The Perfect Comeback of Caroline Jacobs: A Novel by Matthew Dicks
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Release Date: September 8, 2015
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
Caroline Jacobs is a wimp, someone who specializes in the suffering of tiny indignities in silence. And the big ones, too. But when the twinset wearing president of the local Parent Teacher Organization steps out of line one too many times, Caroline musters the courage to assert herself. With a four-letter word, no less.
Caroline’s outburst has awakened something in her. Not just gumption, but a realization that the roots of her tirade can be traced back to something that happened to her as a teenager, when her best friend very publicly betrayed her. So, with a little bit of bravery, Caroline decides to go back to her home town and tell off her childhood friend. She busts her daughter out of school, and the two set off to deliver the perfect comeback . . . some twenty-five years later. But nothing goes as planned. Long buried secrets rise to the surface, and Caroline finds she has to face much more than one old, bad best friend.
The Perfect Comeback of Caroline Jacobs is an enchanting novel about the ways in which our childhood experiences reverberate through our lives. It’s the story of a woman looking to fix her life through an act of bravery, and of a mother and daughter learning to understand one another. Deceptively simple and highly engaging, this latest novel by Matthew Dicks is perfect for those of us who were last to be picked at sports, and for everyone who is thrilled not to be in high school any more.
Caroline Jacobs has finally had enough and yells the f-word at the PTO president during a meeting. Since Caroline is typically timid and basically a push-over, this is a very big deal. The next day, someone teases Caroline’s daughter Polly about it and ends up getting punched in the nose by Polly. Knowing that Polly will be suspended, Caroling takes her out of school and on a road trip to the town she grew up in. She’s decided that if she could stand up to the PTO president, then she can stand up to the girl who was mean to her in high school.
On the surface, the premise of this story is a tad unbelievable. How could someone still hold a grudge for so long over something that happened in high school? However, when I found out the deeper reason that Caroline couldn’t let it go, I understood. So just go with it until you get to that point, which is near the end. Polly and Caroline’s relationship is believable. Polly definitely has the teenage angst thing going for her. And of course she thinks she’s way smarter than her dear old mom. It was fun to see their relationship evolve on their road trip.
I think the story would have been more impactful if there were more flashbacks to Caroline and her sister Lucy when they were kids. If their relationship was developed more, then it would be a lot easier to sympathize with Caroline. The book weighs in at just over 200 pages so there would definitely room for this.
Dick’s novel Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend is one of my favorite all time books. The Perfect Comeback of Caroline Jacobs was good on its own merits but didn’t have the originality of Memoirs so if you’ve read that, keep your expectations in check. If you want something light, quick and fun, then this is the book for you.
(I received a complementary review copy of this book.)
September 11th, 2015 in
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Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor’s Reflections on Race and Medicine by Damon Tweedy
Publisher: Picador
Release Date: September 8, 2015
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
One doctor’s passionate and profound memoir of his experience grappling with race, bias, and the unique health problems of black Americans
When Damon Tweedy begins medical school, he envisions a bright future where his segregated, working-class background will become largely irrelevant. Instead, he finds that he has joined a new world where race is front and center. The recipient of a scholarship designed to increase black student enrollment, Tweedy soon meets a professor who bluntly questions whether he belongs in medical school, a moment that crystallizes the challenges he will face throughout his career. Making matters worse, in lecture after lecture the common refrain for numerous diseases resounds, “More common in blacks than whites.”
Black Man in a White Coat examines the complex ways in which both black doctors and patients must navigate the difficult and often contradictory terrain of race and medicine. As Tweedy transforms from student to practicing physician, he discovers how often race influences his encounters with patients. Through their stories, he illustrates the complex social, cultural, and economic factors at the root of most health problems in the black community. These issues take on greater meaning when Tweedy is himself diagnosed with a chronic disease far more common among black people. In this powerful, moving, and deeply empathic book, Tweedy explores the challenges confronting black doctors, and the disproportionate health burdens faced by black patients, ultimately seeking a way forward to better treatment and more compassionate care.
Black Man in a White Coat is Damon Tweedy’s memoir of his experience as a black man getting into medical school up through becoming a practicing physician. At the very beginning of medical school, one of his professors mistook him for a maintenance worker even though he was dressed nicely and had been in his class for a month. Tweedy recounts his embarrassment, even though it was the professor who should have been embarrassed. He also talks about the mixed emotions he felt about a form of affirmative action being one of the reasons that he was admitted to Duke medical school.
Once he starts interacting with patients, he has a variety of experiences related to race that make him aware of the issues that both black doctors and black patients face. Some of them aren’t too surprising (although still horrible), like the white patient who didn’t want a black doctor. Some were very surprising to me. For instance, he encountered a black patient who didn’t want a black doctor. Tweedy backs up his personal examples with research that shows whatever issues he encounters exist on a larger scale. They are not isolated incidents experienced only by him.
Tweedy writes about medical information in an accessible manner with a conversational tone. My eyes were opened to race related issues in the medical field that I hadn’t previously considered. This is a great memoir that I highly recommend.
(I received a complementary review copy of this book.)
September 9th, 2015 in
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The Beautiful Bureaucrat by Helen Phillips
Publisher: Audible Studios
Release Date: August 11, 2015
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
In a windowless building in a remote part of town, the newly employed Josephine inputs an endless string of numbers into something known only as The Database. After a long period of joblessness, she’s not inclined to question her fortune, but as the days inch by and the files stack up, Josephine feels increasingly anxious in her surroundings-the office’s scarred pinkish walls take on a living quality, the drone of keyboards echoes eerily down the long halls. When one evening her husband Joseph disappears and then returns, offering no explanation as to his whereabouts, her creeping unease shifts decidedly to dread.
As other strange events build to a crescendo, the haunting truth about Josephine’s work begins to take shape in her mind, even as something powerful is gathering its own form within her. She realizes that in order to save those she holds most dear, she must penetrate an institution whose tentacles seem to extend to every corner of the city and beyond. Both chilling and poignant, The Beautiful Bureaucrat is a novel of rare restraint and imagination. With it, Helen Phillips enters the company of Murakami, Bender, and Atwood as she twists the world we know and shows it back to us full of meaning and wonder-luminous and new.
This was an unusual book. It’s been compared to Kafka’s books in many reviews. Unfortunately, I haven’t read Kafka so I can’t attest to whether that’s true or not. It actually reminded me of a David Lynch movie, which is to say it had a dark, eerie atmosphere and an absurdist plot. (I don’t mean absurd in a bad way.)
Josephine is an office worker who inputs data day after day. She has no idea what the data is or what purpose it serves. Her boss is a faceless person, distinguished only by having extremely bad breath. Her immediate supervisor is cheery, but yet creepy Trishifanny. (Her parents couldn’t decide between Trish and Tiffany.) The author does a great job of immersing the reader in the heavy atmosphere that Josephine lives in. Her life both in her office and outside with her husband are bleak and depressing. The middle of the book seemed repetitive to me but I think that repetition was necessary in order for the reader to understand what Josephine’s life is like. Her life is very repetitive. Data, day after day, after day.
I listened to the audio version of this book. I think listening to the book made the experience even more dark and creepy. The author was great at varying her voice for the different characters. I especially loved her voice for Trishifanny. She captured her false cheerfulness perfectly.
Often when I read books like these, I sense that there is deeper symbolism that is going over my head. That was the case in this book. However, I think many readers would be able to appreciate this book on all levels. Fans of science fiction along the lines of George Orwell’s books would like this book. Fans of Kafka probably would as well. If you read it, let me know. I’d love to discuss this book with someone.
(I received a complementary review copy of this book.)
September 2nd, 2015 in
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A little over a year ago, both my son and I read and enjoyed The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates: Magic Marks the Spot. It’s about Hilary, a girl who wants to be a pirate. She applies to the Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates training program but is rejected because is a girl and sent to finishing school instead. You can find my review here. When it came time to make the list of books for my churches Intergenerational Book Club (IGBC) to read, my son suggested it and I agreed to facilitate the discussion.
All of the kids and grown-ups gave it an enthusiastic thumbs up. There are a lot of magical objects in the book and the magic was definitely one of the kids’ favorite parts. They had fun talking about how they would use magic both as a regular person and as a pirate.
We have a lot more boys in IGBC than girls and not a single one was phased by the main character being a girl. And of course the females in our group were thrilled to have read a book with a strong female lead character.
Whenever I facilitate the discussion, I like to bring a snack that somehow ties into the book. The pirates in this book eat a lot of hardtack, which is basically a super hard cracker. Because it literally never spoils, it’s great to
take on sea voyages. However, it’s not sold in the regular grocery store so I had my husband and son make some. It was pretty easy – just flour, water and salt. I also brought Veggie Pirate’s Booty and Cheese Pirate’s Booty in case the hardtack didn’t go over well. To my surprise everybody loved it! 
My son said it tasted similar to a saltine cracker only super hard. I tried to taste it but I couldn’t bite into my piece. If we ever make it again, we’ll roll it out thinner – that should help make it more edible.
All in all, this book lead to one of our liveliest discussions. All of the kids were really engaged and excited about sharing their thoughts on this book.
For more reviews of books for children and teens, check out Booking Mama’s feature, Kid Konnection, posted on Saturdays. If you’d like to participate in Kid Konnection and share a post about anything related to children’s books (picture, middle grade, or young adult) from the past week, you can go to her site to leave a comment and your link .
August 31st, 2015 in
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One Mile Under by Andrew Gross
Publisher: William Morrow
Release Date: April 7, 2015
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
Leading a tour down the rapids outside Aspen, Colorado, whitewater guide Dani Whalen comes upon the dead body of a close friend. Trey Watkins’s death is ruled an accident. Finding evidence that seems to back up her suspicions that it wasn’t, she takes her case to Wade Dunn, the local police chief and her ex-stepfather, with whom she shares some unresolved history. Wade insists the case is closed, but Rooster, a hot air balloon operator in town, claims he saw something from the air she should know. When he suddenly dies in a fiery crash, Dani threatens to take her suspicions public, goading Wade into tossing her in jail.
When an old friend contacts Ty Hauck and says his daughter is in trouble, he doesn’t hesitate to get involved. Together, the two step into a sinister scheme running deep beneath the surface of a quiet, Colorado town that has made a deal with the devil to survive. But in the square off between giant energy companies and beaten-down ranchers and farmers, one resource is even more valuable in this drought-stricken region than oil. They both will kill for it—water.
I chose this book because one of my favorite book bloggers, Jill at Rhapsody In Books, said in her review that not only was this book a fast paced thriller but the reader will learn about fracking and its implications. I knew this was a good book for me because all I knew about fracking before reading it was that it’s bad. I didn’t know exactly why or even what the process entailed. I had just seen clips on TV of people lighting the water coming out of their faucets on fire. This book was a truly fun way to learn about fracking. The information is seamlessly embedded into the story, there are no awkward character monologues or inauthentic information dumps.
The plot moves quickly and has several twists and turns. I found myself wanting to strangle most of the characters at one point or another, which I usually take as a good sign. If I wasn’t invested in the story, I wouldn’t have such strong feelings. Dani and Wade brought out this feeling out in me the most often. Wade was a selfish jerk and Dani was way too stubborn for her own good.
I enjoyed the relationship between Dani and Ty, who is her god-father. I was waiting for it to turn into a skeevy May-December lust thing, as formula dictates, but it never did. Kudos to the author for keeping Ty’s relationship to Dani paternal. I appreciated that Dani was a strong, smart woman who didn’t depend on Ty to save her most of the time. And Ty wasn’t an infallible macho man. He needed to be saved at times also.
This is the fourth book in the Ty Hauck thriller series but it can easily be read as a stand-alone.
August 26th, 2015 in
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Captain Underpants and the Sensational Saga of Sir Stinks-A-Lot by Dav Pilkey
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Release Date: August 25, 2015
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
There’s something rotten in the state of Ohio, and it’s smellier than a pile of putrid gym socks! Steer clear — it’s Sir Stinks-A-Lot!
George and Harold, and their doubles, Yesterday George and Yesterday Harold, have a good thing going. Two of them go to school, while the other two hide in the tree house and play video games all day — then they switch! But when their malicious gym teacher, Mr. Meaner, creates a method of mind-control that turns their fellow students into attentive, obedient, perfect children, the future of all humanity will be in their hands!
My boys LOVE the Captain Underpants series and have read all the books but this is the first one I’ve read. I was actually pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t nearly as gross as a thought it would be and had some adult humor thrown in that would probably go over most kids heads. For instance, one of the teachers is named Miss Anthrope. There were also some big words (e.g. megalomaniac) that can build up kids’ vocabularies. Lastly, I loved that there is a same-sex couple and people of different races in this book.
I’m not sure my 11 year old cared about any of that. He just thought it was hilarious. And that’s okay too.
(I received a complementary copy of this book for review.)
August 24th, 2015 in
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I Still Dream About You by Fannie Flagg
Publisher: Random House
First released in 2010
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
Meet Maggie Fortenberry, a still beautiful former Miss Alabama. To others, Maggie’s life seems practically perfect—she’s lovely, charming, and a successful agent at Red Mountain Realty. Still, Maggie can’t help but wonder how she wound up living a life so different from the one she dreamed of as a child. But just when things seem completely hopeless, and the secrets of Maggie’s past drive her to a radical plan to solve it all, Maggie discovers, quite by accident, that everybody, it seems, has at least one little secret.
Let me start off by saying I love Southern fiction and I especially love Fannie Flagg. She’s been one of my favorite authors for a long time. I think that’s probably why I was so disappointed with I Still Dream About You. It doesn’t have nearly the depth or charm of Flagg’s other novels. It does have some quirky characters like Flagg’s other books. Hazel Whisenknott was my favorite. She was a little person full of spunk and optimism. I like that she was a little person but that it wasn’t the focus of her character’s storyline. I’m guessing there aren’t many books where one of the characters just happens to be a little person.
Maggie plans to commit suicide and has a detailed plan of what it will entail. Then her friend invites her to see the whirling dervishes later that week. She can’t say no to that so she has to put her plans off until that’s over with. After that, things just keep coming up and she keeps putting it off. I can appreciate dark humor but even so, I didn’t think Maggie had enough reasons to commit suicide. The problem was her character wasn’t developed enough. And her arch rival Babs was an over the top caricature of an evil person. If she was a man, she would have had a mustache she could twirl!
This review sounds like I didn’t enjoy the book. I actually did but it didn’t live up to my expectations for a Fannie Flagg novel. If I didn’t have those expectations going in, I think I would have liked it better. It is a quick, light read and could be a good beach book – just keep your expectations in check.
Her latest book, The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion (released in 2013) has gotten better reviews than this one so I’m hopeful that this book was an anomaly. I’ll let you know – stay tuned!
Reviews of other Fannie Flagg books (I read several more pre-blog):
A Redbird Christmas
August 20th, 2015 in
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Second Life: A Novel by S.J. Watson
Publisher: Harper
Release Date: June 9, 2015
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
How well can you really know another person? How far would you go to find the truth about someone you love?
When Julia learns that her sister has been violently murdered, she must uncover why. But Julia’s quest quickly evolves into an alluring exploration of own darkest sensual desires. Becoming involved with a dangerous stranger online, she’s losing herself . . . losing control . . . perhaps losing everything. Her search for answers will jeopardize her marriage, her family, and her life.
After Julia’s sister Kate is murdered, Julia learns that Kate had been a member of an Internet hookup website. Julia joins the site with the intention of investigating her sister’s murder but soon finds herself in way over her head.
I really liked the author’s first book, Before I Go to Sleep, and was hoping that this book would be just as good. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. Firstly, Julia is supposed to be a devoted mother but she appears to have little to no interaction with her son, even at the beginning of the book before she gets involved with the Internet hookup website. Secondly, parts of the book are repetitive and could have been edited down. Finally, there are plenty of surprising plot twists but they required a healthy suspension of disbelief and relied too much on improbable coincidences.
I’m afraid Second Life is the victim of the dreaded sophomore slump.
(I received a complimentary review copy of this book.)
August 18th, 2015 in
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We Never Asked for Wings: A Novel by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
Publisher: Ballentine Books
Release Date: August 18, 2015
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
For fourteen years, Letty Espinosa has worked three jobs around San Francisco to make ends meet while her mother raised her children—Alex, now fifteen, and Luna, six—in their tiny apartment on a forgotten spit of wetlands near the bay. But now Letty’s parents are returning to Mexico, and Letty must step up and become a mother for the first time in her life.
Navigating this new terrain is challenging for Letty, especially as Luna desperately misses her grandparents and Alex, who is falling in love with a classmate, is unwilling to give his mother a chance. Letty comes up with a plan to help the family escape the dangerous neighborhood and heartbreaking injustice that have marked their lives, but one wrong move could jeopardize everything she’s worked for and her family’s fragile hopes for the future.
I loved Vanessa Diffenbaugh’s first novel, The Language of Flowers. I went into We Never Asked for Wings hoping I would like it as much as I know the “sophomore slump” is common with new authors. Thankfully, it turned out I didn’t have anything to worry about.
The bulk of the story is about Letty and her relationship with her children. When her mother moves back to Mexico, Letty is becoming a real mother to her kids for the first time. She struggles and she makes bad choices. The author does an excellent job of filling in her back story such that I felt like I understood her and rooted for her to overcome her shortcomings as a mother.
I was really impressed with the author’s attention to detail. A lot of research was required for this novel on several seemingly unrelated subjects. Alex’s grandfather makes art with feathers and there is much information about feathers and birds. In addition, Alex is a star student obsessed with science so there is a lot of scientific information in this book that went completely over my head. That was okay though, it wasn’t necessary to understand Alex’s science project to understand his character. Finally, the complex immigration laws played a part in this book.
The best thing about We Never Asked for Wings is that it humanizes the plight of undocumented immigrants in this country. Of course the characters are fictional but they still serve as realistic examples of what is happening in real life. It’s important to know that there are all kinds of reasons that people are in this country without documentation and they shouldn’t all be judged as a group.
With this second outing, Diffenbaugh has proven that she can consistently write books with well-developed characters and compelling plots. I’m looking forward to reading whatever she comes up with next.
(I received a complementary copy of this book for review.)
August 17th, 2015 in
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I love the Get Your Pretty On Style Challenges! Here’s how they work: You sign up for the challenge and are sent a shopping list of all the items you will need to style the 21 challenge outfits. This challenge is not about buying an all-new wardrobe. Alison encourages shopping in your own closet for the items first. All of the items mix and match – you will be building a work wear “capsule”. Ten days after the shopping list is released, Alison starts releasing the daily outfits. Then dressing for the day becomes a snap – you have all the items needed for the outfit, just put them together and go! There is room for creativity too – you can use a different color scheme than the sample items on the shopping list or make substitutions. You will be granted access to the challenge Facebook page where you can post your daily outfits and see how other people put their outfits together. It’s a fun, supportive community.
Now is the time to sign up for the Work Wear Challenge. Alison says, “Are you tired of waking up every morning to an uninspiring work wardrobe? Get a shopping list of on-trend work wear essentials plus three weeks of outfits that make getting dressed a breeze.”
The shopping list for this challenge will be released on August 21st and the outfits begin on September 6th. You can sign up by clicking here.
Here are some of the outfits I wore for the Summer 2015 challenge:
August 15th, 2015 in
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