ChickLit Reviews and News Picks Alice Bliss for Top 15 Books of 2011″
Danielle’s Top 15 Books of 2011 Earlier this week Leah shared her Top 15 Books of 2011 and as the weekend began to sneak up on me I knew my time would be coming to share my list as well. It was definitely harder to narrow it down to just 15 than I thought it would be. 2011 was an amazing year filled with some of the most incredible books I’ve ever read. So, without further hesitation on my part, my 2011 Top 15… Congratulations and thank you to each of these brilliant authors! Remember, these are all based on US release dates though they may have been released earlier elsewhere in the world. I hope you’ve been able to read a few of my favorites, but if you haven’t definitely be sure to check out my review by clicking on the cover!...
Read More“Characters so real I wanted to smack them.”
Alice Bliss Dec 23, 2011 by Dee DeTarsio Dang you, Laura Harrington, you owe me a hankie. When Alice Bliss learns that her father, Matt, is being deployed to Iraq, she’s heartbroken. Alice idolizes her father, loves working beside him in their garden, accompanying him on the occasional roofing job, playing baseball. When he ships out, Alice is faced with finding a way to fill the emptiness he has left behind. Matt will miss seeing his daughter blossom from a tomboy into a full- blown teenager. Alice will learn to drive, join the track team, go to her first dance, and fall in love, all while trying to be strong for her mother, Angie, and take care of her precocious little sister, Ellie. But the smell of Matt is starting to fade from his blue shirt that Alice...
Read MoreHarrington creates an incredibly poignant story; grief and loss are palpable.
Posted on October 11, 2011 by Pam B. Cole ALAN’s Picks is a monthly book review column that is compiled and edited by Dr. Pam B. Cole of Kennesaw State University. Alice Bliss by Laura Harrington Viking/Penguin, 2011, 306 pp., $25.95 Family/Death/War ISBN: 987-0-670-02278-6 Fifteen-year-old Alice Bliss has a treasure many teens desire but don’t often experience: a close, supportive relationship with her dad. Matt Bliss, formerly an engineer, but now carpenter/craftsman, coaches little league baseball and utilizes his skills as a farm team pitcher. Alice and Matt share gardening, his workshop, and life lessons. This special bond causes Alice incredible pain, though, when her father’s Army Reserve unit is called up. After only six weeks, rather than the...
Read MoreHarrington creates a world and cast of characters that grab your heart and don’t let go
Alice Bliss by Laura Harrington by SERENA on OCTOBER 12, 2011 Alice Bliss by Laura Harrington is a coming of age story about a teen girl growing into adulthood at a time when her father, Matt, is sent to Iraq and her mother, Angie, is not dealing with his absence as well as Alice thinks she should. The blissful life her family has had up until this point is turned around and twisted as Alice takes on more of her mother’s duties — making dinner, washing clothes, getting her sister’s (Ellie) lunch ready, and getting her sister to school. She’s constantly worried about her father not returning home, about how she seems not to be anyone’s favorite, and the changes she sees in her friends, family, and Henry (her neighbor and friend). Harrington...
Read More“…a beautifully wrought tale of a young girl growing up in small-town America during our most recent years of craziness and warfare — and all that this does to one family.”
Alice Bliss is a typical teenager. She is 13, lives with her parents and sometimes annoying younger sister, has a best friend with whom she shares everything, and is noticing boys for the first time. However, there is little in her life that seems normal these days. When her dad gets called up to active duty in the armed forces, Alice takes to wearing his shirt every day and trying to be strong for her devastated mom. “…a beautifully wrought tale of a young girl growing up in small-town America during our most recent years of craziness and warfare — and all that this does to one family.” Laura Harrington’s first novel is a beautifully wrought tale of a young girl growing up in small-town America during our most recent years of craziness...
Read MoreA highly accomplished debut novel about family, love, loss, grief and growing up
From Carola Huttman @ Bookmunch.wordpress.com August 28, 2011 I can’t remember the last time a novel made me cry. Indeed, I’m not sure any book ever moved me to tears until now. From the very first sentence I was drawn into the complicated world of fifteen-year old Alice Bliss. Beneath her slightly gruff tomboyish adolescent exterior hides a great deal of warmth, compassion and sensitivity. Through her well-developed sense of observation and natural curiosity she breathes real humanity into the multitude of colourful characters who people her life. The uneasy relationship with her mother, Angie, stands in stark contrast to that with her father, whom she idolises. The love she feels towards her eight-year-old sister Ellie, mature beyond her years in...
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