Domestic Violets: By Matthew Norman

DOMESTIC VIOLETS

SUMMARY

Tom Violet always thought that by the time he turned thirty-five, he’d have everything going for him. Fame. Fortune. A beautiful wife. A satisfying career as a successful novelist. A happy dog to greet him at the end of the day.

The reality, though, is far different. He’s got a wife, but their problems are bigger than he can even imagine. And he’s written a novel, but the manuscript he’s slaved over for years is currently hidden in his desk drawer while his father, an actual famous writer, just won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His career, such that it is, involves mind-numbing corporate buzzwords, his pretentious archnemesis Gregory, and a hopeless, completely inappropriate crush on his favorite coworker. Oh . . . and his dog, according to the vet, is suffering from acute anxiety.

Tom’s life is crushing his soul, but he’s decided to do something about it. (Really.) Domestic Violets is the brilliant and beguiling story of a man finally taking control of his own happiness—even if it means making a complete idiot of himself along the way.

REVIEW

Midlife crises are a common theme in the world of literary fiction. It is often comprised of a 30 to 40 something adult male who is unhappy with his life/job/wife. He is then seduced by a younger woman, who has conveniently been flirting with him for ages, and then all hell breaks loose as the ramifications of his action soon effect his work, family, and metal stability.

Domestic Violets only partially exemplifies this stereotype. Instead it focuses heavily on the seesaw between childhood and adulthood. That line between taking and giving advice from your father, and the true turn in adulthood where one realizes ones responsibility and with heavy shoulders accepts them, destroying the last plight of childhood left in ones soul.

Domestic Violets touches on all of these topics and remains true to its intent by remaining funny through out the book. Similar to Jonathan Tropper’s style of writing, Matthew Norman does a fantastic job remaining both hilarious and potent an unusually complex feat.

All in all Domestic Violets was a great read. The story sped by, the characters were interesting and dynamic, the writing humorous, and the emotions incredibly real all throughout the book. A very easy book to recommend.

RATING

9 out of 10

INFO

Publisher: Harper Perennial

Published: August 9, 2011

Price: $14.99

Where Things Come Back: By John Whaley

WHERE THINGS COME BACK

SUMMARY

Just when seventeen-year-old Cullen Witter thinks he understands everything about his small and painfully dull Arkansas town, it all disappears. . . .

In the summer before Cullen's senior year, a nominally-depressed birdwatcher named John Barling thinks he spots a species of woodpecker thought to be extinct since the 1940s in Lily, Arkansas. His rediscovery of the so-called Lazarus Woodpecker sparks a flurry of press and woodpecker-mania. Soon all the kids are getting woodpecker haircuts and everyone's eating "Lazarus burgers." But as absurd as the town's carnival atmosphere has become, nothing is more startling than the realization that Cullen’s sensitive, gifted fifteen-year-old brother Gabriel has suddenly and inexplicably disappeared.

While Cullen navigates his way through a summer of finding and losing love, holding his fragile family together, and muddling his way into adulthood, a young missionary in Africa, who has lost his faith, is searching for any semblance of meaning wherever he can find it. As distant as the two stories seem at the start, they are thoughtfully woven ever closer together and through masterful plotting, brought face to face in a surprising and harrowing climax.

REVIEW

You know you’re reading a fantastic book when you read the last paragraph and immediately turn back to the beginning to start it over again.

Where Things Come Back is just such a book. Personally I don’t know just what it was that made this as irresistible read as it was. I don’t know if I should praise the realistically flawed yet endearing characters. The fascinating mystery/introspective nature of the story. Or just the general captivating nature of the writing itself.

What I can say is that Where Things Come Back is a must read book for everyone, both teens and adults. And that if you had to only read one book this month (I say month because there are some other fantastic books that came out this year and I’d hate to limit you), then it should be Where Things Come Back.

RATING

9 out of 10

INFO

Publisher: Atheneum

Published: May 3, 2011

Price: $16.99

Playdate: By Thelma Adams

PLAYDATE

SUMMARY

Inside their picture-perfect homes, the residents of this quiet California suburb are not at all what they seem.

Lance is a former weatherman, now a buff yogi, stay-athome dad, and manager of his daughter’s Girl Scout troop’s cookie distribution. Belle is his precocious and quick-witted daughter. Darlene is a classic Type A work-a-holic, she has little time or patience for the needs of her husband and daughter

And just down the street are Alec and Wren. Alec, a womanizing businessman, is also the financial backer—and sometimes more—behind Darlene’s burgeoning empire. Meanwhile, Wren is a doting mother and talented yogi, ready to lay down the mat for a quick session with Lance.

As looming Santa Ana winds threaten to turn brushfires into catastrophe; Playdate proves that relationships are complicated and the bonds between families, spouses and children are never quite what they seem. What happens next door, beyond the hedges, in the romper room and executive office—it’s all as combustible as a quick brushfire on a windy day.

REVIEW

Playdate is not a good book.

To be fair part of the reason I didn’t like this book was the fact that I had a different expectation for the book than it ended up being about. I was expecting a fun sarcastic romp, like Jonathan Tropper’s This Is Where I Leave You Now (which is fantastic if you haven’t read it.) But what I got was a book filled with over-sexed un-relatable characters, and a plot line that would make even the authors mother fall asleep.

As I mentioned the characters weren’t just over sexed maniacs, they were poorly written and just plain hard to connect with. I really feel in this kind of book the characters are the most important aspect, but in Playdate, Adam’s just plain falls down on the job of creating engaging relatable characters. Because of this the book never gets off the ground, and even if it had a breathtaking captivating plot (which it didn’t) than it wouldn’t have made up for it’s lack of characters.

All in all while there were some funny lines and the back of the book reads like it could be good, I was heavily disappointed with Playdate. It was sluggish, predictable, and hard to keep holding (the opposite of hard to put down.) If you have to pick a book to read for fun, don’t make the mistake in reading this one.

RATING

3 out of 10

INFO

Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books

Published: January 18, 2011

Price: $23.99

My Ultimate Sister Disaster: By Jane Mendle

MY ULTIMATE SISTER DISASTER

SUMMARY

What happens when your sister becomes your biggest rival?

If there were a way to pick your family, fourteen-year old Franny might not pick her own. Her father is a hipster boutique owner who's constantly "friending" her on Facebook, her mother is off in Kenya jumpstarting her stalled anthropology career, and her sister Zooey, eleven months older and eight inches taller, is a precocious, prima ballerina. Lately, Zooey's so absorbed with her burgeoning ballet career that she barely seems to notice Franny. And since Zooey attends a top ballet conservatory, Franny's on her own navigating the brutal halls of her Manhattan prep school, a first-year trying to get noticed on the school paper (and by its soulful, long-lashed editor-in-chief).

But everything changes when Zooey breaks her leg and her dancing comes to grinding halt. Her ballet dreams shattered, Zooey begins to hone in on Franny's "normal" life and friends. Franny feels terrible for Zooey, but when her encroachment starts to extend to Franny’s long-time crush, Franny begins to wonder if her sister might just be her worst competition...

REVIEW

When sports fans consider the toughest sports on the body for athletes they often leave out one of the most demanding, brutal sports out there, ballet. Ballet is incredibly difficult to master and often requires constant dedication for years on end, it usually permanently disfigures its athlete’s feet, and it is not uncommon to find bloody, torn, or broken muscles and bones in the athletes bodies. Not only that, but ballet is one of the most cut throat sports out there, there are very few spots in each company, and with diminishing arts budgets for cities across the country, it is not uncommon for ballerinas to find their greatest rival just so happens to be their (soon to be ex) best friend.

In My Ultimate Sister Disaster, Franny is jealous of her prima ballerina sister, Zooey. Zooey seems to have it all, talent, her parents attention, a killer body, and a height above five feet.

But everything changes when the once high and mighty Zooey breaks her leg while dancing. Now, stuck at home and forced to stop dancing Zooey begins to edge into Franny’s school life as well. With her mom off on some study continents away, her grades plummeting, and boy problems galore Franny has no idea how to deal with it all. Then when her sister steals the boy she’s been idealizing for years, all hell truly breaks loose.

My Ultimate Sister Disaster is a great book. It’s perfect for pre-teen and teen girls, and was interesting enough and so well written that even a guy would like it.

Mendle is a talented author who is able to get to the heart of a teenage girls emotional turmoil. Because this turmoil is present in almost all girls (and quite a few guys), her plot lines and characters are a perfect fit for their desired audience.

That said I didn’t love the mother character. I felt like she was overly selfish and was forgiven to fast to have caused the damage she did in the book.

All in all this was a great summer read and girls of all ages should pick up a copy.

RATING

8 out of 10

INFO

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Published: June 8, 2010

Price: $8.99

The Big Bang: By Mickey Spillane and Max Collins

The Big Bang

SUMMARY

In midtown Manhattan, Mike Hammer, recovering from a near-fatal mix-up with the Mob, runs into drug dealers assaulting a young hospital messenger. He saves the kid, but the muggers are not so lucky. Hammer considers the rescue a one-off, but someone has different ideas, as indicated by a street-corner knife attack.With himself for a client, Hammer—and his beautiful, deadly partner Velda—take on the narcotics racket in New York just as the streets have dried up and rumors run rampant of a massive heroin shipment due any day. In a New York of flashy discotheques, swanky bachelor pads, and the occasional dark alley, Hammer deals with doctors and drug addicts, hippie chicks and hit men,meeting changing times with his timeless brand of violent vengeance. Originally begun and outlined by Spillane in the mid-sixties, and expertly completed by his longtime collaborator Max Allan Collins, The Big Bang is vintage Mike Hammer on acid . . . literally.

REVIEW

First there was Philip Marlow. Then there was Sam Spade. And finally the toughest and the last of the old time P.I’s, Mike Hammer. Hammer comes from simpler times, back when women were dolls, the police were pigs, and crime was rampant. There weren’t computers or cell phones, no GPS or email, this was back when if a P.I. wanted a case he had to get his hands dirty and do it the old fashioned way, good old fashioned investigating. And this is exactly what Mike Hammer does he does good old fashion P.I. work to get the case solved.

I was genuinely surprised how much I liked the book.

Before I begin on how good this book was I first want to speak a second on its pedigree. It is the long lost manuscript of the infamous and deceased mystery writer Mickey Spillane, the creator of Hammer’s world. With the co-author, Max Collins, being the writer of Road to Perdition and Saving Private Ryan, Oscar winners all. All in all a sensational pedigree.

But even with its pedigree building it up The Big Bang still found room to surprise and entertain me. In fact it’s one of the best mysteries I’ve read in years. It takes a simple easy to spot twist in the plot and goes further, surprising and shocking readers and reviewers alike with the coldness and sharp change that occurred in the story.

Spillane and Collins did great job of continuing the Mike Hammer legacy in this book. It’s 256 pages, short enough for a cool summer read and long enough to get into the book and really enjoy it. Besides it’s length, the book is action packed and filled with all the great aspects mystery readers crave in strong mystery novel.

All in all this is a great book and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a quick entertaining summer read, especially mystery lovers.

RATING

9 out of 10

INFO

PUBLISHER: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

PUBLISHED: May 14, 2010

PRICE: $25.00

The Heights: by Peter Hedges

THE HEIGHTS

SUMMARY

Tim Welch is a popular history teacher at the Montague Academy, an exclusive private school in Brooklyn Heights. As he says, "I was an odd-looking, gawky kid but I like to think my rocky start forced me to develop empathy, kindness, and a tendency to be enthusiastic. All of this, I'm now convinced, helped in my quest to be worthy of Kate Oliver." Now, Kate is not inherently ordinary. But she aspires to be. She stays home with their two young sons in a modest apartment trying desperately to become the parent she never had. They are seemingly the last middle-class family in the Heights, whose world is turned upside down by Anna Brody, the new neighbor who moves into the most expensive brownstone in Brooklyn, sending the local society into a tailspin.

Anna is not only beautiful and wealthy; she's also mysterious. And for reasons Kate doesn't quite understand, even as all the Range Rover- driving moms jockey for invitations into Anna's circle, Anna sets her sights on Kate and Tim and brings them into her world.

REVIEW

Having just finished "The Heights", by Peter Hedges, I can tell you, I loved it.

"The Heights" is a well-written fun novel that will certainly be passed friend to friend in the neighborhood. The main characters, Tim and Kate, a young couple with two young sons, are realistic and loveable. The characters that populate their world are quirky and entertaining. They are so well-crafted that every reader will recognize some of her friends in the group.

The story itself is like a ride on the log ride. The story builds and builds, each crank adding anticipation and expectation with a little bit of doubt, and then the story sends you plummeting down the hill with a final exhilarating splash. Invigorating fun that leaves you wanting more.

While "The Heights" may not appeal to those who haven't experienced marriage it is still a phenomenal book that I would recommend to anyone looking for a good beach read. And I personally hope Hedges will write a follow up novel so I can revisit my new friends Tim and Kate.

RATING

8 out of 10

INFO

Publisher: Dutton Adult

Published: March 4, 2010

Price: $25.95

This Is Where I Leave You: By Jonathan Tropper

THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU

SUMMARY

Judd Foxman's wife, Jen, has left him for his boss, a Howard Stern–like radio personality, but it is the death of his father and the week of sitting shivah with his enjoyably dysfunctional family that motivates him. Jen's announcement of her pregnancy—doubly tragic because of a previous miscarriage—is followed by the dramas of Judd's siblings: his sister, Wendy, is stuck in an emotionless marriage; brother Paul—always Judd's defender—and his wife struggle with infertility; and the charming youngest, Phillip, attempts a grown-up relationship that only highlights his rakishness. Presided over by their mother, a celebrated parenting expert despite her children's difficulties, the mourning period brings each of the family members to unexpected epiphanies about their own lives and each other.

REVIEW

This is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. The characters are zany yet realistic, the narration insightful yet humorous, and the story fast paced and engaging. Tropper brings such an off the wall humor to an absurd cast of characters that you feel like you’re in your own family reunion. He has truly captured the awkwardness of a family reconnecting over the death of a loved one. But this story is so much more than that, it’s about; growing up, forgiveness, and the importance of family. This is a sensational book and I would recommend it to anyone I know.

INFO

Publisher: Dutton Adult

Published: August 6, 2009

Price: $25.95