THE LOST HUSBAND (KATHERINE CENTER)

 

 

Story Description:

 

Random House Publishing Group|May 7, 2013|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-345-50794-5

 

Perfect for fans of Jennifer Weiner and Emily Giffin, this tender and heartwarming novel explores the trials of losing what matters most –and how there’s always more than we can imagine left to find.

 

“Dear Libby, It occurs to me that you and your two children have been living with your mother for – Dear Lord! – two whole years, and I’m writing to see if you’d like to be rescued.” 

 

The letter comes out of the blue, and just in time for Libby Moran, who – after the sudden death of her husband, Danny – went to stay with her hypercritical mother.  Now her crazy Aunt Jean has offered Libby an escape: a job and a place to live on her farm in the Texas Hill Country.  Before she can talk herself out of it, Libby is packing the minivan, grabbing the kids, and hitting the road.  

 

Life on Aunt Jean’s goat farm is both more wonderful and more mysterious than Libby could have imagined.  Beyond the animals and the strenuous work, there is quiet-deep, country quiet.  But there is also a shaggy, gruff (though purportedly handsome, under all that hair) farm manager with a tragic home life, a formerly famous feed-store clerk who claims she can contact Danny “on the other side,” and the eccentric aunt Libby never really knew but who turns out to be exactly what she’s been looking for.  And despite everything she’s lost, Libby soon realizes how much more she’s found.  She hasn’t just traded one kind of crazy for another.  She may actually have found the place to bring her little family – and herself – back to life. 

 

My Review:

 

Libby Moran has lost her husband in a car accident and shorty after lost her home as her husband, Danny, had already cashed in their insurance policies and she couldn’t afford to pay for the house anymore.  Libby, along with her two young children, Tank and Abby, moved in with her mother, Marsha. 

 

Marsha and Libby had a love-hate relationship but Libby did her very best to bite her tongue and not get into too many arguments or confrontations with her.   Ignoring, Marsha and her comments was not an easy thing to do but somehow, somewhere, Libby found the resolve she needed to keep the peace most of the time.  Libby was often tired.  She missed Danny terribly, worked hard all day as a bank teller, came home to cook dinner for the kids, do dishes, do bath and bedtime before falling into bed herself. 

 

Out of the blue, Libby receives a letter from her Aunt Jean who was her mother’s sister.  Marsha had always led Libby to believe that Aunt Jean was crazy. In her letter, Aunt Jean was offering to “rescue”, Libby from her mother with an invitation for her and the kids to move to her goat farm in Atwater, Texas and live there.  Libby was awestruck but before she could really sit down and seriously consider this offer to uproot her little family, she was packing her van and then hit the road saying goodbye to Marsha. 

 

When they arrive at Aunt Jean’s farm they are pleasantly surprised.  The place is just crawling with animals: goats, dogs, cats, kittens, pigs, roosters, and even a peacock which thrills the kids to death.  And, Libby soon learns Aunt Jean isn’t the slightest bit crazy, a bit eccentric maybe but definitely not crazy.  It just so happens that Marsha and Jean hate each other for very good reason on Jean’s part. 

 

Underneath the cool farmhouse, outbuildings, and animals, is a dashingly handsome man, O’Connor, who has more hair on his head and face than Grizzly Adams.  O’Connor is the farm manager who teaches, Libby the ropes of what her daily chores will be.  Hmmm….I wonder what will end up cooking with these two?

 

Then you’ll also meet, Sunshine, a formerly famous feedstore clerk who convinces, Libby that she can contact, Danny through séances. 

 

Little Abby, unbeknownst to, Libby has been getting kick-ass fighting lessons from O’Connor, along with building a vocabulary of four-letter words to fight off a kid in her second grade class who constantly picks on her and teases her about her limping gait. 

 

Libby soon begins to realize she hasn’t lost as much in her life as she’d originally thought but instead gained a real family and a place to call home. 

 

The Lost Husband was just too good and too well-written to put down so I read it in one sitting.  You’re going to get a real kick out of Aunt Jean and all the goings on at the farm.  This was a great story!



 

THE BEST OF ME (NICHOLAS SPARKS)

 

 

Story Description:

 

Grand Central Publishing|March 26, 2013|Mass Market Paperbound|ISBN: 978-0-446-54763-5

 

“Everyone wanted to believe that endless love was possible.  She’d believed in it once, too, back when she was eighteen.”

 

In the spring of 1984, high school students Amanda Collier and Dawson Cole fell deeply, irrevocably in love.  Though they were from opposite sides of the tracks, their love for one another seemed to defy the realities of life in the small town of Oriental, North Carolina.  But as the summer of their senior year came to a close, unforeseen events would tear the young couple apart, setting them on radically divergent paths.

 

Now, twenty-five years later, Amanda and Dawson are summoned back to Oriental for the funeral of Tuck Hostetler, the mentor who once gave shelter to their high school romance.  Neither has lived the life they imagined…and neither can forget the passionate first love that forever changed their lives.  As Amanda and Dawson carry out the instructions Tuck left behind for them, they realize that everything they thought they knew – about Tuck, about themselves, and about the dreams they held dear – was not as it seemed.  Forced to confront painful memories, the two former lovers will discover undeniable truths about the choices they have made.  And in the course of a single weekend, they will ask of the living, and the dead: Can love truly rewrite the past? 

 

My Review:

 

Amanda Collier and Dawson Cole were high school students in the spring of 1984.  They lived in the small town of Oriental, North Carolina.  Amanda was from a strict home whose parents kept close tabs on her and they didn’t like the fact that she was dating Dawson Cole.  The Cole family was notoriously known in Oriental as a wild, troubled, fighting, kick-your-ass, family who caused more trouble than they were worth. 

 

Ted and Abee Cole were the worst two offenders who’d always had it out for Dawson and Dawson’s own father was a carbon copy of the other two.  Dawson worked for Tuck, an old gent who had a garage and each week Dawson’s father, along with Ted and Abee would come and take his pay cheque.  It wasn’t worth Dawson’s time getting the crap beat out of him over a few measely dollars so he just handed the money over and let them be on their way.  Dawson’s love for Amanda was all that mattered to him.

 

Once high school had come to an end, Dawson and Amanda would be going their separate ways.  Amanda off to university, she hoped to become a teacher, and Dawson was staying in Oriental to continue to work with Tuck.  He couldn’t afford to attend school anyway.  Both Dawson and Amanda vowed to stay in touch and keep their relationship going despite the geographical distance between them. However, unforeseen events tore the young couple apart, setting them on radically divergent paths. 

 

Dawson eventually moved away to New Orleans and ended up working on an oil rig.  A tough job with lots of dangers but he worked thirty days on then had thirty days off.  Amanda ended up married to, Frank, a dentist and they had four children.  

 

Now, twenty-five years later, Amanda and Dawson both receive a call from a lawyer back in Oriental asking them to attend an appointment with him on a certain day at a certain time, and to attend the funeral of their dear old friend, Tuck. 

 

Neither Dawson nor Amanda knew the other would be attending so their first re-meeting was bittersweet.  Neither of them has lived the life they had imagined and neither of them can forget the passionate first love that forever changed their lives. 

 

Over the course of one short weekend, they will ask of the living and the dead: “Can love truly rewrite the past?” 

 

The Best of Me was a book that I just couldn’t put down.  Had I of been able to stay awake, I most likely would have read it in one sitting.

 

One thing for sure, Nicholas Sparks never disappoints and you know when you pick up one of his novels you’re getting the very best.

 



THE BUTTERFLY SISTER (AMY GAIL HANSEN)

 

 

Story Description:

 

Harpercollins Publishers|July 29, 2013|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-06-223462-9

 

The past just arrived on Ruby’s doorstep…

 

To uncover the truth about a friend’s disappearance, a fragile young woman must silence the ghosts of her past in the moving debut tale that intertwines mystery, madness, betrayal, love, and literature. 

 

“My past was never more than one thought, one breath, one heartbeat away.  And then, on that particular October evening, it literally arrived at my doorstep.”

 

Twenty-two-year-old, Ruby Rousseau is haunted by memories of Tarble, the women’s college she fled from ten months earlier, and the painful love affair that pushed her to the brink of tragedy. 

 

When a suitcase belonging to a former classmate named Beth arrives on her doorstep, Ruby is plunged into a dark mystery.  Beth has gone missing, and the suitcase is the only tangible evidence of her whereabouts. 

 

Inside the bag, Ruby discovers a tattered copy of Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own” the book she believes was a harbinger of her madness.  Is someone trying to send her a message – and what does it mean? 

 

The search for answers leads to Tarble.  As Ruby digs into Beth’s past, she has no choice but to confront her own – an odyssey that will force her to re-examine her final days at school, including the married professor who broke her heart and the ghosts of illustrious writers, dead by their own hand, who beckoned her to join their tragic circle. 

 

But will finding the truth finally set Ruby free…or send her over the edge of sanity? 

 

My Review:

 

One October evening, twenty-two-year-old Ruby Rousseau is sitting outside enjoying the evening with her mother when a courier service drives up to the door.  The woman who pops out of the driver’s side says she has a delivery for Ruby.  It’s a suitcase that Ruby instantly recognizes as the one she had borrowed from her friend, Beth at Tarble College when they were both attending there.  Ruby immediately realizes that the tag bearing her name was never removed from the suitcase and she explained that to the driver.  The driver indicated she could take the suitcase back to the depot or Ruby could just keep it, get in touch with, Beth herself and make her own arrangements to have the suitcase returned to her.  Before she could really make up her own mind, Ruby’s mother grabbed the suitcase and said they’d take care of it. 

 

Upon opening the suitcase, Ruby finds a copy of Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own” amongst other belongings.  When Ruby locates a phone number for Beth who she hasn’t seen she left college many months prior after an attempted suicide, she discovers that Beth is actually missing!  The suitcase is the only tangible evidence of her whereabouts.

 

The book startles, Ruby and she wonders if someone is trying to send her a message – and if so, what does it mean? 

 

The search for answers leads, Ruby back to Tarble Women’s College, the last place she wants to go.  As Ruby digs into Beth’s past, she has no choice but to confront her own – an odyssey that will force her to re-examine her final days at school, including the ‘married’ professor she had an affair with and the ghosts of illustrious writers, dead by their own hand, that haunt Ruby and beckon her to join their tragic circle. 

 

Will finding the truth finally set Ruby free…or send her over the edge?  Does she have the strength and courage to face the unknown as she travels back through a year she’d rather forget? 

 

The Butterfly Sister was an excellent debut novel and one I couldn’t put down.  It grabbed me from the first page until the last and I was totally shocked at the ending.  I sure didn’t see that coming.  This would make a good book club pick as there are many topics to be discussed from within these pages.  I look forward to reading more from this author in the future. 

 



RU (KIM THUY)

 

 

Story Description:

 

Random House of Canada|September 6, 2012|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-307-35970-4

 

Ru.  In Vietnamese it means lullaby; in French it is a small stream, but also signifies a flow—of tears, blood, money.  Kim Thuy’s Ru is literature at its most crystalline: the flow of a life on the tides of unrest and on to more peaceful waters.  In vignettes of exquisite clarity, sharp observation and sly wit, we are carried along on an unforgettable journey from a palatial residence in Saigon to a crowded and muddy Malaysian refugee camp, and onward to a new life in Quebec.  There, the young girl feels the embrace of a new community, and revels in the chance to be part of the American Dream.  As an adult, the waters become rough again: now a mother of two sons, she must learn to shape her love around the younger boy’s autism.  Moving seamlessly from past to present, from history to memory and back again, Ru is a book that celebrates life in all its wonder: its moments of beauty and sensuality, brutality and sorrow, comfort and comedy.

 

My Review:

 

I thoroughly enjoyed the book but felt it was somehow ‘unfinished’.  I really would have preferred to of had more detail in each section.  I felt it lacked in detail and would have enhanced the story greatly if the author had of delved into the lives and experiences more deeply. 

 

I can only imagine though the difficulties and challenges one would encounter being a refugee coming from Vietnam to Quebec.  Talk about a culture shock!

 

Trying to raise an autistic child in a completely new world would be difficult at best and would present a myriad of challenges all on their own, challenges we probably couldn’t even begin to fathom, but the author handled it with grace. 

 

Overall, Ru was a most enjoyable experience.

 



THE SLEEPING DICTIONARY (SUJATA MASSEY)

 

Story Description:

 

Gallery Books|August 20, 2013|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-1-4767-0316-9

 

YOU ASK FOR MY NAME.  THE REAL ONE, AND I CANNOT TELL.  IT IS NOT FOR LACK OF EFFORT. 

 

In 1930, a great ocean wave blots out a Bengali village, leaving only one survivor, a young girl.  As a maidservant in a British boarding school, Pom is renamed Sarah and discovers her gift for languages.  Her private dreams almost die when she arrives in Kharagpur and is recruited into a secretive, decadent world.  Eventually, she lands in Calcutta, renames herself Kamala, and creates a new life rich in books and friends.  But although success and even love seem within reach, she remains trapped by what she is and is not.  As India struggles to throw off imperial rule, Kamala uses her hard-won skills for secrecy, languages, and reading the unspoken gestures of those around her to fight for her country’s freedom and her own happiness. 

 

My Review:

 

In Johlpur, West Bengal, India in 1930, a massive ocean wave entirely wipes out the village, leaving 10-year-old, Pom completely alone as the single survivor.  Her entire village and family are all drowned: both parents, twin sisters, a brother, and grandparents.  Luckily, Pom had climbed high up into a tree just seconds before the rogue wave hit, ultimately saving her life but making her an instant orphan. 

 

After a few days trapped alone in the tree, almost dying from hunger and thirst, a family in a row boat happened along.  Pom was able to jump from the tree into the water and swim to the boat.  The family wasn’t the kindest as they recognized Pom as a lower-caste than themselves but paddled her to the closest shore and told her she was on her own. 

 

Pom finds a wild water buffalo, befriends it for its milk to drink and to ride for she was barefoot.  The water buffalo was just as near starvation as Pom was.  She named her, Mala which means ‘garland’.  Each morning, Pom milked, Mala using half a coconut shell as a cup and drank until she was sated.  Pom was also drinking any water she could find and soon she was feeling ill and had sharp pains in her stomach from hunger.  While, Mala ate ferns, Pom ate raw snails that she’d pull out of their shells.  Soon, Pom found herself on the ground sick from both ends of her starved body.  Finally, she passed out and when she awoke she was laying on a cot in a mission hospital suffering from cholera.  A man had found her hanging upside down on the water buffalo. 

 

Dr. Andrews was in charge of her care at the mission hospital along with Nurse Das.  After five days she was up walking and healthy and Nurse Das said: “…in need of a job.”

 

Pom, was eventually taken to the Lockwood School to work as a servant under the authority of a horribly cruel and crass woman named, Miss Rachel.  Miss Jamison, the headmistress felt Pom’s name was too strange and changed it to Sarah. 

 

At the school, Sarah becomes a servant for the British and upper-caste Indian girls.  However, when Bidushi Mukherjee, whose family owned, Sarah’s home village, arrives at the Lockwood School, Sarah in her heart of hearts believes she has found a true friend.  Bidushi, is at the school to gain an education so she can become knowledgeable and worldly in order to converse with her lawyer finance she will soon marry.  Together, the two girls form a strong bond when the teacher, Miss Richmond requests that, Sarah be allowed to sit in her classroom and turn the blades of the fan in heat.  Sarah has a gift for languages and when Miss Richmond discovers just how intelligent, Sarah really is, she allows her to sit with Bidushi to help with her academic work creating an even stronger bond between the two.  Their ultimate dream is for, Sarah to return home with Bidushi at the end of her schooling and become her personal ayah. 

 

Sadly, Bidushi becomes deathly ill and Sarah is accused of stealing a piece of jewellery from her while she was in a coma and runs away before they could arrest her.  With help, Sarah boards a train bound for Calcutta but gets off at the wrong stop and finds herself in a place called Kharagpur.  She wants to find a job as a teacher but with no formal education, qualifications, or diploma, every door is slammed in her face. 

 

While sitting on a bus stop bench perusing a newspaper searching for jobs, a beautiful Anglo-Indian woman named, Bonnie befriends her and invites her home for lunch.  When, Sarah enters the gorgeous Rose Villa she cannot believe her eyes.  The place is a mansion beautifully decorated and full of beautiful young girls.  Here, Sarah is renamed, Pamela and falls into a life of prostitution.  Pamela makes up her mind to do what she must do and promises herself she’ll only do this work until she saves enough money to educate herself to get her teaching degree.  Sadly, life throws yet another curve ball at Pamela and she becomes pregnant by one of her johns.  She bides her time, delivers the baby and leaves it with the people who aided in her escape from the Lockwood School so she can leave once again for Calcutta. 

 

Once in Calcutta she stumbles into a job working as a librarian for a British Indian Civil Service worker named, Simon Lewes.  Pamela, not wanting him to know or find anything out about her background tells him her name is Kamala Mukherjee and leads him to believe she is well-educated.  Kamala ends up living in a small bedroom in Simon’s house since this is where she works.  Simon has a massive collection of books on India that need to be unpacked, put on shelves using the dewey decimal system and repairs made to some of the oldest books.  Kamala will have enough work for about a year. 

 

The war begins and Kamala begins to spy on Simon and turning the information over to Pankaj, the very lawyer her friend, Bidushi was to marry.  However, as time marches on things begin to change and Kamala finds herself in a place she’d thought she’d never be. 

 

To fully understand this story is a profound discovery and the exact opportunity offered to us, the readers, in The Sleeping Dictionary.  This novel gracefully unravels how tradition, culture, and sense of place affect the human heart and is truly a rare must read!!  I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and just couldn’t put it down.  I seriously hope Ms. Massey is considering a sequel.  This is one book you don’t want to miss!!

 



 

FIN AND LADY (CATHLEEN SCHINE)

 

 

Story Description:

 

Farrar, Straus And Giroux | July 9, 2013 | Hardcover|ISBN: 978-0-374-15490-5

 

From the author of ‘The Three Weissmanns of Westport’, a wise, clever story of New York in the 60’s.

 

It’s 1964.  Eleven-year-old Fin and his glamorous, worldly, older half-sister, Lady, have just been orphaned, and Lady, whom Fin hasn’t seen in six years, is now his legal guardian and his only hope.  That means Fin is uprooted from a small dairy farm in rural Connecticut to Greenwich Village, smack in the middle of the swinging 60’s.  He soon learns that Lady-giddy, careless, urgent, and obsessed with being free – is as much his responsibility as he is hers. 

 

So begins Fin and Lady, the lively, spirited new novel by Cathleen Schine.  Fin and Lady lead their lives against the background of the 60’s, the civil rights movement, and the Vietnam War – Lady pursued by ardent, dogged suitors, Fin determined to protect his impulsive sister from them and from herself. 

 

From a writer The New York Times has praised as “sparkling, crisp, clever, deft, hilarious, and deeply affecting,” Fin and Lady is a comic, romantic love story: the story of a brother and sister who must form their own unconventional family in increasingly unconventional times. 

 

My Review:

 

I was a tad disappointed in this one and the story really didn’t do all that much for me.  I’d purchased it on someone else’s recommendation that I would absolutely “love” it.  I guess my idea and this person’s idea of an interesting story are a bit different.  However, just because I didn’t particularly enjoy the novel doesn’t mean that there aren’t tons of you out there who will.

 

 



NIGHT MUSIC (JOJO MOYES)

 

Story Description:

 

Hodder | June 18, 2013 | Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-340-89596-2

 

Isabel Delancey has always taken her gifted life for granted.  But when her husband dies suddenly, leaving her with a mountain of debt, she and her two children are forced to abandon their home and move to a crumbling pile in the country. 

 

With the house falling down around their ears, and the last of her savings fast disappearing, Isabel turns to her neighbours, not knowing that her mere presence there has stirred up long-standing obsessions. 

 

As she fights to make her house a home, passions and lives collide.  Isabel will discover an instinct for survival she never knew she had – and that a heart can play a new song.

 

My Review:

 

Isabel Delancey and her husband, Laurent enjoyed a good life together – a rich life.  They had two children, Kitty and, Thierry who attended private schools and they employed a nanny who had been with them for years.  Isabel played lead violin in the symphony orchestra and, Laurent was employed working with an investment bank.  Suddenly and unexpectedly, Laurent passed away and Isabel was inconsolable with grief.  She just wasn’t functioning well these days trying to deal with her feelings and the fact that she’d never again see, Laurent.  Conducting the smallest of tasks was overwhelming for her, even the mail had piled up left unopened on the table to the point it was all spilling onto the floor. 

 

Isabel was upstairs playing her violin with tears cascading down her cheeks when fifteen-year-old, Kitty began calling to her to let her know a Mr. Cartwright was downstairs waiting to speak with her.  He had been, Laurent’s financial advisor/accountant and had come to relay some very bad news.  Basically, Laurent had died and left her and the children almost penniless.  Mr. Cartwright went on to explain that, Laurent: “…had borrowed heavily against this house to maintain your lifestyle.  He was relying on the value of your property continuing to increase.  But the biggest problem is that when he extended the mortgage, he did not increase his life insurance to cover the new sum.  In fact, he cashed in one of his policies.”  He continued to notify her that the house was not paid for, she had significantly outstanding mortgage repayments that he was sure she would not be able to meet.  Basically, Isabel was going to lose the house they had raised their children in.  Isabel was awestruck and assured Mr. Cartwright that there must be ‘something’ she could do to rectify this most devastating debacle she was finding herself in but Mr. Cartwright was quite forward in telling her: “…Mr. Delancey had spent heavily in the months leading up to his death.  He all but emptied several accounts as well as using the proceeds of the life insurance policy, any monies remaining will have to settle his credit card debts and his back payments due on the alimony to his ex-wife.”  The only solution Mr. Cartwright could see for, Isabel would be to sell the house and if she didn’t she would lose it.  Even if she took he kids out of private schools and let the nanny go she’d still be left with significant mortgage repayments.  The ONLY option he could see for her would be to sell her precious violin which would fetch a six-figure sum, in which case she’d at least be able to keep her house. 

 

After Mr. Cartwright left, Isabel and Kitty made tea and Kitty insisted that they must begin opening all the piled up mail but Isabel’s heart just wasn’t in it.  Kitty began tearing open envelopes and reporting to her mother what each contained.  She even ran across a warning that her hydro bill was so severely overdue that the company was just about to shut it off.  Isabel told Kitty not to worry about it that she’d take care of it but deep down she knew she couldn’t, there was literally no money.  As Kitty continued to open envelopes she came across a type-written letter of great importance and with excitement she tried to get her mother to read it but, Isabel said she was too tired and they’d continue with the rest the following day.  However, Kitty was adamant that Isabel read this particular letter for it seemed someone had left her a house in their will!  Neither of them was quite sure if it was a joke or not.  After some checking, Isabel found it to be true, it had been left to her by her great uncle and was situated out in the country.  She had remembered visiting when she was a young girl and if memory served her correctly it was a big sprawling space but had learned the place was in need of some real modernization.  Isabel made the comment that her great uncle had been living in it up to the time of his death so how bad could it be?  She was planning on taking this place sight unseen. 

 

Within a few weeks they were on their way to the inheritance house.  They arrived in town and stopped to ask directions and were shortly on their way again.  They finally found it and Kitty was appalled when they drove up front.  She thought it looked derelict but didn’t say anything out loud for fear of hurting her mother’s feelings.  The house was an absolute mess – an utter eyesore!

 

They eventually hire, Matt McCarthy to totally renovate the house not knowing that he and his wife, Laura had been taking care of the old codger who’d lived there before he died.  The only reason they looked after him, did his laundry, cooked his meals and put up with his extremely mouthy and rude comments was because they thought they would be left the house when he died, and Matt wanted this house more than anything else in life.  However, when he realized he didn’t end up with the house after all, he plans to exact his revenge at the expense of poor, Isabel. 

 

I was literally glued to this book and read it in two sittings.  This is my third Moyes novel and I thoroughly enjoy her writing and I’m looking forward to reading the next one.