Spring Reading Thing 2009 Wrap Up

Wow - the date slipped up on me, but the Spring Reading Thing 2009 hosted Katrina at Callapidder Days is now over. For the wrap-up post she gave us some questions we could answer. So I thought I would do that. In quick summary I read 56 books during this time. I reviewed some of them (don't have an actual count at this moment and enjoyed all of them.

• Did you finish reading all the books on your spring reading list? If not, why not?

I must confess that my reading list kept evolving. I would say I read about 50% of what I originally posted and then changed the other 50%. I also read more books than I thought I would.

• Did you stick to your original goals or did you change your list as you went along?

Changed my list - I just can't seem to help it - I want to be organized and have a plan on what to read, but then I seem to revolt when that list is in front of me.

• What was your favorite book that you read this spring? Least favorite? Why?

My favorite(s) (I can never choose just one) were The Actor and the Housewife by Shannon Hale, Fragment by Warren Fahy, and Ms. Taken Identity by Dan Begley

I don't think I have a least favorite - the lowest score was to Strange Angels and I enjoyed it, I just wanted a little more action - but know that will come in the next book in the series. I really liked the characters.

• Did you discover a new author or genre this spring? Did you love them? Not love them?

I think I started finding the more general fiction that leans toward the literary - I had read these from time-to-time, but not often. I explored it a little more lately and have found they are not stuffy boring books, but very good books so this was good for me.

• Did you learn something new because of Spring Reading Thing 2009 — something about reading, or yourself, or a topic you read about?

I have read several small facts and things during the reading challenge. I have also learned that I like to read just about anything. I have read scientific suspense, chicklit, romance, young adult, general fiction, romantic suspense, regular suspense, paranormal and just about everything in between.

• What was your favorite thing about the challenge?

Trying to stick to my reading list (which I failed out - but it was a good exercise) and setting a goal. I also think it was this challenge that helped springboard getting a good start on my blog.

Teaser Tuesday - June 23

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

"I'm relieved the story has a happy ending."
She looked at me without blinking. I noticed that her eyes were watering. "My mother and Sir Mortimer were married by Captain Edward John Smith, master of the Titanic."
Pause.
"You mean--?"
She bit her lip and nodded.
So much for a happy ending.

From Gifts of War by Mackenzie Ford, which is out today 6/23/2009 and so far is an excellent read!

Review and Giveaway - Ms. Taken Identity by Dan Begley

Ms. Taken Identity by Dan Begley

Genre: Chicklit I suppose, but it has a little bit of everything








Rating: 4.5/5.0



I used to read chicklit a lot, but it's been on the decrease lately so I just haven't read it as much. I am so glad that I picked this book from the Harper Collins imprint selections for this month. I knew it had an intriguing premise, I just didn't know it would be chicklit and so much more.

This is Mr. Begley's first novel and if how I feel about it is any indication it surely won't be his last.

The book starts with stuffy, stuck-up Mitch. He's a "serious" writer, he loves only authors who "make you think" and doesn't deal with any of the fluff that makes the best-seller lists regularly. He has a best friend, Bradley, who is a fairly down to earth guy, but other than that, he dates girls that are like him. They like the things he likes, they agree with the things he says. The latest in this line of girls is Hannah, who is in love with him, but as the book begins, realizes Mitch does not love her. Thus, the breakup. Truthfully the breakup does not affect Mitch very much. What does affect Mitch is the fact that his wonderful manuscript has been rejected everywhere.

Here is where the chance signing by a huge chicklit author, and then a chance meeting with her turns Mitch's life around. At first he thinks it's simple to write chicklit, but he quickly learns it's tougher than he thinks. So he starts researching. He joins a dance class suggested by Bradley as his sister is in it, becomes involved with the people in the class (even though they are obviously lower than him). And he even becomes involved with a woman from the class. Wonderful, right? Well the problem is they all know him as "Jason" not Mitch and of course our deceptions always come back to haunt us.

A well-planned and plotted book, this book kept my interest and made me fall in love with the characters. The dance-class characters were different yet you could see them all getting along. Mitch is a great character and you love watching him change without him realizing he is changing and I love the guy as a chicklit author angle (and it works for the author too).

The twists and turns are great and hold your interest. There is fun (going out after the dance class), varying characters, romance, breakups, fights (even fist fights) and so much more in this book. There is a serious side, but the humor and lightness remains throughout. This book was just such a joy to read. I hated when it ended because I wanted to know more about the characters (but it ends in a way that ties things up so you aren't left hanging). It's just that good of a book.

So check it out - it comes out today. Thank you to Miriam Parker for sending me this book.

Publisher: 5 Spot
Release Date: June 22, 2009
Pages: 288
Format: Trade Paperback

Other Reviews:
Lauren at Half Deserted Streets

Buy Ms. Taken Identity at IndieBound
Buy Ms. Taken Identity at Amazon.com

Miriam Parker has offered to send out one copy of this wonderful book to a winner from the blog so you will actually be getting the book instead of my arc! Thank you Miriam for offering this book to giveaway.

Contest will run through Monday July 6th at midnight and I'll draw the winner and post on Tuesday. Giveaway is open only to the U.S. and Canada. For entries:

1. Leave a comment (and make sure I have a way to contact you)
2. Become a follower or if you are already a follower let me know (for an additional entry)
3. Follow me on twitter (see sidebar for link or I am cfulcher)
   
4. Twitter about the contest (use @cfulcher so I will see it) and let me know about it (for an additional entry)
5. Blog about the contest, sidebar mentions are fine (for an additional entry)
6. Tell me your favorite chicklit or romance book.
   

What Are You Reading Monday - June 22

Come post weekly and see what others are reading too just so you can add to your tbr - I always do! For more information see J.Kaye's Book Blog and join in!

Books Completed Last Week:
























The Neighbor by Lisa Gardner - I received this ARC in the mail last week and it was a wonderful book - very suspenseful. See my review and Giveaway here.
Avalon High by Meg Cabot - Cute young adult story, quick read and lots of fun. Review here.
Ms. Taken Identity by Dan Begley - Book received for review. Chicklit-ish, and wonderful. Review and Giveaway to be posted later today.

Reading Now:
Gifts of War by MacKenzie Ford - received as an ARC
Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris - my current mp3 player audiobook
Uglies by Scott Westerfield - my current computer audiobook
Nobody Does It Better by Cecily Von Ziegesar
All That Glitters by Nicole O'Dell - a young adult "interactive" book from Barbour Publishing

Next:
Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin - I have heard wonderful things about htis
I Apologize by Bradley Booth - this looks like a tearjerker and I can't wait to read it
Swimsuit by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro - book from Miriam Parker - see my giveaway here.

Summary -
3 books read last week. Several reviews caught up. I didn't end up having much time for Bloggiesta and I'm sorry about that. But all-in-all it was a good week.

Mailbox Monday - June 22nd

Mailbox Monday is hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page. To see this weeks list of participants go here.

ARCs of:

Labor Day by Joyce Maynard - pub date: August 2009: - From the Editor's letter at the beginning of the book:


...which is set during a long weekend in 1987 and tells the simple yet profound story of a thirteen-year-old boy, his mother, and a stranger who suddenly enters their lives--and who is taken from them as unexpectedly as he appeared.






0 to 60 by Susan Slater - Pub Date: July 15, 2009

Shelly Sinclair's life is perfect - one most women would envy - a 35-year marriage to a successful doc, two grown boys, a beautiful home and the security of predictability. Without warning, this world collapses. Her husband of a lifetime announces that he's asked someone to marry him - someone thirty-nine years his junior. And, oh yes, the mother of his four-year-old child. Alone. At sixty. To start over. But maybe, just maybe this can be the best time ever.


The Amen Heresy by W.H. Muhlenfeld - Pub date: October 2009 - From the back:
Ex-priest and dyslexic expert of ancient languages, Jack Fisher, agrees to assist a friend and Israeli professor of religious history; and is drawn into an unsolved mystery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. His discovery of the true meaning of the copper Scroll threatens to expose the three religions of Abraham as the monotheistic legacy of an ancient, sun-worshiping pharaoh, Amen-hotep IV.

Jack joins forces with a beautiful agent of the Israeli Antiquities Autthority and a Palestinian boy of the streets as they battle a secret cabal of Jerusalem's high clerics and a murderous Egyptian madman for possession of the scroll and its revelations. Fisher wrestles with the demons of his own past as their search leads through the Old City of Jerusalem, onto the Judean Desert, to the tomb of an Egyptian noble and the holy site of the Burning Bush at Mount Sinai. Here the final struggle for possession of the scroll reveals a startling truth, sealing the fate of Jack Fisher, and of three billion Jews, Christians and Muslims.

Surviving a House Full of Whispers by Sharon Wallace - out now

Sharon suffered continual physical and sexual abuse from her stepfather for seven years. Unfortunately, no one would listen to her or believe her story. At age 16, she finally finds the courage to flee from her tormenters. Social Services find her the first of a string of temporary jobs between which she criss-crosses England trying to find a safe haven.

However, she cannot escape her "night devil" completely until she comes to terms with her past. Sharon's growth and recovery from abuse and learning to accept love would be a long road to travel, taking nearly forty years to achieve. She had to learn to trust and love herself before she could another.

Faced with society's judgments against her, Sharon stood alone against the people who abused her for seven years. The truth is, we don't start to heal when taken from an abusive situation; we only start to digest and relive its emotional content. Many go on to live their lives with tortured souls and an inability to trust and love their own children.

Equally, many of us find the inner child that God intended; we pull that child past the empty adult left by years of mutilation of our childhood souls. I was a no-hoper, unjustly cast out into a world of desolation and loneliness that pulled at my heart like a lead weight. I self-harmed and mutilated parts of my mind and body to try and erase memories.

Eventually, I learned that healing was within me and could never be found under that largest or smallest boulder. I have walked the road of hope and desire and looked into the pool of my future. I did not want to be the mother they had raised, or the wife they had created. Slowly, I started to rebuild my life and my wish is that this book offers the same hope to you.

From Booksfree I received:

Nobody Does It Better by Cecily Von Ziegesar (Gossip Girl #7)
Wake by Lisa McMann - I've finished this one and it's good!
both books I cannot wait to read

And from Paperbackswap I received:

Sunset Bay by Susan Mallery
Lip Service by Susan Mallery
Two sewing books

Another really good week - now I just have to get busy reading.

Review: Missing Pieces by Joy Fielding

Missing Pieces by Joy Fielding






Rating: 4.0/5.0

From the book flap:

Family therapist Kate Sinclair reparis other people's troubled lives, all the while reveling in her stable marriage and handsome home. But there are demons in her past that will not stay buried forever, and the carefully constructed edifice of her life comes tumbling down when her half-sister JoLynn announces her plans to marry Colin Friendly, a man on trial for the brutal murders of thirteen Palm Beach women.

Kate soon finds herself embroiled in a desperate struggle to protect her family from Colin's increasingly sinister advances. To make matters worse, her aging mother is losing her tenuous grip on reality and her rebellious daughter Sara is falling under Jolynn's wayward influence - a development that would worry Kate in the best of times, but which in this case might well prove deadly. As the strain begins to tear Kate's marriage apart, into the fray comes the smooth-talking Robert, her high-school crush who soon displays an unhealthy interest in the results of Colin Friendly's trial.

As Kate Sinclair slowly slips across the razor-thin line separating ordinary life from unspeakable terror she realizes that there is no one she can trust, nowhere she can run...and no way she can deny that she and her loved ones may be the next targets of a demented serial killer.

I started reading Joy Fielding books in 2006 when I read Mad River Road. Since then I have read her new releases each year and have really enjoyed them. With my library system requests messed up at this time, I can't seem to get a hold of her newest, so I decided to work my way through her backlist (which my local library has on the shelves). This is how I came acrss Missing Pieces.

Missing Pieces follows Kate Sinclair, who on the outside looks like she has the perfect life but then the cracks start to show. Her oldest daughter is starting to pull away and be independent, tired of being compared to the perfect younger daughter. Her sister who has always been independent and little wild, has developed a fascination with a man being tried as a serial killer, and her mother is slowly falling prey to dementia. And in the middle of all of this, she runs into a man from her past, a relationship that never came to fruition, one of those what if's that most women have.

All of this forms the story as told by Kate. Slowly through the book all the pieces of the story begin to fall into place and it makes for an interesting plot and story to follow. We learn about her family and her past, and all that is going on. I enjoyed reading this book. It is well paced and the characterization is well done. You get to know each of the players at least in some sense, some better than others, but all are well-done.

If you like psychological suspense, this is a book you are sure to enjoy. If you enjoy Joy Fielding and haven't read this, make sure you pick it up. I enjoyed spending my time reading this and wondering what would happen next.

From: Library
Copyright: 1998
Publisher: Bantam books
# of pages: 432
Author's Website

Buy this at IndieBound.
Buy this at Amazon.com

If you have a review of this book, please let me know and I will post a link to it.

Friday Finds - June 19

Friday Finds is hosted over on Should Be Reading. It's all about what great books you have heard about/discovered in the past week. Here is my entry, and head over to the Should Be Reading Blog to read others and find books to add to your TBR pile!

First I saw this on BookBlips.com last Friday (click on the books to link to more information):

Introducing feminist chick lit in the form of first-time novelist Sullivan’s diverting parody of life at Smith College. When Sally, Bree, April, and Celia meet during first-year orientation, they quickly bond as they navigate the tricky rules of their new home: no “girl-on-girl” showers before 10 a.m.; no meat in the dining hall unless it has a vegan sidekick; no (well, some) clothes during the opening convocation ceremony. As best friends, all their glories and foibles come to light, including Sally’s lurid affair with an aging professor and Bree’s switch from straight to gay despite her family’s frowning disapproval. All postcollege transitions are also captured, from one-night stands to grad schools, first jobs and first homes, a wedding and a baby. When April, the radical in the group, begins to work with her idol, a “divisive” feminist known for extreme tactics, a secondary plot about human trafficking emerges, switching the mood from nostalgia to suspense. Sullivan’s debut crackles with intelligent observations about the inner sanctum of the all-women’s elite (yet scholarship-laden) college life. --Emily Cook

Second Jill posted this, this week on Waiting on Wednesday:

Simon and Emily Bear look like a couple that has it all. Simon is a respected doctor. His wife, Emily, shines as a partner in a premier public relations firm. But their marriage is scarred by hidden wounds. Even as Simon tends his patients’ ills, and Emily spins away her clients’ mistakes, they can’t seem to do the same for themselves or their relationship.

Simon becomes convinced he’s discovered a cure for chronic pain, a finding that could become a medical breakthrough, yet he is oblivious to the pain that he causes at home. Emily, struggling to move beyond the devastating loss she and Simon suffered fifteen years earlier, realizes she hasn’t felt anything for a long time—that is, until a lover from her past resurfaces and forces her to examine her marriage anew.

In a debut novel on par with today’s top women writers, Remedies explores the complicated facets of pain, in the nerves of the body and the longings of the heart. Depicting modern-day marriage with a razor-sharp eye, Remedies is about what it takes, as an individual and as a couple, to recover from profound loss.

Third from Waiting on Wednesday also is one from The Book Pixie

Ever since Viola’s boyfriend broke up with her, she has spent her days silently wishing—to have someone love her again, and, more importantly, to belong again—until one day she inadvertently summons a genie out of his world and into her own. He will remain until she makes three wishes.

But Viola is terrified of wishing, afraid she won't wish for the right thing, the thing that will make her truly happy. As the two spend time together, Jinn can’t deny that he’s slowly falling for Viola. But it’s only after Viola makes her first wish that she realizes she’s in love with Jinn as well…and that if she makes her final two wishes, he will disappear from her life—and her world—forever.

That's it for this week. So what did you find this week?