The Help Meet Wife

I was instantly attracted to Sarah Mae's new book, Having a Martha Home the Mary Way: 31 Days to a Clean House and a Satisfied Soul because I am a confirmed Martha: Type A, OCD, perfectionist, list and schedule writer, and always wanting my house to be perfectly organized and spotless. However, I also have four kids, so this isn't always a realistic or attainable goal. I love cleaning (read: hate cleaning, but love the way a clean house looks). I often read books to try to balance myself out a bit, and this one seemed to fit the bill. It promised to hone my Martha side while also bringing balance to my personality by exploring and growing my Mary side. The book description reads: "Get your home and your heart in order in just 31 days! Sarah Mae wants to let you in on a little secret about being a good homemaker: It’s not about having a clean house. She’d never claim to be a natural, organized cleaner herself―yet, like you, she wants a beautiful space to call home, a pl...

As soon as I saw The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George, I knew it would be a book I'd love. The setup is simple, yet profound: a French man who owns a bookstore and prescribes books to people like medicine finally reads a letter the love of his life left him upon her disappearance and goes on a journey to find closure. I felt like this book was made for me because I love Paris and I'm a huge bookworm. I own hundreds of books and I'm always lending them out to friends saying "I have the perfect book for you!". I always say that I have the perfect book for every situation, and so does Monsieur Perdu of The Little Paris Bookshop. The book description reads: "Monsieur Perdu can prescribe the perfect book for a broken heart. But can he fix his own? Monsieur Perdu calls himself a literary apothecary. From his floating bookstore in a barge on the Seine, he prescribes novels for the hardships of life. Using his intuitive feel for the exact book a reader needs...

Forgiving My Daughter's Killer: A True Story of Loss, Faith, and Unexpected Grace by Kate Grosmaire (with Nancy French) is the dramatic and touching story of a family's ability to forgive even in the most trying and difficult of circumstances. Kate Grosmaire's daughter, Ann, was fatally shot by her boyfriend, Conor, when they were both just 19 years old. I figured I'd really like this book because I enjoy reading nonfiction and true crime, and this story has such a unique perspective to it since it's written by the victim's mother and involves the restorative justice theme. I'd never heard of restorative justice before, but I was curious to learn more about it. The book description reads: "Forgiveness is possible even in impossible circumstances. On March 28, 2010, Kate and Andy Grosmaire received two pieces of news that would change their lives forever. The first was their worst nightmare: “Ann has been shot.” And the second was the dumbfoundi...

Chris Pavone has honed his skill as an incredible writer of spy/thriller/travel/conspiracy fiction to a level of perfection. I've read both of his previous novels, The Expats and The Accident, and I was super excited to read his third offering, The Travelers, as soon as possible. I loved The Expats and enjoyed The Accident, although I didn't like it quite as much as The Expats. I was hoping The Travelers would meet or surpass the level of The Expats, and I wasn't disappointed. The book description reads: "A pulse-racing international thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of The Expats and The Accident It’s 3:00am. Do you know where your husband is? Meet Will Rhodes: travel writer, recently married, barely solvent, his idealism rapidly giving way to disillusionment and the worry that he’s living the wrong life. Then one night, on assignment for the award-winning Travelers magazine in the wine region of Argentina, a beautiful woman makes him an off...

Five Days At Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital is the exhaustively researched work of Sheri Fink about the dramatic events that occurred at Memorial Medical Center during and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I've didn't follow the story of Hurricane Katrina very closely when it actually happened - I live in southern California, far removed from hurricanes and Louisiana, and I was also nearly 7 months pregnant with my daughter. I was preparing to give birth and focused on baby showers, getting the nursery ready, and washing all those tiny pink clothes. Of course, I heard about Katrina and saw some of the images on TV, but didn't fully realize the extent of the disaster and the consequences and aftermath. When I came across this book, I wasn't sure how interested I would be in it. After all, I only knew the barest of facts about Katrina and it wasn't a story that had really captivated me over the years (not that it wasn't a worthy story...