The Two Family House by Lynda Cohen Loigman- #TheBookDrop

Happy World Book Day!

It's beautiful out here in the Dirty (You know, people call New Jersey "Dirty Jersey"... Yes? Maybe? Anyway...)

Okay everyone... You all need to read what I'm about to say...

Everyone needs to go out and buy this book.  Just stop whatever you're doing and hop in your car or on a bus, train OR the subway (even a helicopter, if need be) and go out and get this book (And if you live in Northern NJ, you'll need to find an open bookstore on Sunday. Depending on your county of residence. You all know who you are...!).

Maybe all of that was a slight exaggeration... Maybe it was not!
I do, however; recommend going out and grabbing yourself a copy of The Two Family House by Lynda Cohen Loigman.
I must say that the last two books from #TheBookDrop have been *fantastic* reads! I am even more excited to see what the May book for the Jane Box will be.  The pressure is ON #TheBookDrop. Don't let me down now!

One thing is for sure though and that is this book is an EXCELLENT read! There is a reason why it has received such praise as Loigman's debut novel.

Loigman presents the complex dynamics that exist in relationships between both husband and wife and families. 

The book follows the two families of brothers, Mort and Abe.  Mort is married to Rose and has three daughters: Judith, Mimi and Dinah (and Teddy).  Abe is married to Helen and together they have four boys: Harry, Sam, George and Joe (and Natalie).  As a reader we see the interactions between Mort and Abe; and we see how the relationship between Rose and Helen becomes strained and falls apart. 

You can find Loigman's inspiration behind The Two Family House here.  Normally, I would paraphrase it but I believe that in this case, it's better to read Loigman's words directly.  

I don't want to say too much about the book because I don't want to give out any spoilers! 

But...

There was not one thing that I didn't like about this novel. 
...The story was captivating.
...The actors were well developed and thought out. 

The story had a sense of mystery to it.  All the clues were there to solve the mystery (I thought) but Loigman was still able to provide a slight sense of suspense until those last few chapters.  Along with that sense of mystery and suspense, there was also sadness and tragedy, happiness and love.  

Aside from showing how family dynamics can differ, how relationships between the closest of people can fall apart, and how love can fade away.

The book contains Reading Group Gold, where the other issues I also feel like the the issue of postpartum depression was present in the novel, I thought you could see that Rose might have been affected by it.  That was the first thing that I thought about when we learned that her relationship changed with Helen and how she was often found in front of the window staring out or napping.

I'm giving this book five out of five coffee beans. I hope that everyone who reads it finds much as enjoyment as I did (:

~ Jillian

The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett by Chelsea Sedoti - Reshelved Books

Happy April everyone!

Spring WAS in the air here in New Jersey... It HAD been WARM- like 57 degrees warm.  Which WAS quite welcoming given the crappy weather that we've had.  The first day of April was rather chilly and the last day in March was just rain... Cold yucky rain but much needed rain at that! Then it was really nice on Sunday and Monday but then the rest of the week was meh. Like I took Baby C out in the stroller down through the downtown streets in the town where I grew up.

But alas... The warm weather is finally back it seems! Today especially!!

So to add a little something-something today, we have my review for this week! This week is a YA fiction review.  
(For those of you who might be wondering about the April 2017 #TheBookDrop Jane Box book, I am in the process of writing the review (love, love, LOVE the book!) and it will be up soon!)

Aahh.... I love YA fiction... Why? You may ask. I love YA fiction because there's a beginning, a middle and an end. There's no fuss. There is just wonderfulness.

The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett by Chelsea Sedoti is this week's review from moi. 
I hate that I'm going to write this but... I really didn't care too much for this book. I know! Crazy right?? Since I'm usually one to say I like this book or that I love that one.  This one... I sadly did not like.  We'll get to why I didn't like it later on though.  

First things first!

The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett is the book that follows Hawthorn Creely, a high school student on her quest to solve the missing person's case of Lizzie Lovett; in addition to navigating herself and figuring out who she is and what her role in life is.
Lizzie Lovett is a 21 year old female who was in the same class as Rush, Hawthorn's older brother.  Lizzie goes out into the woods one night camping with boyfriend Enzo (Lorenzo) - only for her to disappear into the dark.

From the fall, when Hawthorn first heard that Lizzie Lovett disappeared until the winter time-the reader is with Hawhtorn when she finds out what happened to Lizzie and when she finds herself. We watch as Hawthorn chases her theory that Lizzie turned into a mythical creature (a werewolf to be exact) as she is accompanied by Enzo.  We also get to see Hawthorn go through a break with Emily, her best friend and how she (Hawthorn) forges new friendships with people she never thought she would associate with.  

I found an interview with Bustle, where Chelsea Sedoti stated that her inspiration from The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett came from her own feelings toward a story of a missing girl-someone she never had any interaction with.  Sedoti explains that while she never met the girl, she was obsessed with her story, even though her disappearance was "nothing overly mysterious". You can find that article here.  Sedoti goes on to explain a little about her character Hawthorn in the article as well.

I had a love-hate relationship with this book. 

I feel like the way in which Sedoti tells the story of Hawthorn is great.  She was able to express Hawthorn's emotions and thoughts beautifully in her writing.  As a writer, Sedoti was able to convince me that maybe, just maybe, Hawthorn was right when she believed that Lizzie turned into a werewolf.  To me, when a writer is able to do that, that's really impressive. You were also on this emotion roller coaster ride with Hawthorn. I felt anxious for her when Emily announced that they needed a break. I also was sad for Hawthorn after she slept with Enzo.  I was left yearning for Hawthorn to find the happiness that she deserved.  

The issues that Sedoti tackled in The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett, where issues that everyone has come across in their teenaged years. We've all had falling outs with our friends or taken breaks from our friends, like Hawthorn and Emily did.  Even falling for someone who's older than you.  The biggest issue, I think, that Sedoti addressed was finding happiness and finding yourself.

Hawthorn had this perceived notion that Lizzie was happy.  She viewed Lizzie as someone who didn't have any problems, someone who had the world at their fingertips. Lizzie's happiness is something that Hawthorn so desperately wanted.  Hawthorn had, what I would call, an obsession with Lizzie.  I use the word "obsession" because Hawthorn went on to get hired as a waitress at the Sunshine Cafe (where Lizzie worked before she "disappeared") and Hawthorn had a brief relationship with Enzo (Lizzie's boyfriend at the time of her disappearance). 
She had one conversation with Lizzie when she was a freshman and hiding in the girl's locker room.  From that moment, Hawthorn believed that she and Lizzie had a "special connection" and that they would be able to forge a friendship.  But when she found Lizzie in the hallway, Lizzie couldn't remember Hawthorn's name much less the conversation that she had with Hawthorn. It's even mention in the book that this is moment where the love/hate feeling Hawthorn has for Lizzie starts.

The aspect of the novel that I did not like was how Hawthorn acted.  I felt like she was terribly immature.  It was something that drove me over the edge on multiple occasions throughout the book.  It got to the point where I was considering not finishing it because I wanted to grab Hawthorn by her shoulders and shake her.  I was proud of Hawthorn by the end of the book though, you could see that she had grown up and starting to find her way.

I give this book 3.5 coffee beans out of 5.  Even though it wasn't my favorite book, I still believe that it's worth a recommendation.  If you liked Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, then I believe that you would like The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett.

~JBG




Article that was referenced: https://www.bustle.com/articles/156938-see-the-hundred-lies-of-lizzie-lovett-cover-read-the-first-chapter-of-this-ya

The You I've Never Known By Ellen Hopkins- Reshelved Books

I almost wasn't going to review this book.  At first  when I was reading it I wasn't sure I liked it, or even sure that it was really something that I felt like reading.  Hopkins usually tackles tough subjects in her books.  Im using the word usually as an overly generalized survey of her work, as the only other book I've read by her was Crank.  However, I love the way that she uses poetic verse to tell a story that is smooth, coherent  and quick.  So, when I saw this book on my public library's shelf, I took it home to give it a chance.    

Like Crank, The You I've Never Known tackles tough subjects often considered taboo, such as sexual orientation, the act of sex itself, the idea of belonging, and domestic mental / physical abuse.  However, what really piqued my interest and made me want to write this review was the underlying story line that Hopkins hints at and has come together in the end.  In this story there are two character voices.  Ariel, the voice of a young girl written in poetic verse who lives with her father because her mother "ran off with a woman," and who herself struggles with sexual identity, and Maya a teenager who's voice is written in prose and has become a pregnant young wife to an abusive man.  As the story progresses we see how these two different character's stories slowly diverge and blend.  Is Ariel really who she thinks she is? Is Maya more than what the reader knows her to be? 

At the end Hopkins writes that inspiration for this novel came from her own personal life, when her husband (or rather ex-husband) kidnapped their child.  This opens up a whole new world of difficult subjects.  Parental child abduction.  Without meaning it to be a spoiler, had I know that this personal and tragic event in Hopkins life inspired the story I think I would have enjoyed it much more from the beginning.  

So my dear For the Love of Dewey Readers, I leave you with a rating of 3 out of 5 coffee beans.  

Happy Reading. 

~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     

Will You Find Us?

Not to long ago we read about a campaign via our Twitter Page (@theloveofdewey) about book fairies.  Yes, you read that right.  Magical book fairies that leave books in unexpected and mysterious places for readers to find, devour, and pass on.  I absolutely loved this idea and ordered some stickers right away.  You can read more about them on The Book Fairies' website. 

After ordering my set of stickers, I had to order business cards for a Mid-Atlantic Regional Archiving Conference (MARAC) I am presenting at this spring.  But of course, I did this at midnight and in my sleep-deprived state put the wrong professional web address on them and had to order more.  Does anyone with a MLIS really need personal business cards?  Now I have 100 non-useable and 100 useable ones.... But that's not what I really wanted to tell you...

While I was ordering my second batch of library business cards I decided to create some for For the Love of Dewey.  Wouldn't it be fun to hid them around town?  In places like the coffee shop, at the park, in the bathroom at the mall?  Wouldn't it be even better if we placed our cards inside a beloved book for people with bookish hearts to find?

So here is the For the Love of Dewey movement inspired by The Book Fairies and my business card accident.  For those of you who find a card, a book, or both, come to our blog and tell us!  Tell us that you found our card and what you think of the book.  And when you're done reading it, leave it somewhere for another book lover to find.  Let's see how far these books and the love for all things dewey can go!     

You can comment below here, on our Book Club page, or our GoodReads group.  Come and spread the bookish love! 

~Jessica 

Flight of Dreams by Ariel Lawhon - #TheBookDrop

Happy Monday Deweys!

Drum roll please.....as promised... Here is my review of Flight of Dreams! 
*the crowd goes wild*

Flight of Dreams by Ariel Lawhon was the featured March 2017 #TheBookDrop The Jane box book.
--> This is a reshelved book but I wanted to make the main focus on the title of the post that this book is from #TheBookDrop.  #TheBookDrop is a subscription box that I'm subscribed to and I find it to be quite awesome!  It's also a box that isn't crazy expensive.  It's nice to know that every month, I'll have a book delivered to my doorstep (which to me is like waking up on Christmas morning and finding those presents under the tree).  Buying books now is something that's still a little challenging because Baby C is still too little to be out in public places. 

#TheBookDrop included the book, a letter from Ariel Lawhon and a bookplate. 

I really enjoyed this book which I am surprised to find myself saying.  I usually don't go toward novels that are based off of historical events. (I have nothing against history, it's just not my thing when I'm picking out a book). 

I am a Jersey Girl and sadly I knew NOTHING of the Hindenburg! I don't know why and I am rather embarrassed to say that.  It was something happened down in South Jersey and I knew that a blimp (I wasn't even calling it a ZEPPELIN) caught fire but nothing more.  For some reason I thought that the Lindbergh kidnapping five years before was related to the Hindenburg - it's not. 

Usually the box includes the book and why the curator of the box chose the book.  What was really cool about this month's #TheBookDrop box is that it included a letter from Ariel Lawhon.  In her letter she explained her inspiration behind Flight of Dreams.  As we know, my new thing is researching an author's inspiration for their novel.  So this was like being able to have my cake and eat it too!

I started writing this post before I got super far into the book.  I figured that if I researched the Hindenburg beforehand, it would provide me with a better understanding of what was being presented in the book as historical fact and how Lawhon's imagination took those facts and spun everything into a wonderfully captivating story. 

A little backstory on the Hindenburg Zeppelin or a dirigible... The ill fated event occurred on May 6, 1937 in Lakehurst, NJ at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station, where only 62 survived out of the 97 on board.  The Hindenburg made trips from Germany to New York and to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Hindenburg was named the German elected president in 1925. The Hindenburg was the first zeppelin to be constructed around carrying helium-- helium is a natural gas that is less flammable than hydrogen.  Due to restrictions in the United States (it was feared that Hitler would use the helium for "military purposes"), the Hindenburg was unable to fly with helium -- it was redesigned to be flown with hydrogen instead. The Hindenburg was 803 feet in length and could travel at a speed of 80mph.  It was decorated with the flag of the Nazi Party--the new German national flag at the time in 1936, and it bore the symbol of the Olympic Rings to promote the Summer Olympic games-- in 1936 the Summer Olympics took place in Berlin. 

Now... full ahead into the book!

I loved how the book was written with such detail.  On every page, Lawhon was able to paint a clear picture of the characters and the environment that surrounded them.  Lawhon also based her characters on the passengers on the Hindenburg at the time of the fire - which I also thought was really cool (as you can see, I told you that I don't read historical fiction!).  Her characters also shared the same fates as those who they were based on-- if someone had passed away in the book, it was because they passed away in the explosion (which she explains at the end of the novel).  

The book focuses between five different characters: Emilie - "The Stewardess", Max - "The Navigator", Edward- "The American", Werner - "The Cabin Boy" and Gertrud - "The Journalist". The novel also takes place over the course of three days, which was the duration of the final flight from Frankfurt, Germany to Lakewood, New Jersey. As the reader, you see how each character interacts with one another and how they feel.  Each character provides information to one another that pulls the book together.  Whether its from the crew interacting with each other, the passengers with another or the crew and the passengers speaking to each other.

The stories of these five people are intertwined- the story is intricately woven.

I felt like you could feel the love that Max Zabel had for Emilie Imhof, the way that he cared for her and the desire that they shared for one another.  I found Max to be handsome, he reminded me a lot of G (who is a merchant marine) and Emilie was a character that I couldn't get a good read on--she was very secretive.  The character who I was very interested in learning more about was Edward Douglas ("The American"), I wanted to know who he was and why he there.  I thought that he was a rather creepy character- one that you couldn't get away from. Werner Franz ("The Cabin Boy") was another character that I really liked- a fourteen year old boy who grew up right in front of your eyes with the turn of every page.  Gertrud Adelt was a character who wasn't all that she seemed- she was portrayed as having a rock solid exterior but she did have her moments of softness. Both Emilie and Gertrud were characters who were defying the boundaries in Germany at that time-- Emilie was the first stewardess aboard a Nazi airship and Gertrud was a journalist (one who didn't seem so keen on the Nazis).

Flight of Dreams is nothing short of literary awesomeness and I give this book five (5) out of five (5) coffee beans.  It's a captivating page turner and it leaves you guessing at every page especially during the fateful final day when the Hindenburg is in flight.  Its a little bit romance, a little bit of a mystery and a whole lot of wonderful reading!

~Jillian


P.S. For those who are curious, these are the links to the websites that I found background information on the Hindenburg! http://www.unmuseum.org/hindenburg.htm 
https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2012/05/75-years-since-the-hindenburg-disaster/100292/
http://facesofthehindenburg.blogspot.com/

Julia's Daughters by Colleen Faulkner - Reshelved Books

Guys, I think I found a new favorite author!

I stumbled across Julia's Daughters by Colleen Faulkner in the dollar store where I was looking for a bucket.  As someone who is in the process of moving and renovating a home, did I need a new book? No.  Should I be buying a new book? No.  Do I have the money for a new book?  Not really... I need housewares.  But I was drawn to this book not only because the cover is gorgeous and #bookstagram worthy, but because it sounded SO good and authors like Susan Wiggs, Holly Chamberlin, and Cathy Lamb have raved about Faulkner's other work. So I came home with both a bucket and a new book.  

Isn't this book just beautiful? 

  

Imagine you had a daughter who died as a passenger in a tragic car accident because the person driving ran a stop sign...But what if the person driving was your other daughter? 

Julia's Daughters explores the story of a family who lost a daughter to this type of tragedy, following the grief, guilt, and healing that parallels a journey of a mother and daughter road trip from Las Vegas to Maine.  The premise for this book sort of reminded me of Night Road by Kristin Hannah. (It's an awesome and gut wrenching read. You should definitely check it out!) Anyway, Julia's Daughters switches between the voices of the mother, Julia, and her two remaining daughters, Haley and Izzy, to show not only how grief effects them individually but also how they come to heal together. Lately I have been reading a lot of young adult fiction and have been in a reading slump regarding adult fiction.  Reading a novel like this, with both adult and young adult character perspectives, was a surprising and nice transition between genres.

This novel was such a quick read.  I started it on a Sunday evening and finished it on a Tuesday.  When I wasn't reading it I was WISHING I was reading it.  Aren't those the best kind of books?

And so I leave you my dear For the Love of Dewey readers, with a rating of 5 out of 5 Coffee Beans.

And the best part?  Faulkner's other novels look just as good.  

~Jessica