Review: All The Missing Girls by Megan Miranda

This book was SO good. It was one of those books that you want to blaze through so you can know how it all comes together, but I had to force myself to put it down at times because I also wanted to savor it. It was that good. The book is told in an incredibly unique and compelling format and draws you in from the very first page and weaves a gripping tale of first loves, friendship, and the cost of loyalty when it comes to those you care about most. Megan Miranda brilliant wrote the book in reverse chronological order, starting with day fifteen of Nic’s stay in Cooley Ridge and ending on day one

It’s been ten years since Nicolette Farrell left her home town and put the trauma of the disappearance of her best friend, Corinne Prescott, in her past. After the grueling searches and the brutal investigation into Corinne’s disappearance that Nic, her brother Daniel, her boyfriend Tyler, her friend Bailey, and Corrinne’s boyfriend Jackson were at the center of, she could no longer remain in the town she grew up in and continue to be suffocated by the rumors, whispers, and stares she was constantly subjected to by the fellow inhabitants  of Cooley Ridge. Cooley Ridge was the type of town that no one ever left, they just grew up and settled there like the generations before them.
After Corinne disappeared, it felt like part of Nic had disappeared with her. She and Nic had been best friends for as long as she could remember, and Corinne was the type of person who drew you in, tested you, and was both toxic and intoxicating. She was constantly pulling stunts that pushed boundaries between Nic, Bailey, Tyler, Daniel, and Jackson. When she disappeared, the detectives picked apart her life and broke her sense of mystery wide open by interrogating those closest to her. Her family was questioned and the fact that Corinne’s father was abusive was made known, and all the secret details of her life were made public, and Nic and the rest of their group were heavily interrogated and suspected to be involved or have more knowledge about what happened to Corinne that they were unwilling to share with the police. The cops never formally charged any of their suspects and her disappearance remained unsolved. The secrets that surrounded the night she disappeared haunted Nic, and she felt somewhat guilty for the resentment she still feels toward Corinne for the things that happened that night. Corinne’s presence, despite being physically gone, still felt like it surrounded her the minute she stepped back into Cooley Ridge.

When Nic left behind her hometown, she became a new person, found a new love in her lawyer fiance Everett, and a good job that lets her feel like she has really moved past her childhood and what happened with Corinne. All is good in Nic’s life until she is obligated to come back home to help with her father’s estate and help him get used to living in a nursing home and fixing up his house to sell. She helps her brother Daniel out with the logistics and while going through her father’s things she finds things that trouble her, so she decided to start looking into things and trying to ask her father questions on his more lucid days. When she sees her ex-boyfriend and first love Tyler, she is transported back to being 17 and still feels the magnetic pull he has on her and even begins to feel jealous of the young girl he is dating. Things become incredibly complicated when the girl goes missing, and the town is thrown into another whirlwind of chaos, devastation and suspicion. People didn’t exactly miss the fact that as soon as Nic reappears in town, the young, beautiful girlfriend of her ex-boyfriend has gone missing with no details guiding the investigation except for the fact that she had inquired about Corinne’s case to the local police shortly before disappearing without a trace and she just happened to be Nic and the group’s only alibi the night of Corinne’s disappearance.
Suspicions run high and again, the town in embroiled in a search and investigation. Nic feels the pressure of trying to figure out what happened to this girl in order to protect Tyler, who was the last person seen with her. It’s also because after Corinne’s disappearance, she knows people can be capable of anything.
Together with her brother Daniel, his very pregnant wife Laura, Tyler, and other people she talks to along the way, Nic feels as though it’s up to her to find out what happened to Corinne and now Annalise to protect her family. The novel’s main idea stem’s from the question, “How far are we willing to go for the ones we love?” Megan Miranda answers that expertly in an incredibly entertaining fashion.

This book is so incredibly well written, and the suspense starts to build as soon as you read the first page. With complicated, intense characters and the way small-town rumors begin to turn into fact the longer they linger, Megan Miranda crafts one of the best mysteries I’ve read in recent years. I know a lot of people lauded “The Girl On The Train” for it’s drama and suspense, but this novel surpasses its’ level of intensity and brought more heart pounding suspense that will keep you enthralled, without any of the extra padding in the story other authors sometimes use to distract from getting to the big reveal. Every detail the reader is given to absorb is put there deliberately and expertly so by the author. I sincerely recommend this book to all lovers of thriller and mystery novels, and I cannot wait to see what else Megan Miranda has in store for us readers.

Hope you all enjoyed the review,  I didn’t want to spoil the story for anyone, so I didn’t go into as much detail as I usually do with my reviews and for good reason!

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Happy New Year and happy reading!
Erin

 

 

 

 

What’s Playing Wednesdays!

Since next week I am taking a break to finish up some reviews, I thought I’d share my favorite Christmas songs with you all!

Pentatonix is one of my favorite musical groups and their Christmas songs are SO good.
This year they put out an acapella version of one of my favorite songs ever, Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen and it is hauntingly beautiful. They also have a version of Mary, Did You Know? that will give you chills, as well as a version of Little Drummer Boy that is simply stunning.
My other favorites are:

O, Holy Night – N*SYNC did a version of this on their Christmas album that has been my favorite ever since, and I can’t forget their original Christmas song: Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays. I still listen to their Christmas album to this day. It never fails to take me back to my childhood when my cousins would come over and I would force them into learning dances I choreographed to the songs on the album and they’d get bored and say, “Can we go play Barbies now?” and I’d say no then they’d tell my parents and I’d get in trouble for imprisoning them in my room and forcing them to learn dances that were awful. Cousins, I’m sorry I’m not sorry.

Carol Of The Bells is one of my favorite pieces of Christmas music as well, the strength of the music and the swells and and grand scheme of its score is just amazing.

This will surprise my friends and family members, but Taylor Swift has an original Christmas song I love called Christmases When You Were Mine that I loved immediately upon hearing it a few years ago.

I don’t even know which version of this song I like the most but Last Christmas has been covered so many times by so many people, I’ll just say, I love the song.

The newest of my favorite Christmas songs is by one of my absolute favorite artists, Kacey Musgraves called Present Without A Bow featuring Leon Bridges. I just love everything she does.

I’ve also always loved Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer. Who doesn’t? It’s such a fun song.
And I love love love Feliz Navidad. I was so happy when I took Spanish in school and actually learned the words and meanings. Now I just chuckle when I hear people trying to sing along to it while butchering the words. I was them once, too!

I’m sure I could go on naming Christmas songs I love for days, but I’ll stop here.

Check back here or on my Facebook Page or Twitter for more reviews coming next week, or possibly sooner!

Happy reading and Merry Christmas!
Erin

 

Movie Mondays: Book to Screen Adaptations!

I absolutely love Jonathan Tropper’s novels, and this one was the first one I read because I had seen the trailer for the movie and discovered that it was an adaptation so I had to read it. The novel is brilliant. Equal parts beautiful, hilarious, and tragic, Tropper takes us on a journey along with his main character Judd Foxman (changed to Altman in the movie) who has just had his life turned completely upside down. After finding his wife in bed with his boss, which leads to him losing his marriage and job in one fell swoop, he falls into a deep depression and isolates himself away from the world. He is happily ignoring the fact that’s life as he knows it is ending when a phone call changes everything.
He is informed by his sister, Wendy, that his father has just passed away after having been sick for months. He is also informed that it was the last wishes of his father that all of his children and his wife sit shiva, the Jewish tradition in which a family mourns for seven days and essentially put their lives on hold in order to mourn properly.
Coming home for Judd is always complicated, and this time it’s even more so because he hasn’t told anyone but Wendy about his impending divorce and must make up an excuse for his wife’s absence. Old tensions begin to arise as soon as Judd walks through the door of his childhood home and begins to interact with his siblings. His big sister Wendy has always been his closest sibling and confidante, and is never afraid to call Judd out on his bullshit. Paul, the oldest, was the one sibling who stayed home to help their father run the family business which has left him somewhat bitter, and his wife Annie used to date Judd prior to getting together with Paul, which is a fact that their baby brother Phillip loves to bring up because he finds it hilarious. Paul and Annie are having trouble having a baby, which is causing Annie a lot of heartache and she doesn’t feel like Paul cares as much about having a baby as she does. Phillip, the baby of the family, brings home a much older woman who obviously very wealthy which causes the family to question his motives, being that he is the family screw up. The siblings have all taken turns bailing Phillip out of his various schemes that go awry, but Phillip is desperate to show his family that he is a changed man who finally has his life together. Coming home isn’t just painful for Judd, it is more so for Wendy, who essentially lost the love of her life, Horry, when he suffered a terrible brain injury after an accident which caused him to turn into a person she no longer knew and would always have to care for like a child, leading her to leave home to pursue a life she’s not happy with. Horry is the son of their mother’s best friend and their next door neighbor, so avoiding him and the heartache seeing him brings is simply impossible. Despite loving her two children dearly, she knows that her marriage is nothing more than a marriage of convenience, affording her a lavish lifestyle which happens to include a largely absent husband.
Their mother Hilary is a well-known author, having written a non-fiction book on parenting by exploiting the childhoods of the four siblings, which is also a point of contention among the remaining members of the family. The more time the family is forced to spend together, the more they remember why they don’t see each other very often: they don’t get along. Tensions that have remained for years end up boiling over, causing intense fighting among the siblings.
While home, Judd runs into an old flame of his, Penny, who still lives in town and is still single and still very much in love with Judd. He finds himself having feelings for her again and they begin spending time together, and things are going extremely well until Judd finds out that his ex-wife Jen (Quinn in the book) is pregnant. He dismisses her and refuses to believe it’s his child, but as it turns out, his boss aka his wife’s lover is sterile and unable to have children.
Despite their dysfunction, when it comes down to it, they are always there for each other and they find comfort in the fact that even though by their respective ages they’re supposed to have their lives figured out, they each have their own issues that they need to work through and none of them have the perfect lives they so deeply wanted to prove they had.

The movie had the perfect cast, and the fact that Jonathan Tropper wrote the screenplay made it all the better. The director, Sean Levy, know for his comedic films, was able to really dig into the emotional turmoil Judd and the rest of the characters were experiencing and dealing with in their own ways. He was also able to pull the comedic moments from the dramatic scenes to make them still pack an emotional punch but also find the comedy that exists in even our most vulnerable and sad moments.
Jason Bateman was the perfect Judd and brought so much sincerity to the role, and the whole star studded cast did an amazing job bringing the characters to life.
Tina Fey as Wendy Altman was a perfect choice, and I think her ability to tap into her dramatic side as an actor surprised most people, but her comedic chops were still in full effect and brought levity to some of the heavier scenes. Corey Stoll as Paul, the bitter and somewhat cynical oldest sibling who felt like it was his duty to stay close to home and help their father run the family business who is also holding on to old grudges, was able to portray that perfectly and even show that despite his feelings he still loves his siblings. Kathryn Hahn as Annie, who played Paul wife, desperate to have a baby and that sadness and vulnerability came across the screen flawlessly. Rose Byrne as Penny was perfect as well, and she is a great actress and brought that character to life in the best way possible.
Adam Driver as Phillip was a revelation, he was genuine and he played the desperateness he feels in wanting to prove himself as something more than the family screw up. No one could have played Hilary Altman and brought the maternal presence, strength and love for her children to life the way she did.
The rest of the cast was just great, and although they cut out a few of the smaller storylines, the story didn’t suffer for it and in fact I think the movie was better because of it. I loved the movie and have watched it a ton of times, and I really hope they adapt more of Jonathan Tropper’s books and that Sean Levy directs it because he did such a great job creating the world of this film.

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Coming up, an interview with the amazing author of Dear Amy by Helen Calaghan, and reviews of All The Missing Girls by Megan Miranda and Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult.

Happy reading, and Merry Christmas!
Erin

 

 

Throwback Thursday!

 

Since I didn’t write my weekly installment of What’s Playing Wednesday because I have something special up my sleeve and would like to wait until next week to post it, I thought I’d introduce something new. This is a one time post, just to reminisce about the books I grew up reading and how they made me into the reader I am today. I spent many nights with a flashlight, reading under a sheet because it was long after my bedtime and I didn’t want to get in trouble for being up too late.

The first book I ever read by myself was Little Bear by Else Holmelund Minarik and Maurice Sendak. I loved that book, and continued to read the Little Bear series and then watch the TV show when it came out. It was the first book I ever read to my daughter, and she has now read it and she has developed quite the fondness for reading and is considered advanced for her age. Seriously, every time there is a book fair at her school, my whole family eagerly hands her money because they know how much reading does for children and how important it is for their development, and if there is one thing my parents always encouraged us kids to do, it was read. She just had a book fair recently and she came home with not 1, not 5, but 23 books. She is so my child.

Some of the other books were series like The Babysitter’s Club, which I often stole from my sister, and my favorite, The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner.

Their adventures seemed so magical to me and I ate them up. I also read some of R.L. Stein’s Goosebumps series, but I’ll admit they freaked me out. The librarian at my elementary school would give me the catalog for the book fair before it was passed out to the rest of the kids so I’d have time to pick out what I wanted and she could hold them for me. Every Christmas she’d give me a bookmark, and write a message on the back like, “Keep up your love for reading!” and I still have all of them. I’m ashamed to say I don’t remember her name, but her encouragement and her holding books for me and being such a cheerleader for my love of reading absolutely was a contributing factor that lead to my life long relationship with books.
My parents have always encouraged my reading habit as well. Any time we’d go to the mall, I’d request to go to the bookstore while my mom did her shopping and she’d find me in the bookstore after having finished her shopping with arms full of books and books being held for me at the counter. The people who worked there knew me by name and would laugh at the stack of books I’d rack up during my visits. My mom could come in, tell me to narrow it down to the ones I just HAD to have, which didn’t narrow the stacks down much, laugh and pay for the stacks of books and I’d walk out holding my mom’s hand, practically skipping and filled wth joy and excitement because I had books to read that would lead me on adventures, and take me on trips to magical worlds.

One of the first real YA authors I remember reading was Sarah Dessen. I read That Summer and was hooked. I’ve remained a loyal fan since and have read everything she’s ever written. I read it when I was about 9 or 10, and was taken by the way she told the story and how beautiful it was. I was probably a little young for it, but I was hungry for more and read Someone Like You and I knew I would read every word this woman would ever write.

Sarah Dessen led me to discover Ann Brashares and her lovely books, which led to a love for Young Adult Fiction that I still, at age 28, have not been able to shake.
Sarah Dessen was where it all started, so from reader to author, THANK YOU!

Somewhere in there I started a love affair with Mary Higgins Clark books and I am still a loyal reader of hers as well. The first I ever read was Loves Music, Loves To Dance, which horrified and excited me at the same time and I knew I had to read more. I have every book she has ever written, aside from her Christmas novels, and am still amazed at her ability to write such amazing novels despite having written so many.

There are so many authors who I have to thank for inspiring my love of books, but these are the main players. Thank you authors for your contribution to my childhood, adolescence, and now my continued love for books as an adult.

Hope you all enjoyed this little walk down memory lane, and continue to follow the blog, or leave comments telling me about your favorites as a kid. Be sure to follow my Books, Music, and All Things Written Facebook Page or follow me on Twitter to keep up with all my posts.

Happy reading, and Merry Christmas!
Erin

Movie Monday: Book to Screen Adaptations!

This week’s Movie Monday belongs to one of the best adaptations of a book to movie I’ve ever seen and have always loved.

Quick story on my history with this book, first of all: I went to a private Christian school and we weren’t allowed to read this book as part of our curriculum because of the language and the subject matter. So, I took it upon myself to buy and read this book when I was in 8th grade. We were on a road trip to Louisiana, and of course I needed reading material. I read the book quickly, finishing it with tears in my eyes and with a new respect for a book I’d always heart about but never actually read. The brilliance of this book is that it’s told from a child’s perspective, so it gets away with saying some of the things it does and puts things in such simple terms that it’s impossible not to agree and see the powerful message the story holds. Harper Lee is a folk hero to most for her depiction of the era and how people of color were treated and how standing up for what you believe in is never wrong. There are so many strong and powerful thematic elements to this book, that you’d think a movie would never do it justice. When I told my dad that I had read the book, he told me there was a movie, and I scoffed but he encouraged me to see it.
Believing that there was no way the movie could even touch the book, I watched it, but was amazed at how well Gregory Peck played Atticus Finch and how well Scout was depicted, and just how well the movie as a whole was done. Sure, it’s not perfect, movie adaptations never are. However, given the current political and personal climate in our world today, the messages of this book and movie still hold up and has lessons to teach us.

I’m sure some disagree with me and don’t think the movie was all that great, but given the technology at the time, and the fact that a movie studio even decided to make it at the time they did, it’s pretty astounding.

I tried to read Go Set A Watchman but I didn’t like the Atticus that was portrayed, nor the way Scout looked at her father, basically, I wanted another To Kill A Mockingbird, but that isn’t what that book is. Harper Lee was an amazing writer, and her story has meant so much to many people, that I think we can just cherish Mockingbird and celebrate it as the wonderful piece of literature it is, and for the amazing movie it spawned.

Hope you all enjoyed!
Erin

 

What’s Playing Wednesdays!

Today’s post is actually inspired by the fact that, Hamilton, my favorite musical I’ve never seen but have only heard’s creator, Lin Manuel-Miranda, is going to produce THE KINGKILLER CHRONICLES and provide the soundtrack which is SO INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT TO THE STORY! You’ll learn more about The Kingkiller Chronicles in this week’s installment of Favorite Titles Friday, but for now let me just say that it is news that actually made me pick the phone and CALL someone. (something I hate to do, I hate texting even. Just come see me face to face. I hate how technology has robbed us of everyday intimacies between humans. -Sorry for that. I’m so excited that my brain is like a pin-ball machine right now- thoughts bouncing around everywhere all willy nilly.) That someone being my brother, who thanks to me, owns a personally dedicated autographed copy of the first book in the series, The Name Of The Wind (because I’m an awesome sister who gives awesome birthday presents AND it was kind of a thank you for introducing me to the amazing books by Patrick Rothfuss) to tell him  about the news when it broke. I literally saw the new minutes after Variety posted it, and although I was home alone at the time, I screamed “OH MY GOD, ARE THEY SERIOUS? THIS IS SO AMAZING! NO ONE ELSE COULD DO THIS BETTER!” and then when my fiance walked in from work (I didn’t call him because I knew he was driving home and would arrive in minutes) – and I must mention, he ALSO has a personally dedicated autographed copy of The Name of The Wind because, well, I’m awesome, and he is so crazy about it, he keeps it locked in a safe. You’d think that these boys would realize how amazing of a gift it is to bestow on someone and get me one of my own, right? Nope. I refuse to buy my own, and will only get myself an autographed copy if I actually get the incredible opportunity to go to a signing and get the bearded, beloved, author himself to sign it for me in front of my very eyes.

Today’s post is dedicated to Lin Manuel-Miranda and what he is doing with his musical Hamilton, the amazing music he contributed to the new Disney movie Moana, the Hamilton Mixtape, which I’ve already pre-ordered (IT DROPS ON THE 2ND!), his involvement in the Kingkiller Chronicles, and basically Broadway in general.
I’ve only seen three live plays before in my life, the rest I’ve only seen through Tony performances or when they’ve been made into movies. Those three plays were: Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which I was too young to really absorb but loved it, I saw the high-school production of The Wizard of Oz put on by my sister & her castmates which blew my little 6th grade heart away (the school is somewhat known for their theater program, it was an amazing show) and the other was a play, not a musical, called Proof. It was a high school production also, but it was put on by my school who is constantly winning things for their amazing theater program, and I was so moved and impressed by the cast and how well they did in the show. Most of the kids who were in it went on to study theater and all work in some aspect of it, which is great because they’re insanely talented. I saw the movie they made of the play starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Jake Gyllenhaal with my brother who had also seen the play with me, and we both agreed that the kids who put on the show did a far superior job than Oscar-nominated actors.

Anyway, now let’s talk about my favorite songs from musicals! It’ll be more like, here’s my favorite musicals, here are my favorite songs from them.

Hamilton – The whole soundtrack is awesome and has opened up a whole new era in Broadway, but not having seen the show, my favorite songs are My Shot and Alexander Hamilton just because they are kind of the theme songs of the show.

Rent– Again, another brilliant soundtrack that shook up Broadway. La Vie Boheme, obviously, Would You Light My Candle?, and of course, Seasons of Love.

The Last Five Years– I only saw this because Anna Kendrick was in it, but my favorite song I don’t even know the name to and am not going to bother to look up because the whole show is great, but the argument they have when Jamie comes to see her at the camp is my favorite.

The Wizard of Oz– Over The Rainbow. One of the most beautiful songs ever, and has always been one of the best songs from a musical.

Les Miserables – I Dreamed A Dream. Anne Hathaway’s film version of this was beautiful. Admittedly though, I’ve never seen it.

Wicked – Defying Gravity. Idina Menzel is such an amazing actress and singer, and I love this song so much. I haven’t seen Wicked in any form, but it’s a show I’d seriously love to see.

The Book of Mormon – I Believe. I saw Andrew Rannells perform this song on the Tony’s and loved it. It was so well performed and was hilarious, and I want to see the musical so badly!

Hairspray – Welcome To The Sixties, and pretty much the whole thing. Such a great musical and message.

I’m sure I could think of more, but since my knowledge of musicals is very limited, please excuse my lack of range in musical experiences.

Hope you guys enjoyed my Broadway themed What’s Playing Wednesdays!

Happy reading and listening,
Erin

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Movie Mondays: Book To Screen Adaptations!

This week’s installment of Movie Mondays is about the screen adaptation of the Philip Roth novel Indignation, and the movie of the same name starring Logan Lerman, most known for his role as Percy Jackson in the Percy Jackson films and the role of Charlie in The Perks Of Being A Wallflower. The film also stars Sarah Gadon, most known for her role as Princess Elizabeth in A Royal Night Out, her small roles in such films as Maps To The Stars, Ebba Sparre in The Girl King, and my personal favorite, her role as Sadie Dunhill in the Hulu Original mini-series 11.22.63 based on the Stephen King novel of the same name. The role of Dean Hawes D. Caudwell is played by the brilliant playwright, screenwriter and actor Tracy Letts, the roles of Marcus’s parents are played by Danny Burstein and Linda Edmond. The casting was brilliantly done, and the actors were perfect for their roles, especially Logan Lerman as Marcus Messner, and Sarah Gadon as Olivia Hutton.

Both the novel and the film are told from the perspective of Marcus Messner, a brilliant young Jewish man and son of a Kosher Butcher. Due to his father’s increasingly paranoid behavior that’s causing him to spiral, Marcus decides to leave his home of Newark, New Jersey where he is attending Robert Treat College and transfer to Winesburg College in Ohio.
There a very few differences in the book and the movie, basically only minor changes are made but the story doesn’t suffer from it.

Finally able to be free of his father’s controlling behavior, Marcus tries to settle into his new home at Winesburg. He meets his new roommates, Bertram Flusser (played by Ben Rosenfield) and Ron Foxman (played by Philip Ettinger). He begins to get to know them little, and learns that Ron has a car that he is extremely proud of and somewhat obsessed with, and Flusser is a flamboyant theater major who gives Marcus a particularly hard time and takes pleasure in pressing Marcus’s buttons.

While studying in the library one evening, Marcus sees a girl studying not far from him and is immediately infatuated with her. He learns that her name is Olivia Hutton, the daughter of a doctor with divorced parents who was battled mental illness in the past. Despite all of this, he remains completely fascinated by her and asks her out on a date. Their relationship is complicated from the beginning and only becomes more so as time goes on.

Marcus’s time at Winesburg also becomes complicated after a heated confrontation with the Dean Caudwell over religion and Marcus’s attitude toward God and his limited and fraught interaction with other students. Marcus becomes more and more irate as the Dean questions his morals after Marcus states that he’s an atheist and criticizes his attitude. Despite being a brilliant student, his worldview and beliefs are at odds with that of the college and during the meeting with the Dean Caudwell, Marcus becomes extremely ill and is rushed to the hospital where he has his appendix removed.
Marcus learns from his mother that his father’s paranoia has become increasingly troubling and he worries for his mother, and she also disapproves of his relationship with Olivia causing Marcus to become even more stressed and troubled.
The decisions Marcus makes eventually lead to disastrous consequences and he is forced to face the repercussions.

As far as the adaptation goes, the director and screenwriter James Schamus did a brilliant job of bringing the themes and ideals of Philip Roth’s novel to life. The cast, especially Logan Lerman, is brilliant. He plays the role of Marcus flawlessly and is able to portray the brilliant yet naive character with amazing believability, depicting his flaws and characteristics just as Philip Roth had written them in the novel. Sarah Gadon played Olivia, the troubled, beautiful, and complicated girl beautifully and brought her vulnerability to life quite perfectly.

The adaptation is one of the best that I’ve ever seen, due to the work of the writer/director James Schamus and the cast bringing the novel and also the time period to life on screen in a remarkable fashion.

I encourage anyone who is a fan of Philip Roth’s novels, or just a fan of brilliant independent films to see it and enjoy it for yourself as much as I did.

Hope you enjoyed my take on Indignation, and feel free to comment below and subscribe so you never miss a post.
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Coming soon, my review of All The Missing Girls by Megan Miranda. Sorry for the wait on the review, but this isn’t the type of book you tear through, it’s the kind of book you savor and consider as you read and enjoy the twists and turns.

Happy reading,
Erin

 

Favorite Titles Friday & Review: First Comes Love by Emily Giffin

This week’s installment of Favorite Titles Friday explore the novels of Emily Giffin. I found her books one day when I was perusing the bargain bin at Barnes & Noble and came across Something Borrowed, which I knew was about to be released as a film, so I decided to buy it. I also picked up the other titles in the bargain bin by her, Baby Proof, and Something Blue. They were only $3.99, which made the purchases a no-brainer, in my mind I was practically making money by buying them. I read all three in a matter of days, and then returned to B&N where I purchased the rest of her books and plowed through them as well.
This edition of FTF will also contain my review of her newest book, First Comes Love.

(WARNING: Some Spoilers)
I have previously reviewed Something Blue, but I’ll give you a quick synopsis of Something Borrowed and Something Blue since they are about the same characters, and can give you an idea of the types of stories Emily Giffin is so great at telling. Something Borrowed is about Rachel, the smart, dependable, loyal and always good friend willing to go the extra mile. She is a people pleaser, and known for being her best friend Darcy’s sidekick. The good girl to Darcy’s wild child. They have spent the majority of their lives side by side, accompanied by Rachel’s other best friend Ethan who isn’t exactly Darcy’s biggest fan due to the way she walks all over Rachel. The real trouble begins when Rachel meets Dex on her first day of law school. He’s handsome, charming, and comes from a very wealthy family. She and Dex grow close over the next three years of school, joining each other for late night cram sessions, quizzing one another, and always having a good time together. Although Rachel has feelings beyond friendship for Dex, she never tells him because she doesn’t believe he’d ever go for a girl like her. As the two get together one night to celebrate graduation, it seems as though Dex also shares feelings for Rachel until Darcy shows up and begins to flirt heavily with him. When the idea of Rachel and Dex dating comes up, Rachel quickly dismisses it citing that they’re only friends, which leads Darcy to ask Dex out. Flash forward a few years and Rachel is still single, turning 30, still best friends with Ethan, as well as Darcy even though that she and Dex are now engaged she tries her best to be happy for them. When a wild night out leads to Rachel blurting out to Dex that she had a huge crush on him in law school, it also leads Dex to ask her why she never told him because he felt the same. The two end up beginning an affair behind Darcy’s back, which leads Darcy finding out and vowing to never speak to them again but they are finally able to be together.
In Something Blue, Darcy is reeling from her broken engagement, despite the fact that she had also cheated on Dex and is now pregnant with Dex’s childhood best friend Marcus’s baby. With no one else to turn to when it becomes apparent that Marcus wants nothing to do with being a father, she flees to London where Ethan is now living and working as a writer. Despite them never getting along and Ethan always being the one to call Darcy out on her bad behavior, they find a balance and begin to enjoy living together and Darcy tries to prepare herself for her impending motherhood to twin boys. With Ethan by her side, Darcy begins to build a life for herself and puts her selfish and self serving ways behind her and she and Ethan begin their life together as a family.

There’s a fun thing that Emily does that I love that she’ll mention the name of a character in one of her other books and drop it in like a little easter egg. I’ve always thought it was neat that she did that. She really is such an amazing writer, and she continuously crafts novels that are impossible to put down, so real and human, with universal themes that make every reader feel like, “That could be me.” She is the type of writer that says things about love, marriage, and motherhood that we all feel but feel too ashamed to admit and her readers (including me!) adore her for it. All of her female characters tend to have some similar qualities that I imagine Emily herself possesses, that no matter how hard their story gets, they always find a way to get through it, no matter how badly facing the reality of it will hurt. The whole time you read her books, you really feel like you’re alongside her characters on their journey.

Giffin’s last book before First Comes Love, The One & Only admittedly made me feel uncomfortable at times because of the relationship between the main character, Shea, and Clive Carr aka Coach. Coach’s complicated relationship with his daughter Lucy, Shea’s best friend who has always been more like a sister, stems from the fact that she didn’t share his love for football the way Shea did and still does which causes friction between the two best friends. They all live in the college town of Walker, Texas where football is practically a religion and Coach Carr is king, but when his wife passes away, it causes Shea to reconsider all of her life choices and truly wonder why she made them. She quits her job at Walker and starts writing for the local newspaper, and even starts dating the fictional star of the Dallas Cowboys, but still harbors romantic feelings for Coach Carr, which eventually cause her to end the relationship. Her feelings for Coach Carr start to become mutual, complicating Shea’s life even more as they hide their budding relationship from everyone around them for fear of judgement from their community and most of all, her best friend/his daughter Lucy, who is still dealing with the loss of her mother and finding out that her best friend is dating her father would definitely add to the complicated emotions she is already experiencing. The book explores the dynamic between Shea and Coach Carr and how it changes from hero worship as a kid, to a father-daughter like bond, to a co-working relationship, then finally a romantic connection. I really enjoyed the football aspect of the book since I am an avid LSU fan, and the fact that a woman involved in a football organization actually knows the game instead of just pretending to know to woo a guy. However, I can’t say it was one of my favorite books of hers, but it was still expertly told and well written and an overall interesting story. The story was fun to follow along with and really keeps you interested throughout.

Review: First Comes Love 
First Comes Love, is about the aftermath of one family’s tragedy and how it has effected each of their lives. The Garland Family, the parents and their three children, Daniel, Meredith, and Josie live a happy life. All three children are heading down their own path and things seem to be moving toward happy lives. Then disaster strikes in the form of a car accident that takes the life of Daniel, who was the anchor that held their family together. After his death, each family member handles it differently, and the story picks up 15 years later. Despite the fact that the shock and initial all consuming grief has worn off, Daniel’s death still informs each of their lives. Their parents divorced after his death due to their father’s drinking, and the relationship between the two sisters Josie and Meredith is still just as contentious as it was when they were teenagers. Meredith is married to Nolan, who had been Daniel’s best friend and practically a part of the family but had never been anything to her but her brother’s friend until after Daniel’s death. They began to spend time together and developed a relationship much to the delight of her parents, which led to their marriage and the birth of their daughter, Harper. Meredith is a tightly wound lawyer, who loves her daughter but finds herself wondering if she made the right decision by marrying Nolan. Was she ever in love with him, or was it just the fact that they both shared a bond with Daniel and marrying him felt like the right thing to do?

Josie is a 1st grade teacher, and hasn’t been as lucky in the relationship department. Her best friend and roommate Gabe, who she has a straight and platonic relationship with, has been cause for many boyfriends to be jealous but it was always Gabe who was there for her, and their relationship was more important to her than the problems it caused in her romantic relationships. After having lost Will, the one person she ever truly loved, after a misunderstanding that caused him to dump her, she has practically given up on finding true love. Now, the reality of the life she could have had with Will stares her in the face every day as she teaches his daughter Evie in class, and is forced to interact with Will and his seemingly perfect wife. Josie is 37 and knows her biological clock is ticking, and her prospect of finding a man to share her life with are slim to none, so she decides to take on the role of a single mother and get artificially inseminated. Her family is surprised by her decision but is happy for her, but her sister Meredith thinks this is just another one of Josie’s schemes and finds it ridiculous that she would do such a thing.
Meredith’s marriage starts to experience trouble, and Josie begins the search for a sperm donor. As they both try to sort out their lives, they find out that their differences that have kept them from having the ideal sisterly relationship may be what finally mends their splintered bond. In an honest, real look at the lives of these women who still feel the tragedy of the death of their brother wrapped up in all the decisions they’ve made in their life, Emily Giffin explores how grief, guilt, love, tragedy and the bonds of family can effect a person in the way that only she can. I hate the term “Chick-Lit” which her work is often described as, but she’s one of the best damn writers of it there has ever been and she never shies away from complex stories of characters. I love her books and always look forward to reading them. I recommend her books to any fans of great fiction with strong female characters.

Hope you enjoyed this week’s installment of Favorite Titles Friday and the review of First Comes Love.

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Happy reading,
Erin

TEMPORARILY OUT OF ORDER DUE TO EMOTIONAL DURESS CAUSED BY GILMORE GIRLS

 

So I just finished my all day binge of the Gilmore Girls revival, and due to my inability to properly process and deal with my emotions regarding the way they Shonda Rhimes-ed the shit out of that ending, I will be taking the weekend off.

What I’m Thankful For Wednesday!

Since it’s the day before Thanksgiving I decided to forgo my usual What’s Playing Wednesdays post and give thanks for the things in my life that I have to be grateful for.

No matter what, we all have something to be thankful for. Somewhere, someone out there has it worse than you. I have to remind myself of that fact a lot because I suffer from chronic illness that takes away some of the joy in my life when I’m unable to do the things I want to do because my body won’t allow it. That’s why books have become my refuge, because when I’m stuck in bed because I feel awful, I can escape through the pages of the books I read and I am no longer a person stuck in bed, I am someone on a journey alongside the characters I come to know better with every word I read.

The above is my favorite quote about books, some people swap out books for travel in this quote, but I honestly believe that you don’t need to travel when you have your choice of books. With a book, you can travel the world without ever leaving your home.

So to begin my list of things I am thankful for, I am first and foremost thankful for the fact that Jesus Christ gave His life so that I can be forgiven for my sins. If you’re not religious and that somehow offends you, please feel free to leave my page and find another book blog to follow because without my relationship with God, I am nothing, and I have nothing. The second thing I am so thankful for is my family: my parents who put up with me no matter how big of a pain in the ass I can be, support me in every aspect of my life, are  do so much for my little family and I and are the most loving grandparents to my baby girl. I’m thankful for my grandparents who live in Indiana that I don’t get to see often enough and wish lived closer: my maternal grandparents Grandma and Grandpa, who have been there for me through some of the toughest times of my life, and had they not taken me in during that time, I wouldn’t have met the love of my life, and I wouldn’t have my daughter. They constantly go out of their way to be a part of my daughter’s life despite the distance and she loves so incredibly much, especially her Papa, because in her opinion he’s the silliest and most fun. (Author’s Note: My Grandma is totally ok with the favoritism my daughter shows toward my Grandpa. In fact, she thinks it the sweetest thing and is thrilled that my little one loves her Papa so much.) My paternal Grandmother, who adores her grandchildren and great grandchildren, and basically raised my dad alone.
I’m thankful for my siblings, all four of them, who have made my life more interesting, fun, and make me feel very loved. Especially my little sister Avarey, who is 16 years old, Autistic, non-verbal, and deaf. She teaches me things about life I wouldn’t have learned in any other way. She and my six year old daughter are so extremely close, and their bond is another thing I’m thankful for. My daughter loves her Nay-Nay (no where close to her real name but she started calling her that when she was 2 and it just stuck). If her Nay-Nay is having a meltdown or a problem getting someone to understand what she needs, it’s my little girl that is the first one to figure out what’s going on, as if they have their own language that allows my daughter to understand her so well. My sister has aides that come to the house and help my mom with my sister ever since my mother’s near-death caused by 3 heart attacks, a quadruple bypass surgery, and a stroke that all happened in a matter of days but miraculously, she has no lasting effects from the stroke. In the almost 5 years since my sister starting requiring aides, we have had a parade of them in and out because we have trouble getting them to stay ( not because of anything my family does, it usually has to do with drama in their lives, or an inability to get to work on time or show up at all, which is hard on my sister because she becomes attached to her aides.) Since we are neighbors with my parents, my daughter spends a lot of time at their house. It’s pretty hilarious and adorable, because with each new aide, my little girl follows my mom around while she explains my sister’s routines, often adding her own commentary, and has no problem telling the aides with a large amount of sass that they aren’t doing something correctly. I know most of that could have been easily summarized, but because it’s such an adorable and unique bond they share, I wanted to really give you guys an idea of how special it is.
I’m also thankful for my partner in love and life, who always makes me feel safe and loved and goes out of his way to help me when I’m feeling  my worst, puts up with my mood swings that occur when I am having a flare, and tries his hardest to be the understanding man I need him to be, and is the wonderful father my daughter deserves. I am most thankful for my daughter, who is the reason I wake up every day and gives me the love and joy I need to get through the day, is understanding of the fact that mommy can’t always do the things she wants me to be able to do, and has the sweetest little heart of any child I’ve ever known.
I’m thankful for my best friend, who is always there for me, despite the distance. My best friends locally, who have been there for me during a dark period in my life and refuse to let me hide from life when I want to, even if they have to drag me out of my house.
I’m also thankful for this blog, that has been such a wonderful addition to my life, has connected me to people I never thought I’d know, given me a platform to discuss the things I love, and I am SO thankful for the people who read it and continue to make it more successful with every page view. Thank you readers, for being a part of this blog and making it what it has become.

So today and tomorrow, take some time to reflect on what you have to be thankful for and embrace those who make your life better by being in it.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoy your time with your loved ones, and eat a ton of good food. And then, when you’re too stuffed to move, pick up a book. 🙂

Happy reading and Happy Thanksgiving,
Erin