*PUSH* A Novel by Sapphire

An electrifying first novel that shocks by its language, its circumstances, and its brutal honesty, Push recounts a young black street-girl's horrendous and redemptive journey through a Harlem inferno. For Precious Jones, 16 and pregnant with her father's child, miraculous hope appears and the world begins to open up for her when a courageous, determined teacher bullies, cajoles, and inspires her to learn to read, to define her own feelings and set them down in a diary

***Rate this a 3/5. This is a shocking and sad novel in that it is not fiction, but a true story. It is culture shock to anyone in white suburbs without a realization that this lifestyle exists. Sad and tragic, but a story that needed to be told.

*APPETITE FOR LIFE: The Biography of Julia Child by Noel Riley Fitch

Julia McWilliams was always adventurously hunting for food to fill her 6'2" frame. When, in her late 20s, the Smith College-educated Californian took a wartime job with the OSS that sent her to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and China, she began cultivating a taste for authentic eatables as an alternative to service fare. Almost resigned to spinsterhood, she met and married Cambridge, Mass.-born government official Paul Child, who was on Asian duty, and accompanied him to his USIA posts in France and Germany. A gastronomical epiphany that occurred in Rouen, at the bistro where the couple once lunched, led her to attend the Cordon Bleu cooking school in Parisand the rest is history. In 1961, Child published the three-pound bestseller Mastering the Art of French Cooking when she was 49, and a few years later she was a TV superstar conducting gustatory symphonies with whisks and pans and patter. Her life is told warmly and compellingly by Fitch, author of several books on literary and culinary Paris, who nicely captures Child's exuberant mannerisms and plummy voice that fans know so well. Her graphic diary-letters, extracted at length by Fitch, register the couple's experiences together and the emotions they shared.


****Rate this book 4/5. I have to admit that after I saw the movie "Julie & Julia" I became very interested in the life of Julia Child. This was a very good book about a fabulous woman. She was ahead of her time as far as I am concerned: an appetite for life as big as her appetite for food. I loved her marriage to Paul Child being remembered as one in which they both respected and loved each other deeply, and were indeed, true partners. I doubt many of us have the love and consideration for each other that these two did, and total opposites nonetheless. Fascinating woman, Ms. Julia Child. Your life was rich and full and you enjoyed every minute of it.

*TOO MUCH MONEY* by Dominick Dunne

"My name is Gus Bailey...It should be pointed out that it is a regular feature of my life that people whisper things in my ear, very private things, about themselves or others. I have always understood the art of listening."The last two years have been monstrously unpleasant for high-society journalist Gus Bailey. His propensity for gossip has finally gotten him into trouble -- $11 million worth. His problems begin when he falls hook, line, and sinker for a fake story from an unreliable source and repeats it on a radio program. As a result of his flip comments, Gus becomes embroiled in a nasty slander suit brought by Kyle Cramden, the powerful congressman he accuses of murder, and he fears it could mean the end of him.The stress of the lawsuit makes it difficult for Gus to focus on the novel he has been contracted to write, which is based on the suspicious death of billionaire Konstantin Zacharias. It is a story that has dominated the party conversations of Manhattan's chattering classes for more than two years. The accused murderer is behind bars, but Gus is not convinced that justice was served. There are too many unanswered questions, such as why a paranoid man who did not go anywhere without bodyguards was suddenly left without protection the very night he perished in a tragic fire. Gus believes the answers lie with Konstantin's hot-tempered and vengeful wife, Perla. He intends to uncover the truth, even though doing so will gain him another dangerous enemy.

In true Dominick Dunne fashion, Too Much Money is peppered with thinly veiled fictions, keeping readers guessing about the real-world villains and intrigues that lie beneath its chapters. Dunne revives the world he first introduced in his mega-bestselling novel People like Us, and he brings readers up-to-date on favorite characters such as Ruby and Elias Renthal, Lil Altemus, and, of course, the beloved Gus Bailey. Once again, he invites us to pull up a seat at the most important tables at Swifty's, get past the doormen at esteemed social clubs like The Butterfield, and venture into the innermost chambers of the Upper East Side's most sumptuous mansions. Too Much Money is a satisfying, mischievous, and compulsively readable tale by the most brilliant society chronicler of our time -- the man who knows all the secrets and isn't afraid to share them.

*****Rate this 5/5. I am so sad that this is the end of Dominick Dunne's writing career. I read every book he ever wrote as well as all of his columns in Vanity Fair. I will truly miss him. I loved this book, another fitting tribute to Mr. Dominick Dunne.

*Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin

Official Book Club Selection is Kathy Griffin unplugged, uncensored, and unafraid to dish about what really happens on the road, away from the cameras, and at the star party after the show. (It’s also her big chance to score that coveted book club endorsement she’s always wanted. Are you there, Oprah? It’s me, Kathy.)Kathy Griffin has won Emmys for her reality show Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List, been nominated for a Grammy, worked and walked every red carpet known to man, and rung in the New Year with Anderson Cooper. But the legions of fans who pack Kathy’s sold-out comedy shows have heard only part of her remarkable story. Writing with her trademark wit, the feisty comic settles a few old scores, celebrates the friends and mentors who helped her claw her way to the top, and shares insider gossip about celebrity behavior–the good, the bad, and the very ugly. She recounts the crazy ups and downs of her own career and...

Rate this 3.5 out of 5. For the first 2/3 of the book, I was completely enthralled as Kathy is a very good story teller. She makes fun of herself before other people can, but sometimes I get the impression that being a star, being on camera, being in the spotlight is of such vast importance to her, that she leaves nothing else room in her life. She was actually a very sore loser because she lost out on her first Emmy nomination and stormed out, not attending the followup parties, etc. She justifies her yelling at the winners (Extreme Makeover) by saying it was all in fun and why couldn't they take a joke. It seems to me that she was wound up as a little performer in her early age, got a good response from it, and now can't get through a day without it being 'all about her'.

I Want: My Journey From Addiction and Overconsumption To A Simpler, Honest Life - Jane Velez-Mitchell

Host of her own Headline News show, journalist Velez-Mitchell addresses a number of her own issues in this honest but ultimately unremarkable narrative, focusing largely on former addictions to alcohol, cigarettes, food and money: "I've consumed all of those in massive quantities, and they've just made me miserable. Now, I want... the opposite of material. As sappy as it might sound, what I want is spiritual." Velez-Mitchell then recounts a childhood with parents who taught her to shun all authority but their own; a young adulthood in which she nearly drank herself into oblivion; her decision to get sober; how she came to terms with her homosexuality; and her climb to success in the world of television news. Despite these revelations, though, Velez-Mitchell's off-putting, self-righteous tone may make readers feel they're being scolded, rather than invited to understand or sympathize.


**Rate this book 2/5. While I thought that her addiction and recovery from alcohol would be interesting reading, it was not. She did attend AA, but this is briefly mentioned. She spends most of the book acting self-righteous and self-absorbed. She not only had an alcohol addiction that she overcame, she also was a compulsive shopper, became an animal rights crusader and a vegan, hug the trees, save the whales. It is a little bit of a stretch to believe all of her 'good deeds'. I was disappointed in this self-serving book.

*ANGEL TIME: SONGS OF THE SERAPHIM* By Anne Rice

Full of provocative moral reflections, this kickoff to bestseller Rice's new Songs of the Seraphim religious romance series centers on hired assassin Toby O'Dare, a one-time aspirant to the priesthood until personal tragedy unmoored his life. Guardian angel Malchiah visits Toby, who's just consummated his latest kill, and offers him redemption for his sins. After accepting the offer, Toby is whisked away to 13th-century England, where, in the guise of a Dominican friar, he becomes the protector of a Jewish couple accused wrongly by the gentile populace of having murdered their young daughter for her conversion to Christianity. Two eloquently told if clunkily joined digressions give the backstory on Toby and on the persecution of the Jews in medieval Europe. Readers will revel in Rice's colorful recreation of the historical past and in her moving depiction of characters struggling to reconcile matters of the heart with their personal sense of faith.

Rate this 5/5. I loved Anne's new venture into the light side instead of the dark. This book involves good versus evil, time travel and redemption. Now I can't wait for the second book in the series.

*HER FEARFUL SYMMETRY* by Audrey NIffenegger

Six years after the phenomenal success of The Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger has returned with a spectacularly compelling and haunting second novel set in and around Highgate Cemetery in London. When Elspeth Noblin dies of cancer, she leaves her London apartment to her twin nieces, Julia and Valentina. These two American girls never met their English aunt; they only knew that their mother, too, was a twin, and Elspeth her sister. Julia and Valentina are semi-normal American teenagers -- with seemingly little interest in college, finding jobs, or anything outside their cozy home in the suburbs of Chicago, and with an abnormally intense attachment to one another. The girls move to Elspeth's flat, which borders Highgate Cemetery. They come to know the building's other residents. There is Martin, a brilliant and charming crossword puzzle setter suffering from crippling obsessive-compulsive disorder; Marjike, Martin's devoted but trapped wife; and Robert, Elspeth's elusive former lover, a scholar of the cemetery. As the girls become embroiled in the fraying lives of their aunt's neighbors, they also discover that much is still alive in Highgate, including -- perhaps -- their aunt, who can't seem to leave her old apartment and life behind. Niffenegger weaves a captivating story in Her Fearful Symmetry: about love and identity, about secrets and sisterhood, and about the tenacity of life -- even after death.

****Rate this as 4/5. The first 3/4 of the book were priceless, and kept my rapt attention. Then I was totally disappointed by the last few chapters, as well as the end. It just did not comply or fit in with the beginning of the story. I liked The Time Traveler's Wife so much better. I felt like the ending of the book was somewhat rushed on this one, which is a shame since the first 3/4 were excellent and I loved the characters.