Waiting on Wednesday #2: The Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that highlights soon-to-be-published books.  This week's selection is...

The Corner of Bitter and Sweet, by Robin Palmer
Publication date: June 27, 2013
Publisher: Speak
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Gilmore Girls meets Postcards from the Edge crossed with L.A. Candy!

Sixteen-year-old Annabelle Jacobs never asked to be famous, but as the daughter of Janie Jacobs, one of the biggest TV stars in the world, she is. Growing up is hard enough. Having to do it in public because your mother is a famous actress? Even harder. When your mom crashes and burns after her DUI mug shot is splashed across the internet? Definitely not fun. Then your mom falls for a guy so much younger than she that it would be more appropriate for you to be dating him? That’s just a train wreck waiting to happen.

From Robin Palmer, author of Geek Charming and Wicked Jealous, this is a novel about the most complicated relationship a girl ever has: that with her mother.




What are you waiting on?

On This, Your Third Birthday

Dear Girl Child,

I have no idea how you turned three years old today.  I could have sworn you were born just a few months ago and that we were still very far away from you getting any older.  

And now you're a sweet little person.

You love books (yay!), Team Umizoomi, and Mommy snuggles.  You love trains, balls, and running around the house.  You're not a big fan of hair bows and you HATE having your hair brushed.

But you do love cutting your own hair.

Twice.

Silly beast.

Happy birthday, sweet girl.  I love you very much.

The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl, by Timothy Egan

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The dust storms that terrorized the High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression were like nothing ever seen before or since. Timothy Egan’s critically acclaimed account rescues this iconic chapter of American history from the shadows in a tour de force of historical reportage. 

Following a dozen families and their communities through the rise and fall of the region, Egan tells of their desperate attempts to carry on through blinding black dust blizzards, crop failure, and the death of loved ones. Brilliantly capturing the terrifying drama of catastrophe, Egan does equal justice to the human characters who become his heroes, “the stoic, long-suffering men and women whose lives he opens up with urgency and respect” (New York Times).

In an era that promises ever-greater natural disasters, The Worst Hard Time is “arguably the best nonfiction book yet” (Austin Statesman Journal) on the greatest environmental disaster ever to be visited upon our land and a powerful cautionary tale about the dangers of trifling with nature.



My previous knowledge of the Dust Bowl was limited to the short-lived HBO series Carnivàle.

(I loved that show and am still irked that it was canceled.)

(Seriously.  After "I am the Omega" HBO thought they could just deny us more?)

(Yes, I am bitter.)

So I was excited to read Egan's book and learn more about that period of time, what caused it, and how people were able to recover.  I should have added "how people survived" to my original query.

Because WOW.  I'm still amazed that anybody made it out alive.  I just can't even imagine.  Can't. Even. Imagine.


Not only were the dust storms destructive, but they hit at the same time as the Great Depression.

This was a fantastic look into an era that most people have never studied.  I loved following the stories of the individuals portrayed by Egan; he did a wonderful job bringing them (back) to life.

From inhaling and coughing up dust, to shoveling out dirt and debris from their houses.

From eating thistle to survive, to the death of children.

To the utter destruction of a quarter of the United States.

Horrifying, my friends.  Absolutely horrifying.

The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath

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Esther Greenwood is brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under--maybe for the last time. 

In her acclaimed and enduring masterwork, Sylvia Plath brilliantly draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that her insanity becomes palpably real, even rational--as accessible an experience as going to the movies. 

A deep penetration into the darkest and most harrowing corners of the human psyche, The Bell Jar is an extraordinary accomplishment and a haunting American classic.





Sylvia Plath knows all of my secrets.

I've suffered from depression since I was eight years old. I've been suicidal since the age of ten. And I've never understood why people care whether or not someone kills herself. Yes, I would be heartbroken if someone I loved committed suicide, but I would understand. Unlike most people who read Plath and wonder WHY, I get it. And she gets me. And I love that.

Did you know that The Bell Jar is actually quite a funny novel? Esther Greenwood is a quick-witted young woman who may have lost hope for the future, but hasn't lost her edge. I chuckled at the dark humor surrounding her suicide options: guns could be unpredictable; it was hard to find a place to hang herself; it took forever to build up a stash of pills; etc.

Despite the morbid theme and the knowledge of Path's own suicide, I was really happy with this book.  It's something I've been meaning to read for a long time, and it's likely something I will read again.

(And no, I'm not suicidal right now.)

The Tenth Circle, by Jodi Picoult

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Fourteen-year-old Trixie Stone is in love for the first time. She's also the light of her father, Daniel's life -- a straight-A student; a pretty, popular freshman in high school; a girl who's always seen her father as a hero. That is, until her world is turned upside down with a single act of violence. Suddenly everything Trixie has believed about her family -- and herself -- seems to be a lie. Could the boyfriend who once made Trixie wild with happiness have been the one to end her childhood forever? She says that he is, and that is all it takes to make Daniel, a seemingly mild-mannered comic book artist with a secret tumultuous past he has hidden even from his family, venture to hell and back to protect his daughter.




***Trigger warning: this review contains information about sexual assault that may be upsetting to survivors***

I love Jodi Picoult, but I don't always love her books. The Tenth Circle started out strong, so I was surprised that many of my friends gave it only one or two stars in their reviews.

There were a handful of small things that irked me.  Locks of Love, for example, does not make wigs for children with Cancer. They make them for children with Alopecia. It's a common misconception, and one that is easily verified on their website.  The fact that it's wrong in the book is just sloppy research.

But even so, it was still a good book.  I kept thinking that this was such an important book. In the wake of Steubenville and the suicide of Rehtaeh Parsons, we need authors who aren't afraid to write about (date) rape.  Who can portray how harrowing it is to return to some semblance of normal.  Who are honest about the pain that it causes for not only the survivor, but her friends and family.

And then I came to the end.  And I figured out why my friends didn't like it.

Spoilers after the jump.

Lover At Last (Black Dagger Brotherhood #11), by J.R. Ward

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Qhuinn, son of no one, is used to being on his own. Disavowed from his bloodline, shunned by the aristocracy, he has finally found an identity as one of the most brutal fighters in the war against the Lessening Society. But his life is not complete. Even as the prospect of having a family of his own seems to be within reach, he is empty on the inside, his heart given to another....

Blay, after years of unrequited love, has moved on from his feelings for Qhuinn. And it’s about time: The male has found his perfect match in a Chosen female, and they are going to have a young—just as Qhuinn has always wanted for himself. It’s hard to see the new couple together, but building your life around a pipe dream is just a heartbreak waiting to happen. As he’s learned firsthand.

Fate seems to have taken these vampire soldiers in different directions... but as the battle over the race’s throne intensifies, and new players on the scene in Caldwell create mortal danger for the Brotherhood, Qhuinn finally learns the true definition of courage, and two hearts who are meant to be together... finally become one.


Lover At Last is definitely the most appropriate title for this book.  How long has it taken for Blay and Qhuinn to finally get together?  Too long, my friends.  Too long.

When they finally come (*snicker*) together, it's HOT.

The male took three strides forward, reached up . . . and kissed the ever-loving crap out of Blay.
 

My only complaint about their relationship?  Not enough lovin'.  Who cares about other story lines?  It should have been 591 pages of smexy times.  (Though I do admit to loving the Xcor-Layla 'ship.)

So why am I only giving the book 3.5 stars?  You know, besides the fact that Ward deigned to discuss other characters...  The end was so incredibly cheesy and overdone that it nearly ruined the whole book for me.  That part really should have been saved for the next book; it happened too fast to be true to the BDB world, no matter how long the two males were in love with each other.

I leave you with one more Qhuay image.  Sweet dreams!

DED

Is it hot in here?

Waiting on Wednesday #1: Always Watching

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that highlights soon-to-be-published books.  This week's selection is...

Always Watching, by Chevy Stevens
Publication date: June 18, 2013
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
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She helps people put their demons to rest.

But she has a few of her own…

In the lockdown ward of a psychiatric hospital, Dr. Nadine Lavoie is in her element. She has the tools to help people, and she has the desire—healing broken families is what she lives for. But Nadine doesn’t want to look too closely at her own past because there are whole chunks of her life that are black holes. It takes all her willpower to tamp down her recurrent claustrophobia, and her daughter, Lisa, is a runaway who has been on the streets for seven years.

When a distraught woman, Heather Simeon, is brought into the Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit after a suicide attempt, Nadine gently coaxes her story out of her—and learns of some troubling parallels with her own life. Digging deeper, Nadine is forced to confront her traumatic childhood, and the damage that began when she and her brother were brought by their mother to a remote commune on Vancouver Island. What happened to Nadine? Why was their family destroyed? And why does the name Aaron Quinn, the group’s leader, bring complex feelings of terror to Nadine even today?

And then, the unthinkable happens, and Nadine realizes that danger is closer to home than she ever imagined. She has no choice but to face what terrifies her the most…and fight back.

Sometimes you can leave the past, but you can never escape.

What are you waiting on?