Jeanne Ray

Audiobook read by the author

Ruth Hopson likes to bake cakes. She finds comfort in comforting others, and lately everyone – including Ruth – needs some comfort. Her mother has moved in after a day-time burglary at her home, her teenage daughter has all the sullenness and angst of most 16-year-olds, her son’s away at college, and her hospital administrator husband has just lost his job. Then her father, a traveling piano player whom she hasn’t seen in 35 years, breaks both wrists in a show more fall and has nowhere else to go. Can she bake enough cakes to soothe everyone – and herself?

I have loved every book I’ve read by Jeanne Ray, and this one is no exception. Her writing reminds me of Anne Tyler and Elizabeth Berg. Her characters experience everyday life, with all its joys, crises, heartaches and triumphs.

I loved Ruth. I liked how she came to grips with her anxieties, how she reached out for help when she needed it, how she listened to advice but still made her own decisions. I loved the interactions between Ruth and her mother, or Ruth and her daughter. This is a woman I want to be friends with … and not just because of her cakes, though I would love to try them!

And I really liked the addition of Florence, the occupational therapist who makes house calls as a favor to the family to help Ruth’s father recover the use of his hands. This is a no-nonsense yet compassionate woman that everyone needs as a best friend. She’s a wonderful addition to the mix of this household.

The audiobook is performed by the author, and I cannot imagine anyone else doing a better job. She really brought these characters to life. One little quibble with the audio version, however, is that it is difficult to tell when Ruth is saying something out loud or just thinking it. But that didn’t really lessen my enjoyment of the book.

The text includes detailed recipes at the end. show less

Clever and crafty, but definitely needs a dose of indulgence when it comes to believability. Still, the basic premise - that women, especially over the age of 50 are invisible - is worth exploring. The heroine, Clover Hobart, 54 (same!) literally becomes invisible due to a circumstance she deduces after encountering other invisible women. Turns out there is quite a league of them in her Ohio environs, and even more beyond those borders. Sadly, her family (20-something son, Nick, pediatrician show more husband Arthur, college-age daughter Evie) don't even notice, so pre-occupied are they with their own lives and so used to the role she fills for them. To be fair, she can be felt by them and her clothes suggest a person within, but how much do we truly pay attention to those in our daily lives? Her best friend/neighbor Glinda, and her m-i-l, Irene do notice and they give Clover the support she needs to figure out her altered life. The fellowship of the other women and the commonality that caused their invisibility becomes a crusade to do right by women everywhere in all circumstances. Here, here! They also learn how to use their invisibility to their advantage, acting as consciences and deterrents to much of the small scale bad behavior in their spheres of influence: bullying at schools, a bank robbery, bad teenage choices, etc. - all to humorous effect. "I'm starting to think we need invisible women everywhere, not just for protection but to give people a nudge to be their better selves." (95) Clover also gains insight into her family's lives that dinner conversation just doesn't provide. "It's possible that hat's the lesson in all of this is, not who sees you but who you can learn to see." (107) Capers and hijinks result and energy is channeled to make a difference and lessons are learned. Clover uses her dormant skills as a journalist to break the story and create awareness. Women are empowered and appreciated. "We've got to starting thinking about what makes us light. Simply put, invisible women need to work a lot harder to be seen....So we've got to figure out who we are. We've got to stop standing around in the corner wondering if anybody is missing us. We have to find our light so people still know that we're here." (128) All this is, of course, a stretch. But it is entertaining and thought-provoking and while it resolves quickly at the end, it leaves a 'what if?' sentiment behind. "The truth, we realize as we get older, is a very complicated pastiche of feelings and facts, of what can and cannot be said. It is different for everyone." (156) Our challenge is to find our truth and live by it, and this may only be do-able when we reach a certain age and maturity. show less

Who among us hasn't felt her contributions to family life or work or both haven't gone completely unnoticed at times. If dinner is on the table, laundry is washed and folded, reports signed off on, and emails sent is there any reason for those around us to look at us carefully enough to actually see us? Or is the presence of the expected enough that those providing the service are invisible to those around them?

When Clover, the main character in Jeanne Ray's Calling Invisible Women, wakes show more up invisible one morning, she is horrified to discover that neither her overworked and exhausted pediatrician husband nor her unemployed and depressed post-college aged son, nor her self-obsessed college cheerleader daughter notice that she is in fact invisible. As long as all the things she does around the house continue to be accomplished and she wears clothing on her invisible body, they do not notice that she in fact entirely lacking a visible presence. For them, it's life as usual. But for Clover, well and truly invisible, life is nothing like usual.

As she tries to navigate life even more invisible than she had been (because what woman of a certain age doesn't feel invisible in so many small ways already), she realizes that she can use her invisibility for the good of society. Putting her journalism background to use, she researches invisibility whenever it is mentioned although she realizes that few pop culture nods to invisibility are realistic or quite like what she is facing. And when she spots a personal ad in her own paper, "Calling invisible women" to come to a meeting at the local Sheraton, mustering up the courage to attend, she will find a group of women all suffering from true invisibility like she is and she will find that even without being able to see her body, she can let her inner light shine and make a real difference with the help of these women. Being invisible also allows her to see the true emotional needs of her own family, the things that she was too wrapped up to see about them just as they have so long been too wrapped up to properly see her.

Accessible and engrossing, this is storytelling the way it should be. It is appealing, straightforward, eminently relatable, and by turns humorous and sad. The characters are well-rounded, sympathetic (yes, even though many of them don't notice Clover's invisibility, they are still sympathetic), and very realistic. Clover herself is a wonderful character, discovering hidden strengths she never suspected, changing, and being empowered. The pace of the book builds as Clover comes to terms with her situation and builds again as the invisible women plan their campaign. Although this book posits actual invisibility (and there is a legitimate cause behind the actual invisibility) instead of just using it as a metaphor, anyone who has ever felt unappreciated or invisible to family or society will definitely appreciate this thoughtful and entertaining novel. I have already recommended it to many of my friends, all women of a certain age who have, without exception, said, "I'm definitely invisible. I need to read that." show less

Bellissimo, un'originale rivisitazione di "Romeo e Giulietta" traslata ai giorni nostri e con protagonisti due vivaci e scatenati sessantenni, Romeo vedovo e Julie divorziata, le cui famiglie sono in aperta ostilità da tempo, ma del tutto immemori del motivo alla base del feroce dissidio.
Tra fughe, litigi, zuffe e dispetti familiari reciproci una vicenda dolce, simpatica, appassionante e con un finale un po’ inaspettato che non ha nulla a che vedere (e meno male!) con il finale della show more storia a cui si ispira.
Ho amato tantissimo i due protagonisti, adorabili e perfetti, e questo libro che conservo gelosamente da anni e che ogni tanto amo rileggere centellinandolo (alla faccia della tragedia shakespeariana!). show less