The hours of sunlight are getting shorter each day and that only makes me want to curl up with a good book even more than normal. I hope you find your next great read in my following book recommendations. Plus, with the holidays coming up you might want to start thinking about what books would make great gifts for your friends and family.

   

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Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family

Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family is quite an interesting story but it did take me a while to get through it.

This book is a true story of a family with 12 children, 10 of whom are boys and six of the boys end up having schizophrenia. It’s their DNA that has helped discover so much about the disease. Mingled throughout the story of the family are the past theories surrounding schizophrenia and a little history about the top researchers in the field.

The boys who had schizophrenia created a lot of chaos in the household and each presented symptoms differently. A number of the boys were in and out of mental hospitals but the healthy children are written about as well and how their lives were affected living in a household with such a large number of siblings who had schizophrenia.

I wouldn’t say that this book is a page-turner but it certainly is interesting. The science is explained in easy-to-understand terms but I’m glad the majority of the book focuses on the family. Warning – you may want to avoid the book if any of the following is a trigger for you; mental illness, physical abuse, and/or sexual abuse of minors.

   

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

I definitely liked The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes but I would be curious to learn what readers who never read the Hunger Games trilogy think of the story.

This book takes place a couple of decades before the original Hunger Games series. Corio Snow is featured as a teen.  This is the first time the contestants in the Hunger Games will have mentors and Capitol children, including Corio Snow, will be the mentors. New ideas are introduced during the Hunger Games this year including placing bets on who the winner will be and how to get the tributes extra food and water.

In the meantime, Snow is trying to keep up appearances that his family is still wealthy when in reality they are now very poor. He is counting on his tribute to do well in the Games so he can get a scholarship to college.

The book has three very distinct parts. There is a relationship that keeps things interesting but in no way did I get as involved as I did with the original books. I like how this book explains a lot of the background of the Games. It alludes to how Snow came to be the person he did. It definitely leaves room for more books (I hope!).  

   

A Good Marriage

If you are looking for a book with some twists and a little mystery to solve A Good Marriage is one you should consider.

A lawyer gets contacted by an old friend who is in jail for being a suspect in his wife’s brutal murder.  The story jumps back and forth between events that lead up to the murder and the days that follow.

The night the wife dies she attends a big party thrown by her friends. Her husband attends the party too but isn’t well known in the group because they recently moved to the area and he is a workaholic.

At the same time, there has been a security breach at the school where all the attendees of the party kids go. Someone has accessed many families’ private information sending these wealthy parents into an uproar.

What the lawyer finds out as she starts investigating the murder brings a few twists to the plot.  Furthermore, her own marriage isn’t currently doing well because her alcoholic husband has gotten them into enormous debt. 

   

The Death of Vivek Oji

It was hard for me to get into The Death of Vivek Oji. Yes, the ending wraps everything up but the book was just depressing and sad the whole time reading it.

Vivek is a young man who is left bloody, naked, and dead on his parents’ front doorstep. His mother is desperate to find out who killed their son and why.

Vivek’s friends are hiding a secret for their dead friend which might be the answer to why he is dead. Do his parents really want to know the cause of all this or would they prefer to be in denial?

I found the story slow, odd, and hard to relate to. All the different relationships intertwining throughout the book also seemed too far fetched. This is one I would personally pass on.

   

Need more book recommendations? Take a look at my October Book Reviews and Recommendations!