31 Days of Great Books, Aloha Also Means Goodbye, Book review, books

Aloha Also Means Goodbye – 31 Days of Great Books – Book 31

standard October 31, 2013 Leave a response
Book 31
Aloha Also Means Goodbye, by Jessica Rosenberg (aka… me)
Before you have your first baby you have all of these grandiose ideas about how you’re going to parent and what being a parent is going to be like. If you’re lucky, the instant they hand you your baby you realize that none of it is going to turn out the way you thought. If you’re less lucky, you hold on to those ideals and desperately try to force reality to conform to your aspirations. 
Turns out publishing a book is almost exactly like birthing a child. Same grandiose aspirations. Same reality not willing to conform. And just like parenting, it’s just better all around if you let go and enjoy the ride. 
Weeks ago I sent a hopeful email to my publisher asking if maybe, just maybe, I could end my 31 days series with my book, maybe directing all of you lovely readers to a pre-order page. When we realized that it wouldn’t be possible, we decided to do what we could to have the eBook version ready for sale on the last day of the series. 
Oh how my little heart pitter-pattered. Oh how my eyes bled over the last minute edits… 
And it almost worked. 
Almost. 
At the 11th hour something went wrong with the upload to Amazon and poof… aspirations vanished. 
So, the good news is that the eBook version of Aloha Also Means Goodbye will be for sale imminently. The bad news is that it’s not ready today. It’s all good; there’s plenty of Halloween candy to keep us distracted for a few days.
In the meantime here’s the cover and a little blurb about the book to whet your appetite. Stay tuned for the real thing to make an appearance here soon. Very, very soon. Honest! 
Jo and Jordan tied the knot five years ago in a mud hut in the middle of Zambia far from all their friends and family. Now they’re in Hawaii for a big wedding vow renewal ceremony elaborately planned by Jo’s mother. There’s just one small issue, there’s something wrong with the wedding license issued in Africa and only Jo knows.
Little does she know that the wedding license will soon prove to be the least of her problems.
Her ex, the man she was running from when she met Jordan, is on the island and he’s there with his two kids, both of whom are named after her.
Coming face to face with her past just as she’s trying to brave her future forces Jo to make some big decisions. It might even force her to grow up. Luckily she doesn’t have to do any of it on her own; her two best friends are there to hold her hand and help her down the right path.
Despite all the upheaval and complications Jo will eventually walk down the aisle to say “I do” to the man who completes her. But will the wedding that takes place be the one Jo’s mother planned? Or will it be something much, much better?  

Thank you so much for sticking with me all month! I’ve loved sharing some beloved books with you. I might even do this again next October!

Want to read the other books on this list? Here they are!

Note: Links to books are affiliate links. If you purchase something on Amazon after clicking the links you’ll be helping to fund my book buying habit. My husband will be very grateful.

31 Days of Great Books, Book review, books

Rebecca – 31 Days of Great Books – Book 30

standard October 30, 2013 Leave a response
Book 30
Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier
“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” 
It’s hands down the best first sentence of any book I have ever written. 
I know. That’s a pretty definite absolute. But really, it is. It says everything in just a few short words. It tells you that Manderley is an important place. It tells you that the person wishes they could go back, but they never can. It’s so tantalizing you can’t help but read more.
I aspire to one day write such a great first sentence. Heck, I aspire to one day write an entire book that’s half as good as Rebecca. 
There are a few books that I’ll happily reread again, and again, and again. This is one. Somehow knowing exactly what’s going to happen doesn’t dispel the mystery, doesn’t reduce the pleasure I get in falling into the de Winter’s haunted lives. 
My favorite part, which I can share without giving anything away, is the fact that the main character is never given a first name, while her rival, her husband’s previous wife, who is only ever present as a memory, has the whole book named after her. 
Come on, doesn’t that alone make you want to read it?
This book was written in 1938 and is set in England, so it definitely doesn’t read like most of the books that I’ve shared here this month, but it’s a true gem, something you’ll also want to share with your bookish friends. 
Read this book if: You enjoy “older” British literature. You like a good mystery. You love great stories that suck you in and keep you prisoner to the very last word. 

Would this make a good book club book? I really think so. You’ll talk about marriage, about how life doesn’t always deliver what’s promised, about what you would do for love, and about places that leave huge imprints on our hearts.

Want to read the other books on this list? Here they are!

Note: Links to books are affiliate links. If you purchase something on Amazon after clicking the links you’ll be helping to fund my book buying habit. My husband will be very grateful.

31 Days of Great Books, Book review, books

The Time Traveler’s Wife – 31 Days of Great Books – Day 29

standard October 30, 2013 Leave a response
Book 29
The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
You know what I hate? I hate when a book I adored becomes a best selling sensation, not because the author doesn’t deserve it, clearly they do, but because then the book becomes a “thing.” Then people read it because everyone’s reading it, not because they really want to. 
That bugs me. 
When that book is then made into a movie and people say “oh, I don’t need to read it, I can just go see it?” well, then my blood boils and my soul weeps. 
But that’s another story. 
A long time ago, before the movie, before it became a “thing” I read an incredible love story that enchanted me and made me wish beyond all reason that the star crossed lovers could find a resolution to their torment. 
I read the book and watched for some time travel paradox, some issue, some bit of the story that didn’t line up, and never found even one. That alone should have been reason enough to love this book. But then I fell in love with the characters. I fell in love with their conundrum. I fell in love with their lives. Even as the plot rushed towards its inevitable conclusion I couldn’t put it away… though I was compelled to stop reading so the characters wouldn’t have to face what was coming.
I didn’t stop reading and though I wept bitter tears at the end, it was well worth it. 
Read this book if: You love a good complicated love story. You enjoy an amazingly well crafted story. You like a little bit of fantasy in your fiction. 

Would this make a good book club book? I think so. You’d be able to discuss challenging relationships, overcoming challenges, and even parenting and infertility.

Want to read the other books on this list? Here they are!

Note: Links to books are affiliate links. If you purchase something on Amazon after clicking the links you’ll be helping to fund my book buying habit. My husband will be very grateful.

31 Days of Great Books, Book review, books

What Alice Forgot – 31 Days of Great Books – Book 28

standard October 29, 2013 Leave a response
Book 28
What Alice Forgot, by Liane Moriarty
I blogged about this book mere hours after I finished reading it because it affected me so much I needed to write about it to get it out of my system. Months later, I still think about this book, still think about what it would be like to wake up one morning having forgotten the past 10 years of my life.
The story itself if thoroughly entertaining. You follow Alice along as she wakes up from a knock on the head, calls her husband to have him pick her up, and realizes that her entire life is a mystery. You stand by her as she goes home to a house she barely recognizes and meets children she doesn’t remember. You cry and rage with her and in the end, you’re hoping against hope that everything in her life will work out the way it should.
It’s a great read, one that will stick with you for a long, long time, and will help you see your own life in a different light.
Read this if: You enjoy women’s fiction. You like stories about strong women who overcome challenges. You love stories about friendships and family.
 
Would this make a good book club book? Definitely. You’ll talk about family, about life, about memories, and about what decisions you’ve all taken along the way that have led you to your current lives.

Want to read the other books on this list? Here they are!

Note: Links to books are affiliate links. If you purchase something on Amazon after clicking the links you’ll be helping to fund my book buying habit. My husband will be very grateful.

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