If you think Heaven is all about angels reclining on clouds plucking harps, you might want to think again. In Earthly Pleasures, novelist Karen Neches (who also writes under the name Karin Gillespie) introduces her less-conventional version of what lies beyond the Pearly Gates. Step into her Heaven and you'll find a glowing metropolis ruled by a female Deity who cracks corny jokes in the voice of Bette Midler. Here, souls teleport between work (as greeters, guardian angels, newscasters, etc.), school (where they can enroll in self [soul?]-improvement courses), and play (including cloud art and night clubs, where alcohol exists, but hangovers don't). It's a place where news reports are always positive, zits are nonexistent, and even rebellious angels can't get into too much trouble.

Skye Sebring loves her celestial life. She's got an exciting job as a greeter, a drop-dead gorgeous boyfriend, and an endless supply of Hershey's Kisses. Unlike many of Heaven's other residents, she has no interest in Earthly goings-on. That is, until Ryan Blaine steps into her cubicle. Ryan, the handsome son of a former U.S. president, sets hearts atwitter on both Heaven and Earth. Skye's determined not to be impressed, but he captures her attention when he exclaims, "I thought I'd never see you again" (58). Before he has time to explain, Ryan is zapped back to Earth. Skye shakes off the experience - she's never stepped on the planet, so obviously she and Ryan have never met - but she can't quite erase him from her thoughts. Suddenly, her interest in Earthly matters skyrocket.

A series of odd dreams unsettles Skye almost as much as her confusing encounter with Ryan. Then, to her shock, she receives an assignment to "return" to Earth. With no memories of a previous life, Skye begins questioning everything she thought she knew about herself. Who is she, really? And why does a mega-celebrity like Ryan Blaine recognize her?

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Ryan grieves for his wife, Susan. A recent brain injury has left her scarred and altered. In fact, Ryan feels as if he's living with a complete stranger - one who acts nothing like her old self. Their once vibrant relationship has become "like a gorgeous Oriental rug spread over a layer of dust and crud" (149). He wants to mend it, but the more he lives with Susan, the more he's convinced that something is seriously wrong. Ryan's not the only one who suspects things are not exactly as they seem. Miles away, Caroline Brodie can't believe her comatose roomie is a former prostitute and drug addict with no hope of recovery. She sets out to prove the doctors wrong, vowing to wake the young woman whose innocent face just can't be that of a lowlife druggie. Up above, guardian angels work overtime to help the Earthlings figure out the puzzle that will piece together Ryan Blaine's broken heart. With a little Divine Intervention, a whole lot of lonely hearts just might be able to find hope and love.

I enjoy the idea of a Heaven/Earth love connection; unfortunately, Earthly Pleasures doesn't quite deliver on its charming premise. I think Neches' idea of Heaven is fun, if simplistic and underdeveloped. It's when the action moves down to Earth that it becomes predictable, even cliche. I wouldn't have minded this, really, because the book is meant to be light and playful, but it gets so contrived I can hardly stand it. Plus, the plot meanders all over the place, introducing all kinds of subplots that are never quite wrapped up. Even the ending only concludes things on one plane, and ambiguously at that. I really wanted a final chapter explaining what happens to Heaven's residents, especially Chelsea, Rhianna, and Brock. Without this, the story ends too abruptly, never quite coming full circle.

If you can overlook these flaws, you'll find that Earthly Pleasures provides a sweet, hopeful story about the power of love. Just don't expect anything too heavy - this one is as light and airy as a cloud.

P.S. Did I mention how much I love the cover of Earthly Pleasures? It really is divine.

Grade: B-

On a stormy night 16 years ago, a mother in the throes of a manic episode dragged her daughters aboard her sailboat. Hurricane-force winds slapped the craft around, stealing control of the vessel. Before the night was over, the ocean claimed the mother, leaving her daughters adrift and terrified. Although the sisters were lucky to escape with their lives, the strange events of that night changed everything. The girls, who were once as close as twins in the womb, became living ghosts. Scared. Haunted. Strangers ...

The Memory of Water by Karen White begins 10 years later, when Marnie Maitland comes home to the South Carolina Lowcountry. She hasn't spoken to her sister Diana for a decade. Still, when Diana's ex-husband Quinn summons her home, she packs her bags and lands in the one spot she never thought she'd be again - her childhood home. She hasn't come for herself, or even for her sister, but for her 9-year-old nephew Gil. The boy has not spoken since the night his mother took him for his own storm-tossed boatride. Quinn hopes that Marnie, who teaches art to special needs students, can help him speak again. Although Marnie's own fears make her want to turn and flee, she knows she must try to help the boy whose terror reminds her so much of her own.

As weeks stretch into months, Marnie feels the distance she so carefully put between herself and home evaporate. Her true self comes back to her, along with repressed memories of the night her mother drowned. She wants to confront Diana, demand to know the truth of what happened, but her sister is dealing with her own demons. Like her mother before her, Diana battles bi-polar disorder. The manic episodes twist her mind, but allow her to paint with brilliance and abandon. Since her boat accident with Gil, Quinn forces her to take her meds in order to see her son. Since he cringes every time she comes near, Diana locks herself in her studio where she produces second-rate pieces she knows to be "the paintings of the drugs and not the true heart of the damaged artist" (69). So, Marnie stays away as well, keeping her distance from her turbulent sister.

Marnie's presence obviously agitates the unstable Diana, who vaccilates wildly between rationality and madness. She raves about the Maitland curse, painting a macabre timeline to document all the tragedies the family has experienced. Diana seems bent on releasing the secrets that are eating her alive, obsessed by stopping the madness before it consumes her son, but how far can she go before her tenuous hold on life slips away? And what of the others? Can they handle the ugly truths hidden in every nook and cranny of the family home? Pandora's Box has opened, and demons are running rampant - will any of them have what it takes to finally bring peace to the troubled Maitlands?

Told from 4 different viewpoints (Marnie, Diana, Gil and Quinn), The Memory of Water tells a complicated story that highlights the very thin line between love and hate. It asks tough questions - What happens when a mother favors one child over the other? Can a child ever survive betrayal by a parent? What is a family to do when mental illness threatens to tear it apart? And, most importantly, can the truth really set us free? These questions are explored through the eyes of a fascinating cast of characters in lovely, lyrical language. Although the plot is surprisingly predictable, the book clips along at a fast pace, propelled by the complexity of the characters and White's gift for speaking directly to the heart. It's compulsively readable, hauntingly beautiful and deeply resonate. I guarantee you won't be able to forget this book.

Grade: A-

If your "Happily Ever After" isn't turning out quite the way you planned, you may want to check out Edythe Denkin's new book, Relationship Magic. Denkin, a marriage counselor with 30 years experience, uses the parable of a prince and princess whose kingdom needs some tending to to teach readers about finding happiness and fulfillment in marriage. It sounds hokey (my 6-year-old daughter asked me if the book was about how to be a princess - we've been watching a lot of Enchanted at our house), and it is. In fact, I would have liked this book a lot better if it used real-life examples instead of a fairy tale, but I appreciate the author's attempt to make her material more readable.

So, it's 2:36 a.m. and I'm awake with an upset stomach (note to self: Mountain Dew and Reese's is not the best combo to partake of before bed). I am exhausted, too, since my 3-year-old woke me up at 5 a.m. yesterday morning. Ugh. Oh well. The house is quiet, and what else do I have to do but blog surf (fold laundry, clean off my desk, unload the dishwasher, polish my toenails ... )?

I found this on Marg's blog and thought it was interesting:

Entertainment Weekly has come up with a list of the 100 best reads from 1983 to 2008. Just for fun, I highlighted the ones I've read in blue.

1. The Road , Cormac McCarthy (2006)

2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling (2000)

3. Beloved, Toni Morrison (1987)

4. The Liars’ Club, Mary Karr (1995)

5. American Pastoral, Philip Roth (1997)

6. Mystic River, Dennis Lehane (2001)

7. Maus, Art Spiegelman (1986/1991)

8. Selected Stories, Alice Munro (1996)

9. Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier (1997)

10. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami (1997)

11. Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer (1997)

12. Blindness, José Saramago (1998)

13. Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1986-87)

14. Black Water, Joyce Carol Oates (1992)

15. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers (2000)

16. The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood (1986)

17. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez (1988)

18. Rabbit at Rest, John Updike (1990)

19. On Beauty, Zadie Smith (2005)

20. Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding (1998)

21. On Writing, Stephen King (2000)22. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz (2007)

23. The Ghost Road, Pat Barker (1996)

24. Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry (1985)

25. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan (1989)

26. Neuromancer, William Gibson (1984)

27. Possession, A.S. Byatt (1990)

28. Naked, David Sedaris (1997)

29. Bel Canto, Anne Patchett (2001)

30. Case Histories, Kate Atkinson (2004)

31. The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien (1990)

32. Parting the Waters, Taylor Branch (1988)

33. The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion (2005)

34. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold (2002)

35. The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst (2004)

36. Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt (1996)

37. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi (2003)

38. Birds of America, Lorrie Moore (1998)

39. Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri (2000)

40. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman (1995-2000)

41. The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros (1984)

42. LaBrava, Elmore Leonard (1983)

43. Borrowed Time, Paul Monette (1988)

44. Praying for Sheetrock, Melissa Fay Greene (1991)

45. Eva Luna, Isabel Allende (1988)

46. Sandman, Neil Gaiman (1988-1996)

47. World’s Fair, E.L. Doctorow (1985)

48. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver (1998)

49. Clockers, Richard Price (1992)

50. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen (2001)

51. The Journalist and the Murderer, Janet Malcom (1990)

52. Waiting to Exhale, Terry McMillan (1992)

53. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon (2000)

54. Jimmy Corrigan, Chris Ware (2000)

55. The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls (2006)

56. The Night Manager, John le Carré (1993)

57. The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe (1987)

58. Drop City, TC Boyle (2003)

59. Krik? Krak! Edwidge Danticat (1995)

60. Nickel & Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich (2001)

61. Money, Martin Amis (1985)

62. Last Train To Memphis, Peter Guralnick (1994)

63. Pastoralia, George Saunders (2000)

64. Underworld, Don DeLillo (1997)

65. The Giver, Lois Lowry (1993)

66. A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, David Foster Wallace (1997)

67. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini (2003)

68. Fun Home, Alison Bechdel (2006)

69. Secret History, Donna Tartt (1992)

70. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell (2004)

71. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Ann Fadiman (1997)

72. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon (2003)

73. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving (1989)

74. Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger (1990)

75. Cathedral, Raymond Carver (1983)

76. A Sight for Sore Eyes, Ruth Rendell (1998)

77. The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)

78. Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert (2006)

79. The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell (2000)

80. Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerney (1984)

81. Backlash, Susan Faludi (1991)

82. Atonement, Ian McEwan (2002)

83. The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields (1994)

84. Holes, Louis Sachar (1998)

85. Gilead, Marilynne Robinson (2004)

86. And the Band Played On, Randy Shilts (1987)

87. The Ruins, Scott Smith (2006)

88. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby (1995)

89. Close Range, Annie Proulx (1999)

90. Comfort Me With Apples, Ruth Reichl (2001)

91. Random Family, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (2003)

92. Presumed Innocent, Scott Turow (1987)

93. A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley (1991)

94. Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser (2001)

95. Kaaterskill Falls, Allegra Goodman (1998)

96. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown (2003)

97. Jesus’ Son, Denis Johnson (1992)

98. The Predators’ Ball, Connie Bruck (1988)

99. Practical Magic, Alice Hoffman (1995)

100. America (the Book), Jon Stewart/Daily Show (2004)

Wow! I've only read 16 out of 100. In my defense, a lot of these books are on my TBR list. Has anyone made a challenge out of this yet? It would be a good one. In the meantime, I think I'll make it a personal challenge (of the open-ended-no-pressure variety).

How many of these have you read? Which ones do you consider must-reads? Which could you have done without?

It's amazing how much better a nice, long list of books makes me feel. I think I'm ready to go back to bed. Let's just hope my toddler lets me sleep in until at least 5:30!

Thanks for the early-morning diversion, Marg!