Amodini's Book Reviews

Book Reviews and Recommendations

Audiobook Review : Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple

Written By: amodini - Feb• 19•14

[amazon_link id=”0316204269″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Where'd You Go, Bernadette: A Novel[/amazon_link]Title : Where’s You Go Bernadette
Author : Maria Semple
Genre : Contemporary
Narrators : Kathleen Wilhoite
Publisher : Hachette Audio
Listening Length : 9 hrs 39 min
Source : Library
Rating : 4/5

Where’d You Go Bernadette (WYGB here onwards) is an epistolary novel – i.e.; instead of following the regular narrative structure, it is narrated via a series of documents – in this case via emails, letters, notes, text messages, journals and magazine articles. The omniscient “narrator” who threads everything together for our consumption is Bee Branch, 15 year old precocious daughter of fed-up Seattle housewife Bernadette Fox and Microsoft rock star Elgin Branch. The three live-in a rambling, worn-down, schoolhouse-turned-home on a hill, overlooking the sea.

Bernadette has major anxiety issues, can’t stand being hemmed in by people, and has an aversion to the annoying moms (gnats she calls them) who clog the neighborhood. There is a mysterious past hinted at (a really bad thing she says it was), but for now Bernadette has her hands full just anticipating a planned trip to Antartica, where she will be cooped in with a ship-ful of people, and subject to massive motion sickness. Happy-go-lucky Bee, who’s really named BalaKrishna because she was a little blue baby when she was born, is looking forward to graduating from her current school Galer Street, and and continuing on to her chosen, elite school Choate Rosemary. Bee’s dad, Elgin, meanwhile is super-busy with the new Samantha2 project at Microsoft and barely ever home, and when he is, doesn’t seem too happy with Bernadette’s seemingly erratic behavior. Things come to a head when Bernadette goes missing. Rumor has it that she either committed suicide or accidentally drowned, but Bee knows that her loving mom couldn’t have left her, could she?

Now my last audiobook, Gone Girl, had a missing wife too, but these two books are very different in genre. Where Gone Girl was a psychological thriller, WYGB is a “relationship” book – the story of a modern family of smart, intelligent people subject to the wear and tear of this overbearing world. The story is told in seemingly disjointed snippets : Bernadette’s emails to her virtual assistant Manjula Kapoor in India, letters from Bee’s future boarding school to Elgin Branch, and emails between two Galer Street moms Audrey Griffin and Soo-Lin Lee-Segal. So the information is delivered in little pieces and filtered through other people’s point of views; it is up to reader to put them all together and make up his/her mind.

This is a many textured story with varied, far-flung characters – from Bernadette’s pushy neighbor and her “blackberry abatement specialist”, to various Aussie/Nordic characters on the Antartica-bound ship, to intervention-staging psychiatrists and various members of the police/FBI. It is to Semple’s credit that she manages to paint in all these people in just the right hues, not too little and not too much, just enough to keep us interested. Bernadette herself comes across as an eccentric genius, someone so smart that she is a little incomprehensible to the ordinary people around her. Her character has her faults, but is imbued with sharp, wry humor and the ability to laugh at herself. I liked both her and Bee and loved the way Semple developed their loving mother-daughter bond. Elgin’s character seemed a little inconsistent or maybe that’s just me being naive.

Bernadette didn’t seem the easiest person to get along with but narrator Wilhoite gives her good grace and humor. She also managed to convey the beautiful relationship between the irascible Bernadette and the smart, quirky Bee. Wilhoite delivers Bee to us in childish breathy tones, tones it down for Elgin Branch, and make it believably high-pitchy-sarcastically-irate for Bernadette in one of her moods. And then there are the accents – the British, the Kiwi, the Nordic etc. – all very well done. This book is Semple’s baby but I have to say it enjoyed it all the more because of the fabulous narrator.

WYGB is funny and moving and a little poignant. It details out all the little ways we are so fragile that we grasp at the small happinesses and never want to let go, not wanting to believe that we’ll get any more, or even that we deserve them. This was a lovely book; I highly recommend it.

 

Audiobook Review : Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Written By: amodini - Feb• 12•14

[amazon_link id=”B008Y5VE3U” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]By Gillian Flynn: Gone Girl: A Novel [Audiobook] [AUDIO CD][/amazon_link]Title : Gone Girl
Author : Gillian Flynn
Genre : Mystery
Narrators : Kirby Heyborne and Julia Whelan
Publisher : Random House Audio
Listening Length : 19 hrs 11 min
Source : Library
Rating : 5/5

Nick Dunne and Amy Elliot Dunne have been married five years, when on the day of their anniversary, Amy disappears from their McMansion in North Carthage, Missouri. There are signs of a struggle and the local cops are called in once Nick returns home and finds the front door ajar and Amy gone.

As the audio rolls, you realize that Nick and Amy are no ordinary couple. Yes, they are having ordinary married-life problems after settling in North Carthage, a far cry from their swanky, effervescent life in New York where both had writerly jobs (from which they were let go), but that is expected. In small-town Missouri, Amy has settled to be home-maker, while Nick has opened up a bar along with his twin sister Margo. Now that Amy has disappeared, their personal lives are being scanned minutely, and circumstantial evidence is piling up. Nick is under suspicion of Amy’s murder – he is flummoxed by her disappearance he says, but has no firm alibi for that time.

The book is told in first person, both from Nick and Amy’s point of views. Each chapter is from one person’s viewpoint and the viewpoints, and the chapters alternate. We hear Amy’s side of things from her diary, while Nick recounts his version of events starting from “the day of” the disappearance. Both narratives, obviously, are deeply biased to the narrator’s point of view, but it is clear that this is a love-match between “a great, gorgeous dude” and a beautiful, smart, young trust-fund heiress. It’s been five years though, and the love-story has been subjected to some wear and tear.

This is a very up-close and personal, psychological thriller. It starts off a little slow, but then revs up after Amy’s disappearance. Flynn keeps a tight grip on the suspense, revealing facts little by little. The first person point of view gives us an almost casual, off the cuff summary of events and happenings – lots of asides, quips and banter, leaving one quite unprepared for the plot twists (just the way I like it!). Amy and Nick’s personalities are drawn razor sharp, etched in by the little things they mention about each other.

The narrators Kirby Heyborne and Julia Whelan do a fabulous job on the audio. Their voices give Nick and Amy personality, beyond what has been described in the book. Heyborne has the task of portraying a man who proclaims his innocence, but rambles on about the shape of his wife’s head; he seems harmless enough, but did he kill his lovely wife? Heyborne does this very nicely – Nick’s voice is warm, but reasonable, callous but connected – keeping us guessing. Whelan has to dole out Amy to us in her happy-girl voice and the proclamations of true love, and she pitches it perfectly.

This is a superb book, and an even better audiobook. If you are looking for a psychological suspense novel, this is a must-read/listen!

Book Review : Alison’s Automotive Repair Manual by Brad Barkley

Written By: amodini - Feb• 05•14

[amazon_link id=”B000H2M7OI” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Alison's Automotive Repair Manual: A Novel[/amazon_link]Title : Alison’s Automotive Repair Manual
Author : Brad Barkley
Genre : Contemporary
Publisher : St. Martin’s Press
Pages: 288
Source : Netgalley / Publisher ARC
Rating : 3/5

Alison Durst lives with her sister Sarah and brother-in-law Bill as she attempts to recover from the death of her husband Marty, two years ago. Family, friends, ex-co-workers (Alison used to be a teacher at the community college) exhort her to move on, but Alison seems to be stuck, unable to move beyond the stage of shell-shocked bereavement. To get them off her back, and to set some kind of hard goal before herself, Alison decides to set about restoring the 1976 Corvette which sits unused and dilapidated in Bill’s garage. Once the restoration is complete she decides, it will be time to move on with her life.

Alison of course does not know the first thing about car repair, but with a manual at hand, and advice from the local automotive store (manned by a preacher-mechanic, who plies her with pamphlets about the Lord’s word along with car-parts), she starts to potter around.Things take a turn for the romantic when munitions expert Max Kesler makes an appearance and starts to casually assist her with her car repairs after warning her that the project is foolhardy.

I picked up this book expecting a romance, but it turned out to be a subtle look at life in a close-knit community. Sarah is a dance teacher, and we get a good look at all the senior folk who make up the dance class and their quirks and problems. Then there are Sarah and Bill themselves, with Bill desperately wanting a baby. Each of these characters is dealt with realistically, displaying facets the author wishes to portray of human life – the highs, the lows and the in-betweens. There is a realm between stark truth and everyday pretense that we inhabit, infusing our days with little white lies that we listen to and tell, and Barkley skillfully underscores this fact with his careful narration.

The book is told in the third person from Alison’s point of view. Each chapter starts off with some advice from Alison’s repair manual. I’m quite impressed that Barkley manages to write from a woman’s point of view so well; if I hadn’t know that the author was a man, I would have guessed quite the opposite. There is humor in this book, and hopelessness and grief – it all seems very relatable; they are people like us. However I didn’t always connect with Alison, though I sympathized with her. The book moved at a very, very slow pace for me, although to be fair, for this genre, it might not have worked as well as it did, had it rushed through; some things just take time.

A decent read, this one’s for you if you are into deep, life-affirming journeys of healing and hope.

Book Review : Lake of Tears by Mary Logue (2014)

Written By: amodini - Jan• 30•14

[amazon_link id=”1440571503″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Lake of Tears: A Claire Watkins Mystery[/amazon_link]Title : Lake of Tears
Author : Mary Logue
Genre : Mystery
Publisher : Tyrus Books
Pages: 208
Publish Date : January 1st, 2014
Source : Netgalley / Publisher ARC
Rating : 3/5

Lake of Tears is the 9th book of the Claire Watkins series. In this, Deputy Sheriff Watkins takes over temporarily as Sheriff of the small town of Fort St. Antoine, Wisconsin, as her boss Sheriff Talbot goes in for an emergency heart bypass procedure. It’s been an easy summer thus far and Sheriff Watkins isn’t expecting it to change anytime soon. However when a mock ceremonial Norwegian boat burning celebration goes awry and a young woman’s bones are recovered from the ashes the next morning, Claire has a murder investigation on her hands. Claire is further perturbed when she learns that her teenaged daughter Meg is dating one of her own recently hired Deputies, the relatively older Afghanistan veteran Andrew Stickler. She worries even more when it is revealed that Stickler is the ex-boyfriend of the murdered woman.

This is a murder mystery simply, sparely told. I liked the characters in “Lake of Tears” especially Sheriff Claire Watkins, who is a woman with more than her fair share of common sense and equanimity; I can quite easily see her being played by Patricia Clarkson in a movie version. The author seems comfortable with the characters in the book, and developed them quite realistically. They all seemed very grounded, and ensconced in their lives, even the suspicious ex-boyfriend seems to have almost found his groove.

I did like “Lake of Tears”, but for a murder mystery this was a little placid. The mystery itself was not too complicated, and the book’s non-bombastic plot was underwhelming. It might be that I am used to mysteries, even cozy, small-town mysteries with some intrigue, a few red herrings, and plot twists, so this book’s predictable plot line left me wanting.

I haven’t read the other books in the series, but that didn’t seem to make any difference as this book stood alone quite well, no back references or past events that seemed to bleed through here. Although it wasn’t your fast-paced, effusive murder mystery, “Lake of Tears” was still a decent read.

My Top 5 Books of 2013

Written By: amodini - Jan• 24•14

[amazon_link id=”0143124544″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Me Before You: A Novel[/amazon_link]I resolved to read at least 30 books in 2013, and I’ve read (or listened to) 39! Yay, Well Done Me, etc. etc. You have probably read my reviews on all of them here, on Goodreads and on my Facebook page 🙂 . In no particular order then, here are my Top 5 Reads from among those :

– Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

I had not read Moyes prior to this, but I had read several very good reviews for this book. Yes, this sweet, funny, heartbreaking book did meet all those very high expectations. Published by Penguin Books.

 

[amazon_link id=”0778315479″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Teatime for the Firefly[/amazon_link]- Teatime for the Firefly by Shona Patel

I generally try and vary the genres of the books I’m reading. So I will follow up a sci-fi book with a mystery and that maybe with a chick-lit kind of tale, or some serious heavy literature (with deep meaning, or so I think). I don’t read much romance, when I do I kind of expect them to follow the standard boy-meets-girl kind of routine. So when I did happen to read this from Harlequin MIRA, I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the book, the historical details and the chemistry and charm of the main protagonists.

Quite a lovely read, this one!

 

[amazon_link id=”B00D8G4GIU” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]White Trash (White Series)[/amazon_link]- White Trash by Alexandra Allred

Thanks to Netgalley, I am now reading books from smaller, indie publishers in addition to the big ones, great books that I would have missed out on ordinarily. I have been very impressed with the quality of the books, and “White Trash” is a good example.

The book’s story is a little reminiscent of “The Help” initially, but it soon grows into its own.

White Trash is published by The Writer’s Coffee Shop out of New South Wales, Australia. It began in 2009. You can learn more about their offerings here.

 

[amazon_link id=”1459707125″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Corpse Flower: A Cornwall and Redfern Mystery[/amazon_link]- Corpse Flower by Gloria Ferris

This book features one of my favorite fictional characters ever (here is another) : Bliss Moonbeam Cornwall. And with a name like that, how could she not be quirky and fun and a little goofy and accident-prone? Corpse Flower is really a mystery, but it has a lot of stuff besides : drama, humor, snippets of small-town life and romance. It also introduced me to the Corpse Flower, an actual species of rare flowering plant (didn’t we say that reading was good for you?)

A very, very good read, this book comes from the Canadian publishing house Dundurn Press.

 

[amazon_link id=”B00DACZTX8″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]The Last Clinic: A Darla Cavannah Mystery[/amazon_link]- The Last Clinic by Gary Gusick

This is another mystery with a strong female protagonist, in a small town trying to solve a murder. This time the local, righteous preacher is dead, and Detective Darla Cavannaugh has been called back from unofficial leave to deal with the case.

This very well done who-dun-it is from Alibi Publishing, Random House’s digital only imprint.

Wordless Wednesdays #27

Written By: amodini - Jan• 08•14

Arc de Triomf, Barcelona, Spain

Audiobook Review : The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama

Written By: amodini - Dec• 25•13

[amazon_link id=”0307455874″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (Vintage)[/amazon_link]Title : The Audacity of Hope
Author : Barack Obama
Narrator : Barack Obama
Publisher : Random House Audio
Listening Length: 6 hours and 10 minutes
Source : Library
Rating : 4.5/5

I do not read much non-fiction but downloaded this audiobook on the recommendation of a friend, and have to say this was well worth the listen. Obama has written several books, and he is a very good speaker, as is evinced from the several commanding and moving speeches he has given. With this book you get to listen to his thoughts in his well-modulated voice, which is definitely a plus.

The President (note that he was not the President when he wrote his book) talks of many different issues in the book : politics, people, the country and it’s values, race, religion and family. He talks of the country’s finances, the state of healthcare, and the need to repair the social security net. He tells of his experiences in meeting different politicians from both sides of the aisle and peppers his accounts with anecdotes, like the one about meeting President Bush and Senator Byrd. He also talks about family, his mother and grandparents, his meeting Michelle and her family, and later holding his daughters Sasha and Malia in his arms.

His views on non-personal topics are a mix of actual policy combined with his analysis – he displays an understanding of the subject and translates it into understandable language for his readers/listeners although he does tend to get a tad pedantic. He also waxes eloquently, somewhat platitudinous and professor-ish, and something I’ve noticed he does in his speeches too – and you kind of lose him for a while as he speaks, until he returns to concrete details.

From his thoughts, he appears to be a man seeking dialogue across the aisle in politics, and a better life for all American citizens in general. He speaks of fairness and equality, of dispelling disparities, ensuring a good education for every child, and access to quality affordable healthcare for everyone. As you listen to him, you have to admire the man for his beliefs, his honesty and his earnestness. This is a good man. As someone who has pushed through healthcare reform with the recent Affordable Care Act, you have to admire President Obama for having the courage of his convictions.

I enjoyed listening to the entire book, but have to say that I particularly like the parts where he talks of family and of personal goals and values, and of how the people he has met have influenced his life. I’d highly recommend this book.

Book Review : Corpse Flower by Gloria Ferris

Written By: amodini - Dec• 18•13

[amazon_link id=”1459707125″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Corpse Flower: A Cornwall and Redfern Mystery[/amazon_link]Title : Corpse Flower
Author : Gloria Ferris
Genre : Mystery

Publisher : Dundurn
Pages: 408
Publish Date : December 14th, 2013
Source : Netgalley / Publisher ARC
Rating : 4.2/5

Ex-socialite Bliss Moonbeam Cornwall was once married to attorney Mike Bains. Since then Mike has remarried and shafted Bliss out of most of the divorce settlement. She’s itching for revenge – that goal keeps her going. Impoverished, she now lives in a trailer park in a very questionable neighborhood, barely able to cobble together body and soul thanks to intermittent odd jobs around town: she cleans homes, teaches yoga, works at the cemetery yard and at the library. She’s also a real estate agent and general dogsbody to her wealthy, agoraphobic cousin Dougal. When he offers her a large amount of money to facilitate the pollination of his prized, rare Titan Arum (or corpse flower), Bliss jumps at it. Little does she know that the blooming (pun intended) corpse flower will be the least of her troubles.

“Corpse Flower” is a thoroughly entertaining read thanks to the character of the peppy, quirky Bliss. Bliss is in a tight situation: roof barely over her head, and not much money to speak of, plus the specter of her smarmy ex-husband and his equally detestable wife gadding about their small town making life difficult for her. But she’s still pretty upbeat and never fails to see the humor in things. Her viewpoint is fairly unique, and given the fact that she’s accident-prone, and trouble always seems to find her (and not the other way around) things are always interesting in Lockport, Ontario.

Even the secondary characters in this book are pretty interesting. There’s Dougal and his ex-wife Glory, who seems to see red whenever his name is mentioned. She is also the owner of the other corpse flower and Dougal hopes to use Bliss as intermediary to cross-pollinate the two plants. Then there is Chief Neil Redfern and Constable Thea Vanderbloom who bump into Bliss whenever she’s accidentally ingested marijuana, which happens often enough given that half the town is either growing or eating it.

Bliss’s home is in a small town which is great for mysteries, because everyone knows everyone, and we get to know most (if not all) of the characters. But besides that Bliss has got to be somewhat of a unique heroine. She’s poor but gutsy and speaks her mind, lives in a trailer, is almost BFF with the prostitute next door, and drives a motorcycle much heavier than she is, which means that if it falls she cannot pick it up. And yes, it falls. Now, throw in the agoraphobic amateur botanist cousin “whose Titan Arum was about to embark on sexual maturity with no nubile mate in sight”, pot-growing town elders, a possibly tainted police chief, AND a murder and you have yourself a party.

Corpse Flower is of the mystery genre, but it is also so much more. I’d like to think of it as an all-encompassing story with a murder, mystery and intrigue, humor and quirk, and even a little bit of romance. Ferris builds up a stellar cast of characters to carry forward the series. Bliss is very likeable and quite the underdog – so I was totally invested in her life, and I can’t wait to read more about her and Redfern.

An absolute treat to read, this one is highly recommended.

Wordless Wednesdays (it’s already Thursday? wow!) #26

Written By: amodini - Dec• 12•13

Door Detail, Madrid, Spain

Audiobook Review : Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns

Written By: amodini - Dec• 04•13

[amazon_link id=”B00817T8DO” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]COLD SASSY TREE.[/amazon_link]Title : Cold Sassy Tree
Author : Olive Ann Burns
Narrator : Tom Parker
Publisher : Blackstone Audio
Listening Length: 12 hours and 54 minutes
Source : Library
Rating : 5/5

This novel is situated in the fictional town of Cold Sassy, Georgia. It is told from the view-point of 14 year old Willis Tweedy. Will lives with his father Hoyt Tweedy and mother Mary Willis. Mary Willis’s younger sister Loma, her husband Campbell Williams, and son Campbell Junior also live in the small town. Will’s grandfather, Mary Willis’s father, Enoch Rucker Blakeslee owns Cold Sassy’s large general store and Hoyt and Campbell work for him. When Rucker’s wife Mattie Lou dies, he decides to marry pretty, much younger milliner Love Simpson, within 3 weeks of his wife’s death. The town is scandalized as is Rucker’s family, but nothing can move the man himself; he needs a housekeeper and it’d be cheaper to take a wife.

Spirited, feisty and fashionable Love Simpson becomes a part of the family but is snubbed by them and the townspeople for taking saintly Mattie Lou’s place. This is the Deep South and Love Simpson, hailing from Baltimore, is almost a Yankee; popular conservative opinion deems her a gold-digger and a bold one at that. Mary Willis and Loma hate her and worry that she will spirit away their inheritance. Only Will, who goes over to his grand-father’s house often to help with chores, thinks her nice and understands that she means well. The novel moves along at a good place after these turn of events to tell us more about the Blakeslee and Tweedy clans and their lives in the small, rumor-mill-of-a-town.

This book was published in 1984, but tells of the early 1900s. When it begins, it is 1906 and Ms. Mattie Lou has just died. Most townspeople already have electricity and indoor plumbing, save Rucker Blakeslee, whose household still uses old-fashioned lamps and privies. Phones are still new, and are described by Rucker as a fidgety contraption. Cars haven’t made it to sleepy Cold Sassy yet, so when Hoyt Tweedy buys a Cadillac, it is the talk of the town.

Strong-willed Rucker Blakeslee is the uncrowned king of Cold Sassy. We get to hear of him from Will’s point of view – a mixture of admiration and adoration for his young-at-heart, lively grandfather. Narrator Tom Parker does a fantastic job of giving voice to Cold Sassy’s characters. He modulates his voice slightly differently for Will Tweedy, Rucker, Miss Love and the other characters, and gives them distinct and recognizable personalities, Southern accent and all! This is a wonderful book, but it really came to life with such a versatile narrator.

Cold Sassy Tree is the tale of patriarch Rucker Blakeslee and his large clan. But it is also much more. Through the various incidents described in this book, Olive Ann Burns touches upon issue of class and race, societal upheaval and taboos, and the status of women at that time. The characters are colorful and warmly drawn. There is drama, anger, jealousy, death and despair, humor and love. A fabulous listen, this one is a true classic – highly recommended.