AN EX-ROYAL’S JOURNEY: IN PURSUIT OF DIANA — A REVIEW

Andrew Morton’s continuation of his first biography of Diana is an in-depth study of Diana’s last five years. The author employs his formidable skills as a researcher and investigative writer to set down what is all too often an edgy tale of bad faith, betrayal and cynical manipulation.

In a life post-royalty, the Princess had to struggle against the media, the monarchy, and the constant feeling of threats that surrounded her, real or imagined. In an enticing and engaging revelation, Diana: In Pursuit of Love peeks into the complexity of life for the woman known after her death as The People’s Princess.

In one excerpt, as the author describes the life of those surrounding the Princess, he sums it up with:

“This was the scarred, suspicious landscape inhabited by the Princess, a bipolar world where she was celebrated one minute, consumed by plots the next; her home life both a refuge and an open prison, into which male friends had to be smuggled to avoid prying eyes.

“It had become a fact of her royal life, the climate becoming more malignant before the separation as Charles and Diana were consumed by the war of the Waleses. When they parted in 1992, their antagonism was recast in a different form, Diana’s qualms and concerns fed by the fact that there were now officially two separate camps….”

As the story continues, the author describes events in Diana’s life after the separation and in the subsequent years between then and the divorce, in August 1996–ironically, one year before her tragic death.

In the sad final portion, we see bits and pieces of the Princess’s legacy and objects of memorabilia trampled in the aftermath of her death as family members and supposedly trusted staff members take up the fight to gain control of its disposal.

What will be the final legacy of the People’s Princess? I think that time has shown us that the woman she was trying to be before her death is most remembered, rather than the characterizations of those who sought to besmirch her image.

While there were very few bits of “new” information (to me) in the book, reading it felt like a refresher course, with the benefit of retrospect to cast a new light on our perspective. I’m giving this one four stars.

MONDAY FROM THE INTERIOR: MAILBOX MONDAY & WHAT ARE YOU READING? — JAN. 23

Welcome to another Monday from the Interior, in which we share about the books we received in the mail (or bought), and talk about our bookish week, past and future.

Mailbox Monday is hosted through January by Alyce, At Home With Books; and What Are You Reading? is led by Sheila, at Book Journey.

 

MAILBOX MONDAY:

I didn’t receive any books this week!

 

WHAT ARE YOU READING?

 

This past week, I finished my usual number of reads, but one of them was a chunkster from my TBR stacks!  How pleased was I.

Even more so, since it was a delightful read that seemed to breeze along.

I did a little blogging, too, in addition to the usual memes.  Here are some of the posts:

EXPLORING FAVORITE AUTHORS

HUMP DAY POTPOURRI -LIFE’S IRRITATIONS

POIGNANT MEMORIES: AN EXCERPT

SATURDAY POTPOURRI

Review:    Unraveling Anne, by Laurel Saville

Review:   Almost a Crime, by Penny Vincenzi

Review:   Henry’s Sisters (e-book), by Cathy Lamb

 

WHAT’S UP NEXT?

This week, I plan to read some more books from my TBR stacks.  Here’s my list for the week….

1.  The Quick and the Thread, by Amanda Lee ( I received this one from Kaye, at Pudgy Penguin Perusals.  Thanks!)

When Marcy Singer opens an embroidery specialty shop in quaint Tallulah Falls, Oregon, she throws a soiree and a Stitch-In. Soon, Marcy’s sign- up sheet for embroidery classes fills up and everyone in town seems willing to raise a glass-or a needle-to support the newly-opened Seven Year Stitch.

Then Marcy finds the shop’s previous tenant dead in the store-room, a message scratched with a tapestry needle on the wall beside him. Now Marcy’s shop has become a crime scene, and she’s the prime suspect. She’ll have to find the killer before someone puts a final stitch in her.

 

2.  Diana:  In Pursuit of Love, by Andrew Morton

Diana in Pursuit of Love includes previously unpublished details from the Diana-Morton tapes, it is based on wide-ranging research, and new and exclusive interviews. The definitive book on Diana, Pricess of Wales’s last years, by the biographer she herself chose.

 

3.  One Day at a Time, by Danielle Steel

Danielle Steel celebrates families of every stripe in her compelling new novel—a tale of three very different couples who struggle and survive, love, laugh, and learn to take life…

Coco Barrington was born into a legendary Hollywood family, her last name loaded with expectations. Her mother is a mega-bestselling author who writes under the name of Florence Flowers—and her sister, Jane, is one of Hollywood’s top producers. They’re not your typical family by any means.…Jane has lived with her partner, Liz, for ten years, in a solid, loving relationship. Florence, widowed but still radiant, has just begun a secret romance with a man twenty-four years her junior. And Coco, a law school dropout and the family black sheep, works as a dog walker, having fled life in the spotlight for the artsy northern California beach town of Bolinas.

But when Coco reluctantly agrees to dog-sit in Jane’s luxurious home, she soon discovers how much things can change in just a matter of days.…It turns out Jane’s house comes complete with an unexpected houseguest: Leslie Baxter, a dashing but down-to-earth British actor who’s fleeing a psycho ex-girlfriend. Their worlds couldn’t be more different. The attraction couldn’t be more immediate….

4.  Mudbound (e-book), by Hillary Jordan

It is 1946 in the Mississippi Delta, where Memphis-bred Laura McAllan is struggling to adjust to farm life, rear her daughters with a modicum of manners and gentility, and be the wife her land-loving husband, Henry, wants her to be. It is an uphill battle every day. Things started badly when Henry’s trusting nature resulted in the family being done out of a nice house in town, thus relegating them to a shack on their property. In addition, Henry’s father, Pappy, a sour, mean-spirited devil of a man, moves in with them.

The real heart of the story, however, is the friendship between Jamie, Henry’s too-charming brother, and Ronsel Jackson, son of sharecroppers who live on the McAllan farm. They have both returned from the war changed men: Jamie has developed a deep love for alcohol and has recurring nightmares; Ronsel, after fighting valiantly for his country and being seen as a man by the world outside the South, is now back to being just another black “boy.”

Told in alternating chapters by Laura, Henry, Jamie, Ronsel, and his parents, Florence and Hap, the story unfolds with a chilling inevitability. Jordan’s writing and perfect control of the material lift it from being another “ain’t-it-awful” tale to a heart-rending story of deep, mindless prejudice and cruelty. This eminently readable and enjoyable story is a worthy recipient of Kingsolver’s prize and others as well.

***

I think it’s going to be another great week, with a variety of titles.  And I’ll be clearing some books off my Old TBR stacks (No. 2 & 3).

What are the rest of you reading?  What came in your mailbox?  I hope you’ll stop by and share….

A GRITTY, REVELATORY EXPLORATION — A REVIEW

The relationship between a mother and a daughter can be conflicted and tenuous at best. Sometimes the ties that bind are slippery slopes that, upon closer scrutiny, reveal how much the mother’s disappointments are reflected back to her when she gazes at her daughter.

When the author of Unraveling Anne begins her story, she jolts the reader with the fact of her mother’s tragic end immediately. She describes how others react to the word. She says:

“My mother was murdered.

“It’s a shocking word, murdered. I don’t like to use it. But it is the truth. Murder is the only word that honestly describes her death. So sometimes, when someone asks what happened to my mother, instead of holding onto this word, toying with the small pain of it as if it were a loose tooth, I go ahead and spit it out. No matter how many times I do, no matter how many people I tell, the raw strangeness of the fact of my mother’s death never changes….”

Thus begins the chronicling of a life, by first reenacting her death. Years before, when the author first learned of the tragedy, she was living on the opposite coast; her journey to deconstruct her mother’s life and death begins twenty years later with a visit to LA and an examination of the murder book.

Saville’s descriptions of growing up in LA in the sixties and seventies and the ongoing party that was her mother’s life are interspersed with tales of her mother’s beauty, her art, and how the daughter felt proud of her in those moments. But as the party guests morph from artists, musicians, and celebrities to street people, and as Anne’s drinking consumes her life, there now remains an eerie and gritty detritus that shows little resemblance to what once was. The beautiful model, designer, and golden girl has toppled into disarray.

The moments of pride fade away, and the author recalls “taking care of herself,” but she adds that this necessity helped her develop self-reliance. There was also a supportive presence of a grandmother nearby, along with the libraries where she found comfort after school, and even teachers who built up her self-esteem.

So the story continues, as the author resurrects her childhood and those memories, and then goes deeper into an examination of her mother’s life. She is startled to discover at some point that the grandparents who were the stopgap caretakers were also the two who first helped “create” the fears, insecurities, and demons that taunted her mother. And the generation before them had its own role in the damage inflicted. In understanding those who came before, the author begins to understand and accept who she is, in spite of, and because of, her mother.

In the haunting cover photo, in which the photographer is carrying out the mother’s wish to create “income-producing models or actors,” we see the tattered theater seats set up by the photographer who displayed, along with the author (as a child), the “detritus of my mother’s modeling days—dresses with beads falling off, bright boas that left feathers floating in the air, floppy hats with bent flowers on the brims—”

A gritty, revelatory exploration that was occasionally difficult to follow, as it jumped around chronologically, I still could not put it down. I am awarding this memorable memoir four stars.

MONDAY FROM THE INTERIOR: MAILBOX MONDAY & WHAT ARE YOU READING? — JAN. 16

Monday from the Interior

 

Welcome to another Monday from the Interior, in which we share about the books we received in the mail (or bought), and talk about our bookish week, past and future.

Mailbox Monday is hosted through January by Alyce, At Home With Books; and What Are You Reading? is led by Sheila, at Book Journey.

MAILBOX MONDAY:

 

This week’s mailbox has been a digital one, with all books arriving on Sparky, my Kindle.

1.  The Lion, the Lamb, the Hunted (e-book), by Andrew E. Kaufman (from Patty, at Books, Thoughts and a Few Adventures)

SHE ONLY STEPPED OUTSIDE FOR A MINUTE…

But a minute was all it took to turn Jean Kingsley’s world upside down—a minute she’d regret for the rest of her life. 
 

 


STEPPING INTO HER WORST NIGHTMARE…
 


Because when she returned, she found an open bedroom window and her three-year-old son, Nathan, gone. The boy would never be seen again. 
 




A NIGHTMARE THAT ONLY BECAME WORSE.

A tip leads detectives to the killer, a repeat sex offender, and inside his apartment, a gruesome discovery. A slam-dunk trial sends him off to death row, then several years later, to the electric chair. 
 





CASE CLOSED. JUSTICE SERVED…OR WAS IT?

Now, more than thirty years later, Patrick Bannister unwittingly stumbles across evidence among his dead mother’s belongings—it paints her as the killer and her brother, a wealthy and powerful senator, as the one pulling the strings.


WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO NATHAN KINGSLEY?
 


2.  Henry’s Sisters (e-book), by Cathy Lamb (My Purchase)

When the Bommarito sisters, Isabelle and Janie, hear that their domineering mother is going in for open heart surgery, they must forget the trauma of their childhood and return to their riverside Oregon hometown, Trillium River. Taking care of their mother and their demented grandmother (who believes she’s Amelia Earhart) and watching after their mentally handicapped brother, Henry (possessed of an almost saintly, unconditional love for people), the independent sisters try to find a place in the world they’ve left behind. Lamb (The Last Time I Was Me) delivers grace, humor and forgiveness along with a litany of family trauma, which might seem heavy-handed in lesser hands. Fortunately, this finely pitched family melodrama is balanced with enough gallows humor and idiosyncratic characters to make it positively irresistible.

3.  One for the Money (e-book), by Janet Evanovich (My Purchase)

Stephanie Plum is so smart, so honest, and so funny that her narrative charm could drive a documentary on termites. But this tough gal from New Jersey, an unemployed discount lingerie buyer, has a much more interesting story to tell: She has to say that her Miata has been repossessed and that she’s so poor at the moment that she just drank her last bottle of beer for breakfast. She has to say that her only chance out of her present rut is her repugnant cousin Vinnie and his bail-bond business. She has to say that she blackmailed Vinnie into giving her a bail-bond recovery job worth $10,000 (for a murder suspect), even though she doesn’t own a gun and has never apprehended a person in her life. And she has to say that the guy she has to get, Joe Morelli, is the same creep who charmed away her teenage virginity behind the pastry case in the Trenton bakery where she worked after school.

If that hard-luck story doesn’t sound compelling enough, Stephanie’s several unsuccessful attempts at pulling in Joe make a downright hilarious and suspenseful tale of murder and deceit. Along the way, several more outlandish (but unrelentingly real) characters join the story, including Benito Ramirez, a champion boxer who seems to be following Stephanie Plum wherever she goes….

And that’s my digital mailbox this week!

***

WHAT ARE YOU READING?

 

 

It’s been a great week of reading and blogging.

Here are some of my favorite blog posts this week:

MONDAY POTPOURRI:  READING THOUGHTS

TUESDAY POTPOURRI:  BOOKS INTO MOVIES

AUTHOR INTERVIEW OF L. J. GARDNER

THURSDAY POTPOURRI:  ATTITUDE

FAVORITE MEMORIES: EXCERPT FROM INTERIOR DESIGNS

SATURDAY MEANDERINGS

Review:     So Pretty It Hurts – Kate White

Review:    I’ve Got Your Number, by Sophie Kinsella

Review to be Posted on 2/2/12 – Blog Tour:  Hot Chocolate (e-book), by Dawn Greenfield Ireland (at Chocolate & Mimosas)

Review:    One for the Money (e-book), by Janet Evanovich

(I very seldom read a book the same week I receive it; this one is the exception, and I loved it!)

 

What’s Up Next?

1.  Unraveling Anne, by Laurel Saville (Amazon Vine)

Author Laurel Saville explores her mother’s life and death.  In searching for answers to the heartbreaking trajectory of her mother’s life, writer Laurel Saville plumbed the depths of Anne’s troubled past and her own eccentric childhood to untangle the truth of an exceptional, yet tragic, existence. What she discovered was a woman who was beautiful, well-educated, and talented—yet tormented by internal demons and no match for the hedonistic culture of Southern California in the 1960s and 70s.

 

2.  Almost a Crime, by Penny Vincenzi (Will meet the Mt. TBR and Chunkster Challenge) – I might be reading this one awhile!

Meet Tom and Octavia Fleming. Attractive, rich and madly successful, the pair appeared to have the perfect power marriage until an affair leaves their lives in fatal danger. For this is no ordinary affair, but one that leads to life-threatening terror from which nothing and no one in the Flemings’ charmed circle can escape: not their children, not their friends, not even the one thing that seemed beyond reach – their own professional success.

Described by Dominick Dunne as a writer “with verve and heart, immersing the reader in a world of engrossing and unforgettable glamour and passion,” and praised by Barbara Taylor Bradford as “marvelously engrossing,” Vincenzi’s newest novel is a surefire winner with critics and readers alike.

3.  Henry’s Sisters (e-book), by Cathy Lamb

(Described above in the mailbox section).  Yes, another unexpected read of a book I just downloaded.

***

I’m excited about the week ahead.  My books include some that I’ve been eagerly awaiting…and one from my TBR stacks that I really wanted to read sooner, but its heftiness kept me from picking it up.  Which is why I have several chunksters still on my stacks.

This will be the year of the chunksters!

What are you tackling this week?  Come on by and share….

 

A JOURNEY TOWARD THAT BIG SCORE — A REVIEW

Stephanie Plum’s engaging narrative voice in One for the Money (Stephanie Plum, No. 1) (Stephanie Plum Novels) had me from the first page. I loved her fierce independence, her hard luck story, and how she tries to retain that independence and improve her bank account by doing something she has always considered repugnant: signing on to join her cousin Vinnie’s bail bond business.

Her biggest score would be bringing in Joe Morelli, a cop charged with murder, and someone Stephanie has known all her life. She has several intense memories from back in the day. And even as she wants to bring him in, mainly for the money, she has ambivalent feelings about it all. I like this excerpt, in Stephanie’s voice:

“I’m not sure what it is about Morelli, but he never fails to strip my defenses. Even when I’m on guard, being watchful, Morelli can piss me off, turn me on, make me question my judgment, and, in general, provoke inconvenient emotions….”

While struggling with her mixed feelings and seeking her elusive target, Stephanie manages to score some lighter “recoveries” and put some money in her bank account, after which she buys a car that sputters loudly when she approaches, making it impossible to sneak up on her prey. Then she turns creative and manages to “borrow” Morelli’s Jeep, making driving around a lot easier.

Bringing in Morelli turns out to be more of a challenge than she had imagined, however, since along the way she meets other scumbags who are also gunning for him. Now she is in the sights of a boxer named Ramirez, as well as an unknown ensemble of others who are protecting their own secrets and crimes.

I have read some of the later books from this series, and have enjoyed the Plum character in each. However, it was wonderful to go back to the beginning and fill in some of the blanks. This book and this series have given me a feeling for the Trenton, New Jersey neighborhood and its family-oriented aspects, as well as the crime element threading its way through. Now I can’t wait to see what will happen to Stephanie next. Five stars.

MONDAY FROM THE INTERIOR: MAILBOX MONDAY & WHAT ARE YOU READING? — JAN. 9

 

Welcome to another Monday from the Interior, in which we share about the books we received in the mail (or bought), and talk about our bookish week, past and future.

Mailbox Monday is hosted through January by Alyce, At Home With Books; and What Are You Reading? is led by Sheila, at Book Journey.

 

MAILBOX MONDAY:

This week, I received one e-book as a contest win, and downloaded two more that I purchased.

1.  Creative Spirit, by Scott Nicholson, came from Books, Thoughts and a Few Adventures.

 

“Scott Nicholson explores the dark legends of the southern end of the Appalachian mountain chain, a nightmare country that ends in Stephen King’s yard.”– Sharyn McCrumb, author of The Ballad novels

When artists gather at a remote Appalachian estate for a retreat, they are unaware that their energy is feeding something unwholesome. Sculptor Mason Jackson and dying parapsychologist Anna Galloway must uncover the dark secrets of Korban Manor before their spirits become trapped forever.

 

2.  Alice in Bed (e-book), by Cathleen Schine

Stricken by a mysterious malady, college sophomore Alice Brody has suddenly lost the use of her legs. How does a bright, beautiful, and now immobile young woman proceed with her passions? As she convalesces in a Manhattan hospital, Alice finds herself attended by a motley group of visitors: indifferent nurses, doctors both good and bad, divorcing parents, and eccentric relatives. But Alice is a creature of many charms, whose wit can enchant those bearing even the worst bedside manner. With a captivating heroine of great comic depth, Alice in Bed is balm for whatever ails you.

 

3.  Love in a Nutshell (e-book), by Janet Evanovich & Dorien Kelly

Kate Appleton needs a job. Her husband has left her, she’s been fired from her position as a magazine editor, and the only place she wants to go is to her parents’ summer house, The Nutshell, in Keene’s Harbor, Michigan. Kate’s plan is to turn The Nutshell into a Bed and Breakfast. Problem is, she needs cash, and the only job she can land is less than savory.

Matt Culhane wants Kate to spy on his brewery employees. Someone has been sabotaging his company, and Kate is just new enough in town that she can insert herself into Culhane’s business and snoop around for him. If Kate finds the culprit, Matt will pay her a $20,000 bonus. Needless to say, Kate is highly motivated. But several problems present themselves. Kate despises beer. No one seems to trust her. And she is falling hard for her boss.

Can these two smoke out a saboteur, save Kate’s family home, and keep a killer from closing in…all while resisting their undeniable attraction to one another? Filled with humor, heart, and loveable characters, Love in a Nutshell is delicious fun.

***

WHAT ARE YOU READING?

I’m loving these new arrivals.  Now let’s move on to talking about the books I read and plan to read, and the blogs I wrote:

So far this year, I’ve done some blog posts focused on New Year’s issues, and finished reading and reviewing three books- (Click Titles for Reviews):

NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS

INTERIOR DESIGNS:  EXPLORING CHARACTERS/EXCERPTS

HUMP DAY POTPOURRI:  NEW YEAR CHANGES

SUNDAY POTPOURRI — THOUGHTS ON A WINTER DAY

Review:      Brava, Valentine - Adriana Trigiani

Review:      One Voice Too Many – Paul Martin Midden

Review:     Room Swept White, A - Sophie Hannah

 

What’s Up Next?

1.  So Pretty It Hurts, by Kate White (Amazon Vine)

True-crime journalist and sassy amateur sleuth Bailey Weggins has scarcely begun her hard-earned weekend getaway when something comes up: a dead body, belonging to one of the world’s most glamorous supermodels. Now Bailey’s trapped at an upstate New York home amidst the glitterati—and any one of them could be a murderer. She’s determined to find out who’s responsible, but her investigation could provoke the killer into striking again… From Kate White, the New York Times bestselling author of Hush and the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, So Pretty It Hurts is an addictive addition to the Bailey Weggins mystery series, and the book that fans of If Looks Could Kill, Over Her Dead Body, and Lethally Blond have been waiting for.

2.  I’ve Got Your Number, by Sophie Kinsella (Amazon Vine)

Poppy Wyatt has never felt luckier. She is about to marry her ideal man, Magnus Tavish, but in one afternoon her “happily ever after” begins to fall apart. Not only has she lost her engagement ring in a hotel fire drill but in the panic that follows, her phone is stolen. As she paces shakily around the lobby, she spots an abandoned phone in a trash can. Finders keepers! Now she can leave a number for the hotel to contact her when they find her ring. Perfect!

Well, perfect except that the phone’s owner, businessman Sam Roxton, doesn’t agree. He wants his phone back and doesn’t appreciate Poppy reading his messages and wading into his personal life.

What ensues is a hilarious and unpredictable turn of events as Poppy and Sam increasingly upend each other’s lives through emails and text messages. As Poppy juggles wedding preparations, mysterious phone calls, and hiding her left hand from Magnus and his parents . . . she soon realizes that she is in for the biggest surprise of her life.

3.  Hot Chocolate (e-book), by Dawn Greenfield Ireland (Review will be up 2/2/12 – blog tour- also watch for the guest post on 2/3/12)

Meet the middle-aged Alcott sisters: Madge, Lila Mae and Dorothea, heiresses to the Alcott Chocolate fortune and mavens of Houston’s elite River Oaks.

Madge ambushes Lila Mae with Dorothea’s manipulative plea: she can’t care for Bernie, their 92-year old father, any longer. Lila Mae explodes in a hissy fit—she had warned Dorothea years ago that they should put Bernie in an assisted living center.

Robert, Lila Mae’s astrologer, warns of impending problems and he’s rarely wrong.

The sisters call a meeting with Walter Branson, their solicitor. They discuss Bernie’s nurse Bambi Chaline, a blonde bombshell who looks more like a hooker than a nurse.

Arrangements are made for Bernie to be transferred over to Lake Sides Assisted Living Center in the Uptown Galleria area and a severance package is drawn up for Bambi….

Watch for my review to find out what happens next….

***

What an intriguing first week of 2012!  I’m excited about the New Year so far, enjoying the challenges and whittling away at those TBR stacks.

What was your week like?  Hope you’ll stop by and share….

 

ONE MAN’S JOURNEY TOWARD SANITY — A REVIEW

One man’s journey from a volatile and troubled childhood to a productive adulthood is stymied whenever he enters intimate relationships. A first marriage ends dramatically when the main character, Jeremy Walker, lifts his hand to strike his wife. He is able to curtail the impulse, but his subsequent efforts to curb the anger and potential violence in future relationships interfere with his ability to maintain closeness. The death of his second wife ends short of anything violent happening, but then he remains on his own for several years.

Until he meets Macy Caldwell. A single mother of a twelve-year-old girl, she offers an opportunity for Jeremy to try again.

But as the relationship progresses, Jeremy continues to struggle with his urges and impulses. What will happen to ultimately destroy his attempts? And how will Jeremy finally deal with the recurring “voices” that threaten everything he is trying to build in his life?

The story in One Voice Too Many was captivating, and the pages turned quickly for me. However, at times the writing style felt stilted and too formal for my taste. Despite these issues, I was quite intrigued by Jeremy’s journey and hoped for a satisfactory resolution. In the end, there was much left hanging…but perhaps this conclusion left room for hope. Three stars.

MONDAY FROM THE INTERIOR: MAILBOX MONDAY & WHAT ARE YOUR READING? — 1/2

READING CHAT

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year weekend!  Welcome to Monday from the Interior, in which we chat about our reading and blogging.

Mailbox Monday is hosted through January by Alyce, At Home With Books; and What Are You Reading? is led by Sheila, at Book Journey.

MAILBOX MONDAY:

In the mail I received two books…and one book I found at Barnes & Noble.

1.  Unraveling Anne, by Laurel Saville (Amazon Vine Review)

2.   The Bungalow, by Sarah Jio

3.  Started Early, Took My Dog, by Kate Atkinson

Click on the links (or pictures) to see the product page and book descriptions.

***

What Are You Reading?

Let’s Start with the Year in Review!  

YEAR 2011 IN REVIEW

In this post, I included total books read, pages read, challenges completed, etc.

I did a separate post of my 2011 Favorite Books (top ten).

Some Weekly Posts included:

HUMP DAY POTPOURRI (My 300th Post at this site!)

WEEKEND POTPOURRI

SATURDAY POTPOURRI – HAPPY NEW YEAR’S EVE

Review:  Nutcase - Charlotte Hughes

Review:    Bleedout – Joan Brady

Review:   Balancing Acts - Zoe Fishman

What’s Up Next?

I had planned to start right in with something on my Old TBRs…but instead, here’s what I selected

1.   Brava, Valentine, by Adriana Trigiani (Received awhile ago from Book Journey)

2.   A Room Swept White, by Sophie Hannah (This one at 480 pages will qualify as a “chunkster”)

3.  One Voice Too Many, by Paul Martin Midden (Review book)

***

I’m excited to start a new year with a clean slate and fresh challenges to tackle.  What are you doing in your first week of 2012?  Come on by and share….

MONDAY FROM THE INTERIOR: MAILBOX & WHAT ARE YOU READING? — DEC. 26

LET'S CURL UP AND READ!

GOOD MORNING!  Welcome to another edition of Monday from the Interior.

 

GRAB SOME COFFEE & CEREAL, & LET'S CHAT

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and that your reading week was relaxing.

Today, let’s join Let Them Read Books for Monday Mailbox; and hop on over to Book Journey for What Are You Reading?

 

MAILBOX MONDAY:

For a couple of weeks, I haven’t received anything in my mailbox.  But this past week, I received two review books from Amazon Vine, and an e-book that I’ll be reviewing for a blog tour in February.

Here’s my loot!

1.  So Pretty It Hurts, by Kate White (Amazon Vine)

True-crime journalist and sassy amateur sleuth Bailey Weggins has scarcely begun her hard-earned weekend getaway when something comes up: a dead body, belonging to one of the world’s most glamorous supermodels. Now Bailey’s trapped at an upstate New York home amidst the glitterati—and any one of them could be a murderer. She’s determined to find out who’s responsible, but her investigation could provoke the killer into striking again… From Kate White, the New York Times bestselling author of Hush and the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, So Pretty It Hurts is an addictive addition to the Bailey Weggins mystery series, and the book that fans of If Looks Could Kill, Over Her Dead Body, and Lethally Blond have been waiting for.

2.  I’ve Got Your Number, by Sophie Kinsella

I’ve lost it. The only thing in the world I wasn’t supposed to lose. My engagement ring. It’s been in Magnus’s family for three generations. And now the very same day his parents are coming, I’ve lost it. The very same day! Do not hyperventilate, Poppy. Stay positive !!

Poppy Wyatt has never felt luckier. She is about to marry her ideal man, Magnus Tavish, but in one afternoon her “happily ever after” begins to fall apart. Not only has she lost her engagement ring in a hotel fire drill but in the panic that follows, her phone is stolen. As she paces shakily around the lobby, she spots an abandoned phone in a trash can. Finders keepers! Now she can leave a number for the hotel to contact her when they find her ring. Perfect!

Well, perfect except that the phone’s owner, businessman Sam Roxton, doesn’t agree. He wants his phone back and doesn’t appreciate Poppy reading his messages and wading into his personal life.

What ensues is a hilarious and unpredictable turn of events as Poppy and Sam increasingly upend each other’s lives through emails and text messages. As Poppy juggles wedding preparations, mysterious phone calls, and hiding her left hand from Magnus and his parents . . . she soon realizes that she is in for the biggest surprise of her life.

3.  Hot Chocolate (e-book), by Dawn Greenfield Ireland (On blog tour at my Chocolate & Mimosas site on 2/2/12)

Meet the middle-aged Alcott sisters: Madge, Lila Mae and Dorothea, heiresses to the Alcott Chocolate fortune and mavens of Houston’s elite River Oaks.

Madge ambushes Lila Mae with Dorothea’s manipulative plea: she can’t care for Bernie, their 92-year old father, any longer. Lila Mae explodes in a hissy fit—she had warned Dorothea years ago that they should put Bernie in an assisted living center.

Robert, Lila Mae’s astrologer, warns of impending problems and he’s rarely wrong.

The sisters call a meeting with Walter Branson, their solicitor. They discuss Bernie’s nurse Bambi Chaline, a blonde bombshell who looks more like a hooker than a nurse.

Arrangements are made for Bernie to be transferred over to Lake Sides Assisted Living Center in the Uptown Galleria area and a severance package is drawn up for Bambi….(check back in 2/2012 for my review and a guest post from the author).

***

WHAT ARE YOU READING?

With the holidays surrounding us and demanding our time and attention, I’m surprised I got anything done this week.

But here’s some of what happened on my blogs:

SAVORING SOME GUILTY PLEASURES

MONDAY POTPOURRI:  ENJOYING EACH DAY

HUMP DAY POTPOURRI:  FAMILY STORIES

SHARING STORIES

END ROUND FOUR: ROW 80

WEEKEND POTPOURRI: MERRY CHRISTMAS

Review:   She Can Run, by Melinda Leigh

Review:   The Marriage Plot, by Jeffrey Eugenides

Review:  An Uncertain Refuge (e-book), by Carolyn J. Rose

What’s Up Next?

I’m trying to whittle down a few more from my TBR stacks, so I’ll be reading these books, hopefully:

1.  Bleedout, by Joan Brady

Even after Hugh Freyl lost his sight he was invincible. But late one night, in the library of the elite law firm that bears his name, he was beaten to death. The obvious suspect is David Marion, a convicted killer from the inner city. Hugh, the scion of the richest and most influential family in Springfield, Illinois, had orchestrated David’s release from prison and outraged his family and friends by making the young man his protégé. Now, in the eyes of Hugh’s circle, David’s criminal past fits him perfectly for the murderer’s role. It makes no sense for David to have killed his teacher, liberator and friend. Yet, if he did not, who did?

With no one to stand up for him, and armed only with the criminal skills he honed in prison and the savage fury of a cornered man, David must fight alone. But is he battling to prove his innocence or to hide his guilt?

In Springfield nothing is what it seems, and the more David struggles to clear himself, the closer he gets to the snake pit of ambition and greed poisoning the social and political fabric of the city. Was Hugh all he appeared to be? Who was he protecting and why? Could this most upright of men have involved his firm in shady financial dealings? To find the answers, David must confront his violent past and the uncertainty of his future.

2.  Nutcase, by Charlotte Hughes

Psychologist Kate Holly is about to get evicted from her office, and her best option may be to share space with her jacuzzi-loving ex-boyfriend, Dr. Thad Glazer. That’s not going to help her patch things up with her firefighter ex-husband. With her oddball patients, meddling mother, and eccentric secretary thrown into the mix—not to mention a spree of suspicious fires—will Kate put her life back together or wind up in a padded cell?

3.  Balancing Acts, by Zoe Fishman

A poignant debut novel about the transformative powers of yoga and friendship for four women on the verge of realizing their dreams

With beauty, brains, and a high-paying Wall Street position, Charlie was a woman who seemed to have it all—until she turned thirty and took stock of her life, or lack thereof. She left it all behind to pursue yoga, and now, two years later, she’s looking to drum up business for her fledgling studio in Brooklyn. Attending her college’s alumni night with fliers in tow, she reconnects with three former classmates whose post-graduation lives, like hers, haven’t turned out like they’d hoped.

Romance book editor Sabine still longs to write the novel that’s bottled up inside her. Once an up-and-coming photographer and Upper East Side social darling, Naomi is now a single mom who hasn’t picked up her camera in years. And Bess, who dreamed of being a serious investigative journalist a la Christiane Amanpour, is stuck in a rut, writing snarky captions for a gossip mag. But at a weekly yoga class at Charlie’s studio, the four friends, reunited ten years after college, will forge new bonds and take new chances—as they start over, fall in love, change their lives…and come face-to-face with haunting realities.

***

I have several books on nearby stacks that I can grab if I finish these and have time on my hands. 

What are you reading?  What did you receive in your mailbox?  I hope you’ll stop by and share.

MEANDERING INTERIOR JOURNEYS — A REVIEW

In the early 1980s, life for young college graduates in The Marriage Plot: A Novel seemed to spread out before them with infinite possibilities. We first meet them while still at Brown University as they are enjoying philosophical issues and endless mating.

Our main focus throughout the story centers around three of these graduates: Leonard Bankhead, a “charismatic loner, college Darwinist, and lost Portland boy”; Madeleine Hanna, an English major, writing on Jane Austen and George Eliot, “purveyors of the marriage plot that lies at the heart of the greatest English novels”; and Mitchell Grammaticus, intrigued with Christian mysticism and obsessed with Madeleine.

But college is not the real world, and these three discover that uncertainty more than anything else will define their lives over the next year.

Leonard and Madeleine have an on-again, off-again romance complicated by secret issues that gradually are revealed, while Mitchell’s journey in Europe and the Far East distracts him just a bit from his angst over Madeleine.

Each very long section of the book tells the story from different perspectives, winding to and fro in much the way that young people full of restless energy meander when money is not an object and when their own narcissistic pursuits govern their lives.

I really wanted to love this book, and on an intellectual level, I liked the concepts. But I didn’t like the characters. Yes, I felt sympathy for their plights, especially for the melodrama of the Leonard-Madeleine duo when his emotional state and catastrophic mood swings seemed to control everything about their lives. Mitchell’s unwavering obsession with Madeleine seemed a bit pathological, but perhaps understandable, considering his background.

I didn’t get the feeling that the author cared much for these characters, either, and this was exemplified by the author’s somewhat detached writing style. Too bad, since I would have enjoyed “feeling” their pain and really delving into their interior lives with something resembling emotion. Three stars.