Book: The Book of Tahl

 Book: The Book of Tahl

Author: Tahl Leibovitz

Pages: 160

This is our 87th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

He stands 5'3" on badly deformed feet.  Bone tumors prevent him from straightening his arms or flexing his wrists.  His hands and feet sweat excessively, forcing him to change socks several times a day.  And from the age of 14 to 21, he was homeless, sleeping in subway cars and on roof tops, stealing food, clothes and money, and defending himself from the violent attacks of those who prey on the homeless.  49 year old Tahl Leibovitz is one of the most highly decorated and celebrated American table tennis players of all-time, a Paralympic Gold Medalist and USA Table Tennis Hall of Fame inductee who will represent the US at the 2024 Paris Olympics/Paralympics in late August.  He is also a high school dropout who went on to earn four college degrees, including a master's in social work from NYU's Silver School of Social Work.  Today, he is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with a thriving psychotherapy practice in NYC.

So - this is a hard book to review, so I won't do much.  What Tahl went through was extraordinary and he should be commended for what he went through to get there.  It isn't well written - very disjointed.  But overall - to see him come out of a terrible situation to be a successful man was worth the read.

Book: When The Moon Hits Your Eye

 Book: When The Moon Hits Your Eye

Author: John Scalzi

Pages: 336

This is my 86th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Now humanity has to deal with it.  For some it's an opportunity.  For others it's a moment to question their faith: In God, in science, in everything.  Still others try to keep the world running in the face of absurdity and uncertainty.  And then there are the billions looking to the sky and wondering how a thing that was always just there is now - something absolutely impossible.  Astronauts and billionaires, comedians and bank executives, professors and presidents, teenagers and terminal patients at the end of their lives - over the length of an entire lunar cycle, each get their momentin the moonlight.  To panic, to plan, to wonder and to pray, to laugh and to grieve.  All in a kaleidoscopic novel that goes all the places you'd expect, and then to so many places you wouldn't.  

This book is great.  I am a Scalzi fan and the more books I read by him, the happier I am that I found him.  He is a terrific writer.  He is clever, and funny, and his sci fi and just all around entertaining.  They aren't hard reads and I like his character development and story telling.  He can jam pack a story into 300-400 pages and keep you wanting to read without stopping.  He takes a lot of unrelated stories in the various stories which all revolve around the moon turning to cheese and what they were going to do about it.  Read it in two days and look forward to his next book.

Stars: 5

Book: Between the Lines

 Book: Between The Lines

Author: Jodi Piccoult

Pages: 368

This is my 85th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

What happen when happily ever after - isn't?  Delilah is a bit of a loner who prefers spending her time in the school library with her head in a book - one book in particular.  Between the Lines may be a fairy tale, but it feels real.  Prince Oliver is brave, adventurous, and loving.  He really speaks to Delilah.  And then one day Oliver actually speaks to her.  Turns out, Oliver is more than a one-dimensional storybook prince.  He's a restless teen who feels trapped by his literary existence and hates that his entire life is predetermines.  He's sure there's more for him out there in the real world, and Delilah might just be his key to freedom.

This book was just fine.  I didn't really love the characters.  I liked the idea of the story, and I read it for a reading challenge (the character becomes part of the story), but otherwise I probably would have skipped this one.  I do like Piccoults books. This was definitely YA, and the main characters was very immature.  The ending was weird and a let down.  I was left with too many questions about characters that I really never connected with.

Stars: 3

Book: More or Less Maddy

 Book: More or Less Maddy

Author: Lisa Genova

Pages: 368

This is my 84th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Maddy Banks is just like any other stressed-out freshman at NYU.  Between schoolwork, exams, navigating life in the city, and a reent breakup, it's normal to be feeling overwhelmed.  It doesn't help that she's always felt like the odd one out in her picture-perfect Connecticut family.  But Maddy's latest low is devastatingly low, and she goes on an antidepressant.  She begins to feel good, dazzling in fact, and she soon spirals high into a wild and terrifying mania that culminates in a diagnosis of bipolar disorder.  As she struggles to find her way in this new reality, navigating the complex effects bipolar has on her identity, her relationships, and her life dreams, Maddy will have to figure out how to manage being both too much and not enough.

This was an interesting book.  I usually like Genova's books - she is a Harvard trained Neuroscience that has made quite the career of being a fictional writer about very real neurological disorders.  But this one missed the mark just a bit for me.  This is a tough subject and I think I learned a lot.  I just didn't like the Maddy character.  It gets a bit repetitive and the comedy bits are cringy.  Didn't connect with any of the characters and just was hoping for more.  I wanted to root for Maddy, but this particular character - it was too hard to do.

Stars: 3

Book: Valley

 Book: Valley

Author: Stacey McEwan

Pages: 400

This is my 83rd read for the year

What Amazon says:

At the bottom of the Chasm, Dawsyn and her followers traipse through the darkness to find their long-awaited home.  But there are whispers all around them and safety is never guaranteed.  With her powers much depleted, and food supplies running low, will they even survive the journey?  Above, the Queen and the new King of Glaca still bay for Dawsyn's blood, and they will not stop in their quest to destory her.  And with the help of someone Dawsyn thought her friend, they creep ever closer.  Long buried secrets will be revealed, hearts will be broken and a new day will dawn.  Who will reign in this climactic conclusion to the epic Glacian Trilogy?

This was a good wrap up to this trilogy.  The last book was awhile ago, but I didn't have trouble jumping back into the the world.  McEwan is a great writer.  The story flowed well, and there is good character development.  Dawsyn continues to be a powerful character.  The love story with she and Ryon did not distract from the overall mission she and the folks from the Ledge were trying to accomplish.  We get to learn Ryon's backstory.  There are some twists and turns and it has a satisfying ending.  She wrapped up the story well.

Stars: 4

Book: Anastasia

 Book: Anastasia

Author: Sophie Lark

Pages: 686

This is my 82nd read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Anastasia is the princess no one needs: the fourth daughter born to an emperor without a son, and the only royal lacking a magical gift.  Until she collides with a young Cossack rebel, changing both their lives forever.  Damien is taken from everything he knows and raised as a ward of the Romanovs.  Anastasia develops a strange king of magic shared only by the Black Monk Rasputin.  While her power grows in secret, boosted by forbidden contact with Damien, Anastasia makes a mistake with terrible consequences.  Fate grants her a single chance to set it right - but saving what she lost may cost everything she loves.

This was a very interesting book.  It is a different take on the Romanov family story mixed with magic and it kept me interested for the entire book.  There is good character development and a large battle I did not see coming.  The story flowed well for the first 3/4 of the book and I was anxious to see where it was going.  Then for a part of the book - the romance took over to the point that I found myself wanting to skip ahead to see if we got back to the original story.  And it did.  I am not a big romance fan, so in my opinion it took over more than necessary.  However, the underlying story mixed with Fantasy made up for it.

Stars: 4

Book: The Horse Dancer

 Book: The Horse Dancer

Author: Jojo Moyes

Pages: 464

This is my 81st book of the year

What Amazon says:

When Sarah's grandfather gives her a beautiful horse named Boo - hoping that one day she'll follow in his footsteps to join an elite French riding school, away from their gritty London neighborhood - she quietly trains in city's parts and alleys.  But then her grandfather falls ill, and Sarah must juggle horsemanship with school and hospital visits.  Natasha, a young lawyer, is reeling after her failed marriage: her professional judgment is being questined, her new boyfriend is a let-down, and she's forced to share her house with her charismatic ex-husband.  Yet when the willful fourteen-year-old Sarah lands in her path, Natasha decides to take the girl under her wing.  But Sarah is keeping a secret - a secret that will change the lives of everyone involved forever.

This was a decent book.  Not one of my favorite Moyes books.  Felt it was a bit unbelievable since one of the main characters was a 14 year old girl.  She was incredibly self centered and selfish and that kind of character drives me crazy in books.  It didn't capture my attention like her past books have.  

Stars: 3