Weekly Book Haul......June 12, 2016

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.

It's no big secret that I love to float in the pool, but I'm also very vigilant about going to the dermatologist for my skin checks.  I don't deeply tan on purpose, I do use sunblock, but on this visit my doctor found a basal cell carcinoma that had to be removed.  Six stitches later, I'm skin cancer free, but I'll be wearing a higher SPF of sunblock and getting skin checks every six months now.  My doctor told me that Niacinamide and Vitamin D have been shown to decrease skin cancer recurrence, so I'll be adding that to my vitamin regimen.

I've been doing some great reading this week and I'll be posting some reviews soon.  Right now, I'm reading First Comes Love by Emily Giffin, and it's as good as you would expect.

My giveaway of One True Loves by Tara Reid Jenkins ended last week and Windee Gustafson was the winner - congratulations, Windee!  It's a tearjerker!

My only add was from NetGalley this week

Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult.....Ruth Jefferson is a labor and delivery

nurse at a Connecticut hospital with more than twenty years' experience. During her shift, Ruth begins a routine checkup on a newborn, only to be told a few minutes later that she's been reassigned to another patient. The parents are white supremacists and don't want Ruth, who is African American, to touch their child. The hospital complies with their request, but the next day, the baby goes into cardiac distress while Ruth is alone in the nursery. Does she obey orders or does she intervene?
 Ruth hesitates before performing CPR and, as a result, is charged with a serious crime. Kennedy McQuarrie, a white public defender, takes her case but gives unexpected advice: Kennedy insists that mentioning race in the courtroom is not a winning strategy. Conflicted by Kennedy's counsel, Ruth tries to keep life as normal as possible for her family—especially her teenage son—as the case becomes a media sensation. As the trial moves forward, Ruth and Kennedy must gain each other's trust, and come to see that what they've been taught their whole lives about others—and themselves—might be wrong.

Appetite by Sheila Grinnell

What They Say......When Jenn Adler returns from a year in India, she has a surprise for her parents: a young guru from Bangalore whom she intends to marry. 

Her father, Paul, is wary of this beggar Jenn has brought home who, he suspects, is conning his much-loved daughter while her mother, Maggie, is frightened that this alien stranger will steal away her only child, her focus in life. 

In the months leading up to the backyard wedding, Maggie is forced to reevaluate her virtues as she casts about for support, and Paul faces an unexpected threat at work one that Maggie could help him meet, if he would only ask. 

But even with these distractions, the two parents are focused on one primary question: Can they convince their daughter she is making a terrible mistake before the wedding takes place?" 


What I Say.....Ugh.  I saw a little bit of myself in this story.  As in, it's so easy to assume that you know what's best for your child, better than anyone else, including them.  It's hard to be a parent, and that job doesn't just end when they turn 18 and go away to school and move out.  It's not that you WANT to continue to control their lives, but the habits that you spent your child's lifetime learning don't change easily.

But I don't think I'm quite as bad as Maggie, and I'm definitely not as big of a jerk as her father, Paul. 

Jenn has graduated college and spent a year traveling in India, when she writes to let her parents know that she is coming home and bringing her boyfriend, who is about to become her fiancé.  Jean and Arun  are working a consciousness raising type of business for the poor in India, and they are both inspired and invested in continuing this work.  They are coming home to visit, but not looking for money, not asking for anything.  And Jenn's parents just can't understand that.

In the meantime, her father, Paul is continuing his decades long affair, along with doctoring research in his lab at the hospital.  Her mother is embarking on an affair and trying to wrap her mind around why her daughter would want to leave home and work for the poor in India.

Arun and Jenn looked so much more mature and grounded than her parents.  No matter how rudely they behaved, Arun treated them with respect and compassion.  I wish we had gotten to know a little more about what was going on in his head.

This is an important book for parents of adult children to read.  It makes you step back and look at your own behavior and your thoughts about your children 's life choices, those children who are now adults.  It's so hard because when I look at my daughters, I still see pigtails and braces, not college degrees and apartments of their own.  It goes so fast......

Thanks to Booksparks and the Summer Reading Challenge 2016.  This was a book that I never would have picked up on my own, but I really enjoyed it!

Current Goodreads Rating 4.06

Weekly Book Haul....June 5, 2016

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.

Phoenix is in the middle of a record breaking heat wave.  We hit 120 according to my car at 6pm last night, so to escape the heat, my daughter and I went to see Me Before You.  I'm pretty sure everyone has read the Jojo Moyes book that the movie is based on.  The critic reviews weren't great but the viewer reviews were very positive.  As anticipated, it was a real tearjerker.  I think Emilia Clarke made a perfect Louisa, she was exactly as I pictured her when I was reading the book. 

Just a reminder, I've got a giveaway going on.....click here to enter.

I'm in the middle of the Booksparks Summer Reading Challenge 2016 and I'm reading up a storm.  They always have such great books and June is no exception.

Saving Abby by Steena Holmes....All children’s book illustrator Claire Turner

ever wanted was to be a mother. After six years of trying to conceive, she and her husband, Josh, have finally accepted that she will never be pregnant with a child of their own.

Yet once they give up hope, the couple gets the miracle they’ve been waiting for. For the first few months of her pregnancy, Claire and Josh are living on cloud nine. But when she begins to experience debilitating headaches, blurred vision, and even fainting spells, the soon-to-be mother goes to the doctor and receives a terrifying diagnosis. Since any treatment could put their unborn baby’s life at risk, the Turners must carefully weigh their limited options. And as her symptoms worsen, Claire will have to make an impossible decision: Save her own life, or save her child’s?

Everybody Rise by Stephanie Clifford....It's 2006 in the Manhattan of the

young and glamorous. Money and class are colliding in a city that is about to go over a financial precipice and take much of the country with it. At 26, bright, funny and socially anxious Evelyn Beegan is determined to carve her own path in life and free herself from the influence of her social-climbing mother, who propelled her through prep school and onto the Upper East Side. Evelyn has long felt like an outsider to her privileged peers, but when she gets a job at a social network aimed at the elite, she's forced to embrace them.

Recruiting new members for the site, Evelyn steps into a promised land of Adirondack camps, Newport cottages and Southampton clubs thick with socialites and Wall Streeters. Despite herself, Evelyn finds the lure of belonging intoxicating, and starts trying to pass as old money herself. When her father, a crusading class-action lawyer, is indicted for bribery, Evelyn must contend with her own family's downfall as she keeps up appearances in her new life, grasping with increasing desperation as the ground underneath her begins to give way.

Bracing, hilarious and often poignant, Stephanie Clifford's debut offers a thoroughly modern take on classic American themes - money, ambition, family, friendship - and on the universal longing to fit in.


25 Sense by Lisa Henthorn....Claire Malone didn t mean for this to happen

when she moved to New York. She just wanted to live the city life and gain experience in television writing, her dream career. It s not like she meant to reciprocate when her married boss, Sean Vared, sent her flirty e-mails. And you can't blame her for coming into the office on the weekend when Sean told her he was going to be there . . . alone. She didn't mean to sleep with him but hey, she wanted to experience the city life, so no big deal, right? Wrong. 

By the time Claire wakes up on her 25th birthday, she s very much in love with Sean. At work, she struggles to hold it together when he passes her desk the very desk that they used to make love on. 

Soon Sean has turned his affection to the shows starring actress, and Claire is devastated. Can she break away from Sean without ruining her barely started career? Will someone find out what happened? Will she ever grow up and stop making stupid mistakes? 

25 Sense is about the time in a young woman s life when the world starts to view her as a responsible adult but all she feels is lost.


The Sweetheart Deal by Polly Dugan....Leo has long joked that, in the event

of his death, he wants his best friend Garrett, a lifelong bachelor, to marry his wife, Audrey. One drunken night, he goes so far as to make Garrett promise to do so. Then, twelve years later, Leo, a veteran firefighter, dies in a skiing accident. 

As Audrey navigates her new role as widow and single parent, Garrett quits his job in Boston and buys a one-way ticket out west. Before long, Audrey's feelings for Garrett become more than platonic, and Garrett finds himself falling for Audrey, her boys, and their life together in Portland. When Audrey finds out about the drunken pact from years ago, though, the harmless promise that brought Garrett into her world becomes the obstacle to his remaining in it.

Summer at the Cornish Cafe by Phillipa Ashley

What They Say......One summer can change everything . . . 

Demi doesn’t expect her summer in Cornwall to hold anything out of the ordinary. As a waitress, working all hours to make ends meet, washing dishes and serving ice creams seems to be as exciting as the holiday season is about to get.

That’s until she meets Cal Penwith. An outsider, like herself, Cal is persuaded to let Demi help him renovate his holiday resort, Kilhallon Park. Set above an idyllic Cornish cove, the once popular destination for tourists has now gone to rack and ruin. During the course of the Cornish summer, Demi makes new friends – and foes – as she helps the dashing and often infuriating Cal in his quest. Working side by side, the pair grow close, but Cal has complications in his past which make Demi wonder if he could ever truly be interested in her.

Demi realises that she has finally found a place she can call home. But as the summer draws to a close, and Demi’s own reputation as an up and coming café owner starts to spread, she is faced with a tough decision . . .

What I Say.....Quick, cute little read.  Demi is kind of a sad sack - homeless, soon jobless and no family that cares about her.  Add in a large dog and you find her sleeping in the streets.

She lands a job with Cal Penwith, who is recently returned from what sounds like war, although is described as a humanitarian trip (we never really do find out what happened to him there, although it's frequently referred to as part of his brooding and drinking).

Cal is ready to make his family's campground great again, and is willing to send Demi to college courses on hospitality if she would like - this must be different in England vs. America - because it didn't seem like cost was an issue, but then money worries are referred to elsewhere.

The token town meanie, Mawgan, is there to try to prevent the park from opening, and the token beautiful ex-girlfriend is also there - although she seems like a genuinely nice person.

In between all of this, are Cal and Demi doing manual labor and dreaming big of making the park shine. Of course they fall in love, and have some misunderstandings along the way.  That's what makes it chick lit.

What made it a little different is the homelessness, Cal's budding alcoholism, and the lack of what seemed to be genuine caring for Demi on Cal's part.  He was a known ladies man, and seemed okay with that.   Which didn't make me root for them to finally fall together.  

In the description, it talks about Demi's "reputation as an up and coming  cafe owner" - spoiler alert, her cafe never opened in this book.  But it's part of a trilogy, so maybe there will be more answers in the future.

Current Goodreads Rating 4.10

The Assistants by Camille Perri

What They Say.....A wry and astute debut about a young Manhattanite whose embezzlement scam turns her into an unlikely advocate for the leagues of overeducated and underpaid assistants across the city. 

Tina Fontana is the hapless but brazen thirty-year-old executive assistant to Robert Barlow, the all-powerful and commanding CEO of Titan Corp., a multinational media conglomerate. She’s excellent at her job and beloved by her famous boss—but after six years of making his reservations for restaurants she’d never get into on her own and pouring his drinks from bottles that cost more than her rent, she’s bored, broke, and just a bit over it all.

When a technical error with Robert’s travel-and-expenses report presents Tina with the opportunity to pay off the entire balance of her student loan debt with what would essentially be pocket change for her boss, she struggles with the decision: She’s always played by the rules. But it’s such a relatively small amount of money for the Titan Corporation—and for her it would be a life-changer . . .
 The Assistants speaks directly to a new generation of women who feel stuck and unable to get ahead playing by the rules. It will appeal to all of those who have ever asked themselves, “How is it that after all these years, we are still assistants?” 


What I Say.....I think I'm in the middle of these two generations.  But both of them seem to think the world owes them something.  I can definitely say over the last few years, my mind is a little more open to the how the game is rigged in favor of people who have more money than they could ever need or use.
But I also have open eyes to the fact that the millennial generation feels like they have been robbed if they don't have everything they want as soon as they want it - thanks, helicopter parents.

Tina innocently gets reimbursed for a plane ticket that she bought her boss, after it's already been refunded (because a multibillionaire doesn't think he should have to pay to fly first class - and block the seats around him).  Tina struggles for weeks trying to decide what to do - be honest, and turn it back in or cash it and pay off her student loans.  A simple snap and click deposit sets a whole chain of events that she could have never imagined.

Soon the people who are employed to stop this kind of thing from happening are blackmailing Tina to make sure it keeps happening, to their benefit.  It's designed to look like a modern day Robin Hood, but is it less stealing when it goes to student loans than a new car or better apartment?  Let's be honest, it's the same thing - freeing up income that would be spent on student loans to buy other things.

in the meantime, Tina has a budding romance with the office hunk, although she is terrified he will find out what she's up to, as he is a young idealist, who believes her to be as honest as he is.

I don't want to give any spoilers, but the ending was pretty neat and tidy for such a large, criminal mess on both sides.

Current Goodreads Rating 3.58