Two Books By My Favorite Authors

Reprinted from auburnpub.com:

There are some authors whose work I will always read. Their books are filled with characters that feel like people I want to know, the stories are interesting, and writing entrances me. Lisa Grunwald and Caroline Leavitt are two of those authors, and they both have wonderful books publishing in April.

There are some authors whose work I will always read. Their books are filled with characters that feel like people I want to know, the stories are interesting, and writing entrances me. Lisa Grunwald and Caroline Leavitt are two of those authors, and they both have wonderful books publishing in April.

Lisa Grunwald’s last novel Time After Time (about a young woman who, after she dies in train crash in a tunnel in Grand Central Station before WWII, returns to life but can only exist within the walls of Grand Central Central Station, falls in love with a train conductor) is one of my all-time favorites. It’s a beautiful love story.

Her new novel, The Evolution of Annabel Craig also has a historical setting. In 1925 Dayton, Tennessee, Annabel is married to George, a lawyer. Annabel overhears a group of the town’s businessmen discussing a newspaper article that states that the American Civil Liberties Union was offering to back any teacher in Tennessee who was willing to test a new law signed by the Tennessee governor. 

The Butler Act forbid the teaching of evolution in public schools in order to protect the children from hearing something that is in direct contrast to religious teachings. The Dayton businessmen believed that this test case could be a boon to business in town. 

Luckily for them, John Scopes, a young substitute science teacher and high school football coach, had taught a class about Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, which is found in their science textbook. John agrees and history is about to be made.

Annabel’s husband George ends up on the defense team, and their lives immediately change. Their neighbors and friends become angry with them. Over 200 reporters descend on the town, including a female reporter named Lottie Nelson. 

Lottie befriends Annabel and opens Annabel’s eyes to a life beyond being a housewife. Annabel likes to take photos and Lottie encourages her in this pursuit, telling Annabel that “what a person wants can change”. 

The Evolution of Annabel Craig may be a historical novel, but it has so many parallels to things happening right now. The media circus, the debate over separation of church and state in schools, the country coming out of a recent horrific pandemic (the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic), it all resonates with today's issues.

If you’re familiar the play “Inherit the Wind”, you know about this story. Lisa Grunwald tells it through the lens of Annabel’s growth as a woman, discovering who she is and what is important to her. It’s a book that leaves the reader with so much to think about, I read it months ago and I still think about it. I give it my highest recommendation.

Caroline Leavitt’s new novel, Days of Wonder is more contemporary, but also tells the story of  a woman’s growth. When Ella was sixteen years old, she fell madly in love with Jude. They were inseparable and their love became nearly obsessive.

When it appears that Ella and Jude poisoned his father, a judge, after he disapproved of their relationship, Ella is sent to prison while Jude’s father moves him far away.

Ella was pregnant with Jude’s baby and Ella’s mother Helen made the decision that the baby would be given up for adoption. Six years later, Ella gets out of prison and returns home to Helen, who just wants her daughter to be safe and happy. Ella cannot forget about the daughter she gave up however and is determined to find her.

Moving to Ann Arbor, Ella doesn’t tell her mother she is going to find her daughter who has been adopted by a couple. Ella becomes involved in the lives of her daughter and the woman who has adopted the baby without them knowing who she really is.

Meanwhile, Helen, who has never had a relationship with a man since she had Ella, finds herself involved with a man who treats her with kindness and respect. Her life has opened up in ways she never believed possible.

Leavitt does a remarkable job with the characters of Helen and Ella. We watch them change and grow as they have to deal with an impossible situation and we root for them. Helen and Ella have found a place in my heart and no one writes the mother-daughter relationship in novels better than Caroline Leavitt. I also give Days of Wonder my highest recommendation, and it may be Caroline Leavitt’s best book yet.

The Evolution of Annabel Craig by Lisa Grunwald- A

Published by Random House

Hardcover, $30, 320 pages

Days of Wonder by Caroline Leavitt- A

Published by Algonquin Books

Hardcover, $29, 320 pages

Friday 5ive- September 8, 2023

Welcome back to the Friday 5ive, a weekly-ish (well that's the goal) post featuring five things that caught my attention this week. I took a lot of Friday 5ives off this summer, we took trips to Napa Valley, Greece, and more, but now it's time to buckle down and get back to a normal schedule. I'm working on some posts featuring photos from my trips so stay tuned.

1)  Last weekend I attended a bridal shower for my niece Olivia hosted at her aunt's beautiful home in the Hudson Valley. The theme was Tea Party and everything was so lovely. It was outdoors under a tent, with a balloon arch that made for a perfect backdrops for photos. The decorations were so pretty and we had traditional tea sandwiches, sweets, and the real hit of the food- blueberry, cranberry-orange, and chocolate chip scones made by my sister-in-law Brigette.They are her specialty and everyone jockeyed for position to get the leftover scones to take home. My husband would have been very unhappy if I returned without scones. 

2)  We went to dinner Saturday night in Saugerties, and on the way to the restaurant I saw Our Bookshop. What caught my eye was the display of books outside the store. There is a sign that states that anyone who wishes to purchase a book when the store is closed can put the money into the mail slot in the front of the store.  Now that is a small town for you!

3) I was walking home from work the other day and saw the craziest thing- an Amazon delivery truck dropped off an entire truckload of boxes in the middle of York Ave, taking up the entire two Northbound lanes while all the delivery people sorted through them for delivery. Drivers were laying on their car horns, and it was mayhem. Only in New York kids, only in New York.

4) I'm late to the party to watch HBO's series Barry. Bill Hader from Saturday Night Live stars as a hitman who, while on a job, discovers an acting class and decides he wants to be an actor. Henry Winkler plays the acting teacher and he and Hader have both won Emmys for their roles. The show is hilarious in parts (especially Anthony Carrigan as a Chechen mobster who hires Barry- give that guy an Emmy too please!) and violent as, even though Barry tries to get away from his hitman career, he keeps getting pulled back in. Stephen Root as Barry's mentor/boss and Sarah Goldberg as Barry's ambitious girlfriend are excellent as well. This series has everything- great writing, directing, acting. I'm in season three of four (it ended recently in season four) and I am stunned by it, especially by Bill Hader's acting. 

5) I read an early advanced copy of Lisa Grunwald's upcoming novel, The Evolution of Annabel Craig, publishing in April 2024. I adored her last novel, Time After Time, a romantic time-travel story about star-crossed lovers following WWII. (My review is here. It made my list of the Most Compelling Books of 2019 and the Most Compelling Books of the Decade.) 

 The Evolution of Annabel Craig is set in Dayton, Tennessee during the Scopes Monkey Trial and although the book is set in 1925, there are so many parallels to today. (I'm not sure if that is a good thing for us- the more things change, the more they stay the same.) Annabel's husband is one of defense lawyers, and as Annabel becomes friendly with the only female reporter covering the trial, she discovers that maybe what she thought she wanted out of life has changed. It's as much about society, religion, faith and politics at that time as it is about Annabel's growth as a person. I loved it and will be preordering this one as gifts. If you like historical fiction, put this one on your list.

Well that's it for this week. Stay safe and healthy everyone. Unitl next time.

Three Books That Take You Through Generations of a Family

Reprinted from the Citizen:

Sometimes there is nothing better than getting lost in a good book that takes you through the story of generations of a family. Reading about the family dynamics can invite comparisons and contrasts to one’s own family. One of my favorite summer books ever is Anne Rivers Siddons’ novel Colony, about Maude, a young woman who arrives a bride at her husband’s family summer retreat in Maine feeling like an outsider. Over the years, Maude comes to love the colony and becomes the caretaker of the family and their beloved home. 

This month’s Book Report has three stories about generations of families, and the strong pull of home. First is a book published last year, Regina Porter’s The Travelers, which takes us from the 1950s through Obama’s first year as president. 

Porter travels back and forth in time, and she helpfully lists the Cast of Characters and their relationship to each other at the beginning of the novel. At the beginning of each chapter she shares the year that chapter covers. 

James Vincent Jr. is a successful Manhattan lawyer, who has a son by his first wife Sigrid. Sigrid takes their son Rufus and moves to California, and James remarries. He also has a son by his occasional mistress, but this is not acknowledged by anyone.

Rufus marries Claudia, a black woman, whose mother Agnes was traumatized as a young woman, which led her to leave home and marry Eddie, who ends up in Vietnam, serving on a naval ship with his cousins. The men make a decision on that ship that will haunt Eddie.

The character who interested me most was Eloise, who was in love with Agnes and devastated when Agnes rebuffed her. Eloise was obsessed with Bessie Coleman, a black aviatrix, and wanted nothing more than to learn how to fly.

The families’ stories intersect over generations, and it’s fascinating to see how Porter weaves all of her characters stories together and how strong the pull towards home is for all. I highly recommend it.

Brit Bennett’s new novel, The Vanishing Half is currently sitting atop the New York Times’ bestseller list for a good reason- it’s fantastic. Like The Travelers, the story begins in the 1950s, with high school aged twin sisters Stella and Desiree living in a small all-black community in the South. 

Desiree longs to leave their small town and wants Stella, who would love nothing more that to go to college and become a teacher in their small community, to come with her. Something happens that convinces Stella she must leave, and the girls sneak away.

In 1968, Desiree reluctantly returns back home with her young daughter in tow, but not Stella. Stella left Desiree years ago, moved away and left no forwarding address. When Stella applied for a secretarial job, she was able to pass as a white woman, and when she got the job she continued passing.

Years later Stella is married to a wealthy man and has a daughter. No one knows she is black, and she lives with the fear that one day she will be found out. That day may come when Desiree’s daughter and her daughter meet. 

The Vanishing Half is about race, family, identity, and Bennett’s writing is just brilliant. She delves into the fears and dreams of her characters, and again how strong the pull of home is.

Connie Schultz’s novel The Daughters of Erietown spans the decades from the 1950s through the 1970s in the industrial town of Erietown, Ohio. Ellie is a high school girl madly in love with Brick, the star basketball player. 

Both are planning on going to college when Ellie discovers she is pregnant. All of their future dreams change as they marry and begin a family. Brick goes to work in the maintenance department of a coal plant, and Ellie stays home with their children.

Over the years, they mourn their lost dreams, and Brick’s unhappiness causes him to become reckless. We see their oldest child, Samantha, grow up in during turbulent times in her family and in the country as she has to make decisions for her own future.

The Daughters of Erietown is a great read for anyone from a small town as well as anyone who came of age of the 1960s and 1970s, with the intergenerational struggles that took center stage. Each character is vividly portrayed, and their decisions have consequences that reverberate for everyone. I highly recommend it.

The Travelers by Regina Porter- A+

Published by Hogarth 

Hardcover, $27, 320 pages

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett- A+

Published by Riverhead Books

Hardcover, $27, 350 pages

The Daughters of Erietown by Connie Schultz- A

Published by Random House

Hardcover, $28, 457 pages

Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld

Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld
Published by Random House ISBN 9780399590917
Hardcover, $28, 415 pages

Some of the most interesting books are written by people who ask the question "What if?" Phillip Roth's The Plot Against America asks "what if Charles Lindbergh becomes President and turns America towards fascism?". (It's been turned into an HBO miniseries.)

In her new book Rodham, author Curtis Sittenfeld asks the question, "what if Hillary Rodham never married Bill Clinton?" It's a daring book, one that takes factual events and blends them with fiction. Sittenfeld previously wrote American Wife, a novel based on the life of Laura Bush, where her main character was not Laura Bush, but a character with a different name. Hillary Clinton is so famous, or infamous depending on which media you follow, that a fictionalized version of her is possible.

In Rodham, we recognize the third grader who is asked to be in charge of the class when the teacher leaves the room because many of us were that girl too. We recognize the ten year-old girl who, when she opined about the Cubs versus the White Sox's chances, was told that "you're awfully opinionated for a girl". That statement stayed with her for the rest of her life.

This Hillary is diligent, a hardworker, a good student, and ambitious. Like her real-life counterpart, she graduated from Wellsley and gave a commencement speech that challenged convention and angered her "sarcastic, exacting and often mean" father.

This Hillary met Bill Clinton at Yale Law School, where she fell in love with him, much to the consternation of her best friend. Bill Clinton dated a lot of women and planned on going back to his home in Arkansas to run for Attorney General. Hillary's friends did not want her to leave behind all of the opportunities she had ahead of her for a shining career.

In real life, Hillary did follow Bill to Arkansas. In Rodham, Hillary does not marry Bill after catching him cheating on her. (Note to readers- this fictionalized Bill Clinton is not a nice guy.) The breakup crushes Hillary, but she eventually moves on, and has a stellar career of her own.

Rodham is divided into three sections- The Catch, The Woman, The Front-Runner. I found the last two sections, particularly The Front-Runner, most fascinating. Watching this Hillary fulfill her dreams and ambitions, and eventually run for political office is intriguing. How Sittenfeld ties it all up is just genius and so satisfying.

Sittenfeld has written a thought-provoking feminist novel that will talked about for a long time. It's a great book club pick, there is so much here to discuss over wine and appetizers. (I will warn you that there are some explicit sex scenes in here that may not be for everyone.) I highly recommend Rodham, but realize that this is fiction, not reality. This will be one of the books of summer 2020.

Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Published by Random House ISBN 9781524798622
Hardcover, $27, 336 pages

Last year I read Taylor Jenkins Reid's wonderful novel, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and loved it. Her take on an Elizabeth Taylor-like character was so engrossing, I couldn't put it down. So when I heard that her new novel Daisy Jones & the Six was publishing, I put it on the top of my To Be Read list.

Daisy Jones & the Six is a take on a Fleetwood Mac-like band. It is written as a series of interviews with the band members, producers, friends and others, so you get everybody's point of view to the meteoric rise and fall of a rock band.

Daisy Jones wanted to be known as a singer-songwriter, and with her gorgeous look and voice, she quickly garnered attention of men. She also used and abused drugs and alcohol and looked for love in the wrong places.

Billy Dunne started a band called The Six with his brother Graham in their Pittsburgh hometown and build a solid following, eventually signing with a record company. He fell in love with Camilla, and even through the physical separations of him on tour and with his alcoholism, they managed to marry and start a family.

When the record company had Daisy sing a song with The Six, it was lightning in a bottle. Daisy joined the band and wanted to contribute her own songs to the band, something that the controlling Billy wanted no part of. But when their album becomes a monster hit and they have a sold-out arena tour, there is no going back, through the love affairs, breakups and band fights.

Writing the book as a series of interviews works very well here, and at the end of the book you discover why it was written that way. You see the ups and downs of being in the music business from a first-hand perspective.

Jenkins Reid also includes the lyrics  (that she wrote) to all of the songs from their breakout album and reading them feels like songs from the 1970s California rock scene. I wondered if someone will eventually put them to music.

We may find the answer to that- Reese Witherspoon has optioned the book to turn into a 13-part TV series on Amazon. This book is tailor-made for a TV series and I for one can't wait. If you had a worn put copy of Fleetwood Mac's album Rumours, Dais Jones & the Six is for you.

Beauty in the Broken Places by Allison Pataki

Beauty in the Broken Places by Allison Pataki
Published by Random House ISBN 9780399591655 (Publication date- May 1st)
Hardcover, $26, 244 pages

Allison Pataki's moving memoir Beauty in the Broken Places opens with a foreward by Lee Woodruff, a writer whose journalist husband Bob Woodruff suffered a traumatic brain injury covering the Iraq War. Woodruff has experienced what Pataki is about to recount in her book- her life changing in an instant.

Dave and Allison are heading out for a lovely Hawaiian vacation four months before Allison is set to give birth to their baby. Dave has a grueling schedule as a third year resident, and Alli is preparing for the publication of her new historical novel.

While in flight, Dave turns to Allison and says he can't see out of his right eye. She sees that his pupil is severely dialated, and Dave has a stroke right there on the plane. Three medical professionals assist Dave, and the pilot lands the plane in Fargo, ND where Dave is rushed to a hospital.

Allison takes us on the frightening whirlwind of calling his parents, brothers and then her family. She spends the night alone watching as her strong, vibrant husband lies hooked up to machines keeping him alive, praying he will live.

Dave has suffered a severe stroke, and his road to recovery will be long and difficult. In addition to his physical impairments (she has to feed him, shave him, he has to learn to walk), he has short term memory loss.

He goes from a long stay at the hospital to a rehabilitation home, and finally home to the new apartment they had rented for when the baby came. Allison's family and friends were there for her, unpacking for her, shopping, and most importantly, praying for and with her, but most of the responsibility for helping Dave rests on her shoulders.

Allison's strong faith, a touchstone for her since childhood, plays a large role in the book. Her faith guides her, and when she sends out an email asking people to pray for her, she can feel the strength that those prayers gave her and Dave.

She also wrote a series of letters titled "Dear Dave" to her husband, detailing everything that was happening and everything that she was feeling. As a writer, this was how she coped.

When their baby Lilly is born, now Allison has to take care of Lilly and Dave. The strain is incredible, and Allison takes the reader along with her on this difficult journey. Her feelings of being overwhelmed leap off the page.

Allison also takes the reader through her and Dave's courtship in college, and they were only married for eighteen months when they were tested by Dave's stroke. It takes a strong, loving relationship to make it through such a trial.

One thing that I found particularly relatable- Allison said she always felt so lucky in her life, that she was waiting for the shoe to drop. I think many people probably feel that way.

I read Beauty in the Broken Places through teary eyes for much of the first few chapters.  It is hard not to feel her fear and pain. Pataki is a wonderful writer, and after reading this emotional story of the resilience of the human spirit, I will be looking to read her fiction next.

Allison Pataki's website is here.

The Dream Lover by Elizabeth Berg

The Dream Lover by Elizabeth Berg
Published by Random House ISBN 978-0-8129-9315-8
Hardcover, $28, 361 pages

Author Elizabeth Berg became interested in the life of 19th century writer George Sand. She told her friend Nancy Horan, who has written historical novels such as Leaving Frank and Under a Starry Sky, based on real people, that she should write a book about George Sand. Horan said "Write it yourself!", so she did.

The Dream Lover tells the story of George Sand, born Aurore Dupin to a wealthy soldier from a respected French family and his wife, a former courtesan who followed the military during battle and left a general to marry Aurore's family.

Aurore narrates her own story, from her upbringing with her strict, controlling, wealthy grandmother through her marriage to a man who was a poor steward of her inheritance to her success as a novelist and her many love affairs along the way.

I knew little about Sand, other than she was a French novelist who dressed in man's clothes. Sand began wearing men's clothes when she was a theatre critic, and she could buy tickets to the cheaper seats if she were a man. She liked wearing stylish men's clothes so much, she continued it most of her life.

Aurore's great love of her life was Marie Dorval, a famous actress who loved life freely. Marie captivated Aurore, and Aurore fell madly in love with her. They remained friends most of their lives, until a falling out left Aurore bereft.

Aurore's marriage constrained her, though it did give her two children- a daughter, with whom she had a strained relationship throughout their lives (like many mothers and daughters), and a son, with whom she had a better relationship.

I found the sections on her feelings about motherhood fascinating, and it gave you a real feel for how Sand balanced her work with her family life. She had an agreement with her husband that she would spend three months at a time in Paris, where she would write, and then three months at home at her grandmother's estate that she now owned.

Her months in Paris gave her a freedom she relished. She cultivated a group of intellectual and artistic friends, including Gustave Flaubert, Franz Liszt, Eugene Delacroix and Frederic Chopin, with whom she had a long term affair.

Sand had many affairs, although some were with men who left her unfulfilled and unhappy. Reading how an intelligent, inquisitive, artistic woman like Sand had to deal with a society where women were discouraged from such behavior was fascinating.

Sometimes when a story is told in different time shifts, as Berg does here with three basic alternating timelines, it can be confusing, but Berg weaves the timelines together seamlessly. Switching back and forth gave the book a coherence.

I'm not a huge fan of historical fiction, but I enjoyed The Dream Lover a great deal. I felt dropped into Sand's story, like I was right there in France with her and she shared her story with me. Telling the story in her voice worked brilliantly here.

George Sand is an amazing woman, and after reading The Dream Lover, I am heading out to find some of her novels. Fans of historical fiction should put The Dream Lover at the top of their must-read list.

rating 5 of 5


Thanks to TLC Tours for putting me on this tour. The rest of Elizabeth Berg's tour stops are here:

Monday, April 13th: Reading Reality

Monday, April 13th: Books on the Table 

Tuesday, April 14th: Let Them Read Books

Wednesday, April 15th: History from a Woman’s Perspective

Monday, April 20th: Bibliophilia, Please

Monday, April 20th: Bookchickdi

Tuesday, April 21st: Unabridged Chick

Tuesday, April 21st: The Novel Life

Wednesday, April 22nd: Books on the Table – Bookstore Event post

Wednesday, April 22nd: Kritter’s Ramblings

Thursday, April 23rd: Unabridged Chick – author Q&A

Monday, April 27th: Peeking Between the Pages

Tuesday, April 28th: Books a la Mode – author guest post

Wednesday, April 29th: Bibliotica

Thursday, April 30th: Life is Story

Friday, May 1st: 100 Pages a Day… Stephanie’s Book Reviews

Monday, May 4th: Laura’s Reviews

Monday, May 4th: Book Babe

Wednesday, May 6th: Unshelfish

Monday, May 11th: Broken Teepee

BEA14- Book Group Speed Dating Part II

In a previous post, I covered the books presented by Harper Perennial, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Liveright and Norton publishers during the Book Group Speed Dating at BEA14. This post covers Picador (Macmillan), Random House, Simon & Schuster and Soho.

Darren from Picador (Macmillan) presented the following books:

• Dark Amelia- by Sally O'Reilly, an historical novel about Shakespeare's muse, with some sorcery thrown in. Fans of Deborah Harkness will like this one.
• The Boy Who Drew Monsters- by Keith Donohue will appeal to fans of Stephen King and Joe Hill. It's a YA crossover book about a young boy who draws monsters that come to life, set on an empty Maine estate.
• The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P.- by Adelle Waldman is coming out in paperback after making many 'Best of 2013' lists. This one is about a 20-something young man in Brooklyn looking for love and sex. It has become a cultural touchstone.
• Someone- by Alice McDermott is publishing in paperback and made my list of Most Compelling  Books of 2013. It's the story of an ordinary Irish-American woman as she ages from childhood on. It's beautiful and quiet, and my review is here.
• Man Alive!- by Mary Kay Zuravleff tells the story of family living outside of Washington DC and what happens when Dad gets hit by lightning and it changes his personality.
• Lookaway, Lookaway- by Wilton Barnhardt also publishes in trade paperback after making a big splash at last year's BEA. The story revolves around a Southern family falling apart and the tough matriarch keeping them all together. 

Maggie from Random House shared their upcoming books:

• Still Life With Bread Crumbs- is Anna Quindlen's latest novel about a middle-aged artist who moves to a cabin in the woods and finds artistic inspiration and maybe love. Every woman of a certain age will want to read this, my review is here.
• The Weight of Blood- by Laura McHugh put me in mind of HBO's True Detective with its story of a murdered teenage girl and how it may possibly tie into her friend's mother's disappearance years ago. Lots of creepy atmosphere here and I raced through this one even though these kinds of books are not usually my cup of tea.
• The Mill River Redemption- by Darcy Chan, who first book, The Mill River Recluse, was a self-published ebook. There are some of the same characters in this book about love, family and forgiveness in a small town.
• The Deepest Secret- by Carla Buckley tells the story of a mom who accidentally hits someone with her car, but can't turn herself in because she has a son with a devastating chronic illness. The ending is said to be completely unexpected.
• Under the Wide and Starry Sky- by Nancy Horan continues the trend of novels about the wives of famous men, this time it's writer Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife Fanny.

Briony from Simon & Schuster had five books:

• A Sudden Sight- is Garth Stein's follow-up to his smash The Art of Racing in the Rain. This one is a family story with a ghostly twist and an environmental slant, and is described as 'visually beautiful'.
• We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas is one of the books that had everyone talking this year. The debut novel sold for one million dollars at auction, and it is the story of Eileen, an Irish- American woman, from childhood through marriage and adulthood. It's about love, desire and the fight to get into the middle class. This is one I will definitely read.
• Juliet's Nurse- by Lois Leveen gives us the story of Juliet's nurse from Romeo and Juliet, and takes the reader from 14 years before their love story and beyond the final scene of the play. Fans of Phillipa Gregory will like this strong female protagonist.
• Before I Go- by Colleen Oakley is traditional women's fiction, along the lines of PS I Love You.  A terminally ill woman tries to find a spouse for her husband before she dies and then regrets her attempt.
• Henna House-is Nomi Eve's historical novel about young Yemenite Jewish girls who will be adopted by the Muslim community if they are unbetrothed when their parents die. Fans of The Red Tent and The Dovekeepers will want this one.

Soho presented four books:

• Herbie's Game by Tim Halliman is described as "the spawn of Donald Westlake and Carl Hiaasen". He is a favorite of Nancy Pearl.
• The Bishop's Wife  by Mettie Ivie Harrison is a mystery set amongst the Mormon community. When a prominent Mormon's wife disappears, her friend believes the husband killed her. It's based on a true story, and written by a practicing Mormon.
• The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone by Adele Griffin is a YA crossover, called a 'docu-novel' about a teenage artist who may have committed suicide- or was it murder? The novel is filled with paintings and photographs.
• Rainey Royal by Dylan Landis tells the story of young teen in Greenwich Village in the 1970's, and it "lifts the skin off the character" with its in-depth character study. It won an O. Henry Prize.
• I'm Glad I Did is a YA mystery novel written by Carole King contemporary Cynthia Weill about young songwriters working in the famous Brill Building in 1963. There should be lots of interest in this given the smash Broadway show Beautiful is so popular.

Thanks again to BookReporter.com for putting this event together; it gets better every year.

Short & Sweet Review- Little Failure by Gary Shteyngart

Little Failure by Gary Shteyngart
Published by Random House ISBN 978-0-679-64375-3
Hardcover, $27, 368 pages

Genre: Memoir, Humor

The Story: Shteyngart moved from Russia to Queens, New York with his parents in the late 1970s when he was seven years old. The author of three critically successful novels (The Russian Debutante's Handbook, Absurdistan, and Super Sad True Love Story) hits another bullseye with his account of a young childhood spent in Russia and then the adjustment of moving to America, a place he was taught was much inferior to his homeland. This is a humorous and moving account of being a sickly, only child, an outsider in Hebrew school, college life at Oberlin and working towards his goal of being a writer, all the while trying to get his father to believe he is not a "little failure", one of his father's nicknames for him.

Short & Sweet Review: I hadn't read any of Shteyngart's novels, but have seen his howlingly funny book trailers online. This is such a rich, funny book, and anyone who enjoys reading about the immigrant experience should put this on their TBR list. His vivid writing brings his childhood in Russia to life and his stories of his parents fighting (he always feared they would divorce), his grandmother's fierce devotion to him, his striving for acceptance from his new American classmates and how that led him to a life as a writer are fascinating.

I think Americans take for granted how many people want to come here to live, the sacrifices they make and how hard they work to fit in and build a good life for their families. Reading Little Failure will remind you of that.

Shteyngart's book is brutally honest in quest for acceptance from his classmates, his search for love in college, and his many missteps on the road to writing success. He lays himself out there for all to see. At the end of the book, he takes his parents back to Russia, and this section of the book is very moving.

Shteyngart is a brilliant writer, each sentence perfectly constructed to convey his idea. Even if you haven't read his fiction (like me), if you like the memoir genre and you like to laugh, this book is for you.

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Weekend Cooking- Everyday Food cookbooks

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.

Every once in awhile, I will catch the Today Show segment called "Steals and Deals", where Jill Martin highlights great deals from manufacturers at huge discounts, good for 24 hours only. In the past, I have gotten some terrific bargains on Christmas gifts for family members on jewelry and health and beauty items.

A few weeks ago Random House had a fantastic deal on several sets of three cookbooks from celebrity chefs. They had sets from Lidia Bastianich, Bobby Flay, Tyler Florence and Martha Stewart. The deal was three books for just $21, which really is a steal.

I chose the Martha Stewart Living Everyday cookbook set, which had Everyday Food Light, Everyday Food Great Food Fast, and Everyday Food Fresh Flavor Fast. I used to pick up the Everyday Food magazine once in a while because the recipes were usually pretty easy to make and used fresh ingredients that I generally had on hand.

Everyday Food Light features recipes all under 500 calories, and I like how the book starts with tips on poaching, steaming, and stir-frying, along with lists of what herbs work best for each style of cooking. The calorie counts are printed in big numbers right on the photo page for each recipe. The recipes are separated by season, which I always find helpful. I turned right to the Fall section and found several recipes to try, including:

• Butternut Bisque (117 calories)
• Roast Chicken with Pears (421 calories)
• Chicken Cacciatore (212 calories)

Everyday Food Great Food Fast is perfect for those weeknights when it you only have a short window of time to get a healthy dinner on the table. On each photo page, the prep time is helpfully printed in big numbers, making it easy to see at a glance how long it will take you to get dinner ready to go into the oven. Some of the recipes, though, can take an hour to cook, so that must be factored into the equation. I am confused as to why the nutritional information for the recipes is listed in an index at the back of the book; it would have been so easy to place on the recipe page itself. It is also divided by season, and the fall recipes I am looking at are:

• Braised Chicken with Mushrooms and Oven-Baked Polenta (30 minutes prep time)
• Steak and Onion Sandwiches (20 minutes prep time)
• Pork Chops with Apples and Shallots (30 minutes prep time)

Everyday Food Fresh Flavor Fast has 250 recipes in the book, which divides the book into categories like Breakfast, Appetizers, Pasta, Desserts. The end of the book has helpful tips with lots of photos on Chopping Onions, Peeling Ginger, and Softening Brown Sugar. Again, the nutritional information is indexed instead of with the recipe. I'm going to try:

• Roast Beef with Peppers, Onions, and Potatoes
• Warm Spinach Salad with Poached Eggs
• Mexican Ice Cream Sundaes with Cinnamon-Chocolate Sauce

All of these recipes are pretty basic, they don't require a lot of technical skill, making these books great gifts for people just starting out on their own. I also like that each recipe has a glossy photo so you know what your final dish should (sort of) look like.

The Steals and Deals website is here.

Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink

Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink
Published by Crown Publishing ISBN 978-0-307-71896-9
Hardcover, $27, 448 pages

A good narrative non-fiction can be as satisfying and gripping as a novel. An example of a recent one is Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lack, which has spent over two years on the best seller. Skloot brilliantly tells the tale of a poor black woman from Baltimore, Lacks, whose cancer cells were harvested and used in many medical breakthroughs in the last half of the 20th century.

Although Lacks contribution to medical science saved countless lives, her family didn't give permission for their use and received no monetary compensation. Skloot shows the reader that many of her descendents could not even afford health insurance and had many medical issues of their own because they lacked adequate health care.

Like Skloot, Fink takes on a story with moral and ethical overtones- what killed 45 patients at Memorial Hospital in New Orleans in the days following Hurricane Katrina, in her incredibly fascinating Five Days at Memorial. Fink interviewed dozens of people who were there- doctors, nurses, aides, family members, patients, hospital administrators, rescuers, police investigators, coroners and more to tell her gripping story.

Fink drops the reader right into the hospital during the hurricane and in the horrific aftermath of the storm, when the levees failed and the hospital was completely surrounded by floodwaters. The reader feels the rising panic as generators fail, toilets stop working, medicines run low, cell phones die and communication is lost with the outside world.

Close to 200 people were evacuated from the hospital by helicopter and boats, but 45 patients died, most of them either terminally or gravely ill, the most of any hospital in the city. And most of them died of an overdose of morphine and Versed, allegedly by the hands of Dr. Anna Poe, a surgeon at the hospital. She and two nurses were arrested for killing those patients after a lengthy investigation.

Fink methodically lays out what went on at the hospital during those days. The corporate owner of the hospital, TenetCare, had an emergency plan that lacked some key elements. After 9/11, hospitals had to beef up emergency plans.

"The doctors at Memorial had drilled for disasters, but for scenarios like a Sarin gas attack, modeled that April, where multiple patients arrived at the hospital at once. Not in all his years of practice had Thiele drilled for the loss of backup power, running water, and transportation."

They had no contract with helicopter companies to evacuate the hospital (as other hospitals did) during a flood in a city where hurricanes and floods can be devastating. The person left in charge in the home office of Houston had no disaster experience or training, and the lack of communication with the hospital during the crisis was unconscionable.

The staff at Memorial felt they had been abandoned by their owners, as well as by their government. There seemed to be no one in charge at a local, state or federal level who could give them information as to when and how they would evacuate. All they heard were rumors of rampant looting, and the gunfire they could hear in the neighborhood made them fear they would be overrun by criminals looking for drugs.

When the evacuations begin, with boats commandeered by an older couple looking for a family member, and helicopters fly in, the triage that took place was the opposite of most; instead of the sickest going first, the healthiest patients were evacuated first. That decision had repercussions that had to be answered for later.

The first half of the book will have you on the edge of your seat, and the people who stayed behind to help the patients were heroic in their efforts. Fink sketches them with deserved empathy and compassion. As you read, you may ask yourself, "could I have done that?"

The second half of the book deals with the efforts by investigators and the state attorney general, who was looking to make a name for himself, to bring murder charges against the three women. Most of the general public did not feel this was warranted, and support for the women was strong.

But there were people, including doctors from Memorial, who were appalled at what happened and wanted to see justice for the people who died. They felt that these women violated their oath to do no harm and took matters into their own hands.

The one overriding theme of Five Days at Memorial is that governments and healthcare facilities must have effective disaster planning. There were so many failures on the part of government and corporations that allowed this to happen when it did not have to happen.

You may think you know how you feel about this situation, but Fink skillfully shows you all sides, and you will most likely come away from this book with more questions than answers as I did. This is a must-read book.

rating 5 of 5

Son of a Gun by Justin St. Germain

Son of a Gun by Justin St. Germain
Published by Random House ISBN 978-1-4000-6862-3
Hardcover, $26, 236 pages

Having just finished reading Cheryl Strayed's Wild, Justin St. Germain's Son of a Gun is an interesting followup. Both authors lost their mothers when they were in their twenties, and searching for what the loss means for the children left behind form the basis for both excellent memoirs.

Son of a Gun opens with Justin returning home to the house he shares with his brother Josh only to be told that their mother Debbie was dead; she had been shot by someone. The young men begin the process of calling their grandparents and long-estranged father. When Justin told his father he writes,

"I told him she was dead and a long pause ensued, one in a litany of silences between my father and me, stretching across the years since he left and the distance between us, thousands of miles, most of America."

From there we learn that Justin and Josh were raised by their mother, a strong, tough woman, a former paratrooper in the military whose career was ended by an injury in a jump. The irony of Debbie was that her weakness was men.

She chose the wrong man to love, time and time again. She dated many, lived with some, became engaged to more than a few, and married five of them. Some of the men were good, but most treated her badly. She was beaten by some, and lied to by many of them.

Debbie went from job to job as well. For awhile, she ran a tourist gift shop in Tombstone, Arizona. She had a failed restaurant there as well. Eventually, she married Ray, a cop, whom Justin didn't really like, but had hoped would take good care of his mother as he turned eighteen and left home for college.

Ray and Debbie moved away from Tombstone, out in the middle of nowhere, where they lived in a beat-up trailer, hoping to build their own home. This isolation wasn't good for Debbie, and she didn't see her sons often. They were living their own lives and therefore didn't see everything going on with Debbie and Ray.

Justin described his mother this way:

"But she also loved to play the martyr. Whenever I got in trouble at school, I'd hear it: I gave my whole life for you and this is how you repay me? In one breath she'd say we didn't owe her anything, and in the next she'd list everything she'd suffered so we could have a better life. Most of the marks on her ledger were true, but she tried to pin her failed relationships on us; once or twice she even tried to claim that we were the reason she stayed through the abuse, as if we were the ones who wanted whatever sort of family we had with those men. There had to be someone to blame, and it was never her."

In the end though, people did blame Debbie for her own death. People who knew her and the sheriff investigating the murder felt that Debbie paid the ultimate price for making several wrong choices, especially when it came to men. It was almost as if they said, "well, what do you expect?"

The writing here is beautiful, at times poetic and always unsparingly honest. Justin takes us on his journey to discover how his mother's life had fallen so off-track. He links the independence of the culture of people who lived in Tombstone, where Wyatt Earp became famous for the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, and their love of guns with his mother's murder. Would this have happened if she lived somewhere else?

I found the chapter where he attends a gun show intriguing, as well as the fact that he and his brother could not collect their mother's life insurance until the murder was solved. I had never heard that before. What if it was never solved; does that mean the insurance company keeps the money? That didn't seem fair at all.

In the end, Justin determines that everyday he has to choose what kind of man he wants to be. He can choose to give into the depression and grief or he could get his life together. He can do nothing with his life, drifting, working low-paying dead-end jobs, drinking every night to numb the pain or he can move forward. I'm glad he chose the path he did; his story can give hope to those who feel lost.

rating 4 of 5

Thanks to TLC Tours for inviting me to be part of Justin's tour. The rest of the tour is here:

Monday, August 12th:  Jenn’s Bookshelves

Tuesday, August 13th:  Sophisticated Dorkiness

Monday, August 19th:  Patricia’s Wisdom

Tuesday, August 20th:  The Relentless Reader

Thursday, August 22nd:  Tiffany’s Bookshelf

Monday, August 26th:  River City Reading

Wednesday, August 28th:  WV Stitcher

Thursday, August 29th:  From the TBR Pile

Friday, August 30th:  The Best Books Ever

Tuesday, September 3rd:  Reviews by Elizabeth A. White

Wednesday, September 4th:  Book Chase

Thursday, September 5th:  BookChickDi

TBD:  A Bookworm’s World

Justin St. Germain's website is here.