The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks

This was a nice shorter story to read.  I'm a huge fan of Nicholas Sparks, so when I had some Amazon gift cards to use this was one of my first purchases.

The book is an extension, in a way, of The Notebook.  It revolves around Jane and Wilson Lewis.  Jane is one of the children of Noah and Allie.  In this book, Allie has passed away, and Noah is still living at Creekside (so a bit of a departure from The Notebook).  Wilson is an estate lawyer, and is a very organized, rational man that doesn't do romance.  On their 29th wedding anniversary, he forgets about all the hints Jane has been dropping and has his assistant buy her a nice, expensive tennis watch.  It hurts Jane, and she ends up spending some time away from Wilson with their son.  After two weeks she comes back home and life continues on.  A week away from their 30th anniversary, their oldest daughter Anna gets engaged and decides she wants to get married in one week, even though it's their anniversary.  The book covers that week and all the planning involved to make the wedding happen.

This is one of those beautiful romance books that makes you look at your husband and say "why don't you do this kind of stuff for me?!"  It's beautifully written (in true Sparks style) and has enough plot twists to keep the story going.  The way Sparks shows Wilson trying to be more romantic is inspiring.  It is also written in a way that takes the entire story to develop, instead of one day doing a nice gesture and their relationship returning to normal.  That gives the whole story a more believable sense, since relationships don't get fixed in a day.  It's a beautiful reminder that love is work, and to treat your marriage as anything other than something to continually work on and polish is to let that love go.

<3, jacq

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

A good friend recommended Life of Pi to me.  It's unlike the books I normally read, but I try to read any book considered inspiration for our time or award winning.

In the book, a young boy named Piscine (Pi) becomes stranded in the ocean when his ship crashes.  His father had sold the animals in their zoo, and they were traveling with the animals to Canada on an oil tanker.  When Pi is thrown from the boat, he finds a life boat and watches the ship sink.  On the lifeboat is a zebra with a badly wounded leg, a hyena, and an orangutan.  It's not for a few days that he realizes there is a full sized tiger underneath the tarpaulin.  Eventually, due to the natural evolution of things, the only two left are Pi and the tiger, and they hold on for a 227 day ocean adventure.

The story itself was very well written.  In the beginning you learn a lot about Pi and his family.  You learn about the zoo, and his parents and brother.  You also learn that Pi is very spiritual.  At one point, he is practicing Christianity, Muslim, and Hindu.  His parents try to get him to choose (they are non believers) but he states that they can all operate together.  He finds the strength of the gods in Hindu and Muslim inspiring, and the humanity of Christianity humbling.  This theme is continued throughout the book.

It's an incredible story about survival, spirituality, bravery, and adventure.  The book has become even more famous since the movie was made, but I highly recommend reading the book.  You never know what the movie might be missing :).

<3, jacq

Private: Berlin by James Patterson

So I read a few books over the snow days, and then work picked up so quickly that I never got a chance to post on them.

Private: Berlin is the next in the Private series from James Patterson.  There are (as usual per Patterson) multiple plots, but the main story is about one of the Private detectives going missing, and the rest of the team trying to solve his case.  The main investigator, Mattie Engel, is Chris's ex which adds some more emotion to the search.  During the search they start to find other acquiantances of Chris's go missing or get murdered, and it all seems to lead back to the orphanage where they were adopted.

This was one of my favorite Patterson books of the ones I've read lately.  I felt like it was a mix of Private and a little bit of Alex Cross.  There were turns until the end, and it became difficult to guess what would happen next.  Which keeps you turning the pages and invested in the story.  Too often, Patterson's more recent books have become a little "typical" where it is easy to guess what will happen.  So I appreciated the plot turns.  The sub plot of Chris being Mattie's ex also added to the story, because during the investigation you learned about Chris's disappearance as well as the ending of their engagement.  The character of the main police investigator also added some mystery, since his father seemed to have something to do with the disappearance (even though we didn't discover how until the end).

Great Patterson book, fun snow day read.  It was a quick read and I finished it in one sitting.  If you are a fan of Patterson or mystery, I highly reccommend it.

<3, jacq

Private: London by James Patterson

Yay for snow days! I was able to read quite a bit over the break. I received this book for Christmas and finally had the time to read it.

The book is about a college student, Hannah Shapiro, who goes missing. Hannah has a past and has since been put under the protection of Private by her father. She is going to college in London, so the local Private office is watching her. One night she gets kidnapped, and the investigators are on a search to find her and figure out why she was taken. Meanwhile, a serial killer is on the loose in London.

As with most Patterson books, there are two stories going on at once, plenty of twists, and a love plot. I really enjoyed this story. Some of his recent stories, especially in the Alex Cross series, have been hit or miss. Which is a shame because Patterson has always been my favorite author. Private is one of his newer series and I love it. After the success of the first Private, Patterson announced he was going to write a Private based off different office in different countries and collaborates with an author.

This novel was great for many reasons. First, there were enough turns in the story to keep things interesting. There was also good detail about each of the characters that led to strong character development. I also liked that Jack Morgan, from the original book and LA office, took part in the story. It was a great way to tie all the novels together with a common thread. It's a quick read, and for Patterson fans, a return to the kind of writing we expect from the author.

<3, jacq

American Sniper by Chris Kyle

I heard about Chris Kyle on the news, and after reading "No Easy Day" last year (EXCELLENT book) I was interesting in reading another book on the war from a soldier's point of view.  It didn't disappoint.

In the book, Kyle talks about the war and his part in it.  His job as a sniper is usually to set up camp at a good vantage point and make sure that the area is clear for the Army/Marines to move in.  He worked in Fallujah (known as the most dangerous city in Iraq for a period of the war).  Their objective was to slowly move in and take the city back from the insurgents, with the help of the Iraqi police to give them the confidence and training to take their city back.  He also discusses his wife, and how the war affected their family.

The book was incredible.  In a lot of ways it was similar to "No Easy Day" in that they were both Seals.  Once difference I enjoyed was how much Kyle discussed the war and their missions, where "No Easy Day" discussed a lot of training and building up to one specific mission, the one that killed Bin Laden.  For someone like me, with no military experience/background/insight, it's enlightening to read about the war from a soldier's point of view.  Even more interesting to compare it to the news and see what gets reported.

I will say this.  Chris Kyle is a great soldier, an incredible sniper, but if I met him in person I doubt we would actually get along.  There were little things he did (rummage people's apartments, take things he liked) that gave me the sense of someone arrogant and rude.  That being said, those are traits that would make a good sniper, as confidence is key. Like him or not on a personal level, he was an incredible soldier and an asset to the country.

Unfortunately, right after this book was released, he was murdered on a gun range by a fellow veteran who was mentally deranged. I'm glad he was able to share his story. If you are at all interested in military, or just details of the current war from a more personal standpoint, I highly recommend this book as well as "No Easy Day."

<3, jacq

Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick

I have heard from multiple friends (and the awards buzz) that this movie was awesome, so I decided to read the book.  The hubby got me a gift card for my kindle for Valentine's, SO much better than flowers, so I had some credits to spend.

The book is about a guy, Pat Peoples, who gets to leave the "bad place" (mental health facility) and go home.  He doesn't remember a lot about why he went to the bad place, but he knows he was married to a girl named Nikki and he is working to better himself so he and Nikki can get back together.  Through a friend he meets Tiffany, who has a past of her own, and they forge a friendship.  In order to talk to Nikki again, Pat agrees to do a dance competition with Tiffany.

This book was great on so many levels.  There are a lot of sub stories, and the relationships in the book are very well developed and written.  There is also enough mystery about Pat's past to keep you hooked and curious.  After reading the book, I understand why so many people loved the movie and why Bradley Cooper and J. Law got so many nods for awards.  If the movie is half as good as the book (which I hope to find out soon), it's got to be incredible.

<3, jacq

S.E.C.R.E.T. by L. Marie Adeline

This book was written under a psuedonym by a Canadian executive producer.  I found it on a blog last December, and heard it was like a fresh version of Fifty Shades of Grey (a trilogy I really enjoyed).

The book is about a girl named Cassie who was in a bad marriage, and when her husband died she lost herself.  She works as a waitress in New Orleans and has been in the same routine/funk for the past five years.  One day, a regular leaves behind a notebook, and Cassie reads part of it.  It's a pretty scandalous journal, and it introduces Cassie to a group called S.E.C.R.E.T. that is all about helping women find themselves again, or gain some confidence.  She starts this journey with the group and learns a lot about herself along the way, and starts to get her life back together.

There were a couple things I didn't like about this book.  First, once the "sexy time" started, the story itself kind of fell off.  It became a string of these encounters, and while those are always fun to read, they're really only fun if they have a good storyline or plot.  Or else it becomes a little repetitive and boring.  I think that's what drew me to the Fifty Shades series.  Romance is NOT my normal genre, yet in that story it had romance, mystery, suspense, some danger, and the characters seemed grand yet had a believable quality.  I was hoping for the same here, and the characters started off with a lot of promise.  Unfortunately though, a lot of the character development was short and they ended up falling flat.  Second, I didn't like the ending.  It left a lot up in the air, and there hasn't been a mention as to whether or not this was going to be a series.  As average as I found the book, I still want to know how it all ends! 

Overall, it was an okay book.  If you're looking for something exciting and somewhat short (it's only 290 pages), it would be a good read.

<3, jacquie