Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty

Hello everyone.  I hope you're enjoying a nice day.

Growing up in upstate New York had many advantages, one of them was fall.  Not only is the heat gone and the air crisp, but the sweaters come out and so does high school football.  I've already admitted I was a band geek, and yes, before someone asks, I did go to band camp.  No, we didn't do anything that you're currently thinking of.  Anyway, if you'll get your mind out of the gutter I'll continue my story.  Our school band was huge 670+ people.  We had professional drill writers and did a different halftime show each week.  I attended every single football game at home and away.  While sitting in the stands many kids would go to the snack bar, not me though.  We had these tall fuzzy hats (we had to shampoo them), when I say tall, I mean at least 10 inches.  My dad made me put apples in my hat for a snack.  During the whole pregame I would feel apples rolling around on my head.  Actually, weekly pummeling by apples might explain a lot, my sisters would definitely agree.  My dad was proud of the apples, he picked them himself...hundreds of them...McIntosh.

I recently read Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty.  This is the story of the Delaney family.  Stan and Joy have four adult children.  The family owned a famous, Wimbledon winner producing tennis school.  Sadly, Stan and Joy have decided it is time to retire and because none of their children want to continue the school, they are forced to sell it.  Now the family struggles with their new life both being free of the constant game of tennis and missing it dearly at the same time.  One late night there is a knock at the door and a strange young woman appears who has been beaten and is desperate for help.  She, Savannah, becomes a bit of a project for the newly retired couple.  Their children, however, aren't so sure of Savannah's intentions. When Joy goes missing, fingers start pointing in every direction.  

This is book is being sold as a thriller.  If you have read even a small number of thrillers and are expecting one here, you'll be very disappointing.  Instead, I think the reader is getting classic Liane Moriarty, a family drama with a mystery thrown in.  While this book is a chunky 464 pages and may have been able to have been cut down some, the story is easy to get invested in and a bit addicting.  Despite its length I never found myself wishing it would be over sooner.  While not like Nine Perfect Strangers, if you're a fan of Truly Madly Guilty or any of Moriarty's earlier books, you'll be very comfortable here.  Interesting and enjoyable from start to finish AND a must for tennis lovers.

Until a year ago my sister still played tennis with her wooden racket from about 1972.  People kept stopping her offering her money for it.  I'm surprised my brother-in-law didn't offer them my sister and her racket as a package deal.

Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty

Hello everyone. Hope you are well. Also, hope you have a hot cup of coffee as I have a bit to say today.

I had the world's best parents. Yes, I know it is a bit like saying my kid is the best, when everyone thinks their own child is the most amazing thing on the planet. Honestly, I had great parents. Despite having four kids they were always a couple. Of course, they constantly had their parental hats on, but it was common to walk past the kitchen and see them leaning against the kitchen sink, kissing...in their 50s. We had a finished basement with fireplace and if the mood struck, they'd be slow dancing while the stereo played and fire crackled, often while it snowed outside. How romantic is that? It is with this never-ending love and adoration for my parents that I must tell you about what my father often gave my mother for a gift. Blue eyeshadow. Now, he gave her gifts all the time, brought flowers, etc. But for regular gift giving occasions, Dad couldn't quite figure it out. Sometimes he got it right, but often you'd find him at the drug store buying blue eyeshadow. Now after many years, my mother, having accumulated every shade from Glacier Blue to Night Sky, began to buy her own gifts. She could do anything creative with thread or yarn from sewing our clothes to knitting hats for the homeless and every kind of needlework. Mom would order herself some needlework kits for her birthday and Christmas and call it a day.

Now, I know you are saying this is a book blog and despite the housewife angle this is a bit more off track than normal. But alas, I give you this story as a gift and a warning. The holidays are fast approaching, and you husbands out there may be looking for a gift for your wife, or your secret girlfriend. Often as a gift of last resort, men these days have progressed past the drug store blue eyeshadow to the spa gift certificate. If your wife is a reader, I warn you to avoid this gift at all costs, especially if your wife is a fan of Liane Moriarty.

The new Liane Moriarty book, Nine Perfect Strangers, has so many of the magical traits readers have come to expect in her books. They are so normal, in character and setting. Wives, husbands, neighbors, PTA meetings, neighborhood parks, cookouts...normal everyday things. People that could be any one of us at any time. That is what makes her books so spellbinding, that it could be me...you.... your wife or husband. In Nine Perfect Strangers, Liane takes her characters to a spa. You know I don't restate plots, read the jacket, but it is not your everyday run-of-the-mill spa. Things are a bit rigid and get more so. If you think spas are all relaxation and facials, guess again.  This book gives us the back story of the characters, as always, and brings them together masterfully. However, it has a bit of a thriller edge. I think this makes the pacing of this book faster than her usual stories. The tension is unfurled slowly but steadily, building to a place you won't see coming. As I've said in the past, I have read all Liane Moriarty's books and enjoyed them all, but I think she constantly is improving. This is my favorite and I think her best.

Now back to you husbands, remember, shop early for something your wife actually wants, perhaps a book like Nine Perfect Strangers. For those of you that are naughty with a girlfriend on the side, may I recommend a 10 day stay at a spa.

Liane Moriarty

Ever read anything by Liane Moriarty? Now, if you're like me, you see Moriarty and think Sherlock Holmes. Nope. Liane Moriarty is an author from Australia. Yes, I agree, still a very enjoyable accent. Just ask my niece who has a "thing" for the British actor Hugh Grant, because of his accent. Don't ask me, it would take me a year of blog posts and I still might not be able to explain it. Fortunately this is about books not movies, back to our hero Liane!

There are seven books by Ms. Moriarty: The Hypnotist's Love Story, What Alice Forgot, Big Little Lies, The Last Anniversary, Three Wishes, The Husband's Secret, and Truly Madly Guilty. Unless you've been living under a rock or without a tv, you're familiar with Big Little Lies, which was turned into a mini-series for HBO with Nichole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, etc. The series was interesting but nothing is ever as good as the book. Frankly, I'd read all of her books before seeing the series so I am a bit biased.

I'm a thriller girl. I read slowly, so I need something to grab me right from the beginning and rocket me to the end...no stopping to clean the bathroom, buy groceries and certainly not to vacuum! (To be honest my vacuum is broken so that is impossible anyway.) Many of Liane Moriarty's books are not big "hook" books for me. Luckily my first read was The Husband's Secret, a woman is in her attic and comes across a sealed note written by her husband that says to open upon his death. Hubby who is not home, calls and blows it off telling his wife not to open it. As we all know, temptation is a hard thing to deny, ask Laura Petrie and that darn inflatable raft! So there was my seat on the roller coaster, I was in...for that one. However, some of her books start much more slowly. Hey they can't all be thrillers, but for a thriller reader non big start books can seem ho hum.

If you like a good story, if you can trust the author literally (pardon the pun) putting your valuable time in her hands, Liane Moriarty WILL deliver. Her stories are about average everyday people, often neighbors doing something as normal as having a barbeque. You wouldn't think there is a book in that but she proves you wrong, you just have to trust. Know that in the end you'll be amazed that someone could make such a wonderful tale out of nothing. I think a great many people, non-authors, could make an acceptable story out of a power house idea, but Liane Moriarty can make a wonderful story out of common situations. Because her stories are often so "everyday" you feel included, it could be your block, people you know....you.

If I were starting to read these wonderful books, I'd start with The Husband's Secret, I'm partial to Three Wishes as it is about triplets and I have three sisters that actually are triplets, Truly Madly Guilty kind of reminds me of the book A Man Called Ove, and don't be afraid of the Last Anniversary which I thought would be about death but isn't. I think if I had to rank all her books, my favorite would be Truly, Madly, Guilty and my least favorite The Hypnotist's Love Story.  Anyone of these books would make a great summer read, just remember to trust the author, you'll be happy you did.