In Laura Benedict'sThe Stranger Inside,Kimber Hannon's life seemed to be going smoothly until she returns from a vacation to discover s**4 Stars**
In Laura Benedict'sThe Stranger Inside,Kimber Hannon's life seemed to be going smoothly until she returns from a vacation to discover someone has moved into her house and taken over essentially her entire life. She calls the cops, who are completely unhelpful. They tell her the person who is in her house has a valid lease, and that she will have to figure out somewhere else to live until the courts can get things figured out.
Shocked and having no roof over her head, she seeks solace from her best friend, Diana, who lives in a huge cushy mansion with her handsome husband and delightful young daughter. Things seem okay while Kimber is safely enclosed within the four walls of Diana's posh house, that is until she ventures out of the house and to her job. Things to start to deteriorate at work and in her personal life, making her wonder if someone - such as the person who has taken over her house - is intentionally trying to destroy her life. And just maybe Kimber holds some responsibility for this situation.
If you enjoy books with an unreliable narrator and lots of shocking twists and turns,The Stranger Insideis definitely for you. It's well written and the suspense builds page after page. Thank you to Laura Benedict, Mulholland Books, and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy of the book!
**4 Stars** "The giant slate of the world was clean. Consequences no longer existed."
If I had to choose one word to describe Hanna Jameson'sThe **4 Stars** "The giant slate of the world was clean. Consequences no longer existed."
If I had to choose one word to describe Hanna Jameson'sThe Lost,it would be "haunting." The Lost is a brilliant piece of work that is a satisfying mix of old school Agatha Christie who-dun-it murder mystery and dystopian apocalyptic world gone to hell in a handbasket thriller. It will be a pleasant treat for fans of both dystopian literature and classic murder mystery.
As an academic who travels for work, the premise of the book is terrifying to me. The lead of the book, Jon Keller, is attending an academic conference abroad in Switzerland at a hauntingly beautiful historic mansion turned hotel. Mind-numbingly horrific life-altering news shatters the serenity of his trip: nuclear bombs have been detonated over the US and the UK. Jon is ripped from his family - his wife Nadia and two young daughters who are in the US - as all television and Internet communications go down, leaving a vast geographical space between him and all that he loves.
To cope with the terror around him, he does what any academic would do: meticulously documents and details the events that transpire after the nuclear blast: "I need to write about day one, before too much time passes and my memories of it become too repressed. That's what the mind does with trauma; it erases it, making you relive it occasionally in flashbacks and dreams, sensations of vertigo, hyperventilation and panic. But the memory itself becomes a work of fiction."
In the process of creating this historiography of a world amid nuclear fallout, Jon immediately realizes the limitations of modern society. All his resources are no longer available, as so much of them have been digitized: "I had no journals, no library, no resources. The era of instant information was over."
As if this wasn't enough to deal with, Jon and his colleagues discover the body of a young child in the water tank of the hotel. This places a curtain of suspension over the entire hotel and its guests, leaving Jon wondering who he can trust. Is the murderer hiding in plain sight, or did they leave the hotel when the first exodus of guests occurred immediately after the fallout?
As Jon tries to piece together this mystery and make sense of what his life will look like in this brave new world, secrets are revealed about his past that also call into question his motivations for telling us his story and essentially writing the history of this post-apocalyptic world. Who can we believe if the storyteller isn't honest with his readers?
The ending left open the possibility of a sequel, which I would definitely be up for reading. I hope to read more from Hanna Jameson and appreciate the opportunity to read this advanced reader copy of The Last!Thank you to Hanna Jameson, Atria Books, and NetGalley for a copy of the book!
This is the second book I've read in Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy. I am absolutely blown away by VanderMeer's haunting, poetic prose. It'sThis is the second book I've read in Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy. I am absolutely blown away by VanderMeer's haunting, poetic prose. It's not for everyone; it is cryptic, full of insinuations and metaphors that I personally savored like fine wine. If you are looking for a dystopian book series that spells everything out for you, this is definitely not it. Though the book's story centers on the mysterious Area X, I count it among a few books I've read that have made me think deeply about the human condition and our relationship to our environment.
The second book concerns the character of Control, someone who cannot let go of the mistakes he's made in the past as a spy and domestic terrorism "expert." Like the biologist inAnnihilation, he has been hypnotized by "Central," the militaristic organization devoted to studying and neutralizing Area X. Hypnotism is used on Control because his past subsumes him, making him doubt and second guess the decisions he makes in the present. This reminded me a bit of how many people use prescription medications to dull and desensitize themselves from the troubles of today's world. We are all looking for a way to escape pain and sadness. Control is sent to investigate strange occurrences at the Southern Reach station, to determine if the border of Area X has expanded.
The characters in the Southern Reach trilogy all seem to be running from their pasts and from their unhappiness; Area X gives them a place to focus their energy to dull the pain. And while Area X is doing a fantastic job of destroying the world (or restoring the planet's ecosystems, if you look at it in a different way), the characters have also annihilated (to use the first book in the series' title) their own lives in pursuit of knowledge (about humans in Control's case and about nature in the biologist's case).
There's a lot to be said about this book, and I am sure there are already numerous literary analyses of it. What I took away from it was that while Area X is destroying the planet without any discernible reason, humankind has already been heading in that direction, albeit slower. The characters are broken, be it from Area X or from the world before Area X. I particularly liked this passage that describes such brokeness:
"You didn’t think about it every day or it would rise up and consume you. It just remained there, nameless: a sad, dark thing that weighed you down only some of the time. When the memory became too faint, too abstract, it would transform itself into an old rotator cuff injury, a pain so thin yet so sharp that he could trace the line of it all the way across his shoulder blade and down his back."
I also related to both the biologist and "Central;" both characters have devoted their lives to their craft, often to the exclusion of human relationships. The book is also about humans' need for control and knowledge, the human desire to make all things knowable through science and human "logic." As the author writes,
“We live in a universe driven by chance,” his father had said once, “but the bullshit artists all want causality.”
What happens when an absolutely unknowable entity undermines everything humans thought they knew and understood about the universe, including the basic principles of physics? In my reading of the book, both Control and the biologist find freedom in the fact that Area X defies logic. Human attempts to describe it, such as explaining that it was contained by a "border," fail to capture or even slightly explain the mystery of Area X. Control and the biologist are both able to become different people because of Area X, because it requires a totally new way of conceptualizing the world.
I am starting on the third volume in this trilogy tonight. So glad to have found this series (and pretty sad it ends at number 3!)....more
Review to follow - loved this book. Can't wait to read the next one in the series!Review to follow - loved this book. Can't wait to read the next one in the series!...more
Vanessa is a housewife who lives under the controlling eye of her much older husband, a man who is deeply involved in a church cu**4 Goodreads Stars**
Vanessa is a housewife who lives under the controlling eye of her much older husband, a man who is deeply involved in a church cult. She also serves as Siren for the cult, befriending and courting men who might serve the cult's nefarious plans.
Elliot is a recently separated chemist who is lonely and looking to get his wife back whatever way possible. He develops and pioneers a new drug, one that makes people happily compliant. He's Vanessa's mark - his life will be turned upside down thanks to the cult.
If you haven't read the other two books in the series, you might struggle to pick up some of the backstory. I really enjoyed both of the other books - they kept me interested from page one. This book builds slowly, ending with a crescendo that leaves you wondering what will happen in the next installment of the series (if there will be one!).
Thank you to the author for an opportunity to read an advanced reader copy of this book. I love how she writes interesting, complex characters who draw you in with first-person narratives!
**4 Goodreads Stars** "Her secrets were her secrets. They were nibbling through her flesh like worms trying to eat their way out of an apple, but, a**4 Goodreads Stars** "Her secrets were her secrets. They were nibbling through her flesh like worms trying to eat their way out of an apple, but, as far as she was concerned, the apple could rot and take her with it."
Carla Kovach'sHer Final Houris the second installment in the Detective Gina Harte series and is the second book I've read by Kovach. I read the first installment earlier this year and my review can be found here. Beyond being great reads, I absolutely love the cover art for both of Kovach's books.
Kovach's latest book starts with a terrifying murder in a quiet suburban neighborhood. Melissa Sanderson and her daughter are home alone when intruders break into their house and terrorize Sanderson. Sanderson is murdered in a brutal fashion by a killer (or killers?) who seems to know how to keep a crime scene semi-pristine. Over the course of her murder investigation, Sanderson's private life, which from the outside appeared idyllic, is revealed. We discover that there were dark secrets she was hiding from the world. Melissa appears to be abused or the victim of longterm sexual violence, placing the spotlight on her husband as the potential killer. We also learn that Melissa was in an incredibly unhappy marriage to the point she had started to see someone on the side, someone who she had tried to leave. Who is the killer? Melissa's husband? A man with whom Melissa was having an affair? Or someone else lurking in the shadows, tormenting other women?
While the murder investigation is underway, we are introduced to additional characters who are suffering or have suffered at the hands of a cruel man. Is this man somehow connected to Melissa's murder? This story occurs in between narratives about Detective Harte's investigation of Melissa's murder. It acts like a carrot dangled in front of the reader, taunting you to make connections between the several intertwined stories of women suffering at the hands of abusive men.
I love Kovach's ability to create three-dimensional, relatable characters. She makes you truly care about the fate of the characters and makes the reader want to know what will happen to them at the end of the story. My only critique of the book is that I would have liked to have a bit more backstory/parallel story with Detective Gina Harte. Her story was very compelling and kept me engaged in the first book of the series. Detective Harte's story is what will also keep me reading this series. Thank you to Bookouture, Carla Kovach, and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy ofHer Final Hour.
**5++ Goodreads Stars++ "Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you."
"Haters want us to hate them, because **5++ Goodreads Stars++ "Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you."
"Haters want us to hate them, because hate is incapacitating. When we hate, we can't operate from our real selves, which is our strength."
Oh Anne Lamott, how do you manage to rip my heart into pieces and then mend it ever so carefully back together? This is what Lamott calls a paradox or conundrum, that life brings both immense joy and heart-wrenching pain, pain that, at times, is unbearable. Take her discussion of having children: "We are consumed by the most intense love for one another and the joy of living, along with the grief and terror that we and our babies will know unbelievable hurt: broken bones, bad boyfriends, old age...Every day we're in the grip of the impossible conundrum: the truth that it's over in a blink, and we may be near the end, and that we have to live as if it's going to be okay, no matter what."
Lamott'sAlmost Everything: Notes on Hopeis meandering and rambling in the most poignant way, a method of writing only Lamott can get away with. It is structured around themes that she wants to share with her grandchild, stories she wants to pass on that she deems critical for one's survival in a brutal world.
As with Lamott's other books, I highlighted nearly everything. So many beautiful passages, so much wisdom that has come from the pain that Lamott has known well. This is not a pain she monopolizes. Rather, this book is about how pain is part of the human condition. And because it can happen to any one of us, Lamott believes that we must find peace and happiness every single day. That joy cannot come from a number on a scale or your paystub, though: "Could you say this about yourself right now, that you have immense and intrinsic value, at your current weight and income level, while waiting to hear if you got the job or didn't, or sold your book or didn't? This idea that I had all the value I'd ever needed was concealed from me my whole life. I want a refund."
"The opposite of love is the bathroom scale."
Lamott argues that happiness is not found in materiality but something that is omnipresent, waiting to be found in the most mundane places. There is also beauty in grief and beauty in tragedy, though she certainly does not argue that there is a rhyme or reason as to who gets saddled with grief in this universe. Grief is not a lesson to learn, forced upon those who have sinned. "We do get a taste of the spheres in birdsong, eclipses, the surf, tangerines. In the dark, we see the stars. In the aftermath of a devastating fire, the sun rose red. To pay close attention to and mostly accept your life, inside and out and around your body, is to be halfway home."
How do we cultivate this love of the quotidian? Through play, observing the world around you, through helping others, and, of course, through reading:
"Books! To fling myself into a book, to be carried away to another world while being at my most grounded, on my butt or in my bed or favorite chair, is literally how I have survived being here at all. Someone else is doing the living for me, and all I have to do is let their stories, humor, knowledge, and images - some of which I'll never forget - flow through me, even as I forget to turn off the car when I arrive at my destination."
As always, Lamott also has some brilliant things to say about writing: "Write because you have to, because the process brings great satisfaction. Write because you have a story to tell, not because you think publishing will make you the person you always wanted to be. There is approximately zero chance of that happening."
"We have to cultivate the habits of curiosity and paying attention, which are essential to living rich lives and writing. You raise your eyes out of the pit, which is so miserable and stifling to be in and which tried to grab you and keep you there, until something sneaky hauled you out and changed you."
Lamott won't give you easy answers about life in this book, but she will give you a lot to chew on. She challenges you to be reflexive, to examine what's holding you back in life and what you need to move forward - that these things are not a one size fits all sort of solution. We need to dig deep and find that with which we struggle: confront it and learn to live with it the best we can.
Above all else, she asks her reader to sit with the world: watch it, learn from it, listen to it, breathe it in. For"God is often in solitude and quiet, through the still, small voice - in the breeze, not the thunder."
If you haven't figured it out by now, I loved this book. I love nearly everything Lamott writes (Bird by Birdis one of my all-time favorite books!). Thank you to Edelweiss, Anne Lamott, and Riverhead Books/Penguin Random House for an advanced reader copy ofAlmost Everything.
Natasha finds herself in a world of trouble in Rona Halsall'sKeep You Safe(formerly titled Guilty Little Secrets) with few fr**4 Goodreads Stars**
Natasha finds herself in a world of trouble in Rona Halsall'sKeep You Safe(formerly titled Guilty Little Secrets) with few friends or family to help her out. Her picture-perfect life of comfort, wealth, and new motherhood is ripped away from her when the police arrest her for embezzling. Taken complete off-guard, she is confused and destitute, her only potential help a solicitor (lawyer for American readers) who seems disinterested in Natasha's case and doubtful of Natasha's innocence.
Natasha is encouraged to plead guilty to the crime to lessen her sentence so that she can get out in 2 years to see her son. Seeing no hope, she does it. She is immediately sentenced to prison for 3 years. When incarcerated, the prison doctor discovers she has opioids in her system. She has no recollection of ever taking them and believes her husband, a businessman who comes from old money, was drugging her. Her husband immediately files for a divorce from her, leading Natasha to believe that he may have been involved in both shady business practices that went unnoticed by her and an affair. He never writes or visits her in prison, leaving her to sort out the truth alone in prison - so far away from her baby son and the life she once knew.
The story seesaws between the past and present. The current timeline picks up with Natasha's unexpected early release from prison due to overcrowding. She is on the hunt for her husband in the hopes of finding her son. She gets in touch with an old friend, Sasha, who Natasha hopes will help her find her baby boy. We also hear the voice of an unknown predator, someone who is following Natasha's every move with malicious intent. Is it Natasha's ex-husband or someone associated with her prison time?
The story unfolds methodically. It's clear the author took great care in writing the story, pacing it so that only certain parts of the story were revealed to the reader as to avoid spoiling the mystery. It was fun to guess what may be going on. Is Natasha a reliable narrator? Is she telling the reader the truth? And who is this person stalking her? What parts of the story has Natasha left out? Why, for instance, hasn't her friend Sasha regularly visited her in prison? Why does Natasha's mother despise her so much that she, too, refuses to visit her in jail and doubts her daughter's innocence?
What also drew me into this story was the author's writing. She writes beautifully composed sentences that paint a vivid picture of what is going on in the characters' heads and what their surroundings look like. Here's one example of Halsall's writing: "My first clenches around the phone, my patience a thin veneer."
Halsall takes the most ordinary, mundane parts of life and makes them come to life with her prose. That's what kept me turning the pages on top of wanting to know what was happening with Natasha.
Thank you to the author, Rona Halsall, the publisher, Bookouture, and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy of this thrilling book!
**5 Goodreads Stars** "Ethical leaders know their own talent but fear their own limitations - to understand and reason, to see the world as it is an**5 Goodreads Stars** "Ethical leaders know their own talent but fear their own limitations - to understand and reason, to see the world as it is and not as they wish it to be. They speak the truth and know that making wise decisions requires people to tell them the truth. And to get that truth, they create an environment of high standards and deep consideration - "love" is not too strong a word - that builds lasting bonds and make extraordinary achievement possible. It would never occur to an ethical leader to ask for loyalty."
"Donald Trump's presidency threatens much of what is good in this nation. We all bear responsibility for the deeply flawed choices put before voters during the 2016 election, and our country is paying a high price: this president is unethical, and untethered to truth and institutional values. His leadership is transactional, ego driven, and about personal loyalty."
I admit I picked up James Comey'sA Higher Loyaltybecause I wanted the scoop on what happened with Donald Trump. I checked out this book at my local public library assuming that what I was going to read was going to be somewhat biased against Donald Trump (and, frankly, I am not sure how you could write anything in support of him at this point in time), but what I got was actually something quite different. James Comey'sA Higher Loyaltyis a refreshing take on what it means to be a leader, to work as a public servant in the US, and what it means, at least in Comey's world, to be ethical.
I walked away with a newfound appreciation of someone I wasn't quite thrilled with given the Clinton email situation. I learned that James Comey is a family man who has desired to balance his work life and home life in order to be present for his 6 children and wife. I learned that he experienced bullying as a kid, and that experience shaped how he saw the world and how he approached leadership. Comey helped build diversity curriculum into FBI staff training, including modules where all FBI employees learn about the FBI's history with Martin Luther King, Jr. He and his wife, Patrice, are also foster parents. I also learned that he is human and, at times, has been a bully, made mistakes, and has regrets. But unlike Trump, Comey seems to be aware of his personal faults and actually uses them to strengthen his character and make better decisions.
If you are looking for juicy details about Comey's relationship with Donald Trump, you'll find them at the end of the book. However, that is not what this book is about. It is about Comey's experiences working under Bush (W) and Obama and in the FBI. As much as you may dislike either former President, he has kind, thoughtful things to say about both of them (though he clearly enjoyed working under Obama, who"had the ability to really discuss something, leveling the field to draw out perspectives different from his own"). He provides intimate insight into the inner-workings of the White House and FBI. I found discussions of both Obama and Bush very enlightening, especially in contrast to the president who is currently in office. Comey writes: "It was no surprise that President Trump behaved in a manner that was completely different from his predecessors - I couldn't imagine Barack Obama or George W. Bush asking someone to come onstage like a contestant on The Price is Right. What was distressing was what Trump symbolically seemed to be asking leaders of the law enforcement and national security agencies to do - to come forward and kiss the great man's ring. To show their deference and loyalty."
What did I take away from this book? As someone who is committed to continually improving my approach to teaching and leading teams (something I see as a work in progress, because I am human!), I found this book very useful. For example, he argues that good leaders don't demand loyalty from their followers and coworkers. They listen to all sides of an issue and then make an informed decision. He likens ego-driven leaders to the Italian mafia members he tried and convicted early in his career as a lawyer. He sees Trump as someone akin to the Italian mafia: as a person who only cares about himself and his personal loyalties, as someone who has never thought twice about lying. Towards this end, he writes: "I see no evidence that a lie ever caused Trump pain, or that he ever recoiled from causing another person pain, which is sad and frightening. Without all those things - without kindness to leaven toughness, without a balance of confidence and humility, without empathy, and without respect for truth - there is little chance Trump can attract and keep the kind of people around him that every president needs to make wise decisions. That makes me sad for him, but it makes me worry for our country."
Trump, Comey notes, has absolutely no experience working with groups of people who don't answer to you, which is what government work entails. He writes: "Running a private family-held company is, of course, quite different from running a nation - or even running a large public corporation. You have to deal with various constituencies who don't report to you and to live under a web of laws and regulations that don't apply to a typical CEO."
This book is clearly timely given that Trump is in office, and there is also some discussion of the Russia investigation. According to Comey, Trump requested several times over that he "lift the cloud" of the investigation. As Comey emphasizes throughout the book, the FBI must be independent from the Office of the President or else the FBI isn't doing its job. Comey believes Trump does not understand this basic principle because he operates under the principle of loyalty (like the mafia mentioned above) and expects the FBI to work for him, not for the citizens of the United States: "The Life of Lies. The silent circle of assent. The boss in complete control. Loyalty oaths. An us-versus-them worldview. Lying about things, large and small, in service to some warped code of loyalty. These rules and standards were hallmarks of the Mafia, but throughout my career I'd be surprised how often I'd find them applied outside of it."
Below are some of my favorite quotes from the book, which is beautifully written. Comey made me understand who he is as a human being, what it means to truly be moral and ethical in a corrupt world, and how those of us who are working for the state or federal government can lead our society in a more positive direction. I highly recommend this book to people who are interested in leadership and/or American politics. "President Obama would never have considered such a conversation if he did not have enough confidence in himself to show humility. In fact, if I saw any hint of imbalance with President Obama as a leader, it was on the confidence side of the scale."
"Humans tend to do the same dumb things, and the same evil things, again and again, because we forget."
"...in a healthy organization, doubt is not weakness, it is wisdom, because people are at their most dangerous when they are certain that their cause is just and their facts are right."
"Ethical leadership is also about understanding the truth about humans and our need for meaning. It is about building workplaces where standards are high and fear is low. Those are the kinds of cultures where people will feel comfortable speaking the truth to others as they seek excellence in themselves and the people around them."
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