All About the Books

A while back I received a HUGE surprise when I got home. A large box was waiting for me. Birthday? Nope. Christmas? Nope. Who was sending me something?

Turns out, I won tons of books from Reading Group Choices. After I started a book club here with some co-workers, I went searching for some websites for book clubs. If you've never checked out this website before, head on over there. They've got a great newsletter that I receive and obviously have contests for books as well. This month is National Reading Group Month and they have a fabulous website set up for it. This is a great resource so go on and register.

Oh. Here's the stack of books I won:Yeah, wow right? My husband just shook his head at me and wondered where we were going to house all the new books. He then proceeded to dig and in and has read three or four of them already. Sheesh. :)

I've read one and will be posting the review up soon.

Oh. This month's newsletter linked to this literary quiz. Seriously hard. I won't tell how many I got right or wrong...

This is the end of Banned Book Week (Sept 26-Oct 3). Take a look at the ALA's website on some of the frequently banned classics. Wow. Some of these are some of my all-time favorites.

Also, the book The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson won the Sunburst Award this year. I read this book awhile back and have yet to do a review. Let me just say I LOVED it so...yeah. Will definitely get that up.

I'm looking forward to seeing who this year's Man's Booker Award winner is. I have honestly never read any of the books by the authors in the running...but I THINK that Sarah Waters and A.S. Byatt will be two of next year's favorite all-time authors.

And while you are at it, go vote for the favorite National Book Foundation book. It's a goal of mine (if you hadn't noticed Rachel's and my National Book Award Challenge) to read a lot more of those award winning books. I LOVED Three Junes...just saying...

And that's all for today!

In the Woods - Tana French

First of all, I love the cover of this book. It's so creepy. I received a copy of In the Woods by Tana French from Reading Group Choices. I must have entered a contest or something...not sure. But it's a great resource for reading groups.

And I'm glad they sent it because I LOVED this book and it's not something that I would have normally picked up and read.

Here's the synopsis:

1984. Three children are playing in the woods near their small Irish town and fail to return before nightfall. Police and rescue workers only find one of the children, Adam Ryan. Adam is catatonic, clutching a tree, with three long scrapes on the back of his T-shirt, and blood filled shoes (presumably not his own). Adam has no memory of what happened.

Present day. Rob Ryan, with his name changed for anonymity's sake, is now a murder squad detective in Dublin. He and his partner Cassie get called on a case of a murdered 12 year-old girl in the same woods where Ryan was found. Are the cases connected? Will Ryan recover his memory?

The book is written through Rob Ryan's eyes and Tana French does an amazing job with it. I loved that the book was set in Ireland...small town Ireland at that. And the relationship and chemistry between Ryan and Cassie is so great. It is a wonderful psychological thriller and I LOVE her writing. Her second book which is now out, The Likeness, takes place shortly after In the Woods and is through Cassie's perspective. I'm definitely going to be reading that one as well.

This has been my Fifth book for Carl's R.I.P. III Challenge (I know I know, we only had to read four, but...I love reading creepy/scary books in October).



Also Reviewed by:
The Book Lady's Blog
Musings of a Bookish Kitty
Caribou's Mom
Reading Matters
Linus's Blanket
S. Krishna's Books
Under the Dresser
Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin'?
Biblioatry
Books I Done Read
The Written Word
Book Bath

Second Chance - Jane Green

I've had Jane Green's novel, Second Chance, on my bookshelf for a while now and I thought now was the time to read it. I needed something girly to read. I won a box of books a while back from Reading Group Choices and this was one of those books.

I've never read anything by Jane Green before and for some reason I thought her books would be a little too fluffy for me.  I am so glad I picked Second Chances up. It was the perfect read for me right now.

The story:

Holly, Olivia, Paul, and Saffron are mourning the death of their close friend Tom.  They were all close friends when they were school mates in London, but now they are in their late thirties and are all in various stages of life and relationships.  Most of them haven't seen each other in years and had mainly kept in contact with each other through Tom.

Holly is fairly wealthy, has two adorable kids, and an unhealthy relationship with her distant lawyer husband.  Olivia is single after dating a man for the better part of a decade and runs an animal shelter. Paul is married to the beautiful and successful Anna, but they have been unable to have children which is making Anna miserable.   Finally, Saffron is becoming a successful movie star and is moving on up, but her relationship with a very famous star who is married could bring her ruin.

Tom was always there for each one of them and because of his death, they are all reuniting once again.  And maybe because of Tom, they will all get their second chance at happiness.

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I loved that this story was set in England for some reason.  While the story rotates around all the friends, it does center the most on Holly.  While she is a character that I sometimes want to slap, I am still very sympathetic.  I enjoyed reading about each character. Each character appears to have the perfect life, but each character is going through their own struggles.  This book made me think a lot and ultimately be insanely thankful for my own lovely husband and marriage.

I WOULD normally do a giveaway for this book, BUT I'm seeing my beautiful sister later this month and want her to read it first.

**Has anyone read this or other Jane Green books?  Did you like them? I have to say I adore this book cover and noticed that her other covers are similar.  The photo doesn't do the shimmer of the green justice.

**I keep trying to picture, if this was a movie, who would play each character.  Please pitch in any ideas you have. Here's what I have so far:

Holly (Rachel Wiesz or Kate Beckinsale)

Saffron (Sienna Miller)

Olivia (Emily Blunt)

Couldn't find any reviews of Second Chance in my Google Reader so here's a couple reviews of her other books:

S. Krishna's Books - Dune Road
A Novel Menagerie - The Beach House