Reading the Book List: The Chocolate Money

The local public library hosts a “Beer & Books Club” each September through April. People are invited to read the monthly selection and then head out to a local pub to discuss the books over a pint and some appetizers. This season’s list has been released and I’m using it as my summer reading list.

 

The Chocolate Money by Ashley Prentice Norto

Book club description: Bettina Ballentyne feels like a “match that just won’t strike” compared with her mother, a Grace Kelly look-alike and chocolate-fortune heiress who flaunts her affair with a married man, throws parties with themes like “hangover-brunch cruise,” and once posed nude for the family Christmas card. 

This book just rubbed me the wrong way. I found the storyline rather depressing and I kept reading it to see if the characters would somehow redeem themselves but in the end I was just left disappointed. There wasn’t one single likable character throughout the whole novel, and while I understand that you’re supposed to feel pity for the lead, Bettina, considering her horrible upbringing, I just can’t bring myself to do it.

When the novel starts, Bettina is 10. She is the daughter of Babs, an orphaned chocolate heiress whose parents died in a boating accident. Eccentric doesn’t begin to describe Babs, who is cruel and manipulative not just with her daughter but seemingly with everyone she meets. Especially the men in her life. Babs takes no precautions in shielding her daughter from her sexual conquests, instead it appears she takes great pride in rehashing them with her daughter and giving her tips and advice.

Through Bettina’s eyes, the readers get a first hand view of Babs’ cruelty toward her own daughter and everyone else. In fact, she often uses her daughter as a tool to inflict pain on others like in the case of harassing her lover’s wife.

When Bettina finally moves on to boarding school, away from the overshadowing presence of her bizarre mother, it seems like the young woman finally has a chance to get out from under her control. Instead, she heads down a self-destructive path filled with cruel behaviour reminiscent of her mother’s, ironically with the son of her mother’s lover. In fact, it seems like she was being deviant almost in a way to seek her mother’s approval.

While the novel was well enough written, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed once it finished. The coda, that shows Bettina living in New York City and working for a living despite having inherited the chocolate money, just didn’t sit well enough and it would have been great for the reader to have witnessed some of her redemptive journey.

I guess it just felt off because the character never actually deals head-on with any of her transgressions or accepts actual responsibility for any of her actions throughout the book.

 

 

Glitch

Just noticed today that some of my scheduled posts haven`t been posting and as a result there has been nothing for two weeks.

I`ll be fixing it up and they`ll start back regularly tomorrow. Sorry!

 

Review: Beautiful Ruins

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

I read this as an Ebook. I’m not sure if that’s important or not, but I guess I should mention it so readers know that it did not – in any way – help me reduce the giant pile of books currently occupying a large section of my room.

Synopsis: The story begins in 1962. On a rocky patch of the sun-drenched Italian coastline, a young innkeeper, chest-deep in daydreams, looks on over the incandescent waters of the Ligurian Sea and spies an apparition: a tall, thin woman, a vision in white, approaching him on a boat. She is an actress, he soon learns, an American starlet, and she is dying.

And the story begins again today, half a world away, when an elderly Italian man shows up on a movie studio’s back lot-searching for the mysterious woman he last saw at his hotel decades earlier.

What unfolds is a dazzling, yet deeply human, roller coaster of a novel, spanning fifty years and nearly as many lives. From the lavish set of Cleopatra to the shabby revelry of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Walter introduces us to the tangled lives of a dozen unforgettable characters: the starstruck Italian innkeeper and his long-lost love; the heroically preserved producer who once brought them together and his idealistic young assistant; the army veteran turned fledgling novelist and the rakish Richard Burton himself, whose appetites set the whole story in motion-along with the husbands and wives, lovers and dreamers, superstars and losers, who populate their world in the decades that follow.

Gloriously inventive, constantly surprising, Beautiful Ruins is a story of flawed yet fascinating people, navigating the rocky shores of their lives while clinging to their improbable dreams.

This was a great summer read. Hell, a great any time read. Alternating back and forth between present day and the 1960s, it’s set in a small fishing town in Italy and Hollywood. While the two eventually converge, it’s an interesting journey to follow.

I loved how each character has their own back story that author Jess Walter skillfully reveals throughout the story, when the timing is right. There`s the young son who returns home from the big city to run his family inn after the patriarch passes away – leaving behind a love only to stumble across a new one in the most unlikely of places. There`s the young actress who is clearly escaping something, whether she knows it at the time or not. As those stories unfold, the reader is introduced to the present day characters both unlucky in love – a movie assistant stuck in a less than ideal job with a boyfriend who just isn`t putting in the effort and the young man who shows up to pitch her a movie about the Donner Party, a last ditch attempt to make something of himself after failed attempts as a husband and novelist. The final pieces of the puzzle include the wondering, troubled soul of the young ingenue`s now grown son (in present day) and the producer who had a promising career that`s been sidetracked by the success of a crappy TV program, leading him away from quality projects and in search of more money makers instead.

And there are real life events and personalities thrown into the mix, leaving the reader to wonder how much of the story is drawn from true events and how much is drawn from the author`s imagination. With the larger than life realities that surrounded Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, anything is believable.

All in all, it was a great read. One that you could definitely go back to again and again over the years.

Friday Five – Bookmarks

 

The Friday Five is a weekly feature where I list five book-related things that share a common bond.  Have a suggestion for a Friday Five topic? Comment below. 

Despite having (what seems like) hundreds of them, I rarely use actual bookmarks to keep my place in whatever I’m reading. Instead, it’s usually the closest thing at hand. Here’s a list of my most common non-bookmark pagemarkers.

1. A Charlie Ticket. In Boston (my favourite city), you can purchase pre-paid public transit tickets called Charlie Tickets and for some reason, I have one from 2009 that has been making the rounds in my books. The funny part is, I’ve actually brought books to Boston with me on vacation, using the ticket as a bookmark, and yet not using the ticket on the subway, opting to buy new ones instead. I’m pretty sure it has expired by now, but it was still good at the time.
2. Receipts. This is a common one, I’m sure. I feel like I should do this more often, especially if I purchase the book while travelling. It’s a nice way to remember where you got it and keep track of the name of that “cute little book store I stopped in once, in Dublin…” In fact, my copy of Hells Angels to this day still has the receipt from Edinburgh in it.
3. Stickers. Only ones with the backing still attached, obviously. They most often tend to be band stickers.
4. Band-aid. It comes in handy in the event of a paper cut. Jokes aside, I’m sure this was probably just done out of convenience but it sure drew some weird looks on the subway in Toronto.
5. Boarding passes. There’s nothing worse than being stuck waiting, especially for long periods of time. I have a tendency to lose everything so keeping the boarding pass in the book – which was in my hands as I tried to kill time, was a great idea.

Currently reading: Beautiful Ruins

 

So, at the recommendation of a friend, I’m currently reading Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter.

I started it yesterday and would have been finished this book already had my stupid iPad not died 3/4 of the way through it last night. Sadly, I was sleepy and had to head to bed while it charged.

I’m really liking it so far, so you probably won’t have to wait long for the review.

Tuesday Tea – Green Tea part two

The best companion for a book is a big cup (or pot) of tea. Tuesday Tea is a weekly feature highlighting what’s been gracing my tea cup lately. 

I know, I know… I did green tea last week! When I saw these graphics though, I knew they had to be included in a tea post. So, without further ado – my visual Tuesday Tea post: Green Tea part two.

Friday Five – Quotes

The Friday Five is a weekly feature where I list five book-related things that share a common bond.  Have a suggestion for a Friday Five topic? Comment below. 

I love a good quote. There’s something about borrowing a phrase from someone who has said it much better that just sticks with me. Here are my top five favourite quotes on books:

1. “Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?”  Henry Ward Beecher

2. “You know you’ve read a good book when you turn the last page and feel as if you have lost a friend.” Paul Sweeney

3. “In books I have traveled, not only to other worlds, but into my own.” –Anna Quindlen

4. “There is no friend as loyal as a book.” Ernest Hemingway

5. “If a book is well written, I always find it too short.” Jane Austen

And as an added bonus, “You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.”  C.S. Lewis (You had to have known this would be on the list!)

Review: Gone Girl

Gone Girl: A Novel by Gillian Flynn

As I mentioned last week, this was the book selection for the first ever book club I attended: Beer & Books. Moving forward, I will probably do as everyone else and read the book prior to heading to an evening devoted entirely to discussing the subtleties of the book’s plot points and themes. That way, the book should be a surprise to me as I read it (and come discussion time, I’ll be able to contribute).

Synopsis: On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy’s diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer? 

As the cops close in, every couple in town is soon wondering how well they know the one that they love. With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?

Talk about a messed up relationship. This book made me thank my lucky stars that I’m single, haha. Well it did really hammer home how you never really, truly know a person. No matter how much you share or how much time you spend together, when it comes down to it, you don’t really know what’s going on inside someone’s head. Also, it was an eerie reminder that appearances aren’t always what they seem – despite how perfect that couple you know looks, at home it could be a nightmare.

Gone Girl is told from two perspectives: Nick Dunne, the husband who discovers his wife is missing on their fifth wedding anniversary and Amy Dunne, the missing wife. It flashes back and forth between present day Nick and diary entries dating back as far as seven years by Amy up to the point where she goes missing.

While I didn’t necessarily like either character, I really did love the book and wanted to keep reading right up until the end (even though I knew all of the major plot points and twists thanks to the book club).

What sets this psychological thriller apart is how Flynn is able to touch on so many different topics, weave so many different stories and keep it all relevant, interesting and relatively believable. The book touches not just on the simple missing woman case, but relationship between married people, family members and the various responsibilities and resentments they can bring. It also casts a light on media and the public’s involvement when it comes to high profile cases.

Perhaps most disturbing of all, is that in these messed up characters were traits that resembled people I care about and sometimes, parts of myself.

Eerie.

 

Tuesday Tea: Green Tea

 

The best companion for a book is a big cup (or pot) of tea. Tuesday Tea is a weekly feature highlighting what’s been gracing my tea cup lately. 

When I tried eradicating milk from my diet, losing it in my tea was probably the hardest part. I grew up drinking orange pekoe tea. As a child, I would be given a little bit of tea (with a lot of milk and some sugar) in my bottle. As I got older, the milk needed lessened and the sugar went away all together. For decades really, I was a tea with milk kind of girl.

Getting rid of the milk, let me with a bitter taste in my mouth. Really. I found the orange pekoe just a touch bitter without the milk there to offset it, so I began looking at alternative options for my go-to tea. While I had always enjoyed a cup of green tea here or there, it was until the no-milk moment that it became my new regular drink.

There’s something soothing and a bit comfortable about the tea. I find it a real palate cleanser and it’s great after a big meal to help you digest. That could just be in my mind though.

Programming note: I hope you didn’t think I forgot about Tuesday Tea! I usually post these for 10 a.m., but because I had a review to post today I wanted to hold off on this until later in the day. 

Review: Courting Greta

 

Courting Greta by Ramsey Hootman

This was another book sent into our office and given to me by my editor. After looking it up online, I realize the official release date isn’t until June. I mention this only because I read the advanced uncorrected version and I feel as if that’s important to note.

Synopsis: Samuel Cooke knows most women wouldn’t give him a second glance even if he were the last man on earth. He’s the cripple with crutches, the nerdy computer genius every female past puberty feels compelled to mother. So when he leaves his lucrative career to teach programming to high schoolers, romance definitely isn’t on his radar.

Perhaps that’s why Greta Cassamajor catches him off guard. The sarcastic gym coach with zero sense of humor is no beauty—not even on the inside. But an inexplicably kind act toward Samuel makes him realize she is interesting.

Samuel is certain she won’t accept his invitation to dinner—so when she does, he’s out of his depth. All he knows is that he’ll do whatever it takes to keep her as long as he can. Pretending he’s got his class under control? Easy. Being vulnerable enough to admit why he ditched his programming career for teaching? Um, no. That would require honesty. And if there’s one thing Samuel can’t exist without, it’s the lies he tells himself.

I breezed through this 400-page book rather easily. It was an interesting take on the usual love story, instead of being told from the woman’s perspective it came from the man’s point of view, which I found, surprisingly refreshing. I just wish I liked the lead character, Samuel, a bit more. Instead, he came off as sort of an asshole at times – especially when dealing with his brother and his brother’s girlfriend. Maybe it’s just because they’re family and families sometimes bring out the worst in  you.

The novel starts out with Samuel Cooke arriving at a new school the reader learns he will be teaching at. Leaving behind his successful career as a programmer to fill in a maternity position at a high school, it seems a bit of a stretch. If his work was as groundbreaking as it’s described, one would think he could have easily got a job at any university or college teaching the types of courses he wishes to teach (throughout the novel, he is frustrated by the resources at the school and some of the non-programming courses he has to teach).

I feel that with most of the characters, the first impression Samuel gets of them sticks for the rest of the novel – Greta, the gym teacher everyone warns him off, is rather kind to him; the principal rubs him the wrong way right from the start and not surprisingly turns out to be a major jerk; the overly clingy fellow teacher who ends up sticking around as his friend, despite Samuel’s horrible behaviour towards him at several spots throughout the novel.

 

There was something endearing about the relationship between Greta and Samuel. Two outcasts in society who, for all intents and purposes probably didn’t see themselves ever getting married or finding love doing just that. It was great to see them navigate through the real life challenges that would be present in that type of relationship. Samuel’s condition requires him to wear a catheter and this creates insecurities not only in the bedroom but a certain sort of dependence in some parts of the book. This isn’t simply another story where they get together and everything is happily ever after. Instead, it shows what happens in that “ever after” period.

It was a well-written, thought provoking story that stays with you long after you put the book down.