Review: The Original 1982 by Lori Carson

The past is immutable, fixed, never changing. You can only change your future. Each decision you make, large or small, impacts the direction that your future takes and changes who you are. Unlike the future, which is still to be writ, we say the past is over and done with. But since it only exists in memory, why can't you change it? Why can't you go back and imagine a different past, one that hinges on a single decision you made, one that you now reverse in your memory, altering your future? You can write your own past and create an imagined present and future. You can create a new story of you. This is the premise in Lori Carson's bittersweet new novel The Original 1982.

Looking back on her life thus far, Lisa pinpoints one decision that forever changed the path her life took and she wonders what would have happened had she chosen differently. In the original 1982, she is a young woman working as a waitress and trying to break into the music business. Her boyfriend is a famous Latin musician and when she accidentally gets pregnant, he convinces her to have an abortion and her life proceeds on from there. But what if she'd kept the baby? What then? Just how would her life be different? Lisa addresses the tale of her imagined life to her almost daughter Minnow, telling her about their life together, the ways in which things would have changed and the surprising ways in which some things would have remained the same or achieved the same outcome. In creating the past for a life she chose not to live, Lisa sometimes gives a nod to the original 1982 and the way that her life did in fact unfold over the years.

The novel alternates between these appreciably different lives but focuses much more on Lisa's freshly imagined life than the original. While Lisa's life as it actually happened holds no surprises for her as she narrates, her imagined life is awash in the possibilities towards which having Minnow would have steered her. And yet this fully realized ode to herself and to the memory of her baby never born, life is not easy or always happy. She struggles and falls, sacrifices and compromises in this imagined existence too. And this makes the imagining that much more poignant, haunting, and truly more realistic. No life was ever going to be perfect. Carson has captured the ache, the longing, and the regret for the road not taken beautifully and imaginatively here. Lisa is certainly telling her invented story "with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence" with all the melancholy, quiet emotion which that phrase captures. Readers in search of an unusual read, one that resonates with the power of storytelling and the invention of a life will find it here in this short grace-filled novel of what might have been.

For more information about Lori Carson and the book check out her website or find her on Facebook. Follow the rest of the blog tour or look at the amazon reviews for others' thoughts and opinions on the book.

Thanks to Trish from TLC Book Tours and the publisher 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.

Flat Water Tuesday by Ron Irwin. The book is being released by Thomas Dunne Books on June 4, 2013.

Amazon says this about the book: Rob Carrey, the son of a working-class cabinet maker, arrives at the Fenton School with a scholarship to row and a chip on his shoulder. Generations of austere Fenton men have led the rowing team, known as the God Four, to countless victories—but none are as important or renowned as the annual Tuesday-afternoon race against their rival, Warwick.

But first Rob must complete months of preparation driven by their captain, Connor Payne’s vicious competitive nature. As the race nears, the stakes rise, tempers and lusts are fueled, and no one can prevent the horrible tragedy that befalls one of them.

Fifteen years later, Rob returns home from a film shoot in Africa to end a heartbreaking relationship with his girlfriend, Carolyn. But when a phone call from one of the God Four compels him to attend the reunion at Fenton, no part of Rob’s past remains sequestered for long and nothing about his future is certain.

As much about the sport of rowing as it is a novel of finding oneself, not once, but again in mid-life; Ron Irwin's Flat Water Tuesday is a testament to the pride and passion of youth, and an ode to the journey of forgiveness.

A stunning novel of boarding school, family secrets, deep and passionate love, and the brutal pain of sports training.

Review: Black Venus by James MacManus

The poet starving in his garret, laboring in obscurity, fingertips frozen and ink as well as he tries to wield his pen, unappreciated in his own lifetime, rich in ideas and images but a pauper in truth. Isn't this this the most common conception of artists of all stripes? Charles Baudelaire, was not quite this man, at least not all the time. A star of French poetry, influence on and inspiration to generations of poets who came after him, Baudelaire's life was both initially privileged and ultimately no less tragic than the cliché described above. Whoever the man was, he wrote powerful, visceral poetry inspired by his mistress and muse, Haitian cabaret singer Jeanne Duval. James MacManus explores the intricacies of their decades long relationship in his new novel, Black Venus, a fictionalization of the life of the poet and his muse.

When the novel opens in 1842, Baudelaire is a 21 year old dandy, an extravagant dresser, profligate with his mother and stepfather's money, given to the excesses of the good life, swanning about bohemian Paris as only a young man of privilege can. He and his friends think of themselves as social progressives from their cozy and safe society backgrounds, supporting the masses intellectually but unlikely to actually commit to action. One night Baudelaire stumbles into a working class cabaret he's never frequented before and he sees Jeanne Duval. She's a voluptuous and bewitching woman, the illegitimate daughter of a French plantation manager and a Haitian slave, and something about her that night captivates Baudelaire.  They embark on an open, tempestuous, and contentious affair, an affair that will endure for some twenty years and be the basis for the slim volume of poetry, Les fleurs du mal, for which Baudelaire will become justly famous and infamous.

MacManus never shies away from portraying Baudelaire as a spoiled mama's boy whose doting mother, while disapproving of his liaison with his "Black Venus," continues to hold the purse strings tightly and keep him from complete destitution. He comes across as a fractious child, often in a temper, selfish, and jealous. He is an alcoholic, an opium addict, and is unable to practice moderation in any aspect of his life, not in his personal life, not in his writing, and not in his public persona. Although not in love with Duval, he is so obsessed with and consumed by her whole being that he comes to need her presence in order to write. And what a set of poems he wrote with her as his muse. Poetry so dark and raw and scandalous, so contrary to the prevailing romanticism, that he landed at the center of an obscenity trial, even in a city as casually and tacitly licentious as Paris.

And what of Duval? MacManus is kinder to her than most historians. She is still the source of Baudelaire's opium habit and she is clearly self-serving and opportunistic. But she too must feel a magnetic pull to Baudelaire to weather so many lean and trying years with him. Not even close to monogamous, Duval also dismisses his poetry, doubting his talent and yet she defends him magnificently at the obscenity trial. Together she and Baudelaire flout society's rules and expectations for a discreet liaison, never taking the time to conceal their desires and appetites for sex, drugs, alcohol, and the good life. Their obsession, attraction and dependence on each other is unhealthy and it destroys them each in the end.

The squalor and decadence of a bohemian Paris on the cusp of a second revolution is beautifully evoked here. The political turmoil and turbulence of the times inform Baudelaire's vision of the world and spill into his poetry, the very poetry that the state declares too immoral and pornographic to be published. Paris itself is in the midst of an upheaval, with the face of the whole city changing to resemble the place of wide boulevards and elegant stone buildings that we know today, its own emerging beauty hiding the fears of unrest and violence that inspired the physical changes. Just as he captures the city, MacManus also imparts the feel of Parisian society, superficially judgmental while allowing the depths to roil, never more well drawn as during the trial itself when none of Baudelaire's early supporters, fellow members of the arts and literature community, famous and artistic men in their own right, will risk offering him support. The story of Baudelaire and Duval is one of betrayal and jealousy, inspiration and condemnation. And while neither of these two characters are the sort of people you'd ever want to spend much time knowing, watching their unraveling relationship and slow descent into mutual misery and destitution is interesting indeed. Historical fiction readers intrigued by Paris or fascinated by a literary life and its inspiration will find this to be a worthwhile read, slowly building in tone until the ravaged and expected end.

For more information about James MacManus and the book check out his website. Follow the rest of the blog tour or look at the amazon reviews for others' thoughts and opinions on the book.









Thanks to Veronica from Media Muscle, Book Trib, and the publisher for sending me a copy of this book to review.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

In the midst of all the hectic chaos that defines my spring and summer, I can still manage to sneak in reading time.  I find it a lot harder to get to book reviews, as this past week clearly highlights!  This last week saw the wrap up of my daughter's dance recital, one son's soccer try-outs, my tennis team's final ignominious defeat, and a phone call from a teacher that has me having to monitor homework a lot closer than I would like so it's no wonder the review list did nothing but grow.  This meme is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

Books I completed this past week are:

Sight Reading by Daphne Kalotay
Black Venus by James MacManus
The Original 1982 by Lori Carson

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

Better Than Fiction edited by Don George
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Reviews posted this week:

Sight Reading by Daphne Kalotay

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

The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow by Rita Leganski
The One-Way Bridge by Cathie Pelletier
Float by JoeAnn Hart
Nowhere Is a Place by Bernice L. McFadden
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeannette Winterson
Replacement Child by Judy Mandel
A Dog Walks Into a Nursing Home by Sue Halpern
Schroder by Amity Gaige
The World's Strongest Librarian by Josh Hanagarne
Black Venus by James MacManus
The Original 1982 by Lori Carson

Monday Mailbox

Summer brings a plethora of fantastic looking books and this year is no exception. How amazing that my mailbox gives me such a wonderful array of the options every week. I mean, just take a look at this week! This past week's mailbox arrivals:

The River of No Return by Bee Ridgway came from Penguin UK.

Time travel, enduring love, and malevolent forces all wrapped into one big fat book? Oh, yes please!

The Execution of Noa P. Singleton by Elizabeth L. Silver came from Crown and TLC Book Tours for a blog tour.

About a young woman convicted of first degree murder who never spoke in her own defense at her trial and the mother of the woman she killed who, ten years after the verdict and six months before the execution, offers to help Noa's sentence be turned from the death penalty to life in prison if Noa will just tell her what led to her daughter's murder, this should be intense and thought provoking.

The Illusion of Separateness by Simon Van Booy came from Harper and TLC Book Tours for a blog tour.

Interconnected stories that tell the ways in which people are not alone, even in their toughest moments, this sounds absolutely fabulous.

Big Brother by Lionel Shriver came from Harper and TLC Book Tours for a blog tour.

A sibling tale about a woman who wants to help her brother lose weight so that he doesn't kill himself with food and in the process risks her settled marriage and family, I'm curious to see Shriver's take on out of control obesity.

Someone by Alice McDermott came from FSG.

A novel encompassing the span of an ordinary woman's life from the always masterful McDermott, I can't wait to crack this one open.

Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall came from Gallery Books.

A southern road trip novel with a runaway little girl in search of her mama, a black woman, and a white baby, this promises to be a moving look at dreams and reality.

The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls came from Scribner.

Walls' memoir did so well it will be very interesting indeed to see what she does with a novel about two young girls forced to confront the realities of life when their mother abandons them to the injustices of a larger world.

Sinners and the Sea by Rebecca Kanner came from Howard.

Who wouldn't be interested in an imagined tale about the unnamed woman who was Noah's wife?

If you'd like to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit 4 The Love Of Books as she is hosting this month's Mailbox Monday and have fun seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.

Sunday Salon: Summer Reading

Just about every written publication or book related organization is releasing a list of must read summer books. I personally just sat in bed and finished reading a list of this very sort. I do have a bit of a weakness for annotated lists, especially annotated lists about great books that I should want to read. And I thought, with summer's unofficial start upon us tomorrow, why shouldn't I throw my hat into the ring with my own list of books I'd love to get through this summer?  Unlike many lists, my list is composed of must read review books, randomly chosen new releases, and some oldies but goodies that I have neglected for far too long rather than books I've already read and recommend (well, that's a potential idea for next week's Sunday Salon, now isn't that?). So here's what I'm hoping to read this summer broken into categories:

Review and blog tour books:

A Half Forgotten Song by Katherine Webb
A Far Piece to Canaan by Sam Halpern
Big Brother by Lionel Shriver
Out Love Could Light the World by Anne Leigh Parrish
The Execution of Noa P. Singleton by Elizabeth Silver
The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg
The Illusion of Separateness by Simon Van Booy
The Exiles by Allison Lynn
This Is Paradise by Kristiana Kahakuawila
Race Across the Sky by Derek Sherman
The Book of Someday by Dianne Dixon
David by Ray Robertson
The Purchase by Linda Spalding
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Call Me Zelda by Erika Robuck
The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell
Mary Coin by Marisa Silver
Someone by Alice McDermott
Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall
The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls
Sinners and the Sea by Rebecca Kanner
The House Girl by Tara Conklin

Book Club books:

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Dancing to the Flute by Manisha Jolie Amin
The Innocents by Francesca Segal

Just because (sometimes with reasons):

**A Summer Affair by Elin Hilderbrand (because this is the oldest ARC on my pile and the title alone makes it seem like I should finally get to it this year)
**Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline (because she took the risk of a paperback original and I like to support authors who do things like this to help out my wallet)
**Billy Budd and Other Tales by Herman Melville (because despite the fact that I'm not a huge Melville fan, it is the book that has been sitting around my house unread for the longest amount of time--it actually dates back to my high school days!)
**Happy Rock by Matthew Simmons (because these stories are set in Upper Peninsula Michigan where I spend a chunk of my summer)
**Then He Ate My Boy Entrancers by Louise Rennison (because I have a fondness for these fun and fluffy YA novels about the goofy Georgia Nicholson)
**Surprising Lord Jack by Sally MacKenzie (because everyone needs an entertaining romance to read over the summer)
**Topsy by Michael Daly (because summer is the perfect time to read about the circus and the true life weirdnesses surrounding it)
**Thursday Next by Jasper Fforde (because I've fallen far behind on this series and I want to catch back up since Fforde is genius)
**Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About by Mil Millington (because it has been on my recommended books that will make me laugh shelf for, literally, years)
**The Reluctant Matchmaker by Shobhan Bantwal (because I won it and I've never properly shelved it, always meaning to read it next and yet next just hasn't come yet)

Now we'll see if I manage to actually work my way through my whomping list (although I am giving myself from Memorial Day to Labor Day to accomplish this). Plus, it will be interesting to see what else squeaks in to be read and what just doesn't happen for me this summer. Do any of you make a summer reading list or do you just read by the seat of your pants?

Review: Sight Reading by Daphne Kalotay

I am not a musician. When I was in elementary school, I played the viola for a while. I was laughingly banished to the back room of the house to practice so I can't possibly have been any good. That my music teacher called my mother when I quit to tell her that I needed to keep at it because I had perfect pitch was, I suspect, more the desperation of a music teacher long deafened by children drawing screechy bows across out of tune strings than any truth about my potential musical talent. I do, however, visibly wince when I hear someone belt out a flat note or have their instrument out of tune so maybe I have squandered untapped natural ability. (Really not likely.) In any case, I do enjoy reading about music, the making of music, and the completely foreign (to me) world of musicians so I was intrigued by Daphne Kalotay's newest novel, Sight Reading, set in the rarified world of classical music.

Composed mainly of a small chamber group of characters, lauded conductor and composer Nicholas Elko, his beautiful and accomodating wife Hazel, and the young second chair violin at the conservatory, Remy, the novel explores the quiet dramas of their changing personal lives from young adulthood to late middle age in an exquisite, extended symphony of lives. Opening with Hazel catching sight of Remy after many years, the novel skips back into the past to the beginning of the story, when Nicholas and Hazel were in the early years of their marriage, traveling around the world for Nicholas' promising career as a conductor and doting on preschool-aged daughter Jessie and Remy was simply a student in Nicholas' new student orchestra in Boston. But life keeps on moving, relationships change, marriages fail, and new formations appear as the novel progresses and each of the characters must adjust to the big and the mundane little things of life. At heart, this is a domestic novel wreathed in music and the musical world but not necessarily about music itself.

Throughout the narrative, Nicholas struggles with writing a symphony based in his Scottish childhood; it's to be his magnum opus. In the same way he seeks to capture the events, sights, and sounds from his past, the novel serves as the symphonic rendering of his, Hazel's, and Remy's lives, movement after movement after movement. And each stage of the novel takes a different tone. There is the desperation of Nicholas and Remy's affair and his falling in love with her against his will forcing him to end his marriage. There's the loneliness and fear of being forever alone, of continuing to hurt and feel unwanted, undesirable for so many years, that pervades Hazel's very being, even to the point of manifesting itself on her skin. There's the stagnation and writer's block that drives Nicholas into a wholly different world than the one he inhabits and there's the feeling of neglect and of being taken for granted, of not being included that Remy must fight even in this marriage she won so many years ago.

Deep and yet still common, everyday emotion underlies the whole of the narrative, this tale of divorce and remarriage, of parenting, of shared lives, of music and devotion. It is a subtle rendering and beautifully written. Kalotay has portrayed the world of professional musicians well and she manages to immerse even the unmusical into sound just through words on the page. Just as Remy strengthens her playing through the challenge of sight reading, playing a piece through without having seen or prepared it beforehand, so too must the characters take the challenge of sight reading their way through their lives. And when they each give themselves over to the unpredictability of this, they are in fact strengthened too.

Remy is perhaps the most fully rounded of the characters, the one whose inner life is most interesting. Hazel is almost too good, too blandly effacing, even when she is hurt. Her reaction to Nicholas' cheating and the fact that any ugliness or recriminations from the divorce either don't happen or are hidden in the undocumented, intervening years not in the book, make her seem as conciliatory and placid as Remy assumes she is. Nicholas' character is careless with other peoples' feelings but he comes off as selfish in a rather good natured and unthinking, absent-minded way rather than a considered and deliberate way, not that this fully absolves him. The notes of each characters' life mingles with the others, sometimes breaking out for a soaring solo and other times sublimating to the whole to create a complex, well-written piece about the very ordinariness of love and relationship. I wish I'd had the foresight to listen to some wonderful music as I was reading along so I could have been completely immersed in the world these characters inhabit.

For more information about Daphne Kalotay and the book check out her website or find her on Facebook. Follow the rest of the blog tour or look at the amazon reviews for others' thoughts and opinions on the book.

Thanks to Trish from TLC Book Tours and the publisher 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.

The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel. The book is being released by Grand Central Publishing on June 11, 2013.

Amazon says this about the book: As America's Mercury Seven astronauts were launched on death-defying missions, television cameras focused on the brave smiles of their young wives. Overnight, these women were transformed from military spouses into American royalty. They had tea with Jackie Kennedy, appeared on the cover of Life magazine, and quickly grew into fashion icons.

Annie Glenn, with her picture-perfect marriage, was the envy of the other wives; platinum-blonde Rene Carpenter was proclaimed JFK's favorite; and licensed pilot Trudy Cooper arrived on base with a secret. Together with the other wives they formed the Astronaut Wives Club, meeting regularly to provide support and friendship. Many became next-door neighbors and helped to raise each other's children by day, while going to glam parties at night.

As their celebrity rose-and as divorce and tragic death began to touch their lives-they continued to rally together, and the wives have now been friends for more than fifty years. THE ASTRONAUT WIVES CLUB tells the real story of the women who stood beside some of the biggest heroes in American history.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

I have been beyond swamped lately. Not reading much and definitely not reviewing much at all. Here's hoping life starts to slow down soon because I am about to fall off this hamster wheel I'm on. Either that or perish from exhaustion! This meme is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

Books I completed this past week are:

A Dual Inheritance by Joanna Hershon
Schroder by Amity Gaige

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

Better Than Fiction edited by Don George
Sight Reading by Daphne Kalotay

Reviews posted this week:

The Perfume Collector by Kathleen Tessaro
A Dual Inheritance by Joanna Hershon


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

The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow by Rita Leganski
The One-Way Bridge by Cathie Pelletier
Float by JoeAnn Hart
Nowhere Is a Place by Bernice L. McFadden
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeannette Winterson
Replacement Child by Judy Mandel
A Dog Walks Into a Nursing Home by Sue Halpern
Schroder by Amity Gaige

Monday Mailbox

I've been so swamped lately that I didn't manage to post last week so this embarrassment of riches is two weeks' worth. This past week's (and the one before that's) mailbox arrivals:

The Perfume Collector by Kathleen Tessaro came from Harper and TLC Book Tours for a blog tour.

A woman inherits a small fortune from a perfect stranger and in exploring who her benefactor was, she uncovers a fascinating life. I've already reviewed this one here.

Call Me Zelda by Erika Robuck came from New American Library.

With the new Great Gatsby movie, there's a renewed interest in Fitzgerald but even more appealing to me is Zelda Fitzgerald so this book definitely speaks to me.

The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell came from Amy Einhorn Books.

Centered around a typist for the NYC police department in the 1920's, the shifting mores and the general atmosphere of the times promise to make this more than a novel about a stenographer accused of murder.

The World's Strongest Librarian by Josh Hanagarne came from Gotham Books.

A memoir about a Mormon boy with Tourette's who found his center in weight lifting and books, how could you not be attracted to this one?

Mary Coin by Marisa Silver came from Blue Rider Press.

A novel telling the imagined tale behind one of Dorothea Lange's iconic Depression Era photographs? This sounds fantastic.

Billy and Me by Giovanna Fletcher came from Penguin UK.

When a woman falls in love with an actor and joins him in the spotlight, can her life and emotional well-being take the scrutiny? This one promises to be delectable and is blurbed by some of my favorite authors.

The Exiles by Allison Lynne came from New Harvest and TLC Book Tours for a blog tour.

A young family which moves to escape the financial pressures of NYC finds that the problems they sought to outrun and the secrets they've been keeping moved right along with them. This sounds really, really good, doesn't it?

If you'd like to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit 4 The Love Of Books as she is hosting this month's Mailbox Monday and have fun seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.

Sunday Salon: That crazy time of year again

So it's the time of year when I read a lot and get completely behind in writing my reviews again. School is wrapping up, sports are wrapping up for the season but tryouts for next season are coming like a freight train, everything conspires to keep me out of my house and in my car. But it's a good time of year, even if I do get drastically behind. I've spent the past two days (and am about to leave shortly for another day) back stage at my daughter's end of year dance recital. I'm working in the room with the 7-12 year olds and the cutest moment for me so far was when three little girls watching the video feed from the stage squealed and pointed out my daughter: "There's Miss R." I asked them if she was one of their teachers (she's actually just an assistant but little people don't make that differentiation). They said yes and I got to tell them that R. is my little girl. I think I went way up in their estimation when I told them that. :-) Because I will be backstage again today, I am sadly missing W.'s end of year tennis banquet. I hate that everything is happening on the same day! In the past few weeks, the tennis season wrapped up for W. and the soccer season ended for T. My tennis team made the playoffs but we lost our match on Friday so it looks like States is out for us although we do have a final match on this coming Friday. So it's been busy, busy, run, run, run around here. But soon I will be able to sit by the pool and sink into my books without interruption, just as soon as I get T. through soccer tryouts next week and his 5th grade celebration ceremony in a few weeks. Oh, and when I'm not driving R. to her daily dance rehearsals for the competitive team's Nationals. Hmmmm. Looks like I'm going to get even further behind than already planned. Ah well. It's all good.

This past week, with five days of tennis matches in a row, I didn't get a whole lot of reading in myself but my book travels did take me into a county nursing home with a therapy dog and into the motivations of a father in the throes of a divorce and contentious custody dispute who abducted his daughter. I'm currently immersed in the world of professional musicians and the drama of their personal lives. Where have books taken you this week?

Review: A Dual Inheritance by Joanna Hershon

Sometimes it is the small, unconsidered moments that change lives forever. What might be small for one though, seems momentous for another. And it's these small inequities which often point to larger ones amongst those between whom they occur. This is certainly the case between Ed Cantowitz and Hugh Shipley, Harvard seniors when they become friends who hail from entirely different worlds and vastly different perspectives in Joanna Hershon's newest novel, A Dual Inheritance.

Ed is the son of a cantankerous pipe-fitting Jewish immigrant, raised in a neighborhood well along the way towards its slide into neglect and crime. He is brash and confident, sometimes abrasive, and determined to make money, lots of it. He's a not altogether successful skirt-chaser too, the sort of man who pursues almost any girl but exudes a whiff of smarmy desperation in his pursuit. So it is not much of a surprise that he connects with Hugh over a girl one night outside the library. Hugh Shipley is a golden boy, handsome son of a wealthy and venerable Boston Brahmin family. He is disaffected in the way that only the very rich can afford to be but he has a kind of casual magnetism about him that makes him irresistible to Ed. And improbably that night, with a little effort by Ed, they become friends. That year, as Hugh reconnects with his old love Helen, also from Hugh's social set, Ed is not so much a third wheel as the indispensible third person and through these two friends and their connections, he gets his first in into the world of high finance. That he also falls for Helen seems inconsequential until Hugh's indirection about his future causes him to take off for Africa to become a photographer or a movie producer or something he knows not what and leave his fiance behind, at which point, Ed and Hugh's friendship is doomed although only Ed understands the true reason why.

Years later, when only the memory of their friendship still exists, and each man has chosen his life's path, for Ed the accumulation of money and for Hugh humanitarian work in Africa and the Caribbean, their paths will cross again thanks to the friendship forged between their teenaged daughters at boarding school. Rebecca Cantowitz, Ed's daughter, splits her time between her divorced mother and father, enabling her to vacation with Vivi Shipley and her parents Hugh and Helen. Rebecca is half in love with Vivi and fully enamoured of Hugh. And unlike their fathers' friendship, the daughters will remain close and a part of each others' lives and family even as they grow to adulthood. Through Rebecca's eyes and enduring emotions, Hugh's and Ed's lives, missteps and all are recorded.

This is very much a slow, character driven novel examining the role of nature and nurture, the eponymous dual inheritance theory of the title, on the creation of these men and their daughters. It weaves nuances of social class, racism, the weight of expectation, desire, and greed throughout the entire narrative. But as much as these larger concerns swirl around, it is the decades of personal dramas which keep the plot moving, especially the frustrated love and/or desire of the Cantowitzes, pere and fille, Ed for Helen and Rebecca for Hugh. Hershon writes beautifully and yet I never felt engaged by any of the characters here, making it hard to sink into the novel's carefully, particularly rendered world. The friendship between Hugh and Ed was a bit baffling to me, at least on Hugh's part, and not drawn as completely and vividly as might have been to explain the magnitude of their rupture, or drift apart, depending on which character is telling the tale. None of the characters seem to have followed the paths they appeared to be on and there is enough of a time gap in the narrative that the reader is forced to take these fundamental changes to their characters on faith rather than seeing and following a steady development. This is a complex, layered novel, well written and thoughtful and yet I remained mostly untouched and rather remote from it as I read it.

For more information about Joanna Hershon and the book check out her website, find her on Facebook or follow her on Twitter. Follow the rest of the blog tour or look at the amazon reviews for others' thoughts and opinions on the book.

Thanks to Lisa from TLC Book Tours and the publisher for sending me a copy of this book to review.

Review: The Perfume Collector by Kathleen Tessaro

When I was small, my grandmother had a collection of tiny, decorative perfume bottles on her dresser that fascinated me. The scents inside them weren't necessarily to my taste, but the exotic looking bottles with their fancy stoppers and their gold leafing appealed to my usually hidden girly side. They seemed so grown up, the very definition of a lady and I loved to touch them, hold them, and imagine stories about them. On a seemingly unrelated note, when I was pregnant, my sense of smell was heightened beyond all belief. I could open the refrigerator and know which of its contents were going off in the next day or two. I could smell and identify the faintest hints of things underneath showier scents. This was a blessing and a curse both. Combine my memories of these two sensory experiences, the touch of the perfume bottles and the heightened smell of intricate odors, and it comes as no surprise that I was attracted to Kathleen Tessaro's latest novel, The Perfume Collector.

Two intricately interwoven tales, the novel is the story, set in the 1950s, of Grace Monroe, a bright woman who is struggling with who she is, who she wants to be, and the uncomfortable persona of socialite wife her husband expects her to be to help him advance his career and, at the same time, it is also the story of Eva d'Orsey, a young French girl starting with her job as a chambermaid at a chic, glamourous, and discreet hotel for the daring and dallying jet set in New York City in 1927 and ranging through the rest of her fascinating and unusual life. When Grace is facing a crisis point in her marriage, having uncovered evidence of her husband's infidelity, she receives a commmunication from a lawyer's office in Paris, informing her that Eva d'Orsey has passed away and that she, Grace, is the sole beneficiary. Taking the opportunity to escape London, Grace heads to France, certain that there has been a mistake; after all, she has no idea who Eva d'Orsey is. Assured that she is indeed Eva's heir, she is unwilling to accept such a generous bequest from a perfect stranger and so she enlists the French lawyer, Edouard Tissot, to help her uncover who Eva was and how she was connected to Grace. As she and Edouard start to discover the smallest pieces of information about the late Mlle. d'Orsey, the plot shifts to Eva's tale and her trajectory from chambermaid to muse for one of the most sought after and talented perfumers of the time, Monsieur Valmont, a Jew.

Tessaro skillfully weaves the two stories together, moving from one to the other and back again, beautifully balancing Grace's personal unhappiness and her quest to understand what her inheritance means for her future with Eva's eventful story and the revelation of the connection between Grace and Eva. The immersion in the world of scents is fascinating and having Grace learn about this rarified profession allows the reader to learn about it as well without being overwhelmed by reams of authorial research. Both past time periods and the public restraints placed on women are artfully rendered and there is an air of elegance to the story as a whole. How Grace and Eva are connected is presented as a mystery but it's really only a mystery to Grace as the astute reader has no doubts about it right from the start of the novel but this predictability is only a small misstep in a sophisticated and over all enticing novel. A wonderful tale for historical fiction fans, this is also an appealing look at women, unusual certainly, but firmly of their times, the avenues open to them, and the ways in which they choose to order their lives, celebrate their own intelligence, and ultimately create themselves. It is one to savour slowly even as it becomes increasingly difficult to put down.

For more information about Kathleen Tessaro and the book check out her website or find her on Facebook. Follow the rest of the blog tour or look at the amazon reviews for others' thoughts and opinions on the book.

Thanks to Trish from TLC Book Tours and the publisher 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.

Cinnamon and Gunpowder by Eli Brown. The book is being released by Farrar, Straus and Giroux on June 4, 2013.

Amazon says this about the book: The year is 1819, and the renowned chef Owen Wedgwood has been kidnapped by the ruthless pirate Mad Hannah Mabbot. He will be spared, she tells him, as long as he puts exquisite food in front of her every Sunday without fail.

To appease the red-haired captain, Wedgwood gets cracking with the meager supplies on board. His first triumph at sea is actual bread, made from a sourdough starter that he leavens in a tin under his shirt throughout a roaring battle, as men are cutlassed all around him. Soon he’s making tea-smoked eel and brewing pineapple-banana cider.

But Mabbot—who exerts a curious draw on the chef—is under siege. Hunted by a deadly privateer and plagued by a saboteur hidden on her ship, she pushes her crew past exhaustion in her search for the notorious Brass Fox. As Wedgwood begins to sense a method to Mabbot’s madness, he must rely on the bizarre crewmembers he once feared: Mr. Apples, the fearsome giant who loves to knit; Feng and Bai, martial arts masters sworn to defend their captain; and Joshua, the deaf cabin boy who becomes the son Wedgwood never had.

Cinnamon and Gunpowder is a swashbuckling epicure’s adventure simmered over a surprisingly touching love story—with a dash of the strangest, most delightful cookbook never written. Eli Brown has crafted a uniquely entertaining novel full of adventure: the Scheherazade story turned on its head, at sea, with food.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

Books I completed this past week are:

Replacement Child by Judy Mandel
A Dog Walks Into a Nursing Home by Sue Halpern
The Perfume Collector by Kathleen Tessaro

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

Better Than Fiction edited by Don George
A Dual Inheritance by Joanna Hershon

Reviews posted this week:

Ghost Moth by Michele Forbes
The Love Wars by L. Alison Heller
The Repeat Year by Andrea Lochen

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

The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow by Rita Leganski
The One-Way Bridge by Cathie Pelletier
Float by JoeAnn Hart
Nowhere Is a Place by Bernice L. McFadden
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeannette Winterson
Replacement Child by Judy Mandel
A Dog Walks Into a Nursing Home by Sue Halpern
The Perfume Collector by Kathleen Tessaro

Review: The Repeat Year by Andrea Lochen

We all have things we'd like the chance to do over again but what about the things you never want to repeat? Junior high comes to mind for me. I'd never wish that on anyone more than once. Olive Watson, in Andrea Lochen's new novel, is about to have to live over, not junior high, but a terrible year of her life, one that she really, really doesn't want to have to re-live. And even worse, she'll be doing it with the full and complete knowledge of all the mistakes she made the first time around.

When Olive wakes up on what should be January 1, 2012, she instead wakes to January 1, 2011, again. 2011 is not a year she wants to re-live. She and her long time boyfriend broke up, she let her closest friend drift away, and her widowed mother married a man of whom Olive is not terribly fond. 2011 was a year of unhappiness and bad choices for Olive and while she now has the chance to repair her worst mistakes, she just isn't sure she is capable of living through it all again, especially knowing what she did in the past that led her to such misery and having to try so very hard to change the outcome of her year. When she first wakes up in the bed and arms of her ex-boyfriend, she has a hard time processing what happened. And it takes her a week or so to fully comprehend and accept that she is in fact having a repeat year.

As Olive starts her second go at 2011, she remembers and tries to change her reactions to the things that she feels were pivotal moments that caused her first 2011 to crash and burn so badly. And she encounters a friend of her mother's who has done several repeat years herself and to whom she can talk about the situation without sounding crazy. But Sherry, her mother's friend, is not a fairy godmother who will help shepherd Olive through the changes she needs to make and the realizations she needs to come to throughout the year because Sherry is having her own issues that she needs to solve in order to move herself into 2012 come next January 1. But it is thanks to and through Sherry that Olive comes to understand that this year is in fact a last chance gift and that while she can change her actions, it is much harder to change what's in her heart and it's entirely impossible to change what is in someone else's heart.

Having the knowledge of each thing that she did or said, each hurt she doled out in the previous 2011, gives Olive the chance to truly examine what drove her to cheat on her boyfriend Phil, why she reacted so badly and immaturely to her mother's remarriage and new husband, and why she allowed her friend Kerrigan to fade out of her life. She is given the opportunity to see exactly how she chose a solitary, work-centered existence instead of the love and connections that she so needed to be happy. But she cannot just undo (or rather not do) the actions from the first 2011. They might not exist in this 2011 but they do continue to exist in her memory and so those unchosen decisions still haunt her. She still has to work through their causes before she can let them go or be unaffected by them because they are real to her whether they happened or not.

While many of us would like a do-over in life, the concept of having to repeat an entire year, one that was badly done the first time, is a different twist on the idea. And Lochen has written an entertaining and thought provoking novel. The characters are realistic and their reactions to events are definitely believable. Olive may come across as selfish and unthinking sometimes but that is what her repeat year is all about: changing her thinking and learning to open herself up and understand what's behind not only her own decisions and actions, but others' as well, placing her in a greater community rather than the isolated and unhappy island on which she ended her first 2011. The several different events in her past life that she has to correct are well handled with the exception of her relationship with Kerrigan, which is resolved at the end far too easily for the magnitude of the situation. But in general this is an interesting and pleasing novel about our choices, right or wrong, and the impact they have on the greater part of our lives and the lives of those about whom we care deeply.

For more information on Andrea Lochen and the book, visit her webpage or find her on Facebook. For others' opinions on the book, check it out on Amazon.

Thanks to the publisher and BookSparks PR for sending me a copy of the book for review.

Review: The Love Wars by L. Alison Heller

Marriage is supposed to be "until death do us part" but in reality, these days, it is often a span of time much shorter than forever. And while the ending of any marriage can get ugly and contentious, when there's a lot at stake, money, children, etc., it can be just as hostile and toxic as it's possible to be. And yet there are divorce lawyers who seem to thrive in this poisonous atmosphere. Molly Grant, the main character in L. Alison Heller's new novel The Love Wars, may not love the situations inherent in her job but she finds the work in the matrimonial group more interesting than the corporate law she had been practicing at one of the city's top firms and she's about to make a big difference, one that she never anticipated nor sought out and one that could jeopardize everything.

When Molly finished law school and landed the job at Bacon Payne, she had visions of paying her parents back for the sacrifices and investment they made in her education. The fact that the firm gives associates who endure the tyrannical bosses, the abuse, the monotony, and endless grueling hours for a full five years a no strings attached bonus equivalent to a year's salary plays a large part in her fantasies and provides her with a concrete reason to go to work every day because it sure wasn't the work driving her to be at the office 24/7. She had high hopes for more appealing cases and fewer hours when she applied for the unheard of transfer from corporate to matrimonial. But the move hasn't necessarily made her any happier. Now she's down in the nitty gritty of people at their worst, fighting over post-it notes that are communal property bought during the marriage and other equally unbelievable (or perhaps all too believable for anyone who has weathered a contentious divorce) situations. Her colleagues are reasonably friendly, aside from Henry, the lone male associate in the department, and who is on the path to partner. Her boss, Lillian, comes across as a chum but only so long as the associates conform to her every wish, social or work-related. So once again Molly is just counting time until she hits her five year anniversary and the big bonus, which isn't to say that she's not conscientious and good at her job, because she is.

When Lillian sends Fern Walker, the ex-wife of a very wealthy, very powerful media mogul, to Molly she expects Molly to feed Fern a few platitudes, give her referrals to non-Bacon Payne lawyers, and get rid of her. But there's something about Fern and her desire to regain custody of the children whom her husband is systematically alienating from her, blocking her visitation and poisoning their young minds against her, that strikes a cord with Molly. So while she initially does as Lillian expects, when Fern tells her that no other lawyer will take her case either, Molly, before she completely understands what she's doing and driven by her memory of once before not intervening, agrees to represent Fern behind Lillian and Bacon Payne's backs. She sets up her own small company and devotes any spare time she has to working on Fern's case, knowing that she's risking everything personally and professionally to do what she knows is right.

Molly is a complex, strong, and likable character. Her motivations are well explored and explained and yet her decisions and feelings about Bacon Payne, while right for her, never condemn the other characters for working there or for not feeling towards the firm the same things that she feels. Her desire to do the right thing for Fern as the case progresses and her very real fear that she will be caught by Lillian or one of her other colleagues provides a nice tension to the plot. Her realization of what the case means for her personally and the greater import of what its outcome means for Fern is subtle and well done. There is a sweet and realistic romance here but the real focus is on Molly's self-realization and her eventual empowerment to live the life she wants without compromise. The outcome is never in any doubt but getting to the end is a delight nevertheless. This is grown up chick lit for people who want to read about others like themselves who are getting comfortable in their own skin beyond just in a romantic relationship.

For more about L. Alison Heller and the book, check out her webpage, find her on Facebook, or follow her on Twitter. For others' opinions on the book, check it out on Amazon.

Thanks to the publisher and BookSparks PR for sending me a copy of the book for review.

Tell me again why annual physicals are a good idea

I get the whole concept of wellness visits. And I appreciate that my insurance company will even pay for them in the hopes that if I keep these regularly, they won't have to pay for catastrophic care. But sheesh. Like a good and compliant little patient, I went to my work-up today and left cursing the fact that my parents were allowed to reproduce and feeling more than a little sorry for myself. But more on that later.

When I woke up this morning, I remembered in the nick of time that I wasn't allowed food this morning thanks to the appointment. This also meant that my morning diet Coke (I don't like coffee but need a caffeine hit somehow) was also off the table. So I was a somewhat surly, tummy rumbling grump when I got dressed. And apparently the morning caffeine hit is desperately necessary for me since as I got dressed, it didn't occur to me not to put on my tattiest pair of underwear. (I've been a little slack about folding the laundry lately and all the decent stuff was still in the drier and I didn't feel like rooting around in there to find any). So I rationalized that no one ever sees your underwear. Well, duh! Obviously when you have a physical everyone and the janitor sees your holey drawers. This revelation occurred to me as I was on my way to the appointment; damn the lack of caffeine to wake up the brain cells a little earlier.

The good news about my doctor is that I like her (well, until this morning, I liked her). And the office is efficient. And the nurse is nice. Well, she was nice, at least until she started reading verbatim what I'd told the doctor about my migraines. Then she made me squirm, because let me tell you, I sound like a rambling idiot with moderate to severe diarrhea of the mouth when I'm at the doctor's office. My doctor, she sat and listened to everything and then zeroed in on the worst of my genetic lottery. She already knew about the migraines so she reiterated that I might want to see a neurologist.  But she didn't harp on it. She asked about the history of colon cancer or polyps in my family and suggested that I might want to get a colonoscopy a good eight years before general recommendations. Suddenly the visit was going downhill quickly! We brushed past that unpleasant idea and on to the fact that I've been neglecting my annual visit with the lady parts doctor and that my most recent mammogram was two years old. I must have made the appropriate noises about scheduling these things (and I really do intend to, just as soon as I find a spare minute) because we moved on to the actual physical. My pulse and blood pressure were elevated for me, which threw them firmly into the normal range for any other human being on the planet. But I defy you to be told that you probably need your butt roto-rooted and you definitely need your ta-tas steam-rollered again and not show an elevated pulse and blood pressure!

After determining that I am, at least superficially, digustingly healthy, the doctor left and sent in the lab tech. This lady was perfectly nice and friendly but I hate, hate, hate anyone bearing needles. The fact that I have to break out Lamaze breathing to get my blood taken must be a dead giveaway about my longstanding phobia. And I do know that I should be properly hydrated (I wasn't) and calm (calm? when a needle is about to plunge through my sensitive skin and plunder the blood I worked so hard to make? yeah right!) for best results. But I panic anyway, constricting my veins into microscopic threads. I tried to be cooperative, which my mother will agree is a huge improvement over my childhood self. But still the needle poked out of my arm uselessly collecting no blood. So this sadist from the lab nice phlebotomist lady proceeded to stick me in the back of the hand, because that's a comfortable spot from which to draw blood.  After making me squeal like a pig, she did get blood and we were done, except for the urine sample. Now, I don't know about anyone else, but I seem congenitally unable to give a clean catch (aka midstream) without peeing all over my hand. And yes, it was the hand that had just been punctured for blood so that the cotton meant to staunch the bleeding (admittedly not doing much bleeding) instead bloated with pee. Yum-o.

Once I had finished washing up and scrubbing the skin off of my hands, I headed for the check-out thinking that I was finished for another year. Wrong! They handed me a new migraine prescription to try and sent me off down the hall to referrals. I wrongly assumed that were going to force my pee-free hand and proactively make a neurologist's appointment for me. Oh no. That colonoscopy she so casually referred to in the exam room? That was what they were scheduling. Apparently I can be trusted to call a neurologist (probably can't) and to schedule my own overdue mammogram and lady parts visit (I'm sure I'll get to it, at least sometime before my physical next year) but they weren't letting me leave the building without getting me on the gastro-enterologist's list. Fie on efficiency anyway.

Man, I love doctor's visits. And apparently that's good since I'll be visiting every doctor in a tri-state area for unpleasant violations preventative work-ups in the next little while. :-P Next year I'm going to try being stoic and not so chatty. Maybe that will result in fewer referrals. Probably not, and not just because I'm not convinced I can actually pull off stoicism. Since I've admitted to all this bad genetics already, it's likely in the computer tainting my file forever. ::sigh:: Just what I always wanted: to be the person with a whole fleet of doctors who know her name. On the plus side, if you need a recommendation, I can already give you an internist, gynecologist, and ENT specialist and it looks like I'm about to add neurologist and gastro-enterologist to my list.