Triple Review: Time to Do a Little Catch Up!

*Tap, tap, tap*  Hello.  Are we still up and running here?  *Clears throat*  Okay, so I've been off the radar a bit.  I've hardly had a chance to read or review as of late, so it kind of feels good to see some open space out ahead to do a few things I've been wanting to do.  In an effort to play catch up a little, I thought I'd do a bunch of min-reviews to get through some of the books I've read so far this year, but haven't yet reviewed.  Here's a few:

Open Heart by Elie Wiesel  is an interesting read about Wiesel's quadruple bipass heart surgery in 2012, but beautiful and poignant.  In this short novella, Wiesel reflects on life and death, his career, his family, and his own stamina to continue.  Throughout much of the book he considers whether he has done enough to share the message of peace, to honor the memory of all those who were killed in the Holocaust.  Although the reviews were mixed, mainly because many felt he spent too much time discussing the painful surgery, I felt moved by his words.  Maybe it is because I have faced my own life-threatening surgery that made his words feel so eloquent and familiar, but on the whole, I'm not sure that there is much that Wiesel can not put words to that can speak from one heart to another.  In short, I thought it was eloquent and beautiful and well worth a quick read.

Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris is a real departure from the previous review in that Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series is a funny, drama-filled, vampire series.  As the 11th in the series, we're pulled into a new drama that surrounds Merlotte's and a possible prejudice-fueled crime against Sam and his two-natured kind.  At the same time, Eric Northman began a plot to take down his vampire master.  All of this drama, once again, pulls in Sookie whether she wants to be pulled in or not.  With the knowledge of her own faerie lineage, Sookie is in way deeper than she ever wanted to be.  Although I will finish out the Sookie series, as I've been a dedicated fan for awhile now, I do feel that this was a bit of a transition novel.  Okay, I get that there was a huge plot point tackled in this novel, but in some way, I just felt that it was setting up novels to come perhaps?  Still, it's a series that I've enjoyed and will finish with.

The Garden Intrigue by Lauren Willig is another long series and 9th in the Pink Carnation series.  In a series of female spies and Victorian age history and antics, The Garden Intrigue continues with secret agent Augustus Whitleby and the American Emma Morris Delagardie.  Although this is more of a male spy, the series itself still centers on the research of Eloise in the modern day, who is uncovering these stories.  Admittedly, I wasn't as into this particular Victorian story and have grown much more interested in the the modern day story of Eloise and Collin.  At this point in the story, Eloise now has to decide if she will return to the States to teach or stay--for what purpose--to continue her relationship with Collin.  As a long time reader, I want to see Eloise and Collin succeed, but it's realistic to say that the relationship is too new and too much is at stake for Eloise to just give everything up to stay in England.  Sadly, the book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger with our modern couple and I'm eager to get my hands on the next book!  I really like this series and will probably be rereading these at some point.  Also, it's nice to note that these are great audio books!

Well, these three reviews scratch the surface.  I might be back to do another triple review!  Now I'm off to get some summer things done so I can go back to my reading.  What are you all up to today?

Review: Most Talkative by Andy Cohen

Synopsis:  If you watch Bravo Television at all, you have to know Andy Cohen.  As the man behind the reality shows on Bravo and the host of Watch What Happens Live, Andy is that hilarious, reality super fan that we all somehow relate to.  Before becoming the man behind the Real Housewives franchise, Andy Cohen was a young pop culture fan from St. Louis, Missouri, who began to realize that he was something different from those around him.  Eventually, Andy came to terms with what made him different, which was that he was gay, and gained the strength to let it be known. 

After college, he came out to his friends and family, and proceeded to follow his dreams in television.  This led to his current, lucrative and exciting career with Bravo.  The stories he goes on to tell in this book are both poignantly personal and pop-culture, both memoir and tell-all. 

Review:  I have been a Bravo fan for a very long time.  In fact, I started watching the Real Housewive's franchise from day one of the Orange County ladies.  Andy Cohen was kind of a known extra cast member of sorts, to those of us who have followed these shows.  I think everyone who knows him, loves him!  Honestly, Andy Cohen has a great sense of humor, and a way of saying what he thinks about these women's crazy antics without really saying it and showing his bias.  In short, most fans of the network love Andy.

The thing I loved about his book was the candid way he talked about his own life and his own experience growing up and coming out as a gay man.  I did find it interesting that Andy seems to write of his coming out as part of his life, but not the defining feature of his life.  In coming out, his family seemed to embrace him and move on with life, so the person he speaks of with greatest fear was his good friend and college roommate.  I was so moved by his expression of fear and concern over telling his friend and really could start to appreciate how that must have felt for him.  In the end, his roommate embraced his coming out and the two are still good friends today.

There seems to be an integral connection between Andy's pop-culture obsession and his current job, all fueled by healthy doses of all that is uniquely Andy.  His memoir talks about his early days on national, morning television--including stories about Oprah Winfrey, various CBS news anchors, and other celebrities that made this a real page turner.  Just the stories behind the Housewives franchise (which really is a pretty small portion of the book), make it a must read for fans. 

I really enjoyed Andy's story.  There is such a nice mix of happy and serious, to really echo what we see with the real Andy Cohen on his show.  His anecdotes and memories are funny, fast-paced, and engaging.  Now I will just hope that he writes another book, with more great "behind the scenes" stories for us in a few years down the road!

*FTC Disclosure:  This review was based on a personal copy of the book.

Review: Dietgirl by Shauna Reid

Synopsis:  In Goodreads, "In January 2001 Shauna Reid was twenty-three years old and 351 pounds. Determined to turn her life around, she created the hugely successful blog "The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl" and hiding behind her Lycra-clad roly-poly alter-ego, her transformation from couch potato to svelte goddess began. Today, 8,000 miles, seven years and 175 pounds later, the gloriously gorgeous Shauna is literally half the woman she used to be.

Hysterically funny and heart-wrenchingly honest, THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF DIETGIRL follows the twists and turns of Shauna's lard-busting crusade as she curbs the calories and learns to love the gym. There are travel tales from Red Square to Reykjavik, plus romance and intrigue as she meets the man of her dreams during a pub quiz in Edinburgh. As her UK visa rapidly runs out, will she be deported back to Australia or will love triumph?"

Review:  Like many readers, I picked this book up in the hopes of getting some inspiration from Shauna's story.  It's hard not to be inspired by someone who lost so much weight the hard, old-fashioned way through diet and exercise.  Shauna spent years and years, not weeks and months, to lose her weight, which feels more real than what we so often see in the media.  In this blog turned book, Shauna chronicles more about the head space she was in over the course of five or six years.  Yes, she learned to eat healthy.  Yes, she started to learn to exercise and love it.  However, the biggest factor always seems to be how she handled it when things went wrong.

This journey was not a fast one for Shauna, which I could appreciate.  It seems like too many people yo-yo up and down with their weight at insane speeds.  Realistically, it was nice to see what one person did, in a reasonable fashion, to lose a large amount of weight.  In fact, I mostly appreciated that her life went on and she lived it!  It can seem too unreasonable to expect someone to just stop their life to focus solely on weight (I guess that is unless you're on a TV show or something), so I thought the directions her life took--moving to the UK--was an interesting reality to her story.  

On the whole, this is an inspiring book if you want a realistic look at the ups and downs of one person's weight loss journey.  There isn't necessarily a lot about how she did it, outside of the common sense "eat less and exercise" mantra, but it does give you a lot about her mindset and how it changed over time.  Overall, this was a much more entertaining read than a mere self help book.  This is one of those books that anyone could read to appreciate.

*FTC Disclosure:  This review was based on a personal copy of the book.

Review: Tout Sweet by Karen Wheeler

Synopsis:  From Goodreads, "In her mid-thirties Karen has it all: a career as a fashion editor, a handsome boyfriend, a fab flat in west London and an array of gorgeous shoes. But when her 'plus one' leaves, she wonders if there is more to life than high fashion. So, she hangs up her Manolos and waves goodbye to her city lifestyle, deciding to go it alone in a run-down house in rural Poitou-Charentes, western France. Once there, she encounters a host of new friends and unsuitable suitors, soon learning that true happiness can be found in the simplest of things - a bike ride through the countryside on a summer evening, or six glasses of Pinot in a neighbor's garden. If you've ever dreamed of chucking away your BlackBerry and down shifting, "Tout Sweet" is perfect summer reading."

Review:  After my trip to France this past summer, there isn't much about this book and cover that doesn't appeal to me.  There is that certain passion for life in all of its facets that one can readily recognize in the French, and something that is very romantic--on the surface.  Don't get me wrong, it is very romantic, but Karen Wheeler's memoir reminds us that there are drafty, run-down homes to be fixed, bug bites to cure (with nary a 24-hour drugstore in sight), and a lack of eligible bachelors to be found.  Nonetheless, grabbing at life when she could is an appealing ideal for many readers, including this reader. 

One of the things I loved about this memoir was the full disclosure of both Karen's self-possession and Karen's self-doubt.  It was an interesting inside view of the person who took the journey.  Maybe it was because of this unique inside look into her life that then had me fully vested in finding her true happiness, in whatever way possible.  I loved watching her transform her rundown home into something all her own.  From stripping floors to sealing and painting walls, it was so engaging to actually follow her process of remaking her little French home into one she could reside in. 

One thing that had me on edge for her were the discussions of her romantic relationships.  We start the memoir with a gripping heartache that propels her to France, that I think we all hope will be resolved  with great friendships--which I'm not sure the assortment of people she meets fit--or with a love interest--which is hard when they have other motivations.  Throughout the book she discusses looking for "suitors" in anyone from her neighbor to the baker in town.  There does seem to be this build up to a relationship or sorts, only to have it dropped in the course of about three sentences--literally.  For me, the build up of friendships and suitors to a startling resolution left me a bit out of sorts.  If we were to spend 200+ pages dropping mention of the importance of relationships, I would hope that we would have a balanced explanation of their place in her life by the end.

Karen Wheeler is a marvelous writer, with an ability to recall her own life story in a novel-like fashion.  I was so easily sucked in that my care and concern for her could match any fictional character I've been introduced to.  Having said that, the philosophical end to the book felt very unsatisfying and left me sad for Karen, and not upbeat about the entire "finding of oneself" and slowing down that I think I was supposed to take away.  On the whole, I have been recommending this memoir right and left, in the hopes that I can come to grips with my own reaction to its ending.  It's not possible for me to spell out all the details, but I will say that the reality of it cuts through all that feels escapist or romantic.  In short, I loved it and I hated it, both at the same time.  I can't say that I've responded so strongly to a book in a very long time, and I'm still left trying to grasp how I felt.  Honestly, you really have to read it to find out how Karen wrapped up her memoir.  For this reader, I'll admit to wishing that maybe (like in my own life) there was just a bit more fiction to finish it off. 


*FTC Disclosure:  This review was based on a review copy of the book provided by the publisher.

If you've read this one, PLEASE tell me your own thoughts.  I'm dying to discuss it with other readers, so I'd love to hear from you! Did you have the same response that I did?