Bow to your queen...

Okay. I got an email today that informed me:

Barnes & Noble (BNBookClubs) is now following your tweets on Twitter.

I am totally serious.

Barnes and Noble is following ME? Aren't people supposed to follow them? I must have become a star, and didn't even know it!

You may bow down to me now...

What's Releasing? (09-02-09 edition)

Books releasing the week of 9/7/09:

The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks

Seventeen year old Veronica "Ronnie" Miller's life was turned upside-down when her parents divorced and her father moved from New York City to Wilmington, North Carolina. Three years later, she remains angry and alientated from her parents, especially her father...until her mother decides it would be in everyone's best interest if she spent the summer in Wilmington with him. Ronnie's father, a former concert pianist and teacher, is living a quiet life in the beach town, immersed in creating a work of art that will become the centerpiece of a local church.

The tale that unfolds is an unforgettable story of love on many levels—first love, love between parents and children — that demonstrates, as only a Nicholas Sparks novel can, the many ways that love can break our hearts...and heal them.

A Quiet Belief in Angels by R.J. Ellory

From rural Georgia to New York City, a harrowing, evocative, and mesmerizing tale of murder and redemption

1939. In the small, rural community of Augusta Falls, Georgia, twelve-year-old Joseph Vaughan learns of the brutal assault and murder of a young girl, the first in a series of killings that will plague the community over the next decade. Joseph and his friends are determined to protect the town from the evil in their midst and they form "The Guardians" to watch over the community. But the murderer evades them and they watch helplessly as one child after another is taken. Even when the killings cease, a shadow of fear follows Joseph for the rest of his life. The past won't stay buried and, fifty years later, Joseph must confront the nightmare that has overshadowed his entire life...

Also available:

• The Conversation: How Black Men and Women Can Build Loving, Trusting Relationships by Hill Harper
  
• Dark Visions: The Strange Power; The Possessed; The Passion by L.J. Smith
  
• Day after Night
• Dexter by Design by Jeff Lindsay
  
• A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore
  
• The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment by A. J. Jacobs
  
• Level 26: Dark Origins by Anthony E. Zuiker
  
• The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo
  
• The National Parks: America's Best Idea by Dayton Duncan
  
• Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to by Kathy Griffin
  
• Shooting Stars by LeBron James
  
• Taking the Leap: Freeing Ourselves from Old Habits and Fears by Pema Chodron
  
• Traveling with Pomegranates: A Mother/Daughter Memoir by Sue Monk Kidd
  
• Why Our Health Matters: A Vision of Medicine That Can Transform Our Future by M.D., And Weil Andrew
  
• You Were Always Mom's Favorite: Sisters in Conversation Throughout Their Lives by Deborah Tannen

Bookin' with Bingo Bookcase Giveaway!

BOOKIN' WITH BINGO is having an EXTRAVAGANT BINGO BOOKCASE GIVEAWAY sponsored by CSN STORES who sell everything from fireplaces to office furniture. Stop by and enter by 6 PM, EST, on September 26th.

Teaser Tuesday (09-01-09 edition)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
  
• Open to a random page
  
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Today's Teaser:

When I open them, the beard guy is sitting in the overstuffed chair. He's got flower gardens around his neck: pink, orange, yellow, like in pictures of Hawaii, and he wears red robes. He's Indian and small; with his long gray hair and beard he looks a little like an old man and a little like an imp.

-- Karma for Beginners by Jessica Blank, page 54

REVIEW: The Imposter's Daughter by Laurie Sandell

The Imposter's Daughter by Laurie Sandell

Synopsis

Laurie Sandell grew up in awe (and sometimes in terror) of her larger-than-life father, who told jaw-dropping tales of a privileged childhood in Buenos Aires, academic triumphs, heroism during Vietnam, friendships with Kissinger and the Pope. As a young woman, Laurie unconsciously mirrors her dad, trying on several outsized personalities (Tokyo stripper, lesbian seductress, Ambien addict). Later, she lucks into the perfect job—interviewing celebrities for a top women's magazine. Growing up with her extraordinary father has given Laurie a knack for relating to the stars. But while researching an article on her dad's life, she makes an astonishing discovery: he's not the man he says he is—not even close. Now, Laurie begins to puzzle together three decades of lies and the splintered person that resulted from them—herself.

My Thoughts

I was surprised to see that this book was really a graphic novel. Perhaps someone somewhere in their review had mentioned it, and I interpreted that to mean that it "was graphically descriptive". So let me make this clear: this is a graphic novel, in that it is cartoonish drawings telling a story.

This was an entertaining story, and it was interesting to see the transformation that Laurie Sandell went through from a little girl who idolized her father to an adult woman who demonized her father to a more reconciled adult who seemed to accept her father more for who he was, and by the end of the story seemed to understand the idea of forgiveness.

This is a cute story and a quick read.

* Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
* Pub. Date: July 2009
* ISBN-13: 9780316033053
* 256pp

My Rating: 7 out of 10