Hearts on a String, by Kris Radish.
None of these women are from Florida. Four of them live in places where winter claims the most days. Places where it often snows in April and people cry in the morning when they open the window and see yet another gray skyline. Cities that literally rejoice when the temperature jumps past thirty or forty degrees....
Monday, December 27, 2010
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
The Carrie Diaries
The Carrie Diaries, by Candace Bushnell.
I've had boyfriends before, and frankly, each one was a disappointment.
There was nothing horribly wrong with these boys. It was my fault. I'm kind of a snob when it comes to guys.
So far, the biggest problem with the boys I've dated is that they weren't too smart. And eventually I ended up hating myself...
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Mini Shopaholic
Mini Shopaholic, by Sophie Kinsella.
I feel totally inadequate as I scroll through pictures of smiley girls with long shiny hair cooking vegetable risottos, bouncing balls in the garden, or dressed up in judo kit. No wonder Minnie has tantrums. It's because no one's doing martial arts or making sushi with her. All this time I've totally deprived her....
Thursday, December 2, 2010
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, by Aimee Bender.
He pressed the mute button, and the room filled with sound. Horns, voice-overs, snatches of songs. It was like we were exchanging codes, on how to be a father and a daughter, like we'd read about it in a manual, translated from another language, and were doing our best with what we could understand.
This...
Monday, November 15, 2010
The Department of Lost and Found
The Department of Lost and Found, by Allison Winn Scotch.
There is a moment in every relationship when one of the parties senses its imminent demise. There's a moment of incredible clarity, when your stomach drops with a heavy sense of dread, and you feel like control is slipping through your fingertips even as you try to hold on. The night I bought...
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Before I Fall
Before I Fall, by Lauren Oliver.
I think of all the years that Lindsay's been holding on to this secret knowledge, this secret self who cried every night and scrubbed pillows clean of pee - the scariest secret of all, the past we're trying to forget.
And I think of all the times I sat in squirming silence, terrified I would say or do the wrong thing,...
Friday, November 5, 2010
The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook
The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook - A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal, by Ben Mezrich
Sitting on the plane, waiting for the engines to come on, Eduardo still couldn't believe it all. He'd eaten koala on a yacht. He'd gotten drunk in some of the poshest places in Northern California. And he'd been whispered numbers that...
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Stiltsville
Stiltsville, by Susanna Daniel
Margo drives up for a long weekend every couple of months. She talks about moving to be closer to me, but though I am lonely for her, I don't encourage it - she needs to become steadier in her own life. I hope that one day she will have a baby. If this happens, though, I'll have to consider moving back, which is right...
Friday, October 29, 2010
Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self
Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self, by Danielle Evans
I want to wake Chrissie and tell her about this as if it's a warning: Don't push too hard; your last chance to see a person the way you wanted them to be may come at any moment. One minute you have a parent, or a friend, or a lover, something solid, and physics tells you their resistance will...
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Take Me There
Take Me There, by Susane Colasanti.
I liked this book overall but there were a few things I did not care for. It's told from three different perspectives - Rhiannon's, Nicole's, and James's - all of whom are main characters. It reminded me of the novel Flipped, however, because when it changed to the other person's perspective it kind of rewound a...
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Barefoot
Barefoot, by Elin Hilderbrand.
Still no flicker of interest from Peter. Peter thought of Josh as the help. A servant, a slave. Whereas Peter was the husband, the neighbor, the peer, the equal, the chieftain in Melanie's real life. But Peter Patchen was also a genuine crumb who cheated and lied - that was Melanie's real life.
I have read Elin Hilderbrand's...
Thursday, September 23, 2010
All We Ever Wanted Was Everything
All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, by Janelle Brown.
Janice often consoles herself with the idea that Margaret will understand, someday when she has a family of her own, how priorities change; how fantasies about career and adventure grow irrelevant the minute you have a baby in your arms who adores you, relies on you, greedily consumes your very...
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Cum Laude
Cum Laude, by Cecily von Ziegesar.
Another slow song came on, and even as their bodies continued to participate with what was happening in the room - talking to each other, moving puzzle pieces around, pretending not to fall sleep or stroke a foot or a lock of hair - their minds were elsewhere. Each of them in his or her own way was marveling at how...
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Something Like Fate
Something Like Fate, by Susane Colasanti
Maybe everything that happens in our lives isn't already decided by fate. Maybe we have some influence over the outcome. If you want something badly enough, can you change your fate? Or will the thing you want the most come true anyway,...
Friday, September 17, 2010
Insatiable
Insatiable, by Meg Cabot.
Alaric supposed vampires avoided Target because of the parking lot security cameras. (It was a myth that vampires wouldn't show up in mirrors or on film. Certainly in the old days it had been true, when silver-backed mirrors and film had been the norm. But now that the world had gone digital - and mirrors were cheap - vampire...
Sunday, September 12, 2010
"This is Where We Live"
This is Where We Live, by Janelle Brown.
She was going home, of course - there was nowhere else to go. But it wasn't just that: She was incapable of giving up. As her mother observed, it was just her nature. There were things she wanted - and they weren't outrageous things to want - a nice home, a happy marriage, financial stability, the ability to...
Monday, September 6, 2010
The Help
The Help, by Kathryn Stockett.
Mae Mobley was born on a early Sunday morning in August, 1960. A church baby we like to call it. Taking care a white babies, that's what I do, along with all the cooking and cleaning. I done raised seventeen kids in my lifetime. I know how to get them babies to sleep, stop crying, and go in the toilet bowl before they...
Friday, September 3, 2010
The House on Oyster Creek
The House on Oyster Creek, by Heidi Jon Schmidt.
She was probably right: The oystermen were fighting a losing battle - it was a romantic notion that you could farm the edge of the sea, live by the tides, and really make a living at it. Farmers never made a decent living ... Certainly the dairy farmers she'd grown up among had suffered one hard time...
Friday, August 13, 2010
"Remedies"
Remedies, by Kate Ledger.
No one ever warned you how hard it was going to be, having children. And you could never guess how much destruction they would do to you, inadvertently, or with your own abetment. You could never imagine how desperately you would want to protect yourself.
Remedies tells the story of Simon and Emily Bear - of their failing...
Sunday, August 1, 2010
"The Unwritten Rule"
The Unwritten Rule, by Elizabeth Scott.
There are a million rules for being a girl. There are a million things you have to do to get through each day. High school has things that can trip you up, ruin you, people smile and say one thing and mean another, and you have to know all the rules, you have to know what you can and can't do.
And one of them...
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Love Under Cover
Love Under Cover, by Jessica Brody.
So I caught the flu. I contracted the virus. The one that makes you start sentences with the word we and end them with the words isn't that right, honey? The one that makes you sick with anxiety when the phone doesn't ring exactly when it's supposed to. It's a disease that makes you dizzy, feverish, nauseated,...
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Girl at Sea
Girl at Sea, by Maureen Johnson.
Just because she had been well behaved all this week didn't mean that she was any less interested in what was behind this trip - it was just that she had chosen not to act on it.
Being given a shiny key is a temptation. Keys open things. And from the moment it was around her neck, her senses were tingling.
Ever since...
Friday, July 2, 2010
Bird in Hand
Bird in Hand, by Christina Baker Kline.
Alison had been living for other people for so long that she culd barely identify what she wanted for herself anymore. She'd find herself paralyzed with indecision in the strangest places - the grocery store, for instance, where she roamed the aisles with a rising panic, even as she clutched a list in her hand:...
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Scarlett Fever
Scarlett Fever, by Maureen Johnson
"It's not always going to be like this," Scarlett said. "I've been useful to you, right?"
"Many times," Dakota said, leading her along. "Sometimes, we all get a little broken."
A little broken. Scarlett wondered about that. At what point do you get so broken that it's time to just get thrown away? She had a feeling...
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Remind Me Again Why I Need A Man
Remind Me Again Why I Need A Man, by Claudia Carroll.
"Sorry, but I happen to like getting drunk on a Saturday afternoon with my friends if I feel like it. I like smoking in bed. I like eating or not eating or living on take-outs, entirely depending on how I feel. The sad single is a marketing notion peddled to us by Hollywood, and it doesn't exist,...
Thursday, May 27, 2010
The Six Rules of Maybe
The Six Rules of Maybe, by Deb Caletti.
I made a silent promise to myself - I would come back when no one was here, and I would read those words. Maybe at that moment I knew what a thief must feel, a jewel thief. The way his heart would quicken with need and envy and want when he gazed down at the promise of diamonds and rubies. The way he knew he...
Thursday, May 13, 2010
House Rules
House Rules, by Jodi Picoult.
I was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome long before it became the mental health disorder du jour, overused by parents to describe their bratty kids so that people think they're supergeniuses instead of simply antisocial.
I am a big fan of Jodi Picoult's novels, which are generally great, and this one proved to be no...
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Entertaining Disasters
Entertaining Disasters, by Nancy Spiller.
Garlic made us interesting, if only to ourselves, set us apart from our neighbors whose houses held no special odors, were nothing more than common shelter for their benign, boring, blank breath. And when this mother became another mother and stopped making her garlic dip and her garlic bread, stopped putting...
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Dirty Little Secrets
Dirty Little Secrets, by C.J. Omololu.
I loved the glazed, faraway look people got as they glanced at you with a smile that faded as they quickly realized they didn't know you - their eyes scanned your face and, without a flicker of recognition, moved on to the next person. You were a factor in their life for a nanosecond and then you were gone.
This...
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
The Art of French Kissing
The Art of French Kissing, by Kristin Harmel.
"Emma," Brett said slowly, as if talking to a child or someone whose mental comprehension was in question. "I thought you told me you were coming home."
I looked out at the darkened silhouette of the Eiffel Tower and felt a sense of calm settle over me. "I know," I said. "I think I am home."
Emma Sullivan...
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Tangled
Tangled, by Carolyn Mackler.
As I waited for her to burst through the door, I wondered whether this was it. My big break. The thing that'll finally make everything better.
Carolyn Macker's books are generally interesting, but this one was particularly so because she broke the book up into four parts, with each of the main characters having their...
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Nanny Returns
Nanny Returns, by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus.
...these parents see the aforementioned fifty thousand as an investment in the brand their children will be wearing for life, trotted out at every job interview and cocktail party; it will buy them entree into colleges, clubs, and gated communities. For the reputation of the school to suffer, it...
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Winter Garden
Winter Garden, by Kristin Hannah.
I take the tiny scrap of her paper with her name on it and hold it in my hand. How long do I sit there in the snow, stroking my baby's coat, remembering her smile?
Forever.
This is Kristin Hannah's newest book, and it might just be her best. She details a family who has recently been devastated by the death of their...
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
The Overnight Socialite
Sorry it's been so long since my last post! I have been blogging about movies over at my other blog, Yes/No Films, and between that and work, I haven't had much time to read.
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The Overnight Socialite, by Bridie Clark.
The game was changing; he couldn't deny it. Take Southampton, studded with McMansions, brand-new Bentleys,...
Monday, March 1, 2010
Italian for Beginners
Italian for Beginners, by Kristin Harmel.
But consistent was good, wasn't it? It was safe, reliable, predictable. I had always been proud of being that person everyone could count on, the one who would always be there, who security guards could set their watches by, who arrives at work early and stayed late, who held everything together while everyone...
Friday, February 26, 2010
The Christmas Cookie Club
The Christmas Cookie Club, by Ann Pearlman.
I am the head cookie bitch and this is my party.
The Christmas cookie club is always on the first Monday of December. Mark it on your calendar.
I only read the front flap of this book when I checked it out of the library, so it was a surprise to later read the back flap (author's bio) and see that not...
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
The Swan Thieves
The Swan Thieves, by Elizabeth Kostova.
Marriages are like certain books, a story where you turn the last page and you think it's over, and then there's an epilogue, and after that you're inclined to go on wondering about the characters or imagining that their lives continue without you, dear reader. Until you forget most of that book, you're stuck...
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Ford County
Ford County, by John Grisham.
Although I like Grisham's books, I am not a big short story fan (thereby making me a hypocrite, since all I write are short stories!), but this one was very good. All of the stories take place in Ford County, Mississippi, which was also the setting for Grisham's first novel, A Time to Kill. The stories were all great...
Friday, January 29, 2010
Girl Stays in the Picture
Girl Stays in the Picture, by Melissa de la Cruz.
She didn't become the most famous sixteen-year-old in the world by playing wallflower. This might be her first-ever visit to the fabled Cote d'Azur, but Devon had been a star since she was in pull-ups. She knew how to play the fame game.
I love de la Cruz's books - I think I've written about her...
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
She's So Money
She's So Money, by Cherry Cheva.
Camden studied me. "That involves us giving each other our locker combinations," he pointed out.
"Yeah, I know," I said.
"Are we ready for that much intimacy?" he asked innocently.
I rolled my eyes as I disentangled myself from the seat belt and got out of his car. "We're hormone-addled teenagers. Aren't we supposed...
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
The Almost Moon
The Almost Moon, by Alice Sebold.
When all is said and done, killing my mother came easily. Dementia, as it descends, has a way of revealing the core of the person affected by it. My mother's core was rotten like the brackish water at the bottom of a weeks-old vase of flowers. She had been beautiful when my father met her and still capable of love...
Friday, January 15, 2010
Match Me If You Can
Match Me If You Can, by Susan Elizabeth Phillips.
Seeing the light shining through the front window filled her with dismay. Maybe he'd left it on as a courtesy. Please don't be waiting up. She absolutely could not face him tonight. Even without watching a dirty movie, she could barely keep her hands off him, but after what she'd just seen ....
Contrary...
Monday, January 11, 2010
The Castaways
The Castaways, by Elin Hilderbrand.
Delilah and the kids waved from the bow of the boat. Jeffrey waved back. Delilah always said that people were predictable, that they could be counted on to act exactly like themselves. She wanted someone standing on the dock waiting for her.
And here he was.
This novel was about three couples - Phoebe &...
Saturday, January 2, 2010
The Van Alen Legacy
First off - Happy New Year!The Van Alen Legacy, by Melissa De La Cruz.The exercise was over. She knew who she was, where she was, and what had happened to her. She was Bliss Llewellyn, she was in the Hamptons, and she was carrying the soul of Lucifer inside her body.That was her story.The next day she would have to remember it all over again.I'm...
