Not much Dorothy to say "farewell" to

FAREWELL, DOROTHY PARKER by Ellen Meister turns out to be chick lit. I'm starting this review with a disclaimer that chick lit is not normally what I read. It is possible that this is wonderful for chick lit. I was drawn to this title by the promise of Dorothy Parker's influence on a modern movie critic, Violet Epps, who is witty and confident in print, but a disaster in real life. Doesn't that sound fun? The book promises that the spirit of Dorothy Parker will help Violet find her voice and blah blah blah. At the same time, Dorothy Parker will blah blah blah until she is finally ready to go toward the light and blah blah blah.

Where do I start? I disliked Violet. No, 'dislike' is too strong a word. I didn't particularly care about Violet, because she's not a fully realized character. She has a few "defining moments" in her past that are summarized for the reader, which I believe are meant to evoke sympathy. The explanation for her social anxiety is facile and, frankly, insulting, and a genuine depiction of a character suffering from such would have been much more sympathetic. Instead, we have a tacked-on reason why the "heroine" has so much trouble asserting herself outside her movie reviews, and naturally, she must confront that "reason" before the end of the novel and blah blah blah. At one point, Violet is reviewing a sappy film and comments, "I said a little prayer I save for these moments: Please, surprise me. In fact, I wound up saying that prayer about a dozen times during this movie. It was never answered." I could not have said it better myself. The premise of this novel had such promise, but instead of being caught in a refreshing breeze, I had to plod against the current of its predictability to finally, thankfully, reach the predictable end.

Violet has so much going on in her life. Her only sister died a year before. She is involved in a custody battle for Delaney, her thirteen-year-old niece. Her boyfriend is a jackass. She has a lame backstory to explain her social anxiety. A new intern at work is out to get her. I can see why she needs Dorothy's help. But even with Dorothy coaching her, Violet is reluctant to stand up for herself, long past the point of believability. I'm surprised Dorothy didn't tell her to grow a pair (or some more 1920s-ish idiom) and stop wasting her time. When Violet finally throws over the jackass boyfriend, I was relieved rather than triumphant. Check that box off the list of requisite plot developments and move on to the next one. Her plot with Dorothy to gain custody of Delaney is briefly a bright spot in the book: "'You simply explain to him that if he and his darling, long-suffering wife don't drop the case, you will have no choice but to tell her about the affair.' 'That's almost blackmail,' Violet said. 'No, my dear. That is blackmail.'" Then we go back to the main point of the book: Violet needs a better boyfriend. Yes, that's what I want to teach my daughter: become a strong woman so you can dump the jerk and get a nice man.

If you're drawn to this title as a Dorothy Parker fan (as I was), I suggest skipping it and rereading some of Parker's writings and Meade's biography WHAT FRESH HELL IS THIS? The Dorothy in this book, along with every other character, is sketched lightly with a number two pencil and colored strictly within the lines. I was (obviously) disappointed in this novel's lack of depth, but since I don't really read chick lit, I'm not sure if that's a genre failure or particular to this novel.

Source disclosure: I received a review copy from the publisher.

YES, MY DARLING DAUGHTER by Margaret Leroy

I give this one four stars for Gothic atmosphere and general creepiness, but only two stars as a novel. Leroy is an excellent writer, and the inexplicably creepy Irish seaside is a perfect setting for the bizarre. Grace's four-year-old daughter, Sylvie, is an odd child. She screams when water touches her face, suffers from hideous nightmares, and claims that her friend Lennie "is not MY Lennie." She draws the same house over and over and is obsessed with a photo of a place she's never been. With Grace's life falling apart, she tries a psychiatrist, and then, increasingly desperate, an expert in past lives. The novel takes some time to hit its stride, and Grace is an irritating woman. She throws on her tightest jeans and spindliest heels whenever an older man with rescuing potential is on the scene (Sylvie's uninvolved father was an older married man). She is reluctant to push Sylvie to find out the truth, which is natural, but not the way Grace waffles, which seems designed simply to add an extra hundred pages to the narrative. The paranormal psychologist, Adam, is not well fleshed-out, and his relationship with Grace lacks authenticity. Still, despite some eye-rollingly convenient coincidences, flimflamming to draw out the inevitable conclusions, and glaringly obvious clues, the creepy Gothic element is enjoyable. A good beach read.

Source disclosure: I purchased this book.

Surrender!

I rarely toss aside a book without at least skimming to the end, especially when I received an advance copy and feel an obligation to write a comprehensive review. But, The Paris Wife by Paula McLain has defeated me. I've peeked at LibraryThing and Amazon reviews, which are glowing, so I want to make the disclaimer that this book is simply not for me. I appear to be an exception, so you may well love this book. I'm going to explain what I didn't like about it, which may be exactly what you're looking for in a beach read.

The Paris Wife is about Hemingway and 1920s Paris, shown through the eyes of Hadley Richardson, Hemingway's first wife. I was very excited about this one. I enjoy fictionalized accounts of real people. I'm fascinated by the 1920s, and what a juicy setting is the expat community in Paris at that time? But this book left me cold. I tried a dozen times over three months to plough through it, but I simply never cared about the characters. The writing is fine, though the dialogue is stilted. Hadley is not a well-drawn character, and certainly lacks the depth to carry a first-person narration. Hadley before Hemingway is boring, and I didn't care about her at all. She tells us some of her feelings about being a spinster, but McLain stops short of giving her breath. She's a paper doll, well-dressed in 1920s fashions, but with nothing behind them. I was relieved when Hemingway came on the scene, because he can't possibly be dull, right? Well, apparently, he can when told through a fictionalized Hadley's eyes. When they finally arrive in Paris, I was again relieved, because at least there's the interesting expat community. But that, too, had a shallow feel, and it never evinced any emotion from me except a mild, "Oh, look, Gertrude Stein" or "Hey, there's James Joyce." Because everything is told through Hadley's eyes and Hadley is not a nuanced, interesting character, nothing she sees has any depth. I would have learned more about who Hemingway really was as a human being by reading a biography.

FTC disclosure: I received an advance copy of this book from Ballantine Books through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program.

Guest Post: Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult

I received a copy of Jodi Picoult's new book in the mail a couple weeks ago and just knew my friend Amber would want to read it. I knew I wouldn't be able to get to it for quite some time so thought she would love getting a copy before it even hit bookstores. I asked her if she wouldn't mind writing a review for the blog and here it is!! Thank you so much Amber! You can find out more about Amber here on her own blog. And now without further ado...the Sing You Home review:

Hello On My Bookshelf readers! I’ll be honest when Holly asked me to write a review of Jodi Picoult’s new book I was a little intimidated. Holly and Allison write amazing reviews and a good part of what I read comes from their reviews and suggestions. I love to read but I’m not much of a reviewer. I have a very hard time finding the right balance of information to include in my reviews, but I’m giving it my best shot! I will admit I am a fan of Picoult (I believe I have read all of her books) so I had high expectations for this book. I was not disappointed.

Sing You Home centers around three characters, Zoe, Max and Vanessa. Zoe and Max have struggled with fertility issues throughout their marriage. A tragic turn of events causes Zoe and Max’s marriage to eventually fall apart. Zoe, a music therapist, focuses on the one thing that can make her feel better, her work. During the course of her work she meets Vanessa and they quickly become best friends. When Zoe finally feels like her life is falling into place and she is genuinely happy again her world is rocked to the core by the actions of her ex-husband. She suddenly is thrust into a world where her character and morality are being questioned.

A couple of interesting things about this book, since the main character in this novel was a music therapist Picoult wanted to include some original music as a soundtrack to the novel, the chapters correspond to the tracks on a CD included in the book. Picoult wrote all the lyrics and her friend Ellen Wilber provided the accompaniment and the vocals on the CD. I have not yet listened to the CD, but I will definitely be doing so. The other thing I found interesting about this novel is that because it is told from the point of view of three different characters, each character had their own font throughout the novel. It was a great way for me to keep track of which point of view I was reading. Since some of the parts could have been any of the three characters view point it was easy to distinguish the characters when I got wrapped up in the story.

While parts of this novel completely infuriated me, it was also those parts that made me want to read faster to find out what was going to happen. I really enjoyed this book, it was thought provoking and made me smile, laugh and tear up throughout its pages.

Sing You Home will hit stores March 1^st, 2011.

Source disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from the publisher after requesting it on Shelf Awareness.

Arcadia Falls by Carol Goodman

Arcadia Falls had a little bit of everything! Good storytelling, interesting characters, and awesome atmosphere.

After Meg Rosenthal's husband passes away suddenly, she finds herself in need of a job to support her and her daughter, Sally. They move to Arcadia Falls where she starts teaching at an arts school. Meg's background is in fairy tales and part of the appeal of Arcadia Falls is the town's rich history in both the arts and storytelling. One of the schools founders created wonderful fairy tales which Meg grew up on. She couldn't resist going to the place that inspired it all. Just as Meg and Sally arrive and get settled, a student mysteriously dies. The death starts to reveal the dark side of the school and the town. Meg stumbles upon many secrets from both past and present.

Arcadia Falls has a very atmospheric Gothic feeling to it. I really liked how the fairy tales were woven into the story. I also liked the multi-layered historical aspect of the book. Without giving too much of the story way, everything and everyone seems somehow connected to the past and current stories taking place.

My only gripe about Goodman's book is that there seemed to be an abnormal amount of people drawn to one particular cliff on the school grounds. The number of people falling, dying, threatening to kill themselves at this cliff provided over the top drama.

I highly recommend this book, especially if you were a fan of Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale. This had a very similar feeling to it.

Source disclosure: I received a review copy of this from Ballantine Books as part of LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program.

Over the Holidays by Sandra Harper

Sandra Harper's holiday novel is a nice way to spend an afternoon relaxing. The title could have double meaning and perhaps that was the authors' purpose; the story takes place over the holidays and also the characters' attitudes toward the holidays.

The book itself only happens for a few short weeks around the holidays but Harper's story packs a punch in that short time frame. Following several women linked by family, we see many different viewpoints on the holidays. Just after Vanessa and her husband JT decide not to travel East as they do every year, her sister-in-law Patience decides to travel to California instead. Vanessa finds it hard to hide her annoyance as she already has her plate full with work and their own holiday preparations. Vanessa also teases with the idea of infidelity over the Christmas break. Patience struggles with not having her standard "perfect" New England Christmas and dealing with a sassy seventeen year old daughter who seems to hate her. Vanessa's older sister Thea is struggling over the holiday season with finding inspiration for her art. And Patience's daughter, Liberty (Libby for short) cannot seem to get through to her mother that she doesn't want the same things has her mother.

Lots of inner turmoil going on in this book from Sandra Harper. And amazingly, she wraps it all up with a perfect little bow by the end of the book. I wasn't sure if this book would be too fluffy for my tastes when I started it. But honestly, Harper has written a book that manages to capture the stresses of the holiday season from many women's point of view in a way that is entertaining and spot-on. I think at one time or another we've all been annoyed at the the fact that much of the holiday preparations fall on the woman's shoulders. It's amazing to see how universal this is through several characters in Over the Holidays. I would recommend this as a holiday read as well as a book for anyone who enjoys Women's Fiction with strong, well-developed characters and a story with some depth to it.
Source disclosure: I received this book from Simon and Schuster through the LibrayThing Early Reviewer Program.

Yarn Tales

Okay, time to get my reviews updated! I am soooo behind! Let's start with a couple knitting-related books.

First up, Laced with Magic, Barbara Bretton's sequel to Casting Spells. I enjoyed this installment of Bretton's series quite a bit. Maybe not quite as much as the first, but definitely still worth reading and continuing the series.

In Laced with Magic, Luke's ex-wife Karen suddenly shows up in Sugar Maple. First, Chloe didn't even know that Luke was married before, let alone had a daughter who passed away. Karen's arrival puts a damper on Luke and Chloe's relationship. Even though, Chloe is not particularly fond of Karen, she does agree to help save their daughter's spirit, who happens to be trapped by evil fae leader, Isadora. And just when you think everything has been worked out and Luke and Chloe can move on from the whole episode in this book, it ends with quite a bang! A cliffhanger that will leave your jaw touching the floor! Now, I can't wait to read the third installment to see what happens!

Source disclosure: Borrowed this one from the library

Spinning Forward is a debut novel from author Terri Dulong. When I spotted it on Shelf Awareness, I jumped at the chance to receive a review copy. After all, I was already hooked on Barbara Bretton's knitting series. And Spinning Forward was touted as the first in a series as well. Though this is decidedly very different from Bretton's light-hearted fare.

Sydney Webster loses her husband in a tragic car accident, only to find out that their idyllic New England life may not have been quite what she thought. In fact, her husband had a large gambling problem, taken a second mortgage out on their house that he couldn't pay, and left her with no inheritance, no house, nothing. She decides to pack up her meager belongings and move to the Keys where her best friend lives.

Spinning Forward is a story about one woman's journey to find herself again in her fifties when her whole life has been turned around. She focuses on what she can do, finds herself, new friends, and even love. She also randomly discovers who her birth mother is (Sydney was adopted and never really cared to look for her birth parents before now) and has a chance to forge a new relationship with her. Knitting plays a large supporting role in this story as Sydney decides to open a yarn shop in Cedar Key as a way of starting over and "spinning forward" into life.

While I found this book to be mildly entertaining, I think it might have been good enough as a stand alone novel. It is supposedly the first in a new series about Cedar Key from Dulong. But I have a hard time seeing where else the story is going to go. Everything seems to wrap up very well at the end of this and I'm not sure the characters or story hold my interest enough for me to pick up the second book. However, perhaps I'm just not the right age to fully appreciate the book either. I think Dulong's intended audience may have been more women of my mother's age. Despite not being wowed by this one, I may read the jacket of the second book just because I am curious where Dulong plans to take the characters.

Source disclosure: Review copy sent to me from the publisher after I read about the book on Shelf Awareness.

The Lost Hours by Karen White

The Lost Hours by Karen White is quite the change of pace from my recent seasonal YA and middle-grade reading. But actually a very nice change of pace. I needed something different and my October book club fit the bill.

I've seen several of White's books reviewed on various blogs and they always seem to appeal to me when I read about them. I was excited to have the opportunity to finally read one.

White introduces the reader to Piper Mills, an accomplished competitive equestrian who is still recovering from a tragic fall six years earlier. She lost her parents in a car accident when she was six years old and was raised by her grandparents. Early in the book, her grandparents both pass away leaving her with her grandmother's angel charm necklace and a key to something unknown. She finds several things in her grandparents' house that lead her to wonder who her grandmother really was and what her story was. Piper follows a trail of clues to her grandmother's childhood friend Lillian, now an elderly woman with grandchildren and great-grandchildren of her own. Disguised as a geneologist looking into "someone's" family, she tries to delve into the past and figure out what could have torn these two woman apart and how all of that relates to the grandmother she knew and grew up with.

This book is told from three perspectives: Piper's, Lillian's, and Lillian's granddaughter Helen. It also goes back and forth between present day and what happened in the late 1930's between the two women. The past is told by using old scrapbook entries as the storytelling mechanism so it is never difficult to follow where you are or who is speaking at the time.

This book is very much about family relationships and "broken" people. I think just about ever character in this book has had something tragic happen to them in one way or another and they are still trying to heal and get to a better place mentally. Though, the book itself is not all together depressing. The thing I found most interesting is the backdrop of the late 1930's in Savannah, Georgia and the issues of race and segregation that were apparent. While I definitely wouldn't categorize this book as historical fiction, there are definitely elements here that would fit.

The pace of this book is quite slow, you have to have the expectation of that going in or you may lose patience. The prose is very lyrical and descriptive. So much so, that it's annoying is some spots (at least to me), but again, a nice change of pace from my current spooky reading. Flowers and gardening are a theme throughout the book as is the idea that women are the storytellers in life and we should and must pass down their stories to their daughters.

I'm not sure I've done a good job of making this book sound appealing. If you like lyrical stories about women and familial relationships, this is definitely the book for you! My book club seemed to like it overall, though it was quite slow for most people.

Other reviews:
J. Kaye's Book Blog, Bloggin' 'bout Books, Girls Just Reading, The Tome Traveller

Source disclosure: I purchased this book.

The Actor and the Housewife - Review and Giveaway!

Bloomsbury USA was kind enough to send me a review copy of Hale's second book for adults (after Austenland, a fun Jane Austen-infused bit of chick lit), The Actor and the Housewife by Shannon Hale. Hale takes a chick-lit premise (housewife meets her celebrity crush) and turns it on its head. Becky Jack is a happily married mother of three and seven months pregnant when she meets Colin Firth, I mean Felix Callahan. She insults Callahan with such wit that he invites her to dinner. They become fast friends, calling, e-mailing, and visiting when possible, though Callahan is no fan of children and views her Mormonism with amusement. The premise is completely unrealistic, of course, and Hale even points out the unlikelihood of the two meeting (they meet when Becky flies out to Hollywood because she's sold a screenplay with no effort whatsoever and then stars opposite Callahan in the film), but the friendship and Becky's balance between Callahan and her family are the center of the story.

I found this mostly enjoyable and more thought-provoking than chick lit, if overlong (at 352 pages). An omniscient narrator pops in and out with commentary that makes the book seem like a fairy tale and the repartee between Becky and Callahan really sparkles. However, there are issues that other non-Mormons may run into. I found Becky to be naive at times, in contrast to her intelligence and wit, and her relationship with her "perfect" husband sometimes grated. Apparently, Mormon women simply aren't friends with men, so Becky's family and bishop counsel her to drop the friendship, to "avoid the very appearance of evil." Even though her friendship with Callahan enriches her life, Becky is prepared to drop it if her husband objects. I found this to be both frustrating and interesting because my inner feminist yelled, "Are you kidding me?" when Becky considers giving up this part of her life when her husband is jealous, but at the same time, it's a complicated question since marriage is all about compromise and I can see putting family first. But (I know, another 'but') Becky really ranks herself third after her husband's wishes and her children's needs, and I can't relate to that. She gushes and gushes about how perfect and wonderful her husband is, but when he finds the house a mess after work, he scolds her like an errant child, and I gritted my teeth through those parts of the book. At least Becky doesn't submit easily; she responds passive-aggressively to his criticism by asking him to clean up while she finishes her phone call with Callahan. But this doesn't seem like a marriage of equals. I'm not sure if that's typical of LDS marriages, but a little more equal partnership would have been nice. Becky seems smarter, wittier, and more fun than her husband, so his de facto tyranny was especially annoying.

Hale has done an excellent job making a chaste relationship story entertaining and offering a complicated alternative to the usual chick lit formula. This would be a good choice for book clubs, as there are plenty of issues to discuss, and different people are sure to react differently to the relationships in the book. For those mystified by Mormonism, The Actor and the Housewife sheds a bit of light on the community, and groups can discuss the questions presented by the book and how they would have answered them.

Are you intrigued? Tell me about a book you've recently read that you found thought-provoking, and you'll be entered to win my gently read hardcover copy. US and Canada only, please, and enter before Sunday, June 21 at noon.

It's Not You, It's Me (or books I just won't finish)

Often, I read a summary of a book and know immediately that it's a perfect fit for me. Sometimes...I'm wrong.

The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson: I entered every blog contest out there for this book, which sounded perfect for me, but I can't get past the first fifty pages. Southern Gothic? Ghost story? Murder mystery? Sign me up. But this book, which started out with a bang (the ghost of a girl leads Laurel to her body, floating facedown in Laurel's pool) fizzled for me when it became apparent it was going to be more about Laurel's poor, Southern family and her relationships with her husband and sister than about ghosts. The point-of-view switching bothered me as well, and after a couple of tries, I moved on.

Testimony by Anita Shreve: I've always meant to read Anita Shreve, and kept attempting to read The Weight of Water years ago. I was excited to win this one, but Shreve lost me on page four (4!) with the phrase "empurpled penis," which is possibly one of the worst turns of phrase in the English language and, sadly, was not meant to be funny. I cannot believe that an editor didn't kill that phrase. It wasn't just that particular affront to the English language; I had a strong feeling of melodrama/dragging out a story that was less dramatic than the author thought it was, and I *did* try to keep reading past "empurpled penis," but I just didn't care for the writing and it wasn't the book for me.

Someone out there will love these books, I know, but I've got to get them out of here. Every time I see Testimony on my dresser, I think "empurpled penis, empurpled penis" and start laughing uncontrollably. Leave a comment telling me which book you'd like to read and why before Sunday, June 21 at noon and I will pick a winner for each. U.S. and Canada only, with my apologies to everyone living elsewhere.

The Next Thing On My List by Jill Smolinski

In Smolinksi's novel, we meet June Parker about six months after a tragic accident in which a young woman she just barely met (Marissa) is killed. And June is responsible because she was driving the car involved in the accident. She finds a list in Marissa's purse that lists the 20 things she'd like to accomplish before her next birthday. June feels it is her duty to complete Marissa's list for her and hopefully finishing this task will relieve some of the guilt she feels from the accident.

Some things on the list are relatively easy (going braless for a day, boogie boarding, kiss a stranger) and others prove difficult (change someone's life, show brother gratitude, find a guy named Buddy Finch and "make him pay"). Along the way June just may encounter romance and learn a few things about herself as well.

While certain things were predictable about the story, I enjoyed reading about June's journey. I'm not entirely sure I feel satisfied by the ending, but I was not surprised by it. There was a bit of romance going on with Marissa's brother that bothered me a bit. And I was a little annoyed at who June ends up with at the end of the book. But, the idea to have a list and push yourself to accomplish something instead of idly watching life go by is an interesting one. There is a note at the back of the paperback from the author thanking all the people who wrote to her with their own stories. So this book really spoke to people! Though I have yet to go to my book club meeting and discuss this book as a group, I do feel there's potential for some good discussion. I breezed through the novel. It would make a fantastic beach/vacation read (hmm...maybe we should start a new category here on On My Bookshelf!).

The Late, Lamented Molly Marx by Sally Koslow

I received an ARC of The Late, Lamented Molly Marx from Katie at Ballantine Books (Thanks Katie!). I thought it sounded like a light enjoyable read. That it was!

The book opens with Molly's funeral. She is a 35-year-old wife and mother who is unexpectedly killed while out riding her bike one afternoon. Molly's story is told mostly from her point of view as a spirit in the Duration. The Afterlife is never referred to as Heaven or anything else other than the Duration. And Molly has Bob as a spiritual guide in the Afterlife. There are a few rules...she can only listen to one person's thoughts at a time and she can flit about seamlessly through time and location.

There are two things going on in this book. First, Molly does not remember what happened to her so she tries to solve the "mystery" of her death. Some people think fowl play was involved, others wonder if she committed suicide. Molly's past is the second storyline of the book. We move back and forth through time through Molly's memories juxtaposed by what's happening in the present. The book is well-written in that the story is seamless and you are never confused about what time you are in or what is happening.

Koslow's use of Molly's "ghost" is a clever way for the reader to see what all the characters are up to and flit in and out of their lives as they move on from Molly's death. The book is well-written in that the story is seamless and you are never confused about what time you are in or what is happening. Koslow throws in a few humorous quotes as well. In one toward the beginning, Molly is talking about the "gated community" her husband chose to bury her in and its location 6 blocks from IKEA. She says, "A shame I don't need any furniture because I have plenty of time to decipher the directions." (pg. 15**). (chuckle, chuckle)

I enjoyed the lightness of this book, it was easy to read. There were a few things that bothered me. The state of Molly's marriage is a large chunk of the book and it bothers me how she entered into her marriage with out really considering what she was doing and what a jerk her husband was. It bothered me that Molly chose to stay in her marriage to begin with (catching the groom getting it on with someone else DURING his wedding reception should have been her first clue). I guess I just would have liked Molly to be a bit stronger female character. But it all works for the book. I saw Bob as sort of a superfluous character. I guess he provided someone for Molly to actually talk to in the Duration, but he wasn't in the book enough to really make the character worthwhile. I did like the way it ended and even though it was tied with a neat little bow, it's exactly how I would have liked it to end. If you're looking for some lighter reading for vacation or the beach this might do the trick!

You can grab a copy for yourself when it is released May 19, 2009!


**I know I probably shouldn't quote an ARC copy, but I just had to share one of the humorous lines with you. :-)

Available: Everyone is Beautiful by Katherine Center

Katherine Center's newest book Everyone is Beautiful hits bookshelves TODAY. I reviewed this book in November and really loved it so I thought I would re-post my review and encourage you to add it to your TBR pile! :-)

My review:
I received this novel in the mail from Random House/Ballantine Books. I read it in about 2 days. It is a short, concise, and touching look at parenting with young children and marriage. I really responded to the main character Elena. She moved from her hometown of Houston to Cambridge, Massachusetts so her husband could pursue his music career/education. She was stuck in a tiny apartment with three small boys and didn't know a soul. Eventually, she meets people including an old high school acquaintance and she settles into life. She wonders how she ever became the frumpy, toddler-toting housewife she was and sets out to improve herself by joining a gym and taking a photography class. Along the way, she wonders what happened to her marriage and where it is going. As the reader, we are treated to flashback glimpses of the start of their relationship in college.

I really enjoyed this novel. It is very light, but the characters, especially Elena and Nora (their older neighbor), are rich in personality. I was with Elena every step of the way understanding the horrors of motherhood (her child biting, pooping on a dinner host's carpet, children with no filters, etc.) and the good side of it. I also fully understood and sympathized with her need to be artistic and her love of photography. I love photography myself and the things she thought were right in line with my own thinking. This would make for an excellent vacation read or when you're in the mood to escape. It's extremely short at 233 pages and you can whip through it in no time. I was very satisfied at the end. Katherine Center has also written a book entitled The Bright Side of Disaster that I think I will pick up soon. Everyone is Beautiful comes to a bookshelf near you on February 17, 2009.

Edited to add: Natasha at Maw Books Blog has a guest post from Katherine Center. Go check it out!

Knit Two by Kate Jacobs

I won an ARC copy of Knit Two by Kate Jacobs from Amanda's giveaway over at A Patchwork of Books. I was so excited to win! I think I entered every contest I could find to win a copy of this book! I really loved the first book The Friday Night Knitting Club (well, except for the ending of course) so I was looking forward to revisiting the characters and finding out how they were five years later. I delved in and while it wasn't a waste of time to read it. It was a bit disappointing after the first book.

We visit Walker and Daughter yarn shop five years later where Peri is managing the shop and her pocket book business is taking off, Anita and Marty are making a life for themselves and getting married, Dakota is in her first year of college and not sure she wants her future to be the yarn shop, Darwin is pregnant with twins, Catherine has reinvented herself as an antiques dealer, Lucie is dealing with her successful career, raising her 5 year old daughter, and dealing with an aging mother. (That is quite possibly the longest sentence every written.)

I have to say, this book is a little disjointed, doesn't flow as well as the first and well, to be honest, did little to really hold my attention. However, I'm saying all that comparing it to the first book. If I look at it a little more objectively, it is a nice book about female friendship and supporting each other. And it is not a total waste of time to read it. It is very cozy and an easy read. I just think maybe it would have been a bit better if the story ran a bit deeper or was a little more coherent. The first book had the common thread of Georgia through the whole thing. This one was obviously lacking that, but maybe that's just an illustration of what it is to lose an integral part of a group. Everything is not as cohesive as it once was. But I think that might be a bit of me giving this book the benefit of the doubt. If you're a huge fan of The Friday Night Knitting Club, read the book, if not, skip it.

Other reviews and author conversations:
A Circle of Books
Word to Mouth
The Lumpy Sweater
A Patchwork of Books

Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

I read this one for my book club in December. It's a nearly 500-page hardcover (coming out in paperback in January) but quite a quick read. We are introduced to the two main characters Kate and Tully as children, both in need of a real friend. They become instant and inseparable friends. Kate comes from a very traditional family: parents still married, brother, mother cares about what she does. Tully (short for Tallulah) never knew her father, her drug-addicted mother was in and out of her life, she grew up living with her grandparents, and just had a very unstable childhood. Kate was attracted to Tully's rebellious, unconventional nature and Tully loved Kate's homey family.

The book follows these two ladies through the next 3 decades of their lives and their friendship. The two women grow up to have very different lives. Kate becomes a married, stay at home mom to three children while Tully has a very successful career as a TV news journalist. She never marries and has no children. There friendship takes a few hits as they get older and ultimately they end up not speaking for more than a year until tragedy brings them together again. The end of this one is a tearjerker and I spent much of the book wondering when the inevitable tragedy would occur and to whom (I'll keep it to myself so no spoilers!).

Overall, this was a fast read, but it could have benefited from one more edit before publishing. It really seemed to drag out at 500 pages. And I feel a bit of the older years could have been edited down. Tully's selfishness really got on my nerves after awhile. I give it about 3 out of 5 stars. I may try something else by this author just because it was a quick read and she has a few other books that sound interesting. But I'll check the page length before delving into them. The rest of my book club had luke-warm feelings toward this one as well.

Everyone is Beautiful by Katherine Center

I received this novel in the mail from Random House/Ballantine Books. I read it in about 2 days. It is a short, concise, and touching look at parenting with young children and marriage. I really responded to the main character Elena. She moved from her hometown of Houston to Cambridge, Massachusetts so her husband could pursue his music career/education. She was stuck in a tiny apartment with three small boys and didn't know a soul. Eventually, she meets people including an old high school acquaintance and she settles into life. She wonders how she ever became the frumpy, toddler-toting housewife she was and sets out to improve herself by joining a gym and taking a photography class. Along the way, she wonders what happened to her marriage and where it is going. As the reader, we are treated to flashback glimpses of the start of their relationship in college.

I really enjoyed this novel. It is very light, but the characters, especially Elena and Nora (their older neighbor), are rich in personality. I was with Elena every step of the way understanding the horrors of motherhood (her child biting, pooping on a dinner host's carpet, children with no filters, etc.) and the good side of it. I also fully understood and sympathized with her need to be artistic and her love of photography. I love photography myself and the things she thought were right in line with my own thinking. This would make for an excellent vacation read or when you're in the mood to escape. It's extremely short at 233 pages and you can whip through it in no time. I was very satisfied at the end. Katherine Center has also written a book entitled The Bright Side of Disaster that I think I will pick up soon. Everyone is Beautiful comes to a bookshelf near you on February 17, 2009.

Schooled by Anisha Lakhani

I was selected to receive this book last June for LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program. Through a series of errors from the publishers, some people didn't receive their copies until last week. I was one of those people and was excited to see it show up in my mailbox, finally. I have been in the mood for light fare lately so I jumped right in.

This is the story of Anna Taggert, a first year teacher at a prestigious Manhattan private school. There is a note in the beginning of the book that says Lakhani did indeed teach in private schools, but that the characters and their actions in this book are entirely fictionalized. Riiiight. Remember The Nanny Diaries and The Devil Wears Prada. Yeah, those were both fictionalized accounts as well, yet, the authors of Nanny Diaries were nannies and the witchy editor in Devil Wears Prada closely resembles the editor of Vogue (was it Vogue, I can't remember now, but some real-life editor of a high-end fashion magazine). So, I believe there is probably some truth to this outrageous story of spoiled rich seventh grade students who seem to have tutors who do all their work and attend multiple bar/bat mitzvahs in one weekend.

Anna starts out as a fresh faced 22-year-old ivy league graduate excited at the prospect of molding young minds, even if she's not getting paid a major league salary. Within two months of working at the private school, she has figured out teaching there is a no-win situation. If she teaches her students too much, the parents call saying their child is overworked. If she relaxes on the teaching, she finds that her students are spending their days watching movies and working on other homework during her class time. Not really the experience she had in mind. She stumbles into the world of tutoring and discovers she can make her whole month's teaching salary in one week tutoring just a few hours. She is seduced by the money, freedom to move out of her crappy apartment, buy designer clothes, and the change in her students' attitude toward her. She was now the "cool" teacher they all loved. But the tutoring begins to take its toll on Anna both morally and physically. She has to decide if she wants to keep up with her lavish yet empty lifestyle or actually teach the children something.

This book was very light and fast. I felt like the story was a bit tired though. As I mentioned, it is quite similar to The Nanny Diaries and Devil Wears Prada. Or actually, maybe a combination of both of those. We get a look at the world of the rich and their children. We also are treated to an array of designer names thrown out at us. The story of a homely, somewhat naive middle-class woman being seduced into the world of the rich, but will she give up her morals and everything her parents taught her about being a good person, in order to have the latest fashion trend? This is a good read for vacation or after a particularly hefty book, but it is predictable and lacks real substance.

Jane Austen-o-rama

I'm an instant gratification book blogger. I read a book, put it down, and post a review. So it was REALLY hard for me to wait to post the review of the first book in this post, but I thought it'd be fun to do a themed post with several reviews. I really should have done that with Wife in the North and Queen of the Road, since they begged to be compared to each other. Anyway, if you're not a fan of Jane Austen books, movies, and derivative works (the endless spin-offs, alternate point-of-views, sequels, and mystery novels), you can skip this post. If you are an Austen junkie, please enjoy this review of the good, the bad, and the hilarious in Austen-lit, and don't miss the EXCITING GIVEAWAY at the end of the post!

Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler: I won this book through Reading Group Choices, a neat site that offers great suggestions for book clubs. This book had a lot of potential, but it never lived up to it. After Courtney Stone nurses a broken heart (both her fiance and her best friend, Wes, have betrayed her) with vodka and Jane Austen novels, she wakes up in another body, in another time and place. Everyone calls her Jane Mansfield (ha!), and she struggles to assimilate into her new world (where it appears she's engaged, or close to it) while figuring out how she got there and how to get back. There are some really, really funny parts to this book (Jane's mother is a horrible woman who threatens to have Jane committed if she doesn't do as she's told by marrying well and Courtney's snide internal monologue and passive-aggressive dealings in letters and conversation are gems), but ultimately, it was disappointing. Courtney is plagued by memories from Jane's brain, leading her to wonder about her identity and the nature of self, and this novel suffers from a similar identity crisis. Is it a gentle satire of Jane Austen's works, sharing the "truths" that Austen leaves out (it's smelly, the air is polluted, bathing is rare, chamber pots are disgusting, tooth powder-ew, not to mention what happens in a Tampax-free world when a woman has her "monthly courses")? Is it a reflection on modern society and how it compares to "simpler" times? Is it a scifi/fantasy novel about a woman dropped into another place and time who must find her way back? Is it a romance between Courtney and Wes? Rigler can't seem to decide, so it ends up doing most of these things, but none of them terribly well. The main problem is the Courtney/Jane dichotomy. I had trouble even thinking of her as Courtney because her life in LA is barely part of the story. I didn't care if she got together with Wes because I never saw Wes except in a couple of flashbacks. It would have been better if she and Jane had shared a name. Courtney spends too much time overanalyzing the situation--if I'm going to have to suspend disbelief in such a major way (and I'm fine with that!), I'd rather get it over with and skip Courtney's wondering about whether she's dreaming for pages and pages when it's obvious she's not. The explanation for what happened isn't particularly satisfying, and it might have been better to have skipped an explanation entirely or made the explanation more central to the story. Instead, the storytelling is caught between "What happened?" and "How do I cope in this time/place?" and "Do I love Wes?" The last was the least interesting. It would have been more cohesive if either the story had started before Courtney wakes up as Jane so I could see her interaction with Wes and what's-his-name-the-fiance and what happens to send her to Regency England OR (my preference) if the novel focused on her assimilating into Regency England. There is a lot to like here--the parts with Courtney struggling to act like Jane are lots of fun, and she gets to go to London and Bath in addition to her country home. It's fun to see this life through the eyes of a modern woman. The novel as a whole just fails to hang together. Die-hard Austen fans will probably enjoy the description of real life in Regency England, though--I did.

Austenland by Shannon Hale: What a fun, fun book. This one knows EXACTLY what it is--fluffy chick lit with a Jane Austen bent, and it does it well. Jane Hayes has a bit of an addiction to Colin Firth's Pride and Prejudice (Hale adds a tongue-in-cheek dedication to Colin Firth), and it's ruined her for normal men. Her great-aunt finds this out and leaves her a trip to Austenland in her will. Austenland is the ultimate haven for Austenphiles, a realistic Regency resort where guests (all female) dress up in empire waist gowns and corsets and basically pay to have Regency gentlemen court them. Jane thinks Austenland might be the perfect way to rid herself of her Mr. Darcy obsession, and off she goes. The resort is hilarious, and Jane waffles between enjoying the experience and needing something more "real" in the form of an attractive, forbidden gardener. She's intrigued by the gentlemen, especially the infuriating Mr. Nobley, but she realizes they're paid to be intriguing. Meanwhile, Jane, a graphic designer, rediscovers her love of painting (it beats sitting around doing embroidery) and figures out what she actually wants from life and relationships. This isn't great literature, but it's cute and entertaining.

Lost in Austen: Create Your Own Jane Austen Adventure by Emma Campbell Webster: This is exactly what it sounds like, a choose-your-own-adventure with Austen's novels as the storylines. If that sounds stupid, don't buy it (though amazon had it for $3.99, which is why I picked it up), but I really enjoyed it for what it was. It's silly, yes, but I haven't done choose-your-own-adventure in decades. I always loved them, but I'd peek at the options I didn't choose :( I know, it's a character flaw, and I still do it. Anyway, I've had fun with this! There are optional scorekeeping categories, but I didn't bother with that. The scorekeeping notes and other commentary are hilarious. You start out in Pride and Prejudice and can veer into other novels. Make the wrong choice and end up ruining your family, having a tragic marriage, or even dying a horrible death. I would have liked to see more choices, as there are several long sections during which important decisions are made, and not by you. But it's a fun little game, and I enjoyed it.

Edmund Bertram's Diary by Amanda Grange: I really wonder how many more of these Amanda Grange will do. She's done Mr. Darcy's Diary, Mr. Knightley's Diary, and Captain Wentworth's Diary. And I see that she's done Colonel Brandon's Diary, but it doesn't seem to be available in the US. I wonder if she'll do Northanger Abbey next, or Edward Ferrars from S&S. At any rate, I enjoy these! They're like popcorn for Jane Austen addicts. Is it necessary to have the diaries of the heroes of Jane Austen's novels? No, the novels stand on their own just fine. But it's awfully fun. Grange does a good job of blending the familiar scenes with the addition of offstage occurrences, and Edmund's diary is no different. It actually made me remember why I think Edmund is a bit of a doof, but he's a lovable doof, so that's fine. It's a fun, extremely quick read.

NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY!!! I happen to have a spare copy of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict. Among these four books, that was my least favorite, but I hope I made it clear that it has its enjoyable parts. There must be other Jane Austen fans who would enjoy a FREE hardcover copy. If you would like this one, here's how to enter:

1. Leave a comment with your e-mail address and your favorite Jane Austen hero (and why).
2. For an extra three entries, blog about this post and tell me you did.
3. Enter by Sunday, September 14 at 11:59 p.m. EDT.

Don't forget about our Anatomy of a Boyfriend giveaway! Enter by the very last moment of THIS SUNDAY for your chance to win.

Lookin' Back, Texas by Leanna Ellis

I need to preface this review by saying that I am not a reader of Christian fiction. When I requested this book through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program, I did so on the basis of the publisher-provided summary, which gave a delightful premise and no indication of the real genre. I failed to click on the publisher's website, and the main page of Leanna Ellis's website referred to Lookin' Back, Texas as "women's fiction." That said, I found a lot to like in this novel, but I will have to review it as general fiction, since I have no basis for comparison to other Christian fiction.

Suzanne hasn't been back to her hometown of Luckenbach, Texas (say it out loud to get the title, which also refers to numerous characters) in years. She has a comfortable life with her husband and teenaged son in California. When a phone call from her father is cut off, and Linda Lou, Luckenbach's biggest gossip calls and mentions that Suzanne's father is dead, Suzanne packs up for a trip to Texas. She finds her mother acting the regal widow, planning the most elaborate funeral Luckenbach has ever seen. But her father isn't dead. Suzanne decides she'll have to be the one to reconcile her meek father with her controlling mother, and her husband (Mike) and son (Oliver) soon join her in this crazy town. Her own past sins haunt her as she's confronted with ex-boyfriend Drew (now the town sheriff) and her husband-stealing friend Josie is seen at a motel with Mike. Meanwhile, the town is splitting open quite literally--either by earthquake or drought as her parents push further apart, causing Suzanne to worry about the foundation of her own marriage.

I enjoyed Betty Lynne's over-the-top behavior. Always the perfect wife and mother, concerned to the utmost with image, she has decided that she would rather be a widow than a divorcee. Her glee in describing her husband's grisly death is hilarious. Ellis doesn't oversimplify the situation--she shows the toll the "death" takes on Suzanne's father's best friend, and she shows the outpourings of flowers and food from friends and neighbors. I enjoyed the metaphor of faulty foundation for both Suzanne's marriage and the parched earth, and found it to be well executed. Ellis has a wicked sense of humor, especially as she describes Betty Lynne: "It occurs to me that this whole scenario of a make-believe funeral is exactly like something the heroine of Gone With The Wind would do. The first time I saw the movie, I cried when Bonnie Blue Butler died after falling off the horse. I thought it was cruel of Margaret Mitchell to kill off an innocent child. Now I realize it was probably a good decision. I know what it's like to grow up with a mother like Scarlett" (p. 128). And when rumors about Mike and Josie start swirling, "Mother leans forward, resting her elbow on the table and whispers in a conspiratorial tone, 'Wanna have a double funeral?'"

That said, this was really a 300-page novel masquerading as a 400-page novel, so it dragged in places, and there was some repetition I could have done without. Had I been the editor, I would have immediately cut the chapters told from Drew's point of view, which really didn't add anything. I know that Ellis used to write romance novels, and convention in that genre usually dictates writing from both the hero's and the heroine's point of view, but it's out of place here. And at any rate, Drew isn't even a major character. Every twenty or thirty pages, Suzanne agonizes over her big secret, and while I understand that it's always on her mind, especially back in her hometown, the fretting about keeping the secret without any progress toward deciding to tell or deciding not to tell was tedious. As far as the Christian element goes, it wasn't pushed enough to make me dislike the book, but there were passages that were over-the-top for general or women's fiction, and I mostly rolled my eyes and skimmed past. There are several mentions of faith, being faithful, and being committed to marriage, and these were fine and flowed well with the narrative. It was only when they were intrusive on the story, trite ("No relationship is perfect. It's a dance."--Bleh.), unbelievable (her conversation with her son in the grocery store about Jesus just didn't ring true), or contradictory (Suzanne goes on about how she and her husband had to work at their marriage, then later says "My marriage survived, not because of me or Mike but because of God") that I was reminded that I was reading Christian fiction with a capital C. I think Ellis could certainly do well writing general or women's fiction, but I think the born-again element is a bit overdone for a general audience. Her snappy sense humor and apt characterization make me interested in checking out her first (non-romance) novel, Elvis Takes a Back Seat. I keep vacillating between a three-star review (based on the above criticisms and four stars (based on my enjoyment), so I think I'll split the difference.

Sundays at Tiffany's by James Patterson/Gabrielle Charbonnet

This was our book club book for August. I have to say, I'm glad it was a quick read. I read it in a day. And I would have been upset to spend more time on it than that.

The basic premise of the book: little girl has imaginary friend named Michael until age 9, when, by the rules governing imaginary friends, he has to say good-bye and move on. Also per the rules, she is to forget about him. Well, she doesn't forget about him and spends the next 23 years feeling lonely and not very happy. Until one day, Michael runs into her when he is between "assignments". Yada, yada, yada. They fall in love and he goes from being imaginary to becoming human.

Okay, I didn't hate this book. But I do give it about 2.5 to 3 stars out of 5. It would only get 3 because its a very fast read and therefore doesn't waste too much of your time. This just really was not the book for me. I'm not into romance/sappy books too much to begin with and I'm a bit of a practical person. So the premise was just a bit too far-fetched to me to be even remotely believable. The "magic" that was supposed to be there just wasn't for me. I'm not totally against this sort of thing. Have you seen the movie The Lake House with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock? A "magical" mailbox that helps them communicate even though they are years apart in time. I did like that one. The premise seemed a bit far-fetched to me, but it worked in that movie. Maybe I would like this better as a movie, instead of a book. But even then, I don't know.

Also, one other giant annoyance. The woman on the cover of the book, who presumably is Jane the main character, has dark hair. In the book, the character has blonde hair. So they couldn't even get the cover right? Did the marketing people just miss that? I think the blonde hair is mentioned multiple times. Okay, enough time wasted on this one.

See also: Julie's review at Girls Just Reading