Where I share my love of books with reviews, features, giveaways and memes. Family and needlepoint are thrown in from time to time.

Friday, September 25, 2009

A Highlander's Temptation Blog Tour!


A Highlander's Temptation by Sue-Ellen Welfonder

Darroc MacConacher spends sleepless nights dreaming of a raven-haired beauty who makes him ache with desire. Then his dream comes true: the lady with her lush curves and fair skin appears shipwrecked on his shores. Darroc is immediately drawn to her strength and beauty, and from the moment she lays eyes on this powerful, broad-shouldered warrior, Lady Arabella MacKenzie knows she'll never want another man.

But theirs is a forbidden love. The MacKenzies drove the MacConachers from their lands and destroyed their honor. Now, Darroc can use this sapphire-eyed seductress to shatter his foes. Yet how can he deny the passion that burns between him and Arabella, and ruin the one woman who touches his very soul? (Hachette)


Sue-Ellen will be featured here on October 3 with a guest post and I will be reviewing her book. I also have a giveaway going on for A Highlander's Temptation that ends Oct 8. If you leave a comment on her guest post/review - I will throw in an extra entry in the giveaway!

In the meantime - please visit these blogs who are on the tour:

Yankee Romance Reviewers - Sept. 24 review and giveaway
Book Soulmates - Sept. 24 review and giveaway
Seductive Musings - Sept. 24 review, giveaway, and Q&A
Just Another New Blog - Sept. 24 giveaway
Starting Fresh - Sept. 25 review, giveaway, and Original Essay
Bloody Bad - Sept. 25 giveaway
Sapphire Romance Realm - Sept. 26 giveaway
The Plumber's Wife - Sept. 27 review and giveaway
Found Not Lost - Sept. 27 review, giveaway, and Original Essay
Readaholic - Sept. 27 review and giveaway
Bookin' With Bingo - Sept. 28 Original Essay
Drey's Library - Sept. 28 giveaway and Original Essay
Bookwormy Girl - Sept. 29 giveaway
My Guilty Pleasures - Sept. 30 review and giveaway
Revenge of the Book Nerds - Oct. 1 Original essay
My Book Addiction and More - Oct. 1 review, giveaway, and guest post
Libby's Library News - Oct. 2 original essay
Foreign Circus Library - Oct. 2 review
Bibliophiles 'R' Us - Oct. 2 review and giveaway
Books and Needlepoint - Oct. 3 review
A Book Blogger's Diary - Oct. 3 giveaway
RR@H Novel Thoughts & Book Talk - Oct. 3 Guest and giveaway
A Journey of Books - Oct. 4 review, giveaway, and Q&A
Cheeky Reads - Oct. 5 Q&A and giveaway.
Pudgy Penguin Perusals - Oct. 6 review and giveaway
Hodgepodgespv - Oct. 7 review
Park Avenue Princess - Oct. 7 giveaway

The Transformation Study Bible (Book Review)


Title: The Transformation Study Bible
General Editor: Dr. Warren W. Wiersbe
Publisher: David C. Cook

I am two weeks into a new Bible study that is called Cookies on the Lower Shelf. This is a great study that is taking us through the Bible in the order it was written, concentrating on the main events for those without a lot of time - or having you dig reallllly deep if you are Type A (as our teacher/author puts it) - but anyway, this Bible has been a wonderful edition for me to this study. It is the New Living Translation and so easy to read. I know I have had the problem in the past with getting bogged down with the language and not being able to enjoy the reading!

But on top of just being easier to understand - it has lots of additional features - I have shared some of my favorites below:

Introductions: The Transformation Study Bible features introductions for each book of the Bible to motivate readers to read and study the specific Bible book by helping them understand the background, vital themes, and other key information.

Book Outlines: Text that provides the key theme and key verse with other Scripture passages fitting into the flow of each book.

Book Overviews: A conversational overview for each book of the Bible with timeless and practical lessons from Dr. Warren Wiersbe.

Catalyst Notes: This feature is the heartbeat of The Transformational Study Bible: Hundreds of Catalyst notes are included in which important biblical themes and character issues are discussed by Dr. Wiersbe. These lengthier comments are intended to motivate readers to have their lives transformed as the Holy Spirit applies the Word of God. These insightful observations will also prepare readers' hearts and minds as they regularly study the Bible.

Be Transformed: Part of each Bible book introduction, these major notes direct the reader to the over-all life changing impact of that particular part of scripture.

This Bible also has the cross references, maps, dictionary-concordance and study notes that other Study Bibles have - but I love all the extras!

The Transformation Study Bible
Publisher: David C. Cook
ISBN: 978-1-4347-6527-7
2318 pages

The Jury's In on Supreme Courtship - And I Have 5 copies to give away!


Thanks to the wonderful people at Hachette - I have 5 copies of Supreme Courtship to offer my readers.

President of the United States Donald Vanderdamp is having a hell of a time getting his nominees appointed to the Supreme Court. After one nominee is rejected for insufficiently appreciating To Kill A Mockingbird, the president chooses someone so beloved by voters that the Senate won't have the guts to reject her -- Judge Pepper Cartwright, the star of the nation's most popular reality show, Courtroom Six.



Will Pepper, a straight-talking Texan, survive a confirmation battle in the Senate? Will becoming one of the most powerful women in the world ruin her love life? And even if she can make it to the Supreme Court, how will she get along with her eight highly skeptical colleagues, including a floundering Chief Justice who, after legalizing gay marriage, learns that his wife has left him for another woman.




Soon, Pepper finds herself in the middle of a constitutional crisis, a presidential reelection campaign that the president is determined to lose, and oral arguments of a romantic nature. Supreme Courtship is another classic Christopher Buckley comedy about the Washington institutions most deserving of ridicule. (Hachette)

Listen to an Excerpt of Supreme Courtship.

  1. Five copies to giveaway.
  2. Open only to U.S. and Canada.
  3. No PO Boxes
  4. All entries can be in one comment.
  5. +1 Must leave email address in comment.
  6. +2 if you are a new or old follower - but please let me know. How ever you follow - each will count for 2 entries apiece (Twitter, Facebook, Google, Feed Reader, Email, Blogged etc, etc, etc)
  7. +3 if you post this on any social network or blog LEAVE A LINK TO GET BACK TO THIS POST OR IT WILL NOT COUNT - If you post on Twitter - please use @kherbrand and link to this post. Go Crazy! No Limits on Entries!
  8. +3 for referrals of NEW followers - New followers - tell me who referred you and you will get those +3 also!
  9. Giveaway ends on Oct 16.

Friday Finds 9-25-2009

Here are my finds this week!


Stitches: A Memoir by David Small

Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.

The prize-winning children’s author depicts a childhood from hell in this searing yet redemptive graphic memoir.

One day David Small awoke from a supposedly harmless operation to discover that he had been transformed into a virtual mute. A vocal cord removed, his throat slashed and stitched together like a bloody boot, the fourteen-year-old boy had not been told that he had throat cancer and was expected to die. Small, a prize-winning children’s author, re-creates a life story that might have been imagined by Kafka. Readers will be riveted by his journey from speechless victim, subjected to X-rays by his radiologist father and scolded by his withholding and tormented mother, to his decision to flee his home at sixteen with nothing more than dreams of becoming an artist. Recalling Running with Scissors with its ability to evoke the trauma of a childhood lost, Stitches will transform adolescent and adult readers alike with its deeply liberating vision. (W.W.Norton & Co)

Stitches
Publisher/Publication Date: W.W. Norton & Co, Sept 2009
ISBN: 978-0-393-06857-3
336 pages



Day After Night by Anita Diamant

Publisher: Scribner


Just as she gave voice to the silent women of the Old Testament in The Red Tent, Anita Diamant creates a cast of breathtakingly vivid characters -- young women who escaped to Israel from Nazi Europe -- in this intensely dramatic novel.

Day After Night is based on the extraordinary true story of the October 1945 rescue of more than two hundred prisoners from the Atlit internment camp, a prison for "illegal" immigrants run by the British military near the Mediterranean coast south of Haifa. The story is told through the eyes of four young women at the camp with profoundly different stories. All of them survived the Holocaust: Shayndel, a Polish Zionist; Leonie, a Parisian beauty; Tedi, a hidden Dutch Jew; and Zorah, a concentration camp survivor. Haunted by unspeakable memories and losses, afraid to begin to hope, Shayndel, Leonie, Tedi, and Zorah find salvation in the bonds of friendship and shared experience even as they confront the challenge of re-creating themselves in a strange new country.

This is an unforgettable story of tragedy and redemption, a novel that re-imagines a moment in history with such stunning eloquence that we are haunted and moved by every devastating detail. Day After Night is a triumphant work of fiction. (Simon and Schuster)

Day After Night
Publisher/Publication Date: Scribner, Sept 2009
ISBN: 978-0743299848
304 pages




The Killing Circle by Andrew Pyper

Publisher: Picador

Patrick Rush is a single father, unhappy with his career, devoted to his young son but haunted by the loss of his wife, when he joins a local writing group. In the candlelit studio where the circle meets, he finds one writer's work far more powerful than the others--a young woman named Angela, who writes about a girl stalked by a killer named the Sandman. But Angela's stories may be more autobiography than tall tale: soon the members of the group are being hunted by a shadowy figure resembling the Sandman, and the line between fiction and real life beings to dissolve. When his own son is taken, Patrick is forced to chase down the Sandman for himself and to discover the ending to his own terrifying story. (Picador)

The Killing Circle
Publisher/Publication Date: Picador, Sept 2009
ISBN: 978-0-312-42903-7
336 pages






What great books did you find this week?? Stop over at Should Be Reading and share yours!

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Kid's Korner: Two books by Gary Lamit


Title: Wally the Walking Fish Meets Madison and Cooper
Author: Gary Lamit
Publisher: BookSurge

This was a really cute story! Madison goes fishing with her dog Cooper, a golden lab. She catches a walking fish (she always catches and releases them). All the animals in this book can talk though! Cooper is always hungry and is always commenting that whatever fish or animal they are talking to would probably taste good!

Each new animal that gets introduced also gets a little blurb at the bottom of the page that tells all about the species. Fun and you learn some new stuff too! I think I am partial though as my son's middle name is Cooper and we actually have a black labradoodle (lab/poodle mix)!





Title: My Fishing Journal
Author: Louis Gary Lamit
Publisher: BookSurge Publishing

I am hoping that my son will get a chance to use this on his visits up to his grandpa's house. They live on a lake in Wisconsin and he learned how to cast this year.

This is a great journal that gives a place to record all about the fishing conditions and where and when you fished. Then you can record what kind of fish you caught and how big they were and what you did with them. You can also tell how they were cleaned/cooked. On the adjacent page is a place where you can sketch the fish that you caught and either attach a picture or write a little journal entry. (Some adults I know might like this book!)

There are pages at the beginning and at the end that tell about all the different kind of fishing equipment, bait, lures and flies. You also get little blurbs about different fish. There are 2 editions of this book - one is in black and white and contains 100 pages. The other one is in color, but it only has 48 pages.


To see more about these books visit Walking Fish Books.


Wally the Walking Fish
Publisher/Publication Date: BookSurge Publishing, May 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4392-2541-7
28 pages
Ages 4-8





My Fishing Journal
Publisher/Publication Date: BookSurge Publishing, Dec 2008
978-1-4392-1769-6
48 pages


A Change in Altitude by Anita Shreve (Book Review)


Title: A Change in Altitude
Author: Anita Shreve
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (Hachette)

First sentence: We're climbing Mount Kenya.

About the book: Twenty-eight-year old Margaret travels to Kenya with her new husband, Patrick, with the intent of staying a year. In a dizzying multicultural city, she struggles to maintain her balance as her sense of self, her marriage, and her understanding of the world are shaken to the core.

Invited on a climbing expedition to Mt. Kenya, the newlyweds are caught up in a horrific accident. In its aftermath, Margaret must try to understand exactly what happened on that mountain and what it has done to her and to her marriage.

A major author in terms of critical acclaim and bestseller status, Anita Shreve limns the secrets at the core of our closest relationships and the ways in which lives can turn on the axis of a single catastrophic event. (back cover)

My thoughts: I did not finish this book. This was my first Anita Shreve book and it just didn't appeal to me. I wanted to like it - I have heard so many good things about this author! Maybe it is just bad timing and my mood was not right to be able to get into this one. I am hoping that sometime soon I can try another one by her - or maybe give this one another shot - and see if I feel differently. So readers - what is your favorite Anita Shreve book? Which one should I try?

A Change in Altitude
Publisher/Publication Date: Little, Brown and Company, Sept 2009
ISBN: 978-0-316-02070-1
320 pages

Afterword: Spectors in the Dark

Anna from FSB Associates provided me with the excerpt below - it is found in the back of The Shimmer and explains a little more about the myserious lights and what the book is based on.


Afterword
Specters in the Dark
by David Morrell,
Author of The Shimmer

On November 7, 2004, I paged through the Sunday edition of my local newspaper, the Santa Fe New Mexican. Although I don't normally read the travel section, the headline for one of its articles caught my attention.

LIGHT UP YOUR LIFE
TINY MARFA, TEXAS, BOASTS WEIRD NATURAL PHENOMENA

The caption for a ghostly photograph referred to "mystery lights."

I couldn't resist.

Reprinted from the Washington Post, the article described how its author, Zofia Smardz, had taken her family to Marfa, a small town in west Texas, searching for strange lights that are visible there on many nights throughout the year. It's difficult to tell how far away the lights are. Magical, they bob and weave, float and waver, blink and glow, appear and vanish.

As the article pointed out, no one can say for sure what causes them. Perhaps quartz crystals absorb the heat of the day and give off static electricity when the rocks cool at night. Perhaps the lights are formed by radioactive gases. Or perhaps temperature inversions in the atmosphere refract lights from faraway vehicles. Whatever the explanation, the lights have been in west Texas for quite a while. As far back as the 1880s, a rancher noticed them and assumed they came from Indian campfires, except that when he searched in the morning, he didn't find evidence of any campfires.

The article's author described her visit to the area's viewing station. Along with her husband and two boys, she stood at the side of a country road and stared toward the dark horizon, pointing excitedly when the lights made their dramatic appearance. On occasion, however, she saw the lights when her family didn't, or else her family saw the lights when she saw nothing. A similar contrast happened when other tourists joined them. Some people were transported by the lights, while others couldn't see what all the fuss was about.

I finished my coffee, tore out the page, and went to my office, where I put the article among others on a shelf of research materials. I've been doing this for decades, stacking items that intrigue me, waiting to discover which of them calls to my subconscious.

It didn't take long for the Marfa lights to do exactly that. During many nights in the final months of 2004, just before I went to sleep, a persistent image kept appearing in my imagination. A woman stood at a viewing platform at the side of a road, staring spellbound toward alluring lights on a dark horizon. Unlike the author of the Marfalights article, this woman was not accompanied by her husband and children. Although married, she was alone. Having stopped while driving to visit her mother, she was so obsessed by the lights that nothing else mattered to her, including the husband who came looking for her.

That was all I had, and as 2005 began, I didn't even have that -- the image stopped appearing in my imagination. I'm used to ideas not being ready to reveal themselves completely, so I worked on other projects: Creepers, Scavenger, and The Spy Who Came for Christmas. Periodically, though, I removed the article from the stack on my office shelf. Rereading it, I felt compelled to do increasing research until I had a thick binder crammed with notes.

I learned that Marfa isn't the only place where the lights appear. Three other locations -- the Hessdalen valley in Norway, a remote part of the Mekong River in Thailand, and a rugged area in northeastern Australia -- have similar phenomena. In Australia, they're called the Min Min lights, and when an Australian fan got in touch with me through my website, I asked if he knew anything about the lights.

It turned out that the fan, a police officer named Daniel Browning, had actually experienced the lights.
My dad, Robert, and I were out near a town called Muttaburra in central Queensland, doing some kangaroo shooting about 30 years ago. Muttaburra was a tiny little town (10 houses). Dad was a professional "roo" shooter. We were doing some shooting at night by spotlight. We were out in the middle of nowhere -- no houses or roads anywhere nearby.

We saw a light. It was just suddenly there. We didn't see it coming at all. It just appeared and shadowed us. It did not seem to get closer or move away. It just stayed the same distance from us, moving with us. The thing wasn't on the ground or high in the air. It just sort of hovered. It lasted about 10 minutes, and what makes it vivid in my memory is that it shook my old man up. He knew we weren't remotely anywhere near homes or vehicles. This thing really had him worried, and then it was gone.
With that image drifting through my mind, I came across the DVD version of one of my favorite movies Giant (1956). Directed by George Stevens, it stars James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, and Rock Hudson in an epic about a Texas oilman's multidecade feud with a prominent cattle family. To my amazement, a documentary informed me that a lot of the film had been photographed in Marfa, the same town where the lights appeared. Moreover, a subsequent Internet search revealed that James Dean had been fascinated by the lights. He'd dragged his costars and his director to the viewing area, but he turned out to be the only one who could see them.

These elements worked on my imagination until, almost three years after that November morning when I'd come across the newspaper article, I was again visited by the image of the solitary woman who stood in the darkness at the side of a road, staring at the mysterious lights. But now I had another image: a man flying a single-engine airplane (I had recently started private-pilot lessons). To this I added the giant dishes of a radio observatory (there is in fact an observatory near Marfa) and the ruins of a military airbase from World War II (an abandoned airbase does exist outside Marfa, near where the lights appear).

I wasn't sure how all these items could be connected. Even so, I suddenly couldn't wait to begin. I made a list of all the elements I wanted to include, creating my own versions of people who in actuality had seen the lights: the rancher in the 1880s, the schoolteacher in the 1910s, James Dean in the 1950s, and the crowd involved with the ghost-light hunt in the 1970s. Yes, there really was a ghost-light hunt. A surprising amount of "reality" is in The Shimmer.

Of course, it's an alternate reality in the same way that Marfa and Rostov are alternate versions of a town in west Texas. Marfa is supposedly named after a character in Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, whereas I named Rostov after a character in Tolstoy's War and Peace. Despite the parallels, no one in The Shimmer is meant to be identified with anybody in Marfa, although I hope that this novel makes you want to visit Marfa, which has come a long way since its cattle-town days and is now a picturesque artists' community similar to Sedona, Arizona, and Santa Fe.

In one respect, however, reality needed improving. Outside Marfa, the famous ranch-house set for Giant, which I call Birthright, was indeed only a facade. Although it appeared to be an entire, grand building, if you walked behind it, you found only open grassland. Over the years, that fake front disintegrated until only its support beams remain, and they won't stay upright much longer. Because of my fondness for Giant, in The Shimmer I allowed the movie set to endure.

For more information about this novel's background, search the Internet for "Marfa lights." You'll find over half a million sites. The more you learn, the more you'll understand what I meant earlier when I wrote that a surprising amount of "reality" is in this book.


The above is an excerpt from the book The Shimmer by David Morrell. The above excerpt is a digitally scanned reproduction of text from print. Although this excerpt has been proofread, occasional errors may appear due to the scanning process. Please refer to the finished book for accuracy.

Copyright © 2009 David Morrell, author of The Shimmer


Author Bio
David Morrell, author of The Shimmer, is the award-winning author of numerous New York Times bestsellers, including Creepers and Scavenger. Co-founder of the International Thriller Writers organization and author of the classic Brotherhood of the Rose spy trilogy, Morrell is considered by many to be the father of the modern action novel

For more information please visit www.davidmorrell.net

Learn more about The Shimmer at www.shimmerbook.com

The Shimmer by David Morrell (Book Review)



Title: The Shimmer
Author: David Morrell
Publisher: Vanguard Press


First Sentence: From fifteen hundred feet off the ground, the blue pickup truck looked like a Matchbox toy.

My synopsis: Dan Page is a police officer in Santa Fe. On his day off, he likes to fly his Cessna - it takes so much concentration to fly, that he is able to shut out all the negative things that happen on his job. On this day though, as luck would have it, he finds himself involved in a police chase. He is able to radio a gunman position to the cops on the ground - but isn't able to stop the fiery crash that actually ends the chase. He returns home with his guilt, only to find his wife, Tori, "gone". There is a note saying she has left to visit her mother in San Antonio.

When a day goes by and neither Page or his mother-in-law have heard from Tori, Dan puts in a missing person's report. Being a police officer he knows all the terrible things that can happen, so when he receives a call from a local officer in Rostov, Texas, saying that his wife is there and she is fine, Page is confused. The officer, Costigan, will not tell him why she is there, or any information really, just that he has to come there to understand.

Page flies his plan into a small airport in Rostov and locates the police department. Together with Costigan they locate his wife. She is sitting on an observation platform outside of town, just staring across a meadow. She does not even react when Page shows up. They are not there long before other people start to arrive. Evening comes and some of the watchers start to get excited, because they can see some lights in the distance. Some can't though and don't know what the fuss is about. Page can't see the lights at first, but remembers his father telling him that sometimes you have to change what you expect to see, and what you see will change. Eventually he sees the lights and gets swept up in the "dance" that they are doing.

These lights are called the Rostov lights and have been there for as long as anyone can remember, though no one can explain them. There is a facility outside of Rostov that has huge radio observatory dishes pointed towards the sky - all but one. One is pointed horizontally towards the horizon, but has been made to look as if it were being repaired. This is the most interesting one. On this particular night, it begins to pick up some strange music - music that not only can you hear - but you can taste it, feel it. It is clearer than it has ever been. This music is also being picked up at an Army Intelligence Command known as INSCOM and it is affiliated with the National Security Agency. They had been on this project for over 50 years. They are not just picking it up in Rostov but in three other locations around the world as well. They get set to send a team to Rostov as well.

As both the observatory facility and INSCOM are picking up these strange sounds, a gunman appears at the observation platform that is now filled with people from kids to families to a tour bus that has arrived. The gunman is having an adverse affect to the lights though and tells them to go back to hell where they came from. He begins shooting at them - only to turn and begin firing into the crowd. As Page gets his wife to relative safety, hears Costigan return fire, but the gunman hits Costigan first. This is turning out to be a nightmare.

My thoughts: From the reviews that I have read, people either loved this book or hated it. There didn't seem to be any "on-the-fence" opinions. I, myself, was glued to the book and couldn't read it fast enough. I am a fan of short chapters as it seems like you are covering more ground than you are. There is also a report named Brent in the story who I liked very much. You get to know him pretty well through out the book. I read First Blood many years ago in high school (think early '80s) and can remember liking it and using it for a report. I wish I could remember more of it so that I could contrast it with David Morrell's new book!

The Shimmer
Publisher/Publication Date: Vanguard Press, July 2009
ISBN: 978-1-59315-537-7
352 pages

Win Permission Slips by Sherri Shepherd

I have 5 copies of Permission Slips: Every Woman's Guide to Giving Herself a Break by Sherri Shepherd to give away courtesy of Hachette Books!

Covering topics such as "It's Jesus or Jail," "Marriage, the Hard Way," "Children: The Gift You Can't Give Back," and "All the Things I Don't Know...And All the Things I Definitely Do," stand-up comedienne, actress, and ABC's The View co-host Sherri Shepherd comically chronicles her struggles to keep up with the many roles-professional, wife, mother, daughter, and friend-that women must play in today's world. Sherri urges women to pursue their most important dreams and to never give up, but also let's readers know that it's okay to give themselves "permission slips" when things don't always work out the way they want them to.

Sherri Shepherd currently serves as a co-host on ABC's The View, which airs five days a week on ABC affiliates nationally and consistently draws more than 3 million viewers per show. She also plays a recurring character on NBC's 30 Rock.

Sherri has had a long career as a regular cast member on some of America's best-loved shows, including Suddenly Susan, Everybody Loves Raymond, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and her own show, Less Than Perfect. Sherri has also been in countless other TV shows and films including Beauty Shop, and Guess Who.

Sherri currently resides in New York with her son.

How to win:
  1. Five copies to giveaway.
  2. Open only to U.S. and Canada.
  3. No PO Boxes
  4. All entries can be in one comment.
  5. +1 Must leave email address in comment.
  6. +2 if you are a new or old follower - but please let me know. How ever you follow - each will count for 2 entries apiece (Twitter, Facebook, Google, Feed Reader, Email, etc, etc, etc)
  7. +3 if you post this on any social network or blog LEAVE A LINK TO GET BACK TO THIS POST OR IT WILL NOT COUNT - If you post on Twitter - please use @kherbrand and link to this post. Go Crazy! No Limits on Entries!
  8. +3 for referrals of NEW followers - New followers - tell me who referred you and you will get those +3 also!
  9. Giveaway ends on Oct 15.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

ARC Arrival: It Happened One Night


It Happened One Night by Lisa Dale

Publisher: Forever (Hachette Books)

Sometimes Love Finds You When You Least Expect It

Lana Biel has always wanted to shake the dust of Vermont off her feet and see the world, one exotic country after another. But when a lighthearted spring fling changes her life forever, she turns to the one man whose strong shoulders can lighten any burden: her best friend, Eli Ward.

Eli has always been there for Lana--after all, that's what best friends do. But Lana isn't the only one hiding something. Eli is keeping secrets of his own that threaten their relationship. Yet as summer turns to fall, new desires awaken between them, even as old fears tear them apart. Then, when another Vermont winter fills the valleys with snow, Eli and Lana are given the chance for an adventure greater than they ever dreamed possible. . . and a love that will last for all times. (back cover)

I loved reading Lisa Dale's Simple Wishes - so I was very excited to receive this one from Hachette!

It Happened One Night
Publisher/Publication Date: Forever, Oct 27, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-446-40690-1
368 pages



Tome Travelers

I have been picking up books like crazy at library sales and thrift stores in the last week. I am glad that my husband doesn't read my blog so he doesn't know about these books!

These I picked up at our library's used book store:




Thriller edited by James Patterson

Featuring North America's foremost thriller authors, Thriller is the first collection of pure thriller stories ever published. Offering up heart-pumping tales of suspense in all its guises are thirty-two of the most critically acclaimed and award-winning names in the business. From the signature characters that made such authors as David Morrell and John Lescroart famous, to four of the hottest new voices in the genre, this blockbuster will tantalize and terrify.

Lock the doors, draw the shades, pull up the covers and be prepared for
Thriller to keep you up all night. (Amazon.com)



Almost Dead by Lisa Jackson

A Woman Who Wants To Get Even - The first victim is pushed to her death. The second suffers a fatal overdose. The third takes a bullet to the heart. Three down, more to go. They're people who deserve to die. People who are in the way. And when she's finished, there will be no one left. Will Do Whatever It Takes For Revenge. Cissy Cahill's world is unraveling fast. One by one, members of her family are dying. Cissy's certain she's being watched. Or is she losing her mind? Lately she's heard footsteps when there's no one around, smelled a woman's perfume, and noticed small, personal items missing from her house. Cissy's right to be afraid--but not for the reason she thinks. The truth is much more terrifying - Including Murder. Hidden in the shadows of the Cahill family's twisted past is a shocking secret - a secret that will only be satisfied by blood. And Cissy must uncover the deadly truth before it's too late, because fear is coming home - with a vengeance. (Amazon.com)



Every Secret Thing by Laura Lippman


It is early evening, summer time and hot. Two eleven year old girls, Alice and Ronnie, are on their way home from a swimming party when they happen to see a baby's stroller, with baby girl sleeping inside, left unattended on the top step of a house. Ronnie says to Alice: 'We have to take care of this baby.' But what exactly does she mean? Four days later the body of little Olivia Barnes is discovered in a hut in Baltimore's rambling Leakin Park by a young rookie detective, Nancy Porter. What can have happened in those four days to bring about this appalling crime? The girls are arrested and found guilty. Seven years later Ronnie and Alice, now eighteen, are released from their separate prisons, back into their old neighbourhood where the mother of baby Olivia still lives. Another child goes missing, and Nancy Porter and her partner get the case ...(Fantastic Fiction.com)




Kiss Her Goodbye by Wendy Corsi Staub

Woodsbridge, New York, is the sort of upscale community where the American Dream is alive and thriving - shiny cars, beautiful homes, and safe, tree-shaded streets. For Kathleen Carmody, Woodsbridge is an escape from memories of her own rough childhood and a place where her 13-year-old daughter Jen will have everything Kathleen didn't. But suddenly, the sleepy, affluent suburb is gripped by fear: One by one, teenage girls are disappearing from the "safe" streets. (Fantastic Fiction.com)



The House on Hope Street by Danielle Steel

A story of courage and loss, of the power of the family and the strength of the human soul. Life was good for Liz and Jack Sutherland. In eighteen years of marriage they had built a family, a successful law practice, and a warm happy home near San Francisco, in a house on Hope Street. But one Christmas morning, in the midst of joy and children's laughter, tragedy strikes - and Liz is left alone, facing painful questions in the face of unbearable loss. How can she go on without her husband, her partner, her best friend? The months pass, and Liz finds the strength to return to work and tend to her children. Then a devastating accident sends her oldest son to hospital - and brings a doctor called Bill Webster into her life. As the long days of summer blend into autumn, a new relationship offers new hope. With the anniversary of her husband's death approaching, Liz will face one more crisis before she can look back at a year of mourning and change - and ahead to the beginning of a new life, in the house on Hope Street.(Fantastic Fiction.com)

Have you found any good books at a used book store lately?

Waiting on Wednesday: The Time of My Life

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

The Time of My Life by Patrick Swayze and Lisa Niemi

Publisher/Publication Date: Atria, Sept 29, 2009

In a career spanning more than thirty years, Patrick Swayze has made a name for himself on the stage, the screen, and television. Known for his versatility, passion and fearlessness, he's become one of our most beloved actors.

But in February 2008, Patrick announced he had been diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer. Always a fighter, he refused to let the disease bring him to his knees, and his bravery has inspired both his legion of fans and cancer patients everywhere. Yet this memoir, written with wisdom and heart, recounts much more than his bout with cancer. In vivid detail, Patrick describes his Texas upbringing, his personal struggles, his rise to fame with North and South, his commercial breakthroughs in Dirty Dancing and Ghost, and the soul mate who's stood by his side through it all: his wife, writer and director Lisa Niemi.

A behind-the-scenes look at a Hollywood life and a remarkable love, this memoir is both entertainment and inspiration. Patrick and Lisa's marriage is a journey of two lives intertwined and lived as one--throughout their years in Hollywood and at home on their working ranch outside Los Angeles, and culminating in the hope and wisdom they've imparted to all who know them. This book will open the door for families, individuals, and husbands and wives to grow, bond and discover entirely new levels of love and sharing, proving that life shouldn't be lived as a series of endings, but rather as the beginning of greater strength and love.(Amazon)

Who didn't love Patrick Swayze?


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



Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Laced with Magic by Barbara Bretton (Book Review)


Title: Laced with Magic
Author: Barbara Bretton
Publisher: Penguin


First sentence: Did you ever have the feeling that you were exactly where you were meant to be, that the fates had finally got it right and the rest of your life was going to be clear sailing?

My synopsis: Chloe Hobbs was a woman with many hats - she was the owner of a knit shop called Sticks and Strings, defacto mayor of Sugar Maple (417 residents) and a sorceress-in-training. She was also half human and in love with Luke, acting sheriff of Sugar Maple and the only 100% human in residence there. For many, many years Sugar Maple had been the home of witches, vampires, were families, spirits, fae - you name it, Sugar Maple had it. A protective spell had been placed over the town by a descendant of Chloe's that kept it safe from human's detection as long as a Hobbs woman walked the earth. Chloe was the last of these women and the spell was starting to falter. She was almost 30 and was yet to have a child. When she met Luke, she was hoping that would solve this problem. She didn't count on Isadora and Karen.

Karen was Luke's ex-wife, and the mother of their deceased daughter Steffie. Until she arrived in town looking for Luke, claiming that Steffie had tried to contact her from beyond, Chloe didn't even know that Luke had had a child. Combine this with the fact that the protective spell around Sugar Maple seemed to be failing and Karen was in for an eye-opening experience.

Isadora was the fae's leader, if you will. Chloe had banished her as she threatened to take Sugar Maple beyond the mist into another dimension. The townspeople were torn over whether to support Isabella or Chloe. Unfortunately, Chloe, being only a sorceress-in-training, did not have strong enough spells to keep Isadora banished forever. She (Isadora) also makes her presence known in a big way. But where does Steffie fit in with all this and why is she trying to contact her parents?

My thoughts: What a fun book! This is a sequel to Barbara's book - Casting Spells. I would recommend reading the books in order, but it is not a necessity. I have not read Casting Spells yet, but it is in my TBR pile (and definitely moved closer to the top). Barbara's easy style of writing kept the story moving along very quickly. It was told from the viewpoints of Chloe, Luke, and Karen and intermingled very well together. I enjoyed these characters immensely and all the talk of knitting had me wanting to put down the book and pick up my needles - almost! I wanted to finish the book more. (I am definitely going to do a little stitching tonight though!) I really enjoyed the character of Chloe - how her half-human side tries to relate to her half-sorceress side. The ending took me by surprise and also brought some tears to my eyes! Best of all though is that it seems there will be another book to look forward to! Thanks Barbara! I really enjoyed this one!

I almost forgot - at the end of this book was a great little section on knitting tips and tricks, some stitches/patterns and some great websites for charity knitting!

Please visit my blog tour post to find out all the different ways to learn about Barbara and to read an excerpt of this book. If you missed her guest post - be sure to visit! It was very entertaining!

Thank you Dorothy from Pump Up Your Book Promotion for arranging this blog tour and allowing me to be part of it!


Laced with Magic
Publisher/Publication Date: Berkley Trade (Penguin), August 2009
ISBN: 978-0-425-22752-7
352 pages


Teaser Tuesday: 9-22-2009


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!




Soon there is nothing here at all but a pile of rubble and a startling, wide-open space where just moments ago a house still stood. It happened so fast that we are all momentarily stunned into silence. I try to picture what might come next, but instead what I see is the stark, inevitable truth of time; what I hear is the silence of all the moments that have ended. (p79, The Gift of an Ordinary Day by Katrina Kenison - ARC)




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

If this sounds like a good book - I am having a giveaway that ends today!

The Gift of an Ordinary Day
Publisher/Publication Date: Springboard Press, Sept 2009
ISBN: 978-0-446-40948-3
320 pages



Monday, September 21, 2009

Kid's Corner: Interview with Lisa Woomer - author of Cookie


I am interviewing Lisa Woomer today - author of the kid's book - Cookie.

This is a very fun read about a little girl (nicknamed Cookie)who will not eat anything but cookies. Her parents tell her that she is going to turn into a cookie if she doesn't eat something else - and - you guessed it - She turns into a cookie! She quickly decides it is not fun being a cookie and starts eating real food.

My son enjoys this book a lot - it is usually one of the first ones that he picks out to read.

I see that you are a former school teacher - what grade(s) did you teach and do you have a favorite subject that you taught?

I taught fourth grade, second grade and kindergarten. I loved to teach writing, not a big surprise there. I really enjoyed listening to the children's stories, they are so imaginative.

I also like to listen when my son is playing alone as his stories he makes up then are a lot of fun.

The book Cookie is designed to try to get kids to eat healthier - Could you share with us a favorite 'healthy' recipe or food?

I have a few really healthy recipes that even my pickiest eater loves. One of her favorites is a noodle stir-fry that I make.
I use whole wheat soba noodles, tofu, and veggies (usually peas, broccoli and carrots). First, get the noodles started, boil according to package directions. Next, saute some crushed garlic with a little olive oil in a large saute pan or wok. Add in tofu cubes with a little soy sauce and Bragg's liquid aminos (available at whole foods or health food stores). Cook until lightly browned and then add in veggies. Saute for a couple of minutes and then toss in drained soba noodles. My kids eat it up and ask for seconds.

That does sound good! and not to difficult to make!

Now that we have done healthy - what is your favorite cookie?

My favorite cookie...that's a tough one. If I had to choose, I would say Girl Scout Samoas. My daughter is a girl scout and we look forward to cookie sales every year just so we can have some samoas. Luckily they are available only once a year or I might turn into a cookie.

I love Girl Scout Thin Mints and the chocolate covered Peanut Butter Patties! Yum!

Did you do the illustrations for your book and how much of an impact do you think the illustrations play in a children's book?

Yes, I did the illustrations for my book. I think illustrations are so important to a children's book, they really make the story come to life. I had an idea in my head of how I thought Cookie should look while I was writing the story. I wanted the pictures to be childlike because Cookie thinks like a child. I like the fact that a child can look at the pictures and think, "I can draw that".

It is amazing that kids pick up on that also. My son usually comments on the pictures which is why I like to ask this question!

Do you have any projects in the works right now?

Yes, I have my ideas down for my next book, which will be a sequel. I get these ideas that pop into my head at all hours and I quickly jot them down in my journal. Right now they are just ideas but I can tell you that Cookie has a little brother that gets into some food trouble of his own.

Yeah! Since my boy liked Cookie so much - can't wait for this one to come out featuring a boy!

What books are on your nightstand currently?

I always have one fictional novel and one informational book on my nightstand. Right now I am reading a book that my mom loaned me a while ago that I am just getting to called The Summer I Dared, by Barbara Delinsky. The other book is a week-by-week guide to pregnancy since I am expecting my third child (I may have to write a story about that too).

I had to go look this book up to see what it was about (The Summer I Dared) and it sounds really good. I hope that you are enjoying it. I read a few pregnancy books with my third one also!

Thank you Lisa for joining me at Books and Needlepoint today! And congratulations on your soon-to-be new edition!

To buy Lisa's book - Cookie -visit this site: http://outskirtspress.com/lisawoomer

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