Dreaming in English by Laura Fitzgerald

 From Goodreads: Knowing she could never be happy in Iran, Tamila Soroush took her mother's advice to "Go and wake up your luck" and joined her sister in the United States. Now, after a spur-of-the-moment exchange of "I do"s with her true love, Ike Hanson, Tami is eager to start her new life. But not everyone is pleased with their marriage, and Tami's happily- ever-after is no sure thing. With an interview with Immigration looming, Tami wonders if she's got the right stuff when it comes to love, American-style. Maybe her luck is running out. Or maybe she'll stand up for herself and claim her American dream.

The first book, Veil of Roses, had a light hearted chick lit feel but this book was a soap opera. There are back stabbing villians and deceit and romance and ultimatums...it's Days of Our Lives/Guiding Light/TheYoung and the Restless...drama in the family! I could almost see the closeup contemplative head shots as one scene changed to another. That certainly doesn't mean I didn't like it, I enjoy a good opera (I am really sad that As The World Turns has gone off the air - I grew up with ATWT!). There were a few things I didn't like. First was the repeated scenes from the first book. Not a little thought about the past or a quick recap of important events - there was at least one word for word page long scene from the first book included in this one. That example I checked, there were other times I thought she might be repeating but I didn't go verify so am not one hundred percent certain - but I was one hundred percent sure that it was an annoying feeling. I also didn't like how harshly I felt like Ike treated Tami in some instances - it seemed out of character with the ultra sweet guy we fell in love with in the first book. But those two things were it. Other than that, I stayed up late wanting to now how it ends. I really wanted to see the mean girls get their butts kicked - you know, like a knock down cat fight in a water fountain - true soap opera stuff!

I read this book for the Library Thing Early Reviewers program.





It also counts for some of my other challenges....

Veil of Roses by Laura Fitzgerald

From Goodreads: Tamila Soroush wanted it all. But in the Islamic Republic of Iran, dreams are a dangerous thing for a girl. Tami abandons them…until her twenty-seventh birthday, when her parents give her a one-way ticket to America, hoping she will “go and wake up her luck.” If they have their way, Tami will never return to Iran…which means she has three months to find a husband in America. Three months before she’s sent back for good.

This book has been laying around here for one, two, maybe three years. I'd looked at it's lovely cover again and again and yet, still selected something else. Then Dreaming in English, the sequel, came out with an even more beautiful cover and despite not having read Veil of Roses, I found myself requesting it on Library Thing and I won! So I hurried up and read this one to get to the next one! I liked Veil of Roses and then when I went to look at reviews, I was so surprised to read some really vicious ones. Critics of the book think that Laura exaggerated the restrictions on women and girls in Iran and took her to task for writing in an Iranian voice without actually having lived in Iran. I have to admit when I read that it gave me pause, I really expected this to be written by a Middle Eastern woman. I had to ponder that a bit. But, this isn't a memoir, it's fiction, so who's to tell her what she's allowed to write? No one told Wally Lamb he shouldn't write She's Come Undone because he's not a teenage girl. So I went back to appreciating the book for what it is - a work of fiction. Tami is a delightful character so sweet and desperate to find love, you can't help but cheer for her and wish for the best. The story was somewhat predictable but overall the light fun tone made it a good read.

Laura Fitzgerald addresses some of the controversy at her website (author's website).

This book counts for a few challenges...

Rescue by Anita Shreve

From Goodreads: A rookie paramedic pulls a young woman alive from her totaled car, a first rescue that begins a lifelong tangle of love and wreckage. Sheila Arsenault is a gorgeous enigma--streetwise and tough-talking, with haunted eyes, fierce desires, and a never-look-back determination. Peter Webster, as straight an arrow as they come, falls for her instantly and entirely. Soon Sheila and Peter are embroiled in an intense love affair, married, and parents to a baby daughter. Like the crash that brought them together, it all happened so fast.

This was typical Anita Shreve in that it was all about the relationships within the family. When it comes to me and those relationship stories, the more dysfunctional the family, the better and Shreve did not disappoint! You usually think of the good girl falling for the bad boy so this upside down version with the steady, good dad and wild wife was a nice twist. I have to say Webster, the dad, was an appealing character - nothing is sexier to me than a man who is a good dad and holds down a steady job! I had a hard time getting started with this one. The narrator was just not my cup of tea. He is apparently just the right thing for a lot of other people because the back cover had all sorts of awards that he had won for his narration. I felt like he started every sentence with breathy excitement and then trailed off - even the most mundane of offerings was the same urgent beginning and waning ending - I almost gave up before I got through disc one because I found it such a distraction. But I persevered and I am glad I did. Once I got hooked into the story, I enjoyed it a lot.

Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks

From Goodreads: When a mysterious young woman named Katie appears in the small North Carolina town of Southport, her sudden arrival raises questions about her past. Beautiful yet self-effacing, Katie seems determined to avoid forming personal ties until a series of events draws her into two reluctant relationships: one with Alex, a widowed store owner with a kind heart and two young children; and another with her plainspoken single neighbor, Jo. Despite her reservations, Katie slowly begins to let down her guard, putting down roots in the close-knit community and becoming increasingly attached to Alex and his family. But even as Katie begins to fall in love, she struggles with the dark secret that still haunts and terrifies her . . . a past that set her on a fearful, shattering journey across the country, to the sheltered oasis of Southport. With Jo's empathic and stubborn support, Katie eventually realizes that she must choose between a life of transient safety and one of riskier rewards . . . and that in the darkest hour, love is the only true safe haven.

I would have to say that this was not what I expected from Nicholas Sparks and then, a little bit of it was exactly what I expected. When I think of Sparks I think of love stories that are a bit over the top, too sappy for my taste but this book, Safe Haven,  had a bit of an edge to it. Sparks was able to write about domestic violence in such a convincing way that he had me scared. It was the same "edge of you seat, biting your fingernails" feeling I got with Backseat Saints, where you just want to scream at the woman, "Look out!" That suspense was a great surprise and made for an exciting read. But....it is still after all Nicholas Sparks so, yes, there was some drippy sentimentality at times that just made me want to puncture my own ear drum so it would stop. I am a married woman, I know a lot of other married women, none of us talk about our husbands with the gooey awe that the heroines in Sparks' books employ - we love them, we just don't worship them. I will be eager to hear what devoted Sparks fans think of this one.

Another one that counts for all sorts of challenges....

Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli

From Goodreads: He’s a boy called Jew. Gypsy. Stopthief. Runt. Happy. Fast. Filthy son of Abraham.

He’s a boy who lives in the streets of Warsaw. He’s a boy who steals food for himself and the other orphans. He’s a boy who believes in bread, and mothers, and angels. He’s a boy who wants to be a Nazi some day, with tall shiny jackboots and a gleaming Eagle hat of his own. Until the day that suddenly makes him change his mind. And when the trains come to empty the Jews from the ghetto of the damned, he’s a boy who realizes it’s safest of all to be nobody.

Newbery Medalist Jerry Spinelli takes us to one of the most devastating settings imaginable—Nazi-occupied Warsaw of World War II—and tells a tale of heartbreak, hope, and survival through the bright eyes of a young orphan.


How heartless do I sound when I say I didn't like the story because I found the orphaned boy and his little friend annoying? Written to be naive and sympathetic, the central character is an orphan boy who has been on his own so long that he doesn't know his name or any of his history. By day, he delights in the pageantry of the Nazis not understanding why others fear them and by night steals food and collects coal to give it to other orphans. He touches the heart of the people around him and they shelter him and care for him despite the danger he brings upon them because of his naivete. Ugh. It was just too much. The boy was too blind to the events around him and his little friend came across as whiny and spoiled. The bright light for me was some of the lesser characters who were interesting and had more range in their emotions. (I'd really like to read a book about Uri's story - how does he get from where he was an orphan on the streets to the life he leads at the end?) I read this one before giving it to my Youngest because I have heard great things about Jerry Spinelli. I'll have to give a different Jerry Spinelli book a try because this one didn't live up to my expectations.

http://myroundfile.blogspot.com/2011/01/books-read-2011.html

Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult

From the author's website: Shay Bourne - New Hampshire’s first death row prisoner in 69 years – has only one last request: to donate his heart post-execution to the sister of his victim, who is looking for a transplant. Bourne says it’s the only way he can redeem himself…but with lethal injection as his form of execution, this is medically impossible. Enter Father Michael Wright, a young local priest. Called in as Shay’s spiritual advisor, he knows redemption has nothing to do with organ donation – and plans to convince Bourne. But then Bourne begins to perform miracles at the prison that are witnessed by officers, fellow inmates, and even Father Michael – and the media begins to call him a messiah. Could an unkempt, bipolar, convicted murderer be a savior? It seems highly unlikely, to the priest. Until he realizes that the things Shay says may not come from the Bible…but are, verbatim, from a gospel that the early Christian church rejected two thousand years ago…and that is still considered heresy.

This is my third Jodi Picoult book and at this point, my least favorite. Loved My Sister's Keeper, in my pre-blogging days, was okay with The Tenth Circle, and this one was just okay too. I had the "big secret" figured out the minute she dropped the first clue so just had that waiting feeling for a good portion of the book - you know where it's going and you just want it to get there. I liked all the peripheral characters more than I liked the central character, Shay. I know the miracles Picoult has Shay performing were over the top, unbelievable because they are meant to mirror the miracles Christ performed and make us all question our stereotypes of who can be Christian but it all felt a little heavy handed. It was like you could see Picoult flipping through the Bible and choosing stories to tweak. I do have to give her credit for the research she did on the Gnostics. That's not an easy topic, one of my brothers is a religious scholar and everything he writes on the Gnostics is challenging to read. So, overall, I plowed through because it was interesting enough but I didn't love it.

False Impression by Jeffrey Archer

From Goodreads: "Why was an elegant lady brutally murdered the night before 9/11? Why was a successful New York banker not surprised to receive a woman's left ear in the morning mail? Why did a top Manhattan lawyer work only for one client, but never charge a fee? Why did a young woman with a bright career steal a priceless Van Gogh painting? Why was an Olympic gymnast paid a million dollars an assignment when she didn't have a bank account?" All these questions are answered in False Impression, but not before a journey of twists and turns that will take readers from New York to London to Bucharest and on to Tokyo, and finally to a sleepy English village, where the mystery of Van Gogh's last painting will finally be resolved.

Jeffrey Archer has written a lot, his website lists a dozen or more fiction titles, a handful of non-fiction, six collections of short stories, and three plays. Wow, I missed all of that. I just came across this audiobook in a local second hand shop and since I am an audio-addict, I bought it. It was great fun. The characters were all wealthy and smart and immersed in the art world so we got to follow them to interesting places in expensive cars! It reminded me of a James Bond movie. The villians were so memorable - a blowhard multi-millionaire who was completely over the top and a petite, blond crewcutted assasin both sexy and lethal (this was however a clean read - don't want to give you the wrong impression). You know starightaway who is good and who is bad so it is just a matter of the chase and who will win  (and, I guess, really, you know even that) but the journey is still fun.


Counts towards tons o' challenges....

Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday started by Marcia at The Printed Page is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week (checked out library books don’t count, eBooks & audio books do). This month Mailbox Monday is being hosted by Library of Clean Reads. Stop by there to check out everyone else's mailboxes.

I've had a lucky streak and won two great audiobooks and I also was gifted a scratch off lottery ticket and won 50 bucks - it's been a good week!


From the author's website: John Carr, aka Oliver Stone—once the most skilled assassin his country ever had—stands in Lafayette Park in front of the White House, perhaps for the last time. The President has personally requested that Stone serve his country again on a high-risk covert mission. Though he’s fought for decades to leave his past career behind, Stone has no choice but to say yes.

But Stone’s mission changes drastically before it even begins. It’s the night of a State Dinner honoring the British Prime Minister. As he watches the Prime Minister’s motorcade leave the White House that evening, a bomb is detonated in Lafayette Park, an apparent terrorist attack against both the President and the Prime Minister. It’s in this chaotic aftermath that Stone takes on a new, more urgent assignment: find those responsible for the bombing.   I love David Baldacci on audio and this one is narrated by Ron McLarty who I think is just great. Should be a good read all around. This book was a win from Kathy at I Am A Reader, Not A Writer, thank you, Kathy!

From Goodreads: A rookie paramedic pulls a young woman alive from her totaled car, a first rescue that begins a lifelong tangle of love and wreckage. Sheila Arsenault is a gorgeous enigma--streetwise and tough-talking, with haunted eyes, fierce desires, and a never-look-back determination. Peter Webster, as straight an arrow as they come, falls for her instantly and entirely. Soon Sheila and Peter are embroiled in an intense love affair, married, and parents to a baby daughter. Like the crash that brought them together, it all happened so fast. Anita Shreve is one of my favorites so I was thrilled when thsi one came. I've never listened to one of her books on audio before and was surprised to see ths one was narrated by a man - interesting. This book was a win from Teddy Rose at So Many Precious Books, So Little Time, thank you, Teddy!

The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino

From Goodreads: Yasuko Hanaoka is a divorced, single mother who thought she had finally escaped her abusive ex-husband Togashi. When he shows up one day to extort money from her, threatening both her and her teenaged daughter Misato, the situation quickly escalates into violence and Togashi ends up dead on her apartment floor. Overhearing the commotion, Yasuko’s next door neighbor, middle-aged high school mathematics teacher Ishigami, offers his help, disposing not only of the body but plotting the cover-up step-by-step.

What a twisty surprising book this was! It surprised me by how much I liked it and it surprised me because I didn't figure out the twists until the author decided to reveal them. I threw my name in the hat to receive this one as a first reads from Goodreads for a completely shallow reason - it had an X featured prominently in the title and I always need an "X" book to finish the A-Z Reading Challenge. I went into it assuming that despite the accolades Higashino had received in his country, Japan, it would be hard for me to read and I would have to suffer through. Boy, was I wrong. Once I got started, I couldn't put the book down and basically read it through in one sitting. The whodunit is revealed almost immediately but the cat and mouse of those investigating the crime just keeps revealing more twists and I kept wanting to turn another page to see what would happen next. The twists had me questioning every character, even the people who at first seem most sympathetic, and wondering if they should be trusted.

I had some difficulty with all the Japanese names, reminded me of reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and all the Swedish names, but eventually I got used to them. There was a math/physics element as Ishigami is a math teacher and his friend is a physics professor; they spend time discussing equations, proofs, theorems,...all swept right over my head but didn't detract from the story. I imagine there were some subtle parallels running between all that math/physics chatter and the plot but I'll leave that to others to figure out! Finally, there were bits and pieces of Japanese culture that made it different enough from the average American murder-mystery that it will stick with me for awhile.

This will be my X book for the A-Z Reading Challenge hosted by Becky.  Click on the logo to see my progress.

This was a win from the Goodreads "First Reads" program.

Marley and Me by Josh Grogan

From Goodreads: The heartwarming and unforgettable story of a family in the making and the wondrously neurotic dog who taught them what really matters in life.

I saw this movie awhile ago when it first came out and thought it was cute. I like Jennifer Anniston and Owen Wilson and dogs so not much was needed beyond that to please me, the bar was low. I didn't know if I would extend that low bar to the audiobook but it turns out there was no need. The book has more depth to it than the movie did. Grogan's voice as a columnist comes through and the humor and sadness make a great combination. Listening to Josh Grogan's speaking voice, however, was a big question mark for me at first but, while I never grew to enjoy it, I did get used to it. I have a hard time saying he didn't sound right since it is his story he is telling but let's just say that the occasional author narrated audiobook really makes you appreciate the professional narrators. I'm ready to rent the movie now so I can watch it again and see how closely it follows book.

Thanks for the Memories by Cecilia Ahern

From the author's website: How can you know someone you’ve never met? Joyce Conway remembers things she shouldn’t. She knows about tiny cobbled streets in Paris, which she has never visited. And every night she dreams about an unknown little girl with blonde hair.
Justin Hitchcock is divorced, lonely and restless. He arrives in Dublin to give a lecture on art and meets an attractive doctor, who persuades him to donate blood. It’s the first thing to come straight from his heart in a long time.
When Joyce leaves hospital after a terrible accident, with her life and her marriage in pieces, she moves back in with her elderly father. All the while, a strong sense of déjà vu is overwhelming her and she can’t figure out why …

Well....I finished this a few days ago but still can't quite decide how much I liked it, which, I guess, means not all that much. I liked each of the characters, thought they were quirky and fun. I liked Joyce's personality and her Irish pop was a hoot. Her friends bickering like toddlers was supposed to be cute but really was just annoying but they did seem to truly care about Joyce so I tolerated them. The settings were interesting and there was some adventure as well like lying their way onto an audition for Antiques Roadshow.

What I didn't like was how heavy handed the donor acquired memory element was. That same idea was explored with a heart transplant in Just Take My Heart by Mary Higgins Clark but it was more subtle, a piece of a bigger plot. In this one, the memories just take over and it is really hard for me to swallow, particularly since the idea of donated blood going directly from one person to another is debunked in the book itself. It is explained that blood is broken down into different parts and distributed piecemeal but yet we are still supposed to believe this huge reaction has occurred for her because she received donated blood.

So this book wasn't my cup of tea but I like Cecilia Ahern's style and I would read another book of hers without hesitation.


This counts toward the e-book challenge. Click on the logo to see my progress.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - the movie

****This post contains spoilers.****

Lisbeth deserves front and center, don't you think? She is such a great character and Noomi Raapce brought her to life perfectly. If an established actress had the role it would have been such a distraction, instead Noomi personifies Lisbeth for me now and I wonder when the American version comes out if I can possibly accept another actor in the role. I love Lisbeth's power and strength and smarts. When she triumphs over her evil guardian, I feel ecstatic.

I watched the Swedish movie with subtitles in English and felt a wonderful sense of satisfaction at seeing the story play out on the screen! The book was a little slow going for me at first but the movie somehow managed to condense all of that framework and get right into the meat. I wondered though, if you had not read the book, would you be feeling lost or would it still make sense?

I was equally pleased with the casting of Erika Berger. I was so glad to see an actress who showed a few miles on her face. She is supposed to be a mature woman so I was happy she wasn't cast with a too young looking actress. Did I miss it or did the movie gloss over the whole "I'm married but my husband is okay with me sleeping with you" part of the book? That was one of my few say "ugh" and roll your eyes parts of the book.

So, in summary...loved, loved, loved it and will be renting the next two soon!

Revolutionary Road - the movie

***This post containers spoilers.****

I read this book quite awhile ago (here) and my reaction was somewhat mixed. When I read the book, I didn't particularly care for either of the lead characters. The movie reeled me in a little bit more - at least Kate Winslett did. I had much more sympathy for her character in the movie than I did in the book. Maybe that was because I felt bad for her that she was trapped in a marriage with Leonardo deCaprio who is not mature enough (in my almost 50 year old opinion) to be the leading man. He looks like a child. I didn't like the two of them together in Titanic and I didn't like the two of them together in this one either. You know when I'm thinking, "Go girl!" as she trots off to have sex outside of marriage that the match is not working for me! Of course the ending is just as devastating on film as it is in print, it just has to be mental illness that drives her to her destruction.

Despite the darkness of the story and the fact that, again, I didn't fall in love with either of the characters, I still enjoyed the movie, maybe even a little more than I enjoyed the book.

Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday started by Marcia at The Printed Page is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week (checked out library books don’t count, eBooks & audio books do). This month Mailbox Monday is being hosted by the library of clean reads. Stop by there to check out everyone else's mailboxes.

From the author, I received

From the Goodreads description: While Olivia deBelle Byrd was repeating one of her many Southern stories for the umpteenth time, her long-suffering husband looked at her with glazed over eyes and said,“Why don’t you write this stuff down?” Thus was born Miss Hildreth Wore Brown—Anecdotes of a Southern Belle. If the genesis for a book is to shut your wife up, I guess that’s as good as any. On top of that, Olivia’s mother had burdened her with one of those Southern middle names kids love to make fun. To see “deBelle” printed on the front of a book seemed vindication for all the childhood teasing. With storytelling written in the finest Southern tradition from the soap operas of Chandler Street in the quaint town of Gainesville, Georgia, to a country store on the Alabama state line, Oliviade Belle Byrd delves with wit and amusement into the world of the Deep South with all its unique idiosyncrasies and colloquialisms.Sounds wonderful, can't wait to dive in!

For myself I purchased.......

From the Goodreads description: Before A.M. Homes was born, she was put up for adoption. Her birth mother was a twenty-two- year-old single woman who was having an affair with a much older married man with children of his own. The Mistress’s Daughter is the story of what happened when, thirty years later, her birth parents came looking for her. I love a good memoir - crossing my fingers it is as good as it sounds.

And for next year's Christmas reading, I found.....

From the Goodreads description: She was my first kiss. My first love. She was a little match girl who could see the future in the flame of a candle. She was a runaway who taught me more about life than anyone has before or since. And when she was gone my innocence left with her. The story doesn't specifically say Christmas but these little gift books say Christmas to me so I'll save it for then.

I got two audiobooks this week, one from a friend and one from a second-hand store......

From the Goodreads description: The heartwarming and unforgettable story of a family in the making and the wondrously neurotic dog who taught them what really matters in life. I've already started this one and so far it is great - better than the movie.

From the Goodreads description:"Why was an elegant lady brutally murdered the night before 9/11? Why was a successful New York banker not surprised to receive a woman's left ear in the morning mail? Why did a top Manhattan lawyer work only for one client, but never charge a fee? Why did a young woman with a bright career steal a priceless Van Gogh painting? Why was an Olympic gymnast paid a million dollars an assignment when she didn't have a bank account?" All these questions are answered in False Impression, but not before a journey of twists and turns that will take readers from New York to London to Bucharest and on to Tokyo, and finally to a sleepy English village, where the mystery of Van Gogh's last painting will finally be resolved. I've never read Jeffrey Archer, despite his having written gobs of books.

And on the iPad, I downloaded a few freebies including this one.....

From the Goodreads product description: A penniless young knight with few prospects, William Marshal is plucked from obscurity when he saves the life of Henry II's formidable queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine. In gratitude, she appoints him tutor to the heir to the throne. However, being a royal favourite brings its share of conflict and envy as well as fame and reward. William's influence over the volatile, fickle Prince Henry and his young wife is resented by less favoured courtiers who set about engineering his downfall. In a captivating blend of fact and fiction, Elizabeth Chadwick resurrects one of England's greatest forgotten heroes, restoring him to his rightful place at the apex of the Middle Ages, reflecting through him the tumults, triumphs, scandals and power struggles that haven't changed in eight hundred years. Chadwick is also new to me but this time period sounds interesting and, of course, it was free!