There’s cake in my future

There’s cake in my future by Kim Gruenenfelder

Melissa, Seema and Nicole are three friends who share their life joys and struggles with each other. Nicole is engaged, ready to marry the man of her dreams when his ex-wife decides Nicole and Jason they must care for their two young daughters making Nicole not just a newlywed but a full-time mom. Seema is secretly in love with her best friend, Scott, but can’t bring herself to make a move on him. Melissa just learned her boyfriend of six years has been cheating on her and ends the relationship. Different struggles but all centered around love.

While I am a generation older than the women in this book, I can relate to struggles concerning love. In fact there is a passage by Melissa that speaks directly to me.  “I’m not only mourning the old relationship, I’m mourning the future I thought I was going to have. The future I’d been planning for. (for me personally-it was the future I was promised). Fighting for. Counting on. I counted on something, and I lost. I fought hard for something  and I lost. I don’t understand why the universe is allowing Fred (Doug) to be rewarded for his betrayal. For his lies. Why should he be loved when I am alone? While he gets off scot-free, I suffer the heartbreak. He smokes-I get lung cancer.”

This obviously chick-lit but I often wonder how much men could learn about women if they read one chick-lit book a year. They are like windows into the minds of most women. While they aren’t 100% accurate and all women don’t think exactly like women do in chick-lit books, there are enough similarities, it seems to me if you want to understand your girlfriend or wife, read a chick-lit book.

I’ve read a Keep Calm and Carry a big Drink first and it is a sequel to this book. If you can read them in order do so. It was a fun read but it also invoked deep emotions for me because of what the character Melissa had to go through. Sadly I haven’t had the happy ending she found but then again I am 24 years older than she is.

Angry Housewives … By Lorna Landvik

  
I haven’t posted any reviews because I’ve actually been busy reading. I give this book 4 stars.

Have you ever bought a book because you liked the title or the photo on the front? I picked this up at Half Price Books because I liked the title: Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bon. As I began reading there was something familiar about this book. Maybe it was central character was married to a pilot? My ex is a pilot. Maybe it was the fact they lived in Minnepolis and I had lived in Minnepolis. Maybe it was because one character shared my daughter, Kari’s name with the same spelling. Or maybe it was the fact it was a group of women who had a book club for 30 years and I played Bunco with a group of women for 13 years. While all of the above is true, I realized about midway through the 2nd chapter I had already read this book.

I could have put it down but it’s been awhile so I decided to read it again. I mean I have read the entire Poldark series twice. I’m glad I decided to read this again. I am always amazed at how God uses books, even humorous fiction, to speak to me. 

There are five women living on a cul-de-sac and it follows their lives from the 1960s through the 1990s. Some of its beautiful and some of it is very ugly. I saw a little of myself in each of the characters. Faith the main character, her husband being a pilot (there was NO similarity between her loving and faithful husband and my ex except their jobs), her feelings of inadequacies, fear of the empty nest and displacing anger. Audrey is the resident sexpot and mother to 3 boys. I related to her love of food, her love of men and the sadly the belief that her husband would be faithful because they had a fabulous sex life. Slip, the neighborhood crusader and I bonded over frizzy hair and the battle it creates daily. I also tend to get on her soapbox about the inequality between men and women.

Merit, the beautiful, talent and physically abused wife hit me on several levels but mostly her inability to please a demanding and angry husband. While my ex wasn’t physically abusive, he did play head games everyday with me and convinced me I was worthless. And she was the mother of daughters with an intense desire to protect them and I am the same. Last and not least is Kari, the slighter older widow who only became a mother slightly later and through adoption. I indentified with her intense desire to be a mother and her love of sewing. I can’t imagine my life without my daughters. Kari also loved to sew and made things not just for her daughter but for her friends and their children. I did the same thing for years and have just started sewing again.

This book doesn’t just look at the happy side of suburban life. No one is perfect and no one has a perfect life, perfect children or perfect husbands. The author also shows that sometimes friendship is difficult, demanding and hurts. Unfortunately for me my friends didn’t come through the fire. They bailed at the first opportunity. It did make me miss having friends because they are supposed to be a support system. It made me miss the social aspect of friendship, the food, the laughter and the secrets.

*Fair warning: I will say I cried a couple times while reading the book because it touched me on such a personal level.

A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny

  
Five stars. I’ve been on a book reading binge. From the moment I met Chief Inspector Gamache, Jean Guy Beauvoir, Agent Isabelle Lacoste and the inhabitants of Three Pines I knew I would be back for more. What I didn’t realize was that I would have a voracious appetite for more.

A Fatal Grace finds us back in Three Pines and another murder. The old, scary Hadley house has new owners. The woman who bought the house is electrocuted during an annual hockey match. Louise Penny has an uncanny ability to stir up in me how cold winter can be. My mind is drawn back to those Minnesota and Iowa winters when I thought my breath froze.

Sadly no one is sorry to hear of the death of CC. We have all known someone similar to her. She is the woman who has all the answers to happiness but can’t see the misery right before her eyes. The author reminds us that verbal abuse is every bit as destructive as physical abuse.

Clara Morrow is still struggling to find her artistic voice but when her husband Peter sees glimpses of genius, he becomes insecure. Ruth is still her sarcastic and casting self. Each character is woven seamlessly into the story. They become our friends, our irritatants, our hope for a safe place.

Another murder happens in the city as Ruth releases her new book of poetry. A mysterious necklace ties this murder to CC’s murder. Did the same person commit both crimes? Why was Clara seen with the murdered female vagrant? Did she know her?

I have read all the Gamache mysteries and if you want to escape to a warm, welcoming village that struggles with life and death then her books are for you.

Jeremy Poldark by Winston Graham

  
I give this book 5 stars. I have read this book twice and both times I am taken aback by how relevant the topics of late 18th century Cornwall pertain to 21st century America. Ross is dealing with the death of his daughter and the near death of Demelza when he is confronted with what in his eyes is social injustice.

Of course the penalties are stiffer for what we would consider minor offenses today but the idea that the rights of the wealthy supercede the rights of the poor is still a hot button topic today. 

George Warleggan is intent on destroying Ross. Ross is lost in his grief and what he sees as his failure to provide for his tenants. When a shipwreck comes ashore on Hendrawna beach, riots ensue and death. The law of the day was what comes ashore was the property of the finder. However the Warleggans saw this as an opportunity to use their financial influence to have Ross arrested and tried for insiting a riot and the death of their disgraced cousin. Demelza Harbor’s a secret during the trial. Will this destroy the life they are slowly building.

What I love most about this book series is how human and flawed the characters are. No one does the right thing every time. Every character makes mistakes, suffers consequences-sometimes greater than they should be-but they persevere on and make good choices too. 

This is a definite read.

Change Up

I have taken some advice from my daughter and I am going to change this blog up slightly. Once I’ve read a book, I am going to review it and then take a few things from the book and give them a try. It might be a recipe given in the book or just a described meal. I will try to take one experience from the book and find a way to give it a try. I am going to try to live a little of the book and chronicle my experiences here with words and pictures. So wish me luck. My next book is Always and Forever by Cathy Kelly.