2014… and beyond!

Posted in The Monday Check-In by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Not a lofty, ambitious to-be-read list consisting of 100+ book titles. Just a simple plan for the upcoming week — what I’m reading now, what I plan to read next, and what I’m hoping to squeeze in among the nooks and crannies.

Life:

By the time you’re reading this, I’ll be on an airplane, heading out for a few weeks of family travel — featuring sun, sand, relatives, lots of food, a Rolling Stones concert, probably a water park or two, and (fingers crossed) oodles of reading time, if I can find a quiet nook to hide out in by myself!

While I’m away, never fear! My weekly features, Thursday Quotables and Flashback Friday, are already all queued up and read to go… so there will be no interruption in our regularly scheduled programming. I hope to pop in with updates and reviews while I’m away — but I’m not sure yet how much faith I have in the promise of wi-fi throughout our trip. So, nice readers, in case I don’t see you sooner, have a great couple of weeks filled with awesome reading, and I’ll catch you when I’m back.

Meanwhile, for this week’s Monday Agenda updates, read on!

How did I do with last week’s agenda?

Trouble Just One Night (Just One Day, #2.5)

Trouble by Non Pratt: Done! My review is here.

Just One Night by Gayle Forman: This newly released novella is a follow up to Just One Day and Just One Year — and if you’ve read those, then you have to go download this short-but-sweet tale, pronto! If you’re one of the many, many readers who finished Just One Year and were dying to know what happened NEXT… well, here’s your answer. I thought Just One Night was sweet, romantic, and satisfying… and now I DO know what happened after that kiss…

In Outlander world… I finished (finally) my re-read of An Echo in the Bone! I’ve had a complete blast re-reading this book with the Outlander Book Club (who, by the way, are the best bunch of booklovers and all-around great people!) And now, I wait. What am I waiting for? See below!

But first, a look at what I’m still in the middle of reading:

The Girl with All the Gifts 13th child

I’d hoped to finish The Girl With All The Gifts this week, but laundry and packing have overwhelmed me, so I’m only at 50%. Into the carry-on it goes; should make for interesting airplane reading!

The kiddo and I are getting closer to the end of Thirteenth Child by Patricia C. Wrede. It’s a good one. We’ll be finishing this book in the next few days, and I’m packing the sequel!

Fresh Catch:

Self-restraint was the catch-phrase of the week! Mainly because I was busy packing, but still… absolutely no new books this week!

Elsewhere on the blog:

I shared my thoughts about the end of the TV season in May and which shows really ended with a bang. You can read about it here.

What’s on my reading agenda for the coming week?

What to read on vacation? Well, assuming my wi-fi works and my Kindle downloads happen on schedule, the #1 book I’ll be reading as of June 10th is:

June 10th!!!

But before then, I still have a week and a very long plane ride to fill, so here’s a selection of what I’m thinking of reading:

Bittersweet Empire Girls Rebecca The Fever The Witch of Blackbird Pond The Traitor's Wife: The Woman Behind Benedict Arnold and the Plan to Betray America

Not to imply that I’ll read this many books! But these are the main ones I’m considering… and the beauty of having a Kindle is not having to decide ahead of time!

Still, if you want to find me from June 10th onward, there’s a good chance I’ll be hiding in a corner somewhere with Written In My Own Heart’s Blood!

So many book, so little time…

That’s my agenda. What’s yours? Add your comments to share your bookish agenda for the week.

Happy reading! I’ll see you soon!

30May2014

Flashback Friday: The Feast of All Saints

Posted in Flashback Friday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Flashback Friday is a weekly tradition started here at Bookshelf Fantasies, focusing on showing some love for the older books in our lives and on our shelves. If you’d like to join in, just pick a book published at least five years ago, post your Flashback Friday pick on your blog, and let us all know about that special book from your reading past and why it matters to you. Don’t forget to link up!

This week on Flashback Friday:

The Feast of All Saints by Anne Rice
(published 1979)

Synopsis (Goodreads):

They were New Orleans’ gens de couleur libre – the copper-skinned half-castes who lived recklessly and loved passionately, trapped in a world between black and white.

Marcel – the young, blue-eyed scholar, sensitive, and longing always for Paris. Marie – his breathtakingly beautiful sister, cursed with the ability to pass for white. Cristophe – novelist and teacher, the idol of all the young gens. Anna Bella – light in skin, African in feature, chosen for the white man.

And from Amazon:

In the days before the Civil War, there lived a Louisiana people unique in Southern history. Though descended from African slaves, they were also descended from the French and Spanish who enslaved them. Called the Free People of Color, this dazzling historical novel chronicles the lives of four of them–men and women caught perilously between the worlds of master and slave, privilege and oppression, passion and pain.

Last week, I focused on Cry to Heaven, and heard from several people who were surprised that Anne Rice had written books outside of the vampire/witch/otherworldly realm. And here is another, The Feast of All Saints, which is Anne Rice’s second published novel, released just a few years after her debut novel Interview With The Vampire.

In Feast of All Saints, we get a slice of New Orleans history centered around the “free people of color” the young mixed-race inhabitants of the city who held a special status, at once admired and coveted, and yet manipulated and treated as less than equal.

The historical elements are fascinating, and the drama is rich, filled with emotional depth and tragic twists. When I read Isabel Allende’s Island Beneath the Sea a few years ago, I was immediately reminded of this early work by Anne Rice. If you’re fond of historical fiction and enjoy a New Orleans setting, I recommend tracking down a copy of The Feast of All Saints.

What flashback book is on your mind this week?

Note from your friendly Bookshelf Fantasies host: To join in the Flashback Friday fun:

Grab the Flashback Friday button
Post your own Flashback Friday entry on your blog (and mention Bookshelf Fantasies as the host of the meme, if you please!)
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Check out other FF posts… and discover some terrific hidden gems to add to your TBR piles!

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29May2014

Thursday Quotables: Trouble

Posted in Thursday Quotables by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome back to Thursday Quotables! This weekly feature is the place to highlight a great quote, line, or passage discovered during your reading each week. Whether it’s something funny, startling, gut-wrenching, or just really beautifully written, Thursday Quotables is where my favorite lines of the week will be, and you’re invited to join in!

Trouble by Non Pratt
(Published in UK February 20, 2014;
US release date June 10, 2014)

There’s a pile of clothes on the floor and I want to jump up and down on them and scream, only I’m worried Mum’ll hear and I don’t want her to know. Her answer will be to look at those stupid magazines and suggest I try some of the frumpy bump-friendly fashion that I would only wear if I had a brain transplant. I feel like there’s something wrong with me — I’m supposed to want to be a different person now that I’ve been sperminated, but I don’t. I want to be Hannah, just pregnanter. What’s so wrong with still wanting to look good? With wanting to show off my new improved pregnancy curves in push-up bras and clothes that look teen not tragic? I want people to think Hannah before they think pregnant.

Ah, the fashion crises of a teen mom! But seriously, this story of a pregnant 15-year-old and the boy who befriends her is sad, sweet, funny, and honest.

I just finished the book last night — check out my review here.

What lines made you laugh, cry, or gasp this week? Do tell!

If you’d like to participate in Thursday Quotables, it’s really simple:

Write a Thursday Quotables post on your blog. Try to pick something from whatever you’re reading now. And please be sure to include a link back to Bookshelf Fantasies in your post (http://www.bookshelffantasies.com), if you’d be so kind!
Leave your link in the comments — or, if you have a quote to share but not a blog post, you can leave your quote in the comments too!
Visit other linked blogs to view their Thursday Quotables, and have fun!

28May2014

Book Review: Trouble by Non Pratt

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Book Review: Trouble by Non Pratt

When Hannah finds herself pregnant at age 15, it certainly doesn’t come as a surprise to the reader, although Hannah seems to be pretty stunned herself. By the time Hannah gets around to taking a pregnancy test, we’ve seen her out at the park every Friday night, hooking up with whatever boy she can find, whether or not he’s actually available. With her underdressed, oversexed best friend Katie, Hannah is known for her sexiness and her willingness. So is it only a matter of time until it all catches up with her?

And then there’s Aaron, the new boy at school, son of the the new history teacher, and mysteriously unknowable — cool, but not excessively so; accepted by the in-crowd, but just ever so slightly stand-offish, with people to hang with but no close friends.

Hannah is hiding a big secret, and so is Aaron… and when Hannah’s former bestie blabs about the pregnancy to exactly the wrong person, the news is soon all over Facebook and Hannah’s reputation is trashed — until Aaron steps in and offers to pretend to be the baby’s father. Why? Well, Hannah needs a hero, and Aaron desperately needs to do something heroic. The two march forward together through the rest of the school year, watching Hannah’s bump grow bigger and bigger, and in the process, becoming each other’s rock and best friend.

Of course, nothing is perfect. There’s family drama to deal with, and Katie simply will not stop trying to mess up Hannah’s life even further, no matter who gets hurt. Through it all, we get Hannah’s view of life as a pregnant teen — ugly clothes, getting up to pee at night, and suffering the horrors of overly graphic prenatal classes.

There’s quite a lot to like about Trouble. Told in the first person in alternating voices, we get both Hannah and Aaron’s perspectives on themselves and on each other, and the author does a terrific job of showing how perceptive and at the same time how dense a hormonal teen can be. Both teens are funny, smart, and aware, yet they still manage to make foolish choices and hurt each other in the process. Yet it’s their friendship that sees them through, and as they finally break down their own protective barriers and share their personal truths, we get a picture of just how important a true friend can be.

Hannah is a puzzling character, and the author very cleverly shows us Hannah in a certain light early on, leading us to form certain opinions, and not revealing until much later that the public Hannah is not at all a true picture of who she is inside. She’s quite engaging and a terrific character to get to know, and yet, I never quite understood all of her decisions.

Aaron too is quite likeable, and his seemingly illogical nobility in rescuing Hannah from social purgatory eventually makes more sense, as his past and his secrets come to life.

In addition to Hannah and Aaron, we meet their families — and despite their quirks, it’s actually quite a nice change to see a YA novel with parents who are responsible, caring, supportive, and truly present. Neither of the main characters come from messed-up homes or are disadvantaged. In fact, Trouble makes a good point of showing that accidents and bad decisions can happen to anyone, even kids from good homes and with everything going for them. (Irony of ironies, Hannah’s mom is a sex ed specialist — this is not a girl who doesn’t know about condoms, safe sex, and morning after pills!)

Trouble was first published in the UK, with its US release coming up in June. I think it will translate well across the pond, although I’d imagine American teens may struggle a bit with some of the Brit speak and certain concepts specific to the British school system. Still, this should be no more than a mild inconvenience. The story itself is engaging and addresses certain universal experiences, and I think any teen reader, no matter the country of origin, should be able to relate to Hannah and Aaron’s experiences.

Overall, I’d recommend Trouble for anyone who enjoys contemporary YA without too much much of a sugar-coating. This isn’t a traditional love story, so don’t expect fireworks or declarations at the end. In fact, Trouble is refreshing in that it avoids many of the overused tropes of today’s YA fiction, such as insta-love, redeemed bad boys, or realizing that the boy next door is actually much hotter than the hunky, popular boy after all. Trouble is the story of a girl with all sorts of issues and a big baby bump, and the unlikely friend who steps in to get both of their lives back on track. Hannah and Aaron are an odd pairing, but they become true friends, and it’s both fun and touching to see how they grow and change — together.

_________________________________________

The details:

Title: Trouble
Author: Non Pratt
Publisher: Walker Books Ltd.
Publication date: March 6, 2014 (to be published in US on June 10, 2014)
Length: 384 pages
Genre: Young adult contemporary fiction
Source: Purchased

27May2014

Wishing & Waiting on Wednesday: Blackbird

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

There’s nothing like a Wednesday for thinking about the books we want to read! My Wishing & Waiting on Wednesday post is linking up with two fabulous book memes, Wishlist Wednesday (hosted by Pen to Paper) and Waiting on Wednesday (hosted by Breaking the Spine).

My pick for this week is:

Blackbird by Anna Carey
(to be released September 16, 2014)

Synopsis via Goodreads:

This twisty, breathless cat-and-mouse thrill ride, told in the second person, follows a girl with amnesia in present-day Los Angeles who is being pursued by mysterious and terrifying assailants.

A girl wakes up on the train tracks, a subway car barreling down on her. With only minutes to react, she hunches down and the train speeds over her. She doesn’t remember her name, where she is, or how she got there. She has a tattoo on the inside of her right wrist of a blackbird inside a box, letters and numbers printed just below: FNV02198. There is only one thing she knows for sure: people are trying to kill her.

On the run for her life, she tries to untangle who she is and what happened to the girl she used to be. Nothing and no one are what they appear to be. But the truth is more disturbing than she ever imagined.

The Maze Runner series meets Code Name Verity, Blackbird is relentless and action-packed, filled with surprising twists

Sounds good and creepy, doesn’t it? Amnesia, subways, LA, on the run… I’d definitely like to find out what’s going on here! I’ve never read anything by this author, but I’m looking forward to giving this one a try.

Side note: I HATE when book blurbs compare new books to other books. Really, The Maze Runner meets Code Name Verity? I haven’t read The Maze Runner, but Code Name Verity is practically sacred to me, so I hope they’re not creating false expectations here! Do NOT invoke Code Name Verity lightly!

Okay, end of rant…

What are you wishing for this Wednesday?

Looking for some bookish fun on Thursdays and Fridays? Come join me for my regular weekly features, Thursday Quotables and Flashback Friday! You can find out more here — come share the book love!

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26May2014

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books I’ve Read So Far in 2014

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is a Top Ten Freebie — we choose whatever topic we want to write about. Since I’ll be traveling for the next couple of weeks and will miss out on a few TTTs, I figured the simplest approach for my “freebie” topic is to do one of the June topics a bit early! So here goes… my favorite books so far in 2014:

(Note: Click on the links to read my reviews if you want to know more!)

1) I Shall Be Near To You by Erin Lindsay McCabe

2) The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

3) Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick

4) Archetype by M. D. Waters

Archetype

5) Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

Grasshopper Jungle

6) Harrowgate by Kate Maruyama

Harrowgate

7) The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty

The Husband's Secret

8) The Shambling Guide to New York City by Mur Lafferty

The Shambling Guide to New York City

9) The Serpent of Venice by Christopher Moore

10) Re-reads of A Breath of Snow and Ashes, An Echo in the Bone, and the novella The Space Between by Diana Gabaldon… in preparation for the release of Written In My Own Heart’s Blood on June 10th! (You didn’t actually expect me to write a top 10 list without an Outlander reference, did you?)

Can’t wait to check out everyone else’s freebie lists!

Share your link, and I’ll come check out your top 10!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider following Bookshelf Fantasies! And don’t forget to check out our regular weekly features, Thursday Quotables and Flashback Friday. Happy reading!

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26May2014

TV Time: Season Wrap-Up

Posted in Pop Culture by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Veering off the book blog path for a moment to talk about one of my very favorite things: TV!

If I weren’t such a voracious reader, you’d be right to worry about me. Yes, I do watch a lot of TV. Yes, that does entail sitting on the couch for hours and eating bowls of popcorn. No, it hasn’t rotted my brain yet, as far as I know. Yes, if I had to choose one or the other, I’d pick reading… but fortunately, I live in a world where I don’t have to choose! I want it all!

Am I excited when my favorite shows are on? Yeah, you could say that.

Moving on…

The traditional TV season has come to an end, more or less — although one could argue that the concept of a “season” for TV is out of date, since there’s excellent programming year-round. Still, May seems to be the time of year when many shows air their season finales, and it just so happens that nearly all of “my” shows have finished their seasons.

So, I thought I’d tell you a bit about what’s just ended — and which shows ended with an especially big bang!

(This is a completely subjective list. It’s just the shows that I personally watch and enjoy, not at all a comprehensive overview of what’s worth watching!)

Done for the season:

The Americans: Just wrapped up season 2 this past week, and wow! What a way to pull off a finale! Season-long mysteries were resolved, some loose ends were tied up, some long-awaited confrontations finally took place… and lots of groundwork was set for the next major conflict. Just a stellar season all around, with incredible acting, superb writing… and yes, plenty of wig action! If you’re not watching The Americans, you’re missing out. Give it a try!

The Originals: I scoffed a bit at the beginning of the season, and true, the show did get off to a very rocky start, plot-wise. But this spin-off show turned itself around and ended its season 1 with incredible drama, plus open-ended plot developments that actually wrung a tear or two out of my dried-up soul.

The Vampire Diaries: Okay, I’ve been quite frustrated this season (and last), and have almost walked away a few times… but the season finale was not bad, there were some genuinely emotional moments, and the ending leaves me wanting more. Not bad is really the best I can say about it. This show needs to straighten out its muddled mythology and start having actual stakes (as in life-or-death consequences, not the pointy wooden things). When everyone on the show has died and come back a few times already, why should we worry when one more bites the dust? Particularly when the most recent “death” is one of the show’s biggest stars, it’s a no-brainer to assume this person will be back in the fall, in one way or another.

Mad Men: Why do I keep watching this show? I keep asking myself that question, yet I keep watching. This season has been more energetic and engaging that the last couple, but still — despite all the reviewers out there who rave about this show, I find it hard to maintain interest week after week when nothing much seems to happen. Yes, I know, character-driven TV, blah blah blah. Like I said, I watch, but I don’t love.

Survivor: Cagayan: I started watching Survivor again a couple of years ago when my son took an interest, and was surprised to realize just how much fun it still is, even after all these years. My kiddo and I had a great time with the latest go-round, which in my mind was an incredibly strong season with players who came to play hard. From a parent’s point of view, it’s interesting in a number of ways: We talk about strategy, and numbers, and the thought-processes that go into the various alliances and blindsides. At the same time, we can discuss the differences between game-play and life, what it means to play a game like Survivor and make choices to betray and lie, and whether a successful player can also be a good person. I think the fact that Survivor is something I can watch with my son is a big draw for me — it’s become one of our go-to weekly events, and even works as a motivating tool. “No Survivor ’til the homework is done” is my rallying cry…

Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD: I’m a relative newbie when it comes to the Marvel universe, but I’ve been digging the movies of the past several years, and adored the Whedon-riffic Avengers, so there was no question of not watching Agents of SHIELD. After an admittedly slow kick-off, the show dug in and revealed layers only hinted at early on — then kicked into super-high gear with its connection to the events of this spring’s Captain America movie. The last batch of episodes was… well, let’s not mince words… epic! I’m hooked, and can’t wait to see where the show goes from here.

The Big Bang Theory: Sure, you could argue that after so many years, there’s not a whole lot of fresh material for BBT to explore. And yet, I’m always charmed, episode after episode, and when it’s not making me giggle, BBT actually has some genuinely sweet and heart-felt moments. I like this show! And I think this past season was surprisingly strong, ending on a high note for Penny and Leonard, and with a big huge question mark for our beloved Sheldon.

Gone… and soon to be forgotten?

I was sad to see the demise (a.k.a., cancellation) of two new shows from this year that I’d really had fun with.

The Crazy Ones, a star vehicle for Robin Williams, was really an ensemble gem that I suppose just didn’t get the viewership it needed. I laughed. A lot. And was delighted to have Sarah Michelle Gellar back on my TV screen. Bye, Crazy Ones!

My kiddo and I had been watching The Tomorrow People on the CW all year… and yeah, it didn’t always make sense or stick to its own rules, but it was compelling watching all the same, and I’m sorry that we won’t get to see whatever craziness would have happened next. Plus, Mark Pellegrino! A big huge plus for any show, any day.

A bit earlier on, we had the series finale for Being Human, and I’m still not over it! When this show first started, I sneered. Who needs yet another American re-hash of a BBC series? But the Syfy production of Being Human took off on its own and created its own show, thanks to creative storytelling and a remarkable cast… and damn it! if I think too much about it, I’ll get all weepy again. Sniff. I’ll miss you, Being Human!

Not over yet:

Game of Thrones: The disadvantage to having read the books first is knowing what’s coming… and being powerless to change it! I know I don’t want to see what’s coming in the next episode — but I’ll be glued to the TV anyway. Three more episodes left this season! I can’t quite figure out how the showrunners will juggle books 4 and 5 in the next season or so, but I’ll be watching to find out.

Orphan Black: We still have several more episodes left this season, right? I’m loving season 2, and even this far along, I’m still amazed by Tatiana Maslany’s ability to convince me that I’m watching separate actresses playing separate characters.

And still to come:

I’m really looking forward to meeting the new Doctor this August when this rolls around:

Doctor Who, returning in August!

And… shocker of shockers… the TV show I absolutely can’t wait for is…

Yes, I will be glued to my TV on August 9th, thanks for asking! So DO NOT DISTURB.

So what TV shows were you sad to say good-bye to? Which had the best season finales? And what will YOU be watching this summer?

26May2014

The Monday Agenda 5/26/2014

Posted in The Monday Check-In by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

How did I do with last week’s agenda?

The Girls at the Kingfisher Club The Farm Trouble

The Girls At The Kingfisher Club by Genevieve Valentine: Done! My review is here.

The Farm by Tom Rob Smith: Done! My review is here.

Trouble by Non Pratt: At about the 50% point, and liking it a lot so far.

13th child The kiddo and I are continuing on with Thirteenth Child by Patricia C. Wrede. Moving sloooooowly. Not the book’s fault; we just seem to have a hard time lately finding time to sit down and read.

Fresh Catch:

Bunches of new (but mostly used) books this week:

The Witch of Little Italy What Alice Forgot My Real Children Hollow City (Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, #2)

Elsewhere on the blog:

I shared my thoughts about stats, page views, and whether numbers matter — chime in here to share your input!

What’s on my reading agenda for the coming week?

The Girl with All the Gifts Bittersweet Empire Girls

First up, I need to read the rest of Trouble by Non Pratt, which I’m really enjoying.

After that, I’m looking forward to reading:

The Girl With All The Gifts by by M. R. Carey

Bittersweet by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore

Empire Girls by Susanne Hayes & Loretta Nyhan

I have no idea if I’ll actually get to more than one or two books this week, but it’s nice to have a goal!

And also in the works:

The Outlander Book Club’s re-read of An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon continues! Coming up this week: Chapters 94 – 97 (no chapter on Memorial Day). The end is in sight!

Outlander love:

What do you think? Is it possible to have too many Outlander references? (Image via Starz)

And adding to the Outlander mania, here’s my Outlander-themed “shelfie”:

So many book, so little time…

That’s my agenda. What’s yours? Add your comments to share your bookish agenda for the week.

25May2014

Book Review: The Farm by Tom Rob Smith

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Book Review: The Farm by Tom Rob Smith

Family loyalties, secrets and conspiracies, and questions about mental health lie at the center of the new novel The Farm by author Tom Rob Smith. In this compulsively readable book, the reader is left to wonder just what is true and what is delusion, and unraveling the hints and clues makes for a reading experience that’s hard to walk away from once started.

In The Farm, 20-something Daniel lives in a beautiful apartment in London, supported by his older boyfriend Mark — the boyfriend that he just never seems to find the right time to mention to his parents, especially now that they’ve retired from their gardening business and moved to a farm in Sweden. Although Daniel remembers his childhood as peaceful and happy, he’s drifted away from his parents in recent years, allowing miles and his own secret to create a distance that becomes harder and harder to bridge.

As the story opens, Daniel receives a shocking phone call from his father, telling him that his mother Tilde is in the hospital, having suffered a mental collapse, and is now institutionalized and being treated for a psychotic episode. No sooner does Daniel get off the phone to arrange for a flight to Sweden than he gets another call, this one from his mother, pleading with Daniel not to believe his father’s lies and informing him that she’s on her way to London, where she’ll explain everything.

Tilde’s arrival rocks Daniel to the core. His always cheerful, together mother arrives looking bedraggled and spouting wild comments about conspiracies and crimes. She claims to have proof — a battered leather satchel that she won’t allow out of her grasp. She warns Daniel that they must not allow his father to find them, as he and his partners in crime are determined to lock her away and discredit her as part of their own cover-up.

What’s Daniel to do? His mother’s tales sound too wild to be believed, yet there’s something there that compels him to listen. She’s clearly unstable, and as she displays her evidence and lays out her story, she does sound unhinged — but her tale has enough rationality in it that Daniel can’t dismiss it outright. As Tilde goes further and further into her story, it’s clear that something unexpected happened in Sweden, and that the peaceful country retirement went very wrong, very quickly. But every shred of Tilde’s evidence can be explained away, so who is to be believed? Is Tilde a sick woman, in need of commitment to a mental facility for her own well-being? Or is she a woman who’s been set up to take the fall in order to keep a dark underbelly of depraved acts hidden from view?

Reading The Farm, we’re as torn as Daniel. Much of what Tilde says has a ring of truth, and obviously she believes wholeheartedly in what she’s saying. There are enough errant facts to indicate that something was amiss in the small Swedish community where the couple had hoped to make their home. And yet, Tilde’s wild distractions, her grasping for meaning in small inconsequentialities, leave us to wonder whether Daniel’s father might have been right all along.

I won’t spoil anything by going into an explanation of how it all works out. Daniel’s task is to unravel his mother’s stories before his father shows up to have her committed again, and it’s up to Daniel to figure out where the truth lies. The reader is along for the ride, seeing the bits and pieces as Daniel does, and over the course of the book, trying to fit together the puzzle pieces in order to see the greater whole.

The Farm has a darkness to it, woven in among the domestic details of a seemingly simple life. The empty landscapes of remote Sweden have a sinister overtone, and even the supposed richness of the land and the nearby river betray Tilde, as nothing works out for her as she’d envisioned. The purity of self-sustaining country life that she’d dreamed of is nothing but illusion, and the remoteness of the farm doesn’t shield Tilde and her husband Chris from the pressures and politics of the local farming community and its more influential members. The writing conveys the bleakness and isolation of the farm, the stark beauty of the Swedish countryside adding an element of mythical danger with its deep, dark forests.

There’s a darkness, too, in the depiction of Daniel’s happy family. He remembers a perfect childhood in which his parents never argued or showed signs of the slightest disagreement. He also believed his parents to be completely happy. Sure, some oddities are there — Daniel grew up without siblings or any relatives, his mother being estranged from the parents in Sweden whom she’d left decades earlier. As Daniel uncovers the secrets and lies within his parents’ marriage, he also is forced to confront his own need for secrecy and accept his role in creating the emotional chasms between him and his parents that allowed this crisis to go so far without his knowledge.

The author keeps us on our toes. Like Daniel, we spend much of the book listening to Tilde try to convince us that what she thinks happened is what really happened. The writing here shifts between Daniel’s observations of his mother’s behavior and longer segments in which we hear Tilde’s first person account. This is the unreliable narrator device at its best, serving to keep us off-balance, torn between wanting to believe and knowing something is just… off.

I enjoyed The Farm very much. It’s a quick read, and really impossible to put down once you start. I couldn’t stop thinking about Tilde’s story, knowing that what she says can’t be entirely true, yet knowing too that there must be an answer as to why she believes what she believes — and that even if she is unreliable, there’s enough that’s questionable in her tale to show that something isn’t right at the farm. Perhaps the big, dark secrets and the unraveling of the mysteries weren’t quite as huge as I’d expected; still, the truth that emerges is devastating in its own quiet way. The ending of The Farm is entirely satisfying, true to the characters and adding a sad logic to all of the events we’d heard about.

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The details:

Title: The Farm
Author: Tom Rob Smith
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Publication date: June 3, 2014
Length: 368 pages
Genre: Mystery/thriller
Source: Review copy courtesy of Grand Central Publishing via NetGalley

24May2014

A Little? A Lot?

Posted in Blogging by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

I was bouncing around the blogosphere earlier this week, and came across something that has been stuck in my brain for a few days now.

I stopped by one of the big book blogs — one of the very well-established ones with a bazillion followers — and was reading a recent piece about staying motivated as a blogger. All good stuff. But one of the bullet points had a passing comment advising bloggers to refrain from laughing when they see other bloggers getting excited over getting 100 page views in a day.

Hmmmm.

To me, this seemed to imply that 100 page views is nothing to get excited about. Sure, maybe for newbies, but “real” bloggers know that this is small potatoes.

Granted, the post I was reading didn’t actually say this, but it seemed to be the sub-text — at least, that’s how I took it.

And my reaction was — wait, what???

I’ve been blogging for almost two years now, and I freely admit that I’m not a super ambitious blogger working my butt off for better stats. I do check my stats, probably more than I should, but I constantly remind myself that I blog for the sake of expression and to exchange ideas with new friends and far-flung booklovers, not in the pursuit of numbers and followers. Still, it is a boost to my spirits when I see my page view numbers go up in response to a post I worked hard on — and it’s always a fun surprise to see which posts get the most views. It’s not always what I’d have expected!

But I’m happy with 100 page views a day. Granted, more is nice — but it hadn’t occurred to me that what I get excited about might be laughable to others.

Honestly, I know it doesn’t matter much. The question is, am I having fun blogging? Am I writing about topics that inspire me? Am I reading good books? Am I interacting with other readers and bloggers in a way that makes me feel engaged and a part of a bigger whole? And the answer to these questions is yes! Maybe not every single day, but for the most part I feel good about what I’m doing and how far I’ve come since I first started blogging, which was mostly on a whim.

Still, it’s hard to maintain good cheer sometimes. Occasionally, I’ll visit a new (to me) blog and happen to see that they have 1,000 Bloglovin’ followers or some astronomical numbers of total blog followers, and it’s hard not to start feeling dispirited. Because the takeaway for me seems to be: Oh, I thought I was doing pretty well… but maybe not.

It’s just like I’ve always told my kids: Don’t compare yourself to others — compare yourself to yourself, and try to do your own personal best. That’s what victory really looks like.

Nice platitude. It’s hard to internalize, though.

The bottom line for me is that I need to be satisfied with my own efforts and feel like I’m doing what I want to be doing. I don’t have the time or energy to devote massive amounts of either to promotional efforts, spreading the word constantly via social media platforms, or some of the other approaches I’ve seen advocated as keys to getting bigger numbers. I applaud those who can pull this off — I really do! I just know that I have limits, and get too stressed if I take on too much.

What’s the point of this post? I guess I’m both doing a public affirmation, saying I need to be happy with my own successes and not worry about stats and page view counts… and I also wanted to reach out and see how others feel.

Do you focus on numbers? What constitutes success for you and your blog? And how do you keep from feeling down when you realize that your idea of a really great blog day might be someone else’s small potatoes?