I wanted to like Harriet Wolf’s Seventh Book of Wonders by Julianna Baggott, but I just didn’t. The premise was good: a famous author who was presumed to have written a missing seventh book in a series and her family story, but the execution was too ramble-y. I only really enjoyed the last 30 pages. Looking for a great next read. Any advice, readers?

A friend loaned me Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff and I was immediately sucked in. But the characters, at the end of the day, fell flat for me and I just wasn’t interested in what happened to them. While the friend had said that the second half was better than the first, I just struggled to get through this one. I clearly missed what NPR and others felt made this such a good read.

I thought I would go to see the movie before having time to read The Martian by Andy Weir, but the book appeared in my library check out list and I was able to read it first. The Martian was written in a spare style, which I felt nicely captured the feeling Mark would have had being stranded alone on Mars and writing a log about it. I liked that the book bounced back and forth from Earth to Mars and I was completely caught up in the story. It could have been meatier, I suppose, but I really enjoyed reading it and look forward to seeing what they did with the movie.

The Last September was a recommendation from my favorite blog, Everyday I Write the Book. Like Gayle, I had some issues with the main character and her actions at the end of the book. The story, in a nutshell, is about a murder and the falling apart of a marriage. It was a heartbreaking book in many ways, but overall, I found myself too irritated with some of the characters and some of the plot lines to fully give myself over to it. And, to me, the last 50 pages were a disappointment. It was a letdown especially after an interesting and intriguing start.

The Perfect Comeback of Caroline Jacobs is a short, spare novel that is a quick and enjoyable read, but nothing astonishing. The premise, though, of a woman who heads out of town unexpectedly with her teenage daughter to right a wrong done to her in high school by her former best friend, is one that will resonate with anyone who had a slight in high school that they have never forgotten. You cheer for Caroline, while at the same time, realize truths about that time in everyone’s lives. It won’t take too long to read this one, should you choose to pick it up.

The Pocket Wife by Susan Crawford was a quick and engaging read, but I didn’t love it. It made me too anxious. The protagonist has bipolar disorder and thinks she may have murdered her neighbor. She can’t clearly remember the events of the day in question and begins to doubt everything that happens to her. The tension between the characters and the plot was interesting, but something was missing and things were prolonged and then ended too quickly.

I must have been living under a rock to not know that Kate Mulgrew not only played Red on “Orange is the New Black,” but was also famously on “Cheers,” “Ryan’s Hope” and “Star Trek”. I had seen her memoir, Born With Teeth, on lots of Best of 2015 book lists and added it to mine, thinking I might enjoy it, since I like memoirs so much. I did enjoy it very much and the added bonus was that I learned a great deal about an actress I knew nothing at all about. Her writing style was too spare at first and jumped about without enough explanation, but it came together and grew on me toward the middle and end. I also liked the photos to head each chapter (one chapter was missing a photo, which was weird and offended my OCD sensibilities). I frequently looked back to the listing which described each photo and wish they had been captioned instead. It would have been even more annoying to have to flip back and forth on a Kindle. This issue aside, I highly recommend you pick it up.

I don’t usually say this, but I didn’t enjoy Eight Hundred Grapes by Laura Dave. It wasn’t believable to me and the characters were too shallow. You knew right from the beginning what was going to happen and the story just felt meh to me. In fact, even writing about it feels meh. Too bad, because the premise had potential: woman sees fiance with another woman and child, runs away to family vineyard that she had fled years earlier, and discovers what’s important in life. I’d give this one a pass if I were you…

I enjoyed Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal (thanks for the recommendation, Holly), but I didn’t love it. It was a little too choppy and short story like with each chapter introducing you to new characters. I felt the transitions were too jarring and spent too much time trying to remember who everyone was. I liked the premise of the story – a girl who has uncanny taste and how her life progresses, but I wanted to like it more than I did. It’s worth a read, but it wasn’t a favorite of mine.