meg reads and reads

Title:  The Memory Keeper's Daughter Author:  Kim Edwards Well, y'all, this one hit me pretty hard, and I wasn't prepared for it. I had no idea what this book was about when I picked it up, but I don't think anything could have prepared me for it. It starts out with a young couple, a doctor named David and his wife, Norah, who becomes pregnant. She tells her husband if they have a boy, she wants to name him Paul. If they have a girl, she wants to name her Phoebe. When Norah goes into labor in 1964, they are in the midst of a terrible snowstorm, so David carefully drives his wife to a clinic to give birth. He has to deliver himself. To his utter delight, his wife gives birth to a healthy son. His nurse, Caroline, is keeping Norah drugged, so she's pretty out of it, and surprise! Another baby comes out, a baby girl with obvious signs of Down's Syndrome. Knowing the chances of Phoebe not having a long life expectancy due to the health risks associated wit...

Title: I'm Done Author: Gurpreet Kaur I have always had a bit of a soft spot for confessional poetry, and Gurpreet Kaur's I'm Done  is no exception. I breezed through the poetry in this book, ravenously consuming words of love, heartbreak, despair, determination, and resilience. Almost any person can relate to Kaur's work, and I'm truly pleased with how the writing has matured since the publication of Warriors.  The layout of this book is stellar, with the alternating black and white pages and the creative spacing to enhance the reading. Kaur also employs strong use of metaphor. My only real complaints are that some of the word choices are a little awkward and repetitive and that the book could use a good editor to help smooth out some of the rough spots. I am quite glad that I read this one and give it a strong four out of five stars. ------------------------------------------ READING PROGRESS Ammey McKeaf by Jane Shoup: 73% Insomnia by Stephen King...

Title: When We Believed in Mermaids Author: Barbara O'Neal I actually really enjoyed this book. I liked the way the story slowly unfolded, keeping you interested without giving everything away. I liked the characters, even Josie/Mari. Even their mom. I liked the mystery of what happened to Veronica going on in the background. I liked the description of the landscape and culture of New Zealand. There was so much to enjoy in this book. I did have one thing that bugged me, and that was the fact that the author really likes to describe what's happening in triplicate. For example, "...he kissed me, and kissed me, and kissed me." That's one example of several in the book, and she used that one more than once. It was a little distracting for me. Anyway, it was good despite that, and I give it four out of five stars. ------------------------- READING PROGRESS Ammey McKeaf by Jane Shoup: 61% Insomnia  by Stephen King: 64% Easy Go by John Lange: 66% If You ...

Title: I Capture the Castle Author: Dodie Smith This book was remarkably heartwarming and funny. Normally, I find that humor in books this old doesn't age well, but that really isn't the case here. Dodie Smith's sense of humor shines through in a superb way, and I found myself laughing out loud multiple times. That said, this isn't a comedy. There's a love story. There's concern of mental illness. It's a complex tale of a family that others wish to save (from poverty, from irrelevance, etc.), but they ultimately save themselves. It doesn't end with a happily ever after, but I still feel good about where the characters are at the end. It's Austen-esque with a dose of realism. I like that. Four out of five stars. QUOTES: "There is only one page left to write on. I will fill it with words of only one syllable. I love. I have loved. I will love." "I only want to write. And there's no college for that except life....

Title: Something Borrowed Author: Emily Giffin I have a lot of issues with this book. A lot of issues. First of all, I don't like reading a book where the protagonist (Rachel) is completely unlikable. She is weak, and the entire plot of the book is about her doing something completely despicable to her best friend (Darcy). Not that Darcy is an angel. She's terrible, too. Two of the main guys in the book (Dex and Marcus) are also horrendous. Then there are the other girls in the book--Claire, Hillary, and Annalise. Claire is horrible. Annalise is weak like Rachel. Hillary is the only female that is remotely sympathetic, but I find her pretty abrasive and I hate how she condones what Rachel is doing throughout the book. The only person in the book that is completely likable is Ethan. But what is the point of him even being in the book? He literally serves no purpose except as an excuse for what Rachel does to Darcy. All of this said, despite all of the issues I have with ...

Title: The Night Trade Author: Barry Eisler After the disappointment of Livia Lone , The Night Trade really makes up for it. Reading about Dox is always a pleasure, and it was nice to see him team up with Livia. I love that they are not perfect. They are very human, making mistakes and false assumptions, jumping into situations without fully thinking about them. Livia and Dox balanced each other out well. They would certainly be dead without one another. Five out of five stars. -------- READING PROGRESS: Written in My Own Heart's Blood by Diana Gabaldon: 68% The Waste Lands by Stephen King: 51% Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn: 18% The Dark Bones by Loreth Anne White: NOW STARTING

Title: A Dark Lure Author: Loreth Anne White It's been over a month since my last review, and I apologize for that. The lengthy absence was due to a number of factors: my health, a hectic life, and the fact that a lot of the books that I'm reading are quite lengthy. This wasn't one of the lengthier books, but I have to say, it was definitely a great read. I had a hard time getting through it, not because it was bad, but because it was so good. The author did such a good job of writing a thriller that I would literally have a sense of dread so severe that I would have to put the book down and read something else, just because I was so nervous! That said, this is definitely one of the better thrillers I have ever read. One of the things I like most about it is that, though there is a love story subplot, this is not a story where the man saves the woman. The woman saves herself. It's definitely refreshing in this genre. There were a couple of grammatical issues I...

Title: The Dark Half Author: Stephen King For me, this was an extremely slow, painfully boring read. The concept was a stretch at best, and though I feel like it may have had some sort of personal significance to Stephen King, as a reader, it was not pleasant. I found it to be uninteresting, kind of gross, and all around a waste of time. I do not recommend this at all. Two out of five stars. ----------- READING PROGRESS: Let's Dance, Snoopy by Charles M. Schulz: 87% The Killer Collective by Barry Eisler: 50% Written in My Own Heart's Blood by Diana Gabaldon: 3% The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands by Stephen King: NOW STARTING

Title: Silent Crime Author: W.L. Knightly I've been on kind of a thriller kick lately, so I decided to give this one a shot. Cool cover, right? The description seemed positive, too. That is literally the end of anything nice I have to say about this book. Character development? Terrible. Plot? Awful. Full of every thriller cliche you can imagine with random bits of explicit information that were completely unnecessary (unless it comes up again in the later books of the series). Regardless, I was not impressed, and it is extremely doubtful that I will ever read book two. Two out of five stars. ------------ READING PROGRESS: An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon: 43% The Dark Half by Stephen King: 4% Inside Out by Barry Eisler: 31% Who Laid the Egg? by Audrey Sauble: NOW STARTING

Title: The Tommyknockers Author: Stephen King This is something I probably have not discussed in this blog before, but I am a huge science-fiction fan. It's by far my favorite genre. So here we are with Stephen King's first real jump into the realm of science-fiction. King is indisputably a fantastic author, one of the all-time greats, even. All of that said, I did not enjoy reading this book. The biggest issue I had was that there were too many characters who were unnecessary to the plot. It was a lot to remember for no reason. That begs the question...who were the important characters? Gard was the most important, obviously. Bobbi was a close second. The only other storylines we really needed were the David/Hilly storyline and Ruth's storyline (and the aftermath). There were so many side characters that it was overwhelming, and it took me way too long to read this book. I will say that what King did very, very well was create an absolutely terrifying atmospher...

Title: The Boy Who Painted the World Author: Melody J. Bremen I've been trying to add more Middle Grade and Young Adult books to my To Be Read pile, not only to appeal to more types of readers, but also to get an idea of what younger people are reading. I have a twelve-year-old stepdaughter, and I would love for her to have as much joy in reading as I do. This book is one of the most heartwarming books I have ever read. It is at times devastating, always endearing, and just an all around great read. It's a little bittersweet for me, because I finished reading it in the emergency room this evening with my three-year-old, who broke his leg today. I shed tears over this book and over my son and over lost kids everywhere who hopefully will one day find a home and their place in society. The only thing keeping this from being a five-star review is some minor editing issues I noticed while reading, but that does not keep me from yelling from the rooftops for everyone, young...

Title: Two Weeks Notice Author: Whitney G. Okay, from the cover, I knew it wasn't going to be fine literature, but boy is this book trashy. I mean, it's so  trashy. It is seriously the trashiest thing I have ever read in my life. It's like she read Fifty Shades of Grey  and thought to herself, "How can I be even sleazier?" It got a few chuckles out of me, and the writing wasn't terrible. I just...I mean, how many times did I have to read about how "wet" she was? Why was she so turned on by this horrible human being? Like, he clearly had control issues and was probably going to turn out to be a wife beater, but okay. And am I supposed to believe that he could get away with treating employees that way? And why would anyone leave a child in the care of this psycho? I don't understand. I was not a fan at all of this book, but for the few laughs, I give it two out of five stars.

Title: The Eyes of the Dragon Author: Stephen King This isn't even close to being one of my favorite books by him, but it's still good. My favorite part about it is that the villain--Flagg--seems to be the same person as the villain in The Stand  (which is hands down my favorite by Stephen King). Flagg is also apparently in The Dark Tower  series. I have only read the first book in that series, but I'm getting ready to start the second. I did not care for the first Dark Tower  book, though. I know, I know. I'm sorry. It's just not my thing. My opinions on the other works of Stephen King aside, The Eyes of the Dragon  was a fun read. It is not Stephen King's typical writing style, which I both liked and didn't like. It was nice to have a different style of writing after spending the last three years reading the works of Stephen King, but at the same time, it wasn't really what I was wanting from a Stephen King novel. The characters were well-writt...