As many of you know, I’ve had way too many blogs for quite awhile.  It’s not easy deleting a blog, even if I’m merging the site into another one.

That’s what I’m doing, though; this site will become a page at my Creative Moments blog.

The book reviews that I’ve posted here will, for the most part, be transferred to other sites.  The process will take a week or so.

So if you have subscribed to this blog, I hope you will join us over at Creative Moments.

On another Friday, we come together to share from books we’re reading (or about to read).  Book Beginnings is hosted by A Few More Pages. and The Friday 56 is led by Freda’s Voice.

Just share opening lines and your reaction to them, and something from page 56.

Today I’ve chosen a book that’s on my list of reads for next week.  It’s an ARC from Amazon Vine, entitled Daughters of the Revolution, by Carolyn Cooke.

From the O. Henry Award–winning author of the story collection The Bostons—a New York Times Notable Book, Los Angeles Times Book of the Year and winner of the PEN/Robert Bingham Fellowship for Writers—an exquisite first novel set at a disintegrating New England prep school.

It’s 1968. The prestigious but cash-strapped Goode School in the town of Cape Wilde is run by its aging, philandering headmaster, Goddard Byrd, known to both his friends and his enemies as God. With Cape Wilde engulfed by the social and political storms of integration, coeducation and the sexual revolution, God has confidently promised coeducation “over my dead body.” And then, through a clerical error, the Goode School admits its first female student: Carole Faust, a brilliant, intractable fifteen-year-old black girl.

What does it mean to be the First Girl?

***

Beginning:  Heck Hellman, walking home from gross anatomy and his basement cadaver, felt buoyed by the sleazy promise of spring:  a yellow sky above, the gray snow on the ground turned to a slush that poured sloppily down the storm drains to the ocean.

Wow!  I can literally see those images!  I like words that show me the settings and reel me in.  These do that for me.

***

This book actually skips from p. 55 to p. 58 (section break), so I’m excerpting from p. 55.

Mei-Mei and I lived in so many different places.  I remembered parts of all of them—the horrible apartment on Eden Court above the O’Greefes’, where we waited for the Strangler to tie his bows around our necks.

I was tempted to give the whole paragraph, but then stopped.  It’s supposed to whet our appetites.  What grabbed your attention today?  What have you chosen to share?

Emily Wilson’s marriage has ended, and furthermore, she hasn’t been able to write anything since her bestselling novel was published years before. What to do? Well, she has always loved escaping to Bainbridge Island, and it’s been years since her last visit. So off she goes to stay for the month of March, at her Aunt Bee’s invitation.

What Emily doesn’t expect is that she’ll find an old diary, with snippets of a long-ago love tale, or that she’ll begin to rediscover another love of her own. But what does the diary have to do with her own past and her family’s secrets? And will her newly developing love turn out to be just another misstep in a life of such events?

Reading this lovely tale brought me right into the heart of this lush island, reminding me of trips to Seattle and another island very similar to this one. I recalled moments I enjoyed and how the connections I felt whenever I was in these same places brought so much wonder into my life. I loved the stories and how the threads began to come together finally as the book drew to a close. The characters were wonderfully detailed and felt so real to me. I also enjoyed how the young and the old could share so much of their lives together.

The mysteries that are finally resolved brought me to a feeling of closure, just as the characters experienced it, too. Five bright stars for this memorable story that I didn’t want to see end.

For Milly, there is the constant reminder of what could have been. While in their childhoods, Twiss happily trailed after their golf-pro father, and Milly dreamed about a family and children that never happened.

When an unexpected accident derails their father’s golf-pro career and leads to his retreat into the barn, their mother sinks into her own kind of retreat, filled with a gunny-sack full of regrets. A cousin’s visit to the farm seems like a respite from the family drama, but instead it sets in motion a series of events that are complicated by family loyalty, rivalries, and unfathomable sacrifice. In the end, the two sisters are alone, sustained only by the strength of their bond to one another and to their memories and dreams of the past.

From the beginning of this character-driven novel, Milly and Twiss tugged at those parts of my emotion and memory that took me to points in my own life when choices turned my life in one direction or another. I could feel and connect to the losses, the sacrifices, and then I pondered how one goes on after these kinds of disappointments. At this point in my own life, with much of it behind me, I find myself doing what these characters did in the book…traipsing backward on memory pathways, reexamining events with the perspective of time and perhaps seeing it all in a more positive way. As if things happened the way they were supposed to. There was a moment in Milly’s latter years when she sees Asa, the man she dreamed about in her youth. They share a walk across the street, a moment or two of silence, and a few words, described in this passage:

“The two of them walked together only a hundred yards that day, out the front door of the general store and across the street to the car, where Milly had left Twiss reading the Farmers’ Almanac and drinking a cream soda. That walk was the happiest of Milly’s life. She and Asa didn’t say anything to each other until they got to the car, which Twiss had abandoned momentarily for the hardware store. The almanac lay open on the passenger seat, and the empty bottle of soda lay on the floor.

“Milly and Asa walked along the sidewalk as if they had always done so; their pace was slower since they were old now, but it was still synchronized the way it was when they’d walked through the meadow. This time, there were no black rat snakes, no reasons to jump onto Asa’s back or for Asa to hold her….

” ‘It was good to see you,’ he said. ‘You’re as lovely as I remember.’ ”

These are just a few of the heart-felt moments that litter this tale that can be summed up in words like betrayal, disappointment, rivalry, and sacrifice; it can also be described as picking up the pieces of what is left behind. The Bird Sisters made me feel all of my own moments in my life and pierced them with the prism of perspective and acceptance.

Five stars!

Welcome to Teaser Tuesdays, hosted by Should Be Reading.

Here’s how it works:

• 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.

Today I’m spotlighting a book from an author I’ve come to admire.  Disturbing the Peace, by Richard Yates, is a story of what happens to one man when he has reached the end of his rope.

To all appearances, John Wilder has all the trappings of success, circa 1960: a promising career in advertising, a loving family, a beautiful apartment, even a country home. John’s evenings are spent with associates at quiet Manhattan lounges and his weekends with friends at glittering cocktail parties. But something deep within this seemingly perfect life has long since gone wrong. Something has disturbed John’s fragile peace, and he can no longer find solace in fleeting affairs or alcohol. The anger, the drinking, and the recklessness are building to a crescendo—and they’re about to take down John’s career and his family. What happens next will send John on a long, strange journey—at once tragic and inevitable.

Teaser:  Out in the semidarkness of the living room he went straight to her gleaming little bar, and then to the kitchen for fresh ice.  There, he told himself, like a mother soothing her child.  There…there…there…p. 169

What did you decide to share today?  I hope you’ll stop by with some links….

Today, I’m spotlighting two Thursday events here:  Booking Through Thursday and Theme Thursdays (hosted by Reading Between the Pages).

Booking Through Thursdays:

In contrast to last week’s question–What do you think of censoring books BECAUSE of their intended age? Say, books too “old” for your kids to read?

My first instinct is to say that no censoring is the right way to go.  But then I realize that I’m guilty of telling my grandkids that a particular book might be too old for them (in content).

But I am so glad that nobody told me that I shouldn’t read “above” my age range, since many of my happiest childhood moments were imagining a world out there that was different from my own.  Not that I didn’t enjoy books about kids, but the grown-up ones were fabulous.

I read about careers, romance, adventure…all played out by people who were older than I was.

I am just fortunate that I had that opportunity.

****

Theme Thursdays:

Theme Thursdays is a fun weekly event that will be open from one thursday to the next. Anyone can participate in it. The rules are simple:

• A theme will be posted each week (on Thursday’s)
• Select a conversation/snippet/sentence from the current book you are reading
• Mention the author and the title of the book along with your post
• It is important that the theme is conveyed in the sentence (you don’t necessarily need to have the word)
  Ex: If the theme is KISS; your sentence can have “They kissed so gently” or “Their lips touched each other” or “The smooch was so passionate”

This will give us a wonderful opportunity to explore and understand different writing styles and descriptive approaches adopted by authors.

This week’s theme is yet another easy one. As much as I like challenging themes sometimes we just want a break… dont’ we?

MALE PERSON
Description of a man/boy…

My THURSDAY THEME for MALE PERSON (Description of a man/boy) is below.

Mine today is from Out of Balance, by Angela Lam Turpin, and in the very first paragraph, I found this great description of a male character:

Every morning, Franklin Benjamin Martin, the President and CEO of Vine Valley Bank, swaggers into the bank’s administrative office dressed in a white T-shirt, gray linen blazer, and tight jeans.  He wears his black aviator sunglasses on the top of his salt and pepper hair and whistles, “Highway to Hell.”  I sit at the front desk, doodling in my sketchbook.  Frank slaps a drum roll on the counter and asks:  “How’s it going, babe?”

What books and excerpts are you spotlighting today?  Come on by and share, please….

Welcome to another Teaser Tuesdays, hosted by Should Be Reading, a weekly event in which we showcase books we’re reading.

Here’s how it works:

• 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.

Today I’m spotlighting a memoir written by the mother of Augusten Burroughs:  The Long Journey Home, by Margaret Robison.

“After decades of feeling silenced, like so many women of the 1950s, Margaret Robison reclaims her own story. The Long Journey Home is a moving testament to the power of language in confronting the frightening, inchoate experience of madness.  But it is also a wistful, richly textured evocation of rural Southern life amidst a cascade of characters both distressing and unforgettable.  Robison’s fortitude, candor, and lack of rancor offer a refreshing alternative to many memoirs.”
—Gail A. Hornstein, author of Agnes’s Jacket: A Psychologist’s Search for the Meaning of Madness.

Teaser:  The house was deathly quiet as I read about Stanley Kowalski’s crude and violent tyranny, the crash of the radio as he hurled it through the window, shattering glass as he cleared his plate and glass from the table with a swipe of his hand.  But my attention was drawn away from New Orleans’s French Quarter by the words Mother was saying to Daddy.  p. 62

What are you featuring today?  I hope you’ll stop by and share….

Welcome to Friday, and to our weekly event that showcases excerpts from books we are reading.

Book Beginnings is hosted by A Few More Pages.

The Friday 56 is led by Freda’s Voice.

To join in, grab a book you are reading (or about to read), and share the opening lines and your reactions to them.  Then turn to page 56 and excerpt any one or two lines on the page.

Link up and join the fun!

Today I’m sharing from Love You More, by Lisa Gardner, a story about a murder, a missing child, and a detective’s dilemma.

WHO DO YOU LOVE?

One question, a split-second decision, and Brian Darby lies dead on the kitchen floor. His wife, state police trooper Tessa Leoni, claims to have shot him in self-defense, and bears the bruises to back up her tale. For veteran detective D. D. Warren it should be an open-and-shut case. But where is their six-year-old daughter?

AND HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO . . .

As the homicide investigation ratchets into a frantic statewide search for a missing child, D. D. Warren must partner with former lover Bobby Dodge to break through the blue wall of police brotherhood, seeking to understand the inner workings of a trooper’s mind while also unearthing family secrets. Would a trained police officer truly shoot her own husband? And would a mother harm her own child?

. . . TO SAVE HER?

For Tessa Leoni, the worst has not yet happened. She is walking a tightrope, with nowhere to turn, no one to trust, as the clock ticks down to a terrifying deadline. She has one goal in sight, and she will use every ounce of her training, every trick at her disposal, to do what must be done. No sacrifice is too great, no action unthinkable. A mother knows who she loves. And all others will be made to pay.

***

Beginning:

(Prologue):  Who do you love?

(Chapter 1):  Sergeant Detective D. D. Warren prided herself on her excellent investigative skills.  Having served over a dozen years with the Boston PD, she believed working a homicide scene wasn’t simply a matter of walking the walk or talking the talk, but rather of total sensory immersion.

With this opener, we’re immediately thrust into this detective’s world; we learn of her expertise and some of her beliefs.  So what happens next is sure to rock this knowledge to the core.

P. 56:  This room also displayed more signs of life—a Barbie toothbrush lying on the edge of the sink, a pile of purple hair elastics in a basket on the edge of the toilet, a clear plastic spit cup declaring “Daddy’s Little Princess.”

I get a lump in my throat reading that one!  Now…what have the rest of you decided to share today?  I hope you’ll pop in here for a visit.

Good morning, and today, as we reflect on Theme Thursday issues, we come up with another one that I can’t wait to tackle.

WOMEN RELATIONSHIPS

Relation that one can have with women like Mother, Aunt, Grandmother, Sister, Girlfriend etc.

In this excerpt from Ten Beach Road, by Wendy Wax, a mother and daughter confront some issues.  After telling her mother about a relationship glitch and a pregnancy, Kyra reacts to her mother (Madeline’s) expression of concern like this:

Her daughter’s face flushed with disappointment and absolutely zero interest in any problem other than her own.  “Oh, God, everything was so great.  And now it’s all such a mess.”

“I know the feeling,” Madeline contemplated her daughter.  Long and lanky with a mass of dark curls and her father’s wide-set gray eyes, she was more striking than beautiful.  Her flair for the dramatic had become evident in the crib and had not diminished with age.

“Who’s the baby’s father and…”  Madeline paused, unsure how to proceed.  “What role is he planning to play in this?”

Yes, I am fascinated by the layers in relationships between women, especially the mother-daughter kind.  Conflicted, fraught with drama at times, there is no end to the potential for complexity.

What female relationships are you spotlighting today?  Please stop by and share….

Welcome to another Teaser Tuesdays event, hosted by Should Be Reading.

Here’s how it works:

• 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.

Today I’m showcasing Shirley MacLaine’s newest book, I’m Over All That.

At a certain time in life, we all come to realize what is truly important to us and what just doesn’t matter. For Shirley MacLaine, that time is now. In this wise, witty, and fearless collection of small observations and big-picture questions, she shares with readers all those things that she is over dealing with in life, in love, at home, and in the larger world . . . as well as the things she will never get over, no matter how long she lives.

Among the things that Shirley is over: people who repeat themselves (“when you didn’t care what they said the first time”); conservatives and liberals; ill-mannered young people; the poison of celebrity (“Why do so many people want to be famous when they see how it can destroy your life?”); being polite to boring people (“If they won’t stop talking, I go into a trance and meditate”); getting older in Hollywood (“How peaceful it is not to have to look particularly pretty anymore or to wear a size 6”).

In the opposite camp, there are some things Shirley will never get over: good lighting (“Marlene Dietrich taught me how to light myself”); gorgeous costars (“The vanity of male actors is an impossible wall to scale”); performing live (“Yes, it is better than sex”); and above all, brave people with curious minds (“Fear is the most powerful weapon of mass destruction”).

Along the way, she recalls stories of some of the true greats she has known—Alfred Hitchcock, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, the two Jacks (Lemmon and Nicholson)—and ruminates on the state of Hollywood past and present. She recollects her relationships and romances with politicians (including two prime ministers), scientists, journalists, and costars.

An unabashed seeker of truth and unrepentant free spirit, Shirley looks squarely at a world that can irritate, confuse, and provoke her, but that can also delight her with its beauty, humor, and future promise. Reading I’m Over All That will make you feel you have been reunited with an old friend who tells it like it is but never takes herself too seriously.

Shirley MacLaine may be over all that, but this irresistible book ensures that we will never get over her.

Teaser:  Everywhere I’ve traveled in the world I’ve found that people are looking for something to fill the loneliness inside them; they are after what I think of as “The Big Truth.”  It doesn’t matter how wealthy or well situated they are; after surface talking, joking, eating, Hollywood gossip, and cultural politeness, the conversation always turns to why are we here, what is the point of life, is God real, are we alone in the universe?  p. 3

That is a mouthful.  As I ponder this, I am eager to move along in this book.

What are you spotlighting this week?  I hope you’ll stop by and share.