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.

Dead Presidents by Brady Carlson. The book is being released by W.W. Norton and Co. on February 1, 2016.

Amazon says this about the book: An entertaining exploration into the death stories of our nation’s greatest leaders―and the wild ways we choose to remember and memorialize them.

To public radio host and reporter Brady Carlson, the weighty responsibilities of being president never end. As Carlson sees it, the dead presidents (and the ways we remember them) tell us a great deal about ourselves, our history, and how we imagine our past and future. For American presidents, there is life after death―it’s just a little weird.

In Dead Presidents, Carlson takes readers on an epic trip to presidential gravesites, monuments, and memorials from sea to shining sea. With an engaging mix of history and contemporary reporting, Carlson recounts the surprising origin stories of the Washington Monument, Mount Rushmore, Grant’s Tomb, and JFK’s Eternal Flame. He explores whether William Henry Harrison really died of a cold, how the assassin’s bullet may not have been what killed James A. Garfield, and why Zachary Taylor’s remains were exhumed 140 years after he died. And he explains the strange afterlives of the presidents, including why “Hooverball” is still played in Iowa, why Millard Fillmore’s final resting place is next to that of funk legend Rick James, why “Who’s buried in Grant’s Tomb?” became a running gag for Groucho Marx, why Ohio and Alaska fought for so long over the name of Mt. McKinley (now known as Denali), and why we exalt dead presidents not just with public statues and iconic paintings but with kitschy wax dummies, Halloween costumes, and bobblehead dolls.

With an infectious passion for history and an eye for neglected places and offbeat characters reminiscent of Tony Horwitz and Sarah Vowell, Carlson shows that the ways we memorialize our presidents reveal as much about us as it does about the men themselves.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme is hosted by Kathryn at Reading Date.

Books I completed this past week are:

Wishful Thinking by Kamy Wicoff
The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan
Beasts of No Nation by Uzodinma Iweala
My Fat Dad by Dawn Lerman

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street by Susan Jane Gilman

Reviews posted this week:

The Restaurant Critic's Wife by Elizabeth LaBan
Moonlight Over Paris by Jennifer Robson
Yours, E.R. by Terence Blacker

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

Wishful Thinking by Kamy Wicoff
The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan
Beasts of No Nation by Uzodinma Iweala
My Fat Dad by Dawn Lerman

Review: Yours, E.R. by Terence Blacker

I am a total sucker for epistolary novels. And like so many Americans, I have a great fondness for the British Royal family. (Why are we so fascinated by this family?) So when I saw a short novel comprised of letters written by Queen Elizabeth to her retired private secretary, I couldn't add it to my stack fast enough. And I'm so glad I did as Terence Blacker's Yours, E.R. is a pure delight.

When Sir Jeremy Scrimgeour retires, Queen Elizabeth, who is used to having been briefed weekly by him, is loath to give him up entirely. So she writes him letters about current events, her opinions on things in the news and her family. She comments on the frivolous and the serious. She offers her perspective on life as a royal and the way it has impacted the younger generations of the family. The novel only spans a brief period of time, from the London Olympics to the birth of Prince George but it captures the mood and flavor of a Britain on the world stage, celebratory and proud.

All of these fictional letters are from ER's perspective and they offer a personal and entertaining look into what the real Queen might believe and feel is she was ever to air her opinions in public. Blacker gives a voice to the person behind the figurehead. And the woman he's created is sharp and current and yet firmly of her own age. She's funny with a dry wit and a realistic bent. Her letters are clearly responding to the unwritten weekly reports and news clippings that Sir Jeremy continues to send to her attention and they contain not only her responses to the modern world but also reminiscences of the past. She talks about her children and who they've become as adults, her late sister, Princess Diana, Sarah Ferguson, Captain Mark Phillips, and more. Her nicknames for people and her impressions of them, including the current and previous Prime Ministers, actors, and others in the public view, are thoroughly entertaining. Even as Blacker creates a fictional persona for the Queen it is clear that he respects his actual monarch very much and while there's no saying whether ER herself holds anything like these opinions, he has made her an admirable character here in this light and eminently entertaining novel.

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.

In Another Life by Julie Christine Johnson. The book is being released by Sourcebooks Landmark on February 2, 2016.

Amazon says this about the book: Historian Lia Carrer has finally returned to southern France, determined to rebuild her life after the death of her husband. But instead of finding solace in the region's quiet hills and medieval ruins, she falls in love with Raoul, a man whose very existence challenges everything she knows about life--and about her husband's death. As Raoul reveals the story of his past to Lia, she becomes entangled in the echoes of an ancient murder, resulting in a haunting and suspenseful journey that reminds Lia that the dead may not be as far from us as we think.

Steeped in the rich history and romantic landscape of the Languedoc region, In Another Life is a story of love that conquers time and the lost loves that haunt us all.

Review: Moonlight Over Paris by Jennifer Robson

What does it mean to truly live? To pursue the thing(s) that make us feel most alive? To follow our dreams? How many people do that, especially in the face of social pressure? How many people have the courage to even try? The main character in Jennifer Robson's latest novel, Moonlight Over Paris, has the chance to do just that and to do it in the magic of Paris between the wars.

Lady Helena Montagu-Douglas-Parr is determined to escape her existence in England. She is still being shunned and whispered about five years after a broken engagement. It is of no matter to society that her fiance wanted out of their bloodless connection much more than she did and has gone on to marry for love and have children. Helena still takes the brunt of disapproval, becoming a virtual social pariah. After she nearly dies of scarlet fever, her Aunt Agatha writes her from France, offering Helena an escape from this shame-filled and judgmental existence. First Helena will travel to Antibes to fully recover from her illness and then go to Paris with her wealthy, unconventional aunt to spend a year studying art under a demanding and respected master.  She will pursue her passion.

Under her aunt's wing, Helena is introduced to many of the major players of the Lost Generation, Sara and Gerald Murphy, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, Ernest and Hadley Hemingway, and many more. She finds her world enlarged by this eclectic bunch of ex-pat artists and writers. She collects her own circle of friends from among the students at her art school and they enjoy the glittering, bohemian decadence of the era as Helena pursues her dream to become a true artist. As she breaks free of the judgment and censure that dogged her in England, she recognizes the value and importance of following her own path. One way of breaking with convention is her deepening friendship with American journalist Sam Howard. But she finds herself conflicted over what kind of relationship she can have with him now that she's finally her own person, in charge of her own destiny.

Robson has really captured the sparkling atmosphere of Paris and the ex-pat community there in the 1920s. Helena herself is a child of wealth and lives a very privileged life with her aunt, giving her entree into this fascinating group of people. She is stretched and attracted by the passion she finds in a life where she can grow to follow her own dreams. Despite her near death experience, she is still sometimes afraid to reach for what she really wants though.  Helena's character feels younger than her years but perhaps that's because of the sheltered life she's lived and the way that she has previously just always acquiesced to what was expected of her. Her sister's brief visit gives the reader a chance to see what her life would have been like, had she not broken out. Sam as the romantic interest is pretty perfect. The parallels between their journeys to courage and self-fulfillment are quite clear and make them well matched in ways far beyond just their initial attraction. The push and pull between them feels real and recognizable. The writing is well done and engaging and readers and Lost Generation fans will be tickled by the glimpses of the famous personalities included in Helena's social milieu. The truth and economics of the art world are not explored in great detail but there are flashes of the not always pleasant reality of it that help ground Helena's dreams to make it all believable.  There are a few interesting twists in the novel although the end itself is no surprise.  This is over all a satisfying, romantic read about coming into your own and really living on your own terms to find your happily ever after.

For more information about Jennifer Robson, take a look at her web page, like her on Facebook, or follow her on Twitter. Check out the book's Good Reads page, 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.

Review: The Restaurant Critic's Wife by Elizabeth LaBan

I love to eat. Our local magazine just published the list of the 50 best restaurants in the city and I am trying to convince my husband that we need to eat our way through the list. He is mostly amenable. In our relationship, I am the food snob and he is happy with anything (unless it's eggplant--don't serve him eggplant or he will have a hissy fit). As critical as I can be of restaurant food, I am no where near the level of expert that a restaurant critic is though. And I certainly couldn't live with the need to be so circumspect in my life that I had to worry if someone close to me was connected to a restaurant and currying favor for a good review. How much harder to be the spouse of the critic and be subjected to the same vigilance, as Elizabeth LaBan so cleverly details in her foodie novel, The Restaurant Critic's Wife.

Lila Soto is extremely pregnant with her second child. Having recently moved to Philadelphia, she hasn't yet made any friends. She's had to keep her neighbors at arm's length because her husband Sam is the Philadelphia Herald's restaurant critic and he is determined to stay anonymous for as long as possible. This means that Lila has to vet everyone she meets to make sure that they have no connection at all to the restaurant world in case she blows her husband's cover or causes his professional integrity to be questioned. While she wants to support her husband, she is incredibly lonely and bored. She misses the high powered job averting crises for an international hotel chain which she gave up when she got pregnant with her now three year old daughter Hazel. Lila was once a superstar at crisis management but she really struggles with being a full time stay at home mom, facing the monotony, repetition, and isolation with deep unhappiness. But Sam cannot see beyond his own obsession with his job to recognize just how lonely and miserable Lila is, chafing under the restraints he's imposed on their lives. So it's not much of a surprise that Lila not only cultivates two friendships she shouldn't, one with an old college friend, who is married to a chef, and one with Sebastian, a friendly and understanding waiter at a restaurant Sam reviewed, but after baby Henry's birth also agrees to do some contract work for her old boss, something that makes her feel alive in a way she hasn't for a long time indeed but will bring her into conflict with her husband.

Told in the first person by Lila, the reader will find much in Lila's days unchanging and dull but that is because Lila also views her life this way. Sam's over the top demands keep her trapped and alone until she can find her voice and push for her own fulfillment. Each of them tugs at the other as they try to find a balance that works for them, their marriage, and their individual needs. Along the way, there is a lot of frustration. Readers will sympathize with Lila and find Sam to be ridiculously dictatorial. He all but begs the reader to spit in his food the way he treats his wife as an accessory to his job. Sam's reviews are the epigraphs for each chapter and they give even more insight into the obsessive quirks that make him up. Lila's character is written to be most colorful and alive when she is working rather than during the sameness of her days as a struggling mommy, at least until she finds her own niche in the neighborhood and in her professional life. Very much a domestic drama, there's not a lot of plot driving the novel as Lila comes to some realizations about herself, Sam, and her needs. The conceit of being married to a restaurant critic and the contortions that causes in life is interesting in its own right but this is really a novel about the compromises of marriage, friendship, community, belonging, and finding yourself and your happiness to lead the life you want to lead.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme is hosted by Kathryn at Reading Date.

Books I completed this past week are:

The Lady's Command by Stephanie Laurens
Yours, E.R. by Terence Blacker
Moonlight Over Paris by Jennifer Robson

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan
Wishful Thinking by Kamy Wicoff

Reviews posted this week:

The Lady's Command by Stephanie Laurens
Big Girl by Kelsey Miller
The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald

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

The Restaurant Critic's Wife by Elizabeth LaBan
Yours, E.R. by Terence Blacker
Moonlight Over Paris by Jennifer Robson