The Curated Closet by Anuschka Rees

The front cover of Anuschka Rees' book The Curated Closet reads, "A simple system for discovering your personal style and building your dream wardrobe."  While Ms. Rees does indeed give the reader a system for discovering her personal style and building her dream wardrobe, I would have a difficult time calling it simple.  None of the steps outlined in this book are complicated, but there are MANY of them. 

The book is very, very thorough. If you were really serious about building finding your own style and then building a quality wardrobe based on that style, this book would be an excellent tool. Don't however, think that it could be a quick process.  You would need to spend numerous hours doing so.  Do I think it would be worth it in the end?  Yes.  Do I think you could learn from the author's tips and tricks?  Definitely.  Do I think you need to follow every single step in order to benefit from this book?  No, I don't.  While I don't think I will be putting in the time needed to do everything that Ms. Rees suggests, I certainly learned a thing or two about how to more wisely shop and dress. 

I believe this book would be especially helpful to a young woman starting out on a career after college, to an older woman returning to the workforce after raising her children, or to anyone who is changing jobs and needs a different wardrobe.  It is also useful for anyone who shops frequently but doesn't feel like she ever has the right outfit.

Although the book does feature photographs, I believe the book would still be beneficial after the styles in those pictures are outdated.  The method Anuschka Rees presents is timeless.  The photos don't really tell you what to wear, but do add interest to the book. 

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Saffire:A Novel by Sigmund Brouwer

Saffire by Sigmund Brower is a novel that takes place in the early 1900s at the Panama Canal.  It was a rough and tumble place, full of seedy characters and the main character, James Holt, fits right in.  Formerly a cowboy in Buffalo Bill's  Wild West Show, he is now a widowed father who enjoys a quiet life on a cattle ranch in the Dakotas. When President Teddy Roosevelt, a longtime friend, sends him on a secret mission to Panama, he embarks on an adventure fraught with danger and intrigue. Upon arriving in Panama City, he meets a young girl named Saffire, whose mother has disappeared.  Local authorities claim she ran away, but Saffire is not convinced and will not give up trying to find out what happened to her mother.

James becomes involved in Saffire's search, trying himself to discover the details surrounding her mother's disappearance. He ends up angering some of the native folks, who don't want a foreigner poking around in their business.  There are bar fights, gun fights, fist fights and even torture in this story.  I would have to say, despite a little romance between James and a local woman he meets named Raquel, that this story is one that men would enjoy more than women. I had a hard time following the plot at times and really didn't like all the fighting and gritty adventure.

Saffire is billed as Historical Christian fiction.  It is indeed historical and gives lots of details about building the Panama Canal, including much of the political goings on of that day.  It is also fiction, although based on many actual events and people.  I have a very hard time however, calling it Christian.  I only remember one vague reference to God when James visits a dying man and the man asks James to pray for him. 

Although well written, I just didn't enjoy the book very much.  I do like historical fiction, but I guess I'm not that interested in the wild west type adventure.  I received this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Avenue of Spies: A True Stor of Terror, Espionage, and One American Family's Heroic Resistance in Nazi-Occupied Paris by Alex Kershaw

There is a quote from a review by the Chicago Tribune on the cover of Avenue of Spies that reads, "Classic...constructed and written like a thriller."  Another quote on the back cover by Post and Courier states, "A gripping, taut story that will keep readers turning pages long after they should have turned out the light."  All I can say is that we must have read different books.  I have read many thrilling, page-turning books about World War II and the Resistance, but this is most definitely not one of them.

It's not that I doubt the story of American doctor Sumner Jackson, his French wife Toquette, and their son Phillip is true.  I believe it and it is an interesting story, worth noting and remembering.  I salute anyone who participated in the Resistance against the evil of Nazi Germany.  I firmly believe that stories such as theirs must be told so that history never forgets.  However, their story is just not written in a way that was compelling to me. The author, Alex Kershaw, stretched the story into a full novel by inserting facts and stories of other historical characters into the tale of the Jacksons.  He claims to have spent hours interviewing  Phillip Jackson and reading family letters, yet I barely felt like I knew the family or sensed their emotions.

I wish I could recommend this book, but honestly there are myriad other books on this topic that I have read that were much more riveting and worth my time.  Quite the opposite of page-turning, I had to force myself to finish it. I received a copy of this book from Blogging for Books in return for my honest review.

June: A Novel by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore

June was a very strange novel.  Indeed, if it weren't for the fact that I received this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review, I likely would not have finished it.  I had a very difficult time getting into the story, which is always a turn off for me, I want to be hooked right away.  I just didn't particularly like or care about the characters much.  The main character, Cassie (yes I know the book is titled June, but I still deem Cassie the main character), was probably the hardest to like.  Through much of the book she was in some sort of depression or deep funk.  She slept much of the time, didn't take care of herself and let her house fall apart around her.  If you're not rooting for the main character, it's not easy to want to keep reading, but I did.

Another strange thing about the book was that the house that Cassie lived in, her ancestral home, was a character itself, as though it were alive.  The author, Miranda Beverly-Whittemore, referred to the house as thought it had feelings and memories.  Even stranger yet though was that Cassie dreamed true dreams, about actual events that occurred in the life of her grandmother, June, before she was born.  She saw the story of June's life as though it were a movie.

Not strange, but disappointing to me was the way the author stereotyped the lesbian character in the story, Lindie.  She hated wearing dresses and preferred to dress like a boy, even preferred rough and tumble boy's play.  Beverly-Whittemore also stereotyped the people in the fictional town where the book took place.  Being from Michigan myself, I can definitively say that not everyone who is from a small town in the Midwest is dumb, out of touch with the rest of the world, and serves Kraft Mac & Cheese and instant potatoes to company. 

The good thing that June has going for it is surprise twists.  I often didn't know where the story was going and even up until the very end, was not sure how things were going to turn out for the characters. I like that!

Writing My Wrongs: Life, Death, and Redemption in an American Prison by Shaka Senghor

Writing My Wrongs was an interesting read and very eye-opening as to what life is like in the inner city and in the prison system.  The lure of drugs is powerful and lures many into addiction and a life of crime.  It was extremely disheartening to me to learn the story of a young boy who went so wrong.  His own analysis is that his downfall was a mother who physically and emotionally abused him, although he did have a good father.   It has long been my belief that the breakdown of the family is one of the greatest contributors to the increase of incarceration in our society, but the love of Shaka's father couldn't save him.

Shaka's world is rough and grimy at best, but nothing compared to his life in prison.  The inner city of Detroit is indeed hard, but seems mild compared to what exists behind bars.  Corruption, abuse, drugs, gangs, rape and murder abound.  Not exactly an environment for rehabilitation, but more likely a place where the criminal will become even more hardened.

For the majority of his prison sentence for murder, Shaka Senghor blames everyone but himself for his crime and imprisonment.  Like so many people today, he has a difficult time with personal responsibility and owning up to his mistakes.  It is only when he begins the process of self-examination and admits his own failures and shortcomings that he begins the process of turning his life and attitude around. 

However, there were a couple of things that bothered me in this story, which is touted as a story or redemption, inspiration and beauty.  The first is that very close to the end of Shaka's prison term, after he has supposedly changed and become an truly different person, ready to make a difference in the world,  he pays another inmate to stab someone.  His only comment about this is that he was "conflicted about this decision" and then goes on to brag that it was the last act of violence that he took part of in prison.

The second is the reverse prejudice that Shaka Senghor has.  He has a major problem with anyone other than Blacks.  When he is in prison, he reads only Black authors, associates with only brothers.  He talks about how important it is that Black people know where their food comes from.  Really? Isn't it it good that EVERYone knows where their food comes from.  He also has a fantastical view of Africa, as though it were Utopia.  I know through many, many stories from loved ones who are refugees from Africa, that this is far from the truth.  It bothers me when anyone, whether they are a minority or not, is prejudiced that way.

One more warning:  This book contains a lot of foul language.

Braving It: A Father, a Daughter, and an Unforgettable Journey into the Alaskan Wild by James Campbell

Even though I am an "indoorsy" person, I really enjoyed reading Braving It by James Campbell.  It is a memoir of three separate trips that James took with his teenage daughter, Aidan, to the wilds of Alaska. James is an experienced outdoors-man, but is middle-aged and not as fit or healthy as he once was.  Aidan is inexperienced in the wild, but has great stamina, energy and enthusiasm.  Together they make a good team, although as you would expect with a father-teen relationship, things don't always go perfectly.  Emotions and attitudes sometimes collide, but in the end they forge an unbreakable bond as they journey through Alaska.

On their first trip, James and Aidan spend a summer helping James' cousin build a cabin the a remote spot in Alaska's Interior.  Only a few months later, they return for an icy adventure as the same cousin and his wife trap and hunt caribou and moose for their winter food supply.  On the final trip featured in the book, the duo return to Alaska to backpack Brooks Range and then canoe down the Hulahula River to the Arctic Ocean.

Braving It is very well written.  Campbell does an excellent job of ensuring that the reader can see, hear, smell and taste what the Alaskan wilderness is like.  He also captures the relationship between father and daughter, portraying the highs and lows of the trip for them both.  I would recommend it to both indoor and outdoor enthusiasts. I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Together at the Table: A Novel of Lost Love and Second Helpings by Hillary Manton Lodge

Together at the Table is the third book in Hillary Manton Lodges's Two Blue Door series. I have read (and reviewed) all three and very much enjoyed all three. The main character in each book, Juliette D'Alisa is back again.  She and her brother, Nico, have successfully launched a new restaurant, Two Blue Doors--hence the series title.  She loves her job as restaurant manager and is dating the restaurant's sous-chef, Adrian.  Life is mostly good, although she is still mourning the loss of her mother to cancer.

[spoiler alert] Things are turned upside down however when Juliette and Adrian run into Juliette's ex boyfriend, Neil, in the park.  It is obvious to Adrian that Neil still loves Juliette and he questions Juliette's feelings for Neil. Adrian panics and asks Juliette to marry him in front of her entire family at her birthday party.  Unprepared and unsure of her own heart, Juliette refuses and not long after the two break up.  Juliette soon admits that Neil does still hold a place in her heart and they start their relationship anew. When a fire damages Two Blue Doors and Juliette's apartment above the restaurant, Juliette comes to see that she is in love with Neil and the two elope just before a family trip to Italy.

I like the fact that things are nicely wrapped up in this third book.. It's good to see Juliette happy and in love. In the first book of the Two Blue Door series, A Table by the Window, Juliette had discovered love letters written by her grandmother.  They revealed a family mystery that Juliette is determined to solve.  She makes a trip to her family's chateau in Italy in each book, attempting to put the pieces together.  In this book, the truth is finally uncovered. I think the series could continue, but I was pleased that the author didn't string us along with either Juliette's love life or the family mystery. 

My only complaint with Together at the Table is that I really wouldn't classify it as Christian fiction.  Juliette goes to church a handful of times and is married by clergy, but that's about it.  It is clean fiction and has good lessons in it about the value of family and sacrificial love, but barely any reference to God and none to Scripture.

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.