Nine Perfect Strangers

Nine Perfect Strangers
by Liane Moriarty

Liane Moriarty is one of my favorite authors. I'd been eagerly looking forward to starting this book. It did not disappoint.  

Much of this story is a character study of nine different people at a health spa. An author, a lawyer, a family of three, a wealthy young couple, and so on. Their different stories unfold during their time at the spa while the spa "experience" becomes even more unusual.  Nothing is what they expected or bargained for up to a point where their collective situation becomes unbearable. 

And I had to wonder all along, just who is this owner of the spa? Is she who/what she says she is? Is her desire to help sincere? Or is she someone very sinister? 

I give Nine Perfect Strangers four of five shots. 

A Separate Peace

A Separate Peace
by John Knowles

I really wanted to love this book, or at the very least like it. It's been on my bucket list forever as a classic I wanted to, needed to read. 

I was simply bored to tears. I could not find enough to make me care about the characters or their lives. Perhaps they just didn't come to life for me, I don't know. I was more than halfway through the book before I gave it up.  And I hate giving up on books!

Before giving it up, I began flipping through 5-10 pages at a time to stop and read and hopefully find something that would make me want to keep going, something that said, "Keep reading - this is what you're waiting for!" 

Sadly, I never found it. 

Just one of five shots. 

The Woman in the Window

The Woman in the Window (Audio Version)
by A. J. Finn

As the title suggests this book in reminiscent of Hitchcock's Rear Window.  A woman living alone with agoraphobia spends her days spying on her neighbors and counseling others online. Of course she witnesses a crime and tries to convince the authorities that what she saw was real, despite all the evidence against it. There are other factors at play here which include her tenant who rents out the lower portion of her house, her husband and daughter who have apparently moved away, and her online clients. 

I found this story to be suspenseful and as with any suspenseful book, tried to work out what was "really" happening.  

The narrator did a good job with this book but I think I would have enjoyed the
"climatic ending" more as a reader than a listener. It's one of the drawbacks of audio books in my opinion. Either I really connect with the narrator or I don't. 

I liked this book. I give it three of five shots. 

Past Reviews

This is simply the list of books by title that I have read and reviewed through this blog site. If you wish to see what I had to say, including any comments of my followers, just click on the book title.

Books reviewed 2013 through 2016 are here.
Books reviewed prior to 2013 are here.

• "Party of Two" by Jasmine Guillory (July 1, 2022)
• "The Summer Place" by Jennifer Weiner (June 2, 2022)
• "The Sewing Machine" by Natalie Fergie (May 31, 2022)
• "The Mortician's Daughter" by Nan Higgins (March 19, 2020)
• "Little Disasters" by Sarah Vaughan (March 15, 2020)
• "The Thing About Alice" by Jean-Luke Swanepoel (March 8, 2020)
• "Love and Other Consolation Prizes" by Jamie Ford (February 29, 2020)
• "First Frost" by Sarah Addison Allen (May 27, 2019)
• "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern (April 7, 2019)
• "Nine Perfect Strangers" by Liane Moriarty (March 22, 2019)
• "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles (March 16, 2019)
• "The Woman in the Window" by A.J. Finn (March 5, 2019)
• "The Unseen World" by Liz Moore (February 14, 2019)

The Unseen World

The Unseen World 

by Liz Moore

WOW!  I can't believe it's been three years since I've written a book review. It's not like I haven't been reading.... I guess I just haven't been writing. I'm not going to try to fill in what I've missed, my memory is too bad for that.  

Truth. 

The Unseen World is a story that spans the life of Ada, a young girl, into adulthood and beyond.  She is a child being raised in unconventional ways by a single father.  There comes a time when her father begins experiencing early onset Alzheimer's and her young life begins to change.  

Along with Ada's struggles to try to cure or control her father's Alzheimer's and then to fit into a world she doesn't feel she is a part of, we share her anger and hopelessness.  And worse is discovering that her father isn't who she (or anyone else) believes he is.  But that knowledge doesn't provide the answer to who he actually is.

We time jump between her present, her father's past and along into her future as she works out the puzzle of who her father is and ultimately who she is.  

This story also includes the progress of our digital/electronic/cyber world from it's infancy to beyond what we know today.  Although it is integral to the story it also upsets me in a way that the movie IA upset me.  That artificial intelligence could take on human attributes and ultimately find itself alone.  In some obscure way that disturbs me. 

I listened to this book as a audio download from Downpour.  I give it four of five shots. 

Songs without Words

Songs Without Words
by Ann Packer

This book took me about six months, maybe longer to read.  It's definitely not a "can't-put-it-down" book.  But I did want to finish it so I can't say I hated it, either. 

The story centers around two women who have been friends since childhood.  Their adult lives are very different from each other, but they have remained friends.  An event in one of their lives stresses the friendship to the point of breaking. 

The story is more of a psychological portrait of the two women and their relationships. I kept waiting for the big bang to come but it never really did.  Even the resolution of the story was captured within the last five (or less) pages and brought the book to a fizzle of an ending. Not my favorite read. 

I give this book a two of five shots rating.  

 

Calling Me Home

Calling Me Home
by Julie Kibler

In Texas, an elderly Caucasian woman, Isabelle, asks her much younger African-American hair dresser to drive her to Cincinnati for a funeral.  It appears to be a rather odd request but Dorrie agrees to take some time off and do it.  

During their time on the road the story weaves through Isabelle's past and Dorrie's present. Isabelle grew up in Northern Kentucky just across the river from Cincinnati.  She and a local black boy fell in love and planned to share their lives together.  While Isabelle's story unfolds we also learn about Dorrie's life as a single mom and her issues learning to trust.  

I was fascinated with the story of the "illicit" love in the early 1900's. While the black boy was so aware of all the horrible things that could only come of their love, Isabelle was so naive and could only imagine they'd have a wonderful life together no matter how far they had to run from the world to have it. 

All throughout the trip to Cincinnati, Isabelle withholds who's funeral she is attending. From the stories Isabelle is telling it's easy to make a guess, but don't be surprised if it's not who you think. 

I really enjoyed this story and give it 5 of 5 shots.