NOOKIETOWN

Name: NOOKIETOWN
Author: V.C. Chickering
ISBN: 978-1-250-09131-4

by V.C. Chickering ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 2016

With vivid characters, quick dialogue, and over-the-top situations, Chickering’s debut novel alternates between moments of...

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A unique and morally ambiguous business plan causes conflict and chaos in the small town of Nohquee, New Jersey.

Lucy is an elementary school teacher and recently divorced mother to a young son. During a lunch with one-half of her social circle—the still-married moms—she expresses frustration over the lack of men in her life who are sane, disease-free, and not looking for commitment. The conversation goes astray when her friend Gina jokingly offers up her husband for a no-strings-attached hookup. Many of the wives are exhausted and uninterested in their husbands’ rabid sexual appetites. While the women initially laugh at the outrageous prospect, one wife, Nancy, decides to pursue the matter with Lucy. Feeling like her marriage is on the rocks, Nancy hopes that by allowing her husband to sleep with another woman, it will help revive their relationship. After establishing the ground rules, Lucy enjoys an afternoon with Ted, and all parties reap the benefits: while Nancy and Ted’s relationship appears to be on the mend, Lucy receives a few favors in return. Since all parties seemed pleased with the endeavor, Nancy concocts a plan—The Program, an opportunity for overwhelmed married women to contract with local divorcées to help satiate their husbands’ desires. No money would be exchanged—only favors—and an oath of absolute secrecy would help keep the peace. But could it really be so simple? Lucy feels conflicted over her new role, frequently wondering if she's violating a moral code. To make matters even more difficult, Lucy is juggling some fledgling potential relationships with her list of husbands from The Program. Though her needs are being met, she struggles to figure out this new version of herself.

With vivid characters, quick dialogue, and over-the-top situations, Chickering’s debut novel alternates between moments of true hilarity and deep introspection.

Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-250-09131-4

Page Count: 368

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Review Posted Online: Dec. 9, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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Sisters in and out of love.

Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.

Pub Date: May 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-345-45073-6

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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THE ALCHEMIST

by Paulo Coelho & translated by Margaret Jull Costa ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1993

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.

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Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.

The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.