April 2017 Wrap-Up

It's definitely better than last month. This month I've read four books. Let's get to it!!!!

Book #1: The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

Despite their differences, sisters Vianne and Isabelle have always been close. Younger, bolder Isabelle lives in Paris while Vianne is content with life in the French countryside with her husband Antoine and their daughter. But when the Second World War strikes, Antoine is sent off to fight and Vianne finds herself isolated so Isabelle is sent by their father to help her. As the war progresses, the sisters' relationship and strength are tested. With life changing in unbelievably horrific ways, Vianne and Isabelle will find themselves facing frightening situations and responding in ways they never thought possible as bravery and resistance take different forms in each of their actions.

I really liked this novel. For some reason I have been entirely enthralled with WWII. Not even in the last few months, but in the last few years. I don't know if its the German part of me, the Italian, or possibly the Jewish, but I devour everything I can get my hands on that somehow relates to it. This book was fantastic. I loved the way it would jump from third person in the past, to first person in the present. Made it so I had no idea which sister was the one still alive. Is it Vianne or is it Isabelle? The only one I knew it couldn't have been was Sophie because she was still too young when the war ended. I am very pleased with the way the story ended and I am glad to rate it a 5/5 stars. I'm going to recommend this to everybody I know who reads this type of book.

Book #2: The Barrowfields by Phillip Lewis

 A richly textured coming-of-age story about fathers and sons, home and family, recalling classics by Thomas Wolfe and William Styron, by a powerful new voice in fiction. Just before Henry Aster’s birth, his father—outsized literary ambition and pregnant wife in tow—reluctantly returns to the small Appalachian town in which he was raised and installs his young family in an immense house of iron and glass perched high on the side of a mountain. There, Henry grows up under the writing desk of this fiercely brilliant man. But when tragedy tips his father toward a fearsome unraveling, what was once a young son’s reverence is poisoned and Henry flees, not to return until years later when he, too, must go home again.

I was unsure of this book when I first started it. It was full of words that you wouldn't know unless you grew up with a hobby of reading the dictionary in your spare time. He eventually does overcome this and stop using words that the common reader will not understand. The story was rather irrelevant almost until about 200 pages in. It was mostly random description that seemed to have very little to do with anything else. Once it got to the part where the father actually vanished from their lives, it picked up. I rated this story a 5/5 and I would probably re-read it. I've already suggested friends to read it. I forgot to mention in the original review, but I got this book from Blogging for Books in return for an honest review.

Book #3: Persuasion by Jane Austen

Twenty-seven-year old Anne Elliot is Austen's most adult heroine. Eight years before the story proper begins, she is happily betrothed to a naval officer, Frederick Wentworth, but she precipitously breaks off the engagement when persuaded by her friend Lady Russell that such a match is unworthy. The breakup produces in Anne a deep and long-lasting regret. When later Wentworth returns from sea a rich and successful captain, he finds Anne's family on the brink of financial ruin and his own sister a tenant in Kellynch Hall, the Elliot estate. All the tension of the novel revolves around one question: Will Anne and Wentworth be reunited in their love?

Anne seemed to be at first, thought of least among her family. Then out of nowhere everybody wanted her as a companion. I don't understand why that was. I thought reading more would clue me in, but no. Mary made me angry. She had a superiority complex and just could not stand if anybody did not give her preference over others. From what I understand, she was even upset that they were acknowledging a Viscountess before her. She had no actual rank of her own beyond daughter of a Baronet. I thought it was interesting that she held a grudge against Wentworth for 8.5 years not because of what he had done, for he had done nothing, but because a friend didn't think he would amount to anything at all and she held the opinion of her friend over her own. I'm sure if she would have just listened to her own judgment, she and Wentworth would have been married for the last eight years instead of wondering idly what had happened to him. This was a good book in general, but I highly doubt I am going to read it again so it's going to get 3/5 stars. Perhaps I will read another edition that might change my views.

Book #4: Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

“Are you happy with your life?” Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious. Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits. Before a man Jason’s never met smiles down at him and says, “Welcome back, my friend.” In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible. Is it this world or the other that’s the dream? And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could’ve imagined—one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe. From the author of the bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy, Dark Matter is a brilliantly plotted tale that is at once sweeping and intimate, mind-bendingly strange and profoundly human—a relentlessly surprising science-fiction thriller about choices, paths not taken, and how far we’ll go to claim the lives we dream of.

I don't really know how to start this review. I enjoyed this book. It was pretty good. The story line reminded me very much of a tale my friend told me about a book she read, at least I think that's what it was. I don't know. Anyway, the man got himself a wife but he was sad because he didn't have the time he wanted to devote to his experiments or whatever it was he wanted to do. Then in some other world a man had devoted his entire life to working on his experiments and he was upset because he didn't have anybody to go home to at night. I flew through this book. When I actually started reading it seriously, I finished it. I went from page 130 to 340 in like four hours. it was that good. I loved the way that his wife knew solidly which one of the men was her husband. She didn't even have to second guess it. I wish the ending would have been continued a little bit. It felt too much like a movie cliffhanger ending, very much like the end of the Knowing where the kids just wandered into the alien wheat field. They've left the end open for a sequel. Almost to the point where if there isn't one, I'd be highly disappointed. I want to know how the various threads actually wrap up. I've been wanting to read this book for a while. I heard about it on BookTube and I was very intrigued. Had to know what it was about. I gave this book a 4/5 stars. I enjoyed it very much and I am likely to read it again and recommend it to friends, but it just wasn't completely blown away by it. I received this book from Blogging for Books in return for an honest review.