Lovely Little Shelf

Bookish Thoughts: Short Stories

July 31, 2010 – 12:23 pm

I know that a lot of people see them as kind of a waste of time, but I love, love, love a good short story collection.  I think it’s great to be able to start and finish a full story in one sitting.  I especially like to read short stories by people that I’ve already read novels by.  It’s a totally different ball game, in my opinion, and I like to see how it’s handled, because while I love a good short story collection, a bad one can be really, really bad.

Just wanted to let you know about a few that I thought were pretty great.

Of course, Stephen King is a gimme.  He has several collections of short stories and the short story is something that he’s kind of passionate about.  A lot of times when people say that they haven’t read Stephen King because they’re just not sure about him, I recommend a short story collection so that they can get a taste of his writing without a commitment to a 1000 page book.  Some of my favorites collections by him are Nightmares and Dreamscapes, Night Shift, Everything’s Eventual, and Four Past Midnight.  All of his are good stuff though and if you are new to him or to short stories, this would probably be a good place to start.

Another classic is Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger.  I read this several years ago and thought it was good but didn’t really realize how much it impacted me.  There are stories here that come back to me over and over and over.  They are kind of these perfect, model short stories.  They give you a glimpse of a life while blurring some edges and telling a full story.  The first one, Perfect Day for Banafish, really is one of the best short stories I’ve ever read.  So, so good.

I was first introduced to Elliot Perlman though Seven Types of Ambiguity and it was pretty much love at first sight.  I thought that mammoth of a book was great and when I found out that he also had a short story collection, I was totally sold.  The Reasons I Won’t Be Coming is a collection of stories that from the descriptions just sound totally quirky, but end up having real heart behind them.  They are normal people in semi-normal situations and he just takes these ordinary lives and writes about them in a beautiful, poignant way.  For some of the stories, that really really works.  Some of them, not so much.  Worth reading the full collection though, mostly because I like what he’s trying to say.

I started The Whole Story and Other Stories by Ali Smith in the bookstore, and in a very uncharacteristic move, walked straight to the check-out and bought it.  I liked it that much.  It’s a skinny little book but it is kind of beautiful and I really loved the stories.  The first one, The Universal Story, will stop you in your tracks. So frigging good.  All of them are good, but for me, this one was worth buying the collection for.  So, so good.

I thought that The Memory Keeper’s Daughter was only so-so, but I thought that The Secrets of a Fire King by Kim Edwards was pretty great.  What struck me about this collection and what I remember most is how each story was its own deal, but that similar themes kept popping up in one story after the other.  There was a little spark every time there was this feeling of “recognition” and I think that it made the collection so much more powerful as a whole.  That flow took some mediocre stories and bumped them up a notch.  There were a few great stories here, but not all of them.  I still enjoyed it enough to include it on this little list, so that should say something, right? Right.

I just sat here and tried to brainstorm a couple more but came up with some stuff that’s good but not great, and I don’t want you to start off on the wrong foot if short stories are something new for you.  Give one of these collections a go and let me know what you think.  Anyone have any amazing recommendations that I’ve missed here?  Let me know!

By Jacki | Posted in Thoughts | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Flashback Friday: Homecoming

July 30, 2010 – 6:22 am

Homecoming, by Cynthia Voight

Before I tell you about this book, let me say that finding the cover that I remember it having (the pinkish one that I posted up there) was a giant pain.  I even re-bought this book recently at the goodwill and it had this cover, but the one that I found every time I searched was this:


Isn’t that kind of way cool and trendy looking?  They did the whole series with these kind of covers.  If I were a kid, I’d go totally crazy for these books. Again.

Anyway.

I loved this book.  I think that there were three or four in the series about this family and I know that I read all of them, but I must have read this first one 20 times, no exaggeration.  I think that the first couple of times that I read it, I was probably too young to really “get” it and it is one of the first books that I remember that kept revealing new stuff to me as I continued to read it.

Dicey is just a young teen (maybe 14 or so?) when her totally unstable mother up and leaves Dicey and her three younger siblings at a shopping mall.  She just goes in, leaves the kids in the car and never comes back.  When they realize what has happened and that they are solo now, Dicey totally steps up and starts taking care of her younger siblings.  She gets into her head that they need to head north, where they have some relatives, so she leads these kids on this journey.  They have 10 or 15 bucks and they just do what they need to do.  They sleep and camp in random places, eat random food and just make it day-to-day.

What I remember mostly was that Dicey was in-freaking-credible.  Seriously, one of the best young adult heroines that I’ve come across even to this day.  I just remember being totally struck on how strong and good that she was.  She just got up every day and cheered up her siblings.  She didn’t know where their next meal was going to come from, but she didn’t let anything slow her down or make her second guess.  Even when she got to her relative’s house and they, um, were not what she expected, she didn’t crumble.  She was just awesome.

After thinking about this book and looking at the covers I’ve gotten myself all excited.  I wouldn’t be surprised if I pick this one up soon for a re-read.  It’s that good.

To participate in Flashback Friday, head over here to get the info on what’s going on.  After posting your flashback, come back here and comment with a link to your blog so everyone can enjoy!

By Jacki | Posted in Flashback Friday | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Guest Review: Pregnancy Sucks for Men

July 29, 2010 – 9:21 am

Does being pregnant give me enough leverage to get my husband to stay up late to write a book review for my blog? Um, yeah it does! :) This book had been laying on the back of the toilet for the last 9 months, all the while I was reminding Shaun that at some point he’d be writing a guest review about it. He’s such a good sport.  Without further ado: a blog post written by my husband!

Pregnancy Sucks for Men: What to do when your miracle makes you BOTH miserable, by Jeff Kimes

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I can officially say that I am a good husband. Yes, I can stand in line with the great ones. What’s more is that I didn’t have to risk my life to earn this prestigious and rare title. There were no heroic efforts or feats of derring-do. You see, I did exactly what I supposed to do; I read a book about my wife’s pregnancy while she was pregnant.

The book I read was Pregnancy Sucks: For Men. It was a great read and I loved it. Here’s why:

It was no easy to task to find a pregnancy book I could relate to. There are literally bookshelves, libraries even, filled with pages and pages of text written about birth and delivery. There are sections in bookstores containing mountains of books about pregnancy and for every one hundred of the books intended for girls only, there is one book marketed for guys. Most of them are terribly-written and offer little practical information. In fact, at this point in time most are out-of-date.

Pregnancy Sucks: For Men is not like this at all.

Read More »

By Jacki | Posted in Review | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Review: The Doctor & The Diva

July 28, 2010 – 10:21 am

The Book: The Doctor and the Diva, by Adrienne McDonnell

The Story: Sometimes I avoid certain historical fiction only because I feel like it tells the same story over and over.  This story, I have to say, was totally unique and unlike anything I had read before.

It is the early 1900’s and Erika (an opera singer looking to further her career) and her husband Peter have been trying to conceive since they got married.  A child really is all that Peter wants.  Erika is on-board, but as the story progresses, you  kind of start to see that she’d just as soon have a big opera career before she has a baby.

On a tip from Erika’s brother, they start to visit a fertility doctor, Dr. Ravell.  He’s had success helping couples get pregnant when they thought for sure that they could not.  He was practicing several cutting edge techniques, including invetro fertilization.  Who know that that that existed in the early 1900’s?  As the treatments progress,  Dr. Ravell discovers that Peter will never be able to have children but has found this out on the sly and doesn’t have the guts to tell the couple.  Here’s where he’s faced with a series of tough decisions.

All three of these characters, in fact, are faced with tough decisions.  They are these complicated people who are all just trying to do what is right, even when those things seem to counteract each other at every turn.

What I Thought: I kind of thought that this book was amazing.  I know that you guys know this about me, but nothing makes a book for me like good character development, and that was just incredible here.  Erika kind of goes from this meek, annoying starlet wanna-be to this real woman with real emotions going through a seriously tough situation.  I couldn’t help but put myself in her place.  The decision to have children and put aside all these dreams that you had for your life had to have been so hard and the author fleshes all that out perfectly.  Her struggles, her talent, her needs, they are all just laid out there and the reader is left to make the decision: is she seriously selfish or is she just doing what she thinks is right?

Same with Peter.  At first, he just seems like this controlling, obsessed husband, but as the book goes on you start to see his real heart: he is genuinely madly in love with his wife and just wants a family with her.  He makes some decisions that made me cringe, but even then, was he just doing what was right by his family?

For me, though, the most interesting character was Dr Ravell.  The author somehow takes this creeper of a doctor and turns him into a character that you just want to hug.  His skill at his job combined with his pure old loneliness made for a pretty bad combination for him as far as life decisions go.  Women were falling over themselves for him and he was lonely…. the choices he made may not have been the “right” ones, but the author made his loneliness so palpable that his sleeping with these random women seem alright and even good.  Watching him change and fight these deep battles within himself was probably my favorite part of this book.

Historical fiction is a totally tricky genre I think.  It can get so cheesy so fast.  From the author’s notes at the beginning and the end of the book, she put some serious research into these characters, even basing Erika on someone in her family tree.  As far as I can tell, this is her first novel and I have to say, I was totally impressed.  I’ll keep an eye on her and not hesitate for a minute to read her next novel.

Conclusion: I would recommend this without reservation to anyone except people that are currently struggling with infertility or have recently experienced a miscarriage.  I don’t want to spoil anything, but there are some pretty graphic scenes here and they made the pregnant lady in me cringe and cry a little bit.  Other than that, seriously good stuff.  Check it out.

By Jacki | Posted in Review | Tagged , , | Comments (1)

Author Interview: Amy Bourret

July 27, 2010 – 9:41 am

This week, I got the opportunity to interview Amy Bourret, author of Mothers and Other Liars.  I ended up on a blog tour of this book earlier in the month and I really enjoyed it.  I contacted Amy with a few questions and she was more than generous with her answers.  Enjoy!

Lovely Little Shelf: I thought that a clever little part of the book was how Lark got her name, from a candy bar wrapper.  Did you come up with the name first or the concept of Lark’s name coming from a “found object”?

Amy Bouret: She gave me her name first, and then told me where it came from.

LLS: What are your favorite pizza toppings?

AB: Chicken, artichoke and goat cheese

LLS: I want a piece of Ruby’s furniture!  Did you base this job on someone you know/somewhere you shop or did you just kind of make it up?

AB: A little of both. As a kid, I loved “helping” my grandfather with his refinishing projects, and have done a few myself (the pie safe is autobiographical!). I’ve also been concerned about the environment forever – I joined the Sugar Bears Ecology Club when I was 6 – so I loved the idea of “repurposing” old furniture. I’d like a piece of Ruby’s work, too!

LLS: I thought that the decisions that Ruby had to make were truly gut-wrenching.  Did you know going into it what she would decide or were you as surprised as the readers?

AB: I didn’t even know the choices she would face. That’s the fun for me in writing is letting the story carry you where it wants to go. And yes, I was very surprised at where it went.

LLS: I saw an immediate connection between Mothers and Other Liars and Jodi Picoult’s books, not only in storyline but in style.  Was this intentional? Do you read her a lot?

AB: I have read some of Jodi’s work and am flattered to be compared to her, but no, I did not intentionally forge a connection. I hope my work is not deriviate of anyone. I just try to write honestly and well.

LLS: I read on your website that while you don’t have children yourself, you have practiced child advocacy law.  How do you think those two facts shaped your novel?

AB: I don’t know how not having a child shaped the novel, because I can’t compare the experience with writing it while having a child. I WAS a child and I HAVE a mother, so I think there is some of me in each of Ruby and Lark – as well as some of my mother, my sister, my nieces and a whole lot of other people who i have crossed paths with along the way.

The child advocacy part is easier to answer. That work is so rewarding but is also heartbreaking, and I think my experiences definitely shaped the decision that Ruby made at that rest stop.

LLS: What is your favorite 80’s band?

AB: I love Bon Jovi, THE 80’s Hair Band. I also love the Eagles.

LLS: What are you reading right now? What were your favorite books as a kid?

AB: Right now I’m reading lots of poetry and nonfiction. I’m working on my next novel, and I try to protect my characters’ voices while they feel fragile by not letting other voices into my head.

Mothers & Other Liars hits the shelves August 3rd.  For more info on the book and more info on Amy, go check out her website.  It is pretty and full of good stuff.

By Jacki | Posted in interview | Tagged , | Comments (1)

Review: Eye Contact

July 26, 2010 – 11:39 am

The Book: Eye Contact, by Cammie McGovern

The Story: In a small patch of woods outside of an elementary school, a young girl is murdered.  The only witness to the murder is Adam, a nine-year-old autistic boy.  Even on a good day, he is almost completely non-verbal, but after this, he totally shuts down.

His mom, Cara, has always been drawn to people who are broken or need fixed.  She has worked endlessly with Adam and can read his non-verbal clues like a book.  She has his mannerisms and routine down to a science.  Using this knowledge, she starts investigating why Adam (a rule follower to the max) would have been in the woods, and what could have caused the responses that he had.  This investigation takes her back to her past to her relationship with Adam’s father and her best friend at the time.  This untying of the past actually becomes pretty important as the book goes on.

There’s a lot of other stuff going on here: police officers with other motives, a middle-school boy who casts himself as a junior detective, over-bearing parents, and a lot of issues about dealing with special needs within the education system.

This book starts off strong, builds up the pressure, then offers twists everywhere until you can’t see which way is up.  I’m not going to ruin this for you, but the ending is wiiiild.

Read More »

By Jacki | Posted in Review | Tagged , , | Comments (1)

Blog News: I’m losing it.

July 26, 2010 – 8:55 am

I am an organizer. To the max.

I have a small notebook where I had little blog ideas written down.  More importantly, I had all of my posts planned out through mid-August.

I lost my  notebook.  It turned into a pretty big issue in our house.  We even cleaned out the car “just in case.”

I’m one of those people who feels lost without a list.  So I’m lost now.  You  may have noticed that I didn’t even post yesterday.  My  mind was blown.

So! Give me a couple of hours to re-group and we’ll get right back to our regularly scheduled program.

And if you see a little blue notebook with a butterfly on the front (Hey! Don’t make fun of me! It was in my stocking from my mama!) please return it to its rightful owner. Thanks.

By Jacki | Posted in News | Comments (4)

Mockingjay Pin Winner!

July 24, 2010 – 12:15 pm

Let’s hear it for the winner of this ultra cool mockingjay pin….. Kelsey from Kelsey Toney!

I’ll get this in the mail for you asap, because I know you’re going to be wanting to sport it everywhere you go.

Thanks to everyone who entered.  I wish I had one to send everyone…. come to think of it, I may just have another one laying around here somewhere….

I guess you better just keep an eye on the blog to find out ;)

By Jacki | Posted in giveaway | Tagged , , | Comments (1)

Flashback Friday: Winnie-the-Pooh

July 23, 2010 – 12:18 pm

Winnie-The-Pooh, by A.A. Milne

In my book, you kinda can’t go wrong with Winnie-The-Pooh, Piglet, Rabbit and ol’ Christopher Robin.  I remember reading this when I was younger and thinking, even then, that it was maybe the cutest thing ever written.  When Winnie-The-Pooh dressed up as a rain cloud, I’m pretty sure a collective “aww!” spread throughout the whole world.  Cutest frigging thing ever.

So I liked Winnie-The-Pooh, I do admit that.  However, at some point, my aunt and uncle must have seen me reading this book and decided that it was my obsession.  Every year from the time I was pretty young until I was way, way too old I got little Winnie-The-Pooh things.  If I remember correctly, they were even getting me Winnie-The-Pooh watches and figurines until well into high school… maybe after.  I just didn’t have the heart to tell them that while I enjoyed a good Heffalump story, it was by no means my favorite thing of all time.

This is the book that comes on the iPad, so recently I’ve revisited a little bit and I have to say, it is just as good as an adult.  This is one of the books that I really cannot wait to read out loud to my kiddies.

To participate in Flashback Friday, head over here to get the info on what’s going on.  After posting your flashback, come back here and comment with a link to your blog so everyone can enjoy!

By Jacki | Posted in Flashback Friday | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Review: The Life and Times of The Thunderbolt Kid

July 22, 2010 – 1:22 am

The Book: The Life and Times of The Thunderbolt Kid: Travels Through my Childhood, by Bill Bryson

The Story: Although he is known for his travel memoirs, Bill Bryson decided to take us on a trip through his childhood in this one.

Bill Bryson grew up in the 1950’s and 60’s in the midwest.  He is nostalgic and sweet about little things: comic books, color tv, escalators, the onset of prepackaged food, lincoln logs, stuff like that, and about big things: the space race, the evolution of the suburbs, education, baseball*.

He combines his personal memories with data and facts about what was going on through this period to give a good solid look at 20 years of America’s past.

What I Thought: I’ve had a thing for Bill Bryson for a long time.  I was so excited when my mom passed this on to me after reading it that I’m pretty sure I actually squealed.  So frigging good.

I cannot even tell you how many times I was laying on the couch reading and laughing loud enough that Shaun would make me read the part to him.  I really couldn’t help it. I had to set it down a few times because I was laughing so hard.  Usually this happened when people got hurt or embarrassed.  You’ll be happy to know that both of these things happen a lot.

I think the thing that sets this apart and makes it really good is not the humor even though it was really funny. It’s the charm.  I’m young and still get a little nostalgic when I look back on my childhood.  Reading a good writer flesh this out is charming and sweet.  The innocence of his childhood and his love for that time in his life and his family and friends just comes through the pages and for me it was really touching.

There are quite a few racist and sexist bits mixed in, but generally he admitted right off that he was about to be a little bit racist or sexist.  Not sure if that makes it better, but it didn’t detract from the book for me. I just felt like that was how he was raised and if the rest of the book can be filtered through a lens of “childhood,” these bits probably should be too.

Conclusion: I’m not sure how many baby boomers I have reading my blog, but if you’re one of them: get this book right now.  So good.  Even if you aren’t a baby  boomer, there is really good stuff here. You’ll love it. Go get it. This probably isn’t his best work, but I think it’s worth the read, without a doubt.

*This is the worst constructed sentence I’ve ever written. Maybe it is the worst constructed sentence I’ve ever seen.  After I wrote it, I reread and realized how truly awful it was, but just wanted you to be able to enjoy it like I did.  You’re welcome.

By Jacki | Posted in Review | Tagged , , | Comments (1)