Title: Vivian Rising
Author: Daniella Brodsky
Publisher: Downtown Press-Division of Simon & Schuster
Pub Date: August 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4391-7202-5
Pages: 330
Genre: Fiction
Book Synopsis from the publisher:
Twenty-nine-year-old Viv’s world is falling apart. She’s just lost the grandmother who raised her, her boyfriend, and her job. The stages of grief are hard enough to navigate when you’re not worried about losing your apartment. Desperate for meaning in a world that seems to have turned on her overnight, Viv turns to the stars for answers. She begins by casually looking up her horoscope late at night, but it isn’t long before she finds herself completely hooked. When she stumbles upon a particularly astute astrologer, she becomes so convinced of the power of the stars that she won’t make a single move without them. When the astrologer advises her to break it off with the man who’s been her saving grace, Viv is reluctant to lose the one thing that brings her joy. But the astrologer has been accurate on so many points, Viv can’t help but wonder if she should trust her here, too…
About the Author:
Daniella Brodsky was born in Queens, New York, in the town of Little Neck, which is as notoriously tagged as the inspiration for West Egg in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby as it is for being the Queens town with the least street cred: “Isn’t that on Long Island?” No, it isn’t.
The good news is she now lives in Australia, where nobody is likely to argue the credibility of either claim, possibly even far enough to assert a stake in the Little Neck Clam fame, too. Unfortunately, it appears she’s inherited a new problem, though. “Where in Australia do you live?” “In the capital.” “Sydney?” “No, Canberra.” “Never heard of it.” Right.
In between, Brodsky’s lived in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Long Island, Las Vegas, London, Connecticut, and Washington DC. She earned a BA from New York University in Greenwich Village, where creative writing instructors first hinted she may actually have something there. She was unconvinced, but kept being drawn back. Mere blocks away, it was in 2000 that she officially told that doubting voice to shove it when her first novel, DIARY OF A WORKING GIRL was published. DIARY OF A WORKING GIRL has been adapted by Disney for the feature film BEAUTY AND THE BRIEFCASE, starring Hilary Duff, debuting on ABC Family Network April 18, 2010 at 8pm.
Daniella Brodsky’s subsequent novels are THE VELVET ROPE DIARIES, and PRINCESS.
Daniella Brodsky has a fantastic website that you can check out at
http://www.daniellabrodsky.com/
My review:
Viv is a down to earth character that is searching for something to make sense of her life and she thinks she has found it when she comes across an astrologer that starts to tell her things that come true. The book is very well written and I think many will identify with Viv and her struggle with self confidence and the need to feel good enough among her family and friends. The book has it all: love, death, friendship, and an endearing quality that makes you yearn to make all things better for Viv in her life. I had not read anything by Brodsky before and so glad I read this one. The book was a quick read as I devoured it in a few hours on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
No comments:
Post a Comment