The Story Of Us

I ended the year with 28 book read. I was hoping to get to 30 but I was in a book funk by the end of the year and just didn't feel like reading :( The Widow's Watcher by Eliza Maxwell Synopsis -   Living in the shadow of a decades-old crime that stole his children from him, reclusive Lars Jorgensen is an unlikely savior. But when a stranger walks onto the ice of a frozen Minnesota lake, her intentions are brutally clear, and the old man isn’t about to let her follow through. Jenna Shaw didn’t ask for Lars’s help, nor does she want it. After he pulls her from the brink, however, Jenna finds her desire to give up challenged by their unlikely friendship. In Jenna, Lars recognizes his last chance for redemption. And in her quest to solve the mysteries of Lars’s past and bring him closure, Jenna may find the way out of her own darkness. But the truth that waits threatens to shatter it all. When secrets are surrendered and lies are laid bare, Jenna and Lars may find that accepting th

What Alice Forgot by Laine Moriarty Synopsis - Alice Love is twenty-nine, crazy about her husband, and pregnant with her first child. So imagine Alice’s surprise when she comes to on the floor of a gym and is whisked off to the hospital where she discovers the honeymoon is truly over — she’s getting divorced, she has three kids and she’s actually 39 years old. Alice must reconstruct the events of a lost decade, and find out whether it’s possible to reconstruct her life at the same time. She has to figure out why her sister hardly talks to her, and how is it that she’s become one of those super skinny moms with really expensive clothes. Ultimately, Alice must discover whether forgetting is a blessing or a curse, and whether it’s possible to start over. Thoughts - This book has been sitting on my bookshelf for years. I keep on picking up the newer stuff to read and the older books just getting older. So earlier this year I let the kids pick out my next read so there is no bias. This wa

So I am currently reading my 25th book of the year.. that is a record for me, post children. Covid and being stuck at home obviously had a lot to do with it.  The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan Synopsis -  Winnie and Helen have kept each other's worst secrets for more than fifty years. Now, because she believes she is dying, Helen wants to expose everything. And Winnie angrily determines that she must be the one to tell her daughter, Pearl, about the past—including the terrible truth even Helen does not know. And so begins Winnie's story of her life on a small island outside Shanghai in the 1920s, and other places in China during World War II, and traces the happy and desperate events that led to Winnie's coming to America in 1949. Thoughts - This wasn't a really long book.. but sometimes it felt really long. Based in China during and before World War II it was not always fun to read about all the horrors people have to live through during war. But add all the

Where the Crawdad Sings by Delia Owens Synopsis - For years, rumors of the "Marsh Girl" have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. She's barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark. But Kya is not what they say. Abandoned at age ten, she has survived on her own in the marsh that she calls home. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life lessons from the land, learning from the false signals of fireflies the real way of this world. But while she could have lived in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world--until the unthinkable happens. Thoughts -  This was such a beautiful story. A coming of age tale of being abandoned, loneliness and survival. I really can't say much

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng Synopsis- I n Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned--from the layout of the winding roads, to the colors of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.  Enter Mia Warren--an enigmatic artist and single mother--who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenaged daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past and a disregard for the status quo that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community. When old family friends of the Richardsons attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town--and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her mot

Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah Synopsis - In the turbulent summer of 1974, Kate Mularkey has accepted her place at the bottom of the eighth-grade social food chain. Then, to her amazement, the “coolest girl in the world” moves in across the street and wants to be her friend. Tully Hart seems to have it all---beauty, brains, ambition. On the surface they are as opposite as two people can be: Kate, doomed to be forever uncool, with a loving family who mortifies her at every turn. Tully, steeped in glamour and mystery, but with a secret that is destroying her. They make a pact to be best friends forever; by summer’s end they’ve become TullyandKate. Inseparable. From the beginning, Tully is desperate to prove her worth to the world. Abandoned by her mother at an early age, she longs to be loved unconditionally. In the glittering, big-hair era of the eighties, she looks to men to fill the void in her soul. But in the buttoned-down nineties, it is television news that captivates her. She wi

Nothing makes me happier than knowing that I am raising readers. Our initial IKEA spice racks /bookshelves in the boys room were starting to over flow with books to the point that we bought them bookshelves last month.  While I always talk about what I'm reading I thought I'd share with you what the kids are reading right now as well as some of their favorite books.  We as a family are still reading The American Story by David Rubenstein and just finished the chapter on Hamilton.. now we are ready to watch the show! And we have also started as a family to read Harry Potter..  H is currently reading (with my help) his way through some of the Bad Kitty books by Nick Bruel . When asked - here are H's Top 3 Books 1. The Nahrwal Books by Ben Clanton  - His exact words "They are funny. It was so funny when the sea monkey said 789. I liked Narwhal, they are very funny. They have 9 foot long tooth coming out of their forehead." I second his sentiments.. these are the fu

I am so happy I finished two more books.. this is going to be a good year for reading.. less travel -officially cancelled our spring break flight and hotels last week.. we knew it had to be done but were putting it off till the last week just in case this all turned out to be a nightmare and we just needed to wake up. Not the case :(           The Closer You Get by Mary Torjussen Synopsis:  Coworkers Ruby and Harry are in love--but they're married to other people. They decide to tell their spouses that their marriages are over and to start their new lives together. Ruby, who has wanted to leave her controlling husband for a while, tells him she's leaving him and waits at the hotel where she and Harry are to meet. But Harry never shows up.  Suddenly, Ruby's life has fallen apart, and she's lost everything. Harry won't answer her calls, and she's fired from her job. She finds a cheap apartment in a run-down part of town, all the while wondering what

The last two books I read happened to have a lot in common. For starters both were based in France. The first, in Paris and the second in Cannes and Monaco. They also had fictional main characters whose lives were intertwined by real historical figures. Hemingway, Proust, Grace Kelly.. the list goes on. And I loved both of them. The Paris Hours by Alex George Synopsis - Paris between the wars teems with artists, writers, and musicians, a glittering crucible of genius. But amidst the dazzling creativity of the city’s most famous citizens, four regular people are each searching for something they’ve lost.Camille was the maid of Marcel Proust, and she has a secret: when she was asked to burn her employer’s notebooks, she saved one for herself. Now she is desperate to find it before her betrayal is revealed. Souren, an Armenian refugee, performs puppet shows for children that are nothing like the fairy tales they expect. Lovesick artist Guillaume is down on his luck and running

Deeper Than the Dead by Tami Hoag Synopsis - California, 1985. Four children, running in the woods behind their school, stumble upon a partially buried female body, eyes and mouth glued shut. Close behind the children is their teacher, Anne Navarre. Detective Tony Mendez, fresh from a law enforcement course at FBI headquarters, is charged with interpreting those now revealed secrets. He’s using a new technique—profiling—to develop a theory of the case. As new victims are found and the media scrutiny of the investigation bears down on them, both Mendez and Navarre are unsure if those who suffer most are the victims themselves—or the family and friends of the killer, blissfully unaware that someone very close to them is a brutal, calculating psychopath. Thoughts - This was my first book by Ms Hoag and I just added a few more to my TBR list. It was a great page turner with well developed characters. I have been watching Netflix's Mindhunter and it is about the birth of the FBI