The Island

by Elin Hilderbrand

I love this author - the penultimate in summer reading!  Her books are easy, fun, with dreamy settings in Nantucket that make this displaced Yankee long for summers by the rocky shores of Massachusetts.  In this latest novel, we see a weaving of four independent stories into one.  With a 3rd person omniscient point of view, we become voyeuers into their most private thoughts, and this leads to some very engaging chapters!

At its heart is a love story, or more accurately, four love stories.  There are some surprises throughout, there are areas of predictability, but overall this is a supremely satisfying summer read!  I loved it, and was very sorry to see the story end. 

Just Let Me Lie Down...

A very funny "dictionary" for working moms.  Written by the editor of REAL SIMPLE magazine (my all time favorite magazine E.V.E.R) she gathers together some commonly known terms (Getting to YES) and gives them definitions for the working mom.. or the mom who has committed herself to enough things that she is nearly crazed with stuff to do. 

The book is filled with quips and stories that will have you laughing out loud while nodding in agreement with her.  Seriously - I'd love to have a cocktail or two with this woman; I believe we are kindred spirits and would be life-long friends.

One of my favorites (or, one that is short enough to fit into this blog):  Technological Bipolarism: When you wake up in the morning and can't imagine how you would get through life without your Blackberry, but by bedtime you want to strap a bomb to it and blow it to smithereens.

Grab a cup of coffee, or a glass of wine.. this is worth savoring and is perfect for a good laugh.

Summer People

Again, I will say - I love Elin Hilderbrand!  Her books all have interesting and flawed characters, and her stories just flow.  They are easy, entertaining reads with enough romance and/or intrigue to keep you turning pages until the end.  

 

SUMMER PEOPLE is a term used by those who live in Nantucket year round, to describe the people who "come to the island, use it, and then leave".  It describes the main character's actions with people in her life, as well... she takes what she needs from them and moves on.  Only this time, she is faced with the consequences of her actions and the wake of those consequences.

It was a fun read - the characters didn't go where I wanted them to, but the novel was good, easy, entertaining.  It's a summer read - take what you need from it and move on...

Zeitoun

I just finished this book two days ago and am still thinking about it. I could not put it down and read the whole thing in 2 days. "Zeitoun" in a non-fiction novel following one family's experience living through hurricane Katrina in 1995. As I am not the most eloquent writer, I am including a review I felt summed up the feels I had about "Zeitoun":

"Imagine Charles Dickens, his sentimentality in check but his journalistic eyes wide open, roaming New Orleans after it was buried by Hurricane Katrina. He would find anger and pathos. A dark fable, perhaps. His villains would be evil and incompetent, even without Heckuva-Job-Brownie. In the end, though, he would not be able to constrain himself; his outrage might overwhelm the tale." TIMOTHY EGAN, New York Times

The Castaways

I love Elin Hilderbrand.  I have read many of her books over the last several summers - her books are the quintessential summer read.  Despite growing up in Connecticut, I have never been to Nantucket, but am quite familiar with its appeal and its lore, so I get a kick out of references to this magical (if too populated) island.   This story is a bit jumbled, however - the events take place chronologically after the death of the couple, but each surviving member of the group has his/her own sections which vascillate between flashback and current time.  I did find it challenging to track the love-triangles between the friends,  but all in all this was a fun, easy, perfect summer read.  I just prefer my summer reads to be, at times, even more brain-free than this one required of me.  I look forward to reading SUMMER PEOPLE by this author while I await my copy of FLY AWAY HOME by my other favorite summer author - Jennifer Weinner.

Best Friends Forever

After devouring the GIRL series that Beth has already reviewed, I needed something light, easy, fun and girly.  Jennifer Weiner never disappoints in that way - Her characters are never perfect, they are folks to whom you can relate easily, and her stories are fun. 

Beach Reading.. she is perfect for summer!

This story was fun, if not rather predictable.  However, even with its predictability, it is an enjoyable read from start to finish. 

Perhaps it is a kinship I feel with the author - we are the same age, and she grew up in the tiny neighboring town to mine in Connecticut.  The first book of hers I read endeared her to me from the start when she described places I knew all too well. 

Her stories will not inspire political debate, or hotly contested points of view, but if you want a feel-good, fun read, I'd highly recommend any of her books. 

Her latest, Fly Away Home, comes out this month, and I am anxious to download it!

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

This is the final novel in Stieg Larsson's "The Girl Who..." series. Larsson was found dead in his apartment  in 2004. I believe from the ending of this novel, he did not intend on stopping the series here, but sadly, that is what happened.

If you remember correctly, it took me a while to get into "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." With "The Girl Who Played With Fire," I was invested from the get-go.

"The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" required a lot more concentration and took a lot more out of me in the end.

It is, in essence, a spy story. I like those types of stories when I actually read them, but they're not my first choice. I've read three or four spy novels for my graduate classes in the past -- Graham Greene, John LeCarre, and James Clavell.

In all spy novels -- this one included -- I am completely befuddled until right before the big reveal happens in the book. I think that is the most amazing part of reading -- that an author whom you have never met before can manipulate your thoughts and bring you to where he or she is going.

This novel is tedious and takes its time getting to the point. But the end courtroom scenes are worth the trouble. I literally wanted to yell, "Hell, yeah!" when the climax of the scene happened.

The novel again involves Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist. It picks up exactly where "The Girl Who Played with Fire" left off.

You need to have staying power if you're going to read these books. Larsson isn't going to hand you the story on a silver platter. He is going to parcel it out at an excruciatingly slow pace. I hated him for that, but in the end, I was smiling.

As a side note, this was the first novel that I pre-ordered from Amazon.com for my Kindle. Simply amazing. I ordered the novel about six weeks ago. It was due to come out on May 25. On May 25, I woke up around 2 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep. I got up and checked my e-mail; Amazon had sent me a receipt for the novel. So I decided to turn on the wireless of my Kindle and sync it. Five minutes later, there it was!

Previously, if I wanted a new release, I'd have to give up my lunch hour to purchase it. I'd usually head to Target to see if I could get it for cheaper, and then end up having to go to Barnes & Noble to buy it anyway, THEN I'd have to run through the McDonald's drive-thru and end up eating at my desk. Because of my Kindle, I was able to take a leisurely lunch hour, something I really needed that day.