What Now?

by Ann Patchett

I've been a big fan of Ann Patchett's work since I read The Patron Saint of Liars a few years back and it remains one of my all time favorite books. I always find her writing eloquent, affecting and entertaining. What Now? is based on a commencement speech she recently gave at Sarah Lawrence College, her alma mater. She writes, "If all fairy tales begin 'Once upon a time,' then all graduation speeches begin 'When I was sitting where you are now.'" In reading What Now?, its hard not to get nostalgic for your own commencements and that wonderful feeling that anything is possible.
For the author, answering the question "What now?" was often a struggle, as she tried to figure out her next steps following high school, college, grad school, and various jobs on the way to becoming a successful writer (including a position waiting tables at TGI Fridays where yours truly also worked for about a month after my own college graduation. It was one of the three worst jobs I ever had.) What Patchett tries to impart to her audience (or readers) is that the question What now doesn't have to be stress inducing, but instead a way to open yourself up to the world of possiblities and make all your dreams come true. She writes, "What now is not just a panic stricken question tossed out into a dark unknown. What now can also be our joy. It is a declaration of possibility, of promise, of chance. There is a time in our lives when we all crave the answers. It seems terrifying not to know what's coming next. But there is another time, a better time, when we see our lives as a series of choices, and what now represents our excitement and our future, the very vitality of life...If you're trying to find out what's coming next, turn off everything you own that has an OFF switch and listen...Identify your heart's truest desire and don't change that for anything." What Now? is an inspirational read for anyone at a crossroads in life and a great gift for recent graduates.

Standing Still: A Novel

by Kelly Simmons

This is a story about a former journalist, Claire Cooper, now a wife and mother living in a beautiful new home in the suburbs with her husband and three young daughters. It's immediately apparent that Claire has some anxiety issues and maritial problems with her workoholic, often absent husband, Sam.

One dark and stormy night while Claire is home alone, a man breaks into their home thru a skylight, and attempts to kidnap her oldest daughter. Somehow, Claire convinces him to take her instead. It is eventually revealed that this kidnapping is not a random act, but payback for her husband's involvement in illegal and immoral activities at work. Luckily for Claire, she happens to have a kidnapper with a heart of gold, who promises that she won't be harmed as long as Sam pays the steep ransom. As the story progresses, many secrets about Claire's past and her marriage are revealed as we wait for Sam's response to the ransom demand.

Before I review this book, I have to first admit that I'm not a huge fan of mystery/suspense novels. (I just can't seem to resist skipping to the back of the book to sneak a peak at how the book will end.) I picked Standing Still because the starred review in Publisher's Weekly called it an "electrifying debut" and the inside flap mentioned that it would appeal to fans of Sue Miller, one of my favorite writers. While I found this book suspenseful and somewhat entertaining, I don't really see any similarities to Ms. Miller's work at all. I found it kind of unbelieveable that Claire's kidnapper would be such a nice, reasonable person and I felt the character of Sam was a bit underdeveloped. While this book wasn't really my cup of tea, I would recommend it to fans of the suspense genre in search of a quick, easy read.

Falling Into Manholes: The Memoir of a Bad/Good Girl

by Wendy Merrill

In the introduction to this book, author Wendy Merrill states, "...this menmoir seeks to provide what we all need more of: a good laugh, an easy read, and hope." Unfortunately, what I mostly got out of this book was a very bad headache. While I can sympathize with a person who suffers from anorexia, bulimia, drug addiction, sex addiction, love addiction, alcoholism AND low self esteem, Wendy's story is just exhausting. Reading her book is like hanging out with a really annoying, completely self absorbed friend who never shuts up.

The worst part is the way she seems to think that all her complaining is witty and funny and fascinating. This cleverness is the book's biggest turn off for me; after one or two chapters, it's just too much. The worst offenses:

• the frequent use of made up words like "men-o-pause", "manorexia", "memento", "co-demendency" - you get the idea!
  


• the conversations between "big Wendy" vs. "little Wendy"
  


• repeatedly referring to her status as firstborn child as the "experimental model", including the bizarre "Case Study" baby announcement written by her intellectual parents.
  

And the men the author falls head over heels for?!! I've gone for the wrong guy myself a few times, but it's almost unbelievable that one woman could have so many disastrous relationships. And yet, just when you think you've hit rock bottom and you're ready to toss Falling Into Manholes into your trash bin, there's a genuinely moving chapter about Wendy's mother's death and some thoughtful observations about the film Breakfast at Tiffany's.

If you are brave enough to pick up this book, I'd recommend skipping over all the "poor me" b.s., going right to the back of the book and the author's long, long, LONG awaited realization that before she can expect someone else to love her, she has to love herself.

Love the One You're With: A Novel

By Emily Giffin

Emily Giffin has been one of my favorite chick lit writers ever since the debut of Something Borrowed in 2004. Her books always have a good heroine, a juicy plot and a touch of romance. I’m not saying she’s our next literary great, but if you’re looking for something fun to read for summer, her novels rarely disappoint. (Plus, something about the pretty pastel cover art is just irresistible!)

Giffin’s latest book is centered on Ellen Dempsey, a happily married photographer from Pittsburgh living in Manhattan. Newlywed Ellen has the perfect marriage, until she suddenly reconnects with a man from her past. Leo is the one who got away, but now he realizes his mistake and he wants her back. Luckily for Ellen, Andy is the ideal husband and she is able to resist Leo’s charms at first. But eventually a romantic plane ride and a lonely new life in Atlanta begin to change her mind.

Readers will root for Ellen and Andy to work things out despite the undeniable appeal of passionate, handsome Leo, who seems to appreciate Ellen in ways that Andy no longer does. As the book nears its final pages, the suspense builds as Ellen’s future becomes more and more uncertain, but the ending is ultimately satisfying and, most importantly, happy.

House Rules: A Memoir

By Rachel Sontag

This is the true story of the author’s experiences growing up in an extremely dysfunctional family. Although Rachel, her sister and her parents appeared picture perfect to friends and family members, this illusion could not have been further from the truth. Rachel’s father, a respected physician, was a very sick person, obsessed with controlling and tormenting his family to the point of emotional abuse. Twelve year old Rachel is his usual target, forced to obey a list of written rules posted in the kitchen, and endure painful, insulting nightly interrogation sessions. Although Rachel’s mother makes a couple of halfhearted attempts to divorce her husband, she is ultimately unable to end her marriage despite its emotional toll on her children.
I’d recommend this book to readers of Jeanette Wall’s The Glass Castle, another story of abuse.

The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted And Other Small Acts of Liberation

By Elizabeth Berg

I’m not a huge fan of short story collections. For me, they can be annoying because as soon as I get caught up in characters and a plot, the story is suddenly over. In other words, to me short stories usually feel too, well, short.

When I picked up this latest offering from Elizabeth Berg, an irresistible sentence on the back of the book caught my eye: “What would you do, if nobody was looking?” In each of the stories in this collection, people do something unexpected or unconventional. A woman on Weight Watchers takes a vacation from her diet and for one day, she indulges all of her cravings, beginning with an entire box of Dunkin Donuts for breakfast and ending with a mouth watering steak dinner. In another, a lonely older woman treats herself to a wonderful shopping spree followed by a trip to Vegas.
I wanted to like these stories and I usually enjoy Elizabeth Berg’s writing (What We Keep, Open House, Until the Real Thing Comes Along), but I didn’t think this collection of everyday tales was up to par compared to her previous work. While I appreciated how the stories were uplifting in some way, I found most of them a little bit boring.

Split: A Memoir of Divorce

By Suzanne Finnamore

We do not see things as they are.
We see things as we are.
-Anais Nin

Having found Finnamore’s first novel, Otherwise Engaged, enjoyable and her second one, The Zygote Chronicles, kind of mediocre, I wasn’t sure to what to expect with her latest effort, a memoir about her painful divorce from “N”, her husband of five years.
For Suzanne, the split did not come as a complete surprise; there’d been a few tell tale signs that she’d tried to ignore – strange song lyrics on a cocktail napkin, mysterious phone calls, time away from home or the office that N refused to account for, etc. Nevertheless, her husband’s decision to desert Suzanne and their young son (for another woman and the sake of his own happiness) is so completely devastating that she remains in complete denial for months, continuing to have sex with her ex while clinging to the hope of a reconciliation that never happens.
It’s hard not to sympathize with Finnamore after reading this book. I found her husband extremely hateful and his actions completely unforgiveable. When she questions his whereabouts or catches him in a lie, he heinously claims she needs psychiatric care and recommends antidepressants. The way he wallows in self pity for the painful situation he created, waffling back and forth between women is reprehensible. Like many of Suzanne’s friends and family members, I say good riddance! I’d always imagined that after divorce, the relationship was just finished/done/kaput, but now it seems like it simply morphs from love into hatred (or indifference at best), especially if there are children involved.
Many reviewers praised Split and it is very well written, with many insightful, intelligent observations and an ending that has just the right amount of hope (ie. enough to feel slightly optimistic but not even close to happy.) However, for me Split was mostly bitter, surreal and very sad to read. Recommended for people recovering from a painful divorce or a bad breakup (as long as they aren’t too depressed already.)

Names My Sisters Call Me: A Novel

By Megan Crane

This is the story of the Cassel sisters: serious, dependable Norah, beautiful, flighty Raine and cute little Courtney. Just weeks before Courtney’s birth, their father abandoned the family for a new life out west (only to die suddenly weeks later.) While their mother mentally “checked out” for a while to mourn the loss of her husband, the sisters dealt with their loss the best they could.

Fast forward twenty-eight years later: Norah is bossier than ever, Raine has fled to San Francisco to find herself, and little Courtney is newly engaged. Courtney and Norah haven’t spoken to Raine in six years, after she singlehandedly ruined Norah’s wedding and ran off to San Francisco with Courtney’s first love, Matt Cheney.
Courtney desperately wants her family reunited for her upcoming wedding, so she decides to reach out to Raine with a surprise visit to California. But Courtney is the one surprised to discover that nothing has changed in all these years: Norah and Raine still can't get along and her feelings for Matt Cheney seem as strong as the day he left her.

If you thought your family was complicated, you will probably appreciate Names My Sisters Call Me, a light read that won’t make you think too much, perfect for a lazy day at the beach. Crane seems to understand the ever changing dynamics of family relationships, as well as both the joys and frustrations of having sisters. Her portrayal of the way their father’s absence emotionally scars the sisters, leaving a gaping hole in their family forever is realistic and powerful. An interesting, occasionally moving story about families.