When in Doubt, Add Butter

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When in Doubt, Add Butter

Beth Harbison

St. Martin's Press: 2012, 338 pages

Reviewed by Jessie Park

Gemma is thirty-seven and over the dating scene.  She's perfectly happy with her busy life as a personal chef, working with six very different clients.  Lex and a client she calls Mr. Tuesday love comfort food, Willa needs to lose weight but is very skeptical and hates dieting, a Russian family whose patriarch may or may not be a mob boss, a typically wealthy Georgetown family, and the Van Houghtens, a family suffering hungrily because Mrs. Van Houghten claims to be allergic to anything and everything.  Cooking is predictable but that is a comfort to Gemma, whose life is becoming more and more unpredictable.  She's thrown for a major curve and will have to rely on her friends, her strength, and her food to keep her head above water.

Attachments

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Attachments

Rainbow Rowell

Dutton: 2011, 323 pages

Reviewed by Jessie Park

Set in Nebraska towards the end of 1999 (think Y2K paranoia), Lincoln's job title is "Internet Security Officer" and he was expecting it to be awesome, like he would be defending the company by building firewalls and catching hackers.  What he actually does is read the work emails and monitors them for any of the red flag notices: inappropriate jokes, words, etc.  He knows that he should tell Beth and Jennifer that their constant emails are in violation of company policy but he doesn't and just keeps letting it go on.  Even though he knows it's creepy, he likes reading about what's happening in their lives and the job's so boring that their emails are often the highlight of his night.  But then he realizes that he's falling for Beth, even though he's never met her.  He wants to talk to her but how?  What will he say?  This is Rowell's first novel and it's endearing but not in an overly sentimental way.  

Dumplin'

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Dumplin'

Julie Murphy

Balzer + Bray: 2015, 375 pages

Reviewed by Jessie Park

Willowdean Dickson (Will to her friends, Dumplin' to her mother) lives in small town Texas where football and the local beauty pageant reigns supreme.  Will knows she's fat, calls herself fat, but never really had an issue with it.  That it, until Bo Larson comes into her life.  He's attractive, mysterious, and genuinely likes Will back.  But suddenly Will sees all her flaws and her confidence is gone.  So how can she get it back?  By entering the Miss Clover City beauty pageant!  Dumplin' is funny, heartwarming, but also realistic and with some great references to the genius that is Dolly Parton.

Go Set a Watchman

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Go Set a Watchman

Harper Lee

HarperCollins: 2015, 278 pages

Reviewed by Tori Lyons

Go Set a Watchman follows Jean Louise "Scout" Finch as she returns to Macomb, Alabama, for her annual two week vacation from her life in New York.  A lot has changed since her childhood.  Most significantly, her father's steadfast morality seems, in Jean Louise's opinion, to have begun to waver.  Atticus was her touchstone, the one thing in her life that she could always count on, and viewing him as a flawed man, like any other, shakes her to her very core. 

Goodbye Stranger

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Goodbye Stranger

Rebecca Stead

Wendy Lamb Books: 2015, 304 pages

Reviewed by Jessie Park

Goodbye Stranger is a middle-grade novel about changing friendships and relationships.  Set in present day New York City, the book follows the friendship between Bridge, Tabitha, and Em.  They're in 7th grade, still best friends forever, but things have been different lately.  Em "has curves now," is popular with the older soccer crowd, and is texting an 8th grade boy.  Tab believes most people have an ulterior motive and Bridge is still wondering what her purpose is in the world, especially after surviving a horrible accident while also thinking about what her new friendship with Sherm Russo means.  Throw in an unnamed high school girl who is dealing with betrayal on Valentine's Day and you've got the recipe for a funny and poignant novel that shows readers that no matter what age you are, it's still difficult to deal with changes in the relationships that mean the most to you.

Finding Audrey

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Finding Audrey

Sophie Kinsella

Delacorte Books for Young Readers: 2015, 288 pages

Reviewed by Jessie Park

Finding Audrey focuses on fourteen year old Audrey Turner who is trying to deal with her anxiety disorders and bouts of depression after an incident happens at her old school.  She finds comfort behind her dark sunglasses and tends to stay in her house where she doesn't have to interact with people.  Readers are therefore privy to her interactions with her dysfunctional, yet hilarious, family.  Things start to change, however, when Audrey meets Linus, one of her brother's online gaming buddies.  Author Kinsella manages to take a more humorous and hopeful approach to mental illness in her YA debut.  Readers are not only drawn into Audrey's situation but they can't help becoming invested in the other characters as well.

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

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Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

Becky Albertalli

Balzer + Bray: 2015, 303 pages

Reviewed by Jessie Park

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda is a great young adult book.  It focuses on 16 year old Simon, who's gay but in the closet.  He has an email correspondence with another boy in his school who is also gay but they both keep their identities a secret.  Simon's world is turned upside down when another boy at school not only finds out about the emails but uses them to subtly blackmail him to play matchmaker, since the blackmailer has a crush on one of Simon's more attractive female friends.  Simon has to figure out how to navigate through this all while dealing with changes in his friendships and family and his newly emerging crush on Blue, his email pen pal.  Albertalli does a great job creating realistic fiction that is actually real.  Readers should be advised that there is some strong language but no explicit sexual content.

Wonder

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Wonder

R. J. Palacio

Corgi Childrens: 2013, 315 pages

Reviewed by Jessie Park

Auggie is about to start 5th grade after being home-schooled all his life - not because his parents are wary of the education system - but because of his rare medical issues.  Auggie was born with Treacher Collins syndrome and a cleft palate; even after enduring many surgeries, his face is still noticeably different than those around him.  Wonder switches between different narrators, such as Auggie, his sister, and his friend, Jack.  The different narrations are awesome snippets into how all these characters are somehow effected by their relationship with Auggie, whether it's for the better or for the worse.  Wonder provides readers with great insight into kindness and empathy and I recommend it for all ages, late elementary and up, even though its target audience is middle school readers.       

The Girl on the Train

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The Girl on the Train

Paula Hawkins

Riverhead Books: 2015, 336 pages

Reviewed by Ellen Dickman

Many people compared this book to Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.  I found the character development of the three female characters to be very engaging.  My sister said that when she was reading this book she felt "sick."  Indeed, the characters are flawed.  However, this is why the book was enjoyable because one could relate to the characters.  The fragile mind of Rachel was particularly compelling and so was the author's examination of how one can easily confuse reality and fantasy.