#8: Mr. Gwyn

Mr. Gwyn by Alessandro Baricco is one of the books I got from my McSweeny book club.  It is the story of an author, Jasper Gwyn, who decides he no longer wants to write books anymore.  He instead tells people he wants to be a copyist.  He later comes up with the idea of "writing portraits".  To do this he finds his first model, a young girl named Rebecca.  He has her pose naked in a studio for 4 hrs everyday.  Instead of drawing her portrait, he writes a story about it.  He then starts doing this for other people, but no one is supposed to know it is him who is writing the portraits.  Things go well for a while and then Mr. Gwyn disappears.  Rebecca tries to figure out what happens to him.

I thought the intro into this story was a little slow and hard to understand.  Once the character of Rebecca became more prominent, I felt more involved in the story.  It was a unique idea and I liked the ending a lot.

There was also a bonus book at the end of this story called Three Times at Dawn that was mentioned as a novel in Mr. Gwyn.  I liked this one a lot.

Up Next:  What Color is Monday?  by Carrie Cariello

#7: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

I just read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.  I have never read this before, and I don't think I've ever seen the whole Disney movie.

The first thing I noticed when reading this book is that kids must have been a lot smarter back in the 1800s.  This book was written for a 10 yr old girl, but I had a hard time understanding parts for it.  This is probably mostly due to the "old English" that is used in Classic novels.  There were some words I was not familiar with and had to look up.

I can't say I enjoyed this book.  I thought with all the characters it would be really exciting, but it was just kind of boring for me.  There was a lot of description of characters and of Alice growing and shrinking, but I didn't feel there was much action.  I also didn't like how rudely the characters and Alice spoke to each other.  Just didn't feel like something a 10 yr old girl would do in an unfamiliar world.

I'm glad I finally read this book, but overall I found it quite disappointing.

Up Next:  Mr. Gwyn by Alessandro Baricco

#6: Eats, Shoots & Leaves

I just finished Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss.  This book was mentioned to me by Wesley's allergist, who has an obsession with punctuation while dictating his allergy notes.  This is a book about using correct punctuation and some of the history behind it.

While I find myself, somewhat interested in grammar, I can't say I am a true "stickler" as Truss calls them.  There are certain grammar errors that make me cringe, and others that I may glance right over.  In this book, Truss talks a lot about apostrophes and commas.  She also gets into other areas, such as colons, semicolons, and hyphens; that I am not as familiar with.  (I just read the book and I still don't know what should come after hyphen.)

I found some of the book entertaining and some kind of boring.  It had some like little facts that I never knew.  Did you know Starbursts were orignially called Opal Fruits?  She also seemed to have a lot of slams at American punctuation.  While I know there are lots of people who don't use grammar and punctuation correctly in America, I don't think she should say it's wrong just because we don't do things the same as the English people.  Towards the end she actually gave Americans some praise for their formal letter punctuation.

Anyway.  This book was interesting.  I can see why Dr. Brown would refer to it as "his favorite book that he really wouldn't recommend, because it's kind of boring".  If you are at all interested in grammar and punctuation- you should give this a read!!  (Note to self:  limit use of explanation points and dashes.)

Up Next:  Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

#5: Yes Please

Yes Please by Amy Poehler is full of details about how Poehler became an actress and all of the people who helped her along the way.  It is also filled with some back ground of her childhood, advice, and testimonials of friends.

There were a few laugh out loud moments (for me this was mostly during the Parks and Recs chapter), but mostly it was just a lot about life in general.  There were a lot of details about friends and fellow actors, the UCB, SNL, shows, and her kids.  I especially loved the chapter about her boys and their moon hunts.  She briefly describes that she went through a rough patch when getting divorced, but she never really said anything bad about Will Arnett and the way she thanked him made me tear up.

There were a few parts I didn't like (like the sex and drug chapters), but that's hollywood and I guess we can't expect everyone to be perfect.

Overall I liked the book, but I still think I liked Tina Fey's book better.  :)

Up Next:  Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss

#4: The Silkworm

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling) is the 2nd book in the Cormoran Strike series.  I really loved the 1st Strike novel.  I think I finished it in less than 2 days.  While I was really intrigued with The Silkworm, it just read kind of slow for me.  There was a lot going on in this novel, so maybe it was just a little too much to read fast.

In The Silkworm, Cormoran's detective business is booming due to all the hype over him solving the Lula Laundry case.  This time a woman named Leona Quine comes to him looking for help to find her husband, writer Owen Quine, who has gone missing.  Mrs. Quine simply thinks her husband has went away for some quiet time due to a fight with his publisher about his newest novel.  We later find out that Quine has been murdered in a very gruesome manner.  Cormoran and Robin are on the case to find out all the details before the police.

This book was filled with tons of characters.  I had a hard time keeping all of them straight in their lives and in Quine's novel.  In the end another twist of who really committed the crime.  While I didn't like this one as much as the first, I'm still looking forward to more adventures for Cormoran and Robin.

Up Next:  Yes Please by Amy Poehler

#3: Five Minutes Alone

Five Minutes Alone by Paul Cleave is book #4 in a series.  It's about a detective named Theodore Tate.  He is recently back on the police force in Austrailia after being in a coma.  We learn that his wife and daughter were in an accident a year ago.  His daughter died and wife keeps forgetting the present and reverting back to the day the daughter died.  There is a whole lot of background that is probably given in the previous books.

In this story, Tate's previous partner, Schroder, is no longer on the police force.  He has a bullet in his brain and decides that the last thing he wants to do is give victims five minutes alone with the criminals who destroyed their lives.  What starts out as a "good idea" takes a turn and innocent people start to die.

We know who the "Five Minute Man" is from the start, but the story is still interesting.  I found the story a little hard to read.  Kind of confusing, but maybe because I missed some stuff in the other books.  It also described wounds in a lot of detail which was hard to read at times.  It was an interesting story, but not sure I liked it enough to read the other books in the series.

Up Next:  The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

#2: Little Mercies

I first heard of Heather Gudenkauf when I lived in Ohio and read the book Weight of Silence about two girls who go missing in Iowa.  I really liked that book and especially loved reading an Iowan author.  When I was looking at the new release section at the library, I saw a new book by Gudenkauf and thought I'd give it a try.

Little Mercies was the story of Ellen Moore, a social worker for DHS in Iowa.  The story is set in Cedar City, IA (maybe a combination of Iowa City and Cedar Falls?).  The story opens with Ellen forgetting to set the alarm.  The whole family is rushed to get to everything on time and while she is driving to a meeting she gets a call from one of her child clients.  She makes a detour to help the girl and then the unthinkable happens, changing her life forever.

Intertwined with Ellen's story, is the story of a 10 yr old girl named Jenny.  She lives with her alchololic father in a string of rundown apartments and hotels.  They are hoping to make a new start in Dubuque, IA, but arrive at a problem right before the bus leaves.  Jenny ends up finding herself in Cedar City, IA.  The book switches through both stories throughout the book

I liked the story.  I just felt it was a little too predictable in some parts.  It almost had a little bit of a Picoult flare to it.  It wasn't as good as the Weight of Silence, but I think I would still read more books by Heather Gudenkauf.