But I have a confession to make. I sometimes scoff at the term "beach read" because, for me, any book can be read on the beach. I even brought Stephen King's 11/22/63 with me to Turks & Caicos. (Excellent book by the way. Not what a non Stephen King fan would expect from a Stephen King novel.) As I read Maybe in Another Life (ironically) on the beach, I thought, "This is truly a beach read." There wasn't a lot of information such as characters or dates to keep track of. There was no mystery to solve. It was straight up and a quick read that held my attention.
This book explores how our lives unfold based on our decisions and what would happen if we made a different decision. There are two story lines that follow the main character through two different decisions. I enjoyed the author's creativity in writing the book this way.
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If you like mystery and suspense, add this one to your wish list.
I really, really liked this book. A tiny skeleton is unearthed at a demolition site which prompts a newspaper reporter to investigate in hopes of solving the mystery of who the skeleton belongs to. I had been reading this while the girls were in the pool and took a break when we went inside. I was thinking about the book as I was hanging up laundry and the answer hit me. You can solve it yourself once all the facts are revealed but it's not super obvious. Or maybe it is and I just wasn't paying close enough attention.
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Unfortunately, All Our Wrong Todays was somewhat of a disappointment.
I was about 15% of the way into the book when I turned to Rich and told him this. "I'm slightly disappointed in this book." It did get better and I still think the plot was interesting and held a lot of potential. Good character development, too. I really wasn't a fan of the narrative though. The narrator's tone was off-putting and because I just wasn't expecting it to read this way, I couldn't get past it. This is a book about time travel and how the world today should have been the future envisioned by those in the 1950s. Yes, flying cars and hover boards and robotic machines to take care of manual labor. Our world today is what it is because someone from that world traveled back in time and changed the future. See? It sounds incredibly interesting.
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This book was just okay for me and I think it's because I figured out the big secret early on.
Right off the bat, I thought the character development was slightly off. One minute the main character is physically ill when a secret from her past threatens to be revealed, but then a few days later, she's brushing off her old friend who is threatening her. Her emotions were too all over the place for me. This book was written so the reader can figure out all the secrets and because of this, I felt like the author had to throw in a few more twists at the end and it all got to be too much. This book does have high ratings, but I'd only give it three stars.
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I'm currently reading Every Last Lie, which is a new release, and while I'm only 20% of the way through it, I'm really enjoying it.
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5 comments:
I totally agree with your thoughts on All Our Wrong Todays. It had such potential, but it just didn't land for me. But the idea was so intriguing, I wish another author would just take all the same ideas and rewrite the story with a different tone, haha!!
Maybe In Another Life has been on my library holds list forever; just waiting for my turn! And thanks for recommending The Child. I read The Widow last year but I didn't know Barton had another book out.
I love your book review posts. I always get a few new titles to check out.
I just finished Commonwealth and The Summer House. Both were good and quick reads. I was listening to Neil Patrick Harris' Choose Your Own Autobiography on audiobook. Just hilarious. Pefect to listen to when I was driving or at the gym.
Is there foul language in "The Child"?
Anon - I think there was. I can't remember - it wasn't something I paid attention to. Let's put it this way - based on the subject matter, it's not a book I would listen to with kids around.
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