serinde4books's reviews
937 reviews

This was a book that my book club won through book movement. It is the memoir of Monica Parker, apparently a famous writer and actress in Hollywood that I have never heard of and I did't recognize her picture not the back cover either. This is her story of her struggle with her weight and her need to be accepted and loved. She is born in Scotland and moves to Canada during childhood, somehow she becomes involved in a Canadian Fitness show, although she is overweight, or as she puts it fat. She meets the love of her life in Canada, then after her parents death she decides to move to Hollywood. Why, she is already struggling with her self esteem and body issues, and she move to the most superficial place on earth and seems surprised that it causes more complexes. At some point she comes to accept that she is a fat woman in a thin society, after a meal in complete darkness of all things.
I didn't get this book. It was supposed to be super funny, and it wasn't. I mean I got a few chuckles, but nothing to write home about. Monica didn't really seem to learn to love herself, at the end of the book she is still struggling and still trying to loose weight, just not on a fad diet anymore. I think I missed the point entirely. I struggle with body issues, I have gained weight after my children were born that hasn't gone away. I am lazy though, and I haven't really tried to loose the weight. I suspect if I actually attempted and ran into a wall I would be more sympathetic to her. She never joined a gym, and the one time she used a personal trainer she decided it was too hard and fired her. I understand struggling to love your body, but it never seemed that Monica did learn to love herself.
For additional reviews please see my blog at www.adventuresofabibliophile.blogspot.com

This was a quick filler book for in between book club books. It was a free book on my Kindle that I had downloaded ages ago and not gotten around to reading before now.
Recently widowed private detective Shep Hartigate is hired by a pulp fiction writer Smartie Breedlove to find out who’s killing the exes of Texas, including Smartie’s best friend, Charma Bovet.
This was really good, I love the idea of an author trying to solve a mystery, while writing her next book, and elements of her real life leaking into her fantasy life, until the two are parallel.
This was an easy light read, with fun characters, and it poked fun at writers not letting them take themselves too seriously. I would read more in this series, in fact I think I should check now to see if there are more.
For additional reviews please see my blog at www.adventuresofabibliophile.blogspot.com

Book Club read, was nervous going in sounded like another depressing read.
This is a memoir about growing up poor and undaunted in the South. Barbara Robinette Moss chronicles her family's chaotic, impoverished survival in the red-clay hills of Alabama. A wild-eyed, alcoholic father and a humble, heroic mother along with a shanty full of rambunctious brothers and sisters fill her life to the brim with stories that are gripping, tender, and funny.
Moss's early fascination with art coincides with her desire to transform her "twisted mummy face," which grew askew due to malnutrition and lack of medical care. Gazing at the stars on a clear Alabama night, she wishes to be the "goddess of beauty, much-loved daughter of Zeus."
I had a hard time with this time flow in this book, it seemed really slow at first, then we suddenly had skipped high school and she was a single mom. WTF? Then the fixing of her face was in the epilogue, not in the story itself? It happened during the fast forward part, it was confusing. I'm not sure what the point was, I mean there was no conclusion, she just stopped writing. I had a ton of unanswered questions when I was done reading. Did she confront her Mom about why did she stay with her Dad? Did she ever find or confront her parents about Mary Louise? Why was Janet so sheltered?
For additional reviews please see my blog at www.adventuresofabibliophile.blogspot.com

When Libby Day was 7 years old she lost her entire family, her sisters and mother were brutally murdered, and her 15 year old brother was convicted of the crime. For the next 24 years she has been living off charity and generally has not moved past her 7 year old self. Then she comes in contact with a group that is convinced her brother is innocent and makes Libby start to question everything she thought she knew about that night. Everybody involved had a secret that 7 year olds were not included in. If her brother did not kill his family, who did?
This is the second Gillian Flynn book I have read. I read Gone Girl in June of 2014. I have become a fan. She takes us down such an unexpected rabbit hole with her stories. The twists of this book wasn't as shocking as in Gone Girl, but it still wasn't easily predictable. I was a bit disappointed in the ending. I felt that it all tied up a little to neatly, I wanted more left undone. It seemed pretty neat compared to Gone Girl. I still flew through the book, 3 days to read. It was really hard to put down, and I kept staying up past my bedtime to read "one more chapter." Flynn's writing is so smooth and conversational that it felt more like I was listening to a friend talk than reading a book. I need to get her book Sharp Objects because I have a feeling history will repeat itself and I will love it!
For additional reviews please see my blog at www.adventuresofabibliophile.blogspot.com

So because I loved Gone Girl and Dark places so much, I just had to read Sharp Objects and I am so glad I did. It was true to Gillian's MO, it was great! The ending wasn't as twisty as I thought, I had the killer figured out, but the murders didn't happen in a way I expected.
The protagonist in this book is a mentally unstable journalist (she is a cutter) and she is sent back to her home town to investigate murders of young girls. She must stay with and get to know her dysfunctional family, including her never met little sister Amma. Sadly this trip home brings up new facts and memories regarding her dead sister.
I really like Flynn's writing, she draws you in with these dysfunctional and potentially unlikable characters, but yet you keep returning because you NEED to know what happened.
For additional reviews please see my blog at www.adventuresofabibliophile.blogspot.com

Based on the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast. Our heroine Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom since birth. Her entire life has been training to kill him once they are wed. Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. But Nyx puts duty first and as a good little sacrificial lamb she married the immortal Ignifex on her seventeenth birthday. Although not blindly, she has a plan. Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the curse he put on her people. But neither Ignifex or the curse is what Nyx expected. She finds that the story she knew was not the whole story, and despite herself she begins to love her husband.
I had a hard time putting this one down once I started reading it. The writing is simple and beautiful. There is a lot of Greek/Roman lore woven into the story that made me do a little happy dance. The story felt very familiar, but then again Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorite fairytales, so the story wasn't that new. But the details were rich and gave it a fresh breathe. I really loved that Nyx was conflicted and not always a nice person, but then again being raised the way she was how could she not have some self image issues?
For additional reviews please see my blog at www.adventuresofabibliophile.blogspot.com

This is the next series in BOTM. Meet Ben Holiday, a trial lawyer from Chicago, grieving the loss of his wife and unborn child in a car accident. He finds an advertisement in an upscale Christmas catalog claiming to offer a magical kingdom for one million dollars by a man named Mr. Meeks. Although skeptical, Ben pursues the offer out of a desperate need to start a new life. Ben receives a magical medallion and is transported through a swirling mist to the kingdom of Landover. Unfortunately, he finds it not exactly as described.
This is my favorite type of book, lightweight fantasy with sarcastic and a bit self-depreciating humor. I can't believe I have missed this series before now. I am liking how easy this read is, nothing heavy and maybe I'm not laughing out loud, but I have absolutely caught my self snorting now and then. I think the simplicity of the story is what is so great, this was written in 1986, so I'm not sure if it is a landmark in the genre, but it wasn't a common style then either, at least as far as I know. This is light with humor, not a real thinker but something to go hey I feel like reading, and I don't want to be a better person when I'm done, but I want to enjoy it. Even if my book club doesn't read the rest of the series I will.
For additional reviews please see my blog at www.adventuresofabibliophile.blogspot.com

In the opening scenes of the book we see Hollywood star, Arthur Leander, having a heart attack while on stage during a production of King Lear. Jeevan Chaudhary, a paparazzo-turned-EMT, Jumps onstage and performs CPR and tries to save Arthur. As Jeevan walks home from the theater, a terrible flu begins to spread. Hospitals are flooded and Jeevan and his brother barricade themselves inside an apartment, watching out the window as life as we know it disintegrates around them.
Kirsten Raymonde, a child actress, watches as Jeevan tries to save Arthur. Fifteen years later, Kirsten is an actress with the Traveling Symphony, a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity. Together, this small troupe moves between the settlements of an altered world, performing Shakespeare and music for scattered communities of survivors. Written on their caravan, and tattooed on Kirsten's arm is a line from Star Trek: "Because survival is insufficient." But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who digs graves for anyone who leaves. And the search for troupe members left behind ensues.

The book is told from multiple points of view, separate stories and separate times that all weave together in a way that doesn't come together until the very end. The magical way a single person can have so much impact, reminds me of the old story about dropping a pebble in a pond and the ripples created are countless. We had alot of debate in BOTM as to who the main character of the book truly was. I know who I feel, but if I shared that would take away some of the magic of this story. Some of the characters were flawed, but it made them more real in my mind. The writing was smooth, and moved the story along at a really nice pace. I really liked this book, I am glad I bought it rather than just checking out from the library. I will want to re-read for sure. I think a stormy winter night by the fireplace will be perfect for that.
For additional reviews please see my blog at www.adventuresofabibliophile.blogspot.com