We have a winner!!!

The winner of Patterns in the Sand by Sally Goldenbaum is....

traveler

Please e-mail me with your address & I will send the book to you. Congratulations!!!

Friday Fill-ins #126

1. It's cold and wet here in West Texas.

2. I absolutely hate tomatoes.

3. My favorite health and beauty product is Vaseline.

4. I usually do not look forward to a nice long ride, unless I get to read!

5. Well, first of all you are wrong and you need to go away.

6. My family; those were the cast of characters in a recent dream and it was weird.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to celebrating the end of the school year, tomorrow my plans include enjoying my backyard and Sunday, I want to read and relax!

Words Unspoken

LibraryThing book review...
Words Unspoken by Elizabeth Musser

Lissa Randall is trying to learn how to live after losing her mom to a terrible car accident that she feels responsible for. She struggles with guilt ,and she hasn't driven since the accident. She feels a disconnect with her father and feels he blames her for the accident. Lissa is trying get her act together, she is tired of being stuck and is ready to move on...she just doesn't know how. Through Lissa, we meet several other people connected to her story and we also learn about their lives and how they help Lissa through her pain.

I also received this book through the Early Reviewers program at Library Thing. I had no idea it was a Christian fiction book when I requested it, I just thought the book sounded good. I didn't love all the religious passages, but they didn't bother me. The story is very complicated and there are lots of characters that just don't seem to fit together. In the end, however, it all comes together to make a good story, and one that I did enjoy.

Book Giveaway!!!

I am VERY excited to announce that Sally Goldenbaum, author of the Seaside Knitters Mystery series, is giving away a signed hardback edition of Patterns in the Sand! The contest begins today and ends on Sunday, May the 31st.

The rules are very easy...

Just comment below for one entry...
Become a follower for one more entry...
Post giveaway on your blog for one more entry!
Please only US and Canadian addresses.

Don't forget to read my review below, good luck, and thanks!!!

Patterns in the Sand

LibraryThing book review...
Patterns in the Sand
by Sally Goldenbaum

Willow Adams is a fiber artist who sneaks into the village of Sea Harbor, Massachusetts late one night. She breaks into the Seaside Knitters Studio and falls asleep with the store cat, Purl, in front of the display window. A nearby store owner spots her and calls the police. Izzy Chambers, owner of the studio, refuses to press charges. Willow explains that she came to Sea Harbor and to Izzy's studio to discuss her fiber art. What she doesn't tell them, however, is that she is really there to find her long lost father. In the meantime, local artist Aiden Peabody is murdered. The Seaside Knitters Club is on the case and is determined to solve the mystery.

Patterns in the Sand is the second book in the series by Sally Goldenbaum, A Seaside Knitters Mystery. I loved everything about this book...the eccentric characters, the beautiful Massachusetts setting, and the focus on all kinds of art. I found it to be the perfect cozy mystery and those are my absolute favorite. The characters all feel like friends, and I can't wait to see them again!

Secrets to Happiness

LibraryThing book review...
Secrets to Happiness
by Sarah Dunn

Holly Frick is having some problems...she is still in love with her ex-husband, she is sleeping with a much younger man, her best friend is having an affair, and she has adopted a sick dog. She is also having career problems, a writer, stuck writing for a kid's show. She eventually dumps the young guy and falls for someone else. This, of course, leads to a whole new set of problems for Holly. Holly finds happiness, maybe not where she (or I) expected her to find it, but she does.

I really enjoyed this book, it is lots of fun. It is funny in parts, sweet in others, and very easy to read. Holly is a likeable character, sassy sometimes and clueless other times. She is real. There were a couple of parts I didn't like (or didn't understand at the time) but, it all comes together in the end:)

Friday Fill-ins #125

1. Moving really sucks

2. Soon I will be free. (summer is just around the corner!)

3. My best quality is my creativity.
4. YOU work out the details.

5. In nearly 10 years, I will really be old!!!
6. Chill time is what I need right now!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to some time with Nick, tomorrow my plans include reading and yardwork and Sunday, I want to relax!

Home Safe

LibraryThing book review...
Home Safe by Elizabeth Berg

Helen is a novelist whose husband died a year ago and she is struggling with the loss. She has been unable to write and worries about her future as a writer. She has an unmarried daughter, Tessa, who also worries her because she doesn't have a man in her life. She then finds out that her husband had withdrawn a large amount of money from their retirement account and she wonders about the man she was married to for so many years. This is Helen's story of finding her way to a new life.

I am a big-time Elizabeth Berg fan, but what a disappointment! She usually tells a story about people and I always fall in love with her story, with her people. This one, I didn't fall in love with anybody! Helen was clueless and I didn't understand anything she did. Her daughter wasn't much better. I am usually sad to finish an Elizabeth Berg book because I love them so, but this time I was sad that I wasted time reading it:(

Friday Fill-ins #124

Friday Fill-ins!

This week, Janet chose quotes having to do with spring... And...here we go!

1. If we had no winter, we wouldn't appreciate summer as much!
2. Spring is a perpetual astonishment.

3. If I had my life to live over I would do more of all of it!

4. Life happens inside of four and twenty hours.

5. If you've never been thrilled you need to keep trying!
6. To be interested in the changing seasons is part of being alive.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to doing lots of reading, tomorrow my plans include pulling weeds and Sunday, I want to chill!

Sarah's Key

LibraryThing book review...

Sarah's Key by Tatiana De Rosnay

In July of 1942, French authorities arrested thousands of Jewish families, held them outside the city at the Velodrome d'Hiver, then eventually transported them to Auschwitz. Sarah's Key centers around Sarah Strazynski, a ten-year old Jewish girl who is forced to go to the Velodrome d'Hiver with her mom and dad, while her little brother is left behind in a secret cupboard. Sarah believes she is protecting her brother, thinking she will be back to let him out.

The other part of the book follows the story of Julia Jarmond, an American married to a Frenchman. Julia is a writer who is assigned the story of th Vel' dHiv' roundups for the 60th anniversary. The story becomes very personal for Julia when she discovers the apartment she and her family plan to move into has a very dark secret.

This is a beautifully written book about a story that will move you and stay with you long after the last chapter. The author alternates chapters between the past and the present, which is very effective. I didn't always like or understand Julia or what she was doing, but I always absolutely loved Sarah. Sarah's own story haunted her and defined her life in many ways. Her story haunts me, also.

Winners!!!

The winners of my giveaway for The Girl Who Stopped Swimming are....

gaby317
Cheryl S.
shopannies
Nicole
Ms. Bookish

Congratulations! Please e-mail me with your address & I will forward it on to Valerie @ Hachette.

Friday Fill-ins #123

And...here we go!

1. Apples are to oranges as teachers are to librarians.

2. I am SO tired of babysitting classes in the library and that's all I have to say about that.

3. I think I hear summer calling my name!!!
4. I hate this one...I need a new flag.

5. Do what you want to do, but don't count me in.
6. His dog and behind him was a Radio Flyer wagon; in the wagon was a bucket filled with bones.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to chilling with my babies, tomorrow my plans include some yardwork and Sunday, I want to relax!

p.s. Enter my contest down below for a copy of The Girl Who Stopped Swimming!!!

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teasers:

"If she'd been a drinker, it would have been a double Scotch on the rocks. If she hadn't been on a diet, it would have been hot chocolate. As it was, coffee was the only noncaloric hot beverage she could think of to drink...unless she wanted to count tea. And she didn't."

~p. 146, Cream Puff Murder by Joanne Fluke

p.s Don't forget to enter my drawing for The Girl Who Stopped Swimming right below.

Book Giveaway!!!

Thanks to Valerie with Hatchette Book Group , I have five copies of The Girl Who Stopped Swimming available for giveaway.

The Girl Who Stopped Swimming
by Joshilyn Jackson

Lauren Gray Hawthorne needs to make things pretty, whether she's helping her mother keep family skeletons in the closet or sewing her acclaimed art quilts. Her estranged sister, Thalia, is her opposite, an impoverished actress who prides herself on exposing the lurid truths lurking behind middle class niceties.

While Laurel's life seems neatly on track-- a passionate marriage, a treasured daughter, a lovely suburban home-- everything she holds dear is threatened the night she is visited by the ghost of her 13-year-old neighbor Molly. The ghost leads Laurel to the real Molly, floating lifelessly in the Hawthorne's backyard pool. Molly's death is an unseemly mystery that no one in her whitewashed neighborhood is up to solving. Laurel enlists Thalia's help, even though she knows it comes with a high price tag.

Together, they set out on a life-altering journey that triggers startling revelations about their family's haunted past, the true state of Laurel's marriage, and the girl who stopped swimming.

Visit http://www.joshilynjackson.com/

"A ghost story, family psychodrama, and murder mystery all in one. Jackson's latest is a wild, smartly calibrated achievement. A-." - Entertainment Weekly"
...spellbinding southern-gothic tale...." - Family Circle

To Enter:
1. Leave a comment telling me that you would like to win this book (please make sure that I have a way to contact you, or your entry will be deleted).
2. For extra entries: become a follower of my blog (if you already are that counts, just let me know); Subscribe to my blog (if you already do that counts, just let me know); or blog about this contest, and leave me the link.
3. Please only US and Canadian addresses. No PO Boxes.
4. Contest ends May 9, 2009.

Friday Fill-ins #122

And...here we go!

1. The first rule of working in an office and getting along is keep your mouth shut!

2. I hate clams.

3. When I think of carnivals I think of creepy dudes.

4. A rose in my backyard is my favorite spring flower.

5. Things on my desk include a book, pen, tape, and notepads.

6. Pink makes me wanna sing & dance.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to hanging out with my parents, tomorrow my plans include shopping with my mom and Sunday, I want to relax because my mom will wear me out shopping!