Review: Silver Girl by Elin Hilderbrand

If you want a good summer read, always pick up an Elin Hilderbrand book and you won't be disappointed. The fact that she lives on Nantucket and writes about characters on Nantucket is such a good start! Silver Girl is the story about a family of privilege, who takes a huge fall from grace. Meredith Delinn is married to a very sucessful investor, Freddy Delinn. Maybe he is just a little too sucessful. How can his investment company return so much more money than any one else's, especially in this market? She turns a blind eye to all the signs and lives the high life while raising her two sons. When Freddy Delinn's scheme gets exposed and billions of dollars in investor's money is lost, the Delinn's become the most hated people on earth !! While her husband sits in jail and she remains under investigation, she places a call to the only person she could trust, her childhood friend Connie. They had been estranged for years, but it was worth the chance. A bit reluctantly, Connie took Meredith to Nantucket to get away from her troubles. Unfortunately, Meredith brought trouble with her to Nantucket.

We still have a few weeks of summer left, so I recommend you go out and buy this book, plunk down on the beach and read !!!

PS-I was lucky enough to go to the movies last week with a bunch of gal pals to see The Help. The movie was good. I thought the actors did a great job, loved Viola Davis as Abileen. Cecily Tyson as Constantine and Sissy Spacek as Missus Walters added a spark to the already great cast. If you  have read the book ( a MUST read !!), the movie will seem a bit light- hearted with a few good laughs, but it did follow the premise of the book. So please go out and see it, I am sure it will be up for a few nominations come award season !

Review: Q by Evan Mandery

" You must not marry Q". Those were the words that set a whole lifetime full of regrets in motion for Mandery's character in this new novel. The person who delivered those words, sets this story in motion. 

The reader never learns the name of the main character, as the story is told in the first person. But I didn't realize I didn't know his name, until I was ready to write this review.  He was always "I". And that one letter/word becomes an important part of the story. I am sure this must all sound very "out there". And this book is kind of science fiction-y, but it doesn't feel that way. I am not a science fiction lover. BUT I loved this book.

The main character is a 20-something aspiring author /college professor hoping for tenure. He falls in love with Quentina Deveril. Q happens to be the love of his life. As they get into the final stages of wedding planning, the author is visited by a very sad looking 55 year old man, who happens to be his own 55 year old self ( I-55), transported back in time with the help of a time machine. "You must not marry Q".

Crazy, huh? Except it doesn't feel that way as you read along. This young man goes on a roller coaster ride through-out his life, the paths dictated by his older-selves (I-57, I-60, I-80.....) coming back to visit and changing the coarse of his life over & over & over.

All because he didn't marry Q.

Long after you read this book, you will still be thinking about it, which is the gift of a good book.  

I so enjoyed this book and I swear I may read it again because it is so thought provoking. This is a perfect book for a book club. Anyone who has read it and wants to discuss, please get in touch!!

Also, I am still watching oldie but goodie movies. Prizzi's Honor last weekend. Boy was that good. Loved Jack Nicholson & Kathleen Turner in it. I know Angelica Huston won an Academy Award for Best Supporting, but I really think Turner should have nabbed it !!

Review: Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi

This is not the latest book by Hegi , just one of many that she has written. I will eventually read all of her books because I think Ursula Hegi is one of the most gifted writers on the planet. Sacred Time starts out with Anthony , aged 7, just wishing & hoping for some GlassWax and stencils so that he can decorate his family's Bronx apartment windows for Christmas. He also informs us in the same sentence that his Uncle Malcolm was in jail again, this time for stealing office equipment. So begins this tale of a large Italian family living in New York City. Hegi is a genius when it comes to layering characters with time, relationships, tragedies and triumphs. As you read along , each chapter with one character's thoughts and perspectives, you begin to see how one innocent wish of a young child turns tragic for a whole family. As the years pass along in the book, you will be swept up into the subtle and then  "in your face" ways something like this will change every member of a family.

I love the way Hegi writes. Flash backs, characters talking over each other & finishing anothers thoughts...just like real life. It keeps you invested in her story until the last word. She has written so many books: Stones from the River ( my first and an Oprah pick) Children & Fire, Floating in my Mother's Palm, The Vision of Emma Blau and Salt Dancers, to name only a few...Salt Dancers is one of my all time fave books. You can start there, or anywhere. You will become a fan.