The Saddest Girl in the World

The Saddest Girl in the World by Cathy Glass
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoy reading Cathy Glass books. Since I am going to school for my ECE diploma, I find they really touch my heart because at some point in my career I may have to deal with children that have faced some or all of the problems that are written about in Glass' various books.

This story was very sad, the main character of Donna was an unwanted child, who was abused by her mum in various ways and then also abused by her other siblings (2 brothers and an older sister). Donna experienced so much sadness that when moved into Glass' care she would destroy her bedroom or take her anger out on Glass' youngest child, Paula. Through living with Glass' family she learns that the best way to take her anger out is to rip paper into tiny pieces and then the act of cleaning up the mess will help her to feel better. There are several occassions in the book when Donna has contact with her mother and all her mother says is digusting things that should never be said to a daughter (ie. calling her a shit/turd, C---). I have never imagined that I would see or read about a child being hated so much by a parent, and all I could feel for the character of Donna was complete sorrow. As the book progresses she learns that her mother is a horrible example of a parent and gets adopted by a woman that is going to give her the love and consideration that her own mother couldn't have bothered too.

A positive ending for such a tragic story.

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A Red Herring Without Mustard

A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley


I read the Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and it was amazing. Then struggled through The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag, (it took me like 2 months to read it). And now i am putting my foot down and not going to suffer through another one of these books. It's a shame that Bradley could not carry the story the same way that Sweetness was written. Oh well. Lesson learned no more Bradley books for me. (I only read to page 52 by the way which has taken me over 4 days to complete.)

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Call Me Russell

Call Me Russell by Russell Peters
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Russell Peters is my favourite comedian but I did not expect his book to get on the various emotional levels that it did. Gave me a bigger appreciation for him as a person. When it comes to women he was a dick but he's got a fiancee right now so good luck to her. It was nice to see that even though he is completely hilarious he relates most things back to his family which are the most important thing to him. Ohhhhh Russell!

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Range of Motion

Range Of Motion by Elizabeth Berg
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have to say there were certain parts of this book that I really liked and found quite interesting, ie. when jay is trying to communicate while in a coma, the introduction and use of the character of Evie, how the children handled visiting their dad while he was in a coma and then how they handled when he returned home.

Elizabeth Berg has a way of writing that speaks to your soul and has you look at things that you may not have considered. I found it exceptional all the work that Lainey did when Jay was in a coma, ie. bringing and putting on his shoes, getting him into his regular clothes, the best was the spices. It truly conveyed the huge responsibility and amount of work that is needed when someone is in a coma. Now I'm sure that not everyone goes to the extent that Lainey did, but she was so keen on the idea that Jay would return to her with the aid of all these things that were familiar. Even though he didn't remember when she introduced such things it was still worth the effort. You could see this reflected in Lainey, the nurses that helped Jay and her best friend Alice.

However, i did not like the ending. I found the epilogue tied up all the loose ends too quickly, and there needed to be more explanation for certain things. That is why the book only got 3 stars. I also did not like the sub-story line of Alice and her husband. It was totally irrelevant and pointless at times.

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Let's Pretend This Never Happened

Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir by Jenny Lawson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was an absolute hoot. Jenny Lawson has the funniest interpretation of things, and the pics embedded in the chapters are quite hilarious. My favs were: James Garfield (the wild boar), Hamlet von Schnitzel (the mouse in shakespearan garb) and of course Jean Louise (The Cuban Alligator wearing a beret and is an amputee). Lawson gives such inanimate objects a personality and actually considers them true friends. Sounds kooky but it makes the book different then many others. The book was like the Glass Castle and Shit My Dad Says combined but with a little more outrageous flair. Definitely had me laughing out loud a lot when I was reading it. A nice break from the harshness of reality.

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The Accident

The Accident: A Thriller by Linwood Barclay
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am a giant fan of Linwood Barclay. I have read all his books, and own majority of them.

This by far was the most interesting though. He chose to have the book surround the topic of the fake purse/electronic/ prescription trade. Intertwining the topic around a regular suburban family and then throwing in a few wrenches definitely made this book worth the read. There were lots of twists and turns. Barclay totally had me at the end of the book, I was not expecting the main character to have to re-think one of his most important relationships and it was great way to keep the reader on their toes.

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What Alice Forgot

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed the premise of the book, which was Alice is at a spin class and falls off the bike and loses 10yrs of her memory. She forgets life changing events that happened, ie. the birth of her 3 children, the fact that she is going to be 40, the death of her friend Gina, her trial separation with her husband, and her new relationship with a man that is the principal at her children's school. Needless to say, when Alice gets out of the hospital (her memory is still lost) she has to learn and adapt to all these 'new' changes in her life. I will state that there was a little bit of confusion in approx. the last 40 pages, but the 10 pages in the epilogue bring everything together.
I will readily admit that Alice 2008, i did not like her at all. She was always rushing around to places and things, she was a not nice person (ie. very snippy, rude, intolerant and unsympathetic), she was addicted to exercising, and had a major issue with her husband causing her to want to separate and divorce. Alice 1998 was a very chill, relaxed person. She enjoyed eating custard tarts, she was friendly and nice to people (made amends with people while experiencing memory loss and wanting to have a relationship with them because she couldn't believe she was that mean and cold hearted), she valued all the things that had been done with her house since she last remembered it (ie. it had all the renos she wanted, it had a pool, the drive way had WHITE gravel). Overall she was a much more thankful, easy going and caring person. Even though we find out that the death of her friend Gina is a trigger for a lot of the changes that Alice 2008 has made, i found that a little wacky jacky for being the cause. Her relationship with her best friend was in my opinion, a little too close and therefore had certain affects on her marriage. The ending was the ending i wanted to happen........and other things happened that were bonuses too! The book was a fairly easy read and very light hearted comedy. I have never read a book about a topic like this but if you need a comparison to a movie it would be 'The Vow' but with a nicer/more funny woman/wife/mother that loses her memory.

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