Billy Joel - Fred Schruers

Billy Joel by Fred Schruers
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So there was some about this book that I didn't love.
--Name and company dropping without context
--The author seems to assume you already know a lot about Billy Joel, the music industry and its players, etc. I don't. I mean, I can sing along with a lot of his songs but didn't know his life. Hence wanting to read this book.
--A lot of contradictions. That could be because much of the information was taken from interviews and people's perspectives and memories can be different.
--I didn't get the *many* Godfather movie references. That's probably just me though.

By the middle of the book it, a lot of those things were improved or I was now familiar with them. I did end up enjoying the book and am looking even more forward to seeing him in concert this summer.

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The Fifth Avenue Story Society - Rachel Hauck

The Fifth Avenue Story Society by Rachel Hauck
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In this book by Christian author Rachel Hauck, five seemingly unconnected individuals each receive an invitation to a story society no one has ever heard of in a library few visit. As they meet and ponder why they are there and the purpose of the society, their lives begin to intertwine (or reconnect, in some cases).

Thank you to Thomas Nelson publishing and NetGalley for the advanced copy for my review. All opinions are my own.

Let me start the "official" portion of my review by saying this was one of the roughest advanced review copies I've read to date as far as editing and formatting issues. I tried to not let it affect my reading pleasure and therefore my review, hoping that a lot of it gets cleaned up in the final version. However, truth be told, some of the discrepancies and such did impact my reading. There were a couple of different points I was confused or lost because of inconsistencies or things coming out of left field.

That being said, I did like the story overall. I enjoyed the characters and their interactions. I appreciated the tie in to Hauck's previous book (although if you haven't read The Writing Desk, you can still read this one). The characters had real issues and hangups and real life and tragedy to work through, which they did.

I did feel like the Christian element was a bit heavy handed and hard-hitting when coming all at the end. That could be personal preference, though, liking that to be sprinkled throughout.

A good read full of likeable characters and relationship building/growth achieving plots.

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March - Geraldine Brooks

March by Geraldine Brooks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book isn't a true retelling of but more of a spin-off from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. It focuses on Mr. March and his war experience during the narrative the original Little Women (not the added Good Wives portion) covers.

I'm not going to lie. This book took me about halfway through for me to really get invested in the characters and the story. It is not a quick moving book by any stretch. But I am so glad I stuck with it.

I had never really considered Mr. March's absence and what his story would contain any of the times I've read Little Women. Brooks did a wonderful job, I think, of creating a realistic story line for him. It was interesting to read from his perspective, and from Marmee's in the second part (although the initial shift in perspective was jarring, it did make sense).

Geraldine Brooks give a good sense of the intricacies of war and the personalities involved. I can see why this book won a Pulitzer prize. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who has read Little Women.

*Pulitzer winner

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