Book Review: "The Reservation" by Rebecca Kauffman

I was looking forward to reading this for two reasons. First, I enjoy the way Rebecca Kauffman writes. Second, and perhaps more important, is how much I love reading about restaurants, chefs, and cooking.

Aunt Orsa’s is a fine dining restaurant in a small midwestern college town. It was once described in a review as “offbeat, eccentric Italian-ish.” Tonight is going to be a huge night for the restaurant: famed author John Grisham, who will be speaking at the college, will be part of a group dining at Aunt Orsa’s tonight.

As excited as everyone is about “Grisham Day,” chaos erupts early in the day. Apparently 22 ribeye steaks have been stolen; the thief left two in the refrigerator. Orsa blows a gasket and is determined to figure out which member of the restaurant staff stole the steaks.

While Orsa figures out which employees were most likely to have committed the theft, a number of secrets, arguments, resentments, and relationships surface. It seems as if almost everyone holds a grudge against a fellow employee.

The book is organized into separate chapters that focus on one or more of the staff, as well as Orsa. We get glimpses of their past as well as how they came to work at the restaurant. Some of the characters are vividly drawn and it felt like a few of the chapters could stand on their own as stories.

There is a lot of drama here, much like in many restaurants. At times things get a bit repetitive and once or twice they get hokey, but it was a fun read. And as usual, the book made me hungry!

Book Review: "The Wishing Game" by Meg Shaffer

Friends, I think I’ve found one of my favorite books of the year!! When my dear friend Amy Clark raved about this book several months ago, I had to read it. And honestly, it was so incredible on every level—it’s a beautiful exploration of chosen family, the power of wishes and dreams, and what comfort books can provide.

Jack Masterson was the reclusive, prolific author of a bestselling fantasy/adventure series, the Clock Island books. It’s been years since he’s published anything, but suddenly the world is taken by storm when he announces he’s written a new book. Not only that, but he’s invited four fans to his home on the actual Clock Island to compete and win the one and only copy of the book.

Lucy is one of those fans. Now a teacher’s aide, her dream is to adopt Christopher, a foster child she tutors. But adoption requires money and stability, much more than Lucy has. She refuses to give up, and she knows winning the book could set her and Christopher on the right path.

There’s so much more to this book than meets the eye, so I'm keeping this review deliberately vague. It really resonated for me in more ways than I’d care to admit. I won’t stop thinking about this anytime soon!!

Book Review: "Bookish People" by Susan Coll

Bookish People chronicles a wacky week in the life of a bookstore owner.

Boy, this one had such promise and some wonderful moments, but overall, it just didn’t work for me.

It’s the summer of 2017, and Sophie is in a bad place. Her husband has died, the increasing antisemitic and racist rhetoric in the country is upsetting her, and she’s finding it harder and harder to care about the bookstore she owns. To top it off, Jamal, her favorite manager, is leaving for law school. Should she just give in to the calls from the developer who’d like to buy the property?

As the world becomes increasingly unsteady, Sophie becomes more obsessed with going into hiding in a secret book in the back of her store.

But she also has multiple crises brewing around the store. A famous poet has just released a new collection but he’s dogged by rumors that he caused his wife’s suicide, so many bookstores have canceled his appearances. Sophie starts to fear that her customers might object, so she tasks an employee with canceling. And then hijinks ensue…

I’m a sucker for books about bookstores, booksellers, and libraries. I felt like this had some really great elements but as a whole it wasn’t sure what tone to take, which made it a muddle.

Q&A with Megan Goldin, author of "The Escape Room"

1. How did you become inspired to write The Escape Room?

There were a number of inspirations that led to me writing The Escape Room. First of all, I’d had my third baby and, for the first time since my working life began, I'd taken a year or so out of the workforce to be with him. When I started looking to go back to work, I interviewed for a job for which I should have been a serious candidate as my experience closely matched the job description and I'd done something similar before for a similar company. Instead, the interviewer ate snack food throughout the interview with, let's just say, very bad table manners. He crunched particularly loudly every time that I spoke. I drew on this experience when I wrote about the job interview from hell that Sara Hall went through in The Escape Room. It made me feel powerless. I told friends about what happened and they shared with me their own horror stories in the workplace. It made me want to explore sexism in the workplace in my next novel. It also inspired the idea of a revenge theme. I liked the idea of someone who is beaten down by the system making a comeback.

Around that time I was also stuck in an elevator. I’d gone shopping with my kids. I had a cart full of food. The elevator stopped and the lights went off. It took a couple of minutes until we were able to get out but it was a dark, cold, and frightening couple of minutes in that elevator. I’d been thinking about a setting for this thriller revenge story that I had in mind. It struck me that the elevator was a perfect setting. I was fired up by the challenge of setting a novel in an elevator. It also served my purpose well. I wanted to put my characters in a pressure-cooker atmosphere where animosity would build as they learned each other’s secrets. An elevator was perfect.

2. What was your research process like when writing about the financial industry in the U.S?

When I research my books, I apply journalism skills acquired over the years. That means immersing myself in whatever information I can get ahold of. I read books, newspaper articles, elevator manuals, and even journal studies on human psychology. I also followed forums for investment bankers and others working in the financial industry and some of their social media feeds. I spoke with people who worked in the world of finance and also drew on material that I’d collected in the past. For example, there were big name investment banks in my previous office building and I’d often overhear bankers and brokers chatting in the elevator about their personal lives and work, or in my condominium building where many of them lived. I tend to write and research at the same time as I don’t plan my novels other than the story arc. As the story evolves on the pages while I write, I’ll stop writing for a few hours and branch out to research whatever might be relevant for the novel. In the case of The Escape Room, that included issues such as ‘game theory’ and things as mundane as technical manuals about elevator safety mechanisms and issues related to guns and ballistics. The research is one of the fun parts of writing a novel. I get to learn new things and it breaks up the intensity of writing.

3. Are there any authors that you most look up to?

There is an endless list of authors, from crime and thriller writers, to literary fiction, classics, and non-fiction. Now that I am writing myself, I tend to analyze other books as I read. I look at plot, structure, character, voice, and various other writing techniques. Even as a journalist, I always saw writing as a constant process of learning and refining. I think it’s a lifelong endeavor. Among my favorites is John le Carre. I consider his novels master classes in suspense writing and I often reread them. Yuval Noah Harari's series, starting with Sapiens, was another inspiration behind The Escape Room, as I’d been reading it and watching Yarari's lectures on Youtube. It made me look at office culture through a prism of evolutionary biology. Offices are a modern-day human habit and the backbiting office politics is really a case of survival of the fittest.

4. If The Escape Room was to become a movie, which actor or actress would you like to play some of the roles?

Well, a close friend just suggested Bradley Cooper for Vincent! Or perhaps Colin Farrell, Ryan Gosling or Jesse Eisenberg for Sam and Jules. As for actresses, maybe Jennifer Lawrence for Sylvie, or Anne Hathaway or Margot Robbie for Sara Hall. Lucy could be Emily Blunt.

5. Do you have any upcoming projects you’re working on?

I am working on my next book. It's also a thriller and it addresses contemporary themes but it's quite different from The Escape Room. I'm a little hesitant about how much to divulge at this point until it's done.

6. Anything else you’d like to add?

I'm extremely touched by all the support and feedback that I've been getting from so many bloggers and reviewers who are passionate about The Escape Room and who love the characters. Thank you all so much.

Book Review: "Inside Charlie's Chocolate Factory" by Lucy Mangan

My favorite movie of all time is Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, the original version, starring Gene Wilder. (People who ask, "Which version," flummox me; as far as I'm concerned, there was never any reason to remake it in the first place!)

The book has always been a favorite of mine, too; in fact, Roald Dahl is one of those authors whose books were such an integral part of my childhood. (Interestingly, I've seen the movie so many times, and it's been a while since I read the book, so I sometimes forget which things were carried over into the film, and which things were created anew!)

Lucy Mangan's Inside Charlie's Chocolate Factory was written in 2014, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Dahl's book. For fans of the story and the movie, this book is a treasure trove of trivia, memorabilia, and fascinating facts, about what led Dahl to write the book, his life at the time it was written, and the inspirations behind each of the movie adaptations. Some things I knew, and some things I was really surprised by.

Some things I found really interesting:

• The name "Willy Wonka" was pulled nearly out of thin air—Dahl's brother used to make a kind of boomerang for him, which he called "Skilly Wonka," so when Dahl sat down to write the book, he remembered that, and decided to change two letters in the name, and the rest is history.


• Broadway actor (and eventual Academy Award winner) Joel Grey was one of director Mel Stuart's first choices to play Wonka in the 1971 film, yet despite his proven ability to sing, dance, and act, he felt Grey "wasn't physically imposing enough" to be a surrogate father figure to the children. (They found out later that Fred Astaire had been interested in playing the part, but nothing came to fruition; perhaps the fact that Astaire was in his early 70s at the time convinced him not to pursue it.)


• Although in my mind, and the mind of countless moviegoers through the years, Gene Wilder was truly the quintessential Willy Wonka, apparently Dahl disliked Wilder's portrayal. Apparently he wanted an actor like Peter Sellers, and he was unhappy that Wilder was completely wrong for the role, playing it for "subtle adult laughs." (Ironically, that's one of the things I love so much about his performance—the sly asides which became clearer with multiple viewings, and getting older.)

This book once again reminded me why I love Willy Wonka the character, and the movie, so much. Mangan did some terrific research and although the book doesn't quite follow a linear path—it jumps between the book and the movie adaptations from time to time—Mangan keeps your interest the whole way through. This is as much a story of Dahl as it is his characters and his creative process.

You don't have to be the kind of person who knows the entire movie word for word, used a quote from the movie as his senior quote in college ("We are the music makers and we are the dreamers of dreams"), and has a collection of character figurines in their office at work to enjoy this book. If you have fond memories of being read, or reading, Dahl's original book, or watching the movie, you'll enjoy this deliciously delightful trip into the world of pure imagination.

Book Review: "A House Among the Trees" by Julia Glass

For me, reading a Julia Glass novel is like returning home after a long trip, or visiting close friends or family. You immediately feel so comfortable, so happy, and so interested in what is going on around you. I've been a fan of hers since her very first book, Three Junes, and while her books aren't always perfect, I love the way she unfurls her stories, and creates immensely memorable characters.

Tomasina "Tommy" Daulair was 12 years old when she first met beloved children's book author Morty Lear. She doesn't know who he is or what he has written, but he becomes immersed in sketching her younger brother while he plays on the playground, and she is caught totally unaware a few years later when she finds out that her brother became the inspiration for the main character in Lear's most famous book.

These encounters serve as the start of a 40+-year relationship, with Tommy serving as Morty's trusted assistant, confidante, and all-around savior. The job, and their relationship, opens Tommy's life to a lot of different opportunities, but despite the fact that Morty is gay and older than she is, her job and Morty's dependence on her serves to close off her life to little but him. And for the most part, she's fine with that fact.

Unexpectedly, Morty dies in a freak accident while Tommy is out running his errands. She is completely shocked to find that Morty has left her their Connecticut home and all of his possessions, and while she is overwhelmed by his generosity, when she realizes that he also intended for her to carry out many of his complicated, confusing, and sometimes surprising requests he outlined in his will, she resents having to do his dirty work one last time.

As she tries to figure out what her future holds, since so much of her life was lived on Morty's terms, she must deal with several different people, each of whom wants something else from her, or from Morty's estate. From her estranged younger brother, Dani, who has always resented her relationship with Morty, especially after learning he was the author's inspiration all those years ago and got nothing for it, to Meredith Galarza, the museum director to whom Morty all but promised much of his work, only to find he changed his mind without telling her, and Nick Greene, the handsome, Oscar-winning actor cast as Morty in a film about his life, to whom Morty disclosed secrets he never even shared with Tommy, these encounters will force Tommy to deal with Morty's legacy, and what he meant to her, in many different ways.

"It was invigorating to be indispensable to a man like Morty; at times it was a source of pride—even vanity. But equally vain was her notion that to meet his expectations would permit her to know him inside and out; to know, as the filmmakers believe they do, the inner Lear."

Spanning the years of their relationship, from their first encounter through the tumultuous times of Morty's life, including the death of his lover from AIDS, A House Among the Trees is an indelible portrait of life with an artist, and how easily dependency can merge into codependency, on both sides. It's the story of a woman struggling to find herself after so long of having her life defined by her job, which was so much more than a job, and it's also an interesting exploration of how much we truly know someone, even after working and living with them for more than 40 years.

Morty's character bears some slight similarities to Maurice Sendak, but this is hardly a fictionalized account of that man's life. Once again, I loved the way Glass told this story, and I loved the emotions she evoked in its telling. While I liked Tommy's encounters with Nick, Meredith, and Dani, at times when the story shifted to Nick or Meredith's perspective, it seemed a little jarring, and I wanted to get back to the core of the story. The pacing can be a little slow at times, but I felt this book in my heart and my mind, and overall, really enjoyed it.

There's a warmth to this story, and to most of Glass' writing, that I am so enamored of. If you like Glass' books, this is another one to savor; if you've never read her before, she's definitely an author worth exploring.