Chick with Books

The Sunday Salon... Reading Resolutions 2012

2012-01-08T10:26:00.006-05:00

Welcome to The Sunday Salon! It's that day of the week where we get to kick back, relax and talk about... Books!

It's also a brand new year and there are plenty of resolutions that us readers make. Maybe you'll resolve to try a genre that you've never read before, or maybe resolve to actually read more. Whatever your choice,

it's the start of a new reading year!

But before we look ahead, let's take a look back at some of the books I am so glad to have made the acquaintance of this past year. Of course there were many pages turned this year, but if I had to pick out just a few that shined a little brighter, these would be the ones...

READING RECAP for 2011... Some of the books I enjoyed this year were...

Mr. Chartwell by Rebecca Hunt. This was a quirky fun read!

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruku Murakami. It's amazing that Haruku Murakami could turn running into something interesting and philosophical, but he did!

The Girl in the Green Raincoat by Laura Lippman. Laura Lippman never disappoints and this novella was quite a page turner.

Song of The Silk Road by Mingmei Yip. This book took me a little while to digest and realize that I enjoyed it. Funny how that is sometimes, but after I finished it I realized that I did really enjoy it.

When We Danced on Water by Evan Fallenberg. This was a nice surprise. A love story and a war story. Evan's writing was spot on and I couldn't put this down.

FAVORITE read of the year... Delirium by Lauren Oliver. This YA book just resonated with me. It was a wonderful love story set in a dystopian world that seemed so believable. But what was even more believable was the emotions that just dripped off the page between the two teenagers. Falling in love the first time is special, frightening, and confusing. Lauren Oliver captures all these emotions and puts them all down on the page. My only wish is that the second book in the series (it's a trilogy) will be as good.

Some of the challenges that I did test the waters with were Manga and Graphic Novels. Of course I have read and enjoyed Graphic Novels, but Manga was new to me. I did meet a sweet little kitten in Chi's Sweet Home by Konami Kanata and I do have a few more Manga set aside to crack the spines on, but Manga still is a bit of a mystery. Any suggestions out there to sample a little more? I'm still open to reading a bit more.

Looking a bit farther back, there are still books that I read that I still think about. I looked to see when I read and reviewed some of these gems and was surprised to find that years had gone by on a few of them. I still recommend these great reads when talking books! Here are a handful of those DON"T MISS titles!

The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist... At the time I reviewed it, 2009, I called it compelling and disturbing. It was and still is. The story still haunts me. I have recommended this to anyone who will listen. It's dystopian, it's a love story, it's a novel that will have you thinking late into the night. And if you're over 50, it'll scare the heck out of you!

True Grit by Charles Portis... Mattie Ross is the perfect heroine and she will have you loving this story! This was one of the last books I read in 2010 and simply stated, I LOVED it! "It's adventure, it's revenge, it's redemption" is part of what I wrote about True Grit, and it is so much more. A story that will have you wanting more... much more! Wonderful memorable characters! READ THIS if you haven't!

The Favorites by Mary Yukari Waters... Another great read in 2010 that I still think about today. A wonderful, powerful story of 3 generations of women with the beautiful background of Japan.

Dracula in Love by Karen Essex... Another great book that I read in 2010 that made me swoon to the affections of The Count! What a love story! Sexy, Sensuous, and a timeless love story all wrapped up in one. Ladies, this is a read for you! Karen Essex re-imagines Mina's point of view in the classic tale of Dracula and brings the characters to life, especially Dracula!

Sugar by Bernice McFadden... This was the first book I read by Bernice and it introduced me to a writer who can capture my heart with the drop of her pen on the page. Her women characters are so real and wonderful, but her writing is even better. I've been a fan of hers ever since.

So, now that we've looked to the past, recent and not-so-recent, what will the future hold for reading this year? I'm not taking up any official "challenges" this year. I'll be looking in the mailbox for some wonderful ARC's from the very generous publishers and authors out there, and I'll be perusing the bookshelves of the 2 independent bookstores that are not so near me, as well as the big bookstore that still stands proud that it didn't file for bankruptcy. And I'll be looking for recommendations from Y'ALL of course! I've already been "challenged" to read Cannery Row and Travels with Charlie by John Steinbeck! And as always I've got my reading group to discover new books. It use to be me picking out the books for us, but now everyone takes a turn and it's a great way for me to discover books I normally would not pick up.

So, what's your reading year ahead going to be like? What were some of your favorite reads from 2011? After a crazy later part of this year, I'm looking forward to wrapping up some things that took time away from my reading and sitting in a comfy chair with a cup of java and many great books in my hand!

Happy reading... Suzanne

The Sunday Salon... Reading Travels and Destinations!

2011-12-04T08:01:00.010-05:00

Welcome to the Sunday Salon! It's the day of the week where we get together and chat about books! Pull up a chair, grab a cup of joe and relax!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I was away enjoying the warm weather and the great hospitality of North Carolina. Which brought to mind today's Sunday Salon- traveling and destination. When we travel, we always have a destination, so I've got a couple of great "Travel" books and a true crime book written about where my destination was this week!

Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck... In the 1960's, 58-year-old John Steinbeck gets in his truck and goes off in an adventure with his standard poodle, Charley. He wanted to explore the American landscape he had written about for so long. This has been on my "to read" list for some time, and when thinking about my recent travels I decided it was high time to crack the spine and see what Steinbeck discovered.

As he talked with all kinds of people, he sadly noted the passing of region speech, fell in love with Montana, and was appalled by racism in New Orleans.

Were there any similarities as I left Connecticut for the great unknown? I did learn that Y'all is a word!

The Time Travelers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger... I fell in love with this novel the moment I started reading it! If you are a true romantic, there is nothing more special that the love story between Henry and Claire.

When Henry meets Clare, he is twenty-eight and she is twenty. Henry has never met Clare before; Clare has known Henry since she was six. Impossible but true, because Henry finds himself periodically displaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity from his life, past and future. Henry and Clare's attempts to live normal lives are threatened by a force they can neither prevent nor control, making their passionate love story intensely moving and entirely unforgettable. The Time Traveler's Wife is a story of fate, hope and belief, and more than that, it's about the power of love to endure beyond the bounds of time.

A love story that isn't bound by the rigors of time, and wonderful heartfelt writing, make this a great read! If you haven't read it, DO IT NOW! Definitely part of my travels this past week.

Bitter Blood: : A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder by Jerry Bledsoe... Now we come to my destination - Greensboro, North Carolina, and my last book pick of today. Bitter Blood still evokes a response from people living in Greensboro, who unwittingly became part of a bizarre and horrifying series of murders.

The first bodies found were those of a feisty millionaire widow and her beautiful daughter in their posh Louisville, Kentucky, home. Months later, another wealthy widow and her prominent son and daughter-in-law were found savagely slain in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Mystified police first suspected a professional in the bizarre gangland-style killings that shattered the quiet tranquility of two well-to-do southern communities. But soon a suspicion grew that turned their focus to family. The Sharps. The Newsoms. The Lynches. The only link between the three families was a beautiful and aristocratic young mother named Susie Sharp Newsom Lynch. Could this former child "princess" and fraternity sweetheart have committed such barbarous crimes? And what about her gun-loving first cousin and lover, Fritz Klenner, son of a nationally renowned doctor?

Everyone who I have talked to about this book says it is an amazing page turner and not to be missed by any true crime reader! Mesmerizing, haunting and riveting are some of the comments I have heard about Bitter Blood and the writing of Jerry Bledsoe. I'm toting this one around in my pocketbook with a fast moving bookmark!

What have you been reading this week? Did you have any bookish travels for Thanksgiving? Although I didn't have time to read too much while flying down to North Carolina, I did discover some great reads!

Happy reading... Suzanne

Memoir Monday (almost)... Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai

2011-11-21T05:06:00.001-05:00

Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai... It's a memoir... but not exactly. It's a children's book, and it did win the National Book Award for YA Lit this year, but it's more than that. Inside Out & Back Again is a verse book, or a book totally written in short verses, but not a book of poetry. What is Inside Out & Back Again exactly then? It's a poignant look at a young child's life as she is being thrown into a new life unexpectedly and how she deals with it all. It's an immigrant's story, but the perspective we see is from the voice of an intelligent 10-year-old girl, who has a little spunk behind her, and who simply tells us in unfaltering prose what it's like to lose your best friend, dream, be torn from all you know and ultimately be the outsider. The last time I read a book that was in complete verse (Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow) I didn't like the medium at all. But this is a different story, and Thanhha Lai measures her words more carefully like a delicate brushstroke at times, almost like Haiku.

The life of Ha is based on the life of author Thanhha Lai, who moved to Alabama at the end of the Vietnam War. And so, though this isn't really a memoir, it really is. Here's what's on the front jacket flap...

No one would believe me but at times I would choose wartime in Saigon over peacetime in Alabama.

For all the ten years of her life, HÀ has only known Saigon: the thrills of its markets, the joy of its traditions, the warmth of her friends close by . . . and the beauty of her very own papaya tree.

But now the Vietnam War has reached her home. HÀ and her family are forced to flee as Saigon falls, and they board a ship headed toward hope. In America, HÀ discovers the foreign world of Alabama: the coldness of its strangers, the dullness of its food, the strange shape of its landscape . . . and the strength of her very own family.

This is the moving story of one girl's year of change, dreams, grief, and healing as she journeys from one country to another, one life to the next.

The story is moving, and wonderfully written. A sweet story for any young girl at heart, but also a story of the hopes, dreams and reality of immigration.

The Sunday Salon... Rolling out the Dough at Chick with Books

2011-11-20T08:54:00.008-05:00

Welcome to The Sunday Salon! It's that time of the week where we all virtually get together and talk books! So grab you're cup of java, pull up achair and let's talk...

The Holiday season is slowly surrounding us. I'm not really a cookie baker, but I just got an invite to what is going to be an annual cookie swap. I actually helped organize it. What was I thinking?! I was thinking it would be a great way for us girls to get together and have some fun. I was not thinking too much about the cookies. But now that the invitations went into the mail, I needed to figure out what cookie I was going to make dozens of. The last cookie swap I went to, about 10 years ago, I made Whoopie Pies. Do you realize that Whoopie Pies are like 2 cookies plus?! No Whoopie Pies this time, but what to bake...

So, today's Sunday Salon I thought I would take a peek at some great cookie books!

Betty Crocker's Cooky Book... This is the "cooky book" I'm going to use to bake those cookies! Originally published in 1963, Betty Crocker's Cooky Book is a classic! If you don't have an originally copy, don't worry, General Mills reprinted the original copy, spiral bound, with all the original illustrations and photographs. It's a blast from the past, along with all your favorite traditional cookies like Chocolate Crinkles, Toffee Squares and Chocolate Kisses. My friend Lauretta has baked Christmas cookies from this book for over 20 years and they always turn out great!

So, I'm halfway to great cookies with at least the book!

One Girl Cookies: Recipes for Cakes, Cupcakes, Whoopie Pies, and Cookies from Brooklyn's Beloved Bakery by Dawn Casale and David Crofton... Tucked away on a quiet, tree-lined street in Brooklyn, New York, is One Girl Cookies: a charming bakery and café whose owners have created what they call an Urban Mayberry. Little do most people know that this dessert destination—famous for its gorgeous bite-sized cookies, amazingly moist cakes, seasonal pies and tarts, and dangerously addictive whoopie pies—started simply, with one girl baking cookies out of a tiny apartment. One Girl Cookies shares the recipes for the shop’s sought-after treats, as well as the sweet story behind its beginnings. There we go again with those Whoopie Pies. OK, looking towards a more contemporary cookie cookbook, I stumbled upon One Girls Cookies "Cookie Book". If the selection of cookies on their website tempts you, this cookie book should too! Although I couldn't get a peek inside because it's not going to be published until Jan. 10th! So, I can't share what's in it... we'll all just have to wait and see, but I love these cookbooks from family eateries because they are from real people who put love in their cooking, and in this case lots of sugar!

Sweet Auburn Desserts: Atlanta's "Little Bakery That Could" by Sonya Jones... Tucked in a historic section of downtown Atlanta, Sweet Auburn Bread Company celebrates and showcases southern and African-American baking. After discovering the thriving business in 2009, CNN featured Sweet Auburn on television, naming the segment "The Little Bakery That Could." This beautifully illustrated book depicts the fresh-baked desserts and delicious breads that have brought the locale national recognition. From classic recipes to innovative creations, Chef Sonya Jones's best baking secrets fill the pages of this mouth-watering collection. This cookbook grabbed me just from the front cover! And it's another cookbook from a small bakery. I haven't cracked the spine on this one yet either, but I'll be looking for it my next trip to the bookstore. How can you not be tempted with 200 pages dripping in confectioners sugar and strawberries!

So, do you have a favorite cookie book? Favorite cookie you make? How about a favorite dessert cookbook? Share it here with us! I'd love to hear all about your Holiday cookie cooking! And until next week, when the books here will probably not be dripping with calories... Happy reading! Suzanne

*P.S. And what did I finally decide to make? Russian Tea Cakes! Wish me luck!

First Lines...

2011-11-18T19:55:00.008-05:00

"From the Divine Pen fell the first drop of ink."

Habibi by Craig Thompson, 2011.

It's funny to think of graphic novels as having first lines, but they do, just like any other novel. Their first lines are in a panel and if you think about it, each panel must be a precise thought. I picked up a copy of Habibi by Craig Thompson because I loved his previous graphic novel Blankets. Blankets was the first graphic novel I ever read, and it's referred to by some as "the girlfriend's graphic novel". It's the graphic novel you give to your girlfriend so she'll understand what you spend all your time reading. Well, I was the girl who was interested in learning more about graphic novels, so that's what was put in my hands. The artwork was wonderful, the writing was moving and I was hooked. I had to wait 8 years for Craig Thompson to write another graphic novel, and I didn't hesitate to order it. Here's what Library Journal writes about Habibi...

Habibi tells the tale of Dodola and Zam, refugee child slaves bound to each other by chance, by circumstance, and by the love that grows between them. We follow them as their lives unfold together and apart; as they struggle to make a place for themselves in a world (not unlike our own) fueled by fear, lust, and greed; and as they discover the extraordinary depth—and frailty—of their connection.

The book itself is beautifully reproduced in a hardback tome. But I'm looking forward to cracking the spine and getting lost in the pages of another Craig Thompson story. Habibi has already received much praise from reviewers all over. Look for my review coming soon...

*BTW, if you've never read a graphic novel before, and I know there are some of you out there, pick up a copy of Blankets by Craig Thompson, you won't be sorry! I'll be reviewing that as well soon, as part of books I am reading once again.

The Sunday Salon... Visiting Out of Oz: The Book and My Life

2011-11-13T09:55:00.006-05:00

Thank you Harper Collins for sending along a copy of Out of Oz by Gregory Maguire! It's the final volume in Gregory Maguire's series of books covering what is referred to as "The Wicked Years", or the land of Oz with a twist.

Out of Oz came at an interesting time in my life, because I've been away from Chick with Books for a little while, traveling down what feels like that yellow brick road, encountering adventures along the way, with my life changing leaps and bounds. But just as Dorothy discovered at the end of her adventures, I knew that "there's no place like home"... So even though I've been thrown a few curves along the way, I'm back home! Nice to see you all again! And with that said, let's take a look at Out of Oz...

Out of Oz by Gregory Maguire... First, let's look at that gorgeous cover by illustrator Douglas Smith! Capturing the beauty of Oz and Dorothy with his scratchboard illustrations, Douglas Smith not only designs the book jacket and cover, but also illustrates the inside covers of the book too! They say don't judge a book by its cover, but I defy anyone not to pick this book up after walking past it. The jacket is cut out in the middle revealing Dorothy peaking through, and revealing a beautiful illustration right on the book cover itself. I just love books that are just as beautiful without their jackets on!

The story, of course, is the magical world of Gregory Maguire. Always taking us beyond the pages of Frank Baum's classic Wizard of Oz series, Mr. Maguire delights us again in this final story of Oz.

"Out of Oz The marvelous land of Oz is knotted with social unrest: The Emerald City is mounting an invasion of Munchkinland, Glinda is under house arrest, and the Cowardly Lion is on the run from the law. And look who’s knocking at the door. It’s none other than Dorothy. Yes, that Dorothy. Amid all this chaos, Elphaba’s granddaughter, the tiny green baby born at the close of Son of a Witch, has come of age. Now, Rain will take up her broom in an Oz wracked by war."

Opening the pages of Out of Oz, made me feel 10 years-old again. Though the story is not for the young, it is for the young-at-heart. A fairy tale with a bit of a bite to it. Though I have not devoured it all yet, I am excited to be visiting Oz and Gregory Maguire's writing is always wonderful and always captures me, holding me captive.

If you haven't read the Wicked, Son of a Witch and A Lion Among Men, the first 3 books in the series, no worries because Gregory Maguire briefly catches you up to speed on each book is about. But I might start at the beginning, just so you can enjoy the series for as long as you can...

Happy reading... Suzanne

212 By Alafair Burke... TLC Book Tour and Review!

2011-07-25T19:57:00.009-04:00

212 by Alafair Burke...

When New York University sophomore Megan Gunther finds personal threats posted to a Web site specializing in campus gossip, she's taken aback by their menacing tone. Someone knows her daily routine down to the minute and is watching her — but thanks to the anonymity provided by the Internet, the police tell her there's nothing they can do. Her friends are sure it's someone's idea of a joke, but when Megan is murdered in a vicious attack, NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher is convinced that the online threats are more than just empty words.

With smooth, straight-talking partner J. J. Rogan at her side, Ellie tries to identify Megan's enemies, but she begins to wonder if the coed's murder was more than just the culmination of a cyber obsession. Phone records reveal a link between Megan and a murdered real estate agent who was living a dangerous double life. The detectives also learn that the dead real estate agent shared a secret connection to a celebrity mogul whose bodyguard was mysteriously killed a few months earlier. And when Megan's roommate suddenly disappears, they know they have to find her before another young woman dies.

What did I think? How can a girl complain about crime fiction that stars a smart, young and good female homicide detective? What's even better than a great protagonist is the great writing! I enjoy good writing and, although I haven't read any crime fiction in a while, Alafair Burke simply invited me into the story with a peek at what is to come, and I was hooked! Once I started reading I was turning those pages pretty fast. The setting is New York City, and the modern day approach by using twitter and google, make this piece of crime fiction fresh. She develops her characters well and that along with a good story pace kept my attention. I also liked the short chapters that allowed me to read this in short spurts. Alafair Burke's background as a prosecutor makes this authentic too! So, if you enjoy crime fiction, a great female protagonist, and great writing that will have you turning those pages at a rapid rate, 212 is a book you will enjoy!

About the Author... Alafair Burke is the author of what the Sun-Sentinal has hailed as "two power house series" featuring NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher and Portland Deputy District Attorney Samantha Kincaid. Alafair's novels grow out of her love for writing, her experience as a prosecutor in America's police precincts and criminal courtrooms, and her ability to create strong, believable, and eminently likable female characters. According to Entertainment Weekly, Alafair "is a terrific web spinner" who "knows when and how to drop clues to keep readers at her mercy."

Alafair Burke is Virtually Touring with her book 212 with TLC Book Tours! You can read more about her at the author's website, and you can find 212 by Alafair Burke at your local bookstore right now! Thanks Trish of TLC Book Tours for sending this along! Loved it!

The Sunday Salon... The Enduring Power of Love

2011-07-17T18:56:00.010-04:00

Welcome to The Sunday Salon! Another beautiful Sunday here in Connecticut. I'm on vacation and relaxing a bit. I was also able to make a trip to my favorite Indie Bookshop! The Hickory Stick Bookshop in Washington Depot, CT. It's about a 40 minute drive, which means I don't go there too often, but just love it when I can make the time. And it's really the only good bookstore near me to go to now. So, while I was enjoying myself leafing through the pages of books, I naturally found some interesting new reads to talk about... The enduring power of love. As the world changes around us, love happens and can stay with us forever. Here are some books just about that...

The Love of My Youth by Mary Gordon... From the Publisher, "a beautifully choreographed novel about first lovers meeting again after more than thirty years and reimmersing themselves in their shared past. Miranda and Adam, high-school sweethearts now in their late fifties, arrive by chance at the same time in Rome, a city where they once spent a summer deeply in love, living together blissfully. At an awkward reunion, the two—who parted in an atmosphere of passionate betrayal in the 1960s and haven’t seen each other since—are surprised to discover that they may have something to talk about. Both have their own guilt, their sense of who betrayed whom, and their long-held interpretation of the events that caused them not to marry and to split apart into the lives they’ve led since—both are married to others, with grown children. For the few weeks they are in Rome, Adam suggests that they meet for daily walks and get to know each other again. Gradually, as they take in the pleasures of the city and the drama of its streets, they discover not only what matters to them now but also more about what happened to them long ago. Miranda and Adam are masterfully portrayed characters, intent upon understanding who they are in relation to who they were. A story about what first love means and how it is shattered, and the lessons old lovers may still have to share with each other many years later, The Love of My Youth is also a poignant look back at the hopes and dreams of a generation and what became of them.

What if you could revisit someone from your past? How do you think things would have changed? Picked this book up because I just had to find out about how these two young lovers see things in the present day as older, wiser, and mature adults.

Next toLove by Ellen Feldman... "A story of love, war, loss, and the scars they leave, Next to Love follows the lives of three young women and their men during the years of World War II and its aftermath, beginning with the men going off to war and ending a generation later, when their children are on the cusp of their own adulthood. Set in a small town in Massachusetts, the novel follows three childhood friends, Babe, Millie, and Grace, whose lives are unmoored when their men are called to duty. And yet the changes that are thrust upon them move them in directions they never dreamed possible—while their husbands and boyfriends are enduring their own transformations. In the decades that follow, the three friends lose their innocence, struggle to raise their children, and find meaning and love in unexpected places. And as they change, so does America—from a country in which people know their place in the social hierarchy to a world in which feminism, the Civil Rights movement, and technological innovations present new possibilities—and uncertainties. And yet Babe, Millie, and Grace remain bonded by their past, even as their children grow up and away and a new society rises from the ashes of the war. Beautifully crafted and unforgettable, Next to Love depicts the enduring power of love and friendship, and illuminates a transformational moment in American history."

A family saga, lifelong friendships, loved ones going off to war, all with a helping of history makes this an interesting choice to me. Love reading about women friendships, because they are usually deep and powerful. I received a copy of Next to Love by Ellen Feldman from Random House and I'm eager to crack the spine soon!

The Last Letter from Your Lover by Jojo Moyes... "It is 1960. When Jennifer Stirling wakes up in the hospital, she can remember nothing-not the tragic car accident that put her there, not her husband, not even who she is. She feels like a stranger in her own life until she stumbles upon an impassioned letter, signed simply B", asking her to leave her husband. Years later, in 2003, a journalist named Ellie discovers the same enigmatic letter in a forgotten file in her newspaper's archives. She becomes obsessed by the story and hopeful that it can resurrect her faltering career. Perhaps if these lovers had a happy ending she will find one to her own complicated love life, too. Ellie's search will rewrite history and help her see the truth about her own modern romance."

Does love endure for these two lovers? I would love to find out! Intriguing is how Ellie has possession of the letter, and the story behind the letter as well! Now on my wishlist!

So is past romances revisited sound intriguing to you? Ever wonder, what if? Well, these books should satisfy any reader with a romantic heart. What else have you been reading lately?! Please share those great finds! I always love a book recommendation from a person who loves to read!

Have a great week! Happy reading... Suzanne

First Lines... I Gave My Heart to Know This by Ellen Baker

2011-07-15T08:47:00.004-04:00

"Violet set out from the little white house walking, but, when the pains came, she was brought to her knees. Watching the puffs of her breath make steam, she willed herself not to make a sound, not to give in to this sensation that wanted to strand her and her baby on this lonely road."

I Gave My Heart to Know This by Ellen Baker, "a sweeping multigenerational saga of the searing power of war, memory, friendship, and family. " and coming this August 2 to a bookstore near you!

Memoir Monday presents... Moby-Duck

2011-07-11T05:48:00.002-04:00

Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them by Donovan Hohn... What Publisher's Weekly said of Moby-Duck: Whimsical curiosity begets a quixotic odyssey and troubling revelations about plastics polluting the seas in former high school teacher and journalist Hohn's charming account of what he learned searching for 28,800 rubber bath toys lost at sea in 1992. His curiosity, prompted by a student's quirky essay, begins in 2005 around Sitka, Alaska, where yellow "duckies," frogs, turtles, and beavers washed up after three-story waves buffeted a container ship traveling from China to America. Hohn, a senior editor at Harper's magazine, eventually tracks more rogue ducks bobbing up from isolated Gore Point, Alaska, to Maine beaches. The author's quest leads him to a research vessel trawling for degraded plastic in Hawaiian seas, to the Chinese factory where the toys were manufactured, aboard a container vessel traversing the same route as the original ship (a particularly hair-raising section), and finally to the high Arctic to study the science of oceanic drift. Packed with seafaring lore and astute reporting, this enthralling narrative is the Moby Dick of drifting ducks.

Who can resist knowing the fate of 28, 800 cute Rubber Ducks? Well actually 28,800 rubber bath toys. The cover alone made it worth a look through, but Donovan Hohn has intrigued me with this story, which on the outside may look like a cute little tale of a cute little duck, but promises to be so much more. And Moby-Duck has garnered quite a few great reviews too! This is definitely on my wish-list, and today's Monday Memoir, even though it's not quite a memoir, but a high sea adventure!

The Sunday Salon... What's Your Style for Summer Vacation Reading?

2011-07-10T10:24:00.007-04:00

Good Morning! It's Sunday! And it's time for The Sunday Salon! It's been a few weeks of resolving all the "hacking" problems, which lead me to concentrate on administrative problems rather than having fun reading and reviewing, but finally I put the final touches on all that. And thanks to the readers who joined my Google Friends Connect, so I didn't have to look at 666 followers anymore!

I'm on vacation starting tomorrow and I look forward to some great summer vacation reading! And that's today's post... Summer reading. Do you pick up something different to read during your vacation or during the summer? I like wandering the bookstore for fun reads I normally wouldn't pick up. Of course that's harder these days, with my local bookstore having been Borders and now it is closed. But that's another trip during vacation- a favorite Indie bookstore that's just a little too far for a regular weekly visit. But back to summer reading... How about a classic?Or something just for fun?

Classics aren't what you normally think of as summer reading, but what better time really to relax with some wonderful writing that you can simply immerse yourself in... My thoughts turn to Faulkner today just for that... One of the great Southern writers of our time, you can expect wonderful complex characters that lend themselves to interesting settings....

Light in August by William Faulkner... Quick blurb about this book: "In a small town everyone knows everyone's business, but who really knows the heart of a man? Lena Grove and Joe Christmas are both searching—Lena, for the father of her unborn child, and Joe, for his place in this world. Their parallel journeys will lead to horrific tragedy—and a small ray of hope." This is the first book where William Faulkner confronts racism head-on. It's also said to be his most accessible read, with a plot not as complex as say, The Sound and the Fury, but still a fulfilling read.

OK, so classics may not be part of your summer reading, how about imaginative and fantastical? For a very long time I've been meaning to read German writer Walter Moers. He has a cult like following with readers worldwide, and his books are like zany fairytales for adults. Fantastic settings and wild characters.

The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers... From Overlook Press: "A bluebear has twenty-seven lives. I shall recount thirteen and a half of them in this book but keep quiet about the rest, says the narrator of Walter Moers s epic adventure. What about the

Minipirates What about the Hobgoblins, the Spiderwitch, the Babbling Billows, the Troglotroll, the Mountain Maggot . . . Mine is a tale of mortal danger and eternal love, of hair s breadth, last-minute escapes. Welcome to the fantastic world of Zamonia, populated by all manner of extraordinary characters. It s a land of imaginative lunacy and supreme adventure, wicked satire and epic fantasy, all mixed together, turned on its head, and lavishly illustrated by the author."

And the world of Zamonia doesn't end with Captain Bluebear either. There are 3 more books in the series with equally great characters and fun!

Still in fantasy, but a YA choice that adults can certainly enjoy is a surprise from author China Meiville. You may know Meiville from his recent hit Kraken, and Perdido Street Station, both Sci-fi award winners for adults. But inbetween those books was a little known book called Un Lun Dun, written for Young Adults, but filled with "magic, monsters, quests, and heroes" fit for any Harry Potter loving adult...

Un Lun Dun by China Meiville... From School Library Journal: In present-day London, strange things start happening around Zanna: dogs stop to stare at her, birds circle her head. Then, she and her friend Deeba find themselves in an alternate reality where obsolete objects such as old typewriters eventually "seep" and strange people and creatures dwell, including sentient "unbrellas." The girls learn that Zanna is the chosen one, the "shwazzy," of UnLondon. However, her first fight with the nefarious Smog isn't what was predicted in the book of prophecies.

Un Lun Dun has been on my shelves for a very long time, but I think I'm dusting it off during my two weeks of undivided reading attention!

What are you reading this summer?! Are your vacation reads different than your regular reading? I would love to hear what you're reading these days! And I'm happy to be back reading myself instead of playing with code and passwords!

Happy reading... Suzanne

First Lines... Overbite by Meg Cabot

2011-07-07T21:21:00.004-04:00

" Meena Harper knew things, things no one else knew...things no one could know.
One of those things was that the man sitting in the car beside her was going to die..."

Overbite by Meg Cabot, is the 2nd in her paranormal series where we find Meena Harper who can predict how you are going to die, her boyfriend is Dracula's son, and there are plenty of other undead men around. First book was Insatiable, which just came out in paperback last month. And this just arrived in my mailbox and I cannot wait to crack the spine. Fun, light and enjoyable is what Meg Cabot books usually offer and this should be no exception.

First Lines Friday is Back!

2011-07-01T19:58:00.005-04:00

"He stands in a corridor. He has been there for nearly an hour. For many this would feel like the final imposition, the last straw, the bitter end: something to ignite crimson threads of anger in the brain and provoke a tumble backward into the pit of clotted fury the consigned from here in the first place."

Killer Move... Your password is protected. Your life is not. Just released from William Morrow Publishers! It's a psychological thriller! And I have a copy waiting for me to crack the spine! I can't wait!

Chick with Books Caught a Cold... It's been HACKing and seems like it caught a VIRUS!

2011-06-22T19:22:00.003-04:00

Well, it's been a long week or so... I caught a virus of some sort... not me personally, but my computer! All sorts of funky things have been going on as I tried to post, work other applications on my Macintosh and then even use my iPhone and iPad! All my info got dumped from my contacts lists on both the computer and iPhone! At one point Chick with Books disappeared altogether off the internet! Talk about panic! But things have settled down a bit... The Genius at the Genius Bar at Apple couldn't find the problem, ran 2 anti-virus scans there and at home, and restored some of the information on my iPhone. Nothing else has gone crazy, although someone did tell me my "subscribe to this blog" link was not working and will be checking on that tonight. But barring no other problems, I'm back to work on Chick with Books!

So, if you hang out here normally, or if you just stopped by recently, thank you for your patience as things get back to normal! If something funky happened while you tried to subscribe to the blog or even become a Google Friends Connect, please let me know! And in the meantime, someone did point out that I have 666 followers, so not being all that superstitious, but after all that's gone wrong a little cautious, can someone start to follow me so I don't have 666 on my blog! ;-)

Happy Reading.... Suzanne

The Sunday Salon... Summer Reading!

2011-06-12T11:54:00.009-04:00

It's Sunday! Time to relax and take it easy! Open a good book and have a cup of Joe! Sometimes life gets in the way of reading & blogging, and my time has been spent in the throws of that the last few weeks. Now though, as things have settled down, I'm back to say hello and to say I've missed you! But books are still published and authors still havea lot to say, and today I'd like to share some of the books I've discovered that have a lot of Buzz! Summer has come to Connecticut with a bang and there are some wonderful summer reads coming our way! Here's some Books with Buzz...

Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan... For the Kellehers, Maine is a place where children run in packs, showers are taken outdoors, and old Irish songs are sung around a piano at night. Their beachfront property, won on a barroom bet after the war, sits on three acres of sand and pine nestled between stretches of rocky coast, with one tree bearing the initials “A.H.” At the cottage, built by Kelleher hands, cocktail hour follows morning mass, nosy grandchildren snoop in drawers, and decades-old grudges simmer beneath the surface. As three generations of Kelleher women descend on the property one summer, each brings her own hopes and fears. Maggie is thirty-two and pregnant, waiting for the perfect moment to tell her imperfect boyfriend the news; Ann Marie, a Kelleher by marriage, is channeling her domestic frustration into a dollhouse obsession and an ill-advised crush; Kathleen, the black sheep, never wanted to set foot in the cottage again; and Alice, the matriarch at the center of it all, would trade every floorboard for a chance to undo the events of one night, long ago.

This book is splashed all over the web, in emails I've received and has gotten great pre-pub reviews. And I for one am excited about this book! I love generational stories and these 3 women sound rich & complex and should make for a wonderful luxurious summer read. This will be released Tuesday, June 14th!

Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson... Here's what Publisher's Weekly had to say: Henderson debuts with a coming-of-age story set in the 1980s that departs from the genre's familiar tropes to find a panoramic view of how the imperfect escape from our parents' mistakes makes (equally imperfect) adults of us. Jude Keffy-Horn and Teddy McNicholas are drug-addled adolescents stuck in suburban Vermont and dreaming of an escape to New York City. But after Teddy dies of an overdose, Jude makes good on their dream and forms a de facto family with Teddy's straight-edge brother, Johnny; Jude's estranged pot-farmer father, Lester; and the troubled Eliza Urbanski, who may be carrying Teddy's child. What results is an odyssey encompassing the age of CBGB, Hare Krishnas, zines, and the emergence of AIDS. Henderson is careful, amid all this youthy nostalgia, not to sideline the adults, who look upon the changing fashions with varying levels of engagement.

Coming-of-Age stories are always popular, and this has gotten a lot of positive buzz. What may be different with this story is that it takes place in a more contemporary era that is not the norm with these kinds of tales. That may make this even a better bet because we all can relate to the landscape of this portrait. This book was recently released (June 7th) and is available fromyour favorite bookseller!

Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion? by Johan Harstad... Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion? opens with the line: "The person you love is 72.8% water, and it hasn’t rained for weeks." From there, Brage Award–winning author and playwright Johan Harstad’s debut—previously published to great success in eleven countries and now making its first English-language appearance—tells the story of Mattias, a thirty-something gardener living in Stavanger, Norway, whose idol is Buzz Aldrin, second man on the moon: the man who was willing to stand in Neil Armstrong’s shadow in order to work, diligently and humbly, for the success of the Apollo 11 mission. Following a series of personal and professional disasters, Mattias finds himself lying on a rain-soaked road in the desolate, treeless Faroe Islands, population only a few thousand, a wad of bills in his pocket and no memory of how he had come to be there—that’s when a truck approaches him, driven by a troubled, fantastic man with an offer that will shortly change Mattias’s life. And so, surrounded by a vivid and memorable cast of characters—aspiring pop musicians, Caribbean-obsessed psychologists, death-haunted photographers, girls who dream of anonymous men falling in love with them on bus trips, and even Buzz Aldrin himself—launches Buzz Aldrin, What Happened To You In All The Confusion?, the epic story of Mattias’s pop-saturated odyssey through the world of unconventional psychiatry, souvenir sheep-making, the Cardigans, and space: the space between himself and other people, a journey maybe as remote and personally dangerous as the trip to the moon itself

This book sounds like fun! With a group of quirky characters and a road trip, how can you go wrong? Add the fact that this has been published to great accolades in eleven countries doesn't hurt. Kirkus Reviews calls it, "A modern saga of rocketships, ice floes and dreams of the Caribbean, and great fun to read." And I for one am looking forward to a fun romp with this one! Though we had to wait almost 6 years for Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion by Johan Harstad, it's now available from your favorite bookseller!

So what have you been reading lately?! Does your reading change like the seasons? Do you slow down and read more fun in the summer? I'd love to hear what summer reading means to you!

Happy Reading... Suzanne

First Lines... 212 by Alafair Burke

2011-06-10T21:21:00.003-04:00

"Tanya Abbott noticed the quiver in her index finger as it pressed the three silver buttons in the rain-- 9... 1... 1. Listening to the ring, she found herself mentally calculating the number of days that had passed since she had first arrived in New York City.
Tanya had put the number at twenty-six by the time the dispatcher answered the call..."

212 by Alafair Burke, just published! And if you like crime fiction with a thriller bend, you'll want to pick this one up! Alafair Burke is having a Virtual Book Tour and making a stop at Chick with Books! Look for my review coming in a couple of weeks!

First Lines... I'd Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman

2011-06-03T11:02:00.004-04:00

"ISO, TIME FOR -
Eliza Benedict paused at the foot of the stairs. Time for what, exactly? All summer long - it was now August - Eliza had been having trouble finding the right words. Not complicated ones, the things required to express strong emotions or abstract concepts, make difficult confessions to loved ones..."

i'd know you anywhere by Laura Lippman coming August 2011!

Laura Lippman fans are in for another treat from their favorite author! Psychological suspense at it's best! Eliza Benedict was kidnapped at 15, but now years later leads a normal life, with a husband and two kids. What remains inside her is the constant question of why Walter Bowman killed all his victims, but her? She may find out the answer because 23 years later, Walter Bowman on death row contacts Eliza...

First Lines... Trader of Secrets by Steve Martini

2011-05-27T06:01:00.000-04:00

"Most of the blood left on the concrete floor of the garage in Washington belonged to the big black investigator working for Madriani, the man named Herman Diggs, but not all of it..."

Trader of Secrets by Steve Martini, coming 5/31!

Steve Martini fans rejoice! Defense attorney Paul Madriani is back and is embroiled in a case as perilous as any he has ever faced: one that involves an angry killer who will stop at nothing short of vengeance, and two missing NASA scientists who are holding secrets that a hostile government desperately wants to purchase—in blood if they must.

When We Danced on Water by Evan Fallenberg... A TLC Tour & Review!

2011-05-24T19:55:00.000-04:00

When We Danced on Water by Evan Fallenberg... Have you ever been surprised by a book?! Thought it would be about something and it turned out to be something totally different? Something that burst with a story that faintly resembled what it started as? That's what happened as I turned the pages of When We Danced on Water. What I thought initially was that this was going to be a love story; a May/December romance between two people. One of which was recovering from a war she served in and a love affair that ended badly. What I read though was a story so rich and encompassing that I still feel the story even after I've turned that last page.

In a small cafe in Tel Aviv, Vivi, a waitress in her 40's reignites the passion of 85 year old Teo as they see each other every day. Their conversations become more intense until Vivi, a supposed artist who can't stay with one project too long, is inspired by Teo's passion for the beauty & discipline of dance; of ballet. Teo was once a gifted ballet dancer, well respected and applauded. As a gift, Vivi decides to celebrate his life and accomplishments. But what becomes an amazing gift has the consequences of almost crushing Teo as he is brought back to long-buried secrets and painful memories of his life spent surviving WWII and the extermination of the Jews by the Third Reich.

What I thought was a simple love story, swept me off my feet into a time and place where the carefree life of a young Jewish boy could change with the slightest bit of circumstance. With lush prose, we are transported back in time to both Teo's life during WWII and Vivi's life as a young girl madly in love during a time of war. Though both wars were different, both had a devastating effect on their lives. And it is their shared pain, and their opening up to one another that finally frees them from their pasts.

I was totally absorbed in the stories of Vivi and Teo. Heartbreaking and believable, When We Dance on Water is the kind of book that will stay with you... The characters, their stories, the consequences of their actions. The setting of this story is Poland, Berlin and Tel Aviv, which seems fresh and unique.

Beautifully written, but there are parts of Teo's life surviving the Holocaust that may disturb you, as there was sexual abuse at the hands of Teo's torturer. I would definitely recommend this book to reading groups, and readers who enjoy stories taking place during WWII.

About the Author... Evan Fallenberg is the author of Light Fell, winner of the American Library Association’s Barbara Gittings Stonewall Book Award for Literature and the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction. His translation of Meir Shalev’s A Pigeon and a Boy won the Jewish Book Council Award for Fiction and was short-listed for the PEN Translation Prize. He lives and teaches in Tel Aviv.

Today's post is part of Evan Fallenberg's TLC Book Tour! I want to thank TLC Book Tours for sending along a copy for review! I thoroughly enjoyed it! And Readers can enjoy When We Danced on Water this coming June, when it will be released by Harper Perennial!

First Lines... Best Kept Secret by Amy Hatvany

2011-05-20T06:45:00.003-04:00

Being drunk in front of your child is right up there on the Big Bad No-no List of Motherhood. I knew what I was doing was wrong. I knew it with every glass, every swallow, every empty bottle thrown into the recycle bin. I hated drinking. I hated it,,, and I couldn't stop...
Best Kept Secret by Amy Hatvany, release date: June 7th!

The Man Booker International Prize... And the Winner Is?

2011-05-19T05:34:00.001-04:00

Philip Roth wins The Man Booker International Prize! What is The Man Booker International Prize? It's the literary award presented once every two years to a living author for a body of work published "originally in English or widely available in translation in the English language." The prize is worth £60,000 (or about $97,000) to the winner.

Philip Roth's first book, Goodbye, Columbus (actually a novella and 5 short stories) won the National Book Award in 1960 and Roth has continued writing to critical acclaim ever since, in fact a career that has spanned 50 years!

You can read all about The Man Booker International Prize and who the other finalists were at TheManBookerPrize.com. And you can find a list of all Philip Roth books at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books.

Memoir Monday... Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff

2011-05-16T05:43:00.000-04:00

I really had to look twice to make sure that this was indeed a true story even though its description reads like an fictional adventure. But that is what caught my attention with this one... Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff is a story that sounds so amazing that it's hard to believe it's true... but it is...

In 1945, twenty-four American servicemen and women boarded a plane to see “Shangri-La,” a beautiful valley deep within Dutch New Guinea. But when the plane crashed, only three pulled through to battle for survival.

Emotionally devastated and badly injured, the trio faced certain death. Caught between spear-carrying tribesmen and enemy Japanese, they trekked down the jungle-covered mountainside and straight into superstitious natives rumored to be cannibals.

Drawn from interviews, Army documents, photos, diaries, and original film footage, Lost in Shangri-La recounts this true-life adventure for the first time. Mitchell Zuckoff reveals how the trio traversed the jungle; how brave Filipino-American paratroopers risked their lives to save the survivors; how a native leader protected the Americans; and how a cowboy colonel attempted an untried rescue mission to get them out.

From the excerpt of Lost in Shangri-La that I read, Mitchell Zuckoff does a great job holding your attention. His style of writing wasn't sensationalizing, but factual with the added creative style a good writer has. And what a story! Lost in a jungle with cannibals?! A rescue mission equally as dangerous?! This is definitely one on my TBR list! It has gotten quite a lot of praise since its release late in April and for people who think WW II stories are all dried up... think again!

The Sunday Salon... What's New Pussycat? or Books with Buzz!

2011-05-15T10:53:00.010-04:00

Welcome to the Sunday Salon! Grab a cup of joe, sit back and relax! It's the day of the week where we get together to chat about all the bookish things we've read, seen and done! This week was Read Like a Mother Week at Chick with Books, where we reviewed and highlighted books books that showcase women in the rolls of mothers, sisters or just simply friends, and,in the case of The Guardian by Margaret Mallory, lovers! Fiction (and nonfiction) that showcases women. Today I thought we'd finish up the week with some other great reading that isn't necessarily all about us girls...

Check out these great reads that I found in my travels this week... Of course those travels weren't to a bookstore this week. Alas my local bookstore has finally shut its doors. Yes, my local bookstore was a Borders. Now I'll be traveling a bit farther to get the feel of a real book in my hands when it comes to bookstores, but there is an independent bookstore I just love that I don't get to visit as often as I like and I look forward to driving off to visit it more often now. So, here are some great Books with Buzz...

Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks... from the author's website: "Geraldine Brooks takes a remarkable shard of history and brings it to vivid life. In 1665, a young man from Martha’s Vineyard became the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College. Upon this slender factual scaffold, Brooks has created a luminous tale of love and faith, magic and adventure. The narrator of Caleb’s Crossing is Bethia Mayfield, growing up in the tiny settlement of Great Harbor amid a small band of pioneers and Puritans. Restless and curious, she yearns after an education that is closed to her by her sex. As often as she can, she slips away to explore the island’s glistening beaches and observe its native Wampanoag inhabitants. At twelve, she encounters Caleb, the young son of a chieftain, and the two forge a tentative, secret friendship that draws each into the alien world of the other. Bethia’s minister father tries to convert the Wampanoag, awakening the wrath of the island’s strongest pawaaw, against whose ritual magic he must test his own beliefs. One of his projects becomes the education of Caleb, and a year later, Caleb is in Cambridge, studying Latin and Greek among the colonial elite. Bethia, also in Cambridge at the behest of her imperious elder brother, finds herself enmeshed in Caleb’s fate as he crosses between cultures."

What really caught my attention with Caleb's Crossing was the thought of being immersed in a story that would take me to a time and place virtually untouched by civilization, a landscape that was pure and in which we could enjoy the discovery of it's secrets as Bethia, our heroine, explores it's riches, which include a culture unfamiliar to her and how her friend Caleb finds his place in her world. Geraldine Brooks is a master at creating wonderful stories from pieces of history, and I can't wait to dive into this one!

The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon... It is 1968. Lynnie, a young white woman with a developmental disability, and Homan, an African American deaf man, are locked away in an institution, the School for the Incurable and Feebleminded, and have been left to languish, forgotten. Deeply in love, they escape, and find refuge in the farmhouse

of Martha, a retired schoolteacher and widow. But the couple is not alone-Lynnie has just given birth to a baby girl. When the authorities catch up to them that same night, Homan escapes into the darkness, and Lynnie is caught. But before she is forced back into the institution, she whispers two words to Martha: "Hide her." And so begins the 40-year epic journey of Lynnie, Homan, Martha, and baby Julia-lives divided by seemingly insurmountable obstacles, yet drawn together by a secret pact and extraordinary love.

This sounds like an amazing story. What further convinced me to put this in the TBR pile was part of a Publisher's Weekly review that said...

"Although their stories diverge and unfold independently of one another, memories of their short time together sustain them for more than 40 years..."

I love stories where we hear the story from two characters separate from each other. And my heart tugged at the notion that their "memories of their time together sustained them for 40 years." A love story, a story that shows that love isn't restricted to people with disabilities, and an adventure all wrapped up in one make this a must read for me!

The Lake by Banana Yoshimoto... From Publisher's Weekly: Yoshimoto delves into an elusive romance between an artist and a

student, each of whom bears scars from unusual upbringings, in this clever, off-beat novel. The 30-year-old narrator earns a modest living as a mural painter in Tokyo, supported by her businessman father whom she sees only occasionally since the death of her mother; her parents never married, as her mother was a Mama-san of a nightclub, her father the devoted customer, and his family dead-set against the match, seeding a deep sense of shame and inadequacy in the girl. Presently, she has befriended a curious young man, Nakajima, who begins to sleep over at her place, though chastely. A student in an advanced program of genetics, he hints at terrible secrets in his childhood, which are gradually revealed after the two visit Nakajima's very strange friends in the countryside, and it's revealed that Nakajima had been kidnapped as a boy by a cult and brainwashed. Unsettling as Nakajima's story is, the narrator has grown to cherish him and must decide if their uncommon connection—not passionate, but comforting and near-maternal—will bring lasting happiness.

Banana Yoshimoto is a wildly popular Japanese author, who I discovered while reading for the Japanese Literature Challenge. Her books are often short, amazingly wonderful stories with quirky characters. As a fan of Japanese literature, it's a treat when an author is translated for us, and this should be welcomed by fans of the author as well as anyone who enjoys a good story. This has gotten a lot of great buzz since it publication at the beginning of this month! It's coming my way, so keep a look out for a review soon. BTW, A portion of the sale of this book will go to Japanese Disaster Relief.

Weekly Recap... We started this weeks theme of "Read Like a Mother" Monday with Two Kisses for Maddy by Matt Logelin, the heartfelt memoir of Matt Logelin, who lost his wife, Liz, 27 hours after the birth of their daughter Maddy, from a pulmonary embolism. Matt's story is one of learning how to be a single dad at the same time as becoming a widow. Originally he poured out his heart on a blog he created after Liz's death. Wednesday, I highlighted Ann Brasheres, a favorite author of mine who gave us the wonderful story of 4 young girls, their friendship, their coming-of-age story, and their shared pair of magical jeans. The story of course is The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, which became 4 books, and now 10 years later those friends have grown up and we can revisit them in Ann's new book Sisterhood Everlasting! Thursday this week brought the sexier side of women, with a review AND GIVEAWAY of The Guardian by Margaret Mallory! Men in kilts, history, adventure and ROMANCE await ye in this wonderful book by Margaret Mallory! Don't miss your chance to win a copy! Follow the link above to enter! Friday's First Lines gave us a sneak peek at Wallflower by Holly-Jane Rahlens. The novel is set during the fall of the Berlin Wall. It's "Wallflower is four hours in the life of Molly Lenzfeld, sixteen-year-old New Yorker in Berlin." After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Molly decides to visit her mother's birth house in East Berlin, that's when she meets Mick & the Berlin no one really knows..." This is on my reading table right now. Holly-Jane Rahlens writing is fresh & the story is entertaining. I'll be righting my review for it soon...

That's how my reading week was, how was yours?? What great books have you discovered this week?! Share them so the rest of us can enjoy them too! I hope you found something to pique your reading curiosity here today! And I hope you enjoyed Read Like a Mother Week! Take care and Happy Reading... Suzanne

First Lines... Wallflower by Holly-Jane Rahlens

2011-05-13T18:02:00.003-04:00

The Wall's down and I'm stuck. It's always been like that. Not the Wall, of course. It only fell two weeks ago. But me. I've always been stuck. In a crack. And I can't get out. If someone ever decided to make a movie about my life, they'd call it The Girl Who Lived in a Crack...

Wallflower by Holly-Jane Rahlens: A Novel Set During The Fall of the Berlin Wall

The Guardian by Margaret Mallory... Blog Tour, Review and GIVEAWAY!

2011-05-12T13:36:00.000-04:00

I just love the writing of Margaret Mallory! She never, and I really mean it, never disappoints me! Her characters are made up of strong women, hunky guys and stories that sweep you off your feet into a time and place that are so well described that you feel that you've lived there all your life... History and romance blended into a perfect dish!

How fortunate for us girls that Margaret has written another great romance! The Guardian by Margaret Mallory brings together...

Four fearless warriors returning to the Highlands to claim their lands and legacies. But all their trials on the battlefield can't prepare them for their greatest challenge yet: winning the hearts of four willful Scottish beauties."

PASSION IGNITED

After years of fighting abroad, Ian MacDonald comes home to find his clan in peril. To save his kin, he must right the wrongs from his past . . . and claim the bride he's long resisted.

As a young lass, Sìleas depended on Ian to play her knight in shining armor. But when his rescue attempt compromised her virtue, Ian was forced to marry against his wishes. Five years later, Sìleas has grown from an awkward girl into an independent beauty who knows she deserves better than the reluctant husband who preferred war to his wife. Now this devilishly handsome Highlander is finally falling in love. He wants a second chance with Sìleas - and he won't take no for an answer.

The Guardian by Margaret Mallory is humorous, sexy and truly a story you'll long remember after the last page, dripping with romance! I loved Sileas, who created a life for herself despite her childhood crush, Ian, who never thought twice about taking her into his arms until 5 years later when he is left speechless as he comes home to find the most gorgeous woman living in his house- and who happens to be his WIFE! The four warrior boys, who grew to men are a wonderful part of the story, showing their coming of age in a time of war and clan politics. Their relationships among themselves helped define Ian, and give us a sense of time and place where Margaret set her story. It's also so much fun watching the boys try and figure out women!

If you love a man in kilts (how can ye not?!) you have to pick up this book! If you are familiar with Margaret Mallory's other romance series, All The Kings Men, you will love the characters and setting just as much in The Guardian, which is the first book in her new series, Return of the Highlanders.

About the Author... Margaret Mallory surprised her friends and family by abandoning her legal career—and her steady job—to write novels. At long last, she can satisfy her passion for justice by punishing the bad and rewarding the worthy—in the pages of her novels, of course. She lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her husband and their two college-age children. Want to know a little more? Learn how Margaret became a writer at her author profile on Hachette's website!

You can find more about the author at Margaret Mallory's website, read an excerpt of The Guardian!, AND enter to win one

of three copies of The Guardian courtesy of Hachette Books! Here's how to enter...

* Let's all get in a little romance in this summer! All you need to do to enter is leave a comment with your email address!

* If you want to Tweet or Blog about the giveaway, that's great too! You'll get a bonus entry for spreading the word! Just leave me a link to where you tweeted or blogged!

This giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents only (No PO boxes). The books will be shipped to the winners directly from the publisher. Contest ends 11:59pm EST on May 29th. I will randomly pick the winners the next day and email them! (please check your email.. winner must reply to me within 3 days! Thanks!) Good Luck!

I want to thank Brianne of Hachette Book Group for sending along a copy of The Guardian to review! Today's post is also part of Margaret Mallory's Blog Tour for The Guardian!

Ann Brasheres and Sisterhood Everlasting... The Next Chapter in the Sisterhood Saga!

2011-05-11T05:40:00.003-04:00

Ann Brashares Gets it! She writes with such beauty about the emotions of young girls. I'm referring to her books in the series of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, which took us into the friendship of four young girls, Tibby, Lena, Carmen, and Bridget, and their "coming-of-age", with all the excitement & confusion that goes along with all that, including finding love and heartache in almost the same breathe. I loved the time I shared with those girls and when I closed the book on the final chapter, it was bittersweet...

Then the other day I found a wonderful surprise in the mail from Random House! "The next chapter in the beloved Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants saga"! Yes, this coming June (June 14th to be exact) Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares will be released! It's the girls 10 years later! Can you believe it has been 10 years since The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was published!?! Here's the blurb about Sisterhood Everlasting from Random House...

Ann Brashares comes the welcome return of the characters whose friendship became a touchstone for a generation. Now Tibby, Lena, Carmen, and Bridget have grown up, starting their lives on their own. And though the jeans they shared are long gone, the sisterhood is everlasting.

Despite having jobs and men that they love, each knows that something is missing: the closeness that once sustained them. Carmen is a successful actress in New York, engaged to be married, but misses her friends. Lena finds solace in her art, teaching in Rhode Island, but still thinks of Kostos and the road she didn’t take. Bridget lives with her longtime boyfriend, Eric, in San Francisco, and though a part of her wants to settle down, a bigger part can’t seem to shed her old restlessness.

Then Tibby reaches out to bridge the distance, sending the others plane tickets for a reunion that they all breathlessly await. And indeed, it will change their lives forever—but in ways that none of them could ever have expected.

As moving and life-changing as an encounter with long-lost best friends, Sisterhood Everlasting is a powerful story about growing up, losing your way, and finding the courage to create a new one.

If you haven't read the original series yet, READ IT! And I am so excited to be opening up the next chapter in the lives of Tibby, Lena, Carmen and Bridget! You will be too! So, have you read The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants? Did you have a favorite book in the series? A favorite character? This weekend for Mother's Day Ann Brashares wrote about Motherhood and the writing of her Sisterhood books in The Wall Street Journal. Here's the link: Creating a New 'Pants'—And a New Baby. It's a fitting touch to "Read like a Mother Week" on Chick with Books! Keep your eyes out for my review...

Memoir Monday... Two Kisses for Maddy by Matt Logelin

2011-05-09T19:08:00.001-04:00

Our first book for "Read Like a Mother week" is a Memoir, Two Kisses for Maddy by Matt Logelin, which is a love story and the story of the devastating loss of new mom & wife of Matt, Liz, just 27 hours after the birth of her daughter. Matt poured his heart out in a blog, which became an amazing support system for him. When I read about this book, without even turning the pages I teared up. Here's the blurb from the publishers, Hachette...

Matt and Liz Logelin were high school sweethearts. After years of long-distance dating, the pair finally settled together in Los Angeles, and they had it all: a perfect marriage, a gorgeous new home, and a baby girl on the way. Liz's pregnancy was rocky, but they welcomed Madeline, beautiful and healthy, into the world on March 24, 2008.

Just twenty-seven hours later, Liz suffered a pulmonary embolism and died instantly, without ever holding the daughter whose arrival she had so eagerly awaited. Though confronted with devastating grief and the responsibilities of a new and single father, Matt did not surrender to devastation; he chose to keep moving forward-- to make a life for Maddy.

In this memoir, Matt shares bittersweet and often humorous anecdotes of his courtship and marriage to Liz; of relying on his newborn daughter for the support that she unknowingly provided; and of the extraordinary online community of strangers who have become his friends. In honoring Liz's legacy, heartache has become solace.

Matt still has a blog, and in Liz's memory he has created The Liz Logelin Foundation, which is a foundation that offers support and financial assistance to young widows and widowers with dependent children. This is definitely one book on my reading list and a perfect memoir for a week in which we celebrate Mothers!

Two Kisses for Maddy by Matt Logelin is available now from your favorite bookstore! And it's Kindle Ready!

The Sunday Salon... Read Like a Mother!

2011-05-08T18:57:00.000-04:00

Happy Mother's Day! To all the Mother's, Grandmother's, Daughters, Sisters, Aunts, and girlfriends this day is YOUR day! No matter if you've given birth, as women we are nurturers. We are born with the innate ability to comfort, show empathy, and know when just a smile is needed. So this day is for all the women out there who are mothers and for the women out there that we appreciate even if they aren't our mothers. I'm going to spend today with my Mom, who is an extraordinary woman, giving of herself not just to me, but to the people she helps as a volunteer every day. So, Happy Mother's Day!

Today's Sunday Salon is just a stepping stone for this week. In honor of Mother's Day, I'm having a week of "Read Like a Mother", or books that showcase women in the rolls of mothers, sisters or just simply friends. Fiction (and nonfiction) that showcases women.

So enjoy your day! And come back on Monday for our first "Read Like a Mother" book!

The Midwife's Confession by Diane Chamberlain... A Review

2011-05-07T05:16:00.001-04:00

Dear Anna,

What I have to tell you is difficult to write, but I know it will be far more difficult for you to hear, and I'm so sorry…

The unfinished letter is the only clue Tara and Emerson have to the reason behind their close friend Noelle's suicide. Everything they knew about Noelle—her calling as a midwife, her passion for causes, her love for her friends and family—described a woman who embraced life.

Yet there was so much they didn't know.

With the discovery of the letter and its heartbreaking secret, Noelle's friends begin to uncover the truth about this complex woman who touched each of their lives—and the life of a desperate stranger—with love and betrayal, compassion and deceit...

What can I say about The Midwife's Confession by Diane Chamberlain other than it is a wonderful story full of mother's & daughters, friends & lovers, and long held secrets. I read A LOT and yet I found something very special in this book. The story invited me in, the characters welcomed me with their deepest thoughts, and the mystery of why one of three close friends kills herself unfolded before my eyes. The Midwife's Confession was such a pleasure to read. Almost immediately I was drawn into the story and I didn't put it down until I was done.

Tara, Emerson and Noelle are close friends, who've known each other since the beginning of college. The story begins with the suicide of Noelle, and opens with Noelle saying farewell to the world around her. When Emerson discovers Noelle dead, the investigation into why she would do something like that begins. What unfolds are long held secrets that will change the lives of the women left behind. And did I want to know what those secrets were, because after reading the first chapter I wanted to know why a person so appreciative of the world around her would say goodbye.

"Lifting her arm, she outlined the circle of the moon with her fingertip. Felt her eyes burn. I love you, world, she whispered.

I also enjoyed the way the novel was put together - Diane Chamberlain tells us the story through the voices of the main women in alternating chapters - Noelle, Tara, Emerson, plus a couple of others. The story unfolds as each woman puts forward a little piece of the puzzle. There is a satisfying twist at the end to boot. This would make a great book club selection too! Diane Chamberlain really touches on quite a few issues, including are we the sum of our actions or are we left to be defined by a single action.

If you enjoy stories involving women's friendships, a good mystery and good writing, this is the book for you! Book clubs make a note of this title too!

I want to thank the publisher for sending along a copy for review! I thoroughly enjoyed The Midwife's Confession! And, it's available from your local bookstore right now!

First Lines... Dead by Midnight by Carolyn Hart

2011-05-06T06:02:00.004-04:00

"Glen Jamison looked every one of his fifty-two years, his fair hair flecked with silver, his aristocratic face mournful, his six-foot-two frame too thin. He hunched at the desk in his study and felt a sense of panic, like the beginnings of a fire flickering at his feet then billowing to an inferno..."
Dead by Midnight by Carolyn Hart ( a Death in Demand Mystery! On Sale Now!)

Memoir Monday... What There is to Say We Have Said by Suzanne Marrs

2011-05-02T21:41:00.007-04:00

What There Is to Say We Have Said: The Correspondence of Eudora Welty and William Maxwell by Suzanne Marrs... Here's what Publisher's Weekly wrote: While Welty and her New Yorker editor Maxwell were contemporaries, he 34, she 33 when they first met at a New York literary party in 1942, they seemed to be virtual opposites. He was a devoted family man; she was a loner. His nearly 200 letters to her divulged his entire personality; among the surviving letters, Welty omitted any reference to the love of her life, married crime novelist Ross Macdonald. But Welty and Maxwell recognized from the get-go that they were kindred spirits. The correspondence of this volume, gracefully edited and annotated by Welty's biographer Marrs, takes off in 1951, when the New Yorker began to publish Welty's fiction. Maxwell was an accomplished writer, too, and in these unfailingly cozy letters, which take us up to the 1990s into his old age, the pair discuss not only their work together and apart, but the orchids they loved, their day-to-day lives, and the writers they admired, from Virginia Woolf and Dylan Thomas to J.D. Salinger. Both correspondents were blessed with personality-plus, mirrored in these letters.

This book really caught my attention because we can really see these authors for more than their fiction by opening up the pages of this book. Unlike love letters, the letters between Welty and Maxwell show the burgeoning friendship of these two people over the course of almost 40 years! And while their friendship grows it's as if we are part of that correspondence, getting an intimate look at life and pursuits, and just the everyday banter usually saved for the best of friends. But other than the intimate look at Welty and Maxwell, the letter writing itself should be wonderful as well due to the fact that these two are amazing writers! If we were to This is on my wish list!

The Sunday Salon... Books to Movies Part 2

2011-05-01T19:21:00.008-04:00

Welcome to the Sunday Salon! It's the day of the week where we can get together and chatabout all the bookish things we did this past week! It finally turned into Spring in Connecticut! May 1st has given us blue skies and warm weather! I've been spending timeoutside fusing with the garden, getting ready for the hummingbirds. But there's some great things to do inside these days and great things to come! What am I talking about?! Why some of our favorite books coming to the big screen! Time to see how it all plays out on film! Do you read the book before seeing the movie? I always try to do that, because once I see it on the big screen I tend to not want to read the book. Let's talk about bookadaptations today!

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen... It's finally here! The movie we've all been waiting for! I am patiently waiting for a couple of my friends to finish the book so we can all enjoy a girls night out with Rosie the Elephant (ok, Robert Pattison isn't such a bad excuse to go either)! The scenery from the trailers looks just as I would have pictured it, and I have high hopes for the total package. It has gotten great reviews so far. A friend of mine did say that it's not an exact blue print of the movie, generally that is what happens, but she enjoyed it immensely! Have you seen Water for

Elephants yet?

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins... Readers have plenty of time to read this trilogy, or at least the first book that the movie is based on! The release date for this futuristic YA novel is March 23, 2012! Ok, I must be the only one who has not read this series yet and I WILL read it before seeing it on the big screen! Have you read the books yet? Are you looking forward to the movie?

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan... This Pulitzer Prize winning book is being adapted for the little screen! HBO has optioned this book for a series. A Visit from the Goon Squad is a novel of interconnected stories and this series should be very interesting. "The sprawling bookcovers three decades in the lives of its characters, opening in the 1980’s San Francisco punk rock scene. Egan uses unorthodox writing methods to tell her story, with different characters and stories interwoven throughout the book." I've had this book on my wish list for a while, and I guess it's about time to crack the spine on this one. The book has gotten rave reviews ever since being released June of last year. Have you read this one? Seems to me this would make a great TV series in the right hands.

Other books to movies coming soon... The Help by Kathryn Stockett. This is scheduled to be released August 12th. I am a bit leary about seeing this one. The book was so wonderful, I just can't imagine the big screen adaptation meeting all my expectations. We'll have to wait and see. I felt the same way about the movie adaptation of The Time Travelers Wife and was pleasantly surprised to find that I really enjoyed it. Any thoughts

on this one? Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer (Part 1) will be coming our way November 18th, 2011. They are breaking this up into 2 parts, with part 2 coming ONE YEAR LATER! And if you really want to look ahead, in 2013 Pride Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahme-Smith will be coming your way onto the big screen! Natalie Portman is to play Elizabeth Bennett, and casting is going on now for the rest of the players. This may be fun. I do have the graphic novel in my TBR pile as we speak.

Weekly Recap... This weeks Memoir Monday highlighted Dreams in a Time of War by Ngugu waThiong'O. A coming-of-age story about the author growing up in Africa, it's such a nice departure from all the celebrity tell-all memoirs flooding the local bookstores. Ngugu wa Thion'O is a acclaimed writer of fiction, and has gotten such praise for the wonderful writing in his own story. Friday's First Lines highlighted The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente. I love the title and the YA fantasy sounds like a wonderful adventure tale sprinkles with plenty of sci-fi! AND GIVEAWAY UPDATE... There is still a few more days to enter to win Song of The Silk Road by Mingmei Yip! I loved this book and you can read all The Giveaway and The Book by clicking on the links!

How was your reading week?! Any good books you'd like to share? I'd love to hear about them! And what do you think about your favorite books being adapted to the big (and little) screen? Do you like seeing how your favorite book comes to life before your eyes?

Take care and Happy reading... Suzanne

First Lines... The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland

2011-04-29T16:51:00.005-04:00

"Once upon a time, a girl named September grew very tired indeed of her parents' house, where she washed the same pink-and-yellow teacups and matching gravy boats every day, slept on the same embroidered pillow, and played with the same small and amiable dog. Because she had been born in May, and because she had a mole on her left cheek, and because her feet were very large and ungainly, the Green Wind took pity on her and flew to her window one evening just after her twelfth birthday..."

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente with illustrations by Ana Juan being released May 10th, 2011!

Originally this was a fictional book within a book! In Catherynne M. Valente's book The Palimpsest. "a part of the protagonist’s childhood, a strange novel for children written in the 1920s, about a young girl spirited away to Fairyland by the Green Wind, and her adventures there..." People began asking if the book existed, and finally much to everyone's delight Catherynne wrote it! The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland also won the 2009 Nebula/Andre Norton award for best children's literature (this is a scifi/fantasy award). I recently received an Advanced Reading Copy of this book in the mail and am so excited to read it! The illustrations are beautiful that head each chapter too! Expect a review soon...

Memoir Monday presents... Dreams in a Time of War by Ngugi wa Thiong'O

2011-04-25T06:19:00.000-04:00

With so many celebrity "tell alls" in the memoir department, sometimes lesser known memoirists get lost in the crowd. When I stumbled upon Dreams in a Time of War by Ngugu wa Thiong'O , first the cover caught my eye, and then the title. I vaguely remembered the author - one of his books,The River Between is on my wish list. The description of Dreams in a Time of War reads like one of Ngugi wa Thiong'O's novels. Here's what Publisher's Weekly writes about Dreams in a Time of War...

Celebrated African author and activist Thiong'O tells no ordinary coming-of-age tale. The fifth child of his father's third wife—one of an extended family whose collective experiences range from rural farming and carpentry to WWII rifleman—Ngugi skillfully recounts the challenges and calamities of growing up in British-occupied Kenya. Born in 1938, he recalls a boyhood framed by his pursuit of education (he had a unspoken pact with his mother to always do his best) and by his developing awareness of nationalist politics. Through teachers and local storytellers he hears of such world figures as Winston Churchill, Jomo Kenyatta, and Jesse Owens; at home he eventually discovers that within his own family there are both Mau Mau rebels and colonial sympathizers. Tensions between tradition and modernity, a theme Ngugi explored in his first novel, 1964's Weep Not Child), become apparent in his fascination with the Old Testament and Christianity, and his fear when he is interrogated by military authorities. For readers, sequential time surrenders to a sense of narrative and an engaging humanity.

This sounds so interesting to me, and could give us a feeling for growing up in a world so different from the one we enjoy in The States. Have you read this one yet?

Song of The Silk Road by Mingmei Yip... Review & Giveaway!

2011-04-22T21:45:00.005-04:00

Song of The Silk Road by Minmei Yip... As a girl growing up in Hong Kong, Lily Lin was captivated by photographs of the desert - its long, lonely vistas and shifting sand dunes. Now living in New York, Lily is struggling to finish her graduate degree when she receives an astonishing offer. An aunt she never knew existed will pay Lily a huge sum to travel across China's desolate Taklamakan Desert - and carry out a series of tasks along the way. Intrigued, Lily accepts. Her assignments range from the dangerous to the bizarre. Lily must seduce a monk. She must scrape a piece of clay from the famous Terracotta Warriors, and climb the Mountains of Heaven to gather a rare herb...

What would you do if someone offered you three million dollars to go on an adventure? Lily Lin was suspicious, but also a poor struggling writer, so she decided to pack her bags and escape. Her life in New York was a tedious low paying job, a married lover and frustration over writing her "novel of a lifetime", so China's infamous Silk Road was a dream come true for her. And what an adventure it was!

In Song of The Silk Road, Mingmei Yip seduces you by painting such an exotic landscape, and whisking you off with Lily Lin into a world filled with mysterious potions and whispers of legends. The novel feels contemporary, with modern day problems and situations, and Lily herself is a bit jaded. But there's a quality to the story, with references to Chinese superstitions and sayings that turns the contemporary into more "traditional".

"In good fortune is always some misfortune, and in misfortune, always some good fortune."

Song of the Silk Road will seduce you with its' exotic landscape, and Mingmei Yip can almost have you feel the sand between your toes, but it is the characters that fill those pages that will have you feverishly reading... Alex, the young vibrant traveler, who saves Lily Lin on more than one occasion and becomes her lover, the herbalist Nop Lor, who mourns the ghosts of his past and who Lily will ultimately set free from his guilt, The Monk who isn't as chaste as one would think, and the village that becomes home and the villagers that become almost family. Each of these people and places play an important part of Lily's journey to the end - and to the money. The predicaments that Lily Lin finds herself in and how she gets her self out of them is also a fun part of the story. And what a twist at the end!

If you love stories filled with adventure in exotic places, a bit of romance and wonderful writing, you need to add Song of The Silk Road to your wish list! I could not put this book down! It's Bridgett Jones Diary meets Memoirs of a Geisha.

Song of The Silk Road is available right now at your local bookstore! Would you like a chance to win a copy?! Courtesy of Kensington Publishing I am giving away one copy of Song of The Silk Road to one lucky Chick with Books reader! Here's how to enter...

To Enter this Giveaway...

*For one entry leave me a comment with your email address!

*Get an extra entry for following my blog! Just leave a comment letting me know you're a follower! ( Not a follower yet? No problem, sign up by clicking on the 'followers" button on the sidebar to the left! Just let me know you became a new follower!)

*Blog or tweet about this giveaway and leave me the link.

This giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents only (No PO boxes). The books will be shipped to the winners directly from the publisher. Contest ends 11:59pm EST on May 3rd, 2011. I will randomly pick the winners the next day and email them! Good Luck!

First Lines...

2011-04-22T21:30:00.004-04:00

"Once upon a time there were twelve Princesses...
My voice surprises me. It's perfectly steady, the voice of a normal mother on a normal day-- as though everything is just the same as it always was...."

The Soldiers Wife by Margaret Leroy, coming June 28th, 2011

When I opened up this book and started reading it to get a feel for it, I could hardly pull myself away. The story completely drew me in, and Margaret Leroy's writing was beautiful. I can't wait to devote my full attention to it and give you my full review!

Memoir Monday... Endgame by Frank Brady

2011-04-18T18:36:00.004-04:00

Endgame by Frank Brady... Endgame is acclaimed biographer Frank Brady’s decades-in-the-making tracing of the meteoric ascent—and confounding descent—of enigmatic genius Bobby Fischer. Only Brady, who met Fischer when the prodigy was only 10 and shared with him some of his most dramatic triumphs, could have written this book, which has much to say about the nature of American celebrity and the distorting effects of fame. Drawing from Fischer family archives, recently released FBI files, and Bobby’s own emails, this account is unique in that it limns Fischer’s entire life—an odyssey that took the Brooklyn-raised chess champion from an impoverished childhood to the covers of Time, Life and Newsweek to recognition as “the most famous man in the world” to notorious recluse.

At first all one noticed was how gifted Fischer was. Possessing a 181 I.Q. and remarkable powers of concentration, Bobby memorized hundreds of chess books in several languages, and he was only 13 when he became the youngest chess master in U.S. history. But his strange behavior started early. In 1972, at the historic Cold War showdown in Reykjavik, Iceland, where he faced Soviet champion Boris Spassky, Fischer made headlines with hundreds of petty demands that nearly ended the competition. It was merely a prelude to what was to come...

Anyone who lived during the 70's would remember the infamous Fischer-Spassky match. And then the spotlight turned from the monumental match and Fischer winning it to Fischer himself, and his train wreck of a life. How interesting to be able to get a real peak at what makes up the man from someone who knew him so intimately.

The Sunday Salon... Do You Do Poetry?

2011-04-17T12:09:00.009-04:00

Welcome to the Sunday Salon! This is the day during the week where we get together and talk books! So grab a cup of joe, find a comfy chair and relax! What bookish things have you been doing this week?

Did you know that April is National Poetry Month? Do you read poetry? As a Reader when we think of buying a book, do we think, "Hey, I wond

er what just came out in poetry this week?" Probably now. As much as we might enjoy the occasional poem, do you we read poems regularly? I know I'm guilty of neglecting poetry books. When I listened to the audiobook of The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova, the poet Czeslaw Milosz is mentioned and I was curious to learn more about him. What I discovered was some great poetry and an amazing history behind a poet that won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Every once in a while I'll get in the mood for poetry and wander into that section of the bookstore, but if I don't read something about a particular poet, or am not motivated in some other way, poetry is not first on my list for a visit to the bookstore. How about you?

Where do you start with poetry books? Emily Dickinson? Robert Frost? But what about poets you're not familiar with?! How do you discover those poets? One answer is poetry anthologies. Of course, this is also subjective. The editor is choosing their favorites more or less. But itis a good place to start. Here are a few of the poetry books on my shelf...

She Walks in Beauty, A Woman's Journey Through Poems selected by Caroline Kennedy... Caroline Kennedy has once again marshaled the gifts of our greatest poets to pay a very personal tribute to the human experience, this time to the complex and fascinating subject of womanhood. Inspired by her own reflections on more than fifty years of life as a young girl, a woman, a wife, and a mother, She Walks in Beauty draws on poetry's eloquent wisdom to ponder the many joys and challenges of being a woman. Kennedy has divided the collection into sections that signify to her the most notable milestones, passages, and universal experiences in a woman's life, and she begins each of these sections with an introduction in which she explores and celebrates the most important elements of life's journey.

I heard Caroline chatting about her new book on the radio, and it sounded so wonderful. Poems that reflect what it means to be a woman. Things that touch our hearts. Love, break-ups, motherhood, etc. Something else struck me during the interview too- Caroline said one of the traditions that her mother, Jacqueline Kennedy started was to give poems as gifts. When Carloline would ask her mother what she wanted for her birthday, she would answer, "Give me a poem." I'll be reviewing this book later in the month for National Poetry Month, but suffice it to say, it is a wonderful collection of poems and a nice variety of poets.

Poems to Read, A New Favorite Poem Project Anthology edited by Robert Pinsky and Maggie Dietz... The Favorite Poem Project was founded by Pinsky in 1997 during his tenure as poet laureate. Some 18,000 respondents sent letters or e-mails about their favorite poems, which resulted in the anthology America's Favorite Poems and several videos. This new anthology includes poems selected by Favorite Poem Project participants and their personal comments. But it also includes poems chosen by the editors, along with their brief remarks. Although mainly populated by famous English and American poets (Chaucer, Shakespeare, Coleridge, Housman, Dickinson, Frost, Ginsberg, Ashbery), the book has many surprises, like Abraham Lincoln and the Nicaraguan poet Rub n Dario. This landmark publication belongs on the shelves of every library in America. Highly recommended for the breadth of its coverage and the depth of its commentaries.

I thought this was an interesting book because the poems selected were favorite poems. There's a good variety of poems and poets, and as its descriptions says there is a little blurb at the beginning of most of the poems by the person who submitted to it as to the reason why this is a favorite to them. I think this is a nice tweak.

Good Poems selected and edited by Garrison Keillor... Poetry is a regular feature on Garrison Keillor's NPR radio show A Prairie Home Companion, but for the last five years, it has formed the core of The Writer's Almanac, a daily, five-minute, 7 a.m. show on which Keillor reads a poem. Good Poems selects 350 pieces of verse from among the thousands that have been read on the Almanac for "Stickiness, memorability.... You hear it and a day later some of it is still there in the brainpan." Divided by subject-beginning with "O Lord," moving through "Day's Work," "Sons and Daughters" and through to "The End" and "The Resurrection"-the book includes work by writers past (Burns, Dickinson, Bishop, Williams, Shakespeare) and present: Robert Hass, Lisel Mueller, Tom Disch, among many others.

I love listening to Garrison Keillor on A Prairie Home Companion, and love his reading of poetry on the show. He has a wonderful voice for poetry and always picks great poems. Good Poems are poems meant to be funny, uplifting and poems to just bring a smile to the readers face.

A Child's Book of Poems illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa... William Blake, Kate Greenaway, Emily Dickinson: the writers in this charming anthology of 200 poems—first published in 1969—are among literature’s most beloved. And Gyo Fujikawa’s appealing illustrations depict children of all races sweetly interacting, as well as an engagingly rendered menagerie of animals and the natural world in all its wonderment. Among the verses that children will love are Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “Christmas Bells,” Lewis Carroll’s “The Melancholy Pig,” and Eugene Fields’ “Wynken, Blynken, and Nod,” along with proverbs, limericks, nursery rhymes, and folk songs.

Poetry of course isn't only for adults! But this book could be enjoyed by adults as well as children! The illustrations are beautiful! This would make a wonderful gift for a child in your life too! This was out of print for many years, but luckily it's back for our enjoyment!

Poems are passionate, funny, reflective. What makes poetry powerful is that is expresses these emotions in such a concise form. In only a sparse few lines a poem can move us to tears. We use poems when we exchange vows, we write them to the ones we love, even rap music is poetry. Is poetry more popular than we think? What do you think? Do you read poetry?

Weekly Recap... On Memoir Monday we highlighted In Stitches by Dr. Anthony Youn. A medical school plastic surgery memoir? A coming of age memoir combining plastic surgery and medical school. Thursday was National Poetry in Your Pocket Day! Did you celebrate? You can read all about it at Poets.org. Friday's First Lines gave you a sneak peek at John Sanford's book coming May 10th! It's called Buried Prey, and it's the 21st Prey Book. Saturday I interviewed Mingmei Yip, who's new book Song of the Silk Road, I had the opportunity to read and will be reviewing this coming Saturday! Mingmei Yip shares a bit of herself as an author and artist in her interview.

How was your week? Share what books we should add to our TBR list this week! I love to hear about great books!

Happy Reading... Suzanne

The Sunday Salon...Do You Do Poetry?

2011-04-17T08:35:00.011-04:00

Hey, What happened to this post? Some glitch in the word processing in Blogger, so I had to redo the post, which meant deleting the post. BUT, I didn't want to delete such kind comments by Mason Canyon of Thoughts in Progress and Small World at Home! Thank you for the nice comments on The Sunday Salon! If you're wondering about the post these ladies commented on, you can find it HERE: The Sunday Salon... Do You Do Poetry.

Author Interview with Mingmei Yip...

2011-04-16T05:25:00.002-04:00

I recently had the privilege to read an advance copy of Song of The Silk Road by Mingmei Yip, which is a wonderful book, full of adventure & romance along the famous Silk Road. (Catch my review next Saturday, April 23rd) Mingmei Yip is the author of two other wonderful books that also bring the flavor of the orient wafting through your reading room, Peach Blossom Pavillion and Petals From the Sky.

Today I'd like to welcome Mingmei Yip to Chick with Books, as she shares a little bit of herself with us...

Where do you do most of your writing?

At home. I can’t write at cafes, since most have loud music which is a distraction for me. However if they play classical music, then I stop writing and listen.

Can you tell us something about yourself that not a lot of your readers don’t know?

Besides my hectic writing schedule, that I still manage to take time to perform the Chinese zither (guqin) professionally – last year I was invited by Carnegie Hall to play at its Chinese Music Festival -- and teach calligraphy workshops.

What is your favorite part of the writing process?

After I labor through getting down the first draft, as I polish up my writing, I begin to enjoy my characters and their trials and struggles as they work towards a happy ending. In my writing, I meet people like the Chinese herbalist and blind fortune teller in Song of the Silk Road, whom I might never meet in real life.

What is your daily routine as a writer?

I don’t have a chance to write every day, but when I do, I write eight or nine hours non-stop, then I eat Chinese take-out and fall asleep.

What inspired you to write your first book?

I wanted to bring to back to life the strong women of an earlier era in China when almost the only choices for women were being a wife (actually, one of several wives sharing the same husband), a Buddhist nun -- or a prostitute. Despite this some women overcame the barriers to become independent and creative artists. Some mingji, prestigious prostitutes, also called geishas, left behind poems and paintings providing windows into fascinating but often tragic lives. I decided to give these talented, powerful women -- silent for centuries -- a voice. The result is my first novel Peach Blossom Pavilion, which I’m happy to say, is now in its fifth printing.

If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your latest book?

No. I work on each until it is as good as I know how to make it. Then I move on to the next one.

Thank you Mingmei for stopping by Chick with Books! It was nice to chat with you and learn a little more about you as an author and artist. Readers can learn more about the author at Mingmei Yip's website. And don't forget, Song of the Silk Road is available at your local bookstore right now! Plus, you can read my review next week! (**Hint... I really loved it!)

Do you Prey?...

2011-04-15T05:53:00.000-04:00

The first machines on the site were the wreckers, like steel dinosaurs, plucking and pulling at the houses with jaws that ripped off chimneys, shingles, dormers, and eaves, clapboard and brick and stone and masonry, beams and stairs and balconies and joists, headers and doorjambs. Old dreams, dead ambitions, and lost lives, remembrance roses and spring lilacs, went in the dump trucks all together.

Buries Prey by John Sandford (release date: May 10th, 2011!)

Exciting news for John Sandford Fans with the release of the 21st mystery in the PREY series! Last May, I traveled back in time to 1992 and reviewed Silent Prey as part of the Days of Prey Tour, in which 21 Bloggers each reviewed one of the 20 books in the PREY series. Courtesy of G.P. Putmam Sons I am getting a sneak peak at the new book! Don't worry, I won't make you wait until May to hear all about it! I'll be cracking the spine on this very soon and reviewing it! But just from glancing through it, I think it's going to be nothing less that terrific! Do you Prey? What's your favorite Prey book?

It's National Poem in Your Pocket Day!

2011-04-14T05:27:00.001-04:00

April 14th is National Poem in Your Pocket Day!

The idea is simple: select a poem you love during National Poetry Month then carry it with you to share with co-workers, family, and friends.

Poems from pockets will be unfolded throughout the day with events in parks, libraries, schools, workplaces, and bookstores.

Do you read poetry? Even if poetry isn't something we read on a regular basis, we must all have read a poem, written a love poem, been inspired by the beautiful lines written by a poet. Today is the day to celebrate poetry! In fact, April is National Poetry Month so grab yourself a book of poetry and leisurely enjoy Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson and such contemporaries as Billy Collins and Nikki Giovanni.

So tell me, do you read poetry? What's your favorite poem?

Memoir Mondays... In Stitches by Anthony Youn, M.D.

2011-04-11T18:23:00.004-04:00

In Stitches by Anthony Youn, M.D. ....Scrubs meets David Sedaris in this hilarious fish-out-of-water memoir about a young Korean-American nerd turned renowned plastic surgeon.

Dr. Tony Youn grew up one of two Asian-American kids in a small town where diversity was uncommon. Too tall and too thin, he wore thick Coke-bottle glasses, braces, Hannibal Lecter headgear, and had a protruding jaw that one day began to grow, expanding to an unthinkable, monstrous size. After high school graduation, while other seniors partied at the beach or explored Europe, Youn lay strapped in an oral surgeon’s chair where he underwent a life-changing jaw reconstruction. Ironically, it was this brutal makeover that led him to his life’s calling, and he continued on to endure the four horrific, hilarious, sex-starved, and tension-filled years that eventually earned him an M.D. Offering a window into a side of medicine that most people never see, Youn shares his bumpy journey from a shy, skinny, awkward nerd into a renowned and successful plastic surgeon.

Now, Youn is the media’s go-to plastic surgeon. He appears regularly on The Rachael Ray Show, and his blog, Celebrity Cosmetic Surgery, is widely read and very popular. But it was a long road to success, and In Stitches recounts Dr. Youn’s misfit adolescence and his four tumultuous years in medical school with striking wit, heart, and humility.

For anyone who has ever experienced the awkward teenage years, who has struggled to find his or her way in college, who has been worried that their “calling” would never come, who wants to believe that their doctor really cares, or is just ready for a read that will make you laugh and cry at the same time, this book is for you.

Medical school, plastic surgery, memoir? I had read a little about this book and thought it might be interesting. Who wouldn't be curious at least a little about going to medical school. But what really sold me on this book was Dr. Anthony Youn's YouTube video. His good humor and wit just shines through the almost 4 minutes of book trailer, and I knew then that this would be one enjoyable and funny read! A coming of age kind of story with a scalpel. Since my first reading about In Stitches by Dr. Anthony Youn, I've read quite a few great reviews too! Thanks to the folks at Simon & Schuster, I now have my very own reading copy! So, keep your eyes peeled for my review coming soon! In the meantime, check out Dr. Anthony Youn's YouTube book trailer, and see what you think...

First Lines...

2011-04-08T08:41:00.005-04:00

"The body was blue.
Not merely wearing blue, he was blue -- and not the blue pallor of death. He was sapphire from head to toe, a deep shade of mood indigo."

Shot Through Velvet by Ellen Byerrum,

part of her Crime of Fashion Mystery series

Harry Potter grows up... Digitally

2011-04-06T05:08:00.001-04:00

Have you been waiting patiently to read those Harry Potter books because the thought of carrying around an 800 page tombe, and a YA novel at that, was just too much, and you thought maybe someday J.K. Rowling would relent and allow her books to be published electronically?! Well, your wait may be over! The Scotman is reporting that J.K. Rowling is now considering putting her books in ebook form. This gives a nod to the digital world, and shows us just how important the digital book publishing is becoming.

Professor Claire Squires, director of Stirling University's centre for international publishing and communication, said: "It is akin to the Beatles allowing their music to be launched on iTunes."

If Ms. Rowling does indeed publish Harry in ebook form, there is some internet chatter about how eReader sales will be blowing out the door. What do you think? There certainly won't be any midnight release parties at the local Borders here (or any release parties for that matter), but I'm sure magically through the midnight hours, owls will be delivering ebooks to eReaders everywhere....

Memoir Monday presents... Until Tuesday by Luis Carlos Montalván

2011-04-04T06:29:00.003-04:00

Until Tuesday by Luis Carlos Montalván

"We aren't just service dog and master; Tuesday and I are also best friends. Kindred souls. Brothers. Whatever you want to call it. We weren't made for each other, but we turned out to be exactly what the other needed."

A highly decorated captain in the U.S. Army, Luis Montalván never backed down from a challenge during his two tours of duty in Iraq. After returning home from combat, however, the pressures of his physical wounds, traumatic brain injury, and crippling post-traumatic stress disorder began to take their toll.

Haunted by the war and in constant physical pain, he soon found himself unable to climb a simple flight of stairs or face a bus ride to the VA hospital. He drank; he argued; ultimately, he cut himself off from those he loved. Alienated and alone, unable to sleep or bend over without pain, he began to wonder if he would ever recover.

Then Luis met Tuesday, a beautiful and sensitive golden retriever trained to assist the disabled. Tuesday had lived amongst prisoners and at a home for troubled boys, blessing many lives; he could turn on lights, open doors, and sense the onset of anxiety and flashbacks. But because of a unique training situation and sensitive nature, he found it difficult to trust in or connect with a human being until Luis.

Until Tuesday is the story of how two wounded warriors, who had given so much and suffered the consequences, found salvation in each other. It is a story about war and peace, injury and recovery, psychological wounds and spiritual restoration. But more than that, it is a story about the love between a man and dog, and how together they healed each other's souls.

The Sunday Salon... Spring Reads, Literally!

2011-04-03T11:23:00.011-04:00

Welcome to The Sunday Salon! It is BEAUTIFUL weather finally in Connecticut! I am done with winter! How about you?! We heated up the end of the winter a little this week with some romance, but for the start of Spring, which "officially" came over a week ago (with the prediction of a Nor' easter that didn't quite make it), I thought we would look at "Spring Books"... literally! To get our minds onto Spring, I've gathered together some books with Spring in the title. Not only are these literally spring books, but these are books written by well known authors, that may not be as well known as the books you associate these writers with...

Cold Springs by Rick Riordan... Chadwick’s life was balanced on the edge of a knife — his career, his marriage, his relationship with his dangerously troubled daughter. And then one autumn night, the worst possible thing happened . . . Nearly a decade later, Chadwick’s heart is on the mend. Working for an old military buddy, he now saves kids for a living — escorting troubled teens to a Texas wilderness school that specializes in the toughest brand of love. Until he gets a call that threatens to shatter his new life. Mallory Zedman, the daughter of his oldest friend, is taking the same terrible path Chadwick’s own daughter once took. Defiant and out-of-control, Mallory is determined to destroy herself and anyone who tries to stop her. No sooner does Chadwick snatch her off the streets than he discovers she is wanted for questioning in a brutal murder – a slaying that seems directly linked to Chadwick’s past. To save Mallory, tough love will not be enough. Chadwick must find the truth behind the murder – and in doing so, revisit the infidelities, broken promises, and violent passions that cracked his world apart. From the wealthy enclave of San Francisco’s Pacific Heights to the gang-ruled streets of West Oakland to the stark open spaces of Cold Springs, Texas, Chadwick must race to save not only Mallory, but the one thing he still has left to lose – a slim hope of redemption.

Rick Riordan is off the charts in popularity with his children's books such as the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, and The Kane Chronicles, both of which involve the wonderful world of mythology. But Rick Riordan also writes for adults, and Cold Springs is one of those books. This book is quite a departure from his childrens' books and from his Tres Navarre PI series. Cold Springs is a dark thriller that has gotten the gambit of reviews. The plot is complex and the characters are suppose to make even the reader uncomfortable, but the final kick is suppose tomake it all worthwhile.

Goddess of Spring by P.C. Cast... Lina’s trendy bakery in Tulsa is proving to be less than lucrative, and she must come up with a plan. When she stumbles upon an Italian Goddess cookbook, Lina can’t help but think she’s found the answer to her problem – even if it means invoking a goddess to save her business. Soon enough, Lina finds herself face-to-face with Demeter, who has a plan of her own. She proposes that Lina exchange souls with Persephone, the Goddess of Spring, who will breathe new life into the bakery. In return, Lina must set order to the Underworld. Before all this, Lina’s problems mostly involved sourdough and second dates. Now that she embodies the enchanting Persephone, Lina has weightier things on her mind – like the formidable task of bringing Spring to a world of spirits. But when the handsome, brooding Hades kindles a spark in her heart, Lina wonders if this Lord of the Underworld might be the man of her dreams…

Long before the wildly popular The House of Night YA series, there was the Goddess Summoning series, which "retells ancient myths giving them a sexy, modern twist and introducing heroines to some of the most fantastic heroes the world has ever known." This of course is a romantic fantasy series for adults, and also seems to have a devoted following, although this is the first I've taken a peek at the series. Have you read this yet? The Goddess of Spring is the second in the series, and it's suppose to be the best.

Torrents of Spring by Ernest Hemingway... Set in northern Michigan in the mid-1920s The Torrents of Spring is about two World War I veterans, Yogi Johnson and writer Scripps O'Neill, both of whom work at a pump factory. The story begins with O'Neill returnning home to find that

his wife and small daughter have left him. O'Neill befriends a British waitress, Diana, at a diner and asks her to marry him immediately, but soon becomes disenchanted with her. Diana tries to impress her husband by reading books from the lists of The New York Times Book Reviews but he soon leaves her (as she feared he would) for another waitress, Mandy, who enthralls him with literary (but possibly made up) anecdotes. Johnson, who became depressed after a Parisian prostitute leaves him for a British officer, has a period during which he anguishes over the fact that he doesn't seem to desire any woman at all, even though spring is approaching. Ultimately, he falls in love with a native American woman who enters a restaurant clothed only in mocassins, the wife of one of the two Indians he befriends near the end of the story.

This was Ernest Hemingway's very first novel published in 1926. It was a parody, full of satire and written in ten days for the sole purpose of breaking his contract with publisher Boni and Liveright. It seems Hemingway wanted to sign with the more prestigious publisher Scribner and the only way he could get out of his contract with Boni and Liveright was to write something "so bad" that they wouldn't publish it. This wasn't really the case with Torrents of Spring, that it was "so bad', but because it was a parody of Sherwood Anderson, another author that Boni and Liveright published, the publishers rejected it and thus terminated their contract with Hemingway. Of course Scribner only had 1250 copies of Torrents of Spring published for the first printing, but Scribner remained Hemingway's publisher from then on.

Do you have any Spring books to offer this week?!

Weekly Recap... This week was a week of world travel, time travel, hot romance with a bite or two added by a hot vampyre, and it all started with monday morning coffee at My Korean Deli. This past monday I highlighted My Korean Deli by Ben Ryder Howe in Monday Memoirs. It's the story of the senior editor of The Paris Review, Ben Ryder Howe, turning his life upside down buying a deli for his immigrant in-laws. The story revolves around this deli and the interesting people that he crosses paths with. Then we heated some things up with a review of the Historical Romance Legacy by Jeanette Baker. Mix together a mysterious letter, Scotland, an ancient castle, and ancient curses with romance and a bit of time travel and you've got the recipe for Legacy by Jeanette Baker. I loved it! But you can read my full review by following this link to Legacy. And if vampyre's are more your style, then check out my review of It Happened One Bite by Lydia Dare, which I reviewed thursday on Chick with Books! A bit of Paranormal Historical Romance with an ancient coven of witches, and a handsome vampyre locked away for 20 years in the late 1700's in the Highlands! A great story, great characters and lots of sparks! Then we step over the threshold to China, and 3 generations of women who fight their way back to being a loving and caring family in A Thread of Sky by Deanna Fei. A Thread of Sky made a stop at Chick with Books as part of its Virtual Book Tour with TLC. Deanna Fei does an amazing job showing us the complexities of women's relationships as well as dealing with racism and prejudice. This was a wonderful book, that captured my attention with the well developed characters and interesting story line. The writing itself was beautiful as well. You can read my review by following the link to A Thread of Sky. And what would a week be without a little teaser for fridays First Lines? This week we opened up the pages to Daughters of the River Huong by Uyen Nicole Duong, which is "a richly woven tapestry of family, country, conflict, and redemption. A saga spanning four generations of Vietnamese women, we discover lives inextricably tied to their country’s struggle for independence. Narrated by the teenaged Simone, a girl who flaunts convention and enters into a forbidden relationship of love and sensuality, readers are drawn to the lives of four of Simone’s ancestors, from Huyen Phi, the Mystique Concubine from the extinct Kingdom of Champa, to Ginseng, the Mystique Concubine’s second daughter and a heroine of the Vietnamese Revolution." I just received a review copy in the mail of Daughters of the River Huong, and am so looking forward to continueing the story. I love stories that deal with generations of women and the fabric that ties them together. This looks to be one of those stories that we can wrap our arms around while traveling to a place that will fascinate us as well as sadden us. You can find the beginning of this story at First Lines.

So what are you reading this week? What books caught your eye this past week? Share your great finds right here with all of us! And in the meantime...

Happy reading... Suzanne

First Lines...

2011-04-01T05:50:00.001-04:00

"I turned the key and opened the door to the apartment that was my home.

Christopher must have sent Lucinda home for the weekend. The lacquered clock chimed six thirty as I closed the apartment door behind me, my heels clicking and pivoting on the hardwood. I knew he could have heard my key turn out the lock and then the hush downt the hallway to the vestibule where I stood motionless. Through his library window, the sun must have been paling to rose, the last trace lingering along the glass that separated him from Manhattan's skyline. I know he's been sitting there, waiting for the world to darken completely, his broad back humped in front of the long row of bookshelves."

...Daughters of the River Huong by Uyen Nicole Duong

A Thread of Sky by Deanna Fei... A Virtual Book Tour!

2011-03-31T17:09:00.006-04:00

I love generational stories! Especially those that involve women. A Thread of Sky by Deanna Fei is just that - a story of 6 women, 3 generations and their journey to discover the China that they were born from, but also to discover a part of themselves that was forgotten.

From the Publisher:

When her husband of thirty years is killed in a devastating accident, Irene Shen and her three daughters are set adrift. Nora, the eldest, retreats into her high-powered New York job and a troubled relationship. Kay, the headstrong middle child,
escapes to China to learn the language and heritage of her parents. Sophie, the sensitive and artistic youngest, is trapped at home until college, increasingly estranged from her family—and herself. Terrified of being left alone with her grief, Irene plans a tour of mainland China’s must-sees, reuniting three generations of women—her three daughters, her distant poet sister, and her formidable eighty-year-old mother—in a desperate attempt to heal her fractured family.

If only it were so easy. Each woman arrives bearing secre
ts big and small, and as they travel—visiting untouched sections of the Great Wall and the seedy bars of Shanghai, the beautiful ancient temples and cold, modern shopping emporiums—they begin to wonder if they will ever find the China they seek, the one their family fled long ago.

Over days and miles they slowly find their way toward a new understanding of themselves, of one another, and of the vast complexity of thei
r homeland, only to have their new bonds tested as never before when the darkest, most carefully guarded secret of all spirals to the surface and threatens to tear their family apart forever.
As these six women explore China’s magnificent landmarks and mysteriou
s alleys, gradually unearthing family secrets, they also rediscover something they seem to have forgotten amid their fast-paced lives in America: “Jia—family, house, home. In Chinese, it was all one word.”
Deanna Fei has written a wonderful novel; compl
ex and haunting. The prose is beautiful; the words seeming to float across the page. The characters are well written, and the landscape of their travels is equally well drawn, giving the reader a slight feeling of nostalgia as the contrast of the old against the new are laid across the page. The story its
elf unravels the lives of each of these women as they struggle with their own identities. We are first introduced to each woman as they try to preform their duties as mothers, daughters, sisters and grandmother. When they are thrown together they do struggle, each feeling the need to appear strong and self sufficient. It is only when they slowly let their secrets come tumbling out, when each of them finally lets their guard down, that they start to truly connect with one another. It's a fascinating look at the inter-relationships of women in a family, and the differences between generations.

I really enjoyed reading this! The characters were memorable, as a woman I could relate to some of their insecurities, and the setting was fascinating. Not only would I recommend this to anyone wanting a wonderful book to read, but I would recommend this to reading groups. A Thread of Sky would make a wonderful discussion book, from the way the w
omen interacted with one another, to discussing how the word "family" means different things to different people.

About the Author... Deanna Fei is the author of the novel A Thread of S
ky (Penguin Press, 2010), a New York Times Editors’ Choice and an
Indie Next Notable Book. She was born in Flushing, New York, and has lived in Beijing and Shanghai, China. A graduate of Amherst College and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, she has received a Fulbright Grant, a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship, and a Chinese Cultural Scholarship. She currently lives i
n Brooklyn and is at work on a new novel.

I want to thank TLC Book Tours for sending along a review copy of A Thread of Sky and asking me to participate in Deanna Fei's Virtual Bo
ok Tour! You can learn more about A Thread of Sky, read an excerpt and learn more about Deanna Fei, at Deanna Fei's website.