Saturday, March 10, 2012

Three Recent Reads

1. Fairy Tale Interrupted By Rosemarie Terenzio
I was really thrown off by the title of this book when I first came across it.  I had no clue what it was about. I thought maybe it was a fictional love story.  But then I read the bio, and found it was written by the personal assistant and friend of JFK Jr and his wife Carolyn, and covered the five years before their tragic deaths in a plane crash. This book is not scandalous at all, nothing in it could become tabloid fodder, and it does not read like a book from someone who is trying to cash in on their relationship with a celebrity. This is just a story of what it was like to be best friends and an employee of a man and wife who just happened to be American Royalty. I loved reading about the stress that went into planning their secret Georgia wedding, and I cried when she wrote about finding out she had lost her two best friends in a plane crash. Plus, I'm kind of obsessed with the cover photo of JFK Jr, Carolyn, and their dog Friday. Beautiful just beautiful. 

 2. A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty by Joshilyn Jackson
I have read several books by Joshilyn Jackson, and because I love her style oh so much, I pre-ordered this book months before it came out. Which was a really bad idea, because amazon does not charge you for a pre-order until a book actually is available. And since I have the memory span of a fly,  and our bank account occasionally gets as low as 10 cents, I am really lucky this book did not bounce our bank account when it released. This book is a mystery about a household of women who find the bones of a baby buried under a tree in their yard. I realize that sounds incredibly morbid, but it is not really that morbid I promise! What I love most about this book is it is not just a mystery, it really dives deep into the thoughts and the lives of the three, Southern, women characters involved (the author even writes some from the perspective of a stroke victim).  It is just a really touching novel and a interesting mystery that is not answered to the very end. 


3. A Tree Grows Brooklyn by Betty Smith
 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is of course, a classic. Although I had heard of this book, and I had seen it sitting on my mother's bookshelf, I had no clue what it was about. A few weeks ago, I was browsing audio books on iTunes, so I could find something to listen to on my way to work, to keep L.A. traffic from stealing my soul. Not only did it keep traffic from stealing my soul, it kept me entertained too! I fell in love with the detailed descriptions of Brooklyn life in the 1910's, and I related to Francey Nolan's conflicting feelings of love & shame toward her father. In a way, I think I would have liked to have been Francey Nolan. This book is just the perfect mixture of sadness and hopefulness.  

Song of the Day: Breakfast at Tiffany's by Deep Blue Something

5 comments:

  1. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn has been on my reading list forever now. Must read.

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  2. All of these look awesome. I need new book ideas with the weather getting warmer & the ability to lay outside getting better & better! :) I love the new look in here. Do you think we could work something out & you could do a custom design for me? I will pay you! I want something cool for the upcoming week to celebrate one year out! :)

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  3. See if you can find "The Walls Came Tumbling Down" by Babs H. Deal. Sounds similar to your book #2. And the author is from Scottsboro.

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  4. When I was reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, I was living in the neighborhood that the book takes place in.... It was so strange to think, "Hey! That street is two blocks from me!"

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  5. I love curling up with a good book. Grown-Up Kind of Pretty sounds intriguing. I like a good mystery. I'll have to check it out.

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