MRS by Noa Grey

Title: MRS
Author: Noa Grey
Publication Date: August 16, 2016
Length: 271 pages

After advice columnist Hope Jackson dies, women everywhere are struggling to figure out their relationship and life problems without her guidance. MRS tells the stories of three such women: Mims, whose daughter died of suicide and whose husband has been distant ever since; Rory, who just lost her job and her boyfriend in the same day; and Sarah, whose husband is in jail and whose kids seem to hate her.

Each of these women goes through huge changes over the course of the book, rediscovering themselves as they search for solutions to their problems. I really enjoyed the hope and optimism in this story; even as bad things happen to the characters they seem to be constanting growing and moving towards achieving happiness in their lives.

I was expecting the characters' lives to be a little more intertwined, based on the summary (which actually uses the phrase "intertwined lives"). They actually don't even know each other, though they each have indirect connections to each other through mutual friends, and the ending does tie them together a bit more. It was really almost like reading three separate stories and jumping between them. However, I did like reading each of the stories involved, and really felt for Mims, Rory, and Sarah.

4 stars.

Full disclosure: I received a free copy of this ebook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The First Rule of Swimming by Courtney Angela Brkic

Title: The First Rule of Swimming
Author: Courtney Angela Brkic
Publication Date: May 28, 2013
Length: 336 pages

The First Rule of Swimming follows several members of a Croatian family across the world. Jadranka has disappeared after moving to America, and her sister Magdalena starts to worry. Finally, Magdalena leaves her island home and sets off for New York to track down her sister.

I really wish I'd known more (read: anything) about Croatian history before reading this book. I learned some along the way, from the story itself and from looking things up on Wikipedia when I was confused, but I feel like a more in-depth knowledge would have added a lot to my experience.

This is a rich story in so many ways. The various family members and their relationships are so complex, from the deep connection but huge differences between Magdalena and Jadranka, to their American cousin Caterina's spoiled life and jealousy of Jadranka's art. I would have liked to see more from Jadranka's point of view, since mostly all we see from her perspective is the part where she makes really terrible decisions, making me shake my head at her in disbelief. I feel like at other parts in the story she would have been a really interesting mind to be inside. But at the same time, seeing her through her very different sister's eyes also creates an interesting dynamic.

4 stars.

Full disclosure: Free ebook copy received from the publisher through NetGalley.

The Living Room by Bill Rolfe

Title: The Living Room
Author: Bill Rolfe
Publication Date: June 2012
Length: about 155 pages (ebook)

Daniel Clay is a successful businessman, who has everything in life, except family. His boss tells him he needs to make time to meet someone, so when he finds out he's inherited a house in England, it's the perfect chance for him to take a long-overdue vacation. Once there, he meets a pediatric nurse who cares for dying children, and she arranges for children who are close to death to stay in a beautiful room in his house, which she says will make the children feel alive. When Daniel has trouble dealing with the children dying, he prays for a miracle. He gets it, but at a price.

When I heard that this book came to the author in a dream, it made me nervous. And when I realised the book was about miracles, I was even more apprehensive. But this book won me over with the pure emotion of it. It made me cry, and that wins a book points from me.

The Living Room is not really an easy story to read. Children die in it, which is always tough to read about. But I think it was handled really well in this case. You really get to see the pain experienced by those who grow close to the child near the end, but without feeling totally depressed. Because ultimately, this story is filled with hope. When some of the children miraculously get better, and even when the children are sick but get to experience some moments of true happiness, this story is anything but a downer.

5 stars.

Full disclosure: Free ebook copy received from the author.

Dented Cans by Heather Walsh

Title: Dented Cans
Author: Heather Walsh
Publication Date: November 2, 2012
Length: about 150 pages (ebook)

Dented Cans is the story of a weird family and their trip to Disney World. Actually, it's mostly the parents that are weird. Hannah's dad collects dented cans, especially the kind that are missing labels, so they're marked down really cheap because their contents are a mystery. Her mom is just absurdly overprotective.

My main complaint with this book is that not a lot really happened. I guess it's one of those get-to-know-the-characters books, rather than being really plot-driven. It all sort of leads up to an explanation of the family's weirdness, but I found that it didn't really explain very much.

On the other hand, the writing is very enjoyable. I laughed out loud a lot, and there are some good quotables. Also, Ben, Hannah's youngest brother, is a neat character. He's an 8 year old kid, but he doesn't act like one, making funny noises all the time. He might have some sort of disability, but his parents get mad at anyone who tries to suggest that, so they don't really know. He's the most likable character in the book. (Sidenote: I could have done without the whole he's-so-cute-because-he's-blonde-in-a-family-of-brunettes thing.)

So, the writing is good enough that I'll probably check out future books by this author, but the story didn't do much for me.

3 stars.

Full disclosure: Free ebook copy received from the author.

The Journey by John A. Heldt

Title: The Journey
Author: John A. Heldt
Publication Date: November 3, 2012
Length: about 242 pages (ebook)

The Journey is part of the same series as The Mine, but it has different characters. This one stars a 48 year old woman named Michelle. Her husband has just died, and she's starting to regret some of her life decisions. She goes to her high school reunion, a she and some old friends decide to take a tour of an abandoned house, where a family disappeared back in their high school days. Michelle enters a mysterious room, and comes out in 1979.

For the first few chapters of this book, I worried a bit that it might just be a rehashing of The Mine. But very soon, my worries faded away. While similar in style and topic, The Journey is a very different story. For one thing, Michelle only goes back in time 31 years. She sees herself as a high school student, her parents and best friend still living. Her concerns about changing the course of history are very real; she can change her own life.

And unlike Joel, who tried not to change things, Michelle jumps right in, trying to make a difference in people's lives, including her own. She's a great character. (And yay for older female characters doing cool things!!)

Parts of this book are also told from the point of view of the younger Michelle (Shelly). That adds an interesting perspective, as Shelly gets to know Michelle, the mysterious woman with whom she seems to have so much in common.

The Journey is a beautiful story about a woman who has a lot of regrets about the way she's lived her life, and is presented with an opportunity to go back and make better choices for herself. It's a great feel-good story.

5 stars.

Full disclosure: Free ebook copy received from the author.

Twelve Months by Steven Manchester

Title: Twelve Months
Author: Steven Manchester
Publication Date: August 14, 2012
Length: 323 pages

When Don DiMarco finds out that he is dying of cancer, and only has an estimated twelve months to live, he decides to spend his remaining days accomplishing things he's always dreamed of doing, and spending time with his loved ones, rather than undergoing painful treatments in a futile effort to prolong his life.

The premise is great. I was expecting something like the movie The Bucket List, wherein two terminally ill men, played by Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, set out to do the things they want to do before they kick the bucket. Their list included things like skydiving, and riding motorcycles on the Great Wall of China. I love that movie.

Unfortunately, Don DiMarco's list is made up of things like driving a racing car, and getting a story published in a newspaper. So, while I appreciated that there was a bit more focus on spending time with his wife, daughter, and grandchildren than on the less important things in life, the result was not terribly exciting to read. Also, since Don seemed to already be a pretty good guy who spent time with his family before finding out he was dying, there wasn't the contrast you expect in this sort of story, where the main character learns a life lesson, and grows to appreciate the important things.

The other issue I had was the first chapter. It takes place in the present, before the story goes back in time to when Don finds out he's dying. In it, he is alive, and enjoying life like he never did before. It apparently takes place after the twelve months chronicled in the rest of the book. This seemed fine at the time, until I got to the end of the book and it became clear that the first chapter never happened. I'm not sure what the purpose of this was, but it left me feeling like I'd been tricked. Like the chapter is just there to throw you off.

2 stars. A moving story, that did make me shed a few tears, but I'm underwhelmed.

Full disclosure: Free copy received from the author.

Confessions of a Teenage Hermaphrodite by Lianne Simon

Title: Confessions of a Teenage Hermaphrodite
Author: Lianne Simon
Publication Date: September 18, 2012
Length: 234 pages

Confessions of a Teenage Hermaphrodite is the story of an intersex person named Jamie (Jameson), whose parents didn't get her gender right. When she was young, a doctor told her parents she should have been raised a boy, so that's what her parents tried to do. But Jamie was just pretending to be a boy, knowing all along that she was a girl (or, as she says, an elfin princess).

The story takes place in the 60s, which was actually the one thing I didn't like about it. I feel like setting it in the 60s makes it too easy to think this story couldn't happen now. All the characters are extremely sexist and homophobic, because it's the 60s, so someone reading this might think that nowadays things aren't so bad, when in reality there are still many obstacles for intersex children, including parents who refuse to respect the child's gender identity. I'm sure the author knows this is still a problem; I just worry that readers might not. So I feel like setting it in the present would have given the story a bit more power.

That being said, this is one powerful story. I spent half the time I was reading it in tears. Mostly angry tears. Jamie's father, in particular, made me really mad. Every time he broke Jamie's heart by being disappointed with her, I just wanted to slap him. He actually gives Jamie a list of "things boys do", saying that once she's done the things on the list, if she still thinks she's a girl, he'll consider bringing her to see another doctor.

Thankfully, Jamie also encounters supportive, accepting people, who encourage her to embrace her true gender rather than trying to please her parents. (Sidenote: I don't know if this is just how people were in the 60s, but Jamie cares WAY too much about what her parents think. If they were my parents, I would have been long gone.)

I'm not sure I've done it justice, but trust me when I say that you should read this book. It's a moving, powerful story, and you might just learn a thing or two while you're reading it.

4 stars.

Full disclosure: Free copy received from the author.

Claws by Will Weaver

Title: Claws
Author: Will Weaver
Publication Date: 2003
Length: 232 pages

Warning: This book was so awful that I need to include spoilers, in order to walk you through the horribleness. Trust me, you don't want to read the book anyway.

At the beginning of this story, Jed's life is going well. He's got a girlfriend (who apparently has a lot of qualities Jed doesn't like, but whose body makes up for it; yes, sadly, I'm serious), he made the tennis team, and his dad's letting him drive the fancy car. Yay. But then, a "punk chick" with pink hair comes along! She tells Jed that his dad is sleeping with her mom, and he'd better stop it or she'll go public with the knowledge!

By this point, I already hated the book, but decided to finish it because it was really short so I wouldn't be wasting too much time. Plus, finishing it would give me more material for my scathing review! So, by this point in the book, Jed has already established himself as all the bad qualities of teenage boys without any of the good ones. He's demonstrated that he doesn't know the difference between punk and goth (he refers to Gertrude as both). And overall I just don't like him at all.

Moving on. Jed and Gertrude email back and forth a bit, and she sends him increasingly scandalous pictures of his dad and her mom together. Then, suddenly, she uses a semicolon. Jed thinks to himself, wait! Punk chicks don't know stuff about punctuation!

So, the next time they meet up, he follows her. And while she's driving, she takes off her wig! Jed keeps following her to a nearby small town, where he sees her get out of her car, and she's not a punk chick at all; she's just a normal girl! (He knew, of course, because of the semicolon.)

So, continuing on, Jed confronts his father about the cheating, and his parents break up. Jed grows closer with Laura (Gertrude was just her punk name), due to their shared sadness. They start to get the feels for each other.

Then, Laura's little sister runs away, via kayak, to Canada. Jed and Laura go after her, catch up to her, and the three of them camp out on the riverbank to wait out a big storm. During the night, the storm gets bad, and trees start falling down. While trying to rescue her sister, Laura gets crushed by a tree. Now, if you're going to kill of a character, this would be an ok time to do it. But Laura doesn't die; her legs are crushed, but they call a rescue helicopter and it comes and they get her out and take her away. But then, suddenly all is silent! The helicopter has stopped working! The doctor that's with them says something along the lines of "oh no, god no!", which had me giggling inappropriately. The helicopter falls into the river, and Laura is dead.

I'm sorry, but what? What a weird way to kill of a character. How often do helicopters fall out of the sky?

The rest of the book is basically Jed being all sad, and playing a game that's like the SIMS. The family he's created is not doing so well, but gradually he starts to improve their lives; this seems to be some kind of metaphor for his own life, I guess? Anyway, then he cries some more and finally says that he loved Laura, and cries a bit more, and the end.

1 star. (And that's on the Goodreads scale, which doesn't even have a 0 star option.) This book was at times actually painful to read.

This book counts towards the Mount TBR Reading Challenge.

What I Didn't Say by Keary Taylor

Title: What I Didn't Say
Author: Keary Taylor
Publication Date: May 11, 2012
Length: 307 pages

Jake has never worked up the nerve to tell Sam that he loves her, at least until he's drunk at a party, and his friends convince him to go and finally tell her how he feels. Unfortunately, the friend driving the car is also drunk, and they soon find themselves rolling off a cliff. Jake ends up with a t-post through his throat, which rips out his vocal chords. Now he has to deal with the major life change of becoming mute, and the fact that he'll never be able to "say" what he wanted to say to Sam. Meanwhile, Sam's dealing with some serious crap of her own, but they could each be exactly what the other needs to get through this year.

This book had some serious tears welling up in my eyes. It's so sweet and romantic, which I don't always like, but in this case it was done just right. The main characters are both really likable. While Jake occasionally gets a little whiny, I can't really blame him, given the circumstances, and it never reaches the point where it's annoying. And the way feelings develop between Jake and Sam is so perfect. They've already known each other for years at the start of the book, so there's no instalove going on. I feel like it was really realistic, because they're both going through hard times, and they support each other, but they're not unrealistically selfless, as characters can so often be. They felt real to me.

There were enough little twists and turns in the plot to keep it interesting for me, which I appreciate, since straight up romance isn't generally my thing. Overall, it's a good YA read. Very sweet.

4 stars.

Full disclosure: Free e-book copy received from the publisher through NetGalley.

The Marrying Kind by Ken O'Neill

Title: The Marrying Kind
Author: Ken O'Neill
Publication Date: June 19, 2012
Length: 264 pages

Steven Worth is a writer for The Gay New York Times, and his partner Adam More is a very successful wedding planner. As Adam sinks into depression as a result of planning other people's weddings when he himself cannot legally get married, Steven suffers a minor breakdown when he is named only as "and guest" on a wedding invitation. As a result, they (well, mostly Adam) decide to boycott weddings as a protest against inequality, and through Steven's column this boycott grows to include many of the gay florists, chefs, etc. But will their resolve remain when their own siblings decide to get married? (That's right, I just ended my summary with a question mark. Deal with it.)

Overall this was an enjoyable read. I liked Steven better than Adam. Adam is charming, but through most of the story I found him a bit heartless. He's so devoted to the cause, which is awesome, but I felt much more on the side of Steven, who was always torn, wanted to support his brother, and didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. Maybe that just means I'm not a very good activist.

Even though I found Adam a bit overwhelming, this was an inspiring story of two men who start a movement. Whether or not their efforts would actually lead to laws being changed, such activism gives hope to everyone involved. The Marrying Kind is a humourous look at a totally unfunny issue in the US today, and while progress has been made since the book was written, it still couldn't be more timely.

I'm so glad I live in Canada where I can attend weddings (and get married myself!) guilt-free, because everyone has that same privilege.

4 stars.

Full disclosure: Free e-book copy received from the publisher through NetGalley.

Running in Bed by Jeffrey Sharlach

Title: Running in Bed
Author: Jeffrey Sharlach
Publication Date: May 5, 2012
Length: 291 pages

Running in Bed tells the story of a gay man living in New York City in the 70s. This was definitely a promising premise, as that was a setting in which the gay pride movement was really gaining momentum, but HIV/AIDS was also appearing. The story follows Josh, a successful young advertising exec, as he comes to accept himself as a gay man, and tries to find his Prince Charming. He becomes rather obsessed (in quite an unhealthy way, I think) with a guy named Tommy, seemingly just from seeing him once at the beach.

What I liked: Seeing the major events in the gay community unfold from the point of view of someone who was living through them, and therefore not realising how historically significant they would be, was really interesting. I learned a lot about the history of AIDS (like that it was originally known as GRID: Gay Related Immune Deficiency. Can you imagine?).

What I didn't care for: The book reads like a diary. There were major events in the story, and in between were long stretches of Josh going out to the bar, Josh pining over Tommy and wishing Tommy would call (also an element I didn't care for), Josh hanging out at Fire Island, and in general just Josh going about his daily life. So, it was a bit slow. And I spent a lot of time wishing that Josh would find a guy who was nice and would actually give a rat's butt about him.

3 stars.

Full disclosure: Free e-book copy received from the publisher through NetGalley.

The Whipping Club by Deborah Henry

Title: The Whipping Club
Author: Deborah Henry
Publication Date: March 1, 2012
Length: 334 pages

The main character in the Whipping Club, Marian, is a Catholic woman in 1950s Ireland, who gets pregnant before she's married. Her uncle, a priest, convinces her to go to a home where she will carry the baby to term in secrecy, give birth, and give the child away for adoption, hopefully to a nice American home. She agrees to this, even though she's engaged to the Jewish man who impregnated her. After this horrific time in her life, she marries Ben, they have another child, and life goes on, but she never gets over the pain of losing her son, Adrian. When it comes to light that he was not sent to America because he was half-Jewish, and was instead sent to an orphanage in Ireland, Marian and Ben try to get back custody of Adrian. Much pain and suffering ensues.

I really wanted to like this book. It sounded so good, and the reviews I read of it were stellar. Everyone talked about how powerful the story is, and how moving. So, I'm not going to say objectively that this is a bad book, because obviously a lot of people loved it. But I did not like this book.

Through pretty much the whole thing, I had no clue where the plot was going. It meanders about, changing points of view, having the occasional flashback (with no change in voice or anything to let you know that you're now reading about the past). You don't actually see the "whipping club" until approximately 2/3 of the way through the book. I assumed the orphanage was the whipping club, but nope. Just a huge pile of lead up to the actual plot. And some of the points of view didn't really seem to add a whole lot to the story. Take Nurse, for example. First of all, I feel like I don't know this character at all, despite the fact that she does a decent amount of narrating. She might be mentally ill, or maybe just disturbed from working in a horrible orphanage. Some of the things she says and does make no sense, but not even really in a consistent way, and while her story is interesting, it's not really fleshed out, so it's pretty much just a tangent.

As for the horrific subject matter: I already knew that there was abuse in Catholic orphanages. So just telling me that doesn't really impress me. I didn't feel like there was much oomph put into it. Just telling me that a boy has a swollen face from being beaten doesn't make me feel anything more than I would just reading an article on the subject. So I don't really know where people are getting this impression that the book is hard to read because of how powerful it is.

The writing is all right. Like I said, my main complaint was the lack of signal that we're changing times of points of view, which made reading confusing at times. But there's also the occasional line that makes me groan. I kid you not, an angry man was described as being "filled with poisonous venom". Umm, ok. By definition, a poison is something you ingest, and a venom is something that's injected into you, often by a bite. Venom cannot be poisonous. I know this is, like, metaphorical and stuff, but still. Even if venom and poison were the same thing, this phrase would be redundant, so I still wouldn't like it.

1 star. Obviously, judging by other reviews, your mileage may vary.

Full disclosure: Free e-book copy received from the publisher through NetGalley.

The Book of Lost Fragrances by M.J. Rose

Title: The Book of Lost Fragrances: A Novel of Perfume
Author: M.J. Rose
Publication Date: March 13, 2012
Length: 416 pages

The L'Etoile family has been making fine perfumes for generations. Jac L'Etoile, who is gifted with a naturally powerful sense of smell, left the business after her mother committed suicide in the perfume workshop when Jac was young, leaving her brother Robbie to inherit the family business. But now Robbie is sure he's discovered the perfume their ancestor claims to have found centures ago: a scent that causes people to remember their past lives. And between Tibetan monks, Chinese mafia, and scientific researchers of reincarnation, everyone wants to get their hands on this secret.

This book really had me wondering what was going to happen next. It's constantly flipping between different points of view, making you care for just about everyone involved, even though it's pretty obvious who you should be cheering for (umm, unless you are a communist in China who hates Buddhists; then you might see this book from a different point of view). I loved seeing how the different characters from all over the world came together as the story progressed.

There was one side story in the book that I found particularly interesting, and that it turns out is actually based in fact. Of course I already knew about the persecution of Tibetan Buddhists by communist China, but what I did not know was that China put in place a requirement for people to register to be reincarnated ('cause that makes sense...). This law was created to prevent reincarnated Lamas from being identified, thus depriving Tibet of its spiritual leaders. One of the characters in this story is a reincarnated Lama who was kidnapped by the government as a child to prevent him from growing up and helping to identify the next Dalai Lama. Really interesting!

I'm really fascinated by people who are trained to identify smells. When I went to Paris in high school, we toured a perfume factory, and they had us smell all these different scents and write down what we thought they were. I failed horribly. Even if something smelled familiar, I couldn't place it, and after smelling a few difference scents, my nose lost the ability to smell much of anything at all. So I loved the descriptions of all the different things Jac's nose was picking up, that other people didn't notice.

The Book of Lost Fragrances comes out on March 13, and I definitely recommend you check it out.

Full disclosure: Free e-book copy received from the publisher through NetGalley.