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71. Big Little Lies

Rating:  ☆☆☆☆

Recommended by:   

Author:   Liane Moriarity

Genre:  Fiction

460 pages, published July 29, 2014

Reading Format:  Audio Book and Book

Summary 

Big Little Lies tells the story of three friends in a seaside Australian town of Pirriwee.  Madeline, a divorced and remarried mother of three, is funny, passionate, remembers everything and forgives no one.  Her ex-husband and his new zen wife Bonnie have moved into her beloved beachside community and Madeline’s daughter seems to be to be choosing Madeline’s ex-husband over her.  Celeste is a woman of striking beauty married to Perry, a incredibly handsome and rich man who seems to the outside world to be the perfect husband and father.  However, things are not always as they appear to be.  Jane is a very young single mother who, with her son Ziggy, are recent arrivals in Pirriwee and are befriended by Madeline and Celeste.   Jane harbors a sad secret and has concerns about her son’s character when he is accused of accosting a girl in his Kindergarten class.  The stories of these three women develop and intersect in interesting ways that culminate in a potential murder at the Pirriwee Public School’s trivia night.

 

Quotes

“They say it’s good to let your grudges go, but I don’t know, I’m quite fond of my grudge. I tend it like a little pet.”

 

“Everyone wanted to be rich and beautiful, but the truly rich and beautiful had to pretend they were just the same as everyone else.”

 

“If she packaged the perfect Facebook life, maybe she would start to believe it herself.”

 

“I mean a fat, ugly man can still be funny and lovable and successful,” continued Jane. “But it’s like it’s the most shameful thing for a woman to be.” “But you weren’t, you’re not—” began Madeline. “Yes, OK, but so what if I was!” interrupted Jane. “What if I was! That’s my point. What if I was a bit overweight and not especially pretty? Why is that so terrible? So disgusting? Why is that the end of the world?”

 

“Every day I think, ‘Gosh, you look a bit tired today,’ and it’s just recently occurred to me that it’s not that I’m tired, it’s that this is the way I look now.”

 

“The only woman who deserved a philandering husband was a philandering wife.”

 

“Nothing and nobody could aggravate you the way your child could aggravate you.”

 

“Stick with the nice boys, Chloe!” said Madeline after a moment. “Like Daddy. Bad boys don’t bring you coffee in bed, I’ll tell you that for free.”

 

“every relationship had its own “love account.” Doing something kind for your partner was like a deposit. A negative comment was a withdrawal. The trick was to keep your account in credit.”

 

“This was not the career she’d dreamed of as an ambitious seventeen-year-old, but now it was hard to remember ever feeling innocent and audacious enough to dream of a certain type of life, as if you got to choose how things turned out.”

 

“It was just so very surprising that the good-looking, worried man who had just offered her a cup of tea, and was right now working at his computer down the hallway, and who would come running if she called him, and who loved her with all of his strange heart, would in all probability one day kill her.”

My Take

I have read Liane Moriarty’s (author of The Husband’s Secret, What Alice Forgot, and Truly, Madly, Greatly) Big Little Lies twice, the audio version last year and the book version this year when I assigned it to my book club.  As Gretchen Rubin opines in The Happiness Project (which is one of my all time favorite books):  “the best reading is re-reading.”  I’m not sure that  I gained a lot more the second time around, but I did enjoy it both times (although the narrator’s voice with her heavy Australian accent on the audio version took some getting used to).  The women protagonists of Big Little Lies draw you into their lives and it is not hard to empathize with their pain, struggles and heartbreak.  I was especially moved by Celeste, the rich and beautiful woman who seemed to have it all, but who realistically thought she might not live another year.  Big Little Lies is worth a read and I recommend it.

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46. The Taming of the Queen

Rating:  ☆☆☆☆

Recommended by:

Author:   Phillipa Gregory

Genre:  Historical Fiction

425 pages, published February 1, 2008

Reading Format:  Book

Summary 

The Taming of the Queen is the story of Henry VIII’s sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr, a thirty-year-old widow who is compelled to give up the love of her life when she is ordered to marry an old, obese, mercurial Henry.  Catherine appreciates the danger she faces.  The previous queen lasted sixteen months and the one before barely half a year.  But Henry adores his new bride and Catherine’s trust in him grows as she unites the royal family, creates a radical study circle at the heart of the court, and rules the kingdom as Regent.  An educated scholar with a mind of her own, Catherine becomes a leader of religious reform and the first woman to publish in English.  Catholic churchmen and rivals for power accuse Catherine of heresy and the king has signed a warrant for her arrest.

 

Quotes

 

“I have learned that the most precious thing is a place where you can be as you are, where someone can see you as your true self.”

 

“But this world is changing. Perhaps by the time you are old enough to marry the world will hear a woman’s voice. Perhaps she will not have to swear to obey in her wedding vows. Perhaps one day a woman will be allowed to both love and think.”

 

“I think my heart has broken, but I have offered the fragments to God.”

 

“If you are a reader, you are already halfway to being a writer,” she says. “For you have a love of words and pleasure from seeing them on a page. And if you are a writer, then you will find that you are driven to write. It is a gift that demands to be shared. You cannot be a silent singer.”

 

“I feel as if I can think only when I see the words flowing from the nib of my quill, that my thoughts make sense only when they are black ink on cream paper. I love the sensation of a thought in my head and the vision of the word on the page.”

 

“To assure someone that if enough nuns sing enough Masses then her dead child will go to heaven is trickery as low as passing a false coin as good. To buy a pardon from the pope, to force the pope to annul a marriage, to make him set aside kinship laws, to watch as he fleeces his cardinals, who charge the bishops, who rent to the priests, who seek their tithes from the poor – all these abuses would have to fall away if we agreed that a soul can come to God without any intervention. The crucifixion is the work of God. The church is the work of man.”

 

“Getting a woman into power is not the point—it’s getting a good woman into power who thinks and cares about what she does.”

 

“I listen with the air of an eager disciple as he propounds things that I have thought ever since I began my studies. Now he is glancing into books that I have read and hidden for my own safety, and he tells me the things that strike him as if they are a great novelty and I should learn them from him. Little Lady Jane Grey knows these opinions, Princess Elizabeth has read them; I taught them both myself. But now I sit beside the king and exclaim when he describes the blindingly obvious, I admire his discovery of the widely known, and I remark on his perception.”

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45. Silver Bay

Rating:  ☆☆1/2

Recommended by:

Author:   Jojo Moyes

Genre:  Fiction, Romance

392 pages, published February 1, 2008

Reading Format:  Book

Summary 

Silver Bay tells the story of a romance between Liza McCullen, a pleasure boat operator in the fictional town of Silver Bay, Australia, and Mike Dormer, a hot shot developer.  Mike arrives as a guest at Liza’s Aunt’s dilapidated inn to secretly assess the development potential of Silver Bay for his London based Real Estate Development Company and before long he has fallen for Liza.   Conflict ensues when Mike’s plans are revealed.

 

Quotes

“Perhaps we all harbor a perverse need to get close to things that might destroy us.”

 

“There is nothing redemptive about the loss of a child, no lessons of value it can teach you. It is too big, too overwhelming, too black to articulate. It is a bleak, overwhelming physical pain, shocking in its intensity, and every time you think you might have moved forward an inch it swells back, like a tidal wave, to drown you again.”

 

“Hannah ran past, beaming. I remember that feeling–when you’re a kid and it’s your birthday and for one day everyone makes you feel like the most special person in the world.”

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44. The End of the Affair

Rating:  ☆☆☆☆

Recommended by:

Author:   Graham Greene

Genre:  Fiction, Historical Fiction, World War II, Romance

192 pages, published 1951

Reading Format:  Audio Book

Summary 

Set in London during and just after the Second World War, The End of the Affair examines the obsessions and jealousies within the relationships between three central characters:  writer Maurice Bendrix,  Sarah Miles,  and Sarah’s husband, civil servant Henry Miles.  The narrator of the book is Maurice, a rising writer during World War II in London based on Graham Greene, and focuses on his relationship with Sarah based on Greene’s lover at the time, Catherine Walston, to whom the book is dedicated.   While Maurice and Sarah fall in love rapidly, he soon realizes that the affair will end as quickly as it began as he cannot contain his all consuming jealousy and frustration that Sarah will not divorce Henry, her kind but boring husband. When a bomb blasts Maurice’s flat as he is with Sarah, he is nearly killed.  After this, Sarah breaks off the affair with no apparent explanation.  Maurice is still consumed with jealousy and hires a private detective to discover Sarah’s new lover.  Through her diary, Maurice learns that when Sarah thought Maurice was dead after the bombing, she made a promise to God not to see Maurice again if God allowed him to live again. After her sudden death from a lung infection, several miraculous events occur, bringing meaningfulness to Sarah’s faith.  By the last page of the book, Maurice may have come to believe in a God as well, though not to love Him.

 

Quotes

“It’s a strange thing to discover and to believe that you are loved when you know that there is nothing in you for anybody but a parent or a God to love.”

 

“A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead.”

 

“I want men to admire me, but that’s a trick you learn at school–a movement of the eyes, a tone of voice, a touch of the hand on the shoulder or the head. If they think you admire them, they will admire you because of your good taste, and when they admire you, you have an illusion for a moment that there’s something to admire.”

 

“My passion for Sarah had killed simple lust forever. Never again would I be able to enjoy a woman without love.”

 

“I measured love by the extent of my jealousy.”

 

“I became aware that our love was doomed; love had turned into a love affair with a beginning and an end. I could name the very moment when it had begun, and one day I knew I should be able to name the final hour. When she left the house I couldn’t settle to work. I would reconstruct what we had said to each other; I would fan myself into anger or remorse. And all the time I knew I was forcing the pace. I was pushing, pushing the only thing I loved out of my life. As long as I could make believe that love lasted I was happy; I think I was even good to live with, and so love did last. But if love had to die, I wanted it to die quickly. It was as though our love were a small creature caught in a trap and bleeding to death; I had to shut my eyes and wring its neck.”

 

“I hate you, God. I hate you as though you actually exist.”

My Take

The End of the Affair is the first book that I have read by iconic British writer Graham Greene and it did not disappoint.  I especially enjoyed listening to the Audio Book version narrated by Colin Firth (an actor I like quite a bit) who does a great job with the material.  Greene brings to life the misery, insecurity and jealousy that is the ugly underbelly of Maurice’s all consuming, obsessive love for Sarah.  A fascinating, albeit depressing, book that I can unreservedly recommend.

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43. The Girl You Left Behind

Rating:  ☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by:   

Author:   Jojo Moyes

Genre:  Fiction, Historical Fiction, Romance

369 pages, published August 20, 2013

Reading Format:  Audio Book

 

Summary

The Girl You Left Behind tells the stories of modern day Liv Halston and early twentieth century Sophie Lefevre and how their lives intersect through a portrait of Sophie.  In 1916, French artist Edouard Lefevre leaves his wife Sophie to fight for France in World War I.  When her town falls into German hands, his portrait of Sophie stirs the heart of the local Kommandant and causes Sophie to risk everything – her family, reputation and life—in the hope of seeing Edouard, her true love, one last time.  Nearly a century later and Sophie’s portrait is given to Liv by her young husband shortly before his sudden death.  Its beauty speaks of their short life together, but when the painting’s dark and passion-torn history is revealed, Liv must make a momentous decision about the thing she loves most.

 

Quotes

“the ability to earn a living by doing the thing one loves must be one of life’s greatest gifts.”

 

“I wanted to live as Edouard did, joyfully, sucking the marrow out of every moment and singing because it tasted so good.”

 

“Do you know how it feels to resign yourself to your fate? It is almost welcome. There was to be no more pain, no more fear, no more longing. It is the death of hope that comes as the greatest relief.”

 

“I know it’s been tough. But we’re terribly proud of you, you know.” “For what?” She says blowing her nose. “I failed, Dad. Most people think I shouldn’t have even tried.” “Just for carrying on, really. Sometimes, my darling girl, that’s heroic in itself.”

 

“I thought the world had actually ended. I thought nothing good could ever happen again. I thought anything might happen if I wasn’t vigilant. I didn’t eat. I didn’t go out. I didn’t want to see anyone. But I survived, Paul. Much to my own surprise, I got through it. And life…well, gradually became livable again.”

My Take

The Girl You Left Behind is the third book by Jojo Moyes that I read this year (the first two were After You and One Plus One) and it was my least favorite of the three.  However, I still liked it and recommend it (even though the voice work on the Audio Book version that I listened to sometimes detracted from the story).  While The Girl You Left Behind has a lot in common with The Nightingale in that both books involve the struggle of two sisters in war torn France, The Nightingale is the superior book.  Nevertheless, Moyes knows how to tell a gripping story and I found myself very interested in the characters and plot of The Girl You Left Behind.

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32. One Plus One

Rating:  ☆☆☆☆

Recommended by:  

Author:  Jojo Moyes 

Genre:  Fiction, Romance

Info:  368 pages, published February 27, 2014

Format:  Audio Book

 

Summary 

One Plus One tells the story of everywoman Jess Thomas, a single-mom raising two kids, tortured goth teen Nicky who is being bullied at school, and his half-sister Tanzie, a math prodigy.  Jess is working as a house cleaner when she meets Ed Nicholls, a technology millionaire, while cleaning his house in an English holiday town.

Their stories intertwine as they and their non-stop farting family dog all pile into Ed’s new Audi for a road trip to get Tanzie to a Maths competition in Aberdeen, Scotland.  While each of them have a compelling tale, they all join together into an heart rending, well told story about family, trust, and love.

 

Quotes

“Because she knew that something happened to you when your mother didn’t hold you close, or tell you all the time that you were the best thing ever, or even notice when you were home: a little part of you sealed over. You didn’t need her. You didn’t need anyone. And without even knowing you were doing it, you waited. You waited for anyone who got close to you to see something they didn’t like in you, something they hadn’t initially seen, and to grow cold and disappear, too, like so much sea mist. Because there had to be something wrong, didn’t there, if even your own mother didn’t really love you?”

“Um, Jess?”  “Not now, Nicky.”  The police car was pulling over, too. Tanzie’s palms had begun to sweat. “It will all be fine.” “I guess this isn’t the time to tell you I brought my stash with me.”

“Jess’s grandmother had often said that the key to a happy life was a short memory.”

“This is the story of a family who didn’t fit in. A little girl who was a bit geeky and liked maths more than makeup. And a boy who liked makeup and didn’t fit into any tribes.”

“The only thing Jess really cared about were those two children and letting them know they were okay. Because even if the whole world was throwing rocks at you, if you had your mother at your back, you’d be okay. Some deep-rooted part of you would know you were loved. That you deserved to be loved.”

“You know, you spend your whole life feeling like you don’t quite fit in anywhere. And then you walk into a room one day, whether it’s at university or an office or some kind of club, and you just go, ‘Ah. There they are.’ And suddenly you feel at home.”

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30. The Rosie Project

Rating:  ☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by:  Katy Fassett

Author:  Graeme Simsion

Genre:  Fiction, Romance, Humor

Info:  295 pages, published October 1, 2013

Format:  Book

 

Summary 

Don Tillman, professor of genetics in Australia who falls somewhere on the autism spectrum, is a social misanthrope who has never been on a second date.  He decides that there is someone for everyone starts The Wife Project.  In the orderly, evidence-based manner with which he approaches all things, Don sets out to find the perfect partner. She must be both  punctual and logical and cannot be a barmaid, a smoker, a drinker, or late.  Rosie is all of these things, but is also charming, smart and on a quest of her own.  She is looking for her biological father, a search that Don, as a DNA expert might be able to provide some assistance.  Don’s Wife Project takes a back burner to the Father Project and an unlikely relationship blooms, forcing Don to realize that love is not always what looks good on paper.

 

Quotes

“But I’m not good at understanding what other people want.’ ‘Tell me something I don’t know,’ said Rosie for no obvious reason.  I quickly searched my mind for an interesting fact. ‘Ahhh…The testicles of drone bees and wasp spiders explode during sex.”

“How can you tell if someone is a vegan? Just wait ten minutes and they’ll tell you.”

“Why do we focus on certain things at the expense of others? We will risk our lives to save a person from drowning, yet not make a donation that could save dozens of children from starvation.”

“Fault! Asperger’s isn’t a fault. It’s a variant. It’s potentially a major advantage. Asperger’s syndrome is associated with organization, focus, innovative thinking, and rational detachment.”

“I haven’t changed my mind. That’s the point! I want to spend my life with you even though it’s totally irrational. And you have short earlobes. Socially and genetically there’s no reason for me to be attracted to you. The only logical conclusion is that I must be in love with you.”

“Research consistently shows that the risks to health outweigh the benefits of drinking alcohol. My argument is that the benefits to my mental health justify the risks.”

“I asked you here tonight because when you realise you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”

“You know what I like about New York?” he said. “There are so many weird people that nobody takes any notice. We all just fit right in.”

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28. Outlander

Rating:  ☆☆☆☆

Recommended by:  Jennifer Laser

Author:  Diana Gabaldon

Genre:  Historical Fiction, Fiction, Romance

Info:  896 pages, published July 26, 2005

Format:  Audio Book

Summary 

In 1945 with World War II over, former combat nurse Claire Randall is reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon in Scotland.  When she walks through a standing stone in an ancient circle, she is transported back to the year 1743 where she is a Sassenach, i.e. an “Outlander” in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans.  Claire uses her wits and medical know-how to survive in a land where the British are the enemies.  She finds herself hopelessly drawn to James Fraser, a heroic and handsome young Scots warrior, who faithfully loves Claire with an intense desire.  Claire is torn between faithfulness to a husband who hasn’t yet been born and longing for the man who embodies masculinity and devotion.

 

Quotes

“I can bear pain myself, he said softly, but I couldna bear yours. That would take more strength than I have.”

“Ye are Blood of my Blood, and Bone of my Bone, I give ye my Body, that we Two might be One. I give ye my Spirit, ’til our Life shall be Done.”

“Ye werena the first lass I kissed,” he said softly. “But I swear you’ll be the last.”

“Oh, aye, Sassenach. I am your master . . . and you’re mine. Seems I canna possess your soul without losing my own.”

“And if your life is a suitable exchange for my honor, why is my honor not a suitable exchange for your life?”

“Where did you learn to kiss like that?” I said, a little breathless. He grinned and pulled me close again. “I said I was a virgin, not a monk,” he said, kissing me again. “If I find I need guidance, I’ll ask.”

“I had one last try.  “Does it bother you that I’m not a virgin?” He hesitated a moment before answering. “Well, no,” he said slowly, “so long as it doesna bother you that I am.” He grinned at my drop-jawed expression, and backed toward the door. “Reckon one of us should know what they’re doing,” he said. The door closed softly behind him; clearly the courtship was over.”

“I was crying for joy, my Sassenach,’ he said softly. He reached out slowly and took my face between his hands. “And thanking God that I have two hands. That I have two hands to hold you with. To serve you with, to love you with. Thanking God that I am a whole man still, because of you.”

“There comes a turning point in intense physical struggle where one abandons oneself to a profligate usage of strength and bodily resource, ignoring the costs until the struggle is over. Women find this point in childbirth; men in battle.”

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25. Confess

Rating:  ☆☆☆

Recommended by:  

Author:   Colleen Hoover

Genre:  Fiction, Suspense, Romance 

Info:  306 pages, published March 10, 2015

Format:  Book

 

Summary 

Since Confess won the Goodreads Choice Award for Romance in 2015, it seemed worth checking out.  It tells the story of twenty one year old Auburn Reed who walks into a Dallas art studio in search of a job and find herself deeply attracted to Owen Gentry, the inscrutable artist who works there and who invites people to leave their anonymous confessions at the gallery.  Auburn takes a risk and starts a relationship with Owen.  Many twists, turns and passionate scenes ensue.

 

Quotes

“Every day I’m grateful that my husband and his brother look exactly alike.  It means there’s less of a chance that my husband will find out that our son isn’t his.”  

“I’m scared I’ll never feel this again with anyone else,” I whisper.  He squeezes my hands. “I’m scared you will.”

“Selflessness. It should be the basis of every relationship. If a person truly cares about you, they’ll get more pleasure from the way they make you feel, rather than the way you make them feel.”

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19. After You

Rating: ☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by: 

Author:  JoJo Moyes 

Genre:  Fiction, Romance, Humor

Info:  400 pages, published September 24, 2015

Format:  Audio Book

Summary 

After You is the sequel to the best-selling book Me Before You, a tearjerker that I thoroughly enjoyed.  The sequel catches up with Louisa “Lou” Clark, coping with the aftermath of the death of Will Traynor, the invalid she fell in love with after caring for him during the last six months of his life.  

Lou is working a menial job as an airport barmaid and struggling to live her life without Will.  She ends up in a church basement with the members of the Moving On support group and discovers a new love interest in paramedic Sam Fielding, a strong, sensitive almost perfect man.  Along the way she develops a bond with Will’s daughter whom he never knew about.

 

Quotes

“There’s only one response (to losing someone).  You Live.  You throw yourself into everything and try not to think about the bruises.”

“That’s life. We don’t know what will happen. That’s why we have to take our chances when we can.”

“Life is short, right? We both know that. Well, what if you’re my chance? What if you are the thing that’s actually going to make me happiest?”

“You learn to live with it, with them. Because they do stay with you, even if they’re not living, breathing people any more.It’s not the same crushing grief you felt at first, the kind that swamps you, and makes you want to cry in the wrong places, and get irrationally angry with all the idiots who are still alive when the person you love is dead.  It’s just something you learn to accommodate.  Like adapting around a hole. I don’t know. It’s like you become … a doughnut instead of a bun”  

“You don’t have to let that one thing be the thing that defines you.”

“Mum, you’re not going to get divorced, are you?” Her eyes shot open. “Divorced? I’m a good Catholic girl, Louisa. We don’t divorce. We just make our men suffer for all eternity.” She waited just for a moment, and then she started to laugh.”

“None of us move on without a backward look. We move on always carrying with us those we have lost.  What we aim to do in our little group is ensure that carrying them is not a burden, something that feels impossible to bear, a weight keeping us stuck in the same place. We want their presence to feel like a gift.”

“No. Really. I’ve thought about it a lot. You learn to live with it, with them. Because they do stay with you, even if they’re not living, breathing people anymore. It’s not the same crushing grief you felt at first, the kind that swamps you and makes you want to cry in the wrong places and get irrationally angry with all the idiots who are still alive when the person you love is dead. It’s just something you learn to accommodate. Like adapting around a hole. I don’t know. It’s like you become . . . a doughnut instead of a bun.”

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