A Sea of Books

Waiting on Wednesday: LUCKY BUNNY by Jill Dawson

noreply@blogger.com (Gwendolyn B.) — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 16:47:00 +0000

"WAITING ON WEDNESDAY"

is hosted by Jill from

Breaking the Spine.

Join in and tell us . . .

What are you waiting for?

My pick for this week is . . .

LUCKY BUNNY

by Jill Dawson

Publication Date: October 30, 2012

Publisher: HarperCollins

Category: Fiction

pb 9780062202505 $14.99

Description (from the publisher):

"Crime’s a man’s business. So they say. Who was the small figure then, slender enough to trot along the moonlit track, swift and low, virtually invisible? Who was it that covered the green signal with a glove to stop the train, while the two others took care of the driver and his mate? Could it have been one Queenie Dove, survivor of the Depression and the Blitz, not to mention any number of scrapes with the law?"

Queenie Dove is a self-proclaimed genius when it comes to the quintessential arts of survival and thievery. Daring, clever, and alluring, she spent a lifetime developing the skills of an accomplished thief. Born into a criminal family in London’s East End during the Great Depression, and trained by a group of women shoplifters during the Blitz, Queenie commits exploits ranging from petty street crime all the way to far more glamorous—and lucrative—heists. But giving birth to a daughter will make Queenie finally try to go straight—until the opportunity to take part in one last, audacious robbery tempts her back to the life of danger and excitement she once lived to the fullest.

Told in Queenie’s captivating and singular voice, this richly colorful story and its provocative denouement are steeped in questions of character and morality. Is Queenie a woman sinned against, or a sinner herself? Is she wicked through and through? In the spirit of Moll Flanders, Lucky Bunny is a vivid tale of trickery and adventure—and one which has a darker undertow of pain and heartbreak than its heroine prefers to admit to herself. Yes, luck often favors the Queen of Crime, but that is only part of her story.

About the author (from the publisher):

Jill Dawson is an award-winning poet and the author of six previous novels, including The Great Lover, Trick of Light, and Fred and Edie, which was short-listed for the Whitbread Novel Award and the Orange Prize. She lives in Cambridgeshire, England, with her husband and two sons.

Click here to visit the author's website.

Teaser Tuesday: THE KEEPSAKE by Kristina Riggle

noreply@blogger.com (Gwendolyn B.) — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 17:04:00 +0000

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme hosted by Miz B. of Should Be Reading.

Want to play along? Here's what to do:

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 and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

"I closed the window reluctantly and stepped into the hall, my feet already knowing where to pick a path through the mess. I was beginning to see how it could start to feel normal, how the sides of the piles could start to seem like mere walls, and maybe the hallway became a little narrower, but you could forget the stuff was stuff, and not part of the your home itself."

-- page 131

THE KEEPSAKE

by Kristina Riggle

Release date: June 26, 2012

Click here to read an excerpt.

Click here to visit the author's website.

Waiting on Wednesday: MY CROSS TO BEAR by Gregg Allman

noreply@blogger.com (Gwendolyn B.) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 17:38:00 +0000

"WAITING ON WEDNESDAY"

is hosted by Jill from

Breaking the Spine.

Join in and tell us . . .

What are you waiting for?

My pick for this week is . . .

-- book cover not yet released --

MY CROSS TO BEAR

by Gregg Allman

Publisher: HarperCollins
Imprint: William Morrow
On Sale: 5/1/2012
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 320
Ages: 18 & up
ISBN: 9780062112033

Description (from the publisher):

One of the most entertaining live bands ever to take the stage, the Allman Brothers Band defined the meaning of live rock and roll. But despite nearly a half-century of massive success, no one has ever told the inside story of the band and the brothers behind it.

For the first time, rock icon Gregg Allman tells the full, unflinching tale of his life on stage and off, from becoming rock royalty, to his string of failed marriages including his marriage to Cher, to his decades-long struggle with drugs and alcohol. In his unforgettable voice, Allman offers a vivid portrait of growing up with his brother, Duane, in the 1960s South, a place of uneasy racial and cultural transformation, where a new sound emerged—the sound of slide guitar comingling with keyboards and wailing vocals. The sound of the Allman Brothers.

Yet with success came tragedy, including Duane Allman and bassist Berry Oakley’s deaths, a year apart, in motorcycle accidents. For decades substance abuse plagued Gregg, and though he eventually overcame his demons, in 2010 he required a life-saving liver transplant. Gregg Allman opens up about these struggles and more, detailing the hardships, the personality clashes, and ultimately the joy that went into making some of the most electrifying rock and roll ever recorded. Documenting an era in which Southern music came alive, he holds nothing back in this essential volume eagerly awaited by every fan of good, old fashioned rock ‘n’ roll.

Click here to visit the author's official website.

Teaser Tuesdays: GIRLS LIKE US by Sheila Weller

noreply@blogger.com (Gwendolyn B.) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 19:02:00 +0000

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme hosted by Miz B. of Should Be Reading.

Want to play along? Here's what to do:

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 and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

"Joni’s Blue was in every way the counterpoint to Carole’s Tapestry. Whereas Tapestry was created in a sense of communality, Blue was recorded is almost utter privacy–so ‘transparent’ was Joni now that ‘if you looked at me, I would weep; we had to lock the doors to make that album. Nobody was allowed in’ except the backup musicians . . ."

-- page 329

GIRLS LIKE US

Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon

and the Journey of a Generation

by Sheila Weller

Click here to read an excerpt.

Click here to watch a video of the author discussing her book.

Teaser Tuesdays: FIFTH AVENUE, 5 A.M. by Sam Wasson

noreply@blogger.com (Gwendolyn B.) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 19:37:00 +0000

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme hosted by Miz B. of Should Be Reading.

Want to play along? Here's what to do:

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 and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

"Whomever they cast couldn’t discharge sex like Marilyn, nor could she be young and innocent without provoking cries of Lolita. Furthermore, as a "good" call girl–not the Elizabeth Taylor kind that gets killed off at the end of Butterfield 8–Holly couldn’t be too seductive. Not alluring enough, however, and the character would have no call-girl credibility at all."

-- page 96

FIFTH AVENUE, 5 A.M.
by Sam Wasson

Click here to read an excerpt.

2012 Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Gwendolyn B.) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:04:00 +0000

I'm joining the 2012 Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge hosted by Melissa at Melissa's Eclectic Bookshelf. This challenge includes any full length book with a witch as a main character or that includes major witchcraft elements. Fiction or non-fiction counts. I'm not really into the current vampire craze - an occasional vampire is O.K.; I absolutely cannot stomach (tee hee!) zombies; and I've no interest at all in werewolves. But I'm fascinated by witches - real and imagined. So I just had to join this challenge. I only own a couple of the books I've listed, but I want to read the others very much, so I'm this is one of my few exceptions to my personal challenge to read my own books for all the challenges I join. I'm starting at the lowest level, but I'll be surprised if I don't read more than 5 witch books this year.

Timeline: January 1, 2012 - December 31, 2012

Level: Initiate - Read 1 to 5 Witchy Books

1. A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES by Deborah Harkness

2. HEIDI HECKELBECK CASTS A SPELL by Wanda Coven

3. WITCHLANDERS by Lena Coakley

4. THEWITCH'S DAUGHTER by Paula Brackston

5. WITCH HUNT by Devlin O'Branagan

2012 Books I Started But Didn't Finish Reading Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Gwendolyn B.) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 18:17:00 +0000

I'm joining the 2012 Books I Started But Didn't Finish Reading Challenge hosted by Jillian at A Room of One's Own. I'm really excited about this challenge because I do have several books which I never finished -- not necessarily because I didn't like them. Some of them I was loving, but life just got in the way. Anyway, they all deserve to be completed. I'm not including any titles that I abandoned because I just didn't like the book.

Timeline: January 1, 2012 - December 31, 2012

There are no levels to this challenge, but we are asked to list the books we are commiting to, so I'm starting with a short list today, and I'll add a one or two more as I organize my shelves over the next couple of weeks.

1. A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES by Deborah Harkness

2. THE HERETIC'S WIFE by Brenda Vantrease

3. THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MRS. TOM THUMB by Melanie Benjamin

2012 Books Won Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Gwendolyn B.) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:38:00 +0000

I'm joining the 2012 Books Won Challenge hosted by Teddy Rose at So May Precious Books, So Little Time.

Timeline: January 1, 2012 - December 31, 2012

Level: I'm going for the Gold: Read 10 or more books. Since crossovers are allowed, and I've plenty of Books Won in my TBR pile, I should be able to meet this goal.

1. BECOMING MARIE ANTOINETTE
2. THE GHOST OF GREENWICH VILLAGE
3. FIFTH AVENUE, 5 A.M.
4. SISTERS OF THE SARI
5. YANKEE DOODLE DIXIE
6. CONFESSIONS OF CATHERINE DE MEDICI
7. THE KING'S WITCH
8. JANE AUSTEN MADE ME DO IT
9. HOLY GHOST GIRL
10. THE SISTERS BROTHERS
11. THE COUNTESS
12. THE PARIS WIFE
13. THE GIRL IN THE GARDEN

2012 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Gwendolyn B.) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:10:00 +0000

I'm joining the 2012 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge hosted by the team at Historical Tapestry. Isn't the button just absolutely gorgeous?! Some of the books I'll be reading have been languishing on my shelves for years either because I got distracted by something shiney and new or because (as with the Chadwick book) I think I'm going to love it so much, I can't even bear to begin it because I don't want the experience to end. Just go ahead and TRY to make sense of that!

Timeline: January 1, 2012 - December 31, 2012

Level: Undoubtedly Obsessed: 15 books O.K., so I probably should just commit to the most extreme level (Severe Bookaholism: 20 books), but I want to leave myself a little bit of wiggle room.

1. BECOMING MARIE ANTOINETTE by Juliet Grey
2. THE RIVER WIFE by Jonis Agee
3. BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY by Ruta Sepetys
4. QUEEN OF LAST HOPES by Susan Higginbotham
5. MADAME TUSSAUD by Michelle Moran
6. THE GREATEST KNIGHT by Elizabeth Chadwick
7. THE BIRTH HOUSE by Ami McKay
8. THE LOST SUMMER OF LOUISA MAY ALCOTT by Kelly O'Connor McNees
9. YOUNG BESS by Margaret Irwin
10. THE ROSE OF SEBASTOPOL by Katharine McMahon
11. THE OUTER BANKS HOUSE by Diann Ducharme
12. PEOPLE OF THE BOOK by Geraldine Brooks
13. THE ELEPHANT KEEPER by Christopher Nicholson
14. THE CROWN by Nancy Bilyeau
15. THE SEPTEMBER QUEEN by Gillian Bagwell

2012 Memorable Memoirs Reading Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Gwendolyn B.) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:22:00 +0000

I'm joining the 2012 Memorable Memoirs Reading Challenge hosted by Melissa at The Betty Boo Chronicles. As with most of the challenges I'm joining this year, my first selections will be from books I already own, but I really want to read HOWARD'S END IS ON THE LANDING by Susan Hill, so I'll be picking up a copy of that one.

Timeline: January 1, 2012 - December 31, 2012

Level: Diarist: read 1-4 memoirs (I'll most likely raise my level, but I'm not permitted to reduce it, so I'm playing it safe!)

1. DOWN THE NILE by Rosemary Mahoney
2. HOLY GHOST GIRL by Donna M. Johnson
3. DRINKING: A LOVE STORY by Caroline Knapp
4. HOWARD'S END IS ON THE LANDING by Susan Hill

2012 European Reading Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Gwendolyn B.) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 14:38:00 +0000

I'm joining the 2012 European Reading Challenge hosted by Rose City Reader. For this challenge, each book read must be by a different author and set in a different country. Once again, I'll draw first from books I already own, but I'm increasingly interested in the history of Eastern European countries, so I will most likely pick up a non-fiction history or two during the course of the 13 months this challenge runs.

Timeline: January 1, 2012 to January 31, 2013

Level: Five Star (Deluxe Entourage): Read at least five books by different European authors or books set in different European countries.

Personal Challenge: If I change out any of the following titles, it must be for a book I already own.

1. Romania - NO ONE IS HERE EXCEPT ALL OF US by Ramona Ausubel
2. Hungary - THE COUNTESS by Rebecca Johns
3. Russia - THE WINTER PALACE by Eva Stachniak
4. France - SUITE FRANCAISE by Irene Nemirovsky
5. Turkey - THEODORA by Stella Duffy
6.

2012 South Asian Reading Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Gwendolyn B.) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 02:40:00 +0000

I'm joining the 2012 South Asian Reading Challenge hosted by Swapna at S. Krishna's Books. This is a favorite subgenre of mine, so I've a lot of titles to choose from. I'm first going to focus on reading books that I already own which fit this challenge.

Countries included: India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, and the Maldives

Timeline: January 1, 2012 through December 31, 2012

1. SISTERS OF THE SARI by Brenda Baker
2. LITTLE PRINCES by Conor Grennan
3. SAFFRON DREAMS by Shaila Abdullah
4. HAUNTING JASMINE by Anjali Banerjee
5. AN ATLAS OF IMPOSSIBLE LONGING by Anuradha Roy
6. RADIO SHANGRI-LA by Lisa Napoli
7.

2012 Middle East Reading Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Gwendolyn B.) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 21:29:00 +0000

I'm joining the 2012 Middle East Reading Challenge hosted by Helen at Helen's Book Blog. In the 4th grade, I got hooked on ancient Mesopotamia. I hope this challenge will allow me to expand on my interest in the history of the Middle East as well as deepen my understanding of the diverse cultures, religions, and politics of the region as they exist today.

Timeline: January 1, 2012 through December 31, 2012.

1. THE DRESSMAKER OF KHAIR KHANA by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
2. WHEREVER YOU GO by Joan Leegant
3. BEIRUT 39 edited by Samuel Shimon
4. MORNINGS IN JENIN by Susan Abulhawa
5. LAND OF MARVELS by Barry Unsworth
6.

An Illustrated Year: 2012 Picture Book Reading Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Gwendolyn B.) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 20:43:00 +0000

I'm joining the 2012 Picture Book Reading Challenge hosted by Jennifer at An Abundance of Books. This is such a fun concept, how could I refuse?

Timeline: January 1, 2012 - December 31, 2012

Level 3 - Read 24 picture books.

1.

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2012 and the Year's Reading Plans

noreply@blogger.com (Gwendolyn B.) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 20:11:00 +0000

Here's to Health and Happiness

in the New Year!

Hello, Everyone! Hope you've all had a wonderful holiday season. As happy as I am for the start of a shiny new year, I'm sorry to see all the bright lights and decorations being packed away. I've two suggestions I'd love to see adopted in the US next year: the first is that Thanksgiving be moved to the beginning of November so that the holidays are not so crunched; and the second is that some of those beautiful holiday lights stay up throughout the winter. (I don't mean the full-on displays with Santas and inflatable snowmen -- just some of the pretty lights to brighten those dark winter nights.) Oh, well, I can dream . . .

What are your reading plans for 2012? This year, I'm focusing on reading books that are already in my possession. I'm not brave enough to commit to reading ONLY my own books, just a lot more of them. To help me plan and organize, I'm joining a bunch of challenges. I know, I'm terrible with challenges! But I hail for the state whose motto is "Hope" so what can you expect?!

Like a lot of other bloggers, I've got an overabundance of wonderful books that I've yet to read because I'm constantly tempted by new selections. I've decided to go through all my shelves and stacks and pick out what I really want to read over the next year or two and organize them according to challenges. My intention is that this will help to keep me from forgetting about them. Then I'm going to start farming out what I don't think I'll reasonably get to within the next couple of years so that I'm less of a hoarder and more of a reading enabler!

Over the next week or so, I'll be publishing a lot of challenge sign up posts. I've decided to keep them all separate (I know a lot of bloggers do a Master Challenge List, but I'm going to try it this way this year.) I know a lot of these posts will go unread by my readers but, hopefully, you'll want to read my book reviews as I start to post them!

In the meantime, if you've read this far, does anyone know of a reading challenge for the American West and/or a China themed challenge?

Again, Happy New Year to Everyone! Hope you'll join me for another year of great reading!

Author Q&A and Book Giveaway: THE DOCTOR AND THE DIVA by Adrienne McDonnell

noreply@blogger.com (Gwendolyn B.) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 20:22:00 +0000

CLOSED.

Rules for entering this giveaway

are at the bottom of this post.

THE DOCTOR AND THE DIVA

by Adrienne McDonnell

Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)

Category: Historical Fiction

Publication date: 10/25/2011

ISBN-13:

Pages: 432

Description (from the publisher):

"Some novels just naturally enslave you, and this is one of them...Serious and gripping...[a] brilliant debut novel." -The Washington Post

It is 1903, and Erika von Kessler has struggled for years to become pregnant. Resigned to childlessness, Erika-a talented opera singer and the wife of a prominent Bostonian-secretly plans to move to Italy to pursue her musical career. When the charismatic Doctor Ravell takes Erika on as a patient, he is mesmerized by her. Impetuously, he takes a shocking risk that could ruin them both.

Inspired by the author's family history, the novel moves from snowy Boston to the gilded balconies of Florence in a stunning tale of opera, longing, and the indomitable power of romantic obsession.

About the author (from the publisher):

Adrienne McDonnell has taught literature and fiction writing at the University of California, Berkeley. She based The Doctor and the Diva, her first novel, on the true story of an ancestor-a woman who deserted her wealthy husband and child to further her operatic career. The author relied on a trove of family letters and memories of elderly relatives who have long been haunted by the tale. She lives near San Francisco.

A Conversation with Adrienne McDonnell, author of THE DOCTOR AND THE DIVA.
(Interview provided by the publisher.)

What moved you to write about them? I can remember the moment I first heard about the great-great grandmother, the woman whom I call "Erika" in the novel. I was nineteen years old, living in Santa Barbara. A friend had gone away for the weekend, and she’d loaned me her beachfront apartment. It was around midnight, and I was lying there in the arms of a young man I barely knew. He later became my husband, but at that moment we were just beginning to know one another. He talked about his grandfather, who had recently died. Suddenly he said, "When my grandfather was a little boy, his mother deserted him and her husband and moved to Italy to develop her career as an opera singer." The idea of a privileged woman in early twentieth century Boston who abandoned her husband and small child for the sake of her art … the thought of it amazed me. Then I couldn’t decide: did I admire her and want to applaud her courage? Or was it heartbreaking that she’d deserted her little boy? The tension of all those conflicting feelings drew my imagination to her.

How did you manage to learn more about her life? Early in our marriage, my husband and I moved to Boston. Every day on my way to work, I walked through the Back Bay neighborhood where these ancestors had once lived. Erika’s childhood home stood on Commonwealth Avenue. Her father was a famous physician, and they lived in a rather grand house with two archways. When I went up to the front entrance and cupped my hands against the glass pane to peer inside, I saw that much remained the same as it had been in the late nineteenth century. The wide staircase was still paneled in black walnut, and I imagined her fiancé Peter mounting the steps, and her voice echoing down to him while she sang from the parlor upstairs.

Why did their story seem so haunting to you? When I stood across the street from "Erika’s" house, I could almost see a young girl’s face—her face—staring back at me from an oval window on the third story. I had a strange sense of god-like omniscience, because I knew things about her life that she couldn’t foresee—how her husband would one day be forced to divorce her and take custody of their small son; how she would sing in I Puritani from Montepulciano, Italy; how her little boy would write her letters that were never delivered to her.

What about her husband? How was he unusual? Her husband was a fascinating person as well. He was British, a highly successful international businessman – an importer of Egyptian cotton, among other things. "Peter" was a man of voracious curiosity, a naturalist, a lover of flora and fauna. He imported the first chimpanzees to the London Zoo, where he later became a Director. He traveled across four continents, and ventured into remote places, keen on seeing and experiencing everything. And he wrote prolific, richly detailed letters. He was the sort of man who’d ride a camel through the Egyptian desert to visit a tribe of Bishareen nomads, where he’d move from tent to tent, tasting their dried bread and goat’s milk. Or he’d head to a friend’s lush Caribbean coconut plantation, where they’d ride at midnight in a buggy along a beach, with vampire bats flying overhead…. He’d slash a path through a rainforest with his machete, or he’d travel upriver in South America toward a waterfall that few Europeans had ever seen. A third character in the novel—the fertility doctor Erika and Peter consult—becomes a crucial figure in their lives. Many readers may be surprised to learn that fertility specialists existed in 1903.

Were their treatments effective? Certain procedures that many people might regard as "modern"—such as artificial insemination—were actually being practiced more than a century ago, but doctors had to conduct such work surreptitiously. They risked grave moral condemnation. THE DOCTOR AND THE DIVA takes place at a real turning point in medical history. Prior to that era, if a couple were unable to have children, the fault was always placed on the woman. The problem was always thought to be due to a "barren" wife. In the latter half of the 19th century, physicians began to discover a startling truth: a man could be virile—he could be sexually potent—and yet he might also be infertile.

What led to that discovery? As far back as 1677, a man in Holland named Leeuwenhoek looked through a microscope and saw sperm. By the mid-nineteenth century, physicians had begun to study human sperm with real scientific scrutiny. An American physician named Dr. Sims became known as "the father of modern gynecology." Dr. Sims would follow married couples into their homes. He’d wait behind a bedroom wall while a couple had intercourse, and then he’d rush in and probe and take measure of things under the microscope. He invented an instrument known as the "impregnating syringe."

During the Victorian era, how was he allowed to do that kind of research? Dr. Sims shocked and appalled many people. But the majority of patients who filled gynecologists’ consulting rooms during the nineteenth century came there because of infertility. Some were so desperate to conceive a child that they were motivated and willing to cooperate. There’s some statistical evidence that infertility was more prevalent during the nineteenth century than it is today. One cause was gonorrhea, which was epidemic and incurable then. During the 1870s, there was one rather sad and touching case that convinced a professor of obstetrics at the University of Pennsylvania that husbands—as well as wives—were part of the equation. A female patient came to him, begging for an operation to help her conceive. While the doctor was trying to decide if he ought to perform the procedure, the woman’s husband presented himself, feeling very guilty about all his wife’s anguish and distress. He told the doctor that he believed his gonorrhea—from which he’d been suffering for many years—must be the root cause. So, after an examination of the husband’s semen under the microscope, it became evident that the man was sterile. This proved a revelation for the professor of obstetrics. Afterward, he told his colleagues: I beg of you, be sure to examine the husband, as well as the wife.

A century ago when doctors performed artificial insemination, did they use a husband’s sperm, or a donor’s? At first, during the mid-nineteenth century, they relied on the husband’s sperm. But by the 1880s and 1890s, certain gynecologists did begin to use donor sperm—although they rarely revealed what they’d done until decades later. Older women in the family shared their memories with you, and rumors they’d overheard.

What else did they say about the real Erika? One elderly cousin, born in England in 1898, came to visit the U.S. As a child, she’d heard a lot of whispering about her American aunt. She’d heard that "Erika" had a baby daughter fathered by a man who was not her husband…. She’d heard that long after Erika had deserted her son, she’d appeared one day, unannounced, at her son’s boarding school. The novel draws upon hundreds of pages of family letters.

Where did you find those letters? After my husband and I had lived in Boston for nine years, we decided to move back to the West Coast. We drove cross-country and stopped at his aunt’s ranch in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Like me, she had a passion for genealogy. From the moment you stepped into her house, you felt the presence of the ancestors…. Huge family portraits stared down at you from her living room walls. She had a little gallery of framed butterflies -- a dozen exquisite butterflies that her grandfather "Peter" had meticulously painted with hair-thin brushes. "Where are the letters I’ve heard so much about?" I asked her. The aunt brought out hundreds of pages of correspondence. Reading them just amazed me. I realized that these ancestors had led far bigger lives than I’d imagined. Their voices could be heard in those pages. There was so much detail and adventure—nights spent exploring winding streets in Tangier, or visits to a coconut plantation in the Caribbean where the guests told ghost stories after dinner….

If Erika were alive today, do you think her career vs. motherhood conflicts would be any different? Her guilt and anguish would probably be very similar to that described in the novel. But I think that today, the courts and society would have allowed her more flexibility with respect to staying in contact with her child. In those times, transatlantic airplane travel wasn’t an option. She couldn’t fly back and forth to visit her son for a few days. In that era, if a mother moved across an ocean and settled in another country, that was it —she was gone. And from a legal standpoint, she surrendered her rights to custody. It’s interesting to think about her husband "Peter" and his mode of parenting. In real life, "Peter" was often an ocean and a continent away from his young son, and he did a lot of his parenting by letter. At the age of seven, the boy was placed in boarding school, and during vacations, his father arranged for him to live with a family like the "Talcotts" (as described in the novel). The boy was basically "mothered" by a colleague’s wife. But despite his father’s long absences, the real-life Quentin always regarded his father as a towering, loving figure—and as an extraordinary man. And long after Erika’s death in 1918, her son remembered his mother with a certain pride and respect. His daughters told me that as they were growing up, "Quentin" always kept a framed photograph of his mother on top the Steinway piano—a picture of Erika dressed in her operatic regalia.

What did you enjoy most about writing THE DOCTOR AND THE DIVA? Apart from the joy of composing the fictionalized story, I loved doing the research. It was deeply pleasurable to steep myself in another era, and revel in all those exotic lands described in century-old family letters. Learning about the history of medicine and the working life of a 1903 obstetrician like Dr. Ravell—that was also fascinating. And the music! I cannot tell you how it nourished my soul and my senses, to listen to the gorgeous arias that Erika sang. Had it not been for my son’s ancestor, I might have missed out on a whole domain of thrilling and lovely music.

How long did it take you to write THE DOCTOR AND THE DIVA? About six years. I wrote a first draft of the novel in the mid-1980s, but the result was lifeless and stale. I packed up those pages and stored them in a box for twenty years. Then, after a couple of decades passed, I envisioned an entirely new way to frame the novel. This time I would begin Erika’s story not through her own perspective, but instead through the eyes of the young doctor who was becoming obsessed with her, a man who would take a terrible risk and jeopardize his career because of her.

How did you research the novel, and balance factual information with storytelling? First, I read the family letters with great scrutiny, always on the lookout for material that might be transformed into a scene. I imagined the exotic locales as stage sets where dramas might unfold. Like any good student, I brought home musty books and old recordings from University and public libraries, and while I pulled out my pen and took careful notes, my conscious and unconscious mind were both at work. I was constantly on the hunt for just the right, historically apt detail. For example, when Erika is confined to her bed during childbirth, Doctor Ravell puts a ball of cotton soaked in chloroform into a tumbler, and he tells Erika to place the glass over her nose. After she breathes its vapors, the tumbler slides from her hand and rolls along the carpeted floor. That’s all you need to evoke pain relief during childbirth in 1904—one detail like that, just a whiff.

What was the creative process like? I researched for a couple of years before the formal, serious writing of the novel began. While I was gathering the historical facts, an entire scene would often come to me. Whenever I "overheard" conversations between the characters and I’d grab scrap paper and capture their dialogue quickly. I jotted down whatever the characters were saying, even when I had no idea where in the novel that exchange might occur. I tossed the wildly scribbled scenes into a box and saved them. As I researched, the dramatic scenes accumulated, and the story line began to take shape. (Later I found that the dialogue I’d "overheard" barely needed revision. It came out clean, and sounded natural.) For many months I refrained from doing any "real" writing. Instead, I kept listening to ravishing arias and consuming a feast of fascinating information—about the history of medicine and opera, about the training of vocal artists, or about apartment hunting in Florence a century ago. When I finally sat down to begin the newly envisioned novel in earnest, I pulled out that box of spontaneously scribbled, random scenes and saw very quickly how they ought to be sequenced. Even before I began to compose the first page, my unconscious had already done much of the work. A new draft erupted from me with great speed and excitement.

On a deeper, thematic level, what is THE DOCTOR AND THE DIVA about? The themes are too many to count, but I will say this. Several characters in the novel commit unthinkable acts. I’ve always been interested in the challenge of seeing a character’s situation with empathy, so that even the most shocking choice or appalling actions might become understandable.
Click here to visit the author's website.

RULES FOR ENTERING THE GIVEAWAY:

Two (2) copies up for grabs!

• Leave an original comment on this post telling me you would like to win. Include an email address with your comment so that I can contact you if you do win. Use a spam-thwarting format such as geebee.reads AT gmail DOT com or geebee.reads [at] gmail [dot] com

• You must leave an email address in order to qualify. If I can't contact you, you can't win!

• You can earn an extra entry by being or becoming a Follower or Subscriber of this blog and telling me about it in a separate comment.

• Blog about this contest and provide me with the link to the post in a separate comment, and I'll give you yet another entry.

• Tweeting about this contest and providing me the link in a separate comment will get you one more entry. I've added a Retweet button at the bottom of every post.

• Stumble this blog, Digg it, or Technorati Fave it, whatever, and leave a separate comment for another entry.

• Winners must provide a U.S. or Canadian street address. The publisher is unable to deliver to P.O. Boxes.

• PLEASE NOTE: One win per household. If you win this title in another contest hosted at another blog, the publisher will only send one copy per household address.

• Deadline for entry is 11:59 p.m. EST on Saturday, December 17, 2011.

• Winners will have 48 hours to respond to my email announcing that they have won; if I don't hear from a winner, I will draw another name.

• Winners are determined using the sequence generator at Random.org.

Thank you to Rebecca
at Penguin USA

for making this giveaway possible.

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!
THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED.

Waiting on Wednesday: THAT WOMAN - The Life of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor by Anne Sebba

noreply@blogger.com (Gwendolyn B.) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 17:48:00 +0000

"WAITING ON WEDNESDAY"

is hosted by Jill from

Breaking the Spine.

Join in and tell us . . .

What are you waiting for?

My pick for this week is . . .

THAT WOMAN

The Life of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor

by Anne Sebba

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Category: Biography

Publication date: 3/13/2012

ISBN-13: 9781250002969

Pages: 352

Description (from the publisher):

The first full scale biography of Wallis Simpson to be written by a woman, exploring the mind of one of the most glamorous and reviled figures of the Twentieth Century, a character who played prominently in the blockbuster film The King’s Speech.

This is the story of the American divorcee notorious for allegedly seducing a British king off his throne. “That woman,” so called by Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, was born Bessie Wallis Warfield in 1896 in Baltimore. Neither beautiful nor brilliant, she endured an impoverished childhood, which fostered in her a burning desire to rise above her circumstances.

Acclaimed biographer Anne Sebba offers an eye-opening account of one of the most talked about women of her generation. It explores the obsessive nature of Simpson’s relationship with Prince Edward, the suggestion that she may have had a Disorder of Sexual Development, and new evidence showing she may never have wanted to marry Edward at all.

Since her death, Simpson has become a symbol of female empowerment as well as a style icon. But her psychology remains an enigma. Drawing from interviews and newly discovered letters, That Woman shines a light on this captivating and complex woman, an object of fascination that has only grown with the years.

Spotlight and Book Giveaway: DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY: A Basic Manual by Henry Horenstein

noreply@blogger.com (Gwendolyn B.) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 17:17:00 +0000

This contest is now CLOSED.

Thanks to the generous folks at
Hachette Book Group,

I have been authorized to
give away two (2) copies of

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY
by Henry Horenstein.

Rules for entering this giveaway
are at the bottom of this post.

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY:

A Basic Manual

by Henry Horenstein

with Allison Carroll

Publisher: Little, Brown & Company

Category: Photography

Format: Trade Paperback

Publish Date: 11/2/2011

Price: $29.99/$32.99

ISBN: 9780316020749

Pages: 240

Discription (from the publisher):

This thorough, concise, and easy-to-use guide to capturing digital photographs provides an entire step-by-step course for budding digital photographers. All concepts are fully illustrated with sample work by internationally renowned professionals, representing editorial work, photojournalism, and everything in between. Topics covered include essential information for both film and digital photography, such as exposure controls and shutter speed, as well as digital-specific information on image editing, printing methods, and even file storage. The first digital textbook by legendary photography teacher Henry Horenstein, Digital Photography is the best guide yet for aspiring digital photographers, essential both for photographers transitioning from film to digital and those learning the art of photography for the first time.

Click here to read an excerpt.

Click here to visit the author's website.

About the author (from the publisher):
Henry Horenstein is a widely published and exhibited professional photographer and the author of more than two dozen books, including the classic texts Black & White Photography, Beyond Basic Photography, and Color Photography, and monographs such as Creatures, Canine, and Racing Days. His work has appeared in Life, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, and Town & Country. Horenstein has taught photography at the Rhode Island School of Design for more than twenty years and is currently a professor there. He lives in Massachusetts.

RULES FOR ENTERING THE GIVEAWAY:

• Leave an original comment on this post telling me you would like to win. Include an email address with your comment so that I can contact you if you do win. Use a spam-thwarting format such as geebee.reads AT gmail DOT com or geebee.reads [at] gmail [dot] com

• You must leave an email address in order to qualify. If I can't contact you, you can't win!

• You can earn an extra entry by being or becoming a Follower or Subscriber of this blog and telling me about it in a separate comment.

• Blog about this contest and provide me with the link to the post in a separate comment, and I'll give you yet another entry.

• Tweeting about this contest and providing me the link in a separate comment will get you one more entry. I've added a Retweet button at the bottom of every post.

• Stumble this blog, Digg it, or Technorati Fave it, whatever, and leave a separate comment for another entry.

• Winners must provide a U.S. or Canadian street address. Hachette is unable to deliver to P.O. Boxes.

• PLEASE NOTE: One win per household. If you win this title in another contest hosted at another blog, Hachette will only send one copy per household address.

• Deadline for entry is 11:59 p.m. EST on Friday, December 16, 2011.

• Winners will have 48 hours to respond to my email announcing that they have won; if I don't hear from a winner, I will draw another name.

• Winners are determined using the sequence generator at Random.org.

Thank you to Anna
at Hachette Book Group

for making this giveaway possible.

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!
This contest is now CLOSED.

Spotlight and Book Giveaway: QUEEN OF AMERICA by Luis Alberto Urrea

noreply@blogger.com (Gwendolyn B.) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 18:16:00 +0000

This contest is now CLOSED.

Thanks to the generous folks at
Hachette Book Group,

I have been authorized to
give away three (3) copies of

QUEEN OF AMERICA
by Luis Alberto Urrea.

Rules for entering this giveaway
are at the bottom of this post.

QUEEN OF AMERICA

by Luis Alberto Urrea

Publisher: Little Brown, and Company

Category: Fiction

Format: Hardcover Book

Publish Date: 11/28/2011

Price: $25.99/$28.99

ISBN: 9780316154864

Pages: 496

Book Description (from the publisher):

After the bloody Tomochic rebellion, Teresita Urrea, beloved healer and "Saint of Cabora," flees with her father to Arizona. But their plans are derailed when she once again is claimed as the spiritual leader of the Mexican Revolution. Besieged by pilgrims and pursued by assassins, Teresita embarks on a journey through turn-of-the-century industrial America-New York, San Francisco, St. Louis. She meets immigrants and tycoons, European royalty and Cuban poets, all waking to the new American century. And as she decides what her own role in this modern future will be, she must ask herself: can a saint fall in love?

At turns heartbreaking, uplifting, and riotously funny, QUEEN OF AMERICA reconfirms Luis Alberto Urrea's status as a writer of the first rank.

About the author (from the publisher):
Luis Alberto Urrea is the author of, among other books, The Devil's Highway, The Hummingbird's Daughter, and Into the Beautiful North. Winner of a Lannan Literary Award and Christopher Award, he is also the recipient of an American Book Award, the Kiriyama Prize, the National Hispanic Cultural Center's Literary Award, a Western States Book Award, a Colorado Book Award, an Edgar Award and a citation of excellence from the American Library Association. He is a member of the Latino Literary Hall of Fame.

Click here to visit the author's website.

RULES FOR ENTERING THE GIVEAWAY:

• Leave an original comment on this post telling me you would like to win. Include an email address with your comment so that I can contact you if you do win. Use a spam-thwarting format such as geebee.reads AT gmail DOT com or geebee.reads [at] gmail [dot] com

• You must leave an email address in order to qualify. If I can't contact you, you can't win!

• You can earn an extra entry by being or becoming a Follower or Subscriber of this blog and telling me about it in a separate comment.

• Blog about this contest and provide me with the link to the post in a separate comment, and I'll give you yet another entry.

• Tweeting about this contest and providing me the link in a separate comment will get you one more entry. I've added a Retweet button at the bottom of every post.

• Stumble this blog, Digg it, or Technorati Fave it, whatever, and leave a separate comment for another entry.

• Winners must provide a U.S. or Canadian street address. Hachette is unable to deliver to P.O. Boxes.

• PLEASE NOTE: One win per household. If you win this title in another contest hosted at another blog, Hachette will only send one copy per household address.

• Deadline for entry is 11:59 p.m. EST on Friday, December 16, 2011.

• Winners will have 48 hours to respond to my email announcing that they have won; if I don't hear from a winner, I will draw another name.

• Winners are determined using the sequence generator at Random.org.

Thank you to Anna
at Hachette Book Group

for making this giveaway possible.

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!
This contest is now CLOSED.

Waiting on Wednesday: DEATH COMES TO PEMBERLEY by P.D. James

noreply@blogger.com (Gwendolyn B.) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 12:07:00 +0000

"WAITING ON WEDNESDAY"

is hosted by Jill from

Breaking the Spine.

Join in and tell us . . .

What are you waiting for?

My pick for this week is . . .

DEATH COMES TO PEMBERLEY

by P.D. James

Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Publication date: 12/6/2011

ISBN-13: 9780307959850

Pages: 304

Description (from the publisher):

A rare meeting of literary genius: P. D. James, long among the most admired mystery writers of our time, draws the characters of Jane Austen’s beloved novel Pride and Prejudice into a tale of murder and emotional mayhem.

It is 1803, six years since Elizabeth and Darcy embarked on their life together at Pemberley, Darcy’s magnificent estate. Their peaceful, orderly world seems almost unassailable. Elizabeth has found her footing as the chatelaine of the great house. They have two fine sons, Fitzwilliam and Charles. Elizabeth’s sister Jane and her husband, Bingley, live nearby; her father visits often; there is optimistic talk about the prospects of marriage for Darcy’s sister Georgiana. And preparations are under way for their much-anticipated annual autumn ball.

Then, on the eve of the ball, the patrician idyll is shattered. A coach careens up the drive carrying Lydia, Elizabeth’s disgraced sister, who with her husband, the very dubious Wickham, has been banned from Pemberley. She stumbles out of the carriage, hysterical, shrieking that Wickham has been murdered. With shocking suddenness, Pemberley is plunged into a frightening mystery.

Inspired by a lifelong passion for Austen, P. D. James masterfully re-creates the world of Pride and Prejudice, electrifying it with the excitement and suspense of a brilliantly crafted crime story, as only she can write it.

Click here to read an excerpt.

Teaser Tuesdays: ALL THESE THINGS I'VE DONE by Gabrielle Zevin

noreply@blogger.com (Gwendolyn B.) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 14:30:00 +0000

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme hosted by Miz B. of Should Be Reading.

Want to play along? Here's what to do:

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 and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

"People go crazy, not because they are crazy, but because it's the best available option at the time. In a way, it would have been easier to lose my mind because then I wouldn't have had to be there anymore."

-- page 132 (advanced readers copy)

ALL THESE THINGS I'VE DONE
Birthright (Volume 1)
by Gabrielle Zevin

Click here to read an excerpt.

Thankfully Reading Weekend 2011: The Wrap Up

noreply@blogger.com (Gwendolyn B.) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 18:49:00 +0000

Well, I wrapped up my Thankfully Reading Weekend in the middle of night as I completed ONE HUNDRED AND ONE NIGHTS by Benjamin Buchholz. What an intense story!

I'm really happy with my overall reading for this past weekend. I read a total of 3 books, which was my goal. I just ended up substituting SPONTANEOUS HAPPINESS by Andrew Weil, MD for WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE MOON by Grace Lin. That's because I had wanted to read some of the Grace Lin book with my niece and nephew and that didn't work out; and also because I picked up SPONTANEOUS HAPPINESS because the other two books I was reading were not the cheeriest of reads and I needed a break. I liked it so much, I raced through it on Saturday.

Here's the breakdown for my weekend of reading:

Completed:

THE INVISIBLE ONES by Stef Penney; 416 pages
SPONTANEOUS HAPPINESS by Andrew Weil, MD; 288 pages
ONE HUNDRED AND ONE NIGHTS by Benjamin Buccholz; 368 pages

Wasn't able to get to:

WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE MOON by Grace Lin

I wasn't able to visit too many other blogs -- well, I was reading! But I know I'm not the only one who had a great time with this challenge. Thank you, Jenn, for organizing it. Can't wait to do it again next year!

Hopefully, I'll get all three reviews posted this week (and a couple of giveaways, too!)

TBR Pile Challenge 2012 Hosted by Adam at Roof Beam Reader

noreply@blogger.com (Gwendolyn B.) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 16:14:00 +0000

I'm joining the 2012 TBR Pile Challenge hosted by Adam at Roof Beam Reader. This challenge really appeals to me because I've been thinking a lot about all the unread books on my shelves (and nightstand) (and desk) (and floor) (and the way back of my car!). Most of us can't get to all the books we'd like because there are just too many books and not enough time. I have another problem, and I wonder if any of you might suffer from this affliction, too. Sometimes I "save" books. I really want to read them and feel confident that I'm going to love them, but I let them sit and save them for some future time. What am I thinking? That there will be a book drought and I have to hold some in reserve? Am I afraid that as much as I think I'll love a book that I'll be disappointed? Why am I denying myself these books? I don't know, and it's easy to get distracted by all the new and wonderful books that come my way.

Recently I heard about Susan Hill's book, HOWARD'S END IN ON THE LANDING in which she chronicles the year she spent reading only her own books. I'm not ready to go to that extreme, but I do intend to make reading through my own TBR pile a priority for 2012. Adam's challenge specifies that you can only read books that you have owned for at least one year - so they must have been published prior to January 1, 2011. This requirement will force me to pick some books that have been languishing for far too long. Also, I only have to read 12 books - but I must specify which ones (along with 2 alternates in case something turns into a dreaded DNF). I also like the idea of signing up with Adam's challenge because he is a new-to-me blogger and it's fun to connect with new, like-minded people. I'm not discounting the possibility of signing up for other challenges that encourage me to read my own books, but this one is for sure.

Click here to get more information about the 2012 TBR Pile Challenge or to sign up.

Here's my "official" list. Books can be read in any order. I'll link each title to my review as I post them.

1,   THE SPIRITUALIST by Megan Chance
2.   THE LAST DICKENS by Matthew Pearl
3.   THE ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG by Muriel Barbery
4.   DOWN THE NILE by Rosemary Mahoney
5.   KISSING GAMES OF THE WORLD by Sandi Kahn Shelton
6.   THE GOOD THIEF by Hannah Tinti
7.   THE ROSE OF YORK: LOVE & WAR by Sandra Worth
8.   THE PROFESSORS’ WIVES’ CLUB by Joanne Rendall
9.   PEONY IN LOVE by Lisa See
10. SERENDIPITY by Louise Shaffer
11. CLEAR SPRINGS by Bobbie Ann Mason
12. FREE FOOD FOR MILLIONAIRES by Min Jin Lee

Alternates:

1. THE DISAPPEARANCE OF IRENE DOS SANTOS by Margaret Mascarenhas
2. SEA OF POPPIES by Amitav Ghosh

Now that I've done this, I can hardly wait to get started!

Thankfully Reading Weekend 2011: What Book Are You Thankful For?

noreply@blogger.com (Gwendolyn B.) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 04:24:00 +0000

I'm participating in Thankfully Reading Weekend 2011 hosted by Jenn at Jenn's Bookshelves. Click here to join in or check it out.

This post is my response to the challenge What Book Are You Thankful For?

THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE
A Flavia de Luce Mystery
by Alan Bradley

Ooooooo! I love this book! I LOVE this series!! To answer the question, What Book Are You Thankful For?, I thought for only a short time before I hit on my favorite little detective, Flavia de Luce. I thought, what book would I be happy to read and re-read a few times if I was stranded somewhere for awhile. This PIE has a slice of everything I enjoy most in a book: an historical setting with rich detail (1950's); British locale; mystery and detection; intelligence and wit; and a wonderful main character. Particularly, I love that 11-year-old Flavia is so unaware of her genius. Though brilliant, she never talks down to anyone - she seems to take it for granted that everyone else has the same capacities and capabilities as she. But on that point, she's mistaken - she's in a class by herself!

I'm particularly thankful that so far I have only read the first two books in this series and that there are two more available in the U.S. and another two waiting in the wings! Oh, Joy! Thank you, Mr. Bradley! Thank you! Thank you!

Thankfully Reading Weekend 2011 - Day Two Update

noreply@blogger.com (Gwendolyn B.) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 03:30:00 +0000

I'm participating in Thankfully Reading Weekend hosted by Jenn at Jenn's Bookshelves. This is my first update. Click here if you'd like to join in or just catch up with the rest of us.

Well, I've just completed a plate of Thanksgiving leftovers as well as my first book: THE INVISIBLE ONES by Stef Penney; 401 pages. I found it compelling despite its dreariness. I'll definitely be recommending it when I write my review. There was one passage that sung to me from the page and, though my reading copy is an arc and might differ from the final version, I'm sharing it with you here:

"On impulse, before she comes back, I pick up her glass, with its delicate red wax print, and drain it of the sweet ice-melt. The scent of rum vanishingly faint. Just so I can press my mouth to the ghost of hers." -- page 316

Wow, huh?!

To sort of clear my palate before I resume reading ONE HUNDRED AND ONE NIGHTS by Benjamin Buchholz, I've picked up SPONTANEOUS HAPPINESS by Andrew Weil, M.D. This will be a quick initial read, but I'm already planning on taking it with me for my morning trip to CVS - there are some supplements I want to try based on Dr. Weil's recommendation. This is the sort of book that you read through and then work with over a period of time. I really like Dr. Weil, so I'm excited to have the chance to read (and review) (and host a giveaway) (soon!) his latest book.

Next I'm going to pull together a quick post for the What Book Are You Thankful For? Challenge.

So, what have you been reading this weekend?