Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah



I'm sure if this author had a profile on Facebook, Beaches would be her all time favorite movie, since the plot of this novel was pretty much just lifted from that movie. Only the excessive details are different. Firefly Lane is the kind of book you would want with you on a beach with a blended drink . . . lots of blended drinks.

Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany by Bill Buford

When I first began reading this book, I thought that it was going to be yet another account of the life and workings of a restaurant kitchen. While I thoroughly enjoy those types of books, Kitchen Confidential is a favorite, this book was so much more. Buford deconstructs Mario Batali's success, taking the reader from Batali's kitchen to England and, finally, to Italy where the journey switches course and becomes Buford's own. Especially interesting was the time the author spends in Italy learning the art of butchery. As one who gets more than a little queasy taking the neck and giblets out of the Thanksgiving turkey, I was suprised that I enjoyed those sections so much.

One of my friends found this book easier to listen to than to read, as Buford does a fine job of telling his own tale. I have to admit, he is a fan of minutia, so if you are prone to becoming bogged down in such stuff, think about listening to the audio book version.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

It isn't very often that I enjoy a work of fiction as much as I enjoyed Stockett's The Help. From the moment I met each of the three protagonists, Aibeleen, Minnie and Ms. Skeeter, I felt inexplicably drawn into their lives and I don't think I could read quickly enough, I wanted so much to know what happened next.

The Writing Class by Jincy Willett

There are a great many things I want to say about this book, but can't seem to put the words in any coherent order. First, thanks to Lita for suggesting it! Second, even though I have never been drawn to mysteries, The Writing Class was so engaging that I read the whole thing in two days. Granted, part of those two days were spent on a long drive home on a less than scenic highway, giving me uninterrupted read time. I would unabashedly recommend this book to pretty much anyone.

The cast of characters are a novelist who hasn't written, much less published in a very long time and currently teaches writing in a university extension program, and her students, each stereotypical and surprising at the same time. One of the students starts stalking the teacher, in increasingly creepy, but not horrific, ways: anonymous phone calls, harassing notes and reading responses to other students, unkind e-mails, unnerving use of Halloween masks. The teacher ignores the behaviors until one of her students dies in the search for the stalker's identity. It is then, that this self-avowed loner, has to rely on a community that she unintentionally built and of which she has no desire to be a part.

Bacchus and Me: Adventures in the Wine Cellar by Jay McInerney

I might have enjoyed this book more had I known even a little, tiny, eensy-weensy bit about French wine. Reading it, I felt like the foreign exchange student who wants to get the jokes, and laughs along when everyone else laughs, just so she won't appear like she's not understanding a darn thing that's happening and why in hell everyone else is laughing. In reality, though, nothing makes sense and she just feels awkward, a little bored and ready for the evening to be over so she can just go home and watch dvd's in her native language.

Water Witches by Chris Bohjalian
Surprise, surprise, another Bohjalian novel set in Vermont with a trial and a lawyer with a conflict between his job and his conscience, a strong group of women with unusual occupations and an adorable, highly gifted daughter. Hmmm. Why do I keep reading his books? I suppose because he's a really good story teller and in these days of facts and figures and "reality", we all need a good story just for it's own sake.

B Is for Beer by Tom Robbins


B is for Beer is a fairy tale about beer; two things I have great fondness for. I love the idea of fairies and magic and happily ever afters. I also love beer. That said, this book was a win-win for this reader. Yes, the humor is a forced clever in a Lake Wobegon, NPR sort of way, but that shouldn't be an issue if you are choosing to read a book called B is for Beer, whose main characters are a 6 year old girl, her philosopher uncle and the Beer Fairy.