Loving Frank by Nancy Horan

Historical novels really grab me! I enjoy reading factual details filled with the author’s personal embellishment. This book was very interesting.

The fact that a renown architect leaves his wife and children bereft with no means of support and takes off with his mistress who also has a husband and children would not raise many eyebrows in today’s world. However, in the early 1900’s, this was a very bold and morally unacceptable thing to do and yet they did it.

Loving Frank is about the conspicuous relationship between Frank Lloyd Wright and his lover Mamah Cheney. In prior entries about the famous architect, the role of his mistress is often relegated to a brief postscript. This book explores the depth of Mamah’s desire to alter her life circumstances and embrace her love for a married man openly despite the ramifications of what that decision might entail.

Ms. Horan has gone a long way to help the reader understand what Frank Lloyd Wright must have felt when he began his encounter with Mamah and why he was willing to risk everything to engage in this love affair.

Well written and worth reading!

Ladybookbug!

Getting Rid of Matthew by Jane Fallon

Whatever possessed me to read this book? To begin with the use of the four letter word by male and predominantly female was offsetting to this reader. That’s #1 and just the beginning.

#2-What contemporary 40-ish working attractive female would be so dense as to take up with a married man and then be frustrated after four years because he leaves her to go home to his wife? We did not just fall off the turnip boat or did we?

This story takes place in London. The heroine (and I am blithe to call her that) decides to get rid of her married lover because she realizes the relationship is going nowhere and she has become bored. She develops a friendship with her lover’s wife but the wife is not aware that she is the lover of her husband. She sees love’s early seeds in an encounter with a single man and then discovers he is the son of her lover. After an intense row, the story comes to an amicable end. While this may be great fodder for a movie, my suggestion is to get rid of Getting Rid of Matthew

I believe this is this author’s first endeavor. Try to do better next time, please.
LadyBookbug!

Tomorrow by Graham Swift

This Booker-Prize-winning author gives us a luminous tale—(I beg to differ—it is a tedious tale)……. This reader kept wanting to interrupt the conversation and say GET TO THE POINT ALREADY!

It is the story of a family. The premise is that tomorrow a secret will be revealed that will change their lives. Paula and Mike are married 25 years and have twins, Nick and Kate, who are teenagers. Paula tells the story of how she and Mike came to be where they are and what the future might hold for them.

I could not wait to get to tomorrow---in a bad way! Just get on with it already. It was overdone.

Ladybookbug!

The Choice by Nicholas Sparks

The Choice by Nicholas Sparks

It’s been a while since I have read one of Mr. Spark’s entries, the last being The Guardian.Yes, his books are quasi-romantic and some might view them as dribble. I, on the other hand, feel that any book that leaves me reconsidering a viewpoint, and possibly changing it, is worth the read.

This is the story of two single people who meet over the questionable impregnation of a dog. It is also the story of how two people come together, marry, form a family and forge an everlasting love.

An unexpected tragedy forces Travis to take a closer look at his life and make some difficult decisions. This is a REAL story. It could happen to any one of us. Mr. Sparks takes the reader to a place where we may need to reconsider past decisions.

Good book!

Ladybookbug!

Pontoon by Garrison Keillor

Pontoon by Garrison Keillor

I hope that your reading of this title is not your first foray into the world of “Lake Woebegon”. I hope that you have listened to “A Prairie Home Companion” on Saturday nights on your local PBS station for years and this is just another taste of a make-believe world that we all long to live in.

Pontoon by Garrison Keillor is a trip to that place where everyone has known your from the time you were a hiccup. It’s that town that you long to return to where people who haven’t seen you since your were a child, still walk up with a smile and a hug to welcome you back.

Living out on the East End for the past 30+ years, is almost like living in Lake Wobegon. If you’re looking for some light reading and some good belly laughs—read Keillor’s latest.

Ladybookbug!