new authors – Peaceful Reader

Farewell to September

I can’t believe October begins tomorrow. Summer is my favorite weather season because I like the heat of the sun, the warm days on a boat or patio, and easy summer foods and beverages. Many people love all that about Fall; the pumpkin spiced everything, the sweaters, the leaves falling. We’ve had amazing weather throughout September and I hope October brings more of the same. Truthfully all the seasons provide something to love but when we veer towards winter I dread feeling chilled all the time. As with every month I’ve done a fair amount of cooking and reading this last week. Right now I’m enjoying Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo, the 2nd in the series.

Last weekend I cleaned up an area of my living room and went through a stack of books. Weird right, that I would have a stack of books sitting right on the floor in any of the rooms in my house? As I sorted this particular stack of books I found a note from a friend inside the front cover that said “I’m going to want this one back” which is code for “this was very good!” so I promptly started to read it.

The Plot was amazingly good and written by Jean Hanff Korelitz, an author I was completely unaware of until now. I read the book in 4 days and while it has some creepy moments it isn’t over the top because I can’t handle scary. It has great plot twists and interesting characters. Now I want to read other stories by this author. She is a playwright and started an online book group, Book the Writer, that pairs authors with readers. Check out the EventBrite page to see upcoming authors. I would love to sit in on one of these sessions even though technical they all take place in NYC apartments. (After browsing the list I signed up for the online group with Jhumpa Lahiri and her new book Wherabouts. I’ll have to check if the library has a copy as I made a promise to myself about book buying after I moved that stack of books from one spot to another.

{Half-Baked Harvest image}

Sometimes my brain works overtime and I try to prepare something for book club that relates to the book we read. This is not always easy but reading Anxious People by Fredrik Backman the food question was very clear. The characters all eat pizza together in the apartment with the bank robber/kidnapper and so I made Roasted Mushroom Kale Pizza from Half-Baked Harvest and it was delicious. There were no leftovers. Last night I made Roasted Butternut Squash and Spinach Lasagna and it is amazing. We had it for dinner tonight with a salad and we had to force ourselves to stop picking at what remained in the pan. Two pieces is plenty…but oh, so good! I do want to make her Vanilla Chai Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew soon as well…I mean tomorrow is October after all.

Now I’m off to do a little bedtime yoga with Adriene and get myself mentally prepared for Friday.

The Newlyweds by Nell Freudenberger

Nell Freudenberger

(2012)

I read this for our March book club selection and the general consensus last Monday at our meeting was that it was solid but not great and yet our conversation was very animated. We had definite opinions coming into the discussion about what we liked and disliked and it made for a rousing night of sharing.

We agreed that we all loved that Ms. Freudenberger based this novel on a chance encounter in an airplane with a woman named Farah. This made the story stand out to us for it’s validity. While it is fiction it is not just the author’s imaginary ideas of what it would be like for a woman to travel so far for love; she has a first hand account of what that was truly like.

Synopsis:

In The Newlyweds, we follow the story of Amina Mazid, who at age twenty-four moves from Bangladesh to Rochester, New York, for love. A hundred years ago, Amina would have been called a mail-order bride. But this is an arranged marriage for the twenty-first century: Amina is wooed by—and woos—George Stillman online.
For Amina, George offers a chance for a new life and a different kind of happiness than she might find back home. For George, Amina is a woman who doesn’t play games. But each of them is hiding something: someone from the past they thought they could leave behind. It is only when they put an ocean between them—and Amina returns to Bangladesh—that she and George find out if their secrets will tear them apart, or if they can build a future together.
The Newlyweds is a surprising, suspenseful story about the exhilarations—and real-life complications—of getting, and staying, married. It stretches across continents, generations, and plains of emotion. What has always set Nell Freudenberger apart is the sly, gimlet eye she turns on collisions of all kinds—sexual, cultural, familial. With The Newlyweds, she has found her perfect subject for that vision, and characters to match. She reveals Amina’s heart and mind, capturing both her new American reality and the home she cannot forget, with seamless authenticity, empathy, and grace. At once revelatory and affecting, The Newlyweds is a stunning achievement. (Goodreads)

It is a “stunning achievement” because I learned so much about Bangladesh and how difficult it would be to arrive here in the U.S. with very little background knowledge of our daily life. Just getting a job would be a huge hurdle.

Our book club conversation focused a lot on characters and the decisions they made. We were amazed at Amina’s bravery to arrive here with very little skills. Many immigrants choose to arrive here through a school visa and thus have school as their focus where Amina comes solely for George. George, many of us thought, was a little boring and not all that helpful to Amina. One older member of our group and the woman who recommended this book loved George and thought he was a perfect match for Amina. The rest of us thought he was lazy (not job wise but relationship wise) as he wanted everything to come easy and his way. He didn’t push to become a Muslim as he had promised which would have helped Amina keep her promise to her mother. This, to us, was a major mistake but I guess a typical marital issue. Would a man every really go out of his way to do something he promised to do if it wasn’t something he would choose to do in the first place? Of course the answer is some men would but George wasn’t written to be a unique individual. Even his reasons for choosing an online Asia dating service is because he wants a woman who won’t play games. The question is did he get his wish with Amina?

Many of us enjoyed Amina’s return trip back to Bangladesh. While she is there she feels out of place and nervous about events that normally would not have bothered her. She does meet up with Nasir, the son of her father’s best friend, and their friendship is rekindled. Perhaps Nasir and Amina had at one time been matched together but Nasir left for London and soon after Amina started her initial online conversations with George. Her and Nasir still have an emotional connection though and she is happy with how much he has helped her parents.

Random Quote:

“Amina knew she was a different person in Bangla than she was in English; she noticed the change every time she switched languages on the phone. She was older in English, and also less fastidious; she was the parent to her parents. In Bangla, of course, they were still the parents, and she let them fuss over her, asking whether she was maintaining her weight, and if she’d been able to find her Horlicks in America.” (105)

This story has many different layers and it does shine a critical look at the complexity of marriage and relationships. I’m happy to have read it~I just wish I felt more comfortable with Amina’s choices especially as she travels back to America with her parents.

Read this great interview of Nell @HuffingtonPost.
And Polly’s review at SF Gate.

I’d like to read more by this author~

Four days into September already…My challenge.

I’ve planned this for awhile and can’t believe we are four days into the month! Thanks to Zoe at Little, Brown and Company I receive several beautiful packages a month of ARC’s. Thank you Zoe for keeping me on this list! Sometime at the end of the school year I started to get really behind on reading these lovely new books. Time to change that.

I’m dedicating September to reading as many ARC’s from this pile as I can and reviewing them. I still have a half-done review of The Queen of Kentucky by Alecia Whitaker to finish and share. While this stack of books is not cluttering my house per se it does clutter my conscience. Time to get many of them read and spread the word. I started reading Ask the passengers by A.S. King yesterday and I love it.

My friend Tina might join me in reading a few of her stacked-up ARC’s also. If you have a small or large stack of Advanced Readers maybe you want to join us as well.

I’m not going to set a number and set myself up for failure but I’d like to read at least this stack and review them before them become dusty antiques in the corner.

Mailbox Monday

Happy Valentine’s Day! A day of love, a day to celebrate friendships, a day to eat more chocolate, a money maker…

In the last week or so I’ve received a bunch of books in my mail box. I ordered a used copy of The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters from Alibris and was anxiously awaiting it last week. My son texted me one afternoon and said I had a box in the mail and he thought it was probably that book. When I got home he handed it to me but I knew right away it was not the pkg. It was a medium size box with four books inside from Zoe Luderitz at Little, Brown and Company! I was delighted. (picture me jumping with glee)

Inside I found:

1. Bird in a Box by Andrea Davis Pinkney-It is 1936. America is in the middle of the Great Depression, and three children-Otis, Willie and Hibernia-are about to become friends. (a snippet from the back cover)

2. I’ll Be There by Holly Goldbert Sloan-This is an innovative portrait of two brothers who cross paths with a family that will change their lives forever. (from publicity letter)

3. The Time-Traveling Fashionista by Bianca Turetsky– When Louise Lambert receives a mysterious invitation to a traveling vintage sale in the mail, her normal life in suburban Connecticut is magically transformed into a time-travel adventure. (back cover)

4. Bitter End by Jennifer Brown-The second novel in the Hate List series tackles abusive relationships in one teen’s life. (publicity letter)

Each one of these titles has something that intrigues me so I’m looking forward to slipping these ARC’s into my reading schedule.

I also received a nonfiction title, Astro, The Steller Sea Lion by Jeanne Walker Harvey, from the author-love to get those big manilla envelopes.

And Saraswati’s Way came from Monika Schroder.

From Paperback Book Swap I received two books:

Elin Hilderbrand’s A Summer Affair and Barefoot. We are heading to the NC beach in June and these will be my beach reads.

This has been a busy week and a half for my mailbox…

Hope you’ve had a lovely Valentine holiday with lots of chocolate and books!

New Books!

Two days ago 10 boxes arrived from Titlewave-my big shipment for the year and it is a little like Christmas here. I don’t plan to put them out until we come back from holiday but my volunteer, Janice and I have had a blast going through them, reading and stamping and just holding them!!

Just a short run down of the many titles I now have:

Picture Books

Children Make Terrible Pets by Peter Brown
Disappearing Desmond by Anna Alter ( Abigail Spells is a favorite of mine!)
Thunder Boomer by Shutta Crum (Amazing illustrations by Carol Thompson)
The Enemy; a book about peace by Davide Cali
Guinea Pigs Add Up by Margaret Cuyler
The Travel Game by John Grandits

Mind Your Manners, Alice Roosevelt by Leslie Kimmelman

1 Zany Zoo by Lori Degman (Cheerios New Author contest winner)

Tacky Christmas by Helen Lester

Shadow by Suzy Lee

Thank You Bear by Greg Foley (winner of the handsome author award*wink*)

Chapter Books

The Magic Thief series by Sarah Prineas
The Night Fairy by Laura Amy Schlitz

The entire Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull (now I can finally finish reading the last two!)
Road to Tater Hill by Edith M. Hemingway
Palace Beautiful by Sarah DeFord Williams
The Problem with the Puddles by Kate Feiffer
The Secret of Zoom by Lynne Jonell
Neil Armstrong is my Uncle and other lies Muscle Man McGinty Told Me by Nan Marino

Nonfiction

The Red Hen by Emberley and Emberley
Do Bees Make Butter by Michael Dahl
Mirror, Mirror by Marilyn Singer
and three new cookbooks for all my little cooking patrons including this one.

I did get a lot of nonfiction but I get less excited about it but these are my top choices- I know that’s bad as a librarian but I am a fiction fan.

My top two questions now

1. How am I going to get them all home to read and share with Groovy Girl over break?
2. How can I get a holiday extention so I can finish reading all that I want to read over my break?

I am glad we are staying here for the holidays so I can do lots of reading!!

She's So Dead to Us

by Kieran Scott

Release date: 5.25.10

From Good Reads:

Perfect, picturesque Orchard Hill. It was the last thing Ally Ryan saw in the rear-view mirror as her mother drove them out of town and away from the shame of the scandal her father caused when his hedge fund went south and practically bankrupted all their friends — friends that liked having trust funds and new cars, and that didn’t like constant reminders that they had been swindled. So it was adios, Orchard Hill. Thanks for nothing.
Now, two years later, Ally’s mother has landed a job back at the site of their downfall. So instead of Ally’s new low-key, happy life, it’ll be back into the snake pit with the likes of Shannen Moore and Hammond Ross.
But then there’s Jake Graydon. Handsome, wealthy, bored Jake Graydon. He moved to town after Ally left and knows nothing of her scandal, but does know that he likes her. And she likes him. So off into the sunset they can go, right? Too bad Jake’s friends have a problem with his new crush since it would make Ally happy. And if anyone deserves to be unhappy, it’s Ally Ryan.

Ally was hoping to have left all the drama in the past, but some things just can’t be forgotten. Isn’t there more to life than money?

My thoughts:

Oh, the woes of this book. It filled me with happiness and anger at the same time. The cover intriged me but many times I was frustrated, not so much with the plot as with the choices made. Old friends Faith, Hannah, Shannon, and Chloe are still angry with Ally’s family-not just with her dad for making bad investment choices and they take it out on Ally and her mom. Ally used to be part of this group and now she has to learn what it’s like to be on the outside. Lucky for Ally, two kids from the regular group of students (Annie and David) hitch up with her and become good friends. Life would be fine if she weren’t so in love with Jake-her crush on him circles her too close to her old gang of Cresties and these old friends make it impossible for her and Jake to get together.

Each chapter changes perspective so we get to understand both Ally and Jake’s point-of-view. I liked this back and forth perspective-it makes it interesting to hear Jake’s take on certain situations. Jake is adorable but has a hard time finding his own true feelings. He takes part in several pranks against Ally, which makes it surprising that she chooses him over sweet guy, David, who (of course) has a crush on her. This book offers strange twists that happen at many high schools and gave me the sense of being in a John Hughes movie.

I loved most of the characters, even the mean ones, except for Hammond. Hammond was okay but I feel negative vibes from him. I especially appreciated Ally and her ability to see herself in real time-Ally now with no money and Ally before

who perhaps could have pulled some of these mean stunts herself. She had honest growth and depth, prodded sometimes by her new sidekick, Annie.

Three terms used in the book bugged me a lot: Cresties (rich kids) and Norms (regular all-around normal)-they actually use these ridiculous names to talk about each other. I did live in one small town in Minnesota where the economic divide was a hill so it was said in normal conversation “oh, you live on the hill” and that implied that you had some money. We did not call each other “hillies” though. The other term the book uses was backslappers, a cheerleading- type group that decorates lockers and rubs the back of their assigned player. Isn’t that the same thing as a cheerleader or a pep squad-I just couldn’t figure out why a new name had to be invented for this high school group. Backslappers does not roll off the tongue nor does it conjure a fun image (for me). Does anyone know of a high school that uses this term?? It’s odd the weird things that bother me when reading. Small details in an otherwise entertaining read.

I’ve heard this is the first of a trilogy. I will be anxious to see what’s in the future for Ally and Jake!
I think the author has a very cool name-Kieran

This book is an advanced reader copy sent to me by Lucille at Simon and Schuster.
This didn’t in any way influence my enjoyment of the book.
3.5/5 peaceful stars
Recommended for YA

Other reviews:

Just Your Typical Book Blog reviews it here.

Corinne at The Book Nest reviews it here.

The Opposite of Me

Sarah Pekkanen

(2010)

With my Kleenex box next to me and a little Vicks Vapor Rub doing its thing, I finished Pekkanen’s first book. Wow.
I am blown away by talent. I follow Sarah through her newsletter, distributed neatly in my inbox and one day I clicked on it and she was drawing readers in, offering a chance to win something if we would only preorder her new book. I was drawn in and even though I’m supposed to be on a book-buying hiatus, I preordered it. I don’t even know what it was she was giving away nor do I care because I liked her book and it was worth it.

Usually I take a few days to ponder the book or I don’t have time to write a review right away but this time since I’m still laying in bed, breathing in the Vicks, I thought I would share the book love spontaneously! I’m going to be somewhat brief just because it is brand-new and I want you to read it fresh and if I tried to explain all the intricacies of the plot I may fall asleep due to symptoms of the common cold.

Summary:

Two sisters, twin sister to be exact, grow up with out ever having that deep connection so many other twins or even siblings feel toward each other. Linsdey is the smart one, having done well through grad school, now works at a very high powered NY ad agency. She’s in line to take over as the new VP of Creative blah-blah big wig job. Meanwhile, Alex, the beautiful sister is modeling and about to get married in their hometown, Washington D.C. Their paths are destined to cross and they do and it’s fun to be there, peeking in.

My Thoughts:

The book is told through Lindsey’s view point and I have to admit the first section I was worried-Lindsey’s character made me all jumpy and I didn’t enjoy the feeling but later I realized Sarah had done her writing job well by making me feel part of Lindsey’s hectic NY lifestyle. I just wanted to slow down. Little flecks of humor emerge between the twins verbally-sparring with each other but the real comedic wit comes from their parents. Woo hoo-what wonderfully-funny parents (embarrasingly funny-yes) but heck what are other people’s parents really for except to help us see our own parents more humorously! Through all the relationships in this book it has a lot to say about families and relationships and how we live our lives altogether, without seeing each other fully.

See great characters+ great plot=easy read and Sarah Pekkanen achieved this on her first time! Of course, like Hollywood fame she didn’t just whip this out I’m sure plus she has tons of other writing credits to her name. According to the interview in the back of the book, she is already working on a new book and I’m so glad!! Once it has a title I can put it on my to-read list.

Buy the book or ask your library to purchase a copy-it is worth it.
Julie P. at Booking Mama’s review and another great one can be found here-S. Krishna’s Books.
Watch the You Tube trailer-nice without giving it all away.

Highly Recommended-Adult Fiction

5/5 peaceful stars

Happy Reading!

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford (2009)

It’s been a week since I finished Jamie Ford’s debut novel and my thoughts have been languishing in my edit box. There is something about writing a review about certain books, good books, books that I really liked that make it difficult. I don’t know why it is but I’m going to push forward and just do it!

The story:

Henry Lee, a Chinese-American tells his story, alternating between 1942 and 1986, and his friendship with Keiko, a Japanese-American girl and the only other Asian student at his all-white school. Keiko and Henry quickly become friends as they ward off bullies and work in the kitchen “scholarshipping” together. Henry’s already rocky relationship with his father quickly deteriorates as his relationship with Keiko grows. Mr. Lee is a strong Chinese nationalist and Henry’s relationship with Keiko creates this chasm that can’t be healed between son and father.

In the alternating 1986 Henry deals with the death of his wife, Ethel and his estranged relationship with his son, Marty. In the opening pages of the book, Henry still living in Seattle, finds himself in front of the Panama Hotel as the new owner announces unearthing Japanese-American artifacts from the basement of the hotel as they begin a major remodel. Henry’s mind shifts back to Keiko and the events of 1942 when the Japanese community were taken to internment camps during WWII.

My thoughts:

I loved the writing as the story came alive to me through Henry’s eyes. It’s a story of a father’s love, even if misplaced and how children often do the opposite of what is expected. It’s a story of young love and the thrill of being twinkle eyed about another human being. It’s the story of our country at the worst of times, as we allowed ourselves to become irrationally prejudiced against citizens based on their race. I loved how Mr. Ford used Henry’s relationship with Sheldon, an African-American saxophone player, to contrast the racial conflict already occuring for years in our country. Japanese internment camps became our slave quarters of the second World War. I enjoyed this book as much as Kathyrn Stockett’s The Help.
I’m not a fan of Amazon (more of an indie fan) but while scouting around for information on Jamie Ford I came upon this great little author video.-scroll down past the purchasing part to the vid. part.
Jamie Ford’s website-click here.

Highly Recommended-Adult Fiction

5/5 peaceful stars

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