Girl in the Woods by Aspen Matts

Girl in the Woods by Aspen Matts

In 2008, Aspen started her first year of college in a state far away from her home.  On the second day of college, she was raped. Rape is a major issue on college campuses.  Aspen reported the rape and there was a hearing.  The outcome typical and disappointing.  Aspen spiraled into a depression. She felt lost, unsupported, vulnerable and so much more.

In her depression and gloom, Aspen read John Muir's book Travels in Alaska about the Pacific Crest Trail.  Muir kept calling her name and inviting her to trek the entire trail, 2,650 miles from Mexico to Canada.  So that is what she did, she dropped out of college, enlisted the help of her parents and set off to walk in the woods for 6 months.

Aspen needed to heal and learn how to trust men and she was hoping that solitude and the long hike would make her stronger, would lead her to believe in herself and would set her on the path to her future.

This is the third memoir I have read about backpacking a trail in the United States.  I have read A Walk in the Woods and Cheryl Strayed's Wild and now Girl in the Woods.  I am a backpacker myself and have traversed the Superior Hiking Trail.  I am drawn to these types of books because I sometimes feel the call of the wild and the pull of the woods.  I would love to hike an entire trail but fear and age holds me back.  I admire Aspen Matis and Cheryl Strayed for hiking alone for miles and working through their "shit" on the Pacific Crest Trail.  

The woods is a healing force in Girl in the Woods.  This book had me turning pages as fast as I could. While reading Girl in the Woods,  the book kept invading my thoughts as I thought about the experiences of my high school students and Aspen's experience of being raped in college. The epidemic of rape on college campuses really disturbs me.

Aspen survived a rape and many trials and tribulations on her 2,650 mile hike across the United States.  She traversed extreme temperatures, snakes, deadly thirst and hunger, a vicious rumor, romance and so much more.  The Pacific Crest Trail led Aspen to believe in herself and she came to trust and love herself.  Girls in the Woods is a book about self-discovery and awakenings and it is awesome.  I loved it.

Did I mention there are full color photos inside and wonderful quotes or drawings that begin each chapter?

I am putting Girl in the Woods on my senior Non-Fiction reading list.  I wonder which lucky person will choose to read it.

You?

Disclosure:  I received this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Tusk That Did the Damage Giveaway

The Tusk That Did the Damage Giveaway

Tania James along with TLC book tours and Alfred A. Knopf publishing is giving away one copy of The Tusk That Did The Damage to BookSnob followers who live in the United States. Yay!  I really love this book.

Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:

From the critically acclaimed author of Atlas of Unknowns and Aerogrammes, a tour de force set in South India that plumbs the moral complexities of the ivory trade through the eyes of a poacher, a documentary filmmaker, and, in a feat of audacious imagination, an infamous elephant known as the Gravedigger.

Orphaned by poachers as a calf and sold into a life of labor and exhibition, the Gravedigger breaks free of his chains and begins terrorizing the countryside, earning his name from the humans he kills and then tenderly buries. Manu, the studious younger son of a rice farmer, loses his cousin to the Gravedigger’s violence and is drawn, with his wayward brother Jayan, into the sordid, alluring world of poaching. Emma is a young American working on a documentary with her college best friend, who witnesses the porous boundary between conservation and corruption and finds herself in her own moral gray area: a risky affair with the veterinarian who is the film’s subject. As the novel hurtles toward its tragic climax, these three storylines fuse into a wrenching meditation on love and betrayal, duty and loyalty, and the vexed relationship between man and nature.

With lyricism and suspense, Tania James animates the rural landscapes where Western idealism clashes with local reality; where a farmer’s livelihood can be destroyed by a rampaging elephant; where men are driven to poaching. In James’ arrestingly beautiful prose, The Tusk That Did the Damage blends the mythical and the political to tell a wholly original, utterly contemporary story about the majestic animal, both god and menace, that has mesmerized us for centuries. (less)


a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Thing About Great White Sharks Giveaway

The Thing About Great White Sharks Giveaway

Rebecca Adams Wright along with TLC book tours is giving away one copy of her short story collection, The Thing About Great White Sharks.  This giveaway is open to BookSnob followers who live in the United States.

Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:

In this collection’s richly imagined title story, our brutal and resourceful protagonist is determined to protect her family from a murderous, shark-ridden world—at any cost. Elsewhere, an old woman uncovers a sinister plot while looking after a friend’s plants (“Orchids”), and a girl in the war-torn countryside befriends an unlikely creature (“Keeper of the Glass”). In “Barnstormers,” a futuristic flying circus tries to forestall bankruptcy with one last memorable show. At the heart of “Sheila” is the terrible choice a retired judge must make when faced with the destruction of his beloved robotic dog, and “Yuri, in a Blue Dress” follows one of the last survivors of an alien invasion as she seeks help.

Extending from World War II to the far future, these fifteen stories offer a gorgeously observed perspective on our desire for connection and what it means to have compassion—for ourselves, for one another, for our past…and for whatever lies beyond.

Contest Rules:
Fill out the form
Ends March 9th at midnight
Must be a U.S. resident
Good Luck!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Brief Moment of Weightlessness by Victoria Fish

A Brief Moment of Weightlessness by Victoria Fish

In this slim volume of 11 short stories, Victoria Fish leaves a big impression on the reader.  I want to briefly highlight four of her unique stories.

Where Do You Find a Turtle with no Legs?
Love this title for a story.  This story is told from 4th grade, Maddie's point of view.  It is about a family missing their dad and their visit to prison and how Maddie feels sick about the whole situation.

A Brief Moment of Weightlessness.
The title story.  This story is about a family and their visit to the cabin on the coast.  One of the daughters, Rosemary is only there because she is forced to go and so she is pushing the limits and wants everyone to be miserable.  The other daughter, Frances, is enthusiastic and is going to learn to row the boat this summer.  This is a well-written, truly lovely story about family.

The Sari.
Sarah is an American college student, studying in India and she is working on an Independent project.  She dresses like a male peasant for good reason.  This is a great story about the exchange of culture and ideas and of course, a sari.  Loved it.

Green Line
A former soldier in the Iraqi war is trying to put his life back together.  Except his life has changed so much, he doesn't recognize it and he keeps having flashbacks.  This story really made me think about how damaging war is to families.  Poignant.

I like to read a short story every Saturday.  Short stories make my day and this collection by Victoria Fish is a nice edition to my Saturday tradition.  Looking forward to reading more of her work.

Disclaimer: I Received this book from TLC book tours in exchange for an honest review.

The Story Hour by Thrity Umrigar

The Story Hour by Thrity Umrigar

Two women meet once a week for an hour.  One woman, Lakshmi, tried to commit suicide, feeling desperate and hopeless as a woman confined in a loveless marriage.  The other woman, Maggie, is Lakshmi's therapist and treats her unconventionally, blurring the lines between professionalism and her personal life.    These two women forge a friendship based on one hour a week.

Maggie and Lakshmi's lives converge even as they travel different paths in life.  Lakshmi's is an immigrant from India and Maggie is an African American married to an Indian from Calcutta.  They have many things in common, both of their mother's died when they were teenagers.  Their families live far away and are out of their reach.  They have both done things they regret.  Told in alternating chapters, each woman's voice is heard loud and clear.

The Story Hour is such a good novel.  Umrigar has crafted a novel of friendship that blurs the lines of race and class.  The Story Hour is about love and marriage and forgiveness and transcendence.  It is a universal story that every reader will be able to relate to and I applaud the creative storyline.   Umrigar covers some tough stuff with the pages of The Story
Hour, like suicide, loneliness, immigration, race, class, abuse, death, grief and so much more.

This is the second novel I have read by Umrigar.  For me, this book is better than The Space Between Us.  I felt The Story Hour was compelling and interesting.  I liked the counselor, patient storyline and I liked that Lakshmi's story was told in broken English and Maggie's story reflected her conflict in treating Lakshmi unconventionally.  While the story is sad and hard to read at times, it is hopeful and ultimately an excellent novel that I will share and recommend to friends.

I will leave you with my favorite quote.
"That how you build me, Maggie.  Hour by hour. Story by story. Day by day.  That how you give me my whole lifes."  Pg 316.

The Moon Sisters Giveaway

The Moon Sisters Giveaway

I am proud to announce that BookSnob's blog is giving away one copy of The Moon Sisters in conjunction with TLC book tours and Crown publishing to a reader living in United States.  The Moon Sisters is destined to become a book club favorite and treasured book on your shelf.

Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:

A beautiful coming-of-age novel about two sisters on a journey to forgive their troubled mother, with a sheen of almost-magical realism that overlays a story about the love of a family, and especially between sisters.

Therese Walsh's poignant and mesmerizing novel is a moving tale of family, love, and the power of stories. After their mother's probable suicide, sisters Olivia and Jazz are figuring out how to move on with their lives. Jazz, logical and forward-thinking, decides to get a new job, but spirited, strong-willed Olivia, who can see sounds, taste words, and smell sights, is determined to travel to the remote setting of their mother's unfinished novel to say her final goodbyes and lay their mother's spirit to rest.

Though they see things very differently, Jazz is forced by her sense of duty to help Olivia reach her goal. Bitter and frustrated by the attention heaped on her sunny sister whose world is so unique, Jazz is even more upset when they run into trouble along the way and Olivia latches to a worldly train-hopper. Though Hobbs warns Olivia that he's a thief who shouldn't be trusted, he agrees to help with their journey. As they near their destination, the tension builds between the two sisters, each hiding something from the other, and they will finally be forced to face everything between them and decide what is really important.

Contest Rules:
Fill out the form
U.S. residents Only
Ends April 2nd at midnight
Good luck!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Moon Sisters by Therese Walsh

The Moon Sisters by Therese Walsh

Meet Jazz and Olivia Moon.  Two sisters, polar opposites, on a odyssey to find the end of their mother's story.  They leave home shortly after their mother dies, a mother who may or may not have committed suicide.  Jazz finds a stack of letters, unopened, written by her mother to the father who abandoned her years before and brings them along to read.  A secret to her mother's past.  Olivia has her own secret, the last letter her mother wrote, on the day she died.

Jazz is the oldest, headstrong and smart.  When her mother got pregnant with her, her father cut her out of his life.  Jazz feels partly responsible for this and doesn't feel as well loved as the youngest sister, Olivia.  Jazz also feels like her mother has pinned her dreams of going to college on her and Jazz is never going to college.

Olivia has synesthesia, a neurological condition where she sees sounds, smells words and associates sights with people.  For example, her mother smells like the sun and Hobbs tastes like tomorrow.  Olivia is home schooled, strong willed and determined to try everything.  She doesn't have too many fears.  She is partially blind from staring too long at the sun.

Olivia has decided she is going on a journey to take her mother's ashes to the setting of the story her mother was writing when she died.  Jazz is forced to go with her and tries to talk her out of this quest every step of the way.  But when Olivia hops a train to god knows where, Jazz gets seriously worried about Olivia's safety and things begin to change.

The Moon Sisters is a sweet, endearing story of love and magic and coming to terms with the family you have been blessed with.  Walsh has created a cast of interesting characters that you will come to love and grieve over their pain.  I would describe this book as magical and endearing and full of heart.

I loved the adventure of The Moon Sisters where these two girls are thrust out of their small town life, into the life of a train hopper and wilderness trekker.  They meet an interesting cast of characters, all on a different path in life.  There is danger and kissing and secrets and a future unknown.  Through it all these two sisters must work through their differences, the loss of their mother, the past and it's pain to come to a place of love and forgiveness.

I predict The Moon Sisters will become a favorite book among book clubs.  It is that good.

A Star for Mrs. Blake by April Smith

A Star for Mrs. Blake by April Smith

2014 marks the 100 year anniversary of World War I.  In 1917-18, the Americans entered the war, toward the end, to support the allies and defeat the Germans.  116, 516 American soldiers were killed and paid the ultimate sacrifice.  30, 000 soldiers were buried overseas in American cemeteries.  In 1929, the U.S. Congress voted to send U. S. mothers overseas to visit their sons' graves in France.  6,693 mothers made the trip.

A Star for Mrs. Blake takes on a little known piece of history and brings it to life.  Cora Blake is from a small fishing town in Maine and her only son, Sam lost his life during WWI.  In February 1931, Cora receives a letter from the U.S. Government inviting her on a trip to France to visit the grave of her son, buried near Verdun.

Five women join Cora's group, known as Party A, and they travel together by ship to Paris, bonded by the loss of their sons. Each woman harbors their own secret pain as they journey to see the final resting place in the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery.  They are accompanied by an Army nurse, named Lily and Lieutenant  Thomas Hammond.  Once they reach France, their pilgrimage is anything but ordinary.

April Smith has created a beautiful, heartfelt novel that will make you question war and its inevitable consequences.  The characters are sweet and compelling and will make you keep turning the pages.  The shadow of a future war is upon them as they tour a country still re-building itself.  Smith has written a well rounded novel of the horrors of WWI without actually writing a novel about WWI.  A Star for Mrs. Blake takes place between the World Wars and in my opinion is extremely well written and is a reminder and a cautionary tale for mothers everywhere.

A Star for Mrs. Blake moved me to tears.  Tears for the boys we have lost and for the mothers who miss them.

Someone Else's Love Story by Joshilyn Jackson

Someone Else's Love Story by Joshilyn Jackson

In the middle of a gas station hold-up, Shandi falls in love with a guy who looks like the Norse god Thor.  Will is his name and first he saves her life and then she saves his.  This tumultuous event has thrown Will and Shandi together.

If Shandi had a Facebook page she would label her relationship status; complicated.

If Shandi was writing an ad for the personals it would read:
21, single female, college student, looking for a man who can entertain and love a brainy 3 year old boy.  Who won't be jealous of male, poet best friend, can handle warring parents of two different religions and a wicked step-mother.  Please apply if you look like a superhero and act like one too.

If Will was writing an ad for the personals it would read: Nada. Zilch.
Forget it, William is not looking for love, he is hiding from it.  He lost his one true love, his wife, and their daughter in a car accident.  He is in survival mode and his best friend Paula is helping him forget.

Someone's Else Love Story is a romance with a twist of lemon and a shot of tequila.  Joshilyn Jackson is the queen of the written one liners.  Her sentences are so awesome and smashingly interesting that you need to read them more than once.  She makes you smile and think and she actually makes you want to compose awesome sentences that roll off your tongue and cause everyone to listen up too.  Jackson is creative and most people who read her books fall in love with her characters, who tend to be a little on the wild side, mixed up and unforgettable.  This is the second book I have read by Jackson, Gods in Alabama being the first.  Reading Jackson is like saying a prayer and having it answered on the same night.

Need a date for Friday or Saturday night?  Pick up Someone's Else Love Story, pour yourself a glass of wine, settle into your favorite comfy chair and fall in love.

The First Phone Call From Heaven by Mitch Albom

The First Phone Call From Heaven. A Novel by Mitch Albom

In a small, northern Michigan town a miracle has happened, people are receiving phone calls from Heaven.   Coldwater isn't used to crowds of people or publicity but when Katherine announces in church one Sunday, that her dead sister Diane has been calling her every Friday, the world pays attention.  People from all walks of life make a pilgrimage to Coldwater and camp out on Katherine's lawn hoping for their own miracle, the chance to talk to a loved one who has passed on to the other side.

Not everyone believes this is a miracle, some people believe it is a hoax and plan to prove it. Sully has recently lost his wife and his young son misses his mother so much that he desperately wants her to call.  Sully knows it won't happen and begins an investigation into what is really going on.

A gem within The First Phone Call From Heaven is the chronicle of Alexander Graham Bell and the invention of the telephone.  Album juxtaposes Bell's story with that of the characters.  The little historical tidbits were so interesting and added to the story.

The First Phone Call From Heaven is a gift to the reader.  What person hasn't wished to talk to a loved one who has died?  Album creates a believable story of faith, miracles and love.  He also includes the mystery that surrounds miracles as there are always doubters.  Album does a great job of looking at all sides and angles of miracles.

Album is the type of writer that every reader would enjoy, even reluctant readers.  He gives the reader a lot to think about and his books are typically fast, enjoyable reads that aren't overly complicated.  They tend to be just right.  Album's characters are soul searching and interesting and they leave you feeling inspired to live a better life.

So who are you waiting to hear from?  Do you have an important phone call to make?

“The news of life is carried via telephone. A baby's birth, a couple engaged, a tragic car accident on a late night highway - most milestones of the human journey, good or bad, are foreshadowed by the sound of a ringing.”

This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett

This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett

Ann Patchett is a writer I admire.  She has released a wonderful, well-written collection of essays about her life and her writing.  Many of the stories were previously published in magazines because before Patchett was a novelist she was a journalist and a short story writer.  Her big break came when she wrote a book review of Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club and was hired to write non-fiction for Seventeen magazine.  She has been writing for magazines ever since, The New Yorker, Harpers, Vogue, Atlantic Monthly, The Washington Post mag and others.

Patchett included several new essays in This is the Story of a Happy Marriage as well and they are excellent.  Patchett explains her writing life and gives new writers advice in her essay "The Getaway Car, A Practical Memoir about Writing and Life."

"If you want to write, practice writing.  Practice it for hours a day, not to come up with a story you can publish, but because you long to learn how to write well, because there is something that you alone can say. Write the story, learn from it, put it away, write another story." pg 29.

Patchett's essays are deeply personal.  In "The Sacrament of Divorce", she writes about how and why she left her first husband after one year of marriage.  Her mother says that "the more lost you are, the later it got, the more you had invested in not being lost.  That's why people who are lost so often keep heading in the same direction." pg 65 And stay in unhappy marriages.

Many of her essay's revolve around her books.  In "The Best Seat in the House" Patchett discusses her love of opera and how that love was born during the time she was working on her novel, Bel Canto.  In "Fact vs. Fiction"  Patchett writes about her friendship with Lucy Grealy and both of their books, Autobiography of a Face and Truth and Beauty.  These two books should be read as companion reads.  (Incidentally, this is how I read them, back to back.  First, I  read Lucy's book and then Ann's.  I read them several years ago and recommend them to my students all the time) In her essay, "The Love Between the Two Women", conservatives try to have her book, Truth and Beauty banned from being read by the freshman class of Clemson University in South Carolina.

Ann has not forgotten that many of her readers are bibliophiles and she recommends authors and books throughout her collection.  In "The Bookstore Strikes Back" Patchett gives readers an essay on the bookstore she co-owns in Nashville called Parnassus books.  Let me just say, I need to take a road-trip to Nashville to visit this bookstore.

I'm a big fan of Ann Patchett's writing.  I have read her fiction, Bel Canto and State of Wonder, and her non-fiction, Truth and Beauty and now the collection of essays, This is the Story of a Happy Marriage.  I frankly, couldn't put this book down and did not want it to come to an end.  The reading experience was like having your best friend in the room, telling you a story about their life, over a cup of tea.  This is the Story of a Happy Marriage spoke to me and made me reexamine my life.  I love this collection of essays.  Yowsa, their good.  Ann Patchett is a writing rockstar.

I think the best way to read this book is to limit yourself to one essay a day, that way you can savor the experience.

The Execution of Noa P. Singleton Giveaway

The Execution of Noa P. Singleton Giveaway

TLC book tours and the publisher of The Execution of Noa P. Singleton have teemed up to offer Booksnob readers a free hardcover copy.  Yay!  This giveaway is open to residents in U.S./Canada  residents.  I recently reviewed this book and loved it.  It is a page turner.

Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:

An unforgettable and unpredictable debut novel of guilt, punishment, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive

      Noa P. Singleton never spoke a word in her own defense throughout a brief trial that ended with a jury finding her guilty of first-degree murder. Ten years later, having accepted her fate, she sits on death row in a maximum-security penitentiary, just six months away from her execution date.
Seemingly out of the blue, she is visited by Marlene Dixon, a high-powered Philadelphia attorney who is also the mother of the woman Noa was imprisoned for killing. Marlene tells Noa that she has changed her mind about the death penalty and Noa’s sentence, and will do everything in her considerable power to convince the governor to commute the sentence to life in prison, in return for the one thing Noa is unwilling to trade: her story.
      Marlene desperately wants Noa to reveal the events that led to her daughter’s death – events that Noa has never shared with a soul. With death looming, Marlene believes that Noa may finally give her the answers she needs, though Noa is far from convinced that Marlene deserves the salvation she alone can deliver. Inextricably linked by murder but with very different goals, Noa and Marlene wrestle with the sentences life itself can impose while they confront the best and worst of what makes us human in this haunting tale of love, anguish, and deception.

Rules:
Must be a resident of U.S. or Canada
Ends 7/13 at midnight
Good luck!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Execution of Noa P. Singleton by Elizabeth L. Silver

The Execution of Noa P. Singleton by Elizabeth L. Silver

Noa committed a capital crime and is sitting on death row in Pennsylvania. She has six months left until execution day.  She is out of appeals and has resigned herself to her fate.

Seemingly out of nowhere, the victim's mother, a lawyer, has formed MAD, Mothers Against Death, and has had a change of heart in Noa's case and wants to plead for Clemency.  Oliver is the lawyer working with Marlene Dixon trying to come up with any additional evidence in the case.  Noa is skeptical of Marlene's change in attitude "at the last minute" and doesn't believe she wants to help her at all but has some other motive.

Noa holds the secret of Sarah's death and refuses to tell anyone about it, including her defense.  During her trial, she withheld her testimony and didn't give her lawyers any significant help.  She talked her estranged father out of testifying on her behalf.  She has no friends, receives no visitors and is contemplating her last words and the events leading up to the fateful day, 10 years prior.

The Execution of Noa P. Singleton is a page turning thriller.  I finished it in 3 days.  Whatever side of
the Capital Punishment issue you favor, this book will have you thinking and re-thinking the American justice system.  Silver does an excellent job of detailing death row in a female maximum security prison and looking at the justice system from the eyes of the accused and convicted.  Silver does an excellent job of establishing doubt.

I thought this novel was smart, gritty, and so utterly believable that when you get to the ending you might want to scream.  The characters are complex, especially Noa and you know someone is not telling the truth.  Yet everyone's idea of truth and perspective is different and Silver knows how to play with perspective.

Final verdict:  I loved it.

Manuscript Found in Accra by Paulo Coelho

Manuscript Found in Accra by Paulo Coelho

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho ranks in my top ten favorite reads of all time.  I have read it multiple times aloud to my classes and have recommended it to countless people.  It is a timeless story that I revisit again and again (which is saying something because I usually don't like to reread).  So when TLC book tours announced the tour for Manuscript in Accra, I knew I had to read it.

The Manuscript in Accra begins on July 14, 1099.  In the holy city of Jerusalem, people of the three main faiths gather to hear a man speak.  The three monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam share the holy city.  The Crusaders lie just outside the city gates and the people face an unknown future in a time of war.

The Copt or Greek speaker, gathers in the Holy city to share his wisdom with the masses.  After the copt's initial speech, he offers to answer questions from the crowd.  He answers questions based on anxiety, love, loyalty, sex, death, war, beauty and much more.  Each chapter is full of quotable wisdom and inspiration.

"No matter how you are feeling get up every morning and prepare to let your light shine forth.
Those with eyes to see will see your light and be enchanted by it." Pg. 106

This book is meant to be read slowly and savored.  Read a chapter a day, use a highlighter, and reflect on your life and on how the passages will enhance it.  The Manuscript in Accra has something in it for everyone.  It is really not a story at all but a guide or a book of wisdom you can use to apply to your life.  It is in question and answer format and is religious in nature.

"Do one thing:  Live the life you always wanted to live.  Avoid criticizing others and concentrate on fulfilling your dreams.  This may not seem very important to you, but God, who sees all, knows the example you give is helping Him to improve the world.  And each day, He will bestow more blessings upon it." pg. 42

I will definitely have to reread this.  It is enlightening and it is perfect for the times your heart cries out for a book that will bring you peace, or a new idea,  or a different way of thinking about something.

The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

I have spent the last few weeks immersed in a world created by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.  The Prisoner of Heaven is the third book in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books series.  As I write this I am listening to music from the book that Zafon has on his website, it is so beautiful and calming that you should listen to it while you read my book review.  Carlos Ruiz Zafon Website

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon is one of my top ten favorite reads of all time. I have fond memories of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books hidden underneath Barcelona and I long to visit the place in my mind again and again. In fact when I was reading it I slept with the book under my pillow so I would dream about the world in which I was reading about.  It was truly one of my most memorable and meaningful reading experiences.

Last week I finished reading the second book in the series The Angel's Game, which really takes place in time before the Shadow of the Wind.  I reviewed it recently and you can check out the review here:  Review.  When I finished The Angel's Game, I immediately began reading The Prisoner of Heaven and while it is a book that can easily stand alone, it is a book that ties the other two books together and connects the dots.

The Prisoner of Heaven is a literature lover's dream of what a good story is.  It takes place in Barcelona, this time in 1957 at Christmas.  Daniel Sempere is all grown up and married with a child.  His father Senor Sempere, owner of the independently owned bookstore, Sempere & Son, is aging.  Three generations of the Sempere & Son are in the pages of Zafon's books.  Fermin, Daniel's best friend wants to get married but a man from his past has shown up to collect a debt and Fermin is so anxious he can't eat.  Daniel decides he must help him but first Fermin must tell him the story of his past, a past that
is too horrific to recount.

Thus Zafon takes his readers on a mysterious adventure into the life of prison under Franko's dictatorship in the 1940's.  As Daniel makes connections to his past and to his deceased mother, the reader makes connections to the other two books.  Zafon leaves a surprise for us at the end when he leaves the door open for another book and another visit to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books.  Yes!

Frankly I am sad to be leaving this creative world of Zafon's and am simply begging him to write more books for me, his biggest fan.  Truly, this isn't a book review, it is a love letter to Zafon.

The Cemetery of Forgotten Books trilogy is majestic, gothic, dark, romantic and all kinds of cool adjectives.  Enter this enchanting world, if you dare.  Frankly I don't know how you could resist.

"In my experience, whenever someone discovered that place (the cemetery of forgotten books), Their reaction was always one of bewitchment and amazement.  The beauty and the mystery of the premises reduced the visitor to a silent, dream-like contemplation.  Naturally, Fermin had to be different.  He spent the first half hour hypnotized, wandering like a man possessed through every nook and cranny of the large jigsaw formed by the winding labyrinth of books" pg.265

Square Peg by L. Todd Rose

Square Peg.  My Story and What It Means for Raising Innovators, Visionaries & Out of the Box Thinkers by L. Todd Rose with Katherine Ellison

Square Peg is, in part, a memoir about L. Todd Rose's experience growing up a misunderstood, wild and out of control kid with ADHD.  He is every teachers nightmare, throwing stink bombs in school.  He ends up making a lot of mistakes including, failing high school and is three steps short of being a juvenile delinquent.  He had a couple of things going for him though, a mother who loved and accepted him and the will to succeed.  He uses this will to succeed to reinvent himself.  Square Peg is the story of how he went from being a failure at the very bottom of the educational system to a Harvard graduate student.

Square Peg is also a book for parents and educators who are looking for answers for helping kids survive and thrive in a failing education system.  If you have a child with dyslexia or ADD or Asperger's you probably already know that your child doesn't do well in the current educational system.  Rose provides specific techniques and ideas on how to be a better parent and how to be a more effective teacher when working with kids that are active learners.

Both of my kids have ADHD and Dyslexia.  School has been a major challenge for both of them.  I am  a high school teacher who wants my students and my own children to succeed and yet I know that what L. Todd Rose states in his book his true, School is failing to educate some kids.  We must find a way to teach school so that every learner can succeed.  Right now dropout rates for high school students are staggering and many of these students are "intellectually gifted".

One of the ways to reach struggling students is to use digital technology in the classroom.  Currently I am teaching with digital media (Ipads in the classroom) and am rethinking and relearning a new way to teach my curriculum.  I am trying to create a paperless classroom (the wave of the future) as well as being creative with lessons on the Ipads.   I love it and I believe my students do too.  I plan to teach the staff in my building some of the techniques I am trying digitally in my classroom.  I love to be an innovator!  Did I mention I have ADD?

Square Peg arrived on my doorstep at the right time.  My son is struggling in school and one of the reasons why is because he is bored with worksheets.  Rose's book has given me a new outlook and strategies to help him and encourage his teachers to think "out of the box" when they teach him.

I LOVE the way the book is set up.  Each chapter begins with a relevant quote and the chapters are easy to read, entertaining, informative and positive.  At the end of every chapter are listed the Big Ideas as well as Action Items.

Square Peg is a informative book for parents and educators alike.  I think it might be my new teaching mantra as I have recommended it to several of my colleagues already.  I'm going to end with one of my favorite quotes included in the book.

"If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow."
John Dewey

The Ochardist by Amanda Coplin

The Ochardist by Amanda Coplin

The Orchardist opens with a quote from poet Jack Gilbert. "The roses you gave me kept me awake with the sound of their petals falling".  This quote made me pause and realize, before I even started the book, that I was in for a sensitive, thought-rendering read.

William Talmadge owns an orchard in the Pacific Northwest.  He lives alone and spends his time lovingly tending the trees and fruit and selling it from his wagon in the town market.  He spots two teenage girls with round bellies eyeing his produce.  They are pregnant. As he nods off in the warmth of the sun, they steal what they can and run for it.  Talmadge does not chase them, he packs up and heads home and they follow him.

Della and Jane are running from a horrible situation which they vow never to return to.  They are hungry and desperate for compassion.  Talmadge is interested in helping these girls so he feeds them and makes no demands of them, slowly trying to build their trust.  The girls awaken the ghosts of Talmadge's past, the loss of his mother and the disappearance of his sister.  One can never escape life without tragedy and yet bravely Talmadge opens his heart and orchard to these girls.

The backdrop of The Orchardist is the turn of the century where The Wild West meets the Intercontinental Railroad.  Coplin takes the reader on a historical journey in time to discover how a place changes over time, not only the landscape but the people who live there.  The setting of the book is beautiful.  Coplin paints a picture with words that is at once intimate and haunting.

The storyline of The Orchardist evokes the beauty of time and space, but it also encompasses the evil that exists and the tragedy of children who grow up immersed in dire circumstances.  Coplin writes with compassion and her characters are wonderfully flawed human beings that you can relate to.

Have you ever read a book where you knew from the very first page that you were meant to read it?  Where you knew that you and the writer made a connection with the turn of the page?   This is my experience with The Orchardist.  I felt the power of the story and I was hypnotized by it.

Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver

Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver

Dellarobia Turnbow is a petite, fiery redhead who got pregnant in high school and married young.  She is 29 and parentless, with two young children, in-laws who don't respect her and a husband who is a constant channel changer.  Dellarobia resides in a small farming community in the southern Appalachian mountains and feels there is more to life than being stuck in her small home in Feathertown, Tennessee.

Her mind and heart begin to wander and as she takes a walk on the wild side to certain marital disaster, a miracle happens.  Dellarobia sees what she thinks is a forest of red fire (she forgot her glasses) but is actually a roosting place for monarch butterflies who are in the mountain by some kind of complex ecological misalignment.  Dellarobia is forever changed by the monarch butterflies, as the outside world invades her home and mountain.  Is it a miracle, or an environmental problem?  Dellarobia searches for her truth and the truth about the world as she knows it.

Flight Behavior is mesmerizing and detailed and oh sooooo good.  The writing is exquisite, a electric mix of words blended together to form sentences that create a visual picture that is stunning.  Kingsolver captures the reader from the first page and holds their attention rapt until the reader flies on to their next book.  For a word lover, like me, Flight Behavior is just plain delectable.

I just have to quote some of the great sentences in Flight Behavior.  "A certain feeling come from throwing your good life away, and it is one part rapture." Pg. 1. "Her car was parked in the only spot in the county that wouldn't incite gossip, her own driveway." Pg. 3. "The electric pulse of desire buzzed through her body like an alarm clock gone off in early light, setting in motion all the things in a day that can't be stopped." Pg. 3.

Barbara Kingsolver fans will be delighted with her new novel Flight Behavior.  Flight Behavior is everything a Kingsolver novel should be, full of environmental issues, an awareness of cultural differences, a beautiful landscape, creative characters who go through a metamorphosis and a moral dilemma.  This is the fifth book I have read of Kingsolver's and I am reminded that I need to get busy and read the rest of them because she is such an amazing writer.

Giveaway: The Forgetting Tree by Tatjana Soli

Giveaway: The Forgetting Tree by Tatjana Soli

The publishers of The Forgetting Tree, St. Martin's Press, in conjunction with TLC book tours are giving away one copy of this great book to Booksnob followers who live in the U.S. or Canada.  This is a thought provoking read and I highly recommend it.

Click here to read my book review:  The Forgetting Tree

Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:

From The New York Times bestselling author of The Lotus Eaters, a novel of a California ranching family, its complicated matriarch and an enigmatic caretaker who may destroy them 
When Claire Nagy marries Forster Baumsarg, the only son of prominent California citrus ranchers, she knows she's consenting to a life of hard work, long days, and worry-fraught nights. But her love for Forster is so strong, she turns away from her literary education and embraces the life of the ranch, succumbing to its intoxicating rhythms and bounty until her love of the land becomes a part of her. Not even the tragic, senseless death of her son Joshua at kidnappers' hands, her alienation from her two daughters, or the dissolution of her once-devoted marriage can pull her from the ranch she's devoted her life to preserving.
But despite having survived the most terrible of tragedies, Claire is about to face her greatest struggle: An illness that threatens not only to rip her from her land but take her very life. And she's chosen a caregiver, the enigmatic Caribbean-born Minna, who may just be the darkest force of all. 
Haunting, tough, triumphant, and profound, The Forgetting Treeexplores the intimate ties we have to one another, the deepest fears we keep to ourselves, and the calling of the land that ties every one of us together.

a Rafflecopter giveaway