This is supposed to be based on Martha Stewart, but it's soooo superficial. I mean, the best thing about Martha is that underneath the crisp, cool exterior, the woman is kooky. Seriously. I liked the side story about her part-time assistant (though found it hard to believe being even a weekend personal assistant could be a second job) but would have liked the book a lot better if Emma had Martha's "my cat's breath smells like catfood!" seven-year-old style look-at-me attitude. ( )

Martha Stewart-like character tricks a man out of buying a table at an auction house. She's just out of jail for some stock problem. In the story she realizes she can choose: is it better to be perfect, or to be open-hearted. ( )

When I first picked up this book, I thought it would be a chick lit book. Its not.

Author Philip Galanes has written a deeply moving, sad but uplifting novel. The storyline starts off at an auction house where our main character Emma (who strangely reminds me of (....). She is determined to get a special dining room table and will go to any lengths to get it. I thought this was a very interesting opening chapter as it totally threw me off for the rest of the book. I was certain we would be heading in the direction of so much of the standard stuff these days - rich celebrity spends too much money and we get to hear all about it. Well, this book is NOT about this in the least.

Once Emma gets her table, it is hardly mentioned again, but we are introduced, slowly to all the other characters who live in this novel. Benjamin is Emma's assistant, who also happens to be a social worker. Casey is Emma's daughter and she is a mess and her father seems to be a huge part of this reason - then we have Tina and Gracie. Tina is Gracie's mother and suffers from every insecurity known to man and little Gracie is a young girl who is suffering emotionally, mentally and physically from being grossly overweight. ALL of the characters in this book are deeply flawed and are not particularly likeable at times.

Yet, this makes the storyline work. It gives the author and the readers a chance to get to know each of them on a very personal level. No one is one dimensional in this book. For every unkind thought Emma has, she will turn around and severely chastise herself for it, for every horrible act of self-desctruction Casey poses, she will try to redeem herself.

Interestingly enough, all of the characters don't actually end up in the same room at the same time until well into the novel - this disappointed me a little. I love the small exposure we get to the blossoming relationship that could have developed between the sad, lonely, broken and older Emma and the sad,lonely, broken and younger Gracie.

This book is not at all what I expected and I am grateful for that. It does not figure into the standard yarn, which makes this story one that needs telling.

The author tends to use flowery descriptions at times, which I thought was appropriate for this book ot storytelling.

You will thoroughly enjoy this read - even if you probably won't end up liking most of its characters.

This is a good buy. ( )