Thursday, April 23, 2015

Patty Pick for 4/23/15 is "Sweet Forgiveness" by Lori Nelson Spielman
















Sweet Forgiveness is aptly titled, as the book has a broad forgiveness theme. I loved the main character, Hannah Farr. Down-to-earth person who is a local television star and talk show host which sounds like an oxymoron. Hannah is from the South however, and she is one of those strong but vulnerable women that our muggy, hot locales seem to grow best. She just has not figured that out completely yet. 

Hannah has it all, it seems, from a wildly, popular television show in New Orleans to a handsome boyfriend who happens to be the mayor of the city. She has a strong circle of supportive friends and she can even bake. But, and there always is one, she has been estranged from her mother since Hannah was a teenager. There is a dark family secret that only a few people know. She wants it to stay a secret.  

Then trouble arrives in a younger, calculating new anchor named Claudia who wants
Hannah's job. After being ambushed on a disastrous episode of her show, Hannah decides to find her mother and to try to get the facts and forgive her for everything that happened after her parents split up. It's a long way to Michigan from Louisiana and Hannah does some soul-searching along the way. This sweet book teaches us all there is more than one side to the story and time can give us perspective and forgiveness. This book is expected to be published in June 2015 - just in time for some great vacation reading!         

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Patty Pick for 4/16/15 is "The Hypnotist's Love Story" by Liane Moriarty



Liane Moriarty knows how to tell a story. As our hypnotherapist, Ellen O'Farrell, sits at 
the dinner table with her new love interest, Patrick, she finds out he has a secret to share. Patrick is being stalked by his last girlfriend, Saskia, and she has shown up at their restaurant. She show up everywhere actually. Saskia can not let Patrick or his son, Jack, alone. She follows them by foot and by car. Ellen doesn't know it but Saskia is one of her patients. Saskia sneaks into the house of our too-trusting Ellen under another name just to check out Patrick's new girlfriend.

As Ellen's and Patrick's relationship deepens, Saskia's desperation to separate them goes into overdrive. She becomes more and more unhinged as their relationship becomes an
engagement. Ellen must overcome her own doubts that Patrick is really going to be around and has gotten over his feelings for Saskia. Even after he takes her to meet his parents and proposes, she doubts his feelings. 

All of these people come together with more secrets and lies one fateful night to a climax that will make them face all their needed decisions. You can count on Liane Moriarty to pull the strings and tidy it up before the end of the book, one of my favorite traits in authors. Liane Moriarty always tells a good story with some of my favorite fictional characters. Don't miss "The Husband's Secret" or "Big, Little Lies" by her also!

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Patty Pick for 4/9/15 is "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt


"The Secret History" by Donna Tartt was an interesting book. It kept my attention most of the time, but it is one of those books that you end up with a strong dislike for all of the characters. Maybe I'm a spoiled reader, in that, I like to pull for or plot against a character(s) in my books. That whole "good versus bad" theme resonates with me. 
In this book, they are all bad. I know we are supposed to feel sorry for the narrator, Richard, because he is misunderstood and poor but he makes his own choices. 

Richard goes off to a snotty college with rich kids that party, do drugs and sundry other normal college kids activities. What makes his group a little different is they manage to kill two people in the process. You are going to be reading frantically to find out if they will get caught in either case. 

This book has a strange beginning, middle and end, even though it was highly rated and touted. I think this novel is just so removed from my current life that I could not get into the storyline as much as some books. It is very well written with rich descriptions of the characters and their Greek-obsessed lives. Not my favorite book, but still looking forward to reading "The Goldfinch" by Donna Tartt in the future.  

Sunday, April 5, 2015

Happy Easter!

Hope you all are having a wonderful Easter with your family & friends. See you Thursday with a review of "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt!