Best Book of the Month:
The Boyfriend Swap by Meredith Schorr -- 4 stars
Robyn and Sydney are similar in many ways. They are both successful in their careers. Robyn is a music teacher and Sydney is a lawyer. They both have boyfriends that are very attractive. They also both don't want to take the boyfriends home with them for the holidays. For Robyn, her family is tired of seeing her with artsy men who have no future. For Sydney, she is tired of her father monopolizing the holiday with shop talk. The holidays are supposed to be fun, not judgmental and hostile. So, even though they've just met, Sydney comes up with brilliant idea, swap boyfriends for the holiday. It's just a few days, what's the harm? When Robyn finds out Sydney is dating her childhood crush, will she be able to hold it together? And how will her family handle this? Is this swap really such a good idea?
All the Rest
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward -- 3 Stars
This is the story of Esch and her brothers, Skeeta, Randal, and Junior. The story takes place over 12 days before, during and after Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. Esch and her family live in "the Pit", their dog China, who is the most important thing to Skeeta, has just had puppies. They are trying to get the puppies healthy and find a safe place for them before the storm hits. Esch has just found out that she is pregnant by the only boy she has been with, Randal is determined to get a basketball scholarship so he can get out of "the Pit". All of this is going on while a Hurricane is on the way. This is an emotional story that takes you on a roller coaster ride. With so many mishaps along the way, will they be able to survive once the storm hits?
Fierce Kingdom by Gin Phillips -- 3 stars
Joan and her son Lincoln are enjoying an afternoon in the zoo. As closing time approaches and they are gathering their things to leave, shots ring out. As Joan finds a place to seek refuge and try to keep Lincoln calm and quiet, she's never sure if the sounds she hears are nature or the shooters. Hiding out in an empty porcupine exhibit seems like the perfect idea, until the darkness comes and Lincoln has to eat. He's only four years old and trying to hold off the hunger for too long is nearly impossible. Spanning three grueling hours, Joan and Lincoln try to survive and make it out alive.
Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart -- 3 stars
Jule and Imogen are both orphans. But their lives couldn't have ended up more different. Imogen was adopted into a wealthy family at a young age and Jule was sent to live with an aunt. Though they were raised differently, it's this one similarity that draws them to one another. There is just one problem, Jule is look for someone to love and love her in return and once she has latched on to Imogen she will stop at nothing to get it. And Imogen, drops the person as soon as she finds the love she is looking for. How will this work out for this pair.
The After Wife by Gigi Levangie Grazer -- 3 stars
It's a typical Saturday morning in the Bernal home. After some early morning love making, Hannah returns to sleep as her husband, John heads off to the farmer's market. Since John is a chef, he does all of the cooking. Hannah is awakened shortly after by the phone ringing. The person on the other end is saying words, but Hannah can not believe the words that she is saying. Her husband is dead. She can still she the indent from his head on the pillow, this can't be true. But it is, and as Hannah comes to grip with this, her life gets turned upside down. Left to raise their three year old daughter, Ellie, which was also John's job since he was home during the day, Hannah is unsure of how to take the next steps. When she looses her job, her house and her mind, it all her friends can do to keep her together.
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng -- 3 stars
Mia and Pearl move around a lot, but they may have found their forever home in Shaker Heights, Ohio. They are renting the top floor of a duplex owned by the Richardson family. The Richardson's have four children who are all close in age to Pearl. When controversy hits the small tight knit community and Mrs. Richardson finds out that Mia is behind it, she will stop at nothing to find out more about this woman who has disrupted this town.
What I'm Readin' Now
The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen
The blurb for this book says:
3 Sides to a Marriage
2 Authors to Tell It
1 Insanely Addictive Novel
This is an ARC I received from NetGalley. I will be participating in a blog tour for this book on December 7th so look out for that.
I'll Take You There by Wally Lamb
BLURB-- I’ll Take You There centers on Felix, a film scholar who runs a Monday night movie club in what was once a vaudeville theater. One evening, while setting up a film in the projectionist booth, he’s confronted by the ghost of Lois Weber, a trailblazing motion picture director from Hollywood’s silent film era. Lois invites Felix to revisit—and in some cases relive—scenes from his past as they are projected onto the cinema’s big screen.
In these magical movies, the medium of film becomes the lens for Felix to reflect on the women who profoundly impacted his life. There’s his daughter Aliza, a Gen Y writer for New York Magazine who is trying to align her post-modern feminist beliefs with her lofty career ambitions; his sister, Frances, with whom he once shared a complicated bond of kindness and cruelty; and Verna, a fiery would-be contender for the 1951 Miss Rheingold competition, a beauty contest sponsored by a Brooklyn-based beer manufacturer that became a marketing phenomenon for two decades. At first unnerved by these ethereal apparitions, Felix comes to look forward to his encounters with Lois, who is later joined by the spirits of other celluloid muses.
Against the backdrop of a kaleidoscopic convergence of politics and pop culture, family secrets, and Hollywood iconography, Felix gains an enlightened understanding of the pressures and trials of the women closest to him, and of the feminine ideals and feminist realities that all women, of every era, must face.
I think this book is good to read especially with everything that is going on in our society today. Here is quote from the book, when Felix goes back to his 12 year old self and his oldest sister, Simone is talking to their mother about how her boss is harassing her at work.
"Men are men. Shapely girls like you just have to put up with stuff like that in the working world or else quit. Those are your choices."
A mom talking to her daughter after she tells her she's getting harassed by her boss at work. This is the 1960s I believe. This just resonates so much with what is going on in our world right now."
What I Plan on Readin' in December
House Divided by Jami Deise
Abraham Lincoln warned the country that a house divided against itself could not stand, but Erin Murphy never realized his words would hit so close to home! When it comes to the work/life seesaw, Erin is a balancing-act expert. True, she works for Democrats while her husband Jack is a spokesman for Republicans, but at home they’re in sync. Their jobs stay at the office. Their children -- 13-year-old animal-nut Jessica and 8-year-old Batman-obsessed Michael – come first. And her career is just as important as his. But on Election Day 2014, everything changes. Suddenly, Erin is out of a job … and Jack is the new star of The Right Choice TV network! As Erin searches frantically for her next position, Jack begins to practice what he preaches. Their house turns into a battlefield: What’s wrong with saying “Merry Christmas” to their Jewish neighbors? How can there be global warming when it’s cold outside? Jessica takes her mother’s side (her father is a “disgusting planet murderer”), while Michael just thinks it’s cool that Dad’s on TV and he’s making a million dollars. And Michael’s not the only one impressed with the family’s new money: Who are all these new people floating around Jack, and what do they want? As Erin’s friends take sides about what she should do with Jack 2.0, the only person who understands is a fellow stay-at-home parent: Scott. Scott is easy to look at, and just as frustrated with his marriage as Erin is… But the biggest battle is Erin’s alone: Should she keep pounding the pavement? Or become a perfect trophy wife and mother that Jack now wants her to be? Without a title and a salary, how can Erin figure out who she really is?
Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughn
An astonishingly incisive and suspenseful novel about a scandal amongst Britain’s privileged elite and the women caught up in its wake.
Sophie’s husband James is a loving father, a handsome man, a charismatic and successful public figure. And yet he stands accused of a terrible crime. Sophie is convinced he is innocent and desperate to protect her precious family from the lies that threaten to rip them apart.
Kate is the lawyer hired to prosecute the case: an experienced professional who knows that the law is all about winning the argument. And yet Kate seeks the truth at all times. She is certain James is guilty and is determined he will pay for his crimes.
Who is right about James? Sophie or Kate? And is either of them informed by anything more than instinct and personal experience? Despite her privileged upbringing, Sophie is well aware that her beautiful life is not inviolable. She has known it since she and James were first lovers, at Oxford, and she witnessed how easily pleasure could tip into tragedy.
Most people would prefer not to try to understand what passes between a man and a woman when they are alone: alone in bed, alone in an embrace, alone in an elevator… Or alone in the moonlit courtyard of an Oxford college, where a girl once stood before a boy, heart pounding with excitement, then fear. Sophie never understood why her tutorial partner Holly left Oxford so abruptly. What would she think, if she knew the truth?
The Bulletproof Proposal by Rebekah Louise
After five years of dating Lisa is anticipating that all-important question, will you marry me?
Impatient, Lisa decides to take matters into her own hands and propose to Matt, after all it is the 21st Century.
Only she takes it one step further and with the help of her best friend Mandy, she prepares the ultimate proposal.
What she doesn’t know is whether this will be the beginning of her happily-ever- after or the beginning of the end
Hum If You Don't Know the Words by Biance Marais
Life under Apartheid has created a secure future for Robin Conrad, a ten-year-old white girl living with her parents in 1970s Johannesburg. In the same nation but worlds apart, Beauty Mbali, a Xhosa woman in a rural village in the Bantu homeland of the Transkei, struggles to raise her children alone after her husband's death. Both lives have been built upon the division of race, and their meeting should never have occurred . . . until the Soweto Uprising, in which a protest by black students ignites racial conflict, alters the fault lines on which their society is built, and shatters their worlds when Robin’s parents are left dead and Beauty’s daughter goes missing.
After Robin is sent to live with her loving but irresponsible aunt, Beauty is hired to care for Robin while continuing the search for her daughter. In Beauty, Robin finds the security and family that she craves, and the two forge an inextricable bond through their deep personal losses. But Robin knows that if Beauty finds her daughter, Robin could lose her new caretaker forever, so she makes a desperate decision with devastating consequences. Her quest to make amends and find redemption is a journey of self-discovery in which she learns the harsh truths of the society that once promised her protection.
Told through Beauty and Robin's alternating perspectives, the interwoven narratives create a rich and complex tapestry of the emotions and tensions at the heart of Apartheid-era South Africa. Hum if You Don’t Know the Words is a beautifully rendered look at loss, racism, and the creation of family.
Share with me what you have read and what you are planning to read this final month of the year!!!
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