Dreams

 I've had two weird dreams recently  One was weird and the other has caused a lot of "why would I have done that" thoughts.  The most recent dream I had was the one that had me wondering why I would do some of the things I did.  It had me returning home after an international trip.  I stopped by my step-brother's house to return his luggage.  The waking thought on this is, why would I have borrowed luggage from my step-brother when I haven't spoken to him but a handful of times in the past 30 years and almost all of our conversations were over the phone and a couple by email.  So why would I borrow his luggage (nevermind that I have my own luggage!)? 

 

Anyway, so I go to return it and pull up in a drive with a drop off box.  I'm shoving the luggage into the box and trying to get out of there before anyone sees me.  My waking thought was, I think I came straight from the airport, did I empty them?  And, if I did, where did I empty them?  But so I'm shoving the luggage into this stationary box.

 

I'm about to leave when my step-brother, his wife and their butler (as far as I know they don't actually have a butler) walk out.  My step-brother says I should come in and turns around and his wife follows him.  The butler suggests I come in for some tea.  I thank him and head down the drive.  Waking thought is, didn't I just drive up?  Why is my car now down the drive?  But in any event, I'm heading towards my car, which is now down the drive.

 

I get in my car and what had just been a nice day has turned into a dense fog, pouring rain kind of day and I'm suddenly driving on the highway, which I'd normally avoid under those type of weather conditions.

 

I decide to slow down because I can barely see the front of the car but as I press down on the brake, the car is slowly accelerating.  I realize I must be pressing the accelerator so I press what I now think is the break but I continue to accelerate.  I think the accelerator must be stuck so I try to slide my foot under the accelerator and now the car is moving so fast I fear for my life because I still can't see what I'm coming up on.  I put one foot on the accelerator and one on the brake and both just make me go faster.  I come up on a red something (I assume a car) and I pull sharply to the right on the steering wheel, barely missing the car and driving on the shoulder.  

 

Cars start honking but I can't imagine they're honking at me because I'm not seeing any cars and I'm pulling ahead of everything, but there is honking.  I have the thought that I had envisioned dying that day and freaked out that this might be what would do it.

 

It seems like there was more to the dream but that's all I remember at the moment.

 

But I looked up what a speeding out of control car dream meant.  I was offered two options:

 

1) I feel like things are out of control in my life and I can't find my way.  I don't feel that way but I can see where that might be the case, given things going on in the country right now.

 

or 

 

2) I'm unreliable.  Huh?  That doesn't even make sense to me.  

 

But there you go, either things are out of control in my life or I'm reliable.  So, which is it?

 

 

The other dream I didn't look up its meaning because I don't really care.  In it I was getting ready to pull up stakes and relocate internationally (I guess there could be that connection between the two dreams).  I had packed up my stuff and someone was going to retrieve it so it would be at the destination, waiting for me when I got there.  Something was said about needing socks.  I found one and decided it wasn't worth the effort and went to a cabin on I assume a ship. When I came out of my room, there was all my stuff and we'd set sail.  I asked my assistant (didn't know I had one) and she said she told them not to take it because I needed my sock - one sock - so everything got left on the ship and not sent ahead.  Weird but I don't see any significance.  If anyone else thinks it means anything, let me know.  :)

Book Review Club - November 2020

In the interest of full disclosure, the book I'm reviewing this month is a re-post of a review I wrote in October 2007.  I've read only two books since our last meeting and both were political in nature and while I would have quite a lot to say about the books, I think we've all had enough politics to last us a while.  So, instead, the book I will be reviewing is you had me at halo by Amanda Ashby.  In the review I said I would be keeping an eye out for future books by her and I did - and I've loved all of them.  I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Ashby at the RWA conference in San Francisco in 2008 and she was as nice as she could be (I was her official stalker at the conference - it's okay, she agreed to let me stalk her in advance! 😀).

 

It's been thirteen years since I first read the book but it remains one of my all time favorite books to this day.  It's light.  It's funny.  It's sweet.  On a scale of 1-5, I'd give it 10 stars!  💓 

And now, below is what I wrote about the book thirteen years ago.  And for more reviews go to https://barriesummy.blogspot.com/index.html .

 

 

There is an author who occasionally "promotes" other authors' works. She does nothing more than say this book is out and then give the blurb, which suggests she may not actually be reading the books. At least that's the approach I take when I see a book "promoted" on her blog. Anyway, she recently had Amanda Ashby's debut book, you had me at halo (it's not capitalized on the cover either ;-) ). I thought the title was fun, the cover okay and the blurb "interesting". So I googled Ms. Ashby to find out more. I read the first chapter and wanted to read more, so I ordered the book. I read the whole thing this afternoon. It was fun. And sweet. It's one of those books where when you're done, you realize you have this big smile on your face because it's just that kind of book.

I will definitely keep an eye out for future books by Amanda Ashby.

And now, the blurb:

Holly Evans has just seen her body laid to rest. Now she would like to move onto the afterlife. But apparently she has some mortal baggage to unload first, starting with the matter of how she died. Her heavenly shrink isn't buying that she didn't kill herself and says she must return to earth to straighten things out. The thing is, she needs to borrow the body of computer geek Vince Murphy to do it. Oh, and although Vince was supposed to have vacated the premise, he apparently never got the memo.

Now, Holly has forty-eight hours to resolve her issues while sharing arms, legs, and...other things...with a guy she barely noticed while she was alive. But the real surprise is what life has to offer when you have only two days to live it.

Book Review Club - October 2020

This month I will be reviewing Fifth Words for Rain by Asha Lemmie.  I learned about this book because it was the GMA book selection and since I've read two other of their recommendations and enjoyed them, I figured this one would be good too.

 

Truth is, I have mixed feelings about it.  If I have to choose between a plot driven story and a character driven story, I will choose character driven story every time.  I want to be invested in the characters and care what happens to them.  If a character isn't sympathetic, the best plot doesn't help me care about the story.  And I can forgive a bad plotline if I really care about the characters.

So, having said all that, I was emotionally invested in Nori from the very first paragraph of the Prelude (not prologue - prelude!).  It starts with The first real memory Nori had was pulling up to that house. A couple of sentences later it goes on to describe the house.  My immediate thought was it was reminiscent of Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews.  That first impression proved to be right but in one paragraph the author had drawn me in and I needed to know that Nori was okay.

 

Nori was born into a royal family in Japan after world war I but before world war II.  The legacy of her family was of critical importance to her grandparents.  After the war royalty in Japan lost its power but still had a reputation and the family had their pride.  They still were rich after all.  The problem was that Nori's father was a black american soldier her mother had an affair with while still married to another man.  This made Nori a bastard child that was an embarrassment to the family and threatened their reputation in the community so her existence had to be kept secret at all costs.

 

The things Nori endured were horrible.  I kept asking myself why I was continuing to read and it was because the author had made me care about her and I kept hoping things would get better for her.

 

At the end of the day I found the ending less than satisfying and felt that there were a few loose ends that should've been tied up but the author kept me invested in the character so that I read to the very end. So yeah, mixed feelings about the book overall.  Can't say I would necessarily recommend it but it was compelling, at least for me.

 

For more reviews click on the icon below.

 

 

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@Barrie Summy

Book Review Club - September 2020

To be honest, I'm not 100% certain where I heard about this book.  I'm assuming it was because Good Morning America made it its book of the month recommendation for June.  But whatever it was, I was lucky because I got the ebook from my library quickly (I looked at the "backlog" as I was reading - in early July - and there were 140 people waiting to read the book!).

First let me say, I loved this book!  I'd heard it described as two sisters, one deciding to live as a white woman, the other living as a black woman.  A lot of questions came to mind, why?  How? Among others.  I was curious.

The story covers time from the 1950s until around 1990 and starts in a small town in Louisiana called Mallard.  Mallard is so small, it doesn't even make it onto any map and no one outside of Mallard has ever heard of it.  The sisters who live the "advertised" lives of a black woman and a white woman come from the family that founded Mallard.  It was their great, great, great, great grandfather (give or take a few "greats") that founded the town.  With each generation born, their skin tone gets lighter and that appears to be the goal.  But, even though by the time the sisters (Stella and Desiree) are born they are light enough they could pass for white, they're still known to be black in Mallard and the lines are clearly drawn.

The young sisters watch as white men, who feel their father has cheated them, storm their house, drag their father out of the house by his ankles, beat him and shoot him.  Then when their father somehow  survives that, the men go to the hospital to finish the job of killing him.  How each sister processes that life event determines how they live their life going forward.

I don't want to give too much away but I will say the characters were very complex and interesting. Multi-generational viewpoints were explored and examined.  The "what happens next" wasn't obvious or expected and even addressed the changing times during the 60s and 70s in particular.  I didn't want to put the book down. 

Given the events occurring in this country as I write this (July 9th), it highlights that despite how far we think we've come when it comes to race relations, it shows just how little things have changed for black Americans today.  And sadly it seems like we've been going in the wrong direction in that regard.

Despite that, my recommendation would be the same - I highly recommend it.  Well written, great story, complex characters.  It really covers the full spectrum of life.  It's a great book.

For more great book reviews go to https://barriesummy.blogspot.com/index.html.

Book Review Club - June 2020

This month I will be reviewing Surrender at Canyon Road by Debora Dale. Debbie is a friend of mine and she sent me a copy prior to its release, even though she knew I had already pre-ordered it.  That said, I would not be reviewing it or recommending it if I didn't really like it.  With that, my review is below.

Blake’s sister and nephew have been kidnapped and he will do whatever it takes to save them, even if it means hijacking a car and kidnapping its owner in the process.

Dani is on a tight deadline to enter a contest that, if she wins, will change her life and she believes will allow her to put the ghosts and demons from her past squarely in her past.

When Blake “kidnaps” Dani, she’s determined to do whatever it takes to get him out of her car and out of her life.  If he goes to prison for life, she can live with that.  She’s not buying his story about his sister and nephew’s kidnapping.  That is until she hears the desperate pleas from the nephew when the kidnappers call Blake to give him directions for the ransom drop off.

She finds herself drawn to the man who would put it all on the line for his family, something she feels she lacked in her own family.  It is then that she decides to do whatever she can to help him.

Blake has always been the one in his family to be responsible and make sure everyone else is okay and he’s had to do it on his own so when the woman he’s kidnapped starts actively helping him – even though he derailed her own goals – he finds himself drawn to her.

In a race against time, can Blake and Dani save Blake’s sister and nephew?  Will Dani be able to reach her goal of completing the contest that she feels is essential to her future and putting the past behind her?  And will there be a future for the two or was it all just passion of the moment that can’t withstand daily life?

This is a fast paced story, very well written story.  The author ratchets up the tension and I did not want to put the book down.  Very good story.  I highly recommend it.

For more reviews go to https://barriesummy.blogspot.com/index.html

Book Review Club - April 2020

This month I will be reviewing In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park.  I came to have this book in an odd fashion.  I was recently traveling and because of poor time management of the travel coordinators we had a lot of time to read.  One of the other travelers was reading this book and at first I thought it was The Girl with Seven Names by Hyeonseo Lee that I reviewed here and Barrie reviewed here, which started up a conversation.

When the other traveler was finished reading the book, she gave it to me.  I brought it home and read it.

There are a lot of similarities in the two books in that the way they describe life in North Korea is the same - could've been written by the same person.  But what is different is how and why they left North Korea.

Hyenoseo Lee cross the river into China on a whim only planning to stay a few days but ended up staying so long that the government noticed her absence and it became dangerous for her and her family if she were to come back.

Yeonmi Park, her sister and her mother wanted to go to China because they didn't have enough food to eat - their sole purpose in going to China was for food.  They found brokers who were willing to help them get into China and they took advantage of it.  Due to an unexpected health issue, Yeonmi and her mother were held up but the sister didn't want to wait and left before they did.

What they found out was that the brokers who had graciously agreed to help them escape to China actually were human traffickers and they sold Yeonmi and her mother as sex slaves.  Yeonmi was only 13 and she talks about her introduction into sex being watching her mother be raped in front of her.

She went into a lot of detail of what they had to endure and as I read her story I was struck by something that she later admitted as part of her story - as bad as things were for her, she didn't have it as bad as she could have.  She was sold to someone who actually cared about people.  He bought her mother back so that they could be together.  He helped them look for her sister.  And he even made arrangements to have her father brought to China and helped get him medical assistance when he needed it.  That's not to say it wasn't a bad situation, just that it could be worse.

It only took two years for her and her mother to get to South Korea (they hadn't yet found her sister), whereas it took Hyenoseo something like 12 years but it still wasn't easy for them.  She was way behind in her studies and didn't believe the terrible things that were being said about North Korea and their leaders, even despite what she had lived through.  It took a lot of time for her to realize and really believe that North Koreans were essentially brainwashed.  She doesn't hold back in what she experienced and what she felt during this, even though for years she had pushed back any feelings that didn't come across as happy and well adjusted.  It was a very moving story and one I think is important, particularly in these times.

It's worth noting too that when I went to pull the links for the reviews Barrie and I previously did on the other book, Margy had commented that her husband had read this book.    Also, the other traveler took down the information for Hyenoseo Lee's book so she could read that one as well.  :)

For more book reviews go to barriesummy.blogspot.com.

Book Review Club - February 2020

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@Barrie Summy

This month I will be reviewing Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. 

For those that may be wondering if I'm writing a review on a book I read years ago or on a book that I've read multiple times and needed something to write about this month, the answer is no on all counts.  I've only just now finally read this book.

I've known who Jane Austen was for as long as I can remember but I hadn't read any of her books, even though everyone raved about them - I just couldn't imagine enjoying a book that had been writing 150 years ago.  It wasn't until 2006 that I finally read Pride and Prejudice (my review is here if you're interested).  And I loved it!

I read Emma for a class I was taking in 2010.  For me, that was the easiest read of the books I've read so far by Jane Austen.  It was light and fun, in my opinion.

I started another of her books but I couldn't get into it so I won't mention it here - but I still have others I haven't read but hope to at some point. 

It's not that I don't enjoy her books but they're not the easiest to read because the language is different than we use today.  In my review of Pride and Prejudice I likened the writing to that of a text book because every word is important.  You can't just skim through a Jane Austen book.  But that's also something I like about the books.  Ms. Austen doesn't transport you back to the 1800's describing scenery, clothing or other things - it's done in the language she uses . . . you never doubt what century the story is taking place in and I love that about her books.

When Sense and Sensibility was written, it was not written as a historical romance.  In fact it was a contemporary romance when written.  Which is why, when I was reading it, I found myself comparing it to the historical romances I read today.  So much of the stuff written today glamorizes the time.  Instead of being at the mercy of the men in their lives, today's historicals are written as if it was okay for a woman to headstrong and flighty - as if it was encouraged.  Reading Ms. Austen's novels shows how wrong today's writers get it (although that doesn't mean I don't enjoy the stories - they're just not factually accurate to the time periods they portray, in my opinion).

With all that said, Sense and Sensibility is about two sisters who have lost their father and they, along with their mother, have to depend on the kindness of others for housing and other necessities for survival while they attempt to find suitable matches for marriage.  It doesn't dwell on the unfairness of things they endure because it's just how things were back then and that's the frame of reference that Ms. Austen brings to the story.  It also shows how men have to make concessions as well to get along in life during this period of time.  It's not just a well told story, it's a lesson in history.  I loved the book and highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't read it (and I realize I may have been the last hold out in this regard!  :) ).

For more reviews go to barriesummy.blogspot.com.

Book Review Club December 2019

The book I will be discussing this month is The Mueller Report.  I'm going to assume that anyone reading this post knows the general content of the book so I won't spend a lot of time on that.  But if you've been living under a rock for the last three years, the book is about the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and what role the Trump campaign and administration may have played in that interference.

I'm not going to review this book in the way I would normally review a book here and my recommendation for reading it isn't based on how much I loved it or because of any political position I may hold.  The reason I am recommending this book for reading is because there is so much conflicting information out there about what it says and about what was discovered during the investigation.  For me, I wanted to know what it actually said so that I wasn't hearing cherry picked excerpts that would seem to support whatever narrative the reporter may have wanted to push.  This is also the reason I have been watching the impeachment hearings, despite how exhausting it has been.

I will say that it's not an easy read by any means.  But it does tell a story.

In the interested of full disclosure, as of right now, I haven't completed the book.  I've read all of volume I  and am currently working on volume II.

Volume I covers Russian interference in the election and the contacts made by Trump campaign officials.  It started with a broad overview of the investigation, followed by the laws used and applied to make decisions.  It then broke things down by individual and dates before it summed up the decisions made on who to prosecute and for what crimes.  It was clear that from the start that since a sitting president can't be indicted that no application of the law(s) would be applied to the president or his actions. "We determined not to apply an approach that could potentially result in a judgment that the President committed crimes." (Page 195, Volume II)

Several campaign staff members were working hard to make a meeting with Trump and Putin happen.  Among those was George Papadopoulos.  He sent an email that Paul Manafort forwarded (without copying George).  In the forwarded email Paul said "Let[']s discuss.  We need someone to communicate that [Trump] is not doing these trips.  It should be someone low-level in the Campaign so as not to send any signal." (Page 103, Volume I).

At one point "Denysyk thanked Papadopoulos 'for taking the initiate,' but asked him to 'hold off without reach (sic) to Russian-Americans' because 'too many articles' had already portrayed the Campaign, then campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and candidate Trump as 'being pro-Russian.' " (Page 106-107, Volume I)

I know that Donald Trump has repeatedly stated that the report found no evidence of collusion but the report states - in several places - that the "evidence was not sufficient to obtain and sustain a criminal conviction". (Page 163, Volume I). That's not an exoneration but rather a prosecutorial decision not to move forward.  That said, I personally found the evidence very compelling.

Something else I found interesting.  I had finished Volume I before the impeachment hearings started and was shocked to find that a lot of the same players were involved in both the Russian interference case as are involved in the Ukraine episode.  In my opinion, there's definitely a pattern of behavior between the two scenarios.  And in the report there's even a mention of a quid pro quo.

The last quote from the report that I noted was on Page 207, Volume II where it discusses witness tampering.  It states "Corrupt persuasion is shown 'where a defendant tells a potential witness a false story as if the story were true, intending that the witness believe the story and testify to it.' " Draw from that what you will.

The last thing I will say is that the book had a lengthy introduction by Alan Dershowitz included in it.  I have seen Alan on shows defending Trump so wasn't surprised when he was discussing why the report never should have been written.  He states that Rosenberg was more conflicted than Sessions and therefore should have never been put in charge of the investigation.  He states that no special counsel should have been appointed, no report should have been written and it should have never been released to the public and he provides arguments for each of these convictions.  None of it surprised me.  What did surprise me is that at the end of it he stated that he had voted for Clinton in the 2016 election and voted all democrat in the 2018 election.  My guess is he felt this disclosure would give more credibility to his opinions.

Whatever the argument, I feel this is an important book to read so that people can form their own opinions and make informed decisions going forward and that's why I chose this book to discuss this month, particularly with everything going on right now.

For more reviews, go to barriesummy.blogspot.com.

Book Review Club - November 2019 (Finding Dorothy)

I've been borrowing a lot of books from the library lately and I recently logged in to find a book and saw that they were hosting a book club and the book they would be discussing was Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts.  I must've read a little about it and found it interesting because I put a hold on the book for myself.  I did get the book before the book club met and had I read the book (or remembered about the meeting) I might have participated.  As it was, I started reading it after the group would've met.

On Amazon it's listed as biographical fiction and that seems fitting.  I loved the "disclaimer" at the beginning of the work because it says "Finding Dorothy is a work of fiction.  All incidents and dialogue, and all characters with the exception of some well-known historical figures, are products of the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real.  Where real-life historical persons appear, the situations, incidents, and dialogues concerning those persons are entirely fictional and are not intended to depict actual events or to change the entirely fictional nature of the work.  In all other respects, any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental."  I can't think of any characters in the book that weren't well-known historical figures.

In any event, the story is about Maud Baum's life.  Maud is the real life wife of L. Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.  There are records regarding where they lived and what businesses and jobs they had and the author takes all that and expands on it, which is why it is a book of fiction.  There are incidents and conversations that there would be no way of knowing about but in some instances it fits a pattern of certain individuals.  Such as Arthur Freed who was a part of the production of the movie based on the book.  He is known to have exposed himself to a young Shirley Temple and the author has him be inappropriate with Judy Garland.  It's not known for a fact that he was inappropriate with Judy but it fits a pattern for Arthur Freed.

Maud's mother was Matilda Joslyn Gage, a woman who fought hard trying to get women rights, including the vote, and Susan B. Anthony was considered a friend and a frequent visitor to the Gage home (although she's only referenced a few times in the book and according to the story, Maud called her Auntie Susan).  As I was reading these names and actions of these leaders in history (and considering the disclaimer at the start of the book), I wondered if any of it was true.  So I looked up Maud Baum on wikipedia and it lines up.  Which made me question wikipedia and which came first the wikipedia entry or the book.  😃

On wikipedia Maud has a sister not mentioned in the book which added to my confusion.  But, at the end of the book the author has an Afterword which explains a few things.  First of all she did EXTENSIVE research (and lists some recommended reading) on the matter, reading several biographies and even the diaries of the sister who was mentioned in the book!  So basically, the author stuck pretty much to the truth of events as they relate to Maud and her husband and added her own take as to conversations and events that lead to Frank writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and her part in the filming of the movie.

The story is told in a way that suggests events in their lives inspired the book and as it does so there will be a chapter from the making of the movie.  What I'm trying to say is that in alternating chapters it goes back and forth between telling the story of Maud and Frank's lives and 1939 when the movie was filmed after Frank's death.

It didn't read like a biography and would've been an interesting story even if it had been 100% fiction.  It had stories about Maud growing up with a mother who was a leader in the women's movement.  It told stories about Maud going to Cornell University and meeting and marrying Frank and where their life took them after that.  It's a work of fiction, based on facts.

I really enjoyed the book and wish I had participated in the book club, but at least I got to read the book and that's the important thing.  I would highly recommend it, particularly to anyone who read Frank's books or enjoyed the movie based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

To read more book reviews, go to barriesummy.blogspot.com.

Book Review Club - November 2019 (The Secrets We Kept)

I decided to review a second book this month because, like the first review I wrote, this book is a historical fiction story.  It's based on facts obtained through extensive research, including reading declassified CIA reports on the matter.  It's considered a work of fiction because things like personal conversations that cannot be known (although, per the author, some are pulled directly from the CIA reports and included in this work).

The book is The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott.  The story is about the efforts made to make public the novel Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak from the perspective of his mistress and CIA operatives.  Pasternak worked on the book for 10+ years and the Russian government did not want it to see the light of day as it was considered anti-government, something that was punishable by death.  People who were perceived to even have anti-government thoughts would go missing, never to be seen again.  So despite this potential threat hovering over him, Pasternak continued his work.

Like the other book I reviewed, this would be a great story even if it wasn't based on known facts.  It was primarily told from the perspective of Olga - Boris' mistress, Irina - a new CIA employee and Sally - a veteran of CIA missions.  I say primarily because we do get into the heads of other characters but those are the main three.  I don't know if these were real names of people involved other than I do know that Boris Pasternak did have a mistress who went through and endured the hardships described as a result of her relationship with Boris, including being put in a hard labor camp simply because she was Boris' mistress.  The intent was to hurt Boris so that he would stop working on the book.

The book also explores the lives of the people involved in getting Doctor Zhivago published.  Russia didn't want it published but the US took steps to ensure that not only did it get published, that it was widely distributed within Russia.

Personally I've never read the book or seen the movie (Doctor Zhivago that is) but reading this book definitely made me want to read the book AND see the movie!

The story was well told and well written.  The only problem I had with it was it was not clear to me initially that the story was being told from the perspective of different people.  The prologue was titled "Typists".  Chapter one was titled "The Mistress".  Chapter two was "The Applicant".  Those were three different perspectives but I didn't realize those were the character identifiers until around page 80 because each chapter was told in first person perspective and there was no change in writing style to easily identify the character.  For example, in The Help (a book I LOVED, by the way) each chapter was labeled with the character name but the writing style changed to encompass the character's personality so even without the character name to identify who was "talking", it was easy to tell whose perspective was being presented and that wasn't the case in The Secrets We Kept.  At least in my opinion.  I think the author thought it would be cute to have "covert" names for the characters but it just confused me - at least initially.  I remember around page 200 I went back to the table of contents to confirm what happened to which character.  This was partly my fault because I jumped into reading the book without having any idea what it was about but I do also fault the author for not making clear character distinctions with her writing.  It was still a good book though.

Bottom line, it was a good story, and a good book worth reading.  I would highly recommend it.

For more reviews go to barriesummy.blogspot.com.

Book Review Club - September 2019

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@Barrie Summy

It's time for book reviews!

This month I will be reviewing My Friend Anna The True Story of a Fake Heiress by Rachel DeLoache Williams.

This is one of those things where I had heard on the news something about a fake heiress but I didn't pay all that much attention to it.  I'm not sure what, if anything, I could have said about it.  Then the author of this book went on Good Morning America to promote her book.  I rarely watch interviews with people I've never heard of but for some reason I watched this one.  She said she'd gone on a trip with Anna Delvey and that when she got home she got a text saying she owed $70,000 for the trip.  THAT piqued my interest in the story and I ordered this book online.

The book starts off in Morocco where Anna and Rachel were vacationing at a $7,500 a night resort.  Anna had offered to pay all trip expenses but management at the resort were having difficulty having payment go through on Anna's card so they seemed to take position in the room until the issue was resolved.  They eventually asked Rachel if she had a credit card the charges could be put on.  She agreed to let them take her credit card but only as a temporary hold until Anna could sort out her finances to pay for the trip.

They left the resort to go on a tour that Rachel had understood to be pre-charged to the resort room but when the tour was over, they were asked for payment.  This was when Rachel realized that the resort had not returned her personal credit card.  Someone from where they had taken the tour came back to them to the resort and Rachel swapped out her personal credit card (which they refused to release without payment) for her corporate AMEX (which she was adamant that they NOT use for anything!) and she went back with the tour guy and paid for the tour on her personal credit card.

Anna was still "resolving" her financial issues when Rachel left Morocco.  When Rachel got home she realized that more than $36,000 had been applied to her personal credit card and more than $16,000 had been applied to her corporate AMEX.  She had told them not to use her corporate AMEX but they had apparently recorded the information in their files and applied the balance to it when Anna checked out of the resort.

At this point in the book Rachel tells the story of how she met Anna and how their relationship progressed.  They met through mutual friends / acquaintances and became fast friends.  They went out a lot and the stories she told reminded me a lot of Sex and the City.  (When I went to pull the picture for the review I saw that the book was like Sex and the City meets Catch Me if You Can and that truly fits this story!)

On most outings Anna would pay but on occasion she would say she didn't have her wallet or credit card and ask Rachel to pay.  For the most part Rachel didn't mind because Anna was paying for a lot of things.  But she talks about how things started with her being asked to pay for things she could afford to pay for and then suddenly the expenses became overwhelming.

It was a very interesting story to read about.  I didn't want to put the book down, even though I knew how things worked out for Anna, the fake heiress.  Rachel was instrumental in bringing down Anna and even testified against her in court.  The book talks about things that happened in mid-May of this year and the book was released on July 23rd so this was as hot off the press as you can get without living it!

I feel like we've all known someone who lives a life we wish we had - not that there's ever anything wrong with the lives we lead but this other person seems more glamorous or something to us and we're drawn to it.  I think that's what Anna was to Rachel and why she believed all the lies she was told.  It's also why Rachel was an easy target to exploit.  It gives such an insight to human relationships why we might fall victim to this type of thing.  I found it a fascinating read - something I was not expecting.  I had used points to pay for all but ~$5.00 of the book and I fully expected to think I'd grossly overpaid and that wasn't the case.  In short, it tells the story of the fake princess from the side of a victim.

For more reviews, go to barriesummy.blogspot.com.

Book Review Club - June 2019

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@Barrie Summy

I started this year with a goal to read one book per week.  It started well but I haven't been as successful lately.  As such, instead of writing a review of a book I loved and highly recommend, I'm going to discuss a book that I didn't really like and will go into detail as to why I did not like it.

With that disclaimer out of the way, I will be reviewing Sally Field's In Pieces this month.

I'll start by saying I used to be a fan of Ms. Field. The perception was that she was a kind and caring person.  And as such, I was someone who rooted for her in her professional projects.  I remember when she got the role of Sybil and all the gossip about how people didn't think she had the acting chops to pull it off, but she did.  Things like that.

But I guess it was 10 or 15 years ago that my opinion of her changed and to be honest, I couldn't even say why because I'm not sure.  Regardless, now if I watch something she's in it's despite her being in it, rather than because she's in it.

So when her book came out, I had no desire to read it.  But since I was on the book-a-week plan, I borrowed it from the library.  Actually, I had borrowed it several times to get through it but I think it's one I finished this year.

Anyway, it wasn't an easy read. The writing wasn't good.  It wasn't so much of a storytelling experience of her life as a data dump of information.  The first 50 pages or so were background on her family - grandmother, great grandmother, etc.  I would probably get the people and exact details wrong but one of her relatives was illegitimate and left an orphanage as a teenager and the family was scandalized.

When she gets into her story it all comes from the perspective of her being a victim her whole life.  Things happened to her and she was forced or guilted into doing things or projects she did not want to do.  For example, she did not want to be in the Flying Nun, after she had declined the role someone contacted her stepfather and he came to visit her and basically told her how ungrateful she was for the opportunity and shamed her into taking it.  She was miserable for the entire run.

And speaking of her stepfather, she had a sexual relationship with him.  Back when Joan Rivers was still filling in for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show, I watched an interview with Ms. Field and she asked at what age Joan had lost her virginity and they decided to tell at the same time.  Joan said 21 and Sally said 14.  In the book Sally talks about an encounter with her stepfather when she was 14 where both are naked and fondling each other but then says she doesn't have any memory of what happened next but that she didn't talk to him for a long time.  Incorporating what I remember from the interview years before and this story, my guess is she lost her virginity with her stepfather but didn't want to admit that in her book.

Beyond that she talks about jobs she took and what she did to get them.  She considered sleeping with a director or a producer to get or keep a part as part of the business she was in - even if the man was married - whatever it took to get the job.

She also talks about Burt Reynolds.  I have to say here that I have never been a fan of Burt Reynolds - I always felt he was too full of himself.  But reading this book, I like him even less than before.  Sally was so excited about Sybil and the fact that she was up for an EMMY for her performance but Burt didn't want her to go to the awards show because television awards weren't worthy of his presence and he didn't think she should go without him.  So she stayed home with him and watched the show on TV to see she had won.

Then, when she got Norma Rae he got angry that she was even considering taking it because, according to Ms. Field "no woman of his was going to play a whore".  Things like that.  But she took it.  Her mother was watching her kids almost exclusively at times and Burt would give her ultimatums when something would happen to her mother or one of the kids and would tell her to choose - him or them.  She often chose him.

So yeah, I wasn't a fan of hers before I read this book and I'm less so after having read it.  But, also as I said before, the writing was bad and she takes no responsibility for her own actions and decisions because, to her mind (at least the way it comes across), she's the victim here.

I don't particularly recommend this book but it is one that I've wanted to discuss since I read it, if for no other reason to see if anyone else had read the book and came away with the same or similar take on it.

For more reviews (probably with more favorable opinions of the book reviewed), click on the icon at the top of this post or go to barriesummy.blogspot.com .

Update

I have been meaning to update the weight loss progress but well, I've been kind of busy.

Shortly after my last post I started watching my neighbor's dog for them.  It actually was helping the cause because I was walking him daily and he initially was so high maintenance (thankfully we've fallen into a nice routine now!) I didn't have time to eat.  I lost ten pounds pretty quickly.

Things seemed to level out after that and I lost another pound or two.

Then, a couple of weeks ago I got bitten by some bug that resulted in a pretty significant allergic reaction and I've been on steroids since.  So for the last week or so I've been eating like I was trying to qualify to be a sumo wrestler and I had to pack on 200 pounds by June 1st.

As of yesterday the scale still reflected a weight loss of 11 pounds but I expect the weight will change at some point and I will have lost less than that but once these anti-allergy drugs flush out of my system, I'll be hitting it hard again, with a vengeance!

Set Back

Well, last week was a rough week for dieting.  I knew I was cheating but I kept going.  Call it a binge, you wouldn't be wrong

So, when I got on the scale on Monday, all progress I had made in the first week had been washed away.  And I wasn't surprised.

As I was binging, I thought about 2006 when I went on Weight Watchers and lost 45-50 pounds during that year.  What is different now than what was going on then?  How was I able to stick to a diet plan than allowed me to eat whatever I wanted, so long as I stayed within certain guidelines?

Several things came to mind.  First of all, I was working.  There was food available to me at work but not as readily available with things I personally picked out / up from the store.  It's very easy to go into the kitchen and grab something to eat, whether I need it or nor and whether or not I'm actually hungry.

I thought about accountability because I was being weighed every week but had assumed blogging about it provided that here.  

But the big one, I think, was the fact that I was shelling out a lot of money to go to Weight Watcher meetings at work.  It was easier for me to stay focused on losing weight because otherwise the money I was spending was being wasted.  Once I reached my goal weight I didn't have to pay anymore - I just had to weigh in once a month.  When I started gaining weight, I stopped going to meetings, planning to lose the weight and go again.  That never happened.

One other thing occurred to me though, I allowed for snacks and had them ready and available to me. I almost always had bananas, yogurt and hard boiled eggs on hand for snacks.  I also had the Weight Watchers ice cream almost every single evening, which helped me feel like I was able to indulge while on the diet.

To that end, I have stocked my house with low calorie snacks in the hopes that it will help eliminate binges like I had last week.

So, it's back to square one on the goal to lose weight but I think (hope) identifying the obstacles will help going forward.

Pounds desired to lose: 50

Pounds to go: 50

Net loss:  0   :(

Book Review Club - April 2019

I didn't think I would be reviewing a book this month and then I came across this one on amazon. 

Here's the thing, Kim Gruenenfelder is one of my favorite authors and I've reviewed several of her books already and had even waited three years for her last book to come out.  So I was surprised to find she had another book out that I didn't know about.  Happily surprised.  :)

This month I will be reviewing Hangovers & Hot Flashes by Kim Gruenenfelder.

As with several other of her books, this story is told from the viewpoint of three main characters (and best friends) who tell their story from their own point of view in alternating chapters.  All of the women are in their mid-to-late forties.  They are:

Alexis (Alex):  Alex is in television (show creator), lives on the beach and has more money than she knows what to do with. Her "boyfriend" of twelve years shows up when it's convenient and then seems to go into hiding for weeks on end.  But the sex is great so she's reluctant to kick him to the curb.

Michelle: Michelle is a high end real estate agent who has been married to Steve for 20+ years.  She feels so unappreciated at home that she literally parks her car a couple of blocks from her house to brace herself for she'll have to face inside.  She feels she gets no help from Steve at home so she's questioning why they're still together.

Zoe:  Zoe has been married to Carlos for 20+ years.  She loves him with all her heart but she misses the "zing" you feel when a romance is new.  The electric feeling you get when you have your first kiss.  She wants to feel that again so she suggests trying an open marriage to her husband, Carlos.

One of the things I love about Gruenenfelder's books is that she really taps into the human emotions we all feel and she doesn't hold back.  But she does it in such a way that it is funny.  SO funny!  I laughed so hard while reading this book.  I also couldn't put it down - I read it the same day it came in the mail!

I also saw myself and my friends in these characters.  Some of the things told were things I'd actually experienced!  To the point I might have wondered "how did she know?"  ;)

One experience that mimicked one I'd had myself was when Alex took the dog her boyfriend had left with her to the vet.  She asked the vet what kind of dog it was and the vet told her he was a mutt.  So she asked what mix of dogs did the vet think he was.  The vet responded "cute and adorable".  It made me laugh because the first time I took my dog, Harley, to the vet I asked what kind of dog he was.  My vet looked at him and gave it consideration before he answered "brown".

In any event, I thoroughly enjoyed Hangovers & Hot Flashes and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys books about love, friendship and who need a good laugh.

For more reviews click on the link below or go to barriesummy.blogspot.com.

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@Barrie Summy