Sworn To Silence By Linda Castillo

This is the first book I have read by Linda Castillo. When I was covering the book, and yes when processing books we do look at the flaps sometimes (or am I the only one who does it?). I saw that it had my favorite subject (to read about, not do) murder.
The lead character is ex-Amish chief of police named Kate Burkholder. Years before she had survived a brutal attack and now hides a secret past.
In this book young women are being murdered in horrible ways in the small town of Painters Mill, Ohio.
It's up to Kate and Special Agent John Tomasetti to catch the killer.
I liked the book, but I thought Castillo could have added more depth to Tomasetti and to the relationship between the two. I'm curious to see what the author does with the Kate Burkholder character in the next book.

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

As the first selection for the Adult Summer Weekly Book Club, I was obligated to re-read this novel for the upcoming discussion (my job is so hard sometimes). Bel Canto has always been one of my favorite works of literary fiction because of Patchett's beautiful prose and its heartbreaking conclusion. Set in an undisclosed South American country, a group of foreign ambassadors, politicians and one magnificent opera singer are celebrating a guest's birthday when the palace is overrun by terrorists. What starts off as an extremely tense situation slowly grows into a prime example of Stockholm Syndrome where the hostages and the terrorists create their own little shared world together.

This novel has everything - there are two sweet love stories, lots of cases of unrequited love, death, violence, suspense, the evolution of unusual friendships and more. In writing this review, I really can't do this work justice. It's that good. Seriously, you should read this novel. You won't regret it.

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

As an only child, I think reading about the dynamics of sisters is incredibly interesting (it's that whole "grass is greener" idea). In Lisa See's newest novel, sisters Pearl and May are "beautiful girls" (read: models) living a luxurious life in pre-WWII China. After their father loses all of his money due to gambling/Chinese mafia, he is forced to marry off his daughters to Americans, much to the girls' dismay. About 2 days after the weddings, Japan begins to invade/bomb parts of their beloved city, forcing the sisters to flee to their husbands in San Francisco. The rest of the novel depicts their turbulent relationship as well as their trying times in America as they adjust to a completely new family, culture and way of life.

Overall, I did enjoy this book, although the ending was a little rushed.

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

I think I've posted this before, but in general, it takes a lot for a book to make me cry (or really scared for that matter). That being said, I was quite teary at several points while reading Still Alice, which is Genova's debut novel. Alice Howland is a distinguished professor of psychology at Harvard with a loving husband and three grown children. Everything is just peachy, until the day when she starts forgetting things, even going so far as getting lost in her neighborhood during an average run. After consequent trips to the doctor, Alice is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's Disease. The rest of the novel is spent on how she and her poor family deal with this awful illness. As her condition deteriorates, her sense of language and cognition starts to fail, thus leaving her frustrated and scared. The scenes between Alice and her husband were very heartwrenching - it must be impossibly difficult to care for a spouse with the disease.

Genova is a neuroscientist, and therein lies my only criticism I have of this book - her writing style and usage of language and dialogue isn't nearly as fluid as she thinks it is. There was one line in the book about how Alice could tell "by looking at [her daughter] Anna's B-cup that she wasn't pregnant yet." Um, what? Other than that, it was still very much a moving book.

Push: A Novel by Sapphire

After seeing a trailer of the film adaptation a few weeks ago (which looks to be wonderful), I decided to give this novel a try. At 16, Claireece Precious Jones has had an unimaginable amount of awful things thrown at her in her short life. At age 12, she became pregnant by her father, giving birth to a daughter with Down's Syndrome. At 16, she is not only impregnated but also given HIV by her father. Precious is poor and illiterate and lives in Harlem with her insane and highly abusive mother. Despite all of these odds, Precious manages to find her way to an alternative school where a kind teacher named Blue Rain takes it upon herself to steer Precious into a better direction.

Getting through this novel was difficult, not because of the language, but because of the endless amount of pity I felt towards this poor girl. Seriously, Precious goes through the ringer in this book and it only makes you want to root for her to succeed by the end.

For more information about the upcoming film, which won a lot of praise at Sundance, click here

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

Every once in awhile, I like to read a classic just to see how it has stood up over time. Despite the poverty and constant fear of starvation, I really enjoyed reading about the life and times of Francie Nolan and the Nolan family in Brooklyn circa 1912. The major complaint that some may have about this book is that it's virtually devoid of plot - instead, there are long vignettes that go in chronological order, but I honestly thought it was better than having a 900 page book about Francie's whole childhood and development and yadda yadda yadda. In this way, you just get the "good stuff" about her life and experiences.

Atlas of Unknowns by Tania James

Although they tell you never to judge a book by its cover, in this particular instance, the cover of Atlas of Unknowns is one of the best examples of symbolism and theme that I've ever seen. The cover shows a picture of a butterfly with a map superimposed onto each wing - one of under-developed/rural India and one of Queens, NY. Anju and Linno are sisters living in Kerala, India with their poor father and grandmother. When Anju wins a scholarship to a prep school in America (by betraying her sister), Linno is the one who has to keep the remaining family together. There's a lot of other important secondary characters, but ultimately, the purpose of this book shows the rocky relationship between the sisters. Though they are completely different individuals and at different places in the world, they are still family.

Testimony by Anita Shreve

Avery Academy, set in the woods of Vermont, seems like the last place for a scandal to happen. Unfortunately, all bets are off when it comes to teens and alcohol. When a sex tape is found involving 3 boys and a 14 year old girl, countless lives are shattered and not many are spared - whether it's the headmaster, the boys themselves, or their poor parents who are left wondering "how could this have happened?"

I really liked the use of multiple points of view for this novel, because when something scandalous happens, it helps to hear all sides of the story. This could have easily been written from a headmaster's perspective (or even from the character of Silas) and it would have been great, but having so much insight from so many people really made this book seem more 3 dimensional to me. Jodi Picoult follows the same strategy for her novels, even going so far as to change the font depending on the character (which seems a little much, but whatever), and it's a fabulous way to wrap so many narratives together.

My only (small) complaint was that Shreve uses TOO many narratives that at times, it got a little confusing. I understand why she wanted to show how the scandal affected lots of individuals, but in all honesty, hearing the lunch lady's perspective really did nothing for the story. Other than that, it was a great read!

Perfect Fifths by Megan McCafferty

Acting as the final novel in the Jessica Darling series, Perfect Fifths wraps up the 6 year relationship between sarcastic cynic Darling and mysterious bohemian Marcus Flutie and all their dysfunctional glory. The time is 2010 and Jessica is racing to catch a plane to a friend's wedding. By a major coincidence, Marcus happens to be at that same airport at that exact moment. Though the two haven't spoken to each other in years, you know how this book is going to end right from the get-go.

At first I really enjoyed the Jessica Darling series, but this one felt like a stretch to me. There are virtually no other appearances by former major characters - in essence, this book is just one long conversation between Marcus and Jessica, which is nice, but gets old. McCafferty pulls some weird stuff as well - an entire part of the novel occurs in haiku form and another in pure dialogue. Sometimes it works, like how readers can actually get Marcus' perspective FOR ONCE, but most of the time, it's just irritating. However, I'm a person who enjoys closure and that's definitely what I got from this book.

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

In the wake of Twilight's massive commercial success, some YA works have been generating a lot of buzz. If I Stay is one of those books (there's already discussion of a movie deal), though there are virtually no reasonable comparisions between the two in terms of plot, character development or theme. In spite of this confusion, If I Stay remains a short and sad tale about 17 year old Mia who is hovering between life and death in a coma at the hospital. While on a winter drive, an oncoming car smashes into her car, killing her parents and younger brother. Mia must decide if she wants to "leave," that is, die and be with her family, or if she will "stay," and live a life of an orphan.

I won't ruin the ending, but I will say that this book did make me tear up a few times, especially considering that all of the characters in the book are just so nice. Flawed, but genuinely nice. I'd be curious to see how the film stacks up to the novel.

Admission by Jean Hanff Korelitz

Portia Nathan is in an unenviable position - as an Admissions Officer at Princeton University, she has the job of deciding to either fulfill or destroy people's dreams on a daily basis. The problem is is that Portia doesn't really have much of a life outside of the admissions process; she's so immersed in studying the lives of the people applying to Princeton that she has virtually cut herself off from a life outside of that institution. Obviously, there are some major reasons for why Portia is the way she is. The rest of the novel delves into that.

I enjoyed this book, though the prose was a bit wordy, though I guess when you're married to a well known and award winning poet (Paul Muldoon), you learn a thing or two about semantics. My one complaint is that I totally called the one "twist" near the end. I'm usually really bad at anticipating plot, so I'm not sure what that says about Korelitz's narrative. But overall, a solid read.

Columbine by Dave Cullen

April 20, 2009 will mark the 10 year anniversary of the awful massacre/shooting at Columbine High School. While a lot of the information related to the shooting has become public knowledge in the past decade, Cullen's extremely detailed work sheds much light on the many myths and wrong details that still pervade popular culture.

For starters, Eric Harris was the ringleader of the duo (I had always thought Dylan Klebold was the main instigator) and a complete psychopath. The two were not really involved in the infamous Trench Coat Mafia, nor were they isolated loners subject to bullies. In reality, they were popular within their social circle, extremely intelligent and faked normalcy for over a year, deceiving friends, their families and other members of the community. Furthermore (and I found this to be the most shocking), Jefferson County Police had had knowledge that Harris was up to something bad. They had been alerted many times by the Brown family (Harris had threatened Brooks Brown on his website), but in the wake of the shooting, those documents mysteriously "vanished."

While the book is exceptionally well written and as I mentioned before, extremely detailed, I found myself very glad that I finished it due to its graphic descriptions and overall disturbing subject matter. As an aside, I felt the exact same way while watching Gus Van Sant's film Elephant, which is an obvious commentary/replication of Columbine. As a rule, I can handle films like Saw, Hostel, Devil's Rejects and other torture/bloody movies with no problem, but Elephant gave me nightmares for days. Same thing with this book.

In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin

Set in Pakistan, this series of short stories revolves around the servants, family members and employees of wealthy landowner/farm manager K.K. Harouni. Readers only meet Harouni in one story, the rest of the time, he is a mere catalyst, representative of great power and opportunity, or else a figure to be manipulated.

The nice thing about this book is that characters appear several times throughout the different stories at different points in time. For example, Haruoni's nephew Sohail appears in "Lady in Paris," at a turning point in his relationship. He appears again in later stories in a much different type of setting.

The not so nice thing about this book is the abject poverty and sense of hopelessness can be brutal at times. While some of the characters enjoy their meager living situations (see "A Spoiled Man," which had a heartbreaking ending), the majority of the female characters in all of the stories are ruthless in their attempts to break out of their lower lot in life. I'm not ruining anything by saying that none of these stories end on a particularly uplifting note.

Despite the depressing subject matter, I thought the stories were written beautifully and the characters were properly fleshed out and sympathetic. I have a weird natural tendency to read a lot of Indian fiction, so it was a nice change of pace to read about Pakistani life.

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Jay Asher's debut novel has an interesting premise - Clay, a high schooler receives a mysterious package of audiotapes in the mail. They are from Hannah Baker, who committed suicide a few weeks earlier. On the tapes, Hannah narrates the 13 reasons that led her to kill herself (i.e. the people that caused her such anguish). Clay was "lucky" enough to be on Hannah's list and must pass off the tapes when he is finished listening to them.

The story is obviously told in flashbacks that detail several indviduals who were just awful to Hannah. Pretty much any kind of bad high school experience is on Hannah's tape-drinking, sex, bullying. Though this is a YA book, the amount of teen angst is a little too much at times. Hannah herself doesn't really come off as a fabulous (or even likeable) character considering that suicide is an inherently very selfish act and she spends 250+ pages blaming everyone else for her death. The only character that you feel kind of bad for is poor Clay, who worshipped Hannah and never got up the nerve to tell her his true feelings, only to be rewarded with these depressing tapes.

For some reason, reading this book made me feel very tense, as if I was reading some kind of spy thriller. I have no decent explanation why. I guess I kept thinking there'd be a really nice twist at the end - like she was murdered or something. I guess Hannah (and Asher by default) was trying to say that all those participants on the tapes were the true killers. I don't buy it. Her 13 reasons were kind of weak, if you ask me. High school sucks, but not enough to kill yourself over it.

Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult

I'm not going to lie - I think Jodi Picoult kind of phoned in this novel, mainly because she blatantly recycled parts of My Sister's Keeper and Change of Heart. I don't know, when I read Picoult, it's always the same - the lawyer with a turbulent past, the family in crisis, a depressing ending - and while sometimes, I like the familiarity, sometimes, it just gets on my nerves.

In Handle with Care, Charlotte and Sean O'Keffe have a daughter, Willow, who is born with osteogensis imperfecta, or brittle bones disease. Their financial status is spiraling downward due to high medical costs, so Charlotte decides to sue her OB for wrongful birth - meaning that her gyno should have told her about Willow's condition in utero so Charlotte would have had the option of abortion. Of course, this being a Jodi Picoult novel, Charlotte's OB is her best friend.

Despite the intriguing plot potential (the O'Keffe's have another daughter who has A LOT of issues that should have been explored more), again, it's all just the same nonsense - there's a tense lawsuit, a lot of family drama, and a really really unnecessary and contrived ending.

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

In this heartbreaking novel, de Rosnay fictionalizes a true event that most of us have unfortunately never heard about - the 1942 roundup and deportation of Parisian Jews to Auschwitz. This roundup was executed by French police and included thousands of young children basically sentenced to death. Sarah's Key shifts back and forth between narratives - that awful day as seen in the eyes of a young girl and the present day, where journalist Julia Jarmond is covering the anniversary of the event for a local magazine. The two narratives seem oddly disjointed at first, but as the story progresses, readers will see how the two become intertwined within each other.

Be warned: this book is really depressing, not because of the sad story behind the young girl in 1942, but because most books concerned with the Holocaust are really really depressing as a rule. It's absolutely shocking that such atrocities took place during the war in countries far beyond Poland and Germany.

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

Though this novel exceeds 500+ pages, its story remains relatively simple - Marion and Shiva Praise Stone are twins born to a nun (a nurse) in an Ethiopian hospital. Their mother, Sister Mary Joseph Praise, dies while giving birth. The presumed father, Thomas Stone, is the head surgeon who vanishes after he is unable to save her in the OR. While this may seem to be a rather bleak situation, the book becomes an almost light story about family, love, and medicine. The twins are raised by the hospital's other surgeon and gynecologist, who treat the boys as if they were their own. Everything is hunky-dory until the day when Shiva commits the ultimate betrayal and creates a divide against the two.

As the boys age, the political landscape of the country changes drastically, forcing Marion (the narrator) to flee to the United States. It is in this last segment of the novel where Shiva and Thomas Stone are able to experience some kind of redemption for the pain that they caused Marion.

Overall, an excellent novel - I was disappointed when I finished. The medical jargon can be a little much at times, but if you're into ER and the like, will be fine.

Scattered Graves By Beverly Connor

This book #6 in the Diane Fallen series. If you have never read Beverly Connors books before please do. Start with #1" One Grave Too Many". Shattered Graves follows the main character forensic anthropologist Diane Fallon as she and her team at the crime lab in RiverTrail Museum of Natural History try to find out who killed the mayor and police chief, who were harassing her and were hiding secrets of their own. I love the character of Fallon. And if you enjoy this series you will also love Ms. Connors other series that has the main character Lindsay Chamberlain an archeologist.

Bone By Bone By Carol O'Connell

When I started this book it was with high hopes, I've always enjoyed Ms. O'Connell's books. But it has taken me over 2 weeks to read it, this is unheard of in my world. Now, I thought maybe it was because there was laundry to do, work, family...etc. No it's because this book was hard for me to get into. It sounded good on the book flap, brothers go into the woods only one comes out, years later bones start appearing on the family's porch.........................but what it doesn't say is the minutia of information on every person that lives in this town. It wasn't a bad book just a drawn out one. The odd thing was, the ending of this book was the best part of the story.

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

I don't know what this says about me, but sometimes I love a really well written depressing novel. The kind that envelops you and makes you just feel lousy for awhile because you can't get the story out of your head because it's all just too much and hits too close to home.

At any rate, Revolutionary Road was a really good depressing novel. Set in the 1950s, Frank and April Wheeler are unhappy Connecticut suburbanites that secretly yearn for anything else - by some end or another, they just ended up in the "white picket fence" lifestyle and they absolutely hate it. Frank feels stuck in a boring job in Manhattan and April can't escape being a plain old housewife and mother. This feeling of perpetual ennui is slowly strangling their marriage until April comes up with a "plan" to relocate to Europe. The sad fact is this plan merely exacerbates their crumbling relationship. I guess nothing good can ever occur when you pin all your hopes and happiness on something that's implausible. The final portion of the novel is absolutely heartbreaking. Even though it's completely fictitious, I felt such pity for these characters and their sad sack of a marriage. I still don't know what that says about me. Oh well.