The Kari AnnAlysis

Posts Tagged ‘kristin hannah’

From Gooreads.com
Like many couples, Michael and Jolene Zarkades have to face the pressures of everyday life—children, careers, bills, chores—even as their twelve-year marriage is falling apart. Then an unexpected deployment sends Jolene deep into harm’s way and leaves defense attorney Michael at home, unaccustomed to being a single parent to their two girls. As a mother, it agonizes Jolene to leave her family, but as a solider she has always understood the true meaning of duty. In her letters home, she paints a rose-colored version of her life on the front lines, shielding her family from the truth. But war will change Jolene in ways that none of them could have foreseen.

When tragedy strikes, Michael must face his darkest fear and fight a battle of his own—for everything that matters to his family. At once a profoundly honest look at modern marriage and a dramatic exploration of the toll war takes on an ordinary American family, Home Front is a story of love, loss, heroism, honor, and ultimately, hope.

Man Kristin Hannah sure knows how to write an awesome book and every single one of them I read/listen to proves this even more. In every Hannah book I have read/listened to, there has always been an awesome female lead, or two. Her books always push the limits on friendship, strength, family and even life. They are always tear jerkers and always make you sit back and think, whether it be about making sure your marriage doesn’t take the same path as one that is troubled in these novels, or whether you would make the same life altering decisions that some of these characters had to make. If I can relate to a book in any way, shape or form and it makes me think about my life at any time, I am in.

Now when it comes to relating, I have not much of anything in common with Jolene in this book and I mean throughout the entire book. Her parents died, she became a soldier, she spends her days flying helicopters and taking care of her children, she and her husband have a very strained relationship….oh and she goes overseas to fight in a war. So, as I said, nothing in common. But I felt a very strong connection with her. She is such a strong woman that you cannot help but admire her and then when “tragedy strikes” it completely changes and you have already grown so close to her that you want nothing more than that strong wall to crumble.

Jolene isn’t the only one your heart breaks for. Michael is a working man. He spends several hours a day at the office and a couple of hours a day on the road to and from work. He gets home late and really has no idea what all his wife goes through on a daily basis. I am not saying this to be biased about a woman’s job at home. This proves to be true and Michael admits it when he becomes the mom and dad of the household when his wife fights for freedom. I think there is much to be said about a man who can learn and grow and that is exactly what Michael does in this book and my heart grows for him throughout it.

We have all seen the commercials and news stories about soldiers leaving or coming home. You may even know a family or two who has been through this. But since this isn’t something I see often in my personal life, I don’t necessarily think about the mothers going overseas and leaving their children behind. This book definitely opened my eyes to a world that I have heard about, but have not seen with my own eyes or heard first hand. Although I know this is fiction, it was so real and so heartbreaking, you can’t help but want to hug a soldier when you are done.

I give Home Front 5 bookmarks.

Amazon B&N Goodreads 
Released: January 31, 2012
Author Website
Kari got this audio book from the Bossard Memorial Library

The Whitson family is rocked by the sudden death of patriarch Evan, a warm, loving man who doted on his two adult daughters, Meredith and Nina, and his reserved Russian wife, Anya. Meredith, who runs the family business, and Nina, a photojournalist whose job takes her to war zones around the world, have never been able to connect with their cold, forbidding mother. When Anya begins to act strangely, Meredith thinks she belongs in a nursing home, but Nina decides to try to fulfill her father’s dying wish and get her mother to tell her and Meredith the elaborate fairy tales she used to share with them. Anya is initially reluctant, but once she begins, Nina realizes these tales are actually the story of Anya’s life in Stalinist Leningrad. Meredith and Nina decide to attempt to uncover the truth about their mother’s tragic past in the hope of understanding her, and themselves. -Booklist

Obviously I didn’t write the above description of this book. Every now and then I run into books where I just can’t put a summary into words. There are times when everything I say will give something away, there are times when there’s so much that happens that I’m afraid I’ll divulge too many, and there are times when there’s just so mach that happens, I can’t boil it down. This book had all three of those factors.

 I got this on audio book from the local library. I was trying to find something new and ran across this and didn’t think twice. Last year, I read Firefly Lane and absolutely fell in love! Now, whenever I need a good read, that I imagine will make me cry, I can pick up one of her books.

Well, this one rang true to everything I expected. One of the things I loved most about this book (pat myself on the back for getting the audio book) was the narration. I think if I would have read this book, I would have liked it, but the narration made me love it. Susan Erickson does a phenomenal job with the reading of this book. A lot of it is told by Anya, in a Russian accent. It made the book come to life and made it so real.

Just like Firefly Lane, I ended with boo with alligator tears, although it’s not as safe when you are driving down the road as when you are lying in bed, with a puddle of tears and tissues.

This is the second book I’ve read/listened to recently where a story has been told as a fairy tale/ghost story and it ends up being the life story of the person telling the story. I love this trend and will soon post about it of course

Hannah has a magical way of telling dramatic stories about women, friendship and family. Both books I have read of hers have so much emotion in them, you believe they are true. How could fictional characters feel that much love, or pain? How can you get so attached to a character? I love that Hannah tells us the stories (at least in the two I’ve read) from childhood to adulthood. People who don’t read often may not understand how you can feel close to a character who isn’t real. But when people like Hannah tell life stories, you feel like you know her characters and want to be there with them when they are sad and want to laugh with them when their spirits are high.

I also have True Colors of Hannah’s and am looking forward to reading it now that I am 2 for 2.

I give Winter Garden 5 bookmarks.

ISBN: 978-0312364120
Released: Februray 2010
Author Website
Kari got this audio book from the Cabell County Library

On My Book is my own little twist on In My Mailbox, hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren.

I am horrible about doing this on a weekly, or even monthly basis. I get most of my books through NetGalley or the Nook library, and don’t physically get them in the mail, so I always forget about this.

I am going to try to stay on top of this meme because I love seeing it on other blogs. I am a very nosy person and love to see what others are scooping up on a weekly basis.

So this week, I got three books.

Library Audiobook:

“Meredith and Nina Whitson are as different as sisters can be. One stayed at home to raise her children and manage the family apple orchard; the other followed a dream and traveled the world to become a famous photojournalist. But when their beloved father falls ill, Meredith and Nina find themselves together again, standing alongside their cold, disapproving mother, Anya, who even now, offers no comfort to her daughters. As children, the only connection between them was the Russian fairy tale Anya sometimes told the girls at night. On his deathbed, their father extracts a promise from the women in his life: the fairy tale will be told one last time—and all the way to the end. Thus begins an unexpected journey into the truth of Anya’s life in war-torn Leningrad, more than five decades ago. Alternating between the past and present, Meredith and Nina will finally hear the singular, harrowing story of their mother’s life, and what they learn is a secret so terrible and terrifying that it will shake the very foundation of their family and change who they believe they are.”

 
Simon & Schuster Galley Grab:

  
“Nellie Clay married Hobbs Pritchard without even noticing he was a spell conjured into a man, a walking, talking ghost story. But her mama knew. She saw it in her tea leaves: death. Folks told Nellie to get off the mountain while she could, to go back home before it was too late. Hobbs wasn’t nothing but trouble. He’d even killed a man. No telling what else. That mountain was haunted, and soon enough, Nellie would feel it too. One way or another, Hobbs would get what was coming to him. The ghosts would see to that. . .” 

“Together for over a decade, Kyra and David Winter are happier than they ever thought they could be.  They have a comfortable home, stable careers, and a young son, Michael, who they love more than anything.  Yet because of their complicated histories, Kyra and David have always feared that this domestic bliss couldn’t last – that the life they created was destined to be disrupted.  And on one perfectly average summer day, it is: Michael disappears from his own backyard.

The only question is whose past has finally caught up with them: David feels sure that Michael was taken by his troubled ex-wife, while Kyra believes the kidnapper must be someone from her estranged family, someone she betrayed years ago.

As the Winters embark on a journey of time and memory to find Michael, they will be forced to admit these suspicions, revealing secrets about themselves they’ve always kept hidden.  But they will also have a chance to discover that it’s not too late to have the family they’ve dreamed of; that even if the world is full of risks, as long as they have hope, the future can bloom.”

 Did you guys get any good grabs this week???

I actually had planned on making this a much longer post because I went to Borders Friday after work planning on bringing home a half dozen books. I originally picked up four, then put one down and walked around looking for more goodies and ended up with only one book, on my way to the checkout. Then, I saw the line wrapped around the store. I just couldn’t wait that long. It was 40% off, but I just couldn’t do it. What is wrong with me??? I did the same thing when I originally went and books were only 10% off. Needless to say, I walked out with nothing but hopes that they will slash the price again and I will finally bring home the books I have been eying.

Wow! First of all, Happy New Year bloggy buddies! I hope that 2010 was all you had hoped for and I hope you have big dreams for 2011. I do, but that will come in a later post. This one, is to recap my year in reading.

My goal for this year, set by my husband was 67 books. Well, I did it and I surpassed it. I actually read 94 books this year! I have no clue how, but I did and I feel like a major book nerd

This year was not only a big reading year for me, I also started writing a couple of books. I got the first draft done of the first one and started going back through and reworking some parts. I haven’t finished it yet because I took part in NaNoWriMo and actually started writing the sequel to it! I’m about 3/4 the way done with the first draft of it. I can’t believe I’ve started writing books. Even though I have them saved and can open them and read them anytime, it still doesn’t seem real! Hoping for big things in 2011 with this.

I also made some cool changes to my reading habits this year. I started taking part in some YA Book Tours. I was concerned about this for a few months, before I started. I was worried about the deadlines and not being able to finish the books. But that hasn’t been a problem at all and I’ve read some really good books through these tours. I also signed up for NetGalley and BookMooch this year. They are both amazing in their very different ways. NetGalley has offered me a bunch of amazing books, that I probably wouldn’t have picked up off the book store shelf. Plus, most of them are ARCs. A couple of my 2010 faves are from there. Now BookMooch has helped me with my space issue. I, reluctantly at first, did some major book purging. I went through my two full bookshelves and chose the books that I didn’t absolutely loved and put them on BookMooch. I got some pretty good books back in return for them as well. What a cool little nerdy book world we live in.

One of the most significant changes I made this year was finally getting a Nook. It tooks me months to decide what I wanted and ended up with the Nook as a birthday present from my parents. I can’t believe I lived a life without it! Especially on NetGalley. I started the year reading the books on my computer and ended reading them on my Nook. It is so convenient, and a space saver. I didn’t want one at first because I love the feeling of the book, but I do a good job of going back and forth between real books and Nook books, so I am getting the Best of Both Worlds as Hannah Montana would say.

Now, to my faves of 2010! Not all of these were published in 2010, just ones I read in 2010 and loved. I have chosen my Top 10 – in no particular order. Hopefully, by the time I am done writing this post, I’ll be able to narrow it down and tell you what my favorite of the year was. I’m still undecided!

1. Infinite Days by Rebecca Maizel

In a time where vampires are all the rage, Maizel takes the beautiful blood sucking creature to a whole new level – back to life!

Lenah is 529 years old. After 400+ years, she gave up her vampire love to become a human. The only catch, she had to sleep for 100 years for this to happen.

When she finally wakes up, she’s a 16-year-old girl, so to speak, at a ritzy private school.

I can’t wait for the second book in this series to come out. It focuses on Lenah’s love, who has also become one of my many book love!

2. Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

My cousin lent me this book this summer. I had never heard of it and was a little leery before I started. Surely if the book was good, someone would have mentioned it to me and it’s a pretty decent sized book. I always get anxiety with long books. I like quick, easy, fun reads.

I wish someone told me about this book before! Holy Moly! It is one of my all-time faves. I cried as much in this book as I did reading any Nicholas Sparks book!

Firefly Lane follows the lives of Tully and Kate from the time they are teens, all the way through adulthood. This book is different than most I have read because mainly, I am a series girl. I haven’t read many books lately where you live a whole life with someone. And that’s what I think made me love this book so much! I was so close to them, it felt like I knew them and everything about them. The fact that they were both in journalism brought me closer to them as well. I highly suggest this, but make sure you have a box of tissues.

3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

This is one of those series that I stayed away from. I had heard about it, but didn’t know much about it. The first year and a half that I read, I went and bought cheap books, not really caring what they were about, as long as they had pretty covers. After reading The Hunger Games, way late in the game, I won’t make that mistake again!

I am not going to even offer an explainer for this one. If you haven’t read it, go spend your Borders/Barnes and Noble gift cards and go buy it!

Suzanne Collins has become one of my idols. I love J.K. Rowling because she was able to make up an entirely new world. And although it is fiction, it’s believable. It’s so intense and descriptive. Collins was able to do the same thing for me. She made up a world, that is very believable, to the point where you hope that no one else reads the book because you don’t want someone to get the idea that this is how we should live one day.

The Hunger Games and Catching Fire were both terrific reads for me this year. I still have Mockingjay on my shelf. But I am nervous to read it. 1. I don’t want it to be over. 2. I’m afraid I am going to be disappointed with the ending. I have no idea what it is, but I’ve heard it doesn’t live up to the first two.

4. Dead Politician Society by Robin Spano

Clare is a rookie cop who gets her first undercover gig, trying to figure out who is poisoning politicians. She enrolls as a student at a local university to get the scoop from some poli-sci students and finds herself in the mix of a poisoning mess.

I didn’t get this book on NetGalley when I first saw it because I am a cover snob. I like pink and pretty and this didn’t do it for me. But Robin Spano saw on Twitter that I was a NetGalley nerd and emailed me asking me to read her book. I appreciated her tracking me down, so I gave it a shot and I absolutely loved it, and her! Robin has an amazing writing style. She wrote this book through the eyes of five different people. A different chapter came from a different point of view. It was never confusing and it flowed amazingly! Robin has also become an awesome support system for my writing, but that’s another story for another time and place!

Now, Robin did send me a couple of cover options for her second book, and you better believe it’s pink

5. Wildthorn by Jane Eagland

This was another NetGalley find and a fantastic one at that!

17-year-old Louisa Cosgrove wants to be a doctor. In this day and age, that is a normal choice. In the 1800′s however, it lands her in a mental hospital. Louisa knows she’s not mental, and now she has to figure out who put her there and how to get out.

I normally try to stay away from books that are period written. Let’s face it, we all know I like light and easy. When it comes to deep books with words I have to look up in the dictionary, I don’t want to strain my brain, I get enough of that at work. But Eagland didn’t do that. She wrote a book about the 1800′s but made it hip enough to be in the now. This is one of those books where you can’t quit turning the pages because you have to know what’s going to happen next with Louisa and you are just hoping that she didn’t do something that she’s not telling us to get in the institution. Oh, and there’s a love interest that definitely wouldn’t have been publicized in the 1800′s. That’s all I’m saying!

6. Father of Lies by Ann Turner.

In this book, Turner takes history and adds a little flare of fiction! This book is based at the time of the Salem Witch Trials. Turner uses the timeline and history of this crazy event and adds a new character, a fictional one to really live and tell the story from an outsiders view.

When I first signed up to read this book, I knew it took place in that era, but didn’t realize until I was done and started doing some research that it was based on the true story. That made this book so much more awesome for me.

7. Matched by Ally Condie

Who would have ever pictured me as a dystopia lover? Well, I guess I am after this year.

In Matched, everything is chosen for you. What you eat, where you work, when you die and even who you marry. They match you with someone you will be compatible with. Most people have never met their matches before, but for Cassia, the slim odds become a reality. She’s matched with her best friend. But when she’s watching a little chip about him, to see if it can tell her anything she doesn’t already know, there’s a glitch, and another boy’s face pops up. Eerily enough, this boy is also someone she knows. But now she’s not sure who she should love and if there was a mistake.

This was a remarkable book and somewhat of a sad love story. Cassia has to live a life of secrecy to find out what will truly make her happy. It’s something we don’t have to live, but something that unfortunately could very likely happen in the future, our great-great-grandchildren’s future, if not further out.

I cannot wait for the next book to come out in this series. It’s one I will definitely buy the hardback in. And I got this book from a tour, so I don’t physically still have it. I will have to buy this one as well, just because I love to have all of them in a series!

Speaking of series, we all know I’m a junkie! Stephanie Plum, True Blood, Private, Pretty Little Liars. You name it, I loved it! This year, I read books in all of these series. I tried to go through and pick out one I loved from each one, but I couldn’t. And I read way too many to put them all down here. If you click here, you can go to my Books 2010 page and scroll throuh and see how I reviewed all of my series books this year.

Ok, so I guess I’ve had enough time to dwell on my books this year and just pick one already. Honestly, I’ve narrowed it down to two and am having a hard time choosing between the two of them. So, I’m not going to. I thought after writing about them both in this post, it would help me make my decision, but it actually made it harder. So, drumroll please. My TWO favorite books I read in 2010 were The Hunger Games and Matched! Looking back on my little summaries of all of my books, you could probably have guessed. When I love something, I love it and I can’t hide my feelings. That’s why I started my book reviews in the first place. I loved me some Jane Eyre and wanted to whole world to know it!

I hope you had as great a reading year as I did, and I hope you’ll help me this coming year in picking out some awesome reads!

Tully and Kate are the epitome of a BFF. The girls meet when they are in their early teens. Tully has major family problems. She doesn’t know her dad, her mom, Cloud, is a typical 70′s woman, addicted to drugs and freedom. All Tully wants is someone to love her, other than her grandmother. She may be in luck when she meets her new neighbor, golden girl, Kate.

Kate is a straight A student, never breaks the rules and just wants to be popular. So she also has something to gain from a relationship with a beautiful, new girl at school.

Firefly Lane takes us from the 70s when the girls meet at the bus stop, through their lives and the turn of the century. As friends, Tully and Kate go through many ups and downs. Tully has the passion to be a network while Kate just wants to raise a family.

I have read a lot of great books lately, but this one is definitely going into my Top 5 of all time. There are so many things that I loved about this, I don’t even know where to start.

One thing I love about this book is following what happened in real life during these times. Being a news girl, big stories always stay with you, along with big people. There were mentions of the 70s stereotypes, Kenny G, Bill Gates, JZ Knight, Virgin Records, Jane Pauley… do you get my drift? While this book is entirely fiction, you remember these stories. Well, I don’t really remember them because I wasn’t born, but I remember hearing about them They helped keep it real for me.

That’s another thing I loved about this book. It was very real. I am a huge fan of fiction that pushes reality, but this book was so real, I felt like I really knew these people. When you meet someone in a book that is a teenager, and stay with them through their 40′s, that’s longer than I have known my friends. You know their secrets, you know everything that is happening in their lives and you feel for them. And they deal with real issues from popularity in school to getting your dream job to raising a family, all things you can relate to .

I felt like I could relate to Kate and Tully on many levels. Of course, I felt an attachment for Tully through her love of journalism. However, she has a little more perseverance than I do in my little pinkie. When I want something, I try my best to get it, but she is hardcore to getting what she wants. Maybe it’s just that our passions lie in different parts of the business. She wanted to be a network anchor, I want to have nothing to do with being on camera. I also see how her job makes it hard for her to be in a relationship. It is very easy to get caught up in a job like this. And the more you are available, the further you will go. If you can up and go at any time, and you are good at your job, you are golden. But as Tully finds out, what is it worth giving up?

Pg49: “Of course I need you. Is Tennessee a top 49 market?”

Ahhh the life of a journalist, putting the job before love, which Tully did a number of times.

As much as Tully pushed to further her career, Katie worked hard for a family. I am not at that point in my life yet, still waiting a couple years before kids, but I still feel like I can relate to Katie’s wanting a family and wanting to stay home with them. Everyone wants to be the best mom they can be, but I’m not sure if I could stay home and not have a side career. That’s where writing comes in. Tully covered my journalism passion and Katie covered my writing passion. Katie tried writing a time or two and never got anywhere with it. One thing I got from this book is to write while I can.

One of my favorite quotes from the books is this:

Pg 183: “Of course you can fall in love. You just have to let yourself. They don’t call it falling for nothing.”

I had mixed feelings for both women. Things that I wished they both would’ve done and said, and not done and not said. I felt bad at them for different times throughout their lives, normally more for Katie than Tully. I can’t believe I had so many feelings for just one book, that wasn’t even a series. 

This book reminded me of one of my favorite movies of all time, Beaches. There was the good girl and the wild child. They come together and are split apart, but their friendship lasts through everything. I should watch that movie soon, once I get my tears back.

I want to warn readers who plan on reading this book to carry some tissues around with you. I wasn’t warned and when it came to the last night I was reading it, I was a hot mess. There were a couple of times throughout the story, where I shed a tear or two, but let me tell you, it got so bad that Michael told me to quit reading it because a book shouldn’t make me that sad!

There honestly wasn’t anything in this book that I didn’t love. I hope that one day, I can write an amazing story like this. I give Firefly Lane 5 bookmarks.

ISBN: 9780312537074
Published: February 5, 2008
Buy from Amazon
Kari borrowed this book from a family member