Book Review - Nightlight by Janine Avril

From Amazon.com:

A spare and beautiful memoir of family secrets and its consequences.

While in her twenties, Janine Avril learned a shocking family secret, one that set her on a deeply personal journey into her past. Her earliest memory was of her mother complaining about a bizarre pain in her ankle, one she linked to a ski accident she’d been in as a young girl. When Janine was twelve, growing up in the wealthy and predominantly Jewish suburb of Roslyn, New York, her mother was diagnosed with a deadly cancer and died three years later. While a junior at Cornell University, Janine learned that her father, a popular French chef and entrepreneur, was sick with full-blown AIDS. It was nearly five years later when Janine received an unexpected phone call from her uncle, forcing her to re-evaluate her childhood. Inspired to understand as much as she could about her parents, she finally discovers a powerful link between her father and herself, and her past becomes illuminated like the nightlight that once protected her from the darkness of her youth.

My Thoughts:

Janine's story is so heartbreaking, it's almost unbelievable. I can't imagine losing both of my parents the way that she did. Understandably she was quite bitter towards the end, but I feel that she used that to her advantage to become the person that she always wanted to be. From her father she was constantly seeking his approval and acceptance, which he did not often give. Her parents did not share what was really going on with their illnesses to protect their children, which ultimately left them hurt and confused. I greatly admire Janine and her will to put her anguish into words for everyone to read. I also loved her reference to "night lights" ..... the safety and comfort of their illumination during the dark hours.


About the Author:

Janine Avril teaches high school English and has taught college writing at Brooklyn College and New York City College of Technology. Janine is the founder and host of Girlsalon, a forum for lesbian/queer writers to showcase their talents. She has been published in the Los Angeles Times Magazine, Velvetpark Magazine, and Topic Magazine for her piece “Eavesdropping” and featured in Time Out New York, Gay City News and www.lesbiannation.com. Janine’s Web sites are www.janinesays.com and www.girlsalon.org.

Very Good!

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: Alyson Books (September 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593500122
• ISBN-13: 978-1593500122

*This book was received from Paperbackswap.com.

Book Review - Ghostbread by Sonja Livingston

From Goodreads:

"When you eat soup every night, thoughts of bread get you through." Ghostbread makes real for us the shifting homes and unending hunger that shape the life of a girl growing up in poverty during the 1970s.

One of seven children brought up by a single mother, Sonja Livingston was raised in areas of western New York that remain relatively hidden from the rest of America. From an old farming town to an Indian reservation to a dead-end urban neighborhood, Livingston and her siblings follow their nonconformist mother from one ramshackle house to another on the perpetual search for something better.

Along the way, the young Sonja observes the harsh realities her family encounters, as well as small moments of transcendent beauty that somehow keep them going. While struggling to make sense of her world, Livingston perceives the stresses and patterns that keep children--girls in particular--trapped in the cycle of poverty.

Larger cultural experiences such as her love for Wonder Woman and Nancy Drew and her experiences with the Girl Scouts and Roman Catholicism inform this lyrical memoir. Livingston firmly eschews sentimentality, offering instead a meditation on what it means to hunger and showing that poverty can strengthen the spirit just as surely as it can grind it down.


My Thoughts:

Memoirs are my favorite reads, and Ghostbread is easily going to be added as a favorite! Sonja Livingston pours her heart and soul into her story of growing up during the 1970's in the Rochester, NY area. Living with her single mother and siblings, life was tough. The family was poverty-stricken and times were hard. There was always church in Sonja's life...a bright spot for her to meet friends and neighbors. It took me back to a time when you knew everyone on your block, all of the neighborhood kids played together, and were called in to supper when the streetlights came on. Livingston's prose is gritty and honest...this is a powerful memoir that demands to be read.

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read*
* Open to a random page*
*Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page *

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! ;)

My teaser today comes from Ghostbread by Sonja Livingston:

~There was nothing pretty about my lunchbox, nothing to see but the huge old head of Kwai Chang Caine, the crime-fighting monk from TV. And if you looked at it, that's all you'd see - Caine's old head, cracked by the dent, looking like the shell of an overcooked egg.~ pg. 46

What's YOUR teaser today?

Book Review - Fireflies in December by Jennifer Erin Valent

From Amazon.com:

"When her best friend Gemma's parents are killed in a house fire, Jessilyn Lassiter's parents take the girl in. Trouble is, the year is 1932, Gemma is black, the Lassiters are white, and they live in a small Virginia town. Spunky Jessilyn is 13 years old, but her story will appeal to readers of all ages. Winner of the Christian Writers Guild's 2007 Operation First Novel contest, Valent's debut is both heartwarming and hand-wringing as it shows how one family endured the threats small and large of a prejudiced community while maintaining moral integrity. The cast of characters is rich. Jessilyn's mother wrestles with the social cost of challenging convention, her father is a dream dad and the neighbor's wisdom is as spicy as her cake. Jessilyn's romantic interest and penchant for trouble keep the tone light while the plot reminds readers of the evil that ordinary human beings are capable of doing, even in the name of righteousness. The book stares down violence and terror, making its affirmation of surprising goodness believable."

My Thoughts:

This is an awesome novel. I was hooked by the very first page, and kept reading until I finished. I enjoy books with this theme.....I like to think about how things were when my grandmother was a young woman, back in the early 30's. This story is rich in history, and friendship. It is about the love of a close-knit white family who reaches out to care for an orphaned negro girl. Borders are crossed that will cause outrage among the residents of a small southern community. I loved the character Jessilyn! She was a fiesty 13 year old, wanting to grow up too fast, then is faced with very grown-up situations that she is not quite sure how to handle. With the love and support of her parents and her new-found-friend Luke Talley, Jessilyn finds out what it takes to cross the lines of segregation in Southern Virginia in 1932.

I highly recommend this book - It definitely earns 5 stars!

Outstanding!

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. (December 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1414324324
• ISBN-13: 978-1414324326

TGIF!

Friday Finds is hosted by Should Be Reading.


My find today is Rescuing Olivia by Julie Compton:


When Olivia Mayfield arrived in Florida, hoping to escape her rich, powerful father and controlling ex-boyfriend, the attraction between her and Anders Erickson was immediate and mutual.

To Anders, a Florida biker who spent his life drifting and working at jobs that belied his intelligence, Olivia was a beautiful, down-to-earth woman who appreciated his simple ways. For Olivia, the carefree Anders represented an oasis of kindness and tranquility.

But after the two are involved in a horrific motorcycle accident, Anders finds himself plunged into a terrible nightmare. The severely injured Olivia mysteriously disappears from the hospital, and her father will stop at nothing to prevent Anders from discovering the truth. When he embarks on a quest to find answers, Anders uncovers not only Olivia's traumatic past, but evidence that her life could be in danger.

In a desperate search against time that takes him all the way from his Florida home to the quaint New England town of Olivia's youth and to the wild, haunting African savannah of her birth, Anders is tested to his limits. And as he struggles to save the woman he loves, can he reconcile his own tortured past and, in doing so, save himself as well?

At the intersection of suspense and family drama, RESCUING OLIVIA touches on the cutting edge science of memory-blocking drugs and the social and psychological issues of domestic violence. The novel is another riveting read from a talented new writer who never fails to mine the most compelling emotional terrain.


What did YOU find today????

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read*
* Open to a random page*
*Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page *

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! ;)

My teaser today comes from Three Little Words by Ashley Rhodes-Courter:

~Thinking about that moment is like peeling a scab off an almost-healed wound. I still believed everything would return to normal. Little did I know, I would never live with my mother - or see Winky - again.~ pg. 9

What's YOUR teaser today?

Friday Finds!

Friday Finds is hosted by Should Be Reading.


My find today is All Of Yesterday's Tomorrows by Corey Cotta:

It was supposed to be a relaxing vacation. Even though he can’t spend time in the warm waters of Belize, policeman Conrad Bishop is happy to spend time with his girlfriend, Amber, at a private beachfront home in Nantucket. After a tranquil evening walking the beach, Conrad wakes at 3:00 AM, turns on the television, and hears a disturbing news report about a deadly influenza plague—the direct result of a terrorist attack on the United States.

Rushing into his bedroom, he finds his girlfriend unconscious and suffering from a high fever. When he tries to take her to the hospital, the town is in a panic. Cars clog the road, and he’s forced to return to the beach house. Amber never regains consciousness, and by that evening, she is dead.

Grief stricken, Bishop is suddenly thrust into a world that changes by the minute. Terrorists attack every major city in the United States with car bombs and invade American embassies overseas. With a small group of survivors, Conrad struggles to stay alive. His fight will take him to the very steps of the White House and have him waging a valiant crusade to keep a dying nation alive.

What did YOU find today???

Book Review - Cheap Cabernet by Cathie Beck

From Amazon.com:

I didn't know that people come into our lives, and sometimes, if we're terribly lucky, we get the chance to love them, that sometimes they stay, that sometimes you can, truly, depend on them.

Cathie Beck was in her late thirties and finally able to exhale after a lifetime of just trying to get by. A teenage mother harboring vivid memories of her own hardscrabble childhood, Cathie had spent years doing whatever it took to give her children the stability--or at least the illusion of it--that she'd never had. More than that, through sheer will and determination, she had educated them and herself too. With her kids in college, Cathie was at last ready to have some fun. The only problem was that she had no idea how to do it and no friends to do it with. So she put an ad in the paper for a made-up women's group: WOW . . . Women on the Way. Eight women showed up that first night, and out of that group a friendship formed, one of those meteoric, passionate, stand-by-you friendships that come around once in a lifetime and change you forever . . . if you're lucky.

My Thoughts:

This is a beautiful, powerful memoir which I enjoyed from beginning to end. Cathie Beck was lonely for companionship. She put an advertisement in the newspaper, announcing the start up of a womens group called WOW (Women On The Way). She meets Denise, who becomes her best friend, confidante and sister in sorrow. Together, they enjoy hours of girl-talk, movies, yard sales, and drink wine....preferably "Cheap Cabernet". Although they couldn't be more different than night and day, they both desperately need something from each other. Denise is brash, outspoken and assertive. Cathie is quiet, reserved and cautious. They become inseparable. When Denise tells Cathie that she has "the good kind of MS", Cathie's worry for her friend is only slightly minimized. That is, until she begins to witness the physical signs of Denise's heart-wrenching illness. As Denise gets sicker, she begins to push Cathie away, while Cathie fights to remain close to Denise and help her any way that she can. Cheap Cabernet is more than just a memoir about friendship, it is a statement made by the author to live each day to its fullest, enjoy each and every moment and never take anyone or anything in your life for granted~

Outstanding!

Please visit www.cathiebeck.com

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Voice; 1 edition (July 20, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401341543
• ISBN-13: 978-1401341541

**Book received from Librarything's Early Reviewers Program**

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read*
* Open to a random page*
*Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page *

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! ;)


My teaser today comes from Cheap Cabernet by Cathie Beck:

~From the back of the Chrysler, she laughed and waved to strangers like she'd just been crowned queen of the parade, wrapped tight in full-blown love and outrageous fun and in a body that, she forgot for the moment, didn't work. For those moments, she had the undivided attention and the the unabashed admiration and the complete, unbridled adoration of her handsome, sexy, smarter-than-anyone husband.~ pg.76


Whats YOUR teaser today?

Book Review - The Last Time I Saw You by Elizabeth Berg

From Amazon.com:

From the beloved bestselling author of Home Safe and The Year of Pleasures, comes a wonderful new novel about women and men reconnecting with one another—and themselves—at their fortieth high school reunion. To each of the men and women in The Last Time I Saw You, this reunion means something different—a last opportunity to say something long left unsaid, an escape from the bleaker realities of everyday life, a means to save a marriage on the rocks, or an opportunity to bond with a slightly estranged daughter, if only over what her mother should wear. As the onetime classmates meet up over the course of a weekend, they discover things that will irrevocably affect the rest of their lives. For newly divorced Dorothy Shauman, the reunion brings with it the possibility of finally attracting the attention of the class heartthrob, Pete Decker. For the ever self-reliant, ever left-out Mary Alice Mayhew, it’s a chance to reexamine a painful past. For Lester Hesennpfeffer, a veterinarian and widower, it is the hope of talking shop with a fellow vet—or at least that’s what he tells himself. For Candy Armstrong, the class beauty, it’s the hope of finding friendship before it is too late. As Dorothy, Mary Alice, Lester, Candy, and the other classmates converge for the reunion dinner, four decades melt away: Desires and personalities from their youth reemerge, and new discoveries are made. For so much has happened to them all. And so much can still happen. In this beautiful novel, Elizabeth Berg deftly weaves together stories of roads taken and not taken, choices made and opportunities missed, and the possibilities of second chances

My Thoughts:

Loved it! I read this book in an evening, and enjoyed every minute of it. I love Elizabeth Berg's writing style, and her characters are easy to relate to. I liked how she had a cast of different characters narrate each chapter of the story, so I felt that I knew each one of them intimately. There were some I felt sorry for, some I just couldn't like, and one who I fell in love with. I think that I especially enjoyed this because I have yet to go to one of my class reunions, and this story painted a perfect picture of what it would be like to actually attend one... how even though it's been 40 years since graduation, some people just never change. Great read!
Outstanding!

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Random House (April 6, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400068649
• ISBN-13: 978-1400068647

Book Review - The Bottoms by Joe Lansdale

Synopsis:


Joe Lansdale, author of several horror novels, Westerns, and some outrageous thrillers, is something of a cult writer. The Bottoms, which may be the breakout book that moves Lansdale beyond the genre category, is a resonant and moving novel. Though there is a mystery at its core, it is at heart a coming-of-age story, with a more literary bent than Lansdale usually demonstrates. Harry, an elderly man, tells the story of a series of events that occurred in his 11th year, when the mutilated, murdered bodies of Negro prostitutes began turning up in the county where his father was the local constable. Harry and Tom, his younger sister, find the first one. Only their father, Jacob Crane, seems to care about finding justice for the victims, who are dismissed out of hand as unimportant by the local branch of the Ku Klux Klan, which warns Jacob off any further investigations. Harry and Tom think they know who's responsible: the Goat Man, a creature who's said to lurk beneath the swinging bridge that crosses the Sabine River, where the first body was found. In fact, the Goat Man has something to do with the murders, and the secret of who he is and what he really did is the key to the unsolved slayings. But that takes second place to the artfully explicated character of Jacob and Harry's changing relationship with him in the course of the loss of his boyish innocence. This is a masterfully told story and a very good read.


My Thoughts:


I loved this book! This is one of those stories that I didn't want to end. The story is narrated by Harry Collins, who is in a nursing home, reflecting back upon his youth, the years 1933-34, during The Great Depression. He and his family lived in East Texas, where he and his little sister Tom ran wild and played in The Bottoms, an area close to their home, alongside the Sabine River. There was a legendary creature called The Goat Man, that supposedly inhabited The Bottoms and Harry and Tom were always looking for him, hoping to catch a glimpse of this legendary creature. When a series of murders occur, Harry is almost sure it is the work of The Goat Man. What ensues is something that no one in this small town could ever imagine. This is a GREAT read!

Outstanding!

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (December 7, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307475263
• ISBN-13: 978-0307475268

Book Review - Tap, Tap by David Martin

What if your best friend started killing your worst enemies? For Roscoe Bird, this nightmare becomes a reality when an old childhood friend comes knocking at his door.

Peter Tummelier talks about past hurts and old enemies as if time has stood still. But when bodies start turning up, murdered in horrifying ways, suspicion is placed on Roscoe. And Roscoe knows the one person-the only person-who could have committed these deeds.

But the question is why? How can he reach into the twisted depths of Peter's mind to understand his diabolical motives? And how can Roscoe clear his name as the prime suspect of the murders? But most of all, how can Roscoe avoid becoming Peter's next victim-the victim Peter has been waiting for...

My thoughts:

This book was a definite change of pace from what I usually read. It was a creepy surreal story of friendship and revenge. There were actually parts of this book that made me laugh out loud, even though the story was shocking and even disturbing at times. The character Peter Tummelier, friend of Roscoe Bird's who vowed to get revenge on whomever drove Roscoe's father to commit suicide, made a very poor Vampire, which added a comedic twist to the story. I would have liked a better ending to the story as well....I kind of felt like I was left hanging. All in all, this was an entertaining read. I'm going to check out some of his other books.

Good

• Paperback
• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks (1996)
• ASIN: B000OTNCBQ

w...w...w...wednesdays

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

* What are you currently reading?
* What did you recently finish reading?
* What do you think you’ll read next?

My Answer:

I am currently reading The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale

I just finished reading Tap Tap by David Martin

I plan on reading Cheap Cabernet: A Friendship by Cathie Beck next.

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read*
* Open to a random page*
*Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page *

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! ;)

My teaser today comes from The Bottoms by Joe Lansdale:

~When I looked I saw a gray mess hung up in brambles. The moonlight was shining across the water and falling on a face, or what had been a face, but was more like a jack-o'-lantern now, swollen and round with dark sockets for eyes.~ pg.18

What's YOUR teaser today?

Book Review - A Year and A Day by Leslie Pietryzk

From Publishers Weekly

In this heartfelt if familiar coming-of-age novel set in smalltown Shelby, Iowa, in 1975, Pietrzyk (Pears on a Willow Tree) chronicles a year in the life of 15-year-old Alice Martin after her mother's suicide. "Once you get through this first year, you're fine," the high school principal promises her, reading from a manual. But Alice isn't so sure. Three days after her mother's death, as Alice tries to fill her place by preparing Sunday morning pancakes, her mother speaks to her, providing advice on cooking, makeup and driving, but rarely answering the questions Alice really wants answered: Who is my father? What happened to him? How could you leave me? All Alice and her older brother, Will, know is what their great-aunt Aggy tells them: their mother moved away at age 17 and came back pregnant, with a baby in her arms. Over the course of the year, Alice uncovers secrets, unravels mysteries and finds that nothing and no one are what they seem. Her baseball-star brother runs away to see the Red Sox, Alice herself dallies with the school's bad boy and Pietrzyk allows the reader hints of why Alice's mother might have killed herself. Eccentric mothers and long-suffering daughters are a dime a dozen in recent fiction, but Pietrzyk paints a rich picture of life in rural Iowa, from summer jobs detassling corn to the suffocating force of conformity. As one Shelby housewife advises Alice, "Fitting in is so important. Everything is simpler that way."



My thoughts:

This is a wonderful story of a 15 year old girl who loses her mother, and spends a year questioning why, all the while hearing her mother's voice speaking to her, coaching her, teaching her, and telling her things that she did not know when her mother was alive.

Alice Martin is a typical teenager...hanging out with friends, having crushes on boys, and cherishes the times that she spends with her mom. Her mother, however, occasionally falls into deep depressions, and it was during one of these spells, that she kills herself. Alice, her 17 year old brother Will, and her Aunt Aggy struggle to find the answers why Annette Martin decided to do what she did.

Alice knows that nothing will ever be the same again, and wrestles with the fact that her mom is gone forever, and there are a lot of unanswered questions. When she begins hearing her dead mother's voice in her thoughts, she is not afraid. Her mother's voice stays with her for a year and a day, answering many of Alice's questions.

This is moving coming-of-age story with a beautiful ending.


Very Good!

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (March 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060554665
• ISBN-13: 978-0060554668

WooHoo! Friday at Last!!

Friday Finds is hosted by Should Be Reading.


My find for today is A Fine Dark Line by Joe R. Lansdale:

From Booklist ~
Lansdale makes a rich stew of memory and mystery in the voice of Stanley Mitchel Jr., who is 13 in 1958 and is writing down, in midlife, what he recalls. His parents own the drive-in in Dewmont, Texas; his dad calls his mom "Gal"; his sister, Callie, is turn-your-head pretty and feisty besides. Stanley finds in the burnt ruins behind the drive-in a cache of love letters. Stanley--innocent enough at the beginning of the story to still believe in Santa Claus--is fascinated by the letters and soon learns that the fire marked the deaths of two young women, long ago. Those deaths ripple through the pages, as Stanley struggles with knowledge of good and evil: his friend Richard's abusive dad; the black cook's stalker boyfriend; the drive-in projectionist who faces twin demons of age and alcohol. Stanley's mother, father, and sister are vivid, glowing personages. Stanley doesn't unravel everything, but race and power, and what people do to each other in the name of desire and religion, coalesce to a mighty climax.

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Mysterious Press (October 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446691674
• ISBN-13: 978-0446691673

What did YOU find today???

What are YOU waiting for?

Waiting On Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.


My pick this week for Waiting on Wednesday is Pretty Little Things by Jilliane Hoffman:

Thirteen-year-old Lainey Emerson is the middle child in a household that police are already familiar with: her mother works too much and her step-father favors his own blood over another man’s problems—namely, Lainey and her wild older sister, Liza. So when Lainey does not come home from a Friday night out with her friends, it is dismissed by the Coral Springs Police Department as just another disillusioned South Florida teen running away from suburban drama and an unhappy home life.

But Special Agent Bobby Dees, who has headed up the department’s di4cult Crimes Against Children (CAC) Squad in Miami for more than a decade, is not quite so sure. Nicknamed “The Shepherd” by colleagues, he has an uncanny ability to find the missing and bring them back home—dead or alive. Haunted by the still unsolved disappearance of his own daughter, Bobby recognizes the all too familiar up-swell inside him, the gut feeling that Lainey Emerson is no runaway.

A search of Lainey’s computer and a talk with her best friend reveal Lainey was involved in a secret Internet relationship, spawned over a chat room, and nurtured through untraceable instant messages. Bobby fears she may be the victim of an on-line predator, and he fears she may not be the only one.

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Vanguard Press (May 31, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593156383
• ISBN-13: 978-1593156381