The Cuckoo's Calling

Title: The Cuckoo's Calling
Author: Robert Galbraith
Read: May 28, 2014
Series: Cormoran Strike #1

Summary: A brilliant debut mystery in a classic vein: Detective Cormoran Strike investigates a supermodel's suicide.

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. goodreads

Review: Well it looks like since the cat's out of the bag, the summary now exposes JK for writing under a pseudonym. I was so excited when I found out she had written another book but I can't imagine how devastated she was when her secret leaked (or was she? It could have also been an awesome publicity stunt.) That being said, I don't know if I would have picked up this book as soon as I did if JK hadn't been behind it. I love a good mystery but series like this aren't always at the top of my TBR lists and it probably would have fallen into my hands just by luck from my dad. Either way, I'm very glad I read it and was pleasantly surprised to find out the sequel comes out this summer!

So, let's get down to the nitty gritty. Honestly, I loved Strike. I think most people would because he is very enduring and Galbraith (you all know who I'm talking about!) does a great job of backing up his good personality with a deep back story which makes the reader love him even more. He's smart, knows what he is doing, has good morals, and has had his heart broken. He's not the perfect hero that most protagonists are and that's endearing. I also loved Robin. She is newly engaged and Galbraith does a great job of describing this period of time in a young lady's life. Being recently married (and obviously engaged prior to that) I related to her gushing which may have put others off. I thought it was sweet and set up her character well. As we get to know her better though, we find out that homegirl has a brain! Oh, a smart, independent, girl with initiative? Give me more! She fell into Strike's life via a temp agency but was caught up in the PI biz. Who wouldn't be?!?! But the best part about the characters was their platonic (for now, I assume) relationship with one another. They're both so fascinated with one another but too shy to express it so they are continuously walking on eggshells and alternately being pleasantly surprised by what the other has done. This dynamic creates a sweet, albeit awkward, relationship that you just root for. Yes, I would like for them to end up together eventually (later books in the series?) but I loved that that didn't happen in this one.

I also enjoyed the plot. I didn't guess who it was within the first 50 pages (even though I had my suspicious) and there were multiple possibilities of who-dun-it so even when I though I knew, I couldn't be sure. I think this is one of the best features of a mystery. I want to be constantly trying to figure it out and still be surprised in the end. The evidence for why the person did what they did made sense and wasn't filled with random events and facts that really didn't make sense.

As far as the writing goes, I did not swoon as I did with Harry but that's ok. I was entertained the entire time and the writing is still very well done. I was expecting something different from Harry as well as A Casual Vacancy and I was pleasantly surprised. Looking forward to the next one!

Columbine

 Title: Columbine
Author: Dave Cullen
Read: May 15, 2014

Summary: Ten years in the making and a masterpiece of reportage, "Columbine" is an award-winning journalist's definitive account of one of the most shocking massacres in American history.

It is driven by two questions: what drove these killers, and what did they do to this town?

*****

"On April 20, 1999, two boys left an indelible stamp on the American psyche. Their goal was simple: to blow up their school, Oklahoma City-style, and to leave a lasting impression on the world. Their bombs failed, but the ensuing shooting defined a new era of school violence--irrevocably branding every subsequent shooting 'another Columbine.

"When we think of Columbine, we think of the Trench Coat Mafia; we think of Cassie Bernall, the girl we thought professed her faith before she was shot; and we think of the boy pulling himself out of a school window--the whole world was watching him. Now, in a riveting piece of journalism nearly ten years in the making, comes the story none of us knew. In this revelatory book, Dave Cullen has delivered a profile of teenage killers that goes to the heart of psychopathology. He lays bare the callous brutality of mastermind Eric Harris and the quavering, suicidal Dylan Klebold, who went to the prom three days earlier and obsessed about love in his journal.

"The result is an astonishing account of two good students with lots of friends, who were secretly stockpiling a basement cache of weapons, recording their raging hatred, and manipulating every adult who got in their way. They left signs everywhere, described by Cullen with a keen investigative eye and psychological acumen. Drawing on hundreds of interviews, thousands of pages of police files, FBI psychologists, and the boys' tapes and diaries, he gives the best complete account of the Columbine tragedy.

"In the tradition of Helter Skelter and In Cold Blood, COLUMBINE is destined to be a classic. A close-up portrait of violence, a community rendered helpless, and police blunders and cover-ups, it is a compelling and utterly human portrait of two killers--an unforgettable cautionary tale for our time." goodreads

Review: Well, I read it. Putting this book on my TBR shelf, I was well aware that this would trigger some stuff, I just didn't know how much stuff was there. On this side of it, I'm extremely glad I read it because it exorcised some demons I didn't know I had and I finally have all of the facts that I was too young to understand when it happened. That being said, reading this book was one of the most emotional reads of my life. There were points in the first half of the book where I got light-headed and dizzy (some was pretty graphic) and others where I just had to put it down and walk away. I'm sure everyone who has read this book has moments like this but for me, it was even more than expected.

I explained earlier this week how I interpreted Columbine growing up in CO and once I moved away, so that should explain all of the feels this book brings up. This books falls into the 'true crime' genre like In Cold Blood. I read Capote's novel a year or so ago and I remember being creeped out by it but thoroughly intrigued. It's interesting to hear the details of a well known crime in our country. The difference is, I was so far removed from that book that I had not even heard of the actual crime until reading about. Obviously not the case with this one.

I don't want to focus on all my feels during this whole review because there is much more to it than just my reaction. While the events were horrific, the way this story was told presented them in a way to give the reader a glimpse into who Eric and Dylan were. Dave Cullen does a good job of explaining the concept of a psychopath and explicitly provides evidence to prove that Eric was one. By doing so, he seems to relieve Dylan of some of the guilt because he was so caught up in Eric's plan that he just followed along and didn't know what he was actually doing. I'm not sure I completely agree with this view of it but I really enjoyed hearing about the psychological assessment of the boys.

The format of the book was a little weird for me. The first half of the book introduces some of the main people but focuses mostly on the details the day of. The second half of the book goes backwards and fills in the back story of Dylan and Eric and allows the reader to understand some more of who they were and what they were capable of. It also focuses on the aftermath and the psychology of what the boys did. I would have preferred if the first half would have focused on Dylan and Eric's background and led up to the shootings but this book jumped right in.

Cullen did a good job of providing all of the evidence and theories which I didn't know very much about. As hard as it was to hear the details of the shootings, it actually helped me to understand what actually happened. As a child, I had lots of ideas of what happened and had heard all of the rumors but a lot of it got twisted  over the years. While the details are intense, they actually helped me work out some of my own feelings.

In the end, I'm glad I read this book for both personal reasons and literary ones. I'm interested in true crime and I think this book was done well for anyone who likes that genre. Parts of the book are hard to read because they are true and actually happened but I'm assuming it would be easier for some more than others. If you've read this book, leave a comment letting me know what you think!

Have you read this book? What do you remember about Columbine?

Reading Columbine: My Background

It's not often that I get very personal on this blog. I keep things mostly book related and rarely comment on things that are happening to me or have happened in my life. I've started adjusting this a little and have participated in some more personal weekly memes but it's a new thing for me.

Today, I'm going to get very personal and tell you about my childhood. I do this only because it relates back to something bookish. As many of you know, I decided to read Columbine this month. While this would be a hard story for someone to read regardless, it really hits home for me. While reading it, I realized I couldn't review this book without addressing my history because it brought up so many memories and feelings.

The following explains the way Columbine affected me as a child in Colorado as well as how it has impacted the way I read the book:

The "castle rock" my town was named after. You can kinda see the castle if you squint. 

If you couldn't tell already, I grew up in Colorado. I lived in a small town south of Denver called Castle Rock (about 20 mins from Denver and about 20 mins from Columbine.) If you've been to that area of CO, you will know that it is serious suburbia. The county I grew up in is one of the fastest growing counties in the country. It's tends to range from middle class to upper class and is as non-multicultural as it gets. I went to school with two African American kids who were brothers and the sons of a Bronco football player. I went to school with people who looked like me, acted like me, and had families similar to mine. Very sheltered!

Not my actual neighborhood but you get the idea.

My childhood in this suburban paradise was perfect. I wanted for nothing and I was surrounded by friends and my immediate family constantly. I lived on a perfect little cul-de-sac with 6 houses and all the kids I could ever want to hang out with. We would roam the neighborhood all day long jumping between each others yards and the neighborhood pool with relatively limited parental supervision.

In 1999, I was in 6th grade in my perfect little bubble. On the day of April 20th, everything was pretty normal until about lunchtime. At that point, the entire school was moved into the cafeteria, we all sat on the floor, and the lights were turned off. We were told we were in "lockdown" but to us, all that meant was that we were going to miss recess and we were bummed. I vaguely remember the teachers and adults scrambling around but I was mostly focused on sitting next to my friends and talking.

We were eventually told that we were all going home and our parents were picking us up which was very exciting. When my mom picked my brother, sister, and me up she was very upset. I don't remember how she told us that there had been a shooting at a nearby high school but I distinctly remember sitting in our great room watching the kid climb out of the window and crying with my mom. That was the day I learned that violence truly existed.

I was very sheltered growing up and was blessed to never be exposed to the true ugly side of life. That day I found out that two kids (kids! I was a kid!) killed a lot of their peers at their high school and it scared me.

I didn't directly know anyone who was killed but everyone knew someone at Columbine. The plan wasn't for me to attend Columbine in high school but my neighbor eventually did and we played them in sports. I remember my dad's co-workers and employees had kids who went there and hearing about how they hid out under desks from the "shooters." It was all very surreal and terrifying.

In the aftermath, things changed.  All of our school doors were locked 24/7, we practiced safety drills for "intruders," we were taught to report strangers in the school and to fear trench coats. As the weeks passed, no one forgot what happened but life returned to our new normal. Everyone had the "we are Columbine" stickers on their cars but the talk about it pretty much stopped. We grieved for the people we lost but we didn't dwell and we didn't discuss it anymore. We damn sure didn't refer to Eric or Dylan.

And that was the way it was until I moved to South Carolina in 2001. In 2001, I was in 9th grade and I can distinctly remember the first time I heard someone reference Columbine. I was sitting in Spanish class and a peer mentioned the shootings. I felt like I had been hit by a ton a bricks. Who is he to talk about Columbine? Is he from Colorado too? How does he know about Columbine?

I knew Columbine was a big deal but I guess I never understood what a national issue it was. To us, it was personal. That was our community and it destroyed a way of life for us, but I never took a second to think about how it affected the rest of the country. Egocentric, I know, but pretty common for my age at that time and developmental stage.

To this day, hearing someone refer to Columbine is still weird. I understand how it affected our country as a whole and put fear into schools, but it was too close to home for it to be a "national issue" for me. I'm sure people related to Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook feel similarly. You're too focused on picking up the pieces of your own community to realize that the entire nation is mourning with you.

Now that I'm older (now you know exactly how old!) I know that there were aspects of Columbine I didn't understand as a child and I'm interested in learning more about it. Reading this book brought up way more memories than I realized were there and it was very hard to get through. If you are interested in my thoughts on the actual book, stay tuned until later this week.

June 2014 Reading List

It's almost June, people! When did that happen? Down here in the South, we are in full fledged summer by this time and won't see temperatures south of 80 for a solid 5-6 months. Might sound lovely to you Midwestern or Northern folks but let me tell you, humidity is a bitch and the temps just keep rising. What I'm trying to say is, happy summer to most of you and my condolences to my fellow sufferers (is it Fall/football season yet?!?!)

Let's get down to it. First, the review for May! I actually did pretty well this month! I'm even going to say I hit my goals because the only book I didn't read was in a wonky e-book format and I wasn't about to try and decipher a story through the random spacing.

Read:
Allegiant
Breathe
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown
Columbine
Coming Clean
The Cuckoo's Calling

Didn't Read:
Blackmoore (See above and I will probably check this one out of the library at some point. Still want to read it.)

And for my next trick, I'm going to read:

Real Book:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Re-read the rest of the series last year, going to finish up!

E-books:

 The Daughter He Never Knew

Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Daughter of Smoke & Bone #1)

I've heard great things about this series so I'm excited to check it out.

 Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune
Secrets, mansions, and fortunes? Count me in!

Feed (Newsflesh Trilogy #1)

Yes, I may be the only blogger to not have read this yet. Remedying ASAP.

 The First Warm Evening of the Year
As you can see above, we've had plenty of these in SC but maybe the book will be nice this time of year

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock

Heard phenomenal things about this book, excited to finally read it!

What are you reading this month?

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Title: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown
Author: Holly Black
Read: May 25, 2014

Summary: Tana lives in a world where walled cities called Coldtowns exist. In them, quarantined monsters and humans mingle in a decadently bloody mix of predator and prey. The only problem is, once you pass through Coldtown’s gates, you can never leave.

One morning, after a perfectly ordinary party, Tana wakes up surrounded by corpses. The only other survivors of this massacre are her exasperatingly endearing ex-boyfriend, infected and on the edge, and a mysterious boy burdened with a terrible secret. Shaken and determined, Tana enters a race against the clock to save the three of them the only way she knows how: by going straight to the wicked, opulent heart of Coldtown itself.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is a wholly original story of rage and revenge, of guilt and horror, and of love and loathing from bestselling and acclaimed author Holly Black. goodreads

Review: I'm not sure which blog I read about this book  on but I thought I remembered the blogger talking about how awesome it was, so I had high expectations. After reading it, I'm a little disappointed. Don't get me wrong, I liked the book. I just didn't love it and wouldn't recommend it to all of my friends which was the reaction I was expecting to have. That's a let down. But let's ignore my feelings and get right into the review.

This book is about a world where Vampires have become mainstream and "Coldtowns" have popped up throughout the country to contain them. People are allowed in Coldtowns but mostly for food and entertainment for the vampires (of their own volition. This isn't a some sick rule the government came up with to help the vampires.) That being said, once you check in, you never check out (for the most part, there are obviously some exceptions.)

So we are dealing with vampires and humans co-mingling. There are a lot of ways a story like this could go wrong and I'm happy to say, Holly Black didn't do any of them. There was a whiff of the triangle love and insta love, which I loathe, but it was pretty quickly dissipated and either was handled well in the story later or fell off completely (not telling you which one did what.) I really liked the world-building that Black did as well. For a vampire story to catch my interest, it has to explain the history of vampires, how the "infection" spreads or grows, how they hide or expose themselves, and how the "real world" deals with them. This book had all of those and it was well thought out. Coldtowns are a unique idea and Black did a good job of describing them and developing them. I also liked the history of the vampires and why they are now mainstreamed.

The characters were kinda meh for me. I really liked Gavriel and the fact that he was a little crazy but we could excuse it. I also thought the antagonists were well developed. Tana just didn't do it for me though. I didn't dislike her at all but I didn't really connect with her. I also felt that some of the extra characters were either really dumb (Aidan and Pearle) or could have been developed more (Jameson.)

I really enjoyed the ending and the main relationship that developed and it made me wonder if this is going to be a series. The internets say it's a stand-alone and I think it would be perfect as is, but I also think the ending provided an easy story for a sequel. I'm hoping it's not a series, but if it was, I'd follow along.

Coming Clean

Title: Coming Clean
Author: Kimberly Rae Miller
Read: May 15, 2014

Summary: A stunning memoir about a childhood spent growing up in a family of extreme hoarders and hiding squalor behind the veneer of a perfect family. Kim Miller is an immaculately put-together woman with a great career, a loving boyfriend, and a beautifully tidy apartment in Brooklyn. You would never guess that she spent her childhood hiding behind the closed doors of her family’s idyllic Long Island house, navigating between teetering stacks of aging newspaper, broken computers, and boxes upon boxes of unused junk festering in every room—the product of her father’s painful and unending struggle with hoarding. In this coming-of-age story, Kim brings to life her experience of growing up in a rat-infested home, concealing her father’s shameful secret from friends for years, and of the emotional burden that ultimately led to an attempt to take her own life. And in beautiful prose, Miller sheds light on her complicated yet loving relationship with her parents that has thrived in spite of the odds. Coming Clean is a story about recognizing where we come from and the relationships that define us—and about finding peace in the homes we make for ourselves. goodreads

Review: This is a tragic, yet beautiful story of how Kim survived growing up in a house with a hoarder. Hoarding has become a hot topic in the media over the last 10 years. People are oddly intrigued by it because they can't fathom how someone can get to that point in their lives, but not many people understand the psychological aspect of the illness and how debilitating it can be. Kim Miller does a great job of explaining this in her memoir but it is heartbreaking to learn that she had to endure this lifestyle for so long.

I really enjoyed Kim's writing and her way of story telling. She does a good job of using humor to cope and it is clear that it took her a long time to get to the point she is now, but it says a lot of her coping skills that she can look back on this now and find some humor in it. I'm sure in the moment, it was not funny. Kim is also one of those kids who was raised by people with mental illness and who grew up to be the exact opposite of what her parents were. She is driven, accomplished, a neat-freak, and much more mainstream than her hippie father. That being said, there are some similarities. She is very strong and I think that she gets from both of her parents. People forget that hoarding is a coping skill for people and they are doing their very best to get through the day like everyone else. Kim's dad couldn't control his hoarding but he was surviving. Kim's mom did not start out as a hoarder and she had to deal with multiple health problems as well as a spouse who hoarded, so she coped the best she could by shopping. All of the Millers are very strong people but Kim found ways of using healthy coping skills and that is what made all the difference.

Y'all know I'm into the psychological side of this book but despite that, it is very well written and kept me entertained thoroughly. It made sense to me why these nonsensical things happened but my heart broke for Kim every time she had to ask for help with her parents. Kim is a very good daughter and the love she has for her parents is ever lasting but they definitely push her to her limits. I recommend this book to anyone who doesn't understand their parents but loves them regardless. Or, you know, anyone interested in a good book about a unique situation.

Bookish and Not So Bookish Thoughts

I've been debating getting more personal on this blog and I think it's about time I do. I'm still not going to post pictures of the meals I'm eating or entire posts related to what I did with my weekend (unless it's reading of course) but I'm going to add to the bookish side of me with some random unbookish thoughts. Luckily, one of my favorite bloggers, Christine from Bookishly Boisterous hosts a weekly meme called Bookish and Not so Bookish Thoughts that will provide a time a place for my randomness. I'm going to try and link up as frequently as I can but I'm not guaranteeing a weekly post. So here goes:

• I've been pretty slow with my reading lately and I'm not entirely sure why. I've found myself watching more TV than I normally do and I don't mind it to be honest. Usually, I have the TV on in the background while I read (or the husband does) and don't pay much attention to it, but lately I've been binge watching Friday Night Lights (re-watching and if you have never seen this, do yourself a favor and check it out on Netflix. I want to be Tammy Taylor and may or may not have a crush on Riggins) and that's distracting me from my reading. The hubs and I watched Django Unchained last night (way behind the times, I know!) and loved it but that was a solid couple of hours that I would usually be reading and instead I just passively watched TV. It was kinda nice and my reading goals are suffering for it. Let them suffer! 
• Hubs and I are also trying to figure out summer vacation plans. We got married in upstate NY last summer and we vacation every summer with my family up there but this year, we are thinking we may miss the family trip and go on our own. This will be a new experience for us as a couple. I spent many a summer up there with and without my family so I'm used to it, but it will be first time that we'll go as our own little family. Cute, right?
• The reason our summer schedule is thrown off is because the hubs is looking for a job and we think he will try teaching high school science for now. He's not sure what he wants to do long term yet (possibly med school) but he just finished his Ph.D. in molecular and cellular biology so he is going to give this a try for now.
• Every day I get more and more jealous of all of my friends who are teachers and the fact that they have 10, 7, 12 days or whatever left in the school year. While you guys are beaching it and taking a break from all of your students, I'll be providing therapy to them all summer long. Every. Single. Day.
• Tomorrow is girls night and I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to some drinks with the girls. Cheers!
• I have car shopping on the brain right now and I've got my eye on one of these babies (but obvi used and a year or two old. Not rolling in it yet!) Panoramic sunroof? Leather seats? In dash navi with a rear camera? Can we say upgrade from my 1996 Ford Explorer?!?!? Come on new job for the hubs!
• I kind of enjoy rambling to y'all. Hopefully I'll come back next week for another edition. Thanks, Christine for the great idea!

What thoughts are on your brain this week?