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Category: Comic

Review: The Dumpster by Becky Due

[ 6 ] August 29, 2011

Reviewed by Melanie Kline

Nicole wants so desperately to be in love that she finds it everywhere. She justifies everything that is wrong with her relationships to convince herself that not only is she in love, but so is the guy. A one night stand for a guy becomes marriage plans for Nicole.

Roxanne is Nicole’s best friend and hasn’t had a date in over two years. Nicole convinces Roxanne to give men another shot and begin dating and in return she will seriously date men – not just sleep with them and begin making plans for the future.

Nicole’s life is fast paced with one near disaster after another and I wasn’t really surprised to find out that the dumpster for her building had been moved to sit directly under her bedroom window. She and her friends have great fun with this although she is appalled at the stench and begins calling and petitioning the building manager, Rick, to have it moved. Rick, on the other hand, finds Nicole hysterically amusing and especially so after overhearing a phone call where she refers to him as “Rick the Dick” while still mentioning that she wants to sleep with him.

I was seriously worried about reading The Dumpster: One Woman’s Search for Love after being disappointed with the last Becky Due book, The Gentlemen’s Club. I was thrilled to find that this was exactly the kind of perky, fun, and entertaining tale that I had expected it to be and then some. You can’t help but love Nicole and wish that you had a friend just like her. The Dumpster was a fabulous read and I would highly recommend it.

Rating: 5/5

Check out our review of The Gentlemen’s Club

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

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Review: The D Word by Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke

[ 3 ] August 12, 2011

Reviewed by Colleen Turner

In The D Word, two women decide to take matters into their own hands and do what they initially think will make them happy. Jordan, a spiritual counselor (do NOT call her a psychic!) who has unfortunately been unable to see down the path of her own marriage, is no longer happy and asks her husband, Kevin, for a divorce without the benefits of trying counseling. As the day comes to finally sign the divorce papers, she realizes that Kevin seems to be moving on while she is stuck behind. She starts wondering if she has made a big mistake, for herself and for their son, Max.

Elle, a writer who archives for her readers the torment that is the singles scene, leaves her fiancé only weeks before their wedding when she cannot shake the feeling that it just isn’t meant to be. This decision doesn’t only sever Elle from Chase but from his sister, Taylor, who has been her best friend since college. It also sets his crazy mother on her tail, accusing her of making a huge mistake and irrevocably breaking Chase’s heart. Elle begins to wonder: did I make a mistake not marrying Chase and giving our relationship a chance?

Elle and Jordan are soon thrown together when Elle and Kevin begin dating. Jordan becomes determined to put her family back together now that Kevin is outside her reach. She sets her sights on destroying Kevin and Elle’s relationship, something that is tenuous as it is since Elle has always been scared of love and ready to run before someone else leaves her first. She begins to care deeply not only for Kevin but for Max and worries that she is going beyond the point of no return. When Jordan continues to stoop to new lows to win Kevin back and ultimately uses her spiritual gifts to dig up dirt on Elle and Chase’s unresolved issues, it seems there is no way either woman will end up happy with the choices they are trying to make. Now that they both know life is not always greener on the other side, will they ever be able to be happy again and not destroy others in the process?

The D Word is an exceptionally fun and gleaming example of what makes a great chick lit novel. It could be that I am the same age as the heroines in the book and that I am also somewhat of a reality television connoisseur, but I absolutely loved the numerous pop culture references. My only complaint is that Jordan was so unlikeable for the majority of the story. I understand this was necessary to show the full growth of her character, but I spent the bulk of the time hoping she eventually paid for her manipulations and selfishness. While I ended up with lukewarm feelings for her I would have enjoyed her storyline more if she didn’t act so laissez faire about the harm she was doing to others.

As a total package, The D Word will not disappoint lovers of chick lit and women’s literature. So grab your bottle of Pinot, sit out in the sun and enjoy.

Rating: 4/5

Colleen lives in Tampa, Florida with her husband, son and pet fish. When not working or taking care of her family she has her nose stuck in a book (and, let’s face it, often when she is working or taking care of her family as well). Nothing excites her more than discovering a new author to obsess over or a hidden jewel of a book to worship.

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

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Review: The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt

[ 6 ] July 25, 2011

Reviewed by Krista Castner

Reading The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt is the literary equivalent of watching a film by the Coen brothers. It is filled with dark humor and unexpected plot twists. It’s a western, a buddy story, and a noir-comedy that makes you stop and think about what living in the American West during the 1850’s might really have been like. Charlie and Eli Sisters are the notorious Sisters Brothers. They are hired guns working for the Commodore out of Oregon City, Oregon. When he sends them off to kill Hermann Kermit Warm in San Francisco, all sort of mayhem ensues.

Older brother Charlie is much more of a sociopath than Eli. Eli is pulled along by circumstances and his familial loyalty to his brother. He kills when he has to but his heart really isn’t in it. He dreams of settling down and being a shopkeeper one day. On their quest to find Hermann Warm, they meet all sorts of people, and circumstances that throw obstacles in their way. Most of the situations are rectified by the strong use of violence. Dead bodies are strewn along the path from Oregon City to San Francisco and beyond to the outback of the gold fields.

I haven’t read too many Westerns, but this story seems to portray a West that might have been. I live about five miles from Oregon City today, and the little glimpses of 1851 Oregon City that The Sisters Brothers provided rang true for what I know about Oregon City history.

The plotline of The Sisters Brothers isn’t one that I usually gravitate toward, but somehow it all works. This book was witty and funny and touching despite the violence and spots of crudeness which was totally in keeping with the characters and the situations they found themselves in.

Rating: 4/5

Krista lives just outside the urban sprawl of Portland, Oregon. Lamentably, her work as a technical writer and business analyst often interferes with her reading which is a true passion.

The review copy of this book was provided free of any obligation by Ecco. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: Alice in Zombieland by Lewis Carroll & Nicholas Cook

[ 7 ] April 20, 2011

Reviewed by Erin McKibbin

When author Lewis Carroll took Alice through the looking glass in 1871, little did he know that a much more gruesome nightmare awaited his dear Alice. When 1864 Alice woke up in a land of wonder, 2011 Alice awoke to a land of the living dead ruled by a power hungry, yet very human, queen.

Forced to listen to her lessons from her sister as they sit in their favorite cemetery, Alice notices a black rat who seems to be in a hurry. More startling, he has a pocket watch and is quite verbally worried about being late! Unable to help herself, Alice abandons her sister to follow this black rat down a “dead hole” that takes her to a land that is as bizarre as it is horrific. In her travels through this land, she meets a myriad of characters such as the Conqueror Wurm, the Corpse Turtle, and the Zombie Lobster. She attends an Undead Tea Party, plays croquet with the queen in a graveyard, and attends the most grisly undead trial to ever exist! Decaying every step of the way, Alice is relieved when she awakens in the cemetery next to her reading sister, just in time for tea.

It was only a dream…or was it?

Nicholas Cook does a remarkable job of paraphrasing an entire work of classical literature in Alice in Zombieland. Keeping Lewis Carroll’s writing intact, Cook only changes a word here and there in the original Alice in Wonderland to create a nightmare world where a little girl is faced with the living dead and her own zombification. Just as zany and dreamlike as Clark’s characters, Cook creates inhabitants of this nightmare world that are both fascinating and terrible. A definite read for the horror genre fan!

Rating: 4/5

Erin fell in love with the written word as a small child and subsequently spent most of her life happily devouring literature. She works as a freelance news, marketing, and technical writer as well as a full-time researcher/investigator in the sign industry. Erin lives just outside of Cleveland, Ohio enjoying the beauty of life with her children and grandchildren.

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

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“Friday Night Club” by Jacob Nelson Lurie

[ 5 ] July 23, 2010

Reviewed by Poppy J.

The Friday Night Club has the potential to be a decent novel, but its’ distracting elements take away from the credibility of the writing.

Davis, the narrator of the story, is planning to get married. Like most men his age, he is afraid of commitment. His few friends, Jonesy and Peter Carter, only help him continue his partying ways while offering misguided advice on women. The author makes it a point to say that the story is a true one, and that everyone knows someone like the people depicted in the story. I beg to differ, since these “friends” are hedonistic and only interested in the next party or sexual encounter.

The author uses lewd phrases and words to relay the story. He drops f-bombs, s-words, and so on, and freely discusses oral sex and references having sex with underage girls. There are instances of domestic assault and violence towards women. Although I am sure that there is an audience for this type of writing, I do not see the value in it.

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.

This book was provided free of any obligation by Jacob Nelson Lurie. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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