August books

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The Last Anniversary - Liane Moriarty
Sophie is surprised to be contacted by her ex-boyfriend after his aunt dies and leaves her something. His family is well-known in Australia because of an old mystery, and soon she is living among them on their island and learning their secrets. I can't stop trying Moriarty books even though she adds a dark edge to some of them. This was no exception, but it also has all the aspects I love about Moriarty's books. She really understands people and feelings. I want to quote passages for you sometime, because I feel like she gets me. :P I was not crazy about the ending, though. Also: for some reason this reminded me of a Sarah Addison Allen book.

The Buck Stops Here - Mindy Starns Clark
The final book in the Million Dollar Mysteries series. Once again I was struck by how idiotic Callie seems throughout, and the main "problem" is a bit of a stretch for causing all the heartache it does. Still, I enjoyed my reread of this series and will remember this summer of walks when I think of these books.

The Song Remains the Same - Allison Winn Scotch
Nell is one of only two survivors in a plane crash, but she has lost all memories of her life. Her family tries to protect her by telling her half-truths, which causes more confusion and strife. There's a bit more to it, but I don't know how else to concisely explain the premise. Amnesia stories are fascinating to me, but this one was poorly-executed and even boring at times. I had a hard time believing Nell actually lost her memories, because she seemed to take the news so calmly and fall back into family life with her mom, sister and husband. The author doesn't seem to explore the feelings of loneliness and confusion of being around complete strangers who know you, or even the practical aspects of what she does remember (cultural references, normal tasks, her surroundings) vs. what she doesn't. It's inconsistent--sometimes she'll not know a particular actor or movie, and sometimes it's assumed she is familiar. The book doesn't explain much about her particular brand of amnesia, so it seems like the author didn't research it very well. The whole idea of Nell wanting to start fresh with her life implies that she has a sense of life before the crash, which supposedly she doesn't. She is basing this off what people have told her, but I'm not convinced. Also, her family is told that she will likely get her memory back eventually, so WHY would they misrepresent the past the way they do? I guess they're fine with her eventually finding out they lied?? So weird and dumb.

August: 3
2015: 25

August Book List

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My Heart's in the Lowlands by Liz Curtis Higgs
I really like the tone of this one - instead of being a list of places you could see in Scotland, or a tale of someone else's trip, the author pretends that you and she are off to Scotland for a week. I love her enthusiasm and affection for Scotland, and the best parts of the book are when she steps out of the fictional trip for a minute and tells some story about a real adventure she's had there - my favorite is probably the one where, out on a solitary walk one morning she slips and tumbles down the side of a hill, miraculously not smashing her brand new camera, and is rescued at the bottom by a strapping young hiker. In terms of actual useful information this book is light - especially since Dumfries and Galloway aren't on my itinerary - but it's excellent fodder for daydreaming.

A School for Brides by Patrice Kindl
The sequel to Keeping the Castle, which I remember liking well enough, but not as much as I'd wanted to based on the summary and cover. Which pretty much sums up my feeling for this one, as well. It's a light and fluffy Regency-ish romance, but at the end it feels like the author forgot to put in the romantic bits: we're told couples fall in love, but never shown it happening. I don't like criticizing it, because this Georgette-Heyer-lite sort of book is a genre I'd like to see more of, but I do wish there was more substance and not so much fluff to it.

Britain On Your Own by Dorothy Maroncelli
I've passed over this book many times because the subtitle says it's "a guide for mature travelers". I always imagined it would be about senior discounts and activities of interest to retired couples. ("Where to go shopping while your husband plays golf", that sort of thing.) But I couldn't have been more wrong. The author started going to England by herself after her husband died, and had a system that worked very well for her, so that she wanted to encourage other single people of all ages not to let the lack of a travel companion keep them from seeing the world. It's a very practical book, with hints and advice that the author had picked up on over ten years of spending at least a month in England every year - her basic travel wardrobe, things you do and don't need to pack, ways to avoid paying the "single supplement" for hotel rooms, dining alone without awkwardness, making friends with strangers, dealing with homesickness and loneliness. There are also essays about some of her favorite places to visit, and she makes a very convincing argument for making a village your home base and taking day trips to the bigger cities and attractions, instead of the other way around. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like she ever published the planned part 2, which would have been about the north of England and Scotland, and as she's 93 now she probably never will. Too bad!

The Well At the World's End by A.J. Mackinnon
I know I've read all of Mary Stewart's books, but that doesn't stop me from getting on Amazon sometimes and looking through all 15 pages of results for her name, hoping that maybe there'll be one title I've somehow overlooked before. When this one popped up I was confused at first - what does a man's quest for the fountain of youth have to do with Mary Stewart? - but then I found out that at one point he actually meets her, and so I had to read it. And I am so, so glad I did. A.J. Mackinnon (or "Sandy" as everyone in the book calls him) has a writing style that can best be described as "Bill Bryson meets P.G. Wodehouse". He's self-deprecating, not afraid to make himself look like a bumbling Bertie Wooster, but has a gift for describing places and people that make you feel like you're right there with him. At first I couldn't figure out why a journey from New Zealand to Scotland warranted a whole book - surely you just hop on a plane and get there in about a day? But that's the whole point: he wants to do it without flying. And he has very little money. And so what should have been a straightforward trip becomes an adventure, with lecherous yacht captains, paranoid border guards, a village headman who might or might not have given Sandy his daughter as a wife, and a friend who he's planning to meet in Kathmandu in May...well, maybe it'll be July...actually old chap, could we make it November? And Cairo, not Nepal... Suffice it to say, I loved this book. So much so that by the time the meeting with Mary Stewart comes around, I had forgotten that was why I'd started reading it in the first place!

The House That BJ Built by Anuja Chauhan
I think I say this every time I review an Anuja Chauhan book, but her books really are like reading Bollywood movies. I can easily see them being adapted into movies without needing much changed to make it work. She just has that filmi viewpoint right on, the perfect blend of romance and humor and family drama. Unfortunately for this one the effect is marred by too much head-hopping - sometimes multiple times on one page - which gives it a chaotic feel. When she finally settles down into one person's viewpoint, it works much better. I loved that this one is a sequel to Those Pricey Thakur Girls, and that we got to see the sisters from that book all grown up, and finally see the outcome of Eshwari and Satish's high school flirtation. I did wish the sisters had confronted Chandu about all of the money she'd borrowed from them, though.

Reawakened by Colleen Houck
I have a love-hate relationship with Colleen Houck's Tiger's Curse series - love the idea, hate the execution. And it annoys me that she's putting off writing the last book of that series to write a new trilogy about Egypt instead. But what are you going to do? I still feel some loyalty to her from the old days of my Tiger's Curse enthusiasm, so I picked up this new book hoping maybe her new editor would have toned down the purple prose and awkwardness. And to a certain extent, they did. The book is much easier to read without cringing, the main character mostly sounds her age and not alternately 5 or 85 like Kelsey did. But...this new series is basically just Tiger's Curse with Egyptian princes instead of Indian. And, again, you can tell she got all her information from Wikipedia. Cairo is so barely described (a "large city...a mix of old and new buildings") that they might as well have stayed in New York. At one point Amon orders food for them and Lily just says she tried "an Egyptian dish". Really, you can't even look up one Egyptian food to describe? At first I was enjoying Amon and Lily's lack of romantic relationship, since she thinks he's crazy and he is all, "Come, servant, you are no one special but you're here, so you must help me in my quest." But then out of nowhere the air between them is "charged" and he's spouting flowery lines about her beauty, and she's sulking because she's so PLAIN and ORDINARY and LOOK AT HIM, HE COULD HAVE ANY GIRL HE WANTS. It's Tiger's Cruse all over again: good idea, poor execution.

Skin Deep by Laura Jarratt
I'm not sure I would have read this if I'd known beforehand that the main character was only 14, but I didn't, so I did, and I'm glad. It's a very English book, which I like - unlike American books about England, in which everyone sounds like a walking parody and the focus is on tourist destinations, English books are just about life which happens to be taking place in England. The young couple take turns narrating the story: she's recovering from a car accident which left her with scars all over one side of her face, and he lives with his bipolar mom on a boat, never staying in one place very long. The romance moved a little quickly at first, especially considering how young she is, but since you see it from both sides it didn't feel too unbelievable. The real meat of the plot, though, is a murder investigation in which the hero and the heroine's father are both suspects. I thought it was a little too obvious who the real murderer was, but on thinking about it more, this was never really meant to be a whodunit, so much as an example of the way outsiders are suspect in a small community.

Never Doubt I Love by Patricia Veryan
I've had a frustrating couple of weeks lately, and turned to an old favorite for comfort. I love Perry and Zoe's sweet, fun little romance in the middle of the more melodramatic Tales of the Jewelled Men books. If you're reading the series as a whole I think it makes for a nice breath of air before the danger of the finale, and as a standalone you get a hint of the mystery and danger without the whole full-blown plot.