Book Review: Emily and Einstein by Linda Francis Lee

Emily and Einstein - Linda Francis Lee
Release Date: March 1st, 2011
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Genre: Fiction
Source: Paperbook, Borrowed from a Friend
Buy the Book: Amazon

My rating:  5 out of 5 stars

Goodreads.com:  He was a man who didn’t deserve a second chance. But he needed one…

Emily and her husband Sandy Portman seemed to live a gracious if busy life in an old-world, Upper West Side apartment in the famous Dakota building.  But one night on the way to meet Emily, Sandy dies in a tragic accident.  The funeral isn't even over before Emily learns she is on the verge of being evicted from their apartment.  But worse than the possibility of losing her home, Emily is stunned when she discovers that her marriage was made up of lies. 

Suddenly Emily is forced on a journey to find out who her husband really was . . . all the while feeling that somehow he isn't really gone.  Angry, hurt, and sometimes betrayed by loving memories of the man she lost, Emily finds comfort in a scruffy dog named Einstein.  But is Einstein's seemingly odd determination that she save herself enough to make Emily confront her own past?  Can he help her find a future—even after she meets a new man? 

My Review:  

Beginning this review, with so many aspects of this book on my mind, is tough, so I'm just going to attempt to start at the beginning. 

Sandy Portman is on his way to tell his wife, Emily, that he wants a divorce, when he's hit and killed.  He is a pompous, arrogant, disdainful, jerk of a man, and a terrible husband.  In Sandy's desperate attempt to stay alive, he makes a deal with the "Old Man" to stay, but the "Old Man" requires that the deal be man on his terms.  The "Old Man" places Sandy in the present as a wiry, ugly, even hideous dog.  The purpose of Einstein aka Sandy is to save his wife, to make her whole again.  If he succeeds, he will be great, but if he fails, he will fade away to nothing.  His task becomes impossible when Emily's unruly sister moves in, Emily's job as a senior editor in sambles, Sandy's mother attempting to evict her from her home, and her new love interest Max.  

Emily and Einstein/Sandy are complete opposites.  Where Emily is happy and successful, Sandy was miserable, and he blamed her for his misery.  Einstein/Sandy starts to realize that despite everything, Emily could make it on her own, and achieving the desires and dreams that Sandy never could.  

I won't give away the ending - but let's just say I *really* loved this book.  Of course, being a dog lover helps, and seeing the progression of Sandy's realizations of the things he did wrong in his life, and trying to make them right by using Einstein was just cute.  I think that dogs are more human-like than people give them credit for, and I had to laugh often at the actions of Einstein.  Our dog Chloe is a lot like him when she's upset with one of us or her feelings are hurt. She sulks, she sometimes does things out of spite, and she's got the funniest personality ever. Sometimes I wonder if she's a human with four legs.  

Either way - if you are a dog lover, if you enjoy books with strong female leads, and if you enjoy seeing people's lives work out for the better, you'll have to read Emily and Einstein by Linda Francis Lee.  For me personally, this is the first Linda Francis Lee book I've read, but I'm intrigued by her writing style.  She has many other published books, so I plan to check her out. 
I hope you will too!  

Happy Reading!

Review: The Help by Kathryn Stockett

The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Release Date: February 10, 2009
Publisher: Berkley
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 464
Source: Library
Challenge: 100 Books in 2011
Buy the Book: Amazon

From Goodreads:

Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women—mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends—view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t.


My Thoughts:

There are not many books that leave me rendered speechless at the conclusion, but I can honestly say that The Help did just that.  The book is set in Mississippi during the 1960s in a time where segregation was the norm.  The book is narrated by three vastly different women.  Miss Skeeter who is a white woman who is interested in the plight of these colored ladies who are employed by various white families, Aibileen who reminds me a lot of my grandmother with her wisdom and courage, and then Minny, the one with the spunk.  Miss Skeeter convinces the maids of Jackson, MS to tell their stories of working for white families, the way they were treated, their relationships with the children, etc.  Each of these women put their lives at risk to tell their stories.

I absolutely can not recommend this book enough.  If you haven't had the privilege of reading it yet, you must rush out to the nearest bookstore, library, or online resource and get it IMMEDIATELY.  Kathryn Stockett does an amazing job with the character development and I grew to love each of these characters in ways that I haven't loved characters before.  I grew to love and admire the courage and wisdom of Aibileen.  She was such a loving, gracious character who really tried to teach her "children" compassion, love, and understanding.  Minny provided comic relief at some points in the story, but you grew to feel love for her as well.  She was spunky, but she was strong willed.

The relationships between white children and their black maids was heartwarming, because children truly see no color boundaries.  Miss Skeeter even remembers fondly her own maid growing up, Constantine.  The relationship between Miss Skeeter and Constantine is very similar to the relationship between Aibileen and Mae Mobley.

All I have to say is READ THE BOOK ALREADY!  You won't be disappointed.

Review: Room by Emma Donoghue

Room by Emma Donoghue
Release Date: September 13, 2010
Publisher: Little, Brown, and Company
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 321
Source: Library
Challenge: 100 Books in 2011
Buy the Book: Amazon

From Goodreads:

To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it's not enough...not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son's bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.

Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, ROOM is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.

My Thoughts:

I'm going to admit something on this book - I never ever read a book that I can't get into. As bad as that sounds, there are just too many other books out there that are on my to be read pile, and I don't have the time to spend on a book that I just can't get into.

So Room was that book for me. I only read the first 25 pages before putting it down, so obviously I can't form a good opinion of this book. I'm not saying don't read it, it just wasn't for me.  This book truly gets great reviews on various book sites, so I truly hope someone will read it, and convince me to try it again.