Finished: In My Dreams I Hold A Knife (Winstead) A pretty good page-turner about seven college students who meet freshman year and become inseparable as they go through the highs and lows of college life: classes, parties, relationships, jealousies, roommates, fraternities, sororities, and basically just trying to channel their emotions as young humans who are away from home and independent for the first time in their lives. Jessica, Heather, Caro (Caroline), Coop, Frankie, Jack and Mint (Mark) are so close, and come to be so revered campus that they become known as the East House 7, the dorm they lived in. The story goes back and forth between the years they are there and the current time, ten years later, when they prepare for their 10th anniversary homecoming. Only six of them are alive to return, however, since Heather was murdered in February of their senior year! As the story unfolds, it is clear that one of the remaining six of the East House 7 is the murderer. The story evolves with several twists and turns until the killer is revealed, and one last pretty jaw-dropping detail. 

 Finished: The Housemaid (McFadden) A page turner of a story and a very fast read. The story of  twenty-something, ex-con Millie who goes from living in her car looking for work, to being hired as the housekeeper for a very rich family. She really cannot believe they didn't reject her because of her background, but she's thankful to have the job...even if her room IS a tiny attic closet with the only lock on the outside of the door! Nina, in her late thirties, is the rich wife and mother who has hired Millie. She wants her to keep an immaculate house, cook all the meals, and sometimes watch over her very spoiled nine year old daughter, Cece. Nina is a piece of work. She makes intentional messes, leave incorrect dates on notes, and basically does whatever she can to make Millie's life miserable. But, Millie needs the job, especially being on parole, so she has no choice but to stay. Nina's very handsome husband, Andrew, is the complete opposite. He's very nice and considerate and handsome. He is the one who brought all the money to the marriage, and has a prenup with Nina. The rumor around town is that Nina is "off her rocker", having spent eight months in a psychiatric hospital when her little daughter was first born. When Andrew defends Millie to Nina, it just makes her fly further off the handle. She's convinced her husband is attracted to Millie and vice versa. Eventually things come to a head after Millie and Andrew do give in and sleep together. Andrew then tells Nina he no longer loves her and wants her to leave, that night. Then..........we are suddenly reading Nina's side of the story and the twists start coming! Just who is gaslighting who? It's a good one. :-)

 Finished: Daisy Jones and the Six (Reid) Another great book by Taylor Jenkins Reid! This is the story of an up and coming rock band in Los Angeles in the 1970's. The Six is a band created by brothers Billy and Graham Dunne. They work their way up to getting a manager and a contract and have a successful first album. Meanwhile, Daisy Jones is having a career of her own songwriting and trying to break into the scene. She has become somewhat of an "it" girl in LA, and she ends up with the same manager and record company that The Six are at. The bigwigs at Runner Records want to try out the chemistry between the ethereal but combustible Daisy and the magnetic, charismatic, but soulful Billy. Naturally they have incredible chemistry and when they do an impromptu duet together for a reporter from Rolling Stone, they get rave reviews in his article and even he suggests that Daisy become part of The Six. Their connection is undeniable. Billy and Daisy clash more than they get along, but they work hard at creating the next album, bouncing songs off of each other, writing lyrics together, showing their deepest thoughts to each other, and without either one wanting to, falling in love. Billy, however, is married to, Camilla, the love of his life, and has three little daughters. Camilla had stuck with him while he was making it big, getting deep into drugs and alcohol and sleeping with groupies on the road. She finally gave him an ultimatum when their first daughter was born and he straightened up and never strayed again, stayed clean, and worked hard on the road. So, when he meets Daisy, he is conflicted with unexplainable feelings for Daisy because they are basically two sides to the same coin. Daisy, is still into getting drugged up and drunk every sing day, and Billy just can't be around her, other than writing their songs. The story is too much to explain, but what a great story. There are also other characters, especially their band mates, who have their own doings. Reid creates such compelling characters. You just feel like you are right there with them and you get to know them so well and then before you know it, the story is over and you're left wanting to hear their amazing second album, even though it's fictional lol. I would love for there to be a sequel to this book. There is already a television series filming which I'm excited to see. 

 Finished: Middlesex (Eugenides) "I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of l974."  This is the first sentence of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize winner, Middlesex, which tells the fascinating story of a girl born as Calliope, who becomes a grown man known as Cal. The story follows a Greek family who flees, moving from a small village in Greece to downtown Detroit during an invasion by Turkey; as they struggle to make ends meet in the industrial Detroit; and then finally as they make a go of things before moving to the uppercrust Gross Pointe, Michigan. Unbeknownst to them, and with marriages between family members, an identical gene is handed down from both of Calliope's parents which causes her to be biologically what was known at that time as a hermaphrodite. She had both male and female sex organs, but because the old Greek doctor who'd moved to Detroit with the family did just a cursory check of her genitals when she was born, he missed the small, hidden male protrusion, and couldn't feel the testicles that were nesting in her abdomen. The Stephanides, already with a son, were thrilled to have a daughter, and knowing no better, raised Calliope as a girl. Calliope herself never felt anything out of the ordinary until puberty began to change her friends, but not her. At least, not in the feminine way. The book is told beautifully and is heartbreaking, but also humorous, but mostly gut wrenching as you feel so many feelings for Calliope, and then Cal. Calliope falls in love with her female best friend, not understanding the feelings she's having. Cal as an adult later in life, has never let himself get close enough to a woman to get intimate, even though he's fallen for quite a few women, and they for him. The story explores the history of Cal's grandparents, then parents, and then suddenly becomes pretty riveting when Calliope is born. Calliope makes the tragic decision to run away after her condition is finally discovered when she is fourteen, and the "expert" doctor wants to study her and then permanently convert her to a being female, even though he discovers that her genetics shows she's biologically a male. Cal reunites with the family and has embraced his identity as a male, but not before his father has died. There's so much detail in the book, that I say, just read it and you'll be reading a really, really good book while getting a glimpse of what intersex kids must go through to try and live their lives as true as they can to themselves. 

Finished: Carvel Daze (Garcia) A lovely memoir by my sweet cousin Bobby's best friend, about the neighborhood they grew up in on Carvel Lane in Sharpstown in Houston, Texas. We have our own family memories from spending time with our cousins on Carvel Lane, but we didn't live in the neighborhood. Reading about the familiar locations, though, like Bayland Park, where we spent many a day watching baseball games, brought back so many childhood memories. :-) I'm pretty sure that my cousin Bill, Bobby's older brother, was on the Tigers? When Chris mentions making the Indians baseball team, it brought back a memory of his brother David being an Indian! Bill, David and I were all very close in age, and Bobby and Chris were the little brothers, at least to me. Thanks for sharing your childhood memories, Chris, and for letting me know more about your family. And, thank you for being Bobby's best friend. "He was the first person I talked to when we moved here, and I was the last person he talked to when he left here."