June does go into a downward spiral but the book really begins as she’s starting to get on with her life by deciding to complete Marissa’s list of twenty things that she wanted to do before her next birthday.  A list which June found and took from Marissa’s purse the night of the accident.  Some of the things are seemingly silly, like go braless for a day or kiss a total stranger and others are more difficult like change somebody’s life and show your brother how grateful you are him.

The Next Thing On My List is June’s journey as she attempts to complete each item.  Along the way she finds romance, career fulfillment and how to live again.  It’s a fun, quick read that while it has a great message – live your life instead of watching somebody else live theirs – doesn’t take itself too seriously.

I did find some of the book unbelievable.  Like June’s relationship with Marissa’s brother, mother and grandmother.  I would think that it would be very awkward to be friendly with the person who killed their family member despite that it was an accident.  In the aftermath of the accident, they don’t take the time to find out more about each other or details about the accident, which I found odd.  When June comes back into their life with this list of Marissa’s they are curious of course but act as more casual bystanders.  I think something needed to be done slightly differently with that aspect of the book but what that solution is I honestly don’t know.

Overall, a quick read that doesn’t leave me feeling heavy afterwards.  And with some of the heavy hitting issues that I like to read about it’s nice every once in a while to read something that doesn’t get me down. It’s not a book that I’m running out and telling everybody that they HAVE to read it because it’s SO good but I enjoyed my time with it.

And of course, one can’t help thinking about their own life lists.  I’m a list maker.  My husband’s a list maker.  Making lists are just plain fun.   My lists would be different if I were to put time limits on them like one year, 5 years, 20 years or a lifetime.  So I came up with something that seemed reasonable for the next 10-15 years. And from the looks of it I need to also come by a cash load somehow as my list involves spending a lot of money!

• Go on a cruise.
• Vacation in Thailand.
• Take the Advanced Master Gardener class (a four year program).
• Read all the Newbery books.
• Remember every Birthday for a year.
• Decorate a tree for the Festival of Trees as a family.
• Take out my large 4×5 camera and start shooting again.
• Vacation with the family to Yellowstone, Redwoods, Southern Utah.
• Go to Disneyland and stay in a nice hotel instead of cheapest we can find.
• In fact, don’t let the cheapest always be the deciding factor.  Allow myself to treat myself well without feeling guilty about it.
• Buy a bed.
• Take family to Hawaii to visit the family.
• Have another baby (or two).
• Snorkel but be brave enough to go more than twenty feet out from the shore.
• Digitize all of my negatives.
• Get a massage.
• Go on an African safari.
• Do volunteer work in Africa.
• Get involved with helping refugees here.
• Go skinny dipping (yikes my parents & in-laws read my blog!)
• Book a flight last minute and just go!
• Take my boys fishing.
• Learn sign language.
• Cook a turkey.

Now, it’s your turn!  What are five things that you would like to do in the next ten years?  Spill it!

Links of interest:  Jill Smolinksi website, more book blogger reviews.
Genre:  Fiction, Chick-lit
Publisher: Three Rivers Press.  March 25, 2008
Paperback , 304 pages. ISBN 0307351297
The Next Thing On My List is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

Even though I liked The Bright Side of Disaster I must admit that I was still a bit hesitant to read Everyone is Beautiful.  Hesitant but really looking forward to it at the same time.  Would she be able to pull it off a second time?  The reason I was hesitant is more personal, simply because I would classify Everyone is Beautiful as mommy lit, and being honest, it’s a genre that I normally don’t read.  Maybe because I have the preconceived notion that they are full of fluff and not written well.  Why I have that preconceived notion I don’t really know, so I couldn’t even tell you if that’s true or not, although I doubt it.  But let me tell you this:  I could not put Everyone is Beautiful down.  I read it in just one day.  I really enjoyed it.  When I told Katherine these thoughts, I had that “aha” moment of understanding when she responded by saying:

You know, all my writing training was more “literary,” so that might be part of what’s appealing to you.  I have a Master’s in Fiction and spent years writing in different voices and trying different styles.  So maybe you’re sensing that?  It’s certainly Mom-Lit, but it may have elements of other types of fiction, as well.  I certainly try to give the books moments of bitter sweetness and sorrow, even within the broader structure of the comedy.  Whatever it is, I’m glad you’re liking the books!!

It all makes sense!  In addition to its literary fiction appeal, Everyone is Beautiful is a great story.  Lanie Coates is the mother of three boys – all under the age of four – who has just moved away from her friends and family from Houston to Boston so her husband Peter can attend graduate school.  He’s a pianist who dreams to be accepted to a prestigious program that will take him across the country for a few weeks during the holidays.  Something that Lanie selfishly doesn’t want to happen.  Can she handle the boys for that long on her own in a new town with no friends?

Lanie looks in the mirror (actually, she’s stopped looking in the mirror) and wonders where her looks went, where the pounds came from and can’t imagine spending money on a wardrobe that isn’t slobber proof.  She has given so much of herself to everybody else that she’s lost sight of what she wants.  What she wants is a closer marriage, to be a better mother, not feel so homesick, make friends, get in shape, become ambitious, and find a hobby.

She simply wants to not only look more beautiful but feel more beautiful.  After being humiliated by another mommy during playtime at the park, she decides that it’s time to make those changes.  It’s time to find that beauty again.  And that’s what’s at the heart of this story.  What is beauty?  And how does one obtain it?  When Lanie tries to rediscover this she finds that she may actually lose everything else in the process, including her family.

I couldn’t help laughing out loud and sympathizing with Lanie.  Laughing (or maybe cringing) because I was so, so glad that my life isn’t as crazy as hers.  I’ve at least never scrapped spaghetti noodles off of the couch before but also empathetic because I know what it’s like to go to the bathroom with a child on your knee and reading a book at the same time.  And even if you don’t have a child on your knee then you are at least yelling from the bathroom for somebody to stop doing whatever it is their doing until you come back down (Case in point – while taking a break from writing this review to run upstairs, I could hear a chair scraping across the floor.  I came back down to find three bananas smashed on the floor.)  It was so much fun to read a book with the attitude of “yep, been there, done that.”

I also sympathized with Lanie’s move.  I moved from our college apartment, away from my friends and church community when I was eight months pregnant.  It was just two weeks later that I had my baby.  I came home to boxes everywhere and not a single friend.  To make matters worse, it was the beginning of winter.  I spent months inside ecstatic with our new new house and new baby but also very lonely without a single friend to call my own.  It’s not easy to be a mother on ones own and unfortunately our society has moved in the direction of mothering being a solitary occupation.  I also loved how Lanie turned to photography as one of her outlets.  I loved being in the darkroom (seems like I’m reading a lot of books like that recently) as she discovered a new creative process that was something she did just for her.

But all that said, Everyone is Beautiful is more than just a book for mom’s.  It’s a book for anybody who wants to step inside another shoes and immerse themselves in a beautifully written, humorous and  touching book. It’s a story of motherhood as Lanie  tries to do everything just right but also about the journey of rediscovering ones self and what’s important in life.

I’m already anxious for Katherine to come out with another book.  Everyone is Beautiful just came out yesterday, so I’ve got a while to wait. But in the meantime, Random House has sent me an extra ARC to give to you!  To enter, leave a comment responding to this review in some way or answer either of the following two questions:  Do you have a special mom in your life or if you are a mom – what does the word beautiful now mean to you?  I’ll pick a winner and announce it in the comments on this post on Wednesday, February 25th.

I’m thrilled that Katherine will be guest posting here tomorrow!  I’m really, really excited!  Don’t miss it!

Links of interest:  More blogger reviews. Katherine’s website, my book review of The Bright Side of Disaster, my interview with Katherine and let’s not forget that soup.
Genre:  Hmm . . . Literary Fiction/Mommy Lit
Publisher:  Random House.  February 17, 2009.
Hardcover, 256 pages.  ISBN:  1400066433
Everyone is Beautiful is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

The story in The Smart One was really good, the characters were interesting, and it had enough twists and turns to keep me guessing, but I could not get past the writing.  For some reason, I was irritated with the writing style.  First off, did this book really need to be 360 pages long?  I think 250 would have been just fine.  And did I really need to read two pages dedicated to the main character going off about a company called Horizon Wireless?  It’s not hard to suspect the author must have had some beef with Verizon Wireless at some point, but did it need to be included in the book?  Did that passage further the story or the character development?  No.  There seemed to be passage after passage of mind numbing details and tangents that had nothing to do with the story and not only bored me to death, but took me right out of the story.   Later I wondered why so much focus was on these details, I thought maybe there would be a reason later.  But I didn’t see any.

Another reason why I think this book and I didn’t mesh is . . .  can you guess it?   One, lots and lots of language, which usually makes me cringe.  And two, lots and lots of sex.  No wonder I normally don’t read Chick Lit.  I just don’t think the two of us go together.

So what is The Smart One about?  I haven’t mentioned that yet have I?  Like I said earlier, the premise of the book is actually fine.  I didn’t have a beef with that, I just thought the execution was poorly done.  In The Smart One, Bev is at an impasse in her life as she is contemplating changing careers and moving away from New York to relieve the pressures resulting from being known as the smart one among her two sisters.  Her older sister, Clare is known as the pretty one who has to keep up with the perfect image and her little sister Joey is the wild one, who is overcoming drug addiction after her short but successful career as a singer.  All must learn how to overcome their jealousies, old resentments, self-imposed labels, and even rethink their loves lives while also uncovering a murder committed decades earlier in the house next door.  I was guessing until the very end and certainly was caught up in some surprises.

I’m really sorry Ellen.  I just don’t think I was cut out for this one.  Ellen Meister also wrote Secret Confessions of the Applewood PTA, The Smart One is her second novel.  Visit Ellen Meister’s website and her blog.

This book review is part of the BlogStop Book Tours book review series for The Smart One.  Visit to learn more.

Jane is thirty-two, single, a graphic designer in New York City, and has been numbering her exboyfriends, all the way from one to thirteen. Oh, and let’s not forget, she hides her BBC DVD’s of Pride and Prejudice, fearing that people will find out about her ongoing obsession with Mr. Darcy played by Colin Firth. Jane’s late Aunt wills to Jane a vacation like none other. For three weeks she will be transported back in time at Pembrook Park in Kent, England. She trades in her jeans, t-shirt, bra and panties for an empire wasted dress (I do admit, I love these clothes!), corset, and grannie style underwear. Will she find true love? Will she find her Mr. Darcy?

I can completely picture this book as a romantic comedy movie. It played like one throughout the whole book. Especially, the ending. I honestly did not see the twist coming, so I was pleased. I would love to see this on the big screen. Overall, a fun book. This was my first Shannon Hale book. I have A Book of a Thousand Days sitting on my shelf right now, and have been told Goose Girl is even better. I look forward to reading both of these. Have you read this book? Any Shannon Hale favorites I should read?

Visit Shannon Hale’s website.