The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman- Reshelved Book

Helloooo everybody!

Jillian here and I'm back with a review that's not a juvenile book!  This is actually on the opposite end of the spectrum. 

We're not a blog that typically posts non-fiction/self-help books.  Since several people recommended this book to me in the span of a week, I figured that it might be something worth and reading.  This was the same week that Matthew Hussey was giving an interview on Z100 and I figured that this book might be worth the read. Which, if you listen to Z100, you would know that this took place 3 weeks ago now. 

The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman presents the idea that there are 5 love languages that we can speak and these languages seem to drive what we're most looking for because that aspect is what's lacking.  Everyone has a "love tank" and  at some point in one's life, this tank could become empty.  If you're in a relationship or a marriage, what do you do when that happens? How do you fix it? Can you fix it? Is it possible to fall back in love with someone that you may have fallen out of love with? 

This was definitely an interesting read.  I think that it definitely made me aware of things but I wouldn't say that what I learned was Earth shattering. 

Self-help books are kinda funny in how you recommend them to people.  I think that it might be easier to offend someone in doing so...

Anyway, I give this book 3.5 coffee beans out of 5.

- Jillian

The Christmas Room by Catherine Anderson- Reshelved Books

Hello everyone!

Happy New Year!

I wanted to get this post up before Christmas was here. But that didn’t happen... Even though, I was a speed reading demon for a few days here, lol. Given that the title of this novel involves the word "Christmas" the majority of the book did not take place around Christmas. 

So it is totally okay for me to post this now... three weeks after Christmas. This a no judgement zone, folks! 

The good thing about this book is that it really doesn't take place during the holiday/Christmas season.  It takes place months *before* the holiday season and it ends on Christmas.

As some of you may or may not know, Jess and I both work in libraries.  Which means that we are *constantly* fighting temptation to check out every book that we come across.

I remember seeing the cover of The Christmas Room before it went out into circulation last month and I thought about how adorable the cover art was. Between the AirStream trailer decorated with holiday lights, the Adirondack chairs and the snow mountains that are the backdrop; I was instantly lured to the book. (I'm not ashamed to say that we do judge a book by it's cover! Sometimes, it's just about aesthetics, whether you want it to be or not!)

Since, it's best to hear from the author what their inspiration was behind a story... Harlequin Junkie conducted an interview with Catherine Anderson. You can find the interview in it's entirety here.  When approached by her publishing company to write a Christmas themed novel, Anderson took her own real life experiences (!!) to create a this story.

This is only book that I've read by Anderson... So my next comment might be jumping the gun a little here... But I felt like I was instantly transported to Bitterroot Valley.  I felt like Anderson was able to create such strong imagery using words. 

The Christmas Room tells the story of Maddie and Sam, two individuals in their 60s who have lost their spouses.  Maddie moves to Montana with her son and grandson, Cam and Caleb (respectively).  Cam buys a piece of land next to Sam Conacher and his daughter, Kirstin.  Sam is very much that cranky, mean and nasty man that people don't want to be bothered with.  He's not nice and it makes things harder than they have to be.

What these two neighbors don't know about each other is that they both have lost their spouses.  Sam and Maddie are both grieving and learning to move forward.  Maddie lost her husband two years prior and Sam lost his wife 6 years before. 

Sam is very overprotective of his daughter, Kirstin and this is a cause for most of the tension that occurs in the beginning of the story.  It was made known to Cam by Kirstin, that her father is not afraid to ruin the reputations of those who go and talk to his daughter. 

I think that's why the first interaction between Cam and Kirstin made me think of "I'd be Jealous too" by Dustin Lynch.  I thought it would have been quite appropriate for that first initial meeting.  Kirstin is sort of this anomaly; all of the men in Bitterroot won't speak to her.  (Could you blame them though?? )

The first 1/4 of the book focused on Cam and Kirstin.  Then there was a change to the focus of the story about the 1/2 way mark. 

Around the 1/2 way mark of the book is where Anderson started to lose me with the relationship between K and C... 

Cam went to help Kirsten wrangle in one of the bulls. Okay, easy enough to follow. Then, Kirstin's horse gets spooked and tackled (?) by the bull and Kirstin is pinned under said bull... Cam goes and saves her life by protecting her from this bull....

I kinda stopped rooting for Cam and Kirstin and I started to root for Maddie and Sam.  That was okay because right after Cam's accident, is when Anderson started to shift the reader's focus from the relationship between the young lovers to Maddie and Sam. 

There was something about them that was lovable.  Would I have liked it better if Maddie could have told Cam about her health concerns? Yes.  I would have liked her character to have done that but at the same time, I know why her character didn't. 

Sam was a difficult character to like but, I feel like he was the underdog that you were also hoping would come to the top.  I was hoping that he would be able to change ways and I was happy that he did!  I liked that Anderson gave him the abilities to grow as a character.

Now on to Caleb.. Caleb, Caleb, Caleb...I felt bad for Caleb... The further I got in the story, the more I became confused as to what his purpose in the story was.  He had lines, he had thoughts but there was no character development with him and I kinda felt that he was just dragging along...?

The book didn't leave any open endings, things weren't untied and as the reader, you weren't left wondering what could have happened or what should have happened. 

While the subject of the book wasn't for me, it wasn't a book that I disliked.  Anderson was able to tackle heavy topics in a manner that didn't make you as the reader feel sad.  She gave hope and comfort to her characters.  The best part was seeing that her characters were able to mend fences to trust and love one another.  

 I would recommend it to a friend (or even a patron!) if they were looking for a new release.   That being said, I am giving this book 4 out of 5 coffee beans. 

Hopefully you all will be seeing more posts from me this month.

See you all soon!

~JMB

The Good Neighbor by Amy Sue Nathan - Reshelved Books

Hello Deweys!

Yes, that is our P.O. Box key!

Today I finished a book that I had found on the bargain table at Barnes and Noble.  I brought this novel home with me, not because I needed to buy another book.  Really, I should NOT be buying books.  I brought it home because the main character's situation reminded me of us, and such brings me to my review of The Good Neighbor by Amy Sue Nathan.  

This is a classic women's fiction / chick lit novel.  We meet Izzy Lane who is a divorced single mother of a little boy who's ex-husband, while he's there for is son in theory, is flighty and can't be trusted.  When Izzy's ex husband tells her that he doesn't have the money to help pay for their son's daycare and that he is leaving the state with his new girlfriend to "look for work," she is faced with quite a dilemma.  To make a little extra money, Izzy begins blogging for Philly Over 40, specifically about dating over 40.  The only problem is that Izzy hasn't gone on a date since her divorce.  Izzy's nights out consist of visiting her elderly neighbor who has become a dear friend and confident.  But that's not going to help her meet any men, and quite frankly Izzy doesn't seem like she wants to go out and meet any men.  Sure, the idea of dating is interesting in theory, but why be bothered? Men are just too messy and there are SO MANY weirdos out there....So, Izzy begins to invent herself an imaginary boyfriend named Mac with whom she writes about for her blog purposes.  

But you see, the small blog begins to become more and more successful.  & Izzy can't tell anyone that Mac is made up, because if her secret is out, the blog will tank.  Even her best friends think that Mac is real.  Throw in a deeper secret that Izzy's elderly neighbor has been hiding for years, and you get one messy (yet light) novel about truth, love, family, and blogging.  

So dear Dewey Readers, if you like blogs (which if you are reading this we're assuming you do!) go pick up this book and give it a read!  And dear readers, I leave you with a rating of 3.75 out of 5 Coffee Beans.  

Until the next read!
~Jessica

36 Questions That Changed My Mind About You by Vicki Grant - Reshelved Books

Hello everyone! 

So, let's talk about love.  Specifically, do you think that love can be formed through a survey of 36 questions answered together by two complete strangers? Well, Vicki Grant and her novel 36 Questions That Changed My Mind About You thinks it just might be possible.  

This kind of kills the mystical and spiritual idea of love, no?  Well according to Grant, there was a study by Dr. Arthur Aron that suggests the love can be engineered through such a survey.  I took Psych 101 in college, not that I remember much of it other than that I had to color - yes, color - a picture of the brain, so I can't really say that I am familiar with the study  Actually, I could be a good reference librarian and research the study, but I'm doing laundry and painting cats right now...and don't really feel like it, so we'll just go with what the novel proposes.

The premise of this novel is a study with the hopes of proving or disproving Dr. Arthur Aron's hypothesis.  Can love be engineered between two strangers through 36 questions.  The two strangers that we meet are Hildy and Paul.  Both from two very different economic and familial backgrounds.  We have Hildy, the child a stereotypical nuclear family and who's mother is a doctor, and we have Paul, the child of a single mother who is poor and lives on his own.  Hildy signs up for the study because she feels honor bound by science, and Paul signs up because he wants the $40 it pays. 

What I liked about this novel is that it is written as an epistolary, where we have the question and answer/dialogue form.  This makes the novel read rather quickly.  What I didn't like about the novel is that Hildy and Paul do not answer the questions within the domains of the study room.  They leave the room!  They answer them through online messaging! In coffee shops! And God knows where else!  They have days to answer these questions! AND they have days to talk about other things that stem off of the questions, so of course love is possible.  Their potential love is not just based off the survey alone.  It's a learning process, just like any other relationship would be.  

So dear readers, I give you a rating of 3 out of 5 Coffee Beans.  I read this book within a day and I DID enjoy it, but besides the study not really being a study, Hildy annoyed me.  

Until the next read!
~Jessica 

The Matchmakers of Minnow Bay by Kelly Harms - Reshelved Books

Happy almost fall everyone!

How has everyone been?? I am sorry for my absence but I am back and ready to go! 

Would you believe me if I told you that this book sounds *very* familiar to me and that I have read it before...?

Well, this book sounded very familiar to me and I felt like I've read it before. 

You guys also know that I've never given a novel a crappy review before but I suppose there's a first time for everything!

The Matchmakers of Minnow Bay by Kelly Harms is going to be my first review on a book that I did not like. 

The reader meets Lily Stewart, an artist who gets evicted from her apartment after missing one rent payment.  While Lily is cleaning out her apartment, we see that Lily finds annulment paperwork from her Las Vegas marriage. Annulment papers from TEN YEARS AGO! TEN (10) count 'em, 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10, years ago!! HOW CRAZY!

After meeting with her best friend-divorce attorney, Renee, Lily decides that she's going to find Ben Hutchinson and tell him all about her delay in the paperwork and how it was all a big misunderstanding!!  (I'm still confused as to how you could even consider Renee to be a best friend when for most of the book, she's been a horrible person).

Ugh.

Then as the book continues we see the interactions between her and Ben; how the town of Minnow Bay tries to keep her and Ben together. Blah blah blah.

My issues with this book reside with Lily herself.

As a character, she is so flat! She does the same things over and over again and there is no change. (What's that saying? Doing the same things over and over again when the outcome is the same is the definition of insanity??) She's too stubborn to believe that anything new could be of benefit to her. 

I don't understand how helping Simone played any part of the development of Lily's character. Ben seemed like a big jerk and then he turned and became this tolerable person on a dime. He was mean and nasty to Lily YET everyone knew that they were perfect for each other.  (...What?)  I feel like there wasn't enough dialouge between the two of them, we didn't learn a lot about Ben. 

No one deserves to be treated like a jerk.  Even if it's a character in a book. 

The title "The Matchmakers of Minnow Bay" is confusing because there were no matchmakers.  Unless Colleen and Jenny were the matchmakers.  But I don't feel like that can be said when all they did was make a flat tire, kept Lily from getting a new tire and throwing a birthday party for Ben's mom, Carla.

I mean... Really?

The only part of the book I found to be funny was when Lily attacked Renee with the bristles on the broom because there was a robber in her apartment. 

(I probably laughed waaaaay too hard at that.)

I am sad to say that I can only give this book 1 coffee bean out of 5...

I was able to snag a copy of this book on sale for $9.00 and I think that's a fair price.  I wouldn't go out of my way to read this book....

~ Jillian

The Charm Bracelet by Viola Shipman

Hello wonderful For the Love of Dewey Readers!!! 

I have news for you!  I am officially an Adult Services Librarian & I'm in charge of 2 new Book Clubs a month!  My first Book Club is called Fiction Addiction and my second Book Club is for Adults who love to read YA.  I am SO excited. 

So today I am sharing a review with you that will also be my first Fiction Addiction Book Club book in August, The Charm Bracelet by Viola Shipman.  (For those of you in the NJ area, reach out to me and I can share with you the details so you can join!) 

This novel explores the idea of intertwining maternal family relationships, as symbolized through a charm bracelet that has been passed down from generation to generation.  The charms were collected from important events within each woman's life, allowing them to take on a certain type of strength and energy.  The strength found within these charms made me think of mine (and Jillian's) collection of healing crystals.  

But anyway, let's talk about the plot.  This novel follows the story of Lauren and Arden, a mother daughter pair living in Chicago who gets called back to Lauren's original southern home when she learns that Arden's mother, Lolly, is becoming forgetful.  Lolly begins to exhibit signs of dementia.  She has post-its everywhere to remember simple tasks and names, and she frequently begins to forget to arrive to her shift at the local ice cream parlor, Scoops, on time.  Together the three begin to recall the past all the way back from Lolly's mother, while worrying about what the future will hold.  Ultimately, this novel also explores the feelings of heartbreak, of true love, and of regret.    

Broken down into sections based off of the charms, this story is a powerful journey about placing value in one's life, remembering the past, and making memories within the present / future.  But most importantly, it is about learning to value what you have now while you still have it, and to not let regrets take over the good memories.  

I think that this novel hit on my anxiety a little bit, because our Grandmother had suffered from Alzheimer's and dementia (and to be honest, for someone only 25 years old, I can't remember s**t).  While I thought that this novel overall came off as "sweet" and endearing, and I loved how Shipman broke the book into sections based off of the charms, it didn't engulf me in the same way that some of the other novels I have read the summer so far have.  So dear Dewey Readers, for this reason I leave you with a rating of 4.5 out of 5 Coffee Beans.  I hope this Book Club goes well, and I hope that by the time August 21st rolls around I can still remember what I've read! 

~Jessica    

The Mermaid Collector by Erika Marks - Reshelved Books

Hello dear For the Love of Dewey Readers!

After finishing  Julia's Daughters by Colleen Faulkner I thought I was going to have a terrible book hangover and have trouble getting into a new book.  It was snowing outside, so I wanted something beachy to take my mind off of the snow -- but not summery.   I had just packed up a bunch of books in preparation for my big move coming up this spring (including most of my to-read pile) and found this one that I have been meaning to read for probably 3 years now.  I'm terrible, I know.

These are all books...except for that red box...

At first I thought that Erika Marks' The Mermaid Collector was going to be too much fantasy based.  I guess I wasn't sure what exactly to expect and I was a little bit apprehensive.  But nonetheless, I started reading it and had trouble putting it down.  

The lighthouse on the cover looks just like the Portland Lighthouse
 I was lucky enough to visit this past fall.

This novel is as much of a love story as it is a historical fiction and ghost story about the origin of local myth and legend.  It follows the present day stories of Tess Patterson and Tom Grace, two people who have given up on love, lost parents to tragic deaths, and are struggling to heal themselves and learn to trust others.  Tess Patterson has grown up in Maine, living near the water with both her mother and step-father, until her mother commits suicide by drowning in the cove.  Tom Grace, comes to costal Maine when he inherits the light keeper's house after his family falls victim to a tragic hit-and-run accident.  An accident that takes the life of his parents.  What makes this book stand out from other novels that deal with love, tragedy, heartbreak, and family issues is seen from the historical flashbacks that tie the custom of the annual Mermaid Festival of the present to the novel's mermaid lore of the past.     

This novel offers reader's glimpses of  the couple that perviously lived in the Light Keeper's house back in the 1800's by telling the mermaid legend in segments that leave the reader wanting more.  Showing how  love, loss, tragedy and the past can have haunting and lasting impressions on the future.  Do ghosts exist in the physical sense?  Or a ghosts the rippling effects the past has on the present? 

So my dear For the Love of Dewey readers, I give you ANOTHER rating of 5 out of 5 coffee beans! 

I could not put this book down, and I was so sad when it was over.  I have such a terrible book hangover that now I don't even know what I want to read!

Does anyone have any suggestions? 

~Jessica