Earlier this year I read some meatier reads including Sarah's Key,
all of the books in The Hunger Games Series, Room, and Oxygen.
With summer, though, I usually opt for lighter reading.
I started out with a humorous read by Claire Cook titled
Best Staged Plans
More Lifetime Movie than Oscar winner, I would still recommend it if you are looking for that quick fun read.
This is the relateable tale of a boomer generation house stager that is ready to downsize her home and is anxious for her twenty something son to get a plan and move on with his life so she can move on with hers. Although the plot is rather predictable and this is one of those stories that will fade from my memory in a few short years it was also one that made me laugh out loud as I saw pieces of myself and my own indecision as to what to do next in my life. For all of us decor minded bloggers, there are some fun design hints and ideas and some easy meal concepts and recipes ala Trader Joe's. Add in the life lesson to be grateful for what you have and you have the book that is Best Staged Plans.
Meaty? No. Fun? Absolutely.
I followed that book up with the saucier and definitely original
Georgia Bottoms.
Now Georigia Bottoms is one of the more intriguing characters I have run across in recent years. Her family has definitely seen better days and better financial times but Georgia is one resourceful southern cookie that wants to keep her family's misfortunes private. She is often referred to in book reviews as a modern day Scarlet O'Hara. In short, Georgia sets up an elaborate schedule of prominent men from her small community that each visit her on a different night of the week. None of these callers know about the others and although she never asks for money from her gentlemen friends, she is always grateful for their "gifts". If it happens to be money? Well that suits her just fine. Everything is going according to schedule until one of her "guests", the Baptist minister, decides to confess his sins to the congregation. Georgia takes the necessary steps to avoid this debacle and so the story begins.
Hilarious at times and totally fresh. This is a book they absolutely have to make into a movie. Who could they cast as Georgia? Mark Childress, the author suggested Sandra Bullock or Reese Witherspoon. I can see Sandra but as I was reading I kept seeing either Cameron Diaz or Julia Roberts. Someone closer to forty than thirty.
As much as I enjoyed the book, the ending left me a little disconcerted. I feel like the story is only half told. What happens next. Georgia is one of those characters that maybe deserves a sequel.
I read my books on an iPad but I still rather look through the bookstores when I am considering a book. While at Target one day I perused one of their book end caps and ran across several titles that looked interesting so I pinned them. Don't you love Pinterest? When I got home I read some of the reviews of the books I had pinned and decided to go with The Island by Erin Hildebrand.
This is the story of four women that spend an entire month together on a way too primitive for me island. The characters are a mother, her sister and two daughters. Each of these privileged white women bring their own emotional baggage to Tuckernuck and the outcome in the end was just a bit too nicely wrapped up for me. Maybe if I had a sister I would be able to relate better to this book. As it was, I enjoyed reading it but a year from now I will probably barely be able to recall the plot. I felt like the book was a bit too contrived. Even the names of the characters: Chess, Tate, Indie, and Birdie seemed borderline ridiculous. The story line of the daughter who breaks off her engagement and then hears that her ex fiance has fallen while rock climbing was a bit intriguing and is probably what kept me reading but ultimately I felt like this was a fluff piece that was trying to disguise itself as something much deeper and significant. I would probably give it 2 1/2 out of five stars.
The most recent book I read was the darkest of the four. That should have been obvious from the title.
The Murder's Daughters by Randy Susan Meyers
This was a book that I didn't really like but still could not stop reading. I do have a completion fetish but I am learning to close that book that I am getting nothing from. So, there was obviously something here that kept me turning the pages. It is definitely a compelling study into the psychology of how differently people deal with tragedy and the character's were complex enough to be intriguing but fortunately the subject matter is far removed for most people. The murder of these young girl's mother by their father takes place in the first chapter and the rest of the book that covers the next thirty years of their lives follows how these two girls turned women cope or don't cope with the tragedy. I found myself definitely identifying with the behavior of one sister over the other and that made me think that even though this book was disturbing at times it would make for an interesting book club discussion. If I were going to rate it today I would probably give it three stars. It is well written but still, like I said, not a book I really enjoyed reading but one I would not discourage anyone from picking up.
So what next? I have a friend that used to be in my book club and I always loved the books she chose. Two of my favorite books, Olive Kitteridge, and Mrs. Kimble were also her suggestions so I am pretty well convinced that this title that she sent my way, The Kitchen House, which tells the story of a white servant girl in a plantation house,
will be a winner too.
I'll get back to you on this one.
I am always looking for good titles so I'd love to hear what you have found to be noteworthy reading too.
Switching the subject, have you done any fall decorating at your house? If so, think about linking up to Motivated Monday here.
xoxo,
P
