BlogHer's Book Club

As a single mother working full time,

I don't have time to belong to the usual book club,

which is why I'm SO excited to be part of the new

BlogHer Book Club!

I get to combine my passion for reading with my joy of blogging!

BlogHer has partnered with Penguin Group USA to bring blogger reviews of great upcoming books, author interviews, book discussions and much more to the new BlogHer Book Club space.

What’s exciting about this partnership:

BlogHer is paying writers to write balanced, editorial reviews

of the BlogHer Book Club featured titles.

So, yes, I'm getting books to read for free,

but I also am giving my honest feedback after I read them. 

If I don't like it, I'll say so,

although in a diplomatic manner, of course. 

BlogHer's Book Club is the best thing

since mixing chocolate and peanut butter.

And that's serious stuff, folks.

Check out my review of our first book club book,

a historical fictional novel written by Geraldine Brooks titaled Caleb's Crossing. 

A coming of age novel set in the late 1600's Martha's Vineyard island

where a young Puritan girl befriends a Wampanoag chieftain's son. 

I always make time in my life to read.

Don't try to cure me.

Have you read anything great lately?

One Was A Soldier

 I've just read an amazing book.  Julia Spencer-Fleming's One Was a Soldier is one of the most enthralling novels I've read in quite some time. And as most of you know, I perused about five hundred mysteries last year.

Spencer-Fleming's award-winning series, set in a small town in New York state tells the story of the tangled relationship between  Clare Fergusson, an Episcopal priest, and Russ Van Alstyne, the town's police chief.  One Was a Soldier, though the seventh in the series, could be a standalone, so seamlessly does Spencer-Fleming weave in the back story. 

I was particularly interested in this book because it deals with the long awaited marriage of the two main characters -- the same premise  as in my forthcoming Under the Skin.  It seems as though everything is set for happily ever after and then . . . complications ensue.

Yes, there's a mystery -- a well-plotted conundrum with a satisfying resolution -- but this book is so much more than a simple whodunnit. It's an finely rendered examination of the heart-breaking and timely topic of America's wounded warriors -- the men and women who have been and are still returning from active service, broken in body, mind, and spirit but afraid to ask for help.

And it's the deeply moving and quite passionate story of the love between Russ and Clare -- two flawed but ultimately honorable human beings.  And that's what kept me reading -- stopping only for dinner and abandoning all other intentions till I got to the end. 

Can you tell I love this book? Such real and likable characters, such wonderful, sensitive, intelligent writing! Highly, highly recommended.  

(See below on ordering a free ebook with an excerpt containing a surprisingly hot scene between a priest and a police chief in a rapidly moving vehicle.)

(You don't own an ebook reader? You can go to Amazon and download a free Kindle for your computer.)

One Was a Soldier is so good that I would suggest starting with it rather than going back and reading the series from the beginning. I suspect however, after reading it, you'll want more and be eager to know how it all began ...

The book's not on sale till April 12, though it's available for preorder now.  I asked Julia for an advance copy - and she has offered to send advance copies to 2  winners of  a drawing here on my blog. 

So if you'd like to be entered, just say so when you comment -- or send me an email (vicki_laneATmtnareaDOTnet).  I'll wait a few days before drawing two names. Check back on  April 3.  If you're a winner, I'll need your snail mail address.

And the winners are....Mamabug and Shirley! (Sounds like a sitcom.)  I'll be in touch!

If you're not a winner of this little drawing, there are some consolations below.

There is a 2.99 e -book of In The Bleak Midwinter (book 1 in the series) available.

There is a FREE e-book of excerpts, extra content and letters from the war zone, available at Amazon, B&N and Sony.  (This is where the hot scene in the truck is!)

And there's more about the books and the author at www.juliaspencerfleming.com.

Really, I think that a lot of you will thank me for this introduction, if you didn't already know this series.

The Blue Sword

The back cover of Robin McKinley's The Blue Sword compares this wonderful YA (young adult) fantasy to Islandia,The Sheikh, Gunga Din, and The Lord of the Rings. I have to agree but I'd add, as well, the Narnia books and Dune.

Also from the back cover: "This is the story of Corlath, golden-eyed king of the Free Hillfolk, son of the sons of the Lady Aerin.

And this is the story of Harry Crewe, the Outlander orphan girl who became Harimad-sol, King's Rider, and bearer of the Blue Sword Gonturin, the sword Lady Aerin carried, the sword only a woman may wield for it will turn in the hand of a man.

And this is a story of the kelar of the Hillfolk, the magic in the blood, and how it may wake, even in Outlander veins... "

May I just add that there are also horses of amazing beauty, tall horses over sixteen hands with long clean legs and tails that nearly reach the ground? Horses ridden without bridle or stirrups, such is their bond with their rider.

Oh, my! I loved this book but how I wish I'd read it when I was about eleven or twelve and horse-crazy. (Not that the book was available then -- it was published in 1983 and was a Newbery Honor Book that year.) 

I 'm making a note to give The Blue Sword to my great nieces. So nice to have the Hero be a girl. And I'm going to get hold of the prequel (The Hero and the Crown) and the rest of McKinley's fourteen books...  

Many thanks to Vicki Van Valkenburgh for suggesting that I might enjoy this lovely book--I did, I did!

Bread Alone

Bread Alone and The Baker's Apprentice (along with Beeing about which I posted last week) were given to me by Carol Murdock of Writer's Porch. These charming novels (like Beeing) have as protagonist a woman seeking to make a life for herself after a divorce and finding herself by losing herself in a demanding occupation.

In these novels it's artisan bread making -- in a quaint little Seattle bakery -- that does the trick. With workdays that begin at midnight and end at breakfast time, Wynter quickly becomes immersed in the routine of bread-making.

These are wonderful comfort reads -- beautiful setting, romance, and recipes too. (Quite good recipes.) 

I find it interesting that, though I've never been divorced nor felt the need to reinvent myself, I loved these books. Perhaps it's just the pleasure of feeling that all of us have the potential for beginning again, should we need to.

Beeing

Beeing is a charming memoir by Roseanne Daryl Thomas about life, motherhood, and beekeeping. Thomas writes of how, after a 'hideous divorce,' she and her seven year old daughter moved to a small New England town where, on a whim, she took up beekeeping.

Like the ancients before her, Thomas discovers that beekeeping leads to poetry and philosophy -- and  that by assuming responsibility for the tiny world of the hive, the beekeeper becomes more aware of the larger world.

Beeing is not a how to manual -- for information on bees and honey, consult Mr. Google. Or try this link, from which I took these lovely bee pictures.

I found this book incredibly seductive  . . . visions of myself as a beekeeper flitted through my head till reality told me that there is really isn't time in my life for One More Thing.

Still, it's a wonderful read. And the takeaway message fits nicely with my Tuesday FAQ post.

Thomas writes: "The sweetness of life does not come without the occasional nasty sting, but those who go too far out of their way to avoid the venom avoid the sweetness as well. When my life was sweet I had always savored it entirely, enjoying every drop. But when it was painful, I had to learn and relearn what life and beekeeping had to teach. If you want to get honey, you have to be prepared to get stung."

Still on the road -- through snow and sleet and ice yesterday... not too bad but it made for slow traffic and a long day -- will hope to bring you up to date soon. Thanks for the good travel wishes ...

 

Forty-seven Years!

That's how long we've been married. We were high school sweethearts and, after three years of 'going steady,'  married while he was in the Marine Corps and I was still in college.

Good grief -- the mind boggles.  

We have been incredibly blessed in our life ... and we'll celebrate this morning with the traditional Eggs Benedict and champagne. (The evening feast will have to wait till tomorrow as I have a class to teach tonight.)

Thank you, John, with all my heart, for all the years! The road goes ever on . . .

And for the other nice news -- of which I spoke yesterday -- check out this ! 

ROOM

l

Many, many thanks to all of you faithful readers who followed me over to Poe's Deadly Daughters and left comments yesterday. And what great comments they were! You all are the best! I'll be drawing for the winner of the signed DAY OF SMALL THINGS sometime after seven AM EST on Monday (so there's still time to comment over there if you haven't) and will post the winner's name here on this blog on Tuesday. And now, to today's post...

As many of you know, my reading has been limited recently to mysteries I can't talk about.  But an interview on the radio the other day piqued my curiosity and when I saw a copy of ROOM while I was shopping last Tuesday, well, I didn't hesitate.

I started reading it while waiting for my writing class to begin; I nibbled at it during the fifteen minutes they were doing in class writing; and when I got back home at 9:30 pm, I sat down and read straight through to the end.

That's what kind of book this is.

ROOM is the story of Jack and his mother, prisoners in an 11 by 11 room in a back yard shed. Jack is five -- he was born there, sired by his mother's captor -- and it's through his words the tale is told, through his eyes, we see the world.

I know; it sounds grim. But the thing is -- it's not. Jack is happy in the only world he's ever known, thanks to his mother's splendid capacity for inventiveness.

This anazing novel has much to say about human nature and the human condition and the mother-child relationship. Donoghue's depiction of how Jack responds to his small, familiar world and the massive adjustment needed when at last he and his mother escape to the larger world is masterful.

But don't take my word for it. There's a good review HERE 

Oh, and ROOM is short listed for the prestigious Booker Prize.

Can you tell I liked this book?

Two Very Different Books

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain was one of a stack of books I received for my birthday and I devoured it at once. I'd read excerpts of it in The New Yorker and was eager to continue this wild, irreverent exploration of the culinary underbelly.

We rarely eat out -- and even more rarely do we eat at restaurants of the sort Bourdain is describing-- but I found myself fascinated by his account of the interplay between the various members of a restaurant's staff. The drama! The choreography! The planning! The testosterone! The bitchiness! 

I'm a pretty good cook -- resourceful, innovative, organized -- but I wouldn't last five minutes  in the world Bourdain describes. I sure enjoyed peeking into  it though.

And I will never order fish on Sunday or Monday.

~~~

About as far away from Bourdain's kitchens as one can get is These is my Words by Nancy E. Turner.

Based on Turner's family memoirs,  this story is told in the form of the diary of Sarah Prine, 1881- 1901. Traveling with her family on a wagon train into the Arizona Territories, Sarah encounters almost every kind of danger the frontier has to offer. Her indomitable spirit carries her through an unsettled childhood, an unhappy marriage, motherhood, widowhood and more. 

Sarah's voice is real and compelling -- and in spite of all the perils and hazards of her life, there's a wonderful humor in this book. I was reminded of Lee Smith's Fair and Tender Ladies -- and that, is high praise.

The Time Traveler's Wife

I was half-way through page two when I found myself thinking, "I wish I'd written this book!"

Not because of the NYT Bestseller spot, not because of the movie deal, not because of the fame and fortune that has flowed Ms. Niffenegger's deserving way -- but just because I love the concept!

Friends have been recommending this book for a long time -- I think it came out in 2003. And the movie came on this September (I haven't seen it.)

But what a book! I adored the writing -- the adroit handling of an amazingly complex story. The voices alternate between Henry, involuntary time traveler who may be anywhen, just when he least expects it, and Clare, the artist with whom he falls in love -- over a very long period of time. The book is heart-breakingly romantic, bittersweet, funny, and beautiful by turns. Unforgettable, in fact.

I won't go on -- many of you have likely read the book or seen the movie. If you haven't, there's an excellent review HERE.

But this is just to say a very belated WOW!