Review: My Best Friend's Girl

Kamryn Matika spends her 33rd birthday learning that her best friend is dying and wants Kamryn to adopt her daughter. Kamryn has been an avowed singleton ever since her painful breakup with her fiance. Parenting hardly comes naturally to her, and the book follows what happens when she becomes Tegan Brannon's guardian. Along with the expected challenges of managing work and parenting and dealing with a grieving child, Kamryn must try and mend her broken love life. She develops a love-hate relationship with her new boss while trying to avoid her ex-fiance.

This is a book full of damaged people trying to find love. It is also a book full of people mistreating one another. I found some of the relationships difficult to believe. Kamryn and her boss, Luke, were particularly odd. This is a touching story, but it is not always entirely believable.

Dorothy Koomson, My Best Friend's Girl (Bantam, 2006) ISBN: 184632422X

Review: Salting Roses

Consummate small-town southern girl Gracie Calloway celebrates her 25th birthday by discovering that she is the heir to a New England fortune. Her abrupt and controlling grandmother is adamant that Gracie must take her place as the family heiress. Despite the advantages of her New England family's wealth, Gracie is loathe to acquiesce. All Gracie wants is to continue her life as she had known it, but New England grandma is unwilling to allow that. The situation becomes a contest of wills between two powerful women, Gracie and her grandmother. That contest convinces Gracie that perhaps she has more connection with her New England family than she had previously thought.

This was generally an engaging read, though I sometimes found it difficult to get my head around Gracie's southern family.

Lorelle Marinello, Salting Roses (William Morrow, 2010) ISBN: 0061443743

Review: Spider's Web

This is a novelization of one of Christie's plays. Clarissa Halisham-Brown, a diplomat's wife, finds a body in her parlor while waiting for her husband to return home with an important diplomatic guest. Her efforts to hide the murder and save her husband's career become increasingly more complicated. The body is the focal point of Clarissa's efforts, and her attempts to hide it are increasingly more difficult to execute. As the story progresses, Clarissa traps herself in a web of lies.

It is fully evident that this story was originally a play. All of the action takes place in one room, requiring only one set. There is no change of scenery, and only limited characters. It is less satisfying than Christie's novels. Those new to Christie's work should start with her novels. This is for the Christie fan.

Agatha Christie, Spider's Web (St. Martin's Minotaur, 2001) ISBN:

Review: Atonement

I had heard so much about this book that I approached it with great anticipation. At first I was disappointed. Actually, I was disappointed for much of the book. Then, I reached the end of the book, and I was blown away. The ending of this book changed the entire experience of reading it. The ending was startling and moving, and well-worth the time to get there.

The book spans more than sixty years, from the mid-thirties to 1999. It begins on a fateful summer day in 1935, when thirteen-year old Briony Tallis witnesses the interactions between her sister and the son of a family servant. Unable to understand the budding romance between Cecilia Tallis and Robbie Turner, Briony's response causes a devastating set of consequences. These consequences alter multiple lives.

A significant portion of the book takes place during the Second World War, and the grizzly realities of the battlefield are presented in full detail. Be ready for plenty of stomach-turning injuries. The language in the book is very atmospheric. The prose describing the summer evening is sultry and languid, nearly as stultifying as the heat itself. The language does seem showy and a bit overdone. Why McEwan makes this choice becomes evident later in the book. This is a somewhat difficult book to get into, but it is well worth pushing through to the ending.

Ian McEwan, Atonement (Anchor, 2003) ISBN: 038572179X

Review: Holidays on Ice

This collection of short stories and essays remind the reader of the complete and utter absurdity of the holidays. The best of the selections is undeniably Sedaris's memoir of working as an elf in the Santa display at Macy's in Manhattan. Tales from the Santa line are just as absurd as one might expect. Sedaris's maligning of children's Christmas pageants is good too. The other stories were not as funny.

This confirms what I've always suspected about Sedaris, which is that he shines in the humorous memoir genre. And really, he is quite a funny man. The non-memoir material means that this is not the strongest of his work. It's good for a holiday chuckle, and probably best for those who have to face crazy holiday relatives, but this is by no means the best of Sedaris.

David Sedaris, Holidays on Ice (Back Bay, 1998) ISBN: 0316078913

Review: Burning Bright

Set in London during the French Revolution, this novel chronicles the burgeoning friendship of two near-adolescents. Jem Kellaway, son of a country chair-maker, and confirmed London urchin Maggie Butterfield strike up a close friendship, bordering on first romance. The two are united in a fascination with their unique and libertine neighbor, poet and artist William Blake. Blake shares some of his poetry and engravings with the children, which keeps them hungering for more. As the children navigate the streets of London, they discover that the revolution growing on the other side of the Channel will affect their lives in ways they never imagined. Chevalier does a fairly good job recreating the London of the 1790s. That said, the addition of William Blake as neighbor to the main characters is the only thing that makes this book anything out of the ordinary. I was never convinced that Blake contributed to the story in any meaningful way. Each time he appeared it seemed like a drive-by William Blake sighting. This was my first Chevalier book, and I think it must be one of her weaker works. I've heard wonderful things about her books, so I'll be reading some of the others, hoping for something better.

Tracy Chevalier, Burning Bright (Plume, 2008) ISBN: 0452289076

Review: Between, Georgia

This is my second Joshilyn Jackson book, and I think I liked this one better than Gods in Alabama, though this does suffer from some of the same problems. The novel tells the story of Nonny Frett, trying to manage her unconventional family, and her looming, but uncertain, divorce. All of this happens against the background of the tiny and colorful southern town of Between.

The plot of this book moves along at a good pace, and the story is full of colorful characters. The similarities to Gods in Alabama are striking: the unique maternal situation, the overbearing aunt, and the troubled romantic relationship are all here.

My main issue with the book was the ending: it was a bit too neat, and definitely a let-down. I'm not sorry that I invested the time reading this book, but I was disappointed at the end.

Joshilyn Jackson, Between, Georgia (Grand Central, 2006) ISBN: 0446524425