Beholding Bee by Kimberly Newton Fusco

Publisher: Random House Audio

Publish Date: February 12, 2013

Format: Audio

Discs: 7

ISBN: 978 0385361279

Bee is an orphan who lives with a carnival and sleeps in the back of a tractor trailer.  Every day she endures taunts for the birthmark on her face – though her beloved Pauline, the only person who has ever cared for her, tells her it is a precious diamond.  When Pauline is sent to work for another carnival, Bee is lost.

Then a scruffy dog shows up, as unwanted as she, and Bee realizes that she must find a home for them both.  She runs off to a house with gingerbread trim that reminds her of frosting.  There are two mysterious women, Mrs. Swift and Mrs. Potter that take her in.  They clothe her, though their clothes are strangely out of date.  They feed her, though there is nothing in their house to eat.  They help her go to school, though they won’t enter the building themselves.  And, strangely, only Bee seems able to see them.

Whoever these women are, they matter.  They matter to Bee.  And they are helping Bee realize that she, too, matters to the world – if only she will let herself be a part of it.

My Thoughts

I happened to stumble upon this one while looking online for audio books at my local library.  When I went to pick it up I was told it was located in the middle grade/young adult section.  I was going to leave it behind when I discovered it was juvenile, but I was just so drawn to the cover and the concept behind the story I just couldn't resist.  And I am very glad I didn't!

What a powerful story that is full of self discovery and self acceptance and at the center of it all is courageous heroine Bee that you can't help but root for and fall in love with.  I loved the setting, 1942 travelling carnival during the height of WWII and found it the perfect backdrop for this story.  I loved Mrs. Potter and Mrs. Swift, and thought they were a nice touch to the plot and really enjoyed the magical aspect that only Bee could see them.  All I wanted while reading was to go out and buy a floppy orange hat.  I hated Pauline for abandoning our precious little Bee when she needed her most, all for a love interest.  But in the end Pauline had redeeming qualities.  

Packed full of wisdom, heartbreak and hope, it's not just a story for kids.  Adults will fall in love with it as well. I thought it was a very enchanting book narrated by Ariadne Meyers; whom I loved listening to reading The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen.  Meyers will help you fall in love with Bee just a little bit more.

My Rating: ««««

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The reviews made here are my personal opinion. I’m not being paid to review any of these books. I am by no means a professional book reviewer or editor.  I do this for the love of books.

The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman

Publisher: Random House Audio

Publish Date: March 4, 2011

Format: Audio

Discs: 6

ISBN: 978 0307877772

The Red Garden introduces us to the luminous and haunting would of Blackwell, Massachusetts, capturing the unexpected turns in its history and in our own lives.

In exquisite prose, Hoffman offers a transforming glimpse of small-town America, presenting us with some three hundred years of passion, dark secrets, loyalty, and redemption in a web of tales where characters’ lives are intertwined by fate and by their own actions.

From the towns founder, a brave young woman from England who has no fear of blizzards or bears, to the young man who runs away to New York City with only his dog for company, the characters in The Red Garden are extraordinary and vivid: a young wounded Civil War soldier who is saved by a passionate neighbour, a woman who meets a fiercely human historical character, a poet who falls in love with a blind man, a mysterious traveler who comes to town in the year when summer never arrives.

At the center of everyone’s life is a mysterious garden where only red plants can grow, and where the truth can be found by those who dare to look.

My Thoughts

Well I didn't love it, but I didn't all together hate it either.  This was my first book by Alice Hoffman and I listened to it on audio.  While I really enjoyed the narration (done by Nancy Travis from Last Man Standing) I found the story as a whole to be very choppy and wish it would have been classified as a collection of short stories.  I found it had to develop an emotional connection to any character because once I got into a story line it ended and went on to the next chapter.  I often felt robbed when all I wanted was more. 

I wish the author would have stuck with Hallie Brady as the main focal point of the story as I found myself very interested in her but as soon as the years and stories progressed my mind would wander and the previous story would be lost.

Although I did enjoy some of the stories, such as the Fisherman's wife, I found others to drag on and unimportant to the overall story and history of Blackwell.  I also didn't quite buy into the "magical red garden" and for it supposedly being the main focus of the overall tone of the novel I found it lacking interest.

I feel like I'm ripping this one apart, but like I said, I didn't hate it, it was just different and left me with mixed feelings.  Mixed feeling reviews are always the hardest to write. I'm defiantly willing to read more from Alice Hoffman. 

My Rating: «««

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The reviews made here are my personal opinion. I’m not being paid to review any of these books. I am by no means a professional book reviewer or editor.  I do this for the love of books.

Necessary Lies by Diane Chamberlain

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Publish Date: September 3, 2013

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 368

ISBN: 978 1250010698

After losing her parents, fifteen-year-old Ivy Hart is left to care for her grandmother, older sister and nephew as tenants on a small tobacco farm.  As she struggles with her grandmother’s aging, her sister’s mental illness and her own epilepsy, she realizes they might need more than she can give.

When Jane Forrester takes a position as Grace County’s newest social worker, she doesn’t realize just how much her help is needed.  She quickly becomes emotionally invested in her clients’ lives, causing tension with her boss and her new husband.  But as Jane is drawn in by the Hart women, she begins to discover the secrets of the small farm – secrets much darker than she would have guessed.  Soon, she must decide whether to take drastic action to help them. Or risk losing the battle against everything she believes is wrong.

Set in rural Grace County, North Carolina in a time of state-mandated sterilizations and racial tension, Necessary Lies tells the story of these two young women, seemingly worlds apart, but both haunted by tragedy.  Jane and Ivy are thrown together and must ask themselves: how can you know what you believe is right, when everyone is telling you it’s wrong?

My Thoughts:

WOW! Where has Diane Chamberlain been all my life?!  Set in the rural deep south of the 1960's comes this compelling read that blew me away from the beginning.  I had never heard of the Eugenics Sterilization Program before reading this book and to think that something like this existed is horrifying.  Between 1929 and 1975 over 7000 North Carolina residences who were considered "feeble minded" were sterilized for the "good of the public."  The way the story was beautifully woven with fact and fiction - I found myself quickly wrapped up in the lives of these families.

I absolutely devoured this book, my first of Chamberlain's in just a few sittings.  The characters are deeply developed and believable.  I found much of the book to be very sad, both for Ivy and Mary Ella and the lives they lived but also for Jane and the tough position she was put in by "caring too deeply."  Although it was sad there was never a depressing tone to the book and I think that is something very difficult to do.  And just when I thought my emotions were in tact something would happen that would infuriate me.  I loved the alternating voice between Ivy and Jane and seeing both perspectives of these girls.  Everything about this story was powerful and I really liked the subtle twists in the story.

I've found myself telling everyone who will listen about this book and saying "Please, please read it!"  This is defiantly a book I will re-read again and again and I'm sure Ivy and Jane will stay with me for a very long time - if not forever. 

My Rating: «««««

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The reviews made here are my personal opinion. I’m not being paid to review any of these books. I am by no means a professional book reviewer or editor.  I do this for the love of books.

Family Pictures by Jane Green

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

Publish Date: March 19, 2013

Format: Audio

Discs: 8

ISBN: 978 1427229069

The gripping story of two women who live on opposite coasts whose lives are connected in ways they never could have imagined.  Both women are wives and mothers to children who are about to leave the nest for school.  They’re both in their forties and have husbands who travel more than either of them would like.  They are both feeling an emptiness neither had expected.  But when a shocking secret is exposed, their lives are blown apart.  As dark truths from the past reveal themselves, will these women be able to learn to forgive, for the sake of their children, of not for themselves?

My Thoughts

I absolutely loved the concept of this story because although it seems it could be far fetched this is something that actually happens in real life!  And that's a scary thought.  I really loved both Sylvie and Maggie and how their completely different lives get intertwined in ways they never thought possible.  I listened to this on audio and it was on of these that I never wanted to get out of the vehicle - I sat and listened long after I had no where to go.  It's one of those stories that captivated me right from the beginning and has stayed with me of the past week after I finished.

There are so many attributes that make this such a great novel: family drama, illness, betrayal, love and most of all self discovery.  Although the story is pretty predictable right from the beginning I still found the woven story line very intriguing.  In the beginning it was Sylvie's story that  captivated me but in the end it was Maggie's path to finding herself that left me wanting more.

The only thing I wasn't a fan of was that I felt like there wasn't much closure with Mark and his "situation."  He just kind of fell out of the story and the author just washed her hands of him.  I realize he wasn't the focal point of the outcome but I would have been interested in a chapter from Mark's perspective.  Also I didn't like where the story was going with Eve and Chris...I just found it...weird.

This is my first Jane Green novel and will certainly not be my last!

My Rating: ««««

Buy it Now!

The reviews made here are my personal opinion. I’m not being paid to review any of these books. I am by no means a professional book reviewer or editor.  I do this for the love of books.