It's Official! 2012 Book of the Year.

Well...I got a little waylaid this evening so I'm starting this post a little bit later than planned. What waylaid me, you ask? Facebook. Yup. Really. I just spent an hour reading through posts. Oops. 

In my defense, it's been a long and very rough day. I could seriously just curl up into a ball and go to sleep. But I will soldier on...you deserve to know my pick for the 2012 Book of the Year before the year 2014.

Here's where I left you...

Let's start with getting to the final four. What a sad time...four more books will need to be eliminated.

Match #1 :

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern vs. Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson

These books are both in my list of favorites. I hated to make the decision on this one. But...in the end I had to default to my girl crush. I just can't say no to Jenny.

Match 1 goes to...

Match #2 :

City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare vs. The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani

I don't know what it is about The Shoemaker's Wife, but that book seems to make me very indecisive. I once again changed the winner of this bracket back and forth a pile of times before deciding on a winner. Obviously it was a pretty tight race. In the end though, it was defeated. 

Match 2 goes to...

Match #3 : 

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green vs. Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

Oh...look at that...Erin's two picks for the year are running against each other. Yup...she suggested both of these books - thus working her way towards redeeming herself from One Day. Yes...I am still holding it over her for that one. 

I'm sure even Erin knows which one of these books wins. Though they are both very good, this won really wasn't a contest. 

Winner of Match 3 is...

Match #4 :

City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare vs. The Secret Lives of Dresses by Erin McKean

Yup. This one was tough. Like Match #2, this one kept getting tossed back and forth. Cassandra Clare, you are a trouble maker. I really enjoyed The Secret Lives of Dresses, but in the end...it comes down to the stars. No...not those stars...the rating stars. City of Fallen Angels was given 5 stars, The Secret Lives of Dresses was given 4. There you have it.

Match 4 goes to...

Phew. Down to four. Congratulations to Cassandra Clare for taking 2 of the final four slots. Impressive.

Let's keep going...

Left Bracket :

Let's Pretend this Never Happened vs. City of Lost Souls

Oh, come on. You know where this is going... I'm not even going to drag this out.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner...

Right Bracket :

Secret Daughter vs. City of Fallen Angels

Unfortunately, this is where Cassandra Clare's winning streak ends. Secret Daughter is just too amazing to not keep going.

Right side winner...

It's like ripping off a band-aid; the quicker I go, the less painful it is to scrap these books from the list.

This is where it gets sticky. Two fabulous books...one winner. It pained me to make this decision. I read so many great books in 2012 that it has been crazy difficult to get it down to just these two. Either of them would be a great pick. Granted, they are from two completely opposite genres (memoir vs. fiction; comedy vs. drama), but both so wonderful.

And yet, in my heart I always knew who would win.




And so...




...the winner of the 2012 Book of the Year...




...is...

Jenny is just wonderful. I love her. Perhaps a little too much. But she just makes me oh so happy.

Sorry Erin...better luck next year. :)

2012 BOTY Semifinals

Here's where we left off last time...

Today, it's on to round two. We have our sweet sixteen. Now they get whittled down to eight. It's going to be brutal...

Match up #1: 

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern vs. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling.

Both of these books garnered 5 stars and both are excellent reads. 

The Night Circus is whimsical and fun. I loved it very much and it reminded me somewhat of Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. I love the fact that it was able to be mystical without going over the top and seeming silly. It read very fast and I would absolutely read it again. 

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? is a really cute comedic novel. Mindy Kaling tells short stories from her life in a way that just makes you giggle. She's fantastic. She writes with a laid back and semi-sarcastic style that just made me love her. I laughed out loud several times and sped right through it.

This was a pretty tight race. Both books are seriously excellent and are very welcome in my own personal library. But...there has to be a winner. So, just basing it on which book I would grab first to read again, the winner of match #1 is...

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Match up #2:

Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson vs. Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman

I hate to say it, but this match up was doomed from the start. Both of these books are great, but one is entering this round with a strong disadvantage.

Let's Pretend This Never Happened is a memoir based on Jenny Lawson's ridiculous life. She is hilarious and had me laughing out loud more or less consistently. It was to the point that I was taking photos of excerpts on my phone and texting them to Patti. I couldn't read it in public because I couldn't keep myself composed. I loved it more than I can tell you. Of course, I do have to explain that I may have a small girl crush on Jenny...so that might have worked in her favor.

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt is a really cute southern style novel. It is really fun and light-hearted. The characters are bubbly and wonderful. I really enjoyed the whole thing. It reminded me a lot of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Just fun southern women with some serious sass. 

Like I said, the deck was kind of stacked on this one. It's a tough one to beat. So...the winner of match up #2 is...

Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson

Match up #3:

The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen vs. City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare

I seem to be reading a lot of YA Fiction over the last little while. I just find it entertaining and relaxing. Some of the adult fiction can get so stuffy.

The Sugar Queen was the second of Sarah Addison Allen's books that I read in 2012. I love her style. She is very simple, but with an air of mystery. It's marvelous. She is so fun to read that I wound up reading four of her books last year. Yes...she's that good. The books read very quickly and hook you quite easily.

City of Lost Souls was the third of Cassandra Clare's books in 2012. I also read four of her novels last year. Kind of a crazy coincidence that the two end up pitted against each other. City of Lost Souls is the 5th novel in Clare's The Mortal Instruments series. The books are filled with action and suspense, but they are mellow at the same time. I read her books terribly quickly, only frustrated by the fact that there is still at least one more book to come in the series. Ah, the danger of reading serial books.

This was a really good match up. Either of these books would be a great easy weekend or rainy day read. Once again, a difficult decision to make. There are some really good books in the 2012 BOTY list.  The winner of match #3 is...

City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare

Match up #4:

The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani vs. The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen

I'm finding this very hard to do. There are such great books here. In fact, it's kind of making me want to read some of them again. I hope that this year yields such a good group.

The Shoemaker's Wife is just an adorable love story. It stretches decades and continents. It is in the perfect time period for me (turn of the 20th century). I loved the characters. I mean LOVED them. This was one of the books where the characters started to feel like real people. I wanted to know more about them and I was sad when the book ended and I had to leave them.

The Girl Who Chased the Moon was the first Sarah Addison Allen book I read. I'll be honest here and admit that I picked it for the cover. I had never heard of Allen before, nor the titles of any of her books. I enjoyed this book so much that I wound up reading three more of her novels before the year was out. I'm hooked.

I struggled over this one and bounced back and forth on the winner a couple of times. There are versions of the bracket with each as a winner. But ultimately, I had to put my foot down and put one above the other. Winner of match #4...

The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani

Match up #5:

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay vs. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Now we've entered the right side of the bracket. I'm glad we're half way. This is seriously making me uptight. It's so hard to let a good book go in the loss pile. It's a sad state of affairs.

Criminy. These are both crazy good as well. 

Sarah's Key requires a bit of a strong constitution. It is a difficult read (from an emotional standpoint), but a good one. I typically don't seek out WWII era historical fiction as a favorite, but this one was flat out amazing. Dramatic and poignant and just beautifully written.

The Fault in Our Stars was kind of a surprise for me. For some reason, I didn't expect it to be as good as it was. Maybe I was judging it harshly because it's YA fiction. Perhaps because of that I held it to a lower standard. Whatever the case, this one was wonderful. I couldn't put it down. In fact, the first line of my Goodreads review?  READ THIS BOOK. 

The winner of the very emotional match up #5...

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Match up #6:

Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda vs. Ape House by Sara Gruen

Okay...seriously...you pretty much just need to read all of the books on this list. Every time I move to the next section of the bracket all I can think is, "oooh...that book was soooo good." It's killing me.

Secret Daughter was a book I read because Erin would NOT shut up about it. She kept telling me to read it and I kept telling her I had a stack of books planned. I finally caved. Holy crap. This book is amazing. I loved it. Like...LOVED it. I took it to work with me to read in down time. (I never take books to work.) I couldn't wait for my lunch hour so I could get a few more pages in. I read until 2 A.M. a couple of times on work nights because I couldn't put it down. It was just fantastic.

I read Ape House simply because it was written by Sara Gruen and I had adored Water for Elephants. It wasn't what I expected and was totally different from Water for Elephants, but it was still great. In fact, I think I liked it better than Water for Elephants. Yup...it was that good.

But...once again Erin comes through with a winner. Match #6 is taken by...

Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

Match up #7:

City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare vs. Eight Keys by Suzanne LaFleur

I've discovered that this is much easier to do on my lunch break, when I don't have a ten-year-old hovering over me asking me to check spelling words and querying as to whether I would like to watch the TV show that I am currently obviously watching or if he can play Skylanders. Oy.

City of Fallen Angels is the 4th book in The Mortal Instruments. Like I stated earlier, this series is awesome. It reminds me of the Twilight series, but with less sparkling and a less whiny heroine. I'm a fan. I am currently not-so-patiently waiting for the 6th book in the series to be released...in 2014. Aaaarrrrgghh!

Eight Keys was recommended/lent by Patti. She won it as a FirstReads win on Goodreads. This book is a really cute read. It would be great for anyone from middle school age to adulthood. It's very well done. I quite enjoyed it.

For the second time in the 2012 BOTY, Cassandra Clare pulls ahead. Pretty impressive. The winner of match up #7 is...

City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

Match up #8:

The Secret Lives of Dresses by Erin McKean vs. Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

We've made it to the final section of the bracket!! Yay!!!

Both of these books are super cute reads. They're both very girly, but I loved them. 

The Secret Lives of Dresses was fun to read and one of those books that you're sad to have end. It was mildly more ChickLit than I typically like (read: the main character can be a little whiny and occasionally predictable), but I still had a good time reading it. It had a super sweet premise and I just wanted to know more.

Garden Spells is yet another Sarah Addison Allen novel. I'm telling you, this girl can rock it. I just really enjoy her writing. It's like CoverGirl...easy and breezy. Magnificent. I can read her books in one sitting and they've all let me wanting for more.

And the winner of the final match up (#8) is...

Tada!!! And we have eight! I have to tell you...not the easiest decisions to make. I still stand by the fact that any of the books in this bracket are worth the read.

Tomorrow...the final four and the announcement of the 2012 BOTY. Hooray!!

2012 BOTY Sweet Sixteen - Finally!!

It's been a rough couple of weeks and I've been horribly neglecting the blog. I've been incredibly mopey and lazy and it's time to dig myself out of the rut. I am still working through the loss of Harley. It's just so hard not to have him around. But...life has to go on.

So...even though I'm two weeks later than I planned, it's finally time to work on announcing my pick for my 2012 Book of the Year. Since it tends to become a lengthy situation, I am breaking the BOTY bracket announcement into three separate posts. Today is Sweet Sixteen, followed by the semifinals, and then the finals. It should be fun. All of the books are wonderful.

Last year's goal was a total of 64 books. I didn't make it. Such a sad day. I ended up with 56 books completed. Still 6 above the 2011 count, so I'm happy about that. (This year's goal is again the 64. I'm doing pretty well so far, having completed 14 books already.) Because I didn't have the full 64, lining up the bracket was difficult. What I ended up doing is taking the books that rated 5 stars and putting them in the final 16. I filled up the remainder of the 16 slots with the best of the 4 star books. So here is where we end up :

Not a bad group of books to begin with. Since the bracket is too small to read without clicking directly on it, here are the contestants in list form. (As of today, some of them still have not been reviewed. Those that have been reviewed are linked to their individual posts. Those that have not will be linked up as their reviews are completed.)

1. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

2. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling

3. Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson

4. Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman

5. The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen

6. City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare

7. The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani

8. The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen

9. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

10. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

11. Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

12. Ape House by Sara Gruen

13. City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

14. Eight Keys by Suzanne LaFleur

15. The Secret Lives of Dresses by Erin McKean

 16. Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

As with last year, we have a couple of authors with multiple entries. Cassandra Clare shows up in both sides of the bracket with two of the books from her Mortal Instruments series. They are fabulous books. Sarah Addison Allen enters her first BOTY bracket with THREE entries. I just discovered her last year and I absolutely adored everything I read of hers so far.

Any of these books would be a fabulous read, but we'll see which one came out on top (yes...I already know the winner). Take your bets. The semifinals show up tomorrow.

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.