I read a book.
I started and finished a book.
It's been so long since I took the time to do that I wasn't sure I still knew how.
Good news - I do.
While we're on that subject, let's chat about
Blogger Book Club's January 2014 book choice.
The Husband's Secret.
I want to start by saying
I really and truly liked this book! I do recommend it and I do hope those of you who haven't read it decide to read it. It was a pretty quick read. Once I got into it I finished it that night. I read pretty fast, but still I think this is a quick read. Even slower readers would finish it in a weekend.
GoodReads Summary -
My Darling Cecilia
If you're reading this, then I've died . . .
Imagine your husband wrote you a letter, to be opened after his death. Imagine, too, that the letter contains his deepest, darkest secret - something so terrible it would destroy not just the life you built together, but the lives of others too. Imagine, then, that you stumble across that letter while your husband is still very much alive . . .
Cecilia Fitzpatrick achieved it all - she's an incredibly successful business woman, a pillar of her small community and a devoted wife and mother. Her life is as orderly and spotless as her home. But that letter is about to change everything, and not just for her: Rachel and Tess barely know Cecilia - or each other - but they too are about to feel the earth-shattering repercussions of her husband's devastating secret.
The Good -
I loved the dialogue! I also loved the way this book was written. I hate using the term "witty" to describe something, because it feels so generic, but it was very witty! It made even the tough parts very relatable.
My favorite characters? The supporting cast! I didn't mind the 3 main women necessarily, but for some reason I found myself much more interested in many of the supporting characters.
I felt that in all 3 of the main character's stories the author did a good job of connecting them
(especially later) by having all of them question their actions and the actions of those close to them. A big theme of the book is "What would you do?" and I think that question linked Cecilia, Tess, and Rachel more than almost anything else in the novel.
Other than the witty writing, my favorite things about this novel are the characters. I wouldn't have minded a liiiiittle bit more character development in some places, but that's because I've read books with amazing character development and I'm completely unable to please now.
I loved Rachel's storyline. Her grief felt real and leaped from the page and gripped me tight and she's really the story that pushed the storyline for me.
The Bad -
First of all, I think my expectations were far too high. This is a best
selling book and it made many, many lists. It was in People magazine and Entertainment Weekly and it was a New York Times bestseller. I know I had built it up
in my head to be some huge book of our generation with some huge theme that would completely change my outlook on life. Not so much. So I was a little letdown by the whole thing, but again, I think this might be my own fault.
Now, I saw the "big twist" coming. In fact, most of the story was pretty predictable for me. Not necessarily predictable in a bad way, just predictable in the "my mouth was never hanging open" way.
Also, I did not get into this book immediately. It's written using 3 different character's viewpoints. Every chapter is written a different character's perspective. It was a smidge annoy at first, but I quickly got over that. The problem was that the author teased this letter and you knew if you had read the back cover of the book that this letter was going to be huge. The problem is that you don't find out what the letter says until halfway through the book, so until then I almost didn't care too much about anything else. Actually, I was only sucked in because of Chapter 3. In Chapter 3 you meet Rachel and holy moly, her story sucked me in and I have no idea why.
I did not like the Epilogue. At all. It actually annoyed me and was dangerously close to ruining the entire book for me. It felt so unnecessary and just so.. I can't think of a word to describe it. I was legitimately cranky while I read the Epilogue because it didn't need to be there at all. Honestly I wish I hadn't read that and I had just closed the book after the last chapter. It had basically suggested a ton of alternate endings and ahhh oh my goodness I can't even write about it because it annoys me so much. I just did not like the Epilogue. There you go.
The Undecided -
The novel is metaphor heavy. From Pandora's Box to The Berlin Wall to Tupperware? I love a good metaphor! Seriously, I do! But I did feel like the author might have been pushing the metaphors on the reader a bit heavily. I prefer more of the subtle metaphor technique. So this is just a personal preference thing maybe?
Also, I'm not married. I know, news flash! I think that maybe when I do get married and maybe after I've been married a few years I should read this again
(minus the stupid epilogue) and maybe then I'll be able to relate to some of the other themes in the book. I understood them now, of course, but I didn't really relate.
Final Thoughts -
You will rarely hear me say this and I can't believe I'm about to, but I hope someone makes this book into a movie. For the first time ever, I think I would LOVE this movie, even though I only liked this book. I'm definitely a book over movie girl, but this book has the potential to be a fabulous movie. Oh, and if they ditched the Epilogue bullshit in the movie, it'd be even better. :)
WHAT DID YOU THINK?!
Link up below and let me know! I know a lot of you are going to disagree with me, which makes me excited to read your reviews!
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Now let's talk February's book choice.
I spent a long time, far too long, trying to figure out BBC's February book.
I was trying to go for either a love or romance story or something ironic about love and romance. Ya know? Being the month of love and all that.
I just could not find a book I really wanted to read that fit my criteria. On the plus side, I did figure out March and possibly April's book choices.
Anyway, then I had a huge chat with myself and decided it was time that I read a light, easy, funny book. The books I used to read and finish 3 or 4 in a week, every week.
Now I present to you February 2014's Blogger Book Club book choice...
The first night after
Caroline moves into her fantastic new San Francisco apartment, she
realizes she's gaining an intimate knowledge of her new neighbor's
nocturnal adventures. Thanks to paper-thin walls and the guy's athletic
prowess, she can hear not just his bed banging against the wall but the
ecstatic response of what seems (as loud night after loud night goes by)
like an endless parade of women. And since Caroline is currently on a
self-imposed dating hiatus, and her neighbor is clearly lethally
attractive to women, she finds her fantasies keep her awake even longer
than the noise. So when the wallbanging threatens to literally bounce
her out of bed, Caroline, clad in sexual frustration and a pink
baby-doll nightie, confronts Simon Parker, her heard-but-never-seen
neighbor. The tension between them is as thick as the walls are thin,
and the results just as mixed. Suddenly, Caroline is finding she may
have discovered a whole new definition of neighborly...
In a delicious mix of silly and steamy, Alice Clayton dishes out a hot and hilarious tale of exasperation at first sight...
I
KNOW that a lot of you just checked out and you're not going to read February's book choice.
That's unfortunate, but I think it is perfect for February and the Month of Love.
Wink wink.
I
warned you guys there were going to be changes. Welcome to the first glimpse.
We're linking up February's BBC book choice on
Friday, February 28th.
Be there or be square.
