Searching for Paradise in Parker, PA

January 21, 2008
Radish’s latest warm-fuzzy (after The Sunday List of Dreams
) tracks the troubled marriage of Lucky and Addy Lipton. Lucky’s Kingdom of Krap—the garage littered with dismantled appliances, an old car and every other project Lucky never finished—has brought Addy nearly to the breaking point in her stale marriage, but it’s the last straw when their planned trip to Costa Rica (with its possibilities for romantic rejuvenation) doesn’t happen. What ensues is a summer of separation, discovering personal desires and strong female friendships (it is, after all, a Radish book). As the summer gives way to fall, Lucky tries to win his wife back, while Addy is torn between living alone or giving the marriage another go. Girl-power readers will get a kick out of the hokey girl get-togethers, and women will surely connect with Radish’s empowered femmes.

March 15, 2008
Addy Lipton is a woman on the brink. When her husband, Lucky, wins a trip to Costa Rica, theyview it as a chance to re-create the magic in their relationship. But Lucky literally breaks his back lifting their luggage, and Addy cant help butsee this as a metaphor for her collapsing marriage. She decides to revamp herself minus the ailing Lucky, and herpursuit of self-fulfillment sets the small town of Parker, Pennsylvania, on its ear as Addy becomes the poster child for the women trying to findparadise, or at least a partner who truly shares and listens. High jinks ensue as the town separates into pro-Addy and pro-Lucky camps. As Addy changes, so does Lucky, giving the town and Lucky hope that Addy will want him back. Radishs many fans will not be disappointed with her hardcover debut as she delivers her message of sisterhood for all women while encouraging men to find their common bond with women and themselves.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)

December 31, 2007
Radish's novel suffers in the transition to audio. Her constant detailed analyses of the main character's emotions, her endless descriptions and her numerous similar scenes of women friends bonding and bashing the men in their lives becomes tedious and repetitive when read aloud on audio and slows the pace to a snail's crawl. This is an audiobook that cries out for abridgment. Barbara McCulloh reads with expression, and her tone conveys sympathy and compassion for the characters' situations, but she does little to differentiate the voices of the female characters, so they all blur together in the listeners' mind, indistinguishable from each other. This is a novel better enjoyed in print than on audio. Simultaneous release with the Bantam hardcover (Reviews, Jan. 21).