Defending Jacob by William Landay

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Title: Defending Jacob

Author: William Landay

Genre: Mystery

Length: 432 pages

Published: 2013

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Brief Synopsis: (Taken from Goodreads) Andy Barber has been an assistant district attorney in his suburban Massachusetts county for more than twenty years. He is respected in his community, tenacious in the courtroom, and happy at home with his wife, Laurie, and son, Jacob. But when a shocking crime shatters their New England town, Andy is blindsided by what happens next: His fourteen-year-old son is charged with the murder of a fellow student.

Every parental instinct Andy has rallies to protect his boy. Jacob insists that he is innocent, and Andy believes him. Andy must. He’s his father. But as damning facts and shocking revelations surface, as a marriage threatens to crumble and the trial intensifies, as the crisis reveals how little a father knows about his son, Andy will face a trial of his own—between loyalty and justice, between truth and allegation, between a past he’s tried to bury and a future he cannot conceive.

Award-winning author William Landay has written the consummate novel of an embattled family in crisis—a suspenseful, character-driven mystery that is also a spellbinding tale of guilt, betrayal, and the terrifying speed at which our lives can spin out of control.

My Review:

I give this book a 5 out of 5. 

I was going to give this 4 stars because it seemed to drag on a bit and it felt like it took forever to read (only a few days but I think I was coming down from a "book-a-day" craze since I was reading a ton of shorter books right before this). There were a lot of legal terms used since the narrator is a lawyer, but the author made sure that they were explained to the other characters who were not lawyers. He managed this pretty well, seamlessly inserting definitions of some of the more complicated terms without making it seem like he was solely explaining them for the reader.

Because of the ending, which was honestly a little bit of a shocker, I had to bump it up to five stars. After I finished the book, I realized that there were a ton of extremely subtle hints throughout the book that were placed to lead up to the ending. You don't even really realize that they're there until after you finish the book. This was a well-written, incredible novel. Definitely worth the read!

You can purchase Defending Jacob through Amazon in either hard copy or kindle format. 

Have you read Defending Jacob? If so, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts! 

Please note: I was not compensated in any way for this review. It is strictly my opinion.

Death in Venice by Thoms Mann

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Title: Death in Venice

Author: Thomas Mann

Genre: Classic Literature

Length: 79 pages

Published: 1912 (original), 1986 (version I read)

Publisher: Buccaneer Books, Inc.

Brief Synopsis: (Taken from Goodreads) Gustav von Aschenbach is a revered author whose work is known for its discipline & formal perfection. At his Venetian hotel he encounters the strikingly handsome young teenager Tadzio. Aschenbach is disturbed by his attraction to the boy. Although he watches Tadzio, he doesn't dare speak to him. Despite warnings of a cholera epidemic Aschenbach stays in Venice. He sacrifices his dignity & well-being to the immediate experience of beauty as embodied by Tadzio. After exchanging a significant look with the boy on the day of Tadzio's scheduled departure, Aschenbach dies of cholera. As in his other major works, Mann explores the role of the artist in society. The cerebral Aschenbach summons extraordinary discipline & endurance in his literary work, but his private desires overwhelm him.

My Review:

I give this book a 4 out of 5. 

This is a short, flowery tale of an older artist who travels to Venice for vacation. While at his hotel, he spies a young, "god-like" boy who throughout the tale he finds himself in love with. The two never speak, merely exchange fleeting glances.

The writing style is reminiscent to me of Henry James, especially considering that the ending is rather tragic. It's a nice, short story that really allows the reader to appreciate the main character's attraction to this young man.

You can purchase Death in Venice through Amazon in hard copy or Kindle format. 

Have you read Death in Venice? If so, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts! 

Please note: I was not compensated in any way for this review. It is strictly my opinion.

How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer

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Title: How to Breathe Underwater

Author: Julie Orringer

Genre: Short Stories

Length: 226 pages

Published: 2005

Publisher: Vintage

Brief Synopsis: (Taken from Goodreads) Nine brave, wise, and spellbinding stories make up this award-winning debut. In "When She is Old and I Am Famous" a young woman confronts the inscrutable power of her cousin's beauty. In "Note to Sixth-Grade Self" a band of popular girls exert their social power over an awkward outcast. In "Isabel Fish" fourteen-year-old Maddy learns to scuba dive in order to mend her family after a terrible accident. Alive with the victories, humiliations, and tragedies of youth, How to Breathe Underwater illuminates this powerful territory with striking grace and intelligence.

My Review:

I give this book a 5 out of 5. 

I have to admit, the first short story in this collection made me say "what the heck am I reading?!" because it was just a little bizarre with the way it ended. However, I really did enjoy each tale. They were each unique with a different underlying theme. Each story follows a girl (or two) and her emotions and feelings as to events happening around her. Definitely a nice, quick read.

You can purchase How to Breathe Underwater through Amazon in either hard copy or kindle format. 

Have you read How to Breathe Underwater? If so, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts! 

Please note: I was not compensated in any way for this review. It is strictly my opinion.

The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

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Title: The Yearling

Author: Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

Genre: Children's Books

Length: 513 pages

Published: 1930

Publisher: Scribner Book Company

Brief Synopsis: (Taken from Goodreads) Young Jody adopts an orphaned fawn he calls Flag and makes it a part of his family and his best friend. But life in the Florida backwoods is harsh, and so, as his family fights off wolves, bears, and even alligators, and faces failure in their tenuous subsistence farming, Jody must finally part with his dear animal friend. There has been a film and even a musical based on this story.

My Review:

I give this book a 5 out of 5. 

This was a really good coming of age story about a young boy who is carefree (and whose father permits him to shirk his chores much to his mother's chagrin), and raises a young fawn who was orphaned by his father when he had to use her organs to try to get some of the rattlesnake poison out of his veins. Jody spends the entire book learning how to grow up and eventually having to part with his pet and how to take care of the family's needs. 

Some parts of the story were a little slow and it took a long time before Jody finds the young fawn, but everything was definitely important to the build up of the story: understanding the neighbors, understanding the way his father and mother act, the reasons they do things, etc. In the end, Jody learns a lot of valuable lessons and grows up to be a man.

You can purchase The Yearling through Amazon in either hard copy or kindle format. 

Have you read The Yearling? If so, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts! 

Please note: I was not compensated in any way for this review. It is strictly my opinion.

Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail by Malika Oufkir, Michèle Fitoussi

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Title: Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail

Author: Malika Oufkir, Michèle Fitoussi

Genre: Biography, Memoir

Length: 294 pages

Published: 2002

Publisher: Hyperion Books

Brief Synopsis: (Taken from Goodreads) Born into a proud Berber family in 1953, the eldest daughter of the King of Morocco's closest aide, Malika Oufkir was adopted at the age of five by King Muhammad V to be brought up as the companion of his daughter, Princes Amina. When he died, his son Hassan II became King and took charge of rearing the two girls as well as his own children. Malika spent eleven years living at the court, in the seclusion of the harem, until she left the palace, at the age of 16, as one of the most eligible heiresses in the kingdom and tasted a couple of years of a heady jet-set lifestyle. On August 16th, 1972, her father, General Muhammad Oufkir, was arrested and executed after an attempt to assassinate the king. Malika, her mother, and four siblings were imprisoned in a penal colony.

My Review:

I give this book a 5 out of 5. 

This is the tale of a girl and her family who have everything, and how that was ripped away from them the day their father tried to assassinate the king. Malika tells their story and gives voice to her siblings, mother, and the two women who chose to go with them, in this memoir. For their father's botched attempt at assassination, the Oufkir family was made to "disappear", for twenty years. 

At first it was closer to a house arrest, they still had advantages: books, radio, clothing, fresh food. Eventually they got moved to a horrible place where they were separated, lived in horrible conditions, ate rancid meat and rotten vegetables, received no medical attention, and somehow survived for years through their own ingenuity and hope. Malika became a mother figure to her siblings as well as a teacher and confidant. 

Then the day came where Malika, one of her sisters, and her two brothers managed to escape. Together, the Oufkir family managed to stick together, stay strong, and escape their bonds. This was definitely a great memoir to read.

You can purchase Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail through Amazon in hard copy format. 

Have you read Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail? If so, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts! 

Please note: I was not compensated in any way for this review. It is strictly my opinion.

Monthly Update - November 2013

Another month of reading down! Unfortunately my "to-read" list never seems to get smaller. Maybe I should stop entering giveaways on Goodreads...NAH! I'd rather keep trying to win free books. It's my way of knowing what's coming out and what seems to be trending, too. For awhile it was nothing but zombie books...I really had to keep from that set, because zombies are my guilty pleasure.

At any rate, here's what I'm currently reading:

• Anna Karenina (still...I am enjoying the story, it's just a 700 page novel and that's very daunting. I am making it a priority right now though. I think the other problem is because I have it on my Kindle I don't have a deadline forcing me to finish it like I do with many of the other books I read since I get those from the library.)
• Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail by Malika Oufkir & Michèle Fitoussi

What's coming up next:

• The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
• How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer
• Defending Jacob by William Landay
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
• Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo
• Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
• What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? by Henry Farrell
• Animal Farm by George Orwell
• The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories by Washington Irving
• When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka
• Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
• The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• y1 by Sherrie Cronin (won't be reading this until after Anna Karenina is finished)
• z2 by Sherrie Cronin (won't be reading this until after Anna Karenina is finished)

I realize it looks like a long list, but chances are some of these are going to flow into December's reading list. I actually had to pull from November's reading list for some of the books I read in October (which is a good sign!) Hopefully most of these will be done before the end of November. I'd love to be ahead of schedule! 

Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi

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Title: Reading Lolita in Tehran

Author: Azar Nafisi 

Genre: Biography, Memoir

Length: 347 pages

Published: 2003

Publisher: Random House

Brief Synopsis: (Taken from Goodreads) Every Thursday morning for two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a bold and inspired teacher named Azar Nafisi secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden Western classics. As Islamic morality squads staged arbitrary raids in Tehran, fundamentalists seized hold of the universities, and a blind censor stifled artistic expression, the girls in Azar Nafisi's living room risked removing their veils and immersed themselves in the worlds of Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, and Vladimir Nabokov. In this extraordinary memoir, their stories become intertwined with the ones they are reading. Reading Lolita in Tehran is a remarkable exploration of resilience in the face of tyranny and a celebration of the liberating power of literature.

My Review:

I give this book a 4 out of 5. 

This was a very good memoir. Azar Nafisi is a married literature professor living in her home country of Iran. After she leaves her job, she finds her time spent reading English literature and eventually decides to start up a class with some of the female students she had previously taught. She kept this class for two years before finally deciding to leave Iran with her family and move to the U.S. to avoid the heavy handed Islamic regime and the laws which basically treated women like they were nothing. 

There was a lot of very interesting information about her experiences in Iran through the 1980s and 1990s and how people had to live in fear of their own government. Drawing on her literary background, she uses quotes and specific books to help make her opinions to her students known and to help the reader understand why she did many of the things she did. 

The main thing I did not like was that the story almost seemed out of order and it was hard to follow the correct timeline of events. She breaks her memoir out into four different parts, detailing classes she gave about certain authors and their works, so it was definitely hard to completely follow when certain things happened.

You can purchase Reading Lolita in Tehran through Amazon in either hard copy or Kindle format. 

Have you read Reading Lolita in Tehran? If so, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts! 

Please note: I was not compensated in any way for this review. It is strictly my opinion.