All This Belongs to Me

Though all his books are funny, I always learn something in Ad Hudler's novels. In Southern Living, for example, he taught me all kinds of things about produce in the supermarket. In Househusband he had great recipes and tips on childcare. In All This Belongs to Me we learn a lot about the quirky lives of Thomas and Mina Edison and their life in subtropical Fort Myers....although Hudler makes a lot of it up, which adds to the humor. (There's a scene where the famous inventor is sitting on the toilet, reading the newspaper, and he scares a little boy so badly when he rattles his newspaper, telling him to shoo, that the boy wets his pants.) This book is more of a sweet, heartwarming story than his other novels. It's not LOL funny, but SMILE funny. More subtle than his other works.

This author is a stay-at-home husband, witty, and best of all he understands (and writes about) strong and delightful female characters. His writing style is literary in a modern sense, easy to follow, and demands that you keep turning pages until the end. I bought this book at a recent book festival, read it in two days, and am recommending it to my book club. It's light and fun, but thought-provoking at the same time, which is a perfect selection to discuss over wine and cheese.

Ad Hudler is a fine story teller. He develops characters that you like, even if you can't quite believe them. This book makes you feel good every time you pick it up, and you don't really want to put it down. Just plain fun.

Sometimes you pick up a book believing you're in for a nice read and then discover you've hit on a real gem. And All This Belongs to Me by Ad Hudler is a refreshing gem. Geena is traveling light, with just a bag of clothes destined to be donated--a bag that she finds in the back of her car while trying to locate a Yanni CD. Her marriage is failing and her son has died. Geena is on the run from her life. Ellis, a 60-something bachelor, is the senior docent at the Thomas Edison museum in Fort Myers, Florida. Life has changed for Ellis since his mother's death and now it seems that everything at the museum is also changing. Geena's money is running low when she comes upon Ellis' credit card. Since Ellis could be either a man or a woman, Geena decides to bankroll her trip with Ellis' credit card. But not being a truly dishonest person, Geena uses the card to track down Ellis to pay back the money she owes. And when she finally meets Ellis, she poses as a reporter who is doing a story on Fort Meyers. Geena and Ellis' lives collide and the reader enters a world where marriage, loss and second chances are the dessert. Hudler is magnificent in his ability to both accurately enter the female mind as well as convey historical information in an interesting manner. His prose drew me in and I found myself alternating between sadness and laughter. Armchair Interviews says: It's simply a sweet novel that evokes a cozy warmth. Highly recommend All This Belongs to Me.

Leaving Colorado for Kansas, Geena Pangborn is already in shock from the accidental death of her son Nathan, but is not allowed to mourn her loss or obtain solace. The wealthy upper class family of her husband Barry blames her for the tragedy; Barry sides with his parents holding his wife culpable. Unable to cope with the combination of grief and accusatory scorn punctuated by her need to wear Nathan's sweater, Geena flees Kansas, but not to return home. She heads further east until near broke, she accidentally obtains a credit card belonging to Ellis Norton of Fort Myers, Florida. Though feeling guilty for not turning it in, Geena uses the card to continue her journey with her new destination to meet Ellis and recuperate in SOUTHERN LIVING. Geena is shocked to find Ellis is an octogenarian bachelor who works as a docent at the Edison House Museum where he learns management changes may force him out of the only thing that keeps him alive. Geena persuades Ellis that she is a reporter doing a feature on Fort Myers and soon the two become close friends, but she knows she owes the elderly man the truth, but fears another rejection from a man who has become a warm caring but crusty grandfather to her. This deep character study enables readers to see how a grieving woman cut off by her loved one needs time to heal, but in this case has to do it on the road. The relationship between Geena and Ellis is delightfully developed and portrayed as believable as each finds solace in the other. Though the ending seems schmaltzy, fans of a strong drama will appreciate Ad Hudler's fine look at grief. Harriet Klausner