Weekly Reads: My Not So Perfect Life

My Not So Perfect Life is the newest book by Sophie Kinsella. I was always look forward to her books, as they're typically the light reads I'm wanting while sitting by a lake in the summer time. I've yet to be lakeside, sadly, but I did thoroughly enjoy this book. I wasn't the biggest fan of her last book, but this one was much better! I had a hard time putting it down, and that's really saying something for a chick lit title.

My rating: 4 stars

Summary fro Goodreads:

Katie Brenner has the perfect life: a flat in London, a glamorous job, and a super-cool Instagram feed.

Ok, so the real truth is that she rents a tiny room with no space for a wardrobe, has a hideous commute to a lowly admin job, and the life she shares on Instagram isn’t really hers.

But one day her dreams are bound to come true, aren’t they?

Until her not-so perfect life comes crashing down when her mega-successful boss Demeter gives her the sack. All Katie’s hopes are shattered. She has to move home to Somerset, where she helps her dad with his new glamping business.

Then Demeter and her family book in for a holiday, and Katie sees her chance. But should she get revenge on the woman who ruined her dreams? Or try to get her job back? Does Demeter – the woman with everything – have such an idyllic life herself? Maybe they have more in common than it seems.

And what’s wrong with not-so-perfect, anyway?

Weekly Reads: Love May Fail

Love May Fail is the newest book by The Silver Lining Playbook author, Matthew Quick. I am fairly obsessed with his books, so I was thrilled to get an e-arc of his newest book to promote to library customers. I waited until the last minute to read this book before my copy expired, and I was not in the mood for a "Matthew Quick" intense dark read. Soooooo that threw me for a bit of a loop. But the story itself was so great, despite its intensity, and I would highly recommend it to everyone, but just make sure you're not sitting down looking for a nice light summer read, because this ain't it, yo.

The story was told from four different perspectives, which I usually hate, but the stories were so intrinsically weaved together that I loved it. Definitely worth a read.

My rating: 4 stars.

Summary from goodreads:

An aspiring feminist and underappreciated housewife embarks on an odyssey to find human decency and goodness—and her high school English teacher—in New York Times bestselling author Matthew Quick’s offbeat masterpiece, a quirky ode to love, fate, and hair metal 

Portia Kane is having a meltdown. After escaping her ritzy Florida life and her cheating pornographer husband, she finds herself back in South Jersey, a place that remains largely unchanged from the years of her unhappy youth. Lost and alone, looking to find the goodness in the world she believes still exists, Portia sets off to save herself by saving someone else—a beloved high school English teacher who has retired after a traumatic incident. 

Will a sassy nun, an ex-heroin addict, a metal-head little boy, and her hoarder mother help or hurt her chances on this madcap quest to restore a good man’s reputation and find renewed hope in the human race? Love May Fail is a story of the great highs and lows of existence: the heartache and daring choices it takes to become the person you know (deep down) you are meant to be.

Weekly Reads: Lock In

There was a ton of buzz surrounding Lock In before it's late summer/early fall release. I just finally had a moment to sneak it in to my to be read pile. I'm not the biggest scifi reader, but I do like to throw it in every once in awhile. For me, this one started off slow, and I was a little lost with connecting the many characters to their names and attributes, but part of that was limited lunch break reading time. (I usually have to read a good 30-45 minutes straight to really *get into* a book). At times I thought about just quitting it altogether, but I persurvered. And I'm glad I did. It ended up getting good and being really hard to put down.

If you're looking for a scifi read based in the "not so distant future" (book cover's words), check this one out.


Summary from goodreads:

Fifteen years from now, a new virus sweeps the globe. 95% of those afflicted experience nothing worse than fever and headaches. Four percent suffer acute meningitis, creating the largest medical crisis in history. And one percent find themselves “locked in”—fully awake and aware, but unable to move or respond to stimulus.

One per cent doesn't seem like a lot. But in the United States, that's 1.7 million people “locked in”...including the President's wife and daughter.

Spurred by grief and the sheer magnitude of the suffering, America undertakes a massive scientific initiative. Nothing can restore the ability to control their own bodies to the locked in. But then two new technologies emerge. One is a virtual-reality environment, “The Agora,” in which the locked-in can interact with other humans, both locked-in and not. The other is the discovery that a few rare individuals have brains that are receptive to being controlled by others, meaning that from time to time, those who are locked in can “ride” these people and use their bodies as if they were their own.

This skill is quickly regulated, licensed, bonded, and controlled. Nothing can go wrong. Certainly nobody would be tempted to misuse it, for murder, for political power, or worse....

Weekly Reads: The Vacationers

The Vacationers showed up on numerous "Beach Read" lists so I had to throw my name in to the hold list at the library. I got a chance to read it over the fourth of July weekend and I read it in a day. It had a fairly slow start, but it got interesting about 70 pages in to the book. It was a fairly quick and enjoyable read.

My rating: 3 stars.








Summary from goodreads:

An irresistible, deftly observed novel about the secrets, joys, and jealousies that rise to the surface over the course of an American family’s two-week stay in Mallorca.

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.

Weekly Reads: Big Little Lies

I received an e-ARC of Liane Moriarty's Big Little Lies in exchange for an honest review. I've heard of The Husband's Secret by her, but I've never read it. This book was humorous and also pretty twisted and heart wrenching. I couldn't put it down and had to find out about who gets murdered and why. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes intrigue and humor told in a unique way.

My rating: 4 stars







Summary from goodreads:

Sometimes it’s the little lies that turn out to be the most lethal. . . .
  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.  

Weekly Reads: The Circle

The Circle is the newest novel by one of my favorite authors, Dave Eggers. His book, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, is one of my all time favorites so I immediately put in a purchase request at my library for this book when its publication date was announced.

The story is based in the probably not to distant future where The Circle, an online social media entity is paramount in everything we do as humans. Imagine google+facebook+amazon and roughly all the other major internet companies as one giant mega company. The story itself is a bit slow in that Eggers takes a solid 120 pages just explaining the complexities of The Circle's work environment, but I was in no way bored, as I typically am with stories that reveal themselves in this nature. The story itself was somewhat predictable, in that I figured out a major plot point very early on, but had an entirely surprising ending. I think Eggers is heeding caution to us as digital consumers in this "utopic" tale.


My rating: A strong enough 3.5 that I bumped it up to a 4.

Summary from goodreads:

The Circle is the exhilarating new novel from Dave Eggers, best-selling author of A Hologram for the King, a finalist for the National Book Award.

When Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world’s most powerful internet company, she feels she’s been given the opportunity of a lifetime. The Circle, run out of a sprawling California campus, links users’ personal emails, social media, banking, and purchasing with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of civility and transparency. As Mae tours the open-plan office spaces, the towering glass dining facilities, the cozy dorms for those who spend nights at work, she is thrilled with the company’s modernity and activity. There are parties that last through the night, there are famous musicians playing on the lawn, there are athletic activities and clubs and brunches, and even an aquarium of rare fish retrieved from the Marianas Trench by the CEO. Mae can’t believe her luck, her great fortune to work for the most influential company in America—even as life beyond the campus grows distant, even as a strange encounter with a colleague leaves her shaken, even as her role at the Circle becomes increasingly public. What begins as the captivating story of one woman’s ambition and idealism soon becomes a heart-racing novel of suspense, raising questions about memory, history, privacy, democracy, and the limits of human knowledge.

Weekly Reads: S

When I first heard rumblings of the new book S., co-written by amazing screenwriter/director/producer/etc etc etc J.J. Abrams, I knew I needed to get my hands on it. When the book trailer came out, I was beyond obsessed.


I currently have the first copy at my library and I'm afraid if I don't make time to read it before it's due back, some of the pieces will be missing from the book and I'm somehow miss out on part of the story! Genius, GENIUS idea. Man.

Addendum 11.23.13:

Ok, so I'm actually starting this in a few moments. I opened the book and thought, wth, where do I begin???? So being the good little budding librarian that I am, I started to research just *how* this book should be written. (This book clearly should've come with a User's Manual!). I found this information from a review on Amazon by C. Childs  (I hope this is enough credit for this individual, but this is taken from his review of Amazon and is how I plan to read the book. Go here and tell him how helpful this was so I don't feel bad about posting his "how to").

"As cool as all the inserts are, trying to keep them from falling out of the book as you're reading is a pain, so take them out and use post-it notes to mark what page they came from, then put them in an envelope that you can easily access.

Now, J&E's notes are not entirely in chronological order. You can generally go by the color of the ink between them to tell what phase of their story you're at.

First, there's Eric's pencil notes to himself about the actual book. Then, the convo between J&E begins when Jen picks up Eric's book and sees his notes and begins commenting on them in the margins. He sees this and writes back. Those early messages are Jen: Blue Ink - Eric: Black Ink

At some point after they go through the book a first time, they go through again. This time Jen: Orange Ink - Eric: Green Ink.

Then a third time Jen: Purple Ink - Eric: Red Ink

Finally, a fourth time (which seems to be after the denouement, in which they retrospectively discuss what has transpired). These are less frequent, and both Jen and Eric are in Black Ink.
***Read each chapter of the main text of SoT, ignoring all of Jen & Eric's notes. Upon finishing each chapter, you're going to want to go back and read only the blue/black notes and any referenced inserts. Then, move on to the next chapter. After you finish the whole book, go back and read only the orange/green notes and referenced inserts. Then purple/red, then black/black.***"

So now I'm off to dive in!


Summary from goodreads:

J.J. Abrams and acclaimed novelist Doug Dorst create a reading experience like no other in this dazzling novel of love and mystery. 

One book. Two readers. A world of mystery, menace, and desire.

A young woman picks up a book left behind by a stranger. Inside it are his margin notes, which reveal a reader entranced by the story and by its mysterious author. She responds with notes of her own, leaving the book for the stranger, and so begins an unlikely conversation that plunges them both into the unknown.

The book: Ship of Theseus, the final novel by a prolific but enigmatic writer named V.M. Straka, in which a man with no past is shanghaied onto a strange ship with a monstrous crew and launched onto a disorienting and perilous journey.

The writer: Straka, the incendiary and secretive subject of one of the world’s greatest mysteries, a revolutionary about whom the world knows nothing apart from the words he wrote and the rumors that swirl around him.

The readers: Jennifer and Eric, a college senior and a disgraced grad student, both facing crucial decisions about who they are, who they might become, and how much they’re willing to trust another person with their passions, hurts, and fears.

S., conceived by filmmaker J. J. Abrams and written by award-winning novelist Doug Dorst, is the chronicle of two readers finding each other in the margins of a book and enmeshing themselves in a deadly struggle between forces they don’t understand, and it is also Abrams and Dorst’s love letter to the written word.