Charlotte Figg is 51 and her husband of two decades is dead. She has been under his thumb for years and once she runs across an ad for a cute little trailer for sale in Paradise, she can’t help but take it up. But once she gets to her new humble abode, she quickly realizes the picture-perfect trailer in the ad is a scam and the one she really bought it an old, run-down, piece of tin. But this is a growing experience of Charlotte, living her life without her husband telling her what to do.

And that becomes easier as she makes friends and starts a softball team with the circus of people that live in the park including a woman covered with tattoos, a small person, a woman who still breast feeds, a set of twins and a one-armed  man helping them out. A circus right?

This isn’t only a growing experience for Charlotte, but for the whole park as the women gain confidence away from their husbands and neighbors become friends as they let go of their past and secrets.

This is a great coming-of-age kind of story. Charlotte kept secrets about her life with her husband for years and for once in her life, finally feels comfortable enough to share them and let them go. We all have secrets and would probably feel better if we got them off our test, but as this book shows, it’s hard to get the process started.

There are also a lot of issues dealt with in this book, primarily domestic abuse, which we know is a tough situation any woman, or man for that matter. I don’t necessarily condone how the abuse was handled in this book, but for the light heartedness of this book, it worked.

The characters in this book are great. Granted, they are all people that I would probably look at and shy away from at first, they all prove to be great friends. It’s what is beneath the surface and this book is a great way to show that.

I give Charlotte Figg Takes Over Paradise 4 bookmarks.

ISBN: 9781426707667
Publish Date: September 1, 2010
Author Website
Kari got this book from NetGalley

This week’s tease comes from Charlotte Figg Takes Over Paradise by Joyce Magnin.

Pg 193: “I got a retarded girl babysitting, a nursing mother with breasts leaking all over the place and midget who thinks she’s Mickey Mantel.”

Welcome to Paradise eh? Too bad they left out the one-armed man. Seriously! Review on Charlotte Figg to come Wednesday. Don’t pass out with anticipation, but it’ll be everything you are dreaming of

What are you reading this week?

I do this for most books, so you can expect this to become a regular here at The KariAnnAlysis. Welcome to my first installment.

The Stephanie Plum Series by Janet Evanovich is a series I have had a lot of time to think about. I have read 20 of these books and my choice for Stephanie Plum was easy.

Meet Joanne Kelly who plays Agent Myka Bering in the SyFy show “Warehouse 13″.

I think the main thing that did it for me with Kelly was the unruly hair, but she also kicks some major butt in “Warehouse 13″ and could definitely be seen as a bounty hunter, or a wanna-be bounty hunter as Stephanie normally comes off.

Interestingly enough, the Stephanie Plum series is headed to the big screen and my wishes didn’t come true. Kelly is not playing Stephanie Plum. Katherine Heigl actually is. I am very surprised by this. She is definitely not who I pictured in the role, but I’ll give her a chance (not like I really have a choice.)

Ok, so you all know The Rock. And yes, I am sticking with the Stephanie Plum series here. This bad boy, muscle man to the right is who I picture playing Ranger.

Ranger is dark, mysterious and a serious butt kicker. Ever since I first read his description, The Rock was my first choice of who I wanted to see on the big screen.

Just like my dreams of Stephanie Plum, my dreams about who plays Ranger were crushed. Ok, so it’s really not that big of deal, but The Rock is not signed up to play Ranger.

Instead, Daniel Sunjata got the part. And really, I am not complaining. The “Rescue Me” star may not have the pythons for arms that The Rock does, but who doesn’t love a firefighter?

Although I’m not 100% sold on Heigl as Stephanie, I give the casting director a thumbs up for Sunjata.

Have you read this series? If so, who do you picture in these roles? Or do you have other characters that you have placed? Like Betty White as Grandma Mazur? I can totally see that!

Hey buddies. Welcome to my third and final installment of Quirky Questions for readers, originally posted by the Literary Lollipop. Check out my Questions Part 1 and Questions Part 2.

36. How many books do you usually have checked out from the library at any given time? 0

37. How often do you return books to the library unread? If I get a book from the library, I finish it.

38. Favourite fictional character: Stephanie Plum

39. Favourite fictional villain: The Volturi

40. Books I’m most likely to bring on vacation: I normally take a smorgasbord. I’ll take a couple from a series, YA, Chick Lit and a Murder Mystery.

41. The longest I’ve gone without reading: I didn’t read for fun for years. I was so into reading when I was in grade school, but from Jr. High to college, I was into 3 sports and homework and reading wasn’t a priority. I didn’t start back reading for fun until my junior year of college. I have read non-stop since then.

42. Name a book you could/would not finish: I couldn’t finish Wuthering Heights. My mind is normally running in a million different directions and I just couldn’t focus. I will read it sometime, it will let me know when it is ready.

43. What distracts you easily when you’re reading? The TV, too many people

44. Favourite film adaptation of a novel: The Notebook. I love both the movie and the book.

45. Most disappointing film adaptation: The Lovely Bones

46. Most money I’ve ever spent in a bookstore at one time: I am EXTREMELY cheap lol. Last Christmas, I bought $70 worth of books online, but I don’t think that counts because I had gift cards.

47. How often do you skim a book before reading it? All of the time

48. What would cause you to stop reading a book halfway through? I have only had to quit reading a couple of books. If a book doesn’t pull me in within the first 20-30 pages, I normally have a hard time staying focused. If it drags, I’ll quit. If I hate the main character, I’ll quit. If the book is completely against my beliefs, I’ll quit.

49. Do you like to keep your books organized? All of my read books are alphabetical by author. My TBR books however aren’t as organized. There are piles all over my bookshelves, just waiting to be read.

50. Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once they’ve been read? If I loved a book, I will keep it. If it was just ok, I upload them to Book Mooch.

51. Are there any books that you’ve been avoiding? The Classics lol

52. Name a book that made you angry: The Lovely bones

53. A book I didn’t expect to like but did: The Quickie by James Patterson. I just needed a book that started with a Q for my A-Z Challenge. I loved it!

54. A book I expected to like but didn’t: The Lovely Bones

55. Favourite guilt-free guilty pleasure reading: Anything light and fluffy with no substance.

Katniss lives in a world located in the former United States… after the US was no more. It is divided into districts, hers being District 12. District 12 is known for coal mining and located in Appalachia.

Every year, to remind everyone who is boss, an event called The Hunger Games are held. A boy and a girl from each district are chosen to take part in the games, a fight to the death.

In The Hunger Games, Katniss’ little sister Prim is chosen, but Katniss steps in. Her partner, so to speak, in the games is Peeta. His parents are bakers and Katniss actually credits Peeta with saving her life.

Little does she know though that things with Peeta are about to get really thick, really fast and she’ll be owing him her life again as they make their way through the games.

I heard wonderful things about this book time and again, but kept putting off reading it. I’m always behind on pop lit, and this is proof. My main problem is I’m too cheap to buy the books. And before you say “go to the library”, I would love to, but my hours and the libary hours conflict and I can’t always get there on Saturdays. But now that I have read it, I am proven again that I need to get up with the times.

I loved Katniss from the beginning of the book. District 12 is in Appalachia, conveniently where I live. I imagine Katniss living on my block (though there are no coal mines in my town, it’s still nice to dream). Maybe they live in Montcoal and are still going strong and remembering and honoring the 29 miners who died in the Upper Big Branch explosion. That connected me to her immediately.

The next thing that sucked me in was how strong of a young girl Katniss is. I have some years on her, but she has strengths that I won’t have in a million years. I know that they live a substantially harder life that I hope to ever imagine, but if I were thrown into the Hunger Games, I would fall off my podium and get blown up before the word go. I am that clumsy. The girl can shoot and she’s got smarts. From the beginning to the end, I thought “there is no way I would have ever thought of that.”

And how strong are these kids? Think about being thrown into an arena and having to slaughter or get slaughtered. It’s so archaic and morbid, but guess who couldn’t stop reading. The sad thing about this book is that I am afraid if we had the Hunger Games in modern day, it would be a smash hit. Who of us hasn’t watched the beheading of an American online? I am not saying it is right, I am not saying it should happen, by any means, but it’s the fight and struggle that people love. Gladiators are still looked at as heroes even though they were normally from the streets.

This is another one of those books, like the Harry Potter series that I absolutely love because the author is so inspiring. I adore authors and books that jump out of reality. Yes, it is believable that this could happen, I wouldn’t count it out for the future, but it’s not the now. Collins did a great job of keeping it real, while making a whole new world out of it.

I got this trilogy when everyone on Twitter wouldn’t shut up about the release of Mockingjay. Now, I am so glad I caved. Loved this book and can’t wait to read the other two. I give The Hunger Games 5 bookmarks.

ISBN: 9780439023481
Published: September 14, 2008
Buy from Amazon
Kari got this book from Borders with gift cards received from work