Single, Carefree, Mellow by Katherine Heiny

 Single, Carefree, Mellow by Katherine Heiny

 Print Length: 242 pages 

Publisher: Knopf (February 3, 2015)

What They Say....A tender and ruefully funny look at varieties of love, secrets, and betrayal in ten exquisite stories that form a guided tour of the human heart.

In the title story, we meet Maya, who is torn between her wryly funny boyfriend and the allure of her veterinarian. In "Andorra," a woman's lover calls her every Thursday as he drives to meet his wife at marriage counseling. "How to Give the Wrong Impression" shows us a woman pining for her roommate, a man who will hold her hand but then tell her that her palm is sweaty. In "The Dive Bar" a girl agrees to have a drink with her married lover's wife. Revisiting Maya in several stories, chronicling her various states of love, this is a collection about how we are unfaithful to each other, both willfully and unwittingly.

Populated with unwelcome house guests, disastrous birthday parties, needy but loyal friends, and flirtatious older men, the stories are emotionally astute, sexy, and disarming-and they introduce us to a tart, and marvelous, new voice.

What I Say....Okay, I will be perfectly honest.  I am not a fan of short stories.  But the cover and the title of this book drew me in on NetGalley's website.  Who wouldn't want their life to be Single, Carefree and Mellow, swimming with a happy smile on their face?

So I took a chance and requested a book that I would normally pass on.  This was one of those times where the risk paid off.  I really enjoyed this collection of stories of ordinary women living their ordinary lives.

The third person narrative in these stories was a very powerful voice for these women.  One of the stories I really enjoyed was Maya's.  She made three appearances throughout the book, first as she puts her dog to sleep, then as she has an affair with her boss, then as she is pregnant with her first child.  I think that what struck me with Maya's story is that you are always waiting for the plot twist, the arc in the story, but it never really comes.  That isn't to say it is any less interesting, because just watching the inner working of Maya's mind makes an interesting story.

I kept thinking of Thoreau's quote, "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."  None of the women in this book were leading lives of desperation.  Lives of selfishness maybe, thoughtlessness definitely, but the men were the more clueless characters in most of the stories.

I liked this book so much, it may have changed my mind about short stories, so thank you, Katherine Heiny!

Current Goodreads Rating 3.72

Winter at the Door by Sarah Graves

Winter at the Door by Sarah Graves

• Print Length: 273 pages
  
• Publisher: Bantam; 1 edition (January 6, 2015)

What They Say....Moving from Boston to remote Bearkill, Maine, isn’t homicide cop Lizzie Snow’s idea of a step up. But breaking away from tragedy and personal betrayal is at least a step in the right direction. Her dead sister’s fate still torments her, as does her long-missing niece’s disappearance. Lizzie hopes to find the mysteriously vanished child here, amid the coming ice and snow. But in the Great North Woods, something darker and more dangerous than punishing winter is also bound for Bearkill.

The town is a world apart in more than distance—full of people who see everything, say little, and know more than they’ll share with an outsider. The only exceptions are the handsome state cop who once badly broke Lizzie’s heart and desperately wants another chance—and Lizzie’s new boss, sheriff Cody Chevrier, who’s counting on her years of homicide experience to help him solve his most troubling case, before it’s too late.

A rash of freak accidents and suicides has left a string of dead men—all former local cops. Now the same cruel eyes that watched them die are on Lizzie—and so is the pressure to find out what sort of monster has his hooks in this town, what his ruthless game is, and just how brutally he’ll play to win. Whatever the truth is, its twisted roots lie in the desolate backwoods of Aroostook County: where the desperate disappear, the corrupt find shelter, and the innocent lose everything. It’s there that a cunning and utterly cold-blooded killer plans the fate of the helpless lives at his mercy—one of whom may be the lost child Lizzie will do anything to save. As a blizzard bears down, and Bearkill’s dark secrets claw their way to the surface, Lizzie gears up for a showdown that could leave the deep, driven snow stained blood red.

What I Say....This book was definitely a winter book.  The thing that I always struggle with winter books is the description of the weather, and the bleakness of the cold.  I grew up in that kind of cold, and after four years in Arizona, I still have a very emotional reaction to cold weather.  It depresses me and creates an instant bad mood.

However depressing the weather was, and the rural area was equally awful, this was a good mystery.  I definitely wish I had read earlier books where Lizzie was featured, because I don't feel like I ever understood why her sister's daughter disappeared, or why they would think this child would suddenly appear in the rural wilderness with a total stranger.

In Spud, the author captured the feeling of hopelessness that kids growing up in a poverty stricken rural area feel.  Lizzie was giving Spud the chance to go the right way, but the mystery man offered him another path, which he apparently was a lot more familiar with than we knew in the beginning.

The book left off paving the way for the next Lizzie Snow book.  I grew to dislike the Eve series by Iris Johansen, so I hope they don't drag on the search for the missing niece through too many books.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bantam for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.





Current Goodreads rating 3.68 

Top Ten Books I Can't Believe I Haven't Read

This weeks Top Ten Tuesday list (weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish) is the Top Ten Books I Can't Believe I Haven't Read.
I feel like this is a Book Shaming List.  I am actually super embarrassed that I haven't read these yet. 
Maybe we should start a book shaming website, take a selfie of you with the books you should have read, along with a handwritten note of your excuses.
I'm off to hang my head in shame now........

1.  The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins.  I bought this a week ago, and haven't even opened it yet.  Everyone is raving about it, calling it the "next Gone, Girl".  I hate when people say any book is the "next" anything, so I'm probably avoiding it out of principle.

2.  Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas.  I saw this raved about on so many book blogs - I need to read it.

3.  The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness.  I bought this when it came out in 2014.  And I still haven't read it!  No excuses, I just suck.

4.  All Fall Down by Jennifer Weiner.  I love Jennifer Weiner.  I don't know why I haven't gotten around to this, but I'm going to before 2016, I swear.

5.  Help for the Haunted by John Searles.  I started this and it was a great story, but then I got too scared to finish.

6.  Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline.  Feels like everybody read this and raved.  So I bought it.  And there it sits on my Kindle bookshelf.

7.  Little Mercies by Heather Gudenkauf.  I love Heather Gudenkauf.  I've read everything she has written, including the prequel for this book.  So why haven't I gotten this?  My nose was out of joint when I got turned down for an ARC on NetGalley, so that's probably it.  I'm so shallow.

8.  The Girl With All the Gifts by M. R. Carey.  This book looks amazing, and right up my alley.  Why it hasn't found a home on my Kindle yet, I just don't know.

9.  Glitter and Glue by Kelly Corrigan.  This was recommended by two of my great friends, who are both excellent moms.  This is a book about what it's like to be the "mean" mom with the "nice" dad.  I've got some experience with that......

10.  You by Caroline Kepnes.  I've been kind of eyeballing this, then I saw that Stephen King tweeted about it, and that sealed the deal.  I can't believe I haven't bought it yet.


Do you have anything on your Book Shaming List?

It Started as Sunset Cottage by Bella Osborne

• Print Length: 390 pages
  
• Publisher: HarperImpulse (February 12, 2015)
• Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers

What They Say....

Kate Marshall is slowly getting her life back on track after losing her fiancé. As an author she has been able to hide herself away from the world and its expectations – but now one of her books has been optioned for a film and Hollywood suddenly comes knocking on her door!

When Kate is given the opportunity to stay at a beautiful country retreat and concentrate on the screenplay, it’s an offer she can’t refuse. Encouraged by her best friend, sharp-tongued single mum Sarah, Kate sees it’s finally time to stop letting life pass her by.

Looking for confidence and inspiration in the idyllic Cotswolds countryside, the last thing Kate expects is for Timothy Calder, A-list actor and leading man in the movie adaptation of her book, to turn up on her doorstep, hoping to lie low after his latest tabloid scandal! But after a rocky start, with Tim narrowly avoiding death by watering can, they find they have a few things in common: a liking for Lady Grey tea, walnut whips and bad ‘knock knock’ jokes. Actually, the bad jokes are just Tim.

As an unlikely friendship begins to blossom, and with circumstances repeatedly throwing them together, is Sunset Cottage where both Kate and Tim’s lives will really start?

What I Say....This debut novel was pretty enjoyable. Kate and Sarah are best friends, both of them have been burned by love.  Sarah by an undesirable ex-husband, and Kate's husband passed away two year before.

Kate's husband's brother, Andy, is a good friend to both Kate and Sarah, and a well loved friend of Sarah's young daughter, Amy.  Also hanging around is Kate's friends, Marcus and Didi, both of who are great supporting characters.

Kate is trying to rebuild her life after losing her husband, so Marcus helps get her a job working on the set of the movie they are making based on her book, Love.com.  Kate meets the star, Timothy Calder, and sparks fly.

Meanwhile, Sarah is experiencing her own sparking romance with Andy.

I liked the characters, I was rooting for Sarah and Kate to find their happy ending.  The subplot with Sarah's ex-husband and his shrewish mother, were interesting and added to the story.

There where a few things that I didn't like.  The way Marcus called Kate, "darling girl" and Tim, "dear boy" every single time he spoke to them made my skin crawl after a few chapters.  We get the point, he's posh.

Tim's reticence to show any interest in Kate.  Honestly, it got a little tiresome.  I wish there had been more action in their story.  By the end, I didn't really care if they got together, and for me, the spark was dying.  I think the author could have shaved off about 50 pages and made their story move faster.

The sex scene with Andy and Sarah - I could not understand why so much detail was being given, when you normally don't see that in English chick lit.  Then it made sense (not really), when it was because Andy made love exactly the way his brother (Kate's dead husband) had.  Umm, okay, gross.  It's not like there are 7065 different ways to have sex, and nothing they did was that unique (or I'm way more worldly than I think).

When they confronted Andy and he said he wrote down instructions from his brother and memorized and followed them, I just thought "ick".  But that explanation made it all forgiven, as long as he figured out another routine!  So weird.

All in all, this was a satisfying debut, and I would read the author again.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Current Goodreads Rating 3.25

Weekly Book Haul.....February 1, 2015

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Showcase Sunday is hosted by Books, Biscuits and Tea, Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews, The Sunday Salon is a new facebook group I've joined and Monday Mailbox is hosted by Marcia to be Continued.

All  are book blogs or groups that give you a chance to share what your weekly book haul.

This week, I feel like I added a lot of really great books.  Lately, I've been feeling a bit disorganized with my blog.  I have so many great books to read - and I've been kind of going at this with a lasseiz-faire attitude.

I feel like I need to create a spreadsheet so that I read in the right order.  I should be reading in order of publication date, so my reviews come out with the book.  But then that makes it feel like a job, instead of a fun hobby.

High ambitions for a Sunday......anyway, here we go!

From Edelweiss

Red Rose, White Rose by Joanna Hickson.....In fifteenth century England the Neville family rules the

north with an iron fist. Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmorland, a giant of a man and a staunch Lancastrian, cunningly consolidates power by negotiating brilliant marriages for his children. 

The last betrothal he arranges before he dies is between his youngest daughter, nine-year-old Cicely, and his ward Richard, the thirteen-year-old Duke of York, England’s richest heir.

Told through the eyes of Cicely and her half-brother Cuthbert, Red Rose, White Rose is the story of one of the most powerful women in England during one of its most turbulent periods. Born of Lancaster and married to York, the willowy and wayward Cicely treads a hazardous path through love, loss and imprisonment and between the violent factions of Lancaster and York, as the Wars of the Roses tear England’s ruling families apart.

So nearly queen herself, Cicely Neville was the mother, grandmother and great-grandmother of kings – and her descendants still wear the crown. 

Where They Found Her by Kimberly McCreight....At the end of a long winter in well-to-do Ridgedale, New Jersey, the body of an infant is discovered in the woods near the town's prestigious university campus. No one knows who the baby is, or how her body ended up out there. But there is no shortage of opinions.

When freelance journalist, and recent Ridgedale transplant, Molly Anderson is unexpectedly called upon to cover the story for the Ridgedale Reader, it’s a risk, given the severe depression that followed the loss of her own baby. But the bigger threat comes when Molly unearths some of Ridgedale’s darkest secrets, including a string of unreported sexual assaults going back twenty years. Meanwhile, Sandy, a high school dropout, searches for her volatile and now missing mother, and PTA president Barbara struggles to help her young son, who’s suddenly having disturbing outbursts.

Told from the perspectives of Molly, Barbara, and Sandy, Kimberly McCreight’s taut and profoundly moving novel unwinds the tangled truth about the baby’s death revealing that these three women have far more in common than they realized. That the very worst crimes are committed against those we love. And that—sooner or later—the past catches up to all of us.

The One That Got Away by Bethany Chase....Sarina Mahler has finally settled into life. She has a

successful career as an architect, a perfect, loving boyfriend, and a close group of friends. 

But when an old crush moves to town - Eamon, a former Olympic swimmer and the only man she never truly got over - everything flips upside down. Haunted by the death of her mother, Sarina uses her passion for design, inherited from her beloved step-father, to escape from emotional entanglements. 

With her boyfriend in Buenos Aires for work, and Eamon looking for an architect to renovate his new Austin digs, Sarina discovers quickly that in order to be honest with both men, whom she cares deeply about, she must come to terms with what she’s really looking for in love, and life.

A Remarkable Kindness by Diana Bletter.... From a striking new voice comes a novel tracing the lives of four American women who are part of a unique Jewish tradition in their coastal village in Northern Israel: they prepare and dress women for burial, as they grow in friendship and marriages, learn to accept death, and to appreciate the sorrows and wonders of life
In the seaside village of Peleg, four American women have emigrated to Israel for very different reasons. Lauren has come for the love of her Israeli husband, yet misses her life in Boston every single day, resenting the sunny “land of reptiles and rocks.” Seeking a new life after divorce, her vivacious friend Emily follows. Aviva, brought to Israel years earlier by intelligence work, has raised a family and now lost a son to war. And Rachel, a bright young college student, comes in search of adventure.

As their intertwined stories unfold, each woman finds the joys promised by the beauty of the land, in new life, first love, motherhood, and friendship, supporting each other through irrevocable changes, navigating the pressures of marriage, illicit romance, the loss of a child, and, the unthinkable backdrop for this paradise—war. Through moments of humor and sorrow, each woman takes part in the ultimate act of compassion, helping to close the circle of life.

Brimming with wisdom and intelligence, A Remarkable Kindness is a moving testament to women’s friendship and capturing the paradoxes and promises of the land they learn to call home.

Woman With a Secret by Sophie Hannah....Traffic on Elmhirst Road has come to a halt. The police

are stopping cars, searching for something. Nicki Clements waits patiently, until she glimpses a face she hoped she’d never see again. It’s him—and he’s the cop checking each car. Desperate to avoid him, she makes a panicky U-turn and escapes.

But Nicki’s peculiar behavior did not go unnoticed, and now the police have summoned her for questioning. A resident of Elmhirst Road has been murdered—a controversial newspaper columnist named Damon Blundy. The detectives begin peppering her with questions. Why was she seen fleeing the scene? What is her connection to the victim? Why was the knife that killed him used in such a peculiar way? Why were the words “HE IS NO LESS DEAD” painted on the wall of Blundy’s study?and what do they signify?

One simple answer could clear her. But she can’t explain why she fled Elmhirst Road that day without revealing the secret that could ruin her.

Nicki isn’t guilty of murder. But she’s far from innocent . . . 

The Lake Season by Hannah McKinnon.... Set in the weeks leading up to an idyllic New England wedding, this “enticing and refreshing” (Nancy Thayer, New York Times bestselling author) novel sparkles with wry wit, sweet romance, and long-kept family secrets.

Iris Standish has always been the responsible older sister: the one with the steady marriage, loving family, and sensible job. But this summer, as her carefully-constructed life spins out of her control, a cryptic postcard from her beautiful, free-spirited sister Leah arrives at the perfect time: Please Come. Iris seizes her chance to escape to her childhood lakeside home, where Leah is planning her wedding to a man their New Hampshire clan has never met.
Still, despite the rush of dress fittings, floral arrangements, and rehearsal dinners, Iris is learning to put herself first. And amid a backdrop of late-night swims and a soul-restoring barn renovation comes Cooper Woods, an old friend who beckons with the promise of a new start.
But Leah has secrets of her own, and while her sister faces a past that has finally caught up to her, Iris prepares to say good-bye to a future that is suddenly far from certain. As Hampstead Lake shimmers in the background, Iris must decide when to wade in cautiously and when to dive—and, ultimately, how to ferry herself to safe harbors in this enticing novel of sisters, second chances, and the ties that bind. 

NetGalley

A Murder of Magpies by Judith Flanders.... It’s just another day at the office for book editor

Samantha Clair. Checking jacket copy for howlers, wondering how to break it to her star novelist that her latest effort is utterly unpublishable, lunch scheduled with gossipy author Kit Lowell, whose new book will deliciously dish the dirt on the fashion industry. 

But little does she know how much trouble Kit’s book is about to cause. Before it even goes to print. When police inspector Field turns up at the venerable offices of Timmins & Ross, asking questions about an undelivered package that was addressed to Sam, she knows something is wrong. The messenger sent to deliver the package was murdered, and then Kit goes missing. Suddenly, Sam's nine-to-five life is turned upside down and she is propelled into a criminal investigation. Someone doesn't want Kit's scandalous manuscript published and unless Sam can put the pieces together in time, they'll do anything to stop it.

With her deliciously fun, cleverly written debut novel, acclaimed author Judith Flanders introduces readers to an enormously enjoyable, too-smart-for-her-own-good new amateur sleuth, as well as a colorful cast of characters including Sam's witty assistant, effortlessly glamorous mother, and the handsome inspector Field. A whip-smart, impeccably crafted mystery, this tremendously entertaining novel will have readers flying through the pages. 
 
 

Eight Hundred Grapes by Laura Dave....There are secrets you share, and secrets you hide…

Growing up on her family’s Sonoma vineyard, Georgia Ford learned some important secrets. The secret number of grapes it takes to make a bottle of wine: eight hundred. The secret ingredient in her mother’s lasagna: chocolate. The secret behind ending a fight: hold hands.

But just a week before her wedding, thirty-year-old Georgia discovers her beloved fiancé has been keeping a secret so explosive, it will change their lives forever.

Georgia does what she’s always done: she returns to the family vineyard, expecting the comfort of her long-married parents, and her brothers, and everything familiar. But it turns out her fiancé is not the only one who’s been keeping secrets…

Bestselling author Laura Dave has been dubbed “a wry observer of modern love” (USA TODAY), a “decadent storyteller” (Marie Claire), and “compulsively readable” (Woman’s Day). Set in the lush backdrop of Sonoma’s wine country, Eight Hundred Grapes is a heartbreaking, funny, and deeply evocative novel about love, marriage, family, wine, and the treacherous terrain in which they all intersect. 

In the Mail

The Perfect Game by Leslie Kirby....Lauren Rose has recently moved to Phoenix to begin a new life

as she starts a prestigious emergency medicine residency, but she could end up doing life in the Arizona State penitentiary instead. 

Lauren has always lived in the shadow of her more glamorous sister Liz, the wife of baseball superstar Jake Wakefield. But when Liz is found viciously murdered in her Scottsdale home, the spotlight turns to Lauren as prime suspect in the high-profile investigation. 

Having lost both parents at an early age, Liz’s death leaves Lauren all alone in a new city. Jake’s support proves invaluable as she navigates the nightmare her life has become. 

As Lauren spends time with Jake, they develop a closeness that she finds both comforting and confusing. It’s an intimacy forged by their shared grief, their mutual love of baseball, and by the thrill of him pitching a perfect game for the Diamondbacks. 

Meanwhile, the Scottsdale police repeatedly question Lauren. She objects to a lie detector test as bad science. 

An arrest warrant is issued. The ensuing trial leads the evening news every night as a rabid public just can’t get enough of the sordid proceedings, quickly dubbed The Trial of the Millennium.  Will the outcome be influenced by this media circus? 


What I Blogged
Behind Closed Doors by Susan Lewis - good book.

Top Ten Books I Would Read With My Book Club - this list begged the question, would I want to be in a book club?

Kate & Alf by Carrie Stone - not so good book.