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I just finished Corner Shop by Roopa Farooki - what a good book!  And well timed considering where I am in life at the moment.  Oscar Wilde once wrote, “In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.”   The story is about a family - a mother, father, son, and grandfather - and how that Wilde quote applied to their lives.

In the first half of the book, we meet the son, Lucky.  He dreams of playing soccer for England in the World Cup and scoring an important goal.  He works towards that goal with great intensity, practicing all the time.  He’s also slightly obsessed with Portia, a slightly older, gorgeous girl who works in his grandfather’s shop.  It seems as though his dreams with regard to soccer will be dashed when his teammate drops out of the team, forcing Lucky to take up the position of goalie rather than midfield.

We also meet his mom, Delphine.  She’s a sad character - to all the world, it seems as though she has a picture perfect life.  She has a successful husband who adores her, a well-mannered son with great potential, and a beautiful home.  She herself even had a successful career before she gave it all up for motherhood.  Though her husband’s always been perfect for her on paper, he has irritating habits, and she’s never really felt as though she cared for him as much as he cares for her.  She longs for something more.

Zaki, Lucky’s grandfather, appears to be fairly content to start.  He has a successful son, a grandkid he really enjoys, a corner shop he can close up whenever he feels like it to go gamble, and plenty of younger women with whom he can run around.  Both he and Delphine begin to think about their past - when they were together long before Delphine became involved with her husband.  Zaki and Delphine enjoyed a brief, passionate romance, and they both long for that sort of passion in their lives again.

It’s a story about dreams - both those fulfilled and unfulfilled.  It’s a bit sad, and, I have to admit, I did not get as involved with the characters as I do in some other books.  It is the overarching theme that makes it worth the time - if you don’t get your heart’s desire, do something about it; change something so that you’ll have another chance, and you may yet find it.  If you do get your heart’s desire, don’t allow that to make you too content.  It’s so very important to have goals in life and to work towards achieving those goals.  You have to make sure that your life is always about beginnings, not endings.

I’d give it 3.5/5 stars.

I just finished reading A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg, and I have to share it with you. Molly is the lovely blogger behind one of my favorite food blogs, Orangette. (Side note: I have a lot of favorite food blogs and also have a penchant for hyperbole, so you’ll likely be hearing more from me about the millions of BEST food blogs ever)

In this nonfiction book, Molly recounts the story of her life, interwoven with tales of food. Each short chapter ends with a recipe that somehow relates to the story she just shared.  She brings the reader on a journey through her childhood with her beloved father, who was her foodie inspiration, through growing up, the death of her father, her time living in Paris, and falling in love.

Molly is so endearing and approachable, I just want to give her a hug and be her friend (not necessarily in that order). Of course, I’m a foodie, so I loved that her life has been so infused with food, and I found myself inspired by the way cooking comes so naturally to her.  I also love that she gives a context for each recipe she shares. It makes me much more inclined to try something I otherwise might not have, knowing that there is a touching personal story behind it.  This was a lighthearted, easy read, and I highly recommend it to anyone, even if you’re not a culinary type.

In case I haven’t convinced you, I’m taking a hint from PJ and including the official blurb via Amazon:

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Wizenberg’s debut shares the same basic format as her Orangette blog—favorite recipes interspersed with personal reflection—but constructed around a much tighter family narrative. Memories of her father, for example, begin with his cherished formula for potato salad and an attempt to recreate his French toast, but also include a variation on scrambled eggs that spurred a comforting moment as he was dying of cancer. The second half of the memoir focuses on her blossoming relationship with Brandon, who started out as a fan of the blog, became a long-distance boyfriend and eventually moved to Seattle and married her—of course, she shares the recipes for the pickled carrots they served at the wedding as well as the chocolate cake she baked for dessert. Though there is an emphasis on desserts, the recipes cover a variety of meals, none beyond the range of an ordinary cook, and Wizenberg’s directions are laced with a charming voice that strikes a neat balance with the reflective passages. Her strong personality stands out among her generation’s culinary voices.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

When Feisty twittered about the House of Night series, I knew I had to grab the first one and check it out.  And I must admit, it’s pretty awesome.  Picture Harry Potter only slightly more grown-up and with vampires.

The Premise:  The book is set in present day Oklahoma, only in a reality where vampires exist.  You become a vampire not by being bitten, but by being chosen, or “marked”.  Zoey, a high-school student, is marked by the vampires and therefore is sent to the vampire school, the House of Night.  Hogwarts for vampires, if you will.

The first book in the series centers on Zoey finding her special vampire talents and meeting her new friends at the House of Night.  Zoey is a special fledgling vampire, who is going through the change far more quickly than her classmates, and who has attracted the attention of Erik, an upperclassman hottie.  That, in addition to her very unique talents, quickly make her the leader within her group of friends and also immediately earn her an adversary in Aphrodite, the leader of the ‘popular kids’.

My vote?  Read and love, as I did.  I can’t wait to read the rest of the series!

I am a sucker for “young adult” series such as Harry Potter, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and Twilight, so when I saw the Pretty Little Liars books I had to pick them up and check them out (er, voraciously complete them).

Premise: Junior High group of friends in affluent suburban Pennsylvania is traumatized when their leader, Alison, goes missing at a sleepover.  Fast forward to high school and someone calling themselves ’A’ who knows all of the group’s secrets AND what happened to Alison, begins stalking said group of friends.

I admit it, I’m addicted.  Sara Shepard does a fantastic job of building up each of the characters with a) motive, b) likability, and c) secrets and flaws.  The story is written in present-day, but flashbacks to times with Alison give hints into her disappearance and the circumstances that led up to it. 

Is Alison ‘A’?  Could she have been alive this whole time?  And if Alison isn’t ‘A’, how does A know all of their secrets and why is A stalking them?  We find this out over the series, which so far includes Pretty Little Liars, Flawless, Perfect, Unbelievable, Wicked, and the soon-to-come Killer.  I’ve read the first four and I can tell you that I’m going to rush to get Wicked after the ending in Unbelievable.

Verdict?  If you liked the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books, the Pretty Little Liars series will not disappoint!

(Image by Tony Cenicola/The New York Times)

Although I was a book publicist for several years, I haven’t written an actual full-length review of a book since book reports were mandatory in seventh grade — and I don’t intend to start again now! However, I would like to share with you my thoughts on some books I recently read, starting with…

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

From Publishers Weekly: Starred Review. What perfect timing for this optimistic, uplifting debut novel (and maiden publication of Amy Einhorn’s new imprint) set during the nascent civil rights movement in Jackson, Miss., where black women were trusted to raise white children but not to polish the household silver. Eugenia Skeeter Phelan is just home from college in 1962, and, anxious to become a writer, is advised to hone her chops by writing about what disturbs you. The budding social activist begins to collect the stories of the black women on whom the country club sets relies and mistrusts enlisting the help of Aibileen, a maid who’s raised 17 children, and Aibileen’s best friend Minny, who’s found herself unemployed more than a few times after mouthing off to her white employers. The book Skeeter puts together based on their stories is scathing and shocking, bringing pride and hope to the black community, while giving Skeeter the courage to break down her personal boundaries and pursue her dreams. Assured and layered, full of heart and history, this one has bestseller written all over it. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

{Read the rest of this entry…}

I am a HUGE HUGE fan of Stephen White’s books (did I say HUGE?). So much so, that every few years I go back and read them all again, in sequence.  Stephen White is an author in the classic suspense tradition of John Sandford - and similar to Sandford’s Prey series, which by the way are also beyond fabulous, White’s books all center around one main character, Alan Gregory, a clinical psychologist in Boulder, CO.  Alan’s wife Lauren Crowder, a deputy district attorney in Boulder, his neighbor Adrienne, a urologist, his best friend Sam, a police detective, and his practice partner Diane carry significant storylines in all of the books as well.

A few things make these series of books one of my favorites (if not my favorite):

1) I love sequence and story lines.  Each of these characters has been a part of my entire fiction-life as an adult.  Each book builds upon the last.
2) The character of Alan Gregory is incredibly well-written.  He’s smart without being cocky, impulsive without being stupid, and completely relatable.  And on top of that, the supporting characters are so developed that they can (and do later in the series) carry a book on their own.
3) With Stephen White, it’s the little things, as well as the plot, that are important.  The way he describes the meals that Lauren and Alan are eating… Or the description of their dog’s beard after drinking water… Not a single detail is left unfinished and each nuance is carried through the storyline.

Now, before I delve into my review of Harm’s Way (which was actually the third Stephen White book I re-read this week, but is the oldest of the three hence my reviewing it first), I have to say one thing.  And it’s important.

Although the books are all written such that you can pick one up and not need to read the predecessor books to have the current book make sense, all of Stephen’s books are so great and their personal stories develop so well over the series that I can’t recommend enough that you READ THEM IN ORDER.  That means, start with Privileged Information and move on from there.

The other evening, I picked up my old paperback version of Harm’s Way.

As with most of White’s books, Harm’s Way’s plot centers around a crime that has been or will be committed that Alan, Sam, Lauren, or another character, must help solve.  In Harm’s Way, that unfortunate crime is the murder of Alan’s neighbor and friend and Adrienne’s husband, Peter.  Peter has a troubled past and at the behest of Adrienne and the request of Sam, who is investigating the case, Alan begins to put the pieces of Peter’s past together with the list of suspects in the present to solve the case. Soon Peter’s murder is wrapped up into two others and the police fear a serial killer is on the loose.

Because the victim is a friend, this book has a great deal of emotion and the grief that is felt is palpable, yet it doesn’t overpower the story and isn’t emotional in the sense of being distracting.  The focus in White’s books is always on the plot, which is fast-moving and concisely delivered.  I definitely rank this book as one of my favorites of the series.

This installment in the Alan Gregory series was written in 1997 - but picking it up Tuesday night and reading it through, it felt incredibly current (except perhaps for the lack of cell phones!).  Although White’s writing has obviously grown and matured over the years, the older books are still so strong.

I can’t recommend these books enough!  Has anyone else read the series (or the Prey series, which I also love)?

E.

I loved Kate Jacobs’ The Friday Night Knitting Club (which I will definitely be reviewing soon), so when I was in LaGuardia last weekend and saw Comfort Food, I was really excited to pick it up!  Kate’s books are so well-written; easy to read with very highly developed characters.

Comfort Food focuses on two women who are hosts of TV cooking shows, but are on opposite sides of their careers.  Gus celebrates her 50th birthday and is feeling a bit out of style, while Carmen is trying to break into the business. When they are thrown together on a Cooking Channel show, each must learn to grow and work as a team or they will both fail.  The book also has a strong “supporting cast” made up of Gus’s daughters, her neighbor, and coworkers on the show.

I didn’t love this book nearly as much as I loved The Friday Night Knitting Club, but I enjoy most women’s literature books and this was no different.  Throwing Gus, Carmen, and all of Gus’s family and friends (and their dysfunctional relationships) together to film a TV show makes for great reading, as does the “team building” weekend they have to endure.

You can find Comfort Food and The Friday Night Knitting Club in our Amazon store.  I also have my own copy that I’d love to pass off to someone.  Anyone have a book they want to trade?

E.

New on EADL - book reviews and an Amazon store!

I read a lot, so I thought it would be fun to share with you guys some of my favorite reads by starting some book reviews.  The store is chock full of my favorite chick lit, women’s literature, tv on dvd, and more. Everything in the store is something that I have read/watched/used and loved - and I’m going through each day to add more!  One thing to know up front: most of my reading isn’t exactly fine literature - I’m much more about books that click on an emotional level or are just plain cute (and so you don’t have to ask, yes, I loved the Twilight books.  The movie, not so much…).  You can also enter Amazon directly through the store, bypassing all of my pink and blue books.  :-)

First up in my book reviews, the paperback I read last week on the way to the National Stationery Show - Vision in White (The Wedding Quartet, Book 1) by Nora Roberts.  I know, I know - I see a bride and I just have to pick up the book!

The basic plot is this: four childhood best friends grow up to open an all-inclusive wedding venue, Vows.  One is a planner, one a baker, another a florist, and the last, a photographer (anyone else thinks this sounds remarkably like that short-lived David E Kelley TV series ‘The Wedding Bells’)? Vision in White is the first in a quartet of books - if I was a betting gal, I’d say the books will be told from each of the best friends’ viewpoints.  Vision was told from the photographer’s - her name is Mac and she is unlucky in love… until the brother of a Vows bride comes into the picture that is.

My bottom line?  A worthy two hours of my time and I will keep reading the remainder of the series.  The book was completely predictable, as most worthy chick lit is, and Nora Roberts took the time to build characters that I will care about and want to read about again.

Anyone else read Vision in White or other Nora Roberts books?  I’d love to know if the non-bride books are worth my two hours!

E.

Side note: I passed my copy to Cyd, so hopefully she’ll weigh in with her opinion too.  I always like to pass on my books unless it’s just something I can’t bear to part with.  Perhaps we should think of a way to incorporate that here - a book exchange of some form?  Thoughts?