The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry

From Goodreads: Towner Whitney, the self-confessed unreliable narrator of The Lace Reader, hails from a family of Salem women who can read the future in the patterns in lace, and who have guarded a history of secrets going back generations, but the disappearance of two women brings Towner home to Salem and the truth about the death of her twin sister to light.

The Lace Reader is a mesmerizing tale that spirals into a world of secrets, confused identities, lies, and half-truths in which the reader quickly finds it's nearly impossible to separate fact from fiction, but as Towner Whitney points out early on in the novel, "There are no accidents."



I finally picked this one for my "L" book for the A-Z Reading Challenge and I am so glad I did. Once I sat down to read, it caught my attention right away and I fnished it up a day later neglecting my chores to read and read some more. I really enjoyed the glimpse into the town of Salem. I had heard of Salem before (of course) but had no idea of what it might be like today with the tourists looking for witches in the historic parts of town. I also enjoyed the idea of island life described through the eyes of a "townie". That contrast of tourists versus locals is really a timeless theme. I also loved the characters - even the bad ones held my interest. Somewhat of a spoiler discussion from here on out so stop reading if you haven't read it yet! As I read, I knew there was something I was missing. I even thought of the movie Sixth Sense and tried to figure out if there was a ghost. I knew there was one ghost, Eva, but suspected there may be another one. But even though I was actively investigating what the mystery might be...I did not figure it out and, boy, was I surprised. Surprised in a good way. Surprised in a way that made me want to go back and reread the book with this new information - which I did in small parts but not all the way through (I was most interested in the Jack piece of it). Overall, this is one of the better books I have read lately. I think it will stick with me for awhile!

Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday started by Marcia at A Girl and Her Books is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week (checked out library books don’t count, eBooks & audio books do). This month Mailbox Monday is being hosted by Mari at MariReads. Stop by there to check out everyone else's mailboxes.

This is the Maeve Binchy version of Mailbox Monday! Maeve Binchy is one of my favorite authors. Her books are usually set in a place where the pace of life is slower like a village in Ireland or Greece. Her stories allow me to imagine what life would be like if I wasn't always rushing around - that's a great escape!

From Goodreads: In The Return Journey, Maeve Binchy brings us sons and lovers, daughters and strangers, husbands and wives in their infinite variety—powerfully compelling stories of love, loss, revelation, and reconciliation. A secretary's silent passion for her boss meets the acid test on a business trip....A man and a woman's mutual disdain at first sight shows how deceptive appearances can be....An insecure wife clings to the illusion of order, only to discover chaos at the hands of a house sitter who opens the wrong doors....A pair of star-crossed travelers take each other's bags, and then learn that when you unlock a stranger's suitcase, you enter a stranger's life. In their company are many more, whose poignant, ironic, often humorous stories—unforgettable slices of life—make up The Return Journey, a spellbinding trip into the human heart.
I found this one at a used book store and it is one I didn't have in my collection so I snatched it right up. Just one afternoon out in the hammock ought to get me through this one!

From Goodreads: After many happy years of marriage and raising a family, Brian and Kathleen suddenly find themselves a bit lost in life. Midwesterners who’ve never traveled, Kathleen decides that what she and Brian need is a vacation, and with the help of an enthusiastic travel agent she plans a trip to Ireland in search of her roots. In beautiful, quaint Lisdoonvarna, to the couple’s surprise, they find themselves in the midst of a joyous yearly gathering dedicated to celebrating the life and work of a late Irish poet, and they rediscover something much more important than evidence of long-dead ancestors: their love for each other and for life itself.
This one I found on IBooks. Haven't had nearly as much luck finding bargains on IBooks as I have on Kindle but this kind of makes up for it! I'm super happy to read a 99-cent short story by an author I love!

Miranda's Big Mistake by Jill Mansell

From Goodreads: Miranda is overjoyed when she meets Greg at a cocktail party. Greg is handsome and funny, but he has not told Miranda everything about himself, such as the pregnant wife he has just abandoned.

This was a fun book to read; it is Brit chick lit done well with a cast of interesting characters in both posh situations and working class ones as well. You have to abandon reality to accept all the coincidences that make the plot work but because I liked the characters and wanted to see each of them get their due (whether their due was happiness or utter humiliation), I was happy to suspend my disbelief! This is the second Jill Mansell book I have read, the first was Millie's Fling. I enjoyed them both as e-book bargains, Millie was free and Miranda only 99 cents. That marketing technique certainly hooked me because Jill Mansell is on my list now of authors I like!

This counts toward the e-book challenge. Click on the logo to see my progress.

What Good is God? by Philip Yancey

From the Amazon product description: Journalist and spiritual seeker Philip Yancey has always struggled with the most basic questions of the Christian faith. The question he tackles in WHAT GOOD IS GOD? concerns the practical value of belief in God. His search for the answer to this question took him to some amazing settings around the world: Mumbai, India when the firing started during the terrorist attacks; at the motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated; on the Virginia Tech campus soon after the massacre; an AA convention; and even to a conference for women in prostitution. At each of the 10 places he visited, his preparation for the visit and exactly what he said to the people he met each provided evidence that faith really does work when what we believe is severely tested. WHAT GOOD IS GOD? tells the story of Philips journey--the background, the preparation, the presentations themselves. Here is a story of grace for armchair travelers, spiritual seekers, and those in desperate need of assurance that their faith really matters.

This was just okay for me. It probably was not a good choice for me in audio and would have been better in print. The book is a compilation of speeches that Yancey has given. Each speech is preceeded by an introduction to the location and situation of the speech; the introductions are filled with anecdotes. Then he reads the speech, the speeches are also also filled with anecdotes. So it was hard for me to keep track of where I was in the book because the feel of the introductions and the speeches were so similar that I would confuse them. They were interesting but they all seemd to run together as I listened. I think in print, it would be more apparent where you were and you could kind of mull over and let one section "settle" before you moved on to the next. My other problem was that it was narrated by the author. His voice was very soothing, really very soothing, so soothing it was to the point that it reminded me of an old Saturday Night live bit, it was just too much. So I was plugging away at it because it was a freebie I won and I always feel like I ought to finish those. i was getting more detached from it and less interested when I bought Can you Keep A Secret? and took a quick six hour break to listen to that. When I returned to What Good Is God? I was ready to listen again, more attentive, and really enjoyed the last few discs. That's what leads me to say it would be better n print when you could read and stop, read and stop, rather than audio where it just keeps coming at you whether you are ready or not.

Thank you to Mason Canyon at Thoughts in Progress for hosting the giveaway that sent this book to me.

Here is the author's website: http://www.philipyancey.com/home/about

Can You Keep A Secret? by Sophie Kinsella

From Goodreads: Meet Emma Corrigan, a young woman with a huge heart, an irrepressible spirit, and a few little secrets:

Secrets from her mother:
I lost my virginity in the spare bedroom with Danny Nussbaum while Mum and Dad were downstairs watching Ben-Hur.
Sammy the goldfish in my parents’ kitchen is not the same goldfish that Mum gave me to look after when she and Dad were in Egypt.

Secrets from her boyfriend:
I weigh one hundred and twenty-eight pounds. Not one eighteen, like Connor thinks.
I’ve always thought Connor looks a bit like Ken. As in Barbie and Ken.

From her colleagues:
When Artemis really annoys me, I feed her plant orange juice. (Which is pretty much every day.) It was me who jammed the copier that time. In fact, all the times.

Secrets she wouldn’t share with anyone in the world:
My G-string is hurting me.
I have no idea what NATO stands for. Or even what it is.

Until she spills them all to a handsome stranger on a plane. At least, she thought he was a stranger.

But come Monday morning, Emma’s office is abuzz about the arrival of Jack Harper, the company’s elusive CEO. Suddenly Emma is face-to-face with the stranger from the plane, a man who knows every single humiliating detail about her. Things couldn’t possibly get worse—Until they do.


I was 6 discs in to listening to What Good is God? when I spied this one on the shelf of a thrift store for $1.50. I snatched it right up because I LOVED this book in print. I bought it, read it, and passed it on. Then repeated that whole cycle TWO more times when I came across it at tag sales and such because it just made me laugh each time I read it. As soon as I got in the car, What Good is God? came right out of the CD player and in went Sophie Kinsella. Now, I worry a little bit about what that says about my character that I would so easly turn away from a work of theology and evangalism for some Brit chick lit but that's exactly what I did and I am happy with my choice. The narrator had a great accent that brought the characters to life. The book was abridged for audio and I did notice when they left out one of my absolutely favorite lines but I just added the line back in in my head and laughed aloud remembering it. Enjoying this book again, for the first time on audio, was a joyous 6 hours. If you enjoy the occasional chick lit, this is a great one.

"I'm Black and I'm Proud," Wished the White Girl

From Goodreads: Living within a "Black World" and coming to know racism first-hand is rarely the path traveled by the average white American. Lynn Markovich Bryant shares her story of living within a black environment and dealing with racism.

I found this memoir fascinating because of the "inside look" it gave to race relations in Beaufort during integration and the repercussions still affecting life here today. Although I was fascinated by the book, I had a hard time deciding if it was the actual story or if it was more of the then and now look at the community with which I am intimately familiar. As I read, I wondered if someone from another part of the country would appreciate it less or more reading it without knowing the landmarks and some of the people described. It was a fast read and the sequence of events was for the most part fairly linear which allowed me to keep track of things easily. While I am glad that the author used her real voice as she wrote, there were times that I found the asides distracting. Lickety split I am passing this one on to a friend so I have someone to discuss it with and I'll be checking back on Goodreads to see what other readers have to say!

What's On Your Nightstand? May 2011

This monthly feature is hosted by 5 Minutes for Books on the last Tuesday of every month. Click on the logo to go and check out all the participants.







On the bottom is I'm Black and I'm Proud wished the White Girl, it's by a local author about her experience growing up in small town south in the sixties as a child in a multi-racial family. She's white but identified more with the black community and felt more accepted there as well. It's been very interesting so far.

Next is The Butterfly's Daughter by Mary Alice Monroe. I won this one from the Goodreads First Reads program and am enjoying it thus far.

On the Road by Jack Kerouac is one I couldn't get through on audio so have decided to try the print and see if that is better for me. I'll be honest, I'm not laying any money down on it. I find that the books that appeal to intellectual males, tend not to appeal to me. (Broom of the System comes right to mind)

Finally on top is an audio I came across in a thrift shop, Strangers in Death by JD Robb. She has written approximately a kazillion of these "in Death" books and I have read exactly one, Memory in Death. It's not something I would sit down and read (too many more preferred books in my TBR pile) but it will pass the time in the car!







This same picture was on my March nightstand post! I've made zero progress towards picking out reading an "L" book for the A-Z Reading Challenge so that is still on my "to-do" list! Hopefully I won't be saying that again in June or July!