Mrs.

Mrs. by Caitlin Macy        341 pages --- read 150 before I gave up

"Macy has written a modern-day House Of Mirth, not for the age of railroads and steel but of hedge funds and overnight fortunes, of scorched-earth successes and abiding moral failures. A brilliant portrait of love, betrayal, fate and chance, Mrs marries razor-sharp social critique and page-turning propulsion into an unforgettable tapestry of the way we live in the 21st Century."  (per Goodreads summary)

Our main character is Phillippa Lye, a tall and elegant woman who seems to be the one person everyone can't stop discussing. She's married a man who is part of the last family-held investment bank in New York City (read this as "they have loads of money"). While her life seems balanced, when she meets Gwen Hogan (and actually, meets her again, as it turns out they went to school together) and Minnie Curtis, things start to come unraveled. Because Philippa has a past (of course she does) that may be connected to a criminal investigation.

I had put this book on hold and I'm assuming I did that because I read a review that made this book sound good. It wasn't. I gave up after 150 pages because I was bored. Rich ladies gossiping about other rich ladies, a wife who is rags to riches, a husband who is an investment banker (but wait, is he up to something shady?) . . .  after a while, I just didn't care.  I contemplated skipping to the end to find out what happened but ultimately didn't care enough to do even that. I'm hoping the next book I pick up is better than this one was.  

Strange Weather

Strange Weather: Four Short Novels by Joe Hill.  read 200 of 448 pages of a galley (due out in September, 2017).

I was excited to grab a galley of this book because I feel like Joe Hill is an author whose books just get better and better as he continues writing.  Unfortunately, I only got through the second story before I gave the book away (and it was totally worth it, as it was another author I really admire, who, as it turns out, is a fan of Joe Hill).

The first story, "Snapshot," focuses on a teenage boy in California who finds himself inadvertently crossing paths with "The Phoenician," a man who at first seems creepy but then turns downright scary.  This man possesses a Polaroid Instant Camera that doesn't just take your photo; it erases your memories, snap by awful snap.  Our main character crosses paths with him and then by accident, finds himself the focus of The Phoenician's wrath.  Scary, but insightful about relationships, adolescence, and memories.  Also a memorable story and one I'm looking forward to reading again when the book is published.

The second story, "Loaded," was the one I got more than halfway through.  In this story, a mall security guard courageously stops a mass shooting and becomes a hero. However, when he is then in the spotlight for this good deed, his story about what happened starts to unravel. Lots of layers in this story with a few viewpoints to give a 360-degree view of the event that our main character gets involved in.  I have no idea what happens next, and knowing Joe Hill, I know better than to make any assumptions.

So, waiting now until the book gets ordered in September (or, if I can find a good price, until I can just order it for myself!).

The Accomplished Guest

The Accomplished Guest by Ann Beattie.  Made it through 180 of 288 pages.

"Surprising and revealing, set along the East Coast from Maine to Key West, Ann Beattie’s astutely observed new collection explores unconventional friendships, frustrated loves, mortality, and aging.

One theme of The Accomplished Guest is people paying visits or receiving visitors, traveling to see old friends, the joys and tolls of hosting company (and of being hosted). The occasion might be a wedding, a birthday, a reunion, an annual Christmas party, or another opportunity to gather and attempt to bond with biological relatives or chosen families. In some stories, as in life, what begins as a benign social event becomes a situation played for high stakes."  summary courtesy of Goodreads

I usually like Ann Beattie, but I just couldn't get in to any of these stories. It may have been my reading mood at the time, so I might try to revisit this book in the future. However. I never felt like I was engaging with any of the stories, or finding any of the characters to be compelling.

The Dark Room

The Dark Room by Jonathan Moore.  140 pages finished of 283 pages.Book comes out in January, 2017 - I read an e-galley

  A homicide inspector in the middle of an exhumation is called away to another case;  San Francisco's mayor is being blackmailed and has ordered the inspector, Gavin Cain, back to the city.  At City Hall, the mayor shows Cain four photos that he's received, all showing the same woman, and each progressively more explicit, with the last showing the woman naked, unconscious, and shackled.  The blackmail letter states more photos are coming unless the mayor kills himself.  Cain is tasked with finding the blackmailer, and uncovering what happened to the woman in the photos.

I usually enjoy suspenseful books like this, but I just found this story to be uninspiring.  Cain is interesting, but I just couldn't get into the book.  There were a lot of details, and I found it difficult to keep them straight, and after a while, I just wasn't interested.  This may be a book that I could read at some other point and enjoy, but I just wasn't feeling it this time.