In this post, I said that I was thinking of putting up some mini-reviews of a few of the eGalleys that I've read. With a big pile of hard copy review books, it's difficult to prioritize reviews at times, but I still feel an obligation to review the eGalleys that publishers have been kind enough to provide to me.
I've decided to take it a step further; instead of just making it a feature, I've decided to make it a meme. I know that lots of us have regular access to NetGalley and Galley Grab titles, but have a hard time trying to fit in reviews. So here is a centralized spot for us to place links to our eGalley reviews. No hard and fast rules, other than that the reviews have to be for eGalleys! Every Wednesday, come back and link up! Enter your links like this: Blog Name (Review Title)
So grab the button below and join in! Link up throughout the week! And don't forget to visit the other participants!
Here are my titles for review this week: Amaryllis in Blueberry by Christina Meldrum / These Things Hidden by Heather Gudenkauf / Ten Miles Past Normal by Frances O'Roark Dowell / So Much Pretty by Cara Hoffman
Title: Amaryllis in Blueberry Author: Christina Meldrum
Publisher: Gallery Books, a division of Simon and Schuster
Released: February 8, 2011
Paperback, 384 pages / ISBN 10: 1439156891 / ISBN 13: 9781439156896
The Book Depository / Amazon / Goodreads
First sentence: Dick is dead.
This book opens with Christina Slepy (Seena) on trial in West Africa for the murder of her husband. The court is a customary court made up of the village elders, a witch doctor and queen among them.
A mother who wanted to be a classics scholar, whose dream was taken when she became pregnant by a man she meets in college ... a daughter who has synesthesia (she tastes and smells feelings and sees their colors) ... other daughters who are, in turn: overly pious, vain, and rebellious ... all go to live in West Africa in the medical missionary field when a possessive husband finds out that his wife has been unfaithful to him.
Within the confusing confines of Africa, this novel is colored with betrayal, treachery, and mysteries that slowly peel away, page by page, and an ending that will surprise you.
QUOTE: Dick was a racist, she knew Not a malicious racist. A thank-God-I'm-white kind of racist: there but for the grace of God go I.
Book Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Title: These Things Hidden Author: Heather Gudenkauf
Publisher: Mira Books, a division of Harlequin
Released: January 28, 2011
Paperback, 352 pages / ISBN 10: 0778328791 / ISBN 13: 9780778328797
The Book Depository / Amazon / Goodreads
Allison Glenn was sentenced to prison for 10 years for murder when she was 16. Released at 21, she now has to adjust to a life where people think of her as a monster, her once golden-girl reputation forever tarnished, parents who have basically erased her from their existence, and a new life in a halfway house.
We also meet: her younger sister Brynn, who now lives with her grandmother, who never returned Allison's letters and even now refuses to talk to her - Charm, a young nursing student caring for her terminally-ill stepfather - and Claire, owner of Bookends bookstore, with her son Joshua, adopted after being found at a fire station.
Their stories all connect around the events of the night that put Allison in prison. With truth and lies co-existing, eventually the truth explodes from the page in an ending that will leave you breathless, and will put Allison's actions in an entirely different light.
I deliberately wrote this review with no spoilers at all, as one of the things that drew my interest when I started reading was wondering exactly what Allison's crime was. There were also a lot of other questions throughout my reading that kept me wanting to turn pages as I wondered "why" or "what". Ms. Gudenkauf does a wonderful job in keeping the reader guessing and wanting to know more.
QUOTE: I never really thought I could keep the reason I was sent to jail a secret, but I would much rather have been known as the girl who stole cars or snorted coke or even been the one to whack her abusive husband than who I really am.
Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Title: Ten Miles Past Normal Author: Frances O'Roark Dowell
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, a division of Simon and Schuster
Release: March 22, 2011
Hardcover, 256 pages / ISBN 10: 1416995854 / ISBN 13: 9781416995852
The Book Depository / Amazon / Goodreads
Meet "Farm Girl" - Oh! I mean Janie Gorman, the butt of off-color jokes at her new high school, where many of her middle school friends have been separated from her to different classes and lunch periods, who eats her own lunch in the library and talks to her family's goats in the morning as though they were people. She now deeply regrets suggesting farm life to her parents after her elementary school field trip to an organic farm.
As we follow her on her high school adventures, through goat poop, her mother's misadventures in crafting and sewing, and her blossoming friendship with Verbena "Angel Hair Tattoo Girl", we laugh and moan and learn to play the bass. We also learn about Freedom School, where two courageous women taught black people how to read so that they could vote, and where a husband of one of them made yard art out of the cross that was burned on their lawn.
This is a totally fun, authentic YA read with lots of laughter, love, and friendship. I truly loved it.
QUOTE: I'm not sure becoming the Jam Band's one girl bass player is going to help me in my quest for title of Most Normal High School Student Ever, but at the very least, it will up my coolness quotient a good 50%.
Book Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Title: So Much Pretty Author: Cara Hoffman
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Release Date: March 15, 2011
Hardcover, 304 pages / ISBN 10: 1451616759 / ISBN 13: 9781451616750
The Book Depository / Amazon / Goodreads
This novel was inspired by a real case that the author encountered as a police beat reporter.
Told in alternating POV's, we meet Claire Piper, her husband Gene, and their daughter Alice, a happy girl who was a leader in her school and in life. They live in the small community of Haeden, where the Pipers lead a rather unconventional "back to earth" life, given that they are both Harvard-educated, with medical degrees that they don't put to use.
We also meet Flynn, a reporter from the community's small paper who moved there from Cleveland when she was 24, looking for "the story" that would put gain accolades and reporting fame, in this case the environmental damage caused by the commercial dairy farm of the Haytes' family, also a point of contention for Gene, whose words about it seem to fall on deaf ears. After all, he and his family are relative newcomers in comparison to the Haytes, whose rich farm is one of the oldest in the county.
When "classic country girl" Wendy White goes missing, and then is found, naked, dead, and having obviously experienced ongoing trauma for quite some time prior to her death, Flynn is determined to find out what really happened to her and who was responsible for her death.
Here is where I pull away from the pack: "Everyone" seems to like this one - a LOT! I didn't. I read it; don't get me wrong, and at the end, I appreciated the underlying story, but getting there was a long, vague, meandering, choppy, and often confusing path. The varying POV's and switching from first person to third person to second person and back didn't help either. I didn't like Flynn's promiscuity and unnecessary "tough girl" profanity - it felt fake, like a toughness mask was put on her. She also looked down on the people around her, which I also didn't like. I didn't feel a connection with any of the characters until almost the very end, when we find out what Alice is accused of and why she did it, but even then, in truth, I had to go back to re-read a section or more to actually figure out what just happened. All of the many characters felt like pastel sketches, with no depth, confusing motives, and no heart. The flow was disconnected, and I often found myself feeling puzzled as players were introduced.
Again, I am apparently in the minority on this opinion. Click on the Goodreads link above, and you will find many glowing reviews.
QUOTE: I watched men who had no business doing anything other than writing traffic tickets, working the crosswalk, or wrangling drunks handle the series of intimate procedures involved in packing and shipping a body that had once belonged to their friend's daughter or their kids' babysitter.
This book is listed as one of my titles for the 2011 ARC Reading Challenge
Notes and disclosure: All quotes are from eGalleys, and may be different in the final copies. I received complimentary eGalleys of these titles either through Net Galley or through Simon and Schuster's Galley Grab program. I received no other compensation, and was not required to post a positive review.
Posts
This is a great idea Julie! Next time I post a review from an ebook I will be sure to link up!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jo-Jo, great idea. I don't know how you manage to read as much as you do, I'm quite jealous.
ReplyDeleteThese Things Hidden sounds so good - I want to read this one!
ReplyDelete