Sunday, March 27, 2011

Mailbox Monday


Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at The Printed Page.

Thank you I'm Booking It for hosting this month's Mailbox Monday blog tour.

Check out the blog and post all the new books you acquired last week.

Secret Daughter: A Novel by Shilpi Somaya Gowda (ARC from Publisher)

From author's website:
Secret Daughter: A NovelSomer's life is everything she imagined it would be — she's newly married and has started her career as a physician in San Francisco — until she makes the devastating discovery she never will be able to have children.

The same year in India, a poor mother makes the heartbreaking choice to save her newborn daughter's life by giving her away. It is a decision that will haunt Kavita for the rest of her life, and cause a ripple effect that travels across the world and back again.

Asha, adopted out of a Mumbai orphanage, is the child that binds the destinities of these two women. We follow both familes, invisibly connected until Asha's journey of self-discovery leads her back to India.

Compulsively readable and deeply touching, SECRET DAUGHTER is a story of the unforeseen ways in which our choices and families affect our lives, and the indelible power of love in all its many forms.
 
Strings Attached by Judy Blundell (Amazon Vine)

Strings AttachedFrom Amazon:
From National Book Award winner Judy Blundell, the tale of a sixteen-year-old girl caught in a mix of love, mystery, Broadway glamour, and Mob retribution in 1950 New York.

When Kit Corrigan arrives in New York City, she doesn't have much. She's fled from her family in Providence, Rhode Island, and she's broken off her tempestuous relationship with a boy named Billy, who's enlisted in the army.

The city doesn't exactly welcome her with open arms. She gets a bit part as a chorus girl in a Broadway show, but she knows that's not going to last very long. She needs help--and then it comes, from an unexpected source.

Nate Benedict is Billy's father. He's also a lawyer involved in the mob. He makes Kit a deal--he'll give her an apartment and introduce her to a new crowd. All she has to do is keep him informed about Billy . . . and maybe do him a favor every now and then.

As she did in her National Book Award-winning What I Saw and How I Lied, Judy Blundell traps readers in a web of love, deceit, intrigue, and murder. The result? One stunner of a novel.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

It could have been sad but it ended up being amazing!


I'm not typically a mushy, sappy person.  Emotional...yes!  But not mushy (except when it comes to books).  However, I went to the funeral of a family friend today and had to share something.  This woman was not only the first female mayor of the city I grew up in long before I met her but she was a hilarious and amazing person.  Her biggest request at of her funeral service was that there be laughter and let me tell you there was!  I pulled up the obit this morning when I was trying to get the exact address of the church for the service and came across an article in our local newspaper about her.  There was a quote from her that I absolutely love...

“Being different is very important, I am a product of my own imagination.”

That is all...just something to think about...now go kiss someone you love!

Sunday, March 20, 2011

I Sound So Cultured When I Call Myself a "Collector"

Copyright 1884
How many of a certain item do you have to own before you can call yourself a collector?  I am going to say two and I am therefore a collector of etiquette books!  Allow me to explain...

Yes that says illustrated!!
Back in the summer of 2005 I was home from college to plan my mom's wedding.  We decided to head out to the beach for the day and on our way out stopped in the little town of Bodega (made famous by the movie The Birds).  We ended up in an antique store and I found my way to the books.  Shocking right!  A book of etiquette jumped out at me and I knew I had to have it.  Now you may be asking yourself how I remember the exact year that I found this little gem...well I remember because as I said it was when my mom was engaged and when we got home I read to her all the improper things she had been doing with her fiance...

Position of an Engaged Woman
Observe...
While the engaged woman is not to cut herself off from society entirely, yet she must remember that she has chosen her future husband, and should not encourage undue attention from others.  She is especially to avoid all flirtations.  Her mind should be turned to the future responsibilities which she is about to assume, and taken off the transient participation in social affairs.

Relations of an Engaged Couple
A young man has no right to appear in public with other ladies while his future bride remains at home. He is, after engagement, her legitimate escort.  She should accept no other escort when he is at liberty to attend her.  Neither should be too demonstrative of their affection before marriage.
Page 196

I'm not even going to mention that it was her second marriage.  Gasp!!

Jump forward to present time...I was, again, at an antique store with my husband and in-laws and found....
Copyright 1951

She has a book, I had to add it
Keeping along the same theme, allow me to enlighten you a bit more...

Second Marriages
When a divorcee remarries-unless the divorce is known to have been not at all of her making-the less said about it, the better; the general idea being that since she has once failed at marriage, time is needed to prove whether or not this marriage will be a good one.
Page 77

I mean really mother, you should have known better!


What is my fascination with etiquette books?  They bring about laughter and disgust and anger and amusement.  I love that I can read some things and I am able to laugh about them now.

 I'm off to read about telephone courtesy.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Mailbox Monday


Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at The Printed Page.

Thank you I'm Booking It for hosting this month's Mailbox Monday blog tour.

Check out the blog and post all the new books you acquired last week.

Night Road by Kristin Hannah (ARE from publisher)

From author's website:

Night RoadFor eighteen years, Jude Farraday has put her children’s needs above her own, and it shows—her twins, Mia and Zach—are bright and happy teenagers. When Lexi Baill moves into their small, close knit community, no one is more welcoming than Jude. Lexi, a former foster child with a dark past, quickly becomes Mia’s best friend. Then Zach falls in love with Lexi and the three become inseparable.

Jude does everything to keep her kids on track for college and out of harm’s way. It has always been easy-- until senior year of high school. Suddenly she is at a loss. Nothing feels safe anymore; every time her kids leave the house, she worries about them.

On a hot summer’s night her worst fears come true. One decision will change the course of their lives. In the blink of an eye, the Farraday family will be torn apart and Lexi will lose everything. In the years that follow, each must face the consequences of that single night and find a way to forget…or the courage to forgive.

Vivid, universal, and emotionally complex, Night Road raises profound questions about motherhood, identity, love, and forgiveness. It is a luminous, heartbreaking novel that captures both the exquisite pain of loss and the stunning power of hope. This is Kristin Hannah at her very best, telling an unforgettable story about the longing for family, the resilience of the human heart, and the courage it takes to forgive the people we love.



Where She Went by Gayle Forman (ARC from publisher)

From author's website:
Where She WentIt’s been three years since the devastating accident … three years since Mia walked out of Adam’s life forever.

Now living on opposite coasts, Mia is Julliard’s rising star and Adam is LA tabloid fodder, thanks to his new rock star status and celebrity girlfriend. When Adam gets stuck in New York by himself, chance brings the couple together again, for one last night. As they explore the city that has become Mia’s home, Adam and Mia revisit the past and open their hearts to the future—and each other.

Told from Adam’s point of view in the spare, lyrical prose that defined If I Stay, Where She Went explores the devastation of grief, the promise of new hope, and the flame of rekindled romance.



Saturday, March 12, 2011

I'll Be Watching This Book


Last week, Nat from Book, Line, and Sinker posted about many of the amazing books that are soon going to be movies. I immediately started adding release dates to my calendar (Harry Potter was, of course, already on my calendar with glitter and flair). 

Although a movie rarely does justice to the book, I still love watching them.  I love to see the characters come to life and how they are interpreted.  I love the sets and colors.  Most of all I love when something in the movie turns out exactly how I imagined it when I was reading the book.  Because of these things, I was excited when I came across a new trailer for a book I didn't know was being made into a movie....Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See.  I can't wait to see how the movie turns out and what memories from the book it triggers.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan comes out July 15 (same day as Harry Potter). Check out the trailer...

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Mailbox Monday


Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at The Printed Page.

Thank you I'm Booking It for hosting this month's Mailbox Monday blog tour.

Check out the blog and post all the new books you acquired last week.

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys (ARC from publisher)

From Indiebound:

Between Shades of GrayLina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin's orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions.

Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously-and at great risk-documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives. Between Shades of Gray is a novel that will steal your breath and capture your heart.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Harry Potter Party - The End

Ron gets caught eating a chocolate frog
I can't believe March is already here and that means I have come to the end of my Harry Potter Party posts.  I have a pretty good feeling that this is going to become an annual event but I think I am going to mix it up every year with more specific themes.  Death Eaters anyone?

I love this pic because you can see Luna's radish earrings.
To alleviate some of my HP withdrawals I started rereading Harry Potter but I am reading the British edition that my husband bought me....2 years ago.  I opened them the moment they arrived and then carefully wrapped them back in the packaging they came in and stored them at my mom's because I didn't want them to get damaged in all my moves.  Then I wanted to wait long enough that I wouldn't be reading book 7 right before the movies came out because it always ruins the movie.  Now that I have finally unpacked them, I am allowing myself to read one every month (I was supposed to wait until March but I couldn't so I allowed myself to read a few pages before bed every night...which was even more torturous).  I am blown away by how little I remember of book 1.  The entire first chapter was new again.  LOVE IT!


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