The Life We Bury (Allen Eskens)

When I began Allen Eskens’s The Life We Bury, I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.  The premise was exciting, the characters interesting, and the writing superb.  As the events started racing to the climax, however, everything seemed to slow down, with the main characters making dumb decisions that would, of course, put their lives in extreme danger.

Joe Talpert hasn’t had the easiest life co-existing with his mother, who has been abusive to both him and his autistic brother, Jeremy.  Trying to better himself, he attends college and needs to obtain a subject for his biographical paper.  Thinking outside the box, he decides to go with Carl Iverson, a convicted murderer who has served decades in prison, but is now dying of cancer in a nursing home.  As he interviews Carl (and his friend), and unravels his story, he doubts whether Carl ever committed this grisly murder after all.

As Joe and his eventual girlfriend, Lila, piece together the puzzle, they begin to do things over and over again that aren’t exactly smart.  This brings The Life We Bury down, as I spent more time mentally yelling at the characters instead of being engrossed in their story. This results in a predictable ending, but getting there was somewhat fun.

MY RATING - 3

The Lake House (Kate Morton)

I’ve been a huge Kate Morton fan for a long time and have introduced quite a lot of people to her books.  I always look forward to her novels, as they’re perfect for cozying up to a fire with a cup of tea and just getting lost in the stories.  While her latest book, The Lake House, wasn’t my favorite and had quite the unrealistic ending, it definitely had a lot of steam getting to that point.

Due to overstepping her bounds, Sadie Sparrow, a detective in the police force, has been forced into taking a little “vacation” in Cornwall, England.  It is here during a run that she comes across an old estate.  The reader learns that during World War I, this house was the home of the Edavanes; Alice Edavane is a well-known author now in her eighties who is looking for answers into the long-ago disappearance of her little brother, Theo.  During a midsummer party, Theo vanished, never to be seen or heard from again.  What happened to him?  Were their parents, Eleanor and Anthony Edavane, somehow involved in his disappearance?

One of the things that make Kate Morton’s books so interesting is that their large houses can almost be seen as major characters.  Little Theo seemingly vanished in one of these houses, and Morton goes back and forth in time to tell his story.  Unfortunately, this doesn’t always work as well in The Lake House as it did in her other novels; some parts seem slow, and I kept hoping for Morton to pick up the pace a bit.  When she does, the plot races to the end quickly, and all the puzzle pieces fit together nicely.  However, the ending is a bit implausible and a little disappointing after all that work reading the book.  Don’t let that deter you from reading The Lake House – but if you’ve never read Kate Morton, you might want to start with one of her earlier, and in my opinion, better books.

MY RATING - 3

The Silo Effect (Gillian Tett)

The Silo Effect by Gillian Tett is a smart, all-encompassing look at the corporate and government world's constant battles with itself around corporate culture.  Silos in the business world often refer to the attitude that is found in some organizations when departments or teams do not share information or knowledge with other parts of the same organization, which reduces efficiency and sometimes leads to the different teams competing with each other internally.  The Silo Effect has two key objectives in attempting to answer the questions of why silos arise and what can be done by us to master silos in our world before they master us.

Tett covers several examples of corporations and government organizations that either overcame or fell victim to the silo effect.  From the example of one large corporation that lost its way due to layers of bureaucracy to how one city changed the way different departments communicated with each other, the author weaves a narrative to show the importance of how corporate culture and human interaction both play a role in helping silos grow to unmanageable heights, hindering corporate performance as a result.  But that can be overcome through effective communication, corporate culture, and smart management.

The author argues that our modern world has made silos a major part of our life, going so far as to say that "we cannot live without silos in the modern world" and citing psychological and anthropological examples to back that point up.  She then goes on to say that while it is easier and even convenient for businesses to organize themselves into highly structured silos, there are missed opportunities for growth, missed risks as collaboration and communication suffer, and internal departments are loathe to share information and resources with each other, which leads to lower productivity and efficiency in the long run.  Without giving people some rope to be creative, to collaborate, to work outside of their norms, Tett argues that short-term gain does not yield long-term breakthrough impact.  Through her eight case studies that range from major cities to major corporations, she is able to make an effective case to prove her point.

MY RATING - 4

The Admissions (Meg Mitchell Moore)

At first glance, Meg Mitchell Moore's The Admissions seems to be referring to the pressure-filled world of college admissions.  In fact, daughter Angela Hawthorne and her father, Gabe, are desperate for her to be accepted into the hallowed halls of Harvard. However, it becomes apparent throughout the book that Moore was going a bit deeper into the meaning of the word "admissions."

The Hawthornes seem to be a have-it-all family living in sunny California.  Mom Nora is a real estate agent selling luxury properties; Gabe has a similarly lucrative career. Angela is stretched to the limit trying to reach her goals; in addition to being fast-as-lightning in cross country, she's also on track to becoming valedictorian of her class. Her younger sisters, Cecily and Maya, are also facing their own issues.

All this comes to a boiling head when the pressures of daily life seem to unravel the family.  What will they stoop to in the quest to remain "perfect" and prevent their secrets from coming out?  It is this where the origin of the title The Admissions becomes crystal clear.

Moore's novel is a quick read, whip-smart, and very relevant in today's world.  Is there ever a time when people can just sit back and enjoy life or is there just too much pressure today?  Moore addresses this head-on in an extremely thought-provoking novel.

MY RATING - 4

Choosing Hope (Kaitlin Roig DeBellis and Robin Gaby Fisher)

How do you move forward after going through a tragedy of unimaginable proportions?  That is something that author (with Robin Gaby Fisher) Kaitlin Roig-DeBellis has not had an easy road determining, but her answer lies in Choosing Hope: Moving Forward from Life’s Darkest Hours.

A dedicated first grade teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary in a quaint little Connecticut town called Newtown, Roig-DeBellis was in circle time one minute with her primary-age students, and the next, forced to make a spur-of-the-moment decision to save all their lives.  It was the young educator’s quick thinking that piled her entire class into a bathroom not big enough for even one adult.  Not knowing if any of them were going to make it out alive, she tried to keep the children calm as they could hear the horror happening all around them.  After they were led out of the ravaged school by police and into the arms of waiting parents, the trauma Roig-DeBellis and her class faced became all too real.  This is where the story of Choosing Hope really begins.

Most people know the story of Sandy Hook based on what they have read and seen on the television.  However, what makes Choosing Hope so inspirational is that Roig-DeBellis has learned not to let that unbearable day define her; in fact, she even mentions that readers can skip the chapters about the shootings if they wish because that’s not what the book is about.  With much therapy and the loving support of her family, husband, ex-students and their parents, the author has chosen instead to make some good come out of this tragedy.  She has left teaching (not by choice), but has developed a nonprofit called Classes 4 Classes, where classrooms across the nation adopt other classrooms in need.

Roig-DeBellis doesn’t sugarcoat anything and is completely honest. However, readers expecting a minute-by-minute account of December 14, 2012 should turn elsewhere.  Choosing Hope is about one woman’s journey to remember all those that died that day by giving to others and choosing to reframe her thoughts.

MY RATING - 4

A Window Opens (Elisabeth Egan)

One can instantly tell that a books person wrote A Window Opens.  Elisabeth Egan, the books editor at Glamour magazine, has crafted a story that I identify with greatly.  You see, I went kicking and screaming to the Kindle, and I still 1000% prefer opening up a real, genuine book to reading on a technological device.  While so much more far-reaching than that, A Window Opens has basically the same theme – what is hardcore technology doing to the independent bookstore and library?

Alice Pearse has a happy, comfortable life with her three children and lawyer husband, working a few days a week as a book reviewer.  When her husband doesn’t make partner and therefore throws his laptop across the room at his office (never a good idea), he tries to get his own small practice going.  Money is tight, and to make ends meet, Alice lands a “dream” job at Scroll, a new high-tech concept idea in the book world (basically a Starbucks for books without actual books).  It’s a super-demanding job, and Alice is dealing with a recurrence of her father’s cancer at the same time.  The rest of the plot is quite predictable but still very entertaining.

Alice is a likable character, but she can also be very frustrating.  Like many people nowadays, she is never fully “with” someone, always checking her e-mails and texts even off the clock.  This even applies when she’s with her dad.  But this is so like real life anymore, right?  Unfortunately, yes.

MY RATING - 4

A Little Life (Hanya Yanagihara)

Goodreads says that I began reading Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life on May 18, and I only just finished it on September 7.  That’s almost four months going through the same book.  Besides the fact that it’s a whopping 720 pages, A Little Life seems to be meant to be read slowly.  The subject matter is harsh, the emotions are raw, and the plot points are mostly heartbreaking.  If you’re looking for a light, happy read, steer far clear of this one.

Trying to explain A Little Life in a nutshell is almost impossible.  The book follows the main character, Jude, through his life, and Yanagihara wisely skips time periods to keep the audience wondering about certain things.  How did Jude end up with such debilitating pain in his legs, at times to the point of immobilization?  Why won’t Jude talk about his early life?  Except for a few instances, the reader discovers these reasons almost at the same time as Jude’s friends do, and Yanagihara’s theme of the book becomes very clear.  Despite absolutely horrendous things happening to a person, can he or she go on to live a happy, fulfilled life? 

This is one of the saddest books I’ve ever read, and I was only able to get through about 1% on my Kindle every night.  At times, I wondered why Yanagihara made it so long, but when I was done I realized why – the reader has to come to care about Jude and his friends to make the ending that much more meaningful.

MY RATING – 4