Saturday, July 31, 2010

July's Book of the Month

Hello Everyone! I chose the picture posted above because it reminds me of reading to my daughter Mareena when she was little. Every afternoon until she was about eight or nine years old, we would take one of her books that she wanted to read or that she was reading and we would curl up together on my big bed. 

We would spend an hour or so reading a chapter of her book, and then take a nap together. Her absolutely favorite author at that time was an English author named Enid Blyton. Ahh, nice memories...

My picks for 'Books of the Month' will be decidedly more adult these days, but they will be from almost any genre. July's Book of the Month is: 


Published as: Back When we Were Grownups in July 2001
Publisher: Ballantine Books



Birth Name: Anne Tyler
Born: 25 October 1941 in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Canonical Name: Anne Tyler
Pseudonyms: None

Back When we Were Grownups: A Novel by Anne Tyler was the thirty-ninth book that I read in 2010. I have had this book on my TBR shelf since July 1, 2010 and it took me six days to read. This book is a definite keeper for me.

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Maeve Binchy - Quentins

43. Quentins by Maeve Binchy (2002)
Length: 359 pages 
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Started: 24 July 2010
Finished: 31 July 2010
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 1 July 2010
Why do I have it? I like Maeve Binchy as an author and have read several books by this author in the past.


Quentins is a Dublin restaurant that has a thousand stories to tell. Ella Brady thinks that a documentary about Quentins is just the thing to interest people, but as she researches these stories she discovers that not all stories should be told. I really liked this story but the plot was a bit too contrived. I give it an A!

A! - (90-95%)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Friday, July 23, 2010

Rosamunde Pilcher - The Day of the Storm

42. The Day of the Storm by Rosamunde Pilcher (1975)
Length: 272 pages
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Started: 19 July 2010
Finished: 23 July 2010
Where did it come from? From Bookmooch
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 30 April 2010
Why do I have it? I like Rosamunde Pilcher as an author and have read and enjoyed several books by this author in the past.

On the day of her mother's death, Rebecca discovers that she has family that she has never met living in Cornwall. She sets out to meet her grandfather and cousin. Her new family greets her very lovingly but only Joss Gardner, the outsider who seems to be the apple of her grandfather's eye, can help her understand the dark currents behind their reception of her. I liked this story and give it an A+!

A+! - (96-100%)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Barbara Taylor Bradford - A Secret Affair

41. A Secret Affair by Barbara Taylor Bradford (1996)
Length: 180 pages
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Started: 11 July 2010
Finished: 18 July 2010
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 1 July 2010
Why do I have it? I like contemporary fiction and Barbara Taylor Bradford is a new author for me.


A 33-year-old television war correspondent who recently did a stint in Bosnia, Bill Fitzgerald decides to go to Venice to relax. While there, he meets 27-year-old Vanessa Stewart, an American woman who is a glass designer from New York. Unhappily married, Vanessa begins a no-strings attached friendship with Bill which quickly blossoms into an illicit affair. The lovers agree to meet each other as much as possible after they return home. However, on the third rendevous one of them doesn't show up. I thought that this book was a short read. I enjoyed it but it was more like a long short story more than anything. I gave it a B+!

B+! - (89-85%)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Tatum O'Neal - A Paper Life

Re-read: A Paper Life by Tatum O'Neal (2004)
Length: 285 pages
Genre: Non-Fiction
Originally Read: 22 July 2009
Re-read Finished: 10 July 2010
Where did it come from? Originally from a Library Book Sale, then from my "keeper" shelf.

I first read this a year ago after getting it at a Library Book Sale. I love reading autobiographies of interesting people.

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Anne Tyler - Back When we Were Grownups: A Novel

39. Back When we Were Grownups: A Novel by Anne Tyler (2001)
Length: 284 pages
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Started: 1 July 2010
Finished: 7 July 2010
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 1 July 2010
Why do I have it? I like contemporary fiction and have read and enjoyed several books by this author in the past.

Rebecca Davitch is a fifty-three-year-old grandmother who seemingly has everything that she could possibly want in life. Ostensibly, Beck, as she is known within the Davitch clan, is a boisterous extrovert - an outgoing, joyous, natural-born celebrator who really thrives in her role as the family's official life-of-the-party. As a matter of fact, some people might say that giving parties runs in Rebecca's blood, as it became her vocation even before she finished college. Although it was a position that she slipped into naturally, thirty years later Beck has begun to question whether this is the life that she truly wants for herself.

Rebecca was a struggling young college student when she caught the eye of Joseph Davitch at an engagement party in his family's crumbling nineteenth-century Baltimore row house - where giving parties actually was the family business. What initially attracted this older gentleman - a charming, larger-than-life divorcĂ© with three little girls of his own - to Beck, was that she seemed to be having such a wonderful time. Soon Rebecca finds herself being swept into Joe's fascinating orbit and is eagerly accepted into his large and loving family. Before she knows it, she is embracing Joe's extended family as her own and happily raising a blended family; plus a child of their own.

She has also become very involved in the family business; hosting seemingly endless parties in the ornate, high-ceilinged rooms of 'The Open Arms'. However, after presiding over a particularly disastrous family picnic, Rebecca is completely blindsided by the variety of troublesome questions that begin surfacing in her mind in its aftermath. Questions such as whether she is living her own life; or if she has actually become an imposter, capable of living someone else's life, occasionally drift through Rebecca's thoughts.

In an attempt to settle the curious feelings of dissatisfaction that have arisen so suddenly in her life, Rebecca sets out to discover the person that she really is - both her girlhood self, as well as the dignified grownup that she once had been. The story of how Rebecca answers the personal question of who she has become, and what she does to reconcile both of those aspects of her personality, is what forms the basis for this beguiling, funny, and deeply moving novel.

I actually loved this book - the characters really draw you in. If I had one complaint, it would be that it was a little confusing to keep all the characters straight. I give this book an A+!

A+! - (96-100%)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Reading Wrap-up for June at Moonshine and Rosefire

 

Hello everyone out there and I hope that you all had a terrific reading month for yourselves. I am known as Rosefire around the Internet and this is my new personal reading blog. I originally posted my reviews over at my daughter's blog, Emeraldfire's Bookmark but am now in the process of transferring them all over to my own blog. My daughter makes blogging look like so much fun that I thought that I would try it out for myself! :)

Anyway, I started out June with 652 unread books lying around the house and ended the month with 648 books unread. All of the books that I acquired this month came from a Library Book Sale we went to on the 1st to celebrate Mareena's birthday.

Let me try to break down the influx for you:

Re-reads:
- Duma Key by Stephen King

Changes to the TBR pile 


Read from my TBR pile (Yes! I am a reading machine :))
- Ordinary People by Judith Guest
- A Summer Bird-Cage by Margaret Drabble
The Politician: An Insider's Account of John Edwards's Pursuit of the Presidency and the Scandal That Brought Him Down by Andrew Young

Added to my TBR pile (oh well, you win some and you lose some! Not too bad though, I suppose:))
- The Loving Spirit by Daphne du Maurier
- Island Murders by Wanda Canada
- Audition: A Memoir by Barbara Walters

Taken off my TBR pile and sent to a new home (Yay! Happy Dance! :))
Wither by J. G. Passarella
Kill me Again by Leslie Rule
The Spring of the Tiger by Victoria Holt
- Fit For Life by Harvey Diamond
The First Mrs. Winston by Rae Foley
Suddenly by Barbara Delinsky
- 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King
The Queen Mother: The Story of Elizabeth, the Commoner Who Became Queen by Helen Cathcart
- The Ice House by Nina Bawden
Voices in Summer by Rosamunde Pilcher
- Once Upon a Time: A True Tale of Memory by Harry MacLean
Death of a Harvard Man by Simon Schama

Well, there it is...the breakdown! All in all, a very good reading month for me. Here's a further breakdown:

Books Read: 4
Pages Read: 1,641
Grade Range: A+! to A!

So, there you go! The reading month that was June. I hope that you all had an equally good reading month; if not a little better. :) See you all next month! :)


Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight