The Cephalopod Coffeehouse and the Best Book(s) I Read in October

Today I’m participating in the Cephalopod Coffeehouse’s monthly blog hop to discuss the best book I’ve read this month.

                              

Well, I’ve been tearing through books this month, so I’m featuring not one, but three “best books.”

I’ll start with one for the Regency genre. Lord Fenton’s Folly by Josi S. Kilpack. I just recently learned about this author. She has several historical several titles to her name, and after reading Lord Fenton’s Folly, I can definitely say I will read another … and soon.

This novel is a romance, but its flavor is a little different from the usual fare.

Lord Fenton’s animosity toward his father makes him rebellious, and he assumes the role of a dandy, gambler, and drinker. By the time he is of age, his father threatens to disown him if Fenton does not mend his ways. One way of doing this is to find a wife and settle down. Although Fenton has no desire to marry, he figures his long-time friend Alice Stanbridge is as good as any woman. Alice has carried a torch for Fenton since she was a little girl and readily agrees. She is later devastated to learn that his intent is for a marriage of convenience. Even so, she goes through with the nuptials and tries to make the best of it. A few weeks into the marriage, she is unable to stand her husband’s antics and excessive drinking. When family secrets emerge, Fenton and Alice must decide whether their marriage will remain a sham or develop into something more meaningful.

Kilpack is a talented writer and storyteller. This is a page-turner with rich, well-developed, flawed but sympathetic characters. Lord Fenton is fascinating. He tries hard to be unlovable with his foppish behavior and dress, but somehow that makes him all the more attractive. Although I was not completely astounded by the ending, I was surprised at how the ending came about. I highly recommend this to Regency readers who are looking for a great story rather than hot and heavy romance scenes.

The Five Times I Met Myself is James L. Rubart’s seventh book (his eighth just came out a couple of months ago). I first read Rubart’s book Rooms back in 2010, and I was hooked. His books are spiritual, haunting, and life-altering. They strike at the very core of what so many of us struggle with—a desire to reclaim youth, repair mistakes.

Brock Matthews regrets some of the decisions he’s made in his life. Now his marriage and business are both falling apart, and he wishes he could have a “do-over” for the trajectory of his life. When he discovers a deep, psychological dream technique called lucid dreaming, he embraces the method, traveling back in his dreams (and in real life) to encounters with a younger version of himself. Unfortunately, changing the past has unexpected—and undesired—results. Brock must decide if he’s willing to let go of some of the most important things in his life and whether a do-over is such a great idea after all.

The tag line of this book is “What if you met your twenty-three-year-old self in a dream? What would you say?” This novel is about looking over your shoulder, wondering if you could have done it better, if you should have done it differently, and how to deal with the decisions that have been made—good or bad. Jim Rubart says this book will set you free, and I believe it. Powerful, powerful message. Thought-provoking fiction.

Always with You is Elaine Stock’s debut novel. It is a unique contemporary novel and a real page-turner! I could not put it down. I was up late into the night reading—a testament to Stock’s fabulous writing and gifted storytelling.

Isabelle and Tyler meet under dangerous circumstances, when Tyler saves Isabelle from a violent attack. Two people with unusual pasts, they are drawn to one another and quickly fall in love. Threatened by dark family secrets, a religious sect, and uncertain odds, Isabelle and Tyler forge ahead with love and marriage despite the warnings of friends and family. When physical danger threatens Isabelle and her unborn child, she must choose whether to remain with the man she loves or run in search of safety.

Part love story, part psychological thriller, Always with You spins a haunting tale of love and hate, truth and lies, good and evil, while delivering a message of the need for discernment and forgiveness in all our lives. And it's on sale for $.99 this week!

Read any good books lately? 

The Cephalopod Coffeehouse and March's Book Pick: Only a Kiss

Hello Friends! Welcome to The Cephalopod Coffeehouse, a gathering of book lovers who congregate once a month to discuss what they've read.

This month, I am doing this without having finished any of the books I started. I am currently reading five books (mistake number one). Why do I always do this to myself? I start one book, then I run across another and think, “Oh! I must read that one.” In between my own writing, and editing other manuscripts, I find I read a little of this one, a bit here, a chapter or two there…and then it’s the end of the month and I’ve finished nothing.

But here we are and I must choose something, so I’m going with my gut on this one. Of all of the novels I began reading this month, the one I’m closest to finishing as well as the one I’m most enjoying is Mary Balogh’s Only a Kiss.

Here is the blurb from Amazon:

Since witnessing the death of her husband during the wars, Imogen, Lady Barclay, has secluded herself in the confines of Hardford Hall, their home in Cornwall. The new owner has failed to take up his inheritance, and Imogen desperately hopes he will never come to disturb her fragile peace.

Percival Hayes, Earl of Hardford, has no interest in the wilds of Cornwall, but when he impulsively decides to pay a visit to his estate there, he is shocked to discover that it is not the ruined heap he had expected. He is equally shocked to find the beautiful widow of his predecessor’s son living there.

Soon Imogen awakens in Percy a passion he has never thought himself capable of feeling. But can he save her from her misery and reawaken her soul? And what will it mean for him if he succeeds?

First of all, this novel takes place in Cornwall. I visited Cornwall back in the 90s and found it breathtaking, but I’ve recently enjoyed a renewed love of the region after watching Doc Martin, Poldark, and last week’s Lifetime Movie Network’s adaptation of Agatha Christie's And then there were None. Mary Balogh is a wonderful writer and her words paint beautiful descriptions of a Cornish coast (as well as detailing some of the problems the Cornish suffered during the Regency such as smugglers, shipwrecks, etc.) Additionally, I am not much of a lover of romance, but that’s why I like this one. Aside from the romantic aspect, there is a much more serious side plot featured. Imogen is a member of the Survivor’s Club, a group of people who have survived insurmountable odds and lived to tell about them. In Imogen’s case, she witnessed the death of her husband in the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic wars. Although she was treated well, her husband was tortured (often within earshot of her holdings). In the end, she was witness to his hanging. Along with the grief of his loss, she must also now deal with survivor’s guilt.

While there is the usual hot and heavy bedroom sequence in here, considering the length of the novel, the sexual content is relatively small (although if you are offended or bothered by such scenes, best to skip this one, as it’s pretty graphic).

Balogh is master of creating secondary characters, and it’s virtually impossible not to love Lady Lavinia’s character, Imogen’s aunt and an inhabitant of Hardford Hall, who takes it upon herself to rescue every stray dog in the region. She treats them like her children, loving them back to health and providing them with permanent homes either in her own house or others. She brings extra life and humor to the story. 

The plot unfolds slowly and with much attention to detail from the Regency period. Fabrics, locales, foods, and language are all authentically created in Balogh’s novels. She is a prolific writer and has dozens of books to her credit. I read another one of her regency novels last year entitled Heartless with a similar reaction.    

What have you been reading this month?

The Cephalopod Coffeehouse: The Silent Wife

As 2016 commences, I am back with the program (a bunch of snow days helped with this), and once more I’m participating in The Cephalopod Coffeehouse blog hop. This is a gathering of readers who meet up once a month to discuss the best books we’ve read in the past thirty days.

I have actually read quite a few books this month, but the one that really sticks out in my mind is a soon-to-be-made-into-a-motion-picture, best-selling novel entitled The Silent Wife by A.S.A Harrison.

The Silent Wife is deceptively simple. On the surface it seems like any other story about a wife in denial of her husband’s infidelities. But as the layers start to peel back, we learn that nothing is as it seems. Todd may think he’s having his cake and eating it too, but as he tries to make a life with his mistress, he realizes that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. As for Jodi, life without Todd is much harder than she expected, and her resentment soon turns to deep bitterness that takes root in a dangerous form.

My take:  After having read about a half a dozen of these things, I’ve decided I’m a huge fan of the psychological thriller genre.

When I first began reading this novel, I wasn’t sure I could finish it. The entire story is written in present tense, although told in alternating points of view. Present tense annoys me greatly. Quite honestly, neither of the characters are particularly likable. Todd is clueless and spoiled; Jodi is cold and out of touch with her own feelings. After the first chapter or two, I was sucked into the story and forgot all about the present tense. And the plot is so simple, yet engrossing, that even the character’s deep flaws didn’t bother me after a while (and I’m finding nowadays that many novels contain unlikable protagonists). The bottom line? I could not put this book down. It was absolutely compelling to read, and although the basic premise is familiar, I still found myself wondering—what is going to happen?

The story is claustrophobic in a good way, if that’s possible. There really is very little in the way of side plots. We get some insight into the mistress, her family and issues, but the main focus is on these two people—their short comings and emotions (or lack thereof).

A thriller and domestic mystery (there is a twist to the plot) in the vein of Girl on a Train or Gone Girl, The Silent Wife is by far the most riveting page-turner I’ve read this year.  I give it four out of five quills.

Now run on over to these other great bloggers’ sites and check out their reads for the month!

What good books have you read this month?

The Cephalopod Coffeehouse: Six Years

It has been a long time since I’ve read a novel that has made me want to read everything that author writes. I have found that magical connection with the books of Harlan Coben. 

For the second month in a row, I’m choosing one of his books to feature as the best book I’ve read this month in the blog hop through The Cephalopod Coffeehouse. 

Six Years is the story of Jake Fisher, a man plagued by the memory of the woman he watched marry Todd Sanderson six years before. He wonders if he missed out on the best thing that might have ever happened to him. Should he have been the one marrying Natalie?

At the time of Natalie’s marriage, he promised that he would leave her alone and never try to contact her. But when he comes across Todd Sanderson’s obituary in the paper, he decides to break that promise and contact the woman who once meant so much to him. Jake attends the funeral to pay his respects, but when he catches a glimpse of Todd’s widow (a woman to whom Todd’s been married for over ten years, apparently), Jake knows the widow is not Natalie.  

As a college professor, Jake is well-versed in the methods of research, and he begins an all-out search for the woman named Natalie. As he tries to untangle the sticky and confusing web of Natalie’s whereabouts, he finds that no one will talk to him, no one remembers him, no one saw or knows anything. Even friends with whom he and Natalie had once socialized don’t recollect ever having seen them together.

In the midst of it all, Jake finds himself entangled a dangerous game that threatens his very life—the life he lives and the life he thinks he lives. Is Natalie’s whole life a lie? Or is his?

Just like The Stranger, Six Years is a compelling page-turner. From the two books I’ve read, Coben appears to a master of the guessing game. What is going on? How did this happen? How will he get out of this?

I love it when an author weaves a tale in which I cannot figure out the answers until the end. Coben does not use plot conveniences, but he capitalizes on jaw-dropping plot twists. His characters are flawed and damaged, yet human and understandable, invoking a willingness to follow and believe them.

I loved this novel, which was recommended to me by my blog buddy and author, Stephanie Faris. She has a great list of books every month, and I always try to snag one from her list to read.

Upcoming for me this month are the following books and their accompanying blurbs from Amazon. I’ll let you know next month if one of them turns out to be my best read of the month.

The Watershed by Wilden Turk

There’s something in the water… Or so believes muck-raking journalist Owen Fisher. When he’s suddenly arrested under suspicious circumstances, he can only assume that his latest article went viral, the one in which he accused the world’s largest water company of selling tainted water. If he’s wrong, only one person’s life is over: his own. But if he’s right, the world as we know it is on the brink of collapse.

The Beautiful Daughters by Nicole Baart

Adrienne Vogt and Harper Penny were closer than sisters, until the day a tragedy blew their seemingly idyllic world apart. Afraid that they got away with murder and unable to accept who they had lost—and what they had done—Harper and Adri exiled themselves from small-town Blackhawk, Iowa, and from each other. Adriran thousands of miles away to Africa while Harper ventured down a more destructive path closer to home.

Now, five years later, both are convinced that nothing could ever coax them out of the worlds in which they’ve been living. But unexpected news from home soon pulls Adri and Harper back together, and the two cannot avoid facing their memories and guilt head-on. As they are pulled back into the tangle of their fractured relationships and the mystery of Piperhall, the sprawling estate where their lives first began to unravel, secrets and lies behind the tragic accident are laid bare. The former best friends are forced to come to terms with their shared past and search for the beauty in each other while mending the brokenness in themselves.

Tell me what good books you have read this month. Then head on over and check out some of the great books on the other stops of this blog hop.

Favorite Things Friday: The Best Book(s) I read in August

It’s time for The Cephalopod Coffeehouse! We gather once a month and discuss the best books we read this month and what we loved about them.

This month I started reading way too many books all at once, and I ended up only finishing one. I will feature it here today, but I’ll also tell you about some other books I’m reading that I think will be even better. I should warn you, though—they’re all regency romances. I’m on a regency kick at the moment.

 

Lady Maybe by Julie Klassen is the story of Hannah Rogers, a clergyman’s daughter with a secret forcing her to leave her home and become a companion to the wealthy, yet haughty, Lady Marianna Mayfield. As the story begins, Hannah is travelling into the country with Lady Mayfield and her husband, Sir John, when the carriage crashes, and they are all plunged into freezing water. Rescued by a kindly doctor and his wife, Hannah awakes to the name “Lady Mayfield.” Confused and disoriented, Hannah assumes that she is Lady Mayfield. Once taken to the Mayfield home, she begins to remember her real name and situation. She is told by Dr. Parrish that the traveling companion drowned and that Sir John is in a bad way. Every opportunity she has to tell the doctor that she is not Lady Mayfield is in some way thwarted, but when Sir John begins to recover his wits, Hannah knows she will have to fess up and risk prosecution for fraud.

I loved the first half of this novel. It was suspenseful and it kept me guessing what was going to happen and wondering how Hannah was going to get herself out of this mess. The characters were colorful, well-developed, and authentic. As so often happens in a novel, however, the last third of the book was a little too long and drawn out. There were some courtroom scenes that took forever, and I became irritated, thinking—“just tell me what happens!”

The ending wasn’t as satisfying as I would like. Although unexpected, I felt it was a little too convenient. Overall, I liked the book, and I would recommend it to one who enjoys a regency read with an unconventional twist.

 

I have also started reading Heartless by Mary Balogh and I’ve enjoyed it very much (I’m only halfway through). Luke Kendrick is the hero who has been betrayed by family and his fiancee. Ten years after all of that, he's back to claim the land and fortune that is rightfully his. Yet the hard blows to his life have left him incapable of love. He marries Anna Marlowe, only to find that she's not the innocent he thought. Even so, he agrees to remain married to her as long as she will bring forth heirs. As time goes by, love begins to bloom in her heart for him, but he does not return her sentiment. We are left to wonder if they'll ever have a meeting of the hearts...

The novel is rife with themes of the nobility, marriages of propriety, family lineages and peerages, and lots of rakish men getting themselves into all sorts of trouble. If you like that sort of thing, this is a well-written and intriguing book. 

 

Finally, I started reading A Heart's Rebellion by Ruth Axtell. I just started this one two days ago, but it is set in 1815 during the London season. Jessamine Barry, jilted by the man she truly loved and wanted to marry, now leaves her quiet English village to venture into London for the infamous season. Even though she is initially unimpressed with the balls and parties, she soon meets Lancelot Marfleet and learns his family is very well known throughout society. Through this route she is introduced to more people, and apparently (although I haven't gotten there yet), she falls in with a rakish sort of gentleman who is all too happy to lead her down the path to rebellion.

So far I've really gotten into this book. I love reading Jane Austen-ish novels that deal with manners and society. I can't wait for the rake to come on the scene. I always love the rakes!

So that's what on my reading plate at the moment.

Tell me what you're reading right now, then check out some of my fellow bloggers and their reads for the month.

 

The Best Book I Read in July

It’s time for the best book I read this month and The Cephalopod Coffeehouse hosted by The Armchair Squid. We gather once a month to talk about the best books we’ve read over the past few weeks.

Mercy’s Rain by Cindy K. Sproles is set in the late 1800s and traces the journey of Mercy Roller, a young girl living in the Appalachian Mountains of Tennessee, who must come to terms with her angry, revengeful heart brought on by a childhood of abuse and brutality.

Mercy’s father, Pastor Roller, is a cruel man with a desire to inflict pain and anguish on his wife and children under the guise of spiritual cleansing and holiness. He sexually and physically abuses his daughter and tries to burn and freeze his wife to death; he hits, hangs, drowns, and commits infanticide. He is evil incarnate and Mercy, finally reaches her breaking point when he kills a local boy.

Her heart full of hate, Mercy shows no mercy when it comes to The Pastor’s punishment for his crime, and years later she readily confesses to herself and others that she had a hand in her own father’s killing. Once she leaves her home and all of its terrible memories and settles among friends who need her child-minding help, Mercy experiences a different life—one that could offer happiness and redemption. Even so, she is haunted by her memories and struggles to forgive herself and those who have hurt her, and experience the very quality after which she is named. Mercy must decide whether she will allow herself to love and let go of the past, finally accepting God’s grace and healing.

Mercy’s Rain is an intense, emotional story, beautifully developed and constructed by Sproles’s fine prose. It is not a novel for the faint-hearted, but it is one for the broken-hearted. Mercy’s journey from broken, bitter, and angry to a girl who desires to love and be loved rings true and is not at all contrived. The novel’s painfully realistic portrait of domestic abuse is part of what makes it so powerful. This is not feel-good inspirational fiction; this is gritty, soul-searching, life-changing story telling—a rushing river of realization that people experience this sort of brokenness every day and must choose between hating and forgiving. Mercy’s hurt is a deep well, and she must decide if God’s love is enough to fill it.

If you'd like to look at some other good reads, check out some of my fellow coffeehouse bloggers' favorite reads this month.

What’s the best book you’ve read this month?    

 

 

Favorite Things Friday: The Best Book I Read in May

It's the end of the month, and time for The Cephalopod Coffeehouse and the best book I read in the month of May.

Last month I featured Runaway Girl by Carissa Phelps, a memoir exploring the plight of a chronic runaway who was sexually exploited and lived to tell the tale. In a similar vein, this month I'm featuring another sex trafficking memoir, Stolen: The True Story of a Sex Trafficking Survivor by Katariina Rosenblatt, PhD.

This is an important story. I say this not because Katariina survived sex trafficking or because she earned her doctorate, but because her initiation into the horrors of this world occurred in her own backyard, on her mother's watch, and inside the suburban United States. Befriended by a "bottom" female (another female recruiting other girls into the life), Katariina narrowly escapes alive on several occasions, only to find herself firmly entrenched within the life a few years later by a different recruitment method. This memoir is not so much about how it happened, but why. Why is it that young girls are so vulnerable to the lures, the methods, and the dangers? Katariina admits that some part of her walked into the life willingly and with partially opened eyes. Aside from her own harrowing tale, she sheds invaluable insight into the contributing factors of suburban domestic violence, gang and organized crime infiltration, and a teen's burning need of acceptance by her peers.

It's hard to believe in this day and time that a well-educated teenage girl would ever consent to such things, but it's happening. And more often than you might think. Although Rosenblatt's story takes place twenty years ago, the methods and the dangers remain the same. These days, girls are trafficked inside their own high schools by boys claiming to be their boyfriends, and sometimes, sadly, even their own parents are the pimps. Writers like Katariina Rosenblatt shine a stark white light on these horrors and ask others to join with them in bringing this abomination to an end.

Girls should not be for sale.

The Best Book I Read in April: Runaway Girl

It's time again for The Cephalopod Coffeehouse--a blog hop for book lovers who gather to discuss the best book they've read each month.

This month, the best book I read was Runaway Girl, a memoir by Carissa Phelps.

 

 

I heard about this book while reading Walking Prey: How America's Youth are Vulnerable to Sex Slavery, another memoir by Holly Austin Smith. Both of these books deal with the aftermath of sex trafficking and life on the streets, and both are formidable in their retelling of their troubled childhoods and the events that lead to the chronic desire to run away and join life on the streets. But Phelps's memoir takes that extra step and really delves deep into the emotion and the pain leading up to her decision to run...again and again and again.

 

Raised within a sort of dysfunctional Brady Bunch, Phelps grows up as one of thirteen kids--the product of a blended family. Suffering from neglect and abuse, she makes the decision that living from day to day, floor to floor, couch to couch, is preferable to fending for herself emotionally and physically in her own house. Soon she's within the clutches of a pimp, and even when she escapes that terrible situation and is returned home, she's off and running again.

 

When you've grown up in an average household with an average upbringing, it's hard to imagine why living on the streets at the age of eleven or twelve is preferable to living in a family, even if that family isn't as loving as one would like. But Phelps describes her need to run as nearly physical--she describes it as an impulse, uncontrollable and necessary. 

 

Runaway Girl is a riveting book. I couldn't put it down, and it's important from the perspective of America's youth and their need to feel safe, protected, and loved. The frightening part is when a teenager's need is so great, their view so twisted, that they see validity in the "protection and love" of a pimp rather than their own family.

Favorite Things Friday: The Best Book I Read in March

It's time to reveal the best book I read in March! For those who don't know, I participate in the monthly blog by The Cephalopod Coffeehouse in which we share book reviews and recommendations.

I'm one of those people who buys a book for my kindle and then sits on it for a year before I ever get around to reading it. That's what happened with this book. I started it months ago and then stopped thinking it didn't really interest me. But then I decided to try it again. I don't know if I was more focused on the reading or simply more interested in the story, but this time I found it riveting! My favorite book from March is...

Big Little Lies is a mystery of sorts, but it's also a domestic drama, and I think that's what I really like about it. I love the combination of mystery and soap opera played out in an Australian suburb. Told through three different points of view, the plot revolves around a group of mothers (Madeleine, Celeste, and Jane) whose children attend the same elementary school. From the beginning of the novel, we know that something really bad has happened. The tension of this event which is yet to come continues throughout the story fueled by snippets of interviews from bystanders, school staff and administration, detectives, and other neighbors. We don't know what has happened or to whom, but it's bad enough that the police are involved. Alongside the mystery, the lives of Madeleine, Celeste, and Jane are laid bare, and the secrets of their-not-so-blissful domesticity spill forth.

Liane Moriarty is my new favorite author. She has this talent for writing storylines about regular people that could easily happen, but the what's-going-to-happen factor is so strong that you just have to read on. Her realistic dialogue is sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hilarious, but always spot on. Right now I'm reading The Husband's Secret, and the style is similar to that of Big Little Lies (several narrators, domestic story, mystery tossed in for good measure), so if you like Big Little Lies, you might try The Husband's Secret afterwards.

If you're looking for a party this afternoon, stop by my Facebook Party link below from 3-9 p.m and join the party link. I'll be featuring Song from the Ashes from 5-5:30, but there will be other authors in different time slots giving away books, gift cards, and other loot!

Facebook Party Link

Favorite Things Friday: The Best Book I Read this Month, Love Defined

It's that time again! Time to name the best book I read this month for participation in February's  Cephalopod Coffeehouse!

This month, I have the pleasure of featuring a book that deals with a topic near and dear to my heart--that of the painful ordeal of infertility. During the summer, I named the first book in Elizabeth Maddrey's Remnants series, Faith Departed, as the best book of the month.

This month I'm naming the last novel in the series as the best book I've read in February.

Love Defined, the final piece of the Remnants trilogy by Elizabeth Maddrey, follows the harrowing ordeal of twin sisters' struggle with infertility and their quest to become parents. In the first book of the series, Faith Departed, June, July, and their husbands decide that now is the right time to start a family and assume that, like all the other couples around them, this plan will fall right into place according to their timing. When this doesn't happen for either of them, the sisters' faiths and marriages are shaken and tested. Their frustration and agony continues in the second book of the trilogy, Hope Deferred. In the third and final installment of the series, June and July's relationship as sisters is tried as they forge different paths, both struggling to decide what is best for their families. Do they accept and embrace a life with no children? What about adoption? What if adoption doesn't work out or they don't feel the desire to adopt? Do they seek out other possibilities? How do they trust God in the midst of so much pain, confusion, and heartache?

This is my favorite novel of the trilogy. Love Defined reveals, with such sensitivity and understanding, the heart-wrenching choices that must be made when, in the words of that great Scottish poet Robbie Burns, "the best laid plans of mice and men go awry." Not only are wives affected by the pain of infertility; husbands experience it acutely as well, but their feelings are too often minimized. Maddrey shows both sides of the coin, as June and July's husbands, Toby and Gareth, suffer differently but no less than the women.  Enduring infertility is not for the faint of heart for women or for men.

Without giving anything away, the ending is beautiful--not because it's perfect, but because honesty and reality prevail. In the real world, even happy endings aren't spotless, and it's nice to see a Christian writer addressing this issue without sugar-coating or over-simplifying the complex issues and emotions involved. Infertility affects an entire community, not just the individual couple.

I highly recommend this book (and the entire trilogy) for anyone who has ever struggled or is currently struggling with infertility. This is also a wonderful read for anyone with a friend or family member currently enduring this painful process, as it might shed light on a situation that is tough to comprehend if you haven't gone through it.

Favorite Things Friday: The Best Book I Read in January

It's that time again! Time for The Cephalopod Coffeehouse and the best book I read in January!

Everyone knows I am the slowest reader in the world! I love to read, but between trying to write every day and a stressful full-time job, I'm lucky if I get 30 minutes of reading time a day! It usually takes me around a month to finish one book. Add to that the fact that I tend to start 4 or 5 books at a time! Therefore, imagine my surprise when last Friday (on a whim) I downloaded on my Kindle the Paula Hawkins novel, The Girl on the Train...and it took me less than a week to finish it!




The concept tag for this book is Gone Girl meets Rear Window, and I think that's an accurate description. This novel has all the page-turning suspense of Gone Girl combined with the voyeuristic delight of Rear Window. This novel resonated with me right away since I used to live in London and took the train often into English suburbia and beyond. I spent hours looking out train windows and wondering who lived in the passing row houses and what their lives were like. That's kind of the premise with which this novel begins.  Rachel, the main narrator, travels on the same train at the same time every day. The train stops daily at the same signal light where she is able to glimpse the backside of a Victorian row house and the couple that lives therein. She's constructed a whole life for this unknown couple, given them names, talents, careers. The narrator soon reveals that this house is only four down from where she used to live in her old life that included a husband and a job. Her life is very different now, and as the novel unfolds, Rachel recalls life then and now. Because of her struggles with alcoholism and blackouts, she becomes embroiled in a murder mystery, sure that something she's forgotten is a key clue in solving the mystery.

Told through the point-of-view of three narrators, this novel is a fast-paced and riveting dark mystery with well-developed, likeable, and believable characters. Rachel is a sympathetic character who is terribly flawed but recognizes her shortcomings. This is one of those novels I would term brilliantly crafted, as the writing is as good as the story, and the plot twists are well-paced and placed. The Girl on a Train is suspenseful and not predictable, and although I did figure out "whodunnit" before the end of the book, it took nothing away from the story.

Not only is this the best book I've read this month, it's the best book I've read in several months!  I dare you to put the book down!




There are only a couple of days left to enter the free giveaway of Song From the Ashes on Goodreads! Enter here to win!

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Song from the Ashes

by Megan Whitson Lee

Giveaway ends February 02, 2015.
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The Best Book I Read This Month...

It's that time again--time for The Cephalopod Coffeehouse --where a bunch of us book lovers chat about our favorite reads for the month! For this month, I picked...(surprise!) a scary read!

Rarely do I ever read a book after seeing the movie. I always rush to try and finish a book before the movie version comes out, and then I’m usually disappointed anyway. In this particular case, I’ve seen the movie over and over again during the course of a ten year period, yet I just got around to reading the novel.

I’ve only read one other Stephen King novel (The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon). I really enjoyed it, but it was more of a psychological thriller. I’ve wanted to read The Shining for years, but I was afraid the book would be too gruesome or brutal for me. (I hate reading anything that’s bloody or gory).

I was pleasantly surprised to find more of a psychological ride than a horror tale. There are elements of horror within the story, but overall, I was riveted. I see now why King is considered such a master of the page; he effectively crafts scenes, describes actions and images, and paints the background of characters. This novel, written in 1977, reads differently from a modern horror novel. It’s subtle with less attempt at shock value and far more attention to the storyline.

For those who don’t know the story, Jack Torrance, a recovering alcoholic, takes his wife and son to live at The Overlook—a hotel in the Colorado mountains where inhabitants are snowed in all winter. Torrance assumes this will be the perfect opportunity to write his next novel; instead, once the snow begins to fall and Jack and his family are snowed in, the house comes alive, tormenting Jack and his family with freaky women in the bathtub, strange characters in the ballroom (including an oh-so-polite, but all-too-dead bartender), and an elevator that runs by itself. All the while, Jack’s son, Danny, holds special powers called “shining” in which he can sense and see things that others can’t, and he can communicate telepathically with others who have the same abilities.

The Shining holds up remarkably well, and makes a perfect halloween companion.

 

The Best Book I Read in September is...

It's that time of month again! Time to participate in The Cephalopod Coffeehouse! I finally get to choose the best book I read this month as part of a blog hop!

 

I don't read mysteries. I don't like whodunnits (not since reading Agatha Christie as a kid). Admittedly, and unfortunately, traditional mysteries usually bore me. 😴 I can't stand trying to matriculate and figure out why this happened or who did what. The only mysteries I typically read are true crime mysteries--you know, the sort that actually happened in Illinois or Florida or Washington state.

I'm not a huge reader of The New York Times best sellers either. No particular reason, really. I just don't usually grab them from the bookstore shelf or order them on my kindle. I don't feel the need to read something just because everyone else says its good.

Nevertheless, this book intrigued me. And maybe it was because other friends had and were reading it. But I finally broke down and read Gone Girl.

And it's the best book I read this month. I simply could not put it down. Yes, it's a mystery--but not a traditional one. Amy Dunne's journal entries recall romantic days with Nick, her husband. They wooed, they married, they fell apart--and it's all right there in the pages of her diary. Even to the point where she alludes to being afraid of him...because he just might kill her.

This is an absolute page-turner. I could not wait to find out what happened, and no matter how hard I speculated, all of my guesses were wrong.

The characters are unlikable to be sure, but there is something compelling about the plot. Flynn is a master of compounding complication upon complication without annoying or frustrating readers.

Although slightly irritating (and a bit unbelievable), the unexpected ending was satisfying. Now I'm looking forward to seeing the movie, as it comes out in the theaters next week!

1.	The Armchair Squid	2.	mainewords
3.	Berriesandmore	4.	Linda Kay
5.	Cherdo on the Flipside	6.	V'sReads
7.	Aristotle's Mistake	8.	Life Before the Hereafter
9.	Subliminal Coffee.	10.	My Creatively Random Life
11.	WOMEN: WE SHALL OVERCOME	12.	Stephanie Faris
13.	About Myself By Myself	14.	StrangePegs -- The Marvelous Land of Oz
15.	MOCK!	16.	StrangePegs -- Many Waters
17.	StrangePegs -- A Flock of Ill Omens	18.	Words Incorporated
19.	Hub City

1.	The Armchair Squid	2.	mainewords
3.	Berriesandmore	4.	Linda Kay
5.	Cherdo on the Flipside	6.	V'sReads
7.	Aristotle's Mistake	8.	Life Before the Hereafter
9.	Subliminal Coffee.	10.	My Creatively Random Life
11.	WOMEN: WE SHALL OVERCOME	12.	Stephanie Faris
13.	About Myself By Myself	14.	StrangePegs -- The Marvelous Land of Oz
15.	MOCK!	16.	StrangePegs -- Many Waters
17.	StrangePegs -- A Flock of Ill Omens	18.	Words Incorporated
19.	Hub City

1.	The Armchair Squid	2.	mainewords
3.	Berriesandmore	4.	Linda Kay
5.	Cherdo on the Flipside	6.	V'sReads
7.	Aristotle's Mistake	8.	Life Before the Hereafter
9.	Subliminal Coffee.	10.	My Creatively Random Life
11.	WOMEN: WE SHALL OVERCOME	12.	Stephanie Faris
13.	About Myself By Myself	14.	StrangePegs -- The Marvelous Land of Oz
15.	MOCK!	16.	StrangePegs -- Many Waters
17.	StrangePegs -- A Flock of Ill Omens	18.	Words Incorporated
19.	Hub City