Happy New Year! 2015

Thank you for being a part of this blog, it means so much! Have a wonderful New Year filled with lots of love, good health and peace.
And many many books to read!
~Cheryl~

A Marker to Measure Drift by Alexander Maksik

One of the hardest parts of 2014 was learning to start all over again. I cannot get into why I am not working, suffice to say, it was a huge shock to stop doing what I loved doing best. Recovery is hard and as the year wore on I felt that reading and writing was the balm I needed to survive. Though it's never a complete fix, there is something about throwing oneself into a book  or grabbing a pen and paper when life hands you lemons. 

Forget making lemonade, I am not that kid of girl. I need an intellectual exercise. 

And besides,  I am a terror in the kitchen.

I felt so much loss.

So I read.

And wrote. And read some more. 

When we learn to pare down our lives, and paring down is an understatement, we look at the things we already have in another light. My worn out clogs that I wear every day became warmer and more comfortable, my sofa with it's sad springs enveloped me with more comfort than ever and my C.S. Lewis book (the small paperback that I had as a teen) The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe reassuringly looked up at me from my bag to remind me to keep my sense of wonderment in life as well as to remind me why I love to read. Little things became more magical and even though it's tough, I have something to hang onto during the worst of times.

When we feel loss we became the guardians of what we have left, for dear life. 

Memories. Photos, a bottle, a hat, gloves. 

A tube of Chapstick can be moisturizer for your whole face if needed. 

And this is where I lead into my small but large in heart review of A Marker to Measure Drift.

When I read A Marker to Measure Drift by Alexander  Maksik. I cried. I will never forget that afternoon, the way the sunshine came in through the slats of the blinds while my daughter played on the floor, the way the house smelled of Christmas and the way I was nestled down into the couch, reading this gem.  I read the last of the book and cried.

Just cried.

This is a beautifully written story that seems to fall under my "Little Bee" theory of reviewing. You can't review it or you will completely give it away. And Little Bee is a whole other book from this one in context, I am only using that as a template of reviewing books that really can't be reviewed. Due to spoilers.

If you are a person who likes  books where the main character is all alone in his or her thoughts, stranded, or homeless and you do not know why she is where she is in such a way, then this is a book for you.  You will be mesmerized by the dichotomy of the languishing thoughts of  Jacqueline as opposed to her rushed survival moments of starvation and pain. I feel that Maksik wrote a book that not only deals with the torture and outcomes of extreme loss but a book about how people change after the loss. In such a way that sometimes, you have to go back and reread as you feel that he couldn't have possibly allowed the book to go that way. But he does and that's what I call "magic" in writing.

And he gives us survival at it's best. 

Jacqueline, a young woman from Liberia lives in a cave on a beautiful Greek Island. Her days are long, and she needs to find ways to make a few euros to eat daily.  She massages tourists feet  claiming to be someone other than a homeless person.  I felt every hunger pang she had. Every desire she had. Every single moment she felt, I felt. I will say this, a cup of coffee will forever be sipped  with the solemnity of God. You will understand when you read this.  

Jacqueline's internal dialogue with her mother unravels who she really is and where she came from. Most of all, what really happened in her past landing her on an island, alone. 

It's raw and it's beautiful. The other characters sans two seem to float in stories or thoughts, poignant, some painful. I reached the end. I felt that I had read a gem. A treasure.

A book that will continue on in my own daily living. And that, readers, is the very best book you can read. 

* Reading up on Liberia as well as Using Google Images and Pinterest added richness to reading this book. But rest assured, you do not have to, the author is very descriptive and elegant in his writing, you don't need technology but it can enhance the experience if needed.

Buy it.

~Merry Christmas~2014

 A tree that almost made me lose my religion. It's a fake true, I have no time to kill a real one so I figured fake is safe and easy. The lights, on the other hand, gave me a very hard time. After three blow outs, I gave up and threw the top of the tree down on the floor. And it remained there for 24 hours. I left the rest of the "bush" up with the lights that did work and watched a movie. The next night proved to be more successful and it ended up being one of my favorite trees.

 Anna Lee has made a comeback over the last few years and I wanted in. So I got in. Charming and completely Christmas I decided to add a creature every year all over again. Thanks to my mother she got me started this year with three, bless her heart.

 The food! The candy and coolies and pies! All geared for a ticket to Diabetes. Delicious, I preferred the little White Russian you see there. ;)

The books that came in, Anne of Green Gables with beautiful gold leaf pages and a book from a friend in Massachusetts. Lovely books, I can't wait to read them (second go-round on Anne of Green Gables.) Thank you to my two bookish book giving friends :) I was happy to receive them as it was a practical gift year from my family due to me not currently working. And my mom (there she is again) bought me perfume, bless her heart all over again!

I wish you all a Very Happy New Year filled with love, health and books, of course, books! See you soon!

A Thank You, to the members of my book group

After I joined Facebook in 2009, it was a bit boring. I mean, there were lots of fancy quizzes to tell you what Disney character you were but there wasn't much in the search bar when it came to things I wanted to check out. Like books (of course.) So I thought about things, (rather quickly, I am a Gemini after all) hmm a book group! The groups were taking off (sort of) and having a group of my friends and family would be the greatest thing.

Here was my very tiny little goal list: 

1. We would talk about books.
2. We would become closer and get to know each other better when it came to what we like to read. 
3. We would find books for one another and talk even MORE about books.
4. We would learn to like other genres, after all, I had learned to like other genres so would they!

That was as far as I got. So I mustered up some bravery and made up my group hooking in my two best most sane buddies (one an editor the other a past corrections officer among many other things) .. the kind  of women that if anyone got out of hand, they were the body guards of all bad book people. I chose well. And they are still there to this day. And never had to bounce one person out of the " book bar."

The first to vamoose was some of my family members which was SO forgivable. Seriously. I was pissed for five seconds but book people are weird, lets face it, some are not into socializing about books. They want to go sit in a corner with a blanket, all the lights off and never discuss ONE book they have read. But these people of mine, they will give you every single book they have to borrow.. They are good people so I forgave rather quickly. 

Some people said they left because I put up obscure books. And I was. I mean, I may  have read every Patricia Highsmith book or some off the wall indie writer(s) and raved on and on about it, but they were not into it. "Where's Janet Evanovich? J.K. Rowling? JAMES PATTERSON???" I was at a loss. So my friend post corrections officer said, "you need to get with the people. Your books are too hard,  too out there, man." I took her advice. 

In that advice I mixed different genres as well as that was still a major goal for me. I was a straight up NYT bestseller reader until I discovered travel writers, bios, autobios and Sci Fi. I wanted everyone to read what I read and well, that's just not going to happen. Not at first, anyway. It took a few years to hook people in, just to "try" (please? I begged) and they did.

The group grew due to my editor bodyguard friend, she worked at a university and knows quite a million and a half readers (not really, I am so lying,  the group is at two hundred) but she did bring in the heart of the group. The post corrections officer followed with her friends and family. It grew and grew and friends invited their friends and it's a great bunch of people. I have met people who ended up being my good friends. It's rewarding. 

And it's a lot of work. I was posting books a lot, probably five times a week until I realized that I was not having much fun on the other side of Facebook. I made a pact with myself. Book postings on Wednesdays and Sundays and in between days, articles and such from my Facebook book page list. I had more time to post cat memes and what I ate for dinner. Like the rest of the world. I even fit in Fat Mum Slim's photo of the day. Photography became fun as well.

There are a lot of things I have been into but this group has been the most rewarding. I have implemented the no snobbery policy (which they are the least snobby people I know so that wasn't even an issue) and staying on topic as much as possible though.. we got into The Cheesecake Factory the other day. At least it was under a cake baking book I had posted.

I forgot people in the beginning and I regret that. People, like me, read the NYT bestseller list or headed right to the top books at B and N or we read nothing else, but in that I had to change, I knew that there are so many wonderful books from other countries, fiction, non, coffee table books, informational, quirky, and self-helpy. And so much more. The greatest part of the group besides fast friendships (and a mascot that is a WereHedgehog (see? we even have a shapeshifter thing going on)) was the members who tried other genres. That, to me, was a wonderful thing.  

And they run the group whether I am there or not and I love that so much.

I am saying thank you to them today, to every single member, related to me or not. You have made this group the most fun area of my online social life which has seeped into real life. You are the best, my nerdy book friends, the very best.

Merci.

PS the photo is a book (of a series) that my editor buddy loves, that is why I used that particular book in the photo, next photo will be all about my post corrections guard buddy. I promise. x Probably along the lines of Janet Evanovich.

Passing on our legacy... in a stocking.

The magic of book/bookish gift giving at Christmas! Being a book lover and giver yields wondrous bookish things. It's those books and bookish gifts that makes my holiday the most special, especially the giving part. I do my very best to give books to family and friends, even if they are not readers, and all these neat things? Many will fit right into a stocking.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/165942108/book-lovers-christmas-stocking-a-custom

How fabulous is that? 

And no. I don't know that person but she makes some pretty cool things.

My mom gave me a butterfly made out of book pages (try not to groan, I know this makes people crazy.) It is  beautiful and has a prime spot on my tree. Here is a close up:

Thank you, Mom.

My daughter had her Scholastic Book Fair a couple of weeks ago and these books are what she picked out:

For a long time I had filled out the order sheet  for her, as she has Cerebral Palsy. . I  found out a few years back that she wanted to pick out her own books. I felt such elation, this was a child who wasn't supposed to talk, see, or hear. She does all three (a bit too much most of the time, but who is complaining?) 

I am not digressing, I needed to share that. (smile.)

Scholastic Books are a cheaper way to stock up on holiday book gifts for the kids you know. And the selection is always spot on for any age/kid's taste.

http://www.scholastic.com/home/

We like to have our book piles on floors or standing up against things here in our home, visual accessibility is a high priority. We can each grab a book at any time, look at them and think of the person that gave us that book and sit back with a nice hot cup of tea and read.

And how many of those books were gifts? Lots!  I can list off ten people who had given me some of those books. 

There are also socks. Yes, Socks. My friend, Anne, found a place that sells socks for the book lover. Check them out!

(Great stocking stuffers!)

http://store.bookriot.com/collections/socks

So, we covered book decorations, children's books, piles of gift books that were given to me, and socks. Socks!

A good start to your list making.

The holiday (all of them represented) is a perfect time to buy book items for the stocking, no matter how small or large it may be. As in each person's life, a book should be presented to them by you so they have a chance to say, "I may like this. I may not." Each time you give a book or bookish gift, they may not cave or maybe they will come back to you and say, "Hey, that Nelson DeMille you gave me? I read four of his other books since then, thank you, and those socks? Perfect!"

And you will weep.

Trust me. You. Will.

I have one more blog to write and then it's a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Hanukkah and Happy Kwanzaa. I wish you all the best for your holidays, with good family, good friends, good food, good conversations and most of all, good books! May you be blessed always. ~Cheryl

be safe I love you by Cara Hoffman

I have read scores of reviews on this book. The one thing that resonated with me was that if it this book is  reviewed, it will spoil everything for the reader.  I personally feel that reviews are for the reader that has finished the book. We need to find common ground with others who will write a frame of what the book is about but will also give answers to clues the reader missed. Reviews are not for pre-reading.  The back of the book or the blurb inside the dust jacket cover is enough beforehand,. 

I will give this book one of my rare five stars, please go buy it now and tell me how you feel when you are finished... hurry!  Call me at two in the morning,  I don't care, I will get right up to talk about this book with you.

Cara Hoffman is a wonderfully, brutally strong no fuss author. She weaves a story about a young woman, Lauren Clay,  returning home from Iraq. A soldier that has changed. A soldier that has to come back to the mundane after atrocity,  and a soldier in a previous life that was going to go to a prestigious music school for her exceptional singing. Unfortunately, when the foreclosure notices on her father's home start rolling in she has to find a way to make money, as her father is unfit to do so. And there's Danny. Her little brother whom the reader will come to adore. He is not like other boys. Lauren took him under her wing and was forced to teach him about life,  all alone, without any parental love or guidance.

Once home Lauren finds that she is not only a "beloved" member of her community but also someone who has returned without her spirit, but only she knows this, and can feel that others are not catching on. My favorite lines from the book are-

She'd come home to a world of fragile baby animals. Soft inarticulate wide-eyed morons with know-nothing epiphanies and none of them-not one of them-did what she said,, which was beginning to grate on her, cut to the heart of how wrong things were. 

-because she is broken and as the story progresses, the reader can feel the palpable irritation, impatience, and  violence that is stirring in her. 

There isn't much written about women who come back from their deployments and there isn't much about these women who return with PTSD as much as you may find with men, and even that can be a rare research success. Cara Hoffman paints a mural of what Lauren is enduring but as you watch the artist painting, you do not know what the outcome may be.

Lauren teaches Danny about survival and takes off with him to Canada to meet up with a soldier friend that falls under a mysterious context. They stop for a time at a unheated cabin resting in the snowy mountains and from there we see Lauren through Danny's eyes. 

The best part of the book, I feel.

In the dance between Lauren and her brother, I  had to shut my eyes to the blistering honesty that Hoffman so beautifully writes. It's almost eloquence in the face of what Lauren and Danny must endure.

I will leave it there. There are poignant characters in this book that are focused on and used in this story without the added "walk on" or space filler characters to paint the story. 

Find a friend to read with. Also, make sure you read the interview with Hoffman in the back of the book. Her thoughts on war, women in war, propaganda as well as other controversial issues are so stark and honest that it is almost like reading a story in itself. Don't miss it. 

Buy it.

~excuse my lack of editing, very tired after staying up reading another good book which makes that okay, right?! Right!~

One Book and One Series (I would hand out like candy)

How to find a book lover-nerd a book for the holidays:  Well, good news, here are some "book hacks" to find that friend the perfect book because in the past, I have blown it by guessing.  I gave a Stewart O'Nan book to a friend who likes  Anything Zombies, think about that, O'Nan, Zombies. I know she tossed the book to the bottom of a pile and it remains there praying for an unobtrusive  O'Nan reader to rescue it.

Either join a book group with all your friends then you will be in the know. OR Goodreads,  you can silently scout around their TBR list. Pinterest is another favorite, most book lovers have a TBR board to make things even easier. 

The Interwebz is a wonderful place to find out what people want, especially book nerds.

So here are two ideas just to get you started:

The Storied Life of A.J. Fickry is a favorite. I will put the description here from Goodreads:

(I am pressed for time, forgive..)

On the faded Island Books sign hanging over the porch of the Victorian cottage is the motto "No Man Is an Island; Every Book Is a World." A. J. Fikry, the irascible owner, is about to discover just what that truly means.

A. J. Fikry's life is not at all what he expected it to be. His wife has died, his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history, and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. Slowly but surely, he is isolating himself from all the people of Alice Island-from Lambiase, the well-intentioned police officer who's always felt kindly toward Fikry; from Ismay, his sister-in-law who is hell-bent on saving him from his dreary self; from Amelia, the lovely and idealistic (if eccentric) Knightley Press sales rep who keeps on taking the ferry over to Alice Island, refusing to be deterred by A.J.'s bad attitude. Even the books in his store have stopped holding pleasure for him. These days, A.J. can only see them as a sign of a world that is changing too rapidly.

And then a mysterious package appears at the bookstore. It's a small package, but large in weight. It's that unexpected arrival that gives A. J. Fikry the opportunity to make his life over, the ability to see everything anew. It doesn't take long for the locals to notice the change overcoming A.J.; or for that determined sales rep, Amelia, to see her curmudgeonly client in a new light; or for the wisdom of all those books to become again the lifeblood of A.J.'s world; or for everything to twist again into a version of his life that he didn't see coming. As surprising as it is moving, The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry is an unforgettable tale of transformation and second chances, an irresistible affirmation of why we read, and why we love.

I loved this book. I loved the characters, all of them. I felt it was a well executed plot and though  I have found people who were not impressed (that's okay) there are those of us (many) who love this story, it's a whole-book-love, no complaints kind of read. For me, the best parts of the book was A.J. Fickry's life in his bookstore, his thoughts on books and the people who surround the business or buys them. He is right out there with such a concentrated bluntness  (said by him or thought by him) and I had a good chuckle over the  realities of the reading world.

My advice: give it as a gift, the book nerd will love you forever. 

Another book (Series) I would give out to my Sci Fi Friends. Just because they have to read this series.

Books one through four, five underneath...

 

I took one of those great Facebook leaps and made friends with David Simpson. I have known him a long time (as well as his lovely wife, Jenny) and I cannot tell you how much fun it is to be a friend of someone not only writing a series but going under all kinds of great things to make it a movie. Plus he is one of the coolest authors, he LOVES his fans and will keep up with us no matter how busy he is. He's a gem.

I had picked up Post Human first, and loved it. It's fast paced, it's A.I., people and it's just damn good. Each book brings so much more and I highly recommend them not just because he is my friend but because he is a great author. I will link the books/descriptions via Goodreads here:

 https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3162779.David_Simpson?from_search=true

I hope that link works! I will spend one blog strictly on his books later on.

I will also bring more great holiday books to pass on, it's the holidays, we all could use a bit of help when it comes to buying books for our friends.And it's one of the hardest times for me to sit down and read, so I find writing to be the fix (a very temporary one!)

  

The Bookhamlet on Facebook

I have a smallish (about two hundred people)  book group on Facebook. It's closed as we all get a long very well and though we all read different genres, our time on there is personal. we are like family and our blend of differences gel, it just works. We do have many rules that are quite easy to live with. If you are looking for a laid back book group, no "book of the month" nor snobbery, ask to join. Again, we have rules, and we do not go off topic nor allow any type of self promotion, however, if you give us what you are doing, (the three administrators) we will promote you to the back teeth. We have a lovely group, lovely members and a lovely blend of books from all genres represented. 

The Link:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/thebookhamlet/

Try it, if you don't like it, you can always delete yourself from it. No hard feelings.
Cheryl

Authors To Love: Dani Shapiro

I cannot remember when I read Slow Motion by Dani Shapiro nor found her haunting blog about being a writer but when I did, I knew I found an author to love. She is vulnerable, she is fierce, she is honest and she is pretty damn smart. Her memoir, Slow Motion gave me the sense that sometimes living life in a deeply religious family, that provides too much safety when you are young, makes you realize that safety is what you run from and tragically, is what you come back to when you get older. Almost always. It centers you. It haunts you and it creates you as an adult.

Here is a description from Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25760.Slow_Motion?from_search=true

Dani Shapiro, a young woman from a deeply religious home, became the girlfriend of a famous and flamboyant married attorney-her best friend's stepfather. The moment Lenny Klein entered her life, everything changed: she dropped out of college, began drinking, and neglected her friends and family. But then came a phone call-an accident on a snowy road had left her parents critically injured. Forced to reconsider her life, Shapiro learned to re-enter the world she had left. Telling of a life nearly ruined by the gift of beauty, and then saved through tragedy, Shapiro's memoir is a beautiful account of how a life gone terribly wrong can be rescued through tragedy.

If you are going to delve into Dani Shapiro I would suggest Slow Motion first.

Devotion description on Goodreads:

 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6772094-devotion?from_search=true

  
 I read the two fiction books (in my photo above) between her memoirs but I want to stick to Shapiro's memoirs first.  In Devotion, Sharpiro takes us on a journey of what she really believe in. Memories of her family, highly religious and traditionally Jewish pushes her on a path to understand her parents, her losses as well as what it means to find oneself in a world of what her parents believe in and lived by. Perhaps to interject  it into her own life after searching through traditional avenues. I found it to be a remarkable story. One I will not forget. Her personal life is put out there for display, she pushes the reader to think about where they come from culturally as well as religiously. And how we slip that faith into our lives as our parents once had who possibly had less demanding emotions, like anxiety, which are now staples in our waking lives.

 Family History, fiction, was a good read. I will use Goodreads description below to describe the book:

  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/165345.Family_History?from_search=true

  

From the prodigiously gifted author of the acclaimed memoir Slow Motion, a stunning and brutally honest novel about one family’s harrowing recovery from devastation.  

Rachel Jensen is perfectly happy: in love with her husband, devoted to their daughter Kate, gratified by her work restoring art. And finally, she’s pregnant again. But as Rachel discovers, perfection can unravel in an instant. The summer she is thirteen, Kate returns from camp sullen, angry, and withdrawn. Everyone assures Rachel it’s typical adolescent angst. But then Kate has a terrifying accident with her infant brother, and the ensuing guilt brings forth a dreadful lie—one that ruptures their family, perhaps irrevocably. Family History is a mesmerizing journey through the mysteries of adolescent pain and family crisis. 

I had read all these books a while back so my memory needed a refresh today. I flipped through the story just now and that wonderful reader "oh YES YES I remember that book, it was very good" kicked in. Shapiro knows family dynamics. She is one author I recommend to my book group members or friends who say, "I want a good book on family dysfunction." As I sat here and started reading it, I put it to the side to read it once again.

Black and White (my favorite fiction book by Shapiro, Goodreads description link below)

 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25761.Black_White?from_search=true

Clara Brodeur has spent her entire adult life pulling herself away from her famous mother, the renowned and controversial photographer Ruth Dunne, whose towering reputation rests on the unsettling nude portraits she took of her young daughter.

At age eighteen, sick of her notoriety as “the girl in the pictures,” Clara fled New York City, settling and making her own family in small-town Maine. But years later, when Ruth reaches out from her deathbed, Clara suddenly finds herself drawn back to the past she thought she had escaped. From the beloved author of Family History and Slow Motion, a spellbinding novel that asks: How do we forgive those who failed to protect us?
 

From the Trade Paperback edition.

When someone asks you if you know of a good "mother-daughter" book, this is the one to recommend. It has a quality about it that hooked me in straight away. A photographer mom, a muse daughter promoting that never ending tension on who gave up on whom. And how it all grows through a system of psychology and reality. Again, another high recommendation. 

Dani Shapiro never fails me, I have had other friends tell me they could not get into her books, which is always okay, after all, we are all discriminate readers some of the time. But for those that like the pull and drama of family, her books resonate. She ranks high on my list.

Other books by Dani Shaprio not read yet but on my TBR list:

Still Writing is on my Kindle. I can't wait to sit down and read, with a nice big cup of coffee, by the fire on a cold day.

Dani Shapiro's Website:
 http://danishapiro.com/

 

Holiday Book Buying

It can nearly impossible at times to buy a book lover a gift. Sure, a gift card is much appreciated (more than anyone knows) but sometimes, you just want to give a book that means something more.

A couple of years ago a close co-worker gave me this children's book. It's called The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore by William Joyce, illustrated by Joe Bluhm. 

 Beautifully written and illustrated I highly recommend this for someone you know that will unwrap, hug the the craziness out of the book and then leave you alone to read it, straight away.  I was also overcome with appreciation and gratitude that my friend understood me well enough to know I would love this. 

Since the holidays are coming, and you probably know plenty of book lovers (or you wouldn't be reading this) take a look at what is out there in the children's section. I would also ask (without giving yourself away) what books your friend(s) liked as a child or teen. Ask them if they still have a copy. Buy it used or new. It doesn't matter, (see last blog) it's the thought (and it's a HUGE thought) that counts. And they will adore you forever, as I do my friend. 

Description from Amazon: 

Book Description

Publication Date: June 19, 2012 | Age Level: 4 - 8 | Grade Level: P - 3

The book that inspired the Academy Award–winning short film, from New York Times bestselling author and beloved visionary William Joyce.

Morris Lessmore loved words.
He loved stories.
He loved books.
But every story has its upsets.
Everything in Morris Lessmore’s life, including his own story, is scattered to the winds.
But the power of story will save the day.
Stunningly brought to life by William Joyce, one of the preeminent creators in children’s literature, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is a modern masterpiece, showing that in today’s world of traditional books, eBooks, and apps, it’s story that we truly celebrate—and this story, no matter how you tell it, begs to be read again and again.

Happy Shopping.

Buy it: for you and your friends!

Book Gifts and Bookmarks

My Canadian friend sent me this book the other day. When I took it out of the mailing package I squealed with joy, not only because it was from her (she has wonderful taste in books and I love her) but that it was used. I loved getting used books as gifts. You are sharing a story you love by passing it on. I looked over the front and back covers, peeked inside and noticed  "Jessie" written in pencil on the first page upper right corner. Who is Jessie? Did she like the book? My friend told me she has handed copies of this book out to other friends. which makes it very special. To love a story so much that you find yourself handing it off to many people who in turn, you pray, hand copies off to more story lovers. 

My friend gave me a bookmark as well (a hedgehog, long story on that one) which made the surprise complete. Throwing in a bookmark is the loveliest idea. My grandmom, Gan, used to buy already cut bookmarks and yarn (for the tassel bit) and paint flowers on them to hand out to everyone she knew. They are like gold and since she made so many I had a pretty good stash that has ended up all over the world sent to people I love. Bookmarks are personal, and when a friend nails it, it's a treasured gift.

I have also used cards (intact or just the cover), receipts, newspaper clippings, cardboard, ribbon, jute, bills, and  many bought bookmarks over the years I wish I could gather them all up for photo but  they are holding court in many books, waiting for me to return.

One of my best finds after a used book store haul was a yellowed receipt from Barnes and Noble. Whoever left this receipt bought terrific reads. I wondered who it was, did they have a latte  and languish over their soon to be purchases or did they buy those books in a mad fury as we all do every once in a while. No matter, it was my bookmark in that particular book for the duration. 

I find that book gifts from loved ones seem to resonate with me more than any "new" item on the planet. I appreciate everything that has ever been given to me, but books and bookmarks rank at the top of my list. I treat them as if they were emeralds.

What are your favorite bookmarks and what else do you use to mark a page?

Photos by me, and afghan/floral bookmarks made by my Gan.

Outlander, reading over the holidays, and mothers

I tried reading this book years ago. At the time I wasn't impressed. I don't know why, I am not sure what I was into reading back then, but time travel wasn't my cup of tea.

Until I became a rabid Dr. Who fan.
NOT that these two have a thing in common (prove me wrong, I really don't know.)

My mom handed Outlander by Diana Gabaldon to my yesterday. Try it, she said.
So, last night I started it, knowing I couldn't read just this second, and loved it. I fell IN love with it. How does that happen years later with a book?
I suppose books are like people to readers, some you may not prefer until you meet up with them again later in life. A pleasant surprise in most cases.

I am tearing through three books right now but I know that once I get into this book I may not come out for a while, as Mom showed the rest of her series to me sitting brightly on her bookshelf..
And. She pointed out,  you only get one book at a time.
Crestfallen I stayed mute on that one, she knows my complete non-disciplined personality when it comes to series of that magnitude.

Moving on:. The best books seem to be released now thanks to the holidays which calls for tightening up the old TBR list. I had to shuffle some books around and fitting in Outlander is going to be rough. After all, I swore up and down I would NOT start a big book during the holidays as The Goldfinch was read through Christmas and New Year's 2013. What a disservice for Ms. Tartt! And for me! Lovely book, I may have to re-read the beginning in June next year to absorb it a bit better.

Photo by me, that lovely afghan was made by my Gan ( aka grandmom on my mother's side, you will hear more about Gan as I go along.) Wonderful woman who passed the love of books through out our whole family.  May she rest in Heaven's library's peace.

What I Had Before I Had You by Sarah Cornwell

Quick review: What I Had Before You by Sarah Cornwell was a "barely looked at plot because I really liked the cover download." Shallow, I know. Maybe not to cover artists but when it comes to picking out a book, I like to know what the plot is all about.  Some days it just doesn't work out that way. 

The premise from Amazon:

In What I Had Before I Had You by Sarah Cornwell, a woman must face the truth about her past in this luminous, evocative literary novel of parents and children, guilt and forgiveness, memory and magical thinking, set in the faded, gritty world of the New Jersey Shore.

Olivia was only fifteen the summer she left her hometown of Ocean Vista. Two decades later, on a visit with her children, her nine-year-old son Daniel, recently diagnosed with bipolar disorder, disappears. Olivia’s search for him sparks tender and painful memories of her past—of her fiercely loving and secretive mother, Myla, an erratic and beautiful psychic, and the discovery of heartbreaking secrets that shattered her world.

I loved it. I am biased, of course, as I live in NJ and found "Ocean Vista" to be a mix of all the shore towns I have ever visited and loved. I felt much admiration,  pity and disdain  for Olivia as equally with  her mother but with most mental disorders, readers emotions are a bit more temporary when one climbs through a story of troubled relationships. I am totally  into the mother-daughter books (think Janet Fitch and Dani Shapiro, two of my favorite authors who both excel on this subject.) And Cornwell did not disappoint. 

Borrow it. 

(though you may find it on Kindle, Nook, iBooks for a steal)

Happy Halloween!

I downloaded a few photo apps and had a bit of fun today making books look creepy for Halloween. I did pull out Ghost by Alan Lightman as I wanted to stop what I was doing and read something "ghostly" and this is a light book so I should be finished in no time. Hopefully  completed by the time the candy bowl is empty, the candles are liquefied down to their wicks deep in the carved pumpkins and the last child has left the neighborhood  sidewalks drowning in the glow of an exorbitant mount of sugar.

I actually threw this book down in the wet leaves for this shot.

No lie. 

I have been fussing with photography for a while, a few family members and friends of mine are into the Fat Mum Slim photo a day on Facebook. Mainly, I wanted to make sure my own photos are used on this blog. You know, copyright laws and all that.

So my pics are my own on this blog.

I encourage a click or two over to Facebook to check out FMS, it's creative and fun.

Happy Halloween!

Link to Fat Mum Slim on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FatMumSlim?fref=ts
FMS Blog:
http://www.fatmumslim.com.au/

Speak Softly, She Can Hear by Pam Lewis

Every so often I pick out a book that I am not so sure about.  The types of books  I may find on BookGorilla or recommended in the upper right hand corner on Goodreads. To be honest, I have no idea where this came from. I wish I had kept a lifetime list of books that just happen,  I can't even give that list a proper title but they usually end up being a fine read. And I always learn later the author has been around with other published books, much to my chagrin. This author has two other books.

Speak Softly, She Can Hear is a thriller by Pam Lewis. Dated back to the sixties when NYC parents were nagging their daughters to do well so they can get  into Vassar. Carole Mason had parents of such nature but due to her weight and making the wrong types of friends (though she was brilliant) placed her in a horror of a situation up in Stowe Vermont. That one night changed her life completely. She was only 16.

Letting her parents down was the second heart plunk right after the "situation" in Stowe, a dark happening where I had a hard time believing something of that sort would even exist back then  (how old fashion of me, well, obtuse really.) Carole spends the next decade escaping and  running from something that would destroy her life if revealed.  Her on-again off-again prep school friend, Naomi, who was in Stowe that night, seems to pop up in her life at the very wrong times along with.Eddie, another player from the night in Stowe, creating his evil Carole must endure as payment. Carole is a bundle of nerves and continues on running after many encounters from the past. 

Including the own tormented voice inside her head.

People on the lam books tend to make me highly intense. I clench my teeth, rub my forehead, shut the book and run off to do something else like read a magazine but I always return.  Even though I may not like the main character at times, I rooted Carole Mason on with vigor.  Carole, at one point meets Rachel who is  pregnant and lost whom Carole becomes  intently kind to and tries with all her heart to help her. I almost feel like I was reading a female version of The Talented Mr. Ripley to a very small degree.

 By the time I reached the climax of the story, I wanted my world to suspend for a time.  I needed to figure this mess along side of Carole because by then I really wanted things to be better.   I was surprised with the ending, and I always give a book a big thumbs up for surprises that elude me as I am usually on the mark figuring things out early on. 

One thing that completely amazed me (at forty-seven I should NOT be amazed at this point) was the lack of technology, it made me think, time and time again, why doesn't she get a damn cell phone?  But, it's the sixties! How dull of me, then again, how exciting to read characters that survive on pure instinct. Bravo!

Borrow it.

Oh Kay, please stop and wait for me!

I was looking for new books to post on my book group and this book by Patricia Cornwell slapped me across the face. "How could you abandon us?"  I will tell you, Ms. Cornwell,  Life happened and I am not happy  missing out on any of your books. Since 1991, when I read Postmortem, I have been in love with your characters truly believing that I was the first one in a hundred mile radius that found this wonderful book first and made sure that radius expanded. I yelled  your name from the rooftops. But as I said, life got in the way, as well as work, a child, family and other books.

I am sorry. Serious.

But now you blasted out book number 22 and I am 7 books behind. Maybe more. I don't even know.  I went to Wikipedia and found that I am not even close to catching up. I left off at the very ninth page of Blow Fly as the page is marked.

I have a love/hate with series books. I do. And I applaud the very people who read them with such absorption, they remind me of the most sturdiest of paper towels. I finally got into a few series here and there, loving some, giving up on most and not even going near Harry Potter (oh my, we shall blog chat about that someday. ) I enjoyed what I have read but I left Kay Scarpetta in the dust for Ender's Game among many others.

Forgive me, Ms. Cornwell.

I would like to get back into Cornwell's books. I really would. In fact, I wish  there were Cliff Notes on this ordeal so I could catch up to the latest book and read it without touching the past. Of course, in this book world or rowdy nerds, I wouldn't dare. 

I always post the latest and greatest books that Patricia Cornwell writes in my book group and will continue to do so.

And hope I can find some time to fit Kay Scarpetta, Marino, Benton and Lucy back into my life.. (Good God are they even alive? Don't answer that. I will find out soon enough.)

Hello Fall, goodbye power reading

Fall is the busiest time, planning out the last quarter of the year with parties, appointments and the holidays. Most of my family happen to have  birthdays in October and November. This leaves reading time to a few stolen moments a day. I said goodbye to the long hours of summer reading...Hello Fall, goodbye power reading.

AND this is when all the Fall books arrive and they are usually the best books of the year.

So many books to read and my TBR list since 1985 or so seems to be taller than my house.

Unfortunately, I cannot finish my friend E's book, which she was so kind enough to let me borrow on my Kindle, I will return to it soon. And I have set the Zoo book down for a while. I need a blizzard to settle down with that book. I scramble my books around a lot and from what I hear of late, this is normal activity of most readers these days. 

So right now I am reading: 

Very interesting mystery chilly-thriller. The setting is Vermont and NYC in the 50's which makes one think, ho hum, what could be so great about that kind of a mystery-thriller back in the day?  But that is what makes this book work. When we think of the 50's  we think wholesome and goodness nary edginess or murder. This book has all that and more! ( I sound like one of those  old Channel 17 commercial)

It's very good and I won't even begin to compare it to Gone Girl  but...(said mumbling) it is a book where most of the characters are unlikeable ...which is to say there are many books where most of the characters are unlikeable but the plot is so compelling..so why do we always compare these books to Gone Girl? Don't answer, I already know the answer, it's a damn good book.) I will review Speak Softly, She Can Hear when I am finished which will be soon if the pumpkins don't get in the way.

Second book I am sort of plucking through: 

I want to review this for so many reasons. So I will leave it for now. So far, it's incredibly good. I see I put an audiobook up, I am sure it's wonderfully read by Susan Sarandon and Julia Ormond, I almost wish I did buy it in Audiobook.

Today I have some time to catch up on my reading while the H winterizes his garden. A perfectly great day to do such a thing with no sun and a mild chill.

Until we meet again.

Photo taken by me

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

I finished All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr this week. I sat for a long time after remembering some of the lyrical prose from this beautifully written story. Before we move on, let me indulge you with the prose I was allowing to roll around my head for a time.

 “Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.” 

“So how, children, does the brain, which lives without a spark of light, build for us a world full of light?” 

 “His voice is low and soft, a piece of silk you might keep in a drawer and pull out only on rare occasions, just to feel it between your fingers.” 

 “I have been feeling very clearheaded lately and what I want to write about today is the sea. It contains so many colors. Silver at dawn, green at noon, dark blue in the evening. Sometimes it looks almost red. Or it will turn the color of old coins. Right now the shadows of clouds are dragging across it, and patches of sunlight are touching down everywhere. White strings of gulls drag over it like beads.

It is my favorite thing, I think, that I have ever seen. Sometimes I catch myself staring at it and forget my duties. It seems big enough to contain everything anyone could ever feel.” 

This is a story about parallel lives of a boy and a girl in their teens living in two different countries, Germany and France during WW2. 

Marie Laure lives with her papa  in Paris, he is master of the keys in the Museum of Natural History. Marie Laure goes to the museum every day with him to learn everything she can by touching. Marie Laure is blind. 

Once the Germans were beginning to occupy Paris, Marie Laure and her papa flee to get as far away as they can. They head east. For two reasons, something that  Papa possessed and their survival. They end up in St. Malo. A city surrounded by sea walls at a distance North of  Normandy Beach. They move in with an agoraphobic elderly  uncle in a tall narrow house by the sea wall. 

Paralleling Marie Laure is Werner, he is a young German boy who loves to tinker with all kinds of things, he is gifted in turning  a smattering of materials into something that runs, like radios.  He lives in a loving but bleak orphanage with his sister, Jutta. He gets plucked up by  the Germans and sent to a barbaric  boarding school where life is hard. Werner grapples between the do or die patriotism and the rational words of his younger sister.

The reader goes back and forth  between the past and present to build up the story. It is not confusing or hard to keep up with. The story is a compelling one, a reader would not forget a single moment between the two main characters.

The book will surprise the reader in  many ways. It's a peripheral story of WW2, not unlike The Book Thief, however, both stories are vastly different.  It takes the reader into other ares that were affected devastatingly by the war but away from concentration camps, not that they are dismissed in any way. You feel the sadness and desperation of the people is quite the same even on the periphery.

One more thing:
The third character: St. Malo.
St Malo is one of the most beautiful places in the world. I suggest a Google search of its' entirety before you read the book.

Buy it.

Da Burds: A Tale of Birding, The Mob, and Redemption by John Hartmann

John Hartmann who wrote Jacket (my next review) as well as a couple of other books wrote this wonderful short book.. And it is very close to my heart. Living in Jersey, exposed to a book  about a  bird competition and the mob written by Hartmann with his keen sense of humor, well, that's a win-win for me!
And would be for anyone that liked the Sopranos which was sadly lacking birds. I think.

My exuberant review on Amazon and I meant this review with all my Jersey being!

5.0 out of 5 stars Da Burds: A Tale of Birding, The Mob and Redemption. A fine read! June 28, 2014

By Cheryl Musgrove

Verified Purchase

After watching the entire Sopranos series back to back last year, I am still grieving over not having it on my nightly viewing schedule. This novella gave me a slice of what I have been missing. Adding the world's largest birding competition in the mix, I felt it deserved a high score, due to Hartmann's creativity with mixing the two into a superb story.
A story I do not want to spoil for readers, I will be brief with the premise. Preston Brooks owes Tony "Screws" Cavalucci a lot of money. As we all know through fiction and non-fictional historical accounts, this is never good. Preston is one of the judges for the world's largest birding competition which may be his way out of leaving the world early for lack of payment to the mob. Tony forms a birding team and from there, family, redemption, mob talk and plenty of adventure ensue on their daring trip around NJ to find certain birds to win the competition.
Rich in descriptive New Jersey landscape, as well as enhanced by beautiful bird drawings by local artist, Thomas Baumann, this book has a story to tell and one would be remiss in passing it by. John Hartmann can weave a tale, making you want to don binoculars and search out every bird in New Jersey while waiting for his next story or book to come out. Well done, I give it five stars on creativity, story, character development, and inspiration.

Well done, John! 

The Dinner by Herman Koch

I read this book a while back during a stressful period in my life. So I was not paying attention to it until midway through. Then I locked my sights on it and am here to recommend it.

Housekeeping first:

1. The Dinner is a book that has been compared to Gone Girl and we need to stop right here.

It's nothing like Gone Girl.

The characters in The Dinner are far worse disordered.

Gone Girl has characters of loathsome qualities but there was a bit of a sympathy factor for them as the reader. (It was a very slight sympathy factor.) The books are two different stories.Both in high regard (unless you talk to a few of my book group members. I had to promise to read Harry Potter so they would at the very least, go see Gone Girl in the movies, they are a very loving but tough crowd.) 

we can talk about my blatant rebellion on not reading happy potter another day.

2.It also received the rap that it was "very disturbing" which I have to add, not so. I have read disturbing and this book scores a five out of ten in the very disturbing reads category. But we can also say disturbing can be subjective. I say it's a five.

The premise: Two brothers meet at an expensive restaurant to talk about Serge's career as possibly the next PM of the Netherlands. Babett and Claire, their wives, respectively, attend as they are a part of this family business that must be attended to. Paul, the other  brother,  is a man of many neurotic intensities and complexities.  They have business to discuss before Serge goes forth into his candidacy. 

This business is their sons who committed a violent act.

The entire book is over many dinner courses in the restaurant. They are allowed to venture off for walks or mental back stories to build up the story. Serge has a career to uphold and Paul is a curmudgeon who has a lot of violence boiling inside of him. They have a lot to go back to in memory that adds so much to the story. A good twist here and there, you won't be able to guess what is going to happen next.

Where does violence begin? How is it cultivated and cooked down to a fine mixture? 

You will have many questions.

It's a book that I have a bit of a hard time reviewing as I wouldn't want to spoil it for anyone. I downloaded the book after reading the premise and was transfixed with this very psychological, gastronomical, and violent story. It was written well, it was executed with brilliance in using a full meal/evening to tell this disturbing story. and I tend to like the whole "sit down for a whole drawn out meal while we go back and forth to get the end" story. 

Borrow it.

Or keep a check on Kindle for a low price, it has happened here and there. 

Ditching the Facebook app for reading

This is one of my photos from Fat Mum Slim's Photo of the Day Album.. The sad part was the first year I did FMS (when I took this photo) it was with a 3G iPhone. Many good photos killed by the furry 3G camera.

 I hope I can re-do this photo.  In fact, I have to leave Middlesex out as my husband was not amused that I wasn't "savvy" enough to pick up on the fact that Middlesex should be in the middle not near the bottom. He is right. 

On to the point..

I had to make a few decisions about my online life. It's very easy being out with a bum post-surgical foot to read all the book blogs I love, spend time on Facebook, Word Chums as well as other places I love to read. I will be going back to work at some point and I think I need some reading time. And blogger time.

I made some crazy changes (take a deep breath, I did these things, not you, it's okay.) 

I told my FB book group that I had to slow down on posting books. I planned to post a slew of books once during the week then once on the weekend. On the other days I will respond to their posts and such. I think I need to pull back a bit even though it is truly one of my best book ventures I have ever started..

Then....
I took Facebook off my phone.
I am FACEBOOKLESS when I am out.
Today was pretty good. I went out, took my Kindle and spent a good hour and a half reading.
I felt no pressure.
No temptations to reassure myself that the Facebook world and all my friends were intact and alive.
They are tough critters, they do not need me worrying all day right?

I thought, hmm if I want to have a book blog I really need to READ. 
No kidding, Cheryl.
So here we are. I have reviews I can catch up on old reads that may fill up some posts until I get my current three books completed.

That's my goings on.
See you this weekend.