Where'd You Go, Bernadette

Where'd You Go, Bernadette

Maria Semple, 2012

Bernadette Fox, a highly successful, intelligent architect turned reclusive shut-in, disappears from her Seattle home after the stress of planning a promised trip with her family to Antarctica. Her daughter, Bee, refuses to give up on her mother and begins to piece together e-mails, notes, newspaper articles, invoices, and other scattered documents to determine not only where her mother might be, but what might have driven her to escape. 

I enjoy epistolary novels in general, and I thought that this take on it - using documents instead of letters - was a really interesting way of doing it. I was surprised how funny it was, too, since the topic doesn't seem like it would lead itself to a whole lot of laughs. There were some very humorous situations, though, and I found the character of Soo-Lin hilarious. And while I didn't really love or identify with any of the characters (maybe Bee, a little bit), I did really enjoy hearing their stories. 

Before I Go to Sleep

Before I Go to Sleep

S.J. Watson, 2011

Imagine waking up every morning with no idea where, or even WHO, you are. Relying on the man who calls himself your husband to remind you of everything important that has happened to you since you were a child. This is what Christine Lucas has gone through every single day since the accident that left her barely alive and with no memories. But when a man calls her, claiming to be her doctor, and tells her that they are working to reclaim some of her memories and that she has been writing down the events of her days in a hidden journal, Christine finds that there are a few memories that are coming back to her. But who can she trust? And can she even trust what she has written down? 

This was a really interesting mystery novel. With hints of the movie, Memento, it was fun trying to put together the pieces of Christine's life as she was trying to do the same herself. I'll admit that the guess I had on "whodunnit" ended up being wrong, but I really enjoyed watching how it all played out. I thought that the ending could have been expanded a little - it seemed a tad rushed - although I didn't mind the fact that not everything was wrapped up in a neat little bow. Overall this was a really enjoyable novel that I didn't expect to like as much as I did, but I'm glad I read it. A pretty fast read but definitely worth the time.

Behemoth

Behemoth (Leviathan #2)

Scott Westerfeld, 2010

Picking up after the events in Leviathan, the Darwinists and the British Air Service arrive in Istanbul on a peacekeeping mission in an attempt to keep that country from siding with the Clanker Germans in the war. Deryn, a girl posing as an airman, finds herself in a unique opportunity to change the course of the fighting. Meanwhile, Alek, the runaway Clanker prince, finds himself a new group of allies among the people of Istanbul. But can Alek and his new friends succeed in their task to overthrow the current government? And can Deryn complete her own task without giving away her secret? 

This book - part two of three in the Leviathan trilogy - was so much more enjoyable than Leviathan, which I did in fact really like. While book one had to spend so much of its time introducing its characters and creating sympathies, Behemoth was able to run with the characters that had already been introduced and throw in a ton of action and character development. I, for one, have come to absolutely LOVE Deryn. I know that before the final book is over her secret will get out - there are some who already suspect - but I'm so excited to see how it plays out. And while I didn't think much of Alek in the first book one way or another, he has really grown on me. I think he's become a really strong character over the course of this book and I'm really looking forward to see where he ends up. Very excited to pick up Goliath and see how it all plays out.

Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls

Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls

David Sedaris, 2013

A collection of humorous essays about the author's life and family.

I adore David Sedaris. I especially adore David Sedaris when he reads audiobooks to me while I'm at the gym or doing chores around the house. While I think that Me Talk Pretty One Day is still my favorite, there were some excellent and hilarious stories in this most recent collection. While there were a few moments that made me cringe - the story about the turtles made me sad and while the one about learning languages ended up being really funny but started out with me wanting to make sure that I never, ever visit China - it was overall a really good collection of stories.

I've seen people complain that this book is darker or more judgmental than previous collections - and I'll actually agree with that assessment completely. Most of these stories are from his grown-up, famous life, which is inevitably going to lead to more "first-world problems" types stories. As for it being dark and judgmental, honestly, I think that Sedaris is just now famous enough where he can be a little bit of an ass in his stories and get away with it. This didn't bother me, but I can see where it might bother some people. I just saw it as him being honest. 

I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who is a fan of his previous work, although I probably wouldn't recommend this as someone's introduction to Sedaris. Me Talk Pretty One Day or When You Are Engulfed in Flames would work much better as a first read, in my opinion. And, as always, I highly recommend the audiobook, which he reads himself.

Faithful Place

Faithful Place (Dublin Murder Squad #3)

Tana French, 2010

Frank Mackey, undercover detective introduced in The Likeness, is front and center in this installment of the Dublin Murder Squad series. When Mackey was a teenager, he and his girlfriend had planned to leave their homes at Faithful Place and run off to England together. The night they had planned to leave, she never showed up, so Frank ended up leaving on his own, thinking that she had changed her mind. Now, many years later, the girl's suitcase is turned up in the fireplace of an abandoned house, and after searching the premises, her body is discovered buried in the basement. While the Murder Squad investigates the case, Frank is drawn back into his dysfunctional family's drama and is forced to revisit his past, as well as figure out the answer to the question of what actually happened that night in Faithful Place.

While this story was enjoyable and left me guessing, it was a bit of a letdown after Into the Woods and The Likeness, which were just better books. To be fair, though, I think my problem had less to do with the story and more to do with having Mackey as the central character, since I so violently disliked him in The Likeness. But it did end up being a pretty good story in the end and Mackey's family drama had its really good parts, even if it started out a little slow. A good mystery story, definitely worth the read, but I'm hoping for something a little better out of Broken Harbor. 

Garlic and Sapphires

Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise

Ruth Reichl, 2005

Ruth Reichl writes about her years as a restaurant critic for the New York Times, including her move from Los Angeles to New York and her attempts to disguise herself in order to fool the restaurants. Book also includes a few of her published reviews as well as some recipes. 

I'm probably not the target audience for this book - I am not a good cook and I don't go out to fancy restaurants (I would if I could, sure, but I can't really afford them). I think this book is written more for the type of person who loves food and loves cooking. The kind of person who can take a bite of food at a restaurant and know if the cook spiced the dish with cumin or cardamom. (I have no idea what cardamom tastes like.) I can follow a recipe and I enjoy eating good food, but I am not a "foodie" in any sense of the word. I think that kind of person would get more out of this book than I did.

That being said, I am a memoir person - I like reading about other people's lives, especially people who are very different from me. The reason I enjoyed Reichl's book was because it was as much about pretending to be someone else as it was about food. I liked hearing the stories about her disguising herself in order to fool the restaurants and what her experiences as these new people were. She's also a pretty good storyteller, so even though nothing super-exciting happens, it's never really boring. I also like the concept of including recipes throughout the book. It didn't work tremendously well in the audiobook version, for obvious reasons, but some of the recipes did sound very delicious, and some of them even seemed manageable for my meager kitchen skills. A pretty decent read overall, and I would probably pick up one of Reichl's other books in the future.

Burial Rites

Burial Rites

Hannah Kent, 2013

In Iceland in the late 1820s, a man named Natan Ketilsson and his friend Petur were murdered on Natan's farm. A nearby farmer, Fridrik, and Natan's two servants - Agnes and Sigga - are charged with the crime. Burial Rites tells Agnes's story, as she is sent off to live with a local farmer and his family while she awaits her execution. Based on true events.

This was one of the best books I've read this year. Based on a real murder and execution, Kent tells a version of what might have happened, based on stories and historical documents that she was able to get her hands on. Whether Agnes's story really went the way Kent tells it or not, this is an incredible story of one woman's life and her attempt to hold her head high in the face of her impending death. All of the characters were very well-developed and the way the author wrote the setting made it seem real. A beautiful, haunting book that I would highly recommend to everyone.