall it's just fun. I thought it was a very good book and an endearing story. I would absolutely read this book again.

The drama knocked it down a touch. It got a little teenage drama here and there, a little below Dora's level to my thinking, and so I rated The Secret Lives of Dresses by Erin McKean 4 out of 5 stars.

Four for the Price of One

I really like to read, but this doing book reviews all the time thing is killing me. I still have 20 books left to review from 2012. So...it's executive decision time. I have GOT to finish these by the end of the month. From here out, 2013 BOTY rules apply. Books with three or fewer stars get grouped with surrounding books in a review of 2-5 books per post. Four or five stars and the book gets it's very own review - except for the case where there are two or more books in a row of the same series; those may be grouped together. There. Much simpler.

So today...four books. Ha.

I'll be reviewing :

1. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
2. A Room Swept White by Sophie Hannah
3. Bitter is the New Black by Jen Lancaster
4. The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson

Alright...game on.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky has become some sort of pop culture explosion. It's been turned into a movie with everyone singing its praises, saying how wonderful it all is. Hmm. I don't know about all that.

Perks is the story of Charlie, a 15-year-old boy whose best friend has committed suicide. Now he feels alone and confused as he goes back to school, trying to find out where he fits in. Charlie is shy and introverted - not sure of himself in any way.

Though he is awkward and quiet, Charlie winds up becoming friends with Sam and her stepbrother, Patrick. Sam and Patrick are both seniors, hanging out with a much different crowd than Charlie has been around in the past. Being with Sam and Patrick begins to expose him to a whole other world, one he has never been a part of before. He goes to parties, learns about drugs and more about dating and girls than he ever knew before. He begins to develop feelings for Sam, but hides them because he feels that he isn't good enough for her.

More or less, this is a coming of age story. It's just an updated version of any other coming of age story, really. It deals with introverts, parties, sex, drugs, and peer pressure, but also adds in the "new" issue of dealing with sexual identity. Sure, maybe it's an instruction booklet for the young teen, but it just seems quirky and over the top. Who really deals with all of these issues in such a short amount of time?? 

I tried to like this book, I really did. I'd read so many positive reviews and heard so many great things about it. But...in the end, it just wasn't for me. It was just weird. Charlie was odd and hard to identify with. Though it becomes obvious why he is as quirky as he acts throughout the book, his odd behavior just made it more difficult to read and become involved in. It kind of put me off a little.

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't horrible. It has good points and I can see how other people might like it. It just wasn't something to catch and hold my attention. The Perks of Being a Wallflower was one of those books that you just read to say that you read it. Not impressive. So, I wound up giving it 3 out of 5 stars.

A Room Swept White was actually a semi-accidental read. I got started reading it before I realized that it was the wrong author. I had actually meant to read something by Kristin Hannah. Oops. Oh well.

In A Room Swept White, Fliss Benson is a TV producer who gets roped into working on a documentary about mothers who have been (supposedly) wrongly convicted of killing their children. She is less than thrilled to be working on the project, but must focus on interviewing three of the primary women involved. 

She receives and odd anonymous letter at work containing nothing but a series of numbers. She is confused by the meaning and thinks little of the odd little note...until one of the three women she is set to interview winds up dead, with an identical card in her pocket. Gripped with the fear of a potential serial killer, Fliss sets out to see what she can discover regarding the three odd cases.

Since this wasn't the book I meant to read, obviously I wasn't prepared for what it was about. And even better? Apparently this book is the fifth in a series. Yup. I can occasionally be a complete dunce. But...by the time I realized all of this I was already a good chunk of the way into the book...so, I decided to finish it. 

The writing was actually rather good and I did like her primary characters. I was flying right along and enjoying the plot until about 3/4 of the way through the book. However, at the point when things really started to happen and stories were starting to connect, I got seriously tangled up in the supporting characters and started to confuse who was who and what had happened to which person. It was rather frustrating and I did consider at one point quitting the book since it was giving me a headache to try and figure it out.

I stuck it out since I was so far in. I honestly am still confused about some things. I'd have to reread the book to figure it all out. I don't think I will. I didn't like it enough to go back and do it again. I may try another Sophie Hannah novel at another time (and hope that I can better keep her characters straight), but for this one I gave a rating of 3 out of 5 stars.

I don't remember exactly how I decided to read Jen Lancaster's novels, but I know that I read (either on one of the blogs I read or on someone's post on Pinterest...behold, the power of social media) that she was supposed to be entertaining and irreverently funny. Well...we all know how I love irreverent humor. I decided that I had to give her a try.

Bitter is the New Black tells the story of how Jen lost her job and found herself struggling to find a new one in the current craps shoot economy. She loses her high society life style and can't afford the things that she once found necessary for life. The intention of the book is to show how Jen struggled through her years of unemployment and how she transformed herself through adversity in order to become a more generous, understanding, and realistic person. Ya...I think the whole thing failed miserably.

To be brutally honest, I didn't like her. That's right, I did not like Jen Lancaster one bit. I found her to be insincere, rude and a flake. I wanted to slap her square across the face on several occasions and I did a large amount of head shaking throughout the book. It was fairly unreal. I don't know how anyone like that would even have friends, let alone a live-in boyfriend. She was horrible.

As for her supposed reinvention of self, bah. I don't think she really changed at all. I held out hope, and there were a few glimmers here and there, but in the last chapter of the book I found her to be just as selfish, materialistic, and rude as I did in the first.

The only thing that kept this book from dipping down into the 1-star category, was that she did manage to be funny now and then. I didn't end up abandoning the book. I guess that says something. However, it certainly earned its 2 star rating. Bitter is the New Black was occasionally painful to read and I will not be torturing myself by reading it again.

Hey...remember back at the beginning of 2012 when I got suckered into a crummy book by a pretty cover picture of a butterfly and then wound up wasting a pile of time reading a bound version of crap? Ya...I almost did it again. 

It wasn't nearly as bad, but once again the butterfly was a problem. The Adoration of Jenna Fox did not live up to the expectations that were put upon it because of the etymological cover art. Damn the butterflies!

The Adoration of Jenna Fox is a futuristic novel about a teenage girl who is in a terrible car accident and winds up in a coma. When she awakens a year later, her family has moved across the country to a secluded area of California and she appears to have amnesia. Though she can recall facts, math and other book knowledge, she can't seem to remember much of anything about herself. She is being "helped" to remember by watching old family videos of herself.

Jenna feels a disconnect from her life. She doesn't feel like Jenna. She doesn't feel like she moves right, talks right, or that her past is her own. She can't understand why things don't feel like they should.

Unfortunately, that's all I can really tell you without totally ruining the book. I was confused for about the first thirty to forty pages, but it wasn't in a way that made me want to give up. It was frustrating, but I knew I wanted to know how things ended up. Luckily, the plot moved quickly and the reading was rather easy. 

The plot was strange and not at all what I expected, but it worked. In fact, this is actually the first in a series of three books (of course they haven't all been released yet, when have I ever not totally screwed that up?). I will be reading the other two books.

I admit that I probably would've rated this book higher if the beginning hadn't been so frustrating and confusing. But, at the same time, I can't really think of a way that the plot could've worked in the way it did without keeping the reader in Jenna's shoes. She's confused, so you're confused. That's just how it has to work.

In the end, I was torn. I'd really say that The Adoration of Jenna Fox deserves to be somewhere between a three and a four. But, as with all of the other "in-betweeners", I had to round down. I gave The Adoration of Jenna Fox 3 out of 5 stars.

Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

*** Word of warning, I'm mildly off my game and probably have a large pile of comma splices in this post. Hopefully you can just deal with it. I think I need some caffeine or a really good nap. ***

Well...this week has been...interesting. We've dealt with pet accidents in the house, a child who keeps getting in trouble at school, and I've had some interesting drama at work, including quite possibly the most rude "professional" letter I've ever received during my years running the practice (no, the letter was not from a patient).

Any who...in order to balance out the ugly, I think it's time to write about a decent book. Erin will be thrilled. (She's probably doing a little happy dance as she reads this.) She's been waiting for this review for about two months. Now maybe this will get her off my back. (You're welcome, Erin.)

Erin was the one to recommend Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda. I had it on my Goodreads list, but it wasn't initially in my plans for immediate reading. She convinced me otherwise. I'm glad she did.

Kavita gives birth to a daughter in a poor village in India. She fears that her husband will kill the child, as only sons are valued in their society, but she cannot bear to see her second child follow the fate of her first. Shortly following the birth, Kavita and her sister trek to the city, where Kavita gives her child up for adoption. She never forgets her daughter, becoming obsessed with seeing the girl she named Usha in every young girl's face, wondering if she will ever know her again.

Somer is an American, a doctor who has been unable to conceive a child. She and her Indian born husband, Krishnan decide to adopt a child from his native country. They travel to Mumbai to hold their small daughter in their arms. Though she loves her child, Somer struggles with the fact that her daughter, Asha may someday wish to find her natural mother. Somer doubts herself, doubts her ability to be a mother, and constantly feels as though she may be replaced by the woman who gave birth to Asha.

This book was just beautiful. I was nervous about it at first, simply because I was afraid that it would be too sappy or too focused on human welfare. I didn't need a civics lesson or a guilt trip. But I couldn't have been more wrong. The balance between wealth and poverty was managed very well. She painted a beautiful picture of a mother's love without allowing the circumstances of her life to completely overwhelm the novel. She was very clear about the circumstances under which Kavita lived, but didn't overly harp on them or make it feel uncomfortable for the reader.

The characters were very well written, detailed and realistic. I hated Jasu (Kavita's husband) by page 5. He was nothing but a drunken and arrogant man who had little value for his wife. Though it becomes clear through the book that he regrets his actions and is trying to make up for the errors in his ways, I had a hard time forgiving him for the idiot I felt he was from the beginning.

Kavita is an amazingly strong woman who is absolutely haunted by the decisions that she has made. Though she knows that she has saved her daughter's life by giving her up, she weeps daily for her loss. I honestly wished that Kavita had left her husband and struck out on her own. She seemed to have the power to make it. But cultural expectations kept her devoted to her entire family, regardless of their faults.

I really had a difficult time with Somer. Her selfishness and her inability to love were annoying. She just seemed so cold and unfeeling. She needed some sense slapped into her. She did nothing but sabotage her marriage and her relationship with her daughter. It made me so seriously angry, that I somewhat enjoyed the emotional struggle that she endured. I more or less felt that she deserved it after the way she dealt with those she loved. I found it terribly upsetting that she married an Indian man, but then turned her back on his culture and refused to participate, to even try the things that he enjoyed about his heritage. Ugh. Seriously. It's making me angry to think of it right now.

Somer's husband, Krishnan...what a cool guy. Seriously. He tolerated so much, tried to be supportive and understanding. He is so strong, so loving towards his daughter. I enjoyed him. I wish he would've played a larger part in the plot.

And their daughter...Asha...what a wonderful young lady. She is great. For growing up as privileged as she did, I am amazed at how humble she is as an adult. She turned out beautifully. I credit her father's loving and encouraging manner for this. She is driven to expose the unfairness of the Indian caste system, has pride in her heritage, and wants to learn more about her father's family now that she is grown. She is curious, brave and gentle.

I really enjoyed how I felt that she wrote both sides of the story equally and represented her characters and their cultures with realism, not a fantastical view of how they could be. Gowda has a gift with description. The world she described seemed so real. I couldn't put this book down once I started it. I packed it with me everywhere, taking advantage of reading any moment I had available. It was just beautiful, wonderful. I'm very glad I listened to Erin and read it. I only wish I had read it sooner.

Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda was one of my favorite books of 2012 and I rated it 5 out of 5 stars. It will be one that stays in my permanent library. I will be reading it again.

The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani

The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani was one of my favorite books last year. It tells the story of a man and woman from Italy who have a love affair that spans decades and continents.

Enza is a poor cart driver's daughter who lives in the Italian Alps. Ciro is a young man who has been effectively orphaned by the death of his father and the abandonment of his mother, who has left him and his brother at a local convent. The two meet when Ciro is sent by the priest to attend to Enza's sister's funeral. The pair connects immediately. Ciro vows to return up the mountain to see Enza again, but it is a long time before he keeps that promise.Their relationship is cut short when Ciro is banished to America after catching the priest with a local school girl. But the pair will never forget one another.

Ciro begins learning to make shoes alongside a cobbler in New York, thinking frequently of Enza and wishing he could see her again. Soon...family struggles determine that Enza must too emigrate in order to help save them. Their lives intersect once more at a hospital in New York just after Enza has stepped off the boat.

This story was so stinking cute. It had a slow start and took me a little while to get into, but once things got rolling I couldn't put it down. Patti had recommended it to me and she's the one who convinced me to keep reading. This is one of those books that may have been killed by the 30 page rule. I'm glad I stuck it out.

The story may have been somewhat predictable, but not in the way you would think. It just keeps turning you around another corner.

The characters were wonderful. Though the focus was obviously limited to the two main characters, supporting characters still had great descriptions and fit into the story well.

I loved Ciro. He's so sweet and wonderful. I felt terrible for him more than once--he seems to have horribly rotten luck. But he always bounces back with grace and strength.

Enza is adorable. She is nice and kind, but she isn't a push over. She has great self-esteem and she knows what she deserves. She's a strong woman in a time and place when women weren't really all that valued. But she knows that she can make something of herself. I liked that she never gave up.

To be honest, I was kind of sad when the book was over. I just wanted to know more. I wouldn't at all be upset to find that Adriana Trigiani was planning a series based on the families in this book. It would be wonderful!

I would've liked this book to be at the top of my list...rating a full 5 stars, but I just couldn't do it. In the end, I wound up rating it 4 out of 5 stars. I would've given the full 5 stars had the beginning not taken so long to get rolling. That slow start really made it difficult in the beginning.

Nighttime is My Time by Mary Higgins Clark

I am SOOO glad I'm changing the review plan for 2013. I'm really itching to start doing something different. I have a PILE of photos that need edited so that I can start posting projects again. I'm kind of excited to share a few of them.

But...I promised to have the 2012 BOTY winner announced by the end of January/first of February, so I had better get on it with these reviews. 

I used to read Mary Higgins Clark all the time. She was one of my favorite authors when I was in high school. I'm not sure why, but for some reason I stopped reading her when I started college. I'm going to blame all of the crummy textbook reading that I had to do.

When I saw a copy of Nighttime is My Time on sale at the Idaho Youth Ranch for $0.50, I had to grab it. I knew it was time to return.

In Nighttime is My Time, Jean Sheridan is attending her 20-year high school reunion. She is to be honored alongside six other class members. But just before the festivities start, one of her classmates winds up dead. Homicide is suspected. Alison is the 5th woman from Jean's class to be found deceased under curious circumstances.

Jean is also shaken by an anonymous letter she receives, one which mentions the daughter that she gave up for adoption twenty years ago...a child no one knows about. The circumstances have her on edge and she soon finds herself wound up in a murder mystery...one where the killer is one of her former classmates.

The story moves really quickly and I had a hard time putting it down. The plot is a little quirky and there are quite a few characters (I found myself confused on who was who more than once), but overall the story is really good. Mary Higgins Clark is great at building the suspense and creating a wonderful "whodunit". I never figure out the truth until the end.

So...while it wasn't my favorite Mary Higgins Clark novel, Nighttime is My Time is still quite good. I ended up rating it 4 out of 5 stars.

The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen

After Macy's father dies of a heart attack during a morning run, she finds herself lost and feeling guilty. She thinks that if she hadn't stayed in bed, had gotten up and gone with him, that maybe she could have saved him. She can't deal with the grief and winds up just pulling in on herself, hiding away from the real situation.

She feels even more abandoned when her boyfriend leaves for the summer. Super smart Jason is at Brain Camp, and has left Macy in charge of his job at the information desk at the local library. This only adds more frustration for Macy and leaves her feeling further out of place. Her coworkers at the library are rude and treat her terribly, she has no one to rely on. It gets worse when Jason's reply to her declaration of love in an email is to tell her that he needs a break.

She gets a job with Wish, a catering company that catered her mother's party. She feels so much more relaxed at this new job and starts coming back out of her shell. She gets to know Wes, the nephew of Wish's owner and finds herself becoming friends with coworker Kristy. She starts to see that maybe change in life doesn't always have to be bad thing.

I love Sarah Dessen books. I've found myself becoming more and more of a YA fiction advocate over the last year. They just move so easily. They aren't complicated or annoying. I know all of the words...I don't have to think too hard. I enjoy the comfort and the easy flow. I finished this one in a day and kept myself up until the wee hours of the morning just to finish it. I couldn't put it down.

I loved her characters. I felt horrible for Macy and wanted to beat the crap out of Jason. I loved Wes the most...what a cool kid. He had a shady past, but he's learned from it and moved on. I hated the girls at the library. It was really easy for me to get involved in the plot - to identify with the characters and the situations. I'd read this book again in a heartbeat.

I gave The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen 4 out of 5 stars.Nikon Coolpix L810 16MP 26X Optical Zoom Black Digital Camera (Google Affiliate Ad)

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson...an appropriate book to review today as we're having a snow day. It's nice and fluffy white outside.

I've been slacking on the blog for the last week or so...I blame it on books. I've already busted out four so far this year and I'm getting close to finishing up number five. I think perhaps I learned my lesson from last year's failure to fill the entire bracket. I had to completely change up how I'm selecting the 2012 BOTY. Never fear though, I have it all ironed out and I know which book ended up winning the prize. You'll know in the next few weeks. It's a good one.

Snow Falling on Cedars is set post-WWII in Puget Sound. Carl Heine, a local fisherman, has been found dead on his boat and homicide is suspected. On the small island of San Piedro racial tensions are still high and those in the Japanese American community are still not viewed as equals by many.

The primary suspect Carl's death is a fellow fisherman, a man he grew up with -- Kabuo Miyamoto. There was family history between Kabuo's father and Carl's, a struggle over land ownership. The creation of internment camps for the Japanese during WWII forced Kabuo's family to leave their home and they found their land otherwise occupied when they returned. The community suspects that perhaps anger over this situation has led Kabuo to commit murder.

In the midst of the trial, the entire island becomes blanketed in a snow storm that effectively cuts them off from the rest of the world. The trial now finds center stage, the case developing and playing out in a fish bowl.

I liked the book. I didn't love it. The writing was good, the story was good. I guess it just wasn't quite for me. There seemed to be something missing and I found that the tying together of the side plots was a little weak, leaving the flow of the book somewhat jumbled.

I think after reading Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, I had been tarnished slightly in my expectations of a story from this time period and culture. Hotel was just so wonderful that it made this book pale in comparison. I don't know though...as I sit here and write this, I almost feel like I should give this book a second chance. Perhaps if I had read Snow Falling on Cedars first, I would feel differently. I had the same kind of feelings when I initially gave it a rating.

I was torn between a 3 and a 4. Because there is no 3.5, I ultimately wound up rounding it down. Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson got 3 out of 4 stars.