Strong Looks Better Naked -- Khloe Kardashian (Book Review)

To start I have only seen a few episodes of KUWTK, I do know a little about the Kardashian's through social media or just word of mouth of friends.  I saw this book on the just returned shelf at the library and decided to give it a try.  I like to read biographies since they typically give a different perspective of someone’s life that you might have never considered.  I had no preconceived notions when reading this book so I had a very open mind.

The book follows Khloe through a life transformation of changing her habits to include fitness/exercise as a form of making herself a better person.  There are a few chapters that touch on her fitness routine, eating healthy, setting goals for yourself, and changing your attitude.  I felt the book was very repetitive there were a few themes that stood out such as fitness routine helping to make you a better person.  She constantly refers back to if at different points in the book.   At the end she slightly touches on changing your attitude or how you approach a situation and mentions almost every time that is something she is working on.   I admire someone who can see their flaws and are consciously trying to work on them.

Khloe does not include a lot of details about her life that the press has not really touched on.  She also mentions she tries to keep personal details to herself a lot, which explains why the book to me is more of an outline with a few personal stories that mostly touch on experiences with friends/family.

This is a very quick read and doesn’t really expand into Khloe’s life that much.  It is more of an outline on how to begin to change your life by making one change for example exercise in her case and how that expanded to making additional reflections or changed in her life.   I would read this if you are at a place in your life where you need an uplift.  It has some uplifting points and relationship advice mixed in towards the end that are key.  Also, if you are planning on starting a new fitness routine it has some great tips.  I loved the recipes that are included in the book.  

The book also offers some quotes that I love:

“At first on focused on my physical body to distract myself from thinking about the things that were causing me real pain.  But as my body got stronger, there was an unexpected side effect: My mind became clearer.”  -- I love this quote because sometimes it is hard to face a problem or issue head-on and you need to get a clear mind before you can actually handle exactly what is going on in your life.  Getting a clear mind is not always easy and everyone needs to find their own outlet to get to the clear mind.

“Small changes and small steps can transform your life.” - I completely agree it is not a one step process that has to be accomplished all at once, that small changes everyday can help you to transform your life at the end of the day.

“Life is about moving forward.”  - I feel this is one of the major themes of the book that life is about moving forward, that getting stuck dwelling in the past doesn’t help you to get where you want to go.

My rating 3/5

Publisher Regan Arts

ISBN 9781942872481

Length 220

Format hardback

The Children’s Act -- Ian McEwan (Book Review)

I have actually never read anything by Ian McEwan at this point. I have seen his name pop up on many lists with great reviews so I figured I would give this one a shot.  The book follows Fiona Maye a High Court Judge in London who presides over family court matters.  In the book opening we get a quick look into Fiona’s marriage to Jack, she is fighting with him over wanting to have an affair, but also wanting her to have an affair.  Jack claims that Fiona has been distance to him and not opening up about what is going on with her.  While Jack and Fiona are fighting she begins to focus on the court case in front of her that she is handing down her decision in the morning.  She is reading through her legal decision when Jack finally leaves the apartment to be with the other women; in my mind showing that she is truly distanced herself from the marriage.

Fiona’s first reaction is to have the locks changed immediately although she knows this is not legal  This is where the character of Fiona really begins to take off in my mind you can see that she thinks things through very logically on her court cases from the opening, but spurr of the moment changes the locks.  It make Fiona human and someone that the reader can relate too.

Fiona is brought a case about Adam who is 17 years old and just shy of his 18th birthday.  Adam is a Jehovah’s Witness who does not believe in blood transfusion, but needs this life saving procedure to be done to help with his Leukemia.  Since his family and him are refusing treatment at the hospital the hospital brings the case to Fiona.  Fiona is taken with the case I believe due to the fact that she is fighting with Jack and doesn’t want to face him so she goes to see Adam in the hospital to get his true feelings.

Adam is a very intelligent boy who does know about life and also his religious beliefs.  Fiona determines that he does not know the true ramifications for his disease and orders the blood transfusion.  Adam then begins reaching out to her via letters to thank her as well as wanting to talk.  He takes it so far as to follow her to a meeting at a hotel.  They end up kissing on the lips for a second, but this part sticks out as odd to me and sort of off I thought he was looking at her as a mother figure not a romantic figure.  Fiona learns at the end that Adam got leukemia again and refused the treatment eventually killing him.  Fiona refers to it as his suicide.   

The book is a fast read and one that I could not put down.  I don’t feel like we got a complete answer on the Jack and Fiona relationship, it seems like there were more issues and with the book following Fiona’s thoughts it was more challenging to see the underlying fight between Jack and Fiona.  It seems that another case prior to this one might have set her off or the lack of children or her age or retirement soon, one will never know the true issues.   I personally did not know about Jehovah’s Witnesses that much and to learn about not allowing blood transfusions was interesting.  I also googled bloodless surgery as it seems that would be a very safe alternative in most situations.  It was an interesting read that made me think about making sure you don’t let fights boil to much or they will explode.  To keep things in a relationship open even if you are having not just a bad day but year.  Also,when someone reaches out to you for help you should always listen as you never know if that is the last time they will ask for help.  Asking for help also comes in all shapes and sizes.  This book hits on several large issues about relationships, as well as religion and should not be taken lightly.

I would suggest reading this when you are in an open state of mind.   A main piece that comes across is the importance of openness in longer term relationships.  I would probably not read this book again but I would read more by Ian Mcewan.

My rating 4/5

Author website http://www.ianmcewan.com/

Publisher Nan A. Talese

ISBN 9780385539708

Length 240

Format hardback

Little Face -- Sophie Hannah (Book Review)

Contains Spoilers

Sometimes when I start a book I sort of have an inkling of how it is going to end; this is the same with movies and TV shows, my mom always found it odd I could predicate the ending.  I could see to many coincidences adding up with the book to be able to believe that the baby was actually missing.  Little Face begins with a first time mother who left her child for the first time for a short afternoon outing at the local health club.  She comes home to find that the baby her husband had been watching is not the baby she brought home from the hospital.  That is where the name Little Face begins.  The book switches back and forth from the present day investigation of Alice and Little Face missing versus when Alice reported her daughter missing and the police did not believe her.   Alice is convinced that her daughter has been kidnapped and another baby put in it’s place.  David her husband is now convinced that his wife is crazy.  Vivienne, David’s mother puts up the face that she believes that Alice is crazy, but towards the end of the book Alice points out that Vivienne is not sure what to believe with the baby.  The book follows the investigation of both cases, Alice trying to prove the baby is not Florence and rather Little Face and then the detectives trying to find both Alice and the baby.   

During the book Sophie Hannah works on developing each character's personalities and they really shine through the book.  Alice is a homeopath who has lost both of her parents and really took to Vivienne as a mother figure who showed her warmth and guidance in the beginning something that Alice was missing in her life.  In the beginning it does feel if Alice did really enjoy Vivienne and things did not change until they moved into the Elms and she got pregnant.  Alice throughout the time the baby is missing keeps to her character while in the house, playing the naive mother who really believes that her daughter is missing. David’s character is a little harder to follow in the story, he seems to have been bullied by his mother for so long that he doesn’t know anything else besides that.  David shows that he wants to get control of Alice by degrading her and doing things that would make his mother see Alice as crazy.  I feel this is the only way David knows how to express himself since his mother has taken so much control of his life.  Vivienne seems off from the beginning, she seems very controlling and the issues can be seen when she is forcing Alice to do things with the baby that she does not want to do.  Vivienne has also taken full control of David’s first child Felix from his dead wife Lauren.

One of the things that I did enjoy in the book is how Sophie Hannah developed the character of Lauren who was deceased.  She uses a playback of Lauren visiting Alice before she was killed giving an insight into Lauren knowing that David and Vivienne are dangerous, as well as giving her a warning to be careful.   Also, after Simon goes to visit Darryl Beer who knows a lot about Lauren’s life work and aspirations you can see she was a very educated women who had her priorities in order, so her changing her mind so abruptly about Vivienne becomes very uncharacteristic.

I feel where the book lost me on the actual missing child was a small detail that I believe could have been left out; when all the pictures taken from the hospital where deleted.  That was the moment I knew Alice was involved.  I had two theories after this small detail was given either Alice actually did swap the babies with another one or it was the same baby.  

I was not able to put it down once the story really took off of getting close to finding out who really did kill Lauren, which came to me as the bigger mystery.  I feel like the last few chapters of why Alice took off where sort of redundant and just showing that Simon was a good detective.  I liked when Sophie Hannah would have Simon just say that he knew where Alice was, but not reveal details until further on in the novel.  It helped develop Simon as a strong detective.

Overall I enjoyed Little Face, it was a fast read since you wanted to know what actually happened to the baby and who killed Lauren.  I feel I was more interested in learning who killed Lauren since I was pretty sure the baby was the same baby after the pictures all being deleted was revealed.   The character developed helped to keep the book moving along.  I don’t believe there was a lot of suspense until Vivienne and Alice were together in the pool discussing how Vivienne killed Lauren.  The mystery was more in who killed Lauren to me.  Also, the David and Alice scenes of him abusing her seemed to lead me to believe he was somehow involved in Lauren’s murder, until his computer password was Lauren than that was solved as well in my mind.

I would read this on a vacation, it is a quick read and involves some mystery.  I would probably not reread this book and would move reading more Sophie Hannah mysteries down my every growing book list since I was able to see the ending coming.

My rating 3/5

Author website http://www.sophiehannah.com/

Publisher Penguin Group

ISBN 9780143114086

Length 310

Format paperback

Book Series Number #1 in the Simon Waterhouse/Charlie Zailer series