Thalia

Review: Crazy by Han Nolan

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20131230-191409.jpgYoung adult book about teen drama-check. Mental illness as the main focus-check. Been there, done that, right? Except this one is insanely (bad choice of words, I know) different. In this refreshingly unique novel the tables are turned and this time it’s a child who has to cope with his parent’s mental illness.

Jason can’t remember a time when his life wasn’t overshadowed by his dad’s odd behavior. Going as far back as age six when his dad tried to bury him alive “to protect him”, it’s always been a part of their lives. However, when Jason’s mom dies unexpectedly things begin to rapidly deteriorate. She was the one who always held things together, and without her their lives start to spin out of control. Money is tight, food is scarce, and their house is falling apart. Despite his best efforts to hold things together and keep their way of life a secret, his grades and behavior at school are being affected. When he’s sent to group therapy, he finds comfort in an unlikely group of friends who are living with family issues of their own. In a short span of time he’s forced to confront his own feelings of grief at his mother’s death, guilt at not being able to protect his dad, and fear that he, too, is losing his mind. He has to learn to accept help from others and to be a kid again after being the adult in his family for so long. There’s a hospitalization and a confrontation with social services before everything is finally resolved. Along the way, Jason is kept company by running commentary from a cast of characters he has created in his mind to help him cope with his dysfunctional life.

This was an amazing story from beginning to end. It could have been another run-of-the-mill story of teen angst and drama but Han Nolan inserts humor and emotion into every page. The ever-present conversation going on in Jason’s head has the potential to be annoying and distracting but instead is entirely believable, and you can see how that’s his one little lifeline to sanity. He’s never really confronted his grief at losing his mother, and he eventually realizes he harbors a lot of anger as well for being forced into the position he’s in. The author skillfully captures the voice of a young teenage boy in the reversed role of being the parent. It’s also a safe read for teenagers without speaking down to them, which is hard to come by these days. Five stars for me!

~Thalia

Buy it Now: Crazy

Review: The Whole Golden World by Kristina Riggle

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20140101-075407.jpgIt’s easy enough to write about difficult topics, especially if it’s fiction. Child abuse, incest, murder, school shootings…they’ve all been covered at one time or another with varying degrees of success. But to be able to do so in a way that doesn’t make the reader cringe and push the book aside is no easy feat. Kristina Riggle has done just that with this intriguing novel.

The story centers on the inappropriate relationship between seventeen-year-old Morgan and her math teacher, TJ Hill. Morgan has always been considered mature for her age and seems wise beyond her years. A gifted musician who also writes poetry, she finds herself tiring of the usual teenage drama all around her. A beautiful young woman,she’s nonetheless extremely self-conscious about a scar on her face resulting from a childhood injury. TJ is one of the most popular teachers at the high school. He has an easy rapport with his students. He’s also under a huge amount of stress at home as he and his wife, Rain, continue a barrage of medical treatments as they attempt to conceive a child. Morgan provides a shoulder for him to lean on as he deals with this pressure. She, in turn, thrives on the attention from a wise, mature older man. When their relationship is discovered and charges are filed, Morgan finds herself sitting opposite her parents in the courtroom as she defends the man she believes to be the love of her life. The question is, was Morgan the victim of a manipulative older man or is she a delusional teenager obsessed with her teacher?

If these were the only two characters in this story it would still be a winner. But the author has added a cast of supporting characters that provide enough of a story on their own. There’s Joe, Morgan’s gruff but loving father who just also happens to be the assistant principal at the high school. Dinah, Morgan’s mother, thrives on being involved in her children’s lives but also runs a successful, popular coffee hangout for the local teens. At the same time, she must stay on top of Morgan’s younger twin brothers, Jared and Connor who suffer academic and behavior issues as a result of a difficult birth. And of course there’s Rain, TJ’s supportive but unsuspecting wife who bears a striking resemblance to Morgan.

A story with this many characters always has the potential for being a big confusing mess. Not in this case. Riggle successfully ties everything in to the main storyline while at the same time keeping the reader’s interest spread all around. The story alternates between Morgan, TJ, and to a lesser degree Rain while at the same time keeping us interested in what’s going on with everyone else. As I read this book, I found myself connected to all of the characters, not just Morgan and TJ. There’s no question that this type of relationship is never appropriate, regardless of the student’s age. Those in such positions of power bear a huge responsibility for staying within the boundaries. This story deals with the legalities and morality of such a situation while at the same time showing how other friends and family members are affected. Five stars for me!

~Thalia

Buy it Now: The Whole Golden World

Review: Stella Bain by Anita Shreve

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20131225-214734.jpgHistorical fiction is a very popular genre these days. From “The Book Thief” to “The Help”, authors all around are creating beautiful works of literature that seamlessly mesh historical facts with spellbinding fictional story lines. This one could have been part of that elite group.

The story begins with an unknown woman waking up injured in a battlefield hospital in France. The year is 1916, and World War I is underway. The woman identifies herself as Stella Bain but can remember nothing more than working as a nurse’s aid and driving an ambulance. Whether this is true or not is anyone’s guess. Driven by the need to find out the truth about her past, she feels the urge to travel to London where she senses the truth must lie. When she arrives in London, she is taken in by a kind physician and his wife. With their help, she is able to recover her memory. As such, she discovers what she was unknowingly hiding from. Without giving too much of the story away, there follows a legal battle which forces “Stella” to confront her past.

I had high hopes for this book, having enjoyed other works by Anita Shreve. This one started out in dramatic fashion and held my attention through about two-thirds of the story. Then it just gradually faded away for me. The author is a skillful writer who weaves a beautiful story full of historical details. The problem for me was that it just died out towards the end. I felt like the ending was rushed and a huge chunk of time was skipped. I get a great deal of satisfaction from knowing what happens to “my” characters at the end of a book and this one didn’t do it for me. It’s not a bad story, but I felt that it could have ended on a better note.

~Thalia

Buy It Now: Stella Bain

Review: Wings of Glass by Gina Holmes

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20131208-165741.jpgThis wonderful, touching story by Gina Holmes crosses boundaries and fits into so many categories. It’s a story about domestic abuse that also has a Christian theme running underneath. It’s a story about friendship and the support we get from others who care about us. It’s also a story of suspense that leaves you wondering what’s going to happen from one page to the next.

Penny is just barely 17 when she becomes smitten with Trent Taylor, a handsome and charismatic farmhand hired by her father. Being young and naive, Penny is easily swept off her feet. The abuse begins almost as soon as Penny leaves home with Trent. He’s both physically and emotionally abusive. The hitting is just a small part of the way he terrorizes Penny. Cut off from her family, Penny is dependent on Trent for everything and never knows when something is going to set him off. Like most abused women, Penny begins to believe that she deserves the abuse and her self-esteem is eroded more and more each day. Then an accident turns the tables and Trent is suddenly dependent on Penny. Is it possible that Trent has changed and is trying to be the husband she deserves? It’s at this point that Callie Mae and Fatima enter Penny’s life. Along with providing a friendship she didn’t know was possible, the women also challenge Penny to look within herself and examine the way she’s living. She’s also conflicted by her strong faith when she wrestles with the decision of whether she should leave Trent or “stand by her man”.

This is the second book I’ve read by Gina Holmes and I’ve loved both of them beyond belief. The author creates such strong, believable characters that you almost believe she’s writing about her own personal experiences. That’s not to say I had warm and fuzzy feelings for Penny. I found her infuriating and couldn’t believe she kept going back to Trent and falling for his lies. I just wanted to reach into the book and scream at her. How could she be so stupid? Couldn’t she see that this was bound to end badly? But the fact that I felt such strong emotions for the character just speaks volumes as to what a great story this is. This was one I couldn’t put down, and I couldn’t get this story out of my head even after I finished it. Anytime a story pulls me in that deeply it’s a must-read!

~Thalia

Buy it Now: Wings of Glass

Announcing the Giveaway Winners! Muses’ Favorite Books of 2013

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Drum Roll Please….. The winners for our Best Books of 2013 Giveaway are:

Alice G for A Hundred Summers
Faith McLaughlin for Left Drowning
Sprite for I am Malala
Kimberlyn for N0S4A2
Jennifer for Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Krista Irvin for Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Congratulations!

Winners, please send us your email address here on the blog, randommusesblog@gmail.com, or via private message on the Random Book Muses Facebook page.

This weekend we will send the winners their Kindle books.

Thanks for entering! Watch for more giveaways on the blog, Facebook and Twitter.

Muses’ Favorite Books of 2013

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The six of us chose our favorite books reviewed by Random Book Muses this year. And we want to give away copies to YOU!

***Comment on this post (Facebook, blog or twitter) with the title you want to win, and the name of YOUR favorite book of 2013 and you’ll be entered into the giveaway.***

Contest ends December 20.

Melpomene: Left Drowning by Jessica Park
20131210-215516.jpg I fell in love with Jessica Park’s writing when I read Flat-Out Love. I knew I’d read whatever she wrote afterwards. But I wasn’t nearly prepared for the devastation I felt when reading Left Drowning. This story is about loss and love and learning to move on from both. The characters were so real, that I felt like I was sitting right with them, laughing when they laughed and crying when they cried. And when their hearts broke, mine did as well. I may never get over this book. This book totally killed me and I hope it kills you too.
You can read the full review here.

Thalia: My Name is Malala by Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb
20131210-215528.jpg What a challenge, to pick just ONE favorite book from this past year. How in the world am I supposed to do that? Almost every book I’ve read has been a favorite in some way. Otherwise I wouldn’t have finished it. That being said…the book that has touched me the most and still resonates with me is “My Name is Malala.” When I first heard about this young lady and the tragedy that befell her, I was shocked like most other people were. But I couldn’t truly comprehend exactly what she went through up to the point when she was shot. Her book received a lot of publicity before it was released, and I was excited to read it. I don’t often buy books the day that they come out but this one was an exception. I have even more respect for Malala and her entire family after reading her story. What strength and courage it takes to stand up for what you believe in under the pressure of such danger. This family,and Malala in particular, is truly an inspiration!
You can read the full review here.

Pegasus: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel by Deborah Moggach
20131211-230709.jpg As you can see from many of my reviews, comedy isn’t a genre that I read a lot of.  With that in mind, I was a bit skeptical when I first picked up the book.  How wrong was I?!   A story with elements of comedy, mixed up with drama, family dynamics, cultural clashes, and prejudices that are dispelled as freely as they are assumed, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a refreshing, hilarious, poignant, and stark look on our lives and how we choose to live them.
You can read the full review here.

Urania: NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
20131210-215537.jpgWith 2013 coming to an end, as I look back at all of my reads of the year, I realize just how lucky I am! There were so many great books! It’s almost impossible to pick my very favorite, so instead, I shall pick out the one that surprised me the most….This book is NOS4A2. This is a book that I went into not expecting very much. I put it off for months. I believed that Joe was published and popular because of his famous father. Wow! While it may be true that the apple does not fall very far from the tree…I suddenly know that sometimes, the old apple tree is surpassed by the fruit it has born…After reading this long novel that had a writing style that made it feel fast and quick, I look forward to reading many more by JH…and I think in the years to come he might be every bit as famous as his father….and not because of his father…but because he absolutely deserves it!
You can read the full review here.

Clio: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black
20131211-230656.jpg Picking my favorite book out of the ones I’ve reviewed for the blog was difficult. So I chose the one that surprised me the most. The Coldest Girl in Cold Town surprised me in so many ways – and all of them are good! This was a 5 star book from start to finish. The world is dark, creepy and complex. The complexity is woven into the hopelessness, the technology, and even into the romance that this amazingly well written novel contains. Loved every bit of it!
You can read the full review here.

Calliope: A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams
20131211-230722.jpg I love all the reading I’ve done this year, but I loved reading A Hundred Summers best. Beatriz Williams wrote my favroite genre – romance – into literary fiction with such substance and chutzpah, I was astonished at every turn. My shoulders are tensing just thinking about it. And even though I have hundreds of unread books waiting for me, A Hundred Summers compels me to re-read it. I know I’ll hear myself gasp, laugh, and blush all over again on the beach with Nick, Budgie, Graham and Lily. 
You can read the full review here.

Review: Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis

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20131129-123657.jpgReaders of post-apocalyptic and/or dystopian stories must suspend their disbelief for the duration of most of these stories. Plague-induced flesh-eating zombies, alien or cyborg invasion…these make great stories but are a little too far “out there” for the average reader to truly believe. Scarcity of clean drinking water, however, is something that is far too believable.

Not a Drop to Drink takes us into the lives of Lynn and her mother as they try to survive in a harsh, futuristic world where safe, clean drinking water is a commodity worth killing for. Their primary focus is to protect their pond at all costs. Cut off from the rest of the world, they rely on nobody but themselves. Lynn, in fact, cannot recall ever talking to anyone besides her mother. She’s a tough survivor who knows what has to be done when faced with danger. After all, her mother has raised her that way. But when tragedy strikes, Lynn is forced to let down her guard and allow others into her life. This comes in the form of their long-standing neighbor as well as strangers Eli and young Lucy. Of course Eli becomes the love interest. Isn’t that a requirement for a young adult novel? Still, the romance is more of a sideline and doesn’t distract from the inner toughness and maturity that Lynn exhibits throughout the story. It was also nice to see her transformation from a hard-as-nails, unemotional teenager into someone who truly cares for others and puts their well being before hers.

I enjoyed this book tremendously, and in large part because it felt more plausible to me than most of the other books of this genre that I’ve read. Clean water to drink is something that most of us take for granted. But how long would we be able to survive if our supply was limited? What measures would we take to protect what little we had? And what would we be willing to sacrifice for the benefit of others? While I won’t pretend that this was a particularly deep or thought-provoking story, it did make me think “what if” a bit more than others have recently. This book has great character development and the author provides a well-described environment that helps the reader understand why certain tough decisions had to be made. This one is a well-written, strong story!

~Thalia

Buy it Now: Not a Drop to Drink

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: Our Picnics in the Sun by Morag Joss

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20131129-122346.jpgA man trapped both physically and mentally after a debilitating stroke. His wife resentful and overwhelmed by his needs. A distant son who refuses to return to the home he worked so hard to escape. A harsh, unforgiving landscape. And two strangers who mysteriously appear at their doorstep one night. Morag Joss has given us a cast of characters worthy of a fulfilling, suspenseful story.

Howard and his wife, Deborah, are simple, eccentric country people who insist on living off the land and shun many modern conveniences. Their son Adam escaped his sheltered upbringing to become a successful businessman. Howard loves nothing more than making pottery and practicing yoga while Deborah spends her time weaving and tending to her home and garden. They also run a not-so-successful bed and breakfast. When Howard suffers a stroke and becomes completely dependent on Deborah for his most basic needs, feelings begin to change and long buried resentments rise to the surface. Both Howard and Deborah are desperate for the attention and affection of Adam. But time and again they are disappointed by his unfulfilled promises of a long past due visit. Complicating matters is a lingering guest, Theo. As Deborah’s relationship with Theo begins to grow, she starts to view him as a replacement for her absent son. However, dark thoughts soon start to cloud her judgment as she begins to question everything she thought her life has stood for up to this point.

This book was described to me as a psychological thriller, and it definitely had me on the edge of my seat waiting for “it” to happen. The author wove a story full of such secret and suspense that I just knew at any moment the bottom was going to fall out. Although I caught on to one of the cliffhangers at about three quarters of the way through the book, her writing is so beautifully lyrical and descriptive that I wanted to keep reading just for the pleasure of the journey. The ending did not disappoint me and all of my questions were answered, although I would describe this book as more of a suspenseful drama than a psychological thriller. A good read!

~Thalia

Buy it Now: Our Picnics in the Sun: A Novel

Review: This Is Not a Drill by Beck McDowell

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20131120-190720.jpgIn an ideal world, parents would send their little ones off to school each day worrying about nothing more serious than if they’ll have someone to play with at recess. Teachers would be free of the worry that they might have to step in front of an armed gunman to protect their students. And those precious little ones wouldn’t have to suffer through lockdown drills where they practice what to do if a “bad guy” gets into their school. Unfortunately that world does not exist.

Emery and Jake are high school seniors who spend time volunteering at their local elementary school. Their hours at the school are spent tutoring the children in French and just helping out wherever they can. It’s understandable that they’ve formed attachments to the first graders they spend so much time with. Brian Stutts is an Iraqi war veteran who is going through a custody dispute over his son, Patrick. Because he is suffering from violent outbursts as a result of PTSD, he is not allowed to spend unsupervised time with his son. A confrontation occurs between him and the teacher, resulting in an armed Stutts holding the first grade students, the teacher, and Jake & Emery hostage. The high schoolers must not only worry about their own safety but also the safety of the little ones who look up to them.

This is a fast-paced book that’s full of tension and suspense. The author tells the story from two viewpoints, switching seamlessly between Emery and Jake. It’s hard to take at times, coming so soon on the heels of Newtown and all the other school shootings that seem to be in the news on a regular basis. But, will there ever really be a perfect time to grapple with this issue? I also found myself feeling some sympathy for Stutts and what he experienced in Iraq. There’s never an excuse for this type of violence, but there are very real issues that must be addressed before we can even begin to end the violence. Regardless of your politics or where you stand on the issue of gun control, this is an excellent book for young adults and older readers as well.

~ Thalia

Buy It Now: This Is Not a Drill