Simon and Schuster

Alone With You: Stories

admin — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 08:00:00 +0000

For years, I read The New Yorker for the politics and music reviews more than for its fiction. Aside from stories by some of my favorite novelists—Jhumpa Lahiri, Zadie Smith—I was content to skip most fictional pieces.

However, a few weeks ago, I happened upon Marisa Silver’s astonishingly lovely story of youthful shiftlessness and indiscretion, “Temporary.” Imagine my delight—and surprise—when I sat down to my latest short story collection and found that it was not only by the same author; that same story was the first in the book.

Silver is one of those fortunate writers whose work has been selected by the literati for praise. Fortunate though she may be, she is also remarkably talented and deserving of such accolades. In Alone With You, Silver writes with empathy and grace about a diverse collection of characters. From the humiliation suffered by the Polish immigrant handyman to the embarrassment of young girls whose mother has a little too much to drink at seemingly every inopportune occasion, Silver explores each individual and their unique situation with the sensitivity of an insider. Many of the stories are tinged with sadness, but really, isn’t life just a collection of bittersweet moments?

In my mind, the best fiction comes from personal experience, so much so that it may not deviate far from actual events that once transpired. Though it’s impossible to say for sure, Silver seems to go beyond that limitation and write about universals without necessarily having lived so close to them. Whether you choose Alone With You or another of her short story collections, pick one up immediately.

Written by: Brittany Shoot, June 8th 2010

Falling Apart In One Piece: One Optimist’s Journey Through the Hell of Divorce

admin — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 08:00:00 +0000

By Stacy Morrison

Simon and Schuster

I’m one of the many women who have been through divorce so I picked up Stacy Morrison’s memoir Falling Apart in One Piece, about her divorce, with interest. Because few of my friends and family members have experienced divorce, it’s been one long lonely road for me. How do people deal with the guilt? I’ve wondered. How do they stop worrying about their ex—even after they’ve fallen in love with somebody else?

Less literary and more chatty-confessional style—in vogue with the women’s magazines that Morrison has edited all these years (Mirabella and Marie Claire, for example, or, most recently, Redbook)—Morrison relates her tale like a woman sitting down over a cup of tea with a friend. Her story takes us to the heart of despair in the wake of divorce. Though Morrison’s husband didn’t abandon their son, he left her holding the bag for a house that was falling apart around her. Morrison soon realized that she was literally living a metaphor, the house a perfect symbol of her crumbling marriage.

What did I do wrong? Morrison wonders. How could I have believed in marriage, only to be fooled? How could marriage have been just the thing I needed, while my husband felt like it was sucking his soul dry? And, most importantly, How am I ever going to be a single mom? How am I going to afford it? How am I going to get rid of this damned house? Even as she takes a new job as Editor-in-Chief of Redbook Magazine, Morrison wonders if she’s a fraud. Can she promote marriage and family when her own has disintegrated?

Through all her financial struggles, loneliness, self-doubt, and desolation, Morrison works hard not to become bitter or angry, so that she and her former husband can be good parents to their son. She comes through it with hope for the future and a new-found respect for her own abilities to make it through anything.

Falling Apart in One Piece is neither a literary masterpiece nor a self-help manual, but it is another genre somewhere in between those two—a personal story of heartache, loss, and hope, told honestly and thoughtfully. Definitely worth reading for those who have been through divorce and want to understand their own muddled emotions.

Written by: Jessica Powers, June 6th 2010

The Get 'Em Girls' Guide to the Perfect Get-Together: Delicious Recipes to Delight Family and Friends

admin — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 17:31:00 +0000

By Shakara Bridgers, Jeniece Isley, Joan A. Davis

Simon and Schuster

Once you get past the bright pink and purple cover with cartoonish women and the “you go girl” writing style of the introduction, The Get 'Em Girls' Guide to the Perfect Get-Together is actually a pretty good cooking and entertaining book. Confession: I’m a girl who actually does like pink, and entertaining, and cocktails with little pieces of fruit for garnish. I even like cartoons. However, I can’t help but be a little bit turned off by marketing that screams, “You have estrogen! You must love this!”

I decided to experiment with the entertaining menu concept, since the central theme of the book is simplifying the get-together so that you don’t have to agonize over what to serve. Being a huge fan of brunch (what’s not to like about getting up late and drinking mimosas?), I decided to host a small, late-morning party for a few friends using the “Meet the Family Sunday Brunch,” though I went with the “Meet Prince Charming” menu (out of three choices) because it featured grits, and being a Southern girl, I am a sucker for grits.

The full menu consisted of sweet potato waffles with honey butter, easy coffee cake muffins, and of course, the baked cheese grits. I was a little bit unsure about having muffins and waffles (won’t most people pick one or the other?), but both were a huge hit. The waffles were perfect—enough sweet potato flavor to be different, but enough like a waffle to qualify as real brunch fare. The muffins were crumbly and moist and sugary delicious. They were probably not super-healthy (hello butter, sugar, and shortening!), but worth the indulgence. And I practically finished the pan of cheesy grits myself.

The book is divided into chapters by type of social event, and is prefaced with some quick information about wine, decorating, and cleaning up. The chapters even have little tidbits of handy knowledge mixed in. (Hosting a poker night for the girls? Here’s a quick guide about cards.) I found most of the information useful, with the exception of the list of eight reasons to host a get-together. Assuming that I bought this book, I probably wouldn’t need too much convincing to have my friends over. Especially not for the reason number eight, “Last but not least—you are a Get ‘Em Girl!” I am?

I will definitely try more recipes from this book. In fact, when my friends saw the book on the counter at my brunch, they demanded another party featuring the key lime and chocolate martinis from the cocktail section at the back. My advice is to ignore the girly trappings and start cooking the tasty food (and drinks!). Your guests will keep coming back for more.

Written by: Jennifer Wedemeier, August 15th 2009

The Time it Takes to Fall

admin — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 11:46:00 +0000

By Margaret Lazarus Dean

Simon and Schuster

Margaret Lazarus Dean uses an American tragedy, the space shuttle Challenger explosion, as the backdrop of her charming coming-of-age novel, The Time It Takes to Fall. The heroine of the story is Dolores Gray, who is just entering the 7th grade. She lives with her mother, Deborah; her father, Frank; and her 5-year-old sister, Delia in Palmetto Park, a fictitious town near Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Dolores is, in many ways, just like every other 11-year-old kid. She is insecure, wants to fit in with the popular girls, and is developing an interest in boys - yet Dolores is a world apart from her peers. She is an intelligent young woman with an avid interest in physics and a dream of someday becoming an astronaut. Dolores chronicles this dream in an inspiring space scrapbook. Any adult with a goal or high aspirations could learn from Dolores’ practice of keeping a journal.

The author separates the book into sections according to the mechanical terms relating to the space shuttle - Operational, Launch Safety, Launch Delays, and Erosion - correlating this terminology with Dolores’ daily life experiences. For example, in "Operational," we learn that Dolores’ father has just been laid off temporarily from NASA, but the family is able to function and stay operational because her mother finds a job in order to contribute to the family income.

Dolores’ father is a technician who works on the solid rocket boosters, a very important mechanical component of the shuttles. He wants Dolores to someday become a technician. She doesn’t have the heart to tell him that she doesn’t want to follow this path; rather, she wants to follow in the footsteps of her idol, astronaut Judith Resnik. Dolores and her father often go together to see the space shuttle launches.

Dolores’ most interesting relationship is with Eric Biersdorfer. Eric, like Dolores, is an exceptional student and has an interest in science, but is a bit of an outsider. Eric’s father is the Director of Launch Safety and plays a pivotal role in the story in terms of Dolores’ father’s career with NASA - and also in the relationship between her mother and father. Dolores is fascinated with Eric, but feels that she will risk her popularity if she befriends him.

In spite of the looming tragedy of the shuttle explosion, The Time It Takes to Fall is an enjoyable read with interesting characters and family dynamics. It was nice how Dolores’ father took an active role in raising his daughters while their mother was away allowing him to build a strong, albeit rocky relationship with Dolores. Young girls like Dolores need positive role models - such as astronaut Judith Resnik. The novel illustrates how important it is to encourage young women to develop their interests and talents in many areas including science. Even though this novel is for adults, teenagers will also enjoy this story.

Written by: Su Lin Mangan, June 21st 2008

Throw like a Girl

admin — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 11:55:00 +0000

By Jean Thompson

Simon and Schuster

After being asked what she wanted for her readers to take away from Throw Like a Girl, Jean Thompson answered that she hoped they appreciate the “transforming power of literature, how can it remove us from the everyday world and let us see with new eyes.” And this book does just that: it takes us away from the everyday world and then painfully drops us back with the suspicion that this fiction is actually very real.

The horrors of normalcy and the tedium of a common life are the forces that drive the majority of the characters in these twelve stories; our “heroines” are far from the romantic or ladylike ilk, but instead more like tough, strong and violent. On the opposite side stand the men in these accounts, mostly unsuccessful and lost, they portray what nobody wants and what most end up getting.

In “The Brat,” a spooky but familiar story about teenage anger Iris, the twelve year old outcast main character that is not “pretty or smart or nicey-nice,” hates everybody and everything, and we hate her; we hate her and we understand her because we have been there. This character, as most in this collection, is like we were, are or will be. All of these women have the urge to live, to act on their thoughts and to get what they really want, and we know that getting what you really want is a trap. We know that if we go for the cheese it will cut our heads off, and we do it anyways. Jean Thompson is the story teller of our own collective story.

Lust and boredom force Mel in “A Normal Life” to leave her children and husband to marry the man she was having a hot and heavy affair with just to go around in the circle of dissatisfaction, where she ceases being a "sexy siren" and instead becomes “just another nagging, squawking wife.”

“The Family Barcus” analyzes the life of a perfect American family, with an obsessively optimistic father who eventually gives up on life. It’s told in a first-person velvety prose that slips into the brain and tightly wraps it for a long time.

The wit and black humor of the title are splendidly sinister. Throw Like a Girl is a phenomenal account, and when you read it, you’ll understand why it bears the title of the collection.

Written by: Laura Koffler, September 6th 2007