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She’s Not There, By Joy Fielding – A Psychological Thriller

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If they gave an award for best creative fiction loosely constructed on a ripped from the headlines horrific news event, the winner would surely be a close tie between Jodi Picoult and Joy Fielding. New York Times best-selling author Joy Fielding is at her best here in She’s Not There, sure to be a summer slam dunk on dozens of bestseller lists. She’s Not There is the one that would right now top my list of MUST HAVE beach reads for late winter vacation, March break or cottage season.

Thank you @penguincanada @randomhouseca can’t wait to crack this one open. #books #love #reading #happy #ldnont

A photo posted by Paula Schuck (@inkscrblr) on

Last night when I finished She’s Not There, I wondered to myself why this novel resonated so much with me and why I couldn’t put it down. I came to the conclusion at about 1:30 a.m. that both Fielding reminds me of my favourite author Jodi Picoult in this novel. Both can be experts at spinning a real life event into a creatively re-envisioned page turner. I have adored Picoult from the start and in fact have only in the last couple of years come to really enjoy Fielding. I had high hopes for this Fielding novel. She’s Not There did not disappoint.

“I think my real name is Samantha. I think I’m your daughter.”

Fifteen years have passed from the week at a resort in Mexico when celebrating their anniversary with friends and relatives, Caroline and Hunter make the choice to leave their two daughters inside their hotel room. They both leave the table at half hour intervals to check on the kids and return to their last night at the resort celebration. Until, the last time Caroline returns to the room to check and finds that her two-year-old daughter is missing.

There are obvious similarities to the Madeleine McCann case in which a 3-year-old girl went missing while her parents dined 50 metres away at a holiday resort in Portugal. That case captured global attention. So too does the fictional case of Samantha Shipley.

This is the story, told in alternating chapters of current time action interspersed with snapshots of the years that have gone by. There were three other couples with the Shipley’s at the resort in Mexico when their baby went missing, one of whom was Shipley’s brother Steve and his wife Becky, an infertile couple. Becky and Steve’s marriage is on the rocks. Hunter and Caroline’s marriage is seemingly perfect until that night when the baby goes missing and each one starts to blame the other for her disappearance. Their older daughter Michelle, 5 at the time of the child’s disappearance eventually leaves the resort to return home with the father Hunter and stays with her grandmother Mary. The rest of the guests depart but the Mom is unable to leave Mexico, which is not that far from her home in southern California, but nonetheless places a dramatic distance between her and the rest of her family.

Over the coming years as Samantha continues to remain lost to the family, Caroline is made into a pariah, raked through the coals by media for every single small behaviour. She is blamed, investigated, called cold and calculating. Her husband, a well to do lawyer does not receive the same media scrutiny. Caroline, a former math teacher struggles, as Michelle spirals angrily out of control and becomes a defiant miserable young woman feeling keenly the absence of her sister at all times.

So who is to blame? Did someone take Samantha? Did she climb out of the crib and wander off? Could her sister have hurt her? Did her Mom or Dad hurt her? Did someone on staff at the resort sneak in that night and take the child? All of these questions remain unanswered and Caroline is targeted over the years by half a dozen scam artists pretending to be her missing daughter. If only the could have a few thousand dollars to fly across the country to prove they were Samantha. Unable to move on, even after 15 years, Caroline is at least holding down a job as a teacher again when a phone call comes from a young woman named Lili living in Canada. And then suddenly everyone’s life is thrown back into turmoil. Is she an imposter? Is she Samantha?

I’m not going to spoil it for you. Suffice it to say, I enjoyed this psychological thriller a great deal. It’s one of the best books I have read in many months. I am now a full fledged Joy Fielding fan and in fact spent today hunting down more of her novels at the local library. I can’t wait to see what Fielding comes out with next. She’s Not There was fantastic! Plus can I just add that I enjoyed the level of consistent suspense maintained here without gratuitous sex or violence. She’s Not There has a great plot and was thoroughly enjoyable.

She’s Not There, by Joy Fielding is available from DoubleDay Canada/ Penguin Random House. It was published this past month 2016 and is 355 pages at $22.95. It is a must read for anyone who enjoys psychological thrillers.

 

The Tiniest Tumbleweed Review and #Giveaway

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kid's_books

Every so often you come across a cute little children’s book that demands a spot on the already overflowing bookshelves in your children’s collection of well loved reads. The Tiniest Tumbleweed is a sliver of a paperback picture book that will barely take up any physical space in your child’s bedroom, but will command a huge space in their hearts.

The Tiniest Tumbleweed is a super sweet fictional children’s picture book about a tumbleweed that is the smallest member of its family. Tumbleweed’s counterpart, who doesn’t meet Tumbleweed until the end of the book, is a wee little Sonoran Desert neighbour Baby Sparrow. We meet both independently as they are born at the start of the book. Each one grows unbeknownst to each other in their respective environments and they worry about being too small. Will they ever grow as big as their siblings?

This adorable picture book will demand to be read nightly and definitely should remain firmly established as a part of any child’s bookshelf. I read this one aloud to my tween and teen and they both agreed it is incredibly sweet. I will save The Tiniest Tumbleweed for either of the girls to take along when they babysit other people’s children, and to read to my niece and nephews, ages 2 to 7 (the sweet spot for this book is 3 to 8, or maybe 9, in my opinion).

The illustrations in The Tiniest Tumbleweed, by Alex Lopez are world class and memorable. Illustrations are important and even before this book arrived here I was pondering how on earth anyone could make a tumbleweed cute or cuddly or animated. Lopez manages that and more. He is a father of identical triplets residing in Silicon Valley, California. He helped to inform my important first impression of the book. These are honestly some of the cutest characters I have seen in a long time here. Lopez is super talented and he manages to convey emotion with his drawings of each character. The tumbleweed and house sparrow are each vulnerable due to their size. Their challenge is to find confidence and acceptance of their size and personality.

Kathy Peach provides a lovely story about resiliency, acceptance, and self esteem, growth and family. There’s a smart, tidy, little message in here also that speaks to the ‘Grow where you are planted’ kind of theme. There’s a hint of educational content about biodiversity which is a topic that runs throughout curriculums of school children in grade 5 and 6 here in Canada. There’s also a strong educational aspect to the book which is much more than I expected from this fictional children’s book. What’s even more wonderful than all of that is the fact that Peach manages to hide some of these lessons well so children won’t even realize they are learning about things like habitat and biodiversity.

First time author Kathy Peach moved from Tennessee to the Arizona area and followed her dream of pursuing a college degree in her retirement years. She opted to study early childhood and early childhood special education and taught for the Head Start program in Phoenix for a time. She combines her knowledge of child development and her experience teaching, rolling both into a substantial book that can also be used as a springboard for many crafts, lessons inside a classroom, or conversation starters at home. There are talking points and facts provided at end of the book, The Tiniest Tumbleweed. There’s a section about the house sparrow that could lead a child to want to research more and potentially prepare a project on the topic matter. There are fun facts and a curriculum guide included that can spark even more curiosity in the reader.

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The Tiniest Tumbleweed is a really special story with remarkable illustrations and bonus extras that help give this book added value. The Tiniest Tumbleweed should be part of every library for every child between the ages of 4 to 9. I would say this book appeals to ages 4 to 8 but could be extended to a grade four child if they are still growing into their reading ability or if they have any learning challenges. While The Tiniest Tumbleweed has a great message for any child, it will also resonate strongly with kids who have visible or invisible differences. The Tiniest Tumbleweed is published by Little Five Star, a division of Five Star Publications and is out in 2016. It is 35 pages long. You can win a copy early here.

I received a copy of this book for purposes of review here. My opinion is all my own and 100 % truthful. I have one copy of The Tiniest Tumbleweed to gift to a lucky reader here. Follow the instructions below to win. Open to Canada and the US.

Hungry Ghosts by Peggy Blair

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When a new novel by Peggy Blair hits the shelves well that’s cause for celebration in my house. Peggy Blair has been one of my favourite Canadian authors since The Beggar’s Opera turned me back onto reading after a lengthy period of duty reads. Now Blair has written a third novel, Hungry Ghosts, fairly fast on the heels of The Poisoned Pawn. Happily for me because I don’t like to wait long between novels for her next instalment.

Peggy Blair’s first novel, The Beggar’s Opera, won me over with her rich cast of characters and intriguing magical realism of sorts. Her main character, Inspector Ricardo Ramirez sees ghosts after all and they hang around sometimes pointing him in the right direction, or triggering a clue of some sort that eventually sets him on a path towards solving these complex mysteries and murders. Blair’s novels rarely disappoint. They are well written and the characters are smart, but the part that I always fall in love with is the setting. With brilliant three dimensional characters playing out their lives against the rich dramatic territory of Cuba, it’s almost impossible not to be transported straight onto the streets of Havana beside the likes of Ramirez. One day I will take another vacation in Cuba and head there packing all of Blair’s novels so that I can fully appreciate the plot for how detailed and realistic it is. (I once did that with Hemingway in university because I enjoy reading authors where they worked at writing, or where they set their plots.)

Hungry Ghosts is quite simply excellent, and rivals The Beggar’s Opera as Blair’s best work. She has rapidly become one of my favourite Canadian authors, if not one of my favourite authors writing fiction at all. While investigating an art heist in Canada, Ramirez encounters his first ghost of this particular plot. In The Beggar’s Opera at first when Ramirez encountered ghosts he began to wonder if he was experiencing Alzheimer’s or dementia and the psychological portion of that inner conflict made for some rich reading material. That continues somewhat in Poisoned Pawn, but by Hungry Ghosts Ramirez seems to understand their purpose a bit more than previously. He still struggles with plenty of inner psychological conflict but he also recognizes that each time While dead prostitutes turn up in Havana and our favourite detective is back on the case. This instalment in the Ramirez series of novels reminded me most of my experience reading The Beggar’s Opera. The plot is tight and the mystery remains pretty much a page turner until near the end. I did not guess the outcome of this one until it was unravelling in front of me.

I also enjoyed the rich First Nations subplot featuring Charlie Pike in Hungry Ghosts. Peggy Blair, an Ottawa lawyer, now author of three books in this series is a real Canadian treasure. She tackles on reservation politics believably and she also touches on the harm done by residential schools many years ago. Incest, violence, gangs, drugs and secrets are all plot points that jumpstart the back story and give further dimensions and insight into Charlie Pike’s character. That’s a really smart investment in character, and the mark of an author who really wears her characters so well that they become part of the reader’s daily life.

I can’t say enough about this author actually. There were moments when I got bogged down in my own work here and that meant I had to set this novel aside for a bit. But, Hungry Ghosts by Peggy Blair is such a great read it demands to be consumed and attended to. Even the title is witty and right. Blair is not overly lyrical or fanciful as a writer. She’s not self indulgent either. Her words, characters, plot and setting are extremely balanced and purposeful. In fact, sometimes reading a novel I am too easily tripped into remembering that the plot is a construct and find myself wondering how did the writer do this and what was the reasoning here and why did the author choose that word? Hazard of being a writer myself I suppose. But here, in this series I don’t do that. There is rarely a reason to question this plot. Blair continues to evolve as a writer and I wait impatiently for each new novel she writes.

I was sent a copy of this book for purposes of review. My opinion is my own.

Hungry Ghosts is by Peggy Blair, 2015, Simon and Schuster Canada, 394 pages, $19.99

 

All The Bright Places Book Review

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All The Bright Places Review

All The Bright Place review

Oh my heart. My sad broken heart. I have literally just finished All The Bright Places and although I will not spoil the ending for any of you dear readers I will say I had hoped with all my heart for something different in the end. Such a beautiful story, powerful words and meaningful substantial topics that I cannot blame the author Jennifer Niven for ending this book as she did. In fact it was probably the only ending possible for these two gorgeous three dimensional characters and yet, but my heart is broken. My heart is broken, in a good way, the way that reminds you try talent, rich precise characters and plot can do that, and should maybe sometimes grab you by the heart and squeeze hard until you feel all the feels of a gorgeous story, well told.

Finch and Violent are high school students who know each other in passing, until one day when they meet on a ledge of the bell tower at their school. Who saves who from jumping that day? What happens next and how will their relationship evolve – these are the questions that drive the plot forward.

Finch, aka Theodore Freak, at school and home, is a moody quirky teen obsessed with death from the time he was small. Violet Markey is grieving the death of her sister, a built in best friend, who ran a successful web site with her and was one night killed in a car crash when the car slid on an icy patch of a bridge while heading home. Violet’s family is still quite broken, but they are survivors and troupers. Finch is intense and brooding and sometimes volatile. Violet is the victim of extenuating circumstances. She exists in a grief-stricken space of surviving sibling and she struggles to move on, paralyzed at school, alienating herself slowly from her friends due to the depth of her sadness, avoiding anything that she once did, and also excusing herself from any academic commitments at school. She is barely existing until that day when they connect on the bell tower and Finch finds her captivating and deeper than he ever imagined. Her begins to transfer some of his obsession to her.

In their last year of high school Violet is counting the days until graduation, but only because she is marking time on earth, not as a result of looking forward to being a graduate. Finch also is marking his time, calling it the time he has been Awake. He disappears from school often for weeks on end and then suddenly he reemerges slightly changed and returns to school. His time asleep is the time he spends lost in mental illness. He doesn’t have the terms that are accurate for his illness and barely starts to get a diagnosis toward the end of the book, but he is Awake when he connects with Violet Markey. At school an assignment comes up that involves travelling to far-flung and sometimes unsung quirky areas of Indiana to map them out. Finch volunteers Violet as his partner for the project and they begin their wanderings all over Indiana. Violet slowly begins to forget to count the days.

At first Violet finds Finch odd, but she also starts to recognize that there is some freedom in the odd behaviours and he seems to not care what anyone thinks of him. She tolerates their wanderings and their project for a bit until she actually starts to enjoy travelling with Finch and spending time with him. Until now she has been the popular girl with the sporty athletic boyfriend and the supportive parents. She is golden, at least until her sister dies suddenly, and then she is indulged as a victim longer than she should be. Their relationship creates conflict slightly because Violet’s old boyfriend is still sort of hanging around waiting for her to snap out of her grief and return to him. Ryan and Roamer and the group of athletes she once hung around with, don’t like Finch and they bully him often. Finch sometimes antagonizes the athletes until he gets a response that is violent and sometimes he reacts standing up for himself as well. But the depth of his reactions is sometimes scary. He is occasionally pulled off one of the bullies when he does retaliate and he can’t seem to stop himself.

Finch’s family seems mostly oblivious to his mental illness. His parents have separated and his Dad is an abusive ex hockey player who “replaced his family.” His Mom is a broken 40-ish woman who tries to pull a career back together in real estate but seems too lost in her own misery to see that Finch’s moodiness is not just normal adolescent behaviour. Finch is extreme and animated in every way. He has some savvy coping skills to avoid ever getting close to a therapist and he frequently erases the concerned telephone messages from professionals striving to help Finch. His Mom remains unaware anyone has concerns ever his mental state. Finch also has two sisters. They visit the Dad weekly and this provides a good deal more information about the context of the divorce and the poor father that he has been to Finch.

As Violet and Finch, two seemingly opposite souls discover all the bright places of Indiana together they begin to fall in love. Together they are combustible.

Jennifer Niven gives readers two incredibly great characters here in All The Bright Places. Finch as narrator is strong and deep and extremely rich material. Violet also takes her turns narrating and the narration switches in alternating chapters for most of the book. Violet is captured well here too. The plot is simple and not overly taxing. The characters take centre stage here.


All the Bright Places is such a heartbreakingly lovely story, with such real emotional tones and strong subject matter, that I really never found any weak spots. There is nothing I would change about this novel, not even the parts where my heart broke. The language is always matched to the tone of the characters and the dialogue is contemporary and real and true. Typically you read a novel, and maybe review it and find something that grates or annoys you about pacing or wording. Sometimes words are too sweet or language seems forced in young adult novels. I didn’t find that here. I honestly can’t find anything here that jars me, or made me cringe. All The Bright Places reminds me once again that some of the best writing happening today is occurring inside the Young Adults genre. Niven has written several other novels but this is her first young adult novel. Be warned this is not for kids under 12 years of age. I will keep it and let my daughter read this one, but not before she is ready. I have heard rumours the book has been optioned to become a motion picture. I will happily go see this movie when it is out.

Pick this one up. You will be heartbroken, but I promise you it will be worth it.

$$$$$ our of $$$$$. I wish I could give it more than 5 out of 5.

  • All the Bright Places, by Jennifer Niven, Hardcover: 400 pages
  • Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers (January 6, 2015)
  • Language: English

The Girl On The Train Review

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The Girl on The Train Review

The Girl on The Train Review

The Girl on the Train, is by far the best book I have read so far this year. The buzz surrounding this one is worth it. The characters held my interest through the entire fictional thriller novel. Plus I never knew who to trust. Unreliable narrator is used very well here by first time novelist Paula Hawkins. The suspense was maintained through until the end of the book. If this is what Paula Hawkins is capable of in her debut novel, then I can’t wait to read more and I hope she writes fast.

Rachel, Megan and Anna are the three female narrators of the book. Rachel is an overweight alcoholic ex-wife who has lost her job and spends her days riding the commuter train because she hasn’t told her roommate that she has no job. She is, even to herself, slightly distasteful. She knows she wasn’t always so. As she rides the train getting further inebriated, she routinely finds herself imagining the lives of the people inside the houses along the various train stops. She makes up lives and names and she also passes by the home she once shared with Tom, which now houses his new family, wife Anna, and daughter Evie. One day, while riding the train as part of her daily charade she sees something in one of the houses along the train tracks. That sets in motion a bit of a quest.

Rachel can’t seem to stop harassing her ex husband Tom and his new wife Anna. We learn that she leaves him messages often and his wife calls her telling her to stop. We also learn that Rachel one day stopped off at Anna and Tom’s house and in a drunken moment grabbed the baby Evie up and walked away with her. She is unstable and an unreliable narrator to say the least. Anna verges on calling police to report her stalker type behaviour.

Anna is a vain blonde new mother who casts herself as a marriage wrecker. She stole Tom from Rachel and now lives inside the former home that Rachel and Tom once shared. She is not the slightest bit regretful that she took Rachel’s husband for her own and she finds Rachel despicable and appalling. Anna is devoted to her tiny family, loves her husband Tom and gloats somewhat over the fact that she now has her perfect family – the one Rachel tried so hard to give Tom. Did I mention there is an infertility angle here? The infertility subplot is small but important in The Girl on the Train in that we are led to believe it is partly why the couple split up. It is apparently one more reason she drinks.

Megan is a disenchanted wife who works at an art gallery and is a chronic cheater. One day Rachel witnesses Megan embracing someone else inside the home she shares with Scott. Soon thereafter Megan goes missing. There have been many parallels and comparisons to Gone Girl, but I feel the comparisons are overstated actually. Both novels are thrillers and both revolve around a main character that goes missing. Both are page turners too. But the plots are quite different.

Megan eventually turns up dead and the subsequent investigation is one that Rachel somehow insinuates herself in quickly. She, however, is also unreliable because she is a drunk. She continues to drink for most of the book erasing her memories of most things and events by getting sloppy drunk every day. After Megan vanishes Rachel wants to remember the events that transpired the night Megan went missing. She vaguely recalls getting off the train that evening and seeing something. She can’t visualize details though.

Is Megan really dead? Did she just walk away bored with her husband Scott and unable to handle his emotionally controlling temperament. Oh yes and I forgot to mention that Megan at one point also was a nanny for Tom and Anna because they live close by. Megan has throughout the plot been keeping her own secrets. It seems possible she might just have walked away. Who was motivated enough to kill Megan? Is she dead? What is the truth about Scott? Is he a killer? Is Megan’s psychiatrist a killer? Who was sleeping with whom?

The Girl on The Train is more than worth the read. It’s my favourite recent book of all the ones I have read lately. The Girl on The Train is published by Double Day and was released late in 2014 in paperback.

Five Questions with Author Donna Mebane, Author of Tomorrow Comes

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Grief books loss of a child

Author Donna Mebane has written a novel called Tomorrow Comes, prompted by the death of her daughter. Tomorrow Comes is a beautiful book that will appeal to anyone struggling with grief.

1. Can you speak to the inspiration for writing the book? The inspiration, of course, was the unexpected death of my daughter, but the motivation was to try to imagine a place where Emma could “live on” both for her sake and for mine. I have always loved writing and when Emma died, friends urged me to write to try to find a way to manage my grief. At first, it was awful – dark and morbid. But over time, the idea for a book started to take shape. I actually started the book on a trip with my daughter, Sarah, to Turkey, where we thought we’d find some solace in the beauty of spending time near the sea. For more about how the pieces came together see Author Noteshttp://starshinegalaxy.com/authors/donna-mebane/author-notes/ on www.starshinegalaxy.com

Donna Mebane, author of Tomorrow Comes

Donna Mebane, author of Tomorrow Comes

  1. Tell readers a little bit about grief and anything she might be able to share that is helpful to others going through loss? Probably the best advice I can give is that grief has no timetable, no step by step guide. Everyone grieves differently. Even if you are grieving the same loss, you bring your own personality, your own spiritual foundation, your own coping mechanisms. When Emma died, both my husband and I had lost a child, the same child and at the same time. Yet we reacted to it completely differently. I had trouble getting out of bed – didn’t sleep, but couldn’t find the energy to do anything but stare at a wall and cry. When I did have energy, I watched the pictures of her we set to song for her funeral. But Rod got very busy with all things Emma.  He cataloged all of her computer information, organized all her school projects, published a book (A Book About Chaps) which she had written as a first grade school project. Initially I found his busyness somewhat insensitive and he found my constant walking into darkness disconcerting. Writing Tomorrow Comes helped my whole family understand that we were doing the very best we could, both in wrestling with our own grief and in our (initial) inability to support each other’s grief.  I wrote a blog for the Huffington Post readers might find useful.  Although it’s about making it through the holidays, the tips I shared seemed to resonate with a lot of people who were dealing with loss at any time during the year.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/donna-mebane/6-steps-to-survive-the-holiday-season-after-loss_b_6269858.html You never get over grief. But you can still find a way to balance mourning with living.

 

  1. Where do you find the time to write? Initially I wrote every minute that I wasn’t working. I didn’t sleep much and I wrote the first several chapters of Tomorrow Comes as an e-mail to myself. Once I determined what I wanted to say, the book just poured out of me.  I had long stretches when I didn’t have the energy to write anything, but when I wrote, I was a maniac, sometimes starting on a Friday night and writing for 24 hours straight. I finished Tomorrow Comes in about 6 months and we had a published version to give to friends and relatives on the first anniversary of Emma’s death. I decided I wanted to keep writing about Emma and have now finished a second book, Tomorrow Matters, which is in final editing. That one was a little harder, because I wrote it about an Emma that was evolving and growing and becoming more at home in what I call “After.”  It follows the same format – back and forth between real events in our lives and imagined ones in Emma’s – but in the same manner that children continue to grow after they leave home, I am not as intimate with the path her “life” is taking in the second book. I find as I write the third book that I need quiet, dedicated time to write as it is the most fictionalized of the three. I have been fortunate in that both my husband and my manager are so encouraging. Together we decided that I would cut back on my “real” work so that I could write more. I now have Friday’s off and I dedicate it to writing.  I still write some evenings, but usually evenings I am working on things like this request for an interview!!

 

  1. What is your writing process like? As I mentioned above, it has changed over time. One thing that has been really helpful to me is to write out a synopsis for every chapter of my books before I write even the first word. Although I stray a little from this outline, overall it is a very useful anchor that guides me back if I get too far astray. I then keep a blank document into which I cut and paste everything that seems extraneous to the current chapter. Perhaps because I am writing about my daughter, I don’t want to lose any thought I had, even if it doesn’t advance the current book. I am an extrovert and tend to get energized by other people. My daughter Sarah has been a saint in listening to my writing and giving feedback whenever I am stuck.  While I was writing Tomorrow Comes, she lived in Washington, DC.  I would call her every night and read what I had written.  We’d both cry and cry and then she would manage to say, “it’s really good, Mom” and that would encourage me to keep writing. The second book has been a little lonelier, even though Sarah now lives with us in Geneva, a Chicago suburb.  Sarah has read parts of it, but, though she still grieves every day for the loss of her sister, she also is very practical about ways to stay focused on the here and now. The book throws her off sometimes because it forces her to spend intense time with Emma and she chooses her time to do that very carefully. It’s her way to cope and I honor that. For the first book, I shared every few chapters with close friends and family. I haven’t done that with Tomorrow Matters, intending instead to give those closest to me a final, printed version.  I also start my writing, whether it’s a book, an article, or even the non-fiction writing I do for work, with a  title.  For some reason that helps me.  I am a little stuck on the outline for the third book because a title hasn’t hit me yet so if any of you readers want to suggest something, I would be eternally grateful and will cite you in the book. My vision is that it will be the last book in this particularly set of Emma stories.  In it, all of the characteristics that make her so lovable will evolve to the point that she is having a tremendous impact on the world of After. I, of course, have always thought of her as near perfect (though she alone is responsible for my gray hairs – she was by far the toughest of my four children, perhaps because she was so much like I was when I was her age!!) But in book 3, she will become her very best self. It is what any mother would wish for their child and I am determined to help make it happen for her. Any ideas for a title that sums that up?  Extra points if it contains the word “Tomorrow!”

 

  1. What gets you out of bed every day?  The human being has a remarkable capacity to keep standing, no matter what happens. I would always say knowingly when I heard of such a tragedy that I would never ever be able to survive the loss of one of my children.  I believed that I would just curl up in a ball and die too.  Of course, I didn’t, though I still wonder why sometimes.  I miss her so much it’s a physical ache in my heart that won’t go away. I feel heavy – my limbs weighed down by not being able to hug her, my ears ringing because I can’t quite hear her laugh, my eyes cloudy because I will never again see her beautiful face. But I have come to find joy again.  This Christmas, though we all are still saddened by the empty spot in every corner of our home, we laughed until tears came at funny presents we had picked out for each other and silly notes we all write on each package. We saw cardinals and stars (both things we have come to associate with Emma) everywhere we looked, and though we are not particularly religious, we couldn’t help but feel that her spirit was entwined with the spirit so many in the world celebrate on Christmas day. What gets me out of bed every day? The opportunity to live each day as the gift that it is.  Emma only had 19 years to live and oh how she used each and every one of those days to get everything she could out of life.  I am 62.  I have no idea how many days I have left, but one thing I learned from her death is that each one of them is special. The first thing she bought for her new apartment (a place she had signed the lease for, but in which she never got to live) was a sign that reads “Live life to the fullest and embrace it with no regrets.” She did! I try to.

Ten Best Bedtime Stories for Children

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best bedtime stories

best bedtime stories

One of my favourite things about parenting right from the start was that special time right before sleep when cuddles are plentiful and it’t time to read together. Even before we adopted both of our girls I romanticized this idea of reading to our children one day. I think that I was hopeful I would be able to share my love of reading with a little person one day. Happily, when the kids came along, we enjoyed so many great books together. Sometimes I still read to them even though they are now 10 and 13. Bedtime is still one of my favourite times to connect and share bedtime stories.

Is a story part of your bedtime routine? Reading a book with the kids is a great way to wind down, when it is time to get tucked in. Some books are just right for bedtime. The books listed below are perfect for bedtime, because they are all about going to bed. Ten stories about bedtime, for bedtime that are under $10:

1. A Book of Sleep

2. The Going-To-Bed Book

3. Time for Bed

4. Love You Forever

5. Snoozers : 7 Short Short Bedtime Stories for Lively Little Kids

6. It’s Time to Sleep, My Love

7. Kiss Good Night (Sam Books)

8. Good Night, Gorilla

9. I Love to Sleep in My Own Bed (Bedtime stories book collection) (Volume 1)

10. Little Owl’s Night

Is Leaving Time One of The Best Jodi Picoult Books Yet?

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Fall reads

Fall reads

Leaving Time is Jodi Picoult’s latest release, due out this coming week. It’s been buzz worthy for months on line, and it’s sure to take a key spot on any list of the best Jodi Picoult books ever. Leaving Time doesn’t disappoint. Diehard fans of Jodi Picoult books will want to race out, download or order this one now on Amazon. Jodi Picoult books are almost always instant blockbuster best-sellers. Leaving Time is likely to dominate the New York Times bestseller’s list for months. It will also be a huge hit with book lovers this holiday season. But is it one of the best Jodi Picoult books yet?

From the time my kids were babies I have been a huge Jodi Picoult fangirl. When my babies were tiny, I used to take them for a lot of stroller walks. It was a means of getting outdoors, exercising and keeping the girls occupied too. Occasionally it tired my girls out too. Many of those walks landed us at the local library branch near our house. It was one of those mornings, after Books for Babies, when I found on the hot books display stand a copy of Tenth Circle by an author I had never heard of called Jodi Picoult. I picked it up and was enthralled. I signed it out and read it, unable to put it down. The next week at Books For Babies I picked up Nineteen Minutes. Well that was it, from the opening sentence I was done, lost to Jodi world as my husband calls it. Over the last decade I have sought out each of the Jodi Picoult books and read them all. The saddest moment ever in my world is the last page of a Picoult novel. When I finish one of her beautiful page-turners, I know I will have a small reader’s hangover of sorts waiting for the next novel to appear. Now that I have read every single thing Picoult has ever written, I can no longer visit the library and get my fix. One year is a very long time for a diehard Picoult fangirl like me.

This summer Leaving Time showed up here in advanced view format and I was giddy. The theme of memory resonated with me as many of you also know I have recently lost my Mom to acute pneumonia that was also tied to her Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. It has been an extremely sad time after months of learning about the brain and how memory works and also how it fails to work. Memory is such an incredibly sad thing to see vanish. The predominant themes of memory, family, love, grief, motherhood and loss are all contained in Leaving Time as the title hints. Needless to say I connected with the plot and the characters immediately.

Leaving Time is the story of a young girl names Jenna Metcalf who is obsessed with her mother’s disappearance. She is a bit of a loner and she lives with her grandmother. Jenna constructs lies and often tells her grandmother she is babysitting or sleeping over at a friend’s house so she can investigate her mother’s disappearance. In Jenna’s memory her mother Alice exists as a beautiful passionate woman who helped run an elephant sanctuary and studied elephant grief. Jenna’s father is equally passionate but moody and eventually we learn he is also extremely mental ill. Jenna’s obsession is all consuming. Abandoned as a child, she is wounded and not able to believe that her mother could have simply left her behind, either by death, or otherwise, so she pours over old newspaper snippets, journals, and follows an on line trail, hoping to find closure. She is a slightly naive and entirely unique main character. You have to read the book in order to understand fully all the nuances of character.

Jenna constructs a ragtag team of helpers, with a disgraced celebrity psychic and a jaded private detective. Together they grow to become a small family searching for the truth about Alice. Serenity Jones, Virgil Stanhope and Jenna clash often and, at times, seem unlikely to be able to finish the job they have been thrown together to complete. But each carries with them a history of complex emotional baggage that weighs them down at times, and volleys them forward in some mission to prove they can once again have purpose. Despite their regular conflicts and squabbles Serenity and Virgil begin to feel some emotional responsibility for Jenna’s youth and mental health and so they will follow through with their investigations, even when that means they are chasing Jenna across the country on their own dime.

Many Jodi novels have a sort of formula that works. I am not knocking that at all. It is tried and true and it is often the framework for other things that are extremely creative, such as plot twists and plot devices, so even when the books rely on a formula it is completely overshadowed by other things. We know with Picoult that the subject matter will often be ripped from the headlines and built into a great fictional story. We know the characters will often be children. The emotional buy in is often fast and intense because of the child characters at centre of the plot. The story will almost always involve the use of multiple narrators, providing more than one viewpoint and driving the plot forward nicely. This is often so well done that it really keeps the novel moving forward fast for the reader. Multiple narrative viewpoints can be clunky when they aren’t done well, but here they work. We also always know that Jodi will twist something near the final stage of the novel and it will be a stunning revelation that shocks you. I am not in the business of sharing spoilers that ruin the reading experience so I won;t start now. But there is a gigantic plot twist here that is incredibly artful and well done. There are so many reasons I found Leaving Time to be Jodi Picoult’s best book yet. The strength of the writing, the plot and characters. The plot twist. Sometimes it’s just reading the right book at the right time that makes a topic resonate as well. Regardless of the whys, Leaving Time is my new favourite Jodi Picoult book. Go buy it and tell me what you think.

Jodi Picoult is the author of 22 novels. The Lone Wolf, My Sister’s Keeper and The Storyteller were each the # 1 New York Times bestsellers. My Sister’s Keeper was made into a movie. As I noted I have read each of her novels and thoroughly enjoyed all of them. The Lone Wolf was the only one that left me a tiny bit unsatisfied. But many disagreed with me about that one.

Leaving Time is by Jodi Picoult, Ballantine Books, out this coming week, 2014, $28.00 in hard cover format, 406 pages.

$$$$$ out of $$$$$. This might be one of the best books I have ever read. For sure it’s Picoult’s best novel yet. Brilliant.

Don’t Go by Lisa Scottoline

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Don’t Go

I have found a new author I love, which means I will never ever truly make it through that Book Lover’s To Do List. You know the one I mean. Fellow book lovers each have one of those endless lists of treasures they aspire to enjoy. Don’t Go by Lisa Scottoline is directly responsible for my red eyes this morning. Last night I sat up reading well into the wee hours so I could finish this lovely story. Don’t Go is a murder story with a strong family theme of fatherhood, familial loyalty, love, trust, addiction and new beginnings, set against a backdrop at home in the United States and abroad in Afghanistan. Don’t Go by Lisa Scottoline begins with a hook so dramatic that I was reeled in right from page one. Don’t Go by Lisa Scottoline is difficult to put down.

The Plot: Chloe, is the wife of Mike, a trauma surgeon serving in Afghanistan. As the novel opens Chloe lays dying on her kitchen floor, confused about what has just happened and, in an apparent drunken episode. While drinking she has decided to empty the dishwasher and a knife slipped, slashing her arm. As Chloe lays slipping in and out of consciousness ( she can’t stand the sight of blood) she fights to crawl to the front door and also struggles to reach a phone. She knows her sister-in-law should be home any moment from Christmas shopping with the baby and she will find her there and help her, she thinks as she lay dying. But the sister-in-law is not fast enough and yet the door lock is open and someone finds Chloe laying there. Will they call 9-1-1? Who is at the door? Is Chloe’s death as straightforward as it seems? Many mysterious circumstances surround Chloe’s devastating and deadly wound.

Meanwhile Mike is performing surgery in Afghanistan. We learn he is a foot and ankle surgeon _ in high demand because war injuries are often foot related due to bombs and land mines. He is operating as usual with his picture of beautiful wife and baby girl, Emily tucked into his pocket as a good luck charm and suddenly he gets a call that he will need to take a leave of absence for a funeral. Mike is about to go home when another tragedy occurs. This one adds emotional dimension to the character of Mike. He is a character who seems like he might not ever be able to get his head above water after such devastating insults to body and spirit. His homecoming is tragic because he is also now a widower and he intends to reclaim his role as a father but also realizes his infant daughter essentially doesn’t even remember him. How will he help her to get accustomed to his presence in her life.

Don’t Go by Lisa Scottoline is a gripping read with emotional layers and a strong suspense element. I loved that the character Mike seemed to have strong three dimensional appeal and was well researched. The topic of the emotional reality of war, war veterans and people who sustain traumatic war injuries seemed authentic. The actual resolution of who the antagonist is came late in the novel and was less predictable than I might have thought.

If I have any critique of Don’t Go by Lisa Scottoline, it would be this: her characters never seemed to grab me by the heart and shake. Some authors are extremely skilled at pulling on the heartstrings. Lisa Scottoline has moments and for sure I was applauding and getting upset at moments in the book, especially during the child custody trial. But I never really felt the author’s hand around my heart. The characters are good. Mike is a solid male character. Danielle and Bob both have moments where their dialogue is really smart and rings true. But nobody made me cry. It’s a minor thing, but books are like customer experiences – you might not always remember what you bought, but for sure you recall you it made you feel. Don’t Go made me feel angry and happy and sad and invested but it didn’t ever hit the deep reserve of emotion that some authors are extremely talented at tapping into.

Lisa Scottoline is a New York Times bestselling author. She and the author of over 21 novels. She is published in 30 countries and she is also a weekly columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Lisa Scottoline is an author I will definitely read again. She is readable and her characters are relatable and Don’t Go is a great little summer read by the pool or at the beach.

Don’t Go is by Lisa Scottoline, published in 2013 by St. Martin’s Press, New York, 400 pages, $18.50 in Canada and $15.99 US.

This one gets $$$$ 1/2 out of $$$$$