Review: Salting Roses by Lorelle Marinello

What's the first thing that pops to mind when you say Southern literature? Gone With the Wind and the indomitable Scarlett? Or maybe you think of mansions and mint juleps. Quirky characters and a deep, abiding love of family may also spring to mind. There's just something about a Southern romance that captures the imagination, even if it and the characters populating its pages are just a hair over the top as they are in Marinello's debut novel.

Salting Roses doesn't have the mint juleps and colonnaded mansions, more like dungarees and bungalows but it does have a spunky tomboy heroine, Gracie, who is surrounded by some of the most loving and wonderful family a woman could ever hope to be raised by no matter what the reality of blood might say. Because Gracie is not in fact who she thinks she is. On her twenty-fifth birthday, Gracie discovers that she is in fact Katherine Hammond, the kidnapped heiress to a fortune. She had been left on the porch of her Uncle Ben's house and raised by her Aunt Alice, Uncle Ben, and Uncle Artie as if she was the abandonned daughter of their disappeared niece Rita. While she was raised with love and caring, Gracie also never quite overcame the small town stigma of being Rita's illegitimate child. She suffered at the hands of the wealthier kids in town and so it is with this knowledge of money's ability to corrupt people that she is adamant that she not have to inherit her father's appallingly large fortune. But Sam, the man who was sent by her deceased father and still living, rather starchy grandmother to convince her to accept the bequest, will do everything in his power to get her to see that her reservations are without merit and that her character can handle the corrupting influence of so much money. It doesn't hurt that there is an immediate and strong attraction between Sam and Gracie as this very Southern Cinderella tale plays out.

This is very definitely a romance with Sam and Gracie's antagonistic attraction being a major plot line in the novel. But there's a strong theme of identity running through the story as well. Gracie is thrown for a loop when she discovers her identity as the kidnapped baby daughter of such a wealthy family. And she fights that knowledge, thinking that it will change who she is entirely without respect to the person her aunt and uncles' loving and caring upbringing helped to create. As she examines what her new fortune means to who she is, she also discovers that the people around her are not necessarily who they have always seemed either, keeping secrets, hiding wells of strength, and remaining the same constant people she needs despite who each of these other characters truly are under their skin.

The story reads as light and charming and the tension between Sam and Gracie is well done. There are aspects of the story that are far-fetched but what Cinderella story isn't fanciful? The pacing speeds up a bit towards the end with resolutions coming a bit fast and furiously but most of the resolutions are completely earned and fit with the basic outline of the rags to riches plot line. Over all, this was a quick and delightful read that can be read as superficially frothy or examined on a slightly deeper level for questions of identity, the power of wealth, and the need to be comfortable in your own skin in order to live a happy life.



For more information about Lorelle Marinello and the book, be sure to visit her website.



Thanks to Trish from TLC Book Tours for arranging the blog tour and having a copy of the book sent to me for review.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Seriously, you thought I'd get much accomplished this week when I haven't the past few weeks? Lots of reading but no reviewing given that I am with family. I am resolving to do better next year though and I have this coming week to start to make that a reality. This meme is hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey Through a World of Books.

Books I completed this week are:

The Lunatic Express by Carl Hoffman
Homer's Odyssey by Gwen Cooper
Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens Who Don't Float by Sarah Schmelling
Eurydice Street by Sofka Zinovieff
Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese

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)
The Vagabond by Colette
A Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L'Engle

Reviews posted this week:

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

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
Daughter of the Bride by Francesca Segre
Chronicles of a Midlife Crisis by Robyn Harding
Going Away Shoes by Jill McCorkle
Half Empty by David Rakoff
She's Gone Country by Jane Porter
The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart
Huck by Janet Elder
Out of the Shadows by Joanne Rendell
I Know I Am, But What Are You? by Samantha Bee
Never Trust a Rogue by Olivia Drake
After the Fall by Kylie Ladd
Heart With Joy by Steve Cushman
The Lacemakers of Glenmara by Heather Barbieri
The Known World by Edward Jones
Victory Over Japan by Ellen Gilchrist
Web of Love by Mary Balogh
Pure Dead Frozen by Debi Gliori
The Best American Travel Writing 2009 edited by Simon Winchester
The Concubine's Daughter by Pai Kit Fai
The Forbidden Daughter by Shobhan Bantwal
The MacKenzies: Cole by Ana Leigh
Dreaming in Chinese by Deborah Fallows
Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte
Running the Books by Avi Steinberg
The Time in Between by David Bergen
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
Before Lunch by Angela Thirkell
The Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez
Destiny Unleashed by Sherryl Woods
Grayson by Lynne Cox
While I Was Gone by Sue Miller
Falling in Love Again by Cathy Maxwell
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
Semper Cool by Barry Fixler
City of Tranquil Light by Bo Caldwell
The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak
The Tapestry of Love by Rosy Thornton
A Civil Contract by Georgette Heyer
The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker
Waking Up in Eden by Lucinda Fleeson
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
One Season of Sunshine by Julia London
A Round-Heeled Woman by Jane Juska
Shoes, Hair, Nails by Deborah Batterman
Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle
The Lunatic Express by Carl Hoffman
Homer's Odyssey by Gwen Cooper
Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens Who Don't Float by Sarah Schmelling
Eurydice Street by Sofka Zinovieff
Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese

Monday Mailbox

Another one book week, at least as far as I know since this one was waiting at the garage door the morning we left town. Score! Its last minute arrival meant it made it into the car for the trip too. Double score! This past week's mailbox arrival:

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua came from Penguin thanks to Trish at TLC Book Tours.
I'm always interested in what inspires people to parent the way that they do and a book about a mother who consciously and intentionally chooses to parent in a way so many American parents don't is incredibly appealing.

As always, if you'd like to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Lady Q of Let Them Read Books as she is hosting this month's Mailbox Monday 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.

The annual Christmas letter from my house to yours

For all those of you who don't get the hard copy of my Christmas card, and really, you might not want to since you practically have to fake your own death to get off the list once you're on it, here's what you're missing:

We considered just writing “The K.s had a year” and leaving it at that this year but then we decided that all of you (hereafter known as the adoring public) would miss your yearly dose of schadenfreude. We couldn’t have that and so without further ado, the 2010 K. year in review.

January: Our house was a petri dish of disease this month. Not only did we have sick kids home from school (one or more almost every day of the month) but the sickest kid (both in terms of illness level and duration) managed to even give our computer a virus. We just couldn’t catch a break. But the biggest news of all this month was that a mere year and a half after moving in, Kristen finally managed to unpack the last, lingering box. Pretty sure that’s a speed record.

February: This month, like every other, D. drove all over the south for work. He can tell you the location of every Panera in the Carolinas thanks to their free wi-fi. Also this month, after months of etiquette and manners lessons, R. went to her Cotillion ball. Parents were not allowed to stay and watch but we’re certain that we’ve paid to successfully turn her into a giggly Southern belle.

March: The advent of spring brought about the filling of every block on the calendar again. Dance competitions, tennis tournaments, and soccer games all ate up the weekends and practices consumed the week nights.

April: W. officially became a teenager and Kristen’s stylist gave her a sample of that purple shampoo to make grey hair shine. Coincidence? We don’t think so either.

May: D. took Kristen to Asheville for their 15th anniversary this month. Kristen was pleased to note that the Vanderbilt family, while having a cooler library than she has, had only a handful more books than she does. D. thinks this is a sign of an obsession a tad out of control but Kristen begs to differ. This was also the month that Kristen dove head first into co-chairing the middle school book fair. She was very likely the person who bought the most books at the event too. (Trying to catch up with those Vanderbilts and all.)

June: The weather turned appallingly hot this month and therefore, according to the principles of Murphy’s Law, the air conditioning went out not only in the house but also the car. This made driving to all the still running kid activities rather unpleasant.

July: Every Daisy needs a Gatsby or so we decided. Our Gatsby is a miniature schnauzer who quickly became the family alpha dog. (Poor Daisy.) Our month at the cottage was rather shorter than a month this year thanks to the timing of R.’s dance Nationals. Kristen’s grandmother ended up in the hospital so all of us traveled home instead of just Kristen and R. We did go back north after the competition was over and enjoyed a couple more weeks watching Daisy ignore Gatsby as if her life depended on it.

August: We headed home from our abbreviated time at the cottage this month only to be caught up in the usual whirlwind of school and sports starting. T. took a lesson from his older brother and started the school year off by ignoring any and all homework. Good to know that the agenda notebook we have to buy every year will be put to good use yet again.

September: Kristen walked the VA Beach marathon with a friend without having trained properly. It was so much fun to be contorted in pain she plans to run one without proper training in January. D. and some friends went to the Penn State-Alabama game this month. Stories from the weekend continue to emerge but Kristen’s favorite will always be the one where the attractive young coed walked up to the guys, suggested that they looked like they were having fun, and then asked if her dad could join them!

October: W. added another adolescent woe to his life: braces. He chose to get the rubber bands on his brackets in Ohio State colors. Way to show (ugly) team spirit! Also this month, Kristen signed herself up for adult dance classes. Aside from her general lack of basic coordination, it was good fun. The fact that she actually managed to stand upright again after attempting to do splits surely means she’s not as much like the hippos in Fantasia as the room’s wall of mirrors would imply.

November: R. has always been a creative child and she’s taken to making herself jewelry. Almost every day this month has debuted one of her new creations. The latest in her collection? Festive Christmas earrings that spell HO. That’s right, not HoHoHo, just Ho. And parents of the year that we are, we let her wear them out in public. Maybe someday you too will be able to purchase her unintentionally entertaining creations.

December: R. took the SATs this month. She said that the English section was easy because it was mostly grammar. She was unimpressed that Kristen is taking credit for this supposed ease (although Kristen abjures all responsibility if her score is low). Please note the SAT word in the previous sentence and then tell me again where credit is due! Oh, and just to be fair, Kristen only takes credit for passing on the math gene, not for actually teaching R. anything if the math score is respectable. D. starts a new job with Microsoft this month and everyone should expect deeply discounted software in their stockings this year. Hopefully the amount of travel he has to do will lessen and we can all go back to remembering to say we have five people in the family without having to pause and think about it (or count on our fingers).

As 2010 comes to a close, we hope that all of you are surrounded by family, peace, love, and happiness now and throughout the coming year.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Pitiful week in books for me. But I did all of my holiday baking, finished buying all Christmas presents, mailed all my cards, and am hosting my tennis team for a completely homemade lunch today so I guess I'll give myself a pass on the reading and reviewing front this week! This meme is hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey Through a World of Books.

Books I completed this week are:

A Round-Heeled Woman by Jane Juska
Shoes, Hair, Nails by Deborah Batterman
Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle

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
The Vagabond by Colette
Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens Who Don't Float by Sarah Schmelling
A Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L'Engle
The Lunatic Express by Carl Hoffman

Reviews posted this week:

Hollywood Ending by Lucie Simone

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

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
Daughter of the Bride by Francesca Segre
Chronicles of a Midlife Crisis by Robyn Harding
Going Away Shoes by Jill McCorkle
Half Empty by David Rakoff
She's Gone Country by Jane Porter
The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart
Huck by Janet Elder
Out of the Shadows by Joanne Rendell
I Know I Am, But What Are You? by Samantha Bee
Never Trust a Rogue by Olivia Drake
After the Fall by Kylie Ladd
Heart With Joy by Steve Cushman
The Lacemakers of Glenmara by Heather Barbieri
The Known World by Edward Jones
Victory Over Japan by Ellen Gilchrist
Web of Love by Mary Balogh
Pure Dead Frozen by Debi Gliori
The Best American Travel Writing 2009 edited by Simon Winchester
The Concubine's Daughter by Pai Kit Fai
The Forbidden Daughter by Shobhan Bantwal
The MacKenzies: Cole by Ana Leigh
Dreaming in Chinese by Deborah Fallows
Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte
Running the Books by Avi Steinberg
The Time in Between by David Bergen
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
Before Lunch by Angela Thirkell
The Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez
Destiny Unleashed by Sherryl Woods
Grayson by Lynne Cox
While I Was Gone by Sue Miller
Falling in Love Again by Cathy Maxwell
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
Semper Cool by Barry Fixler
City of Tranquil Light by Bo Caldwell
The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak
The Tapestry of Love by Rosy Thornton
A Civil Contract by Georgette Heyer
The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker
Waking Up in Eden by Lucinda Fleeson
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
Salting Roses by Lorelle Marinello
One Season of Sunshine by Julia London
A Round-Heeled Woman by Jane Juska
Shoes, Hair, Nails by Deborah Batterman
Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle

Monday Mailbox

One lone book this week but as I'm still behind, that was okay. Still the book that did make it was a welcome sight. This past week's mailbox arrival:

The Book of Tomorrow by Cecelia Ahern came from Harper.
A sixteen year old whose world is rocked by her father's death discovers a book that seemingly tells her what is going to happen the next day. How enticing is that?

As always, if you'd like to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Lady Q of Let Them Read Books as she is hosting this month's Mailbox Monday 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.

Interview with L.B. Gschwandtner, author of The Naked Gardener

Last month I read LB Gschwandtner's novel, The Naked Gardner (read my review here). This month, LB was gracious enough to answer my questions. Her fun answers definitely give you a sense of what the writing in the book is like.

Which book or books are on your bedside table right now?
The Year Of The Flood by Margaret Atwood (in the middle of it)
Tinkers by Paul Harding
The Financial lives of Poets by Jess Walter
The Hospital For Bad Poets (short story collection) by J. C. Hallman (reading his great stories here and there)
The Widower’s Tale by Julia Glass

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who seems to be in the midst of a zillion books at once!

What was your favorite book when you were a child?
The Princess and The Goblin

I don't know that one. My favorite is a relative unknown too (The Fabulous Flight).

What book would you most want to read again for the first time?

Dr. Zhivago because it’s the only book that made me cry. I’ve read it 5 times and at the same place I always cry. It’s a phenomenal book.

Interesting. I've read quite a few of the Russian classics but I've never read that one.

How did you get started writing?
It started with editing a business magazine. I had to rewrite a lot of other people’s writing and found I was good at it. But fiction is something entirely different. It’s very complex to learn how to write a work of fiction. It takes many different ways of thinking. That’s what I like about it. I started by going to the Iowa Writers Workshop and just kept studying and writing.

I can re-write other people's work with the best of them but writing a novel is so different I don't know if I'd be able to do that. You weathered the big mindset switch well.

If you heard someone describing your book to a friend out in public, how would you most like to hear them describe them/it?
This book was transportive and you have to read it.

::laughing:: I don't know too many people who use the word transportive (I would but I'm a word nerd) but what a great thing to want to hear.

What's the coolest thing that's happened to you since becoming a published author?
Getting to do stuff like this. Writing is a solitary occupation. It is wonderful to interact with other people who love books and who want to know more about the process. And it’s gratifying to read reviews that say things about your book that you never considered.

What was the first thing you did when you heard that you were going to be published?
A writer friend actually talked me into becoming an Indie author. I was reluctant but now I’m having a great time and I love being an Indie. I think the first thing I did was check my sales stats. The first book that sold was a thrill.

Tell us three interesting or offbeat but true things about yourself.
#1: I like to do laundry.
#2: My father once had a dinner date with Marilyn Monroe.
#3: Charlie Merrill (the founder of Merrill Lynch) was at my parents’ wedding & I have the wedding present he gave them.

You know #1 makes you officially weird, right? But feel free to come to my house and indulge yourself any time. ;-)

If you couldn’t be an author, what profession would you choose and why?
Physicist. If I had a brain that could manage math that is. Which I don’t. Physics fascinates me. It explains the universe right up to the ultimate unanswered question. How did it all come to be? And then … still a mystery. So that’s where the arts take over.

What’s the hardest thing about writing, besides having to answer goofy interview questions like these?
It’s when you get stuck on something and don’t know what to do next. That is different from writers’ block, which I’ve never had. It’s a place where the puzzle pieces don’t seem to fit. It’s very frustrating and makes you want to throw your computer out the window (which is a scene in the movie Julia when the Jane Fonda character – supposedly Lillian Hellman – tosses her typewriter out the window in frustration with a play she’s working on)

This frustration is why my computer is not near a window. I hope yours isn't either!

Are you working on something new now? If so, give us a teaser for it.
It’s called Foxy’s Tale. About a 40-year-old former southern beauty queen who’s ex football star turned sportscaster husband has been caught naked with a “hostess” in the fountain at the Las Vegas Bellagio. She takes her teenage daughter and moves into an old house in Washington, D.C. and opens an antique store, rents out the two extra apartments, and begins life over. Except one of her tenants turns out to be – well, not exactly what he seems.

I’m writing it with another writer who specializes in humorous mystery. We’re having the best time working together. Sort of like Lucy and Ethel.

This sounds like it would be hilarious (both the book and the collaboration). I'll look forward to reading it when it's finished.

Thanks to LB Gschwandtner for humoring me and giving such great answers to my questions. Be sure to check out her book, The Naked Gardner, and her website, The Novelette.

Review: Hollywood Ending by Lucie Simone

How many hundreds or thousands of people leave their hometowns lured by the bright lights and possibility of stardom in Hollywood? Trina is one of those people. She's been in Hollywood stiving for stardom for the past ten years but her big break is proving amazingly elusive. While waiting, she teaches English as a second language, a job she doesn't love and which feels stultifying. But she can't give up her dream. At least things are starting to look up for Trina on the relationship front. She's met a attractive and available limo driver who is proving to be a big distraction and a delicious man has moved in upstairs from her too. Matiu upstairs is a Maori, in Hollywood from New Zealand to take some set design classes before heading back to his home and closely knit family.

As Trina and Matiu navigate the treacherous and shallow waters of Hollywood wannabes, they face an assortment of mishaps great and small: identity theft, agent smarminess, superficiality, disappointment, and frustration. But despite all of this and despite their initial wrong footing, they also find love. What remains to be seen is whether they will each find the glittering Hollywood success they both want so dearly.

The tone of the book is very light and humorous. Trina is an average everyday kind of girl while Matiu's whiff of the exotic adds interest to his character. The problem is that aside from his longing to go back to New Zealand and a small mention of the closeness of the Maori people and their dislike of subterfuge, there's not much reason to have Matiu be Maori. He could be any foreigner suffering homesickness, equal parts enchanted with Hollywood's possibilities and repelled by its seaminess. Most of Trina and Matiu's interactions are entertaining in their misinterpretations so while the ending doesn't come as a surprise (what romance ever has a surprise ending?), it feels rushed, especially given the reiterations of Trina's ten years in the salt mines before the book opens. And somehow, given all their misunderstandings and the short time frame of the book itself, I just didn't see a real and abiding love develop, more a hormone-charged lust that might or might not develop into the real thing.

Most reviews I've seen have been overwhelmingly positive so while there was something missing for me, take a look at what others had to say. The book is steamy and has some graphic sexual content but would be a good choice for readers of contemporary romantic comedy and those who want something light and frothy to get through the cold winter days.

For more information about Lucie Simone, her books, her blog, and the Goodreads giveaway for a copy of Hollywood Ending make sure to check out her author website.

Thanks to Christelle at BookSparks PR for sending me a copy of this book for review.

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: The Bird Sisters by Rebecca Rasmussen. The book is being released by Crown on April 12, 2011.

Amazon says this about the book: Whenever a bird flies into a window in Spring Green, Wisconsin, sisters Milly and Twiss get a visit. Twiss listens to the birds' heartbeats, assessing what she can fix and what she can't, while Milly listens to the heartaches of the people who've brought them. The two sisters have spent their lives nursing people and birds back to health.

But back in the summer of 1947, Milly was known as a great beauty with emerald eyes and Twiss was a brazen wild child who never wore a dress or did what she was told. That was the summer their golf pro father got into an accident that cost him both his swing and his charm, and their mother, the daughter of a wealthy jeweler, finally admitted their hardscrabble lives wouldn't change. It was the summer their priest, Father Rice, announced that God didn't exist and ran off to Mexico, and a boy named Asa finally caught Milly's eye. And most unforgettably, it was the summer their cousin Bett came down from a town called Deadwater and changed the course of their lives forever.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Not much reading or reviewing managed to be done this past week. And yet I still feel like a chicken with her head cut off. Funny how that happens! Need to stop overscheduling and start reading again. This meme is hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey Through a World of Books.

Books I completed this week are:

Salting Roses by Lorelle Marinello
One Season of Sunshine by Julia London

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
The Vagabond by Colette
Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens Who Don't Float by Sarah Schmelling
A Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L'Engle
Shoes, Hair, Nails by Deborah Batterman
A Round-Heeled Woman by Jane Juska

Reviews posted this week:

Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda
Been There, Haven't Done That by Tara McCarthy

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

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
Daughter of the Bride by Francesca Segre
Chronicles of a Midlife Crisis by Robyn Harding
Going Away Shoes by Jill McCorkle
Half Empty by David Rakoff
She's Gone Country by Jane Porter
The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart
Huck by Janet Elder
Out of the Shadows by Joanne Rendell
I Know I Am, But What Are You? by Samantha Bee
Never Trust a Rogue by Olivia Drake
After the Fall by Kylie Ladd
Heart With Joy by Steve Cushman
The Lacemakers of Glenmara by Heather Barbieri
The Known World by Edward Jones
Victory Over Japan by Ellen Gilchrist
Web of Love by Mary Balogh
Pure Dead Frozen by Debi Gliori
The Best American Travel Writing 2009 edited by Simon Winchester
The Concubine's Daughter by Pai Kit Fai
The Forbidden Daughter by Shobhan Bantwal
The MacKenzies: Cole by Ana Leigh
Dreaming in Chinese by Deborah Fallows
Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte
Running the Books by Avi Steinberg
The Time in Between by David Bergen
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
Before Lunch by Angela Thirkell
The Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez
Destiny Unleashed by Sherryl Woods
Grayson by Lynne Cox
While I Was Gone by Sue Miller
Hollywood Ending by Lucie Simone
Falling in Love Again by Cathy Maxwell
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
Semper Cool by Barry Fixler
City of Tranquil Light by Bo Caldwell
The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak
The Tapestry of Love by Rosy Thornton
A Civil Contract by Georgette Heyer
The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker
Waking Up in Eden by Lucinda Fleeson
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
Salting Roses by Lorelle Marinello
One Season of Sunshine by Julia London

Monday Mailbox

One lone book this week but as I'm still behind, that was okay. Still the book that did make it was a welcome sight. This past week's mailbox arrival:

The Crimson Rooms by Katharine McMahon came from Alexandra at Berkley.
A woman shows up on the Gifford family's doorstep claiming her small son is the son of Evelyn's soldier brother who died years prior in WWI. In trying to support the whole family, including the new arrivals, Evelyn, a female lawyer, comes across a case that seems hopeless but that she can't turn down. This one borders on out of my comfort level but is terribly intriguing nonetheless.

As always, if you'd like to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Lady Q of Let Them Read Books as she is hosting this month's Mailbox Monday 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: Been There, Haven't Done That by Tara McCarthy

Seems a little odd to call a memoir about not having sex a sexual memoir, but that is indeed what this "virgin's memoir" really is. McCarthy decided long ago that her virginity was not something to be given lightly and she chronicles the many failed relationships in her past that make her glad to have stuck to her principles. She fully admits that she is quite sexually experienced for a virgin. And there are some discussions in the book that might make the reader wonder just what definition of sex she's using in declaring herself a virgin. Some might be unkind enough to say that she's using the same definition that the news would have you believe is prevalent in high schools today (that oral sex is not in fact sex) or to which one of our former Presidents subscribed. Clearly she's of the camp that only actual penetration of one sexual organ by another counts. I disagree with her but thought her account of her relationships up to age 25 would be interesting despite our differing viewpoints.

Sex aside, her relationships are the same as relationships the world over, fraught with the same problems as any other. Interestingly, the older she gets, the less pressure she faces from her boyfriends (most fairly short term--she says she averaged about 4 months or so in a relationship there at one point) to have sex and she is conflicted about this. She spends much of the book repeatedly asserting that she is happy with her choice to remain a virgin and reflecting that her decision is more about her than about the guys in her life but it's a little disingenuous for her to be bothered when they respect her decision without pressuring her.

She does touch on the pervasiveness of sex in our culture and the way that we readily assume, even expect, sexual relationships between couples. She talks about her early feelings that virginity was shameful, something to hide and the way in which she has come to be proud of her sticking to her convictions and openly admits to her virginity (after all, how much more open can you be than to publish a book announcing it to the world?). The big problem is that she merely touches on these aspects of her decision while detailing her fairly repetitive relationship exploits. While the topic is thought-provoking, the book went on too long, starting to sound as if she had written it to help convince herself that her stance was indeed the one in which she wanted to continue. Now I don't think that's actually true, but the refrain was very much in the broken record vein by the time I turned the last page. Certainly a provocative subject, I wish there had been more memoir or more sociological study, not a tepid mix of the two.

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: Butterfly's Child by Angela Davis-Gardner. The book is being released by The Dial Press on March 8, 2011.

Amazon describes it thusly: When three-year-old Benji is plucked from the security of his home in Nagasaki to live with his American father, Lt. Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton, and stepmother, Kate, on their farm in Illinois, the family conceals Benji’s true identity as a child born from a liaison between an officer and a geisha, and instead tells everyone that he is an orphan.

Frank struggles to keep the farm going while coping with his guilt and longing for the deceased Butterfly. Deeply devout Kate is torn between her Christian principles and her resentment of raising another woman’s child. And Benji’s life as an outcast—neither fully American nor fully Japanese—forces him to forge an identity far from the life he has known.

When the truth about Benji surfaces, it will splinter this family’s fragile dynamic, sending repercussions spiraling through their close-knit rural community and sending Benji on the journey of a lifetime from Illinois to the Japanese settlements in Denver and San Francisco, then across the ocean to Nagasaki, where he will uncover the truth about his mother’s tragic death.

A sweeping portrait of a changing American landscape at the end of the nineteenth century, and of a Japanese culture irrevocably altered by foreign influence, Butterfly’s Child explores people in transition—from old worlds to new customs, heart’s desires to vivid realities—in an epic tale that plays out as both a conclusion to and an inspiration for one of the most famous love stories ever told.

Review: Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

Two families continents apart connected by one girl, this novel, set in India and the US and tackling adoption, infertility, identity, self, and the definition of family was a compelling read. It opens with the birth of a baby girl whose mother must make the terrible decision to abandon her at an orphanage in the city if she wants her baby to live. Girls are not valued in their small village, as evidenced by the fact that the first baby girl born to Kavita and Jasu was killed soon after her birth. But Kavita will do everything in her power to make sure that tiny Usha (meaning dawn) survives. Half a world away in San Francisco, pediatrician Somer suffers yet another miscarriage, ultimately discovering the devastating news that she and husband Krishnan won't be able to have children. After much deliberation, they decide to adopt and specifically to adopt from Krishnan's home country, India. The adorable little girl who becomes their daughter is Asha (meaning hope) a misreading of her original given name, Usha

As Somer works through the grief of learning she'll never have a biological child and comes to the idea of adoption, Kavita learns that she is pregnant again but this time, thanks to the wonders of ultrasound, with a boy who she will be able to keep and to love even as she still loves her two lost daughters. The novel alternates between California and India, concerned with Asha's privileged life in the US and Kavita and Jasu's life of striving in Bombay, where they moved to try and better their lot. The contrasts between the experiences of the two mothers, Somer and Kavita, and their concerns for their children are stark but they are also bound by similarities common to all mothers.

This is not only a book about mothers and daughters but about belonging and the ways in which the heart is indelibly bound both through blood and through love. Asha questions who she is, the daughter of a white woman and an Indian man but adopted and fully Indian herself. She struggles with her cultural identity alongside the many unanswered questions that face adoptees with little to no information on their birth families.

Kavita never recovers from losing Usha and so she wraps her whole being into raising her son, Vijay all the while keeping the shadow of her baby daughter tucked away, hidden. As Kavita and Jasu raise their precious son, they exhaust themselves to try and make a better life, slowly pulling themselves up from desperate poverty, centimeter by agonizing centimeter. Gowda has definitely drawn a vivid and heartbreaking portrait of the struggle for life in Bombay's slums.

Motherhood and what we owe our mothers looms large here. The complex ways in which daughters and mothers interact, the ways they hurt one another, and the ways they hold each other close are very important. Somer loved and raised Asha. She is clearly Asha's mother. But Kavita too is Asha's mother, having loved her enough to save her life. And it is the not knowing this second mother or her love that drives Asha's college life, her quest for an identity as defined through both of her mothers.

The stories are gripping and the female characters complex and interesting. Each one grapples with such different demons that the reader is in sympathy with all three women, Somer, Kavita, and Asha as they face the hand that life dealt them and forge ahead, always tied by sometimes invisible threads. For readers who have an interest in the long term effects of international adoption, those who enjoy mother daughter stories, and those who have a yen to read about the complex and fascinating reality of life in India, this will fit the bill perfectly. It's strong, heartbreaking, and well written, a definite page turner.

Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy of the book to read via LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Still no balance for me between reading and reviewing but I'm okay with how much more reviewing got accomplished this past week even if it was at the expense of reading. This meme is hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey Through a World of Books.

Books I completed this week are:

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver

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
The Vagabond by Colette
Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens Who Don't Float by Sarah Schmelling
A Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L'Engle

Reviews posted this week:

The Queen of Palmyra by Minrose Gwin
The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli
What I Thought I Knew by Alice Eve Cohen
Stay With Me by Sandra Rodriguez Barron
The Laments by George Hagen
Smart Girls Think Twice by Cathie Lenz
Proust's Overcoat by Lorenza Foschini

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

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
Daughter of the Bride by Francesca Segre
Chronicles of a Midlife Crisis by Robyn Harding
Going Away Shoes by Jill McCorkle
Half Empty by David Rakoff
She's Gone Country by Jane Porter
The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart
Huck by Janet Elder
Out of the Shadows by Joanne Rendell
I Know I Am, But What Are You? by Samantha Bee
Never Trust a Rogue by Olivia Drake
After the Fall by Kylie Ladd
Heart With Joy by Steve Cushman
The Lacemakers of Glenmara by Heather Barbieri
The Known World by Edward Jones
Victory Over Japan by Ellen Gilchrist
Web of Love by Mary Balogh
Pure Dead Frozen by Debi Gliori
The Best American Travel Writing 2009 edited by Simon Winchester
The Concubine's Daughter by Pai Kit Fai
The Forbidden Daughter by Shobhan Bantwal
The MacKenzies: Cole by Ana Leigh
Dreaming in Chinese by Deborah Fallows
Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte
Running the Books by Avi Steinberg
The Time in Between by David Bergen
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
Before Lunch by Angela Thirkell
The Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez
Destiny Unleashed by Sherryl Woods
Grayson by Lynne Cox
While I Was Gone by Sue Miller
Hollywood Ending by Lucie Simone
Falling in Love Again by Cathy Maxwell
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
Semper Cool by Barry Fixler
City of Tranquil Light by Bo Caldwell
The Bastard of Istanbul by Elif Shafak
The Tapestry of Love by Rosy Thornton
A Civil Contract by Georgette Heyer
The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker
Waking Up in Eden by Lucinda Fleeson
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver

Monday Mailbox

One lone book this week but as I'm still behind, that was okay. Still the book that did make it was a welcome sight. This past week's mailbox arrival:

The Secret Lives of Dresses by Erin McKean came from Hachette.

The Proper Care and Maintenance of Friendship by Lisa Verge Higgins came from Hachette.

Being Polite to Hitler by Robb Foreman Dew came from Hachette.

Georgia Bottoms by Mark Childress came from Hachette.

As always, if you'd like to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Lady Q of Let Them Read Books as she is hosting this month's Mailbox Monday 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: Proust's Overcoat by Lorenza Foschini

"You can't take it with you." How many times have I heard that? Yet despite this maxim, people are frequently still judged by their possessions. Perhaps this is nowhere more evident than when viewing the possessions of famous people. When you go for a tour of a famous author's home, doesn't it feel a bit like a cheat if the furnishings are only representative of the period and not original to the author? Somehow, knowing that your favorite author sat at this desk or wore that dress makes viewing these artifacts that much more exhilerating. And to know that the manuscript laid out under glass is original? Priceless. So what if you had the opportunity and the money to collect your favorite author's belongings? Would you?

Jacques Guerin was the head of his family's very successful perfume business when he fell ill and was attended by the late Marcel Proust's brother, Dr. Robert Proust. While perfume was Guerin's business, rare books and author possessions were what fired his imagination and drove him in his obsessive collecting. His acquaintance with Dr. Proust and subsequently to an antiques dealer who also knew the Prousts enabled him to amass much of the collection he prized so dearly. Woven through the tale of Guerin's thorough and careful hunt for Proustiana, is a brief but instructive history of Proust's relationship with his unfaithful brother and bitter sister-in-law to whom Proust's homosexuality was a terrible and appalling embarrassment. The history works seamlessly with the story of Guerin's collecting and author Foschini's literary detective work to uncover both of these aforementioned stories. The book is slight but engaging and there's no need for the reader to be more than passingly familiar with Proust. I have never read his works and yet the story of Guerin's quest to save Proust's belongings from the flames to which his brother's widow would have consigned them was fascinating as was the short history of Proust himself. While this hasn't necessarily convinced me to search out Proust's Remembrance of Things Past with so many other books still on my plate, I definitely have to admit to more curiousity than before.

Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy of this book to review.

Sunday Salon: Author ads

I was driving home from Christmas shopping yesterday and I heard something on the radio that surprised me: an author endorsing a service. What surprised me about this was that he said, "My name is X and I'm the author of the book Y and this particular service is one that I endorse." (That's a rough paraphrase incidentally.) I recognized both author and book but I wonder how much of Joe Public would. The book was made into a movie with a BIG star but the movie isn't terribly current so it might not ring too many memory bells for folks hearing the book title. The product being endorsed was *absolutely* perfect given the content of the book so it is clear the person behind the ad is literate (or a moviegoer). And since Mr. X doesn't mention that the book was made into a movie, the implication is that the listening public will recognize both author and title and make the connection that this particular author does indeed know about the sorts of products he is endorsing. The arguments about truth in advertising and celebrity endorsements aside, I was incredibly pleased to hear the ad. It would imply that we as a nation (I'm assuming without proof that the ad is nationwide) are readers. It assumes that we will find the endorsement of an author convincing. It assumes, in a roundabout way, that we consider books important things. Given all the negative press about non-readers and reports on the death of books, I am heartened by the assumptions made here. I'm still slightly skeptical but also hopeful that the small core group of readers I know about is indeed a much bigger and more influential pool than I had previously thought. After all, I love to be considered influential!

This past week has been a rather slow reading week for me as it took me a long time to plug through the one book I did read. I spent time in Mexico with the Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo and then moved on to the US during WWII and in the heat of McCarthyism. What consumed your reading week?

Virtual Advent Tour: Bittersweet Christmas

Christmas is a time of love and tradition and family and it is definitely my favorite holiday of the year. (See my post from last year about the things I so love about Christmas.) It's an easy holiday to love what with the giving and the getting and the enthusiasm of the kids. But this year it's a little bittersweet too. My kids are getting old enough that the excitement is a little jaded. When they were small, Christmas literally shone in their eyes. They were in awe of Santa when they sat on his lap at the mall (well, except for my daughter R. who has always been leery of strange men--she was terrified of Santa and screamed in his general vicinity). They thought that every ornament we pulled out to put on the tree was the most beautiful in the whole world. They oohed and ahhed when we drove through neighborhoods looking for elaborate light displays. But most of all, they believed in all of it.

They believed in Santa and the spirit of giving. They sprinkled reindeer food and shopped their little hearts out at the Santa shop at school, wanting to find the perfect gift for everyone in the family (generally amongst the $1 items on the white elephant table, fiscally responsible little goobers that they were). It was pure magic to see their little faces the first time they laid eyes on the presents under the tree. It warmed my heart to watch their sturdy little selves trundle up the center aisle at church for the children's sermon and to be so solemn about the pastor's gift of a candy cane (said solemnity quickly changed to glee when they discovered they could eat the candy cane while the service continued). They were so little, so trusting, so full of belief.

And now they are older. So Christmas is a little bittersweet for me. When the children in the congregation go forward, my older two stay in the pew with us and the youngest one only goes to the front if he's accompanying his younger cousins. And Santa Claus, well there's one unbeliever and one believer. Then there's R. who never much liked him in the first place. Her current line is that she doesn't "believe in him all the way but I don't not believe either." She's hedging her bets, the sceptical one. And she still believes in presents so she won't jeopardize those. The oldest is lobbying to be allowed to help put presents under the tree with the adults. I've told him no. I'm not ready to give up the look, fleeting but still there, that crosses his face when he first sees all the gifts on Christmas morning. Or maybe we should let him so he'll know just how bittersweet it is when you join the ranks of the grown-ups. Then he probably won't want to join in next year but will be content to going back to being a kid.

The traditions of Christmas with small children are waning with my growing kids. They'll be let in on all the mundane secrets of the grown-ups soon, some of it tradition of its own type: like why my dad always thanks his mom, who my children never had the privilege of meeting, for the socks and underwear in his stocking, how the rest of us head to bed long before daddy is finished wrapping the myriads of things he's purchased in his ongoing effort to keep every mail order catalog on the planet in business, and why we all chuckle about the use of the funny pages or store bags as wrapping when the family Claus gets too tired or runs out of supplies. But knowing these things takes just a little of the magic out of Christmas and marks another passed milestone on the road to adulthood. I'm selfishly glad that I still have the one who believes so I can still catch some of the pure delight through his innocent and unjaded eyes. When that goes, well, a tiny bit of the sparkle of the holidays will be gone too. And I know that day is getting closer. Sweet filled with love Christmas but bittersweet too.

If you want to read other posts on the Virtual Advent Tour, look at the dedicated Virtual Advent Tour blog to see the schedule of postings, including others today.

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.

Nightingale Wood by Stella Gibbons was mentioned on A Striped Armchair.

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: Smart Girls Think Twice by Cathie Linz

Why is it that the smart girls are always the mousy, less attractive girls? Now certainly having a smart main character in a romance means that she will in the end get the guy (hope that wasn't a spoiler for any of you devoted romance readers out there) but is it necessary to always have her be outshown looks-wise by just about everyone? Why can't women be smart and beautiful? And if they are, why do they have to be insecure enough about their brains to downplay their looks by looking dowdy? Obviously I have an ax to grind over the usual portrayals of smart women and I had hoped that this book would turn that stereotype on its head. Unfortunately I was bound to be disappointed.

Our heroine Emma has come back to tiny Rock Creek, PA for both of her sisters' weddings. She is a professor of sociology at a small school in Boston and her job in academia epitomizes the publish or perish mindset. While she's in town for the weddings and playing peacemaker between her opinionated sisters and her loud and vibrant mother, she intends to capitalize professionally by researching the reasons for Rock Creek's rebirth. Examining the reasons means she needs the cooperation of newcomer Jake. He has no intentions of cooperating or allowing Emma to dig into his past and the two fence verbally whenever they see each other; and since Jake somehow ends up being pressed into service as Emma's date to the weddings, they'll see each other plenty.

The fact that the two of them are instantly attracted to each other is fine. It's a little odd though that within minutes of meeting each other for the first time both Emma and Jake fantasize about what the other would look like ready, willing, and in bed. Their chemistry comes off as more the high school obsessive lust variety than anything that would lead to a lasting relationship, the only thing missing is Emma driving by Jake's house with a friend to see if he's home. The plotline concerning Emma's research, while carried through the novel, is mostly fairly light and inconsequential as is the plotline with Emma as family mediator, the sane one if you will. An okay enough book for the most part, this is a fluffy and fairly forgettable book that does nothing towards breaking a stereotype that really gets my dander up.

Review: The Laments by George Hagen

Sometimes a book languishes unread on my bookshelves for what seems like millenia. There's no predicting when I will possibly pick it up and read it; just knowing that it is there waiting is a sort of balm to my soul. In the case of The Laments by George Hagen, the book had been tucked away for years when I inadvertantly bought a second copy of it at a used bookstore this summer. Yes, I do that sometimes. On the plus side, I consider it confirmation that the book definitely appeals to me (twice). And I've made it a practice to consider it a nudge from the universe to actually get on it and read the book already.

The Lament family is peripatetic in the extreme, traveling around the world, settling briefly, before heading off again in search of a place that fits them better than the one that they are in. Opening with the birth of their first son, a fat and happy little boy, there is no doubt that the family's luck is all going to be bad or impossible from the moment a mentally disturbed woman whose own infant is sickly and melancholy kidnaps the cheery and chubby Lament baby instead of accepting her own. The only recourse, of course, is to adopt her son and pretend that he is their biological child. Will, the secretly adopted Lament, spends the next many years trying to fit in with his boisterous and rambunctious family. His struggle to fit in is a mirror in miniature of his family's quest to fit in as they move from Rhodesia to Bahrain, England, and America. Father Howard is a creative and frustrated engineer with a strange affinity for valves while mother Julia is an artistic and somewhat apathetic sort. The twins, who have a deep and unexplainable twin connection, are hellions and apt to create chaos and leave upheaval in their wakes no matter where the family lives.

The Laments start out the book full of hopes and aspirations, unrealistic though they may be, and they end it rather more downtrodden and definitely downwardly mobile than they started it. On the whole, the book is a tragedy but there is such wonderful dry humor and forthright writing in it that it is nothing but a pleasure to read. I truly did laugh out loud in more than one instance and if the terrible happenings quotient is higher than I'd usually find realistic, it is entertaining all the way. The characters are quirky and eccentric but they inspire great sympathy in the reader as they go through their lives. Exaggeration is rife and the explicit social commentary is hard to miss but even though I suspect Hagen of condemning my life, I still thoroughly enjoyed his novel.

Review: Stay With Me by Sandra Rodriguez Barron

In the aftermath of a hurricane, a luxury boat docks at an unused, unfinished marina in Puerto Rico. A blond woman and three Latino men slip off the boat unnoticed. When the boat is discovered by authorities, there are five babies and toddlers on board. The abandoned children are wearing beautiful clothing and look well cared for. An investigation is launched into the children's origins but no one ever comes forward to claim them. Each of them is eventually adopted into their own family but they retain a sense of family with each other, the Starfish Children, so named because of the faint green drawing of a starfish on each tiny hand. Despite the fact that they have no knowledge of their biological family and that they grew up in different families far apart, David, Taina, Holly, Adrian, and Raymond consider themselves siblings. So when David, now in his early thirties, is diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme, an aggressive type of brain cancer, the group cannot say no to his desire that they all reunite at his ex-girlfriend Julia's family cottage on one of the Thimble Islands off the coast of Connecticut.

What none of the others know is that David's tumor has started causing him to have flashbacks to the time before the hurricane and he wants them to dig into their past and finally know the truth about their origins. David wants to give each of them a solid history like the one that Julia, his ex-girlfriend and the woman he is determined to marry, has. Each of the Starfish Children has emotional baggage as a result of their unknown past and as David faces his own mortality, he needs to help everyone confront the demons. Taina is married to a stockbroker turned detective but her fear of intimacy is driving them towards a divorce regardless of how much her husband wants to save their marriage. Holly is married with three young boys but she can't stop the ache she feels at her lack of a daughter, especially one who looks like her rather than like her husband and red-headed sons. Adrian is a rising singing star who bounces from woman to woman, making certain that no one gets too close or too needy. Raymond is a cook who battles alcoholism and a rather lonely existence. David is a naturalist who loves the out of doors but who lost Julia after a six-year live-in relationship because he was unable to take the next step into marriage.

As David fights against his cancer, he pulls his struggling siblings to his heart, counting on the fact that despite their issues with others, they have such a deep connection to each other that they will reunite for a week of enforced family togetherness in the magic that is Julia's family home. And he is partially right. As the distant and historical past swirls around them in the Griswold home, more than just a curiousity about their shared past comes to the fore and there are manifestations of the dysfunctions that populate all families.

The narration is shared between characters and an omniscient narrator who focuses in turn on the different siblings in the course not only of the week in Connecticut but also through David's battle with cancer and on their home lives. This truly fills the novel with an ensemble cast. David and Julia, as the two characters most fully invested in David's care, are the most completely developed and central to the plot but each of the characters is individual, well-rounded, and real. The mystery of the origins of the siblings is interesting but not the only thing that drives the plot and keeps the reader turning the pages. Wanting to know if the siblings can maintain their family relationship in the face of the truth's potential and the devastation of David's prognosis is even more engaging. The last couple of chapters are simply beautifully written. Relationships, the family we make, the importance of history, and the power of love are all important themes here. This was a lovely read.

For more information about Sandra Rodriguez Barron and the book, be sure to visit her website. There's loads of interesting stuff there, including the fact that she met her husband over a keg of beer at a Superbowl party.




Thanks to Trish from TLC Book Tours for arranging the blog tour and having a copy of the book sent to me for review.

Review: What I Thought I Knew by Alice Eve Cohen plus a Q&A with the author

When I decided to have children, I didn't do much soul searching, much questioning of whether I would be a good mother, what sorts of genetic or environmental issues I would be passing along to those as yet unborn. Of course, both my husband and I were young, educated, and healthy so we were a good risk for reproduction. The fact that I fell pregnant easily just seemed to reinforce our somewhat unthinking decision to form a larger family. But what if I had not been young? Or what if I couldn't get pregnant? What if, finally being pregnant, I was 44 and had been told I was infertile, I didn't discover my condition until I was 6 months pregnant, and my fiance and I were uninsured artists living without so that we could do that which fed our souls? That in essence is the situation in which Alice Eve Cohen found herself. This book is the searingly honest, revealing memoir of a 3 month pregnancy, the medical incompetence, the emotional struggle, the questioning, and the grace that characterized her pregnancy.

Cohen was told that due to a misshapen uterus she was infertile so she and her first husband adopted a lovely daughter. Years later at age 44, she is happy as the mother to her daughter; she feels fulfilled in her job teaching acting and performing her own plays; and she is thriving in her relationship with her fiance. But then niggling health concerns start popping up and doctors have no answers for her. It could be her age. It could be the hormones she's taking. Whatever it is, the answer isn't yielding to any of the tests she undergoes, until finally, a bombshell. She's pregnant. 6 months pregnant.

As Cohen cycles through disbelief to acceptance, she chronicles the emotional roller coaster as well. What choices does she have with this late term news? How does her lack of pre-natal care affect her decision about the outcome of her pregnancy? What kind of weight does fiance Michael's feelings on this unexpected pregnancy have? How can she possibly wrap her head around the place she finds herself? Fiercely honest about her reactions and her decisions, Cohen does not whitewash anything in order to show herself in a better light. This pregnancy is no wished for miracle. It is a catastrophe that could beget more catastophe. Her decision to pursue a late term abortion or to carry the baby to term will have an irreversible and permanent impact on her life no matter which choice she makes.

Alongside her own complicated emotional state, Cohen also details the medical malpractice that left her in the dark for 6 months, submitting to tests and drugs that are harmful to fetuses. She examines the mistakes made and the probable outcome of those mistakes. She faces the plight of the self-insured, needing expensive, uncovered, out of network medical care and is turned down by doctor after doctor. She and her unborn baby are a walking liability to any and all doctors. As she navigates through the medical morass that the pregnancy becomes, she continually writes lists of what she knows to date. The repetitious nature of these lists, with additions and corrections as needed, throughout the memoir give them a sort of talismanic feeling. They serve to anchor Cohen to the facts as she thought she knew them. Pregnancy worry beads, if you will.

The writing here is gorgeous. There are times that Cohen seems emotionally inaccesible to the reader but she was so frozen herself that this reserve serves to reinforce the truth of her own feelings. Her internal debate is honest, agonizing, and unsparing and it's a privilege to be invited into something so personal and emotional. Her background as an actor is clear here, with each chapter its own contained act and scene. I highly recommend this deeply moving, intelligent, and thoughtful memoir.

After reading the memoir, I was lucky enough to be able to ask Cohen some questions and she was kind enough to answer.

What are you reading right now?
I’m in the middle of a fantastic YA novel called, Going Bovine, by Libba Bray—a trippy, profound, surreal, hilarious and heartbreaking coming of age story. Other books on my bedside table are:

The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss
Me Talk Pretty One Day, by David Sedaris
Love Letters: An Anthology of Passion
The Three-Dog Life, by Abigail Thomas
A Little History of the World, by E.H. Gombrich
Angels and Ages, by Adam Gopnik
The Thing About Life is that One Day You’ll be Dead, by David Shields
A Natural History of the Senses, by Diane Ackerman
The Center of the Universe, by Nancy Bachrach
Perfection, by Julie Metz
Let the Great World Spin, by Colum McCann
Where I’m Calling From, by William Carver
The Book of Questions, by Pablo Neruda
The Snowy Day, by Jack Keats
Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak
Zagat New York City Restaurant Guide

I love that you have so many books on your bedside table. Mine is equally precariously overloaded, I might add. And you've inspired me to dig out my kids' copy of Where the Wild Things Are to put on my nightstand too. Everyone should have at least a glimpse of a wild rumpus before bed.

What was your favourite book when you were a child?

Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White

I worried about Fern's dad and that ax but sure did love Wilbur and Charlotte. My boys should be forever grateful that I didn't give them Wilbur as a part of their names.

What book would you most want to read again for the first time?

The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy

This one seems like such a love it or hate it choice. I never quite know how to defend it to the passionate haters but I remember being fairly blown away by it myself.

How did you get started writing?

I wrote stories as a child—most of them involved talking animals—and I made up plays and puppet shows that I performed for neighborhood kids in our back yard. Studying playwriting in college and getting an MFA in fiction were tremendously valuable. It’s all part of who I am as a writer now.

If you heard someone describing your book to a friend out in public, how would you most like to hear them describe them/it?

“I love WHAT I THOUGHT I KNEW, and I’m about to publish Alice’s newest book.” Or… “An incredibly funny, deeply moving, thrilling and suspenseful book that’s impossible to put down.”

I love the first line. And have to say that I agree with the way you've described the book in the second line.

What's the coolest thing that's happened to you since becoming a published author?

I have to say, seeing my book in print was thrilling!

I can't even begin to imagine.

What was the first thing you did when you heard that you were going to be published?

I asked my husband to read my book immediately, so he could vet the parts I’d written about him, before it was too late for me to make any changes.

I let my husband vet the Christmas letter since I tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Since only our friends and family see it, I can see how it would be even more important to have your husband vet what you are going to show the entire world!

Tell us three interesting or offbeat but true things about yourself.

In what must have been a previous life, I was part of a band called Music for Homemade Instruments. We built instruments from found objects—pots and pans, cardboard tubes, conduit pipes, you name it—and performed anywhere we were invited to play, including street fairs, roof tops, and The Smithsonian Institution.

In another previous life, I wrote for the Nickelodeon television show, Are You Afraid of the Dark?—sort of a Twilight Zone scary show for kids. I didn’t tell the producer that I’m a total wimp, that I’m utterly petrified of horror in any medium, and that the Are You Afraid of the Dark episodes he asked me to watch terrified me. My first published book was an Are You Afraid of the Dark? novel. Until my memoir was published last year, Amazon classified me as a “children’s horror writer.”

In my present life, I’m a card-carrying member of the United Auto Workers, which is very strange, since I don't own a car and barely know how change a tire. But the UAW unionized the part-time faculty at The New School, where I teach playwriting and solo theatre. So if you want your car to learn how to write plays and perform monologues, just call on me!

I was never able to watch the Are You Afraid of the Dark? episodes my kids watched because I am a colossal wimp. So if I ever caught any of the episodes you wrote, I will just say, "Thanks for terrorizing me."

If you couldn’t be an author, what profession would you choose and why?

I’d like to be Jon Stewart, (the comedian and “fake news” host of The Daily Show). He’s so funny, smart, adorable, and influential, and he uses comedy to make people think—a winning combination. If, for some reason, this career goal doesn’t work out for me, I’d enjoy being a National Park ranger.

Those are two very different choices!

What’s the hardest thing about writing, besides having to answer goofy interview questions like these?

Financial uncertainty—it goes with the territory.

Are you working on something new now? If so, give us a teaser for it.

I’m writing a new memoir—(working title, My Left Eye)—which is in some ways a sequel to What I Thought I Knew. Set several years after the events of What I Thought I Knew, my new book is about a year from hell, a family odyssey that turned our world upside-down. A story of three generations of mothers and daughters, I peel away the onion skin, traveling back and forth in time to explore resonances between my family’s tumultuous year and events from my childhood.

It sounds fantastic and I look forward to reading it when it comes out.

Thanks to Alice Eve Cohen for humoring me and answering these questions.

Thanks also to Lisa at Book Sparks for sending me a copy of this book to review.

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: The Secret Lives of Dresses by Erin McKean. The book is being released by 5 Spot on February 10, 2011.

Amazon says this about the book: Dora has always taken the path of least resistance. She went to the college that offered her a scholarship, is majoring in "vagueness studies," and wears whatever shows the least dirt. She falls into a job at the college coffee shop, and a crush on her flirty boss, Gary.

Just when she's about to test Gary's feelings, Mimi, the grandmother who raised her, suffers a stroke. Dora rushes back home to Forsyth, NC, and finds herself running her grandmother's vintage clothing store. The store has always been a fixture in Dora's life; though she grew up more of a jeans-and-sweatshirt kind of girl, before she even knew how to write, Mimi taught her that a vintage 1920s dress could lift a woman's spirit.

While working there, Dora befriends Mimi's adorable contractor, Conrad. Is he after Dora, or is working from a different blueprint? And why did Mimi start writing down--and giving away--stories of the dresses in her shop?

When Mimi dies, Dora can't get out of town fast enough and cedes control of the store to her money-hungry aunt who wants to turn it into a t-shirt shop for tourists. But ultimately, she returns to Forsyth, willing to battle whatever may stand in the way of her staying there. Dora can trade her boring clothes for vintage glamour, but can she trade her boring life for one she actually wants?