Happy All Hallows'

Be kind to all the ghosts, witches and goblins you meet along the road tonight!

Don and Rosie are at it again...My review of The Rosie Effect by G. Simison

Greetings earthlings...and fellow lovers of Don and Rosie. Welcome to the review is The Rosie Effect. Okay...now I can stop playing around. The Rosie Effect brings us back to the odd and rather hilarious relationship of fellow (now married) scientist Don and Rosie. In this book Don and Rosie are just as lovable as always. Well almost. We meet up with them this time in New York, Don is a visiting professor at Columbia and Rosie is working her way towards finishing her thesis and entering medical school.
While all that seems so innocent, so simple. It's anything but. Don is thrust into "a disaster" the moment Rosie reveals that she's pregnant. In fact he has a full on melt down. The entire novel revolves around Don trying to prove to her that he is good enough to be a father. Something that (through a few missteps) both he and Rosie doubt he can be.
What was so frustrating about this book was that Don seems to be judged for his social ackwardness. In fact he is told, by one of the supporting characters, to never have children. If you have read the first book you will know that Don I believed to have Asperger syndrome; a form of autism - in which it makes it hard for one to communicate and socialize. In my opinion, it's this that makes Don so charming and realistic as a character. Well the overall novel ended on high note, most of it made me hate a beloved character. Rosie.
Once I had time to really think on it, and reflect on the story it dawned on me that Rosie is highly emotional due to her pregnancy, her stress from
school. Her actions are some what of a response from societal pressures; to take a break and have her baby and let men make the decision for her. And she is also dealing with feelings of isolation and loneliness, maybe even depression and abandonment. All the while she is dealing with Don and his tone deaf attitude towards her pregrancy.
In all this I can relate to Rosie; and see that Simsion created in her a character of deep emotional who is very much like so many young women trying to balance their need to mother, wife and ambitious at work and school at the same time. I deeply enjoyed this book and I can not wait to see what else Simsion cooks up for Don, Rosie and baby. I have The Rosie Effect 4/5 stars on Goodreads.

Here are some of the quotes I loved:

"Highly intelligent people are often bullied. As a result of being different. That difference being high intelligence."

"I am well aware of my incompetence in predicting human reactions. But I would have been prepared to bet on the first word that Rosie would say when she received the information. I was correct by a factor of six. ‘Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck."

Rise...Red as the Dawn! My review of Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard

It took me MONTHS to finish this book. Let me start there. Almost a year ago I read Red Queen (the first in the series) and I struggled with that. I thought perhaps it was just the fact that it was a debut novel. New concept and all. I stuck with it and finished; but, I was highly disappointed. I was expecting a more polished product then what I got. Fast forward to a few months ago and I decide to pick up Glass Sword. Especially since it was getting rave reviews and everyone was just eating it up. Saying the story was better paced etc. So I decided to give it a try. It took be three chapters to get bored. To give up and to walk away. In fact I read over 10 books before even coming back to this one. The only reason I did was because I knew I would not be satisfied until I had some closure. I will say I am glad that I came back to the story because Aveyard's finish was far better - though a bit conflicting. And left me open to reading not only the next in the series but also the novella's that have come out with the books.
In Glass Sword we meet back up with Mare Barrow and Cal as they attempt to avoid evil Prince Maven (Cal's brother) as they recruit other Red's like Mare (that have abilities). All the while Maven is killing the innocent and Mare is becoming someone not even her closest friend, Kilorn, knows anymore. She and Cal grow closer together only to be ripped apart due to Mare's mixed feelings about who to trust and her need for venegence. This book had just enough twists at the end to keep you guessing what would happen next. The action at the end was amazing - if only there would have been more of it throughout the book.
The greatest questions I have now...is what is the end game? How will Mare survive? How is Cal coping? And who is really pulling the strings? There seems to be a much bigger game being played then any of us can imagine.
I gave Glass Sword 3/5 stars on Goodreads.

Here are some of the quotes I loved:

"To rise. And rise alone. I see you as you could become, no longer the lighting, but the storm. The storm that's will swallow the world"

"Pride. I understand that too. For girls like us, who had nothing, expected nothing, it's intoxicating to know there is something of our own, something no one else can claim or take away"

"Love blinds" - Cal to Mare

Hen Parties & murder: The Bookbabe reviews in a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

Ruth Ware's In a Dark, Dark Wood produced one of the worse villains I have read since reading about Amy in Gone Girl (Gillian Flynn). In this novel we are given a glimpse into the life of Nora; a young woman of 26 living in London. She is just going about her life when out of the blue she receives an email from a woman named Flo; inviting her to a weekend getaway for their soon to be married friend Clare. It is clear from the beginning that Nora has no clue why she has been invited. She has not seen Clare for ten years; they do not email, exchange Christmas cards, or visit one another. They have simply moved on with their lives. Clare working in the theater world and Nora is working hard at writing her next book. Nora seems a bit taken aback by the invite but believes that it might be a good idea to meet up with her long lost friend; even though she has a nagging feeling that she just needs to stay home. Instead Nora, along with friend Nina take the trip to the countryside to the strange glass house they will be staying in over the weekend. If its not creepy enough that the house is made of glass; all of the people there other than Nina and Clare are unknown to her. In fact, she can not place how each of them fits into the life of the Clare she once knew. Each guest is so different from the friends she and Clare used to have. The strangest of the group is Flo, she is Clare's maid of honor, and she is completely obsessed with Clare. In fact, she would do anything for Clare. Flo is also a very fragile young woman. She seems to be consistently on edge. Which seems to continue as the story unravels.
As the weekend goes on it is revealed that Clare is engaged to James, Nora's ex. A man and a relationship that ended cruelly by text and caused Nora to run away from her life and her friends 10 years before. She just could not face the embarrassment of the way he had treated her at the end of their relationship. This revelation continues to drive the story forward; its the lies and the secrets that the main characters hide that really kept me turning the pages.
What I really loved about Ware's novel was how well weaved the tale was. Once the book hit its stride the story just kept you wanting more. I was pretty sure I knew who was behind the murder of one of the characters. But, in the end I was wrong. There is so much loss in this book. So many lies; and that is what made the novel so delicious. I gave In a Dark, Dark Wood 5/5 stars on goodreads.

Quotes that I loved:

"Shall we go downstairs and meet the cock in the hen house."

"You can run but you can't escape"

"You'd think people would be wary of spilling to a writer. You'd think they'd know we're essentially birds of carrion, picking over the corpses of dead affairs and forgotten arguments to recycle them in our work."

"You know - what really creeps me out isn't the footprints - or not as such. It's the fact that if it hadn't have been for the snow, we'd never have known."

"People don't change, they just get more punctilious about hiding their true selves."

"All that copying Clare's clothes - its a bit Single White Female, isn't it? If you ask me, she's a couple of Xanax away from re-enacting the shower scene from Psycho"

My October 2016 Book of the Month Club

A dazzling debut novel from an exciting new voice, The Mothers is a surprising story about young love, a big secret in a small community—and the things that ultimately haunt us most. Set within a contemporary black community in Southern California, Brit Bennett’s mesmerizing first novel is an emotionally perceptive story about community, love, and ambition. It begins with a secret, “All good secrets have a taste before you tell them, and if we’d taken a moment to swish this one around our mouths, we might have noticed the sourness of an unripe secret, plucked too soon, stolen and passed around before its season.” It is the last season of high school life for Nadia Turner, a rebellious, grief-stricken, seventeen-year-old beauty. Mourning her own mother’s recent suicide, she takes up with the local pastor’s son. Luke Sheppard is twenty-one, a former football star whose injury has reduced him to waiting tables at a diner. They are young; it’s not serious. But the pregnancy that results from this teen romance—and the subsequent cover-up—will have an impact that goes far beyond their youth. As Nadia hides her secret from everyone, including Aubrey, her God-fearing best friend, the years move quickly. Soon, Nadia, Luke, and Aubrey are full-fledged adults and still living in debt to the choices they made that one seaside summer, caught in a love triangle they must carefully maneuver, and dogged by the constant, nagging question: What if they had chosen differently? The possibilities of the road not taken are a relentless haunt.

Power, Beauty and Cleopatra: Bookbabe Review of Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff

Sometimes I really want to read something challenging; different from the fiction that I usually read. However, maybe biographies by Stacy Schiff should be avoided. Over the past year I have attempted to read Cleopatra: A Life and found myself finally jumping ship. While the book was interesting and painted Cleopatra in a very glorious and flawed light it failed to hold my interest. I felt like the book was disorganized. I felt like it jumped all over the place; though sometimes the prose was wonderful and well written the book simply fell flat. 

I will say that I do not regret reading the book. It was a good read; I learned some very interesting things about a woman that history often paints as a home wrecker. Cleopatra was well read, a women of great intellect. She was well spoken and could hold her own, she was a woman of great strength. Also, she took no shit. I think women living in our time could learn a thing or two from this queen of ancient Egypt. 

Here are some of the quotes I loved:

"Friends often turn into enemies in time of disaster, he conceded (Caesar). He might equally well have noted that at times of disaster enemies reinvent themselves as friends."

"Herodotus: "Egyptian women ventured into the markets while the men sat at home tending their looms...women urinate standing up, the men sitting down"

"Cleopatra had every reason to believe she hailed from a superior world. No one in Rome had a pedigree to rival hers. It bothered Cicero that she seemed to know as much."

"Sometimes It seemed as if there were only ten women in Rome...and Mark Antony has slept with every one of them."

"If one prefers not to be perceived as a King, one is ill advised, for starters, to spend one's time consorting with a queen."

And just for fun; here are some photos found on Pinterest....sharing because they are just awesome..

Rest Easy....Mr. Poe

"Once Upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore"

- The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe 

I happened across Edgar Allan Poe in my pre-teen years; and my love for his work has remained. Like most of us, I was introduced to him by way of the poem The Raven. I have made a tradition of reading is short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" every Halloween. Poe is close to my heart for several reasons. Chief among them is that Poe always came across to me as a lost and lonely soul; and I guess on some level that spoke to me. Because of Poe (and Stephen King) I became very interested in writing within the horror, thriller and mystery genre.

Here are some of my favorite quotes by Edgar Allan Poe: