Five Days by Douglas Kennedy

How long does it take to fall in love?

For twenty years, Laura has been a good wife and a good mother. She's supported her husband through redundancy, she's worried about her son, she's encouraged her daughter.

She's stopped thinking about all the places she'd like to go and all the books she'd like to talk about.

She's not unhappy, exactly. She's not that self-indulgent. As anyone would tell you, Laura is wonderfully constant, caring, selfless. She's certainly an expert at putting on a brave face.

But a chance meeting in a hotel lobby - and the five days that follow - remind Laura of the young woman she used to be - and the woman she could have become.

Is it ever too late to have the life you wanted? Or do we owe it to ourselves to pursue the promise of happiness?

This is a book that really gets you thinking about your life,the sacrifices we make sometimes and how we are not always true to ourselves. How many women do you know that change to become like their partner? Its not the most up-lifting of books but it is well written. In Five Days Laura experienced the gammit of emotions and reflected on how she wanted her life to be and made the necessary changes. It was interesting that she was still able to commit to leaving her husband despite his pleas and more surprisingly that her kids supported her without blinking an eye (which was kind of sad for the Dad). I found her to be very courageous knowing that she wanted more from her life and love life and that when she did leave she seemed to want to focus on herself. If she had left with her lover maybe she would never have found herself and I never thought that he was the right personality for her despite her apparent love for him. He was certainly no Christian Grey thats for sure.
I give this book 4.5 kiwis out of 5 because I found myself thinking about the story afterwards.

The Light Between Oceans by MLStedman

After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day’s journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season and shore leaves are granted every other year at best, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby.

Tom, whose records as a lighthouse keeper are meticulous and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. But Isabel has taken the tiny baby to her breast. Against Tom’s judgment, they claim her as their own and name her Lucy. When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world. Their choice has devastated one of them.

I really enjoyed this book, I found it easy to get to know the characters and I learnt a bit about the struggles of being a lighthouse keeper in the early days. I like a story that doesn't leave any loose endings and while I would have hoped for a different outcome for Tom and Isabel, true to life what we want doesn't always come true. I would have liked to see them adopt a child when things didn't work out-I was frustrated at the beginning of the story when they didn't report the baby being found-you knew it was going to be trouble from the start but kept hoping that things would work out despite the deceit.
I give this book 4.5 kiwis out of 5.

Don't Let Me Go by Susan Lewis

Charlotte Nicholls can hardly believe it, but it seems she’s landed in paradise. Living in a cottage in a shady cove on the beautiful Bay of Islands, surrounded by the splendor of New Zealand, Charlotte revels in her new life. She and her nearly four-year-old daughter, Chloe, have started over, with the help of Charlotte’s birth mother, Anna, who has recently reentered Charlotte’s life after a twenty-six-year absence. Little Chloe is thriving in her new home, and despite lingering effects from a terrible trauma Chloe has suffered, Charlotte is hopeful that love will pull her through. And though their relationship is tentative, Charlotte and Anna are slowly rebuilding their trust after nearly a lifetime apart.

But the horrors of the past—both recent and long buried—are never far from Charlotte’s mind. And then their idyll is suddenly shattered, as a series of events is set in motion that Charlotte can neither control nor comprehend. It will take all of Charlotte’s strength to keep her little family together, in the face of a world that will do everything it can to tear them apart.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, Susan Lewis is a great storyteller and in this book I was able to connect with each of the characters. While the story has some disturbing themes, the authour does not dwell on what could be horrific reading but gives the reader just enough to know what is going on. Of course I particularly liked that the beginning of the book was set in New Zealand and in a place that is familiar to me. I loved how positive New Zealand was in the lives of Chloe and Charlotte.
As usual I judge whether I like a book on how much I am thinking about the story when I am going about my everyday life and cannot wait to be wrapped up in the pages once again. Another indicator is my frustration level when one of my children interrupt me mid-sentence.
So I give this book 4.5 out of 5 kiwis.

Larry's Party by Carol Shields

Meet Larry Weller. Born in 1950 to working class parents, he's an ordinary guy. His life is punctuated by unremarkable events: marriage, the birth of a child, divorce, job changes, illness, and the death of his parents. Even the pockets of his own tweed jacket are stuffed with leftovers from his ordinary life: nickels, dimes, old movie stubs, and a gathering of gritty little bits of lint collected in the seams. The only extraordinary thing about Larry Weller is that he is the subject of Larry's Party, the new novel from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Carol Shields that celebrates the twisting—and often chaotic—path of his life.

I finished Larry's Party last night and I enjoyed how the story ended bringing it back full circle to his first wife Dorrie. I wouldn't say that this book is the most exciting book or one that you can't put down, you know the ones I mean. Its kind of a so so story much like the story of the main character Larry as he goes about his life which I would deem as pretty ordinary and not unlike the majority of us except that he had a talent for maze building. I guess the above description really says it all-chaotic though I would question?

Carol Shields did a good job of including the maze theme within the book but I didn't like how the various life events were repeated often-I felt as though she was writing at times for a reader with dementia, it bugged me a little.

I give this book 3 kiwis out of 5.