Monday, August 3, 2009

Mailbox Monday - August 3rd




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

ARC/Review copies of (click on book cover for post with more information about the book):


Books I won from other bloggers:




It was a very good week as you can see and I need to get busy reading!

Sunday, August 2, 2009

The Sunday Salon - August 2, 2009




This is my first week joining in on The Sunday Salon which is hosted here. I have been reading posts for awhile, but don't usually have much time to blog on Sunday, but I hereby promise to start making time.

Time spent reading - about average, I think I have spent more time on the internet surfing blogs and writing reviews, but overall this week is an improvement over the last few weeks. I head back to work next week and that will actually mean more reading time because I will make more time for it in the evenings.

What I read:

Daniel X Watch the Skies by James Patterson and Ned Rust
I'm So Happy for You: A novel about best friends by Lucinda Rosenfeld
Love's First Light by Jamie Carie

Thoughts on my reading:

  • I did read one new author this week - Lucinda Rosenfeld. I really enjoyed her book and will be looking for books in her backlist.
  • The Daniel X book was fun, just a quick simple read. I sometimes get a little confused in these books, but I enjoy them anyway.
  • The Jamie Carie book is the second I have read by her and I love her. This was my first historical romance set in the French Revolution and I found it fascinating. I will read more of her books and I will also look for more historicals set in the French Revolution or around that time.
  • All three books were review books, The first two were send by the publisher and Love's First Light was an Early Readers book sent through Library Thing.

What I'm reading now:

I Can See You by Karen Rose (an ARC - it comes out this week)
Reunion in Death by J.D. Robb (on audio in my car)

Up Next:

Wait Until Twilight by Sang Pak (review book)
Club Dead (Sookie Stackhouse challenge)
Seven Up (Stephanie Plum reading challenge)

I'm off to Duke tomorrow for my 5-week post-surgery appointment. If all goes well I return to work on Wednesday and I think I will since I am feeling much better.

Everyone have a great week!

Winners: The Brutal Telling by Louise Perry and Any Minute by Joyce Meyer and Deborah Bedford


The Winner of The Brutal Telling ARC by Louise Perry is:

Debbie!

She has been emailed and I am awaiting her address.











The winner of Any Minute by Joyce Meyer and Deborah Bedford is:

Esme!

She has also been emailed and I am awaiting her address.

This book is wonderful and it's out, so go check it out.







Thanks so much for all the entries. Check my sidebar for more giveaways this month.

July Summary

Wow - recovering from surgery wasn't as easy as I thought. I spent those first few weeks on my side in my bed watching TV shows on DVD. I didn't even feel like holding a book. Then my reading slump continued, but I have finally broken out of it. So my summary is a little paltry for July, but what I read was great.

In July I read 5 books and all 5 were ARCs for review.

The books I read were:
  1. 0 to 60 by Susan Slater - Review
  2. Easy on the Eyes by Jane Porter - Review
  3. Hollywood is Like High School With Money by Zoey Dean - Review
  4. Daniel X Watch the Skies by James Patterson and Ned Rust - Review
  5. I'm So Happy For You: A Novel of Best Friends by Lucinda Rosenfeld - Review
The good news is I reviewed all books that I read in July! The other good news for you is that all 5 have contests attached that run through either 8/14 or 8/15, so go and enter if you haven't.

I've already finished 1 book for August, so August is looking better. I'm also 5 away from 100 total books for the year!

So it's off to church and then back to some relaxing Sunday afternoon reading (my review pile is stacking up!)

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Book Review and Giveaway: I'm So Happy For You: A Novel About Best Friends by Lucinda Rosenfeld



I'm So Happy For You: A Novel About Best Friends by Lucinda Rosenfeld





rating: 4.5/5.0









From the back of the arc:
What if your best friend, whom you've always counted on to flounder in life and love (making your own modest accomplishments look not so bad), suddenly starts to surpass you in every way?

Wendy's best friend, Daphne, has always been dependably prone to catastrophe. And Wendy has always been there to help. If Daphne veers from suicidal to madly in love, Wendy offers encouragement. But when Daphne is suddenly engaged, pregnant, and decorating a fabulous town house in no time at all, Wendy is...not so happy for her. Caught between wanting to be the best friend she prides herself on being and crippling jealousy of flighty Daphne, Wendy takes things to the extreme, waging a full-scale attack on her best friend-all the while wearing her best, I'm-so-happy-for-you smile-and ends up in way over her head.

Finally - a true to life book about groups of friends. I don't know about you, but I have never been in a group of friends where some back-stabbing and jealousy went on. Women are just this way. I'm So Happy For You explores that fact and Ms. Rosenfeld does a wonderful job with it.

Both Wendy and Daphne are likeable characters. I see some of myself in both of them. I couldn't completely hate either one at anytime no matter what was going on. Disagreements and jealousy are a fact of life.

Despite all of this, this is not a depressing novel, in fact it's just the opposite - it's fascinating, a true study in human behavior, with laugh out loud moments and very cringe-worthy moments.

It's a great look into how a group of friends truly acts and it makes you think about how you act too. I loved the look into Wendy's mind and her thought process, the paranoia from time-to-time (who hasn't had that) and the self-realization that she finally comes to. There are some surprises along the way and the book was very difficult for me to put down.

Try it out - it's an outstanding book!

Binding: Paperback
On-sale Date: July 29, 2009
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Pages: 288

Thanks to Miriam Parker at Hachette Books I have one copy to giveaway. The contest will be open through August 15th. US and Canada residents only please. Please enter by:

  1. Commenting on my blog, make sure I have a way to contact you. (+1)
  2. Become a blog follower or let me know if you are already a follower (+1)
  3. Tell me any other Lucinda Rosenfeld books you have read and enjoyed (+1)
  4. Tweet about this review and giveaway, use @cfulcher in the tweet so I can find it (+1)
  5. Follow me on Twitter (or let me know if you are a current follower) (+1)
  6. Blog about this contest and let me know the link (sidebar or post is fine) (+1)
So there you go - 6 ways to get an entry into this contest. You can leave them in separate posts or one post, it doesn't matter, I will make sure you get your entries, just make sure to let me know what you do.

ARC Arrival: Legacy by Cayla Kluver



Legacy by Cayla Kluver

I received this from Natalie Surowiecki at Waggener Edstrom Worldwide.

Publisher: Amazon Encore
Publish Date: August 19, 2009
Pages: 464

From Amazon.com:

Bronze Medalist in Young Adult Fiction in the 2008 Moonbeam Children's Book Awards; Finalist in Young Adult Fiction in the National Best Books Awards 2008, sponsored by USA Book News. The first boy disappeared on the day of his birth, on a night when the pale yellow moon of the nighttime sky turned red and bathed the heavens in the ghastly color of blood, on the same night the Kingdom of Cokyri abruptly ceased its merciless attack.

Across the land of Hytanica, under the shadow of the crimson moon, infant boys continued to vanish. Not until the blood had faded from the sky did the disappearances stop and the bodies of the murdered infants were found outside the gates of the city, a final word from the greatest enemy Hytanica had ever known. For the next sixteen years, peace reigned, but one mystery remained unsolved. The Cokyrians had abducted forty-nine newborns, but returned only forty-eight bodies.

Now, as seventeen-year-old Princess Alera of Hytanica is besieged from all sides by suitors vying for the Throne, a teenage Cokyrian boy, Narian, is encountered within the walls of her Kingdom, a boy who will show Alera a world where women serve a purpose and not just a husband. As Narian helps Alera find her voice, she struggles against an arranged marriage that will shatter the life she has scarcely begun to live. And when Narian's shocking past is uncovered, and war with Cokyri looms once more, he must fight to defy a fate ordained at his birth.
About the Author:

Writing has always been Cayla Kluver's passion. It wasn't until her freshman year in high school that she discovered this made her different from her classmates. She was writing in a notebook at the lunch table, when a friend asked her if she was doing homework. When Cayla said no, she was just writing down some ideas, her friend's stunned response was "You write for fun?" Cayla wrote the first draft of Legacy during her sophomore year in public high school. She then worked very hard to combine her junior and senior years so she could graduate early. She completed the first draft of Allegiance, which continues the story begun in Legacy, the following year. In addition to writing, Cayla enjoys such activities as movies, theatre productions, singing, horseback riding, and hanging out with friends. She is sixteen years old, and lives with her family and her muse (Nina, her cat) in Wisconsin, where only the hardy survive. Legacy is her first novel.

I was thrilled to be contacted to review this book. It sounds absolutely wonderful and it's by a 16 year old! Cayla Kluver was born the year I graduated from high school! I am really excited about this book - the cover is beautiful and it just looks like a great book.


PS - check out the amazon.com link for the book - it has really great music - DH and I both loved it.

Book Arrival: Now What? 90 Days to a New Life Direction by Laura Bergman Fortgang



Now What? 90 Days to a New Life Direction by Laura Berman Fortgang

I received this from FSB Associates.

Publisher: Tarcher
Publish Date: April 2005
Pages: 288

From the book cover:

In Now What? pioneering life coach Laura Berman Fortgang shares the process that she has used so successfully to help hundreds of clients make major changes in their lives. Whether it's moving on from a dead end job, discovering an entirely new creative outlet, or answering the age old question "What am I meant to do with my life?" this book provides a clear and infinitely practical 90-day program that can help you make major changes in your life.

Readers will learn from the success stories of Berman Fortgang's clients, including:
  • A Woman who left her unfulfilling job to discover the rewards of doing motivational work with professional athletes.
  • A high-fashion shoe executive who found more gratifying work helping adoption agencies around the world place children in permanent homes.
  • A highly paid corporate consultant who became a minister.
Full of inspiring and empowering exercises and tools, Now What? guides reader--day by day and step by step--through a process that will lead to true life satisfaction and fulfillment.
About the Author: Laura Berman Forgang is a pioneer in the life-coaching profession. A renowned speaker and president and owner of InterCoach, Inc., a full-service life-coaching business that works with individuals, small businesses, and corporations, she is also the author of The Little Book on Meaning, Living Your Best Life and Take Yourself to the Top. She lives in Montclair, New Jersey. For more information please visit http://www.nowwhatcoaching.com.

I was asked to review this by FSB Associates and jumped on it. I am at a point in my life that I am kind of getting a new start with my health so I think this is just the book for me at the moment.