Warm Up with a Trip to Summer Falls

Has the current deep freeze made you feel like you need a doctor?

Try Dr. Who, in Summer Falls.

Image from http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/summer-falls

Not only does the title recall higher temperatures and the book get a good review, this guest post received a very warm welcome when it initially published last May. In fact, it was the most-read post of 2013!

So, what are you waiting for? Summer?

Hello, Goodbye, I'm glad I stuck around

Goodbye Without Leaving by Laurie Colwin was published by Harper Perennial in 1991, and fter nearly a quarter of a century, it may be safe to say we (fickle readers) will never agree on it.

Here's my take: the first half of the book was all about characterization, and plot development just had to wait. I'm rather impatient, and I'll admit I almost didn't wait around for the action to pick up, but I'm glad I did. Once main character Geraldine, the former shake-your-thing back-up singing Shakette, got married (rather against her better judgement), got a job and had a child, things started to really move.

And, since Colwin had fleshed out the characters so that I really knew and liked them, I was rarin' to go along for the ride. When Geraldine's best friend (who was dating a married man) left to become a nun right before Geraldine's European returned to his home continent was a bit disappointing, but only because I liked those girls so much, I wanted to watch them have a little more fun. Not that nunneries aren't fun...

The point is, I found it easy to forgive Colwin for a lack of action at the beginning precisely because she spent the first several chapters letting me develop a relationship with her characters.

Of course, other reviewers have reported feeling the the complete opposite. Decide for yourself. (As if you had any other option, right?) I've made my decision, and I'll happily dive into another of Colwin's works, fiction or non-fiction.

What I particularly enjoyed about Goodbye and specifically, Geraldine's character, was her honesty in admitting her disappointment at not only not fulfilling life's expectations of her -  her, the good girl, who got good grades in a good school, with all the advantages - utterly failing to raise a perfectly manicured child and tuck a sharp corner in her slip-covered couch but also her honesty about failing herself, to be a self she could be proud of. (Hint: that self had nothing to do with slip-covers.)

Sigh. Well, speaking of unfulfilled potential, back to work I guess.

But first, maybe a stop at the library... what are you reading, anyway?

~Diane Stresing

Several Shades Better

You want to be like everybody else? Carry 50 Shades of Grey to the pool this summer. If you want to read a really good book - albeit one that might qualify for a chick-lit label - heft Diana Gabaldon's Outlander wherever you go. The author's storytelling skills guarantee a great deal of escape, and an equally well-written bit of smut only adds to the adventure.

Apparently, Outlander was a bit of escape for the author, who began writing it while she was a university professor. Degrees in zoology, marine biology, and ecology notwithstanding, Gabaldon managed to weave a tale that takes us on a time-travel jaunt from post-WWII England to the Scottish Highlands, circa 1743. Aye, and it's a bonny journey!

I highly recommend this book and won't spoil your enjoyment by going into plot details. In a nutshell, if you like adventure, romance, and botany, this is going to be one of your favorite books. If you'd like a well-crafted description of what a very strong female lead finds under an even stronger Scotsman's kilt, well, what are you waiting for? Go get Outlander. And read it quickly, without remorse -- there's a series of seven books waiting for you, with an eighth expected early in 2013. 

And you know all those silly typos and redundancies in Shades of Grey? You won't find 'em here. Enjoy!
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Better than #ShadesofGrey