The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen

Here is another book of an author I have never read before but will read again.  The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen was a very mystical book with a side of romance.  Emily Benedict was brought to live with her grandfather in a small town of Mullaby, North Carolina. It’s a town of oddities. Her grandfather is almost eight feet tall. Her bedroom wallpaper changes, frequently. Everyone has its secrets. Her mother was involved in something scandalous involving the Coffey family, so scandalous that the townspeople’s long memories have pegged Emily as an outcast before she even has time to set foot in Mullaby. But people’s recollections of Emily’s mom don’t fit with the social do gooder that her mom was before she died. What Emily comes to realize was that she was her mother’s chance at redemption.

Her neighbor, Julia Winterson, befriends Emily. Even though Emily’s mom was one of Julia’s high school tormenters, Julia recognizes loneliness when she sees it and it radiates from Emily. This story is all about second chances. It’s about Emily’s mom’s second chance lived through Emily. It’s about the Win Coffey defying his family’s orders to give his people a second chance. It’s about Julia, who bakes her cakes for a lost love and not the most recognizable loss either.

It was an easy read, which I enjoyed because I was looking for a light beach read while on vacation. Some of the strange things that happened in the town were answered while some were not.  The characters are a bit eccentric but overall a fun read.

Here, Home, Hope by Kaira Rouda

I have found myself reading lots of new authors I have not read before, many are debut novels. Kaira Rouda’s new book, Here, Home, Hope, is an entertaining, lighthearted novel about Kelly Johnson, a middle-aged woman, who feels the need to reinvent herself.  Kelly steps out of her comfort zone and courageously takes ownership of the direction she wants her life to move.  She starts this reinvention by honestly examining all of her present and past relationships.  She then takes steps to amend any unjust actions she has made.  Her retrospection helps her gain valuable insight about herself.

Throughout the book you will smile or laugh at some of her humorous efforts to change.  Many of us can easily identify with Kelly’s personal self-doubt.  We can also relate to her relationships, because we recognize people in our lives similar to the characters in Kelly’s life.  Our lives were also shaped by the demands and expectations of modern society.  We experienced many of the same influences as Kelly in making our life choices.  Here, Home, Hope, is about rediscovering our inner beliefs and passions to aid us in navigating our way successfully through life.

While her two sons are off at summer camp for the whole summer, she takes on her best friends very troubled daughter.  They have their ups and downs but in the end really begin to rely on one another. It is a very touching story of these two, this was my favorite relationship in the story.

Kelly ends up starting her own business as a home stager, never heard of that and read two novels this summer where that was the story line, I will know what to do now when I am ready to sell my own house.  

I enjoyed this book, read it on Surfside Beach in Nantucket last week.  It is a great beach read!

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

 I received this book from a friend for Christmas 2009, I just read it last week. I don't know what took me so long - I could not put it down.   Kathryn Stockett's The Help will live in hearts and minds for years to come. The three women who form its core, idealistic Skeeter, loving Aibileen, and sarcastic, sassy Minny, narrate their chapters each in a voice that is distinctive as their personalities. 

These stories of the black maids working for white women in the state of Mississippi of the 60s have an insiders' view of child-rearing, Junior League benefits, town gossip, and race relations. 

Hilly is the town's white Queen Bee with an antebellum attitude towards race. She hopes to lead her minions into the latter part of the century with the "enlightened" view of making sure every home in Jackson, Mississippi, has a separate toilet for the help. Her crusade is, she says, based on clear hygienic criteria, which will save both blacks and whites from heinous diseases. 

Despite the fact that the maids prepare the food, care for the children, and clean every part of every home, privy to every secret, many of the white women look at their black maids as an alien race. There are more enlightened views, especially those of Skeeter, a white, single woman with a college degree, who aspires to more than finding a husband, which her mother is pushing her to do. Skeeter begins collecting the maids' stories. And the maids themselves find the issue of race humiliating, infuriating, life-controlling. Race sows bitter seeds in the dignity of women who feel they have no choices except to follow their mamas into the white women's kitchens and laundries. Aibilene says, "I just want things to be better for the kids." Their hopes lie in education and improvement, change someday for their children. 

There is real danger for the maids sharing their stories as well as danger for Skeeter herself. Something bad happens, making them question their work and a decision to forge ahead, hoping their book can be published anonymously and yet not recognized by the very white women they know to the last deviled egg and crack in a dining room table. 

The relationships between the maids and the white children, the maids and some kind employers, including Cecilia Foot, illuminate the strange history of the South. The love Aibileen shows for Mae Mobley matches the love Skeeter felt as a white child from her maid-nanny Constantine. 

There is never a dull moment, while teaching strong truths about the way the United States evolved from a shameful undercurrent of persistent racism to the hopes and dreams of Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks. Ultimately, will the next generations children learn (and be taught) that skin color is nothing more than a wrapping for the person who lives within? 

The movie comes out August 10th, I hope it is as good as the book! If I am not the last person in the world to read this book, I highly recommend you pick it up!

 

Heat Wave by Nancy Thayer

Just finished Heat Wave by Nancy Thayer, another of my favorite authors from Nantucket.  I love Nancy's books because they always seem so real and you can relate with the characters. Her descriptions of the island make you feel like you are there with her.


Heat Wave is a novel that explores the challenges that life brings to several different women who are friends and how they deal with those changes that are wrought by actions of loved ones. This book is  well written, has an amazing insight on human frailty as it faces and overcomes life's obstacles. I loved this book. It made me laugh, made me somewhat angry, and then made me cry. In the end it made me sigh with joy and fulfillment on behalf of one lady's courage to begin life anew.  


If you are looking for another great beach read, add this to your list, you won't be disappointed.

Silver Girl by Elin Hilderbrand

Elin Hilderbrand is one of my favorite authors.  She lives in Nantucket and all her books take place there. It was after reading her books that I needed to visit, it is now a place we go every summer and will most likely end up living there permanently some day.  Each summer I eagerly await her latest novel and Silver Girl did not disappoint.  It is about 2 life long friends who eventually drift apart but tragedy brings them back together.  Meredith's husband is involved in a ponzi scheme, he is now serving the rest of his life in prison. Meredith is under investigation and truly knew nothing about it.  Connie lost her husband to brain cancer and is estranged from her only daughter.  In desperation Meredith calls her old friend Connie for help escaping.  Connie is on her way to her home in Nantucket for the summer.  It is there that they work through what broke them apart.  Both their lives change while on Nantucket and you won't be disappointed to see how.

Elin Hilderbrand never disappoints in her writing, which is why I eagerly await her next novel as soon as I finish the current one.  I met her at a book signing in Nantucket a couple years ago, she is very down to earth and someone you know you could easily hang out with.  If you need a book to add to your summer reading list, make sure you put this one on it.

Now You See Her by James Patterson

If you are looking for a good page turner for the beach, Now You See Her is the book for you.  Jeanine is a college student on spring break in Key West with her boyfriend and best friends, what starts out as a huge party ends up in disaster for Jeanine.  She meets Peter Fournier, a Key West police officer who helps her out of a jam.  Jeanine thinks all is great until she starts discovering things she wishes she hadn't.  Jeanine finds herself continually getting herself out of jams.  Once she finally thinks all is good, there are more twists and turns that interfere with the life she is building for herself.  It is hard to write a review without giving away too much so I will keep this one brief.  The book is full of twists and turns and just when you think you have it figured out there is another twist.

Loved the book, couldn't put it down - I read it in a day.  If you like a good mystery/thriller pick this one up, you won't be disappointed.