Lift And Separate by Marilyn Simon Rothstein

Lift And Separate by Marilyn Simon Rothstein
Published by Lake Union Publishing ISBN 9781503940307
Trade paperback, $14.95, 304 pages

Marilyn Simon Rothstein's funny and poignant novel Lift And Separate opens with middle-aged Marcy Hammer in her bedroom with her best friend Dana three days after her husband Harvey has left her.

Harvey is the owner of a major brassiere company, Bountiful Bosom, (whose archrival is Victoria's Secret), and he has left his wife of over thirty years, the mother of his three adult children, for a young brassiere model. It's bad enough to be left, but to be left for a cliche, well that's too much for Marcy.

Rothstein writes some great scenes, like the one where Marcy goes dress shopping to find the perfect dress to win back Harvey.

In the middle of all this, Marcy has to deal with her mother, who ends up in the hospital. There Marcy meets Candy, a woman who is dealing with a sick father and a mother in a nursing home with dementia. Candy and Marcy become good friends, supporting each other in this time of crisis.

Soon Marcy learns something about Candy that will probably end their relationship, and this upsets Marcy. She is also dealing with her daughter Liz, a doctor who is involved in a relationship with a married man, her daughter Amanda who works for Bloomingdales and is supposed to take over the family business from dear old dad, and son Ben and how they are handling their parents' dissolving marriage, as well as her mom's illness.

Through it all Marcy keeps her sense of humor and manages to dig down deep to discover what she really wants out of life. Does she want Harvey back or is she ready to be on her own?

Rothstein has some funny lines that will make you chuckle, like "Mom had contributed so much 'gently used clothing' to the Salvation Army I was surprised she wasn't a general", and "I had received his name from a haggard woman in the cemetery office, who most likely was wearing the same cardigan she had thrown around her shoulders on her way to vote for Nixon."

Lift And Separate will appeal to woman of a certain age, as they say, and fans of Dorothea Benton Frank will also enjoy it and root for Marcy to get the happiness she deserves.

Marilyn Simon Rothstein is hilarious on Facebook, and I recommend that you like her here.

Thanks to TLC Tours for putting me on Marilyn Simon Rothstein's tour, the rest of her stops are here:

Marilyn Simon Rothstein’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:

Thursday, July 6th: BookBub Blog– 6 Books That Will Have Women Laughing

Monday, July 17th: Novel Gossip

Wednesday, July 19th: West Metro Mommy Reads

Monday, July 24th: Bookchickdi

Wednesday, July 26th: A. Holland Reads

Monday, July 31st: Girl Who Reads

Tuesday, August 1st: Why Girls are Weird

Wednesday, August 2nd: From the TBR Pile

Thursday, August 3rd: Readaholic Zone – author guest post

Friday, August 4th: BookNAround

Monday, August 7th: Must Read Faster

Tuesday, August 8th: Just One More Chapter

Wednesday, August 9th: Jathan & Heather

Sunday, October 1st: Writer Unboxed

Weekend Cooking- Quality Eats

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food.

New restaurants open in our neighborhood frequently, and when I saw a sign go up for Quality Eats, I was so excited. It's a special treat going to Quality Meats and Quality Italian in Midtown on the west side, so to have a Quality Eats in walking distance is a good thing.

The day that reservations opened up, I snagged us a Saturday evening one.  The day of our reservation, I got a text reminding me of our dinner, and thirty minutes before dinner, I got another text reminding me. That is a first for me, getting a thirty minute warning.

When we arrived, the place was already very busy, with most of the tables already taken by 6pm.  We got a cozy little table in the back corner of the restaurant, and our server promptly appeared.

My husband reviewed the wine list and chose a bottle of a Rhone blend that was very smooth. For starters, I chose Grilled Boucheron Cheese, served with a side of a toasted pear baguette. It was sinfully good, crispy on the outside, gooey on the inside. I was glad I ate yogurt for lunch that day.

Grilled Bouceron Cheese

For our main course, we both chose the Don Ameche steak, which was a filet that was buttery tender, grilled perfectly medium, and served with a side of salad on top of chicken liver topped toast. (Toast is the big thing here.)

Don Ameche Steak

We shared two sides- Baked Potato Money Bread, which are rolls topped with bacon, butter and chives and quite similar to the delicious bread served at Quality Italian, and Creamed Spinach Hush Puppies, which were also crispy on the outside and filled with gooey creamed spinach inside.

Baked Potato Monkey Bread & Creamed Spinach Hush Puppies

Quality Eats is all about ice cream for dessert, and since I adore the ice cream at Quality Meats, I had to have the Birthday Cake dessert, which is chocolate malted ice cream with diced vanilla confetti cake and vanilla frosting and sprinkles on top. It even comes with a candle, and was the perfect little ending to dinner.

Birthday Cake Ice Cream

Quality Eats is trying to appeal to a younger crowd than its other two restaurants; the prices and portions are smaller, and the atmosphere is a little hipper and more casual, but the food is just as tasty as at Quality Meats and Quality Italian. We'll be visiting our new neighbors often.

Quality Eats website is here.

How To Start A Fire by Lisa Lutz

How To Start A Fire by Lisa Lutz
Published by Mariner Books ISBN 9780544705180
Trade paperback, $14.95, 352 pages

The first Lisa Lutz's book I read was The Spellman Files, the first in a series of mysteries about a family of private investigators. There is a delightful sense of humor in these books, and if you like Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series, you should give The Spellman Files a read.

The next book I read of Lutz's was The Passenger, a tense psychological thriller about a woman on the run after killing her husband. She was already on the run from something else, and when she meets a mysterious woman who saves her life, things get even more complicated. The Passenger made my list of Most Compelling Books of 2016 and I recommend it to everyone.

My friend and bookshop colleague told me I should read Lutz's 2015 novel, How To Start A Fire, and I finally got around to it. Boy, am I glad I did.

Kate and Anna are college freshman. Kate is an orphan who lives with her grandfather and hopes to take over his diner one day, living out her life in familiar surroundings. She finds things fascinating that other might not, like the ancient medical use of leeches. Anna is from a wealthy family back East, always up for an adventure and getting herself (and others) into trouble without much thought.

One night after leaving a frat party, they find a tall young woman lying drunk in the grass. They put her in a shopping cart and bring her back to their dorm. Her name is George, and she is a star athlete, very close to her dad after her mother died.

The three women become best friends, living together and planning their respective futures, which included medical school for Anna if she could get her grades up. We follow the women back and forth through the years. A tragic incident occurs that changes all of their lives and threatens their futures.

Lutz writes her characters so beautifully, and her words on the page are so stunning, I often found myself stopping and rereading them over and over, like this passage:

"Edgar had fallen in love with George's knees first, but he was also a back-of-the-neck man, a breast man, a shoulder man, even a foot man, just not in the fetish-video kind of way. An entire woman was too overwhelming. He preferred them in sections, the way one would study a map."

Lutz's sense of humor is here in smaller doses as well, as when she describes Anna's mother this way:

"Her mother's full-time job for the past nine months had been planning her son's wedding. Somehow Lena Fury had managed to shove aside the mother of the bride and the bride herself to become the chief operating officer of the Fury/Wentworth nuptials."

Kate, Anna and George are truly unforgettable characters, and Lutz tells their story with a compassion and clarity that resonates long after you finish their story. I highly recommend How To Start A Fire, and anything Lisa Lutz has written, in any genre.

Lisa Lutz's website is here.

Cocoa Beach by Beatriz Williams

Cocoa Beach by Beatriz Williams
Published by William Morrow ISBN 9780062681690
Hardcover, $27.99, 384 pages

One of the great pleasures of reading Beatriz Williams' books is that if you are intrigued by a secondary character, frequently you will get more of them in a subsequent book. In a previous book, A Certain Age, set in the jazz age of New York City, Virginia Fortescue is the older sister of Sophie, who is a major character in the book. We learn a little bit about Virginia, enough to peak our interest.

In Cocoa Beach we get Virginia's story. During WWI, Virginia volunteered to work overseas in France, driving an ambulance to bring wounded men to get medical attention. She meets a handsome British doctor, Simon, and they quickly fall in love, even though Simon is married.

Simon has a difficult family situation, as does Virginia, perhaps that is one thing that attracts them to each other. They marry, but soon something tears them apart. They are separated for three years, and then Virginia is notified that Simon has died in a fire on his property in Cocoa Beach, Florida.

Virginia goes to Cocoa Beach with her three year-old daughter and finds Simon's brother and sister waiting for her. She has her doubts about her husband's death, and is determined to get to the bottom of what Simon has been up to for these three years.

Williams' drops us into the humid, muggy atmosphere of south Florida, and you can almost smell the sea air, taste the sweet oranges, and feel the hot sand under your feet.

One thing I find interesting about many of Williams' female characters is their interest in cars. In Cocoa Beach, A Certain Age, and Tiny Little Thing, the women learn not only how to drive cars, but to repair and maintain them as well. This is most unusual for women of these times.

The writing in this story reminds me of watching a 1940's Barbara Stanwyck movie on Turner Classic Movies. The dialogue is rat-a-tat-tat, and the repartee is snappy. Cocoa Beach could have easily been a movie about the 1920's made in 1947.

 I also enjoyed the British slang in this book- "dosh" (money), "rotter" (a bad guy, a "player"), and "skint" (broke). Fair warning: I will be tossing these terms around in my everyday language.

You don't need to have read A Certain Age to enjoy Cocoa Beach, but you will have a deeper appreciation if you did. And I was happy to see Marshall, the Prohibition agent from A Certain Age, pop up here; I hope the end of this story leads us to see more of him in the next Beatriz Williams book.

Cocoa Beach is a terrific beach read, a book to get lost in while you are lounging on your porch with a glass of iced tea. (The cover is gorgeous too.)

Beatriz Williams website is here.

The Almost Sisters by Joshilyn Jackson

The Almost Sisters by Joshilyn Jackson
Published by William Morrow ISBN 9780062682130
Hardcover, $26.99, 352 pages

I really enjoyed the last two books I read by Joshilyn Jackson- Somebody's Else's Love Story and The Opposite of Everyone. The characters pulled me in right away, and I love the setting of the stories in the South.

Jackson's latest novel, The Almost Sisters is also set in the South. Leia wrote a hugely popular comic book, Violence in Violet, a few years ago, a book with a decidedly feminist story. From that, she began a career illustrating other people's stories and became pretty much in demand.

At a comic convention, she meets a handsome "Batman" and has a one-night stand. That night results in her pregnancy. At the age of thirty-eight, this is not something Leia expected, and since she doesn't remember Batman's name, she can't even tell him about it.

Leia is summoned to her grandmother Birchie's home in small-town Alabama by townspeople concerned about Birchie's outburst at a church fish fry, an outburst that results in the church being turned upside down.

At the same time, Leia's perfect stepsister Rachel has just thrown her husband out of their home. Leia is shocked by this, as Rachel appears to have the perfect life. Rachel asks Leia to take her thirteen year-old daughter Lavender with Leia to Alabama while she tries to pick up the pieces.

Most of the story takes place in Birchie's small town, as Leia arrives to find her grandmother has a serious illness that effects her mental capacity as well as her body. Birchie's best friend and housemate Wattie has been hiding Birchie's illness from everyone, something that makes Leia very unhappy.

Fiction frequently uses secrets as a theme, and Jackson has a lot of them here- Leia hides her pregnancy, Rachel hides her marriage troubles, and Birchie and Wattie have more than a few secrets, including a whopper of a one that threatens to hurt many of them.

I love the setting of Birchville, a town founded by Birchie's ancestors. You get a real feeling of place here, and if you close your eyes, you can almost see Birchie's house, the church and the town square.

My favorite characters are Birchie and Wattie. I really wanted to know more about their younger days, how they got to be so close in a era when blacks and whites were not supposed to be friends, these two are closer than sisters. I would love a prequel to this story.

Fans of comic books (and other nerds as Leia frequently refers to herself) will have an added extra level of enjoyment here. Leia's comic Violence in Violet is dissected here in great detail, something I would have enjoyed more if I was into comic books. And Jackson's trademark Southern humor does shine through in Leia's character.

There is a lot here in The Almost Sisters- sisterly relationships, what makes a family, small town life, race relations in the South today and of course, the danger of keeping secrets. I can't say that I liked this one as much as her previous two books, but readers who enjoy a good family story set in the South will enjoy it.

Joshilyn Jackson's website is here.

Thanks to TLC Tours for putting me on Joshilyn Jackson's tour. The rest of her stops are here:

Tour Stops

Tuesday, July 11th: Book by Book

Wednesday, July 12th: Cerebral Girl in a Redneck World

Thursday, July 13th: bookchickdi

Friday, July 14th: Time 2 Read

Monday, July 17th: Tina Says…

Tuesday, July 18th: StephTheBookworm

Wednesday, July 19th: BookNAround

Thursday, July 20th: The Book Diva’s Reads

Friday, July 21st: Bibliotica

Monday, July 24th: A Chick Who Reads

Tuesday, July 25th: Leigh Kramer

Wednesday, July 26th: Always With a Book

Thursday, July 27th: Ms. Nose in a Book

Thursday, July 27th: Wining Wife

Friday, July 28th: SJ2B House Of Books

Monday, July 31st: she treads softly

Two Novels About Marriage

Reprinted from the Citizen:

Marriage is a topic that has been covered extensively in books, from self-help books to romance novels to literary fiction to mysteries and thrillers. Today’s column reviews two novels with the theme of marriage, albeit with a slightly different take.

In Dennis Lehane’s newest novel “Since We Fell”, Rachel Childs is a local TV reporter sent to cover Haiti after a disaster. Her reporting earns her a chance at a network TV assignment, but when she has an on-air breakdown, she loses her opportunity and her husband leaves her. 

She becomes a recluse, rarely leaving her apartment. She reconnects with Brian, a man she knew as a private investigator while looking for information about her birth father. Brian rescues her from a man in a bar, and they begin to date.

Brian is patient and loving with Rachel, and soon they marry. One day Rachel sees Brian coming out of hotel in Boston when he was supposed to be in London, and she begins to question if he is the man she believes him to be.

The beginning of this fast-paced novel hooks you right away. “On a Tuesday in May, in her thirty-seventh year, Rachel shot her husband dead. He stumbled backward with an odd look of confirmation on his face, as if some part of him had always known she’d do it.” How can you not read on?

“Since We Fell” packs so much in this fast-paced novel. At first it’s about a young woman looking for her father. Then the story moves to cover Rachel’s breakdown and her subsequent marriage to a seemingly wonderful man. The last third of the book is a straight-out thriller, as Rachel uncovers the truth about her husband and fights to stay alive.

Fans of “The Girl On The Train” and “In A Dark, Dark Wood” will love “Since We Fell”, and I liked it better than those; Lehane is a superb writer who knows how to write terrific characters while ratcheting up the tension.

For a more optimistic view of marriage, Deanna Lynn Sletten’s new novel, “One Wrong Turn” tells the story of Jess and Clay. The book begins when Jess is rushing home and has a car accident that results in her becoming comatose. 

Jess is living with their two daughters, twelve year-old Maddie and seven year-old Jilly, working to open a bed and breakfast in a home left her by her grandmother. Clay is summoned to the hospital, where he sees his comatose wife and two daughters for the first time in two years.

The story goes back and forth in time, beginning with the first meeting of Jess, a waitress in beach bar and Clay, a guitarist in a rock band. At first Jess wants nothing to do with a musician, but Clay wins her over.

They marry, and Jess becomes pregnant with Maddie. Clay’s career begins to take off, which means he is off touring with bands, in addition to becoming a highly respected and in-demand studio musician. Musicians like to drink, and Clay begins to drink too much.

Jess puts up with Clay’s drinking until she returns home one day and finds him passed out when he is supposed to be caring for their baby. Clay’s attempts at sobriety include stints at rehab facilities, and he manages to stay sober for periods of times.

Eventually Jess has had enough and she takes the girls and moves away when she inherits her grandmother’s house. They build a life for themselves, and make friends, until the accident.

Maddie is old enough to remember good and bad times with her father, but young Jilly doesn’t remember much. Clay vows to the girls that he will care for them, but Maddie fears they will be abandoned by Clay once again. In addition, there is the question of whether Jess will ever come out of her coma. 

“One Wrong Turn” is the story of a marriage that tries to overcome the illness of addiction, and what happens when the unimaginable occurs. It’s beautifully written, and the characters, particularly Maddie and Clay, are ones that readers will identify and empathize with.

Sletten’s last novel, “Finding Libbie” was about love, marriage and mental illness, and she approaches her books with such sensitivity, I admit to tearing up more than once while reading her. Fans of Elin Hilderbrand's books should seek out Deanna Lee Sletten’s books.

“Since We Fell” by Dennis Lehane- A

Published by Ecco

Hardcover, $26.99, 432 pages

“One Wrong Turn” by Deanna Lynn Sletten- A-

Published by Lake Union Publishing

Trade paperback, $14.95, 204 pages

New In Paperback- Behind Closed Doors by B.A.Paris

Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris
Published by St. Martin's Griffin ISBN 9781250132369
Trade paperback, $16.99, 352 pages

Jack and Grace seem like the perfect couple to their friends. When they give dinner parties, Jack helps Grace in the kitchen. He lavishes her with beautiful clothes, gifts and compliments, and while it's true that Grace frequently cancels plans for lunch or shopping with her friends, well there can't be anything behind that, can there?

Grace met Jack in the park where she takes her sister Millie every weekend. Millie has Down's syndrome and lives in a boarding school near Grace. Millie was dancing to the music in the park and when others were laughing at her, Jack came over to Millie and danced with her. Grace was immediately smitten.

Jack courted Grace fervently. He was a perfect gentleman, a lawyer who represents victims of domestic violence. When he proposed marriage, he told Grace he would like to build her the house of her dreams where they could live with Millie happily ever after. It was a fairytale come true for Grace.

B.A. Paris' novel Behind Closed Doors takes off from there. To say anything more about the plot would be to give away too much, but suffice it to say I spent three hours reading this propulsive thriller without looking up until I finished, finally letting out a long breath. It reminded me of reading Harlan Coben's thrillers.

I'm not one for thrillers because I find them too gory and scary, and while this one did have my heart racing, it wasn't gory. You will get completely lost in Grace and Jack's story, trying to figure out how it will all end.

B.A. Paris has crafted a crackerjack of a thrilling debut novel, and she is an author that I will be looking forward to reading more of in the future. Her new novel, The Breakdown, publishes July 18, and has already garnered similar high praise. You can find out more here.

On Broadway- A Doll's House Part 2

Lucas Hnath's brilliant play, A Doll's House Part 2, is a sequel of sorts. It had the same characters as Henrik Ibsen's classic A Doll's House, and it picks up the action fifteen years after the end of Ibsen's play. But you need not have read or seen Ibsen's play to enjoy Hnath's work.

The action begins with insistent knocking on a door. Anne Marie, a servant, opens the door to find Nora standing on the other side. Nora, who left her husband and three young children fifteen years ago. We find out that Nora has not communicated with her family in the intervening years. They did not know if she was dead or alive.

Nora, played by Laurie Metcalf who won the Tony Award this year for her role, is a ball of fire. She is well dressed, and the intervening years have apparently been good to her. She asks Ann Marie, the women who was left to raise Nora's children to guess how she made her money.

Anne Marie, played by the fantastic Jayne Houdyshell, is curious but after guessing actress and model and maybe prostitute, Nora is miffed that Ann Marie only guesses stereotypical female-centered careers that rely on women's beauty. Nora proudly tells her that she is a writer, a successful writer, whose first book was a bestseller about a woman who leaves her family.

Anne Marie tells Nora she should leave before Torvald, Nora's husband returns home, but soon Torvald appears. Chris Cooper is hypnotic as Torvald, you cannot take your eyes off him when he is on stage, although at times he was difficult to hear.

The scene between Nora and Torvald is nothing short of astonishing. These are two actors at the height of the talents, and the stage crackles with tension and residual feelings between them. You could hear a pin drop during their big scene. I could have watched them talk for hours.

Condola Rashad (Showtime's Billions) plays Nora and Torvald's daughter Emmy. Emmy is curious to see her mother, who left her when she was three years old. Emmy is about to be married and she doesn't want her returning mother to ruin her life.

A Doll's House Part 2 has much to say about marriage and the role of women, which for some hasn't changed much in the years since the setting of the late 19th century. You could hear many in the audience audibly reacting to some of the more intriguing ideas.

All four of the actors, the entire cast, were nominated for Tony's this year, with Metcalf winning for Best Actress in a Play. They were all amazing, and the extended standing ovation at the end of the show reflected that. The show is funny and though-provoking and a must-see.

There are discount tickets available but A Doll's House is a show worth paying full price for. Note- Metcalf just announced she is leaving the show on July 23, and the equally talented Julie White will be replacing her.

A Doll's House Part 2's website is here.

Cafe By The Sea by Jenny Colgan

The Cafe By The Sea by Jenny Colgan
Published by William Morrow ISBN 9780062662972
Trade paperback, $15.99, 432 pages

I recently read my first Jenny Colgan book, The Bookshop On The Corner, (review here), and was utterly charmed by it. I recommended it to several people, and each one enjoyed it as well. When I heard that Jenny had a new book publishing, I was excited to be offered a spot on her TLC book tour.

Like The Bookshop On The Corner, The Cafe By The Sea is also set in a small town in Scotland. Flora is working as a paralegal for a law firm in London, having left her home in Mure and her fathers and brothers behind after her mother passed away.

She has a few friends in London, and a major crush on her boss at the firm, Joel, an enigmatic, hard-driving man who serially dates women but doesn't appear to have anyone serious in his life.

When one of Joel's biggest clients, Colton Rogers, buys up property in Flora's hometown, Flora is assigned the task of returning home to help Colton smooth over relations with the townspeople to get approval for his building plans.

Flora does not want to return home to face her family and friends. Something happened at her mother's funeral, and she is afraid of having to deal with everyone in that aftermath. Flora's brothers and her father don't appear to be too happy to see Flora either.

She is dismayed to find the family's home in disarray; the men don't keep it neat and tidy, and although they live on a farm, they seem to only eat takeout from the fish and chips place or eat food out of a can.

Flora finds her mother's old recipes and cooks up some family favorites. In order to schmooze the townpeople, Flora opens up a cafe in town in a building owned by Colton, and right away it is a hit. Cooking helps Flora feel alive in a way that her law work doesn't allow her.

I adored The Cafe By The Sea.  The setting of the Scottish town by the sea is so vivid, and the characters are so wonderful, I wanted to know them all- her brothers Fintan, Innes and Hamish, Colton, Joel, Flora's friend Lorna, even Bramble the dog- they were all so endearing.

There are romantic entanglements- Flora and Joel, Flora and Charlie the local hunk, and a sweet surprise romance for Fintan. (I confess that Fintan was my favorite character.) There are delicious food descriptions that will have your stomach growling (but fear not, Colgan includes recipes at the end of the book) and the setting is so enticing, you will want to book a ticket to Mure so you can eat at The Cafe By The Sea. I highly recommend this delightful novel.

Jenny Colgan's website is here.

Thanks to TLC Tours for putting me on Jenny Colgan's tour. The rest of her stops are here:

Tour Stops

Tuesday, June 27th: Girl Who Reads

Thursday, June 29th: No More Grumpy Bookseller

Monday, July 3rd: A Chick Who Reads

Tuesday, July 4th: Ms. Nose in a Book

Wednesday, July 5th: I Wish I Lived in a Library

Thursday, July 6th: bookchickdi

Friday, July 7th: Kritters Ramblings

Monday, July 10th: Tina Says…

Tuesday, July 11th: Vox Libris

Wednesday, July 12th: A Wondrous Bookshelf

Thursday, July 13th: Just Commonly

Friday, July 14th: StephTheBookworm

TBD: Book by Book