Sunday Salon…3.22.09

THERE IS A LAND
There is a land -
A marvelous land -
Where trolls and giants dwell;
Where witches
With their bitter brew
Can cast a magic spell;
Where mermaids sing,
Where carpets fly,
Where, in the midst of night,
Brownies dance
To cricket tunes;
And ghosts, all shivery and white,
Prowl and moan.
There is a land
Of magic folks and deeds,
And anyone
Can visit there
Who reads and reads and reads.

~ Leland B. Jacobs ~

Book Faery Adventures last week…

• Author Guest Post: R. Scot Johns – Fantasy Digital Art
• Book Review: Blessings by Anna Quindlen
• Book Tour w/ Hachette Books: Angry Conversations with God by Susan E. Isaacs
  
• BAPA 2: Create, Complicate, Resolve: The Keys to Keeping Your Readers Interested

Books Read last week…

• Almost a Bride by Jane Feathers
• Your Wicked Ways by Eloisa James
• Angry Conversations with God by Susan E. Isaacs

Currently Reading…

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button read via daily e-mail snippets from DailyLit
• Shattered Reality by Kimberly Elliott-Cheryl
• A Truth Lies in the Dark by Kristine Callender

Borrowed Books still to Read…

• Click: What Millions of People are Doing Online and Why It Matters by Bill Turner
• Nightseer by Laurell K. Hamilton
• The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life at Rose Red
• Potent Pleasures by Eloisa James
• Midnight Pleasures by Eloisa James
• Fool for Love by Eloisa James

Cookbooks I’m checking out…

• Desperation Dinners!
• The Best Freezer Cookbook
• Cheap.Fast.Good
• Family Supper
• Kid Shape Cafe
• The Brown Bag Lunch Cookbook
• Beyond Macaroni and Cheese

Books Received for Review…

• How to Talk to Anyone About Anything by Jill Spiegel
  

Coming this week…

• Author Guest Post, Book Review, and Giveaway: Shattered Reality by Kimberly Elliott-Cheryl
• Book Review & Giveaway: The Truth Lies in the Dark by Kristin Callender

DON’T FORGET…The Book Faery Reviews plans to transition to our new location April 1st, 2009. Current subscribers shouldn’t miss a post and I’ll be reminding everyone of the change weekly til we move. Be on the lookout as there will be a book giveaway to kick off the new location.

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If you would like to participate or read other Sunday Salon Meme’s where members share their books click on the image above.

Blessings

Blessings by Anna Quindlen

FROM THE WEBSITE…”Blessings, the bestselling novel by the author of Black and Blue, One True Thing, Object Lessons, and A Short Guide to a Happy Life, begins when, late at night, a teenage couple drives up to the estate owned by Lydia Blessing and leaves a box.

In this instant, the world of the estate called Blessings is changed forever. The story of Skip Cuddy, the Blessings caretaker, who finds a baby asleep in that box and decides he wants to keep her, and of matriarch Lydia Blessing, who, for her own reasons, decides to help him, Blessings explores how the secrets of the past affect decisions and lives in the present; what makes a person, a life, legitimate or illegitimate, and who decides; the unique resources people find in themselves and in a community. This is a powerful novel of love, redemption, and personal change by the Pulitzer Prize–winning writer about whom The Washington Post Book World said, “Quindlen knows that all the things we ever will be can be found in some forgotten fragment of family.”

Readers Guide for Book Clubs

Visit Anna Quindlen’s website

FROM THE BOOK FAERY REVIEWS…I thoroughly enjoyed reading Quindlen’s novel Blessings. She creates each character with such life suited for their particular “lifestyle”. We watch a young man who finds hope within a small bundle that transforms his life forever. We become a fly on the wall learning about the family secrets of the Blessings estate and how it affects the lives of those impacted. You can’t help but feel for her characters as they battle their own inner struggles before they can reach some sort of peace. And at times you can’t help but want to slap or punch them into reality. My only disappointment at the end was that I wish the main characters from the Blessing estate remained a big part of the little girl’s life. Why must they leave when she had finally breathed love into their souls? Oh I DEFINITELY cried when the estranged teenage mother came to pick her up and he didn’t want to be in her life.  I kept thinking to myself, “Why aren’t you going to fight for her since she did just abandon her!” and “Why won’t you be part of this precious life?! She became so much of you!” Course we all know that book characters don’t always listen to us, right? But then if the main character hadn’t “walked away” then I would have expected him to stay all along and I wouldn’t have experienced as many emotions as I did at the end. It’s a reminder that not all stories end happily ever after. But then again, perhaps without this little blessing whom touched the lives of the estate mistress and her employee their own life would have remained lost from their own abandonments.