Jolissa

Mysteries and suspense novels aren't usually my favorite thing to read, but after reading Lisa Jewell's The Girls in the Garden back in 2016, I knew I wanted to read her new release, Then She Was Gone. I was hearing about it absolutely everywhere and it had great reviews on Goodreads, so I just had to read it. It was definitely more thrilling/suspenseful than The Girls in the Garden was, but I'm starting to get more into books like that, and I think this was a great one to work on that with.

First of all, I read Then She Was Gone in two days, so it's clear that I didn't want to put it down. It definitely held my attention and kept me wanting to know what comes next, which I think is an indication of a good suspense novel!

For my full review, visit http://www.literaryquicksand.com/2018/06/review-then-she-was-gone/

Bel Canto is a story about love, mostly. Love, music, language, terrorism, friendship – the book definitely doesn't fail to deliver on those themes.

Set in South America, the story (based on a true story) begins when a large roomful of mostly affluent bureaucrats and CEO's are taken hostage by terrorists during a beautiful soprano opera performance by the book's female lead, Roxanne Coss. From there, the story stays in that same setting. The hostages end up being held captive for over 4 months! During that time, relationships are formed between hostages and terrorists, friendships grow, romances flourish.

It's going to be very difficult to review this book without giving away the ending, but I'm going to try valiantly!

I have to admit, I was a little disappointed by this book. I had read and heard a lot of good things about it, so my expectations were high. There were definitely good parts! I enjoyed many passages about love and language and music. Patchett really has a flourish for colorful language on those subjects! For instance, here's a passage about music I particularly enjoyed:

“How strange his fingers felt after two weeks of not playing, as if the skin he wore now was entirely new. He could hear the softest click of his fingernails, two weeks too long, as he touched the keys. The felt-covered hammers tapped the strings gently at first, and the music, even for those who had never heard the piece before, was like a memory. From all over the house, terrorist and hostage alike turned and listened and felt a great easing in their chests....Had the accompanist played so well? It would have been impossible to remember, his talent was to be invisible, to life the soprano up, but now the people in the living room of the vice-presidential mansion listened to Kato with hunger and nothing in their lives had ever fed them so well.”

Isn't that beautiful? It's passages like that one that saved this book for me. Because of how well-written it is and how beautiful the language is, I have to give it 3 stars.

Read the rest of this review here: http://www.literaryquicksand.com/2016/02/review-bel-canto-by-ann-patchett/

I've read reviews by those who thought that Cheryl Strayed was just a silly young woman who decided to hike the PCT with no experience and received special treatment on the trail because she was a young woman, hiking alone.

To all of those people, I have to respectfully disagree. If that's what you think about this book, I think maybe you haven't been through something as profoundly life-changing as suddenly losing someone in your life who's extremely important to your own identity.

I identified with Cheryl so completely - it felt like she was saying exactly what I feel. I lost my mom suddenly and unexpectedly in 2014, when I was 27 years old and she was only 54. Then, in January of this year, I lost my unborn son, Jonah, to a heart condition. He was stillborn.

Finding yourself and re-learning who you are after something so life-altering is a huge, difficult experience. You know you've changed...you're hardened by life's hardships. You know this, but you don't know HOW you've changed. It's like going through adolescence all over again, awkwardly figuring out who you are, what you want from life, what's important to you, and what you believe.

Wild is an amazing and truthful account of struggling with that finding of yourself, and of going on a journey to do so. My heart, broken and changed by my losses, felt a kinship with Cheryl as she navigated the trail, her thoughts, and her (new) life.

I recommend this book for anyone who's experienced a momentous change in your life - one that makes you feel like you're no longer you. I don't often give books 5 stars, but this one, I had to. I'm in love with Cheryl Strayed, now, and I can't wait to read more of her books.

This was my second experience with Neil Gaiman. However, my first experience wasn't finished (oops) – my husband and I were listening to Anansi Boys on a car trip, and didn't end up finishing when we got home. It was such an enthralling story, it kept our attention for hours in the car. So, I thought that this book would do more of the same for me.

American Gods, though, was a hard read for me. It's undeniably a fantastic, fantasticAL story, written with amazing attention to detail, beautiful turns of phrase and just overall impeccable creativity. If I was more of a fantasy story lover, I know I would have enjoyed this book. I did enjoy parts of it – I definitely got sucked in several times. It's just so out of my wheelhouse, though, that I had a hard time getting through the whole thing.

In a nutshell, the story is about gods living in America. Yes, we're talking Odin, Loki, and all the rest. However, these “old” gods are in a strange battle with the “new” gods that Americans worship, such as Media, World, and Time. (If you like to read books in an English major sort of way, enjoying the themes, you'll love dissecting this one.) Our main character, Shadow, leaves prison to find he gets sucked into a crazy world of gods and battles and craziness.

It's long. It's really long. I don't think I would cut anything out of it, because it all makes sense for the story, but I just had a hard time making it through. Many of the chapters were super long, too – luckily, there are breaks to stop at, but I don't often stop reading in the middle of a chapter, so I felt compelled to keep going, even when I felt like stopping because my attention was waning.

I also got a little confused about all the characters in this book – there are many of them, and they have some pretty strange names. I had a hard time keeping a lot of them straight. Perhaps it's just because I don't usually read fantasy stories with lots of characters and strange names and such, but I had a difficult time with it. A couple of the names, I didn't bother trying to figure out how to say and just sort of mumbled in my head when I got to them.

All of that said, I would definitely try watching the series that's on Starz. Unfortunately, I don't have cable, so I don't have the means to watch it currently. After reading the book, though, I think the series would be a total trip.

In conclusion, this is a dark fantasy story that, for me, would be best listened to or watched, because it was hard for me to keep my attention on the book. If you're a fantasy fan, though, have at it – I'm sure you'll love it.

Read my full review at http://www.literaryquicksand.com/2017/05/review-american-gods-neil-gaiman-coloring-book/