Lilac & Ivy

Synopsis: Tessa Russo is the mother of two young children and the wife of a renowned pediatric surgeon. Despite her mother’s warnings, Tessa has recently given up her career to focus on her family and the pursuit of domestic happiness. From the outside, she seems destined to live a charmed life.

Valerie Anderson is an attorney and single mother to six-year-old Charlie—a boy who has never known his father. After too many disappointments, she has given up on romance—and even, to some degree, friendships—believing that it is always safer not to expect too much.

Although both women live in the same Boston suburb, the two have relatively little in common aside from a fierce love for their children. But one night, a tragic accident causes their lives to converge in ways no one could have imagined.

Review: This was our most recent book club selection and I was incredibly excited to have an easy read on my hands. I had two pretty lengthly flights when I was reading this, so it took me less than a week to get through. Like Emily Giffin’s other books, this was pretty predictable and that’s why it got 3 stars. I did like the characters and find Giffin’s style of writing very readable, but for once I’d like to be surprised and not have everyone wrapped up in a nice, pretty, shiny box. Nonetheless, it’s a great beach read, filled with sex, love and all those other things that keep up tied to chick lit.

*** out of 5 stars

The other night I was lamenting to my dear friend about how I had just finished my book, wasn’t loving the one I keep putting down and picking back up and just don’t know what to read. Then I remembered bookmarking a website where you input your most recent book, hit enter and it spits out several suggestions. I’m so totally loving this site. Check it out.

Image: Wonderlane

This infographic is seriously fascinating. It explores the earths surface from the highest peak to the deepest known regions. Check it out and indulge your inner science buff.

Via: Unruly Things
Image: Our Amazing Planet

Synopsis: Jacob Jankowski says: “I am ninety. Or ninety-three. One or the other.” At the beginning of Water for Elephants, he is living out his days in a nursing home, hating every second of it. His life wasn’t always like this, however, because Jacob ran away and joined the circus when he was twenty-one. It wasn’t a romantic, carefree decision, to be sure. His parents were killed in an auto accident one week before he was to sit for his veterinary medicine exams at Cornell. He buried his parents, learned that they left him nothing because they had mortgaged everything to pay his tuition, returned to school, went to the exams, and didn’t write a single word. He walked out without completing the test and wound up on a circus train. The circus he joins, in Depression-era America, is second-rate at best. With Ringling Brothers as the standard, Benzini Brothers is far down the scale and pale by comparison.

Review: Did anyone ever tell you this book is graphic. Not violent, but that it doesn’t hold back with descriptions? Yea, me either. For months and months I’ve seen the book on the best-seller list so when it was selected for book club, I was super excited. Everyone said I had to read it. That I wouldn’t be disappointed. Seriously, I didn’t hear one bad thing.

Well guess what, I didn’t love it. I was disappointed. For starters, I wasn’t impressed with the main female character. I didn’t sympathise with her and I generally didn’t like her. This, of course, made it challenging because without liking her, the plot doesn’t go where the author wants it to. Second, although I thought the book was researched thoroughly (in fact it was the most enjoyable aspect of the book for me), at times the writing was weak. It felt choppy, almost like there were several editors, each assigned a different chapter. And lastly, I didn’t like how the book jumped from current time back to the 1930s. I found myself bored with the chapters that were set in the nursing home and wished that this portion was left out. This includes the ending, which I found completely unrealistic.

**1/2 out of 5 stars

Synopsis:
Lisbeth Salander is a wanted woman. Two Millennium journalists about to expose the truth about the sex trade in Sweden are brutally murdered, and Salander’s prints are on the weapon. Her history of unpredictable and vengeful behavior makes her an official danger to society – but no one can find her anywhere. Meanwhile, Mikael Blomkvist, editor-in-chief of Millennium, will not believe what he hears on the news. Knowing Salander to be fierce when fearful, he is desperate to get to her before she is cornered and alone. As he fits the pieces of the puzzle together, he comes up against some hardened criminals, including the chainsaw-wielding ‘blond giant’ – a fearsomely huge thug who can feel no pain. Digging deeper, Blomkvist also unearths some heart-wrenching facts about Salander’s past life. Committed to psychiatric care aged 12, declared legally incompetent at 18, this is a messed-up young woman who is the product of an unjust and corrupt system. Yet Lisbeth is more avenging angel than helpless victim – descending on those that have hurt her with a righteous anger terrifying in its intensity and truly wonderful in its outcome.

Review:
Although not as great as The Girl With the Dragoon Tattoo, this book definitely is an exciting thriller. Full of twists and turns, it kept me on the edge of my seat and I read it in about a week- definitely a feat. Again, Larsson brings up topics that may make some readers uncomfortable, but I found them to be fascinating as it presents a part of the underworld that exists but isn’t well known. Once again, I found that the editing could have been a bit tighter as the book was quite long. But, I don’t quite know what I’d cut out, only that 500 pages is a long book. Nonetheless, I’m very much looking forward to the third book in this series that will be released this summer.

**** out of 5 stars

Synopsis:
When Molly Wizenberg’s father died of cancer, everyone told her to go easy on herself, to hold off on making any major decisions for a while. But when she tried going back to her apartment in Seattle and returning to graduate school, she knew it wasn’t possible to resume life as though nothing had happened. So she went to Paris, a city that held vivid memories of a childhood trip with her father, of early morning walks on the cobbled streets of the Latin Quarter and the taste of her first pain au chocolat. She was supposed to be doing research for her dissertation, but more often, she found herself peering through the windows of chocolate shops, trekking across town to try a new pâtisserie, or tasting cheeses at outdoor markets, until one evening when she sat in the Luxembourg Gardens reading cookbooks until it was too dark to see, she realized that her heart was not in her studies but in the kitchen.

At first, it wasn’t clear where this epiphany might lead. Like her long letters home describing the details of every meal and market, Molly’s blog Orangette started out merely as a pleasant pastime. But it wasn’t long before her writing and recipes developed an international following. Every week, devoted readers logged on to find out what Molly was cooking, eating, reading, and thinking, and it seemed she had finally found her passion. But the story wasn’t over: one reader in particular, a curly-haired, food-loving composer from New York, found himself enchanted by the redhead in Seattle, and their email correspondence blossomed into a long-distance romance.

In A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table, Molly Wizenberg recounts a life with the kitchen at its center. From her mother’s pound cake, a staple of summer picnics during her childhood in Oklahoma, to the eggs she cooked for her father during the weeks before his death, food and memories are intimately entwined. You won’t be able to decide whether to curl up and sink into the story or to head straight to the market to fill your basket with ingredients for Cider-Glazed Salmon and Pistachio Cake with Honeyed Apricots.

Review:
I wanted to love this book because of the sheer fact it was written by a blogger and I was so proud of her for getting a book deal. And, I can’t say that I hated it. I just didn’t love it as much as I wanted to. For starters, the whole book was read in my head with the voice of Amy Adams. I’m not sure why, other than that for some reason I kept relating the book back to the movie Julie & Julia. So, that being the case, in my head, I constantly heard that whining voice. Just like in the movie.

Beyond this, I did enjoy the format of short memoirs paired with the relating recipe. But, I do wish that there were some easier recipes and ones that were a bit healthier. Everything printed seemed to be for the more advanced cook and seemed to be very heavy either with cream or lots of sugar or tons of butter. Nothing that I’d cook on a regular basis.

Overall, I would recommend the book if you’re looking for a light, quick read and love cuisine.

***1/2 out of 5 stars

Synopsis:
January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb…

As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends — and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society — born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island — boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.

Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society’s members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.

Review:
This book was so, so charming. From just reading the title, I thought it would be somewhat silly. Thankfully, I was mostly wrong. I fell in love with several characters and the book actually taught me somethings about the Nazi occupation. It’s one of my favorite historical time periods to study and I found myself wanting to learn more. I did particularly enjoy the manner in which the story is written. A book composed entirely of letters made for an interesting read, albeit, occasionally choppy which left we wondering where the authors focus was. Additionally, the story is  somewhat predictable. Despite the fact that I inevitably knew how it would end, it didn’t make getting there any less enjoyable.

**** out of 5 stars

After reading and loving Three Junes, I couldn’t wait to pick up The Whole World Over. I truly wish I hadn’t.

Synopsis:
Greenie Duquette loves her cozy life in the West Village, her work as a pastry chef, and her precocious young son. But she is fed up with her husband, Alan, an underemployed psychotherapist whose once passionate beliefs are ossifying into reflexive bitterness. When, in early 2000, the brash Republican governor of New Mexico offers her a lucrative job, she jumps at it; Alan is free to follow her if he chooses. In Glass’s sprawling follow-up to her award-winning novel “Three Junes,” a dozen or so characters are plunged into the tumultuous dissatisfactions and challenges of middle age, their paths crossing and recrossing with a pleasing mixture of chance and inevitability.

Review:
What a disappointment. As in Glass’s previous novel, there are many different story lines, however, with each chapter I felt like I was reading a completely different novel. The connection between some characters is slim, at best, and Glass just didn’t master the flow between them. The characters aren’t very involving, and their stories don’t make you want to find out more about them. The story lumbers along and Glass finally does return to her great writing but it isn’t until the last 50 pages or so. The only reason I didn’t give this book 1-star is because of the last 50 pages which truly are beautifully written. Unfortunately, you have to get through 460 other pages to reach them!

** out of 5 stars.

I picked up this book at the recommendation of Erin of Elements of Style. She’s posted a few books she’s read and they are all on track with what I like so I figured I’d give it a whirl. I’m so glad I did!

Synopsis:
Cases rarely come much colder than the decades-old disappearance of teen heiress Harriet Vanger from her family’s remote island retreat north of Stockholm, nor do fiction debuts hotter than this European bestseller by muckraking Swedish journalist Larsson. At once a strikingly original thriller and a vivisection of Sweden’s dirty not-so-little secrets (as suggested by its original title, Men Who Hate Women), this first of a trilogy introduces a provocatively odd couple: disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist, freshly sentenced to jail for libeling a shady businessman, and the multipierced and tattooed Lisbeth Salander, a feral but vulnerable superhacker. Hired by octogenarian industrialist Henrik Vanger, who wants to find out what happened to his beloved great-niece before he dies, the duo gradually uncover a festering morass of familial corruption—at the same time, Larsson skillfully bares some of the similar horrors that have left Salander such a marked woman.

Review:
This book is a very smart thriller. After reading the first page, there was no turning back! With twists and turns, author  Stieg Larsson introduces different story lines that are totally unexpected and fit so perfectly. I found Larsson’s writing to be very easy to follow and I found myself genuinely liking several characters. The book isn’t short (clocking in around 500 pages) and I found the climax to feel a bit rushed, but the book definitely leaves you wanting more. Thankfully there’s two more books written by Larsson. Unfortunately, he passed away before he ever saw the success of his books and leaves us with just this trilogy.

**** 1/2 of 5 stars

I wish people were able to see and experience the good in others everyday and that our news could be filled with more stories like this instead of sadness.

Via: Design Mom
Image: flickr