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This topic has been done. And redone. And done again. Who does it best? Olivia Goldsmith tried, so did many, many others. Writing the parallel stories of four women (why four? Is it the magic number?) during a stressful period of their lives has been done so many times that all the women blend into one singly whiny woman in my brain.
Occasionally there is a book about four women that rises above the others and makes a fun read. Unfortunately this is not one of those books. It's not a bad read, it's just that the characters are extremely one-dimensional and very, very blah.
I didn't enjoy this book at all. In fact I'll venture my most candid opinion...I think I wasted my time reading it.
If your faith taught you that living in polygamy was the key to eternal salvation, what would you do? Follow it's tenets, although there are people who love you and want to be in a monogamous relationship with you. Strange and unbelievable as it may seem, Irene Spencer's tale of being a member of a polygamous Mormon splinter sect is wonderfully absorbing reading.
Spanning an era from the sixties to the eighties Shattered Dreams is the tale of a wife who learned to coexist with other women - her place in heaven was assured if she did that. This is not a tale of perversion or cultishness at all. Instead it is a story of how women share the same man with jealousy and discomfort, how they aid each other and hate each other and how their lives go on in poverty with little but faith to sustain them.
The Bellweather Prize is an award founded by Barbara Kingsolver to recognize works of social responsibility. Mudbound is one of the most harrowing novels I've read about life and racial tensions in the Deep South of the 1940s.
Each chapter is narrated by a different person. Written by a less gifted author this would have been a very scattered story. Every character in this book has his own unique voice, and therefore the story is very coherent and keeps the attention of the reader. This is a moving and wonderful book.
I should have a special category of books that keep me up past midnight when I have work the following day. If I ever do create such a category this book will be at the top of that list.
Couples in the trenches. That's what this book is about, and anyone who has a enwborn most certainly knows that diapers blindside you. The review on Barnes and Noble says "In Blindsided by a Diaper, some of today’s most popular writers dare to tell what it’s really like for couples in the trenches of the parenting experience. They boldly reveal intimate aspects of their relationships, sharing the choices they’ve made, the joy and frustrations they’ve experienced, the trials and tribulations of their sex lives, the lessons they have learned, and how their lives together as parents may or may not be what they were expecting. The writers have quite literally invited you inside their bedrooms, their minds, and their lives as parents."
And boy, what lives they lead. However, as most parents know whatever the life you lead, once you have a newborn your life becomes distressingly similar to all the other thousands of parents with newborns unless you have a round-the-clock nanny.
Fun and entertaining reading, and a good gift for the frazzled parents of a newborn or a toddler.
How many books exist around the fact that the author can write a whole story around one single question? All the whodunnits, I suppose, since the question is 'who did it?'. Lauren Groff writes "The Monsters of Templeton" around a girl's question: "Who's my father?". Her mother, not giving a a single (or two word - first and last name) answer sends her on a genealogical hunt among several dozens of departed ancestors. Oh, and the fact that the protagonist is an archaeologist is useful.
Apparently Stephen King recommends this book highly. I don't. It's disjointed, annoying and extremely difficult to get into. There are brief interesting spurts, but they run out of steam and the book is an overall boring read.
No stars for this one.
I don't wear perfume. So I really can't fathom what made me read this book since neither haute perfumes nor drugstore brands interest me at all. What was truly interesting about this book was the way that Chandler Burr interweaves the stories of the creation of two perfumes - one for the house of Hermes and the other for Sex and the City siren Sarah Jessica Parker.
An insider's view of the world of perfumes...who knew that most houses with signature scents commission one of a few companies to make their perfumes? All the day to day grind of creating an olfactory marvel is written here, and remarkably one feels like reading it instead of shelving it among a bunch of chemistry texts.
Something different and something new. Some kind of exotic blend of tea should be drunk while reading this. Certainly not your common variety of orange pekoe.
Another Terry Pratchett. What can I say? I've gone on a total binge because the books are so wonderfully funny. This book is the story of what happens when a dragon returns and claims the throne of Ankh-Morpork.
Where else except in these books would one fine a six-foot dwarf, a noble damsel of equally noble proportions and Sam Vimes of the Night Watch? Extremely entertaining and highly recommended. Thanks, Gayle!
