Tag: book review

Missoula Montana is your typical college town.  There are plenty of College antics to go around:  studying, making friends, partying, and of course the football games.  From 2008 – 2012 hundreds of students reported sexual assault.  Many of the circumstances involved alcohol, or heavy flirting gone too far.  The police in most of these cases gave little attention to the alleged victim believing it was a party and the girl was just feeling regrets after consenting to sex.  Missoula is by no means the exception, in most states alleged rape victims are treated as thought they brought on the assault themselves.  Often, due to this sad statistic, many assaults, more than we will ever know, go unreported.

In a case study, Krakauer shares what happened with 5 such cases during a four-year period in Missoula Montana.  Their stories of shame, self-doubt, ridicule, nightmares, and in some – the court case that rehashes it all again.  Some will win their case, some will not… but all five of the victims will carry with them forever what happened, one night, in Missoula.

Yes.  I am a diverse reader.  Over the years I have found myself drawn to non fiction.  Certain subjects call my attention and when I found this book on Audible.com I downloaded it immediately.  Rape, like bullying, is a huge problem in our world that leaves devastating life long marks on its victims.

I have read/listened to Jon Krakauer books before (Into Thin Air, Into The Wild, Under The Banner Of Heaven)  and find his research to be thorough.  Krakauer gets to the heart of the matter, never dragging things out unnecessarily and this book was no exception.

MISSOULA is not an easy listen.   Each assault is very detailed in how it happened, the circumstances, and what happened in the days, weeks, and years to follow.  These girls will question themselves, wondering it they deserved what they got, if they should have been more forceful in saying no, if they should have fought harder to get away… and then you have those that did not fight at all.  Instead, they gave in, afraid of what their friend or boyfriend may do if they try to stop them….

No means NO.

Narrators of this book are Mozhan Mamo and Scott Brick.  While Mozhan Mamo is new to me and a narrator I look forward to hearing more from, Scott Brick is a narrator I have encountered many times and find perfect for non fiction listens.  Together, the two were a perfect blend of narration for this book. Very well done.

Although there were parts of the book that were hard to listen to; often you hear her side of what happened, his side, and what the courts say so you are deep in the topic several times over having to hear about how it was done and what was said – it is a book  I would recommend every woman (especially college age) to either read or listen to.  While sometimes the evidence was not strong enough to call rape, I was surprised in some parts how rape goes back to the basic – no means no.  Even if the girl had thought it was what she wanted and at any point decided she does not – no means no.

Incredible listen.  And an important one.

Missoula is nominated by the APA for the 2016 Audie Awards in the non fiction category.

• Audible Audio Edition
• Listening Length: 11 hours and 58 minutes
• Program Type: Audiobook
• Version: Unabridged
• Publisher: Random House Audio
• Audible.com Release Date: April 21, 2015
• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; First Edition edition (April 21, 2015)

The following note is a bit graphic.

Personal note:  Right out of high school a group of us who all worked together liked to get together after work sometimes at someones house and have a few beers.  On a particular night one of my friends who lived in the house we were partying at went up to bed pretty intoxicated late into the night.  The next morning she called me and told me this,

“I was passed out on my bed when I was awakened by someone on top of me.  I sort of woke up and seen it was _____________, who we worked with.  I was still so out of it and I mumbled for him to get off of me, but he didn’t listen.  He forced himself inside of me and I think I passed out again.  When I woke up in the morning I could vaguely remember him being there and I knew he had raped me.”

I drove to her house and picked her up and brought her to the hospital.  They took some samples, her clothes, even asked her to bring in the blanket off of her bed.  A cop came in and took a statement while I was with her and he basically told her if drinking was a problem perhaps she should get help.  By the time we left the hospital she felt sure she was some how to blame and honestly I thought maybe since she had drank so much that she had encouraged him.  She decided to drop any investigation, it was too embarrassing and what if it was her fault?  She never told anyone, not any other friends and for sure not her parents.  We all continued to work together as though nothing had happened.  Eventually she quit the job.

I share this now because after listening to this book I know that what happened to her was rape.  It did not matter that she has been drinking or even if she had been flirting.  I think this is the important message here.  How many women live with something like this for their entire life believing that it is somehow their fault for how they dressed, how they acted, how much they drank.

No means no and without verbal consent (IE.  if a person is intoxicated, sleeping, not in an awake state of mind) it is best to not do anything.  Men and women alike.

Thea Slavin from Bulgaria is about to enter Princeton.  Although she has an incredible talent for music, she has an alternative motive for attending.  Years earlier her sister Elza had also attended Princeton and was mysteriously killed and her body disappeared.  While Thea’s parents fear for her safety they trust their daughter to make good decisions.

Should they?

While Thea finds herself alone in an atmosphere she is unfamiliar with she meets two brothers, Rhyas and Jake, who both find they are drawn to her.  (Picture the way Edward was drawn to Bella in Twilight).  While Thea finds she too has an attraction to the brothers, one of them holds the answers to what happened all of those years ago and Thea is walking a very dangerous path.

WILDALONE had many of the elements that I enjoy in a good paranormal read.  Thea was a likable protagonist and the Bulgarian background was a nice change.  While this is a paranormal title, it took quite a while to get there. In fact for the majority of the book you really don’t know what the paranormal part is.  I kept waiting to find out what it was, knowing what it must have to do with… but not sure.  There was also a couple of small parts in the book that did not flow right…a character would be with someone and then suddenly wasn’t.  I actually went back pages to see if I had missed something.

That said, I did enjoy WILDALONE.  There is much to like about the book and the things I mentioned above were not deal breakers.  As this is a first in a trilogy, I do believe I would continue to see where this story goes.

• Series: Wildalone Sagas (Book 1)
• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition (October 13, 2015)
• Language: English

All Lucy Wakefield has ever wanted was to have a child to call her own.  When her marriage dissolves she sees this dream slipping farther and farther away.  When shopping at a store Lucy finds a baby girl lest in a cart while her mother is a short distance away.  Without even realizing what she is doing Lucy takes the baby and leaves the store.

Lucy wants to believe she will give the child back, but as her love for this child grows, she justifies her actions with the fact that the girl was left unattended.  She ignores the TV news with the pretty and devastated young mother pleading for her babies return and fabricated a story to her boss about having to leave the state to work through an adoption of a baby girl that she names Mia.

And so it goes.  Now over two decades later, the truth begins to come out.  As Lucy scrambles as to what to tell her daughter about what happened, she knows that time is running out.

Helen Klein Ross writes about every parents nightmare.  When I read this synopsis I wanted to know more.  What Was Mine is a devastating story that feels as thought it could have been ripped form the headlines.  It is one of those stories where you get to hear both sides with watching Mia grow up with Lucy and Lcy’s love for her, and at the same time watching Mia’s real mother trying to hold it together all the while believing that her daughter is alive and out there somewhere.

I enjoyed this fast pace read on audio.  There is a winning cast of narrators:  Julia Whelan, Cassandra Campbell, Amanda Carlin, Rebekkah Ross , and Jonathan Todd Ross (Narrator).  Normally I do like multiple narrators because it gives me the feeling of a “production” or “show”, but this was not the case.  The narrators complimented each other well and I did not even notice the change as I do in some multiple narrator books. 

The book is not without it’s bumps in the road.  There are things that if you really think about them become a little hard to believe.  You need to read this one as one of those books that you don’t think too hard about.  Just enjoy the wild and scary ride.  And yes I think it is worth it.

• Audible Audio Edition
• Listening Length: 8 hours and 44 minutes
• Program Type: Audiobook
• Version: Unabridged
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Audible.com Release Date: January 5, 2016

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Gallery Books (January 5, 2016)

Betty Weissmann could not have been more shocked than when her husband Joseph, at the age of 78 declared that he wanted a divorce.  Having been the loving doting wife for most of her life, Betty did not really know what her next step would be.  She was almost as equally shocked when she discovers the woman he works with is his mistress and Betty is exiled from their New York apartment because Joseph has been sweet talked by his mistress that the apartment would just be too much of a burden for poor Betty.  While the divorce has everything on lock down until things are sorted through, Betty finds herself left with no choice but to go and stay at their run down beach cottage in Connecticut.

Betty’s daughter’s Miranda, an impulsive literary agent and Annie a level headed Library Director, come to Betty’s side to stay with her at the collate while things are sorted through.  Both girls find themselves the products of a broken home at middle age.

The Three Weissmann’s Of Westport is a book I pulled off my shelf for our recent trip to Mexico.  It looked like just the type of read I would enjoy while sitting at the pool.  I was right.  The book I found right from the start shocking, a 78 year old man after spending more than 50 years of his life with a woman decides to throw it all away for a younger, prettier, and quite honestly…. gold digger.  I found myself flying through the pages waiting for Joseph to come to his senses.

Does he?

Well…. I can not tell you that.  I can say the ending was not as I had thought it would be.  It left me thinking.  That’s not a bad thing.

This book has been compared to a modern day Sense and Sensibility.  I will let you be the judge of that.  Over all a pleasant enough read.  The characters are not always likable, the story line at times is frustrating, and still…. there is something about the Weissmann’s.

Beach read worthy?  Yes.

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Sarah Crichton Books; First Edition edition (February 2, 2010)

If you have read me here at Book Journey for any amount of time you know that I am a huge Harry Potter nerd.  You also know, my son Justin was as well and it was this book – THIS BOOK, where he and I first started to connect on reading and talking books.  It became a wonderful connection for us when he was in Jr. High and continued to be “a thing” with us for all the days of his life AND will always ALWAYS carry wonderful memories for me.

I have this first book of the series in a beautiful 20 year anniversary edition.  I have it also in Spanish, in soft cover and in hard cover, in audio, and with the new cover (a gift from Justin Christmas 2014).  However this copy of the book I am holding will always be my favorite copy because THIS is Justin’s original 1st copy of the book.  It has long since lost its dust jacket (he always took them off to protect them while reading) and the cover is well-worn…. the signs of a beloved book.  And now… it still sits on his book shelf.

I loved choosing this book as my first book of the year because it was as I said… a place where we connected.  I liked knowing that each page I touched, he had as well.  Every word my eyes fell upon… his eyes had read these very same words on this very same page.  I do not know what I was hoping for when I read this book again for probably the 5th, 6th, or 7th time…. at first the reading felt like work.  It made me more sad than peaceful.  The words did not come easy and my mind drifted during the early pages of Harry and the Dursley’s, and the snake, and the closet under the stairs.  It wasn’t until the entrance of Hagrid where I started to fall once again into the familiar writing and I whisked myself and hopefully Justin too away to Hogwart’s.

For those of us who love the Harry Potter books…. we know they contain a bit of magic that one can not explain to the common muggle.  I enjoyed getting to know Harry again as a first year, and remembering Hermione when she was all know-it-all and bushy eyebrows, and Ron when he was quiet and shy before he became a force to reckoned with.  I had to once again sit in awe as I read things in this first book that I know will not come to full light until the last book… the clues we don’t recognize as clues until much later, and I have to whisper the word “brilliant” as I turn each page.

I owe JK Rowling a dept of appreciation.  Her writing changed my life.  That may seem dramatic, but it is true.  These books connected my son and I on a level that we would not have reached without them.  These books are why we went to Florida three November’s in a row and had planned on a fourth…. these books – made magic come to life.

And I for one, am forever grateful.

The Harry Potter books to me are the new classics.  These are the books that need to be passed from generation to generation… it is something special to be among the first group who read them.

This book brought up memories of the movie City Of Angels (which I LOVED).  ~ Sheila

Elsie Porter isn’t expecting anything extraordinary when she head out one rainy New Years day to pick up a pizza for herself.  Yet extraordinary is what she gets when she meets Ben Ross.  Their chemistry is instant and the two start seeing each other immediately.  By May, they have eloped.

Nine days later, Ben is killed.

When Elsie meets Ben’s mom Susan, Susan has no idea about Ben’s romance with Elsie let alone his marriage.  With no marriage certificate yet, Elsie finds herself pushed aside as plans are made for Ben’s funeral and where he will be buried.  As the story unwinds, we see flashes back to Ben and Elsie’s relationship as well as current time Elsie and Susan, two women who loved Ben dearly trying to find a way through sudden devastating grief.

Taylor Jenkins Reid bring about a powerful emotionally charged story of quick passionate love and rock bottom grief.  I entered into this read cautiously, hoping I would not stumble into any thing too personally hard, and was happy to find that the book worked for me.

Imagine loving someone so quickly and passionately only to lose them before their family even knows you exist.  On top of your grief, you are trying to justify your appearance to a grieving family – especially hard when the person you are trying to convince is someone as closed off as Ben’s mother, Susan.

The book’s flash backs into Elsie and Ben’s relationship and powerful love works well with the current Elsie’s story line of trying to now make sense of what she is left with. the physical remains of a relationship that started and finished in 5 months.

I had mentioned before that Taylor Jenkins Reid was a new author to me and I have enjoyed the three books I have now read of hers.  Her writing is down to earth, lite with interesting story lines that make you think.