The Secret Life Of CeeCee Wilkes by Diane Chamberlain

In 1977, pregnant Genevieve Russell disappeared. Twenty years later, her remains are discovered and Timothy Gleason is charged with murder. But there is no sign of the unborn child.

CeeCee Wilkes knows how Genevieve Russell died, because she was there. And she also knows what happened to the missing infant, because two decades ago she made the devastating choice to raise the baby as her own. Now Timothy Gleason is facing the death penalty, and she has another choice to make. Tell the truth, and destroy her family. Or let an innocent man die in order to protect a lifetime of lies…

I picked this up on a whim at a book sale and I am so glad I did. It was a quick (even at 522 pages!) and interesting read.

CeeCee Wilkes is a 16 year old girl who has lost her mother and never knew her father. She is surviving on her own as a waitress trying to raise money to get into college. One day Tim, a handsome and charming college student, walks into the diner and changes her life. CeeCee is blinded by love and the wonderful things Tim tells her and she does anything to hold onto him, even if it means going against her better judgement. After one bad decision her life spins out of control and turns upside-down.

Chamberlain's writing is gripping and intricate. She puts you inside the characters heads, you feel everything they do. The book flows so well that 100 pages seem to go buy in minutes. I would have finished this within 24 hours if I weren't sick and needed sleep.

The story is unbelievable at times but not over the top. I love the depth of CeeCee's character. You see the struggles she goes through on a day to day basis and how much she grows over the years.

The only thing I really have an issue with is the lack of depth in the daughters character. She has a few chapters in the book dedicated to her character but I never felt the depth. I was annoyed with her more than I felt compassion for her, which is what you should feel given what happens in the story.

Other than that, I loved this book. It is definitely a page turner. I will be looking into more of this authors writing.

4.5 out of 5 stars.

BUY IT HERE: The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes

The Uncoupling by Meg Wolitzer

When the elliptical new drama teacher at Stellar Plains High School chooses for the school play Lysistrata-the comedy by Aristophanes in which women stop having sex with men in order to end a war-a strange spell seems to be cast over the school. Or, at least, over the women. One by one throughout the high school community, perfectly healthy, normal women and teenage girls turn away from their husbands and boyfriends in the bedroom, for reasons they don't really understand. As the women worry over their loss of passion, and the men become by turns unhappy, offended, and above all, confused, both sides are forced to look at their shared history, and at their sexual selves in a new light.

The premise of this book is what drew me in, a modern day Lysistrata! It had so much potential but just flopped in the end.

When the new drama teacher picks Lysistrata as the fall play the women of Stellar Plains are put under a spell. They all start to turn away from the men in their lives. One by one relationships start to crumble, some just end, and no one knows why.

That is pretty much all there is to this book. The beginning was good. It drew me in and made me want to know more about the characters, they were interesting. Wolitzer is great at details and you get a sense of all the characters. In the end, though, they all lacked the depth that I crave. I want to read a story and connect with the characters, feel what they feel. There was none of that in this story. Plus, there were just too many characters, they all started to blend and it was hard to remember who was who as the story progressed.

Toward the middle the story began to jump around too much and became inconsistent. Also, the climax was almost nonexistent and the ending was terrible and predictable. Overall the book lacked excitement and drama.

I would definitely skip this book.

2 out of 5 stars.



BUY IT HERE:  The Uncoupling

Play Dead by Anne Frasier

With her newest novel, Anne Frasier will really take your breath away... Watch your back, Elise. No one understands the dark side of Savannah better than homicide detective Elise Sandburg. As an infant, she was thought to be the daughter of a famous root doctor-and was abandoned in an ancient Low Country cemetery. Growing up, she was haunted by her possible connection to the local Gullah culture-with its spells and voodoo. Now, however, there's a twisted killer on the loose, and the city is gripped by terror. Someone is using a substance that leaves its victims in a state that mimics death. As their bodies slip into an irreversible paralysis, their minds remain fully, shockingly awake. Before you wake up dead. Step by step, Elise's relentless chase for the killer draws her straight back into the world she most fears. And now, to stop a murderer, she must confront the truth about her own past in ways she never could have imagined...

This was a very quick, fast-paced and thrilling read.

Elise Sandburg and David Gould are detectives in Savannah, Georgia. When they get a case of the dead rising they start digging into the deep dark past of the city and it's residents. How are these corpses coming back to life? Someone is using a drug to simulate death in the victims. But who?

I read this book very quickly. I would start reading and before I knew it I had read 100 pages. Frasier does a fantastic job of keeping you enthralled in the story from the very first chapter. It is a great mystery with supernatural undertones. It kept me on my toes. At one point I thought I had it all completely figured out but then it threw in another curve ball and took me by surprise.

The writing is good, not profound but it keeps you interested. The main characters are a bit one-dimensional. I still felt myself caring about them though. I liked the fact that their lives are laid out, piece by piece throughout the story. I only wish Frasier would have went a bit more detailed with the mystery surrounding one of the other major characters.

My biggest disappointment of the book was that it was not at all creepy to me. I never got that chill down my spine or felt like someone was watching me, which is what I expected from all the blurbs about the book. Maybe it's because I read so many mystery/thriller/supernatural books that this one seemed tame.
Either way, I recommend this book if you like a fast, fun, mystery/thrillers.

4 out of 5 stars

BUT IT HERE: Play Dead

The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

Matt's last name is Alacrán, which means that he belongs to a powerful family that controls the drug Farms between the U.S. and the former Mexico. But Matt's different; he's a clone in a world filled with dangers for his kind. His only protection from the brutal surroundings are El Patron, the elderly patriarch/drug lord kingpin from which he was made, his caretaker Celia, and a bodyguard who has been assigned to him. Things fall apart when Matt learns the real reason for his creation and he makes a harrowing escape to a promising -- yet frighteningly insecure -- world.

This book was not without faults but the story itself was well thought out and original.

Matt Alacran is the clone of El Patron, a drug lord who is 140 years old and has found the secret to cheating death. They live in a world where clones are thought of as livestock, not as real people. El Patron saves Matt's brain (which is illegal in clones), gives him a home and an education but in the end Matt realizes he is just around for spare parts. The boy takes in a few friends who help him try to escape. He then enters a new world that is amazing and confusing.


The concept of the book is great. Farmer really makes you think about the issues of human rights and what it means to be human. It is very well written and fascinating. I was leery about it at first but it sucked me in very quickly.


I wouldn't call 'Scorpions' straight science fiction, it is more light science fiction. It has the basics of all great science fiction books but it doesn't go over the top like a lot of them do. It is believable that this could be our world not too long from now. 


There are a few flaws in the story, though. It has plot holes throughout, the climax of the book was very anticlimactic, the last 3rd of the story seemed rushed and the ending was very abrupt. I think Farmer could have added another 100+ pages to the book and gone more in depth with it. Doing that would have made the book that much better. Overall, I think the good outweighs the bad.


Overall it was a good book and if it sounds like a book you would like, I recommend picking it up.


4 out of 5 stars.





BUY IT HERE: The House of the Scorpion

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

Nine-year-old Oskar Schell has embarked on an urgent, secret mission that will take him through the five boroughs of New York. His goal is to find the lock that matches a mysterious key that belonged to his father, who died in the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11. This seemingly impossible task will bring Oskar into contact with survivors of all sorts on an exhilarating, affecting, often hilarious, and ultimately healing journey

This book made me laugh, it made me cry and it made me angry. Mostly it made it hard to breath. All these emotions were felt in 200 pages. That, to me, makes a book incredible.

Oskar Schell lost his father in the September 11th terrorist attacks. He has spent months since then in constant depression. During one of his sleep deprived nights he goes into his fathers closet and finds an envelope, in a vase, that contains a key. The envelope contains one word: "Black." From that moment he is determined to find the lock that the key opens.


Oskar is an amazing little boy. He is knowledgeable beyond his years. He is independent and strong-willed but also very confused by life. It is hard, at times, to remember that he is only 9 years old. I fell in love with him instantly.

In between Oskar's story is the story of his grandparents, told by each respectively. There were times where I raised my eyebrows and wondered what this had to do with anything or why would anyone tell this to their grandchild but it all came together in the end. Though it is a bit confusing at first, once all the stories are laid out it becomes very touching and emotional.

The author throws in pictures to go along with the story and different typography that I think really helps put the story together. It makes it that much more lifelike.

My only problem with the whole book was the voices between the 3 story tellers were not distinct. There was nothing to separate them except for their stories. I find it so much easier to connect in these situations when each character has their own dialect, just as people in real life do. That is the only reason I can't give it 5 stars.

In the end this is a fantastic, well imagined book and I highly recommend it.

4.5 out of 5 stars

BUY IT HERE:  Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel

The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz

In 1941, the author and six fellow prisoners of war escaped a Soviet labor camp in Yakutsk—a camp where enduring hunger, cold, untended wounds, and untreated illnesses, and avoiding daily executions were everyday feats. Their march—over thousands of miles by foot—out of Siberia, through China, the Gobi Desert, Tibet, and over the Himalayas to British India is a remarkable statement about man’s desire to be free. 

I picked this book up when I heard about the movie coming out. It sounded like an amazing book and I am always intrigued by stories like this.

Slavomir Rawicz was captured by the Russians in 1939 and eventually sent to a labor camp deep in Siberia. While there, and with help from an unexpected source, he plans his escape. In 1942, he gets 6 other men to join him and they set their plan in motion. After their escape they make an incredible journey through Siberia, the Gobi desert and the Himalayas, eventually walking 3,000 miles to British India and their freedom.

This is an incredible story. Rawicz's accounts of what happened in the Gulag then later when he was sent to the labor camp are amazing and heartbreaking. He endured so much torture and physical suffering it is remarkable that he made it through. The writing, though, can be very monotonous and leaves a lot of drama and suspense out that should be there from the events that take place. It is told as if he is emotionally detached from the entire thing, which is hard to believe when you think of all he went through. I devoured the first 100 pages or so but struggled off and on after that.

After reading it I wasn't quite convinced it was all real. Some of the accounts are unbelievable and not in the way that makes books hard to put down. I did some research and there seems to be a great debate whether these things really happened to Rawicz or not. There are reports that another man came forward and said it is really his story and the BBC has even reported that there are documents stating Rawicz was actually released early in 1942.

Whether the story is true or not it is a fascinating story. If you read the synopsis and it peaks your interest, read it. If it doesn't strike a chord with you, pass it up.

3 out of 5 stars

BUY IT HERE:  The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom by Slavomir Rawicz

The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb by Melanie Benjamin

She was only two-foot eight-inches tall, but her legend reaches out to us more than a century later. As a child, Mercy Lavinia “Vinnie” Bump was encouraged to live a life hidden away from the public. Instead, she reached out to the immortal impresario P. T. Barnum, married the tiny superstar General Tom Thumb in the wedding of the century, and transformed into the world’s most unexpected celebrity.Here, in Vinnie’s singular and spirited voice, is her amazing adventure—from a showboat “freak” revue where she endured jeering mobs to her fateful meeting with the two men who would change her life: P. T. Barnum and Charles Stratton, AKA Tom Thumb. Their wedding would captivate the nation, preempt coverage of the Civil War, and usher them into the White House and the company of presidents and queens. But Vinnie’s fame would also endanger the person she prized most: her similarly-sized sister, Minnie, a gentle soul unable to escape the glare of Vinnie’s spotlight.

Before reading this book I had very little knowledge of Mercy Lavinia Warren Bump Stratton but I had heard of her husband. After reading the book I have fallen in love with her.

Vinnie was born in 1841 in Massachusetts at a normal 6lbs. Her family soon noticed she wasn't a normal child. Around 2 years old she quit growing. At her full height she only stood 32" tall. She is never put off by her size, though. She dreams of striking out on her own and seeing the world. She tours with a group up and down the river and, although unsavory are her experiences during this time, she gets her first taste of fame. Then she writes a letter to a Mr. P.T. Barnum and her fate is set. The book chronicles the ups and downs of her life and her career including life in the limelight, her marriage to General Tom Thumb and her love for her little (both in age and in height) sister Minnie.


At times it is easy to forget that this is a novel not an actual autobiography. Ms. Benjamin has done her research and taken parts of it to weave this fictionalized version on Vinnie's life. It is a very entertaining story. Lavinia is a lovable character. She is strong willed and very intelligent but also, at times, can be arrogant and selfish. She is a walking contradiction and that is what made this story so real and likeable. Benjamin, also, captures the era perfectly. I could picture everything she was describing and felt as if I were transported back to the late 1800's. My biggest complaint about the book is when it ended. The author explains why she ended it when she did but I would have liked to see more of the characters life, such as her second marriage.

It is a well written and researched book and although I do have a few problems with the writing, such as repetitive terms and some big skips in time, I did enjoy this book a lot. It wasn't quite a "stay up way past my bedtime to read" book but pretty close.

4 out of 5 stars.

BUY IT HERE:  The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb: A Novel

Jesus Land by Julia Scheeres

Sinners go to: HELL. Rightchuss go to: HEAVEN. The end is neer: REPENT. This here is: JESUS LAND.
Julia Scheeres stumbles across these signs along the side of a cornfield while out biking with her adopted brother, David. It's the mid-1980s, they're sixteen years old and have just moved to rural Indiana, a landscape of cottonwood trees and trailer parks-and a racism neither of them is prepared for. While Julia is white, her close relationship with David, who is black, makes them both outcasts. At home, a distant mother-more involved with her church's missionaries than with her own children-and a violent father only compound their problems. When the day comes that high-school hormones, bullying, and a deep-seated restlessness prove too much to bear, the parents send Julia and David to the Dominican Republic-to a reform school there.

This book was recommended to me by a friend who went to one of these reform schools as a child. It was a tough read and heartbreaking to think these things happened and still do happen.

Jesus Land is the story of a girl, Julia, and her adopted brother, David, a black boy, after her family adopts him from foster care.In the book, Julia tells about their early life together. She describes a very close sibling bond. Once David and Julia move to rural Indiana, with their family, they realize that the world is a lot less of accepting of their relationship. Their family are devout Christians. Their mom and dad believe that sparing the rod will spoil the child. After a series of disasters at home, David and then Julia are shipped off to Christian reform school in the Dominican Republic.

This is a very sad book, though Scheeres tells the story so matter-of-factly that at times I found myself detaching from the story too. When telling the events in the book, Julia never comes across as whining or bathes in self-pity. She never plays the victim, so to speak. She describes herself as "numb" a lot in the book and that's how she writes the story. But she writes in the voice of her 16/17 year old self with flawlessness.

Throughout the book she tells of her almost twin-like bond with David, her adopted brother and the love they had for each other that endured racism, abuse and religious zeal.  The relationship between them is very real and endearing, going through the ups and downs that siblings go through. The relationship is tested repeatedly but they survive it all with the help of one another.

It is heartbreaking to think that a place like Escuela Caribe exists, let alone that there are 3 of them in the world. The fact that these places are still up and running, thriving even, is repulsive. I did a little research on the schools and came across the website http://nhym-alumni.org/ which has accounts from several alumni, I suggest checking it out.

This book is well told and tackles a lot of hard subjects  teenage angst, prejudice, racism, sexual abuse, physical abuse and bad parenting. I highly suggest reading it, if for no other reason than to get a glimpse into a life you couldn't imagine.

4 out of 5 stars.

Buy it here: Jesus Land: A Memoir (See all Memoirs)

Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby

Annie loves Duncan — or thinks she does. Duncan loves Annie, but then, all of a sudden, he doesn't. Duncan really loves Tucker Crowe, a reclusive Dylanish singer-songwriter who stopped making music ten years ago. Annie stops loving Duncan, and starts getting her own life.
In doing so, she initiates an e-mail correspondence with Tucker, and a connection is forged between two lonely people who are looking for more out of what they've got. Tucker's been languishing (and he's unnervingly aware of it), living in rural Pennsylvania with what he sees as his one hope for redemption amid a life of emotional and artistic ruin-his young son, Jackson. But then there's also the new material he's about to release to the world: an acoustic, stripped-down version of his greatest album, Juliet — entitled, Juliet, Naked.

This book didn't make any impression on me. I didn't hate it. I didn't love it.

The story weaves between the lives of three people. Annie is a curator of a small museum in a small British seaside town. Duncan is Annies boyfriend of 15 years and Tucker Crowe is a reclusive singer-songwriter whom Duncan is obsessed with. It starts out with Annie following Duncan around America to landmarks of Tuckers career. You can soon see their relationship is not ideal. When Crowe releases a new cd things start to really crumble with Duncan and Annie. Then, because of a review written on Duncans website, Annie and Tucker start their correspondence. From there Hornby tells a story of love, loss and regrets.


The story is mediocre and reads very much like the script of a British romantic comedy. I could actually picture certain actors playing some of the characters (Hugh Grant anyone?). It has a lot of humor in it and the charcters are well developed but once the lives of Annie and Tucker intersect it gets very boring. Where there should have been a climax and could have been a lot of great interactions it just fizzled out. I read the book fairly quickly which says something about Hornbys writing. It was lacking, though. It was a book with not a lot happening.

It was a quick, humorous read, but not one I can gush about and recommend to others.

3 out of 5 stars.

BUY IT HERE: Juliet, Naked: a novel