My Lost and Found Life Review

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(More customer reviews)"My Lost and Found Life" captivated me from the very first paragraph and didn't let me go. It is a heartwarming story about a young woman who is thrust into growing up fast, making the best of a bad situation, about making decisions right or wrong, about discovering love, relationships and learning to cope with life's journeys. Ashley's transformation is amazing, and I highly recommend this book to all the mothers out there whose daughters are coming of age and to all the daughters. I believe they will both enjoy it as much as I did. Good job!!

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Leaving You: The Cultural Meaning of Suicide Review

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(More customer reviews)I find it hard to say that a book about suicide is a good read but this diminutive collection of essays about the meaning of suicide made a big impression on me. In the preface to Leaving You: The Cultural Meaning of Suicide, Lisa Lieberman says, "The thread that runs through all [five essays] is my appreciation of self-destruction as a meaningful gesture, a statement that holds more than private significance. A statement, moreover, that is essentially subversive...This book charts the tension between society's interest in restraining suicide's disruptive power and the individual's freedom to determine the meaning of his own death."
While acknowledging that her argument about such a painful topic will make some people uncomfortable, the author succeeds in presenting her views in a nuanced and thoughtful way that always respects the reader's right to think and feel differently. Her interwoven essays exploring different dimensions of self-destruction draw the wary reader's eye with such intriguing titles as "Defiant Death," "Sex and Suicide," and "Death and Democracy." Lieberman says that she intentionally chose the essay format to "allow readers room for their own thoughts." With her deeply felt commitment to the topic, combined with extensive research and a warm narrative voice, she offers readers much more. She creates the intellectual and emotional spaciousness for us to examine our assumptions about and reflect upon our experiences of suicide, whether the act has touched our lives directly - as in her case - or has gained our attention from a distance.
Lieberman's exploration of the meaning of suicide brings to mind another thought provoking book I recently read about the nature of anger. In Anger: The Misunderstood Emotion, Carol Tavris argues that anger is not a disease with a single cause, nor is depression simply anger turned inward, as contemporary medical and psychological models of the emotions would have us believe. Instead, anger in its many forms - rage, hatred, violence, chronic resentment - is "a process, a transaction, a way of communicating." Similarly, Lieberman could have named her book Suicide: The Misunderstood Act because she expands our contextual understanding of suicide as something more than an incomprehensible act of individual despair. This isn't to say that she dismisses the advances in neuropsychology that are enabling us to effectively treat depression. Rather, she restores to our current thinking about suicide the notion that self-destruction, contemplated or realized, is an integral aspect of the human condition.
In sum, Lieberman's little book rightly belongs on the bookshelves of every doctor, psychotherapist, medical professor and student as a companion to the clinical tomes on depression and related affective disorders. It also calls out to be read by the many professionals and volunteers committed to the work of suicide prevention, from college administrators to hotline counselors. It may even provide some measure of solace to grieving family and friends who have lost a loved one to suicide.

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Beauty Shop for Rent: . . . fully equipped, inquire within Review

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(More customer reviews)BEAUTY SHOP FOR RENT represents what's missing in a lot of current YA fiction - good old-fashioned storytelling that doesn't need some sort of gimmick to make it stand out. The quirky cast of characters feel like real people, and not devices created to perform the plot. Abbey's voice sparkles right from the get-go, and her relationship with Granny Po and the rest of the gray widows is both hilarious and moving. This is more than just STEEL MAGNOLIAS for the younger set - this is a lovely coming of age story that stands on its own two feet, just like its heartwarming and headstrong protagonist.
And, despite what another Amazon reviewer seems to think, this is a very, very, very CLEAN read - I'd be as comfortable recommending this to a ten-year-old reader as I would someone going on sixteen.

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Defying the Diva Review

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(More customer reviews)Fourteen year old Haley Patterson uses her freshman year as an opportunity to make a name for herself on the school newspaper and spend time with her friends. But when she accidentally gets Camilla Quinn, the popular girl and Queen Bee of the school, in trouble by leaking a little bit too much information on Camilla's latest party in her gossip column, Haley finds herself friendless and the target of Camilla's bullying.
Her only escape comes when she is forced to spend the summer with her Aunt Bitsy and work at an exclusive resort. Though she faces problems at first, Haley soon finds herself making new friends and dating the super-hot lifeguard that all the girls have a crush on. But, of course, good things don't last and Haley soon finds herself heart-broken and humiliated. Then, just as she's starting to see the light, Camilla shows up and Haley has to decide whether or not to let Camilla continue to destroy her happiness.
Defying the Diva is a fast-paced, heartbreaking, and truthful novel about what happens to the targets of bullying. Each of the characters, from Harrison, the quiet song writer, to Frankie, the overweight but cheerful girl, is well developed and easy to relate to. While I've never gone through anything quiet as horrible, Haley's story definitely hit home with me and I could not put it down once I started it. Whether you've been the target for teasing, had your best friend turn on you, or been cheated on by a guy, I highly recommend buying Defying the Diva the minute you see it.


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For Haley Patterson, freshman year of high school boils down to having a good time with her two best friends and making a name for herself at the school newspaper. But when Haley reveals one too many juicy details in her gossip column, superdiva and queen bee Camilla Quinn makes sure that Haley's life changes...for the worse. Completely ostracized by everyone at school, including her best friends, Haley finds herself alone and miserable. Reprieve comes in the form of a summer job at an exclusive mountain resort, where Haley forges new friend-ships, snags a cute lifeguard, and learns how to trust again. But her newfound hope is not bought without some heartbreak. As the summer draws to a close, an unexpected confrontation with Camilla forces Haley to face her fears. Will she continue to let Camilla control her life? Or will Haley find the confidence and courage to stand her ground? From the author of Picture Perfect and Semiprecious comes an honest, poignant novel about fear, friendship, and fighting back.

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