by Elise Chidley ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 29, 2008
Lizzie is simply too common—a binge-eating, exhausted mom who longs to write children’s books. Yawn.
Miserable suburban mum grapples with her unraveling marriage in this debut novel about the disappointments of motherhood.
An undiagnosed case of postpartum depression causes Lizzie Buckley to lose control of her life. It’s been three years since the twins were born, but Lizzie remains overwhelmed. Overweight and disheveled, Lizzie spends her days tending to two rambunctious tots with no support system—she barely has time to recognize how wretched she feels. Lizzie’s dashing spouse, James, has a career on the rise and is often called out of town on work assignments. Resentful that she’s had to take the brunt of the childcare duties, Lizzie identifies James as the cause of all her troubles. At the culmination of one especially exhausting day, Lizzie fires off a disgruntled e-mail to her sister laying out all of James’ offenses and declaring, “You know, sometimes I think I wouldn’t miss him at all if he just disappeared.” Lizzie mistakenly fires off the e-mail to James. The wounded James packs his bags and gives Lizzie just what she asked for—a separation. At first, Lizzie panics. She feels as if this is all one big misunderstanding and that James will come to his senses. When groveling phone calls fail to win James back, Lizzie realizes she’s in need of radical change. A little therapy and a newfound obsession with fitness assist Lizzie in shaking her blues and starting to take some responsibility for her life. The question remains: Will all of her self-improvement bring her closer to James or serve to put additional distance between the couple? Chidley, a native of Swaziland who lived for a time in England, sets the novel in a suburb of London, where children can still run free in lush gardens. The setting is appealing, but the characters and plot are stale.
Lizzie is simply too common—a binge-eating, exhausted mom who longs to write children’s books. Yawn.Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-446-17814-3
Page Count: 376
Publisher: 5 Spot/Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2008
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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