Book: Yours Truly

 Book: Yours Truly

Author: Abby Jimenez

Pages: 416

This is my 174th read for the year

This is what Amazon says:

Dr. Briana Ortiz's life is seriously flatlining.  Her divorce is just about finalized, her brother's running out of time to find a kidney donor, and that promotion she wants?  Oh, that's propbably going to be a new man-doctor who's already registered eight-friggin-seven on Briana's "pain in my butt" scale.  But just when all systems are set to hate, Dr. Jacob Maddox completeyl flips the game - by sending Briana a letter.  And it's a really good letter.  Like the kind that proves that Jacob isn't actually Satan.  Worse, he might be this fantastically funny likeable guy who'se terrible at first impressions.  Because suddently he and Bri are exchanging letters, sharing lunch dates in her "sob closet", and discussing the merits of freakishly tiny horses.  But when Jacob decides to give Briana the best gift imaginable - she wonders just how she can resist this quietly sexy new doctor.  Especially when he calls in a favor she can't refuse.

This book started off strong and then about half way through I felt it went downhill.  I started to notice it about a 1/4 into the book that this wasn't going to be for me, but then it truly took a turn.  I am not a big romance genre fan to start with, but I did like another book by this author.  But this "miscommunication" trope - I hate it.  It is worth of Hallmark Christmas movies and really nothing else.  At least not to the level that is in thie book.  The dialogue started to get cheesy - especially with the side characters.  Jacob's anxiety was either off the charts, or barely noticable to fit moving the story along.  I just could not get into it.

Stars: 2

Book: The Bean Trees

 Book: The Bean Trees

Author: Barbara Kingsolver

Pages: 272

This is my 173rd read for the year

This is the story of Taylor Greer.  She is running from her old life and in the process of doing so, she is handed a three year old Native American girl to take care of.  She knows nothing of this child or why she was given the child, but she takes her and nicknames her Turtle.  Over the new few months, Taylor settles into a life in Arizona and starts to meet friends.  She moves in with one of her friends, Lou Anne, who recently got a divorce and has a baby of her own.  They support each other and when there is threat that Turtle might be taken away from Taylor, she decides she will do anything she can to stop that from happening.

This was a great book.  I do like most of Kingsolver's novels.  She is a pretty good storyteller.  I listened to this one and the narrator was excellent.  It flows pretty well, and there is good character development.  I really like Taylor and Lou Anne and their support of one another.  The flaws for me of this book was that some conversations did seem to be too drawn out - especially when it was a side character.  And also the ending was a bit unbelievable - but I won't spoil why.  I am happy it turned out the way it did, but it didn't seem believable.

Stars: 4

Book: The Children's Hour

 Book: The Children's Hour

Author: Lillian Hellman

Pages: 72

This is my 172nd read for the year

This is a play where 2 women run a school for girls.  One of the more malicious students starts a rumor about the two women which starts a scandal.  As the truth comes to light it seems to be too late to repair what has been done to these two women and it ends in tragedy.

If you were wondering why I read this - it is because every once in awhile I read a book off the Rory Gilmore list.  This short book rounded off my month of September nicely.  It is a well written play and something you can read in an afternoon.  The horrible girl - Mary - is truly a terrible character and I found myself gripping the book wanting to reach into the pages and get rid of her and shout that what she was saying wasn't true.  I guess this makes a mark of a good story when you want to help out?  Who knows.  I liked it overall and glad I picked it up.

Stars: 4

Book: The Lion Women of Tehran

 Book: The Lion Women of Tehran

Author: Marjan Kamali

Pages: 336

This is my 171st read for the year

What Amazon says:

In 1950s Teran, 7 year old Ellie lives in grand comfort until the untimely death of her father, forcing Ellie and her mother to move to a tiny home downtown.  Lonely and bearing the brunt of her mother's endless grievances, Ellie dreams of a friend to alleviate her isolation. Luckily, on the first day of school, she meets Homa, a kind, passionate gil with a brave and irrepressible spriti.  Together, the two girls play games, learn to cook in the stone kitchen of Homa's warm home, wander through the colorful stalls of the Grand Bazaar, and share their ambitions for becoming "lion women". But their happienss is disrupted when Ellie and her mother are afforded the opportunity to return to their previous bourgeois life.  Now a popular student at the best girls' high school in Iran, Ellie's memoris of Homa beging to fade.  Years later, however, her sudden reapperance in Ellie's privledged world alters the cours of both of their lives.  Together, the two young women come of age and pursue their own goals for meaningful futures.  But as the politicl turmoil in Ira builds to a breaking point, one earth-shattering betrayal will have enormous consequences.

This was a great book.  It covers the life of these two women from the 1950s through 2022.  It unfolds nicely as they take different paths, come back together, take different paths again, etc.  They keep finding each other even though their lives are very different.  It isn't a long book, and I did keep turning the pages wanting to see where it would go, what the ending would be like.  I love "long lives" of characters in books to see what becomes of them.  Good epilogues and sagas are top notch in my book.  This is well written and has great character development.  You like just about every character in the book (there are some bad guys of course) and it makes you want to follow their life.  Check this one out.

Stars: 4.5

Book: The Persian Pickle Club

 Book: The Persian Pickle Club

Author: Sandra Dallas

Pages: 224

This is my 170th read for the year

Here is what Amazon says:

It is the 1930s and hard times have hit Harveyville, Kansas, where the crops are burning up, and there's not a job to be found.  For Queenie Bean, a young farm wife, a highlight of each week is the gathering of the Persian Pickel Club, a group of local ladies dedicated to improving their minds, exchanging gossip, and putting their quilting skills to good use.  When a new member of the club stires up a dark secret, the women must band together to support and protect one another. 

This was a good read.  I wanted to like it a little better.  I liked the idea of it: A women's quilting group and gathered together and supported each other as they sewed.  It read more like something out of the 1800s rather than the 1930s - I had a hard time wrapping my head around that there were cars and electricity, etc. because the way the story plays out, it feels like it should have been written in a much earlier time period.  The middle was a trudge.  Even for a short book, I felt that she could have gone a different way and spent more time on the ladies and the quilt group rather than what happened to Queenie and one other member.  Had a hard time really caring about a lot of the characters.  The ending was a little surprising.  

Also - FYI - Persian Pickles is what this group called the Paisely pattern on a quilt.

Stars: 3

Book: The Life and Times of The Thunderbolt Kid

 Book: The Life And Times of The Thunderbolt Kid

Author: Bill Bryson

Pages: 270

This is my 169th read for the year

This is the story of the author.  Born in 1951 in Iowa he recounds his childhood.  He grew up in a time when TVs and electronics took off and cigarettes where still good for you.  He recounts his love for his family and things that made his memories.

This was a pretty good book.  I have read one other Bryson book "A Walk In The Woods" and it is a favorite.  This one took a little bit to get into - the begining was a slow start.  But then Bryson's dry humor started to show through and it became a quick read.  It is charming and nostalgic (especially if you are a baby boomer) for what it was like mid 20th century.  Glad I read it for my USA challenge.

Stars: 4

Book: Fight Club

 Book: Fight Club

Author: Chuck Palahniuk

Pages: 224

This is my 168th read for the year

Here is what Amazon said (I am really behind on blogging from working so much)

Fight Club's estranged narrator leaves his lackluster job when he comes under the thrall of Tyler Durden, an enigmatic young man who holds secret after-hours boxing matches in the basement of bars.  There, two men fight as long as they have to.  

This was an interesting book.  I saw the movie years ago and never did read the book.  It is a short book and a quick read.  Since I knew what was going on - the "shock" of the story, I didn't get much out of its reveal.  The main character always seems dirty to me - I hate characters like that.  Just gritty, unwashed, down on their luck characters don't draw me in.  Overall - an interesting read.

Stars: 3