Category: Book Review

Book Review: Forget Me Knot

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I’m coming to the end of my comfort reading, not just because my initial stack has only two books left in it but because I’m starting to pick apart these books as I read. If my editor is back, it’s time to stop comforting myself. LOL

But for now, Forget Me Knot by Sue Margolis is here to brighten up your Monday morning. I first found Margolis with her hit Apocalipstick, a hysterically funny look at how to cope when your school tormentor grows up and matures, then comes back into your life.

Forget, is an amusing look at the complications of life when you discover your fiance is actually gay. Yikes! As the book opens, Abby is the owner of Fabulous Flowers, a flower shop she started from the ground up and is on the verge of hitting the big time with her endeavors. She is engaged to a man she thinks is all the tick marks on the box. Handsome, rich, considerate, snazzy dresser…then she finds him in the arms of his male lover. Oops.

Along the way we get little side plots regarding her best friends. One is a short Jewish fireball (cliché) who is afraid to tell her parents about her half black boy friend. She’s been playing up the half Jewish and a doctor angle (cliché) and doesn’t know how to fill them in on the rest. And then there’s the gay best friend who is fighting for custody of his dog from his ex, who just happens to be Abby’s ex-fiance’s lover. (cliché and unbelievably ridiculous.)

But despite these flaws, the book is still damn amusing, funny, and a great bathtub/beach read.

℘℘℘℘ 1/2 – This is another four and half page review. I read it quickly and happily. I have read six or seven other books by the same author, all are amusing. As a side note I love that in  Forget there’s a scene where a film director, who’s renting the shop for his film, talks about his movie is a romantic comedy where boys meets girl, they start happily, there’s a misunderstanding that drives them apart, and then it works out in the end. He and Abby talk about how cliché it is. How every romantic movie goes that way but it works because people love both knowing and not knowing all at the same time. This is one of those books, a fun romantic cliché.

Book Review: Something Blue

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Something Blue by Emily Giffin is the companion piece to Something Borrowed. It is the complicated situation from the point of view of Darcy. While Darcy features heavily in Rachel’s explanation of events, she barely pops up in Darcy’s.

Darcy’s version skims over the events that occurred in Borrowed to bring you up to date and then moves her forward. In some ways, I almost prefer this book. To me Blue reads as the story of a shallow human discovering she can be so much more. That she has real depth, all it takes is her losing her entire shallow existence to find more. It doesn’t hurt that Blue is funnier than Borrowed.

I had a good chuckle over the scene where the doctor tells Darcy he’s sure she’s having twin boys because while girls are sometimes mistaken for boys it rarely happen that boys are mistaken for girls. When I was pregnant they told me I was having a girl. We narrowed down our ten plus name list to one girl’s name. We had a baby shower for a girl. We had one of those poster boards that people sign and then you put the baby picture in it, all signed to Kira Anne. Then when I was 36 weeks pregnant at yet another ultrasound, I asked the tech if she was sure it was a girl because I needed to take the tags off things and wash them. After a moment or two of hrming she confirmed, it was a boy. “See there’s his penis and he’s peeing.” ROFL. Now you may be wondering why all the frilly dresses and onesies and blankets and shoes and hats had the tags on them still at 36 weeks, especially given I was going to be induced early….I never believed I was having a girl. Ever. I spent my last week returning everything.

I think my favorite line in Blue is when Darcy recalls how Rachel used to always say love is a verb. Emily Giffin is a wise woman. It’s one heck of a line and does so much to reveal who Darcy has become. And don’t we all need a little reminder to treat those we love like we love them?

℘℘℘℘ 1/2 – Four and a half pages. I totally reread this in one day in between home schooling the kiddo and my other responsibilities but the reality is I can’t give it five stars because I am unlikely to seek out other works by Giffin. I’ve read 2 or 3 of her other things and they just don’t speak to me, despite how well they are written. sigh.

Book Review: Something Borrowed

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Back to a comfort book, one can only move forward so quickly before needing to pause to allow the brain to catch up. LOL. Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin is one half of a story of two friends, Rachel and Darcy.

My reading of the books has changed over the years, more on that on Friday, but one thing hasn’t changed. This book makes me laugh every time. It’s well written, compelling reading. Emily Giffin knows people and she writes about them in an engaging manner.

The simple plot: girl meets boy, thinks she isn’t good enough for him so hooks him up with her perfect best friend. Seven years later girl discovers she and boy have something. Too bad he’s engaged to said best friend.  Entertaining calamity ensues.

℘℘℘℘+: four and a half pages. I thoroughly enjoy this and Something Blue, the companion novel (more about that next week). I have read other things by this author and while they are well written they don’t speak to me like Borrowed and Blue.

Book Review: Essentialism

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I don’t remember what persuaded me to get this book. I do know I had to order it and get on the waiting list for some time before it arrived(thus adding to the lack of remember). Before I cracked it open, it was on the book review stack and then as I started reading I thought…weekend workshop. But as I finished Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown, I feel like it’s one of those rare books where the sum is greater than it’s parts. To break it down and distill his message in a weekend blog post would cheapen the work.

I will however share a little something that fascinated me. Everyone has heard of K. Anders Ericsson’s study of violinists, even if you don’t know who did the study, you’ve heard 10,000 hours to achieve mastery, that the best violinists practiced the most. What I had never heard and I bet you hadn’t either, is that the second most important factor was sleep. The best violinists slept 8.6 hours per night on average and napped 2.8 hours per week on average. They were better rested and therefore able to make the most of those practice hours to become the best.

I definitely enjoyed this book. It is well written. It is repetitive in those areas where he is trying to get your attention, which works well for a non fiction book. It is both an easy read and a book I would advise against breezing through. Take your time. Read it slowly. Allow the ideas to percolate in between chapters.

The theme of doing less better is not a new one. I’ve read other books along that path. I find those books tend to find me when I am already feeling overwhelmed. It’s always a nice reminder to slow down and think about what really matters, then adapt accordingly.

℘℘℘℘ – Four pages. Quite enjoyed it. Read it a bit faster than I think was ideal but certainly heard what I needed to hear.

Book Review; Bookends

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I’m still doing that thing where I reread books of comfort by some of my favorite authors to soothe me out of my funk. This week I bring you Bookends by Jane Green. Jane Green has a variety of novels all with a vaguely familiar theme. Woman finds herself amidst the confusion of life. It’s a theme you would know I heartily embrace if you had read my novel.

So why Bookends when Jane has so many fine novels? I think because the main character is me on some level. I identify hugely with her. Cath has a great job, good friends she feels close to and that complete her life. She’s always been the ugly duckling, and no she doesn’t turn into a swan, I shudder to think. She had a stunningly attractive best friend in her youth which never helped her low self esteem. Despite the fact that she’s fab at her job, she hates it. Then one of her closest friends suggest they do what Cath has always wanted and open a bookstore. That’s always been one of my secret desires, back when brick and mortar bookstores still existed anyway. And yes I was the ugly duckling to a woman who pulled every man in a 50 mile radius in my youth. And yes, I have had more than one career I rocked while hating it desperately.

Anyway as the novel progresses they open the book store, deal with the past, and tackle some complications in the present. And yes, the book ends with Cath content with herself and her life. Call that a swan ending if you please. But isn’t that what we all want, to be content with ourselves and our lives each day?

℘℘℘℘℘ – Five Pages. Well written, amusing, good dialogue. A bit dated now, since the book is set in the 90s, ouch that’s 20 years ago, but still, people are humans. LOL.

Book Review: Rilla of Ingleside

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Rilla of Ingleside is the 8th book in the Anne of Green Gables series by L. M. Montgomery. Most little girls read Ann of Green Gables at some point, it’s a vague right of passage I suppose. Montgomery prepares you for Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters. She’s flowery in her prose, heavy in her dialogue, and the action is rarely seen. But still it’s delightful reading of time past where things were different.

The series goes from Green Gables where Anne is a young girl accidentally adopted into a farm family, they really wanted a boy. But they kept her anyway. If you read all eight books it goes through high school, college, teaching, Anne marries, her early married life, and then books 7 and 8 are about her children for the most part with just dashes of Anne. So why is Rilla my favorite?

Rilla takes place during World War I. And I know that’s my area of expertise, which means I’m not exactly a neutral party to start, but I love the way Montgomery works it all in. She hints that the war is coming, or at least it’s a hinting if you have any knowledge of World War I, while she gives us a solid understanding of 15 year old Rilla, who is beautiful, shallow, and cares only for enjoying herself.

Then we get the war experience told primarily from the point of view of those left at home. The efforts they go through, the pain, the fear, the ever lasting struggle to have hope that the war will end and their men will come home again. Balanced against letters from the front.

There are a few things that strike me when I read this every time.

A) People do what needs to be done because it needs to be done. They don’t whine that someone should do X because it needs to be done. They do X themselves.

B) The oldest boy’s dog refuses to come home from the train station after his master goes off to war. Four and a half years the dog lives on the station platform waiting. And people talk about it in the book. Not that he’s a dumb dog but if such a simple animal can give up so much of it’s life on faith, how can we as “superior beings” fail.

The damn book makes me cry every time. In fact given half a chance, I start crying on page one and cry right on through to the end. But then I’m a sap for things like duty and honor. Things that seem gone these days.

℘℘℘℘℘ – Five pages. I do love this book. There’s something to be said for a book that can wring emotion from you even upon it’s tenth reading.

Monday Book Review: Mr. Darcy’s Daughters

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As I continue down comfort lane my reading takes me to Mr. Darcy’s Daughters by Elizabeth Aston. There is an entire series in the Darcy line, well six of them anyway, and then Aston went off and wrote something modern and has never been heard of again. laughing, I lie but she went off to write a new series I haven’t read or even heard of until this morning when I went a googling to see if I was lying out my …

Aston isn’t Austen. And I wouldn’t want her to be. She’s Austen light. A solid meal of a good book with an Austen flavoring if you like. There comes a point in every Austen novel where I am up my eyebrows in flowery description and scream, “just get on with it.” Aston, just gets on with it. Three lines of delicate descriptive prose to Austen’s 300.

“Daughters” is the first in the series and takes place while Darcy and Elizabeth are on their way to Constantinople as diplomats in the service of their country. Their five daughters have come to London for the season to stay with the Fitzwilliams. Only the two oldest should be out but the two middle daughters soon scheme their way out of the school room. Five headstrong, for how could Darcy’s daughters be anything else, young women in London with very inadequate chaperone. Disaster abounds in high Austen style. But I find one thing an improvement on Austen. The girls ALWAYS rescue themselves. No need for a man to swoop in an save the day. A man always swoops but usually finds the situation already in hand by the time he gets there.

The series continues, the next book focusing on the youngest Darcy daughter and them moving out into the wider sphere of relations. Aston found her own ground as she moved through the female relations, each book getting further from being a reboot of Austen and more of an Austenesque but original work with one or two Austen born people, if that makes sense. In other words, the books only get better as you read through the series. I’ll be hard pressed not to start re-devouring the other five right now. Which I can’t do because I have 400 other things pressing me.

One memorable bit is when Camilla, the second daughter, is off to the lending library and her maid is grumbling at all the books she has to carry for her. The maid wonders at the young ladies, don’t they have enough books, they must have read everything ever written by now. To which Camilla replies, “Authors go on writing books, and so we go on reading them. It is a sad state of affairs.” Indeed.

℘℘℘℘℘ – Five pages. Daughters is a solid five pages, but to be honest some of the later books in the series are definite six pagers. Witty, intriguing, well written. I like knowing things turned out well for Elizabeth Bennett. I like the new characters Aston invents.

And just in case you were wondering, in Aston’s world, Elizabeth does provide Darcy with two sons as well, so an heir and a spare was adhered to.

Book Review: How to Murder a Millionaire

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I’ve been in a bit of a funk lately and when I’m unhappy I tend to retreat to what I know, to that which is comforting to me. Which means I’m rereading all my favorite books. I’ll be reviewing at least one from each series or author I adore in the coming weeks. Enjoy.

How to Murder a Millionaire is the first in the Blackbird Sisters Mystery series by Nancy Martin. I’ve read them all, many times. Martin has a fun style. She balances beautifully between so much prose that you lose the plot and a straight forward, fast paced who dun it. It’s fun to read and I bet was fun to write.

Nora Blackbird is the heroine of the series. Born into blue blood society in Philly, she finds herself in the difficult position of needing a job and being qualified to do little but party plan. She begs herself a job as a society reporter for a newspaper. Attending all the parties and events she used to attend before her husband was shot by his drug dealer and her parents ran off to another country owing everyone money, Nora manages to hold her head high and mostly pay her own bills. Unfortunately she keeps finding dead bodies. And fortunately, she keeps investigating the murders.

There is a smoking hot love interest. The best kind of course. A bad boy who reformed himself before she meets him, so she gets the best of both worlds. Nora won’t marry him because all the men Blackbird sisters marry die. In fact by the end of the first book, all the sisters are widows, one of them a widow twice over. So there’s that bit of entertainment as well.

℘℘℘℘℘ – Five Pages. I love this series. It’s funny, nicely plotted, and an easy read. A who doesn’t love a heroine who wears her grandmother’s couture, mixing it with Target knock offs.

 

Book Review: Mystery

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I had the hardest time trying to decide if Mystery by John Hamilton should be a book review or a weekend workshop. The truth is, it barely qualifies as either. 26 pages long is an episode of Scooby Doo which is what I was doing while reading it, cuddling with my son while he watched Scooby Doo. I ordered this book thinking it might be a fun resource next year when I’m doing Nano to Publish with the kids at the coop.

It was an extremely generic look at writing the genre of mystery fiction. It included such helpful tidbits as:

-Setting is very important…it almost becomes one of the characters if well written. No information on how to write it well though.

-Get your ideas everywhere, the hard is turning an idea into a story. No information on how to turn an idea into a story.

-Write every day.

-Don’t plagiarize.

-Characters: hero, villain, secondary characters. Give them flaws.

-Write dialogue that isn’t obvious. If a character’s been shot don’t have him say “I’ve been shot.” Have him say something unexpected like, “Take care of my dog.”

-Have your hero solve his own problems.

-Rewrite your book a lot. No suggestion to find others to beta read, line edit, or anything of the such.

-You’ll probably be rejected if you try to find a publisher but don’t give up, you have talent.

Oy vey. This book was certainly aimed at a younger audience but when I imagine my teenage self reading this, I’m insulted. It’s like giving instructions to boil water in a cook book. I heat the water, you say, until it bubbles, damn I never knew that. I want in depth explanations on how to make a good mystery work, not platitudes to paper the inside of my hamster cage with.

℘℘ 2 pages – I guess. I finished it so I can’t really call it a one pager.

 

Monday Book Review: Angel Face

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Part of me feels totally ridiculous that I am fascinated with the whole Amanda Knox case. But I keep reading books on the subject when I come across them at the library. The latest find was Angel Face: The True Story of Student Killer Amanda Knox by Barbie Latza Nadeau. As an aside I find it really interesting that every book on the case says it’s the true story. Snort. As if we are ever likely to know the truth in that case.

This particular book is short, like less than 200 pages, and it stops with the first conviction. The author is a journalist who was present for almost all of the first trial, not a small feat given it went on for 11 months and was actually three cases at once.

The book was well written and the topic interested me obviously, but I found it thin. The author presents such a small portion of the evidence or testimony covered that I have to wonder about her selection bias. I could have used less passages about how badly journalists who weren’t convinced of Amanda’s innocence were treated and more information about what she saw happen in court. It felt like a chatty conversation held over tea not a hard hitting investigative journalism piece.

℘℘℘ – Three pages. It was good. Nothing more, nothing less. I read it quickly but at 200 pages how could I not. I enjoyed her style and prose but kept falling through the swiss cheese sized holes in the facts she presented. Too much was missing for this to feel like the nonfiction work it is supposed to be.