Review: Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty

Who needs more teen angst? Certainly not me given that I am living with a teenager and a pre-teen at the moment and at any given day the sky can be falling in on one or both of them. So despite having had this on my shelf for a very long time, I kept putting it off and putting it off. But I have looked at it consistently for more than a year, intending to finally read it. I am so glad I did. Jessica Darling is good fun and this book is delightfully entertaining.

The book opens with Jessica's best friend Hope having moved away and the book is presented in journal and letter form as Jess struggles with feeling newly alone. The journal is for those things she can't even tell Hope and the letters to Hope reinforce and illuminate some of the social and personal situations at school. Hope was really her only real friend and she is now marooned with a clique of girls with whom she's grown up but whom she can't really stand. She is frustrated by her friend Scottie's ongoing crush on her and she is mildly tormented by the school's slacker druggie suddenly latching onto her and calling her out for her superficial behaviour. Jess is a straight A student and a very gifted runner but she is moody and angry, lashing out at her parents and erecting a prickly wall that few people are willing to try and break through. When a new girl moves to school, she and Jess start to hit it off but everything is not as it seems.

The first in a series, McCafferty has managed to capture the misperceptions, uncertainties, and insecurities of high school in this book. She has created a smart, likable, bull-headed, and sometimes completely self-absorbed and casually mean narrator in Jess Darling. The wonder of it is that we do still really, really like her despite all her angst, her bouts of hypocritical behaviour, and her occasional obstreperousness. Even though I wouldn't go back to high school myself on a bet, I am looking forward to joining Jess on her further adventures in later books. More than just light good fun, this is a charming coming of age novel that manages to be both true to life and serve as a reminder that high school is rough for everybody, a reinforcement I'll need a mere year from now in dealing with my crew.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

If wishes were horses, beggars would ride, right? Last week I was wishing (or hoping) that back to school would mean more reading and reviewing time for me. Well, that didn't happen but at least the number of books still to be reviewed didn't get any longer! This meme is hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey Through a World of Books.

Books I completed this week are:

Sex, Drugs and Gelfilte Fish edited by Shana Leibman
Daughter of the Queen of Sheba by Jackie Lyden
The Gerbil Farmer's Daughter by Holly Robinson
What We Have by Amy Boesky

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
Great Lakes Nature by Mary Blocksma (this is going to take me all year as I read her year's entries on the corresponding days of this year)
Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese
Chronicles of a Midlife Crisis by Robyn Harding
Half Empty by David Rakoff

Reviews posted this week:

The Blessings of the Animals by Katrina Kittle
A Certain "Je Ne Sais Quoi" by Chloe Rhodes
Still Love in Strange Places by Beth Kephart

Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):

The Last Rendevous by Anne Plantagenet
Hector and the Search for Happiness by Francois Lelord
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
The Quickening by Michelle Hoover
Molly Fox's Birthday by Deirdre Madden
Honolulu by Alan Brennert
Safe From the Sea by Peter Geye
The Miner's Daughter by Alice Duncan
Miss You Most of All by Elizabeth Bass
How to Mellify a Corpse by Vicki Leon
Room by Emma Donoghue
The Secret Confessions of Anne Shakespeare by Arliss Ryan
The Far Pavilions by M. M. Kaye
The Patience Stone by Atiq Rahimi
Rainy Lake by Mary Rockcastle
Ill-Equipped for a Life of Sex by Jennifer Lehr
The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi Durrow
Finding Marco by Kenneth Cancellara
Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea
Up From the Blue by Susan Henderson
Sweet Dates in Basra by Jessica Jiji
The Queen of Palmyra by Minrose Gwin
The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli
The Laments by George Hagen
Smart Girls Think Twice by Cathie Linz
Proust's Overcoat by Lorenza Foschini
Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda
Georgia's Kitchen by Jenny Nelson
A Slender Thread by Katharine Davis
Cooking With Fernet Branca by James Hamilton-Paterson
Keeping the Feast by Paula Butturini
The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
Sex, Drugs, and Gelfilte Fish edited by Shana Leibman
Daughter of the Queen of Sheba by Jackie Lyden
The Gerbil Farmer's Daughter by Holly Robinson
What We Have by Amy Boesky

Life with a new puppy: introducing Gatsby

For those of you who might be considering a furry new member of your family, take heed:

Your kids might finally be old enough to give you some privacy in the bathroom but the puppy will make 100% certain you aren't lonely in there. After all, there are such delectable smells. Such enticing toilet paper rolls. And the opportunity to bite at pants and underwear? How could any self-respecting small dog turn that down?

You re-learn to cover your yawns unless you like French kissing a dog. She's just trying to mine your back molars for any remnants of food the toothbrush might have missed and save you on dental bills. Because clearly you are starving your poor new baby. You never feed her at all, right?

Since we never feed our puppy, she helps rat on the kids when they have smuggled food somewhere it isn't supposed to be. It's good to have a critter that keeps them honest. The wrapper crinkles and joy in her little wriggly body give away the sneaks immediately. It's almost criminal to take the spoils away from her to throw away.

She also helps the kids pick-up their toys. And it does a parent's heart good to see such helpfulness when no one else in the house wants to remove Legos or Nerf gun bullets from the floor. Her pitching in to help could also teach the kids fiscal responsibility since it would take them far longer than a month of Sundays to pay for that $2000 foreign body removal bill from the vet. (Yeah, we've been there before.)

Her accidents are purely designed to remind you that all floors need washing multiple times a day. And sneaking off to poop in hidden corners really helps you hone your hide and seek skills, especially if you have company coming to meet the newest member of the family.

Waking you up at all hours (especially the ungodly ones) of the morning is simply designed to let you experience nature in all its different manifestations. If you weren't up at 3am, your chances of being dive-bombed by bats in search of the bugs gravitating to your body heat would be minimal. Who would want to miss that?! And you can certainly thank the fur-face for all those opportunities to see spectacular sunrises you'd otherwise have missed. And really, what is more beautiful than the sun rising over top of a dog taking a dump?

In addition to the sunrises, the early mornings are specially designed to jumpstart your day. Because if you don't get up and stay up, the puppy will romp all over your bed or whine pitiously (and loudly) in her kennel. So she's helping you get moving on all those chores you complain you never have enough time in the day to accomplish. Therefore her early morning encouragement is completely invaluable. So what if the lack of sleep makes you surly, snarly, and snappy? That just makes the puppy feel more at home because you are mimicking her dog mom's discipline.

Sleep deprivation, chewed up toys, shoes, and other assorted oddments, puddles and plops aside though, this new baby is far easier than a new baby of the human variety. At least this one is never going to grow up and sass me back!

Review: Still Love in Strange Places by Beth Kephart

Beth Kephart has written many different books: a memoir about her son's early years, another memoir on the topic of friendship, YA fiction books, and poetry. This memoir deals with her relationship with her husband, his being Salvadoran and what that means in the framework of a country that has been devastated by war and political upheaval. As in her previous books, this paean to her husband and his native land is rife with lyricism and unusual metaphors and similies. Written about several different trips to El Salvadore, Kephart works hard to graduate from pure outsider to holder of memories, especially in order to pass them along to her son. She includes some of the history, superstition, recent struggles faced by the country in order to understand all that shaped the man her husband Bill became. She flounders with Spanish, finding it quick and impenetrable but she can embrace the stories once translated. She is fascinated by the tales of Bill's grandfather and by the coffee plantation that dominated the family's life. She looks deep into the heart of her husband's origins, her son's heritage, and learns about the framework of her marriage and her own nuclear family.

The writing here is musing, ruminative, meandering from pillar to post, just as in the conversations she hears which are only half translated for her. There is a real sense of exploration and "otherness" in the book. And while Kephart does have her own unique way with words, I found the book difficult on which to stay focused. Chapter titles (Art, Luck, and Freedom are just a few examples) are not the usual sorts of topics for a memoir and perhaps this caused me difficulty. It was definitely thick, slow, dreamy going while I was reading it. But almost all of the reviewers at amazon found it exquisite so I'm clearly in the minority opinion thinking it was an okay read rather than a transcendent one.

Sunday Salon: Food books for book clubs

I am officially on the board of the Women's National Book Association, Charlotte chapter. One of the things we board members do (besides learning the super-dooper, top-secret handshake) is to compile a list of similarly themed books for our reading group month brochure. The brochure doesn't come out until October, when it is officially reading group month but we have to put everything together in advance. So I chose to focus on food books that I think will appeal to reading groups. Here's what my list looked like:

Crescent by Diana Abu-Jaber
La Cucina by Lily Prior
My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki
Serving Crazy with Curry by Amulya Malladi
The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard Morais
Georgia’s Kitchen by Jenny Nelson
Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant edited by Jennie Ferrari-Adler
Spiced by Dalia Jurgensen
Baking Cakes in Kigali by Gaile Parkin
Candyfreak by Steve Almond
Cooking With Fernet Branca by James Hamilton-Paterson
Keeping the Feast by Paula Butturini
The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister
Tender at the Bone by Ruth Reichl

It's a bit of a mix between old and new, fiction and non-fiction. It skews heavily toward paperback releases but there are a few hardbacks thrown in too. I only included books I've read and enjoyed since my list could be fourteen times as long if I included those still waiting patiently in my to be read stacks. So what did I miss? Did I leave off your favorite? And most importantly, for the books that contain recipes (and not all do), has anyone made any of them successfully?

This week in my reading travels I watched a young man impersonating his twin and falling in love with a fiance not his own in Regency England, I briefly visited with young writers on the Jewish experience, I rode along as a reporter tried to illuminate and understand life growing up with her bi-polar mother, and I kept the secret of another woman's father's unusual profession: raising gerbils as lab animals. Where did your reading take you this week?

Coming soon: Bibliofeast

The Women’s National Book Association – Charlotte Presents:

The First Annual Bibliofeast
in conjunction with National Reading Group Month

The Women’s National Book Association – Charlotte invites members of the community to attend the first annual Bibliofeast – a gourmet feast for the mind and the body. Guest hosted by Charlotte Observer Reading Life Editor, Pam Kelley, Bibliofeast will feature a three course meal at Santé in downtown, historic Matthews and conversation with Carolina-based authors who will travel from table to table discussing their work.

Featured authors include Kim Wright, author of the bestselling novel Love in Mid-Air, and Minrose Gwinn, author of The Queen of Palmyra, just selected as a featured Great Group Read read during October’s National Reading Group Month by the WNBA (national). (More authors will be announced soon.)


What: Bibliofeast and National Reading Group Month, presented by the WNBA-Charlotte

When: Monday, October 11th, 6:30 pm

Where: Santé in Matthews (165 North Trade Street)

How: Tickets are $35 in advance and available at Park Road Books in Charlotte (4139 Park Road, cash or check only). Tickets include a three-course meal and one glass of wine.

For more information:
Jessica Daitch
WNBA-Charlotte publicity chair
Jessica_Daitch@yahoo.com

About WNBA-Charlotte
Founded in 2009, WNBA-Charlotte is dedicated to promoting love for the written word while simultaneously nurturing friendship and mentoring. To that end, the chapter welcomes people of all ages and stages of their career and works hard to offer programming that will interest a diverse audience. To learn more about the WNBA-Charlotte find our Facebook page and “like” the Women’s National Book Association Charlotte.

Review: A Certain "Je Ne Sais Quoi" by Chloe Rhodes

I am a word nerd. My favorite part of the National Spelling Bee is when the competitors ask for the definition or derivation of a word. I find it completely and totally fascinating to know the origins (sometimes far afield from our current usage) of the words we use in English today. English is such a polyglot language, almost a living organism picking up words from other languages that are just so appropriate for something we have yet to name. This book takes many of these words and phrases and informs the curious reader from whence they came.

Set up in a dictionary format with words and their explanations listed alphabetically, there are some delightfully tongue in cheek comments scattered throughout the text, especially in the example sentences. And the occasional cartoons illustrating some of the phrases are a complete hoot. I was surprised by how many of the words for which I already knew the origins. Even more interestingly, I use quite a few of these fabulous foreign imports in my daily life. I guess the fact that the words are listed in this book means they aren't as common as I'd thought and would explain the funny glazed expression people sometimes get on their faces when they are listening to me. (But really, who doesn't know what debacle means? Seriously.) This type of book probably doesn't have a widespread appeal but it is perfect reading for your average English major and even minor. Personally I thought it was just plain interesting. Now I have to get up the courage to read the one about math terms!

Thanks to Julie at FSB Associates for sending me a review copy of this book.

Review: The Blessings of the Animals by Katrina Kittle

My sister is a vet. My brother-in-law is a vet. We have more than the usual number of vet friends. We are surrounded by vets and by the animals who need them. There's something of a mystique about their jobs despite the fact that my sister says 90% of being a vet is about "ears and rears." Two good reasons I could never have been a vet myself. Well, that and the whole biology class thing. But if I can't be a vet in real life, I still have a real affinity for vet stories and an even greater affinity for stories that include animals. Kittle's latest novel after Traveling Light, Two Truths and a Lie, and The Kindness of Strangers, deftly handles both while closely entwined with issues of love and marriage and the definition of a successful relationship.

Cami Anderson is a successful vet who volunteers for animal rescues. She and her husband have hit a rough patch in their marriage but Cami is shocked when she comes home from a particularly emotionally grueling rescue to find that Bobby is leaving her. That her admittedly stagnant marriage is over completely blindsides her and is especially painful as the true reality of their estrangement comes to light. While she grieves the loss of her own marriage, she watches her parents celebrate their fiftieth anniversary, watches her soon-to-be-ex-sister-in-law plan the extravagant wedding she thought would never come, and watches her brother and his partner fight to adopt a baby into a relationship that can't be legally recognized. Into the mix, her almost grown daughter is having her own relationship troubles, spurred on by the collapse of her parents' marriage. And Cami herself is skittish about starting a new relationship either with her best friend or with a like-minded stranger.

Equally weighted with the human drama in the novel are the cases that Cami sees in her clinic and on rescues. She knows that she can always rely on animals to ground her and to offer her unconditional love and trust, even when they have been so abused that they are broken almost beyond repair. In healing the desperate animals, she will perhaps learn to heal herself and open her heart to chance, even knowing that not every man will be worthy of that chance. Cami finds her peace with her animals, learns to let go (both in actuality and emotionally), takes a chance, and appreciates the beauty of being happy in the present.

A quick and engaging read, this novel not only focuses on marriage and the questions that a commitment of that magnitude can raise but also on happiness and finding fulfillment in life, chasing the things that are important and recognizing that just because something is familiar, it isn't necessarily the right or best thing. The characters, both large and small, are engaging and diverse, all adding important puzzle pieces to the whole of the book. And Cami, as the main character, shows significant, satisfying growth. The storyline was appealing, unpredictable but fitting. The pacing was quite good, never rushed and never drawn out. The themes are serious and yet leavened with humor. Animal lovers will relate to the story and Cami. Book clubs will love this offering, giving just enough to discuss but also enough for members to relate to in their own lives as well. I finished it with a smile and a warm spot in my heart for Cami and her animals. Sensitive readers will want to know that there are horrific descriptions of animal abuse contained within but these are never gratuitous and serve to highlight not only the terrible things people do to our fellow creature but also to show how even the most ill-used can be rehabilitated and learn to trust and love again.

Thanks to Harper Collins for sending me a review copy of this book.

Monday Mailbox

This past week was another two-fer week and if the light mail isn't exactly helping me catch up on my reviewing, it is at least keeping my obligations to do so from ballooning out of control again. This past week's mailbox arrivals:

Half Empty by David Rakoff came from Doubleday through Shelf Awareness.
I have heard "Look on the bright side" more times than I can count and as an occasional pessimist, I can't always do it. So a collection of essays detailing why pessimists are generally correct sounds interesting to me. Here's hoping it doesn't make me too grumpy though!

AGoing Away Shoes by Jill McCorkle came from Algonquin Books.
A collection of short stories centered around women and relationships, I have enjoyed McCorkle before and look forward to this as well.

As always, if you'd like to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Marcia at The Printed Page to see this month's host of Monday Mailbox and Kristi at The Story Siren who hosts In My Mailbox and enjoy seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Another week of reading and bare bones reviewing. With luck the kids going back to school this week will free me up to get more accomplished. I'm not holding my breath though! This meme is hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey Through a World of Books.

Books I completed this week are:

Keeping the Feast by Paula Butturini
The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
False Colours by Georgette Heyer

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
Great Lakes Nature by Mary Blocksma (this is going to take me all year as I read her year's entries on the corresponding days of this year)
Daughter of the Queen of Sheba by Jackie Lyden
Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese

Reviews posted this week:

Look at Me Now by Thomas Hubschman
Water Wings by Kristen den Hartog

Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):

The Blessings of the Animals by Katrina Kittle
A Certain "Je Ne Sais Quoi" by Chloe Rhodes
Still Love in Strange Places by Beth Kephart
Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty
The Last Rendevous by Anne Plantagenet
Hector and the Search for Happiness by Francois Lelord
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
The Quickening by Michelle Hoover
Molly Fox's Birthday by Deirdre Madden
Honolulu by Alan Brennert
Safe From the Sea by Peter Geye
The Miner's Daughter by Alice Duncan
Miss You Most of All by Elizabeth Bass
How to Mellify a Corpse by Vicki Leon
Room by Emma Donoghue
The Secret Confessions of Anne Shakespeare by Arliss Ryan
The Far Pavilions by M. M. Kaye
The Patience Stone by Atiq Rahimi
Rainy Lake by Mary Rockcastle
Ill-Equipped for a Life of Sex by Jennifer Lehr
The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi Durrow
Finding Marco by Kenneth Cancellara
Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea
Up From the Blue by Susan Henderson
Sweet Dates in Basra by Jessica Jiji
The Queen of Palmyra by Minrose Gwin
The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli
The Laments by George Hagen
Smart Girls Think Twice by Cathie Linz
Proust's Overcoat by Lorenza Foschini
Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda
Georgia's Kitchen by Jenny Nelson
A Slender Thread by Katharine Davis
Cooking With Fernet Branca by James Hamilton-Paterson
Keeping the Feast by Paula Butturini
The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
False Colours by Georgette Heyer

Review: Water Wings by Kristen den Hartog

There is something about seeing the word water in the title that draws me to a book. It's an appeal I have tried to explain but haven't quite nailed down. Add to the title words, a cover picture of water of any sort and a plot that has a river running through it and I'm a complete and total gonner. This book promised all of the above even if it ultimately went far afield from its promises.

Returning home for their mother's wedding to shoe store owner Reg, both Hannah and Vivian and their cousin Wren look back on their shared past, starting to understand as adults those things that they couldn't understand as children. Their beautiful mother Darlene is, in so many ways, the same dependent woman she had been in their childhood, both before and after their charismatic father Mick died in a freak boating accident. The narration does much to illuminate Hannah, Vivian, and Wren's characters, even if it isn't enough. Hannah has always been the dreamy sister, the one with synesthesia, the one highly attuned to the tremors and fault lines running through her parents' marriage. Vivian is the practical one, the casually unkind one who picks at her sister, the one who makes sure that everything runs as it should no matter what the circumstances. And Wren is the outsider, not only because she is not a sister, just a cousin, but also because she was born with webbed hands and is therefore used to the small cruelties of life shown so clearly in the community in which they live.

This book is rife with the secrets each character holds close to her heart, secrets overheard, witnessed, and suspected. It is a masterful portrait of a dysfunctional family after it has lost its charismatic center (Mick) and must rely on superficial beauty (Darlene). It is painful and haunting and the reader will wish for more for the emotionally injured young girls. The narrative moves slowly through the past, exposing memories and unearthing long forgotten truths. The present day portions are not quite as compelling as the past portions, perhaps because the girls, even once they learn what has drawn their mother to Reg, still don't fully understand Darlene's motivation or who she has become. There's also something quintessentially Canadian about the narrative here, something that goes beyond setting and manifests itself in a feeling.

I have to admit that I didn't love this meditative novel but I do recognize that it was complexly constructed and well-written. The disconnectedness pulled at me and slowed me down. I never quite felt we understood the characters, despite having sections narrated from their own experience. In looking at the reviews at amazon I am clearly alone in this slight disappointment though. Are you someone who has read it and disagree with me? I'd love to hear why.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This has been a rough and depressing week around here but I did manage to get a few things read and reviewed. This meme is hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey Through a World of Books.

Books I completed this week are:

Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda
Been There, Haven't Done That by Tara McCarthy
Georgia's Kitchen by Jenny Nelson
A Slender Thread by Katharine Davis
Cooking With Fernet Branca by James Hamilton-Paterson

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
Great Lakes Nature by Mary Blocksma (this is going to take me all year as I read her year's entries on the corresponding days of this year)
Daughter of the Queen of Sheba by Jackie Lyden
Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese

Reviews posted this week:

Bite Me by Christopher Moore
Old World Daughter, New World Mother by Maria Laurino
South Beach Sizzle by Suzanne Weyn and Diana Gonzalez

Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):

Water Wings by Kristen den Hartog
The Blessings of the Animals by Katrina Kittle
A Certain "Je Ne Sais Quoi" by Chloe Rhodes
Still Love in Strange Places by Beth Kephart
Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty
The Last Rendevous by Anne Plantagenet
Hector and the Search for Happiness by Francois Lelord
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
The Quickening by Michelle Hoover
Molly Fox's Birthday by Deirdre Madden
Honolulu by Alan Brennert
Safe From the Sea by Peter Geye
The Miner's Daughter by Alice Duncan
Miss You Most of All by Elizabeth Bass
How to Mellify a Corpse by Vicki Leon
Room by Emma Donoghue
The Secret Confessions of Anne Shakespeare by Arliss Ryan
The Far Pavilions by M. M. Kaye
The Patience Stone by Atiq Rahimi
Ill-Equipped for a Life of Sex by Jennifer Lehr
The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi Durrow
Finding Marco by Kenneth Cancellara
Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea
Up From the Blue by Susan Henderson
Sweet Dates in Basra by Jessica Jiji
The Queen of Palmyra by Minrose Gwin
The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli
The Laments by George Hagen
Smart Girls Think Twice by Cathie Linz
Proust's Overcoat by Lorenza Foschini
Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda
Georgia's Kitchen by Jenny Nelson
A Slender Thread by Katharine Davis

Giveaway on the blog this week
The Outside Boy by Jeanine Cummins

Monday Mailbox

I really didn't get as much reading accomplished this summer as I had hoped so I am accepting far fewer books for review until I get a handle on things. This made my mailbox a lot lighter this week but I did still get a pair of goodies. This past week's mailbox arrivals:

Dreaming in Chinese by Deborah Fallows came from Michelle at Walker & Company.
A travel memoir of learning Mandarin and how learning the language gave her insight into the Chinese culture, this looks like just my thing.

A Curable Romantic by Joseph Skibell came from Algonquin Books.
A sweeping novel set throughout Eastern Eurpoe at the birth of psychoanalysis, this sounds involved and ambitious.

As always, if you'd like to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Marcia at The Printed Page to see this month's host of Monday Mailbox and Kristi at The Story Siren who hosts In My Mailbox and enjoy seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.

Review: Look at Me Now by Thomas Hubschman

This novel opens with Deirdre making the final preparations to leave her husband. He has been mentally and emotionally abusive to her for years but she has been trapped in her marriage by her feelings that she deserved her situation after getting pregnant and having to marry while still in high school. Deirdre's life has been a fairly pitiable one; she's essentially friendless, stuck in a dead-end job, trying to extricate herself from a loveless marriage, distant from her emotionally frozen mother, even unconnected from her lover. Certainly this all should combine to make the reader cheer her on as she starts a new life for herself. But it doesn't. Perhaps it is her all pervading depression leaking through or perhaps it is the small ways in which Deirdre is not entirely convincing as a woman but connecting with this character is difficult. Her life is so dreary that reading about it becomes a dispiriting adventure. And Deirdre's odd decisions, to pretend a closeness to the paraplegic wife of her super, a woman she's never met, her decision to visit and care for her abusive ex-husband after he lands in the hospital, and other assorted small choices like these do not serve to make the reader understand her better but only add some movement into an essentially stagnant story. Over all, I was greatly disappointed by this book.

Thanks to LibraryThing Early Reviewers for sending me a copy of this book to review.

Sunday Salon: Past transgressions

Clearly I can never commit a crime. I don't cover my tracks very well. I have had this e-mail sitting in my in-box for a while now to allow me to laugh at myself. As a little background info, I don't generally lend books. I do lend books to my friend C. because she treats them like I treat them (and she doesn't fuss when I keep her books for appalling amounts of time). A lot of what C. likes to read is YA or vintage middle reader stuff. I have little of the former but a fair bit of the latter and she had fun browsing my shelves and making off with some stuff the last time she was here. Some time later, this is what she sent me:

in your copy of Ben & Me was a receipt. And such a long receipt from a bookstore I have rarely seen! This looked like a receipt from my Vanderbilt Bookstore days, not a B&N, but yet it was from your days at the Little Professor. You spent over $350 AFTER your 30% staff discount on 36 books!! Damn girl! I'm also shocked that sales tax was only 5.75%. And I now have your visa number. (In case you're wondering, this happened on 10/22/96.)

I hope she doesn't throw the receipt out as I'm curious to see what all I bought back then (and most likely still haven't read). Looking at the date she's mentioned, that might have been my very last day of work at Little Professor as I was three months pregnant and terribly, terribly sick with morning sickness. (Do you like how I can rationalize the appallingly large bill even this many years later?) If that wasn't the last day, it certainly was only shortly after that that I quit for good. Boy do I miss that discount! Perhaps the receipt should go in W.'s baby book so he knows what I gave up for him? ;-) Here's hoping I've gotten better at covering my book buying tracks in the ensuing 14 years although I suspect that my shelves might give me away even if the receipts disappear.

Life has sort of ganged up on me this week so it's not been a stellar reading week. Instead it's been a hibernate in bed and eat ice cream kind of week although I did spend time in India and America watching two families both impacted by one daughter. I read about a 25 year old virgin. I lost a job and a fiance with a young chef who then bolted to Italy in order to find what she really wanted out of life. And I eavesdropped on a sister and a husband as they face the idea of the biggest person in their world losing language entirely. Where have you spent your week traveling?

Review: South Beach Sizzle by Suzanne Weyn and Diana Gonzalez

I have a tween daughter who likes to read but isn't generally into the same books every other kiddo her age is reading. Vampires don't make her little heart go pit-a-pat. She's never been one for fantasy and book princesses (dressing as one herself as a small girl was another story entirely). She wants more reality but not those mean girl stories. Really what she wants is reality viewed comfortably through rose-colored glasses. She wants romance. I thought I'd pre-read a few books for her to see what she finds so very appealing. So this was the very first YA romance I've ever read, at least as far as I know. And I have to say that it was as cheesy and cringe-inducing as the Disney shows she's addicted to watching. But those are wildly popular too so what do I know anyway, old toad that I am.

Lula is starting college in the fall and she's convinced her mother to let her live with her father for her last summer before school starts. So she drives down to Miami with her gay best friend Jeff, discovers and forgives her father's immaturity, finds a job and an apartment, and falls for a guy who may or may not be trying to sabotage her in the local band competition. Lula's relationship with the gorgeous and distracting Enrique is completely predictable, from the doubts and tensions that pull them apart briefly to the expected denouement. And getting there didn't offer any surprises either. The character dialogue was flat and the characters themselves cliches. On the plus side, there aren't any adult situations to worry about for younger romance junkies. I didn't particularly enjoy the contrived plot and stilted writing but can't put up too many objections if my daughter wants to dip into this ultimately frothy and superficial read.

Saturday Shout-Out

On my travels through the blogging world, I find many books that pique my interest. I always add them to my wish list immediately but I tend to forget who deserves the blame credit for inspiring me to add them to my list (and to whom my husband would like to send the bill when I get around to actually buying them). So each Saturday I'm going to try and keep better track, link to my fellow book ferreter-outers (I know, not a word but useful nonetheless), and hopefully add to some of your wish lists too.

I'm still trying to unbury myself from the mess that coming home from vacation created and haven't been visiting my favorite blogs and sites this week so I have nothing to show and tell. Hopefully some of you do though.

What goodies have you added to your wish lists recently? Make your own list and leave a comment here so we can all see who has been a terrible influence inspiring you lately.

Review: Old World Daughter, New World Mother by Maria Laurino

I have a soft spot for books dealing with the immigrant experience. I like reading about second and third generations and the methods they face in assimilation. Cultures that seem to have had success holding onto their traditions and beliefs even after crossing an ocean fascinate me. And I'm not too far removed from the Italian portion of my family (even if my grandmother did use Velveeta in her lasagne). So this book should have been a slam dunk for me. Can you hear the "But..." in the previous sentence? Because it is there and unfortunately it looms large.

I went into this collection of essays believing that I would be reading anecdotes about Laurino's Italian family, especially her mother, and the ways in which hyphenation (Italian-American) both complicated and enriched her life. And there was some of that, but only a very small amount. Instead the bulk of the essays dealt with the ways in which she as a woman navigated the old world ideas under which she was raised and the new world ideals surrounding her adulthood. The essays are very politicized, feminist focused writings on the balance between work and family. So for someone looking for a memoir, a mother-daughter ode, an entertaining cultural fiesta (sorry, I'm enough removed from my Italian roots I can't come up with an approrpiate Italian term instead), this was not the book to read.

Laurino does posit the interesting idea that her mother's life was not unfulfilling simply because she followed the traditional pattern, that our concept of dependence is unneccesarily negative, and that the idea of independence can be isolating. But a little of this discussion goes a long way for me. I was unfortunately disappointed by what this book wasn't and bored by the extended discussion of feminism and its roots and relationship to traditional old world gender roles. For the more politically and sociologically inclined who aren't expecting as much a memoir as I was, this will probably be of more interest than it was to me.

I received a copy of this book free for review purposes.

Review: Bite Me by Christopher Moore

I have, of course, gone on record as not being the world's biggest vampire fan. I prefer characters not potentially vanting to suck my blood. But, as I have also noted before, I do love Christopher Moore's warped (or should that be varped) sense of humor and so I dip into the world of the undead for him. Unfortunately, this third and final installment in his vampite trilogy didn't live up to the other two for me. Because it is Moore, it is still funny but it pales in comparison to Bloodsucking Fiends and doesn't quite reach the heights of the middling funny of You Suck, the previous two books.

Picking up where You Suck left off, Abby Normal, Jody and Tommy's minion, has trapped our intrepid vampires in bronze statues (aptly modeled after Rodin's The Kiss). But while Jody and Tommy are out of commission, a new threat crops up, requiring Abby and her new boyfriend to take on a blue whore vampire, the Animals, and Chet the Bald Vampire Kitty who is turning all the cats in San Francisco and busily stalking human prey. Sounds crazy, doesn't it? That just makes it a typical Christopher Moore story. Somehow he manages to take completely disparate plot lines, even wacko plot lines, and weave them together so that they not only work but that they make the reader giggle.

Abby Normal is a major focus in this third book of the trilogy and that was a bit of a problem for me since I didn't love Abby in the previous book and found nothing here to change my mind. She is an annoying and ridiculous character and in a book full of entertaining zanies, that is a distinct handicap. I winced each time I turned the page and was faced with her journal (narrated in her own unique voice, a strange combination of goth and bubble-gum) or her over the top adolescent shenanigans, especially when in the company of her boyfriend. However, given that it was Moore and that I wanted to know what happened to the rest of the crazy characters and whether or not they would be successful in their quest to save San Francisco from the hordes of the undead, I soldiered on with the book. I even chuckled a time or two.

I'm sure that my high expectations for Moore's work made this perfectly adequate book feel more disappointing than it otherwise would have been. This is probably really only of interest to established Moore fans or those who have already started the trilogy and want to follow it through to the end. Don't make this book your first ride at Christopher Moore's carnival. It's not a bad book, it's just not one of his best. And his best, let me tell you, they are worth the price of admission.

Waiting on Wednesday

This meme is hosted by Breaking the Spine and is meant to highlight some great pre-publication books we all can't wait to get our grubby little mitts on.
For me, I can't wait to read: Good Enough to Eat by Stacey Ballis. Due out September 7 from Berkley Trade, amazon says this about the book:

The last thing Melanie expected to lose when she went on a diet was her husband.

Former lawyer Melanie Hoffman lost half her body weight and opened a gourmet take-out café specializing in healthy and delicious food. Then her husband left her-for a woman twice her size. Immediately afterwards, she's blindsided by a financial crisis. Melanie reaches out to a quirky roommate with a ton of baggage and becomes involved in a budding romance with a local documentary filmmaker.

In this warm and often laugh-out-loud novel, Melanie discovers that she still has a lot to learn about her friends, her relationships with men, and herself-and that her weight loss was just the beginning of an amazing journey that will transform her life from the inside out.

Monday Mailbox

When you get home vacation and have a million things to put away, it's nice to have some new books in amongst all the laundry andassorted other detritus collected during your break. I have a luscious looking stack to wiggle into my shelves after going through all the backlogged mail. This past week's mailbox arrivals:

She's Gone Country by Jane Porter came from Crystal at BookSparks PR.
About a model who turns to the family ranch when her life seems to falling apart, this novel's incongruent premise completely strikes my fancy.

Sand in My Eyes by Christine Lemmon came from Crystal at BookSparks PR.
Stories about women finding themselves? I admit it, they are like crack to me. And this one looks like it will satisfy the addiction.

Commuters by Emily Gray Tedrowe came from Book Club Girl.
Septuagenarians who fall in love and marry, causing their family major consternation sounds like a storyline rife with possibility, doesn't it?

The Tricking of Freya by Christina Sunley came from Sarah Terra Communications.
Iceland, myth, a family tale, what more could a reader ask for?

One Flight Up by Susan Fales-Hill came from Atria Books.
An ensemble cast of women behaving badly within and outside their relationships, I'm looking forward to dipping into lives so very different than mine.

Chronicles of a Midlife Crisis by Robyn Harding came from Elizabeth at Berkley/NAL.
This divorce tale sounds hilarious. The fact that it is told in alternating chapters so both perspectives are laid out for the reader makes it that much more interesting sounding.

The Penny Pinchers Club by Sarah Strohmeyer came from Elizabeth at Berkley/NAL.
Trying to save a marriage via saving money, this looks cute and entertaining (just as long as my husband doesn't get any ideas about cutting my book budget!).

Promise Bridge by Eileen Clymer Schwab came from Elizabeth at Berkley/NAL.
This novel looks like a very fresh take on the horrors of slavery with a young man and woman taking in an injured runaway slave on a plantation, hiding her in plain sight, until she is well enough to continue her journey.

Barnacle Love by Anthony De Sa came from Algonquin Books.
I have always had a soft spot for immigrant literature so this one about a Portguese-Canadian father and son is definitely appealing.

The I Hate to Cook Book by Peg Bracken was a contest win from Reading at the Beach.
I don't hate to cook, in fact, but I do love cookbooks so I am looking forward to savouring my way through this one. And if the meals are easy to make and picky family friendly, all the better!


Out of the Shadows by Joanne Rendell came from Angela at NAL.
A woman discovers an unexpected link to Mary Shelley when she starts researching her genealogy. Haven't you always wanted to be connected to someone famous? I sure have and an author who is an acknowledged classic would be high on my list so this novel is incredibly intriguing.

As always, if you'd like to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Marcia at The Printed Page to see this month's host of Monday Mailbox and Kristi at The Story Siren who hosts In My Mailbox and enjoy seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Since I've been gone on vacation and without internet access, I managed to accomplish almost no reviews but I read up a storm! And this is more than one week's worth given how long I was off the grid. Also, make sure to read to the end of the appallingly long to be reviewed list to find the giveaway. This meme is hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey Through a World of Books.

Books I completed this week are:

The Patience Stone by Atiq Rahimi
Rainy Lake by Mary Rockcastle
Ill-Equipped for a Life of Sex by Jennifer Lehr
The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi Durrow
Finding Marco by Kenneth Cancellara
Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea
Up From the Blue by Susan Henderson
Sweet Dates in Basra by Jessica Jiji
The Queen of Palmyra by Minrose Gwin
The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli
The Laments by George Hagen
Smart Girls Think Twice by Cathie Linz
Proust's Overcoat by Lorenza Foschini

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
Great Lakes Nature by Mary Blocksma (this is going to take me all year as I read her year's entries on the corresponding days of this year)
Daughter of the Queen of Sheba by Jackie Lyden
Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese
Been There, Haven't Done That by Tara McCarthy

Reviews posted this week:

Rainy Lake by Mary Rockcastle
The Outside Boy by Jeanine Cummins

Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):

Bite Me by Christopher Moore
Old World Daughter, New World Mother by Maria Laurino
South Beach Sizzle by Suzanne Weyn and Diana Gonzalez
Look at Me Now by Thomas Hubschman
Water Wings by Kristen den Hartog
The Blessings of the Animals by Katrina Kittle
A Certain "Je Ne Sais Quoi" by Chloe Rhodes
Still Love in Strange Places by Beth Kephart
Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty
The Last Rendevous by Anne Plantagenet
Hector and the Search for Happiness by Francois Lelord
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
The Quickening by Michelle Hoover
Molly Fox's Birthday by Deirdre Madden
Honolulu by Alan Brennert
Safe From the Sea by Peter Geye
The Miner's Daughter by Alice Duncan
Miss You Most of All by Elizabeth Bass
How to Mellify a Corpse by Vicki Leon
Room by Emma Donoghue
The Secret Confessions of Anne Shakespeare by Arliss Ryan
The Far Pavilions by M. M. Kaye
The Patience Stone by Atiq Rahimi
Rainy Lake by Mary Rockcastle
Ill-Equipped for a Life of Sex by Jennifer Lehr
The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi Durrow
Finding Marco by Kenneth Cancellara
Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea
Up From the Blue by Susan Henderson
Sweet Dates in Basra by Jessica Jiji
The Queen of Palmyra by Minrose Gwin
The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli
The Laments by George Hagen
Smart Girls Think Twice by Cathie Linz
Proust's Overcoat by Lorenza Foschini

Giveaway on the blog this week
The Outside Boy by Jeanine Cummins

Interview and giveaway with Jeanine Cummins, author of The Outside Boy

Author Jeanine Cummins was gracious enough to drop by and answer my questions to her. After you read the review, check out my review of her latest book, The Outside Boy, and then leave a comment to be entered to win one of two copies of her wonderful book.

Which book or books are on your nightstand right now?
I was going to fib and say The Dead Republic by Roddy Doyle because that’s next on my list. But in truth, right now I’m reading a very depressing book called Famine Echoes by Cathal Póirtéir as research for my next novel. It’s a really harrowing collection of first-person folk-memories of the Irish famine, which makes it horrible pre-sleep reading. So I’m also reading Jennifer Belle’s very funny new novel, The Seven Year Bitch.

What was your favourite book when you were a child?
I could never choose just one! Top few were probably Tuck Everlasting, Bridge to Terabithia, all of The Chronicles of Narnia, and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

What book would you most want to read again for the first time?
The Hobbit. It really was astonishing, to read that for the first time.

How did you get started writing?
I wrote my first book when I was about seven years old. It was seventy-five looseleaf pages in a blue, three-ring binder with stickers on the front, and it was about a little girl who skateboards across America. I did all kinds of poetry and story contests, too, when I was a teenager, and I never won anything – I didn’t even manage to get published until my college literary magazine.

If you heard someone describing your books (or just the latest book) to a friend out in public, how would you most like to hear them describe them/it?
I would like them to say, “The Outside Boy is the greatest book in the history of the universe.” But I guess that might be a bit of a stretch. So I think I’d just like them to say that my narrator Christy is funny and loveable, that his story is a compelling one. And maybe also that he opened the reader’s mind to an unfamiliar culture.

What's the coolest thing that's happened to you since becoming a published author?
Probably the most gratifying thing has been all the mail I received (and still receive) in response to my memoir, A Rip in Heaven. So many people have written to tell me about their stories, their personal traumas. I’ve heard from sexual assault survivors, homicide survivors, people who have lost children – and in many cases those people found some healing in my book, or a sense of kinship with my family. That always makes me feel like, despite the emotional difficulties of writing and publishing that book, it was a worthwhile endeavor.


What was the first thing you did when you heard that you were going to be published?
I called or wrote to every member of my family to warn them. Publishing my first book wasn’t the unreservedly joyous experience for me that it is for many authors – it was really bittersweet. I mean, I was proud of A Rip in Heaven, both as a love letter to my lost cousins and as a battle cry for victims’ rights. But because that book was about a very personal trauma and my family’s ensuing grief, I knew the publication would be difficult for a lot of people in my life, but I really wasn’t prepared for how hard it was going to be. I never anticipated the publicity that would surround the book, or that it would become a bestseller. So, while I felt pleased that the book surpassed my hopes in those ways, there was also a lot of emotional fallout surrounding that success.


How was writing fiction different emotionally from writing A Rip in Heaven about your cousins' murders?
Oh, writing fiction was so refreshing, after the darkness and terror of that memoir. It was so nice to be writing about made-up characters, people who I could mold and shape, and who would make the choices I wanted them to make. Which isn’t to say that these characters don’t make some questionable choices, or that I don’t grieve for them in their suffering – but it’s the kind of grief that I can leave on the page, and it doesn’t infect my life. However, I did find that it wasn’t as easy to strip my own psychology out of the story as I thought it might be.


Tell us three interesting or offbeat but true things about yourself.
1. I am a HUGE Green Bay Packers football fan. My great uncle was one of the founding members of the team – he worked at the Indian Packing Company in Green Bay, and played football with Curly Lambeau and crew on Sundays before the NFL even existed. My grandpa used to pass the hat on the sidelines to raise money for their team uniforms. I have made pilgrimage to Lambeau Field, and I’m often seen sporting an actual cheesehead on autumn Sundays. I cried when Favre signed with the Vikings. My Irish husband finds this kind of ritual devotion slightly bizarre.


2. When I was nineteen, I participated in an international Irish cultural pageant called The Rose of Tralee, where I won the right to represent the Washington DC Irish Community. I travelled to Ireland where I was interviewed for seventeen minutes on live, Irish national television by Gay Byrne, who’s sort of the Johnny Carson of Ireland. Then I sang a song called Kilkelly,about the Irish American diaspora, in front of an audience of something like three million people. My mom showed the very embarrassing video of said performance to anyone who came within 200 yards of my house for many years. I think even our postman has seen it.


3. Although my legal name is Jeanine, my real name has always been Tink. When I went to my first day of kindergarten, and the teacher called role, afterwards, she asked if anyone hadn’t heard her name on the list, so I put my hand up. She asked my name, and I told her “Tink Cummins.” She said, “Well, I have a Jeanine Cummins here. “ And I replied, “Never heard of her.” To this day, all of my family and friends still call me Tink – I only use Jeanine in my professional life.


Bonus true, offbeat fact: I can make my tongue into the shape of a shamrock. This might actually be the most interesting thing about me.


If you couldn’t be an author, what profession would you choose and why (and no cheating and falling back on your previous life in publishing)?
I would like to do something involving hardhats and heavy machinery.


What’s the hardest thing about writing, besides having to answer goofy interview questions like these?
No question, for me it’s the solitude. I’m an extremely sociable person, and my former position as a sales manager at Penguin took full advantage of my outgoing nature. I feel so lucky to be able to write full-time now, but in the beginning, I found the isolation of that position to be a little daunting. Social networking has been a God-send for me, because I can spend the whole day alone, writing, and still feel like I’m interacting with friends and colleagues on Facebook or Twitter.


Are you working on something new now (besides the baby)? If so, give us a teaser for it.
I just started work on a novel half-set in Irish famine times, and half-set in modern day New York, with a young mother who’s researching her Irish roots. Summing up a book concept in just a sentence is hard! But I hope it will turn into a story about all kinds of physical and spiritual hunger.


Thanks to Angela at NAL/Penguin, I have 2 books to give away. To enter, leave a comment with a valid e-mail address. I will randomly choose winners from all eligible e-mails. The comments will be open for entry until August 19th.

For more about the author, be sure to visit her author website. You call also follow Jeanine Cummins on Twitter.

Waiting on Wednesday

This meme is hosted by Breaking the Spine and is meant to highlight some great pre-publication books we all can't wait to get our grubby little mitts on.
For me, I can't wait to read: West of Here by Jonathon Evison. Due out February, 2011 from Algonquin Books, amazon says this about the book:

Jonathan Evison writes with a big playful heart. West of Here is a creative bonanza of a novel about the dreamers who settled this lush corner of the country and the people who wake up here today. Its characters and story lines are separated by more than a century yet bound by geography, a dam and a shared humanity that spills across these pages. The result is a book that feels as true to the Pacific Northwest as its drizzling rain, shucked oysters and Douglas Firs.