True Crime Addict by James Renner

Lately, I've been way into true crime cases and missing persons cases - I guess it's a throwback to my life before what I'm doing now. And I stumbled upon the Maura Murray case because a co - worker told me about a podcast they were listening to. In that podcast, the hosts refer to and even speak with James Renner, who as it turns out wrote a book focused on the case called True Crime Addict. And when I found out that Maura was around my age and disappeared from an area near where I started my job and for which I hold great fondness, I was hooked. So I got the book from the library.

i will be honest. I got this book out because I wanted to learn more about Maura's case, but I was sorely disappointed.  The book merely used Maura's case to provide Renner with a vehicle for telling stories about his own life beginning when he was about eleven and fell for a missing girl, who was around his age. While I was really interested to hear about Renner's experiences growing up and why he became involved in the Maura Murray case, I was very disappointed that I didn't get any additional insight into the case.

AS far as the writing goes, it was passable and quick. The chapters were split up into very small snippets - none more than 5 or 6 pages- which could be consumed in quick little bites.  In some ways, this was effective because it left you wanting a bit more. On the other hand, that craving wasn't always satisfied.  This was a bit of a let down for me personally, but if you're into the whole true crime genre, it's right up your alley and not bad at all.

Settle For More by Megyn Kelly

I'm not quite sure why I waited so long to read something by Megyn Kelly.  I think what prompted me to read something now, quite frankly, is her defection to NBC and what she had to say about it. She was also kind of an unlikely feminist hero, who disavowed the title, when she stood up so publicly to Donald Trump's attempted shaming of her. So, for these reasons, I picked up her memoir.

I learned some things about Megyn Kelly that I didn't know before I read this:

• She, like I, went to Syracuse University - she for her undergrad and me for my Juris Doctor (she went to Albany Law!);
• She firmly believes in being apolitical, which is a tremendous help in her journalistic career;
• And she has a badass mother!

What I also really enjoyed about this book - salacious commentary about Fox and Trump aside - was that Kelly wanted to tell more than a story that was gossipy and salacious.  The book was almost more of a self help book in some ways and strove to empower the people that read it and in some ways, for me at least, it did.  For crying out loud, she still keeps a handwritten journal - which is AWESOME and which inspired me to continue to keep one of my own. She's not much older than me and wise in many ways - she's weathered more than I have and is inspiring because she rose to it and above it through sheer grit and determination. What I didn't particularly like is her writing style - while it was interesting to read about her and what she had to say, I could only really take it in small doses.  It's way to sweet and watered down in some places and starts off really slowly.  

This is a book I'd get from the library because it's worth the read but isn't a book I would add to my library.

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

Liane Moriarty has been all over the pop culture blogosphere and news lately with the success of the first season of Pretty Little Liars, based upon her book of the same name. I honestly didn't want that to be my first book by her so I went through her titles and found this one, which looked interesting. They're not my usual selections - I tend to associate them with chicklit even if they aren't technically that and chicklit isn't my most favorite type of book to read (although it serves a purpose - more on that in another post!).

This is at heart, an amnesia story plotline. Alice, our main character, is at the gym, falls off her bike at spin class and hits her head pretty good. When she regains consciousness, she believes that she is 29, pregnant and happily married to Nick. When Alice discovers that it's ten years later (and she's nearly 40), has three children and is involved in a nasty divorce that involves Nick, she's shocked out of her pants. She struggles to reconcile her life now and the life that she remembers from ten years previously.

The story started off really strongly - amnesia and head injuries are a fantastic way of creating sense and mystery without really asking the reader to suspend their disbelief at all.  However, I wasn't thrilled with the rest - it kinda faded.

Moriarty's writing style doesn't lend itself well to the introspection and emotional upheaval that her main character is experiencing.  Her style is brief, chatty, flighty and, in a way, Valley Girl-ish. While I would totally appreciate this sort of tone and style in a book that was less serious or a true mystery, in a book that deals with the sorts of issues that this book does, I expected something more meaty and substantive, with a bit more insight. There isn't much of a story either - this is all about Alice being confused and trying to figure stuff out.  I still am not quite sure why, medically, she lost ten years of her life as opposed to one year or one day or some other random number. I feel like the whole book was about Moriarty trying to keep me there reading by spoon feeding me bits and pieces of information in an effort to extend the book for as long as possible and not necessarily to move any plotline forward at all.

I will also be quite frank: Moriarty has a class and race issue. This book deals with the rich, white mom world in Australia.  It's not very diverse and that, to me, makes it really not interesting at all. There were so many issues that she could have tackled with substance in this book - marital issues and divorce, friendships, adoption/surrogacy/infertility - that she let fly by the wayside and didn't even scratch the surface on. This disappointed me to no end. At the end of the day, if you don't expect too much, I guess it's ok, but I wouldn't otherwise bother unless you're SO desperate for something to read that you can't find anything else.