Sunday Salon: June 16, 2013

Well, after spending the week amid flash flood warnings, NYC was treated to an absolutely gorgeous weekend. The weather was in the 70's, sunny without a hint of humidity. I felt compelled to drink it in - it won't be long before it is hot and sticky in the city and I knew I would regret not getting out when the weather was so nice. I even spent some time up on my roofdeck with this book:

Next week is Audiobook Week hosted by Jen at Devourer of Books. There are topics for each day and I plan to post about a couple of them. I generally have one audiobook going at a time and have found that they are a great way to supplement my printed reading and, more importantly, to keep me occupied on drives to CT for work or walking around the city. Do you listen to audiobooks?




In Case You Missed It
I have really been enjoying the Top Ten Tuesday topics hosted by Broke and Bookish lately.  This week's topic was Top Ten Beach reads.  I included a mix of my favorite beach reads over all and those releasing this summer which I am looking forward to spending some time with while relaxing in a beach chair. 

On Friday, I posted a review of the audiobook of Lucia, Lucia by Adriana Trigiani. This book had many of my favorite book elements - an immigrant theme and a NYC setting.  It was my first listen to narrator Cassandra Campbell but I will definitely be listening to more narrated by her.

Finally, Happy Father's Day Dad!

Don't get blinded by the wallpaper!

Audiobook Review: Lucia, Lucia by Adriana Trigiani

Lucia, Lucia (narrated by Cassandra Clare, 9 hours, 35 minutes) by Adriana Trigiani is the story of Lucia Sartori, a young woman living in 1950's Greenwich Village. Lucia is the daughter of immigrant parents who, along with her older brothers, run a successful grocery on Commerce Street. Lucia, however, is independent and has big dreams for herself - she wants a career, not just a job. She does, however, have one foot in each world. She is engaged to her childhood sweetheart from the neighborhood, Dante Demartino whose family has traditional expectations of their soon-to-be daughter-in-law. Lucia desperately wants to make her own parents, Dante and even his parents happy but she also wants to pursue her own dreams. Will she have to sacrifice love for independence and a career?

Lucia Sartori is a woman ahead of her time. At twenty-five, she should be married with children but even though she loves her fiance, Dante, she bristles when he and his family suggest that she will leave her successful job as a seamstress once she marries. Unlike her peers, Lucia wants to delay having children after getting married so she can continue to develop her career. Dante is not comfortable with this but his mother is completely outraged and things come to a head at a family dinner with both sets of parents. Lucia's parents love her but they want her to conform and to have a happy, albeit conventional and boring, life with Dante. In a bold move of rebellion, Lucia breaks her engagement with Dante, scandalizing her parents.

Lucia takes comfort in her career at B.Altman and in her colleagues there. Soon, however, she catches the eye of dashing John Talbot who lavishes Lucia with gifts and takes her to the best NYC destinations. Unlike Dante, he doesn't seem concerned with convention and respects her career. They talk of building a dream home on the water in Long Island. There are a few things about John which remain mysterious - including his family and what he actually does for a living but Lucia is in love and riding the upward trajectory of her life.

My Thoughts
This book has many of my "book triggers" - NYC setting, independent woman who also really wants love, and immigrant/second generation themes.  Author Adriani Trigiani beautifully wraps a story around these elements and the result is an audiobook to which I could not stop listening. I did not want to say goodbye to Lucia or her big Italian family.

This is my first listen with narrator Cassandra Campbell but I will definitely be looking for other audiobooks read by her. Her voice has a rich tone to it which is easy to listen to and she did a great job with the accents of Lucia's Italian parents. A satisfying listen for sure!

Top Ten Tuesday - Top Beach Reads - June 11, 2013

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by Broke and Bookish and asks participants to create a top ten list around a different topic each week. This week's topic is "Top Ten Beach Reads". One of my favorite places to read is on the beach and there are some books that just belong there. When I did my winter covers collage earlier this year, a lot of commenters said they preferred summer/beach read - this one is for you! (If I have reviewed the book, the link goes to my review)

 A Summer Affair by Elin Hilderbrand - If it is summer, there must be a book by Elin Hildebrand. She has the best summer/beach covers for these books and this one is no different. It has a meaty storyline but is utterly readable.

The Three Weismanns of Wesport by Cathleen Schine - This book is a take on Austen's Sense and Sensibility and it is what I call a "smart" beach read.

Life's a Beach by Claire Cook - of course, this one is a shoe-in for a beach read list!  Light and fluffy, perfect way to pass a beachy afternoon

Maine by J.Courtney Sullivan - Maine seems to be the literary destination of late.  I have seen a lot of books set there and it is, of course, a great summer destination.

Monarch Beach by Anita Hughes - Being an East Coast gal, most of my beach reads seem to feature the beaches of the Northeast but this book's setting is Laguna Beach on the West Coast

Releasing this summer  . . .

A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams - the vintage beach cover on this one just draws you in!

Sweet Salt Air by Barbara Delinsky - the water is in the distance on this one but salt air says beach to me!

The Last Original Wife by Dorothea Benton Frank - I read my first book by this author (Lowcountry Summer) earlier this year and really enjoyed it.  This one is also a winner (review coming soon) and the cover is quintessential beach.

Beautiful Day by Elin Hilderbrand - see above re: this author!  She takes us back to Nantucket for a wedding in this one.

All The Summer Girls by Meg Donohue - I had a beach house share on the shore with friends for many years and this book takes me back to that time.

What are your favorite beach reads? Favorite Beach?

Top Ten Tuesday- Have Book, Will Travel - June 4th

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by Broke and Bookish and asks participants to create a top ten list around a different topic each week. This week's topic is "Top Ten Books Featuring Travel". I love to read and to travel so it is a perfect marriage! (links are to my reviews if I have reviewed them)

1. The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places on Earth by Eric Weiner: This book is at once a travelogue, sociological study and memoir. Weiner, a foreign correspondent for NPR, traveled the world for a year in an effort to determine how place and the characteristics of that place influence an individual's happiness.

2. O Come Ye Back To Ireland by Niall Williams and Christine Breen: This book tells the story of a couple that move to the rugged West of Ireland and their discoveries during the first year there. It celebrates the beauty of rural Ireland and the excitement of moving to a new country.

 3. Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson: Bryson does a travel memoir like no one else- his dry humor comes right through the pages. In this book, he takes a final tour through England before moving his family back to the US

4. Little Princes by Conor Grennan: A trip around the world turns into a life mission when Grennan arrives in Nepal and meets the boys in a local orphanage. They capture his heart and they will capture yours too.

5. Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven by Susan Jane Gilman:  The author and a college friend head out on a post college trip and start in China.  This is China before it was open to the West so travel there was challenging - that coupled with the friend's gradual unraveling make for very funny scenes. The author's writing is smart and witty.

6. A Thread of Sky by Deanna Fei: At direction of their mother, a group of sisters (with Mom in tow) head to China for a package tour of all the major sights. The relationship between the Mom and each sister is fractured and the trip is her (ill-fated) attempt at remedying that.

7. The Paradise Guest House by Ellen Sussman: This beautiful book is as much an homage to Bali as a story of recovery following the 2001 bombings. I visited Bali in 2007 and this book immediately transported me back to the beauty and calm of the country

8. Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik: I read this before I started blogging and absolutely loved it.  The author, a writer for the The New Yorker, moves his family to Paris and this book chronicles their year there learning about the city and it's people. I fell in love with Paris through this book. 

9. The New York Times 36 Hours: 150 Weekends in the US and Canada: I love the 36 hours feature in NYT and this book collects those into a book.  I think this hardcover makes a great gift for a traveler, graduate, newlyweds, etc.

10. Without Reservations by Alice Steinbach:  This one is still on my shelves but I can't wait to read it. Self-discovery in the process of discovering destinations - definitely right up my alley!


What are your favorite travel books?

Sunday Salon: June 2, 2013

This has been quite a week - I was fortunate enough to attend Book Expo America (BEA) which was here in NYC from Wed through Sat. It was a great week of books, authors, bloggers and readers.  Did I mention books?

I LOVE totes and BEA delivered!

I need to creatively stash these throughout the apartment

 I need to go through all this and sort out how I will best feature it all on the blog (if you have suggestions on how you would like to hear about these books, please leave them in the comments). I want to bring these books to you because I am excited about them and also want to make sure I feature them relative to when they publish since I don't read quickly enough to read all this in time! 


Here are some highlights of my week:

 - great book blogger events thrown by Harper Collins, Atria and Penguin which included blogger friends Kathy, Diane, Gayle, Nicole, Candace, Alison, Jenn, Elizabeth and Julie

 - meeting amazing authors including Joshilyn Jackson, Joseph Kanon, Sue Grafton, Kimberly McCreight, Amy Hill Hearth, Koethi Zan (check out her bio on the website - I think it is so well written!), Elizabeth Gilbert and Wally Lamb

 - having breakfast with other bloggers at the home of author Adriana Trigiani (!!) - this was such a lovely morning. Her home is beautiful and she was such a gracious host to us all. She is also invited authors John Searles, Bruce Feiler and Susan Fales-Hill. It was great to meet and talk books, etc with them too!

- cocktails with author Dorothea Benton Frank where we chatted about her road to becoming an author, the city of Charleston, and her latest novel The Last Original Wife. I also discovered a great little place in the city - The Tipsy Parson - they had a wonderful menu of drinks and eats (even though the pepper jelly on the biscuits almost choked poor Dottie - it was so spicy!)

Ok - off to settle in with a book - hope you all have a great week!

Review: The Mystery of Mercy Close by Marian Keyes

Author Marian Keyes is back with a book featuring the Walsh sisters, The Mystery of Mercy Close. Four of the authors prior novels have featured the Walsh sisters - Watermelon, Angels, Rachel's Holiday, and Anybody Out There - each focused on one on this sisters and this last one focuses on the youngest, Helen.  A private investigator in Dublin, Helen's business has been suffering due to the tough economic climate in Ireland. She has gotten behind on her mortgage payments and ends up having to move back in with her parents. She is feeling pretty low because of her change in fortune when an old friend asks for her investigative assistance in finding the lost member of a reunited boy band.

Wayne Diffney from the boy band, "The Laddz", lives on Mercy Close in Dublin. He mysteriously disappears a week before the band's big reunion. Jay Parker is producing the reunion show and he contracts Helen to find Wayne urgently. Helen put aside her own personal struggles to try to focus on the mystery of the disappearing "boy band" member. In an effort to try to understand Wayne's state of mind before his disappearance, Helen spends a lot of time in his house on Mercy Close looking through his records and generally trying to determine what was going on with Wayne before he left or was abducted. Having recently lost her own home, she develops an unusual attraction to Wayne's home and starts to feel very comfortable there.

In between searching for Wayne, Helen is spending time with her boyfriend Artie. Unfortunately, things with Artie are also a bit complicated. With three young children that spend a lot of time at his house, there is very little along time for Artie and Helen. In addition, Artie's ex-wife is on very friendly terms with Artie and is constantly there. Although Helen likes her, she could do with seeing a little less of her. The undercurrent to all  these problems is Helen's state of mind. She is grappling with depression and it colors her view of everything including her relationship with Artie and her job as a private investigator.

My Thoughts
I have long been a fan of Marian Keyes and especially her Walsh sisters series; I wrote in this post about Marian Keyes's "skillful chicklit". So I was excited to learn that the author was back with a new book and it was about the youngest Walsh sister, Helen. Unfortunately, however, this book just didn't work for me. Helen's hi-jinks all seemed contrived and where I usually find wit in these books, I found that the jokes fell flat. The book also seemed inconsistent - at varying points in the book, Helen's issues with depression would come up but they didn't seem authentic and, at times, I felt she trivialized a very serious condition. There is even a suicide attempt in the book that seems very ill-placed. The author has been very public about her own struggles with depression so I am surprised at the lack of authenticity in the sections of the book dealing with depression. Or maybe this genre is just not conducive to such a serious topic. Either way, I am disappointed that this book didn't wow me as the others have done.

Not everyone felt the same as I did - you can check out other opinions at Chick Lit Central and Novelicious.

I received an e-galley for review via Netgalley

Sunday Salon: May 26, 2013

Happy Sunday everyone! I am so happy to be in the middle of a three day weekend even though the weather does not yet say summer. I am spending the weekend in the city and enjoyed NOT being part of the mass exodus on Friday afternoon. I am taking advantage of my "staycation" by taking a NYC Photo Safari in Central Park tomorrow. I love to take photos but could use some basic guidance on composition and technique - that plus some companionship while taking photos sounds perfect!

BEA
Book Expo America takes place next week in NYC with the Book Blogger Conference on Wednesday followed by the convention through Saturday. I also got tickets to one of the author breakfasts - the one taking place on Saturday (least chance for a work emergency to pre-empt it) which includes Helen Fielding (of Bridget Jones fame), John Lewis, Chris Matthews and Diana Gabaldon. I have taken Wednesday through Friday off and am looking forward to taking advantage of some time on the convention room floor - last year I didn't make it there at all.  Some work events have started to encroach but I still have time blocked off and I am hanging on to it.

I put together two Pinterest boards for next week - one is BEA Essentials which includes items I have found helpful in prior years at the conference.  I also have a board entitled MY NYC which includes places and things to do in the city.  I will continue to add to both over the week so check back - also let me know your essentials and favorite places in the city and I can add them.

I realized one of the last times I was at BEA, that it can be hard to recognize people when you only know them by their blog headers and avatars, so I am including a picture of myself here - I look forward to meeting you at BEA!

Reading



This week I posted two reviews - The Love Wars by L.Alison Heller and The Paradise Guest House by Ellen Sussman.

Right now I am reading Commencement by J.Courtney Sullivan which is perfectly suited to this season of graduations and is making me nostalgic for my own college days.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!