I read some really long books in a really short month

This month, I didn't quite reach my goal of 6 books.  But 5 (2 of which were kind of long) isn't too shabby.

Still Alice by Lisa Genova.  Alice is 50 years old and a renowned cognitive psychology professor at Harvard when her memory starts slipping.  First it's just a word here or there (which seemed all to familiar to me).  Then, she starts to forget major things.  After finally going to a neurologist, she learns that she has early onset Alzheimer's.  For her, the disease acts quickly.  Less than 2 years after her diagnosis, she barely remembers anything of her life.  This was a freshman novel for Genova.  And absolutely beautifully written.  I honestly felt Alice's frustrations.  I cried for her as she realized what was happening to her.  Her adult children were so supportive, doing everything that they could to take care of their mother.  Her husband took a lot longer to become supportive.  At first, he seems to want to flee from her disease- he doesn't seem to want to give up the life that they have together.  But it is always hardest on the primary caregiver, so I did kind of feel for him.  It was a truly touching novel.

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer.  This is the second in the Lunar Chronicles.  Meyer manages to rework fairy tales (one of my favorite things!) in an extremely creative way.  They are set in the future, a world with spaceships and hovercrafts, androids and cyborgs.  This book picks up where Cinder, the first book, leaves off.  Cinder is imprisoned in New Beijing for treason and illegal immigration (she's a Lunar which is a citizen of the moon AND a cyborg).  She must escape so that she can save our world (because of course she's a princess and the rightful heir to the moon throne, and that means her aunt, the current Empress and crazy conqueror, wants her dead).  Meanwhile, in France, Scarlet is trying to find her missing grandmother.  She meets Wolf, a street fighter who wants to help her.  Turns out Scarlet's grandmother isn't just a farmer.  She knows something about the missing Lunar princess.  The book goes back and forth between the two stories, until the two girls are finally able to join forces.  I absolutely LOVE a reworked fairy tale, so I love this series.  Unfortunately, the last two won't be released until 2014 and 2015!  Drat!

The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff.  I'm slightly obsessed with the idea of polygamy.  I love Sister Wives, loved Big Love.  Couldn't imagine living the lifestyle, but find it fascinating nonetheless.  This author certainly did his homework on polygamy!  The book is actually two stories- one complete fiction, the other historical fiction (my other favorite thing!).  In one story, Jordan Scott is a lost boy (for those of you not up on your plyg terms, that's a young man who was kicked out of the church for some made-up reason at a young age, usually preteens, so that he isn't competition to marry any of the young girls).  He reads a newspaper article that informs him that his mother, BeckyLyn, Wife #19, has killed his father.  He goes home for the first time in six years and ends up trying to help her.  Did BeckyLyn kill her husband?  All the signs seem to point to yes.  Jordan is forced to re-enter a world he was happy to leave in an effort to save his mother.  In the other story, Ann Eliza Young is the central character.  Ann Eliza was Brigham Young's 19th wife (or maybe 30something wife or maybe 50something wife), the only one with enough guts to leave him, and the polygamist community, behind in the late 1800's.  This story, loosely based on fact, tells Ann Eliza's story- how her parents came to the faith and how she was finally able to escape and help end polygamy (or at least officially end it as a part of the regular Mormon faith).  Absolutely awesome book- I enjoyed it from start to finish.  I loved both stories and found myself doing just a little research on Ann Eliza (the book was pretty close to the truth, as best can be determined due to the extremely secretive nature of the early Mormons).  She seemed like she was quite the character.  Sadly, no one seems to know exactly what happened to her- rumor has it the Church offed her.

Gates of Paradise by Melissa de la Cruz.  The final book of the Blue Blood series.  I've read every one of these books (and actually managed to do so in order!).  They follow Schuyler Van Alen, a teenage girl who learned she was half vampire in the first novel.  De la Cruz puts her own spin on vampires in this series.  It is actually their blood that makes them immortal.  Their blood carries all of their memories, all of their history.  The Blue Bloods are actually fallen angels.  When Lucifer thought he could overthrow God, many angels fought with him.  Several of those angels, realizing that defeat was upon them, stopped fighting.  Despite that, they were banished from heaven, although not to hell with their brethren.  In this interpretation of vampires, the angels awoke on Earth as immortal vampires who live through cycles of resurrections.  They have bond mates, aka twin souls, who are usually their life mates in whichever cycle they live through.  They live by the Code of Vampires, the rules that they all follow, with the hope that living in a way that brings peace and beauty to the world will allow them to be forgiven and returned to Paradise.  There are also the Silver Bloods, the fallen angels who remain loyal to Lucifer.  They actually prey on their own kind, which makes them a deadly foe for the Blue Bloods.  All of the characters are the reincarnations of the angels they once were, be it good angels or fallen ones.  IN this story, Schuyler, daughter of the angel Gabrielle who became a vampire because she felt sorry for her fallen brethren, is the key to opening the Gates of Paradise, the gates that could lead back to Paradise for the fallen angels.  But will Lucifer and his fallen find a way back first?  And is redemption truly possible for the fallen angels?  I really really loved de la Cruz's take on religion and vampires.  A very fresh and different take than the Twilightiness of most other vampire books.

The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan.  This was the book club book for my first book club.  I chose this book, so of course, it's historical fiction!  The van Goethem sisters live in Paris in 1878.  After their father dies and their mother becomes an alcoholic, older sister Antoinette takes her younger sisters to the Paris Opera to be trained in ballet.  She, in the meantime, lands a part in Emile Zola's infamous play L'Assommoir and becomes involved with fellow actor (and eventual murderer) Emile Abadie.  Middle sister Marie quickly catches the eye of Edgar Degas and eventually becomes the model for some of his most famous works, including Little Dancer Aged Fourteen.  Youngest sister Charlotte is the only one with the ability to become a ballerina for the Opera.  Each of the sisters eventually finds the happiness for which they were always searching, each choosing a slightly different path that keeps them together as a family.