Missing You by Harlan Coben

September 9, 201422 Comments

Missing You. Finished 8-1-14, rating 4/5, thriller, pub. 2014

Unabridged audio read by January Lavoy. 11 hours, 54 minutes

It’s a profile, like all the others on the online dating site. But as NYPD Detective Kat Donovan focuses on the accompanying picture, she feels her whole world explode, as emotions she’s ignored for decades come crashing down on her. Staring back at her is her ex-fiancé Jeff, the man who shattered her heart—and who she hasn’t seen in 18 years.

Kat feels a spark, wondering if this might be the moment when past tragedies recede and a new world opens up to her. But when she reaches out to the man in the profile, her reawakened hope quickly darkens into suspicion and then terror as an unspeakable conspiracy comes to light, in which monsters prey upon the most vulnerable.

As the body count mounts and Kat’s hope for a second chance with Jeff grows more and more elusive, she is consumed by an investigation that challenges her feelings about everyone she ever loved—her former fiancé, her mother, and even her father, whose cruel murder so long ago has never been fully explained. With lives on the line, including her own, Kat must venture deeper into the darkness than she ever has before, and discover if she has the strength to survive what she finds there.

from Goodreads

I can count on Harlan Coben for solid thrillers, sometimes even stellar. He always seems to have the latest cultural fad at the ready for his standalone books. In this one it starts with online dating but goes much more up-to-date than that (I don’t want to spoil anything) and the results are very good.

I loved Kat as a heroine, what made her great as a detective also make her care about Brandon, who was concerned about his missing mother. Everyone else had blown him off but Kat was willing to dig in and she already had a lot (too much?) on her plate since she was investigating her father’s death years before. There were many storylines, but Kat was able to handle them and I liked her.

With that being said, I finished this a month ago and as I sat down to write this review I couldn’t remember a thing about it. That says a lot right? And not just that my memory isn’t what it should be! After reading a few reviews I remembered but I admit that I expect more than that from Coben. I can say with all honesty that I don’t think you can go wrong with any of his thrillers, but some are better than others. This might not be one of the stellar ones (much like this review) but it was completely satisfying.

My mom bought this one and loaned it to me.

Mailbox Monday, Gage, and Football

September 8, 2014September 8, 201423 Comments

mmb-300x282 Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week.Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

Only one book arrived on our mailbox this week and it was addressed to Gage and he thought that was very cool. It came from Kathy (BermudaOnion) and it’s a sequel to the book she sent him last year that he loved (post here). As soon as we opened it and saw that it was Lola he had to find the first Lola book immediately. And then we sat down to read them both. Gage is great at the doctor, at least until last week when he had to have his blood drawn and the woman just stabbed him and he screamed at the top of his lungs for about 10 minutes and then periodic outbursts of crying for an hour. Not good. So this book, which talks about Lola being nervous about needles and how they hurt, came at a great time. Thank you, Kathy!

Lola Goes to the Doctor by Marcia Goldman

Gage says “Read this book!”

Kathy is a Virginia Tech mom and I’m an Ohio State grad and we both love our college football. On Saturday night her Hokies came to Ohio Stadium and whooped us. Luckily, Jason and I were attending an annual Murder by the Falls fundraiser with some friends and I only got home in time to witness our last failed attempt to score that resulted in an interception and touchdown for the other guys. Congratulations to Kathy and her Hokies! It’s going to be a long season for Buckeye fans.

August’s movies

September 5, 2014April 8, 201713 Comments

It was a slow movie month for me! I have not read The Giver and didn’t even know what it was about before we went to see it. I think the book would be better but I’m not sure I want to read it now.

Now it’s your turn. Add your 5 words (or less!) to mine and earn $1 for charity. Once we get to $100 the person with the most reviews will choose the charity. Click here to see the past winners, the charities they chose and the other reviews you can add to. Anyone is welcome to join in at any time.

I hope that you will take a few minutes to participate when you can each month. It’s fun for me and for everyone else who reads it. I’m not looking for a critical review, just a few words about how you felt about the movie. This is ongoing so you can leave your 5 words anytime.

We’re up to $54

Epic, 2013 (Voices-Amanda Seyfried, Colin Farrell, Josh Hutcherson, Christoph Waltz) Grade B

Shrunken teen saves the world!

Not very epic. Expected better. (Heather)

Only thing epic was title. (Sheree)

Poor crazy dad finds redemption. (Tony)

Get On Up, 2014 (Chadwick Boseman, Nelsan Ellis, Dan Ackroyd, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer) Grade B

Ambitious, hard man to like.

Interesting story; execution confused me. (Kathy)

The Giver, 2014 (Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Brenton Thwaites, Alexander Skarsgard, Katie Holmes, Taylor Swift) Grade C

Like the idea and cast.

Great movie. Disturbing future concept. (Michelle)

What’s in a Name? Quiz – guessing closed

September 3, 2014September 9, 201421 Comments

quiz This week it’s all about names. As I walked through the library and picked up books that had names in the title it only took me a few minutes before my arms were full. These were all published in the last several years.

Take your best guesses, be entered to win a prize. No cheating (using the web to help find answers) or copying. All extra details can be found here.

Leave your guesses in the comment section until Sunday.

You only need to give me 2 names per book, the one missing from the title and the author’s first name. Since I think these are tricky they are all worth 10 points 🙂

1 Julia/Ann 2Willow Frost/Jamie 3Stephen Mercedes 4Lisette/Susan 5Noa P Singleton/Elizabeth 6Benjamin Franklin/Sally 7Claudia Silver/Kathy 8Amy/Jincy 9Stella Bain/Anita 10Worthy Brown/Phillip 11Maya/Isabel 12Scarlet/Marissa 13Mrs. Dimple/Mignon

Answers the last week’s Robin Williams quiz here. Leaderboard here.

Tuesday Quizzes are moving to Wednesday!

September 2, 20142 Comments

I have library time every Tuesday afternoon when I drop off Gage for play group and since I often use this time at the library picking up books or trolling for quiz ideas I am making my life a little easier by changing quiz day. I still like making the quizzes. It forces me to use my brain on a creative and educational task and I hope it does the same for you 🙂 See you tomorrow!

Mailbox Monday – September 1

September 1, 2014August 31, 201415 Comments

Heroes Are My Weakness by Susan Elizabeth Phillips (purchased – she’s one of my few hardcover buys)

He’s a reclusive writer whose macabre imagination creates chilling horror novels. She’s a down-on-her-luck actress reduced to staging kids’ puppet shows. He knows a dozen ways to kill with his bare hands. She knows a dozen ways to kill with laughs.

But she’s not laughing now. When she was a teenager, he terrified her. Now they’re trapped together on a snowy island off the coast of Maine. Is he the villain she remembers or has he changed? Her head says no. Her heart says yes.

The House We Grew up In by Lisa Jewell (sent by the publisher)

Meet the Bird family. They live in a honey-colored house in a picture-perfect Cotswolds village, with rambling, unkempt gardens stretching beyond. Pragmatic Meg, dreamy Beth, and tow-headed twins Rory and Rhys all attend the village school and eat home-cooked meals together every night. Their father is a sweet gangly man named Colin, who still looks like a teenager with floppy hair and owlish, round-framed glasses. Their mother is a beautiful hippy named Lorelei, who exists entirely in the moment. And she makes every moment sparkle in her children’s lives.

Then one Easter weekend, tragedy comes to call. The event is so devastating that, almost imperceptibly, it begins to tear the family apart. Years pass as the children become adults, find new relationships, and develop their own separate lives. Soon it seems as though they’ve never been a family at all. But then something happens that calls them back to the house they grew up in — and to what really happened that Easter weekend so many years ago.

A Sword Upon the Rose by Brenda Joyce (purchased – it’s her latest historical romance)

A bastard daughter, Alana was cast away at birth and forgotten by her mighty Comyn family. Raised in solitude by her grandmother, she has remained at a safe distance from the war raging through Scotland. But when a battle comes close to home and she finds herself compelled to save an enemy warrior from death, her own life is thrown into danger.

Iain of Islay’s allegiance is to the formidable Robert Bruce. His beautiful rescuer captures both his attention and his desire, but Alana must keep her identity a secret even as she is swept up into a wild and forbidden affair. But as Bruce’s army begins the final destruction of the earldom, Alana must decide between the family whose acceptance she’s always sought, or the man she so wrongly loves.

Risen:The Battle for Darracia by Michael Phillip Cash (sent by Red Feather Productions)

The Autism Book by Dr. Robert Sears (purchased – a must read for parents with kids on the spectrum)

Anything fun arrive in your mailbox this week?

Sundays with Gage- Back to School

August 31, 2014August 31, 201415 Comments

Gage is back in school and thriving! He operates very well on a set schedule and the fact that he has the same teachers has been a gift. When I picked him up after the first day his teachers told me what a great day he’d had, but he was in tears in the car. He missed his old friends. Last year our school district did a nice thing and let us start Gage in the public program at 2 instead of 3, so as the rest of his older classmates moved to different classes he will stay in the 3 class again and these will be the kids he goes through school with to graduation. Now he just needs to make new friends.

The speech therapist tested his speech on Tuesday and he is in the above average range for his age group. It lets me know that all things are possible 🙂

This summer was a rough one for many reasons and some of that frustration came out in last week’s post. I almost didn’t post it, but sometimes it feels good to show the gritty side of motherhood and I think there is value in that. I can happily say that school is back in session and that makes a happy Gage. And a happy Gage makes a happy mama.

Robin Williams Quiz? – guessing closed

August 26, 2014September 2, 201411 Comments

quiz Robin Williams suicide was and is a difficult thing to comprehend. He was very funny actor and by all accounts he was a caring guy in the real world. It goes to show that sometimes we can’t know what struggles someone is dealing with so be kind to one another.

Take your best guesses, be entered to win a prize. No cheating (using the web to help find answers) or copying. All extra details can be found here.

Leave your guesses in the comment section until Sunday.

Tell me the name of the movie. I’ve given you his character’s name, the year it came out and one other actor in the film. Good luck!

1. John Keating (1989-Ethan Hawke) – Dead Poet’s Society

2. Peter Banning (1991-Dustin Hoffman) – Hook

3. Sean Maguire (1997-Matt Damon) – Good Will Hunting

4. Dwight D. Eisenhower (2013-Forest Whitaker) – The Butler

5. Daniel Hilliard (1993-Sally Field) – Mrs. Doubtfire

6. Armand Goldman (1996-Nathan Lane) – The Birdcage

7. Dr. Malcolm Sayer (1990-Robert DeNiro) – Awakenings

8. Adrian Cronauer (1987-Forest Whitaker) – Good Morning, Vietnam

9. Alan Parrish (1995-Bonnie Hunt) – Jumanji

10. Teddy Roosevelt (2006-Ben Stiller) – Night at the Museum

Answers to last week’s Seuss quiz here.

Sundays with Gage – Kinship

August 24, 201430 Comments

I had breakfast with a mom whose daughter has had group sessions with Gage every Saturday morning for over a year. We lead lives on opposite ends of town and have different daily struggles (she has 4 daughters!) but once every month or so we try to schedule a meet up while they are in group to vent, question, learn and feel a kinship to someone who knows what in the hell we are going through. Having her to talk to is a gift and I always feel like my steps are lighter and my fighter mama mode is fully charged after we’ve gotten together and I hope I provide the same for her.

Our kids are a puzzle and sometime we try the same strategies and sometimes we don’t. Going gluten-free didn’t help her daughter at all while it helps Gage immeasurably (I ALWAYS know when he has had contact with gluten). We sort of tried the B12 shots at the beginning of the year and she is planning to start them soon. We both are having success finally potty training our kids and have the same stress over where to send our kids to school, how to run our home programs, and how best to utilize our time and money. This morning she mentioned something that people who don’t have kids on the spectrum don’t realize. We are in constant survival coping mode. She has to do things for her youngest daughter that she never even considered with the other three. It is exhausting mentally and physically. It’s only when we get together and talk that we can laugh a little and acknowledge that it is a struggle. Sometimes it’s overwhelming and we are both ready to send them to school on Monday (yay!).

She listened as I told her that we had taken Gage to the Cleveland Clinic yesterday to test for Cystic Fibrosis. Without going into all the details as to why we tested it was exciting that after I got Gage home from group and checked my email I saw that the test came back negative! How fulfilling it was to be able to send her a message that I have one less thing to worry about today. It was a sweat test, non-invasive and took about an hour. Here’s Gage with his Daddy during the test watching Looney Tunes. The specialist told us to expect him to cry but this is not Gage’s first scary test so I knew he’d be fine. This kid is a trooper and even if sometimes it is a struggle I wouldn’t change a thing about him.

Gage’s Picks

August 23, 2014August 23, 201410 Comments

We have a healthy bookshelf full of picture books and a large magazine holder full of library books. We read three books and a chapter in the Children’s Bible every night before bed. We read on and off during the day or for different activities, but we’ve set aside 10 minutes in the morning for Gage’s choice. I’m curious, given free reign and the instruction to only choose one book, what he will bring me every morning. This week he picked 4 library books and 2 from his own library.

Just Like Bossy Bear by David Horvath.

A repeat from last week. When we visited his class this week (school starts Monday) I told him he had to be a good example for the new kids in the class and he asked me, “Just like Bossy Bear?” Apparently this book can help bossy kids!

Locomotive by Brian Floca.

This Caldecott Medal Winner, Sibert Honor Book, and New York Times bestseller is a beautiful book about the history of the railroad. The illustrations are outstanding, the facts are interesting and the big bold type keeps younger ones entranced. This is the second time we’ve checked this out of the library and because I think it will age well (Gage will still enjoy it in a few years) I may go ahead and buy it. At 3, Gage doesn’t want to read every page, but he listens through at least the first half and then we just talk about the pictures the rest of the way. 64 pages.

Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now! Marvin K Mooney Will You Please Go Now by Dr. Seuss

I admit that there are a few Seuss books that I don’t really ‘get’ but Gage seems to like all the ones we’ve read. In this one he likes the crunk-car and shows everyone who comes to the house how cool a car with two smokestacks and feet for wheels can be. 36 pages

Are You My Mother? by PD Eastman

This one belonged to me as a kid and I’ve read it to Gage off and on over the years. I was surprised this was his choice since he hasn’t shown any favorability toward it. A baby bird loses his mother and finds his way home with the help of a Snort. Our new game is that I pretend to be a Snort, lift him the air, set him down in his home and cuddle him as his mother. He even made me do it in the waiting room of the Cleveland Clinic yesterday and I went ahead and made a fool of myself because I am happy that he wants me to be his Snort 😉 64 pages

Hatch Hatch by Katie Cox.

We cull Gage’s library every 3-6 months and donate books that he no longer reads. He chooses, not me, and this one always made the cut for whatever reason. I think it’s too young for him, but like this week sometimes he pulls it out to read. Every page has description of an animal and then on the opposite pages you have to crack open the egg to see if you were right. The baby owl is both cute and ugly! 16 pages and perfect for younger kids.

Mr. Putter and Tabby Take the Train by Cynthia Rylant

I’d like to say that Gage loves this story because of the cat or the dog or the illustrations, but we al know it is because of the old steamie train on the front. The story is long and has chapters and hewill pretend to listen to all of the non-train parts, but I don’t buy it. Really intended for older kids from 6-9 it has 44 pages and part of a Mr. Putter and Tabby series.

Stacy's Books

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