Home

Jody

 jodywebpic.jpg picture by inkhearted

This is Jody with the 'other' love of her life - President Barack Obama. Aren't you jealous?

< Karin   Mel >

 

 

 

 


10 1/2 Things No Commencement Speaker Has Ever Said (Hardcover)

By Charles Wheelan, Peter Steiner
$15.95
ISBN-13: 9780393074314
Availability: Readily available. If this title is not currently in-stock in the store, it is available to ship from the warehouse.
Published: W. W. Norton & Company, 5/2012
Other Editions of this Title
I'll have to admit right away that I possess a somewhat sardonic side, and find my mind wandering a little during commencement speeches – even the most well-intentioned and well-crafted ones.  I find they can be a little, well, simplistic in their inspirational messages.  And I do understand why – if you mention to an eighteen-year-old that life is kinda hard and stressful sometimes, they'll curl into fetal position and refuse to move on. But that's one of the reasons this book is so charming – it's rooted in reality, but in a really funny, heart-warming way.  It's advice is certainly surprising; for instance, Number 7 1/2 states that your parents don't want what's best for you. Completely true.  Parents want children to be comfortable and safe, not testing the boundaries and making bad choices and perhaps failing. Well-meaning? Yes. Conducive to an exciting life?  Probably not.  And that is why I find this book terrific – and it’s the perfect graduation gift.

The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat (Hardcover)

By Edward Kelsey Moore
$24.95
ISBN-13: 9780307959928
Availability: Readily available. If this title is not currently in-stock in the store, it is available to ship from the warehouse.
Published: Knopf, 3/2013
Other Editions of this Title
They had been called 'The Supremes' ever since the day Odette and Clarice yanked Barbara Jean out of an abusive household and took her along with them to Earl's All-You-Can-Eat restaurant, where the front table was always theirs on Saturday nights.  Big Earl was the first black business owner in their small southern Indiana town during the 60s, and he and his wife looked after the young people like parents – and for the next four decades, it was only natural that the Supremes met there after church for Sunday supper.  First time novelist, Moore weaves the stories of these three women and their families, friends, joys, dramas and varying decades and life stages beautifully, and it shows that he spent a lot of time around his own dinner table listening to the stories of smart, funny, strong women.

The Sunshine When She's Gone (Hardcover)

By Thea Goodman
$24.00
ISBN-13: 9780805096620
Availability: Readily available. If this title is not currently in-stock in the store, it is available to ship from the warehouse.
Published: Henry Holt and Co., 3/2013
Other Editions of this Title
John and Veronica are loving and conscientious parents – and also very, very tired. Little Clara is six months old and has yet to sleep through the night, Veronica is still not quite herself and medication isn't helping, and John just wants his wife back.  Hoping to let Veronica sleep in, John packs up the baby for breakfast at the local diner – and then spontaneously flees the freezing Manhattan winter for a weekend in the Caribbean.  As he learns to care for his infant daughter all by himself, Veronica, who thinks John and Clara are upstate with his parents, embarks on her own quest for her former self.  Their story is told in alternating chapters, and is not only original but funny and touching.

Death of a Trophy Wife (Mass Market Paperback)

By Laura Levine
$7.99
ISBN-13: 9780758238467
Availability: Readily available. If this title is not currently in-stock in the store, it is available to ship from the warehouse.
Published: Kensington, 7/2011
Other Editions of this Title
You all know how I love a good, goofy, themed, mystery, and Laura Levine's Jaine Austen series has been on my list to check out for a long time.  It moved closer to the top, however, when I learned that Ms. Levine is a former television writer for Laverne & Shirley, The Love Boat, The Bob Newhart Show (my very favorite!) and several other shows of my formative years.  Jaine is a Los Angeles freelance writer – mostly of plumbing brochures – and part-time amateur detective who blunders her way through cases in the style of Stephanie Plum.  In this novel, she is at a party at the Mattress King Marvin Cooper's house, attempting to capture his new advertising campaign.  She has not, however, endeared herself to Marv's new wife Bunny, a tactless bimbo hated by most of those who know her.  And while Jaine accidentally manages to destroy the guest powder room in a spectacularly humiliating and public fashion, someone takes the opportunity to slip weed killer into Bunny's dirty martini.  This type of mystery usually has a reoccurring cast of screwball characters – in this case, it's Jaine's retired-to-Florida parents, her best friend Lance, and her nutty cat Prozac.  Jaine is funny, hapless, and endearing, and I'm glad there are several books in this fun series.

Fifty Shades of Chicken: A Parody in a Cookbook (Hardcover)

By F.L. Fowler
$19.99
ISBN-13: 9780385345224
Availability: Readily available. If this title is not currently in-stock in the store, it is available to ship from the warehouse.
Published: Clarkson Potter, 12/2012

First, my disclaimer – I was not particularly a fan of Fifty Shades of Grey.  I do, however, like to cook.  I also like chicken.  And beefcake.  And humor. And this book has all three.  And while our book reviews are supposed to run to about fifty words (one for each shade of chicken, really), I'm going to let the attached trailer substitute for a few of mine...



And the recipe for Chicken Breast Strips with Balsamic and Rosemary? Mmmm...   Enough said.

 

Watergate (Paperback)

By Thomas Mallon
$15.95
ISBN-13: 9780307474650
Availability: Readily available. If this title is not currently in-stock in the store, it is available to ship from the warehouse.
Published: Vintage, 1/2013
Other Editions of this Title

To say that much has been written about Watergate would be a colossal understatement – I suspect there are many warehouses filled with paperwork, not to mention untold articles and books – but novelist Mallon certainly does a fine job writing even more.  Pretty much everyone in the world knows of the break-in, the repercussions, the high drama, and the key players, but Mallon adds the special twist of some very, very snarky humor in filling in his own story lines.

 

This fresh take on an old story (although, it can't really be so very old, since I remember a great deal of it firsthand!) is clever, and I was especially pleased to be able to refer to a special prologue titled, 'The Players,' which was four single-spaced pages of names and job descriptions.  This novel was way funnier than any political wrongdoing should be....

Learning to Stay (Paperback)

By Erin Celello
$15.00
ISBN-13: 9780451236975
Availability: Readily available. If this title is not currently in-stock in the store, it is available to ship from the warehouse.
Published: NAL Trade, 2/2013
Other Editions of this Title
Elise Sabato isn't particularly happy when her husband Brad turns their lives upside down with his unilateral decision to enlist in the military, but she tries to be a supportive and patriotic wife, working hard at her job as an attorney and hoping for his safe return from Iraq.  She's having dinner at her friend Darcy's home when an Army car pulls up to Darcy's house and they both learn that their husband's convoy has hit a road bomb and Darcy's husband Collin hasn't survived.  Elise wants nothing more than Brad's return – no matter what – and is grateful beyond measure when he comes home with no injuries.  She quickly realizes, however, that all injuries aren't visible and is shocked to find that a traumatic brain injury has turned her formerly brilliant, thoughtful husband into a virtual stranger, demanding more attention and care than she can give. When he returns to his family home, she is able to ponder the central question – should she try to manage the life in which she finds herself, or seek the one she always thought she'd lead?

The Avalon Ladies Scrapbooking Society (Hardcover)

By Darien Gee
$26.00
ISBN-13: 9780345525376
Availability: Readily available. If this title is not currently in-stock in the store, it is available to ship from the warehouse.
Published: Ballantine Books, 2/2013
Other Editions of this Title
Before I picked up this book, I didn't give it the respect it deserves.  I found the title a little insipid – maybe even dated, since the allure of scrapbooking probably hit its peak years ago.  I was wrong.  This story was delightful, and reminded me of a combination of Beth Hoffman's Saving CeeCee Honeycutt (a staff pick) and the movie Love, Actually.  It is definitely an ensemble book – the main character's story lines are interspersed with seemingly random chapters about other town folks, but everyone's story is held together with the common thread of Bettie Shelton, founder of the scrapbooking society in the small town of Avalon, Illinois.  Bettie is a busybody with a heart of gold, and it's not until her friends and neighbors realize that she suffers from dementia and learn of her tragic past that they begin to appreciate her ability to offer help – often to the recipient's great annoyance – at the perfect time.  Gee's cast of characters is much too long to name here, but their stories are varied and realistic – think Chinese adoption, a dentist who dies in a car crash and devastates both his wife and the mistress with whom he's having a child, bad plumbers (and a good one), dementia, a house fire, a runaway goat, and Bettie's admonishment that memories, like scrapbooks, aren't (nor should they be) perfect, but they are important.  You'll laugh and cry your way through this book...

Here I Go Again (Hardcover)

By Jen Lancaster
$25.95
ISBN-13: 9780451236722
Availability: Readily available. If this title is not currently in-stock in the store, it is available to ship from the warehouse.
Published: NAL Hardcover, 12/2012
Other Editions of this Title

Lissy Ryder was the most popular girl in high school, leader of everything, and very much the ‘mean girl’. She continued her entitled ways well into adulthood, marrying the most popular boy, ditching out from her glamorous public relations job to exercise and tan, and buying loads of designer clothes.  She never expected to end up jobless and husband-less, toting an extra thirty pounds and living in her old bedroom at her parent's house, so when an invitation to her twent year class reunion comes, she decides to attend and bask in the adoration she felt in high school.

 

Unfortunately, those high school losers have all become wildly successful, and they're not interested in stroking the ego of their former nemesis.  Karma has proven even nastier than Lissy, but a conversation with Deva (formerly known as 'Debbie') and a little bottle of potion lands Lissy back in time to correct her mean ways...or make them worse.  

 

Lancaster is best known as a writer of memoirs, but she says that this is her take on sending Regina George of Mean Girls, Back to the Future.  She's right – and very, very funny while she does.

The Paris Wife (Paperback)

By Paula Mclain
$15.00
ISBN-13: 9780345521316
Availability: Readily available. If this title is not currently in-stock in the store, it is available to ship from the warehouse.
Published: Ballantine Books, 11/2012
Other Editions of this Title
Hadley Richardson has always been a quiet woman, so a trip to Chicago in 1920 comes as no small culture shock.  Hadley had spent much time caring for her ailing mother, but when she died, Hadley was ready for a bit of fun, which she more than easily found, especially after meeting a handsome, ambitious young reporter named Ernest Hemingway.  They fell deeply in love and married, but domestic life did not come easily during such a hard-drinking, fast-living, hedonistic era, especially in Paris, the Jazz Age's cultural Mecca.  Hadley strives to stay close to her beloved but very troubled husband, but when she accidentally does the unforgivable, the couple can't help but start to unravel.  I loved this look at a famous-but-little-known woman. Author McLain did much research, and does a fine job speaking as Hadley Richardson Hemingway.

The Aviator's Wife (Hardcover)

By Melanie Benjamin
$26.00
ISBN-13: 9780345528674
Availability: Readily available. If this title is not currently in-stock in the store, it is available to ship from the warehouse.
Published: Delacorte Press, 1/2013
Other Editions of this Title
I do love Melanie Benjamin's writing, and have since her first book, Alice I Have Been, the story of Alice Liddell Hargreaves of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland fame.  Her gift is researching historical figures and then seamlessly blending their actual stories with those from her own creativity.  This time she tackles Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Anne is both well-known and little-known – she became a household name through her marriage to Charles Lindbergh, but less is known about her personally, and Benjamin clearly delights in bringing her to life.  Anne was the shy daughter of a millionaire ambassador father, but harbored an adventurous spirit, which Charles saw during their chance meeting in Mexico City.  He was newly returned from his famous solo flight across the Atlantic, and their wedding – and tragic abduction and murder of their infant son – made world headlines.  This story gives us a glimpse at the woman behind the headlines, as a wife, mother, aviator, and writer, and will especially appeal to those who loved Paula McLain's bestselling novel, The Paris Wife.

Death Comes to Pemberley (Paperback)

By P.D. James
$15.00
ISBN-13: 9780307950659
Availability: Readily available. If this title is not currently in-stock in the store, it is available to ship from the warehouse.
Published: Vintage, 10/2012
Other Editions of this Title

I love Pride and Prejudice so much that I usually stay away from contemporary novels about the characters – and there are many.  I'll admit to some skepticism about this one, despite the fact that it was written by one of my favorite British mystery authors. I shouldn't have worried!

 

James picks up Elizabeth and Fitwilliam Darcy's story after six years of marriage and adds the fun twist of a mystery – and she makes it work.  The Darcys have built a happy life together and are busy planning their annual autumn ball when Elizabeth's youngest sister Lydia – who, along with her husband George Wickham, have been banned from the property – shows up at Pemberley's gate, shrieking hysterically that Wickham has been murdered.  And to restore peace to their home, the Darcys must delve into a nasty mystery and murder trial...  

 

This book was recently released in paperback. James incorporates the original novel's characters flawlessly in this very well done and satisfying 'sequel' to the beloved classic.

Why I Left Goldman Sachs: A Wall Street Story (Hardcover)

By Greg Smith
$27.99
ISBN-13: 9781455527472
Availability: Readily available. If this title is not currently in-stock in the store, it is available to ship from the warehouse.
Published: Grand Central Publishing, 10/2012
Other Editions of this Title
Greg Smith created an instant international sensation when he tendered his resignation from the venerable Wall Street investment house Goldman Sachs. It wasn't the fact that he resigned, but the method in which he chose to do it – an op-Ed article in the Wall Street journal entitled “Why I am Leaving Goldman Sachs.” It was read by more than three million people. This book is an extension of that article, and begins with Smith's internship in the summer of 2000, when GS was still old-school. By the time he hired on full time, the tech bubble had burst and Wall Street was falling apart amidst the economic crisis. Smith rose rapidly in rank and lasted twelve more years before he left in frustration, disgust, and sadness. I found his story easy to digest and a fascinating glimpse into Wall Street as it was, is, and probably ideally should be.

Grumpy Goat (Hardcover)

By Brett Helquist, Brett Helquist
$17.99
ISBN-13: 9780061139536
Availability: Readily available. If this title is not currently in-stock in the store, it is available to ship from the warehouse.
Published: HarperCollins, 1/2013

When Grumpy Goat went to live at Sunny Acres – the happiest farm in the county – he had no friends.  In fact, he'd never had a friend.  He was grumpy and hungry and didn't want to make friends with the pigs, cows, and sheep.  But one day, at the top of a sunny hill, he found a special friend and it made him so happy that be learned to be friendly with the other animals.  And he learned that having friends can help during times of adversity.  

 

I found the title of this book irresistible and the illustrations even more so.  Brett Helquist's art is found in many other children's books, including A Series of Unfortunate Events, and the expressions on his animal characters are especially delightful. This is a very sweet and poignant picture book for 4-8 year-olds.

The Magic Room: A Story About the Love We Wish for Our Daughters (Paperback)

By Jeffrey Zaslow
$16.00
ISBN-13: 9781592407415
Availability: Readily available. If this title is not currently in-stock in the store, it is available to ship from the warehouse.
Published: Gotham, 10/2012
Other Editions of this Title
Author Zaslow has stated that as he is surrounded by females – as in a wife and three daughters – he is perpetually trying to understand them.  His very popular book, The Girls from Ames, was indicative of his fascination, and his latest (and sadly, last) book is also an extension of his study.  The 'Magic Room' is a fully mirrored room at Becker's Bridal in Fowler, Michigan. Becker's has been owned by Becker women for four generations and is one of the last thriving businesses in a small downtown that has been hit, as many have, by economic hardships. Brides-to-be, and often their mothers and grandmothers, still flock to Becker's, though, mostly for the experience of the 'Magic Room.'  It is the place of tears and joy and often the sudden feeling of becoming ‘A Bride’.  Zaslow's book is subtitled A Story About the Love We Wish for Our Daughters,  and he tells with great sensitivity individual and personal stories of brides who have found their way into Becker's, and the paths that have led them there.  Some are rocky and some are more typical, but all are poignant and filled with hope. This book was even more fun than a Say Yes to the Dress marathon...