The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Title: The Girl on the Train

Author: Paula Hawkins

Publisher: Riverhead Books 2015

Genre: Thriller

Pages: 336

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: TBR Reduction; Ebook; 52 Books - W28; New Author

Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. “Jess and Jason,” she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost.

And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel offers what she knows to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in what happens next, as well as in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?

A must read according to lots of bloggers and best seller lists. And amazingly the book lives up to all the hype. Not very often that I like those hyped books. I loved how the unreliable narrators kept the reader guessing as to what really happened and who did it. Rachel was a very interesting character. On the surface, no one should like Rachel, but for some reason you feel for her. I couldn't stand Megan, but that seems to be the point. And Anna was the intriguing character thrown in the mix. Overall, a very interesting read. I definitely recommend it.

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

Title: The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared

Author: Jonas Jonasson

Publisher: Piratforlaget 2009

Genre: Literary Fiction

Pages: 384

Rating:  3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Read Your Freebies; 52 Books -- W24; New Authors

After a long and eventful life, Allan Karlsson ends up in a nursing home, believing it to be his last stop. The only problem is that he's still in good health, and in one day, he turns 100. A big celebration is in the works, but Allan really isn't interested (and he'd like a bit more control over his vodka consumption). So he decides to escape. He climbs out the window in his slippers and embarks on a hilarious and entirely unexpected journey, involving, among other surprises, a suitcase stuffed with cash, some unpleasant criminals, a friendly hot-dog stand operator, and an elephant (not to mention a death by elephant).

The first chapter was great fun. The second chapter was good fun. The next hundred pages or so were great. But then things started going off the rails for me. Allan's life story was just too fantastic. I couldn't get into his story. I kept thinking "this is just ridiculous."  The book could have been even better if the story were a little less fantastical. Overall, not the book for me.

Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier

Title: Remarkable Creatures

Author: Tracy Chevalier

Publisher: Plume 2009

Genre: Fiction

Pages: 312

Rating:  4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: TBR Reduction; Mount TBR; A to Z - R; 52 Books - W4

On the windswept, fossil-strewn beaches of the English coast, poor and uneducated Mary Anning learns that she has a unique gift: "the eye" to spot fossils no one else can see. When she uncovers an unusual fossilized skeleton in the cliffs near her home, she sets the religious community on edge, the townspeople to gossip, and the scientific world alight. After enduring bitter cold, thunderstorms, and landslips, her challenges only grow when she falls in love with an impossible man.

Mary soon finds an unlikely champion in prickly Elizabeth Philpot, a middle-class spinster who shares her passion for scouring the beaches. Their relationship strikes a delicate balance between fierce loyalty, mutual appreciation, and barely suppressed envy, but ultimately turns out to be their greatest asset.

I chose this book for our March book club. The book has sat on my shelves for a few years just waiting for me to pick it up. I was drawn in by the premise of a fictionalized account of two of the first female paleontologists. I really enjoyed learning more about Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot. I loved the descriptions of finding the various fossils and of the Lyme landscape. The story kept me going through the novel. Unfortunately the writing style gave me pause. Something about the sentence construction occasionally jolted me out of the world. The voices of the two characters didn't quite seem natural. Because of my slight pause, I knocked off a star. A good read, but not the best one...

A Hundred Pieces of Me by Lucy Dillon

Title: A Hundred Pieces of Me

Author: Lucy Dillon

Publisher: Berkley 2014

Genre: Fiction

Pages: 447

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: TBR Reduction; Mount TBR; A to Z - H; New Author; OLW Home

Reeling from her recent divorce, Gina Bellamy suddenly finds herself figuring out how to live on her own. Determined to make a fresh start Gina knows drastic measures are in order.

First up: throwing away all her possessions except for the one hundred things that mean the most to her. But what items are worth saving? Letters from the only man she’s ever loved? A keepsake of the father she never knew? Or a blue glass vase that perfectly captures the light?

As she lets go of the past, Gina begins to come to terms with what has happened in her life and discovers that seizing the day is sometimes the only thing to do. And when one decides to do just that...magic happens.

Our book club selection for January. This one spoke to me from the back cover. I really wanted to find out more about Gina's journey. While I've not gone through a recent divorce like the main character, we have just moved and I feel like we've made a huge change in our lives. I'm currently loving the idea of re-examining our possessions and memories attached to those possessions. Gina was a great character to follow along this path. While I wanted to smack her a few times for her thoughts/actions, I grew to love her. She seemed so real. I felt that I was reading a memoir instead of a novel. At times I wanted to give her a big hug and tell her that things were going to get better. Somehow Dillon made Gina so real to me. I really got sucked into the book.

Connection to OLW: One of my reading challenges this year is to read books related to my One Little Word: Home. Initially I didn't connect this book to my word, but by the end it was screaming at me. Part of creating a home is examining the contents. Are they things you love, hate, or are neutral about? Are there specific memories associated with your possessions? This book made be realize that I want to take a closer look at some of the things in our house. I want to only buy things that I love or are absolutely essential (like toilet paper) for our new house. I love that a novel made me connect to my OLW.

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Title: Me Before You

Author: Jojo Moyes

Publisher: Viking 2012

Genre: Fiction

Pages: 400

Rating:  5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Books -- W49; Bingo -- Free Space; Fall into Reading

How I Got It: Library loan (book club selection)

They had nothing in common until love gave them everything to lose . . .

Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life—steady boyfriend, close family—who has barely been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex–Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life—big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel—and now he’s pretty sure he cannot live the way he is.

Will is acerbic, moody, bossy—but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living.

Our book club selection for December.  After the last one (Middlesex), we needed something more readable and likable.  This one was the perfect choice.  It took me awhile to finish (baby time), but that doesn't me I didn't enjoy it.  I looked forward to the few minutes each night I could pick up the story of Lou and Will.  Amazingly complicated characters (in a good way).  A great storyline.  Lovely ending.  I was concerned that the ending would be too predictable and sappy.  Thankfully the author gave the story a real ending, something I could completely get behind.  I really enjoyed this one.  I will have to put the author on my TBR list.

The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen

Title: The Peach Keeper

Author: Sarah Addison Allen

Publisher: Bantam Books 2011

Genre: Fiction

Pages: 282

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Genre - Chick Lit; Monthly Key Word; Mount TBR; Book Bingo - 5 from TBR

How I Got It: I own it!

It’s the dubious distinction of thirty-year-old Willa Jackson to hail from a fine old Southern family of means that met with financial ruin generations ago. The Blue Ridge Madam—built by Willa’s great-great-grandfather and once the finest home in Walls of Water, North Carolina—has stood for years as a monument to misfortune and scandal. Willa has lately learned that an old classmate—socialite Paxton Osgood—has restored the house to its former glory, with plans to turn it into a top-flight inn. But when a skeleton is found buried beneath the property’s lone peach tree, long-kept secrets come to light, accompanied by a spate of strange occurrences throughout the town. Thrust together in an unlikely friendship, united by a full-blooded mystery, Willa and Paxton must confront the passions and betrayals that once bound their families—and uncover the truths that have transcended time to touch the hearts of the living.

This is my second Allen book, and I think I have fallen in love with her everything.  I loved the characters in this one so much.  I connected straight away to Willa and then about halfway through the book, I connected with Paxton.  I love how different and yet how similar their lives are.  Especially fun is the side character of Nana Osgood.  Love her!  She may be old, but don't count her out!  And the plotline is a lot of fun.  I put this in my Chick Lit category for the Genre Reading Challenge, but it's not all about the romance.  Instead we get a great story of two seeming opposite women finding their place in life and with each other.  Romance is the extra bonus here.  I think Allen's books focus more on finding yourself and your place in the world rather than a straight romance.  I love that!  Plus, her writing is beautiful.  Every once in a while, I just love reading a book where everything turns out okay in the end.  It's a nice pick me up.  And I have another Allen book (The Sugar Queen) just waiting to be read!

P.S. We get a cameo from Claire from Garden Spells.  Love it!

And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

Title: And the Mountains Echoed

Author: Khaled Hosseini

Publisher: Riverhead 2013

Genre: Literary Fiction

Pages: 416

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: T4MC - Set in 1900s; ebook; Eclectic - 2013 book; Book Bingo - 2 from 2013

How I Got It: iPad Read

Khaled Hosseini, the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, has written a new novel about how we love, how we take care of one another, and how the choices we make resonate through generations. In this tale revolving around not just parents and children but brothers and sisters, cousins and caretakers, Hosseini explores the many ways in which families nurture, wound, betray, honor, and sacrifice for one another; and how often we are surprised by the actions of those closest to us, at the times that matter most. Following its characters and the ramifications of their lives and choices and loves around the globe—from Kabul to Paris to San Francisco to the Greek island of Tinos—the story expands gradually outward, becoming more emotionally complex and powerful with each turning page.

Years ago I read The Kite Runner and I was absolutely devastated by that novel.  It tugged at every heart string I had.  While this novel doesn't live up to The Kite Runner, it still is a beautiful piece of work.  Immediately I connected with Abdullah, his pain and joys.  It took me awhile, but in time I came to also love Parwana.  Really, all of the characters had something to offer.  I never felt like there was a villain and a hero.  Instead Hosseini gives us a group of real people, people with flaws.  The writing has this lyrical quality that I just can't get over.  Each sentence flows seamlessly to the next one (even the not so pretty sentences).  I found myself lost in the world, yet there is something that held me back from being completely immersed.  Still...  a beautiful novel.

At the Scent of Water by Linda Nichols

Title: At the Scent of Water

Author: Linda Nichols

Publisher: Bethany House 2004

Genre: Fiction

Pages: 414

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: A to Z Authors: N (doesn't fit anywhere else, but such a a great book!)

Life is rewarding for Samuel Truelove. He's a gifted surgeon, he's married to the love of his life, and he has a beautiful daughter. But when he's called to perform an emergency surgery, a deadly cascade of events is set in motion, and his picture-perfect life begins to unravel....

Annie Truelove, hoping to escape painful reminders of her grief, leaves her beloved home in the mountains of North Carolina and begins a new life in faraway Seattle. But a disturbing headline takes her back home, where memories of both joy and sorrow come flooding back. What will it take to heal two broken hearts?

My friend C picked this book off of the coffeehouse borrowing shelf.  You borrow a book, you add a book.  It's a great little system.  C read it in just a few days, gave it to me, and told me that I had to read this book.  So I began (after readying myself with a silly zombie book).

This book moved me.  Not just a little story of loss, but a deeply moving portayal of lost people struggling to find their place (forward or backward).  I found myself tearing up throughout the book.  The characters' pain was so intense, I felt it through the pages.  This wasn't a book that I could read in the car line at school or in the five minutes I waiting for a friend.  This was an intense reading book.  I had to block out an hour or two here and there to read.  I had to devote all my energy to the book.  But once I did, I was sucked into Linda Nichols world.  And loved every minute of it.

Linda Nichols has an amazing ability to weave an intricate story told through multple perspectives, but each one as real as you or me.  I rooted for each and every character.  I urged them to find their way, their happiness, even as I am struggling to find mine in real life.  I feel like this book came at the exact right time for me, just what I needed.  Although very sad, ultimately a story of hope and encouragement.  Sometimes we need to stumble and fall before we can dance....

Now I need to pass off the book to another friend.  Eventually it will get put back on the loaning bookshelf, but I will recommend it to all I know.  The next book I read will not compare to this one... so I think something lighter in fare is in order.  Zombies anyone?