The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank
The Penguin Group ©1999
Book Jacket Summary: Hailed by critics as the debut of a major literary voice, The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing has dazzled and delighted readers and topped bestseller lists nationwide. Generous-hearted ad wickedly insightful, The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing maps the progress of Jane Rosenal as she sets out on a personal and spirited expedition through the perilous terrain of sex, love, and relationships, and the treacherous waters of the workplace. With an unforgettable comic touch, Bank skillfully teases out issues of the heart, puts a new spin on the mating dance, and captures in perfect pitch what it’s like to be a young woman coming of age in America today.
Review: A cute book that would be fun for a book club. It’s an easy read, but there are similar books that are by far, better written. This is not a book I would read again.
Rating: If you want a quick read, enjoy, but don’t add it your “must-read” list.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Light on Snow by Anita Shreve
Light on Snow by Anita Shreve
Back Bay Books ©2004
Book Jacket Summary: What makes a family? That’s what twelve-year-old Nicky Dillon wonders after she and her widowed father discover a wailing abandoned baby in the snow-filled woods near their New Hampshire home. Through the days that follow, the Dillons and the unexpected visitor who soon turns up at their door—a young woman evidently haunted by her own terrible choices—face a thicket of decisions, each seeming to carry equal possibilities of heartbreak or redemption. Writhing with all the emotional resonance that has drawn millions of readers around the world to her fiction, Anita Shreve unfolds in Light on Snow a tender and surprising novel about love and its consequences.
Review: Shreve is a clear writer that creates characters worth caring about. This novel explores a father-daughter relationship in the midst of grief and pent-up emotions. Shreve beautifully weaves past and present in this haunting story of memory, love, and transforming grief into hope.
Rating: A quick read that will linger in your mind for days.
Back Bay Books ©2004
Book Jacket Summary: What makes a family? That’s what twelve-year-old Nicky Dillon wonders after she and her widowed father discover a wailing abandoned baby in the snow-filled woods near their New Hampshire home. Through the days that follow, the Dillons and the unexpected visitor who soon turns up at their door—a young woman evidently haunted by her own terrible choices—face a thicket of decisions, each seeming to carry equal possibilities of heartbreak or redemption. Writhing with all the emotional resonance that has drawn millions of readers around the world to her fiction, Anita Shreve unfolds in Light on Snow a tender and surprising novel about love and its consequences.
Review: Shreve is a clear writer that creates characters worth caring about. This novel explores a father-daughter relationship in the midst of grief and pent-up emotions. Shreve beautifully weaves past and present in this haunting story of memory, love, and transforming grief into hope.
Rating: A quick read that will linger in your mind for days.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger
The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger
Broadway Books ©2003
Book Jacket Summary: Andrea Sachs, a small-town girl fresh out of college, lands the job “a million girls would die for.” Hired as the assistant to Miranda Priestly, the high-profile, fabulously successful editor for Runway magazine, Andrea finds herself in an office that shouts Prada! Armani! Versace! at every turn, a world populated by impossibly thin, heart-wrenchingly stylish pants that show off their lifelong dedication to the gym. With breathtaking ease, Miranda can turn each and every one of these hip sophisticates into a scared, whimpering child.
The Devil Wears Prada gives a rich and hilarious new meaning to plaints about “The Boss from Hell.” Narrated in Andrea’s smart, refreshingly disarming voice, it traces a deep, dark, devilish view of life at the top only hinted at in gossip columns and over Cosmopolitans at the trendiest cocktail parties. From sending the latest, not-yet-in-stores Harry Potter to Miranda’s children in Paris by private jet, to locating an unnamed antiques store where Miranda had at some point admired a vintage dresser; to serving lattes to Miranda at precisely the piping hot temperature she prefers, Andrea is sorely tested each and every day—and often late into the night—with orders barked over the phone. She puts up with it all by keeping her eyes on the prize: a recommendation from Miranda that will get top job at any magazine of her choosing. As things escalate from the merely unacceptable to the downright outrageous, however; Andrea begins to realize that the job a million girls would die for may just kill her. And even if she survives, she has to decide whether or not it’s worth the price of her soul.
Review: This is a fun, easy read. Andrea is a fun character, and Miranda Priestly is so outrageous it is hard not to secretly like her. As a recent college graduate, I completely identified with Andrea and enjoyed vicariously living a “fashionable” life.
Rating: Great read if you’re at the beach or you just want to laugh.
Broadway Books ©2003
Book Jacket Summary: Andrea Sachs, a small-town girl fresh out of college, lands the job “a million girls would die for.” Hired as the assistant to Miranda Priestly, the high-profile, fabulously successful editor for Runway magazine, Andrea finds herself in an office that shouts Prada! Armani! Versace! at every turn, a world populated by impossibly thin, heart-wrenchingly stylish pants that show off their lifelong dedication to the gym. With breathtaking ease, Miranda can turn each and every one of these hip sophisticates into a scared, whimpering child.
The Devil Wears Prada gives a rich and hilarious new meaning to plaints about “The Boss from Hell.” Narrated in Andrea’s smart, refreshingly disarming voice, it traces a deep, dark, devilish view of life at the top only hinted at in gossip columns and over Cosmopolitans at the trendiest cocktail parties. From sending the latest, not-yet-in-stores Harry Potter to Miranda’s children in Paris by private jet, to locating an unnamed antiques store where Miranda had at some point admired a vintage dresser; to serving lattes to Miranda at precisely the piping hot temperature she prefers, Andrea is sorely tested each and every day—and often late into the night—with orders barked over the phone. She puts up with it all by keeping her eyes on the prize: a recommendation from Miranda that will get top job at any magazine of her choosing. As things escalate from the merely unacceptable to the downright outrageous, however; Andrea begins to realize that the job a million girls would die for may just kill her. And even if she survives, she has to decide whether or not it’s worth the price of her soul.
Review: This is a fun, easy read. Andrea is a fun character, and Miranda Priestly is so outrageous it is hard not to secretly like her. As a recent college graduate, I completely identified with Andrea and enjoyed vicariously living a “fashionable” life.
Rating: Great read if you’re at the beach or you just want to laugh.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
Ballantine Books Trade Paperback Edition ©2008 Random House, Inc.
Book Jacket Summary: “I have been standing on the side of life, watching it float by. I want to swim in the river. I want to feel the current.” So writes Mamah Borthwick Cheney in her diary as she struggles to justify her clandestine love affair with Frank Lloyd Wright. Four years earlier, in 1903, Mamah and her husband, Edwin, had commissioned the renowned architect to design a new home for them. During the construction of the house, a powerful attraction between Mamah and Frank, and in time the lovers, each married with children, embarked on a course that would shock Chicago society and forever change their lives.
Review: I bought this book because it was about Frank Lloyd Wright, and my husband is obsessed with him. I had no idea what to expect going into reading it. The book is very well written, and the character of Mamah is endearing. It is an enthralling read right down to the last page.
Rating: Lovers of historical fiction gather round!
Ballantine Books Trade Paperback Edition ©2008 Random House, Inc.
Book Jacket Summary: “I have been standing on the side of life, watching it float by. I want to swim in the river. I want to feel the current.” So writes Mamah Borthwick Cheney in her diary as she struggles to justify her clandestine love affair with Frank Lloyd Wright. Four years earlier, in 1903, Mamah and her husband, Edwin, had commissioned the renowned architect to design a new home for them. During the construction of the house, a powerful attraction between Mamah and Frank, and in time the lovers, each married with children, embarked on a course that would shock Chicago society and forever change their lives.
Review: I bought this book because it was about Frank Lloyd Wright, and my husband is obsessed with him. I had no idea what to expect going into reading it. The book is very well written, and the character of Mamah is endearing. It is an enthralling read right down to the last page.
Rating: Lovers of historical fiction gather round!
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Penguin Group ©2006
Book Jacket Summary: In her early thirties, Elizabeth Gilbert had everything a modern American woman was supposed to want—husband, country home, successful career—but instead of feeling happy and fulfilled, she felt consumed by panic and confusion. This wise and rapturous book is the story of how she left behind all these outward marks of success, and of what she found in their place. Following a divorce and a crushing depression, Gilbert set out to examine three different aspects of her nature, set against the backdrop of three different cultures: pleasure in Italy, devotion in India, and on the Indonesian island of Bali, a balance between worldly enjoyment and divine transcendence.
Review: This was the first book I read with my book club in Rhode Island. The book is broken up into three sections, so we discussed it in about three meetings. My favorite part was her time in Italy. I found some of the other sections a little unbelievable but overall a good story about transitions and finding out who you are at a difficult time of life.
Rating: It’s a great first hand account of living in places I would like to travel to. If only everyone could take a year off from life.
The Penguin Group ©2006
Book Jacket Summary: In her early thirties, Elizabeth Gilbert had everything a modern American woman was supposed to want—husband, country home, successful career—but instead of feeling happy and fulfilled, she felt consumed by panic and confusion. This wise and rapturous book is the story of how she left behind all these outward marks of success, and of what she found in their place. Following a divorce and a crushing depression, Gilbert set out to examine three different aspects of her nature, set against the backdrop of three different cultures: pleasure in Italy, devotion in India, and on the Indonesian island of Bali, a balance between worldly enjoyment and divine transcendence.
Review: This was the first book I read with my book club in Rhode Island. The book is broken up into three sections, so we discussed it in about three meetings. My favorite part was her time in Italy. I found some of the other sections a little unbelievable but overall a good story about transitions and finding out who you are at a difficult time of life.
Rating: It’s a great first hand account of living in places I would like to travel to. If only everyone could take a year off from life.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult
Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult
Washington Square Press ©2000
Book Jacket Summary: The discovery of a dead infant in an Amish barn shakes Lancaster County to its core. But the police investigation leads to a more shocking disclosure: circumstantial evidence suggests that eighteen-year- Katie Fisher, an unmarried Amish woman believed to be the newborn’s mother, took the child’s life. When Ellie Hathaway, a disillusioned big-city attorney, comes to Paradise, Pennsylvania, to defend Katie, two cultures collide—and for the first time in her high-profile career, Ellie faces a system of justice very different from her own. Delving deep inside the world of those who live “plain,” Ellie must find a way to reach Katie on her terms. And as she unravels a tangled murder case, Ellie also looks deep within—to confront her own fears and desires when a man from her past reenters her life.
Review: This is my first Jodi Picoult novel and was given to me by a friend. The opening scene sucked me in, and I was on pins and needles until the last line. The book was well researched and well written. I can't wait to read more Picoult to see if all her novels are just as good. The story was easy enough to follow that I could put the book down for a couple of weeks and come back to it without losing any momentum.
Rating: If you are looking for a gripping story with suspense, read it. You may even learn a thing or two about Amish culture.
Washington Square Press ©2000
Book Jacket Summary: The discovery of a dead infant in an Amish barn shakes Lancaster County to its core. But the police investigation leads to a more shocking disclosure: circumstantial evidence suggests that eighteen-year- Katie Fisher, an unmarried Amish woman believed to be the newborn’s mother, took the child’s life. When Ellie Hathaway, a disillusioned big-city attorney, comes to Paradise, Pennsylvania, to defend Katie, two cultures collide—and for the first time in her high-profile career, Ellie faces a system of justice very different from her own. Delving deep inside the world of those who live “plain,” Ellie must find a way to reach Katie on her terms. And as she unravels a tangled murder case, Ellie also looks deep within—to confront her own fears and desires when a man from her past reenters her life.
Review: This is my first Jodi Picoult novel and was given to me by a friend. The opening scene sucked me in, and I was on pins and needles until the last line. The book was well researched and well written. I can't wait to read more Picoult to see if all her novels are just as good. The story was easy enough to follow that I could put the book down for a couple of weeks and come back to it without losing any momentum.
Rating: If you are looking for a gripping story with suspense, read it. You may even learn a thing or two about Amish culture.
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