I have been reading reviews today from the Early Birds Blog Tour for Follow Me. It seems that I may be the minority onabsolutely lovingthis book. I thought this book was rich in character development and the story had just the right amount of tragedy and redemption. Some of the reviews I’ve read have expressed that the readers were dissatisfied with beginning of the book and its tempo. I would like to say that I actually agree with those reviews. The beginning of this book was also a bit confusing for me; I re-read it twice. But, once I got to a certain point in the book, there was no turning back for me… I was hooked on the story.
Other reviewers have stated that they had trouble relating to Sally because her choices were so poor. I would have to agree that a part of me thought… well, had she just done THIS instead of THAT then none of this mess would ever have happened. But, when I looked at the overall book and Sally’s story I realized that her life is a series of tragedies brought on by poor judgment. In a way, she was ignorantly self-destructive. That, in my mind, almost made her a victim. Despite her shortcomings, I wanted more for her and her family. I wanted to see Sally achieve an outcome that wasn’t filled with pain and despair. In a way, she achieved that. Definitely, the ending of the book brought the reader closure on Sally’s life and legacy and gave it a new beginning.
I am going to stand by my rating of the book and A Novel Menagerie’s guaranty. I loved it…. but can definitely understand the viewpoints of the other GREAT AND RESPECTABLE reviewers who posted today.
“On a summer day in 1946, Sally Werner, the precocious daughter of hardscrabble Pennsylvania farmers, accepts her cousin Daniel’s invitation to ride his new motorcycle. Like so much of what follows in Sally’s life, it’s a decision driven by impulse and a thirst for adventure, a decision with dramatic and far-reaching consequences.
Soon Sally abandons her newborn baby and her home. Fueled in equal measures by her eternal optimism and her mercurial moods, she embarks on an odyssey of self-creation that spans six decades, the story of which she entrusts to only one person: her granddaughter and namesake. It’s an uncommon legacy that young Sally believes until her father – a man she has never known – enters her life and offers another story altogether, forcing her to uncover the truth of her grandmother’s secret history.”
(Above excerpt is from the back cover of Follow Me)
The Review
This story swept me away into Sally’s life and mind. The story flowed like the river that ties the characters of this saga. The writing engulfed me. This story is one that I will never forget and am deeply grateful to JoAnna Scott for writing.
Scott is the author of nine books. Of these nine books, one was a finalist for the Pulitizer Prize and two were finalists for the PEN/Faulkner Award. If these books are anything like Follow Me, I can certainly understand why. In my never-to-be-humble opinion, this book should be nominated, as well.
Follow Me is an epic tale of women and the hard choices that they are often faced with. This is the heartbreaking story of what happens to families when adversity infiltrates them. This is a memoir of love that was never meant to be lost, but was stolen from the lovers. This is a woman’s search for redemption for a life that she couldn’t possibly replace with other choices; the outcomes were destined and unavoidable. This is a tragic song of a man who lost what should have been his. All of this is told by a granddaughter who pieces together the remnants of fantasy with the pieces truth searching to be found.
On Sher’s “Out of Ten Scale:”
Is there any doubt, whatsover, that I am going to rate this book a 10 OUT OF 10? Of course, not! I deserves it! I only wish our bookclub read hardcovers, because this will make A GREAT BOOK CLUB discussion.
My heartfelt thanks to Miriam and Hachette for this amazing read.
I invite everybody to participate in the weekly MEME and write about any movies, television or big screen, that you’ve seen over the past week and write about it. Please feel free to use the above logo photo in your post and/or link back to the site. I will post every Sunday Night or Monday Morning on the movie I’ve seen from the past week. I’m hoping that there are other movie buffs out there who will enjoy the MEME as much as I’m hoping to! The only small request that I have is that you rate the movie out of 5 bags of popcorn (so, 1 bag out of 5, 2 bags out of 5, and so on).
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Movie: The Secret Life of Bees
Starring: Dakota Fanning, Queen Latifah, Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys, Sophie Okonedo, Paul Bettany, Nate Parker, Tristan Wilds
Genre: Drama
Runtime: 114 Minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Directed By:Gina Prince-Bythewood
I just recently completed my review of the book The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. After reading the book, I was anxious to see the movie. This movie was released in October of last year and has won 11 awards inlcuding the People’s Choice Award for Best Drama. With an all-star cast, this movie had GOOD written all over it.
Unfortuntately, for me, it wasn’t a great movie. Why? Because I just didn’t feel that the movie was as good as the book. Also, the characters that I had dreamed up in my mind looked much different than the ones that were cast in this film. That is, except for Queen Latifah and Dakota Fanning. For me, these two ”fit the bill.” The others were just younger than I imagined, especially Jennifer Hudson and Alicia Keys. This is not to say that their performances weren’t good… because they were. However, they were just so different than what I played out in my mind that I was distracted by it. I must say, on the opposite side of that is QUEEN LATIFAH. Is there anything that this woman CAN’T DO? I am such a fan of hers and just think the world of her. She was perfect for the character and the movie.
If I had never read the book and was viewing this story for the first time, I believe I would have liked the movie much more than I did. I think that maybe this problem is inherit to me with the ”book into a movie thing.” But, then I ponder more and think about The Reader; I loved both the book and the movie…. same with Gone With the Wind. There are so many other movies that I feel the exact opposite about… what’s a girl to do? Like a moth to a flame, I will continue to see the movies based on the books I love. If I get one out of ten that the movie measures up… then, it’ll be worth the time investment.
If you’ve got a free Sunday afternoon, this would be a great rental or one to look out for on cable. If you’ve never read the book, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. Out of 5 bags of popcorn, genre drama… I give this:
Everybody is going to UCLA for the Book Festival. I can’t go because of lack of babysitters who are able to help me out and watch the kids. I can’t afford an all-day babysitter and I don’t have anyone willing to get them to their soccer game. I don’t have a very big family and only a few close friends that could really take the kids and do that for me. So, I’m missing out. I’m missing out on Lisa See, Maria Semple, and more. I’m horribly bummed out about it. So, I started to remind myself… I’m only a mommy with little ones for so long. One day I will miss taking them to soccer games. As I told Lisa, once they’re grown and gone, there will be many years for book festivals.
This Week’s Reads
This week, I read and reviewed:
In My Mailbox for Review
Miracle Girls, It’s All About Us, The Fruit of My Lipstick, Be Strong & Curvaceous and 20 Boys Summer.
I did pick up some books from a liquidation sale and I’m excited to rotate those into the reading schedule. Some are classics!
Contests
This week I announced my three winners for the Follow Me contest. There is a big blog tour for Follow Me and it’s posting around the ”net” on April 27th. So, there will be lots of reviews to check out!
I have a new contest going on that started yesterday! I’m giving away 3 copies of Who Made You a Princess AND a GRAND PRIZE WINNER will win the entire series plus a t-shirt. I really enjoyed this YA Fiction book and so did my daughter. It’s faith based and has a really positive message for teens/tweens. Love that!
Reading Challenges
For the participants of the Just For the Love of It Challenge, THIS IS OUR LAST MONTH. Please post your April reviews HERE. The participants of this challenge have posted some terrific book reviews. You can find them by going to the sidebar and click onto a month and check out what’s been linked.
On J. Kaye’s 100+ Reading Challenge… I’m at 54 books done. Therefore, my statistical update for this challenge is that I’m 54% completed with 30.27% of the year completed. This puts me ahead of schedule by 21.78%. Yeah! That’s 3% higher than last week.
I’m going to join in on the Classics Challenge and I need to get my post up. Bad Sheri!
Lainey Grace Update
Unfortunately, Lainey Grace was rushed back to the hospital this week. She’s having some trouble with her stomach and is experiencing all kinds of horrible side effects. I believe that they are mostly attributable to the chemo. Her white blood cell count is down to nothing and her mom, Lori, is staying with her. Her risk for infection is so high that there is a strict restriction on who can and can’t enter her room, even hospital staff. She’s been running a fever the majority of the week. Every time she gets one, another 48-Hour “Stay in Hospital Clock” starts ticking. She’s really bummed out about it and wants to go home. Lori has been reading the Little House on the Prairie Series to her and has the DVD’s for when she’s gets tired of reading. Lainey is enjoying that more so than the games, coloring, etc. activities that Lori brought for her.
If I may be so bold as to ask for more prayers… PLEASE? This little angel couldn’t get enough! I’ve posted Lainey Grace’s photo in my sidebar and also one of her family.
In case you hadn’t read Lainey Grace’s story, you can access it by clicking HERE.
At Home & On TV
Now Lawrence and Eydta are gone. I’m okay with that based on the performances this week. If you’re into it, you can catch up on my goofy gossip (HERE).
I got to see my nephew, Aaron, this week. He is so cute! His hair sticks straight up. Adorable, I tell you. His parents have been working with him on self-soothing and falling asleep on his own. They’ve done a great job and it’s going great for him. He’s also gotten two teeth. I’m a smitten kitten. So cute!
Nothing interesting really to report on the home front other than I’ve dyed my hair. No more streaks of blonde. I can’t afford the maintenance anymore. Good-bye highlights. I loved my old pamper-thy-self lifestyle. When will this economy pick up? Ugh.
The Ollie-Wall-O-China was completed and turned in. Ollie is depressed. Open House Night was, well… interesting. The 6th-8th graders did some square dancing in the gym in addition to 2 songs of the electric slide. I don’t know why we needed 2 songs’ worth of the electric slide… but… Let me tell you, looking at the models in the social studies classrooms… WOW! I can’t believe some of the work that these kids and parents put into them. It made the Ollie-Wall-O-China look stupid. I saw working drawbridges, castles, chinese buildings… it was crazy! All I can say is that I hope that the twins are better “project builders” by the 8th grade because I DO NOT want to build those models. Oh no!
We’re still getting over sickness at my home and I curse the day that I got allergies. But, we’re on the mend.
As always, my thanks to all of you for reading not only this post, but the others as well. Your readership means the world to me! AND, your comments are invaluable to me!
Hachette Books has agreed to allow me giveaway 3 copies!
But WAIT, there’s more…
ONE lucky winner will win THE GRAND PRIZEconsisting of the entire “All About Us Series” which shall include Who Made You A Princess PLUS:
With the GRAND PRIZE, you will also win this great t-shirt:
Here’s all you have to do to win…
ONE ENTRY: Leave me a comment below
TWO ENTRIES: Visit my review of Who Made You A Princess?and leave me a comment on that post in addition to this post. Make sure that you mention in your comment that you’ve left a comment on both posts.
THREE ENTRIES: Post on your blog about the giveaway. But, it MUST include one of the two pictures from the bottom of this post. Please leave me a comment letting me know you’ve posted.
ADDITIONAL TWO ENTRIES: In your comment, tell us something about your teenage years. What challenges did you face with peer pressure or dating? Did your faith help you during this time in your life?
ADDITIONAL TWO ENTRIES: In your comment, share your thoughts about our tweens/teens of today. What do you think their biggest challenges are in their lives? What resources do you think help the most? Does faith make a difference?
ADDITIONAL ENTRY: Subscribe to A Novel Menagerie – leave in your comment.
ADDITIONAL ENTRY: “Tweet” about this contest on Twitter – advise me of the “Tweet”
ADDITIONAL ENTRY: Share this contest with one of your friends. When your friend enters, just have him/her mention your name as the one who referred the contest when they enter.
ADDITIONAL ENTRY: Add A Novel Menagerie to your blogroll.
“For Taylor Young life is very good. She has a handsome husband who loves her, three gorgeous children, a personally designed and decorated dream house. Suburbanite trendsetter and super mom—life couldn’t be more perfect. And as long as no one notices the fragile woman beneath her coifed and polished image, things will stay that way.
Then, a devastating secret bursts Taylor’s fairy-tale bubble, suddenly making her a cul-de-sac pariah, and stripping her of the role that defined her. With her struggling to maintain her alpha image, Taylor finds help from the unlikeliest of people, her nonconformist nemesis, Marta Zinsser. But to become the woman her family truly needs, Taylor must first believe in the person she is hardest on—herself.“
I was introduced to Jane Porter’s work when reviewing Flirting With Forty last December. Being a huge fan of the ChickLit genre, I really enjoyed reading the book and watching the Lifetime movie starring Heather Locklear. (BTW: Jane’s got a MEAN recipe for MaiTai’s that is posted on my Flirting with Forty post).
When I received Flirting With Forty for review, I was fortunate enough to get all of Jane Porter’s books including Mrs. Perfect. I’ve just now finally gotten around to reading and reviewing it, I’m really happy that I did. Jane Porter DELIVERS in this novel and I loved it! (Imagine me tearing through this fun 419 page book in less than 24-hours!) I have to admit that I liked it EVEN BETTER than Flirting With Forty! (Hope that’s okay… Jane!)
A neat thing that I have discovered is that Mrs. Perfect is tied to Odd Mom Out with Marta as the heroine of that story. Cool Beans! Since I enjoyed her very much in this story, I can’t wait to crack open that book and read Marta’s story. It’s a good thing it’s on the nightstand ready for reviewing within the month.
If you have never read of any of Jane Porter’s books, let me just tell you that so far they’ve all been great for me. They are a fantastic escape from my life and her characters are so relatable! I can completely envision them and I find myself really rooting for their successes. Being a mom, Jane Porter does a great job writing characters who are also moms which makes these books so endearing to me. For example, the way Taylor’s girls are fighting in this book are written so true-to-life that I could hear their little voices in my head, which is not hard considering I can also hear mine at it in the next room!
In Mrs. Perfect, our heroine undergoes a major life change and faces challenges, daughters in tow. How much more perfectcould this book be for me? But, then again… you just can’t go wrong with a Jane Porter book!
On Sher’s “Out of Ten Scale:”
If you’re a fan of ChickLit, Jane Porter is right up there with Jennifer Weiner and Helen Fielding. I think that she does a great job of having “a little bit of this” and “a little bit of that” to each of her books. You get the heartache and the sadness, but you also get the humor! Along with those, you can count on heroines who get in touch with what’s going on inside them and overcoming the obstacles that are holding them down. Another great component of Jane Porter’s books, especially Mrs. Perfect, is the great character development of the heroine’s girlfriends. Jane Porter has really great insight into the female mind and it really shows in her books!
For the genre Fiction:Women’s Fiction/ChickLit, I am going to rate this book a 9 OUT OF 10.
Guess What Jane’s Up To?
Many of you book bloggers may have been involved in the Flirting With Forty book review/Lifetime movie review last year. It was a total blast. When I was visiting her website, I came across the fact that Jane has written a new book. Here’s what it’s about:
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Commit to spending five hours doing something that you love. No compromises or interruptions. Five hours of exploring self, finding peace, and replenishing.
Author: JoAnna Scott
This story swept me away into Sally’s life and mind. The story flowed like the river that ties the characters of this saga. The writing engulfed me. This story is one that I will never forget and am deeply grateful to JoAnna Scott for writing. 
Is there any doubt, whatsover, that I am going to rate this book a 10 OUT OF 10? Of course, not! I deserves it! I only wish our bookclub read hardcovers, because this will make A GREAT BOOK CLUB discussion.
Movie: 
If I had never read the book and was viewing this story for the first time, I believe I would have liked the movie much more than I did. I think that maybe this problem is inherit to me with the ”book into a movie thing.” But, then I ponder more and think about The Reader; I loved both the book and the movie…. same with Gone With the Wind. There are so many other movies that I feel the 
Everybody is going to UCLA for the Book Festival. I can’t go because of lack of babysitters who are able to help me out and watch the kids. I can’t afford an all-day babysitter and I don’t have anyone willing to get them to their soccer game. I don’t have a very big family and only a few close friends that could really take the kids and do that for me. So, I’m missing out. I’m missing out on Lisa See, Maria Semple, and more. I’m horribly bummed out about it. So, I started to remind myself… I’m only a mommy with little ones for so long. One day I will miss taking them to soccer games. As I told Lisa, once they’re grown and gone, there will be many years for book festivals. 
I was introduced to Jane Porter’s work when reviewing 
