Book Review: Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

Tuesday 26 July, 2011 by 8 Comments

Title: Rules of Civility
Author: Amor Towles
Publisher: Viking
Publication Date: July 26, 2011
Hardcover: 352 pages
ISBN: 978-0670022694
Genre: Historical Fiction

From the Publisher:

A sophisticated and entertaining debut novel about an irresistible young woman with an uncommon sense of purpose.

Set in New York City in 1938, Rules of Civility tells the story of a watershed year in the life of an uncompromising twenty-five-year- old named Katey Kontent. Armed with little more than a formidable intellect, a bracing wit, and her own brand of cool nerve, Katey embarks on a journey from a Wall Street secretarial pool through the upper echelons of New York society in search of a brighter future.

My Review:

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles is his fiction debut that touches on the theme of chance encounters and their role in shaping lives.  Towles has crafted very original characters in this witty tale of 1938 New York and the social layers that shape the people.  Painted against the backdrop of 1930s New York, Towles writes of aspirations, of love and of loss with such fluidity that readers will not be able to easily and knowingly set this novel down.  In Rules of Civility, Katey Kontent celebrates New Year’s Eve with her roommate in a lowbrow jazz bar when Tinker Grey, a well-to-do banker is seated nearby.  The chance meeting of Katey and Tinker at that bar leads to a long and oftentimes lonely journey for Katey as she is rapidly brought several rungs up the social ladder.  Through richly descriptive prose with vivid imagery, Towles crafts a compelling story that will have readers rooting for Katey as she rises in social circles and then feeling the losses Katey experiences.  In many ways, Towles will touch readers with very relatable characters and with emotions that bring to life Katey’s experiences; experiences that leave us all with questions about how we got where we are today.  For book discussion groups, I think Rules of Civility would make an excellent choice.

About the Author:

Amor Towles was born and raised just outside Boston, Massachusetts.  He graduated from Yale University and received an MA in English from Stanford University, where he was a Scowcroft Fellow.  He is a Principal at an investment firm in Manhattan, where he lives with his wife and two children.

To learn more about author Amor Towels, please visit his website.

I received a copy of Rules of Civility by Amor Towles from Viking Books to offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.


signature
Filed Under: Book Review Tagged With: , ,

Book Review: South of Superior by Ellen Airgood

Tuesday 28 June, 2011 by 10 Comments


Title: South of Superior
Author: Ellen Airgood
Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover
Publication Date: June 9, 2011
Harcover: 384 pages
ISBN: 978-1594487934
Genre: Fiction

From the Publisher:

A debut novel full of heart, in which love, friendship, and charity teach a young woman to live a bigger life.

When Madeline Stone walks away from Chicago and moves five hundred miles north to the coast of Lake Superior, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, she isn’t prepared for how much her life will change.

Charged with caring for an aging family friend, Madeline finds herself in the middle of beautiful nowhere with Gladys and Arbutus, two octogenarian sisters-one sharp and stubborn, the other sweeter than sunshine. As Madeline begins to experience the ways of the small, tight-knit town, she is drawn into the lives and dramas of its residents. It’s a place where times are tough and debts run deep, but friendship, community, and compassion run deeper. As the story hurtles along-featuring a lost child, a dashed love, a car accident, a wedding, a fire, and a romantic reunion-Gladys, Arbutus, and the rest of the town teach Madeline more about life, love, and goodwill than she’s learned in a lifetime.

A heartwarming novel, South of Superior explores the deep reward in caring for others, and shows how one who is poor in pocket can be rich in so many other ways, and how little it often takes to make someone happy.

My Review:

South of Superior by Ellen Airgood is the story of Madeline, a woman seeking understanding and meaning after experiencing a difficult early upbringing and after the recent loss of her adoptive mother, Emily. Airgood’s prose is well crafted and gives the characters real and flawed attributes, making this a believable story of life, love and loss. The descriptions of the small town, dealing with change from new arrivals, are exquisitely crafted and Airgood has truly captured the climate and surroundings of the south shore of Lake Superior in the upper peninsula of Michigan. The story gives a poignant contrast between the life Madeline has grown accustomed to in Chicago and the lives of the residents in the small town Michigan community of McAllaster, where she was born. Airgood takes readers on this journey with Madeline, who learns much about her life, discovers that as she encounters challenges along her path that she grows from each new challenge and ultimately, finds peace in her newly found life. I would recommend South of Superior to all readers and think this story would be an excellent book discussion group choice.

About the Author:

Ellen Airgood runs a diner in Grand Marais, Michigan.

To learn more about author Ellen Airgood or her book, please visit her website.

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

I received an arc of South of Superior by Ellen Airgood 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.


signature
Filed Under: Book Review, Book Tour Tagged With: , ,

Book Review: The Art of Forgetting by Camille Noe Pagán

Monday 13 June, 2011 by 11 Comments


Title: The Art of Forgetting
Author: Camille Noe Pagán
Publisher: Dutton Adult
Publication Date: June 9, 2011
Hardcover: 291 pages
ISBN: 978-0525952190
Genre: Fiction

From the Publisher:

A moving and insightful debut novel of great friendship interrupted. Can the relationship survive when the memories are gone?

Marissa Rogers never wanted to be an alpha; beta suited her just fine. Taking charge without taking credit had always paid off: vaulting her to senior editor at a glossy magazine; keeping the peace with her critical, weight-obsessed mother; and enjoying the benefits of being best friends with gorgeous, charismatic, absolutely alpha Julia Ferrar.

And then Julia gets hit by a cab. She survives with minor obvious injuries, but brain damage steals her memory and alters her personality, possibly forever. Suddenly, Marissa is thrown into the role of alpha friend. As Julia struggles to regain her memory- dredging up issues Marissa would rather forget, including the fact that Julia asked her to abandon the love of her life ten years ago- Marissa’s own equilibrium is shaken.

With the help of a dozen girls, she reluctantly agrees to coach in an after-school running program. There, Marissa uncovers her inner confidence and finds the courage to reexamine her past and take control of her future.

The Art of Forgetting is a story about the power of friendship, the memories and myths that hold us back, and the delicate balance between forgiving and forgetting.

My Review:

After pondering far too long on how to word my review I decided brevity will work best in this instance.  I agreed to read The Art of Forgetting by Camille Noe Pagán as part of a tour, and I am grateful I did, as readers will have the option to click the tour link below my review for other reviews of this book.  While the title enticed me and the cover is astonishingly gorgeous, the story simply was not one for me.  The Art of Forgetting is well written, and while I have enjoyed books where I did not care for the protagonist, I truly did not care for Marissa, Julia, nor any of the other cast of characters.  As a stroke survivor, I applaud Pagán for bringing to light brain injuries which happen all too often and are not mentioned enough.  I also believe the author did an exceptional job creating co-dependent relationships and then showing just how detrimental such relationships can be.  The Art of Forgetting has several life lessons to teach the reader and if I was a lot younger or my life had gone in a different direction, I may have enjoyed the book.  I strongly encourage readers to check out other reviews of The Art of Forgetting on the tour, as this is simply my opinion of a book that unfortunately was not for me.

About the Author:

CAMILLE NOE PAGÁN’s work has appeared in dozens of national publications and Web sites, including Fitness, Forbes.com, Glamour, Self, and Women’s Health. She lives with her family in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

To learn more about Camille Noe Pagán please visit her website.

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

I received an ARC of The Art of Forgetting by Camille Noe Pagán 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.


signature
Filed Under: Book Review, Book Tour Tagged With: , ,

Book Review: Buried Prey by John Sandford

Wednesday 11 May, 2011 by 9 Comments


Title: Buried Prey
Author: John Sandford
Publisher: Putnam
Publication Date: May 10, 2011
Hardcover: 400 pages
ISBN: 978-0399157387
Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Thriller

From the Publisher:

A house demolition provides an unpleasant surprise for Minneapolis-the bodies of two girls, wrapped in plastic. It looks like they’ve been there a long time. Lucas Davenport knows exactly how long.

In 1985, Davenport was a young cop with a reputation for recklessness, and the girls’ disappearance was a big deal. His bosses ultimately declared the case closed, but he never agreed with that. Now that he has a chance to investigate it all over again, one thing is becoming increasingly clear: It wasn’t just the bodies that were buried. It was the truth.

My Review:

Buried Prey by John Sandford marks his 21st Prey series book and it is as thrilling as, if not more so than, the first in Sandford’s series.  Buried Prey will take the reader back to Lucas Davenport’s first case as a detective, 25 years ago and will keep Davenport and the readers wondering if the wrong man was sent to prison for the murder of the Jones girls in 1985.  The book alternates between present day and 1985 without a hitch, the plot flows smoothly, and with Sandford’s exceptional descriptions, details, and characters down to the slightest nuance, I have often puzzled whether this is a direct result of the writer’s real life experiences as a reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer-Press prior to his first novel. Sandford still has what it takes to keep readers up until the wee hours of the morning trying to get one step ahead of Davenport.  For those who enjoy an extremely well written, intense suspense novel, filled with exceptional characters, look no further than John Sandford’s series.  I highly recommend Buried Prey and eagerly await his next book.

To learn more about author John Sandford and his book please visit his website and his Facebook page.

I received a complimentary ARC of Buried Prey by John Sandford from G.P. Putnam’s and Sons to offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.


signature
Filed Under: Book Review Tagged With: ,

Book Review: The Violets of March by Sarah Jio

Monday 9 May, 2011 by 30 Comments


Title: The Violets of March
Author: Sarah Jio
Publisher: Plume
Publication Date: April 26, 2011
Paperback: 304 pages
ISBN: 978-0452297036
Genre: Fiction

From the Publisher:

A heartbroken woman stumbled upon a diary and steps into the life of its anonymous author.

In her twenties, Emily Wilson was on top of the world: she had a bestselling novel, a husband plucked from the pages of GQ, and a one-way ticket to happily ever after.

Ten years later, the tide has turned on Emily’s good fortune. So when her great-aunt Bee invites her to spend the month of March on Bainbridge Island in Washington State, Emily accepts, longing to be healed by the sea. Researching her next book, Emily discovers a red velvet diary, dated 1943, whose contents reveal startling connections to her own life.

A mesmerizing debut with an idyllic setting and intriguing dual story line, The Violets of March announces Sarah Jio as a writer to watch.

My Review:

The Violets of March by Sarah Jio is a beautiful story surrounding the complex issues of loss, hope, love, family, and secrets. Emily Watson has been in a writer’s slump for the past eight years and to compound her issues, she has just signed her divorce papers, leaving her stunned and wondering what to do next. Fortunately her best friend Annabelle has suggested she go take some time for herself and Emily’s great-aunt Bee has welcomed her back to Bainbridge Island, Washington for the month of March. After a long ten-year absence from Bainbridge Island, Emily is eager to reunite with her great-aunt and heal. Little does Emily know just how much she will gain from her month on Bainbridge Island. Jio has created a beautiful backdrop for her book and when she has her protagonist stumble across a journal written in March of 1943, a bit of a mystery emerges. The story alternates from present day Bainbridge Island to 1943 Bainbridge Island told through the journal pages of Ester. Jio’s characters are quite interesting and I would have enjoyed getting to know them in deeper detail, yet the book is still an intriguing one, and the story makes for a wonderful summer read. I would recommend The Violets of March to any reader looking for a charming book to escape into for a few hours.

About the Author:

Sarah Jio is a frequent contributor to major magazines, including Real Simple, Glamour, Cooking Light, and Redbook, and is also the health and fitness blogger for Glamour.com. She lives in Seattle with her family.

I received a complimentary copy of The Violets of March by Sarah Jio from the author to offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.


signature
Filed Under: Book Review Tagged With: ,
«Older Posts