Showing posts with label Anita Shreve. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anita Shreve. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

My Selection for Waiting on Wednesday: Body Surfing by Anita Shreve

Waiting on Wednesday was created by Jill at Breaking the Spine. It's a great opportunity to learn about new books and what folks are anxious to read. This week I'm interested in something a little different than my usual YA fare. I'm going all adult this time. I can't wait to sink my teeth into Body Surfing. I've only read one Anita Shreve book: Light on Snow (see 1/11/10 post). It made me a fan. Awesome. I re-read it from time to time. It's that good. When I caught sight of Body Surfing in Barnes and Noble, I had to grab it. Let's check out the blurb on the book...

At the age of twenty-nine, Sydney has already been once divorced and once widowed. Trying to find her footing after this tragic double blow, she answers an advertisement to tutor the teenage daughter of a well-to-do couple. Sydney ends up spending a sultry summer at the cottage of the Edwards family on the stunning New Hampshire coast.


No sooner does Sydney settle into the household routine--acting as something between a servant and a family member--than the Edwardses' two grown sons, Ben and Jeff, show up for a weekend. Ben is a real estate executive, Jeff a professor. Both are handsome, both accomplished, both are competitive. And both seem completely enraptured by Sydney.


As the weeks pass in this seaside idyll, Sydney enters a strange love triangle, infused with old rivalries and bitter secrets she can only guess at. And she begins to fear that the brother's competition for her affections could tear apart their family--and the fragile existence she has painfully rebuilt.

I love these kind of seaside, beachy settings. Hum...two hot brothers fighting over a tragic young widow. Um hum...sounds good to me! How far will the brothers try to go and how far will she let them? Is she going to pick one over the other or just indulge with both of them because the choice is too hard? I can't wait to read it to find out!

Body Surfing is available now.

Toodles!

Monday, January 11, 2010

LIGHT ON SNOW: A Compelling Story-A Book Review and Lesson for Aspiring Writers


I was in a discount store over the holidays, A Dollar General, I think. I was perusing the aisles and came to a section with some books. I've never paid much attention to books in these stores because I'm usually disappointed. They often carry some odd, esoteric non-fiction stuff I have no interest in. This time I noticed novels, so I perked up.

I saw some romance novels, a few paranormals-you know, the more interesting reads! And then I saw Light on Snow by Anita Shreve. I read the blurb on the back and it sounded interesting, so I took a chance and bought it. Boy am I glad I did.

I devoured this little gem. Though it is actually not so little at 305 pages. I don't believe this book was classified officially as a Young Adult book, but it certainly reads that way. The protaganist, Nicky is thirty when she recounts the story, but the novel's action all takes place when she is 12 years old and is told from that perspective. This story explores love, loss and the effects of death and grief on the young and not so young.

The summary on the back of the book says it all, so with that being said: