Tag Archives: Sheila H.

Review: Girl, Wash Your Face

Posted on by

Girl, Wash Your Face
by Rachel Hollis
4 stars

New York Times bestselling author and founder of a multimillion-dollar media company, Rachel Hollis pours her heart out to inspire moms to never settle and to create goals in this light Christian read. Go-Girl-chase your dreams. She is straight-talking and often humorous with her mommy/wife stories. Every chapter is named “The Lie; there are 20 of them. Like The Lie: I am defined by my weight and The Lie: I don’t know how to be a mom. At the end of each “Lie” chapter, she offers a list of things that helped her.

I could easily relate to her struggles which felt real and tangible. Hollis takes you through her life struggles from grade school, dating, her brother’s suicide, marriage, kids, adoption struggles and her media company that she built from the ground up. Rachel’s message and goals are for any women who needs to overcome the feeling she is not doing a good job handling everyday life. I did check out her website called, “TheChicSite.com”

I enjoyed listening to the author narrating her book on audio and I chose this book because of the title. I felt like I was sitting with her in home. While I give this book 4 stars, the author writes about her life and she under age 40. Kudos to the author for putting herself out there. No judgement please!

 

Read-alikes

Braving the wilderness by Brene Brown

The happiness project by by Gretchen Craft Rubin

There are no grown-ups by Pamela Druckerman

 

Review: The Woman in the Window

Posted on by

The Woman in the Window
by A. J. Finn
4 stars

The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn is a psychological thriller that had my attention from the opening pages. Anna Fox is an agoraphobic in her New York City restored four story home who spends her days taking her prescription drugs with a lot of wine, watching old thriller movies, and spying on her neighbors. One night, looking through the windows, she witnesses her neighbor lady being murdered across the street. Or did she? She calls the police, but Anna is shocked and confused when the neighbor is just fine, but this other woman she has never seen. What’s going on?

Author Finn does an excellent job of offering us a view into an agoraphobics suffocating claustrophnic world when she does leave the safety of her house. When Anna seemed frustrated with what is real or not real, you are right there questioning if she is hallucinating. I liked that Anna’s past is intertwined within what is gong on in the current story. You’ll be guessing until the end! Watch for the upcoming Hitchcockian movie in 2019!

Read-alikes

If You Knew Her by Emily Elgar

The Girl in the Woods by Patricia MacDonald

If I Die Tonight by Alison Gaylin

 

Review: The Book of M

Posted on by

The Book of M
by Peng Shepherd
4 stars

The Book of M is a story about losing your shadow. When you lose it – you forget all your past memories including your name and you even forget to eat. Then you die. This phenomenon first starts in India when Hemu Joshi loses his shadow. Then the affliction spreads across the world and those left with a shadow must try and survive. Told around a post-apocalyptic future, author Shepherd weaves her debut story by following four linked characters. Orlando “Ory” Zhang and Max, a husband and wife couple, Mahnaz Ahmadi (Naz) who was an Olympic archer and the Amnesiac (never given a name) who still has his shadow, but lost all his memories from an accident before the Forgetting took place. They try to figure out how to survive in this new world were the shadowless acquire a strange new power in which they can alter the physical environment conjuring up some pretty intense, scary and magical happenings. Mythology and legends from India play apart in explaining the story which I enjoyed. I thought I knew how all this ended, but Shepherd gives you a surprise twist and some unanswered questions, but I still loved it.

 

Read-alikes

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

The Country of Ice Cream Star by Sandra Newman

An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim

 

 

Review: The Women in the Castle

Posted on by

The Women in the Castle
by Jessica Shattuck
4 stars

Shattuck expertly weaves together a story set at the end of World War II in Germany that shares the tragedies and the secrets of three widows who barely know each other. After Germany’s defeat, Marianne von Lingenfels returns to the crumbling castle called Burg Lingenfels that was once her home. Her husband was a resister and was hanged for trying to assassinate Hitler. Marianne promised her husband and the other co-conspirators that she would find their widows and help them. As Marianne, finds them (Ania, Benita and their children) and tries to create a home she discovers that each have secrets and repercussions that will make their lives complicated. The story does go back and forth in time and ends in 1991 with everyone reuniting back at the castle and allowing the reader to discover where everyone ended up. I liked the way the author examined the aftermath of Germany’s loss on the citizens and that the story was told from the Germans’ prospective, some who really thought Hitler was insane while the others were just trying to survive. Each woman reacted to the moral dilemmas that impacted each of their lives and the stories showed how they came to terms and how each moved on. The story starts out slow but picks up the second half. Recommend!

 

Read-alikes

The Blindness of the Heart by Julia Franck

The Good at Heart by Ursula Werner

The Aftermath by Rhidian Brook

 

Review: The Death of Mrs. Westaway

Posted on by

The Death of Mrs. Westaway
by Ruth Ware
4 stars

I had wanted to try out a Ruth Ware book, but they always seem to be checked out! So I jumped at the chance to read her newest. The story starts out about a young women named Harriet (Hal) who is on her own after her mother had died three years before in a hit and run. She never knew her father’s identity, so she is on her own. Hal can barely keep up with expenses needed to eat and keep her flat not to mention she owes some bad guys some money. It’s always rainy, cold and bleak out. But one day, she receives a letter from a lawyer informing her that her grandmother has died and that she has been named in the will. But she has no grandparents left. Soon, she is on to Trepassen House, the Westaway estate in the English Countryside. In no time, Hal is caught up in old family secrets and past demons with an inheritance at stake. The creepy house just adds to the sense of menace. This is one of those books that you just stay up late reading because you just want to know who murdered who and why and if Hal would survive. Who is Hal’s father? I thought the author’s style of writing was different and fresh for me and I can’t wait to read her other books.

 

Read-alikes

Where They Found Her by Kimberly McCreight

The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

Before I Go to Sleep by S. J. Watson