A Soft Place to Land

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I obediently trudged though A Soft Place to Land by Susan Rebecca White for my book club a few weeks ago and I decided to have mixed reviews about it.  The book takes a little while to get into and a little after the half way point I really did had to find out what happened to our poor protagonist so I continued reading.  But had I not been reading this for my  book club I probably would have disregarded the book after the first few chapters.  {Side note:  I promise that I usually do like the books I read it just seams that 2010 is the year of bad books for me, I am not typically a Debbie Downer or a Nagging Nancy like my recent book reviews make me sound, and I currently reading 3 VERY good books so stay tuned}.  I had some serious character issues with this book.  Ruthie the main character seemed flat, not fleshed out enough to be a main character.  Her sister Julia seemed a little more interesting and I enjoyed reading about her but the story was about Ruthie mostly and you would think that White would have made Ruthie the interesting one.  She just seemed to float through life, taking the joy and sorrow with the same even tone.  In other words she was the Melba Toast of literary Characters.  Every one else in the story had some flavor (bland flavor but at least you could taste them), they all had some interesting quirk but poor Ruthie was just kinda blah.  I really didn't like anyone of importance in this whole book really.  They seemed disconnected with life, not real, not deep.

So we meet Ruthie and her half sister Julia when they are young.  Ruthie is in 7th grade and is a rule follower; and Julia is in High School and is rule breaker.  During Spring Break their parents head off to Los Vegas for a little alone time and while they are there they decide to go on a little trip to the Grand Canyon for a airplane tour.  But unfortunately they die in a fiery plane crash.  So Ruthie and Julia are split up, Ruthie going to live with her aunt and uncle (the only characters I kinda liked) in San Francisco, and Julia going to live with her Dad and wicked step-mom in Virginia.  Over the next few years the once very close sisters have a falling out.  Julia's reckless behavior, and Ruthie's pent up resentment for her sister drive a wedge between their relationship.  Later when another plane crash occurs the two grow closer only to be ripped apart again.  Finally a third plane crash gives the reader hope that these two girls will get their act together and remember they are sisters.  How many plane crashes can one family endure you ask?  The answer is that 3 plane crashes in one life time bring you full circle I suppose.

I guess the story kind of board me.  Nothing much happens and like I said Ruthie was Melba Toasty, but the writing was fantastic so that was a redeeming factor.  I would probably recommend this book to book clubs but other than that I don't think I would recommend it to anyone else.  However, I would read another one of Whites books.  As I said I liked her writing style, so maybe another story would speak to me a little better than A Soft Place to Land did.  

BOOK vs. MOVIE: There isn't a movie but if there were I'd bet it would be one on Lifetime.

RATING: 3 Stars

3 More Reviews on A Soft Place to Land:

Along Plumb Creek

Designed to Live

Booking Mama 

A Soft Place to Land by Susan Rebecca White

(Purchased at Target)

ISBN 9781439194812

Pages328

If you liked this book you should read: Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch 

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

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OK here is a little relationship tip for all you guys and gals out there.  Ladies if you are pregnant and you get stuck in a freak snow storm and your husband has to deliver your child, make sure you stay awake through out the whole ordeal.  And fella's if your wife is pregnant and you get stuck in a freak snow storm and you have to deliver your own child don't claim the baby died and then send it off to live with the nurse that helped with the delivery.  This isn't good for your marriage.  It causes problems, and tension, and walls to be built up.  And I'm no psychologist people, but I do know that this may lead to divorce some where down the line!  You may snicker at this little scenario and tell yourself well that won't ever happen to me, but be warned my friends, because this is just what happened in The Memory Keepers Daughter by Kim Edwards.  

So here is a little run down on what happens in this story.  David Henry is very much in love with his wife Nora.  So in love in fact that he wants to shelter her from heartbreak and a life of struggle, so when he has to deliver his twins on one cold and blustery night he keeps their perfect son (Paul) and sends off his less than perfect (in his opinion) daughter (Pheobe, she has Down Syndrome) off with the nurse (Caroline) while his wife is still passed out from the gas they gave delivering mothers back in the '60s (ummm... What happened to that gas).  When Nora wakes up David tells his wife that their daughter was born dead and that he had sent her little body with the nurse to dispose of.  This starts a downward spiral in to a life of depression for Nora.  She loves Paul with all her heart but she always has a missing part of her soul for her daughter that she never even got to see.  Mean while David is living with this horrible secret that his daughter is alive and well and living with Caroline somewhere out there in the world.  

The story hops back and forth from one Characters point of view to another and I really enjoyed getting into all the characters heads.  Except for Nora's; I was so annoyed with Nora's life, I know I was supposed to feel sorry for her because she was unaware that her daughter was out there somewhere and she was struggling with an unhappy marriage and depression, but I got really tired of her depression, and her "whoa as me" attitude.  I enjoyed the chapters about Pheobe and Caroline the best.  I have always had a soft place in my heart for people with Down Syndrome and they depicted Pheobe perfectly with a big heart and an sweet and inquisitive personality, I just instantly fell in love with her.  Also, I loved that the book took place in Kentucky between Lexington and Louisville.  There are so few books that take place here in Kentucky so when one does I LOVE it because I can picture the people and the places they live so vividly!  I was listening to the book not reading it and it felt like it took me 27 years (the span on the book) to listen to it.  It was LONG in other words.  Even though I enjoyed it I was SOOOOOO ready for it to be over by the end.  In a nut shell it was well written, and a good book to discuss so if you are in a book club you should probably suggest this as your next read!

BOOK vs. MOVIE:  Lifetime made this a TV movie back in 2008 and I am sure it is a tear jerker because most Lifetime movies are.  I haven't seen it but I think I might search it out.  I would love to see how it compares.  I hope it doesn't feel as long as the book felt.

RATING:  3 stars

3 More reviews on The Memory Keepers Daughter:

Sophisticated Dorkiness 

Adventures in Reading 

Shelf Love  

The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

ISBN 1428125558

14 Discs (16 hours 15 minutes)

Narrated by Martha Plimpton

The Forest of Hands and Teeth

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Oh my! It has been quite a long time since my last post!  I am so sorry for the hiatus but I have a good excuse this time.  I own a bridal boutique and guess what season it is? (Let me give you a hint... "Here comes the bride....").  It has been completely out of control for a couple weeks now so I have had no time to blog much less read!!!  Have no fear though, I have been listening to audio books on my commute to and from work so I have a couple waiting in the wings.  However the last book I read was The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan, and even though I am not a YA lover this book was about Zombies!!!  I mean come on y'all ZOMBIES!!!!  And they snack on people!  And it is gruesome and there is unrequited love and then the love is requited, and there is some young adult drama; and did I mention there are Zombies EVERYWHERE???  They are just waiting to take a wee bite out of someones arm and turn them in to the living dead too!!  And there are some parts that are uber intense, and made me sleep with my light on when my husband was on shift at the firehouse. Whooo... (*big breath*). 

OK so here it goes ladies and gents...  The world has been taken over by the "Unconsecrated" and the survivors are forced to live in these little villages that are fortified by fences.  However, it has been so long sense the world has been over run by the living dead that the villages are isolated from each other and none of the villages are sure if the other villages are still around or if they have been taken over by the flesh eaters.  This story takes place in one such village and that is where we meet Mary.  She is restless and wants more in life than what is between the fortified fence.  But she knows that there is no way to get past the Forest of Hands and Teeth (an unfortunate name by the way) and explore what else is out there.  Eventually there is a breach in the fence and the village is over run by the zombies, and you guys this isn't a spoiler because there has to be a breach or else this story would suck.  Anyway Mary and her friends are on the run through the deadly forest being chased by the cast from Dawn of the Dead.  Will they find another village?  Will they all make it?  Will there be some twists and turns?  I am not telling! You will have to find out for your selves.  

Alright I am not saying that this book is fabulous, the writing is eh, and the story has some dangly bits that don't really get resolved or really have a point to the story; but what do you expect from a Zombie story?  I mean you don't really expect a zombie flick to win an Oscar, am I right?  It is what it is and just take it as a quick read that would be good for summer vacation.  I am waiting for the second book (did I mention this is a series?) to become available at my library so I can see what else is going on with these characters.  You all will be the first to know what I think about book 2 (The Dead Tossed Waves) I promise.  

BOOK vs. MOVIE: This book has been picked up by Seven Star Pictures for a film adaption.  There is even some talk that Twilight star Kristen Stewart may play the lead (the horror! Isn't one teen book series turn movie series enough for one person?)  Will I go and see it?  Yeah probably.  I'm always down for a good zombie movie on the big screen. 

RATING: 3 stars

3 More Reviews of The Forest of Hands and Teeth:

The Neverending Shelf

Books i Done Read

All About {n}

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

(purchased at a used book shop)

ISBN 9780385736817

Pages 308

If you liked The Forest of Hands and Teeth then read:  The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Little Bee

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I think Little Bee by Chris Cleave was a classic case of over expectations for me.  I saw this book in Borders a few months ago and loved the cover.  When I turned the book over to read the summery I was very intrigued by what it said and so it went directly on the top of my TBR list.  Then my book club decided that it would be the book for April and I was SO excited to sink my teeth into it.  I devoured it and after I was finished I was just like "eh".  The story is interesting, and the writing is extraordinarily well done but I think I hyped myself up so much and then I felt a little let down in the end.  I also really couldn't find a character that I connected with very well.  The book is written in 2 voices and I did enjoy the chapters written by Little Bee best but I really couldn't connect with her, and the other characters just annoyed me.  Another thing that might have kept me from falling in love with this book is the fact that this one was right on the heels of The Road and I was kinda obsessed with that book so Little Bee might not even had a snowballs chance in hell with me at that point..

I have never given y'all a summery before that wasn't in my very own words but I feel with this book I am going to have to give you the back of the book.  So here it goes... 

We don't want to tell you what happens in this book.  It is a truly special story and we don't want to spoil it.  Nevertheless, you need to know enough to buy it, so we will just say this:  This a the story of two women.  Their lives collide on fateful day, and one of them has to make a terrible choice, the kind of choice we hope you never have to face.  Two year later, they meet again - the story starts there... Once you've read it, you'll want to tell your friends about it.  When you do, please don't tell them what happens.  The magic is in how the story unfolds. 

Are you intrigued like I was?  How can you not be?  It really was a decent read but I just didn't really feel it after it was all said and done.  Like The Story of Edgar Sawtelle I would highly recommend the book to a Book Club (even though I didn't love the book) because there is a TON that you can discuss.  But if you are looking for a light read DON'T go here as the subject matter is pretty heavy.  If you are looking for unique then go for it because it is quite a unique story.  I am sorry I couldn't give it a better review because I really really really wanted to love this book when I saw it in the book store.       

BOOK vs. MOVIE: There is a movie coming out next year it looks like and it will be staring Nicole Kidman. I will probably see it because I feel it maybe a story that should have been told on film.  I think Nicole Kidman was a good choice for the roll of Sarah O'Rourke.

RATING: 3 Stars

3 More Reviews of Little Bee:

Lovely Little Shelf

Kiss A Cloud

Rhapsody in Books

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

ISBN 1416589635

Pages: 288

If you liked Little Bee than read: Shanghai Girls by Lisa See 

The Great Gatsby

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Oh I have been a bad bad blogger.  I am so sorry that I have been MIA for a while but it is a busy time of year at my shop so I have been working long hours and I have no weekends so my blogging (and reading - oh the shame!) has suffered tremendously.  But have no fear I am back and ready to blog!!!!  Woohoo!!

I don't know what in the heck I did in high school but I never got around to reading the books that were on everyone's mandatory summer reading lists.  I have been a reader all my life so if I had been assigned to read any of the classic high school lit I would have happily obliged.  So I guess what I am trying to say is that for 27 years The Great Gatsby has escaped me for some unknown reason (the same goes for Jane Eyre but that is a whole other story).  I do have to say though that I can't picture a high school student actually putting up with The Great Gatsby.  The writing was superb (as is F. Scott Fitzgerald style) and the story was amusing but I don't see my 17 year old self chomping at the bit to finished the assigned chapters each night for homework.  But I did enjoy it now some what, being 10 years older and a little more of a literature aficionado.

Here's the plot (like I really need to tell you all, you probably did your homework), Nick Carraway moves to New York as a young man after fighting in WWI.  He rents a little cottage in Long Island between two HUGE mansion.  One of his neighbors is Jay Gatsby, a young mysterious bachelor that throws large elaborate parties every weekend; after a while Nick and Gatsby become chummy.  Across the bay from Nicks home is another community that houses his very rich cousin Daisy and her husband Tom Buchanan.  This is where the drama subtly ensues.  Gatsby and Daisy have a secret saucy past ,in Louisville Kentucky, and they are still in love, Tom is cheating on Daisy and she know it, and Nick is thrown in the middle of the whole mess with his new gal Jordan.  Drama drama drama, until someone gets killed accidentally, the truth about Gatsby and his riches are reviled, and then some one gets murdered.

I LOVED all the references to Louisville Kentucky (my home sweet home - which makes it even stranger that I wasn't required to read this in high school).  I could picture the streets and the Seelbach hotel and the Ohio River.  It made the story a little more personal to me.  And then New York is my secret lover (ssshhh don't tell Louisville), so geographically I have a fondness for this book.  However, I didn't much like any of the characters except for Nick, and there was just too much nasty high society shallow drama for me.  If I were a literary scholar I would probably be able to argue symbolism, themes, and hidden morals (this just seems like a story that is chalked full of them), but I have never been good at deciphering those things out of a story, so I can't tell you if Fitzgerald mastered them successfully (except for the obvious one Money can't by happiness Old Sport) . But I can tell you that I enjoyed (but really didn't love) the quick read, and that I feel much more accomplished for having checked this classic off my To Be Read List.        

BOOK vs. MOVIE: I haven't seen The Great Gatsby on film but it has been done in 1974 starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow (I must get my hands on a copy of that movie)!  And then again in 2000 staring some people I haven't heard of  (except Nick is played by Paul Rudd which I just can't picture him being serious enough to pull that off).

RATING: 3 Stars

3 More Reviews on The Great Gatsby:

Words by Annie

Book to the Ceiling 

What I've Been Reading

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald {Audio Book}

ISBN 9781402523076

4 Discs {4 hours 8 minutes}

Narrated by Frank Muller

If you liked this book that check out: Water for Elephants  by Sara Gruen 

One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd

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This was such a random book for me to read.  My Mom gave it to me and told me I should read it and so I stuck it in my TBR pile and didn't think I would get to it any time soon.  Then a few days later I picked it up off my coffee table and read the first couple pages and I was intrigued.  What intrigued me was that One Thousand White Women is a fictional "what if" story.  Apparently, in 1875 (and this is actual history) the Chief of a Cheyenne Indian tribe came to Washington DC and asked President Ulysses S. Grant to trade 1,000 white women as brides for 1,000 wild horses.  The logic behind the Chief's grand idea was that the babies born of these women would be more accepted into the white race there for bridging the gap between the whites and the Indians  Though sound logic, (um no) Grant said no (I would hope with no hesitation).  But, One Thousand White Women is the fictional account of what happened had he said yes.  

This story unfolds through the journals of one of the women that volunteered to become an Indian "Bride".  Her name is May Dodd, and the reason she decided to leave her Chicago home for the wild wild west is because her family had her committed to an asylum for being promiscuous (oh the horror).  After a few brutal and medicated months in the asylum a man from the government came and asked her if she would like to join the "Brides for Indians" program, a government experiment.  She was to join a handful of women and head out to the wilderness to become the wife of a Cheyenne Indian for 2 years and bear him some children.  After the 2 years were up she was free to go and do whatever she liked.  May thought that this was her chance at freedom so she jumped on board and headed out on the first train west.  She meets the other "brides" on her journey to the camp and befriends them all (and boy are they a group of great characters).  Eventually they end up at their new homes and through the next few months they acclimate to the new rough lifestyle, become super close to each other as well as their new Cheyenne families, fall in love with their "husbands", and realize they are pawns in some very shady political games.

Though I thought this book was good I didn't think it was great.  I don't know that I would recommend it to a ton of people (maybe if you were interested in Native American culture it would be a good read for you).  It was entertaining to say the least but I didn't feel the urge to pick it up like I do when I read other books (must be why it took me all crappen' month to read the dag on thing).  But I did feel that it was worth finishing.  I thought it was pretty predictable, there wasn't many surprises, and there was little to no suspense.  I felt like I was reading the Abridged version of this book (I wasn't I checked) because I wanted more details, I felt like we needed to hear a little more about some events that happened during their stay with the tribe.  Over all I thought the book was just an average read.

BOOK vs. MOVIE: Lets just say that if I was flipping through channels on the TV and came across this as a Hallmark Movie I would probably stop and watch, but if it came out on the big screen I probably wouldn't drop the $8.50 for the ticket and the other $12,000 on candy and popcorn. :)

RATING: 3 Stars

3 More Reviews on One Thousand White Women:

• Booking Mama
• Stephanie's Written Word
• Extensive Reading

One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd  by Jim Fergus

ISBN 9780312199432

Pages 304

If you liked this book then read: Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell

The Lovely Bones

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Though the subject manner of this book is hard to choke down, I thoroughly enjoyed The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.  I had seen this book floating around the Book Review Blogs and message boards for a while but for some reason I had no preconceived notions about what this book was about or what to expect.  I happened upon it one day when I was at the Goodwill (a great place to beef up your books shelf, with 50 cent books... But I digress), and so I snatched it up and started reading it feverishly for the next few hours.  With in the first few pages I the flood gates of emotions opened and I was happy, humored, sad, furious, and nauseated all at the same time.

So here is the plot.  Susie Salmon (like the fish) is walking home from school one day when she is brutally raped and then violently murdered.  After her horrible demise she tells her story while she is looking down at her family and murderer from heaven and watching how they all deal with the aftermath of her death.  Her sister is heart broken, her father sets off on a mission to find the man who did this to her, her crush at school is accused, the murder starts thinking about who his next victim will be, and the school loner sees Susie's ghost every so often.  All the while Susie is getting used to her new home in heaven.  She meets a new friend and starts to figure out how heaven works and what she can and can't do up there.

I thought that even though the subject matter is VERY heavy, the story is told with a touch of humor and is quite easy to digest.  Usually something very violent would turn me off but the story felt complete and right when Susie finished telling her story.  There is a little bit of a fantasy/paranormal plot line twist on the end that I thought was strange and didn't flow well with the story but I kind of enjoyed that part as well.  I was glad that Susie had the chance to do what she did on the end.  All in all I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone really that can stomach the first few chapters (it really isn't for everyone).

Book vs. Movie:  Well I am eagerly awaiting The Lovely Bones movie that comes out January 15th.  I hope they do the book justice though I won't hold my breath as I am ALWAYS disappointed in movies made from books.  Here is the trailer.  Enjoy!

The Lovely Bones
by Alice Sebold

If you liked this book then read: Peony in Love by Lisa See

The Constant Princess

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So a few weeks ago I posted my review for The Other Boleyn Girl, and I promised in that review that I would post a review for the other King Henry books by Philippa Gregory.  I am here to partially fulfill that promise by reviewing The Constant Princess.  Whenever I read a novel by Philippa Gregory I really become lost in the history, I become much more educated by the time I am finished with one of her stories because I am always on Wikipedia looking up some diplomat or lady at Court, or prince, or princess I had never heard of before.  I feel like each of her books become a personal history lesson for me.  My husband (being a history major) is amused and maybe slightly irritated by my conversations beginning with "did you know..." about some person or event I am reading about in Gregory's books.  When I started reading The Constant Princess the only thing I really knew about Katherine of Aragon was that she was King Henry VIII first wife (and that she didn't have her head chopped off), but from there I couldn't tell you  much of anything else.

A lot of what I know (pre reading) about the life of King Henry VIII and his wives, I had learned from the Showtime Series The Tudors (you must tune into this show if you would like to see a very sexy version of the reign of King Henry VIII, though I would imagine that his reign was even spicier than the TV show depicts).  In this TV show they show Kathrine of Aragon as an older lady with a VERY strong Catholic faith that never stopped loving Henry until the day she died.  In The Constant Princess you get to know Katherine as a strong willed little girl that grew up on the battlefields of Spain, as a young woman married to Aurthur prince of Wales, and finally as a cunning woman who becomes the Queen of England and tries to hold onto her position.

Out of all the books by Gregory I think that The Constant Princess has been my least favorite.  Her writing style drew me in as always but it took me A L-O-N-G time to read this book.  The characters didn't really capture my attention.  I loved to hate Henry in the other books but in this one he was so young he just annoyed me.  And I really enjoyed the love story between Katherine and Aurthur but after he died I wasn't too into the rest of the book.  I would say absolutely read this book if you want to get the real story of the whole King Henry mess   reign, it will only educate you or inspire you to learn more about this great time in history.

The Constant Princess 

by Philippa Gregory
ISBN:0743272498


If you liked this book then read: The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

Rococo

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Every once in a while I just need to read a "no brainer" book. A book that will entertain me and that is just about it. So I gave my brain a little vacation (and took time off from Gargoyle) to read Rococo by Adriana Trigiani. If you have ever read anything by Adriana Trigiani then you know what I am talking about. She always provides you with a great heartwarming story that is easy to read and doesn't make you think too hard, and this week that is exactly what I needed.

Bartolomeo di Crespi (I LOVED this characters name -Bartolomeo- LOVE it), is an interior designer in Olaf New Jersey. He loves to surround himself with all things beautiful and occasionally his crazy family. His life long dream is to redesign his church Our Lady of Fatima. When he finally gets his dream come true he realizes that getting what you wish for isn't always what it seems. Along the way you become engulfed in his big, loud, crazy, Italian family and all the drama that comes with it.

Something that I love about anything that Adriana Trigiani writes is her descriptions of clothing (like in Lucia, Lucia), and rooms (Rococo), or towns (Queen of the Big Time). She puts so much detail in what she is describing that you can almost feel the fabrics, sit on the ottomans, and wander down the streets. Her Italian casts of characters are always people you would want to meet, and you can feel the love of the families jump out of the pages. Something else I love about Adriana Trigiani's writing is the full recipes that are peppered throughout all her novels. You could write a cookbook with all the great recipes! I am going to try out Bartolomeo's Famous Hot Cocoa complete with Bourbon Balls this winter!

I do have one negative about this book. The cast of characters was so large that I was getting confused as to who was who and what their relationship was to the story. I understand that Italian Catholic families are loud and crazy and HUGE but for a novel it gets the reader a little confused.

Over all I would say that this is just a good old quick read. It entertained me completely as do all Trigiani's stories. I would recommend this book to anyone that wanted to do some light reading; it would be great to read on an airplane or on the beach. I usually read big, old, heavy stories but this one was like a breath of fresh air. And I mean it, try some of her recipes!

Rococo
By Adriana Trigiani


If you like this read: Lucia, Lucia by Adriana Trigiani

Golden Lilies

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One thing I am super passionate about is learning. I want to know about everything. I am known in my family to have a little nugget of information about whatever topic happens to be in discussion. So, when a story has me scurrying to Wikapedia or the library to research a new topic, that story gets a gold star in my book. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan was one of those stories that made me get out my trusty notebook and dive into some research about the women in 16th century China. I was immersed in a strange world of foot binding (they call their bound feet Golden Lilies), embroidery, secret languages, and homemaking. I was stunned at the things I was learning as I finished chapter after chapter of this book.

In this story you will meet a young girl named Snow Flower and her friend Lily. These girls were paired up by a match maker as special friends (loatong - translating to "old sames") during their "foot binding years" and the story follows their lives as female soul mates from children through their marriages and finally until death separates them. Because the two girls live in neighboring villages they can only see each other a few times a year but they correspond to each other by writing in a secret language called Nu Shu that is only known to women. Snow Flower and Lily write their little notes on the back of a fan that they send back and forth to each other during their times apart. Eventually, as girl friends often do, they have a tiff and they realize during their period of giving eachother the "silent treatment" how much they truly mean to one another.

My mother-in-law recommended this book to me after she read it for her book club. Since then she has decided that Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is her favorite book and I can certainly see why. If you want a beautifully written heartwarming story you are going to get it with this one. And while it isn't in my top faves I very much appreciate this book and would highly recommend it to anyone that wants to curl up with a good book.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
by Lisa See


If you liked this book also read: The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory