Category: Book Reviews

The Lighthouse Award

Published on by macjam477 Comments

The Lighthouse Award

 

 My blog friend Cathy over at Between the Lines nominated me for this awesome award. I am humbled by her thoughtfulness and support. If you haven’t visited Cathy’s blog yet, it is time to hop over there and check it out. Thank you Cathy for this nomination, I am truly honored.

 The rules require me to

• Display the Award Certificate on your blog.
• Write a post and link back to the blogger that nominated you.
• Inform your nominees of their award nominations.
• Share three ways that you like to help others.
• Nominate as many bloggers as you like.
I’d like to pass on the award to these deserving blogs

If you’re not into awards and don’t participate, that’s absolutely fine. Please accept this as my way of saying I really your blogs.

The three ways I like to help are

  • Take time to smile and say “Hello” to everyone. Sometimes that simple effort can make a difference in the other person’s day.
  • I like to pay-it-forward to those in need.
  • I don’t gossip. Gossiping causes so much pain and I don’t want to contribute to someone else’s unhappiness.

 

The Versatile Blogger Award

Published on by macjam477 Comments

the-versatile-blogger-award

 

Wow! My good friend Stephanie over at S.J. Thomas’s Book Blurbs has nominated me for yet another award! Thank you so much Stephanie; you are awesome! Speaking of awesome, please check out Stephanie’s fantastic blog where you can read some stories on the Killer Thriller page, read about Stephanie AND her furry friends on her About Me pages, and of course on her Book Reviews page there are many links to her book reviews.

 

Now the Rules for This Award:

* Display the Award on your Blog

* Announce your win with a post and thank the Blogger who nominated you.

* Present 10 -15 deserving Bloggers with the Award

* Link your Nominees in the post and let them know they have been nominated
with a comment.

* Post 7 interesting things about yourself

Seven Interesting Things about Me:

 

1.) My daughters-in-law are extra special people and my best friends. I’d be lost without them.

2.) I love to watch storms, especially when there is lightning.

3.) I like snow once it’s off the roadways and sidewalks, but after a long winter, I can hardly wait till spring.

4.) I am so claustrophobic I panic in crowds.

5.) I love shoes, but I hate to wear them.

6.) I love doing laundry.

7.) My favorite color is pink.

My Nominees:

These are some of the many blogs I follow that I really love and I know you will too! Please stop by and check them out!

  1. Julie Valerie’s Book Blog
  2. True Stories
  3. Colline’s Blog
  4. dreamzandclouds
  5. MegaMad4Books
  6. H.M. Brooks Writes
  7. Purrfect Kitties
  8. Creativwins
  9. The Storytelling Mom
  10. The Kim Challenge
  11. Booksandbassets
  12. A Woman’s Wisdom

Congratulations everyone!

Passing Fair – ABC Poem

Published on by macjam472 Comments

My friend Morgan at booknvolume.com posted this for me today. It is so beautiful, as is all of her poetry. Please stop by her blog and read more.

Morgan's avatarBooknVolume

Passing Fair

Absolute Silence,
Breathless Sigh,
Chaos Soaring
Deep Inside,
Echoes of a
Fracture in Time,
Gabriel’s Horn
Heralding Fine,
Indigo Setting in
Jagged Night,
Kisses Telling More than the
Light,
Message Drifting in
Neptune’s Hand,
OH the Tranquility of a
Purposeless Plan,
Questing,
Resting,
Shadows Drifting,
Timeless Device of the
Universe, Shifting,
Vast and Empty,
Waiting Delay,
Xanadu Tempting
Yesterday,
Zero hour Passing Fair,
All
Betrayed in Your
Calamitous Stare.

(sorry, ran over a bit, first go, but I know you will Humour me 😉 )

Because macjam 47 at : http://michelleclementsjames.com asked me to 🙂

~Morgan~
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.
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Beautiful Original Artwork: across_an_ocean_of_stars_by_whisperingcrows

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The Moon Sisters by Therese Walsh

Published on by macjam479 Comments

The Moon Sisters
THE MOON SISTERS is a remarkable story of two sisters who are grieving the loss of their mother while their father is drowning his sorrow in vodka.  Jazz and her younger sister Olivia can’t seem to stop battling over one thing or another – Jazz’s new job at the funeral home where their mother’s wake took place; Olivia, legally blind, determined to find an ending for their mother’s novel in remote Cranberry Glades in the mountains of West Virginia.  Jazz reluctantly follows Olivia who hops a train and meets Hobbs, a tattooed young man, whom Olivia falls for, much to Jazz’s dismay. After all, they know nothing about him or his past. While trying to protect Olivia and convince her to go home, Jazz becomes as embroiled in Olivia’s struggle to find the spot where their mother believed she would find the conclusion to her life’s work.

When I read Walsh’s debut novel THE LAST WILL OF MOIRA LEAHY, I was drawn in and thought I was reading one of the best novels I had ever opened. However, I was unprepared for the complexity of the storytelling in THE MOON SISTERS. This is writing at its finest! The story is woven between bits of past family history and the story of their quest for closure. It is a highly emotional read that will keep your attention from page one to the end of the book. This will surely be among the top books of 2014.

Find out more about Therese Walsh and her books visit her

Website   Facebook   Twitter   Pinterest   Goodreads

Buy Therese’s books at Amazon.

Hi, Koo! A Year of Seasons by Jon J. Muth

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Hi Koo

Hi, Koo! A Year of Seasons by Jon J. Muth is an enchanting picture book featuring a darling panda, Koo. The story is told through a series of Haiku. Each Haiku highlights a letter of the alphabet by capitalizing a word within the Haiku, and so from page one A = Autumn to the last Z = Zero.  Beautifully illustrated by the author with colorful story pictures, Hi, Koo! is sure to delight young children (and their parents).

I absolutely loved this book. It is positively one of the best books I’ve read for young children. The innovative way of introducing the alphabet was a break from the traditional ABC book.

I fell in love with the panda Koo from the very first time I saw him on the cover of this book. Check it out.

Learn more about Jon J. Muth and his books:  Website     Facebook     LibraryThing

Buy his books:  Amazon     Barnes & Noble

HIDDEN by Catherine McKenzie

Published on by macjam4711 Comments

hidden-204x300Catherine McKenzie weaves a tale of secrets kept in her latest book HIDDEN. Jeff Manning is hit by a car while walking home from work and leaves two women devastated. One, his wife Claire, is left to struggle with this unimaginable loss while at the same time helping their son Seth find his way through his own suffering. The other, Jeff’s co-worker Julie, is faced with hiding her grief and at the same time burying her secret before anyone discovers it.

Written in the voices of main characters Jeff, Claire, and Tish, this book is brimming with emotion and excitement. Even though Jeff dies at the beginning of the book, his explanations interposed in this way, bring clarity to the story. HIDDEN is about the complexity of relationships – good, bad, and everything in between.

I am an ardent fan of Catherine McKenzie, and have read all of her fabulous books. HIDDEN is a masterpiece! It is carefully crafted with a story line and characters that left me mesmerized. HIDDEN is a book you will carry with you everywhere you go until you read the last words. I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a truly absorbing read. I give it five stars.

To find out more about Catherine McKenzie visit:

Website      Twitter       Facebook       Goodreads

To buy her books:

Amazon     Barnes and Noble

Like to party? Hop along the Hump Day Blog Hop on Julie Valerie’s Book Blog. Click here to return to the Hump Day Blog Hop.

The Truth About You By Susan Lewis

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uscover-Truth-About-YouLainey Hollingsworth was living a life she loved, she was a mother, married to someone she was deeply in love with and trusted beyond all doubt, had a terrific job managing her husband’s writing career, and lived where she always wanted to be – in her childhood home.  Her life was not without trials, however. Lainey had a stepson Max, who after all these years still blamed her for the breakup between his parents. Her adoring father, who was actually her stepfather and the only father she had ever known, was living with them and was severely afflicted with Alzheimer’s. Lainey’s teenage daughter Tierney was searching for her grownup self, and that was causing friction where there had never been friction before. Her husband Tom was absent more and more and doubts started creeping in. When she received a text message, “Ask your husband about Julie” Lainey’s life, as she knew it, suddenly started unraveling.

Add to all of this was a planned trip to Italy to try to learn more about her family.  Her mother left Italy with Lainey when Lainey was very young and never returned. She refused even at her death to tell Lainey about her biological father and why she took Lainey to England without ever looking back.

I thought Lainey Hollingsworth was a complicated protagonist. At the beginning of the book she was a strong woman who, as the story unfolded, soon became filled with uncertainties and insecurities. She was angry and came to her own conclusions about her husband’s absences without giving him a chance to explain.  Words spoken, and left unspoken, lead to misconceptions. In the end and after suffering so much hurt, was Lainey’s imagined “truth” reality?

This was storytelling at its finest. With memorable characters and intricate plot lines, the book kept calling me back. As I turned the last page, I was sad I’d come to the end of this amazing story. This was the first book by Susan Lewis that I have read, and it certainly won’t be the last. I look forward to delving into some of her other books. I recommend THE TRUTH ABOUT YOU to anyone who enjoys getting totally immersed in a story. It was fabulous.

You can find out more about Susan Lewis on her website at www.susanlewis.com

I received this book from Library Thing Early Reviewers in exchange for an honest review.

The Wedding Gift by Marlen Suyapa Bodden

Published on by macjam476 Comments

The Wedding Gift

THE WEDDING GIFT, a historical fiction, is a wonderfully crafted retelling of the dark side of our U.S. history – a time when people owned other human beings and often abused them worse than they mistreated animals.  The story has been told before by many other authors, but never before THE WEDDING GIFT has anyone captured so vividly the despair the slaves, who had no control over their lives, must have felt. Ms. Bodden researched her topic well and told a compelling tale of Sarah Campbell, the slave daughter of a wealthy plantation owner in the Deep South before the Civil War. Sarah was willing to risk a beating or even death for freedom.  Beatings were often so severe as to cause death.

This book was a real page-turner. I honestly could not put it down. THE WEDDING GIFT, the debut novel by Marlen Suyapa Bodden, is without a doubt one of the best books I have read. I highly recommend this book to everyone.

To learn more about THE WEDDING GIFT check our Marlen Suyapa Bodden’s website at http://marlenbodden.com/.

I received this book in a giveaway hosted by Julie Valerie’s Book Blog at www.julievalerie.com.

Board Books for the Youngest Readers

Published on by macjam4720 Comments

When my children were young I bought board books for them, lots of board books. They are just perfect for little fingers that haven’t developed the dexterity to turn a paper page while at the same time introducing them to the wonderful world of books. Of course, no matter how many books a child has, there is always one or two that are favorites, and before long she is “reading” those books on her own.

I firmly believe that a child who is read to from infancy is more likely to be a better reader, have a life-long interest in reading, and will grow her vocabulary through the words she meets in her books. Story time is a time for bonding between the child and the reader.

I recently found the following board books while on a bookstore shopping spree.

You Are My I LOVE YOU by Maryann Cusimano Love is a delightful rhyming story about a parent’s love for his child.You Are My I LOVE YOU

“I am your calm face;

You are my giggle.

I am your wait;

You are my wiggle.”

The pictures are charming and illustrate the verse on each page.

GUESS WHO! by Laura Driscoll introduces various animals with a simple rhyme telling something about each animal. The opposite page has a mirror and the animal tells what kind of animal he is and says, “Just like you.” Guess Who

“In Russia the snow

Piles up high and deep

While I am in my den,

Fast asleep”.

“I am a brown bear!

Just like you!”

YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE and RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY are both illustrated by Caroline Jayne Church. Both verses are the very ones I sang to my children when they were small. The books are well illustrated with colorful, eye-catching pictures that appeal to the youngest of readers.

You Are My SunshineRain Rain Go Away

If there is a little one in your life, check out these books and the many other children’s board books at your favorite bookstore.

Return to Tradd Street by Karen White

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Return to Tradd StreetCharleston, South Carolina is one of my favorite cities. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve been there. It is no wonder I fell in love with RETURN TO TRADD STREET.  The descriptions of Charleston are so vivid, I instantly recognized places I have been. I’ve stayed at the Charleston Place Hotel, and it’s every bit as elegant as Karen White portrays it. The Palmetto Café where the main character Melanie (Mellie) Middleton and her best friend meet for lunch is not to be outdone. I don’t think there is a museum I haven’t visited, and Tradd and Legare, East Bay Street, South Battery, and Broad are streets I have walked.

Mellie has inherited a beautiful stately old Charleston home, as well as a housekeeper, and a dog named General Lee from Nevin Vanderhorst after only meeting him once.  She is a realtor that specializes in old homes, and she met him to discuss putting his house on the market. She is pregnant and has told the father Jack Trenholm she won’t marry him.  Jack has a teenaged daughter, a talented musician, who has the typical teenage clashes with her dad. Nola and Mellie have bonded, and Mellie often finds herself in the role of “mother”.

The story was fantastic. I could hardly put it down. There are several conflicts in the story that Mellie needs to solve. Mysteriously, she hears a baby crying while in her house. Is she in love with Jack? Will she get to retain ownership of the house? Does she even want the house? How will she and Jack work out the details of parenthood after the baby is born?  There is a lot of action to keep you turning the pages.

The characters were fascinating. Do Mellie and her mother have psychic powers? Can anyone be as handsome as Jack? The Gilberts come into the story, and in the beginning I disliked them, but as Mellie learned more about them and came to like them herself, so did I.  Sophie, Mellie’s best friend, has a very colorful way of dressing, not at all stylish, but is what everyone wants in a friend. I could describe these characters and more in greater detail, but I don’t want to spoil the book for other readers.

This is the first book by Karen White that I’ve read, and it definitely won’t be the last.  I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good romance with a bit of a mystery as well.