The Last One Home

My parents are devout Catholics from the coal mining region of Pennsylvania, so you can imagine how surprised I was when my father gave me a copy of this book and told me to read it. He said that it was a very funny spoof of the Catholic Church. I think it's a serious book about the Catholic Church,hypocrisy and all. It's written funny, though, and Ms. Apollo makes her point better that way. That funeral procession scene made me have to go and take a drink of water. I didn't want it to end. Every time I read it, I laughed. This writer makes points with wit and with funny dialogue. I loved it. I still can't believe my father gave it to me.

This book was one of the funniest I've read in a long time. My boyfriend is Italian. I saw his whole family in this hysterical book. I loved it!

The one true measure of the success of a story is if you care about the characters. Appollo's characters grab hold and make you look at what life has done to them. They are all losers and winners and very human and wonderful to care about.

As a 73 year old woman, I don't enjoy reading many of today's books because they lack original thought, are predictable, and downright boring. This book captivated me from the cover alone and, once I began reading it, I couldn't put it down. I was so impressed with the way the author writes. She has a style I haven't ever experienced before. She writes as if you are actually there with her...as people speak, as people feel. The story brought back so many of my own memories. Flashbacks of my own high school days, friends, fun times, sad times. Gifts that I thought I had lost forever rekindled by one woman's great mind for storytelling. Because of this book, I was prompted to call my old friends. I wanted to tell them to get this book and savor it as it is our story the author tells. I am sure this will be true for so many people. Take this book and let it remind you that, indeed, you can go home again...if only in your heart and soul.

It's not often one comes across a book in which a brilliant first-time author ties together such diverse elements as a dust buster, some barbed wire, a priest, a funeral, a drunk, a clown, some interfering aunts, and a mouthy babe of a lawyer. "How does she do it?" you might ask - Well that, dear friends, is a question easily enough answered by diving head first with eyes open, a nose clip and rubber bathing cap on, into this wonderfully funny and poignant book about the reunion of four high school friends some 30 odd years after their graduation. Their mission is not just to compare wrinkles, sagging boobs and receding hair lines... The common thread between the four, besides their penchant for graveyards, lies in the impending death of a beloved, yet sometimes cantankerous, old man, who is the mentor and savior of little children and tomatoes and, not least of all, the godfather and soulmate of our gal, Gia Scarpino, the book's central character. Aah, beloved Uncle Tony. But believe me, kind readers, this is only where the fun begins. Annette Appollo's first novel, THE LAST ONE HOME, is truly an unexpected delight. It's the kind of book that is literally hard to put down. (So what if the wash doesn't get done, the kids don't get fed or the bills don't get paid!) There is a time and a place for all things, and this book should be right at the top of everyone's "Things To Do - Immediately" list. This is the kind of book that makes you only half listen (and with a bit of irritation) when your youngest child interrupts your reading with whining questions like "MOM, do we have to have cereal again tonight for dinner!?" This is the kind of book that as soon as you are done reading it, you want to turn it over and start again. This is the kind of book that you can't wait to see be made into a movie. This is the kind of book that you won't want to lend out to your friends, because you just know you'll never get it back again. This is the kind of book that teaches you a few things about life, love, friendship, loyalty, longing, hurt, disappointment and family, and even a new way to clean your toaster.Run, scamper or skip to your nearest bookstore to grab this one. But heavens, whatever you do, don't waddle