What Nora Knew by Linda Yellin

I would consider my latest read, What Nora Knew by Linda Yellin, to be chick lit.  I am not usually a big fan of chick lit because I feel that books in this genre often lack substance.  While I certainly don't think that every book I read needs to be great literature, I also don't want to feel like I have wasted my time on fluff.  What Nora Knew wasn't like that.  It was fun and romantic and girly.  I knew while I was reading it that it would qualify as chick lit, but I really enjoyed it anyway.

Molly is a divorced magazine writer just on the verge of turning 40.  She has turned into quite the cynic when it comes to love and has stopped looking for anything truly special.  As a matter of fact, at the start of the book she is dating a man for whom all her friends and family believe she has settled.  He's nice; he's reliable; he has a good job and they get along well enough.  At one point she struggles with the thought that this man is the best she can do.  She actually asks, "Isn't somebody better than nobody?"  It makes me so sad to hear when a woman believes she should take whatever she can get.  Luckily for this book, there are plenty of strong female characters to make up for Molly's brief lack of backbone with this statement.  Later in the novel she redeems herself with: "I have long been an advocate of staying home with a good book over going out with a bad date."  That is much more along my line of thought.

So what does "Nora" have to do with it all?  Molly has been assigned to write about love in the style of Nora Ephron.  We've all seen When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle and those are to be Molly's inspiration for an article about falling and staying in love.  Sadly, Molly has lost all faith in that kind of love and so it becomes a difficult assignment for her.  In the meantime, she makes the acquaintance of a very popular crime novel author.  Each time she runs into Cameron Duncan, he is with a different woman and so she believes she knows all about him.  It is through him and through her article assignment that Molly learns far more about herself.  I enjoyed this book and I was always quick to get back to it.  It would make a nice beach read or if you are simply looking for something lighter and a little romantic. 

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Oh, dear.  It's not as though I wasn't expecting a book about teenagers with cancer to make me cry.  Come on, we all know I'm a huge cry baby, and I don't hide from that.  And yet, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green wiped me out last night.  I climbed in bed early about halfway through the book expecting to read a little, but as I literally read it and wept, I couldn't put it down.  I stayed up much too late to finish, but it was totally worth it.  A re-read will most certainly be in my future.

Hazel is a sixteen-year-old girl with a terminal form of lung cancer.  Her parents are worried that she doesn't have enough friends and so they force her to attend a support group with other teenage cancer patients.  She would much rather stay home, hang out with her parents and watch endless episodes of America's Next Top Model, but her parents want more for her.  At one meeting, Hazel is introduced to Augustus who is a cancer survivor.  He survived and his odds of recurrence are very low, but he did lose one of his legs to the disease.  And since this is a Young Adult novel, the two begin a relationship.  But don't forget, it's a book about teenagers with cancer.  Teenagers.  With cancer.  Of course, I'm not going to spoil it for you, but I do want you to remember the premise of the book before you get too invested.  Not that you shouldn't read it, you should just be sure you have stocked up on the tissues.  And Gatorade- it's a good idea to hydrate.

I loved this book.  I loved the characters.  One of my big complaints about a lot of YA fiction is that it is so superficial, so light with so little meat.  This was not like that.  These teenagers are smart and aware of the world and their place in it.  And perhaps that is part of the fiction, but I'll take it because I far prefer it to some of the characters I've read it other books.  There are so many quotes I would love to share with you, but as my Kindle informs me I have thirty-four highlights, I won't.  It would be too much and I wouldn't want to ruin the book for you.  There are so many things that I can't wait to discuss with someone who has read this.  So, Smart Girl, hurry up and read it so we can talk about it!

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

It would be far too easy to compare the main character in The Rosie Project  by Graeme Simsion to Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory, but it is also nearly impossible not to picture that tall, odd character when reading about Professor Don Tillman.  Don describes himself as weird and "incompatible with other people".  He knows that he is socially awkward and that his mannerisms and brain function are outside the norm.  He appears not to have a problem with this fact, but instead works with it.  When he decides that it is time he should find a wife, Don commences The Wife Project.  He builds a questionnaire that will weed out all of the inappropriate or undesirable candidates.  The project doesn't go exactly as planned, but it does introduce him to Rosie.  He knows immediately that she is  unsuitable as a partner, but he finds himself creating a project to help Rosie identify her biological father.  Logically, he should not want to spend more time with her, but he is surprised to see how much he enjoys her company.  

I adored this book.  Don is awful and sweet and maddening and lovable at the same time.  I really enjoy smart characters and I'm not sure they get smarter than Don.  When he was worried he might be becoming a "typical computer geek", he decided he should switch his focus of study to genetics where he rose to the top ranks of his field.  He has a brilliant mind, but he struggles in all social situations.  Rosie has so many of her own difficulties, but the more the reader learns about her, the more wonderful she becomes.  I have read criticism of this book that it makes light of people living on the Autism spectrum, but I feel like the humor in this book is aimed at Don specifically, not at anyone else.  You will love Don.  You will hope for these characters.  Lately I have felt as though I have been in a reading funk, but these last two books just may be pulling me out of it.  Read them both- you won't regret it!

The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow by Rita Leganski

Occasionally I come across a book that makes me wonder what kind of magic this writer must posses.   And I do believe it is a form of magic, this architecture of language into something so beautiful that I feel I must read bits of it aloud just to better savor the author's words.   The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow  by Rita Leganski is one such gem.  The way Ms. Leganski frames the thoughts she presents is magical.  Bonaventure Arrow is a boy born without speech, but with incomparable hearing.  At first his hearing only extends to his mother's heart beat across the room.  Soon he can hear across the house, across town and eventually across space and time.  "They didn't know that through his remarkable hearing he would bring salvation to the souls of those who loved him."

This book begins with a sweet whirlwind romance which then turns to explore the themes of loss, guilt, love and grief.  "They lay entwined and thought themselves alone.  But that is one thing they most definitely were not, for Bonaventure had begun.  The cells of his body were doubling and doubling again..."  It is so difficult to not give away any little bit, but I don't want to take anything away from this story.  I love this book and it will most certainly need to be reread.  It is only the first book I've read this year, but it will be a tough one to top.  

Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen

 

The release date of Sarah Addison Allen's newest book, Lost Lake , is only three weeks away and I can tell you that it does not disappoint.  Thank you Goodreads for the Advance Readers' Edition.  Even if I hadn't won this book, I would have bought it right away.  If you haven't had the pleasure of an introduction to Ms. Allen's work, now is the time to change that.  Her characters are rich and filled with magic.  These books may just be the thing to help you through the post holiday doldrums.

 

Lost Lake  follows Kate, a newly widowed mother of a young daughter as she tries to find herself after a year of mourning.  She takes her daughter Devin to visit the lake resort of her Great-Aunt Eby whom she has not seen since she was a child herself.  It is here that Kate fully wakes up to the world around her, Eby realizes how important she still is to the people in her small town and in her newly reunited family, and Devin discovers a magic alligator intent upon saving them all.

 

I loved the flashbacks to Eby's 1962 honeymoon in Paris and how in love she and her husband George were.  "He could have had his pick of beautiful belles....But he'd loved only Eby.  You didn't need a mirror to tell you that you were beautiful when you had proof like that."  Kate doesn't have the same feelings regarding her young marriage, but she is still heartbroken at its loss.  Devin is a free-spirited child with her own sense of style.  "She loved wearing stripes with polka dots, and tutus, and pink and green socks with orange patent-leather shoes.  Devin could[n't] care less what people thought about her."

 

And as in any family, there is drama and conflict.  Kate's mother-in-law, Cricket, swoops in to take over after the death of her son.  She has very specific plans for Kate and Devin and those plans certainly don't include tutus or dress up clothes or butterfly wings.  She orchestrates the sale of the business that Kate had run with her husband as well as the house Kate had inherited from her mother so that Kate and Devin can move in with her.  Eby's extended honeymoon was seen as an escape as she and George tried to avoid Eby's family's feelings of entitlement to George's money.  When they must finally return home, it is not to the welcome she had imagined.

 

 

I always enjoy reading books by Sarah Addison Allen and I eagerly anticipate each release.  This is the first book that she has published after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011.  Her readers are certainly grateful to have her back.  I will leave you with this one last quote from which I think we can all learn:

 

"The trick to getting through life, she'd told him, is not to hate it when it isn't exactly how you think it should be."  

Roomies by Sara Zarr and Tara Altenbrando

 

This book, Roomies by Sara Zarr and Tara Altenbrando, came to me via NetGalley.  It is currently available as a free Kindle book in preview from Amazon here.  You really can't beat a free book, can you?  While I am not exactly as a 35-year-old mother of two the intended audience for this book, I really did like it.  It was a quick read and I found the characters likable and realistic.  Elizabeth, or EB as she is called, and Lauren are strangers living on opposite coasts and have been notified that they will be roommates when they head for their freshman year at Berkley.  EB emails Lauren in an attempt to get to know her new "roomie" before the big day in two months time.  The emails continue and they learn a great deal about one another. 

 

This is not just a book of emails between two girls, it is a novel exploring the difficulties of change, especially those facing a newly adult young woman leaving home for the first time.  The authors take the reader through the full gamut of emotions- wanting to leave while wanting to stay, breakups with boyfriends and best friends, beginning a new life without being sure about the old one.  The book also explores the choices these young women make.  To drink at a party or not?  To have sex or to wait?  These are situations common in Young Adult literature and in young adult lives, but in Roomies these topics are not approached too lightly or with too much judgment.  Not everyone drinks and not everyone has sex and the characters each have lots of reasons for their decisions.  I would recommend this book to an older high school student or even to another mom like me who might be interested in reminiscing about her college days.  It was fun and I enjoyed it.  I hope you will, too.

Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson

 

It is hard to believe the statement that truth is stranger than fiction, but in Jenny Lawson's memoir, Let's Pretend This Never Happened  the truth is stranger and much more hilarious.  I am not exaggerating when I say that by the end of the introduction, my abs had already had a serious workout.  I really was sore the next day.  And I think I drove my husband a little crazy with the very noisy outbursts of laughter.  Seriously- a "dear sweater"?  I cannot even imagine.  Honestly, this is exactly what I needed after my last, very disappointing read. 

 

I loved the rambley (it's a word, I just made it one), convoluted nature of this book.  While it is essentially a collection of blog posts, the reader feels like she is having lunch with a friend- an unbelievable funny, slightly off-center friend that she might be nervous about introducing to other friends and certainly her children, but a friend none the less.  See look!  The rambliness (you're liking my new word, aren't you?) is contagious!  To tell the truth, I did find that a few of the emails I wrote while I was reading this book did tend to take on Lawson's voice a tiny bit.  I also love that on the very first page, Lawson acknowledges that she is sure to offend everyone with something in her book and she apologizes for it right away.  She is a little crass and the language may be offensive to some (I'm wondering if anyone has counted the number of times she uses the F-word in this book because I'm guessing it just may top four digits), but if you can get past all that you are going to love this book.

 

Lawson begins with her childhood in West Texas and what her family life was like.  She then takes us through meeting her husband and then into their life as a married couple and later as parents.  She shies away from nothing, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the crazy.  Lawson suffered multiple miscarriages and takes her readers through that difficult time.  She also struggles with anxiety and while making clear that mental illness is a serious issue, she presents it with humor. 

 

I really do recommend this book, especially if you don't mind a little crazy mixed in with your over-the-top hysterical.  At our book club meeting, one member read one chapter aloud because it was her favorite and she was nearly unintelligible because she was laughing so hard.  We decided that the whole book would be amazing as an adult read-aloud book.  Get a group of girls together (enjoy some adult beverages if that's your thing) and take turns reading it to each other.  Everyone's laughter makes it so much better.  You can also follow Jenny Lawson's blog here which is amazingly funny and how I was initially introduced to her.  And you can follow her on Pinterest.  You know that is going to be unlike any other board you follow!