Book Review - Waking Hours By Lis Wiehl with Pete Nelson

Waking Hours (The East Salem Trilogy) Title:  Waking Hours
Author:  Lis Wiehl with Pete Nelson 
Reading level: Adult
Genre:  Thriller
Size: Hard Cover, 336 pages
Release Date:  October 2011
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Stand Alone or Series: The East Salem Trilogy Book #1 
Source:  BookSneeze in exchange for an honest review

First Line:  "Tommy Gunderson woke in the middle of the night to the howling of the wind and the siren of his home’s security system."

Summary (from GoodReads):

All towns have secrets. Some have demons.
Welcome to East Salem. A sleepy town with a history older than America where things are just a bit off. Where the supernatural bleeds into the everyday.
And where a tragic murder mystery is underway. A high school girl is found dead in the town park. And where forensic psychiatrist Dani Harris wants answers. All the suspects are teenagers who were at the party with her the night before-but who woke up the next morning with no memory of what transpired. Even though evidence confirms they were all at the scene of the crime.
Former pro-football linebacker-and local celebrity-Tommy Gunderson finds himself drawn to the case. And to Dani-who he last spoke with on their one high school date forever ago. Yet his celebrity status opens doors barred to Dani-so they form an awkward alliance.
They soon realize that there's more to the mystery than murder. And more to the evil they are facing than a mere human killer.

Quotes from the Book:

You never stop learning. Particularly from your mistakes.

I told him God gave us tears the same way he gave us laughter.  All part of the same system.

My Thoughts:

This book has all the makings of a great murder, mystery/thriller.  It starts with a gruesome apparently ritualistic murder and then weaves in the supernatural elements so that they don’t overpower but rather complement the story.

I loved the plot and the main characters although I do feel that there was a little something lacking in the development of those characters…or perhaps it was simply the matter of fact style of the storytelling itself.  If you are looking for rich language and a lot of emotional depth…this book does not deliver. 

That said, I did find the story line very compelling and found the novel itself hard to put down.  I even found myself having crazy dreams at night right along with the main character: Dani.  The murder mystery was nicely wrapped up by the end…however the supernatural elements were still left unsolved…leading in to the second in the series….

If you’re looking for a simple Murder mystery read with supernatural elements thrown in and don’t mind waiting for the next in the series to have those answered…then this book won’t disappoint.

My Rating:

This book was entertaining

In My Mailbox (7)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme created by The Story Siren to share whatever books and bookish goodies that you've bought, borrowed, won, or been gifted and have thus entered your home the previous week. You can show off books that you are excited about and it's also a great opportunity to showcase books that you may not actually have the time to read or review.

Won:

Murder Unleashed: A Novel

Unscrupulous bankers, abandoned homes, and a cold-blooded killer on the loose: Mags Rogers and her wire-haired dachshund, Baxter, dig up the dirt in the second scintillating novel in New York Times bestselling author Rita Mae Brown’s delightful new series featuring some doggedly determined canine sleuths and their intrepid human companions.

Settling into ranch life outside Reno, Nevada, with her gregarious great-aunt Jeep Reed and Jeep’s German Shepherd, King, former Wall Street trader Mags doesn’t miss the cutthroat world of investment banking—because its destructive tentacles have reached westward to the Silver State. The foreclosure crisis has taken a huge bite out of the local real estate market, where rows of homes sit unsold and forsaken—but not empty.

A group of squatters, including desperate single mothers with children, are living under the radar in the houses on Reno’s Yolanda Street—without water or electricity. Big-hearted real estate broker Babs Gallagher enlists Jeep and Mags to start a community outreach program, but that means going up against uncaring utility companies, corrupt officials, ruthless politicians—and a merciless murderer. When a former banker is found brutally slain in one of the abandoned homes, the notion of “cutthroat business practices” takes on a whole new meaning.

Baxter, King, and some other canine detectives leave no bone of contention buried as they help their human charges untangle a string of murders rooted deep in the heart of Red Rock Valley’s prominent citizenry. Though Reno deputy—and Mags’s unofficial significant other—Pete Meadows uncovers evidence of blackmail, shady real estate ventures, and rumors of lost treasure, the killer seems to hold all the cards in a city of gambling and sin. Luckily, Mags, Jeep, and Babs still have a few tricks up their sleeves. As nefarious sexploits and backroom backstabbing reverberate throughout the county, the dogs are officially off the leash—and on the hunt for a killer. Along the way, they encounter curious coyotes, human kindness and treachery, and a long-buried stash of riches.

A Duke's Temptation: The Bridal Pleasures Series
Samuel Charles Aubrey St. Aldwyn, Duke of Gravenhurst, is a radical rogue and champion of unpopular causes. No one would dream that he is also the author of a bestselling series of dark historical novels, a writer accused of corrupting the morals of the public, and a master seducer who counts among his passionate fans wellborn Miss Lily Boscastle. But Lily is no stranger to disrepute.

When her engagement to another man ends in a tarnished image and public disgrace, Lily is forced to seek employment outside London - as housekeeper for Gravenhurst himself. Her sharp wit and sensuality appeal to his wicked instincts - and she’s a perfect match for every beguiling move he makes. Yet there’s more to him than Lily imagined - a secret known to few living souls, ghosts from the past that haunt both of their futures in ways too dangerous for even the duke to have invented.

Wildefire
Every flame begins with a spark.
Ashline Wilde is having a rough sophomore year. She’s struggling to find her place as the only Polynesian girl in school, her boyfriend just cheated on her, and now her runaway sister, Eve, has decided to barge back into her life. When Eve’s violent behavior escalates and she does the unthinkable, Ash transfers to a remote private school nestled in California’s redwoods, hoping to put the tragedy behind her. But her fresh start at Blackwood Academy doesn’t go as planned. Just as Ash is beginning to enjoy the perks of her new school—being captain of the tennis team, a steamy romance with a hot, local park ranger—Ash discovers that a group of gods and goddesses have mysteriously enrolled at Blackwood…and she’s one of them. To make matters worse, Eve has resurfaced to haunt Ash, and she’s got some strange abilities of her own. With a war between the gods looming over campus, Ash must master the new fire smoldering within before she clashes with her sister one more time… And when warm and cold fronts collide, there’s guaranteed to be a storm.

For Review:

Stuck In Estrogen's Funhouse
Martina “Marti” MacCale, bartender extraordinaire at Flash Point, the best bar in town, is happily married to her best friend, Spencer and having the time of her life… until without warning, her own body rudely sets out to destroy her happiness. Pregnancy tests negative, she becomes a whirlwind of emotion and confusion. And amidst the unexplained mood swings and strange food cravings, she finds herself craving someone who is not her husband… What’s a girl to do when not even a good old-fashioned Sex on the Beach can soothe the ache?

Crazy in Paradise

Dying in the middle of the summer in the Florida Keys is sweaty business. Welcome to Tarpon Cove. Madison Westin inherits her aunt’s beachfront motel along with a variety of colorful tenant’s - drunks, ex-cons and fugitives. Only one problem: First she has to wrestle control from her lawyer and conniving motel manager. She enlists the help of her new best friend who’s motto is never leave home without your Glock. Only in South Florida, land of hot tan lines, drugs on demand – not to mention blackmail and murder.

Waking Hours (The East Salem Trilogy)

All towns have secrets. Some have demons.
Welcome to East Salem. A sleepy town with a history older than America where things are just a bit off. Where the supernatural bleeds into the everyday.

And where a tragic murder mystery is underway. A high school girl is found dead in the town park. And where forensic psychiatrist Dani Harris wants answers. All the suspects are teenagers who were at the party with her the night before-but who woke up the next morning with no memory of what transpired. Even though evidence confirms they were all at the scene of the crime.
Former pro-football linebacker-and local celebrity-Tommy Gunderson finds himself drawn to the case. And to Dani-who he last spoke with on their one high school date forever ago. Yet his celebrity status opens doors barred to Dani-so they form an awkward alliance.
They soon realize that there's more to the mystery than murder. And more to the evil they are facing than a mere human killer.

Bought:

Cascade: A Novel (River of Time Series)
Mom touched my underdress—a gown made six hundred years before—and her eyes widened as she rubbed the raw silk between thumb and forefinger. She turned and touched Lia’s gown. “Where did you get these clothes?”
Gabi knows she’s left her heart in the fourteenth century and she persuades Lia to help her to return, even though they know doing so will risk their very lives. When they arrive, weeks have passed and all of Siena longs to celebrate the heroines who turned the tide in the battle against Florence—while the Florentines will go to great lengths to see them dead.
But Marcello patiently awaits, and Gabi must decide if she’s willing to leave her family behind for good in order to give her heart to him forever.


The Hunger Games Trilogy Boxed Set
The extraordinary, ground breaking New York Times bestsellers The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, along with the third book in The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay, are available for the first time ever in a beautiful boxset edition. Stunning, gripping, and powerful. The trilogy is now complete!

Well, that's all for this week. What exciting books have come into your hands this week??

Book Review - The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent

Title:  The Heretic’s Daughter
Author:  Kathleen Kent
Reading level: Adult
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Size: Hard Cover, 352 pages
Release Date:  September 2008 
Publisher: Little, Brown, and Company 
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Borrowed from Library

First Line:  "The distance by wagon from Billerica to neighboring Andover is but nine miles."

Summary (from GoodReads):

Martha Carrier was one of the first women to be accused, tried and hanged as a witch in Salem, Massachusetts. Like her mother, young Sarah Carrier is bright and willful, openly challenging the small, brutal world in which they live. Often at odds with one another, mother and daughter are forced to stand together against the escalating hysteria of the trials and the superstitious tyranny that led to the torture and imprisonment of more than 200 people accused of witchcraft. This is the story of Martha's courageous defiance and ultimate death, as told by the daughter who survived. 

Kathleen Kent is a tenth generation descendent of Martha Carrier. She paints a haunting portrait, not just of Puritan New England, but also of one family's deep and abiding love in the face of fear and persecution.

Favorite Quotes from the Book:

Life is not what you have or what you can keep. It is what you can bear to lose.

I heard no more words from her, only the sound of weeping. The bitter kind that comes when a child is to depart the earth before the one who gave him birth.

It is true that some people will lose their desire for life and refuse food and drink after the death of a beloved, or if there is too much pain and injury to the body. But a child, so recently come into the world from the void of creation, can be more resilient than the strongest man, more strong willed than the hardiest woman. A child is like an early spring bulb that carries all the resources needed within its skin for the first push through the soil towards the sun. And just as a little bit of water can start the bulb to grow, even through fissured rock, so can a little kindness give a child the ability to push through the dark.

He would stand for all of us so that when she closed her eyes for the last time, there would be a counterweight of love against the overflowing presence of vengeance and fear.

There is no death in remembrance. Remember me, Sarah. Remember me, and a part of me will always be with you.

I took a step. And then another. And so it went as we followed Father, who had come to take us forever away from Salem. And with every step I thought of my mother's courage as she faced her judges. With every step I thought of her cleaving to the truth even as she fell the short distance of the rope. With every step I thought of her pride, her strength, her love. And with every step I thought, I am my mother's daughter, I am my mother's daughter.

My Thoughts:

Kathleen Kent’s story although on the surface is one about the Salem witch trials…is actually more a story about life in 17th century New England and familial relationships.

The first half of the book builds slowly as we learn more about life in Puritan New England, its hardships and  its joys, than we might expect. We not only learn about the difficulties that life in the 1600’s brings but we experience them firsthand through the voice of Sarah our 9 year old narrator. When first her mother, then her brothers and finally she herself is accused, arrested, and taken to Salem jail…the burden that she must carry to care for and protect what remains of her family is inconceivable for modern times.

  Perhaps even more intriguing and heartbreaking is what we learn of her relationships with her family and extended family (in particular that of her Mother and cousin) and how those relationships are tested and forged within the construct that is the Salem Witch Trials.

If you are looking for a Halloween type retelling of the Trials then this is not the book for you…but if you love Colonial history and books with themes of persecution, conviction, and love…then I recommend The Heretic’s Daughter.

My Rating:

This book was entertaining

Book Blogger Hop (5) & Follow Friday (6) & TGIF (3) - 9/30/11

Happy Friday!!

 This week's question:

Q. What book that hasn't been turned into a movie (yet) would you most like to see make it to the big screen, and who would you like cast as your favorite character?  A. I am in the middle of listening to The Passage by Justin Cronin right now and I think that it would make an amazing mini series - Stephen King style! And I'm kind of feeling Mark Wahlberg for Brad Wolgast.




Q. In honor of Banned Books Week, what is your favorite “banned or frequently challenged book"?  A.  I could go with the standard Harry Potter and it would be a good answer ;p but I just looked through the list for my post yesterday...and the one book on it that I've read recently and am in love with is East of Eden by John Steinbeck.  If you haven't picked it up, do so...it is definitely one not to miss!  

  Q. Banned Books: How do you feel about the censorship of the freedom to read? Do you think the education system needs to be more strict on what children are exposed to in books?

I definitely feel that there should be the freedom to read whatever one wants...I am a liberal after all. However when it comes to children I do (perhaps unpopularly) think that the education system in concert with parents needs to make sure that children are reading age appropriate material. I went to a pretty liberal high school and although it was wonderful in many aspects...I can remember at least one book that was required reading which I felt was inappropriate for my age group and that I complained about.

Thanks to Parajunkies View , Alison Can Read ,  Crazy for Books  & GReads  for hosting these hops! 

 

  

In Honor of Banned Books Week

Banned Books Week is an annual awareness campaign that celebrates the freedom to read,draws attention to banned and challenged books, and highlights persecuted individuals. The United States campaign "stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them" and the requirement to keep material publicly available so that people can develop their own conclusions and opinions. The international campaign notes individuals "persecuted because of the writings that they produce, circulate or read.


List of the top 110 banned books (of all time).




Bold the ones you’ve read.
Italicize the ones you’ve read part of.
Underline the ones you specifically want to read (at least some of).
Read more. Convince others to read some.


#1 The Bible

#2 Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

#3 Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

#4 The Koran

#5 Arabian Nights

#6 Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

#7 Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

#8 Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

#9 The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

#10 Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

#11 The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli

#12 Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

#13 Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

#14 Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

#15 Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

#16 Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

#17 Dracula by Bram Stoker

#18 Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin

#19 Tom Jones by Henry Fielding

#20 Essays by Michel de Montaigne

#21 Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

#22 History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon

#23 Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

#24 Origin of Species by Charles Darwin

#25 Ulysses by James Joyce

#26 Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio

#27 Animal Farm by George Orwell

#28 Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

#29 Candide by Voltaire

#30 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

#31 Analects by Confucius

#32 Dubliners by James Joyce

#33 Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

#34 Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

#35 Red and the Black by Stendhal

#36 Das Capital by Karl Marx

#37 Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire

#38 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

#39 Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence

#40 Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

#41 Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser

#42 Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

#43 Jungle by Upton Sinclair

#44 All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

#45 Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx

#46 Lord of the Flies by William Golding

#47 Diary by Samuel Pepys

#48 Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

#49 Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

#50 Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

#51 Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak

#52 Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant

#53 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

#54 Praise of Folly by Desiderius Erasmu

#55 Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

#56 Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X

#57 The Color Purple by Alice Walker

#59 Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke

#60 The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

#61 Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe

#62 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

#63 East of Eden by John Steinbeck

#64 Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

#65 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

#66 Confessions by Jean Jacques Rousseau

#67 Gargantua and Pantagruel by Francois Rabelais

#68 Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes

#69 The Talmud

#70 Social Contract by Jean Jacques Rousseau

#71 Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

#72 Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence

#73 American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

#74 Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler

#75 Separate Peace by John Knowles

#76 The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

#77 The Red Pony by John Steinbeck

#78 Popol Vuh

#79 Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith

#80 Satyricon by Petronius

#81 James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

#82 Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

#83 Black Boy by Richard Wright

#84 Spirit of the Laws by Charles de Secondat Baron de Montesquieu

#85 Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

#86 Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George

#87 Metaphysics by Aristotle

#88 Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

#89 Institutes of the Christian Religion by Jean Calvin

#90 Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse

#91 The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene

#92 Sanctuary by William Faulkner

#93 As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

#94 Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin

#95 Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig

#96 Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

#97 General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud

#98 The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

#99 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Alexander Brown

#100 Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

#101 Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest J. Gaines

#102 Emile Jean by Jacques Rousseau

#103 Nana by Emile Zola

#104 The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

#105 Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin

#106 Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

#107 Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

#108 The Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck

#109 Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark

#110 Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

How many have you read??

Waterfall Wednesdays - Week 5

I'm so sad that this is our last week:(  Loved Waterfall!!  I  can not wait to read Cascade!

Discussion Questions for Week 5 (Hosted by  Nic at Irressistible Reads)

1. After Gabi is injured, the doctor gives her a tonic. Gabi questions the doctor several times what is in it but he refuses to tell. Would have you taken the tonic in Gabi situation?

I think that I would have...Marcello obviously trusted the doctor...and a tonic is much different than say...leeches!! Ewww!

2. Before the games Gabi asks Lia to let Lord Forabosch win in the archery event as people especially Lord Forabosch are becoming suspicious of them. But during the games Lord Forabosch upsets Lia trying to throw her off her game. So Lia decides to win. Do you think she did the right thing by not letting Lord Forabosch bully her or do you think she took an unnecessary risk?

I definitely think that she took a risk...I would have lost that tournament big time!!!  No need to call attention to myself!!

3. When Gabi is dying and she and Lia decide to return to the tombs so they can get the cure at home but they have to tell Marcello the truth. Even though Marcello thinks that it is madness that they are from the future he believes in Gabi because he loves her. Do you think this is believable? What would you have done if you were Marcello?

I would not have believed her!  I think I would have put a guard on her for her own protection and kept her within the castle walls where it was safe.  OMG--I sound like a chauvinist!! lol

4. In the end Gabi and Lia return home. Do you think Gabi will return to Marcello? Would you go back?

There are more books...so she must go back...unless Marcello figures out a way to join her!!  Either way...I can not wait to see what happpens next!!!  And no, I hate to admit it...but I think my love for my family and my current life would supercede the attraction I might feel for someone from another time that I'd known only a week or so!

5. Looking back at Waterfall what was your favourite moment?

My favorite moment was when Luca was teacher her to dance and Marcello cut in.  I know people will say "the kiss"...but for me...that was what started it all!!!

Teaser Tuesdays - Eve by Anna Carey

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!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Eve

by Anna Carey

From page 57:

"My eyes kept returning to his strong, angular features, the bones pressing against his skin.  I knew I should be more afraid of him, but right now, I was simply fascinated."

What's your teaser today?

In My Mailbox (6)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme created by The Story Siren to share whatever books and bookish goodies that you've bought, borrowed, won, or been gifted and have thus entered your home the previous week. You can show off books that you are excited about and it's also a great opportunity to showcase books that you may not actually have the time to read or review.

Here's what came into my home this past week:

Won:

The Winters in Bloom by Lisa Tucker

Eve (The Eve Trilogy, #1
Kyra and David Winter are happier than they ever thought they could be. They have a comfortable home, stable careers, and a young son, Michael, whom they love more than anything. Yet because of their complicated histories, Kyra and David have always feared that the life they created was destined to be disrupted. And on one perfectly average summer day, it is: Michael disappears from his own backyard.

The only question is whose past has finally caught up with them: David feels sure that Michael was taken by his troubled ex-wife, while Kyra believes the kidnapper must be someone from her estranged family, someone she betrayed years ago.

As the Winters embark on a journey of time and memory to find Michael, they will be forced to admit these suspicions, revealing secrets about themselves they’ve always kept hidden. But they will also have a chance to discover that it’s not too late to have the family they’ve dreamed of; that even if the world is full of risks, as long as they have hope, the future can bloom.

Lyrical, wise, and witty, The Winters in Bloom is Lisa Tucker’s most optimistic work to date. This enchanting, life-affirming story will charm listeners and leave them full of wonder at the stubborn strength of the human heart.

Thank to Goodreads and Atria Publishing for this one:)

For Review:

Night Night Blessings by Amy Parker

Witche

Cuddle up with your little ones and count all the blessings God put in their day.
 
This book is a precious way to put your little ones to bed at night and fill their thoughts with the many good things that have filled their day. It's a great way to teach them gratitude and help them sleep soundly at night.
Whether it's Mommy's goodnight kisses, Grandpa's comfy lap, or pancakes stacked THIS high, there are so many blessings to count before bed! Written in rhyme and coupled with adorable illustrations, this follow up book to best-selling Night Night Prayer will be an instant bedtime hit.

Thanks to BookSneeze and Tommy Nelson Publishers

Bought at the Brooklyn Book Festival:

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon--when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach--an "outlander"--in a Scotland torn by war and raiding Highland clans in the year of Our Lord...1743.

Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire is catapulted into intrigues and dangers that may threaten her life...and shatter her heart. For here she meets James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, and becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire...and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.

The Brooklyn Book Festival last Sunday was so much fun!! And I got to meet Diana Gabaldon! I've been wanting to start her Outlander Series for forever!!

Well, that's all for this week. What exciting books have come into your hands this week??

Book (and Movie) Review - Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

Title:  Practical Magic
Author:  Alice Hoffman
Reading level: Adult
Genre:  Magical Realism
Size: Hard Cover, 286 pages
Release Date:  August 2005
Publisher: Berkley Trade
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Borrowed from Library

First Line:   "For more than two hundred years, the Owens women have been blamed for everything that has gone wrong in town."

Summary (from GoodReads):

The bestselling author of Second Nature, Illumination Night and Turtle Moon now offers her most fascinating and tantalizingly accomplished novel yet -- a winning tale that amply confirms Alice Hoffman's reputation not only as a genius of the vivid scene and unforgettable character but as one of America's most captivating storytellers.

When the beautiful and precocious sisters Sally and Gillian Owens are orphaned at a young age, they are taken to a small Massachusetts town to be raised by their eccentric aunts, who happen to dwell in the darkest, eeriest house in town. As they become more aware of their aunts' mysterious and sometimes frightening powers -- and as their own powers begin to surface -- the sisters grow determined to escape their strange upbringing by blending into "normal" society.

But both find that they cannot elude their magic-filled past. And when trouble strikes -- in the form of a menacing backyard ghost -- the sisters must not only reunite three generations of Owens women but embrace their magic as a gift -- and their key to a future of love and passion. Funny, haunting, and shamelessly romantic, Practical Magic is bewitching entertainment -- Alice Hoffman at her spectacular best

Favorite Quotes from the Book:

...they still won't learn what Ben knows until they fall head over heels in love.  When they don't care if they make fools of themselves, when taking a risk seems the safest thing to do, and walking a tightrope or throwing themselves into the white-water rapids feels like child's play compared with a single kiss, then they'll understand.

Pride is a funny thing; it can make what is truly worthless appear to be a treasure.  As soon as you let go of it, pride shrinks to the size of a fly, but one that has no head, and no tail, and no wings with which to lift itself off the ground.

One more lie and she'll be truly  lost One more and she'll never find her way back through the woods.

Although she'd never believe it, those lines in Gillian's face are the most beautiful part about her.  They reveal what she's gone through and what she's survived and who exactly she is, deep inside.

There are some things, after all, that Sally Owens knows for certain: Always throw spilled salt over your left shoulder. Keep rosemary by your garden gate. Add pepper to your mashed potatoes. Plant roses and lavender, for luck. Fall in love whenever you can.

My Thoughts:

This story is the perfect blend of the real and the magical. Starting with two orphaned girls being raised by their "unconventional" aunts...the book then blossoms into an examination of family relationships, true love, and what hope and belief really mean.

  The relationships between the Aunts (Frances and Bridget-known as Jet), the girls (Sally and Gillian), and Sally's children (Antonia and Kylie) develop and change over the 30 year or so timespan of the book in a way that is absolutely something beautiful.  The growth of all of these characters, the hard lessons learned, the joy and wonder embraced...make it a treasure even aside from it's magic.

But this book does indeed also have a very magical side.  There is magic woven through the Owens family dating back hundreds of years.  The Aunts actively practice love magic for the town's women, sometimes with disastrous consequences.  Sally and Gillian struggle though out their lives wavering between embracing what they are and rejecting it in the attempt to live a more normal life.  By the conclusion, after one particularly hard lesson is learned, they seem to have found that balance...

Favorite Quotes from the Movie:

My darling girl, when are you going to realize that being normal is not necessarily a virtue? It rather denotes a lack of courage!

And this is what comes from dabbling; I mean you can't practice witchcraft while you look down your nose at it.

Sometimes I feel like there's a hole inside of me, an emptiness that at times seems to burn. I think if you lifted my heart to your ear, you could probably hear the ocean. The moon tonight, there's a circle around it. Sign of trouble not far behind. I have this dream of being whole. Of not going to sleep each night, wanting. But still sometimes, when the wind is warm or the crickets sing... I dream of a love that even time will lie down and be still for. I just want someone to love me. I want to be seen. I don't know. Maybe I had my happiness. I don't want to believe it but, there is no man, Gilly. Only that moon.

You ever put your arms out and spin really, really fast? She does? Well, that's what love is like. It makes your heart race. It turns the world upside down. But if you're not careful, if you don't keep your eyes on something still, you can lose your balance. You can't see what's happening to the people around you. You can't see that you're about to fall. 

Curses only have power when you believe them. And I don't.

Trouble is just like love, after all; it comes in unannounced and takes over before you've had a chance to reconsider, or even to think.

Every problem has a solution, although it may not be the outcome that was originally hoped for or expected.

It has power because you believe it does.

The Movie (contains spoilers): 

I watched this movie many years ago before reading the novel and then again last night after finishing the book.  I am quite shocked to admit that although I have yet to find a movie version that surpasses the book--this one comes quite close.  


The movie captures the essence of the book startlingly well although it does veer off in many aspects. A few examples:

1. In the book Gillian is soley responsible for Jimmy's death (or so we think) and in the movie it is actually Sally who kills him.
2. In the book they simply bury him under the lilacs and in the movie they attempt to raise him with no good result.
3.  In the book Gillian also finds true love while in the movie we only see Sally's relationship with Gary.
4.  In the book Jimmy haunts the house and it's residents poltergeist style while in the movie he possesses Gillian.

Overall though, I honestly feel like the movie did a great job of bringing the magical elements and the heart/belief behind them to life.

My Rating:

I really liked this book

Note: I would have given this a full 5 stars if not for the element of animal sacrifice involved in the Aunts love magic.