LOVE ANTHONY

by Lisa Genova

Olivia Donatelli has just lost her autistic son, Anthony and Beth Ellis's marriage has fallen apart.  Unkown to each other, they both retreat to Nantucket to try to make sense of their lives and their futures; one without the son she loved deeply and the other without the husband who destroyed their marriage.

As each woman deals with her own grief and sense of loss, their paths cross only fleetingly before Beth begins writing a story in the voice of an autistic boy.  Since Olivia has worked as as editor, Beth asks her to review her book and Olivia is shocked at the content.  She's convinced that her beloved Anthony is speaking through Beth.

And that's why this book lost me.  As background, let me say that I loved Ms. Genova's previous books, STILL ALICE and LEFT NEGLECTED.  I read and reviewed both of these books, giving them high recommendations.  The author's background in neuroscience lent great credibility to both novels which is why the mystical touch in love anthony was unexpected and jarring.

Needless to say, I was really looking forward to settling down with love anthony. Not in keeping with anything Lisa Genova had previously written, Beth's full book unfolds within the story of the women's lives, in a disjointed and disruptive way.  I found myself skipping over the novel within the novel in order to even finish reading Ms. Genova's newest.  This was a very disappointing purchase, but if you haven't read the author's previous works, you should.  Each was terrific!

ISBN 978-1-4391-6468-6
Pub. Date:  September 2012
309 Pages
Hardcover and eBook

THE MERYL STREEP MOVIE CLUB

by Mia March

Following a terrible car accident, Lolly Weller becomes a single mother to Kat, while also raising her two nieces, Isabel and June.  Now grown and living their own lives, June and Isabel receive a summons from their aunt to come home to the small Maine town where they were raised.  She has something important to discuss with them and Kat and wants to do it in person.

Isabel has just discovered that her husband has been having an affair and wants a divorce, and June is a struggling single mother, trying to deal with her young son's desire to meet his father.  Although they've been emotionally estranged from each other as well as from Kat and Lolly, both are grateful for the chance to escape the turmoil in their own lives.  Unknown to Isabel and June, although Kat has lived at home helping her mother with the inn, she longs to travel to far away places to become a master baker.

All three cousins are stunned when they discover that Lolly has brought them all together to tell them she's been diagnosed with cancer.  Lolly is determined to remain upbeat, and as is the custom, Friday night at The Three Captains' Inn is movie night, and the theme for this month is a selection of Meryl Streep movies.

Staying on at the inn to help Lolly through her treatments, the cousins find themselves revealing the problems in each of their own lives while watching and discussing each Meryl Streep movie selection.  As they bond with each other, they begin to define their own lives and their dreams for the future.

Although a little too predictable, THE MERYL STREEP MOVIE CLUB is nice, engaging, chick lit.

ISBN 9781451655391
Pub. Date:   To be released June 19, 2012
352 pages
Paperback and eBook

LEFT NEGLECTED

by Lisa Genova - to be released January 2011

Sarah Nickerson has it all; a loving husband, three young children, a high powered job, an expensive home and a vacation home in Vermont.  She also has all of the accompanying stress of trying to be everything to everyone.

Rushing as usual while trying to keep all of her balls in the air, Sarah is driving to work in the rain while on her cell phone when the unthinkable happens.  She has a car accident while going 70 mph and wakes up in the hospital with a severe brain injury that has caused a condition called left neglect.  Sarah's brain is unable to recognize left; the left side of her body or anything in her left field of vision. 

LEFT NEGLECTED is more than just the story of Sarah's injury and steps to recovery.  There's the underlying story of the neglect she experienced growing up with a mother who was overwhelmed by depression and grief following the accidental drowning of Sarah's young brother.  As she faces her rehabilitation and her future, she also begins to face her relationship with her mother and the dawning realization that her own family has been left neglected because of the lifestyle she and her husband Rob have chosen.

LEFT NEGLECTED is not all doom and gloom.  Ms. Genova has injected a sense of humor into her characters' dialog that makes the story easier to read and thoroughly enjoyable despite the dark subject matter.