Thursday, February 23, 2017

Born to Run, Behind Closed Doors, SUSPENSE

I had a whole bunch of books lined up to read and I opted to pass two older books written by Christina Baker Kline, the author of Orphan Train.  I thought Orphan Train was fantastic but these two books have average ratings of about 3.5 stars.  Eeeeh.  I have seen high praise for her newest book which was just released this week.  I've added that one to my wish list.




I grew up listening to music of the '70s and '80s so naturally I know many Bruce Springsteen songs.  I don't know that I would call myself a fan - I've never seen him perform live and I don't own any of his albums - but his music was clearly a part of that time in my life.  You don't need to be a fan to read and enjoy Born to Run, Springsteen's autobiography.  Bruce (I feel like I can call him Bruce) details his childhood, early days as a musician and life up to the present time.  There's a lot of detail here and I felt like the book was quite lengthy.  It took me awhile to get through it.  Don't take this as a negative though - I really wanted to point it out in case you prefer shorter, not-so-detailed books.  I appreciated his writing style (you could call it lyrical) and openness in dealing with depression.  If you have an interest in the business side of the music industry, Bruce provides some fascinating details of his career.

Is this book for you?  If you like autobiographies/memoirs, detail and length, Bruce (don't have to be a fanatic), and music, then you should add this to your books to read list.
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When I first started reading this book, I thought it was going to be similar to another I had read years ago about a controlling husband.  (I can't even remember the name of the book now but I believe it was made into a movie.  If it wasn't, that's scary because I can see it in my head like a movie.  You know what, I think it was a Nicolas Sparks book.)  Anyway, it didn't take long for me to determine that this book was different.  Behind Closed Doors is a page-turner but wasn't loaded down with outrageous twists.  I wanted to keep reading to see what would happen but I wasn't gasping in shock with each page.  The storyline was believable enough to me and I found it interesting how some reviewers thought the plot could never happen.  Do you read the news?  Have you heard about some of the craziness that happens out there?  If you like psychological, suspense thrillers, give this one a read.
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This last book hasn't been released yet.  Someone was kind enough to lend me their advance readers' edition (thank you again!) to read.  Chevy Stevens is a new author for me so I wasn't quite sure what to expect.  I did pop online to check her out real quick and discovered that she's written several bestsellers.  Similar to Behind Closed Doors, there's a creepy husband but this storyline was much different.  I partially figured out the twist (very clever!) but not quite all the way.  This book was 400 pages long but a fairly quick read.  If you enjoy suspense, check this one out.  It's scheduled to be released next month!


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7 comments:

Christi said...

Never Let You Go sounds interesting. I'll put it on my list.

Behind Closed Doors was really good. I felt like the main character did all the things I would to get away and the husband was just one step ahead of her, laying groundwork to make her unreliable, waiting her out patiently. So creepy. So frustrating. I totally could see getting sucked in to his web.

I had to put it down for a bit - like Joey putting The Shining in the freezer! Turns out that was right about where the story tilts (Jorg Clooney and all) and woo what a fun ride to the end that was.

Tracey's Life said...

Glad you liked the Chevy Stevens novel. I had a ARC of Behind Closed doors as well, but couldn't find it. I enjoyed that one as well.

Anonymous said...

I love your book reviews. I read so much it's always nice to find new authors. One book I recently read was Maya's Notebook by Isabel Allende, and if you haven't yet read Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult I would recommend that as well. Paula L.

Anonymous said...

Was the book/movie you were thinking of called Safe Haven?

Sarah said...

Thanks for the recommendations, Paula.

Anon - I think it was Safe Haven!

Lisa said...

Ok, I just ready Orphan Train too! (A friend's grandfather was on it.) I was so into the subject matter and definitely looked forward to the chapters set during that time period. The present-day perspective I could take or leave. I do want to check out more books on that topic, which I was completely unaware of until my friend mentioned it.

Marcia (123 blog) said...

Loved your review of Born to Run - it is definitely my kind of memoir :)

Behind Closed Doors is on my to read list - I might even have bought it - I really need to make a list of all the bought things on my Kindle because I just realised I bought a book today that I already have on my Kindle. Not a huge problem - I'll gift the physical copy because it wasn't too expensive but still...