The Good Girl by Mary Kubica

"I've been following her for the past few days. I know where she buys her groceries, where she works. I don't know the color of her eyes or what they look like when she's scared. But I will." 

One night, Mia Dennett enters a bar to meet her on-again, off-again boyfriend. But when he doesn't show, she unwisely leaves with an enigmatic stranger. At first Colin Thatcher seems like a safe one-night stand. But following Colin home will turn out to be the worst mistake of Mia's life. 

When Colin decides to hide Mia in a secluded cabin in rural Minnesota instead of delivering her to his employers, Mia's mother, Eve, and detective Gabe Hoffman will stop at nothing to find them. But no one could have predicted the emotional entanglements that eventually cause this family's world to shatter. 

An addictively suspenseful and tautly written thriller, The Good Girl is a propulsive debut that reveals how even in the perfect family, nothing is as it seems.

I don't think it is fair to compare this book to Gone Girl because Gone Girl was a physiological thriller, whereas this could only be really classified as a general thriller novel. 

I don't mean to imply that it wasn't good, because I actually enjoyed it (and finished it in just 2 days). I just don't think there was as much character / plot depth as other thrillers, which made it a nice easy read.

It was pretty easy to pick early on how it was going to play out, but there were still a couple of surprises at the end.

Read my review on Goodreads

Us by David Nicholls

“Of course, after nearly a quarter of a century, the questions about our distant pasts have all been posed and we’re left with ‘how was your day?’ and ‘when will you be home?’ and ‘have you put the bins out?’ Our biographies involve each other so intrinsically now that we’re both on nearly every page. We know the answers because we were there, and so curiosity becomes hard to maintain; replaced, I suppose, by nostalgia.”

Douglas Petersen may be mild-mannered, but behind his reserve lies a sense of humor that, against all odds, seduces beautiful Connie into a second date and eventually into marriage. Now, almost three decades after their relationship first blossomed in London, they live more or less happily in the suburbs with their moody seventeen-year-old son, Albie; then Connie tells him she thinks she wants a divorce.

The timing couldn’t be worse. Hoping to encourage her son’s artistic interests, Connie has planned a month-long tour of European capitals, a chance to experience the world’s greatest works of art as a family, and she can’t bring herself to cancel. And maybe going ahead with the original plan is for the best anyway. Douglas is privately convinced that this landmark trip will rekindle the romance in the marriage and might even help him bond with Albie.

Narrated from Douglas’s endearingly honest, slyly witty, and at times achingly optimistic point of view, Us is the story of a man trying to rescue his relationship with the woman he loves and learning how to get closer to a son who’s always felt like a stranger. 

I thought this was actually a pretty traumatic story. I'm so used to reading how couples meet and fall in love, but to have that side-by-side with the unravelling of that same relationship is just brutal!

It all unravelled in a very clever way. Each character was so relatable that I felt my allegiance shifting each time another clue to the demise of this relationship developed. It seems so obvious that Connie and Douglas are not right for each other, but that didn't mean I wasn't still hoping that they'd somehow work it out and their holiday would magically fix everything.

I give the story 4 stars, but the writing deserved 5 stars.

Read my review on Goodreads

The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman

Coralie Sardie is the daughter of the sinister impresario behind The Museum of Extraordinary Things, a Coney Island boardwalk freak show that thrills the masses. An exceptional swimmer, Coralie appears as the Mermaid in her father’s “museum,” alongside performers like the Wolfman, the Butterfly Girl, and a one-hundred-year-old turtle. One night Coralie stumbles upon a striking young man taking pictures of moonlit trees in the woods off the Hudson River.

The dashing photographer is Eddie Cohen, a Russian immigrant who has run away from his father’s Lower East Side Orthodox community and his job as a tailor’s apprentice. When Eddie photographs the devastation on the streets of New York following the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, he becomes embroiled in the suspicious mystery behind a young woman’s disappearance and ignites the heart of Coralie.

When I made it to almost the halfway point of reading this book I wanted to give up - I just wasn't engaged in the story it didn't excite me, and the characters felt a bit bland. I wish I could say that it picked up (as sometimes it has when I was struggling to read some other books) but it didn't, and I stuck with it to the end out of curiosity, but I had to force myself to do so.

I don't know how anyone can compare it to The Night Circus, it doesn't even come close, mainly because how the two main characters fell in love was barely believable. I think that's why I didn't really enjoy it, because I had such high expectations. 

The actual writing was good, its just a shame the story didn't engage me. 

Read my review on Goodreads

Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult

“I think grief is like a really ugly couch. It never goes away. You can decorate around it; you can slap a doily on top of it; you can push it to the corner of the room—but eventually, you learn to live with it.” 

Alice Metcalf was a devoted mother, loving wife and accomplished scientist who studied grief among elephants. Yet it's been a decade since she disappeared under mysterious circumstances, leaving behind her small daughter, husband, and the animals to which she devoted her life. All signs point to abandonment - or worse.

Still Jenna - now thirteen years old and truly orphaned by a father maddened by grief - steadfastly refuses to believe in her mother's desertion. So she decides to approach the two people who might still be able to help her find Alice: a disgraced psychic named Serenity Jones, and Virgil Stanhope, the cynical detective who first investigated her mother's disappearance and the strange, possibly linked death of one of her WC mother's coworkers.

Together these three lonely souls will discover truths destined to forever change their lives. Deeply moving and suspenseful, Jodi Picoult's 21st novel is a radiant exploration of the enduring love between mothers and daughters. 

Animals, Family, Love, After-life, and add on top of that how well written and in-depth the story was - what more could I want? The story around the elephants was well researched and I love reading books that also make me feel like I've learnt something (without actually having to read a text book).

I had an idea where the story and plot twist was heading after a little while, but there were still a few surprises I didn't see coming. And I loved the format of hearing from alternating characters each chapter, they each had different voices which were clear and distinct.

I honestly think that Jodi Picoult can do no wrong, well not any of her books that I've read as yet anyway. 

Read my review on Goodreads

November 9 by Colleen Hoover

“That's what love is, Ben. Love is sacrifice. I got this tattoo the day I felt that kind of love for your father. And I chose it because if I had to describe love that day, I would say it felt like my two favourite things, amplified and thrown together. Like my favourite poetic line mixed into the lyrics of my favourite song”

Fallon meets Ben, an aspiring novelist, the day before her scheduled cross-country move. Their untimely attraction leads them to spend Fallon’s last day in L.A. together, and her eventful life becomes the creative inspiration Ben has always sought for his novel. Over time and amidst the various relationships and tribulations of their own separate lives, they continue to meet on the same date every year. Until one day Fallon becomes unsure if Ben has been telling her the truth or fabricating a perfect reality for the sake of the ultimate plot twist. 

I'm a sucker for a bit of romance every now and then, and t's even better if the female character is strong, funny and independent weather than weak/helpless in a damsel in distress situation. Even though life had a few downturns for Fallon, and her confidence had taken a beating, she was still strong and independent enough to move across the country and not fall helplessly in love with the first guy that showed her attention (but really, who could resist Ben forever). She was strong and witty and I would love to see more female characters like that.

The ONE and ONLY thing that I thought was a tad disappointing (*Slight SPOILER ALERT*) was in the final chapter, when Ben and Fallon met up the last time, she said she wasn't there to forgive him because he didn't do anything wrong...then SHE apologised. I disagreed with this and the fact she was then begging him to forgive her made me gag that such a cool chic ended up being so pathetic.

I don't think you can read a book like this thinking 100% realistically, because if you did, you would have to question their dedication to only meeting up on November 9 and not succumbing to contacting each other on social media when they were desperate (i.e. when planes were delayed and family members were in accidents). 

But other than that, I loved every minute I was reading their story. 

Read my review on Goodreads.

Forty Rooms by Olga Grushin

"Papa, do you  believe there is any meaning to life?" I blurted out. "I don't not believe" he said sternly. "I know. The meaning of life - the meaning of a single, individual human life, since I assume that is what you are asking - consists of figuring out the one thing you are great stand then pushing mankind's mastery of that one thing as far as you are able, be it an inch or a mile. If you are a carpenter, be a carpenter with every ounce of your being and invent a new type of saw. If you are an archaeologist, find the tomb of Alexander the Great. If you are Alexander the Great, conquer the world. And never to anything by half."

Totally original in conception and magnificently executed, Forty Rooms is mysterious, withholding, and ultimately emotionally devastating. Olga Grushin is dealing with issues of women’s identity, of women’s choices, that no modern novel has explored so deeply. 

“Forty rooms” is a conceit: it proposes that a modern woman will inhabit forty rooms in her lifetime. They form her biography, from childhood to death. For our protagonist, the much-loved child of a late marriage, the first rooms she is aware of as she nears the age of five are those that make up her family’s Moscow apartment. We follow this child as she reaches adolescence, leaves home to study in America, and slowly discovers sexual happiness and love. But her hunger for adventure and her longing to be a great poet conspire to kill the affair. She seems to have made her choice. But one day she runs into a college classmate. He is sure of his path through life, and he is protective of her. (He is also a great cook.) They drift into an affair and marriage. What follows are the decades of births and deaths, the celebrations, material accumulations, and home comforts—until one day, her children grown and gone, her husband absent, she finds herself alone except for the ghosts of her youth, who have come back to haunt and even taunt her. 

Compelling and complex, Forty Rooms is also profoundly affecting, its ending shattering but true. We know that Mrs. Caldwell (for that is the only name by which we know her) has died. Was it a life well lived? Quite likely. Was it a life complete? Does such a life ever really exist? Life is, after all, full of trade-offs and choices. Who is to say her path was not well taken? It is this ambiguity that is at the heart of this provocative novel.

This is such a fantastic concept for a story. Even though each chapter is only a snapshot of her life in a particular room/year, I felt like I had such a clear image of who she was.

The story is so crushing, not because of the intense drama in the characters actions, but because this theory could be applied to anyones life, unintentionally making you question how many shadow lives you have of your own. 

The plot isn't really anything new - girl has dreams, goes to uni, falls in love, gets heart broken, meets new boy, gets married and starts a family, there is an affair, life, deaths, friends...but there is so much angst and so many parallel lives in this story that it is hard not to feel it within yourself too.

Some chapters I could relate to, others not as much, but more so as she became a mother and struggled with the new identity and how to fit in time for who she was as well as all the there things that need doing. The first half of the book was the hardest to enjoy, because at times I found her a little annoying - each era of her life was frayed by more and more hesitation, selfish,unsure of herself and never quite satisfied yet not really doing anything to change it - but on reflection I think tis is what makes the story so real and relatable, because what young adult isn't like that at times?

There was a lot going on in this book with so many layers, and while it is ver intelligent and poetic at the same time, it isn't the sort of book I could read if I didn't have any mental energy to focus. 

What I have taken away from reading this, is that sometimes the only real challenges some of us face are the ones we put in front of ourselves.

Read my review on Goodreads

My Name is Leon by Kit de Waal

Leon is nine, and has a perfect baby brother called Jake. They have gone to live with Maureen, who has fuzzy red hair like a halo, and a belly like Father Christmas. But the adults are speaking in low voices, and wearing Pretend faces. They are threatening to take Jake away and give him to strangers. Because Jake is white and Leon is not. 

As Leon struggles to cope with his anger, certain things can still make him smile – like Curly Wurlys, riding his bike fast downhill, burying his hands deep in the soil, hanging out with Tufty (who reminds him of his dad), and stealing enough coins so that one day he can rescue Jake and his mum.

Evoking a Britain of the early eighties, My Name is Leon is a story of love, identity and learning to overcome unbearable loss. Of the fierce bond between siblings. And how – just when we least expect it – we somehow manage to find our way home.

This is a slower paced story so it might not be a good one to read if you don't have a lot of time (I feel it would just drag on too long), but stick with it because the ending does it justice.

For the majority of this book I couldn't understand how anyone would let their child wander the streets on their own and not question what they were up to - I certainly couldn't imagine me not caring about where my son was - but then I realised that that was exactly what my childhood was like growing up in the almost-country. It just made me sad that the whole time I was reading it, I was worried about someone nasty snatching him.

What I took most from this story, was that Family is what you make it. Leon was too young to understand that initially, but by the end he had made found himself in a very unique but caring family, as opposed to struggling to put back his real family. It breaks my heart to think that is a reality for some children, and I hope that it works out right for some of them, even though it also seems hard work. My heart strings were definitely pulled for Leon.

Read my review on Goodreads

The Gravity of Birds by Tracy Guzeman

I was born old. My mother told me once that I looked like a grumpy old man from the moment I was born - wrinkled, pruney face, rheumy eyes. You've heard of the expression an old soul? I was born with a head full of someone else's failed dreams  and a heart full of someone else's memories.

In this compelling debut novel, an art authenticator and an art historian are employed by a famous, reclusive painter to sell a never-before-seen portrait, leading them to discover devastating secrets two sisters have kept from each other, and from the artist who determined the course of their lives.

How do you find someone who wants to be lost?

Sisters Natalie and Alice Kessler were close, until adolescence wrenched them apart. Natalie is headstrong, manipulative—and beautiful; Alice is a dreamer who loves books and birds. During their family’s summer holiday at the lake, Alice falls under the thrall of a struggling young painter, Thomas Bayber, in whom she finds a kindred spirit. Natalie, however, remains strangely unmoved, sitting for a family portrait with surprising indifference. But by the end of the summer, three lives are shattered.

Decades later, Bayber, now a reclusive, world-renowned artist, unveils a never-before-seen work, Kessler Sisters—a provocative painting depicting the young Thomas, Natalie, and Alice. Bayber asks Dennis Finch, an art history professor, and Stephen Jameson, an eccentric young art authenticator, to sell the painting for him. That task becomes more complicated when the artist requires that they first locate Natalie and Alice, who seem to have vanished. And Finch finds himself wondering why Thomas is suddenly so intent on resurrecting the past.

In The Gravity of Birds histories and memories refuse to stay buried; in the end only the excavation of the past will enable its survivors to love again.

A 3 star rating sounds too harsh, but I can't quite make myself commit to 4 stars, so 3.5 it is. 

The story was intriguing and engaging enough to make me want to keep reading until the end, it was just that I was never really shocked enough by anything (I would call them 'plot bends' instead of 'plot twists'). It was extremely well written (see above quote, this is just one example) and a good display on how a decision can change the course of a persons life, but there was just something missing for me to consider this a great book rather than just a good book. 

I found Alice to be a bit of a bore. I understand there was probably another side to her (i.e. that she showed the children in scouts) but you didn't really ever get to meet that side of Alice, only the whinging self-pitying cripple side of Alice.

It was a similar thing with Natalie - she was apparently so despicable and callous as a teenager and adult, but you never really found out how much until the end, you just had to trust the other characters opinion of her until then.

I loved how the story evolved through the different times, and how it was entwined with art. Overall I enjoyed it but would not recommend for anyone who loves their thriller novels fast paced. 

Read my review on Goodreads

Lottery by Patricia Wood

Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Perry's IQ is only 76, but he's not stupid. His grandmother taught him everything he needs to know to survive: She taught him to write things down so he won't forget them. She taught him to play the lottery every week. And, most important, she taught him whom to trust. When Gram dies, Perry is left orphaned and bereft at the age of thirty-one. Then his weekly Washington State Lottery ticket wins him 12 million dollars, and he finds he has more family than he knows what to do with. Peopled with characters both wicked and heroic who leap off the pages, Lottery is a deeply satisfying, gorgeously rendered novel about trust, loyalty, and what distinguishes us as capable.

I nearly didn't take this book home to read, because I thought it might make me too sad. I'm glad I decided that being too sad over someone being retarded ("I am NOT retarded") and ripped off by his family wasn't a good enough reason to not read it, because this story was really heartwarming.

It was one of those books that you think is going to follow a simple lighthearted path to the end, but it ends up having more to it than that. There was more to Perry than a slow mentality - he is kind and observant and funny and loving and there is a lot he could teach others instead of the other way around.

I started to get annoyed that part of the story where the family plots to steal his money was taking so long, but then I realised that wasn't the main point, it was giving us more insight in to who Perry was through his memories and musings. 

Although some of his real family are not very nice people at all, he shows that sometimes family are those that you choose as well as those that you are born with. There is also a very good reminder to not always judge a book by it's cover, so to speak. 

The Forgetting Time by Sharon Guskin

“He thought of Heraclitus: a man cannot step in the same river twice, for it is not the same river, and he is not the same man.” 

Noah is four and wants to go home. The only trouble is he's already there.

Janie's son is her world, and it breaks her heart that he has nightmares.
That he's terrified of water.
That he sometimes pushes her away and screams that he wants his real mother.
That it's getting worse and worse and no one seems to be able to help.

In desperation, she turns to someone who might have an answer - but it may not be one she's ready to hear.
It may also mean losing the one thing she loves more than anything.
Noah.

A novel that spans life, death and everything in between, The Forgetting Time tells an unforgettable story - about Noah, about love, and, above all, about the things we hold onto when we have nothing else.

I wasn't expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did. It had an interesting theme that I wasn't sure I would be able to believe, but it was written so well that I took to it immediately. It had a lot going on - mystery, love, complex relationships - and it didn't disappoint.  

I felt for Janie - what mother wouldn't move heaven and earth to help their child? Even if it sounded a little crazy to others.

Anderson's  pain and struggle made him more loveable and believable. 

Hearing about the families who lost their children/siblings, made me hug my son harder.

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

“My heart started racing, not the bad kind of heart racing, like I'm going to die. But the good kind of heart racing, like, Hello, can I help you with something? If not, please step aside because I'm about to kick the shit out of life.” 

Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom.

Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette's intensifying allergy to Seattle—and people in general—has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic.

To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence—creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's role in an absurd world.

What a funny Mum Bernadette would have been. A little crazy at times, but there'd never be a dull moment. There really is a fine line between genius and madness.

There were a few sections where I skim read because it was dragged out a tad too long, but otherwise this book had some really funny parts - the landslide paragraphs actually made me laugh out aloud. 

It had been on my 'To Read' list for a while and I'm glad I finally got around to it. Easy enough to read that I could be absorbed in it, but interesting enough that I actually wanted to keep reading longer than I could at times.

Read my review on Goodreads

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

“Everything's a risk. Not doing anything is a risk. It's up to you.”

...

“Life is a gift. Don't forget to live it.” 

My disease is as rare as it is famous. Basically, I’m allergic to the world. I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in seventeen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla.

But then one day, a moving truck arrives next door. I look out my window, and I see him. He’s tall, lean and wearing all black—black T-shirt, black jeans, black sneakers, and a black knit cap that covers his hair completely. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly.

Maybe we can’t predict the future, but we can predict some things. For example, I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly. It’s almost certainly going to be a disaster. 

What a good girl Madeline must have been to never questioned her disease. I understand that you would probably never think your Mother would be capable of deceiving you on such a massive thing, but she seems like such an intelligent woman that I find it hard to believe that it had honestly never crossed her mind before. And what about her full time nurse? Why did she not pick anything up? Especially after she disclosed she had a hunch that there was something not right?

I was about halfway through when I had my suspicions that this was coming, and I was kind of hoping that it wouldn't. I was kind of hoping that Olly and Maddy would build on their love and overcome the massive health obstacle and that it would work out that way, but it didn't happen like that. 

I read/watch the news, so I know that (particularly in America it seems...) things like this actually do happen to real people, so it didn't make me enjoy the story any less when it panned out this way - it was still really well written and I loved the blossoming love between Olly and Maddy - I was just less surprised.

It had similar stirrings to Room, and The Fault in our Stars, while not being exactly the same as either of those other books. I also really loved how the books referenced throughout the story were real - I've even downloaded a few of them to read!

Read my review on Goodreads

Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed

“It is not so incomprehensible as you pretend, sweet pea. Love is the feeling we have for those we care deeply about and hold in high regard. It can be light as the hug we give a friend or heavy as the sacrifices we make for our children. It can be romantic, platonic, familial, fleeting, everlasting, conditional, unconditional, imbued with sorrow, stoked by sex, sullied by abuse, amplified by kindness, twisted by betrayal, deepened by time, darkened by difficulty, leavened by generosity, nourished by humor and “loaded with promises and commitments” that we may or may not want or keep.

The best thing you can possibly do with your life is to tackle the motherfucking shit out of it.” 

Life can be hard: your lover cheats on you; you lose a family member; you can’t pay the bills—and it can be great: you’ve had the hottest sex of your life; you get that plum job; you muster the courage to write your novel. Sugar—the once-anonymous online columnist at The Rumpus, now revealed as Cheryl Strayed, author of the bestselling memoir Wild—is the person thousands turn to for advice. 
Tiny Beautiful Things brings the best of Dear Sugar in one place and includes never-before-published columns and a new introduction by Steve Almond.  Rich with humor, insight, compassion—and absolute honesty—this book is a balm for everything life throws our way.

I have never highlighted so many paragraphs in one book before. 

The advice given by 'Sugar' is so raw and real, and even though the situation she is replying to might not apply to my life, there were so many things I want to remember because they touched a cord with me and I want to keep them for my future self, or so I can pass them on to someone I know at some stage. 

The words that I would use to describe this book are: Motivating, Passionate, and Heartwarming.

• Motivating: it made me feel like I should get off my butt and stop reading to sort my life out. Be a better friend, be a better Mum, stop feeling sorry for myself.
• Passionate: her advice is blunt and direct and she says it like it is. You can read the honesty in her words clearly, and you get the sense that the responses stems from the same talks she might give herself in the mirror every now and then - they are words she lives by herself.
• Heartwarming: you can tell there is a genuine care behind her responses. Even when she is telling someone to pull their head in, it is done in such a caring way that it makes you genuinely want to comply because she makes you feel like it is the right thing to do.

I wish I knew of an advice column like this one to read when I was a teenager! It would be interesting to see my 'sister life' and see if it would have helped me navigate my younger life with less angst and confusion.

After finishing this book it makes me want to read even more from Cheryl Strayed (I have already read Wild)

The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

“Marin believes love is better in the chase than caught,’ she says. He raises his eyebrows. ‘That does not surprise me. It is not better. But it is easier. One’s imagination is always more generous. And yet, the chase always tires you out in the end.” 

On a brisk autumn day in 1686, eighteen-year-old Nella Oortman arrives in Amsterdam to begin a new life as the wife of illustrious merchant trader Johannes Brandt. But her new home, while splendorous, is not welcoming. Johannes is kind yet distant, always locked in his study or at his warehouse office-leaving Nella alone with his sister, the sharp-tongued and forbidding Marin.

But Nella's world changes when Johannes presents her with an extraordinary wedding gift: a cabinet-sized replica of their home. To furnish her gift, Nella engages the services of a miniaturist-an elusive and enigmatic artist whose tiny creations mirror their real-life counterparts in eerie and unexpected ways . . .

Johannes' gift helps Nella to pierce the closed world of the Brandt household. But as she uncovers its unusual secrets, she begins to understand-and fear-the escalating dangers that await them all. In this repressively pious society where gold is worshipped second only to God, to be different is a threat to the moral fabric of society, and not even a man as rich as Johannes is safe. Only one person seems to see the fate that awaits them. Is the miniaturist the key to their salvation . . . or the architect of their destruction?

Enchanting, beautiful, and exquisitely suspenseful, The Miniaturist is a magnificent story of love and obsession, betrayal and retribution, appearance and truth.

So beautifully written, with a beautiful cover to match.

While I wouldn't describe this story as shocking or action-packed, there was actually quite a lot that went on that kept me guessing until the end.

How to Fall in Love by Cecelia Ahern

“Life is a series of moments and moments are always changing, just like thoughts, negative and positive. And though it may be human nature to dwell, like many natural things it's senseless, senseless to allow a single thought to inhabit a mind because thoughts are like guests or fair-weather friends. As soon as they arrive, they can leave, and even the ones that take a long time to emerge fully can disappear in an instant. Moments are precious; sometimes they linger and other times they're fleeting, and yet so much could be done in them; you could change a mind, you could save a life and you could even fall in love.” 

She has just two weeks. Two weeks to teach him how to fall in love – with his own life.

Adam Basil and Christine Rose are thrown together late one night, when Christine is crossing the Halfpenny Bridge in Dublin. Adam is there, poised, threatening to jump. Adam is desperate – but Christine makes a crazy deal with him. His 35th birthday is looming and she bets him she can show him that life is worth living before then.

Despite her determination, Christine knows what a dangerous promise she’s made. Against the ticking of the clock, the two of them embark on wild escapades, grand romantic gestures and some unlikely late-night outings. Slowly, Christine thinks Adam is starting to fall back in love with his life.

But has she done enough to change his mind for good? And is that all that’s starting to happen? 

Despite how morbid the blurb sounds, this novel wasn't all doom and gloom. Yes it covered some pretty serious topics - heartbreak, depression, suicide, bullying... - but there were just as many laughs and sweet moments, I felt I was smiling inside way more than shedding a tear.

I've loved every Cecelia Ahern novel so far, but this one read slightly differently for me, slightly more Marian Keyes that some of her others. Loveable characters, witty punchlines, a quirky family and a creative way to weave an unusual 'How-To' dependancy through a love story. 

“Where would we be without tomorrows? What we’d have instead are todays. And if that was the case, with you, I’d hope for the longest day for today. I’d fill today with you, doing everything I’ve ever loved. I’d laugh, I’d talk, I’d listen and learn, I’d love, I’d love, I’d love. I’d make every day today and spend them all with you, and I’d never worry about tomorrow, when I wouldn’t be with you. And when that dreaded tomorrow comes for us, please know that I didn’t want to leave you, or be left behind, that every single moment spent with you were the best times in my life.” 

Elegies for the Brokenhearted by Christie Hodgen

But, what did I really have to do with you, and you with me? We were two people around the same age, growing up in the same failing city, walking the same streets under the same clouds, nothing much. Except to say that once, without knowing it, you did something that changed my life entirely. With the smallest gesture you altered the course of my life, split it in two, and I haven't been able to think of you without feeling a stab, the question of what might have become of me if you had done otherwise.

Who are the people you’ll never forget? For Mary Murphy, there are five: A skirt-chasing, car-racing uncle with whiskey breath and a three-day beard. A “walking joke, a sitting duck, a fish in a barrel” named Elwood LePoer. A dirt-poor college roommate who conceals an unbearable secret. A failed piano prodigy lost in middle age. A beautiful mother haunted by her once-great aspirations.

In five quirky elegies to lost friends and relatives, Mary tells us the story of her life. We begin with a restless childhood spent following her mother between multiple homes and husbands. Then comes the disappearance of Mary’s rebellious and beloved sister, Malinda. By the time Mary leaves for college, she has no one to write home to, and we follow along on her difficult search for purpose. From a series of miserable jobs to her “reborn” mother’s deathbed, Mary finds hope in the most surprising places. With a rhythmically unique voice and pitch-perfect wry humor, Christie Hodgen spins an unconventional and moving story about identity, belonging, and family.

Whoa this book was amazing! I want to read it again, and I want to tell everyone I know about it!

It really was very clever in the way it was put together. It painted such a clear picture of the main character, Mary Murphy, without making it really seem all about her as the main focus.

All of the elegies were written so well, but my favourite was the last chapter and how it tied everything together so well.

The Memory Of Running by Ron McLarty

“Is that possible? I said.
All things, all things are possible. What do you think your bike ride says? People would say "Is that possible?" Of course you know it is, now.”

Every decade seems to produce a novel that captures the public's imagination with a story that sweeps readers up and takes them on a thrilling, unforgettable ride.

Ron McLarty's The Memory of Running is this decade's novel. By all accounts, especially his own, Smithson "Smithy" Ide is a loser. An overweight, friendless, chain-smoking, forty-three-year-old drunk, Smithy's life becomes completely unhinged when he loses his parents and long-lost sister within the span of one week.

Rolling down the driveway of his parents' house in Rhode Island on his old Raleigh bicycle to escape his grief, the emotionally bereft Smithy embarks on an epic, hilarious, luminous, and extraordinary journey of discovery and redemption.

I was a fair few chapters in before I felt connected to the story and where it was going, but once I did, I was enchanted by the idea. Imagine hopping on a bike drunk with no plan, then riding for about 2 months, only letting circumstances and the people you meet along the way influence you. I really wish I could do it!

I loved watching each character unfold. Initially they seem a little rough around the edges, but as the story went on, I saw a little deeper into their character and I really felt for them and their hardships in life - but then in the next paragraph I'd be chuckling to myself at or something they said or that happened. It reminded me of the saying "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about". 

I liked how both the best and the worst of life was shown throughout this story. It wasn't too sweet to stomach but it didn't depress me either - I felt like this could be one of those amazing true stories that you hear about every now and then.

Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's by John Elder Robison

“My conversational difficulties highlight a problem Aspergians face every day. A person with an obvious disability—for example, someone in a wheelchair—is treated compassionately because his handicap is obvious. No one turns to a guy in a wheelchair and says, “Quick! Let’s run across the street!” And when he can’t run across the street, no one says, “What’s his problem?” They offer to help him across the street. With me, though, there is no external sign that I am conversationally handicapped. So folks hear some conversational misstep and say, “What an arrogant jerk!” I look forward to the day when my handicap will afford me the same respect accorded to a guy in a wheelchair. And if the respect comes with a preferred parking space, I won’t turn it down.” 
― John Elder Robison, Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's

Ever since he was small, John Robison had longed to connect with other people, but by the time he was a teenager, his odd habits—an inclination to blurt out non sequiturs, avoid eye contact, dismantle radios, and dig five-foot holes (and stick his younger brother in them)—had earned him the label “social deviant.” No guidance came from his mother, who conversed with light fixtures, or his father, who spent evenings pickling himself in sherry. It was no wonder he gravitated to machines, which could, at least, be counted on.

After fleeing his parents and dropping out of high school, his savant-like ability to visualize electronic circuits landed him a gig with KISS, for whom he created their legendary fire-breathing guitars. Later, he drifted into a “real” job, as an engineer for a major toy company. But the higher Robison rose in the company, the more he had to pretend to be “normal” and do what he simply couldn’t: communicate. It wasn’t worth the paycheck.

It was not until he was forty that an insightful therapist told him he had the form of autism called Asperger’s syndrome. That understanding transformed the way Robison saw himself—and the world.

Look Me in the Eye is the moving, darkly funny story of growing up with Asperger’s at a time when the diagnosis simply didn’t exist. A born storyteller, Robison takes you inside the head of a boy whom teachers and other adults regarded as “defective,” who could not avail himself of KISS’s endless supply of groupies, and who still has a peculiar aversion to using people’s given names (he calls his wife “Unit Two”). He also provides a fascinating reverse angle on the younger brother he left at the mercy of their nutty parents—the boy who would later change his name to Augusten Burroughs and write the bestselling memoir Running with Scissors.

Ultimately, this is the story of Robison’s journey from his world into ours, and his new life as a husband, father, and successful small business owner—repairing his beloved high-end automobiles. It’s a strange, sly, indelible account—sometimes alien, yet always deeply human.

I enjoyed this book so much more than I was expecting too. I pictured it to be dryly written and have the weight of a textbook, instead I found it insightful, interesting and humorous.

The first section focused on Robinson's early childhood and home life, and I found this part depressing and so sad, but that just makes his achievement to overcome his challenges with  Aspergers so much more incredible. How many other people throughout history that achieved great things in their chosen field, might have had a similar spectrum condition?

I didn't really have much of an understanding of Aspergers prior to reading this, but I'm glad I did, as I feel like I would be able to assist them with feeling comfortable with the conversation and then appreciate their unique ability.  I can see how this novel would be very important to help educate school aged children to be more tolerant and understanding to their peers, regardless of any diagnosis.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

“The happening and telling are very different things. This doesn’t mean that the story isn’t true, only that I honestly don’t know anymore if I really remember it or only remember how to tell it. Language does this to our memories, simplifies, solidifies, codifies, mummifies. An off-told story is like a photograph in a family album. Eventually it replaces the moment it was meant to capture.” …

“In the phrase ' human being,' the word 'being' is much more important than the word 'human.' ” 

Meet the Cooke family. Our narrator is Rosemary Cooke. As a child, she never stopped talking; as a young woman, she has wrapped herself in silence: the silence of intentional forgetting, of protective cover. Something happened, something so awful she has buried it in the recesses of her mind.

Now her adored older brother is a fugitive, wanted by the FBI for domestic terrorism. And her once lively mother is a shell of her former self, her clever and imperious father now a distant, brooding man.

And Fern, Rosemary’s beloved sister, her accomplice in all their childhood mischief? Fern’s is a fate the family, in all their innocence, could never have imagined.

This would have been a good book to read on my kindle, instead of paperback, because there are a lot of words that I wanted to look up the definition of, and picking up my phone and googling them was more time consuming than highlighting the word on the kindle. But I felt I learnt a few things, which usually means that I am interested in the story enough to want to learn something, as opposed to escaping in to a fairytale.

And I did genuinely enjoy this story! I was a bit hesitant because the blurb on the back was quite vague, but not that I have finished I understand why it had to be that way. Without giving any detail away, the twist was a surprise to me, and I'm glad for that, because now not only did I learn something and enjoyed the story, but it took me somewhere I didn't expect, and I like that.

Initially I thought I had this story pegged as a story about how our parents really screw us up, but the further I went, I realised that it was so much more intelligent than that, and there were so many deeper layers than its face value. I think that the writing style had a lot to do with this, the beginning was the middle, the middle was the beginning and the end, while also another beginning. Confused? Don't be, it was actually really easy to follow and the characters were so normal, with all their flaws visible if you were ready to look at them.

This book made me question so much (it even made me think about becoming a vegetarian, if I wasn't so adverse to carbs) and I have a lot of respect for the author (I kept reading past the acknowledgements and they were just as important as the actual story itself I felt).