Beachcombers by Nancy Thayer (ARC)

Beachcombers: A Novel
Author:  Nancy Thayer
Publication Date:  June 22, 2010
Publisher:  Ballantine


Beautifully written, powerfully felt, full of both abundant joy and heart-wrenching sorrow, Beachcombers is an extraordinary novel that centers on the bittersweet reunion of three captivating, very different sisters on Nantucket over one gorgeous, exhilarating summer.

Abbie Fox hasn't seen her father or two younger sisters in almost two years, during which she's jetted around the world and experienced life, if not love. But now Lily, the baby of the family, is sending Abbie urgent emails begging her to return home to Nantucket. Their middle sister, Emma, has taken to her bed, emotionally devastated after the loss of her high-powered stockbroker's job and a shockingly unexpected break-up with her fiancé. Also, Lily is deeply worried that Marina, the beautiful, enigmatic woman renting their guesthouse, has set her sights on the sisters' widowed father, Jim. The Fox girls closed ranks years ago after the haunting, untimely death of their mother, but seeing their dad move on with his life forces each of them to take stock.

Over the course of the summer, the sisters' lives grow as turbulent as the unpredictable currents encircling Nantucket. When Abbie encounters an incredibly appealing married man, she breaks her own rules in the name of love, fearing all the while that she'll regret it. Meanwhile, type-A Emma learns a new definition of success, and strong-minded Lily must reconcile her dreams with reality. Even Marina, who has come to Nantucket to forget heartbreak and betrayal, faces an astonishing turn of events that will find her torn between fate and freedom. At summer's end, these unforgettable women will face profound choices - and undergo personal transformations that will surprise even themselves.

Check back soon for my review

FTC Full Disclosure ~ I received this book from Pump Up Your Books Tour Promotion in hopes of my reviewing it. 

The Wednesday Sister's ~

The Wednesday Sisters: A Novel by Meg Waite Clayton ~~

Friendship, loyalty, and love lie at the heart of Meg Waite Clayton’s beautifully written, poignant, and sweeping novel of five women who, over the course of four decades, come to redefine what it means to be family.For thirty-five years, Frankie, Linda, Kath, Brett, and Ally have met every Wednesday at the park near their homes in Palo Alto, California. Defined when they first meet by what their husbands do, the young homemakers and mothers are far removed from the Summer of Love that has enveloped most of the Bay Area in 1967. These “Wednesday Sisters” seem to have little in common: Frankie is a timid transplant from Chicago, brutally blunt Linda is a remarkable athlete, Kath is a Kentucky debutante, quiet Ally has a secret, and quirky, ultra-intelligent Brett wears little white gloves with her miniskirts. But they are bonded by a shared love of both literature–Fitzgerald, Eliot, Austen, du Maurier, Plath, and Dickens–and the Miss America Pageant, which they watch together every year.As the years roll on and their children grow, the quintet forms a writers circle to express their hopes and dreams through poems, stories, and, eventually, books. Along the way, they experience history in the making: Vietnam, the race for the moon, and a women’s movement that challenges everything they have ever thought about themselves, while at the same time supporting one another through changes in their personal lives brought on by infidelity, longing, illness, failure, and success.Humorous and moving, The Wednesday Sisters is a literary feast for book lovers that earns a place among those popular works that honor the joyful, mysterious, unbreakable bonds between friends.

This book reminds me of the Billy Joel song "We Didn't Start the Fire" as it progresses through the lives of these wonderful women from Bobby Kennedy being shot until now. I haven't been so engrossed in a book, as I was with this one, in a long time. This book is a clear example of the power of friendship and how it can endure over the years. I laughed with them and I cried with them and I didn't want the book to end. And when I finished, I emailed all of my best girlfriends just to tell them I love them. This book is a must read for any woman with girlfriends! A+

In celebration of this amazing and now national bestselling book being released in paperback on Tuesday, I wanted to bring this review back up to the top for those of you that may have missed it the first time around. If you're looking for that "perfect" book for your mom, grandmother, aunt, sister or best girlfriend for Mother's Day ~ then this is it. It's a story that they'll then want to share with all of their girlfriends as soon as they are done with it. It would also make a great choice for your next book club meeting. And of course Meg is available for chats with your book group via phone, just email through this link and she'll get in touch with you :)

The Piano Man

The Piano Man (Mira Hardbacks) by Marcia Preston ~~

Three years after the car accident that killed her 17-year-old son, Nathan, Claire O'Neal clings to grief, her life empty but for imagined conversations with the boy she raised on her own and her hectic job as a San Antonio, Tex., real estate agent. Preston (Butterfly House) strikes an uneven tone in this sentimental novel about loss and letting go. When therapy doesn't help, Claire decides to chase after Nathan's heart, which was transplanted to Mason McKinnon, a concert violinist with heart disease. She tracks Mason down to Sante Fe, New Mexico, where she finds him working as a piano player in a seedy bar, "wasting his health and a providential talent." She schemes her way into Mason's life and strives to preserve her son's gift by preparing healthful meals for Mason and hiding his cigarettes. Their friendship survives the revelation of her identity as the mother of his organ donor, and evolves into a strange romance. Awkwardly woven in with this story are peeks at other characters significantly affected by Nathan's death: his high school girlfriend Lindsey and the trucker who's wracked with guilt for his role in Nathan's accident. Preston's well-intentioned novel ultimately offers redemption and healing for its tragedy-stricken characters. (from Amazon)

Three years earlier Claire loses her son in a freak accident. In the wake of her grief she donates her sons heart to someone who is in dire need of it. While trying to get on with her life, Claire has visions of her son and is able to speak with him. He tells her that she needs to move on with her life. And in order for her to do that she seeks out the man who has received her sons heart. Mason is wasting his life away playing piano in a bar instead of the Symphony like he used to. At this point he doesn't care if he lives or dies. Until Claire comes into his life. At first he doesn't know who she is, but when she reveals herself they begin to work together towards healing and moving forward. We also meet the man who caused the accident as well as Nathans best friend and girlfriend - all of which are trying to move on in their own ways. A heartwarming tale with no villians, just ordinary people with lessons to learn.

All We Ever Wanted Was Everything

All We Ever Wanted Was Everything - by Janelle Brown (for Review)

In Brown's withering Silicon Valley satire, a family wakes up on a June day to realize that patriarch Paul's company has hit the big time with a phenomenal IPO. But instead of rejoicing about being newly rich, the family's three women each find themselves in the throes of a major crisis. Paul has fled with his new amour, who happens to be wife Janice's tennis partner. Desperate housewife Janice discovers the soothing power of the pool boy's drug stash and sinks into addiction and denial. Meanwhile, 20-something daughter Margaret learns the price of living a Hollywood lifestyle on an artsy hipster's budget—gargantuan credit card debt. Finally, 14-year-old Lizzie wades deeper and deeper into a sea of adolescent trouble without an adult to confide in. From the ashes of their California dreams, the three must learn to talk to each other instead of past each other, and build a new, slightly more realistic existence—but not without doses of revenge and hilarity (From Amazon)

A beautiful tale of 3 women from the same family struggling with the changes in their lives. Mom Janice has just be left by her husband of 29 years - as soon as it makes it RICH. Twenty-eight year old daughter Margaret comes home to support her mother as well as to escape her own problems in LA. And 14 year old Lizzie become the talk of the school and is left to figure things out on her own. Each of them must struggle to come to terms with what is happening in their lives, and find a way to come together as a family to communicate with and support one another. A wonderfully entertaining book filled with laughter and tears. An insightful look at what happens when families fall apart and how they can be put back together. A

Things I Want My Daughter To Know

Things I Want My Daughters to Know: A Novel by Elizabeth Noble ~~

How do you cope in a world without your mother?

When Barbara realizes time is running out, she writes letters to her four daughters, aware that they'll be facing the trials and triumphs of life without her at their side. But how can she leave them when they still have so much growing up to do?

Take Lisa, in her midthirties but incapable of making a commitment; or Jennifer, trapped in a stale marriage and buttoned up so tight she could burst. Twentysomething Amanda, the traveler, has always distanced herself from the rest of the family; and then there's Hannah, a teenage girl on the verge of womanhood about to be parted from the mother she adores.
But by drawing on the wisdom in Barbara's letters, the girls might just find a way to cope with their loss. And in coming to terms with their bereavement, can they also set themselves free to enjoy their lives with all the passion and love each deserves?

This heartfelt novel by bestselling author Elizabeth Noble celebrates family, friends . . . and the glorious, endless possibilities of life.

A Page Out Of Life

A Page Out of Life by Kathleen Reid ~~ The connections women make through scrapbooking inspire a novel full of “the twists and turns that keep readers turning pages.”

When frazzled mother of four Ashley joins a local scrapbook club, she’s amazed at the way old photos and mementos can bring color to sepiatoned memories. Among the diverse group is Tara, a single grad student whose search for love, like her relationship with her absentee father, has only brought her heartache…and some funny dating stories. Then there’s Libby, a semi-retired teacher who thought she’d spend her golden years taking classes—not as a town pariah after her son is charged in a corporate scandal. But all three find comfort and inspiration in the scrapbooking group, where they learn that only together can they face earth-shattering revelations and emotionally unavailable men—and figure out their futures while artfully commemorating their pasts.

*****

I loved this story. Any woman who gets together with a group of friends for any reason (book club, scrapbooking, knitting) must read this book! When Ashley joins her friends scrapbooking club she has no idea her life is about to change forever. While there is a large group of women who meet once a week, the story focuses on the lives of Ashley, Libby and Tara, three people with connections that no one expected. And how their lives will be changed forever. This is a beautiful tale of friendship and shows us just how lucky we are to have such good people in our lives. A+