The Law of Love

by Laura Esquivel 
translated by Margaret Sayers Peden
4 Stars
Science Fiction
Setting: Mexico
266 pages
Published 1995

Ellie's Review
Mexican and Sci-Fi are not too genres I expect to overlap, but they do.  The Law of Love is a unique book because of the genre and also because of the format.  The written novel includes intermissions for songs on the included CD and sections of illustrations.  This uniqueness intrigued me throughout the novel.  I loved actually hearing a song that deeply moved a character rather than simply reading that he/she was moved by music.  The plot itself is also unique, blending Mayan, Catholic, and Eastern beliefs.  I consider this book entertainment (it reminded me of Latin soap operas) and enjoyed it; however, if you are looking for a deeply spiritual book, keep looking.  I’m thoroughly impressed by Esquivel’s creativity and loved her writing style of lines like, “Her teeth chattered like castanets.”

Book Summary

This exuberantly romantic and wildly comic tale from the author of Like Water for Chocolate combines inventive printed fiction with Puccini arias on CD!  When a Mexican astroanalyst in the 23rd century searches her past lives for her lover, she encounters many adventures, including the fall of Montezuma and a plot by a reborn Mother Teresa to rule the planet.  As the music in the CD releases the past lives, you see those reincarnations unfold dramatically in a series of colorful artwork.

Gunn's Golden Rules

"Life's Little Lessons for Making It Work"
by Tim Gunn
4 Stars
Nonfiction: Memoir/Self Help
258 pages
Published 2010

Ellie's Review

In full disclosure, I love Project Runway and have adored Tim Gunn as the designers’ mentor.  His famous line “Make it work!” is often quoted in my house.  Gunn’s Golden Rules includes his lessons for life (part manners, part inspiration) with plenty of his personal stories that kept me hooked and laughing out loud.  Tim dishes on some PR designers along with some of the divas of fashion (for example, he suggests the devil really does wear Prada).  Some of the personal stories don’t necessarily relate to his rule for the chapter, but I didn’t mind that.  Tim’s advice is wonderful, and I loved that a New Yorker talked about being nicer to others.  All of us have something in life we can complain about, but we need to just “Make it work!” and do the best we can with whatever circumstances surround us. 

I want to be adopted as Tim's niece.  I’m only two degrees away from him, so maybe I’ll be introduced to him one of these days…. 

Book Summary
On the runway of life, Tim Gunn is the perfect life coach.  You've watched him mentor talented designers on the hit television show Project Runway.  Now the inimitable Tim Gunn shares his personal secrets for "making it work" - in your career, relationships, and life.  Filled with delightfully dishy stories of fashion's greatest divas, behind-the-scenes glimpses of Runway's biggest drama queens, and never-before-revealed insights into Tim's private life, Gunn's Golden Rules is like no other how-to book you've ever read.

Nefertiti

by Michelle Moran
4 Stars
Historical Fiction
Setting: Egypt
463 pages
Published 2007

Ellie's Review
I’ve always been fascinated by Egyptian culture and love visiting the pyramid exhibits at museums.  However, reading Nefertiti has given me such a better understanding of the Egyptian culture and religious views.  Michelle Moran expertly creates a fascinating novel told from Nefertiti’s sister’s perspective.  I was transported into ancient Egypt and learned about the main gods worshiped, afterlife beliefs, and how the pharaohs were linked to the gods.  If you enjoyed The Other Boleyn, try out one of Moran’s historical fiction novels.  While we know what Nefertiti looked like from various artifacts, this spins a fascinating story around an overlooked sister and some of the dynamics in a kingdom where the pharaoh changed the main god of Egypt. 

Book Summary
Nefertiti and her younger sister, Mutnodjmet, have been raised in a powerful family that has provided wives to the rulers of Egypt for centuries.  Ambitious, charismatic, and beautiful, Nefertiti is destined to marry Amunhotep, an unstable young pharaoh.  It is hoped by all that her strong personality will temper the young Amunhotep's heretical desire to forsake Egypt's ancient gods, overthrow the priests of Amun, and introduce a new sun god for all to worship.

Love, betrayal, political unrest, plague, and religious conflict - Nefertiti brings ancient Egypt to life in vivid detail.  Fast-paced and historically accurate, it is the dramatic story of two unforgettable women living through a remarkable period in history.

Ellie's Review of Michelle Moran's novel Madame Tussaud

The Story of Beautiful Girl

by Rachel Simon
4 Stars
Historical Fiction
Setting: USA
346 pages
Published 2011

Ellie's Review
While reading this novel, I was fascinated by the treatment of handicap and even deaf people back in the 1960’s in the US.  That wasn’t too long ago, yet thankfully our country has changed so much in our views and treatment!  This story about a mentally handicapped girl (maybe autistic?) and a deaf black man is incredible.  Author Rachel Simon has a sister who has an “intellectual disability” and greatly researched the treatment and “schools” for similar people – I loved learning that the book was greatly founded on truth, yet it also sickened me.  This look at people who were often overlooked is amazing, and I really loved and grew attached to the characters in the novel.  I’m excited to discuss this at book club as I feel like the book has many themes and lessons to discuss in addition to the historical aspect.

Book Summary
From the author of the memoir Riding the Bus with My Sister, a moving, uplifting novel about a woman who can't speak, a man who is deaf, and a widow who finds herself suddenly caring for a newborn baby.

The Story of Beautiful Girl gets right under the skin and into the heart with the story of Lynnie, a young white woman with a developmental disability that hinders her ability to speak, and Homan, an African American deaf man with only his home sign language to guide him.  Both were institutionalized in the mid-twentieth century, when people with disabilities were routinely shut off from society and left to languish without attention, forgotten.

One night, Lynnie and her sweetheart, Homan, escape.  They find refuge in the farmhouse of the widow Martha, a retired schoolteacher.  But the couple is not alone; Lynnie has just borne a child.  The authorities catch up to them; Homan escapes into the darkness and Lynnie is caught.  But just before she is gruffly taken back to The School for the Incurable and Feebleminded, she utters two words to Martha: "Hide her." And so begins the tale of three lives desperate to connect, yet kept apart by seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

The Language of Flowers

by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
4 Stars
Setting: USA
336 pages
Published 2011


Ellie's Review
While so much attention has been given recently to international adoptions, foster care here int he USA is ignored.  Vanessa Diffenbaugh is a real foster mom and wrote this novel about a girl in foster care, Victoria, who turns 18 and is on her own.  Yes, that's what happens in real life.  While Victoria figures out how to live on her own, she flashes back to her experiences growing up and you learn about her life.  Victoria learns to express herself through flowers, which was fascinating to me (what did your wedding bouquet represent?).  This book looks at several types of mother-daughter relationships and makes the reader think about what families are.  This was a great book club discussion!

Book Summary

A mesmerizing, moving and elegantly written debut novel, The Language of Flowers beautifully weaves past and present, creating a vivid portrait of an unforgettable woman whose gift for flowers helps her change the lives of others even as she struggles to overcome her own troubled past. 

The Victorian language of flowers was used to convey romantic expressions: honeysuckle for devotion, asters for patience, and red roses for love.  But for Victoria Jones, it's been more useful in communicating grief, mistrust, and solitude.  After a childhood spent in the foster-care system, she is unable to get close to anybody, and her only connection to the world is through flowers and their meanings.  

Now eighteen and emancipated from the system, Victoria has nowhere to go and sleeps in a public park, where she plants a small garden of her own.  Soon a local florist discovers her talents, and Victoria realizes she has a gift for helping others through the flowers she chooses for them.  But a mysterious vendor at the flower market has her questioning what's been missing in her life, and when she's forced to confront a painful secret from her past, she must decide whether it's worth risking everything for a second chance at happiness.

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

by Michael Pollan
4 Stars
Nonfiction: Other
205 pages
Published 2007

Ellie's Review
I recently realized that as the main grocery shopper and cook for my family, I determine most of what my children and husband (in addition, obviously, to what I eat). With that pressure, I decided to read this book to learn about eating healthy.  I feel bombarded with new information that I've just recently heard about including antioxidants, gluton, partially hydrogenated oils, triglycerides, etc.  After reading this book, I am not so overwhelmed and know some great ways to provide a healthier diet for my family.

Pollan's first main point is to "eat food".  Go away from processed foods and stick to whole foods.  Pretend like you're grocery shopping with your grandmother or great-great-grandmother and only buy things at the grocery store she would recognize.  The movement of Nutritionism that focuses on individual nutrients is in favor of adding vitamins, etc. into foods such as cereal rather than eating a whole food that is healthy.  That does not yield the same benefits.  Food science is always changing what is good or bad for you.  Just eat whole foods.  His second point is the eat "not too much" food.  His third point is to eat "mostly plants".  I learned about various studies of diets around the world compared to the Western Diet and how the differences might be responsible for drastically different cancer and other disease rates among the populations.

This book taught me some basic ways to buy healthier food for my house.  For the first time, I now have a desire to plant a garden and grow some organic, fresh foods for our consumption.

Book Summary
Michael Pollan's last book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, launched a national conversation about the American way of eating; now In Defense of Food shows us how to change it, one meal at a time.  Pollan proposes a new answer to the question of what we should eat that comes down to seven simple but liberating words: Eat Food.  Not too much.  Mostly Plants.  Pollan's bracing and eloquent manifesto shows us how we can start making thoughtful food choices that will enrich our lives, enlarge our sense of what it means to be healthy, and bring pleasure back to eating.

A Christmas Memory

by Truman Capote
4 Stars
Nonfiction: Memoir
Setting: USA
48 pages
Published 1956


Ellie's Review
For a great story to get you in the Christmas spirit, check out Truman Capote's memory of a Christmas when he was a child.  This story is one you can read quickly to boost your Christmas energy to decorate the house or lick envelopes.  It's a nice little story that reminds you that Christmas is about more than Black Friday.


Book Summary
First published in 1956, this much sought-after autobiographical recollection of Truman Capote's rural Alabama boyhood has become a modern-day classic.  Seven-year-old Buddy inaugurates the Christmas season by crying out to his cousin, Miss Sook Falk: "It's fruitcake weather!" Thus begins an unforgettable portrait of an odd but enduring friendship between two innocent souls - one young and one old - and the memories they share of beloved holiday rituals.

The Art of Loving Life

by Sandra Thebaud
4 Stars
Nonfiction: Self Help
78 pages
Published 2011

Ellie's Review
I am someone who is constantly stressed out.  Though I purposefully keep a very busy life, I hate the anguish and sore shoulders caused by stress.  I have read another stress management book that was good to learn about techniques such as deep breathing and visualization.  I felt better while I read it but was soon caught up in my life, forgetting about using my diaphragm to inhale.  The Art of Loving Life crossed my path, and I decided to give stress management a try again to see how it could improve my sore muscles and help me enjoy life a bit more.

While this book did discuss several stress management techniques, it started out by teaching us that to better manage the stress in our lives, we first have to understand what stress is, what causes our personal stress, and how we react to stress.  I had a notepad I used to write down my own definitions of ideas and different types stress in my personal life, as I was instructed.  Then Thebaud helped me understand things differently than before.  

One example is while I focus on the major stressors in my life, my energy is used up in small stressors that I ignore and fail to manage/decrease.  She told of being frustrated at all the laundry she did every day when potty training her son; it was a small thing, but when she purchased more pairs of pants and underwear, her stress level greatly decreased.  I had similar little things in my life I was ignoring even though they caused me anguish.    

Thebaud realizes that most of us do not have extra hours we can daily dedicate to meditation, etc.  She has reasonable suggestions such as practicing deep breathing every time we are stopped at a red light - I can do that!  

I was not a fan of the writing style, but I have noticed a big difference in how relaxed I am and how much I'm enjoying my daily life.  The message is realistic enough for me that I'll keep this book on hand as a reference.  

Book Summary

Life can be difficult and unpredictable.  Sometimes you feel like no one understands what you're going through.  You want a life that you love, but stress can make that seem impossible.

Unlike other stress management books that talk about techniques out of the context of real life, this book approaches life from an emotional standpoint and uses proven techniques to show you how to improve your life, not just deal with stress.  Tried and true techniques have been tweaked to make them easy to practice and more effective.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

by Washington Irving
4 Stars
Children's Classic
Historical Fiction
Setting: Sleepy Hollow, NY
112 pages
Published 1819

Ellie's Review
To bring out the Halloween spirit (or spirits?), I read this classic American tale for the first time even though I've heard the retelling countless times and ways.  This short story was a quick and entertaining read and something people should read at least once in their lives.  I had never really known the truth about what happened between the Headless Horseman and Ichabod Crane.  (But does anyone really know?)

Book Summary
Since this story's first appearance in 1819, generations of readers, young and old, have thrilled to the Headless Horseman galloping through the haunted woods of Sleepy Hollow.

Note on Editions
While many editions of this classic tale are available, I recommend finding an illustrated copy to make reading it that much more fun!  I enjoyed the illustrations of Arthur Rackham who focused on the haunting spirits that the inhabitants of Sleepy Hollow saw in everything.

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

by Mary Roach
4 Stars
Nonfiction: Other
304 pages
Published 2003


Ellie's Review
This book is utterly fascinating.  As I learned about the many kinds of research on cadavers (including auto safety testing), I actually laughed out loud numerous times as Roach kept it light without being inappropriate.  I am even more convinced now to donate my organs.


Book Summary
Stiff is an oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem.  For two thousand years, cadavers - some willingly, some unwittingly - have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings.  They've tested France's first guillotines, ridden the NASA Space Shuttle, been crucified in a Parisian laboratory to test the authenticity of the Shroud of Turn, and helped solve the mystery of TWA Flight 800.  For every new surgical procedure, from heart transplants to gender reassignment surgery, cadavers have been there alongside surgeons, making history in their quiet way.

In this fascinating, ennobling account, Mary Roach visits the good deeds of cadavers over the centuries—from the anatomy labs and human-sourced pharmacies of medieval and nineteenth-century Europe to a human decay research facility in Tennessee, to a plastic surgery practice lab, to a Scandinavian funeral directors' conference on human composting. In her droll, inimitable voice, Roach tells the engrossing story of our bodies when we are no longer with them.

City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments #3)

by Cassandra Clare
4 Stars
Young Adult
Fantasy with Vampires
Setting: NY
683 pages
Published 2009

Ellie's Review
Once again, I was totally hooked on a cheesy, juvenile, vampire novel.  Clare nicely wrapped up the trilogy in City of Glass, and I was happy with the ending.  The teenage characters are still learning and making mistakes, but they have matured some since the first installment of The Mortal Instruments series, City of Bones.

Book Summary
To save her mother's life, Clary must travel to the City of Glass, the ancestral home of the Shadowhunters -- never mind that entering the city without permission is against the Law, and breaking the Law could mean death.  To make things worse, she learns that Jace does not want her there, and Simon has been thrown in prison by the Shadowhunters, who are deeply suspicious of a vampire who can withstand sunlight.

View Ellie's reviews of the rest of the series:
City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments #1)
City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments #2)
City of Fallen Angels (The Mortal Instruments #4)

City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments #2)

by Cassandra Clare
4 Stars
Young Adult
Fantasy with Vampires
Setting: NY
464 pages
Published 2007

Ellie's Review
I'm embarrassed to admit that I really liked this book, but I did.  The dialogue is cheesy, but again I stayed up late at night reading this!  I'm not too ashamed to say I have a crush on Jace.

Book Summary
As readers of series starter City of Bones already know, teenager Clary Fray is a Shadowhunter, a demon slayer who has the gift (?) of spotting Downworlder werewolves, vampires, and faeries.  She is also an adolescent in an abnormally dysfunctional family: Her mom is in a magically induced coma and her father is probably insane and undoubtedly evil.  All of which places Clary in situations that would challenge even the most talented average American girl.

View Ellie's reviews of the rest of the series:
City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments #1)
City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments #3)
City of Fallen Angels (The Mortal Instruments #4)

City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments #1)

by Cassandra Clare
4 Stars
Young Adult
Fantasy with Vampires
Setting: NY
485 pages
Published 2007

Ellie's Review
This book sucked me from from the start, and I stayed up many nights past my bedtime reading it. This reminded me of Twilight due to the juvenile fantasy genre and the magnetism I was drawn in with. However, I didn't rate it higher because the writing itself is not fabulous. This would be a great book to read on a trip: it's easy to read and is a page-turner.  If you are a fan of Stephenie Meyers and wanted more after Breaking Dawn, pick this book up.

Book Summary
When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder - much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing - not even a smear of blood - to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?

This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know.... 

Series Information
Originally The Mortal Instruments were to be a trilogy, but Clare decided to continue with a fourth, which is City of Fallen Angels, published in 2011. 


View Ellie's reviews of the rest of the series:
City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments #2)
City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments #3)
City of Fallen Angels (The Mortal Instruments #4)

The History of Love

by Nicole Krauss
4 Stars
Jewish
Setting: USA
260 pages
Published 2005

Ellie's Review
This book was very enjoyable, and I was sad to finish it. Different people narrate this novel, which was confusing at first (maybe because I was listening to the audiobook?). I absolutely loved the narration of Leo Gursky - he was a quirky and amazing character who I fell in love with and just wanted to hug.  Simply, it was a great book.

Book Summary
Leo Gursky is trying to survive a little bit longer, tapping his radiator each evening to let his upstairs neighbor know he's still alive, drawing attention to himself at the milk counter of Starbucks. But life wasn't always like this: sixty years ago, in the Polish village where he was born, Leo fell in love and wrote a book. And although he doesn't know it, that book also survived: it crossed oceans and generations, and changed lives." Fourteen-year-old Alma was named after a character in that book. She has her hands full keeping track of her little brother Bird (who thinks he might be the Messiah) and taking copious notes in her book, How to Survive in the Wild Volume Three. But when a mysterious letter arrives in the mail she undertakes an adventure to find her namesake and save her family.

The Birth of Venus

by Sarah Dunant
4 Stars
Historical Fiction
Setting: Florence, Italy
403 pages
Published 2003

Ellie's Review
If you liked Pillars of the Earth or The Other Boleyn Girl, you should read this. Set in Florence, Italy in the 1500's, The Birth of Venus is a wonderful historical fiction novel wrapped around the art of the time. I was fascinated by the story plus I loved learning about the art and treatment of women at this time. Just to warn you, this does have some sex scenes.

Book Summary
Alessandra Cecchi is not quite fifteen when her father, a prosperous cloth merchant, brings a young painter back from northern Europe to decorate the chapel walls in the family’s Florentine palazzo. A child of the Renaissance, with a precocious mind and a talent for drawing, Alessandra is intoxicated by the painter’s abilities.

Room

by Emma Donoghue
4 Stars
Setting: USA
321 pages
Published 2010

Ellie's Review
This was a crazy, dark book I was utterly hooked on. Donaghue did a wonderful job of drawing me into the story and actually causing me stress when the characters were in the most critical times and were themselves stressed.

Book Summary
To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Unaccustomed Earth

by Jhumpa Lahiri
4 Stars
Settings: USA, India
333 pages
Published 2008

Ellie's Review
Unaccustomed Earth is a collection of short stories by Indian author Jhumpa Lahiri (Interpreter of Maladies and The Namesake) tells different stories of Indians from West Bengal adapting to America. While some stories I would only give 3 stars, I really enjoyed the collection as a whole. Two of the stories ended a bit abrupt - I would have liked even another paragraph in conclusion.

Book Summary
These eight stories by beloved and bestselling author Jhumpa Lahiri take us from Cambridge and Seattle to India and Thailand, as they explore the secrets at the heart of family life. Here they enter the worlds of sisters and brothers, fathers and mothers, daughters and sons, friends and lovers. Rich with the signature gifts that have established Jhumpa Lahiri as one of our most essential writers, Unaccustomed Earth exquisitely renders the most intricate workings of the heart and mind.

The Distant Hours

by Kate Morton
4 Stars
Setting: England
562 pages
Published 2010

Ellie's Review
The Distant Hours was an enjoyable read that ended up about a fascinating mystery; however, a mysterious letter doesn't intrigue me in the beginning as much as the foundling in Morton's The Forgotten Garden. I loved the descriptions of the castle in this book. I raced through the last 100 pages as the brilliant plot unfolded, but before that I found some slow parts.

Book Summary
A long lost letter arrives in the post and Edie Burchill finds herself on a journey to Milderhurst Castle, a great but moldering old house, where the Blythe spinsters live and where her mother was billeted 50 years before as a 13 year old child during WWII. The elder Blythe sisters are twins and have spent most of their lives looking after the third and youngest sister, Juniper, who hasn’t been the same since her fiance jilted her in 1941. 

See Ellie's review of Kate Morton other books: The House at Riverton and The Forgotten Garden.

To Kill a Mockingbird

by Harper Lee
4 Stars
Classic, Historical Fiction
Setting: Alabama
323 pages
Published 1960

Ellie's Review
To Kill a Mockingbird is a great book about prejudice that was artfully written from the viewpoint of a child who knows no prejudice and learns the social customs and hatred our world has. I enjoyed it in high school and enjoyed it again as an adult who has experienced more. I hope to have the strength of the character Atticus in raising my children.

Book Summary
The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it, To Kill A Mockingbird became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, also a classic.

Killer Weekend (Walt Fleming #1)

by Ridley Pearson
4 Stars
Setting: Sun Valley, Idaho
336 pages
Published 2007

Ellie's Review
If you're looking for a good murder mystery, try this out. This is the first book I've read of Pearson's, and I liked the main plot and was very interested in the subplots as well. This was a good page-turner, and I liked the ending.  Killer Weekend is a nice, entertaining read and is especially fun for anyone with an Idaho connection since novels aren't usually set there.

Book Summary
Eight years ago, in Sun Valley-snowcapped playground for the wealthy and ambitious-all that stood between U.S. Attorney General Elizabeth Shaler and a knife-wielding killer was local patrolman Walt Fleming. Now Liz Shaler returns to Sun Valley as the keynote speaker of billionaire Patrick Cutter's world-famous media and communications conference, a convergence of the richest, most powerful business tycoons. The controversial attorney general is expected to announce her candidacy for president. It's a media coup for Cutter-but a security nightmare for Walt Fleming, now the county sheriff. As the Cutter conference gets under way, authorities learn of a confirmed threat on Shaler's life, and various competing interests-the Secret Service, the FBI, Cutter's own security forces -begin jockeying for jurisdiction. Amid the conference's opulent extravagances, Walt is suddenly shaken by an apparent murder, his nephew's arrest, and a haunting legacy from his family's past. The clock ticks down toward Shaler's keynote address as we track the chilling precision of her assassin's preparations.