The Language Inside review

When Emma's mother is diagnosed with breast cancer they're forced to uproot from their home in Japan, where Emma has lived almost her entire life, and move to the United States, where she feels incredibly alone and very much an outsider. 

After being convinced by her grandmother to start doing something to actively involve herself in the community, Emma begins volunteering at a local long-term care facility -- specifically with a woman suffering from locked-in syndrome. Zena can only communicate using her eyes, but has a passion for poetry. Emma takes over the role of helping Zena to write. 

During her weekly visits with Zena, Emma becomes close with another volunteer, Samnang. Through her friendships with both of them, Emma begins to learn how to cope with being away from Japan, as well as how to grieve for her mother's illness, and even starts to feel as if she belongs. 

The novel is in verse and though I felt it sometimes dragged and was longer than it needed to be. When the choice arises to return home early to Japan or stay in the U.S. the writing absolutely spoke to me and I finally felt a beautiful connection to Emma. Her pain and heartache at being away from her home felt very real throughout the story, but when she is actually faced with the choice to stay or go, I think Thompson

hit the nail on the head.

The story holds a sweet sensitivity, bordered by anger and resentment. The characters worked well together and the mini-plot lines throughout were woven together nicely. 

Thank you to Random House for the review copy!

Looking for Me review and giveaway

Unfortunately, with the size of my TBR there are simply some books I just can't get to and Saving CeeCee Honeycutt is one that I've had waiting since it came out, but have yet to read. I've heard such wonderful things about it, but it just had to wait. When I read about Beth Hoffman's latest, Looking for Me, I knew I would love it and as soon as it arrived I placed it on the very top of the reading pile. I'm so glad I did! 

Teddi Overman has loved restoring antique furniture since she was a girl. Her mother always thought it was a huge waste of time, even if Teddi sold every piece she touched almost immediately. After graduating high school, Teddi decides to take a chance and move away to pursue her dream, landing in Charleston working for an antiques dealer. 

Fast forward a few years and Teddi owns her own successful shop and creates beautiful pieces of art, salvaging broken furniture from yard sales and scrap piles. Even with her success, Teddi is still drawn back to her home in Kentucky when she learns her brother Josh, who disappeared years before, may still be alive. 

This has got to be one of the best books I've read this year. Teddi was a quirky main character with a fun and unique passion, making for an easy hook in the beginning. There was enough humor to occasionally make me chuckle, despite the heaviness of portions of the story, and Southern culture just dripped from the pages. I wanted to be friends with Teddi about as much as I wanted to buy a piece of her furniture. 

Though definitely a stand alone story, I almost wish Hoffman would create a series around Teddi's shop, like Marie Bostwick's quilting books or the knitting series by Debbie Macomber. The book was charming and lovable and I want to hand it to everyone I know! Now, I'm off to read Saving CeeCee Honeycutt. 

The lovely people at Penguin have offered up a copy for one of my readers! Trust me, you want to enter this one -- SO GOOD. Just leave your name and a way to contact you in the comment section before Sunday night at 11:59 p.m. and I'll have Random.org select a winner Monday morning. 

If you'd like a second entry, tweet about the giveaway and leave your Twitter handle in a second comment. No need to follow me (unless you'd like to!), just spread the word. U.S. entries only. 

The Lake House review

Description via Goodreads:

VICTORIA ROSE. Fifty years before, a group of teenage friends promised each other never to leave their idyllic lakeside town. But the call of Hollywood and a bigger life was too strong for Victoria . . . and she alone broke that pledge. Now she has come home, intent on making peace with her demons, even if her former friends shut her out. Haunted by tragedy, she longs to find solace with her childhood sweetheart, but even this tender man may be unable to forgive and forget.

HEATHER BREGMAN. At twenty-eight, after years as a globe-trotting columnist, she’s abandoned her controlling fiancé and their glamorous city life to build one on her own terms. Lulled by a Victorian house and a gorgeous locale, she’s determined to make the little community her home. But the residents, fearful of change and outsiders, will stop at nothing to sabotage her dreams of lakeside tranquility.

As Victoria and Heather become unlikely friends, their mutual struggle to find acceptance—with their neighbors and in their own hearts—explores the chance events that shape a community and offer the opportunity to start again.

I had trouble getting into this one -- just couldn't connect with the characters at first -- but, after about 75 pages I found myself really enjoying the story and location. Especially the location. I wanted to drive to Nagog and just summer there myself! The author did an excellent job at description when it came to the setting. 

Victoria and Heather were each complicated and difficult for me to like at first. I think their disjointed connection left me a little disjointed too, but as they start to explore the possibility of rekindling a lost friendship, I found myself investing in them more and more. When the details and focus really became about them, I was hooked.

The novel isn't perfect, but it certainly ended up being an enjoyable read for me. I read it with my feet propped up on my back porch in the sunshine, but it would be even better on an actual beach. A summer read to take on a vacation with you, for sure. 

Review copy provided.

Call Me Zelda review

In 1932, Anna is a psychiatric nurse at a Baltimore clinic. Though excellent at her job and somewhat content in her daily life, she very much still grieves the loss of her husband and daughter. Her husband, Ben, fought in the Great War and never came home. Her daughter, lost to illness shortly after. The grief pours out of Anna when confronted with anything outside of her comfort zone and it restricts her to a rigid way of life. 

When the famous Zelda Fitzgerald is admitted to Anna's hospital, having been diagnosed with schizophrenia, Anna makes the health and well-being of the woman her new mission -- and actually kind of likes her. What begins as a well-intentioned nurse/patient relationship evolves into an almost obsession on both the end of both women. Anna needs Zelda to be well and Zelda simply cannot be. Zelda needs Anna to help tell her story. 

The characters were beautifully written and incredibly complex. I wanted to wrap my arms around Anna and both comfort her and shake her, because I could definitely see myself within her. I've felt the pain of a lost child and know that when an outlet for the grief comes along, taking it is a necessity. Zelda was Anna's outlet. 

Zelda was both amazingly vivacious and yet overcome with madness and insecurity in the wake of her illness. I appreciated her being the secondary character in the story and Robuck allowing for the fictional character to take over. I didn't know much at all about Zelda Fitzgerald before reading this book, but I'm definitely hungry to know more. She led a tragically fascinating life. 

Erika Robuck has a talent for writing historical fiction, that's for sure! After reading her first novel, Hemingway's Girl, I not only read my first Hemingway book (The Old Man and the Sea), but I also browsed several biographies on the author and learned more about his life. I plan to do the exact same thing with the Fitzgerald family. 

If an author writes a fictionalized account of a person, a family, or a time period and that book results in the reader doing research on what they've just read...well, that's the mark of a successful writer. Call Me Zelda gets 5 stars from me!

Thank you to Penguin for the review copy! I loved it so much, I bought my own copy on publishing day. 

2 quick YA reviews

Being Henry David by Cal Armistead

I was pleasantly surprised by this one. I thought it would be super heavy and even depressing, but with a melancholy overtone, the thoughtful nature of the language made up for it. I loved that it was more of a mystery mixed in with self-reflection rather than a typical "finding myself" novel. This kid needed some serious healing and he was able to do that as he remembered tidbits of how he ended up where he did.

Could be a great gateway to actually reading Thoreau. As we all know, I'm not a big "classics" fan, so this book is as close as I'll get.

ManicPixieDreamGirl by Tom Leveen

This one I didn't love, but I enjoyed enough that I think it's fair to share. The jumping back and forth of time periods got to be a little annoying, but the characters were well done. Quirky, unattainable girls are the subject of many a book and movie and the author did a really good job at creating Becky and making her role believeable, as well as the ultimate ending realistic. Two thumbs up for that. I think it's really hard for adults to write a teen voice well and Tom Leven did.

 Unfortunately, my one big quibble with the book is that I really felt it was a Paper Towns wannabe. Same idea of the somewhat odd, but beautiful main girl leading on a boy who is in love with her, but without all the awesome.

Thank you to Random House for the review copies!

Elliott's Pick: Night Light by Nicholas Blechman

I don't totally understand how it happened, but Elliott has fallen in love with all things trucks, trains, and automobiles. The only books he will sit still for are those focusing on transportation. Whatever works, right? 

He always helps open my book mail and usually he'll glance at the picture books for a moment and then move on to the next pressing task of a 16-month-old. When Night Light came, he was instantly intrigued and didn't put the book down for at least 10 minutes. Amazing for his attention span and for me, that means a winner of a book. 

The book is very simple in both style and text. It's ultimately a counting book featuring different modes of transportation that the reader can guess before turning the page. It has a fire truck, a tug boat, a train, a taxi, and so on. E loved flipping the heavy-duty pages and pointing to whatever vehicle was on the next page. 

Though he doesn't quite get the counting part yet, I can definitely see that coming soon. He will hopefully count the different holes that give "clues" as to what's on the next page, before turning to discover the train or tugboat. The illustrations are bold, but simple, letting the image standout. Always nice for a toddler. 

As a mom, I really loved the thick pages -- less ripping! Once we ditched the dust cover, the book was almost as durable as a board, which means it will last a long time in our house. 

We really loved this one! Thanks to Scholastic for the review copy~

The Best of Us review

Ahhh....Sarah Pekkanen!!! I'm lucky enough to live fairly close to Sarah, so she has been to my local indie bookstore a couple of times and her latest visit was just a couple of weeks ago to talk about The Best of Us with another author, Dana Bate (on the blog tomorrow). She's truly a lovely person, which makes me so happy her books are such fun to read. 

As for the book, it's probably the perfect beach book. It has romance, scandal, a tropical setting, and was definitely a page-turner. Great for reading in the sun and imagining you're on a tropical island, which is exactly what I do on my back porch in Northern Virginia. Not exactly Fiji. 

Four friends and their husbands are invited to a luxurious getaway to relax and catch-up after years of only seeing snippets of each other's lives. Beautiful location, no children, and college friends mixed together to create a pretty crazy vacation -- complete with more than a few secrets. Paradise isn't exactly what was expected for any of the couples.

Each of the four women is well-drawn and her story as compelling as her counterparts. I didn't really have a favorite character, though I did really love to hate Savannah! The impending hurricane was both literal and metaphorical and was a nice addition to the story. Now I can only hope one of my college friends got rich and plans to invite Aaron and I out for a week on an island (minus the scandalous parts, please)!