Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Thankful

There are many things to be thankful for on this glorious Thanksgiving Day, but today I want to
thank my family. My husband and my daughter who make this day and every day before
and after this one very special. They not only give me the most joy but they are my biggest cheerleaders.

When I told them I really wanted to write down the books and stories I had stored in my head over the years, they encouraged me to do it. My daughter suggested I start with a blog, find something else I love and just write and write. Thus this blog, bookreaderforlife, was born. How did she get so smart?

When my husband watched me write my first book longhand while using anything available to me - like an upside-down tray, while sitting in the bed, and just about anywhere else I could find a quiet
spot, what did he do? Buy me one of the most comfortable leather chairs and suggested I change our
old "computer room/extra bedroom" into my writing room. How do you compete with these two?

Yes, I am very blessed. The world is not perfect and everything does not always go the way you plan,
but at the end of the day if you have a family like mine you are very lucky indeed. Sometimes the news this world brings you and the meanness of people around you may be hard to bear, but just look around at your family and know that you are one lucky human being. So when life gives you lemons, hard knocks, or blessings, remember who to share them with. Your family will always be in your corner.
At least mine will, and I am very thankful.

Friday, November 18, 2016

Patty Pick for 11/18/16 is "Truly Madly Guilty" by Liane Moriarty

Liane Moriarty's latest book, "Truly Madly Guilty" was a good read! 
The book centers around an incident that happens at a neighborhood BBQ one afternoon on an ordinary street with ordinary people. Ms. Moriarty has a nice way of dancing around what really happened and keeping you in suspense until well into the book. You must keep reading to find out what the incident was and to see the effect on the characters as the chapters go by.  

One thing about her novels that I have thoroughly enjoyed is her 
character development. She has a way of writing, that most of the 
good writers do, that helps you live inside the character's head - to really imagine these people as someone you know. You develop a relationship with them and you get invested in their lives. In this book, I had a hard time finding one character that I liked at first, but by the end I like most of them.

You would think that tragedy would bind people together, but from personal experience I agree with the direction of this book that hardship and tragedy usually pushes people apart. Don't ask me to explain this strange human truism but it does work out that way more times than not. With 
Clementine, Sam, Ruby, Holly, Erika, Oliver, Vid, Tiffany & Dakota all in attendance at the meal in question, you get different points of view of the accident and different reactions. 

Not to spoil the plot for you, but it does take a while to get to the what actually happened. Along the way, you get to know the ends and outs of their lives and how they all ended up there that afternoon, but I really, really wanted it to get to the point. But 
by the end of the book, I got the point finally. The "getting there" is the story. It's really 
the story of all of us, how we cope, react, and go on after the bumps in our lives. 

So while this one doesn't use a sledge hammer to make the point, hang on until the 
end and you will get it. A solid 4 Stars!

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Patty Pick for 11/10/16 is "Before I Go to Sleep" by SJ Watson

"Before I Go To Sleep" by SJ Watson engendered a lot of discussion among my book club members. We wanted to read a scary book for October, but a lot of us don't like bloody and scary. We once read a very scary book by Dean Koontz called, "Intensity". My advice is only read this one if you are not easily scared and serial killers don't bother you. I will never look at an RV the same again, on the highway or anywhere for that matter. But I digress, back to 
"Before I Go to Sleep." 

Christine is always on rewind. Every night as she sleeps, her memories are erased and she wakes up thinking she is a young 
woman with her life ahead of her. Instead, due to a traumatic accident, she is a forty-seven year-old woman with a husband she does not know or remember. As she wakes each morning, she is terrified and looks in the mirror at a person she does not know. Her husband has placed pictures and clues around the house to help her remember as she goes through her normal routine. Since the accident, she 
can not work, or barely leave the house.  

What her husband does not know is that Christine is meeting with a doctor most days 
to help her remember. His advice is for her to keep a journal as they go along and he 
calls her each morning to remind her to read the journal and then they talk or meet. As Christine reads the journal each morning, she begins to remember some of the same things. She is confused over what memories are true and what memories are just her imagination. Her husband tells her conflicting versions of what she wrote in her journal. 
Who is telling her the truth? And how did she get this type of amnesia in the first place? 


As we read along with Christine down her path to memories, we start to question
everything. I did not see the twist or the ending coming. Very good and it will keep you 
guessing until the final pages. 5 Stars!!

Reading Laine Moriarty's latest, " Truly Madly Guilty" now and not sure it's going to be one of my favorites. Love her writing, but these people are driving me crazy. And she usually 
leaves you one character to like, but I'm not sure if there is one in this novel for me. We 
will see.....