Jan
27
2012
Friendship According to Humphrey by Betty G. Birney
Our resident children’s book reviewer is back with a fantastic review of a new and exciting series. Get ready to fall in love with Humphrey.
Friendship According to Humphrey (Book 2)
In book 2, Class 26 gets another class pet and everyone is paying more attention to him (the frog) than Humphrey. Plus how could he become friends with a frog with its bug out eyes and really icky skin? When the class writes poems. most of them write about you know who.
…This book was read and reviewed by Piper, an adorable 9-year-old girl. We can’t wait for more reviews from this insightful and brilliant reviewer! We also can’t wait to find out what further adventures await Humphrey.
Thanks, Piper!
Jan
26
2012
Ben Stiller is going to produce, write and direct a pilot called All Talk to HBO. Jonathan Safran Foer (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Everything is Illuminated) has been tapped to write it.
The pilot is about a Jewish family living in Washington, D.C. It has been described as“politically, religiously, culturally, intellectually, and sexually irreverent.”
Alan Alda is in talks to play Ben Stiller’s father, making the first time he’ll be on a series regular since M*A*S*H*.
Jan
25
2012
According to Deadline.com, 20th Century Fox has hired Karen McCullah & Kirsten Smith to adapt 29, the novel by Adena Halpern. John Davis is producing. The book is a high concept comedy about an elderly woman who wakes up in the body of her 29-year old self and finally has the chance to do things right. McCullah & Smith’s credits include Legally Blonde and The House Bunny. In addition to solo projects, they are scripting Love It Or Leave It for Chockstone Pictures, which they are producing with Seth Jaret and Steve Schwartz, Paula Mae Schwartz and Roger Schwartz. The scribes are repped by Paradigm and manager Seth Jaret.
Summary:
What if you closed your eyes, blew out the candles, and your wish came true?
Ellie Jerome is a young-at-heart seventy-five-year-old who feels she has more in common with her twenty-nine-year-old granddaughter, Lucy, than her fifty-five-year-old daughter, Barbara. Ellie’s done everything she can to stay young, and the last thing she wants is to celebrate another birthday. So when she finds herself confronted with a cake full of candles, Ellie wishes more than anything that she could be twenty-nine again, just for one day. But who expects a wish like that to come true?
29 is the story of three generations of women and how one magical day shakes up everything they know about each other. While Ellie finds that the life of a twenty-something is not as carefree as she expected, the sheer joy of being young again prompts her to consider living her life all over. Does she dare stay young for more than this day, even if it means leaving everyone she loves behind?
Fresh, funny, and delightful, 29 is an enchanting adventure about families, love, and the real lessons of youth.
Jan
24
2012
The World According to Humphrey by Betty G. Birney
Our resident children’s book reviewer is back with a fantastic review of a new and exciting series. Get ready to fall in love with Humphrey.
The World According to Humphrey
Book 1
In book 1, Humphrey goes to Room 26 in Longfellow School. He was in a pet store until Mrs. Mac a teacher got him. She thought he would be a smart hamster so she got him a small notebook and pencil and she was sure that he could learn to write, but could he??? After a long time with Mrs. Mac she leaves and now Humphrey has to face with the teacher who is out to get him. Will he get out of the trouble he is in? Read the book and find out.
…This book was read and reviewed by Piper, an adorable 9-year-old girl. We can’t wait for more reviews from this insightful and brilliant reviewer! We also can’t wait to find out what further adventures await Humphrey.
Thanks, Piper!
Jan
23
2012
150 Pounds by Kate Rockland
Summary:
A smartly-written novel of two women starting at opposite ends of the scale–and finding compromise and friendship in their journey towards 150 pounds In the fast paced life of blogging, two women stand out: Alexis Allbright, of Skinny Chick, and Shoshana Weiner, who writes Fat and Fabulous. Both have over five million loyal readers. Both are hungry for success. But the similarities stop there.
With over 100 pounds on the scale separating them, weight isn’t their only difference. Alexis is a loner who is so bitchy the only person who can stand her company is her gay best friend Billy. She gives neurotic New Yorkers a run for their money with her strict daily workout routine, and weighing of food. Shoshana is Alexis’s opposite. Living in Jersey with rowdy roommates, she is someone who “collects friends,” as her mother puts it; and treasures a life of expanding circles…and waistlines.
When both appear as panelists on a popular talk show, their lives intersect in ways neither could have imagined. In turns comedic, heartwarming–and familiar to any woman who’s ever stepped on a scale–Alexis and Shoshana realize they have far more in common than either could have possibly imagined, and more importantly, something to offer. (via Goodreads)
The journey of self-acceptance and comfort in your own skin is a life long one for many. Weight plays a key role in this journey and it can sometimes make the road ahead of you seem long, winding and filled with potholes. No matter how fit, confident and put together a woman appears, everyone has insecurities. Kate Rockland does something extraordinary with her novel 150 Pounds, she realistically gives readers hope. Hope that they can make their journey easier and more enjoyable by accepting themselves. Hope that one day they can stop caring about the extra pounds they’re caring around. Hope that they can appreciate themselves as is and love themselves, extra baggage and all.
Shoshana Weiner is a plus size writer for the blog Fat and Fabulous. Alexis Allbright is skinny, obsessed with working out and runs the site, Skinny Chick. Both girls meet at the start of the novel as guests on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Immediately pitted against each other, hurling insults and accusations, the girls are enemies out to prove that their lifestyle is the “right” way to live. But fate steps in and mixes things up.
Each chapter is told from either Shoshana or Alexis’s perspective and opens by documenting their current weight. Immediately I liked Shoshana better than Alexis. Alexis is uptight, self-obsessed and consumed with fat-burning and fitness. Her life is structured, scheduled and strict and no one is going to mess with the order she has created. Of course, life has other plans and soon a wrench is thrown in Alexis’s seemingly perfect life. We also discover some darkness in her past that has influenced her need for structure, perfection and control.
Shoshana, on the other hand, is leading a life filled with love and happiness. She has great friends, a great family and a confidence that you will find yourself envying. But even people who seem to have figured out the “big” issues in life still have lots to learn and discover. Shoshana has her own insecurities and her path is not an easy one either.
Rockland reminds me of Jennifer Weiner in her ability to accurately portray the plight of women and the emotional landscape we all face. There are similarities in all of our stories and struggles and Rockland perfectly captures that in 150 Pounds. Her writing is enjoyable, her plot is compelling and her novel is a must-read for women everywhere.
Jan
20
2012
Summary:
When Charlotte Rainsford, a retired schoolteacher, is accosted by a petty thief on a London street, the consequences ripple across the lives of acquaintances and strangers alike. A marriage unravels after an illicit love affair is revealed through an errant cell phone message; a posh yet financially strapped interior designer meets a business partner who might prove too good to be true; an old-guard historian tries to recapture his youthful vigor with an ill-conceived idea for a TV miniseries; and a middle-aged central European immigrant learns to speak English and reinvents his life with the assistance of some new friends.
Through a richly conceived and colorful cast of characters, Penelope Lively explores the powerful role of chance in people’s lives and deftly illustrates how our paths can be altered irrevocably by someone we will never even meet. Brought to life in her hallmark graceful prose and full of keen insights into human nature, How It All Began is an engaging, contemporary tale that is sure to strike a chord with her legion of loyal fans as well as new readers. A writer of rare wisdom, elegance, and humor, Lively is a consummate storyteller whose gifts are on full display in this masterful work.
Jan
19
2012
For the book lover who likes to stay connected.
Jan
18
2012
In One Person
by John Irving
John Irving has never shied away from controversial subjects before: His Cider House Rules is about a drug-addicted abortionist, while A Prayer for Owen Meany wrestles with hypocrisy in organized religion. His latest novel also embraces hot-button issues, as bisexual man in his 60s reflects on his youth.
Release date: May 8
via: The Atlantic
Jan
18
2012
For an entire year Donna Meyer made a book a day and chronicled her efforts on her blog, Make-a-Book-a-Day.
Jan
17
2012
The Bungalow by Sarah Jio
Summary: A sweeping World War II saga of thwarted love, murder, and a long-lost painting.
In the summer of 1942, twenty-one-year-old Anne Calloway, newly engaged, sets off to serve in the Army Nurse Corps on the Pacific island of Bora-Bora. More exhilarated by the adventure of a lifetime than she ever was by her predictable fiancé, she is drawn to a mysterious soldier named Westry, and their friendship soon blossoms into hues as deep as the hibiscus flowers native to the island. Under the thatched roof of an abandoned beach bungalow, the two share a private world-until they witness a gruesome crime, Westry is suddenly redeployed, and the idyll vanishes into the winds of war.
A timeless story of enduring passion, The Bungalow chronicles Anne’s determination to discover the truth about the twin losses-of life, and of love-that have haunted her for seventy years.
After reading and completely adoring Sarah Jio’s debut novel, THE VIOLETS OF MARCH, last spring, I was extremely hesitant to read THE BUNGALOW. There is a stigma that often follows sophomore efforts, that they won’t live up to the high standards of the first, that the author is rushed to keep up with the publishing industry’s demands of a book-a-year, that they will be too similar to the first venture and feel redundant. All of these fears followed me into Sarah Jio’s newest release, THE BUNGALOW and I can say, with complete certainty, none of these fears were realized. If anything, THE BUNGALOW surpasses my love for THE VIOLETS OF MARCH (which is a very difficult thing to do). THE BUNGALOW is one of the most enjoying, entertaining and captivating novels I have read in a long time. Jio is quickly establishing herself as a strong and compelling voice in women’s fiction. Her novels are original, historically accurate, emotionally resonant and beautifully written. I honestly cannot speak highly enough of this enormous literary talent. I feel like I fall deeply into the stories and lives she creates and don’t escape until I have (reluctantly) turned the last page. I will be recommending THE BUNGALOW to everyone I know.