By Leslie Lindsay
Looking for some fun, light reading this summer? Something to toss into your beach/pool bag? Well, I am not going to suggest the 50 Shades triology…though I am reading it.
It’s not that it’s bad (well, it kind of is), but it’s just not worthy of a recommendation (at least in my humble opinion). My book group is reading it because our theme for the month of June is “romance.” And technically, the 50 Shades trilogy qualifies as an erotic romance. Now that I am in book 2, I can see the romance piece, though just barely. In some ways, I feel as though I am reading something the author just threw together in a haste…looking up adjectives and similies in her trusty thesaurus. Wonder if there are some other words for “gray” and “lip biting??!”
Okay, okay–I confess, it’s an okay beach read. And I didn’t really set out to do a review on 50 Shades, so I will stop. I do, however want to share with you a couple of titles you may like from a mom perspective, without the….ahem, erotic elements. In fact, they are the complete opposite end of the scale.
Best-selling author of Bad Heiress Day, Allie Pleiter brings Queen Esther and the Second Graders of Doom (Steeple Hill Press, 2006) where the tagline is, “welcome to the jungle…gym.”
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| Retrieved from amazon.com on 6.8.12 |
She has also penned Facing Every Mom’s Fears: A Survival Guide to Balancing Fear with Courage (Zondervan, 2004) From the book’s description: “[the book] brims with true-life stories from other moms and expert advice from the fields of social work, family therapy, psychiatry, and psychology. Best of all, this book digs deep into the Bible to help you meet your fears head-on with faith in God, the ultimate, ever-watchful parent.”
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| Retrieved from Amazon.com on 6.8.12 |
Leslie A. Lindsay| Writer & Creative 
Thanks for the recommendations! Also, we went to the beach over the Memorial Day weekend and I got 50 Shades of Gray on my Kindle. My impression was the same – okay, but absolutely, positively not #1 bestseller material. The “erotic scenes” didn’t really bother me, but I hated Christian’s controlling, manipulative, & mean way of showing his affection. I worry that impressionable young women may read that book and think that it is sexy for a man to treat you that way. My favorite part of that book was reading all of the 1 star Kindle reviews after I finished it. I did that for like two hours, laughing out loud many times. Take care and have a good weekend-