Thursday, May 7, 2015

Follow Friday Four Fill-In Fun

Feeling Beachie 

Love this meme....I hope you can join in the fun.  

Each week, Feeling Beachie lists four statements with a blank for you to fill in on your own blogs.  

The statements:
        1.  When I feel ___ I like to ____
        2.  ____ is my favorite ____
        3.  If I could add one thing to my house it would be ____
        4.  I would plant ___ in my garden but not ___
My Answers:

1.  When I feel anxious, I like to talk to my sisters.

2.  Reading is my favorite relaxing technique.

3.  If I could add one thing to my house, it would be hardwood floors in all the bedrooms then my house would be completely hardwood.

4.  I would plant basil in my garden but not rosemary.



 




Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Lucinda Riley Discussing Her New Series

Seven Sisters_FC_US

 THIS INFORMATION IS FROM THE PUBLISHER:

The Challenges of Writing a Seven Book Series
 
by Lucinda Riley

Surprisingly I don’t feel overwhelmed by the prospect of writing an internationally based seven book series. If anything, I see it as a gift – because unlike when I normally finish a book and feel bereft that I have to leave my characters behind and then wonder what to write about next, I am excited by the thought that I will develop the same characters further and know exactly where the story is going for a number of years.

I simply see ‘The Seven Sisters’ as one huge 4500 page book (1.2m words..) split into seven books, each a stand-alone story in its own right.

Writing a book set in all kinds of locations around the world certainly isn’t an issue. I travel extensively to promote the books and the places I see and the experiences I have whilst travelling then ignite my passion to write about them. For example, I went to Rio in Brazil to promote ‘Orchid House’ in 2011, and there I met the great granddaughter of Heitor da Silva Costa, the creator of the ‘Christ the Redeemer’ statue that overlooks Rio. She told me the story of how the hands and head were sculpted in 1920’s Paris, and the mystery of which woman was supposedly the model for his elegant, long-fingered hands. This was the inspiration behind the first book of ‘The Seven Sisters’ series.

I have always written about exotic and fascinating locations – places my readers, and I, want to escape to, and the second book in the series, ‘The Storm Sister’, contrasts strongly with the heat and vibrancy of Rio – it is based in the frozen but beautiful Norway and also in Greece. Later I will be off to the Lake District and great country gardens of England, Ayres Rock in Australia and The Far East.
The actual process of writing and editing a series does provide a few challenges, but generally they are challenges that exhilarate and excite me. I have to weave the overall plot through each book and keep tabs on each sister and when and where they are. This gives me sleepless nights – I must make sure that as I write each book, I  think back to previous stories and forward to future ones to ensure I don’t contradict myself or find the plot line I wish to take is blocked by circumstances I had not foreseen.

Each sister’s story has to start concurrently and with the same line ‘I will always remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I heard that my father had died’. This all remains ‘on file’ in my head; I rarely write things down.

The astrological and mythological links add other dimensions to the series, and the use of anagrams makes it even more enjoyable for me. Despite its challenges, ‘The Seven Sisters’ actually feels like quite a selfish project because adding these elements is what I have always wanted to do.
There is also a hidden plot line going right through the series like an invisible thread, and I have to ensure the clues are suitably subtle and consistent across all books. I won’t say too much more but it surrounds the mysterious father that adopts the sisters from all across the globe. I am thrilled to see extensive social media speculation already on ‘who is Pa Salt’.

So, although I am enjoying the whole project immensely, the series has worried some others – I have an 80yr old fan from Norway who wrote to me concerned that she might not live to read all seven books. Also my publishers ask me ‘what happens if you die half way through the series, Lucinda?’ I say I have told the plot to my husband – but in reality I suspect that he has forgotten it all already!

THE SEVEN SISTERS by Lucinda Riley
Atria Books | 480 pages | 978-1-4767-5990-6 | May 5, 2015 | $24.99



ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lucinda Riley_author photo

Lucinda Riley is the #1 internationally bestselling author of The Orchid House, The Girl on the Cliff, The Lavender Garden, and The Midnight Rose. She lives in London and the English countryside with her husband and four children. Visit her online at LucindaRiley.com.

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I have read EVERY book Lucinda Riley has written and have loved them all.  My favorite was The Lavender Garden.



Second Chance Friends by Jennifer Scott

 
An accident, three women, and then four women to complete their circle.

Could the circle be completed, though, with the fourth woman?

Karen, Melinda, and Joanna met by chance the day a school bus ran into a car waiting at a red light as they helped save the children on the crashed bus but not the husband of the fourth woman, Maddie, in the car. 

All three women had personal issues, but as women are they all were there for each other.  They were even there for Maddie who really didn't want any part of the three women nor any part of her family or her life now that her husband was gone.  

SECOND CHANCE FRIENDS is a book about women and how we bond.  SECOND CHANCE FRIENDS is a very pleasant read with women you would want for friends along with sad as well as happy tears shed by the characters and you the reader. 

SECOND CHANCE FRIENDS will appeal to the reader who enjoys a lot of character interaction.  Karen was my favorite simply because she seemed innocent, naive, and lonely.  Joanna
wasn't happy about anything.  Melinda didn't realize what she had until it was too late.  Poor Maddie had it all and lost it all and didn't care. 

SECOND CHANCE FRIENDS will warm your heart and will have you looking at your friendships and at your family in a whole different light and appreciating what you have.  4/5

This book was given to me free of charge and without compensation in return for an honest review.


 

Spotlight and Giveaway of RE JANE by Patricia Park


The giveaway link is at the end of this post.


USA ONLY


Giveaway Courtesy Of:

Andrea Lam of Penguin Random House 

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All of this information is from the publisher.  It is not my personal thoughts or a review. 

ABOUT RE JANE:

For Jane, a half-Korean, half-American orphan, Flushing, Queens, is the place she’s been trying to escape from her whole life. Sardonic yet vulnerable, she toils, unappreciated, in her strict uncle’s grocery store and politely observes the traditional principle of nunchi (a combination of good manners, hierarchy, and obligation). Desperate for a new life, she’s thrilled to become the au pair for the Mazer-Farleys, two Brooklyn English professors and their adopted Chinese daughter. Inducted into the world of organic food co-ops, and nineteenth-century novels, Jane is the recipient of Beth Mazer’s feminist lectures and Ed Farley’s very male attention. But when a family death interrupts Jane and Ed’s blossoming affair, she flies off to Seoul, leaving New York far behind.

Reconnecting with family, and struggling to learn the ways of modern-day Korea, Jane begins to wonder if Ed Farley is really the man for her. Jane returns to Queens, where she must find a balance between two cultures and accept who she really is.

Perfect for readers of Ruth Ozeki, Chang-rae Lee, Allegra Goodman, and—of course—Charlotte Brontë, RE JANE is a bright, comic story of falling in love, finding strength, and living not just out of obligation to others, but for one’s self.

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR RE JANE:

“Park’s debut is a cheeky, clever homage to Jane Eyre, interwoven with touching meditations on Korean-American identity…. Park’s clever one-liners make the story memorable, and her riffs on cultural identity will resonate with any reader who’s felt out of place.”
—Publishers Weekly

“A sweet and savvy bildungsroman…. Park is a fine writer with an eye for the effects of class and ethnic identity, a sense of humor, and a compassionate view of human weakness who nevertheless doesn't make the rookie error of letting her characters off easy. An enjoyable book offering a portrait of a young woman struggling to come into her own in the increasingly complicated opening years of a new century.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Re Jane swerves away from the original in really interesting ways, becoming an examination of family, prejudice, immigrant culture, youth, and individualism. This is both a must-read for Jane Eyre-ites and a wholly new, original thing that stands firmly on its own story-telling legs.”
—Book Riot

“Re Jane is a rich and engaging novel.  Besides being a love story, it is infused with contemporary subject matter, such as longing versus belonging, the immigrant experience.  Patricia Park writes with earnestness, honesty, and exuberance, which make the novel thoroughly enjoyable.”
—Ha Jin, National Book Award-winning author of War Trash and Waiting

"The Korean Americans of Queens find a daring new voice in Patricia Park’s debut novel, as she takes a story we know and makes it into a story we’ve not seen before—a novel for the country we are still becoming.”
—Alexander Chee, author of The Queen of the Night 

“Some nerve, to take Jane Eyre, reconfigure it, make the heroine an orphaned half-white Korean girl, all the while mixing new-fangled Jello shots, hipsterisms, and spicy fish stew with old-fashioned romance. Some nerve to bring it off with such energy, color, and emotional insight! Reader, you'll love it.”
—Daniel Menaker, author of My Mistake

“Patricia Park's Re Jane is packed with authenticity, poignancy and humor. I was enchanted by this modern retelling of Jane Eyre as the tough yet vulnerable narrator captured my heart.”
—Jean Kwok, bestselling author of Girl In Translation and Mambo in Chinatown

“Even with its appealing echoes of Jane Eyre, Patricia Park’s first novel is a true original—a smart, fresh, story of cultural complications that hasn’t yet been told in quite this way. The funny and shrewdly observant narrator won me over on the very first page.”
—Stephen McCauley, author of The Object of My Affection

“This is a richly imagined and engrossing novel, and also an important work that marks what it means to be American now.  Park’s writing is remarkable for its tenderness and honesty.”
—Sabina Murray, author of Tales from the New World and The Caprices

“Re Jane is a contemporary retelling of Jane Eyre that’s also entirely its own exquisite story. Jane is a hilarious, sometimes muddled, and utterly beguiling heroine. Park’s surprising twists and razor-sharp writing and deep heart make the pages fly by. This story is all about what it’s like being young and learning from mistakes and figuring out who you are without fear.”
—Margaret Dilloway, author of How to Be an American Housewife

“Patricia Park displays her keen observation skills, her penchant for finding le mot juste (be it in English or Korean) and her natural gift for story telling in her witty debut novel, Re Jane. Not only does this charming novel entertain, especially with spot-on descriptions of people, but it also opens a window into the Korean culture.  This may be Patricia Park’s first novel, but it won’t be her last.”
—Firoozeh Dumas, bestselling author of Funny in Farsi

“What a pleasure, this journey from Queens to Brooklyn to Korea and back with such a smart, witty, observant insider.  And have I mentioned the writing? So many times I said to myself as I read a particularly delicious sentence or description in Re Jane, why can't I do that? 
—Elinor Lipman, author of The View from Penthouse B

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

PATRICIA PARK was born and raised in Queens and is a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science. She earned her BA in English from Swarthmore College and an MFA in Fiction from Boston University. A former Fulbright Scholar and Emerging Writer Fellow at the Center for Fiction, she has published essays in The New York Times, Slice, and the Guardian. She has taught writing at Boston University, CUNY Queens College, and Ewha Womans University in Seoul. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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A Winner Has Been Chosen
Bonnie - #4
CONGRATS!!

May 5 - May 12

Best of Luck

USA ONLY 

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Thursday, April 30, 2015

Follow Friday Four Fill-in Fun - 5/1/15

Feeling Beachie 

Love this meme....I hope you can join in the fun.  

Each week, Feeling Beachie lists four statements with a blank for you to fill in on your own blogs.  

The statements:
  1. Hearing ______makes me feel _______.
  2. I hate to wear _______, but love to wear ________.
  3. I have a _______on my ______
  4. I wish I could say ______ to __________
My Answers:
1.  Hearing good news makes me smile.

2.  I hate to wear shorts, but love to wear a skirt.

3.  I have a "reading" table and chairs on my back porch for the summer.

4.  I wish I could say whatever I want to someone who needs to be told.



 

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Tempt Your Taste Buds and Your Reading

 ENJOY recipes by Nicole Baart as well as her book:

BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTERS

My Family Recipe: Apple Pudding with Homemade Caramel Sauce
by Nicole Baart, author of The Beautiful Daughters 

Nicole Baart author photo

“Adri protested, her mouth watering at the thought of her father’s mashed potatoes, glistening with pats of butter and swimming in gravy that he made from the drippings of his roast chicken. When they were kids, she and Will had eaten like royalty. Fat steaks charred on the grill, meatloaf sandwiches with homemade vinegar and ketchup glaze, pork roast with caramelized onions and baked apples. Sam even had one go-to cake, a dense, chocolate confection made with sour cream and a can of cherry pie filling that was best hot from the oven. And even better with a handful of half-burnt birthday candles stuck in the gooey frosting.” (from The Beautiful Daughters)


Adri Vogt, a humanitarian-aid nurse in The Beautiful Daughters, grew up on a small dairy farm in Northwest Iowa, a setting loosely based on my grandparents’ farm. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of that little white house, the chicken coop and barn, and the grove where we played on antique tractors and hunted for litters of wild kittens. But mealtimes were the best. No one could cook like my grandma. And if a cup of sugar was good, surely two cups were better. It’s somewhat shocking to remember those meals today, the way that we consumed so many calories and burned them all off playing outside and doing farm chores. I’ve given up such a rich menu for my family, but a few things remain. The chocolate cake Adri remembers is one of them. My grandma used to let me take a spoon and dig the first, hot bite out of the corner of the pan. Years later I tasted black forest cake for the first time and realized that my grandma’s chocolate cherry cake was a sort of variation. To this day, I like grandma’s better: served warm with, of course, a cup of strong coffee.

I’m actually going to share two family recipes with you because the chocolate cake is so simple it can hardly be called a recipe. (Chocolate Cherry Cake: Prepare a boxed chocolate cake mix as directed, substituting the same amount of sour cream for the oil or butter. Stir in one 15 ounce can of cherry pie filling and 1/2 teaspoon of almond flavoring. Bake as directed. Frost with your favorite chocolate frosting. So delicious!)

Though we love the chocolate cherry cake, our family favorite is actually Apple Pudding with Homemade Caramel Sauce. Don’t let the name fool you–it’s more of a cake than a pudding, an unbelievably delicious and surprisingly easy dessert with a hot topping that transforms it into a sort of sticky cake. It’s homey and decadent, something that Sam, Adri’s father in The Beautiful Daughters, would undoubtedly make for his kids.
Enjoy!



 Nicole Baart cake

Photo Credit: Nicole Baart

Apple Pudding with Homemade Caramel Sauce

  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tsp. vanilla
  • 6 medium sized apples, peeled, cored, and diced (I like Braeburn for baking)
  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
Pudding:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well. In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients. Incorporate dry ingredients into the butter mixture, stirring well. Fold in diced apples. (The batter will be extremely chunky.) Spread into a greased and floured 9×13 pan. Bake 30-40 minutes at 350. The cake is done when the center bounces back when lightly touched. It will be a dark, brown sugar color—it is not burnt! In fact, we like to overbake it a bit because it turns the edges into a wonderfully chewy, toffee-like concoction. (This pudding is just as good the second and even third day!)

 DSC09929 (2)

Photo Credit: Nicole Baart

Sauce:

While the pudding is baking, melt 1/2 cup of butter in a medium-sized saucepan. Stir in 1 cup white sugar and 1 cup brown sugar. Slowly drizzle 1 cup of half and half into the saucepan, stirring constantly. Heat through until the sugar granules are completely dissolved, but do not boil. Remove from heat and add 1 tsp. vanilla. Serve warm, spooned generously over individual servings of apple pudding. Refrigerate any unused portion (reheat and stir to serve again).


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Nicole Baart is the mother of four children from four different countries. The cofounder of a non-profit organization, One Body One Hope, she lives in a small town in Iowa. She is the author of seven previous novels, including, most recently, Sleeping in Eden. Find out more at NicoleBaart.com.

Beautiful Daughters cover image

THE BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTERS by Nicole Baart
Atria Books | 428 pages | 978-1-4391-9738-7 | April 28, 2015 | $16.00
 

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Last Night At The Blue Angel by Rebecca Rotert

Naomi and Sophia live alone as mother and daughter.  Naomi is a singer and got her start i​n her ​Catholic school with Sister Idalia.  Sophia loves her mother, sits at the night club when her mother sings, and sees things an eleven-year-old shouldn't be seeing.

LAST NIGHT AT THE BLUE ANGEL is mostly dialogue with wonderful characters who truly care for each other.  Well...most characters care for each other.  Naomi seems to be all about herself even though she appears to love her daughter, Sophia.

​LAST NIGHT AT THE BLUE ANGEL flashes back to Naomi's childhood then to her current situation that includes Sophia.  ​Sophia is always worried and keeps lists of things she can improve and re-invent in case of a nuclear disaster.  I loved Sophia but wasn't too fond of her mother.


Jim, the photographer, was sweet and was always put aside by Naomi, but he was so loved by Sophia.​  Jim was obsessed with taking photos of buildings that were falling apart and ones he said he had to photograph before they would be gone forever. 

David along with Naomi was not a favorite even though he was involved with Naomi.

LAST NIGHT AT THE BLUE ANGEL is about family relationships, love, and living with and loving what you have.  ​For a debut novel, this book has a lot of depth and characters that will stay with you even after you have finished the book. 
Ms. Rotert writes beautifully and pulls you in so well that you become part of the story.

I enjoyed LAST NIGHT AT THE BLUE ANGEL, and enjoyed Naomi's early years a bit more than her present situation even though the early years were a bit wild.

Adorable Sophia made the present​ ​very interesting and at times comical.  She was so sweet and yet such a bundle of worries, but who wouldn't be worried with the life the confused but precocious child led.

There are adult situations scattered throughout the book but nothing graphic or explicit - simply insinuations.

Naomi's last night at The Blue Angel turned out for the best for her, but the last few pages are ones where you will need tissues. 

ENJOY!!!  4/5

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At the end of the book, Ms. Rotert shares information about where her characters and storyline grew from.  These pages were quite informative and interesting.  

After reading these ending informational pages, I would say LAST NIGHT AT THE BLUE ANGEL can also be classified as historical fiction. 

This book was given to me free of charge and without compensation in return for an honest review.