Monthly Archives: June 2012

BURSTING INTO BLOOM: A YOUNG WOMAN’S JOURNEY — A REVIEW

What if your whole life you felt like an appendage to others in your family? What if the world seemed to center around your older brother, a New Age guru with millions of fans, and you were simply a wallflower in your own life?

Deirdre Griffin’s life takes an unexpected turn one day when she decides she has had it with living her life as her brother Tag’s Personal Assistant, the one who arranges everything about his life and his career, the one who helps keep his egocentric world on track.

Watching how Deirdre’s life starts to bloom when she takes on a challenge at Dancing with the Stars is wonderfully thrilling. I loved Deirdre’s voice and enjoyed her transformation, especially the parts where she came to several realizations about the choices she could make.

The sibling rivalries felt so real, as many families have at least one dominant personality that seemingly controls the dynamics. Tag seemed like a totally narcissistic person, and I really did not like him. Even his apologies felt self-serving.

But Deirdre was a character I could root for, and therefore, I recommend Wallflower in Bloom for anyone who enjoys challenging journeys. Five stars.

MONDAY FROM THE INTERIOR: MAILBOX MONDAY & WHAT ARE YOU READING? — JUNE 25

Good morning, and welcome to another Monday, in which we celebrate our reading, blogging, and life.  Mailbox Monday is hosted in June by Burton Book Review; and Book Journey brings us another edition of What Are You Reading?

MAILBOX MONDAY:

This week’s mailbox brought two review books, and I received one download to Sparky.  Yay!

1.  Paris Without End, by Gioia Diliberto (From the author)

Hadley Richardson and Ernest Hemingway were the golden couple of Paris in the twenties, the center of an expatriate community boasting the likes of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, and James and Nora Joyce. In this haunting account of the young Hemingways, Gioia Diliberto explores their passionate courtship, their family life in Paris with baby Bumby, and their thrilling, adventurous relationship—a literary love story scarred by Hadley’s loss of the only copy of Hemingway’s first novel and ultimately destroyed by a devastating mÉnage À trois on the French Riviera.

Compelling, illuminating, poignant, and deeply insightful, Paris Without End provides a rare, intimate glimpse of the writer who so fully captured the American imagination and the remarkable woman who inspired his passion and his art—the only woman Hemingway never stopped loving.

2.  Island Apart, by Steven Raichlen (Amazon Vine)

From the celebrated author of Planet Barbecue and How to Grill comes a surprising story of love, loss, redemption, and really good food.
Claire Doheney, recovering from a serious illness, agrees to house-sit in an oceanfront mansion on Chappaquiddick island in Martha’s Vineyard. The New York book editor hopes to find solace, strength, and sufficient calm to finish her biography of the iconoclastic psychotherapist, Wilhelm Reich.

The last thing she expects to find is love.

Then she meets a mysterious man the locals call the Hermit. No one knows his real name or where he lives. To their mutual surprise, Claire and the stranger discover that they share a passion for cooking that soon sparks something more.

But Claire’s new friend has a terrible secret that threatens to drive them apart forever. The clock is ticking. Can Claire let love into her life once more before it’s too late?

Told by a New York Times bestselling author and international TV host with a keen eye for Chappaquiddick’s extraordinary natural beauty, Island Apart has it all—romance, history, travel, crime, lovemaking of exquisite intensity, and cooking scenes so vivid, they’ll make your taste buds ache with hunger. Steven Raichlen’s novel is a smart love story—not to mention a terrific beach read. Think The Bridges of Madison County with better food.
3.  Tumbleweeds (e-book), by Leila Meacham
I thought this one wasn’t coming to Kindle until 2/13; imagine my surprise to get it this week!
Recently orphaned, eleven-year-old Cathy Benson feels she has been dropped into a cultural and intellectual wasteland when she is forced to move from her academically privileged life in California to the small town of Kersey in the Texas Panhandle where the sport of football reigns supreme. She is quickly taken under the unlikely wings of up-and-coming gridiron stars and classmates John Caldwell and Trey Don Hall, orphans like herself, with whom she forms a friendship and eventual love triangle that will determine the course of the rest of their lives. Taking the three friends through their growing up years until their high school graduations when several tragic events uproot and break them apart, the novel expands to follow their careers and futures until they reunite in Kersey at forty years of age. Told with all of Meacham’s signature drama, unforgettable characters, and plot twists, readers will be turning the pages, desperate to learn how it all plays out.
***
WHAT ARE YOU READING?
Welcome to another week in which we chat about the books we’ve read, our favorite blog posts, and what’s coming next.

My coffee is brewing nearby, reminding me of another reason I love mornings.

My week was pretty eventful, with bookish/blogging things, like this post on Chocolate & Mimosas:  A Blast from the Past:  Another Guilty Pleasure.

Thursday Potpourri:  A Wish That Came True was about an unexpected delivery to Sparky.

After more edits on my WIP Interior Designs, I shared some thoughts at Creative Journey:  Writing:  Different Pathways to the Finish Line.

My Weekend Potpourri:  Love Letters — The Lost Art, took me back to an old favorite from the 1980s.

And here are the books read/reviewed – click titles for reviews:
Shades of Murder, by Lauren Carr
Gone to Ground, by Brandilyn Collins
WHAT’S UP NEXT?  CLICK TITLES/COVERS FOR MORE INFO.
1.  Kiss Crush Collide, by Christina Meredith (I won this from Books, Thoughts and a Few Adventures)
2.  Valley Fever:  Where Murder is Contagious, by Sunny Frazier, et. al.
3.  The Investigation of Ariel Warning, by Robert Kalich (Review Book)
***
And that’s it, folks!  Hope you’ll come on by and share your week in reading and blogging…and life.
I’m off to a get-together with family.  Photos to follow!

LIVING IN A COCOON OF HORROR: A YOUNG GIRL’S INTERIOR JOURNEY

Sixteen-year-old Lucy lives two lives: the one at home, where she escapes to her room as a refuge from the rest of her house; and the one at school, with a best friend and possibly a boyfriend, neither of whom can ever come to her house, because Lucy’s mother Joanna is a hoarder. Not just someone who collects a lot of stuff, but someone who is gradually burying herself and her family in the cave of treasures she accumulates by ordering off the shopping network, going to every tag sale around, and bringing it all home with her.

The space is narrowing every day, with toppling stacks hovering in every available part of each room and blocking the hallways. The kitchen is filled with garbage and decaying food; the room reeks of putrefying things. In the living room, Joanna sits watching TV. She is angry, frustrated, and takes out her feelings on Lucy when she cannot find something. She, too, lives another life as an oncology nurse, kind and loving to her patients.

Is there any escape from the devastating mess and the terrifying isolation that locks these two individuals within a cocoon of horror?

Out of nowhere, seemingly, something does happen: a tragedy that fuels Lucy’s panic and propels her into a desperate sort of action. She sees that the only solution is to clean up the mess before she calls for help. Paced in increments of time marking the next 24 hours, we see Lucy’s futile attempt to make a dent in the morass of her life. And then…almost as if she is guided by some unseen force, she takes one final action to change her world forever.

Hauntingly emotional, pulling the reader right into the desperation that marks Lucy’s life, Dirty Little Secrets is a poignant reminder of the horrors of an existence that can claim the vulnerable and separate them from others.

The writer’s style and pace kept me turning those pages, but I would have enjoyed seeing more interaction between Lucy and Joanna before everything changed. Flashbacks give the reader a glimpse of what life might have looked like before the horror it became, and there were defining moments that apparently set the stage for what Joanna became, but the motivation seemed nebulous. Hoarding as a mental health disorder is definitely getting a lot of attention these days, and this rendition showed the teen point of view very well. Four stars.

MONDAY FROM THE INTERIOR: MAILBOX MONDAY & WHAT ARE YOU READING? — JUNE 18

Good morning, and welcome to another Monday, in which we celebrate our reading, blogging, and life.  Mailbox Monday is hosted in June by Burton Book Review; and Book Journey brings us another edition of What Are You Reading?

MAILBOX MONDAY:

This week, I received one review book in the mail, and downloaded two e-books.

1.  The Tree of Everlasting Knowledge, by Christine Nolfi (Author Request)

A savage rape on hallowed ground. Secrets buried for decades by the town’s most influential family. Now Ourania D’Andre will learn the Great Oak’s secrets as construction begins at the Fagan mansion. She can’t afford to turn down a job that promises to stir up the long-buried guilt–and the passion–she shares with powerful Troy Fagan. She’s already juggling the most important job of her career with her new responsibilities as a foster mother for young Walt and Emma Korchek. And there’s a hard, older man on the construction crew with eyes void of emotion–cold and killing. The secrets of his brutal past will pose a grave threat to the children in her care. Will she find the courage to face him?

2.  Safe Within (e-book), by Jean Reynolds Page

Elaine and Carson Forsyth have returned to the tree house—Elaine’s childhood home, a cabin nestled high in the branches of two oaks beside a North Carolina lake—where forty-nine-year-old Carson has chosen to spend the waning days of his life. As Elaine prepares for a future without her beloved husband, their solace is interrupted. Carson’s mother, Greta, has set loose a neighbor’s herd of alpacas and landed herself in police custody. While Carson, remarkably, sees humor in the situation, Elaine can only question what her obligations are—and will be—to a woman who hasn’t spoken to her in more than twenty years.

In the wake of Carson’s death, Elaine and their grown son, Mick, are thrust into the maelstrom of Greta, the mother-in-law and grandmother who never accepted either of them. Just as they are trying to figure out their new roles in the family, Mick uncovers unexpected questions of his own. A long-ago teenage relationship with a local girl may have left him with more than just memories, and he must get to the bottom of Greta’s surprising accusations

3.  XO (e-book), by Jeffrey Deaver

COUNTRY-POP INGÉNUE Kayleigh Towne’s career is just reaching new heights with her huge hit single “Your Shadow”—but increased fame is also bringing unwanted attention. An innocent exchange with one of her fans, signed with an “XO,” leads Kayleigh into the dangerous and terrifying realm of obsession.Edwin Sharp thinks Kayleigh’s songs contain messages that speak directly to him. Despite her clear rejection and threats from lawyers and law enforcers, he remains convinced that “Your Shadow” was written just for him, and he announces he’s coming for Kayleigh. Then a potentially fatal accident occurs at the concert hall where Kayleigh is rehearsing for a triumphant hometown performance, and she is convinced that someone—maybe Edwin—was there watching her from the darkness.

True to his word, Edwin Sharp soon makes an ominous appearance in town, and California Bureau of Investigation Agent Kathryn Dance, a friend and fan of Kayleigh’s on vacation in Fresno to attend the show, intervenes on her behalf, drawing Sharp’s frightening attention to herself. That night a member of the road crew whom Kayleigh had once dated is murdered in an eerie echo of an image from her chart-topping song. As more deaths loom on the horizon, Kathryn Dance must use her considerable skills at investigation and body-language analysis to stop the stalker and save more innocent victims. But before long she learns that, like many celebrities, Kayleigh has more than one fan with a mission . . .

This nail-biting thriller from suspense master Jeffery Deaver speeds along over just three short days, filled with terrifying twists that will keep readers held in rapt suspense until the final shocking revelation.

***

WHAT ARE YOU READING?

What’s Happening on the Blogs?

In my Tuesday Potpourri:  Enticing books and Cozy Places.

Or Thursday Potpourri:  Chilling with a Good Book.

On Saturday, I tossed out a Sweet Saturday Sample:  Post Vacation Ponderings.

As for my reading: (click titles/covers for reviews)

I posted a review of a book I finished in May:  Ocean Beach, by Wendy Wax

Then….I FINALLY finished American Legacy:  The Story of John & Caroline Kennedy, by C. David Heymann

The Long Way Home, by Karen McQuestion

Scotsmen Prefer Blondes, by Sara Ramsey

The Red Book (e-book), by Deborah Copaken Kogan

What’s Up Next? (Click titles/covers for more info)

1.  A Tale of Two Sisters, by Anna Maxted (Promoted from my TBR Stacks!)

2.  Shades of Murder, by Lauren Carr (Review Book)

3.  Gone to Ground, by Brandilyn Collins (Review book)

4.  Dirty Little Secrets (e-book), by C. J. Omololu

***

And that’s my week!  What are the rest of you planning?  What did last week look like?  I hope you’ll come on by for a visit.

FALLING FROM THE MOUNTAINTOP: AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY — A REVIEW

It begins with the 1999 plane crash that kills three people, devastating numerous families, friends, and the country: The fallen prince, John F. Kennedy, Jr., who left behind the promise of a future now cut short, and a sister, Caroline, who at forty-one, would become the keeper of the flame. He had once spoken to his sister about the subject of death, and how it seemed a common denominator for their family:

“We aren’t exactly cursed,” (he had said of the Kennedys), “but we’re pretty damn close to it. Yes, we’ve had our share of luck. We’ve been to the mountaintop. But there have been entirely too many tragedies, mostly of our own making.”

At this lowest point in a life, the author begins American Legacy: The Story of John and Caroline Kennedy, and takes the reader back to the early moments, with how life started for this little family with a handsome congressman, a beautiful twenty-four-year-old Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, and “the wedding of the decade,” on September 12, 1953. We follow this golden couple as their life unfolds in glamour, promise, and that eventually leads to the White House, with all of the ups and downs of this very public life that would become theirs.

Based upon a voluminous archive of personal interviews, we see a telling portrait of the Kennedy legacy and of the legacy left behind for John and Caroline, because of and in spite of their personal tragedies.

Not only do we see their growing up years after the assassination and how difficult that was for them, but of the Onassis years, followed by finally settling down again in New York, where they grew to adulthood. How Jackie protected them as much as possible, but then, finally, after she was gone, how they had to stand on their own.

Caroline and John showed distinct differences. “Despite her sporadic flirtation with the media, primarily when publicizing a book or appearing on behalf of a Kennedy-related project, Caroline remained essentially a private citizen. If John Kennedy Jr. was a one-man publicity magnet, if he good-naturedly parried with the press and accepted the lunatic excesses of public adulation and even, at times, enjoyed the attention, his sister preferred a quieter (and saner) existence. If anything, the death of her brother made her quest for privacy tougher. As the sole survivor of the Camelot mystique, she became the focus of a nation consumed with the passing of the torch.”

Even though I’ve read a number of books about the Kennedys, this tome filled in some missing pieces and fully drew the portrait of a generation of Kennedys that will live on in our collective consciousness, as a nation, and as individuals who once dreamed of a world like the one portrayed in Camelot. At 520+ pages, this book brought out much more than I expected. However, I would not recommend it for those who like a more direct telling of a story, since this one weaves back and forth, and brings in numerous seemingly extraneous details; this book earned four stars.

A JOURNEY TOWARD HEALING, FRIENDSHIP, & LOVE — A REVIEW

An unlikely friendship born in a grief group; a road trip that turns into an individual quest of one kind or another for the women; and the coming together of the loose threads of each woman’s life makes The Long Way Home a memorable and feel-good novel. Jazzy, Marnie, Rita, and Loretta bond on their journey, even as they achieve some of their goals.

Jazzy, the character who inspires each of them, is a psychic whose premonitions, intuitions, and voices from beyond guide her and help her redirect the lives of her new friends.

The road trip was an idea that sprang from Marnie’s desire to see Troy, the teenage boy for whom she was a surrogate mother for years. Devastated after her live-in boyfriend Brian’s unexpected death, Marnie realizes afterwards that the loss of Troy was actually more poignant than her loss of Brian.

Rita’s daughter Melinda was murdered, and in searching for closure, she hopes to finally move on.

For Loretta, joining the others on the road trip helped release her from the prison of her duplex where she has become a recluse.

I thoroughly enjoyed the characters and the somewhat unlikely friendships between them. I liked how Jazzy’s personality helped the others move from the places where they’d been “stuck.”

Along the way, many apparent obstacles seemingly turned into fate having a hand in misdirecting them to unexpected joys.

This story felt like a movie as it unfolded in scenes and settings I could visualize and with all the ingredients that leave lasting impressions. Definitely a five star read.

MONDAY FROM THE INTERIOR: MAILBOX MONDAY & WHAT ARE YOU READING? — JUNE 11

Good morning, and welcome to another Monday, in which we celebrate our reading, blogging, and life.  Mailbox Monday is hosted in June by Burton Book Review; and Book Journey brings us another edition of What Are You Reading?

MAILBOX MONDAY:

My mailbox is reasonably full this week, but all are books I purchased or downloaded.  Yes, I threw caution to the wind and bought books!

Here’s What I Grabbed from Amazon:

The Last Summer of Her Other Life, by Jean Reynolds Page

Thirty-nine and pregnant by a man she’s decided to leave behind in California, Jules’ life is changing. Always the protected daughter, she must now relinquish that role and prepare to be a mother herself. But her efforts are upstaged by shocking allegations from a local teen in her North Carolina hometown. The boy has accused her of what the police are calling “inappropriate sexual contact.” Three men rally in her defense: Lincoln, her brother, who flies in from New York to help her; Sam, her high school boyfriend, who after so many years still offers unconditional support; and Walt, the uncle of the teen, who charms Jules with his intelligence and unanticipated kindness.

Her search for the truth about the troubled teenager becomes, for Jules, a first step toward discovering the woman she wishes to be. But with so many wrong choices behind her, how can she trust herself with the future of her unborn child?

Sea Change, by Karen White

For Ava Whalen, a new marriage and a move to St. Simons Island means a new beginning. But what she doesn’t realize is that her marriage will take her on an unexpected journey into the deep recesses of her past that will transform her forever…

For as long as she can remember, Ava Whalen has struggled with a sense of not belonging, and now, at thirty-four, she still feels stymied by her family. Then she meets child psychologist Matthew Frazier, and thinks her days of loneliness are behind her. After a whirlwind romance, they impulsively elope, and Ava moves to Matthew’s ancestral home on St. Simons Island off the coast of Georgia.

But after the initial excitement, Ava is surprised to discover that true happiness continues to elude her. There is much she doesn’t know about Matthew, including the mysterious circumstances surrounding his first wife’s death. And her new home seems to hold as many mysteries and secrets as her new husband. Feeling adrift, Ava throws herself into uncovering Matthew’s family history and that of the island, not realizing that she has a connection of her own to this place—or that her obsession with the past could very well destroy her future.

Summer Breeze (e-book), by Nancy Thayer

In Summer Breeze, the author of Beachcombers and Heat Wave tells the wonderfully moving story of three women who forge a unique bond one sun-drenched summer on New England’s Dragonfly Lake.

Morgan O’Keefe feels trapped in a gilded cage. True, the thirty-year-old mother agreed to put her science career on hold to raise her young son while her husband  pursued his high-powered job. But though Morgan loves many things about staying home with her child, she misses the thrill of working with her colleagues in the lab. She’s restless and in dire need of a change.

Fed up with New York City’s hectic pace, Natalie Reynolds takes up her aunt’s offer to move to the Berkshires and house-sit her fabulous lakeside house for a year. Passionate about applying brush to canvas, Natalie is poised to become the artist she has forever longed to be. But life on Dragonfly Lake is never without surprises, and for a novice swimmer like Natalie, the most welcome surprise proves to be the arms of a handsome neighbor pulling her up from the water for a gulp of air.

When her mother breaks her leg, Bella Barnaby quits her job in Austin and returns home to help out her large, boisterous family. Among her new duties: manning the counter at the family business, Barnaby’s Barn, an outdated shop sorely in need of a makeover. While attractive architect Aaron has designs on her, Bella harbors long held secret dreams of her own.

Summer on Dragonfly Lake is ripe for romance, temptation, and self-discovery as the lives of these three women unexpectedly intertwine. Summer Breeze illustrates how the best of friends can offer comfort, infuriate, or even—sometimes—open one’s eyes to the astonishing possibilities of life lived in a different way. This captivating novel displays a prestigiously gifted writer at the height of her storytelling powers.

Wallflower in Bloom (e-book), by Claire Cook

From the acclaimed bestselling author of Must Love Dogs comes a winning and witty new novel about a woman who emerges from the shadow of her overbearing family and finds herself “dancing with the stars.”

Deirdre Griffin has a great life; it’s just not her own. She’s the around-the-clock personal assistant to her charismatic, high-maintenance, New Age guru brother, Tag. As the family wallflower, her only worth seems to be as gatekeeper to Tag at his New England seaside compound.

Then Deirdre’s sometime boyfriend informs her that he is marrying another woman, who just happens to be having the baby he told Deirdre he never wanted. While drowning her sorrows in Tag’s expensive vodka, Deirdre decides to use his massive online following to get herself voted on as a last-minute Dancing with the Stars replacement. It’ll get her back in shape, mentally and physically. It might even get her a life of her own. Deirdre’s fifteen minutes of fame have begun.

Irresistible and offbeat, Wallflower in Bloom is an original and deeply satisfying story of having the courage to take a leap into the spotlight, no matter where you land.

Zero Day (e-book), by David Baldacci (Satisfies the “Z” letter in the A-Z Challenge!)

John Puller is a combat veteran and the best military investigator in the U.S. Army’s Criminal Investigation Division. His father was an Army fighting legend, and his brother is serving a life sentence for treason in a federal military prison. Puller has an indomitable spirit and an unstoppable drive to find the truth.

Now, Puller is called out on a case in a remote, rural area in West Virginia coal country far from any military outpost. Someone has stumbled onto a brutal crime scene, a family slaughtered. The local homicide detective, a headstrong woman with personal demons of her own, joins forces with Puller in the investigation. As Puller digs through deception after deception, he realizes that absolutely nothing he’s seen in this small town, and no one in it, are what they seem. Facing a potential conspiracy that reaches far beyond the hills of West Virginia, he is one man on the hunt for justice against an overwhelming force.

David Baldacci is one of the world’s favorite storytellers. His books are published in over 45 languages and in more than 80 countries, with over 110 million copies in print. David Baldacci is also the cofounder, along with his wife, of the Wish You Well Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting literacy efforts across America.

***

WHAT ARE YOU READING?

Good morning!   Welcome to another week of sharing about our reading and blogging.

It’s been pretty hot in these parts, but so far, the triple digit days are mixed in between those in the nineties.

For those of you who didn’t attend BEA, did you participate in Armchair BEA?  Did you enjoy it?

I took part in the first two days…and then got sidetracked to other activities, as sometimes happens.

But the first day was awesome, and here’s my Who Am I? post.  On the second day, we talked about Best Reads of 2012.

Over the next few days, bloggers described their blogging experiences and what they hope will happen next.

On the weekend, I wrote A Therapist Ponders the Empty Space in Her Life:  An Excerpt (Forest Journey); and my Sweet Saturday Sample:  Bread, Wine, and Thou was an excerpt from my WIP Interior Designs.

And I read some books that I really enjoyed.

Books Read- Click Titles for Reviews:

The Girl Below, by Bianca Zander (****)

When Madeline Was Young, by Jane Hamilton (***)

Where We Belong, by Jane Green (*****)

Murder Uncorked (e-book), by Michele Scott (****)

And I’m still reading:    American Legacy:  The Story of John and Caroline Kennedy, by C. David Heymann – I’ve managed to polish off 200 + pages from reading mostly at night.

What’s Up Next? (Click titles/covers for more info)

The Long Way Home, by Karen McQuestion (Amazon Vine)

Scotsmen Prefer Blondes, by Sara Ramsey (Review Book – Publicist)

The Red Book (e-book), by Deborah Copaken Kogan

***

So that’s what I’m planning this week….Hope to visit many of you to see what you’re up to, and I hope you can come on by and share.

A SURREAL JOURNEY — A REVIEW

Suki Piper has returned to London after a decade long escape to New Zealand. Specifically, she has come back to the old neighborhood in Notting Hill, where her family lived for the first eight years of her life. A place full of memories, some that feel like bits and pieces of surreal images, while others hint at mysterious goings-on that she has struggled for years to piece together and understand.

Soon Suki is once again enmeshed with members of the Wright family: Peggy, the matriarch; Pippa, the daughter who was once a teen babysitter for Suki; and Harold, the strange and sometimes condescending son. These former neighbors lived in an upstairs flat above the basement where the Pipers lived, and now Peggy lives there alone.

As Suki floats from place to place, sleeping on friends’ couches, she begins to reach out to Pippa, feeling totally disconnected from everyone else, and realizing that friendships she left behind are not so easily resumed. Her old friends seem distant and disinterested.

So when Pippa asks Suki to stay with Peggy, who is in failing health, while her family goes to Greece for vacation, Suki agrees. Where else will she go?

What follows are a series of flashbacks, taking the reader from the present to the past and back again. Suki’s first person narrative carries the reader into her early childhood memories, the time in New Zealand, and the strange memories that haunt her about a long-ago time before her father’s abandonment of the family.

How does an old air-raid shelter in the backyard figure into Suki’s half-formed and surreal memories? Who is “the girl below” and what is her significance in Suki’s life? What must Suki do to finally sort out the strange moments and what they mean to her life in the present, and how do they connect to questionable things in the past?

I found myself totally absorbed in Suki’s dilemmas, especially her feelings of isolation and disconnect from people and places. Her father’s abandonment, followed a few years later by her mother’s death, left her feeling unmoored. Rudderless, as if her life had no meaning and she had no significant connections to anyone. Her quest for a feeling of belonging through a series of love affairs and the endless pursuit of the euphoric high of drugs felt appropriate for someone who has not dealt with her issues of abandonment and loss. I was pleased at how Suki was eventually able to finally put the past into its place and form a starting point for a new future. The Girl Below: A Novel was a surreal journey into one somewhat narcissistic woman’s psyche, and at times, was a bit self-pitying. Four stars.

MONDAY FROM THE INTERIOR: MAILBOX MONDAY & WHAT ARE YOU READING? — JUNE 4

Good morning, and welcome to another Monday, in which we celebrate our reading, blogging, and life.  Mailbox Monday is hosted in June by Sassy Brit’s Alternative Read; and Book Journey brings us another edition of What Are You Reading?

MAILBOX MONDAY:

This week, I received one review book from Amazon Vine; two contest reads from Teddyree, at The Eclectic Reader; and I downloaded one e-book.

Here’s my haul:

The Long Way Home, by Karen McQuestion (Vine)

Four women bound by chance take the trip of a lifetime in Karen McQuestion’s fifth novel The Long Way Home.

For Wisconsinites Marnie, Laverne and Rita, life isn’t working out so well. Each is biding time, waiting for something better, something to transport them out of what their lives have recently become. And then there’s Jazzy: bubbly, positive, and happy even though she hears voices of the departed. Brought together by a chance meeting, the women decide to join Marnie on a road trip from Wisconsin to Las Vegas where she intends to reunite with Troy, the boy she raised as her own—and who she’s been separated from since her boyfriend’s death. Little do they know that as the road trip unfolds, so will their lives—in directions they never anticipated. Humorous, heartwarming, and bittersweet, the journey has something special in store for each woman.

Scarlet Sins (e-book), by Julia Madeleine (contest win)

In the prequel to The Truth About Scarlet Rose, life for an unwed teenage mother in the 1960s can be a hard road. Sylvia knows all too well how limited her options are. At seventeen taking a job as a burlesque entertainer to support herself and her baby is her best hope. But choosing to marry an older man and have a family with a cheating, boozing, gambling husband who makes promises he can’t keep, becomes her downfall. And for a woman with limited choices, her decision to commit murder is not one she makes lightly, but carefully plans and executes in cold blood.

“The whole thing plays out like a gorgeous ’50′s-era melodrama. Lyrical and dark and devastating. I could see Powell and Pressburger directing the movie version.” – Heath Lowrance, author of The Bastard Hand.

The Truth About Scarlet Rose (e-book), by Julia Madeleine (contest win)

Scarlet Rose, the once remarkably beautiful, queen of the burlesque scene in 1960s Toronto, has aged into a decrepit bitter alcoholic, living on welfare and her daughter’s handouts—a daughter she forced into the adult entertainment industry at the age of sixteen to support the family. Now in 1983, Scarlet’s wealthy ex-husband has been found tortured and murdered in a hotel room, and her twenty-two-year-old daughter Fiona, must help the police find the killer.

While Fiona navigates her way through the dark recesses of her family’s history, uncovering shocking secrets that threaten to destroy her, Scarlet Rose employs the skills she learns in Sun Tzu’s The Art Of War, fixating on making a new life for herself using other people’s money. But when she befriends a lonely American woman sitting on an inheritance, greed that knows no bounds, cold-blooded murder and identity theft, might just prove to be Scarlet’s undoing.

Murder Uncorked (e-book), by Michele Scott

The murder of a top winemaker sours Nikki Sands’s new job on a Napa Valley vineyard.

***

WHAT ARE YOU READING?

Good morning, blog world.  As we look back at the past week, we also welcome in a new one, with book/blogging adventures that lie ahead, including Armchair BEA for those of us not going to New York.

First, let’s take a look back at this past week and my blogging and reading.

TUESDAY POTPOURRI:  WHAT IS HAPPINESS?

FANTASIES, SNIPPETS, & DREAMS

THURSDAY POTPOURRI:  A BOOK, A PAINTING, & MOMENTS FROM THE PAST

KREATIV BLOGGER AWARD:  THANKS, LAURA!

MAY READING WRAP-UP:  A SERIES OF ADVENTURES

SWEET SATURDAY SAMPLES: MORE PRANKS & ADVENTURES

READING, MIMOSAS, & CHOCOLATE

Ocean Beach, by Wendy Wax (Review will be posted on June 15) (Five stars!)

Special Note about Ocean Beach:

Monday, June 4 is the last day to enter Wendy Wax’s giveaway for one of three advance reader copies of her upcoming OCEAN BEACH, to be sent to the winners prior to the June 26th on sale date.   Best of luck to all!!  Just go to http://www.writerspace.com/contests/ and scroll down to Wendy’s name!

Son of Rosemary, by Ira Levin (three stars)

Ninepins (e-book), by Rosy Thornton (Five stars!)

Still Reading:

American Legacy:  The Story of John and Caroline Kennedy, by C. David Heymann

The Girl Below, by Bianca Zander, (Amazon Vine) So far, it’s quite interesting.

Up Next (Click titles/covers for more info):

Where We Belong, by Emily Giffin (Amazon Vine)

When Madeline Was Young, by Jane Hamilton (from Mt. TBR)

Murder Uncorked (e-book), by Michele Scott

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And that’s my week, past and present.  I hope you’ll stop by and share your own adventures.