Shelter Me

Shelter Me
by Juliette Fay

Shelter Me
List Price: $14.99
Our Price: $5.21
You Save: $9.78 (65%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $2.25 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


or

Book Summary Information

Author: Juliette Fay
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Published)
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2009-01-01
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 448
Publisher: Avon A

Book Reviews of Shelter Me

Book Review: Winner, Winner - Chicken Dinner!
Summary: 5 Stars

Or breakfast cereal, should you be too pooped to cook. With two toddlers, and her world turned upside down by the unexpected tragic death of her young husband, protagonist Janie in her first year of widowhood faces day-to-day existence with varying success. Paying bills, delivering kids to school, buying clothes, attending family gatherings...despite life-altering tragedy, Janie drags through the mundane in not always noble fashion. Which is the primary reason you should buy the book, female or male reader. Janie, thrust into a made-for-chick-lit-stereotype role surprises us. She reacts not in a predictably stoic, I-will-become-a-better-person manner. Rather, she reflects our innermost pettiness. She mopes and complains and swears. Her nasty, begrudging thoughts are exposed. In short, she is everyman. (Every-woman?)

Her companions are as colorful and varied as the brilliant quilt-work on the cover: Aunts, uncles, a distant mother, goofy cousins, irritating in-laws, nosy neighbors, and helpful friends. Janie has a love-hate relationship with them all. A priest enters her life, her mother returns from abroad, and the contractor her dead husband had hired now befriends her. An interesting mélange of characters and enough of a daily thread keeps the novel moving in the one- foot-after-another forward direction that any widow might trudge. Essentially, this is the hook: Could you endure life after tragedy? Will Janie?

Caveat: The author is a friend. But truthfully, given the subject and what I've known about the book, I was not terribly anxious to read what I supposed would be a "tear-jerker". Put it off for a long while. Well, lo and behold, no tears ... instead, genuine interest. No cringing ... indeed, a few good laughs. In the end, SHELTER ME is enjoyable, slice-of-life storytelling. I am very impressed at how well this rookie writer crafted such an interesting book, and very often I stopped after reading a few pages to marvel at well-constructed paragraphs and realistic narrative. We have enough donuts, softball and beer to hold any reader. Even the ever-treacherous romantic scenes, most difficult for any writer, were handled with aplomb. She's a rookie no more.

Buying the next one now.

Summary of Shelter Me

In the tradition of Marisa de los Santos and Anne Tyler comes a moving debut about a young mother's year of heartbreak, loss, and forgiveness...and help that arrives from unexpected sources

Four months after her husband's death, Janie LaMarche remains undone by grief and anger. Her mourning is disrupted, however, by the unexpected arrival of a builder with a contract to add a porch onto her house. Stunned, Janie realizes the porch was meant to be a surprise from her husband?now his last gift to her.

As she reluctantly allows construction to begin, Janie clings to the familiar outposts of her sorrow?mothering her two small children with fierce protectiveness, avoiding friends and family, and stewing in a rage she can't release. Yet Janie's self-imposed isolation is breached by a cast of unlikely interventionists: her chattering, ipecac-toting aunt; her bossy, over-manicured neighbor; her muffin-bearing cousin; and even Tug, the contractor with a private grief all his own.

As the porch takes shape, Janie discovers that the unknowable terrain of the future is best navigated with the help of others?even those we least expect to call on, much less learn to love.

Domestic Life Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Domestic Life Books
Love Object ImageLove Object
by Sally Cooper
Dundurn; Published: 2002-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.92
Price in other shops: $13.99
The Shadow Bride ImageThe Shadow Bride
by Roy A. K. Heath
Persea Books; Published: 1996-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops: $24.95
The Magnificent Ambersons ImageThe Magnificent Ambersons
by Booth Tarkington
Peter Smith Pub Inc; Published: 1967-06; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops: $14.50
Sailing (G K Hall Large Print Book Series) ImageSailing (G K Hall Large Print Book Series)
by Susan Kenney
G K Hall & Co; Published: 1989-12; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops: $19.95
A woman of substance ImageA woman of substance
by Barbara Taylor Bradford
Doubleday; Published: 1999; Unknown Binding; Book
Best price: $18.95
Stygo ImageStygo
by Laura Hendrie
Scribner; Published: 1995-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.98
Price in other shops: $11.00
Christopher Park ImageChristopher Park
by Rosemary Clement
Delphinium Books; Published: 1993-01; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops: $20.00
Absolute Hero ImageAbsolute Hero
by Emyr Humphreys
Littlehampton Book Services Ltd; Published: 1986-01-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $23.99
Herman Had Two Daughters ImageHerman Had Two Daughters
by Zelda Popkin
Lippincott; Published: 1968-06; Textbook Binding; Book
Delta Wedding ImageDelta Wedding
Harcourt; Published: 1979-03; Hardcover; Book
Similar Books and other products
The Beach Trees ImageThe Beach Trees
by Karen White
NAL Trade; Published: 2011-05-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.12
Price in other shops: $15.00
Ten Beach Road ImageTen Beach Road
by Wendy Wax
Berkley Trade; Published: 2011-05-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.89
Price in other shops: $15.00
Summer Shift: A Novel ImageSummer Shift: A Novel
by Lynn Kiele Bonasia
Touchstone; Published: 2010-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.16
Price in other shops: $15.00
The Dry Grass of August ImageThe Dry Grass of August
by Anna Jean Mayhew
Kensington Publishing Corporation; Published: 2011-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.88
Price in other shops: $15.00
The House on Oyster Creek: A Novel ImageThe House on Oyster Creek: A Novel
by Heidi Jon Schmidt
NAL Trade; Published: 2010-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.38
Price in other shops: $15.00
Falling Home ImageFalling Home
by Karen White
NAL Trade; Published: 2010-11-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.91
Price in other shops: $15.00
The Violets of March: A Novel ImageThe Violets of March: A Novel
by Sarah Jio
Plume; Published: 2011-04-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.38
Price in other shops: $15.00
Skipping a Beat: A Novel ImageSkipping a Beat: A Novel
by Sarah Pekkanen
Washington Square Press; Published: 2011-02-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.17
Price in other shops: $15.00
Georgia's Kitchen ImageGeorgia's Kitchen
by Jenny Nelson
Gallery; Published: 2010-08-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.69
Price in other shops: $15.00
Deep Down True: A Novel ImageDeep Down True: A Novel
by Juliette Fay
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2011-01-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.95
Price in other shops: $15.00