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NANNY RETURNS

Name: NANNY RETURNS
Author: Emma McLaughlin
ISBN: 978-1-4165-8567-1

by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 1, 2009

Never delivers the juicy satisfaction of its precursor.

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In this sequel to The Nanny Diaries (2002), Nan Hutchinson moves back to Manhattan and finds herself once more ensnared in the dysfunctional, über-rich world of her former charge.

Ten years older and happily nesting in a Harlem fixer-upper with “Harvard Hottie” hubby Ryan, Nan thinks she’s left behind those surreal days of catering to the offspring of the wealthy. Now she’s occupied with building her fledging management-consulting business and struggling with the idea of starting a family of her own. But late one night, who should arrive at her door but little Grayer X, all grown up into a strapping—and drunk—16-year-old. He’s still smarting over what he saw as her abandonment back when he was only four, he reveals; Nan is stunned and feels a little guilty, even though Grayer is unaware of the extenuating circumstances. Despite being sophisticated beyond his years, the boy is not dealing well with the fact that his long-absent Dad, hedge-fund titan Mr. X, has finally moved out altogether to be with a movie-star mistress. In response, self-absorbed Mrs. X has taken to her bed in a haze of prescription drugs, leaving Grayer responsible for the care of his seven-year-old brother Stilton. Being who she is, Nan cannot help but step in to help the adorable Stilton get into boarding school. This prompts the unnerving gratitude of Mrs. X, who confides that she is suffering from breast cancer. Yikes. In addition to the X family drama, Nan takes a too-good-to-be true gig at a fancy private school full of entitled brats and obsequious staffers somehow involved with the increasingly shady Mr. X’s business. It all winds up with a weekend in the Hamptons, where Nan acts as de facto guardian of both boys, wondering if she really has what it takes to bring kids into the world.

Never delivers the juicy satisfaction of its precursor.

Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2009

ISBN: 978-1-4165-8567-1

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Atria

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2009

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
HOW TO BE A GROWN-UP
by Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FIRST AFFAIR
by Emma McLaughlin ; Nicola Kraus

- BOOK REVIEW
OVER YOU
by Emma McLaughlin Nicola Kraus

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TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT

by Ernest Hemingway ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 15, 1937

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A somewhat puzzling book, but — all in all — it is good Hemingway, and a sure sale. Key West and Cuba form the settings for a tough story of men at the end of their tether, grasping at any straw, regardless of risk, to turn a few dollars. Rum-running, smuggling aliens, carrying revolutionary arms. Gangsters, rich sportsmen, sated with routine, dissipated women and men — they are not an incentive to belief in the existence of decent people. But in spite of the hard-boiled, bitter and cruel streak, there is a touch of tenderness, sympathy, humanity. Adventure — somewhat disjointed. The first section seems simply to set the stage — the story starting after the prelude is over. The balance forms a unit, working up to a tragic climax and finale. There is something of The Sun Also Rises,and a Faulkner quality, Faulkner at his best. A book for men — and not for the squeamish. You know your Hemingway market. His first novel in 8 years.

Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1937

ISBN: 0684859238

Page Count: 177

Publisher: Scribner

Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1937

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE LETTERS OF ERNEST HEMINGWAY
by Ernest Hemingway & edited by Verna Kale ; Sandra Spanier & Miriam B. Mandel

- BOOK REVIEW
DEAR PAPA
by Ernest Hemingway with Patrick Hemingway ; edited by Brendan Hemingway & Stephen Adams

- BOOK REVIEW
THE SHORT STORIES OF ERNEST HEMINGWAY
by Ernest Hemingway ; edited by Seán Hemingway

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THE PATRON SAINT OF LIARS

by Ann Patchett ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1992

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Patchett's first novel, set in rural Kentucky in a castle-like home for unwed mothers—where a good woman finds she cannot lie her way beyond love—has a quiet summer-morning sensibility that reminds one of the early work of Anne Tyler. Within the security of everydayness, minds and hearts take grievous risks. ``Maybe I was born to lie,'' thinks Rose, who, after a three- year marriage to nice Tom Clinton, realizes that she's misread the sign from God pointing to the wedding: she married a man she didn't love. From San Diego, then, Rose drives—``nothing behind me and nothing ahead of me''—all the way to Kentucky and St. Elizabeth's home for unwed mothers, where she plans to have the baby Tom will never know about, and to give it clean away. But in the home, once a grand hotel, Rose keeps her baby, Cecilia; marries ``Son,'' the handyman (``God was right after all...I was supposed to live a small life with a man I didn't love''); and becomes the cook after briefly assisting that terrible cook, sage/seeress, and font of love, Sister Evangeline. The next narrative belongs to Son, a huge man originally from Tennessee—like Rose, gone forever from home- -who recounts the last moments of his fiancÇe's life long ago (Sister Evangeline absolves him of responsibility) and who loves Rose. The last narrator is teenaged Cecilia, struggling to find her elusive mother within the competent Rose, who's moved into her own house away from husband and daughter. Like Rose years before, her daughter considers the benefits of not knowing ``what was going on''...as the recent visitor—small, sad Tom Clinton—drives off, and Cecilia knows that Rose, who left before he came, will never return. In an assured, warm, and graceful style, a moving novel that touches on the healing powers of chance sanctuaries of love and fancy in the acrid realities of living.