Abroad was a truly twisted book. The story is about Tabitha, known by her friends as Taz. She is on a year abroad studying at a University in Italy. She arrives in Italy alone and eager for new friendships and experiences. Both friends and experiences quickly come her way but neither exactly what she had in mind. Everyone has secrets. Everyone is telling lies. Taz experiments with alcohol and drugs and sometimes doesn't remember the experiences that she's had.
I know this book has been compared to the real life events of the Amanda Knox story. I haven't followed the reports in the news to make comparisons myself.
I would expect that Abroad might make quite an interesting movie. Abroad could serve as a good warning to any young students travelling abroad.
I received a free copy of this book from Goodreads.
All Our Names was a beautifully written story. Mengestu is clearly a very talented storyteller. The story is filled with a large amount of violence as the beginning of a strong bonding friendship is formed between two men through an African revolution. There is a parallel story also being told of one of the men and a relationship he becomes involved in with his social worker in Mid-West America. A common thread among both stories is the names that the characters are given throughout. Names was a prevalent theme throughout the novel. I very seldom give such thought to the title of a novel but All Our Names is so fitting and beautiful.
My book club read for this month was The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty. Cecilia Fitzpatrick is an every day normal housewife. Well maybe not every day, she's a bit of an overachieving do everything sort of Mom. One day Cecilia stumbles upon a sealed letter addressed to her with instructions to only be opened in the event of her husband's death. The letter is from her husband and she really can't imagine what it would possibly say. She has faith in her husband and believes her marriage to be strong. Yet, what could the letter contain?
The Husband's Secret took many twists and turns that I didn't see coming. I quite enjoyed reading it and I look forward to discussing it with my book club to see what they thought. There was one little thing that really bugged me about the story which I can't reveal without spoiling the story. I want to see if my other book club members felt the same way. So obviously a great book club choice because I believe it will spark a great discussion.
Without revealing any details of the ending I did find it slightly different that the author really detailed and finalized the story. There wasn't much left to the imagination (other than imagining how I would personally handle the secret). Maybe a better way to describe it is that the story felt complete. There was nothing hanging. Which isn't always the way I feel when I finish a book.
I always meant to get around to reading Liane Moriarty's other novel What Alice Forgot. I will try and elevate that book a little higher on my to read list. She is definitely an author I will look for more books from.
Tonight I'm meeting up with my book club to discuss Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. I had seen a lot about this book on different blogs. I actually picked it for this month's choice. I expected a bit of a tear jerker. I had never read anything by Jojo Moyes before. I LOVED it! 5 out of 5 stars! The story is about Will Traynor who is living life to it's fullest when he is suddenly suffers a tragic accident and is left a quadriplegic. Louisa Clark is hired by Will's mother to bring a little life back into Will's life. Lou is determined to show Will a good time and that there's still a lot of life left in him. I loved the snarly banter between the two main characters. Yes, there were a few tears but I laughed more than I cried. This is a perfect choice for book club tonight and I know there will be some great discussion. I can't wait to read more by Jojo Moyes.