:ph34r:

GateGypsy's reveal: The Journal of Mortifying Moments



A short list of ways Kerry can become a better human being:
1. Be a better friend. (I will never again desert a friend in her time of need to go off to a stupid work-related function -- or even to a really good party.)
2. Never giggle and make jokes when someone is talking about a person who is emotionally exhausted or getting a new wheelchair.
3. Develop a strong, loving, and uncritical relationship with my mother. (This is more of a long-term goal.)
4. Write frequently in the journal of mortifying moments in order to analyze these situations with my therapist, absolve myself of blame, and learn to love men with an open, unguarded heart.
5. Start going to yoga.
6. Volunteer for something. (Hopefully something that is kind of fun where I can meet single men who are kind, gentle, spiritual, and true.)

Kerry Spence is unfulfilled by her soulless carer in advertising, disappointed by her dysfunctional relationship, and horrified by the ever-increasing size of her ass. Ever since her gorgeous, self-absorbed boyfriend Sam demoted her to late-night hook-up status, she has fortified herself with prime-time TV and blissful binges on cream-cheese frosting, awaiting an epiphany that will reveal her next move.
Of course, everybody in her life is full of advice. Her free-spirited divorcée mother -- when not necking furiously with her much younger boyfriend -- sagely counsels her daughter to do whatever it takes to get Sam back, since, quite frankly, he is the best she can do. Her friends ply her with fruity cocktails and dispense bits of Cosmo wisdom like "Divide your age in half and add seven -- that's the youngest man you are allowed to date" and "Scotch tape can eliminate forehead wrinkles." Then there's Kerry's calm, unflappable therapist, who suggests she start "a diary of past encounters with men that may be contributing to her negative and dysfunctional quasi relationship." Or, as Kerry sees it, a journal of mortifying moments.

My kid sister and I always buy new books by Canadian authors whenever we ride on the BC Ferries (and whenever I'm in YVR)... it's possibly my favourite way of discovering "local" talent -- and this book was one of those buys. I'm a sucker for a book written in diary/journal or letter format, so this was an easy decision to pick up, and a good, funny read to boot! I was not disappointed.[/QUOTE]

Sunny's Reveal



The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
Summer 1924: On the eve of a glittering Society party, by the lake of a grand English country house, a young poet takes his life. The only witnesses, sisters Hannah and Emmeline Hartford, will never speak to each other again. Winter 1999: Grace Bradley, 98, one-time housemaid of Riverton Manor, is visited by a young director making a film about the poet's suicide. Ghosts awaken and memories, long-consigned to the dark reaches of Grace's mind, begin to sneak back through the cracks. A shocking secret threatens to emerge; something history has forgotten but Grace never could.

A thrilling mystery and a compelling love story, "The House at Riverton" will appeal to readers of Ian McEwan's "Atonement", L P Hartley's "The Go-Between", and lovers of the film "Gosford Pa

The Alphabet Sisters by Monica McInerney (Currently Reading)



From amazon.ca:
Australian novelist McInerney's American debut centers on three estranged sisters who come home to Clare Valley, Australia, for their grandmother's eightieth birthday. Anna, Bett, and Carrie Quinlan haven't spoken in three years, since Bett's fiance jilted her for Carrie and Anna's attempts to mediate failed miserably. Their grandmother Lola still has fond memories of when the girls sang together in their youth as the Alphabet Sisters, so she devises a plot to get the girls to stay: she's written a musical she wants them to produce with the help of the denizens of Clare Valley. Though outwardly reluctant, each sister has a reason for wanting to stay. Anna's marriage to Glenn is failing, and her young daughter, Ellen, is recovering from a dog attack, from which she still bears the scars. Bett has quit her job in London and is considering a new start in Clare Valley. And Carrie's marriage to Michael might be in trouble. This warm, involving novel about the depth of the bond between sisters will likely be popular with book groups.

From me: I'm currently reading this and really enjoying it! It has more bite than typical chick lit but just as much fun!

Getting Rid Of Matthew by Jane Fallon



What to do if Matthew, your secret lover of the past four years, finally decides to leave his wife Sophie (and their two daughters) and move into your flat, just when you're thinking that you might not want him anymore...Plan A - stop shaving your armpits, and your bikini line; tell him you have a moustache that you wax every six weeks; stop having sex with him; pick holes in the way he dresses; don't brush you teeth, or your hair, or the stray hag-whisker that grows out of your chin; buy incontinence pads and leave them lying around. Plan B - accidentally on purpose bump into his wife Sophie; give yourself a fake name and identity; befriend Sophie; actually begin to really like Sophie; snog Matthew's son (whose the same age as you by the way. You're not a paedophile); buy a cat and give it a fake name and identity; befriend Matthew's children. Watch your whole plan go absolutely horribly wrong. "Getting Rid of Matthew" isn't as easy as it seems, but along the way, Helen will forge an unlikely friendship, find real love and realize that nothing ever goes exactly to plan...

Giz's reveal:

The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs


Synopsis
Casting on! It starts almost by accident: the women who buy their knitting needles and wool from Georgia's store linger for advice, for a coffee, for a chat and before they know it, every Friday night is knitting night. Finding a pattern! And as the needles clack, and the garments grow, the conversation moves on from patterns and yarn to life, love and everything. These women are of different ages, from different backgrounds and facing different problems, but they are drawn together by threads of affection that prove as durable as the sweaters they knit. The Friday Night Knitting Club - don't you want to join?

My Reveal


My book has a different cover and comes highly recommended by a friend

The Appetizer

Katie has lofty career aspirations that seem to change almost hourly: writer, film director, teacher, educational psychiatrist. In the meantime, she's waiting tables and waiting for "Mr. Right" to arrive out of the blue -- which seems unlikely, considering her romantic track record is as pitiful as her job history.

The Main Course

Still, a girl can dream, even when she's rushing a hot plate of linguini over to the nasty customer at table six. So when gorgeous, sensitive, perfect Dan Crichton asks her out, Katie's over the moon. But once again, commitment phobia rears its ugly head and dinner turns into the Great First Date Disaster -- and Katie's ideal romance is over before the goodnight kiss.

The Just Desserts

Things are tough when a woman wants it all and will not settle -- and has a little trouble making up her mind. But it's about to get really complicated for the Queen of Complications.

The Bill

Not only is Dan coming back -- as her new boss and engaged to someone else -- but persistent Ex-Boyfriend #3 Hugh's back too, with a vengeance. And suddenly there's a lot more on her tray than even the most able food service professional could safely handle ...

Elsi's Reveal


Five Days in Summer by Kate Pepper



From the back cover:

She was supposed to be right back. Before the long drive home from vacation on Cape Cod, Emily Parker made a quick run to the grocery store...and disappeared.

When her car is found abandoned in the parking lot, her husband, Will, turns to a retired FBI profiler named John Geary for help.

As her family scours the Cape for her, Emily's thoughts are not on her own safety. Kept helpless in a madman's lair, she watches him prepare a five-day countdown that will bring him to his real victim—her seven-year-old son....

My Reveal

A Noble Radiance by Donna Leon



From Publishers Weekly

Providing insight into Venetian society through the lens of a gripping intellectual mystery, this atmospheric tale from Leon (Uniform Justice, etc.) finds Inspector Guido Brunetti investigating an aristocratic family with a shady past. When a rural landowner discovers the body of Roberto Lorenzoni, who was kidnapped two years earlier, Brunetti immediately suspects the victim's family. The Lorenzoni clan bears the legacy of betraying the Jews of Venice during World War II, and from these ashes, its members have created a thriving enterprise. Roberto's cousin Maurizio, who's next in line to inherit the family fortune and business, is the logical suspect, but Brunetti senses something more insidious at play. As he works his way through Italian three-course meals and family crises, he uncovers disturbing details about the Lorenzoni family. Leon deftly depicts the tensions between Brunetti and his ambitious Sicilian boss, as well as the irony of the justice system ("Imprisoned parricides receive fan mail; officialdom and Mafia dance hand in hand toward the ruin of the state"). Brunetti emerges as an intelligent, somewhat world-weary individual who believes in his cause if not the system itself. In short, he's the ideal protagonist for this culturally rich mystery.

rootmartin's reveal

Postcards: True Stories That Never Happened
by Jason Rodriguez



Book Description
“The inventive writers and illustrators who crafted these transporting stories just may convince you to trash your BlackBerry and buy some stamps.”
–Frank Warren, author of PostSecret

You’ve seen them at flea markets and in antique shops and used-book stores across the country: Vintage postcards inscribed with handwritten notes, evocative messages that capture a thought, an expression, a concern, a snapshot of someone’s life once upon a time. Jason Rodriguez, acclaimed editor of Elk’s Run, collected a remarkable array of these correspondences, dispersed them among thirty-three of comics’ greatest creators, and asked each to craft a story about the person who sent it. The result is a vividly imagined, gorgeously rendered graphic anthology illustrating tales of romance, adventure, hardship, and mystery. In Postcards, these gifted artists share some of the richest and most inventive work of their careers.

Xeyra's reveal:

Housewrights
by Art Corriveau



Amazon Editorial Review:
Set in a small Vermont town in the early decades of the twentieth century, Housewrights tells the story of Lily Willard, the town librarian, and her relationship with Oren and Ian Pritchard, housewrights who roam New England building houses for others though they themselves are homeless. Lily first meets the twins when they are children, and the boys arrive with their father to build Lily's family a new farmhouse.

Ten years later, Oren returns for Lily. He asks her to marry him. She agrees, if he will settle down-for the first time in his life. Always lurking, though, is the question of Ian, off fighting the Great War. But when he returns, shell-shocked and wounded, Lily welcomes him into their home. Eyebrows are raised only silently at this unusual household, until one evening at the Grange Hall dance the three take a heady, impetuous waltz together-with practically the entire town watching.

Rich in detail and emotion, this unforgettable novel marks the debut of a singular storyteller who writes with extraordinary beauty, depth, and clarity.

Bookcrossing Book Overview: Housewrights

Boomda181's reveal:



Bad Heir Day by Wendy Holden

At a lavish wedding in a castle on a Scottish isle, Geri suggests that Anna hire on as a writer's assistant to learn the nitty gritty of novel writing that wasn't covered at the university. She ends up working for the ill-tempered, anorexic, and social-climbing bestselling author Cassandra, unaware that hiring her as an underpaid assistant was a clever ploy to find a nanny for the demonic Zak. Meeting up with Geri again she discovers that the fashionably dressed, affluent-looking young woman is actually a nanny in search of a wealthy husband, hopefully an heir to a title. Then Anna runs into Jamie, a waiter, who turns out to actually be laird of the castle. After a whirlwind low key courtship, she agrees to marry him and moves to his aptly named Castle Dampie, and soon all the major players are reunited in one of romance's most hilarious laugh out loud scenes. Finally, Holden, author of Simply Divine, orchestrates an amazing twist of fate to ensure a happily-ever-after ending to this deliciously wicked and hugely entertaining romp.

Ri's reveal:

A Can of Peas (The Lake Emily Series #1)
by Traci DePree



Book Description
Weaving together the strong threads of family and friends in a pattern of grace, forgiveness, and kindness, A Can of Peas invites readers into a place where every day brings a new story and neighbors are more than just people who live down the road. Sometimes funny and often poignant, these vignettes will draw both men and women into the reassuring rhythms of life as it ought to be–and as it still is in the heart of America.

After the death of his grandfather, Peter Morgan and his new bride, Mae, face a life-changing decision: should they embrace the career-chasing ambitions of their family and friends in St. Paul or accept the absurd challenge of saving the family farm in the Minnesota countryside?

Enticed by the romance of a simple, quiet life, the Morgans set out to follow in the footsteps of Peter’s grandparents. Soon, Peter is farming around the clock, barely one step ahead of failure as Mae struggles to find her place in Peter’s life and in the community. Will the strain of saving the farm tear their marriage apart? Was it a mistake to dream?

catsalive's reveal:



The Elegant Gathering of White Snows by Kris Radish

From Booklist:
When eight women in rural Wisconsin take off in the middle of the night for a journey of the heart, it touches women everywhere. The walking women are different ages and of diverse backgrounds, yet their friendship and unwavering mutual support have forged an immutable bond. They start their walk as support for Susan, who is facing an unwanted pregnancy, but all are walking for their own lost loves and lost dreams. As they walk, they talk about their lives, and the pain of the past is shed. The media picks up the news of their perambulation, and soon they become a national sensation that starts other women thinking about their lives, resulting in positive changes all over the country. The women are unaware of their influence, and their small community protects their privacy, so they can proceed without the intrusion of the outside world. A rallying cry for the empowerment of women, Radish's novel is also a celebration of the strong bond that exists between female friends

Mole's reveal is:



Aberystwyth Mon Amour by Malcolm Pryce

Synopsis:

Malcolm Pryce's witty and scabrous comic thriller Aberystwyth Mon Amour is an original and diverting entry into the field of black-comedy writing--a genre which has enjoyed a long and healthy lineage, from Voltaire through Evelyn Waugh to the present day although lately it is pretty well the preserve of crime fiction. Making the unexciting Welsh town of Aberystwyth seem as fascinating and dangerous for his hardboiled 'tec as the mean streets of Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles is a daunting task but it's a trick Pryce pulls off with considerable aplomb.
Throughout Aberystwyth, schoolboys are vanishing without trace, and Louie Knight, the town's only private investigator, becomes involved when he has a visit from the exotic singer Myfanwy Montez (love the name!). She is the star of Wales' most outrageous nightclub, and is keen for Louie to track down her missing cousin, known as Evans the Boot. Aided by such eccentrics as philosopher-cum-ice-cream seller Sospan, Louie finds himself encountering a plot quite as labyrinthine as any which exercised Philip Marlowe. Surely Lovespoon, Grand Wizard of the Druids and the town's most powerful citizen, had a hand in the disappearances?


I enjoyed this and think it would benefit from a wider audience.

candy's reveal:



Journalist Anna goes missing on a trip to Italy, and all her friends and child, Lily, can do is worry, and imagine. Stella rushes back to England from Holland to help Paul look after young Lily and the pair of them have to come to terms with what Anna's permanent loss would mean.

Dunant writes well about the new tensions implicit in new sorts of family and new ways of life; Stella's free life with a semi-detached lover, Paul's relationship with the younger Mike--can these survive having to bring up a child? And what has happened to Anna?

Dunant plays games and tells us two very different thrilling stories of Anna's absence. Is Anna perhaps the victim of a drugged drink, and abduction, and is locked in a remote house, a woman in Gothic danger? Or is she caught up in a more modern fantasy; off having raunchy sex with a charming but unsatisfactory lover who talks to her about art and takes her to look at rare paintings? This is an intense book, all the more effective for its every element being provisional; Dunant uses thriller elements to invigorate a novel of loss and risk.

My Book is "A Dog's Life" by Peter Mayle




From Library Journal
Woof! Woof! After so many books by our two-legged "best friends" that try to decipher our "secret lives", it's so nice to have someone of our kind tell it like it really is. A dog's life can be very a good one indeed, especially if you are as lucky as the hero of our story to find an aimable human companion like Mayle, author of A Year in Provence (LJ 4/1/90), and Hotel Pastis (LJ 9/1/93). In this charming, if at times too cutsey, memoir, Boy, a shaggy but highly intelligent canine of mysterious lineage (we never use the politically incorrect "mutt"), recounts his humble beginnings with his 12 siblings, his abandonment by his mother and later by his unpleasant owner, and his wanderings through the Provencal countryside until he is adopted by the Mayles (an event also recounted in Toujours Provence, LJ 51/1/91). Judging from Edward Koren's drawings, what Boy lacks in devasting good looks is made up by his plucky personality. Canine lovers as well as francophiles and fans of Mayle's books will enjoy this.

My book is:

Tell No One by Harlan Coben



For Dr. David Beck, the loss was shattering. And every day for the past eight years, he has relived the horror of what happened. The gleaming lake. The pale moonlight. The piercing screams. The night his wife was taken. The last night he saw her alive.

Everyone tells him it’s time to move on, to forget the past once and for all. But for David Beck, there can be no closure. A message has appeared on his computer, a phrase only he and his dead wife know. Suddenly Beck is taunted with the impossible–that somewhere, somehow, Elizabeth is alive.

Beck has been warned to tell no one.

Spiderchic's reveal



Billie Morgan by Joolz Denby

'Billie is in her forties, running a little jewellery shop in Bradford, watching over her godson Natty, trying to live a quiet life, trying to forget the past. Because Billie has a lot of past to forget. She was a biker chick, one of the Devil's Own, real hardcore seventies Angels, speed and acid-fuelled road demons. She lived a life that was hurtling out of control and it ended in murder. Now, years later, she has to face the consequences. Dark but never despairing, Billie Morgan is a blistering thriller that takes you to the edge.'

Irenic's reveal

Walking in Darkness
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/l/charlo...in-darkness.htm

Here's Brat's reveal!

Look Closely by Laura Caldwell



Chick-lit author Caldwell (The Year of Living Famously) switches gears to draw from her former career as a trial lawyer for her first suspense novel. Manhattan attorney Hailey Sutter is headed to Chicago to represent the McKnight Corporation, whose Internet company has been accused of Web technology theft, when she receives a note saying, "There is no statute of limitations on murder. Look closely." The ominous statement catapults Hailey back to Woodland Dunes (a small seaside town on Lake Michigan), where her mother died from a head injury when Hailey was seven. Shortly afterward, her older brother and sister disappeared, and she was left in the care of her father, who refuses to discuss the incident. Between the McKnight arbitrations, Hailey flies from Manhattan to Chicago to Portland in search of her estranged siblings and answers that she hopes will shed some light on her mother's mysterious death. The smooth first-person narrative builds suspense and paints a fine picture of time and place.