Friday, September 28, 2012

Diary of a Stage Mother's Daughter by Mellisa Francis

Melissa Francis was a child actress working steadily in commercials and TV, even scoring a part in the final two seasons of Little House on the Prairie. Her first job was a shampoo commercial at less than a year old that her older sister booked, and she was added to later. By five she was used to working with adults and by the time she was ready to go to college, she was ready to escape the crazy world her mother created for the family.

Following in the footsteps of Gypsy Rose Lee, Melissa Francis tells out to tell her story of growing up with a mother intent on making her daughters stars at any cost. Success in the public was much more important than family bonds or making a good home. While Melissa's star rose, her sister Tiffany started to fade into the back ground. Their mother's moods were dependant on whether they were working or not, and as acting jobs became harder to get family life became more unbearable.

In a world where we see child stars like Lindsay Lohan crumble as adult, Melissa Francis comes across as strong and lucky to escape life that takes many child actors. Diary of a Stage Mother's Daughter is a "True Hollywood Story" book that will keep you turning the pages to see what will happen next. Readers interested in the behind the scenes aspects of acting, will enjoy this title.

Diary of a Stage Mother's Daughter will be published November 13th, 2012. This review is based on an Advanced Reader Copy of the book sent to the library from the publisher.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Victoria is about to turn 18 and about to be removed from the foster system she grew up in. With out any family or money she is moved into a group home with few weeks of rent paid and the advice to find a job and make a plan. Time passes, and she neither has a job nor a plan. What she has is garden in a public park created with flowers that follow the meanings from the book, learned from a time when she was almost happy.

Victoria's story goes from the past to the present giving light to how she ended up with out a home or a family. It's flowers that really speak to Victoria and it's flower that start to bring her to something new. Author Vanessa Diffenbaugh creates a story of the past and the present that show how hope can spring from hopelessness. The Language of Flowers would make an excellent book club book, with its insights into the US foster system and the lost art of the language of flowers.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Bright's Passage by Josh Ritter

Henry Bright, a young World War I veteran, has returned to his rural West Virginia home accompanied by his battlefield angel who speaks to him through his horse. When Henry’s young wife dies in childbirth, Henry, at the bidding of his horse/angel, sets fire to his cabin, takes his infant son, his goat and his horse and flees, pursued by the evil Colonel, (the father of his dead wife) and the wildfire he has started.  Flashbacks of Henry’s childhood and service as an infantryman in France show the reader how Henry came to this state of affairs. Possibly shell-shocked by the battlefield brutality he has witnessed, Henry sometimes does his best to follow the angel’s instructions and sometimes resists these instructions as he makes his way across the countryside. When he finally stops at a hotel with many other people who have been rousted from their homes by the fire, his conflict with the Colonel reaches a shockingly violent denouement. The author of Bright's Passage is songwriter Josh Ritter.  His lyrical way with words, which is apparent whether he is describing the wild beauty of Appalachia, the horrors of war or a forest fire, or the fresco paintings in a French church, help us to understand the workings of the mind of a battle fatigued veteran.

Friday, September 14, 2012

The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty

When respectable wife and mother Cora Carlisle agrees to go to New York as chaperone to 15-year-old Louise Brooks in the summer of 1922, Louise is not yet the famous silent film actress she is destined to become. Impetuous, stubborn, combative, arrogant, and an unapologetic flirt, Louise is still just an enormously talented young dancer auditioning to join the Denishawn dancers.  Cora more than has her hands full keeping Louise in line.  But chaperoning an impossible, clever teenager is not the only reason Cora has come to New York.  Leaving her handsome, much older lawyer husband and twin sons at home in Wichita, Kansas, Cora is desperate to unlock the secrets of her past.  Raised in the New York Home for Friendless Girls, Cora was put on an orphan train at the age of six and taken in by a Kansas farm family.  With only a brief memory of a dark-haired woman with a shawl, Cora has no idea who her parents were, how she ended up in an orphanage, or even if she may still have living relatives.  The answers, she is sure, lie in New York - which is why she must keep headstrong Louise in check long enough to find the answers she seeks.  The clashing mores, bright lights, busy streets, dance halls and rising hemlines of 1920s New York come alive in The Chaperone, an engrossing read that fans of Boardwalk Empire and the Oscar-winning film The Artist will love to curl up with this fall!

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Arcadia by Lauren Groff

In the early 1970s, a group of nomad hippies finds a permanent home in rural upstate New York.  One of the many children of this band, Bit (so named for his small size), watches as his parents and the other adults in the group strive to create Arcadia, a back-to-the-land commune based on the principals of equality, hard work and non-violence. Life at Arcadia is physically hard and some personalities clash; but dedication to the ideal prevails and Bit thrives in the emotional warmth of this extended family. By the 1980s, the population of the community has grown and the idealism of the original members is diluted. The commune is eventually destroyed by the drugs and violence of some of the new members. The families scatter and their children must learn to adapt to new lives. Some are more successful than others. Many reject the values of Arcadia and their parents. Bit becomes a teacher, marries a fellow Arcadian and has a daughter. Nearly fifty years after the founding of Arcadia, Bit returns to care for his ailing mother. A flu pandemic is sweeping the world and the oceans are rising. Once more Arcadia is a refuge from the great troubles of the world but not the smaller personal problems of friends and family.

Friday, September 7, 2012

When It Happens to You: A Novel in Stories by Molly Ringwald


These interlinked stories portray family life and how the perfect life you thought you had can fall apart at any time.  Exploring mother-daughter, husband-wife, and parent-child dynamics, the stories are realistic and will stick with you long after you finish the book.  Molly Ringwald, known for her movie career, has created an enjoyable read.   I am looking forward to her next project!  Check out When It Happens to You @the West Allis Public Library.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

Bernadette Fox unabashedly, unashamedly, hates Seattle.  The drivers!  The Craftsman sameness of the architecture!  The disturbing proximity to Canada!  The prevalence of five-way intersections!  The sheer quantity of runaways and vagrants!  Microsoft!  And the weather - but most especially, everyone's inane conversations about the weather!  After The Huge Hideous Thing that happened in L.A., bulldozing her extraordinarily promising career in green architecture, Bernadette fled to Seattle with her husband, Elgin, a Microsoft guru.  Now essentially a recluse, getting out pretty much only to drop off and pick up daughter Bee at the Galer Street School, Bernadette has recently solved her problem with people in general and Seattle in particular by hiring a virtual assistant, Manjula, from India to take care of the daily incidentals.  Unfortunately, even Manjula can't solve the problem with neighbor and fellow Galer Street School parent Audrey Griffin - or, more specifically, Audrey's problem with Bernadette's overgrown blackberry bushes and refusal to participate in committee work at Bee's school.  So when Bee requests a trip to Antarctica over Christmas as a reward for perfect grades, it's all too much.  In the midst of procuring parkas, fishing vests, and seasickness medication so strong it's considered an antipsychotic, Bernadette vanishes.

Sharp, witty, absurd, and laugh-out-loud funny, Where'd You Go, Bernadette is told through a collection of emails, faxes, letters, school correspondance and official documents and peppered with Bee's insights into her mother's seemingly erratic behavior.  A writer for the fringe favorite TV show Arrested Development, author Maria Semple has family dysfunction down to a hilarious, and frighteningly astute, art in this new novel that'll have you snorting with laughter over your Starbucks double latte on your morning commute!