Saving CeeCee Honeycutt – Beth Hoffman (June 2010)

“Hello. My name is Cecelia Rose Honeycutt, and I live at 831 Tulipwood Avenue. The preacher on the radio said if we opened our hearts and asked, we’d be saved. He said it was that simple. So I’m asking, will you please save Momma? Something’s wrong with her mind and it’s getting worse every day. And while you’re at it, will you save me too? There’s nothing wrong with my mind, but I sure could use some help down here. I’ll do anything you say. Thank you. Amen.”   (15)

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt is by far at the top of my "Summer Favorites"!  In fact, just before finishing this book I was checking out the “big” (not really) sale at Border’s Books and checked the shelf for more books by Beth Hoffman. Little did I know that this was her first and what a gem! I have to say, I haven’t been this excited about a book since I finished “The Help” (2009).

You will fall in love with 12-year-old Cecelia Rose Honeycutt. Being raised by her Mom, Camille, in Willoughby, Ohio, she lives a life that is anything but normal. Her mom appears almost bi-polar at times, having several different personalities. Her father, Carl, is never present as he is a traveling salesman. We learn later, he travels so that he can stay away from his wife…  This leaves CeeCee to keep her Mom in the house, to remind her Mom how to act, to tell her mom “it will all be okay” when she falls into yet another depressed state of mind and essentially, act as the adult in the relationship even at such a young age. Imagine if your Mom was the laughingstock of your town?

How can I describe Camille? She was the 1951 Miss Vidalia Onion Queen and her personality seems to have withered and morphed after coming to Ohio. Camille parades around in prom dresses from the local Goodwill Store. Camille is laughed at by the neighbors and called names to her face. Her over-done makeup, pearls and furry high-heels are only just a small piece of the big picture! CeeCee is constantly picked on because her Mom is “crazy” and this poor little girl is left to hide between the front and back cover of books to avoid dealing with the life she’s been dealt. As a result of her embarrassment and shame, she spends all of her spare time working on her schoolwork or at her neighbor, Mrs. Odell's house.

When Camille is hit and killed by an ice cream truck, CeeCee’s father will hand her over to her great-aunt Tootie who still lives in Savannah. CeeCee is afraid and anxious about leaving one person in Ohio, Mrs. Odell, her next-door neighbor. The old lady is truly the only friend CeeCee has that would never judge her because of her mom. They share Sunday breakfast at Mrs. Odell’s, garden together, listen to church services on the radio and spend a lot of time just being together. The embrace they share when CeeCee leaves for Savannah is one that makes you tear up just thinking about happening.

Life in Savannah is one of privilege and eccentricity! As  CeeCee begins adjusting to a completely new lifestyle she begins to understand her great aunt that much more and learns a lot along the way.  Aunt Tootie talks to CeeCee about passion and fire. She explains that everyone has a passion as she shows CeeCee an old, yet antique-like home that was nearly demolished but saved by her and a group of ladies who raise money to save the original houses of Savannah . “Everyone needs to find the one thing that brings out her passion. It’s what we do and share with the world that matters. I believe it’s important that we leave our communities in better shape than we found them” (101). Aunt Tootie helps to build CeeCee’s confidence by telling her that, “ ‘It’s what we believe about ourselves that determines how others see us’” (249). CeeCee is in fact a very bright girl with a great deal of potential. Hoffman does however tempt this girl with the notion that she too will go crazy like her Mom as she grows up, but never fully develops this possibility (thank goodness).

We also come to love Oletta Jones, an African American woman working for Aunt Tootie that falls hard for CeeCee after losing her own daughter at age 13 to viral meningitis. Oletta teaches CeeCee to be brave and to face her fears. She teaches CeeCee to be accepting of all types of people and even teaches her how to swim in a neighbor’s pool (there’s more to the story, but I can’t tell you everything!). She tells her about Martin Luther King, Jr. and the work he has done to build equality amongst blacks and whites. Oletta is the first person that CeeCee truly understands that she "loves".

Wacky, extreme Southern neighbors also star in Cecelia’s “Life Book” as Mrs. Odell calls this journey on earth, coming and going as fast as butter fries on a hot pan! (Sorry, I couldn’t help myself… I’m going all Southern here). But few will make a bigger imprint than the women she meets in Savannah and the way her life changes for the best as the biggest summer of her short life comes to an end.

I would highly suggest this book – it was perfect in every way! While I know sequel's can rarely live up to the high standard set by the original text, I'm going to hold out hope for a sequel, so we can learn about CeeCee and her first year in an exclusive private school for girls in Savannah!

Healer – Carol Wiley Cassella (June 2011)

When I chose this book I knew that it would be a different read for me! I was grappling between two books about "friends on a beach in the summer" when I saw this one on the enormous book table at Costco. Reading the back of Healer I was curious to read a story with something in addition to romance, it had the story of a woman who had given up her medical career to raise her daughter, going back to work after 15 years in order to save her family and her marriage. I was intrigued and I was sold (or so the book was)!

I have to be honest… this one was not my favorite of the summer, yet when I approached the last 80 pages, I could not put it down. I had to know what would happen to the Boehning family. Let me explain…

Claire and Addison, our two main characters, fell in love when Claire was in med school and Addison was a genius biochemist on the brink of developing something big, a treatment for ovarian cancer. With the success of the drug, the couple was thrust into a lifestyle lived by the “rich and famous” of Seattle. Money was never an issue and it was spent freely. Their one and only daughter Jory had everything a teenager could imagine: popularity, good looks and a talent for ballet.

Soon the family would fall upon hard times as funding for a new cancer drug in a trial phase was cut upon the revelation that test mice were developing liver damage. Addison’s struggle to convince any major drug company to buy the formula and create the medication meant that his family would have to sell their large home (moving out the day after Christmas) and move to their crumbling vacation home in rural Hallum. Claire and daughter Jory spend their initial weeks in Hallum simply coming to grips with the severity of the situation. When the propane tank runs out of gas (mid-winter) they fear they may freeze to death as credit cards have been cancelled and bank accounts are empty to pay bills. Claire even mentions paying credit card bills with other credit cards.

The story twists as tension builds in the Boehning’s marriage amidst: financial problems, a depressed teenager who has not fully been told that her family is broke and Claire’s new profession at a clinic treating some of the neediest people with some of the more primitive health care equipment. This story really makes you question the power of money and the impact it can really have on a marriage, on happiness and most importantly in this story, on trust.

Summer Rental - Mary Kay Andrews (June 2011)

This was the second book I read on the iPad2 and I chose this one after seeing it at the top of the list on iBooks! I downloaded the sample first (a really COOL feature I may just have to use for any book I want to buy – digital or paperback) and about 10 minutes later I was purchasing the rest of the story.

Taking place on the Outer Banks of North Carolina we are introduced to three friends with a past dating back to their days in private Catholic school together. They come to North Carolina from across the globe, to spend one month together in a rental house soaking in the rays of the sun on the beachfront property. Each of the three ladies comes with their own story as does the rental home: Ellis (unemployment), Dorie (dealing with her husband’s infidelities with another man) and Julia (anxious and afraid to settle down and marry the man of her dreams). Following the story of the ladies, you too will want to pack up for a month and head somewhere new with your closest gal pals in tow!

As the story progresses we come to learn more about Ty Bazemore, their attractive landlord, a day-trader by night as well as a mysterious woman named Maryn that the ladies feel compelled to take in to their rental home and their curious imaginations! Reading this story you too will be drawn into each character and their “baggage”, which unfortunately, must catch up with all of them by the end of this novel.

Mary Kay Andrews’ made me laugh and also made me cross my fingers for a future blockbuster! Periodically I would even stop think about which Hollywood celebrity could fill the part of each character. A younger Meryl Streep would be perfect for Ellis!

Girl in Translation - Jean Kwok (2011)

 Wow! Girl in Translation has definitely gone on my Top 10 List as I read this book cover to cover (iBooks kind of have covers right?) in less than 72 hours after I downloaded it! Kimberly Chang and her mother leave life as they know it behind when they move from Hong Kong to live in the United States. A life full of hard times, including her father's death as well as her mom's health scare with TB, brings the two to the U.S. in search of the "American Dream". 

Kim and her mom are able to come to America by having their way paid for by a relative in the states (as well as many more things are covered by this relative... as you'll see in the story).  They are given an apartment (of which they slowly pay back their family for the costs) and employment in a sweatshop run by the same relative. They are guilted into accepting the crummy living conditions of an apartment with broken windows (garbage bags are used to replace the missing glass) as well as sharing residency with mice and roaches as they are continually told that they would not be able to afford better. Continually Mrs. Chang thanks her sister for all she has done. As culture teaches, one should be grateful for all that is given to them. Kim is the one who truly sees what her aunt is really up to. There's more to the story, but I don't want to ruin everything when it comes to the strained relationship between the two sisters.

In Hong Kong, Kimberly was one of the top, if not at the top of the class academically and was praised by her teachers and administrators. In America she is given a "fake" address so she is able to attend a decent school, yet she struggles academically as little support is in place to help her learn to speak English. This once highly motivated student comes to decide that rather than feel embarrassed and shamed at school, she will skip school for several days.  Once she returns to school things begin to look up as she shines in mathematics and a scholarship opportunity comes that will have the chance to change her life forever! Kim makes the conscious choice that her and her mother deserve better, and that her academic success is the only way out of the slums.

I loved this story, despite the hardship the Chang's faced, the barbaric conditions described in the sweatshop and the fact that children, including Kimberly herself, were forced to work in the sweatshop to help their parents earn pennies in wages. The title "Girl in Translation" means so many things to me metaphorically. Kim is truly a girl in translation as she learns to become "Americanized" while feeling like she only ever comfortable within the confines of the crowded Chinatown restaurants. She is lost in translation when the English dialect and culture make little sense to her and all she has come to know in Hong Kong. She is in translation when she leads two separate lives - one as a bright young student and another that secretly works in a sweatshop by nightfall.

With a mix of romance thrown in for the full effect, this story is a keeper in my treasury of favorites!

Kate Jacobs - Comfort Food (May 2008)

I received this book from two good friends and really appreciated the thought that went into picking it off of my "Books in the Bookcase Waiting to be Read" list, my own personal reading wish list on the blog! This is a list of books I want to read, but do not own...

Having just finished reading the HUGE and INTENSE Ken Follett book, World Without End, I was eager to find a good chick lit! Kate Jacobs is one of my favorites because I was ready a few years ago to move to New York and join The Friday Night Knitting Club! Comfort Food provided comfort to me, no brutal 12th and 13th Century lifestyles with unnecessary violence!

You will want to get to know the main character of Jacob's novel personally, Augusta "Gus" Simpson, as she tells most of the story from her perspective recalling tragedy that befell on her young family and how that propelled her to be everyone's provider and protector! Not only wanting to solve all of her daughter's problems, she looks out for her work colleagues, extended family and closest friend, next-door neighbor, Hannah.

Gus is a national name on the CookingChannel, one of their biggest celebrity chefs, complete with her own line of cookbooks and cooking utensils! As reality TV mixed with big names of Rachel Ray and Emeril begin to break through in popularity in TV ratings, Gus feels the world she once knew as secure, slipping away. Having two grown daughters who clearly need their space from mom but love her dearly, as well as an upcoming 50th birthday, Gus questions everything.

Her TV show Gusto with Gus has slipped in the ratings and Gus faces her biggest challenge from the Network President when he gives her a co-host and changes her pre-recorded 30 minute shows to one-hour shows taped live from the grand kitchen in her extravagant home.

You will want Gus in your life as you read her story! I even told my husband tonight how sorry I am that the book was only 330 or so pages that ends with a conclusion that leaves little room for a sequel!

Thank you Angie and Joyce, this was just the Comfort Food I needed, without the dairy or calories!

Ken Follett - World Without End (Hardcover 2008)

Let's be honest, last summer I was captivated with the fictional English town of Kingsbridge and its' citizens like Tom Builder, Jack, Prior Phillip and many more as they were determined to build the Church a cathedral. I spent days and weeks engrossed in The Pillars of the Earth. Shortly after posting my blog review, a parent-volunteer in my Kindergarten classroom asked if I had plans to read the sequel! Having just started Follett's Fall of Giants, I was hesitant to take on the task of another "big book", but felt torn because I really did want to go back to Kingsbridge! The next day one of my kids came bouncing into the room with a thick package, "a gift from Mom" he said!

The sequel was just as addicting as the first, and with a two week trip to Northern Wisconsin and Northern Michigan, there was ample time to dive headfirst into this storyline. The text opens with four kids sneaking away from the Kingsbridge Cathedral to a nearby woods where they witness the murder of two men. Each character, Caris (a girl with ambitions to be a doctor), Merthin (young boy who desires to be a master builder), his brother Ralph (purely a bully at this point) and Gwenda (a thief at a young age) will take something different from this episode in the woods. Their stories are intertwined throughout as they grow up in a time of greed, lust, romance, perversion, war, plague, and with the dynamics of royalty and politics.

As time passes, readers will ultimately take sides with their favorites and wish evil upon their fictitious enemies! My husband is currently reading the story on his Kindle and it's been fun to hear him get angry at characters who already hold a place on my "Jerk" list!

Without giving too much away, I really loved the mastermind of Follett here as he constantly threw curveball upon curveball followed by jaw-dropping twists and then of course, romance! You never quite know what will happen next, and it is this intrigue and desire that made me read this story cover to cover in less than a week.

P.S. Via Ken Follett's web site, an 8-hour mini-series for "World Without End" will begin taping this July in Hungary! If Starz is going to show this mini-series I highly suggest keeping an eye out for this mini-series in the future months to come, the mini-series for Pillars of the Earth was phenomenal!