Review: A Prayer for Owen Meany

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks

Ratings:

Source: Publicist

From the cover:

In the summer of 1953, two eleven-year-old boys—best friends—are playing in a Little League baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire. One of the boys hits a foul ball that kills the other boy’s mother. The boy who hits the ball doesn’t believe in accidents; Owen Meany believes he is God’s instrument. What happens to Owen after that 1953 foul ball is extraordinary.

Several people have told me that John Irving is an amazing author and that I need to read his books. And while I have a couple of his books sitting on my shelf, I never had the time to read them. Which is why when A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving was offered to me for review, I jumped at the opportunity to read it. I’ll admit that when I was reading this book, I actually felt quite guilty. I wouldn’t classify myself as a fast reader, but I normally don’t spend a month reading a book and that’s what happened with this one. I felt like I had to keep explaining to people that the book was over 600 pages and that it was so thought provoking that I didn’t want to rush through it. What was even more surprising was that when I had about a hundred pages to go, I found myself slowing down significantly. I wasn’t ready to part with this book yet and I didn’t want to say goodbye to Owen Meany or John Wheelwright.

I rarely include quotes in my reviews, but the first sentence of this book stuck out for me so much that I felt it was necessary to share it with y’all. If this doesn’t grasp your attention and make you want to read it then I don’t know what will.

“I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice—not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother’s death, but because he is the reason I believe in good; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.”

I absolutely loved this book and I would definitely rate it as one of my favorites. Immediately after I finished this book I wanted to flip to the beginning and start reading it again. I feel like this is going to be one of those books that I’m going to make the time to read annually just because it’s that good and because it’s so thought provoking. John Irving really makes you think about and question faith, belief, miracles, and coincidences.

The book jumps around a bit going back and forth between present day in the eighties and John’s childhood in the fifties and sixties. At first I thought this was one of those books with loosely connecting stories because it kept jumping around, but the more you read the book, the more you realize that nothing happens by accident in this book. Everything in this book is significant and it all leads to a grand finale at the end.  All of the various points that Irving made, slowly tied together to make you realize that everything happens for a reason and that perhaps Owen is God’s instrument.

A Prayer for Owen Meany was a superbly wonderful book and one that I would highly recommend to everyone! While reading this book, one of my friends told me that there was a movie based off of it called Simon Birch and now I can’t wait to watch the movie. I just hope it does the book justice.

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Review: Dancing on Broken Glass

Dancing on Broken Glass by Ka Hancock

Publisher: Gallery Books

Ratings:

Source: Publicist

From the cover:

Lucy Houston and Mickey Chandler probably shouldn’t have fallen in love, let alone gotten married. They’re both plagued with faulty genes—he has bipolar disorder; she, a ravaging family history of breast cancer. But when their paths cross on the night of Lucy’s twenty-first birthday, sparks fly, and there’s no denying their chemistry.

Cautious every step of the way, they are determined to make their relationship work—and they put their commitment in writing. Mickey will take his medication. Lucy won’t blame him for what is beyond his control. He promises honesty. She promises patience. Like any marriage, there are good days and bad days—and some very bad days. In dealing with their unique challenges, they make the heartbreaking decision not to have children. But when Lucy shows up for a routine physical just shy of their eleventh anniversary, she gets an impossible surprise that changes everything. Everything. Suddenly, all their rules are thrown out the window, and the two of them must redefine what love really is.

Wow! Dancing on Broken Glass by Ka Hancock was absolutely amazing and brilliant, heartwarming and touching, and spectacularly breathtaking! After reading the synopsis, I thought it was going to be a sad book, but I had no idea what was coming and how much this book was going to affect me. Let me warn you now that if you plan on reading this book, make sure you have a box of Kleenex with you.

Quite honestly, as I sit here trying to review this book, I’m at a loss for words. How do you describe a book that opens your eyes and makes you realize how beautiful life can be even with imperfect people. Lucy and Mickey were hands down some of my favorite characters to run across. They were imperfect in every way possible, yet somehow they found a way to make life work in their favor. They pulled at your heartstrings and you ached for them when they went through a rough patch. And as I read the book, I felt like I really got to know these characters and they weren’t just merely characters, but they could have been my friends in another life.

I don’t think I ever really understood the ramifications of having bipolar disorder until I read this book. I always assume that people diagnosed with bipolar disorder weren’t able to control their emotions, similar to having anger management issues or something along those lines. It wasn’t until I read this book that I felt like I had a greater understanding of what it meant to be diagnosed with bipolar disorder. I didn’t realize the number of medication you had to take for it or the line you had to tread to remain in perfect balance.

I can already see Dancing on Broken Glass landing somewhere on my best of 2012 list. It’s a book that will make you cry, but I also feel that it’s worth the tears to read it.

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Review: The Sugar Queen

The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen

Publisher: Bantam

Ratings:

Source: Purchased

Synopsis:

Josey Cirrini is sure of three things: winter is her favorite season, she’s a sorry excuse for a Southern belle, and sweets are best eaten in the privacy of her closet. For while Josey has settled into an uneventful life in her mother’s house, her one consolation is the stockpile of sugary treats and paperback romances she escapes to each night…. Until she finds her closet harboring Della Lee Baker, a local waitress who is one part nemesis—and two parts fairy godmother. With Della Lee’s tough love, Josey’s narrow existence quickly expands. She even bonds with Chloe Finley, a young woman who is hounded by books that inexplicably appear when she needs them—and who has a close connection to Josey’s longtime crush. Soon Josey is living in a world where the color red has startling powers, and passion can make eggs fry in their cartons. And that’s just for starters.

Why haven’t I read any of Sarah Addison Allen’s novels until now? I had no idea how magical, sweet, and endearing The Sugar Queen was going to be or else I would have started it much earlier. I probably had this book sitting on my shelf for a good year or so and I kept passing it up for other books. Now my biggest regret is not purchasing more of her books when I had the chance.

To put it simply, this book was amazing! I absolutely loved and adored it and its one that’s going to sit with me for a while. I didn’t believe the blurb when it described this book as magical, but I honestly think that’s the best description for it. There’s just something about it that makes it sneak into your heart and stay there.

Although I didn’t fall in love with the characters right away, by the time the book ended, I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to them. They were wonderful and delightful to read about. I love reading about Josie’s struggles against her mother as she tried to figure out if there was more to life than just this. And Della Lee is just about the best godmother a girl could ask for. She’s the bad girl of the town and she’s been arrested a few times, but the changes she made to Josie’s life was nothing short of amazing.

I know this makes the book dated, but I love how Adam pulled out the yellow pages to look up Josie’s number to ask her out on a date. I mean how often does that happen nowadays? Do people even use the yellow pages anymore? Reading that put a smile on my face and it definitely brought up some good old memories.

I’m definitely going out to pick up a few more of Allen’s books the next time I head to a book store. I had no idea how wonderful and magical her writing is and The Sugar Queen is definitely one book that I would highly recommend to everyone. I’m glad I read it and I’m ending my year on a high note.

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Review: Anna and the French Kiss

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group

Ratings:

Source: Purchased

Synopsis:

Anna can’t wait for her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a good job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. So she’s not too thrilled when her father unexpectedly ships her off to boarding school in Paris – until she meets Etienne St. Clair, the perfect boy. The only problem? He’s taken, and Anna might be, too, if anything comes of her crush back home. Will a year of romantic near-misses end in the French kiss Anna awaits?

Wow! I can’t remember the last time a book made me this giddy. I’ll be the first to admit that I approached Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins with my optimism in check. I’ve read all the wonderful reviews about this book, and yet there was still something about it that made me hold back on it. Let me just say that my fear was for naught because this book by far exceeded my expectations.

I absolutely love and adore the characters. So many times you open up a book and the characters are perfect. They’re beautiful, handsome, smart, and well just perfect without any flaws, and it leaves you wondering if these characters even exist in real life? Well, no worries here because Anna and St. Clair are far from perfect. Anna has a gap between her teeth and St. Clair, while being dark and handsome is also a shorty. Their flaws add another dimension to their character that make them that more loveable. Not to mention that Perkins really hit the nail on grasping the emotions of a teenager as they struggle to deal with their high school crushes, friendship, current relationships, and parents.

Throughout the books, the characters were faced with real problems that I could see a normal high school student facing on a daily basis. The way they handle the situation and tackled each problem were true to how a teenager would behave in their shoes and it was so easy to see the characters coming to life and popping out of the book.

And as an added bonus, the book takes place in Paris. Perkins did a great job of describing the city and after reading the book I’m ready to pack my bags and book a flight to Paris.

I was pleasantly surprised by how fun and entertaining this book and would highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for some light reading. Anna and the French Kiss is a fast read that will bring back some high school memories, but in a good way.

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Review: Fathermucker

Fathermucker by Greg Olear

Publisher: Harper

Ratings:

Source: Publisher

From the cover:

A day in the life of a dad on the brink: Josh Lansky—second-rate screenwriter, fledgling freelancer, and stay-at-home dad of two preschoolers—has held everything together while his wife is away on business . . . until this morning’s playdate, when he finds out through the mommy grapevine that she might be having an affair. What Josh needs is a break. He’s not going to get one.

If I had to sum up my review of Fathermucker by Greg Olear into one word, it would be “hilarious”. I didn’t think I would find another book so soon after reading Domestic Violets that would match its level of humor, wit, and sincerity and yet somehow Fathermucker snuck into my heart and made me laugh until I was gasping for air.

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting when I first accepted this book for review. I was drawn in by the comparisons to The Financial Lives of the Poets and Domestic Violets, both of which I absolutely love and adore. This book by far exceeded any of my expectations and I’m left speechless trying to come up with proper words to review this book. I have no idea why it is always so difficult for me to review a book I love. I want to gush about this book and pass it on to all my friends and buy extra copies of this book to hand out at Christmas and yet when it comes to telling you why I love it, I just can’t think of the right words to describe it.

On the surface, the book was a funny and humorous look at the life of a stay at home dad as he tries to survive managing the household without his wife, but there were so many layers to this book. Josh was flawed and yet so loveable and his kids, who would have drove me nuts, were adorable. I love the characters in this book and I love the tender moments shared between father and child. I love Josh’s monologue and thoughts and I only wish I could be half as clever as him.

When I first started reading this book, I thought this is exactly why I don’t want kids. They make you want to pull out your hair and drive over the cliff. And let me tell you, I was quite surprised when Josh didn’t do that himself. While I was reading this book, however, my perspective towards children and parenthood started to change. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still indifferent towards having kids, but at the same time I feel like I understand parenting a little better than I did before I started this book. I’m definitely one of those people who blame the parent when I see a child misbehaving in a store, not realizing that sometimes there are extraneous reasons as to why the child is acting like that. I’m not typically around children a lot, especially children with Asperger’s Syndrome so it was extremely enlightening to read this book and learn so much about the disease.

Fathermucker was an extremely enjoyable book that balances well humor and seriousness. It genuine and sincere and although it’s probably geared more towards dudes, I think it’s a book that everyone would enjoy, regardless of your gender, or whether you’re a parent or not.

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