Columbine

Published by: Grand Central Publishing

Published on: April 2009

Page Count: 443

Genre: non-fiction

My Reading Format: audiobook rented from my local public library

Available Formats: Hardcover, paperback, eBook, audiobook

As did most Americans, I followed the events of the Columbine massacre intently. I was shocked that anything on that scale could happen.  I continually listened to and watched the news for information on what happened and, most importantly, why it happened at all. More than 11 years later, I thought I knew the basics. What I found as a result of reading this book was that I knew pieces of misinformation provided via the media.  Retractions are never prominent and rarely have the impact of the original story. For example, Michael Moore apparently believed the myth that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went bowling the morning of the massacre. In his book, Dave Cullen strips away the myths, rumors, and untruths, bringing to life the facts leading up to, including, and following the Columbine massacre. Although non-fiction, Cullen’s writing is so engaging that, although I remembered that day and its aftermath pretty well, I was transfixed. I didn’t want to leave my car (I read the book via audiobook) because I just had to know exactly what happened next.

I spent a good deal of time talking about the book while I was reading it, but three things continue to come to mind even to this day: Cullen’s research into why Eric and Dylan did what they did, the reality of what they’d actually planned on doing, and the Klebold family (see my post from yesterday).

Much of the media focus and, therefore, myths surrounded the simple question “Why?” Cullen did not find much evidence to support the conventional wisdom that Eric and Dylan were bullied to the point of explosion. What he discovered was that Eric was a psychopath and Dylan was suicidal. The combination of these two personalities proved deadly.

I don’t want to go into any details regarding Eric and Dylan’s original intent. If you’ve not read the book, this discovery will prove to be some of its most dramatic moments. I would equate talking about it here to adding spoilers when reviewing a work of fiction. Suffice to say that it shocked me, had me talking about Columbine non-stop at work, and kept me up several nights thinking about it.

I rented the audiobook for Columbine from the library because I wanted to read it *now.*  It fit in more readily to my audiobook schedule than it ever would have in my neverending TBR pile. It’s narrated by Don Leslie, who did an outstanding job reading material that at times was hard enough to listen to – let alone read outloud. I would highly recommend him as a narrator. The person responsible for putting this book into Leslie’s capable hands was a genius.

Wow, how to sum up my thoughts and feelings about this book? I don’t think there has ever been a work of non-fiction that has had this effect on me. It opened my eyes to the way time and extreme crisis impacts memories. Cullen did a spectacular job of telling the story without taking sides. The factual tone of his writing says so much about the difference when people choose to let tragedy devour them versus let it challenge them to become better, stronger people. I don’t know how I could more highly recommend Columbine than to tell you that I bought it in paperback while I was listening to the library’s copy. I had to have a copy in my hands to keep.  I just had to.

Other Voices

You’ve read what I have to say.  Why not check out these bloggers’ reviews?

A Reader’s Respite
Letters on Pages>/a>
Dog Eared and Well Read
Reading Rants
Page 247
Book Journey
A Chair, A Fireplace & a Tea Cozy
Start Narrative Here

Mermaids in the Basement

Imagine finding evidence that your boyfriend, an up and coming movie director, was cheating on you with one of his starlets through a gossip magazine.  Imagine also that your mother Shelby and beloved step father just recently died in a plane crash, you’ve never had a good relationship with your recently engaged father Louie, and you’ve put on weight.  If you can, you are imagining yourself in the same place as Renata DeChavannes, the heroine of Mermaids in the Basement.  Her life seems to go to hell in a hand basket the moment she reads the gossip column.  She is a successful screenwriter in her own right, until she lets her emotions get in the way of her head.  When she finally decides to return to her hometown of Point Clear, Alabama, she finds her grandmother Honora and her friends ready, willing, and able to support her.  They also finally decide to fill in the details of her childhood.  With Can discovering the secrets surrounding her mother and Shelby’s relationship to Louie and his family give her the strength she needs to pick up the pieces?

Mermaids in the Basement had a distinctly Southern feel.  Honora, Isabella and Gladys are much what you would expect from lifelong Southern friends.  Honora is known for her wonderful parties, just as close family knows to avoid anything touched by Isabella beforehand.  I enjoyed these women and their interactions with each other.  They would be the type of women I would want to come home to when my world falls apart.  As much as I enjoyed hearing about the past in their voice, this became confusing when the chapter titles didn’t indicate who was speaking.  This wasn’t a huge hurdle, though.  What I found more difficult was the bruhaha that occurred at the engagement party that Honora threw for Louie and his latest fiance shortly after Renata arrived in Alabama.  Louie’s response fell flat for me.  Despite the rift between them, I found it difficult to believe that Louie would ever consider his daughter responsible or, if an accident occurred, to deny it outright.

Overall, I enjoyed reading about Renata and her misadventures.  The manner in which she loses her job had me laughing.  It’s so typical that a scorned woman to cut her nose off to spite her face when trying to fight back against the other woman.  Renata is someone with whom I would enjoy a friendship.  This novel, however, would have worked better for me if Shelby and Louie’s story had been told in real time instead of being told from multiple points of view.  I never really found much of the secrets surrounding Renata’s childhood all that compelling.  Despite the family history, Renata was never that delicate a flower that she couldn’t have found out about those things.  Perhaps if the only secret had been about why her father was absent would have sufficed.  Then, the novel could have been more fully about a father and his daughter.  As much as I loved Honora and Gladys especially, Renata and Louie’s relationship was the most solid part of the book.  I found myself wanting more interaction between them and less of the slowly revealed family history.

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Curious about this novel?

Here is a link to the Reader’s Guide provided on the author’s website.

To buy this novel, click here.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Before the movie hype, I’d never heard of this short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  I’m not necessarily sure that I knew that he wrote short stories.  With the exception of The Great Gatsby, which is one of my all-time favorite novels, I never studied Fitzgerald in college or grad school.  I’m not sure if this was because of the courses I chose or if his writing wasn’t in favor at the time.  Either way, I’m planning on reading all of his short stories this year.

For those of you who do not know, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” tells the story of life of Benjamin Button.  Unlike all other humans, he was born as an elderly man, not as an infant.  The doctors, nurses, and his father are all shocked and quite disgusted by this.  Benjamin being only himself, found nothing out of the ordinary in his condition.  The unlikely circumstances of his birth continued on throughout his life.  He continued to grow more youthful as his life progressed.  He did not age.  He did just the opposite, though only those who knew otherwise seemed to be aware of his condition at all.

What stood out the most for me was that his mother was no where to be seen.  We witnessed his father’s reactions throughout his “growing up” years, but we hear nothing from the woman who gave birth to him.  She survived the birth, but how was that accomplished without killing her?  Did she love him despite his oddity?  Are we to assume by the fact that she was removed from the text that she abandoned him emotionally?  If so, how does Benjamin feel about this?  Did it not concern him because one’s mother is typically deceased when one is an elderly man or is that why Benjamin hides the truth from his wife?

Being only 30 pages, this short story was a quick read, although I’m not sure whether I can say I liked it or not.   I would be interested in reading papers published on this short story.  I believe it did highlight the responsibilities that surround raising children and caring for the elderly in a different way.  When you are a new parent, you can ask for other people’s advice, but you still are in many ways on your own.  No one else has ever raised your child.  On the other side of the coin, elderly care is also a question.  While many people do what is right by there parents, aren’t those who don’t just as irresponsible as those who might abandon a newborn?  It’s all the same for Benjamin.

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To buy this short story, click here.

He is most well known for “Christina’s World,” but I loved most everything he did.  I remembered being drawn to his Helga pictures.  I found them to be captivating and I feel that they depict women as they are, not as how we are often objectified.  They caused a scandal because Helga was not his wife.  I am still not sure where I stand on the issue of artists finding so much inspiration from a woman who is not their wife.  This theme came up most recently for me while reading Loving Frank.  Human beings are flawed.  While I don’t condone cheating on anyone, the world is big and forgiving enough to allow us to make something beautiful out of our mistakes.  It would be a tragedy to throw away or hide something just because its origins may be morally otherwise offensive.

Farm Road (Helga)

Thank you, Andrew Wyeth for sharing your vision with the world.  It will always be a more beautiful place because you were here.  I wish you warmth and love in the hereafter.

Christina's World

The Conqueror

The Conqueror tells the story of William the Conqueror, from his bastard birth, to his life as the Duke of Normandy, and finally to his triumphant rise to the throne of England. Given the circumstances of William’s life and the political climate of both Normandy and England in the 11th century, this is quite an undertaking.

After reading The Reluctant Widow, I was very excited to start The Conqueror. My thinking was that if I loved her Regency Romances, I would really love her historical fiction. I was mistaken. Unlike The Reluctant Widow, this novel took me over a week to finish. This was mainly due to the slow and inconsistent pacing of the plot. While much time and energy was spent on William the Conqueror’s numerous battles, very little was spent on his relationship with Matilda or who he really was as a man. This lack of character development was true throughout, filling pages with numerous supporting characters between whom I could not readily distinguish. For me, they further bogged down the story and made it seem even that much longer than it really was.

There were flashes of Heyer’s brilliance when she tells of the circumstances of William’s birth, when she introduces Raoul, the fictional man through whom we meet William as a man and learn of his exploits, and when she tells of William’s “courting” of Lady Matilda. I also found it interesting to learn of ways in which William modernized the warfare of the day through strategy and the inclusion of archers. Clearly, William is a man capable of capturing the imagination of readers nearly a full century after his full and adventurous life. Unfortunately, this potential was lost to me amidst the superfluous characters and many of the battles in Normandy that did not add to the plot or provide any additional insight into William or, for that matter, Raoul or Matilda.

While The Conqueror did not engage me or take me away to time and places of William’s life, I am glad to have read it. This novel is best approached as one to read over a period of time. It would be interesting to read this in chapters or sections as a prelude to a thorough biography. I am curious to learn more about William, Matilda and and the lives of their children. In that way, this novel was a success. I hope to find a good book that focuses on the life that William and Matilda shared. If you have any suggestions, I would be most appreciative.

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To buy this novel, click here.

A’isha is a 6 year old girl who, after her parents betrothed her to Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, was required to remain in her family home until she had her first menstrual period.  For an adventurous girl such as herself, she is tortured by the limitations placed on her simply because she was betrothed.  She dreamed of escaping to freedom with the Bedouins with Safwan, her childhood friend during the entire length of her purdah.  When she witnesses a woman from her clan dragged away by a man who would disgrace her as well,  A’isha can barely contain herself from taking up a sword and defending her neighbor herself.  She may have been young and she may have been a girl, but she had the heart of a warrior.   It was this spirit which caught the eye of Muhammad and changed her destiny.

I first heard about this novel in August when it was reported that Random House was pulling its publication for fear of angering Muslims and perhaps inciting violence.  This reminded me of the events surrounding Salmon Rushdie and The Satanic Verses.  I found the decision disappointing.  Self-censorship out of fear of what might happen is in some ways worse than forcible censorship because it isn’t always as visible.  How many other books have never been published out of fear?  Thankfully, it was finally published by Beaufort Books in the United States.  When I snagged a copy of this book through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program, I was very curious to see just what it was that caused such a large publisher to back down.  This is a novelization of a portion of Muhammad’s life through the eyes of his most notorious wife.  Still, he was portrayed with warmth and empathy.  His charisma and love of Allah are obvious, but so is his humanity.  While I suppose any fictionalization of Muhammad may anger some Muslims, no offense was intended.  Canceling this publication was much ado about nothing.

As most established religions have struggled against the treatment of women and their roles in society, A’isha’s character is especially interesting as (to Western eyes) Muslim women seemed to be the most imprisoned by their faith, family, and spouse.  The only issue I had with this novel was the story line surrounding the way in which the rules surrounding facial covering became part of Muslim life.  Making a vision seem convenient to Muhammad felt like an “easy out” that was not at all in line with his character.  I do not know exactly how this came to be part of the Islam faith, but it seems to have sprang more from the existing culture than from Allah.

The Jewel of Medina is a fast paced and engrossing look at the beginnings of Islam through the eyes of a young girl who eventually becomes the third wife of the Prophet Muhammad.  At the beginning I was reminded of The 19th Wife because of the common themes of plural marriage and being married to a prophet.  The 19th Wife and The Jewel of Medina are both ambitious novels attempting to provide insight on the origins of world religions through the stories of the women involved.  Interesting that both novels would be published this year.  For me, Jones’ novel worked where Ebershoff’s did not.  From the moment that A’isha is married to the much older Muhammad, I could not put the book down. This novel’s insights into living among sister-wives were more compelling and, as there is only one voice telling the story, the reader is always fully aware of the opinions coloring the story.  While we can’t truly understand today without knowledge of the past, by leaving the modern out of The Jewel of Medina Sherry Jones brought early Arabic culture and the roots of Islam to life without much of the  cynicism of today.

I cannot recommend this novel enough.  It is a wonderful way to learn about the origins of Islam through the eyes of a complex and strong young girl and then woman.  A’isha does not conform to my ideas of a typical Muslim woman anymore than she did during her day and age.  She had to fight for her place in Muhammad’s harim and for the place of women in her society.  Being so much younger than her husband, A’isha’s story does not end upon Muhammad’s death and I am eagerly waiting for the sequel.  The Jewel of Medina, like all of the historical fiction I’ve enjoyed, has peaked my interest in Islam, Muhammad and his wives.  I absolutely enjoyed the adventure and I’m sure you will, too.

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To buy this novel, click here.

When you pick up a good novel written about the south by a Southern author, you can tell.  There is just something about that area and the writers it creates that is unique, remarkable and gorgeous.  Had William Faulkner, Harper Lee or Margaret Mitchell not been from the south, their novels would not be remembered today.  Had a writer with equal skill but who grew up outside of the south written To Kill a Mockingbird, the novel would have been condescending and the characters a mere stereotype.  Atticus would have inevitably been a Yankee and Boo Radley would have been nothing more than a sideshow freak resulting from inbreeding. It took a southerner to shed light on the southern life in such an honest, warm and loving way.  Atkins does just that in his debut novel.

The Front Porch Prophet tells the story of A.J. Longstreet, a man who lost his mother at birth.  He was raised in Sequoya, Georgia by his father and grandmother and he became an honorable man with a loving wife and three children, all named after authors.  He loved his family and his home, but was unfulfilled in his job supervising at the local mill.  He was content to stay where he was until he reconciled with his life-long friend, Eugene Purdue.  Eugene, who grew up in an unhappy marriage and had a seemingly never ending wild streak, learned that he had terminal cancer.  He asked A.J. to come up to visit him up on his mountain to make amends and to ask him to do the unthinkable – put him out of his misery when the time came.  A.J. had no intentions of killing Eugene, but he agreed to visit him regularly.  The rekindled friendship brings up old memories, both good and bad.  As he aids, supports,  comforts and helps Eugene find the redemption he is seeking through his last days, A.J. is forced to reconsider his beliefs and look at what truly makes him feel whole and happy.

When bad things happen to Southerners, they don’t lose their sense of humor.   You are never truly defeated so long as you don’t stop laughing at yourself.  Atkins breathes life into this world.  He writes of A.J. and Eugene’s lives with an easy sarcastic wit that is authentically Southern.  A.J. and Eugene are not the only characters in Sequoya, either.  The signs displayed in the window of the town’s only restaurant that is owned by a born again Christian are hilarious and ingenious.  By far, my favorite feature of this novel were the snippets of the letters Eugene wrote and sent out to the people of Sequoya after his death.  They appear at the beginning of each chapter, but they reflect back up the previous chapter.  His letter to the town sheriff still has chuckling when I think about it.   As it is,  is I quickly lost count of the times I laughed out loud while reading this novel.

As much as I loved the books humor, what stays with me from The Front Porch Prophet is its message about the enduring power of friendship and forgiveness.  It made me happy to be human.  For all of our weaknesses, we have the ability to overcome them and make them right.  This is a novel I will be reading again many times.  It promises to hold something new each time I read it.  This may very well be my favorite novel of 2008.  I can’t recommend it enough.

Have you read this novel?  I’d love to hear what you think.

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To buy this novel, click here.

For more information on TLC Book Tours, their authors and all of their wonderful tour dates, please click here.

The Review…

Off the Menu by Christine Son

Whitney, Audrey and Hercules are three Asian women from Houston, TX.  They have been friends since high school, where they were each the co-valedictorians of their graduating class.  Although they have different goals and dreams for their lives, they meet once a month at Hercules’ restaurant to discuss their lives and achievements.  The Valedictorians are about ready to enter their 30s and are all outwardly successful.  Inside, they each have anxieties about their lives and their futures that they do not share with each other for fear of what they each might think.  Independently, each of the women is bright, but they are sinking without the help of their best friends.  They learn that their troubles are best shared and resolved together.

Off the Menu is an interesting look at how three different women who share a similar race can be impacted by that in context of their family and of their country in very different ways.  Whitney is the youngest child of a traditional Korean family.  While clearly loved by her parents, the emphasis is on education and professional success.  Whitney is an up and coming attorney at a prestigious law firm, but what she really wants to do is take a shot at becoming a singer/songwriter.  She hides her weekend gigs from her friends and family for fear of how they will react.  This secret eventually becomes part of the distance growing in her relationship with her parent-approved Korean boyfriend.  Hercules is from a Chinese family.  Her mother died when she was 12, leaving her to be raised by her father, a man who never gets over the loss of his wife.  Hercules, whose given name is Xiao-Xiao, can never please her father, despite her success as a chef and restaurateur.  She constantly struggles dealing with her father’s refusal to assimilate into American culture, with his ailing health, and taking care of his personal financial matters.  Audrey was adopted by her billionaire parents from Korea when she was two months old.  Her adoptive family is Irish and it is that cultural identity she thinks of first when asked.  She often thinks of herself as white because of her surroundings.  While her family paints a perfect picture for the rest of the world, family life is not so very pleasant.  Her parents, though married, are little more than strangers to each other.

Of all the characters, Hercules was my favorite.  I wouldn’t have expected this at the beginning, though.  At first I found her to be off-putting.  Some of her very first words were f*ck and motherf*cker.  Those happen to be my favorite cuss words, but they were like a slap in the face coming right out of the blue.  After I got to know her better, I understood that her near constant foul language maintained the walls she built around herself.  My reaction to her is just what she would have wanted from any stranger.  It instantly moved her behind her wall, keeping me at a distance.  She didn’t allow her friends to get much closer, either.  When her relationship with her father come to a head at the same time as an eagerly awaited business venture with a college friend, she could no longer shut Whitney and Audrey out.  It was a treat to watch her start to blossom from within her darkest moments.

This novel was not at all what I had anticipated.  Where I was expecting chick lit about friendship with an Asian twist, I found thoughtful commentary on what it means to be a daughter, a friend, a lover, successful, an American, and a minority.  I enjoyed getting to know the characters and learning from their experiences.  This would make a perfect book for reading groups and dear friends.  I am glad that Son’s husband believed in her dream and bought her a laptop.  I’ll be looking forward to reading her next book – no pressure, Christine!

The Contest…

Since it is Thanksgiving week, I thought it would be very appropriate to host a contest with Christine Son that revolves around food.  Can’t you smell the turkey now?  Well, in the spirit of this novel and its title, I know that there are those who celebrate Thanksgiving with food that falls outside of what is considered traditional.  Maybe this is because your family likes to add a cultural flair of your own, your family simply cannot celebrate anything without a particular dish, or you just don’t like turkey.  Whatever your reason may be, this contest is for anyone who serves, eats, or even dreams about something off the Thanksgiving menu.

To enter this contest, leave a comment here by the end of the day tomorrow (11/25) explaining why you like to eat something outside of the norm or, if you prepare the traditional Thanksgiving feast, what creative things you do with your leftovers.  Then, send me an email with the recipe for that dish (literatehousewife_at_gmail_dot_com).  I’ll compile all of the recipes and post them Wednesday morning, giving everyone a little time to drool over other ideas – and perhaps brave the grocery stores for the ingredients.  If I get enough entries, I’m going to publish them in PDF format and make the electronic recipe book available to everyone to download.

I will also be sending the recipes to Christine Son.  After looking them over during the holiday weekend, she is going to select her favorite recipe.  The lucky reader who submitted the winning recipe will win a $15 gift card to the restaurant of their choice (as long as I can buy the card on-line and send it via email) or an Amazon gift card – the winner’s choice.

Good luck to everyone who enters!

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Christine Son’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:

Saturday, November 1st:  Estella’s Revenge e-zine (author interview)

Monday, November 3rd:  Literarily (author guest post and giveaway!)

Wednesday, November 5th:  Beastmomma (author interview)

Thursday, November 6th:  Book Nut

Friday, November 7th:  Ramya’s Bookshelf

Friday, November 7th:  Ramya’s Bookshelf (author interview)

Monday, November 10th:  Pop Culture Junkie

Tuesday, November 11th:  8Asians

Wednesday, November 12th:  Savvy Verse and Wit

Thursday, November 13th:  In The Pages

Friday, November 14th:  She is Too Fond of Books

Monday, November 17th:  Planet Books

Tuesday, November 18th:  B & B ex Libris

Wednesday, November 19th:  DISGRASIAN

Thursday, November 20th:  Booking Mama

Monday, November 24th:  The Literate Housewife Review

Tuesday, November 25th:  Feminist Review

Wednesday, November 26th:  Diary of an Eccentric

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To buy this novel, click here.

Maggie Duncan lost her family as a very young girl during a massacre between the British and the Scottish.  Her destiny falls into place when she helps a injured man find his way home to his wife, Hannah.  Hannah, a midwife and local healer, realizes almost instantly that her husband’s gangrene will end his life.  Childless, she sees Maggie’s arrival as the blessing to bloom from her husband’s death.  She takes Maggie under her wings and teaches her healing and midwifery.  Unfortunately, the little Scottish town in which they live is superstitious.  They think that Maggie is bad luck given what happened to her parents.  They believe she possesses the powers of the evil eye.  When Hannah gets sick with consumption, she gives Maggie one last gift before she dies – she plants the seed about going to the America.  After Hannah’s death, Maggie is living hand to mouth.  When she’s offered the opportunity to sale to America at the cost of spending four years as an indentured servant, Hannah’s words come back to her and she travels to find her destiny in the New World.

The Midwife of the Blue Ridge is an engaging novel about the joys, struggles, and courage of those who took the risk of leaving their home land in order to make their own way in Virginia.  From the very beginning, America was seen as a land of opportunity to those whose futures in their home countries was set from the moment of their conception.  It says a great deal that people would knowingly agree to four years of indentured service under unknown masters in order to have a shot at creating their own fortunes and secure their own land.  Christine Blevins brings this all to life through Maggie, Seth Martin and Tom Roberts.  Just as vividly, Blevins writes of those who were forced to go to the New World by their privileged and wealthy families found them to be an embarrassment best kept an ocean away.  Their resentment over their circumstances colored their view of this new land and how they treated other people.  In the Colonial Virginia painted in this novel, it is a toss up as to who was more savage, the Shawnee warriors or the disgraced lords of England.

Maggie Duncan is one of the most delightful heroines I’ve encountered in a long time.  Although her accent was difficult for me to catch on to at first, I was soon caught up in the story of this clever, sassy, and giving young woman.  The very scrappiness that was viewed suspiciously by her Scottish kinsmen was what kept her safe and gave her the advantage she needed to get off to a good start as Seth’s servant.  She endeared herself to Seth, Naomi and their children by her generous spirit and her strong work ethic.  Her sarcastic spunkiness endeared her to almost every single man she encountered.  I admired her optimistic yet pragmatic attitude toward life and the courage she displayed under the most stressful conditions found in the Virginia wilderness.  I enjoyed every minute I spent with her and hope that my daughters growing up in the Blue Ridge of Virginia four centuries later will develop her same strength of character.

Over the past couple of years I’ve read a great deal of wonderful historical fiction.  For the most part, I’ve shied away from historical fiction set in my own country.  I have read The Winthrop Woman and Devil Water by Anya Seton and, while they were both novels I enjoyed, they did not ignite in me the same excitement for my country’s history that Midwife of the Blue Ridge has.  Colonial America, just like Tudor England and Venice has its own charms and dangers to explore.  After reading Blevins’ novel, I am looking forward to spending some more time at home.

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Christine Blevins was kind enough to send me two copies of Midwife of the Blue Ridge, but that’s not all.  She also sent some wonderful smelling goodies!  If you would like a chance to win your own copy of Midwife of the Blue Ridge, a bar of handmade lavender soap and a bag of tea leaves, please leave a comment below about your favorite heroine or your favorite destination when you read historical fiction by 11:59pm EST on Monday, November 24.  I’ll take all the entries and add them to the List Randomizer.  The first name in the list will win the grand prize.  The last name in the list will also win a bag of tea leaves.  Based on the way the tea leaves smell, they will make a wonderful and relaxing cup of hot goodness during the winter.  The winners will be announced by noon EST on the 25th.  Good luck!

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To buy this novel on Amazon.com, click here.

The Art of Social War

Stacy Knight was at the top of her game the evening that her “I HEART New York” campaign was announced toward the end of Rudy Giuliani’s reign has mayor.  She sparkled as a member of his administration and, based upon the reception of her PR campaign, had great prospects after Giuliani left office.  On top of that, she was engaged to James Makepeace, the man of her dreams.  They both were hard working New Yorkers who supported each other in all things.  All things, that is, until Jamey’s skyrocketing career required a transfer to Los Angeles soon after their wedding so that he can take over the helm of Pacificus, a floundering film studio.  Stacy and Jamey need to learn how to navigate the shark invested waters in Hollywood to save Jamey’s career and their new marriage.

What I enjoyed the most about The Art of Social War was what set it apart from most other chick lit novels I’ve read.  While Stacey’s marriage was tested in LA, it was not in the way that most novelists would have chosen.  For me, this was a breath of fresh air.  Wing also shaped the feudal battle between the Makepeaces and the former owners of Pacificus around the 6th century Chinese military treatise The Art of War by Sun Tzu.  I enjoyed the way that Stacey orchestrated Jamey’s counter attack using the enemy’s weapon of choice.  As preparations for the final battle were made, I couldn’t book the book down.

It took me a little while to warm up to Jodi Wing’s first novel full of corporate espionage, intrigue, and Hollywood high jinx.  Her characters are very human and I honestly liked Stacey and Jamey very much.  I found Jamey’s decision to break the news about his career to Stacey at her big party.  Given everything I was to learn about him, it was against his character.  Most noticeably, I had a difficult time believing that Stacey’s 10 to 15 years of experience in New York’s corporate environment, most recently as a member of Rudy Giuliani’s administration, left her so unprepared for corporate life in LA.  While understanding that Stacey’s deep longing for home explains some of her views, I can’t see New York as a warm, welcoming, and fair environment.  From what I’ve heard, Omarosa could give Stacey’s arch nemesis Julia Mallis (the last name says it all) and the rest of her gaggle a run for their money.

I smiled appreciatively as I finished this tasty piece of chick lit.  Although the first half of the book moved somewhat slowly for me, I thoroughly enjoyed the pay off.  Knowing the ultimate outcome did not take away from my delight as the ride took off.  Quite appropriately, The Art of Social War has already been optioned by Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas.   I’ll be looking forward to finding out who will be playing Stacey, Jamey, Julia and Simon.  This novel has all the potential needed to become a great chick flick.

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The Art of Social War will be released tomorrow!  To order this book, click here.