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Just What Kind of Mother Are You?

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This showed up two days before I left for family vacation in the Dominican Republic and it was the absolute perfect fit for those airport down hours and the lounge chairs at the beach. Just What Kind of Mother Are You? is a captivating page-turner that you need to get right now, or at very least add to your must haves for summer cottage season. Without giving any spoilers away at all, Paula Daly has taken every mom’s nightmare of losing a child, shaken the plot up every so slightly, tossed in a hefty dose of shocking plot twists (I never saw them coming.) and a hint of psychological thriller. All of that combines to create a dynamite fictional adventure that starts when an overburdened and exhausted working Mom loses her friend’s child while she is supposed to be watching her. Ratchet up the guilt meter, because what could be worse than an already drained mama feeling like she was the cause of everyone’s distress?

Just What Kind of Mother Are You? was the perfect beach read for me this week. I couldn’t put it down and got sunburnt hands but only on the sides (reader’s sunburn) from holding the book and being totally immersed this week. In fact I feel like this one lends itself to potentially being a runaway 2013 hit and a clear bestseller this summer. The topic matter is universally appealing to pretty much every working mother in every first world country. The writing is solid and the plot twists come at breakneck speed.

Lisa Kallisto is a working mother of three, managing married life just barely, and parenting her kids, most days just adequately enough, while running an animal shelter and struggling to carve out adult friendships as well. She is married to a man who adores her, a man who drives a taxi for a living. She grew up, the narrator tells us, in her father’s second family. Her childhood comes to a fast end when her dad’s first wife arrives in her neighbourhood one day asking to see his “bastard.” Her visit culminates in a suicide attempt in front of the child. She tells little Lisa to make sure she tells her father about the visit and then slits her wrists in front of her, having sent the other wife out to fetch some sugar for tea.

Kate Riverty is Lisa’s neighbour. She appears to have it all under control, the Mom with the best kids, the PTA fundraising queen, the most accomplished wife who works hard to keep her family immaculate and, yet there is just the slightest hint, she is a bit too perfect. Lisa works far to hard to aspire to the ideals that Moms like Kate set and then one night when Kate’s daughter is supposed to be sleeping over at Lisa’s home, she drops the ball and Kate’s daughter Lucinda disappears. In their small town  pedophile has been lurking and one young girl has already turned up raped and disoriented. Kate, Lisa and their rest of the town worry Lucinda is the next victim.

Just What Kind of Mother Are You? has it all. The plot is fast, the characters are well rounded and this concept is not one I have seen perverted well in fiction form until now. So what complaints do I have, if any? This is a nearly perfect thriller that captivated me from start to finish. Just What Kind of Mother Are You? doesn’t have the kind of lyrical writing that you will recall for weeks and months or rhapsodize over at book club. There are few poetic flourishes and that’s more than okay, because that style of writing would be out of place here. Just What Kind of Mother Are You? is a story well told, executed with great timing.

Paula Daly is a mother and physiotherapist. This is her first novel. Let’s just say I hope she is not a one hit wonder, because this is a great read.

Just What Kind of Mother Are You? by Paula Daly, Fiction, published by DoubleDay Canada, is $22.95 in paperback, 314 pages. This gets my full $$$$$ out of $$$$$. Loved it.

The Rhythm of Secrets: Litfuse Blog Tour and a giveaway

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The Rhythm of Secrets is a roller coaster of a book with multiple serpentine plot twists that sneak up on you. This is the fictional story of Sheila, a promising young musician, born in New Orleans and named Sheba originally. The story jumps around in time from present day making use of a framing device. Sheila is a pastor’s wife telling the story of her life to a young man named Samuel. In the past sequences, she is a child, at first leading an interesting, Bohemian and colourful life, running bets for her gambler father. But a fire changes all of that and suddenly she is orphaned, taken in by her cold, rich, grandmother, Mimi. The grandmother immediately forces Sheba to have her name legally changed to Sheila, on the basis that the name Sheba is not upper class enough. As if it weren’t bad enough that Sheba lost her parents in tragedy, she will endure many humiliations and injustices, first at the hands of her grandmother and then later at the hands of others: doctors and medical personnel. The one good thing to come from her stay in grandma’s home is a loving servant who cares for her named Camille and an upper class education at the finest schools. At school Sheila/Sheba finds solace and passion through music. Just as she begins to find her home, carving a way in the world, she takes a holiday visit to see her cousin and meets a soldier, a young boy, who wins her over at least temporarily. Although Sheila is a musical genius, she is utterly ignorant in many life skills and neither sex, nor reproduction, have been explained to her. A brief time after meeting the young man, she begins feeling faint and sick to her stomach and her loving servant Camille explains that she is pregnant. Now young and unwed, never to see the biological father of her baby again, she is cast out by her grandmother and comes to live in a home for unwed mothers where she will be hidden from society. This portion of the story centres on an adoption arc that is remarkably and devastatingly accurate for the time period. Despite the reality of wanting to keep her son, Sheila, whose name will be changed to Sylvia when she must be hidden away, is steered down a path towards an assumed adoption. At the home for unwed mothers she will find friends, with stories every bit as heartbreaking as hers. But she cannot stay long after she gives birth and must find her way again, on her own. I had no idea this book had such a strong adoption theme in it when I agreed to review it. Somehow adoption books find me. I never tire of these stories especially  when they sneak up out of the blue and surprise me, as this one did. Sylvia’s plight is sad and tragic, the story of a birthmother from a time when abortion was not available or heard of, and it lends an interesting historical light on the topic. Slowly the author reveals that Samuel, the listener, is the son once removed from her and placed with an adoptive family. This is truly Sheila’s story and the point of view is the unwed teen mother. It is much less a story of adoptee, or adoptive family. And that’s okay. The Rhythm of Secrets starts with a loud cacophony and seems to slow down to a whisper for a bit before it picks up speed and tempo, rolling towards the eventual end. This is a good story. The main character is very compelling and for the most part this is a fresh idea. Patti Lacy has written two other books, An Irishwoman’s Tale and What the Bayou Saw.

Thriftymommastips rating is $$$ 1/2 out of $$$$$.
The Rhythm of Secrets, by Patti Lacy, Kregel Publications, 2010, 336 pages with book group discussion questions . Paperback.
 I received a copy of the book to do this review, but my opinions are all my own.
I am giving my copy of this book to one lucky reader as part of my Valentine’s I Heart Books giveaway.
To enter: (Open to Canada only)
1. Follow me on twitter @inkscrblr.
I will draw for this one on Valentine’s Day. Don’t forget to leave me your contact email in case you win.

Tales From the Treehouse: Jane and The Raven King

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Jane and The Raven King is by Stephen Chambers, Sourcebooks, Jabberwocky, published last month Dec. 2010, $6.99 US and $8.99 Canadian, paperback, 256 pages.

My full written review is at New York Journal of Books.

This one gets five $$$$$ out of $$$$$. We thoroughly loved this character and her quest to save the world. Great strong plot and compelling adventure fantasy fiction for ages nine to 12.
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Picture Perfect: A Giveaway

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Hey all, this one is a giveaway too, so don’t forget to read to the end to enter. Picture Perfect is one of my fave author, Jodi Picoult’s, earlier books. As I am steadily working my way through every novel she has ever written I felt the need to read and review this one recently. It isn’t the grabbiest or most topical of all Picoult’s books, but the slight parallels to a certain A-List Hollywood celebrity couple made it relevant and interesting to me.
At the start of this novel is a mystery. A half-dead woman is found in a cemetery. Her head is wounded. She is discovered by a grave and has no inkling how she got there or why she is there, nor does she know her name. A conflicted native American police officer takes her in and tried to help her find the truth. He calls her Jane and along the way, as he helps her to find out about her history, he naturally falls for her romantically. Cassie Barrett is a world-renowned anthropologist when she meets the legendary Alex Rivers. (Think Brad Pitt with a mean-spirited side.) She has been hired by the movie he is working on to give technical advice. He sweeps her off her feet and she is easily charmed, but it is not long before his temper flares and she tries to make excuses. Soon a pattern of abuse is evident to have followed Rivers from his past and extended well into his future. It is a pattern Cassie believes she can cure. As in many Picoult novels a subtheme echoes and crosses through the main plot of the novel. The native American police officer Will pops in and out of the book weaving strong themes of nature and healing and aboriginal folklore. He is, in many ways Cassie’s saviour and a very strong character. Picture Perfect is the story of a couple who to the world and the media appear to be golden and yet, in reality, they are deeply flawed personalities that feed each other’s weaknesses. They are simply combustible together. This is a compelling story and it is, as usual really well written. Picoult is the author of many other novels, including The Tenth Circle, House Rules, Faith, Mercy and My Sister’s Keeper.

Picture Perfect is worth $$$$ out of $$$$$. It is published by Berkely, Penguin Group USA, 1995. $15 US and $18 Canadian.

I am giving away one copy of this novel. I will draw for the winner June 24th with random.org. Open to all US and Canada.
To enter:
1. Leave a comment here indicating that you want to enter the giveaway. Tell me if you have read any other Jodi Picoult books and, if so, which was your favourite.
2. Follow me on twitter @inkscrblr.
3. Visit http://www.thriftymommastips.blogspot.com/ and leave a comment.
4. For an extra chance at winning follow me on GoogleFriendConnect.

The Forty Rules Of Love

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A truly good story takes you on a voyage to a place you didn’t know you wanted to visit. The Forty Rules of Love is just that kind of story; reading it is just that kind of journey. Elif Shafak is one of Turkey’s best-selling female authors. Up until I received this novel, her latest, The Forty Rules of Love, I had never heard of Shafak and that’s a shame really. Shafak is a gifted storyteller. The Forty Rules of Love consists of two parallel stories, one of which is set in contemporary time and the other of which takes place in the 13th century. The contemporary plot revolves around a housewife, Ella, about to turn 40, who is hired as a reader for a literary agent to read a book dubbed Sweet Blasphemy. Ella is a realist or so she thinks at the start of the book when she begins reading a new novelist’s rumination. The Forty Rules of Love is in some ways her coming of age story. Quickly Ella falls in love with the prose in the novel she reviews and then reaches out to the author through email beginning a relationship. But what sort of relationship will it be? That remains up to Ella, taken by the writing of this new author Aziz. She knows little of him but his talent and this portion of the book is told in a nouveau sort of epistolary for our times – through written emails to each other. Their emails grow increasingly amorous. “Her first email to Aziz was not a letter so much as an invitation, a cry for help. But Ella had no way of knowing this as she sat in the silence of her kitchen and composed a note to an unknown writer she didn’t expect to meet now or any time in the future.” The plot within Sweet Blasphemy revolves around the Sufi poet Rumi and his spiritual encounter with Shams of Tabriz. As Shams schools Rumi in spiritual matters he learns to open his mind more fully to that which he cannot see or touch and he realizes his life has been missing a key ingredient. Ella, in the contemporary plot line, can be seen to follow the same story arc only with a more romantic outcome. As Shams unveils each of his rules of love to Rumi, Ella and Aziz can be seen experiencing, internalizing and reacting to the fictional rules as their own. There is a certain subtle magic realism about this novel, not as overt as the Latin American authors who perfected the genre, but gentler and slightly more spiritual in nature. Perhaps that’s another reason I so enjoyed this book. The characters in this book are beautifully illustrated and the narrative at times complex, but not so as to detract from the read, only so that it illuminates the strength of the writer’s talent. In the end there is an unexpected twist and prose so lovely and insightful that it is also slightly heartbreaking. The Forty Rules of Love is more than a great love story: it is also an intriguing look at the intimate relationship that can exist between author and reader, writer and reviewer.
The Forty Rules of Love, 2010, Viking, $32.50 Canadian and $25.95 US.
Thriftymommastips’ rating $$$$$ out of $$$$$
thriftymomma is not compensated for her reviews, but receives a copy of the books she reviews.

House Rules

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It’s no big secret really that I want to be Jodi Picoult when I grow up. This journalist turned author is one of my all time favourite contemporary authors. House Rules is yet another topical, well researched, beautifully written story that makes me yearn for more as soon as I have turned the last page. While the plot of House Rules centres around the CSI obsessed Jacob, a teenager with Asperger’s, a high functioning form of autism, it is equally the story of the mother and his sibling Theo. This is the story of a family dealing with a child who has special needs and perhaps that’s why I so eagerly nabbed this one when I discovered it at the London Public Library. My own daughter has sensory processing disorder amongst other diagnoses, so Jacob gave me some excellent insights into what makes her tick and also explode into meltdown. The mother Emma is such a vivid character that she could be any one of the mothers I know dealing with the challenges of parenting children who have special needs. Jacob’s social skills tutor Jess is found dead and suspicion quickly falls on Jacob, whose disability makes him appear a perfect suspect. Asperger’s is categorized by social skills deficits, high intelligence, flat tone and affect, lack of empathy for others. To outsiders – lawyers, jurors and police officers – Jacob appears calculating and cold. The trial that ensues here is a huge portion of the plot and that can be tedious in some novels. However, Picoult is quite able to balance multiple competing viewpoints by allowing the trial to take centre stage in the last half of the book. It is an effective plot device. It is a remarkably realistic insight she gives us into the minds of lawmakers, some too slow to change or comprehend grey areas of law and life. Picoult is excellent at illuminating the very nature of invisible disabilities. Some of the characters are able to see Jacob’s strengths and differences and others believe him to be a liar. This novel does not contain Picoult’s best writing, but it does contain some of her most memorable characters. Jacob is incredibly compelling and through this character Picoult brings unique and perceptive insights into autism and sensory processing dysfunctions. “These are some things I can’t really stand,” he lists. ” 1. The sound of paper being crumpled. I can’t tell you why, but it makes me feel like someone’s doing that to all my internal organs.” House Rules casts light on how we as a society are still lacking compassion and ability to embrace differences. Emma’s job as a columnist is revoked during the trial for instance by the very people who believe they are supportive of families with special needs. She is a single mother existing on fumes and cannot get a bank loan to pay her lawyer. She has spent a lifetime crafting her son’s environment so that he can function and avoid sensory overload. For instance Tuesdays are red food only days. When Oliver the lawyer enters their world he gives us fresh eyes through which the reader can see, at once how essential it is to have red Tuesdays for Emma and her family, and yet how absurd at the same time that a life must be lived within such parameters. My only criticism of this novel is that I saw the ending coming and usually Picoult is able to deal a surprising twist at the end of her books – as in My Sister’s Keeper, which had such a tour de force ending I felt gobsmacked for days after I finished the book.

House Rules, $32.00 Canadian $28. U.S.
SimonandSchuster publishing, Atria Books, 2010

thriftymommastips rating $$$$$ out of $$$$$

Still Alice

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Still Alice by Lisa Genova is a lovely, bittersweet, insightful l look, at the devastating diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer’s Disease. Alice Howland, an accomplished Harvard professor, is barely 50 when she starts to realize her brain is beginnning to fail her. Forgetfulness is becoming an issue. She often is at a loss for words and occasionally becomes lost at work on the campus near the university where she teaches. She loses her place in a telephone conversation with her grown children often and simply isn’t as sharp as she once was. These small blips require further investigation and so she reluctantly and, with disbelief, consults her doctor. The diagnosis, while shocking, isn’t completely a surprise as Alice seems to know in her gut that something is wrong long before it is given a name. Early-onset Alzheimer’s. She keeps the diagnosis to herself for far too long, until she is no longer able. When she shares the devastating news with family, they react in their own ways, each one revealing different facets of the disease. To Alice’s oldest daughter it is particularly frightening as she becomes pregnant and worries the genes might be passed to her twins. Projecting into the future she also worries she may someday be a burden to her own children if she develops symptoms. Youngest child Lydia, the artistic actress, surprisingly rises to the challenge as caregiver of her mother. Their bond is strengthened by the mother’s vulnerability. Lydia chooses not to have the testing that would reveal her future health. Her brother Tom carries survivor guilt of sorts when it is revealed that he should not get Alzheimer’s. Her husband, John, a brilliant doctor, hides his feelings and refuses to believe his wife may someday be unable to remember his name. He is a secondary character at best in this story and he is sometimes unlikeable as the heartbroken husband struggling to decide if he can manage his feelings while unable, at times, to see the essence of Alice beneath the deterioration. John chooses work as a refuge from his homebound formerly vibrant wife. “If I am in lab, I don’t have to watch you sticking Post-it notes on all the cabinets and doors. I can’t just stay home and watch you get worse. It kills me.” can’t take it Alice. The impact on Alice’s family is dealt with nicely here in this novel, as each of Alice’s children struggle to decide if they will be tested for genetic markers that will tell them whether they may develop the same terrible disease. But it is Alice’s story that clearly dominates the novel and her character we feel for all throughout her sad journey. While this is a fictional story, Genova, who has a PHD in neuroscience from Harvard University, is an expert on the details of this disease, and I loved that I learned so much about the inner workings of the brain from this book. This book has all of the elements of a good story and has won a few accolades along the way including the 2008 Bronte prize and yet I felt the writing lacked sophistication and style. This is a great story and it is nicely written and I would recommend it to almost anyone, but the writing is simply good, not great.  

Still Alice, by Lisa Genova is published by Simon and Schuster, New York 2007
The Mass Market edition was $10.99 in Canada.
thriftymommastips rating $$$$ out of $$$$$.

Thriftymommastips did not receive any compensation for this review