Cormoran Strike Series by Robert Galbraith

Genre: Mystery 

Publisher: Mulholland Books 

Pages: 455, 455, 589

Rating: ★★★



Synopsis

After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office.

Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man.

You may think you know detectives, but you've never met one quite like Strike. You may think you know about the wealthy and famous, but you've never seen them under an investigation like this. Introducing Cormoran Strike, this is the acclaimed first crime novel by J.K. Rowling, writing under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

My Thoughts

After being on my "to be read" list for about a year and a half I finally read this series. And it really took me way too long. It took me a long time to read them and a long time to get around to blogging about them. I'm not sure why it took my so long to read them but I think that for me they seemed to drag a bit. Crime and mystery novels are not typically my go-to so when I picked these up I anticipated the non stop thrill of Gone Girl. But this was not that. And to be honest, I could have read the first one and not finished the rest of the series, but I was blinded by my love of J.K. Rowling from thinking anything but the highest for these books and this forced me to push on. 

In The Cuckoo's Calling there was definitely more character introduction and a lesson in how the crime/mystery novel would go. The rest of the books follow the same basic structure of getting a case and piecing it together with your mind being blown at the end of the whole process. The first one was probably my favorite for the same reason that the first in any series is anyone's favorite; the introduction to everything. More detail is paid to the descriptions and it is overall a more fun story with the murder(?)/suicide (?) of the supermodel. 

The second, The Silkworm, could have been skipped in my opinion. An author has written a scathing exposé about all the people around him and now he is missing. It follows a similar pattern as the first book but it was kind of gross and to be honest I just really didn't like it, so I am just going to move on...

Career of Evil is the latest book in the series and I loved this one! Coming off of The Silkworm, I really wasn't interested in this one but it seemed to be similar to Cuckoo's Calling so I liked it much better! This one involves Robin getting a severed leg in the mail and Cormoran digging through his past to find out who sent it. There is much more backstory on Cormoran and a larger focus on Robin and Cormoran as a pair. This book ended on a cliffhanger and now I am definitely hooked! 

I went through a lot of different emotions towards this series and even now, a month later, I am having a hard time deciding whether I really liked it or not. I will absolutely be picking up the next one whenever it comes out, but as for recommending it, I am no sure that I would. If you like crime/mystery novels then definitely go ahead and grab these, but honestly you would be just as good skipping them! 

My Favorite Line

He possessed a finely honed sense for the strange and the wicked. He had seen things all through his childhood that other people preferred to imagine happened only in films.

After You by JoJo Moyes

Genre: Fiction 

Publisher: Penguin 

Pages: 352

Rating: ★★★★


Synopsis

How do you move on after losing the person you loved? How do you build a life worth living?

Louisa Clark is no longer just an ordinary girl living an ordinary life. After the transformative six months spent with Will Traynor, she is struggling without him. When an extraordinary accident forces Lou to return home to her family, she can’t help but feel she’s right back where she started.

Her body heals, but Lou herself knows that she needs to be kick-started back to life. Which is how she ends up in a church basement with the members of the Moving On support group, who share insights, laughter, frustrations, and terrible cookies. They will also lead her to the strong, capable Sam Fielding—the paramedic, whose business is life and death, and the one man who might be able to understand her. Then a figure from Will’s past appears and hijacks all her plans, propelling her into a very different future. . . .

For Lou Clark, life after Will Traynor means learning to fall in love again, with all the risks that brings. But here Jojo Moyes gives us two families, as real as our own, whose joys and sorrows will touch you deeply, and where both changes and surprises await.

After You is quintessential Jojo Moyes—a novel that will make you laugh, cry, and rejoice at being back in the world she creates. Here she does what few novelists can do—revisits beloved characters and takes them to places neither they nor we ever expected.

My Thoughts

After reading and falling in love with Me Before You last month, I was eagerly awaiting the arrival of the sequel. Moyes wasn't planning to initially write a sequel but I am so glad that she did. Even though I felt like I got enough closure in the first book, I was excited to return to the characters I loved and meet some new ones. 

After the passing of Will, Louisa is completely lost. She is living in London alone and works at a pub in the airport but she isn't following Will's final piece of advice to "just live well". That is until she falls off her rooftop garden. With this action she begins to reevaluate her life and tries to move forward. 

She meets Sam, her paramedic that saved her after she fell. Sam helps bring Louisa out of her depression and to see how her life could change if she can just move past the death of Will. Along with Sam, Louisa also meets the 16 year old Lily who has her own connections to Will. They all work together to come out of their own grief and become people that Will would be proud of. 

I am so happy with the way the sequel worked out. I was afraid it would leave me disappointed but Moyes did a good job to ensure that this book stands alone but also functions as part of the whole. I enjoyed revisiting these characters and seeing the way Louisa was able to change and leap out from her comfort zone with the help of new people in her life. If you liked Me Before You, definitely continue on to After You. 

My Favorite Line

You Live. And you throw yourself into everything and try not to think about the bruises. 

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

Genre: Fiction

Publisher: Anchor Books

Pages: 527

Rating: ★★★


Synopsis

When New Yorker Rachel Chu agrees to spend the summer in Singapore with her boyfriend, Nicholas Young, she envisions a humble family home and quality time with the man she hopes to marry. But Nick has failed to give his girlfriend a few key details. One, that his childhood home looks like a palace; two, that he grew up riding in more private planes than cars; and three, that he just happens to be the country’s most eligible bachelor. 
 
On Nick’s arm, Rachel may as well have a target on her back the second she steps off the plane, and soon, her relaxed vacation turns into an obstacle course of old money, new money, nosy relatives, and scheming social climbers.

My Thoughts

I do not get the love/cult following for this book and for it's sequel China Rich Girlfriend. I don't know if I am missing something here or if it's just that I wasn't really into it. It was very slow to start, the middle was good but definitely not great, and then the last 100 pages were really good and made me question my feelings toward the other 400 pages. 

The book begins with an introduction to the insane wealth of the main characters. When the Young family is mistreated at a ritzy hotel in London, they just end up buying the hotel and firing the rude manager. The title does not lie -- it really is about some crazy rich asians. 

The book then introduces us to the main characters Nick and Rachel. Kwan shifts point of view between the modest lives of Nick and Rachel in New York and Nick's mother Eleanor in her posh Singapore apartment. As I already said, this beginning was slow to start. It was all about establishing the different lifestyles between Rachel and Nick's Singaporean relatives. Eventually, Nick and Rachel finally come to Singapore where they meet all of Nick's friends and family. Rachel begins to experience the insane wealth and the shallow people that all make up Nick's past. Rachel must decide whether the life Nick has in Singapore is something she can learn to accept. 

Overall, this book was probably too long for the subject matter. I skipped through several chapters told from secondary characters point of views because I didn't care about their story lines. There was constant name dropping in an attempt to really force the topic of wealth. I wasn't very into this book and definitely won't be returning for the sequel. 

My Favorite Line

The investigator thinks that they were most likely working class. In other words, they are PEASANTS. 

Why Not Me by Mindy Kaling

Genre: Nonfiction 

Publisher: Crown Archetype 

Pages: 240

Rating: ★★★★★


Synopsis

In Why Not Me?, Kaling shares her ongoing journey to find contentment and excitement in her adult life, whether it’s falling in love at work, seeking new friendships in lonely places, attempting to be the first person in history to lose weight without any behavior modification whatsoever, or most important, believing that you have a place in Hollywood when you’re constantly reminded that no one looks like you.

In “How to Look Spectacular: A Starlet’s Confessions,” Kaling gives her tongue-in-cheek secrets for surefire on-camera beauty, (“Your natural hair color may be appropriate for your skin tone, but this isn’t the land of appropriate–this is Hollywood, baby. Out here, a dark-skinned woman’s traditional hair color is honey blonde.”) “Player” tells the story of Kaling being seduced and dumped by a female friend in L.A. (“I had been replaced by a younger model. And now they had matching bangs.”) In “Unlikely Leading Lady,” she muses on America’s fixation with the weight of actresses, (“Most women we see onscreen are either so thin that they’re walking clavicles or so huge that their only scenes involve them breaking furniture.”) And in “Soup Snakes,” Kaling spills some secrets on her relationship with her ex-boyfriend and close friend, B.J. Novak (“I will freely admit: my relationship with B.J. Novak is weird as hell.”)

Mindy turns the anxieties, the glamour, and the celebrations of her second coming-of-age into a laugh-out-loud funny collection of essays that anyone who’s ever been at a turning point in their life or career can relate to. And those who’ve never been at a turning point can skip to the parts where she talks about meeting Bradley Cooper.

My Thoughts

I love Mindy Kaling. I love her TV show. I love her books. I love her. If there is one thing you learn about me it is this, I. Love. Mindy. Kaling. She could have written 240 pages on mathematical equations and I probably would have read it and loved it because to me, whatever Mindy says goes. 

Why Not Me starts off with the section For the Ladies which, of course, is hysterical. Kaling covers everything from her Hollywood beauty secrets to the things she would want you to bring to her dinner party. In the essay titled Some Thoughts on Weddings, Kaling describes how her friendships have changed since college by saying that her friends "will never come home to each other again and will never have each other's undivided attention. That version of our friendship is over". With graduation in the Spring, this quote hit a little close to home. But its not all sentimental, when describing her time in a sorority Kaling describes her horror at being fined for not attending an event. Which is hilarious if you know that this is absolutely common.  Per usual, everything is absolutely relevant and completely clever. 

The next section of essays covers Kaling's television series The Mindy Project. In the essay A Day in the Life of Mindy Kaling, Mindy's assistant Sonia documents and timelines an entire day for Mindy Kaling. Truth bombs from this essay include "Prop cake is the sweetest kind of cake because  unlike with regular cake, it has no calories because my character is eating it, not me. Thats how it works". Kaling reflects on when she found out that The Mindy Project wasn't nominated for an Emmy and how she chose to "be gracious so people would continue to think I'm professional and classy". As if you needed another reason to idolize her! 

Love Dating and Boys Who Ru(i)n The World had me constantly underlining statements and simply annotating them with a simple 'yes.' Everything here was exactly straight out of my brain. Being perpetually single has its ups and downs and Kaling 100% gets it. "What I am asking for is not that much. I just want a boyfriend who is sweet and trustworthy. That's it". That is how the essay A Perfectly Reasonable Request begins. Of course Mindy doesn't stop there. You'll have to read the whole essay to see what other requests Kaling has, but its hilarious. 

In the last section of Kaling's book I was faced with the impending tragedy of the book actually ending. All the Opinions You Will Ever Need is really that. In what was probably the most relatable essay in the book, Kaling discusses what it is like to be a body role model but also her struggles with remaining body confident. My favorite essay of the whole book is in this section and titled Unlikely Leading Lady. Kaling admits "I don't wake up in the morning, look my naked body in the mirror and say, 'Good Morning, body. Once again you've nailed it, you gorgeous imperfect thing." This essay really captured Kaling's thoughts of herself and also allowed me to relate to her. Mindy also included a copy of her Harvard Law School Commencement Address which is so funny and so great. (Confession: I love watching commencement addresses and Kaling's is up in my tops!)

Overall, this book was a fabulous description of Mindy and it just made me love her more! Definitely read her first book if you haven't already and then grab this one too! 

My Favorite Line

If you've got it flaunt it. And if you've don't got it? Flaunt it. 'Cause what are we even doing here if we're not flaunting it? 

Everybody Rise by Stephanie Clifford

Genre: Nonfiction 

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Pages: 371

Rating: ★★★★



Synopsis

It's 2006 in the Manhattan of the young and glamorous. Money and class are colliding in a city that is about to go over a financial precipice and take much of the country with it. At 26, bright, funny and socially anxious Evelyn Beegan is determined to carve her own path in life and free herself from the influence of her social-climbing mother, who propelled her through prep school and onto the Upper East Side. Evelyn has long felt like an outsider to her privileged peers, but when she gets a job at a social network aimed at the elite, she's forced to embrace them.

Recruiting new members for the site, Evelyn steps into a promised land of Adirondack camps, Newport cottages and Southampton clubs thick with socialites and Wall Streeters. Despite herself, Evelyn finds the lure of belonging intoxicating, and starts trying to pass as old money herself. When her father, a crusading class-action lawyer, is indicted for bribery, Evelyn must contend with her own family's downfall as she keeps up appearances in her new life, grasping with increasing desperation as the ground underneath her begins to give way.

Bracing, hilarious and often poignant, Stephanie Clifford's debut offers a thoroughly modern take on classic American themes - money, ambition, family, friendship - and on the universal longing to fit in. 

My Thoughts

If you've been following me on my instagram, then you'll know I have been reading Everybody Rise this last week. It is the debut novel from the award-winning New York Times reporter Stephanie Clifford. I was initially so excited to read this book when I saw College Prepster read it earlier this summer. Pretty much anything Carly reads I like and when I read the synopsis I knew that this was something I was going to be down for. 

Everybody Rise is set in 2006 just before the stock market crash in 2007. The novel takes a close look at a group of friends in America's upper class as they run around NYC and vacation in The Hamptons -- basically the dream. I mean the first scene takes place at a prep school lacrosse tailgate which was dripping in crystal stemware...like The Grove, but better.  It was like I was stepping into the instagram of KJP or Town & Country and I never wanted to leave. 

The book begins by introducing us to all the characters including Evelyn's social-climbing and ever critical mother, which gives us a quick and obvious glimpse at the pressures Evelyn has had to deal with growing up. Even coming from a well-to-do family in Maryland, Evelyn's family wealth isn't nearly that of the friends in her social circle. For growing up under the criticism of her mother, Evelyn seems to be pretty self-sufficient. She has a job working as a recruiter at the new social media start-up People Like Us. Evelyn must make the most of her prep school connections to bring New York's elite into the site. Evelyn's first target is Camilla Rutherford and by forging this friendship Evelyn finds herself at the tip top of New York society. 

From here, Everybody Rise takes readers through dinner parties at social clubs and boat races in the Adirondacks. Contrast these lavish lifestyle parties with Evelyn's crumbling family life in Maryland where her father faces indictment. As the book continues, you see Evelyn start living two lives and watch as she climbs the social ladder and leaves everything else behind her. She quickly becomes someone you love to someone you hate to someone you love again. 

I'm so excited that the producer of The Devil Wears Prada picked it up and will be turning it into a movie. I am also seriously hoping for a sequel. Clifford leaves the ending fairly open and it would be interesting to see how her friends in finance find themselves after the crash. 

My Favorite Line 

I always think the opening moments of a party are the hardest, before everyone has had enough to drink

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Genre: Nonfiction 

Publisher: Penguin Books 

Pages: 369

Rating: ★★★★



Synopsis

Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life—steady boyfriend, close family—who has never been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex-Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair-bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life—big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel—and now he’s pretty sure he cannot live the way he is.

Will is acerbic, moody, bossy—but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living.

A love story for this generation, Me Before You brings to life two people who couldn’t have less in common—a heartbreakingly romantic novel that asks, What do you do when making the person you love happy also means breaking your own heart? 

My Thoughts

I am literally sitting here with the tears drying on my cheeks. I should probably let this ending marinate for a bit before launching into a review but I really just don't care and think I should just get all of the feelings down now.  

I had heard so much positive buzz about Me Before You that I honestly think I wasn't reading it for the longest time out of pure spite. More than that, everytime I read the synopsis I just didn't feel like it was going to be my thing. But once I found out they were making it a movie and heard about the cast (Kahleesi, Neville Longbottom and Finnick Odair...seriously, sign me up!) I was ready to give it a shot. 

This book was tricky and really snuck up on me. It started out pretty slow and I just couldn't see how it could be sooo good. I hated to think of darling love of my life Sam Claflin playing a quadriplegic. Pardon?! He is too beautiful to be immobile. And on top of that, how could Emilia Clarke play someone so meek as Louisa? But as the plot thickened and I stopped thinking of the characters in relation to the actors that would eventually be playing them, I was really able to get into the book. 

I won't lie though, it really took me up until half way through to get attached to this book. As I was reading it, I was thinking there was no way I would even look forward to the sequel or even care about how it all ended. That all changed with the last hundred pages. I flew through them in an hour and only stopped to wipe the tears from my eyes. 

It was that good. Granted, it doesn't take much to get a good cry out of me. Either way, this book really struck a chord, which in part is due to Moyes for creating such realistic characters who leave it all out on the table. With everything they both face, they grow and change and become new people by the end of the novel. The main focus isn't romance but more about life and the importance of making the right decisions. 

Now I am counting down to the sequel and it seems like the end of September can't come soon enough! 

My Favorite Line 

You only get one life. It's actually your duty to live it as fully as possible.

The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett

Genre: Nonfiction 

Publisher: Picador

Pages: 120 

Rating: ★★★★



Synopsis

When her corgis stray into a mobile library parked near Buckingham Palace, the Queen feels duty-bound to borrow a book. Discovering the joy of reading widely (from J. R. Ackerley, Jean Genet, and Ivy Compton-Burnett to the classics) and intelligently, she finds that her view of the world changes dramatically. Abetted in her newfound obsession by Norman, a young man from the royal kitchens, the Queen comes to question the prescribed order of the world and loses patience with the routines of her role as monarch. Her new passion for reading initially alarms the palace staff and soon leads to surprising and very funny consequences for the country at large. 

My Thoughts

This novella is witty and charming and seriously cute. Once The Queen discovers the joys of reading there is really nothing that can stop her. Everyone tries to intervene and get rid of her new habit but Her Majesty will not have it. It was so fun to see the Queen behaving the way everyone does when they are in the middle of a good book (i.e. ignoring responsibilities, making excuses, etc.). 

Overall, this novella offered some wonderful insight in the magic of reading and exploring new things. There isn't much else to say about this because it really is so short but this was clever and smart and I highly recommend!

My Favorite Line 

Yes that is exactly what it is. A book is a device to ignite the imagination.