Rolling in the Dough

Making Piece: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Pie
Beth M. Howard
Memoir

This book will make you hungry, I’m warning you right now. You will want pie. You will want pie badly. It will consume your thoughts every time you pick this book up. So make sure you have pie on hand before you start to read.

Making Piece is the story of Beth, who, not long after telling her husband she wants a divorce, is suddenly widowed when he abruptly dies of a heart condition. Lost in grief, she doesn’t know what to do with herself—until a friend suggests she shoot a documentary about making pies since she bakes all the time anyway. We follow her as she drives around the country filming, making pies, and eventually figuring out her place in the world. Ms. Howard even shares her best crust and apple pie recipe at the end of the book, not to mention a few other favorite recipes handed over to her by her friends.

So besides making me crave pie, was this book any good? Yes and no. I liked Ms. Howard’s writing style and really enjoyed her descriptions of pie. I didn’t enjoy the skipping-around timeline. She goes back and forth, remembering certain key moments with Marcus before jolting back to the present, and we all know how much that annoys me. And even though I did like the book, I just felt like something was missing. I wish I could put my finger on what, but I can’t. Maybe the depressing subject matter? I tried to ignore that and focus more on the baking aspect, which helped me get through.

Anyone who loves to bake and especially anyone who loves pies will like this book. It’s also quite helpful for anyone grieving the sudden loss of a spouse.

Fly Me

Cruising Attitude
Heather Poole
Memoir

I love to travel. I’ve been traveling since I was six months old. So when I heard about this book, a memoir from a flight attendant detailing all the low down and dirty things she’s seen during her many years on the job, I knew I had to read it. And now I know I never, ever want to be a flight attendant.

Ms. Poole describes the rigorous training attendants receive and then goes into details about pilots, food and drink carts, and nasty customers. Especially nasty customers. I feel really sorry for her and all flight attendants after reading this book. People can just be awful (but I already knew that, I worked retail for awhile). She also discusses the impact being in the flying industry has on her love life and friendships. I was mostly interested in the scheduling stuff, like how she can be called on to take someone’s place for a flight to London that’s leaving in an hour! No way could I ever handle such a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants lifestyle (pardon the pun).

The only downside of this book was too many long paragraphs. I feel like I complain about that every other review, but it’s true. Even though the book was interesting, my eyes did start to glaze over on many occasion. Apparently, Ms. Poole also has a blog and her book was good enough that I think I might check it out. I never get tired of reading good travel stories.

Pick up Cruising Attitude if you love to travel or just love to read about travel. And who doesn’t?

Broken Bond

Forgotten Country
Catherine Chung
Fiction

This book is depressing. Let’s just get that out of the way first. But it’s good. Really good.

Forgotten Country is about Janie, a Korean-America who learns that her father is dying of cancer. A year ago, her sister took off and exiled herself from Janie and their parents. Now she must persuade Hannah to join them in Korea, where they wait for their father to get better.

I vaguely remember reading the review for this book and it mentioned something about a missing sister, which immediately interested me because any books about sisterly relationships interest me. So I was a little disappointed when I started reading and realized the sister plot took a backseat to the father dying. Fair enough, dying should trump dysfunctional sibling dynamics. But I wanted more between Hannah and Janie. There weren’t enough conversations or confrontations. That’s very true to life, I suppose, but I couldn’t help feeling like something was missing. Ms. Chung’s writing is glorious, though: descriptive and beautiful.

I wish the same could be said for Hannah and Janie. They were not very likeable. Yes, they both had issues, understandable issues, but they annoyed me. I never liked them at the same time: I'd side with one during one fight then side with the other during another fight.

Nothing funny happened in this book and no characters made me laugh, so I should not have liked Forgotten Country. But I did. That is a testament to Catherine Chung. Will I read her next book? Yes, I think I will.

American Royalty

After Camelot: A Personal History of the Kennedy Family 1968 to Present
J. Randy Taraborrelli
Biography

I discovered a copy of Jackie, Ethel, Joan (the author’s first book) on my mom’s bookshelf many years ago (she’s a Kennedy fanatic) and picked it up, because I was definitely more interested in the Kennedy women than the men. I found Taraborrelli’s writing style very easy-to-read and flowing, so when I discovered he had another book coming out about the rest of the Kennedys, I knew I had to read it.

After Camelot follows everything that has happened to the Kennedy family, well, after Camelot. Meaning, of course, the brutal end of the reign of King JFK and Prince Bobby. The murmurs of a family curse seem fairly accurate after reading this book; so many awful things have happened to the Kennedys that you can’t help but wonder if someone really did place an ancient hex on the family. For anyone looking for an uplifting read, this is probably not a good choice since After Camelot delves deep into the countless tragedies that have occurred over the years. But Taraborrelli manages to get to the heart of the men and the women who many consider our royalty and creates a complex, fascinating biography of one of America's most loved families. My only quibble would be the footnotes (as we all know, I hate them), but there aren’t too many to be considered annoying.

If you’re a Kennedy fan or even a history buff, you’ll enjoy this book. It’s really big, though, I must warn you. So you have to really love the Kennedys.

Take Shelter

By the Iowa Sea
Joe Blair
Memoir

This book was not what I thought it was about.

When I read the little blurb recommending it in a book review magazine, I thought this was a memoir about flooding in a small town and how all this water affects everyone. Well, turns out that’s only a small part. A teeny, tiny part. The rest is just…odd.

Joe Blair and his wife have settled in a small town in the Midwest and are raising four children. Their youngest, Michael, is severely autistic and they have a hard time dealing with him. Then, out of nowhere, Deb, Joe’s wife, asks if he’s having an affair. They fight about it. Continue to fight about it. So he does start having an affair. And he wants Deb to go out and sleep with other guys. What now? And he wants them to have a threesome. Or something. I was very confused by that point.

This book is just a mess. It doesn’t know what it wants to be. I was more interested in the river and flooding and small town life than his crappy marriage, which is a first for me. But of course, he mostly discussed his relationship and his affair and what happened when he admitted to the affair and how they were going to divorce and then they decided not to and in the end they moved away from the Iowa River, still a couple.

While I appreciate Mr. Blair wanting to be realistic by writing every single exchange during several big arguments between him and his wife, they got really tedious. Because in real life, we repeat things and make no sense and have long pauses. This does not make for great reading. By the end of the book, I wondered why they even got married in the first place and hoped they would divorce.

This memoir about children and marriage is raw and real, I suppose, but not entertaining in the slightest. So if that sounds interesting to you, pick the book up. Otherwise, don’t bother.

Battle Scars

Home Front
Kristin Hannah
Fiction

Very few authors can make me cry. Which is weird because I tear up quite easily during movies and TV shows. But it takes a lot to make me cry when I’m reading. Kristin Hannah, however, gets the tears flowing every time I pick up one of her books.

I actually wasn’t even going to read this one, I’m ashamed to admit. Much as I love her (she’s one of my favorite authors), when I read a description of the book and saw that it was about a woman who has to leave her husband and kids because she’s been deployed to Iraq, I decided I would skip this one. As I’ve mentioned several times, I’m not big into war books. So I stupidly did not put Home Front on my list of must reads. Well, luckily fate stepped in, and I saw a copy sitting on the shelf when I was at the library, decided since she’s such a great author I might as well read it, and slipped it in my bag. And I’m so glad I did.

Home Front is the story of Jolene. She’s married to Michael, they have two girls, and she flies helicopters for the National Guard. While she loves her husband, they’ve been drifting apart for awhile, and a few days before she’s deployed, he tells her he doesn’t love her anymore. Ouch. Her daughters are devastated she has to leave and Michael is angry and bitter that she’s abandoning them and making him Mr. Mom (he’s a busy lawyer). Things are tense between everyone as they all struggle with their new roles. But then Jolene's copter gets shot down. Badly injured, she's sent to a hospital to recover. And when she’s finally able to come home, Michael and the girls must grapple with her new attitude and adjust to having Jolene back in their lives.

Kristin Hannah is just phenomenal, what else can I say? She pulls you into her stories with wonderful dialogue, complex characters, and great plot twists. I had to stop and take big, gulping breaths at several points so I wouldn’t break down into a hysterical weeping fit. I just cannot say enough good things about her and this book.

Everyone should read this.

Tell Me Lies

American Dervish
Ayad Akhtar
Fiction



Dervish: A Muslim (specifically Sufi), religious man who has taken vows of poverty and austerity. There, now you don't have to go Google what a dervish is like I did. You're welcome.

I was not expecting this book to be so good. I love when that happens.

American Dervish is the story of Hayat Shah, a young Muslim whose life is turned upside down when his mother’s best friend and her son come to live with him and his parents in Milwaukee. Hayat grows very attached to Mina, but then she starts dating a family friend and issues with his religion, his parents, and everything he thought he believed in causes turmoil and destruction.

I’ll get my two minor complaints out of the way. One, the stupid framing device. But unlike other novels, just the first and last chapter are set during the present, so it doesn’t end up being too intrusive. Two, there were lots of exclamation points. And italicized words. Once I accepted this fact, though, I found myself pulled into Hayat’s world and quite enjoyed everything I read.

The characters are all great, the storyline is interesting, and Hayat is just a really fascinating narrator. I’m not usually fond of novels told from a child’s POV, but American Dervish was different.

This is a wonerful book that everyone will enjoy.