Thursday, July 8, 2010

Book Review - Still Missing by Chevy Stevens


From Amazon.com:

On the day she was abducted, Annie O’Sullivan, a 32-year-old realtor, had three goals—sell a house, forget about a recent argument with her mother, and be on time for dinner with her ever-patient boyfriend. The open house is slow, but when her last visitor pulls up in a van as she's about to leave, Annie thinks it just might be her lucky day after all.

Interwoven with the story of the year Annie spent as the captive of a psychopath in a remote mountain cabin, which unfolds through sessions with her psychiatrist, is a second narrative recounting events following her escape—her struggle to piece her shattered life back together and the ongoing police investigation into the identity of her captor.

Still Missing is that rare debut find--a shocking, visceral, brutal and beautifully crafted debut novel.

My Thoughts:

This was one of those novels that I was constantly thinking about when I wasn't reading it. It was a very fast-paced edge-of-your-seat kind of story, keeping you guessing about what was about to happen next.

I loathed Annie's captor, whom she referred to as The Freak (not to him, only to herself) and the terrible nasty things that he did and made her do. When Annie gets pregnant and has a baby, her feelings soften a bit. She is still abused by The Freak, but has her baby to keep her somewhat sane. Until The Freak decides that he doesn't like to see Annie happy....about anything....

The story was a roller-coaster ride, the last chapters causing stomach-churning reactions to how this well planned tale played out. It kept me guessing until almost the end.....which in my opinion is the trademark of a great book!

I highly recommend Still Missing.....I will be on the lookout for more from this talented author. This is a fantastic debut novel by Chevy Stevens.

Visit www.chevystevens.com.


Photobucket Very Good!

  • Hardcover: 352 pages
  • Publisher: St. Martin's Press (July 6, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0312595670
  • ISBN-13: 978-0312595678


Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Book List for Understand My Sorrow Challenge


These are the books that I have chosen for the Understand My Sorrow Challenge:


1. Manic by Terri Cheney


2. Urges by Gary Hennerberg


3. Marni; My True Story of Stress, Hair-Pulling and Other Obesessions by
Marni Bates



4. Saving Sammy; Curing The Boy Who Caught OCD by Beth Alison Maloney




Understand My Sorrow Challenge



Lilly's Message:


Depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder.

I could go on and on. These are very real and very painful illnesses, and yet they are one of the most neglected, misunderstood, ignored and stigmatized ones as well. These are demons that destroy lives, break human spirits and annihilate happiness. Millions of people struggle with them, fight daily battles. Some are lost and some are won. I hope that one day none will be lost and that's why I decided to host this reading challenge. The purpose of it is to increase awareness and understanding of a mental illness. In my small way I wish to help people see through the stereotypes and the fog of ignorance surrounding the serious medical conditions under an umbrella of mental illness. These conditions are deadly when untreated and more often than not still pose a risk of death after a person receives proper medical treatment. The statistics are frightening and below I am providing you with a couple of links so you can read for yourselves.

Anyway, the rules for the challenge are pretty easy.

It starts today but I would like to make it an ongoing process, therefore there will not be a deadline in the nearest future. If I decide that the no deadline rule somehow doesn't work, I will let you know at least six months in advance. The only requirement is that you read a minimum of one book on the subjects provided below.

  • Depression
  • Schizophrenia
  • Bipolar Disorder
  • Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
There are of course many more disorders that we could talk about but for now I'd like to focus on the four.

So, you have to read a minimum of four (4) books, one on each subject.

I am including a button on the side on my blog that you can grab just for this challenge and put it on your blog.

Also, when you write an introductory post about this challenge, please come back and sign up under McLinky.

Optimally, I would love for this to spark discussion. I'd like to talk with all and any of you. If you read a book or two, or more and they evoke strong emotions withing you, I'd love to invite you to write a guest post sharing them with me and other readers. If you have a story to tell, that's even better. I would be happy to read your story and invite others to do it as well. It doesn't matter if it's on my blog as a guest post or your own blog, as long as it's under the Understand My Sorrow banner.

Another important thing: you do not have to be a blogger to join in. If you don't have a blog, you can leave me a comment letting me know that you're joining and when you decide which books to read, when you read any of them and want to talk about them, email me and I will, with your permission spotlight your thoughts, stories, even book reviews on my blog.



***I am SO glad that Lilly has decided to host a challenge of this nature. I suffer from Depression and OCD. I feel that this will be a great help to me.....and hopefully others. To join in, please visit Lilly's blog....click on Lilly's Message above***



I'm Back!



I haven't disappeared.....I was on vacation for a few days! I'm back now, and will have a review of Still Missing by Chevy Stevens SOON!




Friday, July 2, 2010

Book Review - Crazy Love by David Martin


From Goodreads:

David Martin has proved to be an unusually versatile writer, both of acclaimed thrillers like Lie to Me and of love stories like The Crying Heart Tattoo. Now, in Crazy Love, Martin has created remarkable characters and his richest story yet: a chronicle of passion and heartbreak.

Joseph Long, known locally as Bear, is a farmer ridiculed by neighbors for his strangeness. Lonely nearly to the point of madness and so desperate for human touch, he leans against the hands of the barber giving him a haircut.

Katherine Renault is a successful career woman, wondering why, if she has the perfect job and the perfect fiancé, does she feel so hollow inside -- even before the illness, the disfiguring surgery.

They should have nothing in common -- though he has a magical touch with animals, he considers them property, while she can't tolerate their mistreatment. She's a sophisticated city dweller who can't abide violence, and he's never traveled beyond the local town and has blood on his hands. But love is crazy, and soon they are rescuing the injured of the world just as they rescue each other. Enduring violence and loss, they live in a domestic bliss wide and deep enough to dilute most of life's dramas, until fate tests them again.

Funny, erotic, emotionally powerful, yet surprisingly unsentimental about our relationships with each other and with animals in our care, Crazy Love will heal broken hearts.

My Thoughts:

I really liked this book! I am definitely adding it as one of my favorite books of all time. The story was so different than anything else that I have ever read before. Part love story, part animal rescue story, it held my interest throughout.

I became attached to Bear and Katie and their farm. Their love for each other was unique and intense. Bear won my heart with his ways with his animals on his farm, and in his relationship with Katie. Katie falls in love with the quiet and gentle Bear while she is engaged to someone else. She knows for sure that she and Bear are meant to be together. Together they turn the farm into a sanctuary for homeless/rescued/abused animals.

This was a book that I would race to read upon arriving home from work. I couldn't put it down! It has earned a spot in my personal library. I look forward to reading more of David Martin's novels.



Thursday, July 1, 2010

Book Review - The Things That Keep Us Here by Carla Buckley


From Amazon:

How far would you go to protect your family?

Ann Brooks never thought she’d have to answer that question. Then she found her limits tested by a crisis no one could prevent. Now, as her neighborhood descends into panic, she must make tough choices to protect everyone she loves from a threat she cannot even see. In this chillingly urgent novel, Carla Buckley confronts us with the terrifying decisions we are forced to make when ordinary life changes overnight.


A year ago, Ann and Peter Brooks were just another unhappily married couple trying–and failing–to keep their relationship together while they raised two young daughters. Now the world around them is about to be shaken as Peter, a university researcher, comes to a startling realization: A virulent pandemic has made the terrible leap across the ocean to America’s heartland. And it is killing fifty out of every hundred people it touches. As their town goes into lockdown, Peter is forced to return home–with his beautiful graduate assistant. But the Brookses’ safe suburban world is no longer the refuge it once was. Food grows scarce, and neighbor turns against neighbor in grocery stores and at gas pumps. And then a winter storm strikes, and the community is left huddling in the dark.

Trapped inside the house she once called home, Ann Brooks must make life-or-death decisions in an environment where opening a door to a neighbor could threaten all the things she holds dear. Carla Buckley’s poignant debut raises important questions to which there are no easy answers, in an emotionally riveting tale of one family facing unimaginable stress.


My Thoughts:

This story was very unsettling because it could happen to us at any time. I was discussing it with my husband, and we both agreed that if this were to really happen, he and I would probably not survive.

Carla Buckley brings to life a very real and frightening event of the worst kind.....a pandemic. It happens quickly, and within days many people are sick and dying. While I was reading, I realized exactly how much I take for granted in life. Shaken to the core after reading this book, I won't take anything for granted any more....electricity, medical care, clean and safe water to drink.....and most of all, my family.

The Things That Keep Us Here is an engrossing read, that kept me thinking about it while I was not even reading it. I will remember it for a long time, and I will also be looking forward to more books by Carla Buckley.


Photobucket Very Good!
  • Hardcover: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Delacorte Press; 1 edition (February 9, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0440245095
  • ISBN-13: 978-0440245094
For more information about the author, please visit: www.carlabuckley.com.


Tuesday, June 29, 2010

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 Crazy Love by David Martin:

~He knelt down to see if it was over yet, covering the cow's closed eye with his hand, then pulling back her eyelid. That big brown eye fixed Bear and, just before dipping into oblivion, the cow told him, God bless you....and time stopped.~
pg. 21.


What's YOUR teaser today?

Monday, June 28, 2010

Book Review - The Lies We Told by Diane Chamberlain


From Goodreads:

Maya and Rebecca Ward are both accomplished physicians, but that's where the sisters' similarities end. As teenagers, they witnessed their parents' murder, but it was Rebecca who saved Maya from becoming another of the gunman's victims. The tragedy left Maya cautious and timid, settling for a sedate medical practice with her husband, Adam, while Rebecca became the risk taker.

After a devastating hurricane hits the coast of North Carolina, Rebecca and Adam urge Maya to join them in the relief effort. To please her husband, Maya finally agrees. She loses herself in the care and transport of victims, but when her helicopter crashes into raging floodwaters, there appear to be no survivors.

Forced to accept Maya is gone, Rebecca and Adam turn to one another—first for comfort, then in passion—unaware that, miles from civilization, Maya is injured and trapped with strangers she's not certain she can trust. Away from the sister who has always been there to save her, now Maya must find the courage to save herself—unaware that the life she knew has changed forever.

My Thoughts:

This was an enjoyable read from start to finish.

Sisters Maya and Rebecca couldn't be more different. Maya longs to be a mom, and Rebecca is totally career-oriented. Both are medical doctors. Maya is married to Adam, also a medical doctor. Rebecca is single, and plans to stay that way....until a horrible turn of events changes her life and the lives of many others in a drastic way.
Maya is the shy, timid type character who is safely ensconced in her role as a pediatrician. When she is called upon to help out in a disaster relief effort after 2 hurricanes, she is put to the test. Her husband and sister are already there helping out, and Maya doesn't want to disappoint them. This turn of events changes Maya's life in ways that she could never imagine.

I found myself cheering Maya on to take steps that were totally out of character for her. She was able to find an inner strength that she never even knew that she possesed. Her sister Rebecca kind of rubbed me the wrong way....her character being very out-spoken and bossy. I had no idea how this story was going to play out, and I was very pleasantly surprised at the end.


This is the first of Diane Chamberlain's books that I have read. Now I am eager to get my hands on her other books. I have already ordered 3 others.....The Secret Life of Cee Cee Wilkes, Secrets She Left Behind and Summer's Child. I can't wait to read them.

I highly recommend The Lies We Told.....a riveting and rewarding story of loss, love and finding out what is most important in life.


Photobucket Very Good!
  • Paperback: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Mira; Original edition (May 25, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0778328538
  • ISBN-13: 978-0778328537



Wednesday, June 23, 2010

What Are YOU Waiting For?




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

The Last Ghost Dancer by Tony Bender

The Last Ghost Dancer is more than a coming-of-age fable, more than the wry memoirs of a spiritual search. It is the story of a remarkable summer in a remarkable west river town. It is a commentary on the depth and breadth of friendships forged, of lovers lost, and the realization that it is the journey that is of importance, and not so much the destination. Looking back, as old men do, it’s hard to imagine it really happened. But it did. One wise teacher, one perfect girl, one harrowing summer, can set the course of a lifetime. Meet Bones, the wry, funny, ever-observant, thoughtful and hapless narrator, a grease monkey at the only gas station in Pale Butte, whose most recent claim to fame is dropping an Edsel off the hoist. Now, some sixty years later, Bones, a dreamer of apocalyptic dreams, reflects on miracles small and large and his spiritual discovery that marked the summer of 1977.
  • Hardcover: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books (July 20, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0312592302


Bitter in the Mouth by Monique Truong

G
rowing up in the small town of Boiling Springs, North Carolina, in the 70’s and 80’s, Linda believes that she is profoundly different from everyone else, including the members of her own family. “What I know about you, little girl, would break you in two” are the cruel, mysterious last words that Linda’s grandmother ever says to her. Now in her thirties, Linda looks back at her past when she navigated her way through life with the help of her great-uncle Harper, who loves her and loves to dance, and her best friend Kelly, with whom Linda exchanges almost daily letters. The truth about my family was that we disappointed one another. When I heard the word “disappoint,” I tasted toast, slightly burnt. For as long as she can remember, Linda has experienced a secret sense—she can “taste” words, which have the power to disrupt, dismay, or delight. She falls for names and what they evoke: Canned peaches. Dill. Orange sherbet. Parsnip (to her great regret). But with crushes comes awareness. As with all bodies, Linda’s is a mystery to her, in this and in other ways. Even as Linda makes her way north to Yale and New York City, she still does not know the truth about her past. Then, when a personal tragedy compels Linda to return to Boiling Springs, she gets to know a mother she never knew and uncovers a startling story of a life, a family. Revelation is when God tells us the truth. Confession is when we tell it to him. This astonishing novel questions many assumptions—about what it means to be a family and to be a friend, to be foreign and to be familiar, to be connected and to be disconnected—from others and from the past, our bodies, our histories, and ourselves.
  • Hardcover: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Random House (August 31, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1400069084
What are YOU waiting for today?

Tuesday, June 22, 2010


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 comes from The Lies We Told by Diane Chamberlain:

~I knew better than anyone how quickly these things could happen. The man reached behind his back with his right hand, then whipped his arm out straight, the gun a gray blur as it cut through the air, and I saw the tattoo of a black star on his index finger as he squeezed the trigger.~ pg. 70

What's YOUR teaser today?





Monday, June 21, 2010

Mailbox Monday



Mailbox Monday is hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page.


Here's what was in my mailbox last week!

Belly of the Whale by Linda Merlino.


Hudson Catalina has given up—having lost both breasts to cancer, she is
emotionally and physically exhausted, no longer willing to endure the nausea and crushing weakness of her grueling treatment. Nothing in her life—not even her beloved husband and children, her best friend, or her passion for teaching high school—will sway her decision to terminate her treatment. On the eve of her daughter's fifth birthday celebration, a troubled former student confronts her, hell-bent on violent revenge and then suicide. Facing certain peril, Hudson vows to do whatever she must in order to survive and see her husband and children once again.


Jan's Story: Love Lost to the Long Goodbye of Alzheimer's by Barry Petersen.

Imagine hearing these words: "She has Alzheimer's." Now imagine that "she" is vibrant, active, loving, healthy...and just 55. Acclaimed CBS News reporter Barry Petersen, writes about hearing the unimaginable: what it meant, what it still means, what he did--and didn't do--and how this beautiful love story needs to be read by the thousands of families who have already heard that same devastating diagnosis...EARLY ONSET ALZHEIMER'S. Jan's Story is a full, rich story of two people--and thousands like them--for whom "forever" suddenly and terrifyingly has an expiration date. Barry Petersen is a long-time, award-winning TV journalist who has covered wars, the devastating Asian tsunami, the historic confrontation at Tiananmen Square, the unspeakable deaths in Rwanda, and so much more...but was not even slightly prepared for what happened to his darling wife, Jan.

Creeker: A Woman's Journey by Linda Scott Derosier.

In her memoir of growing up in the mountains of eastern Kentucky, this professor of psychology at Rocky Mountain College in Montana is unabashedly honest about and proud of her Appalachian heritage, chronicling her life with honesty, wit, and insight.


What was in YOUR mailbox today!




Saturday, June 19, 2010

On My Wishlist #12



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.


A deeply moving story of one woman’s search for truth and meaning in the aftermath of her father's unsolved murder....

The Lost Night by Rachel Howard

On the night of June 22, 1986, ten-year-old Rachel Howard woke to a disturbing sight: pools of blood on the hallway carpet and a glimpse of her father clutching his stabbed throat. Stan Howard died minutes later, and his bizarre small-town murder was never solved. Rachel’s father was thirty-two, a laid-back, handsome man who loved the music of Rod Stewart and had no known enemies. Faced with her family’s shock, Rachel decided she would cope the only way she knew how: By keeping silent and trying to pretend the murder had never happened.

Now, seventeen years later and recently engaged, Rachel attempts to uncover for herself what happened that night. Finally reconnecting with her father’s family, she sorts through her relatives’ memories of his death and presses the less-than-helpful detectives. Still bewildered, she seeks the only other two people present at the murder: her former stepmother and stepbrother, neither of whom she has seen since her father’s funeral. The result is a tender portrait of a father and a keen investigation of memory, truth, and how a family moves on from a tragedy for which they may never find answers.


From the bestselling author of The Woman in the Fifth and The Pursuit of Happiness comes a devastating new novel....

Leaving The World
by Douglas Kennedy

Years after vowing to herself and her parents to never marry, have children and lead the resentful life they chose, Jane, now a Harvard professor, falls unexpectedly pregnant. Resolved as she’s been to childlessness, she begins to warm to the idea of motherhood, even with a partner who is increasingly absent. But a devastating turn of events takes the decision out of her hands in a way she could never have predicted.

Her familiar world torn apart, Jane feels forced to leave her old life behind. She resigns from her job, cuts all ties with friends and family and moves to a place where no one will find her. Isolated, she feels she has finally succeeded in leaving her world.

Yet when a young girl disappears, prompting a high-profile police investigation, Jane is drawn in. Convinced that the person at the heart of the case is much closer to her new community than anyone realises, she has to make a decision to either stay hidden or bring to light a shocking truth.


In her most ambitious novel to date, Lily King sets her sharply insightful family drama in an upper-middle-class suburb where she traces a complex and explosive father-daughter relationship from the 1970s to the present day....

Father Of The Rain by Lily King

When eleven-year-old Daley’s parents separate, she is thrust into a chaotic adult world of competition, indulgence, and manipulation. Unable to place her allegiance, she gently toes the thickening line between her parents’ worlds: the liberal, socially committed realm of her mother, and the conservative, liquor-soaked life of her father. But without her mother there to keep him in line, Daley’s father’s basest impulses are unleashed, and Daley has to choose her own survival over the father she still loves.
As she grows into adulthood, Daley retreats from the New England country-club culture that nourished her father’s fears and addictions, attempting to live outside his influence. Until he hits rock bottom. Faced with the chance to free her father from sixty years of dependency, Daley must decide whether repairing their broken relationship is worth losing not only her professional dreams, but the love of her life, Jonathan, who represents so much of what Daley’s father claims to hate, and who has given her so much of what he could never provide.


What books are on YOUR wish list today?



Thursday, June 17, 2010

Friday Finds


Friday Finds is hosted by Should Be Reading.



Stiltsville by Susanna Daniel: I saw this one on Carolina Gal's Literary Cafe blog and I was hooked after reading her awesome review:

One sunny morning in 1969, near the end of her first trip to Miami, 26-year-old Frances Ellerby discovers a place called Stiltsville, a community of houses built on pilings in the middle of Biscayne Bay. For the Atlanta native, it’s the first time she’s been out on the open water, the first time she’s felt alive in months. Giddy with the freedom of this idyllic, foreign place, and enjoying her first taste of adventure, she meets the fair-haired Dennis DuVal, the careless yet lucky man with whom she will spend the next three decades. Frances is seduced by Miami’s chaos and beauty, by the sun and sea and sky that Dennis calls home. Going against her cautious nature, she leaves her job and moves to Florida to start a life with Dennis. With a baby daughter and very little to call their own, surrounded by an intimate community of friends and relatives, Frances and Dennis set out on a decades-long journey. Over the years, they struggle with the vicissitudes of love and Florida’s weather, infidelity, parenthood, friendship, Hurricane Andrew, and debilitating illness—coming to terms, finally, with a life that doesn’t necessarily end happily-ever-after, but one which Frances wouldn’t trade for anything. Susanna Daniel interweaves the tropical intensity, beauty, violence, and humanity of Miami as it comes of age with a modern yet enduring story of a marriage’s beginning, maturity, and heartbreaking demise.

Doesn't it sound good? I love me some Florida Fiction!


The Lies We Told by Diane Chamberlain:

I've not read any other of Diane Chamberlain's books, so this will be a first.

Maya and Rebecca Ward are both accomplished physicians, but that's where the sisters' similarities end. As teenagers, they witnessed their parents' murder, but it was Rebecca who saved Maya from becoming another of the gunman's victims. The tragedy left Maya cautious and timid, settling for a sedate medical practice with her husband, Adam, while Rebecca became the risk taker.

After a devastating hurricane hits the coast of North Carolina, Rebecca and Adam urge Maya to join them in the relief effort. To please her husband, Maya finally agrees. She loses herself in the care and transport of victims, but when her helicopter crashes into raging floodwaters, there appear to be no survivors.

Forced to accept Maya is gone, Rebecca and Adam turn to one another—first for comfort, then in passion—unaware that, miles from civilization, Maya is injured and trapped with strangers she's not certain she can trust. Away from the sister who has always been there to save her, now Maya must find the courage to save herself—unaware that the life she knew has changed forever.

This book was offered to me for review by Tricia at Meryl L. Moss Media Relations....Thank you Tricia....I am looking forward to reading a new-to-me author!

What about you? What did YOU find today???



Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Book Review - Please Excuse My Daughter by Julie Klam



I truly love memoirs, and this one was no exception. Please Excuse My Daughter by Julie Klam is a hilarious (and sometimes serious) peek into the life of 35 year old Julie Klam. She chronicles her life, growing up in the well-to-do suburb of Bedford in Westchester County, NY. I could relate to her youth, as I grew up around the same area. A few times she had me crying, I was laughing so hard!

Julie writes with a raw honesty that I wish I could present myself. She explained situations and feelings that she had that I, myself have experienced, only I could never put it into writing.

She grew up sheltered under her parents wings, and always knew that she could count on them for help. When she falls in love with a man that is not as well off as her parents, it knocks her into a realm that is unknown to her. I felt her frustration and longing. Before meeting her current husband, she had a boyfriend who almost ruined her financially....been there, done that.

Her tales of her grandparents are sweet and funny, and the situations that she has been through vary from hilarious to insane to heart-breaking. God bless her for putting all of it down into words.

I highly recommend this memoir. I can't wait to read her next book, coming out in October...."You Had Me At Woof".

Photobucket Very Good!
  • Paperback: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Riverhead Trade; Reprint edition (April 7, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1594483574


Tuesday, June 15, 2010

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 Please Excuse My Daughter, by Julie Klam....same book as last week....I haven't had much reading time lately!

~I dressed carefully, and as I slipped my sweater on, Grandma Pearl's tiny head popped up on my shoulder, her hair sprayed into a red-brick nautilus shell: "Show them you're rich and fancy, you'll be treated better." pg 132~

What's YOUR teaser today????


Monday, June 14, 2010

Mailbox Monday




Mailbox Monday is hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page.


In The Failing Light by David Tillman:

"In the Failing Light" is a mesmerizing, non-fiction account of a women coping with stage IV breast cancer, written from her husband's point of view. Relying heavily on dialogue, the book focuses on the love between the two, and the fight they endure to live together happily and healthily. "In the Failing Light" spares the reader no details and its tone is exquisite-by the end, you'll not only have fallen in love with the author's wife, you'll be thankful Mr. Tillman wrote this beautiful book.

Fireworks Over Toccoa
by Jeffrey Stepakoff:

Lily was married for just days before her husband was sent abroad to fight in WWII. Now, he and the other soldiers are returning, and the small town of Toccoa, Georgia plans a big celebration. But a handsome and kind Italian immigrant, responsible for the elaborate fireworks display the town commissioned captures Lily's heart and soul. Torn between duty to society and her husband, and a poor, passionate man who might be her only true love--Lily must choose between a love she never knew and a commitment she'd already made.

Poignant and elegant, FIREWORKS OVER TOCCOA is a mosaic of all the emotions that only love can make possible.

What was in YOUR mailbox last week?



Saturday, June 12, 2010

On My Wishlist #11




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.


In The Weight of Shadows, by Alison Strobel:

After a difficult childhood, Kim has built a successful life for herself ... but she'd leave it all if it meant being rid of the guilt she harbors over a tragic mistake she made years ago. When she meets Rick, she finds everything she needs---including a way to pay for her sins every time he hits her. Kim and Rick's new neighbor, Joshua, knows more than Kim realizes about Rick, but Joshua has battles of his own to fight. Soon to intersect Kim's and Rick's lives is Debbie, who has saved countless women from abuse through the shelter she runs, but Debbie might be as desperate for love as the women she serves. Meanwhile, as Rick's wrath extends to their baby, Kim must decide if her penance is more important than protecting that innocent life---and if she should dare leave Rick when he has the power to bring her hidden crime to light.


Katie Up and Down the Hall: The True Story of How One Dog Turned Five Neighbors Into Family by Glenn Plaskin

A personal memoir by bestselling author and celebrity journalist Glenn Plaskin, KATIE is a moving story about a man who discovers the true meaning of family after adopting a Cocker Spaniel puppy. Through the magnetic personality of his mischievous dog, the author soon makes powerful connections with several of his down-the-hall neighbors in a high-rise located in the unique Battery Park City neighborhood of Lower Manhattan. First, Katie trots into the lives of Pearl and Arthur, a warm-hearted elderly couple just a few doors down from Glenn. Later, John, a single Dad, and his rambunctious young son, Ryan, also move in and are seduced by Katie's charms. All of their lives are profoundly changed as they are transformed from neighbors to friends to family, with Pearl as matriarch. The motherless boy finds a "Granny"; his Dad inherits a mother, Glenn discovers a confidante. Set in New York City, we witness nearly sixteen years of antics and family adventures spanning Hollywood high times, bad health, accidents, blustery winters, even the terrors of 9/11. Through it all, the family clings to each other, sharing a deep bond that give each comfort, support and security. Based upon a widely-read article in Family Circle, here is an unforgettable story about the love that makes a family-one that transcends the hard realities of time, tragedy, and inevitable loss.

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