Chaos Is A Friend of Mine

Book Review: The Queen of Babble

Queen of Babble by Meg Cabot
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lizzie Nichols has a problem - she can’t help spilling secrets. When she decides to spend the summer in London with her boyfriend, she accidentally gets him trouble with her big mouth and they break up. She ends up spending the summer in the South of France, working with her best friend catering weddings at a chateau.

This was a fun, lighthearted piece of chick-lit. Even though Lizzie doesn’t always make the best decisions, she’s funny and likable and I was rooting for her all the way through the book. Sometimes in these types of books the clueless heroine stresses me out so much that I can’t enjoy the story (e.g. the Shopaholic books) but that was not true in this case.

I listened to the audio version of this book. It’s narrated by Justine Eyre who also narrated Cabot’s Heather Wells mystery series. She does a great job with all the required accents – American, English and French.

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Powell's Books

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Book Review: The Weird Sisters

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The three Andreas sisters have all come back to the small town they grew up in and moved back in with their parents under the pretense of helping their ailing mother. However, they're really all running away from something: Rose, the caretaking, controlling oldest sister is avoiding her increasing stressful relationship; Bean, the middle sister struggling to form her own identity is running from troubles at her job; and Cordy, the vagabond youngest sister, is unmarried and pregnant.

Shakespeare references are found throughout the book. The sisters are all named after characters in Shakespeare plays and their father, a college professor, prefers to communicate by quoting Shakespeare instead of using his own words. I don't know much about Shakespeare beyond Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet but that didn't detract from my enjoyment of this book. (Although if you are a Shakespeare expert, you will enjoy it that much more I'm sure.) Sometimes the sisters didn't even understand what their father was trying to say!

This book was just wonderful! The author did a fantastic job of making each sister a believable, sympathetic three dimensional character. I could relate to some aspect of each sister. The author tells us their story in a unique way - the book is narrated by all three sisters in first person at the same time, as if they were one person. It sounds strange but it really works to show how close the sisters are and how intertwined their lives are whether they like it or not. Overall, this was a beautifully written engaging story.

The Weird Sisters is published by Amy Einhorn Books and therefore part of the Amy Einhorn Books Perputual Challenge. I received a copy courtsey of the author via a giveawy hosted on Beth Fish Reads.

*Buy this book at:
Amazon
The Kindle Store
Powell's Books

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Book Review: My Name Is Memory

My Name Is Memory by Ann Brashares
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Daniel is one of the rare people in the world who has "the memory". In other words, he remembers all his past lives and can recognize the souls of people he knew in those lives. He's spent life after life looking for Sophia, a girl he fell in love with in his first life. Some times he finds her, some times he doesn't. Somehow in all his many lives, circumstances have never worked out for Daniel and Sophia to be together without tragedy.

The story alternates between Daniel's past lives and his present day life where he has found Sophia and enrolled in the same high school as her. But how does he convince her that he's not crazy and that they have a long history together? It's a beautiful love story and towards the last half also very suspenseful and action packed. I was so absorbed I finished it in two days. I couldn't stop thinking about Daniel and his unique condition. I think this would make a great book club selection.

HOWEVER, the ending was terrible! It was very abrupt and jarring - like the author just decided to stop writing. I've seen many places on the Internet that indicate there will be a sequel and other places that state this is the first book in a trilogy but I wasn't able to find anywhere where the author or publisher confirmed this. (If you have please let me know!) So my five-star review is contingent on there being a sequel. If there isn't, then I would downgrade to four stars, maybe lower.

*Buy this book at:

Amazon
Powell's Books

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January Reading Challenge Update

I'm keeping good on my plan to do a monthly update post to track where I'm at on my challenges. Here's where I am one month into 2011.

I'm signed up to read five books in the 2011 South Asian Challenge:

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2.
3.
4.
5.

I'm signed up for six audio books in the 2011 Audio Book Challenge:

1. Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

I signed up for six e-books in the 2011 E-Book Challenge: 

1.
2.
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4.
5.
6.

The categories in the What's In A Name 4 challenge are:

1. A book with a number in the title - Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot
2. A book with jewelry or a gem in the title
3. A book with a size in the title
4. A book with travel or movement in the title - The Art of Racing In The Rain by Garth Stein
5. A book with evil in the title
6. A book with a life stage in the title

I signed up for three books in the 2011 2nds Challenge which challenges readers to read a second book by an author you've read before:

1.
2.
3.

 Bart's Bookshelf is hosting the TwentyEleven Challenge. I need to read two books in nine of the categories and one book in two of the categories:

1. To YA or not YA… (I think I read mostly adult fiction so I'll read YA for this category.)
   
2. …With a Twist. (Read a sub-genre you don't normally read. This will be hard because I read almost everything!)
   
3. Hot off the Presses. (Read a book published in 2011.)
4. It Wasn’t Me! (Read a book you've chosen based on a blogger's recommendation.
5. Show it Who is Boss! (Read a book from your TBR pile as of 12/31/10.)
   Lover Awakened by JR Ward and Lover Revealed by JR Ward (reviews coming soon)
6. Bablefish. (Read a translated book.)
   
7. Will-Power? What Will-Power? (Read a book you bought in 2011.)
   
8. Mind the Gap. (Read a book you need finish a series.)
   
9. Back in the Day. (Re-read a favorite book.)
   
10. Way Back When. (Read a book published before you were born.)
    
11. Slim-Pickings (Read a book between 90-150 pages.)

There are ten books in The Vampire Chronicles Reading Challenge hosted by Book Chick City:

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8.
9.
10.

 

Book Review: The Art of Racing in the Rain

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Enzo is a highly evolved dog who dearly loves his owner Denny. On the eve of his death, Enzo recalls his life with Denny which started when Denny was single. Enzo saw Denny through getting married, the birth of his daughter Zoe and great tragedy and adversity throughout their time together.

The Art of Racing In the Rain was my book club, Conversati-om's, January pick. I was a bit apprehensive about it because 1)I am ambivalent toward dogs 2)I do not like car racing. I think it's a true testament to the power of this book's story that I loved it anyway. The racing parts were brief and mostly used as metaphors so I was not bothered by them. And I kept forgetting Enzo was a dog, he was so insightful as a narrator. On the brief occasions that he did do something dog-like, it caught me off guard. I thought the author did a great job of explaining the rational behind Enzo's actions when he did do something that I wouldn't think a highly evolved dog would do - like tearing up Zoe's stuffed animals.

I was totally caught up in Denny's journey throughout this book. I don't want to give to much away but my stomach was in knots for him at times. This the first book by Garth Stein that I've read - I'm looking forward to reading more.

Book Review: Hungry for Happiness

Hungry for Happiness by James Villas
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hungry for Happiness is the story of Loretta Crawford, a 36-year old woman who's husband leaves her for another, thinner woman. Loretta decides to change her life and starts by having lap band surgery. Before her surgery she weighed 280 pounds (and was only 5'4"). Even though Loretta is losing weight, she still loves to cook and word gets around that she's one of the best cooks around. Soon she has her own catering business. Also, as she loses more and more weight, she catches the eye of more and more men.

I noticed some reviewers didn't like Loretta's Texas dialect and thought it was over the top. I'm not Texan so I can't say for sure if it was realistic but even if it wasn't I thought it was charming and funny.

I think the overall message of this book was that there are no simple solutions to life's problems. Loretta thinks that weight loss surgery and losing weight will automatically make her happy but she doesn't realize that she has underlying issues that caused her to gain the weight in the first place. However, I don't feel like Loretta ever really understood that and I would have expected her to eventually have some sort of revelation. This book started out with a bang and ended with kind of a whimper.

Some of Loretta's recipes are in the back of the book. A couple I probably won't try because they are just too over the top fattening. For instance, the bread crumbs in her meatloaf are soaked in heavy cream! Her chili recipe looks really good but I'll have to wait until Snowpocalypse is over before I can get to the store to buy the ingredients. I'll be sure and post about it after I make it.

Thank you to the publisher and the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program for providing me with a copy of this book.

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Book Review: Size 12 Is Not Fat

Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Size 12 Is Not Fat is the first book in the Heather Wells mystery series. Heather Wells is a former teen popstar. Her record label fired her when she decided she wanted to write her own songs and her mother ran off with her manager and her money. She's started a new job as the assistant director of a residence hall at New York College and plans to go back to school as well. When two girls who live in the residence hall are killed, the police chalk it up to elevator surfing accidents. Heather suspects foul play and since no one will listen, she takes it upon herself to investigate.

Luckily, I've already read the third book in this series so I know it gets better than this first book. Heather is a sweet, charming character but the mystery storyline in this book is pretty ridiculous. There's no way that police would not do more of an investigation on why/how these girls died. Even Heather's private investigator landlord refuses to acknowledge that foul play may have been involved - I don't think so.

I listened to the audio version of this book. The narrator did a good job and it was fun to listen to. However, every time Heather thinks or says "dorm" she corrects herself and says, "I mean, residence hall." That got REALLY grating after a while. That's not the narrator's fault of course but I wonder if it would have been as annoying in print. And who cares whether you call it a dorm or residence hall?

If you read this book and are not impressed, I recommend sticking with the series anyway - it'll get better!

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Book Review: The Bake Sale Murder

Bake Sale Murder by Leslie Meier
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Bake Sale Murder is a cozy mystery that is the 13th book in the Lucy Stone Mystery series. I didn't have any trouble jumping right in without having read any of the previous books in the series.

Lucy Stone is a reporter for the Pennysaver in her small town, Tinker's Cove, Maine. One morning she discovers her neighbor Mimi stabbed to death in her kitchen. At the same time, Lucy is investigating allegations of hazing against the high school football coach that are being made in anonymous letters sent to the Pennysaver office.

This book was mildly entertaining but did not have the "can't put down til I find out who did it" factor that I feel mysteries should have. The characters were superficial and the writing perfunctory. Everything came together too quickly at the end with a lot of dragging through the middle.

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Book Review: The Stupidest Angel

The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror by Christopher Moore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Stupidest Angel is the story of young Joshua Barker, a seven-year old boy who thinks he saw Santa Claus getting murdered. A hapless but well-meaning angel attempts to grant Joshua his Christmas miracle with disastrous results that send the whole town into chaos.

I think you either get Christopher Moore and love him or you don’t and hate him. Oh, how I love Christopher Moore. I love, love, love dark absurd humor that doesn’t make any sense and his books are packed full of it. This book has the best line EVER in it:

“No one knows why, but second only to eating the brains of the living, the dead love affordable prefab furniture.”

I thought about this book for days after I finished it and laughed every time. It’s not a traditional Christmas classic and that’s why it’s wonderful.


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Book Review: The Beach House

The Beach House by Jane Green
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Nan is an eccentric old woman who lives in Nantucket in huge rambling home. When her investments tank and she is in need of money, she decides to rent out rooms in her home over the summer. Between her two boarders and her son Michael who moves back home she brings together a motley group of people – all of whom are facing major transitions of one kind or another in their lives.

Although this was overall a good story, I had a few issues with it. First of all, Jane Green’s editor still doesn’t think it’s important to check that the American dialogue is authentic. Just like in Swapping Lives, the characters talked using British phrasing and slang. It was worse this time and very distracting. A thirteen year old girl, after getting a babysitting gig exclaims, “I’ve never had a proper job before!” The characters all said proper all the time actually. And one character who was arguing with another said they were having a “row”. It took me out of the story almost every time.

Another problem I had was that when one of the characters ends up being gay, everyone comments that they were not surprised; they always knew that character was gay. But no one ever says why or how they knew that character was gay. The character doesn’t act stereotypically gay so I felt like Green should have delved more into why no one was surprised.

I listened to The Beach House in the car. The book is structured so that it switches among the different characters perspectives every few paragraphs. The narrator wouldn’t pause at all between paragraphs where the character changed and that could get confusing. Other than that I thought the narration was good.

There was a lot of serendipity in the way that everything that happened throughout the book ended up intertwining and it all came together and wrapped up in a neat package at the end. I actually like that sometimes so I was okay with it – especially for a car book, I don’t want to get too upset while I’m driving over a sad ending!


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