Words by Webb

The World We Found: A Novel

Author: Thrity Umrigar

Paperback: 320 pages (also available in hardcover, large print,e-books)

Publisher: Harper (January 3, 2012)

Synposis:

Book Flap:

University students in late-1970s Bombay, Armaiti, Laleh, Kavita, and Nishta were inseparable. Spirited and unconventional, they challenged authority and fought for a better world. But much has changed in the thirty years since those heady days. Following different paths, the quartet has drifted apart, and the day-to-day demands of work and family have tempered the revolutionary fervor they shared.

Then comes devastating news: Armaiti, who moved to America, is gravely ill and wants to see the old friends she left behind. For Laleh, reunion is a bittersweet reminder of unfulfilled dreams and unspoken guilt. For Kavita, it is an admission of forbidden passion. For Nishta, it is the end of self-delusion and the promise of freedom from a bitter fundamentalist husband. As for Armaiti, it is an act of acceptance, of letting go on her own terms even if her ex-husband and daughter do not understand her choices.

In the course of their journey to reconnect, Armaiti, Laleh, Kavits, and Nishta must confront the truths of their lives–acknowledge long-held regrets, face painful secrets and hidden desires, and reconcile their idealistic past and their compromised present. And they will have to decide what matters most, a choice that just may help them reclaim the extraordinary world they once found.

Review:

The World We Found is both a familiar and exotic story. The familiar tale of four friends, getting older, finding their lives are not what they once imagined, examining and questioning their life choices, facing their own mortality. These characters immediately felt like friends because their experience, their questions were the same that my friends and I are facing. But The World We Found takes place mainly in Indian. The exotic setting as well as the cultural differences were what kept me reading because, we don’t all face mid-life the same, particularly if we’ve grown up in another culture.

Each of the characters faced her own demons in this book: terminal illness, marital problems, coming to terms with a lesbian lifestyle, and guilt. Umrigar seems to give each woman and her issue equal “time” in the book but truthfully some of the more serious problems make the other women look like drama queens who want to make mountains out of molehills. I would have enjoyed a book more focused on one woman’s issue, particularly Nishta — trapped in an unexpectedly religous marriage — or Armaiti — dying of terminal cancer — so there would be more time to explore the situation and the character in more than a superficial way. But it was enjoyable to see the women interact with one another.

The World We Found is a great book for seeing a familiar situation placed in an unfamiliar culture and world viewpoint.

Thank you to Harper for the ARC they sent me!

Hope you enjoyed my 5Ws with Cooper Lawrence about being a celebrity expert and writing her debut novel on The Yoga Club.

Author: Cooper Lawrence

Paperback: 336 pages (also available in e-books)

Publisher: Gallery Books (December 20, 2011)

Synposis:

Back Cover:

Chatting it up with bendy WASPs is the last thing on Coco Guthrie’s mind during her 8:30 a.m. yoga class. Having made her fortune as the world-renowned inventor of Butt-B-Gone derriere cream, Coco still doesn’t feel like she belongs among the upper class — until she attends the swankiest Halloween soiree in Greenwich, Connecticut, where three of her fellow morning yogis shared her brilliant idea to appear as Sarah Palin.

Soon it’s clear that a love of stretching isn’t all this accidental sorority — which includes a single mom with echolalia, an entertainment reporter who charms the pants off handsome stars, and a drama-prone producer with a taste for drag — have in common.

When the four mischevious Sarahs wander away from the party to sneak a peek at the mayor’s neighboring estate, they are stunned to find him adorned in leather and latex, and rolling up a woman’s body in a Persian rug. To make matters worse, someone has spotted the spying Palins. Someone who threatens to expose their torrid affairs in business and the bedroom. Now the unlikely foursome must use all their wits and wiles to get to the bottom of the kinky crime. But will their budding friendship be strong enough to protect their deepest secrets?

Review:

Who are these people? Who lives like this? I would have read this book just for a peek at the whole other world of Greenwich. These are not my neighbors! Cooper Lawrence indeed makes the setting an entirely separate character. This situation, these people, their reactions…only in Greenwich. It’s almost like reading an article in National Geographic about an entirely foreign culture.

I worried that I would have trouble telling apart the three rich women who make up 75% of the main characters. No problem! Cooper has created rich characters with unique traits, stories, ways of talking and acting. You could determine who was Coco, Bailey or Olivia even if their first names were never mentioned after the first chapter.

Enjoy a fun escape to the wild world of Greenwich! Read The Yoga Club!

Damaged

Author: Melody Carlson

Paperback: 208 pages (also available in e-books)

Publisher: NavPress (September 19, 2011)

Synposis:

Back Cover:

Sixteen-year-old Haley’s life is about to change. With divorced parents, she’s allowed to choose who to live with. Tired of Mom’s restrictions (like no dating), she picks laid-back Dad, although that means she’ll have to go to a new school. But even that situation starts to look up when hottie Harris Stephens flirts with her. And when he asks her out, Haley ecstatically accepts.

Chalking up a mysterious warning about Harris to jealousy, Haley continues seeing him. But infatuation turns to devastation when Harris does something totally unexpected. Humiliation and peer pressure keep Haley from disclosing what happened, and with no one to talk to, her torturous secret is overwhelming.

Review:

Real life is rarely neat, black and white, or happily ever after. I appreciate that author Melody Carlson recognizes that and reflects it in her literary worlds. The teens in this book are real…even when the most horrendous accusations are thrown they are unwilling to completely abandon one of their own. After all, he is the star quarterback! Even his victim ricochets between anger, guilt, forgiveness, and a desperate need to be liked.

Every teen should read this book. Chances are they will recognize the best — and worst — of themselves in the book’s characters. Damaged also shows how quickly and unexpectedly situations can change from safe to out-of-control, something too many teens don’t appreciate. Melody Carlson does equally well when exploring the emotions and thoughts of the characters and when writing intense, suspenseful, what will happen next? scenes.

Damaged does have a Christian undertone but it is written with a light hand. Readers are not hit over the head with Christian beliefs, it is simply there, in the background, and not a key facet of every character’s personality. I believe it is written in a way that the Christian beliefs will be accepted as just another detail of the character’s back story.

City of Whispers: A Sharon Mccone Mystery

Author: Marcia Muller

Hardcover: 272 pages

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (October 26, 2011)

Synposis:

Inside Cover:

Private eye Sharon McCone receives an e-mail asking for help from her emotionally disturbed half-brother Darcy Blackhawk. She replies…but gets no response. As Sharon digs deeper, she discovers that Darcy sent his message from an Internet cafe in San Francisco, a city he’s never been to before. Sensing that her brother is in terrible danger, Sharon begins a search for him throughout the city.

The investigation leads her tot eh body of a woman at the Palace of Fine Arts, where a witness had told her where Darcy was headed. Then, as she digs deeper, Sharon uncovers a connection to the unsolved murder of a young heiress to a multimillion-dollar-banking fortune, Now Sharon must race to solve both murders and ensure her brother’s safety, despite the imminent danger that lurks within her own family.

Review:

I’m going to blame holiday distractions because, for some reason, this book just didn’t capture my attention in the beginning when Sharon set out on her search for her brother. But I’m nothing if not persistent so I stuck with it. As Sharon involved more investigators from her company and found more leads leading every which way…murder, jealousy, incest, blackmail, drugs, power, money…it finally grabbed me. Darcy may have been the reason Sharon got

involved in this case but I didn’t really get involved until Gaby entered the picture…posthumously.

Once again I rail against the reading gods who introduced me to interesting characters mid-series. It’s clear that Sharon and the other people in her sphere have back stories…relationships, quirks, problems dating back to earlier stories. And although author Marcia Muller gives you enough info to allow you to keep all the characters straight it also whets your appetite to learn more about what made these people the way they are. SIGH. My TBR pile just got a bit taller as I realize I have to meet these characters earlier in their lives.

Today is my kind of day! December 29 is National Chocolate Day. I’ve always been a fan of chocolate and all this time I thought I had Milton Hershey to thank for one of my favorite treats. But after reading this latest book I learned that Hershey came late to the party…I should be sending my thank you note to the monkeys of the rainforest! And chocolate isn’t the only discovery the animals of the rainforests can take credit for!

How Monkeys Make Chocolate: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Rainforest

Author: Adrian Forsyth

Nonfiction: Ages 9 to 12 years old

Paperback: 48 pages

Publisher: Maple Tree Press (July 12, 2006)

Synposis:

Monkeys. Chocolate. Not the first two things you would partner together. But turns out monkeys were key to the development of chocolate. I KNEW I liked monkeys for a reason!

How Monkeys Make Chocolate is not only about monkeys and chocolate. Instead it explores relationships in rain forests around the world. Relationships between different types of plants, between plants and animals, between plants and humans and between animals and humans. This book is an eye-opener that reveals an inter-connectedness most of us never realized existed.

Review:

How Monkeys Make Chocolate is the type of book that makes you want to pause every few lines and ask anyone who will listen, “Hey, did you know…” because this book is full of fascinating facts and relationships that most of us never knew about.

Adrian Forsyth deftly captures young readers’ attention by telling personal stories (he had poison ivy x 10 thanks to a tree with ORANGE bark on one trip to the rainforest) and by weaving facts about these unfamiliar plants, animals, and places with more familiar. Information about harvesting valuable parts of trees leads back to chewing gum and pine trees, the reasons trees fruits change colors leads back to the cherry trees in his Washington DC backyard, spreading seeds throughout the jungle leads us to Velcro!

The beautiful photos included in this book break up the individual chapters. It is recommended for 9 to 12 year old students but, with a few lengthier chapters, it might serve the older children in this group better.

Found this review just hanging around the “scheduled” pile. Some quirky computer fairy didn’t post it…I think. But I didn’t want you all to miss it. It was supposed to run on October 14.

Today’s my birthday and I couldn’t hope for a better present than a new book from Gayle Trent. OK, maybe an all-expenses paid trip to Fiji but, with no tropical trips in the works, I’m happy with Gayle’s new book Killer Sweet Tooth! Check out that book cover…good enough to eat. I hope I have a birthday cake that looks (and tastes) that delicious. Hint, hint.

Killer Sweet Tooth: A Daphne Martin Cake Mystery

Author: Gayle Trent

Paperback: 272 pages (also available in Kindle format)

Publisher: Gallery Books (October 11, 2011)

Synposis:

All Daphne wants is something simple…a new filling for her neighbor Myra. Granted, it is after hours (Myra was snacking on Daphne’s peanut brittle). But how complicated could it be? If you know Daphne, you’re already guessing just how complicated. Daphne and Myra stumble over the dentist, dead in his deserted office; the police are following their two key suspects; and a clerk at a nearby store remembers seeing Elvis with blood on his sleeve that night. Elvis?! Well, he should be easy to find–except there’s a Elvis impersonators conference in town. So Daphne and Myra have to work fast and clear their names before all their suspects leave town. Daphne and Myra’s lives are further complicated by the fact that Elvis impersonators are quite the romancers. Myra loves it but Daphne (not to mention her BF Ben) is less enthusiastic about all these “hunks of burnin’ love”. And then there’s the pink Cadillac cake Daphne has to create.

Review:

Have you every noticed that knitting starts with something simple…a skein of yarn…and twists and turns it into something incredible where you can’t tell where one string of yarn came from or where it’s going next? At least it does to me, a non-knitter. Killer Sweet Tooth is literary knitting. It starts with something simple…a loose filling…and twists and turns it into a puzzle where you can’t know who did what or figure out what will happen next. Bravo!

Once again, Trent raises her book to the next level by including unforgettable characters surrounding her (relatively) normal main character Daphne. Myra, China, and the rest of the gang at Brea Ridge not to mention a few newcomers such as a bus full of Elvis impersonators and a private investigator Mark Thompson I hope will be making a return in future books. Sure, there’s a dead body (but he is a dentist and not a very nice man so no one is sobbing over him) but for the most part this book is one laugh after another. Oh, Daphne…why do these things always happen to you? And oh Gayle, keep them coming!

If you love Gayle’s work don’t forget that she also moonlights as Amanda Lee, author of The Embroidery Mystery series.