Long Gone

Author: Alafair Burke
Genre: Psychological Suspense
Publisher: HarperCollins Publisher, 2012
Pages: 384
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: After months of struggling, Alice Humphrey finally lands her dream job managing a trendy new Manhattan art gallery. According to Drew Campbell, the well-heeled corporate representative who hires her, the gallery is a passion project for its anonymous, wealthy owner. Everything is perfect until the morning Alice arrives at work to find the gallery gone—the space stripped bare as if it had never existed—and Campbell's body on the floor. Suddenly she's at the center of a police investigation with the evidence stacked against her, and the dead man whom she swears is Drew Campbell identified as someone else entirely.

When the police discover ties between the gallery and a missing girl, Alice knows she's been set up. Now she has to prove it—a dangerous search for answers that will entangle her in a dark, high-tech criminal conspiracy and force her to unearth long-hidden secrets involving her own family . . . secrets that could cost Alice her life.

Review: Maybe it's because I listened to this on CD, rather than reading it myself, but I found parts of this novel difficult to follow. There were also a lot of unanswered questions or things that are alluded to, with no forthcoming answer. By the end, everything is tied up neatly, but getting there was frustrating at times.

Speaking of the ending, I was determined not to be caught off guard and have it figured out, and to a degree I did, but the author still got me. Definitely a red herring in this one.

Someone Knows My Name

Author: Lawrence Hill
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Norton, W.W. & Company, 2008
Pages: 512
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Kidnapped as a child from Africa, Aminata Diallo is enslaved in South Carolina but escapes during the chaos of the Revolutionary War. In Manhattan she becomes a scribe for the British, recording the names of blacks who have served the King and earned freedom in Nova Scotia. But the hardship and prejudice there prompt her to follow her heart back to Africa, then on to London, where she bears witness to the injustices of slavery and its toll on her life and a whole people. It is a story that no listener, and no reader, will ever forget.

Review: I can only imagine the amount of research that went into this book.

The Washington Post says, "Hill's hugely impressive historical work is completely engrossing and deserves a wide, international readership." They hit the nail on the head. It is engrossing, a true page turner. Meena comes alive for the reader.

As a student of history, as a woman, as a mom. . .I loved this novel on every level.

More Than Friends

Author: Barbara Delinsky
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: HarperCollins, 2010
Pages: 484
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: More Than Friends is a moving, unforgettable story of friendship, love, and forgiveness—a classic from New York Times bestselling author Barbara Delinsky.

The Maxwells and the Popes have been friends forever. The women were college roommates, their husbands are partners in the same law firm, their kids have grown up next door to each other, and the two families share both vacations and holidays.

All is beautiful and serene in their "perfect" shared suburban Eden—until a tragic accident forces these very close friends and neighbors to look more deeply beneath the surface. And when their idyllic lives are unexpectedly shattered by a moment that can never be erased or forgotten, their faith in one another—and in themselves—is put to the supreme test.

Review: I'll admit that the plot seems trite. However, Barbara Delinsky never disappoints in weaving a story that is more than fluff and more than skin deep. This novel is thought provoking and you can't help but sympathize with all the characters, even if you don't agree with them. 

Publisher's Weekly states that, "Delinsky skillfully turns a somber scenario into intriguing women's fiction" and I wholeheartedly agree.

I listened to this on CD and it certainly made the time fly. Being back in school (my last class) makes reading in the evenings difficult. Besides, I had forgotten how much I enjoyed listening to CDs in the car.

Beneath the Shadows

Author: Sara Foster
Genre: Fiction / Psychological Suspense
Publisher: St. Martin's Press, 2012
Pages: 320
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: When Grace’s husband, Adam, inherits an isolated North Yorkshire cottage, they leave the bustle of London behind to try a new life. A week later, Adam vanishes without a trace, leaving their baby daughter, Millie, in her stroller on the doorstep. The following year, Grace returns to the tiny village on the untamed heath.  Everyone—the police, her parents, even her best friend and younger sister—is convinced that Adam left her. But Grace, unable to let go of her memories of their love and life together, cannot accept this explanation.  She is desperate for answers, but the slumbering, deeply superstitious hamlet is unwilling to give up its secrets. As Grace hunts through forgotten corners of the cottage searching for clues, and digs deeper into the lives of the locals, strange dreams begin to haunt her. Are the villagers hiding something, or is she becoming increasingly paranoid? Only as snowfall threatens to cut her and Millie off from the rest of the world does Grace make a terrible discovery. She has been looking in the wrong place for answers all along, and she and her daughter will be in terrible danger if she cannot get them away in time.

Review: Excellent. This was a guilty pleasure. I was kept guessing until the very end. I would have loved more secrets and glimpses into the past. While this is along the same lines as Gone Girl, this one blew that one out of the water.

Sisterhood Everlasting

Author: Ann Brashares
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Random House Publishing, 2012
Pages: 384
Rating: Do Not Recommend

Synopsis: On the cusp of turning thirty, Tibby, Lena, Carmen, and Bridget are now living separate lives, out on their own. Yet despite having jobs and men that they love, each knows that something is missing: the closeness that once sustained them. Carmen is a successful actress in New York, engaged to be married, but misses her friends. Lena finds solace in her art, teaching in Rhode Island, but still thinks of Kostos and the road she didn’t take. Bridget lives with her longtime boyfriend, Eric, in San Francisco, and though a part of her wants to settle down, a bigger part can’t seem to shed her old restlessness. Then Tibby reaches out to bridge the distance, sending the others plane tickets for a reunion that they all breathlessly await. And indeed, it will change their lives forever—but in ways that none of them could ever have expected.

Review: To follow up a series that was as successful as the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, one had better make sure there is substance, character growth, and an interesting plot. Brashares knew avid fans of the Sisterhood would descend upon this book, and exploited that fact. She gave us fluff. Very disappointing. 

The Wilder Life

Author: Wendy McClure
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: Penguin Group, 2011
Pages: 352
Rating: Do Not Recommend

Synopsis: Wendy McClure is on a quest to find the world of beloved Little House on the Prairie author Laura Ingalls Wilder—a fantastic realm of fiction, history, and places she’s never been to, yet somehow knows by heart. She traces the pioneer journey of the Ingalls family— looking for the Big Woods among the medium trees in Wisconsin, wading in Plum Creek, and enduring a prairie hailstorm in South Dakota. She immerses herself in all things Little House—exploring the story from fact to fiction, and from the TV shows to the annual summer pageants in Laura’s hometowns. Whether she’s churning butter in her apartment or sitting in a replica log cabin, McClure is always in pursuit of “the Laura experience.” The result is an incredibly funny first-person account of obsessive reading, and a story about what happens when we reconnect with our childhood touchstones—and find that our old love has only deepened.

Review: I expected something more from someone who's an editor of children's books. The book was lacking something - an authenticity perhaps. The writer's style was abrasive., although midway through she seemed to settle into writing her story and it improved. Since this is about Laura Ingalls Wilder I think I wanted something warmer and something fuzzier. This memoir just didn't do it for me. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it. If you love Laura Ingalls Wilder you will probably read this and at least like it. If you never read the Little House books, this book won't inspire you to do so and you'll probably feel as though you wasted your time.