50 in 2012: Book Twenty Six

The Kitchen Daughter by Jael McHenry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A book with so many layers I am struggling to articulate my review…

On the surface, it’s a book about the oddly peculiar Ginny Selvaggio and her struggle to pick up the pieces after the sudden and tragic death of her parents. Extraordinarily sheltered and shy, she rarely leaves her home, holing herself up in her closet to calm herself. Her older sister, Amanda tries to step up and act as caretaker and protector for her younger sister, a role previously played by their mother. Amanda constantly fears for Ginny’s safety.

As Ginny retreats to the kitchen, finding solace in the one thing that has always calmed her nerves: food, she discovers she has the ability to channel the spirit of  loved ones who have passed via the smell of their recipes. Each ghost helps Ginny piece together the scattered puzzle pieces of her life.

Ultimately, it is the ghost of her father who brings the most clarity and presents perhaps the most poignant parts of the novel: what is normal? Ginny learns that she and her father share more than she ever imagined…

Again, so many various layers, like one of Ginny’s main sources of calm: an onion, this book is likely best digested in more than one sitting. A story of the demands placed on family members when one has special needs, the devastating aftermath of tragic losses, and the normalcy in struggling to pick up all the pieces..
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50 in 2012: Book Twenty Five

The Last Letter from Your Lover by Jojo Moyes

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jennifer Sterling wakes up in a hospital with no memory of who she was just moments before: her name, what she was doing, who the man is sitting next to her bed…

In the days following her accident, she begins to piece together fragments of what must have been her life, but she never quite feels as though it all makes sense. There always seems to be something missing, something big. As she begins to place faces and feelings, she realizes there is in fact something missing; however, in 1960 one’s name and reputation trumps happiness and marital issues are often pushed aside in order to maintain one’s social standing. While riffling through her closet, searching for clues as to whom she really was, she discovers a passionate letter signed by a simple initial, “B”. In it, a plea to her to run away, follow her heart, and leave all she has ever known behind…

But she can’t remember anything. The initial doesn’t spark any memories. Who is this man? What was she doing with him? Did she really love him? As she embarks on a journey to discover answers, she finds herself forced to make impossible decisions.

And then the author switches to a new, modern story line. Jennifer Sterling’s story ends, without resolution, and we meet Ellie Haworth, a struggling journalist. It is now 2003, she finds the old letter and desperately wants to know what happened.

Ellie’s search for answers weaves the two story lines together. Ellie feels as though the letters speak to her and her own personal problems. Jennifer’s courage and strength inspires her to do what she needs to do. The words penned on the letter by this mysterious “B” are the most beautiful and passionate she’s ever read…

An interesting look at how modern day texting and e-mailing has replaced handwritten letters and often times, more poetic and heartfelt language. The dynamics of marriage, relationships, and monogamy are also explored: is cheating by a man different from that of a woman? I go back and forth about to rate this book. I loved most of it but there were some questionable gaps and story choices that leave lingering questions…I definitely couldn’t put it down. I had to know what happened and what Jennifer Sterling was doing on the day she ended up in the hospital, nearly losing her life…

50 in 2012: Book Twenty Four

Fly Away Home by Jennifer Weiner

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sylvie Serfer, a mother and senator’s wife, finds her marriage imploding in front of her very eyes on national television. Her husband, the senator, is the star of the leading headlines broadcasting on all the major networks. Along side his mistress.

Their youngest daughter, Lizzie, is a recovering addict constantly trying to break free of the glare coming from the spot light shone upon her successful, seemingly perfect older sister, Diana. Yet, somehow, Sylvie’s misery and public humiliation brings all the women together in their Connecticut beach home. While they have often caused each other more grief than good, the women learn that they share a bond, a familiar struggle, that brings them closer than ever before and helps them to make some of the most difficult decisions they’ve ever had to make…

Like many of the other reviews, the ending is truly disappointing. You are beautifully introduced to the life story of these women: each having to relearn who they are, what they want, and decide what they’ll do next…and then it ends. Good read, but I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to these women. Not yet. I wanted my Disney ending.

50 in 2012: Book Twenty Three

The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears at the World’s Most Famous Cooking School in Paris by Kathleen Flinn

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I write this review having never been to Paris and wholeheartedly admitting to have rather limited culinary talents. I don’t stray from plop-able meats: those that can be plopped into a cooking contraption without begin touched. Prior to reading this book, I couldn’t tell you if I chopped or julienned vegetables. I go with an across the board “cut up”. Size, shape never making a difference. Apparently, that is important?

Kathleen Flinn’s job has just been eliminated and she finds herself at a crossroads. Ultimately, she decides to fulfill a lifelong dream, moves to Paris, and enrolls in Le Cordon Bleu cooking school *I totally say it with a fancy schmancy French accent every time I read it, though I am not entirely sure what a real French accent sounds like, but mine is fabulous, trust me. Lots of exaggeration of the euuuuuuuu*

I find her courage to take a chance, leave everything behind to pursue a lifelong dream incredibly inspiring. Her story is full of humor, mishaps, and discovery. Her fellow students represented different stories, struggles, and ethnicities, yet they were all bonded by a love of food.

Quick, fun read. I am inspired to take a cooking class. Or at the very least, learn to properly hold a knife and “chop” an onion…

50 in 2012: Book Twenty Two

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Moss grows without roots…

Hardened by a lifetime of distrust, disappointment, and heartache, Victoria Jones walks through life alone. Betrayed by those she reluctantly let in, she no longer knows how to trust or love completely. Instead, she has built a fortress firmly protecting what remains of her heart with blocks made of equal parts hurt, anger, and bitterness. Yet, she is softened by an unsuspecting source of beauty and frailty: flowers. Each flower tells a story, it’s meaning emanating from within. Ultimately, it is her gift with flowers and their stories that leads her to challenge the life’s story she believes has been penned for her, discovering that she, like moss, can grow despite her lack of roots.

50 in 2012: Book Twenty One

Secret Lives by Diane Chamberlain

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Multiple story lines woven together in a multifaceted, thought provoking page turner.

Eden Riley, a successful movie star, decides to turn her mother’s life story into a movie. In order to do so, she returns home for the first time in years to do some practical, hands on research. Her mother, Katherine Swift, a popular and well known children’s book author, died when Eden was a young girl. As Eden writes her screen play, she learns the truth behind her mother’s perceived crazy antics and aloof ways. Shortly after her arrival in Shenandoah Valley, Eden’s Uncle Kyle presents her with the first of many handwritten journals penned by her mother. Shocked and surprised, Eden dives in, learning more about her mother than she ever imagined.

Through, Kate Swift’s journals we learn that her perceived eccentricity hid a deeply troubling and debilitating mental illness. Finding solace, alone, in her cave, she is fearful of the outside world. A world, Kyle desperately wants her to see and experience. Her struggles with mental illness are poignantly illustrated and crafted.

While staying with her Uncle Kyle, Eden meets Ben Alexander, both are running from pasts that have nearly broken them. Together, they attempt to re-learn how to trust. And love. However, the obstacles and challenges prove to be more than either can handle. One of them will be forced to make life altering decisions and a leap of faith that may be asking too much…

So many twists and turns…LOVED this book. A lot
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50 in 2012: Book Eighteen

The Art of Saying Goodbye: A Novel by Ellyn Bache

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The story of five women brought together by one feisty, fiery “hot mama”. Desperate to bring some life to the neighborhood, Paisley hand delivers invitations to all the women neighboring her house to a “Happy Hour for Hot Moms” claiming they all deserve it. What begins for many as a nervous meeting in Paisley’s backyard, blossoms over the next ten years in to various degrees of friendship between the five women, the rock and guiding force is always Paisley.

Until Paisley’s terminal cancer diagnosis shakes the neighborhood and group of women to it’s core.

While the cancer is found to have metastasized to Paisley’s kidney and quickly her body, there is nothing left for her to fight, only an inevitable outcome to embrace. Each woman takes the news differently. While Paisley’s house used to always bustle with company, her diagnosis brings fear into the neighborhood and her front porch becomes barren. Women are too afraid to visit, too unsure of what to say, too scared to accept that her reality could possibly become their own. Yet, something happens to each woman while they all learn to deal with Paisley’s fate. Her cancer at first taints the neighborhood, yet her celebration of life, both living and in death, brings amazing clarity and growth to women forever touched by a lively and extraordinarily friendly Paisley and her white feather boa.

Emotional, thought provoking read…

50 in 2012: Book Seventeen

A Woman’s Place by Lynn Austin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

1940’s, Pearl Harbor has just been bombed, and many women watch helplessly their sons, husbands, and brothers enlist to serve their country. A thought provoking story about four women, all searching for something very different, yet hoping for something all the same.

Ginny: a lonely, bored house wife longing to be a part of a cause greater than making her son’s lunch and starching her husband’s dress shirts.

Helen: one of the wealthiest women in town, yet lonely beyond belief. Having spent her whole life “living up to her family name”, she never fully experienced her own true happiness.

Rosa: feisty, opinionated, and struggling to fit into a 1940’s house wife mold while her new husband is shipped off to basic training.

Jean: a factory foreman searching for acceptance in a man’s world.

At a time when war looms, gender roles are challenged, and racial tensions ebb and flow, but never cease, all four women are forced to dig deep within themselves and make life changing decisions. What I found most poignant about this book is the conversation sparked: Helen declares she no longer believes in a God. If there really was a God, how could he bestow the life he has chosen for her on anyone? Furthermore, how could any God allow something so horrific and tragic as war? Rosa admits her educational and religious deficiencies and seeks out Helen’s help, together the girl from Brooklyn and the retired, wealthy school teacher search for an answer to questions greater than themselves.

All four story lines explore the dynamics of gender roles and how they must have affected many households in an era where women were expected to stay home, their job to manage the house and family. The husbands who did not enlist were left to face scrutiny for not serving their country, as well as having their ability to provide and support their family questioned as their wives left the home to work in factories.

As the potential work force decreases, factories are left to scramble for bodies to fill necessary positions in order to maintain quarterly quotas. Here, racial relations are questioned and explored. As is the idea of POWs being brought into work in the factory. Helen struggles with the idea of both: unable to understand how anyone can truly determine one’s worth by the color of another’s skin; yet, she is unable to overlook one’s nationality. All four women learn the devastation and tragedy caused at the hand of racism and hatred.

Multiple layers woven into a beautiful, well written story. Four women who captured my heart. And a book that posed questions that remain long after reading the final word on the last page. LOVED.

50 in 2012: Book Sixteen

Shoot the Moon by Billie Letts

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book had a little bit of everything: thrill, mystery, romance…I did not want it to end. I fell completely in love with the main characters.

DeClare, Oklahoma is rocked by the tragic murder of a young mother, Gaylene Harjo. Her ten month old son’s body was never found and he was suspected dead. Thirty years later, a man by the name of Dr. Mark Airbright saunters into the small, dusty town and causes massive upheaval by claiming to be baby Nicky Jack Harjo.

Only weeks earlier, Mark Airbright found adoption papers and a birth certificate that turned his world upside down. Everything he had ever known, had been based on deceit. He traveled to DeClare to find answers and meet his birth mother. Within minutes of his arrival, he learns about his mother’s murder.

His journey to self discovery and search for knowledge about his birth mother, stirs up long buried secrets in a small town where everyone thinks they know everyone. And everything. Twists and turns kept me constantly guessing as to who really murdered Gaylene, and why. Just when I think I had it figured out, a new twist changed things up. Loved this book.

50 in 2012: Book Thirteen

The Love Goddess’ Cooking School by Melissa Senate

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Known as the Love Goddess of Blue Crab Island, Camilla Constantina’s cooking and fortune telling was the talk of the town. Her recipes were not only delicious, but it was believed that they could also save marriages. Born with the ability to see things, her visions caused a great deal of pain and hardships for her and her family. Yet, somehow, she is gifted a close bond with her granddaughter, Holly. A bond, that eventually brings Holly the strength she needs to move forward with her life. And love. Nervous about teaching her first set of cooking lessons, Holly is happy that four students have still agreed to take lessons in spite of her grandmother’s passing, among them, an absolutely adorable, and lovable little spitfire named, Mia. Little does she know, that she will learn far more than she ever expected from her students. Something magical happens in the kitchen classroom as students add Camilla’s infamous “last ingredients” (1 wish, 1 true statement, 1 memory): souls are opened up, secrets are shared, and missing life ingredients are found. A true feel good book. Perfect for a rainy day…