Month: November 2018

The Memory Box

Title: The Memory Box
Author: Eva Lesko Natiello
# Pages: 288
Published: 2014
Rating: 4 stars

The Memory Box is Natiello’s first novel. She studied psychology at The State University of New York at Albany, and her insights into the human mind and character allowed her to write an incredible psychological thriller. I couldn’t put it down, and by the end I think I might have had more questions than answers! This is a great book for a book club since it will allow for lively and thrilling discussions. 

The novel begins with a group of soccer moms who, in typical mean girls’ style, spend their spare time Googling each other trying to find out the biggest dirt. Caroline, one of the moms, decides to Google herself to make sure there isn’t anything the other moms can use on her. What she finds is completely unexpected–her twin sister, who she’s sure she just spoke with, died several years prior. How does one forget the death of a twin? The more she digs, the more unbelievable information she finds, and the reader follows her in her journey to discover reality in a world that has been turned completely upside down. 

Caroline’s journey is centered around the loss of her sister and what that loss means. As a twin, I could not comprehend how someone could forget that their womb-mate has died! How much does her husband know? Where are her parents? Why does she think she has regular conversations with someone who is no longer living? How can her entire life be a lie? Read this book to (maybe) discover the answers to these questions and many more!

Favorite Quotes:

“It’s impossible to un-know a secret. Once you know it, you own it. It can’t be returned like a borrowed book. Or burned like a love letter. The click of a mouse won’t delete it from the conscious mind. It’ll stick to the walls of your memory like dried oatmeal to a dish. The secrets you wish you never knew become a burden to lug.”

“[T]he emotional scars of children can take a lifetime to heal. If they do at all.”

Calypso

Calypso

Title: Calypso
Author: David Sedaris
Pages: 261
Published: May 2018
Rating: 4.5 stars

I was first introduced to David Sedaris by one of my dearest friends. We were working away furiously doing payroll, and she turned on one of Sedaris’ books for us to listen to as we worked.  I’ll be forever grateful that she chose to play that book that day, because I’ve loved Sedaris and his books ever since!

As much as I love reading Sedaris’ books, the best experience you can get is to listen to his audiobooks.  Sedaris reads his own books for the audiobook versions, and having his voice and intonations just adds a whole extra level to the words.  Calypso is one of his more personal books (which seems silly to say, since the books are all personal essays), and it delves into some really personal experiences.  Sedaris writes a lot about the beach house he purchased for his family.  He also writes about his sister, Tiffany, and his experience losing her to suicide.  

Typically, my favorite thing about Sedaris’ writing is his honesty and his self-deprecating humor.  In , my favorite part of the book was a very simple statement he makes about his family.  He talks about his family as an exclusive club, and he can’t understand how anyone (speaking specifically about his sister) wouldn’t want to be part of that club.  

Favorite Quote:

“Why do you think she did it?” I asked as we stepped back into the sunlight. For that’s all any of us were thinking, had been thinking, since we got the news. Mustn’t Tiffany have hoped that whatever pills she’d taken wouldn’t be strong enough and that her failed attempt would lead her back into our fold? How could anyone purposefully leave us—us, of all people? This is how I thought of it, for though I’ve often lost faith in myself, I’ve never lost faith in my family, in my certainty that we are fundamentally better than everyone else. It’s an archaic belief, one I haven’t seriously reconsidered since my late teens, but still I hold it. Ours is the only club I’d ever wanted to be a member of, so I couldn’t imagine quitting. Backing off for a year or two was understandable, but to want out so badly that you’d take your own life?” 

The Way of Kings

The Way of Kings

Title: The Way of Kings, Book 1 of The Stormlight Archives
Author: Brandon Sanderson
# Pages: 1007
Published: 2010
Rating: 5 stars

In  The Way of Kings, Sanderson introduces the reader to Roshar, a land only recently brought under the rule of a single king. An assassin who can walk on walls and ceilings kills the king who brought about the kingdom’s unification, so the king’s son and the king’s brother lead the kingdom in war against those responsible for the king’s death.

The war takes place on the chasms, a desert-type terrain that has large ravines that require bridges to cross. The armies aren’t able to make their way across the desert, because enormous storms tear through the land every few days, so they stay in camps and race to fight against the other side as often as possible. 

In Roshar, the men do not learn to read, and their highest form of honor comes from being warriors.  Women are their scribes, as well as the scientists and engineers that create new technology. A person’s worth is measured by the lightness or darkness of his or her eyes. Plants pull away when they’re approached by humans. Carriages are pulled by things that sound a bit like crabs. 

This book tells the stories of the king’s brother, Brightlord Dalinar, and his son, Adolin; the king’s daughter, Jasnah; a young warrior, Kaladin; and a young women trying to save her family, Shallan. 

Favorite Quotes:

“Sometimes the prize is not worth the costs. The means by which we achieve victory are as important as the victory itself.”

“To lack feeling is to be dead, but to act on every feeling is to be a child.”