Book 109- I was Told There'd Be Cake

These essays by Sloane Crosley were hysterical. I love her and the stories she tells. This memoir was delightful and snarky, tongue in cheek. She's dreadfully honest.

And I like that this isn't a tale of a woman who was abused so these aren't survival stories of horrific things, but just normal life and surviving your own family. Or being the bridesmaid to a girl you haven't seen since high school, or of being the only Jew in a Protestant summer camp, or of surviving a move in NYC. She is funny and self depreciating.

And I did listen to this as an audiobook, which was read by Crosley herself, which i found even more amusing. Not only did I have a great voice conveyed through her writing but I had the Voice to go with it. Certainly one of the better memoirs floating about in the genre glutted with crap.

Oh, and speaking of crap... she writes about a poo found on her... well, I hate to spoil it!

Fun read. I can relate. I think she and I could be friends, if either of us could be bothered to maintain a friendship, which we couldn't but it certainly sounds nice.

Book 108- This is Where I leave You

The premise isn't really funny, I realize: a family gathers to sit Shiva for their father. But this family puts the "fun" in dysfunctional, so I laughed through 80% of this- it was great! Touching and funny, a dark comedy to boot, I just enjoyed the hell outta this book. I found I was reading aloud to anyone who was listening and as I read this at school, I giggled lots to the point where my students wanted to know what was so funny.

However, I couldn't read to THEM because the language is rough and some of the sex is pretty raw. I didn't care, though, and thought this was wonderful!

Paul is married to Anne and running the family sporting goods business. They are trying to have a baby and can't. Phillip is the baby and the black sheep that no one is really sure how he survives financially, or where he usually is in the world unless he needs bailing out of jail. Sister Wendy is married to a money market manager who never spends time with his kids, but he's a great financial provider. They had three kids and Wendy tells it like it is, with a no nonsense mouth. The mother is an author of a Dr. Spock type of child rearing book and she had a boob job. The story's protagonist Judd has just ended his marriage after finding his wife screwing his boss in his bed. So he's homeless, jobless, wifeless, bedless, and fatherless.

All these emotional distant people converge on their childhood home to sit Shiva for their atheist father and chaos ensues over their seven days together!

I'm a huge fan of any book that said the end of his marriage was like any other: with cheesecake and an ambulance. Okay, you KNOW this is gonna be great!

Deeply funny, poignant at moments (albeit brief) and just well written and so worth the read. Tropper is deliciously wicked and funnier than many of his contemporaries!

Book 107- By the time you read this

Right before her 13th birthday, Lois gets a "Manual" from her father who died when she was 5 years old. Her auntie, her dad's sister, brought her the book. It came at just the right time: her mother was getting re-married and she was turning 13, feeling a bit lost, alone, and hormonal.

In "The Manual" were words of advice from her father. She could also read certain parts as much as she wanted, but there was a special entry for her to read on her birthday, each year, until she was 30 years old. Lois thought she hit the jackpot with a special connection from her father from his grave.

This novel then follows Lois through her life as she tires to follow the advice of her dad; her job trials and tribulations, her friendships, her romances, her best friends, her dealings with money, her family, and school.

This book sort of has hints of PS I Love You tones, but it wasn't as good. I don't know, it just felt whiny to me, I guess.

Book 106- The Time Traveler's Wife

Okay, this is a case where I saw the movie first and a bunch of people told me the book was better, so I decided to give it a whirl. This is also one of those cases where I feel like the movie was better than the book.

I dunno- the book seem to go on and on forever. Maybe it was just me since I knew the story?

Henry is a time traveler and he just suddenly disappears, leaving nothing but a pile of clothing in his wake. He lands anywhere but is naked. He repeated goes to see a little girl named Clare, the first time when she is 6 years old. They end up marrying and having a child. None of this is a spoiler, I assure you- it's all on the book sleeve.

The story is about Henry jumping back and forth and in time and the woman who loves him who has waited her whole life for him.

It's a touching, yet rather sad tale. A modern day fairy tale yet many books stores and libraries catalogue it as "science fiction".

Not a bad read, just a sad one.

Book 105 Nights of rain and stars

This Maeve Binchy book takes place in a small coastal Greek village where 5 strangers come from all over the world accidentally come together and witness a tragedy. They then stay on in the quaint little town and get to know and help a few of the towns folk and also each other.

Only a bit different from her other book in that it doesn't take place in Ireland and isn't very historical. Here, we still have a large cast of characters who blend with each other, as well as carry their own story lines.

I liked it; something lovely and quiet to read.

Book 104- Shadows Still Remain

I want to say that author Pete DeJonge co-author's book with blockbuster writer James Patterson, and in my humble opinion he shouldn't quit his day job. His stand alone authored novel was a trial to read.

It didn't move along at a snappy pace, the characters are ones that have been rehashed over and over again on TV crime dramas or in other mysteries. The protagonist Darlene O'Hara was more self involved, whiny, boozing, and waxing poetic over her own life and career which over shadowed what could've been a decent mystery. Too much focus was on O'Hara's personal life and not enough on the killer she was trying to catch; this story meandered about and didn't really come together as a plot line until about the last 25 pages of the book.

O'Hara is a NYPD cop who works burglary, or something not homicide, but she catches a homicide case. And then acts like an idiot and gets herself thrown off the case and out of a job. But she doggedly hunts the killer and bemoans her poor childhood, poor choice of name for her only child- she called him Axl Rose (oh god), and she binges drinks. She tracks the killer from the NYU kingdom to the ghettos and seedy under belly of strip clubs and tattoo parlors, O'Hara tries to find out more information about the pretty co-ed who was killed; she isn't what she appears. Gee, that's a real surprise,.

And this is just petty, but I thought the additions of the grainy black and white photos sprinkled throughout this novel was a waste of paper...like the rest of the story.

Book 103- The Year of Living Biblically

The long and the short of this memoir is that AJ Jacobs decided to spend one year living biblically, or following the rules of the Bible in a literal sense.

But this memoir was so much more than that. The cover of the book lends the reader to think it's probably pretty funny, and it is much of the time. But there's so much more to it than that; it's following his journey to discover 'something' through religion. His quest took him to a snake handler in Tennessee, Amish country, a gay Evangelical Bible study, an Evangelical church, and into the world of the Hasidic Jews- and much, much more.

This was funny, but to me it was more fascinating and educational. I enjoyed peeping into his daily life as he tried to live a more Biblical life. I found this to be a thoroughly fun AND an educational read.

As a person who was raised United Methodist and has become an atheist (though a very not very dedicated and rather lax one at that), I found this book gave me lots of food for thought; it's been awhile since I read a book and highlighted passages and took notes; and I'm sitting here with 4 versions of the Bible that I've used since I started reading this! And this book has inspired (or shall we say spawned) several blog posts (TBA) on my main blog.

So Mr Jacobs, in case you're still Googling yourself and find this 'review', I LOVED this book and I appreciate your efforts in the year you were biblical. Thanks for providing something that stimulated my interest as well as my brain. It was so good I bought a copy to highlight rather than defacing the public library copy!

This will definitely go on my best books of the year list!

Book 102- Cherry Bomb

This is going to be a lame review because if I give too many details, it will spoil what happened in previous books so...

When we last left Lieutenant Jack Daniels, she had just been held captive by serial killer Alex Kork. Alex had not only kidnapped Jack but all her family and friends. At the end of Fuzzy Navel, one of Jack's family members or a friend was killed.

In this novel, Jack takes a leave of absence and goes after Alex, wanting to avenge the death of that person. Jack chases her across the country with the help of her living family and friends, trying to stay ahead of Alex as she kills more people. Now Alex tortures people and then leaves them to die, sending Jack pictures and clues to see if she can save them in time- sometimes she can and sometimes she can't. Some of the victims are strangers and other's are people Jack cares about.

In the end, Jack goes toe to toe, alone, with Alex.

Jack also questions herself about babies, love, family, her Job loyalty, and relationships.

Maintaining the still dark humor that sometimes borders on the absurd, Jack still is the woman to have on the case because she'll get the job done.

Watch out for Winnebagos and escape monkeys flinging poo...

Book 101- The Devil's Punchbowl

This is an excellent thriller by Greg Iles, one of my favorite author's ever, and it's also a return of lawyer turned writer turned mayor of Natchez, Mississippi Penn Cage.

Penn gets an ominous message from an old high school classmate about some really bad things going down in Natchez in relation to the casino boats. Natchez, which is financially struggling, decided to embrace casino gambling in hopes to boost the town's failing economy, with Penn, as the newly elected mayor, reluctantly courting the business.

With casinos come other darker sides of life life illegal gambling, drugs and prostitution. And when this seamy underbelly endangers his family, it's time for him to bring it to an end.

While Penn is trying to protect his family and figure out who he can call for help since so many people are involved in the ring of danger that surrounds Natchez and Penn, he brings in his father's old military buddy, and his ex personal bodyguard Kelly.

It's a literal race against time to see who will come out of the horrors and torturous doings of the "bad guys." Penn also struggles with his role as a parent and with seeing his ex-lover Caitlyn. He also struggles with his loyalty to staying the mayor of a town where he can't make change.

This is a riveting read, and the character of Penn is complex. Very well written and a complete attention grabber. I was holding my breath as I turned pages.

Book 100- All We Ever Wanted Was Everything

I was so frustrated with this book, because there were no likable characters, but I kept hoping one of the them would become good. Then I was so far into the book that I wanted to finish in hopes that there was redemption for some of them.

We are painted a picture of 3 women as separate entities: a mother and her 2 daughters. One daughter Margaret is grown and away from home, living her own life in California as the owner and writer of her own magazine. Fourteen year old Lizzie is at home and struggling to find her fit in high school and battles her weight. Then there's Janice, a stepford wife type of woman, who finds out her husband of 30 years wants a divorce- and how she copes.

Then all three of these women come to reside together under the same roof- and we see how the do and don't get along. All the storyline still meander along separately until a culmination at the end of the novel.

I was surprised by the Janice character once or twice but otherwise this was oddly predictable and not really surprising. And the last 10 pages, when the characters all decided to help each other rather be at odds, did I finally like any of them.

Book 99- Fuzzy Navel

This novel plays out over a 24 hour period of time. Chicago cop Jack Daniels, Latham (Jack's fiance), her mom (Mary who is a retired cop herself), Harry (her former partner now turned PI who is her nemesis), Herb (her partner on the force), and Phin (her pool playing buddy from the local bar) are all held hostage in Jack's house. Serial killer Alex Kork has returned and wants to make good on her threat to kill and torture Jack and all the people she cares about. Add three crazy vigilante snipers and it's anyone's guess who will make it out of the house alive.

They all fight for their lives- but someone doesn't make it. And through an odd twist, we out two of these main characters are related through blood.

This is the best one yet!!!!! Of course, there is the traditional Jack Daniel's humor, but it's still a nail biter.

And the reason it's called Fuzzy Navel- well, let's just say Harry can explain it. Crude, rude, and a menace to all women everywhere Harry. I won't be ordering one of these drinks in the near future at my local watering hole!