Four of a Kind by Valerie Frankel

“A man’s growth is seen in the successive choirs of his friends.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

I sat down to write this review in the same manner I write every review. I wanted to diplomatically describe the details of the book (something you can easily find on Amazon or Goodreads and therefore do not need me to repeat here). I was then going to give my impression of the book, where the author excelled, what was interesting about the plot, describe the challenges the four main characters faced in their lives (at home, at work, in love).  All of this would have been interesting and informative but it would also be stagnant. It would be run-of-the-mill. It would be something you could find in the hundreds of reviews online or in magazines and newspapers. It would be something you could find just by reading the book yourself. (Which I highly recommend you do!)

Instead, I want to do things a little differently. I want to explore the theme of this book and how it relates to life. Because isn’t that why we read fiction in the first place? To learn more about ourselves, to understand our lives, our hopes, dreams, fears, and failings?

Four of a Kind by Valerie Frankel (Ballantine Books, February 7, 2012) is a novel about FRIENDSHIP.

Friendship is crucial in life. It is an integral part of our happiness. Strong social ties are key to happiness. Gretchen Rubin in her book, The Happiness Project, routinely points out that “To be happy we have to feel strongly connected to other people.” She even has a post on her blog with 8 Tips for Making Friends. In that post she talks about how the “mere exposure effect” makes you like someone better. Basically, just by repeatedly seeing the same people, you will, in fact, like them better. Another tip she gives is to join a group. “Being part of a natural group, where you have common interest and are brought together automatically, is the easiest way to make friends.”

This is what happens in Valerie Frankel’s completely entertaining novel, Four of a Kind. Four women are brought together as part of a school diversity committee, each woman has a child in the same school. Ironically, the diversity committee is a very diverse group, women who would never be friends if not forced together. On a whim, the women end up playing a game of Texas Hold’em, but instead of money the currency is secrets. Secrets in their marriage, secrets with their careers, their children, their parents. Every woman has a secret in her life and even though she keeps them close to her heart and aches because of them, she is really just looking for the right person to tell.  When these secrets (and worries and fears and hopes) begin to come out, the women realize they are bonded more closely than they ever could have imagined. These women found each other and as a result have built honest, beautiful, complicated relationships.

Rachel Bertsche’s website and book, MWF Seeking BFF, was devoted to the challenge of finding friendship once you are no longer in structured, friend-building environments (school, offices, teams). Her message struck a chord. Why is it so hard to make friends as you get older? Studies constantly point out the health benefits behind having friends. For example, did you know that gossiping with friends can help lower stress? Friends give you an impartial outlet to vent your frustrations. They can listen to your complaints, offer advice and guidance and be the shoulder to cry on. They can also help you find joy and happiness in life. They get you out of your routine and can help you discover new aspects of yourself.

It is easy to isolate yourself, to retreat into your own world and shut people out. Women often feel competition and jealousy, even with their closest friends. They strive to have the most successful life; the best clothes, career, husband, children, vacations. Women can sometimes see that green-eyed monster lurking when a friend’s life seems to be sunnier than their own.  So in trying to prove that our lives are successful and that jealousy never crosses our mind we put on false fronts, fake faces. We live in a false sense of security with our hundreds of Facebook “friends.” But what about real, live interaction? An email message pales in comparison to lunch with a girlfriend.

By reading Four of a Kind you will find yourself longing to have the close friendships that evolve throughout the novel. You may not envy their struggles and fears, but you will rejoice in their successes and find yourself routing for all of them in the end.  When you turn the last page you will have an immediate urge to call your closest friends and organize a girls night out. I highly recommend you do this!

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.

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.

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.

Fly Away Home by Jennifer Weiner

Political scandals have become commonplace in the news recently. We are actually surprised when political figures don’t have secrets or skeletons in their closets. But what we don’t take into consideration is the personal toll these scandals take on the innocent victims involved; the wives, daughters, mothers, and sons. Jennifer Weiner tackles political scandal and the ultimate destruction it forces on relationships in her novel, FLY AWAY HOME. Sylvie Woodruff is the ideal political wife and has been for the past 30 years. She has stood patiently by her husband’s side, carrying his mints, reminding him of forgotten names and holding his business cards. Sylvie, a lawyer in her own right, has ignored her own personal passions and transformed herself into the perfect wife and mother. Which is why she is more shocked than anyone to discover that her husband has been carrying on an affair with a young legal aid half his age. When the scandal becomes public, Sylvie and her two adult daughters are unwillingly thrown into the spotlight.

While Sylvie’s life begins to unravel, things aren’t going smoothly for her daughters either. Lizzie is 24-years-old and a recovering addict still trying desperately to win back the trust and respect of her older sister, Diana. When she meets someone who could be “the one” she gets an unexpected surprise that could ruin everything she’s been working towards. Diana is a successful doctor with a perfect husband and a happy son, but things are never how they appear. Diana is carrying on an affair and watching her own marriage crumble around her.

Each chapter is told from the point of view of one of the three female characters; Sylvie, Diana and Lizzie. Weiner has created real characters and impeccable dialogue that keeps the story entertaining, authentic and honest. The characters don’t feel flat at all and their internal struggles are extremely relatable. What’s wonderful about Weiner’s story telling ability is that she creates enough suspense to keep you rapidly flipping the pages, while at the same time making you want to slow down and savor the pitch perfect dialogue and thought-provoking themes.

Attractive and literary!

-via Etsy

In Somerset Maugham’s essay THE ART OF FICTION, he writes that it is perfectly fine to skip sentences while reading because “a sensible person does not read a novel as a task. He reads it as a diversion.” Robert McCrum explores this idea further in his essay in The Guardian. Have you ever skimmed a book? Do you find it enhances the enjoyment of reading?

SheKnows has selected SARAH’S KEY by Tatiana de Rosnay as their January 2012 book club pick.

About SARAH’S KEY:

Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel’ d’Hiv’ roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family’s apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours.

Paris, May 2002: On Vel’ d’Hiv’s 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France’s past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl’s ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d’Hiv’, to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah’s past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life.

Tatiana de Rosnay offers us a brilliantly subtle, compelling portrait of France under occupation and reveals the taboos and silence that surround this painful episode.

One of the best ways to understand and appreciate a book’s importance and impact is to hear from someone who found solace in the words. I was perusing Nina Sankovitch’s exceptional blog, Read All Day, and she writes eloquently about the comfort found in books. She was writing about Joan Didion’s BLUE NIGHTS specifically but also about all books, and art, in general.

Most of us make it through to the other side of grief. We will never be returned to who we were before — we are changed, perhaps even maimed — and yet we are still here, whether we want to be or not.

The morning we wake up and notice once again the spreading pink sky of sunrise or look forward to the deepening blue at dusk is proof of our resilience. Art helps us to understand what life offers, both in the fullness of our present sorrow and in the promise of a morning after.

I selected BLUE NIGHTS as one of my favorite non-fiction books of 2011 on NPR’s The Emily Rooney Show because I truly believe that no one writes narrative non-fiction as beautifully as Ms. Didion. Stunningly gorgeous and achingly honest.

Summary: From one of our most powerful writers, a work of stunning frankness about losing a daughter. Richly textured with bits of her own childhood and married life with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, and daughter, Quintana Roo, this new book by Joan Didion examines her thoughts, fears, and doubts regarding having children, illness, and growing old.

Blue Nights opens on July 26, 2010, as Didion thinks back to Quintana’s wedding in New York seven years before. Today would be her wedding anniversary. This fact triggers vivid snapshots of Quintana’s childhood—in Malibu, in Brentwood, at school in Holmby Hills. Reflecting on her daughter but also on her role as a parent, Didion asks the candid questions any parent might about how she feels she failed either because cues were not taken or perhaps displaced. “How could I have missed what was clearly there to be seen?” Finally, perhaps we all remain unknown to each other. Seamlessly woven in are incidents Didion sees as underscoring her own age, something she finds hard to acknowledge, much less accept.

Blue Nights—the long, light evening hours that signal the summer solstice, “the opposite of the dying of the brightness, but also its warning”—like The Year of Magical Thinking before it, is an iconic book of incisive and electric honesty, haunting and profoundly moving.