Bright Eyes by Catherine Anderson

Bright Eyes by Catherine Anderson
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars419 pages

Bright Eyes (June 2004) is the next entry in the Coulter Family series. This novel tells the story of Zeke Coulter’s romance with a struggling single mother of two named Natalie Patterson who lives next door. Zeke forms an attachment to Natalie after her son Chad vandalizes his property and he offers the boy an opportunity to work for him to pay off the debt. Natalie is an aspiring singer who develops a relationship with Zeke after seeing how well he handles her son. She has to juggle with her supper club that is soon to be bankrupt, her shady ex-husband, and her growing feelings for Zeke. As the story progresses Zeke becomes more involved with Natalie and her children, including her four year old daughter Rosie, and he even tries to get Natalie back into singing professionally.

The conflict that emerges towards the end seems a bit forced, as if Anderson needed something really dramatic to shake up the relationship between Zeke and Natalie. The romance in this story does not have as much depth as the previous novels in the series and by the end of the book Zeke and Natalie appear to be settling for one another because the chemistry is lacking. The stronger characters in the book are the kids Chad and Rosie, and that speaks to how uninteresting the romance is in Bright Eyes. Anderson stumbles in the fourth book of The Coulter Family Series, not because it’s a bad story overall, but because it pales in comparison to the previous novels.

Blue Skies by Catherine Anderson

Blue Skies by Catherine Anderson
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
432 pages

The third novel in the Coulter Family series is Blue Skies (January 2004), focuses on Hank Coulter and his relationship with Carly Adams. Carly was born with an eye disease that made her blind up until she had a surgery as an adult that gave her the ability to see for the first time in her life. On her first night out with eyesight she makes a reckless decision and has a one-night stand with Hank after leaving a local bar with him. To Carly and Hank’s extreme dismay they discover their night together results in a pregnancy that threatens to irreparably damage Carly’s vision. Hank decides that they should marry because he feels it is the proper thing to do, and Carly reluctantly agrees.


Over the next several months Hank and Carly have to deal with the baby and Carly’s condition. This story is unconventional because the main characters fall in love after they are expecting a child and get married, and it also shows the hardships of legal blindness and how that affects a relationship. While Blue Skies is not as sentimental as the previous novels in The Coulter Family Series, it does have a touch of cold hard reality about the consequences people face when they make bad decisions, and how they can turn it around to make it a positive experience if they make the right choices afterwards. Hank and Carly’s love connection demonstrates that great things can result from what people may initially think is a mistake.

Sweet Nothings by Catherine Anderson

Sweet Nothings by Catherine Anderson
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
464 pages

The second entry in the Coulter Family series, Sweet Nothings, was released in April 2002, and focuses on the eldest brother of the family, Jake and his romance with the vulnerable Molly Wells. Catherine Anderson picks up right where she left off in this tale of secrets, betrayal, and trust. Jake Coulter has a reputation of being a tough playboy, but when he first meets Molly, a young woman who is accompanied by a traumatized horse she rescued from physical mistreatment, he immediately feels the need to protect her. Molly on the other hand doesn't trust men after suffering emotional abuse at the hands of her ex-husband, but she accepts Jake’s offer to help her in her time of distress because she has no alternatives.

Throughout the course of the novel, Molly has to face the insecurities she dealt with during her marriage and Jake tries to encourage her to love herself and they fall in love in the process. The great aspect of this novel is the evolution of Molly’s character from frightened and cynical to tough and trusting of Jake. There is a genuine sense of growth and overcoming of past misfortunes that strengthens the bond between Jake and Molly. Sweet Nothings teaches the important lesson that love doesn't just happen when the timing is right, it can happen if you open your heart enough to let it. Anderson’s follow up definitely will not disappoint those who enjoyed reading about Ryan and Bethany in the first novel.                                    

Phantom Waltz by Catherine Anderson

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
418 pages

The first book in the Coulter Family series, Phantom Waltz, was released in July 2001 and is based on Bethany Coulter’s love story with Ryan Kendrick. Bethany Coulter is a young woman working for her father’s company The Works who was paralyzed from the waist down as a teenager. Confined to a wheelchair, and not expecting to date any man, she is taken by complete surprise when the handsome rancher from the Rocking K ranch asks her out to dinner. Although she is initially distrusting, and Ryan himself is wary about handling Bethany, the two reach a mutual point of attraction and feelings that enable them to overcome many obstacles throughout their courtship.

Towards the end of the book there is a big surprise that threatens to tear Ryan and Bethany apart for good, but Catherine Anderson once again proves that love can conquer all. The chemistry between these two characters is electric, the emotions they feel are raw and heartwarming, and their journey to a lifetime of happiness is far from easy as they grapple with the reality of Bethany’s disability and the depth of their love for each other. Phantom Waltz is the perfect romance book for all those who strongly believe in true love and would even make the most cynical person have a change of heart and begin to have hope. The writing and the plot is excellent and the first book in the series is not only the best book of them all, but arguably Catherine Anderson’s best love story to date.                               

Skippy Dies by Paul Murray

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
672 pages

Skippy Dies by Paul Murray is an extremely long, but intriguing novel. This book is very interesting, challenging and thought provoking; it is also funny and has great characters. The postmodern structure is brilliant.

Skippy Dies is split into three sections: 1. Hopeland, 2. Heartland, and 2. Ghostland.

In the very beginning the title character dies in a donut shop. He manages to write "Tell Lori" on the floor in donut jelly before dying. His real name is Daniel Juster, but everyone calls him Skippy.

Skippy is an oddball student at Seabrook College for boys. He has a roommate named Ruprecht, a scientific genius who wants to open the portal to other dimensions using ten-dimensional string theory. Skippy also hangs out with a boy nicknamed "MC Sexecutioner," among other weird characters.

The plot revolves around Skippy's love obsession Lori, who attends the girls school right next to Seabrook, who's involved with a drug dealer named Carl. There's also a teacher named Howard, who fell out of love with his live-in girlfriend. Howard falls for a gorgeous substitute teacher named Auriele and they have a brief fling that leads to nothing.

The highlights of the story are Ruprecht believing his experiment to get a figurine to another dimension worked after it disappeared, Lori's conflicted feelings for Carl and Skippy, Howard realizing he made a mistake when he dumped his girlfriend for Auriele, Ruprecht and others sneaking around the school to set up tools for communication with the dead, the creepy Father Green and his immoral desires, and the principal aka "The Automator" and his single-minded objective to get the school updated.

A scene that has a lot of emotional impact is when Ruprecht confronts Lori after Skippy's death and blames her for it. They have an argument that leads to a mutual understanding where they see a glimpse of humanity in each other despite their differences.

A major theme in this book is the fragility and fleeting nature of adolescence and how it impacts the rest of your life.

Skippy Dies offers a lot opportunity for character analysis though the title character remains a tragic mystery.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

230 pages

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a painfully revealing look into the life of a teenager named Junior who lives on a reservation. He wants to be more than what he sees. Junior opens up describing his health condition hydrocephalus. He talks about how he gets bullied and beat up by other kids on the reservation. He keeps to himself and draws cartoons all the time. “I draw because words are too unpredictable. I draw because words are too limited… so I draw because I want to talk to the world. And I want the world to pay attention to me.” He describes being extremely poor and how that affected his dog Oscar who was dying for hours, but his family couldn’t afford to take him to the veterinarian so Junior’s father euthanized the dog. Junior talks about how his family has always lived on the reservation and in the same place, noting that “no one paid attention to his parents’ dreams” which seemed to be a generational cycle. Junior asserts: “But we reservation Indians don’t get to realize our dreams. We don’t get those chances. Or choices. We’re just poor. That’s all we are. It sucks to be poor, and it sucks to feel that somehow you deserve to be poor, and it sucks to feel that you somehow deserve to be poor. You start believing that you’re stupid and ugly because you’re Indian. And because you’re Indian you start believing you’re destined to be poor. It’s an ugly circle and there’s nothing you can do about it. Poverty doesn’t give you strength or teach you lessons about strength or teach you lessons about perseverance. No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor.”

When Junior contemplates running away his best friend Rowdy tells him no one would notice. Rowdy is described as the toughest kid on the “rez”. They hang out at his house and read comics together. On Junior’s first day of school at Wellpinit High School he gets so angry about receiving a geometry book that belonged to his mother when she was in high school that he throws it at his teacher Mr. P’s face. He gets suspended for the incident. Mr. P visits his house and tells Junior that he has to leave the rez forever! He tells Junior that his older sister Mary was the smartest student he ever had and that she wanted to be a romance writer. Now she spends all of her days in the basement. “All these kids have given up. All your friends. All the bullies. And their mothers and fathers have given up too. And their grandparents gave up and their grandparents before them. And me and every other teacher here. We’re all defeated.” Mr. P starts crying and says that the farther Junior gets away from the rez the more hope he’ll have. Junior decides to go to Reardan High School after his parents tell him white people have the most hope. “I had to multiply hope by hope.” Rowdy is angry that he is transferring and refuses to go with him. He screamed and punched Junior in the face.

Junior’s dad drove him to Reardan on his first day of school in his  rundown truck. He feels worthless when he stands outside the school. While he attends his classes he develops feelings for a blond girl named Penelope and encounters a popular jock named Roger who makes an extremely racist joke about Indians. Junior is so angry he punches Roger in the face and makes him bleed. Roger and his friends leave. When Junior tells his grandmother what happened she tells him it means they respect you. Junior dresses like a homeless dude for Halloween and claims he’s going to raise money for the poor to impress Penelope. He does end up raising money, but gets jumped and robbed. Penelope feels sorry for him and touches apart of his back where he was attacked.

Over the next few months Junior feels invisible and talks about his struggles getting to and from school. He is shocked when his sister gets married and moves to Montana with her husband. Eventually Junior is tired of being lonely and approaches a nerdy boy named Gordy and asks him to be his friend. They become friends and mostly study together. Junior comforts Penelope after discovering she is bulimic. They start sort-of-dating and go to the Winter Formal together. Junior wears one of his dad’s old suits. They go to a diner and Junior feels sick about the fact that he doesn’t have any money. Roger figures out that Junior is poor and pays for him. Junior’s high school life changes dramatically when he makes the varsity basketball team against the odds. When he plays against his former high school Rowdy knocks him unconscious during the game and he goes to the hospital. Tragedy strikes his family when his grandmother gets killed by a drunk driver. His dad’s best friend Eugene gets shot and killed by his friend. Junior gets depressed and misses class a lot. Gordy stands up for him in school after his teacher says he shouldn’t miss class so much. The rest of the class drops their textbooks and leaves too.

The rematch against Wellpinit draws media attention and Junior gets interviewed by a reporter. Junior starts the game and blocks Rowdy’s opening game dunk and makes a three pointer. Reardan wins by a large margin and he celebrates with his team, but he feels guilty and ashamed when he thinks about Indians. He cries thinking about what the loss must have done to their spirits. Reardan goes undefeated for the rest of the regular season. Tragedy strikes again with the news of his sister’s death by fire. Junior becomes hysterical when his dad takes him home from school. Rowdy is crying and says “Your sister is dead because you left us. You killed her.” Junior’s classmates hug him and support him. Penelope cries and hugs him. At the cemetery with his parents Junior remembers his grandmother, Eugene, and his sister. “I mean, she was amazing. It was courageous of her to leave the basement and move to Montana. She went searching for her dreams, and she didn’t find them but she made the attempt. And I was making the attempt, too. And maybe it would kill me, too, but I knew that staying on the rez would have killed me, too.”

After many months of not speaking, Rowdy comes over to Junior’s place over summer break and says he’s bored. They play a basketball game and Junior realizes that Rowdy sees to accept Junior’s decision to go to Reardan when he calls him nomadic. Rowdy says he’s okay staying where he is. They don’t keep score of the game and play for hours. 

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
186 pages
 

Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl is a modern classic that addresses the importance of individuality and explores the impact of social conformity in this poetic, deeply moving story of a rare teenager who proved to others that being different is a gift and not a curse.

What happens when a girl who is carrying a pet rat, a ukulele, and a sunflower canvas bag, and is wearing a long flowing white pioneer dress without make up attends high school for the first time?

She sets the school abuzz. Everyone whispers about Stargirl. Who is she? Is she real? What kind of name is Stargirl? The reason why Stargirl causes such a scene is because of the type of town she lives in and the school she attended. The narrator reveals the social structure: "Mica Area High School--MAHS--was not exactly a hotbed of nonconformity. There were individual variants here and there, of course, but within pretty narrow limits we all wore the same clothes, talked the same way, ate the same food, listened to the same music. Even our dorks and nerds had a MAHS stamp on them. If we happened to somehow distinguish ourselves, we quickly snapped back into place, like rubber bands."

 

Stargirl Caraway is a uniquely eccentric 15 year old who attends public school for the first time at Mica Area High School in Arizona. Her real name is Susan, but she doesn't think it matches her and names herself Stargirl during this time--she had other odd nicknames such as "Pocket Mouse" before.

 

At first people think she is joking or is a ruse planted by the school faculty to inject school spirit. After several months people start to believe she's probably just crazy. The narrator tells readers that “she laughed when there was no joke. She danced when there was no music. She had no friends, yet she was the friendliest person in school. In her answers in class, she often spoke of sea horses and stars, but she did not know what a football was."

 

She also sings "Happy Birthday" to complete strangers in the cafeteria, gives out cards and candy every day and says hi to everyone. What kind of person does these things? Stargirl is a rare individual who does not care about social mores. She is selfless and energetic in ways the narrator of the story, Leo Borlock, can never understand. He explains the school's fascination with Stargirl: "We wanted to define her, to wrap her up as we did each other, but we could not seem to get past 'weird' and 'strange' and 'goofy.' Her ways knocked us off balance. A single word seemed to hover in the cloudless sky over the school: HUH?"

Leo Borlock is a junior at the same high school and he is completely fascinated by Stargirl. He doesn't realize he is falling in love with her even though he followed her for miles after school one day and stays up late every night under the moon thinking about her. Leo poetically tries to capture her essence: "She was elusive. She was today. She was tomorrow. She was the faintest scent of a cactus flower, the flitting shadow of an elf owl. We did not know what to make of her. In our minds we tried to pin her to a cork board like a butterfly, but the pin merely went through and away she flew.”

Around the time Stargirl becomes unexpectedly popular, Leo and Stargirl begin a tentative relationship. Leo learns how to see the world through Stargirl's eyes: an unlimited space of possibility. He starts to notice what is going on around him and sympathizing with strangers. Leo lovingly declares that “she was bendable light: she shone around every corner of my day.”  

In many ways Stargirl seems to take over Leo's whole life. He is willing to accept it until Stargirl becomes a social pariah for her innocent, yet unacceptable behavior as a cheerleader during basketball season. When Leo notices he's become invisible to his peers due to his relationship with Stargirl he begins to succumb to the pressure and influences Stargirl to change.

After Stargirl realizes her "normal" teenage act isn't working she becomes herself again and Leo makes his choice: the crowd is more important. But that doesn't stop Stargirl from attending a school ball and winning the affections of her fellow students in an unforgettably emphatic fashion when she leads a bunny hop train.

Stargirl leaves after the ball and no one at the high school has ever seen her since. Leo reflects on the light that Stargirl shined on his small town and how she still impacts his life everyday fifteen years later. He wonders if he there is still a has a chance to be with her. A gift he receives the day before his birthday leads him to believe he does.

Though Stargirl compromised her identity to be with Leo, she's not the one who changes at Mica High. Everyone around her does. She forces people to rethink their views on society and behavior and what is acceptable and what is true. She gave herself the perfect name. In less than a school year her legacy lived on like the stars in the sky.

 

A wise teacher in the story explains the unique eccentricity of Stargirl: “It's in the morning, for most of us. It's that time, those few seconds when we're coming out of sleep but we're not really awake yet. For those few seconds we're something more primitive than what we are about to become. We have just slept the sleep of our most distant ancestors, and something of them and their world still clings to us. For those few moments we are unformed, uncivilized. We are not the people we know as ourselves, but creatures more in tune with a tree than a keyboard. We are untitled, unnamed, natural, suspended between was and will be, the tadpole before the frog, the worm before the butterfly. We are for a few brief moments, anything and everything we could be. And then...and then -- ah -- we open our eyes and the day is before us and ... we become ourselves."

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
376 pages

The Hunger Games is a thrilling young adult sci-fi dystopian novel that occurs in fictional Panem sometime in the future, presumably after an apocalyptic event in North America. The story is about a teenage girl named Katniss Everdeen who volunteers to take the place of her younger sister Prim in the 74th annual Hunger Games---a bloody tournament that features twenty four 12-18 year old contestants, called tributes, who must kill each other off until only one person remains alive to win the Games.

Katniss takes Prim's place during the selection ceremony in an emotional scene where she enters with her fellow District 12 lottery "winner" Peeta Mallarch. They have a past connection that helps them form an emotional bond during their preparation for the Games. They are mentored by infamous drunkard Haymitch, who is the only living Hunger Games victor from District 12.

When Katniss and Peeta arrive at the Capitol they are prepared by Stylists who make them glamorous for their reality show style interviews and presentations to the viewing audience---Capitol and District members. The whole process is surreal and Katniss experiences a lot of conflicting emotions. Haymitch advises her to run to safety the second the Games begin to increase her chances of survival.

Katniss follows Haymitch's advice and runs to the woods at the beginning of the Games. She hides in trees for a long period of time until the Gamemakers, who control the location and weapons of the tournament, decide her safety in not entertaining and blast fire at her so she would get out of the trees. Afterwards Katniss uses her bow and arrow hunting skills she acquired back home to survive until only a few tributes remain.

Katniss is nearly killed by fellow tributes twice, but Peeta saves her the first time, while she shoots her attacker the second time, but she loses her cute friend Rue in the process. At the very end of the Games Katniss and Peeta are still alive, but Katniss suggests they commit suicide instead of one killing the other. The Gamemakers choose to let them both live, though they view Katniss as a threat to the Capitol's authority henceforth.

After Katniss and Peeta return to District 12 there is an implication that the Capitol is plotting to punish Katniss for her rebellious act at the Games. There is a rift between Katniss and Peeta over the authenticity of their feelings for each other that is unresolved by the novel's end. Catching Fire, the sequel to The Hunger Games picks up where the cliffhangers leave off.

This novel can be quite disturbing at times, but what is truly disturbing is how possible it is in the modern technology, social media era. It can be viewed as a cautionary tale much like George Orwell's 1984 was purported to be.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
167 pages

The Alchemist is Paulo Coelho's landmark masterpiece that literally and symbolically tells readers to follow their dreams no matter what feelings they have or what obstacles they face. This message is delivered through the story of a young shepherd named Santiago living in Andalusia who embarks on a turbulent journey of faith after having a recurring dream in an old church. Santiago is often certain about his life experiences and the decisions he makes until he has a dream about a child who led him to the Egyptian pyramids and told him if he came there he would find his treasure. He goes to woman who reads palms so she can interpret the dream. The woman says that he won't have to pay her if he promises to give her one-tenth of his treasure. Santiago agrees but he thinks the woman is a fraud.

As Santiago prepares to sell wool to a merchant in town he encounters a strange old man while reading a book. The man tells him that the book perpetuates one of the world's greatest lies, that humans don't control their fate. The old man reveals himself to be the King of Salem, Melchizedek. He tells the shepherd that he must follow the dream and also reveals to the boy things about his life that he's never told anyone. He also tells the boy that he needs to pursue his Personal Legend. Santiago decides to give up his life as a shepherd and cross the seas to find his treasure. After selling his sheep, he leaves his country to achieve his Personal Legend--accomplishing the purpose of his life.

When Santiago arrives in Africa he talks to a man at a bar who tells him there are a lot of thieves in the area and that he would help Santiago cross the desert to the pyramids. Santiago gives the man all his money and walks through the market with him to buy camels. While Santiago is momentarily distracted, the man disappears. Santiago stands in the marketplace for hours in shock. Eventually Santiago decides his dream was foolishness and that he would have to save up to return to his country. He meets a crystal merchant and is able to persuade him to offer a job in his shop on the hill. Santiago's presence in the crystal shop increases the sales and attracts a lot of customers. The crystal merchant reveals to Santiago that he has wanted to go to Mecca his whole life, but is now content to only dream about it. Santiago saves money to go back home and makes plans to become a shepherd again. He leaves the crystal shop after eleven months, but instead of going home he goes to a warehouse to find out how far away the Pyramids are.

Santiago joins a caravan that is crossing the desert. During his trip with the caravan he meets an Englishman who is studying the secrets of alchemy and wants to meet the alchemist who lives in the desert. They talk and become acquaintances. When the caravan arrives at an oasis named Al-Fayoum they settle there to wait for a tribal war to end. The Englishman asks Santiago to help him find someone who knows where the alchemist is. After asking several people Santiago meets a young woman named Fatima at a well and instantly falls in love with her. She tells him where he can find the alchemist and Santiago tells the Englishman. Santiago and Fatima meet at the well for several days and talk for about fifteen minutes each time. Santiago confesses that he loves her and is looking for his treasure. Fatima tells him to go search for his treasure and she'll be waiting for him when he returns. One evening Santiago has a vision about a tribe coming to attack the oasis. He tells the leaders of the oasis and they decide to prepare for an attack. Santiago's vision comes true and he is named the counselor of the oasis.

The alchemist learns of Santiago's vision and visits Santiago to see if he can be his disciple. The alchemist acts as his guide on his journey to the Pyramids. Along the way the alchemist teaches Santiago important lessons about life and the world. When Santiago admits that he is afraid his heart will suffer while pursuing his treasure the alchemist tells him "tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity." After traveling across the desert for days the alchemist and Santiago are taken captive by one of the tribes at war. The alchemist convinces the chiefs of the tribe to spare their lives by saying his apprentice can turn into wind. Santiago is frightened to death because he does not know how to turn into wind and he has only three days to learn how. On the third day Santiago went on top of the cliff and spoke to the desert, who told him to speak to the wind. When Santiago asks the wind to help him the wind demanded to know how he learned to speak the language of the desert and the wind. Santiago replied "my heart." After having a long conversation with the wind and the sun, Santiago began to pray and spoke to God. He learned that he can do anything with the power of God in himself and turns into wind.

The tribe lets Santiago and the alchemist continue their journey. When they reach a monastery the alchemist tells Santiago to go to the Pyramids by himself. He gives him a gold bar. When Santiago reaches the top of a dune and sees the pyramid he weeps. He begins to dig for his treasure after following an omen. After digging for many hours Santiago is ambushed and attacked by a group of men who are about to kill him after stealing his gold bar. When Santiago tells him he is digging for the treasure that he had a recurring dream about they decide to let him go because they think he's a fool. As the attackers leave, one man stays behind and says he had a recurring dream two years ago about treasure being in an old church across the seas with a sycamore tree growing out of it, but he wasn't stupid enough to pursue it. Santiago realizes that the treasure is where he had the dream about the Pyramids. He returns to his country and digs below the sycamore tree at the old church he dreamed at many months ago and finds a box of priceless treasures from centuries ago. When the wind blows on him he feels a kiss from Fatima and smiles. He tells her that he is coming.

The Best Laid Plans by Sidney Sheldon

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
384 pages

Sheldon's 1997 suspense thriller is a rapidly paced story featuring his signature web of lies, deception, and murder, albeit this novel is less complex than his earlier works. In The Best Laid Plans the two main characters, Leslie Stewart and Oliver Russell are engaged to be married when Oliver suddenly ditches Leslie and marries the daughter of a powerful U.S. Senator. This acts as an explosive trigger to Leslie's underlying distrust of men since her father abandoned her as a child and she becomes obsessed with getting revenge on Oliver, who becomes the President of the United States.

Leslie marries the wealthy owner of an Arizona newspaper, who passes away a few years into their marriage. Leslie takes control of the newspaper and ruthlessly acquires newspaper companies around the country and expands worldwide as she closely watches Oliver Russell's presidential campaign and election. Leslie's plan to use her media power to damage President Russell's reputation becomes reckless when the President is a murder suspect of a governor's 7 year old daughter. As details of the case leak, more people are murdered in connection to the crime, making the President an obvious target. However, Leslie's machinations are ruined when the Washington Tribune's famous foreign correspondent Dana Evans finds out who really murdered the governor's daughter.

The President appears to be guilty due to his well-documented habit of having extramarital affairs and Leslie's memory of his connection to a drug called Liquid Ecstasy. President Russell admits to FBI officials that on the night the governor's daughter was murdered he was sleeping with an Italian ambassador's wife, unbeknownst to Leslie who has written a sensational headline that the President is wanted for six murders.

In a heart-pounding chain of events Dana Evans is talking to the sister of a man who was murdered in connection to the governor's daughter's murder when she is cornered by a hit man. Dana calls the Washington Tribune station and asks a staff member to put her on live because her cameramen had already set up. The hit man is captured attempting to murder Dana and the sister on national television while Dana reveals who is behind the murders. Leslie, who owns the Washington Tribune and was at the station when the breaking report came on, is horrified that her story on President Russell's impending arrest for the murders is wrong. Unfortunately, it was too late for her to recall the paper with that headline story. The editor-in-chief of the Washington Tribune warned her not to print it without all the facts, but Leslie was so desperate to take down the President that she became the victim of her own maniacal revenge plan, while the President was forced to face the reality of his careless philandering.

By the end of the novel Dana Evans emerges as the true heroine. It seems that the point of Leslie and Oliver's relationship and twisted long-term connection were to provide Dana with a happy ending. Sidney Sheldon's plotting isn't as sharp in this book, there are some definite holes and unnecessary details, but he still crafts an interesting juxtaposition between Leslie and Dana, along with realistically redeeming Oliver Russell's character after he becomes a murder suspect.

Glass by Ellen Hopkins

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
688 pages

Glass is the second verse novel of the trilogy about crystal meth-addict Kristina Georgia Snow. Glass is a well-written, interesting, and informative novel on a difficult issue.

Kristina became hooked on crystal meth after using it with a friend during a summer visit with her Dad in the previous novel Crank. She picks up the deadly habit again right after she gives birth to her first child, a boy named Hunter.

The progression of her drug addiction and her thought processes are very realistic. The way she rationalizes her bad decisions and denies her logical thinking are classic addiction symptoms.

Kristina's situation is frightening not only because her life is in danger, but her baby's life is at risk at well. Fortunately for her son, Kristina's mother and stepfather adopt him and save him from Kristina's irresponsibility.

The worst part about Kristina's struggles with the drug is her inability to recognize exactly how low she is sinking and where she is heading due to her addiction.

A young woman named Robyn who Kristina used to get meth from ended up leaving college and working in a whorehouse to pay for her meth dependency, yet Kristina uses Robyn as a client for her drug deals. Kristina's downward spiral causes her to lose custody of Hunter, but she doesn't really care.

The novel ends with Kristina and her boyfriend Trent's arrest and the series continues with the next book Fallout.

Tolstoy Lied: A Love Story by Rachel Kadish

Rating: 3.5 out 5 stars
336 pages

Tolstoy Lied is Kadish's second novel. The premise of this novel can be taken from a quote in the book, "People talk about culture wars over sexuality and race. But we're in a culture war over the nature and feasibility of happiness and no one even acknowledges it" (160). The main character, Dr. Tracy Farber, is a single 33-year old professor at a university in New York.

In the beginning of the novel Tracy is focused on her career--putting together her tenure packet, applying for fellowships, and an "ambitious" writing project where she claims Tolstoy is a liar about happy people. Tracy believes that in the world of literature scholars celebrate the works of tragedy and dismiss works with a even a hint of a happy ending, which affects writers who follow the status quo.

From the title of the book and the blurb this was purported to be the main idea, Tracy deciding she can be happy without marriage and kids though society insists that's what is needed for a happy life, which essentially stereotypes all happy endings.

This isn't really what the novel is about. In fact, Tracy's life appears to be boring and empty before she meets her love interest George. And I don't mean that Tracy was not invested in her career and was not passionate, it's just that there was rarely time for her big happiness project to develop before she turned into a typical romance novel heroine.

Tracy was reduced to a blubbering, whiny female too quickly. It is hard to buy that she was independent and happy to be single when she thought about her friends getting married and her being single several times early in the novel and met George soon after. Tracy is human of course, so she wasn't going to be oblivious to her marital status, but the grand happiness theory was barely explored before she met her man.

Tolstoy's name in the title convinced me this book was going to be more profound than other romance novels. Not so. It was formulaic. The meeting, the get together, the break up, the reunion. The really interesting element was not the "love story", but Tracy's workplace. There was a lot of cattiness and politics going on at her job, which included a very heartbreaking situation with a mentally ill graduate student. Those aspects of the story were worth analyzing and feeling personally offended over.

For instance--If you know that someone at your job is doing something very sinister, in a manipulative and difficult-to-prove manner, how would you handle it? Tracy was dealing with a professor in her department that was manipulative like Iago from Othello. It was disturbing what the woman did to Tracy and to her advisee Elizabeth. The professor who did her dirt and ruined people's lives out of spite did it with no remorse; she was a relentless snake. It was heinous what she did to Tracy and Elizabeth.
Back to the love story part. The problem with Tracy and George was that they weren't in sync when they got engaged. Tracy didn't even realize she was being proposed to when George "asked" her to marry him. It took them several months to get back together once Tracy had the courage to admit she felt he was rushing them into marriage. George was a nice enough guy, but he had some deep insecurities about his father and his ability to be head of the household for his own family. But in the end, he came back to Tracy and she welcomed him with open arms. 

I Wish I Had a Red Dress by Pearl Cleage

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
336 pages

The main character's sister in What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day is the focus in the delightful sequel to Pearl Cleage's debut novel. I Wish I Had a Red Dress tells the story of Joyce Mitchell, a widow who is determined to help the young women in Idlewild while finding inner peace.

Joyce is strong and optimistic despite losing her husband, parents, and children over the course of her life. She started a support group called the Sewing Circus to assist young mothers and spends countless hours setting an example and teaching them life lessons. There are challenges with funding, but Joyce works with her members to make ideas come to fruition to keep their program running.

While Joyce is concentrating on her serving her small town, she meets a handsome new staff member of the local high school, Nate Anderson, through her friend's maneuvering. Joyce is instantly attracted to him, but she is not sure is she's ready to date again. Nate understands her hesitation and respects her needs. When a member of the Sewing Circus is in danger with her ex-boyfriend Joyce and Nate work together to ensure the girl's safety.

By the novel's end Joyce decides to wear the red dress Nate bought for her and start the next phase of her life. After all her recent experiences she feels free enough to embrace a new love and continue her civic service without grieving over her past. Joyce has found the strength and healing she needed to move on. The theme of living life to the fullest regardless of the circumstances is eloquently demonstrated with maturity, respect and wisdom.

Quotations from I Wish I Had a Red Dress:

"I wish I had a red dress. I've been wearing black for so long I feel like one of those ancient women in the foreign movies who are always sitting around, fingering their rosary beads and looking resigned while the hero rides to his death on behalf of the people, or for the sake of true love, which is really six of one, half dozen of the other, when you think about it." (3)

“Life is much harder than anybody can possibly tell you, but it doesn’t matter because even if they could, you wouldn’t believe them and what good would it do anyway?” (8)

“A free woman …is someone who can fully conceive and consciously execute all the moments of her life.” (19)

“What’s the point of fighting for the truth if you’re not allowed to tell it?” (22)

“The advantage of faith in moments of crisis and transition is that when the rest of us find ourselves swimming in guilt, fear, confusion and second-guessing, the true believer simply goes with the flow.” (23)
 “Come on,” she said. “Can you really imagine a world without men?” “Absolutely,” I said. “It’s a peaceful place full of fat, happy women and no football.” (27,28)

“Sometimes you have to give the correct even when you’re not really feeling it yet so you can hear how it’s going to sound when you finally get it together for real.” (31)

“We all laughed then, partly because it was funny, but partly because forgetting how to have a good time on Saturday night is as lethal as smoking crack. It just takes a little longer to kill you.” (61)

“If you did feel free, what would you do differently?” I looked at him. “Everything.” (258)