Stash

Book Bag Rating: Maybe


This is a story about an uber-suburban housewife who decides to get some pot for a weekend trip with her family. She is on the PTO. She volunteers. She ferries her kids to and from all kinds of activities. She makes healthy meals. She belongs to a farm co-op. She is the picture of super-mom. The ironic part is she buys $500 worth of pot so she can share with a friend who happens to be her attorney's wife. After smoking a joint in a public park she puts the pot in the pouch of the seat behind her and proceeds to go pick up her kids (and a friend's). She wasn't supposed to pick up the kids but when a friend is delayed she goes. On the way she has a significant car accident. The accident is proven not to be her fault but the other driver dies and she has pot in her car and in her system.

The rest of the book is about the chain of events that occur after her subsequent arrest and release.

I liked the first half of the book but then I found the story to go flat in a bunch of ridiculous coincidences. The ending winds things up a little too perfectly.

This should have been a more dirty, gritty story. This seemed to be a sanitized version of what could happen.

The last few pages especially really irked me. Did these people learn anything?

I read this pretty quickly so it did hold my interest but I stopped enjoying it around page 185.

The Leisure Seeker

Book Bag Rating: Not for everyone.

I rushed through this book because I needed to get to the inevitable end (no pun intended). I liked this book and the author's style is engaging and readable. However, this is not a book that will speak to everyone. There are moments that are funny but it is pretty depressing for the most part.

This is the story of one last vacation road trip in Ella and John's faithful Leisure Seeker camper. They will drive from their home in Michigan to Disneyland following Route 66 as much as they can. Ella and John married more than 60 years set off on what will be their last vacation together due to her terminal cancer and his advancing Alzheimer's. Both their doctors and children tell them not to take the trip but Ella knows it is the right thing to do.

So much of their road trip was familiar to me which is just a little bit disconcerting. When Ella and John stop at Stuckey's for a pecan roll I was there with them. As a child Stuckey's was "the" place on the road second only to South of the Border. We all like to think how different our lives are but as the author points out we're all essentially moving in the same direction.

I like the relationship between Ella and John. Despite their diseases things are normal. They bicker, make up, share inside jokes and secrets and just know they are loved by each other.

The ending is perfect for this story. Strangely, I can imagine my last trip being a road trip to Disney World. I wouldn't mind my ending to be like theirs.

Sugar Queen

Book Bag Rating: Read it!

This was the third in a "hat trick" of books. I loved this one too. Sarah Addison Allen now has me as a groupie! This was another sweet love story with a hint of the supernatural sprinkled throughout. The main theme was forgiveness. Could Chloe forgive Jake for cheating? Could Josey forgive herself and her mother for her childhood? Could Margaret forgive herself and find love with Randall? Could Della Lee forgive herself and help someone? Could Adam forgive himself and learn to live again.

The story takes place in a small ski town where Adam has landed after a horrible accident nearly takes his life. He meets Josey who lives in a self imposed prison while trying to make up for her sins as a young girl. Josey meets Della Lee who shows up one day unannounced in her closet. Chloe meets Josey after Della Lee sends Josey for a sandwich in Chloe's shop. Chloe, Josey and Della Lee are bound by more than just problems. The three women will find every thing they are looking for with each other's help.

The other main characters in the book are books themselves. Maybe secretly this is why I loved the story so much. Books have a way of just showing up when Chloe needs them. Try as she might she can't escape the books.

I predicted the ending about halfway through but I still loved every minute of getting to the end.

The Girl Who Chased the Moon

Book Bag Rating: Read it!

I loved this story and the quirky characters in it. If I really think about the premise it's ridiculous but, if I just think about the characters it's a simple love story. Emily is sent to live with her grandfather whom she has never met after her mother's death. When she arrives in the small town of Mullaby, NC she finds out that her mother led a different life in this town and rather than living up to the altruistic mother Emily knew her to be she found out she had to live down the girl who grew up in Mullaby. It is also the story of Julia who grew up in Mullaby and knew Emily's mother. Julia also left town but when her father died she came back to tie up loose ends and she makes it clear she is only there temporarily. Both Emily and Julia are trying to find out where they fit in and where they belong. They are both searching for love and acceptance and despite not wanting to they both find exactly what they need in this small quirky town.

This is a fast easy read. I like the hint of supernatural that the author sprinkles into each of her books. It's there and on it's face crazy, but somehow Ms. Allen is able to weave a believable crazy story.