Book Review: Sarah’s Key

First and foremost, I must thank author Tatiana de Rosnay, who educated me on the despicable Vel d’Hiv event.  Like the characters in the book, I had no idea this happened.  In July of 1942, French police and French buses – not German – rounded up thousands of Jews in Paris while French citizens turned…

Read More

Book Review: Room

The premise behind Room is creepy and unnerving.  Emma Donoghue has created a world inside a garden shed – the only world 5-year-old Jack knows.  Jack cannot comprehend that he was born in captivity after his mother was abducted and locked in a cramped space for seven years.  The story was disturbing and believable in…

Read More

Book Review: Bossypants

It took me no time at all to read Tina Fey’s new book.  This makes me sad because I loved it dearly and wish there was more of it.  If you didn’t pick this up from her writing/acting on Mean Girls, Saturday Night Live, or 30 Rock, she is a very funny lady.  Though, if…

Read More

Book Review: Dreams of Joy

I’m sure you gathered from all the book reviews that I’m a pretty big reader.  Well, that love of the written word didn’t just pop outta nowhere, more like it’s stitched into my DNA.  I share this affection for books with my mother, who read to me each and every night growing up.  In fact,…

Read More

Book Review: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

I didn’t want to like it, I really didn’t.  People evangelize Dave Eggers’ work like it was penned by the Good Lord, himself.  I didn’t want to drink the Kool-Aid.  I’m better than that, I thought.  My tastes are more discriminating and I will not succumb to a mere craze in the literary world.  He…

Read More

Book Review: Kitchen Confidential

I had read bits and pieces of Anthony Bourdain’s memoir before, so I knew what I was getting into. There are so many “does this really happen?!” moments that I believe actually ring true. Does the rampant drug use behind the kitchen doors of the finest restaurants bother me? A bit, yes. Did I still…

Read More

Book Review: Something Borrowed/Something Blue

My idea of a beach read is a collection of raunchy essays.  Unlike most girls, I’m not one for chick lit, but I had heard enough raves about these books that I figured I would pick them up before going to an advanced screening of the film adaptation I had RSVP’d to (which I thought…

Read More

Book Review: The Book of Joe

Some say “you can never go home,” but what if you have to?  When Joe returns to the small Connecticut town he thought he left behind forever, he must face all the people and places he disparaged in his best-selling novel.  Once home, he learns you can run but you can’t hide from the problems…

Read More

Book Review: Father of the Rain

Lily King‘s novel follows the turbulent father/daughter relationship of Gardiner and Daley Amory as it spans across 40 years.  Nobody seems to think that perfectly WASPy Gardiner’s raging alcoholism is a problem, but it certainly takes a toll on Daley and all in close proximity to her father.  The author tracks Daley as she tries…

Read More

Book Review: The Kitchen House

My Mom sent me back from our ski trip with this book and told me to start reading it immediately because she knew I would love it.  She was right.  The book follows Lavinia, an Irish girl brought to America aboard a Virginia tobacco farmer’s ship at the age of 7.  With no family, she…

Read More