A Girl Walks Into a Bookstore...

Pages: 274 Original date of publication: 1961 My copy: 2004 (Virago Modern Classics) Why I decided to read: How I acquired my copy: The Strand, NYC, July 2011 Castle Dor was the last unfinished work of the critic Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch and finished (at his daughter’s request) by Daphne Du Maurier after his death. The novel is a modern retelling of the Tristan and Isolde myth, re-set to Cornwall of the 1840s. Linnet Lewarne is a young woman married to an innkeeper; she strikes up a relationship with a Briton onion seller named Amyot Trestane. Although not written from the first person point of view, the center viewpoint is that of the village doctor, who recognizes how history is repeating itself, literally. Du Maurier did a fairly good job of finishing the novel—you can’t tell where Quiller-Couch’s writing leaves off and Du Maurier’s begins. She later wrote that she could never hope to imitate Quiller-Couch’s style of writing, but that she tried to adopt his “mo...

Pages: 182 Original date of publication: 2012 My edition: 2012 (Random House) Why I decided to read: it was offered through Amazon Vine How I acquired my copy: Amazon Vine, February 2012 Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake is a series of essays, really, about being in one’s fifties. She covers topics such as owning “stuff,” having girlfriends, marriage, having grown children, and aging. Although I couldn’t really relate personally to a lot of what Anna Quindlen talks about, reading Anna Quindlen’s book (and this really goes for all of her books) is kind of like talking to your mother. And there are similarities to my own mom that are eerie! (“I have needlepoint pillows everywhere: camels, chicks, cats, houses, barns, libraries, roses, daisies, pansies. I needlepoint while I watch television. I have a vision of my children, after I’m gone, looking around and saying, ‘What are we going to do with all these pillows?’”). As I’ve said, there’s not a lot in this book I can actually relate to, s...

Pages: 84 Original date of publication: 1998 My edition: 1998 (Ballantine) Why I decided to read: Re-discovered this one while browsing my bookshelves one afternoon How I acquired my copy: Borders …there are letters from readers to attend to, like the one froma girl who had been given one of my books by her mother and began her letter, ‘I guess I am what some would call a bookworm.’ ‘So am I,’ I wrote back. How Reading Changed My Life is a series of short essays by Anna Quindlen about the impact that reading has had on her life. I read this a number of years ago and decided to pick it up again as a way to pass the time one afternoon. Each essay is headed by a quotation; and the author discusses everything from the books she read as a child to the impact on electronic readers on the public (and this book was published in 1998!). What I enjoy about Quindlen’s writing is that her style is so lyrical. She writes about books as though they’re her best friends (which, if you’re a reader, t...

Pages: 295 Original date of publication: 2010 My edition: 2010 (Random House) Why I decided to read: heard about it through a Shelf Awareness ad How I acquired my copy: review copy from the Amazon Vine Program, March 2010 The first hundred pages or so of this book are devoted to describing how ordinary Mary Beth Latham’s life is. The first few pages or so, she describes a day in her ordinary life. She’s the wife of an eye doctor, mother of three children, living in a pretty ordinary (there’s that word again!) town, vaguely located in New England. Then that major act of violence occurs that we’re promised in the book blurb, and her life changes drastically. For the first half of the book, as Mary Beth describes her life, you start to get comfortable with the characters and Mary Beth’s rather bland life. Then, unexpectedly, things change. The novel is not so much about what actually happens as what you do afterwards. After something truly horrific happens, how do you ...

Pages: Original date of publication: 2010 My edition: 2010 (Berkley) Why I decided to read: the publisher offered me a review copy: How I acquired m copy: ditto, March 2010 Mistress of Rome is a story that’s focused on three characters: Thea, a Jewish slave; her mistress, Lepida Polllia; and Arius, a Briton gladiator. These characters live and interact with one another in late first-century Rome, during the reign of Emperor Domitian. Quinn describes in vivid detail (sometimes too vivid!) the brutality of Rome, as well as, maybe, its softer side. The book is pretty well researched, and the author has a good feel for description. However, there were a lot of things I didn’t like about this book: namely, the switch between first and third person narration, as other reviewers have mentioned. It wouldn’t bother me so much except for the fact that the switch between the tenses would sometimes occur in the middle of chapters, with only a break between paragraphs to make the transition. It di...

Holly Ross is an assistant at the National Museum of Fashion in New York City. A holder of a Master’s degree in fashion, Holly knows pretty much everything there is to know about the subject. In addition, she has an obsession with Audrey Hepburn films. Holly’s also engaged to her heart’s desire, and she’s about to receive a promotion at work. But everything changes when the promotion is given to Sammie Kittenblatt, a New York society darling who got her job through a generous donation made by her parents. Then Holly’s fiancée cheats on her, and eventually finds herself fiancée-less, job-less, and living with her father in the basement of a pet hospital. Things change for the better when Holly is given the chance of a lifetime: to lecture on a cruise ship traveling the Mediterranean, and to bring home a seven-figure donation to the museum that will get her her job back. Soon, however, things turn bad as Holly finds herself the subject of an Interpol investigation looking into the case o...

Other readers have compared this book to Admissions , another tale of what parents will do to get their kids into the best private schools in Manhattan. However, I thought The Ivy Chronicles was funnier and more memorable. The story follows Ivy Ames though a grueling year, as she loses first her job and then her husband. As a result, she is forced to give up her old apartment, her children's private school, and doggie day care. While the scenario is a bit contrived in the beginning, Ivy's decision to help upscale New Yorkers get through the admissions process of New York City day schools is interesting and funny. Like anyone else, Ivy is only human, worrying about her weight and whether or not the author downstairs likes her. Ivy takes on about seven clients, including a mob boss; a Jewish/Gentile couple whose father won't allow his grandson to go to a Jewish school and tries to bribe Ivy at the tune of $ 1 million; a woman who tries to bribe the members of the Board of Tr...