Austenland

I thought it was a cute idea. A place where you can go and pretend you are in Regency England during the Jane Austin period for three weeks and really get into the time. That is what the book 'Austenland' by Shannon Hale is about. Of course our main character's name is Jane and she gets the opportunity to go to said place as a gift from a deceased great aunt, who understand the concept that Jane was looking for her Mr. Darcy who looks like Colin Firth. Going there was like being in a play and really wasn't a set up place, which is what you are hoping is suppose to happen. The book was light and cute, definitely being able to go for teenagers on up to read. Definitely a nice summer read. http://www.squeetus.com/stage/main.html Library book

Flip that house

Have you noticed that the "in" thing, to write your book about, is flipping houses? It just seemed to me that that was in a lot of the books I have been reading. Hummm, a subconscious thing maybe because I would love to flip houses and I gravitate towards those kinds of books. Okay, so I just finishing a really, really good book called Fixer Upper, yupp the title tells you everything, by Mary Kay Andrews. This is a must read. I thoroughly enjoyed this story about Dempsey Killebrew, love the name, and her lot in life. She was a lawyer and a lobbyist in Washington that gets suckered by her boss to be the scapegoat for a scandal involving buying a senator. Anyway, after being disgraced and fired, she escapes to Guthrie, Georgia, to fix up a house that just happened to have been left to her dad from a distant relative. The house, which once sounded fab, is a mess and Dempsey has her hands full doing most the renovation herself with the help of many of the town's helpful good looking men. Yeah, she has them lined up at the door. In amongst this restoration, she is trying to clear herself of the charges with the scandal, helping the FBI nail her boss and the senator. I particularly liked the interaction between Dempsey and the agents. Very funny. She makes many very interesting friends along the way, with most of the town of Guthrie being a distant relative in one way or another. I have read other Mary Kay Andrews books and highly recommend them. www.marykayandrews.com/ Library book

Quickie backread

So if you may remember the beginning of August I read a book called Fat Chance by Rhonda Pollero and had then realized that she had written 2 books before in the series. Well, over the weekend I read the first two books: Knock off and Knock 'em Dead. This series is about 'Finley Anderson Tanner (F.A.T.), a 29-year-old West Palm Beach paralegal whose designer name-dropping prattle and discount shopaholicism obscure her smarts'. Yes, you do get a little sick of her details of the shopping hunt and her deals she makes. But it is funny. The first mystery dealt with a case that was pawned off on her by a senior partner thinking the client was bonkers, trying to get someone to listen about her husband's supposed accident. Only through long investigation do we find he was murdered along with other jurors who sat on the same trial. Along the way she is helped by a private PI who she instantly has the hots for. But she has a pilot boyfriend who is safe. Anyway, it was a pretty good read and so was the next one, that dealt with one of her friends being set up for a murder through a dating service. Okay the penis in the box was a little overboard but it is amusing that she is a regular yo-yo with the law firm. Constantly getting let go and coming back. She has a tendency for getting into trouble and coming in late. Like I said these books are a good read, with the shopping details a little old after a while. I will watch for future books.

A Chick Lit book

Truth be told I like to read a lot of Chick Lit, too. What is Chick Lit you may ask? Well here is a great definition from a website I love, chicklitbooks.com.
Chick Lit is a genre comprised of books that are mainly written by women for women. The books range from having main characters in their early 20’s to their late 60’s. There is usually a personal, light, and humorous tone to the books. Sometimes they are written in first-person narrative; other time they are written from multiple viewpoints. The plots usually consist of women experiencing usual life issues, such as love, marriage, dating, relationships, friendships, roommates, corporate environments, weight issues, addiction, and much more.
Chick lit is told in a more confiding, personal tone. It’s like having a best friend tell you about her life. Or watching various characters go through things that you have gone through yourself, or witnessed others going through. Humor is a strong point in chick lit, too. Nearly every chick lit book I have read has had some type of humor in it. THAT is what really separates chick lit from regular women’s fiction.
Chick lit is also a truly fascinating character study. That is one major factor that keeps me so interested in the genre. A chick lit author takes a character and puts them through a series of mostly realistic ordeals – many that many women can relate to. The end result is usually very interesting, detailed, fun-to-read and satisfying.

So I just finished one called "The Bright Side of Disaster". Of course the title caught me right away but I liked the storyline too. Here is a brief synopsis: Boy meets girl in bar. Boy asks girl for friends phone number. Friend is not interested so boy goes after girl 1. They become involved and after 5 years decide to get married. Girl becomes pregnant and is due 1 month before wedding. Boy gets cold feet day before birth and leaves. Girl meets nice neighbor who is hunkier than boy. Boy shows back up after being gone 6 months and wants to renew engagement. Girl thankfully turns him down for hunkier neighbor. This was a nice quick read and I enjoyed it as I usually do as a nice airy diversion. Checked it out from the GFPL and found out about it as a recommendation from Amazon. You know, you bought this, we thought you would also like....