NurtureShock: New Thinking about Children -- Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman ---------------- 4.5 Stars

NurtureShock has been on my "to read" list for a few years now, and I'm very happy to have finally picked it up.  For some reason, the title scared me off a bit, and I thought it was a book about going up now and how "shocking" it is for kids. Rather, the book was sort of a Freakonomics meets child rearing, and I enjoyed it immensely.

The basic set up of the book is to cover, in multiple chapters, a variety of cutting edge and recent research about educating kids. How they learn, what helps them/what doesn't, etc. The first chapter, which is about how/when to use praise with kids, is fantastic. In fact, I think the authors writing on this subject (which included a focus of my favorite, grit), was published in the New York times to much acclaim. My guess is they got great feedback about the subject matter and discoveries so they decided to do some more research on other areas and make a book. The other chapters vary in their usefulness and holding the reader's interest, but the majority of them are quite interesting and I learned a great deal from the book. Some of the other subjects the book takes on are: the importance of sleep, why kids lie, why parents don't talk about race, why teens rebel, and many others. In fact, I was able to learn something new from nearly every chapter I read.

What made this book so enjoyable to me is a few things.  First, the writing style is clear, concise and easy to keep up with. Second, the stories that are used to illuminate a point being made are interesting and varied. Third, the book was based in research findings and data, and while the authors are certainly trying to make subjective points with the data, they can back up a lot of it. Finally, as the book applies to two important things in my life, my job and my kids, I was keenly connected and interested in nearly every view they argued.

I highly recommend this book to anyone with any interest in kids. Although it does have a bit of an education bent and focus, any parent could learn valuable information from this text and, because the stories and writing styles are so accessible, I think many will enjoy. I know I did!

Seinfeldia - Jennifer Keishin Armstrong ---------------- 2.5 Stars

I think we can all agree that Seinfeld is either the greatest comedy of all time or among the best. The show's legacy still makes it mark nearly two decades hence and watching reruns are nearly as enjoyable as seeing it for the first time. There is truly nothing else quite like it. So, one would think that a retrospective, titled Seinfledia, would be as awesome as the show. Sadly, not even close.

I was very excited to read this book as you could probably tell from above. And it's not a terrible book; it's just not very good either. The book has some interesting anecdotes about how the show was created, back stories on many of the main characters and Larry David, and how the lure of Seinfeld still looms large in modern pop culture. I also enjoyed learning about many of the bit characters and writers from the show over the years (fun fact: almost every season they'd hire new writers. Basically, David would mine their lives for interesting stories (extra points if you were from NYC) and then dismiss them after they've used them up).

The real reason why the book was so lacking is because the author only interviewed or talked to people that were on the periphery of the show. This means neither David, Jerry, Elaine, George or Kramer had anything to do with the book. Certainly, they would be the most interesting and useful people to talk to in doing a book on Seinfeld. She did interview the soup nazi, and the guy Kramer is based on, and other people like that, but you could imagine the lack of insight without any of the core being part of the book.

Overall, I really can't recommend this book save you are an absolute Seinfeld nut.  You most certainly will get some nugget out of it and learn something new about the show. However, I think your time would be better spent just enjoying re-runs and waiting from a more comprehensive account to come out.

Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life -- William Finnegan --------------------- 4 Stars

Growing up in Hawaii, surfing was a large part of life. And while I never loved it, and took part much more to connect with friends and enjoy being in the water, I remember well my surfing days. With much nostalgia, I truly enjoyed William Finnegan's Barbarian Days.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Barbarian Days is truly a great surfing story. Autobiographical, the author tells his story of his upbringing in California and then early life in Hawaii.  He goes on to tell stories as he travels the world looking for great surf. The story does a fantastic job of balancing Finnegan's search for what his purpose is in life and the purpose of trying to find a great wave.

Perhaps one of the most enjoyable part of the book is the author's description of waves. Frankly, I never thought there would be so many ways to describe the ocean and a wave. Amazingly, Finnegan does so page after page (and there are plenty), describing, and vividly recalling, wave after wave across our planet.

Similarly, I very much enjoyed Finnegan's description of all the different places he's surfed. From southern (and northern - San Fran.) California, to Hawaii, to the Pacific, to South Africa, to Portugal, and then to Long Island.  He really goes on a journey around the world, while beautifully describing the people and places he goes, to find great surf.

The book is not perfect, though. It's slow in portions. It sometimes feels like an odd balance between the surf stories and Finnegan's true search for what his purpose is. About that... I did feel a bit of annoyance for the author.  I'm not sure if his goal was to earn sympathy (I doubt it was), but his writing does feel that way sometimes.  Specifically, the reader is supposed to sympathize when he struggles to figure out his lot in life, which girl to date and follow, how to really make his mark, etc. Along the way, though, he travels the world doing nothing more than searching for good waves. In Finnegan's defense, I should note that he worked to stop apartheid in South Africa and traveled to war torn countries to report on their situations internationally.

Without a doubt, the most enjoyable part of the book was one of the early chapters about Maui. During his early years, the author was living in Lahaina and working in a bookstore for ends meat. While the Maui he described then was not the exact same as my memories,  the amazing surf spot, Honolua was. Ironically, it was not until I was nearly leaving Maui (which turned out to be forever...#sad) that I appreciated just how lucky I was.

So, if you have any interest at all in surfing, or a great story about trying to find one's self or just a great travel book, do yourself a favor and pick up this book.  You won't regret it.

The Girls: A Novel - Emma Cline ----------------------- 4 Stars

As some of you know who have read my blog, I love a good mystery and especially have enjoyed these female led, sort of crazy stories, that started with Gone Girl.  I sort of liked Flynn's other book, and very much enjoyed the knock off, The Girl on the Train. Joining the same ilk as those books is Cline's, The Girls. Although a bit different set up and plot, same storyline -- some people are crazy!

So this one is about a girl growing up in the late 60's in the Bay Area of California. Like, seemingly every book now, it does the jumping back and forth thing where the main character is now much older and is living her life while reflecting back to  many years ago. The crazy part: she was, more or less in a Charles Manson like cult one summer. And that summer, the cult did something bad...read the book to find out more!

In general, I found this book very entertaining and enjoyable to read. First, it's a very good plot and very interesting story. There was never a dull moment and once one strand of time seemed like it was getting a bit boring, the author would switch to the other. Also, impressively, the book maintained your interest without any real fireworks. Unlike that drunk girl on the train, this book was pretty even keeled throughout. Second, I really enjoyed the main character. Cline does a fantastic job of really making you feel the angst and apprehension of this young teen girl struggling with her parent's divorce and how to fit in socially. The allure of the cult seemed perfectlwhen considered in the context of the other parts of her life. Three, the book does a fairly nice job of making you feel what life was like in the late 60s. While not overtly part of the plot, the author does a fantastic job of making you really get into the setting. Finally, the book is, in many ways, a mystery novel. While it's not quite a 'whodunnit', and you more or less know what's going to happen, the author increases the excitement about events as the book moves on.

Of course, there are areas this novel could improve. While I did like the pace in general, there are parts were it gets to slow.  There are some parts where there seems to be a monotony to the chapters and it almost seems like the same events are going on again and again. I also felt the "future" character was a bit underdeveloped and did not really get a sense how the events in her past really affected her. While the author did a very nice of explaining and, having the reader feel what her life was like now, I was surprised there wasn't more connection between the earlier parts of her life and where she was in the present.

In general, I think The Girls is a real good read and fits in well to the genre I described at the start. If you like that type of book, you'd probably enjoy this as well. I do think that this book also could appeal to other readers as well. It's a very well written book, and the first Cline has penned, I believe. I suggest giving her a shot.

All the Lighe We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr ----------------------- 2.5 Stars

Ok, so I know that Anthony Doerr's All the Night We Cannot See is this beloved book by many people, has amazing ratings on Amazon (click the link above), and won the Pulitzer Prize, which I think means someone important like the book.  And you probably think I'm crazy for only giving it 2.5 stars; well, I tried my best but I truly couldn't appreciate the book.

For those of you unaware of the plot of this New York Times bestseller, it's about two competing stories of youths during World War 2. One, a blind French girl, removed from her home and the other, a teenage boy who joins the German ranks due to his fantastic skills working with radios. And this is basically where my malaise began. While both characters are interesting, and the author certainly does more than enough to round them out and make the reader connect with them, I found them boring. Certainly, I appreciate their challenges and plights (as much as one can with fictional characters). But really, I found them both quite slow to develop.

Now, don't get me wrong, the telling of the story really is quiet beautiful and I'm not ignorant enough to not understand why this book has won awards, but it just didn't do well against my ranking system, which is mostly based on entertainment value to me. I certainly appreciate the authors well created and thought-out to descriptions of scene after scene after scene, but I just couldn't get myself that excited about picking up the book and reading it.

Another thing that troubled me was how sad the book was. And unlike, the Nightingale, pretty much right from the start, this book depressed me. While I understand that World War 2 is ripe for good narratives and fictional works, it's become tiresome to me. That, perhaps, may also be why I did not enjoy this book as much. Not more than a month ago I finished the Nightingale, which I enjoyed more than this, but the book were so very similar. Both are similar settings and time periods, both have a few different characters who are written about and go back and forth in taking the lead and both books skipped between time periods. By the way, what's with that in books now?  I feel like every book I read starts with almost the ending of the story, goes back and tells the story while sprinkling in parts from the future, gets to the ending (which we already knew about) and then finishes with a bit more new information. Certainly both this book and The Nightingale followed that schedule.

So, I totally get why people like this book and I did enjoy many parts of it. The writer is very strong and the story, while glacially slow, was interesting and worth reading about. Certainly, all the people who enjoy this book can't be wrong, just know what you're getting into.

The City of Mirrors -- Justin Cronin ---------------------- 4 Stars

About 3 years ago, I read an absolutely superb book, and one of a very small and select few that has earned 5 stars on this blog. It was titled The Passage, and I reviewed it and it's sequel, The Twelve, here and here, respectively. When I finished The Twelve, I read there was a final book in the trilogy coming out sometime in the Spring of 2016.  This was a few years ago and I pretty much forgot about it until about a month ago when I was looking for a book to read and checked the NY Times bestseller list. Wouldn't you know, Justin Cronin's, final book in the trilogy, The City of Mirrors was number 1? What a very, very welcome surprise. Well, did it live up to the first? Not quite but it sure beat the sequel.

Quickly, the basic synopsis of the series: a set of core story characters are living in a post-apocalyptic America after a virus nearly killed off everyone. The virus has led to a set of, basically vampires, that rule the land at night. The books jump around by timeline, in some cases by millennium, as the reader learns more about both the main characters and the viruses affect upon the world, past and present.

This book concludes The Passage trilogy. Coming in at over 2,000 pages between the three, the author does a pretty fantastic job weaving them all together while also going into sufficient, and welcome depth, to better understand all the core characters, including motives and what ends up happening to them. This book is about all you could ask for to conclude this series, as the scope of the story and depth in which the author had described many prior events/characters was going to be hard to fully wrap-up.

For the most part, the book is very entertaining (which is the main criteria for my rating system). I thoroughly enjoy Cronin's style whereby he will have great description of important plot developments and action and then take full chapters to go into depth to describe a scene or person in the novel. It's a great way to both feel like you really know and understand the characters but don't get bogged down on items unrelated to the story. At one point, Cronin really takes a detour and basically includes a 100 page novella early in the book about an older character that hadn't really been detailed yet.

My biggest complaint about this final installment is the slowness to get the action going. Like other epic tales of fictional apocalypses, this has a classic good guy (or girl)/bad guy scenario. You know that eventually, they are going to square off, and it was pretty clear that the book was setting up to do that; I just didn't think it would take so long to get to. It seemed like at least half the novel just setting things up. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed that half and Cronin does such a good job of rounding out the scenes that it's hard not to enjoy, but it just felt so obvious that the book was slowed down. However, once things to start going, it's a furious final quarter of the novel. I even liked the final chapter and how the entire trilogy was pulled together.

Overall, if you have not read The Passage, I would highly recommend you do so soon. Please know that even though the books have a vampire element and are apocalyptic, they are really phenomenal reads and really are just vehicles for fantastic storytelling . I would also suggest that if you read The Passage and got frustrated with The Twelve, you owe yourself the reading of the City of Mirrors partly to understand how the story ends and because Cronin is much more on his game in this final book.

The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah -------------------- 4 Stars

So, here's something crazy about Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale, if you click on the link in this sentence, you go to Amazon. There, you can see this book, as of this writing, has been reviewed 26,268 times and has averaged 5 stars. That's literally the highest rating a book can earn on Amazon. For the most part, I have to agree with all those fans though I don't think it's a 5 star caliber book in my mind.

To be clear, this is a very entertaining book that I enjoyed immensely. A quick summary: World War II, France, two sisters who have very different lives and struggle to connect with each other, have parallel stories that inevitably end up being quite sad. In addition, a future character is recounting all of this in a modern time as she returns to Paris for a remembrance celebration.

Overall, the book is a breeze to read and a pretty enjoyable novel. Do note that it gets fairly depressing as the story goes and the war gets worst though. Having never read a Kristin Hannah novel before, I did enjoy the storytelling and dialogue immensely. I also think she did a very nice job of rounding out the characters and making you identify and feel for each of them (including the "bad guys").

While I did read this book quickly and had difficulty putting it down (it really did have a fairly suspenseful plot), I struggled with a couple of small elements that knocked it down from 5 stars. To begin with, it is a fairly sad novel. I really don't like reading/learning about war/death and I once again was reminded of that again as the focus on the Holocaust in the final third of the novel was tough. I also found a few of what I would have considered, the bigger dramatic parts, a bit too glossed over. There were two specific "major" moments in the book that I though the author did a poor job of describing and did so quickly. While I like the breeziness for most of the scenes in the novel, spending a bit more time around the large events would have been worth the time. Finally, I found a few of the love parts a bit sappy. Don't get me wrong, I like a good love story, but, to me, some of it seemed a bit contrived and a few of the lines read to me a like a bad romance novel (or a good one, I don't really know the difference).

Please don't let that last paragraph skew you to think you should skip this book. I mean, 26,000 people can't be wrong, right? While I did have a few small issues, I do think this book is really quite good and one of the better stories I've read in a while. Top it off with some very easily to connect with characters and add some great dialogue and you get one good novel!

Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World -- Adam Grant ----------------------4.5 Stars

Adam Grant's Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World, has been kicked around a lot recently on various lists and circles as a real "hot" book this year in the non-fiction realm. After a few others I know suggested I pick it up after raving about, I felt I should check out. I was very, very happy about my choice!

To be blunt, this is a fantastic read. It's one of the more enjoyable books I've read in the past few years, and gets one of the highest ratings since this blog began seven years ago. What makes it such a great read? A number of things. To begin with, it's got a great premise: originals/creative individuals are critical to our world but are often misunderstood and/or challenged to allow their creativity come out. Grant does a great job of expressing early just how critical and underrated originality truly is. After selling us about the many benefits of "non-conformists" he then goes through and explains to us how to better leverage our own creative attributes and support others in those areas.

If the previously mentioned summary was not enough, the book stands out because of the many specific ideas and actions that can be taken from the reading. That's what I most liked about the book, there were specific things offered that can have an immediate impact in a personal or professional setting. Often I remember highlighting a passage or idea and reflecting about how useful it was in the moment I was in or for the future. This is perhaps why the book is so impressive. I've read many books that fall under "workplace culture" and often they are interesting but lack specific and readily actionable take-aways (I'm looking at you lately, Gladwell). Not true here, this book had so many wonderful and specific things that you can take from it to improve and change your life (I know that sounds cheesy, but it's true in some small (and maybe larger) ways).

Let me continues to gush. The book is a very accessible and easy read. The writing style is simple but interesting and Grant's stories and anecdotes he uses to prove his points are fascinating and well researched. Speaking of research, Grant is a researcher by training so you can also trust that the information learned and points can be a bit more trusted (again, I'm looking at you Gladwell). Also, there are some wonderful endnotes included that often will include additional research that are fascinating.

So, any negatives? Not many I can think of. Perhaps some of the stories are a bit slow or don't have an obvious connection to a point he makes. Or maybe the focus of some of the stories are skewed. I don't know, I'm picking nits, really. Honestly, this book could have easily earned 5 stars but I just didn't feel it was on the same level of the few fictional epics that earned the highest rating. The bottom line is, I highly suggest picking this up and reading it immediately. I sincerely doubt you'll regret your time and more likely will come away better understanding about the importance of originality in our world!

Missoula: Rape and The Justice System in a College Town -- Jon Krakauer -----------------3 Stars

I have to confess, I'm a big Jon Krakauer fan.  If you've not read any of his previous books, you're missing out.  Coming to fame after writing about a tragic Everest climb titled Into Thin Air, he continued with Into the Wild which became a mediocre movie (though a great soundtrack), and also a great book about the Mormon faith/culture (Under the Banner of Heaven), and recently the scam that  made up the story for Three Cups of Tea. I truly enjoy his very deliberate and logical writing style and ability to take the mundane and make interesting.  Well, did Missoula hold up to my expectations?  Sort of, but not really.

Missoula is basically a book about the challenge of rape and sexual assaults that are becoming all too typical at college campuses across the country.  Specifically focusing on a few years at the University of Montana, Krakauer paints a picture of a sexualized group of young men, many who play football, whose relationships with woman are the focus of much of the story.

Overall, I didn't love the book. While he does a good job of focusing on a small cast of individuals and tries to illuminate a large problem by telling the stories, at different stages, of a few, the book struggles in many directions.  First, the stories are simply not that interesting. Sad, certainly, but the tale of relationship, then rape, then police investigation, then legal trial, then aftermath, simply aren't as entertaining as other similar tales.  Second, I feel like some of the writing as not as tight and well detailed as I remember it.  I felt like he rambled a lot and there were many areas that could have been skipped over and abbreviated.  Third, and most importantly, the book is incredibly depressing.  The stories of rape and sexual assaults are increasing yet the likelihood of any penalties for those accused is small.  In fact, by percentage it's the crime with the lowest incarceration rate for those accused.  So, basically, committing rape is the safest law to break if trying not to get caught.  Beyond that, I had no idea quite how damaging the assaults are to those involved.  Nearly always they destroy relationships and families, but by far the most saddening things I learned are the ways young woman deal with it.  They are hurt physically and emotionally.  They are scarred socially and many have long term psychological issues.  Simply, rape ruins lives in many more ways than I was aware.

I do suggest reading this book should you have an interest in learning more about the specifics of sexual assaults and the epidemic that is the college rape crisis. I learned many things that I did not know.  The cost, however, is that you have to be prepared to deal with some pretty tough material and some incredibly difficult stories about the ruining of people's lives.  In general, I really enjoy non-fiction but the down side can be that when it's sad and true, it's tough to deal with. 

Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides ---------------------- 4 Stars

I was recommended to read Middlesex by a friend nearly 5 years ago.  Since then, I've heard other people rave about this book, and I suppose, it has to be pretty decent to win the Pulitzer.  In the end, it met most expectations but not totally.

One of the problems I have with the book is that it has two, somewhat competing, though very related, story lines.  The first, is about a family of immigrants, going back multiple generations to Greece, and eventually their lives in America (Detroit).  The other, is a story of the main character who is born a girl, but changes to be a man when older.  Yes, this is a fictional book about a hermaphrodite, which you probably want to be aware of before starting the read.

The reason I struggled a bit with the competing stories, is I felt they often were unrelated and competed for attention from the other.  I actually LOVED the first quarter of the story that tells the history of this family leaving in Greece and eventual escape (yes, escape!) from Europe to America.  Once here, I felt like the Greek history and cultural aspects, which were a large part of the novel, took away from the now more interesting story line of this person who was struggling growing up to understand his/her own biology and sexuality.  THAT story line was fascinating in the second half of the book, but again, was often hijacked by the author's need to connect back to the Greek past. 

But again, the book won the Pulitzer, so may be I'm picking nits a bit too much.  As a whole, the novel is very successful and quite entertaining.  The author does a phenomenal job relating the main character to us, especially as almost all of the experiences and memories presented were when she was a child or teenager.  As I said, I very much loved the earlier chapters about this person's grandparents and found their early life in Greece, and then as immigrants in Detroit, to be as interesting, if not more than the later part of the novels around the main character.

The book was also eye-opening due to the subject matter.  To say I knew little about the life of an hermaphrodite is an understatement.  I found myself Googling some of the scientific issues that he/she was dealing with as much of the book is based in fact (and historical facts too).  In many ways, this was what I most enjoyed about the novel.  I believe that any time you can earn a better understanding of something, be it people, cultures, views, etc., the better and more fulfilling the read.  This book truly made me have a much better understanding for this group in society and better perspective on some of the challenges faced. 

As you can probably guess by now, the book is very well written, with strong dialogue, rounded characters, and a few good twists and turns to keep you on your toes.  I'm sure many people better appreciate the connection between the immigrant side of the book and the struggle with gender, and so I highly recommend this book to read.  Although there are some slow parts, those are far outweighed by the fascinating plot and modern theme. 

The Boys on the Boat - Daniel James Brown ---------------------- 3.5 Stars

The Boys in the Boat is certainly popular right now and making it's way around various 'best of' lists lately.  As you can see from the second part of the title ("Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics"), it's focused on an Olympic rowing team from 1936.  Is it as good as advertised? Well, read ahead to find out.

The book basically tells two parallel stories.  One, which is in much more depth and takes up the majority of the novel, is the history and creation of the University of Washington's rowing team that competed in Germany for the '36 Olympics.  The other, less time intensive story, is about the rise of Hitler in Germany leading up to those games.   The former focus is much more interesting than the latter. In fact, I would argue that the focus on the rise of Germany was unnecessary and took away from the other story line as, to many readers, the rise of Hitler is well known history, not necessary to tell again.

The other story, about the history and creation of this incredible group of rowers, is really quite fantastic.  While there are nine  rowers on that team (and a couple of alternates), the author does a great job of really focusing on Joe, and telling his story... and what a story it is.  I won't spoil all the great details, and suggest you pick up the book, if nothing else, to learn about this great guy, but just know this his story and his hardships he had to get through were remarkable.  Not the type of person you would expect to lead a world class rowing boat.

Overall, the book is a good read.  As mentioned, the individual stories about the rowers were fantastic and only eclipsed by the parts of the novel that focused on the actual sport of rowing and creation of the boats.  Although only a minor character, my favorite was a man named George Pocock, an English transplant who was the wise old sage who also built and designed the best racing shells in the world.  His quotes, which began each chapter, and few contributions to the story, were Yoda like in delivery and importance.

I also enjoyed the story telling aspect of the book.  The author has a fine hand and the writing reads easily and enjoyably.  He also does a good a job as imaginable to describe the actual races (of which there were many).  After a while, though, it sort of seemed like he just used different synonyms to describe their race.  At some point, there are only so many ways you can detail nine people in a boat rowing as hard as possible versus others.

My biggest pet peeves include the two I already mentioned: the unnecessary telling of Hitler's rise to power (I guess to juxtapose vs. the other story) and the similar way in which most races were described.  My only other small annoyance was the level of detail with the description of certain aspects of the story that were inconsequential to the end product.  While I can understand the depth of descriptions for some of the backstories (i.e. Joe), for other things it just seemed superfluous.

Overall, this a fairly well told book and an absolutely remarkable story.  The fact that it was not brought to the national conversation until now, shows exactly how undiscovered it is.  If for nothing else, spend some time reading the story and you won't help but care more about the sport of rowing and enjoy this amazing story about overcoming hardships and finding successes against immeasurable odds.

The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins ------------------------ 4 Stars

So, unless you've been under a rock, you've probably heard of Paula Hawkins exhilarating The Girl on the Train.  But, is it as good as so many have said?  Short answer: yeah, pretty much.

This is one of those books that my former High School English teachers would have referred to as "airport trash."  Don't despair, they were snobs with literature.  Yes, the book has few redeeming qualities.  Yes, you won't read it and think to yourself about the beauty of the prose.  Sure, the characters are fairly unrealistic and little time is spent rounding them out.  But, boy oh boy, this is one fun book to read.  It's truly a page turner; nearly impossible to put down.  My wife read in 3 days, while I took 4.  Sure, it might be "airport trash" but this book blog always basis the rating on one main criteria: is it entertaining?   The Girl on the Train certainly is.

Basic premise: there's the girl... on a train.  Oh, you want more?  Well, she's kind of nutsy and she starts seeing some things while on the train and starts getting involved with some people, and she likes to drink and not remember much.  That's about all you need to get going, really. 

The book  is quite a fun read.  Hawkins does a great job of getting you into it early and it's pretty easy to see why it's been so enjoyed by many people.  It's a simple and fast read.  The plot is easy to follow.  It's chock full  of exciting and juicy dialogue.  Of course, it has some drawbacks.  As mentioned earlier, this book pulls no punches about what it's going for.  It's not going to be anything more than a quick and easy read that keeps you entertained and constantly guessing.  There is no existential question or any real deep thought in it at all.  But, again, as long as you know what you are signing up for, it's a good ride.

The comparison between it and Gone Girl (my review of it here) are obvious and apt.  Both books follow similar arcs and have similar female protagonists.  Both books keep making you think something else might be happening and you're never quite sure what's going to transpire next.  Both books are wildly entertaining.  For my money, Gone Girl is better.  It's a smarter novel and there's more depth to the story and characters.  The Girl on the Train is a really good knock off but not quite the real McCoy.

Not sure if you are looking for much more but, at this point, go pick it up if you have not read yet.  Again, it's quick, fun, and you won't regret the time not spent on something that would really be more illuminating; you'll be enjoying this one too much to think about that :)

Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do -- Claude Steele ---------------- 3.5 Stars

Although this book came out a few years ago, I just heard about it recently from a teacher at my school.  I really feel like I've missed some good info. the past few years having just gotten to it now.

Basic premise: there are TONS of stereotypes that go on each and every day throughout our lives and they have major repercussions and effects.  In addition, what our own identity is and how we perceive others identifies has significant affects on us as well.  Specifically, we often have to deal with something the authors deem stereotype threat and it happens all the time, everywhere. 

I'll leave the rest of the book to you to check out and read.  The positives: very important book that really makes one consider and reflect about a lot of things in our lives and society.  Having not all that often focused on various stereotypes of stereotype threat as a white man, this book made me really consider and think about things in a very different way.  Also, the book does a really nice job walking the reader through the author's objectives and breaking them down so they are clear and easy to understand.  I also liked the variety and breadth of experiments mentioned that help to explain many of the findings.  Also, on a positive, it's a pretty short book, and it's easy to skip through the specificity of the experiments if just looking to pull out the salient points being made. 

A few reasons that only kept it at 3.5: while a pretty important concept, it's kind of a downer (sorry, but my blog is based on how entertaining and things like embedded stereotypes that are subconscious and nearly impossible to change is not so uplifting).  The book also is kind of a boring read. While the author does a good job of writing in a less formal, non-academic tone, he is no Gladwell in the sense that it often lacks the flair of a more easily accessible book of its type.  I also found that many of the points he was trying to make ran together, without real significant differences between them.  Finally, the second part of the title ("and what we can do"), was less than desired.  The problem that they describe is certainly well founded and makes good sense to me but I did not find that that options of what to do was as clear or easy to understand (hence my attitude of it being a bit of a downer). 

To my last point, I think the absolute best way to solve the problem and know "what to do" is to have people read this book.  While not the most entertaining book written or that I've reviewed, one could make the case that it's the most important book to read of the books I've reviewed. So, again, do check it out!