The Hurricane Sisters

This was one of those books that I picked up because it was audio and I needed something to listen to in the car on a road trip. It was an interesting book. The plot was good, the characters were cute. There is quite a bit of language though.

It stars three generations of women. Maisie is the spunky, fiesty, opinionated grandmother. Liz is the judgmental mom. And Ashley is the 20 something daughter who dreams of becoming an artist and marrying the South Carolina senator.

It was a fine book, but nothing to praise. There's a bit of everything in the book, which makes it a little all over the place. It has something to say on families, domestic violence, Southern charm, affairs, and more. However, it's mostly a story on a family and how they stick together and love one another through difficult things.

My Name is Mary Sutter

This historical fiction gets mixed reviews from me. It's definitely worth reading though; I loved it. The story of Mary Sutter is amazing. What a remarkable woman she was! The characters were dynamic and it was a hard book to put down.

Mary Sutter was a midwife in the late 1800s who wanted to become a surgeon. Of course, women in that time should not and thus did not have those kinds of ambitions and definitely not the opportunities to fulfill those ambitions. Mary Sutter used her vast intelligence of facts and people to attempt to get what she wanted.

My only criticism of this book is the history part. It wasn't flawlessly woven throughout. It almost seems like Oliveria stops the story of Mary Sutter to throw in some facts about the politics and the war and the people involved.

That aside, the book is great and if you enjoy stories about strong women, unrequited love, the Civil War, or medicine this is a great book for you.  

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

This book got great reviews, so I decided to read with without knowing anything about it. Sometimes that works in my favor, as some books are just perfect when you don't know what to expect. This wasn't one of those books.

This was an interesting book. I didn't know it was fantasy until I was into the book. Had I known beforehand, I may have enjoyed the book better. It is an interesting story and fairly entertaining. It's a cross between Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time Ransom Rigg's Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children but it's not nearly as good as either of those. It is a very simple book and had almost no explanations to the fantasy. At first I thought maybe it would be good for a child to read, but it's not appropriate for kids.

It's about a man who comes back to his childhood home and remembers a friend he had, Lattie Hempstock and some adventures they had together. The plot is ho hum. The characters are boring. The fantasy is just okay.

I will say that it has a bit of an interesting commentary on human nature, but not complex enough to really make anything of the book.

The Girl You Left Behind

This was a really, really good book. I do have some complaints, but they aren't big enough to not read the book.

Sophie, a Frenchwoman from the early 1900s is left with the task of keeping her family safe while her husband is fighting in WWI. Germany occupies the village and her life changes when German officers eat dinner at her inn every night.  The Commander sees a painting of Sophie, painted by her husband, and immediately falls in love with the art. That painting becomes a pivotal piece of what happens to Sophie and her family.

Almost a century later, Liv gets that same painting as a wedding present from her husband, who died young. By chance, the paintings value is discovered and the troubled history of the painting resurfaces.

Overall:
1. Perfect balance of suspense, tragedy, and relief. This would be a great book club book or beach read.
2. Some sex and language, but an amazing story.
3. The way Moyes narrates these stories can get a little confusing.
4. Although I really, really loved Sophie's story, Liv's was just ok. I felt that it was too modern. Too much of a juxtaposition from Sophie's story. Perhaps that was the point, but it made me care more about Sophie than Liv. In fact, the novel could have just been Sophie's story on its own and it would have been just as good, if not better. The modern story line was too contrived, too drawn out, and just not great.
5. You should read this.

The Martian

The Martian is on lots of book lists as a must read. I took one look and saw that it was SciFi and decided to skip it. Not my thing. When I kept seeing it come up everywhere, I told myself to buck up and read the thing. So I did.

I was under the impression that SciFi was aliens, different worlds and species, fighting space creatures, or people with tall pointy ears who live in large space ships. The Martian is none of those things. What enlightenment!

It's about Mark Watney, an astronaut who gets left behind on Mars. There are no aliens. There are no creature scenes. And there are no pointy ears. The SciFi in the novel is just the unrealistic or unscientific (at least as of 2014) reality of being able to survive on Mars.

This novel is gripping. Suspenseful all throughout the book, from the first page to the final. Although I will say that the end of the novel is a bit anticlimactic. I would have liked the ending to be just as tense as the beginning and middle.

There is quite a bit of language, but it's forgivable based on the setting of life and death tension. And it's pretty mathematical and has lots of engineering in it. Watney ends up having to make a lot of modifications to his space things in order to survive. Following all of the changes and the details of what things do and how they work is a bit tedious. Not in a bad way, but in a I-need-to-read-this-a-little-slower-than-the-average-book way. It took me longer to read it since I wanted to pay closer attention to the details.

Overall, I'd recommend the book. I enjoyed it and was happy to read something other than my usual stuff.

All the Light We Cannot See

I can't say enough about this book. Seriously, I can't really say much. It's our first book club book and I don't want to give anything away.

Even the very first page is beautiful. It opens with two epigraphs, one for each of the main characters in the novel, Werner and Marie-Laure.

Werner is a German orphan and Marie-Laure is a blind French girl. All the Light We Cannot See is a book written in the Nazi Occupation time of 1941-1944 and tells the story of how the two lives are connected. The weaving back and forth between time is outstanding. Doerr leaves you in agony as you have to wait to see what happens. And unlike other books that go back and forth between time and people, this one isn't confusing at all.

It's a new and interesting viewpoint of WW2.  A different side of German soldiers and the civilians they keep. What hatred can do to shatter peoples lives irrevocably. And the good we can find in others.

The book is in my top favorite 3 books and I highly recommend to everyone to read it. You will experience shock, terror, joy, sadness, and delight.

All the Light We Cannot See is remarkable and moving. I can only say I hope Doerr's next novel doesn't take another 10 years to write.


Update: My husband read this book and wrote his review on Goodreads. Because it's a great review and exactly what I think, I put it here:


All the Light We Cannot See 
by Anthony Doerr (Goodreads Author) 

Matthew's review 

Sep 03, 14

5 of 5 stars

bookshelves: entertainment

Read in September, 2014

I want to give this book six stars; it is perfection in what I enjoy in literature. I feel there is so much I can say and yet anything I attempt to say would feel ridiculously inadequate. Some quick-hit reactions:

*HISTORICAL FICTION: I love and read a lot of historical fiction and can say that this author has nailed the genre with this book. Clearly he did a ton of research and it is beautifully and seamlessly woven throughout.

*LITERATURE: The writing is simply a masterpiece and an instant classic. It was so beautiful to read and yet so very readable.

*NARRATION: The narration style jumping back and forth between several characters and several time periods was incredible. It takes a few chapters to get used to it, but once you get into the book you appreciate the incredible depth that this narration style provides. Well done!

*CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: Like every great book, at its core this book was character driven. I cared about every main character. I love the humanity, the depth and the growth of each and every one of them.

*MYSTERY: He pulls off the underlying mysteries of the book so well and I loved the last few chapters in particular, but won't give any spoilers here.

I am sure there is so much more that I can say, but ultimately there is only one thing to say: READ THIS BOOK.

Because of Mr. Terupt

This is a precious little gem of a young adult book. It's about a 5th grade class who gets a 1st year teacher, Mr. Terupt. There is some name calling and an introduction to mean girls in the book, so if you don't want your kids to be exposed to that yet, pass on this book. However, the redemptive value of this book is amazing.

It helps you see that everyone has a story and when kids in your class act a certain way, it's usually for a reason. Good issues to discuss are bullying, things happen for a reason (the sovereignty of God), blame and guilt, and prayer. Keep in mind, this is not a Christian book. But, one of the 5th graders is a Christian, so she pray throughout the book.

The only negative thing I can say about the novel is the lack of strong good fathers. But that is accurate for many, many kids so that criticism is just due to my bias. But I like that the teacher was male and the book showcases why having men in the teaching profession is important especially for the multitude of kids without a father figure.