We Are Water by Wally Lamb

When you hear the writer Wally Lamb's name, you expect nothing but great writing. After all he did bring us She's Come Undone & I Know This Much is True.  His new book We Are Water, due out in November, is a very good book.
It is the story of the Oh family.  Annie Oh is a housewife to Orion Oh who is a college pysch counselor. They have three children, a boy & two girls. Annie discovers her artistic side when she starts making collage type pieces of art work in the basement of the family home while the kids are sleeping. These pieces of work tend to lean toward anger and violence, so you begin to wonder what secrets Annie is hiding. But wait... there is a  story within the story ... a tale of a talented black artist, working as a laborer many years before, who happened to live on the same property as the Oh's now do.  Annie's work brings Viveca, a NY art dealer into her life and after 27 years of marriage, Annie decides to divorce Orion and marry Viveca. Add murder and floods, and you have a story that is just barreling toward a tragic end.
This is a complex story, where the past and the present are uniquely intertwined. There came a point in the reading of this book that I really believed the Oh family had to have been cursed somewhere along the line. So many just plain bad things were happening to good people.

I did enjoy Lamb's "We Are Water"   and recommend it for good fall reading.

The Wonder Bread Summer by Jessica Anya Blau

It's 1983 in Berkeley, California. Twenty-year-old Allie Dodgson is a straitlaced college student working part-time at a dress shop to make ends meet. But when the shop turns out to be a front for a dangerous drug-dealing business, Allie finds herself on the lam, speeding toward Los Angeles in her best friend's Prelude with a Wonder Bread bag full of cocaine riding shotgun and a hit man named Vice Versa on her tail.

And so I decided this would be a good summer read. I was thinking it would kind of be Thelma & Louise-y, in the beginning. As the story moves on, it gets a bit out there and a bit unbelievable. Straightlaced girl gets involved in drugs and sex, literally overnight? Not that I am a stickler for true to life, by any means. But I mean this girl makes one wrong move after another. She has an ultra beautiful mother, who left the family to join an aging rock star and his band. Her dad had a restaurant and then he mysteriously closes shop and she loses contact. Her closest friend is held captive by drug dealers as Allie runs around trying to sell the stolen cocaine (in a Wonder bread bag)  to raise money for her college tuition. All while avoiding this hit man called Vice Versa who is after her. 

The story was very fast paced, true and may be a good read for a college student, but not for a seasoned reader.  I just could not connect with any of the characters or story line for that matter. The writing just didn't hook me. So you can pass this one by, there are sooo many other great books out there:)

The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin

Let me say one thing right up front..you will need a free period of time to start reading this book. Have your snacks and bottled water at your side, you will take few breaks:)
The novel takes place in rural Oregon in the early twentieth century. Talmadge tends his apple orchard and leads a peaceful, solitary life. Takes his fruit to market, talks to few people, dozes off for a while and then heads back to his orchard. Many years before, his mother arrived at this place with both Talmadge and his sister Elsbeth in tow, and here he has remained some forty years or so after the death of his mother (he was just thirteen) and the strange disappearance of his sister.
On one of these trips to market, two young girls, both very pregnant, dirty and hungry steal some apples from Talmadge. He does not pursue them. Back home he is in the trees picking apples when he can see them hidden in the grass, watching. And so begins the cat & mouse game...he starts leaving food out and sits  back in his cabin where he can hear them on the porch, he does not approach them..only dirty dishes left behind as a clue that they had been there.
An unlikely relationship develops and he begins looking after these girls, although few words are said between them. Then one day an ugly group of men come looking for the girls, and what follows is heartbreaking. Life for Talmadge after that is anything but peaceful.
If you have read Toni Morrison's Beloved you will understand when I say this novel is a bit mystic. If you have read Grapes of Wrath you will understand when I say that the orchard and the land is described so that you think you are there with Talmadge tending the trees.
Outstanding, mythical, intense, awesomely written first novel.( Coplin tells that she took eight years to write it.) This is a MUST read..this will become a classic, a book destined to remain on library shelves forever. One of the best books I have read in years and years. My daughter-in-law lent me this book, knowing I would love it. I am ordering a copy of my own..I am hoping to get it autographed someday by Coplin, truly a great and gifted writer.

Women From the Ankle down by Rachelle Bergstein

I have started my summer reading, which to me means light hearted, full of romance and fluff novels..but this new book by Bergstein is not a bit of fluff.  It is a very decent history of shoes and women, empowering and powerful.
It begins with the first shoe "designer", a young Italian man named Salvatore Ferragamo who thinks shoes should adorn the foot. He follows his brothers to America and opens a shoe business. It ends with Sex in the City's main character, Carrie Bradshaw and the role shoes played in that series.
But there are so many shoes and so much history in between. The world wars, a time when women had to enter the work force and the shoe of choice was steel toed. After the wars, in the 50's women are back in the home and back in heels. The 60's roll around and we were either barefoot or Birkenstocked with flowers in our hair..the 70's bring the platforms !! Oh my!! Grunge brings Doc Martens..and on and on....and who would have thought that a red glittery pair of shoes worn by a young girl from Kansas would have created such a fuss?
Author Bergstein has done her research and provides so much history in this book..it is a genuine education about how shoes have defined the decades. So, if you are like me and have 20 pairs of shoes by your front door (after I read the book , I had to count them) then get yourself into a pair of your fave shoes and head to the bookstore to pick up this book :)

NEW ! Pur Minerals CC Cream

I am loving the new multitasking face creams that are on the market. For a while now I have read about BB creams and all that they offer in one tube. But PUR has taken it a step further. I have just tried their new CC Cream and I love it.
A little about PUR first. PUR minerals have a performance based line of skincare designed for skin fitness & health. They provide good-for-your-skin ingredients that offer coverage and also nourish and condition the skin. PUR's multitasking skin care products keep things simple:)
This new CC Cream comes in a great, easy to use tube with a pump applicator, convenience starts there. Packed with plant based ingredients like meadow sweet and wheat germ it is engineered to erase blemishes and brown spots. This CC cream is  an all in one moisturizer, skin brightener, makeup primer, concealer & SPF foundation. Can you stand it? The first time I used it I was amazed at the coverage it provided. Loved the fact that my face was sun protected and did not feel thick & greasy. But the best part was on my way to work, at a stop light, I looked in the rearview and I saw a radiant face looking back at me, that is how well the brightener works. Can't say enough about this product....oh I will say one more thing...BUY IT :)
Pur Mineral products are available at ULTA stores and www.purminerals.com

Instructions for a Heat Wave by Maggie O'Farrell

Maggie O'Farrell is the author of After You'd Gone, My Lovers Lover, The Distance Between Us, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox and The Hand That First Held Mine, all of which have won literary awards.
Instructions for a Heat Wave is the first book of O'Farrell's that I have read....won't be the last. This is
the type of book you can't put down once you have started it.
In 1976, London is suffering a terrible heat wave and drought. Gretta Riordon a married woman, mother of three grown children, grandmother to two sees her husband off to the "news agent" one hot morning not unlike any other morning since he retired. Expecting him back after he picks up his morning papers, she continues with her usual morning routine. Except this morning is quite different from years of other mornings... her husband Robert, does not return.
As her three kids make their way back home to search for their father, one from America(Aiofe), one from the country (Monica)and one from down the road (Michael),  the search for the missing father almost takes a backseat to all the unfinished business between parents and siblings.
Now I know I have mentioned that one of my pet peeves is when a writer will use a name that is not easily pronounced, or one that I stumble over every time I read it. So when I came across the name Aiofe, I said why oh why Maggie, did you throw in a curve ball? As the story progressed I was very interested to see that the pronunciation of that name was woven into the story. I have yet to truly figure out what the meaning of this was (other than her character was the story's most memorable, to me) , but eventually I could read the name with out a hitch:)
This is a story of growing up and how great and how difficult it can be, especially when there are secrets that shadow all the members of a family.
Loved her style of writing, loved the flow of the book...thank you author O'Farrell for this GREAT summer read :)
This book will be on the book shelves next month!!

The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli

When I saw this title on my Harper/Collins book list, of course I jumped right on it. Who does not want to think clearer? And it is an interesting book... I love informational books with short chapters:)
This book points out to all that read it the errors of our judgement.
The little synopsis on the back of the book asks these questions:

HAVE YOU EVER...
paid too much for an item on EBay?
continued to do something that you knew was wrong for you?
backed the wrong horse?

Well, that piqued my interest for sure. What I found inside  were chapters based on these very types of life's questions. Chapter One( Why You Should Visit Cemetaries) tells us why we consistently over estimate our chances. We read/hear all the time about success stories. So, we think that if we have some similarities with the winner, we have a good chance at being successful ourselves. This is called survivorship bias. People systematically overestimate their chances of success. You can guard against this by visiting the graveyard of UN successful ventures, to get a reality check.

Just a sample of the types of wisdom you will find in this book. I am now treating it like the handbook of life, a good reference:) Look for author Dobelli's book , out this month.