Second Life by S.J. Watson

I read Watson's first book, Before I Go to Sleep, and really enjoyed it.* I was excited to see her second book, Second Life, at the library!

        

Narrated by Julia, wife to surgeon Hugh, mother to teenager Conner, Julia has a hidden past. She reveals this past slowly. After the death of her sister, Julia's past starts to get real again. Julia gets involved with a man she meets online. She rationalizes this affair as a way to understand her sister and explain her death.

I found myself not liking Julia, and not believing that she would actually do the things she did with the reasons she gave for doing them. I almost gave up on this book. But it came around for me, and I'm glad I stuck it out. A good read!

*See my write up of Before I Go to Sleep here: http://notthenewyorktimesbookreview.blogspot.com/2011/08/good-reads.html

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Good Reads!

What good books I’ve been reading lately!

I just finished BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP by S.J. Watson. At first we’d only gotten a few in at the store. It was selling quickly, so when we got more copies in, I got one.

When Christine awakens every morning, she has no memory of her life in the present time. She remembers herself as a child and a young woman, but has no recollection of the past 20 (or so) years of her life. She wakes up next to a man and has no idea that he’s her husband. Each day is a challenge of remembering, piecing her life back together…until she goes to bed and forgets it all over again. How did this happen? Can she get better? I won’t say more about the story, too much information would spoil it. Great read!

        

I also recently read The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. It’s been selling like crazy and everyone who has read it that I’ve talked to really liked it, staff and customers alike. Shelved in the “Teen” section, schools are even making it a reading requirement.

And well it should. It’s a stunning premise. Set in the future, the United States is no more. Katniss and her family live in District 12, the coal mining district. Every year there is a contest. Two teen-agers are chose from each district and the people in control orchestrate Hunger Games, where the children fight to the death. The last teen alive wins. This barbaric tradition began as a way to remind the people in the districts who is in control. I liked this much more than I thought I would. Definitely worth the read!

         

A customer recommended THE WEIGHT OF SILENCE. She, a recent transplant from Atlanta, came to our store to connect with a bookstore in her new neighborhood. Short-ish, short brown hair, wearing cargo shorts and talking really fast, she told me that this was her favorite book. Ever. I’d been looking at it for a few weeks and finally just bought it. I’m about halfway in and am enjoying it.

Calli, a seven-year-old girl who doesn’t speak, is missing. So is her best friend, Petra. Why doesn’t Calli speak? Why are they missing? Will the girls be found? Told from several points of view, including Calli’s, Petra’s, Calli’s mother, the deputy sheriff in charge of the investigation, Calli’s brother, and Petra’s father, I get deeper into the families and their stories and am really enjoying it.

        

I just bought a copy (finally) of Erik Larson’s DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY. I’ve heard (for years!) how good it is, that it is non-fiction, but that it reads like a novel. He has a new book out, which has been selling well. One of my co-workers also decided to finally read DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY and says it’s as good as everyone has been saying. All right then!

        

What are you reading?

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