Promise Me by Richard Paul Evans... A Review

"Beth Cardall has a secret. For eighteen years, she has had no choice but to keep it, but on Christmas Eve 2008, all that is about to change."

Promise Me by Richard Paul Evans is filled with the magic of the Christmas season. It's 1989 and Beth Cardall's life is falling apart. Her six-year-old daughter, Charlotte, is suffering with a mysterious illness, the man of her dreams, her husband, betrays her, and she's in danger of losing her job because of all the time she has had to take off to take care of Charlotte. Most of all she's lost her ability to trust- herself or anyone else. But in a simple twist of fate, she drives in a blizzard to the 7-Eleven, the only place open on Christmas morning, and literally bumps into a gorgeous mysterious stranger as she's paying for her buttermilk. Beth noticed him starring at her... but when she see's him again at the grocery store, it seems too coincidental... his name is Matthew... he asks her out... she says no... he seems to know things about her... he pursues her anyway, and will prove to change her life dramatically... He's like an angel sent from Heaven, and Beth finally begins to trust him, ultimately falling in love... but Matthew has a secret...

Promise Me is romantic, it's about truly being in love, it's about making sacrifices for the people you love. It's a wonderful story! And a story I really enjoyed reading! The chapters are short, and at the beginning of the chapter is a short little insight from Beth's diary...

This man just keeps coming back like a flesh-covered boomerang. I hope he's not crooked too.

*Beth Cardall's Diary*

You can read this in little doses, or like I did at one sitting!( I couldn't help myself ). Richard Paul Evans writes wonderful inspirational stories, and Promise Me is no different. I was so taken by the story. The characters come to life off the pages, they feel real and are dealing with life as you and I would. But then the story is sprinkled with just a bit of magic, where you'll need to let your guard down just a little, because the story takes a wonderful little detour (a smidgen of time travel- which I loved!) that will have you falling in love and at the same time bring a tear to your eye, as Beth and Matthew take a journey together that will change the course of lives of the people around them.

This would make a wonderful gift for the reader on your list that enjoys romantic inspirational stories. Fans of Richard Paul Evans, known for his "Christmas fiction" such as The Christmas Box, and The Gift, will love this newest offering! This would also make a great Christmas read for a reading group! The choices Beth makes, the journey Beth and Matthew make, and ultimately the results of those choices would make for a great discussion. And a wonderful story for the season!

I want to thank Simon & Schuster for sending along a copy of Promise Me to review! I loved it! Promise Me is available right now from your local bookstore! *P.S. This Book is Kindle Ready!

Memoir Monday... The Other Wes Moore

The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore

One Name, Two Fates...

Two young men who didn't know each other, growing up in the same tough neighborhood, in the same city, about the same age, but whose lives would turn out drastically differently... Oh and coincidentally, both young men shared the same name - Wes Moore.

"On December 11, 2000, The Baltimore Sun ran an article about how Wes, despite his troubled childhood, had just received The Rhodes Scholarship. At the same time, The Sun was running stories —eventually more than 100 in all—about four African-American men who were arrested for the murder of an off-duty Baltimore police officer during an armed robbery. One of the men convicted was just two years older than Wes, lived in the same neighborhood, and in an uncanny turn, was also named Wes Moore..." ...About the Author from his website

From Publisher's Weekly... Two hauntingly similar boys take starkly different paths in this searing tale of the ghetto. Moore, an investment banker, Rhodes scholar, and former aide to Condoleezza Rice, was intrigued when he learned that another Wes Moore, his age and from the same area of Greater Baltimore, was wanted for killing a cop. Meeting his double and delving into his life reveals deeper likenesses: raised in fatherless families and poor black neighborhoods, both felt the lure of the money and status to be gained from dealing drugs. That the author resisted the criminal underworld while the other Wes drifted into it is chalked up less to character than to the influence of relatives, mentors, and expectations that pushed against his own delinquent impulses, to the point of exiling him to military school. Moore writes with subtlety and insight about the plight of ghetto youth, viewing it from inside and out; he probes beneath the pathologies to reveal the pressures—poverty, a lack of prospects, the need to respond to violence with greater violence—that propelled the other Wes to his doom. The result is a moving exploration of roads not taken...

When Wes Moore the author read about the "other" Wes Moore, he was curious - how could two men with similar backgrounds, with the same name, turn out so differently. He wrote to the "other" Wes Moore in prison and got a response... This book sounds so interesting to me. Does this bring up the age old question of Nature versus Nurture? And how the choices we make always have consequences... sometimes good, sometimes not so good.

This book was published this past April with glowing reviews. It's available in hardcover right now, but is scheduled to be released in paperback at the end of the year (Dec. 2010). And of course, this book is Kindle Ready!

Memoir Monday... Let's Take The Long Way Home by Gail Caldwell

Let's Take The Long Way Home: A Memoir of Friendship

There's something special about women's friendships. They can be intense, emotional, fulfilling. A common thread can link us together and sustain a friendship through long separations, careers, and men. Gail Caldwell and Caroline Knapp found that common thread. Let's Take the Long Way Home is Gail's homage to that friendship. A friendship that was the perfect recipe, except that Caroline was diagnosed with terminal cancer... Here's what the publisher writes,

“It’s an old, old story: I had a friend and we shared everything, and then she died and so we shared that, too.”

So begins this gorgeous memoir by Pulitzer Prize winner Gail Caldwell, a testament to the power of friendship, a story of how an extraordinary bond between two women can illuminate the loneliest, funniest, hardest moments in life, including the final and ultimate challenge.

They met over their dogs. Both writers, Gail Caldwell and Caroline Knapp, author of Drinking: A Love Story, became best friends, talking about everything from their shared history of a struggle with alcohol, to their relationships with men and colleagues, to their love of books. They walked the woods of New England and rowed on the Charles River, and the miles they logged on land and water became a measure of the interior ground they covered. From disparate backgrounds but with striking emotional similarities, these two private, fiercely self-reliant women created an attachment more profound than either of them could ever have foreseen.

The friendship helped them define the ordinary moments of life as the ones worth cherishing. Then, several years into this remarkable connection, Knapp was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.

With her signature exquisite prose, Caldwell mines the deepest levels of devotion and grief in this moving memoir about treasuring and losing a best friend. Let’s Take the Long Way Home is a celebration of life and of the transformations that come from intimate connection—and it affirms, once again, why Gail Caldwell is recognized as one of our bravest and most honest literary voices.

I've got my box of tissues ready, because I'll be reading Let's Take the Long Way Home this week. It's gotten a lot of praise from the reading community, and I look forward to reading it even though I know that ultimately it's a sad tale...

The Cradle by Patrick Somerville... A Review & Giveaway!

"There are two kinds of people in the world," Marissa said.

"There are people who understand that everything matters and people who don't understand that everything matters."

Congratulations to Linda, Darcy & Ashley who each won a copy of The Cradle! Thanks to EVERYONE who joined the fun, blogged and tweeted!

The Cradle by Patrick Somerville opens with a very pregnant Marissa describing "the cradle" that she was rocked in as a child, that was supposedly from the Civil War, and went missing after her mother abandoned the family when Marissa was 15, and a mysterious break-in occurred shortly there after. Marissa asks her husband Matt to find it. She wants the cradle for her baby, just as she had it as a baby. It is important to her... he wouldn't understand because he was an orphan... What this means is finding Marissa's mother, even though Marissa has no idea where she is... Matt is a hero to her, he's pretty good at finding keys, why should a cradle be so different?

The next chapter fast forwards 10 years to another family, Rene Owen and her husband Bill, dealing with their 19 year old son going off to war. Rene is desperate not to have her son go off to war. The reason is a deep down pain, a lost love in another war many years before, and a secret that she's kept hidden just as long.

How Patrick Somerville weaves these two stories together is what is magical. When I started reading The Cradle, I thought I was in for a light read. What I got was a deceptively complicated story, that surprised and delighted me. When Matt makes the simple gesture of humoring his wife and trying to find the cradle, little does he know that he's going on quite an adventure that will take him all the way to Antarctica! As he follows the trail of the cradle, he stumbles upon long kept secrets of Marissa's family, which stir his own childhood memories and dormant feelings. Rene Owen's story alternates with Matt and his search for "the cradle", and in doing so the anticipation of each story grows. Hints of a connection are sprinkled in both story lines and there are no earth shattering revelations, but that is what makes the story special- the seamless connection you find at the end. Along the way, the author challenges the reader to think about what being a family means, what being a parent means, and what value a human life holds. The characters are believable, the writing is good, and the story innocently captures your attention. Thought-provoking and at times heartbreaking, The Cradle by Patrick Somerville is a very satisfying read in a mere 200 pages. The search may have started out for the cradle, but everyone finds something different at the end of the story. One thing we all find at the end is hope...

The Cradle would make a great reading group pick. There is definitely great material for a discussion! Here's the Reading Group Guide for The Cradle. You can learn more about Patrick Somerville by visiting his website, and Patrick also has a wonderful essay about how the story for The Cradle came about at Hachette Book Group. I want to also thank Valerie of Hachette Book Group for sending me a copy of The Cradle for review!

Courtesy of Hachette Book Group I also have 3 copies of The Cradle by Patrick Somerville to give away! Here's how to enter...

To Enter this giveaway...

*For one entry leave me a comment with your email address!

*Get an extra entry for following my blog! Just leave a comment letting me know you're a follower! ( Not a follower yet? No problem, sign up by clicking on the 'followers" button on the sidebar to the right! Just let me know you became a new follower!)

*Blog or tweet about this giveaway and leave me the link.

This giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents only (No PO boxes). The books will be shipped to the winners directly from the publisher. Contest ends 11:59pm EST on May 8th. I will randomly pick the winners the next day and email them! (please check your email.. winner must reply to me within 3 days! Thanks!) Good Luck!

*P.S. This Book is Kindle Ready!

Walking to Gatlinburg by Howard Frank Mosher... A Review

"Years later Morgan Kinneson would conclude that it was probably reading that had gotten him and his brother, Pilgrim, into trouble in the first place..."

Walking to Gatlinburg by Howard Frank Mosher is a wonderful story of a young man, 17-year-old Morgan Kinneson, who travels from Vermont to the Great Smoky Mountains trying to find his older brother, Pilgrim, who went missing during the Battle at Gettysburg. Along the way, as in all good tales, Morgan encounters a whole host of quirky characters including a weeping elephant, a woman who lives in a tree, and the not so quirky and very beautiful slave girl named Slidell.

The year is 1864. The Kinneson family has been helping runaway slaves enter Canada from Vermont by way of the Underground Railroad for some time. A chance encounter with one of those slaves, leaves Morgan in possession of a mysterious rune with strange markings and a pack of 5 murderous thugs after him (and the rune). As Morgan deals with his "problems" he makes his way through the rugged terrain searching for any clues as to the whereabouts of his brother. The backdrop for the story is the Civil War, one of America's bloodiest wars, where at times brother fought brother, and where, as I was reading, could feel the hopelessness of it all. What makes this book stand out is the way the author blends the history of the times with the beauty of the American landscape and adds a twist of wry humor. Howard Frank Mosher has written a coming of age story during the turbulent times of the Civil War and added quirky entertaining characters to help us see past the horrors of war and see what the American pioneer spirit was founded on. Imagine Charles Frazier writing as Mark Twain and you’ll understand Walking to Gatlinburg.

Howard Frank Mosher calls himself a natural born liar. Something he's not lying about is that he's no Charles Frazier, and Walking to Gatlinburg is no Cold Mountain... and for that I am thankful, because Mr. Howard has his own blend of New England charm. Howard Frank Mosher knows how to craft a yarn. He is a gifted storyteller and knows his history. Walking to Gatlinburg is engaging, his characters are filled with personality, and I loved it! Walking to Gatlinburg is an adventure, it's historical fiction, and it'll make you smile more than once...

Read an excerpt of Walking to Gatlinburg at Mr. Mosher's website, and while you're there check to see if he'll be making an appearance somewhere near you. He has a fascinating slide show to go along with his book tour called "Transforming History into Fiction: the Story of a Born Liar". You get a glimpse at how Walking to Gatlinburg came to be and how there's not only a liar in the Mosher family, but a murderer (or an almost murderer) in his family too. (Which makes for another great story!)

*P.S. This Book is Kindle Ready!

Memoir Monday... The Storks' Nest by Laura Lynne Williams: Life and Love in the Russian Countryside! And A Review!

The Storks' Nest

[Life and Love in the Russian Countryside]

From the Publishers... The Storks' Nest is the true story of a young American woman who moves to a remote village in western Russia and falls in love with a nature photographer. Together they explore the wilderness of the impenetrable Bryansk Forest, coming face-to-face with bison and bears, apprehending poachers and a runaway stallion, and raising a stork and a moose. As they build a house and a life together, nature often sets the agenda, bringing floods and impassable roads, blood-sucking insects, and bone-chilling cold. Yet, these present-day hardships are nothing compared to those the Chukhrai villagers have experienced in the past century-from forced hunger to Communist repression to Hitler's invasion. As Laura learns about the history and life of the village and its 19 inhabitants, she discovers the enduring spirit of the Russian people and the immeasurable joys of living with nature.

Laura Lynne Williams fell in love... but not just with a Russian nature photographer named Igor, but with Russia and the hard working people of the isolated Russian village Chukhrai. The Storks' Nest by Laura Lynne Williams beautifully captures the powerful draw of nature to our souls. Living most of her life in "bustling polluted cities" and "working behind a desk" Laura's dream as a young college student at Cornell was to work in international nature conservancy. Her studies led her to joining the World Wildlife Federation, and then eventually becoming director of their first office in Russia promoting the conservation efforts to help sustain Russia's zapovedniki, which is a large network of strictly protected natural areas covering about 1.5 percent of the whole country. And this is where the story begins to draw you in... Laura eventually gives up her well paying job at WWF and accepts an offer from the handsome director of the Bryansk Forest Zapovednik, Igor Shpilenok, to run the educational center for the newly constructed visitor's center there for about $60 a month. Motivated primarily by her need to get out from behind her desk and back into the actual field Laura begins a new phase in her life. We trail behind her as she raises an orphaned moose, or catches a moor frog to feed a baby stork. I was captivated by her descriptions of the simple beauty surrounding her, and her everyday normal village life- laying pipes, digging trenches, cooking traditional Russian meals. The bison, beavers, moose and the rare black storks made up her surroundings, but also the hardships and small victories of village life. Sprinkled with photographs of the villagers and animals around her, there are also a few recipes within the pages. One recipe is for Bliny, a staple of the Russian diet, and a favorite treat of Kisa, Igor's red haired dachshund. Heartwarming and heartbreaking at times too, The Storks' Nest by Laura Lynne Williams will make you yearn for the great outdoors. You'll learn so much about Russia and the natural beauty that is rarely promoted. You'll also learn about a woman who followed her heart and became something more than just herself. If you love nature, you'll enjoy The Storks' Nest. It's not just a memoir though, The Storks' Nest is an important work reminding us that there are still places untouched by over-development, cell phones and highways, and that the wildlife and wilderness there should be preserved. I want to thank Katie at Fulcrum Publishing for sending me the review copy of The Storks' Nest! If you'd like to learn more about Laura Lynne Williams, you can read more about Laura and her husband, Igor, and their important work at the Center for Russian Nature Conservation. You can view the beautiful Russian nature photography of Igor Shpilenok at his online gallery too. *P.S. This Book is Kindle Ready!

Every Dog Has a Gift: true stories of dogs who bring hope & healing into our lives... A Review

Inspiring Stories of Hope & Healing...

There's a reason dogs are referred to as "Man's Best Friend", dogs have the unwritten power to bring us joy and make our worst days better just by offering us their unconditional love. Rachel McPherson knows this all too well as the founder & executive director of The Good Dog Foundation, a non profit organization dedicated to all aspects of dog-assisted therapy. "Good Dogs brings comfort and joy to people receiving chemotherapy; restore a sense of control to people whose lives have been upended by an illness or disability; serve as the perfect audience to help disadvantaged children practice & improve reading skills; comfort the bereaved and victims of disaster; and much more."

But Rachel doesn't limit her beliefs to dogs just specifically trained to be therapy dogs or "service" dogs, she believes all dogs are therapy dogs in one way or another. In every dog has a gift: true stories of dogs who bring hope & healing into our lives by Rachel McPherson, you will read simple inspiring stories of dogs who make a difference. The stories are heart warming, honest & moving. From the opening story of Chad who changes the life of a little boy with severe autism to Sierra, a three-year-old Lab who helps a wheel-chair bound Vietnam Veteran gain his freedom again you will be touched. There's the story of Fidel a cute little papillon who seemingly absorbs the grief of a woman taking the ferry ride to visit Ground Zero after the tragedy of 9/11 and who thanked Fidel after the trip for easing her pain; and the story of Pixel who makes all the difference in the world to the homeless Veteran who cares for her.

Every Dog Has a Gift is more than just stories though, it's a great resource! There are lists of some wonderful programs, such as The Good Dog Foundation Reading Program, which pairs dogs with children in libraries and schools, or Canine Companions for Independence, which is an organization that provides trained dogs for people with disabilities. Rachel also shares with us advice on choosing a dog, caring for a dog and fun things to do with your dog! (one of which is read to your dog! I already do, do you?) Plus Rachel talks about caring for our own dogs with disabilities and lists organizations that can help us help them.

As a dog lover, I enjoyed this book so much! The stories were inspiring, but learning about the worthwhile programs where the dogs went out into the community was eye opening! So many wonderful programs where dogs help heal our hearts and help us live better lives! Well written and entertaining, eye-opening and inspiring, Every Dog Has a Gift will bring greater awareness to the amazing powers of our four legged friends to bring us happiness. And it's a good read too!

Every Dog Has a Gift by Rachel McPherson will be released March 18th! 5% of all the proceeds will be donated to The Good Dog Foundation! Want to learn more about The Good Dog Foundation? They have a great website at www.thegooddogfoundation.org where you can learn about the organization and learn how you and your furry friend can become volunteers in your community. I want to thank Penguin Books for sending me a copy of Every Dog Has a Gift for review!

*P.S. This Book is Kindle Ready!

Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin... Virtual Book Tour and Review!

Tumble down the rabbit hole with the real Alice in Wonderland...

Few works of literature are as universally beloved as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Now, in this spellbinding historical novel, we meet the young girl whose bright spirit sent her on an unforgettable trip down the rabbit hole–and the grown woman whose story is no less enthralling.

But oh my dear, I am tired of being Alice in Wonderland. Does it sound ungrateful? Alice Liddell Hargreaves’s life has been a richly woven tapestry: As a young woman, wife, mother, and widow, she’s experienced intense passion, great privilege, and greater tragedy. But as she nears her eighty-first birthday, she knows that, to the world around her, she is and will always be only “Alice.” Her life was permanently dog-eared at one fateful moment in her tenth year–the golden summer day she urged a grown-up friend to write down one of his fanciful stories... That story, a wild tale of rabbits, queens, and a precocious young child, becomes a sensation the world over. Its author, a shy, stuttering Oxford professor, does more than immortalize Alice–he changes her life forever. But even he cannot stop time, as much as he might like to. And as Alice’s childhood slips away, a peacetime of glittering balls and royal romances gives way to the urgent tide of war. For Alice, the stakes could not be higher, for she is the mother of three grown sons, soldiers all. Yet even as she stands to lose everything she treasures, one part of her will always be the determined, undaunted Alice of the story, who discovered that life beyond the rabbit hole was an astonishing journey.

A love story and a literary mystery, Alice I Have Been brilliantly blends fact and fiction to capture the passionate spirit of a woman who was truly worthy of her fictional alter ego, in a world as captivating as the Wonderland only she could inspire.

I never really thought about the real Alice. Aren't most characters in a story inspired by someone or something? But when I heard all the buzz about Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin, I became fascinated. It seems that the author of Alice in Wonderland, Charles Dodgeson (who wrote under the pen name of Lewis Carroll) met young Alice Liddell and her rather large family while photographing the cathedral at Oxford... Alice Liddell's father was appointed to the deanery at Christ Church, Oxford... Alice was 5 years old at the time... And Dodgeson's fascination with the young girls , Alice & her two sisters, began... And Melanie Benjamin does a wonderful job blending history with fact. She captures the precociousness of the real Alice, and the Alice we all know from Alice in Wonderland.

The story is told through the eyes of Alice. We meet her family, including the sisters she was most close with, Lorina & Edith, her governess, the servants, Charles Dodgeson, and even Royalty. The story goes beyond Alice and the man who wrote the story that would keep her a child forever... Melanie shows us how sisters can love and hate each other. There is jealousy, deceptions and an underlying uncomfortableness in the fascination that Charles Dodgeson has with Alice. There is love, first kisses and consequences. Melanie's writing is compelling in the voice of Alice and I found myself not being able to put the book down. The story also does a perfect job of showcasing the restrictions on young women during the victorian age. How each and every action and the way a young lady dressed all played a part of a "proper" upbringing and how rumors and speculation can ruin a reputation, whether or not the rumors were founded. I don't want to give too much away here, but I felt so much empathy for Alice as her life seemed to fall apart! You'll know what I mean when you READ THIS BOOK!

The book opens with Alice reflecting on her life as a woman of eighty. It gives one just enough story to grab ones interest, and it does not disappoint. I just loved Alice, she was such an interesting character, the way she observed the people and the world around her was refreshing. Alice I Have Been was a wonderful read. Melanie Benjamin has flushed out the life and loves of Alice Liddell and this is one book not to miss! As Melanie moves from Alice the young girl to Alice the adult, she doesn't miss a beat. The story is just as interesting and the ending is perfect. This would be a great book club selection! Plenty of novel for a lively discussion! Check out the Alice I Have Been Reading Group Guide. HEY! Cheryl of Pump Up Your Book is going to sponsor a giveaway for a copy of Alice I Have Been for my Blogoversary!!! Thank you so much Cheryl! So, check back during the blogoversary celebration starting Feb. 18th to see what giveaways are going on! Don't miss your chance to win this book!

About the Melanie Benjamin & Alice I Have Been...

"I was inspired to write Alice I Have Been after unexpectedly viewing a photographic exhibit called "Dreaming in Pictures: The Photography of Lewis Carroll." Among the many photographs there, all taken by the man who wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, one stood out to me. It was of a young girl clad only in rags, but with an expression on her face that stopped me in my tracks. She was so adult, so frank, so worldly, as she gazed at the man behind the camera. She was 7-year-old Alice Liddell, the daughter of Dean Henry Liddell of Christ Church, Oxford. It was to her that Lewis Carroll--or Charles Dodgson, as she knew him--told the story of a little girl who tumbled down a rabbit hole. She was the one who begged him to write it down. I wondered what happened to her after she grew up; I wondered what happened between the two of them to result in such a startling photograph."

Melanie Benjamin lives in the Chicago area with her husband and two sons, where she is working on her next historical novel. Visit her website at www.melaniebenjamin.com.

I want to thank Random House and Cheryl of Pump Up You Book Promotion Virtual Book Tours for the opportunity to review Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin. This was part of Melanie Benjamin's Virtual Book Tour. AliceI Have Been is now available from your local bookstore or online retailer! *P.S. This Book is Kindle Ready!

One Amazing Thing by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni... a Review

“One Amazing Thing collapses the walls dividing characters and cultures; what endures is a chorus of voices in one single room.”

—Jhumpa Lahiri, author of The Namesake

Late afternoon sun sneaks through the windows of a passport and visa office in an unnamed American city. Most customers and even most office workers have come and gone, but nine people remain. A punky teenager with an unexpected gift. An upper-class Caucasian couple whose relationship is disintegrating. A young Muslim-American man struggling with the fallout of 9/11. A graduate student haunted by a question about love. An African-American ex-soldier searching for redemption. A Chinese grandmother with a secret past. And two visa office workers on the verge of an adulterous affair.

When an earthquake rips through the afternoon lull, trapping these nine characters together, their focus first jolts to their collective struggle to survive. There’s little food. The office begins to flood. Then, at a moment when the psychological and emotional stress seems nearly too much for them to bear, the young graduate student suggests that each tell a personal tale, “one amazing thing” from their lives, which they have never told anyone before. And as their surprising stories of romance, marriage, family, political upheaval, and self-discovery unfold against the urgency of their life-or-death circumstances, the novel proves the transcendent power of stories and the meaningfulness of human expression itself. From Chitra Divakaruni, author of such finely wrought, bestselling novels as Sister of My Heart, The Palace of Illusions, and The Mistress of Spices, comes her most compelling and transporting story to date. One Amazing Thing is a passionate creation about survival—and about the reasons to survive.

One Amazing Thing by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is about people, how we can misjudge people and how even though we may not look alike or come from different backgrounds, we are all united by our humanity. In One Amazing Thing, trapped together in a room filling with water and the ceiling collapsing above, 9 people who look so different on the outside open up to one another, and learn that they aren't so different from each other after all. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is a wonderful storyteller. As we become wrapped in the story of the earthquake and how the characters are struggling to survive, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni whisks us away to another time and place with a story, their stories, passionate stories that help us see the depth of their souls.

One Amazing Thing was told by all the different characters, not just one narrator. I found this to be refreshing and enjoyable. I was able get to know the characters better this way, how they felt about each other, how they viewed themselves and the world in general. I began feeling invested in their welfare, wanting them to survive. And the way their One Amazing stories were told seemed from their hearts, with a genuine tenderness. The story itself flows easily between characters, and the writing was wonderful with just enough suspense. It's a thought provoking story, and one you shouldn't miss! This book would be a great book club selection, and there's a reading group guide for One Amazing Thing from the publisher of Voice and Hyperion.

I enjoyed reading this book so much! I want to thank the publisher, Hyperion and Voice for sending me the advanced copy! One Amazing Thing by Chitra Banerjee Divakarun is scheduled to be released in bookstores Feb. 2nd! You can read an excerpt of One Amazing Thing at Chitra Banerjee Divakarun website. And you can read a conversation with the author about her book at Everywomansvoice.com. *P.S. This Book is Kindle Ready!

Denise Austin's Daily Dozen Blog Tour! And Review!

12 Easy Exercises in 12 Minutes a Day!

For more than 25 years, Denise Austin has been helping people get in shape & lose weight. She looks fabulous at 52 and credits this by exercising regularly and eating healthy. In her new book, Denise's Daily Dozen, not only does she gives us the tools to get in shape, but they are EASY! She's not talking about a diet, she's talking about simple changes. Making better food choices, adding some exercise and feeling better!

Denise shares with you her plan of 12 easy exercises that can be done in 12 minutes a day, the exercises change each day so you're not bored, plus she gives you recipes and meal plans with "normal" food, such as Awesome Chicken Brick Burgers, or Tuna Salad Wrap. Included are tips to help you keep on track and even exercises you can do at the kitchen sink! Included are 12 ways to add flavor to food, shopping tips, and ways to boost your energy. Denise lays out everything for you each day of the week, with a checklist at the end of the day, so you can keep track of what you are doing. If you want to get in shape (one of my new years resolutions!) & enjoy trying new recipes, what have you got to lose? No pun intended! I thought the book was organized well, and the recipes easy. I also thought the tips throughout the book were great. Denise's Daily Dozen is a good place to start to get back on track! Check out DeniseAustin.com for more info! *Hey, This Book is Kindle Ready!

Chick with Books is part of Denise's Daily Dozen Blog Tour.

Giveaway: The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker... A Great Book Club Selection!

The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker

Congratulations to Jonita, Beth and Marilu! They each won a copy of The Little Giant of Aberdeen County! Thank you to EVERYONE for joining in on the fun by entering and tweeting the giveaway!

When Truly Plaice's mother was pregnant, the town of Aberdeen joined together in betting how recordbreakingly huge the baby boy would ultimately be. The girl who proved to be Truly paid the price of her enormity; her father blamed her for her mother's death in childbirth, and was totally ill equipped to raise either this giant child or her polar opposite sister Serena Jane, the epitome of femine perfection. When he, too, relinquished his increasingly tenuous grip on life, Truly and Serena Jane are separated--Serena Jane to live a life of privilege as the future May Queen and Truly to live on the outskirts of town on the farm of the town sadsack, the subject of constant abuse and humiliation at the hands of her peers.

Serena Jane's beauty proves to be her greatest blessing and her biggest curse, for it makes her the obsession of classmate Bob Bob Morgan, the youngest in a line of Robert Morgans who have been doctors in Aberdeen for generations. Though they have long been the pillars of the community, the earliest Robert Morgan married the town witch, Tabitha Dyerson, and the location of her fabled shadow book--containing mysterious secrets for healing and darker powers--has been the subject of town gossip ever since. Bob Bob Morgan, one of Truly's biggest tormentors, does the unthinkable to claim the prize of Serena Jane, and changes the destiny of all Aberdeen from there on.

When Serena Jane flees town and a loveless marriage to Bob Bob, it is Truly who must become the woman of a house that she did not choose and mother to her eight-year-old nephew Bobbie. Truly's brother-in-law is relentless and brutal; he criticizes her physique and the limitations of her health as a result, and degrades her more than any one human could bear. It is only when Truly finds her calling--the ability to heal illness with herbs and naturopathic techniques--hidden within the folds of Robert Morgan's family quilt, that she begins to regain control over her life and herself. Unearthed family secrets, however, will lead to the kind of betrayal that eventually break the Morgan family apart forever, but Truly's reckoning with her own demons allows for both an uprooting of Aberdeen County, and the possibility of love in unexpected places.

The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker has the qualities of a great book club selection, with a good story, interesting characters, complicated family dynamics and a sympathetic protagonist. Plenty of story to make a good roundtable discussion at your next reading group get together. Below you will find the reading group guide from the publisher to help a discussion along. But even if you don't belong to a reading group, reading group guides offer an individual reader insight into the story too. A story of "friendship, love and identity", this book has gotten plenty of good buzz, and is coming out in paperback in January! Look for my review coming soon, but in the meantime would you like to read an excerpt? Here's a link to Chapter One! How about winning a copy for yourself?! Courtesy of Valerie of Hachette Book Group, I have 3 copies for a giveaway! Here's how...

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This giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents only.(No PO boxes). The books will be shipped to the winners directly from the publisher. Contest ends 11:59pm EST on Jan. 23rd. I will randomly pick the winners the next day and email them! (please check your email.. winner must reply to me within 3 days! Thanks!) Good Luck!

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Reading Group Guide

1. Truly is the “little giant” of this book, yet her size seems to make her less, rather than more, visible to the town around her. Can you explain this phenomenon? What do you think the author is trying to say about her outsider status?

2. Serena Jane and Truly are as physically different as sisters can be, yet Truly sees that this difference is crucial, explaining “the reason the two of us were as opposite as sewage and spring water, I thought, was that pretty can’t exist without ugly.” (pp. 97-98) How would you describe Truly and Serena’s connection? How is it different from Truly’s relationship with Amelia Dyerson? Which seems the more genuine sisterhood to you?

3. As the successor to a long line of old-fashioned, small-town doctors, Robert Morgan is traditional, strict, and often cruel. I the end, however, the legacy terminates with him and he becomes Aberdeen’s last Dr. Morgan. How do he and Bobbie stray from the family paradigm? What Morgan characteristics stayed with each of them? Is the town “more modern” without a Dr. Morgan, and with Bobbie and Salvatore’s restaurant instead? Is the replacement of nurturing through nourishment rather than doctoring a symbolic replacement?

4. Death haunts Truly and all of Aberdeen, sometimes in unexpected ways. As a gardener, Marcus’s aim is to “make things live,” but, as Truly realizes, “wasn’t it also true that gardeners were always wrestling with death, whether in the form of drought, or blight, or hungry insects? In a garden, Marcus always said, death was the first, last and only fact of life.” What other parallels do you see in the ways Marcus and Truly court life and death?

5. Truly’s size marks her as an outcast, but throughout the novel, other characters have trouble “fitting in” in a more figurative way. Examine how this manifests in Bobbie, Marcus, Amelia, even Serena Jane. What larger point do you this the author might be trying to make about the importance of conforming?

6. What role does Aberdeen County play in the novel? Could the story or these characters exist elsewhere? Do the effects of the 60s and the Vietnam War seem to touch Aberdeen in the same way they touched the rest of the country? What is unique and what is not about Aberdeen as a setting?

7. When Amelia discovers how Priscilla Sparrow and Robert Morgan died, she asks Truly whether it was mercy or murder that killed them. What do you think? How do you feel about Truly’s actions? What in Truly’s character draws her to “collect souls” as she comes to call it?

8. When Marcus and Truly finally come together, Marcus says “We’re not exactly a match made in heaven, you and I, but I figure we’re good enough for here on earth” (p. 334) What does he mean by this? Do you agree?

9. Why doesn’t Robert Morgan “care” that his son runs away? What does it say about what he thinks of himself? How does this connect to Serena Jane’s leaving and his reaction to that event?

10. After Robert Morgan’s death, Truly gradually takes on some of his responsibilities as town doctor by using the knowledge she’s gained from Tabitha’s quilt. How is this a fitting purpose for Truly, and a fitting counterpoint to the legacy of Morgan doctors?

11. What about this story is larger than life or possesses elements of a tall tale or folklore? How are these details woven into the story? How is the book similar to or different from other works in this tradition?

*P.S. This Book is Kindle Ready!