Category Archives: Book Review

Now Read This: The Idea of Love by Patti Callahan Henry

I’m sorry, I’m late, for a very important book date! ::drum roll please:: I’d like to introduce you to Patti Callahan Henry’s latest release THE IDEA OF LOVE.

The Book:

“As we like to say in the south, ‘Don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story.’”

Blake is a Nicholas Sparks-esque screenwriter lacking inspiration in the wake of his divorce. He’s desperately in search of a love story beautiful enough to translate into big screen success. Disguising himself as a travel writer, he treks down the east coast to sleepy southern Watersend in search of a love story he can borrow. When he speaks with the young and beautiful Ella Flynn, he’s convinced he has his screenplay: Ella’s beloved husband died in a tragic sailing accident while trying save her life. It’s the perfect love story for his audiences…and it’s also a lie.

Reeling from the shock of her very much alive husband’s affair, Ella is lost. When she speaks to Blake and dismisses him as a stranger she’ll never see again, she creates the life she wants and paints herself as a successful wedding dress designer recovering from her saintly husband’s sacrificial death.

In Ella, Blake finds the perfect love story, full of longing and sacrifice. It’s the stuff of epic films. In Blake, Ella finds possibility. It’s an opportunity to live out a fantasy – the life she wishes she had because hers is too painful. And more real. Besides, what’s a little white lie between strangers? But one lie leads to another, and soon Blake and Ella find themselves caught in a web of deceit. As they try to untangle their lies and reclaim their own lives, they feel something stronger is keeping them together. And so they wonder: can two people come together for all the wrong reasons and still make it right?

Read an excerpt of here.

The Author:

Patti Callahan Henry is a New York Times bestselling storyteller of eleven books, including The Stories We Tell, Between the Tides, and Driftwood Summer. Patti lives in Mountain Brook, Alabama with her husband and three children, where she is crafting her next story.

Follow Patti on social media— and be part of the
virtual celebration of THE IDEA OF LOVE:
Facebook | Twitter | Google+ | Goodreads | Pinterest

The Good Stuff:

This is a short, sweet summer read that’s perfect to toss in your beach bag for a relaxing day of escapism. I read the whole book in a single afternoon while lazing on a pool float. Since both characters are lying to each other and themselves, it took a few pages to get to discover the “real” characters and bond with them, but don’t worry, you will. And Mimi, Ella’s neighbor, will leave you wishing you had a wise, old, ex-bookselling, poundcake-pushing neighbor yourself.

If you live in the southeast, check out Patti’s book tour dates here. If I wasn’t so busy at the library, I’d drive over to the coast for one of her Florida dates this week. Having met her before, I’ll tell you she’s an absolute delight, and if you live by one of the bookstores hosting her tour, don’t miss her! (Plus who doesn’t love a freshly signed book?)

The Details:

The Idea of Love
by Patti Callahan Henry
St. Martin’s Press
Hardcover / 256 pages
Pub date: June 23, 2015

150+ Life-changing Books (a list by ALA Think Tank Librarians)

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Librarians love to talk about books. LOVE. You’d think we do that all day long, but for some of us, chatting with patrons about books is a rare and cherished perk of the job.

So what happens when you ask an active Facebook group of librarians about the books that have changed their lives?

You get answers. A mind-blowing amount of suggestions, both fiction and nonfiction.

Some of these profound books I’ve read, others are on my never ending TBR list, and at least a dozen I’ve never even heard of and I must discover.

This list’s utter lack of organization is made up for by its richness and diversity. Sorry kids, but I didn’t have time to catalog by Dewey today. This compilation was copied/pasted straight from Facebook, so please forgive duplicates.

The results (in no particular order):

Night by Elie Weisel

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston

Bury My Heart at Wounded Kneeby Dee Brown

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

The Stand by Stephen King

Tam Lin by Pamela Dean

The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism by Naoki Higashida

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Grace in the Wilderness by Aranka Siegel

Winnie the Pooh, The stories of Beatrix Potter, Saint Maybe, Jacob Have I Loved, Beloved, No God But God, A Fine Balance, Wuthering Heights, Zealot, The Art of Loving, Reading Lolita in Tehran

Leaves of Grass be Walt Whitman

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

Nausea by Sartre

The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky,

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

The Dark Is Rising

Just Above My Head

I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith

Wind in the Door by Madeline L’Engle

Les Miserables (Victor Hugo), Julian (Gore Vidal) The Truth About Stories (Thomas King), Archive Fever (Jacques Derrida)

Time Enough For Love by Heinlein

Jenny and the Jaws of Life by Jincy Willet

The Likeness by Tana French

Waiting by Ha Jin

The Dance of the Dissident Daughter by Sue Monk Kidd

Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Little, Big by John Crowley

Sandman by Neil Gaiman

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Dandelion Wine and Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan

From the Teeth of Angels and A Child Across the Sky by Jonathan Carroll

The Passion by Jeanette Winterson

The poetry of Pablo Neruda

the entire Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder

I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb

Why Women Want by Caroline Knapp. Also Art and Fear by David Bayles, Bodies Out of Bounds: Fatness and Transgression by Jana Evans Braziel, and The Zen of Creativity by John Daido Loori

Also Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The short stories of Jonathan Carroll

Black Boy, The Autobiography of Malcolm X

The Immigrant Series by Howard Fast, Love Story by Erich Segal, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Tom Jones by Henry Fielding, Tell Me Something Happy Before I Go to Sleep by Joyce Dunbar

Catcher in the Rye

Dandelion Wine & Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey

Cloud Atlas

The Teacher Who Couldn’t Read

A Field of Buttercups by Joseph Hyams

Little Women

Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon

Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck

Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath

Stone Fox

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

The Hawk and the Dove by Penelope Wilcock

The Ethics of Ambiguity by Simone de Beauvoir

Ahab’s Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund

The Godfather by Mario Puzo

The Outsider, Albert Camus. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad. And a YA novel about schizophrenia called Meeting Rozzy Halfway, by Caroline Leavitt

Things Fall Apart; Siddhartha; The Stranger; Me Talk Pretty One Day

The Horsemasters by Don Stanford

Anthem by Ayn Rand

The Brothers Karamazov (Dostoyevsky)

The Diversity of Life (E. O. Wilson)

Bastard Out of Carolina

1984 and Brave New World

Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac

The Sneetches. The Witch of Blackbird Pond. The Outsiders. The Stand. The Handmaid’s Tale. Letters of a Woman Homesteader. A People’s History of the United States. A Tree Grows In Brooklyn

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E Butler

Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women’s Liberation by Mary Daly

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

The Same Kind of Different as Me

The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry

Positive by Paige Rawls

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

The Front Runner

The Color Purple

The Other Man Was Me

Diving Into the Wreck

Persepolis

Maus

Summer Sisters by Judy Blume

World Enough and Time: on Creativity and Slowing Down by Christian McEwan

Peace is every step, Sherlock Holmes, Istanbul and Snow by Orhan Pamuk

Animal Farm, 1984, and Fahrenheit 451

You Can Save the Animals” by Ingrid Newkirk

Cat’s Eye by Margret Atwood, Eva Luna by Isabell Allende, everything by Tom Robbins, Bruce Chatwin and Terry Pratchett

Gifted Hands

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Last Exit to Brooklyn

The Orphan Master’s Son

Naked In The Promised Land by Lillian Faderman

Assata by Assata Shakur

The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

The Bridges of Madison County

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

As a Man Thinketh. The Book of Mormon. Seven habits of highly effective people. Outliers. Bridge to Terrabithia.

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

The Name of the Wind

House of Leaves

Follow My Leader by James Garfield

Man’s Search For Meaning–Victor Frankl

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The Velveteen Rabbit

David Copperfield, the Book of Mormon, and The Book Thief.

God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut

Infinite Jest

The Wealthy Barber

The Incredible Journey of Edward Tulane

Biography of a face by Lucy Grealy

Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson

Looking for Alaska- John Green

Watership Down by Richard Adams

Rapture Practice by Aaron Hartzler; Faitheist : How an Atheist Found Common Ground with the Religious, by Chris Stedman; Biological Exuberance by Bruce Bagemihl; The Birthday of the World and other stories by Ursula K. Le Guin; The Brothers Lionheart and Ronia the Robbersdaughter – both by Astrid Lindgren

Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier

People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn

One by Richard Bach

People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn

Roots

Wonder

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky

e.e. cummings and David Levithan’s The Lover’s Dictionary.
Toni Morrison, yes to A Handmaid’s Tale, Adrienne Rich, Alice Munro…

Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

Thank you, ALA Think Tank members, for your amazing suggestions!

Readers: what books changed your view of the world?

5 Audiobooks to Make You Laugh, Think, and Revel in Girl Power

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Audiobooks are my new guilty pleasure. Since you can load them onto your phone, you can have them with you everywhere. They make traffic, housecleaning, and long lines at the grocery store a million times more bearable. And if you discover the right ones, you can challenge your beliefs, eavesdrop on secrets, slip inside another person’s life, and laugh so hard the guy in the car next to you will think you’re having a seizure.

I have little patience for bad narrators, one of the reasons I’m late to the audiobooks game. Seriously, I’ve given up on dozens of novels in less then a minute when the narrators sucked. (Over-enunciation does not make up for a complete lack of inflection.) The best way to avoid this: listen to books narrated by the author!

Total. Game-changer.

And when those authors happen to be brilliant comediennes, writers, and performers, the books will leave you circling your block because you don’t want to get out of the car before the chapter ends.

Here are five of my recent favorites:

How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran

Life isn’t exactly a stroll down the catwalk for modern women. They are beset by uncertainties and questions: Why are they supposed to get Brazilians? Why do bras hurt? Why the incessant talk about babies? And do men secretly hate them? With rapier wit, Moran slices right to the truth— whether it’s about the workplace, strip clubs, love, fat, abortion, popular entertainment, or parenthood (she has two daughters of her own)—to jump-start a new conversation about feminism.

“Do you have a vagina? And do you want to be in charge of it? If you said ‘yes’ to both, then congratulations! You’re a feminist.”

“When a woman says, ‘I have nothing to wear!’, what she really means is, ‘There’s nothing here for who I’m supposed to be today.”

Caitlin’s crude, crass, and almost ridiculously astute. She’ll have you saying, ‘Yes, oh my God, that’s it, that’s totally it!’ and ‘Holy $#@%, I cannot believe she just said that!’ between snorts of laughter. Her dirt poor hippie upbringing inspired her British TV show Raised by Wolves and although she had a bare minimum formal education, she landed a magazine job at 16 and launched her television career before hitting 18. She’s crawled through the underground music and pub scene, partied with Lady Gaga, and been named one of Brittan’s Most Influential Women by the BBC Women’s Power Hour. Eclectic, no?

With humor, insight, and verve, How To Be a Woman lays bare the reasons why female rights and empowerment are essential issues not only for women today but also for society itself.

(Note: if you shy away from swearing and blunt conversations about your lady bits, this one’s not for you.)

Yes Please by Amy Poehler

Though familiar with Amy Poehler from Saturday Night Live and her hosting events with her BFF Tina Fey, I’m rather embarrassed to admit I’ve never watched Parks and Recreation. After listening to Yes Please, I must watch Parks and Recreation. And I need Amy Poehler to be my new best friend. (The sweet, funny one.)

The audiobook sounds like a dinner party. The guest list is star-studded with vocal appearances from Carol Burnett, Seth Meyers, Michael Schur, Patrick Stewart, Kathleen Turner, and even Amy’s parents—Yes Please is the ultimate audiobook extravaganza.

Also included? A one night only live performance at Poehler’s Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. Hear Amy read a chapter live in front of a young and attractive Los Angeles audience.

While listening to Yes Please, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll become convinced that your phone is trying to kill you. Don’t miss this collection of stories, thoughts, ideas, lists, and haikus from the mind of one of our most beloved entertainers. Offering Amy’s thoughts on everything from her “too safe” childhood outside of Boston to her early days in New York City, her ideas about Hollywood and “the biz,” the demon that looks back at all of us in the mirror, and her joy at being told she has a “face for wigs”—Yes Please is chock-full of words, and wisdom, to live by.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling

I’ve never watched The Office either. I’ve heard it’s great. I’ve heard everyone loves Mindy Kaling, and wants her wardrobe. The title grabbed me, as I’ve often pondered this question as I sat at home living my oh-so-fabulously social life of reading books and watching HGTV. This audiobook was cute, and I’d like Mindy to be my little sister—as long as I could keep my own family (though hers does seem quite lovely).

Mindy Kaling has lived many lives: the obedient child of immigrant professionals, a timid chubster afraid of her own bike, a Ben Affleck–impersonating Off-Broadway performer and playwright, and, finally, a comedy writer and actress prone to starting fights with her friends and coworkers with the sentence “Can I just say one last thing about this, and then I swear I’ll shut up about it?”

In Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, Mindy invites readers on a tour of her life and her unscientific observations on romance, friendship, and Hollywood, with several conveniently placed stopping points for you to run errands and make phone calls. Mindy Kaling really is just a Girl Next Door—not so much literally anywhere in the continental United States, but definitely if you live in India or Sri Lanka.

Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She’s ‘Learned’ by Lena Dunham

Once again, I’ve never watched the controversial and acclaimed HBO show Girls (are you seeing a pattern here yet?). I think I’m too old to slip into the world of single twentysomethings navigating young adulthood in NYC. But I’m not too ancient to appreciate this hilarious, poignant, and extremely frank collection of personal essays by Lena Dunham – one of the bravest writers, producers, and actresses of her generation.

“If I can take what I’ve learned in this life and make one treacherous relationship or degrading job easier for you, perhaps even prevent you from becoming temporarily vegan, then every misstep of mine will have been worthwhile. This book contains stories about wonderful nights with terrible boys and terrible days with wonderful friends, about ambition and the two existential crises I had before the age of twenty. About fashion and its many discontents. About publicly sharing your body, having to prove yourself in a meeting full of fifty-year-old men, and the health fears (tinnitus, lamp dust, infertility) that keep me up at night. I’m already predicting my future shame at thinking I had anything to offer you with this book, but also my future glory in having stopped you from trying an expensive juice cleanse or having the kind of sexual encounter where you keep your sneakers on. No, I am not a sexpert, a psychologist, or a registered dietician. I am not a married mother of three or the owner of a successful hosiery franchise. But I am a girl with a keen interest in self-actualization, sending hopeful dispatches from the front lines of that struggle.”

Bossypants by Tina Fey

Before Liz Lemon, before “Weekend Update,” before “Sarah Palin,” Tina Fey was just a young girl with a dream: a recurring stress dream that she was being chased through a local airport by her middle-school gym teacher. She also had a dream that one day she would be a comedian on TV.

She has seen both these dreams come true.

At last, Tina Fey’s story can be told. From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately halfhearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoon — from the beginning of this paragraph to this final sentence.

Tina Fey reveals all, and proves what we’ve all suspected: you’re no one until someone calls you bossy.

Stylized Headphones v2 by algotruneman

Have any other audiobooks to suggest? I need recommendations, please!!!!

(Sections of these descriptions via back covers or Amazon)

Cover Reveal: MAYBE IN ANOTHER LIFE by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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**Summer read preview** With inches (or feet!) of snow on the ground, we’re dreaming of summer—feet in the sand, soaking up the sun, taking a dip in the pool. And if you’re anything like me, you’ve already added Taylor Jenkins Reid’s third novel, MAYBE IN ANOTHER LIFE (on sale July 7, 2015) to your TBR Must Read list. I absolutely adored her previous books FOREVER, INTERRUPTED and AFTER I DO. So, while we wait for the book to show up at our bookstore or in our mailbox, today I’m delighted to share this first look at the gorgeous cover!

ABOUT MAYBE IN ANOTHER LIFE:

At the age of twenty-nine, Hannah Martin still has no idea what she wants to do with her life. She has lived in six different cities and held countless meaningless jobs since graduating college, but on the heels of a disastrous breakup, she has finally returned to her hometown of Los Angeles. To celebrate her first night back, her best friend, Gabby, takes Hannah out to a bar—where she meets up with her high school boyfriend, Ethan.

It’s just past midnight when Gabby asks Hannah if she’s ready to go. Ethan quickly offers to give her a ride later if she wants to stay.

Hannah hesitates.

What happens if she leaves with Gabby?

What happens if she leaves with Ethan?

In concurrent storylines, Hannah lives out the effects of each decision. Quickly, these parallel universes develop into surprisingly different stories with far-reaching consequences for Hannah and the people around her, raising questions like: Is anything meant to be? How much in our life is determined by chance? And perhaps most compellingly: Is there such a thing as a soul mate?

Hannah believes there is. And, in both worlds, she believes she’s found him.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Taylor Jenkins Reid is an author and essayist from Acton, Massachusetts. She is the author of Forever, Interrupted and After I Do. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Alex, and her dog, Rabbit. You can follow her on Twitter @TJenkinsReid.

FIND TAYLOR ONLINE: http://www.taylorjenkinsreid.com/ | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Atria Books/Washington Square Press Paperback | 352 pages | ISBN: 9781476776880 | July 7, 2015 | $16.00

eBook: Atria Books/Washington Square Press | 352 pages | ISBN: 9781476776897 | July 7, 2015 | $11.99

Falling for Kilted Rogues on FridayFictionFriend

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Just a quick note to let y’all know I’m guest posting over at FridayFictionFriend BOOK BLOG today.

When one of my beloved critique partners, the lovely Ms. Jill Hannah Anderson, asked me to review a favorite book for her series, I’d just finished reading Diana Gabaldon’s epic OUTLANDER. That book rocked my world. In addition to being a not-to-be-missed romance/fantasy/historical/adventure, the novel refined my appreciation for roguish kilted heroes. Bring out the tartans!

If you’d like to check out the review, head on over to Friday Fiction Friend. And while you’re there, flip back through previous recommendations by talented writers such as Mary Kubica, Kathryn Craft, Lori Nelson Spielman—all who have impeccable taste!

Add a few book to your TBR list—there’s always room for more ::wink::

Now Read This: RODIN’S LOVER by Heather Webb

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The Book:

A mesmerizing tale of art and passion in Belle Epoque France

As a woman, aspiring sculptor Camille Claudel has plenty of critics, especially her ultra-traditional mother. But when Auguste Rodin makes Camille his apprentice and his muse their passion inspires groundbreaking works. Yet, Camille’s success is overshadowed by her lover’s rising star, and her obsessions cross the line into madness.

Rodin’s Lover brings to life the volatile love affair between one of the era’s greatest artists and a woman entwined in a tragic dilemma she cannot escape.
(From cover copy)

The Author:

Heather Webb is an author, editor, and popular blogger. This former French teacher regularly contributes to blogs such as Writer Unboxed and Romance University, and she is all over social media with her helpful comments, support, and good humor every day. (I often wonder when she has time to actually write—but does she write!) Last year’s debut historical novel Becoming Josephine was translated into three languages and earned acclaim in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Cosmopolitan, All You Magazine, the Huffington Post, and The Portland Book Review.

Find Heather at: Her Website * Twitter * Facebook *Goodreads

The First Lines:

“Camille dropped to her knees in the mud. Her skirts absorbed last night’s rain and the scent of sodden earth. She plunged a trowel into the red clay and dug furiously, stopping only to slop hunks of earth into a wooden trough. She needed one more load to mold the portrait of Eugenie. The maid would sit for her again, regardless of her protestations.”

The Good Stuff:

I have a weakness for novels that can educate me while captivating me with an entertaining story. I’d heard of Camille Claudel, and knew she had something to do with the art world, but RODIN’S LOVER formally introduced me to this provocative woman and her passionate, often obsessive struggle for love and art.

Camille is far from the typical nineteenth century lady, and she can be rather intense she’s focused on her art…and her lover, who happens to also be her mentor, the famed Rodin. (If you’re not familiar with Camille’s works, you’ll surely recognize some of Rodin’s sculptures such as The Thinker.) Throughout the tale she fights to be a modern woman, not forced into marriage or the restraints of her time. Though she knows what her place in her family and society should be, she rebels against the norms imposed against her, instead following her passion for sculpture and her beloved Rodin. Yet no amount of fervent devotion can give her what she truly desires. Rodin don’t posses the the strength to leave his companion of many years to be with Camille. And as the fiery Camille battles to gain the the recognition she deserves for her “scandalously” sensual pieces, she slowly descends into madness.

This book feels meticulously researched, making it easy for readers to slip inside the Parisian art scene of the late 1800s. Notable characters of the time such as Monet, Debussy, Zola, and Hugo infuse the story with pinpoints of veracity. From the affluent salons to the dingy art studios, you’ll be immersed in the details of this colorful world.

If you enjoyed Becoming Josephine, you’ll be enthralled by Heather Webbs’s sophomore success Rodin’s Lover. The books shines a well-deserved spotlight on a talented artist and somewhat tortured soul who craved “to leave a mark of beauty on the soul of humanity.”
The Details:

Rodin’s Lover: A Novel by Heather Webb
Print Length: 316 pages
Publisher: Plume
Release date: January 27, 2015

Now Read This: The Life Intended by Kristin Harmel

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The Book:

After her husband’s sudden death over ten years ago, Kate Waithman never expected to be lucky enough to find another love of her life. But now she’s planning her second walk down the aisle to a perfectly nice man. So why isn’t she more excited?

At first, Kate blames her lack of sleep on stress. But when she starts seeing Patrick, her late husband, in her dreams, she begins to wonder if she’s really ready to move on. Is Patrick trying to tell her something? Attempting to navigate between dreams and reality, Kate must uncover her husband’s hidden message. Her quest leads her to a sign language class and into the New York City foster system, where she finds rewards greater than she could have imagined.

In this richly told story where Sliding Doors meets P.S. I Love You, Kristin Harmel weaves a heart-wrenching tale that asks: what does it take to move forward in life without forgetting the past?

(From cover)

The Author:

(from Goodreads.com)

I can’t help but adore Kristin Harmel—not only is she a fellow University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications grad, but she lives here in Orlando, too. No, but really, it’s all about her books. The former People magazine journalist has written several women’s fiction favs like The Art of French Kissing and Italian for Beginners as well YA novels. She switched things up with her last novel, The Sweetness of Forgetting, a heartfelt drama that became an international bestseller and one of my (and my mom’s) favorite books of 2012.

Find Kristin at: Her Website * Twitter * Facebook *Goodreads

The First Lines:

“It was 11:04 when Patrick walked through the door that final night almost a dozen years ago.

I remember the number glowing red and angry on the digital clock by our bed, the sound of his key turning in the lock. I remember his sheepish expression, the way his five o’clock shadow had bloomed into and almost-beard, the way his shirt looked rumpled as he stood in the doorway. I remember the way he said my name, Kate, like it was an apology and a greeting all in one.”

The Good Stuff:

Do you ever have dreams so real, so blindingly vivid yet absolutely normal that you wake up unsure if they really happened? Where you pause when you wake, rationalizing away what occurred and finding that one absurd link that proves it couldn’t have been real…
I do. All. The. Time. If I dare mention anything about my alternate slumberville universe to my dear husband, he’ll merely shake his head and wonder if someone’s slipping hallucinogens into my chardonnay before bed.

Luckily, my husband is alive and well and breathing loudly beside me when I wake. But in THE LIFE INTENDED, Kate’s not so fortunate. When her *perfect* husband Patrick, who was killed over a decade ago, starts sharing the sheets with her again, Kate’s life gets complicated.

Kate appears to finally be moving on: she has a successful career as a music therapist (very interesting) and a fiance who’s an absolute gem…on paper. But when Patrick—and their daughter—start joining Kate in her dreams, Kate loses track of that line between what’s real and what should be real.

When this amazingly real but imaginary daughter they never actually had begins talking to Kate in sign language, Kate takes lessons so she can fit into that alternate life she believes she should have led via her nightly dreams. Except… the sign language classes introduce Kate to the world of foster kids and the people who care for them, and certainly none of them lead the perfect lives they’d imagined. And these people make an impact on her she wasn’t prepared for.

One of my all-time favorite performers, Dave Matthews, usually switches around lyrics during live shows, and in my favorite version of Dancing Nancies he asks:
“Don’t you ever wonder…..
Maybe if you took a left turn, instead of taking that right
You’d be somebody quite different tonight…
Don’t you ever wonder, what could I have been? Anyone?”

This story is kind of like that. Kate realizes that the right turn she believes she was supposed to take has been washed away by a landslide, so she finally takes that left turn, and things go quite different. And different can be good. Something for us all to remember.

The Recommendation:

Read it. While this tale full of ghosts, grief, heartbreak, and disappointment could have been a sappy tearjerker, Harmel deftly allows us feel like we’re in Kate’s shoes and makes her plight believable. You’ll probably get at least teary a few times—I did, but it felt right. And the coincidences—there are a zillion of them, but I totally found my self buying all of them due to the way they are woven into the tale.

THE LIFE INTENDED is a sweet yet moving story about making room in your heart without crowding out those who’ve filled it before, about making the life you want happen instead of waiting for it to happen. It may leave you feeling as if we all somehow find our intended life, no matter how unconventional it may be.

The Details:

The Life Intended
by Kristin Harmel
368 pages, Gallery Books
Release date: December 30, 2014

And don’t forget to check out these other books by Kristin:

Reading Challenge Complete! 75 Books of 2014

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Happy New Year, my friends!

I don’t know about you, but I can’t imagine keeping up with my reading list without Goodreads. Last year I decided I’d challenge myself to read 75 books by the end of the year—in years past I *thought* I’d averaged about two books per week, so a measly 75 should be a breeze, right?

Weeeelll…between my job and writing and, oh I don’t know, having a family and a life, it proved to be more of a challenge than I though. But I did it. Just barely, but I did it.

My books of 2014 are listed below. I’ve fallen drastically behind on my book reviews, but hopefully I’ll post my favorites by genre soon. {fingers crossed!}

Not included on the list are the countless chapters I’ve read from my supremely talented (and witty) WFWA Critique Group ladies—I can’t wait to see those entire WIPs in print someday! And I also had the privileged of reading an entire beta draft of an exceptionally gifted writer’s latest work. Since I read three-fourths of it on my kindle, it felt as if the work had already been published. It read like pure honey. I’m honored to have experienced the work.

And now, without further ado—my books of 2014—a mix of women’s fiction, mystery/thrillers, and mainstream, with a pinch of non-fiction, historical, YA, and romance thrown in for good measure:

	Us	Nicholls, David
	This is the Story of a Happy Marriage	Patchett, Ann
	The Perks of Being a Wallflower	Chbosky, Stephen
	Gray Mountain	Grisham, John *
	Golden Son (Red Rising Trilogy, #2)	Brown, Pierce *
	Delicious!	Reichl, Ruth
	Dragonfly in Amber (Outlander, #2)	Gabaldon, Diana *
	Spin	McKenzie, Catherine *
	Prince Lestat (The Vampire Chronicles #11)	Rice, Anne
	A Land Remembered	Smith, Patrick D. *
	Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail	Strayed, Cheryl *
	Once More With Feeling	Crane, Megan *
	Before He Was Famous (Starstruck, #1)	Wicks, Becky *
	Skink–No Surrender	Hiaasen, Carl
	Barefoot in the Rain (Barefoot Bay, #2)	Claire, Roxanne St. *
	Outlander (Outlander, #1)	Gabaldon, Diana *
	Endangered	Schrefer, Eliot *
	One Plus One	Moyes, Jojo *
	Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls	Sedaris, David

The Sassy Belles

Albright, Beth *

	Barefoot in the Sand (Barefoot Bay, #1)	Claire, Roxanne St. *
	Writing The Bestseller: Romantic And Commercial Fiction	Porter, Jane *
	The House on Mermaid Point (Ten Beach Road, #3)	Wax, Wendy *
	The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles	Pressfield, Steven *
	After I Do	Reid, Taylor Jenkins *
	It Comes In Waves	Marks, Erika *
	Paper Moon (Moonstruck #1)	Windsor, Linda
	Her Road Home	Drake, Laura *
	The Mystery of Mercy Close (Walsh Family, #5)	Keyes, Marian
	Hands Free Mama: A Guide to Putting Down the Phone, Burning the To-Do List, and Letting Go of Perfection to Grasp What Really Matters!	Stafford, Rachel Macy *
	The Good Girl	Kubica, Mary *
	The Heist (Gabriel Allon, #14)	Silva, Daniel
	Landline	Rowell, Rainbow *
	Forever, Interrupted	Reid, Taylor Jenkins *
	After	Efaw, Amy *
	That Night	Stevens, Chevy *
	Vintage	Gloss, Susan *
	All Fall Down	Weiner, Jennifer *
	Revenge Wears Prada: The Devil Returns (The Devil Wears Prada, #2)	Weisberger, Lauren
	The One & Only	Giffin, Emily *

	China Dolls	See, Lisa *
	Save the Date	Andrews, Mary Kay
	Your Perfect Life	Fenton, Liz *
	Catching Air	Pekkanen, Sarah *
	The Stories We Tell	Henry, Patti Callahan *
	Chasing the Sun: A Novel	Sylvester, Natalia *
	After Dead: What Came Next in the World of Sookie Stackhouse (Sookie Stackhouse, #13.5)	Harris, Charlaine
	Sweet Life	King, Mia *
	The Shadow Year	Richell, Hannah *
	The Big Beautiful	Duncan, Pamela
	Insane City	Barry, Dave
	The Supreme Macaroni Company	Trigiani, Adriana *
	Where’d You Go, Bernadette	Semple, Maria *
	Kids These Days: A Novel	Perry, Drew *
	Mad About the Boy (Bridget Jones, #3)	Fielding, Helen *
	Bone Deep (Doc Ford, #21)	White, Randy Wayne
	Losing It (Losing It, #1)	Carmack, Cora *
	Sycamore Row (Jake Brigance, #2)	Grisham, John *
	The Expats	Pavone, Chris *
	The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry	Zevin, Gabrielle *

	The All You Can Dream Buffet	O’Neal, Barbara *
	Lost Lake	Allen, Sarah Addison *
	Ripper	Allende, Isabel *
	Command Authority (Jack Ryan, #9)	Clancy, Tom
	Slow Cooker Revolution: One Test Kitchen, 30 Slow Cookers, 200 Amazing Recipes	Kitchen, America’s Test
	The Rosie Project (Don Tillman #1)	Simsion, Graeme
	Dust (Kay Scarpetta #21)	Cornwell, Patricia *
	The Art of Falling	Craft, Kathryn *
	Becoming Josephine	Webb, Heather *
	The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress	Lawhon, Ariel *
	White Fire (Pendergast, #13)	Preston, Douglas *
	The Beast (Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus, #21)	Kellerman, Faye
	Wolf Hall (Thomas Cromwell, #1)	Mantel, Hilary
	Code Name Verity (Code Name Verity, #1)	Wein, Elizabeth *

Last to Die (Rizzoli & Isles, #10)

Gerritsen, Tess *

How did you do this year?

Minecraft Books Kids Will Love — Librarian & Kid Approved!

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Every parent, teacher, librarian, and kid knows that MINECRAFT is the hottest thing out there for kids 6 to 16. The phenomena has taken the world by storm, and been praised for its ability to stretch users imaginations and skills as they learn how to build, create, collaborate, and survive in their Minecraft world. But if you’re like me, you might think your kid plays the game WAY too much—how about trading some screen time for book time?

Buying gifts for kids (especially boys) in this age range can be quite a challenge. With birthday parties it seems like every weekend and the holidays approaching, I’ve been hunting for some winning gift ideas. I’ve always given books to younger kids and adults, but kids in this range can be tricky. Solution: MINECRAFT BOOKS!

But which to buy?

If you browse through Amazon, you’ll find pages of Mineraft-related book offerings. Almost all the books are very recently published and few offer reviews. Then there are dozens of free Kindle books, but you have no idea if they are any good.

As a library staffer and parent, I’ve personally checked out all of the books listed below. My library system now carries all of these titles, so you know they are librarian-approved “real” books, not something a 12-year-old fan wrote and tossed up on Amazon. They range from introductory guides appropriate for elementary-aged beginners to more complex developmental aids for those tweens and teens with an interest in programming.

Essential Minecraft Books

Minecraft: The Complete Handbook Collection

Age Range: 8 – 12 years (even 6-year-olds will love them!)
Grade Level: 2 – 7
Hardcover
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.; Box edition (October 21, 2014)
Amazon $19.18
Scholastic $22.00

This is the complete collection of the Official Minecraft books written by the game’s developers and published by Scholastic. Each handbook contains helpful tips and information from the creators themselves, all of which will prove vital to players survival and creativity as they learn to mine, craft, and build in a world that they control. The graphics and layout make the books easy to navigate and the tutorials are spelled out with step-by-step directions almost anyone can follow. This durable yet beautiful set is considered THE MUST-HAVE set for the enthusiasts and beginners (my son and his friends carry it around in their backpacks at school even!).

The collection includes the four handbooks listed below, but at a better price!

Minecraft: Essential Handbook: An Official Mojang Book

The first OFFICIAL Minecraft book, this one is the #1 guide for any newbie or elementary-aged player. Learn how to find resources; make a shelter; craft tools, armor, and weapons, and protect yourself from monsters. With tips from Minecraft experts, including developer Jeb and creator Notch himself, this is the definitive guide to surviving your first few days in Minecraft.

Minecraft: Redstone Handbook: An Official Mojang Book

According to my Minecraft experts, Redstone is one of the most important substances if you want to build contraptions in the Minecraft world. This second book in the Scholastic/Mojang collection explains how to connect and control the blocks that make up the Minecraft world.

Minecraft: Construction Handbook: An Official Mojang Book

Whether players want to build their own mansion and gardens or dream of creating their own roller-coaster ride, this handbook will give them the confidence and skills to fuel their creative genius. Readers will learn how to construct houses, ships, floating islands, bridges, roller coasters, and more!

Minecraft: Combat Handbook: An Official Mojang Book

Creepers and Zombies and Ghasts, oh my! In this book readers can learn how to defend their home, build forts, fight monsters, and craft weapons. Learn how to survive and thrive in player versus play mode, evade death in the Nether, and battle the Ender Dragon in the End.

Chapter Books

Want to encourage your child to actually read? The series below is librarian and teacher approved, and the perfect gift if you want to get your little gamer excited about taking time away from the game to read.

Invasion of the Overworld: Book One in the Gameknight999 Series: An Unofficial Minecrafters Adventure

When one of Gameknight’s father’s inventions teleports him into the game, he is forced to live out a real-life adventure inside a digital world. Stuck in the game, he discovers Minecraft’s best-kept secret: the creatures within the game are alive! He will have to stay one step ahead of the sharp claws of zombies and pointed fangs of spiders, but he’ll also have to learn to make friends and work as a team if he has any chance of surviving the Minecraft war his arrival has started.

Age Range: 9 and up
Grade Level: 3 and up
Series: Gameknight999 (Book 1)
Paperback: 208 pages
Publisher: Sky Pony Press (August 26, 2014)
Amazon $9

Battle for the Nether: Book Two in the Gameknight999 Series: An Unofficial Minecrafters Adventure

Epic battles, terrible monsters, heartwarming friendships, and spine-tingling suspense . . . Battle for the Nether takes the adventures of Gameknight999 to the next level in a nonstop roller-coaster ride of adventure.

Age Range: 9 and up
Grade Level: 3 and up
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Sky Pony Press (August 26, 2014)

Confronting the Dragon: Book Three in the Gameknight999 Series: An Unofficial Minecrafters Adventure (Gameknight999 Minecraft)

An evil army threatens to destroy all of Minecraft in the third Gameknight999 adventure!

Age Range: 9 and up
Grade Level: 3 and up
Series: Gameknight999 Minecraft (Book 3)
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Sky Pony Press (October 21, 2014)

Diary of a Minecraft Zombie Book 1: A Scare of A Dare (Volume 1)

In the first book of this hilarious Minecraft adventure series, we get to read the diary of an actual 12 year old Minecraft Zombie. Take a peek at what is really going on between the hollow eyes, and dead expression that we normally see when we face the dreaded Zombies of Minecraft.

Age range: 7+
Series: Diary of a Minecraft Zombie
Paperback: 90 pages
Publisher: Herobrine Publishing (March 26, 2015)

“Steve Crafter” continues the DIARY OF A WIMPY KID meets MINECRAFT series:

Diary of a Minecraft Zombie Book 2: Bullies and Buddies (Volume 2)

Diary of a Minecraft Zombie Book 3: When Nature Calls (Volume 3)

Diary of a Minecraft Zombie Book 4: Zombie Swap

Diary Of The Legendary Ender Dragon

There are DIARY OF A books for almost every Minecraft character out there!

Unofficial Guides

The Big Book of Minecraft: The Unofficial Guide to Minecraft & Other Building Games

Up to date for the 2014 holiday season, The Big Book of Minecraft is packed with the most recent training, tools, and techniques to help readers get more out of their favorite sandbox game. 2014 was a pivotal year for Minecraft, and this book captures all the latest and greatest things that have happened to one of the most brilliant and immersive games in video game history. From a brief overview of the game to advanced farming, mining, and building techniques, this guide touches on everything Minecraft enthusiasts could ever ask for. Featuring authoritative and engaging content from our internal experts, The Big Book of Minecraft also highlights some of the most influential builders in the Minecraft community today and examines their creations and techniques that catapulted them to fame.

Hardcover: 192 pages
Publisher: Triumph Books (November 1, 2014)
Amazon $14.99

Building in Minecraft: The Unofficial Building Guide to Minecraft & Other Games

This isn’t so much a “guide” as a cool idea book. The photos highlight some of the most amazing builds ever created, from nuclear submarines to mind-boggling castles. There are no directions as to how to actually build these complex projects, but crafters will flip through the pages with awe. I’ve only found this book inside Barnes and Noble—look for it on the display tables up front or ask.

Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: Triumph Books (November 1, 2014)
Barnes and Noble $7.98 (in-store only)

Programming & Mods (Advanced Users)

Minecraft Mastery: Build Your Own Redstone Contraptions and Mods

This book does start with some basic redstone material, but the bulk of its one-of-a-kind tutorials are for the advanced user. Learn how to create logic gates, advanced mechanisms, and much more. You’ll also find out how to host a Minecraft server, use the qCraft and Computer-Craft mods, and develop your own custom mods. Exponentially expand the dimensions of your world with help from this hands-on guide–the only limit is your imagination!
Age: Advanced users—teen & up
Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: McGraw-Hill/TAB Electronics; (June 5, 2014)
Amazon

Minecraft Mod Develop ment in 24 Hours, Sams Teach Yourself

While this book was just above my own 11-year-old’s abilities—a bit of Java knowledge going into this would be helpful—it would be perfect for teens/tweens interested in learning programming.

Learn how to…

Set up the environment where you’ll write your mod
Create the basics for your mod with the Forge API
Establish a framework that makes it easier to build complex mods
Work with recipes and other small modifications
Create multiple recipes, items, blocks, and entities at once
Cook up food items that heal your players
Make custom pickaxes, shovels, and completely original tools
Use Tile Entities to create complex and unique mods
Create interesting custom armor for players
Master Java programming techniques you can use far beyond Minecraft

Age: Advanced users (tweens & teens with some programming knowledge)
Paperback: 432 pages
Publisher: Sams Publishing; 1 edition (September 20, 2014)
Amazon $24

Learn to Program with Minecraft Plugins: Create Flaming Cows in Java Using CanaryMod

Write your own Minecraft plugins with CanaryMod and watch your code come to life with flaming cows, flying creepers, teleportation, and interactivity. Follow along with the book and add your own features to the Minecraft game by developing Java code that “plugs in” to the server. You’ll manipulate and control elements in the 3D graphical game environment without having to write tons of code or learn huge frameworks. No previous programming experience necessary.

Age Range: 10 and up
Series: The Pragmatic Programmers
Paperback: 284 pages
Publisher: Pragmatic Bookshelf; (November 8, 2014)
Amazon $20

And Just for Fun…

Amazing Minecraft Activity Book (Volume 1)

This fun and engaging activity book is packed with 75 different puzzles and games to keep Minecraft fans entertained for hours! Wind your way through a mineshaft maze, play Minecraft parkour, unscramble secret messages and more. Clues and answers are provided. Each page can be colored in, too!

Paperback: 82 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (January 13, 2015)

Minecraft 2015 Wall Calendar

Format: 2015 Wall Calendar
Size Closed: 11.5″ W x 11.5″ H
Size Opened: 11.5″ W x 23″ H

Five of the Scariest Novels I’ve Never Read

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There are some novels that you know will shake you at a primal level, that will haunt your dreams and darken even the brightest day. They’ll leave you shivering with “what if’s.” They’ll leave their dark marks upon your soul. Here are a few of those books—
stories I’m afraid to read, because I won’t be able to forget them…

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Many reader friends have told me I must read this book. In fact, they were horrified I hadn’t read this “masterpiece” yet. But I’m afraid it will disturb me too much. THE ROAD is a
grueling and grim post-apocalyptic tale of a man and his son struggling to survive.
The spare pose echoes the utter and complete desolation of the world as one man
attempts to instill a glimmer hope in his son.
I shiver thinking about it. Did I mention there’s cannibalism?

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margret Atwood

This could be the future—a future where a misogynistic, monotheocratic government rules all, where women are reduced to base breeders and laborers. It’s terrifying because you can
imagine it could happen if the wrong people gained power. I’m embarrassed to admit
I haven’t read this yet, andI plan to correct this lapse soon.
Even if it gives me nightmares.

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

Readers seem to love or hate this unique novel, and it has a die hard cultish following. It’s been described as not only a mind-blowing haunted house story, but a story inside a story inside a story…(or was it a riddle wrapped inside and enigma?) Due to its trippy print style, the books is only available in print, so readers can scour the appendices, colored texts,
sideways prose, and do the old “read backwards in a mirror” gimmick.
But it’s scary…if you can make it through the 700+ pages
without feeling physically trapped by the style.

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

What happens when YOU create the monster? In reality, it’s a story that often drives fear into all of our souls—a teen opens fire in a school, and seven classmates and two adults die. This could be in your neighborhood, in your children’s school. But cold-blooded killers aren’t just born, are they? This novel explores how our culture creates child killers, and how it would feel if this child was your own. The threat of school massacres hits me too close to home. I…just…can’t…

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

On the surface, the protagonist is epitome of a golden boy: attractive, filthy rich, and a Wall Street wunderkind. But inside, the man is a raving lunatic. A calm one at that. He kill, rapes, and tortures with a cool detachment. Some say this novel is a comedy, a satire of epic proportions. Others say it’s pure horror. I haven’t seen the movie either, and reading Ellis’ IMPERIAL BEDROOMS disturbed me enough for a few years, thanks.

Runners up:

Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy

Though technically a Western, this perverse story evokes images of Heironymus Bosch as it follows a band bounty hunters for Indian scalps near the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s–a ragged caravan of indiscriminate killers led by an unforgettable human monster called “The Judge.” Described as bleak, and bloody, and bleak—a book that may or may not leave you with no faith in humanity whatsoever.

Complete Collection Of H.P.Lovecraft – 150 eBooks (Complete Collection Of Lovecraft’s Fiction,Juvenilia,Poems,Essays And Collaborations)

Okay, this one I’m buying now, since it’s only $1.99 on Amazon now. Dubbed “Twentieth Century’s greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale,” Lovecraft’s stories have influenced generations of horror writers and readers.

How about you? What’s the scariest book you’ve NEVER read?