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Category: Comic

Review: Tuesday Night Miracles by Kris Radish

[ 2 ] April 18, 2012

Reviewed by Claudia Robinson

“These are not easy assignments, but I know you are up to the task. Keep an open heart, try not to worry about what anyone else might think, and please be honest. This journey is all about self-discovery or rediscovery, but I know you have already figured that out. Right?” – Dr. Bayer

Dr. Olivia Bayer has a new assignment, actually, she has four. Four very angry, emotionally charged, unhappy to be assigned, assignments. Kit, the only girl in a family of five, tired of being belittled and bullied, Grace, a hard working single mother with a gay daughter and one eager to rebel at the drop of a hat, Jane, a wealthy, but currently unemployed, real estate agent, struggling with her new society status and Leah, a domestic violence victim with two young children about to start a new life.

All four women have one thing in common. They’re all unwilling, court mandated participants in Dr. Bayer’s Tuesday night, anger management course. Kit beat her brother with a broken wine bottle, Grace rear ended, repeatedly, the back of her daughter’s boyfriend’s car, Jane’s stilettos were used as weapons against her boss’ head and Leah, abhorrent of violence, raised her hands on her young children. One time incident, or accidental, it doesn’t matter, each woman has to pay penance in Dr. Bayer’s class until which time as the good doctor feels each woman has successfully completed her assignments.

From the onset, it appears the women will all fail. Inattentive, surly and, well, angry, none of the women seem to understand or grasp the severity of their actions and Dr. Bayer is certain she will be signing their jail sentence papers, as opposed to completion forms, at the end of the course. Determined to help the women, Olivia gets creative. With the quasi-blessing of her superior, Olivia creates assignments that involve hiking, comedy clubs, working out, pedicures, bowling, archery and the likes. All things the women, under any other circumstances, would never do, let alone think of. Taking their individual needs and personalities in to account, Olivia formulates a healing process that will first force the women to see themselves, as others do, and find the source of their anger.

What ensues, is a story filled with emotional overload, remorse, sadness, love and loss. Turmoil fuses with repentance, anger with laughter, and together, the four women, guided by their competent (but worried) doctor, begin the slow, painful journey back to themselves, before the anger took control.

Readers are given an intimate view of each of the character’s lives and what led up to their one moment of violence. There is heartache and open wounds that are laid bare for all to share. There is jealousy, intimidation, relationships are tested and pushed past the breaking point, while others are formed, new, fresh and unlike anything ever experienced before. These women are so varied and unique that any reader can find one to relate to and that sudden click in empathy opens up the possibility that at any given time, any one of us, could do something similar.

Edgy, very deep and utterly charming, Tuesday Night Miracles is the perfect read for a rainy night, cup of hot chocolate and a fluffy blanket. A nice combination of sweet and sour, Tuesday Night Miracles is basically chick lit gone wild. Good fun from start to finish.

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

Also by Kris Radish: Hearts on a String

Claudia lives on beautiful Cape Cod with her husband and two children.

The review copy of this book was provided free of any obligation by Kelley and Hall Book Publicity. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review & Giveaway: Diary of a Mad Fat Girl by Stephanie McAfee

[ 28 ] March 21, 2012

Read on for our review and enter to win a copy!

Reviewed by Melanie Kline

Graciela “Ace” Jones is a high school teacher and the star of Diary of a Mad Fat Girl. She is most certainly not your average high school teacher, just as this is most definitely not your average book.

Ace’s best friend Lily cancels their annual spring break trip to Panama City Beach the night before they are to leave. Ace’s bags are packed and she is furious at Lily for canceling at the last minute to spend the weekend with “the Gentleman.” Ace is further enraged because Lily won’t even tell her his name and has only been referring to him as “the Gentleman” since she met the mystery man.

Lily suggests that Ace call their friend Chloe to go with her instead, but Chloe has an abusive husband and isn’t allowed to do anything. Out of options, Ace holes up in her apartment – cleaning out her closets and hanging with her chiweenie Buster Loo. She attempts to go to the gym, but leaves soon after arriving because they don’t have A Fat Girls Only Work-Out Room and she doesn’t feel comfortable working out around the nearly model perfect women around her.

On Monday morning, Ace resumes her usual routine and goes to work. Luckily for us, her life is anything but routine and things escalate pretty quickly into Chloe calling Ace and Lily to her house. Chloe is convinced that her husband is cheating and asks her friends for help in finding proof. Ace and Lily are not private detectives, but they are hilarious as they tail Richard. The women even wind up dressed as hookers with clothes they rented from a transvestite shop in order to follow him into a strip club. When Richard spots them, a chase ensues and all chaos breaks out. I laughed out loud when Ace tried to explain to the police that they were not prostitutes and were only trying to get evidence on their friend’s cheating husband.

Diary of a Mad Fat Girl is a wonderful read. I highly recommend it to anyone. The sheer fun and antics it contains will amuse any reader – no matter what your preference of genre. This is the kind of book that I will be taking back off of the shelf to read time and time again.

Rating: ★★★★★ 

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by NAL Trade. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.


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Review: Julia’s Child by Sarah Pinneo

[ 5 ] February 9, 2012

Reviewed by Vera Pereskokova (Luxury Reading)

Julia Bailey left a corporate career to raise her two young sons, but soon her desire to provide her children with healthy, wholesome food choices turned into a desire to provide these choices to toddlers everywhere. Slaving away in a rent-a-kitchen with her employee – and welfare-success-story – Marta, Julia churns out organic snacks with names like Muffet and Give Peas a Chance for her start-up company, Julia’s Child. And while her concoctions are a success with health-minded moms all over Brooklyn, Julia can barely make ends meet and dreams of making it big time, i.e. being stocked at the holy grail – Whole Foods.

When Whole Foods finally calls, Julia is ecstatic. However, larger orders also require longer days, reliable distribution, financing, and the list goes on. Before long, Julia and Marta are running ragged, trying to keep everything afloat. And Julia still has two little kids and a very patient husband waiting for her attention at home. Despite her best intentions, something has got to give…

Julia’s Child opened up a whole new world to me, one I only suspected existed. I enjoy healthy food, but I am by no means a health nut and don’t go out of my way to buy organic, cage-free, free-range, locally sourced – or whatever other terms are out there – food. Sarah Pinneo’s witty writing – and her background as a food journalist – gave me a new awareness of this growing food trend.

There were several secondary story lines that had abrupt endings instead of being fleshed out, and not for the lack of page space; the book could have easily been longer (it’s a very quick read). At times, it felt as if the plot too conveniently revolved around Julia and Julia alone, with everything and everyone else falling by the wayside. Despite these minor pitfalls, I enjoyed every page and my mouth dropped every time I read about something like chicken pox parties, where unvaccinated children were invited to the home of an infected child in order to be exposed to the disease early on.

All in all, Julia’s Child is not perfect, but it’s definitely very fun.

Rating: ★★★½☆ 

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Plume. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Blog Tour & Giveaway: The Western Lit Survival Kit by Sandra Newman

[ 65 ] January 17, 2012

Please join Sandra Newman, author of The Western Lit Survival Kit, as she tours the blogosphere with TLC Book Tours!

Reviewed by Jill Arent

The subtitle for The Western Lit Survival Kit says it all: “An Irreverent Guide to the Classics, from Homer to Faulkner”. I’ve tried reading and/or flipping through anthologies like this before. Usually, collections of short précis or summaries of books/theories/philosophies sound much better than they actually are. Every author/compiler seems to think they are more witty and urbane than everyone else on the planet. Mathematically, of course, this isn’t possible. And the books bear that mathematical impossibility out.

Most of the time, books like The Western Lit Survival Kit read like a mediocre student’s collection of seventh grade book reports. Still, somehow I remain an eternal optimist about this type of book, despite the fact that I am a die-hard pessimist (or at best cynic) about all other things in life, and despite the fact that I am nearly always universally disappointed as a result. So imagine my delight when I started reading this one and found that it did, in fact, deliver on its promise!

Sandra Newman’s summaries and analyses – as well as her scales rating the importance, difficulty, and fun of the various works she describes – are concise without being curt, interesting without being overdramatic, and surprisingly fun to read. She covers a wide variety of works by the standard canonical western world authors, and sprinkles in fun facts, odd tidbits of insight and snarkiness. There is also just enough evidence of her apparently insatiable appetite for authors many of us cannot stomach to make the book a fun and useful reference guide.

I’m not in school anymore. I don’t need crib-notes on the plot, meaning, or purpose of literary works. I’ve read enough to be able to hold my own in conversation about most of the great works – through reference even if not through direct reads. Still, there are authors that I’ve never quite been able to get through at more than a superficial level, as well as some whose point I’ve never been able to fully grasp. Newman’s guide is a great way to get a better sense of the content and significance (at least to the world of literature, even if not to the world of Jill-Elizabeth, teehee) of these. And it is pretty fun – and funny – too.

Rating: ★★★★½ 

A former corporate attorney and government relations/health policy executive, Jill-Elizabeth walked away from that world (well, skipped actually) and toward a more literary life (equally challenging, but infinitely more enjoyable). If you enjoyed this review, please visit her at Jill-Elizabeth.com, the official home of All Things Jill-Elizabeth.

Giveaway:
I have 1 copy of The Western Lit Survival Kit to give away!

Mandatory entry: Please comment here and include your e-mail address.

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This giveaway is open to US and Canada residents only. Deadline to enter is midnight on January 31, 2012.

Review and giveaway copies were provided free of any obligation by Gotham. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: Lunatics by Dave Barry & Alan Zweibel

[ 3 ] January 9, 2012

Reviewed by Melanie Kline

Philip Horkman is a politically correct pet store owner and family man that coaches the AYSO under-11-girls soccer league. Jeffrey Peckerman is an outrageous character; he is a forensic plumber who believes that he is the only “sane person in a world filled with goddamned jerks and morons”. He also has a daughter that plays in the AYSO under-11-girls soccer league.

The two men meet when Horkman calls Peckerman’s daughter off-sides during a game and quickly spirals into bear maulings, foreign wars, a policeman being shot in the testicles while flying a helicopter, kidnappings, Sarah Palin getting urinated on while on live TV, diarrhea in the desert and more antics than humanly imaginable for one book.

Lunatics is truly the only title that could have been chosen for this story. It absolutely describes Horkman and Peckerman and their interactions perfectly. I began reading with high hopes and found myself sharing what was going on with anyone who would listen. I found it impossible to put down this book until about three quarters of the way through and then I began to feel that it was becoming way too much. It became difficult to pick it back up.

I would recommend Lunatics to anyone with a sense of humor, but with a warning that it became a bit too extreme for my liking toward the end. The majority of the book, however, was a page turner. I never knew what would happen next. Every time I thought the story reached its highest, funniest point, the following paragraph had me laughing and cheering and hoping that the chaos would never end!

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Putnam Adult. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: Stressed in Scottsdale by Marcia Fine

[ 3 ] January 8, 2012

Reviewed by Poppy Johnson

Stressed In Scottsdale by Marcia Fine is a book that is true to the title. In the story, Jean Ruben is incredibly stressed out. Her husband Maury is a semi-retired doctor who persuades her to attend green meetings when she is already overbooked. Her mother is demanding, and her daughter wants more of her time. Jean is at the end of her rope and unable to manage the demands of her life on any given day.

Her best friends April and Glee try to help her find some sanity and encourage her to become more involved in her community. Jean picks her battles, and chooses to fight one of significant proportions when she makes it her mission to stop Flora Beaudreaux from becoming a legislator in their community. Flora was responsible for Jean getting fired from her job and all because Flora’s daughter was in the habit of not doing her homework. Jean is interested in helping Craig Burton beat Flora, but the odds are there will be a mixed level of success.

Closer to home, Jean’s daughter and son-in-law are interested in starting a family. They call Jean for money to go on a fertility vacation, even though they face other issues, such as unemployment. Jean is also forced to care for her ailing mother, who is in the throes of grief after her husband passed away. Once again, Jean feels that she is unable to make any headway anywhere in her life.

The story adds some twists for readers, including a robbery, and just rewards for people who deserve it. In the end, Jean does finally find a way to manage her stress and masters the techniques that will increase the quality of her life. And what are the secrets that Jean discovers? It starts with meditation, taking it easy and enjoying the love of her family. And that is what we all want from life, if we are able to be completely honest with ourselves. Stressed In Scottsdale is a fun book to read, and one for readers of any age to enjoy.

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

After a decade of working in several NYC law departments and teaching, Poppy decided she enjoyed writing full-time. She currently works as a freelance writing consultant, and lives with her husband and sons on the East Coast.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Marcia Fine. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: High Before Homeroom by Maya Sloan

[ 3 ] October 1, 2011

Reviewed by Melanie Kline

Doug is a teenager leading an extraordinarily unremarkable life. He comes up with the “brilliant” idea that if he gets himself hooked on meth and has to go to rehab, than his life will change. He believes that he will finally be popular with not only the girls, but also the entire student body and his family. Doug feels that even his mother looks at him as “second-best” to his brother Trevor.

While I found this to be an odd, yet interesting approach to popularity, Doug managed to not even pull his drug addiction off correctly. He was truly, to me, a very unlikable, feel sorry for himself kind of guy. He might have gotten the attention he so craved for himself if he had just exerted a bit of effort at trying to fit in and quit being such a victim. His mother did spend most of her time organizing care packages for the Mothers Support Our Troops Northwest Oklahoma City Chapter, but so would any one of our mothers with a child overseas fighting in a war.

Trevor returns from the war injured and addicted to drugs to kill the pain and instantly knows that Doug has been doing drugs. In another truly unbelievable scene, Trevor forces Doug to take him to the dealer that has been supplying him with his meth. The dealer then reveals that he has not even been selling Doug meth, but a byproduct of the waste created when the actual meth is manufactured. Trevor winds up stealing the dealer’s stash of actual meth and overdosing on it.

Will Doug and Trevor find their brotherly bond  or will High Before Homeroom end in disaster?

Rating: 3/5

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Gallery Books. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: The Blow-off by Jim Knipfel

[ 3 ] September 23, 2011

Reviewed by Jessa Larsen

Hank Kalabander lives a simple life; he’s married and has a job writing the crime blotter for a small time paper. Life is easy enough until Hank thoughtlessly implies that a drunk who was allegedly assaulted one night was attacked by the legendary Bigfoot. Things could have and would have ended there, but for the misfortune of a tabloid writer ripping off the piece and adding a few more victims to boot. From there, Hank’s life (along with the neighborhood) goes downhill. Bigfoot has gone on a rampage and nobody, least of all Hank, knows when the gruesome murders will end.

The Bigfoot story becomes like a childhood game telephone: one person tells another person who tells another person and so on until it gets far enough down the line that we’re lucky if even an inkling of thought matches the original story. Knipfel spins a tale of superstition and mass hysteria whilst mixing in a dash of humor. Personally I felt the book read like something of Chuck Palahniuk’s (author of Fight Club): a lot of depth and personality to the characters whilst running us thru a maze of riddles. Unlike Palahniuk, I never felt like Knipfel gave us that moment of clarity. That “ah-ha!” moment where we figure out where all this was going.

The Blow-off was fairly amusing (particularly Hank’s twist on crime blotters and his reaction to criticism of any sort) and it was definitely a page turner, but at the end you’re left with an empty feeling of disappointment. I think I solved the riddle, but I don’t believe I’ll ever be too sure. The story wound me round and round, and kept me going and then it was over without a feeling of completeness. I’m still, to this day, trying to decide if I actually cared for this book or not.

Rating: 3.5/5

Jessa lives in Utah with her husband, 2 sons, 2 cats, and 2 dogs. She goes to school full time as an English major with a focus in creative writing. She likes anime and reads books and plays video games in her moments of spare time.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Simon & Schuster. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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