Reveals only!

:P

Archived Moves:
Kathy asks Rosie to reveal Don't Die Dragonfly
Cherie steals Don't Die Dragonfly from Kathy
KathyB asks Boomda to reveal The Memory Keeper's Daughter
Vegan asks Zosime to reveal The Bone Woman
Lucie asks Vegan to reveal Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Bluecat asks terra to reveal Devil of Kilmartin/Daring the Highlander 2fer
Azuki steals The Bone Woman from VeganMedusa
VeganMedusa steals The Memory Keeper's Daughter from KathyB
KathyB steals Don't Die Dragonfly back from Cherie
Cherie asks Kathy to reveal The Nature of Monsters
Camis asks Giz to reveal Anansi Boys
Boom asks AM10000 to reveal Dead Famous
Breeze asks Cowgirl to reveal Crime Brulee
Apolonia asks EllyMae to reveal Dead Over Heels
Gothamgal asks wss4 to reveal Nightlife
Spider steals The Nature of Monsters from Cherie
Cherie steals Dead Over Heels from Apolonia
Apolonia asks Cherie to reveal Ironside
Xeyra steals Nightlife from Gothamgal
Gothamgal steals Ironside from Apolonia
Apolonia asks ramson to reveal Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress
Candy steals The Nature of Monsters friom Spider
Spider asked mole to reveal and was given the Last Man Standing
Ramson steals Dead Famous from boomda in her sleep
Boomda steals Bone Woman from Azuki
Azuki steals Ironside from Gothamgal
Gothamgal steals Nightlife from Xeyra :whip:
Xeyra steals Ironside from the panda girl. :evil:
Azuki steal The Bone Woman from Boomda
Boomda asks Marlene to reveal Patty Jane's House of Curl
GateGypsy steals Anansi Boys from Camis
Camis asks Sunny to reveal Thorn
AM steals Nightlife from Gothamgal
Gothamgal steals Ironside from Xeyra
Xeyra :whip: Gothamgal and promptly steals Nightlife from AM
AM steals Ironside from Gothamgal
Gothamgal steals Nightlife from Xeyra (bad girl! :whip:)
And xeyra takes the opportunity to run away with Ironside :pirate:
Am decides to go for Liz's reveal: My Favorite Witch
Root steals The Nature of Monsters from Candy
Candy asks luckaye to reveal Book Of Dreams
Terra asks Apolonia to reveal The Tenth Circle
Cowgirl-up steals Dead Famous from Ramson
Ramson asks Camis to reveal The Colour
Zosime steals Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress from Apolonia
Apolonia steals My Favorite Witch from AM10000
AM asks Xallroyx to reveal The Audacity of Hope
Giz steals Patty Jane's House of Curl from Boomda
Boomda steals My Favorite Witch from Apolonia
Apolonia grabs The Bone Woman from Azuki
Azuki asks Rootmartin to reveal Fluke
Suny steals Thorn from Camis
Camis steals Fluke from Azuki
Azuki steals Book Of Dreams from Candy
Candy took The Nature of Monsters from root
Root steals The Bone Woman from apolonia
Apolonia knew she was gonna lose her book and wants to steal My Favorite Witch from Boomda181
Boomda asks msjoanna to reveal The Translator
Marlene steals The Translator from Boomda
Boomda asks for breeze to reveal Rant
Red hot brat steals The Memory Keeper's Daughter from Veganmedusa
Vegan steals The Nature of Monsters from candy
Candy ask Geishabird to reveal Astonishing Splashes of Colour
Liz steals The Audacity of Hope From AM
AM steals My Favorite Witch from Apolonia
Apolonia asks Azuki to reveal My Legendary Girlfriend
Geisha steals Anansi Boys from Gategypsy
GateGypsy snipes Fluke from Camis!
Camis :whip: GG and :flasher: her, getting I, Lucifer
Mole steals Fluke from GateGypsy
GateGypsy smuggles Anansi Boys away from Geishabird
Geisha steals Fluke from Mole
Mole sides with Anasi Boys from GG
GateGypsy steals Fluke from Geishabird
Geisha is tired of this nonsense :lol: and in a surprise move, steals The Nature of Monsters out of the game
Veggie gets over the shock and steals Astonishing Splashes of Colour from Candy
Candy steals The Bone Woman from Root and outta the game! :runaway:
Root asks Gothamgal to reveal the Cowboy/Samurai 2-fer
Elly finally gets a turn and does not hesitate to STEAL Dead Famous from Cowgirl-up
Cowgirl steals My favorite witch from AM
AM steals Rant from Boomda
Boomda turns around and steals The Translator from Marlene
Marlene steals Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress from Zosime
Zosime asks Candy to reveal A River Sutra
Xallroy's turn and she steals Rant from AM
AM asks booksforever to reveal The Starter Wife

Rosie reveals:


Don't Die Dragonfly




After getting kicked out of school and sent to live with her grandmother, Sabine Rose is determined to become a "normal" teenage girl. She hides her psychic powers from everyone, even from her grandmother Nona, who also has "the gift." Having a job at the school newspaper and friends like Penny-Love, a popular cheerleader, have helped Sabine fit in at her new school. She has even managed to catch the eye of the adorable Josh DeMarco.

Yet, Sabine can't seem to get the bossy voice of Opal, her spirit guide, out of her head . . . or the disturbing images of a girl with a dragonfly tattoo. Suspected of a crime she didn't commit, Sabine must find the strength to defend herself and, later, save a friend from certain danger.

Boomda's reveal:




The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

From Booklist
David Henry's life was turning out as he hoped. He was a doctor, married to a beautiful woman, Nora, with a baby on the way. But everything changed overnight because of one fateful decision. On a winter evening in 1961, a blizzard brewing, Nora goes into labor. Due to the weather, they could only make it to the clinic, not the hospital, and only Caroline, the nurse, arrived to help deliver the baby. David delivers his own child, a perfectly healthy son. But when Nora continues her labor, David realizes she is carrying twins; and the second child, a girl, is born with Down syndrome. Wanting to protect his wife from the devastating news, David gives the child to Caroline to take to an institution, asking her never to reveal the secret. Caroline takes the baby and disappears. Unfolding the plot over the course of 25 years, Edwards tells a moving story of two families bound by a secret that both eats away at relationships and eventually helps to create new ones. Carolyn Kubisz

VeganMedusa's reveal



Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

Book Description

Amazon.com
It's 1808 and that Corsican upstart Napoleon is battering the English army and navy. Enter Mr. Norrell, a fusty but ambitious scholar from the Yorkshire countryside and the first practical magician in hundreds of years. What better way to demonstrate his revival of British magic than to change the course of the Napoleonic wars? Susanna Clarke's ingenious first novel, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, has the cleverness and lightness of touch of the Harry Potter series, but is less a fairy tale of good versus evil than a fantastic comedy of manners, complete with elaborate false footnotes, occasional period spellings, and a dense, lively mythology teeming beneath the narrative. Mr. Norrell moves to London to establish his influence in government circles, devising such powerful illusions as an 11-day blockade of French ports by English ships fabricated from rainwater. But however skillful his magic, his vanity provides an Achilles heel, and the differing ambitions of his more glamorous apprentice, Jonathan Strange, threaten to topple all that Mr. Norrell has achieved. A sparkling debut from Susanna Clarke--and it's not all fairy dust. --Regina Marler --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly
The drawing room social comedies of early 19th-century Britain are infused with the powerful forces of English folklore and fantasy in this extraordinary novel of two magicians who attempt to restore English magic in the age of Napoleon. In Clarke's world, gentlemen scholars pore over the magical history of England, which is dominated by the Raven King, a human who mastered magic from the lands of faerie. The study is purely theoretical until Mr. Norrell, a reclusive, mistrustful bookworm, reveals that he is capable of producing magic and becomes the toast of London society, while an impetuous young aristocrat named Jonathan Strange tumbles into the practice, too, and finds himself quickly mastering it. Though irritated by the reticent Norrell, Strange becomes the magician's first pupil, and the British government is soon using their skills. Mr. Strange serves under Wellington in the Napoleonic Wars (in a series of wonderful historical scenes), but afterward the younger magician finds himself unable to accept Norrell's restrictive views of magic's proper place and sets out to create a new age of magic by himself. Clarke manages to portray magic as both a believably complex and tedious labor, and an eerie world of signs and wonders where every object may have secret meaning. London politics and talking stones are portrayed with equal realism and seem indisputably part of the same England, as signs indicate that the Raven King may return. The chock-full, old-fashioned narrative (supplemented with deft footnotes to fill in the ignorant reader on incidents in magical history) may seem a bit stiff and mannered at first, but immersion in the mesmerizing story reveals its intimacy, humor and insight, and will enchant readers of fantasy and literary fiction alike.
4 stars (699 customer reviews)

This is a 2 fer



Devil of Kilmartin by Laura Wittig

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/5913682

Publisher Comments:
A fiery beauty flees a brutal clansman, only to find a passionate love with perils of its own.

Synopsis:
Fleeing her home to escape the brutal clansman determined to satisfy his lust for power--and for her--Elena of Lamont finds herself landing in the arms of Symon MacLachlan, chief of the Lachlan tribe. Symon vows to protect the fiery-haired lass, who he is convinced is the legendary Lamont healer. Desperate for her caress, he lures Elena into marriage, but will Symon be able to win her love?



Daring the Highlander by Laura Wittig

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/5913686

For Ailig MacLeod, returning to his beloved home of Assynt Castle is bittersweet-constantly fighting with his brothers and his father has left him weary, and this tiring trek of attempting to bring his rebellious sister, Catriona, home, has made the journey even more harrowing. Since King Robert the Bruce discovered that Ailig's eldest brother had conspired to bring about his death, he's sent this MacLeod home-with a special task that weighs heavy upon Ailig's heart.

Assynt Castle, as well, is not as he left it only a short month ago. It's fallen into disrepair, the family-and villagers-are feeling the brunt of a harsh winter, and everywhere he looks, spirits are down. Now, to complicate things even further from the task that the king has given him, that of asking his father to relinquish his role as chief of Clan Leod of Assynt, is the all-grown-up, and highly irresistible, Morainn MacRailt intercepting him at every turn.

KathyB's Reveal



The Nature of Monsters by Clare Clark

Advanced Readers Copy - 2007
1666: The Great Fire of London sweeps through the streets and a heavily pregnant woman flees the flames. A few months later she gives birth to a child disfigured by a red birthmark--and no wonder, since everyone knows that mothers who do not protect themselves from shocking sights could turn their unborn children into monsters.

1718: Sixteen-year-old Eliza Tally sees the gleaming dome of St. Paul's Cathedral rising above a rebuilt city. She arrives as an apothecary's maid, a position hastily arranged to shield the father of her unborn child--a wealthy merchant's son--from scandal. But why is the apothecary so eager to welcome her when he already has a maid, a half-wit named Mary? Why is she never allowed to look her veiled master in the face or go into the study where he pursues his experiments? And why is she having vivid dreams of ferocious dogs?

On one of her visits to the friendly Huguenot bookseller who keeps the apothecary supplied with scientific tomes, she finally realizes the nature of her master's obsession. And when she learns that Mary, too, is pregnant, she knows she has to act to save not just the child but Mary and herself.

Giz's reveal is:



Synopsis
Fat Charlie Nancy is not actually fat. He was fat once but he is definitely not fat now. No, right now Fat Charlie Nancy is angry, confused and more than a little scared - right now his life is spinning out of control, and it is all his dad's fault. If his rotter of an estranged father hadn't dropped dead at a karaoke night, Charlie would still be blissfully unaware that his dad was Anansi, the spider god. He would have no idea that he has a brother called Spider, who is also a god. And there would be no chance that said brother would be trying to take over his life, flat and fiancee, or, to make matters worse, be doing a much better job of it than him. Desperate to reclaim his life, Charlie enlists the help of four more-than-slightly eccentric old ladies and their unique brand of voodoo - and between them they unleash a bitter and twisted force to get rid of Spider. But as darkness descends and badness begins, is Fat Charlie Nancy going to get his life back in one piece or is he about to enter a whole netherworld of pain?

BC link for Anansi Boys

My reveal is:

Dead Famous by Ben Elton




Synopsis
From a celebrity performer, bestselling author of Popcorn and Inconceivable, a stunning satire on the modern obsession with fame.

One house. Ten contestants. Thirty cameras. Forty microphones.

Yet again the public gorges its voyeuristic appetite as another group of unknown and unremarkable people submit themselves to the brutal exposure of the televised real-life soap opera, House Arrest.

Everybody knows the rules: total strangers are forced to live together while the rest of the country watches them do it. Who will crack first? Who will have sex with whom? Who will the public love and who will they hate? All the usual questions. And then suddenly, there are some new ones.

Who is the murderer? How did he or she manage to kill under the constant gaze of the thirty cameras? Why did they do it? And who will be next?

Cowgirl's reveal is:



Crime Brulee by Nancy Fairbanks




Forty-something homemaker Carolyn Blue is through with cooking and cleaning. She's finally decided to throw in the dishtowel---and take on the dream job as a food writer.

It was a perfect arrangement. Carolyn had already planned to accompany her husband to an academic conference in New Orleans, an event that meant visiting old college pals. So why not use the opportunity to write a story about Cajun cuisine? But just as she gets a taste of Creole, she gets a bite of crime....Her friend Julienne disappears at a dinner party. True, she had been fighting with her husband, but this only worries Carolyn more. Now, she has to put her taste-testing aside to search for answers-and the trail leads her right to an alligator swamp. Carolyn better act fast, because in these parts, it's eat or be eaten....

EllyMae's reveal is:

Dead Over Heels by MaryJanice Davidson




Three all-new paranormal stories of lust, laughter, and love from the New York Times bestselling author, including an original novella featuring Undead queen Betsy Taylor.


"Undead and Wed: A Honeymoon Story"
Newlywed Betsy, Queen of the Undead, attempts to enjoy the New York City nightlife with her husband, Sinclair. Too bad best friend Jessica decides to show up with Nick, a vampire-hating cop who takes Machiavellian delight in being a wet blanket to the happy couple. When bodies of dead children are found near the hotel where the Queen and King are staying, Nick immediately tries to pin the deaths on them but naturally, things are more complicated than that.

Television star Conwin Conlinson learns the real meaning of survival, life and love in “Survivors” as he finds himself adrift in a rowboat on the open ocean. Utterly lost and helpless, Con comes to rely upon the aid of Reanesta, one of the Undersea Folk who have recently been allowed to show themselves to humans if they wish. Reanesta is strangely attracted to Con and as nature takes its course, she is on a collision course with heartbreak as Con returns to his world of ratings only to discover it seems surprisingly lackluster.

The Wyndham Werewolves reappear in “Speed Dating, Werewolf Style” as Cain realizes most of her childhood classmates are not only married but also now having cubs of their own. With her thirtieth birthday only weeks away, Cain hits up her old chum Saul to hook her up with the perfect mate little knowing that Saul has a few plans of his own in this entertaining romantic tale.

Nightlife
by Rob Thurman



From the Publisher
In New York, there's a troll under the Brooklyn Bridge, a boggle in Central Park, and a beautiful vampire in a penthouse on the Upper East Side. Of course, most humans are oblivious to this, but Cal Leandros is only half-human. His father's dark lineage is the stuff of nightmares-and he and his entire otherworldly race are after Cal.

He and his half-brother Niko have managed to stay a step ahead for three years, but now Cal's dad has found them again. And Cal is about to learn why they want him, why they've always wanted him...for he is.

Journal Entry

Cherie's reveal:

[doHTML]
<a href="http://bookcrossing.com/journal/5696217" target="_blank"><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/511ZACRF6DL._SL320_SH20_.jpg" height="320" width="211" border="0" align="left" hspace="15" vspace="10" alt="Ironside: A Modern Faery's Tale - visit BookCrossing journal page" title="Visit BookCrossing journal page" /></a>

<p align="center"><b><font size="4" face="century gothic, verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><font color="#3C48C8">Ironside: A Modern Faery's Tale</font> by Holly Black</font></b></p>

<p><i>This is the 3rd Faery Tale book by Holly Black, though it's actually a sequel to the first book, Tithe, with the intervening title, Valiant, being more of a stand-alone.</i></p>
<p>In the realm of Faerie, the time has come for Roiben's coronation. Uneasy in the midst of the malevolent Unseelie Court, pixie Kaye is sure of only one thing—her love for Roiben. But when Kaye, drunk on faerie wine, declares herself to Roiben, he sends her on a seemingly impossible quest. Now Kaye can't see or speak to Roiben unless she can find the one thing she knows doesn't exist: a faerie who can tell a lie.</p> <p>Miserable and convinced she belongs nowhere, Kaye decides to tell her mother the truth—that she is a changeling left in place of the human daughter stolen long ago. Her mother's shock and horror sends Kaye back to the world of Faerie to find her human counterpart and return her to Ironside. But once back in the faerie courts, Kaye finds herself a pawn in the games of Silarial, queen of the Seelie Court. Silarial wants Roiben's throne, and she will use Kaye, and any means necessary, to get it. In this game of wits and weapons, can a pixie outplay a queen?</p> <p>Holly Black spins a seductive tale at once achingly real and chillingly enchanted, set in a dangerous world where pleasure mingles with pain and nothing is exactly as it appears.</p>
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ramson's reveal:


Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress by Susna Jane Gilman
Gilman's memoir of growing up on Manhattan's upper Upper West Side in the '70s starts slowly but gathers momentum. Readers who find themselves drifting during Gilman's reveries on lying during show-and-tell will find themselves pleasantly riveted by the time she's getting in touch with her roots as a reporter for the Jewish Week. Gilman, author of 2001's Kiss My Tiara, a women's self-help guide, makes common scenarios fresh with humor and wry social commentary; on the first day of school, she quickly learns "boys might be fighters, but girls could be terrorists." Gilman's ear for dialogue is dead-on. When her brother asks their dad why their Jewish family celebrates Christmas, she doesn't miss a beat: " 'Because your grandmother's a Communist and your mother loves parties,' said my father. 'Now eat your supper.' " These one-liners don't detract, however, from a serious and moving look at one family's efforts to keep itself intact through divorce and other life challenges. After her parents separate, Gilman, then in her mid-20s, fears she and her brother had spent their childhoods in happy oblivion while their parents were "spellbound with misery." Probably not: Gilman's recollections of moving bumpily toward adulthood are keenly observant. She's nicely made the leap from self-help to narrative nonfiction.

My reveal is

Last Man Standing by David Baldacci



FROM THE PUBLISHER
"It took ten seconds for Web London to lose everything: his friends, his team, his reputation. Point man of the FBI's super-elite Hostage Rescue Team, Web roared into a blind alley toward a drug dealer's lair, only to meet a high-tech, custom-designed ambush that killed everyone around him." Now coping with the blame-filled words of anguished widows and the suspicions of colleagues, Web tries to put his life back together with the help of his psychiatrist, Dr. Claire Daniels. To do so, he must discover why he was the one man who lived through the ambush - and find the only other person who came out of that alley alive...a ten-year-old boy who has since disappeared.

SYNOPSIS
Web London roars into a dark alley one night with his FBI Hostage Rescue Team. Seconds later, the team is ambushed and every man is dead--except Web. As the FBI conducts their investigation, the suspicion surrounding Web deepens.

Marlene's reveal:

Patty Jane's House of Curl by Lorna Landvik
BookCrossing URL




From Library Journal
In this upbeat novel about two sisters living in Minnesota between the 1950s and the 1980s, Patty Jane marries young, is abandoned by her husband, and lives with baby daughter Nora and mother-in-law Ione. Patty Jane's sister, Harriet, is engaged to a millionaire, who is killed in an airplane crash just before the wedding. When Patty Jane opens a beauty parlor called "The House of Curl," it quickly becomes the locale of a women's support group. The women gossip, take a variety of classes at the beauty parlor, and console one another when needed. Harriet becomes an alcoholic and lives in the streets until she is saved by a policeman and falls in love again. Patty Jane falls in love with her male manicurist and is jolted when her missing husband reappears. This first novel by former stand-up comic Landvik portrays the vicissitudes of life, the bonding of women, and the ties of family.
out of 133 reviews on amazon.

Sunlightbub's reveal:

Thorn by Vena Cork
The Thorns are living a happy family life in North West London when a tragedy changes their lives for ever. Rosa takes a job as a supply drama teacher in the tough local comprehensive to which her two teenage children - a seventeen-year-old son and a fourteen-year-old daughter - also attend. Then someone begins to stalk her daughter and sinister events start to unfold. Who could be the perpetrator of such malice? Is it the schizophrenic gardener who tends the park opposite their house? The headteacher is very interested in the attractive Rosa. Then there are her neighbours, who, on the surface seem kindly, but why are they having strange nocturnal gatherings? The urban world is becoming a sinister place for the Thorns, and is Rosa strong enough to protect her life, but more importantly, the lives of her adored children?

Thorn - the linky!!

My Book is My Favorite Witch by Annette Blair



From Booklist
Kira is a white witch with a genius for organizing special events. When disabled star hockey player Jason Goddard--known far and wide as the Best Kisser in America and a playboy of the first order--meets her, she has just dumped her jock fiance after finding him in bed with her sister the month before the wedding. So she's muttering spells and he gets entirely the wrong impression, and for her part she has no idea that he is her new boss, the beloved grandson of Bessie, her landlord and friend. The Pickering Foundation is in a financial bind, and Bessie hopes that together her two favorite people can bring in new money to support their charitable endeavors, especially St. Anthony's Home for Boys. Blair's sexy contemporary mating dance, set in Newport, Rhode Island, entertainingly pairs two commitment-phobic individuals and features cameo appearances by Melody and Logan from her previous romantic comedy, The Kitchen Witch.

Lucie's reveal



Book of Dreams by Traci Harding

Kyle is a young man with no future and no past. Orphaned at a young age, he is bitter and uses his tough upbringing as an excuse for his lack of direction in life. But a mysterious parcel is about to change his view of himself, his parents and the world in which he lives.

An old leather-bound book, intricately embossed with creatures and strange beings, is left on Kyle’s doorstep with no card or note attached. The book issues Kyle a personal challenge – to finish reading the book and face the innermost truth about himself, or forfeit any chance of finding his true destiny.

The Book of Dreams is an exploration of the self, via the creatures, elementals and personal guides that dwell beyond this physical world. It is a personal quest of discovery that leads to the understanding of the spiritual warrior that dwells within the depths of every human soul. ENTER...if you dare.

Apolonia's reveal is:




The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult

Synopsis
Fourteen-year-old Trixie Stone is in love for the first time. She's also the light of her father, Daniel's life -- a straight-A student; a pretty, popular freshman in high school; a girl who's always seen her father as a hero. That is, until her world is turned upside down with a single act of violence. Suddenly everything Trixie has believed about her family -- and herself -- seems to be a lie. Could the boyfriend who once made Trixie wild with happiness have been the one to end her childhood forever? She says that he is, and that is all it takes to make Daniel, a seemingly mild-mannered comic book artist with a secret tumultuous past he has hidden even from his family, venture to hell and back to protect his daughter.


With The Tenth Circle, Jodi Picoult offers her most powerful chronicle yet as she explores the unbreakable bond between parent and child, and questions whether you can reinvent yourself in the course of a lifetime -- or if your mistakes are carried forever.

The Colour by Rose Tremain



"Joseph and Harriet Blackstone emigrate from Norfolk to New Zealand in search of new beginnings and prosperoty. But the harsh land near Christchurch threatens to destroy them almost before they begin. When Joseph finds gold in the creek he is seized by a rapturous obsession with the voluptuous riches awaiting him deep in the earth. Abandoning his farm and family, he sets off alone for the new gold-fields over the Southern Alps, a moral wilderness where many others, under the seductive dreams of 'the colour', are violently rushing to their destinies."

BC Link

xallroyx's reveal:


The Audacity of Hope
by Barack Obama

In July 2004, Barack Obama electrified the Democratic National Convention with an address that spoke to Americans across the political spectrum. One phrase in particular anchored itself in listeners’ minds, a reminder that for all the discord and struggle to be found in our history as a nation, we have always been guided by a dogged optimism in the future, or what Senator Obama called “the audacity of hope.”

Now, in The Audacity of Hope, Senator Obama calls for a different brand of politics–a politics for those weary of bitter partisanship and alienated by the “endless clash of armies” we see in congress and on the campaign trail; a politics rooted in the faith, inclusiveness, and nobility of spirit at the heart of “our improbable experiment in democracy.” He explores those forces–from the fear of losing to the perpetual need to raise money to the power of the media–that can stifle even the best-intentioned politician. He also writes, with surprising intimacy and self-deprecating humor, about settling in as a senator, seeking to balance the demands of public service and family life, and his own deepening religious commitment.

At the heart of this book is Senator Obama’s vision of how we can move beyond our divisions to tackle concrete problems. He examines the growing economic insecurity of American families, the racial and religious tensions within the body politic, and the transnational threats–from terrorism to pandemic–that gather beyond our shores. And he grapples with the role that faith plays in a democracy–where it is vital and where it must never intrude. Underlying his stories about family, friends, members of the Senate, even the president, is a vigorous search for connection: the foundation for a radically hopeful political consensus.

A senator and a lawyer, a professor and a father, a Christian and a skeptic, and above all a student of history and human nature, Senator Obama has written a book of transforming power. Only by returning to the principles that gave birth to our Constitution, he says, can Americans repair a political process that is broken, and restore to working order a government that has fallen dangerously out of touch with millions of ordinary Americans. Those Americans are out there, he writes–“waiting for Republicans and Democrats to catch up with them.”

http://bookcrossing.com/journal/5916845

Rootmartin's Reveal:

Fluke: Or, I Know Why The Winged Whale Sings by Chrisopher Moore

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/4870656



Book Description

Just why do humpback whales sing? That's the question that has marine behavioral biologist Nate Quinn and his crew poking, charting, recording, and photographing very big, wet, gray marine mammals. Until the extraordinary day when a whale lifts its tail into the air to display a cryptic message spelled out in foot-high letters: Bite me.

Trouble is, Nate's beginning to wonder if he hasn't spent just a little too much time in the sun. 'Cause no one else on his team saw a thing -- not his longtime partner, Clay Demodocus; not their saucy young research assistant; not even the spliff-puffing white-boy Rastaman Kona (né Preston Applebaum). But later, when a roll of film returns from the lab missing the crucial tail shot -- and his research facility is trashed -- Nate realizes something very fishy indeed is going on.

By turns witty, irreverent, fascinating, puzzling, and surprising, Fluke is Christopher Moore at his outrageous best.

msjoanna's reveal:

The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur (ARC) by Daoud Hari



Book Description
I am the translator who has taken journalists into dangerous Darfur. It is my intention now to take you there in this book, if you have the courage to come with me.

The young life of Daoud Hari–his friends call him David–has been one of bravery and mesmerizing adventure. He is a living witness to the brutal genocide under way in Darfur.

The Translator is a suspenseful, harrowing, and deeply moving memoir of how one person has made a difference in the world–an on-the-ground account of one of the biggest stories of our time. Using his high school knowledge of languages as his weapon–while others around him were taking up arms–Daoud Hari has helped inform the world about Darfur.

Hari, a Zaghawa tribesman, grew up in a village in the Darfur region of Sudan. As a child he saw colorful weddings, raced his camels across the desert, and played games in the moonlight after his work was done. In 2003, this traditional life was shattered when helicopter gunships appeared over Darfur’s villages, followed by Sudanese-government-backed militia groups attacking on horseback, raping and murdering citizens and burning villages. Ancient hatreds and greed for natural resources had collided, and the conflagration spread.

Though Hari’s village was attacked and destroyedhis family decimated and dispersed, he himself escaped. Roaming the battlefield deserts on camels, he and a group of his friends helped survivors find food, water, and the way to safety. When international aid groups and reporters arrived, Hari offered his services as a translator and guide. In doing so, he risked his life again and again, for the government of Sudan had outlawed journalists in the region, and death was the punishment for those who aided the “foreign spies.” And then, inevitably, his luck ran out and he was captured. . . .

The Translator tells the remarkable story of a man who came face-to-face with genocide– time and again risking his own life to fight injustice and save his people.
------------------------
I received this ARC from LibraryThing. I believe the book is due to be published in March.

Breeze's reveal is:

Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey by Chuck Palahniuk

On BC



From Amazon.ca:
Buster Casey, destined to live fast, die young and murder as many people as he can, is the rotten seed at the core of Palahniuk's comically nasty eighth novel (after Haunted; Lullaby; Diary; etc.). Set in a future where urbanites are segregated by strict curfews into Daytimers and Nighttimers, the narrative unfolds as an oral history comprising contradictory accounts from people who knew Buster. These include childhood friends horrified by the boy's macabre behavior (getting snakes, scorpions and spiders to bite him and induce instant erections; repeatedly infecting himself with rabies), policemen and doctors who had dealings with the rabies "superspreader"; and Party Crashers, thrill-seeking Nighttimers who turn city streets into demolition derby arenas. After liberally infecting his hometown peers with rabies, Buster hits the big city and takes up with the Party Crashers. A series of deaths lead to a police investigation of Buster (long-since known as "Rant"—the sound children make while vomiting) that peaks just as Buster apparently commits suicide in a blaze of car-crash glory. This dark religious parable (there's even a resurrection) from the master of grotesque excess may not attract new readers, but it will delight old ones.

From Breeze: Although he horrifies me, I can't wait to read Palahniuk's latest!

My reveal :flasher: is:



Astonishing Splashes of Colour by Claire Morrall

Like Booker-winner Monica Ali, British newcomer and Booker finalist Morrall creates an alienated yet immensely appealing heroine. But unlike Ali's protagonist, Kitty Wellington is at home in Britain's culture; it's her spectacularly dysfunctional family and a personal tragedy that bring her grief. Dangerously unstable after a miscarriage and her resulting inability to conceive again, Kitty sees other people and her environment in auras of color. A device brilliantly effective at times, this serves to establish Kitty's febrile, fantastical imagination. For three years, Kitty has lived in a flat next door to her loving, ineffectual husband, whose own problems (a limp; an obsession with order; a fear of unfamiliar places) render him similarly incapable of dealing with the world. But Morrall gradually reveals the real cause of Kitty's anguish: her lack of identity. Brought up helter-skelter by her irascible, eccentric artist father and four older brothers, Kitty has no memory of her mother, who died when she was three. Even in her most depressed moments, however, Kitty has wit and intelligence, even as her childlike impulsiveness and failure to foresee the consequences of her acts lead her to initiate a double kidnapping. Morrall artfully reveals the true story of Kitty's family in a suspenseful plot that unfolds like layers of an onion, meanwhile providing a convincing portrait of a woman striving for emotional survival.

Azuki's reveal:



My Legendary Girlfriend
by Mike Gayle

This novel recounts four days in the life of London schoolteacher Will Kelly, who is emerging from an extended stay in heartbreak hotel since his girlfriend, Aggi, dumped him three years earlier on his 23rd birthday.

Depressed by his job as a teacher, his clingy girlfriend whose self esteem is even lower than his, his hilariously horrific studio apartment, and his impending birthday, Will can't imagine things getting bleaker. When Kate, the previous renter of his apartment, starts calling to track down a paycheck, the two begin to commiserate over their bad breakups and the woeful apartment.

Rare is the book that can make misery seem so funny.

GateGypsy's Reveal

I, Lucifer by Glen Duncan
http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/2717339



"The End is nigh, and Lucifer has come to walk among us. On holiday"

Lucifer is given one last chance at redemption, and is given the opportunity to live out a blameless life as a mortal on earth. Having a arranged a trial period, he takes the opportunity to set the record straight on a few matters...

(when I was searching for a picture to use for this, I discovered that there'll be a movie of this in 2010!)

GothamGal's reveal:


For my reveal, you'll actually get two books...because I want to get more off my shelf and couldn't agree on one book. If you'd rather only have one, let me know...



The Secret Life of Cowboys by Tom Groneberg


Book Description
Nonfiction:In this classic memoir, a young man facing a future he doesn't want to claim has an inspiration--Go West. Tom Groneberg leaves behind friends and family, follows his heart, and heads to a resort town in the Colorado Rockies, where he earns his spurs as a wrangler leading tourists on horseback. Later, Groneberg moves to Montana, where he works for wages at a number of ranches before buying his own ranch. Demystifying the image of cowboys as celluloid heroes, The Secret Life of Cowboys is a coming-of-age story as stunning as the land itself and a revealing look at America's last frontier.



Snow White and the Seven Samurai by Tom Holt


Book Description: Once upon a time, everything was fine. Humpty Dumpty sat on his wall, Jack and Jill went about their lawful business, the Big Bad Wolf did what big bad wolves do, and the wicked queen plotted murder most foul. But the humans hacked, cried havoc, shut down the wicked queen's system, and corrupted her database—and suddenly everything was not fine at all. But at least we know that they'll all live happily ever after. Don't we? Computers and fairy tales collide to hilarious effect in the latest sparkling cocktail of mayhem, wit, and wonder from the master of comic fantasy.

Candy's reveal...

A River Sutra by Gita Mehta

Here is booksforever's reveal



THE STARTER WIFE by GIGI LEVANGIE GRAZER
Pub: 2005
(I have the one with Debra Messing on the cover)

From the bestselling author of Maneater comes The Starter Wife, a sexy, savvy, and wickedly funny novel about life after divorce and one woman redefining herself after years of marriage to a Hollywood studio head.

When her husband Kenny dumps her by cell phone mere months before their ten-year wedding anniversary, Gracie Pollock finds herself reeling. Though her nine-year role as the wife of a semifamous Hollywood studio executive often left her dry and she never fully embraced the "status" (according to Kenny), Gracie has grown accustomed to the unique privileges afforded by Tinseltown's brand of power and wealth: reservations at Spago on a Friday night; beauty treatments by dermatologists (Arnie), manicurists (Jessica), and colorists (Cristophe) to the stars; line-jumping at Disneyland with her daughter and Ugg-wearing celebrity offspring. And despite the fact she had consented to name their daughter Jaden in a (failed) attempt to lure Will Smith to one of Kenny's productions, Gracie believed she and Kenny were different from other Hollywood couples. She never thought she'd be a starter wife. But now that her marriage is over, her phone isn't ringing, her mailbox is empty, and it's only through a faux pas by her world-class florist that she learns her husband has upgraded: Kenny is dating a pop tartlet.

With images of Kenny's 'tween queen everywhere she turns, Gracie seeks refuge at her best friend's Malibu mansion for some much-needed divorce therapy. Soon she's associating with all the wrong people, including a mysterious hunk who saves her from drowning, the security guard at her gated community, and -- God forbid -- Kenny's boss, one of Hollywood's better-known Lotharios.

With her signature wit, sassy style, and cameos of the rich and famous -- and wannabe rich and famous -- Gigi Grazer tackles the most delicious and dastardly details of a divorce and recovery, Hollywood style.

Spiderchic's reveal:



The Unnumbered by Sam North

'Mila and Nio are in love.They should be like any other couple, planning a future, their first flat, careers, a family.
But they're not like most couples. They're part of the Unnumbered, illegal immigrants. With no driving licence, no social security, no identity, they are almost invisible, yet the streets are swirling with them.
Nio is a 23-year-old Greek. He's built a shack in St Pancras Cemetery, and shares it with his scrounging friend, Charmer. Mila is fifteen. She lives with her Romanian parents in three caravans parked off the North Circular. Then there's her thief of a brother, little Vlad, Anjali, the bright student with a promising future, driven to destruction; and casting a shadow over all of them, taking pleasure from their pain, looms Lucas Tooth - well-groomed, cold-hearted, evil.
Nio and Milo are in love. The city has brought them together and the city could tear them apart. But love has a way of fighting back.'

Bluecat's reveal:

A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon



Synopsis
George Hall doesn't understand the modern obsession with talking about everything. 'The secret of contentment, George felt, lay in ignoring many things completely.' Some things in life, however, cannot be ignored. At fifty-seven, George is settling down to a comfortable retirement, building a shed in his garden, reading historical novels, listening to a bit of light jazz. Then Katie, his tempestuous daughter, announces that she is getting remarried, to Ray. Her family is not pleased - as her brother Jamie observes, Ray has 'strangler's hands'. Katie can't decide if she loves Ray, or loves the wonderful way he has with her son Jacob, and her mother Jean is a bit put out by all the planning and arguing the wedding has occasioned, which get in the way of her quite fulfilling late-life affair with one of her husband's former colleagues. And the tidy and pleasant life Jamie has created crumbles when he fails to invite his lover, Tony, to the dreaded nuptials. Unnoticed in the uproar, George discovers a sinister lesion on his hip, and quietly begins to lose his mind. The way these damaged people fall apart - and come together - as a family is the true subject of Mark Haddon's disturbing yet very funny portrait of a dignified man trying to go insane politely.

The Secret History of the Pink Carnation
by Lauren Willig



Deciding that true romantic heroes are a thing of the past, Eloise Kelly, an intelligent American who always manages to wear her Jimmy Choo suede boots on the day it rains, leaves Harvard's Widener Library bound for England to finish her dissertation on the dashing pair of spies the Scarlet Pimpernel and the Purple Gentian. What she discovers is something the finest historians have missed: a secret history that begins with a letter dated 1803. Eloise has found the secret history of the Pink Carnation -- the most elusive spy of all time, the spy who single-handedly saved England from Napoleon's invasion.

The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, a wildly imaginative and highly adventurous debut, opens with the story of a modern-day heroine but soon becomes a book within a book. Eloise Kelly settles in to read the secret history hoping to unmask the Pink Carnation's identity, but before she can make this discovery, she uncovers a passionate romance within the pages of the secret history that almost threw off the course of world events. How did the Pink Carnation save England? What became of the Scarlet Pimpernel and the Purple Gentian? And will Eloise Kelly find a hero of her own?

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/3550182/

Brat's reveal is .......... :wink:

Stray by Rachel Vincent



There are only eight breeding female werecats left . . .
And I'm one of them

I look like an all-American grad student. But I am a werecat, a shape-shifter, and I live in two worlds.

Despite reservations from my family and my Pride, I escaped the pressure to continue my species and carved out a normal life for myself. Until the night a Stray attacked.

I'd been warned about Strays—werecats without a Pride, constantly on the lookout for someone like me: attractive, female, and fertile. I fought him off, but then learned two of my fellow tabbies had disappeared.

This brush with danger was all my Pride needed to summon me back . . . for my own protection. Yeah, right. But I'm no meek kitty. I'll take on whatever—and whoever—I have to in order to find my friends. Watch out, Strays—'cause I got claws, and I'm not afraid to use them

Brat's reveal is .......... :wink:

Stray by Rachel Vincent



There are only eight breeding female werecats left . . .
And I'm one of them

I look like an all-American grad student. But I am a werecat, a shape-shifter, and I live in two worlds.

Despite reservations from my family and my Pride, I escaped the pressure to continue my species and carved out a normal life for myself. Until the night a Stray attacked.

I'd been warned about Strays—werecats without a Pride, constantly on the lookout for someone like me: attractive, female, and fertile. I fought him off, but then learned two of my fellow tabbies had disappeared.

This brush with danger was all my Pride needed to summon me back . . . for my own protection. Yeah, right. But I'm no meek kitty. I'll take on whatever—and whoever—I have to in order to find my friends. Watch out, Strays—'cause I got claws, and I'm not afraid to use them