MONDAY MEMES: MAILBOX & WHAT ARE YOU READING? — JULY 18

MY READING WEEK

Welcome to another edition of our Monday Memes, including Mailbox Monday, hosted this month by A Sea of Books; and What Are You Reading?, hosted by Book Journey.

MAILBOX MONDAY:

 

 

This week, I bought three books on sale at Barnes & Noble; I ordered one from Amazon; and received one from a contest win at Book Journey.

1.  Island of Lost Girls, by Jennifer McMahon (Book Journey)

McMahon offers a moving if bittersweet portrait of childhood. When a person dressed up in a rabbit costume abducts a little girl out of her car, the lone witness, Rhonda, is too stunned to act. As the small rural town mobilizes a search for the missing child, Rhonda, reeling with guilt, is reminded of another girl who went missing—her closest friend from childhood, Lizzy. Joyful memories of their youth spent putting on plays and exploring the woods alternate with darker moments: losing the love of her life, Lizzy’s brother, Peter, and the year an increasingly disheveled and moody Lizzy stopped talking to her or anyone else. Past and present merge as Rhonda closes in on the costumed abductor and also on the dark family secrets that tore their perfect childhood apart. McMahon spends a good deal of time setting the stage; however, once the pieces of the intricate plot are in place, readers will be hooked on both the mystery element and the coming-of-age aspects of this atmospheric novel….

2.  Distant Shores, by Kristin Hannah

From Summer Island to On Mystic Lake to Distant Shores, best-selling author Hannah seems to walk on water. Here, as Elizabeth packs up the beach house after her father’s death, she comes to realize that her own marriage is all washed up.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

3.  Commencement, by J. Courtney Sullivan

It isn’t quite love at first sight when Celia, Sally, Bree and April meet as first-year hall mates at Smith College in the late 1990s. Sally, whose mother has just died, is too steeped in grief to think about making new friends, and April’s radical politics rub against Celia and Bree’s more conventional leanings. But as the girls try out their first days of independence together, the group forms an intense bond that grows stronger throughout their college years and is put to the test after graduation. Even as the young women try to support each other through the trials of their early twenties, various milestones—Sally’s engagement, Bree’s anomalous girlfriend, April’s activist career—only seem to breed disagreement….

4.  Smash Cut, by Sandra Brown

“This superlative romantic thriller from bestseller Brown (Smoke Screen) features a particularly memorable villain, sociopath Creighton Wheeler, who’s obsessed with re-enacting scenes from films like Strangers on a Train and Frenzy…. Multiple smash cuts (abrupt scene shifts) lead to a wonderfully frenzied finish.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Brown delivers more than a few thrills and surprises in this taut, satisfying page-turner.” — Booklist

5.  Then Came You, by Jennifer Weiner

An unexpected love story…

 Jules Strauss is a Princeton senior with a full scholarship, acquaintances instead of friends, and a family she’s ashamed to invite to Parents’ Weekend. With the income she’ll receive from donating her “pedigree” eggs, she believes she can save her father from addiction.

Annie Barrow married her high school sweetheart and became the mother to two boys. After years of staying at home and struggling to support four people on her husband’s salary, she thinks she’s found a way to recover a sense of purpose and bring in some extra cash.

India Bishop, thirty-eight (really forty-three), has changed everything about herself: her name, her face, her past. In New York City, she falls for a wealthy older man, Marcus Croft, and decides a baby will ensure a happy ending. When her attempts at pregnancy fail, she turns to technology, and Annie and Jules, to help make her dreams come true.

But each of their plans is thrown into disarray when Marcus’ daughter Bettina, intent on protecting her father, becomes convinced that his new wife is not what she seems…

With startling tenderness and laugh-out-loud humor, Jennifer Weiner once again takes readers into the heart of women’s lives in an unforgettable, timely tale that interweaves themes of class and entitlement, surrogacy and donorship, the rights of a parent and the measure of motherhood.

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WHAT ARE YOU READING?

Blogging:

SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AN HISTORIC TIME

What a great week it has been.  After a slow start, I managed to read and review the following books:

1.   The Uncoupling, by Meg Wolitzer

2.   She Makes It Look Easy, by Marybeth Whalen

3.  Afternoon Delight, by Carolyn Hinsey

4.  Best Staged Plans, by Claire Cook

What’s Up Next?

1.  Never Knowing, by Chevy Stevens

2.  Escape, by Barbara Delinsky

3.  Heat Wave (e-book), by Nancy Thayer

4.  Goodie One Shoes, by Roz Siegel

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That’s it for this week…hope you all enjoy your reading, and stop on by and share what’s going on…..