Sleeping with Paris - Juliette Sobanet

Charlotte Summers is a sassy, young French teacher who is two days away from moving to Paris with the love of her life and from fulfilling her dream of studying at the prestigious Sorbonne University in France. But when she discovers her fiancé’s online dating profile and has a little chat with the busty red-head he’s been sleeping with on the side, she gives up on committed relationships altogether and decides to navigate Paris on her own.

Determined to stop other women from finding themselves in her shoes, Charlotte creates an anonymous blog on how to date like a man in the City of Love—that is, how to jump from bed to bed without ever falling in love. But, with a slew of Parisian men beating down her door, a hot new neighbor who feeds her chocolate in bed, and an appearance by her sleazy ex-fiancé, she isn’t so sure she can keep her promise to remain commitment-free.

And, when Charlotte agrees to write an article for a popular women’s magazine about her Parisian dating adventures—or disasters, rather—will she risk losing the one man who’s swept her off her feet and her dream job in one fell swoop?

This is a true example of a chic lit novel. Saucy, fun, lighthearted and humorous. It made me laugh out loud, cringe and tear up (not really) throughout. The characters were hilarious and not at all cheesy like they can be.

I have read another book along the same lines as this one - Friday Night Cocktails, but Sleeping with Paris is definitely well written with a more well rounded storyline and characters.

I am especially a soccer for novels written in or about France, I will buy (and finish reading) even the WORST book if it is based around the City of Love (case in point Love Song by Alex Miller, a painfully boring French story), but this one vibrantly described the streets of Paris and made me nostalgic to return there myself!

It won't be for everyone, but this would be a perfect book to read while on holidays - something you can easily put down but just as easily pick back up again.

Jesse's Girl - Gary Morgenstein

How much should a parent sacrifice for a troubled child? In Gary Morgenstein’s taut new thriller, Jesse’s Girl, the answer is – anything. Anchored around a floundering father-son relationship, finding roots and re-uniting vanished bonds, the timely novel about teen addiction and adoption follows a desperate father’s search for his son, who has run away from a wilderness program to find his biological sister in Kentucky.

I had kind of low expectations for this book - I picked it up on sale from Amazon.com for $4.00 and it wasn't too bad, but I wouldn't say I loved it, for no particular reason.

The story wasn't that predictable and there were a few twists and turns I didn't see coming, and the characters were well described and lively.

It was a bargain book that was good and I would recommend as a good holiday easy read, but I probably wouldn't read it again.

Molokai - Alan Brennert

This rich novel, set in Hawaii more than a century ago, is an extraordinary epic of a little-known time and place - and a deeply moving testament to the resiliency of the human spirit. Rachel Kalama, a spirited seven-year-old Hawaiian girl, dreams of visiting far-off lands like her father, a merchant seaman. Then one day a rose-colored mark appears on her skin, and those dreams are stolen from her. Taken from her home and family, Rachel is sent to Kalaupapa, the quarantined leprosy settlement on the island of Moloka'i. Here her life is supposed to end---but instead she discovers it is only just beginning. With a vibrant cast of vividly realized characters, Moloka'i is the true-to-life chronicle of a people who embraced life in the face of death.

This book came highly recommended from online book stores so I had high expectations when I started reading it, which is unfortunate because then I might not have been disappointed. It was a very fascinating topic that I didn't know too much about previously, that told the story of a strong woman who lived a fulfilled life even in some of the most heart breaking conditions, 

My reservations were solely because the dialogue sometimes got a little boring and I found myself speed reading over sections. 

Over all though the story was interesting and I would recommend it to others who were after an eye opening topic, without too much intense drama. 

The Help - Kathryn Stockett

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. 

Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women — mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends — view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't. 

After hearing so many people raving about the book and movie, I finally have gotten around to reading it myself, and now that I have finished I am a little disappointed in myself for waiting so long! It is one of the most enjoyable books I have read in a long time!

There had been a lot of poor reviews saying that the book trivialises the atrocious things that happed throughout history, but there was not once in the book that I myself felt this was happening, especially not deliberately. I can appreciate how hard this must have been for a white woman to write, let alone do it extremely well!

The story was enticing and engaging the whole way through, right up to the strong, hopeful ending, and the characters were larger than life and had personalities that leaped from the pages.

I would highly recommend this book, along with the other 5000+ positive reviews on amazon.com, and after seeing the movie I am glad I read the book first - the movie misses out so many key points and relationships and in this car the book really is a lot better than the movie.

Jasper Jones - Craig Silvey

Late on a hot summer night in the tail end of 1965, Charlie Bucktin, a precocious and bookish boy of thirteen, is startled by an urgent knock on the window of his sleep-out. His visitor is Jasper Jones, an outcast in the regional mining town of Corrigan. Rebellious, mixed-race and solitary, Jasper is a distant figure of danger and intrigue for Charlie. So when Jasper begs for his help, Charlie eagerly steals into the night by his side, terribly afraid but desperate to impress.

Jasper takes him through town and to his secret glade in the bush, and it's here that Charlie bears witness to Jasper's horrible discovery. With his secret like a brick in his belly, Charlie is pushed and pulled by a town closing in on itself in fear and suspicion as he locks horns with his tempestuous mother, falls nervously in love and battles to keep a lid on his zealous best friend, Jeffrey Lu. 

And in vainly attempting to restore the parts that have been shaken loose, Charlie learns to discern the truth from the myth, and why white lies creep like a curse. In the simmering summer where everything changes, Charlie learns why the truth of things is so hard to know, and even harder to hold in his heart.

A good friend recommended this book to me and she usually has been spot on the money, and she didn't let me down this time either. I would probably not have selected this book on my own, the cover didn't grab me and the story sounded like a book more suited to young adults, but I soon forgot my original preconceived ideas and was glued to the story! 

This has been hailed as the Australian version of "To Kill A Mockingbird", which was obviously what the author was trying to channel as he referenced the book and Atticus Finch several times. Like TKAM there are many themes that run through the story line: mystery, friendship, romance, comedy, betrayal, racism, but most of all I think this is a coming of age book where a child takes the first steps into young adulthood and learns that things in the adult world are more complicated than they first seem.

The whole thing is very well written and the characters are so vivid and each has an individual personality and 'voice' that is clear throughout the book.  

One I definitely recommend for all age groups, and as an added bonus of reading this book you will be helping support an Australian writer!

The Wedding Gift - Kathleen McKenna

Leann wasn’t good enough for her upper-crust in-laws, so they gave her the mansion none of them wanted. Years ago, something or someone in the house killed Leann’s brother. Will its violent secrets kill her next?“ . . . a spine-electrifying supernatural tale where a huge Southern States mansion contains one of the most terrifying, violent and indeed psychopathic ghosts to haunt any town. It is also a murder mystery—why did Robina Willets apparently kill all five of her young children, and her husband, before stabbing herself to death? And, if you are in the camp of believing that 'Justice . . . just is not,' then this will have you frothing at the mouth with righteous social fury.

Getting this book on sale from Amazon (Kindle) for 99c, I had low expectations as surely they wouldn't be practically GIVING away a book if it was really any good, right??

So I was pleasantly  surprised to discover that not only was the book actually pretty good, I was fast becoming hooked to it!

My first thought was that I wasn't going to be able to finish reading it as I thought I would find the Southern style dialogue too distracting, but now looking back after I have finished reading it I can see how this actually added to the magic of the story. 

You may be forgiven from thinking that this is going to be a story about love, which isn't strictly untrue, but there is so much drama and mystery going on that I didn't expect. 

I can't really comment on whether the characters a true to form in those parts as I have never experienced this part of America first hand, but I do know that I didn't find them ridiculous or frustrating like some other reviewers did. 

I would definitely recommend this book for those who like both love stories or murder mysteries, all in all a great read.

The Lover's Dictionary - David Levithan

ineffable, adj.

These words will ultimately end up being the barest of reflections, devoid of the sensations words cannot convey. Trying to write about love is ultimately like trying to have a dictionary represent life. No matter how many words there are, there will never be enough. 

How does one talk about love? Do we even have the right words to describe something that can be both utterly mundane and completely transcendent, pulling us out of our everyday lives and making us feel a part of something greater than ourselves? Taking a unique approach to this problem, the nameless narrator of David Levithan’s The Lover’s Dictionary has constructed the story of his relationship as a dictionary, with anecdotal entries from aberrant to zenith. Through these short entries, most less than a page long, he provides an intimate window into the great events and quotidian trifles of being within a couple, giving us an indelible and deeply moving portrait of love in our time.

This was such an intriguing way to write a story but it paid off and I absolutely loved it. The snippets given in alphabetical order was not a chronologically accurate, and I loved seeing the truth in their relationship slowly emerge and then given depth. There was a lot left unsaid by the unnamed characters, but at the end the story didn't feel incomplete.

I have always considered myself to be well-read and have an above average vocabulary for someone my age, so it was surprising to me how many words I had to look up the meaning of when I wasn't seeing them viewed in a full sentence.

Now there was one downside to this book...I stumbled across this when I was checking out the recommended books for Kindle on Amazon.com and this one popped up with really good reviews. After reading it, and overall enjoying to short book, I can say that I am glad I read it, but wished I had of waited for it to come on sale as the largest feeling I was left with after reading it within 24 hours was that I shouldn't have paid $13 AUD for the kindle version. But after I got over that feeling of being a little ripped of I reminded myself that I actually really enjoyed the story.

Overall, a good read if you don't have the time to get stuck in to a long, heavy story.