Then and Always by Dani Atkins

Posted on April 11, 2014 by Carol Early Cooney

 

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Amnesia is a topic that can capture the imagination. Goodreads, a book review web site, has a list of popular amnesia books. There are 1,366 books on the list. Clearly it is an intriguing subject for authors.

When I started reading Then and Always, I did not know it was about a woman with amnesia. Since I had finished What Alice Forgot within the last two weeks, I was surprised that the theme of amnesia had come up again in my reading.

Reading two books about women with amnesia within such a short period of time leads one to compare the books. While I see in the description of Then and Always, a comparison to What Alice Forgot, they are very different.

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In Then and Always, the main character, Rachel Wiltshire suffers from amnesia. In her case, the five year time period is not a blank slate. When she wakes up in the hospital, she finds that everything that she thinks happened for the last 5 years is not what happened. Her life is much different and in fact much better than what she feels it has been. While happy about the differences in some ways, she is perplexed about some things. The biggest difference is that her friend is alive. In the life she feels she has been living, he was dead.

I am sorry that I read both books so close together. I caught myself making comparisons. Then and Always is a good read. There is a huge plot twist at the end that I think was very well done. Then and Always is a good story. What Alice Forgot is a story that made me think more about life and wonder about the lifespan of relationships and the changes that happen in life. It was much easier to identify with Alice and wonder about changes in my life. Reading about Rachel was reading a story.

What Alice Forgot was a happy surprise as it was so much better than I expected. Then and Always was a book that I enjoyed reading. It will make a good beach read this summer.

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Then and Always will be released in the US on May 20, 2014. I received a pre-publication copy. (That is my way of telling you that it was a freebie so that I would read and review the book.) It appears that the book was first released in Great Britain under the title Fractured.

If you are trying to decide between these two books, I think it depends upon what you want out of your reading at the moment. If you are looking for a good read that won’t take much thought, then opt for getting lost in the plot of Then and Always. If you want to have a more thoughtful read, then What Alice Forgot is the choice.

Now that the weather is finally starting to warm up here in the Midwest, it is time to start thinking of summer reading. I need to go over my list of books that I wanted to read this year and see how I am doing. How about you? Have you a list? I would be interested to hear what book you are going to read next.  Please let me know in the comments section.

Thanks for reading!

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 Happy Spring to you!

Happy Spring to you!

 

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Liebster Award

Posted on April 9, 2014 by Carol Early Cooney

 

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I was pleased/flattered/ thrilled when my writing friend, Jeannine Bergers Everett, nominated me for a Liebster Award.  That is certainly a great way to start your day!  Until recently, Jeannine has written two blogs. Momaiku   was retired this week but please take a few minutes to go back into the archives. I think you will enjoy it. Mobyjoe Café,  the other blog also demonstrates her great sense of humor.

Part of winning the award is to answer questions posed by the nominator. The following are my answers to the questions posed to me by Jeannine.

1. Current song obsession?

I am stuck on a Kenny Chesney rotation. I like it, okay? I think that all of you who just snorted should take some time and listen to him. The three albums that are in the rotation are Greatest Hits II, Life on a Rock and Welcome to the Fishbowl.

2. First book that stuck with you “for keeps.”

Great! Another one of my not very secret secrets! I developed an early love for Jane Eyre and Valley of the Dolls. Yes, they are quite a bit different but do cover some of the same themes.  I am sure that my Mom was not very impressed with the Valley of the Dolls pick but she did teach me to read a variety of books…. (Why can’t I just have a normal child?)

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3. What is totally underrated, and what makes it laudably awesome?

Okay, here are two things that can be underrated and I love them – silence and alone time. I do love to be with people but I need to re-charge and just be quiet and alone.  How anti-social, right? Naps can be underrated also…

4. Buy a tee-shirt for everyone on the planet. What does it say?

 Remove the sticker before starting to eat the apple. Maybe just I need that one? Okay but my favorite tee shirt that I only saw one time was “Where are we going and what is a hand basket?” I am so sorry I didn’t buy it when I saw it.

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 5. Dream birthday cake – describe it!

I know that there are two schools of thought on this but really, the cake is secondary to the frosting. So, knowing that, the ideal cake has plenty of chocolate buttercream frosting WITH LOTS OF FLOWERS. The cake is yellow cake with fudge between the layers.  The bakery in town makes the best cakes ever. The only thing wrong is that they always need more flowers. (Please remember my husband is the diabetic one not me – it probably should be me.)

(Do you think that if I named the bakery that they would give me a free cake?  Isn’t this free advertising? I don’t think so either….)

 6. One piece of advice for your twenty-five year old self.

Just to endear myself to her, I would start with saying that my twenty five your old self knows nothing. Absolutely nothing. Then I guess I would try and build on the great relationships I just stared and tell her that she should learn how to eat right and exercise. That would be the most important thing she should do right then.

 7. What is your unusual talent?

I can burp really loud. I think that is it. Oh, and I read really fast but that was more training than talent. The burp thing is natural. Just something I was born to do.

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8. What is your most irrational fear and what is the farthest you’ve gone to accommodate it?

I really dislike clowns. I try to not go near them. They are creepy. Actually people dressed up in costumes don’t do much for me.  Here it my thought on that – people in costumes think they can do anything because no one know who they are. I don’t like that. It is kind of like the internet, right?

9. Who would you like to apologize to, and why?

There are so many but one comes to mind immediately. There was a guy that I went to grade school and high school with who was a dork. There isn’t even a” kind of” attached to that dork. He just was a dork. He was not treated very nicely. While I cannot tell you any incident that I remember, I know I was not as nice to him as I should have been over the years.

Through the miracle of the internet, I was able to find him last year. He still lives out in the area where we grew up. I contacted him and two women that we had gone to school with and the four of us went out to lunch.  He was so happy to see us. He gave us each a big hug and told us how much it meant to him to see us again. He then told us about his life. He has done really well. It just made me so happy that he has done well and that he is happy. I could not have wished for more for him.

And, as these things can go, he didn’t talk about how lousy we were to him but he talked about how great it was to see us again. He felt that we were special in his life and he was just so glad that we had reached out. I felt a bit guilty about that but the guilt was nothing compared to how much fun it was to hear about his life.  What is that saying? Living well is that best revenge?

10. If you were suddenly six years old, knowing what you know now, what would you do?

Sit in my Mom’s lap and breath in her scent and talk and laugh with her for as long as possible. Oh and convince her to buy stock in Microsoft.

 11. Surprise! I’ve got a present for you this here box. Open it up and tell me what’s inside.

The winning lottery ticket! It doesn’t have to be for more than about 20 million. That is plenty.  After all, I don’t want to sound too greedy.

Oh, or there is always whirled peas.

So, now I need to nominate others to win the Liebster award. Here are my nominees:

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Joy Weese Moll – Joy’s Book Blog 

Sharon Grantley – Where Curiosity Led

And then my questions for them –

  1.  What is your favorite holiday and why?
  2. Describe your favorite place and tell us why it is your favorite place
  3. Which is your dream – city living or country living?
  4. When you look up from your computer what do you see?
  5. What TV show do you watch but you don’t admit that you watch it?
  6. What is your favorite book and why?
  7. Did you have an invisible friend when you were young?
  8. What is your most comfortable pair of shoes?
  9. You can have as much ice cream in any flavor.  How much would you have and what flavor or flavors?
  10. Let’s say you are having trouble sleeping. What do you do? Get up or stay in bed?  If you get up, what do you do? If you stay in bed, do you just lay there?
  11. I will scream when I see a mouse. I don’t know why but I will scream without even thinking about it. How about you? Is there anything that you react to without thinking?

Phew! That was a lot of writing for a post. I hope you have enjoyed it. Please check out the blogs mentioned.

Thanks for reading!

 

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Things a Little Bird Told Me

Posted on April 4, 2014 by Carol Early Cooney

Things a Little Bird Told Me by Biz Stone

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Are you wondering about this book?  Questions like “What is this about?” “What kind of a name is Biz Stone?”

Or are you “in the know?”

Biz Stone is one of the founders of Twitter. I had no idea who he was until I saw the description of the book. I must admit that I am not a big follower of the tech guys. I would have told you before I read the book that they seem to be fairly young and they seem to move from company to company a lot. I am not completely changing my opinion on that. It must be part of their wiring (gosh, a pun) that they don’t seem to last a long time after they start something. It is probably more visible in the tech world because it all changes so fast. Also, it could be that they have a restless spirit that keeps them learning and changing all the time. Another element that may play a big part is that the people who start a company and get it running and then it becomes a HUGE corporation might not be exactly the same people who should run a huge corporation.

I started Biz Stone’s book and was motivated by his energy and enthusiasm. He seems to be a people person type of guy. He states his belief that opportunity can be manufactured and then gives examples.  My favorite example is from when he was in high school. He wanted to play sports in high school but he had never played a sport before. Nope, he didn’t even know what the marks on the football field meant. Needless to say, he did not make the football, basketball, or baseball teams. Then he thought about it and went to the Principal and asked if he could put a lacrosse team together. No one knew how to play lacrosse so he could make the team and not be at a disadvantage. He found a coach and other team members and started the lacrosse team at his school.

I think that story is a great example of looking at a problem and finding a different way to solve it. That is what Biz Stone does. He looks at things differently. But he thinks that we can all do that if we try. He has a great positive attitude and seems to really like people. The review of his book on Amazon sums it up well.

 In Biz’s world

  • Opportunity can be manufactured
  • Great work comes from abandoning a linear way of thinking
  • Creativity never runs out
  • Asking questions is free
  • Empathy is core to personal and global success.

http://www.amazon.com/Things-Little-Bird-Told-Me-ebook/dp/B00ECEA35C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1396630782&sr=8-1&keywords=things+a+little+bird+told+me

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The book had me really inspired to make some changes.

Somewhere in the last third of the book, I lost some of the inspiration and moved into a bit of cynicism. There is no doubt that I can be cynical. I think when he starts talking about charity and his philosophy on charity that I lost some interest. What he is saying is good.  Maybe it felt a little preachy. Maybe I was just having a hard day. Anyway, I thought that the last third of the book dragged a bit.

Overall, I liked the book and still feel a bit charged up for having read it. What more can you ask?

In the book, he talked about a charity that I really like and had just discovered. It is called Donors Choose (www.donorschoose.org). When you go to the web site, teachers from all over the country have put up projects that they need funds for and you can contribute funds for their classroom. In the book, Biz finds out about the charity and looks and finds that a classroom near him needed funds to purchase copies of the book Charlotte’s Web. After you contribute to Donors Choose, you get a thank you note from the teacher for your contribution. I like this idea because it can be so local and direct.

So, if those concepts interest you and you would like to read about Biz Stone, I urge you to read the book. I found it very worthwhile, interesting, and motivational.

Thanks for reading!

 

 

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What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriaty

Posted on March 28, 2014 by Carol Early Cooney

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The premise of What Alice Forgot is simple. Alice falls off her spin bike and hits her head. She is knocked unconscious and when she revives, she thinks that she is 29, pregnant, and wildly in love with her husband. She soon discovers that she is 39, the mother of three children and in the middle of a bitter divorce from her husband.

My neighbor recommended this book to me and told me the premise. It sounded okay but she really thought it was good. I decided that I would try it based on her recommendation. I reserved it through the library and waited.  My turn arrived late last week.

This book is so much stronger than I would have imagined. While Alice finds her way through the last 10 years of her life, we are amazed along with her. She is not impressed with what she sees as her life. She is baffled by some of the changes in her relationships with those she thought were closest to her.  More than anything else, she has to find things out for herself. No one seems to want to or be able to explain how her life has changed.

Mostly she wants to know what happened to her loving relationship with her husband. How did they get to this point where he could be so bitter toward her?  And there seems to be a woman named Gina that lived across the street that has had a huge influence on her life but she stumbles in trying to figure out why.

I found the book absorbing and interesting. It is not the story that I expected. It is a woman examining her life from a different perspective and trying to see how she evolved.  It causes you to wonder what it would feel like to do it yourself. Would I like/understand myself? I found myself rooting for Alice to reconcile with her husband and continue to follow her instincts.  I wanted her to have the golden “do over”.

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I did not realize it when I read this book but I had read another book by Liane Moriaty. I read The Last Anniversary about six months ago. I enjoyed that book also but would not put it in the same category as What Alice Forgot.  It was more of a “popcorn” book and I do not feel that way about What Alice Forgot.  The Last Anniversary would be a good beach read while What Alice Forgot is a “stay up late to see what happens” book.

I would say that much to my surprise, What Alice Forgot is the best book I have read lately.  I suggest that you give it a chance.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

 

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New Life, No Instructions by Gail Caldwell

Posted on March 21, 2014 by Carol Early Cooney

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How do you pick a book to read? I know that I will gravitate to authors that I have read before. Also, book reviews can play a part in my selections. Then, of course, when wandering in a book store, the cover art can draw me in to look at a book. 

What do you do when you don’t have those factors?  That is the issue when you are going through the eBooks available from the library. (No, I am not going to rant about the library eBook lending system again.)

Let's take the Long Way Home

A few years ago, I was looking through the catalog of books and wanted to find a book to read that I could read right away. I found a tab that would bring up books that were available. In going through the list, I found a book about best friends that sounded interesting. The title of the book was Let’s Take the Long Way Home.  The book was written by Gail Caldwell. The name meant nothing to me. If I had more cosmopolitan tastes, I might have heard of her. Gail Caldwell was the chief book critic for the Boston Globe. She has won a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. The book was the story of Gail Caldwell’s discovery of a friend.  A true, close friend that could share intimate details of life’s triumphs and lows.  I enjoyed the book and the story of the bond that the two women formed.

New Live No Instructions

So, I was happy when I was able to get a pre-publication copy of New Life, No Instructions the new book by Gail Caldwell that will be published on April 1. I am faced with a small dilemma. If I describe the main points of the book to you. I think your reaction will be “What the? Why would I read that?”  I want you to read it because Gail Caldwell gives you a frank look at her life and how she copes. She does talk about her Mother (I love hearing women talk about their Mothers) and the puppy that she gets after her beloved dog dies, and her hip replacement surgery. These are topics that may not say to you, “Wow, can’t wait.” But really I want you to give it a try. I will admit that part of my mind was asking while I was reading it “She wrote this much about her hip replacement?” It is the whole story, her perspective, and her honesty that make the story much more than it might appear when reading a description of the book.

In truth, what I would really like you to do is read both books. I do think that reading Let’s Take the Long Way Home first will complement reading New Life, No Instructions.   They are definitely stand-alone books but I appreciated having read both of them. With that said, there is another book written by Gail Caldwell, A Strong West Wind, a memoir about her childhood in Texas.  I have not read that book and not reading it did not influence my reading of the other two books. Still, I suggest that you read the two books that I have enjoyed.

Thanks for reading!

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