Category Archives: book reviews

Occasionally while browsing Barnes and Nobel, I’ll stumble upon one of those “Buy Two Get One Free” sales. Usually stock-piled with classic fiction and old best-sellers, these sales usually don’t yield many great results for me.

But one day, while browsing said sale, I found two books I actually wanted to read…and buy at full price! Better yet, that meant I could pick one more book for “free”…my eyes darted all over the tiny table, reading over each cover again and again to find the perfect hidden gem.

Between copies of The Grapes of Wrath and The Great Gatsby, I saw this book speckled with sea shells. I picked it up and glanced at the back cover. The Los Angeles Times called this book “a show-stopping debut”. The New York Times said this book “…dazzles…blending the naturalist’s unswerving gaze with the poet’s gift for metaphor.” The Boston Globe claimed the book was “…breathtaking…perilously beautiful.” I was intrigued.

Written by Anthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot See which won a Pulitzer Prize in 2015, The Shell Collector captured my attention. I was instantly reminded of my grandma, who used to collect sea shells, while looking at the cover…and the description of this collection of short stories appealed to the part of me that wanted to connect deeply with nature and my natural environment. I chose The Shell Collector for my freebie.

This was probably 3 years ago.

This book has been sitting on my shelf ever since…waiting to be read…teasing me with its inviting cover and powerful newspaper reviews. It’s moved to a new apartment with me, unread, unopened, unloved. After a recent purge of old books and old clothes, I stumbled upon The Shell Collector again. Since getting this book for free, my shell-collecting grandma passed away…and I found myself thinking of her again while looking at the cover. I set aside the book I was reading and dove in.

The first story, aptly titled “The Shell Collector”, left me feeling like Alice falling down the tunnel into Wonderland. With beautiful language and description, I was dreamily transported to another world, watching this story unfold in front of my eyes. Descriptions of items and landscapes seemed to come to live in my head – I could smell the ocean, I could see the shells.

Like any short story collection, I found some stories better than others, but overall this book was beautifully written. Readers are whisked away to the African coast, plopped down in the pine forests of Montana, then taken to the damp moors of Lapland. When read slow and steady, these stories paint a true-to-life portrait of landscapes unseen by most of us…and bring to life characters we, in one way or another, can relate to on many levels.

Though the theme of nature gently weaves a vine through all of these stories, each story also explores the human condition in all its varieties – change of heart, grief, broken relationships, mending relationships. Some characters deal with life-altering hardships, others discover that they have unique gifts. But through all of their travels and discoveries, the characters in this collection are ultimately united by their connection to the mysteries of the universe that lies outside themselves.

Looking for a new book to read? Check in every Friday for a “Bee Happy” post, where I share reviews of books I’ve read or other book-themed lists.

Whether you’re as beautiful as Grace Kelly, as talented as Mozart, or as rich as Cornelius Vanderbilt, nothing can save you from death.

It’s the great unifier, the one thing we all have in common. The rich and famous die…the poor and unknown die. It’s terrifying and nerve-racking and sometimes quite unexpected…but maybe there’s some strange, weird comfort in knowing how those before us met their Maker, so to speak. Maybe knowing how Elvis died, how Bob Marley, Billie Holiday, Henry Ford, Marilyn Monroe, Babe Ruth, Thomas Edison, and Ernest Hemingway all passed will help us cope with our own mortality, or at least will give us some insight in what not do to in order to prolong the time we have left.

In his morbid, yet ironically entertaining book, The Portable Obituary: How the Famous, Rich, and Powerful Really Died, author Michael Largo explores the life and death of more than 1,100 famous people (and animals), diving deep into how they died and what actions in their lives lead them to that point.

Ranging in scope from Jesus to Louis Armstrong, The Portable Obituary covers a wide variety of celebrity. Actors, actresses, singers, dancers, and sports heroes are all mentioned, as well as inventors, writers, artists, and presidents. The book is organized alphabetically, with random black and white photos peppering the pages (though the photos lack description, which ended up being confusing in some places).

Similar to his other books, The Portable Obituary can be used as a reference guide or read cover to cover. Each celebrity gets about a 1 to 2 paragraph installment, so reading it cover to cover actually goes pretty quickly. And if you’re worried about it being too dour, Largo does put in little quips and fun stories to help lighten the mood.

If nothing else, this book is a fascinating look into how many musicians die from alcohol abuse and how many celebrities die within weeks of their birthday. It’s ironic to see how the inventors of such fun things as bubble gum and popsicles met such sad endings…and how careless practices in filming locations led to several actors and crew members developing deadly cancers.

From gun shots to gluttony…car crashes to cancers, The Portable Obituary is an interesting, albeit depressing, look into what made our late icons what they are today – dead!

Looking for a new book to read? Check in every Friday for a “Bee Happy” post, where I share reviews of books I’ve read or other book-themed lists.

In the summer of 2014, my mom was diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer’s Disease. While I usually keep my feelings pretty close to the chest, I’m particularly covert about my experience with Alzheimer’s and what it’s like to be a caregiver. I would go so far as to say that even my closest friends, my siblings, my husband, don’t even know this part of me. This part of me is tender and raw. It’s continuously healing, then being ripped open again.

Alzheimer’s is about so much more than forgetting your keys or misplacing your glasses. It’s personal and heartbreaking. It’s a slow decline, a constant test in patience and understanding. It’s dealt with moment to moment, second to second and, as someone wise once put it, “…is the slowest and saddest goodbye.”

A few months ago I was approached by a dear family friend about an opportunity to write some poetry about my experience with Alzheimer’s, both as a daughter and a caregiver. While I was apprehensive at first, once I got started, I found I couldn’t stop. Words started pouring out of me so quickly that by the time I was done, I felt utterly and completely empty.

Though I’m a writer by trade, I’m very protective of my personal written words and the thought of sharing this poetry with all of you shakes me to my core. These poems bring to life feelings I never thought I could talk about and exposes a part of me I’ve worked very hard to keep private. The reason I decided to share them and have them published in this book is to help bring awareness, help encourage discussion, help shed light on a topic so many of us fear to acknowledge.

The title of this book is I Had a Really Great Title, But Now I Can’t Remember It (Poems for the Older Generation). If you laughed, that’s okay…you should! As we all age and suffer the bumps and bruises along the way, sometimes all we have is our ability to find the humor in it all.

While this is not a book entirely about the Alzheimer’s experience, all proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to help fund Alzheimer’s research and awareness. For the sake of those fighting, supporting, and protecting, I humbly ask you to consider purchasing a copy of this book. The majority of the poems are written by the wonderful Bill McNulty and I encourage you to also check out his blog (“Still a Poet at Heart”) and the rest of his published books for more of his wise and humorous poetry.

I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for reading this post, for purchasing the book, and for doing your part to help our cause.

Looking for a new book to read? Check in every Friday for a “Bee Happy” post, where I share reviews of books I’ve read or other book-themed lists.

I love books that come to life as I’m reading them…books that paint a visual landscape with simple, yet stunning vocabulary. I love books that make me want to jump within the pages, no matter what the story, to fully immerse myself in the landscape…The Snow Child was one of those books.

Broken by the fact they are unable to have a child, Jack and Mabel move to a secluded home in Alaska. The brutal environment makes it difficult for the couple to live, let alone communicate. Drifting apart and breaking under the weight of the work of the farm, they are both struggling, in their own way, with loneliness and despair.

During the season’s first snowfall, Jack and Mabel have a moment of levity and decide to build a child out of snow. This small moment of joy brings the couple closer together and the next morning when they look out to see their creation, the snow-child is gone, replaced by a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees.

A nymph of the forest with a fox by her side, this child somehow survives alone in the 1920 Alaskan wilderness. As Jack and Mabel try to learn more about this girl, they begin to care for her as one of their own…and her presence begins to change their relationship in ways they never could have imagined.

This book was beautiful in all the right ways. Not unlike a fairy tale in its telling and ending, The Snow Child comes to life with amazing imagery and plot. While this book didn’t end like I wanted it to, it ended as it should have – with a bittersweet conclusion reminiscent of most fairy tales…leaving the reader feeling happy, sad and hopeful all at the same time.

Looking for a new book to read? Check in every Friday for a “Bee Happy” post, where I share reviews of books I’ve read or other book-themed lists.