Book Review: Cheap Cabernet

Cheap Cabernet: A Friendship by Cathie Beck
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Cheap Cabernet is a memoir of the author’s relationship with her best friend Denise who has multiple sclerosis. Cathie and Denise have a very close but tumultuous relationship. The author hints very early on in the book that Denise is no longer living. Upon finishing the book, the first thing I wondered was if Cathie had Denise or Denise’s relatives’ blessing when she wrote this book. Denise has a quite a few personality flaws and the author lays them out bare. She also recounts some embarrassing moments of Denise’s, like when Denise’s MS got so bad that she couldn’t make it to the bathroom in time and recounts other private moments she and Denise shared. I felt very uncomfortable on Denise’s behalf most of the time while I was reading. If Denise herself had written the book or approved of it in some way, I think I would have felt differently.

All of that notwithstanding, this was a nicely written chronicle of a friendship between two very different women. I suffer from a chronic illness myself so I could relate to Denise’s stoicism and frustration while facing her disease. Caregivers and friends of those with a chronic illness will no doubt relate to Cathie really wanting to help her friend and yet being helpless most of the time.

(I received this book courtesy of the publisher and the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.)

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Book Review: All American Girl

All-American Girl by Meg Cabot
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Samantha Madison is a typical misfit teenager until the day she inadvertently saves the President of the United States from an assassination attempt. Then her life changes in more ways than she could have imagined.

I thought the characters were well-developed and realistic. Samantha especially was genuine and likeable. All American Girl is a fluffy, funny teenage romance that was great to listen to in the car.

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Book Review: Ready or Not

Ready or Not by Meg Cabot
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is the sequel to All American Girl but I listened to it without having listened to the first book. Then I liked it so much I went back and listened to All American Girl as well. I don’t feel like it mattered that much that I listened to them out of order.

Ready or Not is the story of Samantha Madison, the girl who saved the President of the United States life in All American Girl. She’s the teenage ambassador to the UN and has been dating the First Son for over a year. She is trying to decide if she is “ready or not” to have sex with her boyfriend. I thought this book handled teenage sex very responsibly. There was a lot of discussion of birth control, disease prevention options and the emotional after effects and Sam took the decision very seriously. There were not any graphic sex scenes or anything.

I’ve decided that Meg Cabot books make the perfect audio books – great narrators and light and funny plots that don’t require a lot of concentration. I’m quickly working my way through my library’s collection.

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Book Review: Every Last One

Every Last One: A Novel by Anna Quindlen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Every Last One follows the day to day life Mary Beth Latham, a typical married mom of three teenagers. Life is routine, pretty much the same day in and day out. Then halfway through the book a senseless tragedy strikes the family. The rest of the book deals with the sudden changes in the family’s life and the recovery process. I don’t want to say too much more and give away the plot. Even though this book was horribly sad, I enjoyed reading it. I finished it in about two days because it haunted me until I was done.

Book Review: Swapping Lives

Swapping Lives by Jane Green
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Swapping Lives is the story of Vickie Townsley and Amber Winslow. Vickie is the features director at Poise magazine in England and is living the life of an urban, single woman in her mid-thirties. Amber is a rich housewife in Connecticut. Amber enters and wins a contest sponsored Poise magazine to swap lives with Vickie for a month to see if the grass really is greener on the other side. Is being a single girl as carefree and fun as it seems? Is being a rich, suburban housewife less stressful than being a career gal?

This was definitely a fluffy, chick-lit book. It was entertaining to read about Amber’s McMansion and her superficial social circle of Junior League friends. At the same time, I think reading it while currently experiencing a horrible economy (in real life) took some of the fun out of it. Amber’s friends, and to a lesser extent Amber, are so materialistic it’s almost unbelievable. When Amber is living Vickie’s life in England, she’s incredulous that one of Vickie’s stay at home mom friends actually takes care of her two children WITHOUT A NANNY. Maybe some wealthy people really are that clueless to how regular people live but Amber’s character grew up in a trailer park so I found it hard to believe in her case.

One thing that irritated me about this book is the lack of editing of the American dialogue. This book is written by an English woman and I would think someone would check the dialogue of the American characters to make sure it’s authentic. But the American characters say things like, “He just turned up” and “I want a proper dinner”. One English character tells an American character that they are being “saucy” and the American character had never heard of that word. It’s not really a big deal but it was distracting.

This was a good book to listen to in the car – it didn’t require much deep thought but was light and fun. It would be a good summer beach read too.

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Book Review: The Map of True Places

The Map of True Places by Brunonia Barry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Map of True Places is the story of Zee Finch, a psychotherapist whose world is shaken up when one of her patients commits suicide. Zee goes home to Salem and discovers that her father Finch’s Parkinson’s disease is much more advanced than she’d thought. Zee’s mother killed herself when Zee was twelve and now Finch’s longtime companion has moved out. Zee extends her visit in Salem to care for her ailing father. While there, Zee must confront her unresolved issues about both her mother and her patient’s suicides.

The plot of this book moved fairly slowly in the first two-thirds of the book and then turned into a roller coaster of twists and turns in the last third. For me, the pay-off in the last third was worth the wait – I didn’t see any of the twists coming. I haven’t read Brunonia Barry’s first book, The Lace Reader. From what I understand a few of the main characters in that book are minor characters in this book but it’s not a sequel. I don’t feel like I missed anything not having read the first book.

(I received this book courtesy of the publisher and the GoodReads FirstReads program.)

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Book Review: The Gendarme

The Gendarme by Mark Mustian
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Gendarme is the story of 92 year old World War I veteran Emmett Conn. He has few memories of the war due to memory loss caused by a war injury. After being diagnosed with a brain tumor, he remembers the war in his dreams and is haunted by these memories. Emmett dreams he's a gendarme, escorting Armenians from Turkey during the Armenian Genocide. During this trek, he meets the love of his life an Armenian girl named Araxie. After remembering her in his dreams, Emmett decides he must track her down to ask her forgiveness.

I knew very little about this period in history and learned a lot about it from this book and I would like to learn even more. I thought the author did a great job of making the reader feel what an elderly man in the last stages of his life might feel like – confused, regretful, detached, etc. At the same time, the younger version of Emmett Conn(Ahmet Khan)has a totally different voice – naive, headstrong, stubborn. Both story lines were compelling – it was hard to put this book down.

This book is published by Amy Einhorn Books so it's part of the Amy Einhorn Books Perpetual Challenge. You find out more about the challenge and sign up here.

(I received this book courtesy of the publisher.)

Book Review: An Inconvenient Elephant

An Inconvenient Elephant: A Novel by Judy Reene Singer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

An Inconvenient Elephant is the story of Neelie Sterling, an elephant rescuer who returns back to New York from spending a year in Africa working with baby elephants. Once in New York, Neelie and her friend Diamond-Rose try to raise enough funds to send for an elephant they had to leave behind in Zimbabwe. Her year in Africa is the subject of Still Life With Elephant. I haven't read that book but I didn't have any trouble jumping right into this book.

I enjoyed this book for the most part but Neelie started to get on my nerves about halfway through. She behaves and thinks a lot like a thirteen year old girl and I had trouble understanding what her love interest saw in her. I'm an animal lover but her obsession with elephants was beyond my understanding as well.

Overall this was a good story with elements of romance, adventure and humor.

(I received this book courtesy of the publisher and the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.)

First Day of Pre-K

Before school started, West laid out the clothes he was going to wear for his first day. He picked out a really cute blue button down shirt with lobsters on it. Then the morning of his first day of school, he scrapped that and went for a red short sleeved soccer shirt with a rainbow muscle shirt layered over it. Luckily, he is going to the same school as last year and his teachers are quite familiar with his independent nature (severe stubbornness). They know I had nothing to with his outfit without me even explaining anything.

He is very proud of his Diego wheeled backpack:

First Day of Kindergarten

My sweet boy Cash started kindergarten today. He was so excited – he's been talking about it and counting down for weeks!

Walking to the bus stop (West is the yellow speck running ahead of everyone else):

Bye bye!