'Tis the Season reviewed by Miranda Daly

I am in a mother-daughter book club and 'Tis the Season was the book chosen for the month of December. We had previously read Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bon’s and everyone really enjoyed this book, so we thought we would try reading another one of Lorna Landvik’s books. This book is all based on a wild and reckless alcoholic, Caroline Dixon, who is very much in the public eye. She is always being seen at parties misbehaving and causing drunken mischief. There is a column that runs in the local magazine and the writer loves to report on Caroline Dixon’s crazy antics. Known as “The Buzz,” the author seems as if he is more than happy to produce the awful stories about this particular woman. This book gives you a look inside the life of the famous and what it is like to deal with the constant attention….good or bad. It also goes to show how a single person can have such a large affect on so many people. Tis the Season is an uncomplicated read that plays with satire and humility, pain and joy, friendships and enemies, lies and truths, and the possibility that in the end, things will work out.

I really enjoyed 'Tis the Season from the start and feel that anyone who is up for a good, light read would enjoy this book. It was fun the whole way through with the ingenious writing style, making me laugh. There were also very delicate moments that provoked thoughtfulness and connection. It is written with different formatting than most books and that aspect gave this book an originality as well. Honestly, I felt like I hopped on a roller coaster and felt the up’s and down’s throughout the story, leaving the ride feeling satisfied and uplifted. I would highly recommend this book to other readers as I found it artistic, smart, and emotional. It will leave the readers asking only one question….sequel?

-Miranda Daly

Her Fearful Symmetry reviewed by Mary Skoglund

This is a ghost story – well written and hard to put down. The apartment building bordering London’s Highgate Cemetery is where the mirrored twins, Julia and Valentina Poole, live out their twenty-first year. Their apartment was willed to them from their estranged Aunt Elspeth Noblin’s estate.They never met their estranged English aunt, only knew that their mother, Edwina Noblin, was her twin. The story tells of the twin girls intense attachment to one another. Then in the end a ghostly thing happens to one of them that changes everything.

The book is full of interesting characters, British slang and images of life in London. The characters are so real and the story believable. You decide if you believe in ghosts. A strange, magical, entertaining story by Audrey Niffenegger author of The Time Traveler’s Wife.