Love's Recipe by Mila Nicks

I do love a good small town romance with a protagonist who's recently returned home. Usually there's some history between the love interests, but there's not the case with Love's Recipe so there are no serious hurdles to overcome as far as that's concerned. Nicks does highlight a contentious mother-daughter relationship, which is a bit of a departure from what we usually see in the small town romance genre, but it feels honest and refreshing in a genre where everything and everyone tends to be practically picture perfect.

The author does characters and their story lines really well. There's a bit of her next book, Wild, Dark Horses included at the end of Love's Recipe. Sign me up because the little I read of it already has me hooked. 

#BookReview: Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

In a family so full of secrets that it’s a wonder members aren’t choking on them, it’s really no surprise that when the eldest daughter, Lydia, goes missing, no one can fathom how or why. I was absolutely blown away by how well Celeste Ng dug into the insecurities of each family member and how it affected how they interacted with each other and the outside world. By the time I finished Everything I Never Told You, it felt like the layers had just been peeled off of the inauthentic lives the whole family had been living. Wow!

When Marilyn went off to Radcliffe in the 1950s, it was with the intention of becoming a doctor. Unlike her mother who was a home economics teacher and believed that keeping house was the most suitable job for women, Marilyn was determined to follow her passion. As fate would have it, she fell into the life that her mother predicted for her. Though she goes through an unhappy and frustrated period, outwardly she appears to be content with her life.

To his students, James is an anomaly at Harvard, an Asian-American professor teaching American history, specifically about cowboys. While the other students question how this is so, Marilyn is intrigued by the shy professor. James has never felt like he belonged anywhere; not in his small private school in Iowa as the only Chinese student and certainly not as an adult at Harvard. From the beginning, being with the white, blond Marilyn is like an acceptance letter to American normalcy.

Nath and Lydia both struggle with acceptance at school in the late 1970s. Nath makes good grades and can’t wait to escape their small Ohio town for Harvard.  While he appears to be the most well-adjusted of his family, he carries just as many secrets. His biggest one won't be revealed to readers until almost the end of the book.  At home, so much of the focus is on Lydia that neither parent really notices Nath. It’s interesting to watch Lydia complain about how much attention is paid to everything she does, but when the focus is re-directed to Nath, she always manages to swing it back her way. It’s true that her parents are much more invested in her than their other children. Hannah, the youngest child, is almost invisible to her parents and her siblings. I feel sorry for her the most because while the others are grieving the loss of Lydia, no one even thinks to check on Hannah, who likely misses her sister the most.

I have so many questions for James, like, if you know that you had a hard time being the only Asian student in school, why would you put your children in a situation where they’re the only Asian students? To be fair, I know that he felt Marilyn’s white side “normalized” the kids, but it didn’t. The kids are left dealing with the ridicule from others while, at the same time, hiding it from their parents because they know how desperately their father wants them to fit in. Lydia catches a double dose of parental guilt. James is overly invested in making sure she has friends, proving that she has been accepted; Marilyn crams her head with math and science, forcing her to shun the few potential friendships she’s been offered, instead spending her evenings and weekends studying and trying to live up to her mother’s expectations.

Hannah sees all of this. She sees Lydia sinking deeper and deeper into despair. She knows about her secret rendezvous with a neighbor. She knows that Lydia is afraid that once Nath leaves, she won’t have anyone to turn to, she won’t have anyone that can relate to what she’s going through at school and at home. I can’t help but to think that all problems could have been solved if only someone had asked Hannah earlier. Everything I Never Told You definitely proves that secrets will eat you alive.

304pp
Published: June 2014
Disclaimer: Copy of book received from publisher, opinions are my own.

#BookReview: Bedrock Faith by Eric Charles May

Synopsis: After fourteen years in prison, Gerald “Stew Pot” Reeves, age thirty-one, returns home to live with his mom in Parkland, a black middle-class neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. A frightening delinquent before being sent away (his infamies included butchering a neighbor’s cat, torching another neighbor’s garage, and terrorizing the locals with a scary pit bull named Hitler), his return sends Parkland residents into a religiously infused tailspin, which only increases when Stew Pot announces that he experienced a religious awakening in prison. Most neighbors are skeptical of this claim, with one notable exception: Mrs. Motley, a widowed retiree and the Reeves’s next-door neighbor who loans Stew Pot a Bible, which is seen by Stew Pot and many in the community as a friendly gesture.

Review: If you've ever seen or heard of the 1978 film, Harper Valley PTA, you know it's about a woman in the community who's accused of raising her daughter wrong and just generally being a poor representative of womanhood.  Well Stew Pot is no one's mother, but the community around him has already passed judgement on him based on his actions as a teenager.  He spent his teens making life for the residents of Parkland a living hell.  Fourteen years, and much sooner than anyone thought they'd ever see him again, Stew Pot is back in Parkland, living with his mother.

With the exception of his mother, absolutely no one is happy to see Stew Pot back.  But this is a new and improved Stew Pot, come to right the wrongs of the past.  Now a Bible thumper, Stew Pot just wants to spread the good news, but as he's rejected by all of his wary (and rightly so) neighbors, he realizes that he needs to take some drastic measures to bring this gaggle of heathens to the Lord.

At first I thought Stew Pot was a crack pot, but as he seemed to work his way down a list extracting revenge on each and every neighbor that dared to question his sincerity and faith, I couldn't wait to find out what dirt he'd expose next.  He drives those around him crazy, so much so that they can't even pay attention to what's going on in their own homes.  By the time he's done, Stew Pot has made the old ways he used to torture neighborhood seem like the child's play that they really were.

I didn't expect to get drawn in to Bedrock Faith as much as I did, but once I got started, I could not put it down.  I couldn't wait to see what was coming next, which of the neighbor's would get their comeuppance and who would emerge as the final victor, Stew Pot or the people of Parkland.  You'll have to give this a read yourself and determine who you think is the ultimate winner.  I'd be interested in hearing who you think came out on top.

420pp
Published: March 2014
Disclaimer: Copy of book received from publisher, opinions are my own.
Pre-order your copy here.

#BookReview: The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat - Edward Kelsey Moore

Friends for over 40 years, Odette, Clarice and Barbara Jean have seen each other through everything.  From forbidden love to a cheating husband, the Supremes have been there for each other. And if one of them got out of hand, the other two were there to steer her back on course.

Unlike THE Supremes, Odette, Clarice and Barbara Jean aren’t singers. They’re just friends that happen to reside in the same small Indiana town. But Big Earl, owner of Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat diner, gave them the front window spot while they were in high school and, from there, they’ve watched over and gossiped about the comings and goings of Plainview, Indiana residents for decades.

The plainest and rowdiest of the group, Odette is a no nonsense kind of woman and always has been. If anyone knew that she had conversations with her dead mother, they’d think she was losing a few screws. If they knew that her mother’s ghost hangs out with Eleanor Roosevelt’s, they’d lock her away for sure.

As teens, Clarice’s cheating boyfriend Richmond, now her cheating husband, had a hard time finding someone to double date with because Clarice’s mother insisted she bring Odette along. But, as the saying goes, there’s a pot for every lid and James fit Odette to a tee. Clarice never would have imagined that her homely friend would wind up in a more successful marriage. She never imagined she’d be married at all.

Growing up poor, and with the skankiest mother in town, Barbara Jean vows that she’s going to have a much better life. Rescued from a future that was starting to resemble her mother’s, by the Supremes and Lester, her much older husband, Barbara Jean has been on a slippery slope for the longest. Clarice and Odette see it for what it is, but are too polite to say anything.

These were the tender considerations that came with being a member of the Supremes.We overlooked each other’s flaws and treated each other well, even when we didn’t deserve it.

When one of the Supremes becomes ill, not only is she forced to confront some truths, the others are as well. While the results may not be pretty, you can guarantee that the path they take to get there is pretty entertaining. As Sophia stated in The Color Purple, “things gone be different around here from now on.” Indeed, they are.

352pp
Published: March 2013
Disclaimer: Copy of book received from publisher, opinions are my own.

 

Theme: With a Little Help From My Friends by Ike & Tina Turner

#BookReview: Passing Love - Jacqueline E. Luckett

Because you are to me a song,

I must not sing you over long.

Because you are to me a prayer,

I cannot say you everywhere.

Because you are to me a rose,

You will not stay when summer goes.

- Passing Love by Langston Hughes

Ruby Mae Garrett looked out for herself and made no apologies for it.  From the moment she saw Arnett Dupree, she was a woman possessed.  Actually, she was a girl possessed, but at 16, she thought she was a woman.  So when her strict mother caught wind of Ruby Mae sneaking off with the horn player, she put an end to it.  Never one to be outdone, Ruby Mae had to have the last word and the day she left her parent's house was the last day she spoke to them.

Nicole-Marie Roxane grew up loving all things French.  Her infatuation started with a small, blue French to English dictionary she found in her parent's cedar chest.  Speaking French with her father strengthened their special bond.  One day the dictionary was gone and not another word about it or French was spoken.

Fast forward to present day, 56 year old Nicole is tired of watching life pass her by. She's wasted over half of her life on a married man who still dangles the "I'll leave my wife and marry you when the time is right" carrot in front of her.  If it wasn't for her friend insisting that she go to Paris, Nicole probably would have continued to only dream of going.  But she's finally on her way to 30 days of exploring the country that's always fascinated her.

When Nicole's explorations lead to the discovery of a picture of her father in his military uniform over fifty years ago, she has to know why the picture is there, who owned it and what their connection is to her Alzheimer suffering father.  Though her mother offers little information over the phone, she does send her enough information to set Nicole off on a fact finding mission, knowing that she may not like what finds out.

As we've seen in Searching for Tina Turner, and as she again shows us in Passing Love, Jacqueline Luckett writes books about women who we rarely see as the protagonist.  As was Lena in Searching, Nicole is a woman of a certain age.  Both women feel under-valued and -appreciated by the people in their lives and set off on journeys to rediscover their self-worth and, of course, by the end of the books, they have.

306pp
Published: January 2012

Theme: April in Paris by SarahVaughan

#BookReview: Nowhere is a Place - Bernice McFadden

Sherry has drifted from place to place for most of her adult life in search of something.  Though we're told initially that Sherry has spent her life wondering why her mother, Dumpling, slapped her one day, we know that there has to be a deeper reason for Sherry's restlessness.  As she and Dumpling set off on a journey from Nevada to their family reunion in Georgia, you have to believe that she'll find answers along the way.

More than just the story of one woman's wanderlust, Nowhere Is A Place is a family history, the story of how their family homestead came to be.  Told through the words of Sherry, as she imagined it from research and conversations with Dumpling, it's a journey back to slavery and to present day Georgia.  Beginning with the story of Lou, an Indian girl sold into slavery, right up to fast-tail Lilly, Dumpling's mother, who couldn't take another minute in that small town and sought the bright lights of Philadelphia, Bernice McFadden's words pull you in quickly.

One aspect of the book that I really loved was that as Dumpling was reading Sherry's words, and observing her during their long drive from Nevada to Georgia, she began to gain a better understanding of who her daughter was.  Often parents only know their children as the person they remember growing up in their house, not as an adult.  Dumpling has no idea why Sherry is the way she is or why she does the things she does until she spends time with her and gets to know the adult Sherry.  Prior to their road trip, she always thought of Sherry as her strange child or the child that didn't tell her anything about herself.  I feel like by the end of their journey, Dumpling found her to be extraordinary and learned that while Sherry had been telling her about herself all along, Dumpling hadn't necessarily been listening.

As I go back and listen to McFadden books that I've previously read, I'm reminded of works by J. California Cooper.  This book, especially, made me think of Cooper's The Wake of the Wind.  And though I enjoyed this book when I read it, the narration of  Myra Lucretia Taylor really brought it to life.

304pp
Published: February 2006
Listening time: 9 hours, 7 minutes

 

Theme: Sentimental by Alexander O'Neal

#BookReview: Tell A Thousand Lies - Rasana Atreya

In 1986 India, four of the most important determinants of a woman's future were the tone of her skin, her caste, her home village and her family's wealth.  Based on these things, Pullamma, at the age of 16,  has resigned herself to living with her grandmother forever.  As one of three orphaned sisters, Pullamma is the darkest and most unattractive.

 With her oldest granddaughter married off, Ammamma begins to worry about the fate of Pullamma.  While it should be easy enough to marry off Lata, Pullamma's beautiful, light skin twin, it won't be easy to find a match for Pullamma.  The only hitch in Ammamma's plan is Lata has no desire to get married.  In a time and village that placed little emphasis on girls beyond the 12th class, and actually frowned upon girls doing well in school, Lata not only passes the 12th class, but does so with distinction.  A smart girl, she dreams of becoming a doctor, but as Ammamma asks, "With such good marks, how am I to find her a suitable groom..."  Pullamma, on the other hand, only dreams of getting married.

Just as Lata is about to wed into a family that respects her dreams and will allow her to continue her studies to become a doctor, a local politician intervenes and changes the fate of both Lata and Pullamma.  Suddenly, Pullamma has the life Lata always wanted and the beautiful Lata becomes a shrewd and bitter woman out for revenge at any cost, even if it means destroying her twin.

I can't remember how this book came across my radar.  I think it was recommended by Amazon based on other books I've read, but I can't be sure.  Regardless of how I stumbled across it, I'm glad I did.  Tell A Thousand Lies is a brilliant effort from Rasana Atreya.  As she tells the story of Pullamma and her family, she also gives glimpses into the Telugu community and Hindu beliefs ad practices

I loved this book because Atreya kept me on my toes while reading it.  At no point did I ever really know how the story was going to end.  And a sure sign that a book has pulled me in, I found myself talking out loud to the characters, knowing good and well they couldn't hear me.  If you love learning about new cultures and love a good story, do yourself a favor and give Tell A Thousand Lies a read.






352pp
Published: March 2012

 

Theme: Everything She Wants by Wham

#BookReview: Home - Toni Morrison

For the last few years I've told myself and anyone that would listen that I'm just not smart enough to read Toni Morrison.  I watch ToMo stans like Tayari Jones expound on her greatness and all I can think is, it must be over my head.  The last time I read a ToMo book and was able to comprehend it the first time around was pre-Beloved.  I read Song of Solomon, Sula and The Bluest Eye in high school and college and loved them.  Then Beloved came along and I had to read the book, see the movie and read the book again before it finally made sense to me.

After that came Jazz, Paradise, Love and A Mercy. I struggled with the first three and didn't even try with A Mercy.  I gave it to my mother as an audio book for Christmas and I swear she wrote me out of her will.  So when I saw that Morrison was publishing a new book, I was hesitant to request a copy from the publisher.  But they sent it and so I read it.  And I loved it!  I feel like the ToMo that wrote Song of Solomon is back.  Or maybe she never left. Maybe I've just come full circle.

Before I get into the review, let me just say that Tayari Jones has written a brilliant review of this also.  Mine isn't nearly as eloquent as hers.  When I talked to her about Home a few weeks ago, she tied characters & stories from previous ToMo works together in ways I would have never imagined.  So I'll give you my regular reader thoughts on why I loved the book, but if you're looking for something deep and meaningful, read her review when you finish reading my ramblings.

Simply put, Home is the story of Frank Money, a Korean War veteran returned home a fraction of the man that he was before he left.  While he returns whole physically, mentally, he is shattered. Back in the states a little over a year, he receives the news that his beloved sister, Cee, is ill.  As he journeys from Seattle, Washington to Atlanta and then Lotus, Georgia, the reader begins to understand that something is not quite right about Frank.  His anxiety levels are high and he can be impulsive.  As to whether or not his anxiety is a result of the war or his life prior to the war, it’s hard to tell.  He works hard, though, to keep the anxiety at bay.

From the moment her step-grandmother Noella saw Cee, she hated her.   Cee represents everything she resents about her husband Salem and his family.  Forced to flee Texas, in a scene repeated too often in towns like Rosewood, Florida and Tulsa, Oklahoma, Frank and Cee end up in Lotus, Georgia with their parents.  While their parents work the fields, Frank is responsible for Cee.  He sees the way Noella treats her and vows to always be responsible for her.

 “Misery don’t call ahead.  That’s why you have to stay awake - otherwise it just walks on in your door.”

With Frank off at war and no one else to guide her, Cee falls for the first pretty boy that looks her way. Ditched by him shortly after arriving in Atlanta, Cee is determined to stay there and make a decent life for herself instead of returning to Lotus and Noella.  She lands a dream job working in a doctor’s office, but we already know that all that glitters isn’t gold.

The biggest takeaway for me, and I feel like this was Cee’s “a-ha” moment, came in the form of a conversation with Miss Ethel, a local woman who nursed Cee back to wholeness after a run-in with the good doctor nearly killed her:

“See what I mean? Look to yourself.  You free.  Nothing and nobody is obliged to save you but you.  Seed your own land.  You young and a woman and there’s serious limitation in both, but you a person too.  Don’t let Noella or some trifling boyfriend and certainly no devil doctor decide who you are.  That’s slavery.  Somewhere inside you is that free person I’m talking about.  Locate her and let her do some good in the world.”

Though those words were said to Cee, I felt like that were meant for Frank as well.  While Cee was held back by physical pain, Frank’s pain was mental.  Those words and that way of living allowed both to move forward and become the complete people they were meant to be.

160pp
Published: May 2012
Disclosure: Copy received from publisher, opinions are my own.

 

Theme: Zoom by The Commodores 

Tayari's review

#BookReview: Sweet Jiminy - Kristen Gore

Jiminy Davis walks away from her life in law school in Chicago and finds herself in the small Mississippi town in which her grandmother, Willa, lives. She's come to get away from everything.  Realizing that being attorney is not what she wants for her future, she hopes the time away will give her a chance to regroup.

Bo, the nephew of Willa's housekeeper, Lyn, has come back to Mississippi to study for his medical school entrance exams.  Growing up in the south, Bo knows all too well how the rural Mississippi town expects blacks to behave.  He's simply there to prepare for his exam without the distractions that he might have in a bigger city.

Years before this Jiminy was born, there was another Jiminy, Lyn's daughter.  Both Lyn's husband and the first Jiminy were killed in what was called an accident, but what everyone in town knows were deliberate killings.  With time on her hands and a natural curiosity, the current Jiminy is determined to find out what happened to her namesake.  The problem is having only visited the south during summers as a child, Jiminy is not always aware of the ways race factors into interactions in the town.  So she's shocked when she finds the previously polite townspeople reacting in unexpected ways to her questioning.

It was coincidental that I read this during the time the Investigative Discovery channel was premiering the Injustice Files series.  If you're not familiar with it, it features cold cases from the Civil Rights era.  All of the stories featured involved black men killed by members of the Klan, or those of that ilk, who have never been brought to justice for their crimes because the white citizens of their town either turned a blind eye to what was going on or actively engaged in the crimes themselves.  Kristen Gore did a fine job of creating characters quite similar to the people featured in the documentaries.

What did you like about this book?
There were a few twists and turns that I didn't quite expect.  Since I hate predictable books, I was pleasantly surprised by the unexpected.

What didn't you like about this book? 
I was going to say the second Jiminy's naivete was over the top, but after some thought I  decided it really wasn't.  Her experience as a white woman from a northern city played a big factor in how she saw race and race relations.  So while one might have expected her to know the rules of the South, she would have really had no reason to since her earlier experiences there as a child would have been structured in such a way that her only interactions with blacks would have been her grandmother's housekeeper, Lyn.

What could the author do to improve this book?
The author introduces a Latino family that's come to Mississippi to open a restaurant while pursuing the American dream. Other than using them as a way to introduce immigration to the story line, they really serve no purpose.  We already know the town is full of bigots, so giving them another group of color to intimidate is overkill.  It's pretty safe to assume that someone that doesn't care for African Americans has no use for any other people of color.  Their story line could have been nixed altogether.

240pp
Published: April 2011

 

Theme: Mercy, Mercy, Mercy by The Cannonball Adderley Quintet

An Interview with Anjali Banerjee, Author of Haunting Jasmine

Q: When and why did you begin writing?
A: I began writing, or I should say scribbling, the moment I could pick up a crayon. As a kid, I loved to type stories on my little toy typewriter. I stapled the pages together and made little “books” with illustrations and copyright notices inside the front covers. I didn’t know any other kids who did that. 

Q: When did you first consider yourself a writer?
A: I’ve always considered myself a writer to some degree, but I didn’t take my writing seriously until I was in my late twenties, when I signed up for the Writers’ Digest School correspondence course in short story writing. Only after I moved to Washington State and joined a critique group of working women authors, did I believe I could get published in book-length fiction.

Q: What inspired you to write your first book?
A: Before I wrote my first novel, I penned many short stories, many of which were published in literary journals such as the University of Baltimore’s Passager: A Journal of Remembrance and Discovery, The Green Hills Literary Lantern, Lynx Eye, Writing for Our Lives, and an anthology called New to North America. After moving to Washington, I also wrote feature articles for local newspapers and company profiles for coffee table history books. In a sense, I was gearing up to write a book, building my publishing credits and experience. Then I found my writing group made up of working, published novelists who inspired me to try writing a romantic suspense novel. I thought it would be easy to write romance, but my critiquers humbled me. I had a lot to learn, and over 50 agents rejected that first novel. One agent wrote, “It’s not different enough.”

That agent doesn’t know it, but she inspired me to write my next novel, MAYA RUNNING, based on my experience as an Indian immigrant growing up in Canada. What could be more different? I got an agent almost immediately, and a couple of weeks later, we had a two-book deal with Wendy Lamb Books/Random House.

Q: What was the hardest part of writing Haunting Jasmine?
A: It took me a while to hone in on a story arc for Jasmine that would lead to a hopeful ending without being too predictable. I knew she would reinvent herself and find the promise of happiness, but I didn’t want the path to be too formulaic. I can’t tell you how I figured out what to do, or I would be giving away the plot!

Q: From reading Haunting Jasmine, I can tell that you have a love for literature.  I noticed that you managed to weave in The Chronicles of Narnia and Curious George into the story.  Did any more of your favorite works find a home in Haunting Jasmine?
A: I love THE FUR PERSON by May Sarton, and of course I love all the other authors as well. I ended up deleting a few of my favorites in the final draft – Rumer Godden, Paula Danziger, and Alexander Key, for example.

Q: I don’t know if you’re familiar with Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s Mistress of the Spices, in which the lead character intuitively knows which spices her customers seek because the spices “speak” to her.  If you are familiar with that work, did it influence Haunting Jasmine? If not, how did you come up with the premise for the book?
A: I have not read MISTRESS OF SPICES, although I’ve heard it’s good! My idea came out of nowhere. One day I thought, What if dead authors could come to life in a bookstore and try to get people to read their books? The idea seemed “high concept” to me –easily pictured and easily explained in a sentence or two.

Q: Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
A: I try not to force any message onto readers. I believe my job is to try to write an entertaining story. My values and interests will naturally emerge (can you tell that I love animals, booksellers, books, love stories, Pacific Northwest islands, and ghosts?), and an underlying theme also naturally emerges (for example, a theme might be that love can heal all emotional wounds if you only take a chance and believe – that kind of thing). But in the end, the readers will interpret the story in his or her own way.

Q: What books have most influenced your life most?
A: Too many books to name! If I mention a few authors, I will inevitably exclude many other important ones. I read widely. I enjoy children’s books, literary novels, mysteries, commercial fiction, memoir, historical fiction and nonfiction – a wide range of genres.

Q: If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?
A: I would choose many writers, but mainly other authors who are in or have been in my critique group and have taught me what they know: Sheila Roberts, Elsa Watson, Carol Cassella, Suzanne Selfors, Susan Wiggs, Lois Dyer, and others.

Q: What book are you reading now?
A: I’m reading a few different books, including Fannie Flagg’s latest hardcover, I STILL DREAM ABOUT YOU (I love her humor), Anita Shreve’s RESCUE, Janna Cawrse Esarey’s memoir, THE MOTION OF THE OCEAN (she and I will be presenters at the upcoming Whidbey Island Writers’ Conference), MAJOR PETTIGREW’S LAST STAND by Helen Simonson, and more…

Q: Are there any new authors that have grasped your interest?
A: I’m reading a wonderful literary manuscript, a historical novel due out from Hawthorne Books in October: THE LUMINIST by David Rocklin. I will certainly give the book a glowing endorsement.

Q: What are your current projects?
A: I’m working on another women’s fiction novel for Berkley/Penguin, tentatively titled ENCHANTING LILY and due for release in February 2012. I’m also developing my next children’s book.

Q: Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
A: I always have to work out story details, but I enjoy the process. The big challenge is balancing writing with my other job (I write reports for an investment consulting firm) and the other demands of daily life! For example, right now I’m trying to type answers to these questions on my laptop computer while a rather large cat is also trying to sit on my keyboard.

Q: Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?
A: I don’t have a favorite author. I love too many of them!

Q: Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?
A: Thank you, thank you, thank you. Whenever I receive a nice note from a reader, I’m walking on air. Authors live to hear from readers. We write for our readers.

Anjali Banerjee was born in India, raised in Canada and California and received degrees from the University of California, Berkeley. She has written five novels for youngsters and three for grownups, and she’s at work on her next novel for adults to be published by Berkley/Penguin. Her books have received accolades in many review journals and newspapers.

Be sure to visit her over at Anjali Banerjee.

#BookReview: Haunting Jasmine - Anjali Banerjee

It's early in the year, but I can honestly say this book is a contender for my favorite book of the year.  If you know me, you know I'm a fan of Bollywood.  So it'll come as no surprise to you that I loved Haunting Jasmine.

The recently divorced Jasmine Mistry comes to Shelter Island in the middle of Puget Sound to run her aunt's bookstore for a month.  More than that, she's come to get away from the painful memory of her former husband's betrayal.  Her family believed that as a Bengali American she should have married a Bengali man.  Unfortunately she chose a cheating American.  Her Auntie believes that working in the store will help heal Jasmine's heart.

Left to run the store while her aunt goes to India, Jasmine doubts the store will heal anything.  What it may do is drive her crazy.  She could swear that she hears voices talking to her.  And people keep showing up in the strangest places in the Victorian mansion turned bookstore.  In addition, visitors to the store seem to expect her to know exactly what book they need without them telling her.  The only thing that seems sane in her bookstore world is the handsome Dr. Connor Hunt, a frequent visitor to the store.

What did you like about this book?
First, I have to say I loved the cover.  It's one of the prettiest that I've ever seen.  You can't tell by looking at your screen, but the scarf she's wearing has iridescent glitter in it.  And the colors are just beautiful.


I also loved the storyline.  It reminded me a lot of The Mistress of the Spices, which also happens to be one of my Bollywood favorites.  While the lead character in Mistress was guided by the spices, Jasmine is guided by the literary authors that speak to her.  This was an absolutely fascinating read.

What didn't you like about this book?
I really wanted Jasmine to have her happy ending.  Let me re-phrase that.  The book ends with a potential happy ending for her, but I wanted to read more about it only because I grew so fond of her and wanted to make sure she was really happy.


What could the author do to improve this book?
One of Jasmine's childhood acquaintances walks out on her family and though it's speculated that the pressure of being the perfect Indian wife/mother/daughter may have gotten to her, it's never confirmed.  She was a very minor character, but since she was introduced into the story, I felt like her story line should have been completed.

304pp
Published February 2011
Disclosure: Copy received from the publisher.

Theme: Sounds Like A Love Song by Phyllis Hyman

#BookReview: Miss New India - Bharati Mukherjee

Nineteen year old Anjali Bose wants nothing more than to get out of the small town of Gauripur. Most women in her town are married by the time they reach her age, or at least their parents are working finding a suitor for them.  Anjali's father is looking, but Anjali isn't most women.

Much like the small town girl moving to the big stories we read that are set in America, Miss New India is the story of one girl's quest to move beyond the circumstances that are presented to her through no fault of her own.  Anjali is smart.  She's managed to stave off her father's attempts to marry her off, but when a presentable suitor is found, she knows she has no other choice than to head out into the world in search of her own satisfaction.

What would satisfy a small town girl? Becoming a customer service representative at one of the many call centers in Bangalore. And becoming an Americanized, independent, savvier version of herself, representing a shift in Indian women from the set standards to the new Indian woman.  

From the small town of Gauripur to the big city of Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India, this young woman's journey from Anjali to Angie is absolutely fascinating.  Author Bharati Mukherjee skillfully intertwines Angie's story line with historical background, offering readers both entertainment and a history lesson.

What did you like about this book?
I love to learn about other cultures and thoroughly enjoyed learning more about facets of Indian culture and history.


What didn't you like about this book?
Though other parts of the book seemed very cut and dry, I was left somewhat confused by the ending of the book.   I had to go back and re-read the last chapter and prologue to find the few sentences that confirmed what became of Angie.

What could the author do to improve this book?
Perhaps make the ending more clear.

336pp
Published May 2011
Disclosure: Received ARC from publisher

Theme: I Am Changing from Dreamgirls by Jennifer Hudson

#BookReview: 32 Candles - Ernessa T. Carter

When was the last time you stayed up late to read a book? 32 Candles is so good that I started reading it at a bowling alley, ignored Twitter and the TV when I got home and stayed up until I was done with it. Yes, it's that good.

32 Candles is the story of Davidia Jones, also known as Monkey Night the mute chick.  Growing up in small town Glass, Mississippi, Davidia life has been nothing nice.  The daughter of the town skank, she's shunned by adults and ridiculed by her classmates who name her Monkey Night because "she looks like a monkey and is dark as night." A severe beating by her mother leads her to the decision to just stop speaking.  Her silence is accepted by her classmates, who easily overlook and ignore her from elementary school until her sophomore year of high school.

Davidia has found solace in, what I call, "the holy triumvirate" of teen movies: Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink, and the star of them, Molly Ringwald.  Davidia's less than perfect life is made just a little brighter when she watches them.  Though she doesn't speak out loud, in her mind she rehearses what she would say should anything close to what happens in the movies happens to her.  And when she runs into James Farrell, a new transfer student, she's sure that he's her Jake Ryan.

If you've never seen Sixteen Candles, right about now you're asking, who is Jake Ryan? "Jake Ryan? He's only the most popular boy in school."  Even though he's a football star and big man on campus, James is nice to Davidia.  When he and his sisters host a party at their mansion, she's excited to receive and invite and heads to the party where she's sure she'll finally have her moment.  But Davidia's life is no movie and she's no Molly Ringwald.  Faced with the realization that things are never going to change for her in small town Mississippi, she strikes out on her own.

Having reinvented herself as Davie Jones, the pirate, not the Monkee, the girl formerly known as Monkey Night finds herself with a new job, new family and for the first time, friends, in California.  Life is going pretty well for Miss Davie until the day she runs into James Farrell.  Fifteen years have passed since Davie last saw him and surely she's outgrown her obsession with both him and Sixteen Candles, right?

What did you like about this book?
Even if you're not a fan of 80s films, you're bound to cheer for Davie.  This is the story of anyone that's ever been ridiculed for daring to be different. 

What didn't you like about this book?
Nothing


What could the author do to improve this book?
 Nada, zilch, zero. You know a book is good when you go to sleep dreaming about it and wake up still thinking about it.  I need a movie and a sequel ASAP!

Sneak peek! Starting today Wednesday, you can read the author's rough draft of her next book at 32 Candles.com.  She told us at last week's book signing that even though there's no sequel, the character of Davie does play a role in her next book.  I can't wait to read it!

338pp
Published June 2010


Theme: Originally I was going to go with Don't You Forget About Me by Simple Minds (yeah, I know it's from The Breakfast Club, hush it!), but instead decided India.Arie's Get It Together was much more fitting.

#BookReview: The King of Colored Town - Darryl Wimberley

Nothing exciting ever happened in Cilla Handsom's small town of Laureate, Florida.  Divided as most towns are by the railroad tracks, Cilla lives in the section of Laureate called Colored Town.  Born to a retarded mother, Cilla's days are filled with attending school and attending to her infirmed mother.  Her monotonous routine is uprooted the day Joe Billy King arrives in town.

Running from events he witnessed down in Jacksonville, Joe Billy arrives in Colored Town ready for a new beginning. An aspiring musician himself, he paints guitars of established players in exchange for money and free lessons or an opportunity to sit in with them.  When he meets Cilla and discovers her gift for reading music, a mutual adoration society is formed.

Integration is coming to Laureate, whether or not the good white people in town are ready for it.  Cilla and Joe Billy are just two of a handful of students from the black school that will be integrating Laureate High.  When Cilla is found stealing sheet music from the band room, it's the outspoken Miss Chandler who arranges for her to take piano lessons from the band director, Mr. Pellicore.  In exchange for learning the french horn and filling the empty first seat chair in his marching band, Mr. Pellicore agrees to teach Cilla to play the piano.

Cilla's love of music, combined with support from both Miss Chandler and Mr. Pellicore lead to an opportunity to audition for a scholarship to Florida State University.  It's no surprise that there are members of her community, both black and white, that are envious of her and will stop at nothing to keep her from achieving her dream.  Luckily for her, she has Joe Billy in her corner.

What did you like about this book?
I started this book thinking I knew exactly how it would play out and I was pleasantly surprised with the twists and turns it took.

What did you dislike about this book?
The only really problem I had was with the naming of Joe Billy.  Given that the character's name was Joseph William, I thought Joe Willy would have sounded more believable.  Joe Billy just doesn't roll off the tongue the same way.  Of course, that's just my opinion.

What could the author do to improve this book?
Not much.  As a white author writing using an African-American voice, I thought he did exceptionally well.

360pp
Published April 2007

Theme: Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday

#BookReview: Alex Cross's Trial - James Patterson

At last, Patterson has redeemed himself in my eyes. For too long he has cranked out book after book full of fill-in-the-blank story lines. The names and scenery would change, but the story remained the same. It had gotten to the point where I could figure out "who done it" within the first five chapters of any of his books. But this book? This book here? The master storyteller is back!

Titled Alex Cross's Trial, don't be fooled. Alex Cross is briefly mentioned in the first two pages, but the story is that of Washington, DC attorney Ben Corbett. Set in the early 1900s, Ben finds himself summoned to the White House by President Theodore Roosevelt. At the president's request, Ben is dispatched to Eudora, Mississippi to investigate the rise in lynchings. A native of Eudora, Ben is familiar with the ways of the south, but isn't prepared for the journey that lies ahead of him. With the assistance of Abraham Cross, Alex's great great uncle, Ben sets out to complete the task at hand. Along the way he discovers that old friends can't be trusted and new friends come from the most unlikely places.

At times I had to simply put the book down and take a break because it set my emotions on edge. Patterson and his co-author, Richard Dilallo, do a fine job of capturing the essence of the town's characters, both black and white. There is no sugar coating of the horror of lynching and the era in history that most of mainstream America would like to pretend never existed. This is a definite must read from Patterson for the first time in a long time.