51. Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

I told my friend Stacey that I needed book recommendations and she thought of Firefly Lane right away. She told me that she read it in three days, and that she laughed AND cried while reading. I borrowed her copy, and read the whole thing one Saturday while Colin was working. I couldn't put it down! Every time I tried, I couldn't stop thinking about it and what was going to happen next.

In the turbulent summer of 1974, Kate Mularkey has accepted her place at the bottom of the eighth-grade social food chain. Then, to her amazement, the "coolest girl in the world" moves in across the street and wants to be her friend. Tully Hart seems to have it all - beauty, brains, ambition. On the surface they are as opposite as two people can be: Kate, doomed to be forever uncool, with a loving family who mortifies her at every turn. Tully, stepped in glamour and mystery, but with a secret that is destroying her. They make a pact to be best friends forever; by summer's end they've become TullyandKate. Inseparable.

So begins Kristin Hannah's magnificent new novel. Spanning more than three decades and playing out across the ever-changing face of the Pacific Northwest, Firefly Lane is the poignant, powerful story of two women and the friendship that becomes the bulkhead of their lives. For thirty years, Tully and Kate buoy each other through life, weathering the storms of friendship - jealousy, anger, hurt, resentment. They think they've survived it all until a single act of betrayal tears them apart...and puts their courage and friendship to the ultimate test.

Plot summary lifted from the book jacket. Colin typed it up for me because he can't stand my hunt-and-peck typing. 

I'm a total sucker for stories about life-long female friendships. Nothing against my own gender, but I think female friendships can be tricky. Let's say you're lucky enough to find a friend that totally gets you -- knows exactly where you're coming from, knows what to say and when not to say anything. It's rare. Now try to hold onto that friend -- it's not always easy. Maybe your old best friend is jealous of your new best friend. Maybe you like the same stupid boy. Maybe one of you moves away. There are a million little things that can get in the way if you let them. It's a minefield! Now, I have friends and my sisters and Colin, but I don't really have a best girlfriend and I miss it. So reading Firefly Lane was very satisfying. And it really is a page-turner, I could not put it down and walk away. And like Stacey, I laughed AND cried while reading. That happens less often than you think. This book would be great to take on vacation or to spend a lazy Saturday reading, like I did. I highly recommend it!

50. Enemies of the People by Kati Marton

I read about Enemies of the People by Kati Marton somewhere, and kept seeing the title pop up on book blogs and review sites. It sounded really interesting, so I placed a request at the library and waited my turn. The day that I went to pick it up, Marton was interviewed on The Colbert Report (which is practically required viewing in our home). This seemed fortuitous to me somehow, so I started reading the next day.

"You are opening a Pandora's box."

Marton was warned when she filed for her family's secret police files in Budapest. But her family history -- during both the Nazi and the Communist periods -- was too full of shadows. The files revealed terrifying truths: secret love affairs, betrayals inside the family circle, torture and brutalities alongside acts of stunning courage -- and, above all, deep family love. In this true-life thriller, Kati Marton, an accomplished journalist, exposes the cruel mechanics of the Communist Terror State, using the secret police files on her journalist parents as well as dozens of interviews that reveal how her family was spied on and betrayed by friends and colleagues, and even their children's baby-sitter. In this moving and brave memoir, Marton searches for and finds her parents, and love. Marton relates her eyewitness account of her mother's and father's arrests in Cold War Budapest and the terrible separation that followed. She describes the pain her parents endured in prison - isolated from each other and their children. She reveals the secret war between Washington and Moscow, in which Marton and her family were pawns in a much larger game. By the acclaimed author of The Great Escape, Enemies of the People is a tour de force, an important work of history as it was lived, a narrative of multiple betrayals on both sides of the Cold War that ends with triumph and a new beginning in America.

Plot summary lifted from the book jacket. Colin typed it up for me because he can't stand my hunt-and-peck typing.

First, let me get the negatives out of the way. In my experience, expectations have an enormous effect on your enjoyment of a book. For some reason, I was expecting to be riveted while reading Enemies of the People. While this book is interesting, I wasn't riveted and that made me feel like it wasn't as good as I thought it would be. The subject matter and the way that Marton chose to write about it was a bit dryer than I expected. You hear about secret police investigating and arresting journalists and you expect suspense and intrigue. In actuality, the surveillance of the Martons must have been tedious for the state. It doesn't seem like very much is happening. And Kati made extensive use of her research, quoting from informants and reports in the files. I can see why she made this choice -- the book is in essence a result of this journey to uncover what the files contained. And those contents are extraordinary, but I felt a bit mired down in the excerpts at times. 

In the end, the positives definitely outweigh the negatives. What happened to Kati Marton and her family almost seems like fiction; the fact that it's all true and the evidence is right in front of us is incredible. I appreciated Marton's sense of humor and her willingness to share how her past has shaped her life -- that is to say, the past as she knew it and the past as she now knows it. The most valuable part of the book for me is the very clear sense you get of the atmosphere in Hungary at the time. Marton relates the day-to-day life in a police state eloquently, making the unimaginable imaginable. If you're at all interested in this time period or subject matter, I recommend you give this book a try.

Here's a clip of Marton's appearance on The Colbert Report. It's very entertaining, even if you're not a Colbert fan. 

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Kati Marton
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Skate Expectations

(I especially like the part when Marton calls her baby-sitter a bitch.)

50 down, 50 to go! And the highlight reel, sort of.

I still have to post the review, but I officially finished my 50th book tonight! Holy accomplishment, Batman!

Life has been getting in my way lately, as it is wont to do. Between work and family stuff, I haven't kept on pace with my project. And if you read the sidebar, you'll notice I'm reading four books at the moment. That's unusual for me; I'm very orderly about starting one thing and finishing it before moving onto the next. Usually. For some reason, I'm having trouble finishing books right now. I think I'm just distracted.

I am going to try and get back on pace, because I really am enjoying myself. This is something that I chose to do and am excited about. Although, when I think about the amount and variety of books that I've read in the past seven months, I feel like I've already won (regardless of how cheesy that sounds).

I was going to try and do a whole "highlights of the first 50" post, but I think I'm too tired. So I'll just include the first few that come to mind.

1. I'm really glad I discovered the author Tana French. Read my reviews of In the Woods and The Likeness if you want to know why. I am eagerly anticipating her next book. I love it when I want to read absolutely everything a certain author writes.
2. I should be more open to my family members' suggestions. Kudos to my dad for recommending 1632 and Old Man's War, which is very good so far. And I loved American Shaolin, which my sister Annie suggested.
3. That leads me to my next point -- apparently, I enjoy science fiction and fantasy. This is entirely contrary to my previous self-image. But giving new things a chance pays off sometimes. I have the sequel to A Game of Thrones saved on my laptop, and I'm itching to read it.
4. I have to work on not biting off more than I can chew! Sometimes I set myself up for failure. See Public Enemies, An American Tragedy. 
5. Although I am benefiting from trying new things, I do like what I like. That's not going to change. I'll always be excited about books like Bobby and Jackie and L.A. Candy. That's me.

I feel like I have more to say, but I can't think of anything. Let's end with a really awesome photo of my sisters and me from childhood, okay? This will be fun.

Mollie, Annie, Maggie

Apparently someone confiscated my pacifier in order to get a better photo. Well, here's proof of how contrary I can be. Look how distraught I am without it! And Mollie and Annie are so happy. Delighted, from the looks of it. At least Annie is reaching out to me. I'm also just noticing how cute their sweaters are, while mine is the color of oatmeal. Maybe that's another reason I look detached and bewildered?

49. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

A couple of people recommended this book to me after learning that I read and enjoyed Pride and Prejudice. My sister Mollie and her fiance Kevin gave Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to Colin for Christmas, and he graciously allowed me to read his copy before he did. Warning, love: There are minor spoilers below.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.

So begins Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an expanded edition of the beloved Jane Austen novel featuring all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie mayhem. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton -- and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she's soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers -- and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield. Can Elizabeth vanquish the spawn of Satan? And overcome the social prejudices of the class-conscious landed gentry? Complete with romance, heartbreak, swordfights, cannibalism, and thousands of rotting corpses, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies transforms a masterpiece of world literature into something you'd actually want to read. 

Plot summary courtesy of the paperback back cover. (And in regard to the last sentence, may I say, "Oh snap!")

My first reaction while reading was that the book wasn't quite as fun or funny as I was expecting. I was expecting more laugh-loud-loud humor, but the writing is witty and the humor more subtle. I did have some laugh-out-loud moments starting with Elizabeth's visit to Collins and Charlotte, but that's more than 100 pages in. Also, I thought this would be a more fast-paced read, but it's very faithful to the pacing of the original. It took longer for me to read -- and become invested in the story -- than I thought it would. 

That being said, I still enjoyed the book tremendously once I adjusted my expectations. I think Grahame-Smith's approach was wildly clever, especially in the plot points he took more liberties with. I especially liked Charlotte's storyline and Elizabeth's bewilderment at no one's noticing Charlotte's deterioration. This is the point at which I really became invested and had fun reading. I didn't really think it was necessary to include Collins' intentions to hang himself after Charlotte's beheading, but apparently Grahame-Smith felt Collins deserved to be killed off. I loved the comeuppance that Wickham received at Darcy's hand; I thought it very fitting. And as surprised as I was when Elizabeth and Lady Catherine began their duel, it worked very well in this alternate universe. The tailoring of the world of the original Pride and Prejudice to Grahame-Smith's zombie-ravaged version was thorough and creative, although I think he could have taken a few more chances with the source material.  

Side note: I particularly enjoyed the repeated mentions of the Bennet sisters' training in kung fu at the Shaolin temple in China. I was pleasantly reminded of American Shaolin, and felt clued-in to how difficult said training would have been. I appreciated Grahame-Smith's changing Lady Catherine's questioning Elizabeth about not having a tutor to questioning her about why the sisters trained in China instead of Japan, the lady's preferred choice. I just thought that was hilarious.

I would absolutely recommend this book, but expect the pace to be very consistent with the original and that the humor is more quiet and subtle. I think you will probably enjoy Pride and Prejudice and Zombies more if you have already read Pride and Prejudice, but you can still enjoy it on its own. Oh, and I checked imdb.com and as I expected, there's a movie version already in the works. Natalie Portman has been cast as Elizabeth. What do you think? I think it will probably rock it out.

48. A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

When I asked for book recommendations for this project, my sister Annie sent me an e-mail with a lot of suggestions. Many of them were science fiction and fantasy books, since those are genres that she knows better than I do. A Game of Thrones, the first book in George R. R. Martin's Song of Fire and Ice series, was near the top of her list. I checked Amazon's Kindle store and saw that I could buy A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings, the second book in the series, for the price of one. I figured there was a decent chance that I would become invested in the story, so I went for it and bought both. So far, I have only read the first book. Warning: there are a few spoilers below.

Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last decades, and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom's protective wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean beauty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens.

Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; and a determined woman undertakes the most treacherous of journeys. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.

Plot summary courtesy of towerofthehand.com.

The first thing you need to know about A Game of Thrones is that it's long. (Very long.) I don't know the page count, but it's up there. I wanted avoid another An American Tragedy situation (wherein I get caught up in one book for a length of time and fall behind in my pace), so I decided to read other books at the same time. It took about a month to read, and I think I got through eight other books in that time. I told my dad about this strategy, and he sent me a quote from Ambrose Bierce that he thought I would enjoy:

"The covers of this book are too far apart."

Well said, Mr. Bierce.

The next thing you need to know about this book is that it's complicated. I looked up the Song of Fire and Ice series on Wikipedia before I started reading, so I could see what I was getting into. There was a summary of events that took place before the action in A Game of Thrones, and it seemed like a tangled web to me, even after I started reading. There were times when it seemed like the cast numbered in the thousands, and many of them had long, interwoven histories with other characters.

So you see, the book requires a commitment. And while that may sound like a bad thing, it's not. If you dedicate the time and attention to A Game of Thrones, you will be rewarded with a genuinely enjoyable and fulfilling reading experience. Martin has created an entire world filled with unique customs, history, settings, and characters. It's so well-developed and thought-out; I can't imagine being able to do that. I think I may have to read it again at some point; there are so many details that I'm sure I wasn't taking them all in. Oh, and I should mention something that Annie included in her e-mail: You need to give this book a good hundred pages before it really starts to get awesome. Agreed! But it's definitely worth it once you get past that initial hump.

If you've read my previous reviews, you're aware that I can't keep track of action sequences very well. That's true for me in this book as well. There are grand-scale scenes of battle as well as smaller-scale scenes of swordplay between children that I struggled a little with. What really interested me were the motivations of the characters and the wealth of intrigue included in the plot. It's hard to give examples without getting into the whole plot, but suffice it to say that the struggle for power brings out the best in some people and the worst in others. How they interact and plot against each other is fascinating to me. I love the idea of these power plays being a "game of thrones." I think that's very apt, and I liked when characters referred to that:

At one point, a character who yearns for the power his family previously had told someone that the people were secretly waiting for him to seize control of the kingdoms. The other character responded that the people didn't care who won the game of thrones, they wanted to stay out of it and be left to their day-to-day lives. That resonated with me, and I wondered how true that might be for modern-day conflicts.

At another point, the queen remarks, "When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground." If you didn't already have a firm grasp of her character, that statement would probably give you a good idea.

And finally, one character asked, "...why is it always the innocents who suffer most, when you high lords play your game of thrones?" Again, this resonated and made me think about modern-day conflicts and who truly pays the consequences.

I really liked the way that Martin alternated between different characters' points of view in each chapter. It was very effective, and rounded out the story. He is an incredibly skilled writer to be able to tell his story from multiple well-developed characters' perspectives. It was a great way to subtly drop clues and hints to the reader that not all of the characters were privy to. Although I don't mind saying, there were a few surprises that I didn't see coming at all -- for those of you who read the book, my jaw dropped when Eddard figured out why Jon Arryn was killed. And the scene leading up to Eddard's execution had my heart pounding! Not all writers can achieve that level of suspense. I did become really invested in the story after all; the instances of unfairness (when Robert ruled that the direwolves had to be put down, for example) made me so mad that I was shaking my head and muttering, much to Colin's delight.

Annie told me that the Song of Fire and Ice series are the best fiction books -- of any genre -- that she's ever read. I'm on my way to agreeing with her, and I highly recommend you check out A Game of Thrones.

47. A Cup of Christmas Tea by Tom Hegg

This book was a Christmas gift from my aunt, Marj. She left a sweet note inside the pages, explaining that this is one of her favorite Christmas stories and she hoped that I would enjoy it. I was touched and happy to receive such a thoughtful gift, and decided that I wanted to include it in my Magnolia Reads project.

A Cup of Christmas Tea is the story of a young adult invited to tea by an aging aunt at the holidays. After dreading it, he goes to visit his aunt and is surprised by what a great time he has visiting with her and seeing her house filled with decorations. He is amazed at how alive her Christmas spirit is even though her body is worn and aged.

As a young adult who has witnessed the deteriorating health of aging grandparents, I really appreciated the message in this book. We all need a reminder to value those people in our lives, and seek out their time instead of neglecting them. As simple as it sounds, that can be hard to remember.

I really enjoyed the writing style; it was lyrical, almost like a poem or a song. And it was clever and witty, which for some reason I wasn't expecting. Here is one of my favorite passages:

The cards were in the mail,

all the gifts beneath the tree,

and 30 days reprieve

'til VISA could catch up with me.

While this is a nice story for Christmas for all ages, I think it's aimed a bit more at adults. It is definitely a great addition to my collection of books, and I highly recommend that you add it to yours.

46. Heat Wave by Richard Castle

I really like the show Castle. Colin and I watch and enjoy it every week. Nathan Fillion is at his charming and ruggedly handsome best, and the supporting cast has had a great rhythm down from the first episode. It resists traditional labels; it's a procedural, but infused with wit, romance, friendships, and family. A smart and funny show with an incredibly likable cast? Count me in. In case you're not watching, the basic premise is this: Richard Castle is a best-selling mystery writer. Feeling somewhat uninspired and having killed off his most popular character, he's looking for something new and exciting to write about. He meets Detective Kate Beckett when she's investigating a series of murders that are eerily similar to those in one of Castle's books. He acts as a consultant on the case and decides to write a series of books about female detective based on Beckett. After pulling some strings, he arranges to shadow her on the job as research. Heat Wave is the first book penned by Castle about Detective Nikki Heat, aka Kate Beckett.

A New York real estate tycoon plunges to his death on a Manhattan sidewalk. A trophy wife with a past survives a narrow escape from a brazen attack. Mobsters and moguls with no shortage of reasons to kill trot out their alibis. And then, in the suffocating grip of a record heat wave, comes another shocking murder and a sharp turn in a tense journey into the dirty little secrets of the wealthy. Secrets that prove to be fatal. Secrets that lay hidden in the dark until one NYPD detective shines a light.

Mystery sensation Richard Castle, blockbuster author of the wildly best-selling Derek Storm novels, introduces his newest character, NYPD Homicide Detective Nikki Heat. Tough, sexy, professional, Nikki Heat carries a passion for justice as she leads one of New York City's top homicide squads. She's hit with an unexpected challenge when the commissioner assigns superstar magazine journalist Jameson Rook to ride along with her to research an article on New York's finest. Pulitzer Prize-winning Rook is as much a handful as he is handsome. His wise-cracking and meddling aren't her only problems. As she works to unravel the secrets of the murdered real estate tycoon, she must also confront the spark between them. The one called heat.

Plot summary courtesy of the book jacket.

This book is a great complement to the show, but I don't think it could stand on its own independently of it. Maybe it could, but I think the fun is in knowing that "Castle" wrote it. There's no mention anywhere in the book or on the book jacket of another author, even the acknowledgments are written in his voice (the cast members do get a shout-out there, Castle thanks a list of friends whose first names match up with the main cast members' first names). I liked the way the story was adapted from the real life portrayed in the show to characters and events in the book -- the changes, including Castle's profession and the facts of Kate's mother's murder, work well and are entirely believable as how Castle would change events as he writes. I didn't realize there would be an actual heat wave going on, I thought that was just a play on Nikki Heat's last name.

I only have a couple of complaints. Nikki is attacked in her home late one night by a suspect, who had already made threatening comments of a sexual nature toward her earlier in the day. She had just finished a bath and hadn't dressed yet when she discovered that he was in the apartment, and had to fight him off while naked and hearing more sexual taunts. Castle airs on ABC and is a fairly family-friendly show, so this felt like too drastic a shift in tone to me. As a woman, I found it to be way too creepy, especially because I wasn't expecting it. Also, I lost track of the mystery a tiny bit toward the end. This happens to me sometimes, especially when the mystery revolves around art theft, so I don't think it was necessarily the fault of the author but it still made me feel a bit dumb.

Aside from those complaints, I thought it was a good, fun read for fans of the show. Not an essential read, but a good, fun one. I want to close with a couple of quotes from the book which may explain in part why I liked it:

The neighborhood lunch rush was over, and tourists were either across the street cooling in the American Museum of Natural History or seeking refuge in Starbucks over iced coffees ending in vowels. Her disdain for the coffee drinkers dissolved into a mental note to get one herself on the way back to the precinct.

Rook brought a Dean & DeLuca cup to Heat's desk. "Here, I got you your usual. A nonfat, no-foam, double-pump vanilla latte."
"You know how I feel about frou-frou coffee drinks."
"And yet you have one every morning. Such a complex woman."
She took it from him and sipped. "Thanks. Very thoughtful." Her phone rang. "And next time remember the chocolate shavings."

I love that! See, the humor from the show is intact in the book and they poke fun at fancy coffee drinks. It's like they're writing this for me, you know?