Inside the O'Briens

From award-winning, New York Times bestselling author and neuroscientist Lisa Genova comes a powerful new novel that does for Huntington’s Disease what her debut Still Alice did for Alzheimer’s.

Joe O’Brien is a forty-four-year-old police officer from the Irish Catholic neighborhood of Charlestown, Massachusetts. A devoted husband, proud father of four children in their twenties, and respected officer, Joe begins experiencing bouts of disorganized thinking, uncharacteristic temper outbursts, and strange, involuntary movements. He initially attributes these episodes to the stress of his job, but as these symptoms worsen, he agrees to see a neurologist and is handed a diagnosis that will change his and his family’s lives forever: Huntington’s Disease.

Huntington’s is a lethal neurodegenerative disease with no treatment and no cure. Each of Joe’s four children has a 50 percent chance of inheriting their father’s disease, and a simple blood test can reveal their genetic fate. While watching her potential future in her father’s escalating symptoms, twenty-one-year-old daughter Katie struggles with the questions this test imposes on her young adult life. Does she want to know? What if she’s gene positive? Can she live with the constant anxiety of not knowing?

As Joe’s symptoms worsen and he’s eventually stripped of his badge and more, Joe struggles to maintain hope and a sense of purpose, while Katie and her siblings must find the courage to either live a life “at risk” or learn their fate.

I am a huge fan of Lisa Genova's novel, Still Alice.  I was hoping to have the same feelings while reading this novel, but it just didn't evoke the same emotions for me.  I actually know someone who died from Huntington's disease, so I did feel a connection to the main character.  Where I felt the author took a wrong turn was only exploring Joe's story and Katie's story.  What about the other siblings?  They felt so two dimensional because the book didn't give me anything to connect with them.  And the wife, we never heard from her.  I saw the affects the disease took on the spouse of the person I knew and I felt it could have been so powerful and helpful to others facing the same thing.  I know that sometimes a book with multiple perspectives can be overwhelming but I felt this novel could have greatly benefited from this format.  It is a great read to familiarize yourself with this awful disease, but just wanted more.  As a side note, I was annoyed and bothered with how much this book used the "f" word, especially when there really seemed to need for it.      

* I received this book from the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review *

We Never Asked for Wings

From the beloved New York Times bestselling author of The Language of Flowers comes her much-anticipated new novel about young love, hard choices, and hope against all odds.

For fourteen years, Letty Espinosa has worked three jobs around San Francisco to make ends meet while her mother raised her children—Alex, now fifteen, and Luna, six—in their tiny apartment on a forgotten spit of wetlands near the bay. But now Letty’s parents are returning to Mexico, and Letty must step up and become a mother for the first time in her life.

Navigating new terrain is challenging for Letty, especially as Luna desperately misses her grandparents and Alex, who is falling in love with a classmate, is unwilling to give his mother a chance. Letty comes up with a plan to help the family escape the dangerous neighborhood and heartbreaking injustice that have marked their lives, but one wrong move could jeopardize everything she’s worked for and her family’s fragile hopes for the future.

Vanessa Diffenbaugh blends gorgeous prose with compelling themes of motherhood, undocumented immigration, and the American Dream in a powerful and prescient story about family.

I wanted to love this book, I mean I really did want to love it.  Especially after reading the author's acknowledgments about being so invested in the book and concerned about reception for her second novel.  But unfortunately, I didn't love it like I hoped I would.  I enjoyed reading it, but somewhere along the way it just fell flat for me.  There were just too many things, too many stories, too many circumstances that seemed resolved too easily or just plain overlooked that I felt really could have made the story more whole had they been handled differently.  I will still read her books in the future, but it just didn't quite captivate me like The Language of Flowers did. 


* I received this book from the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review *

Family or Money?

 This is a simple story. It begins with an immigrant grocer selling vegetables from a pushcart and ends in a court case with two billion dollars at risk. Two brothers, sons of the founder, inherit equal shares of a burgeoning food chain. One dies, and his widow, suspecting that she is being short-changed from profits earned, sues to recover.

Now it becomes complicated. The author, an insider with over thirty years working in the food industry, spins a yarn of a twisting, turning labyrinth that features a love tryst, intrigue, betrayal, and greed. The characters and dialogue are real, authentic, and they draw you from the printed page into the middle of this fast-moving action.

Russell Riley is the highest-ranking non-family member of this company and it's his job to protect and grow the business while the two families duke it out in court. But even he can't stay entirely above the fray because he owns stock that could provide the swing vote for control.

If you are in the mood for an insider's take on a nasty and vitriolic family food fight that ended in a celebrated court case, Blood Feud is it.

A book that can simply be described as the breakdown of a family by money.  While I found this book to be engaging, it seemed just like so many other books that involve family business and greed.  I was hoping for a surprise element or something that would differentiate it from other stories.  While disappointed with the overall storyline, the one thing I did enjoy was learning about the supermarket industry.  That were definitely the most fascinating aspect of this book. But beyond that, it's not one I would highly recommend.

 * I received this book from the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review *

Love triumphs all

For fans of Jojo Moyes’s Me Before You comes a beautifully written, heartwarming novel about mothers and daughters, husbands and wives. The Day We Met asks: Can you love someone you don’t remember falling in love with?

A gorgeous husband, two beautiful children, a job she loves—Claire’s got it all. And then some. But lately, her mother hovers more than a helicopter, her husband Greg seems like a stranger, and her kids are like characters in a movie. Three-year-old Esther’s growing up in the blink of an eye, and twenty-year-old Caitlin, with her jet-black hair and clothes to match, looks like she’s about to join a punk band—and seems to be hiding something. Most concerning, however, is the fact that Claire is losing her memory, including that of the day she met Greg.

When Claire meets a handsome stranger on a rainy day, she starts to wonder if Greg still belongs in her life. She knows she should love him, but she can’t always remember why. When Greg gives her a blank book, Claire fills its pages with private memories and keepsakes, jotting down beginnings and endings and everything in between. The book becomes the story of Claire—her passions, her sorrows, her joys, her adventures in a life that refuses to surrender to a fate worse than dying: disappearing.

While initially tempting to compare this book to Still Alice, I started to realize it wasn't the same at all.  While it does address the awful disease we know as Alzheimer's, the story is about so much more.  It's about family, the decisions we make, and most of all love.  I don't want to give anything away, but I did find it a bit predictable and a little too wrapped up, but i still loved the characters and felt connected to their story.  If you are a fan of Still Alice, I think this is a great book to pick up soon!

  * I received this book from the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review *

Give me "More" Jesus!

People everywhere are looking for something more. Churched and non-churched alike. They're in the grocery store aisle behind you, in the nail chair beside you, singing praise songs in front of you, and perhaps in the mirror staring back at you. People feel messy; plagued by looming feelings of ineffectiveness, indifference, depression, and purposelessness.

Does this sound like you?

Perhaps you keep wishing your life were better than what you are currently experiencing now. What if more of God is actually what’s missing from your life? Do you encounter the freedom God brings each day? Whether it's a messy life or a messy problem in your life, it can become a walking miracle when we see God anew and wholly surrender to Him.

You were made for more than surviving. Old stale religion never satisfies. Neither do the solutions the world has to offer. What all of us need is an encounter with God that reveals truth and sets our hearts ablaze. Tammie has seen this in her own life as well as in countless lives around her. Join her in More for a picture of how you can move from a life marked by messes to one that is truly miraculous.

This book is exactly as the titles suggests - more. For someone who was just searching for more of Jesus, this book really helped me see just how much he loves me and wants me to seek him, despite the mess of life around us. One of my favorite passages said this "He always wanted you. Before you came to be. Before your beautiful limbs and life were delicately crafted in your mother's womb. You were pondered in His own heart and mind. Never were you a mistake or a complicated burden. You were His then. You are His now. And you will be His forevermore." Can anyone else love you like this? Pick up More: From Messes to Miracles if you just want more.

* I received this book from the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review *

Ove! Ove! Ove!

 In this bestselling and delightfully quirky debut novel from Sweden, a grumpy yet loveable man finds his solitary world turned on its head when a boisterous young family moves in next door.

Meet Ove. He’s a curmudgeon—the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him “the bitter neighbor from hell.” But must Ove be bitter just because he doesn’t walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time?

Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove’s mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents’ association to their very foundations.

A feel-good story in the spirit of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, Fredrik Backman’s novel about the angry old man next door is a thoughtful and charming exploration of the profound impact one life has on countless others.

A Man Called Ove was just one of those books that I saw all the praises and doubted it could achieve what I was hoping. I was dead wrong.  It was everything and more.  I don't want to say too much for fear of spoiling the experience that I had, but it was just so real.  The characters were real.  Ove embodied the spirit of my grandfather in many ways that I just felt so connected to him.  This is probably my favorite read of the year.  Please read this book, it doesn't get much simpler than that!

* I received this book from the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review *

I wish I could visit Higher Grounds Cafe!

 What if you could ask God anything? What would you ask? And how would he answer?

Chelsea Chambers is on her own. After a public split from her NFL superstar husband, Chelsea takes a bold step out of the limelight and behind the counter of the Higher Grounds Cafe, an old-fashioned coffee shop in dire need of reinvention. But when her courage, expert planning, and out-of-this-world cupcakes fail to pay the bills, this newly single mom finds herself desperate for help. Better yet, a miracle.

When a catastrophe strikes and her ex comes calling, Chelsea begins to wonder if the whole universe is conspiring against her quest to make it on her own. After a shocking discovery opens her eyes to the unseen world around her, Chelsea finds the courage to ask, and heaven answers in a most unexpected way."

 To put it simply, I really enjoyed reading this book. It was a wonderful reminder of how powerful God is and He truly can do anything. The story was cute, without being too predictable. This book made me want to go to a coffee shop and had me wishing Higher Grounds Cafe truly existed. I would recommend this to anyone looking for an uplifting, quick read.

* I received this book from the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review *