Five Book Series I Can’t Put Down

When Britt put out the call for women who love books, movies, music and tech, she might as well have tagged me directly. I devour media as if it were my last meal. All day long, I am a wife, mother, Scout leader, PTO volunteer, home business owner and more. And, at night? I read, I watch, I play. Mostly, though, I read. I read fiction. I read mysteries. I read non-fiction. I read memoirs. I read really, really crappy romance. I prefer to read books in a series. There’s just something comforting about it—the way you get to know the characters, follow their lives and pickup a new book like it’s an old friend. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Stephanie Plum by Janet Evanovich: Every time I read one of these books, I am literally laughing out loud. The hubby is constantly asking, “What?” then noticing the title of my book. “Oh.” I can’t quite picture Katherine Heigl as Stephanie Plum, but the books are always, always better anyway. (So, read this series before the first movie comes out next summer!)
• “In Death” by J.D. Robb: Nora Roberts writes her mystery series under this pen name. Set in the future, the series pairs a tough NYC cop chic with an Irish former criminal. You can almost hear the sexy lilt to his voice. Now, there’s one I’d like to see on a big screen. Love, money, murder—what more can a girl ask for?
• Bridal Quartet by Nora Roberts: Back to her traditional-style romance writing, four friends live, love and work together as wedding planners. Each book follows one of the women through her story of finding The One.The fourth and final book was released earlier this month. I was sad to see it end, but I can revisit our friends over and over again. That is the beauty of a good book series.
• Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer: Perhaps it is a bit cliche to include the Twilight Saga, but as I’ve read these books over a dozen times in the last 2 years, there was no way to leave it out. Sure the writing is bad. The story isn’t all that great. And, okay, being inside the head of a lovesick teen is annoying at best. Still, Meyer develops characters like no one else. They get in you. Alice is my friend. Emmett is the big brother I’ve always wanted. Edward is my favorite fictional boyfriend. And, Rosalie—well, Rosalie is just a bitch. But, I’ll never stop reading Twilight.
• Sofie Metropolis by Tori Carrington: Stephanie Plum meets My Big Fat Greek Wedding—written by a husband & wife team. How much fun is that? They started writing once upon a time for Harlequin, and I love their dynamic—yes, that Harlequin. Shuddup. Love Bites, the next in the series comes out in a few months—it’s available for preorder now.

Now, it’s your turn. Poke fun, confess your own weakness or recommend something new for me to read in the comments below. (Or, answer the truly burning question—Team Ranger or Morelli?)

Photo by: ginnerobot

One-Item Holiday Wish List: Kindle

A few years ago my Husband and I came up with an ingenious money-and-relationship-saving plan:  We stopped exchanging gifts.  This had the upside of not spending money on gifts and trying to guess what the other wanted under the tree, and the downside of all the joy of Christmas being sucked the hell out.  It was all about the spirit of the season and family and crap like that.  It’s a Christmas miracle that we’ve avoided a massacre thus far.

This year, I’m being more bold.

I WANT A KINDLE.

I’m worried that I’m the last person in America to get one, and that if I buy it for myself, all sorts of alarms will go off and a parade of mockers will come out and point their fingers at me, so it’s a good thing to put on my “to be gifted” list.

I’ve resisted a Kindle for a while because of some prehistoric attachment to paper, and the love of “flipping pages” but I have to face facts:  I do  most of my reading on the train, and often I hesitate to bring a big, heavy book.  Because if it’s between reading material and a herniated disc, I’m afraid I’m going to have to go with health and safety.

And it doesn’t help that everyone I know who has one keeps raving about it.  And a few of my friends have even let me touch theirs.  It’s light and fun and the text is readable and I’m tired of lugging around my papyrus scrolls.

So, yes.  This holiday season I want a Kindle.  And if you could throw in some world peace, that would great.
The Kindle is available from Amazon.com.  Let me know if you’d like shipping information.

Feature image by Kevin Dooley

Good Enough to Eat Indeed!

Allow me to introduce you to Stacey Ballis.  Besides blogging at The Polymath Chronicles, Stacey is a fabulous author.  She is the partner in crime to another of my beloved authors and bloggers, Jen Lancaster and I tell you no lie, I would gladly give up just about any vice to be a fly on the wall when those two get going. Stacey has a new book, Good Enough To Eat.

I have a special place in my heart for books by bloggers but my literary tastes are vast, I’ll read anything as long as it isn’t a bodice-ripping Harlequin romance, a Western, a Sci-Fi book or anything that Stephen King has touched.  And aside from my love of Chick Lit, Memoirs, Forensic Thrillers and True Crime, Not to mention, I’m a book-a-holic.  I read about 3 books a week.  I devour them at an inhuman pace and my computer pretty much just points itself to Amazon without any prompting.  (Although much to my husband’s delight, I have recently procured a library card.)

Having read three of Stacey’s previous books, Inappropriate Men, Room for Improvement and The Spinster Sisters, I was so excited to hear about her newest release and pre-ordered it on Amazon months and months before it was released.  When it showed up, it was all I could do to keep myself from feigning a pathetic cough and rushing home to curl up on the back porch with my new treasure.

Stacey’s protagonists are always strong, powerful and unapologetic women and the latest, Melanie Hoffman, is no exception.  After working hard for nearly two years to lose half her body weight, Melanie has gone to culinary school and now runs a take-out business specializing in healthy gourmet food.  Then one day, with no warning,  her previously supportive husband up and leaves her for a woman twice her size.

I could not put this book down for the two days it took me to finish it.  Stacey Ballis has surrounded Melanie (who I adored secondly only to Sidney, the witty, sexy plus-sized star of “Inappropriate Men”) with intriguing friends and family and weaves a really wonderful story of a woman who thought she’s come to the end of a journey, when in fact, she’s only at the beginning.   I’d call it a beach read if it weren’t so freaking cold outside.  And yet… it has more to it than a normal beach book… more heart.

Stacey’s books are refreshing because they are about REAL women.  These aren’t supermodels skipping around Manhattan in 4-inch heels with mysterious unlimited funds (although I do profess a guilty pleasure for those books as well).  Her subjects are smart, witty, accomplished women who aren’t afraid of their faults and love themselves just the way they are.  Just between you and me?  That’s the kind of role model I would want for myself and my daughter… if I had one.

Find Good Enough to Eat, along with all Stacey Ballis’s books, on Amazon.

Featured photo by Horia Varlan

The Official Bookworm Gift Guide

Whenever my birthday or other gift-giving occasion rolls around, I always hear “You’re a bookworm. I never know what to buy you!” and I end up getting a lame gift card.

To which I say pa-shaw and present you with The Official Bookworm Gift Guide. Official because I’m a bookworm and I either have, love or want everything I’ve included.

Enjoy. Buy your bookworm friends something nice for once.

10 Gifts for The Bookworm on Your List

1. Kindle - Even the most hardcore bookworm can appreciate the ability to access thousands of books on a whim.

2. Kindle Accessories – Covers and skins add personality and protection. The Kate Spade Kindle covers are especially fabulous – The Great Gatsby is my favorite.

3. Personal Library Kit – All bookworms love their books. If you borrow one, you better damn well give it back. Late fees will be assessed.

4. Coffee Mugs – What goes better with a good book than a mug of hot coffee or tea? These knee mugs and lap mugs from Uncommon Goods are fun for curling up on the couch!

5. Blankets – Not a Snuggie. Not a Slanket. (Though if you must choose one, the Slanket is the superior blanket with sleeves.) Something warm and comfortable and not As Seen on TV to cuddle up with while reading.

6. Book Lust and More Book Lust by Nancy Pearl – Books about books by a former book critic and librarian. A modern day canon of book recommendations for every mood and subject.

7. U Star Books – Does your bookworm have a favorite classic novel? Make them the main character! The plot remains the same, the only thing that changes is the name of the main character. You can also incorporate friends and family into the story, change the title and add your own dedication inside. If you’re especially close with your bookworm, you can personalize romance novels and erotica, too.

8. Bookends – A classic gift for any book lover that’s easy to personalize. You can find great bookends at thrift stores, book stores, and even Target. The Jonathan Adler dachshund bookends are delightful.

9. Book Lights – Book lights make great stocking stuffers. My favorite are by Mighty Bright. They have a huge selection, including USB lights and eReader book lights.

10. Bookmarks – I know it sounds cheesy, but bookmarks are another perfect stocking stuffer that avid readers can’t have too many of. There are book clips, digital bookmarks, and bookmark pens, so find something unique and fun.

Featured image by zitona

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

I’ll be honest here.  The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is not a book that I would normally read.   I usually stick with Harlequin Romance Novels.  Ya know, books that will help expand my mind.

However, a few months ago, a friend of mine invited me to join her book club.  Since I am an avid reader and am always looking for new authors to read, I jumped at the opportunity.  The fact that I get to go out to dinner with an awesome group of ladies every month had nothing to do with it, I promise.

When the votes were cast as to which books we’d be reading for the year, this book was number one on the list.  In my head I was thinking, “Well, hopefully I can get it at the library because I am *not* putting out any money on this book.”  Luckily, I didn’t have to fight the six month long waiting list because my brother already had the first two books.

Although the first fifty pages or so were hard to get into due to the ever expanding family tree that, for whatever reason, needed to be explained before the plot was even fully introduced, once I passed that point, I literally could not put this book down.

I stayed up late every night to read this and kept promising myself I’d finally go to sleep after “just one more chapter”.

As soon as I was done with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, I immediately ran downstairs to grab the second book, The Girl Who Played With Fire, from my brother’s book shelf.

Unfortunately, all of that lack of sleep eventually added up and I wound up with a horrible migraine.  I didn’t let that stop me….I still kept reading.

As soon as I was done with the second book, I hauled myself off, in all my sweatpants’d glory, to the book store to buy the third book, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest. A little migraine, smudged eye liner and the fact that it was still in hardback was not going to hold me back.  At least until someone mentioned cooking dinner…. then I was totally down for the count, man.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, on its own, is easily the best book I have read all year.  The two follow up books make this trilogy a force to be reckoned with and have To Kill a Mockingbird threatened to be knocked from the top of my “Best Book Ever!!” list.  Yes really – I don’t only read trashy romance novels. Geesh.

So seriously, if you have considered reading these books, clickety clack your way over to amazon and buy them now.  I promise you won’t regret it.

Ode To Adriana Trigiani

Adriana Trigiani. I love this woman more than I reasonably should. I would read a grocery list if she wrote it. Fortunately she writes much better things, like novels.

I first encountered her books while in the drugstore, passing by the paperback display. I needed something to read and Big Stone Gap caught my eye. It sounded nice, so I brought it home. And I fell in love, both with characters in the book and with Adriana Trigiani herself. After gobbling up her first novel, I dove into the other Big Stone Gap novels, then Queen of the Big Time and Lucia, Lucia and finally the Valentine series.

I don’t mind telling you that I cannot get enough.

Why? Because she gets me. Or rather I get her. Or something like that. I can see myself in each of her characters and experience the events in her books as if they were happening to me. Maybe it’s our shared Italian heritage. Maybe it’s our womanhood. Maybe she’s just very good at tapping into what it means to be a woman trying to make her way in the world.

This is more than chick lit. I know this because my mother, who only reads books by Michael Connelly, PJ Parrish and John Sandford (full of murder and mayhem all), loves Adriana’s books. And she’s read them all; I know because she borrowed them from me. I’ve recommended these books to several people who cannot stop gushing about them. I lost my copy of Lucia, Lucia when I lent it to someone and it never came home.

I love the heroines in her stories. They are real, flawed and honest. They fall in love with all kinds of men, wonderful and not-so-wonderful. But they do not live and die by their love lives, even when love is at the core of the story. They are well-rounded, women of substance.

There is also much to learn from her books – about Big Stone Gap, Virginia (a real place where Trigiani grew up), about New York City, about Italy and being Italian and about industries like fashion design and shoe making. I love when I can learn something new while being entertained. It’s my favorite state of being.

I gush, I know. but I think Adriana is worth it. I hope you will too.

P.S. – I left out a book. It’s called Rococo. I didn’t like it. It has a male central character. I don’t remember why I didn’t like it, so I may go back and give it another try. That’s how much I love Adriana Trigiani. Devotion, people. Devotion.

Book Review: Rock Paper Tiger

Brackman doesn’t waste a lot of time on backstory.  The action starts quickly when Lao Zhang hosts a “friend of a friend”in his home in Mati Village.  That “friend of a friend” turns out to be a Uigher, a Chinese Muslim, with possible terrorist connections.  It doesn’t take long for the authorities to come calling, but which authorities are they?

What happens next sets Ellie on a journey of both international and domestic U.S. intrigue and, more importantly, an opportunity to examine the motives, past and present, in her relationships.  While she deals with a dangerous and frightening present, she must also face a disturbing past.

The author gives us a character who is very human in her weaknesses, but who also finds inner strength she didn’t know she possessed.  While her younger self may have been more willing to be tossed along the currents of greater forces, she eventually learns that the only person she can trust in this situation is herself.  She must do the right thing not only to save herself, but also to protect those for whom she cares.

The characters are developed with a keen eye for detail.  Brackman captures them visually as well as through a snappy dialog that rings true.  Ellie speaks just as you’d expect her to. That makes her both believable and someone with whom I can empathize.  Scattering the backstory masterfully into the present action, Brackman lets the reader see into Ellie’s interior life.

While I’ve neither studied nor visited China, I felt as though I was there.  Brackman’s descriptions were detailed and thorough without making me want her to hurry along with the story telling.  The place is a large part of the story and Brackman’s descriptions of modern day China made that part of the story come alive.

The suspense built in an arc that kept me reading and while I did put the book down a few times, that was not because of the writing or the story.  It was because I decided to read this book just about the time things in my own life started to shift and I had to deal with other priorities.

By leaving open a couple of story threads, it seems possible that Brackman might want to write more about Ellie. She’s a character that I came to like, to care about and I would happy to read what other kinds of adventures might befall her in the future.

Find more information about Rock Paper Tiger here.

Henry’s Sisters

Once in awhile a book comes along that I know will never quite make it to the donation box that my husband and I take to the senior center book store every other month or so. My Harry Potter books, my Twilight series books and then every so often a single novel will shine in such a way that I know it will always be on my shelf even if I never peruse its pages again.

Henry’s Sisters is a story about a completely, and I mean COMPLETELY, dysfunctional family. The kids are all grown, the three sisters Isabelle, Janie, Cecilia and Henry. Their dad is in prison, their mom is cruel and cold – just as she was her kids’ whole lives – and their grandmother thinks she is Amelia Erhart. This family makes you value that one crazy drunk uncle you have.  You know, the one who gets a little overly friendly at holidays while loaded up on eggnog and schnapps. He’s a treat compared to this family.

You will fall in love with this family and with these sisters of Henry. You will adore Henry with every fiber of your being. He is an ever-constant, ever-loving brother, son and grandson with Downs Syndrome and is the heart and soul of the book.

Follow this family as they journey through life together while learning more and more about their past. You should take the trip with them and bring a tissue box. Or five.  Or ten.  There is laughter, too, so don’t worry that I’m leading you into a downward spiral of sorrow. There are laughs and joy and tears. Just enough of each to strike a balance.

It’s a lovely book. So next time you’re trying to find something to read for vacation, lunch breaks, winter nights or just to curl up and have some “me” time. Take a chance with Henry’s Sisters. They will not disappoint.

Books for Boys

Listen, I don’t subscribe to the idea that there are girl things and boy things.  While I may be what is typically called a “girly girl”, it’s by choice and not genetic shackling.

If my kids want to play with dolls, trucks or lab rats, I don’t care, as long as I don’t step on it in the middle of the night.

That being said, I’m probably not going to convince my son to read more by handing him my first edition copy of Sweet Valley High.

The holidays are coming and I think books make great gifts for kids.  Books are an especially good gift for boys who are so. not. impressed. with clothes (and really don’t need another video game.  Really.  Please.)

As of December 14th, I’ll have a 10 year old boy, so the focus of this post is “mid-grade” books for boys.  (Most of these books will work for girls as well, obviously, but I wanted to concentrate specifically on ideas for boys today.)  Let’s just pretend it’s not called “Buy Her” for a moment.

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Cookbooks: The best of the best with Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook

On principle, I rarely suggest cookbooks as gifts for women.  I also don’t want a vaccuum cleaner for Valentine’s Day or a new ironing board for my birthday, thanks.  Apparently, I have a little feminist rebellion in me after all.

And yet, one of the best wedding presents I received was a cookbook I got from my Nanna.  A cookbook as a wedding present?  Sure, it’s a little cliche.  But I think every kitchen has to have this cookbook in it.

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