Search

Search only in certain items:

Every Fifteen Minutes
Every Fifteen Minutes
Lisa Scottoline | 2015 | Fiction & Poetry
4
8.0 (4 Ratings)
Book Rating
Dr. Eric Parrish is a busy psychiatrist juggling his work as Chief at a hospital unit, as well as his own private practice. He is also reeling from his recent separation from his wife and the subsequent time he must spend away from his daughter, Hannah, who is only seven-years-old. One day, Eric is called to treat an elderly woman who is dying from cancer, but it quickly becomes clear the real patient is her grandson Max, who, at 17, is having difficulty dealing with his grandmother's impending death. Eric quickly discovers that Max is depressed, struggling with OCD, and having violent thoughts about a girl he knows from his job. However, as Eric treats Max, he suddenly finds his own life breaking apart around him. There is a murder, a violent incident, problems with his wife and daughter, issues at work, and much more.

I never really got "into" this book. To me, Eric is not a likeable character. Throughout the course of the novel he seems to make a remarkable number of questionable decisions, even if his life is somewhat spiraling out of control. For instance, as he goes through the divorce with Caitlin, Eric is constantly lamenting about Hannah and the effects of the divorce on her. So much so that he comes by the house unasked, calls his wife and daughter at all hours, completely ignores the advice of his lawyer, etc. He seems to lack knowledge of any basic divorce or legal protocol - not to mention common sense.

The lack of common sense prevails throughout the book. So much of the plot is supposedly driven by what Eric knows about Max, this teenage kid he meets at the hospital, but really they have two sessions together before things go awry. It seems insane that he would have learned so much about his patient in this time. So much of the plot just seemed implausible and annoying. We hear constant talk about Eric's past anxiety and how he overcame it. OK - so what?

Overall, I just found myself irritated by Eric and annoyed by his decisions. Parts of the book seem completely improbable and the plot is so thinly constructed that once you figure out how everything comes together, it seems barely possible. Then Scottoline throws in another twist that seems completely unnecessary. Overall, rather disappointing read.
  
All I Ever Wanted
All I Ever Wanted
Lucy Dillon | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The description of this book is quite accurate, but I would like to outline the different understanding of the book. My description of the book would be something like that: Caitlin, going through divorce from her controlling perfectionist husband. Their divorce really influenced their little daughter Nancy, who stopped talking after their separation. Eva is Caitlin’s sister in law, who, even after 2 years, still suffers from her husband’s death. The only company Eva has is her two pugs, Bumble and Bee. After visits to Eva’s house, Bumble becomes Nancy’s best friend, and helps her find her voice again.

It is a really nice story about two women in opposite situations. I really liked that, all the characters in this publication are really diverse personalities and they are really believable, like ordinary people. If you have children, you will absolutely understand how Caitlin is feeling. There is so much mother’s love in this book. You can really feel it when you go through the book. The problem is, as a person who is not very interested in kids, I found it too much for my liking. I really liked Eva’s character in this novel. She was interesting, and complete opposite of confused and clumsy Caitlin. However, there was so much moping about the same thing over and over again. I found it quite boring to read, because it just plods along, is very detailed and has only few turns in the story. I am great full though, that author gave voice to more than one character, which gave better feeling of the characters.

I liked that author discussed few really interesting themes in this book. She talked about how divorce influences grownups and well as children, the freedom feeling when your other half is not there to supervise you, as well as how it feels when you are in your forties, alone and know that it’s almost impossible to have a child of your own. It was very cute, how her love for dogs’ author shared in the book with the readers, by putting two cute pugs with very detailed descriptions of their personalities and emotions. The ending of the book rounded up everything nicely, but was really predictable. So to conclude, if you have children and would like some comfort reading about family, love and cute kids, then this book is definitely for you.
  
SF
Searching for Tina Turner
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I found Searching for Tina Turner to be very difficult to read. I was frustrated by the writing. It was unclear and confusing. I could not tell who was saying what, or where the characters were. The writing switched from past tense to present tense and confused me. I didn’t get very far before I had to put it down.

I didn’t particularly like Tina, nor her husband Randall, I don’t agree with divorce, I was frustrated by how Lena was searching for her answers, and I could not get past all of that enough to enjoy this story. Call me biased, but this one just wasn’t for me. As much as I wanted to, I really could not enjoy finish this book.