Pieces of Happily Ever After by Irene Zutell

8/10 - I really enjoyed this light read. It was like getting the inside scoop about some story that's flying around the tabloids. Even with it's Hollywood setting and some off the wall characters, I found it believeable. It even had a nice little moral thrown in there about judging other people. This would be a perfect vacation book.

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

8/10 - Fascinating premise for this story, following an ancient book through it's travels through Jewish history. I liked how many of the people who handled and cared for the book were not Jewish. It reminded me a little of The Historian. You got to travel to many different times and places in the world. It's a book meant to savor and not rip through, but on that same note it can move a little slow. The narrator is adequate, but strikes me as someone who belongs better is a CSI lab.

Lottery by Patricia Wood

9/10 - I really enjoyed this Forest Gumpesque novel about a "cognitively challenged" man who wins the Washington States Lottery. The bad characters were a little overly bad, but the good characters were spot on I thought. You can't help but like the main character Perry who is wise beyond his IQ score of 76. The ending was very satisfying for me in that wrap it all together kind of way.

~To Be Read~

Here's my "to be read" list, in no particular order. I will update as I read them, or add on. I have reduced the list to include only books that I currently have on my shelves. If you'd like to see books I'm "wishing" for you can consult my library on librarything.com, see "Links".

Triangle by Katharine Weber
Cherry by Mary Karr
What We Keep by Elizabeth Berg
The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett
Notes on a Scandal (What Was She Thinking?) by Zoe Heller
The Tall Pine Polka by Lorna Landvik
Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton
Monkeewrench by P.J. Tracy
Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson
One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus
Light on Snow by Anita Shreve
Arthur and George by Julian Barnes
Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver
Singing Songs by Meg Tilly
The Sunday List of Dreams by Kris Radish
Mother of Pearl by Melinda Haynes
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson
The Tie That Binds by Kent Haruf
The Problem with Murmur Lee by Connie May Fowler
The Abortionist's Daughter by Elisabeth Hyde
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard
The Breakdown Lane by Jaquelyn Mitchard
The Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
After This by Alice McDermott
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A Widow for One Year by John Irving
Some Things That Stay by Sarah Willis
Between, Georgia by Joshilyn Jackson
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings by Christopher Moore
Paint It Black by Janet Fitch
Silent in the Grave by Deanne Raybourn
The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean
Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin
Everything Changes by Jonathon Tropper
Lamb by Christopher Moore
Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore
The Surrogate by Judith Henry Wall
You're Not You by Michelle Wildgen
Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon
Bliss by O.Z. Livanelli
Any Bitter Thing by Monica Wood
The Girls by Lori Lansens
The Last Witchfinder by James Morrow
Traveler by Ron McLarty
The Mummy by Anne Rice
Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
Pomegranate Soup by Marsha Mehran
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
The Ha-Ha by David King
The Reader by Bernard Schlink
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos
How to Talk to a Widower by Jonathon Tropper
Last Seen Leaving by Kelly Braffet
Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris
Rush Home Road by Lori Lansens
The Girls Who Went Away by Ann Fessler
The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney
A Piece of Normal by Sandi Kahn Shelton
Thank You for All Things by Sandra Kring
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
Watership Down by Richard Adams
Mean Girls by Hayley Dimarco
Bufflehead Sisters by Patricia Delois
By Bread Alone by Sarah-Kate Lynch
Marley and Me by John Grogan
Self Storage by Gayle Brandeis
The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen
The Terror by Dan Simmons
Thank You for All Things by Sandra Kring
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen
The Department of Lost and Found by Allison Winn Scotch
Oxygen by Carol Cassella
Blind Submission by Debra Ginsberg
The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb
How to Be Lost by Amanda Eyre Ward

Children of God Go Bowling by Shannon Olson

7/10 - Fairly entertaining, would be more so if I had spent more time single. Singleness and therapy are the main topics here. Olson sprinkles in enough funnies to keep you entertained, and you can glean a little wisdom through her therapy too. Nothing spectacular.

Love in the Present Tense by Catherine Ryan Hyde

9/10 - This book would definitely fit into my warm fuzzy stories category. Okay, it can cross the touchy feely line occasionally, but not to the point where it's over the top. It's not Lorna Landvik (whom I love anyway). I really loved Pearl, because I've seen her before. I'm an L&D nurse and I've met this rough, scared little girl. Great a typical characters, and the story has a really good flow. Besides, who wouldn't love Leonard.

Hot Six by Janet Evanovich

8/10 - Boy Evanovich really knows how to string you along. Just when things really start to heat up, boom, game over. So I'm forced to wait until the next book. I'm really liking these, although I definitely couldn't read them back to back.

Her Daughter's Eyes by Jessica Barksdale Inclan

7/10 - A story about two teenage sisters who are essentially abandoned by their father after their mother dies of breast cancer. The older sister gives birth at home with the younger delivering the baby in secret. Sounded like it would be right up my alley, but I had a hard time really feeling for the characters although I think they are written very well and accurately. Gritty and somewhat reminiscent of Girls in Trouble.

The New A to Z Challenge

Yes, I'm going to do it again. All new to me authors, for every letter A to Z.

A - The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani
B - Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum
C - The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes by Diane Chamberlain
D - The Mercy of Thin Air by Ronlyn Domingue
E - The Greatest White Trash Love Story Ever Told by Rhett Ellis
F - The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
G - The Other Mother by Gwendolyn Gross
H - Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
I - Her Daughter's Eyes by Jessica Barksdale Inclan
J - The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs
K - Whistling in the Dark by Lesley Kagen
L - Speak Softly, She Can Hear by Pam Lewis
M - Gracelin O'Malley by Ann Moore
N -
O - B-mother by Maureen O'Brien
P - The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett
Q -
R - Empire Falls by Richard Russo
S - The Myth of You and Me by Leah Stewart
T - Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani
U - The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall
V -
W - Night by Elie Weisel
X -
Y - Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
Z -

The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue

5/10 - I hate to say it, but this one became a chore to read. When you only have 25 pages left, and you still have to drag yourself back to it, that's not a good sign. My biggest gripe was the whole premise on which the story was based. Unfortunate children are stolen by hobgoblins or changelings who then turn the child into a changeling and take their place in the human world. Then the cycle repeats itself once it becomes the stolen child's turn to reenter the human world and take another child's place. Why? What's the point? It's just a useless cycle. The whole thing was just a bizarre drawn out tennis match.

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell

8/10 - I liked this much better than I was anticipating I would. From the description, I was expecting something like Water For Elephants, which I didn't think lived up to the hype. I really enjoyed how the story unfurled, sort of like stream of consciousness. I also liked how you could never tell if Esme was really crazy, or if she was just a typical teenager who was bucking her oppressive high society upbringing. I wished the author had filled out the ending a little more. I'm not one who likes to just "imagine" what happened. I'm also not sure what she was trying to add to the story with the relationship of Alex and Iris. I would have liked more closure on that.

A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore

9/10 - You just have to love Christopher Moore. I've never read a more funny, witty, totally out there author. Charlie Asher is a classic Moore character who has unwillingly been charged with stopping the powers of darkness, along with his sidekick a 7ft tall black record store owner named Minty Fresh. Things got a little, WTF, at the end, but overall hilarious and fun to read.

What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman

6/10 - Again, mysteries aren't really my genre. I thought this would be a good read for October, but there was nothing creepy or scary. I felt like the author was trying to hard to make then ending hard to predict instead of making it a good story. I also felt it was confusing with all the jumping from people, places, and times. Usually I do pretty well with that, but the character in this book had so many aliases, I didn't have any clue who the narrator was half the time. I don't predict I'll be reading any more by this author.

The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall

10/10 - I really loved this book. I would compare it to She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb. The way the main character's life sort of ebbs and flows with happiness and despair. Udall does a fantastic job with all the characters too. Not a cliche' in the bunch as far as I'm concerned. I'll be looking for more of his work.

Gracelin O'Malley by Ann Moore

9/10 - I love all things Irish (besides the food!), and this book really puts you there, albeit during one of the bleakest times of the country's history. I loved all the characters in the book, and my only complaint is that I didn't get to find out how all of their stories ended. It can be a bit of a downer read just because of the suffering, but really a wonderful book I think. I'm going now to look for more books of Ireland by this author.

Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani

7/10 - I really liked the characters, but just didn't care for Trigiani's writing. It was one of those books that I could pick up or leave with equal ease. I haven't decided if I'll get the next in the series. I enjoyed it, but I'm not excited about it. I think I'll leave it for now.

Sleep Toward Heaven by Amanda Eyre Ward

9/10 - I've been putting this one off because of the depressing subject matter, but I'm so glad I finally picked it up. Ward's writing is so good, and the way these three women's lives are interwoven is so interesting. The bond the death row inmates have was fascinating, and makes me wonder if that really happens. I would recommend this one to anyone.

The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan

10/10 - One of my favorite reads of the year so far. It had just the right amount of romance, history, and action. I never lost interest. The author gave enough detail that you didn't feel like you missed anything, but no too much so you wished she'd move on already. I really enjoyed the love story, and the backdrop of Niagara Falls was perfect.

High Five by Janet Evanovich

10/10 - Damn you Janet Evanovich! You sucked me right in didn't you. This is my favorite of the Stephanie Plum series so far. Now I'm all hot for Morelli and Ranger. Grandma Mazur is hilarious! Etc, etc... the stuff everyone else will tell you if they've read these.

Storm Front by Jim Butcher

8/10 - I really enjoyed the first book in this series and have already ordered the second. It's like a cross between the Sookie Stackhouse series and the Stephanie Plum series. I really liked Harry, and his little quips. Sometimes the explanations of how the magic works is a bit lame. Lots of talk about energy, but whatever. It's an entertaining read, lets not overthink it.