Friday Finds 11-6-2009

Here are my finds this week!

Beneath Bone Lake by Colleen Thompson

Ruby Monroe knows she's way out of her depth the minute she lays eyes on Sam McCoy. She's been warned to steer clear of this neighbor, the sexy bad boy with a criminal past. But with her four-year-old daughter missing, her home incinerated and her own life threatened by a tattooed gunman, where else can she turn? Drowning in the flood of emotion unleashed by their mind-blowing encounters, Ruby is horrified to learn an unidentified body has been dredged up, the local sheriff is somehow involved, and Sam hasn't told her all he knows. Has she put her trust in the wrong man and jeopardized her very survival by uncovering the secrets... (Amazon)

The Return by Sharon Sala

As a legacy of hatred erupts in a shattering moment of violence, a dying mother entrusts her newborn daughter to a caring stranger…. Now, twenty-five years later, Katherine Fane has come home to Camarune, Kentucky, to bury the woman who raised her, bringing a blood feud to its searing conclusion.

At the cabin in the woods where she was born, Katherine is drawn to the ravaged town and its violent past. But her arrival has not gone unnoticed. A stranger is watching from the woods, a shattered old man is witnessing the impossible, and Sheriff Luke DePriest's only thoughts are to keep Katherine safe from the sleeping past she has unwittingly awoken….(Amazon)

Audrey's Door by Sarah Langan

Some doors lead to all the wrong places.

When budding architect Audrey Lucas abandons her live-in boyfriend for a flat in the Breviary, an architectural landmark on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, her new found freedom comes at a price. Her apartment’s gruesome history includes a deranged mother who drowned her children in the bathroom’s claw-footed tub. Yet ghosts and the strange habits of her eccentric fellow tenants of the building are nothing compared to the horrors she unleashes within herself when, after sleepwalking during torturous dreams, she starts constructing a door in the middle of her living room. (Fresh Fiction)

Library Loot 11-04-2009

I have been spending way too much time at the library recently - the problem is that I have actually been combing back over all my Friday Finds and Waiting on Wednesdays and reserving them!

Library Loot is hosted by Eva at A Striped Armchair and Marg at Reading Adventures.

Black Swan Green by David Mitchell

From award-winning writer David Mitchell comes a sinewy, meditative novel of boyhood on the cusp of adulthood and the old on the cusp of new.

Black Swan Green tracks a single year in what is, for thirteen-year-old Jason Taylor, the sleepiest village in muddiest Worcestershire in a dying Cold War England, 1982. But the thirteen chapters, each a short story in its own right, create an exquisitely observed world that is anything but sleepy. A world of Kissingeresque realpolitik enacted in boys' games on a frozen lake; of "nightcreeping" through the summer backyards of strangers; of the tabloid-fueled thrills of the Falklands War and its human toll; of the cruel, luscious Dawn Madden and her power-hungry boyfriend, Ross Wilcox; of a certain Madame Eva van Outryve de Crommelynck, an elderly bohemian emigre who is both more and less than she appears; of Jason's search to replace his dead grandfather's irreplaceable watch before his parents discover he has smashed it; of first cigarettes, first kisses, first Duran Duran LPs, and first deaths; of Margaret Thatcher's recession; of Gypsies camping in the woods and the hysteria they inspire; and, even closer to home, of a slow-motion divorce in four seasons.

Pointed, funny, profound, left-field, elegiac, and painted with the stuff of life, Black Swan Green is David Mitchell's subtlest and most effective achievement to date. (book jacket)

The House on Tradd Street by Karen White

Practical-minded Realtor Melanie Middleton hates to admit - even to herself - that she can see ghosts. But she's going to have to accept it, because an old man she met just days ago has died, leaving Melanie his historic Tradd Street home, complete with a housekeeper, a dog, and a family of ghosts anxious to tell her something.

Enter Jack Trenholm, a gorgeous writer obsessed with unsolved mysteries. He has reason to believe that some diamonds that went missing from the Confederate treasury a century ago are hidden in Melanie's home. So he decides to charm the new tenant, only to discover that suddenly he is the smitten one.

But it turns out that Jack's search has caught the attention of a possibly malevolent ghostly presence. Now Jack and Melanie need to unravel a mystery of passion, heartbreak, and even murder. And they must hurry. . . for an eveil force - either dead or alive - lies in wait. (Back Cover)

Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall by Kazuo Ishiguro

One of the most celebrated writers of our time gives us his first cycle of short fiction: five brilliantly etched, interconnected stories in which music is a vivid and essential character.

A once-popular singer, desperate to make a comeback, turning from the one certainty in his life. . .A man whose unerring taste in music is the only thing his closest friends value in him. . .A struggling singer-songwriter unwittingly involved in the failing marriage of a couple he's only just met. . .A gifted, underappreciated jazz musician who lets himself believe that plastic surgery will help his career. . .A young cellist whose tutor promises to "unwrap" his talent. . .

Passion or necessity - or the often uneasy combination of the two - determines the place of music in each of these lives. And, in one way or another, music delivers each of them to a moment of reckoning: sometimes comic, sometimes tragic, sometimes just eluding their grasp.

An exploration of love, need, and the ineluctable force of the past, Nocturnes reveals these individuals to us with extraordinary precision and subtlety, and with arresting psychological and emotional detail that has marked all of Kazuo Ishiguro's acclaimed works of fiction. (book jacket)

Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception by Maggie Stiefvater

Sixteen-year-old Deirdre Monaghan is a prodigiously gifted musician. She's about to find out she's also a cloverhand - one who can see faeries.

Unexpectedly, Deirdre finds herself infatuated with a mysterious boy who enters her ordinary life, seemingly out of thin air. Trouble is, the enigmatic and gorgeous Luke turns out to be a gallowglass - a soulless faerie assassin - and his interest in her might be something darker than summer romance. A sinister faerie named Aodhan is also stalking Deirdre. They both carry the same assignment from the Faerie Queen, one that forces Dee right into the midst of Faerie. Caught in the crossfire with Deirdre is James, her wisecracking but loyal best friend.

Deirdre had been wishing her summer weren't so dull, but taking on a centuries-old Faerie Queen isn't exactly what she had in mind. (book cover)

A Great and Terrible Beauty (audio) by Libba Bray (read by Jo Wyatt)

Gemma Doyle isn't like other girls. Girls with impeccable manners, who speak when spoken to, who remember their station, who dance with grace, and who will lie back and think of England when it's required of them.

No, sixteen-year-old Gemma is an island unto herself, sent to the Spence Academy in London after tragedy strikes her family in India. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma finds her reception a chilly one. She's not completely alone, though. . .she's been followed by a mysterious young man, sent to warn her to close her mind against the visions.

For it's at Spence that Gemma's power to attract the supernatural unfolds; there she becomes entangled with the school's most powerful girls and discovers her mother's connection to a shadowy, timeless group called the Order. It's there that her destiny waits. . .if only Gemma can believe in it.

A Great and Terrible Beauty is a curl-up-under-the-covers kind of book. . .a vast canvas of rustling skirts and dancing shadows and things that go bump in the night. It's a vividly drawn portrait of the Victorian age, a time of strict morality and barely repressed sensuality, when girls were groomed for lives as rich men's wives. . .and the story of a girl who saw another way. (back cover)

Woman in Red (audio) by Eileen Goudge (read by Susan Ericksen)

Alice Kessler spent nine years in prison for the attempted murder of the drunk driver who killed her son. Now she's returned home to Gray's Island to reconnect with the son she left behind. Her boy, Jeremy, now a sullen teenager, is wrongly accused of rape, and mother and son are thrown together in a desperate attempt to prove his innocence.

Alice is aided by Colin McGinty, a recovering alcoholic and 9/11 widower, also recently returned to the island in the aftermath of his grandfather's death. Colin's grandfather, a famous artist, is best known for his haunting portrait Woman in Red, which happens to be of Alice's grandmother. IN a tale that weaves the past with the present, we come to know the story behind the portrait, of the forbidden wartime romance between William McGinty and Eleanor Styles, and the deadly secret that bound them more tightly than even their love for each other. A secret that, more than half a century later, is about to be unburied, as Alice and Colin are drawn into a fragile romance of their own and the ghost of an enemy from long ago surfaces in the form of his grandson, the very man responsible for sending Alice to prison. (back cover)

Library Loot is hosted by Eva at A Striped Armchair.

Waiting on Wednesday: A Field Guide to Burying Your Parents

A Field Guide to Burying Your Parents by Liza Palmer

Publisher/Publication Date: 5 Spot, Dec 23, 2009

Grace Hawkes has not spoken to her previously tight-knit family since her mother's sudden death five years ago. Well, most of the family was tight-knit-- her father walked out on them when she was 13 and she and her two brothers and sister bonded together even closer with their mother as a result.

She's been doing her best to live her new life apart from them, but when their estranged father has a stroke and summons them, Grace suddenly realizes she's done the same thing he had done...abandoned those who need her most.

And need her they do, for inside the hospital walls, a strange war is unfolding between the pseudo-kindly woman who is their father's second wife and the rest of the original Hawkes clan. Upon reconnecting with her brother and sisters, Grace will find a part of herself she thought was lost forever. As they unravel the manipulative deception of the second Mrs. Hawkes, Grace will finally be able to stand up for her family-- and to remember what a family is, even after all these years. (Amazon)

What are you waiting for? Waiting on Wednesdays is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

A Field Guide to Burying Your Parents
Publisher/Publication Date: 5 Spot, Dec 23, 2009
ISBN: 978-0446698382
320 pages

Blog Housekeeping - as Pesky as the Real Stuff!

I wanted to give everyone an update on my son - he tested negative for H1N1 (Yah!) He went back to school today. My oldest daughter however has had a horrible ear infection since Saturday, but hopefully will be returning to school tomorrow.

I also wanted to thank everyone who commented on my Halloween cross stitch at the top of the blog. I appreciate those comments so much. I hope to have a new one up in the next few days.

Now I need to ask for help. Can anyone walk me through how to number the comments? It is taking longer and longer to do my giveaways and I need that numbering system to help me out! Please email me at kherbrand at comcast.net if this is something that you can help me with.

Ok - I have lot's of October Winners to share - all of which have been notified and responded. I bet some of them have even received their books already!

Lucan by Susan Kearney
Stacie
Etirv
CrystalGB
Budletsmom (already won)Dawn M
Edna

To Tempt the Wolf and Heart of the Wolf by Terry Spear
Anonymous - Karolptrsn

A Highlander's Temptation by Sue-Ellen Welfonder
BusyBee
Wendi
Renee
pixie13
Cherdon

Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell
Valorie
ossmcalc
Roswello
Cindy
Booklogged

Simon's Cat by Simon Tofield
fredamans
RachieG
Lyoness2009
donnas
Winning Readings

Permission Slips by Sherri Shepherd
Stacie - already won - Heidi V.
Pam
Anonymous - kmkuka
amweeks
Nancye

Supreme Courtship by Christopher Buckley
Sheila Deeth - already won - enyl
Cindy
Barb
Beth (BBRB) - already won - Anita Yancey
Stacie

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
Virginia C
Lynz Pickles
Carrie K.
Nancye
pippirose

The Sound of Sleigh Bells by Cindy Woodsmall
chey

Run For Your Life by James Patterson
Sheila Deeth
Jane
Anonymous - bgcchs
donnas
cherdon

The Bible Salesman by Clyde Edgerton
edmontonjb - already won - LeeP
Laura
fredamans
DarcyO
BelindaM

The Trials of the Honorable F. Darcy by Sara Angelina
Nancye

Congratulations winners! I am going to try to do better this month to announce them as they end.

It's a Great Day for a Giveaway!

I have one copy of White Picket Fences by Susan Meissner to give away to a reader!

The Janviers have the idyllic life - a beautiful home, great jobs, two wonderful kids - and surrounding it all is the proverbial white picket fence that protects them, offers them a serene sense of security. . .and hides all their secrets.

When her black sheep brother disappears, Amanda Janvier eagerly takes in her sixteen-year-old niece Tally. The girl is practically an orphan: motherless and living with a father who raises Tally wherever he lands -- in a Buick, a pizza joint, a horse farm -- and regularly takes off on wild schemes. Amanda envisions that she, her husband, Neil, and their two teenagers can offer the girl stability and a shot at a "normal" life, even though their own storybook lives are about to crumble.

Seventeen-year-old Chase Janvier hasn't seen his cousin in years, and other than a vague curiosity about her strange life, he doesn't expect her arrival will affect him much -- or interfere with his growing, disturbing interest in a long-ago house fire that plagues his dreams.

Tally and Chase bond as they interview two Holocaust survivors for a sociology project, and become startlingly aware that the whole family is grappling with hidden secrets, with the echoes of the past, and with the realization that ignoring tragic situations won't make them go away.

Will Tally's presence blow apart their carefully constructed world, revealing a hidden past that could destroy them all - or can she help them find the truth without losing each other? From the author of The Shape of Mercy, one of Publishers Weekly's Best Religious Fiction Books of 2008, comes a tale of family secrets smoldering behind a white picket fence. (back cover)

It is easy to enter the giveaway - Just give me the title of another Christian Fiction book that you have read this year. Include your email address in your comment. U.S. Only. (sorry) One entry per person and the giveaway will Nov 24.

Family Plots by Mary Patrick Kavanaugh (Book Review)

Title: Family Plots: Love, Death & Tax Evasion
Author: Mary Patrick Kavanaugh
Publisher: iUniverse

First Sentence: The day was unusually hot and clear.

My synopsis: This is a somewhat autobiographical novel - the author has even said taken some liberties for "dramatic impact" - she calls it Pulp Faction. The novel opens Oct 17, 1989 - the day of the big California earthquake where the bridge collapsed. I was living in San Diego at the time so I remember this day! Anyway, Mary is a young mother living with her little girl Rachel's, daddy. I won't call him her boyfriend as he seems to be a loser and has just admitted to infidelity.

Well, Mary decides to turn her life around, cutting out some bad habits and trying constructively to get a job. During this search she contacts an ex-employer, Dan, and ends up with more than a job. A relationship develops and he seems to be the answer to all of Mary's problems. Because of her own dysfunctional upbringing, she thinks that a stable relationship is the answer. Dan seems to be able to provide that for her. Unfortunately in her rush for "stable" she overlooks suspicious activity on Dan's part - tinfoil on his windows, shady business associates, always paying in cash. What would you overlook to have what you think you desire?

My review: According to the "award" on the front of this book - as well as information from Mary Kavanaugh's guest post, this book was rejected 16 times from NYC publishers. I am not sure why. I thought the book read very well, was very entertaining in a dark sort of way, and I would definitely recommend it. If you have the chance to pick this one up - do so!

Family Plots: Love, Death & Tax Evasion
Publisher/Publication Date: iUniverse, Oct 2008
ISBN: 978-1-4401-0466-4
300 pages

Teaser Tuesday: 11-2-2009

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:
Grab your current read.
Let the book fall open to a random page.
Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
Please avoid spoilers!


He was a classic barroom-brawler type, a huge man with a fleshy nose that lay flat against his face, supposedly because he'd had the cartilage removed so he could take more punches. The beating Tex had taken in his fight with Holmes had been so severe, Howard Cosell had retired from calling boxing matches in protest that the fight wasn't stopped sooner. (p95, The Time of My Life by Patrick Swayze and Lisa Niemi)

Teaser Tuesday is hosted at Should be Reading. Come on over and share your teaser, too!

Musing Mondays 11-02-2009

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about social reading…


How much of your reading do you share with others (outside of blogging?) Do you belong to a book or library club? Do you trade books with friends? Do you tell others what you’re reading?


Musing Mondays is hosted by Rebecca at Just One More Page. To participate please visit her blog and leave your link! (You are also welcome to leave your link for me too!)


I mainly share what I am reading right here. Occasionally I will try to get my mom or my sister interested in what I am reading, but it is usually futile. I am not quite sure where my love of reading came from! There is a lady who shares my bus stop that always asks what I am reading - and actually asked to borrow one of the books that I finished last week - so I might have found a new buddy there! I only know of one reading group in this area, and it is on a night where I already have a prior commitment.

Who do you share your reading with?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 11-02-2009

What are you reading on Mondays? is hosted by J. Kaye at J. Kaye's Book Blog. If you would like to participate, please leave your link with Mr. Linky at J.Kaye's blog - but you can also leave me a comment - I would love to know what you are reading!

Finished last week - most waiting for reviews:

1. Night of Flames by Douglas Jacobson
   
2. Family Plots by Mary Patrick Kavanaugh
3. Hot and Irresistible by Dianne Castell
4. Jesse's Girl by Gary Morgenstein
5. Messages to Myself by Helen B. McIntosh
6. Pendragon's Banner by Helen Hollick
7. Mom Needs Chocolate by Debora Coty

Currently Reading

1. Life As We Knew It
   - I only have about 30 pages left in this one so I should be finishing it today!
2. The Trials of the Honorable F. Darcy
   - Modern Day Pride and Prejudice - it is a fun book to read.

Books to start this week:

1. The Wildest Heart
   
2. A Note From An Old Acquaintance
   
3. The Fruit of Her Hands: The Story of Shira of Ashkenaz
   
   
   

Night of Flames by Douglas W. Jacobson (Book Review)

Title: Night of Flames: A Novel of World War II
Author: Douglas W. Jacobson
Publisher: McBooks Press

First sentence: Anna Kopernik slept on this hot, muggy night, but it was a restless sleep troubled by strange dreams.

My synopsis: Anna and Jan Kopernik were a young married couple in Poland when the Germans invaded in 1939. Jan was a Major with the Wielkopolska Cavalry Brigade and was in the field when the Germans bombed Warsaw. Anna was in Warsaw with her good friend Irene and her son Justyn to take care of everything since Irene's mother had just passed away. Irene's husband Stefan was in the cavalry with Jan.

After narrowly escaping the bombs that fell on Warsaw, Anna, Irene and Justyn make their way back home to Krakow. When their driver is killed and Anna injured they end up staying with an older farm couple, the Berkowicz until Anna is recovered. When they finally make it back to Krakow, it has been taken over by the Germans, but Anna's father Thaddeus is still safe. He is a professor at the local university. It isn't long before all the professor's are rounded up and sent to a prison camp in Germany. Since Irene and Justyn are Jews, they are forced to wear the Star of David on their sleeves. Anna knows they must escape and through contacts of her father's she is able to secure visas for the three of them to Italy.

The story continues of Jan's endeavors during the war and how he is eventually recruited as a spy since he speaks fluent German. He takes the chance to return to Poland so he can search for Anna. Meanwhile, Anna inadvertently becomes involved in the resistance in Poland and the Comet Line, which escorted fallen aviators out of the country. Will they both survive the war? If they do, how in the world will they ever find each other again?

My review: While I am not a WWII buff, this book was a great read! You did not need to know a lot about the war to be able to appreciate the sacrifices that everyday people made in the name of freedom. It was a very engaging read and I was instantly invested in the outcomes of Anna, Irene and Justyn. The author told the story in a very easy manner, going back and forth from Anna and the Resistance to Jan and his involvement. In this way, you moved through the war and actually got two different perspectives - one of the actual fighting, and one of the behind the scenes sabotage efforts. I wish that I would have taken some notes along the way though, as there were a lot of characters, and when they would go on a mission, they would use different names, so sometimes I wasn't sure who was who! It was still a really good story though!


*This book was provided for review from Dorothy at Pump Up Your Books.*

Night of Flames
Publisher/Publication Date: McBooks Press, Oct 2008
ISBN: 978-1-59013-166-4
384 pages

In my Mailbox/Mailbox Monday 11-02-2009

Mailbox Monday is hosted at The Printed Page or In Your Mailbox at The Story Siren. Please stop by those posts and take a look at what packages everybody else got this week!



The first two Halloween books I won over at The Mommy Files and they are autographed by the author. Thanks Erica and Shannon!
Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman

There once was a witch who wanted pumpkin pie. But no matter how hard she tried to take her pumpkin off the vine, it just sat. Drat! What's a witch to do? (back cover)

The Halloween House by Erica Silverman

In the Halloween House, in a dark, dingy den a papa werewolf crouched with his little ones, ten. "Howl," said the papa. "We howl," said the ten. So they howled through the night in the dark, dingy den. (back cover)


I received Sworn to Silence through Paperback Swap!

Sworn to Silence by Linda Castillo

In the sleepy rural town of Painters Mill, Ohio, the Amish and "English" residents have lived side by side for two centuries. But sixteen years ago, a series of brutal murders shattered the peaceful farming community. In the aftermath of the violence, the town was left with a sense of fragility, a loss of innocence. Kate Burkholder, a young Amish girl, survived the terror of the Slaughterhouse Killer but came away from its brutality with the realization that she no longer belonged with the Amish.

Now, a wealth of experience later, Kate has been asked to return to Painters Mill as chief of police. Her Amish roots and big-city law enforcement background make her the perfect candidate. She's certain she's come to terms with her past -- until the first body is discovered in a snowy field. Kate vows to stop the killer before he strikes again, but to do so, she must betray both her family and her Amish past -- and expose a dark secret that could destroy her. (book jacket)

I won Lady Vernon and Her Daughter at Historical Fiction. Thanks Arleigh!

Lady Vernon and Her Daughter by Jane Rubino and Caitlen Rubino-Bradway

Jane Austen's novella Lady Susan was written during the same period as another novella called Elinor and Marianne -- which was later revised and expanded to become Sense and Sensibility. Unfortunately for readers, Lady Susan did not enjoy the same treatment by its author and was left abandoned and forgotten by all but the most diligent Austen scholars. Until now.

In Lady Vernon and Her Daughter, Jane Rubino and Caitlen Rubino-Bradway have taken Austen's original novella and transformed it into a vivid and richly developed novel of love lost and found -- and the complex relationships between women, men, and money in Regency England.

lady Vernon and her daughter, Frederica, are left penniless and without a home after the death of Sir Frederick Vernon, Susan's husband. Frederick's brother and heir, Charles Vernon, like so many others of his time, has forgotten his promises to look after the women, and despite their fervent hopes to the contrary, does nothing to financially support Lady Vernon and Frederica.

When the ladies, left without another option, bravely arrive at Charles' home to confront him about his treatment of his family, they are face with Charles's indifference, his wife Catherine's distrustful animosity, and a flood of rumors that threaten to undo them all. Will Lady Vernon and Frederica find love and happiness -- and financial security -- or will their hopes be dashed with their lost fortune?

With wit and warmth reminiscent of Austen's greatest works, Lady Vernon and Her Daughter brings to vivid life a time and place where a woman's security is at the mercy of an entail, where love is hindered by misunderstanding, where marriage can never be entirely isolated from money, yet where romance somehow carries the day. (book jacket)

I won Knit the Season at Lori's Reading Corner. Thanks Lori!

Knit the Season by Kate Jacobs

The upcoming holiday season is all about showing off her talents as a pastry chef for college-age Dakota Walker -- when she's not busy stitching at Walker & Daughter, the coziest little yarn shop on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Now, with the help of the family that's always sustained her, including the women of the Friday Night Knitting Club, Dakota remembers what is truly important. And the possibility of a Christmas visit to her beloved Gran in Scotland -- with the potential for illuminating revelations about her mother, Georgia Walker -- is overwhelmingly tempting.

From Thanksgiving through Hanukkah and Christmas to a spectacular New Year's wedding reception, Knit the Season is a tender story about the richness of family bonds, the magical power of memory, and the everlasting joys of friendship. (back cover)

I won this one from Park Avenue Princess. Thanks Amy!

How to be a Hepburn in a Hilton World by Jordan Christy

In a society driven by celebutante news and MySpace profiles, women of class, style and charm are hard to come by. The Audreys and Katharines of the world continue to lose their luster as thongs, rehab, and outrageous behavior burn up the daily headlines. But, despite appearances, guys still want girls they can take home to their moms, employers still like to see a tailored suit, and peers still respect good manners. So is it possible to maintain traditional virtues in a modern world? Jordan Christy shows young women how in this guide to glamorous style, professional success, and true love. . . the classy way.

Full of fun assignments, notable names, and real-life examples, HOW TO BE A HEPBURN IN A HILTON WORLD offers a new look at seemingly "old-fashioned" advice. Jordan covers diet, speech, work ethic, friends, relationships, manners, makeup, and fashionable yet modest clothing, showing modern ladies how they can be beautiful, intelligent, and fun while retaining values and morals. (book jacket)

I won the rest of these books from Reading with Monie. Thanks Monie!

Amigoland by Oscar Casares

Don Fidencio and Don Celestino are brothers with more in common than either will admit: fiercely independent, sharp as tacks, and stubborn. Between them stands an argument so old neither wants to concede. The dispute -- over their grandfather's alleged kidnapping in Mexico more than a century ago and the truth of their family heritage -- appears destined to die with two men too consumed with the past to ever put it behind them.

Enter Socorro, the delightful and kindhearted Mexican housekeeper with whom Don Celestino falls in love. She hasn't lived nearly as long as the brothers, but she's learned that people can indeed run out of time to make amends. She leads the begrudging pair on a quest to end their estrangement -- while they still can.

In a story full of warmth and wonder, the unlikely trio ventures far into Mexico and deep into the past, following their only lead: that of the lost, and possibly mythic, El Rancho Capote, home of the brothers' grandfather. As the two men test the limits of their pride and patience, they uncover long-hidden truths both painful and redemptive, and learn it's never too late for a new beginning.

With the winsome prose and heartfelt humor that won widespread accolades for his story collection, Brownsville, Oscar Casares's novel of family lost and found radiates with the generosity and grace of a truly original voice in American fiction. (book jacket)

Evenings at the Argentine Club by Julia Amante In the close-knit Argentine-American community of Burbank, California, there are rules about marriage, family, money, and success. Tradition dictates that you must stay close to those who know you best. But two young people are questioning their parents' version of the American Dream - and turning their world upside down. All her life, Victoria Torres has navigated nimbly between her family's expectations and her own U.S.-born sensibilities. But when her successful, irreverent friend Eric Ortelli unexpectedly returns to the Argentine Club - the heart of their community - she, too, dares to break some rules. Soon secrets are spilling out of marriages. Generations are shifting in and out of conflict. And the dream of a better life for their children held so tightly by the older generation starts to morph into something new. Everything is changing. . . in a place where everything has always stayed the same. (back cover)

Zumba: Ditch the workout, Join the Party! The Zumba Weight Loss Program by Beto Perez Created by celebrity fitness trainer Beto Perez, the Zumba program combines fun, easy-to-follow dance steps with hot Latin beats to help you shed pounds and inches fast. Now the DVD and classes that have hooked millions are available in this book - with a complete workout program, fat-burning diet, and an exclusive instructional DVD with sixty minutes' worth of music to help you dance your way to the perfect body. Using the principles of interval and resistance training, the simple dance and sculpting moves of Zumba (inspired by the traditional cumbia, salsa, samba, and merengue) tone and shape your body. And because it can burn 600 to 1000 calories per hour, you don't have to restrict your meals to boring or bland-tasting diet foods. The Zumba eating plan begins with a 5-Day Express Diet to jump-start weight loss (lose up to nine pounds in five days) and then offers fourteen-day meal plans that target fat-burning in the stomach and thighs. You'll find:

• Hot moves that make you feel like you're on the dance floor - not on the elliptical machine!
• Recipes for mouthwatering meals that boost your metabolism.
• Dozens of workout combinations so you never get bored.
• An exclusive jump-start program to get you ready for that big event next weekend.
• An easy plan to help you keep up your progress and maintain the weight loss.

So start moving, grooving, and losing with the Zumba program today! (book jacket)

Tell Me Something True by Leila Cobo A major force in the Latin music industry, Leila Cobo has written a powerful, sensuous, and moving debut novel about a young woman unearthing her mother's secrets -- and truths of her own. Gabriella Richards feels betrayed. Between her doting father in Hollywood and her grandmother's aristocratic family in Cali, Colombia, a few facts have been carefully hidden about her mother, whose tragic death shattered a picture-perfect marriage, Gabriella, now a classical pianist, has kept one foot in her grandmother's elegant, guarded world, visiting her every year. But this trip changes everything. In a dusty closet in a faded mansion, Gabriella finds her mother's diary, written just for her. And at a party of Cali's young and hip, she meets a man she can't resist. Soon, between her mother's shocking confessions and her new lover's secretive life, Gabriella will enter a season of pleasure, pain, and awakening -- as she discovers that things are not always true or false, and that the words that matter most can be the most dangerous ones of all. . . (back cover)