Alice's Review: Shoe Addicts Anonymous

Summary: Four different women. One common shoe size. And a shared lust for fabulous footwear.  Helene Zahariss politician husband keeps her on a tight leash and cancels her credit cards as a way of controlling her. Lorna Rafferty is up to her eyeballs in debt and cant stop her addiction to eBay. Sandra Vanderslice, battling agoraphobia, pays her shoe bills by working as a phone-sex operator. And Jocelyn Bowen is a nanny for the family from hell (who barely knows a sole from a heel but who will do anything to get out of the house.)  On Tuesday nights, these women meet to trade shoes and, in the process, form friendships that will help them each triumph over their problems---from secret pasts to blackmail, bankruptcy, and dating. Funny, emotional, and powerful, Shoe Addicts Anonymous is a perfect read for any woman who has ever struggled to find the perfect fit.

Review:  Bonding among women is very easy to do, especially when the common denominator is shoes.  Shoe Addicts Anonymous shows us that four very different women can change each other’s lives one pair of shoes at a time.

There was something about the novel I really enjoyed.  The kinship between the women was familiar and natural.  Although they were so different, they fit together well.  Much like in real life, each woman had a burden she was struggling with.  Something she carried that was affecting her in ways only the friendship of other women can alleviate.  In some odd way, this novel made me happy to be a woman and happy for the friends I have.  I know that sounds corny, but it was the truth.

Shoe Addicts Anonymous was a perfect little escape for me too.  I read this novel rather quickly.  It was very easy to get wrapped up in 70 pages or so at a sitting.  Each woman had a quality that I related to:  In Helene, it was a desire to never return to her past.  In Jocelyn, it was a hope for the future.  In Sandra, it was her shyness and fear.  Of the four, the one I related to the most was Lorna.  With our parchment for shopping and disregard for budgeting, she could have easily been me.  I learned the most from her and her ability to change. 

Beth Haribson has a lot to offer her reader.  With wit and humor, her stories are effortless.  My curiously was definitely peaked and I am looking forward to reading Secrets of a Shoe Addict and Chose theWrong Guy, Gave Him the Wrong Finger.  

Final Take:  3/5
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Author Interview: JoJo Moyes

We are delighted to have bestselling author, JoJoy Moyes on the blog today where she answers some questions. Her newest book, The Girl You Left Behind is out now!

Q: THE GIRL YOU LEFT BEHIND, though a love story, features strong female relationships as well. What made you want to write about the connections that can form between women? If Liv and Sophie had lived in the same time, do you think they would have been friends?

JJM:  My female friendships are so important to me; I honestly don’t know how women survive without them. I get very bored of reading manufactured narratives that pit women against women; the working mums vs. stay at homes, old vs. young, the ‘evil’ woman boss who is trying to keep younger women down—I don’t recognise these images—most women I know are actually pretty supportive of each other. So I liked having relationships in this book where women are supportive of each other, even if their relationships are often complex and changing. To me that reflects real life. And yes, I think that Sophie and Liv might have been friends—I think through her sister’s grief, Sophie might have understood Liv’s own. And both knew what it was like to utterly adore your husband.

Q: The reclamation of art taken during wartime is central to the plot. How did you first encounter this topic and what kind of research did you do to learn more about it?

JJM: I was briefly the arts correspondent for The Independent newspaper in London, so I knew a bit about the legal issues. But I read an amazing news story about a young woman reporter who had been asked to mind a huge collection of stolen Nazi artwork, and was given a very valuable stolen Cranach as a ‘thank you.’ Many decades later when it came up for auction it was recognised and became the subject of a claim.

Q: It would seem the issue of returning stolen art is clear-cut, but Liv finds herself trying to keep a painting that may have been ill-gotten. Is there room for sympathy on both sides?

JJM: Without wanting to diminish in any way the suffering of those who lost their precious belongings, I think there is. The more time that goes by, the more complicated the issue becomes, as people buy and sell in good faith, not knowing the painting’s tainted past. These things are also complicated when great legal industries spring up around them, as seems to have happened in the case of stolen artwork.

Q: You create a vivid sense of French life under the German Occupation in WWI. Did you know much about this period prior to writing the novel?

JJM: No I didn’t, but the more research I did, the more fascinated I became by it. I knew about the terrible losses suffered in northern France during the first world war, but I knew little about life away from the Western Front, and the fact that in a great swathe of northern France Belgian and French people had their homes and belongings requisitioned in such a widespread and systematic way.

Q: Sophie and Liv exist a century apart, but their lives are strongly connected, making the past feel very much alive in your story. Do you feel a strong link to the past or a particular historic figure?

JJM: That’s an interesting question. I’m not sure I do. I’m always amazed when people do past life regression and say they turned out to be Cleopatra or Florence Nightingale... I think I’d be the anonymous girl who ran the fruit stall near the river, or kept the accounts in the hat shop. But I do like to look at the lives of particularly brave women in history though, undercover women agents, in wartime or Amelia Earhart, say, and try to use their actions to make me braver in my everyday life, like standing up to a traffic warden....

Q: What do you hope readers will take away from THE GIRL YOU LEFT BEHIND?

JJM:  I hope they’ll be transported into a time and place they didn’t know about. And I hope that they will put themselves in the place of Sophie and Liv, and ask: what would I do in their shoes? I love writing strong, resourceful female characters, and Sophie was one of my favourites, so I hope some women might be a little bit inspired too. Mostly I simply hope that they will feel glad they picked up the book and took the journey with me.

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Julie's Review: The Affairs of Others

Summary: Five years after her young husbands death, Celia Cassill has moved from one Brooklyn neighborhood to another, but she has not moved on. The owner of a small apartment building, she has chosen her tenants for their ability to respect one anothers privacy. Celia believes in boundaries, solitude, that she has a right to her ghosts. She is determined to live a life at a remove from the chaos and competition of modern life. Everything changes with the arrival of a new tenant, Hope, a dazzling woman of a certain age on the run from her husbands recent betrayal. When Hope begins a torrid and noisy affair, and another tenant mysteriously disappears, the carefully constructed walls of Celia's world are soon tested and the sanctity of her building is shattered;through violence and sex, in turns tender and dark. Ultimately, Celia and her tenants are forced to abandon their separate spaces for a far more intimate one, leading to a surprising conclusion and the promise of genuine joy. Amy Grace Loyd investigates interior spaces, of the body and the New York warrens in which her characters live, offering a startling emotional honesty about the traffic between men and women. The Affairs of Others is a story about the irrepressibly of life and desire, no matter its sorrows or obstacles. ~powells.com  

Review:  So the buzz around this book, I don't get it. Maybe The Affairs of Others was over my head or maybe it just wasn't my kind of book. Most of the time I felt like I was watching an art house movie where nothing happened but I felt like there should have been something.


Celia is a young widow but I had a hard time remembering that throughout the book. She just acts like she's a 60 year old lady who's lived her life, when really she hasn't lived anything. What happened to her is tragic but not the end.

Celia is miserable in her life and wants to live a quiet anonymous life, except she inserts herself into new sublet occupant, Hope's life. Why now? Why Hope? Is it because Hope is having all the sex that Celia isn't? Why is Celia drawn to Hope?

Some of the plot lines didn't really seem to have any structure. Perhaps they are inserted into the novel to get you to feel compassion for Celia but really all I felt was apathy. Actually that was all I felt throughout the whole book. That and I just wanted to know what the awful thing that Celia did  was exactly. Meant to be the climax of the novel, it was a blip. I pretty much guess it earlier in the book and didn't think it was that big of a deal. It's not the first time it's been used in a novel or occurred in real life.

I'm sure there is an audience out there for this book but it wasn't me.


Final Take:  2/5

Thanks to Michelle from That's What She Read for my copy!

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Jenn's Review: Psych's Guide to Crime Fighting for the Totally Unqualified

 Blurb:  GOT A MYSTERY TO SOLVE?
DON'T GET STUMPED. GET PSYCHED!You've seen him solve unsolvable crimes, stop unstoppable killers, and consume unconsumable breakfast cereals. Now Shawn Spencer, the mastermind from TV's hit show Psych, shows you how to become a fake psychic-and a real detective-using his patented methods of crime-fighting awesomeness. Along the way, he'll help you deal with whiny sidekicks (that means you, Gus), interfering police officers (including but not limited to Chief Vick, Lassiter, Henry, Buzz MacNab, and, ah, Juliet), and flashes of genius (like Evel Knievel's white leather jumpsuit). 

You'll discover:

How to set up a totally bitchin' office, where Wednesday = Ladies NightHow to convince your sidekick that he's really your partner, How to pick up women at a crime scene, Shawn's Stakeout Survival Guide, including sensible snacks, Gus's Scream-and-Run Method for confronting criminals,Unsolved mysteries like who stole Shawn's Sno-Caps in third grade,The ideal sleuth car: Magnum, P.I.'s Ferrari or Knight Rider's K.I.T.T.?  Who should play Shawn in the movie of his life: Christian Bale or Don Cheadle?  New names for detectives, such as Rico Solvé and Sherlock Homeboy

. . . and way more cool stuff.

Packed with insane pop quizzes, unbelievable case studies, unflattering photos, and off-the-chart charts, this all-in-one guide will have you solving crimes and catching crooks like a pro-even if you don't have a clue.

Review:  Oh, how I love Psych!  Next to Castle, I'd have to say it's my favorite show on television right now.  When I saw Psych's Guide to Crime Fighting for the Totally Unqualified was available I knew I had to have it.

If you visit our blog with any regularity, you may have noticed this has been in my currently reading section for a while.  That's because, well, imagine Shawn's rants, some of his longer rants.  Now imagine reading that for 300 pages.  Granted it's broken up by foot notes from the gang and the occasional section written by a 'guest,' but that's a lot of Shawn.  For me, it was really more of a coffee table book to be read in stages.

Was it funny?  Riotously.  Laughing out loud in public places funny.  Would you appreciate it if you aren't a fan of the series?  Probably not, but if you enjoy Psych, I'd say it's a must read.  

Final Take:  4/5

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Children's Corner: The Dark

I adored reading Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, though I was supremely disappointed by the lack of ending, I came to love the writing for it's smart sense of humor.  When I saw The Dark, I knew it would be wonderful... and it is.

Laszlo is afraid of the dark, and he tries to conquer his fear by saying hello to the dark each day... and never going into the basement.  But one night, with his night light goes out, the dark in the basement calls out to Laszlo... and he bravely follows.  Not everything is what it seems... what the dark helps him find... is a light bulb.

I love the illustrations by Jon Klassen - his creative use of dark and light complete the story.  This is the perfect introduction to Lemony Snicket and I hope to be getting my daughter into some of his other works soon.  The Dark is a super cute story about facing your fears for kids and adults alike.


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Alice's Review: The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

 Summary: Connie Goodwin should be spending her summer doing research for her Ph.D. dissertation in American History. But when her mother asks her to handle the sale of Connie's grandmother's abandoned home near Salem, she's compelled to help. It's not long before the time she's set aside for research is instead spent sorting through her grandmother's ancient possessions, discovering a woman she barely knew. One day, while exploring the dusty bookshelves in the study, Connie discovers a key hidden within an old bible. And within the key is a brittle slip of paper with two words written on it: Deliverance Dane. Along with a handsome steeplejack named Sam, Connie begins to dig into the town's records, looking for references to Deliverance Dane. But even as the pieces begin to fall into place, Connie is haunted by visions of the witch trials so long ago, and she begins to fear that she is more tied to Salem's dark past than she could have ever imagined. Written by an author completing a Ph.D. in New England Studies, and whose ancestors were accused witches in Salem, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane travels seamlessly between the trials in the 1690s and a modern woman's story of mystery and discovery. ~powells.com

Review:  The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane centers around Connie, a Harvard graduate student.  After a timely request from her mother to close her grandmother’s house, Connie moves to a town outside Salem, MA.  The house is no prize, in fact it was downright scary:   no electricity, overgrown yard, located off the main road.  I wouldn’t walk onto the house in the daylight, let alone at night.  After finding a key with a name in it in a bible, Connie begins a quest to find who is Deliverance Dane.  I loved the journey to the past.  I found the foundation story of Deliverance and Mercy Dane wonderful.  I thought it was brilliant for Ms. Howe to pen it in old English.  It was challenging for me to read, but really enjoyable.

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane is beautifully written, but there wasn’t a connection there for me to the modern day story.  I guess it’s acceptable for witches to roam the 17^th Century but they have no place in the 21st.  Small-minded, I know.  This comes mostly from the fear that witches do exist.  Then again, I’m not a fan of the occult in literature.  That is probably my biggest issue with this novel.  In spite of it, I found myself continuously drawn to the characters and events in the story.  I wanted to know what happened next.  My personal beliefs on the subject aside, I believe the novel is wonderful for someone interested in the Salem trials and a modern day girl’s connection to them.  Kudos to Ms. Howe for writing a twisted and interesting plot.  This novel was a page-turner. 

I feel as if I’m being unfair with this review.  It’s not that the novel is terrible, because it isn’t.  Ms. Howe is a gifted writer, a natural storyteller who captured her reader and doesn’t let them go until the very end.  It’s not that I didn’t like it because I did.  There was simply something missing for me.  It’s probably the subject matter and the disconnect I felt with the main character.  I understood why Connie was so structured and slightly pretentious, but that doesn’t mean I have to like her.  My favorite character in the novel was Grace, Connie’s earthy and holistic mom.  I just adore characters like that, mostly because I don’t take them seriously even though I know deep inside they seriously believe in the power of aura and crystals and all that other nonsense.  Grace provided me with some genuine laughter and this novel sorely needed it.

Had I know the story would involve modern day sorcery, I know I wouldn’t have read it. In hindsight, I’m glad I didn’t know because I enjoyed this novel and am thankful Julie included in our challenge. I still wish I had checked it out of the library instead of paying for it.

Final Take:  3/5

Julie's Review
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