Wishin' and Hopin' by Wally Lamb

I love this book! I think this was the third time I've read it, and it still makes me laugh out loud.

I mostly love Wally Lamb's writing (just don't get me started on We Are Water). This one, however, is my favourite. It is a light and fun read, one I love reading at Christmas.

This is the story of Felix Funicello (you can also read about him in I'll Take You There) a 10-year old boy growing up in small-town Connecticut whose family has three claims to fame:

• his mother is about to appear on TV nationally on the Pillsbury Bake-Off
• he will be on TV locally on a kids' TV show
• his cousin is the famous Annette Funicello

As if these things weren't exciting enough, his teacher has a breakdown and the substitute teacher has exciting plans for their Catholic School Christmas pageant. 

The characters are hilarious and as the mother of a 10-year old boy, I feel like he nails Felix's voice perfectly. I find Felix's perspective to be hilarious, wanting to be more grown up than he is but not quite understanding all that is going on around him.

You can read this one in a few hours (I know everyone has a few spare hours at this time of year). If you are travelling and need a book to take with you, I highly recommend this one. There are some very funny moments and little lines that just crack me up. I've bought it as a gift for several people and it was enjoyed as my book club selection a few years ago. 

If you like A Christmas Story I think you'll like this book. 

Cometh the Hour and This Was a Man by Jeffrey Archer

I haven't posted in a while because I've been busy adjusting to my new job and haven't had a lot of time for reading. Over the last couple of months I have been wrapping up the Clifton Chronicles series by Jeffrey Archer. The books were very repetitive, so I decided to combine them into one post.

I've been a Jeffrey Archer fan for over 20 years. When I need a fun, quick page-turner Jeffrey Archer is my go-to guy. So when I heard about the Clifton Chronicles, I couldn't wait to try it. It started out strong but the last few books could probably have been combined into one.

There are seven books in the series but I think the story could have been told just as well in 4.

The series covers the life of Harry Arthur Clifton and his life in Bristol, England. We read about his difficult childhood and his years at school. We are there as he falls in love with Emma Barrington and see the obstacles they face on their path to a life together. The following books follow them through the second world war and life afterwards. Harry becomes a world famous writer while Emma becomes the first woman to chair a public company in the UK.

Emma's brother Giles Barrington is Harry's best friend and a Member of Parliament. All of their lives intertwine over the course of the seven books. Because of their prominence in society, they have some enemies along the way who make things interesting.

The last two books seemed like carbon copies of each other. There were business mergers, elections won and lost, false accusations and family drama. None of it was overly exciting, but as I had invested so much time in the series I wanted to see it through to the end.

I was particularly disappointed how some of the loose threads from the earlier books were tied up in a couple of sentences at the end of book seven. Questions that haven't been answered for decades were barely given a mention. I feel like some of them could have been a bit more dramatic. One character just disappeared for the final third of the final book and didn't really get any closure.

On the whole, it was a fun series to read, but it should have been shorter. If you're a fan of Jeffrey Archer, have a look. I'd love to know what you think.

The Little Old Lady Strikes Again by Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg

A few years ago I read and loved The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules and absolutely loved it, so I when I heard there was a sequel I wanted to check it out.

The back of the book talks about how the League of Pensioners have relocated to Las Vegas and are planning on pulling off a heist in a big Vegas casino. Can they pull it off? It sounded fun and exciting. Well, by page 40 you know whether or not they had pulled it off and they had left Vegas, never to return again. Their time in Vegas wasn't the plot of the book, it was the introduction. I just found it strange that the description on the back of the book barely had anything to do with the plot itself.

It has taken me nearly two months to get through the rest of the book. It wasn't a bad book, it just wasn't a compelling read. It was very similar to the first book, with the League of Pensioners plotting their crimes, attempting them and encountering funny little mishaps along the way. I just felt like I had read it already and wasn't all that interested in picking it up each day.

There is a third book in the series, and I won't be reading that. It sounds like more of the same again and I feel the story has already been told.

I really need to get over my thing of always finishing a book I start. My time could probably have been better spent than finishing this book. Oh well, it is done now!

I'd say that if you liked the first book, leave well enough alone and skip this one.

The Silent Girls by Eric Rickstad

This book is definitely a departure from my normal style, and I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about it.

This is the story of Frank Rath, a private investigator in Vermont who becomes involved in investigating the disappearance of a young woman from his small town. As the search deepens, other women are found to be missing in their area. Is there a connection? Who has these women?

At the same time, Frank is a single father, raising the niece he adopted after her parents were brutally murdered in their home. Rachel is now grown and off to college, and Frank is really missing her.

I nearly put this book down after the first chapter, which was really creepy. It didn't continue that way, so I'm glad I kept going.

I didn't really love the characters in this book. Frank seems bent on self destruction, Grout, the lead detective also seems miserable, and we don't learn enough about Sonja, the other detective on the case. I would also like to have gotten to know Rachel better.

However, what bothered me most about this book is that it contained several grammatical and sentence structure errors. It felt like it hadn't been edited. For example, a character was "slapped across face" instead of "across the face".  At the end of the book, the initial victim's last name was changed from Wilks to Wilkins. That sort of thing drives me crazy. And the author had this weird way of using the word but as a complete sentence continually, no matter which character was speaking.

“She sort of seems familiar. But. In that way that reminds you of someone from TV or a dream.”

“But. State borders aren’t going to stop a sicko,” Sonja said.

But. How did one person, or even two people, choose these girls. And why?

“Of course I can read.” Gale sighed. “But. Her handwriting is a first grader’s. I’ll give it my best.”

Argh! 

Another thing that bothered me is that all Christians are portrayed as being zealots who protest outside abortion clinics. It paints a lot of people with a broad brush and I don't like that. 

If you can get past those things then the story is entertaining and compelling. But if those sorts of things bother you, then skip this one.

Also, the story ends on a cliffhanger, trying to force you to read the next book. I'm not sure if I will. I hope it has a better editor.

*** Thanks to Goodreads reviewer Christie for isolating these quotes for me so I didn't have to do it.

Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty

This is another one on loan from Tracy, my schoolyard mom friend. This was a fun, light read, perfect for a vacation.

The book begins with several different voices telling about the night they saw a set of triplets celebrating their birthdays together in a restaurant. Everything seems fine until the triplets start fighting and one sister ends up throwing a fondue fork which lands right in her pregnant sister's belly...

We then go back in time a year and get to know Lyn, Catriona and Gemma, the triplets in question. Lyn is a successful business owner trying to juggle the demands of work and family, Cat has just discovered her husband's affair, and Gemma has been trying to find herself after the tragic death of her fiancé several years earlier. We also get to know Maxine and Frank, their divorced parents, as well as various friends and partners who are all part of the triplets' lives.

Mixed in with the story are accounts from people who have seen the triplets in action over the course of their lives.

All of this works together to bring us back to the fateful night in the restaurant when they are celebrating their birthdays. Who is pregnant, who threw the fork, and how they got there all get answered along the way.

I have never read anything by this author before, but I have heard great things about her and would definitely like to read more. This was a perfect summer read, quick and fun, without a lot to think about. If you are looking for something to take to the beach or a cottage, this could be the perfect book for you.

What She Knew by Gilly MacMillan

Another book-loving Mom from the schoolyard loaned me this one and it was a great, fun summer read! Thanks, Tracy!

Rachel Jenner takes her 8-year old son for a walk in the woods, like she does most Sunday afternoons. She sends Ben on ahead to run to the tire swing, but when she gets to the swing, Ben isn't there. She calls and searches but there is no trace of him. Others join in the search, with no success. Ben is gone. The police are called and the worst time of Rachel's life has begun.

As the search begins for Ben, everyone is called into question. Can anyone be trusted?

As the story unfolds, we get to know more about the different characters, as we hear the story from the perspectives of Rachel, the detective in charge of Ben's case, and also from transcripts of his sessions with a therapist to help him deal with the trauma of the case. The story is filled with twists and turns and is a fun page-turner.

If you are looking for a fun summer read, you'll enjoy this. It is fast-paced and exciting and a fun read.

The Chilbury Ladies' Choir by Jennifer Ryan

Not surprisingly, I follow a lot of "bookish" sites on Facebook. A few months ago one of them was promoting this book, saying it was for people who liked The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society or The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. I absolutely loved both of those books, so I figured this would be a book I would want to read. It certainly was.

WWII continues to be a popular setting for novels, and I've noticed a new trend within that WWII trend. This is the second book I've read in the last few months about the strength and resilience of the women left behind while the men had all gone off to war. In a time when women were often still thought to be weaker, and less than their husbands, these women showed what they were made of, and kept things running at home.

Set in Chilbury, England in the spring and summer of 1940, it is an epistolary novel, told from the letters and journals of several ladies (and occasionally a man) from the town. The women are told that with the men gone, their choir will need to be disbanded. However, they want to continue singing so they form a ladies-only choir under the leadership of Prim, a woman fairly new to the town. We read the perspectives of women with sons at the front, young ladies with dreams of love, and a midwife forced into a morally challenging situation. They are amazing women who don't always know their inner strength, but as they face each challenging situation, they rise to to occasion and find what they need to carry on.

Through it all, they gain strength from each other and from singing together in a choir. As they join together in that way, they learn to rely on each other in ways they wouldn't have considered in peace time. The choir brings them together and gives meaning to their lives in a time when that meaning was hard to find.

It's a lovely book. There are sad times, there are frustrating times, there are heartbreaking times. But the women of Chilbury face them all together. It is a great summer read, I highly recommend it.