All posts filed under: The Authors

{Betrayal} Cover Redesign

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I‘m sure most of you have heard about this year’s Oscar winner for Best Picture: SPOTLIGHT. It’s an intense story about The Boston Globe’s special “Spotlight” team of journalists who, in the early 2000’s, investigated a decades-long conspiracy in the Catholic Church. And the book, Betrayal, is what the Spotlight team wrote after their years of award-winning investigative reporting. It’s a serious read that deserves a better cover than either of what’s currently out there. So, as I do on occasion (when having two kids under two-years-old will allow), I’ve re-designed an alternative cover for our March read. I tried to keep a subtle religious theme with the text and image column creating the shape of a cross, and then tying in the newspaper influence with the subhead copy being arranged in a way that’s similar to a newspaper column. I think if Betrayal actually hit the shelves with this cover, the book could reach a whole new audience! But, for now we’ll just keep it between us until my little ones grow up and I have …

An Unlikeable Must-Read

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Betrayal was a difficult book to read. Frankly, at times it felt like reading just a laundry list of sexual abuse crimes. Gory detail after gory detail. One after the other, after the other. You get the idea. And as I was reading my husband kept asking me, “are you liking it?” and I wouldn’t know how to answer. I’m not sure if this is a book you can “like.” It’s not one you read casually. Instead, it’s one you read out of necessity. The stories this book tells are important ones that I think everyone should know more about. To catch you up to speed, Betrayal: The Crisis in the Catholic Church was written by the Spotlight team of journalists at The Boston Globe in the early 2000’s. It unveils the Boston-area Catholic Church’s deliberate negligence and cover-up of sexual abuse crimes committed by hundreds of its clergy members, allowing them to abuse thousands of victims for decades. The book is a compilation of the 600 different Spotlight investigative reports. It’s a battery of case files, statistics, victim testimonies, and allegations. As I was reading, …

Mending a Broken Heart

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This book broke my heart over and over again. My heart broke for Eleanor, for Park, for Eleanor and Park. I was completely shattered. I was preparing myself to be totally destroyed by the ending, and then… and then came the last line of the book and I was lifted. I know Rowell was purposely vague and I am sure there are those who did not read the ending as positively as I did. But I am the eternal optimist, I’m hopeful, and I’m always searching for happy endings. So I am choosing to believe that those three words on the postcard were “I love you,” because if they weren’t, I would just simply be crushed. I know other Bookly Clubbers disagree, but I adored this book. I felt so strongly for, related to, and identified with both Eleanor and Park on so many levels that I couldn’t help but love the story. I remember being a teenager, and even a young adult to a certain extent, and wondering how it was that so-and-so felt the way they did. I also remember, like Park, feeling simultaneously protective of …

All the Feels

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Confession: I read this book months ago. While details of the story might be fuzzy, how I felt about it isn’t. I devoured this book, so consumed by the relationship of Eleanor and Park that I stayed up into the wee hours, finishing it in a couple of days. I recommended it to anyone who hadn’t already been charmed by the quirky characters and the innocence of first love. This is why I love books; how it resonates – or doesn’t – with the reader varies from person to person. It’s dependent on their life experiences, who they are, what they believe, what makes them feel. For Katie C., this book didn’t resonate, a totally legitimate reaction. But for me, it took hold within the first few pages. I was what some might call a late bloomer. I didn’t have my first kiss until I was 16, my first boyfriend until 17. This kind of young love that bonded Eleanor and Park is something I’m unfamiliar with. And that might be the reason it fascinated …

Just not that into… this book

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This was the first Rainbow Rowell book I’ve read. But I’ve been hearing a lot about her recently. Similar to John Green, I feel like her books have found sudden popularity in the YA world. So with all the hype, especially surrounding Eleanor & Park, I was definitely excited to read this one. I’ll be honest, I’ve never been a huge fan of YA books. Well, let me explain. A book like this is not typically my first choice, but when I have read YA books I’ve really enjoyed them. I’m not ashamed to admit I’ve read all the Hunger Games, Twilight and Divergent series, and loved each and every one of them. Anyway, I didn’t have SUPER high expectations for Eleanor & Park, but I did expect to enjoy it… unfortunately, I was wrong. Maybe it’s because I didn’t fall in love until I was in my 20’s, or maybe because I never had a high school relationship, or because by the time I was 18 I’d moved six times and never quite experienced a typical adolescence, but I couldn’t …

Shopping the Periphery

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Truth time: This book wasn’t as compelling as I expected it to be. I bought it years ago, and because of my habit of buying books (much) faster than I can read them, it sat on my shelf until just a couple weeks ago. I bought it not long after it was first published, when this idea – that how we were being told to eat might not be the best way to eat – first became popular. We clearly still have a long way to go in terms of changing the accessibility and affordability of whole foods in our society. But I like to think that at least a little bit of what Pollan talked about in In Defense of Food has taken hold. Organic fruits and vegetables are a tiny bit more readily available; farmers’ markets have risen in popularity; trans fats have disappeared; more and more discussions are being had about sugar and good fats and whole grains. Some progress has been made. What I found most fascinating, if not a little …

Logic, Meet Eating

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One thing I appreciate more than possibly anything else is logic. This may sound obvious, but I just simply enjoy a well-reasoned and thought out argument. To that point that I have been known to change my mind multiple times about an issue (sometimes in the span of one discussion) simply because of logical, articulate points. That said, it should come as no surprise that I loved Pollan’s book. Full disclosure: I started reading In Defense of Food almost two years ago, loved it, got distracted by a few fiction reads, and, since I felt like I had pretty much grasped the concept of the book, never returned. Until now. I reread and continued reading and found myself just as impressed as the first time. It is such a good reminder of the fact that SO MUCH of what we as Americans are ingesting is not even food. Pollan points this out throughout the book and it’s worth repeating: we are not eating food. We are eating food product. I was about to make a …

Confused Eater

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Hi all, long time no talk to. I hope your holidays were merry and bright… and you came away with plenty of new books to enjoy in 2016! Over the holidays I finished our December / January read: In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. Our goal with this selection was to learn something new for the new year. And that I did. Pollan’s book was a very interesting look into our eating habits and the food trends we’re exposed to as modern Americans. Pollan sheds light on the food industry as just another profitable business. If you think about it, this makes sense. Those operating in food-based industries are part of a competitive marketplace just like any other. So, as a result, producers make claims and alter their products to out sell the “other guy.” Although it’s a disheartening view, it’s good to be aware of this reality and to think before we eat. However, reading this book left me feeling more overwhelmed than anything. There are so many layers to the food industry, true and …

Underwhelmed

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When I read Katie C.’s review last week, I immediately texted the other Bookly Clubbers and said “uh oh, my review is going to look a lot like yours!” I started Tell the Wolves I’m Home on November 10. I didn’t finish until yesterday, which for me is a very long read. Usually, I pick up a book and in a few sittings over the course of 3-4 days, I’m done. I just couldn’t get into this one. Don’t get me wrong, Brunt’s style is enjoyable, the characters were well-developed, and the idea of the book, the story, was touching and I should have love it. However, I didn’t. I wanted to be on June’s side, but I couldn’t relate to her – even when I put myself back in my 14-year-old shoes, I didn’t feel a connection to her. Her relationship with Greta was fascinating, but Greta herself made me so angry. I think if I had understood Greta’s point of view better, if she had narrated for a bit or we got to “read her …

Don’t know why I couldn’t put it down

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Tell The Wolves I’m Home was a really fast read… I think I finished it in about a week (and being 9 months pregnant with a toddler, that’s crazy fast for me). But I’m not sure why. I can’t say I loved the story all that much, or really related to any of the characters. And nothing tremendously dramatic happened during the 355 pages. But I’d sit down to read it and blow through 70 pages at a time. So, there must have been something gripping about it. I think it was the sisters’ relationship that kept me going. Honestly I didn’t really understand the Finn and June history or relationship (it felt a little dramatic for dramatic’s sake). But I liked watching the evolution between Greta and June. Although I wish they’d let us under the veil of what was going on with Greta a little more, but I guess that’s for our imaginations to figure out. And I think the friendship between Toby and June was well developed, and helped push the story along …