Before I Go to Sleep

Author: S.J. Watson

Publisher: Harper Audio

Year: 2011

“What are we, if not an accumulation of our memories?” 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Christine suffers from amnesia after a mysterious accident. Every night when she sleeps, she forgets everything from the day before. She wakes up every morning thinking she’s a single twenty something when in fact she’s a middle aged married woman. Every day her husband Ben has to introduce himself to her and explain that she lost her memory in an accident. 

One morning after her husband leaves for work, Christine receives a phone call from Dr. Nash. She has apparently been working with him on getting her memory back. He has her keep a daily journal to try to recover her memories. As Christine reads her journal and works with the doctor, she realizes the things her husband tells her about her life don’t add up. Slowly, dim memories begin to emerge and frightening secrets surface. 

I really liked the premise of this book and it was a quick and enjoyable thriller. I like really strong female main characters so there were a few times that the main character bothered me a little bit - just too much damsel in distress drama. 

Narrator Orlagh Cassidy gives a fine performance. She easily conveys Christine’s bewilderment upon waking each day and her desperation to regain her memories. 

All in all, an entertaining book that I would recommend getting from your local library. 

I read it because it’s on Amazon’s list of 100 mysteries and thrillers to read in a lifetime. This book was good, but I’m not sure it deserves a place on the list. 

Here’s the list: 

https://www.amazon.com/b/ref=nodl_?ie=UTF8&node=8994558011

One by One

 

Author: Ruth Ware

Publisher: Scout Press

Year: 2020

⭐️⭐️⭐️

A business/ski trip to a remote French  Alps chalet turns deadly when a murderer strikes while a blizzard and avalanche cause havoc. 

This is an homage to Agatha Christie and it gets off to a good start. The setting is amazing and the author does a wonderful job conjuring the place and slightly menacing atmosphere. The characters leave a little to be desired. Most are one dimensional and cliched. The story unfolds between two points of view- Erin who works at the chalet and Liz who is one of the guests. Liz is the outsider of the close knit group of business associates. She’s not a dynamic or complex main character. Her chapters just didn’t do anything for me. 

I loved Ware’s The Woman in Cabin 10 and her other books. This one was just okay for me. I liked it but it started to drag in the middle and never really picked up after that. Not every hit is going to be a home run and that’s okay too. Glad to support a favorite author and my local library by checking out this book. I actually couldn’t believe I only had a day’s wait to get this one from the library. 

Have you read this? Thoughts?

Breathless

 

Author: Jennifer Niven

Publisher: Random House Children’s 

Year: 2020

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Claude’s world is turned upside when her parents decide to separate as she gets ready to graduate from high school. 

High school graduation can bring lots of changes - leaving old friends, starting a new phase of life, and falling in love for the first time. Claude and her BFF Saz think they have the whole summer together before they go away to separate colleges. But Claude’s father drops the news that he and Claude’s mom are breaking up. After graduation, Claude and her mom go to an island off the coast of Georgia. It is Claude’s mom’s ancestral home and her mom, an author, wants to do some research and see if there’s a story there. It is also a good excuse to get away from Claude’s dad for a few weeks. 

Claude meets Miah, a boy with his own heartache, on the island. They fall in love as Claude navigates her anger over her parents’ break up and the changes in her friendship with Saz. 

Jennifer Niven’s All the Bright Places and Holding Up the Universe are two of my favorites. She proves once again that she can tap into the emotions of teenagers, first love and sorrow. The teen characters are complex and layered individuals. She writes teenagers as real people with real problems. All of which makes for an emotionally packed story. 

Thank you to Jennifer Niven, NetGalley, and Random House Children’s for the review copy. 

American Dirt

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Author: Jeanine Cummins

Publisher: Flatiron

Year: 2020

“Lydia understands that it’s not a disguise at all. She and Luca are actual migrants.”

I hemmed and hawed about reading this book. There was so much hype and controversy around it when it published that it kind of turned me off. But my local library had it available so I grabbed it. 

Lydia and her young son must go on the run after the rest their family is killed by a cartel. Their only chance to survive is to make the perilous journey to the US. 

Hype and controversy aside, it’s a good book. The characters are interesting and well developed. The story is compelling and the pacing is good. But......for some reason it didn’t really give me the emotional punch that I thought it would. I think it was because I read the book really fast knowing that it’s a popular book and that other library patrons would want the book soon. Maybe if I took more time with it, I would have appreciated it more. 

I think any book that brings attention to the plight of people so desperately fighting for a better life is a good thing. It was good, but not one of my favorites of the year. 

Have you read it? What did you think? Am I just being a contrarian? 

September Wrap Up

 September Reading Wrap Up

September was a good reading month for me. I read a total of 14 books and enjoyed most of them. 

My favorites for the month were And Now She’s Gone, The Night Swim and Eight Perfect Murders. Finally read American Dirt. I think I had higher expectations for it because of all the hype. It was well written with good characters, but it lacked the emotional punch I was expecting.  The book that surprised me the most was The Humans. My book club read it. I didn’t expect it to be so funny and thought provoking. We had a great discussion about it. 

I listened to the audio version of Before I Go to Sleep. It’s a solid thriller and I enjoyed it. It’s on Amazon’s list of 100 mysteries and thrillers to read in a lifetime. Here’s the link to their list: https://www.amazon.com/b/ref=nodl_?ie=UTF8&node=8994558011

I’m about 75% done with the list. If it were up to me, I don’t think Before I Go to Sleep would make the cut. I guess the premise of a woman waking up every day with her memories is unique enough for the book to be on the list. 

Looking forward to reading Nic Stone’s Dear Justyce this month. It’s the sequel to Dear Martin which I loved. 

Eight Perfect Murders

 

Author: Peter Swanson

Publisher: William Morrow

Year: 2020

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A book about crime books and classic mysteries? Sign me up! 

With an unreliable narrator? Even better!

With a mystery bookshop that has a store cat named Nero? Yes please! 

Bookseller Malcolm Kershaw sets a Strangers on a Train murder pact in motion. But his unknown partner in crime begins emulating “perfect murders” from classic crime novels that Malcom had once highlighted in a blog post. 

As a book lover, especially a crime book lover, this book was lots of fun. It paid homage to some of the giants in the genre and it had a good, twisty, complex mystery. This definitely is one of my favorite books of 2020! 

Reading it reminded me that I have a special Highsmith book. My husband gave me a signed copy of Mermaids on the Golf Course as a gift years ago. It’s a limited edition collection of short stories & includes a slipcase. My copy is “out of series” meaning it was probably a review copy but still signed by the author. 

Do you have any signed books or limited editions? 

The Humans

Author: Matt Haig

Publisher: Recorded Books

Year: 2014

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 

Andrew, a brilliant mathematician but horrible human being, has solved a math equation that will propel mankind’s technology forward by leaps and bounds. Aliens from a far distant galaxy decide that humans will screw up the entire universe if Andrew’s breakthrough becomes public knowledge. So they kill him (not a spoiler- he’s dead before the book starts) and replace him with a look alike alien. Alien Andrew’s mission is to destroy all mathematical evidence and kill anyone who human Andrew told about the discovery. While trying to complete his mission, Alien Andrew falls in love with the real Andrew’s wife. He wants to give up his alien powers and be a human. He learns what it means to be human and all the messy feelings and emotions that come with it- love, joy, happiness, sadness, loneliness, etc. 

There’s a lot of humor in the book which surprised me. When the alien first come to earth, he has to learn how to act like a human and his observations are very funny. My explanation of the plot might sound a little complicated but the story really comes down to this: the alien learned to be a better human than the actual human being he impersonated. 

Narrator Mark Meadows does a wonderful job conveying the alien’s initial bewilderment when he first encounters earthlings and then his terror at trying to keep his human wife and son safe from his fellow aliens. 

I really enjoyed this delightful, quirky and thought provoking book.