Review--Elixir by Ted Galdi

Elixir by Ted Galdi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What is 5+2? How about 5x2? Those are easy right? What about 456328x22? Not so easy without a pen and paper or a calculator. For Sean Malone, these answers come to him very easily. At age 11 he was a Jeopardy champion. Now at age 14 he's a sophomore at Southern California Technical University and working on a project that no one has been able to figure out. The problem of the traveling salesman. When Sean does solve the problem, not only is his professor impressed. So are the head of the NSA, Secretary of Defense and the FBI. Sean didn't know that by solving this simple problem he also found a way into everything.

This debut novel from Ted Galdi is an exciting look into the mind of geniuses. Sometimes being the smartest one in the room isn't always the greatest thing. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. I couldn't wait to pick it up everyday and find out what was going to happen next. There are a few thrilling moments in the book where you are on the edge of your seat. You are always rooting for Sean though throughout it's entirety. This book spans Sean's life from age 14 on with glimpses into his life before. You meet his friends and family and he becomes someone you want to know. Are there people like Sean in the world today who can come up with fascinating ideas that can change the world?

I'm afraid if I speak on this book too much I will give away the whole thing. All I can say is that you have to pick it up and give it a try for yourself.

**I was given this book by the author for free in exchange for my honest review.**

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Review--Ruby by Cynthia Bond

Ruby by Cynthia Bond
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ruby Bell lives in the town of Liberty in East Texas. She was one of the most beautiful women in the town.   Liberty is the town she grew up in and ran away from in search of her mother in New York City.  When news of the death of her best friend reaches her, she decides to return to Liberty, but the things that await her there are very dark and menacing.
Ephram Jennings lost both his mother and father at a young age and was raised by his sister Celia.  Celia takes great care of Ephram and together they attend church every Sunday and are a pillar in the community.
Ephram has known Ruby Bell since they were small children, although his interaction with her has been very limited.  When she returns to Liberty Ephram would like to change that.  But Ruby Bell is no longer the same woman who returned to Liberty.  Frequently she can be found huggin the chinaberry tree on the edge of the woods near her home(Bell Land), she is often naked, or barely dressed and once even urinated in the middle of the street.  Everyone in Liberty knows that Ruby Bell is a harlot and a Jezebel.  Ephram refuses to believe that this is true and makes it his mission to prove this to the entire town.

Religion plays a big part in this book which really spoke to me.  We as Christians are taught to love one another and treat each other the way Jesus treated the world, with kindness and compassion.  It always gets to me how tolerance and love become an issue when trying to help those who are different. Ruby is plagued by demons in this book and the town shuns and rapes her for this. They call her crazy and when Ephram goes to her to help her be the woman HE knows she can be, he is looked down upon by the entire town and especially by his sister Celia.  Ephram wants to understand the demons in Ruby and he never judges her for her "crazy" ways, but tries to comprehend what she is going through.

This story really touched my heart.  We all need to do what we can for each other especially in the African American community.  We tend to shun away from each other instead of embracing one another.  I loved the way that Ephram went to Ruby despite what the rest of the town thought.  How he stood by her side no matter what.  This book could teach us all a lesson.

**I received this book for free from Blogging for Books in exchange for my review.**

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Reading at the Beach!!

It has always been my dream to sit back in a lounge chair on the beach and enjoy a good book.  And this summer this dream came true, sort of.

 While my kids are old enough for me not to keep an eye on them every second, I do have to keep one on them every other second.  I will say that over the course of 5 days I was able to read 100 pages in this book.  But having to watch kids do tricks or be brave enough to walk into the ocean, took my attention away a lot more.

So now that I am home from vacation and my dreams are thwarted for yet another year, what have I learned?  One day I will be able to peacefully lounge in that beach chair and read uninterrupted for at least one whole hour.  Today the joy of seeing my kids play in the ocean and be brave enough to do it without holding my hand is much better than any book I will read in any lounge chair on any beach!!

Happy reading my friends!!

I WON! I WON! I Think....

So the other day, I took my kids to the library to play in the Discovery Room that they have and to pick out a few(30) new books for the next couple of weeks.  So while the kids were playing, I was out browsing the new releases.  The librarian approached me and told me about an Adult Summer Reading Drawing that they were having.  I just had to enter my name and email address and I would be entered to win some books.  I glanced at the titles only briefly and decided that it didn't really matter what the titles were.  First of all, chances are I'm not going to win, and secondly FREE BOOKS!! Does it really matter what the titles were.

A couple of days later, I got an email from the librarian letting me know that I had won the drawing.  I was so excited.  I like winning free books!! Then I remembered I'm excited, but I really don't know what I'm excited about.  I asked her if she could let me know the titles that were a part of the drawing.  I wasn't going to be able to pick them up until after the 4th of July holiday since the library was closed for the whole weekend.  So, these are the titles that were included in the drawing:

Les Brown, Live Your Dreams -- published 1992
Russell Simmons, Def Poetry Jam on Broadway -- published 2003
Nene Leakes, Never Make the Same Mistake Twice --published 2009
Eric Jerome Dickey, Between Lovers -- published 2001
Sharon Mitchell, Near Perfect --published 2001
Barry Lee Pearson, Jook Right On -- published 2005
Angie Daniels, Trouble Loves Company -- published 2007

Now, while I am grateful for the win, I would hope that for a summer reading drawing:

1. The books would be summer related  OR
2. The books would be on a summer reading list  OR
3. The books would be current or recent 

I will enjoy my books that is for sure, but I'm not rushing to go and pick them up!!

Review--The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty

The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Husband's Secret focuses on three main characters.  Cecelia Fitzpatrick, married to John-Paul with three beautiful daughters.  Tess O'Leary who owns a business with her husband, Will and cousin, Felicity and has a son, Liam. And Rachel Crowley, who is still mourning the death of her daughter nearly 30 years after the fact.  How do these women's lives intersect, well....Cecelia finds a letter from her husband, not to be opened until his death...she opens it anyway.  Tess finds out that her husband and cousin(yes her business partners) have fallen in love with each other.  So she takes her son and heads to Sydney and enrolls him in the school which, Rachel Crowley is the secretary and Cecelia is the mother all other mothers love and hate.

The news Cecelia finds in the letter, the thoughts Rachel has about her daughters killer, and the actions Tess take after leaving her husband would make for one exciting story.

I'm afraid this story feel short of the exciting mark.  When I first picked it up and started reading, I was dying to find out what was in the letter, but I would have to wait for that.  Once the secret was out, I wanted to know what was going to happen next, with everyone's story.  But the excitement wasn't there.  This wasn't a book, that I had to hurry to get back to, which was very disappointing.  I couldn't abandon the book, though because I had to know.

Would Rachel find her daughter's killer? Would Cecelia be able to live with her husband's secret? Would Tess and Will be able to work through their marriage?  But getting those answers was not page turning and gripping.

I gave the book three stars because the whole premise behind the book was good, I enjoyed the story as a whole, but there was too much in between the good parts. Don't tell me about a secret letter at the beginning of the story and take three days to tell me what was in it....it's not fair.  And what was happening in those three days was not exciting enough to make me wait.  The moments just before the opening were the most thrilling.

Don't know if I will read more from Ms. Moriarty or not.


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Summer Reading!!

   

It's three days into the official start of summer.  My inbox has been filled with the books that I have to read this summer.  So I've taken what they have given me and made my own list of books I hope to get the chance to read(probably not all this summer though).

Here is what is on my list:

An Untamed State by Roxane Gay

Mireille Duval Jameson is living a fairy tale. The strong-willed youngest daughter of one of Haiti’s richest sons, she has an adoring husband, a precocious infant son, by all appearances a perfect life. The fairy tale ends one day when Mireille is kidnapped in broad daylight by a gang of heavily armed men, in front of her father’s Port au Prince estate. Held captive by a man who calls himself The Commander, Mireille waits for her father to pay her ransom. As it becomes clear her father intends to resist the kidnappers, Mireille must endure the torments of a man who resents everything she represents.

An Untamed State is a novel of privilege in the face of crushing poverty, and of the lawless anger that corrupt governments produce. It is the story of a willful woman attempting to find her way back to the person she once was, and of how redemption is found in the most unexpected of places. An Untamed State establishes Roxane Gay as a writer of prodigious, arresting talent.

China Dolls by Lisa See

In 1938, Ruby, Helen and Grace, three girls from very different backgrounds, find themselves competing at the same audition for showgirl roles at San Francisco's exclusive "Oriental" nightclub, the Forbidden City. Grace, an American-born Chinese girl has fled the Midwest and an abusive father. Helen is from a Chinese family who have deep roots in San Francisco's Chinatown. And, as both her friends know, Ruby is Japanese passing as Chinese. At times their differences are pronounced, but the girls grow to depend on one another in order to fulfill their individual dreams. Then, everything changes in a heartbeat with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Suddenly the government is sending innocent Japanese to internment camps under suspicion, and Ruby is one of them. But which of her friends betrayed her?


The Vacationers by Emma Straub

For the Posts, a two-week trip to the Balearic island of Mallorca with their extended family and friends is a celebration: Franny and Jim are observing their thirty-fifth wedding anniversary, and their daughter, Sylvia, has graduated from high school. The sunlit island, its mountains and beaches, its tapas and tennis courts, also promise an escape from the tensions simmering at home in Manhattan. But all does not go according to plan: over the course of the vacation, secrets come to light, old and new humiliations are experienced, childhood rivalries resurface, and ancient wounds are exacerbated.

This is a story of the sides of ourselves that we choose to show and those we try to conceal, of the ways we tear each other down and build each other up again, and the bonds that ultimately hold us together. With wry humor and tremendous heart, Emma Straub delivers a richly satisfying story of a family in the midst of a maelstrom of change, emerging irrevocably altered yet whole.


 
I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You by Courtney Maum

Despite the success of his first solo show in Paris and the support of his brilliant French wife and young daughter, thirty-four-year-old British artist Richard Haddon is too busy mourning the loss of his American mistress to a famous cutlery designer to appreciate his fortune.

But after Richard discovers that a painting he originally made for his wife, Anne -when they were first married and deeply in love-has sold, it shocks him back to reality and he resolves to reinvest wholeheartedly in his family life . . . just in time for his wife to learn the extent of his affair. Rudderless and remorseful, Richard embarks on a series of misguided attempts to win Anne back while focusing his creative energy on a provocative art piece to prove that he's still the man she once loved.

Skillfully balancing biting wit with a deep emotional undercurrent, debut novelist Courtney Maum has created the perfect portrait of an imperfect family-and a heartfelt exploration of marriage, love, and fidelity.





 Lay It On My Heart by Angela Pneuman

This piercing, sly debut novel tells the story of one unforgettable month in a Kentucky girl's thirteenth year. Charmaine Peake's prophet father has been committed to a psychiatric institution. Her mother, forced to rent out their house and move them down to a trailer on the river, won't stop telling Charmaine things she doesn't want to hear-from marital details and middle-aged doubts to uncomfortable preoccupations with Charmaine's changing body. A sanctimonious missionary kid has taken over her real bedroom, where Charmaine discovers his stash of strange and questionable photos. She is being tested at every turn: Where will her choices take her? And her faith? She tries to pray ceaselessly as her father taught, but with so much upheaval, even God seems to have changed.

   

The Mockingbird Next Door: Life With Harper Lee by Marja Mills

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is one of the best loved novels of the twentieth century. But for the last fifty years, the novel’s celebrated author, Harper Lee, has said almost nothing on the record. Journalists have trekked to her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, where Harper Lee, known to her friends as Nelle, has lived with her sister, Alice, for decades, trying and failing to get an interview with the author. But in 2001, the Lee sisters opened their door to Chicago Tribune journalist Marja Mills. It was the beginning of a long conversation—and a great friendship.

In 2004, with the Lees’ blessing, Mills moved into the house next door to the sisters. She spent the next eighteen months there, sharing coffee at McDonalds and trips to the Laundromat with Nelle, feeding the ducks and going out for catfish supper with the sisters, and exploring all over lower Alabama with the Lees’ inner circle of friends.

Nelle shared her love of history, literature, and the Southern way of life with Mills, as well as her keen sense of how journalism should be practiced. As the sisters decided to let Mills tell their story, Nelle helped make sure she was getting the story—and the South—right. Alice, the keeper of the Lee family history, shared the stories of their family.

The Mockingbird Next Door is the story of Mills’s friendship with the Lee sisters. It is a testament to the great intelligence, sharp wit, and tremendous storytelling power of these two women, especially that of Nelle.

Mills was given a rare opportunity to know Nelle Harper Lee, to be part of the Lees’ life in Alabama, and to hear them reflect on their upbringing, their corner of the Deep South, how To Kill a Mockingbird affected their lives, and why Nelle Harper Lee chose to never write another novel.




Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

  A murder… . . . a tragic accident… . . . or just parents behaving badly?  
What’s indisputable is that someone is dead.   But who did what?
  Big Little Lies follows three women, each at a crossroads:   Madeline is a force to be reckoned with. She’s funny and biting, passionate, she remembers everything and forgives no one. Her ex-husband and his yogi new wife have moved into her beloved beachside community, and their daughter is in the same kindergarten class as Madeline’s youngest (how is this possible?). And to top it all off, Madeline’s teenage daughter seems to be choosing Madeline’s ex-husband over her. (How. Is. This. Possible?). 
Celeste is the kind of beautiful woman who makes the world stop and stare. While she may seem a bit flustered at times, who wouldn’t be, with those rambunctious twin boys? Now that the boys are starting school, Celeste and her husband look set to become the king and queen of the school parent body. But royalty often comes at a price, and Celeste is grappling with how much more she is willing to pay.   New to town, single mom Jane is so young that another mother mistakes her for the nanny. Jane is sad beyond her years and harbors secret doubts about her son. But why? While Madeline and Celeste soon take Jane under their wing, none of them realizes how the arrival of Jane and her inscrutable little boy will affect them all.
  Big Little Lies is a brilliant take on ex-husbands and second wives, mothers and daughters, schoolyard scandal, and the dangerous little lies we tell ourselves just to survive.  



Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands by Chris Bohjalian

Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands is the story of Emily Shepard, a homeless girl living in an igloo made of garbage bags in Burlington. Nearly a year ago, a power plant in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont had a meltdown, and both of Emily's parents were killed. Devastatingly, her father was in charge of the plant, and the meltdown may have been his fault—was he drunk when it happened? Thousands of people are forced to leave their homes in the Kingdom; rivers and forests are destroyed; and Emily feels certain that as the daughter of the most hated man in America, she is in danger. So instead of following the social workers and her classmates after the meltdown, Emily takes off on her own for Burlington, where she survives by stealing, sleeping on the floor of a drug dealer's house, inventing a new identity for herself, and befriending a young homeless kid named Cameron. But Emily can't outrun her past, can't escape her grief, can't hide forever-and so she comes up with the only plan that she can. 


What is on YOUR summer reading list?

Review--The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.5 stars

Liesel Meminger is 9 years old and it is 1939.  Her mother is taking her and her brother to live with another family where they will be safe.  Unfortunately, the brother doesn't make it.  Liesel takes only two things with her to her new home; the memory of her brother and her first stolen book, The Gravediggers Handbook.

When Liesel arrives on Himmel street in Molching, Germany, she is greeted by Rosa and Hans Hubermann.  They welcome her into their home and she immediately is to call them Mama and Papa.  Even though Liesel is illiterate, Hans works with her every night when she is awakened with nightmares of her brothers death.  They retreat to the basement to do their reading.

For 5 years, Liesel lives on Himmel street during one of the most treacherous times in Germany.  She makes friends and enemies along the way and steals 5 more books.

First I would like to thank Victoria Doughertyfor recommending this book to me.  I have always been a fan of historical fiction and this book did not disappoint in any way, shape or form.  I thoroughly enjoyed this story.  I could see myself on Himmel Street with Liesel.  I could see what she could see and I could feel the torment she went through.  I thank God every time I finish a book like this because I live in a place and a time where these things aren't a constant worry for me.  I don't have to have my possessions packed and ready to go when I raid sirens going off.  I don't even hear raid sirens.  This is a book everyone needs to read if they haven't.

Another thing I found very interesting in this book was that it was narrated by death.  If that's not enough to make you want to read this...One of my favorite passages in the book is this "Here is a small fact...You are going to die."  Simple but true.  One day we all will die.  I hope and pray it is not in the way that the multitudes of people died in this book, but I know that one day it will happen.


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