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!)