The Help

Like most Americans, I get information on which new books to read by what movies are soon to come out in theaters.  While on date night with my husband, I saw a preview for The Help, and I had to look it up!  Once it was downloaded on my Nook, I was unable to put it down.  This book isn't suspenseful.  It isn't a mystery, but it is a page turner.  The Help by Karen Stockett is one of the best stories I have ever read.  It is easy to become immersed in these characters. 

Told in three different characters perspectives, this is the story of what living in Mississippi during the 1960's was like.  This story shows how the lives of  three women intersect when Skeeter, a young white woman from an affluent family, decides to write a book about what really happens in the lives of the African American servants in her town.  With the help of Aibileen and Minnie, two maids in the town of Jackson, Skeeter learns the deepest, darkest secrets of her friends and neighbors.  Through the lives of these three women, the reader laughs, cries, and has the ability to form their own opinions of the other characters without bias.  Trust me, there will be those characters you love, and those you love to hate. 

I loved every aspect of this story.  Stockett wasn't afraid to implant in her characters the biases and prejudices that would have been the norm in the South in the 1960's.  Hilly Holbrook, the most biased woman in the story, has some of the best scenes in the novel.  And Mrs. Celia Foote, along with Ms. Skeeter, show the beginnings of the changes America was going through by forming their own opinions before judging those around them.  These characters all have so much depth.  Each one, like every person you will encounter throughout your life, has their own story.  And Stockett weaves all those stories together beautifully. 

She was not afraid to take chances with her characters either.  I was pleased to see that, although it was a sub-plot, she did not focus of Skeeter gaining the husband her mother so greatly desired for her.  She created strong, brave female characters, especially for the time peroid in which the book is set. 

This novel is amazing!  It is a must read for anyone and everyone.  Please do yourself a favor and pick up this book today.  And if you aren't interested in reading the book then, although it isn't out yet, go see the movie.  If it is as good as the book, it is a a necessity for the at home collection. 

I REALLY want a cupcake!

I recently finished Wicked Appetite by Janet Evanovich, and now all I can think about is how badly I want a cupcake. 

This story focuses on Lizzy Tucker, a pasty chef at a small bakery in Salem, Massachusetts.  Lizzy is living a normal life until one day when a smokin' hot blonde named Diesel struts into the bakery and tells her that she is an unmentionable.  Together, Lizzy and Diesel, must find all the SALIGIA stones which represent the seven deadly sins, and keep them from Wulf.  Lizzy and Diesel work throughout the novel to find all the stones related to gluttony.   

The story takes some unusual twists that include a one-eyed cat, a flying broom, and an incredibly crass monkey named Carl.  Told with Evanovich's usual humor, this story is a fast-paced read.  It is a good summer read, but I don't know if it would be my first choice of novels to pick up off the shelf.  Since it is such a quick read, I finished the novel in just one day, but even though it ended in a cliff-hanger, I didn't find myself wanting more.  And I usually hate when a novel ends in a cliff hanger! 

It is obvious that Evanovich wishes for this to be a new series of novels, and I can't help but compare it to similar novels by J.R. Ward.  Ward writes "The Fallen Angel" series.  Her series had more action the Evanovich's  and it causes the reader to turn the pages at a faster pace.  Ward also has more romance in her novels, and she has the ability to create loveable characters in which ever characters she can think up.  The characters Evanovich has created in this novel are likeable, but I didn't find myself rooting for them.  I was only reading to complete the story.  I could have cared less whether the good guys won or lost.            

This novel is a great read for the beach or your summer vacation because it is such an easy, fast-paced read.  It is also great for lover's of Janet Evanovich.  You will had a hard time not noticing her characteristic humor throughout this new novel.  I just don't see this new novel having the success of Evanonvich's other popular series.   

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolirck

Ralph Truitt places an add in a Chicago newspaper looking for a wife to keep him company in the harsh Wisconsin winters.  Truitt, a very wealthy man at the turn of the century, has many deep, dark secrets which are the reasons for his loneliness.  Cathrine Land, who answers his add, has many secrets of her own.  Her largest secret is that she is solely after Truitt to murder him and leave herself a wealthy widow. Throughout the first harsh winter of the relationship, Truitt and Land's secrets start to come out.       

A Reliable Wife  is marketed as a "psychological thriller".  I can't see the thriller aspect in the novel, but I did see a psychological love story unfold in a very unconventional way.  I know what you are thinking, "What is a psychological love story?"  Well, I would describe it was a love story that has many different sides to it.  It has secrets, and both good and bad times.  It plays with the minds of the characters so that they do not know which way to feel throughout the story.  It is a love story that keeps everyone guessing until the end.  

The novel opens to a mystery that the reader already knows the answer too.  But as the novel unfolds, the reader learns new bits and pieces of the mystery.  Some of them you can guess and some of them you cannot.  These pieces create an intricate layering of story aspects that develop the final conclusion.  To me this is my favorite kind of mystery to read.  I want to keep reading until the characters figure out what I already know.  It allows the reader to come to their own conclusions about what the characters final reactions will be.    

And these characters have such deep personalities that you never know which way they will turn.  The story's narration is told in an omniscient point of view, so the reader never knows that the characters are actually thinking.  Only after they have made their decision and acted upon it, does the reader find out about the character's ACTUAL motives.  Throughout this story, the characters grow and change.  Some of them change so drastically that the reader is shocked by their actions in good and bad ways. 

This novel really surprised me.  I was shocked to see the love story unfold.  It was not the normal mushy love story that makes you cry and hope your husband brings home roses.  It was a real love story.  A love story with ups and downs.  Happy times and bad.   I would recommend this book to anyone.  But when you begin, keep an open mind because this book will surprise you to the very last page. 

10th Anniversary by James Patterson

In an earlier posting on this blog, I wrote a letter to James Patterson explaining to him that I felt he was only out to make a buck now a days.  Well, after reading this book I am not sure if I still believe that.  10th Anniversary is the new novel in the Women's Murder Club series.  This amazing series not only spawned 10 books, but a television show on ABC!  (Granted the show only lasted one season, but I don't think it had anything to do with the storyline.  There are just a lot of murder shows on television.)

The Women's Murder Club series chronicles the lives of Lindsay Boxer, a homicide detective; Claire Washburn, the medical examiner and Cindy Thomas, a newspaper reporter.  In the first two books, Jill Bernhardt is the assistant district attorney, but in this novel, Yuki Castellano assumes the role.  These four women work together, both in their personal lives and in their professions, to solve the biggest crimes in the San Francisco area.    

Each novel is a new mystery, and as the series progresses so do the characters.  As a reader and as a woman, I am able to relate to these characters like no others.  They live normal lives, have normal relationships, and have the same everyday problems any woman would have.  10th Anniversary  takes a break from the traditional mystery/thriller and places the mystery in the background.  This novel focuses on growing the characters personalities and taking them to places where they have never been.  Upon first reading this novel, I felt a little let down, because I expected to be sitting on the edge of my seat the entire time.  Now that I have left the story sink in, I am quite pleased with the novel.  I am so excited that these characters can now take on new heights!

I know that I have left the major storyline out of this review.  Don't look to far into that.  The mystery in this novel was good, and avid mystery readers will enjoy it; but this was not the purpose of this novel in my mind.  I would recommend that a reader begins this series with the first novel, 1st To Die, and work their way up to 10th Anniversary.  It is only by starting at the beginning that a reader can see the dramatic changes that have taken place in these characters.  If you don't choose to read the series in this way, than you can still be captivated by the mysteries and thrills in the previous novels.

Novels like this one are the reason that I fell in love with James Patterson. If he keeps writing like this, I will have to eat my words.  I look foreward to being able to grab a fork and dig in!

http://www.jamespatterson.com/books_wmc.php      This link will take you to James Patterson's personal website.  On this page, you will be able to find synopsis of all ten of the Women's Murder Club novels.  ENJOY!