The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls

I really enjoyed Walls' Glass Castle and Half-Broke Horses books, so I knew I had to read this as soon as possible. I really enjoyed the story! It centers around Bean and her older sister Liz moving from California to Virginia after their mother abandons them in California when Bean discovers she is lying about a boyfriend. After their move, they take on jobs working for Jerry Maddox, known to most in the town as a bully. He sets up bank accounts for them, but when Liz goes to the bank to withdraw money, she discovers he had moved the money to T-bills without her permission. She goes to him, demanding the money, which leads to an altercation and a court case against Jerry.

Into the Wild by John Krakauer

Krakauer retraces the steps of Chris McCandless, a young man who walked into the Alaskan wilderness and never walked out again. The author speaks to people who took McCandless in and drove him to Alaska and around the west. He also discusses other adventurers who never returned to society and goes over the possible reasons why McCandless perished. To be frank, the book creeped me out, so I would not recommend reading it before bed unless you want to think of dead bodies in sleeping bags.

This was a book for my Couples Book Club-PDX Meetup group.

Love Anthony by Lisa Genova

Love Anthony revolves around two women in Nantucket. One, Olivia, had an autistic son named Anthony who passed away two years prior. The other, Beth, finds out her husband is cheating on her with a woman he works with. They are drawn together by autism: Olivia by her son, and Beth with her rediscovered creative writing. The intersection of their stories seems entirely unrealistic, but if you can divest yourself of reality, you would be able to enjoy it.

This book was for my Portland Book Club for 20-Something Women Meetup group.

Prodigy (Legend #2) by Marie Lu

This book picks up where Legend leaves off, if I could only remember where Legend had left me. As I have discussed in previous reviews of sequels of books, this one did not do a good job of connecting this book to the previous one and refreshing my memory of what had occurred. However, I was able to piece it together enough to still enjoy the book. Day and June are trying to escape to the Colonies, who they believe will keep them safe. Meanwhile, the new elector, Anden, is struggling to keep the Republic together and needs Day's endorsement for the people of the Republic to trust him. Will Day choose to endorse Anden or go to the Colonies to be safe with June?

The Engagements by J. Courtney Sullivan

I had previously read Maine by Sullivan and was mildly impressed by it. When I heard about this book, it sounded like a lot more interesting of a plot line and it did not let me down. The story spans over fifty years, from the beginnings of the tagline "A Diamond Is Forever," to the application to pro-marriage, anti-marriage, affairing, struggling couples. There are four couples featured throughout the book, plus Frances Gerety, who came up with the line. One couple has been married for thirty years and find out that their son has left his wife for another woman. A second couple lives in Europe and she leaves her husband for her lover. The third couple struggles to make ends meet, but love each other dearly. And the final couple doesn't believe in marriage. The story revolves around how diamonds are the connecting thread through all of the couples.

The End of Men and the Rise of Women by Hanna Rosin

I really enjoyed this book; it was a lot like The Richer Sex, but more readable/easy to read. Rosin discusses all the ways that women are surpassing men: education, careers, financially. I would recommend this book over The Richer Sex, but both are great reads if you want to learn more about how women are outperforming men.

The Dinner by Herman Koch

This story takes places during the entirety of a dinner between two couples: brothers and their wives to discuss an event that their sons took part in. As dinner goes on, the story unfolds of what happened one night and what can be done to remedy it. Each couple has their own idea for what can be done to solve it, but one couple holds the final say.

When I put this book on hold, it was mainly out of curiosity to see how far someone could take a book over what can reasonably happen in the course of 90 minutes. Other books, such as Gone with the Wind, take place over years and it was interesting to see someone flesh out a complete story over the course of 300 pages and how Koch wove the story together.

The Death of Bees by Lisa O'Donnell

I really enjoyed this book, I thought it was very unique. Bonus: the author is from England, so I had to infer some of the things she was talking about.

The story is told from three points of view: Marnie, Nelly, and Lennie.  Marnie and Nelly are sisters and Lennie is the neighbor next door. Together, they tell the story of Marnie and Nelly's father being murdered by Nelly and later their mother being found hung (suicide) in their shed. This occurs during winter and with the girls being 13 and 15 and Marnie one year from being considered an adult and able to take care of them both, they have to keep of the facade that their parents went on vacation. Meanwhile, they bury them in the backyard and plant lavender bushes on top of their graves to help camouflage what happened. To keep their secret alive, they have to deal with their maternal grandfather looking for his daughter, their father's drug supplier wanting money, and the school officials poking around. Lennie keeps an eye on the girls and eventually they end up taking care of each other. But their lies keep building and Nelly begins to crack. Can they hold it together until Marnie turns 16?

Scarlet (Lunar Chronicles #2) by Marissa Meyer

I actually went to see Marissa Meyer and Malina Lo speak at Wordstock in early October! I have never gone to see an author speak, and it was a very interesting experience. They talked about their inspirations (such as the retelling of fairy tales in a futuristic, dystopian world) and future works. But I digress...

Scarlet is a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood (which Marissa told us the actual Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale, which is actually very creepy in nature). Scarlet meets a street fighter named Wolf while trying to find out who kidnapped her grandmother, where they were holding her, and how to get her out. Meanwhile, our protagonist from the first Lunar Chronicles, Cinder, needs to escape her prison cell so she will not be deported back to Luna and killed by her aunt who wants to marry Prince Kai and rule Earth.

The third installment, Cress, releases next year and is based on the story of Rapunzel.

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Marie Semple

I thought this book was very entertaining and told in a unique way. The book is told through collections of correspondence, so you have Bernadette's neighbor Audrey sending letters or emails to her gardener about Bernadette's blackberry bushes; Bernadette emailing her contact in India who can order her motion sickness pills; Audrey emailing Soo-Lin, Bernadette's husband, Elgin's, admin assistant; etc. The premise of the story is that Bernadette and Elgin have promised their daughter, Bee, anything she wants as long as she gets straight As. Bee has decided she wants to go to Antarctica. Bernadette (it sounds like she has agoraphobia) has motion sickness and is desperate to get out of the trip. A lot of other "I Love Lucy"-type things occur surrounding Bernadette, and I found the book wholly enjoyable and look forward to more books by Maria Semple.