Random House

Review: The Deepest Secret by Carla Buckley

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20140131-203205.jpgFor a self-proclaimed bookworm such as myself, there is no greater joy than finding a story that pulls you in from the first page. It calls to you late at night when you know you should be sleeping. You find yourself rushing through the pages to find out what happens while at the same time slowing down the pace because you don’t want it to end. This new release by Carla Buckley was that and so much more for me.

Fourteen-year-old Tyler is living with a rare medical condition. He’s confined to his house during daylight hours as exposure to UV light can be deadly. Of course, his serious illness wreaks havoc on the family dynamics. Mom Eve is his protector. Her life revolves around keeping Tyler safe. Monitoring the household UV levels, petitioning the neighbors to keep them from using halogen light bulbs, planning nighttime family excursions…she does it all, often at the expense of the rest of the family. Dad David commutes to work in part to support the family but also to avoid the stress and responsibility at home. Sixteen year old sister Melissa is dealing with normal teenage drama along with feelings of being neglected. Tyler’s only contact with the outside world happens after the sun goes down. During the night he secretly explores his neighborhood, gaining glimpses into his neighbors’ lives unseen by others. He realizes that we don’t truly know what goes on behind closed doors. When tragedy strikes the neighborhood in the form of a missing child, there’s no shortage of suspects.

This is a deeply disturbing book on many levels. There’s so much going on in this family, but it never detracts from the main story. It makes you question your values and ask yourself exactly how far you would go to protect those you love. This was my first book by Carla Buckley, and I absolutely loved it. Her writing style reminds me very much of Jodi Picoult, which is a high compliment. She’s a relative newcomer on the literary scene with three published books to her name. I will definitely be reading more by this author!

~ Thalia

Buy it Now: The Deepest Secret: A Novel

Review: The Circle by Dave Eggers

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20131206-185330.jpgIt’s hard to imagine a society with more transparency and less privacy than the one we currently live in. Thanks to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, LinkedIn, and countless numbers of professional and personal blogs, there’s very little information that’s truly kept private these days. Sonogram pictures, marital discord, gastrointestinal distress, vacation brags, shopping preferences…you name it and surely it’s been made public by someone. Of course, individuals have some control over what information is shared with their adoring public. Only the neediest, most narcissistic of us over share every part of our lives. But what if the choice was taken away from us? What if complete and total participation in all manners of social networking was not optional but entirely mandatory? What if every facet of your life was filtered through and controlled by one monopolistic Internet company? This frighteningly foreseeable book by Dave Eggers proposes just that.

Mae can’t believe her luck when she lands her dream job at The Circle, a tech company best described as Google on steroids. Its reach is all-encompassing, and Mae quickly finds herself brainwashed by the Utopian atmosphere all around her. The company embeds itself in users’ lives by linking and making public every aspect of their online existence: social networks, medical history, banking and financial history, and social life. Their ultimate goal is total transparency consisting of people always being tracked and monitored and public access cameras placed everywhere. While there are clearly many benefits to this type of tracking, specifically safety issues, Mae is too enamored with her fame and status within the company to see the negative implications. She becomes increasingly distanced from her family and friends outside of the company even as they try to warn her of the dangers of such total dominance proposed by The Circle.

I was very intrigued by the concept of this book. It seems like something that’s not too far off the mark from where some of us are at right now with our reliance on technology, social media in particular. There’s an inherent danger in relying on others to validate your sense of self-worth, especially in an online world. And we’ve all read about and seen the negative effects of too much screen time at the expense of spending time in the real world. Don’t get me wrong, I’m as guilty as the next person of wasting too much time on Facebook on occasion. And I’ve met many wonderful people online who I now consider to be dear friends. But the real danger comes when we look to a non-living entity such as a computer, tablet, or smartphone to make us feel good about ourselves. There’s no piece of technology that can truly do that. This is an excellent book, if for nothing else to act as a warning of the direction we may be headed.

~Thalia

Buy it Now: The Circle

Review – The Headmaster’s Wager by Vincent Lam.

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Review – The Headmaster’s Wager by Vincent Lam.

13129612This was a book that I went into blind. I read a vague description months ago, but when I read it this past week, I couldn’t remember what it was supposed to be about. I am glad that it turned out this way, as it gave me a pleasant surprise throughout my reading!
There are many well-known books that examine what it was like to be fighting in the Vietnam War, particularly from the American side. It is rare that we find a story that examines the war from the perspective of a Chinese immigrant living in Vietnam, and here, Lam has created a perfect cast of characters, all sharing similar experiences.
I’m not going to reveal any of the plot, as that would act as a disservice to the book. However, what I can say is that in The Headmaster’s Wager, Lam has created a world where nothing is perfect, and there is no right or wrong. Lam does not condemn, nor does he laud. Each character has their own faults, and yet their actions are all taken to survive in one way or another. An action that you may believe to be beneficial, may not end up being so, but yet out of that misstep, comes another result that may ultimately be successful. Lam expertly weaves together the idea that every action has a consequence, and no matter if it results in tragedy or happiness, life will go on.
The timeline jumps from various decades, beginning in the 30’s and ending in the late 1970’s. This could seem jarring in many books, but Lam presents in such a fashion that it becomes essential to character building. Like I said above, some of the actions the characters take can seem extreme and excruciating, however, just when we think we hate a character, or what they do seems unrealistic, we are transported back into another decade and some of the motive is explained.
Whilst this is ultimately a story of the human condition in a time of war, there is also an interesting historical element that Vietnam War enthusiasts, or even those with just a passing interest, may enjoy. I knew very little concerning the war before I started reading, and the story teaches you several different aspects to the war, the different people/countries involved, and first hand experiences of what life was like for the people in Vietnam (whilst this book is a fictional tale, Lam’s family emigrated from Vietnam, so some parts are based on recollections that he heard from his family), and so you come away feeling like you understand the time period a lot more.
I hate to make this comparison, but in a sense, it is like the film Titanic; you ultimately know what is going to happen due to hearing bits and pieces here and there about the true life events, but you end up hoping that events take a different course, and you learn about the minor players, the behind the scenes action, and all the cogs that make the motion. This suspense that Lam creates really is brilliant.
If you’re looking for a read that will fill you with the spectrum of emotions, a read that will pique an interest in the history behind the Vietnam War, a read that will make you question human motive, then this is the book for you. Take a leap of faith and jump into this book without reading the blurb, or any plot reviews.

~ Pegasus

Buy It Here: The Headmaster’s Wager

Review: Heating Up the Holidays 3 Story Bundle

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18283138 Heating Up the Holidays is a 3 story bundle with Play With Me by Lisa Renee Jones, Snowfall by Mary Ann Rivers, and After Midnight by Serena Bell.

I want to devote this whole review to Snowfall because I overwhelmingly loved this novella. I count myself as incredibly lucky to have read Mary Ann Rivers’ debut of The Story Guy just a few months ago. I fell in love with her intelligent and humorous writing then but hoped that it wasn’t just a one time thing. This second novella shows me that I’m not to be disappointed!

Jenny Wright moves into her new housing in Ohio where she is doing research as a Microbiologist. When she moves in she gets mail for the previous tenant which leads to online communication between herself as “Lincoln” and “C’. They begin to flirt online back and forth less and less innocently. Meanwhile Jenny is dealing with slowly losing her sight due to a degenerative disease. She’s horrified at this idea and cannot wrap her mind around this. Jenny is working with Evan Ford, her Occupational Therapist to try to make her life a little more manageable while the changes happen.

I cannot express my love for this book and this author in the right way. Yes there are scientific and technical terms throughout the book due to Jenny’s technical occupation. Halle-freaking-lujah! I, for one, was so happy to read a book, even a novella, that had an intelligent woman, with a scientific job as the main character. I’m not a scientific person but I was able to read this just fine. There are many books that tend to be dumbed down in general and I didn’t feel like this at all with this book. I was racing to get to the end of the novella, the last 20% or so I finished and then immediately re-read because I was doing my speed reading to get to the ending.

Jenny and Evan are so very real, very funny people. Jenny does not take slowly losing her eyesight very well and tends to throw fits, which I can only imagine would be the case in the real world. I just really appreciate the intelligence and humorous insight that this novella seems to have.

So obviously, I am supposed to be having some kind of therapeutic moment here, where my other senses get honed on the strap of this exercise and maybe later I’ll finger-spell W-A-T-E-R into his ginormous hand and we’ll embrace with joyous laughter.

Also there is a small piece at the end of the story that just about killed me. A very small detail which will probably stick with me for a very long time.

I absolutely cannot wait for the full length novel debut of Mary Ann Rivers, Live, coming in January of 2014. I have a feeling that she will be an auto buy for me for pretty much ever.

Buy it Now Heating Up the Holidays 3-Story Bundle (Play with Me, Snowfall, and After Midnight): A Loveswept Contemporary Romance