The Death of Bees

The Death of Bees by Lisa O'Donnell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Blunt with a touch of humor. Grim and gritty. Edgy. Haunting. This is O'Donnell's first novel and from the very first page of the prologue - it's an eye-opener. I could not put this book down, although adult fiction, for the sheer horror of how Marnie, almost sixteen, and her little sister, Nelly, had to live with and without their drug addicted parents. Living in the projects of Glasgow, Scotland, the girls have never known any other kind of life than what they living - never known the sweetness of a happy birthday or a family filled holiday, let alone the true and bonding love from a parent/child relationship. From page to page you will learn how each sister copes with her loss and reluctantly cheer when their neighbor, Lenny, steps in to give a hand and guidance.

Not for the faint of heart - rough language/crude humor...


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Objects of My Affection: A Novel

Objects of My Affection: A Novel by Jill Smolinski

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A humorous look at a down-on-her-luck organizer, Lucy Bloom, who takes on the daunting challenge of defusing the "professional hoarder" and eccentric artist Marva Meier Rios' Craftman's style home of excess clutter - some useless and some worth a great deal of cash. Lucy, who just wrote a book, that bombed in sales, on organizing your home not only has to be more than good at her job but also be discreet. Heaven forbid if a newspaper reporter would get a juicy story out of Marva's mess! Lucy's carrot at the end of the stick is an added bonus, that hopefully, will pay for Ash's, her drug addicted son, expensive stay at a rehab clinic. But extracting Marva's precious articles from her clenched fingers is not only time-consuming but exhausting and the due date is unfortunately approaching soon.

With "hoarding" now being a household name and object of many a TV show, this is a timely funny, fictional story and repeats what we now know - we emotionally hang onto our "things" to replace relationships and brings us memories of good times & good places.



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