Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

Genre: Fiction

It’s been a long time since I read a Kristin Hannah book and this one reminded me how much I missed her books. I really need to pull them out of my TBR and catch up. I listened to the audio version of this one and what an outstanding book!

This is the story of two women who become best friends in their teen years. Kate was the quiet one who never quite fit it. Tully was the outgoing one…the cool girl that Kate wanted to be. However, Tully had anything but a happy life. Her mother abandoned her, leaving her grandmother to raise Tully. Once Tully’s grandmother passed away, Kate’s family drew Tully right into their home and she quickly became one of the family.

We live through Tully and Kate’s life as best friends through the 1970’s, which brought back some wonderful memories of my own. When Hannah writes about the music of that time period, I can hear the radio in my mind and remember back to those days. It was like reliving my own teen years.

Tully becomes a popular television personality, while Kate is a “stay at home” mom and raises her family. Like all relationships, Tully and Kate’s has its ups and downs. Things really take an awkward turn when Kate’s daughter is mesmerized by Tully’s lifestyle and has major clashes with Kate. Unfortunately, Tully is in the middle, often going against Kate’s wishes. After one major falling-out, it looks like Tully and Kate’s relationship might come to a vicious end and things might never be the same again.

This is an emotional read…talk about tugging at the heartstrings. This book does that and so much more. I listened to this in the car on my way to work and I had to control my tears from flowing – otherwise everyone at work would have been worried about my red eyes  Talk about realistic characters, this book has them. A realistic storyline? Yep, it’s definitely there.

I have to give this book the Socrates’ Great Book Alert medal. It also completes my Audio Book Challenge for 2009!

Blue Smoke and Murder by Elizabeth Lowell

Genre: Romantic Suspense

River Guide Jillian Breck saves the life of the son of two of St. Kilda Consulting’s premiere operators and now they owe her. She doesn’t intend to collect on the debt until her life is in danger, as well as her family’s legacy.

Jill’s great aunt, Modesty Breck, is found dead in her home, supposedly the victim of a house fire. She’s leave behind several paintings by a famous painter. The problem is, they are unsigned and Jill cannot prove they are originals or very valuable. It’s not long before Jill is accused of fraud.

When Jill calls St. Kilda’s for help, they send Zach Balfour to play the role of her bodyguard. They are immediately thrown into the competitive world of art collecting. Jill thought her career as a river guide was dangerous, until she entered the art collecting circuit. She soon learns that some art collectors will do whatever it takes if they think there will be a big payoff at the end.

I listened to the audio version of this book and it kept me interested until the last disc was over. There was a nice mix of adventure, mystery, suspense with a dash of romance thrown in the middle. Lowell manages to keep readers at the edge of their seat with this one.

For reading challenges: Audio Reading Challenge

The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted: Stories and Other Acts of Liberation by Elizabeth Berg

Genre: Fiction

This is from Amazon.com…

Food is the source of both solace and misery for Berg’s smart, ticked-off, secretly dreamy yet demonstrably pragmatic women. Most are past 50 and less than happy with their altered bodies. They dutifully attend deadly Weight Watchers meetings, cheat wildly on their diets, then try, once again, to stay away from brownies and fast food. The binge story, “The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted,” is matched by “The Day I Ate Nothing I Remotely Wanted,” and clearly the insatiable appetite for rich and comforting foods stems from a deeper hunger for enveloping and sustaining love. This is adored author Berg’s second story collection, separated from the first, Ordinary Life (2002), by seven novels, and once again she makes striking use of the shorter form. Her stories are deliciously piquant and deceptively blithe, just as the respectable appearances of her women characters conceal fierce inner lives. Berg zeros in on the routine unfairness women face, and the anguish and irony of age and family relationships, as her bawdy, scheming, outspoken, and loyal women persevere, often finding the humorous side of difficult predicaments. --Donna Seaman --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

I listened to the audio version of this book which was really nice because it was narrated by the author. I figure who can tell a story better than the person who wrote it?

My favorite stories were the ones dealing with weight issues. I guess because I’m a lifetime member of Weight Watchers (I lost 85 lbs and have maintained my goal weight for a year) so I can identify with the trials and tribulations of dieting. I was laughing in my car when the woman in one story decided to be totally anti-Weight Watchers and just eat anything and everything she wanted. I was especially salivating when she bought dozens of Dunkin Donuts. Yum! Anyway, I digress…this was a nice diversion. Lately, I seem to be listening to stories that could be about any everyday person out there and its been a nice change.

For reading challenge: Audio Book Reading Challenge

The Guy Not Taken: Stories by Jennifer Weiner

Genre: Fiction

After reading “Good in Bed” and “Certain Girls”, I’ve become a fan of Jennifer Weiner’s work. This particular book isn’t the same as the previous books I read. This one is a collection of short stories but with the same theme of what is happening in women’s lives today – from family issues to marital issues to childrearing issues to career issues. There is one story that is told from the man’s point of view, which I found interesting. That particular story also featured a cameo appearance from Cannie, the main character from “Good in Bed”.

As in the previous Weiner books I listened to, her characters are all realistic and facing realistic problems and challenges that everyday people face. Her characters are easy to identify with and appreciate. My favorite was the last story “The Mother’s Hour”. A woman who desperately wanted a child finally has one and she’s more than the woman can handle. She joins a playgroup called “The Mother’s Hour” and forms a friendship with a much younger mother. Very interesting story.

I listened to the audio version of this book and it was a nice diversion from sitting in traffic on the way to and from work. I prefer full length novels, as short stories always leave me wanting more. However, maybe that’s a good thing. I intend to eventually make my way through off Weiner’s books as I think she’s an excellent author.


For reading challenges: Audio Books Reading Challenge

Testimony by Anita Shreve

Genre: Fiction

A sex scandal occurs in a private school involving some of the star basketball players and underage girl. The story is told from the point of view of all involved – the players, the girl as well as different members of their family and school officials. We see how this one event leads to the destruction of several marriages and a tragedy the effects everyone. Each person’s point of view is told in a different chapter, each person presents their own take on the situation and how it effects them.

It’s a story that could have been ripped out of any newspaper headline. The tragic events play out in a way that captivates the readers or, in this case, the listener. I listened to the audio version of this book. My only problem was that I felt there were too many different perspectives and I tended to get a bit confused, although each one was presented by a different voice by a different reader. Sometimes I wondered if I would have preferred reading the print version.

This is my first book by Anita Shreve and I will certainly read more. I found this story to be compelling and intriguing.

For reading challenge: Audio Books Challenge

The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

Genre: Mystery

From the Jacket

First published in the UK in 1998, and in the USA in 2001 by Polygon. Republished in 2002 and 2003 by Anchor.

This first novel in Alexander McCall Smith's widely acclaimed The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series tells the story of the delightfully cunning and enormously engaging Precious Ramotswe, who is drawn to her profession to "help people with problems in their lives." Immediately upon setting up shop in a small storefront in Gaborone, she is hired to track down a missing husband, uncover a con man, and follow a wayward daughter. But the case that tugs at her heart, and lands her in danger, is a missing eleven-year-old boy, who may have been snatched by witchdoctors.

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency received two Booker Judges' Special Recommendations and was voted one of the International Books of the Year and the Millennium by the Times Literary Supplement.

My thoughts…

I listened to the audio version of this book. Although it was an interesting book, the short mystery cases were easily solvable. I love mysteries and I prefer when the entire book centers around one major case with many twists and turns. I just couldn’t get into this one. I know it’s a popular book, but not my cup of tea.

For reading challenge: Audio Reading Challenge

Here’s the Story by Maureen McCormick

Genre: Non-fiction

Maureen MCormick’s real life was very different than the one she played as a child on The Brady Bunch. McCormick takes us on the journey through her life from childhood to adulthood. She relives some of the worst, as well as the some of the best, moments of her life.

This had to be a painful book for her to write as she talks about the problems her parents went through – marital, as well as problems with their children. We see the agony Maureen herself went through as became a cocaine addict to the point that she’d do anything to get some. A very different life than the one Marcia Brady led.

I found this book to be interesting and very sad. It’s hard to think of anyone going through some of these hardships whether they are a celebrity or not. It doesn’t sound as if her stardom caused her troubles. There seemed to many aspects that added up to everything she went through. It’s good to see she’s on the road to a happy life.

Elements of Style by Wendy Wasserstein

Genre: Chick Lit

Elements of Style, the Pulitzer Prize—winning playwright Wendy Wasserstein’s first novel, is a scathing comedy about New York's high society facing the post—9/11 world.

Francesca Weissman, an Upper East Side pediatrician rated number one by Manhattan magazine, floats on the fringes of the upper strata of privilege and aspiration. Through her bemused eyes we meet the thoroughbred socialite Samantha Acton; relentless social climber Judy Tremont; Barry Santorini, an Oscar-winning moviemaker accustomed to having his way; his supermarket heiress wife, Clarice; and more, tossed together in a frothy stew of outrageous conspicuous consumption and adulterous affairs that play out on Page Six. But when Wasserstein’s madcap tour of the social lives and mores of twenty-first-century Manhattan veers into tragedy, we finally see the true cost of her characters’ choices, and the beating heart of this dazzling novel.

My thoughts:

I listened to the audio version of this book. There was a bit of everything in this book from humor to sadness. The events of 9/11 cast a pall over the book for me. While some incidents were humorous, others weren’t and they weren’t meant to be. Some things rang quite true about life in New York right after the attacks. Although some characters were not very sympathetic, I loved Francesca and wanted to see things work out for her. It was interesting to read the repercussions these characters all went through because of their own decisions.

For reading challenge: Audio book challenge

Chasing Harry Winston by Lauren Weisberger

Genre: Chick Lit, Audio

This is the story of three women around the age of thirty dealing with men, work and relationships.

This is a blurb from Weisberger’s website:

Emmy is newly single, and not by choice. She was this close to the ring and the baby she's wanted her whole life when her boyfriend left her for his twenty-three-year-old personal trainer—whose fees are paid by Emmy. With her plans for the perfect white wedding in the trash, Emmy is now ordering takeout for one. Her friends insist an around-the-world sex-fueled adventure will solve all her problems—could they be right?

Leigh, a young star in the publishing business, is within striking distance of landing her dream job as senior editor and marrying her dream guy. And to top it all off, she has just purchased her dream apartment. Only when Leigh begins to edit the enfant terrible of the literary world, the brilliant and brooding Jesse Chapman, does she start to notice some cracks in her perfect life...

Adriana is the drop-dead-gorgeous daughter of a famous supermodel. She possesses the kind of feminine wiles made only in Brazil, and she never hesitates to use them. But she's about to turn thirty and—as her mother keeps reminding her—she won't have her pick of the men forever. Everyone knows beauty is ephemeral and there's always someone younger and prettier right around the corner. Suddenly she's wondering...does Mother know best?

These three very different girls have been best friends for a decade in the greatest city on earth. As they near thirty, they're looking toward their future...but despite all they've earned—first-class travel, career promotions, invites to all the right parties, and luxuries small and large—they're not quite sure they like what they see...

One Saturday night at the Waverly Inn, Adriana and Emmy make a pact: within a single year, each will drastically change her life. Leigh watches from the sidelines, not making any promises, but she'll soon discover she has the most to lose. Their friendship is forever, but everything else is on the table. Three best friends. Two resolutions. One year to pull it off.

The book was fun to listen to, but I can’t say it was a favorite. It was a nice stress reliever on my way to and from work, though. It reminded me a lot of Sex and the City.

Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner

Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner

Genre: Chick Lit, Fiction

Jennifer Weiner is back with her sequel to “Good In Bed”. “Certain Girls” begins 13 years after the first book ended. Candace “Cannie” Shapiro is now a married woman with a 13 year old daughter, Joy. They are preparing for Joy’s Bat Mitzvah. In the years we last saw Cannie, she married her diet doctor and wrote a best seller. Her books is a thinly disguised novel of her own life events.

Joy is horrified when she secretly reads her mother’s book. No wonder her mother never told her about it, it’s humiliating to the young woman. It may be called fiction, but Joy clearly recognizes her family in the book – the overweight heroine (her mother), the heroine’s lesbian mother (Joy’s grandmother), the creepy boyfriend (Joy’s biological father), and the heroine’s mean father (Joy’s grandfather). Embarrassment consumes Joy, not to mention her mortification at learning her parents never wanted her.

Cannie is an overprotective mother dealing with typical teenage angst, not to mention having to do damage control when she finds out her daughter read her book. Joy is determined to find out if her mother’s version of the events are really fiction or perhaps a bit of truth mixed in.

I listened to the audio version of both books. The first book was really good. The second was good, but I did have a few problems with it. Cannie is almost overbearing in her protectiveness of her daughter. While some is understandable, some of it is just over-the-top. Joy, too, can be over-the-top in her quest to learn the truth about her family. It seemed to me if Cannie just sat down with her daughter and had a discussion, Joy wouldn’t have reacted as she did. Of course 13 isn’t exactly old, but it’s old enough to learn about a few things, especially if the girl is curious and won’t let it drop. The more secretive Cannie became, the more intrigued Joy became. I wanted to strangle both of them. LOL

There was some humor in the book, but mostly it was kind of sad. It was fast listening though and I found myself totally caught up in these characters’ lives and wanting them to have a happy ending.

For reading challenge: 2009 Audio Book Challenge

Sofie Metropolis by Tori Carrington

Genre: Chick Lit, Mystery

Sofie Metropolis is shocked, to say the least, when just before her wedding she finds her fiance and maid of honor in a very compromising situation...well, more than compromising - they were having sex! Sofie immediately cancels the wedding, although she decides to keep the wedding gifts and the apartment that her parents bought as a wedding present. Sofie's huge Greek family tries to convince her to go ahead with the wedding anyway - after all, boys will be boys. However, Sofie's not having any of it. She is not going to marry a cheat!

Sofie takes a job as a private investigator in her uncle's agency and is more than disappointed at the cases she gets stuck with, everything from finding a neighbor's Jack Russell Terrier to locating a missing neighborhood vampire to chasing down cheating spouses. The cheating spouse case takes a mysterious turn when Sofie's own life is in danger. The secretive Jake Porter comes to her rescue, but can he be trusted? On the other hand, he's hot - does it really matter?

This is a fun comedy in the same vein as Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. I listened to the audio version of this and found myself laughing out loud in the car -something I really didn't want to do since people might think I was a bit insane, but maybe I am :) I've always been a fan of Tori Carrington's work and her Harlequin Blaze books are still my favorites, but this is a very promising series. I have the next two books in my TBR and I'm sure I'll get the fourth book as well. I find myself looking forward to seeing what adventures Sofie is going to find herself mixed in next.

For reading challenge: audio book challenge

The Secret Between Us by Barbara Delinsky

Genre: Fiction

How far would a mother go to protect her child?

This is the dilemma facing divorcee Deborah Monroe. On a rainy evening, she and her teenaged daughter Grace are driving home with Grace at the wheel, when the car hits a man. The man turns out to be Grace’s teacher. He’s still alive, but unconscious. Making a quick decision, Deborah sends Grace home and takes full blame for the accident when the police arrive.

Deborah has a lot on her plate. Besides protecting her daughter, her son is facing a serious medical condition, her widower father has taken up drinking and her unmarried sister is pregnant. Toss in the victim’s wife threatening a lawsuit against Deborah and Grace being so torn by guilt she turns to shoplifting, Deborah has her hands full. When the victim’s brother enters the picture, he vows to find out the truth behind the accident. Deborah is not only scared for herself, but she’s scared for her daughter and what this could mean for the girl’s future.

It’s been a long time since I read a Barbara Delinsky book and this book made me realize how much I’ve missed her stories. This was an audio book that never lost my interest. A few times I didn’t even want to get out of my car until I heard what would happen next. The situation and the character’s actions were all realistic. This is a story that shows all good intentions aren’t necessarily the right thing and could possibly lead to serious ramifications.

The story flowed smoothly and was fast-paced. The characters were vividly portrayed with each word and the narrator’s voice brought them all to life. It’s a story that will bring tears to your eyes.

For Reading Challenge: Audio Book Challenge

2009 Audio Book Challenge

I have no willpower - I signed up with yet another reading challenge. This is an audio book challenge. I've recently become an audio book addict on my way to and from work. So, this seemed like a good one for me. J.Kaye's Book Blog is hosting this one. You can join by clicking the button above. Here's some info about the challenge:

Here are the guidelines:

1) You can join anytime as long as you don’t start listening to your books prior to 2009.

2) This challenge is for 2009 only. The last day to have all your books read is December 31, 2009.

3) You can join anytime between now and December 31, 2009.

4) When you sign up under Mr. Linky, list the direct link to your post where your audiobooks will be listed. If you list just your blog’s URL, it will be removed. If you don’t have a blog, leave the URL blank.

5) You do not have to list your books ahead of time. If you decide to, you can change them as you go.

6) Our goal is to listen to 12 audiobooks in 2009. No need to list your books now. You can do so as you go.

7) Feel free to post a link to your reviews in the comment section below. That way, we can visit your blog and read your review.

I will list my choices as I go along...

1. The Secret Between Us by Barbara Delinsky Click here for review
2. Sofie Metroplois by Tori Carrington Click here for review
3. The Guy Not Taken by Jennifer Weiner Click for review
4. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith Click for review
5. Testimony by Anita Shreve Click for review
6. Chasing Harry Winston by Laura Weisberger Click here for review
7. Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner Click here for review
8. Elements of Style by Wendy Wasserstein Click here for review
9. Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah Click here for review
10. Here's the Story by Maureen McCormack Click for review
11. The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted: Stories and Other Acts of Liberation by Elizabeth Berg Click for review
12. Blue Smoke and Mirrors by Elizabeth Lowell Click for review