Dinner With The Smileys

If you go to Betsy's Book Bag you can see the titles I read in October.  Most of them are cozy mysteries ~ my go to for escaping life.  My favorite cozy this month was The Sleeping Salesman Enquiry but really, I liked them all.  Well, except for that one I listed that I started and did not finish.  Diane Mott Davidson's The Whole Enchilada was really good too. Best Book Of The Month was Dinner With The Smileys.   This mom came up with a great idea.  While her husband was deployed for 13 months she and her 3 sons invited someone to come to dinner to fill his empty chair once a week. Truthfully, and please don't throw rocks at me, but I had to remind myself I raised boys, my boys did not always act appropriately, and boys are not adults, but I was a little disturbed when the youngest mooned, yes, mooned the Governor of Maine, and over how the oldest acted at a children's hospital.  A time or two I thought she was a little whiney/needy but that is probably because I have been on my own so long and used to having to deal with everything by myself.  I have to hand it to this woman though.  She wrote it as it really happened.   She kept it real.  I really liked her idea that they would not do anything out of the ordinary.....as far as hiding the lived in look of her house, or trying to cook elaborate meals.  Mrs. Smiley writes honestly, frankly and surely made me feel like a fly on the wall.  All in all, I really enjoyed this book and thought she had a fabulous idea.

      The runner up Best Book was The Wednesday Sisters.  This book is one of the most well written books I have read in a long time.  The story is about 5 women who meet in the park and the friendship that develops. The support and encouragement  they give each other through illnesses, racism, bumps in marriages, rejection letters, as well as the good times made me ache for friends such as these. Great book, really well written.   This book should have been my Best Book pick except for those tugging of the heartstrings in Dinner With the Smileys.