Thanks once again to the folks at 5 Minutes for Books, I had another excuse to grab books off my shelves and revisit some that I absolutely loved. Is there any better escape while waiting for spring to arrive than diving into a book? I started out my month with an old favorite:
The movie was very loosely based on this novel. The book was more than three women jilted by their exes and looking for revenge. It delves into parenting a special needs child, aging, suicide, sexual identity, aging parents…and getting revenge on the husbands that jilted them.
After First Wives’ Club, I read Coastliners by Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat. It didn’t thrill me. The story of a woman returning to her home on an island off the coast of France after running away with her mother when she was a girl. Her father is not the most communicative. The small town is dying from lack of tourism. A charming stranger is lurking about. Our heroine sets out to save the town, and rebuild her relationship with her father. I should have loved it, and really can’t put my finger on why I didn’t. It was just…eh.
After that debacle, I reached for another old favorite, Moviola by Garson Kanin. The story is told through the eyes of Ben Farber, who saw the creation of the movie industry from Edison through the 1970s. Ben dishes about Fatty Arbuckle, the search for Scarlett O’Hara, Marilyn Monroe. I was in heaven!
Next up for me was the Three Sisters Island trilogy by Nora Roberts:
Legend has it that three women who are descendents from three witches have to face similar trials. If they fail, their island home will fall into the sea. Each book focuses on each of the women involved. I do love this series, and think the first book of it will always be my favorite. I always walk away from this series wanting to play in my garden, whip up great little delicacies, open a bookstore, and save the world.
I finished off my month with light and fluffy reads by Janet Evanovich and Charlotte Hughes that had me laughing out loud:
Full House starts of the series with the story of Billie and Nick, a single mom and a millionaire playboy who fall hard for one another. They have all the usual romantic roadblocks: a cousin who’s marrying a wrestler, another cousin who sets off small bombs, spider and roach infestations, break-ins in the neighborhood, an exploding car…ok, maybe not typical, but they are pretty funny! The last three novels (Full Tilt, Full Speed, and Full Blast) revolve around the cousin who used to set off bombs is now a grown-up millionaire playboy with a talking car, a gorgeous newspaper owner who is his partner, and lots of unbelievable mysteries that only they can solve. These books are definitely brain candy, and a perfect beach read, and I was thrilled to discover that there’s a couple more books in this series. Ummm…there is quite a bit of, er, smut in this series, but it didn’t seem to bother my mother-in-law one bit when she borrowed them.
Hop on over to 5 Minutes for Books to see what other people have been reading.
