Playing Tennis and Digging for Fossils...? - July 28, 2016

The Singles Game by Lauren Weinberger
3 stars



Charlotte Silver (known as Charlie) has played tennis since she was four years old.  Now twenty years later, her career is at an impasse when she is injured and finds herself at odds with her coach.  She hires a new hard-hitting coach, creates a new image and lands a gorgeous new boyfriend and immediately finds herself moving up the world rankings.  So, to begin with, I know absolutely nothing about the game of tennis nor have any interest in learning and that is important only in so much as a lot of this book is about life on the professional tour.  I found myself enjoying the book on only a superficial level.  It had entertaining scenes, but the characters were a bit uninteresting and shallow.  I did enjoy that the book delved into the extreme disparity in how female and male professional athletes are treated in their professional personal lives and also how Charlie was forced to balance on a fine line between aggressiveness and shamelessness.  I can see how if you are a fan of tennis and really follow players lives, then this may be a lot of fun however, it just wasn't for me.  I received this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 



Seven Skeletons: The Evolution of the World's Most Famous Human Fossils by Lydia Pyne
Publication Date - August 16, 2016
4 stars



Every once in a while, there is the discovery of a skeletal fossil so interesting and unusual that it changes that way society looks at evolution and humankind.  In this book, the author discusses the seven most famous anthropological discoveries and how they were received at the time and why they are currently important.  The information focuses not just on the scientific aspect of how the fossils were found but also the excitement surrounding them as they were identified as important evolutionary examples or in once case, a complete hoax.  This is well-written and while I did find it occasionally gets bogged down with names and details, it is still a fascinating look at the world of fossils.  I received this from Penguin's First to Read Program in exchange for an honest review.

Book Reviews - July 26, 2016

The Jolly Roger Social Club: A True Story of a Killer In Paradise by Nick Foster
3.5 stars



The expat community living in Boca del Toro, Panama is an interesting and independent lot.  Many are escaping something, whether it is crime, family or money issues, in their home countries and move to Panama to reinvent themselves.  Such is the case with William Dothan Holbert, known to Panamanians as Wild Bill Cortez.  He and his wife came to Panama through other central American countries and immediately became know as an egregious storyteller and drinker who immediately starts buying properties with money of unknown provenance.  When the former property owners mysteriously disappear, it is at first considered par for the course in this area of the world.  However, Wild Bill takes it too far and the other expats soon realize they have a serial killer in their midst.  An interesting examination of expat life and psychopathic, this sometimes veers off into irrelevant history of Panama that, while interesting, is not very pertinent to an expat community that isolates itself from most of Panama.  I found myself frustrated with the many tangents while extremely absorbed by the main story.  Overall, this is an interesting tale of how a serial killer can thrive in a remote and self sufficient community.  I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 




Never Missing, Never Found by Amanda Panitch
3.5 stars



Scarlett is a teenager who spent much of her childhood missing from her family, living with an abusive and strict kidnaper.  Now that she has been returned to her family, she deals with the fact that she belongs to a small fraternity of the missing and as she begins her job in an amusement park where a girl has recently gone missing, she has to deal with her fears. Throughout most of this book, I thought it was just okay and found a lot of the situations and relationships unbelievable, but the author does pull something that I really did not see coming that actually explained much of the first part of the book.  Some things are still not explained adequately, and are maybe a little too convenient but I really enjoyed with interesting young adult mystery.  I received this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

Maritime Horrors - July 21, 2016

Dead Wake:  The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson
5 stars



In 1915, World War I was ravaging Europe but most thought that the gentlemanly rules of warfare still existed and passenger ships were thought to be safe crossing between American and Britain.  The Lusitania was such a ship carrying close to 2000 civilian passengers, including many children.  This book details the crossing of the Lusitania along with insight into the German U-boat that struck it down and all the British intelligence occurring before and during its passage. This is gripping but I am most impressed with the in depth reporting on the people involved, from President Woodrow Wilson to the crew and various passengers.  I felt as if I was there, while reading, in the passenger dining rooms, the British intelligence rooms and on board a submarine and I would be highly surprised if this didn't get turned into a major motion pictures at some point.  This is the first book by Erik Larson that I have ever read and I will now be reading everything he has ever written.  I received this from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for an honest review. 

Post Vacation Reading - July 18, 2016

Trying to Float by Nicolaia Rips
3.5 stars



Nicolaia grew up living in the Chelsea Hotel, an establishment full of interesting and artistic characters.  A self professed outsider with lackadaisical parents, she is mixed in her attempts to make friends and succeed socially in elementary and middle school.  This short memoir is full of quick, amusing chapters that while at times really funny, are also fairly unbelievable.  I constantly found myself saying "that didn't happen."  And maybe these events did take place, but the author does say in the ending note that the stories are often a combination of the remembered and the imagined.  Personally, I wish that this note would have been at the beginning so I knew what I was reading.  However, for such a young author this is very well written and her experiences living in the Chelsea Hotel are both interesting and entertaining.  I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

Pre-Vacation Reviews - July 8, 2016

We Are Not Such Things:  The Murder of a Young American, a South African Township, and the Search for Truth and Reconciliation by Justine van der Leun
5 stars



In 1993 Amy Biehl drove into a South African Township around the time of the dissolution of Apartheid.  Her death at that moment became a media target for how the new South Africa politics would work and what constitutes politically motivated violence. The author discovered this story after moving to Cape Town with her fiancé and realizing that while numerous articles had followed the story, a book had never been written.  She then threw herself into the research and made close acquaintance with many of the people involved.   This is not an easy story and there is definitely not a clean conclusion.  South Africa is a place with a tumultuous and violent history of race relations (not very much unlike my own country) and the riot that eventually killed Amy was not a clear cut murder case but instead a convoluted event with many people involved and too many differing accounts to keep track of.  This book is extremely well written and the author does an incredible job of fairly telling the complicated story.  I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.



The A to Z of You and Me by James Hannah
4 stars



While forty year old Ivo suffers from kidney failure in a hospice, his kindly nurse tries to keep him busy by inventing a game.  He must think of a body part from A to Z and as he does this he reminisces about his relationships with friends, his true love that ended tragically and the bad decisions he made that resulted in his current situation.  This book surprised me with its intensity and complexity.  It was simply but elegantly written and even though it was sad, there was also a strange sort of hope at the end.  This is one of those books that I didn't know much going into but am really glad that it came into my life.  I received this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

Holiday Reading - July 5, 2016

Siracusa by Delia Ephron
Publication Date - July 12, 2016
4 stars



Two married couples and one child decide to vacation together in Italy.  Between the four of them there are secrets, intrigues, infidelities and unhealthy relationships which cause a chain of events leading to a horrible conclusion.  Michael and Lizzie are both writers, seemingly secure in their marriage without any children.  Lizzie had at some point had a tumultuous relationship with Finn and has maintained a flirtatious friendship with him.  Finn's wife Taylor is beautiful and controlling and her suffocating relationship with her eleven year old daughter, Snow, causes much frustration for Finn.  The narrative alternates between the four adults points of view and while none are really very likable characters, they are all incredibly fascinating individuals.  Once I started this book, I read it within a day as the characters were so compelling.  The one danger in unlikable character, however, is that it is hard to care what happens to them and I found myself ambivalent about the ending.  Really, though, that didn't matter so much when it was so much fun watching the dark implosion of relationships.  I received this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

Important U.S. History - July 4, 2016

Jackson, 1964 And Other Dispatches from Fifty Years of Reporting on Race in America
By Calvin Trilling
5 stars



This collection of the author's work around the time of the Civil Rights Movement highlights the work of the movement in the South and the personalities of those involved.  I found this to be both interesting and still extremely relevant as it is apparent how far we have come as a country and how far we still have to go.  I cannot recommend this book enough.  I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

End of the Week Review - July 1, 2016

The Eternal Party by Kristina Hagman
3 stars



As actor, Larry Hagman, lay dying he whispered the words "please, forgive me." The words provide the focus of this book as his daughter looks back over his life to try and discover what, exactly, he wanted to be forgiven for.  Considering the context, it is accurate to assume that Hagman is not always portrayed in the best light throughout the book.  He drinks constantly, uses drugs frequently and has several affairs.  His both a charismatic and difficult parent and his daughter struggles with conveying his devotion to family with his hard partying lifestyle.  This is definitely an entertaining book, especially if you are familiar with Hagman's Dallas persona.  It is not really great writing and I felt a little guilty reading this so shortly after his death (which makes me wonder why his daughter felt comfortable writing all of this down.).   The author never really discovers what her act her father wanted forgiven but it was certainly interesting reading about his options.   I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.