It’s Good to be back!

Please forgive my long absence from the blog world.  Sometimes there is just too much going on in my life to find the time to blog.  When I have to choose between reading or sitting at the computer, reading wins by a long shot every time.  Having a child with cancer is crazy on the schedule.  There are the constant trips to the hospital, appointments, and endless consultations.  While my son is having chemo, it is very difficult to get to a computer.  I am still working on finding time to keep my blog up to date so please bear with me in the meantime!  I will be back tomorrow with a review.  I have read so many books in the past month that it is hard for me to decide which one to review!

Worth Reading Wednesday

Worth Reading Wednesday is a new feature on my blog that will appear every Wednesday.  Basically, it is a place for me to quickly highlight books, magazines, blogs, and basically anything I have read during the week that I deem “worth reading.”  I hope that you will leave a comment and let me know if you have read something good during the week.  The best way to discover great writing is to spread the word so please participate in “Worth Reading Wednesday.”

Two great books that are worth your time:

• Chester’s Masterpiece by Melanie Watt.  This is an amazing new picture book that my son, Noah, loves! 
• Women, Food and God by Geneen Roth.  If you have ever struggled with your relationship to food, this book offers some powerful help and healing. 

Brava…Brava…Trigiani

After I read Adriana Trigiani’s Big Stone Gap series, I fell in love with her as a writer.  The Queen of the Big Time and Rococo sealed the deal for me.  It was after I read Very Valentine that I decided she was my favorite writer.  Of course, I was thrilled to see the next book in the trilogy recently appear on shelves.  I never purchase hardback books because I cannot justify spending the money on something I will read in a day.  Thankfully, my husband knows how much I love Trigiani and he bought the book as a Valentine’s Day present.  I am thankful I did not have to wait long to read Brava, Valentine because it definitely did not disappoint me!  The character’s are the single greatest strength of this trilogy and what I believe most readers will fall in love with.  Valentine is a women who does not have it all figured out.  She messes up, she makes the wrong decisions, and she stumbles through life, yet she never gives up and she always rights her wrongs.  Each character in the book is unique and well thought out, and eccentric enough to hold your interest.  I can’t think of a greater cast of characters than June, the bohemian pattern cutter, Gabriel, the vivid gay best friend, or Pamela, the sister-in-law who never fit in with the family.  Beyond the characters, this book truly shines in the author’s colorful and elegant descriptions.  Trigiani provides enough details of the Angelini Shoe Company’s exquisite shoes that readers can create a beautiful picture to accompany the prose.  Even Gram’s apartment comes to life with such amazing descriptions.  I love the flow of the language and the artful way that Trigiani uses words to create pictures.  In addition to the beautiful pictures, the reader’s senses are further bombarded by smells and tastes.  The downside of this is that she had me craving Cannoli the whole time I was reading.  While other authors also excel in their descriptive abilities,  I tend to get weighed down or bored with the abundance of  detail.  Trigiani avoids this by infusing her story with enough humorous and over-the-top family drama to keep the reader’s interest.  Oh, and there is also the smoldering Italian, Gianluca, to spice things up for readers!  I came to this book with high expectations, and I was definitely not disappointed.  I know that if I am not lucky enough to receive the next book in the trilogy as a gift, I will break my rule and spend the money.  Some things are just worth it!

“Fat Cat”.. a Different and Delightful Story

I have a hard time finding books to read.  I visit my favorite book blogs each day and if their is a book that gets a good review, I will read that.  I am a picky reader and not a fan of some genres which is why you will NEVER see a science fiction or mystery book on here.  It is one of my weaknesses as a reader and book blogger.  I tend to pick the same “types” of books and I guess I am not very well-rounded in that regard.  When goodreads.com raved about Fat Cat, I knew I had to check it out for myself.  I was not disappointed at all!  This book is different from my usual “chick lit” books and even though it is classified as YA, there is plenty of substance to interest adults.  The science project aspect in this book makes it different from others books and allowed it to stand out from similar YA novels.  Catherine Locke is required to participate in science fair for Mr. Fizer’s science class.  Not only does she have to participate, but the entire project is based on a picture that she pulls from his stack.  So, imagine Catherine’s dilemma when she ends up with a picture of an early Neanderthal.  Cat knows she needs to find inspiration for this picture to devise a truly great experiment, not only to win the science fair, but to fulfill her long quest to beat her rival and former best friend, Matt McKinney.  I loved how Cat jumped at the challenge before her with so much determination and grit.  She used the science assignment to begin a year-long quest to determine how her body would respond to living life like the early hominis.  This experiment meant she had to give up modern technology, walk everywhere, and eat only what could be produced.  As an overweight teen, she wanted her experiment to improve her physical state and return her body to its “natural condition.”  The author uses a clever journal format in the novel that allows the reader to see how the experiment progresses while she reveals pieces of Catherine’s life.  As the pounds started melting off Cat, I could not stop reading because I really wanted to see how the experiment concluded.  I was impressed with the author’s ability to drop little hints and use foreshadowing to keep the reader interested.  As soon as I decided to put the book down and do something productive, I would get to a cliffhanger line and of course, I would have to keep reading.  This put the book in the category of “has to be read in a night.”  My advice is not to start it unless you have a few hours to read it from start to finish.  I thought this book was going to be a typical makeover story but it involves a much deeper message about beauty and how to discover and love who we are on the inside.