The Giver of Stars (Jojo Moyes)

Why I have this book: I borrowed it from the ebook library.

One of the reasons I wanted to read this book was because I heard all the controversy about how Jojo was accused of copying ideas from The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michelle Richardson. In all honesty, when I first heard those rumors years ago, I didn't even want to read this one out of spite (believing the rumors), but I decided I should read it and see for myself.

While there are some similarities (there are lists online that detail those things out), the storyline was completely different. If I hadn't heard the accustaions, I don't know if I would have even picked up on the similarities. (I saw one person online say that as she was reading it, she kept thinking she had read the book before, but then realized it was The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek that she had read. I'm sorry, but I don't believe that. The stories were 95% different, in my opinion.)

In any case, I gave this one four stars on Goodreads. Troublesome was more literary in the writing style. It had more depth and tackled a heavier subject. This one was a little lighter of a read, but still so good. 

I will say I wish AGAIN that I could do a final proofread on books before they get published. This one needed a little polishing.

This is another one I'm backdating, so I might be forgetting some things I would have said had I written this right when I finished it. Oops.

Pretty clean. If there was any swearing, it would have been the more mild swear words. There is some talk about "married love," but there's no descriptive sex scenes or anything. There are implications of bad behavior/violence, but nothing that goes into detail.

House Trained (Jackie Bouchard)

Why I have this book: I liked others by the author, and her books are pretty inexpensive on Amazon, so I bought the Kindle version of this one.

I gave it four stars on Goodreads. To be honest, it's been about a week since I finished it (I'm backdating my post), so I can't give any details one way or the other, but I do know I liked it. I feel like her books have kind of a cozy feel to them. I like that dogs are always part of the story.

There was some swearing, probably an F-word or two (but I don't remember for sure), but nothing else objectionable that I can recall.

Kill Joy (Holly Jackson)

Why I have this book: I saw that it existed and that it is a prequel of sorts to the Good Girl's Guide to Murder series I read a year or two ago... so I borrowed it from the ebook library.

I liked it. It's short (a novella), so it was a quick read. I liked how it led into the rest of the series.

The thing is... this is definitely set in England. Or at least the murder-mystery game is set in England, so it had that feel. Maybe she wrote it so it could be published in both locations without much adjustment? I don't know.

(If you didn't know, the series itself was originally published in GB, but then the US publishers changed the setting to be in America when they published it here. They didn't do a fantastic job losing the British feel, though. Seriously wish they'd just leave British books as they are and allow us Americans to just enjoy their books without trying to change them up for us. We aren't dumb! We get British lingo and references... and if there's something we don't understand, we can look it up. It's not that difficult.)

*steps off soap box*

There was some swearing, and the story (as you might assume) has a spooky energy to it.

Someone Else's Shoes (Jojo Moyes)

Why I have this book: I saw it recommended several times online (and by a friend), so I borrowed it from the ebook library on audio. I was finding it difficult to get a chance to listen, so I ended up buying the ebook edition.

I gave this one four stars on Goodreads. I liked it. It was fun and interesting and had some plot twists that kept me guessing. Probably not a plausible storyline, but it was great for an escape book that had enough depth in the characters to keep me invested. It had a happy feel to it even though the characters were all going through tough stuff. I could totally see it as a movie. I understand they are in talks about that happening.

There's some swearing, some sex (not really descriptive)... kind of your typical British book vibe.

The Last Love Note (Emma Grey)

Why I have this book: I saw it recommended online, so I bought the Kindle edition when it was on sale for under two dollars.

And... then I bought the audio version when I found that I needed to get things done and couldn't read the ebook AND do stuff that needed doing.

Okay, here's the thing. Totally got myself sucked into the story. I really liked it. I thought the author did a great job handling the depth required for such a heartbreaking (and hopeful) story. It turns out her husband died in real life, so that personal experience was obviously part of her ability to put into words all the emotions of such a difficult loss.

I did feel like there were a few things that could have been better tied up (again, why am I not an editor?), but the biggest thing that has thrown into question every reading experience I have had is this:

Because I have both the audio and Kindle versions, I sometimes went to my Kindle during listening to check on a word or something I missed in the Audible. You know... just didn't hear it clearly, but didn't want to rewind 30 seconds back to try to catch it.

So once when I did this, I discovered that the Kindle version didn't have several "paragraphs" worth of words that the Audible version had! WHAT? Like quite a bit of dialog or description that must have been added to the story in between the two editions? It was the same in the Acknowledgements. The author obviously added to her words there, but the Kindle edition hasn't been updated. (I checked to see if there was an update, but there wasn't.)

Now I'm left to wonder how many other parts of the ebook may have been different than the Audible version. I also wonder if this is something that is common with all audio books vs their written or ebook counterparts.

I found the author on Instagram and sent her a message to see if she can shed some light on this for me. I shall update if I hear back from her.

UPDATE: I had a nice conversation with the author through Instagram. What a friendly lady. So the reason the audiobook and the ebook were different was because the audiobook was taken from the original Australian publication, and the US editors changed a couple of things for the US publication (which is what my Kindle version is). Honestly, I wish US publishers would stop messing with original work from other English-speaking countries when they publish them in America. I honestly think they cause more problems than if they just left the setting and terms alone. We're not too stupid to figure it out here in America... at least, those of us who are readers aren't too stupid. I can't speak for anyone else. *insert winky face*

There were a few swear words, including the F-word, but none of it was very frequent. And YAY that there weren't any descriptive sex scenes. They are so not needed, and this book proves it. The subject matter deals with death of a significant other.

Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents (Lindsay C. Gibson)

Why I have this book: It was recommended several times on post-Mormon groups, so I finally bought both the audio and Kindle versions so I could go back and forth. Turns out I only listened and never read the ebook edition.

I have a few points to make:

• In her descriptions of how emotionally immature parents behave, I decided I only know one person who is that extreme, and he's not my parent. 
• I think probably 99.99% of humans have some "emotionally immature" traits. We all have areas of emotional maturity and areas where we struggle.
• I definitely saw myself in the "internalizer" label. She said there are two ways that children of emotionally immature parents go — internalizer and externalizer. I pretty much was a perfect match for the former. However, how much of that is the personality that we come with vs our parents vs other life events vs friends, etc? It's probably a culmination of all of those things.
• I'm certain that we all have formative experiences related to our parents, but with the exceptions of true abuse or neglect or other obviously abnormal behavioral and environmental situations, I think too many people get stuck in a parental-blame cycle. Again, I'm not dismissing those who truly suffered emotionally or physically at the hands of their parents. I'm talking about normal human growth/weaknesses/learning/trying that keep parents from getting everything right... or the way the adult child thinks would have been right. 
• Having said that, there's nothing wrong with trying to understand ourselves and see how some of our "issues" might stem from how we relate to our parents. That comes from a place of curiosity and self-reflection instead of a place of victimhood and blame. 
• I kind of see how the people recommending this on the post-Mormon sites tied it to religion, but I guess that was a little bit of a stretch for me.

I thought the first part of the book was kind of slow-going. That might have been because I couldn't relate to the stories she was telling about parents who really are manipulative and narcissistic. I enjoyed the second half better when she talked about the traits of an "internalizer" because I recognized myself and how I've lived in relation to others. I also recognized that there are other people who are a part of our lives (besides our parents) who can influence our personalities and coping mechanisms. And again, who knows how many of those things come from our inborn traits? We all know kids from the same family who turn out very differently from each other, even if they grow up within the same time period in the same home with the same parents.

Anyway, I gave this three stars on Goodreads. I'm glad I read it, but I do wish she would have spent more time on how those who have emotionally immature traits (pretty much everyone) can work on overcoming them. I also wish she would have helped the readers differentiate between truly dysfunctional family life/parenting and the normal imperfections of human life.

I did like that she encourages the adult children to move forward without spending their time stuck in the cycle of blame with their parents. 

Clean. I don't recall any swearing or anything else offensive, but it did take a while for me to get through it, so I may have forgotten.

Beyond That, the Sea (Laura Spence-Ash)

Why I have this book: I saw a friend give it a high-rating on Goodreads, then saw it recommended a few more times on social media. I borrowed the Kindle version from the ebook library.

I really liked this one and gave it four stars on Goodreads. The writing had a wonderful feel to it, the story was intriguing, and I learned something new about WWII. I knew London children were sent to the English countryside during WWII for their protection, but I had no idea (or completely forgot) that they were also sent to America (and apparently a couple of other countries). I also didn't know a ship carrying those children was torpedoed by a German submarine, killing nearly all of the children being transported. 

This book, though, focuses on one child who did go to America for the war years. The girl arrives at age eleven and stays until she is sixteen (if I'm remembering correctly) with a family she only met upon her arrival. The story then carries us through the next four or so decades as we see how this experience affects her, her family in London, and the family she lived with in America.

As an added piece of amazing information... the author was in her 60's when this book (her debut novel!) was released last year. She has an interesting story about how she became a published novelist at that age. I found it quite inspiring to see a woman accomplish such a feat later in life. And really, the book is excellent. I'm so happy for her.

I can't remember if there's any swearing. Maybe a little? Either there's not enough to stand out, or I'm just getting too used to it to notice. There were some sex scenes, but nothing descriptive.