Thriller/Suspense
I started off the month with another thriller, The Daughter, but this one had a bit more to it. Personally, I would label it more suspense than psychological thriller. When 15 year old Naomi goes missing, her mother, Jenny, a family doctor married to a neurosurgeon, watches her world fall apart. A year later and Jenny is still searching for her daughter, but what she finds is that everyone had been keeping secrets from her, including her missing daughter.
I thought this was pretty good. The plot wasn't overly dramatic or completely unbelievable, and the flipping back and forth in time added to the suspense. If you're into trendy suspense fiction, I would recommend this one.
As I sat down to write this, I realized I've been reading Stephen King for 30 years now. Talk about feeling old. I like his writing style and I don't think I've ever not enjoyed reading one of his books. While I've seen The Outsider placed in the horror category, it was not scary for me at all. And that's okay. It didn't need to be.
A boy is found brutally murdered, and fingerprints and witnesses point to one of the city's most popular citizens, Terry Maitland He's quickly arrested and, as suspected, DNA matches are easily made. But Maitland has a strong alibi. How could he be in two different places at the same time? The answer is supposed to shock you. I wasn't shocked or terrified, but it was an interesting concept that kept me reading.
If you haven't read Stephen King but want to, I suggest starting with some of his earlier books, such as The Stand and The Shining. One of these days, I plan to re-read The Stand. 11/22/63 is newer and one of my favorites. That one doesn't have anything gross in it. Even Grammy read it!
Fiction/Literature
I really, really enjoyed reading The Mars Room, despite the subject matter. The author does such an amazing job with character development, and in how she tells this story through different characters. Some of it is amusing; some of it is devastating. The main character, Romy Hall, has been sentenced to serve two consecutive life sentences at Stanville Woman's Correctional Facility. We learn about her upbringing in San Francisco and the life she's facing in prison without her son. I really didn't want to put this one down.
Memoir
I added this to my wish list after reading over and over again how amazing it is. Because of all the praise, I was expecting the greatest memoir of all time. I definitely liked reading this but I wouldn't say that I loved it. It had my complete attention and the story of her life was interesting, but there was something that was off-putting. I have this really weird intuition and parts of this book jumped out at me as not feeling quite right. Also, I wasn't a fan of her writing style for a few different reasons.
If you haven't heard of Educated, Tara Westover was raised by survivalists in the mountains of Idaho. Well, not really in the mountains. Their home was on a mountainside near a small town. At one point, she worked at the local grocery store. Her father thought the government was out to brainwash everyone so she wasn't allowed to attend school and her parents' idea of homeschooling was basically you teach yourself. With the encouragement and assistance from an older brother who left to attend college, she was able to teach herself enough in order to take the ACT and was accepted to Brigham Young University. She eventually went on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University. There are other parts of her life - a violent older brother and her family's religious views - that come into play.
Overall, I'd give it a 4 of 5 stars. I actually prefer The Glass Castle, which is somewhat similar, over Educated.
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