Oops! Link Error!

In my Fuzzy Brain Friday, I hooked Steph's blog up to the wrong link.

I am fixing it now...............Sorry Steph!

Steph-the-Bookworm - Go visit her, you'll be glad that you did! :)

A Gift from Priya - An Award!

The lovely Priya from The Plum Bean Project has awarded me with the Prolific Blogger Award! Thank you so much! XOXOXOXO

Visit Priya's blog today if you haven't already....she is one super-nice talented gal!

A prolific blogger is one who is intellectually productive, keeping up an active blog with enjoyable content. After accepting this award, recipients are asked to pass it forward to seven other deserving blogs.

Angie at Angie's Ad Lib - a wonderful blog with all kinds of fun information, memes and recipes!

Chris at Book-a-Rama - I love Chris's blog! There are book reviews and links to other sites as well, and her header is beautiful!

Jeanne C. at A Cup Of Tea And A Cozy For Me - I love Jeanne's book reviews and she is a sweetheart!

Ordinary Reader - Book reviews and poetry.....need I say more?


Steph- the-Bookworm - I love Steph's blog, but I am also partial to her Goodreads Library Shelves. She and I like the same kinds of books, so I love perusing her shelves!

The Book Mole - I love the blog and I love the header with the quote from Wind in the Willows!

And finally......The Bookkitten! - I found Kitten's blog when I first began blogging, and I was hooked. Her posts are thought-provoking and sometimes downright hilarious....she never fails to make me laugh.

Thanks again to Priya, and to all of you bloggers.....you make the blogosphere a wonderful place!

IT'S FRIDAY!

It's Friday! Time for the Book Blogger Hop hosted by Jen at Crazy For Books.

Visit Jenn's page to sign up for The Hop! Click HERE. Now, go and visit some wonderful blogs, new and old, and have fun! Make sure that you leave a comment on the blogs that you have visited to let them know that you "hopped" by.

Happy Friday Everyone!

Thursday Challenge: Face

I saw this challenge over at Vicki's blog Reading At The Beach....It sounds fun, so I am joining in!

This is Ronnie....he was a lifeguard at North Myrtle Beach/Cherry Grove in 1982. If you look closely, you can see my cousin and I reflected in the lens of his glasses taking the picture.

If you want to play.....click HERE.

red headed book child: Review #61: Arcadia Falls by Carol Goodman

Here is a different review of Arcadia Falls.....

red headed book child: Review #61: Arcadia Falls by Carol Goodman

Book Review - Arcadia Falls by Carol Goodman

March 9th 2010 by Ballantine Books (first published 2010)

0345497538 (isbn13: 9780345497536)
Book was ordered through Goodreads Book Swap


From Goodreads:
Meg Rosenthal is driving toward the next chapter in her life. Winding along a wooded roadway, her car moves through a dense forest setting not unlike one in the bedtime stories Meg used to read to her daughter, Sally. But the girl riding beside Meg is a teenager now, and has exchanged the land of make-believe for an iPod and some personal space. Too much space, it seems, as the chasm between them has grown since the sudden, unexpected death of Meg’s husband.

Dire financial straits and a desire for a fresh start take Meg and Sally from a comfortable life on Long Island to a tucked-away hamlet in upstate New York: Arcadia Falls, where Meg has accepted a teaching position at a boarding school. The creaky, neglected cottage Meg and Sally are to call home feels like an ill portent of things to come, but Meg is determined to make the best of it—and to make a good impression on the school’s dean, the diminutive, elegant Ivy St. Clare.

St. Claire, however, is distracted by a shocking crisis: During Arcadia’s First Night bonfire, one of Meg’s folklore students, Isabel Cheney, plunges to her death in a campus gorge. Sheriff Callum Reade finds Isabel’s death suspicious, but then, he is a man with secrets and a dark past himself.

Meg is unnerved by Reade’s interest in the girl’s death, and as long-buried secrets emerge, she must face down her own demons and the danger threatening to envelop Sally. As the past clings tight to the present, the shadows, as if in a terrifying fairy tale, grow longer and deadlier.

In Arcadia Falls, award-winning author Carol Goodman deftly weaves a mesmerizing narrative of passion: for revenge, for art, for love.


My Thoughts:
I've been dragging my feet on writing a review for Arcadia Falls. On one hand, it was an enjoyable read for me. On the other hand, the ending aggravated me to the point that it kind of spoiled the good feeling I had while reading it. I liked the premise of the story, I found it a refreshing change from what I have been reading lately. Plus, the spooky-haunting aspect of it was enough to keep me on edge. Without spoiling the story, I will just say that the ending was too convoluted for me. A surprise ending, yes. But too much at one time...my tiny little brain couldn't process it! LOL! I still gave it 3 stars because it is a good story, and I love Carol Goodman's writing. Check out her other novels, including The Lake Of Dead Languages....I loved that one.

Good!


About the Author:

Carol Goodman is the author of The Lake of Dead Languages. Her work has appeared in such journals as The Greensboro Review, Literal Latt, The Midwest Quarterly, and Other Voices. After graduation from Vassar College, where she majored in Latin, she taught Latin for several years in Austin, Texas. She then received an M.F.A. in fiction from the New School University. Goodman currently teaches writing and works as a writer-in-residence for Teachers & Writers. She lives on Long Island. (from the publisher's website)"

Waiting On Wednesday

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

I have started reading more YA novels lately and I'm finding that I really like them. I found this one while browsing on Goodreads:

Like Mandarin byKirsten Hubbard

It's hard to find beauty in the badlands of Washokey, Wyoming. Fourteen-year-old Grace Carpenter knows it's not her mother's pageant obsessions, or the cowboy dances and pickup trucks adored by her small-town classmates. True beauty is wild girl Mandarin Ramey: seventeen, shameless and utterly carefree. Grace would give ANYTHING to be like Mandarin. When the two misfits are united for a project, they embark on an unlikely, explosive friendship, packed with nights spent skinny-dipping in the canal, liberating the town's animal-head trophies, and constantly searching for someplace magic. Grace even plays along when Mandarin suggests they make a pact to run away together. Blame it on the crazy-making wildwinds that plague their badlands town. But all too soon, Grace discovers Mandarin's unique beauty hides a girl who's troubled, broken and even dangerous. And no matter how hard Grace fights to keep the magic, even the best friendships can't withstand betrayal.

March 2011 by Delacorte Press

what are YOU waiting for today?

Book Review - Rainy Lake by Mary Francois Rockcastle

From Library Journal:

In this wonderfully fresh coming-of-age story set against the social upheavals of the 1960s, a family so full of promise at the beginning ends up fragmented and bitter. With her brother and parents, young Danny spends every summer at Rainy Lake in the old log house her architect father has transformed into a summer house. Danny and her best friend pass idyllic summers swimming, boating, reading, and going to country club dances, even as her father's heavy drinking threatens to tear the family apart. As Danny secretly nurtures her forbidden love for Billy Dove, the son of a white father and a black mother, her radical college-student brother takes a strong stand against the Vietnam War. Rockcastle flawlessly depicts the final argument about the war and respect for authority between Danny's brother and her ranting, drunken father-an argument that leads to tragedy. While the author's affectionate look at adolescent experiments with tanning lotions that turn the skin orange lend humor, this is ultimately an authentic, moving portrayal of a family. Highly recommended.

My Thoughts:

This book easily fits into one of my favorite genres, Coming-of-Age. I absolutely loved this story! I could relate to Danny, the main character. She and her family spend every summer at Rainy Lake. She spends time with her girlfriends, she joins the swim team, and loves to fish. She is twelve years old at the beginning of the novel, and eighteen when it ends. During that time she experiences so many things, including her first love. The time setting of this novel is the 1960's, during the Vietnam War....a simpler time but painful as well. Danny's brother Bryan is a strong war protester and butts heads with his father on war and many other issues. When tragedy strikes Danny's family, she must step into the spotlight and suffer through emotions that are foreign to her. This is a strong, compassionate and tender story that grabbed a hold of my heart and didn't let go.


~When I visit Rainy Lake now, it amazes me how little things have changed. The Cyclone fence, the sand, the lifeguard chair tipped on its side like the husk of a primeval animal. The water is sibilant and constant, the smell so raw that I can close my eyes and there I am - twelve years old again, straining to finish my twenty-five laps.~pg. 278

Very Good!

• Paperback: 282 pages
• Publisher: Graywolf Press (March 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 155597242X
• ISBN-13: 978-1555972424

On My Wishlist #5

On My Wishlist is a fun weekly event hosted by Book Chick City and runs every Saturday. It's where you can list all the books that you desperately want but haven't actually bought yet. They can be old, new or forthcoming.

Here are some that I'm wishing for:

Freefall by Mindi Scott

How do you come back from the point of no return? Seth McCoy was the last person to see his best friend Isaac alive, and the first to find him dead. It was just another night, just another party, just another time where Isaac drank too much and passed out on the lawn. Only this time, Isaac didn’t wake up. Convinced that his own actions led to his friend’s death, Seth is torn between turning his life around . . . or losing himself completely. Then he meets Rosetta: so beautiful and so different from everything and everyone he's ever known. But Rosetta has secrets of her own, and Seth will soon realize he isn’t the only one who needs saving . . .

Buckley's Story by Ingrid King

Buckley's Story is the story of how one small cat changed the author's life in ways she never could have imagined. In this warm-hearted memoir, Ingrid King shares the story of Buckley, a joyful, enthusiastic and affectionate tortoiseshell cat she meets while managing a veterinary hospital. When Ingrid leaves her job at the veterinary hospital to start her own business, Buckley comes home to live with her and Amber, another tortoiseshell cat who had adopted the author several years earlier.

Buckley is diagnosed with heart disease after only two years of living with Ingrid, and caring for Buckley through her illness only deepens the bond between cat and human. Interspersed with well-researched information about cat health in general, and heart disease in particular, the author describes the challenges and rewards of managing illness in a feline companion, and ultimately helping her through the final transition. Ingrid shares both the day-to-day joys of living with a special cat as well as the profound grief that comes with losing a beloved animal companion.

Buckley's Story is a celebration of the soul connection between animals and humans, a connection that is eternal and transcends the physical dimension.

Hero of the Underground: A Memoir by Jason Peter

I wasn’t afraid of death.

How could I be? I lived under death’s shadow every day. When you swallow sixty Vicodin, twenty sleeping pills, drink a bottle of vodka, and still survive, a certain sense of invulnerability stays with you.

When you continually use drugs with the kind of reckless determination that I did, the limit to how much heroin or crack you can ingest is not defined by dollar amounts but by the amounts your body can withstand without experiencing a seizure or respiratory failure. . . .

I found myself contemplating death again. Only this time I wasn’t going to leave it to chance. I was going to buy a gun, load the thing, place the barrel in my mouth, and blow my fucking brains out.

And all—

of my problems—

would be—

solved.

What's on YOUR wishlist this week?

Book Review - Neverland by Douglas Clegg

From Librarything:

For as long as he can remember, Beau and his family have summered on Gull Island, visiting with his Grandma Weenie and his mother’s sister’s family. They’re there to find some peace away from the city, but there is no peace on this island, and not only because the families are at constant odds. There’s something dark and evil that exits here, and thanks to Beau’s creepy cousin, Sumnter, it’s about to come out and play.

Sumnter discovers an old shed on the grounds and claims it as their clubhouse. He calls it “Neverland,” and he and Beau spend most of their time there. But strange things happen within Neverland’s walls, including dead things, even people, coming back to life.... It’s all thanks to a presence called “Lucy,” a demon who demands the boys make sacrifices of small animals to her. So, as the adults spend their time drinking and arguing, the kids, including Beau’s twin sisters Missy and Nonie, start sneaking out at the dead of night to visit Neverland. There’s something intoxicating about what goes on inside Neverland, and the kids will do anything to keep experiencing Lucy’s magic. But when Lucy tells Sumnter she wants a bigger sacrifice, a human sacrifice, just how far will he go to keep Lucy happy?

My Thoughts:

Three pages into this book, I knew that I was going to like it. The story starts with a family on their way to Gull Island, GA for summer vacation. They're in their station wagon....two 12 year old girls (twins) a 10 year old boy, a baby, and the parents. It is a typical road trip with the kids squabbling and carrying on and their parents trying to intervene and keep the peace. This story is narrated by 10 year old Beauregard (Beau). I love stories narrated by kids.....their descriptions of things are so hilarious and true. The way he describes the members of his family, including his Grandma Weenie who is crabby, wheelchair bound, and carries and silver-handled brush on her lap that is often used for spankings, is very detailed. I could picture her in my mind, as well as the other characters. I laughed out loud several times while reading this...especially when Beau is teasing his sister about her dead hamster!

Beau's family vacations every year on Gull Island GA at his grandmother's house. His Aunt Cricket and Uncle Wayne join them, along with their son, Sumnter. Sumnter is strange, and Beau and his sisters are reluctant to join in any of his games. Sumnter chooses an old gardening shed which is strictly off-limits, to make into a clubhouse. There is a password to the clubhouse....and there is a god of the clubhouse. Before they know it, Beau and his sisters are sucked into Sumnter's weird world of games and hallucinations. He claims to have a god by the name of Lucy, in a crate in the clubhouse. Lucy must be fed....and by fed, he means sacrifices. The kids go along with Sumnter for awhile, but then things start to get out of hand. One evening they all experience "flying" up into the sky, and Sumnter begins to sacrifice small animals to Lucy's crate. From inside the crate there are sounds of scratching and growling. Sumnter swears the other kids to secrecy, but Beau confides in his mother about what's been going on.....but did he let her know too late? Lucy is expecting a very large and promising sacrifice; a human sacrifice; and she has asked Beau to get it for her so that she can come out to play.

This Southern-Gothic type horror story is one of the best that I have ever read. It kind of reminds me of Boys Life by Robert McCammon, which is one of my favorites. Douglas Clegg does an excellent job weaving this twisted tale. I highly recommend horror lovers everywhere to check this out.

Vanguard Press (2010), Paperback, 304 pages

ISBN 0671672797, Paperback

Very Good!

Waiting On Wednesday

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

My Waiting On Wednesday pick this week is The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney.

Product Description From Amazon:

Some schools have honor codes. Others have handbooks. Themis Academy has the Mockingbirds. Themis Academy is a quiet boarding school with an exceptional student body that the administration trusts to always behave the honorable way--the Themis Way. So when Alex is date raped during her junior year, she has two options: stay silent and hope someone helps her, or enlist the Mockingbirds--a secret society of students dedicated to righting the wrongs of their fellow peers. In this honest, page-turning account of a teen girl's struggle to stand up for herself, debut author Daisy Whitney reminds readers that if you love something or someone--especially yourself--you fight for it.

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (November 2, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316090530
• ISBN-13: 978-0316090537

What are YOU waiting for 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 this week is from Neverland by Douglas Clegg:

~The park was decomposing just like the dead bunny in the Neverland crate. Even the sidewalks between the bubbling asphalt were cracked and crumbling, with wild yellow stalks of grass fighting for space, and corkscrew roots of dying trees just waiting to trip you up as you headed toward the ticket booth.~pg. 153 What's YOUR teaser today?

On My Wishlist #4

On My Wishlist is a fun weekly event hosted by Book Chick City and runs every Saturday. It's where you can list all the books that you desperately want but haven't actually bought yet. They can be old, new or forthcoming.

The Butterfly Garden by Chip St. Clair

From Goodreads:

Fear rocked Chip St. Clair's world. As a boy, he never knew what would set his father off--maybe the ice cubes had melted in his glass of Tab, maybe dinner was overcooked or undercooked or the gravy was too runny. Regardless, the beatings always came. As did the twisted games of cat and mouse--being thrown from a rowboat into frigid Lake Michigan, the middle-of-the-night moves to different states, or being left to dangle over a ten-story balcony while his father watched from inside. But one fateful night when the police answered the call, the truth came to light from the shadows, sparking national headlines: Chip St. Clair's entire life--his name, even his date of birth--had been a lie, and the man he called 'Dad' was an impostor, an escaped child killer who had been on the run for over two decades. The stunning revelation would send one of America's Most Wanted to justice and another on a quest for his true identity. With chilling detail and a riveting, lyrical narrative, The Butterfly Garden reveals St. Clair's struggle to piece together his haunted past before it consumes him and shares his inspiring metamorphosis from victim to victim's advocate. The Butterfly Garden is a timeless triumph, a reminder that hope can be the most powerful of all emotions, freeing us to soar despite the past and the odds against us.

Cakewalk: A Memoir by Kate Moses

From Goodreads: From the author of the internationally acclaimed Wintering: A Novel of Sylvia Plath comes a funny, touching memoir of a crummy—and crumby—childhood. Growing up in the 1960s and ’70s, Kate Moses was surrounded by sugar: Twinkies in the basement freezer, honey on the fried chicken, Baby Ruth bars in her father’s sock drawer. But sweetness of the more intangible variety was harder to come by. Her parents were disastrously mismatched, far too preoccupied with their mutual misery to notice its effects on their kids. A frustrated artist, Kate’s beautiful, capricious mother lived in a constant state of creative and marital emergency, enlisting Kate as her confidante—“We’re the girls, we have to stick together”—and instructing her three children to refer to her in public as their babysitter. Kate’s father was aloof, ambitious, and prone to blasts of withering abuse increasingly directed at the daughter who found herself standing between her embattled parents. Kate looked for comfort in the imaginary worlds of books and found refuge in the kitchen, where she taught herself to bake and entered the one realm where she was able to wield control. Telling her own story with the same lyricism, compassion, and eye for lush detail she brings to her fiction, coupled with the candor and humor she is known for in her personal essays, Kate Moses leavens each tale of her coming-of-age in Cakewalk with a recipe from her lifetime of confectionary obsession. There is the mysteriously erotic German Chocolate Cake implicated in a birds-and-bees speech when Kate was seven, the gingerbread people her mother baked for Christmas the year Kate officially realized she was fat, the chocolate chip cookies Kate used to curry favor during a hilariously gruesome adolescence, and the brownies she baked for her idol, the legendary M.F.K. Fisher, who pronounced them “delicious.” Filled with the abundance and joy that were so lacking in Kate’s youth, Cakewalk is a wise, loving tribute to life in all its sweetness as well as its bitterness and, ultimately, a recipe for forgiveness

The Sky Always Hears Me: And the Hills Don't Mind by Kirstin Cronn-Mills

From Goodreads:

I borrow the car again from Grandma and drive out to my hill. I scream I AM A BIG FAT ZERO, plus I AM SWEARING OFF KISSING FOREVER, and I HATE BEING A SECRET SEX FIEND, about sixteen times each. Then I sit very still and watch a hawk swirl over the fields. I have to get a new life before I go crazy.

Sixteen-year-old Morgan lives in a hick town. Her mom was killed in a car accident when she was two, her dad drinks, and her stepmom is a non-entity. Her boyfriend Derek is boring and she can't stop staring at her coworker Rob's cute butt. Then there's the kiss she shared with her neighbor Tessa . . . But when Morgan discovers a devastating secret about the one person she completely trusted, her entire world crashes and she must redefine her life and herself.

Compelling and complex, The Sky Always Hears Me is a fast-paced narrative with raw humor and a heart-wrenching twist.

What books are on YOUR wishlist?

Hop on down!

It's Friday! Time to do the Book Blogger Hop!!! Join in the fun! Go visit Jenn at Crazy For Books and join us!

Here are some new friends that I have met at The Hop!

Jeanne at A Cup Of Tea And A Cozy For Me

E.J. Stevens from From The Shadows

Priya Parmar from The Plum Bean Project

TGIF!

Friday Finds hosted by Should Be Reading asks us to share what great books we heard about or discovered in the past week.


Today my find is Torn by Amber Lehman, which I found while browsing Shellie @ Layers Of Thought's Goodreads shelves!

It was different this time; we weren t acting on a dare. I knew our motive; we were practicing the act, hoping to impress the right boy when it came time. But then something happened in the mix of the moment, in the mix of the alcohol. It wasn t planned, but somehow our kissing experiment turned into something else. Things went further . . . and once they had, once I returned to earth from the euphoria . . . I wrestled with my feelings at that frank realization, questioning whether our said objective was entirely true.
When fourteen-year old Krista McKinley transfers from Catholic school in Ohio to California s public Crestmount High, she discovers she has a lot to learn. Luckily, she is befriended by Carrie and Brandon and things start to look up. But when a simple dare tests Krista s values, it sends her entire world spiraling into a confusing series of events that leaves her questioning her identity as well as the people around her.

• Perfect Paperback: 404 pages
• Publisher: Closet Case Press; First edition (July 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0979593360
• ISBN-13: 978-0979593369

What did YOU find today????

Book Review - No Place Safe by Kim Reid

From Amazon.com:

In this compelling memoir, Kim Reid hauntingly transports readers to the innocent world of a childhood protected by a loving home, yet threatened by a danger beyond any child's understanding...

Thirteen-year-old Kim Reid will never forget the summer of 1979. In those precious free moments when she is not taking care of her little sister while her single mother works as a cop, Kim's days are filled with thoughts of boys, makeup, and starting high school in the fall. When a heartbreaking discovery along a quiet Atlanta road makes the news, Kim's mother instructs her girls to be careful. Accustomed to her mother's warnings, Kim feels she already knows how to stay alert and carry herself as if she's not scared.

But as the shadow of danger lengthens over Kim's once-sunny landscape of friends and family, she learns there is no place safe. While her mother becomes preoccupied with her increasingly high-profile job, Kim feels life unraveling. Straddling the worlds of her black neighborhood and her wealthy white school, teetering on the brink between girl and woman, Kim is torn between fitting in and finding her own voice; between becoming strong and clinging to the last traces of her childhood.

In this deeply intimate, powerful narrative, Kim Reid weaves an unforgettable story of growing up and the events that shape us forever...

My Thoughts:

From the minute I picked this book up until I finished it, I was engrossed in Kim Reid's life growing up in Atlanta in the late 70's/early 80's. There are a lot of references to music, fashion and other things that were popular back then, and it was fun to read about Kim enjoying the same things that I did during that same time period. Her story centers around the Atlanta Child Murders that occurred over a three year time period, from 1979 to 1982. Kim's mother was a police officer/detective and was assigned to the task force that was formed to investigate the murders. Kim's mother did not share a whole lot of information with Kim and her sister, Bridgette, but she did what she could do as a single mom to take care of her girls during that time. Kim was there for her mother whenever she would get home after a rough day of searching/interrogating, and would often be more like a friend to her rather than a daughter. During this time, Kim and her sister were not allowed to do most of the things that they used to enjoy doing. Kim loved to play basketball out in the street at dusk in the summertime, loved to go to parties in her neighborhood, and go shopping. One by one, all of those things were "taken away" because of the murders. Although Kim resented her mother for making the new rules and working long, hard hours, she constantly reminded herself of what the effect of the murders was having on her mother. Kim Reid's memoir is honest, gritty and unforgettable. She experienced a lot of turmoil during her junior high/high school years...having to grow up fast and be the adult to her sister, get a job and help her mother with the bills, and be a teenager all at the same time. She held her head up high and was proud of who she was, where she lived, and who her mother was. This is a beautifully written memoir. Anyone who loves memoirs like I do will love it. It is an unforgettable story written by a very talented author.
Please visit Kim's website at www.kimreid.com.

Very Good!

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Dafina (October 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0758220529
• ISBN-13: 978-0758220523

~200 Followers Giveaway~

My way of saying "Thank You!" to all of my followers! I appreciate each and every one of you! Soooooo......to show my appreciation, I am giving away one $20.00 Amazon.com gift card!

You must be a follower to enter! The deadline to enter is midnight on April 28th, 2010. The winner will be announced shortly after.

Thanks to all of my friends here in the blogosphere that read my blog and help me to keep it going.

XOXOXOXO

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 is from No Place Safe: A Family Memoir by Kim Reid

~No amount of money can equal a soul, but to take a child away, to make his family ache for the hole his taking leaves, for two hundred dollars was just plain meanness. In my mind, this could only be someone who saw no value in the life of that child and wanted to make sure the world knew it, the way diners who've received bad service will leave a penny instead of no tip at all, to make sure the waiter gets the point.~ pg. 127

What's YOUR teaser today????

Let's Go To The Hop!

It's Friday....and you know what that means! Another Book Blogger Hop, hosted by Jenn at Crazy for Books!

This is a great way to find new blogs, visit your old friends, and make lots of new ones!!

Visit her blog for more information and to sign up! Just click the link above.....and.....I'll see you at The Hop!

Friday Finds!

Friday Finds hosted by Should Be Reading asks us to share what great books we heard about or discovered in the past week.



My finds are from browsing on Librarything.com:

When the Finch Rises by Jack Riggs:

When the Finch Rises is the debut novel of an author whose work will be read as classic literature for a long time to come. It is a story full of truths and revelations, transcending its fictional bounds to become something so real and so finely wrought that it will simply astonish. Jack Riggs has created an emotional testament to the myriad shades of the human condition.

It is the late 1960s in the small North Carolina mill town of Ellenton. Twelve-year-old Raybert Williams and his best friend Palmer Conroy live in cramped homes in a working-class neighborhood, but they use the vast outdoors as their personal playground. Yet hardships are never far away. Raybert’s father disappears for days at a time, only to come home broken and battered. Raybert’s mother is a loving woman who battles her own demons while struggling to keep it all together. Palmer’s family life offers no better refuge for the adventure-seeking boys.

But Raybert and Palmer have each other. And in that glorious friendship, they are significantly blessed. They dream together of space flight and moonwalks. They construct a bike jump to rival Evel Knievel’s–and they’ll run it once they work up the courage. Knievel tempted fate and won, taking a leap over twenty buses on faith alone, soaring high and landing safely, even after many crashes and broken bones. Palmer and Raybert have their own plan that, once executed, will take them all the way to the ocean, landing them intact and together on the other side of freedom.

Through the scrim of adolescence and poverty, Jack Riggs offers a glimpse of universal human foibles and singular moments of transcendence. Fiercely honest and beautifully narrated, When the Finch Rises flashes like the sharp rim of the eclipsed moon on the night when Raybert and Palmer’s fate is finally revealed.


Manhattan, When I Was Young by Mary Cantwell:

Former writer and editor for Vogue and Mademoiselle, Cantwell locates her memories of work, friends, marriage, and motherhood in the places where she's dwelled. Five Manhattan apartments act as mental guide in retracing the footsteps of her past. From neurosis and near anorexia to the awe of her first Paris trip, Cantwell's memoir speaks intimately, honestly, and in a generous way that makes readers feel as though they were listening to a personal account retold only for them. Her earlier work, American Girl: Scenes from a Small-Town Childhood (1992), garnered attention and praise for the strength of its language, choice of details, and resonance of subject matter. This book, too, has all that plus Manhattan's eloquence in the 1950s and 1960s. Although this chronicle could easily succumb to politically correct revisions of the past or become a sentimental trip down memory lane, Cantwell avoids those pitfalls through sincerity--a true attempt to recall accurately and learn from her past. Somewhat literary, offering a little superficial fashion world "glam" and New York savvy, this book should appeal to many different kinds of readers.

What did YOU find today???