Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Larry Ott and Silas “32” Jones were able to form a brief friendship growing up in small-town Mississippi in the 70s even though Larry was white and Silas was black. One day Larry took a girl to the drive-in and she was never seen again. Although Larry was never charged with a crime, the county shunned him after that and Silas left town. Now twenty years later, Silas has returned as a constable and Larry continues to live as a hermit. When another girl disappears, they are forced to reconnect and confront their past.
This book is a crime drama but it’s more than that too. It’s about Larry and Silas and the relationship between the two men. Larry and Silas are both well-developed characters when it would have been easy to make them stereotypes. I felt like I got to know them both really well and sympathized with both of them. The whodunit part of the plot wasn’t that hard to figure out but I don’t think that was the point of the book. This is a wonderful, character driven story to be immersed in.
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September 6th, 2011 in
Books |
1 Comment
West: Can I have the Buzz Lightyear sword? [for a souvenir at Toy Story 3 on Ice]
Me: Yes, but if you try to hit anyone with it when we get home then I’m putting it away.
West: Okay.
Me: And if you hit anyone before we leave Sprint Center, I’m returning it.
West: Okay, I don’t want it after all.
*****
Cash has a friend over and I asked West to see if they wanted a snack. He yells up the stairs, “Hey you primitive freaks! Do you want a snack?”
*****
Cash: I’m rooting for whatever team wins so I’ll know which team I like at the end.
*****
(This is from this past winter.) Me: Cash, if you don’t wear your coat everyone’s going to think I’m a bad mom.
Cash: That’s okay, all that matters is I love you Mommy.
Mr. Peanut by Adam Ross
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
David and Alice Pepin’s marriage is falling apart. When Alice is found dead, David is the prime suspect. The two detectives assigned to the case have their own problems with their wives. Detective Ward Hastroll’s wife has taken to her bed and refuses to leave it and Detective Sam Sheppard was convicted of killing his own wife several years ago and then later exonerated.
This book was fabulous. It’s hard to get too much into the plot without giving something away but the twists took my breath away and left my head spinning. It’s really three books in one – David and Alice’s story, Sam’s story (which is based on the true story of Sam Sheppard, the real life man that The Fugitive is based on) and a little primer on Alfred Hitchcock and his movies. This book is like a Twilight Zone episode or Alfred Hitchcock movie. It’s the kind of book that I immediately wanted to reread once I finished it because I knew I would catch so much more the second time through.
I highly recommend this book to everyone. Fans of Fight Club, Alfred Hitchcock movies or The Fifth Element will especially love it.
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September 1st, 2011 in
Books |
1 Comment
I just wanted to send out a quick update to let you all know that my surgery went great. I’m not in nearly as much pain as a thought I would be (knock on wood) and Travis is being great about making sure I get my pain meds every four hours on the dot.
Here’s funny story that ties into reading: When we got home from the hospital, I took a nap for a couple of hours. Then I woke up and went downstairs to talk to the boys. After a few minutes, I went back upstairs to rest. I plumped up my pillows so I could sit and read but then I fell asleep before I could even grab my book! Travis said he came up a while later and asked me if I’d rather lay down and I mumbled no. I have no memory of him coming into the room and slept sitting up for a couple of hours!
Thanks for all the kind thoughts everyone – they’re working!
August 31st, 2011 in
Family,
Rachel |
3 Comments
I’ve been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease since 1998 and I’ve been lucky enough up to this point to not have to have any surgeries related to it. Today my luck runs out. I go in this morning for what should be a fairly routine outpatient surgery to correct an abscess in my GI tract. Even though I’m not happy about it, it could be much much worse. I could be having a resection or my colon removed or something equally horrible like a lot of people with Crohn’s disease have to have done. I’m a little nervous but I have a great colorectal surgeon and my rational mind knows it will be fine. Luckily I have plenty of Xanax my non-rational mind.
I’ve scheduled a few posts to come out over the next couple of weeks because I’m not sure if I’ll be too drugged up during my recovery to read and write clearly. If I do put up a weird blog post, you’ll know why! I hope that my pain isn’t too bad and I can use my convalescence to do some guilt free reading and blogging without a foggy hydrocodone brain.
Prayers and positive vibes are always appreciated. Thanks!
August 30th, 2011 in
Family,
Rachel |
1 Comment
A Stolen Life: A Memoir by Jaycee Dugard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
In 1991 Jaycee Dugard was a typical American eleven-year old girl. Then one day she was kidnapped by Phillip Garrido and held captive by him and his wife Nancy for the next eighteen years. She was raped multiple times and ultimately bore two daughters while in captivity. She also endured horrific emotional abuse as well.
It was hard to believe while reading A Stolen Life that Jaycee Dugard only has a fifth grade education. She did a great job expressing what she felt while in captivity and how she feels now that she’s free. I liked how she wrote about her time in captivity from the perspective of the child she was at that time without filtering her experience through her adult eyes. Then from time to time, she interjects with a “reflection” which is her adult self analyzing and interpreting the events as she sees them now looking back on them.
I really appreciated the honesty and sincerity that Jaycee told her story with. She seems like a surprisingly well-adjusted person now which definitely made reading about the horrors she went through a little easier. I do wish she would have written more about how she and her daughters have adjusted to life after being freed but I understand her wish to protect her daughters’ privacy and to try and get them and herself out of the spotlight as quickly as possible.
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August 29th, 2011 in
Books |
No Comments
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Victoria Jones has grown up in the foster care system in California. Now she is eighteen years old and must make it in the world on her own. She has trouble relating to other people but feels a deep connection to flowers and even uses them to help her communicate with people. She manages to get a job with a florist and soon earns a reputation for being able to help people with their problems by choosing the right flowers for them. Along the way she meets a young man at a local flower market who forces her to confront a painful secret from her past.
I loved this book for so many reasons. As a foster parent myself, I was both surprised and pleased that the portrayal of how the foster care system works is fairly accurate. This is no doubt because the author is also a foster parent.
Victoria is deeply flawed yet utterly sympathetic. She has been tragically affected by her years in foster care and the author knows that a knight in shining armor or kindly floral shop owner is not going to magically make it all better overnight. It’s hard to watch Victoria make the wrong choices but at the same time I appreciated the authenticity of the story.
SPOILER AHEAD:
I was very impressed by a section of the book where one of the characters is breastfeeding her new baby. The author perfectly portrays the wide range of emotions a new breastfeeding mother goes through – from feeling like you love the baby more than you thought possible to hating it for being a sucking parasite that is making you more sleep deprived than you ever thought you could be. I don’t think I’ve ever read such a realistic representation of what it’s like to have a new baby.
END SPOILER
This is Vanessa Diffenbaugh’s first novel. I look forward to seeing what she comes up with next.
This book comes out today! Buy it at:
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(I received this book courtesy of the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.)
August 23rd, 2011 in
Books |
1 Comment
West started kindergarten and Cash started first grade today. Yes, this means I will be ALONE during the day. No, I won’t have ANY trouble finding things to keep me busy while the boys are at school. Am I upset about my baby starting kindergarten? Not really. Look at these two and try to imagine what my summer has been like:
August 17th, 2011 in
Cash,
Family,
West |
2 Comments
Accomplice by Eireann Corrigan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Finn and her best friend Chloe are high school juniors. When the guidance counselor stresses that good grades are not enough to get into a good college, Chloe and Finn decide they need to come up with a way to stand out. They decide to stage Chloe’s disappearance – figuring that when Finn is the one to find her when she comes home after being “kidnapped”, they will both be so famous that any college will want them. In typical adolescent fashion, they neglected to take into account how their plan would affect the other people in their lives and town.
Finn is the narrator of this book and the author did a fantastic job of giving her an authentic teenage voice. Finn’s relationship with Chloe is complicated. Chloe is the pretty one, the charming one. It’s only after their plan is set into motion that Finn begins to see Chloe’s true colors.
This was a quick read and full of suspense and surprises. I read most of it with a knot in my stomach, knowing that no good could come of the girls’ hare-brained plan. The plot is timely too – there are so many people today who think that getting on TV will solve all their problems. (Balloon-boy anyone?) Teenagers will enjoy this book but I think most adults will enjoy this book as well, remembering their naive teenage years when they thought the world revolved around them (that wasn’t just me, was it?).
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August 15th, 2011 in
Books |
1 Comment
Across Eternity by Aris Whittier
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Across Eternity is the story of Amber Lewis, a twenty-something waitress. One night she waits on Logan Richards, a wealthy, successful and smart thirty-seven year old man. Over the course of twenty-fours they fall madly in love. Logan seems familiar to Amber and he’s desperate to get her to remember why.
I think this book had a good plot outline for the most part, it just needed a lot more story and character development. There was too much telling me the story instead of showing me the story. I didn’t feel any chemistry between Logan and Amber and most of their dialogue seemed stilted and awkward. Consequently, I didn’t care that much how things ended up between them.
In reading other reviews on GoodReads and Amazon, it appears I’m in the minority in not liking this book so feel free to poke around on those sites and see what others are saying.
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(I received this book courtesy of the author.)
August 11th, 2011 in
Books |
1 Comment
