Made For You and Me by Caitlin Shetterly

Every once in a while, you read a book that comes along at just the right time. Just when you need it. And for me, this is one of them.

Caitlin and Dan are a newlywed couple. Caitlin is a freelance writer, and Dan is a freelance photographer. When opportunity knocks for them in L.A. in 2008, they jump at the chance. Packing up their small car with all of their belongings, a cat, and a 90 lb dog, they make the cross-country journey from Maine to California. For them, the recession isn’t really real. They’re working, living the dream. It’s about to get real with a vengeance.

Once they get to California, things don’t go according to the plan. They’re forced to move multiple times. Dan’s work is drying up. And surprise! They’re expecting, and Caitlin is so sick it’s impossible to work for the first four months. Things really hit bottom for the couple a couple of weeks after their son was born, and there really was no work and no money coming in. They had just about enough to make the rent for one more month, and then what?

Caitlin got on the phone and started making calls, pitching stories. As luck would have it, her blog and radio stories about their trip west, pregnancy, and struggles to make in L.A. had caught on, and now, her bosses were anxious for more. Yay! It was something, but it wasn’t going to keep a roof over the family’s head. So, once more packing up the car, now with a two month old infant in tow, they made their way back across the country to stay with Caitlin’s mom. Along the way, Caitlin recorded and filed her stories.

Things don’t seem to improve much while staying at Mom’s house – work is scarce, old family wounds are reopened. Caitlin is brutally honest in sharing her family’s experience through this time – the stress on the marriage and other relationships, the isolation one feels when going through major economic collapse, the feelings of failure at having to move back home, watching all of your hopes and dreams come crashing down around you as you just try to get through this one day without one more disaster.

But the book isn’t just about one family’s experience with this recession. Caitlin learned some things along the way. She learned about the kindness of strangers. She learned about finding grace in the smallest of everyday things. She learned gratitude, and the joy of repairing what had been a somewhat rocky relationship with her mom. And she never gave up. When Dan was down, she picked him up, and when Caitlin was down, he picked her up, and they both clung tightly to the belief that somehow, this was going to all work out.

I was moved by the book, by Caitlin’s pluckiness, her courage for airing her family’s “dirty laundry” on the net and on the air, and her honesty. We’re all going through this recession, and let’s face it – some days are just so damn hard. Some days , it just feels easier to give up and walk away. And then you pick up a book that reminds you that strangers can be kind, and that there are still many blessings in your every day, and that your dreams will take you to places you never imagined. Thanks Caitlin.

The Hidden Man by David Ellis

I just love a book that makes me say “Ooh, didn’t see THAT coming!”, and with “The Hidden Man” you get that and a lot more.

Jason Kolarich is a young, successful lawyer. He’s struggling to come to terms with a tragedy that’s threatening to take over his life. When a boyhood friend is charged with murder and asks that Jason be his lawyer, old loyalties prompt him to take on the case. It soon becomes clear that not only will he have to revisit some unpleasant events of the past, but also try to solve a 30-year-old murder.

Lots of delicious twists and turns will keep you guessing right up to the end. David Ellis’s writing reminds me a bit of early Grisham, and I mean that in the most complimentary way.

Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped in Chocolate by Brad Warner

See, this is what happens when you work in Libraryland. You often come upon books that you might never have read were it not for finding it on the way to helping someone find something else. And with a title like that, well, count me in!

So, how exactly does a Zen master deal with a turbulent year that includes not only the deaths of his mom and grandmother, but also the breakup of his marriage, all the while crisscrossing the country giving lectures, leading retreats, and trying to figure out what the heck is going on with his day job?

Well, he continues his Zen practice, continues teaching, and along the way explodes a lot of the myths about meditation and Buddhism. This is kind of the anti Eat, Pray, Love, if you will. Brad shows us that even Zen masters are human, and have the same feelings, temptations, and downfalls as the rest of us, and that Buddhism isn’t some magical solution to all of our problems, but a practical way to deal with them when they come up.

I’m not going to start chanting or anything like that- too much of a rebel to go back to organized religion. But I may pick up Brad’s other books. He’s kinda making sense to me.

 

 

Swamplandia by Karen Russell

The Bigtree family’s in trouble. The family owns and runs Swamplandia!, a gator wrestling theme park in Florida. They’ve recently encountered some major competition, in the form of a The World of Darkness, a mainland theme park. When Hilola, family matriarch and headlining act at the park dies, it seems that Swamplandia is doomed.

As if that weren’t bad enough, 17-year-old brother Kiwi has taken it upon himself to help rescue the family from impending foreclosure by taking a job with the competition. Sister Ossie is in love with a guy called the Dredgeman who may be a ghost. Chief Bigtree, patriarch, has gone on one of his “ventures” to the mainland, leaving thirteen year old Ava and her sister in charge of Swamplandia, 98 alligators, and a bear. When Ossie takes off  with her “boyfriend”, Ava sets out on a perilous journey through the swamps to find her.

Kind of a cross between McCammon’s “Boy’s Life” , with its child’s viewpoint of what may or may not be real, and Kinsolver’s “The Poisonwood Bible”, this one was thoroughly enjoyable.

No Time For Goodbye by Linwood Barclay

Imagine: you are fourteen years old. You wake up in the morning, and nobody else is home. Hmm. Maybe a little strange, but you don’t give it too much thought until you find out your brother didn’t show up for school. You try calling home again, but again there’s no answer. Your mom, dad, and brother have all disappeared without a trace.

Fast forward twenty-five years. Cynthia is now married, and she and her husband Terry have an eight year old daughter. It’s been difficult for Cynthia to live with the disappearance of her family, and she has never given up hope that even after all this time, there may be someone out there who has some information. After an appearance on a national television news program, strange things start happening that make Terry start to wonder if his wife is losing her sanity. When people start to die, it becomes crucial to find the truth, but there’s someone out there who’s got unfinished business with Cynthia, and now her whole family is in danger.

There’s a couple of authors I always pick up because I know that they’re consistently good reads, and Linwood Barclay is one of them. Much like Harlan Coben, Mr. Barclay’s stories are very believable with good characters and great plots, and if you’re in the mood for a little suspense, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

The Terror of Living by Urban Waite

Relentless. That’s the action in this book.

Hunt, an ex-convict,  has been living north of Seattle for about twenty years, raising horses with his wife, and from time to time, taking on the occasional “side” job. When one of his jobs goes terribly wrong, he now finds himself on the run.

Deputy sheriff Bobby Drake is a young man living in the shadows of his father’s crime. Now, in trying to live down his father’s reputation, he finds himself not only searching for Hunt, but also learning that the choices that people make aren’t always clear-cut.

Grady is the hit man hired to kill Hunt after the deal goes bad. He is a cold-blooded killer who really enjoys his work. Not since No Country for Old Men have we seen a killer like this one.

I couldn’t put this one down! Great effort for a first time novel. Can’t wait to see what the author has in store for us next.

Cookbook love

I don’t know about you, but I love cookbooks! As a young wife and mother, I’d bring home stacks and stacks of them from the library, just to look at and maybe try out a new recipe or two. The cookbook section is still my favorite part of the library, and whenever I’m at the bookstore, it’s always the first section I visit. Kind of like with decorating books (another favorite!), it’s fun to look at the pictures, read the ingredients, and imagine the possibilities.

Fast forward a bit to the present day. I still love to look at cookbooks – heck, I even helped launch one. I’ve got a couple of shelves dedicated to them. Actually cooking? Well, that’s pretty much fallen to the wayside. Add some major life changes, stir in an insanely busy schedule, and voila! This chica hasn’t used her oven in almost two years. Somehow, the combo of exhaustion,  a huge change in the diet, and not wanting to take the time to cook for myself has just made it really unappealing. There’s planning, then shopping, then the cooking, and the clean up. When did it all become such a chore?

It didn’t used to be. In our family, cooking is an art form, an expression of love. Everyone’s involved, everyone’s got their specialty, and on holidays and special occasions, the spread is pretty spectacular (And we’ve got pictures to prove it! We do love our food pictures!).  Even on the daily home front, it wasn’t a chore (ok, maybe the dishes!). It made me feel good to know that our family would be together at the dinner hour, with a nice meal. It was part of how I nurtured them. It was part of creating Home.

So, here I was, looking through this stack of cookbooks that I brought home from work. And it got me thinking about all these things, and it dawned on me. I need to make Home for me. The last few years have been all about survival, working, just trying to get from point A to point B. All work and no fun has made this girl dull, and the Palace has become just a pit stop. I haven’t made Home just for me.  A bit of a creative intervention is needed ASAP to get out of this rut I’ve been in. It’s time to put some of that cookbook love to work!

Mr. Hooligan by Ian Vasquez

As a young man in Belize City, Riley James was a runner for the Monsanto Brothers. He sent messages, did pick ups and drop offs for them. But, one fateful night, he made a mistake that put him in their debt, and that left 2 men dead. Now, he’s a real professional, experienced in outrunning the Coast Guard on the drug runs he makes for the organization, and he makes good money. But he wants out. He’s bought a bar, and with his best friend Harvey, they’ve built a thriving business. He’s met the woman he wants to marry. So, one more run for the Monsanto’s, and he’s out.

Unfortunately for Riley though, it’s not going to be that easy. The deal goes horribly wrong, and Riley must face the truth that the people he’s put his trust in cannot be trusted. Beautifully written, and with lots of delicious twists and turns. Mr. Vasquez is definitely an author I’ll keep my eye on!

The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady by Elizabeth Stuckey-French

Fifty years ago, Dr. Wilson Spriggs gave Marylou Ahearn a radioactive cocktail. And now, she’s going to kill him.

The cocktail was part of a secret governmental study, and it was given to Marylou and many others, without their consent. They were told that it was a vitamin drink, and that it was good for them. Unfortunately, there were some tragic results.

Marylou has never forgiven Dr. Spriggs, who has now retired to Florida. Once Marylou finds out where he and his family live, she changes her name,  moves down to Tallahassee, and begins to insinuate herself into the family’s life. Her plan is more complicated to execute than she’d thought it would be, and things don’t turn out quite the way she’d planned.

Full of dark humor, this one will definitely make you laugh, and probably tug at a few heart-strings too.

The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen

Josey is 27 years old, and leads a very sheltered life. She doesn’t get out much, only to chauffeur her domineering mother to doctors appointments or luncheons. She finds comfort in her paperback romance novels that she reads inside her closet, where she has stockpiled all kinds of sweet treats.

Della Lee is on the run from her boyfriend, and takes refuge inside of Josey’s closet. Della Lee has had a long string of bad luck and has made some bad decisions. In return for being able to hide in Josey’s closet, Della Lee decides that she’s going to help Josey to spread her wings, and she becomes like a fairy godmother, offering advice in her own no-nonsense way.

As Josey makes new friends and romance blooms, Josey’s mother becomes increasingly upset. Long held family secrets begin to come out, and Josey’s previously uneventful life is rapidly changing.

Full of wonderful characters, this story has become a book club favorite. I love how Ms. Addison Allen weaves a little bit of magic into her stories, making us remember that, if we look for it, there’s magic in our own lives too.