It's Monday and the countdown is on!

This has been a long week. Some parts have been ridiculous and awful, but we did get to go visit my baby sister at college. That was a lot of fun (and made me feel very old).

Keep dreaming, kiddo. You have a loonnnggg time before you can go to college!

We have our final three days before school starts this week, so we will be trying our hardest to fit in as many last-minute summer things as possible. On the other hand, I'm starting to get David on a schedule and back to doing school work so, as with many things, it will be a balance. Do you have any suggestions for getting a bit more summer in before the first day of school?

Read This Week:

Tigerman
By Nick Harkaway



Someone Else's Love Story
By Joshilyn Jackson


Posts from this Past Week:
It's Monday
Reviews of The Magician's Land, The Hundred-Year House, and The Snow Queen


Reading Now:

Outlander
By Diana Gabaldon

Up Next:

The Angel of Losses
By Stephanie Feldman


What are you reading this week?

Review: The Snow Queen

The Snow Queen

By Michael Cunningham

Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux May 2014

258 pages

From the library

Tyler and Barrett are brothers sharing a Brooklyn apartment. They both take care of Tyler's girlfriend Beth, who is slowly dying of cancer. While neither of them are leading lives they would call good, there is a comfort to the consistency...until something incredible happens. One snowy night, Barrett sees strange lights in the sky. He doesn't believe in God, but he is convinced that the lights are a message to him. Almost imperceptibly, their lives begin to change.

Barrett and Tyler are both stuck in repetitive mediocrity. Barrett had dreams of doing something great, but now he spends his days working in a vintage clothing shop. He believes that he is happy doing that, but his need to repeat that over and over again makes the reader wonder if he is really trying to convince himself. Tyler is a small time musician who dreams of writing one perfect song for his wife. But he only seems to find inspiration under the influence of drugs. Despite the repeated requests by his brother and friends to stop, he keeps using with the hope of finding some peace and the perfect tune and lyrics. 

In The Snow Queen, Cunningham seems to be hitting readers over the head with his themes and his political views. Tyler becomes a mouthpiece for liberal anger with frequent swipes at Bush, Cheney, and anyone with the audacity to vote Republican. While there were certainly people around the 2004 with plenty of indignation, it wears thin very quickly and seems to be one of the few character traits that Tyler possesses. 

Conversely, readers who want to see Cunningham develop his allusion to the title fairy tale will be disappointed. In the beginning of the story, Tyler stands in front of an open window enjoying the snow falling over the city. Something sharp gets in his eye, just as Kai in the original fairy tale was pierced by the little splinter. But then Cunninham seems to just let the allusion go and there is little, if anything, that calls the fairy tale to mind after that point. 

Reading The Snow Queen will certainly expose you to Cunningham's beautiful sentences and carefully designed scenes. And there are several insightful moments about how we make friends into family and maintain relationships over time. But the characters are quickly forgettable and their search for meaning in their lives will not give you any new insight into yours. If you want to read a Michael Cunningham book, pick up his Pulitzer Prize-winning The Hours. 

Reviews of Cunningham's The Hours and By Nightfall

Review: The Hundred-Year House

The Hundred-Year House

By Rebecca Makkai

Viking Adult July 2014

352 pages

Read for review via Netgalley 

In 1999, Zee and Doug return home to Laurelfield, Zee's family estate. It is the last place they want to be, but financial woes force them to live in the carriage house. Zee is a professor with Marxist leanings and Doug is a writer. At least he hopes to one day finish his book on little-known poet Edwin Parfitt, but for now he is writing formulaic books for tween girls (without his wife's knowledge).

Laurelfield has always been a place of mystery - Zee's great-grandmother committed suicide under strange circumstances, an artists' colony stayed at the estate but has few records, and unexplained noises bump in the night. But it seems that the problems are not contained to the past. When another couple moves into the carriage house with Zee and Doug, tensions rise as families feud, flirtations begin, and people are injured on the grounds of the beautiful and unsettling Laurelfield.

The Hundred-Year House is multifaceted. It begins at the end of the twentieth century and then goes back in time as we find some answers and encounter a whole new bunch of questions. We encounter Zee's mother Grace again in 1955 as a newlywed. Her marriage is troubled, to say the least, and the anger and sadness become claustrophobic. Twenty-six years earlier, the estate is home to a zany and fascinating bunch of artists - painters, musicians, and writers, including Edwin Parfitt himself. This is the portion of the novel that is the most comedic, as the artists band together to save the colony from closing. 

The atmosphere built throughout this novel is incredible. The estate itself feels haunted. Everyone who is there feels like the spirits of past inhabitants remain and questions are still unanswered. They also feel a distinct sense of destiny and it is clear that some of them are destined to be there, while others are not welcome. Makkai uses a subtle touch throughout this book. You can feel the unease as the characters start to wonder how many of their problems are self-made and how many are caused by forces beyond their control. 

Unfortunately, there is just too much going on here. There are too many characters, too many time periods, and too many themes. It is difficult for the reader to focus on any of them for long because it's only a matter of time until you get thrown into a whole new situation. There is a certain kind of reader who will enjoy this box within a box approach to storytelling, but I found it simultaneously overwhelming and underwhelming.

The Hundred-Year House might be called light horror. The creepy air around Laurelfield is undeniable and Zee even teaches a course about ghost stories, but this isn't really about ghosts. It is a literary story about destiny and how our choices can reverberate for centuries to come. This book would be a great pick for a reader who wants to feel a little chill in the air without suffering a sleepless night. 

My review of Makkai's The Borrower

Review: The Magician's Land

The Magician's Land

By Lev Grossman

Viking August 2014

401 pages

ARC won from Goodreads and the publisher

This is the third book in a trilogy. This review may contain spoilers for The Magicians and The Magician King. 


Quentin has hit a new low. He was banished from his beloved kingdom of Fillory and left behind being king and all of his closest friends. Out of options, Quentin returns to Brakebills, his alma mater, and works as a teacher. But his past soon catches up with him and he finds himself out on his own yet again. Meanwhile in Fillory, Janet and Eliot find their kingdom threatened by invaders and the very real possibility of apocalypse. 

I had some trouble getting into this story but I realize that the problem is self-made. If you have followed along with Quentin, Janet, Julia, and Eliot since the beginning, I would advise that you read through the first two books again before embarking on this newest adventure. It was hard for me to get back into this world and remember what the characters had been through since it's been a year and a half since I read the second book and much longer since I read the first.

While this series is wildly fantastical, each book has important insight into growing up. In this book, Quentin finds himself in places he never imagined he would be. He was a king, after all. Instead of ruling, he finds himself fighting for what basically amounts to being a part of a magical heist. This part of the story will certainly ring true for people who did all of the right things - college degrees, internships, networking; but still found themselves scrambling for jobs at the bottom of the food chain. We begin the story at this moment and work both backwards and forward.

One of Grossman's most interesting touches in The Magician's Land is his introduction of new characters in the last book of a series. Many writers would focus on their already established characters in the conclusion of their trilogy, but the new characters here really add to the story. Plum in particular sheds new light on characters that we already know and love. She  is a fellow magician who works with Quentin on the heist and we eventually learn that the two of them have already met under very interesting circumstances. Grossman uses the relationship between the two to show how far Quentin has come and the differences between youth (Plum) and the beginnings of maturity (Quentin). Watching the pair work as colleagues and become friends is one of the best parts of the story.

As Fillory faces the threat of destruction, Quentin encounters someone from his past who he thought was gone forever. As he tries to convince this person to embrace life again, there are striking parallels to loving someone with addictions who fights you every step of the way. Both in our world and in Fillory, the friends must decide what to fight for and what can be repaired. Part of growing up, after all, is deciding what to hold on to. Which relationships do we keep, no matter what, and what dreams do we let go with time?

While The Magicians paralleled The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and the sequel paid homage to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the third book has some serious parallels with The Last Battle. Lev Grossman has created an incredible trilogy. He has crafted characters who experience great joy and tremendous loss, entire lands filled to the brim with magic, and a set of stories that manage to be both literary and the best kind of fantasy simultaneously. You don't want to miss reading this series. 

It's Monday and we have had a busy, happy house!

Hello fellow book lovers! How are you?

It's been a busy week around here. We finally got David's teacher and bus assignments, so it is full steam ahead to get ready for first grade. This weekend was pretty wonderful because my in-laws came to visit for a day and my best friend was here for a few days as well. Reading-wise I wasn't able to finish a second book this week but I figure it will all balance out in the end. Well, at least it will if the librarians don't coming looking for me anytime soon....

Must finish Tigerman and take it back to the library. Must finish Tigerman and take it back to the library.


Read This Week:

Friendship
By Emily Gould


Posts from this Past Week:
It's Monday
Reviews of Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity, All the Light We Cannot See, and Landline

Reading Now:

Tigerman
By Nick Harkaway


Up Next:

Someone Else's Love Story
By Joshilyn Jackson



What are you reading this week?

Review: Landline

Landline

By Rainbow Rowell

St. Martin's Press July 2014

310 pages

From the library 

Georgie McCool finds herself making an impossible decision yet again. She and her writing partner Seth are finally getting their big break. But the meeting about their tv show has to happen over the Christmas holiday. Georgie knows that her husband Neal and their two daughters will be disappointed, but she is surprised when Neal takes the two girls and heads to see his family without her. The tension has been building between Georgie and Neal and she wonders if this is the final blow to her marriage. She crashes at her parent's house one night and makes a curious discovery - the old yellow phone in her bedroom connects her to her husband back when they were dating. Can she save her marriage in the present by making different choices in the past?

Rainbow Rowell is mostly known for writing YA juggernaut Eleanor and Park. In Landline, we deal with a set of problems specific to adults - namely balancing professional dreams and family lives. Georgie and Seth have been writing funny things together since college. But late night writing sessions have cut into dinnertime and bedtime over and over again. This causes great tension in Georgie and Neal's marriage and in Georgie's own heart and mind as she has to choose time and again between her passion and the people she loves best. Most of the time, she finds that either decision leaves her unhappy. 

The central conceit here that Georgie could talk to husband in the past is a cute but fascinating way to have Georgie look back on the decisions she has made throughout her relationship. It's just a little touch of magical realism that gives Georgie (and us, along for the ride) the opportunity to see what choices work in a young relationship and which ones we regret with hindsight. There is such beautiful development in this story as we see Georgie grapple with her dream of being a writer in opposition to spending time with the family she loves so madly. She knows that her husband has been unhappy and at several points in the book, she wonder if she should let him go and let him be happy. Is love really enough? 

Landline's greatest strength is its insight into a marriage over time. While this novel is essentially a light read with a magical telephone, there were several moments when I caught my breath because Rowell explained marriage so perfectly.

“Nobody's lives just fit together. Fitting together is something you work at. It's something you make happen - because you love each other.” 

“You don't know when you are twenty-three. You don’t know what it really means to crawl into someone else’s life and stay there. You can’t see all the ways you’re going to get tangled, how you’re going to bond skin to skin. How the idea of separating will feel in five years, in ten—in fifteen. When Georgie thought about divorce now, she imagined lying side by side with Neal on two operating tables while a team of doctors tried to unthread their vascular systems.” 

I loved reading Landline. I love that Rowell took a problem familiar to many of us as we try to balance work and family and refused to pass judgement. Instead, she lets us just live alongside Georgie as she makes her decisions, both good and bad. The characters, as always, are quirky and wonderful and my only regret is that I didn't get to spend more time with Georgie, Neal, Seth, and the others who live between the covers of Landline. 

My reviews of Eleanor and Park and Attachments

Review: All the Light We Cannot See

All the Light We Cannot See

By Anthony Doerr

Scribner May 2014

530 pages

From the library 

Marie Laure may be blind, but her devoted father Daniel makes living in Paris an experience full of wonders. As the locksmith for the Museum of Natural History, he gives her the miracles of the world to hold in her hand. He also allows her to explore Paris by creating a miniature of the city that she can memorize. When the Germans occupy Paris, father and daughter flee to the seaside town of Saint-Malo to live with her great-uncle. But Marie Laure doesn't know that her father has been entrusted with a tiny wonder that will bring danger right to their front door.

Alongside the story of Marie Laure, we meet Werner and Jutta Pfennig, orphans who live in a charity home. The two siblings are fascinated with science, especially with lectures they hear over the radio from a kindly scientist. Werner has a gift for science, for electronics in particular. When the Nazis learn of his skills, they send him to a training school where he views brutality firsthand.

My husband accuses me of being a reader of particular tastes. It is not unusual for him to assume that my newest read takes place around WWII and make a lovingly sarcastic comment. He's usually right. In my efforts to diversify my reading a bit, I didn't pick up this book for a long time. But I saw review after review saying that this book was stunning. It turns out that all of those reviews were right.

There are so many things to love about All the Light We Cannot See. The first beautiful thing is the relationships that Mr. Doerr creates with seeming ease. Marie Laure and her father are devoted to each other. She adores her dad and he teaches her to survive and even to find magic in the everyday. Werner and his sister Jutta have a typical sibling relationship where you drive each other crazy but stand up for each other no matter what. Werner's relationship with his friend Frederick is heartwarming and heartbreaking as Werner learns to do what it takes to survive while Frederick stands up for what he believes to be right. Each person is drawn with so much detail and care that you can't help but love each one.

Throughout this story, the characters observe the beauty of science and story. Marie Laure is fascinated by the minerals and creatures found in nature while Werner finds peace and purpose in determining how machines, particularly radios, function. Both of them understand the importance of story, whether found in the pages of a book or passed from one person to another. It reminded me of my beloved childhood readings of Madeleine L'Engle's novels where you didn't have to choose between science and faith, nature or art.

At the heart of this book is the potential of people for both good and evil, and how we are all connected. Early in the story, someone points out the limitlessness of Werner's potential as a scientist and as a person. But he battles between doing the right thing and doing the thing that will ensure his survival and the survival of the people he loves. Over and over again, we see the danger for every person living in Europe as war rages around them. How can anyone maintain their innocence in a time of war?

As readers, it seems inevitable that we will eventually tire of reading stories set in the same time period. But as someone who has read many novels set around WWII, this book was as exhilarating and heartbreaking as a story experienced for the first time. All the Light We Cannot See rather resembles the intricate tiny cities that Daniel creates for his daughter. This is a book that you could read it over and over and find new connections between the characters, their stories, and the themes of beauty and pain, devotion and sacrifice. It  is haunting and beautiful and will certainly be my favorite book of this month, if not one of my favorites in 2014.

Review: Interrupted

Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity

By Jen Hatmaker

NavPress Publishing July 2014

288 pages

Received from the author/publisher for review

Jen Hatmaker thought she had the Christian life under control. She grew up going to church, she was involved in practically every program, and she was even married to a pastor. Yet she felt like something wasn't right. Her eyes were opened to the realities of the world around her - the pain and the poverty that people were suffering with every day. The church she knew didn't seem to be doing much to alleviate those things. When Jen and her husband Brandon left their comfortable life behind, the consequences were more difficult and much more rewarding than they ever could have imagined.

Some of you may know that I have quite a bit in common with Jen. Grew up going to church? Check. Married to a pastor? Check. Live in Texas? Well, that might be the end of the similarities. In this book, Jen works through so many of the issues that my husband and I have been wrestling with. In fact, it seemed in places that Jen had been spying on us. So um Jen, if you have been lurking outside listening to our conversations, please come in. I don't promise the house is clean, but you can sit on the sofa and have some coffee.

Jen turns her life (and quite possibly yours too) topsy turvy. Her schedule was packed with church events, but she and her husband went home feeling exhausted instead of inspired. When they started their own church, they focused on doing - helping the poor, reaching out to the people in their town, and creating community. While they were just as busy as they had been before, there was a sense of peace that they hadn't previously experienced. They key, as it turns out, was twofold. First, they had to stop keeping community within the four walls of the church. It's easy for us to be so caught up with Bible studies and church meetings and potlucks that soon our entire network of people is within the church. Jen, Brandon, and their church began going out into the community and getting to know people where they were, working together with community organizations, and helping the poor and the sick. All of a sudden, that part in the Bible where Jesus talked about "feeding his sheep" seemed like a pretty important command.

Second, they rejected the American ideal of upward mobility. We are so conditioned to want more and to do more, but at the end of the day it leaves us unfulfilled. So she stopped worrying about what other people thought of her and whether she was checking off all of the goals of having enough. And at the bottom, she found freedom and lots of broken people with beautiful stories to tell.

As someone married to a pastor, the health of the church directly impacts our family. So I took it to heart when Jen reminds us that people don't automatically decide to go to church one day. She proposes that we work from the outside in. Instead of waiting for people to come to our fancy worship services, we start right where we are. If we start loving the people in our neighborhoods, our work places, and schools, we build relationships. And everyone knows that once you build relationships, you care about the things that your friends care about. Inviting a friend to come to church with you is a world of difference from covering your neighbor's doors in flyers about your "awesome church!"

I'm pretty sure I could just write about this book until I have laid it out for you chapter by chapter. But that would rob you of the experience of discovering Jen as a writer. She is laugh out loud funny, but humble enough to admit that she is no expert about any of this. If you care about the Kingdom of God, Jen Hatmaker has given us a true gift in the form of this book. Interrupted is a book I will be talking and thinking about for a long time. 

It's Monday and this week went by so quickly!

Where did this week go? I'm sure we did some things. I'm just not sure what they were...We are at the two and half week mark until school starts, so I think we have a lot to fit in during the next few weeks!

Read This Week:

The Hundred-Year House
By Rebecca Makkai


The Snow Queen
By Michael Cunningham


Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity
By Jen Hatmaker


Posts from this Past Week:
It's Monday
Reviews of The Thousand Dollar Tan Line and The Lost


Reading Now:

Friendship
By Emily Gould


Up Next:

Tigerman
By Nick Harkaway


What are you reading this week?

Review: The Lost

The Lost

By Sara Beth Durst

Harlequin MIRA May 2014

350 pages

Read via Netgalley

Lauren Chase gets into her car to go to work one day and just keeps driving. She isn't ready to face the news she knows will be waiting when she gets home. A day away from life will be just what she needs. But she doesn't expect to get lost in a giant cloud of dust or arrive in a strange town called Lost. Everything seems just a bit off in this place where random possessions litter the streets. The people she meets inform her that she can't leave the town until she figures out what she has lost. But she isn't missing anything...or is she? 

This is one of those situations where I am glad I listened to my gut. This is a little out of my reading comfort zone, but I couldn't help requesting a copy. The idea of a singular place where lost things congregate is fascinating. We meet people who have lost their way, lost their dreams, and lost their memories. The town of Lost is literally comprised of lost items - everything from the change you lost in the couch cushions to entire homes. The characters must discover what they have lost. At that point, a mysterious person known only as The Missing Man appears and will help you to go back home.

I loved the whimsy in this story. The parallels to beloved childhood tales like Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan abound, and Durst understands that the necessary companions of joy and magic are danger and loss. We also witness that oldest of fairy tale tropes - was it real? Did I dream or imagine that? What does it mean if I can go to this magical place but others can't?

Lauren's story is about  finding a balance between caring for others and doing things for yourself. Before finding herself in Lost, she had given up her dreams of being an artist to take a responsible job that allowed her to care for her mother as she battled cancer. Lauren was being responsible grown-up...and she was miserable. In Lost, she also finds herself in a role where she helps others but in doing so, she discovers the things that make her happy and finds herself again. She is also in the transitional part of her life where we go from having a built-in family to creating our own. While Lauren very much loves her mother, she recognizes that their time together is short. As she begins to create a tribe of her own with an enigmatic man named Peter and Claire, a fierce little girl, you can't help but root for their tiny family to survive and thrive.

The Lost is a unique story that also invokes beloved childhood tales while grappling with some of the toughest issues of adulthood. I'm so glad I gave this book a try and I will be looking for the sequel in November. 

Review: The Thousand Dollar Tan Line

Veronica Mars: The Thousand Dollar Tan Line

By Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham

Random House Audio March 2014; 9 hours

Narrated by Kristen Bell

From the library 

Our favorite detective is back at it again. On the heels of a successful Kickstarter campaign and movie featuring Veronica Mars, marshmallows (or fans to those of you not in the know) are being treated to a book series as well. This first book, The Thousand Dollar Tan Line, takes places shortly after the movie. Veronica is living in Neptune again as she nurses her father back to health and temporarily runs his private investigation firm. She fears that the business won't be able to stay afloat for long, but finds a reprieve when two college girls go missing and the town council hires Mars Investigation to find them. Getting answers is never easy, especially when dealing with a corrupt sheriff, drug cartels, and family members with secrets of their own. Veronica turns to her friends Mac and Wallace and her father to help as she tries to discover what happened to the two girls.

This book came out in March but I held out for the audiobook because Kristen Bell, Veronica Mars herself, is the narrator. Although the beginning was slightly jarring because it begins from the point of view of other characters, her narration added so much to the story. Veronica sounded just the same and Bell's imitation of other beloved characters was spot-on.

I loved what the writers did with Veronica herself throughout this story. (Spoilers for the movie ahead!!) At the end of the movie, she was back together with Logan. While Logan does not feature heavily into this story, the mix of banter and painful honesty between the two seemed just like old times. It also appeared that Veronica was committing to life as a PI, against her father's wishes. The push and pull between Keith and Veronica is fascinating as he worries for her safety and wants something better than his life while she finds herself inexplicably drawn to this life. The relationship between father and daughter was always one of the most realistic and nuanced of the TV show and that continues to develop here, especially when a surprising someone from their past becomes a part of the case. 

My only issue with this story lies with the mystery itself. It seemed to drag on forever and had way too many false leads. Perhaps this was because I listened to the story instead of read it, but I thought the book was wrapping up two or three times before it actually did. I also found the ending to be somewhat unbelievable.

If you are a fan of the show, reading or listening to this story is going to be a treat you don't want to miss. We may have been friends a long time ago, but it feels like no time has passed at all since we were last in corrupt and crime-ridden Neptune in the fantastic company of one Veronica Mars.

It's Monday and we had a fun weekend!

This Wednesday, we packed our bags and dropped the kids off with my in-laws. The hubby and my mom and I got in the car and crossed state lines to take part in my cousin's wedding. My husband performed the ceremony, my mom played the piano, and I sang two songs while the grandmothers and mothers came down the aisle. My dad and sisters joined us later in the weekend and we had a really lovely time together.

The rehearsal dinner was at a park. We may or may not have had some fun on the playground....

I think we clean up pretty nicely, though. 

Read This Week:

The Magician's Land
By Lev Grossman


Landline
By Rainbow Rowell


Posts from this Past Week:
It's Monday
Reviews of The Virtues of Oxygen, The Visitors, and If I Stay


Reading Now:

The Hundred-Year House
By Rebecca Makkai


Up Next:

The Snow Queen
By Michael Cunningham


What are you reading this week?

Review: If I Stay

If I Stay

By Gayle Foreman

Speak April 2010

262 pages

Borrowed from my sister

Mia is seventeen years old and life is good. Her family is close, her boyfriend Adam is head over heels for her, and it looks like her musical career will be taking its next steps at Julliard. But one snowy morning, Mia and her brother, mother, and father go for a drive. When the car crashes, Mia is left in a coma. Now she has an impossible choice to make - does she wake up and stay behind with Adam, her friends, and the life she knows or does she go into whatever is beyond this life? 

You may know my apprehension about YA, but my sister insisted that this book was one to read and so I gave it a whirl. The best thing about this book was the fullness of Mia's life. As Mia looks at her own battered body, she starts to reminisce about her past and the ways that her friends and family have impacted her. I shudder at the YA stories where the characters are concerned only with getting or keeping a boyfriend. Mia does have a relationship with Adam, but she also has a best friend and a close relationship with her brother and parents. Even her extended family members play important parts in her life.

Mia discovers that she has the ability to decide if she lives or dies. The decision seems impossible mostly because she knows so little. If she goes, she believes she will be reunited with her parents. But she doesn't know that for sure. If she stays, she will be able to go to Julliard, spend more time with her boyfriend and friends, and experience the rest of life. Mia isn't sure if a world without her parents is a world that she wants to live in.

If I Stay manages to find the balance between being an emotional read without being emotionally manipulative. Times of tragedy bring out a lot of feelings in everyone, both in this book and in real life. As Mia's grandparents mourn and Adam begs Mia to stay with him, you can't help but debate the right choice along with Mia and hug your own loved ones a little closer. 

Review: The Visitors

The Visitors

By Sally Beauman

Harper July 2014

544 pages

From the library 

Lucy is an elderly woman looking back on her life. It is a life that has been far from ordinary. As an eleven year old girl, she traveled to Egypt and met a lifelong friend in Frances, the daughter of an archaeologist. As she becomes a part of their inner circle, she is privy to the details of one of the most exciting and secretive discoveries in history - Tutankhamun's tomb. As a researcher for a documentary grills Lucy for information, she discovers that she can no longer hide from the ghosts of her past. It is time to come clean about the secrets from the Valley of the Kings and her own life.

The discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb was a sensation in the 1920s. Archaeologist Howard Carter, with the assistance of his benefactor Lord Carnarvon, had been searching for the tomb for years. When he finally discovers it, one of the first media frenzies descends on Egypt as journalists race to break the news first. After the tomb had been opened, there were allegations that Carter had opened it earlier and perhaps taken treasures from it. The research that went into writing this novel is abundantly clear, even before the large bibliography at the end of the book. Ms. Beauman brings Egypt to life with dazzling precision as we see it for the first time through Lucy's childish and sometimes naive eyes. 

The Visitors is marketed as a story of Egypt and archaeological discoveries, which is true. But it is so much more than that. Beauman captures beautifully the uncertainty of a child in a world of grownups - their desire to know all of the secrets and the knowledge that the things adults say are not always what they mean. We are also privy to a beautifully nuanced elderly Lucy. Here is a woman who has experienced war and peace, life with people she loved and agony when they die, the chilly drawing rooms of England and the hot sun of Egypt. She is surrounded by memories and her reminiscing made me think of Iris Chase of The Blind Assassin and Vida Winter from The Thirteenth Tale.

This book does so many things within the same story. Beauman has written a lovely coming of age story as Lucy searches for people to love and trust. It's a thrilling adventure tale as we search for hidden treasure with famous archaeologists. But it might truly be a ghost story, as Lucy finds herself surrounded by the memories of people she loved and lost and the decisions that she made. The Visitors is the kind of book you can truly immerse yourself in as you marvel at the pyramids and determine exactly what happened at Tutankhamun's tomb. 

Review: The Virtues of Oxygen

The Virtues of Oxygen

By Susan Schoenberger

Lake Union Publishing July 2014

229 pages

Received for review from TLC Book Tours and the publisher

Holly is at the end of her rope. She desperately misses her husband who died several years ago. Her teen sons are constantly hungry and constantly growing. Her small town newspaper is faltering and Holly fears that she doesn't have the funds anymore for her family to keep their beloved home. Across town, Vivian has a different set of worries. As a child, she contracted polio and has spent the rest of her life living in an iron lung. She must depend on the kindness of her friends and neighbors to keep her alive. Can the two women find a way to help each other?

This book is somewhat lighter fare than I usually read. We have the small town setting with a colorful cast of characters. We meet many quirky citizens who volunteer to help Vivian or work at the newspaper with Holly. Some of the plot points are rather predictable. When a handsome and mysterious man arrives in town, the reader assumes (and rightly so) that Racine will become a love interest for Holly. You may also put together the ways in which Holly and Vivian will be able to help each other, even before they do. 

In spite of this, this is a greatly enjoyable book. It's so refreshing to read about regular people with regular problems, both personal and financial. There are so many stories out here about the crises of the wealthy (I'm thinking specifically of recent reads such as We Were Liars and Seating Arrangements). But I think there is something important about a story that is more familiar to many of us - worrying about finances, rearranging to make the ends meet, and either helping or being helped out by our families. 

While the main storyline follows Vivian and Holly in the future, we learn about Vivian's past through flashbacks and through the podcasts that she records. Vivian has such an interesting story to share with her neighbors and with us. In spite of her physical limitations, she decided to do big things. Vivian was one of the first people in town to learn about and own a computer. She used her computer skills to teach others and earn her degree in business. Her know-how allows her to invest in businesses which gives her renewed purpose and brings new life to her beloved but floundering town.

This book is a quiet but important read as we are reminded of the importance of taking care of each other. Holly and Vivian are characters you root for as they fight for their relationships, for financial stability, and sometimes just for the next breath.  The Virtues of Oxygen is an uplifting read about the importance of community.

Wondering what other bloggers think about The Virtues of Oxygen? You can visit 23 other tour stops here!

Giveaway: I have one copy of The Virtues of Oxygen to give away to one awesome reader. To enter, leave me a comment on this post and include your email address. I will choose a winner two weeks from now (August 18).

It's Monday and we are back from soccer camp!

Hey guys and gals! How was your week??

David was at soccer camp this week and I think he had fun. I also think he is glad to be done with it! Our family had a bit of fun after everyone left and held an impromptu family soccer match. The hubby is on vacation this week so we will be celebrating our anniversary before heading off for my cousin's wedding this weekend.

David is the one sitting on the field. I think he was done for the day!

I'm really happy I finished three books this week. I really need to read quickly because I have a giant stack of library books and ARCs and they are all giving me the evil eye...


Read This Week:

The Lost
By Sarah Beth Durst


Veronica Mars: The Thousand Dollar Tan Line
By Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham



All the Light We Cannot See
By Anthony Doerr


Posts from this Past Week:
It's Monday
Reviews of 100 Blessings and Lost for Words
July Wrap-Up


Reading Now:

The Magician's Land
By Lev Grossman


Up Next:

Landline
By Rainbow Rowell


What are you reading this week?

July Wrap-Up

Books reviewed in July: 9
Pages read: 3,202
Fiction/Non-fiction: 7/2
Female authors/male authors: 6/3
My books/library books/books for review:  0/6/3
Most-read July review: The Quick by Lauren Owen
Favorite July read: Frog Music by Emma Donoghue 

What was the best book you read in July?