Baskets and Books

Well I have to say that the baskets that I made for my senior graduates were a hit! I bought a laundry basket and then filled it up with stuff:

                                                     pop tarts                                                     

chap stick

laundry detergent

pens, pencils, highlighters

gum

candy

air freshener

dish soap

notebooks, notepads, notecards

pringles

tide pen

lint roller

hand sanitizer

mini stapler

planner

first aid kit

ramen noodles

Clorox wipes

sleep mask

 

   I recently finished The Perfect Stranger by Megan Miranda. Confronted by a restraining order and the threat of a lawsuit, failed journalist Leah Stevens needs to get out of Boston when she runs into an old friend, Emmy Grey, who has just left a troubled relationship. Emmy proposes they move to rural Pennsylvania, where Leah can get a teaching position and both women can start again. But their new start is threatened when a woman with an eerie resemblance to Leah is assaulted by the lake, and Emmy disappears days later.Determined to find Emmy, Leah cooperates with Kyle Donovan, a handsome young police officer on the case. As they investigate her friend’s life for clues, Leah begins to wonder: did she ever really know Emmy at all? With no friends, family, or a digital footprint, the police begin to suspect that there is no Emmy Grey. Soon Leah’s credibility is at stake, and she is forced to revisit her past: the article that ruined her career. To save herself, Leah must uncover the truth about Emmy Grey—and along the way, confront her old demons, find out who she can really trust, and clear her own name.
   When I started this I was kind of concerned because I had read the reviews and some of them were not so nice and they hated the book, because it was implausible and the plot didn't make sense to them. I on the other hand really liked the plot and think that the author wrote it in a way that if it were to happen it could. I really liked Leah from the start and had questions about Emmy for sure. Even though there was a lot of backtracking in the story; it made the story that more interesting like you had to pay attention to what was going on. I like that it had a plot that I could guess and in the end I would be wrong. I had it right with who I thought was behind everything but I couldn't put a finger on why this was happening. I overall liked the book very much and cant wait for the next thing that she comes out with.
   I also finished Into the Water by Paula Hawkins. A single mother turns up dead at the bottom of the river that runs through town. Earlier in the summer, a vulnerable teenage girl met the same fate. They are not the first women lost to these dark waters, but their deaths disturb the river and its history, dredging up secrets long submerged.Left behind is a lonely fifteen-year-old girl. Parentless and friendless, she now finds herself in the care of her mother's sister, a fearful stranger who has been dragged back to the place she deliberately ran from—a place to which she vowed she'd never return.
With the same propulsive writing and acute understanding of human instincts that captivated millions of readers around the world in her explosive debut thriller, The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins delivers an urgent, twisting, deeply satisfying read that hinges on the deceptiveness of emotion and memory, as well as the devastating ways that the past can reach a long arm into the present..
   It took me a little bit to get into this one only because the author used multiple characters to tell the story; once I got them straight I was able to read straight through and ended up loving the book. It wasn't really anything like The Girl on the Train but I liked it none the less. I really liked the main character but it took a lot for me to not want to ring her neck every now and then. I liked the back story from the characters too, I mean it added more to the story. I do have to say that my favorite character was the crazy lady that knew more than she could let on. I recommend this book to anyone who likes a good mystery.
   I am getting ready to start reading Gone Without a Trace by Mary Torjussen. Hannah Monroe's boyfriend, Matt, is gone. His belongings have disappeared from their house. Every call she ever made to him, every text she ever sent, every photo of him and any sign of him on social media have vanished. It's as though their last four years together never happened.As Hannah struggles to get through the next few days, with humiliation and recriminations whirring through her head, she knows that she'll do whatever it takes to find him again and get answers. But as soon as her search starts, she realizes she is being led into a maze of madness and obsession. Step by suspenseful step, Hannah discovers her only way out is to come face to face with the shocking truth...