Whiskey & Charlie

"Whiskey & Charlie" by Annabel Smith
Published by Sourcebooks Landmark
ARC provided by Bookreporter
Finished 3/28/15


3.5 / 5 stars


I won this book from Bookreporter. When it first arrived, I read the back cover to remind myself of what the book was going to be about and then opened it right up. The minute I saw the table of contents was the "two-way alphabet", I knew I was going to enjoy it. So creative!! And then the ability to weave the story around the alphabet so smoothly was simply amazing. It always fit yet never felt forced. The storyline itself had potential to become sappy on a few occasions but I never felt that it did. I'm still not sure how I feel about the ending - in some ways I feel like everything was resolved too neatly yet, it's the outcome I wanted so how can I complain.

Hood

“Hood” by Emma Donoghue

Published by

Read on Nook – finished 3/12/15

2/5 stars

I read this book as part of a challenge to read outside of my normal genres.  It won the American Library Association’s Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Book Award for Literature so it fit one of the categories I needed to fill.  It is the story of a young woman morning the sudden loss of her partner of the last 13 years.  The story only takes place during one week, however, there are a great deal of flashbacks during that week.  I thought that would make for a great love story but to me, it feel way short.  Admittedly, the sex scenes were too detailed and uncomfortable so I found myself speed reading through most of them but I don’t think that affected my opinion.  I think the author did a good job on the effects of the main character living in the closet with her job and family and thus having to mourn a best friend rather than a lover/spouse but missed many opportunities to show love and instead chose lust.  She also seemed to prefer to cheapen the relationship with affairs by one of the women rather than have more romance.  Overall, I’m glad I stepped out of my comfort zone but wish I had picked a better book.

"At the Water's Edge"

“At the Water’s Edge” by Sara Gruen

Published by Spiegel & Grau (Random House)
ARC from NetGalley – finished 3/2/15

4/5 Stars                             

At the height of WWII, young socialites leave their partying lifestyle in Philadelphia and head to Scotland in search of the Loch Ness monster.  Sounds odd, doesn’t it?  If I hadn’t known this was by the same author as “Water for Elephants” I don’t know that it would have peaked my interest.  But I greatly enjoyed that book so decided to give it a try.  I’m so glad I did – it was such a pleasurable book.  There is just so much more to this story - the search for the monster is really just a back story.  There is love and compassion with a couple pieces of evil built in.  The female characters are my favorite – strong with a soft side as well.  There are still signs of weakness and viewing the world through rose colored glasses, but don’t we all have that inside us?  The male characters are well developed as well, even though you may not like them all.  You have the confused drug addict, the humorous side kick, and the strong, heartbroken hero.  Woven together, they create a great story that I highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with the ARC of this novel.

"Amy and Isabelle"

“Amy and Isabelle” by Elizabeth Strout

Published by Vintage
Listened to the audio – finished 3/2/15

3/5 stars for me

A single mother and her teenage daughter in a small town in the 70s, each trying to define themselves.  Overall, this was a good story but I felt there were parts that didn’t belong or just didn’t fit, if that makes sense.  There were also relationships that I felt should have been expanded on rather than just touched on – they would have brought more depth. 

I picked this up because I enjoyed the author’s two most recent books.  This is her first novel – her writing has definitely grown over the years.