Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week and explore great book blogs. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists. It was started by Marcia, previously of The Printed Page and is now a Blog Tour, hosted by a different book blog each month.
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Sunday, March 31, 2013
Mailbox Monday (4/1/13)
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Review: More Last Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson
I have had Joelle Hoverson's previous book Last Minute Knitted Gifts for quite awhile and have used many of the patterns to make gifts for friends and family. I was excited to get a chance to check out More Last Minute Knitted Gifts through NetGalley. After taking a look through it, I know I will be purchasing the book to add to my knitting pattern book collection.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Review: Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger
Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger
Hardcover, 320 pages
Atria Books, March 26, 2013
“That was it. That was all of it. A grace so ordinary there was no reason at all to remember it. Yet I have never across the forty years since it was spoken forgotten a single word.
New Bremen, Minnesota, 1961. The Twins were playing their debut season, ice-cold root beers were selling out at the soda counter of Halderson’s Drugstore, and Hot Stuff comic books were a mainstay on every barbershop magazine rack. It was a time of innocence and hope for a country with a new, young president. But for thirteen-year-old Frank Drum it was a grim summer in which death visited frequently and assumed many forms. Accident. Nature. Suicide. Murder.
Frank begins the season preoccupied with the concerns of any teenage boy, but when tragedy unexpectedly strikes his family— which includes his Methodist minister father; his passionate, artistic mother; Juilliard-bound older sister; and wise-beyond-his-years kid brother— he finds himself thrust into an adult world full of secrets, lies, adultery, and betrayal, suddenly called upon to demonstrate a maturity and gumption beyond his years.
Told from Frank’s perspective forty years after that fateful summer, Ordinary Grace is a brilliantly moving account of a boy standing at the door of his young manhood, trying to understand a world that seems to be falling apart around him. It is an unforgettable novel about discovering the terrible price of wisdom and the enduring grace of God.
What a great story. I loved getting lost along the river and railroad tracks. I imagined a simpler, quieter and more innocent time during childhood. As the deaths start happening in the story the more you realize that the innocence is slowly disappearing, and the veil over the town is being pulled off to show the darker/broken side of the people within it. The growing up that Frank and his brother do during this summer is the true story. They have to deal with a lot of grown up things that they had never been exposed to before. The innocence lost during this period shapes how they will be in the future.
This is a coming of age story and a murder mystery wrapped up in one truly entertaining and gripping tale. Krueger has written a wonderful novel that will please readers of his Cork O'Conner series and new ones as well.
Source: Publisher for review
For more info about the book and author visit his WEBSITE.
FTC Disclosure: Clicking on book title and/or image links will lead you to my Amazon Affiliate page.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Wordless Wednesday (3/19/13)
Coral Reef exhibit at the California Academy of Sciences San Francisco, CA |
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Review: Heart Like Mine by Amy Hatvany
Heart Like Mine by Amy Hatvany
Paperback, 384 pages
Washington Square Press, March 19, 2013
The unexpected death of a loved one and its effect on the lives of her family is the story of Heart Like Mine. Kelli, a single mom of two kids, is dealing with a secret from her past and the impending marriage of her ex. She is depressed and sick from not sleeping or eating. One morning she goes to sleep and doesn't wake up. Her death is a shock and there are many questions about what may have happened.
The story is told from the point of view of Grace, her ex's fiance and Ava, her teenage daughter. We also get a third point of view. The story of Kelli's childhood, marriage and death interspersed between the present storyline supplied by Grace and Ava. The sharing of the narration and the change between first and third person was a little confusing in the beginning but I was able to get used to the flow pretty quickly especially since the story is so engaging.
This is a beautiful story about family, friendship and love. Grace discovers that she is strong enough to stick around and parent two kids she never planned on having. Ava finds that she is able to be friends, and perhaps even love, her father's new fiance without forgetting about her mom. The two of them are eventually able to work together to discover Kelli's secret and find some solace in knowing more about her and her life.
Source: Publisher for review
For more info about the book and author visit her WEBSITE.
FTC Disclosure: Clicking on book title and/or image links will lead you to my Amazon Affiliate page.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
The Book of Lost Fragrances out in Paperback
Publisher: Atria Books
Paperback; 384p
ISBN-10: 1451621485
The Book of Lost Fragrances is being rereleased this spring in paperback with an all new beautiful cover. I read and reviewed it last spring and thoroughly enjoyed the mix of history, suspense and fantasy. Read on for more information about the book and author.
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SYNOPSIS: A Secret Worth Dying For.
Jac L’Etoile is plunged into a world she thought she’d left behind when her brother, coheir to their father’s storied French perfumery, makes an earthshattering discovery in the family archives, and then suddenly goes missing— leaving a dead body in his wake. In Paris to investigate his disappearance, Jac becomes haunted by the legend of the House of L’Etoile. If there is an ancient perfume developed in Cleopatra’s time that holds the power to unlock memories of past lives, possessing it is not only worth living for . . . it’s worth killing for, too.
Fusing history, passion and suspense in an intoxicating web that moves from Cleopatra’s Egypt and the terrors of revolutionary France to Tibet’s battle with China and the glamour of modern-day Paris, this marvelous, spellbinding novel comes to life as richly as our most wildly imagined dreams.
Read an EXCERPT.
Buy Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indie Bound
Praise for THE BOOK OF LOST FRAGRANCES
Selected by Indie Booksellers for the March 2012 Indie Next List
Selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the Top Ten Mystery/Thrillers Spring 2012
"Compelling... suspenseful tale. Once you catch a whiff, you will be enchanted". —Associated Press
"Rose has entered another realm and written what is bound to be one of this year's best books." —Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"From 18th-century Egypt and France to present-day Paris, New York, and China, Rose's deliciously sensual novel of paranormal suspense smoothly melds a perfume-scented quest to protect an ancient artifact with an ages-spanning romance. Rose imbues her characters with rich internal lives in a complex plot that races to a satisfying finish." —Publishers Weekly, Starred and Boxed Review
"Amazing... utterly engrossing. Elegantly written, with unforgettable characters. Will keep you up all night—and leave you with powerful feelings of revelation, wonder, and the infinitude of human possibility." —New York Times best selling author Douglas Preston
"A simmering brew that mingles the erotic sensuality of Patrick Suskind's Perfume with the dark and timeless obsessions of Rider Haggard's classic, She." —New York Times best selling author Katherine Neville
About the Author
M.J. Rose is the international best selling author of eleven novels and two non-fiction books on marketing. Her fiction and non-fiction has appeared in many magazines and reviews including Oprah Magazine. She has been featured in the New York Times, Newsweek, Time, USA Today and on the Today Show, and NPR radio. Rose graduated from Syracuse University, spent the '80s in advertising, has a commercial in the Museum of Modern Art in NYC and since 2005 has run the first marketing company for authors - Authorbuzz.com. The television series PAST LIFE, was based on Rose's novels in the Renincarnationist series. She is one of the founding board members of International Thriller Writers and runs the blog- Buzz, Balls & Hype. She is also the co-founder of Peroozal.com and BookTrib.com.
Rose lives in CT with her husband the musician and composer, Doug Scofield, and their very spoiled and often photographed dog, Winka.
For more information on M.J. Rose and her novels, please visit her WEBSITE. You can also find her on Facebook and Twitter.
FTC Disclosure: Clicking on book title and/or image links will lead you to my Amazon Affiliate page.
Friday, March 1, 2013
Review: The Holder's Dominion by Genese Davis
FTC Disclosure: Clicking on book title and/or image links will lead you to my Amazon Affiliate page.