Gone Girl (Gillian Flynn)

I strongly suggest to author Gillian Flynn that she lock herself in a room with puppies, rainbows, apple pie, and other happy things.  The bestselling author of Sharp Objects and Dark Places has done it again with the enormously successful, grotesque (in a good way) Gone Girl.  When I say enormously successful, I was 895th on the library’s waiting list.  It’s the heartpounding account of a marriage gone bad, and like a train wreck, I couldn’t look away and always came racing back for more.

It's impossible to say much about Gone Girl without giving key parts of the plot away.  What I will say is that Flynn has created a mindboggling tale, which is dripping with suspense and twists you never see coming.  I felt a cloying sense of claustrophobia while reading Nick and Amy's story, but that didn't stop me from coming back to it night after night.  The key characters are realistic but over-the-top at the same time.

I apologize for this being short and sweet, but the less I say about this book the better, lest I give too much away.  But Gillian Flynn, seriously...puppies.

MY RATING - 5

The Aviator's Wife (Melanie Benjamin)

One of the most famous historical figures of all time has to be Charles Lindbergh.  Lucky Lindy is not just known for his amazing solo plane trip but also for the tragic kidnapping and death of his firstborn son.  The debate also continues on whether or not he was a a Nazi sympathizer.  In Melanie Benjamin's The Aviator's Wife, he is certainly not made out to be very likable, and Benjamin obviously sides with his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, a noted author and aviator in her own right.

In this work of historical fiction, Benjamin digs deep into the unlikely marriage of Anne and Charles, from their first meeting to their first flight together to their often dysfunctional life.  She starts The Aviator's Wife from the time after Lindbergh's flight, when he was an iconic celebrity and one of the most known people in the world.  After Charles's and Anne's marriage and subsequent arrival of their son, the reader is taken through the heartbreaking time of the kidnapping, after which neither one would ever be the same.

Even though Benjamin always does her research, this novel is a hard sell.  She definitely does not make Charles out to be the greatest guy in the world, but I found myself not liking Anne very much as well.  By the end of the novel, they've both done things that make it hard for a reader to sympathize with them and therefore, want to go on their journey with them.  I strongly recommend one of Benjamin's other novels, Alice I Have Been, about the true Alice in Wonderland, for a much stronger work.

MY RATING - 3

A Curtain Falls (Stefanie Pintoff)

A Curtain Falls by Stefanie Pintoff is the sequel to the Edgar Award finalist In the Shadow of Gotham.  My book club picked the sequel to read so I needed to tackle this one before the first.  I was a little apprehensive, because I thought I would have needed some background, but I needn’t have worried.  A Curtain Falls is a true mystery in its own right and a darn good one at that.

Set in New York City in one of my favorite time periods, the early 1900s, Detective Simon Zeile has been asked to help on another case.  A serial killer is on the loose, murdering chorus girls in their theater houses, and arranging them in macabre positions.  Zeile is asked to keep details very hush-hush, as all relevant theaters belong to Charles Frohman, a very wealthy and powerful owner.  With his gang of motley assistants, Zeile rushes to solve the case before the next killing.

This is definitely a quick page turner, and I must admit I was not able to predict the ending.  While obviously not on the same level as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Edgar Allan Poe, Pintoff succeeds in keeping the reader guessing and building suspense.  I look forward to reading In the Shadow of Gotham to get to know the history of Simon Zeile.

MY RATING - 4

The Presidents Club (Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy)

The Presidents Club by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy is a comprehensive read into the lives of ex-Presidents upon their departure from the Presidency and into "private" life, from Herbert Hoover through to George W. Bush. Stories are interwoven through the narrative of "the club", ranging from the work that Hoover provided to Harry Truman in providing food to Western Europe to the partnerships between Bill Clinton and both Bush presidencies in dealing with natural disasters abroad and at home.

The writers approach each former President without bias, pulling in details from people who were in the inner circles of various administrations to people impacted by the work these men did in public service. Each story wove into the connections, rivalries, and friendships that these men developed, as well as their willingness to protect office over party in many instances. Their wisdom in various arenas (Nixon with foreign policy, Hoover with commerce and facilitating action, Carter in negotiation) aided...and sometimes hindered administrations, but the wisdom provided helped shape each successive administration and build new legacies from prior administrations. In some cases, unlikely friendships developed and in others, friendly rivalries intensified.

The work is not brief -- coming in at 530 pages -- but the book serves as a great story and thorough read for the history buff and for the political junkie. Largely true to chronological order, The Presidents Club is a solid, thorough historical account that had me laughing at some points, shaking my head in others, and kept me intrigued to know more about the people that held the office and how they lived their lives once they left the Presidency.  Gibbs and Duffy have taken care to ensure that stories are well-cited, resourced, and lacking the bias that sometimes can cloud a good political book.

MY RATING - 4

Memoir of the Sunday Brunch (Julia Pandl)

Disclaimer: When I picked this book to review from the catalog, I thought I was getting one of my favorite types of books...recipes with background vignettes.  However, be warned that there are no recipes in Julia Pandl's Memoir of the Sunday Brunch, which definitely would have added something to Pandl's heartwarming stories.

From a ripe young age, Julia was put to work in her father's restaurant.  George Pandl was a taskmaster, running his restaurant with ultra precision and requiring the same dedication from his children.  While most women went out to eat on Mothers' Day, George's wife Terry knew that he and the kids would be working the busiest brunch of the year.  She took pleasure in knowing that her day would be spent in peace and quiet.  Pandl takes us through her life when child labor laws were less-than-stringent to the days when she took care of her ill parents.  She knew that she and her siblings, while having unique childhoods in the restaurant business, were always loved.

As I stated, interspersed recipes would have added depth to this memoir.  Most of us have recipes that have been passed down from generation to generation, and throwing in, for example, George Pandl's whitefish recipe would have added an extra layer to Julia's remembrances.  However, she certainly has a wonderful story to tell in its own right...sometimes sad, often hilarious, but always one of love.

MY RATING - 4

The Secret Keeper (Kate Morton)

I wholeheartedly and without reservation recommend Kate Morton’s The Secret Keeper as the best book of 2012 (so far).  Not many people I know are familiar with the Australian’s work, and I wouldn’t have been either if I had not gone looking for similar books to Diane Setterfeld’s The Thirteenth Tale.  The Distant Hours, The Forgotten Garden, and The House at Riverton all received a well-deserved 5 from me for their unbelievable depth and layering.  Even though The Secret Keeper is not Morton’s usual “Gothic English mystery” genre, it’s still historical fiction and absolutely jam packed with breathtaking suspense.

Weaving effortlessly and seamlessly between present day and World War II England, The Secret Keeper is the story of secrets, betrayals, and utter heartbreak.  It begins in the early 1960s with teenage Laurel lazing the day away in a treehouse.  While the rest of her family is a little ways away having a birthday party, Laurel sees Dorothy, her mother, who is carrying Laurel’s baby brother, stab and kill a strange man.  Due to Laurel's lies, the matter is swept under the rug with no repercussions for Dorothy.  Fast forward to present day, Laurel and her siblings are called back to their hometown to be at their dying mother's bedside.  However, Laurel desperately wants to solve the mystery of the man's murder before Dorothy passes away. 

The Secret Keeper, as are all of Morton’s books, is one giant puzzle.  Morton plays tricks on the brain, and if you don’t pay attention to each and every detail, she will get you!  There were so many little nuances and questions throughout this novel that I kept thinking to myself there was no way Morton would answer them all.  But she never, ever leaves a stone unturned.  By the time you finish, you are left with a story that completely makes sense and has you asking yourself why you didn’t see it coming all along.

MY RATING - 5

The Island (Elin Hilderbrand)

As I’m gradually making my way through Elin Hilderbrand’s books, one thing is for certain.  Because her novels are set on Nantucket, her current home, the beautiful setting is almost always as integral a part of her books as the main characters are.  The Island is set on nearby Tuckernuck, the ultra-exclusive, privately owned island with no shops or restaurants to speak of.  In fact, the characters summering there need to give a grocery list to their caretaker, who goes back and forth from Nantucket.  While I probably will never see Tuckernuck’s light of day, Nantucket is definitely on my must-do list.

The Island revolves around four women, each harboring secrets and/or pain.  Chess has just cancelled her wedding to a guy deemed perfect because she’s in love with his brother.  That “perfect guy” is soon found dead, but what are the circumstances surrounding it?  Tate, Chess’s sister, is trying to find a life outside of work.  Birdie, their mother, is trying to pick up the pieces of her life after her divorce, while her sister, India, is still coming to terms with her artist husband’s suicide.  The four converge on Tuckernuck for a month’s respite, with only themselves and their caretaker, Barrett, for company.  The ins and outs of their day, filled with drama after drama (no surprise), then ensue.

The Island is the perfect summer read, as there’s really not much substance to it.  As opposed to Hilderbrand’s later novels, Summerland and Silver Girl, I wasn’t that enthralled with any of the characters.  In fact, some attempts at garnering sympathy went out the window because the characters just weren’t that likeable.  However, Hilderbrand has a huge fan base for a reason.  Even her breeziest of books are still fun and great to take on vacation.

MY RATING - 3