Love and Other Natural Disasters

Love and Other Natural Disasters

Holly Shumas

Genre: Women's Fiction

Summary (from Goodreads):  Eve is eight months pregnant and in the middle of a Thanksgiving celebration when she discovers that her husband Jonathan has developed an intimate relationship with a woman over the past year. Jonathon asserts his innocence (an affair involves physical intimacy, and he didn't have any), while Eve feels deeply betrayed by the emotional connection he shared with someone else. What Jon has done seems so terrifyingly out of character that Eve finds herself questioning her entire reality. Did she ever really know Jon at all? Was their happiness together a lie? Is emotional intimacy more forgivable than sexual intimacy? And can their marriage survive?

Review: The author of this book is a marriage counselor, and it definitely shows in this book.  Eve's feelings are well thought out, but the dialogue between Eve and Jon sounds like they are having their conversation in a marriage counselor's office.  Perhaps that's how normal couples talk, but not anybody I know.  I can see how this book would spark some interesting discussions in a book club, but I would have liked something more to happen.

Rating: 2.5 stars

The Funeral Dress

The Funeral Dress

by Susan Gregg Gilmore

Genre: Historical Fiction

Synopsis:  Emmalee Bullard is on her own with a new baby.  She has no husband, no running water in her house, no know-how about caring for an infant, and no help from her cruel father, who's furious she got herself into this situation.  Only Leona Lane, the older seamstress who sat beside her sewing collars on the neighboring machine at the local shirt factory, has befriended her.  Much to Emmalee's wonder, Leona even offers her a place to live.  But before Emmalee can jump at the chance for a better life, Leona is in a terrible accident, and her life is lost, along with Emmalee's chance for escape.

Emmalee decides that since nothing in Leona's closet is nice enough to wear for eternity, she'll make Leona's burying dress herself, though there are plenty of people who don't think someone who has so obviously sinned should design a dress for an upstanding woman-or care for a child on her own.  While relatives scheme to get custody of her baby and the local church tries to keep her away from Leona's funeral, Emmalee struggles to do what is right for her daughter and to honor Leona the best way she can, finding unlikely support among an indomitable group of seamstresses and the town's funeral director.  In this moving tale exploring Southern spirit, camaraderie among working women, and the power of compassion, a young mother compels a town to become a community with every stitch.

From the book jacket

Review:  This was a very touching story about how women take care of each other and watch over those in their community.  I really enjoyed reading about how so many women at the factory were willing to help Emmalee out even though she didn't know it.  I wasn't sure how much story would be in this book based on the description but the author does an amazing job of describing Leona's early life via flashback chapters and also describing earlier moments in Emmalee's life and showing how their two lives were connected more than Emmalee knew.  Character development is clearly one of the author's strengths because I could picture each character no matter if they were a kind woman from the factory or Emmalee's drunk father.  The one complaint I have with the story is Emmalee's speech.  The story takes place in the back country of Tennessee and Emmalee grew up in such squalor but she did attend school until she was almost 16.  But yet her grammar was not great and she used ain't all the time.  She sounded so much less educated than anyone else in the book.   Perhaps the author was trying to show how young Emmalee was compared to the other characters but her grammar did not help her be strong against other strong characters.

Rating:  4 stars

Long Way Gone

A Long Way Gone

by Ishmael Beah

Genre: Memoir

Synopsis:  My new friends have begun to suspect I haven't told them the full story of my life.
"Why did you leave Sierra Leone?"
"Because there is a war."
"You mean, you saw people running around with guns and shooting each other?"
"Yes, all the time."
"Cool."
I smile a little.
"You should tell us about it sometime."
"Yes, sometime."

This is how wars are fought now: by children, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s.  Children have become soldiers of choice.  In the more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child solidiers.  Ishmael Beah used to be one of them.

What is war like through the eyes of a child soldier?  How does one become a killer?  How does one stop?  Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists have struggled to imagine their lives.  But until now, there has not been a first-person account from someone who came through this hell and survived.

In A Long Way Gone, Beah, now twenty-five years old, tells a riveting story: how at the age of twelve, he fled attaching rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence.  By thirteen, he'd been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts.

This is a rare and mesmerizing account, told with real literary force and heartbreaking honestly.
From the ebook

Review:  This was a very eye-opening book about what has happened in various parts of Africa as Sierra Leone is not the only place where boys have been soldiers.  Beah writes this story in a fairly matter-of-fact manner.  He does interject some of his feelings and emotions but this story is more about him escaping from the rebels and traveling with groups of boys to try to find their parents and safety and then ultimately being drafted into the government army and trained to be a killer.  Most of the events when he was a soldier are his memories once he was "traded" to UNICEF so that he could be rehabilitated.  His story was compelling but also horrific.  Beah is an amazing young man and I commend him for sharing his story.  I am in awe of the courage that he showed as such a young man.  The ending did not seem like an ending though.  I really wanted to know what happened after he found his way to freedom.  The book just ended so abruptly.

Rating: 4 stars

New Money

New Money

by Lorraine Zago Rosenthal

Genre: Chick Lit

Synopsis:  Savannah Morgan had high hopes.  She dreamed of becoming a writer and escaping her South Carolina town, where snooty debutantes have always looked down on her, but at twenty-four, sh's become a frustrated ex-cheerleader who lives with her mother and wonders if rejecting a marriage proposal was a terrible mistake.

Then Savannah's world is shaken when she learns that the father she never knew is Edward Stone, a billionaire media mogul who has left Savannah his fortune on the condition that she move to Manhattan and work at his global news corporation.  Putting aside her mother's disapproval, Savannah plunges into a life of wealth and luxury that is threatened by Edward's other children-the infuriatingly arrogant Ned and his sharp-tongued sister, Caroline, whose joint mission is to get rid of Savannah.  She deals with their treachery along with her complicated love life: eventually she has to decide between Jack, a smooth and charming real estate executive, and Alex, a handsome aspiring writer/actor.  Savannah must also navigate a thrilling but dangerous city while trying to figure out what kind of man her father truly was.

From the book jacket

Review:  This was a good, quick summer read.  I enjoyed the story about Savannah moving to New York and learning how to adjust to society there.  There were quite a few characters who I didn't care for.  Her half siblings were nasty and unnecessarily cruel as was their mother.  I understand why they would be mad but the author took them to a whole other level.  I also thought that Tina, Savannah's best friend, was immature and annoying.  Savannah's relationships seemed to happen in the blink of an eye.  She would meet someone, i.e. her driver and Kitty, her sister-in-law, and be instant friends with them and everyone was giving everyone advice.  It seemed sudden and a little shallow to me.  There were humorous parts during this story but there were also serious parts where Savannah had to learn a lesson.  I did enjoy the book overall for it being a very light read.

Rating: 3 1/2 stars

Graduation Day

Graduation Day

by Joelle Charbonneau

Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Dystopian Fiction

Synopsis:  With the United Commonwealth teetering on the brink of all-out civil war, this is the moment to lead that the gifted student and Testing survivor Cia Vale has trained for.

Having discovered the brutal truth behind The Testing, she has vowed to end it once and for all.  As Cia plunges through layers of deception and danger, she must risk the lives of those she loves most and gamble on the loyalty of her lethal classmates.

The stakes are higher than ever-lives of promise cut short or fulfilled; a future ruled by fear or hope-in this electrifying conclusion to Joelle Charbonneau's epic Testing trilogy.

Ready or not...it's Graduation Day.

From the book jacket

Review: Something was missing in this book and I can't pinpoint what it was.  But there was something that didn't hold my interest.  There was lots of build up to the end mission but it was a lot of talk and planning and Cia trying to figure out what was the truth.  At times I was really confused by what Cia was struggling with.  Perhaps it was too much of Cia being charged with solving the whole Commonwealth's problem even thought she was just the youngest student on campus (which we are reminded of constantly).  While there was a satisfactory ending and an explanation of why things happened, I still didn't buy into why Cia had to be the one to solve everything.  I did enjoy the whole series and I would recommend it as a quick, dystopian trilogy.

Rating:  3 1/2 stars

Independent Study

Independent Study

by Joelle Charbonneau

Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Dystopian Fiction

Synopsis:  With her brutal Testing experience forgotten thanks to a government-issued memory wipe, seventeen-year-old Cia Vale is eager to begin her studies at the Commonwealth's elite University, as is Tomas, the boy she loves.

Their bright futures are threatened by the past,  however, when violent nightmares that feel more like memories force Cia to question reality and the true motives lurking behind the friendly faces of her classmates.

Embarking on a forbidden course of study that could get her killed, Cia delves into the Commonwealth's darkest secrets.  What she learns changes everything...

The Testing was just the beginning.

Review:  I enjoyed this book as a sequel to The Testing but it wasn't as action filled as the first book.  This book continued to raise questions for me regarding the underlying basis of the book: killing off the best and brightest of the colonies' youth to find the best leaders.  This just doesn't make sense when there aren't that many people who remain in the Commonwealth.  But just try to ignore that while reading!  This book is a good set up for the next book but it doesn't come to a satisfying conclusion.  It almost seems that this book was meant to be longer perhaps even as long as the second and third book put together!  Luckily I have the 3rd book in my hands to read right away.  Cia is a very strong heroine in this book but sometimes she just seemed too intelligent and too able to solve problems that no one else could.  She seems a little unrealistic.  I am still enjoying the series and I can't wait to find out how it concludes.

Rating:  3 1/2 stars

The Secret of Raven Point

The Secret of Raven Point

by Jennifer Vanderbes

Genre: Historical Fiction

Synopsis:  1943: When seventeen-year-old Juliet Dufrense receives a cryptic letter from her enlisted brother and then discovers that he's been reported missing in action, she lies about her age and travels to the front lines as an army nurse, determined to find him.  Shy and awkward, Juliet is thrust into the bloody chaos of a field hospital, a sprawling encampment north of Rome where she forges new friendships and is increasingly consumed by the plight of her patients.  One in particular, Christopher Barnaby, a deserter awaiting court-martial, may hold the answer to her brother's whereabouts-but the trauma of war has left him catatonic.  Racing against the clock, Juliet works with an enigmatic young psychiatrist, Dr. Henry Willard, to break Barnaby's silence before the authorities take him away.  Plunged into the horrifying depths of one man's memories of combat, Juliet and Willard are forced to plumb the moral nuances of a so-called just war and to face the dangers of their own deepening emotional connection.

From the book jacket

Review:  This book was enjoyable but did not live up to what it promised to deliver.  From the title and the summary, one would expect that there is a mystery surrounding Juliet's brother, something suspicious due to his cryptic letter, and that Juliet is going to do everything in her power to find her brother.  But yet this book is much more about Juliet's experiences as a nurse at the front line in Italy and reading about the horrors that went on.  Juliet does attempt to find out information about her brother but the letter mystery is not solved at all in the story and we are left unsatisfied.  If this book had been advertised as being a story about a nurse during WWII and nothing about her brother, I could have rated this book higher.  Another complaint I have with this book is character development.  Juliet does some things that are completely out of her character and I didn't feel like the change in her character was supported by the other events that transpired.

Rating: 3 1/2 stars