Great by Sara Benincasa is a modern, LGBTQ retelling of the Fitzgerald classic The Great Gatsby, and in a word, it’s great and the perfect book for my Literary Look feature! I’ll write more on the book in a couple of days, but for today I thought it would be fun to choose an outfit for Jacinta, the Jay Gatsby of Great. Jacinta, a mysterious fashion blogger who throws the best parties of the summer in the Hamptons, wears unique, gorgeous clothing throughout the book. The outfit I put together above is loosely inspired by this passage from Great:

She was wearing purple eye makeup that set off her enormous green eyes, and a beautiful mint-green sleeveless dress that consisted of finely wrought lace over a satiny sheath. Little, slouchy green leather elf boots and lavender fishnets completed the look. It was delicate and sweet and sexy and hip.

Dress / Eye Makeup / Shawl / Booties / Fishnets

~~~~~

Don’t miss a thing! Keep up with Mandy Boles: Life Between Books by subscribing to my rss feed, following me on Twitter and Instagram, and liking my Facebook page.

Yusuf Islam aka Cat Steven’s music has always been part of the soundtrack of my life. From childhood on through present day if I’ve ever needed to clear my head and find a little bit of peace, I turn on a Cat Stevens song and zone out. He’s a beautiful person with a beautiful voice. I was so happy when he appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon recently, and his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction performance was amazing. I heard he might be going on tour this fall and I really hope Nate and I are able to see him live.

I found this picture of him reading on his Instagram account. I hope it brings a smile to your face. Have a great Sunday.

Now I’ve been happy lately
Thinking about the good things to come
And I believe it could be
Something good has begun

Peace Train, Yusuf Islam aka Cat Stevens

~~~

Don’t miss a thing! Keep up with Mandy Boles: Life Between Books by subscribing to my rss feed, following me on Twitter, Bloglovin’, and Instagram, and by liking my Facebook page.

I’m thrilled to be a part of the blog tour for World of Trouble (The Last Policeman Book Three) by Ben H. Winters. Ben is one  of my favorite authors. His book Bedbugs is one of my top ten favorite horror novels, and I loved The Last Policeman (Book One) and Countdown City (Book Two).

Today I’m going to break down Hank’s wardrobe. Hank keeps working missing person cases in the face of a crisis of apocalyptic proportions (an asteroid is about to obliterate Earth), and he dresses the part of no-nonsense detective. In an unpredictable world readers can count on one thing from Hank: his attire stays pretty much the same throughout the books. He’s kind of like this Biology teacher I had in high school who owned five blue, oxford cloth, short sleeve shirts and five pairs of navy blue pants so he could wear the same thing everyday. Hank’s not quite as extreme in his clothing choices as my old high school teacher, but readers get the feeling Hank is trying to keep a sense of normalcy by adhering as best he can to the dress code from his days on the police force.

1. Hank would try to wear a white non-iron dress shirt (he’s practical like that) as often as possible. That’s just so Hank.

2. Hank’s often depicted wearing a sport coat or blazer in the books. I think this tan, slightly rugged blazer looks like it would be Hank approved.

3. The watch pictured above is a Timex. I can picture Hank looking down at it and thinking it takes a licking and keeps on ticking alright.

4. I think Hank would wear a pair of sturdy oxfords or loafers. I can also see him rocking hiking boots if he could get his hands on a pair.

5. I chose navy blue, wrinkle resistant chinos for Hank, because he would want a heavier fabric than suit pants as it gets colder and even harder to get around than it was before.

6. Hank is constantly reaching for a notebook to write down observations, clues, etc. Even when he doesn’t have one he automatically reaches for it.

Look for World of Trouble (Quirk Books, 320 pages, $14.95) in bookstores on July 15th (also my 14th wedding anniversary!).

More World of Trouble Links to Checkout

Click here for The World of Trouble Pre-order Campaign. By pre-ordering readers have a chance to get all kinds of cool extras.

Click here to check out Ben H. Winter’s blog. He’s doing a reverse blog tour over at his site.

Follow along with the other stops on the blog tour:

~~~

Don’t miss a thing! Keep up with Mandy Boles: Life Between Books by subscribing to my rss feed, following me on Twitter, Bloglovin’, and Instagram, and by liking my Facebook page.

FTC Disclosure: I received a review copy of World of Trouble from Quirk Books. I receive a commission on all purchases made through using the Amazon, affiliate, and ShopSense links on this site.

We live on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The summers here can be unbearably hot, and it’s taken me a few years to work out parenting in sometimes 100 degree weather.

Here are some of my favorite summertime activities to do with my kids:

1. Mama’s Little Helpers: Sometimes the best kind of play for wild little ones is to “put them to work.” When I’m working in the garden, I let the boys come outside with me and tell them they’re my helpers. They love this! Even though they typically get too excited to really help and end up using the tools to “dig a hole to the earth’s core” (pictured above), it gives them a sense of what I like to call “playful purpose.”

2. Swimming: A blow up pool in the back yard is my favorite standby summer activity. My boys love anything that involves getting wet. Swimming, water balloon fights, and the slip n’ slide all make appearances in our yard throughout the summer. It’s a great way to play in the sweltering heat while staying cool.

3. The Classics: Activities like flying a kite (Pictured above) or blowing bubbles (pictured below) can occupy the kids for hours. The same activities we enjoyed as kids can become your children’s summer favorites. You can find kites, bubbles, and a ton of other fun activities for the kids at the dollar store.

4. The Beach: If there’s a beach in your area, put it to use. Bring a cooler filled with drinks and snacks for the kids, some beach toys, and of course, loads of beach towels, and make a day of it!

5. Have a Staycation: Did you know that you don’t have to leave town to have an awesome vacation? Take your kids out to explore your town. Go to a museum or a restaurant you wouldn’t normally go to during the school year. Every week I try to take my boys to a place we rarely go. Last week we went for dessert at Mary Mahoney’s (pictured above). It’s a “fancy” restaurant and I used it as an opportunity to learn a little bit about table manners and etiquette for the boys.

Tip: One thing I took away from the novel Little Mercies was the importance of safety. Make sure your kids stay hydrated while playing outside. If they aren’t strong swimmers, make sure they wear floaties. Also, have fun! Your kids make memories all summer long that they’ll hold in their hearts as adults. Cherish the time that you have with them while they’re little. It all goes by in the blink of an eye.

Find out more about Little Mercies by Heather Gudenkauf:

·         Watch the Book Trailer

·         Visit Heather Gudenkauf’s Official Site

·         Follow Heather Gudenkauf on Twitter,Facebook, and Pinterest

·         Visit Little Mercies page on Goodreads

Disclaimer: This post was sponsored by Harlequin.

~~~

Don’t miss a thing! Keep up with Mandy Boles: Life Between Books by subscribing to my rss feed, following me on Twitter, Bloglovin’, and Instagram, and by liking my Facebook page.

Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander  is my favorite series. Seriously. Favorite. Series. Ever. I’m thrilled that Outlanders will come to life as a series on the Starz network August ninth, and I’m even more excited I finally got a chance to read the latest book in the series, Written In My Own Heart’s Blood (Delacorte Press, 848 paes, $35.00).

If you’ve never read the series, explaining it is complicated. There’s time travel, a beautiful love story, and excellent character development – but there’s so much more. Way too much to explain here. Written in My Own Heart’s Blood (AKA WIMOHB) is the eighth book in the series, so there’s a lot of back story. This one picks up where the action of the last book, An Echo In The Bone left off. At this point in the series Claire, who is a a time traveler from the 20th century currently living in 18th century America, believes Jaimie (her husband – he’s super hot and sometimes wears a kilt) is dead as a result of a failed voyage from Scotland to the States. Circumstances have forced Claire to marry Lord John Grey, Jaimie’s best friend, in order to remain safe in 1778 Philadelphia.

Jaimie comes back and Claire is shocked to learn that he didn’t die. Their reunion is short lived as George Washington asks Jaimie to serve in the war. You can’t really say no to George Washington, right? Gabaldon’s depiction of life during wartime is fascinating as always, and she describes battle with such detail that I felt like I was fighting and working alongside Jaimie and Claire. I love the many descriptions of the medical procedures Claire performs on the sick and wounded. I can’t imagine how many hours of research Gabaldon must have done just to get the details of the battles and surgical procedures correct.

The secret concerning William’s true father finally comes out in this book. I would like to have seen more interaction between Jaime and William, but I assume the next book will explore their relationship further.

Brianna, Jaime and Claire’s daughter, and her husband Roger (they and their two children are also able to travel through time) are living in the 1980 Scotland at the beginning of the book when things go horribly wrong. Roger travels back to he past because he believes their son Jem has been kidnapped and taken back to the 1700’s. Back in the 1980’s Brianna discovers that Jem is still in the present and must figure out how to reunite her husband with the family while dealing with problems on her homefront. The Roger/Brianna storyline has been my favorite in the last couple of books. I wish Diana Gabaldon would consider writing a spin off series featuring the couple.

Gabaldon’s story of enduring love through time is captivating. She ends the book with a tease that left me on the edge of my seat for the next book in the series. I have a feeling I’ll be on the edge of that seat for at least a few years since writing such detailed novels understandably takes years to do. Written In My Own Heart’s Blood, is a page turner! Readers who enjoy historical fiction and time travel romance will love Written in My Own Heart’s Blood.
.

Fell free to comment below. I’d love to hear your thoughts about WIMOHB or any other book in the Outlander series.


The dress I’m wearing in the photos above is by Cynthia Vincent. Click on the graphic above to shop the Cynthia Vincent site for lots of pretty clothes.:)

~~~

Don’t miss a thing! Keep up with Mandy Boles: Life Between Books by subscribing to my rss feed, following me on Twitter, Bloglovin’, and Instagram, and by liking my Facebook page.

FTC Disclosure: I receive a commission on all purchases made through using the Amazon, affiliate, and ShopSense links on this site.

Sometimes I read reviews before I purchase books. When I receive an ARC for review I wait until I’ve finished my review to read how the book was received critically. With The Vacationers (Riverhead, 304 pages, $26.95) by Emma Straub, I read one review prior to purchase. Margo Rabb’s review for The New York Times said the following:

When I turned the last page, I felt as I often do when a vacation is over: grateful for the trip and mourning its end.

Isn’t that the most delicious sentiment? As soon as I read the last line in Rabb’s review I ordered a copy of The Vacationers and eagerly awaited the beginning of my vacation via book. So, was Rabb right? Did I feel like I was ending a vacation and sad it was over when I finished? Yes! Straub’s tale of a the Post family and close family friends coming together for a two week vacation in Spain on the island of Majorca contains utterly luminous descriptions of Majorica while simultaneously being a study of the complexity and fragile state of the Post family.

Trouble In Paradise

Franny and Jim Post planned the getaway to Majorica prior to Jim losing his job at Gallant, a men’s magazine. Jim lost his job because of a liaison with a young co-worker. Job loss puts a strain on a marriage. However, unemployment due to adultery put Jim and Franny’s marriage in jeopardy and Franny decides to use her vacation time for serious reflection as to whether or not their marriage will continue.

Jim and Franny’s children, Sylvia, eighteen and Bobby twenty-eight are along for the vacation in addition to Bobby’s girlfriend Carmen,  Charles, Franny’s best friend and Laurence, Charles’s husband. Sylvia and Charles both know about Jim’s extramarital affair, but aren’t supposed to tell Bobby. Laurence and Charles hear from an adoption agency that they are on the list for a baby that has just been born and are under tension as they both internally examine their relationship while waiting for further news from the agency. The occupants of the beautiful vacation home in Majorica have more issues than Vogue and Straub brings the flaws of the Post family to life for readers while showcasing the sorrow and joy a relationship can experience.

I was left hoping for a sequel when The Vacationers ended. Like any great read, I didn’t want it to end. This book is an excellent beach read, but even if you don’t find yourself on the beach this summer, give it a try! It’s almost as good as really going on an island getaway.

You can find Emma Straub online at her website, Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. Click here to purchase a copy of The Vacationers from Amazon and here to purchase from Powell’s.

My Favorite Passage From The Vacationers:

~~~

Don’t miss a thing! Keep up with Mandy Boles: Life Between Books by subscribing to my rss feed, following me on Twitter, Bloglovin’, and Instagram, and by liking my Facebook page.

FTC Disclosure: I receive a commission on all purchases made through using the Amazon, affiliate, and ShopSense links on this site.

Goodnight June (Plume, 320 pages, $16.00) by Sarah Jio is a book I would purchase based on cover love alone. Seriously. Take a gander at the cover of this book. It’s beautiful and so clever. First, there’s the title – Goodnight June. Goodnight June sounds like Goodnight Moon and most of us bookworms probably have fond memories of Margaret Wise Brown’s classic. So, Jio has us hooked already with the title. Then add in the peek of the fireplace in the great green room in the corner of the cover and BOOM! I’m buying this book no matter what! (Adult Novel + Goodnight Moon = Awesome.)

What’s so wonderful about Goodnight June is that it absolutely lives up to its catchy title and beautiful cover. Jio has once again delivered another beautiful story with one foot in the past and one deeply rooted in the present. Goodnight June centers around June Andersen. June lives in Manhattan and works a very stressful job in finance. She is saddened to hear her great-aunt Ruby has passed away, and she doesn’t know what to think when she hears that Ruby left her beloved bookstore, Bluebird Books, to her.

June must return to Washington to take care of her great-aunt’s estate. While home for the first time in years, June must come to terms with her estrangement from her sister. In the midst of trying to decide whether or not to keep Bluebird Books open, June makes a historic discovery. She finds letters between Ruby and Margaret Wise Brown, author of Goodnight Moon. Ruby and “Brownie’s” letters introduce June to a side of her late aunt that she never knew. June learns of a love affair and of Ruby and Margaret’s strained relationships  with their own sisters. June’s present and Ruby’s past make for a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Sarah Jio is easily one of my favorite historical fiction authors. I love the way she blends the present and past in a perfectly seamless package. Goodnight June has many references to Goodnight Moon which made me quite nostalgic for my eldest son’s toddler and preschool years. A time when Goodnight Moon was one of the few books he loved being read to him over and over again. I can still see his tiny finger going up to cover his mouth as he whispered hush along with the old woman in the story.  Jio brings a beloved author to life in this vibrant and uplifting novel. I highly recommend it.

You can find Sarah Jio online at her website, SarahJio.com.

Click here to purchase Goodnight June from Amazon.

~~~

Don’t miss a thing! Keep up with Mandy Boles: Life Between Books by subscribing to my rss feed, following me on Twitter, Bloglovin’, and Instagram, and by liking my Facebook page.

FTC Disclosure: I receive a commission on all purchases made through using the Amazon, affiliate, and ShopSense links on this site. My personal copy of Goodnight June was used for this review. Sarah’s on my “automatic pre-order” list.

Author: Mona Simpson

336 pages, Published by Knopf

Mona’s Info: Website | Twitter | Facebook

Buy The Book: Amazon

  Summary:

From the acclaimed and award-winning author of Anywhere But Here and My Hollywood, a powerful new novel about a young boy’s quest to uncover the mysteries of his unraveling family. What he discovers turns out to be what he least wants to know: the inner workings of his parents’ lives. And even then he can’t stop searching.

Miles Adler-Hart starts eavesdropping to find out what his mother is planning for his life. When he learns instead that his parents are separating, his investigation deepens, and he enlists his best friend, Hector, to help. Both boys are in thrall to Miles’s unsuspecting mother, Irene, who is “pretty for a mathematician.” They rifle through her dresser drawers, bug her telephone lines, and strip-mine her computer, only to find that all clues lead them to her bedroom, and put them on the trail of a mysterious stranger from Washington, D.C.

Their amateur detective work starts innocently but quickly takes them to the far reaches of adult privacy as they acquire knowledge that will affect the family’s well-being, prosperity, and sanity. Burdened with this powerful information, the boys struggle to deal with the existence of evil and concoct modes of revenge on their villains that are both hilarious and naïve. Eventually, haltingly, they learn to offer animal comfort to those harmed and to create an imaginative path to their own salvation.

Casebook brilliantly reveals an American family both coming apart at the seams and, simultaneously, miraculously reconstituting itself to sustain its members through their ultimate trial. Mona Simpson, once again, demonstrates her stunning mastery, giving us a boy hero for our times whose story remains with us long after the novel is over. (Summary provided by Knopf.)

My Thoughts:

I read Casebook by Mona Simpson right before Mother’s Day weekend. This proved to be a mistake because I get way emotional before Mother’s Day every year. As I was reading from the main character Miles’s point of view, I kept thinking of my own boys being in a situation similar to Miles’s and it made my heart hurt.

The book begins with Miles rigging up a walkie talkie to to spy on his parents’ conversations so he can find out if he’ll be allowed to watch survivor or not and he finds out through his spying that his parents are getting a divorce. As the book progresses he uses his spy equipment to listen in on his mother’s conversations with her boyfriend, Eli. Miles eventually becomes obsessed with finding out whether Eli is lying to his mother or not. The book follows Miles over a period of about six years. Casebook is written as though it were a collaboration between Miles and his best friend Hector a while after most of the events in the book took place. It’s mentioned at the beginning that Casebook is the second book Miles and Hector wrote together. The first was a comic book. Towards the end of the book readers get to see excerpts from the comic. I loved that I got to see bits and pieces of the comic mentioned at the beginning of the book. It added an extra layer to the background story.

Mona Simpson does a wonderful job writing from Miles’s POV. It was so realistic that it made me think of my own children. As a mom to two boys, I found myself over analyzing Miles’s thoughts concerning conversations he overhears his mom having on the phone. Do my boys ever hear snippets of my phone conversations, misunderstand/over analyze them, and get their feelings hurt? Let’s hope the anxiety skips a generation and my boys don’t start making nothing into GIANT. HUGE. SOMETHINGS. like I’m prone to do.

Miles’s love for his mother was beautiful. His drive to find out the truth about Eli was captivating. About halfway through the novel Miles “hires” a private investigator to look into Eli’s life. At that point I couldn’t put the book down. Warning: The end is a tearjerker. I may have cried an obscene amount when I finished Casebook.

~~~

Don’t miss a thing! Keep up with Mandy Boles: Life Between Books by subscribing to my rss feed, following me on Twitter, Bloglovin’, and Instagram, and by liking my Facebook page.

FTC Disclosure: I receive a commission on all purchases made through using the Amazon and ShopSense links on this site. I also received a free copy of Casebook from Knopf c/o TLC Book Tours.

1.  Little, Brown and Company had a great campaign called What are LB Moms Reading? Click here to check out what the Little, Brown and Company moms are reading. (Image courtesy of Little, Brown and Company.)

2. William Morrow shared a hilarious video made by What’s Up Moms in collaboration with Karen Alpert, author of I Heart My Little A-Holes. See it below:

3. Simon and Schuster gave a sweet shout out to Moms on their Facebook page.

4. On Penguin’s blog author A.M. Homes shared an essay about being both a mother and daughter on Mother’s Day. Click here to check it out.

5. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group has a super cute set of printable, Mother’s Day themed bookplates up on their website.

Feel free to leave a link in the comments if you wrote about Mother’s Day this week.:)
~~~~

Don’t miss a thing! Keep up with Mandy Boles: Life Between Books by subscribing to my rss feed, following me on Twitter, Bloglovin’, and Instagram, and by liking my Facebook page.

Summary:

A voyage across the ocean becomes the odyssey of a lifetime for a young Irish woman. . . .

Ireland, 1912 . . .

Fourteen members of a small village set sail on RMS Titanic, hoping to find a better life in America. For seventeen-year-old Maggie Murphy, the journey is bittersweet. Though her future lies in an unknown new place, her heart remains in Ireland with Séamus, the sweetheart she left behind. When disaster strikes, Maggie is one of the few passengers in steerage to survive. Waking up alone in a New York hospital, she vows never to speak of the terror and panic of that fateful night again.

Chicago, 1982 . . .

Adrift after the death of her father, Grace Butler struggles to decide what comes next. When her great-grandmother Maggie shares the painful secret about Titanic that she’s harbored for almost a lifetime, the revelation gives Grace new direction—and leads both her and Maggie to unexpected reunions with those they thought lost long ago.

Inspired by true events, The Girl Who Came Home poignantly blends fact and fiction to explore the Titanic tragedy’s impact and its lasting repercussions on survivors and their descendants. (Summary provided by William Morrow Paperbacks.)

My Thoughts:

I, like so many others, have always been fascinated by the facts surrounding the ill-fated voyage of the Titanic. So, when I heard about Hazel Gaynor’s novel The Girl Who Came Home: A Novel of The Titanic, I knew it would be a must read for me. Gaynor expertly weaves fact and fiction in this historical fiction novel. With The Girl Who Came Home readers are introduced to a group of 14 people from the fictional town of Ballysheen, Ireland traveling in steerage class aboard the Titanic with dreams of more opportunities in America. What makes this novel even more fascinating is that the 14 residents of Ballysheen are loosely based on a group of fourteen Irish passengers from Addergoogle. So this historical novel is a true mixture of history and fiction.

The book centers around Maggie, a teen from a Ballysheen – a small village in Ireland, who finds herself about to board Titanic after her mother dies and her aunt comes from the states to take her to America with her. Maggie is upset because she doesn’t want to leave her boyfriend Seamus behind. The Girl Who Came Home goes back and forth telling Maggie’s story in 1912 and her great-granddaughter Grace’s story in 1982. However, Maggie is the prominent character in the book. Much of the book is told through journal entries Maggie kept during her voyage on the Titanic and in the aftermath of the tragedy. There are also a few other POV’s of passengers aboard the ship throughout the novel as well.

Grace’s story set in 1982 mirrors that of her great-grandmother’s. After her father dies, Grace drops out of college to take care of her mother. Grace leaves behind a boyfriend and a promising journalism career. After seeing Grace sacrifice so much of herself for her mother, Maggie decides to finally share her story of what happened aboard the Titanic with Grace. It’s the first time Maggie has talked about the tragedy with anyone except her late husband since the incident happened. Maggie and Grace’s relationship is beautiful. As the book progressed Maggie’s story revived her great-granddaughter’s zest for life and taught her to make every moment count as well as providing a much needed sense of catharsis and closure for Maggie.

Gaynor’s attention to detail, specifically regarding the class divide aboard the ship and the aftermath of the tragedy, changed the way I’ll view the event forever. I’m really glad the novel focused on the steerage class passengers rather than the famous aristocrats and wealthy passengers who populated first class not because the stories of the wealthy passengers aren’t an important piece of history, but rather because I feel that the non-privileged passengers aboard the Titanic have been overlooked historically.

I highly recommend taking time to remember the many lives who were lost on the Titanic by reading The Girl Who Came Home this April 15th, the anniversary of the Titanic.I guarantee you’ll learn something you didn’t already know about this sad event and you’ll come away with a new understanding of some of the most overlooked passengers of the ship. Click here to read more about the historical background of the novel on Hazel Gaynor’s blog.

(April 15th is also my husband’s birthday. I had no idea it was also the anniversary date of the Titanic.)

Be sure to enter the giveaway below!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

~~~~

Don’t miss a thing! Keep up with Mandy Boles: Life Between Books by subscribing to my rss feed, following me on Twitter, Bloglovin’, and Instagram, and by liking my Facebook page.

FTC Disclosure: I receive a commission on all purchases made through using the Amazon and ShopSense links on this site.I also received a free copy of The Girl Who Came Home from William Morrow.