Tag: book

Abraham Lincoln was not always the President Of The United States.  He was once a young man filled with spirit and dreams.  Before he was the man we have read about and look upon the penny and the five dollar bill, he was just a poor boy from Kentucky.  He was a lawyer.  he was a member of congress.  He was a husband, and a father.This is his story.

 

Jerome Charyn takes what we know of Lincoln’s life from beginning until the end, and breathes life into the gaps in between using Lincoln’s own voice to tell this first person fictional masterpiece. In fact, I Am Lincoln, begins with the end…. in a theater in Washington DC with only the soft sound of movement and then a sting behind his left ear…

Wow.  Wow. Wow.

I have always been fascinated with Lincoln’s life and death.  He has always been my favorite of the presidents even though clearly we have never met nor even lived in the same century.  102 years after his death, I would be born.

Lincoln was the man who led us through the civil war, who pushed back against slavery, and did so with integrity.  When this book was offered up for review, I did not hesitate on saying yes.

Jerome Charyn writes I Am Lincoln from an amazing perspective; Lincoln’s.  For this I give him credit as those are big shoes to fill. Jerome Charyn not only lets us see history unfold, but through Lincoln’s own eyes and words is something pretty close to brilliant. 

I adored this book and lapped up each page seeing Lincoln’s life as I never had before.  Being able to write this review on Lincoln’s birthday is a great honor to me to be able to speak so enthusiastically about this book. 

 

I found McKinlay’s writing so delicious I had to say some of the lines out loud just to savor them on my tongue ~ Sheila

Eve Petworth finds her 40’s to be a bit of a rocky road.  Living in London on her own after a divorce, and struggling as her own adult daughter is about to be married and leaning a little too hard on Eve, Eve takes solace in books written by a popular American Novelist, Jackson Cooper.  When Eve writes to Cooper informing him of her appreciation of his books and comparing one of his lines about a watery summer day to ripe fruit, Cooper to her surprise, writes back.

Jackson Cooper has his own tales of love and loss.  Now in his 50’s and divorced twice, he really does not know what he wants.  Women fall all over him, and if that is what he wanted he would be set, but really he just wants to write that next book that seems stuck in his head without all the – well lets call it what it is:  Drama.  Writing to Eve in London is like writing to an old friend.  They share recipes, they talk about books and the weather…

and both wonder in the middle of this messed up life… if their might be something more…

 

 

I am not even sure if I can tell you how impressed I am with That Part Was True by Deborah McKinlay.  Even now weeks after I have read the book, I glance over at it as I type with a little smile on my face.

This book reminds me a little of the flow of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, but with a gentler flow to it.  This one grabbed me as I enjoyed Eve and her struggles with her every day life as well as Jackson’s struggles as he continuously (sometimes hilariously) messed everything up. 

This is the book I recommended for February in the Blogger Recommended publication.  I hope you too will take a closer look at this book and give it a read.  I seriously enjoyed it. 

 

 

As Labor Day approaches in Holton Mills, New Hampshire, 13-year-old Henry and his mother Adele head into town to pick up some groceries and supplies for their home.  This is a rare trip to town as single emotionally damaged mom Adele does not like being around people and mainly sticks to home where she lives her quiet small life.  Henry, a product of his environment is much a loner himself with no real close friends and no one he really hangs out with except his dads new wife’s kids.  Henry spends much of his time playing with his hamster, trying to make his mom feel better, and thinking of girls.

At the grocery store a limping man, named Frank, approaches Henry asking for help.  Henry sees that Frank is bleeding and takes him to his mother who in turn takes Frank home with her and Henry.  This is when Frank shares his story that he has escaped and is a wanted man (not in a sexy way…. but in a “my face is going to be on tv” way). 

Over the next five days surrounding the Labor Day Holiday Henry will learn a lot about his mom, he will learn to bake with Frank’s expertise, and how to correctly throw a ball.  And Henry will come out of the weekend a changed boy – with more knowledge about love, betrayal, and letting go… even when it is the last thing we want to do.

 

 

Uhhhhhh.

I am having a hard time spilling out my feelings regarding Labor Day.  On one hand, I want to say that Adele’s inability to use her backbone brings the”strong female characters preferred” gene in me screaming through the book like fingernails on a chalk board.

But that is harsh.

And probably not fair.

Isn’t it funny how my own preferences of how women need to be strong and able to take care of themselves  rears up out of nowhere? 

I have a hard time wrapping my head around a single woman with a young son to look after, taking home a strange man that she knows nothing about and then under the strangest conditions keeping him there. 

On the other hand, I do not know the depths of Adele’s depression, or the amount of frailness she withholds from past hurts.  It is not fair of me to judge what I do not understand.

Labor Day is told from Henry’s point of view so we (I) must be reminded that what is happening is how he see’s things with his 13-year-old mind.  (Although… I can not see how else he could have seen it) Doh!  I did it again.

I think I am in the minority as I glanced at overall reviews of this book on Amazon they rate fairly high.  I struggled personally with the probability of such a thing happening – but… we do live in a strange world. 

Here are some different thoughts on this book from Bloggers I trust:

Bermuda Onion

Alison’s Book Marks

Red Headed Book Child

I clearly did not love the book, but I did not hate it either.  It is a book that still has me thinking about it.  The fact that it creates such strong emotion in me must say something 🙂

My book club received copies of this book to read as a group in anticipation of the movie.  Tonight we are going to the movie as a group and I am hopeful that my opinion of the storyline will change after the movie.  No matter what, I still get to hang out with a great group of girls 😀

 

 

 

Nicknamed the Dresden Dolls for their fair complexion, blond hair, and blue eyes; Chris (14(, Cathy (12), and the twins Cory and Carrie (3), are adored by all who see them.  When it comes to their parents, also tall, and gorgeous with that same blond hair and blue eyes they look like something out on a movie set. 

Then one day a horrible accident rips through the family shattering their happiness.  Their mother, who had no work skills outside of taking care of her children and home, is forced to do the unthinkable and ask her extremely wealthy parents for help.  The older children soon learn that their mother had committed an unthinkable sin in the eyes of her father and he had disowned her years ago.  While she works hard to restore her relationship with her father and be put back in his will, he must not know about the children.  The children are placed in an upstairs bedroom that adjoins the attic out of the eyes of the servants and her father and asked to remain there for a few days while things are settled.  The only one who knows they are there besides their mother is the grandmother who brings them food once every morning to last for the day.

But days tend to turn into weeks and weeks to months as the four children wait for the day they will be released from the room and given all the riches their mother has promised would come if only they were patient.  Yet as the months turn in to years, and their mothers visits are less and less, the children, who in some cases are no longer children, realize they have only themselves to rely on for survival.

 

I read Flowers In The Attic back in probably my early teens.  Originally released in 1979 I recall this book as being exciting and V C Andrews probably one of the few authors at the time that you could consider YA reading and that to a reader of my age at the time was something awesome.

When I agreed to review this book for the upcoming release of the Lifetime movie on January 18th, I was excited to revisit this story line.  It is amazing what a difference a read can make from the eyes of a teenager, to reading it again as an adult.

In recent discussions with friends about the book, we laughed about how we loved the book as teens and how we thought it was some of todays YA that gets carried away with subjects that are a little heavy on the partying or the drug use considering the age of the reader the book is meant for…. however a little recap of Flowers In The Attic woke us up.  In the early 80’s we were reading V C Andrews take on children being locked in an attic during a peek time of adolescence and definitely – although I dont think I thought too hard on it in my teens, a brother and sister that become way too close due to the circumstances they are held in.

The book, caught me again.  At first I wasn’t sure in those first pages if I could bring back the feelings I had the first time I read through this one.  Yet as I was caught up in the story line of bad parenting 101 coming down the generation pipeline I found myself reading late into the night wanting to know once again, how would they survive, what would happen to the twins, how did they stay sane confined to a room…. it was like reading it again for the first time.

I think perhaps this time, as a parent, my blood boiled a little more at the treatment of the children then it did all those years ago.  Although I started out planning to read this book and leaving it at that, after finishing this one last night I know I will be searching out Petals In The Wind.  Who knew that V C Andrews was the master of cliff hangers that make you have to read the next book in the series, just as well as many of our popular authors of today.  Truly V C Andrews could still stand among the best of them.

Save the date!  Mark your calendars for January 18th and the Lifetime premiere of Flowers In The Attic starring Heather Graham.

Did you know….

Flowers In The Attic (not surprisingly) hit the banned books list many times due to topics of incest?

There once were rumors that the book is part non fiction base on a situation of a relative to V C Andrews where a boy and his siblings were locked in an attic in order to ensure an inheritance.

You have to love it when you wish the characters in a book were your friends and when that final page is turned.. you know you will miss them.

~Sheila

Samantha Davis has always and will always be forever grateful to her husband Johnathan who pulled her and her siblings up and out of the way of sure destruction.  Johnathan has such a kind heart and deep pockets and does it really matter that when Samantha married him it wasn’t love but appreciation?  Now, years later, with her two siblings still trying to find ways to keep sucking money out of Johnathan, Samantha is starting to see things a lot more clearly – including her own marriage. 

Claire Walker, author of two books and newly empty nester as her daughter moves on thinks she is ready to write her third book and how easy it will be now with no one in her new apartment to disturb her… but oddly, words have never been harder to put on paper….

Brooke Mackenzie could use a break.  After her plastic surgeon husband moved the two of them and their two children and dog into their new place, he shortly there after took up with a woman who would let him use his skills with a knife.  Brooke had always refused, feeling she should be loved for who she was… not who he could make her.  Now Brooke battles her ex husbands lack of commitment to his children.  Will she ever find happiness and her own self-worth?

So what do these three women of varied backgrounds have in common?  They all live in the historic Atlanta apartment building known as The Alexander… and while they only have seen each other in passing in the hallways… things are about to change.

When Edward Parker, concierge of The Alexander decides to put together a little weekly gathering of the tenants of the building for screenings of the hit show Downton Abbey, Samantha, Claire, and Brooke, all find themselves seated together.  Through refreshments and finger foods, the shows “aha” and laugh out loud moments; these women find out what true friendship can be like..

all while they were watching Downton Abbey.

 

 

 

I admit it.  The title drew me. After having watched the first three seasons of Downton Abbey and LOVING it… finding a book that would keep my Abbey loving heart-moving forward was a plus. 

While We Were Watching Downton Abbey was truly a fun book to read.  I loved the diversity of the three main female characters and I loved seeing the different lives play out chapter by chapter of the women and of Edward as well.  It was easy to follow and unlike many books with multiple lead characters, I felt as though I knew each one, from Samantha’s need to feel like the perfect wife, to Claire’s inability to function with a hovering deadline for her book, to Brooke’s unruly red hair, to Edwards pride in his company and what it stood for.

In the end, I wished I lived in The Alexander and that I too could meet up with Samantha, Claire, and Brooke over cocktails and laughter and of course… Downton Abbey.

A fun, engaging read.

 

*If you have not watched the first two seasons of Downton Abbey, you are going to want to do so before reading this book.  The book does talk a little of the show and some of it could be considered spoilers.