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I finally finished reading all of the books by Liane Moriarty. This one was the last one I needed to read. Here’s a bit about this one:

Ellen O’Farrell is a professional hypnotherapist who works out of the eccentric beachfront home she inherited from her grandparents. It’s a nice life, except for her tumultuous relationship history. She’s stoic about it, but at this point, Ellen wouldn’t mind a lasting one. When she meets Patrick, she’s optimistic. He’s attractive, single, employed, and best of all, he seems to like her back. Then comes that dreaded moment: He thinks they should have a talk.

Braced for the worst, Ellen is pleasantly surprised. It turns out that Patrick’s ex-girlfriend is stalking him. Ellen thinks, Actually, that’s kind of interesting. She’s dating someone worth stalking. She’s intrigued by the woman’s motives. In fact, she’d even love to meet her.

This book took me a really long time to read. I started it months ago! And I just finished it the other day. I had been reading a little bit here and there and in between reading other books. Now that’s I’ve finished it, I don’t know what took me so long. It was a good story, albeit a little slower than her others. I think the drama in this one dragged on a bit. This one was probably my least favorite of her books, but I didn’t dislike it.

Moriarty does a great job of making very creative, yet believable stories. Maybe that’s why I find it so intriguing. I liked the premise of a hypnotist. Whether the information about her profession was all fact or not, I still found it interesting. There was something about the way the main character dealt with all the things that came up in the book that I found amusing. She thinks of herself as such a calm and collected person, and for the most part she conducts herself as such. But her internal dialog with herself about stuff that comes up is quite hilarious at times.

I think everyone should read all of Moriarty’s books. But that’s just because I liked them. Here’s a link to her other books that I read and wrote about.

• Big Little Lies
• The Husband’s Secret
• Three Wishes
• What Alice Forgot
• The Last Anniversary

Happy reading!

This is an older Liane Moriarty book that I finished a few months ago.  I had read most of her other books and this one came available at the library. Here’s a bit about the book:

Sophie Honeywell always wondered if Thomas Gordon was the one who got away. He was the perfect boyfriend, but on the day he was going to propose, she broke his heart. A year later he married his travel agent, while Sophie has been mortifyingly single ever since. Now Thomas is back in her life because Sophie has unexpectedly inherited his aunt Connie’s house on Scribbly Gum Island—home of the famously unsolved Munro Baby mystery.

Sophie moves onto the island and begins a new life as part of an unconventional family, where it seems everyone has a secret. Grace, a beautiful young mother, is feverishly planning a shocking escape from her perfect life. Margie, a frumpy housewife, has made a pact with a stranger, while dreamy Aunt Rose wonders if maybe it’s about time she started making her own decisions.

As Sophie’s life becomes increasingly complicated, she discovers that sometimes you have to stop waiting around—and come up with your own fairy-tale ending.

I love all of her books and the way Moriarty writes. I was sucked into this fun book quite quickly. I liked the characters from the beginning and wanted to find out all the hidden secrets. I liked that some of the characters were in on it and the others weren’t. It was a fun book that really could have had a very different outcome.

I don’t know where this ranks in my love of her books. I just think you should read them all. I finally finished the last one!

Have you come across any authors you needed to read everything they wrote?

Happy reading!

This book was my book club’s December/January book. Another author had recommended it. It was different than anything we had read. And for good reason. It was weird. Here’s a little about the book:

In the beginning, it was easy to imagine their future. They were young and giddy, sure of themselves and of their love for each other. “Dept. of Speculation” was their code name for all the thrilling uncertainties that lay ahead. Then they got married, had a child and navigated the familiar calamities of family life—a colicky baby, a faltering relationship, stalled ambitions.

When their marriage reaches a sudden breaking point, the wife tries to retrace the steps that have led them to this place, invoking everything from Kafka to the Stoics to doomed Russian cosmonauts as she analyzes what is lost and what remains. In language that shimmers with rage and longing and wit, Offill has created a brilliantly suspenseful love story—a novel to read in one sitting, even as its piercing meditations linger long after the last page.

This was a very fast read. I read it in just over an hour. (I had put it off and read it the day of our book club meeting.) The writing style was very different from a typical novel. The sentences were choppy, the paragraphs were brief and characters were referred to by descriptions instead of names. The story itself was a bit depressing about their lives and marriage.

I’m not sure I’d really recommend it because it was hard to find and probably not worth paying lots for. I did find my copy through the library, so it was worth it for me to give it a read.

Happy reading.

A friend of mine recommended this book to me (which was written by her best friend) when I told her I was moving to Seattle. The author also lives in the Seattle area.  I wasn’t able to finish it when she gave it to me because I had too much going on at the time. But we ended up reading it for book club last month and I am so glad I finally got to finish reading it.

This book is a collection of short stories. I haven’t read many short stories, so it was a little harder for me to get into it at first. Once I was able to get a hang of how short stories were written, I really enjoyed them. And thinking about the stories from the beginning after reading the whole book made those even better.

Her stories are so beautifully written and you get a feel for each of the characters. I was able to feel connected to each of the characters in a very short time with her stories. Each of the women in the book were so different and yet had an inkling of a common thread through her words. I was intrigued by how visual her words were and how in depth the stories were at only a handful of pages long.

The really exciting part for me is that we were able to get the author, Kirsten, to join us for book club so we could ask her questions and talk to her about the book. It was so fun to hear her thought process and her feelings on the characters. I love talking to authors about their books (or hearing authors talk about their books).

Kirsten wrote this book a number of years ago and wrote a second one (Swimming with Strangers) as well. She talked about a third book in the works as well! I am planning to read her second book and would love to read her third book one day, too. Kirsten, if you need more people to read advance copies…I’d love to be considered.

If you love short stories, I recommend you read this. If you haven’t read many (or any) short stories, I recommend you read this. I think reading a variety of writing helps me be a better reader and also not become so stuck in one genre. This book is a little hard to get copies of (you won’t find it at your local library) because it was written a number of years ago. But if you want to read it, I would be happy to loan you my copy.

Happy reading, friends.