Current Giveaways!!!

Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch seems to be a pretty popular book that you can win from several different blogs. Here are a few of the blogs that you have the opportunity to win this book:

Enroute to Life--Contest ends 4/14.

A Circle of Books--Contest ends 4/14.

At Home With Books--Contest ends 4/14.

Drey's Library--Contest ends 4/19.

Luxury Reading--Contest ends 4/24.

A Bookworm's World--Contest ends 4/25.

Peeking Between the Pages--Contest ends 4/26.


Here are some other contests that you have the chance to enter:

A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy by Tom Buergenthal from Luxury Reading--Contest ends 4/12.

I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti by Giullia Melucci from Redlady's Reading Room--Contest ends 4/13.

The Turnaround by Georgy Pelecanos from Jenn's Bookshelf--Contest ends 4/18.

Passages to the Past is giving away The Tory Widow by Christine Blevins--Contest ends 4/19.

At Home With Books has a fabulous April Bookshelf Cleaning Giveaway--Contest ends 4/29.

Jantsen's Gift by Pam Cope from Bella is Reading...--Contest ends 4/30.

Made in the U.S.A. by Billie Letts from So Many Precious Books, So Little Time--Contest ends 5/1.

Happy Birthday!!!

I need to wish a Happy Birthday to my two favorite birthday girls today! It's hard to believe that 18 years ago I was in a hospital bed holding my new baby girl--sigh. Here is a photo that was taken last night of Lindsey(my friend's daughter), and my Vicki (who is now 18).

Lindsey is the gal on the left and is 28 today. She has grown into a very nice young lady and a mother of two beautiful little girls. We are all very proud of you Lindsey--you've come a long way and done very well with your life. I wish you many more Happy Birthday's to come! This photo is with her birthday cake last night.

My daughter Vicki is the gal on the right and she 18 today. She is having her actual party tomorrow so maybe I will post another picture then of her cake. It has been amazing watching you change over the last 18 years Vicki, into such a confident and amazing young lady. I am very proud of who you have become and I definitely look forward to our future together.

It's funny because Lindsey's mom and I are good friends and we just realized last year that the two of us are almost exactly 10 years apart, as Vicki and Lindsey are 10 years apart to the day. Not that it means anything, but it was just one of those odd coincidences.

Enjoy the rest of your Birthday festivities girls!

Review: Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

Have I mentioned lately how much I love Lisa See novels? If you are new to my blog you now have the knowledge that she is one of my favorite authors. Lisa See blew me away with Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, and followed behind that with Peony in Love, which gave us a whole new perspective of Chinese culture and beliefs. I wasn't blogging yet when I read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, but you can see my review of Peony in Love here.


Here is a summary of Shanghai Girls by Lisa See from her website:

In 1937, Shanghai is the Paris of Asia, full of great wealth and glamour, home to millionaires and beggars, gangsters and gamblers, patriots and revolutionaries, artists and warlords. Twenty-one-year-old Pearl Chin and her younger sister May are having the time of their lives, thanks to the financial security and material comforts provided by their father’s prosperous rickshaw business. Though both wave off authority and traditions, they couldn’t be more different. Pearl is a Dragon sign, strong and stubborn, while May is a true Sheep, adorable and placid. Both are beautiful, modern, and living the carefree life ... until the day their father tells them that he has gambled away their wealth, and that in order to repay his debts he must sell the girls as wives to suitors who have traveled from Los Angeles to find Chinese brides.

As Japanese bombs fall on their beloved city, Pearl and May set out on the journey of a lifetime, one that will take them through the villages of south China, in and out of the clutch of brutal soldiers, and across the Pacific to the foreign shores of America. In Los Angeles, they begin a fresh chapter, trying to find love with their stranger husbands, brushing against the seduction of Hollywood, and striving to embrace American life, even as they fight against discrimination, brave Communist witch hunts, and find themselves hemmed in by Chinatown’s old ways and rules.

At its heart, Shanghai Girls is a story of sisters: Pearl and May are inseparable best friends, who share hopes, dreams, and a deep connection. But like sisters everywhere, they also harbor petty jealousies and rivalries. They love each other but they also know exactly where to drive the knife to hurt the other sister the most. Along the way there are terrible sacrifices, impossible choices and one devastating, life-changing secret, but through it all the two heroines of this astounding new novel by Lisa See hold fast to who they are – Shanghai girls.

My Review:

Shanghai Girls is an amazing novel that shows the true power of sisterly love. Pearl and May are two sisters that live in Shanghai and are known as Beautiful Girls. Beautiful Girls were known to pose for calendars and various advertisements, and because of their status their company was sought out for entertainment purposes. It was not uncommon for these sisters to return home during the early hours of the morning after an exciting night frequenting night clubs and high-end parties. Since their father provided all of the girl's necessities, they were able to spend their earnings on more of the glamorous and westernized fashions and comforts.

Pearl and May's carefree lifestyle comes to an abrupt end when they learn of their father's promise to sell them as brides to settle his large gambling debts. This, along with the Japanese invading the country, sets a new string of events in action. When the girls defy their new father-in-law by not meeting them at the ship that is to take them to the United States, it just makes their current situation worse. They find themselves stranded in a country that is war-tattered and wishing they would have left the country when they had the opportunity. Now they must reach into the depths of their souls for the strength to continue a journey that will take them far from their beloved China.

After a grueling journey across the ocean they arrive in Los Angeles only to undergo months of interrogation before being allowed to reunite with their arranged husbands. Although they didn't love their husbands when they met them, the girls knew that they were their only opportunity to be able to remain in the United States. They accepted their fate and embraced their futures by becoming active members of the Louie family. It was a hard life, especially with their father-in-law always ordering them as to what they would do, where they would work, and taking most of the money they earned, but they did what was necessary to preserve their futures.

The interrogations were an interesting part of this novel. The time period runs from 1930 to 1957 and the sisters were interrogated in the beginning when arriving at Los Angeles, and then again toward the end of the novel, for being suspected of communism. It really was sad to see how these people were mistreated during these times.

I loved how this novel gave us a mixture of both ancient Chinese culture and a more modern view. May and Pearl's mother had bound feet but the sisters were obviously born after footbinding was no longer required. There were also some visible differences between the cultural death rituals, which would be more obvious if you had read Peony in Love. Here is an excerpt from page 182 that describes the desire for traditions:

She's grabbed on to old traditions-outdated traditions-in the same way I latch on to them now: as a means of soul survival, as a way to hang on to ghost memories. Perhaps it's better to treat a cough with winter melon tea than by putting a mustard plaster on your chest. Yes, her way-back stories and her old ways are sinking into me, changing me, instilling more "Chinese" into me, as surely as the flavor of ginger seeps into soup.

To me this novel was about first love, new loves, sacrifices, secrets, and forgiveness, but most of all the undying sisterly love that is so visibile between May and Pearl. Here is an excerpt from page 202 that was a good example of their lives together:

May and I are sisters. We'll always fight, but we'll always make up as well. That's what sisters do: we argue, we point out each other's frailties, mistakes, and bad judgement, we flash the insecurites we've had since childhood, and then we come back together. Until next time.

May and Pearl were on a continual journey of finding a home in China to creating a new home in the United States. As the book ends Lisa See creates a new journey that they must begin together. See provided so much historical information from this time period that I now have a better understanding of the different Chinese languages that were used, the Chinese army, and the interrogations that the Chinese people had to endure. I thorougly enjoyed this book and want to give a special thank you to Debbie from The Random House Publishing Group. This book will be available in store on May 26, 2009.

My Rating: 5/5

Wondrous Words Wednesday-April 8

Bermudaonion asks you to share new words that you have learned during your reading adventures in the last week. Feel free to join in the fun!

The new words that I found were from the ARC of Shanghai Girls by Lisa See.

Cheongsams: [chawng-sahm] a form-fitting, knee-length dress with a mandarin collar and slit skirt, worn chiefly by Oriental women.

Karst: [kahrst] an area of limestone terrane characterized by sinks, ravines, and underground streams.

These words were actually in the same sentence on page 153 from the ARC edition:

Instead of beautiful girls reclining in their budoirs, sending a feeling of ease, relaxation, and eroticism, the artists have chosen to paint uninspired landscapes of the Great Wall, the sacred mountain of Emei, the mystical karsts of Kweilin, or insipid looking women wearing cheongsams made from shiny cloth in geometric patterns and sitting in poses meant to convey the virtues of moral rearmament.

So what new words have you found this last week?

Teaser Tuesday-April 7

Check out Teaser Tuesdays from Should Be Reading. TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

Grab your current read.Let the book fall open to a random page.

Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.>

You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

Please avoid spoilers!

This week my teaser is from Keeper of Light and Dust by Natasha Mostert:

Oh, no. Sighing, Mia stood up and nodded at the tall, expensively dressed woman who was watching her critically.

pg 38

Winner of This Side of Heaven by Karen Kingsbury!

Well I finally have a winner for This Side of Heaven by Karen Kingsbury...........Congratulations to Becky! I will be contacting you soon to get your mailing information so the publisher can mail this book directly to you.

I would like to give a special Thank You toMiriam from Hachette Book Group for offering to give this book away on my blog!

Thanks for entering everyone!

Review: The View from Mount Joy by Lorna Landvik

Here is a summary of the View from Mount Joy by Lorna Landvik from the Random House website:


When teenage hockey player Joe Andreson and his widowed mother move to Minneapolis, Joe falls under the seductive spell of Kristi Casey, Ole Bull High’s libidinous head cheerleader. Joe balances Kristi’s lustful manipulation with the down-to-earth companionship of his smart, platonic girlfriend, Darva. But it is Kristi who will prove to be a temptation (and torment) throughout Joe’s life.

Years later, Joe can’t believe that life has deposited him in the aisles of Haugland Foods. But he soon learns that being a grocer is like being the mayor of a small town: His constituents confide astonishing things and always appreciate Joe’s generous dispensing of the milk of human kindness. The path Kristi has charged down, on the other hand, is as wild as Joe’s is tame. But who has really risked more? Who has lived more? And who is truly happy? As Joe discovers, sometimes people are lucky enough to be standing in the one place where the view of the world is breathtaking, if only they’ll open their eyes to all there is to see.

My Review:

I will start off by saying that Lorna Landvik is an author that really holds a special place in my heart. Her book, Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons, really was the inspiration for the start of the Sweet Connections book club that has been meeting for almost five years now. The View from Mount Joy is the first book that I have read by Lorna that is narrated from a male perspective and I really think she did a good job. Considering that the book starts out by going inside the mind of a teenage boy, somewhere I really haven't wanted to be before, really set the stage for this novel.

Joe is a hockey player and the new kid in a Minneapolis school. Kristi just happens to be the head cheerleader that is dating the captain of the hockey team, so she gets blown into Joe's life by the friends that they share. And boy, is this girl something! Although Joe and Kristi do share an odd relationship, I think his closest high school friendship is made with a girl named Darva. Their friendship does remain intact and actually blossoms several years after their high school career is completed.

This novel does take you through Joe's entire life--as he completes his college career at the University of Minnestoa, takes over ownership of a local grocery store, and eventually starts his own family. As Joe attends college he starts out by participating on the hockey team. After a couple of injuries he realizes his mortality and admits his fear to himself. I really enjoyed this part of the book, as young men can appear to be macho and fearless, because Joe actually gave up playing hockey because of his fears.

When Joe is given the opportunity to take over the grocery store, at first he is apprehensive. His long-term dreams definitely did not involve running a grocery store! His management skills and creativity really start to make a name for himself though. His store becomes one of the most popular markets around as he enjoys making up little contests for his customers that award prizes that he knows they need. As an example, he knew one of his lady customers has been very stressed lately and in need of some TLC. Joe thought up a contest that he knew only she would win, so she would win a certificate to Patty Jane's House of Curl(which by the way is the title of one of Lorna's previous books). He really developed into his position and made the business quite successful.

Throughout Joe's life Kristi would blow in and out like a tornado. Joe and his friends become shocked as they get older to learn that Kristi has become a television evangelist. Knowing how she had acted during high school, and the few times that he had seen her since, the career choice did not fit the Kristi that he knew. As these parts of Kristi were put in the later half of the book, I couldn't help but think that she reminded me of Tammy Baker.

I enjoyed watching Joe mature from a wild teenager into a very well respected family and business man. I think that you should be forewarned that the beginning of this novel does contain some sexual content that some of you may find offensive. As I was reading those parts, I just kept in mind that the story was being told from the view of a teenage boy.

I have really enjoyed Lorna's novels and you can find out more about her books by going to her website. Most of her novels take place in Minnesota, which I have alway enjoyed because she writes about places that I know or have actually been to, since I live in Northern Wisconsin. Our book club actually met Wednesday night to discuss this book, but unfortunately I was unable to attend. I am looking forward to see how the other ladies like this one.

My Rating: 4/5