Book #45 "Red Hook Road" by Aleyet Waldman

Summary: As lyrical as a sonata, Ayelet Waldman’s follow-up novel to Love and Other Impossible Pursuits explores the aftermath of a family tragedy.

Set on the coast of Maine over the course of four summers, Red Hook Road tells the story of two families, the Tetherlys and the Copakens, and of the ways in which their lives are unraveled and stitched together by misfortune, by good intentions and failure, and by love and calamity.

A marriage collapses under the strain of a daughter’s death; two bereaved siblings find comfort in one another; and an adopted young girl breathes new life into her family with her prodigious talent for the violin. As she writes with obvious affection for these unforgettable characters, Ayelet Waldman skillfully interweaves life’s finer pleasures—music and literature—with the more mundane joys of living. Within these resonant pages, a vase filled with wildflowers or a cold beer on a hot summer day serve as constant reminders that it’s often the little things that make life so precious. – Random House

The devastating premise of this book intrigued me. What happens to families when the young bride and groom are killed on their wedding day? How are you related when you’ve been in-laws for an hour? The story deals with the aftermath of a horrible car accident and how each family member comes to terms with their loss.

I’ve read all of Aleyet Waldman’s Mommy Track mysteries and I really enjoyed them. I went into this book wanting to love and sadly I just didn’t. I liked it well enough but it just didn’t catch me. I felt like I was missing something. I’m sure there are going to be plenty of people who love this book unfortunately I found myself pushing to finish it and find out what happened, which I did want.

Jane and Iris, the mothers-in-law were well written but I felt there was something missing about them for me. I can’t quite put my finger on it. It drives me crazy when I can’t explain why I didn’t like a book better. I’m not sure what wasn’t there for me or what I needed to like it better. Ugh, it’s just so frustrating.

I did like the way Iris and Daniel’s (parents of the bride) marriage was handled. It seemed a realistic reaction to the death of a child. And though I didn’t always like Iris, I could understand some of the things she did and felt. I thought Jane (mother of the groom), a seemingly cold person was fleshed out a little better.

The secondary story of the flower girl finding her talent for music with the world-famous violinist grandfather of the bride was a bit of a miss for me. Again, I don’t know why it didn’t work for me, maybe it was just a little contrived.

This is a hard one for me because I really wanted to love this book and I did like it. Maybe my expectations were too high and I was expecting something else. I have a feeling more people are going to love it and wondering what the heck is wrong with me.

Book #44 "I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to be Your Class President" by Josh Lieb

Normally I don’t read much contemporary young adult literature. Honestly, I can’t remember any I’ve read in the last couple of years. I read some along with my daughter when she was young but stopped as she got older. I couldn’t bring myself to read the “Twilight” series because the brooding vampire thing doesn’t really do it for me. The last brooding vampire I read about was Lestat and I lost interest in him after “The Vampire Lestat”. I would have read along with my son but he went from “Captain Underpants” to Issac Asimov. Until last week.

Looking for a new book for him to read I saw “I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to be Your Class President” by Josh Lieb. I could no more pass up that title than I could pass up free breadsticks and trust me, my friends, there’s no way I would pass up either. If the title alone didn’t attract me there was a great story to boot.

Now, my family can tell you I have an infinite ability to suspend disbelief. Really, I’ll pretty much buy anything for a good story. So, I didn’t have a problem with an eighth grade genius being the second richest person in the world with a secret lair the covered almost the entire underside of the city of Omaha and secret minions who keep him protected from the bullies in not only the world but in the halls of Gale Sayers Middle School. The problem I had when I started to read this was the over the top style it was “written” in. I could really see the writing, at first. But, then I had to rejigger my thinking. It’s suppose to be over the top. How could it not? We’re talking about a boy running for eighth grade president to secretly hires an elite campaign strategist to help him rig the election, he has a special stall in the boys bathroom where the toilet dispenses milk duds and popcorn. I got it, over the top is what Lieb was going for. It’s sly and irreverent, it’s funny and snarky, and it actually has somethings to say about politics, parenting, and what being an evil genius really means.

Lieb was an Executive Producer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and also worked on The Simpsons which definitely shows in his style. It’s smart and funny. Think Dexter’s Laboratory (do people remember that cartoon?) with less accent and more treats. Better still, there’s a happy ending even though Oliver is now only the fourth richest person in the world.

Thoughts for Thursday Morning

Don’t you just love a good book title? Gosh, there’s just something about a catchy book title that makes me happy. While cruising some of the blogs I read (about reading) I found this title:

“The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove” by Susan Gregg Gilmore

Doesn’t that rock? I have no idea what it’s about. But just hearing the title makes me want to read it. Not just find out about it, read it. It’s funny, earlier this week (10/10/10) to be exact Mental Floss had a top 10 list of alternate books titles to some classic books and it made me think about some books recently I read just because I liked the titles. The previously mentioned “The Financial Lives of the Poets” is one and also “The Girl Who Chased the Moon”. I always assume authors spend a great deal of time choosing a name for their books. I don’t know what I would have thought about “To Kill a Mockingbird” being called “Atticus”. I know it would still be a perfect book and I would probably love the title as much as I love “To Kill a Mockingbird” but it is hard to imagine.

So to all you authors out there. Thanks for putting time in effort into great titles and I can’t wait to read “The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove”

When writers talk about books

I just listened to Jess Walter, author of “The Financial Lives of the Poets” on Book Club Girl’s Blog Talk Radio show and it was awesome. I love to read or in this case listen to authors talk about what goes into writing their books. That’s why I love these new PS editions of books. They have great discussions with the authors about inspirations for the stories and, my favorite part, what they’re reading. I just love know what writers are reading.

Anyway, Jess Walter was on an internet radio show (shout out to Book Club Girl, I love her) and it was so interesting getting to hear his thought process going into writing this book. Plus getting to hear what he’s working on next. I just love it.

Book #43 "Up From the Blue" by Susan Henderson

I don't know what better review you can give to a book than I couldn't put it down. I read this in two days and only because I had to sleep or I would have finished it the day I started. While I finished it quickly I certainly didn't rush through it because I wanted to savor every word. Susan Henderson's debut novel was is an impressive start to her writing career as far as I'm concerned.

She tells the story of Tillie Harris and the year that changed her life forever. While moving into her new home Tillie goes into premature labor. With her husband out of town Tillie is forced to call her estranged father for help. In all the panic and anxiety we flashback to 1975, the year Tillie's already complicated falls completely apart.

Eight year old Tillie is erratic, impulsive, and desperately trying to keep her emotionally fragile mother from spinning out of control. Her father deals with this with military fashion, telling his wife to pull herself together while trying to keep order inside the house and appearances outside the house. Tillie's stoic older brother shuts out all the chaos and becomes the perfect little soldier. Through Tillie's young eyes things are black and white, there are heroes and villains.

There are many subtle moments in this book; though we see events from Tillie's perspective Henderson also shows things as they really are. There are no heroes, no villains, only people stumbling through a sad situation. Everyone of these characters had my sympathies. Tillie is temperamental and emotional and heartbreaking in efforts to save her mother.

The story doesn't always go where you think it will go. There were times I questioned what was really happening. The changing world of the 70's is shown through Tillie as she makes friends with the little girl bussed into her school. I loved that there were no giant banners on this only Tillie's own experiences highlighting the issue.

There's so much going on in this story, there's sadness and loss, happiness and humor, and most of all there's hope and the ability to come through in the end. While there isn't a typical happy ending there is a happy ending. I enjoyed this book tremendously and if this is what we can expect from Susan Henderson I see a big stack of books to add to my "to be read" list.

Book #42 "Eyes on the Prize" by Sunni Jeffers

The Grace Chapel Inn series is a lot like the feel good story they run on the Friday evening national news. There may be a some hard ship but in the end everything works out just fine.

The series has several different authors, some better than others. Jane Orcutt, may favorite passed away several years ago and I feared I may not find the series as enjoyable. Well, I need not have worried. Sunni Jeffers does a fine job handling her entries into the series.

This time around we have youngest of the Howard sisters, Jane, preparing for a 10K run while trying to fight her desire to beat an old high school rival. Then the Louise, the eldest Howard sister has decided to try her hand at gardening and could just be growing a record breaking giant pumpkin. All of this while middle sister Alice is out of town helping her friend decide whether or not to put a beloved relative into a nursing home.

While not the most complicated of stories there is enough story to keep you ...more The Grace Chapel Inn series is a lot like the feel good story they run on the Friday evening national news. There may be a some hard ship but in the end everything works out just fine.

The series has several different authors, some better than others. Jane Orcutt, may favorite passed away several years ago and I feared I may not find the series as enjoyable. Well, I need not have worried. Sunni Jeffers does a fine job handling her entries into the series.

This time around we have youngest of the Howard sisters, Jane, preparing for a 10K run while trying to fight her desire to beat an old high school rival. Then the Louise, the eldest Howard sister has decided to try her hand at gardening and could just be growing a record breaking giant pumpkin. All of this while middle sister Alice is out of town helping her friend decide whether or not to put a beloved relative into a nursing home.

While not the most complicated of stories there is enough story to keep you interested. Alice's story was by far the most intriguing to me. I thought it was nicely handled (even if it was easy) and ended happily (was there any doubt?). The story of the giant pumpkin was fun and I'll have to look up Louise's secret ingredient to see if it's real. The 10K run storyline was the least successful for me but I think that was just me and not the author's fault.

All and all I enjoyed this entry into the series. There will be no grand book awards for any of these books. But their entertaining and lighthearted. The only thing I wish they had were recipes for all the wonderful food mentioned because they all do sound yummy.

Book # 41 "The Kids are All Right" by Diana and Liz Welch with Dan and Amanda Welch

There are a few books that really get under your skin and this was one of them for me. I don’t know what I was expecting when I first started to read “The Kids are All Right” but it certainly wasn’t a sad walk down memory lane. That’s not to say I didn’t like this book because really I did. It just touched on some of the unhappy times in my own life.

There are a lot of similarities I share with the Welch kids. I lost both my parents in a short span when I was very young. I came to depend on my siblings in way other families didn’t seem too. I think when families lose their parents young they can go one of two ways they either drift apart and become familiar acquaintances or they cling to each other like a life preserver. I think that was the greatest similarity between the Welch family and mine. They really did come to depend on each other to get through.

This is a touching, heart wrenching, sometimes shocking, ultimately heartwarming story of how resilient we humans are. Told from all four kids points of view we see how each felt and dealt with the circumstances they were forced into. The thing that struck me the hardest were the number of adults that let these kids down. The assortment of uncaring, unkind, and unwilling adults who failed the children was just stunning to me. As they try to struggle to find their way there is quiet a bit of alcohol and drug use which can be unsettling but perhaps understandable, given their young age. But finally they are able to survive and thrive together as a family.

I didn’t always enjoy reading this book. But I’m so glad I stuck through the emotionally raw parts. In the end I found these were four amazing strong capable people who are incredibly lucky to have each other. Having sibling who are also my friend and life savers I understand how precious that is. I finished this book knowing the kids really were going to be all right.

Book # 40 "The Financial Lives of the Poets" by Jess Walter

I think readers always have the "where did you get your idea" question running through their minds when they're reading a book. But, really man, how do you come up with financial poetry? Then how do you turn financial poetry into a book about a suburban dad who decides after endless economic hits to become a drug dealer with some dudes he meets outside 7-11 while picking up milk for his kids breakfast.

I was explaining "The Financial Lives of the Poets" to my husband last night when I finished it and had to say "I know it sounds nuts but it's a great book". How can you not love a story about a newspaper business reporter who quits his job to launch a financial poetry website (WT....) only to find out the idea won't fly (really??) then gets stuck in the endless whirlpool of today's economic crisis? Then while trying to figure out a way to save his house and his way of life, becomes a drug dealer. This story never went where I thought it was going and I loved every minute of it. It made me laugh and think and there's not much more you can ask for in a book.

The copy I have happens to be a PS edition which has extras at the end of the book including the incident that inspired to story. More and more books I'm getting are the PS editions and I have to say I love them. I really like being involved in what went into creating art. I love good dedications and acknowledgments too. I love feeling like I'm in the know of what goes on behind the pages of books I love. I hope more and more publishers come out with these editions. As for Jess Walter, I think I'll be checking out his other works and if he ever does decide to start up a financial poetry website I may just have to check it out.