I know, I know, I've been dreadful about writing book reviews. I've been dreadful about blogging in general. But this week I'm having a lovely, restful vacation and one of my goals (aside from doing a lot of reading) is to get some book reviews up.
So, here's the book I read yesterday as I sat outside on the deck in the sunshine: Best Staged Plans by Claire Cook. It was the perfect vacation read, to my mind: entertaining, not too complex, reflective on some things with touches of humor. You might know Claire Cook from "Must Love Dogs" which got turned into a movie (where John Cusack had virtually no romantic chemistry with Diane Lane but oh, well...)
At any rate, in "Best Staged Plans," narrator Sandra Sullivan stages homes for a living but is having a difficult time getting her husband to make progress on the plans they made to sell their home so they can start their post-children, newly-free life phase. Sandra wonders whether she'd be better off single in the second phase of her life, and while she contemplates this question, she heads off for a property staging job in Atlanta. She gets to know her new son in law, helps her best friend through a romantic mess, and contemplates how to stage her own life.
I suppose this book will appeal to middle aged women, and I must say that I related to Sandra's mid-life crisis musings. Where do I go next? What am I now? Who ARE these people I'm sharing my life with? Whether it resonates personally or not, Sandra's voice is funny and charming and many musings on family life will entertain. I especially liked her thoughts about the art of "assembling" (as opposed to cooking ) which she does by fancifying premade meals from Trader Joe's and hiding the packages.
It was a good vacation novel. I'd rate it 3.5 stars out of 5.
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