MONDAY MEMES: MAILBOX MONDAY & WHAT ARE YOU READING? — MARCH 28

MONDAY MEMES

...Welcome to the last Monday Memes for March.

Mailbox Monday, our celebration of books we’ve received into our homes (bought or acquired for review, etc.), is hosted one more time by I’m Booking It.

What Are You Reading? is hosted by Book Journey. In this event, we describe our past reading week, blogging, and our upcoming reads.

MAILBOX MONDAY:

I received two books in the mail:  one is an Amazon Vine review book, and the other is a wish-list purchase.

1.   Waiting for Spring, by R. J. Keller (Amazon Vine)

A recently divorced woman trudges out of one small, Maine town and into an even smaller one, hoping to escape her pain. Instead she finds herself surrounded by people who are trudging on, just like her. Waiting for things to get better. Waiting for spring. Waiting For Spring takes readers beyond the lighthouses and rocky beaches tourists visit and drops them instead into a rural Maine town that is filled with displaced factory workers who struggle with poverty and loss, yet push onward with stubbornness and humor….

2.  Night Road, by Kristin Hannah

For eighteen years, Jude Farraday has put her children’s needs above her own, and it shows—her twins, Mia and Zach—are bright and happy teenagers.  When Lexi Baill moves into their small, close knit community, no one is more welcoming than Jude.  Lexi, a former foster child with a dark past, quickly becomes Mia’s best friend.  Then Zach falls in love with Lexi and the three become inseparable.

Jude does everything to keep her kids on track for college and out of harm’s way.  It has always been easy– until senior year of high school.  Suddenly she is at a loss.  Nothing feels safe anymore; every time her kids leave the house, she worries about them.

On a hot summer’s night her worst fears come true. One decision will change the course of their lives.  In the blink of an eye, the Farraday family will be torn apart and Lexi will lose everything.  In the years that follow, each must face the consequences of that single night and find a way to forget…or the courage to forgive….

That’s it for this week, but I’m very happy about these two books.

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WHAT ARE YOU READING?

Some blogging adventures this week:

FINAL ROUND OF ROW 80 CHALLENGE

SATURDAY SNAPSHOT – MEMORIES

Check in Wednesday for an Author Interview with Carol Crigger, at Dames of Dialogue (my group blog).

Reading Week – Click Titles for Reviews:

1.   The Four Ms. Bradwells, by Meg Waite Clayton

2.   How to Save Your Own Life, by Erica Jong

3.    Saving CeeCee Honeycutt, by Beth Hoffman

Still Reading:

In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote

What’s Up Next?

1.  Found, by Jennifer Lauck (Amazon Vine)

In her third memoir, Lauck relates her gradual realization that her problems with normal social relationships stem from her lack of a strong sense of self caused by the loss of her mother at birth. She was, after all, whisked away by nurses without ever feeling her mother’s touch. When giving birth to her own first child, Lauck says she was “jarred from her amnesia” and began to catch glimpses of her first moments of life and the early years with her first adoptive family. She struggles to find inner peace, first in motherhood, later by taking up Buddhism and attending meditation retreats, until she reaches the momentous decision to try and find her birth mother.

2.  Tuck Your Skirt in Your Panties and Run, by Lucy Adams (review book)

“Pour a tall glass of sweet iced tea, sit back and relax on the front porch and savor the down-home humor of Ms. Adams, but be warned, the tea’s just as cold coming out through your nose.” – Rick Rantamacki, author of Mental Notes – From the Brink of Reality

“Reading anything written by Lucy Adams is like solving the problems of the world, particularly the world of family life, over a cup of coffee with your best girlfriend. Her prose takes the mundane, morose and maddening things that are part of everyday life and weaves them into stories that will have you laughing, crying and mostly realizing that yes, you are pretty much like everyone else.” – Karin Calloway, editor, Augusta Family Magazine and author of Quick Cooking with Karin Calloway

3.  Untied, by Meredith Baxter (a memoir)

Meredith Baxter is a beloved and iconic television actress, most well-known for her enormously popular role as hippie mom, Elyse Keaton, on Family Ties. Her warmth, humor, and brilliant smile made her one of the most popular women on television, with millions of viewers following her on the small screen each week. Yet her success masked a tumultuous personal story and a harrowing private life. For the first time, Baxter is ready to share her incredible highs, (working with Robert Redford, Doris Day, Lana Turner, and the cast of Family Ties), and lows (a thorny relationship with her mother, a difficult marriage to David Birney, a bout with breast cancer), finally revealing the woman behind the image….

4.  My Hollywood (e-book), by Mona Simpson

With the publication of novels like Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus’s The Nanny Diaries (2002) and Kathryn Stockett’s The Help (**** Selection Jan/Feb 2010), there is no shortage of books about women and their domestic employees. Even so, Simpson’s pragmatic and delightfully observant nanny Lola shines in this story of contemporary child rearing. Critics did find Claire, with her privileged lifestyle and chronic self-doubt, a slightly less compelling character. And, in stark contrast to all other critics, the Philadelphia Inquirer reviewer found the novel disorganized, repetitive, and filled with exasperating characters. While a few readers may not find My Hollywood to their liking, most should find it an entertaining and heartfelt addition to Simpson’s body of work….

That’s it for this week!  I think my list is ambitious, since I’m starting the week still reading one from last week.  But we’ll see how it goes….

What about the rest of you?  What are you reading, what did you get in the mail, and what are your blogging plans?  Hope you’ll stop by….