Before I Fall

Title: Before I Fall

Author: Lauren Oliver

Pages: 10 discs

Genre: Fiction, Young Adult

Grade: B-

Synopsis: Samantha Kingston is a High School Senior and today is "Cupid Day", where students send each other roses and love notes.  Sam is super popular and has the hottest boyfriend in the school.  After a big party that night she is killed in an automobile accident on her way home..., that is until she wakes up the next morning and finds out that it is Cupid Day yet again.

My Review: Part Groundhog Day and part super annoying teeny bopper book, I didn't love this book.  Too much obsessing about kissing, boys, sex, alcohol and kissing boys and way too many characters were just too annoying.

Orange is the New Black

Title: Orange is the New Black

Author: Piper Kerman

Pages: 298

Genre: Memoir

Grade: A-

Synopsis: Piper Kerman is young and traveling the world with some friends who get their money from lining up drug mules - people who will carry drugs or money across the world inconspicuously in their personal luggage.  Eventually, Piper gets roped into carrying a suitcase full of money to Europe.  While she is not caught then, she gets cold feet and returns home.  Late on, once the drug ring has been busted Piper is fingered as a culprit and she is sentenced to prison.  However, she is not slated to start her sentence until some of the other major players are extradited, in case she needs to testify against them. Eventually, nearly 10 years after her crime was committed, she is sent to Danbury women's prison in Connecticut to serve her sentence.

My Review: I actually really enjoyed this book.  The biggest thing that I took from the book (and which surprised me) was the compassion that I felt for many of the women in prison alongside Piper.  Typically when I hear about somebody in prison, or who has been in prison, I'm pretty judgmental, even when those thoughts only happen in my head.  After reading and hearing Piper's stories I felt a lot more compassion for many of the women.  Very few people wake up intending to commit an egregious crime, but many people make mistakes that land them in the slammer.  Piper, who comes from a middle-class white family was in a class of her own in prison, which is dominated by those struggling on lower incomes.

Disclaimer: There is some language, but I didn't feel that it was excessive.

Shoe Dog

Title: Shoe Dog

Author: Phil Knight

Pages: 12 discs

Genre: Memoir

Grade: A

Synopsis: Phil Knight was a track athlete at Oregon in the 1950s.  While at Oregon, he would often try out the running shoes made by his coach and mentor, Bill Bowerman.  After Knight finished business school at Stanford 1962 he used a reluctant $50 loan from his father to start importing shoes from Japan.  And, as they say, the rest is history.

My Review: This book surprised me.  I really enjoyed it.  It was honest, candid, funny, sad, happy and really interesting. The company started out of Knight's trunk and basement and he was tenacious and focused on growing his company to the behemoth that it is today.

Gay-Neck: The Story of a Pigeon

Title: Gay-Neck: The Story of a Pigeon

Author: Dhan Gopal Mukerji

Pages: 192

Genre: Children's Fiction, Newbery Award

Grade: B

Synopsis: In India, many of the young boys grow up training pigeons that they grow to love and recognize.  It wasn't uncommon for boys to have flocks of 40 or more pigeons that they train to always return home and carry messages.  Gay-Neck was an especially capable and fearless pigeon that was taken to help the British fight World War I.

My Review: This book was far better then I expected when I judged the book by its cover.  It was awarded the 1928 Newbery Medal.  It is interesting to me how many of the early Newbery Medal winners were books about animals (see: Smoky the Cowhorse and The Voyages of Dr Dolittle).  If you want to learn about carrier pigeons then this is the book for you!

Yearning for the Living God

Title: Yearning for the Living God: Reflections from the Life of F. Enzio Busche

Author: F. Enzio Busche & Tracie A. Lamb

Pages: 307

Genre: Religion, LDS

Grade: A

Synopsis: F. Enzio Busche grew up in Dortmund, Germany and was involved in the Hitler Youth before heading out to fight in WWII as a teenager.  In his early 20's he started meeting with some missionaries before being converted and beginning his life of service in the Church.

My Review: This book was fantastic. I felt like I was reading a full book of conference talks and experiences.  The stories and experiences that are shared by F. Enzio Busche are really quite amazing and testify of miracles, ongoing revelation and the importance of listening to the Spirit.  I have felt motivated to do a better job in my own life, which is some of the highest praise that I can give to a book.

The Defector

Title: The Defector

Author: Daniel Silva

Pages: 480

Genre: Fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: Gabriel is working in the Italian hills to restore a Renaissance painting for the Vatican when a Russian defector, who had saved his life in Moscow, was abducted and disappeared from London.  The British just assume that he was working as a double agent, but Gabriel doesn't believe it for a second and gathers his team to try and save his friend.

My Review: I don't usually care for spy novels, but this one was alright.  Apparently it is the 9th book in a series, but it stands on its own fairly well.  Maybe now I'll have to start reading some of the other books in the series.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Title: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Author: Susanna Clarke

Pages: 1006

Genre: Fiction/Fantasy

Grade: B

Synopsis: The book is set in the early 1800s.  Magic has all but disappeared from England, with the exception of one magician in Yorkshire.  He has amassed a huge collection of old manuscripts on magic and has been studying them for years before he is discovered doing magic after raising a woman from the dead in London.  All is peachy until word begins to spread that there is another magician making a name for himself.  The second magician, Jonathan Strange is the polar opposite of Mr Norrell, but they are still attracted to each other and Mr Norrell agrees to take on Jonathan Strange as a pupil.

My Review: This book was just ok for me.  It's quite a long book.  I'm not a die hard fantasy fan and this book just never grabbed me.

The Tiger's Wife

Title: The Tiger's Wife

Author: Tea Obreht

Pages: 338

Genre: Fiction

Grade: B-

Synopsis: Natalia is a young doctor working in a Balkan country. She travels to small, remote villages to inoculate the residents.  While away working she receives word that her grandfather, with whom she is very close, has passed away.  He had told his wife that he was going to visit Natalia, but instead, he died in a remote village that none of the family had ever even heard of.  This story is intertwined with the fables and stories told by Natalia's grandfather to her on their weekly visits to the zoo when she was a child as she tries to solve the mysteries that her grandfather left behind.

My Review: This book didn't really resonate with me and I found myself only reading the book as a means to finish the book and not because I was particularly interested in the story.  The prose is good, but there was nothing to hook me.

The Beautiful Room is Empty

Title: The Beautiful Room is Empty

Author: Edmund White

Pages: 240

Genre: Fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: This novel is a coming of age book about a gay young man who grows up in Chicago before moving to New York.  The US in the 50's & 60's has not yet come to terms with homosexuality (especially in the midwest) and the author writes often about the therapy sessions focused on helping him to become normal (i.e. heterosexual).

My Review: The book is also known as an autobiographical novel, so it is hard to know how much of the book is true and how much of the book is based on the author's experiences. The narrator writes about cruising in the bathrooms of college and the subway waiting for men to present themselves under the stalls as well as looking for hookups nearly every night.  One of the main things that came to my mind while reading was about the AIDS epidemic that really came to light in the 1980's, but that hit the gay communities the hardest. After so many unprotected encounters with other men, it is not surprising that an STD spread so easily.

Disclaimer: This book does not hold back on the discussion about homosexual activity, although it was never what I would call vulgar.

The Continuous Atonement

Title: The Continuous Atonement

Author: Brad Wilcox

Pages: 195

Genre: Religion, LDS

Grade: B+

Synopsis: The atonement of Jesus Christ is one of the central tenets of Christendom, but one of the least understood (and I do not claim to really have an understanding, but I'm working on it).  The more that we can figure out how to rely on Christ and apply the principles of the atonement to our lives, then we will quickly realize that we can always rely on the atonement to make the difference.

My Review:  I enjoyed this book. It's more simple and easier to grasp and understand than some of the other books about the atonement that I've read recently.

From the Book: "(Pg. 107) One speaker in Church directs, "You can't do everything. Don't run faster than you have strength". The next says, "Push yourself. You can always do more." One person advises, "Don't worry about what you can't do" at the same time someone else says, "You can do anything you put your mind to." In one hymn we sing, "I need thee every hour," and in another we sing, "We will work out our salvation". In this world of mixed messages, I never can seem to escape the nagging though, "If only I were better organized or if only I tried harder." Satan tempted Christ with the word if. He often comes to me with the words if only."

The Handmaid's Tale

Title: The Handmaid's Tale

Author: Margaret Atwood

Pages: 311

Genre: Dystopian Fiction

Grade: A-

Synopsis: The book is set at some future date from the 1980's when this book was written.  The handmaid is Offred, whose only role is to bear children to the leaders of the the Republic of Gilead, where she lives. Gilead is centered around the Harvard campus, but is based on skewed teachings from the Bible after too many men and women became sterile due to so much pollution.

My Review: I had a hard time getting into this book at first.  It was hard to understand the terminology and descriptions as they are describing an alternate future of our own world. I started reading summaries and analyses for each chapter as I made my way through the book and it improved things dramatically.  Once I better understood things I found this to be a very interesting book.

Disclaimer: There is some language and sex, so reader be aware.

Crimson Eve

Title: Crimson Eve

Author: Brandilyn Collins

Pages: 353

Genre: Thriller

Grade: B+

Synopsis: Carla is a realtor in the pristine town of Kanner Lake in Northern Idaho.  She is showing an older British fellow a remote house outside of town when he pulls a gun on her in an attempt to kidnap her.  It turns out that the secrets that Carla has been running from have finally caught up to her.

My Review:  This was an enjoyable quick read, perfect for when you need a quick thriller.  I've only read one of the previous two books in the series which wasn't a detriment at all.  Aside from a few oblique references to situations in the previous books, this one stood on its own pretty well.

The Grapes of Wrath

Title: The Grapes of Wrath

Author: John Steinbeck

Pages: 479

Genre: Fiction, Classic, Pulitzer Prize

Grade: B+

Synopsis: The title of the book is pulled form the first verse of the Battle Hymn of the Republic: "He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored." This classic book about the great migration to California was first published in 1939 at the tail end of the Great Depression. The book follows the Joad family as they move from their farm in the dust bowl of Oklahoma to the promised land of California.  Conditions aren't much better in California as they find out that thousands of migrants are in camps and can't find steady work.  Those who can find work are barely working for enough to live on.  If they won't work for these wages, there are always other people who will.

My Review: I loved this book, but be prepared because it can be awfully depressing. At times the descriptive language gets a little flowery, but at the same time the descriptions make it easy to visualize the story as it moves along.

Police

Title: Police

Author: Jo Nesbo

Pages: 14 discs

Genre: Mystery

Grade: B

Synopsis: A serial killer appears to be working in Oslo and targeting police officers and detectives.  The famous detective Harry Hole has retired from detective work, but the police are desperate for his help solving these mysteries.

My Review: Apparently Detective Harry Hole is famous because he starred in the 9 books of the series previous to this one.  This is the first book of Jo Nesbo that I've read, and it stood on its own decently well.  Lots of twists and turns and surprises as one would expect.

The Aviator's Wife

Title: The Aviator's Wife

Author: Melanie Benjamin

Pages: 13 discs

Genre: Historical Fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: This book is the story of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, the wife of the modern hero-explorer Charles Lindbergh and mother of the famously kidnapped Charles Jr. Everybody is familiar with Charles' accomplishments, but not as many people know Anne's story and she was a brave, strong woman in her own right.

My Review: Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres.  I actually really liked this book, but the writing style and dialogue was too awkward and all of the dialogue and interaction with their children just felt strange to me. My one other gripe was that the book could have been about 2/3 as long as it was.