Fly Me to the Moon

by Alyson Noel

A light, breezy tale about a flight attendant in search of the love of her life. Publishers Weekly called it "Sex and the City at 37000 feet." Haley Lane thinks her pilot boyfriend is about to pop the question but she gets the surprise of her life when she arrives home early from a trip and finds him in a very compromising position with a male flight attendant. For a while, Haley is single, homeless and miserable but with the help of a couple of good friends, she gets herself together. Although she kisses a few more frogs along the way, Haley gets her happy ending at the end of the book. A fun satisfying read, ideal for a long flight or a day at the beach.

Body Surfing

by Anita Shreve

After enjoying several of her previous novels, I've come to look forward to Anita Shreve's next book. This one was a major disappointment. The plot about a young woman torn between two brothers on Cape Cod was very intriguing. However, I just could not get used to the style of writing, which was in present tense and jumped suddenly from scene to scene, kind of like a long poem. Loved Light on Snow and The Pilot's Wife, but this is not her best work.

Blue Water

by A. Manette Ansay

A somber story about Rex and Meg, a middle aged couple trying to heal themselves and their relationship by sailing around the world, after the devastating loss of their six year old son in a drunk driving accident. Well written with interesting characters, this book asks important questions about forgiveness, family and love. Recommended.

The Year of Yes: A Memoir

By Maria Dahvana Headley

A few years ago, author Maria Headley realized that she was tired of dating losers and desperate to fall in love. Since it never seemed to work out with the type of men she usually dated - intellectual, creative types- she decided that for one year, she would say yes to every man who asked her out in the hope that she would find love where she least expected it. As you can imagine, Maria ends up dating a LOT of weirdos. Highlights include:

• a graphic designer who eats only raw vegetables, makes her a cake made of birdseed, and never lost his virginity
• a homeless man who believes he is Jimi Hendrix
  
• a handsome bicyclist from Cyprus with a great body who wants Maria to bite his penis


• a fellow film student who takes her to a really tacky strip club & later tells their entire class all the gory details of their horrific date
  
• a lesbian who is only using her for her womb


• an gorgeous actor who is "mostly" gay and engaged to another woman
  

The list goes on and on. This book reminded me how elusive love is and how lucky I am to have a wonderful husband so I never ever have to date again. All along, I predicted that Maria would eventually end up with her roommate or have one of those corny moments of self realization that it's ok to be alone because you have to learn to love yourself first or some other b.s. So I was pleasantly surprised by the last pages when my predictions turned out to be completely wrong. Also liked this passage on the final page:

"Love is hard to pin down. There is no language for it. A glorious sparking inside you, an alchemy. All your hurt suddenly turned into joy. Love is inexplicable...Nothing could have prepared me for it. All I could do was open my heart. I didn't understand everything that I was holding. I only knew that it was right."

All the men become a little monotonous after a while and I still can't decide if I like Maria or not, but I still found this book somewhat amusing. ***

Be Mine

by Laura Kasischke

This novel was so bad that I'm embarrassed to add it to this blog. I think it was supposed to be chick lit crossed with suspense but it was just STUPID! On Valentine's Day, Sherry finds the first of a series of love notes in her mailbox at the community college where she works as a professor and they aren't from Jon, her husband of twenty years. Jon is all turned on by the fact that some stranger is stalking his wife so he keeps asking about the notes and encouraging her to be with this secret admirer. NOTE: spoilers ahead-- stop reading now if you don't want to know the big ridiculous ending. So, after Sherry has tons of crazy sex with her kinky husband and also with the "hot" auto mechanic teacher at the college, Jon starts crying and claims he was only kidding! Ooops! The real kicker is that the secret admirer turns out to be Laura's once beautiful but now frumpy and overweight best friend Sue, who says she was just trying to cheer her up. What a waste of paper!

Speaking of bad books, here are two others to avoid at all costs:

The Ruins by Scott Smith


Stephen King RAVED about this one in Entertainment Weekly and although I'm not a big mystery person, I didn't want to miss this great book. It was HORRIBLE! I thought it was supposed to be scary but the entire plot was ridiculous and the characters were totally stereotypical and bland. Instead of feeling scared as I read it, I just wanted to laugh because it as sooo bad!! My only consolation was the fact that most readers on amazon.com agreed with me.


User I.D. by Jenefer Shute


This book was so bad that I think I blocked it out! The plot about identity theft sounded intriguing but then more and more bad things happened to the victim and it was just excruciating to read. Hated it!

Still Life with Husband

by Lauren Fox

Emily never thought she'd be so completely bored with her life and she's only thirty. She is bored but not miserable in her marriage to her college boyfriend Kevin, who loves his dull job as a technical writer. She compares their ten year relationship to reading the same novel over and over and over. Her work as a freelance writer and part time assistant editor of a medical journal may sound interesting but that's unfulfilling as well. Now Kevin has started pressuring Emily to buy a house in the suburbs and start a family, both of which are completely unappealing to her. She is ambivalent about having kids, especially with Kevin right now, and loves their apartment in the city, but when she tries to tell him, he basically ignores her. One day, Emily is having coffee in a cafe with her best friend Meg, who is newly pregnant and on leave from her job as a teacher, when she meets a fellow writer. David is everything that Kevin isn't -- interesting, attentive, and new. They try to ignore their mutual attraction but soon Emily is hiding her wedding ring, lying to Kevin and sneaking off to meet David at his apartment. Against all odds, the author somehow makes Emily a likeable yet flawed character and Kevin is just annoying enough to make her affair seem somewhat justified. The plot thickens when David breaks her heart, Kevin discovers the truth and Emily finds herself pregnant. Sounds a little soap opera-ish but with solid writing and believable characters, Fox pulls it off. The ending is a bit open ended which sometimes annoys me but it felt right for this book. Recommended. ****