Book Review: Remember Me by Cheryl Robinson

Tuesday 23 August, 2011 by 10 Comments

Title: Remember Me
Author: Cheryl Robinson
Publisher: NAL Trade
Publication Date: August 2, 2011
Hardcover: 400 pages
ISBN: 978-0451233387
Genre: Fiction

From the Publisher:

What happens when the loyalty that defines the friendship of two women is tested? For Mia and Danielle, finding the answer takes a lifetime.

Mia Marks was an independent black girl from inner-city Detroit with an eye for the hottest fashions and a penchant for the good life. Danielle King was a soft-spoken suburban white girl with artistic ambitions. When they met at an all-girls Catholic high school, neither expected to form a deep bond that transcended race and background and lasted for years. And neither could have anticipated the one indiscretion that destroyed their friendship.

Twenty years later, Danielle is a successful novelist living in Miami. Mia is a schoolteacher in Detroit. But they’re still on common ground. Both are unhappily married and raising teenage daughters, and both are far to proud to make the first move to reconnect-until tragedy brings them back together in the most unexpected way.

Now they must confront the past, discover its untold truths, and learn to survive the increasing complexities of their lives and of a friendship destined to endure.

My Review:

Remember Me by Cheryl Robinson is a heartrending and inspiring tale of friendship, guilt, tragedy and making amends.  Told in alternating time periods between the late 1970s/early 1980s and present day, Robinson captures her characters, Mia and Danielle, in their purest forms as they meet as teens and then later as they are brought back together as grown, married, and not particularly happy, women.  Readers will delight in the author’s tale of how Mia, brought up in Detroit, befriends Danielle, brought up in the suburbs, when they both enter a private, all-girls high school.  Believing that friendship has no bounds by the beautifully powerful bond that Robinson builds between these two girls, readers will find out the true limits of this bond when a moment of poor judgment destroys what they had mutually constructed.  In present day, a devastatingly heartbreaking accident provides the catalyst that ultimately causes these two women, now living separate, and disconnected lives, to overcome the barrier that had been erected so long in the past.  A truly inspiring story about the strength people draw from friendships, the forces that bring two people, whose bond was broken beyond what seemed possible to repair, back together, and the enduring power of redemption, I recommend Remember Me by Cheryl Robinson to readers looking for an emotionally moving drama.

About the Author:

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Cheryl Robinson has a Bachelor’s of Science from Wayne State University. Her love of writing was sparked while taking a fiction writing course as a college elective. She began her literary career by self-publishing two novels before acquiring a literary agent and then a publishing deal. Remember Me is her sixth novel with New American Library, an imprint of the Penguin Group.

To learn more about author Chery Robinson, please visit her website: cherylrobinson.com

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

I received a complimentary ARC of Remember Me by Cheryl Robinson 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.


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Book Review: The Girls of Murder City by Douglas Perry

Saturday 6 August, 2011 by 5 Comments

Title: The Girls of Murder City: Fame, Lust, and the Beautiful Killers Who Inspired Chicago
Author: Douglas Perry
Publisher: Penguin
Publication Date: July 26, 2011
Paperback: 320 pages
ISBN: 978-0143119227
Genre: Non-Fiction, History, True Crime

“The true story of the murderesses who became media sensations and inspired the musical Chicago…” The full summery of the book may be read on the Publisher’s website.

My Review:

The Girls of Murder City: Fame, Lust, and the Beautiful Killers Who Inspired Chicago by Douglas Perry gives a well-referenced account of the public circus that played out when a few infamous women were accused of murder during the 1920’s in Chicago.  Ultimately, these women would become the inspiration for the musical Chicago.  Perry takes readers through the time of prohibition in the gangland of Chicago where newspaper reporter, Maurine Watkins, has elevated two attractive women, Belva Gaertner and Beulah Annan, from simply alleged murderers to media sensations.  Through meticulously documented accounts, Perry has captured important facts and details that he weaves into an exciting, entertaining, and refreshing look at the time so often associated with Al Capone, organized crime and bootlegging.  While most of the information provided in Perry’s account is cited, he does appear to take some liberties with some of the women’s thoughts that would not seem to be a matter of record.  Nonetheless, for history fans, The Girls of Murder City provides detailed accounts of the roaring 20’s of Chicago and brings to life an important time in American history where, for a small group of murderesses, beauty weighed in over justice.

To learn more about author Douglas Perry and his books, please visit his website douglasperry.net

I received a complimentary copy of The Girls of Murder City by Douglas Perry from Penguin/Viking Books. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned novel.


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Book Review: The Rules of the Tunnel by Ned Zeman

Monday 1 August, 2011 by 8 Comments

Title: The Rules of the Tunnel: A Brief Period of Madness
Author: Ned Zeman
Publisher: Gotham
Publication Date: August 4, 2011
Hardcover: 320 pages
ISBN: 978-1592405985
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir

From the Publisher:

A journalist faces his toughest assignment yet: profiling himself. Zeman recounts his struggle with clinical depression in this high- octane, brutally funny memoir about mood disorders, memory, shock treatment therapy and the quest to get back to normal.

Thirty-five million Americans suffer from clinical depression. But Ned Zeman never thought he’d be one of them. He came from a happy Midwestern family. He had great friends and a busy social life. His career was thriving at Vanity Fair where he profiled adventurers and eccentrics who pushed the limits and died young.

Then, at age thirty-two, anxiety and depression gripped Zeman with increasing violence and consequences. He experimented with therapist after therapist, medication after medication, hospital after hospital- including McLean Hospital, the facility famed for its treatment of writers, from Sylvia Plath to Susanna Kaysen to David Foster Wallace. Zeman eventually went further, by trying electroconvulsive therapy, aka shock treatment, aka “the treatment of last resort.”

By the time it was over, Zeman had lost nearly two years’ worth of memory. He was a reporter with amnesia. He had no choice but to start from scratch, to reassemble the pieces of a life he didn’t remember and, increasingly, didn’t want to. His girlfriend was gone; friends weren’t speaking to him. His life lay in ruins. And the biggest question remained, “What the hell did I do?”

By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, profane and hopeful, The Rules of the Tunnel is a blistering account of Zeman’s twisted ride to hell and back-a return made possible by friends real and less so, among them the dead “eccentrics” he once profiled. It’s a guttural shout of a book, one that defies conventional notions about those with mood disorders, unlocks mysteries within mysteries, and proves that sometimes everything you’re looking for is right in front of you.

My Review:

The Rules of the Tunnel: My Brief Period of Madness by Ned Zeman is an informative, yet entertaining memoir covering the author’s own personal struggles with depression.  Zeman writes with a uniquely stylish sense of humor throughout his book, one of the more memorable examples for me being his description of experiences with Adderall.  In this intriguing style, Zeman tells how his career and his life as a whole went from success to near obliteration as he succumbed to an illness that, through all the therapy, hospitals and treatments, was only defeated with the help of his friends. Readers will find his style to be influenced by his writing career as a journalist and that his approach is quite honest and does not embellish or sugar-coat his experiences with clinical depression nor with mental illness in general.  Perhaps the saying that “laughter is the best medicine” is  best portrayed by Zeman’s work dealing with mental illness and having a few laughs while conveying his own personal experience with such a serious illness.  I recommend The Rules of the Tunnel to all readers and especially to those not familiar with depression and how it impacts the life of the afflicted.

About the Author:

Ned Zeman is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, where he has covered a wide range of subjects: crime, politics, Hollywood, and outdoor adventure. He has also written for Newsweek, Spy, GQ, Outside, and Sports Illustrated. Two of his articles have been finalists for the National Magazine Award, and he cowrote the screenplay for Sugarland, the forthcoming film starring Jodie Foster. He lives in Los Angeles.

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

I received an arc of TheRules of the Tunnel by Ned Zeman 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.


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Book Review: The Filter Bubble by Eli Pariser

Monday 30 May, 2011 by 9 Comments


Title: The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You
Author: Eli Pariser
Publisher: Penguin Press HC
Publication Date: May 12, 2011
Hardcover: 304 pages
ISBN: 978-1594203008
Genre: Cultural

From the Publisher:

An eye-opening account of how the hidden rise of personalization on the Internet is controlling-and limiting-the information we consume.

In December 2009, Google began customizing its search results for each user. Instead of giving you the most broadly popular result, Google now tries to predict what you are most likely to click on. According to MoveOn.org board president Eli Pariser, Google’s change in policy is symptomatic of the most significant shift to take place on the Web in recent years-the rise of personalization. In this groundbreaking investigation of the new hidden Web, Pariser uncovers how this growing trend threatens to control how we consume and share information as a society-and reveals what we can do about it.

Though the phenomenon has gone largely undetected until now, personalized filters are sweeping the Web, creating individual universes of information for each of us. Facebook-the primary news source for an increasing number of Americans-prioritizes the links it believes will appeal to you so that if you are a liberal, you can expect to see only progressive links. Even an old-media bastion like The Washington Post devotes the top of its home page to a news feed with the links your Facebook friends are sharing. Behind the scenes a burgeoning industry of data companies is tracking your personal information to sell to advertisers, from your political leanings to the color you painted your living room to the hiking boots you just browsed on Zappos.

In a personalized world, we will increasingly be typed and fed only news that is pleasant, familiar, and confirms our beliefs-and because these filters are invisible, we won’t know what is being hidden from us. Our past interests will determine what we are exposed to in the future, leaving less room for the unexpected encounters that spark creativity, innovation, and the democratic exchange of ideas.

While we all worry that the Internet is eroding privacy or shrinking our attention spans, Pariser uncovers a more pernicious and far- reaching trend on the Internet and shows how we can- and must-change course. With vivid detail and remarkable scope, The Filter Bubble reveals how personalization undermines the Internet’s original purpose as an open platform for the spread of ideas and could leave us all in an isolated, echoing world.

My Review:

I have always been leery of social networking, I share very little about myself and even less about my family, and after reading The Filter Bubble by Eli Pariser I will be sharing even less.  Pariser takes the reader through what he refers to as the “filter bubble” leading readers inside the workings of major social networking sights along with the major sites such as Google and Facebook. Pariser tells how these sites are creating individualised “filter bubbles” which control what each of us see on a daily basis according to our clicking preferences.  I was curious to see what would happen if each of my family members Googled the exact same thing and low and behold, we all had different links suited to our presumed preferences.  As a political scientist I happen to like a broad spectrum of international news, my husband, a scientist received less on international relations and my teens received an eclectic array of links.  This worries me as it does author Eli Pariser, as more and more people come to find relationships and information on the internet. Are we being introduced to a wide range of thoughts and views or only those carefully chosen for us, individualised by the “filter bubble” to create an environment were what we see mirrors ourselves?  Pariser’s thoughts, research and interviews are extremely thorough, insightful, and he offers up ways to have the “filter bubble” work for the individual.  I highly recommend The Filter Bubble to anyone who happens to use a computer, especially to those who are exceedingly fond of social media sites.

About the Author:

Eli Pariser is the board president and former executive director of MoveOn.org, which at five million members is one of the largest citizens’ organizations in American politics. During his time leading MoveOn, he sent 937,510,800 e-mails to members in his name. He has written op-eds for The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal and has appeared on The Colbert Report, Good Morning America, Fresh Air, and World News Tonight.

For more reviews of the book, please follow the book tour.

I received an copy of The Filter Bubble by Eli Pariser 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.


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Book Review: Island Girl by Lynda Simmons

Tuesday 24 May, 2011 by 14 Comments


Title: Island Girl
Author: Lynda Simmons
Publisher: Berkley Trade
Publication Date: December 7, 2010
Paperback: 448 pages
ISBN: 978-0425237243
Genre: Fiction

From the Publisher:

There are people who try hard to forget their problems. All Ruby wants to do is remember…

Ruby Donaldson has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s Disease, and she’ll be damned if she won’t straighten out her troubled family before she no longer knows how.

Ruby spent years fighting to hold on to the home her grandmother built on Ward’s Island. The only way she can ensure that her younger, mentally scarred daughter Grace can live there for the rest of her life is to convince her older daughter, Liz, to sober up and come home.

Ruby always thought she’d have a lifetime to make things right, but suddenly time is running out. She has to put her broken family back together quickly while searching for a way to deal with the inevitable- and do it with all the grit, stubbornness, and unstoppable determination that makes Ruby who she is…until she’s Ruby no longer.

My Review:

Some books stay with a reader longer than others and Island Girl by Lynda Simmons is an extraordinary beautiful and deeply emotional book about a mother’s love of her home, her family, and the battle against time.  Island Girl is most definitely not a beach read, rather it is an emotional story with the protagonist, Ruby Donaldson being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and suddenly must face reality and get her family sorted out before she no longer is capable of remembering them.  Ruby Donaldson is a character that works her way into the reader’s heart.  Her story is one that is not easily forgotten once the book is closed.  Simmons creates a family that is flawed, making the characters that more realistic, a picturesque setting, and an all too realistic scenario, which for this reader would be one of my worst fears made into reality.  Island Girl takes the reader deep into the life of a mother who knows her time to sort her family out is running out and she is desperate to correct the ways of her daughters and set things straight.  How to sum up a book of this magnitude?  Island Girl is a powerful look at a mother’s love, the strong determination of a mother, and the cold hard truth of Alzheimer’s disease.  I would highly recommend this book to all readers and book discussion groups, it is not a light read, nor at times an easy one, but Island Girl is most definitely worth reading.

About the Author:

Lynda Simmons is a writer by day, college instructor by night and a late sleeper on weekends. She grew up in Toronto reading Greek mythology, bringing home stray cats and making up stories about bodies in the basement. From an early age, her family knew she would either end up as a writer or the old lady with a hundred cats. As luck would have it, she married a man with allergies so writing it was.

With two daughters to raise, Lynda and her husband moved into a lovely two storey mortgage in Burlington, a small city on the water just outside Toronto. While the girls are grown and gone, Lynda and her husband are still there. And yes, there is a cat—a beautiful, if spoiled, Birman.

When she’s not writing or teaching, Lynda gives serious thought to using the treadmill in her basement. Fortunately, she’s found that if she waits long enough, something urgent will pop up and save her—like a phone call or an e-mail or a whistling kettle. Or even that cat just looking for a little more attention!

Further information about author Lynda Simmons may be found on her website.

For more reviews of the book, please follow the book tour.

I received an copy of Island Girl by Lynda Simmons 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.


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