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
.

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…