Mailbox Monday - March 7

Mailbox Monday is a meme started by Marcia of To Be Continued. Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It now has a permanent home at the Mailbox Monday blog.

Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles, and humongous wish lists.

Happy Monday! I hope you're having a great week so far. Buyers are coming out of the woodwork looking for houses right now. I've worked two days in a row morning until night. Not a lot of reading--or blogging--getting done.

I received one book last week. I had been impatiently awaiting its arrival. This was a pre-order that helped to support the restoration of the Conservatory at the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst, MA. Charyn's other book about Emily Dickinson is a favorite of mine, so I hope to enjoy this one just as much.

Through interviews with contemporary scholars, close readings of Dickinson’s correspondence and handwritten manuscripts, and a suggestive, newly discovered photograph that is purported to show Dickinson with her lover, Charyn’s literary sleuthing reveals the great poet in ways that have only been hinted at previously: as a woman who was deeply philosophical, intensely engaged with the world, attracted to members of both sexes, and able to write poetry that disturbs and delights us today.

What did your mailbox hold last week?

Mailbox Monday & Giveaway - June 22

Mailbox Monday is a meme started by Marcia of To Be Continued. Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It now has a permanent home at the Mailbox Monday blog.

Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles, and humongous wish lists.

Wow! Hard to believe that tomorrow is the last day of school. Where did the year go? As I mentioned last week, I am glad it's over. I think we all need a vacation.

On a positive note, I've started reading a bit more and my last editing project for a client is done, so hopefully I will get some writing done soon.

This is a book I'll be reading for a book tour in August.

Angels, Angels, Everywhere is a non-denominational, multiracial book written in delightful rhythm and rhyme and accompanied by charming illustrations. The themes of constant support and unconditional love are designed to help children deal with everyday experiences in life.

By developing children’s faith in knowing that they are not alone and building their trust that they are consistently watched over, cared for, and loved, children will become empowered to deal with life’s challenges. The book also lets children know that angels are there in good times as well, sharing in their joy.

I also recently picked up the second book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, on audio.

In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the summer after Harry’s first year at Hogwarts has been his worst summer ever… the Dursleys more distant and horrible than ever before. But just as he’s packing his bags to return to school, a creature named Dobby the house-elf announces that if Harry goes back to Hogwarts, disaster will strike. And it turns out, Dobby is right. Harry and Ron miss the Hogwarts Express, so they fly to school in a blue Ford Anglia, crash landing in the notorious Whomping Willow. Soon other worries accumulate: the outrageously stuck-up new professor Gilderoy Lockhart; a ghost named Moaning Myrtle, who haunts the girls' bathroom; the strange behavior of Ron's little sister, Ginny Weasley; rumors about the "Chamber of Secrets," a cavern buried deep below Hogwarts; and a magical diary owned by Tom Riddle, a Hogwarts student of long ago. Harry is also shocked to discover that he can speak Parseltongue, the language of snakes - a rare ability that Lord Voldemort also possessed - and that anti-Muggle prejudice exists in the Wizarding world, even affecting Harry's friend Hermione. But all of these seem like minor concerns when someone starts turning Hogwarts students to stone: an evildoer said to be the fearsome Heir of Salazar Slytherin, one of the founders of the school. Could it be Draco Malfoy, Harry's most poisonous rival? Could it be Hagrid whose mysterious past is finally told? Or could it be the one person everyone at Hogwarts most suspects: Harry Potter himself?

I posted a review of Bitter Bronx by Jerome Charyn last week at The Book Connection. Here's an excerpt from that review:

No stranger to Charyn's work, I eagerly signed up for this tour. His ability to evoke such strong emotions through his characters is second to none and his eloquent prose draws you in from the start.

These characters are flawed in such a way that you wish to close the book and tuck it away; but like the scene of a horrific accident, you can't help but peer into these people's lives as they struggle against poverty, greed, perversions, and organized crime. This is a world of war widows and mobsters, of insanity and depression, of a Bronx forever divided into north and south.

You can read the entire review here.

I am giving away a second copy of the book that the publisher sent to me. Please use the Rafflecopter form below for your chance to enter and win. Sorry, U.S. residents only. Good luck!

Hope you'll share what was in your mailbox too.


Giveaway Terms and Conditions:


* Winner must 18 years of age or older and reside in the United States.
* Winner will be notified by email and have 72 hours to claim prize or a new winner will be selected.
* Prize will be shipped by USPS.
* The Busy Mom's Daily is not responsible for items lost or damaged in shipment.
* VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Mailbox Monday - June 1

Mailbox Monday is a meme started by Marcia of To Be Continued. Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It now has a permanent home at the Mailbox Monday blog.

Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles, and humongous wish lists.

Oh, what a crazy life I live. Work is keeping me so busy, I rarely have time for anything else--even reading. That said, I read my favorite authors as often as I can.

Recently, I received two copies of Jermone Charyn's Bitter Bronx short story collection. I became familiar with Charyn's work in The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson and Joe DiMaggio: The Long Vigil. Since then, I've read several of his titles.

Brooklyn is dead. Long live the Bronx! In Bitter Bronx, Jerome Charyn returns to his roots and leads the literary renaissance of an oft-overlooked borough in this surprising new collection.

In Bitter Bronx, one of our most gifted and original novelists depicts a world before and after modern urban renewal destroyed the gritty sanctity of a land made famous by Ruth, Gehrig, and Joltin' Joe.

Bitter Bronx is suffused with the texture and nostalgia of a lost time and place, combining a keen eye for detail with Jerome Charyn's lived experience. These stories are informed by a childhood growing up near that middle-class mecca, the Grand Concourse; falling in love with three voluptuous librarians at a public library in the Lower Depths of the South Bronx; and eating at Mafia-owned restaurants along Arthur Avenue's restaurant row, amid a "land of deprivation…where fathers trundled home…with a monumental sadness on their shoulders."

In "Lorelei," a lonely hearts grifter returns home and finds his childhood sweetheart still living in the same apartment house on the Concourse; in "Archy and Mehitabel" a high school romance blossoms around a newspaper comic strip; in "Major Leaguer" a former New York Yankee confronts both a gang of drug dealers and the wreckage that Robert Moses wrought in his old neighborhood; and in three interconnected stories—"Silk & Silk," "Little Sister," and "Marla"—Marla Silk, a successful Manhattan attorney, discovers her father's past in the Bronx and a mysterious younger sister who was hidden from her, kept in a fancy rest home near the Botanical Garden. In these stories and others, the past and present tumble together in Charyn's singular and distinctly "New York prose, street-smart, sly, and full of lurches" (John Leonard, New York Times).

Throughout it all looms the "master builder" Robert Moses, a man who believed he could "save" the Bronx by building a highway through it, dynamiting whole neighborhoods in the process. Bitter Bronx stands as both a fictional eulogy for the people and places paved over by Moses' expressway and an affirmation of Charyn's "brilliant imagination" (Elizabeth Taylor, Chicago Tribune).

Endorsements and Reviews:

“[Jerome Charyn] is to the Bronx what Saul Bellow, early in his career, was to Upper Broadway—bard, celebrant, mythologizer.” — Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post

“Sharp-edged short stories…Charyn’s narrative sleight of hand is wonderfully at play…. Despite the hard edges, and there are many, a rich sweetness flows just below the surface of Bitter Bronx.” — Wendell Jamieson, New York Times Book Review

“It is no small achievement to be the Babel of the Bronx.” — Leslie Epstein, New York Times Book Review

“Jerome Charyn is one of the most important writers in American literature.” — Michael Chabon

“Jerome Charyn is merely one of our finest writers, with a polymorphous imagination and crack comic timing. Whatever milieu he chooses to inhabit, his characters sizzle with life, and his sentences are pure vernacular music, his voice unmistakable.” — Jonathan Lethem

“Charyn, like Nabokov, is that most fiendish sort of writer—so seductive as to beg imitation, so singular as to make imitation impossible.” — Tom Bissell

“Jerome Charyn''s Bronx is a landscape of magic and passion. With…American yearning and a stage full of unforgettable characters.” — BookPage

“Grifters, gangs, vamps, and lost souls pursue gritty lives in ‘the brick wilderness of the Bronx’ in this collection of tales by a veteran storyteller and native of the New York borough…. Charyn''s staccato style is full of jolts, surprising observations, and turns of phrase. It works well with the rough struggle for survival and success….” — Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

“Tough on the outside but tender at heart, the 13 stories in this volume serve as a nostalgic elegy to the Bronx of the past…. Mixing equal parts grit and charm, there’s no need to have set foot in the Bronx to enjoy these stories.” — Publishers Weekly

Look for a June 19 review of this book at http://thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com/

What did you receive in your mailbox?

The Friday 56 - Week 162

Welcome to Week 162!

Rules:
*Grab a book, any book.
*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader
*Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it) that grab you.
*Post it.
*Add your (url) post to the Linky at Freda's Voice. Add the post url, not your blog url. It's that simple.

I didn't expect a bunch of dwarfs to clap at me with their cymbals, and white horses to dance in the snow with silver ribbons on their legs. Still, I did expect some kind of a homecoming.

Mailbox Monday - First & Last Post for 2013

As I mentioned in my Blogging Goals for 2014 post, I'm retiring You've Got Mail Monday and joining onto Mailbox Monday.


Mailbox Monday has gone on tour since Marcia at To Be Continued, formerly The Printed Page passed the torch. December’s host is Rose City Reader.

***The Mailbox Monday poll found that most bloggers preferred the Mailbox Monday blog to be the permanent home for the meme beginning in January.***

The meme allows bloggers to share what books they receive in the mail or through other means over the past week.

Just be warned that these posts can increase your TBR piles and wish lists.

Here is what I received this week.

The value of any new venture or sound new idea needs to be developed out of the nothingness of silence, ignorance and darkness. It ignites and illuminates the world only when the great storytelling entrepreneur lights the flame. “STORYTELLING: The Indispensable Art of the Entrepreneur” shows, with startling clarity and practical know-how, the process by which wealth and other things of exceptional value can emerge into the world literally out of nothing—nothing, that is, but the Art of Storytelling.

STORYTELLING takes you on a journey which reveals how the development, progressive modification and adaptation of your story is the golden thread and foundational core management practice which ties together all the others: building, focusing and motivating your management team, navigating through troubled times or excessive growth, maintaining positive momentum with investors and Boards of Directors and positioning the venture for a potential exit.

Award-winning author and entrepreneur, Rudy Mazzocchi, exposes his greatest secret of success and provides an enormous amount of “experienced-based” illustrations and nuts-and-bolts practical advice. He reveals how to create and evolve the story of your new venture in a way that energizes and breathes life into what may have started out as just an idea.

Everyone can benefit greatly from reading this book—whether or not you envision yourself as an entrepreneur. STORYTELLING: The Indispensable Art of the Entrepreneur applies universally to ventures of all types and is an essential element in the fulfillment of any dream—dreams which depend upon capturing the interest and sustaining the highly-motivated commitment of others.

*

Narrated in Lincoln’s own voice, the tragicomic I Am Abraham promises to be the masterwork of Jerome Charyn’s remarkable career.

Since publishing his first novel in 1964, Jerome Charyn has established himself as one of the most inventive and prolific literary chroniclers of the American landscape. Here in I Am Abraham, Charyn returns with an unforgettable portrait of Lincoln and the Civil War. Narrated boldly in the first person, I Am Abraham effortlessly mixes humor with Shakespearean-like tragedy, in the process creating an achingly human portrait of our sixteenth President.

Tracing the historic arc of Lincoln's life from his picaresque days as a gangly young lawyer in Sangamon County, Illinois, through his improbable marriage to Kentucky belle Mary Todd, to his 1865 visit to war-shattered Richmond only days before his assassination, I Am Abraham hews closely to the familiar Lincoln saga. Charyn seamlessly braids historical figures such as Mrs. Keckley—the former slave, who became the First Lady's dressmaker and confidante—and the swaggering and almost treasonous General McClellan with a parade of fictional extras: wise-cracking knaves, conniving hangers-on, speculators, scheming Senators, and even patriotic whores.

We encounter the renegade Rebel soldiers who flanked the District in tattered uniforms and cardboard shoes, living in a no-man's-land between North and South; as well as the Northern deserters, young men all, with sunken, hollowed faces, sitting in the punishing sun, waiting for their rendezvous with the firing squad; and the black recruits, whom Lincoln’s own generals wanted to discard, but who play a pivotal role in winning the Civil War. At the center of this grand pageant is always Lincoln himself, clad in a green shawl, pacing the White House halls in the darkest hours of America’s bloodiest war.

Using biblically cadenced prose, cornpone nineteenth-century humor, and Lincoln’s own letters and speeches, Charyn concocts a profoundly moral but troubled commander in chief, whose relationship with his Ophelia-like wife and sons—Robert, Willie, and Tad—is explored with penetrating psychological insight and the utmost compassion. Seized by melancholy and imbued with an unfaltering sense of human worth, Charyn’s President Lincoln comes to vibrant, three-dimensional life in a haunting portrait we have rarely seen in historical fiction.

What did you receive this week?

You've Got Mail Monday

Yes, it's Tuesday, not Monday. We're nursing a dying cat, so it's been a tough week. We'll be putting Stubby to sleep on Thursday and the entire house is sad right now.

Last week's mailbox was overflowing with goodies. I felt like it was Christmas around here. Several books arrived:

Marilyn The Wild by Jerome Charyn - gift for reviewing many of the author's books

Wish I Could Have Said Goodbye by Shari A. Brady - prize from a giveaway

Tortured for Christ by Richard Wurmbrand - free from The Voice of the Martyrs

The Deliverer by Kathi Macias - reviewing for Kathi's virtual book tour next month

What Must I Do To Be Saved by James R. Anderson - reviewing and writing press release

Autumn Winds by Charlotte Hubbard - reviewing for the author's VBT

A Step in the Write Direction by Donna Clark Goodrich - reviewing for Christian Children's Authors

The post office really mangled that last book. It looks like their machines ate the outer envelope and mauled the top right corner of the book. The envelope was retaped and part of the book was visible through the package.

I also received some neat catalogs. The first was for Mini Boden Clothing. I had never heard of them before. They carry clothes for babies, girls and boys ages 0 - 14. There was a special listed on the inside cover--Buy Any 3 Items and Get A 4th for $1 Plus Free Shipping. We finished our school shopping today, but they have adorable things. I might have to buy for now and then save the items for Christmas.

The 2012 Fall Planting catalog from Dutch Gardens arrived too. I haven't planted bulbs in years, but I'm ready to start doing it again. The deer eat my tulips all the time, so I haven't been eager to toss money out the window. I might see if I can plant some daffodils, though, since they don't like those.

The last item in my mailbox was a catalog from Costume® Express. Halloween costumes are so expensive. I'm looking for any way I can save money, especially considering the girls never fit into their costumes again. Yes, they use them for dress up from time to time, but the Lil Diva (11) isn't much into doing that these days and her costumes are usually the most expensive. We almost didn't a get a chance to use our costumes last year because this is what it was doing in October:

It happened on October 29th and the town--along with many other communities--cancelled Trick-or-Treating because of safety issues. Thankfully, we were able to go out another night in a different community that wasn't as hard hit.

The amazing thing is a couple of weeks into November, everything was green again--damaged, but green.

The Costume Express catalog had three coupons on the back: $20 OFF an order of $100 or more, $10 OFF an order of $50 or more, and one for $5 off an order of $25 or more. These are good until September 24th. Maybe by then I'll be thinking about Halloween. Right now, all I'm thinking is how I am going to pay for all the clothes I bought the past two weeks for back to school.

That's it for this week's issue of You've Got Mail Monday. Hope you're having a great week.

You've Got Mail Mondays

There might be a law that says you can't post You've Got Mail Monday so close to the start of Tuesday, but alas, I couldn't help it today.

Last week was catalog week. I guess all those vendors want me to spend some money. Oriental Trading's Fun & Faith catalog arrived early on. I usually order craft type items from them for church and home. We also use this catalog as inspiration to create some of our own crafts for Vacation Bible School.

An L.L. Bean catalog also came in. I loved the cover on this one. It was set outdoors (as is typical). A fisherman carrying a string of trout (?) made it back to camp carrying two fishing poles and a sleeping child. He has a smile on his face. The angry wife in her flannel shirt and jeans is standing there with raised eyebrows and hands firmly planted on her hips. Based upon the stars we can assume he's late bringing supper home. L.L. Bean is celebrating its centennial with a sweepstakes. In addition, if you place an order for $50 or more, you get a FREE $10 gift card.

Land's End loved me so much they sent two catalogs: one women's, one men's. I love the look of their new Parker Knotted Espadrille, but I would be hard pressed to spend $60 on them.  These Chino Shorts are nice, and I really liked their Slim Stretch Crop Pants. Inside was a coupon for $10 off a purchase of $50 or more. It's good through April 15th, so I might take advantage of that.

One Hanes Place also sent me a catalog.  They are a good place to buy undergarments and hosiery. In addition to those items, I've bought a limited amount of clothing from them, but I find their sizes run a bit big on me.

The most exciting catalog came from Proven Winners. Not sure how I ended up receiving this one, but I love the gardening ideas inside. This issue talked about discovering your style and offered ideas--with beautiful color pictures--for each type of style. Gardener P. Allen Smith shares his recommendations for annuals, perennials and shrubs. This issue also talked about one of favorite shade loving plants--the hosta--and how to create a successful container garden.

The one book that arrived last week was Blue Eyes by Jerome Charyn. It's an older paperback edition. Charyn is touring with it in May with Tribute Books.

My last interesting piece of mail came from Somers Academy: The Grammar School. The Head of School is Cynthia Flynn. She used to be owner and director at my girls' preschool. I was sad to see it close, but it certainly looks like Cindy has done well. I'm so excited for her. I can't think of a more dedicated educator of young minds. I've been considering Somers Academy for the Lil Princess (8) since I discovered Cindy is there. Cost is a factor. The drive is also a challenge. It's half an hour away. Not a big deal, but the bus doesn't come here until 8 AM right now, so I'm not sure I could swing it.

That's it from here. Hope you have a blessed week.

Taking Time for Mom Thursdays

Taking Time for Mom Thursdays is back. This topic is almost like cheating considering my profession, but I have to admit I find reading, writing and editing relaxing. Now, part of the reason reading is relaxing to me is because most of my book time takes place in the tub, but there is nothing like sitting anywhere with a fabulous book you simply can't put down.

I've been an avid reader my entire life, but my years of experience--good and bad--have allowed me to become a character driven reader and now I appreciate dissecting every aspect of my characters' lives. How else could I write fan fiction stories if I didn't consider other parts of characters I have come to know and love from my favorite TV shows.

I'm not an envious writer. I don't get jealous over another writer's success or wish his success could be mine. I do, however, appreciate a great book that captivates me so completely I am willing to push aside my responsibilities to read just one more chapter. Here are a few of those books:

Defending Jacob is a book I will review next week for William Landay's virtual book tour through Pump Up Your Book. In the interest of full disclosure, Bill is one of my clients. This is the first book of his that I've read or helped promote, but now I want to pick up his other two books:  Mission Flats and The Strangler.  Defending Jacob was just released on January 31st and it's already claimed the number 2 spot for Amazon's legal thriller category for printed and Kindle book sales, and is also #3 for printed book sales in the psychological thriller category.

This is the story of a district attorney's son who is accused of killing a classmate. D.A. Andrew Barber unfolds this story for us showing how he struggles to clear his son's name while his past is coming back to bite him in the rear end. Also considered a family drama, the reader gets a chance to witness the terrible impact Jason Barber's trial has on his family. This is without a doubt one of the best books I've ever read.

Kathi Macias has been a client of mine over the past four years. This amazing writer releases multiple titles a year. In October, I helped her promote two of them. While I enjoyed A Christmas Journey Home more, Deliver Me From Evil truly captured my heart.

Years ago, Maria was sold by her parents in Mexico and smuggled across the border into San Diego where her name is changed to Mara and she is forced into sexual slavery.

Jonathan is eyeing graduation with anxiety. His dream of a professional baseball career gone, he is unenthusiastically planning to attend Bible-college. When Jonathan's and Mara's paths cross, their lives are changed forever. Unable to forget the girl whose face haunts him, he is pulled back to the place where their eyes met.

Across the world in Thailand, another young woman in captivity is mysteriously connected to the young people of San Diego.

As a mother of two young girls, this story is frightening. To think one day your daughter could be abducted and used as a sex slave is sickening. This is definitely a story that will make you want to hug your children more often.

The House on Tradd Street was the first book by Karen White that I read. I haven't missed one since.

Real estate agent Melanie Middleton visits with elderly Nevin Vanderhorst just days before his unexpected death. When she inherits Vanderhorst's historic Tradd Street home she is less than thrilled, but Nevin's letter about the mother he is sure would never have abandoned him encourage her to restore the house at 55 Tradd Street and try to unravel the mystery surrounding Louisa Vanderhorst's sudden disappearance.

True crime writer Jack Trenholm is obsessed with unsolved mysteries. He believes the diamonds from the missing Confederate Treasury are stashed inside Melanie's house. Using Louisa's story, Jack is able to convince her to let him help with the restoration in exchange for allowing him to perform research for his next book.

Neither of them quite knows what they are getting into. An evil ghost also resides in the house on Tradd Street and it doesn't want Melanie or Jack telling Louisa's story.
This one captured me right away. As a Civil War buff, I was drawn to it for the plot, but the mixture of family secrets, love, legends, and the charm of the South, create an emotional tale that turned me into a Karen White fan.

I read Finding Chandra by Scott Higham and Sari Horwitz a few months before Ingmar Guandique was put on trial for her murder.

Based upon a request from the investigative editors of the Washington Post, Higham and Horwitz revisited the cold Chandra Levy case six years after her disappearance, compiling a thirteen-part series for the paper, which focused on the prime suspect the police and FBI had passed over years before. In Finding Chandra, readers are witness to their investigation: interviews with police, the FBI, Chandra's parents, the man who discovered the remains that were later identified as Chandra Levy's, former Congressman Gary Condit, people who knew Guandique--the man serving time for stalking and assaulting women in Rock Creek Park around the time of Chandra's disappearance--and more.

Finding Chandra reminds people of the young promising intern, a congressman's fall from grace, the crimes against women that occurred in Rock Creek Park, and that two parents sought justice for their beloved daughter.

It's an excellent piece of investigative journalism.

Inspired by Dickinson's letters and poetry, this novel blends fact and fiction in a seamless way that allows the reader to believe every word author Jerome Charyn has written is how it occurred.

The book opens in 1848, with a young Emily Dickinson as a seminarian at Mount Holyoke, where she falls in love with a fictional handyman known as Tom. Dickinson serves as the narrator of this tale, and Charyn emulated her voice to tell the story.

The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson portrays a passionate, witty woman who lived life fully, despite the confines of the society and times within which she was born and lived.

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into my library. What are some of your favorite books? What did you love most about them?