The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena - Book SPOILERS

 The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

when the spoilers part starts there will be bold letters stating "start spoilers" and "end spoilers"

 I'm ashamed to say, I definitely judge a book by its cover. And by the first page/paragraph/sentence of chapter 1. I was debating between reading this or The Girls (which I received in my August book of the month box) and this book jumped out to me right away.

First sentence:

"Anne can feel the acid churning in her stomach and creeping up her throat; her head is swimming".

Yup, I definitely want to find out what happened to her (next sentence "she's had to much to drink"). I'm hooked!



First of all, I thought it was going to be a drama novel with a small bit of who-dunnit mystery involved. Also I thought there was going to be murder but you find out at the end of the first chapter that it's a kidnapping.

Now about the characters involved. No spoilers yet but we will be revisiting the characters in the the spoilers section.


Anne and Marco Conti - They are the parents of the missing child Cora.

Richard and Alice Dries - Rich parents of Anne. Richard is the step father.

Cynthia and Graham Stillwell - Anne and Marco's next door neighbors.

A short plot summary: Cora goes missing while Anne and Marco are over at Cynthia and Graham's apartment for a dinner party. The entire book is finding out what everyone is hiding, where the baby is (if she's even still alive), and who took the baby.

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Everyone wants to know who did it. Marco set up the kidnapping but Richard set Marco up. Cora is fine and alive.

Details:

The Conti family are over at the Stillwell apartment until after 1am. They go home and find their 6 month old daughter missing from her crib. They were checking on her every 30 minutes.

Anne - She has a dissociative condition where she sometimes blacks out and doesn't remember what she has done. Also has postpartum depression. She doesn't remember anything during the time she checked on her daughter at 11pm. She only remembers breast feeding, the baby being fussy, and slapping the baby.  (She ends up killing Cynthia at the end for something else)

Marco - He set up the whole thing with his friend Bruce Neeland (whose real name was actually Derek Honig). Marco had planned to hand the baby over to Derek briefly after 12:30 and Derek would call asking for a 2 million dollar ransom about 12 hours later.

Something goes wrong and a package arrives a few days after asking for 5 millions. Marco goes alone because he knows the baby will be there nice and safe. When he gets there, there is an empty car seat and he gets hit over the head and blacks out. Marco and Derek had become friends over the (doesn't say how long) and after Marco asked Richard for money and was denied, Derek suggested fake kidnapping Cora so they can both get money from it.

Richard - Turns out he was having an affair with Cynthia (yes, Anna's neighbor). It's implied that he was the one who set Derek up with Marco because he ended up with all the money and the child. Richard's assistant was the one taking care of the child while it was missing.

Alice - She's pretty innocent throughout all this. She's the one who tells Anne that her stepfather was cheating with Cynthia.

Cynthia - Came onto Marco during the party at the beginning of the book. Turns out she and her husband Graham like to watch her having intercourse with other men and they film it. They have hidden cameras all around to record whenever she's with someone else. They end up having video footage of Marco taking the baby out to Derek in the garage.

Graham - Graham is against giving the video footage to the police because he would get into trouble for filming people without their consent.

Video footage: Showed Marco going into the house at 12:30 to "check on the baby" but then he comes out at 12:33 and brings Cora into the garage where Derek is parked in a Prius.

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I think that's everything anyone would want to know about the book. I finished reading it in four house. I could not put it down.

Siracusa by Delia Ephron (Book) Spoilers

Siracusa by Delia Ephron

There will be spoilers in this post but it will be clearly marked.

 So I got this book Siracusa (by Delia Ephron) in my August Book of the Month Club shipment. (Link here) And I started reading it right away and it took me about a week to finish. The chapters are each told by a different character in the story.

Short description of plot: Two couples and one daughter go on a vacation to Italy and something dramatic happens at the end.


Longer description:
 The four main adult characters and the one teen character are: Finn, Taylor, Snow, Michael, and Lizzie. Side adult character Kath.

 Details about each character:
 -Finn: used to date Lizzie, married to Taylor, father of Snow. He is a restaurant owner.

 -Taylor: Married to Finn, mother of Snow. She works with the mayor's office in Portland, Maine on the city's tourism. She babies Snow and believes her to have extreme shyness syndrome. Can "decipher" what her daughter is trying to say even when no words are used.

 -Snow: a shy teenager, she goes through a transformation throughout the book - or maybe she was already like that but didn't show her true self until Italy.

 -Michael: Married to Lizzie, having an affair with Kath (you find out in Michael's first chapter about her so this isn't really a spoiler). He's written plays and is currently writing a play.

 -Lizzie: Married to Michael, used to date Finn. I think she's a freelance writer for newspapers and stuff but I don't really remember. She's the one who plans the Italy trip for the two couples.

 -Kath: Having an affair with Michael, she's the hostess at a restaurant Michael goes to frequently (where they met).

The story:
 The five main characters go to Italy on a vacation together, Rome is nice, Siracusa is next. Michael and Lizzie rekindle the romance in their relationship. Taylor is overprotective especially when Snow starts to be more engaged in her surroundings because of Michael (but Taylor not so secretly loves this). Snow is weird but that's the point. You're not supposed to be able to figure out what she's thinking. A mysterious thing that all of the online reviews mention happens. But you'll have to read the spoilers below to find out what it is. The spoilers will be clearly marked when it starts and ends. There will be some final thoughts afterwards. You'll see the "end spoilers" if you keep scrolling

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 Kath shows up on the trip. She surprises Michael in Siracusa. She used his plane miles by using her spare key into his office and accessing his password and other information. She gets a room at the same hotel as the rest of the group. And she makes him buy her a ring as a sign of commitment.

 Snow, who has been smitten with Michael this trip (not sure if romantic or as a father figure), finds out about the affair and allegedly pushes Kath onto the rocks by the sea. No one knows for sure but Kath is definitely dead.

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YOU CAN READ THIS PART IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS!!

Final thoughts:
 I like when a book has chapters each based on a different day (like Dracula's journal format) or each is a different character narrating like this book is. It gives us multiple points of view of one situation and we can see how each of the characters interpret the situation.
 I can totally see the author writing this book from Snow's point of view. Her thoughts should be quite interesting since she barely speaks throughout the book.

Leaving Netflix February 2016

Here are the shows and movies leaving Netflix in February 2016. What do you need to watch before they're gone?

February 1

• “Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein”
• “Asylum”
• “Bad Santa”
• “Benny and Joon”
• “Big Fish”
• “Blue Crush”
• “Classic Doctor Who: Collections 1-18”
• “Crocodile Dundee 2”
• “The Dancer Upstairs”
• “Daylight”
• “Doctor Who,” Seasons 1-8
• “The Firm”
• “Fletch”
• “Gifted Hands”
• “Gothika”
• “The Hurt Locker”
• “The Naked Gun”
• “Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult”
• “Rain Man”
• “Ray”
• “Secrets and Lies,” Season 1
• “Sorority Row”
• “The Terminator”
• “Terms of Endearment”

February 2

• “Pokemon the Movie: BW Adventures in Unova and Beyonce”
• “Pokemon the Movie: Black: Victini and Reshiram”
• “Pokemon the Movie: Genesect and the Legend Awakened”
• “Pokemon the Movie: Kyurem vs. The Sword of Justice”
• “Pokemon the Movie: White: Victini and Zekrom”
• “Pokemon: Black & White,” Seasons 1 and 2
• “Pokemon: Indigo League,” Season 2

February 3

• “Bottle Shock”

February 7

• “Compliance”
• “Jack and Diane”

February 11

• “Bridezillas,” Season 10
• “Stephen King’s Bag of Bones”
• “United 93”
• “Were the World Mine”

February 13

• “The Fourth Kind”

February 15

• “Kitten Party”

February 16

• “The Pitch,” Season 2

February 17

• “Violet & Daisy”

February 19

• “North Sea Texas”
• “Problem Child: Leslie Jones”
• “Side by Side”

February 21

• “Jesus Camp”
• “Marriage Boot Camp: Bridezillas,” Season 1
• “Nobody Walks”
• “Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning”

February 24

• “Chicagoland,” Season 1
• “Death Row Stories,” Season 1

February 25

• “The Guild,” Season 1

February 27

• “Crooked Arrows”
• “Halloween: Resurrection

February 28

• “Sabrina: The Animated Series,” Seasons 1 and 2
• “The Sea Inside”
• “Sonic the Hedgehog: The Complete Series”

Coming to Netflix February 2016

For those of you who have Netflix or access to Netflix, these are the shows and movies coming out next month. What are you most excited about?

February 1

• “Armageddon”
• “Better Call Saul,” Season 1
• “Charlie’s Angels” (2000)
• “Collateral Damage”
• “Cruel Intentions”
• “A Faster Horse”
• “Full Metal Jacket”
• “Game Face”
• “Jennifer 8”
• “Johnny English”
• “The Little Engine That Could”
• “The Lizzie Borden Chronicles,” Season 1
• “Losing Isaiah”
• “Masha’s Tales,” Season 1
• “My Side of the Mountain”
• “Para Elisa”
• “A Picture of You”
• “Pokemon the Movie: Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction”
• “Pokemon XY,” Season 1
• “Scooby-Doo”
• “Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed”
• “Sin City”
• “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier”
• “Stardust”
• “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby”
• “Teen Witch”
• “Tin Man: Search for the Emerald”
• “The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom”

February 2

• “Land Before Time XIV: Journey of the Brave”

February 3

• “I Love You Phillip Morris”

February 4

• “Love”

February 5

• “Care Bears & Cousins,” Season 2
• “Hannibal Buress: Comedy Camisado”
• “Mad Men,” Season 7 part 2
• “Turbo: F.A.S.T.,” Season 3

February 6

• “Lila and Eve”

February 10

• “Dope”
• “The Girl in the Book”

February 13

• “The Face of Love”

February 15

• “Open Season”
• “XXY”

February 16

• “Asthma”
• “Atonement”

February 17

• “The Returned,” Season 2

February 19

• “Cooked,” Season 1
• “Love,” Season 1

February 22

• “3rd World Cops 2”

February 23

• “Bare”

February 24

• “Marvel Super Hero Adventures: Frost Fight!”

February 26

• “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny”
• “Fuller House,” Season 1
• “Theo Von”

February 28

• “Finding Vivian Maier”

February 29

• “Ashes and Embers”

Flesh and Bone

 There's a new show on the Starz channel called Flesh and Bone. I've started watching it and I am hooked. It's about 21 year old Claire Robbins who runs away from her sexually abusive brother to join the American Ballet Company in New York.
 She obviously has a tragic backstory because of her brother. She is portrayed as timid and shy because she has a secret to hide which gets annoying at times but it comes across in her dancing as passionate.

  I'm not going to summarize each episode but I do recommend everyone to check it out. Disclaimer, it is really dark and emotionally scarring so if you're sensitive to things, maybe skip this show. (After each episode I do need to get up and hug my dog or look at cute animals online. It is really dark.)

Female nudity involved (and one instance of male nudity so far). Also rape/sexual abuse.

Why I Stopped Reading

If you ask me now, I would say that I am currently reading Sherlock Holmes volume 1. (I accidentally bought, then read, volume 2 first.) But in reality, I haven't picked it up in forever.
The reason is...I am currently on the chapter called "The Final Problem" at the part where Sherlock and Watson are hiding from Moriarty by travelling all over Europe. I already know what's going to happen and it depresses me to think about it so I haven't been able to finish the story.
The other issue is, I just can't start a new book if I'm not able to finish my current one. Which means I've basically been stuck in reading limbo for over a year now.
There's so much of the book left to read but I just can't. :'(

Point of Honor - Pilot

Point of Honor

I am currently watching the Amazon pilot episode of Point of Honor and I have conflicting opinions about it. I feel like it's basically Gone With the Wind but with bad accents and less accurate outfits. It is a period drama based in Virginia at the beginning of the Civil War.

Location: Point of Honor in Virginia, owned by the Rhodes family.
Sisters: Kate - main sister who is in charge of the place and makes all the decisions. Lorelai - the only blond sister, married to a "Yankee" (Robert) who is fighting for the North, and a constant worrier.  Estella - the youngest sister, free and young, a bit "loose" for a lady, and the fun one.
All three sisters were taught to shoot and defend themselves by their father and they put it to use in the episode.
There are also two brothers, one is John, the other is a drunkard (apparently.)

Opinion: I love period dramas, especially ones with great costumes. This fell short of that. Costumes didn't look like they were from the right time, the colors seemed off. The accents (not that I can do better) were less than convincing. And the pilot didn't really show enough for us to want to know more about the characters. Sure it is another point of view to shoot this from, but the pilot episode should show enough to keep people wanting more.

Spoilers:










John leaves the army to free the slaves on his land but still fight for the South.
Robert leads the army to Virginia to stop the war before it begins. (But also to see his wife?)
Drunk brother sees some men from the army in the woods and has time to warn his family.
Rhodes men and some others from the town go to the army base to confront them.
The father is shot (not by Robert) and Robert rides away with the rest of the army.






With all that said, I would watch more just to see how they run with it.