Skinny Legs and All

I really love it when friends recommend books to me. And most of them I end up loving. This one is not that book. It was all over the place, had details that didn't move the story along and that didn't engage me, and tangents about things that don't move the story along or help with character development.

Sorry CSO, I had to put this one down.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

This is a great book. It's nonfiction about a woman's cancerous cells that were taken from her during treatment in the 1950s. These cells were cultured and grew so rapidly without dieing like most other cells, they became famous. They were used in research to discover all sorts of things and cure all sorts of things. The only problem is that the family had no idea she was being used for research without their permission.

This book is an interesting mix of medical education, family studies, African American studies, history, and biography. It can get very medical at times, but Skloot does a great job of giving medical detail breaks to engage the reader again in the story.

Topics of race, medical ethics, and poverty are brought up. Would recommend for those interested in medical ethics or for book clubs. I wouldn't really say the book on a whole is compelling, but the relationships and family are compelling.

Grace (Eventually)

Several of my friends love Anne Lamott. I came across this book at a used book store and I bought it. I admit, I came into it knowing nothing about her or her story.

As I began to read, it started off great. Engaging and very interesting. Then, the more stories she told, the more tangents she went on in the middle of those stories, which I have little tolerance for. Some authors can do that well, but Lamott's came across as all over the place. There were just too many side stories within the bigger story and because it was too much to follow, I stopped reading.

I'm sure she's a great writer/person/fill in the blank. Her writing style is just not for me.

The Birth Order Book

A while ago in my book club, we read The Weird Sisters. It's about three grown sisters who end up all moving back in with their parents. We got to discussing birth order and found it very interesting. I came across this book not long after and decided to read it.

Although Kevin Leman is the birth order guru, this book was hard to get through. I can't really put my finger on why though. It's not engaging. The information got old. Maybe it was just not what I expected. It reads more like an advice book in many ways, than an educational book on birth order. For example, when he talks about blended families he goes into counseling about the hardships, how to do it well, etc. Not just how birth order is affected. It was just too much parenting advice and not enough details on birth order.

There were also too many musings about his own family. He used too many examples of his own kids and his own experiences growing up.

While the book had chapters and seemed well organized, it really was all over the place. The subheadings within chapters were not cohesive, so I found it difficult to follow.

My last complaint is the lack of depth of a particular birth order I wanted to learn about - mine. I am the youngest of two girls by blood. My step-sisters didn't enter in until late childhood, so as Leman says, they don't really come into play in birth order. Unfortunately, while he gave a chapter to two children households, he didn't go into depth at all with the youngest of the two. I was disappointed.

Overall, I would not recommend this book.

Christabel

Christabel, a memoir by Christbel Biehlenberg sounded like a good story. An English woman becomes German to marry her man, but then Hitler takes office and all hell breaks loose. I got to the part where Hitler took over and then Beihlenberg gives way too much political history and I had to put it down. So, add this one to my list of books I didn't finish.

The Postmistress

Oh, how I wanted to love The Postmistress. I couldn't connect with the characters at all, so I put it down. I tried to read it back in September and put it down then as well. The story line wasn't gripping. And thought the novel is set during WW2, I didn't even care what happened to the characters.

My guess is that if I had persevered, I would have started to enjoy the story more. Sarah Blake weaves the lives of two people together - a reporter in England and a postmistress in the States. But alas, I didn't endure. Maybe one day in the distant future I'll pick it up for a third time and try again.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was recommended to me and since it's such a famous book, I gave it a whirl. The novel is split into five "books". I enjoyed it, although the novel as a whole got old. It felt like I was re-reading the same things. Nothing captured or kept my attention and it was very difficult to get through the book. Overall, I didn't love it.

Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend

I can't say anything bad about this book. It's fantastic, thus deserving a spot on my list of favorite books.

I love books with an interesting narrator. Whether it's a boy with Autism. Or death. Or a dog in The Art of Racing in the Rain. This book is maybe the best. It's an imaginary friend. The little boy who made Budo (the imaginary friend) up has Asperger's, although the book never explicitly states it.

The first half of the book is the character development, and it makes you fall in love with both the boy and his friend. The second half of the book is where it gets reminiscent of Room, although not as dark.

Prodigy

Prodigy is the second book in a trilogy by Marie Lu. Legend was the first book and when I reviewed it, I said it was not quite as good as the Divergent series. I was wrong. Prodigy makes it just as good.

What's different about this dystopian series is the political nature of it. There are two warring entities in the US - the Colonies and the Republic. The politics behind the good and bad of these entities is interesting.

And while there is more politics than some others in the genre, it is a big page turner. The love story was inspired by Les Miserable' which makes it so good. I really can't say much more about this book since anyone who read Legend should not hear about it. Just know it's really, really good and well worth reading.

The Shunning, The Confession, The Reckoning

Oh, Christian fiction. How I don't love you. I was given The Shunning and it sounded so interesting. I love learning about the Amish. And since I don't tend to learn much about the book or author before I read it, I didn't know it was Christian fiction. The Shunning is not as blatant than the other two books in the series, The Confession and The Reckoning. Those books basically try to save the reader. It presents the gospel about ten times throughout both books. Don't get me wrong. I love the gospel. I love Jesus. I love that He changes lives. But I don't want to read about it in my fiction. Give me an Amish girl who gets saved in real life, I'd read about it any time.

As far as the actual writing, plot, and characters go, Lewis does an okay job. The characters are very well developed. The plot is predictable. Really, the only reason I even read the other books was to confirm that I knew exactly what and how it was going to happen. So, no twists or unexpected turns in this series, although I imagine Lewis would say there are. But to the well read, it's overly predictable.

Here's another hint that these books may not be worth reading (unless you really like Christian fiction): The Shunning was made into a Hallmark movie. And yes. sadly I watched it.

Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

This a good book. Just not my kind of book. There is a lot of history and geography - two things I am learning to love but am not there yet. And when I realized that it's the first book in a series, I knew I couldn't make it through all the books; I quit reading about halfway through.

It's a sci-fi, futuristic book about the people on Earth doing something so bad that destroys much of the people. I didn't get far enough to know, but probably something like global warming. In any case, the people of the future create a machine that lets them go back and watch history take place. And then one of the scientists discovers that one woman in the past saw the future scientist in her dream. This gives the scientist her life long goal of going back in the past to stop slavery from ever happening.

If it weren't for the copious amounts of history, I would have kept reading. So, if you love details about history and you love this genre, read it!

Redfield Farm

Redfield Farm is a novel about the Underground Railroad. I had such high hopes for this book; I was let down. I found this book from the cool website www.whatshouldireadnext.com where you type in a book you enjoyed (The Kitchen House in this instance) and similar books come up. Redfield Farm was on the list and it sounded so good, so I bought it. Note to self: every book I buy because it's not at the library turns out to be crap.

This book was one dimensional. And all just a little too cliche. The story was good enough to continue reading, but the plot was predictable. The book itself got a little more interested a little over halfway through, but still fell short of my high expectations. The writing was poor to okay. There were at least four typos, which was quite distracting. Coopey should have gotten a better editor. The book reads as if in fast forward, which makes the scenes too quick. The lack of descriptive details makes the writing blase.

The main heroine is the narrator but she tells the story with as much emotion as an outsider. Some of that is because she's a strong woman. Perhaps some of it is because of the setting (a farm in the 1860s). But most seems to be the lack of character development. And really, all the characters are poorly developed, are simple, and have no personality. Even the villains in the book aren't developed enough for the reader to be really scared of them or what they could do.

Here's the one good thing about my wasted day: it piqued my interest in the topic of the Railroad.

The Secret Keeper

Oh. My. Word. One of the best books I've read all year. Kate Morton's The Secret Keeper is a page turner (except for maybe about 10 pages in the middle of the book, where it gets a little tedious). It's one of those books you don't want to know much about as you read it.

It is shocking. In a good way. In a I-totally-didn't-see-that-coming way. The book goes back and forth between 2011 and the 1940s (for the most part). It's the uncovering of a family secret. The mother, Dorothy, has dementia and is on her death bed. Her eldest daughter, Laurel, is trying to uncover what happened when she was 16 and saw a horrible incident. It's a detective book, where the reader gets to try to figure out the family secret along with Laurel. And I guarantee that you won't see the end coming. Although interestingly, there is one clue in the book that I didn't catch. If I had, I wouldn't have been so surprised by the ending (if anyone reads the book and knows what I'm talking about, email me!).

The writing is good, the characters are interesting, but the story and the surprises are what makes the book fantastic.

READ THIS BOOK.