It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Sunday 31 July, 2011 By 62 Comments

It’s Monday What Are you Reading is the perfect way for me to begin my week and allows me to focus on what needs to be read and to see what I have or have not accomplished the previous week. I also enjoy discovering new books by visiting other participants blogs.

I Read and Reviewed (click the title to be taken to the review):

This week I am planning to read/review:

  • The Rules of the Tunnel by Ned Zeman
  • The Homecoming of Samuel Lake by Jenny Wingfield
  • This Beautiful Life by Helen Schulman
  • The Sixes by Kate White
  • Close Your Eyes by Amanda Eyre Ward
  • Northwest Corner by John Burnham Schwartz
  • The Girls of Murder City by Douglas Perry
Visit next Monday to see if I managed to accomplish my reading goals.
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The Sunday Salon (TSS: 7/31/11)

Sunday 31 July, 2011 By 8 Comments
The Sunday Salon.com

Life: I know I have mentioned the heat the past two Sundays, but it really is hot.  I am hoping there will be a break in the weather soon. This past week was a very bad week for me, but the pain is lessening to more tolerable levels, for which I am grateful. I cannot believe it is already the last day of July, where has the time gone?   I am not ready to have one of my children leave the nest.

Family Update: We had a great visit with my husband’s parents and have almost finished back to school shopping as well as getting everything ready for our oldest son to head off to college.  Time has gone by so very quickly, it seems like only yesterday I was getting him ready for Kindergarten.  All too soon we shall be moving our son into his dorm, so for the next few weeks I will be focusing almost all my energy on family (the boys may not enjoy so much parent time) but DH and I need it.

Saturday Night: With only 3 Saturdays left before we take our oldest son to college, we spent the evening watching movies of his choosing.

Read and Reviewed: This past week I read and reviewed 8 books. If you have time, please take a look at the reviews, one never knows when they will find a treasure.

Today I will be reading: The Homecoming of Samuel Lake by Jenny Wingfield

Happy Reading and have a wonderful Sunday.
Visit the The Sunday Salon.
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Book Review: Blood Trust by Eric Van Lustbader

Saturday 30 July, 2011 By 2 Comments

Title: Blood Trust
Author: Eric Van Lustbader
Publisher: Forge Books
Publication Date: May 10, 2011
Hardcover: 416 pages
ISBN: 978-0765329745
Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Thriller


From the Publisher:

It was once said that you must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible . . .

Alli Carson has been through her own personal hell. With her father, the President of the United States, recently dead and her mother in a coma from a terrible accident, she has poured herself into her training to become one of the best FBI agents at the Fearington Institute. Her inspiration and solace comes from the one man with whom she has ever felt a kinship, National Security Adviser, Jack McClure. But when Alli becomes the prime suspect in a murder at Fearington, a wide ranging investigation is triggered, involving local homicide detectives, the secret service, the FBI itself, and Alli’s own uncle, the billionaire lobbyist Henry Carson. And yet nothing is what it seems.

What follows is a treacherous journey that leads Jack and Alli into a complex web of lies and deceit. Using Jack’s unique gifts to see the through the labyrinth of manipulation, their investigation leads them into the dark heart of the international slave trade, tied to a powerful Albanian crime lord whose ability and influence in global terrorism grows with each day.

The two find themselves in the crosshairs of vast global enterprise, one that lurks in the shadows of power and has infiltrated Washington and their lives in ways neither of them could ever have imagined. And hidden deep among it all sits a terrifying criminal mastermind, someone fueled by a hatred that can never be quenched, and a mind that knows neither feeling nor mercy.

My Review:

Blood Trust by Eric Van Lustbader is an action-packed suspense thriller and the third novel in Lustbader’s McClure-Carson series featuring National Security Advisor Jack McClure and Alli Carson, daughter to the late President of the United States. Van Lustbader continues with his stylish crafting of a plot that is loaded with intrigue, suspense, twists and double crosses as readers see Alli become the focus of a homicide investigation at her FBI training institute.  Readers will be lead down various dead-ends, sure that the case is a simple one, but in a masterfully-crafted series of turns, the case ultimately leads Alli, Jack and the investigation into the dim and gruesome world of human trafficking.  Even more shocking are discoveries yet to be made by these two protagonists as the evil and powerful mastermind they seek has brought business to Washington.  Van Lustbader will keep his readers’ attention focused in this engrossing thriller that is definitely hard to set down.  Mystery thriller fans will find Blood Trust to satisfy and I recommend it to those who are looking to see the pair in McClure and Carson in action once again.

To learn more about Eric Van Lustbader and his books, please visit his website at www.ericvanlustbader.com

I received a complimentary copy of Blood Trust by Eric Van Lustbader from Zeitghost Media. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned novel.

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Book Review: Flashback by Dan Simmons

Friday 29 July, 2011 By 6 Comments


Title: Flashback
Author: Dan Simmons
Publisher: Reagan Arthur Books
Publication Date: July 1, 2011
Hardcover: 560 pages
ISBN: 978-0316006965
Genre: Fiction

From the Publisher:

The United States is near total collapse. But 87% of the population doesn’t care: they’re addicted to flashback, a drug that allows its users to re-experience the best moments of their lives. After ex-detective Nick Bottom’s wife died in a car accident, he went under the flash to be with her; he’s lost his job, his teenage son, and his livelihood as a result.

Nick may be a lost soul but he’s still a good cop, so he is hired to investigate the murder of a top governmental advisor’s son. This flashback-addict becomes the one man who may be able to change the course of an entire nation turning away from the future to live in the past.

A provocative novel set in a future that seems scarily possible, FLASHBACK proves why Dan Simmons is one of our most exciting and versatile writers.

My Review:

Flashback by Dan Simmons is an evocative fictional story of the future United States, whose order among the countries of the world is crumbling.  Flashback is a drug that gives those who take it the ability to re-live memories and experiences that were enjoyable and Simmons crafts characters that are both believable and flawed, likeable and reprehensible, in this futuristic tale.  When Nick Bottom’s wife is killed in an accident, Nick risks his career and much more to re-live his best times with his wife through this powerful drug.  Though the effects of flashback on humans seemed a bit far-fetched, Simmons makes good use of the drug’s action to develop the story through literary flashbacks.  Mixing in a lot of present day politics with his storyline brings the book to life as readers will feel immersed in the plot.  While some readers may object to a few of the religious and political aspects of the plot, it is important to recognize that this is a fictional tale.  I recommend Flashback to readers who enjoy futuristic fiction.

About the Author:

Dan Simmons is the award-winning author of several novels, including the New York Times bestsellers Olympos and The Terror. He lives in Colorado.

I received a complimentary arc of Flashback by Dan Simmons from Little, Brown and Company/Reagan Arthur Books. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned novel.

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Book Review: The Book of Lies by Mary Horlock

Thursday 28 July, 2011 By 16 Comments

Title: The Book of Lies
Author: Mary Horlock
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Publication Date: July 19, 2011
Paperback: 368 pages
ISBN: 978-0062065094
Genre: Fiction

From the back of cover:

Life on the tiny island of Guernsey has just become a whole lot harder for fifteen-year-old Cat Rozier. She’s gone from model pupil to murderer, but she swears it’s not her fault. Apparently it’s all the fault of history.

A new arrival at Cat’s high school in 1984, the beautiful and instantly popular Nicolette inexplicably takes Cat under her wing. The two become inseparable—going to parties together, checking out boys, and drinking whatever liquor they can shoplift. But a perceived betrayal sends them spinning apart, and Nic responds with cruel, over-the-top retribution.

Cat’s recently deceased father, Emile, dedicated his adult life to uncovering the truth about the Nazi occupation of Guernsey—from Churchill’s abandonment of the island to the stories of those who resisted—in hopes of repairing the reputation of his older brother, Charlie. Through Emile’s letters and Charlie’s words—recorded on tapes before his own death—a “confession” takes shape, revealing the secrets deeply woven into the fabric of the island . . . and into the Rozier family story.

My Review:

The Book of Lies by Mary Horlock is an interesting story of Cat Rozier, a 16-year-old murderer, living on the island of Guernsey whose life was previously upended by a new student, Nicolette, who moved to the island and exerted a strong influence, and not in a positive sense, on young Cat.  Horlock crafts an intriguing storyline centered about the events that lead to murder on the island, and her approach, using alternating voices from Cat and Charlie, her late uncle, through his recordings was very unique and had potential to really connect the historical perspective to the present day events. I went into this novel really wanting to like it but only parts of it clicked for me.  I truly enjoyed the historical accounts of the uncle, but the switching between prose and written accounts got a little too mundane and just did not have the kind of transitions one would wish to have in this mode of perspective switching.  Being her debut novel, I think Mary Horlock has gotten off to a good start, just not a start that I particularly enjoyed and while this book was not for me, I encourage readers of my review to check out other opinions on the tour for The Book of Lies.  With that being said, I do look forward to reading Horlock’s next book.

About the Author:

Mary Horlock is an authority on contemporary art who has worked at the Tate Britain and Tate Liverpool, and curated the Turner Prize for contemporary art. She spent her childhood in Guernsey, and lives in London.

For more reviews of the book, please follow the TLC Book Tour.

I received a copy of The Book of Lies by Mary Horlock from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.

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Book Review: Beautiful Unbroken by Mary Jane Nealon

Wednesday 27 July, 2011 By 4 Comments

Title: Beautiful Unbroken: One Nurse’s Life
Author: Mary Jane Nealon
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Publication Date: July 19, 2011
Paperback: 224 pages
ISBN: 978-1555975906
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir

From the back cover:

As a child, Mary Jane Nealon dreams of growing up to become a saint or, failing that, a nurse. She idolizes Clara Barton, Kateri Tekakwitha, and Molly Pitcher, whose biographies she reads and rereads. But by the time she follows her calling to nursing school, her beloved younger brother is diagnosed with cancer, which challenges her to bring hope and healing closer to home. His death leaves her shattered, and she flees into her work, and into poetry.

Beautiful Unbroken details Nealon’s life of caregiving, from her years as a flying nurse, untethered and free to follow friends and jobs from the Southwest to Savannah, to more somber years in New York City, treating men in a homeless shelter on the Bowery and working in the city’s first AIDS wards. In this compelling and revealing memoir, Nealon brings a poet’s sensitivity to bear on the hard truths of disease and recovery, life and death.

My Review:

Beautiful Unbroken by Mary Jane Nealon is a touching, and at times heartbreaking, memoir that chronicles her experiences as a nurse in a variety of settings from being a traveling nurse to working within shelters and clinics within New York City.  Nealon writes with feeling in her well-crafted stories of her experiences while providing a clear background of her own personal family tragedy that lead her to become immersed in her poetry and to pursuing a profession in nursing.  With a life and career’s worth of experiencing disease and death while bringing hope, compassion and the promise of recovery to some who have crossed her path, this is a moving memoir from someone who has witnessed more tragedy than most.  Nealon captures the essence of each of the individuals with whom she meets along her journey of healing and oftentimes, through her caring and sympathy for each patient, readers will come to realize that amidst the very tragic certainty of death, she gives reason to celebrate life and set aside the sorrow, if only for a brief while.  Inspiring, touching, beautiful, moving, and motivating are words that I think capture the very positive influence this memoir will have on readers and while Nealon’s experiences have been extremely difficult and some readers may find some of the subject matter depressing, I found inspiration and recommend Beautiful Unbroken to readers as well as book discussion groups.

To learn more about author Mary Jane Nealon, please visit her website.

I received a complimentary arc of Beautiful Unbroken by Mary Jane Nealon from Graywolf Press. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned novel.

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Book Review: Whispers In the Sand by Barbara Erskine

Wednesday 27 July, 2011 By 6 Comments

Title: Whispers In the Sand
Author: Barbara Erskine
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Publication Date: July 1, 2011
Paperback: 396 pages
ISBN: 978-1402261756
Genre: Historical Fiction

From the Publisher:

Recently divorced, Anna Fox decides to cheer herself up by retracing a journey that her great-grandmother, Louisa, made in the mid-nineteenth century from Luxor to the Valley of Kings on a Nile cruise. Anna carries with her two of Louisa’s possessions: an ancient Egyptian scent bottle and an illustrated diary of the original cruise that has laid unread for more than a hundred years. Meanwhile, two men from the tour party begin to develop an unfriendly rivalry for her attention and a disturbing interest in Louisa’s mementos. As she follows in Louisa’s footsteps, Anna discovers a wonderful love story from the Victorian past, along with chilling secrets and terrifying specters that haunted her great-grandmother—and will soon begin to pursue her, too.

My Review:

Whispers in the Sand by Barbara Erskine is an intriguing drama of one woman’s battle for personal growth amidst adverse conditions with elements of irony, mystery and redemption. With well-crafted, strong characters, Erskine has penned a tale with plenty of unexpected plot turns to keep the reader engaged.  Her gift for descriptive prose transports readers to Egypt where the main character, Anna Fox, is planning to take a cruise along the Nile, the same cruise her great-grandmother had followed several years earlier.  Erskine takes readers along this journey, meeting various characters along the way, many of whom, ironically remind Anna of her domineering ex-husband, the very person from whom her departure is being celebrated by this much deserved trip.  In an expertly crafted story, Erskine contrasts the past and present through Anna’s great-grandmother’s diary which contains secrets that turn out to be important to more than just Anna during the journey in Egypt.  For both readers and discussion groups, especially those looking for a topic relating to the empowering of women, I highly recommend Whispers in the Sand.

To learn more about author Barbara Erskine and her books, please visit her website: http://www.barbara-erskine.co.uk/novels

I received a complimentary arc of Whispers In the Sand by Barbara Erskine from Sourcebooks. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned novel.

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Book Review: Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

Tuesday 26 July, 2011 By 8 Comments

Title: Rules of Civility
Author: Amor Towles
Publisher: Viking
Publication Date: July 26, 2011
Hardcover: 352 pages
ISBN: 978-0670022694
Genre: Historical Fiction

From the Publisher:

A sophisticated and entertaining debut novel about an irresistible young woman with an uncommon sense of purpose.

Set in New York City in 1938, Rules of Civility tells the story of a watershed year in the life of an uncompromising twenty-five-year- old named Katey Kontent. Armed with little more than a formidable intellect, a bracing wit, and her own brand of cool nerve, Katey embarks on a journey from a Wall Street secretarial pool through the upper echelons of New York society in search of a brighter future.

My Review:

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles is his fiction debut that touches on the theme of chance encounters and their role in shaping lives.  Towles has crafted very original characters in this witty tale of 1938 New York and the social layers that shape the people.  Painted against the backdrop of 1930s New York, Towles writes of aspirations, of love and of loss with such fluidity that readers will not be able to easily and knowingly set this novel down.  In Rules of Civility, Katey Kontent celebrates New Year’s Eve with her roommate in a lowbrow jazz bar when Tinker Grey, a well-to-do banker is seated nearby.  The chance meeting of Katey and Tinker at that bar leads to a long and oftentimes lonely journey for Katey as she is rapidly brought several rungs up the social ladder.  Through richly descriptive prose with vivid imagery, Towles crafts a compelling story that will have readers rooting for Katey as she rises in social circles and then feeling the losses Katey experiences.  In many ways, Towles will touch readers with very relatable characters and with emotions that bring to life Katey’s experiences; experiences that leave us all with questions about how we got where we are today.  For book discussion groups, I think Rules of Civility would make an excellent choice.

About the Author:

Amor Towles was born and raised just outside Boston, Massachusetts.  He graduated from Yale University and received an MA in English from Stanford University, where he was a Scowcroft Fellow.  He is a Principal at an investment firm in Manhattan, where he lives with his wife and two children.

To learn more about author Amor Towels, please visit his website.

I received a copy of Rules of Civility by Amor Towles from Viking Books to offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.

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Book Review: Reign of Madness by Lynn Cullen

Tuesday 26 July, 2011 By 8 Comments

Title: Reign of Madness
Author: Lynn Cullen
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Publication Date: August 4, 2011, 2011
Hardcover: 448 pages
ISBN: 978-0399157097
Genre: Historical Fiction

From the Publisher:

From the author of The Creation of Eve comes a tale of love and madness, royal intrigue and marital betrayal, set during the Golden Age of Spain.

Juana of Castile, third child of the Spanish monarchs Isabel and Fernando, grows up with no hope of inheriting her parents’ crowns, but as a princess knows her duty: to further her family’s ambitions through marriage. Yet stories of courtly love, and of her parents’ own legendary romance, surround her. When she weds the Duke of Burgundy, a young man so beautiful that he is known as Philippe the Handsome, she dares to hope that she might have both love and crowns. He is caring, charming, and attracted to her-seemingly a perfect husband.

But what begins like a fairy tale ends quite differently.

When Queen Isabel dies, the crowns of Spain unexpectedly pass down to Juana, leaving her husband and her father hungering for the throne. Rumors fly that the young Queen has gone mad, driven insane by possessiveness. Who is to be believed? The King, beloved by his subjects? Or the Queen, unseen and unknown by her people?

One of the greatest cautionary tales in Spanish history comes to life as Lynn Cullen explores the controversial reign of Juana of Castile-also known as Juana the Mad. Sweeping, page-turning, and wholly entertaining, Reign of Madness is historical fiction at its richly satisfying best.

My Review:

Reign of Madness by Lynn Cullen is a fast paced work of historical fiction from 15th and 16th Century Europe and chronicles the rise of Juana of Castile to Queen Juana of Spain. Cullen has masterfully crafted, down to the most intricate of details, the story of Juana of Castile, daughter to Fernando and Isabel, her arranged marriage to Philippe and her rise to power as Queen. This is an intriguing tale of romance, lust and greed and readers will learn just how adept Cullen is at writing descriptive prose that easily transports readers to the various locales of the book and immerses the reader within the culture. Cullen has done extensive research to capture the period but at the same time gives readers a glimpse of Juana that invokes feelings of pity for this most unfortunate of Queens. For fans of stories of turmoil in the court or historical fiction in general, I highly recommend Reign of Madness by Lynn Cullen.

About the Author:

Lynn Cullen is the author of the young adult novel The Creation of Eve, as many acclaimed books for children. She lives with her husband in Atlanta, where she is at work on her next novel.

To learn more about author Lynn Cullen, please visit her website.

For more reviews of the book, please follow the TLC Book Tour.

I received an arc copy of Reign of Madness by Lynn Cullen from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.

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Teaser Tuesdays! Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

Tuesday 26 July, 2011 By 70 Comments


Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

    • Grab your current read
    • Open to a random page
    • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
    • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
    • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

“For, in fact, the pictures captured a certain naked humanity.  Lost in thought, masked by the anonymity of their commute, unaware of the camera that was trained so directly upon them, many of these subject had unknowingly allowed their inner selves to be seen.”

Page 3, Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

My review!

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