Life After Yes Giveaway Winner!

The winner of Life After Yes is comment # 15.....Laura from My Pillow Book!


Thank you everyone for entering this contest, I really appreciate it!  Laura, check your e-mail.

August 29, 2010: A Novel Bookstore

A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cossé


Ivan, a one-time world traveler, and Francesca, a ravishing Italian heiress, are the owners of a bookstore that is anything but ordinary. Rebelling against the business of bestsellers and in search of an ideal place where their literary dreams can come true, Ivan and Francesca open a store where the passion for literature is given free reign. Tucked away in a corner of Paris, the store offers its clientele a selection of literary masterpieces chosen by a top-secret committee of likeminded literary connoisseurs. To their amazement, after only a few months, the little dream store proves a success. And that is precisely when their troubles begin. At first, both owners shrug off the anonymous threats that come their way and the venomous comments concerning their store circulating on the Internet, but when three members of the supposedly secret committee are attacked, they decide to call the police. One by one, the pieces of this puzzle fall ominously into place, as it becomes increasingly evident that Ivan and Francesca’s dreams will be answered with pettiness, envy and violence. --from Europa editions


Wow.  I seriously loved this book.  It's hard for me to explain what I loved about this book, but I had a feeling when I was reading it that it was classic.  It was just good writing and a good story, you can't go wrong with that.


I loved Van and Francesca's passion for good literature.  Each time they spoke of an author I had this urge to find an awesome bookstore like this one and find some great novels to read.  I didn't read this book in one sitting or even one day.  Instead, I took this book with me and only read it when I knew I would be able to cherish several chapters at once.  Each moment I had with this book was special (I'm so lame, right?).  I just felt that I couldn't get deep enough into the book.


Can I take a moment hear to rave about Europa editions?  I've read two EE books so far, this one and Broken Glass Park and I've thoroughly enjoyed each one.  Better yet, I felt compelled to share both of these books with others because to me, they were special stories.  I've looked through their catalog and have found about 10 other books I want, and I even bought one (darn my New Year's book-ban!)  January 1 cannot get here fast enough so I can start buying books again!  Also the covers are to die for.  I cannot even handle the gorgeousness of each cover.  Okay - enough gushing!  Read this book, it's fabulous!


*this book was provided by Europa editions for review on confessions of a bookaholic...

Emmy Awards 2010

I love award shoes and I treat them like an event.  The Emmy Awards are my own personal Superbowl, which is why I can't believe I forgot they were on last night!  I blame Lily....it was her first birthday and I was distracted.  So regardless of my lack of preparation, I enjoyed them all the same!

The opening number was awesome, and it would have been 100% perfect if Kate Gosselin was not present.  If you stop give that woman attention, she will go away!  Ugh, she's so disgusting - but yay Joel McHale!  I thought Jimmy Fallon did a great job, and he even ended on time.  I love Jimmy!  The Modern Family skit was hilarious with George Clooney, Mitch and Cameron being butch and Gloria in 3D haha.

Here are some thought on some of the awards:


Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series:  Eric Stonestreet (Modern Family)
I was really rooting for Chris Colfer in this category, but I do love Modern Family too.  I was surprised that the 3 guys didn't split the vote.  Also, how precious was Jesse Tyler Ferguson crying because he was so happy.  Yay Cameron!
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series:  Jane Lynch (Glee)
Duh!  If this award had went to anyone else I would have been shocked.  Sue Sylvester is hilarious and I loved her speech!
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series:  Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory)
It's about time!  He is so hilarious as Sheldon Cooper, and I love him.  I cried like a baby when he won.
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series:  Edie Falco (Nurse Jackie)
I don't watch Nurse Jackie so maybe she is hilarious.  To me, this award was Amy Poehler's all the way!  Parks and Recreation was hilarious last season, and she deserved to win!
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series:  Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad)
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series:  Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer)
I was really hoping for Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton to take these two awards home.  Friday Night Lights has been ignored by the Emmy's for the past 3 years and I was so hopeful they would finally get the awards they deserved.  I guess I should just be happy that they were finally nominated.  By the way, if you don't watch Friday Night Lights you need to go to Netflix and see what you've been missing!
I always skip the miniseries part because I never watch them!
Outstanding Drama Series:  Mad Men
I don't watch it, but I expected this show to win.  I don't even remember what other shows were against them.
Outstanding Comedy Series:  Modern Family
Is this an upset?  If I remember correctly, 30 Rock has won for many years.  I wanted Glee to win so badly, but I love Modern Family a whole lot!


Fashion:
Best Dressed
Kelly Osbourne 
She looked amazingly stunning.  The black looked gorgeous, and her hair was beautiful.  Thank goodness she got rid of the purple hair.
Dianna Agron
I can't even deny my huge woman crush on her, so I think she looks great in anything!  I love the detail on this dress, and I love that it's not a typical Emmy dress - it's different and she pulls it off. Work it girl!
Jayma Mays
She looked unrecognizable, but gorgeous!  She is stunning.  Her hair looked great, the blue was lovely.  I just loved it all!
Emily Blunt 
She looked stunning in that lavender dress!  One shoulder dresses were all over the red carpet this year, but I loved hers!


Worst Dressed
Anna Paquin
Ick, I hated this.  She looked like a bull fighter.
Christina Hendricks
This woman has a banging body, but I hated this dress.  The color didn't work for me and the dress was just ugly!
January Jones
She is so pretty, but I just could not get into this dress.  It was a little bizarre.

One Lovely Blog Award

Thank you Melissa for this lovely award!  Everyone needs to head over to Chick Lit Central and check it out because it's great!

What's In Your Handbag

Welcome to my weekly meme, "What's In Your Handbag"? Do you always have a book in your handbag? If you can't leave home without something to read, then "What's In Your Handbag?" is the post for you! Every Friday, I will be posting what book is currently in my purse. 

Tomorrow my niece turns 1.  I am kind of denial about it because I remember that Friday a year ago when I was sitting in the hospital with my sister, and then when Lily was born...I'll probably never forget it.  Especially when she sneezed, it was the cutest and it was so fun to watch her personality develop this past year!  Man that girl is hilarious!  

Anyways, I will be baking cake and cupcakes for the little cupcake this weekend.  But in my spare time, I am hoping to read Death be Not Proud by John Gunther.

Leave the link to your "What's in Your Handbag" post in the comments! Also, feel free to grab the button, the HTML is posted on the right sidebar.

What's In Your Handbag?

Welcome to my weekly meme, "What's In Your Handbag"? Do you always have a book in your handbag? If you can't leave home without something to read, then "What's In Your Handbag?" is the post for you! Every Friday, I will be posting what book is currently in my purse. 

I can almost taste fall in the air and I have to say....I'm excited!  I'm ready for this disgusting heat to vanish, and for the nice windy days that are perfect for reading and hot chocolate.  Anyways...this weekend I will be checking out The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.  A lot of people have been checking this out from the library recently, and I was intrigued.  Has anyone read it?

Leave the link to your "What's in Your Handbag" post in the comments! Also, feel free to grab the button, the HTML is posted on the right sidebar.

College Life

I took this idea from Amber's blog!

1. Where did you go to college?

SUNY Fredonia

2. What did you study?

English was my major and Psychology was my minor.  I barely remember any of my Psychology classes, and have no idea what I was thinking with the English major.

3. Was college really all that it was cracked up to be?

I love going to school, so I was really bummed when the routine was gone.  So yes!  I loved college.

4. How far were you from home?

About 20 minutes.

5. Did you have the same roommate all four years?

I commuted all 4 years!  Sometimes I feel that I didn't have a typical college experience, and I regret that now.

6. Where did you order food from at 2am?

Nowhere!  I was sleeping at 2 am :)

7. Did you date in college or were you tied down?

I was tied down.  Bummer.

8. Funniest drunk college moment?

I was a very good girl during college.  I didn't get wasted every night, therefore, I have no funny drunk college moments.  My first job was more of a college experience than college as far as meeting new people and making new friends.

9. Did you make it to class on time?

Always!  I am a rule follower :)

10. What was your favorite class in college?

That is hard!  I liked almost all of my English classes, my favorites were Novels and Tales, because we studied different versions of fairy tales, and a Women's Studies class.  My least favorite class was Oceanography because I failed.

This was a fun look back at college, especially since classes are starting up again (I work on a college campus).  I always feel very nostalgic during this time and I wish I could go back!

August 17, 2010: Everything Is Going To Be Great

Everything Is Going To Be Great by Rachel Shukert

When she lands a coveted nonpaying, nonspeaking role in a play going on a European tour, Rachel Shukert—with a brand-new degree in acting from NYU and no money—finally scores her big break. And, after a fluke at customs in Vienna, she gets her golden ticket: an unstamped passport, giving her free rein to “find herself” on a grand tour of Europe. Traveling from Vienna to Zurich to Amsterdam, Rachel bounces through complicated relationships, drunken mishaps, miscommunication, and the reality-adjusting culture shock that every twentysomething faces when sent off to negotiate "the real world"—whatever that may be. -- from HarperCollins

You know what's awesome?  This book.  I'm a fan of Sloane Crosley (well her first book anyways) and I love humorous collections of essays/stories/memoirs in general.  Rachel Shukert did not disappoint me, I was laughing throughout the book.  

I found her journey fascinating and quite ballsy.  I wish I was brave enough to live in a foreign country without a job, but I'm sure my time there would not be nearly as funny as Rachel's.  I think I might be kind of boring in general, but wouldn't it be a blast to hang out with Rachel?  Something good is bound to happen!

If you love to laugh and you love laughing at other people's problems, then you will love this book.  Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to track down a copy of Have You No Shame? because I might be obsessed.  Seriously.  I devoured this book in one sitting!


*Harper Perennial provided this book for review on confessions of a bookaholic...

August 15, 2010: The Scent of Rain and Lightning

The Scent of Rain and Lightning by Nancy Pickard

One beautiful summer afternoon, from her bedroom window on the second floor, Jody Linder is unnerved to see her three uncles parking their pickups in front of her parents’ house—or what she calls her parents’ house, even though Jay and Laurie Jo Linder have been gone almost all of Jody’s life. “What is this fearsome thing I see?” the young high school English teacher whispers, mimicking Shakespeare. Polished boots, pressed jeans, fresh white shirts, Stetsons—her uncles’ suspiciously clean visiting clothes are a disturbing sign.

The three bring shocking news: The man convicted of murdering Jody’s father is being released from prison and returning to the small town of Rose, Kansas. It has been twenty-six years since that stormy night when, as baby Jody lay asleep in her crib, her father was shot and killed and her mother disappeared, presumed dead. Neither the protective embrace of Jody’s uncles nor the safe haven of her grandparents’ ranch could erase the pain caused by Billy Crosby on that catastrophic night.

Now Billy Crosby has been granted a new trial, thanks in large part to the efforts of his son, Collin, a lawyer who has spent most of his life trying to prove his father’s innocence. As Jody lives only a few doors down from the Crosbys, she knows that sooner or later she’ll come face-to-face with the man who she believes destroyed her family.
 
What she doesn’t expect are the heated exchanges with Collin. Having grown up practically side by side in this very small town, Jody and Collin have had a long history of carefully avoiding each other’s eyes. Now Jody discovers that underneath their antagonism is a shared sense of loss that no one else could possibly understand. As she revisits old wounds, startling revelations compel her to uncover the dangerous truth about her family’s tragic past.

Engrossing, lyrical, and suspenseful, The Scent of Rain and Lightning captures the essence of small-town America—its heartfelt intimacy and its darkest secrets—where through struggle and hardship people still dare to hope for a better future. For Jody Linder, maybe even love. -- from Amazon.com

Nancy Pickard shocked me with this book!  I enjoyed the first chapter and when the book flashed back, I expected to hate it.  Instead, I was hooked on every word and wanted to know what happened that fateful night.  Let me tell you, I was shocked by the twist (in a good way).  I believed Bill Crosby may be innocent, and I had several theories of my own but the twist was one I never expected, so kudos to Ms. Pickard!  I love when that happens.  '


I only had one problem with this book and it was the ***SPOILER*** random romance between Collin and Jody.  They had very few interactions throughout the book, however at one of the more meaningful (and the most they may have ever spoken to each other) Collin confesses his love for Jody - um, okay?  I would have liked more of a build-up on that one.  Overall, it was a fabulous book and I will definitely be checking out her other two books.  

August 13, 2010: In This Way I Was Saved

In This Way I Was Saved by Brian DeLeeuw

On a chilly November afternoon, six-year-old Luke Nightingale's life changes forever. On the playground across from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he encounters Daniel. Soon the boys are hiding from dinosaurs and shooting sniper rifles. Within hours, Luke and his mother, Claire, are welcoming Daniel into their Upper East Side apartment -- and their lives.

Daniel and Luke are soon inseparable. With his parents divorcing, Luke takes comfort in having a near-constant playmate. But there's something strange about Daniel, who is more than happy to bind himself to the Nightingales. The divorce has cut Luke's father out of the picture, and as his increasingly fragile mother struggles with the insidious family depression, Daniel -- shrewd, adventurous, and insightful -- provides Luke both recreation and refuge.

As Luke grows from a child to an adolescent to a young man, he realizes that as much as his mother needs him, Daniel needs him more. Jealous of Luke's other attachments, Daniel moves from gestures of friendship into increasingly sinister manipulations. In the end, Luke finds himself in a daily battle for control of his own life -- wondering whether he or Daniel will emerge victorious.

Brian DeLeeuw's debut is a haunting and provocative story of a family's love and madness that you will not be able to put down. -- from Amazon.com

This turned out to be a great book!  I have to admit that I was kind of behind when it came to this book.  The cover is brilliant, but it took me about 2 weeks to realize that it was a boy swinging and that his shadow was below him - I thought it was someone walking with his middle missing and chains from his shoulders because that is totally normal, right?  Goodness, I need help!  Also, after several chapters of Daniel and Luke's antics I finally realized that Daniel was not a real person - yep, the clues were there but I was a little slow on the pick-up.  I just thought Daniel had horrible parents!


Anywho - here is my main question regarding this book (please note that it may have been stated in the book, but as you can see I don't read clues very well):  is Daniel a ghost? imaginary friend? multiple personality?  Here's the thing - I read this book as Daniel being Luke's other personality and that his medicine kind of kicked Daniel to the back-burner but at other times he seemed so real!  I think that is the beauty of this book, it's been several days and I still not quite sure and I can't stop thinking about it!

As far as the writing goes, I think that Brian DeLeeuw did a fabulous job here.  He hooked me in from the first page and left me wanting more after the last page.  I was so confused throughout the book, and I mean that in the best way possible because it kept me interested.  I don't know what else to say because I feel like I already gave too much of the book away.  I would highly recommend this book and I cannot wait to see what Brian DeLeeuw has up his sleeve for future novels.

P.S. The hardcover image really frightens me and makes me nauseous.  I know it is smoke coming out of those shoes, but everytime I see that picture, I see bloody feet exploding and I get queasy.  

P.P.S. - Sorry that this is a rambling mess.  I have so many thoughts on this book, but I don't want to give anything away.  Also this book made my brain kick into overdrive (which is probably a good thing since I've given it a vacation during the summer).

P.P.P.S. - Sorry about the wonky editing.  Blogger hates me today and is making my post look ridiculous right now.  Sorry!

*This book was provided by Simon & Schuster for review.

What's In Your Handbag?

Welcome to my weekly meme, "What's In Your Handbag"? Do you always have a book in your handbag? If you can't leave home without something to read, then "What's In Your Handbag?" is the post for you! Every Friday, I will be posting what book is currently in my purse. 

Man, this month is just flying by isn't it?  This weekend I will be reading In This Way I Was Saved by Brian DeLeeuw.  I actually have no big plans this weekend, which I find super-exciting (I'm a dork that way) so I am planning on having my own personal read-a-thon.....hopefully.

Leave the link to your "What's in Your Handbag" post in the comments! Also, feel free to grab the button, the HTML is posted on the right sidebar.

August 11, 2010: Never Wave Goodbye

Never Wave Goodbye* by Dough Magee

An innocent rite of passage turns into a nightmare for four couples, exposing their secrets and risking the lives of their children. 

After passing the bittersweet parental milestone of putting her daughter, Sarah on the bus to sleep-away camp for the first time, Lena Trainor plans to spend the next two weeks fixing all the problems in her marriage. But when a second bus arrives to pick up Sarah for camp, no one seems to know anything about the first bus or its driver. 

Sarah and three other children have been kidnapped, and within hours of the crime the parents receive an email demanding $1,000,000. When the specifics of the delivery terms throw suspicion on the parents of two of the abducted children, some of the parents begin to turn on each other, exposing fault lines in already strained marriages and forging new alliances. While the kidnapped children are living their parents' worst nightmare, the police are trying to sort the lies from the truth in conflicting stories and alibis that seem to be constantly changing. 

Deftly weaving the emotional story that pits the parents of the missing campers against the police—and each other—with the fate of the kidnapped children hanging in the balance, Never Wave Goodbye will keep readers holding their breath until the last page. -- from Amazon.com*

I thought that the plot of this story had huge potential to be very good, however I think Magee failed to make it work here.  There wasn't much suspense, I figured out the dramatic twist very soon after I started reading.  I am a huge fan of red herrings in thrillers because they keep me on my toes and I rarely guess, however, Magee was not successful in providing red herrings.  In fact, I felt it was so obvious who was involved because he kind of kept pointing it out.  Regarding the twist without giving it away - I feel that it was never resolved and never really explored to the fullest.  

I found the story of Lena's dad to be irrelevant.  Who cares if he couldn't come back into the country, but he did it anyway.  Did it add anything at all to the story?  Nope.  If Magee was going to write about the risk Lena's dad was taking and he could go to jail, he should have written her father as someone who had something to do with the kidnapping or when he crossed the border was immediately arrested and the affect that may have had.  Instead it was just filler.

The epilogue was lame to me.  I wish it would have been a reunion of sorts between the four grown children.  Heck, just an update would have been better than what we were given.  

So I give points to Magee for the basic plot summary, it's the execution I have a problem with.

*affiliate links used

Life After Yes + Giveaway

In a recent blog post by Aidan Donnelley Rowley, she asked for help promoting her book Life After Yes (which I loved).  First of all go read her blog at Ivy League Insecurities because it is a must!  I read daily because all of her blog posts are so well thought out and she seems amazing. Since I loved this book, I decided to beome a LAY Ambassador and get the word out about this awesome book!


My box of books came in the mail.......

And I got busy........

My books went to a couple of family members and friends who love to read, two local libraries, a local Starbucks table, a table near the English department on campus, a table in the student lounge and across the ocean to Bookalicious.  I left three on tables mentioned above, and I have to say that they went quickly!  I'm not sure about the Starbucks one, but the English dept. and the student lounge one were gone by the afternoon.  Don't worry,  I saved one book for you guys though!  


To enter, just leave me a comment with a valid e-mail address.  And since I like this book so much, this contest will be open worldwide!  Please enter by Tuesday, August 31st at 12:00 pm EST.


There will be no extra entries for this contest, but I would greatly appreciate any tweets, sidebar postings, anything really to help me promote this!  Thank you.

August 8, 2010: Five Days Apart by Chris Binchy

Five Days Apart:  A Novel by Chris Binchy

Breaking up is hard to do, especially when it's a split between close male friends in their 20s. In Binchy's astutely observed American debut, the pair in question is David and Alex, Dubliners whose long bond is tested by romantic rivalry and the strains of encroaching adult responsibilities. At a college party, the sight of Camille sends the introverted David to seek help from his charming, more socially adept pal. The contrast between the two men is perceptively drawn by Binchy, a nephew of Maeve, who proves himself a lucid chronicler of the buddy relationship, which starts to fall apart when Alex moves in on Camille himself. Meanwhile, David scores a good job in an established bank while Alex flounders at school and seems unable to make the transition to grownup. David, now more confident and assertive, acts on his attraction to Camille, and the men's friendship's bittersweet, evocatively described dissolution completes a phase of David's life in a way neither the protagonist nor the reader might have expected at the novel's start. -- from Amazon.com

I'm not sure how to classify this book, but I would kind of say it is the male version of women's fiction...men's fiction, maybe?  I normally don't read books from a male perspective but I really enjoyed David.  I kind of relate to David, I am a very shy person and I often find myself tongue tied or saying random, bizarre things just to make conversation.  It can be really awkward, so I just keep to myself much like David did after his friend Alex betrayed him.  

I found David to be quite charming and Alex to be quite a tool, so I was shocked that Camille couldn't see past Alex's "charming" ways and see that David was the good guy here.  I definitely think Alex broke man code because he knew how David felt, however, as the story progressed they repaired their friendship and kind of became a tight-knit group of three (triple?  threesome? triangle?).

I found the Brazil section to be misplaced and I felt that it didn't add anything to the overall story.  It wasn't a long enough passage to leave an impact, I was kind of expecting the Brazil trip to be half of the story.  Since it wasn't that long, I would have preferred Binchy to leave it out.

Though it was a bit sudden, I was quite pleased with the ending and I was happy for David in the end.  It was a nice quick book to read and I would definitely enjoy more "men's fiction" like this in the future! 

*book provided by HarperCollins for review.

August 6, 2010: Family Ties by Danielle Steel

Family Ties by Danielle Steel

Annie Ferguson was a bright young Manhattan architect. Talented, beautiful, just starting out with her first job, new apartment and boyfriend, she had the world in the palm of her hand—until a single phone call altered the course of her life forever. Overnight, she became the mother to her sister’s three orphaned children, keeping a promise she never regretted making, even if it meant putting her own life indefinitely on hold.

Now, at forty-two, as independent as ever, with a satisfying career and a family that means everything to her, Annie is comfortable being single and staying that way. She appears to have no time for anything else. With her nephew and nieces now young adults and confronting major challenges of their own, Annie is navigating a parent’s difficult passage between lending them a hand and letting go, and suddenly facing an empty nest. The eldest, twenty-eight-year-old Liz, an overworked, struggling editor in a high-powered job at Vogue, has never allowed any man to come close enough to hurt her. Ted, at twenty-four a serious and hardworking law student, is captivated by a much older, much more experienced woman with children, who is leading him much further than he wants to go. And the youngest, twenty-one-year-old Katie—impulsive, artistic, rebellious—is an art student about to make a choice that will lead her to an entirely different world she is in no way prepared for but determined to embrace.

Then, just when least expected, a chance encounter changes Annie’s life yet again in the most unexpected direction of all. 

From Manhattan to Paris and all the way to Tehran, Family Ties is a novel that reminds us how challenging and unpredictable life can be, and that the powerful bonds of family are the strongest of all. -- from Amazon.com 

Eh.  Danielle Steel books are good for a nice quick read, but maybe because I've read quite a few so close together I am getting a little bored by it.  I kind of wish the story would have been about Annie immediately after the plane crash that changed her life.  How did she adapt right after inheriting an instant family?  How hard did she work to get her business off the ground?  How did she do both?  That story would have been more interesting to me than the one that was told here.

What's In Your Handbag?

Welcome to my weekly meme, "What's In Your Handbag"? Do you always have a book in your handbag? If you can't leave home without something to read, then "What's In Your Handbag?" is the post for you! Every Friday, I will be posting what book is currently in my purse. 

This weekend I have Family Ties by Danielle Steel.  I took it out from the library and decided to completely ignore my massive pile of books in favor of this one.  It should be a pretty quick read....I'm kind of hoping for rain this weekend so I can curl up in my bed all weekend.  Is it fall yet?

Leave the link to your "What's in Your Handbag" post in the comments! Also, feel free to grab the button, the HTML is posted on the right sidebar.

August 4, 2010: Todos Santos

Todos Santos by Deborah Clearman