Savor the Moment

Savor the Moment, Nora Roberts

The third in the Brides Quartet series.  This is Laurel's story, the cake maker of the four, and it follows the method of all of Roberts books.  Couple banters, realizes they like each other, fall in love, have some sort of falling out, make amends, get married.  If there were later books, we'd see them all getting pregnant.

I will pick up the fourth one, because I'm addicted to series'.  And I like all the characters.

However.

The conflict in these is just so lame.  And frankly, I'm tired of hearing all about how great these women are at their jobs.  I'd like to see Laurel drop a cake, or Emma clip the bloom off a rose accidentally or Mac miss the groom kiss the bride or SOMETHING normal.  These women are all supposedly super perfect, never fight, even in high stress situations and they talk about each other funny.  I have friends, but I don't sit around with them talking about how much I love them.

Mac's mom as the only bad guy is just old.  I hope the 4th one gets away from that but I don't see that happening.

Still ... fans of Nora Roberts will pick it up and read it quickly because it's easy and fun.  The next one comes out in November and is Parker's story.  So far, Malcolm is the most intriguing of all the male leads.

The Girl Who Chased the Moon

The Girl Who Chased the Moon, by Sarah Addison Allen

17-year-old Emily comes to the small town her mother was raised in shortly after her mother's death.  She will be living with her grandfather in the room where her mother grew up, with wallpaper that changes with the inhabitants moods!  What she finds when she gets to the small town is that her mother wasn't the same person in her childhood as she was as her mother, and the townspeople don't have very fond memories of her.  She becomes friends with her neighbor Julia, and the teenage son of the family that her mother allegedly wronged.

I love Sarah Addison Allen's books.  They are so fun and whimsical.  If you read Garden Spells or the Sugar Queen, you have to read this.  It's really excellent, light summer fare with a little fairy tale touch.

Year End Wrap Up

This is a really belated post.  But ... my literary doings for 2009.

Books read: 44
Challenges started: 5
Challenges completed: 3

I read most of the books that I did read in the first half of the year (January - June).  From that point onward, I fell off the bookshelf, so to speak.  I didn't read much of anything in October or November.  But, to my credit, I am having a baby.  And I'm not listing on here all the baby books I've been reading (okay there really aren't that many - but I've been reading some).

I'd like to read more than that in 2010, but ... I imagine the books I'll be reading will be more little one focused.  I'm okay with that.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Steig Larson

From Good Reads:
An international publishing sensation, Stieg Larsson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo combines murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel.



Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden's wealthiest families disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. He is aided by the pieced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption.

I read this book on my kindle.  It was not until I was about 50% in that I got really into it.  There was just so much back story.  So much build up.  So much character explanation (I still don't have all the Vanger family members straight).  Lisbeth Salander is fascinating and my favorite character.  I pretty much knew who-dun-it (or had a good suspicion) by about 50% in.  There were loops that were thrown and clues that were followed and I flew through the last few chapters.

The side story of Blomkvist's libel case and his magazine made for long chapters at the end.  I did not agree with Salander's method of justice, but for her character I do believe it fit and I think more details and more information are going to be introduced in the second and third books.  I wish there had been some closure for the families involved, it's alluded that there is, but I wanted to read it and see it.

I am very interested in the second novel, with the way the first one ended.  Lisbeth's story is very good.  This started off slow but was very, very good at the end.  Dark, twisted and a little scary at times, but very good.

Shadowland

Shadowland, by Alyson Noel

This is the third book in the Immortals series by Alyson Noel, the first being Evermore, the second Blue Moon.  We last left our heroine, Ever, wondering how she was going to explain to her Immortal boyfriend Damen, how she had changed the course of their relationship forever when she tried to save him.

Within the first few pages she confesses, and they determine that they will try and find the solution, the antidote, that fixes their problem and they can be together after 300 plus years.

This book bothered me.  Please read no further if you are fearful of spoilers.  Light spoilers coming next ...

The entire book is Ever trying to find a way to ... consumate her relationship with Damen.  Ever is 16.  This book is for YA.  I felt like Noel was trying to justify the lust by saying, oh they've been together for 300 years, they are destined, so yeah they should be together intimately.  And Ever goes on and on about how she missed a physical relationship with Damen, and it just felt ... wrong.

The added twist of Jude, the surfer dude who makes her uncomfortable who's apparently an old interest from a former life, just felt hollow.  Contrived?  And Damen disappearing for the last 12 chapters irritated me.  In fact, the book felt oddly written.  Maybe it was me.  But it took me a long time to get through and usually I fly through these YAs.

I'll read the next one, it's a series and I'm a sucker to see how this ends.  But definitely this is my least favorite so far.  It was confusing, convoluted, contrived and a whole bunch of other C words I'm sure that I just can't think of at the moment.

And please, editors, somewhere, teach Ms. Noel how to close up a book?  Even a series that already has 3 more books planned should have more of an ending than these do.  It's like they just pick a chapter to end at and hit done.  It's making me less of a fan.  What the heck happened to Haven?  Where did Damen come from?  Did I miss something?  Did my Kindle mess something up?

Because right now I'm thinking the editors are just letting Miss Noel get away with murder with these endings.

Evermore's the best one.  So far the sequals are just Eh.

Wrap Up: What's in a Name

So Where the Heart Is closed out the What's in a Name Challenge for me.  Yeah for me for finishing!  Below is what I read:

1. A book with a "profession" in the title: Midwives, Bohjalian
2. A book with a "time of day" in the title: Friday Night Knitting Club, Kate Jacobs
3. A book with a "relative" in the title: Between Sisters, Kristen Hannah and My Sister's Keeper, Jodi Piccoult
4. A book with a "body part" in the title: Where the Heart Is, Billie Letts
5. A book with a "building" in the title: Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery
6. A book with a "medical condition" in the title: Club Dead, Charlaine Harris and First Comes Love, Than Comes Malaria, Eve Brown-Waite

Of all the challenges I attempted this year, I had the hardest time picking books for this challenge.  In fact, I still haven't read Fall on Your Knees, and I'm this close to taking it to the used book store for a credit because I just cant be bothered with it.  But, I didn't finish my other challenges (bad me, bad!) and I did finish this one so I think it speaks gobs about the quality of this challenge.

The favorite book that I read of these?  Sheesh ... Anne of Green Gables is an all time favorite and classic.  None of the others really come close to that one.  I'd have to say Where the Heart Is would be second on the enjoyment scale, with the others all being interesting and worth the read, but probably not on the repeat read lists.

Great challenge!  I'll be participating in What's in a Name 3 ... hosted by Beth F (Annie turned over the reigns!)  The categories are:

1. A book with a food in the title: Clockwork Orange, Grapes of Wrath, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
2. A book with a body of water in the title: A River Runs through It, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, The Lake House
3. A book with a title (queen, president) in the title: The Murder of King Tut, The Count of Monte Cristo, Lady Susan
4. A book with a plant in the title: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Wind in the Willows, The Name of the Rose
5. A book with a place name (city, country) in the title: Out of Africa; London; Between, Georgia
6. A book with a music term in the title: Song of Solomon, Ragtime, The Piano Teacher

I really like the categories.  Have no idea what I'll read.  But it's 6 books and I have 12 months to find them.  Surely I can manage!

What's in a Name: Where the Heart Is

Where the Heart Is, by Billie Letts

Novalee Nation is 17, 7 months pregnant, and heading west to California with her boyfriend, Willie Jack Pickens.  Novalee's shoes fall out the hole in the bottom of the passenger floorboard of the car, and she has to go to the bathroom.  Naturally, they stop at Wal-Mart.  She runs in to get new shoes and what not, and when she comes back out, Willie Jack has left her.  Stranded.  In Sequoyah, Oklahoma.

Novalee spends the remaining months of her pregnancy living in the Wal-Mart, meeting new people, and really just buying time until she figures out something.  She doesn't really figure anything out.  But the baby is born, Americus (a name that will stand up to the hard times), and Novalee's squatting in the Wal-Mart is discovered, she becomes famous for having the "Wal-Mart" baby, and the kindness of strangers gives her a fresh start.

I've read almost every other book Billie Letts has written (Honk and Holler Opening Soon, Made in the U.S.A).  I swore I had read this one (I hadn't).  I'd seen the movie, but hadn't read the book.

The book is Fannie Flagg meets West Texas / Oklahoma territory.  Small town people with quirky personalities, big dreams and interesting back stories.  Like most of the other Letts books I've read, this novel takes a dark turn (if you've seen the movie you know what I'm talking about).  The book is harder to stomach than the movie's sort of drive-by approach to that topic.

But even the book doesn't dwell.  It's not that long and we travel through 7.5 years of Novalee's life, chapter by chapter.  Life altering event, by life altering event.

Forney Hull is great in the book.  I liked him in the book better than I liked him in the movie (and I liked him in the movie).  Sister Husband, Mr. Sprock, Moses Whitecotton ... they were all wonderful.  Moses is kind of a pass through character in the movie, but in the book he's much more of a centeral focus, as he gives Novalee her career and her passion (photography) and helps her get back on her feet after the storm comes through.

I really liked this book.  I flew through it.  I had loved the characters already but I loved them more for having spent more time with them.  The movie, if you are interested, is fairly faithful to the book.  There are some things that are left out but that's to be expected.  But I was surprised to see that a majority of the dialogue from the film is lifted straight from the book.

If I were Billie Letts, I'd be proud of that fact.

Definitely pick this up if you're a fan of the genre, live in Oklahoma (or drive through), or loved the movie.  It's fun and uplifting and just sort of leaves you feeling like all will be right with the world if we keep doing our best with what we've got.