The Writing Circle

The Writing Circle by Corinne Demas

Summary borrowed from Barnes and Noble:

They call themselves the Leopardi Circle—six members of a writing group who share much more than their works in progress.

When Nancy, whose most recently published work is a medical newsletter, is asked to join a writing group made up of established writers, she accepts, warily. She's not at all certain that her novel is good enough for the company she'll be keeping. Her novel is a subject very close to her heart, and she isn't sure she wants to share it with others, let alone the world. But Nancy soon finds herself as caught up in the group's personal lives as she is with their writing.

She learns that nothing—love, family, loyalty—is sacred or certain.

In the circle there's Gillian, a beautiful, scheming, world-famous poet; Bernard, a pompous but lovable biographer; Virginia, a respected historian and the peacemaker of the group, who also happens to be Bernard's ex-wife; Chris, a divorced father and successful thriller writer; and Adam, the youngest of the group, an aspiring novelist who is infatuated with Gillian. And then there's Nancy, an unassuming fiction writer embarking on a new chapter in her own life. They meet to read their work aloud and offer feedback. Over the course of a year, marriages are tested, affairs begin, and trust is broken.

Through their complicated relationships, these eccentric characters share their families, their beds, and their histories, and soon find that buried secrets have a way of coming to light. Hearts break and emotions are pushed to the limit in this richly engaging tale of love, betrayal, and literature.

My Thoughts:

I read this book for the Barnes and Noble First Look Book Club. The story is about the members if the Leopardi Circle, a writing group. At first I must say the book was not holding my interest. I couldn't seem to even care about the characters in the book. The short little peeks into the lives of the members didn't seem to be enough in the beginning of the book. As soon as I was learning about a character, the chapter would end and the story would move on to the next character. These characters are very dysfunctional and flawed. Somewhere after the middle of the book, the story drew me in and I read straight through to the shocking ending. If you can get passed the beginning and don't mind an ending that leaves you both speechless and bewildered, you will enjoy this book. I did wish the ending was a bit more wrapped up. I had many questions after the ending which would make this ideal for book club discussions.

I give this book 3 stars.

Mailbox Monday June 28

Mailbox Monday is a meme where you can post what books came into your home during the week. It is hosted by Marcia over at The Printed Page. Go on over and check it out. Be warned though it can lead to large TBR piles and wish lists!



I had a very good week this week. Some very interesting books made their way into my home. I'm looking forward to reading all of them.

Red Hook Road by Ayelet Waldman

Summary borrowed from Goodreads
Set on the coast of Maine over the course of four summers, Red Hook Road tells the story of two families, the Tetherlys and the Copakens, and of the ways in which their lives are unraveled and stitched together by misfortune, by good intentions and failure, and by love and calamity.

A marriage collapses under the strain of a daughter’s death; two bereaved siblings find comfort in one another; and an adopted young girl breathes new life into her family with her prodigious talent for the violin. As she writes with obvious affection for these unforgettable characters, Ayelet Waldman skillfully interweaves life’s finer pleasures—music and literature—with the more mundane joys of living. Within these resonant pages, a vase filled with wildflowers or a cold beer on a hot summer day serve as constant reminders that it’s often the little things that make life so precious.

I received this book for review this courtesy of Doubleday through Shelf Awareness



Room by Emma Donoghue

Summary borrowed from Goodreads

To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It's where he was born, where he and his Ma eat and play and learn. At night, Ma puts him safely to sleep in the wardrobe, in case Old Nick comes.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma it's the prison where she's been held for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for her son. But Jack's curiosity is building alongside Ma's desperation -- and she knows Room cannot contain either indefinitely. ...

Told in the inventive, funny, and poignant voice of Jack, Room is a powerful story of a mother and son whose love lets them survive the impossible.

I received this book for review courtesy of Hachette through Shelf Awareness

All Over The Map by Laura Fraser

Summary borrowed from Goodreads

What's a wise, witty travel writer to do when she reaches forty and is still single? Wander the globe searching for romance and adventure, of course.

On a trip to Oaxaca, Mexico, to celebrate her fortieth birthday, Laura Fraser confronts the unique trajectory of her life. Divorced and childless in her thirties, she found solace in the wanderlust that had always directed her heart—and found love and comfort in the arms of a dashing Frenchman. Their Italian affair brought her back to herself—but now she wonders if her passion for travel (and for short-lived romantic rendezvous) has deprived her of what she secretly wants most from life: a husband, a family, a home.

When her Parisian lover meets her in Oaxaca and gives her news that he’s found someone new, Laura is stunned and hurt. Now, it seems, she has nothing but her own independence for company—and, at forty, a lot more wrinkles on her face and fewer years of fertility. How is Laura going to reconcile what seem to be two opposite desires: for adventure, travel, great food, and new experiences, but also a place to call home—and a loving pair of arms to greet her there?

And so, she globe hops. What else is a travel writer to do? From Argentina to Peru, Naples to Paris, she basks in the glow of new cultures and local delicacies, always on the lookout for the “one” who might become a lifelong companion. But when a terrible incident occurs while she’s on assignment in the South Pacific, Laura suddenly finds herself more aware of her vulnerability and becomes afraid of traveling. It seems as if she might lose the very thing that has given her so much pleasure in her life, not to mention the career she has built for herself as a world traveler and chronicler of far-flung places.

Finding herself again will be both more difficult and more natural than she imagined. Ultimately, Laura realizes the most important journey she must take is an internal one. And the tale of how she reaches that place will captivate every woman who has ever yearned for a different life.

I received this book for review from Harmony Books through Read It Forward

Cleo by Helen Brown

Summary borrowed from Goodreads

Helen Brown wasn't a cat person, but her nine-year-old son Sam was. So when Sam heard a woman telling his mum that her cat had just had kittens, Sam pleaded to go and see them.
Helen's heart melted as Sam held one of the kittens in his hands with a look of total adoration. In a trice the deal was done - the kitten would be delivered when she was big enough to leave her mother.
A week later, Sam was dead. Not long after, a little black kitten was delivered to the grieving family. Totally traumatized by Sam's death, Helen had forgotten all about the new arrival. After all, that was back in another universe when Sam was alive.
Helen was ready to send the kitten back, but Sam's younger brother wanted to keep her, identifying with the tiny black kitten who'd also lost her brothers. When Rob stroked her fur, it was the first time Helen had seen him smile since Sam's death. There was no choice: the kitten - dubbed Cleo - had to stay.
Kitten or not, there seemed no hope of becoming a normal family. But Cleo's zest for life slowly taught the traumatized family to laugh. She went on to become the uppity high priestess of Helen's household, vetoing her new men, terrifying visiting dogs and building a special bond with Rob, his sister Lydia, Helen - and later a baby daughter.

I received this book for review through Inkwell Management

Sarah's Garden by Kelly Long

Summary borrowed from Goodreads
When Sarah realizes that she has fallen in love with an Englisch doctor, she must choose between loving a man and losing her family.

Deep in the heart of Pennsylvania's Allegheny Mountains, shy Sarah King is happiest when working in her vibrant Amish kitchen garden, but new family responsibilities lead her into the confusing world of the Englisch.

Sarah finds her life turned around when she encounters the community's new Englisch veterinarian, Grant Williams. His blue-gold eyes and his obvious concern for her people attract her immediately. Sarah seeks solace and direction from the Lord as she creates a quilt pattern which details her struggle between two worlds.

The Lord is guiding Sarah to follow His will, but will she listen?

I received this book for review from Booksneeze

Have you read any of these titles? If so how did you like them? I am now off to see what wonderful books made their way into the homes of other bloggers. It's my favorite part of Mailbox Monday!

Spring Reading Thing 2010 Wrapup

These are the books I did get read for the Spring Reading Thing. I read many more book but they weren't on my list so I didn't include them.

1.The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott by Kelly O'Connor McNees
2.Fireworks Over Toccoa by Jeffrey Stepakoff
3.Every Last One by Anna Quindlin
4.Lake Magic by Kimberly Fisk
5.Plain Perfect by Beth Wiseman
6.Plain Pursuit by Beth Wiseman
7.Heart Of The Matter by Emily Giffin
8.The Red Thread by Ann Hood


These are the books I didn't quite get to but hope to read soon:

1.The Swimming Pool by Holly LeCraw
2.A Soft Place To Land by Susan Rebecca White
3.The Wives Of Henry Oades by Johanna Moran
4.Roses by Leila Meacham
5.The Life O'Reilly by Brian Cohen
6.The Triumph of Deborah by Eva Etzioni-Halevy

My favorite book was The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott. I highly recommend it! I don't really have a least favorite. They were all good books!

Next time I think I will start with a smaller list and add to it as I go. I so enjoyed participating in the Spring Reading Thing and look forward to joining in on Fall Into Reading. I did find many new titles to stick on my wish list looking at everyone's reading lists. Thank you to Katrina at Callapidder Days for hosting the challenge!

Teaser Tuesdays June 22

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!




"See this grain of sand? This one, here. Now look at the ocean. Think of the size of the ocean compared to the size of this grain of sand. This is what we are in the universe. Think of it. How enormous the universe is. How tiny we are."

page 5, Beachcombers by Nancy Thayer (this is more than two sentences but I really loved this passage)

TBR Readathon Wrapup

I did not do as well as I hoped to on the readathon but I was happy with what I accomplished. I did not keep track of the time I read as I go out with my dogs 12,462
times a day so I grab a few minutes here and there when I go out with them. I keep my book by the door so I can sneak in a few minutes of reading here and there. Life is so busy so I didn't get as much read as I hoped too. I still had fun though so all is good!

Books Finished

1.The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
2.The Lovers by Vendela Vida (review here)
3.The Writing Circle by Corinne Demas

Book Started

1.Beachcombers by Nancy Thayer

I would do this readathon again and maybe be a bit more organized next time. Maybe set specific times aside to read? It did get my summer reading off to a great start! Thank you to Kristen at Bookworming For The 21st Century for hosting the TBR Readathon!

Mailbox Monday June 21

Mailbox Monday is a meme where you can post what books came into your home during the week. It is hosted by Marcia over at The Printed Page. Go on over and check it out. Be warned though it can lead to large TBR piles and wish lists!

This week I received 3 books and an audiobook.



This Must Be The Place by Kate Racculia

Synopsis (from US Macmillan)
A sudden death, a never-mailed postcard, and a longburied secret set the stage for a luminous and heartbreakingly real novel about lost souls finding one another

The Darby-Jones boardinghouse in Ruby Falls, New York, is home to Mona Jones and her daughter, Oneida, two loners and self-declared outcasts who have formed a perfectly insular family unit: the two of them and the three eclectic boarders living in their house. But their small, quiet life is upended when Arthur Rook shows up in the middle of a nervous breakdown, devastated by the death of his wife, carrying a pink shoe box containing all his wife's mementos and keepsakes, and holding a postcard from sixteen years ago, addressed to Mona but never sent. Slowly the contents of the box begin to fit together to tell a story—one of a powerful friendship, a lost love, and a secret that, if revealed, could change everything that Mona, Oneida, and Arthur know to be true. Or maybe the stories the box tells and the truths it brings to life will teach everyone about love—how deeply it runs, how strong it makes us, and how even when all seems lost, how tightly it brings us together. With emotional accuracy and great energy, This Must Be the Place introduces memorable, charming characters that refuse to be forgotten.



Everything Lovely, Effortless, Safe by Jenny Hollowell

Synopsis (from US Macmillan)

A young woman caught at the turning point between success and failure hopes fame and fortune will finally let her leave her old life—and her old self—behind

Birdie Baker has always dreamed of becoming someone else. At twenty-two, she sets off to do just that. Walking out on her pastor husband and deeply evangelical parents, she leaves behind her small-town, small-time life and gets on a bus to Los Angeles.

Nine years later, Birdie's life in Hollywood is far from golden, and nothing in the intervening years—the brutal auditions, the tawdry commercials—has brought her any closer to the transformation she craves. Caught between success and failure, haunted by guilt about a tragedy in her long-forsaken family, Birdie is at the brink of collapse when she meets Lewis, a beautiful but naïve young actor with his own troubled history, whose self-destructive impulses run dangerously parallel to her own.

When her big chance finally comes, Birdie must reconcile the wide-eyed girl she once was with the jaded starlet she has become and try to find herself and her future somewhere in between. Everything Lovely, Effortless, Safe is the story of a young woman's struggle to make her own way in the Technicolor land of make-believe.

Thank you to Jason at Henry Holt and Company who sent me both of the above books.



Adam & Eve by Sena Jeter Naslund

Hours before his untimely—and highly suspicious—death, world-renowned astrophysicist Thom Bergmann shares his discovery of extraterrestrial life with his wife, Lucy. Feeling that the warring world is not ready to learn of—or accept—proof of life elsewhere in the universe, Thom entrusts Lucy with his computer flash drive, which holds the keys to his secret work.

Devastated by Thom’s death, Lucy keeps the secret, but Thom’s friend, anthropologist Pierre Saad contacts Lucy with an unusual and dangerous request about another sensitive matter. Pierre needs Lucy to help him smuggle a newly discovered artifact out of Egypt: an ancient codex concerning the human authorship of the Book of Genesis. Offering a reinterpretation of the creation story, the document is sure to threaten the literal foundation of all three major world religions . . . and there are those who will stop at nothing to suppress it.

Midway through the daring journey, Lucy’s small plane goes down between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the Middle East. The severely injured Lucy is rescued by Adam, a delusional American soldier whose search for both spiritual and carnal knowledge has led to madness. As Lucy heals, the bond between her and Adam grows. Ultimately, the pair forsake their half-mythical Eden and make their way back toward civilization—where members of an ultra-conservative religious cult are determined to deprive the world of the knowledge Lucy carries.


Set against the searing debate between evolutionists and creationists, Adam & Eve expands the definition of a “sacred book” and suggests that true madness lies in wars and violence fueled by all religious literalism and intolerance. A thriller, a romance, an adventure, and an idyll, Adam & Eve is a tour de force by a master contemporary storyteller.

Thank you to Tavia from William Morrow (through Shelf Awareness) for sending me Adam & Eve.




Behind The Wheel Express Spanish Level 1

Synopsis (from Barnes and Noble)

Behind the Wheel Spanish Level 1 covers beginning to intermediate level Spanish, providing a flexible, solid and universal foundation in speaking, understanding, and creatively expressing yourself in Spanish. The program features an English speaking instructor to guide you through the lessons and two native Latin American Spanish speakers to aid with your pronunciation. Includes a companion book to reinforce and enhance the audio experience.

I received this wonderful audiobook lesson courtesy of Barnes and Noble Book Clubs and Macmillon Audio.

It was a very nice week here. What wonderful books made their way into your home?

The Lovers

The Lovers by Vendela Vida

Summary borrowed from Goodreads

Twenty-eight years ago, Peter and Yvonne honeymooned in the beautiful coastal village of DatÇa, Turkey. Now Yvonne is a widow, her twin children grown. Hoping to immerse herself in memories of a happier time—as well as sand and sea—Yvonne returns to DatÇa. But her plans for a restorative week in Turkey are quickly complicated. Instead of comforting her, her memories begin to trouble her. Her vacation rental's landlord and his bold, intriguing wife—who share a curious marital arrangement—become constant uninvited visitors, in and out of the house.

Overwhelmed by the past and unexpectedly dislocated by the environment, Yvonne clings to a newfound friendship with Ahmet, a local boy who makes his living as a shell collector. With Ahmet as her guide, Yvonne gains new insight into the lives of her own adult children, and she finally begins to enjoy the shimmering sea and relaxed pace of the Turkish coast. But a devastating accident upends her delicate peace and throws her life into chaos—and her sense of self into turmoil.

With the crystalline voice and psychological nuance for which her work has been so celebrated, Vendela Vida has crafted another unforgettable heroine in a stunningly beautiful and mysterious landscape.

My thoughts

The title of this book rather frightened me. I thought maybe this could end up being a raunchy book about two lovers. Not so at all and I was so thankful for that!

The story revolves around Yvonne who has recently lost her husband and is trying to come to terms with her grief. She goes to Turkey where they honeymooned only to find that Turkey has changed and so has Yvonne. Yvonne has no problems making new friends in Turkey and befriends a young boy who does not speak English and the estranged wife of the man who owns the home she is renting. I thought Yvonne was more at ease with these new friends than with her own children. There were times in this book that I was very afraid for Yvonne and the danger of traveling alone in a country and not being able to communicate with everyone. Vendela Vida did an excellent job making me feel Yvonne's pain and confusion. She portrayed Yvonne as the typical American who needs to fix everything and in many cases makes it much worse. I could so relate in that aspect! I loved the setting of Turkey. It is a setting I am not very familiar with and one I have not read much about. I'm interested in more stories set in the area. I do feel the abrupt ending works well for this short book. At first I wanted more but then decided I was very satisfied with the ending. I would recommend this book. Don't let the title frighten you off!

I would give this book 4 1/2 stars! I'll also be looking for more titles from Vendela Vida as she is a new to me author.

Thank you to Greg at Ecco for providing this ARC for review.

The Huge TBR Readathon

The Huge TBR Readathon

Hosted by Kristen at Bookworming in the 21st Century

When: Monday June 14th 8 am (whatever time zone you are in) until Sunday, June 20th - midnight!


I saw this Readthon posted on a few blogs and have decided to participate as much as I can. I need to catch up on my reading. It's the first week of summer vacation here so why not start it off reading. I still will have to take care of the family, pets and the house but I will be reading as much as possible! I'm not setting a goal I will just post the books as I finish them.

Go on over to Kristen's blog and check it out!

My Name Is Memory

My Name Is Memory by Ann Brashares

From the back of the book:

Daniel has spent centuries falling in love with the same girl. Life after life, crossing continents and dynasties, he and Sophia have been drawn together- and he remembers it all. Daniel has "the memory," the ability to recall past lives and recognize the souls of those he's previously known. It is a gift and a curse. For all the times that he and Sophia have been drawn together throughout history, they have also been torn apart. A love always too short.
But as Sophia (reborn as "Lucy") finally begins to awaken to the secret of their shared past, the mysterious force that has always wrenched tham apart reappears. Ultimately, they must recognize what stands in the way of their love if they are ever to spend a lifetime together.

My thoughts:

I haven't read many time travel books but as soon as I started reading this one I was instantly hooked. The book goes back and forth between Daniel's lives in the past and Lucy/Sophia's life in the present. They both live many different lives during the course of the book. Daniel is aware of his past lives while Lucy/Sophia is not. That is until the day Lucy visits a psychic and she begins to question what may have happened in the past. Every time Daniel finds Sophia something tragic happens and they are once again separated, usually by one of them dying. I loved the travel through time and history as the story of the two unfolds. The book takes place during some very interesting times in history. Some that I didn't know much about. I have to admit that at first I was not very thrilled with the ending. In fact I went right to the computer and found out this is the first book of a triology. Whew! Had there not been more books coming I would have been a bit upset with the cliffhanger ending. This book was both heartbreaking and heartwarming and I can't wait to read the next two installments! The book raises the question does true love ever die?

I give this book 5 stars.

I received this book courtesy of Riverhead Books for review.

Mailbox Monday June 14

Thank you to all for your well wishes for my daughter! She had her treatment and now we have to wait to see how well it works. She feels okay and is relieved to know there is a reason for the way she had been feeling. Hopefully life will be a bit calmer here now and I can get back to reading and blogging regularly.



Mailbox Monday is a meme where you can post what books came into your home during the week. It is hosted by Marcia over at The Printed Page. Go on over and check it out. Be warned though it can lead to large TBR piles and wish lists!

I received three books last week all on the same day! It felt like Christmas in June!



The Secret Keepers by Mindy Friddle

Synopsis from Barnes and Noble:

At age seventy-two, Emma Hanley plans to escape small-town Palmetto, South Carolina, and travel the globe. But when her fickle husband dies in undignified circumstances, Emma finds herself juggling the needs of her adult children. Her once free-spirited daughter Dora turns to compulsive shopping and a controlling husband to forget her wayward past. Her son Bobby still lives with her, afflicted with an illness that robbed him of his childhood promise.

When Dora’s old flame Jake Cary returns to Palmetto with a broken heart and a gift for gardening, the town becomes filled with mysterious, potent botanicals and memories long forgotten. Soon enough, Jake and his ragtag group of helpers begin to unearth the secrets that have divided the Hanleys for decades.

Written with the warmth of Lee Smith and the magical touch of Alice Hoffman, Secret Keepers is a beguiling second novel by the acclaimed author of The Garden Angel.

I received this book courtesy of Librarything Early Reviewers Group



Dewey's Nine Lives: The Legacy of the Small-Town Library Cat Who Inspired Millions by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter

The cat that captured America's heart returns, with two new tales and seven more tails.

I received this book courtesy of Dutton through Shelf Awareness. It came with a very cute bookmark.



Whistlin' Dixie in a Nor'easter by Lisa Patton

Synopsis from Barns and Noble:

Leelee Satterfield seemed to have it all: a gorgeous husband, two adorable daughters, and roots in the sunny city of Memphis, Tennessee. So when her husband gets the idea to uproot the family to run a quaint Vermont inn, Leelee is devastated…and her three best friends are outraged. But she’s loved Baker Satterfield since the tenth grade, how can she not indulge his dream? Plus, the glossy photos of bright autumn trees and smiling children in ski suits push her over the edge…after all, how much trouble can it really be?

But Leelee discovers pretty fast that there’s a truckload of things nobody tells you about Vermont until you live there: such as mud season, vampire flies, and the danger of ice sheets careening off roofs. Not to mention when her beloved Yorkie decides to pick New Year’s Eve to go to doggie heaven-she encounters one more New England oddity: frozen ground means you can’t bury your dead in the winter. And that Yankee idiosyncrasy just won’t do.

The inn they’ve bought also has its host of problems: an odor that no amount of potpourri can erase, tacky décor, and a staff of peculiar Vermonters whose personalities are as unique as the hippopotamus collection gracing the fireplace mantle. The whole operation is managed by Helga, a stern German woman who takes special delight in bullying Leelee for her southern gentility. Needless to say, it doesn’t take long for Leelee to start wondering when to drag out the moving boxes again.

But when an unexpected hardship takes Leelee by surprise, she finds herself left alone with an inn to run, a mortgage to pay, and two daughters to raise.But this Southern belle won’t be run out of town so easily. Drawing on the Southern grit and inner strength she didn’t know she had, Leelee decides to turn around the Inn, her attitude and her life. In doing so, she makes friends with her neighbors, finds a little romance, and realizes there’s a lot more in common with Vermont than she first thought.

In this moving and comedic debut, Lisa Patton paints a hilarious portrait of life in Vermont as seen through the eyes of a southern belle readers won’t soon forget. A charming fish-out-of-water tale of one woman who learns to stand up for herself-in sandals and snow boots-against the odds.

I won this book during Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon back in April

What wonderful books made their way into your home?

Mailbox Monday June 7

Mailbox Monday is a meme where you can post what books came into your home during the week. It is hosted by Marcia over at The Printed Page. Go on over and check it out. Be warned though it can lead to large TBR piles and wish lists!

Just one book for me this week. The mailbox has been slow but it's okay. I've been pretty busy with my son graduating high school and my daughter being diagnosed with Graves Disease. She will start treatment tomorrow which means we have to stay home for a few days. Hopefully I can get some reading done then. I think life is finally calming down here.



The Queen of Palmyra by Minrose Gwin

Synopsis(from B&N)

"I need you to understand how ordinary it all was. . . ."

In the turbulent southern summer of 1963, Millwood's white population steers clear of "Shake Rag," the black section of town. Young Florence Forrest is one of the few who crosses the line. The daughter of a burial insurance salesman with dark secrets and the town's "cake lady," whose backcountry bootleg runs lead further and further away from a brutal marriage, Florence attaches herself to her grandparents' longtime maid, Zenie Johnson. Named for Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, Zenie treats the unwanted girl as just another chore, while telling her stories of the legendary queen's courage and cunning.

The more time Florence spends in Shake Rag, the more she recognizes how completely race divides her town, and her story, far from ordinary, bears witness to the truth and brutality of her times—a truth brought to a shattering conclusion when Zenie's vibrant college-student niece, Eva Greene, arrives that fateful Mississippi summer. Minrose Gwin's The Queen of Palmyra is an unforgettable evocation of a time and a place in America—a nuanced, gripping story of race and identity.

I received this book courtesy of Goodreads First Read Program and Harper Perennial.

What wonderful books made their way into your home. I'm thinking we are going to see some pretty great mailboxes this week from all the bloggers who went to BEA. I'm off to check them out!

Teaser Tuesday June 1

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!



My Teaser

"I have lived more than a thousand years. I have died countless times. I forget precisely how many times. My memory is an extraordinary thing, but it is not perfect. I am human."

Pg. 1, My Name Is Memory by Ann Brashares