Books I've Read Lately - pt. 3

I thought I would spend all summer reading but turns out... a toddler at the pool isn't exactly the perfect scene for laying out and reading a book :) As is though, I was still able to get a few books read. In no particular order...

Afterlife by Marcus Sakey

Summary:

The last thing FBI agent Will Brody remembers is the explosion—a thousand shards of glass surfing a lethal shock wave.

He wakes without a scratch.

The building is in ruins. His team is gone. Outside, Chicago is dark. Cars lie abandoned. No planes cross the sky. He’s relieved to spot other people—until he sees they’re carrying machetes.

Welcome to the afterlife.

Claire McCoy stands over the body of Will Brody. As head of an FBI task force, she hasn’t had a decent night’s sleep in weeks. A terrorist has claimed eighteen lives and thrown the nation into panic.

Against this horror, something reckless and beautiful happened. She fell in love…with Will Brody.

But the line between life and death is narrower than any of us suspect—and all that matters to Will and Claire is getting back to each other.

My Review: 4/5

My father-in-law recommended this to me because it had romance in it. I seriously laughed that his opinion of me is that I only read romances :) But to be honest, I do love a little romance and it's true that the romance in this novel probably is what made me like it so much, I'm hopeless I know! Seriously though, I loved the concept of this book! A little mind blowing for me mostly because I can't comprehend such things but overall a great book with a great ending! My only complaint is that somewhere about three quarters through the book I got extremely bored and almost gave up, it got a little wordy and I didn't understand how it hadn't ended yet. BUT! Once I stuck it out past that point I totally understood why it was still going.

** beware of a couple very sexual/descriptive scenes and skip them if you need to!

Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult

Summary:

Ruth Jefferson is a labor and delivery nurse at a Connecticut hospital with more than twenty years’ experience. During her shift, Ruth begins a routine checkup on a newborn, only to be told a few minutes later that she’s been reassigned to another patient. The parents are white supremacists and don’t want Ruth, who is African American, to touch their child. The hospital complies with their request, but the next day, the baby goes into cardiac distress while Ruth is alone in the nursery. Does she obey orders or does she intervene?

Ruth hesitates before performing CPR and, as a result, is charged with a serious crime. Kennedy McQuarrie, a white public defender, takes her case but gives unexpected advice: Kennedy insists that mentioning race in the courtroom is not a winning strategy. Conflicted by Kennedy’s counsel, Ruth tries to keep life as normal as possible for her family—especially her teenage son—as the case becomes a media sensation. As the trial moves forward, Ruth and Kennedy must gain each other’s trust, and come to see that what they’ve been taught their whole lives about others—and themselves—might be wrong.

With incredible empathy, intelligence, and candor, Jodi Picoult tackles race, privilege, prejudice, justice, and compassion—and doesn’t offer easy answers. Small Great Things is a remarkable achievement from a writer at the top of her game.

My Review: 4/5

I was super hesitant to read this book for reasons that it seems the author anticipated... racism. But what sold me is that it's about a nurse, in that way I knew I'd be able to relate. Plus I've loved everything that I've ever read by this author. So I bought it and I read it and I don't regret that decision for a second. It definitely opened my eyes to something that I truly and honestly didn't even know was still a problem in this day and age! Maybe it's because I live in Utah, maybe it's because I am intentionally ignorant about anything that is political but I didn't even know white supremacists existed! The further I got into the book, the more I loved it. 

I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh

Summary:

On a rainy afternoon, a mother's life is shattered as her son slips from her grip and runs into the street...

 
I Let You Go follows Jenna Gray as she moves to a ramshackle cottage on the remote Welsh coast, trying to escape the memory of the car accident that plays again and again in her mind and desperate to heal from the loss of her child and the rest of her painful past. 
 
At the same time, the novel tracks the pair of Bristol police investigators trying to get to the bottom of this hit-and-run. As they chase down one hopeless lead after another, they find themselves as drawn to each other as they are to the frustrating, twist-filled case before them.

My Review: 5/5

This book... amazing! My heart ached a little because at the beginning of the book a little boy gets killed and my mind just kept putting Mckai there and me in the mom's shoes. But this book starts with a bang and never stops. I could not put it down! I love books that surprise me and this one did just that.

The Secrets of a Charmed Life by Susan Meissner

Summary:

Current day, Oxford, England. Young American scholar Kendra Van Zant, eager to pursue her vision of a perfect life, interviews Isabel McFarland just when the elderly woman is ready to give up secrets about the war that she has kept for decades...beginning with who she really is. What Kendra receives from Isabel is both a gift and a burden—one that will test her convictions and her heart.

1940s, England. As Hitler wages an unprecedented war against London’s civilian population, hundreds of thousands of children are evacuated to foster homes in the rural countryside. But even as fifteen-year-old Emmy Downtree and her much younger sister Julia find refuge in a charming Cotswold cottage, Emmy’s burning ambition to return to the city and apprentice with a fashion designer pits her against Julia’s profound need for her sister’s presence. Acting at cross purposes just as the Luftwaffe rains down its terrible destruction, the sisters are cruelly separated, and their lives are transformed...

My Review: 5/5

You guys, give me all the historical fiction! Seriously I cannot get enough. I loved this book so much. I loved the way they weaved the story and I loved the way it all came together. It is heartbreaking and raw but so good!

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

Summary:

In this tightly wound, enthralling story reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s works, Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise with only a handful of cabins. The sky is clear, the waters calm, and the veneered, select guests jovial as the exclusive cruise ship, the Aurora, begins her voyage in the picturesque North Sea. At first, Lo’s stay is nothing but pleasant: the cabins are plush, the dinner parties are sparkling, and the guests are elegant. But as the week wears on, frigid winds whip the deck, gray skies fall, and Lo witnesses what she can only describe as a dark and terrifying nightmare: a woman being thrown overboard. The problem? All passengers remain accounted for—and so, the ship sails on as if nothing has happened, despite Lo’s desperate attempts to convey that something (or someone) has gone terribly, terribly wrong…

With surprising twists, spine-tingling turns, and a setting that proves as uncomfortably claustrophobic as it is eerily beautiful, Ruth Ware offers up another taut and intense read in The Woman in Cabin 10—one that will leave even the most sure-footed reader restlessly uneasy long after the last page is turned.

My Review: 4/5

I really jumped out of my comfort zone with this book. I don't do thrillers because I'm a baby and get nightmares :) But this was totally worth it! Read it! My only complaint and the reason for the docked point is because of the language (boo... the f word was used too much for my liking).

Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty

Summary:

Lyn, Cat, and Gemma Kettle, beautiful thirty-three-year-old triplets, seem to attract attention everywhere they go. Together, laughter, drama, and mayhem seem to follow them. But apart, each is dealing with her own share of ups and downs. Lyn has organized her life into one big checklist, Cat has just learned a startling secret about her marriage, and Gemma, who bolts every time a relationship hits the six-month mark, holds out hope for lasting love. In this wise, witty, and hilarious novel, we follow the Kettle sisters through their tumultuous thirty-third year as they deal with sibling rivalry and secrets, revelations and relationships, unfaithful husbands and unthinkable decisions, and the fabulous, frustrating life of forever being part of a trio.

My Review: 4/5

It wouldn't be right if I did a books I've read post without a little Liane Moriarty thrown in there! I just love her books! Though this wasn't my favorite, I still liked it a lot! I had the hardest time with how it ended because my opinion of a happy ending does not include cheating and divorce but I will say that some of the most poignant moments of the book are related to that so I guess the book needed it.

Well, I have a few books left on my kindle to get through so until next time!