Book Reviews

Moms trade perfection for happiness

Jennifer Chidester — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 10:00:00 -0700

In the chase to balance career and kids, family and ambition, we sometimes lose sight of happiness. In Good Enough Is the New Perfect: Finding Happiness and Success in Modern Motherhood, authors Becky Beaupre Gillespie and Hollee Schwartz Temple talk about how to loosen your grip on perfection and focus on what truly makes you happy.

RED HOT BOOK OF THE WEEK: Family Pictures by Jane Green

Lisa Steinke — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 06:30:00 -0700

Jane Green's latest novel, Family Pictures, is a riveting story of two women who are strangers until a a shocking secret brings them together. And it's our pick for the Red Hot Book of the Week.

Build family bonds and raise confident children

Jennifer Chidester — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:00:00 -0800

In Playful Parenting, author and psychologist Lawrence J. Cohen shows parents how connecting with kids in their world helps build bonds, boost confidence and fulfill children's needs for attachment, affection, love, security and closeness.

RED HOT BOOK OF THE WEEK: The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro

Jen of Devourer of Books — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 10:00:00 -0700

B.A. Shapiro's The Art Forger not only explores the Gardner heist and forgery but also takes readers deep into the world of art in a compulsively readable novel.

Hot YA reads

Swapna Krishna — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 06:12:00 -0700

YA fiction is the hottest thing in reading right now. With the success of books like The Hunger Games, more adults are turning to these novels for quick, easy entertainment. As a result, these books aren't being written just for teens anymore—here are four hot YA picks that will thrill adult readers just as much as teenagers.

SheKnows book review: Blackberry Winter by Sarah Jio

Jen of Devourer of Books — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 09:29:00 -0700

In Blackberry Winter, her third novel, Sarah Jio once again writes of love, loss, and the powerful connections between people that can span generations.

SheKnows book review: The Other Half of Me by Morgan McCarthy

Jen of Devourer of Books — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 07:50:00 -0700

Wealth is not enough to inoculate Jonathan Anthony against loneliness and lack of love in this coming-of-age story complete with a mysterious family secret.

SheKnows book review: The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin

Jen of Devourer of Books — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 00:15:00 -0700

Amanda Coplin's beautiful debut novel, set as the 20th century opens, centers around an unconventional family whose members discover one another and confront their grief in the rural Pacific Northwest.

SheKnows book review: The Pleasures of Men by Kate Williams

Jen of Devourer of Books — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 07:31:00 -0700

Kate Williams's The Pleasures of Men explores a fictional pre-Jack the Ripper serial killer operating in London's poor East End in the early days of Queen Victoria's reign.

SheKnows review: Whiplash River by Lou Berney

Candace of Beth Fish Reads — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 06:45:00 -0700

Shake Bouchon is determined to play it straight, even if he has to move to Belize to escape his criminal past. Unfortunately, murder and mayhem find their way to his little restaurant on the beach, and Shake is soon on the run and working a scam. Things might turn out okay... if he can figure out how to stay alive long enough to see the plan through.

SheKnows book review: When in Doubt, Add Butter by Beth Harbison

Vera Pereskokova — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 08:00:00 -0700

Beth Harbison, bestselling author of Always Something There to Remind Me, is back with When in Doubt, Add Butter , a fun tale full of delicious cooking, crazy clients, and of course, love.

More books for a hot summer

Vera Pereskokova — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 11:15:00 -0700

Summer is in full swing and from the lighthearted to the serious and everything in between, SheKnows has your books covered!

SheKnows book review: Game of Secrets by Dawn Tripp

Candace of Beth Fish Reads — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 08:45:00 -0700

Dawn Tripp's novel, now out in paperback, is a beautifully-written literary mystery that focuses on a half a century of two interlinked New England families.

SheKnows book review: Ocean Beach by Wendy Wax

Vera Pereskokova — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 08:00:00 -0700

The feisty women of Wendy Wax's Ten Beach Road are back in Ocean Beach, but their new renovation project may be the undoing of everything they've worked so hard to build.

SheKnows book review: Dreams of Joy by Lisa See

Colleen M. Quill — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 22:25:00 -0700

Lisa See picks up the adult lives of sisters Pearl and May from The Shanghai Sisters. In the follow-up, no previous reading is required to delve deep into the impetuous actions of 19-year-old Joy. Pearl and May must face the consequences of family secrets that are decades old.

SheKnows book review: Gilded Age by Claire McMillan

Vera Pereskokova — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 08:00:00 -0700

Re-imagined as Ellie Hart in modern day Cleveland, Edith Wharton's Lily Bart comes alive in Claire McMillan's Gilded Age.

Hot summer reads

Vera Pereskokova — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 17:00:00 -0700

Snag a spot on your favorite lounge chair and grab that guilty pleasure of a read -- it's summer time!

SheKnows book review: Long Gone by Alafair Burke

Candace of Beth Fish Reads — Tue, 22 May 2012 06:45:00 -0700

Alafair Burke's stand-alone novel, Long Gone, is a suspenseful mystery based on artful deceptions and family secrets.

SheKnows book review: Wife 22 by Melanie Gideon

Jen of Devourer of Books — Tue, 22 May 2012 05:01:00 -0700

Melanie Gideon explores marriage and stagnation in Wife 22, her first adult novel. Readers will find themselves engrossed in the lives of her realistic and easy-to-relate-to characters.

SheKnows book review: In My Father's Country by Saima Wahab

Vera Pereskokova — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:00:00 -0700

Few Americans truly understand the struggles that the U.S. military faces in Afghanistan and the frustrations of the Afghans who often see the U.S. presence as yet another invasion. Saima Wahab's memoir, In My Father's Country, is an enlightening look into this ongoing conflict.

SheKnows book review: Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner

Samantha Robey — Fri, 04 May 2012 08:00:00 -0700

Last summer, Jennifer Weiner’s Then Came You topped the summer’s hottest reading list. Now the poignant and heart-warming tale that immersed readers is out in paperback .