Classy and Opinionated Lifestyle Mom Blog
I love to craft and dabble in just about every crafting medium that there is. I have worked with felt in the past, but never in the way like the artist has in this book. Our book review today is on a book titled “Felted …
I have another fun read for you romance lovers out there. This book is a great read for that rainy night or boring weekend and it is just the one that you want to pick up for a great pick me up! Check out: The …
One of the things I love the most about books and reading/listening is that they are able to transport you into another time and into someone else’s life, even though that life is fictional. You are able to forget about what is going on in your life and move into a compelling story, even for just a short while. That is how I felt listening to this audiobook from Emily Giffn.
WHERE WE BELONG By Emily Giffin
Read by Orlagh Cassidy
Unabridged | ISBN-13: 978-1-4272-2127-8| 9 CDs | 10 hours
On Sale 07/24/2012
Published simultaneously with the print edition from St. Martin’s Press
WHERE WE BELONG
By Emily Giffin
New York Times bestselling author of five novels including Something Borrowed, which was made into a major motion picture!
Read by Orlagh Cassidy
FROM THE AUTHOR OF FIVE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING NOVELS COMES THE UNFORGETTABLE STORY OF ONE POWERFUL SECRET, ITS EFFECT ON TWO FAMILIES, AND THE LIFE-ALTERING JOURNEY THAT FOLLOWS
Marian Caldwell is a thirty-six-year-old television producer living her dream in New York City. But one night, Marian answers a knock on the door… only to find Kirby Rose, an eighteen-year-old girl with a key to a past that Marian thought she had locked away forever.
From the moment Kirby appears on her doorstep, Marian’s meticulously constructed world will be shaken to its core, resurrecting memories of a passionate young love affair that threatens everything that has come to define her. For the precocious and headstrong Kirby, the encounter will spur a process of discovery that ushers her across the threshold of adulthood, forcing her to reevaluate her family and future in a wise and bittersweet light.
As Marian and Kirby embark on a quest to find the one thing missing in their lives, each will come to recognize that where we belong is often where we least expect to find ourselves. A place that we may have willed ourselves to forget, but that the heart remembers forever.
Narrated by the very talented Orlagh Cassidy, Kirby, Marian, and the rest of Giffin’s characters are given voices so real and so compelling that the listener is immediately transported into the novel itself and taken along on the whirlwind adventure that steadily builds, gathering momentum and coming to an exciting and fulfilling conclusion!
My Thoughts:
Sometimes when you read a book it takes a few chapters to get into the characters and really respond and interact with them. Not so with this book. The story grabs you immediately. The author tells this story from two different sides – first from the birth mother’s side and then also from the 18 year old’s view. Choosing to write in such a manner is difficult yet what an amazing feat as it brings you right into the story and holds you there all the way through.
Kirby, the child, is a typical teenager with self imposed angst and issues and a deep desire to find her birth mother and learn as much as she can, just because she can. Marion the mom, has secrets, several secrets that threaten to change her life as she knows it and that is very hard for her to admit. Making a choice that will change other peoples lives is not something you can take lightly.
As the story evolves, both of the women have choices to make that will forever change their lives and the lives of their families and others involved. Through the pain and the acceptance, life will go on and in many ways be better for the decisions made. Is the ending happy? I guess you could say so, but for this story it certainly was the right ending, yet leaving a door open for more.
I loved listening to this story. I would find myself sitting at my desk, completely ignoring my work while listening, enthralled by this book. Then, all of a sudden, I realize that several hours had passed. The author is an excellent story teller and while I have never had the pleasure of reading her other works, I definitely picking up some of her other books. I just love how she crafts her stories.
Disclaimer: Chris has personally reviewed the product listed above. She has not received any monetary compensation for her review but did receive a free product to try out so she could evaluate and use it for her review. Her thoughts & opinions in this review are unbiased & honest and your opinions may differ.
What gal wouldn’t dream of having a fabulous job where you work part of the time in New York and part of the time in Los Angeles? Sounds like a dream come true for a single gal, doesn’t it? And that is the dream job …
As many of you know, I absolutely love to craft and sew, and have been doing both since I was a small child. One of the things I have always wanted to learn about is how to do needle felting. In the past when I …
My mom loved reading about different cultures around the world. As a family we were able to live and visit many different countries and learn about the country and it’s culture. The love of that learning carried over with mom till she passed away. Today I want to share a book with you that brings a beautiful story of a family in China during the late 1950’s when Chairman Mao and the party where making large changes in that country. As I was listening to this book, I kept thinking about my own family and the blessings that we have embraced because we were born into a free country. I know my mother would have loved this book and I think you will too.
A HUNDRED FLOWERS
Written by Gail Tsukiyama, Read by Simon Vance
Unabridged | ISBN-13: 978-1-4272-2249-7| 6 CDs | 7.5 hours | $29.99
On Sale 8/7/2012
Published simultaneously with the print edition from St.Martin’s Pressr
A powerful new novel about an ordinary family facing extraordinary times at the start of the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
China, 1957. Chairman Mao has declared a new openness in society: “Let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend.” Many intellectuals fear it is only a trick, and Kai Ying’s husband, Sheng, a teacher, has promised not to jeopardize their safety or that of their young son, Tao. But one July morning, just before his sixth birthday, Tao watches helplessly as Sheng is dragged away for writing a letter criticizing the Communist Party and sent to a labor camp for “reeducation.”
A year later, still missing his father desperately, Tao climbs to the top of the hundred-year-old kapok tree in front of their home, wanting to see the mountain peaks in the distance. But Tao slips and tumbles thirty feet to the courtyard below, badly breaking his leg.
As Kai Ying struggles to hold her small family together in the face of this shattering reminder of her husband’s absence, other members of the household must face their own guilty secrets and strive to find peace in a world where the old sense of order is falling. Once again, Tsukiyama brings us a powerfully moving story of ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances with grace and courage.
Read by Simon Vance, winner of the 2012 Audie Award for best male narrator and four AudioFile awards, the audio book also includes a bonus conversation with the author and her editor.
My Thoughts:
There are so many cultures in the world where family is first and foremost and the story that the author, Gail Tsukiyama crafts in this book is set in a household during a 5 month span. It focuses on the trials and tribulations of the changing political atmosphere of their country. Who do you trust and can you trust the government when it asks for your opinion on how to make China a better country? For over a year the people did not respond, but then people got bolder and wrote letters and spoke out, ending in arrests and re-eduction.
The story deals with one close family and how they deal with the day to day struggle when the husband, Sheng, is accused of writing a letter against the party and is arrested and sent to a camp for re-education. Thankfully the family lives in the home with Sheng’s father and he is a strong support for them but he has his faults and issues he must deal with. Their young son, Tao, goes through many changes and he learns to that growing up is difficult. The wife, Kai Ying, a herbalist by trade, must care for her son, her father-in-law, the home and others as well as earn a living to support the family too.
One Hundred Flowers will take you on a journey through this close knit family’s fears, secrets, and history for a glimpse into the bustling world of an emerging China. Can they make it through without their husband and son and will he ever be allowed to come home? Will this family be changed forever for the better or worse because of this?
Grab a copy of this descriptive and interesting book. The author writes a beautiful, detailed story that will take you on a tour of the country and culture and into the lives of a traditional family. You will enjoy sitting down with this story as it wraps it’s arms around you and allows you to be thankful we live in today’s world and in a free society.
Disclaimer: Chris has personally reviewed the product listed above. She has not received any monetary compensation for her review but did receive a free product to try out so she could evaluate and use it for her review. Her thoughts & opinions in this review are unbiased & honest and your opinions may differ.
Reading is a great way to relax and go off into another world, if only for a short while. I think that is why I love to read so much. I get to forget about the everyday and have a great time enjoying a story …
Today we are reviewing another fabulous book for all of you and this one is called “Art Lab for Kids” by Susan Schwake and published by Quarry Books. Art Lab for Kids will bring out your own creative style & voice with 52 fun, refreshing, …