Finished: On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous (Vuong) An excellent book of the life story of a Vietnamese family, mother, son and grandmother, told in a letter from the son, now in his twenties, to his mother. Not a story in the traditional sense, but a compilation of beautiful prose, of thoughts and life experiences and revelations as Little Dog, as he's known, remembers in vivid detail the horrors both his mother and grandmother shared with him about living in Vietnam during the war; about coming to America and struggling to fit in and live; and opens up to his mother about the homosexual relationship he had as a young teen, his first love, who meant so much to him. Vuong paints such a vivid picture with every word that I could actually feel the pain, the sorrow and the love from each character. Here are a couple of snippets I liked:

"You once told me that the human eye is god's loneliest creation. How so much of the world passes through the pupil and still it holds nothing. The eye, alone in its socket, doesn't even know there's another one, just like it, an inch away, just as hungry, as empty. Opening the front door to the first snowfall of my life, you whispered, "Look." "

And this one wrecked my heart as Little Dog was watching his mother and aunt cater to their dying mother's body and wishes. It is so true.

"We try to preserve life--even when we know it has no chance of enduring its body. We feed it, keep it comfortable, bathe it, medicate it, caress it, even sing to it. We tend to these basic functions not because we are brave or selfless but because, like breath, it is the most fundamental act of our species: to sustain the body until time leaves it behind."

This book will stay in my thoughts for quite awhile.

Finished: Redemption (Baldacci) The latest book in the Memory Man series which features FBI consultant, Amos Decker, the man with the injured brain that remembers every single detail of everything he reads and experiences. This unexpected, and often unwanted, talent helps Amos solve cases with his FBI partner, former journalist, Alex. In this story, Amos goes back to his hometown of Burlington where he tragically lost his wife and daughter in a bloody murder at their home a few years before...unfortunately a scene that will never leave Amos' mind since he is the one who walked in and found them dead. While there visiting, as he does yearly on his daughter's birthday, he is approached by the man who he sent to prison for murder on the very first case he was assigned years before. The man is out of prison for mercy because he is dying soon of cancer. He insists to Amos that he didn't commit the murders all those years ago, and he'd like Amos to prove it and clear his name before he dies. What ensues is the typical Amos Decker investigation where he figures things out by remembering obscure clues, and sure enough, he figures out that the man is innocent. What's more, he was set up for the murders in a elaborate scheme that was a cover up for an even more sinister operation of Russian operatives being brought into the country, re-educated in American ways, and then integrated into America to spy for Russia. I was more interested in the relationships that Amos is continuing to work on with old friends, new friends and workmates. The actual murder mystery was just kind of ok. Still, Baldacci always gives a pretty good read. :-)

Finished: The Need (Phillips) This was a literal page-turner which I don't think I would recommend. I kept reading until the very end because it was suspenseful, and the chapters were short and to the point, and I really wanted to see what it all meant at the end....but the ending didn't give any answers! The book is about a young, working mother who seems to either be in a the throes of developing a split personality, or to be in the middle of a nightmare where another version of herself really exists! Molly is home alone with Viv, almost four, and Ben, oneish. Her husband is out of town on business for a week and Molly hears footsteps in the house while she's alone with the children. She has no option but to face the intruder when Viv runs out into the room where the masked intruder is holding Viv's favorite book, which has been missing. The intruder leaves the house, but also leaves a note for Molly requesting a meeting the next day. If she doesn't show up, the children will be in danger. Molly goes to the meeting the next day and comes face to face with herself! Only, it's herself from an alternate reality where both Viv and Ben have been killed in a bombing. :-( Moll, as she calls herself, is grieving terribly and tells Molly that she will have to share Viv and Ben with her from now on...that they'll take turns mothering them. Molly is stunned, scared, and in total disbelief. Molly works at an archaeological pit where she has been digging and retrieving artifacts for the past 8 years. Only recently some very strange items have turned up....a Coke bottle with the cursive writing backwards...a little green army man with the tail of a monkey....and an ancient bible where every reference to God is "She" instead of "He". Moll appears to have come from this alternate place, from a crack in the pit, where in another life she lost her/their children. Molly goes along with Moll's plan during the week that David is gone. She doesn't tell him what's going on when he calls because she doesn't want him to think she's crazy. As things escalate and it even looks like Moll might take the kids and run, Molly, Viv and Ben all get a terrible stomach virus, and Moll takes care of them all. Throughout this entire story, it's just ambiguous enough that I thought certainly this was going to end up being a case of split personality. However, one day when Molly is driving home to take her turn in the basement while Moll has the kids, Moll is out in the yard with the kids. The neighbor across the street sees Molly speed up and drive by, and later asks her how she could have been in both places! Anyway, at the end, either Molly or Moll, I'm not sure which, packs up the kids and takes them out in the fresh air and walks away with them. That's where it ends! I have no idea if it was truly an alternate reality or a split personality or just plain insanity. It was a fast read, and not a bad book, but with no resolution, I was left very unfulfilled.

Finished: Disappearing Earth (Phillips) This was a very good, page-turning book about the people on the periphery, yet very entangled in, the disappearance of two little girls, sisters, in a remote area of Russia. I was truly surprised by the ending and glad some of the characters tied together the way they did. There were a couple of characters whose stories I would have liked to see more of, or a bit more resolved, but the author is a very talented writer who I would like to read more from! I'm just going to be lazy and put the Amazon recap here because it describes the book better than I could. :-)

"One August afternoon, on the shoreline of the Kamchatka peninsula at the northeastern edge of Russia, two girls--sisters, eight and eleven--go missing. In the ensuing weeks, then months, the police investigation turns up nothing. Echoes of the disappearance reverberate across a tightly woven community, with the fear and loss felt most deeply among its women.

Taking us through a year in Kamchatka, Disappearing Earth enters with astonishing emotional acuity the worlds of a cast of richly drawn characters, all connected by the crime: a witness, a neighbor, a detective, a mother. We are transported to vistas of rugged beauty--densely wooded forests, open expanses of tundra, soaring volcanoes, and the glassy seas that border Japan and Alaska--and into a region as complex as it is alluring, where social and ethnic tensions have long simmered, and where outsiders are often the first to be accused.

In a story as propulsive as it is emotionally engaging, and through a young writer's virtuosic feat of empathy and imagination, this powerful novel brings us to a new understanding of the intricate bonds of family and community, in a Russia unlike any we have seen before."

Finished: Under the Greenwood Tree (Hardy) I picked this book up in a used book store, and having loved some Thomas Hardy books before, decided to read it....besides, the blurb on the back described it as "Hardy's" sunniest work, lol. ok, so here is the whole blurb:

"Two newcomers settle in the village of Mellstock bringing change and disruption to the rural inhabitants. Mr. Maybold, the vicar, is hot and strong on church business, but his plans to incorporate the new-fangled organ cause offence to the old-fashioned ecclesiastical musicians. Fancy Day, the school teacher, and a flower among vegetables, has an equally upsetting effect upon the hearts of the younger men. Hardy drew on his own childhood experiences to paint this affectionate, unsentimental but often comic, portrait of rustic, society touched by progress."

How could I not read it with a blurb like that? And, with an opening page like this:

"To dwellers in a wood almost every species of tree has its voice as well as its feature. At the passing of the breeze the fir-trees sob and moan no less distinctly than they rock; the holly whistles as it battles with itself; the ash hisses amid its quiverings; the beech rustles while its flat boughs rise and fall. And winter, which modifies the note of such trees as shed their leaves, does not destroy its individuality."

So, we soon find walking among those trees twentyish Dick Dewey who is one of the young men who falls for Miss Fancy Day. There's a bit of flirting, and some jealousy when another suitor or two show themselves, and some hurdles to overcome when her father doesn't think Dick is good enough for Fancy...but basically, amidst lots of descriptive prose like above and lots of "rural lingo" and day to day conversations between various characters, Dick and Fancy declare their love and get married. It's not my favorite Hardy book, but was a nice read...and nice to read the flowery prose of the old masters every so often to remind myself why they were the masters. :-)

Finished: Long Road To Mercy (Baldacci) Another good mystery by Baldacci, the author of the Memory Man series. He introduces a new heroine, Atlee Pine, a young FBI agent who is working in a field office in Arizona near the Grand Canyon. Atlee had become an FBI agent after experiencing a horrific event as a six year old...the breaking in of her home and kidnapping of her twin sister, Mercy, while Atlee watched as the kidnapper played Eenie, Meenie, Minie, Moe to decide which girl to take. Mercy was never found and Atlee has now made it her mission to find out what happened to her sister. Of course, she's also got to do her job for the FBI. In this case, a mule that has taken a man down to the floor of the Grand Canyon is found killed, with initials carved into it, and the man is nowhere to be found. When it turns out the man who was supposed to be riding the mule had switched places with another man, and that both men had secretive, possibly government jobs, things get serious fast. Together with her elderly secretary, Ms. Bluhm, Atlee puts the intricate pieces together...especially since attempts have been made on her life now trying to get her to stop her investigation....one attempt by American military and one by a North Korean man. Atlee and Ms. Bluhm figure out that some people high up in the American government, in cahoots with the Russians, created a plan to plant a nuclear bomb in a cave in the Grand Canyon. North Korea has apparently purchased many Russian made nuclear weapons, so if America and Russia can make it look like North Korea somehow sneaked a nuclear weapon into the U.S. with the intent of killing thousands of people, then it would give America the right to retaliate and attack North Korea, killing millions. It's a disturbing and convoluted plan (and a rather out there plot line). Atlee figures out where the missing man (who we find out is an American nuclear bomb inspector who is trying to stop the stupid plan) is hiding in the Grand Canyon. Atlee meets park ranger, and former military man, Sam Keller, and he ends up helping her hike the canyon to find the missing man and get him out....along with the weapon. There is lots of detail about the Grand Canyon and all the hiking trails, which is pretty neat. And, it looks like there is a possible romance brewing between Atlee and Sam. :-) I like the character of Atlee Pine, especially when you can tell that she'll probably get another story and perhaps they will get back to her finding her sister's kidnapper. She's smart and super strong and not afraid of putting her neck on the line. I will mostly likely read the next book! :-)

Finished: The Chain (McKinty) A suspenseful, page-turning, perfect read for a long airline flight, The Chain is about a single mother whose 13 year old daughter is kidnapped. The kicker is...the kidnapper says the mother must kidnap another child, contact those parents, and the ransom for THAT child be paid, before her own daughter will be released. Hence...the chain. Parents are trapped in a nightmare where they have no choice but to commit a crime and put another set of parents exactly what they are going through before their own child is released. And, we all know that parents will do anything for their children. The children are always returned unharmed (of course, because they are being held by other parents whose own child is being held by someone else!) The people who run the entire operation ask for a ransom that they know the parent(s) can afford. Over the years, they've made millions. They are an adult twin brother and sister pair who were rescued from a cult their mother had taken them to as infants. Rescued by their father and survivalist-type grandfather at an early age, they were raised by their grandfather after their father died. They are both extremely intelligent, one even working in the FBI, but they are obviously devoid of any morals. The single mom who we follow throughout the story, Rachel, is a divorced, cancer-surviving mother of Kylie, who has just been kidnapped when the story begins. Rachel's ex-husband, who had left her for another woman, is in the periphery of the story, and becomes more prominent when it ends up that his newest girlfriend is, unknowingly to him, the female half of the brother/sister duo! After Rachel kidnaps another child, and Kylie is returned unharmed, and Rachel returns HER victim unharmed, she is contacted by another former parent victim. With his urging, Rachel decides to get to the bottom of who started the chain...even though they are threatened with death to their loved ones and themselves if they ever go to the police or speak of the kidnapping after their child is returned. She enlists the help of her ex-husband's brother, who she's always been close to, and together, they end up uncovering the twin duo, with no time to spare, since her ex-husband has taken Kylie to his new girlfriend's cabin in the woods for a fun weekend. New girlfriend is all set to kill Kylie when she finds out that Rachel has gone against the agreement and started investigating them. The story culminates in happy endings all around with the death of the twins and their grandfather, the breaking of the chain forever, the mental recuperation of Kylie, and the new relationship between Rachel and her ex-brother-in-law. A great summer read. :-)

Finished: Lucky Per (Pontoppidan) Revered in Denmark as "the great Danish" novel, Lucky Per follows the story of one man, Peter Andreas Sidenius, aka, Per. The book won Pontoppidan the Nobel Prize in 1917. It truly was a long, detailed book, similar to how it was reading War and Peace for me. There was so much discussion of Denmark's economy and politics and especially religion as we were given insight into not only Per's deep, and often depressing thoughts, but also those of the first woman he became engaged to, Jakobe, a Jewish heiress. Per, having been raised by a strict, Christian father and loving, but sickly mother, along with his several brothers and sisters, felt differently from everyone in his family from a young age. He didn't at all embrace the religion that their family thrived on. The book is far too long and expository for me to recap the entire story. I did enjoy it, though, despite the many tangents and pontifications. I think I might just include part of the book jacket cover here, which probably explains the book better than I can! I'm so happy to have received this book from my son. :-)

"Pontoppidan provides a panoramic view of the contradictions of the modernizing world through the portrait of a single driven and beleaguered soul. Per Sidenius, unhappy son of an austere clergyman, rejects his faith and flees the Danish countryside for the capital city. Gifted and ambitious, he arrives in Copenhagen...." "Per's obsession is a grandiose engineering scheme that he believes will reshape both Denmark's landscape and its minor position in the world. While working relentlessly to achieve this inflated vision of personal and national destiny, he pursues the fiercely independent heiress Jakobe Salomon..." "Though Per's ambitions come to grief along the way, at its heart his story turns on his belated understanding of the true relationship between luck and happiness."

Finished: The Pearl (Steinbeck) A very short novella which gets right to the heart of how suddenly becoming rich beyond your imagination can ruin your life and the lives of those you love. Kino is a very poor Mexican "native" who lives in a thatched hut with his wife Juana and their baby, Coyotito. He makes his living by fishing and diving for pearls, using a canoe handed down to him from generation to generation. When baby Coyotito is stung by a scorpion, Kino and Juana take him to the very privileged doctor in town who treats the natives like dogs and who won't help them without substantial payment. Dejected and upset, they go back to their hut and pray to find a pearl of enough worth to sell for the doctor treatment. As it happens, Kino dives down and finds the biggest pearl any of his fellow pearl divers have ever seen...as big as an egg in his hand. Their fellow villagers are in awe and gather around Kino as he talks about what he'll do with the money the pearl brings in. Both his wife and his brother are worried about the change in Kino's ambitions. Meanwhile, Coyotito is actually recovering naturally from his scorpion bite. However, when the doctor hears about the huge pearl Kino has found, he goes to the hut and claims he can heal Coyotito. The evil doctor actually gives the baby a powder that makes him sicker, only to come back in an hour and "cure" his illness. He then demands payment. Kino tells him that he will pay him when he sells the pearl the next day. That night, however, someone breaks into the hut and tries to steal the pearl. They are unsuccessful, but it begins the string of mistrust that Kino feels as he tries to guard what he now sees to be a richer future for his family. He is also determined that Coyotito will become an educated man. When Kino goes the next day to sell the pearl, the appraisers offer him a very low amount of money and it angers him. He expects fifty times as much and he takes his pearl and leaves, declaring he will go to the city and get a fair price. Again that night someone tries to steal the pearl, and this time it ends up with Kino stabbing and killing the intruder. Kino believes he will be immediately arrested and no one will believe it was self-defense, so he takes Juana and Coyotito and decides to sail away that night. However, someone has put a huge hole in Kino's canoe. :-( Instead, they head for the mountains, but soon realize they are being followed by trackers. As the trackers get nearer and nearer, Kino feels his only option is to sneak down to the tracker camp while two of the three men are sleeping and kill the guard, steal his rifle, and kill the other two men. During the scuffle, a shot rings out and Juana lets out a wail. The bullet has killed baby Coyotito. :-( :-( Kino and Juana march back through the village and out to the edge of the ocean and throw the bad luck pearl back into the ocean and decide to live their former simple life....however, without their precious son. Steinbeck is such a very descriptive writer and this was a good story, even if it was very black and white in regards to the affect that sudden wealth could/would have on a person and the surrounding community.

Finished: Blue Nights (Didion) A beautiful, emotional book written by a mother who has lost her daughter, her only child, shortly after seeing her happily married. The mother and author, Joan Didion, was married to screenwriter and novelist John Dunne and they lived the proverbial LA life of mingling with the stars. Their daughter, Quintana Roo, named for a region they loved in Mexico, fell critically ill when she was 37, and John suffered a massive heart attack and died while she was in the hospital. Quintana survived the illness, but fell and sustained a brain injury while on her way to her father's memorial service. She spent the next two years battling brain bleeds, sepsis and other critical issues before succumbing at the age of 39. Needless to say, her mother was bereft with the loss, first of her husband, and then her beloved daughter. In Blue Nights Joan Didion pretty much writes her stream of conscious thoughts on motherhood, children, life, aging, fearing death for yourself and your loved ones, and she does so with beautiful prose. It's a love story to her daughter, as she remembers back to specific things that will always remind her of Quintana. And, it's a story about how she had to go on and live her life, but as she grows older, how she fears illness and forgetfulness and dying. I related to much of what she wrote, having watched my parents lose a son at the age of 36. A very powerful, moving book!

Finished: Wunderland (Epstein) Heartwrenching story about Isle and Renate, best friends from the time they are little girls, growing up in Germany as Hitler is rising in power. Isle and Renate are inseparable until Isle talks Renate into disobeying her parents and secretly applying to be part of the Hitler Youth Movement. The standard investigation into Renate's records reveals the truth that her father is Jewish and married to her Christian mother. Renate is half Jewish and she never knew it. Her older brother, Franz, knew and he and her parents had kept the secret. Once it's out, though, Renate's life changes. Her boyfriend cruelly breaks up with her and Isle quits hanging out with her, breaking Renate's heart. As the persecution of the Jewish people kicks into high gear, Renate and her family suffer immeasurably. They apply to leave the country, but it takes three long years, lots of red tape, and lots of money, for Renate's parents to finally buy passage for just Renate and Franz. As Renate goes through her teenage years, she learns that she won't be able to attend the school she always has, and that it's unlikely she'll be allowed to attend college, her longtime dream. Meanwhile, Isle believes wholeheartedly in Hitler's ideals about her Germany. She is a budding writer and writes whatever propaganda she is asked to. One night she accompanies some of the male Hitler youth as they head out to tear up the Jewish shops of Berlin and round up Jewish men to be sent off to be interrogated. She actually watches in horror as the boys completely destroy some shops she used to frequent with Renate, as well as the local synagogue. She's not horrified enough to leave the movement, though. When she realizes that the next man on the list they are going to terrorize is Renate's father, Isle steps in between the youth and Mr. Baur. She insists to the youth that the Baurs aren't Jewish, putting her own life in jeopardy. They move on to the next victim, but within the week, Isle is interrogated herself and told at some point, they will want her to get information on Franz for them to prove he is involved in activities that are illegal for Jewish folks. Occasionally the book fast forwards to the future where we have been introduced to Ava, Isle's daughter. Ava has never been close to her mother who had been very cold as she raised her, even leaving her for a few years in an orphanage during the war while she disappeared. Ava never knew what her mother did during the war or who her own father was. When her mother finally came back to get her, she would never tell Ava anything about her past. Ava, now with her own teenage daughter, Sophie, has just been informed that her estranged mother has died and wanted her to have all of the letters she wrote to Renate over the years, but never mailed. As Ava reads through the letters, she discovers so much about Isle and her friendship with Renate....as well as her crush on Renate's brother, Franz. The book is very well written and the experiences that both Renate and Isle go through are so vividly presented. As we go back in time again, it is only two days until Renate, now 19, and Franz are to finally take the ship to America and escape the persecution in Germany. It is at this time that Isle, frightened for her own life by the people who questioned her, does a despicable deed. Pretending that she misses Renate, she goes to their house and spends the evening there reminiscing. She also takes the time to snoop as much as she can in Franz's room for anything incriminating. She doesn't find anything, and leaves the home empty handed. When the higher-ups come down on her even harder and insist that she find something within the week, she goes back the next evening when she knows Renate will be at work and visits with Franz. Franz had also been enamored with Isle, and he completely falls for her act that she's changed, and shows her where he's got illegal books hidden AND tells her the time and date of the next of the illegal anti-Hitler meetings he's been attending. Then, they both give into their old feelings and sleep together. Isle walks out of the house with one of the clandestine books and the time and place of the upcoming meeting. She decides she won't turn this information over until Franz and Renate have gone in two days. She doesn't get that choice, though, when she arrives home and the same men who interrogated her before are waiting at her home. Isle tells them that the meeting is the next week, and she thinks she has spared Franz, but the men go to the house that night, take him out and beat him, and take him away. Franz dies in captivity. :-( Isle, is then thrust into the war effort and never realizes that Franz didn't make it to New York safely. As Ava reads all these letters, she realizes that Renate lives in New York and hopefully not too far away from her. When Ava tracks her down, Renate is very upset when she finds out Ava is Isle's daughter and asks her to leave. Ava doesn't realize either that Franz never made it to New York. Ava tells Renate that Isle is responsible for her brother's death. Ava begs Renate to hear her out. She tells her that Isle's letters reveal that Franz was Ava's father! Renate can almost instantly recognize the resemblance. It's a very touching moment when Renate realizes she's got a niece, a piece of her beloved brother. The book ends with them planning to get together and get to know each other as family.

Finished: Run Away (Coben) Another page-turner by my favorite thriller, who-done-it author. Father of three, Simon, is devastated that his oldest, daughter Paige, gets heavily involved in drugs her first year of college, spiraling downward until she flunks out of school, steals from her parents for drug money, and lives with, Aaron, the man who got her hooked on drugs. She is now missing and Aaron is dead. Simon and his wife's quest to find Paige leads them to a run down housing project where their lives are put in danger. Simon's wife, Ingrid, is shot and lies in a coma. Simon continues his mission to find Paige, even while police are questioning whether Simon and/or Ingrid could have killed Aaron...or was it Paige herself? Meanwhile, there's a couple who grew up together in foster care, Ash and Dee Dee, who are traveling around the same area contract killing men who have been put on a hit list. Dee Dee is a member of a controlling cult, and as it turns out, the men are all the sons of the charismatic cult leader, who had been put up for adoption as infants. Now that the cult leader is on his death bed, someone in the cult is wanting any remaining sons with claims to his fortune to be eliminated. When Simon finds out that Aaron was actually one of the boys who was adopted long ago, then all the connections start falling into place. There are a few surprise twists towards the end which keep you on your toes. :-) All in all, a good Harlan Coben book. I didn't enjoy it, though, as much as I do his Myron Bolitar series.

Finished: Educated: A Memoir (Westover) A memoir about the life of Tara Westover, who lives on a mountain with her survivalist family. She is kept out of school by her domineering father and submissive mother, who don't believe in hospitals, public schools, or the government. She is raised helping her father scrap sheet metal for his business and is constantly put in dangerous situations. She is also raised with her father lecturing from the Mormon scriptures. One of her big brothers is physically and emotionally abusive to the point of nearly killing her a few times. When one of her older brothers goes to college and encourages Tara to defy her father and go to school, Tara dares to begin dreaming of getting an education at the age of 17. She passes a college entrance exam and heads to BYU where she finally learns that the world is far different than she'd been taught. For instance, she alienates herself and people think she's being a racist when she asks out loud in History class what the Holocaust was. She truly had never heard of it! More than just getting a formal education, Tara is educated in social behavior. She can't always handle trying to be like everyone else because she has been so beat down at home. She has very little self-worth, and when she finally confronts her parents about her brother's abusive behavior, which he often did right in front of them, they deny it and insist that she either deny it too and be "cleansed of the devil inside her" or not be welcome in the family. Tara goes on to get her college degree at BYU, and with the help of one kind professor who sees her potential, she gets into Cambridge in England and gets her Masters there, as well as her PhD. She also spends a year as a fellow at Harvard. Those years are not easy for her, though. She had immense trouble opening up to friends and letting them know of her past. And, she is so affected by her family's actions that she nearly fails out of her PhD program until she can finally face herself and realize she is not the problem. She does this with the help of both a therapist and the same brother who insisted she get away and get into college. He believes her about the abusive brother, and he lets the family knows he's on her side as well. It's honestly a very distressing tale of how she got where she is. She needed years of therapy (and maybe still does?) It is so very inspiring, though, that she was able to persevere against the worst odds, pull herself out of the survivalist mentality that had been beaten into her and become an educated, functioning, productive adult. A good book, but it took me a long time to read because it was so hard to read about all her hardships and her lack of self-worth.

Finished: The Last Tycoon (Fitzgerald) The last novel by Fitzgerald, which was incomplete at the time of his death, is the story of Monroe Stahr, a Hollywood producer, and is supposedly based on the real life "wonder boy" producer Irving Thalberg. Fitzgerald's writing is always very powerful, but you can tell he was not done with the story or with possibly rearranging parts of it. His notes are included at the back of the book and it's very interesting to read those and see what he was intending for the major characters, especially Stahr. The story is narrated by his business partner's college-aged daughter, Cecelia, who fancies herself in love with Stahr. She tells about how powerful he is, how he changed movies, how successful he made them after the depression, how he interacts with people, and at the same time, how vulnerable he can be when he falls for a woman who is the spitting image of his late, dead wife. We see a bit of him pursuing that woman, and her falling for him, but warning him he doesn't know everything. Then, it turns out she's got a fiance and is getting married the day after they are intimate! Cecelia then decides it's time for her to swoop in and make her move. The book ends there rather abruptly, but the notes suggest that they do have an affair, but only for a few weeks before he breaks her heart. They also indicate that he takes a trip to the northeast, and falls ill and dies due to a heart that he has overworked because he won't ever take a break. I imagine the story would have been much clearer (obviously) if Fitzgerald had been able to actually complete it. What he did write, though, is his typical, excellent prose. :-)

Finished: The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls (Gray) This was a very good book! It's the story of three sisters and a brother who are raised by a physically and emotionally absent father after their mother dies when the oldest is twelve years old. Althea, the oldest, literally becomes the mother figure for six year old Viola, four year old Joe and one year old Lillian. Althea remembers alot about her mother, and how kind she was, and how much time she spent with the children. Flash forward over 40 years later and Althea, plus her husband Proctor, are in jail awaiting the judgment that will either set them free or send them on to a more permanent prison home. Althea and Proctor had become respectable members of their small town, but when businesses started closing down due to the economy and a closed factory, they struggled mightily to keep their restaurant open. Their restaurant became a beacon of hope for other town members, as Althea and Proctor held continuous fundraisers for the victims of a huge flood that also devastated the town. As people just handed over their life-savings to the couple, they were deceiving everyone, taking the money and spending it on themselves as fast as it hit their hands. So, needless to say, the betrayed town is furious and wants them to go to prison for years. Althea and Proctor have twin teenage daughters at home, though, Baby Vi and Kim. They are as opposite as can be, and are not handling the treatment they are receiving at school and in town very well. To make it worse, Kim, who feels as if her mother always favored Baby Vi more, is the one who called the police to turn her parents in when she found out what they were doing! She didn't do it out of right versus wrong. She did it because she was mad at her mother. So, Kim is living with the guilt of that action sending her parents to prison without realizing it was their own actions that did that. Kim and Baby Vi have been living with their Aunt Lillian for the past two years while their parents sit in jail awaiting the decision. As decision time comes, Althea's other sister, Viola, comes to town as well...missing the actual sentencing because she's got major issues of her own. Althea and Proctor are found guilty and sentenced to multiple years, and the tension and stress rises even higher. We see snippets of Althea's life in prison, her communication with Proctor, and her relationship with a few of her fellow prisoners. We also see that Althea is still very angry with her own daughter and with some self-reflection she realizes she has become liker her distant father. We also learn that Lillian was abused by Joe when they were the only two left at home with their father. Always craving his father's attention, Joe lashed out in anger when he didn't get it. He didn't sexually abuse Lillian, but locked her in a dark closet for hours, sometimes days, at a time. So, there are lots of family issues to deal with in this book once Althea's siblings are all there trying to figure out what to do with the girls permanently. In crisis, Kim runs away and they all fear for her life because she sends a few texts that are pretty despondent to her twin, but Baby Vi doesn't share them right away. They end up finding Kim in time before she can harm herself. It is decided that Kim and Baby Vi, will go and live with Viola and her wife in Chicago. Althea, realizing she didn't want to be like her father, makes tentative steps to make amends with Kim with weekly phone calls to her and Baby Vi. Lillian confronts her brother, tells him to stay out of her life (he's a preacher now who just wants to let it all be in the past), and finally sells the home she grew up in and moves to New York to pursue a career. Told in the voices of the this is a very well written, powerful story about the struggles each of these sisters went through and how they overcame to the best of their ability. Well, minus the felony scheme of Althea and Proctor. No excuse for that!

Finished: The Silent Patient (Michaelides) A great book about an artist, Alicia Berensen, who shoots her husband to death (or does she?) and then is committed to a psychiatric hospital where she never utters another word. The police simply find her standing over her husband with the murder weapon, and she never says a single word to anyone. Six years later, Theo Faber, a psychotherapist who followed her case and became intrigued by the one painting she did after the murder, seeks a job at the same psychiatric hospital and becomes her therapist. This was such a good book with a huge twist. I'm not even going to write any more about it because anyone who might read this, I really don't want to spoil it. :-) I loved the twist, though, and I usually figure twists out, so this was a nice surprise. Great book! 

Finished: Liar Liar (Jackson) This was a pretty good semi-page-turner, whodunit by an author who I've read quite a bit of. I actually finished this book a week ago, but then traveled, so never wrote the blog entry. I'm going to be really lazy and just cut and paste the blurb about the book from Amazon in my blog. :-) I will say that I kept getting the feeling that I'd read this book before, but it wasn't on my list anywhere, so maybe I had only read about it. Anyway, it was good but not mind blowing. Here's the Amazon blurb:

"In death, Didi Storm is finally getting the kind of publicity that eluded her in life. Twenty years ago, the ex-beauty queen worked the Vegas strip as a celebrity impersonator, too busy to spare much time for her daughter, Remmi. Shortly before she leaped from a San Francisco building, Didi’s profile was rising again, thanks to a tell-all book. To Detective Dani Settler, it looks like a straightforward suicide, or perhaps a promotional stunt gone wrong. But Remmi knows the truth isn’t so simple. Because though the broken body on the sidewalk is dressed in Didi’s clothes and wig, it isn’t Didi.

Remmi was fifteen when she last saw her mother. They parted in the aftermath of a terrible night in the Mojave desert when Remmi—who’d hidden in Didi’s car en route to meet her crush, Noah Scott—instead witnessed Didi handing over one of her newborn twins to a strange man. Then Didi disappeared, as did Remmi’s other half-sibling. The authorities have found no clues. Yet Remmi has always sensed that someone is watching her . . .

Remmi is shocked when Noah resurfaces. He was also in the desert that night, and now runs his own PI firm. He too believes it’s time to find out what happened. As they and Detective Settler dig deeper, the truth about Remmi’s missing family begins to emerge—a story of ruthless ambition and lies that someone will kill again and again to keep hidden . . ."

Finished: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Smith) A very good book which I took my time reading and savoring, about a young girl named Francie Nolan who lives with her parents and brother, Neely, in the slums of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, NY, in the early 1900's. The family struggles to make enough money to keep food on the table and heat in the house, but they make do. Francie and Neely both have to work at a very young age because every penny counts towards the family income. Their mother, Katie, and father, Johnny, were young and in love once, but as Katie has worked to support the family steadily, Johnny, a song and dance man, doesn't have consistent work and has become an alcoholic. He's got a good heart and loves his family, but he succumbs to the alcoholism at a fairly young age. We also meet Katie's mother and sisters and see a bit of their family life. However, the story is seen mostly from the viewpoint of the sensitive, yet strong, Francie, who is a beautiful writer and longs to grow up to write someday. We watch her age from 11 to 16 as she goes through these important years with very little money, few friends, and the typical yearning of a budding teenage girl who would like to fall in love. She does meet and fall in love with one boy, who it turns out is off to the war and was only interested in her for the weekend, which she thankfully declines. The other boy she meets falls in love with her, but she simply likes him...good old dependable Ben. When the story ends when Francie is 16 and heading to college, Ben who is 21, has promised to marry her in a few years when she's old enough. Francie goes along with it, figuring she has a few years to sort her life out and decide if that's what she truly wants. There's so much detail in the book...about the relationship between Francie and Neely, which is close, and Francie and her father, which is also close, and Francie and her mother, who clearly favors Neely, and Francie and her English teacher, who actually discourages some very good, but sad, stories that Francie writes, causing Francie to burn many of her writings. By the end of the book, Katie is remarrying to a man who can actually afford to give them a better life, who they all like, and it is his generosity that allows Francie to go off to college and chase her dreams. A really good book, which actually has me interested in reading more about the author to see if this is rather autobiographical. :-)

Finished: Her One Mistake (Perks) A page-turner about a young mother who leaves her four-year old daughter in her best friend's care at the school carnival, only to have her best friend lose sight of her child, resulting in her abduction. Harriet has never been separated from her young daughter, Alice, when her best friend, Charlotte, finally convinces her to let her babysit Alice while Harriet takes an accounting course at the college. Harriet is a stay at home mom with a very controlling husband, Brian. Charlotte is a divorced mother of three young children, who is on good terms with her ex-husband. Harriet is meek and shy, while Charlotte is outgoing with lots of friends, yet they form an unlikely friendship, having similar backgrounds where their father's left their lives at a young age. Friends for several years, Harriet is the only person she trusts to keep Alice for her. Charlotte takes her children and Alice to the school carnival, and doesn't keep quite the eye on the kids that she should when she lets them loose on the giant bouncy house slide. When her kids return from the slide but Alice does not, she soon realizes, along with the rest of the people at the carnival that Alice has been abducted. A police investigation ensues with Charlotte questioned relentlessly for focusing more on her cell phone social media than watching the kids. She soon becomes the pariah of the town. The investigation also focuses on Brian, who we find out has been patiently making Harriet think she's been going mad over the last year because he wants to exert complete control over her and have her totally dependent on him. The ending is actually a surprise as it turns out the meek Harriet has actually arranged for her daughter's own kidnapping by her estranged father who had come back into her life only a few months before. Having watched her father and Alice spend alot of time together and form a bond, Harriot feels confident that her plan will work and her father will help her get away from Brian along with her daughter. The ending is suspenseful, as Brian finds out where the grandfather and Alice are and endangers everyone's life. Charlotte, after hearing the awful truth from Harriet, still comes to her rescue in the end and helps save her from the maniacal Brian. The grandfather protects Alice with his own life, and Harriet and Charlotte are never friends again...but Brian is lost at sea and presumed dead. Though...his body is never found. Possible sequel? hmmmm :-)