IslandRoar

Life After Yes!!

Aidan Donnelley Rowley is one of us. I discovered her blog Ivy League Insecurities late last fall and was immediately drawn in by the artful way she spins her words.

She is a wife, a mother of two little girls, a blogger, and a lawyer who left her job to write. Gutsy? Daring? You bet.

On May 18th, her very first novel, Life After Yes, hit the bookstands. Aidan and her publisher were kind enough to make some copies available pre-publication and I got to read it last week.

Like her blog, it did not disappoint.

Life After Yes is the story of Quinn O'Malley, aka Prudence, a young lawyer who's just gotten engaged to Sage, the guy of her dreams. The setting is Manhattan only months after 911, and Quinn's dad was among the many who died in the Towers that day.

From the moment she gets engaged Quinn starts to question everything about her life and the direction in which it's headed, tumbling, she fears, beyond her control.

The novels characters are sincere, three dimensional. Aidan's use of language weaves a hypnotic spell with passages like this:

And I stare at that ring. Study it. And my mind takes a delirious, poetic detour. If only there were relationship cleaners like there are ring cleaners. If only you could take a good relationship, one that is in fact quite beautiful and robust, but dulled in spots (because of a lost brother or father, or a meddling mother) and just drop it in and wait. And then it would come out glittering and new. Because real life tarnishes even the most stunning gems. If only.

Will Quinn marry Sage or reunite with her old flame Phelps? Will she continue her climb up the corporate legal ladder or walk away? Can she get over losing her dad and find true happiness? Does that even exist?

I loved Quinn, with her many imperfections and her self absorbed angst, and I loved Life After Yes. I was sad when I read the last page because I didn't want it to end. Way to go Aidan! And thank you for the early peek.

I've never done a giveaway here on IslandRoar. But Life After Yes is too good to keep to myself. So leave a comment between now and Monday, and on Monday night I'll do a random drawing. The winner will receive my copy of Life After Yes.

If it isn't you, I highly recommend you order or go buy a copy for yourself. I know I'll definitely be buying another. Daughter #1 is waiting rather impatiently to read it. But I think she's going to have to get in line.

 

Seen The Glory

This Week's Spin: Books

This week we're supposed to write about books we love. One of my favorite writers happens to be a very good friend of mine, as well as a mentor: John Hough, Jr.

He lives on the Vineyard, where his roots go back a long time. He makes his living at his craft, not always an easy thing. John's had many books publilshed over the years, most of them novels.

His latest book, Seen the Glory: A Novel of the Battle of Gettysburg, came out on June 30th.  I wanted to write about it then, but I hesitated to use this space for any type of review. But when Jen made books the topic for this week's Spin, I could resist no longer.

I love this book. It is a meticulously researched and accurate portrayal of the Civil War battle, but it is so much more than that.

It's the story of  Luke and Thomas Chandler, idealistic brothers raised as abolitionists from Martha's Vineyard, who enlist in the Union Army. It is a love story between one of the brothers and Rose, their Cape Verdean housekeeper whom both brothers have been secretly in love with for years.

John allowed me to read the galley before the book came out, and I pored through its pages, anxious  to find out the ending for these characters I had come to care about deeply.

If you love coming-of-age stories, love stories, or historical fiction, you must read this novel. I've enjoyed everything John's ever written, but this book is easily my favorite.

It was one of those rare, wonderful times when I was really sorry to reach the end of a book, because I didn't want to let go of these characters or their story. You should definitely check it out.


To read about other people's favorite books, check out the other Spins at Sprite's Keeper.

The "Curious" Circle of Life

My baby was Curious George last Friday.

Daughter #2 has been volunteering at the library where I work this summer. So they asked her if she wouldn't mind donning that heavy Curious George costume and making the much publicized appearance.

What a costume it was! First, a big, padded pair of overalls, followed by the brown furry suit. Then George's red sweatshirt with his name emblazoned across the front. The hands and feet were separate pieces, and the head was large, with a helmet inside it and not much visibility. D#2 said she couldn't see half the children who attacked her with hugs and high fives.

I was ready with my camera, and so were most of the parents who showed up with their toddlers and preschoolers in the backyard of the library.

"They're so excited," one parent confessed of her two boys. "It's all they've talked about all morning."

I was not prepared for how adorable the whole thing would be. Multitudes of tiny children throwing themselves at my 15 year-old daughter, hidden behind George's benign smiling face.

Apparently little ones that are afraid of Santa are not intimidated by George. They sat on his lap, patted his head, and felt his fur. In one particularly endearing moment, a blond little boy in a baseball cap offered George his own Curious George stuffed toy that he had brought with him to the event. There was a loud, collective "Aw" from the crowd of parents busily clicking away, taking full advantage of the photo op.

More than one mom and dad claimed they were certain they'd just gotten the perfect photo for that year's Christmas card.

And me? I watched my own little girl playing her role to the nines, making the morning of so many parents and children, and I thought back to when she was that age.

The innocence, the wide-eyed wonder.

"Did they really think I was Curious George?" she asked me later, as I helped her out of the monkey suit.

"Oh, yes," I told her. "They really believed you were."

I think her day was made as well. I know mine sure was.

Summer Job

Library Lady

I just started a summer job at the library. Daughter #1 was kind enough to point out for me that I am:
    1-a middle-aged woman
    2-single and ALONE (you might wonder how I know she said this in
       capital letters; just trust me on this one, okay?)
    3-I have five cats, and now,
    4-I work in a library

I suppose she's insinuating that this makes me some sort of cliche. But, as I'm sure life will eventually point out to her, aren't we all?

I've had a bunch of odd jobs the past few years. It's a very Island-y thing to do. A lot of work is seasonal, and many of us are trying to pursue some artistic career that may not pay very well. You've got to grab the opportunities as they come.

I worked at the high school till last year. I've done some subbing at a nursery school and a little private duty nursing as well. But I'm digging this library gig. It's kind of like being a kid in a candy store (yet another cliche).

I almost took a job in a jewelry shop, another area in which I have a personal interest. But messing with the merchandise there could turn into a very dangerous, very expensive disaster.

Daughter #1 worked in a book store last summer. This is another place that seems quite harmless on the surface. Yet for certain people, such as my daughter and myself, it could actually be quite insidious (by the way, the fact that we both love books almost more than life itself has nothing to do with us being related. We are, she informs me repeatedly, nothing alike. Any similarity in our personalities, eye and hair color, sense of humor, or interests, is purely coincidental).

By working there, she got a discount on any books she purchased, and this is where the trouble started. I'm not sure what percentage of her earnings she recycled back into the store, but all I'm saying is I know who paid for her gas last winter, and it wasn't her.

I won't, of course, have that cash flow problem working at the library. I may be exposed to constant temptation, but at least all of it's free.

As for D #1, she wisely realized that she needed to earn more and spend less. So this summer she's got some heavy duty babysitting jobs lined up. She loves kids, says she can't wait to have her own.

I say, bring on the babies. Because, unlike jewelry and books, prolonged exposure to other people's children does not generally lead to an uncontrollable desire to posses one of your own. Especially not when you're an 18 year-old independent young woman with college and a career and your whole life in front of you.

But I better be careful; I wouldn't want to make her sound like a cliche or anything...