The BookFetish Blog

Janet Eve Josselyn’s Thin Rich Bitches was an entertaining read. It’s not terribly deep-in fact, I think it’s ideal for vacation or when you need a break from heavier reading. And the fact that it’s light isn’t a criticism. There are times I seek out books that I just want to entertain me.

From the Amazon book summary: “An uproarious romp through the minefield of female one-upmanship!

Leaving her cheating husband in Boston with the paralegal he impregnated, Pippin Snowe and her son move to a ramshackle farmhouse in the exclusive community of Dover, Massachusetts. Pippin finds employment with a local architect, designing kitchen renovations for wealthy Dover women who treat her as they treat the rest of the hired help. Concluding that social climbing is just another sport that she is no good at, Pippin opens a country club for dogs that offers services that the Dover women didn’t know they wanted until they found out that admission was required and spaces were limited.

With irreverent wit, Thin Rich Bitches is a humorous chronicle of one woman’s quest to find her place within a community of people who are more blessed physically and financially, while learning valuable lessons about life, love, competition, and canine couture.”

I liked that this was no twenty-eight year old perky heroine. She’s closer to my age, and has insecurities that I know a lot of women have. Josselyn’s depiction of the thin, rich, bitches of Dover is amusing. Women who have more money than they know what to do with; women who lord volunteer positions in the parent teacher organization over the other mothers as if they were CEO jobs.  The pressure of so many to be in the “in crowd” and the refreshing wit of truly monied people who don’t care a bit about it.

There’s no huge conflict point in the plot- no climax from which our heroine must crawl, and that is OK. That it is just a story of what happens when a newly divorced woman begins to find her place again is fine.

However, there were a number of editing errors  I found distracting.  I downloaded this book on July 2, and I do not know if these errors have been corrected since then.  In the interest of full disclosure, here are the things I noticed:  The spelling of our protagonist’s name is not consistent through the book. At times it is Pippin, and in other instances it is Pippen.  The ex-husband’s pregnant girlfriend is at times Pattie and other times Patty. Christmas is consistently abbreviated as XMAS, which isn’t terrible but I felt like it was a shorthand for writing that was not caught in editing. Espresso drinks were spelled expresso. Lilly Pulitzer’s name was misspelled.  I was able to get past these and enjoy the overall story, but it did detract enough while I was reading that I flipped pages to verify that Pippen had indeed previously been Pippin, and I double checked the correct spelling for both espresso and Lilly Pulitzer.

The good news is that I’ve told you about these annoying errors. It’s a fun read if you can get past them, and since you’ve been forewarned, that shouldn’t be a problem.

I have a love/hate relationship with Lionel Shriver’s books. When I read We Need To Talk About Kevin I emailed my friend Michelle and asked, “Am I ever going to LIKE this woman?” Michelle said probably not, but to keep reading because the story was good. And it was. And even though I never particularly liked Eva, I found myself really feeling for her. I liked it enough that when I saw Big Brother I thought chances were good for a compelling story.

Big Brother is the story of family. Pandora, her uber-health conscious husband and their children;and Edison, Pandora’s older and suddenly morbidly obese brother.  Family dynamics play a huge role in the story- Pandora and Edison’s relationship; Pandora and Fletcher; Pandora and Edison and their parents.   It examine’s society’s treatment of the severely overweight.  It’s uncomfortable in a number of places.  It brings into question body image and health and how much of our esteem is tied to how we look.  It’s almost a really good book.

I say almost because Shriver gave us 353 pages of an interesting, at times compelling, at times uncomfortable, and often thought-provoking story and then throws in a plot twist that made me want to throw the book across the room. I invested time in these characters and I felt slighted by the ending. I’ll spoil it if I say too much, but really, I want those hours back. Had the book ended on page 360, it would have been a disappointing but realistic (as life often is) ending. But when that twist comes, I felt like I had been duped. Perhaps that is a metaphor for Pandora lying to herself, or assuaging her own guilt, but it left me disappointed.

I found Big Brother easier to get into than We Need To Talk About Kevin and others may not be so disenchanted with the ending as I was, but for this one, I have to say I warned you if you don’t like the ending.

Debora Geary is back in this seventh book in the Modern Witch series. Packed full of our favorite characters, A Lost Witch brings with it an emotional punch I wasn’t expecting. And yes, something in the books almost always makes me cry, but this one is different, deeper. In part, I think, because of the plot twist Geary throws into this one, but also because of what Hannah Kendrick shows Witch Central.

A Lost Witch, while the last of the Modern Witch series, is also a transition point. Geary will be back later this year with our favorite witches in a new series. In A Lost Witch, she appears to be laying the foundation for some of the future possible stories.

If you’ve read any of my previous reviews of Geary’s books, you know it is the sense of community and love that I most enjoy in the books. There’s no shortage of that in A Lost Witch, and I think arguably even more, given what happens at the end of the book.

Geary’s characters continue to grow and evolve, which is needed in any progressive series or the reader just gets bored.  And as the series progresses, Geary has showed more vulnerability in some of the main characters, particularly Nell,  which adds a sense of realism to a series that makes it seem as though none of us should be too surprised to find witches in our midst.

The Modern Witch stories above all celebrate love, loyalty, family (chosen or birth), and whimsy.  A Lost Witch is full of all of these, and surprising wisdom and insight from the youngest members of Witch Central.  I think most of us would be a lot happier if we played more like Witch Central citizens do.

A Lost Witch ends the Modern Witch series on a high note, and lays the threads of what is to come.  I, for one, am counting the days until September and the first of the new series.

Tanya J. Peterson’s Leave of Absence has also made the list of contenders for my 2013 favorites.  At times heart wrenching, the story of Oliver and Penelope will leave you with a new understanding of mental illness and remind you that we’re all in this dance of life together.

From the book description: “In this insightful and evocative novel, Tanya J. Peterson delves deeply into the world of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and schizophrenia. When Oliver Graham’s suicide attempt fails, he is admitted to Airhaven Behavioral Health Center. Unable to cope with the traumatic loss of his beloved wife and son, he finds a single thread of attachment to life in Penelope, a fellow patient wrestling with schizophrenia and its devastating impact on her once happy and successful life. They both struggle to discover a reason to live while Penelope’s fiancé William strives to convince her that she is worth loving. As Oliver and Penelope try to achieve emotional stability, face others who have been part of their lives, and function in the “real world,” they discover that human connection may be reason enough to go on. Written with extraordinary perception into the thought processes of those grappling with mental illness, Leave of Absence is perfect for readers seeking an empathic depiction of grief, loss, and schizophrenia, as well as anyone who has ever experienced human suffering and healing.”

My heart broke for Oliver, of course, so broken from losing the people in his life he loved the most.  I have never felt a loss to that degree, and could only imagine the depths of his hopelessness.  But Peterson’s writing illuminates Oliver’s despair in a way that those of us unfamiliar with severe depression can appreciate.  Similarly, Penelope knows she sick. She knows that she does not function the way she did before her illness. She knows she converses with people no one else sees, and she knows this isn’t “normal”. She can’t understand how her fiance can still love her and want a life with her.  This is another struggle that Peterson plays out beautifully, making Penelope sympathetic without making her actions seem selfish or selfishly altruistic.

But through all the pain, all the angst, there is still a thread of hope.  At first just very tiny, we see it grow throughout the story- although not without its loops and back steps.

Leave of Absence is about mental illness, yes, but ultimately so much more: the power of hope, of human connection, of daring to believe that things might get a little bit better, of being open to being loved.

While it isn’t a light read, I still say put this one on your reading list. You won’t be disappointed.

A trailer for the book can be found here.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve read a lot of angst-y fiction and non-fiction lately. Good reading, but complex subject matter like murder and mental illness or things that make me question the future of humanity. My favorite TV shows thrive on high drama, intense story lines,  and often heavy violence. We all know how depressing the news is these days. And there’s rarely a Dateline on that can’t suck me into it. All that to say, it’s easy to surround ourselves (myself) with heavy, and/or sad, and/or emotionally draining stories. It can pull me into a funk. Sometimes, I just want to read a book that makes me happy; where I know that ultimately, things will wrap up in a satisfactory way; and where love conquers all.  Julie Anne Lindsey’s Seeds of Love does just that.

Seeds of Love is actually an anthology of three novellas set in Honey Creek, Ohio. From the publisher’s summary: “Welcome to Honey Creek, Ohio, where life moves a little slower, stars shine a little brighter and love is always in bloom. Small town life is complicated, sometimes a little messy, but never anything friends and family can’t mend. Seeds of Love is a collection of sweet romantic reads where hearts are challenged, bonds are formed and love heals all things. In Honey Creek, folks find redemption, forgiveness, and friendship. Rock back on the front porch swing, grab a glass of sweet tea and listen to the bullfrog and cricket chorus. Watch the fireflies, toss a horseshoe, stay a while. There’s a Strawberry Festival on Main Street. Watch the cowboys swing their sweetheart in a line dance, or take a seat by the lake. There’s something for everyone in Honey Creek, but the greatest of these is love.”

Small towns can be a double-edged sword, and I know that they are not without their issues. But there’s a certain charm to many of them.  I didn’t grow up in one, but both my parents come from small towns and they’ve been a part of my life since I was born. The best parts of small towns are the best parts of Honey Creek- the people who have known each other for generations, who come together to support one another, where everyone knows (too much) about everyone’s business.  The seemingly infinite number of stars in the nighttime sky. The instant community that rallies around during any major life event.  Honey Creek is all of these.

Then we have our characters. Each of our heroines and heroes has their own battles to fight and obstacles to clear before they find the courage to fall in love. Lindsey doesn’t give us anything overly dramatic or earth-shattering here, just real things people consider before taking the biggest chance of all.  That has a ring of authenticity to it that even skeptics like me, who don’t believe in love at first sight, can buy into.

What I like about Lindsey’s characters is that they aren’t paragons of unachievable “perfection”- they are your junior high classmates-relatable and normal- the kind of people you would run into on a daily basis in a small town. In fact, I think it’s that identification with the characters, combined with the familiarity of  a small town, that makes Seeds of Love a book that can charm even a relationship cynic like me.  I’m looking forward to reading more from Julie.

If you’re on Twitter, you can follow Julie here.

You can also check out her blog here.

When I told Julie I had bought and was reviewing Seeds of Love, she offered up an e-Copy for one of you.  Just leave me a comment about why you’d  like to read this book, and I’ll choose a winner at random.