Tag Archives: What I’m Reading

What I’m Reading: What Alice Forgot

Posted in Book Review, Books, What I'm Reading by

Image via Goodreads

From Goodreads.com:

Alice Love is twenty-nine, crazy about her husband, and pregnant with her first child. So imagine Alice’s surprise when she comes to on the floor of a gym (a gym! She HATES the gym) and is whisked off to the hospital where she discovers the honeymoon is truly over — she’s getting divorced, she has three kids, and she’s actually 39 years old. Alice must reconstruct the events of a lost decade, and find out whether it’s possible to reconstruct her life at the same time. She has to figure out why her sister hardly talks to her, and how is it that she’s become one of those super skinny moms with really expensive clothes. Ultimately, Alice must discover whether forgetting is a blessing or a curse, and whether it’s possible to start over…

My review:

This is the third Liane Moriarty book I’ve read and while I still enjoyed it, it was my least favourite after Big Little Lies and The Husband’s Secret.

I felt that it was kind of all over the place; between the “main” plot of Alice forgetting the past 10 years of her life, Elisabeth’s journal entries to her shrink, and Frannie’s letters to her fiancé, it felt a little cluttered. I’m not so sure Frannie’s letters added anything to the storyline, although I appreciated Elisabeth’s.

Like I said though, I did enjoy book as a whole and it made me think about how much life and relationships can change, regardless of how solid you think they are. And how insane would it be if you woke up and thought it was 10 years previous, forgetting everything? I’d probably crap my pants if I woke up and suddenly I had three kids and was in the middle of a hostile divorce. I had a hard time putting the book down as I wanted to find out if/when Alice remembered the past 10 years and how she would react to what transpired.

I still gave What Alice Forgot 4 stars out of 5. It’s a good read and really makes you think about your own life!

Where do you think you’ll be in 10 years?

What I’m Reading: The Martian

Posted in Book Review, Books, What I'm Reading by

18007564From Goodreads.com:

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate the planet while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded on Mars’ surface, completely alone, with no way to signal Earth that he’s alive — and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone years before a rescue could arrive.

Chances are, though, he won’t have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment or plain-old “human error” are much more likely to kill him first. But Mark’s not ready to quit. Armed with nothing but his ingenuity and his engineering skills — and a gallows sense of humor that proves to be his greatest source of strength – he embarks on a dogged quest to stay alive, using his botany expertise to grow food and even hatching a mad plan to contact NASA back on Earth.

As he overcomes one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next, Mark begins to let himself believe he might make it off the planet alive – but Mars has plenty of surprises in store for him yet.

Grounded in real, present-day science from the first page to the last, yet propelled by a brilliantly ingenious plot that surprises the reader again and again, The Martian is a truly remarkable thriller: an impossible-to-put-down suspense novel that manages to read like a real-life survival tale.

My review:

I’m not going to lie: I picked up The Martian because of two reasons: Others thought the book was great and there’s a lot of buzz behind the movie starring Matt Damon. (The internet meme stating how Hollywood has spend a lot of money saving Matt Damon made me laugh. A lot.) I’ve yet to watch the movie (Kyle wanted to rent it but I told him I wanted to finish the book first), so I have nothing else to compare it to.

That being said, I am glad I did decide to pick it up and read it. It was pretty entertaining, and I found Mark Watney’s humour to be excellent. (Maybe that’s why the movie was in the Comedy category at the Golden Globes?) Even all the technical, nerdy, science talk didn’t bore me because the humour made it easier to “get.”

At first I thought The Martian was going to be just a day to day (or would it be sol-to-sol?) diary of Watney’s time on Mars. I was happy to read the “on earth” portions to help balance his story and bulk up the book. I found myself itching to reach the next section just to see how the folks at NASA reacted to what Watney was doing. It’s a definite page-turner and while the ending didn’t surprise me, some of the stuff that happens to Watney did. (Can’t the dude just catch a break?!)

I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone who hasn’t yet read or watched it, so I’ll wrap things up by saying that I’m looking forward to watching the movie. As for the book, I’m going to give it 4.5 stars out of 5. Why is it missing half a star? I wish we got to know more about Watney other than the simple fact that he has parents. The learned about the other astronaut’s families a little, so it was a bit of a let down that we didn’t get to know more about Watney’s.

What I’m Reading: Big Little Lies

Posted in Book Review, Books, What I'm Reading by
194864121

image via Goodreads

From Goodreads.com:
Big Little Lies follows three women, each at a crossroads:

Madeline is a force to be reckoned with. She’s funny and biting, passionate, she remembers everything and forgives no one. Her ex-husband and his yogi new wife have moved into her beloved beachside community, and their daughter is in the same kindergarten class as Madeline’s youngest (how is this possible?). And to top it all off, Madeline’s teenage daughter seems to be choosing Madeline’s ex-husband over her. (How. Is. This. Possible?).

Celeste is the kind of beautiful woman who makes the world stop and stare. While she may seem a bit flustered at times, who wouldn’t be, with those rambunctious twin boys? Now that the boys are starting school, Celeste and her husband look set to become the king and queen of the school parent body. But royalty often comes at a price, and Celeste is grappling with how much more she is willing to pay.

New to town, single mom Jane is so young that another mother mistakes her for the nanny. Jane is sad beyond her years and harbors secret doubts about her son. But why? While Madeline and Celeste soon take Jane under their wing, none of them realizes how the arrival of Jane and her inscrutable little boy will affect them all.

Big Little Lies is a brilliant take on ex-husbands and second wives, mothers and daughters, schoolyard scandal, and the dangerous little lies we tell ourselves just to survive.

My review:
This is the second Liane Moriarty book that I’ve finished (the first being The Husband’s Secret) and it’s safe to say that she’s becoming one of my favourite authors. Spare time to sit down and read is a rare thing for me and I found myself opening up Big Little Lies whenever I could!

I adored all of the main characters and the storyline was amazing, although at times I found Madeline to be a little bit self-absorbed and annoying. Moriarty was very clever to “give away” (kind of) what happens at the beginning of the book and use that to build up the rest of the story, which is probably why I couldn’t put it down. I needed to know what happened, dammit!

I also really loved how Moriarty used humour but still kept to the seriousness of the subject matter. The lesson learned for sure in Big Little Lies is “Nothing is ever what it seems.”

Despite me being annoyed by Madeline, I still give Big Little Lies 5 out of 5 stars. I’m looking forward to reading my next Moriarty book, for sure!