Category Archives: Authors F-J

Review: Dead and Gone, by Charlaine Harris

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Dead and Gone
Charlaine Harris
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In this, the ninth novel in the Sookie Stackhouse mysteries, and the second to take place post-Katrina (unlike the HBO series True Blood, which takes place entirely post-Katrina), we are given lots of big information that we didn’t have before, and we witness some huge events.

The book opens with the Big Reveal – the national coming out day for weres and shape-shifters, and as it happens on tv, it also happens in Sam’s bar, with him displaying his prowess at becoming a collie.

Of course, this light scene is a tease, because we are almost immediately confronted with the sight of Sookie’s brother’s estranged wife strung up – no not on a column of industrial hand wheels – but on a cross.

Of course, Jason is the prime suspect, but Sookie is sure he didn’t do it, and while she tries to solve the mystery – and preserve her own skin – we are treated to a significant amount of information about her great-grandfather the Faerie, and given more than glimpse into Eric’s backstory.

Of course, it’s all wrapped in the fast-paced, quip-laden action and dialogue we’ve come to expect.

Dead and Gone is a fast read…but a good one.

Review: Second Chance by Jane Green

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Second Chance
Second Chance
Jane Green
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I first discovered Jane Green after a hot and tiring day of shopping last July. My desk had broken, and we’d been going from store to store looking for office furniture, when I remembered I still hadn’t completed one of the pre-conference assignments for a novel writing workshop I was to attend the next month.

We slipped into Borders, where I quickly lost track of the assignment, opting instead to browse books. The book that caught my eye was The Beach House, and even though I resisted buying it, I enjoyed it immensely when I finally read it.

When Second Chance caught my attention on another bookstore trip, I bought it, then promptly forgot I had it. Desperate for something to read during last month’s migraine extravaganza, I finally picked it up.

It’s one of Green’s first works, I think, because it’s not as smooth as later novels, but the story of old friends reuniting for another friend’s funeral, and using the event as a catalyst to change their lives is one that I found extremely compelling.

At times funny, at other times poignant, Second Chance is an excellent summer read, but it’s also perfect any time you want to curl up with lemonade and cookies, and escape for a while.

Review: Riding Lessons, by Sara Gruen

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Riding Lessons
by Sara Gruen
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Water for Elephants was one of the best books I’d ever read, so when I was in the Mexico City airport last week with 500 pesos and an extra ninety minutes before my flight – and nothing to read – I took a chance and got Sara Gruen’s earlier book Riding Lessons.

I was expecting plain prose that nevertheless forms incredibly vivid imagery, but I was not expecting a novel that was essentially a conventional romance, albeit one dressed up for dressage and including an angst-ridden mother-daughter relationship. What is it about everyone writing snotty teenagers into their work lately?

Simplified, the plot seems almost cliche: Annemarie has a tragic accident while competing in an equestrian event, turns her back on all things equine, marries a man she doesn’t really love, and ends up divorced with a snotty teenaged daughter. She moves back home to the family farm (and riding academy) where she makes her peace with her estranged mother and dying father, strikes up a romance with the local vet, whom she knew as a much younger woman, and yes, eventually does save the farm and live to tell about it.

Of course, there’s a second love affair in the tale as well: that of Annemarie and her horse, Highland Harry, who died in the tragic accident, and the new horse, troubled and injured, she adopts from the vet’s rescue, and insists is Harry’s long-lost brother.

Fans of romance and horses will enjoy this book, and I must admit, for a cliche it was still an enjoyable read, but I’m glad Gruen’s storytelling has evolved since this was originally published.

Goes well with: Strong coffee, worn jeans, and country-western music. Even if it does take place in New Hampshire.

Book Review: The Beach House, by Jane Green

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The Beach HouseThe Beach House
Jane Green
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I first saw The Beach House when I was working on a project for a writing conference I attended last August, but I resisted buying it. Then, last fall, I finally picked it up, because I was missing the sea and liked the title.

In this novel, Nan Powell, a sixty-five year old widow who lives in a sprawling home in a New England beachfront town, is faced with loneliness and a house that is both too large and to big to maintain, so she decides to rent out rooms for the summer.

As inevitably happens, the various tenants, who include a newly divorced mother and her teen-aged daughter, a recently divorced man who is coming to realize that he’s gay, and her own son who has never been able to commit to one woman, draw together to form a quirky, if loyal extended family.

What could be boring and predictable, in author Green’s deft hands, is lovely and poignant, at least in some places, and outright funny in others.

Goes well with a summer day and a pitcher of lemonade.

Reviewed Elsewhere: True Colors, by Kristin Hannah

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True Colors
by Kristin Hannah
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From time to time, I review books for other blogs, ezines and podcasts, but I still want to track what I’ve read. I recently reviewed True Colors for ALL THINGS GIRL. Here’s the first paragraph:

In her last novel, Firefly Lane, which was released in paperback earlier this year, author Kristin Hannah gave us a stirring story exploring the often-adversarial relationships between mothers and daughters. In her newest book, True Colors Ms. Hannah once again displays her deftness at portraying relationships between women, this time with a brutally honest portrayal of three sisters in a somewhat dysfunctional family.

The rest of the review can be found here.

Teaser Tuesdays: Life After Genius, by M. Ann Jacoby

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On Teaser Tuesdays readers are asked to:

  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between 7 and 12 lines.
  • You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given.

My teasers are:

“You wrote some kind of paper, didn’t you? Gave a big presentation in front of a bunch of important people. Your mother can’t stop talking about it. How proud she is of you. How much smarter you are than all the other bridge players’ sons.” The woman laughs as if she has just told a joke, then grasps hold of Mead’s wrist. “Do you mind?” she says. “I’ve never touched a genius before.”
— from Life After Genius, p. 122, by M. Ann Jacoby

Cowboys Are My Weakness by Pam Houston

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I have to confess, I only bought this book because the titular story, Cowboys are My Weakness, was assigned reading for a writer’s workshop I just attended. I didn’t even like it the first time I read it!

But then, after the first couple days of the workshop, when I was alone in my hotel and desperate to read something, ANYTHING, less depressing than One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest I picked the book up again. I wound up finishing it on the plane flight back home.

Houston’s style isn’t fussy, and moves between first, third, and sometimes even second, person depending on the needs of each essay or story. Her characters are vivid. Her tales of love, lust, dogs and horses are tales that almost any woman will enjoy.

Goes well with a burger, and a cold beer.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

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Water for Elephants was recommended to me several years ago when it first came out, but for some reason it didn’t appeal to me at the time, or I passed it over for some other reason. A couple of weekends ago, we were at the library, and I noticed it. In fact, the library we visited was so depressing, that it was one of only three books I bothered to check out.

I finished it tonight, having chosen to savor it and make it last, because once I started reading it, and realized it was about the circus, I was hooked.

This novel is both a behind-the-scenes look at traveling circuses in the 1930s and a love-letter to the art form. Told in flashbacks by the main character, Jacob, who used to be a vet “on a show,” we glimpse the dirtier aspects of circus life, including the often brutal treatment of workers, performers, and animals, the way acts were formed, and the competition between different circuses.

I’ve been telling my husband I want to see the circus for my birthday (Ringling Bros. will be in town), and the fact that this book fell into my lap a month before that event seems to be a favorable sign.

Goes well with caramel corn.

Firefly Lane, by Kristin Hannah

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Firefly LaneFirefly Lane
by Kristin Hannah
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When you were a teenager did you ever feel like a ram of your head against the wall might be more productive than a conversation with your mother? If you are a parent, have you ever felt that way about your child? If so, this novel is for you.

Firefly Lane is a tale of the lifelong friendship between cool, breezy and somewhat broken Tully, daughter of a strung out leftover hippie, abandoned to her grandmother most of the time, and average, suburban Katie. Their friendship is formed accidentally when they become neighbors, but ends up becoming a sustaining force for both girls.

As they grow up, Tully is the one who knows what she wants and pushes everything out of her way to get it, dragging Katie along in her wake, until, finally, Katie ends up with what SHE really wants – a home and family, and loving husband.

Set against the television news industry Katie and Tully’s friendship follows a timeline from the early 1970’s, when they meet, until present day, when Katie has to face a devastating challenge and needs Tully, estranged in recent years, to help get her through.

While Firefly Lane is not, ultimately, a feel-good novel, it is a strong portrayal of women’s friendships, and the characters drawn by author Kristin Hannah are complex and believable.

Goes well with an ice cold glass of lemonade, an Adirondack chair, and a soft cotton blanket.