Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Eleanor Oliphant is thirty and lives a regimented and simple, single and solitary life. Every day is the same as the day before for Eleanor and she prefers it that way. She doesn’t socialize at work or outside and spends the weekends listening to radio programs or reading books whose covers have caught her attention at the library, regardless of their subject matter. The only other person she speaks regularly to is her abusive Mummy.

When Eleanor’s computer goes on the fritz, she’s forced to contact Raymond, the firm’s new IT employee, who insists on being chatty and walking her to the bus stop. Unfortunately, elderly Sammy has taken a tumble on the street. Raymond quickly rushes to his aid and convinces reluctant Eleanor to help as well. Despite her need to remain anonymous, Eleanor slowly finds herself drawn to Raymond and his mother, and to Sammy and his large family.

It’s rare that I can zip through a book in a day, but when I do, I know it’s because I’m absolutely in love with it. While there’s some undeniably depressing and tragic subject matter in Eleanor Oliphant, there are many, MANY truly delightful breaks of sunshine and happiness.

I adored Gail Honeyman’s writing. Deadpan, dry, yet highly intelligent humor, to me, is hilarious and there is definitely tons of it here. It’s not often that I literally laugh aloud while reading a book (especially in public) but I did several times while reading this one. Ms. Honeyman’s sense of humor is classic.

The characters are wonderfully genuine and realistically flawed. My heart ached for Eleanor. I know what it’s like to endure abuse and how it can destroy your spirit. Yet I also know that you can’t let that pain consume you, and that it’s okay to trust people again. 

This is touching, quirky and spectacularly splendid reading! I absolutely cannot say enough good things about Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and I can’t wait for the movie to come out.

5 of 5 Stars, Review by Susan Barton

Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty Book Review

I spotted this book at my local library and couldn’t believe my luck. Liane Moriarty’s books are difficult to get a hold of at my library and I happily grabbed it right away. But then I found out the reason why it sat all by its lonesome – it’s not exactly one of her most popular books.

I admit I had a great deal of difficulty getting into Truly Madly Guilty. It started soooo slowly it was almost painful. The author offered so few tiny crumbs of information for several chapters. Readers knew something awful happened, but we didn’t know what happened, why it happened or even who the awful thing happened to. We just knew it was bad and it happened at “The Barbeque”. I soon found myself so irritated with this cheesy writing ploy that I ended up putting the book down in frustration, only to pick it back up several days later. Then I found that once I got about 150 pages into the book it actually picked up and got a bit more interesting.

Truly Madly Guilty is filled with dysfunctional characters, with dysfunctional past and present lives. By the time the author finally reveals what terrible event occurred at the infamous barbeque it’s almost a letdown. We’re expecting a monumental, devastating occurrence, but it’s not quite there.

I was not at all a fan of the dangling carrot ploy used in this book. It was cheap and unnecessary. I can see how it’s angered many Moriarty fans – myself included. I wouldn’t say that Truly Madly Guilty is a terrible book – I’m not sorry that I stuck with it to the end. However, I would say this is definitely not one of Moriarty’s best novels and I sincerely hope she rethinks things in her next book.

3 of 5 Stars, Review by Susan Barton

Quirky, Cute and Funny - Book Review of "Finding Fraser" by K C Dyer

Are you looking for a cute contemporary romance novel? I just finished "Finding Fraser" by K C Dyer and I loved it! It's a quick read and filled with likable characters. My book review is below.

Emma Sheridan is on the cusp of her 30th birthday and she’s decided to do something daring. After selling everything she owns, she books a flight to Scotland in search of her very own Jamie Fraser – heroic hunk and star of the Diana Gabaldon's “Outlander” book series. Emma has been woefully unlucky in love and although she’s clearly venturing out of her comfort zone she’s determined to see her plan through.

Who doesn’t remember being almost thirty and trying to find ourselves? To a certain degree, I could relate to Emma’s end-of-twenties-crisis. Although my cusp of 30 included a knucklehead (ex) husband and three children, which leads me to my only real “criticism” of Finding Fraser. I found Emma’s character to be quite immature for twenty-nine. She was also overly naïve and slightly neurotic. Yet, Emma’s “quirky” personality made the story work so well that I was quickly able to go with it.

Yes, Finding Fraser was a little silly at times and the coincidences were a tad unrealistic, but it’s fiction and I honestly enjoyed it. There were a number of laugh out loud moments that managed to avoid being cheesy or slapstick. The author’s writing is wonderfully suited to this genre. The book flows nicely and the characters are well-developed. My favorite character was Jack. I found him absolutely charming and vulnerable. Morag was a likable, tough broad and Ash was a sweetheart. I wanted to slap Hamish and Sophia…Hamish for being such a big jerk and Sophia for being such a nagging shrew. So all in all I’d say I had no trouble at all connecting with the characters.

I would recommend this book even if you haven’t read any of the Outlander books. Finding Fraser doesn’t rely heavily on Diana Gabaldon’s books. In fact you don’t really have to know much at all about them. Ms. Dyer’s descriptive passages paint a beautiful picture of Scotland so that made it easier to understand the history and landscape. Worth the read!

5 of 5 Stars, Review by Susan Barton

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.