Book Review - Remarkably Bright Creatures; Shelby Van Pelt

 

Remarkably Bright Creatures; Shelby Van Pelt

Ecco Books - 2022

Remarkably Bright Creatures was a mostly feel good story about making connections in unexpected ways and unexpected places. 

Tova Sullivan is a 70 year old widow who not only has lost her husband but, she hasn't truly gotten over the loss of her only child, Erik, who died at age 18 some 30 years earlier.  To keep busy Tova takes a part time night job as janitor at the Sewell Bay aquarium where she forms a deep connection with a very bright, giant 60 pound octopus named Marcellus who is living out his remaining days there.  

Marcellus the octopus likes to wander after hours once he discovers a way to escape his tank. One night Tova finds Marcellus in trouble and unable to get back to his tank after he did a little after hours exploring. She helps him and a connection is formed.  He eventually finds a way to pay her back.

Cameron Cassman is new to the Puget Sound area, abandoned by his mother at age nine, Cameron is searching for the father he never knew. He is hired by the Sewell Aquarium on a temporary basis after Tova has a slight accident.

This was a hard story for me to review with giving away too much but, I loved this debut novel which is about the importance of human connection (both human and mammal).  Tova was a strong, compelling character determined to make her own decisions. The story is narrated in part by Tova, part by Cameron and part by Marcellus  -- my favorite POV.  Yes, you have to suspend belief at times but, his intelligence and determination were quite moving.  I loved the ending as well.  I will definitely be looking for future books by this promising new author.

Rating - 4.5/5 stars

NOTE:  Thanks go to Ecco books and Edelweiss for allowing me access to an eGalley download.

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - Remarkably Bright Creatures; Shelby Van Pelt

Welcome to First Chapter/Intros, hosted by Yvonne @ Socrates Book Reviews. Each week readers post the first paragraph (or 2) of a book we are reading or plan to read soon.  After reading and loving The Dolphin House by Audrey Schulman (no review yet), I thought this debut seemed like a good follow-up choice for me.

Remarkably Bright Creatures; Shelby Van Pelt

Ecco - May 2022

Day 1,299 of My Captivity

Darkness suits me.

Each evening, I await the click of the overhead lights, leaving only the glow from the main tank. Not perfect, but close enough.

Almost-darkness, like the middle-bottom of the sea. I lived there before I was captured and imprisoned. I cannot remember, yet I can still taste the untamed currents of the cold open water. Darkness runs through my blood.

What do you think --read more or pass?

Book Reviews - Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Story; Natasha Trethewey and Margreete's Harbor; Eleanor Morse

 

Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Story; Natasha Trethewey

Ecco - 2021

I love a good memoir and and this one was recommended by Ti@BookChatter.  It also made the cut as one of our former President Obama's favorite books in 2020.

In 1985 when the author was a college student her mother Gwen was murdered by her former stepfather. For years she buried her memories of her beautiful mother and their life together. Now 30+ later she tells her story, her mother's story and the story of an unpredictable, possessive and hot headed former Vietnam Vet who killed her mother in her own home.

This was much more than an ordinary memoir, the author is a former US poet laureate and her talent shows through the beautiful passages throughout this book. A richly observed story of race, love, obsession and family.  Highly Recommended.

Quotes

• “Mommy," you say quietly, so as not to be overheard. "Do you know how, when you love someone and you know they are hurting, it hurts you, too?” 
• “What matters is the transformative power of metaphor and the stories we tell ourselves about the arc and meaning of our lives.” 

Rating - 5/5 stars (purchased)

Margreete's Harbor; Eleanor Morse

St. Martin's Press - 2021

Burnt Harbor, Maine is the beautiful small town setting for this multigenerational saga.  The novel takes place in the years (1955-1968).  Life in some respects was much simpler back then but families still faced some of the same life changing issues as we experience today such as caring for elderly loved ones. Life was tumultuous for other reasons as well: war (Vietnam),  race relations as well as the assassination of President Kennedy. his brother Bobby as well as Dr. Martin Luther King.

The story begins with Margreete, an elderly woman with dementia who lives alone and starts a fire in her home.  Her daughter Liddie, her husband Harry and their two children Bernie and Eva upend their lives in Chicago and move to Maine to live with Margreete as she is unwilling to leave her home or consider other options posed to her.  Over the course of the novel a third, unplanned child is born as well and, as life marches on the reader experiences both big and small moments in the lives of this family.

Margreete was an interesting character, married and widowed 3x, with 3 children, it was sad to see her once full life slip away by the loss of her memory. There are a lot of themes covered in this story: marriage, family, parenting, fidelity, homosexuality and more. I found the story to be quiet in nature yet rich in detail. This novel took my longer than I expected to read but, I did enjoy it.  I probably appreciated the story more having grown up during this time period when my own grandfather also lived in the same house with us. It was a time when family often care for family under the same roof.  Readers who enjoy multigenerational, small town stories might want to add this one to their list.

Thanks to JoAnn@ Gulfside Musing for reminding me I had this one on my Kindle (sent to me by publisher and NetGalley).

Rating - 4/5 stars

Book Review - We Run the Tides, Vendela Vida

 

TITLE/AUTHOR: We Run the Tides; Vendela Vida

PUBLISHER:  Ecco

YEAR PUBLISHED: 2021

GENRE: Fiction 

FORMAT:  eGalley PP/LENGTH: 268 pp.

SOURCE: Edelweiss (sent to me in exchange for my unbiased review)

SETTING(s): California

ONE SENTENCE SUMMARY:  Girls will be girls, in this coming of age story set in 1984 San Francisco.

BRIEF REVIEW:  It's 1984 in the oceanside town of Sea Cliff, with beautiful views of the Golden Gate bridge. It's the place where 13 year old Eulabee lives with her parents. She and her best friend, Maria Fabiola, a larger than life character, with that magnetic personality pal around along with other friends Faith and Julia.  The girls are in the eighth grade at a private all-girls school. Separately the girls are good students and good daughters but, when they get together, they resort to telling half-truths to parents and teachers and are involved in typical teenage antics.

One day there is an incident with a stranger, a man in a white car and, a difference of opinion as to what transpired on that day, causes Eulabee to be rejected by the other girls.  It is around the same time that there is speculation that a kidnapper might be targeting young teens when one of the girls disappears and someone else has seemed to vanish as well.

Part mystery, part coming of age story, this was a story that moved along at a nice pace.  I tend to enjoy coming of age stories and this one added a bit of nostalgia, bringing back memories of myself and my friends around that age - boys, music, "Sun In" sprayed to lighten our hair color and times spent at the beach. No matter where you lived as a teen, this one is sure to make most women flash back to those carefree days of yesterday. I liked that the author ended the book in 2019 with an update on where the girls were now as adults.  In 2009 I read another book by this author which I recall enjoying a lot as well, it was called: Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name.

RATING:  4/5 stars

Book Review - Leave the World Behind; Rumaan Alam

Leave the World Behind; Rumaan Alam

ECCO - 2020

 

Amanda and Clay are a white couple who leave the hustle and bustle of New York City for the tranquility they hope to find at a luxurious vacation rental in Long Island that they found online. Their (2) teenage children Archie and Rose accompany them for the getaway. The home is remote but has everything one could wish for and more in a summer rental.  After settling in, noises followed by a knock at the door startles the couple.  A black couple, claiming to be the owners of the home, (G.H - AKA George and Ruth) are in need of a place to stay.  They claim to have fled their NYC apartment after some type of blackout has occurred. Amanda is reluctant to allow the couple inside  - who are these people and are their claims genuine? Amanda and Clay have reservations but decide to let them stay in the in-law suite.  It's hard to know what to believe. The vacation rental has power yet no internet or cable so it's impossible to verify what the couple has told them - Should they trust this couple? What is actually going on?

This is one of those stories that had lots of potential, and, it was hard not to put myself in the shoes of Amanda and Clay. While I loved the set up and the sense of dread that something bad going on or about to happen, most of the story, was scattered conversations between the (6) characters.  I just wasn't really sure about the genre and I wasn't a fan of how it all played out.

When I started this book, I knew the reviews were mixed but,  I didn't realize that it would be made into a movie for Netflix with Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts. Your can read more about that HERE. I'm wondering whether I will like the adaptation a bit more? I'd be willing to give it a try.

Book Rating - 3/5

2 reviews - The Ninth Hour; Alice McDermott and The Nest; Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

The Ninth Hour; Alice McDermott

Macmillan Audio - 2017

After reading a book by this author for my book group last year and enjoying it, I wanted to try another one of her novels.  The Ninth Hour is her most recent release (2017) and, although it was a beautifully told story, it was also quite depressing.

After Tim, a young Irish immigrant is fired from his job in Brooklyn, it's more than he can endure. Already unhappy with his marriage, he recently learned that his young wife is expecting their first child.  On a bleak, February day, he sends his wife to the store, opens the gas valve on the stove and takes his own life.

To comfort and asset his grieving wife, Sister St. Savior, of a local Catholic order of the sick and poor, enters the picture to help the widow, Annie. The Sister gives Annie a job in the convent laundry where her young daughter Sally is born and will grow up.

Set in the 20th century, I enjoyed reading about the roles these nuns played within a needy community at this time.  If you don't mind a sometimes downer of a story, try this one as it is beautifully rendered.  This would make a good discussion book.

Rating - 4.5/5

The Nest; Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

Ecco - 2016

I actually read this book when it was first released and thought it was okay. So when my book group read it in the month of April, I just skimmed my notes and decided to reposted my review. (below)

The majority of my group, all senior aged women, really enjoyed this story and the in flawed characters behaving badly.

(may - 2016 review)

Grown siblings behaving badly is the central theme upon which, The Nest, has been built.

The four Plumb siblings, Leo, Jack, Bea and Melody have long thought about "the nest" they would inherit when Melody, the youngest, turned 40 and, that day is just months away. The watched the stock market soar and made plenty of plans for the money. They'd pay off mortgages, fund college tuitions and enjoy life more. However, as the saying goes, "don't count your chickens before they hatch."

Truth is Leo, the oldest and perhaps most irresponsible of the Plumb clan has chipped away at their inheritance, with the permission of their mother, Leo loves women, booze and drugs perhaps a bit too much. As the story begins he crashes his Porshe causing his young nineteen year old companion to lose a foot. This accident costs him plenty including money from "the nest" that the others were expecting. Now they expect Leo, the irresponsible, golden boy to pay up.

The characters are both quirky and unique and come alive on the pages as we learn about their drama and baggage. Their issues: parenting, relationships, finances, substance abuse etc. make some of them more likable than others. Some of their situations were funny, others seemed unrealistic. Perhaps I just don't have a clue about rich people who live beyond their means and then expect to be handed a golden spoon really behave.

I thought the set up for this story was great but, I found most of the characters either shallow or annoying. Family dysfunction is a topic I generally love to read about and I was enjoying the Plumb clan but, I felt a huge disappointment by the way this novel wrapped up. 

Rating - 3.5/5 stars

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - Rainbirds; Clarissa Goenawan

On Tuesdays First Chapter, First Paragraph/Intros is hosted by Vickie/ I’d Rather Be at the Beach.  Readers are asked to share the first paragraph of a book they are reading or plans to read soon.  This week's selection hooked me right away (I'm on Chapter 4). Tell me how you like the intro.

Rainbirds;  Clarissa Goenawan

ECCO - 2018

She

Crumbled 

and

Turned 

to 

Ashes

"At first, nothing was unusual.

I was on the phone with my sister. She sat by her desk by the window in her rented room in Akakawa. The sun shone through the curtain, casting brown highlights on her long dark hair.  She asked me question after question, but I just mumbled one-word answers, impatient for the conversation to be over.  But then, before my eyes, she crumbled and turned to ashes."

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - Tangerine; Christine Mangan

Every Tuesday Vicki @ I'd Rather Be at the Beach now hosts First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros, where readers share the first paragraph, maybe two, of a book that they are reading or plan to read soon. 

This week's choice has been optioned for a movie

Tangerine; Christine Mangan

(ECCO) - Harper Collins - 2018

Prologue

Spain

"It takes three men to pull the body from the water.

It's a man--that much they can tell, but little else.  The birds have been at him by then, perhaps attracted b the glinting piece of silver that adorns his tie.  But that's only the magpies, they remind themselves.  He must have seen three, one of the men says to the others--a crude attempt at humor.  They life him, startled by the weight. Do dead men weigh more, another wonders aloud. Together they wait for the police to arrive, doing their best not to look down, to avoid the empty sockets where once the dead man's eyes rested.  They are strangers to each other, these three, but they are bonded now by something deeper than kinship."

What do you think - read more or pass?

Saints for All Occasions; J. Courtney Sullivan and Census; Jesse Ball

Both of these books were ones I finished in February but neglected to post my mini reviews.  I enjoyed them both even though they were nothing alike.

 Saints for All Occasions; J. Courtney Sullivan

Knopf - 2017

I fell in love with the cover art of Saints for All Occasions and had a hunch I'd enjoy the book, which I did.

In 1957 two young sisters, Nora 21 and Theresa Flynn 17 are bound for the US from Ireland hoping for a better life.  Nora is the older sister and a mother figure for Theresa.  Theresa is everything that Nora is not - smart, popular, out going. Nora imagines her sister will have the perfect life in America but, things don't exactly work out the way she imagined that they would.  Theresa is seduced by a married man and finds herself pregnant and Nora must protect her sister and do whatever it takes. Set in (2) time periods late 1950s and then 2009, the sisters must confront the past and deal with the choices that were made many years earlier.

I liked the great character development and found this to be an enjoyable story overall.

4.5/5 stars

Census; Jesse Ball

Ecco - 2018

Census was a quick and somewhat unusual read but, I liked it very much.

The story begins with an unnamed man digging his own grave. The man, a widower, a former surgeon is gravely ill and his concern is not what is about to happen to him but, what will happen to his son who has Down's Syndrome.

The man decides to take a job as a census taker for the government and father and son take to the road in an unnamed country, visiting various counties (A-Z). Each chapter is short and represents one of the counties along their journey and the individuals they meet, on what will be their final journey together.

This story is a brief meditation on loss, love and the meaning of life. It was written as a tribute to the author's brother who died of complications of Down's Syndrome at the age of 24.

4/5 stars

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - Census; Jesse Ball

Every Tuesday Vicki @ I'd Rather Be at the Beach now hosts First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros, where readers share the first paragraph of a book that they are reading or plan to read soon.

 Census; Jesse Ball

Ecco - 3/2018

A

"As I turned to lean my shovel against the rusted gray of the car, I looked in passing down into the grave I had dug, and saw there, along the face or wall, in trembling roots, the path I had traveled these several months taking the census in the farthest districts.  As if by chance, my eye followed the slender red roots down and down into the grave, first left then left, then left then left, then right, then left then left, then right, then left, and always down.  It was as if I could feel my hand upon the wheel, driving those field-wrapping roads and felt almost removed into the person I had been--someone like to myself, someone I myself might have known, someone bound in fact, as an arrow towards me, towards my heart and the place in which I now stand.  Had I known him? Who is it that can claim at any time to know his own appearance, his own ideas?  And yet we come back into ourselves again and again--there must be some recognition, something, even so slight. Must there be?"

What are your thoughts? Read more or pass?

The Nest, Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

The Nest, Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

ECCO - 2016

Grown siblings behaving badly is the central theme upon which, The Nest, has been built.

The four Plumb siblings, Leo, Jack, Bea and Melody have long thought about "the nest" they would inherit when Melody, the youngest, turned 40 and, that day is just months away.  The watched the stock market soar and made plenty of plans for the money. They'd pay off mortgages, fund college tuitions and enjoy life more. However, as the saying goes, "don't count your chickens before they hatch."

Truth is Leo, the oldest and perhaps most irresponsible of the Plumb clan has chipped away at their inheritance, with the permission of their mother,  Leo loves women, booze and drugs perhaps a bit too much.  As the story begins he crashes his Porshe causing his young nineteen year old companion to lose a foot.  This accident costs him plenty including money from "the nest" that the others were expecting. Now they expect Leo, the irresponsible, golden boy to pay up.

The characters are both quirky and unique and come alive on the pages as we learn about their drama and baggage.  Their issues: parenting, relationships, finances, substance abuse etc. make some of them more likable than others.  Some of their situations were funny, others seemed unrealistic. Perhaps I just don't have a clue about rich people who live beyond their means and then expect to be handed a golden spoon really behave.

I thought the set up for this story was great but, I found most of the characters either shallow or annoying.  Family dysfunction is a topic I generally love to read about and I was enjoying the Plumb clan but, I felt a huge disappointment by the way this novel wrapped up. 

3.5/5 stars

(eGalley)

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - A Perfect Life; Eileen Pollack

Every Tuesday I host First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros where I share the first paragraph sometimes two, of a book that I'm reading or plan to read soon. 

A Perfect Life; Eileen Pollack

Ecco - May 2016

1

"In another few minutes, I will need to climb the stairs and explain to my daughter why her father and I gave her life when we knew she would need it watching the clock, watching herself.  Maybe Lila won't hold her fate against me any more than I held my fate against my parents.  But then, I was older. I knew they had acted out of ignorance.  And how could I condemn the very people to whom I owed my existence, enthralled as I was with the mystery, the miracle, of being Jane Weiss?

What do you think -- keep reading or pass? 
(Feel free to join in this week by posting your intro below?

Coming Soon to a Book Store Near You in April

(3) new books hitting the shelves in April that I thought sounded good.

Do any of these appeal to you?

Sunset City; Melissa Ginsburg

Ecco - 2016

(Description) --- A taut, erotically charged literary noir set in Houston about a woman caught up in her friend’s shocking murder, and the dark truths she uncovers.

Before the drugs, Danielle Reeves was Charlotte Ford’s most loyal and vibrant friend. She helped Charlotte through her mother’s illness and death, and opened up about her own troubled family. The two friends were inseparable, reveling in Houston’s shadowy corners. But then Danielle’s addiction got the best of her and she went to prison for four years. When she gets out, she and Charlotte reconnect. Charlotte hopes this is a new start for their friendship.

But then, a detective shows up at Charlotte’s apartment. Danielle has been murdered, bludgeoned to death.

Overwhelmed by grief, Charlotte is determined to understand how the most alive person she has ever known could end up dead. But the deeper Charlotte descends into Danielle’s dark world, the less she understands. Was Danielle a hapless victim or master manipulator? Was she really intent on starting over or was it all an act? To find out the truth, Charlotte must keep her head clear and her guard up. Houston has a way of feeding on bad habits and Charlotte doesn’t want to get swallowed whole, a victim of her own anguished desires.

Sundays on the Phone to Monday; Christine Reilly

Touchstone - 2016

(Description)---The Middlesteins meets The Virgin Suicides in this arresting family love story about the eccentric yet tight knit Simone family, coping with tragedy during 90s New York, struggling to reconnect with each other and heal.

Claudio and Mathilde Simone, once romantic bohemians hopelessly enamored with each other, find themselves nestled in domesticity in New York, running a struggling vinyl record store and parenting three daughters as best they can: Natasha, an overachieving prodigy; sensitive Lucy, with her debilitating heart condition; and Carly, adopted from China and quietly fixated on her true origins.

With prose that is as keen and illuminating as it is whimsical and luminous, debut novelist Christine Reilly tells the unusual love story of this family. Poignant and humane, Sunday’s on the Phone to Monday is a deft exploration of the tender ties that bind families together, even as they threaten to tear them apart.

The History of Great Things; Elizabeth Crane

Harper Perennial - April 2016

(Description)--A witty and irresistible story of a mother and daughter regarding each other through the looking glass of time, grief, and forgiveness.

In two beautifully counterpoised narratives, two women—mother and daughter—try to make sense of their own lives by revisiting what they know about each other. The History of Great Things tells the entwined stories of Lois, a daughter of the Depression Midwest who came to New York to transform herself into an opera star, and her daughter, Elizabeth, an aspiring writer who came of age in the 1970s and ’80s in the forbidding shadow of her often-absent, always larger-than-life mother. In a tour de force of storytelling and human empathy, Elizabeth chronicles the events of her mother’s life, and in turn Lois recounts her daughter’s story—pulling back the curtain on lifelong secrets, challenging and interrupting each other, defending their own behavior, brandishing or swallowing their pride, and, ultimately, coming to understand each other in a way that feels both extraordinary and universal.

The History of Great Things is a novel about a mother and daughter who are intimately connected and not connected enough; it will make readers laugh and cry and wonder how we become the adults we always knew we should—even if we’re not always adults our parents understand.

Summerlong; Dean Bakopoulos

Summerlong; Dean Bakopolus

ECCO - 2015

"There was another life that I might have had, but I am having this one" ---Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

Summerlong begins with Don Lowry, a 38 year old real estate agent who is struggling to keep his wife Claire, and two young children afloat in the midst of the 2008 recession. One day while out taking his daily walk he sees a women sprawled out in the meadow and he isn't sure whether she is in trouble so goes to her rescue----an his trouble begins. Her name is Amelia Benitez-Coors (AKA --ABC).

ABC is sexy, beautiful and emotionally fragile. She a graduate of Grinnel College in Iowa where the story takes place, and is caring for an aging, pot-smoking woman by the name of Ruth Manetti. ABC is also contemplating suicide, but as the story progresses it's clear Don can't stay away from her.

Claire, Don's wife, is also 38, has her own issues. She met Don in college and fell in love. She misses NYC and has never adjusted to life in Iowa.  A frustrated woman and former writer, she's lost her sense of self since moving to Iowa and having children. She's ripe for something or someone to put a spark back into her life.

Charlie Gulliver is an actor who has returned to Iowa to settle the affairs of his aging father. His father was a former professor and known womanizer at Grinnel. He also has eyes on both Claire and ABC.

Summerlong is a story about midlife, marriage, fidelity, aging and regrets. It's a story that will have some readers reassessing the strengths and weaknesses in their own relationships. I think it's a book that most readers will be able to relate to in some way.

The most interesting thing about this story was the way the author revealed the internal conflicts of each of the well-developed and memorable characters.  I found myself feeling sorry for a few of the characters --even Claire, a sometimes neglectful mother who just lost her sense of self after marriage and children.  Summerlong is well written, gives you plenty to think about and would make a great choice for book club discussions. Recommended.

4.5/5 stars

(eGalley)

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - Mislaid; Nell Zink

Every Tuesday I host First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros where I share the first paragraph (sometimes 2) of a book I am reading or thinking of reading soon. 

Mislaid; Nell Zink

Ecco - 2015

One

"Stillwater College sat on the fall line south of Petersburg. One half of the campus was elevated over the other half, and the waters above were separated from the waters below by a ledge with stone outcroppings.  The waters below lay still, and the waters above flowed down.  They seeped into the sandy ground before they had time to form a stream.  And that's why the house had been named Stillwater.  It overlooked a lake that lay motionless as if it had been dug with shovels and hand-lined with clay.  But the lake had been there as long as anyone could remember.  It had no visible outlet, and no docks because a piling might puncture the layer of clay.  Nobody swam in the lake because of the leeches in the mud.  There was no fishing because girls don't fish."

What do you think -- keep reading or pass?  [ I love the 60;s cover art, but not sure after the first paragraph - need to read more]
(feel free to join in by posting your link below)

Tampa; Alissa Nutting

Tampa; Alissa Nutting

Ecco - 2013

Beware -- this story will shock some readers, but it's really a page turner.

Celeste Price is a 26 year old beauty with a gorgeous husband, money and a hot little red Corvette.  She's also just landed her dream job teaching English to eight graders at a Tampa school. 

She's so excited about beginning this new job she can't sleep and her mind keeps racing. It's not the idea of molding the minds of her new students that excites her, instead she sees this job as the perfect opportunity to fulfill her fantasies -- by having sex with young boys.  

Celeste's first conquest Jack Patrick, age 14 who in her eyes is just about perfect -- a little shy and not the type to brag about his conquests with the pretty teacher.  He lives alone with his divorced father who occasionally work late and things get hot hot hot very quickly.  Of course her plans don't work out perfectly and complications do arise along the way.

Celeste is a piece of work. She's vain, judgmental, outrageous, a sexual predator and sociopath. She detests her handsome husband who she married for money and, who at 31 is too old to satisfy her fully.  Some of what this woman does will shock you and other things might make you feel guilty for laughing out loud.  

The story is told from Celeste's POV which is perfect as it makes you realize even more just how twisted she is.  For me though an evil, well-developed character like Celeste makes for a much more entertaining read than a likable, straight shooter.  Some of the things that happen in this story are ridiculous, but it is all part of the shock value delivered in this novel.

This book would make a great discussion book, but I doubt you'll find many library book groups selecting it since the main character is clearly a sexual predator.and the story is definitely cringe-worthy. 

The book is loosely based on the real life, Debra Lafave case in Florida. Readers who enjoy stories with deeply troubled characters and fiction that at times may be uncomfortable to read might want to give this one a try. It's not perfect, but I did enjoy it and read it in less than 4 hours as it was kind of hard to put down.

4/5 stars

(library)

(Cover comment - the hardcover I had from the library was the stark black cover, and although both seemed a bit boring, I am not sure what else would be appropriate after having read the book)  This book was brought to my attention by Jackie - Farm Lane Books.

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros - Summerlong; Dean Bakopoulos

Every Tuesday I host First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros where I share the first paragraph (maybe 2) of a book I am reading or thinking of reading soon. 

Summerlong; Dean Bakopolus

ECCO - 2015

PART 1
"There was another life that I might have had, but I am having this one" ---Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

1.

"In the hay gold dusk of late spring, Don Lowry takes his usual walk through town and out to the fields beyond it.  In the newly turned black earth, he smells energy and promise, which buoys him in a way he has not felt buoyed in sometime, and he feels, along with the whole twitching prairie, as if he is on the verge of something either beautiful or terrible.  It is always hard for him to know which.  And this is why, while walking home, when he sees a woman, her body sprawled beneath a thick, scabbed-up sycamore at the darkening edge of Merrill Park, he believes that she's fallen from a high bough."

What do you think -- keep reading or pass?
(feel free to join in by posting your link below)

Memorial Day Weekend Kicks Off My Summer Reading Plans

My reading choices always seem to change a bit when summer approaches. Instead of chunky, more intense reads, I tend to choose, shorter books, novels with fewer characters, and other stories that require less concentration -- mostly because in summer, I find myself busier, more easily distracted and yes, when I'm on the beach or in a park with a book, I'm a people watcher --plain and simple.

Here are some of the books that will likely take center stage on my beach blanket this summer.

Creatures of the Day: and other Tales of Psychotherapy

 Irvin Yalom - Basic Books - 2015

Finders Keepers; Stephen King

Scribner - June 2

Summerlong; Dean Bakopoulos
Ecco - June 16th

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry

Fredrik Backman - Atria - June 16th

Language Arts; Stephanie Kallos
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt- June 9th

Liar's Bench; Kim Michelle Richardson
Kensington - April 2015

House Breaking; Dan Pope
SImon & Schuster - May 12th

The Undertaker's Daughter: a Memoir; Kate Mayfield
Gallery - January 2015

Find the Good; Heather Lende
Algonquin - April 2015

How about you, any summer reading plans?