Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult

I am back on my Jodi Picoult kick. I have about 4 of her books waiting for me.

Vanishing Acts is the story of a woman, Delia, discovering that her father kidnapped her when she was 4. After her best friend-unintentionally-tipped the police to her and her father's whereabouts, Delia, her daughter and her fiance head to Arizona to prepare for her father's trial.

There, Delia meets her mother and begins to unravel the missing years of her life. Meanwhile, her father is dealing with being a 60 years+ man entering the prison system. It's not pretty. Delia's fiance is an alcoholic and her best friend is in love with her.

Although I thought it was a good novel, it was not one of Picoult's best. She uses multiple characters to tell the story and although it works, it usually my least favorite way to read a book. In addition, I felt that the description of prison life, as told by Delia's father, was completely unnecessary to the story. I found myself skipping most of these sections.

All in all, I think it's an OK story, but if you are going to read a Jodi Picoult book, make another choice.

You're Not You by Michelle Wildgen

I read You're Not You by Michelle Wildgen while in Hawaii. It has taken me so long to write this review, because . . . I am not sure what to say. I am not sure I liked it, but I didn't dislike it.

The main character, Becca, begins to do part-time home care for a woman, Kate, with ALS. As time goes on, Kate and her husband divorce and before you know it, Becca is living with her.

In the book, we see Becca learning from Kate, but I also saw Becca losing much of herself to Kate. The title of the book comes from the fact that Becca often has to translate what Kate is saying to other people. Becca is not herself in these cases-she is Kate, speaking Kate's words. It makes sense that it would be easy to lose yourself in this case.

I just don't have much to say. It's an interesting read, but I don't feel I learned much or that it was very thought provoking.

Bitter is the New Black by Jen Lancaster

Thank God for travel-otherwise I would never get to read books. I even got to read TWO on this vacation!

So-Bitter is the New Black is a book by Jen Lancaster based on her blog Jennsylvania. Actually-the book is more about how the blog came to be.

Jen was making oodles of money. Jen was living the high life. Jen thought it would last forever. Not so much. 9/11 happened and then she lost her job. And couldn't find another one. FOR TWO YEARS. Pretty much she was either over qualified or there were no jobs or friends stabbed her in the back. To make things even better, her boyfriend (whom she lived with) lost his job too. I'd be bitter too.

I think Jen is a great writer. She is funny and self-deprecating. I love that. It doesn't hurt either that memoirs are my favorite kinds of books and blogs-well, clearly I am obsessed. So, put the two together and you can't go wrong by me.