FRIENDSHIP, SUMMER BREEZES, & SECRETS — A REVIEW

 

 

Charlotte and Nicole were once the best of friends, spending summers together in Nicole’s coastal island house off of Maine. But many years, and many secrets, have kept the women apart. A successful travel writer, single Charlotte lives on the road, while Nicole, a food blogger, keeps house in Philadelphia with her surgeon-husband, Julian. When Nicole is commissioned to write a book about island food, she invites her old friend Charlotte back to Quinnipeague, for a final summer, to help. Outgoing and passionate, Charlotte has a gift for talking to people and making friends, and Nicole could use her expertise for interviews with locals. Missing a genuine connection, Charlotte agrees.

When Charlotte agrees to join her best friend Nicole for a summer on Quinnipeague, the island in Maine that was their favorite vacation spot for years, she is filled with trepidation.  For she hasn’t seen Nicole for ten years, and the underlying betrayal that has increased her feeling of distance from her friend is not enough to keep her away.  But Nicole, a blogger with a huge following, wants to write the cookbook and needs Charlotte’s help with the interviews.  Nicole has her own secret, one she has kept for four years.  Will she be able to share it with Charlotte?  Will she feel as though she is betraying her husband Julian?

Will the friendship bonds help them traverse the distance between them?  What will the summer bring?

Herbs and other island productions will be the centerpiece of the book, along with Nicole’s menus and presentations.

On the island lies Cecily’s Garden, as well.  A mystical presence, the woman’s herbs have a huge following of their own.  Will her mysterious son Leo allow them to photograph the gardens?  How will Charlotte connect with Leo and why does she keep coming back to him?  What is his secret and how will it impact the budding relationship?

I loved how the author showcased the foods, the herbs, and the island ambience…so much so that I could literally feel myself transported there.  I could definitely smell the Sweet Salt Air.  The revelation of the secrets was well-paced,  and even though part of Charlotte’s secret came out fairly soon to the reader, the rest of it was unexpected.  And the consequences of that one act of betrayal would have an unexpected outcome.

My feeling of connection to the characters alternated, as sometimes I was annoyed beyond words with Nicole and her little-girl voice and attitudes.  Charlotte had her negative qualities, too, but in the end, she was the one I could most relate to.  4.5 stars.

CURL UP & READ ABOUT MY MONTH: WRAP-UP — MARCH 31

Wow!  We’ve made it through the first Quarter of 2013.

Here’s my monthly reading wrap-up, and as you can see, there have been a variety of titles.  Click the links to see my reviews.

 

MARCH 2013:

1.     2nd Chance, by James Patterson – 390 pages (mystery) – 3/27/13 – (Sequel, Women’s Murder Club Challenges)

2.     3rd Degree, by James Patterson – 341 pages (mystery) – 3/22/13 (Sequel, Women’s Murder Club Challenges)

3.    Attachments, by Rainbow Rowell – 323 pages (contemporary fiction) – 3/5/13

4.    Blast from the Past, by Lauren Carr – 249 pages – (mystery series) – 3/1/13 (Sequel Challenge)

5.    Ctrl Z (e-book), by Danika Stone – 258 pages – (contemporary fiction) – 3/23/13

6.    Day After Yesterday, The, by Kelly Cozy – 465 pages – (contemporary fiction) – 3/6/13

7.    Half Broke Horses (e-book), by Jeannette Walls – 276 pages – (memoir) – 3/8/13 (Mt. TBR)

8.    Her:  A Memoir, by Christa Parravani – 302 pages – (memoir) – 3/3/13

9.    How I Made $42,000 in 1 Month….Kindle ebooks, by Cheryl Kaye Tardif -  99 pages -(nonfiction) -3/28/13 (Mt. TBR)

10.  Lion is In, The, by Delia Ephron – 282 pages – (contemporary fiction) – 3/17/13

11.  Messenger of Truth, by Jacqueline Winspear – 319 pages – (mystery) – 3/21/13 (Sequel Challenge)

12.  Promises to Keep, by Jane Green – 342 pages – (contemporary fiction) – 3/9/13

13.   Sixes, The, by Kate White – 376 pages – (mystery) – 3/19/13

14.   Storyteller, The, by Jodi Picoult – 460 pages – (contemporary/historical fiction) – 3/30/13

15.   Tin Horse, The, by Janice Steinberg – 336 pages – (historical fiction) – 3/15/13

16.   View from Penthouse B, The, by Elinor Lipman – 252 pages – (contemporary fiction) – 3/11/13

17.   While We Were Watching Downton Abbey, by Wendy Wax – 354 pages – (contemporary fiction) – 3/13/13

***

BOOKS READ IN MARCH:    17

TOTAL PAGES READ IN MARCH:  5,424

BOOKS READ YTD:                 52

PAGES READ YTD:                            16,174

FAVORITE FICTION:  While We Were Watching Downton Abbey, by Wendy Wax

FAVORITE NONFICTION:  Half Broke Horses, by Jeannette Walls

CHALLENGE PROGRESS:

      COZIES — 2/7

      SEQUELS — 12/?

      MT. TBR — 11/24

     WOMEN’S MURDER CLUB – 2/4

***

Come on by and let’s chat about reading!

A FASCINATING JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY — A REVIEW

In 1930s London, esteemed artist Nick Bassington-Hope falls to his death the night before a much anticipated exhibition of his latest work. While the police determine it to be an accident, his twin sister Georgina has doubts. As a result, she hires Maisie Dobbs, psychologist and investigator, to conduct her own inquiry.

As Maisie begins the process in her own unique way, she interviews those closest to the victim, while at the same time, learning more about the art world and the victim himself.

Unexpected events draw her into the strange underworld as she follows the paths she discovers along the road to her final outcome.

What familial connections will lead her to some of her final judgments? How will she ultimately discover the hiding place for the missing last work? And how will she bring her investigation to a close?

In this fourth Maisie Dobbs novel, Messenger of Truth (Maisie Dobbs) reveals bits and pieces of Maisie’s earlier life and some of what transpired in previous novels. As this was my first read in the series, I realized that it would have been helpful to read the other books first. However, I was able to maneuver through this one and come to understand Maisie as a character. Her style of investigating was intriguing, as she used meditation, internal dialogue, and a map that charted her progress. In the absence of the kind of technology contemporary investigators take for granted, her style felt like a fascinating journey of discovery.

A story of war, social injustice, and familial disputes led me along new pathways in my discovery of a talented author I had previously not read. The author showed me the contemplative process that defined Maisie Dobbs and made her intriguing. She also showed me the world of London after the war and during a time that meant hardship for many. On the cusp of a new beginning, that world in which the wealthy and the poor interact in a socially proscribed manner is all set to change in unexpected ways. Four stars.

WEAVING A COMPLEX TAPESTRY OF FAMILY LIFE — A REVIEW

In the opening scenes of The Tin Horse: A Novel, we meet Elaine Greenstein, sorting through boxes that hold the memorabilia of her life and the lives of her parents.

Elaine has had a rich and full life as an attorney, and the causes she took on have made her something of a celebrity in her ranks. A young man named Josh, an archivist, is helping her decide which of her mementos to donate to USC . Because Elaine is finally leaving her home in Santa Monica for Rancho Manana, a retirement home that she has dubbed the Ranch of No Tomorrow.

Elaine’s wry sense of humor comes through as she tells the story in her first person narrative. A story that sweeps across the miles and the years to the homes where her ancestors lived, in the Europe of the Nazi years. Starting over in the Jewish communities of America would be like a fulfillment of their dreams. But what happened to each of them, including the struggles, the bigotry, and the reversals, would inform their lives forever.

Moving back and forth with the story, we are sometimes in the present as Elaine moves and settles into her new life. And then we move backward, watching as the answers begin to unfold. We learn many of the secrets, fears, dreams, and longings of the first and second generations of the Greenstein family. And when the secrets are revealed, we see the betrayals beneath them.

What has created the special link between Mama and Barbara? What is the significance of the tin horse? And how will Barbara’s impulsive behavior lead to something she does right after their high school graduation? How will her actions leave a hole in Elaine’s heart, and change the choices she makes from then on?

What will Elaine discover in the boxes that ultimately provides answers about her sister, and how will she finally discover what happened to her?

Richly layered with history, emotion, and the complex tapestry of family life, this is a story with true-to-life characters and settings that fully engaged me. Five stars.

A LIFE OF LOVE & FRIENDSHIP — A REVIEW

Callie Perry is a happily married photographer with two wonderful kids, a lovable sister, Steffi, and a best friend, Lila. Problems are minor: Steffi can never settle down, Lila has finally found love but the guy has a nightmare of an ex, and Callie and Steffi’s divorced parents, Honor and Walter, haven’t spoken in 30 years. But then Callie, a breast cancer survivor, is diagnosed with a rare and incurable complication of the disease. Suddenly realizing that she has only months to live, she begins the painful process of saying good-bye.

For most of the story, I was caught up in the lives of these characters that felt like people I would love to know. While Callie seemed almost too good, I enjoyed Steffi’s quirks and poor choices in men, and loved seeing her slowly find her niche in the little country house in Sleepy Hollow. I enjoyed that she was a chef who reveled in her cooking. Her nurturing side flourished and added dimension to her character.

Another rewarding aspect to PROMISES TO KEEP was seeing Honor and Walter meet each other again for the first time in years and begin to appreciate each other despite the differences and the enmity between them.

How will Callie find a way to celebrate the rest of her life? What special joining together will help them all find a way to deal with her loss? And what unexpected joys and discoveries will come along?

Predictably, there was sadness and loss…and in the end, hope. As some of the characters found love and new lives, we could revel in the whole “life goes on” theme. The author’s epilogue and her final tribute to a friend, Heidi, who died and to whom this book was dedicated, left the reader with feelings of closure.

After each chapter, there were recipes: a kind of homage to Steffi and how she brought joy to her family and friends through her cooking. A feel-good story with moments that brought me to tears, I enjoyed this one, even though it fell into place quite predictably. Four stars.

ONE WOMAN’S PERSONAL ODYSSEY — A REVIEW

From the very first page of Nine Months, the reader is immersed in the internal world of Sonia, a newly pregnant woman who already has two sons, ages 4 and 2. A Brooklyn housewife, she struggles against the dull sameness of her life. Having made some kind of peace with it, even hoping to resume her painting now that the boys are older, the unexpected pregnancy literally throws her for a loop, and from the very first weeks, the familiar nausea and hormonal imbalance add to the loss of equilibrium she feels and seemingly thrusts her into a war within.

What does Sonia do when the pregnancy advances and her ambivalence increases? Will the road trip she decides to take be like a personal odyssey for her, or some kind of escape from a life she is trying to cast off? Some might say she has abandoned her family, and even as Sonia herself seems to characterize it that way, at least in the beginning, I see it more as a woman’s struggle to make sense of her life, while dealing with the physical aspects of pregnancy.

While most women would not take such a dramatic approach to self-examination, I believe that the character was trying to find her own truth.

That said, there were moments when she seemed quite unbalanced, and perhaps the physical changes were insufficient to explain what Sonia is experiencing. Her emotional health seems off kilter as well. Is she questioning the choices she has made? Or is she simply acting out from selfishness or boredom?

For those who have never experienced what Sonia has, or questioned their lives in the middle of it, this book would definitely not be one you could connect to. In some ways, Sonia’s journey seemed over the top, but at the end, I couldn’t help but wonder if she had to take matters to this extreme to finally find her way.

Four stars.

ONE WOMAN’S SOJOURN THROUGH THE GREAT RECESSION — A REVIEW

In late 2008, the world as most Americans knew it folded in on itself. The Great Recession began.

For Amy Wolf, the author of Don’t Let Me Die In A Motel 6 or One Woman’s Struggle Through The Great Recession, a memoir, nothing could have been more shocking. She had been enjoying the good life, with a well-paid position at Washington Mutual; she lived in a big house; had many advantages; and had always counted on being gainfully employed.

Over the subsequent pages, we learn how the author dealt with events, passing through her days almost like someone in the stages of grief, from anger to acceptance. But along the way, she is tossed about through various degrees of homelessness, living hand to mouth, with occasional (but grudging) assistance from wealthy relatives. Her quest for full-time employment met with constant disappointment.

Her travails were not limited to the financial ones. Her battles with depression, near suicide, and ultimately, a return of the cancer she had fought years before were like a painful backdrop to her troubles with her out-of-control teenage daughter.

Almost like a female modern-day Job, the author plunges ahead, determined to survive. She tells her story with candor and humor, and when she describes how she came out the other end a nicer person, she shows us exactly what she means by that.

Not a tale for the faint-hearted, it was definitely one I won’t forget. Yes, there were poor choices along the way, but Wolf fully admits to all of them, and then demonstrates how she learned and grew from the experiences. 4.5 stars.

BOOKING THROUGH THURSDAY: A READING LIFE — NOV. 29

Welcome to another provocative conversation about bookish things…and yes, today’s topic for Booking through Thursday is stretching that envelope.

Here we go:

I was talking to a co-worker the other day about a book I’d read recently, and realized how very, very few people I can do that with. In my daily life, it seems like almost no-one reads anything more than a newspaper or a fashion magazine. I only have one person I can truly chat about books with … and yet, being a Capital-R-Reader, I simply can’t imagine going through life without a book constantly at hand, or shelves of them proudly displayed downstairs. I’m proud of being a person who not only reads, but who reads a lot–not just in volume but in variety. I like having an inquiring mind. I like exploring new ideas. I love following an intricately plotted story (the more layers the better). I love BEING a reader and simply can’t imagine what it’s like to go through life without being one.

Am I the only one who feels this way? That wonders at how other people can simply NOT do something that should be so essential? Who feels almost sad that so many people seem content to go through their lives without stretching their mental wings at all?

Can you imagine NOT being a Reader? How does it shape your life? Your perception of it?

How does being a Reader affect your relationship with all those folks who are looking at it from the other side and simply can’t understand how you can sit and READ all the time?

Yep, it’s a long-winded, philosophical springboard to a ephemeral conversation … go, see what you can make of it!

***

Let me begin by stating the obvious for us bookish types.  A life without books or reading feels, to me, like a life without salt, or sugar, or any kind of seasoning.

My love of books was a response to my need to add pleasure to a life saddled with numerous chores and very little else.  My childhood started before television was part of life.  And when we did get one, I was already ten or so.  Others had them before our family; my parents were very strict about using them.

So books were my entertainment. 

I still recall the first book I was able to check out of our small village library.  The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. 

And the library itself left an indelible sense memory in me.  The scent of the room felt like magic, just as the rows and rows of books were like discovered treasures.

The great thing about reading was how it filled an empty place inside:  a place of searching, wondering, and discovery.  I recall acting out the character parts as I played outside in the fields surrounding our home.

Later I enjoyed sharing books with friends, like the Nancy Drew series.  A friend in fifth grade had every one of them!

It was only in adulthood, and after college, that I realized how few people that I knew shared this love of books and reading.  When I found like-minded individuals at my first serious job, we formed a book club.

I would be in another book club later, as a young mother, but that experience was less than fulfilling.  The others had a quite different agenda:  one-upmanship being only part of it.

So for many years, I read and lived in my world of books in a very solitary way.  And then I discovered book blogs.  And, as they say, the rest is history.  No longer a solitary exploit, reading is the centerpiece of my life.  And my home, too.  Here are some of my bookish surroundings.

 

 

What about you?  And isn’t this an exciting conversation for a Thursday?

 

THE SLIPPERY NATURE OF MEMORY — A REVIEW

Both the title and the opening lines drew me in immediately, as I knew that this would be a tale about family secrets and the cost of keeping them.

Drowning Ruth [Hardcover] begins in 1919, with Amanda Starkey’s role as a nurse during the war. But from there, we weave in and out of periods of time, both backward and forward, learning the story of Amanda and her sister Mathilda, who drowned mysteriously one night in November later that year, and the subsequent journey of Mathilda’s daughter Ruth.

The details are slipped in during these moments of reflection, like “doses” of medicine surreptitiously fed to a resistant patient. Later we hear Ruth’s voice, as she ages, from the confused thoughts about family events and drowning to later moments of increasing clarity. For Ruth is convinced that she drowned.

We can see from the beginning that the relationship between Amanda and Mathilda (Matty) is conflicted. There is a close bond–they are almost enmeshed–and yet the rivalry is readily apparent.

Other important characters are brought forth almost casually, like Clement Owens: his role in Amanda’s life will not be apparent for awhile.

What really happened to Mathilda Starkey, and what secrets have kept Amanda from moving on? How does the truth eventually come out, and what ramifications will unfold?

In some ways, the slipping back and forth through time felt confusing, and yet it also seemed appropriate. Like floating thoughts that slip in and out of our minds, these snippets seemed to show us the nature of memories.

I had hopes that Ruth would finally detach from the enmeshed relationship with Amanda, but alas: she seems to become the clone of her aunt, falling into her same patterns, living on the farm like a recluse. An emotionally disturbing story, I know that I won’t forget it. Four stars.

EVOCATIVE PORTRAYAL OF TIMELESS CONNECTIONS: A REVIEW

 

Who am I? Where do I belong? Like an echo from the sea or a whisper in the walls of an ancient house, these questions form in the mind of Ava Whalen, a young woman questing for love and connections.

When Ava meets Matthew Frazier, a Savannah child psychologist, she immediately feels connected to him. Their marriage a short time later seems hasty and impulsive to those around them, but who can explain the bond they share?

After the marriage, the two move into an ancient house where Matthew grew up, and which somehow seems familiar to Ava. But also unfamiliar. Sharing the historic footprints of those ancestors like Pamela and Geoffrey Frazier, the house echoes with the longings of the ages.

When the secrets between them begin to unfold, however, will the bond that drew them together be enough?

The first big secret is Matthew’s first wife Adrienne, a midwife like Ava. How did she die? And what was she seeking just before her death and how does it connect to the past?

What does the scent of ashes have to do with Ava’s feeling of not quite belonging? How does her mother’s aloofness reinforce that sense of not belonging?

How do passion flowers figure into the mysterious dreams and memories that cling to Ava and hint at things untold?

Searching via hypnosis, Ava begins to uncover some of the past events that seem to inform her life in the present.

Told in the narrative voices of Pamela, Ava, and Gloria, Sea Change mysteriously evokes the spiritual and physical connections between them all.

In the end, Ava’s thoughts sum up the power of these connections wrought within the walls of a home:

“…the house with memories like an ocean’s waves with no beginnings and no endings, its sighs reminding me of how impossible it is sometimes to distinguish between the two.”

A beautiful and evocative portrayal of timeless connections, this story will remain with me for a long time. Five stars.