Ash Reads Stuff

The First Rule of Swimming  by Courtney Angela Brkic Publication Date: May 28, 2013 Pages:  336 (kindle)  Genre: Adult Contemporary  My Goodreads Rating:  3 Stars Goodreads Synopsis: A woman must leave her island home to search for her missing sister-and confront the haunted history of her family. Magdalena does not panic when she learns that her younger sister has disappeared. A free-spirit, Jadranka has always been prone to mysterious absences. But when weeks pass with no word, Magdalena leaves the isolated Croatian island where their family has always lived and sets off to New York to find her sister. Her search begins to unspool the dark history of their family, reaching back three generations to a country torn by war. A haunting and sure-footed debut by an award-winning writer, The First Rule of Swimming explores the legacy of betrayal and loss in a place where beauty is fused inextricably with hardship, and where individuals are forced to make...

The Death of Bees  by Lisa O'Donnell Publication Date: January 2, 2013 Pages:  320 (hardcover)  Genre:  Fiction My Goodreads Rating:  3 Stars Goodreads Synopsis: A riveting, brilliantly written debut novel-a coming-of-age story with the strong voice and powerful resonance of Swamplandia! and The Secret Life of Bees —in which two young sisters attempt to hold the world at bay after the mysterious death of their parents. Today is Christmas Eve. Today is my birthday. Today I am fifteen. Today I buried my parents in the backyard. Neither of them were beloved. Marnie and her little sister Nelly are on their own now. Only they know what happened to their parents, Izzy and Gene, and they aren’t telling. While life in Glasgow’s Hazlehurst housing estate isn’t grand, they do have each other. Besides, it’s only one year until Marnie will be considered an adult and can legally take care of them both. As the new year comes and goes, Lennie, the old man next doo...

Something Like Normal  by Trish Doller Publication Date: September 24, 2013 Pages:  214 (paperback)  Genre: Contemporary My Goodreads Rating:  3 Stars  Goodreads Synopsis: Sometimes the best you can hope for is something like normal. Sometimes what you get might be even better. After Travis returns home from serving in Afghanistan, adjusting to his former life is anything but easy. Especially since his brother stole his girlfriend (and his car). then he runs into Harper - a girl he wronged who wants nothing to do with him. But there's something different about her now. She's beautiful, smart, strong, and funny... and she might be the only one who can show Travis that there's more to his future than just his past. My Review:  For a few years now I've seen this book on display at my local Barnes & Noble and I always just kind of pass it by. It was literally everywhere you turned in the store and finally, after buying and reading it, I kno...

The Anatomical Shape of a Heart  by Jenn Bennett Publication Date:  November 3, 2015 Pages:  304 (hardcover)  Genre:  Young Adult My Goodreads Rating:  2.5 Stars  Goodreads Synopsis: Beatrix Adams knows exactly how she’s spending the summer before her senior year. Determined to follow in Da Vinci’s footsteps, she’s ready to tackle the one thing that will give her an advantage in a museum-sponsored scholarship contest: drawing actual cadavers. But when she tries to sneak her way into the hospital’s Willed Body program and misses the last metro train home, she meets a boy who turns her summer plans upside down. Jack is charming, wildly attractive, and possibly one of San Francisco’s most notorious graffiti artists. On midnight buses and city rooftops, Beatrix begins to see who Jack really is—and tries to uncover what he’s hiding that leaves him so wounded. But will these secrets come back to haunt him? Or will the skeletons in her family’s ...

Lovely, Dark and Deep by Amy McNamara Publication Date: December 3, 2013 Pages: 342 (paperback) Genre: Young Adult My Goodreads Rating:  3.5 Stars Goodreads Synopsis: Wren Wells is trying to outrun the accident that killed her boyfriend and wrecked her plans to live a normal life. Instead of going to college, she retreats to her father's isolated art studio. There, in the remote northern woods of Maine, she meets Cal Owen, a boy who wears his own hurt like a badge. But when their connection threatens Wren's hard won isolation, she has to choose: open up her broken heart or join the ghosts who haunt her. My Review:  This book has been sitting on my shelf for a while and, in an effort to actually read some of the books I already own, I picked it up.  Wren (also known as Mamie, to some) has suffered a tragedy and has separated herself from her old life. She's off in the woods of Maine, sleeping and running and not doing much else. At first glance W...