Welcome to my December Book Reviews! As usual I have a mix of fiction and nonfiction, and all reviews are free of any major spoilers. My nonfiction selections were audiobooks via
Audible, which does affect my experience with the book. In the last couple couple of months I've started listening to more fiction books on Audible, so if I'll note that as well within each review. (I signed up for the
Audible Daily Deal email, which helps me read more audiobooks without spending a lot more.) With all that in mind, here are the books I read this month followed by my reviews!
Fiction:
Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell
Basic Plot: A girl living in the backcountry tries to figure what happened to her missing, meth cook father. Her family's well being hinges on whether he's alive or dead.
My Verdict: Do Not Recommend. I just couldn't get into this. It gets amazing reviews but it just wasn't my cup of tea, and I guess that's all there is to it sometimes! I didn't even know it was made into a movie until I was searching up a link for the book and saw the DVD link, too. Huh. Maybe it would be better in film format? I listed to it on Audible and the narrator did a fine job, but I just couldn't click with the characters enough to invest.
The Retreat by Mark Edwards
Basic Plot: Lucas is a horror author who goes to a newly opened writer's retreat in the country to finish his latest novel. The owner of the retreat (Julia) has a tragic, unresolved past, and Lucas starts to feel like he's living in one of his own novels as seeks to help Julia find some answers.
My Verdict: Recommend for suspense/thriller fans. This was an Audible deal of the day that I likely wouldn't have chosen on my own, but I ended up enjoying it. As a litmus test, if you liked
An Unwanted Guest by Shari LaPena, you'll probably enjoy this. The narrator was great and the story was entertaining and held my interest rather easily. By the end I did get a bit confused with some of the townspeople and their involvement in the tragedy. The major characters were easy to keep straight, but there were quite a few minor characters who had some ties to the mystery that were a little more confusing. But that is my only minor complaint about this book. Otherwise it was perfectly enjoyable for a bargain audiobook, and it's also free on Kindle Unlimited.
Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty
Basic Plot: Clementine and Erika are frenemies, and they were involved in An Incident at a barbecue at Erika's neighbor's house.
My Verdict: Okay-ish. I had low expectations for this book because I had not heard good things about it from Liane Moriarty fans. That was a good approach, because this book was kind of a mess. I still liked it okay, but for the first half of the book it's jumping all over the place between characters and time frames. You don't find out what The Incident is until halfway through the book, at which point minor characters start becoming more involved and having the story told from their perspective, too. Which makes it even more all over the place! By the end I liked the story and the character development and how everything fit together, but it felt like it took too long to get to the point, was chaotic in the process, and overall could have been more enjoyable if it were quite a bit shorter. Not my favorite Moriarty by any means but I still liked this better than The Last Anniversary.
Force of Nature by Jane Harper
Basic Plot: Corporate team-building/camping retreat goes awry. Five women go in but one doesn't come out, and as the police try to find her, many secrets are revealed.
My Verdict: Okay to Pretty Good. I'm kind of neutral on this one, I didn't love it or dislike it. It was interesting but not as suspenseful as I would have hoped. There were a lot of characters (the five women who went on the retreats, plus more of their co-workers and family members, plus the two main detectives working the case, etc.), and it took me over half the book to be able to remember who they were and understand any of their connections to each other. I listened to this an audiobook because it was on sale for less than half the price of the Kindle book! (I'd been watching the price on this for awhile waiting for it to come down since reviews were lukewarm.) I will say the narrator was pretty good, but I've noticed that a lot of narrators will use different voices for different characters and this one did not. That probably would have been helpful in a book like this since there were many conversations where I was lost as to who was saying what! All in all...enjoyable enough but not a "rush out and read it now" book. (Edited to add: I did read The Dry by the same author and enjoyed that quite a bit more. I don't know if I'd read a third by her unless a few trusted sources gave it really great reviews!)
In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume
Basic Plot: The town of Elizabeth, NJ (Judy Blume's hometown) experienced three catastrophic planes crashes within the space of two months between 1951-1952. The plane crash history is real, but the rest of the book is fiction (primarily a family drama/coming of age) inspired by the crashes.
My Verdict: It was okay. To sum up the first half of this book: TOO. MANY. CHARACTERS. As a general rule, if a book requires a chart to keep the characters straight (and this does have one in the intro), it's probably not going to be a favorite for me. I don't like disrupting my reading flow to go back and figure out the connection of this character. Especially when many times...it didn't matter! It took a long time for me to get into the main characters and their lives, but when I finally did, I did quite enjoy the book. And I liked how certain lives overlapped and came together. But it took too long to get there.
Jane Doe by Victoria Helen Stone
Basic Plot: Self-admitted sociopath seeks a carefully plotted revenge on the manipulative ex-boyfriend of her best friend.
My Verdict: Recommend if you're okay with sinister! This book had the unique element of the main character being a sociopath...and being aware that she
is sociopath! That perspective was fresh and thoroughly entertaining to me. Aside from that, the plot was entertaining, plausible enough for me, and moved along at a nice pace! I listened to this on Audible (it was free with
Kindle Unlimited!) and the narrator was fantastic. A good litmus test book on this might be "The Girl Before" by J.P. Delaney. If you liked that, you'll probably enjoy this!
I Found You by Lisa Jewell
Basic Plot: Woman finds a man on the beach near her home who has lost his memory. Against her better judgment she brings him in to recover. Elsewhere, another woman's husband has gone MIA...
My Verdict: Recommend! This is my second book by Lisa Jewell (see my review for "Then She Was Gone" in
November) and so far she's two for two in writing very enjoyable suspense novels. This one was told from three perspectives (the two women in the present and a third past perspective), and the past perspective was a little confusing and less interesting...at first. But as the stories weave together the suspense grows and you just can't put it down.
Nonfiction:
The Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel
This was an Audible 2-for-1 sale pick that I never would have chosen on my own. But it had great reviews, so I gave it a chance and really ended up liking it! It's the true story of a man who decided to abandon society and live on his own in the Maine woods for 27 years, possibly the most isolated existence in human history. He had to steal food and some supplies in order to survive, which is ultimately what lead to his capture and the end of his hermit days. I wasn't familiar with this story, but the author did a really great job of drawing me in to his story from the get-go. (The narrator was great, too.) He also did a lot of research on other famous hermits, the benefits of alone time in nature, and the psychology of someone who chooses this life, when solitary confinement is normally considered a punishment by other humans.
Schadenfreude by Tiffany Watt Smith
This book is a close examination of schadenfreude: "The pleasure derived by someone else's misfortunes." It's a relatively short audiobook (4 hours vs. the colossal 19 hour book that follows) and pretty entertaining throughout. It explains how this is something we all feel from time to time, no matter how much we wish we didn't and how it's one of our worst human traits. I didn't really find a deeper lesson in this one as much as I might have hoped, but for the length and entertainment factor it was a good read!
Becoming by Michelle Obama
Whoa, I didn't expect to enjoy this book nearly as much as I did. It legitimately made me laugh (the engagement story!)
and cry (her dad....) in different parts. I recommend this to all women...I think you will be surprised how much your have in common with Michelle. Maybe that's just me, but going in I certainly did not think I had much in common with her at all...so that really caught me off guard. I also really came to admire her and especially her parents for how hard they've worked and what practical people they are. I was mainly fascinated by getting a chance to peek into her life in the White House, because that's such an unusual life that most of us never experience. And she delivered on that...and then some! She was also very candid about her relationship with Barack and didn't paint it as some rainbows and unicorns romance, which I also found refreshing. If you are someone who is concerned that you do not agree with her politics and therefore will not enjoy this book, I felt it was 10% politics, 90% about life, womanhood, motherhood, being a wife, etc. It's an inspiring book and I definitely recommend it!
Sisters First by Barbara Pierce Bush and Jenna Bush Hager
After finishing "Becoming," I was thoroughly intrigued by White House Life and decided to try this next since it had great reviews. Plus I thought it would be interesting to see things from the kid's perspective, not to mention the opposite side of the political spectrum. It did not disappoint! Jenna and Barbara were in college when their dad became President, so they didn't live full time in the White House (making me hope that there will someday be a Sasha/Malia memoir), but they still had plenty of amusing and interesting experiences! Their sister relationship was very sweet and touching, as was their relationship with their extended family! I teared up quite a bit with this one too as they talked about some of the strong bonds they have and some of the very difficult times their family has experienced. But I also laughed a lot at their antics and practical jokes. If you are someone who doesn't agree with Bush family politics, I would say this is less than 5% politics, 95% growing up in a highly visible, political family where you born into it whether you liked it or not. I recommend this to anyone who might be curious about what it's like to grow up as First Daughters.
Quick Picks
If you want a quick recommendation without the specifics of what I did/didn't like, here are the books from this month that I'd be most likely to recommend to friends and family in real life
:
Fiction: The Retreat,
Jane Doe,
I Found You
Nonfiction: All of them were good this month! I'd recommend any above that sounded interesting to you.
Current Reads + Up Next:
On the fiction front I just started Colleen Hoover's latest:
Verity. I started it last night and didn't want to put it down! I also pre-ordered Lisa Jewell's next novel
Watching You. It comes out December 26 so I'll be reading that ASAP. I'm currently listening to
I Will Find You, which is interesting albeit gruesome in parts. I'm on a memoir kick because I've been having good luck with them lately, so I'm planning to read
Hillbilly Elegy next since a friend recommend that one.
Can't wait to hear what you all read or what strikes your interest this month!
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