What Alice Forgot

The winning book for the Peanut Butter Fingers December Book Club was What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty.

Back Cover Summary:
Alice Love is twenty-nine, crazy about her husband, and pregnant with her first child.

So imagine Alice's surprise when she comes to on the floor of a gym (a gym! She HATES the gym) and is whisked off to the hospital where she discovers the honeymoon is truly over -- she's getting divorced, she has three kids, and she's actually 39 years old. Alice must reconstruct the events of a lost decade, and find out whether it's possible to reconstruct her life at the same time. She has to figure our why her sister hardly talks to her, and how it is she's become one of those super skinny moms with really expensive clothes. Ultimately, Alice must discover whether forgetting is a blessing or a curse, and whether it's possible to start over...


My Review:
Fun fact, for the first few pages I thought this book was set in England. Nope, it's totally set in Australia. After my poor little brain got that figured out, I settled in and really started to love the book.

Alice wakes up after an accident at the gym to realize that she's forgotten the last decade. Through the course of the book we discover just how much has changed in the past 10 years of her life. Her marriage is ending, her relationship with her sister is strained, and she's learning how much she has drifted from the person she was.

I really enjoyed this book. While it covered a variety of darker topics, I was engaged in the story the whole time. There were times that I wanted to scream because Alice couldn't remember and no one wanted to tell her certain events that led to her current life, but that made me want to read more so I could know what happened. One of the things I appreciated the most was the realization that, not only had Alice forgotten the last 10 years, but in those 10 years she had forgotten who she was at age 29. She had lost some of her free-spirit in the process of growing up. I think the overall moral of the book is that it's not to late to remember who you are.

PBF October Book Club

I've been following the Peanut Butter Fingers blog for a while now. I originally started reading because of her awesome taste in music and for workout inspiration, but I stuck around because she's fun! Then I discovered she had a monthly book club, and I decided to stick around! This month's book was Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher.

Overall, I liked this book. It was a quick read, but it definitely wasn't "light" reading. The story is about a girl, Hannah, who commits suicide, but before she dies she records herself explaining her rationale for ending her life, naming 13 people as contributors to her death. Each person on her list is asked to send the tapes to the next person until all 13 people have heard her final words. The story starts Clay (one of the middle-of-the-list people) receiving the tapes. It was interesting to see how the story developed. the author did a good job drawing you into both Hannah's and Clay's respective stories.

This story was hard to read for me in the same way that The Other Boleyn Girl was hard to read. You know where it's heading, you want to stop it, but you can't. After I read it I kept telling people that it destroyed me in a good way, and they should read it so they would understand. I stand by my dramatic statement. It did destroy me. It made me realize how important a kind word can be. I was constantly reassessing my interactions to see if I could be nicer. I still am.

The book had it's flaws. Hannah's and Clay's stories happen on the same page and some times my brain didn't make the switch between voices. There were also a few unanswered questions, but I think that might have been part of the point. There are always unanswered questions in stories about a death. I still recommend it... you just might want to follow it up with a children's book like I did.