Certain Girls - Jennifer Weiner

Title: Certain Girls
Author: Jennifer Weiner
Genre: Chick-lit
Rating: 3/5
# pages: 406
Date read: January, 2012

After Cannie's debut novel - a fictionalized (and highly sexualized) version of her life - became an overnight bestseller, she dropped out of the public eye and turned to writing science fiction under a pseudonym. She's happily married to the tall, charming diet doctor Peter Krushelevansky and has settled into a life that she finds wonderfully predictable - knitting in the front row of her daughter Joy's drama rehearsals, volunteering at the library, and taking over-forty yoga classes with her best friend Samantha.

As preparations for Joy's bat mitzvah begin, everything seems right in Cannie's world. Then Joy discovers the novel Cannie wrote years before and suddenly finds herself faced with what she thinks is the truth about her own conception - the story her mother hid from her all her life. When Peter surprises his wife by saying he wants to have a baby, the family is forced to reconsider its history, its future, and what it means to be truly happy.

I was just thinking the other day that I seldom recognized emotional manipulation in books or even really knew what it consisted of. Well, now I do. It was so blatantly obvious here that it would be impossible not to realize it for what it was.

And unfortunately it made me rather disappointed by the book. Most of it was good enough, but because of the emotional manipulation I ended up not enjoying it nearly as much as "Good in Bed" or "In Her Shoes".

I did appreciate the follow up to "Good in Bed" though, and learning what happened to Cannie and Peter after the birth of Joy.

Faith of the Fallen - Terry Goodkind

Title: Faith of the Fallen
Author: Terry Goodkind
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 4.5/5
# pages: Audiobook ~30hrs
Date read: January, 2012

The Seeker of Truth and his Mother Confessor sweetie are both looking a little worse for the wear after their chime-hunt in Soul of the Fire. To top that off, Lord Rahl finds himself a reluctant prophet with the vision that their cause, the fight for freedom against the Imperial Order, is essentially sunk. (Chalk that up to part of the Wizard's First Rule: people really are stupid.) The two lovers soon find themselves separated, Richard off to the Old World thanks to treacherous Sister of the Dark Nicci, and Kahlan left behind, forced to betray Richard and his prophecy by raising an army to fend off the approaching armies of Emperor Jagang.

Whereas "Soul of the Fire" wasn't as good as I remembered, this one was even better than I remembered, so it all evens out :)

Not as many different story lines in this book. Richard and Kahlan are apart from this book, so of course we have theirs, but neither Zedd nor Ann get much pagetime on their own. That didn't bother me too much, I've always thought Richard's storyline the most interesting in this book. I'm fascinated by the mentality of the Order and the Old World - once again proving that communism is a good idea in theory, but it'll never work in practise - people are too corrupt, too egoistical and too lazy.

I found it a tad far-fetched that a simple statue could have such a profound effect on people, but I guess it only works like that within the confines of a society that surrounds people with death and ugliness.