The Divorce Party

When to Stay and When to Go
We love a book that gets you into it from the get-go. The prologue of Laura Dave’s The Divorce Party starts off in 1938 in Montauk, the year of the worst hurricane ever to hit Long Island. There was no warning that a storm of such force was about to happen. The novel then opens up on the alternating stories of two women who find themselves swept into a storm of emotions they didn’t see coming.

The fast paced novel takes place in one day in Montauk. Gwyn, described as still beautiful at 58, and her equally handsome husband, whom she still loves, are throwing a divorce party for their friends and family - a “celebration” of their life together on their 35th wedding anniversary as they prepare to part ways. Maggie, who is engaged to their son, and whose story alternates chapter by chapter with Gwyn’s is about to meet her future in-laws for the first time. As secrets and betrayals unravel, both women are faced with the dilemma of when it’s time to stay and when it’s time to leave a relationship. In this emotional roller-coaster you truly feel their pain. Laura Dave has real insights into relationships. One of the most poignant scenes is when a glance dashes Gwyn’s hope for reconciliation.

Expecting a breezy summer read, we were pleasantly surprised at the depth of this novel, and the questions it raises. There are lessons here for all of us.

And not surprisingly, the movie rights have been picked up by Universal Studios for Echo Films, Jennifer Aniston’s new production company. The part of Gwyn has Meryl Streep written all over it.


Three Tomatoes up!

Rafael Yglesias’ A Happy Marriage

Rafael Yglesias’ A Happy Marriage is not beach reading, but it is must reading for every tomato this summer
by Ronna Lichtenberg

Alternating between scenes describing the first three months of his relationship with Margaret, and the last three months of her losing battle with bladder cancer, Yglesias somehow manages to capture the mystery, nuance, tedium, fluctuations, and joy of an almost three-decade-long marriage.

After too many years of reading women’s magazine articles about what “he” really thinks, I was somberly grateful to find out what one “he” really did think. Yglesias’ unflinching courage in revealing the inevitable small disappointments of self completely avoids the look-at-me show turns of routine misery memoirs.
Written as an autobiographical novel, the book combines a screenwriter’s instinct for revealing detail with the uncalculated impact of a story that is emotionally true instead of “real life.”

I wish there were a less predictable thing to say than that the book made me laugh and it chocked me up so much I often I had to put it down. My only regret is that Margaret couldn’t read it, too.

Getting Reacquainted with Gerunds

Editor's Note: Mr. Tomato wrote today's review. He loves factoids. Plus we asked him to. He always does what we ask. Well most of the time. Well some of the time.

Not that I ever really understood or cared about gerunds when Miss Kennedy, my English teacher, covered them more than 50 years ago. However, Readers Digest has published an interesting trio of books covering just about everything you maybe learned then quickly forgot. It’s a walk down memory lane. They are a perfect gift for the perennial student.


I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School By Carol Taggart, the first of the trio, will trigger your memory with fun facts you learned in school – from adverbs to the Pythagorean Theorem. Witty, engaging, entertaining; the information is presented in east-to-retain, bite sized chunks.

Covering subjects such as English language, English literature, Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, History, Geography, Religion, and Music, this book features all of the most important theories, equations, phrases, and rules we were all taught years ago.


The second book My Grammar and I…Or Should That Be Me? (How to Speak and Write It Right) By Carol Taggaet and J.A. Wines covers everything from gerunds to parts of speech I don’t ever remember learning in a compact, interesting, and light-hearted manner. This is a book that you will keep handy for reference as it is packed with those long-forgotten “rules” you once learned in school.


i before e (except after c) …old-school ways to remember stuff By Judy Parkinson rounds out the trio. Featuring all the memory-jogging tips you’ll ever need to know, this fun filled little book will help you recall hundreds of important facts using simple, easy to-to-remember mnemonics from your school days. For dyslectics like me, who live by spell-check, this book is a keeper.

All three books are perfect for teachers, students, parents, and general knowledge enthusiasts as a quick way to look up things you forgot from school.

The Mother-in-Law's Manual

When her boys married, Susan Lieberman had no idea that there was an entire new learning curve waiting just around the corner. She had expected parenting to be demanding, but it never occurred to her to think becoming a mother-in-law would bring its own challenges. Where was Dr. Spock on this stage of development?

Now in the The Mother-In-Law’s Manual: Proven Strategies for Creating and Maintaining Healthy Relationships with Married Children Lieberman uses the same strategy she found so helpful when her children were growing up – talking to other women going through the same experiences. She invites women everywhere to join in the conversation. It begins with women’s expectations before their children marry and ends with hopes about how their children will behave when their mothers are really old. It deals with all facets of the in-law relationship, including how to handle difficult family members, how to discuss what seems like impending disaster and how to approach our babies having babies.

Susan Lieberman, Ph.D. has written six books, including New Traditions: Redefining Celebrations for Today’s Family. She attended Vassar College and the University of California, holds a master’s in city planning from Berkeley, a Ph.D. in public policy from the University of Pittsburgh, and she is ordained as an interfaith minister.

Listen to our interview with Susan Lieberman on Tomatoes in the Trenches, Wednesday July 15th at 1 PM.

The Penny Pinchers Club got us at the prologue

The Penny Pinchers Club - Sarah Strohmeyer

Engagement ring: $7,340
Wedding and reception: $23,000
Raising one kid for eighteen years: $250,000
House in Jersey suburb: $462,000
Two Mint Tingle Trojan condom wrappers found in your husband's pocket: $1.40
Being financially ready when your husband announces he's leaving to be with his assistant: Priceless


Living in New Jersey--the state that boasts the most malls per capita—Kat Griffin’s favorite recreational activity is a no-brainer: shopping. But when she discovers that her husband, Griff, has been hiding a secret bank account, her joyful consumerism suddenly loses its appeal. Are their fights about money more serious than she understood? Is he, as her friends suggest, preparing for a divorce? Just in case, Kat decides it's time to start saving.

Kat has never saved a penny in her life and begins cutting back on things like kicking her $240 monthly Starbucks habit, canceleling HBO and quitting her gym membership. And soon she’s baking her own bread and dumpster diving. Let the fun begin.

The Penny Pinchers Club by best selling author Sarah Strohmeyer is a delightful, fun read that's perfect for summer travelling and beach reading.

The Three Tomatoes Ten Summer Reading Picks

We love summer and catching up on reading in a lounge chair, book in one hand, martini in the other. Here are few of our suggestions for entertaining reads this summer.

Our #1, 2, and 3 picks – Cathy Lamb
We have just recently discovered author Cathy Lamb and have just finished reading three of her books. She is a wonderful writer and her books feature fabulous strong women and great characters you will love. Here first two novels, Julia’s Chocolate, and The Last Time I Was Me are available in paperback. And our favorite, Henry’s Sisters will be released in July. It is a must read. Here are the synopses.

Julia’s Chocolates
“I left my wedding dress hanging somewhere in North Dakato.” From that very first sentence to the last, Cathy Lamb’s debut novel will have you laughing, crying, and falling in love with its cast of some of the most wonderfully eccentric women since The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and The Secret Life of Bees, as she explores the many ways we find the road home.

From the moment Julia Bennett leaves her abusive Boston fiancé at the altar and her ugly wedding dress hanging from a tree in South Dakota, she knows she’s driving away from the old Julia, but what she’s driving toward is as messy and undefined as her own wounded soul. The old Julia dug her way out of a tortured, trailer park childhood with a monster of a mother. The new Julia will be found at her Aunt Lydia’s rambling, hundred-year-old farmhouse outside Golden, Oregon.

There, among uppity chickens and toilet bowl planters, Julia is welcomed by an eccentric, warm, and often wise clan of women, including a psychic, a minister’s unhappy wife, an abused mother of four, and Aunt Lydia herself—a woman who is as fierce and independent as they come.

Filled with warmth, love, and truth, Julia’s Chocolates is an unforgettable novel of hope and healing that explores the hurts we keep deep in our hearts, the love that liberates us, the courage that defines us, and the chocolate that just might take us there.

Buy direct from the publisher for $9. 80 (30% off list price.) Also available at booksellers everywhere.

The Last Time I Was Me
"I wrapped up my grandmother’s tea cup collection and my mother’s china, then grabbed a violin I'd hidden way back in my closet that made me cry, a gold necklace with a dolphin that my father gave me two weeks before he died of a heart attack when I was twelve and, at midnight, with that moon as bright as the blazes, I left Chicago.”

When Jeanne Stewart stops at The Opera Man's Cafe in Weltana, Oregon, to eat pancakes for the first time in twelve years, she has no idea she’s also about to order up a whole new future. It’s been barely a week since she succumbed to a spectacularly public nervous breakdown in front of hundreds of the nation's most important advertising and PR people. Jeanne certainly had her reasons—her mother’s recent death, the discovery that her boyfriend had been sleeping with a dozen other women, and the assault charges that resulted when Jeanne retaliated in a creative way against him, involving condoms and peanut oil. Now, en route to her brother’s house in Portland, Jeanne impulsively decides to spend some time in picturesque Weltana. Staying at a B&B run by the eccentric, endearing Rosvita, she meets a circle of quirky new friends at her court-ordered Anger Management classes. Like Jeanne, all of them are trying to become better, braver versions of themselves. Yet the most surprising discoveries are still to come—a good man who steadily makes his way into her heart and a dilapidated house that with love and care might be transformed into something wholly her own, just like the new life she is slowly building, piece by piece.

As heartfelt as it is hilarious, The Last Time I Was Me is a warm, wise novel about breaking down, opening up, and finally letting go of everything we thought we should be, in order to claim the life that has been waiting all along.

Buy direct from the publisher and save 30%.

Henry's Sisters Cathy Lamb Pub Date : July 28, 2009 Kensington Publishing

Write July 28 on your calendar and then immediately go to Barnes and Noble, Amazon, or any other bookseller and get this book. If you loved Terms of Endearment, the Ya Ya Sisterhood, and Steel Magnolias, you will love Henry’s Sister. Cathy Lamb just keeps getting better and better. We loved, loved, loved this book!

Ever since the Bommarito sisters were little girls, their mother, River, has written them a letter on pink paper when she has something especially important to impart. And this time, the message is urgent and impossible to ignore—River requires open-heart surgery, and Isabelle and her sisters are needed at home to run the family bakery and take care of their brother and ailing grandmother.

Isabelle has worked hard to leave Trillium River, Oregon, behind as she travels the globe taking award-winning photographs. It’s not that Isabelle hates her family. On the contrary, she and her sisters Cecilia, an outspoken kindergarten teacher, and Janie, a bestselling author, share a deep, loving bond. And all of them adore their brother, Henry, whose disabilities haven’t stopped him from helping out at the bakery and bringing good cheer to everyone in town.

But going home again has a way of forcing open the secrets and hurts that the Bommaritos would rather keep tightly closed—Isabelle’s fleeting and too-frequent relationships, Janie’s obsessive compulsive disorder, and Cecilia’s self-destructive streak and grief over her husband’s death. Working together to look after Henry and save their flagging bakery, Isabelle and her sisters begin to find answers to questions they never knew existed, unexpected ways to salve the wounds of their childhoods, and the courage to grasp surprising new chances at happiness.
Poignant, funny, and as irresistible as one of the Bommarito sisters’ delicious giant cupcakes, Henry’s Sisters is a novel about family and forgiveness, about mothers and daughters, and about gaining the wisdom to look ahead while still holding tight to everything that matters most.

Available July 28th at booksellers everywhere.

# 4-5 The Higgins Clarks

Anything by Mary Higgins Clark or Carol Higgins Clark. We thoroughly enjoyed their two latest novels, Just Take My Heart (Mary Higgins Clark) and Cursed, Carol Higgins Clark. See our previous reviews.

Picks #7-8 Marie Bostwick
Another wonderful New York Times best selling writer is Marie Bostwick. We loved A Single Thread (which we reviewed awhile back, and the sequel, which we're reading now, A Thread of Truth.

If you read the NY Times bestseller, The Knitting Club, you will find a similar theme, in A Single Thread and it’s sequel, A Thread of Truth. However, we much preferred both of these books. With fuller, richer characters and a multi-thread plot line, you’ll love the stories that bind the characters together, and to our hearts.

A Single Thread. Get 30% off list price direct from the publisher.

A Thread of Truth. Get 30% off list price direct from the publisher.

#9 Nelson DeMille

Our favorite DeMille novel is The Gold Coast (1990). It was laugh out loud funny, especially for those of us who know Long Island’s North Shore quite well. And finally he has written the sequel, The Gate House. It’s on our summer reading list. Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say:

Fans of bestseller DeMille will welcome this sequel to The Gold Coast (1990), in which Susan Sutter, then the wife of tax attorney John Sutter, had a torrid affair with Frank Bellarosa, a powerful Mafia boss and the Sutters' neighbor on Long Island's tony Gold Coast, with fatal results for Bellarosa. After divorcing Susan, John sailed the world for three years, then built himself a new life in London. Now John has returned to the small gatehouse that was once part of his ex-wife's family estate, only to find Bellarosa's thuggish son, Anthony, living next door. In another coincidence, Susan has just reacquired the six-bedroom guest cottage where she and John lived as a married couple on her family's former property. Susan and John soon begin to explore an improbable reconciliation, even as they suspect she may be in Anthony's gun sights. The plot more than takes its time getting to its violent and predictable resolution, but DeMille devotees should have plenty of fun along the way. (Oct.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


#10 Jodi Picoult

We are huge fans of Jodi Picoult and it all started when we read My Sister’s Keeper. The book has been made into a movie which opens June 26th and stars Cameron Diaz and Alec Baldwin. Don’t skip the book for the movie. It’s a classic.

Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate - a life and a role that she has never questioned… until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister - and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable… a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves. My Sister's Keeper examines what it means to be a good parent, a good sister, a good person. Is it morally correct to do whatever it takes to save a child's life… even if that means infringing upon the rights of another? Is it worth trying to discover who you really are, if that quest makes you like yourself less?

Tick Tock Stop the Clock

In her second book, Lois Stern has brought together eleven nationally renowed experts on how we can "stop the aging clock". The book covers what's new in the world of lasers, fillers, dermal devices; advice on how to keep your skin, teeth, and hair at their best; the value of spas and estheticians; make up illusions; and body options from exercise, to diet to surgery. The book provides a comprehensive guide to the many non-surgical options now available to keep you looking your very best.

For more information and to buy the book go to: http://www.ticktockstoptheclock.com/