Book Review: Here I Go Again

Ever had one of those days where you just wish you could take it all back? A real do-over?

There are some days I wish I could do that with this pregnancy. Don't get me wrong- I have LOVED so, so much of it. And have had a pretty darn easy time of it minus the exhaustion and sausage feet. I just wish I could go back and memorialize more of it. I have done a CRAP job of keeping track of everything, from symptoms, to weekly weight gain, to my general state of mind throughout the process. As we're starting to wrap up (35wks tomorrow!), I'm already getting nostalgic for this pregnancy, and it's not even over...

While not quite the same, though along the lines of a do-over, Jen Lancaster's latest book Here I Go Again addresses the age-old fantasy of returning back in time to "get things right". The main character is the bitchy high school cheerleader, who after attending her 20-yr high school reunion, realizes that maybe the way she's been living her life isn't all that it's cracked up to be. I'm not gonna lie- I had a hard time getting into this one. I really did feel put-off by Lissy's antics, and while I realize that it was the intended reaction to her, I never developed the sense of sympathy and desire for her to work it all out. Who knows... maybe I'm just too scarred from my own junior high and high school bullies to give her a break? :)

The book does a great job of making you root for the ancillary characters though, which was its saving grace for me. Between Lissy's dogged father, the ex-jock husband, the life-coach guiding her journey, and the music-geek across the street, the supporting cast really made the whole thing worth it to me. The book is overall a light, quick read, and a nice distraction from life for a few nights- grab it when you need to escape from a stressful day at work! (and I promise, there is only one IF reference, but it doesn't sting badly)

Check out the discussion that Blog Her has going for the book... there should be some interesting discussions over the next couple of weeks!

This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own.

Book Review: Reflected In You

So!

I was super excited to find out I'd been selected to be a part of another campaign through the BlogHer book club- this time reading the novel "Reflected in You", by Sylvia Day. This happens to be the second installment of the Crossfire series, which tells the story of the relationship and romance between Eva and Gideon, as they meet and fall in love in New York City.

I had heard some hype about the books earlier this year, as the first novel (Bared to You) was released in the midst of the 50 Shades craze, and this series definitely fits into that same genre. After receiving the book (and the 1st as well, so that I'd be properly caught up!), I immediately noticed that the covers, I have to assume intentionally, mimicked the iconic 50 Shades covers, and groaned. (though marketing associates everywhere cheered that their ploy worked!) While I enjoyed those for what they were- smutty mindless entertainment, I was really hoping for more with these two books.

They delivered. While still reminiscent of the romance between Ana and Christian, I was immediately much more drawn to Eva and Gideon as characters. While still flawed and overbearing, I felt Gideon came across as much more endearing, and genuine in his affection for Ana, more of true relationship with give and take rather than the domineering I OWN YOU feel from 50. Even better? Eva has a backbone. As long as you don't give her sexy eyes. Then the backbone melts away. Both characters are survivors of childhood sexual abuse, and their relationship is not only a love story, but the story of their healing those wounds and closing the door on the past.

And yeah, the sexy time was hot :) So bonus there. Let's be honest, you're not going to read this series for much more than the lusty feelings it invokes, so it better do it well. And it does. Without leaving the women's rights movement in the dust. The only real flaw I found with these two books? The final installment doesn't come out until *after* the mini is born in 2013... Sounds about right to read near my <cough cough> 6-wk post-partum check up, eh???

This was a paid review for the BlogHer Book Club but all opinions expressed are my own.

Book Review- What Alice Forgot (& still ktfu)

Still pregnant until proven otherwise!

The FRERs are definitely getting darker, but it seems like the cheapest have stayed the same for a bit. Hmmm.  The beta is in the morning, so we'll see what we see!

I am still in shock that MY PEE did this

I am a smidge worried I may be developing a late onset ohss, but it could just be normal blood and eating too much bribery food (add red velvet cupcakes and Ben and Jerry's new flavor peanut butter world to the list of embie-staying powers!) I should weigh myself in the am.

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So!

I was selected to be a part of another BlogHer book club! This time we read "What Alice Forgot" by Liane Moriarty. It tells the tale of a 39-year old divorced mother of three  who takes a nasty spill at the gym, only to wake up thinking she was still 29, pregnant with her first, and blissfully in love with her husband. It is mostly told from Alice's perspective, but also artfully weaves in letters written by her sister and stand-in grandmother to add perspective.

Honestly, this was not really the best book to read during an IVF two week wait. The storyline involving Alice's sister is centered around  numerous IVF failures and repeated baby loss. This made the first half of the book (and much of the second) very difficult and emotional to read. The author  clearly had insight into the IF world- she truly captures the chaeracters emotions, reactions, and others reactions to her absolutely perfectly. Too perfectly, almost, so it stung. Great idea to read while hopped up on IVF meds yourself, right?

The second half really did rescue the novel. Alice's growth was amazing, and really made you wonder which version of herself she was better off living- the jaded divorce with everything under her strict control, or the carefree and careless twenty-something who admittedly had some growing up to do.

I am torn on whether to recommend this one. It is, overall, a great book. Even if it took me a while to get hooked. But if you have some hefty IF and baby loss triggers? Maybe not. I wouldn't put yourself through that.

This was a paid review for the BlogHer Book Club but all opinions expressed are my own.

Book Review- The Rules of Inheritance

I would like to take a quick break from my regularly scheduled meloncholy attitude (more on that tomorrow) and do a book review for BlogHer. I was fortunate enough to make the cut for yet another book review for the Blog Her Book Club, and this time? They knocked it out of the park.

This was a paid review for the BlogHer Book Club but all opinions expressed are my own.

If this is to be part of my narrative, I want to feel every minute of it. 

The Rules of Inheritance, by Claire Bidwell Smith, is worth every last bit of heartache you feel while reading it. It is an auto-biographical story about the author's struggle coming to terms with the loss of each of her parents to cancer, an orphan before she turns thirty. While the book jumps around in time, each section is focused on a stage in the grieving process, until it ends with a chapter on acceptance.

You are immediately drawn to Claire and all of her imperfections- her attraction to the "wrong" boys, her binge drinking, her apathy towards focus in life. She is a product of the environment of loss she grew up with starting in high school, and each out of control behaviour is a defense mechanism against feeling the true pain of loss and solitude. I swear, each tale from her life leaves you heartbroken for the girl who had to go through the most difficult years of her life alone, or darned close to it.

While it could have been confusing, the skipping time lines really did work, and added an almost cliffhanger-like quality, leaving you desperate to keep reading to finish each storyline.

For all that I disliked the previous BlogHer Book Club selection, I loved this one tremendously.

Seriously- read it. You will NOT regret it.

(It also had a scene in an LA restaurant I frequented when I lived there and still do when I visit, C&O Trattoria- like Claire says, the garlic knots are ridiculous!)


(also, anyone want my copy of The Weird Sisters? First one to comment gets it.)

Book Review- The Weird Sisters

Let me first apologize that this is the first post I've written in pretty much forever... FET's are boring. Me whining about being depressed is boring. Pretty much the only non-boring has been the fact that my last lupron shot was yesterday, and that I'm leaving for a trip to Colorado tomorrow... Woot! More on all that later. For now, I got to do my first book review for BlogHer! Quite exciting. So please bear with my- it's the first I've written since high school :)


This was a paid review for the BlogHer Book Club but all opinions expressed are my own.


The Weird Sisters, by Eleanor Brown, is the story of three sisters who return to their hometown under the pretense of nursing their ailing mother during her cancer treatments. While the sisters are not quite what you would call "close", they each share a love of reading and, to some degree, the college town they call home. Their father is an English Lit professor, devoting his career to the works of Shakespeare. As a result, he most often quotes plays rather than expressing thoughts of his own, a habit the sisters take to as well. 


While the journey home is seemingly altruistic, each sister has a deeper, more self-centered motive for returning home. Rosalind, the eldest, is loath to follow her fiance to a post-doc in England. Bianca, the attention seeking middle child, has been fired from her position at a New York City law firm after her embezzlement was discovered. Cordelia, the youngest, has grown tired of her nomadic hippie lifestyle and has returned home to gestate her unplanned pregnancy. 


Let's cut to the chase- I enjoyed the prose, an unusual first person plural (all three sisters share the first person point of view simultaneously). It made it feel as though the story was a  look back in time, to a place where they all had significant troubles in their lives but could not trust each other enough to open up. At least yet. I did not, however, enjoy the rest of the book. I pretty much wanted to smack Bianca in the face for whining about how she was going to pay back her NYC law firm, while lusting after the town priest and seducing a professor into cheating on his wife with her. Not. Sympathetic. At. All. And don't get me started on Cordelia- who never seems to care enough to let the father of her child know that it exists. Oh! And better, she wants to keep the child to have something that's all her own- sounds like once of those high school clubs, to me. Rose was ok, but I kindof wanted to shake her hard and make her be her own person for once. 


Overall, this one was just not my cup of tea. I don't have sisters, so i couldn't relate to the relationships between them. I don't know a whole lot of Shakespeare, so I was just annoyed at what came off as pretentious overuse of literary quotes. 


I really wanted to like the book. I just didn't have it in me.