Between Here and April by Deborah Copaken Kogan

The most recent book I have finished is Between Here and April by Deborah Copaken Kogan.   Overall I really enjoyed this book.  It progressed nicely and even though it didn’t end exactly how I wanted it to I still enjoyed it.  There were a couple minor details that I didn’t like, but those details didn’t affect my overall feelings towards the book.

 

Between Here and April starts with the main character, Elizabeth Burns watching the play Medea with her husband Mark.  During the play Elizabeth passes out  after having a “vision” of sorts of her childhood best friend April Cassidy.  After that initial incident during the play, Elizabeth continues to have both physical and mental episodes that she ends up tracing back to her friend April.  She finally goes to a therapist to try and get to the bottom of the situation.  While in one of her sessions, Elizabeth confronts the fact that seemingly out of nowhere her childhood best friend April had vanished, never to return to class again.  Elizabeth had long forgotten about her until 30 years later.  Determined to figure out what had happened to April, Elizabeth uses her journalist background to return to her childhood home to investigate the disappearance of April.  Elizabeth uncovers a newspaper article revealing that April, April’s sister Lily, and April’s mother Adele were killed in a murder-suicide situation.  Elizabeth was determined to learn more, so she speaks with Adele’s sister and neighbor to discover what would have driven Adele to not only kill herself, but to take her 2 young children with her.   Elizabeth discovers that Adele most likely suffered from post-partum depression, which was not acknowledged as a diagnosis at the time of April’s death.   The discovery of what happened to April leads Elizabeth on a self-reflective journey as she realizes that a lot of what Adele, Adele’s mother, and her own mother were feelings that Elizabeth herself had felt after her own 2 daughters were born.

I really enjoyed the self-reflective journey Elizabeth took during her research about what happened to April and Adele.  Sometimes what helps me figure out what I need the most is to focus on someone else.  I think this is what happened to Elizabeth.  She was able to learn more about herself and her family’s needs by discovering the truth about April and Adele.   As I mentioned earlier, there were some minor issues that I wasn’t a fan of.  Elizabeth is visited by an old lover during the book.  I felt like this old lover wasn’t necessarily pertinent to the story, but I could see was Kogan was trying to accomplish by including him in the plot of the story.  I felt that Elizabeth had enough going on in her personal life that having to deal with this lover was a bit excessive.  I was also a bit confused by the end of the story when Elizabeth reads a letter written by April’s father.  I wasn’t sure how  Shep Cassidy had gained access to Elizabeth’s work (please note I am talking about the VERY end of the book, not the initial contact from Shep).  The one last detail I was confused about (which considering I didn’t like the addition of the lover anyways may not be important) is again at the end of the book.  Elizabeth and her family are on vacation in Italy when they come across her old flame’s art.  Elizabeth discovers what has happened to her ex, but the book itself never says exactly what happened.  I actually read that part of the book a couple times to make sure I didn’t overlook something important.  Readers figure out what happened based on context clues, but it is a bit unclear what really happened, unless I still overlooked it, in which case I am stupid J

 

Next on the reading list is Michael Crichton’s book Timeline.  John recommended this to me (and even bought it for me).  Considering John isn’t a big reader, I have to assume this will be a good book. I will also be reading a book for the book club I am pretty sure I am going to attend.  The book they are reading is The Stupidest Angel by Christopher Moore. I have no idea what this book is about, so I hope to be in for a treat.

Let me know if there are any books you would love for me to take on a test drive for you.  I will give anything a try! 

 

Happy Reading!

 

~Tara

Getting back to blogging

Hello everyone!

I am back to blog some more!  It's been a crazy 10 months or so in the life of Tara.  I haven't had the motivation to blog because of some pretty significant life changes.  But don't fear! I have been reading a lot more lately and want to share what I've been reading with others.  I have also looked into joining a book club.  The first meeting I will attend is in December.  Hopefully I like it and it gives me even more motivation to keep reading and sharing my thoughts with others.

I have just finished a book that I will blog about in the next day or so.  As for now, it's time for me to sign off. Work calls me!

Thanks and happy reading!

~Tara

The Luxe Novels by Anna Godbersen

Just when everyone thought I'd forgotten about this blog I come and update. . . Fooled you all didn't I?  :)

I actually finished this series quite a while ago.  I just was having a hard time finding motivation to write on my blogs for some reason. But here I am to finally get this done.

The Luxe novels is a series for young adults about turn of the century New York and the teenage/young adult, upper middle class society that they lived in.  The series follows sisters Elizabeth and Diana Holland, their friend Penelope Hayes, and their mutual journey to find love and acceptance in a somewhat cruel and judgmental society. (There is another main character, but if I tell you about it, it kind of gives away a somewhat important part of the first book that helps set up the rest of the series)  Elizabeth and Diana are from a very well respected family of old money, but are watching their fortune fall away from them fast after their father passes away.  Penelope is from a newly rich family and is trying to find the same respect that being from "old money" deserves.  As the 2 families struggle with those trials, the girls themselves are struggling with relationships.  Elizabeth has to decide if love or reputation is more important to her. Diana has to find a way to not live in Elizabeth's shadow. And Penelope struggles to get the man that she loves to pay attention to her.  Their individual journeys often cross paths in some very unique and interesting ways.  Each book finds you rooting for a different character as you take the journey with these 3 girls and their families.

I really enjoyed reading this series.  It was nice to have a few quick reads that didn't require the depth that books for more mature audiences does.  I could lose myself in the story pretty easily.  The series actually made me wish that I could have lived at the turn of the century.  I've always had that somewhat odd desire to wear fancy dresses and learn all of those super cool dances, and reading a series about that time (even though I'm sure this series was not meant to be super historically accurate at all) kind of enhanced that desire.  All in all I really liked this series and would definitely recommend it for young adults (probably only of the female variety since the main story lines are more romantic in subject).

Right now I'm tackling a pretty daunting task.  I'm reading all of the Sherlock Holmes stories. I have a book that has them all in one volume.  While they are very good and I'm enjoying it so far, I'm finding it harder to want to just sit down and read since the continuity that you get with reading a book isn't there with a bunch of short stories. I'm contemplating reading another book at the same time so that I feel like I'm accomplishing something.

Until next time,

~Tara