The School of Essential Ingredients

The owner and head chef of a restaurant by the same name, Lillian teaches a cooking class to a small group of students once a month on Monday nights. Calling her class “The School of Essential Ingredients,” Lillian looks to impart her particular cooking method to her class, a technique that has little use for recipes and instead relies on each person’s understanding and feeling of every necessary ingredient. Lillian taught herself how to cook as she made meals for herself and her mother, eventually using food to draw her mother out of her book-lined shell. Taking her knowledge of the chemistry between food and human emotion, Lillian imperceptibly teaches her students how food can affect their lives and mend relationships. Each chapter delves into the life of a member of the cooking class, revealing the reason they are there and what life is like at home. As the students become more familiar with each other in class, their lives start blending together, intersecting after class and beyond. Food and the pleasure it brings heals several people’s wounds and makes this group of strangers close friends, roommates, and lovers.

It’s hard to describe a novel like this that is so subtle, and where the pieces fit together so perfectly but so seamlessly, it’s difficult to identify the initial components. The writing in this firs t novel is so smooth, it really could have been about anything and it would have been a good book. Bauermeister has a gift for writing about food, and I wonder if it spreads to other topics as well. The metaphors and similes she uses are so poetic, she has you rereading phrases just to capture them in your head forever. I can see myself reading this over and over again. Although this is not magical realism, the food descriptions remind me of Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel. Recommended to me by a coworker who loved it so much her husband read it and loved it too, The School of Essential Ingredients is an appetizing delight.

The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club

Don't you just want to dive into this cover?

Imagine your husband confessing to an affair and saying he wants a divorce, only to die in an automobile accident hours later. How would you deal? Instead of wallowing in her pain and confusion, Jo Mackenzie knows that in order to support herself and her two little boys, Jack and Archie, she must take them from their London home and buy her grandmother’s yarn shop in a small seaside town. Jo soon finds herself amidst a less than perfect house, two rambunctious young men, a store that needs updating, and the eternal question of what to have for dinner. First tackling the shop, Jo makes much needed changes such as new window displays, yarn reorganization, launching a successful Stitch and Bitch group, and even a new name, much to the dismay of the shop’s longtime assistant. Settling into town, Jo quickly makes friends with her neighbors and the new owners of the town pub, and stands up to the schoolyard queen, the head of the PTO. But among all the hustle and bustle of their new lives, Jo and her boys endure countless heartbreaking moments when they remember the husband and father they lost. Originally entitled Divas Don't Knit, the novel was renamed for distribution in the USA. Perfect for fans of The Friday Night Knitting Group, all who like mom lit and British chick lit will adore this book.

McNeil has already written a sequel called Needles and Pearls, which will hopefully be distributed here soon. Check out her website at http://www.mcknits.co.uk/, which includes some patterns from the book.

Having recently read a few books where the husband dies, I was expecting a heavy-handed treatment regarding Jo's grief process. I was happily disappointed, for McNeil addresses some of the issues but doesn't dwell on them. Most of the time, the reader can almost forget there was even a major tragedy in Jo's life, and that made the book more enjoyable and relaxing.

In the book, Grace hires Jo to finish all her knitted pieces, in addition to being her on-call knitting coach. I really wish I could just knit and leave the troubling seaming to someone else. That would make me a much more productive knitter.

The Total Money Makeover

In February, we visited my husband’s cousin and her family in Springfield, who are going through a Financial Peace University course at their church. My husband picked up their book and read a few pages. Who knew that this simple act would forever change the way we think about money.
Let me introduce Dave Ramsey. He’s a personal finance radio talk show host who has written several books, including Financial Peace and The Total Money Makeover. He abhors debt in all forms and has created a process with components he calls Baby Steps, to eliminate debt from one’s life and build wealth. As soon as we got home from Springfield, my husband and I started reading The Total Money Makeover. This particular book discusses many money myths before tackling the Baby Steps and above all, encourages readers to “live like no one else so you can live like no one else”—live cheaply now so you can enjoy your wealth later.

My husband and I feel like we were already conservative with our money, but we felt like we were never getting ahead—with money going towards student loans (our only debt now that the last car is paid off), retirement, and college funds, in addition to our regular bills and expenses, we never had any money left over to pay extra on our debts. Ramsey’s method involves focusing on paying down debts completely before funding retirement and college. Ramsey also demands that people create and stick to a budget, something we thought we were doing but not really (we always knew all the bills that had to be paid, but we didn’t track our grocery or household item purchases). So now we have a budget, we both know how much we can spend on certain categories in a month, and we are throwing all possible monies at our student loans, which we plan to have paid off in 2010.

I can’t really explain how much my thought processes towards money changed in the course of reading The Total Money Makeover. Things I had accepted before as fact (like we will always have debt) were blown out of the water. Planning and talking about money is no longer a chore that I shove off onto my husband; we are now both actively involved in the process and know exactly where our money is going. With Ramsey’s plan, I don’t feel like I now have to make more money, because I am making my current income work for my family. It has been an amazingly liberating, mind-changing experience, to say the least.

For a detailed review of The Total Money Makeover, click here. Ramsey's writing style really draws in the reader and makes covering the material enjoyable. If nothing else, you can start the book and give the process a chance. You might be surprised at how much your life can change when we aren't worried about money.

it's the little things

Every summer, I get a present from Jane Green. Yesterday I was able to place a hold on the newest Jane Green book, Dune Road, due out June 16. I can't wait.

For those of you who still need some convincing that Jane Green should be at the top of your reading list, I offer you a review of one of her older titles, Babyville.

When you’re living the life of a freewheeling young professional, where do babies enter into the picture? Bound in a comfortable but passionless relationship, Julia feels the solution to her troubles is to have a baby with Mark--the only problem is, she can’t seem to get pregnant after months of trying. When her best friend Sam was pregnant with her first child, she dreamed of leaving her job to enjoy stay-at-home motherhood. Now Sam is plagued with postpartum depression, and falling for a married man who makes her tingle in a way that her own husband no longer can. At a wedding, these two women meet Maeve, a television producer generating the best work of her career, who is struggling with her options after a one-night stand has resulted in pregnancy. Through these three intertwining stories, Green shows how pregnancy not only changes people’s lives, but also how having a baby changes a person's sense of self. Because of their unique situations, each woman has to not only reevaluate her priorities, but also modify her perceptions of herself and what she really wants out of life.

Written as a series of novellas, the stories will delight readers who love a London setting. With characters who could be your best friends, and situations so real that you feel every emotion, Green has again struck gold in her accurate portrayal of thirtsomethings. A definite must-read for fans of contemporary British women's fiction.

so sweet

While researching information for my last post on Everyone is Beautiful, I came across Katherine Center's website, and on it, a quote from my post about her first book! Here is what is listed on her site:

“The Bright Side of Disaster by Katherine Center was fabulous. Wonderful mom lit . . . I totally related to all her descriptions of early motherhood. Somehow the author so completely develops and maintains Jenny's voice; the book never strays from her point of view and her character. It was totally enveloping. You can't help but cheer for Jenny as she makes some good decisions in her love life.”
~St. Louis Library Girl

I feel famous. I know I'm not, but it's just the beauty of the Internet. So totally cool.

Since her site was soliciting reviews for Everyone is Beautiful, I emailed a link to my site. Katherine herself emailed me back and shared her own crafting accomplishments:
I also want to mention that I'm a quilter, too! And there are pix of the quilts I made my kids at Make and Takes today, in case you'd like to check it out! http://www.makeandtakes.com/katherine-center-interview-and-giveaway
Her quilts are beautiful and look vintage. I love how her creativity goes beyond the written word!

Everyone is Beautiful

Everyone is Beautiful by Katherine Center
Glorious, hopeful, inspiring bit of mommy lit sure to entertain anyone who has ever wanted to make a change.

Suddenly uprooted from her Houston hometown when her husband Peter begins a music composition graduate program, Lanie finds herself in Cambridge, MA with her three young sons, a shotgun apartment full of unpacked boxes, and her husband locked in his practice room, rehearsing. After a mom at the park mistakenly asks her when her baby is due, Lanie embarks on a mission to change her life. She starts by joining a gym, carving out some personal time during the only part of the day parents know they will have to themselves—when the kids go to bed. In addition to rediscovering her body, Lanie realizes that something will eventually have to be done to her marriage. After four years of sleepless nights and constant interruptions, Lanie and Peter have drifted so far apart, Lanie doesn’t know if they will be able to come back together—or when they would find the time. But something will need to change soon, or all that Lanie has been striving for could be lost.

Center’s follow up to her sparkling debut, The Bright Side of Disaster, is a glittering gem of a story. I enjoyed every minute of this novel. Center demonstrates once again that she knows beyond a doubt who her heroine is and provides her with such a clear, strong voice and enrapturing tale in which she can blossom, readers can’t help but fall in love with her. I was encouraged by the fact that Lanie didn’t really want to change anything at the core of who she was; she just wanted her exterior to accurately reflect who she was on the inside. Lanie needed tangible evidence of all the creativity that was swirling in that dormant part of her soul so that she could be repeatedly reminded of who she was--that she wasn’t just a short-order cook, a housekeeper, a washerwoman, a mom; she was a woman of value, just by being herself. And that’s the kernel of truth that all women can take away from this book.

Center also speaks through Lanie to all the women in the world who want to have it all—if in attaining everything, you lose your family, all that has been gained will be pointless. At the end of the book, Lanie achieves balance, and is able to bring all the different aspects of her life together—she is able to devote time to her body, her creative pursuits, her children, and her husband. Lanie has come to the realization that if she takes her husband for granted, thinking that they can pick up where they left off when the kids are older, they may not have anything left to salvage.

I think the countless ways Lanie’s three sons managed to make messes truly speaks to Center’s imagination. Their actions practically became another character in the book. As the mother of two little girls, I would not have dreamed children could come up with some of these ideas on their own. If nothing else, this book has prepared me for the mischievous minds of little boys!

PS—The chocolate cupcake with blue frosting was so tempting, I almost reneged on my dessert ban. This cover is also deliciously seductive. I might have to read it next.

books that make us laugh out loud--Mama Makes Up Her Mind

For this month's staff picks list, we were asked about books that make us laugh out loud. I know there have been many books over the years that have made me laugh, but one that sticks out in my mind is Mama Makes Up Her Mind: And Other Dangers of Southern Living by Bailey White. In this nonfiction collection of Southern stories, White, a commentator on NPR’s All Things Considered, delightfully explores the eccentricities of life in the South. Rambling between hilarious tales of her relatives and the world outside her sleepy town in southern Georgia, White gives a humor-filled sneak peek to how the deep South lives. White captures each moment so perfectly, the reader feels they are sitting on the sun porch with her, sipping a mint julep, as she regales with her tales. White left her job as an elementary school teacher—“Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach”—to write full time. Besides being entertaining, this book’s stories are often just a few pages long, making it an easy read for those on the go.

I picked up this book when it was new in 1993 (when I was in middle school). Having some Southern roots myself, I was intrigued by this collection of true tales of the South. The first couple of stories grabbed me, and I was hooked. This book is hilarious because it is true. In those days before I could drive myself around, I often read in the car. I remember reading the line, “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach," at a gas station and thinking it was so funny.

While I tried reading White's other books, they weren't nearly as good as Mama Makes Up Her Mind. But this book did get me reading short stories, a genre I had always ignored in the past. As a direct result of reading this collection, I picked up Amy Bloom's Come to Me: Stories (which I lost for awhile under our sofa, but that's another story).

Lessons in Heartbreak

Lessons in Heartbreak by Cathy Kelly

Set in New York City and Tamarin, Ireland, this novel follows the lives of three women: eighty-year-old Lily, Lily’s granddaughter Izzie, a 39-year-old model booking agent, and Izzie’s aunt Anneliese, who is adjusting to life on her own after her husband of 30 years leaves her for her best friend. When Lily suffers a stroke and is in a coma, she utters a name—Jamie—that means nothing to her relatives, but through several flashbacks to her training as a nurse during World War II, readers are swept into the terror of 1940s London, complete with bombings and air raids, to discover the meaning of the name. While Lily lies in a hospital bed, Anneliese struggles with depression, triggered by her husband’s betrayal. In New York City, after being on her own for many years, Izzie falls into a relationship with a charming, earnest millionaire, who turns out to be married and more attached to his family life than Izzie at first realizes. Told in alternating chapters, Lessons in Heartbreak provides three stories of infidelity from both sides of those involved—the married wife and the other woman. Fans of chick lit and Irish novels will be delighted to find another wonderful book filled with strong female relationships and thoroughly explored secondary characters from Cathy Kelly.

This was a great book, the kind of great book that you hope never ends because you just want to keep reading more. I was fascinated by the flashbacks to London during World War II, because I am usually not a historical novel type of reader. Her WWII facts were right on, and actually gave me something to talk about with my husband, an amateur WWII buff (when I mentioned V-2s, I had to admit that I didn’t know what they were, but he was happy to provide an explanation I could understand). Maybe I should try reading more historical fiction.

This novel was a welcome return for me to Cathy Kelly, whose previous book, Always and Forever, I thoroughly enjoyed, and who I discovered in the popular Irish women’s fiction anthology, Irish Girls About Town.

Don't You Forget About Me

Don’t You Forget About Me by Jancee Dunn
When her husband hands her a divorce because their life is too boring, daytime talk show producer Lillian takes leave from her job and runs from her New York City life. Back in her parents’ house in suburban New Jersey and with nothing to do, she enjoys reliving her high school memories in her daydreams. With her twenty year high school reunion just weeks away, Lillian fixates on reuniting with her high school boyfriend, the one she thinks got away.

In the beginning of the book, Lillian describes herself as an introverted, eccentric person who knowingly attaches herself to big, bright personalities because they have what she lacks. Because of this characterization, the secondary characters are much more entertaining than Lillian. For example, Vi, the star of the talk show Lillian produces and Lillian’s best friend, is hilarious, especially since bits of the fictional books she has written are quoted throughout the novel, which often mirror the advice she dispenses to Lillian.

The author amazingly covered everything memorable about the 1980s, from the clothing to the bands to the catchphrases to the hairstyles, while also authentically reviving the feelings that high school memories evoke.

Project Jennifer

Project Jennifer by Jill Amy Rosenblatt

After losing her job, getting kicked out of her apartment, and getting dumped by her fiancé so he can marry a woman named Jennifer, sweet, likeable Joanie realizes that all Jennifers have mystical powers: they are always perfectly groomed, work in the most promising job field, have people hanging on their every word, and get any man they want. Joanie decides she will transform herself into a Jennifer so she can take control of her life. But will her conversion really help her get what she wants?

Unfortunately, no. Joanie’s problem is that she doesn’t even know what she wants. She tries to become someone she isn’t, develops her acerbic side, reaps the consequences of an affair with her married boss, and completely alienates her friends while going further into debt. Once Joanie snaps out of it, ends the affair, finds a new job and goes back to school, she tries to settle into a relationship with her college sweetheart. Soon realizing that she doesn’t want even her rebound life, she ends up moving away from Long Island to start anew.

I really had hope for Rosenblatt’s debut novel, but in the end, it just wasn’t worth it. The pacing of the book was off, in that the big climax in the storyline happened only halfway through the book. I wondered how the author was going to handle the next 150 pages. The second climax, intended to the be the more significant one, fell flat as the author was already on the home stretch towards the end. I got bored halfway through, because cheering for Joanie became increasingly pointless and difficult, as Joanie changed into someone completely unlikeable. I repeatedly seconded her friend Carrie in the book, who told Joanie to stop being so mean. Joanie really changed for the worse through her Jennifer project, and she couldn’t erase those effects.

books i have loved part II--Come Together

Another book I love is Come Together by Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees.
Jack and Amy are living the single life in London, until a casual one-night stand makes them realize that maybe they should take a risk and try a real relationship. Written in alternating he said/she said chapters, readers get an inside perspective on how the other side thinks. Lloyd and Rees, both novelists in their own right, were put together by their publisher to write this book, and fell in love in the process. They even graced the cover of their book. They now live in London with their family and have co-authored numerous books.

The first time I read this book, I read it in one sitting. Needing something good to read, it went with me to college as my security blanket during those first days away from home. This book didn’t change my life, but I’ve read it many times because it’s just a good story. There are twists and turns, but the happy ending I seek comes at the end.

Perhaps part of my draw to this book is the fact that their subsequent joint efforts have been so hard to get my hands on. Come Together was published in the United States, but the rest of their books are published in the United Kingdom, meaning that libraries in Britain, Canada and Australia obtain them, but American libraries don’t. I’ve been fortunate for the interlibrary loan service from the Vancouver BC Public Library to help me with my fix. As I researched this piece, I realized I hadn’t looked for one of their new books in awhile—turns out I missed The Seven Year Itch in 2007. Guess I’ll be calling upon the Vancouver PL soon…

books i have loved part I--Anne of Green Gables

Every month, our library compiles a list of staff recommendations. February's theme is Books We Love, things we have read repeatedly or that have changed our lives in some way. One of my all-time favorite books is Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery.I own this edition of Anne of Green Gables, in addition to several others. What can I say, it's my favorite book!

Orphaned as a baby when her parents die, Anne is shuffled among relatives and orphanages until one day, she is sent to live with Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, siblings who live on a farm called Green Gables on Prince Edward Island. Although they had requested a boy to help out with the farm chores, Anne soon wins them over with her boundless imagination and the delight she takes in life. The book chronicles Anne’s misadventures in the town of Avonlea, her success in school, her friendships with other kindred spirits, and her competitive relationship with Gilbert Blythe.

This book came to me around the time my aunt passed away. Anne became my hero because she overcame her very difficult beginning, still had hope for life, and viewed everything in the world as something of wonder. Anne had a habit of giving everything a grand name—on her way to Green Gables the first time, she and Matthew drove through a cherry tree orchard--she renamed it the Great White Way. As a result, I went through a similar phase myself, inventing what I thought to be clever, lyrical names for china patterns and a certain spot in our backyard. I wanted everything to be an adventure and something to be discovered, just like Anne. I quickly devoured each book in the Anne of Green Gables series, and watched the CBC film version too many times to count.

I dreamed of marrying Gilbert Blythe.

I read Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem, The Lady of Shallot, because Anne acted out parts in the book. I became obsessed with life in the late 1800s, even using projects like my eighth grade research paper to learn more about the Victorian era (as a result, I have a freakish knowledge of the late 19th century British monarchy). And all this because of a freckled redhead named Anne.

Shelter Me

Shelter Me by Juliette Fay
Janie’s husband Robby died four months ago, leaving her alone to raise their four year old son and seven month old daughter. She is barely keeping it together, staying above water with the help of her overbearing Aunt Jude and helpful cousin Cormac. One day, a carpenter named Tug shows up on her doorstep, ready to build the covered porch that Robby had planned as a surprise birthday present, but hadn’t gotten the chance to give her. With Tug’s watchful presence and weekly visits with a priest, Janie starts to take control of her life as well as letting go of things she knows she can’t change.

I knew this was dangerous territory when I read the book review—dead husband, young children to take care of. But I picked it up anyway. The author Fay effectively describes the grief that Janie and her son endure during the first year of Robby’s death. Every time I picked up the book, I would tear up or cry during the reading because the scenes were just so heartbreaking. But there is hope: Janie and her son and others she didn’t even realize were touched, work through their grief and get to a different, hopefully better, place.

I must say that I didn’t like the first half of the book at all. I wish it would have mentioned in the back cover description of the book that the themes of child sexual abuse and self-defense were involved. If I had known these would have been covered, I wouldn’t have read the book (when I told my husband these were mentioned, he told me to stop reading, but by that time, I had to keep reading to make sure Janie would be okay). In the materials at the end of the book, the author describes how she had years of experience in child abuse prevention and how she herself had taken a self-defense class, so I can understand her drawing upon her own experiences for the book, but I hated these too-harsh doses of reality. Perhaps she used them as a device to have Janie prove to herself that she was strong enough to guide herself and her children in this new world they found themselves in, but I thought they were completely unnecessary.

More than anything, I wish I had read this in a book club, because there were so many things I would have liked to discuss with others. The discussion questions included in the back of the book bring up things I hadn’t even thought of (like symbolism—I generally read too literally to think about what the author is hinting at).

Overall, a bit heavier than your standard chick lit fare, but very descriptive and worthwhile.

The Reading Group

The Reading Group by Elizabeth Noble talks about, what else, a reading group made up of five women: Harriet, a young married mom who feels she has married the wrong man; Nicole, an unhappily married young mom whose husband routinely cheats on her; Susan, a happily married woman with almost grown sons who has to care for her failing mother; Polly, a single mom who has a 20 year old daughter who just found herself pregnant; and Clare, a married woman who is infertile. The story winds its way through a full year of the book group, with each chapter starting with the book choice of the month. Without giving too much away, each woman has a difficult year, but manages in their own way to come out on top, but not always the way one would expect.

I picked up this book (Kim, is this the one you read?) because I loved Alphabet Weekends and Things I Want My Daughters To Know and wanted to read the author’s first book.

I particularly liked how the author handled the book group meetings—for the actual book discussion part, Noble understood it wasn’t necessary to always follow who was saying each bit—she just let the conversation flow, like a normal book group would do, with women cutting each other off and jumping in with revelations. I really liked that and thought it was totally life like.

In the extras at the end of the book, the author states that the novel is about six women—Harriet, Nicole, Susan, Clare, Polly and Polly’s daughter Cressida. Because of her feelings about Cressida’s pregnancy, Clare drops out of the book group about halfway through the year, and we hear almost nothing from her through the rest of the book. I thought the author should have followed this character a bit longer, instead of having her drop out of the story except to pop back in towards the end. Considering how closely and deeply we follow the other characters, that treatment seems atypical.

I look forward to reading Noble’s second book, The Friendship Test.

K

I Do, But I Don't

Over the holidays, I read a breezy chick lit novel, I Do, (But I Don't) by Cara Lockwood. Lauren is a wedding planner who meets and falls for a handsome firefighter. There are many twists and turns in the story as to how the two eventually get together (come on, I didn't ruin anything by saying that, you knew it was going to happen). The book is peppered with stories of crazy brides and weddings gone awry. At the beginning, the story seemed exactly like the film The Wedding Planner, so if you liked that movie, you should read this book. In fact, you can watch a film based on this book that was made for Lifetime.

It wasn't the most serious book in the world, but I considered it research for the wedding planning uberbusiness Kim and I will someday have.

K

Knitting Under the Influence

I almost wrote off Knitting Under the Influence by Claire LaZebnik as a flimsy chick lit book without enough substance to hold up its cover. It took a few pages, but I'm glad I stuck with it because I got to enjoy a heartwarming story about the work and relationship struggles of three friends. Single girls Kathleen, Lucy and Sari meet without fail every Sunday for their knitting circle where they eat, drink a lot, talk, and of course knit. The depth in the story comes from Sari, whose experience growing up with an autistic brother propels her daily work as an autistic counselor, helping kids develop language skills and coping techniques, something her brother never had the opportunity to do. Her budding relationship with Jason, the father of one of her patients, creates internal conflict, for she remembers Jason humilitating her brother in high school. The other women's stories are less substantive, but somewhat amusing--Lucy's story centers on her relationship with James, for whom she starts kntting a sweater (hasn't she ever heard about not making anything for her man until she gets the ring?). Her boyfriend James is a jerk, who the reader has to deal with until Lucy comes to her senses. Kathleen decides to marry for money after she is kicked out of her movie star twin sisters' house and loses her job with them as their publicist's assistant.

Overall, an entertaining, lighthearted read.

K

Confessions of a Contractor

As readers of this blog may have noticed, I don't do male authors. I make a point of not choosing books written by men. Why? Because generally I don't care for the male perspective in escapist fiction (I mean, I'm trying to escape, I don't care what the other side thinks!), and usually male writers get women completely wrong. The few times I have reneged on my no man rule, I have been very sorry (My Legendary Girlfriend by Mike Gayle is one example).

So I don't know why I picked up Confessions of a Contractor by Richard Murphy--maybe it was the salacious cover, maybe it was the similarity of the story to an old Jane Green novel (I think it was Swapping Lives where one of the women thinks about starting something with their carpenter). I don't know why I gave this book a chance, but it was well worth the risk.

Henry Sullivan is a down-to-earth contractor who renovates the homes of the rich and semi-famous in LA (which he refers to as, not City of Angels, but City of Houses). After the completion of a particularly large job, he vows to takes some time off, but instead ends up agreeing to start two new projects at the same time in the homes of two women who used to be best friends. During the course of working in the two homes, he starts a relationship with Sally, while also falling for married Rebecca, all the while trying to uncover what ended the friendship between the two. Interspersed among the relationship stories is notes on how to determine if your marriage is strong enough to withstand the stress of a remodel and information on contractors and construction in general.

Everyone knows that the first rule in home improvement is to never sleep with your contractor, but this novel explores what happens when you break it through insightful observation and subtle humor. Discovering what ruined various relationships is the driving force behind the story, and I enjoyed seeing how all the pieces fell together in the end. This was an amazingly terrific read, and I eagerly await Murphy's next book.

K

Stuck in the Middle

Over the summer, I read a christian chick lit book entitled Stuck in the Middle: A Sister-to-Sister Novel by Virginia Smith. Stuck between gorgeous and pregnant older sister Allie and successful younger sister Tori, middle sister Joan is single, living at home with her mother and grandmother, and working an uneventful job as a rent-to-own furniture store manager. But life starts to get exciting when a young doctor moves in next door. She begins a friendship with the promising doctor, eventually going to church with him, and questions her own views on the Christian walk. Of course, there is a romantic happy ending that won't disappoint. This was a delightful book by an author I was unfamiliar with previously.

K

Knit Two

This afternoon I finished Knit Two by Kate Jacobs, the sequel to The Friday Night Knitting Club. A couple of days ago while reading reviews for new adult fiction books, I read the review of Knit Two, even though our library had already purchased it. I think Margaret Hanes summed up the book perfectly by saying that the novel was about grief and how different people handle their varying reactions to this powerful human emotion. The book picks up the story of the members of the Friday Night Knitting Club five years after the end of the last book, so readers get to see what becomes of Dakota, James, Peri, KC, Catherine, Anita, Lucie and Darwin. I won't say too much about this one, since it came out just a week ago, but it was nice to see how things turned out, especially after reading the first book so recently.

Above all else, this book makes me want to knit!

K

A Bad Bride's Tale

I read Polly Williams's first book, The Yummy Mummy, right after I returned to work the first time. It was a great book about a pregnant Englishwoman being left by her boyfriend and having to figure out how to raise her child on her own. (I was thinking the other day about how I don't remember how it ended--I can't remember if she went back to her boyfriend or met someone new--I hate how I can't remember anything!) Williams's next book was A Bad Bride's Tale. This novel follows Stevie, a thirtysomething Englishwoman as she prepares to marry Jez, her longtime boyfriend. Even though she has massive doubts leading up to the big day, she stumbles through the vows and marries Jez. Quickly, things start to fall apart. Their honeymoon is even less than idylic, as Jez befriends a former rival of Stevie's who just happens to be at the same resort. Within weeks of the wedding, Stevie moves out and goes back home to stay with her family, support her younger sister as she deals with a premature baby, and spends more time with an old friend, meeting up with him in Oxford and New York. You can basically guess how it all ends, but I was delighted to be regaled with several twists and turns which left me wondering if really the book wouldn't end happily.

I hope Williams keeps writing--I can't wait for her next book!

K