Ocean City Free Public Library Book Blog

Golden Richards is just like your average guy. He worries about money, getting older and trying to avoid a mid-life crisis. The kicker? Golden is the titular polygamist with 4 wives and 28 children (+ or - a few stillborns and miscarriages). And as one might expect, life in the Richards house (or houses as the case may be) can get a little chaotic. The book focuses on just a few characters in the house - Golden, his 4th wife Trish and son Rusty. Each family member has their own proverbial crosses in life to bear - Golden tries hard to live his life by the Principle, desparately trying to avoid an affair with his boss' wife. Trish struggles with the loneliness comes with being part of a polygamist family. And Rusty just wants to be noticed and not humilated on a daily basis by his obscenely large family. Udall's book is funny and just an overall a good story about the American family. Fans of the TV show Big Love will probably enjoy it.

I like Sarah Silverman in small doses because the potty humor can get old after awhile. I always thought she stole the show with her bit in the film The Aristocrats . So I picked up her memoirs with the notion that it'd have its fair share of snarky laughs and foul potty humor. In that sense, I was pretty dead on. Bedwetter starts out like standard memoirs - Silverman spends a lot of time talking about her childhood and zany family. What I found to be the most enlightening portion of the entire book was her adolescent battles with depression and yes, bedwetting. For once, Silverman uses just enough humor to relay how these traumatic experiences have affected her. My only gripe memoir was that once Silverman reached a certain level of fame, she resorts to a whole lot of name dropping (with one exception involving a sweet anecdote about Chris Farley) and not much else. There are also a lot of pretty gross photos of her and her TV show cohorts.

As a rule, I'm not a big fan of suspense and/or mysteries. However, once in awhile, it's nice to break out of a comfort zone and try something different. I had read Flynn's Sharp Objects awhile ago and enjoyed it, so it made sense to try her new book. Dark Places centers on the grim murders of the Day family back in 1985. Libby, our heroine and a young child at the time, managed to escape and her testimony was enough to convict her older brother Ben of the crime. The book shifts back and forth between the events that led up to that fateful day and the present day Libby. Everything is going along, until Libby gets involved with an underground crime group that wants to get to the truth of the murders. Did Ben really kill his entire family? Or was it someone else?? All in all, it was a very quick paced read and the tension held throughout the entire novel. As one could expect, adult Libby has some major psychological issues as a result of the murders. Despite being so flawed...

Even though I don't watch her show, I like Chelsea Handler. She's kind of bitchy and a little mean spirited and as long as it's not directed at me, I sort of enjoy that type of humor. In her latest book, Handler discusses playing mean tricks on her boyfriend, takes her big bodyguard on vacation to see if she can hook him up with a tourist, and spends a lot of time commiserating with her siblings about how awful their father is. Yes, it's mean and kind of juvenile, but still good for a chuckle.

Sam Kingston is an ordinary teenager - self absorbed, heavily concerned about her popularity, disinterested in school...the usual. Everything is hunky dory with Sam until she gets into a horrific car accident on the way home from a party. However, instead of dying, Sam is forced to relive her last day alive over and over again (a la the movie Groundhog Day ) As Sam tries to change the events that caused her death, she undergoes a major transformation as she re-evaluates the important things in life. Gradually, things like a hot boyfriend and looking a certain way lose meaning compared to spending moments with family and true loves. Overall, I enjoyed this book. It was a very quick read and there were lots of tense moments.

Whenever anyone asks me for some of my favorite authors, 9 times out of 10 I will throw Lionel Shriver into the mix. We Need to Talk About Kevin is on my list of favorite books of all time (and proved to be one of the most sucessful book discussions that the library's book club has ever had), and The Post Birthday World messed with my head for weeks afterwards. The thing to keep in mind when reading Shriver is that she (and yes, Lionel Shriver is a female) evokes such deep emotions and feelings in all of her works, though they usually err on the negative side. The same can be said for So Much For That . Shep Knacker has been saving for years in the hopes of retiring to a remote island off of the African coast. The time has almost come for him to leave when he finds out his wife Glynis has mesothelioma and needs him to keep working in order to retain health insurance. The fact that Glynis is kind of a bitch merely adds to the frustration. Throughout the novel, Shep relies on his f...

One of the best things about reading Jodi Picoult is that she's so consistent. You always know what you're going to get whenever you read any of her works: the family drama (usually involving a fiercely devoted mother, an ignored sibling and some poor child with a disability or medical problem), the lawyer-with-a-heart-of-gold character, a tense courtroom scene and some contemporary references sprinkled here and there. And while some might say that "consistency" is just a nice way of saying "formulaic," I would argue that there is something quite comforting in being able to rely on a decent reading experience. This time around, Picoult focuses on her attention on Aspergers Syndrome, which occurs on the low end of the autism spectrum. Jacob Hunt is an 18 year old kid trying to fit in with everyone else. His social skills teacher, Jess, encourages him to ask girls out, make normal conversation and eye contact and attempt to empathize with others. His mother, E...