Seeing Me Naked - by Liza Palmer

Seeing Me Naked by Liza Palmer. This is her second book and the second book of hers that I've read. Her first book, Conversations with the Fat Girl, was amazing and I actually used a quote from it as my quote on Facebook.  The way that Liza Palmer talks about life is just real. You can't help but feel what her characters are feeling be dragged into their neurosis and cheer for them to overcome them.  You laugh with them and you cry with them.  That's just what I did, again, in Seeing Me Naked.  Initially, it was just another good enjoyable book that I picked up and read during my nightly bath, putting it down and picking it back up the next night. But around the third night, about halfway through the book, I just couldn't put it down and I had to finish it.  It was really that good.  The characters are so fleshed out that they just feel real. And when the book is over you don't want it to end, you want to keep reading and know more about what happens as their lives continue.  To me, that's the true mark of a great book and a great author.

Seeing Me Naked is the story of Elisabeth Page. She's the daughter of a great Pulitzer Prize winning author. Her mother was heir to a family fortune. Her brother has followed in his father's footsteps becoming a great author in his own right.  Elisabeth, however, has followed her own path, she's a pastry chef.  Her 5 year plan has become an 11 year plan as she fights to pull herself out of the shadow of her family to discover who she really is.  It's not until she can really look at herself for who she is that someone else can do the same.  This is a love story but it's really more about learning to love yourself and learning what love really is and how to do it.

Faith: A Novel by Jennifer Haigh

I was sent an advanced reader copy of this book, for review purposes, by the Amazon Vine program.

I read early reviews of this book comparing it to the books of Jodi Piccoult, since I really enjoy her books, I thought I might also enjoy this one and I was right.  Although, it was a little slow going in the second and third chapter, once she started getting to the meat of the story, it all came together and really kept me intrigued and wanting to read more.

"Faith: A Novel" delves into the story behind the priest molestation scandal of the early 2000's.  This is the story of Father Arthur, one of the many priests who found himself ousted from his post after an accusation that he molested a child.  The story is told by his sister, Sheila, the one member of his family who opted out of their Catholic faith and is considered somewhat of the black sheep.  Despite this, her older brother, the priest, never turned his back on her and they stayed close.  Through the course of the book, Sheila shares what she learned about her own family, a family she really knew little of, in the months following the accusation.  While she chooses to stand by Arthur faithfully, her brother Mike instantly chooses to believe the allegations.  The truth is much deeper than any could know and Sheila finally uncovers it as she learns more and more about her own family.

There is always more to any story than meets the eye, and much like the books by Jodi Piccoult, that's what Haigh is getting at in this book.  While the press focused on the top layer of the story, this book examines the "what if" behind the stories.  While this book is fiction, it does make me wonder more about the stories of those affected by this scandal, on both sides of the story.  This is the story of a family changed forever, and of a faith changed forever.
f

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

I recently caught the 2004 movie version of this book (starring Kristen Stewart) on Lifetime. The movie was good enough that I decided it would be worthwhile to read the book. As is usually the case, the book was much better.

This is one of those situations where reading the book and knowing what it's about, you find the book almost too enjoyable for the subject-matter. In a way this book is almost a dark comedy, as much as it is a serious message about what young people really go through.

Freshman year is a hard transition for anyone, but for Melinda it's even harder. She begins her first year of high school without any friends; not because she is new to a school, but because over the summer she called the cops to a party. No one knows why she called the police, and she hasn't told them. She bears this secret right along with the day to day struggle of seeing the people who were once her friends.

Her grades drop as she skips classes. All her parents see is a child who once "perfect" suddenly changing her actions and attitudes and refusing to speak.

The book progresses through the school year, as we watch Melinda fall further and further into herself and away from others. As she struggles with telling someone what happened over the summer, we finally learn what it was. There are moments of dark humor throughout the book, allowing you to feel the emotions that Melinda feels and struggle right along beside her.

The book is listed as "adolescent reading" but I thought it was a great read, and would recommend it for any woman (regardless of age).

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

This book started a little slow for me, but by the end of the first chapter I was totally absorbed. A Reliable Wife is the story of two people, Ralph Truitt & Catherine Land, who are very different and yet so much the same. It is the story of how you so often find what you are looking for when you are looking for something else entirely; of how we rarely really know ourselves, let alone what we are looking for, or what we want.

Catherine Land is a woman who believes she is about beginnings and endings. She is looking for the ending to her story, with a feeling that there is no way that the middle could offer anything worthwhile. It's 1907 and she's in Chicago and answers a personal ad placed by Ralph Truitt, a wealthy businessman from Wisconsin, looking for a reliable wife. She replies that she is a simple and honest woman. Yet, she is anything but.

Ralph is looking for a reliable wife, but that's not really all he's looking for. He has a purpose in wanting a wife; a plan. Then again Catherine has a plan of her own; a plan to end up a wealthy widow. But, there's more to her story too than meets the eye.

Ralph has lost much in his life; the only woman he ever loved cheated on him and left him with a son that wasn't his. Eventually, he drove that son away out of hatred for the mother. Ralph wants a second chance, a second chance with his son, a second chance at life, a second chance at a legacy of his own. He figures if he has a new wife, his son will return. He sends Catherine to find his son and bring him back home.

The story twists and turns and even as I found the story going in the direction my mind wondered if it might go, I was still surprised that it went there, surprised at how it got there, surprised at just how much I felt for these people. Catherine and Ralph become more than just characters in a book, they become real people that you feel for and hope for and want happy endings for. As you read, you can't help but understand how each of them got to this point in their lives, and made the choices they made. You understand why they made these choices, and your heart breaks for them; at least mine did. I yearned for their happiness as much as they wanted it themselves.

Robert Goolrick is a powerful story teller and is amazing at character building. I'll be looking for his other books and hoping that this is something he does in each one.

The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove by Christopher Moore

A friend gave me this book, like a year ago, and I just finally got around to reading it. I wasn't sure what to expect but I really liked it.

A seaside town full of depressed people, a lazy psychologist who gets stuck by a bout of conscious, a suicide and an ancient sea monster all lead to a really funny story.

After one of her patients commits suicide, Val, the local psychologist, decides to take all of her depressed patients (about 1/3 of the town) off of anti-depressants and start talking to them instead. About the same time she does this an ancient Sea Monster is awakened by sludge from a nearby power plant.

Is it withdrawal or the call of the monster that seems to have the whole town gone horny?

Add to this a crazy has-been actress who thinks she's a warrior princess and things get more interesting.

This book keeps your attention and makes you want to keep reading, while at the same time making you laugh and keeping you entertained the whole way through.

The Lost Hours, by Karen White

This is a good story, if not a little predictable. Piper Mills thought nothing could touch her. She'd already survived what she thought was the one tragedy in a person's life, losing her parents. Then years later she suffered her second tragedy in a riding accident that took away her greatest dreams.

In the home where she grew up, after the death of her grandfather, she discovers secrets about her family. After the funeral, the lawyer drops off an envelope that contains a key. The key, she discovers, is to a secret room. The search to understand this room and the life of a grandmother she barely knew, lead her to discover more than she bargained for.

The story is told through the journal entries of Piper's grandmother, a journal Piper realizes she actually helped bury as a child. Through the journal and other notes left behind she is able to piece together a story that allows her to realize there is much more to her grandmother, and to life, than she ever thought possible. She learns that through pain there is hope, and where there is pain there is life; and she finally learns to appreciate what she has right in front of her.

The backstory is a bit predictable at times. While the story is dispersed throughout the book in the journal entries. It is a little too easy to figure out what the secrets really are that are being hid.

The Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman

This is the kind of book I love, full of mystery and a little air of fairy tale and hope. The kind of book that leaves you with a smile on your face at the end and just makes you feel good, even while the story itself was dark and sometimes dangerous.

The heroine, if you can call her that, is a dark and brooding woman who believes herself responsible for the death of her mother; the result of a wish come true. When she was only eight years old, in a spiteful moment, she wished her mother would disappear, only to wake up the next morning to find out she'd died. She spends the rest of her life blaming herself, cutting herself off from life as punishment for this one deed. She buries herself in books and in attempts to make amends takes care of her dying grandmother. As proof that her wishes do come true, she finally wished her grandmother's pain would end, only to have her pass in the night.

Returning home for their grandmother's funeral, her brother, Ned, finds her morose and depressed and decides that the best thing for her is a change of scenery. He moves her to Florida, where he now lives. On the drive down, she voices one more wish - that she be struck by lightening. Little does she know at the time that the town in Florida, where she is moving to, is the lightening strike capitol of the world. A few months later, yet another wish comes true. She lives and finds that the strike has changed her, taking away things she'd previously taken for granted and introducing her to people she never would have thought possible.

In a therapy group for lightening strike survivors, tales are told of other survivors who won't attend the meetings, people who hide out because of the powers or changes that have occurred within their bodies and minds. She seeks out one such man, known as Lazarus Jones. The friendship she strikes with him is like a fairy tale, removed from logic, yet true nonetheless. As she finds out his secrets she learns those of others around her, and learns about herself. In opening herself up, she finally finds herself.

This is a story about wishes, death, change and endless possibilities of hope.

The TIme Travellers Wife - by Audrey Niffeneger

Ok, I think the fact that I saw the movie halfway through reading the book really colored my view of the book. It seems this happens most of the time. Either I read the book first and am dissappointed in the movie, or I see the movie first and then am either really pleasantly surprised with the book, or the movie gives everything away and the book ends up dragging. In this case, it was the latter.

If you've seen the movie, it only covers about half of the book. Oddly the half it didn't cover (the first half) was the half of the book that I enjoyed the most.

The book alternates from the perspective of both the Time Traveler (Henry) and his wife (Claire), although the first half of the book is set prior to their marriage with small snippets here and there that show their future. The movie shows little of that "backstory", but then again in this story it's not really back-story, since Henry only met Claire when she was younger AFTER he met her when he was older. For Claire it is back-story. She grows up knowing this strange man who appears in her forest naked, beginning when she is 6 years old. However, for Henry none of those visits occurred until after they had met when she was 20 and he was 28. Confused yet? Don't worry it all makes more sense in the book. The author does an amazing job of jumping through time without completely losing the reader.

The movie doesn't include much of that back-story and really starts when Henry meets Claire for the first time, and tells the story of their marriage. Of a woman who gets used to her husband just disappearing in the middle of things and being gone for hours or weeks at a time, with no idea of when he will return. I guess in a way it's much like the life of a wife of an FBI agent or spy, except that at least in those cases the wife usually gets some sort of warning.

Unfortunately, since I watched the movie when I was halfway through the book, I knew how it would end. Of course, they changed a few things for the book, but I was able to see where it was going. In some cases that makes a book easier for me to read, in this case it made it drag just a bit more. The book is rather long to begin with and there are bits and pieces that don't seem to fit, bits of story that seem to not have a reason for being. Many times those bits fit together later to fill in a piece of the puzzle of why something else happened, but often not. The last 50 or so pages I just wanted to be done with the book already, and I was really pissed off with the ending - this is a case where the movie ending was better than the book ending (while not really being all that different).

All in all, it is a good story and it's told well. It's worth reading but I doubt seriously I will read it again.

My Sister's Keeper - by Jodi Picoult

This is the first book I've ready by Jodi Picoult and I couldn't put it down. The story is about a 13 year old girl who was conceived to be a genetic match to her older sister who suffers from a rare form of Leukemia. In her few short years she's already given several donations to her sister, from blood to bone marrow and now she is being asked to give her kidney. She is asking for the right to have a say in this decision.

The book alternates first person POV from Anna who is struggling to obtain her own identity for the first time in her life. To Kate, the sick sister who has fought hard and would like her own chance at a normal life. To Jesse, the brother who has become invisible to the family so wrapped up in his sister's illness. To Sara, the mother so wrapped up in trying to save her daughter she doesn't realize what she is doing to the rest of the family. Brian, the father is a fire-fighter, who has dedicated his life to saving people yet he can't do anything to save his daughter. Campbell, the lawyer that Anna hires, has his own issues. He initially takes the case seeing an opportunity for glory but realizes that he has a much larger opportunity. Julia, who is appointed as the Guardian Ad Litem to help make the decision as to whether or not Anna or her parents should have final say in Anna's choice to help her sister.

The book goes back and forth in time and shares the history of this family as well as the current state of affairs. It is a book about family and how we take them for granted. It is a book about how easy it is to slip through the cracks and become or, at least, feel invisible even amongst those who love you the most. It is a book about the masks we wear and how we try to hide our weaknesses to be strong for those around us. The book addresses some hard choices, from the current situation with stem cell research and the idea of creating a "designer baby" to the choices many of us have to make at some point in our life when it comes to health/medical issues of those we love.

The ending was not at all what I expected, but it really did end the only way that the book could end. Throughout the book you will smile and you will shed tears, sometimes for happy moments and sometimes for those moments in life that are sad not because of what happens but because of the circumstances that can't be avoided.

I haven't seen the movie yet, but I intend to. However, from the previews I have seen it is apparent that they do take some license with the book, I just hope they don't take too much.

Fear Itself - by Jonathan Nasaw

I will admit, Jonathan Nasaw is quickly climbing the ranks as one of my favorite fiction writers. I've always enjoyed a good thriller and he writes them well.

This particular novel takes us into the mind of a serial killer (don't they all?) who happens to be have an issue with phobias. His greatest fear is boredom (or the "blind rat" as his grandfather called it) and the best way he'd found to stave off his boredom is to prey on other people's fears. Find out what their greatest fear is and then taunt them with it and watch them squirm. The problem is that "flooding" someone with a phobia with the thing of their fears is often the fastest way to cure them. Once he's flooded them and they are no longer afraid, he's bored again so the only thing left to do is kill them.

On the other end of the scale is E.L Pender, a retiring FBI agent who was introduced in Nasaw's first book (The Girls He Adored). You can't help but like Pender when you read Nasaw's books. At this point in his life, he's ready to retire. He's all but handed in his gun and has headed to the West coast for a week of gold before he does just that. The lady chosen to take over for him has opened a letter (and a can of worms) on his last day that describes how one woman believes that her friends with phobias are being killed off one by one. Pender, being the helpful soul that he is, decides to look up the woman while he's on the West Coast. One thing leads to another and he finds himself up to his armpits in trouble and fear.

As the body count goes up, you keep turning pages to see what will happen next.

Nasaw typically writes his stories in a way that the reader knows who the bad guy is and is seeing the story as much from his (or her) point of view as from the good guy or the victim. It's at times frightening, disgusting and even humorous, but always an enjoyable read.

New Review: The Soloist by Steve Lopez