WWW Wednesdays – May 30, 2018

WWW

Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme is hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words. The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?

The Perfect Mother

They call themselves the May Mothers—a collection of new moms who gave birth in the same month. Twice a week, with strollers in tow, they get together in Prospect Park, seeking refuge from the isolation of new motherhood; sharing the fears, joys, and anxieties of their new child-centered lives.

When the group’s members agree to meet for drinks at a hip local bar, they have in mind a casual evening of fun, a brief break from their daily routine. But on this sultry Fourth of July night during the hottest summer in Brooklyn’s history, something goes terrifyingly wrong: one of the babies is abducted from his crib. Winnie, a single mom, was reluctant to leave six-week-old Midas with a babysitter, but the May Mothers insisted that everything would be fine. Now Midas is missing, the police are asking disturbing questions, and Winnie’s very private life has become fodder for a ravenous media.

Though none of the other members in the group are close to the reserved Winnie, three of them will go to increasingly risky lengths to help her find her son. And as the police bungle the investigation and the media begin to scrutinize the mothers in the days that follow, damaging secrets are exposed, marriages are tested, and friendships are formed and fractured.

Yay, finally reading The Perfect Mother!

 

What did you recently finish reading?

Body DoubleDr. Maura Isles makes her living dealing with death. As a pathologist in a major metropolitan city, she has seen more than her share of corpses every day–many of them victims of violent murder. But never before has her blood run cold, and never has the grim expression “dead ringer” rung so terrifyingly true. Because never before has the lifeless body on the medical examiner’s table been her own.

Yet there can be no denying the mind-reeling evidence before her shocked eyes and those of her colleagues, including Detective Jane Rizzoli: the woman found shot to death outside Maura’s home is the mirror image of Maura, down to the most intimate physical nuances. Even more chilling is the discovery that they share the same birth date and blood type. For the stunned Maura, an only child, there can be just one explanation. And when a DNA test confirms that Maura’s mysterious doppelgänger is in fact her twin sister, an already bizarre murder investigation becomes a disturbing and dangerous excursion into a past full of dark secrets.

Searching for answers, Maura is drawn to a seaside town in Maine where other horrifying surprises await. But perhaps more frightening, an unknown murderer is at large on a cross-country killing spree. To stop the massacre and uncover the twisted truth about her own roots, Maura must probe her first living subject: the mother that she never knew . . . an icy and cunning woman who could be responsible for giving Maura life–and who just may have a plan to take it away.

If you have ever watched the TV show, Rizzoli & Isles, this is one of the books that features the pathologist and detective! Has anyone watched the show? I really enjoy the books, but haven’t watched the show.

What do you think you’ll read next?

Eeny Meeny

Two people are abducted, imprisoned, and left with a gun. As hunger and thirst set in, only one walks away alive.

It’s a game more twisted than any Detective Helen Grace has ever seen. If she hadn’t spoken with the shattered survivors herself, she almost wouldn’t believe them.

Helen is familiar with the dark sides of human nature, including her own, but this case—with its seemingly random victims—has her baffled. But as more people go missing, nothing will be more terrifying than when it all starts making sense….

 

 

I’m kind of scared of this one…kill or be killed :s

 

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What are your WWW? Have you read The Perfect Mother, Body Double or Eeny Meeny?

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Top Ten Tuesday – Bookish Worlds I’d Want to & Never Want to Live In

Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Bookish Worlds I’d Want to & Never Want to Live In. 

The top 5 Bookish Worlds I’d Want to Live In:

  1. The Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling – duh!
  2. The Gaslight Mystery Series by Victoria Thompson – can this be a time travel type deal? If so, then I want to visit New York City during the turn of the century!
  3. The Lunar Chronicles Series by Marissa Meyer – there is a colony on the moon!
  4. The Divergent Series by Veronica Roth – I’m torn between Abnegation (the selfless) and Erudite (The Intelligent) for myself. It would be interesting to see which faction I would end up in.
  5. The Selection Series by Kiera Cass – I would be way too obsessed with The Selection (the opportunity to marry a prince or princess).

The top 5 Bookish Worlds I’d Never Want to Live In:

  1. The Hunger Games Series by Suzanne Collins – could you imagine the anxiety of knowing that there is an annual Reaping where you or your children could be selected as a tribute. If I was ever selected, I don’t think I would last very long…
  2. The Game of Thrones Series by George R.R. Martin – living in Winter for however many years has no appeal to me.
  3. The Young Elites Series by Marie Lu – most of society ends up dying from blood fever, no thanks.
  4. The Women of the Otherworld Series by Kelley Armstrong – I’m not a fan of werewolves.
  5. The Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer – humans, vampires and werewolves…no thanks!

What are some of your favourite book worlds? Do you have any book worlds that you wouldn’t want to live in?

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The Hiltons: A Family Dynasty by J. Randy Taraborrelli

THE HILTONS is a fascinating, no-holds-barred account of the American industrial giant who built the world’s greatest hotel empire and his always larger-than-life family.

Demanding and enigmatic, patriarch Conrad Hilton’s visionary ideas and unyielding will established the model for the modern luxury hotel industry. But outside the boardroom, Conrad struggled with emotional detachment, failed marriages, and conflicted Catholicism.

Then there are the Hilton children. Playboy Nicky’s tragic alcoholism and passionate but abusive relationship with Elizabeth Taylor was the stuff of tabloid legend. Serious Barron, on the other hand, deftly handled his father’s legacy, carrying the Hilton brand triumphantly into the new millennium. Eric, raised apart from his older brothers, accepted his supporting role in the Hilton dynasty with calm and quiet–a stark contrast to the boys’ much younger half-sister Francesca, whose battle for recognition led her into courtrooms and conflict.

The cast of supporting players includes the inimitable Zsa Zsa Gabor, who was married to Conrad briefly but remained a thorn in his side for decades; a young Donald Trump; and a host of other Hollywood and business luminaries with whom the Hiltons crossed paths and swords over the years.

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Wow, I think may be one of favourite biographies that I have read! The novel centres around Conrad Hilton who build the Hilton hotel empire starting with $5,000 in the early 1920s. The novel flows through the different hotels that Conrad brought and also goes into the personal lives and marriages of him and his 4 children.

I loved the flow of this novel. I knew nothing about the Hilton family (with the exception of Paris Hilton) going in and I never felt lost at all (the family tree at the beginning of the novel really helped)!

The author would focus on a certain family member and a life event and really go into detail (eg. marriage between Conrad Hilton and Zsa Zsa Gabor). Even though there were other things going on during the time period (eg. building a hotel empire), the author would focus on one thing and then spend another section talking about a different life event.

This book is not for those looking on a in-depth read on Paris Hilton or her sister, Nicky. Paris was mentioned briefly in the last few chapters of the book, and that’s it.

4 calculators out of a potential 5. I would highly recommend this novel of those who are a fan of biographies! I will be checking out more of the author’s other biographies!

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Under the Harrow by Flynn Berry

When Nora takes the train from London to visit her sister in the countryside, she expects to find her waiting at the station, or at home cooking dinner. But when she walks into Rachel’s familiar house, what she finds is entirely different: her sister has been the victim of a brutal murder.

Stunned and adrift, Nora finds she can’t return to her former life. An unsolved assault in the past has shaken her faith in the police, and she can’t trust them to find her sister’s killer. Haunted by the murder and the secrets that surround it, Nora is under the harrow: distressed and in danger. As Nora’s fear turns to obsession, she becomes as unrecognizable as the sister her investigation uncovers.

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Boo, I’m disappointed with this one, but from the beginning of the book I just couldn’t get into it. The novel is from the perspective of Nora and oh boy, I did not like Nora. She was all over the place! Her thoughts were jumping left and right and  it was really hard to follow.

This could of also been because of the writing. It was hard to tell what was happening. I had no idea where Nora was (at one point, she was back in London and I have no idea how she got there!), who she was talking to and what she was doing. I was very confused.

2 calculators out of a potential 5. This just wasn’t my cup of tea.

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WWW Wednesdays – May 23, 2018

WWW

Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme is hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words. The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?

Hiltons

Demanding and enigmatic, patriarch Conrad Hilton’s visionary ideas and unyielding will established the model for the modern luxury hotel industry. But outside the boardroom, Conrad struggled with emotional detachment, failed marriages, and conflicted Catholicism.

Then there are the Hilton children. Playboy Nicky’s tragic alcoholism and passionate but abusive relationship with Elizabeth Taylor was the stuff of tabloid legend. Serious Barron, on the other hand, deftly handled his father’s legacy, carrying the Hilton brand triumphantly into the new millennium. Eric, raised apart from his older brothers, accepted his supporting role in the Hilton dynasty with calm and quiet–a stark contrast to the boys’ much younger half-sister Francesca, whose battle for recognition led her into courtrooms and conflict.

The cast of supporting players includes the inimitable Zsa Zsa Gabor, who was married to Conrad briefly but remained a thorn in his side for decades; a young Donald Trump; and a host of other Hollywood and business luminaries with whom the Hiltons crossed paths and swords over the years.

I am loving this one!! I know nothing about the Hilton family (minus some things that Paris Hilton has done over the last decade), and I am learning so much! It has everything from building hotels to family secrets!

What did you recently finish reading?

Under the HarrowWhen Nora takes the train from London to visit her sister in the countryside, she expects to find her waiting at the station, or at home cooking dinner. But when she walks into Rachel’s familiar house, what she finds is entirely different: her sister has been the victim of a brutal murder.

Stunned and adrift, Nora finds she can’t return to her former life. An unsolved assault in the past has shaken her faith in the police, and she can’t trust them to find her sister’s killer. Haunted by the murder and the secrets that surround it, Nora is under the harrow: distressed and in danger. As Nora’s fear turns to obsession, she becomes as unrecognizable as the sister her investigation uncovers.

I was disappointed with Under The Harrow. It was so interesting, but the writing style just made it drag on and on (and the book was only 240 pages). Sadly this wasn’t the long weekend read I was hoping for.

What do you think you’ll read next?

The Perfect Mother

They call themselves the May Mothers—a collection of new moms who gave birth in the same month. Twice a week, with strollers in tow, they get together in Prospect Park, seeking refuge from the isolation of new motherhood; sharing the fears, joys, and anxieties of their new child-centered lives.

When the group’s members agree to meet for drinks at a hip local bar, they have in mind a casual evening of fun, a brief break from their daily routine. But on this sultry Fourth of July night during the hottest summer in Brooklyn’s history, something goes terrifyingly wrong: one of the babies is abducted from his crib. Winnie, a single mom, was reluctant to leave six-week-old Midas with a babysitter, but the May Mothers insisted that everything would be fine. Now Midas is missing, the police are asking disturbing questions, and Winnie’s very private life has become fodder for a ravenous media.

Though none of the other members in the group are close to the reserved Winnie, three of them will go to increasingly risky lengths to help her find her son. And as the police bungle the investigation and the media begin to scrutinize the mothers in the days that follow, damaging secrets are exposed, marriages are tested, and friendships are formed and fractured.

So, so excited for this one!!

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What are your WWW? Have you read The Hiltons, Under The Harrow or The Perfect Mother?

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