Pat Gaudette

‘Book Reviews’

With total concentration, I can complete a book and have it for sale on Amazon.com in about three months. That includes page layout, cover design, multiple edits, and all the other elements (ISBN, PCN, copyright, etc) that are a part of book publishing, regardless of whether a major publishing house publishes the book or I self-publish it. This book took considerably longer. Read more »

Flirting With Forty is the third book I’ve read by Jane Porter and while it may have the most improbable story line, I thoroughly enjoyed each and every page, even those that had me tearing up a little.

Flirting With Forty is told from the perspective of Jackie Laurens, a newly divorced, on the brink of forty, single mother of two, who laments the life she had until she discovered her wonderful and successful husband was having an affair… with a gorgeous and much younger woman. In the divorce, she gets the big house and the two kids, and he gets to keep the second home, the Porsche, and the younger lover. It’s not an even split by any means. Read more »

The Best Investment: Unlocking the Secrets of Social Success For Your Child by Andrea Goodman Weiner, Ed.D., has special significance to me because I helped to make this book “press ready” prior to publishing. During the process I found the author to be delightful and her message one that many new parents may not even consider but one that quite possibly is the most important in a child’s development.

Dr. Weiner (or Dr. Andie as she is known on her website) certainly could have written a lengthy book full of statistics and case studies but instead her message is presented in an easy-to-follow and delightful story that all parents will enjoy reading. Read more »

Mrs. Perfect by Jane Porter was sent to me to review because it deals with divorce and midlife issues, relationship themes I primarily focus on. As I mentioned in my review just below, this was the first of Porter’s books that I’ve read but it definitely won’t be the last.

Mrs. Perfect is told from the perspective of Taylor Young, a woman who is the absolute perfect “trophy” wife. She’s flawless, always in total control, and she manages her household and a staggering array of community involvements without raising a sweat (or so it would seem). To tell the truth, I pretty much hated her and was quite happy when her perfect little world started crumbling. I’d be surprised if anyone lives life for long in that kind of rarefied atmosphere except Kimora Lee (and who isn’t just slightly happy to see that even she can’t keep the weight off?). Sorry, I think I got off track a bit.

Read more »

I’ve just finished reading Odd Mom Out by Jane Porter. To be honest, until I received a copy of one of her latest novels, Mrs. Perfect, to review, I hadn’t heard of Jane Porter. After absolutely loving Porter’s writing style in Mrs. Perfect, I wanted to read more and bought Odd Mom Out. I wasn’t disappointed.

Maybe if I read Harlequin novels I wouldn’t have been so clueless about Jane Porter because she’s written 22 novels for Harlequin since 2000 (this week’s count). That’s in addition to her four “chick lit” novels: The Frog Prince, Flirting With 40, Odd Mom Out, and Mrs. Perfect.

This Jane Porter shouldn’t be confused with the Jane Porter who wrote The Scottish Chiefs in 1810. Read more »

Make Any Divorce Better! Specific steps to make things smoother, faster, less painful and save you a LOT of money by Ed Sherman, best-selling author of How to Do Your Own Divorce books. Sherman, a family law attorney since 1967, founded Nolo Press in 1971 with How to Do Your Own Divorce in California, and co-founded Divorce Helpline.

All of Sherman’s books on divorce are written to remove the mystique from the legal system and empower the people going through the divorce process. Make Any Divorce Better! may be his best book yet,  providing tips and resources for any type of divorce, simple or complex, easy or adversarial. Included in this exceptionally well-designed book is a CD which includes worksheets, settlement agreements, parenting plans, child support guides. Read more »

A Man Worth Waiting For: How to Avoid a Bozo by Jackie Kendall is a dating book based on the biblical account of Ruth that teaches how to look for a Boaz not a Bozo. Kendall uses real-life stories to explain how to avoid dating mistakes and includes questions at the end of chapters that would make for good group discussions.

BOOK EXCERPT – Chapter 1 The Original MWWF: Boaz

Before Tristan and Isolde, before Romeo and Juliet, and even before Mr. Darcy and Miss Elizabeth of Pride and Prejudice, there were Boaz and Ruth. Their love story, dating from approximately 1000 BC, is still powerfully relevant in the twenty-first century.

Boaz, the leading man in the Hebrew book of Ruth, enters this short love story in chapter 2. This book is the story of a young widow named Ruth, whose heart had been broken by her husband’s death yet healed by faith in the God of Israel. Having touched God’s heart, she also touched the heart of one of God’s champion followers­–Boaz. The intersection of their lives becomes not only the framework of an earthly love story but also the foreshadowing of the greatest love story, God’s love for the world through Jesus­–Himself a descendant of the union of Boaz and Ruth.

Where Did I Leave My Glasses?: The What, When, and Why of Normal Memory Loss by Martha Weinman Lear is a book that could almost be funny if it only happened to someone else. Lear’s research turns up some answers that make memory loss even less funny. She questions of the experts that many of us might be reluctant to ask, fearing the answers. Are there characteristics or traits that make memory loss a sure thing or bring it on earlier than “expected”? And when does memory loss “normally” kick in?  Will we all experience memory loss or are there factors that bring it on and/or factors that can delay it? Is age, or education, or family history a factor? The answers may surprise and perhaps shock you.

BOOK EXCERPT – Chapter One: Say Hello to Whatsisname

Here am I, chasing some elusive name up and down the windowless corridors of my mind—Yoo-hoo, name, wait for me!—and the merry little bugger keeps outrunning me, pausing every now and again just to give me the business, make me think I can grab it, and my annoyance turns to frustration, then to indignation, then to impotent laughter—I? practitioner of words, fumbling around in the dark for a Tom, a Dick, a Harry? How absurd.

I begin the usual lament: “I can’t remember his name, it’s right here on the tip of my tongue, this is driving me crazy, you know, way back when Whatsisname was president, the Contract with America guy, what the hell was his name?”