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Fiction Lovers - when we want to escape.
Check back often as these selections
are updated whenever we find great books we need to share!
Sweet & Crazy by Patty Dann
The world is a crazy place these days.
You never know what will happen.
You might lose someone you love.
You might find love next door.
You might discover your hometown is not the safe haven you
always thought it to be. All
of these happened unexpectedly to Hanna, and she’s doing the best
she can to keep up. Read the rest of
this review here.
 Sweet & Crazy
The Language of Light by Meg Waite Clayton
Click, flash, release – you’ve captured a moment in time.
Time is not something to be used carelessly.
It is something we will all run out of some day.
Nelly Grace has learned this hard lesson from people dear to
her heart. After suffering the loss of her husband, Nelly decides to make a
fresh start and moves with her two young boys to her great
grandparent's farm in Baltimore
horse country. Here
she is introduced to a much different way of life.
An intimate world centered around horse racing, fox hunting,
charity balls and old money. She
is befriended by the matriarch of the community, Emma Crofton, who
takes a very personal interest in her. Read
the rest of this review here.
The Language of Light
The Lovely Bones: A Novel by Alice Sebold
This
is an intriguing story written from a very unique perspective.
It is narrated by fourteen year old Susie, who was brutally murdered
and resides in heaven. Although it sounds creepy, it really is very well done.
Susie watches her family and friends deal with their grief and try
to move past the pain to live the rest of their lives.
It is the story of the family next door suffering an extraordinary
loss and making it through to the other side. And
it is the story of Susie living her youth vicariously through her sister
and close friends until she also learns to let go.
Just the author’s description of heaven alone makes this book
worth reading.
The Lovely Bones: A Novel
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood: A Novel by Rebecca Wells
This
is a very good read even though the movie version wasn’t a bit hit.
The story is about deep friendships and complex mother-daughter
relationships. The central character is Siddalee, a playwright on the verge of
marriage who has had a major falling out with her mother. Mom’s
best girlfriends, the ya-yas, give Siddalee their cherished scrapbook (“The
Divine Secrets”) in an attempt to reconcile the two.
As her mother’s youth is revealed in the pages, Siddalee learns to
better understand and appreciate her, and we are treated to wonderful stories
story along the way.
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood: A Novel
Eat Cake by Jeanne Ray
Ruth
loves cake. Baking them is
therapeutic – her version of yoga. She
makes one for every occasion whether there is a celebration or someone needs a
pick-me-up. Ruth finds herself
baking lots of cakes lately to help keep her sane.
In addition to dealing with her temperamental teenage daughter, college
son, irritable live-in mother and husband who recently lost his job, Ruth’s
estranged father re-enters her life in an unexpected way after he suffers from an
accident and needs someone to care for him as he recovers.
See how Ruth copes with the chaos with a little help from her cake. .
Some great cake recipes are included in the book.
Yummy!
Eat Cake
Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik
How
girlfriendbooks is this selection! It’s
a story about five girlfriends who start a book club.
The book club provides a relaxed setting for the women to get to know each
other better and leads to the type of friendships that every girlfriend places in
high regard. The ones where your
children grow up together, you share laughter and tears, and so on.
Perhaps these girlfriends can even be likened to a Sex in the City crew in
a
Minnesota
suburban housewifey kind of way.
Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons
Second Draft of My Life : A Novel by Sara Lewis
Charlotte is a
successful novelist who the general public has not quite discovered. Praised by critics but not able to actually
sell her books, Charlotte
decides to give up writing for the stability of an elementary school teaching
position. She will shape young minds;
she will be able to pay her rent; she will stop getting rejected. Of course, teaching doesn’t turn out exactly
as she envisioned, but it does show her that if you can survive it, you can
truly handle anything.
Second Draft of My Life : A Novel
The Only Girl in the Car: A Memoir by Kathy Dobie
This
is a coming of age story about a young woman exploring her sexuality and getting
burned by it. The oldest daughter of
a large Catholic family, Kathy was brought up in the 60s as a good girl.
However, as she reaches adolescence, Kathy begins discovering boys and a
whole new world. But the world of
sex and boys leads her into trouble and ultimately to a harrowing night as the
“only girl in the car”. The
incident leaves her emotionally scarred and ostracized by her peers, her
reputation ruined. However, during
this ordeal Kathy learns to turn her pain into writing and is able to emerge from
the wreckage in one piece. Not
exactly a light beach read, but a very interesting story about the confusion and
double standards surrounding the sexuality of a young woman.
The Only Girl in the Car: A Memoir
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur S. Golden
Many of
you have probably already enjoyed this wonderful book.
It’s a personal favorite of girlfriendbooks, and we wanted to put it out
there for those who may have missed it a few years back.
It tells
the story of its enchanting heroine, Sayuri, beginning with her days as a poor
girl in a fishing village, through her journey to become a well-known respected
geisha, and to her older age when she recounts her remarkable life story to a
publisher in
New
York
.
The old adage “write what you know” certainly doesn’t apply to this
American male author who somehow spun this wonderful and detailed story about
something he could never have come close to experiencing.
Be prepared for a bit of enlightenment; the life of a geisha may be much
different than you imagined.
Memoirs of a Geisha
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