Hello From the Gillespies- a review

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Posted on November 7, 2014

Hello From the Gillespies

by Monica McInerney

published by NAL Trade

2014

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

My Review

Something is wrong with the Gillespie family. Life is not as great as it always seems from the yearly Christmas letter Angela sends about her, her husband Nick, and their four children. Angela is experiencing painful headaches, and suspects Nick is having an affair. Twins Genevieve and Victoria, along with younger sister Lindy have seen their personal and professional lives spiral out of control and are on the way home for the holidays to lick their wounds. Youngest Ignatius has run away from boarding school for a third time. AND Aunt Celia is coming to stay. With all this piling up on her, Angela finds it hard to summon a cheerful image for her letter. So, she tells the truth, and then has to deal with the fallout.

I liked the first third of this book, felt the second third was in danger of becoming too cliche, and then got wrapped up in the ending. This book really surprised me. I love dysfunctional families and this story started pretty strongly with the implosion of the Gillespie family. When it seemed things were going a little off, the author offers up a surprise that saves it from being a little boring, and has it become unputdownable. I really enjoyed this. I felt I was in a weird Australian groove, reading this and listening to Burial Rites, written by Australian Hannah Kent, and then The Rosie Effect, where both main characters are Aussies. I loved the description of the outback, the sheep station, and life on it. A great-and quick-read!

Summary

For the past thirty-three years, Angela Gillespie has sent to friends and family around the world an end-of-the-year letter titled “Hello from the Gillespies.” It’s always been cheery and full of good news. This year, Angela surprises herself—she tells the truth….

The Gillespies are far from the perfect family that Angela has made them out to be. Her husband is coping badly with retirement. Her thirty-two-year-old twins are having career meltdowns. Her third daughter, badly in debt, can’t stop crying. And her ten-year-old son spends more time talking to his imaginary friend than to real ones.

Without Angela, the family would fall apart. But when a bump on the head leaves Angela with temporary amnesia, the Gillespies pull together—and pull themselves together—in wonderfully surprising ways….

More about the author
Www.facebook.com/monicamcinerneyauthor

Monica McInerney is the internationally bestselling author of eleven novels including Hello from the Gillespies, The House of Memories, Lola’s Secret, At Home with the Templetons, Family Baggage, The Alphabet Sisters and Those Faraday Girls (which was named the General Fiction Book of the Year in the 2008 Australian Book Industry Awards.)

Monica, 49, grew up in a family of seven children in the Clare Valley wine region of South Australia, where her father was the railway stationmaster and her mother worked in the local library. Before becoming a full-time writer she worked in children’s television, tourism festivals, book publishing, arts marketing, the music industry and as a waitress, a hotel cleaner, a Kindergym instructor and a temp. For the past twenty-three years she and her Irish husband have been moving back and forth between Australia and Ireland. They currently live in Dublin.

First Impressions by Charlie Lovett- a review

The Children Act by Ian McEwan

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Posted on September 5, 2014

The Children Act

by Ian McEwan

published by Nan A. Talese

2014

I received this book from the publisher through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

My Review

I am not sure why I wanted to read this book, other than the subject really interested me. I have strange feelings toward the author. I respect his talent immensely, but can not help but feel very bad after I read a book by him. Atonement, maybe his best known novel, is wonderfully written, but I can’t say I enjoyed it. I think I feel the same about this book. The part of the book that deals with law is fascinating, as is the main character Fiona, when she is dealing with a case, or thinking on others. It is her personal life that is a mess, and just gets messier. As the story unfolds, I cheer Fiona along. I sort of wish she would go all crazy on her idiot husband when he asks for an open marriage, but totally credit her for not breaking down and being all weepy- why cry your eyes out for a total jerk. I loved the case of the 17 year old Jehovah’s Witness, who is choosing to follow his religion rather than accept a blood transfusion that will save his life. As Fiona delves into the law behind this case- The Children Act- we see not only her intelligence, but also her humanity. Unfortunately, Mr. McEwan doesn’t like to wrap thing up in nice little packages, but prefers to show the harsh realities of life. Even the best characters have flaws, and they always come out. I would definitely recommend this book. It is a very well written story that left me feeling sad.

Summary

Fiona Maye is a High Court judge in London presiding over cases in family court. She is fiercely intelligent, well respected, and deeply immersed in the nuances of her particular field of law. Often the outcome of a case seems simple from the outside, the course of action to ensure a child’s welfare obvious. But the law requires more rigor than mere pragmatism, and Fiona is expert in considering the sensitivities of culture and religion when handing down her verdicts.
But Fiona’s professional success belies domestic strife. Her husband, Jack, asks her to consider an open marriage and, after an argument, moves out of their house. His departure leaves her adrift, wondering whether it was not love she had lost so much as a modern form of respectability; whether it was not contempt and ostracism she really fears. She decides to throw herself into her work, especially a complex case involving a seventeen-year-old boy whose parents will not permit a lifesaving blood transfusion because it conflicts with their beliefs as Jehovah’s Witnesses. But Jack doesn’t leave her thoughts, and the pressure to resolve the case—as well as her crumbling marriage—tests Fiona in ways that will keep readers thoroughly enthralled until the last stunning page.

The Tumble Inn- a review

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Posted on August 18, 2014

The Tumble Inn

by William Loizeaux

published by Syracuse University Press

2014

I received this book from the publisher through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

My Review

I admit it- I chose this book TOTALLY based on the cover. Look at it- so peaceful, adirondack chair right on the lake, a little sepia tone. The summary intrigued me too- pretty much turning in your boring life to do something so different and challenging- so exciting. I loved journeying through the first few years at the Tumble Inn with Mark and Fran. This was the fasted and lightest part of the book. When their child, Nat, becomes a teenager, the story slows down and becomes a little deeper. Then tragedy strikes this small family and the pain and sadness seeps through to the reader. I finished this book quickly, as the story moves fast at first, and the writing is very smooth. Though not exactly what I was expecting- something a little lighter, like an early Tom Hanks movie?-I would definitely recommend this. Have you read this book? What were your thoughts?

Summary

Tired of their high school teaching jobs and discouraged by their failed attempts at conceiving a child, Mark and Fran Finley decide they need a change in their lives. Abruptly, they leave their friends and family in suburban New Jersey to begin anew as innkeepers on a secluded lake in the Adirondack Mountains. There they muddle through their first season at the inn, serving barely edible dinners to guests, stranding themselves in chest-deep snowdrifts, and somehow, miraculously, amid swarms of ravenous black flies, conceiving a child, a girl they name Nat. Years later, when Mark and Fran are nearing middle age and Nat is a troubled teenager, Mark’s life is ripped apart, forever changed, and he must choose between returning to his old home in New Jersey or trying to rebuild what is left of his life and family in the place of his greatest joy and deepest sorrow.

The Tumble Inn is a moving drama about home and about the fragility and resilience of love

The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell

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Posted on August 8, 2014

The House We Grew Up In

by Lisa Jewell

published by Atria Books

2014

I received this book from the publisher through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

My Review

This is the story of the Bird family that live in a beautiful cottage in Cotswolds- Lorelei and Colin, and their four children. We begin on Easter Sunday, 1981 and when life seemed perfect and the following 30 years. The story is told in flashbacks from the perspectives of different characters and always at the heart is tragic Lorelei. Death, trauma, and mental illness plague the family and the different relationships that make it up are show to the reader in glaring honesty.

When I started reading this book, I thought it would be like many others I have come across- odd family, tragedy, and growth- but it was SO much more. Lisa Jewell has woven a fascinating story here and I didn’t want it to end. This is definitely a book to read.

Summary

Meet the Bird family. They live in a honey-colored house in a picture-perfect Cotswolds village, with rambling, unkempt gardens stretching beyond. Pragmatic Meg, dreamy Beth, and tow-headed twins Rory and Rhys all attend the village school and eat home-cooked meals together every night. Their father is a sweet gangly man named Colin, who still looks like a teenager with floppy hair and owlish, round-framed glasses. Their mother is a beautiful hippy named Lorelei, who exists entirely in the moment. And she makes every moment sparkle in her children’s lives.

Then one Easter weekend, tragedy comes to call. The event is so devastating that, almost imperceptibly, it begins to tear the family apart. Years pass as the children become adults, find new relationships, and develop their own separate lives. Soon it seems as though they’ve never been a family at all. But then something happens that calls them back to the house they grew up in — and to what really happened that Easter weekend so many years ago.

Told in gorgeous, insightful prose that delves deeply into the hearts and minds of its characters, The House We Grew Up In is the captivating story of one family’s desire to restore long-forgotten peace and to unearth the many secrets hidden within the nooks and crannies of home

The Girls of August by Anne Rivers Siddons

5 Comments

Posted on July 30, 2014

The Girls of August

by Anne Rivers Siddons

published by Grand Central Publishing

2014

I received this book from the publisher through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

My Review

This was a fun, very quick read (2 days max). I enjoy the flow of Siddons’ writing and usually like the work itself quite a bit, but I felt like this book was missing something. It takes place on a small Gullah island off of Charleston, SC. Three women who became friends years before when their husbands were in medical school together used to vacation every August together, but stopped a few years earlier after the sudden death of their fourth friend. They are now taking another vacation, with the new wife of their late friend’s husband, a 23 year old whom they all hate. Each of these women are struggling with their own personal demons. I liked the premise, but it seemed strange to me why these women would spend two whole weeks with a young girl they really dislike, and were pretty mean to. I almost wish the author would have given us the first half of these women’s story- how they met, their early friendship, and their yearly reunions. This was enjoyable, but it definitely left me wanting more from the story.

Summary

Every August, four women would gather together to spend a week at the beach, renting a new house each year. The ritual began when they were in their twenties and their husbands were in medical school, and became a mainstay of every summer thereafter. Their only criteria was oceanfront and isolation, their only desire to strengthen their far-flung friendships. They called themselves the Girls of August. But when one of the Girls dies tragically, the group slowly drifts apart and their vacations together are brought to a halt. Years later, a new marriage reunites them and they decide to come together once again on a remote barrier island off the South Carolina coast. There, far from civilization, the women make startling discoveries that will change them in ways they never expected.

About the Author

Born Sybil Anne Rivers in Atlanta, Georgia, she was raised in Fairburn, Georgia, and attended Auburn University, where she was a member of the Delta Delta Delta Sorority.
While at Auburn she wrote a column for the student newspaper, The Auburn Plainsman, that favored integration. The university administration attempted to suppress the column, and ultimately fired her, and the column garnered national attention. She later became a senior editor for Atlanta magazine. At the age of thirty she married Heyward Siddons, and she and her husband now live in Charleston, South Carolina, and spend summers in Maine.

The Art of Arranging Flowers

What Nora Knew- a review

2 Comments

Posted on March 10, 2014

What Nora Knew

by Linda Yellin

published by Gallery Books

2014

Summary

Molly Hallberg is a thirty-nine-year-old divorced writer living in New York City who wants her own column, a Wikipedia entry, and to never end up in her family’s Long Island upholstery business. For the past four years Molly bass been on staff for an online magazine, covering all the wacky assignments. She hass snuck vibrators through security scanners, speed-dated undercover, danced with the Rockettes, and posed nude for a Soho art studio.

Fearless in everything except love, Molly is now dating a forty-four-year old chiropractor. He is comfortable, but safe. When Molly is assigned to write a piece about New York City romance in the style of Nora Ephron, she flunks out big-time. She can’t recognize romance. And she can’t recognize the one man who can go one-on-one with her, the one man who gets her. But with wit, charm, whip-smart humor, and Nora Ephron’s romantic comedies, Molly learns to open her heart and suppress her cynicism in this bright, achingly funny novel. (from Goodreads)

My Review

This was a fun book, much like a few I have read over the past few years. Slightly older woman, once burned in love, looking for Mr. Right in all the wrong places, while “the one” has been right in front of her the whole time. For me it actually harkens back to Emma by Jane Austen, except the main character here is not nearly as self assured as Emma was. This was a fun read, and I likes that Molly would try all these crazy things, yet always return to her nice normal family in Long Island. How can she not see what true love is, when she grew up looking at it all day? I love her parents’ relationship! I also liked going over Nora Ephron’s love life and how she correlated her struggles into wonderful movies. I would recommend this book as a fun, quick read. It was well written and had many enjoyable characters.

My Rating

4 out of 5