Title: The Good Daughters
Author: Joyce Maynard
Publisher: Harper Perennial; Reprint edition
Publication Date: August 23, 2011
Paperback: 304 pages
ISBN: 978-0061994326
Genre: Fiction

From the Publisher:

They were born on the same day, in the same small New Hampshire hospital—but Ruth Plank and Dana Dickerson are different in nearly every way.

Ruth is an artist, a romantic with a rich, passionate, imaginative life—the fifth daughter born to a gentle, caring farmer and his stolid wife. Raised by a pair of capricious drifters, Dana is a scientist and realist whose faith is firmly planted in the natural world. From the 1950s to the present, the lives of the “birthday sisters” parallel and oddly intersect, as each struggles to find her place in a world in which she has never truly felt she belonged. Sharing little except a birth date—and a love for Dana’s wild and beautiful older brother, Ray—two virtual strangers will travel alternate paths winding through first love, first sex, marriage, parenthood, divorce, and tragic loss…until both are forced to reevaluate themselves and each other when past secrets and forgotten memories unexpectedly come to light.

My Review:

Heart breaking, beautiful, and life affirming, The Good Daughters by Joyce Maynard tells the story of Ruth Plank and Dana Dickerson, known as the birthday sisters. On July 4, 1950 at the peak of strawberry season in Bellersville Hospital, Edwin and Connie Plank welcomed their 5th daughter into the world and two hours later, the Dickersons were greeting their second child and their first daughter. Maynard writes a beautiful, moving novel, and from the beginning it is fairly obvious what will eventually be confirmed, however knowing does not detract from the story. The heart of The Good Daughters consists of the stories told through Ruth and Dana, two women who have lived dramatically different lives, yet each learned so very much from Edwin Plank, the lessons they have each accumulated over their respective fifty plus years of life, love, loss, and family. I found myself deeply engrossed in each woman’s story and noticed I particularly looked forward to the sections where Dana’s voice came through as I formed quite a fondness for Dana and her life with Clarice.  The Good Daughters is rich in detailed prose and an absolute delight to read even through the sadness and hardships told by Ruth and Dana. I would recommend The Good Daughters to anyone who is interested in reading a beautiful novel.  A word of caution, the reader may want to keep some tissues close at hand.

To learn more about author Joyce Maynard, please visit her website: www.joycemaynard.com

For more reviews of the book, please follow the TLC Book Tour.

I received a complimentary copy of The Good Daughters by Joyce Maynard from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.

Title: Adam & Eve
Author: Sena Jeter Naslund
Publisher: Harper Perennial; Reprint edition
Publication Date: July 26, 2011
Paperback: 384 pages
ISBN: 978-0061579288
Genre: Fiction

From the Publisher:

By decoding light from space, Lucy Bergmann’s astrophysicist husband discovers the existence of extraterrestrial life; their friend, anthropologist Pierre Saad, unearths from the sands of Egypt an ancient alternative version of the Book of Genesis. To religious fanatics, these discoveries have the power to rock the foundations of their faith. Entrusted to deliver this revolutionary news to both the scientific and religious communities, Lucy becomes the target of Perpetuity, a secret society. When her small plane crashes, Lucy finds herself in a place called Eden with an American soldier named Adam, whose quest for both spiritual and carnal knowledge has driven him to madness.

Set against the searing debate between evolutionists and creationists, Adam & Eve is a thriller, a romance, an adventure, an idyll—a tour de force from Sena Jeter Naslund, one of the most imaginative and inspired writers of our time.

My Review:

Adam and Eve by Sena Jeter Naslund is a very interesting novel that explores the neverending battle between evolutionary scientific evidence and creationist beliefs through the experiences of Lucy and Thom Bergmann.  Set in the period about the year 2020, when Thom collects evidence for extraterrestrial life, he entrusts the information only to Lucy as Thom calculates that the world would not be prepared to receive such knowledge.  Naslund writes an interesting plot that takes readers alongside Lucy as she works to keep her now late husband’s information from becoming public knowledge.  In what is slightly too coincidental, Lucy is contacted by her late husband’s colleague who has discovered an alternate form of the book of Genesis and now Lucy must keep that information from leaking out as well.  The book’s title is an allusion to the place where Lucy finds herself after her small aircraft crashes in a place called Eden where she meets Adam, an American soldier who is not sane.  While I am not a fan of futuristic tales such as Adam and Eve, the basic theme of the divide between science and religion is truly engaging.  Naslund crafts a compelling tale in which she chose to pull out all stops to develop the plot, but unfortunately in doing so, the book’s overall coherence and direction appear blurred and misguided.  For me, it felt as if too many low probability events happen for Lucy when Naslund’s theme could have been more compellingly developed without making so many pieces fall into place.  While the novel was not in my favorite genres, Adam and Eve gives readers a lot to think about and I think fantasy/futuristic reading fans will enjoy Naslund’s Adam and Eve.

To learn more about author Sena Jeter Naslund, please visit her blog at: senajeternaslund.wordpress.com

For more reviews of the book, please follow the TLC Book Tour.

I received a copy of Adam & Eve by Sena Jeter Naslund from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.

Title: Domestic Violets
Author: Matthew Norman
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Publication Date: August 9, 2011
Paperback: 352 pages
ISBN: 978-0062065117
Genre: Fiction

From the Publisher:

Tom Violet always thought that by the time he turned thirty-five, he’d have everything going for him. Fame. Fortune. A beautiful wife. A satisfying career as a successful novelist. A happy dog to greet him at the end of the day.

The reality, though, is far different. He’s got a wife, but their problems are bigger than he can even imagine. And he’s written a novel, but the manuscript he’s slaved over for years is currently hidden in his desk drawer while his father, an actual famous writer, just won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His career, such that it is, involves mind-numbing corporate buzzwords, his pretentious archnemesis Gregory, and a hopeless, completely inappropriate crush on his favorite coworker. Oh . . . and his dog, according to the vet, is suffering from acute anxiety.

Tom’s life is crushing his soul, but he’s decided to do something about it. (Really.) Domestic Violets is the brilliant and beguiling story of a man finally taking control of his own happiness—even if it means making a complete idiot of himself along the way.

My Review:

Domestic Violets by Matthew Norman is an excitingly funny, yet tragically realistic debut about Tom Violet, a married man in his thirties who is encountering what is probably best described as the onset of mid-life blues.  Norman captures many of the sentiments felt by men and women alike who are at points in their lives where they ask questions such as: How did I end up with this kind of life?  Perhaps it is troubles with marriage, or an identity crisis stemming from aspirations to be as successful as one’s parents, or a job that is unrewarding, or co-workers who just make going to work dreadful at times.  Though these are fairly common feelings to encounter, Norman has christened Tom with each of these afflictions.  Readers will delight in Norman’s humor as Tom navigates his various predicaments with a not-so-nimble step that is rarely fully morally grounded.  Told through Tom’s eyes, it is easy to laugh along with some of his actions and cry in other circumstances, and with characters in Tom’s life so well developed, there is a lot of experience for everyone to relate to.  This is a story where most everyone should feel as though they know what Tom is experiencing as his trials are those that most experience at some point in life in one form or another.  I recommend Domestic Violets to all readers.

About the Author:

Matthew Norman is an advertising copywriter. He lives with his wife and daughter in Baltimore. Domestic Violets is his first novel.

To learn more about Matthew Norman, please visit his blog at: www.thenormannation.com

For more reviews of the book, please follow the TLC Book Tour.

I received an arc of Domestic Violets by Matthew Norman from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.