Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld

Eligible: A modern re-telling of Pride and Prejudice is Curtis Sittenfeld's fifth novel; however, it is the first Sittenfeld novel that I've read. Eligible is part of a series of modern re-tellings of Jane Austen's works; previously Emma, Sense and Sensibility, and Northanger Abbey have all been updated and re-told by such well known authors as Alexander McCall Smith and Val McDermid. I haven't read any of the other modern re-tellings--but I may give them a try. Of all the Jane Austen adaptations, Pride and Prejudice is the one I love best and with which I'm most familiar. By now you all know of my fondness for Jane Austen adaptations and British period dramas.

For various reasons from the first chapter I was not sure whether I would finish this novel or not. But at some point a switch flipped, and I was all in with the story. It's a fast read due to short (sometimes very short) chapters. The story has been transplanted from the English countryside to Cincinnati, OH, (you read that right), and Mr. and Mrs. Bennet and Lydia are still insufferable. Wick[ham] is still a cad, only he has managed to worm his way into Liz'z life and affections for the better part of a decade, stringing her along even as he dates and marries (and has a child with) other women (!!!). I didn't really understand how Liz ended up in this 'friendship' with Wick in the first place as far as allowing him to string her along for long as he did.

Liz and Jane are in their late 30's, and after living in New York City for over a decade, have returned home to Cincinnati to care for their father following cardiac surgery precipitated by a cardiac episode. The girls return to the family home where their three adult younger sisters have yet to leave the nest only to find the situation more dire than expected.

The family home is in a state of dilapidated disrepair, their mother's shopping addition has run unchecked for years, the family's in debt up to their eyeballs thanks to Mr. B's mismanagement of the family finances (which was his ONE freakin' job, okay), and now they have hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills because there was no health insurance to cover Mr. B's medical emergency (because the man let it and his life insurance policy lapse a while ago). Meanwhile Mrs. B.'s only concerns are keeping up appearances, maintaining their excessive lifestyle, indulging the younger girls, marrying off her still single older daughters, and denying the family's financial crisis. Mr. B. has no will to do anything to fix the mess he helped create so it falls to Liz to wrangle her parents' debts, mete out tough love to her younger sisters, and whip the family home into shape for a quick sale. All of which she must do while dealing (variously) with a visiting (step) cousin who decides to hit on her, coming to terms with Wick's duplicity, and helping Jane through a broken heart and impending single motherhood.

And I haven't even touched on the reality show element and Liz's relationship with Darcy. Ultimately I think both fans of Pride and Prejudice as well as readers not familiar with the story will enjoy this book. While knowing the story of Pride and Prejudice adds an extra layer to the story, it's not necessarily required to enjoy reading it--there's enough family drama for that.

--Reviewed by Ms. Angie

How To Be A Heroine: Or What I've Learned From Reading Too Much by Samantha Ellis

I feel as if I could write a book subtitled "What I've Learned From Reading Too Much" except all my lessons would be culled from Greek mythology, the Babysitters' Club, the lives of British queens, crime mysteries, suspense thrillers and celebrity and entertainment gossip. I first ran across How To Be A Heroine by Samantha Ellis in an ad in BookPage. The title sounded intriguing and once I looked it up on Amazon, I was in for reading it. It reminds me of the literacy autobiography writing assignment that I had in one of my English composition classes in college--except this is the literacy autobiography on steroids. The premise of this book is that the author revisits the seminal texts that she read in her youth by examining the lessons and impressions of the novels that she had upon her first readings when she was younger. Ellis has then re-read the novels as an adult specifically for the writing of her own book to see if the novels hold up to her original i

Heat Lightning by John Sandford

I'd previously read John Sandford's first Virgil Flowers novel, Dark of the Moon , a few years back and found it to be a quick, well written read. Recently I discovered he has since written three more Flowers titles and decided to start with the second title and read through to the fourth and most recent one. Heat Lightning is the second Flowers installment. The darkness of the crimes committed that must be solved in the novel are leavened by the lighter presentation of Flowers and the story. It works well together--a dark crime doesn't always need dark prose to back it up. Virgil Flowers is Lucas Davenport's go to man in the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension when there's a sensitive, tough or otherwise puzzling case to solve. Flowers has a high clearance rate and can often turn around a case in about a week. This particular case is especially perplexing with quite a few red herrings thrown into the mix to throw everyone--Flowers and the reader in

The Whisperers by John Connolly

If there was one thing Jimmy didn't care for, it was competition, ... There were some exceptions to that rule: he was rumored to have a sweet deal with the Mexicans, but he wasn't about to try to reason with the Dominicans, or the Columbians, or the bikers, or even the Mohawks. If they wanted to avail themselves of his services, as they sometimes did, that was fine, but if Jimmy Jewel started questioning their right to move product he and Earle would end up tied to chairs in the [bar] with pieces of themselves scattered by their feet, assuming their feet weren't among the scattered pieces, while the bar burned down around their ears, assuming they still had ears. from page 86 The Whisperers is John Connolly's newest Charlie Parker installment in which some beloved characters reappear and in which previous characters from another Parker installment reappear to shed further light on the big baddie that may or may not be coming for Parker in the future. This newest inst

A Series Of (Un)Fortunate Reviews

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