Book Number Eight

Kind of a dumb name for a book, unfortunately. I don't have much to say about this book except that it is classic Binchy. A novel set in Ireland with her familiar cast of characters. Fiona from Nights of Rain and Stars, the Feathers, several fancy dinners done up at Quentins Restaurant and Pastor Flynn from Whitethorn Woods. I have to imagine that Mitford lovers would find an equally compelling read here. This was the perfect book for my sickly spring break. Nothing gives more comfort than a Binchy read.

Had a sinking realization that I have 44 books yet to read this year. That silly Sawtelle book and the Somerset Maugham novel have set me dreadfully behind. Thank you Maeve for giving me a quick read to keep up my spirits and send me on towards my goal.

Book Number Seven

Winner of 2008 BNoble Discover Great Writers Award
Best NonFiction Book of 2008 - Entertainment Weekly

Read this book for the second time around. Nervously, I have recommended it for our next Stillwater Book Club discussion. I'm anticipating the discussion as we don't typically read memoirs or novels about drug abuse. I'm not sure how they'll feel about the honesty of the book and the rawness (quite a few F-inheimers though not gratuitous). I feel the book is revealing and courageous. I'm eager to hear how they felt about the book though reading it as parents and commenting on how to let kids go, divorce and how addiction is different now than it was 20-30 years ago.

I, personally, love the book. Not sure if it's my love affair of the geography of the novel (situated in Point Reyes and the North Beach community of San Fran). I could be biased. Most of all, I feel as though I've learned how to counsel families who are struggling with an addicted son/daughter. This seemed to be a well researched book on methamphetamine and I recognized a lot of Hazelden speak: the three C's, secrets make you sick, relapse is part of recovery, etc. I felt like I knew the characters intimately by the end of the book and really want to know how they are doing currently. I dreaded when Nic would relapse yet again and felt such pain for him and for the family. I wonder if he has yet hit his bottom.

Other things to discuss: the twist at the end for David Sheff, co-dependency, the charmed life, role of religions, the disease model, the effect on family (siblings, extended family, parents, etc.)

Book Number Six

This novel was an impulse buy at a weak moment. I saw it on the sale rack at BNoble and knew that I could read the book in an instant. I have loved reading the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books so this felt like just what the doctor ordered.

The novel reminds me so incredibly much of my favorite teenage book - Just A Summer Romance. I'm left completely enamored with the geographical description of Fire Island and its depiction of a remote, peaceful getaway. Reminds me of how it felt to be at the cabin all summer and have no worries in the world. Re: the characters. Publishers Weekly calls the "love" relationship between Alice and Paul saccharine at best. I tend to agree. Unfortunately, I can't decide whether to put this book in my kid's rack or my adult fiction rack with the silly sex scenes. I think I'm going kids rack but may live to regret that decision if the wrong person picks it up.

I have a feeling this is not a book that I will remember reading in another two years but will probably pick up again when I'm bored. New York Times says "would do well under a beach umbrella." So true.

Book Number Five

So, I loved her last book Prep. Thought that she gave the narrator an incredibly unique voice that captured adolescence angst to perfection. This novel moves beyond boarding school to the relationships that confound and confuse the early 20s. “Being raised in an unstable household makes you understand that the world doesn’t exist to accommodate you, which, in Hannah’s observation, is something a lot of people struggle to understand well into adulthood."

I really wanted to like this book and I didn't hate it. Unfortunately, the novel really seemd to suffer from a sophomore slump. The narrator, Hannah Gavener, is compelling and you root for her but are left feeling in the end that you were lead astray. Kirkus Reviews writes: "An earnest, if somewhat underdeveloped, antidote to chick-lit. " I agree.

Not a favorite but glad to start a Sittenfeld collection. Eager to read American Wife up next and man oh man, nobody writes low self esteem better than Curtis.