See Me by Nicholas Sparks

February 18, 2019 by Christina

Fiction — print. Grand Central Publishing, 2015. 486 pgs. Purchased. It’s been awhile since I found myself (internally) screaming at a character to stop being so stupid. Yet, that was all I could do with the characters Sparks created for this novel. After about 100 pages, the main female character, Maria, reveals that she was sent unsigned, menacing notes following the death of a domestic violence victim. At the time, Maria was working as a prosecutor, and the victim’s murderer […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Chunkster, Crime, Fiction, North America, United States • Tags: Nicholas Sparks

Pound Foolish by Helaine Olen

February 15, 2019 by Christina

Nonfiction – Kindle edition. Portfolio, 2012. 304 pgs. Library copy.  Subtitled “Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry”, Olen covers how a financial illiterate populace is sold bad advice, bad get-quick-rich-schemes, and bad retirement strategies by an entire industry. Her book begins with a frank discussion of how America’s personal finance gurus – Suze Orman, Dave Ramsey, and the authors of The Millionaire Next Door, which I read earlier this year – and investing advocates such as Jim […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Economics, Nonfiction, North America, United States • Tags: Helaine Olen

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

February 14, 2019 by Christina

Fiction – print. Penguin Press, 2017. 338 pgs. Purchased. In the master plan community of Shaker Heights, Ohio, conformity is key. Mia Warren – an artist and single mother – arrives with her teenage daughter, Pearl, on the promise that she will stay in one place until Pearl graduates. In order to enroll her daughter in Shaker Heights’ award-winning school district, Mia rents the top floor of a duplex from Elena Richardson and takes a part-time job at a local […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Adoption, Fiction, North America, ReadDiverse, United States • Tags: Celeste Ng

Paradise Valley by C.J. Box

February 12, 2019 by Christina

Fiction – print. Minotaur Books, 2017. 340 pgs. Gift. Two years after the events of Badlands, Chief Investigator Cassie Dewell has finally ensnared the Lizard King in her trap. The serial killer she’s has spent nearly four years chasing is on his way to Grimstead, North Dakota to pick up a load, and Cassie and her fellow officers at the Bakken County Sheriff’s Department are prepared to take him into custody. Cassie is certain he won’t get away this time; […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Crime, Fiction, Mountain West, North America, United States • Tags: C.J. Box

Squeezed by Alissa Quart

February 11, 2019 by Christina

Nonfiction – print. Ecco, 2018. 320 pgs. Library copy. With its provocative subtitle “Why Our Families Can’t Afford America”, I’ve had my eye on Quart’s book since it was published back in mid-2018. The book promised to examine how and why Americans were finding themselves unable to make ends meet and remain inside the middle class that they were born into. “…65 percent of all Americans worry about paying their bills – as the parents I’ve interviewed, murmuring anxiously at […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Economics, New York, Nonfiction, North America, United States • Tags: Alissa Quart

Tell the Machine Goodnight by Katie Williams

February 8, 2019 by Christina

Fiction – Kindle edition. Riverhead Books, 2018. 304 pgs. Library copy. Apricity is happiness, proclaims the company’s advertising slogan for a machine that reads your DNA from a cheek swab and provides three recommendations that will enhance your happiness. Its suggestions run the gambit; everything from arrange fresh flowers to cut off the tip of your middle finger, “Pearl had always marveled at this: to think that the solution to one’s happiness lay next to the residue of the bagel […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Book Club, Dystopia, Fiction, North America, Science Fiction, United States • Tags: Katie Williams

The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks

February 7, 2019 by Christina

Fiction – print. Grand Central Publishing, 2013. Originally published 2012. 398 pgs. Purchased. Cajoled into going out by her roommate and sorority sisters, Sophia Danko finds herself cornered at a rodeo by her ex-boyfriend. Sophia isn’t interested in talking to him, but her ex won’t take no for an answer – until a cowboy named Luke interrupts their one-sided conversation. The chance meeting leads to Sophia spending less time on campus at Wake Forest College and more time around the […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Fiction, North America, United States • Tags: Nicholas Sparks

Hitler’s American Model by James Q. Whitman

February 6, 2019 by Christina

Nonfiction – print. Princeton University Press, 2017. 224 pgs. Library.  The title of Whitman’s book is bold, and it immediately caught my attention while browsing the shelves at a local bookstore. It was hard to pass over a book with the subtitle “The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law”, and I only managed to put it back on the shelf after assuring myself that the local public library had a copy available. The Holocaust professors I had […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Europe, Genocide, Germany, Holocaust, Nonfiction, North America, United States • Tags: James Q. Whitman

Badlands by C.J. Box

February 5, 2019 by Christina

Fiction – Kindle edition. Minotaur Books, 2015. 384 pgs. Library copy. A year after the events of The Highway, the “Lizard King” has gone dark. Despite a nationwide alert, there have been zero reported sightings of the suspected murderer and his big rig. The man has seemingly disappeared into thin air, frustrating Lewis and Clark County Deputy Sheriff Cassie Dewell as his evasion is personal for her. Cassie has also grown frustrated with her boss. The sheriff used her to […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Crime, Fiction, North America, United States • Tags: C.J. Box

Educated by Tara Westover

January 31, 2019 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Random House, 2018. 334 pgs. Purchased. Westover’s memoir generated considerable buzz after its publication last year. Former US President Barack Obama included it in his list of favorite books for 2018, and it seemed like every single book club I considered joining in my new town had read or planned to read this book. I bought a copy figuring I’d end up reading it for a book club eventually, but bumped up to the top of my […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Education, Mountain West, Nonfiction, North America, Religion, United States • Tags: Tara Westover

Cheap by Ellen Ruppel Shell

January 29, 2019 by Christina

Nonfiction – print. Penguin Press, 2009. 320 pgs. Library copy. Since reading The Millionaire Next Door earlier this month, consumerism has been dominating my thoughts. I’ve been particularly contemplative of how people have rejected of material goods, attracted to articles like one in The Guardian by a man who lives “houseless” in Alaska and contemplating rereading Not Buying It.  In my search for more books on the topic, I was reminded of Shell’s book on consumerism. I borrowed her book from the library in […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Asia, Economics, Europe, Food, Nonfiction, North America, Scandinavia, Thailand, United States • Tags: Ellen Ruppel Shell

The Highway by C.J. Box

January 27, 2019 by Christina

Fiction — Kindle edition. Minotaur Books, 2017. Originally published 2013. 398 pgs. Library copy. Two years after the events of Back of Beyond, Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Cody Hoyt has stayed sober, reunited with his ex-wife and teenage son, and been assigned a new investigating partner, Cassie Dewell. Cassie is a so-called “diversity hire” — a single mother on a male-dominated force — but Cody sees promise in the young deputy and considers the hiring to be one of the […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Fiction, Mountain West, North America, United States • Tags: C.J. Box