The Deep Blue Sea for Beginners

This was a great book - I would recomment reading the Geometry of Sisters first as I didn't and the books are connected somewhat. The description of Capri really got to me. I have visited Greece a number of times, but this part of Italy really seemed familiar. I loved LuAnne Rice's writing and have read every book that I know of that she has written at least in the past five years.

Narrated by Tony Award winner Blair Brown, The Deep Blue Sea for Beginners is an audiobook adaptation (abridgement approved by the author) is a novel of a woman's reconnection with her mother, and her search for deeper family understanding. Lyra Davis left the lavish world of her family's wealth long ago, chasing the pull of her heartstrings. Now as Pell Davis prepares to go to college, she needs to know that her younger sister Lucy will be secure; their father has passed on, and so Pell embarks on a journey across the ocean to find the mother she distantly remembers. A poignant and captivating emotional saga, highly recommended. 5 CDs, 6 hours.

Luanne Rice is one of my favorite authors, so when I found two new books I felt like I'd won the jackpot. I wasn't wrong.

Audiobooks simply do not get any better than those read by Blair Brown. Giving her cover credit as reader is an understatement - she's a gifted actress who brings emotion, vitality, and stage training to her narrations. A Tony Award winner for her performance in Copenhagen plus a slew of awards for The Days and Nights Of Molly Brown, she's a performer who raises the level of every title she voices. For this listener that was certainly true of The Deep Blue Sea For Beginners. With Brown at the mike this story of a family asunder became compelling drama. Not to worry if you're not familiar with Rice's Geometry Of Sisters in which two sisters, Pell and Lucy, were introduced, you'll have no trouble in catching up with their lives. It has now been ten years since they were abandoned by their mother, Lyra Nicholson Davis. Now, why a Mom would desert two daughters, a doting husband, a lovely home in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, and a plush lifestyle is anyone's guess. But, that Lyra did and left behind nothing but a rather odd crayoned map. Well, now due to Dad's death the sisters are not only fatherless but motherless. At this juncture, Pell decides to go after her mother to make sure younger sister Lucy is cared for before Pell's college days begin. Where is Mom? On the fabled Isle of Capri. Really, if you have to go somewhere to bring someone home, that a cool destination. Once there, as one would expect, Pell learns some surprising facts about the earlier abandonment, and meets Rafe for whom she develops feelings. However, her boyfriend, Travis, is about to join them. There's also Max who has developed a serious fondness for Lyra. Plus, some blue sea supernatural shenanigans find their way into the story line. Sound a bit much for a 16-year-old to unravel? In Rice's hands it somehow all begins to make sense. The Deep Blue Sea For Beginners is an entertaining diversion set in one of the most beautiful spots on earth. - Gail Cooke

In spite of her wealth, heiress Lyra Nicholson is lonely while living on Capri, Italy. Her two teenage daughters, sixteen years old Pell and fourteen years old Lucy are almost as lonely as their mom while residing with their grandma in Newport, Rhode Island. Lucy, a math prodigy, with the help of her best friend Beck tried to use equations to contact her late father, but failed (see Geometry of Sisters). Pell decides it is time to confront Lyra so she travels to Italy to demand her mother finally be a mom to them; having abandoned them years ago. Playwright Max Gardiner, who loves Lyra, encourages Pell to go for it while the older daughter is attracted to his nineteen years old Rafe, a recovering addict. This profound sequel to GEOMETRY OF SISTERS focuses on the older sister (whereas the previous one centered on Lucy) who after a decade of separation has come to challenge her mom. Ironically when mother and daughter meet, the former seems like a young teen and the latter appears as the more mature fortyish parent. Capri with is vivid setting enhances a deep look at families that as a unit may not survive a tragedy, but the component members endure coping in their own ways. Harriet Klausner