Let It Be

3 Comments

Posted on May 17, 2013

by Chad Gayle

published by Bracket Books

2013

Summary

After Michelle Jansen moves to Amarillo to get away from her abusive husband, she struggles to meet the emotional needs of her two children as she continues to rebuff the demands of her overbearing ex. She finds love and support in the arms of a coworker who is as much of a Beatles fan as she is, and she begins to gain the confidence and the strength that she needs to stand on her own, but her ex can’t bear to see her happy, and Michelle is blindsided by an unexpected betrayal as her ex turns her very own son against her. When this family that has already been split down the middle is thrown into chaos, it’s up to Michelle to find a path toward healing and forgiveness, a way to right the wrongs that have hurt them all. (from Goodreads)

My Review

This is the debut novel for Chad Gayle, a photographer and write originally from Texas. Let It Be is a complex story of a woman starting over after leaving her volatile husband. Michelle Jansen moves to Amarillo with her children Pam and Joseph. She is starting over, trying to find a job to support herself and the children, while having to continually push away her estranged husband, who is intent on getting her back. When she finally thinks things are going well- a new job, an interesting man- everything falls apart.

What I really enjoyed about this book was the author’s attempt to tie the story into the music of The Beatles, specifically their last album Let It Be. Each chapter is titled after on of the songs on the album, which I found interesting. The only problem was that I didn’t actually know ALL of the songs, so I just had to wing it for the ones I didn’t know. The author wrote the character of Michelle the strongest. I think she was the character I liked best, since I felt I knew who she was and why she did what she did. Joseph, the son, is also well written and defined, but I could not relate with him as well as I could Michelle. She struggled day after day to make a life for her and the kids, knowing it would be easier to give in and return to her husband-easier and wrong. At the end of the story, I was left with this ache of sadness for her, knowing and understanding too well how we make choices and decisions based on our love for our children.

Mr. Gayle’s debut work was a very enjoyable book that I would definitely recommend.

I received this book from Bracket Books in exchange for an honest review.

rating- 4 out of 5

Cover of Let It Be (1990)

The Family Mansion

1 Comment

Posted on May 15, 2013

The Family Mansion

by Anthony C. Winkler

published by Akaschic Books

2013

I received this book through Library Thing’s Early Reviewer program in exchange for an honest review.

Summary

The Family Mansion tells the story of Hartley Fudges, whose personal destiny unfolds against the backdrop of nineteenth-century British culture, a time when English society was based upon the strictest subordination and stratification of the classes. Hartley’s decision to migrate to Jamaica at the age of twenty-three seems sensible at first: in the early 1800s Jamaica was far and away the richest and most opulent of all the crown colonies. But for all its fabulous wealth, Jamaica was a difficult and inhospitable place for an immigrant.

The complex saga of Hartley’s life is revealed in vivid scenes that depict the vicissitudes of ninteenth-century English and Jamaican societies. Aside from violent slave revolts, newcomers had to survive the nemesis of the white man in the tropics—namely, yellow fever. With Hartley’s point of view as its primary focus, the narrative transports readers to exotic lands, simultaneously exploring the brutality of England’s slavery-based colonization. (from Goodreads)

My Review

We first meet Hartley Fudges, the main character, in England, where he bemoans his bad luck at being the second (and non inheriting) son of a wealthy aristocrat. Since he will not inherit anything from his father due to England’s primogeniture laws, his options for the future are limited-marry for wealth, join the clergy, or head to the colonies to make a living. After some very bad choices, Hartley does head out – to work at a sugar plantation in Jamaica. Once there, he immediately falls ill with Yellow Fever, which he barely survives. After his recuperation, Hartley works as a backra, one of six white men who run the plantation under the manager.

Mr. Winkler has written an amusing, at times satirical novel, while touching on important historical aspects, such as human rights, slavery, and colonization. There were times I felt it was almost too funny, but I never lost interest in the story. I especially enjoyed the way the author described Hartley’s surroundings-

“London in 1805 was a crowded, dirty city exploding with industry and people. The streets were jammed with horse-drawn carriages, and the pedestrians swarming everywhere had the pallor and bustling, scurrying energy of constant motion that might be found in a population of hungry marsupials. Everywhere the eye looked it beheld smokestacks, grimy working men, sidewalk butchers, shrieking hankerers, and peddlers against a backdrop of persistent staccato hoof beats made by overworked horses harnessed to carriages, hackney cabs, and drays.”

I would recommend this book, especially to those who enjoy historical fiction. I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more from this author.

Rating- 4 out of 5

Anthony C. Winkler was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1942 and is widely recognized as one of the island’s finest exports. His novels includeThe Lunatic (1987; adapted into a feature film), The Duppy (1997), Dog War (2007), and God Carlos (2012). He lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Z- A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald

6 Comments

Posted on May 11, 2013

Z- A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald

by Therese Anne Fowler

published by St. Martin’s Press

2013

Summary

When beautiful, reckless Southern belle Zelda Sayre meets F. Scott Fitzgerald at a country club dance in 1918, she is seventeen years old and he is a young army lieutenant stationed in Alabama. Before long, the “ungettable” Zelda has fallen for him despite his unsuitability: Scott isn’t wealthy or prominent or even a Southerner, and keeps insisting, absurdly, that his writing will bring him both fortune and fame. Her father is deeply unimpressed. But after Scott sells his first novel, This Side of Paradise, to Scribner’s, Zelda optimistically boards a train north, to marry him in the vestry of St. Patrick’s Cathedral and take the rest as it comes.

What comes, here at the dawn of the Jazz Age, is unimagined attention and success and celebrity that will make Scott and Zelda legends in their own time. Everyone wants to meet the dashing young author of the scandalous novel—and his witty, perhaps even more scandalous wife. Zelda bobs her hair, adopts daring new fashions, and revels in this wild new world. Each place they go becomes a playground: New York City, Long Island, Hollywood, Paris, and the French Riviera—where they join the endless party of the glamorous, sometimes doomed Lost Generation that includes Ernest Hemingway, Sara and Gerald Murphy, and Gertrude Stein.

Everything seems new and possible. Troubles, at first, seem to fade like morning mist. But not even Jay Gatsby’s parties go on forever. Who isZelda, other than the wife of a famous—sometimes infamous—husband? How can she forge her own identity while fighting her demons and Scott’s, too? With brilliant insight and imagination, Therese Anne Fowler brings us Zelda’s irresistible story as she herself might have told it. (from Goodreads)

My Review

The “Roaring 20’s” is seriously one of my favorite topics to read about. I did my senior thesis on this time period for my degree in History. The marriage of F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda has always fascinated me. This book attempts to give us an insight into one of the most misunderstood women of the era. Zelda, while a very talented woman in her right, lived under the shadow of her famous husband.

The author begins the story in Zelda’s hometown of Montgomery, Alabama. Zelda, just 18, is a southern bell with a fiery streak. She meets Scott while he is stationed nearby, waiting to ship out and fight in W.W.I. Written in Zelda’s voice, we follow this volatile couple through their courtship, wedding, and the ensuing years. Though they are viewed as the golden couple of the Jazz Age, trouble becomes apparent. Their drinking is excessive and spending lavish. Scott lashes out at Zelda, then pulls her closer. Eventually, their relationship begins to deteriorate, but they cannot live without each other.

Ever since reading Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast, I have been fascinated with the character of Zelda Fitzgerald. She came across in some history as the original flapper, Scott’s muse and his downfall. Hemingway clearly despised her, despite being the consummate ladies man himself. Fowler’s novel attempt to give a voice to Zelda, to show that she was not who she had been made out to be. Her portrayal of this talented, misunderstood woman, was well written and engaging. The author clearly did an amazing amount of research into the times and lives of the “Lost Generation”. I would definitely recommend this book.

“SO WE BEAT ON,
BOATS AGAINST THE CURRENT,
BORNE BACK CEASELESSLY INTO THE PAST”

-last line of The Great Gatsby, inscribed on the Fitzgeralds’ headstone

rating- 4 out of 5

Self-portrait, watercolor, probably painted in the early 1940s (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Best of Us

4 Comments

Posted on May 5, 2013

The Best of Us

by Sarah Pekkanen

published by Washington Square Press

2013

Summary

Following a once-in-a-lifetime invitation, a group of old college friends leap at the chance to bring their husbands for a week’s vacation at a private villa in Jamaica to celebrate a former classmates’ thirty-fifth birthday.
All four women are desperate for a break and this seems like a perfect opportunity. Tina is drowning under the demands of mothering four young children. Allie needs to escape from the shattering news about an illness that runs in her family. Savannah is carrying the secret of her husband’s infidelity. And, finally, there’s Pauline, who spares no expense to throw her husband an unforgettable birthday celebration, hoping it will gloss over the cracks that have already formed in their new marriage.
The week begins idyllically, filled with languorous days and late nights of drinking and laughter. But as a hurricane approaches the island, turmoil builds, forcing each woman to re-evaluate everything she’s known about the others—and herself. (from Goodreads)

My Review

This was a really fun book to read. Just the idea of an all expense paid vacation to a beautiful villa in Jamaica was enough to hook me! The characters of Allie, Tina, Savannah, and Pauline were so written so well, you really felt you knew these women personally. The friends get together, relive old times, retell old stories, and generally let their hair down and escape their everyday lives-no work, kids, etc to worry about. Old hurts and feelings resurface, and by the middle of the week, these adults all start acting like they are kids again. Looking back, I am reminded a little of the movie “The Big Chill”, though these characters are celebrating a birthday, not mourning a dead friend.

All in all, a good book-a quick and fun read-I would definitely recommend reading it-and I will keep an eye out for Sarah Pekkanen’s other works!

rating- 4 out of 5

Review- A Dual Inheritance

3 Comments

Posted on May 2, 2013

A Dual Inheritance

by Joanna Hershon

published by Ballantine Books

2013

Summary

For readers of Rules of Civility and The Marriage Plot, this engrossing, very smart novel about passion, betrayal, class and friendship delves deeply into the lives of two generations, against backgrounds as diverse as Dar es Salaam, Boston, Shenzhen and Fisher’s Island. It is the most accomplished book-by far-of this prominent young author’s career.

Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1963: two students meet one autumn evening during their senior year at Harvard-Ed, a Jewish kid on scholarship, and Hugh, a Boston Brahmin with the world at his feet. Ed is unapologetically ambitious and girl-crazy, while Hugh is ambivalent about everything aside from his dedicated pining for the one girl he’s ever loved. An immediate, intense friendship is sparked that night between these two opposites, which ends just as abruptly, several years later, although only one of them understands why. A Dual Inheritance follows the lives of Ed and Hugh for next several decades, as their paths-in spite of their rift, in spite of their wildly different social classes, personalities and choices-remain strangely and compellingly connected.

My Review

This is the first book I have received as part of the Early Reviewers program at Library Thing in return for a fair and honest review. When I read the synopsis, I was so excited to start it.

The story follows the lives of two men from very different backgrounds who become improbable friends at Harvard in the 1960s. Hugh is from a wealthy, WASP, well known family and Ed is a poor Jewish boy from from Dorchester. These two become best friends in their senior year, and are joined by Hugh’s girlfriend Helen to become an inseparable threesome. I really enjoyed the first half of this book, especially the descriptions of Harvard, and the beach house on Fishers Island. As the characters left college and moved on with their lives, the tone of the story seemed to change. I felt the main characters were becoming desperate and very depressing. It wasn’t until the later part of the book, where the Hugh’s and Ed’s daughter meet in boarding school and become best friends, that I regained interest.
I though Joanna Hershon’s writing was very good, and did enjoy reading it, but not as much as I had hoped.

rating- 3 out of 5

The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat

3 Comments

Posted on April 26, 2013

The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat

by Edward Kelsey Moore

published by Alfred A. Knopf

2013

Summary

Meet Odette, Clarice, and Barbara Jean. . .

Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat is home away from home for this inseparable Plainview, Indiana, trio. Dubbed “the Supremes” by high school pals in the tumultuous 1960s, they weather life’s storms together for the next four decades. Now, during their most challenging year yet, dutiful, proud, and talented Clarice must struggle to keep up appearances as she deals with her husband’s humiliating infidelities. Beautiful, fragile Barbara Jean is rocked by the tragic reverberations of a youthful love affair. And fearless Odette engages in the most terrifying battle of her life while contending with the idea that she has inherited more than her broad frame from her notorious pot-smoking mother, Dora.

Through marriage, children, happiness, and the blues, these strong, funny women gather each Sunday at the same table at Earl’s diner for delicious food, juicy gossip, occasional tears, and uproarious banter.

With wit and love, style and sublime talent, Edward Kelsey Moore brings together four intertwined love stories, three devoted allies, and two sprightly earthbound spirits in a big-hearted debut novel that embraces the lives of people you will never forget. (from Goodreads)

My Review

I absolutely loved this book! I had heard a little about it-all good things- and decided I had to read it. The story begins with three middle age friend-Odette, Clarice, and BarbaraJean, along with their husbands, meeting at Earls for their weekly lunch after church services. We are brought right into their lives, and taken back in time to the beginnings of their friendship-and marriages.

I blew through this book much too fast-I wanted it to go on much longer!! The writing was wonderful- thoughtful and funny- and I felt like I really got to know and love these women and their men.I couldn’t pick a favorite part, but one that I really liked was when, at 16 years old, Clarice and Odette go pick up Barbara Jean for a fun Saturday night out, only to find her long absent (abusive) stepfather has returned. When he tries to tell them the Barbara Jean will be staying with him (all creepy things implied), Clarice gets scared by his menacing and turns to leave, but not Odette-she stood up to him and insisted that Barbara Jean was leaving with them. When he grabs Barbara Jean’s arm and twists it, Odette has had enough.

“A few feet away from Clarice, Odette stopped, yanked the wig from her head, and tossed it to her. ….’Clarice, unzip me.’

When Clarice didn’t say or do anything as Odette had told her, she said it again. ‘Unzip me. I spent too much time making this dress to get this asshole’s blood all over it.’

She fixed her eyes on Vondell and said ‘ You’re right about me. I am the girl born in a tree. And you’re right about my father. He’s not a cop. But he was the 1947 welterweight Golden Glove champion. And from the time I was a little girl my boxer daddy has been teaching me how to deal with dumb-ass men who want me to be afraid. So let me thank you now, while you are still conscious, for giving me the opportunity to demonstrate some of the special shit my daddy taught me to use on occasions like this.

‘Now Clarice, unzip me so I can take care of this big bag of stink and ignorance, once and for all.’

You will have to read it to find out what happens-

I strongly recommend this book- and would love to hear how you like it!

rating 4.5 out of 5

About the Author

Edward Kelsey Moore is a professional cellist and author from Chicago. During his high school years, and onward into college, Edward Kelsey Moore experimented with writing short stories. As he finished his education he set writing aside and focused on building a career in music. Many years later, as a member of a string quartet, Edward was hired to perform at a reception for the winners of a local writing contest. As he played background music Edward considered: “I could have sent in a story…” It was an inspiring event and within a few weeks Edward Kelsey Moore began writing again. His short fiction has been published in many literary magazines including: Indiana Review, African American Review, and Inkwell. His short story Grandma and the Elusive Fifth Crucifix was selected as an audience favorite from the Stories on Stage series produced by WBEZ in Chicago. It was broadcast locally, and over National Public Radio. The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat is Edward Kelsey Moore’s debut novel

http://www.edwardkelseymoore.com/

The Orchardist

7 Comments

Posted on April 17, 2013

The Orchardist

by Amanda Coplin

published by Harper Collins

2012

Summary

“You belong to the earth, and the earth is hard.”

At the turn of the twentieth century, in a rural stretch of the Pacific Northwest in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, a solitary orchardist named Talmadge carefully tends the grove of fruit trees he has cultivated for nearly half a century. A gentle, solitary man, he finds solace and purpose in the sweetness of the apples, apricots, and plums he grows, and in the quiet, beating heart of the land-the valley of yellow grass bordering a deep canyon that has been his home since he was nine years old. Everything he is and has known is tied to this patch of earth. It is where his widowed mother is buried, taken by illness when he was just thirteen, and where his only companion, his beloved teenaged sister Elsbeth, mysteriously disappeared. It is where the horse wranglers-native men, mostly Nez Perce-pass through each spring with their wild herds, setting up camp in the flowering meadows between the trees.

One day, while in town to sell his fruit at the market, two girls, barefoot and dirty, steal some apples. Later, they appear on his homestead, cautious yet curious about the man who gave them no chase. Feral, scared, and very pregnant, Jane and her sister Della take up on Talmadage’s land and indulge in his deep reservoir of compassion. Yet just as the girls begin to trust him, brutal men with guns arrive in the orchard, and the shattering tragedy that follows sets Talmadge on an irrevocable course not only to save and protect them, putting himself between the girls and the world, but to reconcile the ghosts of his own troubled past.

Writing with breathtaking precision and empathy, Amanda Coplin has crafted an astonishing debut novel about a man who disrupts the lonely harmony of an ordered life when he opens his heart and lets the world in. Transcribing America as it once was before railways and roads connected its corners, she weaves a tapestry of solitary souls who come together in the wake of unspeakable cruelty and misfortune, bound by their search to discover the place they belong. At once intimate and epic, evocative and atmospheric, filled with haunting characters both vivid and true to life, and told in a distinctive narrative voice, The Orchardist marks the beginning of a stellar literary career. (from Goodreads)

“And that was the point of children, thought Caroline Meddey: to bind us to the earth and to the present, to distract us from death.”
― Amanda Coplin, The Orchardist

My Review

This book was wonderful! Once I started reading it, I was completely drawn into the world of William Talmadge, who finds safety and peace in his solitary existence. He tends his orchard alone, with vey little social interaction. He is a simple and very honorable man, and when he finds two pregnant girls hiding in his orchard, he takes them in. Shelter is a big theme in this book , for Talmadge as well as the girls, Jane and Della. The author takes you slowly through her story, especially the beginning. Descriptions of the orchard, of Talmadge’s solitude, and the unraveling of the ordeal the two girls lived through, were mesmerizing. The story grows in intensity and consequences as it progresses. The beginning of the story was especially compelling and I loved the author’s poetic descriptions of the wild, early 20th century Pacific Northwest, as well as the historic details of the period. I would definitely recommend this book- let me know how you liked it!

Rating

4- out of 5

Moon Over Edisto

3 Comments

Posted on April 5, 2013

Moon Over Edisto

by Beth Webb Hart

published by Thomas Nelson

20113

Edisto Island was where it all came apart. Can the Bennett girls ever be whole again?

Once, they were the happiest family under the sun, crabbing and fishing and painting on beautiful Edisto Island in South Carolina’s lowcountry.

Then everything went wrong, and twenty years later the Bennett family is still in pieces. Mary Ellen still struggles to understand why her picture-perfect marriage came apart. Daughter Meg keeps a death grip on her own family, controlling her relationships at a distance. And eldest daughter, Julia, left it all behind years ago, forging a whole new life as an artist and academic in Manhattan. She’s engaged to an art dealer and has no intentions of returning to Edisto. Ever.

Then an emergency forces Julia back to Edisto to care for her three young half-siblings. She grudgingly agrees to stay a week. But there’s something about Edisto that changes people. Can Julia and her fractured family somehow manage to come together again under that low-hanging Edisto moon?

“A rich, endearing, can’t-stop-reading book about what matters most, the power of love to transform the human heart.” –Dorothea Benton Frank, “New York Times “best-selling author, “Porch Lights”

(from Goodreads)

My Review

First, let me say I LOVE reading books about the South, especially South Carolina. I have family that live right outside of Charleston, and I have been visiting there almost yearly for most of my life. When I read a book set in Charleston, I get an extra thrill, because I know those streets, store, restaurants, etc. I also know the outlying islands, including Edisto. The author does a great job bringing the area to life. The story, of betrayal and forgiveness, works very well in the southern setting.

Julia’s best friend Marney broke up her parents’ marriage in their senior year of college. Almost twenty years later, Julia is enjoying s successful career in art and teaching, and has just gotten engaged. Marney shows up at her door. Now a widow and the mother to Julia’s three half siblings, she has lung cancer. She needs surgery, and there is no one to care for the children during her recovery. She asks Julia to return to Edisto to help her.

The story is told from the points of view of different characters- Julia, her mom MaryEllen, her sister Meg, Jed-doctor and neighbor, and Etta, her nine year old half sister.The characters develop quickly and I became immersed in each of their stories, especially MaryEllen. She is still hurt by the collapse of her marriage and confused as to why both her daughters keep her at a distance.

I thought this was well written and moved quickly.

I received a copy of this book as part of a random give away through Goodreads.

Rating 3.5 out of 5

Sunrise at Edisto Beach SC (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow- the She Reads March Book Club Selection

3 Comments

Posted on March 22, 2013

The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow

by Rita Leganski

published by Harper Books

2012

A magical debut novel from Rita Leganski, The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow is the tale of a mute boy whose gift of wondrous hearing reveals family secrets and forgotten voodoo lore, and exposes a murder that threatens the souls of those who love him.

Bonaventure Arrow didn’t make a peep when he was born, and the doctor nearly took him for dead. But he was listening, placing sound inside quiet and gaining his bearings. By the time he turns five, he can hear flowers grow, a thousand shades of blue, and the miniature tempests that rage inside raindrops. He also hears the voice of his dead father, William Arrow, mysteriously murdered by a man known only as the Wanderer.

Exploring family relics, he opens doors to the past and finds the key to a web of secrets that both hold his family together, and threaten to tear them apart.

Set against the backdrop of 1950s New Orleans, The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow is a magical story about the lost art of listening and a wondrous little boy who brings healing to the souls of all who love him.

(from She Reads)

My Review

I read this book as part of the She Reads book club. I was excited to read a book I hadn’t picked myself, but also a little nervous- the story seemed a little different. I was floored by Rita Leganski’s debut novel. From the very first page, I couldn’t put the book down.Newly born Bonaventure arrow is doesn’t make a sound, even though he is frightened by the sudden change in his environment. Instead, he listens. He hears strange and different sounds, and then the heartbeat of his mother. So begins the extraordinary life of Bonaventure, who doesn’t speak, but can hear everything, including his dead father, who speaks to him, and guides him along his life. Bonaventure hears EVERYTHING- grass growing, clouds, sunshine. He can also hear secrets. Along with his father, and healer Trinidad Prefontaine, Bonaventure helps his family heal from old hurts and secrets.

The backdrop of magical New Orleans, along with voodoo and the mystical, really pulled me in. I love stories of New Orleans and the surrounding area. Rita Leganski did an wonderful job, not only of describing the place, but also the fell of this wonderful city. The author also has an amazing way of describing the things Bonaventure hears-

“Within a year, Bonaventure Arrow could hear the flowers grow, a thousand shades of blue, and the miniature tempests that rage inside raindrops.”

I am usually a fast reader, but found myself deliberately going slow with this book, to appreciate the wonderful way with words the author had. Bonaventure isn’t the only one described so well. His Grandmother Roman, a hypocrite with only her own well being in mind, is a source of tension throughout the story. “Adelaide Roman was certain of her soul’s perfection, and so felt comfortable pointing out the iniquities committed by others. To that end, she brought religion with her wherever she went, including her job at the United Staes Post Office.”

Altogether, this is a wonderful story about hope, magic, love, and forgiveness. This would make a great selection for a book club. You can read more reviews of this book at-

http://www.shereads.org/2013/03/march-book-club-selection-3/

Rating-

5 out of 5

(can I do 5 1/2???)