Barefoot Season, was, for me, a change from the typical Susan Mallery books I've read before. I have always liked her stories, so don't misunderstand, I really liked reading this quick and sometimes light (and sometimes really heavy) story of Michelle, a wounded Vet who returns home to her family inn on Blackberry Island to pick up where she left off. But, as we all know, once you leave home, coming back is never easy. Especially not when you are a wounded warrior and your mother has died, leaving your inn, your only possession and source of income, in ruins--financial and otherwise. This book just isn't as steamy (wink-wink) as some of Mallery's other books.
It is, however, a page-turner and light enough to toss in your summer beach bag, yet thought provoking enough that you just might take away sometthing from this book. I was reminded that we just can't escape our parents, for better or for worse, and stories like this reminds me to be careful, to remember how my actions impact my girls. And, I was also reminded to be so very grateful for the men and women who serve our country. Sometimes coming home for them is just as hard as being away.
Barefoot Season is one of a series of books about Blackberry Island. I don't think there is an order to them and I think they are independent stories from one another, but I am anxious to read more of them. This one was very good.
But first, I need to tackle the sequel to Firefly Lane. I have been waiting for months to read this--the "what happens next" to my second most favorite book. I hope it lives up to my expectations.
Happy reading, everyone!
:) Dodie
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
#16: Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
I stumbled arcoss this book one day in Sam's Club while Rob was looking at gun magazines (his new thing) and after reading the front and back covers, which basically proclaimed that Beautiful Ruins would be the best book I ever read, all while showing a beautiful picture of the cliffs of Italy on the front, I bought it.
Just goes to show that you should never judge a book by it's cover.
Seriously, Beautiful Ruins is one of the 2012 100 Notables Books by the NYT Book Review. Countless magazines and papers and other famous people raved about this book. I thought it was good, but doubt it will end up on my top 10 list for the year. The story just wasn't something I could relate to. It was all about Hollywood, past and present, and making it big in the film industry. Walter did a fabulous job of weaving fact and fiction in his story-telling of Liz Taylor and Richard Burton. That was brilliant and clever, if truth be told. I also liked the back and forth chapters where we read about Hollywood now and Hollywood in the 60's. There was also a back and forth between present day Hollywood and 1960's Italy. It was not hard to follow, and allowed for great character and plot development. My favorite character was Pasquale (not Pat--he made me crazy). Who wouldn't love him? Oh right...Dee.
I guess the reason this book, for me, won't go down as one of my favorites is because it was just plain depressing. The entire book was sad and somber and while I realize that's part of life, I'd rather not read a 350 page book that reminds me at every word that life just sucks sometimes. The title explains it all--we are all Beautiful Ruins. We are beautiful in our own way and in our own time, but eventually we lose our luster, people forget who we used to be, and we become just who we are. Sad. So terribly sad. Maybe I'm being an ostrich with my head in the sand, but I don't want to be a beautiful ruin. I just want to be beautiful!
I don't want to discourage anyone from reading this book. It is a clever story filled with all sorts of events my KG teaching life will never see. But, don't plan on feeling uplifted when the story is over. This is not beach-bag material, friends. This is college-level-let's-talk-this-over-with-a-professor-to-discover-the-themes material.
But it does have one beautiful cover.
Happy Reading,
:) Dodie
Just goes to show that you should never judge a book by it's cover.
Seriously, Beautiful Ruins is one of the 2012 100 Notables Books by the NYT Book Review. Countless magazines and papers and other famous people raved about this book. I thought it was good, but doubt it will end up on my top 10 list for the year. The story just wasn't something I could relate to. It was all about Hollywood, past and present, and making it big in the film industry. Walter did a fabulous job of weaving fact and fiction in his story-telling of Liz Taylor and Richard Burton. That was brilliant and clever, if truth be told. I also liked the back and forth chapters where we read about Hollywood now and Hollywood in the 60's. There was also a back and forth between present day Hollywood and 1960's Italy. It was not hard to follow, and allowed for great character and plot development. My favorite character was Pasquale (not Pat--he made me crazy). Who wouldn't love him? Oh right...Dee.
I guess the reason this book, for me, won't go down as one of my favorites is because it was just plain depressing. The entire book was sad and somber and while I realize that's part of life, I'd rather not read a 350 page book that reminds me at every word that life just sucks sometimes. The title explains it all--we are all Beautiful Ruins. We are beautiful in our own way and in our own time, but eventually we lose our luster, people forget who we used to be, and we become just who we are. Sad. So terribly sad. Maybe I'm being an ostrich with my head in the sand, but I don't want to be a beautiful ruin. I just want to be beautiful!
I don't want to discourage anyone from reading this book. It is a clever story filled with all sorts of events my KG teaching life will never see. But, don't plan on feeling uplifted when the story is over. This is not beach-bag material, friends. This is college-level-let's-talk-this-over-with-a-professor-to-discover-the-themes material.
But it does have one beautiful cover.
Happy Reading,
:) Dodie
Monday, April 15, 2013
#15: Emily and Einstein by Linda Francis Lee
Yes, I bought this book totally based on it's adorable cover and because it has my daughter's name in the title. I admit it. I bought it for a ridiculous reason but it turned out to be one of the most thought provoking, inspiring stories that I have read all year. I hope that you will read it, too.
Emily and Einstein is a book like no other that I have read before, yet it reminded me, at first, of the TV show "Drop Dead Diva" in that one of the main characters dies and returns to Earth in the body of a dog. Now, before you judge and think that I am crazy, while this sounds nuts, it is believable. Really. I swear. Sandy, Emily's husband, dies suddenly, and returns to make amends and to make right some wrongs, in the body of Einstein, a mutt who ends up (because this is a novel) becoming Emily's dog. While Emily is the most caring, lovable, and kind person you might ever have the chance to know, her husband is not. It's very fitting that he ends up as a dog.
Through alternating chapters, and you all know how much I adore those, we get to know Emily and Sandy (aka Einstein). Emily is a book editor, struggling to keep her job. Sandy, while dead, tells us about his life on Earth as he searches for a way to "save Emily" so that he can officially pass on (although he seems to think that if he rescues Emily he can return to Earth in his own perfectly sculpted body). Quite honestly, he is a hard man to like, much less love, and I found myself loving Emily even more for finding the good in this man. Sandy, as Einstein, comes up with some amazing plans for saving Emily and for putting her back on a path to happiness, and I will leave you to the book to find out exactly what those plans entail. Suffice to say that while Einstein is saving her, Emily must deal with her overly uptight and unemotional Mother-in-Law, her new rather harsh boss, a vindictive co-worker, her crazy sister, and a gorgeous hunky neighbor. These are characters crafted to tell a wonderful story that causes both self-reflection and that inspires one towards greatness--Sandy's life-time goal, but a goal that Emily in the end achieves (isn't that fabulous?).
I couldn't get enough of this book and found myself throwing it in my purse to read, for even 5 or 10 minutes, while I ate lunch in my classroom each day. I carried it with me everywhere last week and became irritated when life would not cooperate and allow me to read. I adore books about books, and with Emily's job as a book editor, I found that I could whole-heartedly relate to her passion for words and print. These words are hers, but the feeling is mine:
"I don't remember exactly when books became my refuge, but it was in the pages of a world created out of thin air that I began to find pieces I recognized as myself. In books I found characters so real that they were more my friends than the children with whom I went to school. In the stories I loved, I found adults wiser than the ones who laughed and argued in my mother's living room." (pg. 162)
As I read these words, I was transported back to middle school, when books became my refuge. I was suddenly with my grandmother for the summer, following along on her weekly trips to the library, where I was overwhelmed by the books, the smell of paper, the potential for each book to be the one that changes your life, the places I could go without ever leaving my room, and the people I ended up loving and relating to more than the ones I knew in the real world. I was always a very solitary child and have turned into a rather solitary adult (that is as solitary as you can get when you teach a class of 20 five year-olds all day) who most often enjoys reading about life rather than being in the middle of it. It's safer this way. I've never been a risk taker. I never will be. Although now that it looks as though I might actually be able to procure a passport, I might just change my ways at age 41. I did, after all, dog-ear page 162 so that I could find that passage quickly. I never dog-ear books. That hurts them, after all. :)
The passage below made me cry. It was too personal, too real. It was as though Lee was writing not about Emily, but about me:
"I watched you grow up, Emily, saw what these stories meant to you...and I'm convinced they saved you from the madness that was your mother's life....I realized by watching you grow up that books could make a difference. More specifically, children's books could change the world." (pg. 349)
I'm fairly certain no one was watching my as a child, unless it was my father looking down. No one had the time to look at me, to watch me, and I am fairly certain no one felt the need to watch a child who was never going to step out of line for a second, for she was too afraid of the consequences. But had they, they would've discovered that my books were my life. They were an escape from my mother's madness, her crazy life that I just couldn't get a handle on, a life that I found myself in the middle of and had no idea how to get out of, until I turned 18 and ran faster than lightening. But, a children's book changed my world. James and the Giant Peach made me think for the first time ever that there was a big world out there, one far away from the one I inhabited. One that I could escape to. One that would take me away. I read that book so many times in the 4th grade that I wasn't allowed to check it out from the library anymore. The school librarian made my mother buy me my own copy so that everyone else in my school would get a chance to check it out, too.
Emily, I think, would've made a good friend for me. She would've understood.
She wasn't as lucky as me, though. She married a dog of a man (who admits in his last chapter that "by becoming a dog, I had finally, for once in my life, acted as a true man." pg. 443) and a found a jewel. One who, for better or for worse, accepts my need to carry a book with me wherever I go, my need to talk about book characters like they are real people who live in my neighborhood, and my need to cry when a book touches my heart. And who knew at just the right moment when I needed him to take me away once and for all.
Emily, may you find what you've always wanted thanks to Einstein and Max. Thanks for giving me an amazing story to read and for validating my thoughts and feelings. p.s. I know you aren't real. :)
Happy reading everyone!
:) Dodie
Emily and Einstein is a book like no other that I have read before, yet it reminded me, at first, of the TV show "Drop Dead Diva" in that one of the main characters dies and returns to Earth in the body of a dog. Now, before you judge and think that I am crazy, while this sounds nuts, it is believable. Really. I swear. Sandy, Emily's husband, dies suddenly, and returns to make amends and to make right some wrongs, in the body of Einstein, a mutt who ends up (because this is a novel) becoming Emily's dog. While Emily is the most caring, lovable, and kind person you might ever have the chance to know, her husband is not. It's very fitting that he ends up as a dog.
Through alternating chapters, and you all know how much I adore those, we get to know Emily and Sandy (aka Einstein). Emily is a book editor, struggling to keep her job. Sandy, while dead, tells us about his life on Earth as he searches for a way to "save Emily" so that he can officially pass on (although he seems to think that if he rescues Emily he can return to Earth in his own perfectly sculpted body). Quite honestly, he is a hard man to like, much less love, and I found myself loving Emily even more for finding the good in this man. Sandy, as Einstein, comes up with some amazing plans for saving Emily and for putting her back on a path to happiness, and I will leave you to the book to find out exactly what those plans entail. Suffice to say that while Einstein is saving her, Emily must deal with her overly uptight and unemotional Mother-in-Law, her new rather harsh boss, a vindictive co-worker, her crazy sister, and a gorgeous hunky neighbor. These are characters crafted to tell a wonderful story that causes both self-reflection and that inspires one towards greatness--Sandy's life-time goal, but a goal that Emily in the end achieves (isn't that fabulous?).
I couldn't get enough of this book and found myself throwing it in my purse to read, for even 5 or 10 minutes, while I ate lunch in my classroom each day. I carried it with me everywhere last week and became irritated when life would not cooperate and allow me to read. I adore books about books, and with Emily's job as a book editor, I found that I could whole-heartedly relate to her passion for words and print. These words are hers, but the feeling is mine:
"I don't remember exactly when books became my refuge, but it was in the pages of a world created out of thin air that I began to find pieces I recognized as myself. In books I found characters so real that they were more my friends than the children with whom I went to school. In the stories I loved, I found adults wiser than the ones who laughed and argued in my mother's living room." (pg. 162)
As I read these words, I was transported back to middle school, when books became my refuge. I was suddenly with my grandmother for the summer, following along on her weekly trips to the library, where I was overwhelmed by the books, the smell of paper, the potential for each book to be the one that changes your life, the places I could go without ever leaving my room, and the people I ended up loving and relating to more than the ones I knew in the real world. I was always a very solitary child and have turned into a rather solitary adult (that is as solitary as you can get when you teach a class of 20 five year-olds all day) who most often enjoys reading about life rather than being in the middle of it. It's safer this way. I've never been a risk taker. I never will be. Although now that it looks as though I might actually be able to procure a passport, I might just change my ways at age 41. I did, after all, dog-ear page 162 so that I could find that passage quickly. I never dog-ear books. That hurts them, after all. :)
The passage below made me cry. It was too personal, too real. It was as though Lee was writing not about Emily, but about me:
"I watched you grow up, Emily, saw what these stories meant to you...and I'm convinced they saved you from the madness that was your mother's life....I realized by watching you grow up that books could make a difference. More specifically, children's books could change the world." (pg. 349)
I'm fairly certain no one was watching my as a child, unless it was my father looking down. No one had the time to look at me, to watch me, and I am fairly certain no one felt the need to watch a child who was never going to step out of line for a second, for she was too afraid of the consequences. But had they, they would've discovered that my books were my life. They were an escape from my mother's madness, her crazy life that I just couldn't get a handle on, a life that I found myself in the middle of and had no idea how to get out of, until I turned 18 and ran faster than lightening. But, a children's book changed my world. James and the Giant Peach made me think for the first time ever that there was a big world out there, one far away from the one I inhabited. One that I could escape to. One that would take me away. I read that book so many times in the 4th grade that I wasn't allowed to check it out from the library anymore. The school librarian made my mother buy me my own copy so that everyone else in my school would get a chance to check it out, too.
Emily, I think, would've made a good friend for me. She would've understood.
She wasn't as lucky as me, though. She married a dog of a man (who admits in his last chapter that "by becoming a dog, I had finally, for once in my life, acted as a true man." pg. 443) and a found a jewel. One who, for better or for worse, accepts my need to carry a book with me wherever I go, my need to talk about book characters like they are real people who live in my neighborhood, and my need to cry when a book touches my heart. And who knew at just the right moment when I needed him to take me away once and for all.
Emily, may you find what you've always wanted thanks to Einstein and Max. Thanks for giving me an amazing story to read and for validating my thoughts and feelings. p.s. I know you aren't real. :)
Happy reading everyone!
:) Dodie
#14: Starting Now by Debbie Macomber
Every year I read Debbie's newest book and every year I blog about how predictable it was, or how unrealistic it is (because no one's life is really that perfect) and every year I get sucked in to buying her latest book because it's pretty.
Here I go again...
Starting Now is Macomber's latest Blossom Street book and while I love Blossom Street and all that it was 10 years ago when I discovered it, I am quickly becoming a distant fan. From start to finish, this book was idealistic, unrealistic, and yet I still couldn't figure out how it was going to end. While a good story, and an easy beach bag kind of read, I am entering a phase in my life when I want more from a book. I want a book that is going to move me, that is going to make me think and feel. This book did none of those things, except to cause my cynicism about life to resurface--no one's life is that perfect--who but a literary character could have their life turn out in such a perfect way...blah, blah, blah...
So, this book will be shelved with my Macomber collection because 1. I have one and 2. It's a beautiful book.
Off I go with lukewarm feelings about this one to read a book that I truly judged by it's cover. Hopefully it will move me.
Happy Reading!
:) Dodie
Here I go again...
Starting Now is Macomber's latest Blossom Street book and while I love Blossom Street and all that it was 10 years ago when I discovered it, I am quickly becoming a distant fan. From start to finish, this book was idealistic, unrealistic, and yet I still couldn't figure out how it was going to end. While a good story, and an easy beach bag kind of read, I am entering a phase in my life when I want more from a book. I want a book that is going to move me, that is going to make me think and feel. This book did none of those things, except to cause my cynicism about life to resurface--no one's life is that perfect--who but a literary character could have their life turn out in such a perfect way...blah, blah, blah...
So, this book will be shelved with my Macomber collection because 1. I have one and 2. It's a beautiful book.
Off I go with lukewarm feelings about this one to read a book that I truly judged by it's cover. Hopefully it will move me.
Happy Reading!
:) Dodie
Friday, April 5, 2013
#13: The Cherry Cola Book Club by Ashton Lee
What a lovely story! This is more what I had in mind for a spring break read. This book was filled with fantastic characters, a great story line, a believable ending, and the possibility of a sequel. What more could you want? How about 243 pages and recipes at the end? This is truly a great book to throw in your pool bag or your beach bag now that Spring Break is over. Sniff...sniff...
The main idea of The CCBC is that Maura Beth Mayhew, the sole librarian in Cherico, Mississippi, has six months to increase her circulation or the town council will close the doors of her library for good. As she works to meet this goal and deadline, we, the lucky readers, are introduced to some characters that you might only meet in Northern, Mississippi. Both men and women, these residents of Cherico and surrounding counties, are so interesting and believable that you want to keep reading to learn more about these eccentric characters and to see how the story ends. From teenagers to those in their early 70's, there's a character in this quaint novel that will appeal to everyone. Personally, I loved Maura Beth and her clever book group discussion ideas. She's a creative one. I also adore Jeremy and his dedication to his English students. But, Periwinkle is fun, too. Who wouldn't be with that name? Mamie and Marydell Crumpton won't soon be forgotten, sisters from a time long ago. My favorite: Stout Fella. You'll have to read to figure out why he was my favorite. What a trouper.
Aside from the basic plot, I also really appreciated the discussions of the book club members that were detailed in the book. I am always fascinated by what other people think of the books they read. I guess this is why I sat in the back of every single one of my English classes in high school and college and just listened. I think I was able to get more out of each book I read by listening to my classmates and hearing their interpretations and ideas. I've often thought of trying to find a book club, but I want to read what I want to read and when I want to read it. I might also be a little less social than one needs to be to join a book club. I just want to read. Not read and talk.
Anyway, this one was a good one. I'm off to read Debbie Macomber's newest Blossom Street book. I can't wait! I love Blossom Street. If it wasn't fictional, I'd pack up and move!
Happy reading, everyone!
:) Dodie
The main idea of The CCBC is that Maura Beth Mayhew, the sole librarian in Cherico, Mississippi, has six months to increase her circulation or the town council will close the doors of her library for good. As she works to meet this goal and deadline, we, the lucky readers, are introduced to some characters that you might only meet in Northern, Mississippi. Both men and women, these residents of Cherico and surrounding counties, are so interesting and believable that you want to keep reading to learn more about these eccentric characters and to see how the story ends. From teenagers to those in their early 70's, there's a character in this quaint novel that will appeal to everyone. Personally, I loved Maura Beth and her clever book group discussion ideas. She's a creative one. I also adore Jeremy and his dedication to his English students. But, Periwinkle is fun, too. Who wouldn't be with that name? Mamie and Marydell Crumpton won't soon be forgotten, sisters from a time long ago. My favorite: Stout Fella. You'll have to read to figure out why he was my favorite. What a trouper.
Aside from the basic plot, I also really appreciated the discussions of the book club members that were detailed in the book. I am always fascinated by what other people think of the books they read. I guess this is why I sat in the back of every single one of my English classes in high school and college and just listened. I think I was able to get more out of each book I read by listening to my classmates and hearing their interpretations and ideas. I've often thought of trying to find a book club, but I want to read what I want to read and when I want to read it. I might also be a little less social than one needs to be to join a book club. I just want to read. Not read and talk.
Anyway, this one was a good one. I'm off to read Debbie Macomber's newest Blossom Street book. I can't wait! I love Blossom Street. If it wasn't fictional, I'd pack up and move!
Happy reading, everyone!
:) Dodie
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
#12: Tumbleweeds by Leila Meacham
There are books that touch my heart, books that leave me thinking long after I have read the last page, and books that make me laugh and smile. Then, there are books that leave me scratching my head, making we wonder what I missed along the way because something at the end doesn't add up. Tumbleweeds has me scratching my head and wondering what I missed because something doesn't add up, even after re-reading parts of the book. I tend to be very naive about what I read. I take things at face value and am often surprised at the end by events and plot twists. Not this time. This time I am wondering how a boy gets a girl pregnant when they never really have sex and she just got off of the pill. And I am really wondering how I am supposed to believe that a boy, a good boy, a really good boy, would have sex with his best friend when she was passed out. I am wondering if the boy she was in a long sexual relationship who is believed to be sterile might not really have been. And, because of all of these questions, I can't believe that the book ends the way it ends. There is no happy ending in Tumbleweeds. None. Zero. Zilch. Oh wait...three people don't go to jail who might have. Doesn't that make you want to read this book?
At the end of the book there's a Q&A with the author and she talks about the book and how it doesn't have a Hollywood ending. No kidding. There's no happiness anywhere. But the part that makes me the saddest is not that there's no happiness, but that all of the ridiculous plot twists and turns took a brilliantly created cast of characters, and they are rich and so fully-developed you can see them and hear them, and ground them into the dirt. You recall nothing of them in the end. Because you are too busy scratching your head and wondering what happened. And how you missed it. Or maybe that you didn't really miss it, but you didn't want to believe it, and there it is anyway.
This one is going into my donate pile. But, I wonder how many of you are tempted to read it to see what I am really ranting about, huh?
Good luck to you if you decide to. I finished this book in about 6 hours. I couldn't read fast enough to see how it ended. Now I am going to go clean out my attic. It's a better use of my time and I know I won't find any stuffed bobcats up there. Especially not any missing a leg.
Happy Reading!
:) Dodie
At the end of the book there's a Q&A with the author and she talks about the book and how it doesn't have a Hollywood ending. No kidding. There's no happiness anywhere. But the part that makes me the saddest is not that there's no happiness, but that all of the ridiculous plot twists and turns took a brilliantly created cast of characters, and they are rich and so fully-developed you can see them and hear them, and ground them into the dirt. You recall nothing of them in the end. Because you are too busy scratching your head and wondering what happened. And how you missed it. Or maybe that you didn't really miss it, but you didn't want to believe it, and there it is anyway.
This one is going into my donate pile. But, I wonder how many of you are tempted to read it to see what I am really ranting about, huh?
Good luck to you if you decide to. I finished this book in about 6 hours. I couldn't read fast enough to see how it ended. Now I am going to go clean out my attic. It's a better use of my time and I know I won't find any stuffed bobcats up there. Especially not any missing a leg.
Happy Reading!
:) Dodie
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