Author: Cindy

The First Person and other stories Review

Posted on by Cindy


TITLE: The First Person and other stories
AUTHOR: Ali Smith
PUB DATE: January 6 2009

This was a book I had won on Twitter. I have to thank Penguin Group Canada for sending me this book to read and review. I have never read Ali Smith before so it was a real treat. Not only was it a quick read but it also exposed me to a new author. Ali has several books out.

The First Person is a compilation of twelve short stories. The books is about how the imagination reacts to every day people, conversations and situations people may be a part of.

True Short Story is the first story of the book. Its about an over heard conversation about the differences between a novel and short story. While listening to this conversation the author thinks of her friend who is in the hospital dealing with her cancer treatments. She calls her to ask her opinion as she knows everything about short stories.

The Child is about a woman who has stopped at the grocery store to do a quick pick up. She walks away from her cart to go and look for something and then when she returns there is a child sitting there. She waits for a few minutes to see if an parent returns but no one does. She goes to customer service. She tries and fails to persuade the staff or other shoppers that the child isn’t hers. No one listens to her so she feels bad and decides to take the child home. On the way home she is shocked to hear the things coming from the child. Getting annoyed she decides to drop the child off in the middle of a forest. Several hours later she feels bad and decides to go back for the child. She then heads to another story to drop the child off in someone Else’s cart.

The stories are a quick and fun read. I am sure I will pick up other books by her to read.

copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
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The Misadventures of Oliver Booth Review

Posted on by Cindy


TITLE: The Misadventures of Oliver Booth
AUTHOR: David Desmond
PUB DATE: October 2008
ISBN: 9781929774562

Thank You to Julie at FSB for contacting me and asking me if I would be interested in reading and reviewing this book. I was after reading what the book was about.

Oliver Booth is the kind of person who wants to mingle and join the high society of Palm Beach. Oliver is obese, foul smelling, pesky, ambitious and an abrasive social climber. He is not the kind of person most people want to find themselves seated across from at dinner. He runs an antique shop filled with overpriced Mexican reproductions of Louis XIV.

Oliver has many misadventures that make the story funny. From loosing his balance and landing in the pool at Morningwood that made the news to getting beat up by a woman, to going to court and getting bit by his dog.

Oliver spends his time being obnoxious to his staff, bathing, and not paying his bills. Everything is past due and it doesn’t seem to bother him. When Margaret Van Buren wanders into the shop looking for a bathroom for her grandson, she meets Oliver and his latest assistant, Bernard. When Bernard manages to get her to buy a commode that he picked out. She sees that Bernard has an eye for real antiques and offers them an opportunity of a lifetime- an all expenses paid shopping trip to Paris to find antiques to furnish her guest house. Bernard is just happy for the opportunity to work and learn and Oliver just wants to charge Mrs. Van Buren as much commission as he possibly can, will both men be able to get what they want? Will Mrs. Van Buren catch on to what Oliver is up too?

I enjoyed reading this quick read. It was funny to see how Oliver thought he should get everything that came his way and he had no problem taking advantage of people. It was nice to see what came to him in the end.

copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
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Freakin Fabulous Review

Posted on by Cindy


TITLE: Freakin’ Fabulous: How to Dress, Speak, Behave, Eat, Drink, Entertain, Decorate, and Generally Be Better than Everyone Else
AUTHOR: Clinton Kelly
PUB DATE: October 2008
ISBN: 978-1-4169-6149-9

This was a Christmas present from my son and husband. It was one of my wish list books. As I am sure you are beginning to notice in the last few reviews I have done they are books from reality shows. I am a reality tv junkie. I admit it.

Clinton Kelly is the co host of What Not to Wear on TLC Friday nights. A favorite show of mine.

I loved the book. The book is divided up into seven sections. The sections are Dress, Speak, Behave, Eat, Drink, Entertain and Decorate.

How to dress Clinton offers advise on how to dress and what goes with what body types. How to fix fashion problems and how important it is to wear clothes that actually fit you and if they don’t have to fix it so it does.

How to speak Clinton basically tells the reader how to speak properly and to speak like you know what your talking about. I learned a thing or two in this section. 🙂

How to behave talks about what is acceptable and what isn’t when you are out. Don’t you just hate it when your seeing someone put their lipstick on at the table or showing way too much public affection. The one thing I learned in this section was when you are invite over to someones house for dinner and you ask to bring something and they say “No” then don’t bring them flowers or food. Also if you bring wine don’t expect it too be served as they might already have a theme going. If you want to bring something Clinton suggests: a small box of chocolates, a book, pretty cocktail napkins, or coasters.

How to eat was my favorite section. There were a bunch of recipes and a how to tip section which include how to poach a chicken breast, and how to make whipping cream (which I never knew how to do properly).

How to drink and how to entertain had a few drink recipes and hors d’oeuvres, a wine list of what went with what, and some more helpful info.

Lastly how to decorate offered tips and information on how to make your place to look great.

copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
If you are reading this on a blog or website other than Cindy’s Love Of Books or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.

The Kings of Innocence Review

Posted on by Cindy


TITLE: The Kings of Innocence
AUTHOR: Michael Burns
PUB DATE: September 2007

Thank You to Michael for sending me his first book to read and review. I found this to be a quick read once I got into the story. This is a story of friendship and love for your friends.

The Kings of Innocence is about three recent college friends who are also childhood friends. Roy, Mark and Jay come together one summer in 2002. Roy goes home for two weeks to take care of his 17 year old brother, Bobby while their parents are in Ireland. During the two weeks the friends are living the typical college life, haven’t yet thought about adulthood. They are out drinking, flirting with the women and getting into a fight or two. One that lands them being arrested.

Roy is 24 years old and he is an investment analyst living in Boston.

Mark is one of his best friends who is now a police officer.

Jay the last best friend has been teaching for a year and thinking about quitting. Jay has quit many colleges and changed his majors many times. He has yet to grow up and accept responsibility for his actions. He has a serios gambling problem.

When Roy and Mark realize how serious Jays problem is they try to help him out but he refuses their offer of help. Jay resorts to illegal measures to come up with the money. He goes from breaking into a drug dealers business and stealing some weed and reselling it to a college dealer to breaking into his place of employment and stealing money and he leaves evidence that a loan shark did it.

You can tell that there is a lifelong friendship between the friends. They tell it like it is and if any of them is in trouble they jump in and help out.

copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
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We Take This Man Review

Posted on by Cindy


TITLE: We Take This Man
AUTHOR: Candice Dow and Daaimah S Poole
PUB DATE: January 7th, 2009
ISBN:978-0-446-50183-5

Thank you to Miriam for sending me this ARC to read and review. I really enjoyed the book. I was lucky enough to get to speak to the authors of the book in a Blog Talk Radio interview. You can listen HERE

We take this man is about a husband and wife, Dwight and Tracey. Tracey finally has the house she has always wanted. They are happy until Dwight gets a job offer in Maryland. This new job means having to move there and more money. Tracey refuses to move her and the girls to Maryland because she just got her dream home. Dwight heads to Maryland without them but tries to get back on the weekends.

While in Maryland Dwight is working hard and long hours with Alicia on a project. Alicia knows about Tracey and her not wanting to move to Maryland. She doesn’t get involve with Dwight right away because she doesn’t want to be the other woman like her mother was.

With a family trip to Disney planned Tracey thinks things will be okay but then her and Dwight have an arguement and he leaves to go back Maryland. Tracey realizes this isn’t going to work so she tells Dwight he has to choose his job in Maryland or his family and he keeps the job in Maryland she wants a divorce.

With a divorce on the way Alicia and Dwight decide to take their relationship further. Alicia ends up pregnant. Dwight askes Alicia to marry him. With the knowledge that the divorce is finalized Dwight and Alicia get married. Alicia gives birth to Dwight Jr. When Tracey realizes she still cares about Dwight she doesn’t go through with the divorce and her and the girls head to Maryland to be with Dwight.

What will happen when she shows up on Dwights doorstep? What will she think of the new wife? How will she handle it all? If you are curious to know then I suggest you get the book to read. I really enjoyed it and it kept my interested peaked through out the book. I don’t want to give too much away.

copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
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2009 100+ Reading Challenge

Posted on by Cindy

I heard about this great reading challenge at J. Kaye’s. This challenge seems alot of fun and I think I could reach that goal of 100 books by the end of the year.

The challenge begins now January 1st 2009 and runs until December 31 2009.

Good luck and happy reading everyone.

My list will be posted shortly.

copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
If you are reading this on a blog or website other than Cindy’s Love Of Books or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.

Little Family, Big Values Review

Posted on by Cindy


TITLE: Little Family, Big Values: Lessons in Love, Respect, and Understanding for Families of Any Size
AUTHORS: The Roloff Family
PUB DATE: March 2008
ISBN:978-1-4165-4911-6

I am a fan of the show on TLC called Little People Big World. I have been watching it since it started. They are no ordinary family. The parents Matt and Amy are little people. They have four children. A pair of 18 year old twins, Jeremy and Zach. Jeremy is average height and Zach is a little person. Their daughter Molly and younger son Jacob are average height.

In the book Little Family, Big Values, the Roloffs share their values that have helped them to become the family they are today. The book shares some family stories that you may not know about them, they talk about the importance of these values in their lives and the lessons they have learned along the way.

The book also talks about the following:

Amy’s decision she made early on to give up her career as a teacher to be a stay at home mom to the kids when they were young.

Jeremy talks about the respect he has for his brother Zach. How even though he is a little person he is able to beat guys twice his size on the soccer field and let them know that even though he is a little person he can still play the game he loves.

Zach talks about how he knows his siblings really love him when they give up their Christmas at their home in Oregon to be with him in the hospital when he has surgery.

Peggy, Matt’s mother talks about why Matt is the successful business that he is today. Its all because of a paper route he had as a boy. Matt had wanted skis and his parents wouldn’t buy them so Matt came up with the idea of having a paper route to earn the money for them.

They are strong believer in God and in faith and you can see it when you read the book. I really enjoyed it as it gave you some background history on the families. The book is written by Matt, Amy, Peggy, Ron, Jeremy and Zach and one spot by Molly. Also included is some great pics of the family and kids.

Matt also has another book that came out in 1999 called Against Tall Odds. Its a memoir on Matt’s life. Did you know that Matt was in Star Wars? He was in part three in the Star Wars movie trilogy, Return of the Jedi. His handicap helped land him a part as one of the diminutive, furry Ewoks.

This is my first book in the Buy a Book and Read Challenge of 2009.

copyright 2010, Cindy (Cindy’s Love Of Books)
If you are reading this on a blog or website other than Cindy’s Love Of Books or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.