The Magic Room

Jeffrey Zaslow has written a book capturing women and their families as they embark on buying a wedding dress / marriage at a small town shop, Beckers Bridal, in Fowler, MI. 

As soon as I saw this, I had to read it.  I went to Becker's to try on dresses for MY wedding.  While, I did not end up getting a dress there, I will say the shop is super cute and completely overwhelming with the amount of gowns!  I think I tried on 3 or 4 there and wasn't impressed and so we continued on to a couple other shops before I found my dress.

The book talks a lot about 'the one.'  I just never got that feeling, yet I completely adored my wedding dress.  I just never got the tears or breathlessness that others talk about.  I just though, hey it's what I was looking for, I look good in it.  Hmm, works for me!  But, I'm not a romantic.  I'm a realist.

"Couples are more successful in marriageif they see themselves as helpmates rather than soulmates. " pg. 20

I really agree with the above.  So many people stay single because they are searching for a 'soulmate' or someone who will knock them off their feet.  But marriage isn't always rosy and romantic.  It's work.  It's sharing the same ideals and goals.  It's supporting each other.  It's teamwork.

The book jumped back and forth with telling the history behind Beckers, statistics about marriage / women/families, and individual brides.  The beginning started out kind of slow but by the middle I was engrossed.

An Excerpt from the book's website

One hundred miles northwest of my home, in a tiny, rural town with one stoplight, I found a place where 100,000 daughters, along with their mothers and fathers, have found themselves reflecting on the word “love.”

It’s a place where, every day, parents can’t help but be enveloped by a swell of emotion as they think back to the love they felt when their daughters were little girls. They think ahead, too, contemplating the love needed to carry their daughters onward from here. These parents know the disappointments and betrayals associated with the word “love,” especially these days. They know the losses that define life. Still, most make their pilgrimage here with a sense of hope and optimism.

My favorite sections where when he talked about the individual brides and their journey to Beckers.

It was a quick read and I would recommend it to those who've made the search for a wedding gown, those who've dreamed of it and those who like the history of a place and a thriving family business.

I was given this book through Crazy Book Tours and all opinions are my own. 

Flat Out Love

Flat Out Love by Jessica Park is a modern quirky love story.  Julie Seagle moves to Boston for college and on her first day learns that the big city isn't always kind.  She and her mother were duped by a craigslist ad and her apartment that they put a deposit on, and first and last month's rent is non-existent. Thankfully, Julie has a sense of humor about the deal and her mother calls in a favor to her old college roommate, Erin Watkins and Erin and her family invite Julie to stay with them.

The Watkins house is a bit different than Julie's home.  Especially since a cardboard cut out joins them for dinner and not one eye is raised.  Thirteen-year-old Celeste apparently has issues with her brother Finn being away and to cope, has made herself a Flat Finn.  Matt, Celeste's brother, is an extremely smart math dork who is as charming as he is annoying.  Roger, the dad, is a bit absent and out there, but a really kind-hearted father figure when he's around.  Erin, the mom, is emotionally distanced and a little in her own world.

Julie settles in with the Watkins and falls in love with them all. Of course, she must fix all of their problems and starts communication with Finn, to learn the ins and outs of his family and to try to get Celeste okay with him being gone.

Of course, there is drama, and of course nothing is as it seems.  However, it is as it all seems if you are paying attention to the painfully obvious clues.  I figured out what the big secret in the family was fairly early on.  It was an okay book but sometimes, I had to shake my head that a real person wouldn't be THAT dumb and oblivious.  Then at the end I had such HIGH hopes that a book wouldn't end with all the worlds problems solved and then of course we had to add in the last chapter and fix all the world's problems.  But besides that, it was a quick easy read and those that enjoy YA would probably really enjoy this book as well!

The banter between Matt, Celeste and Julie is great and overall, all the character parts are well developed and executed well.  My only issues are with believability.

I received this book from Crazy Book Tours.  All thoughts and feelings are mine and mine alone!
Check out what other people thought of the book here.

Author & Book Information:

Jessica Park is the author of FLAT-OUT LOVE, the young adult novel RELATIVELY FAMOUS, five Gourmet Girl mysteries (written as Jessica Conant-Park) and the e-shorts FACEBOOKING RICK SPRINGFIELD and WHAT THE KID SAYS (Parts 1 & 2). She grew up in the Boston area and then went to Macalester College in frigid St. Paul, Minnesota. During her freshman year, there was a blizzard on Halloween, and she decided that she was not cut out for such torture. So she moved back to the east coast where, she'd forgotten, it still snows. Oops. She now lives in New Hampshire with her husband, son, bananas dog named Fritzy, and two selfish cats. When not writing, she is probably on Facebook , pining over 80s rock stars, or engaging in "Glee" activities. Or some combination of the three. Probably with a coffee in hand.


Jessica loves to hear from readers and does her best to get back to everyone who writes her! You can e-mail her HERE. Tell her about your ex-boyfriend who was a font nerd. Or send pictures of awesome Flat People on adventures. (You get bonus points for this. Possibly some sort of award, too.) Stories of online romance. Apartment rental disasters. Skydiving experiences... Whatever you want.
And like any normal person, she has an online addiction, so you can find her on FACEBOOK, GOODREADS, TWITTER, and blogging at What the Kid Says about her kooky conversations with her son. Her young adult book, RELATIVELY FAMOUS, has its own website (greedy book!), so stop by for more info.

The good daughters

This was a moving well-written book that switched perspectives between Ruth and Dana, birthday sisters born on the same day in the same hospital. This bond (more or less forced by Ruth's mother Connie) keeps pulling them together randomly about once a year while they grow up and a bit more sporadically as they grow up.

Each chapter is a snippet of one of the girl's life at a certain time and then the next chapter is a snippet of the others around that same time period.

For two girls born on the same day in the same small town, they are quite different. Ruth is tall and skinny, an outcast in her family. Her mother and her sisters all seem to bond and get along but not with Ruth. No matter what she does her mother always makes her feel like an outsider or that her amazing art skills are just that amazing. Connie is quick to remind others of Ruth's sister's Snoopy drawing and how it was included in the paper before giving Ruth credit for her skill.

Dana has a complete helter skelter family life. She and her mother, father and brother move frequently and her dad is always hopeful is next idea will hit it big. Her mother Dana is an artist who buys every Barbie possible for Dana who only unwraps them when Ruth Plank comes to visit. At a very young age Dana realizes she likes other girls and that this isn't something other little girls find normal. She loves growing things and works hard to save money to put herself through college.

I will say that the 'problem' of the story was completely figured out by me by page 17 but it didn't make the journey of their tale any less interesting. I really enjoyed it and would read other books by this author.

Do you know someone who was born on the same day/same hospital as you?

I received this book from Crazy Book Tours and all thoughts and opinions are mine!

Sing You Home

Once again Jodi Picoult is able to use controversial topics (same sex marriage, IVF, when an embryo becomes a person etc.) and make the reader think, as well as feel, for those being wronged.

I liked Sing You Home much better than the last of Picoult's books I've read (House Rules/ Harvesting the Heart). I put it on par with my liking of Salem Falls and Plain Truth. My faves by her are The Pact and Nineteen Minutes. It has the typical medical issues, courtroom drama and is told by different points of view.

Picoult has written Zoe Baxter as a very likable main character. She has an honorable career as a music therapist where she helps burn victims, dementia patients and many other vulnerable and hurting people. Max, her counterpart, has his moments, but he is the typical spineless character who grows up through the novel. Also, his conversion into the church is so eye-roll worthy to me and not because it is done poorly but because I just don't understand when people undergo those type of oh I almost died and have been doing terrible things like relapsing into my alcoholic stupor but yay God!

The subject matter is controversial and I would warn my friends suffering through infertility about picking up the book. Infant loss is also mentioned which can also be upsetting to some. Personally, as being pregnant those aspects of the book did not upset me.

I found the same-sex marriage issue was handled in a respectful accurate manner (from what I know). Unless, of course, you are as close minded and stupid as the Eternal Glory Church or the likes of Hannity /Rush who are mentioned in the book.

I found I laughed, I cried and I said heck yes, that guy is an idiot and you go girl. So it is a winner. This would make a fabulous book club book and invokes a LOT of questions. However, it could also make a lot of book clubs split down the middle and it could get ugly.

Some complaints, I was sad there wasn't any follow up with her elderly patient Mr. Docker. In one section Max's brother's name, Reid, is spelled differently than the rest of the book (could be an ARC thing), I couldn't stand the attorney referring to the embryos as pre-born children and I was sad that my ARC copy did not include teh CD that is supposed to accompany the novel. I am sure that will be a great addition. Also, obviously it is fiction but the issues were real, but the timeline on everything was a bit insane. I mean Zoe loses a baby, divorces and becomes a lesbian within 6 months?

I most definitely recommend this book, it is fairly predictable with a few surprises. Overall, it is a fascinating look into the same-sex marriage debate and why the heck anyone cares who others sleep with. (But heck we do love our gossip mags, so I suppose that helps answer why some people think a person's personal sex life is important to anyone NOT in the relationship. But really who cares??) Sorry, I could rant all day.

In other words, check it out when it comes out March 1st. ;)

I received an ARC copy from Crazy Book Tours all thoughts and opinions are mine alone.

I'd Know You Anywhere

This was a really interesting book. Eliza is a stay-at-home mom and wife that has just recently relocated with her family to Maryland, near where she grew up. This move home brings memories of the year she was 15 forefront in her mind and in the minds of others.

When she was 15, Elizabeth Lerner was abducted and kept by Walter Bowman for close to 40 days. The whole relationship between Elizabeth and Walter is strange complex and a little weird. Elizabeth finally was found when they were pulled over by a state trooper for driving too slow.

Now that she is a mother herself she constantly worries about her children and how to make them feel safe. They have a security system that they religiously use, they never sleep with windows open and she constantly knows where they are. They have no idea what happened to their mother when she was 15 and Eliza would like to keep it that way.

However, Walter finds her and thinks Elizabeth may be his one way to avoid the death penalty, because his third appointment with death is quickly approaching and he will do anything to be spared his life. He finds Elizabeth and makes contact with her. Eliza responds because she knows Walter only gets more dangerous when he is ignored and she doesn't want her new identity/story exposed.

Overall, I enjoyed the book but there were some parts where I just think it was a little 'eh.' The build up for what Eliza remembers that night makes you think something HUUUGE and then you get to that part and you are like, uhhh what? Yeah, that was a bit of a disappointment. However, it was fascinating to see how they communicated and how Elizabeth has a 15 year old knew how to handle Walter to keep her safe. But it also made you wonder why she never ran away and why she was a little too forgiving and a little too willing to let Walter re-enter her life. But then again, she didn't want her children or her life to be disturbed.

This is definitely a book for those who like a little suspense but really isn't 'just a mystery' it shows how the characters are impacted by crime. You learn little back stories about secondary characters and even if they weren't a main player in the crime how they were affected.

What's the last book you read that was slightly related to real events?

I received this book from Crazy Book Tours, but all opinions/thoughts are mine.

Cleopatra

Description: Her palace shimmered with onyx and gold, but was richer still in political and sexual intrigue. Above all else, Cleopatra was a shrewd strategist and an ingenious negotiator. Though her life spanned fewer than forty years, it reshaped the contours of the ancient world.

She was married twice, each time to a brother. She waged a brutal civil war against the first when both were teenagers. She poisoned the second. Ultimately she dispensed with an ambitious sister as well; incest and assassination were family specialties. Cleopatra appears to have had sex with only two men. They happen, however, to have been Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, two of the most prominent Romans of the day. Both were married to other women. Cleopatra had a son with Caesar and--after his murder--three more with his protégé. Already she was the wealthiest ruler in the Mediterranean; the relationship with Antony confirmed her status as the most influential woman of the age. The two would together attempt to forge a new empire, in an alliance that spelled their ends. Cleopatra has lodged herself in our imaginations ever since.

Famous long before she was notorious, Cleopatra has gone down in history for all the wrong reasons. Shakespeare and Shaw put words in her mouth. Michelangelo, Tiepolo, and Elizabeth Taylor put a face to her name. Along the way the supple personality has been lost. In a masterly return to the classical sources, Stacy Schiff here boldly separates fact from fiction to rescue the magnetic queen whose death ushered in a new world order a generation before the birth of Christ. Rich in detail, epic in scope, Schiff 's is a luminous, deeply original reconstruction of a dazzling life

Very rarely do I pick up a book and not finish it. Mainly, because I only read things that appeal to me. However, my attempt at reading Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff, failed miserably by page 15.

I really wanted to learn more about her and the time period but the writing was so dry and the names confused me because I could not frankly stay engaged. I'm sad to report this and would love to know if someone was able to read it all or farther than me and share some insight.

I received this book from Crazy Book Tours. All opinions are mine.

Have you read any books on Cleopatra? Watched any movies? What was the last book you read that you just had to put down?

Every Last One

The following post is the not the post I thought I was going to write yesterday. Yesterday, I was floating around in my pool thinking.. this sure is beautiful writing but we need a little something more. Quindlen does an excellent job of introducing the characters and their flaws, slowly releasing new details and uncovering secrets of the Latham family and of the narrator, Mary Beth Latham the mother. However, it was getting a little ho-hum and I was a little perturbed that I had already deduced in my head what ws going to happen. (Random factoid of me, I will read a books description when I decide if I will read it again and then never again. So by the time I read it, I have no idea what I am supposed to be reading.)

Then I moved from the pool to the tiki bar as the boys played video games in the late afternoon sun. The book moved into the climax the thing everything I had read was building for. When the reviews say it is breathtaking, they are not lying.

I then had to move to the hammock so the boys would not tease me for crying at a silly book. A book they kept trying to read the back cover of loudly and in annoying voices. Mary Beth truly endures one of the hardest things a woman/wife/parent ever faces and you (the reader) are taken on the journey with her. You cry for her. You want to scream for her. You want to shake her. You feel for her.

Sure, there are spots in the book where you want someone to scream and say YES you are partly to blame. You should have seen the signs. You should have stood up for your daughter. You should have been more firm. But at the end of the day, you never really know how your actions are going to affect the lives around you. Just as the butterfly wings in Mexico beating may cause the wind to blow on your face many miles away, the things you do or don't may affect your future forever and ever.

I think one of my favorite parts about this book is that the characters have real flaws. You recognize the every day flaws they have that you have, that your siblings have and it makes it a very believable story even when you are wondering how anyone could have ignored so many warning signs. Wonder how some could be so cavalier with sleeping pills and when their teenagers come and go. But you know, that is life. It's what happens and you can't over worry and you can't over protect. What will happen, will no matter how many ways you protect yourself from it.

"All that tread the globe are but handful to the tribes that slumber in its bosom." - William Cullen Bryant

Beautiful real characters and a beautifully told story.

I received a copy of this ARC from Crazy Book Tours. All opinions are my own.

Don't forget to suggest a book for September's Group Read.