4 Stars for Colleen Hoover's Verity

Verity by Colleen Hoover will keep you on the edge of your seat. The only reason I'm not giving the full five star rating is the amount of graphic sex scenes that often turned an intriguing twisted dark plot into dull monotone. I'm not sure about other ladies, but page after page of this makes me yawn. Ms. Hoover, please just give me the story and let your beautiful plot weaving do its magic.

Four Stars for Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

 

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens is a murder mystery, but at its heart it is about loneliness and the importance of human companionship. I loved the way Owens weaved in the setting alongside the characters and their motivations. That was beautiful. Crawdads is not a book you get into right away and at first I almost put it down. The character of Kya, the protagonist, is fairly flat despite the drama, and abandonment in her life. I never really got a sense of Kya feeling her emotions. The dialogue was not spectacular, and comes to my mind in a long list of "thank yous" without a lot of sincerity. However, for me, ending is everything. And this book has a spectacular ending, so all is forgiven and I highly recommend this book. 

Note: Read this book. I listened to it on audio and had to speed it up because the speaker dragged the vowels out somewhere towards the middle of the ocean. I'm from N.C. and am unaware of folks talking like that. It was a little weird. 

5 Stars for Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

It's been a long time since a book made me cry, but this book made me weep like a baby, and I flipping knew how it was going to end. Madeline Miller follows the story of Homer's Iliad, but with writing that breathes life into all that makes us human rebelling against the fate of Greek and Trojan gods. It's told from the perspective of Patroclus, lover of Achilles, and it is through him that Achilles is made into the beauty of being human rather than the coldness making up the gods. The Song of Achilles at its heart is a love story, and it is love that wins despite the gods and their cold destiny. I hope to read more of Madeline Miller soon. 

5 Stars for The Art of War by Sun Tzu

 

The Art of War by Sun Tzu is not just a "guy's book" because battle occurs everyday and being a mom by night and a teacher by day - I have to be strategic. My personal Sun Tzu quote is this: 

"If you are indulgent, but unable to make your authority felt; kind-hearted, but unable to enforce your commands; and incapable, moreover, of quelling disorder: then your soldiers must be likened to spoilt children; they are useless for any practical purpose."  

This quote more than any other makes me reflect on discipline and love and how often I'm guilty of not making my authority felt out of too much love for my birthed children. My students, who I care for deeply, are better served by Sun Tzu strategy because it is there I am consistent with policies set in place at the beginning of the school year. This quote along with...

"You have to believe in yourself."

...enables me as a leader at home and at school. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to find the leader within themselves. 

 

3 Stars for Grady Hendrix's The Final Girl Support Group

The Final Girl Support Group combines self-help advice with elements of cheesy horror slasher films. This is more of a movie than a book because a movie would cut all of the unnecessary stream of conscious Lynette (main final girl) ranting over how she is not exactly a final girl. Crazy Crissy's philosophical yin yang tirades could have been cut as well. This book felt padded like a cell you might keep Jason Voorhees inside with a big ol' butcher blade. He could never slash his way out. 

Despite the padding, I absolutely love Grady Hendrix. His writing style is different from most horror writers like King, Layman, and Little to name a few. It's more tongue in cheek which is why deep philosophical meaning lays on this book like oil on water - Lynette's ranting and Crissy's tirades. I like Hendrix to maintain his flippant irony making me giggle while taking off a few heads. He must have been trying a little something new with this fabulous concept inside the pages of The Final Girl Support Group. 

The plot was tied up nicely with perhaps a little twist due to Lynette's perspective which bounced around possibilities leading the reader down an icy road. Her limited perspective worked brilliantly for this novel.

When all is said and done, I will always read Hendrix. His concepts are out of the box fun with double edged humor turning the most gruesome scenes into a Monty Python Black Knight. 

5 Stars for These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant

These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant is a contemporary classic about ultimate sacrifice and humble beginnings. It begins in the middle filling in the past through carefully placed flashbacks. One of my favorite classics of all times is The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, another book about sacrifice, but with a heavy dose of atonement. Cooper, the dad protecting his daughter, Finch, in These Silent Woods, may feel he needs atonement for his actions to save his daughter, but he does not. It takes another character in the novel to make him see himself as Finch sees him and that is a guy with a big heart willing to sacrifice all of his own individual desires for her. This is a book that makes you believe in the beauty of human kindness and that it will continue as long as we are able to see beyond ourselves. It is a classic, and one I hope will one day be taught in the classroom alongside books like The Kite Runner. 

3 Stars for The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig is an interesting twist on parallel universes. The idea that a different you can exist somewhere else in a better or worse life is more than intriguing, which is why I picked this book up in the first place. It is true this book makes a turn towards self-help, but for me that is not such an awful turn. In fact, it fits the premise that centers around a protagonist (Nora) who is depressed in almost all of her lives. Nora, like most of us, can be self-absorbed. In the beginning I did not like her much. Nora focused too much on regrets that did not focus on anyone but Nora. This changed when she began to incorporate the feelings of her brother rather than her own. The Midnight Librarian (God, because of the statement: "I am what I am") guides her to think about her brother's feelings alongside her own. At this point, I'm thinking Nora is on her way to receiving the kind of grace only the most humble of us deserve - not. This is where my three star rating comes in to play. Yes, this book is worth reading. Yes, it makes you ponder your own self-absorbed life, but the ending did not contain the selfless grace Nora needed to find. In the end, I enjoyed this book and read it quickly. I highly recommend it simply because I think opinions will vary and it is different in a world of books that are much the same.