The Radleys: A Novel by Matt Haig

About book:

Just about everyone knows a family like the Radleys.  Many of us grew up next door to one.  They are a modern family, averagely content, averagely dysfunctional, living in a staid and quiet suburban English town.  Peter is an overworked doctor whose wife, Helen, has become increasingly remote and uncommunicative.  Rowan, their teenage son, is being bullied at school, and their anemic daughter, Clara, has recently become a vegan.  They are typical, that is, save for one devastating exception:  Peter and Helen are vampires and have - for seventeen years -  been abstaining by choice from a life of chasing blood in the hope that their children could live normal lives.

One night, Clara finds herself driven to commit a shocking - and disturbingly satisfying - act of violence, and her parents are forced to explain their history of shadows and lies.  A police investigation is launched that uncovers a richness of vampire history heretofore unkown to the general public.  And when the malevolent and alluring Uncle Will, a practicing vampire, arrives to throw the police off Clara's trail, he winds up throwing the whole house into temptation and turmoil and unleashing a host of dark secrets that threaten the Radley's marriage.

My thoughts:

Another one bites the dust.  Yes, I have now read two books for RIP VI Challenge, which means I have completed the challenge (I chose to enter at the Peril the Second level).  YAY!  Anyhow, on to the book.

The Radleys are a family of four living a quiet life in small town in England.  Peter (dad) is a doctor and Helen (mom) is a housewife. Their two teenaged children are, Rowan, who gets bullied at school, and Clara, a recent vegan who has befriended the new girl.  Everything is humming along nicely, until one evening when  Helen gets a disturbing phone call from her daughter Clara.  Turns out Clara just ate her date.  She was saying 'no', but he wasn't listening and something deep within woke up and the next thing you know there is blood everywhere.  Of course, Clara's drunk most of it.  You see, the Radleys are vampires.  Except, Clara and Rowan weren't supposed to find out, because their parents had been taking great pains to avoid that lifestyle and figured they could teach their children to suppress that part of themselves.  Well, the bat's out of the bag and the kids want answers.

Suffice it to say, drama does unfold as a result of Clara's incident.  Old family members come to visit and vampire society's are discussed.  Marital discord rings loudly between Peter and Helen.  Unquenchable thirst becomes a problem for some and well, things get a bit out of hand.  Plus, some secrets are revealed and they leave a bitter taste in your mouth.  All in all, a really good read. Haig's writing was great and his ideas for the story lines were a treat to read.  I enjoyed all of the characters, even the annoying next door neighbors. This was definitely a perfect choice for RIP VI - had vampires in it and wasn't too scary to get through (this is essential for me, because lately I've been a scaredy cat when it comes to horror films and books).  Crikey, that's sad. Oh well. I'm off to read something else.

Falling For Me: A Memoir by Anna David

 

About book:

Like most women, whether they've chosen the Fortune 500 career path or have had five kids by 35, Anna David wondered if she'd made the right choices.  Then she came upon the book Sex and the Single Girl by Helen Gurley Brown, Cosmopolitan's fearless leader from the mid-sixties to the late nineties.  Immediately connecting with Gurley Brown's unique message of self-empowerment combined with femininity, Anna vowed to use Sex as a lesson plan, venturing out of her comfort zone in the hope of overcoming the fears and insecurities that had haunted her for years.  Embarking on a journey both intensely personal and undeniably universal, she becomes adventurous and spontaneous - reviving her wardrobe and apartment, taking French lessons, dashing off to Seville, and whiling the nights away with men she never would have considered before.  In the process, she ends up meeting the person really worth changing for: herself.

My Thoughts:

Falling For Me: How I Hung Curtains, Learned to Cook, Traveled to Seville, and Fell in Love is a memoir by Anna David, a young woman who is searching for love and winds up finding herself.  Sounds like a good read, right? I thought, that being 33 and single, I would really enjoy reading this woman's story.  We both have similar insecurities and are looking for love (in all the wrong places).  How could I not enjoy this book?  Well, it turns out it was pretty easy not to like.  

There was just something about the author that made me apathetic toward her self-exploration process.  I just found that I couldn't really connect with her as much as I had thought I would and found her rambling to be rather pedantic at times.  The writing was solid-ish and the overall idea of using a book to revamp her life was somewhat interesting, but overall I just found the book to be lacking.  And the thing is that I've read some rather glowing reviews of this book that are comparing it to Eat, Pray, Love, which for many would be reason enough to give David's book a read.  For me, not so much.  I was not a fan of Eat, Pray, Love, so that comparison falls flat for me.

I'm not really sure who I recommend this book to, except for fans of Eat, Pray, Love.  All I know is that this is one memoir I won't be remembering.

By the by, here's the link to Anna's book trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rQ_9WwHbjY 

Maybe, you'll want to read the book after watching it.  After all, according to the other blogs I've read, I seem to be the only one who didn't like the book.

Thank you to TLC Book Tours and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book.

Everything We Ever Wanted by Sara Shepard

About book:

A recently widowed mother of two, Sylvie Bates-McAllister finds her life upended by a late-night phone call from the prestigious private school founded by her grandfather where her adopted son, Scott, teaches.  Allegations of Scott's involvement in a hazing scandal cause a ripple effect, throwing the entire family into chaos.  For Charles, Sylvie's biological son, it dredges up a ghost from the past who is suddenly painfully present.  For his wife, Joanna, it forces her to reevaluate everything she's hoped for in the golden Bates-McAllisters.  And for Scott, it illuminates harsh truths about a world he has never truly felt himself a part of.

But for all the Bates-McAllisters, the call exposes a tangled web of secrets that ties the family together: the mystery of the school hazing, the event that tore Charles and Scott apart the night of their high school awards ceremony, and the intended recipient of a certain bracelet.  The quest to unravel the truth takes the family on individual journeys across state lines, into hospitals, through the Pennsylvania woods, and face-to-face with the long-dormant question: What if the life you always planned for and dreamed of isn't what you want after all?

My thoughts:

Family drama! Scandal! Secrets and Lies! Wow! I felt like I was reading a soap opera script, which is a good thing.  Who doesn't love a good soap filled with all those crazy dramatics and juicy story lines that just keep you coming back for more?  I do! Actually, I haven't seen a soap since I was in grad school and I got hooked on Eastenders and Hollyoaks - I was studying in England at the time and those were my vice.  Anyhow, Sara Shepard's novel, Everything We Ever Wanted filled me with the same joy I would get from my evening fix of watching those soaps.  Except, those shows went on for ages and this book was a one day read.

And what a good day of reading it turned out to be.  Shepard's writing is great! Its engaging, solid and truly gripping.  I didn't want to stop turning the pages.  As for the characters, they were extremely uncommunicative with one another, which of course, made me frustrated with them, but also eager to find out what they would do next.  Now, I don't want to give anything away with regards to the plot, because the fun in finding out the secrets is to read it for yourself.  All I can say is that this is one family you want to read all about.  Their story is entertaining, suspenseful and very interesting.

I would definitely recommend Sara Shepard's Everything We Ever Wanted to anyone and everyone - especially those who love a good family drama.

Thank you to TLC Book Tours and the publisher for providing me with a copy of the book!

The Grief of Others: A Novel by Leah Hager Cohen

About book:

It begins with loss.  John ad Ricky Ryrie are stricken by the death of their third child only fifty-seven hours after his birth.  Struggling to regain a semblance of normalcy, they find themselves pretending not only that little has changed, but that nothing was wrong before this baby came so briefly into their lives.  Yet in the aftermath of his death, long-suppressed uncertainties about their relationship come roiling to the surface.  A terrible secret emerges concerning what Ricky knew about her pregnancy and concealed from everyone, even John.  And the couple's two older children, struggling to understand the tensions around them, begin to act out in their own idiosyncratic ways.  Ultimately, though, the grief that was initially so isolating allows the four family members to connect powerfully with the sadness and burdens of others - to the grief that is part of every human life and has within it the power to draw us together.

My thoughts:

This is a sad and rather depressing book.  It tells the story of the Ryrie's difficult and heartbreaking loss of their third child - a son who lived for 57 hours after being born with anencephaly.  Reeling from this devastating loss, the family find themselves grieving individually and disconnecting from one another.  Ricky and John (the parents) try to pretend to move forward with their lives by continuing to work and presenting a united front to those around them.  Meanwhile, their children, Paul and Biscuit, are having to deal with this loss all on their own.  They don't truly comprehend what happened to their baby brother, but have no one to talk with about it.  And they can't help but notice the mounting tension growing bigger and bigger every day between their parents.  You see, Ricky has been keeping a huge secret and when it finally comes to light, John can no longer look at her the same way.  And soon, we are privy to a set of lies that has been looming over this family for years and has finally come out to either break them apart or bring them closer. 

This is definitely a difficult book to get through, because you don't care for any of the characters.  Well, except for Paul and Biscuit.  Kids shouldn't be left to deal with grief all on their own, especially when they are unable to fully understand what has even happened.   I suppose it just goes to show how selfish Ricky and John could be - ignorant of the pain and sadness enveloping their children's lives. 
Overall, this was a well written book about the topic of grief and how it is handled within a family.  I felt that Cohen explored the different ways people deal with loss superbly.  She created characters that were unlikeable, but fully developed and quite realistically flawed.  The tone and flow of the story was slow and depressing, which fit in perfectly with the story lines.  And the fact that the book was difficult to get through shows just how engaging it was to read, even though it took a toll on your emotions.  Definitely a book I would recommend.

Thank you to TLC Book Tours and the publisher for providing me with a copy of the book!