BOL Review: Keepsake by Kristina Riggle

Riggle’s fourth novel is a sensitive portrayal of a dysfunctional family struggling to make peace with their pasts. Trish thinks of herself as just a distracted, messy housekeeper—but when her young son, Jack, suffers a broken collarbone after a pile of papers falls on him, Child Protective Services comes calling, forcing her to deal with the fact that she has inherited her mother’s hoarding habits. Trish’s estranged sister, Mary, is the complete opposite—when her white carpet gets a footprint on it, she spends an hour with a scrub brush trying to get it clean. Much to Trish’s chagrin, Mary comes to help her get her house (and life) in order so that Jack is not removed from the home. Meanwhile, Trish’s ex-husband and her older teenage son are not sure... Read the full review at Booklist Online!

It's pretty embarassing that I haven't posted in months... so here's something for y'all.

Best Books 2011 - Women's Fiction

http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/2011/11/best-of/best-genre/best-books-2011-womens-fiction/

In my defense, I've been busy... I'm finishing up the Women's Fiction guide in the Genreflecting Advisory Series, and I've taken on an AWESOME new full time position at Booklist.  Not sure yet what this means for the future of this blog, but we'll see. I may be too busy, or, I may decide to start blitzing out the posts once my new book is ready...stay tuned.

I'm still here...

Really, truly I am.  I've just been crazy busy, what with a new baby (well, he's not so new anymore, now, is he), more writing gigs (see my chapter in the upcoming edition of Genreflecting, I'm hard at work on the Women's Fiction entry into the Genreflecting Advisory Series, still blogging for ShelfRenewal...), and life in general.  But I have lots of blog posts for this baby on my to-do list... I swear.

Bear with me!

My take on the Franzen Flap of 2010

Forgive the lapse of posts recently, but I just had my second child and life's been, um, busy.  Hardly enough time to read, let alone write!  But I have been meaning for weeks now to weigh in on the fuss about Jonathan Franzen and his new book.

To recap, Jonathan Franzen published a new book this summer and landed not only 2 NYT book reviews but the cover of Time as well.  Then Jennifer Weiner and Jodi Picoult got lots of press for protesting.

My take?  I am firmly on their side.  My reaction to seeing the cover, even before the #franzenfreude started, was "WTF, why does this dude get the cover of  Time??". 

I'm pretty tired of literary fiction by men getting all the attention.  Case in point: nearly every book blog I read this summer gushed about One Day by David Nicholls.  I got very tired of the pandering, and eventually angry, because I read it and HATED it.  I thought the characters, particularly the male protagonist, were downright unlikeable.  And other than a few comic scenes, the novel was dull, dull, dull - with a total cop-out of an ending.  But everyone else was giving him the blog equivalent of a blow job.

Frankly, One Day is a pale imitation of a women's fiction novel, written by a man.  It's a quasi-romance.  It tries to get into the characters' heads.  And in my opinion failed miserably.  (I'll be honest - I'm not a big fan of Nick Hornby, either.)

And you know damn well that if One Day had been written by a woman... it would NEVER have gotten so much attention.  I think that's what makes me the maddest.

More writing...

Just signed the contract for my 3rd nonfiction book about Women's Fiction! Will be part of the Genreflecting Series.   Due out Fall/Winter 2011.  Also just submitted the Women's Lives and Relationships chapter to the forthcoming next edition of Genreflecting, and got my finished copy of Integrated Advisory Service: Breaking Through the Book Boundary to Better Serve Library Users ,where I contributed to the Women's Stories section.