Book Review: Tales of a Hollywood Gossip Queen by Mary Kennedy

Read and reviewed for armchair interviews

When Jessi Phillips is flown to L.A. to rerecord lines for the movie Reckless Summer the last thing she anticipates is staying longer than a few weeks. She, and her best friend Tracy get summer internships at a new gossip magazine about the stars called Juicy. Jessi is put in charge of the teen stars department, and her first interview is with rising star Jazz Holiday, another newcomer to “Tinsel Town”. However, she is thrust into the spotlight when her earlier romance with heartthrob Shane Rocket, who she met while co-starring with him in Reckless Summer, flames up into something serious. Suddenly life spirals out of control as she tries to balance life, work, and free time; and a jealous rival stealing and sabotaging Jessi’s stories. She still has to break the news of her new relationship to her on again-off again boyfriend Marc, and cope with not just dishing out the gossip, but being a subject of gossip herself. Jessi is discovering that her summer is turning out nothing like she had planned.

In this sequel to Confessions of an Almost Movie Star, Mary Kennedy has crafted a fun story that is filled with excitement, romance, and a healthy dose of celebrity gossip. Tales of a Hollywood Gossip Queen reintroduces characters from Confessions of an Almost Movie Star and lets readers learn more about their lives as the story develops. It is an extremely fun story that is perfect for summertime reading.

ISBN10: 0425209938
ISBN13: 9780425209936
Publisher: Berkley Trade
Publication Date: July 2006

I woke up today to an email forwarded to me through the armchair crew from an author thanking me for the wonderful review.

I feel all squishy and keep grinning like crazy now.

Book Review: The Price of Pride by Donna MacQuigg

Read and reviewed for armchair interviews


In her third novel, Donna MacQuigg takes her readers to the wild west of New Mexico. It is 1892, New Mexico has recently become a state, and its capitol city of Santa Fe is trying to become a more civilized place than its surrounding towns.
U.S. Marshal Ira Ferrell has returned to Santa Fe from his posting in Carefree, Arizona after the death of his youngest brother Zachary and his fiancé Emily Brighton. He is also trying to find any info about the death of a fellow lawman, who had been working undercover to find and arrest people involved in a cattle smuggling ring rumored to be operating in the area. He thinks that perhaps the fire his brother died in may have not been accidental.

Ms Sarah Brighton is the sole surviving relative that Zachary's fiancé Emily had. She lives in St. Louis where she is a reporter. When she finds out about her cousin Emily's death. She gets on a train to SantaFe to find out more about the death, and to take care of her cousin's affairs. She arrives to find that in the time between being notified of the death. and arriving that her cousin has been buried alongside her fiancé Zachary out in the Ferrell family plot. It is while going through Emily's belongings that Sarah finds a strange button shaped like the head of a lion, which had been clutched in her cousin's hand when they found her and Zachary, and comes to the conclusion that maybe her cousin's death was not an accident.

What follows is a tale filled with mystery, suspense and romance. Ira and Sarah look through the clues left behind and find themselves digging up much more than they expected to find. They butt heads and lose their hearts to each other as they try to expose the murderer, bring the members of a cattle rustling ring to justice, and keep each other alive when the bullets start flying.

ISBN 10: 1594144648
ISBN-13: 9781594144646
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Publication Date: May 2006
Binding: Hardcover

link list

Just a post for me to keep the armchair links in so I can refer to them as needed.

Drawing a Blank

The Woman Who is Always Tan

The Price of Pride

Tales of a Hollywood Gossip-Queen

Book Review: The Woman Who is Always Tan and Has a Flat Stomach (and Other Annoying People) by Lauren Allison and Lisa Perry

Read and reviewed for armchair interviews

Have you ever started a project and been so proud of it until you were annoyed by someone you know who did something similar, but five thousand times better? Did you ever make a mistake and have someone close say I told you so to you? Have you ever walked into the house of one of your children’s friends and asked yourself “Where am I? Who can keep their house so clean with kids running around?” Laren Allison and Lisa Perry use their expertise as public speakers to bring us a collection that gives us the readers a look at a few of their own personal annoyances. They tell us stories about their children, their husbands, what they have tried to do to keep up with their over enthusiastic and talented neighbors and acquaintances.

This book is a very humorous look at some of the annoying actions and habits that other people have. It gives us the readers a chance to laugh away our own stresses caused by annoying people we know by showing us some of the worlds other annoying people. I enjoyed the laughter it brought me and the lighthearted look at some of the things that can cause annoyances in this world

ISBN10: 0976657600
ISBN13: 9780976657606
Publisher: Castle Pines Publishers
Publication Date: March 2005

autographed book

The copy of The Price of Pride by Donna Macquigg that I will be reading and reviewing for armchair interviews came today. The author was a sweet-heart and autographed it to me.

That floored me. It's such a little thing, but it made me smile.

The Obsidian Key By Eldon Thompson

This is what I am going to be submitting to HarperCollins for their firstlook deadline. I will write a real review when finished with the book.

Eldon Thompson brings his readers back to a world full of conflict and unrest. This sequel to The Crimson Sword brings us back to the kingdom of Ansalon and its young king Torin. When Torin discovers that his actions in retrieving the crimson sword, in his earlier adventures, has brought about disaturous consequenses and a frigtning new enemy he sets off to right the wrong. Eldon Thompson has crafted a story with a wonderfully detailed world and plot.

ISBN10: 006074152X
ISBN13: 9780060741525
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication Date: July 2006
Binding: Hardcover

Whoot!!!

My Drawing a Blank review has gotten posted to the armchair interview site

This is my first review published through them :)

Book recieved

I got a copy of The Woman Who is Always Tan And Has a Flat Stomach (and Other Annoying People) by Lauren Allison and Lisa Perry to read and review for armchair today.

This looks exactly like something I will enjoy after slogging through The Obsidian Key

I'm up to chapter thirteen finished in the book as of this moment. Only forty-three more to go. I am going to try like crazy to finish this in time for Monday's deadline, however the book might get a very short general review submitted to armchair this time and a more thought out one when I do finish the book.

I wish they hadn't taken so long for it to get to me, I'm enjoying this book immensly so far. However it's such a detail rich story that I am hating rushing through it like I have been.

Pauls Books

This is sad but sweet. I stumbled onto this bookcrossing bookshelf while reading the forums this morning. The original site that Pauls family put together after his death is very moving. www.paulsbooks.org It's sad that this boy died so young, but it is extremly moving how his friends and family have choosen to honor his memory.

When I was reading some of the entries in the books on his book shelf, I was getting snifley.

I'm going slightly mad

So, last week (exactly a week ago today) I received my ARC copy of The Obsidian Key to review through the HarperCollins FirstLook program. The due date for the review? The 8th of May. The date on the letter inside the book? The 12th of April...

Now normally this wouldn't be a problem, except that 1. The book is in the mid 500 page range and 2. It is a very fact intensive fantasy book. 3. I was struggling with the Drawing a Blank review until yesterday morning and finally 4. I got a spring fling box with books I would much rather be reading yesterday.

So now, I am two chapters in, the book is making my head hurt it has introduced so many characters already and I can't keep it open.

I'm not sure what to do. I don't want to send an "I really couldn't get into the book" comment off. I feel obligated to finish it and review it, but I just can't seem to keep my concentration on the book.

I really don't know what to do.

Welcome

So, over the past year or so I have been fortunate enough to be picked to do some reader reviews for the HarperCollins Publishing company through their firstlook program. I recently got involved with the armchair interviews review group. I've decided to throw together this blog to give myself someplace where I can get my reviews together and put my thoughts about the books down before completing the reviews. Kind of a sounding board as it is.

I'm going to be uploading copies of the past reviews today :) (they are backdated now with the date they were written so are now found below this post)

Book Review: Drawing a Blank by Daniel Ehrenhaft, Illustrated by Trevor Ristow

Read and reviewed for armchair interviews

Told through the eyes of seventeen year old Carleton Duane (the IV), the story takes us from a boarding school in upstate Connecticut, to New York City, to Scotland. Carleton is a rather reserved teen, who has been sent to school at a ritzy boarding school. He is artistically bent, and spends much of his time in class doodling, and drawing his comics (which are printed in the local paper under his father’s name - Carleton Duanne III –whom he has led the editor to believe he is). Carleton’s life is thrown into chaos, when he receives a late night phone call from Scotland telling him that his father has been kidnapped, and the only way to free him is to bring the “Proof” of this age old feud between two Scottish clans. There is only one problem. Carleton has always believed his father was nuts, and the feud a made up event. He has no idea what the “proof” required is. What follows is a wacky tale of Carleton’s travels to try and rescue his father.

Carleton sneaks out of school to go back home, unknowingly setting off a panic about his disappearance. He arrives home in New York City to find his apartment ransacked by someone else looking for the “proof” his mysterious caller had mentioned, and a very strange last will and testament written by his father years earlier (which refers to the feud but does not explain it at all) in a drawer usually kept locked in his father’s desk. He flies to Scotland, and is almost run over by an unmarked big black van when he arrives. On top of all this, he is rescued by a girl who might not be what or whom she seems to be.

Author Daniel Ehrenhaft and artist Trevor Ristow have collaborated their talents to make an intently humorous story. Ehrenhaft’s delightful tale is punctuated with Ristow’s drawings that illustrate how Carleton looses himself in his drawing and uses his comics to explore his emotions at the time of drawing. While this is not a graphic novel, but fiction with inserted illustrated comic pages, the comic pages scattered throughout the book might interest fans of the graphic novel genre as well.

Armchair Interviews says: Readers of this book will have a fun time reading about Carleton’s travels, and finding out how he manages to solve the mystery of who has kidnapped his father, end a feud that has lasted generations, and find the time to meet the girl of his dreams.

ISBN10: 0060752521
ISBN13: 9780060752521
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication Date: April 2006
Binding: Hardcover

Book Review: The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean

In her First Book, The Madonnas of Leningrad, Debra Dean brings us a magical story. The main character, Marina serves as a bridge between the modern day and war torn Leningrad during World War II. The modern day Marina, is old. She lives in America, has raised a family, and is suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer’s. She has numerous problems with her short term memory. She keeps forgetting who her children and their families are, and comparing the things that she sees now to how she lived during the war. She is slowly retreating into her memories and becoming her younger self in thought. The younger Marina is a museum tour guide, is in love, lives through much hardship, and finds herself struggling to keep herself, her aunt and uncle and her unborn child alive during a time of very little food.

As an artist and a former art history student I was blown away by the descriptions of the Hermitage Museum, and of the paintings that are described as Marina builds herself a memory palace of the museum so it does not get lost after the war ends. This was a sweet and moving story of love and hardship both during World War II, and in the present day as Marina's husband and children struggle to cope with her moving away from them into the past.

ISBN10: 0060825308
ISBN13: 9780060825300
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication Date: March 2006
Binding: Hardcover

Book Review: I Am Not Myself These Days by Josh Kilmer-Purcell

In his first book, a fresh new memoir, author Josh Kilmer-Purcell weaves us a tale of his first two years living in Manhattan after migrating north from Atlanta. His life is a lather-rinse-repeat pattern of working late, going home and transforming himself from Josh to Aqua (a flamboyant drag queen) and spending the rest of the night drinking, dancing, and working the Manhattan gay club scene until going to work again the next day. His life has a repetitious quality to it until he meets Jack. Jack is a crack addicted male escort who after meeting Josh initiates an intense fast paced relationship. We witness Josh and Jack go from happily moving in together into Jack’s penthouse apartment to spiraling out of control and finally violently fracturing apart due to Jack’s addictions.

Reading this book drew me into a very unfamiliar world. However, the author weaves this tale of his past in a way that does not alienate those readers who are not familiar with it. It was a sadly hopeful tale that had some amazingly funny highs and some very intense lows.

ISBN10: 0060817321
ISBN13: 9780060817329
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Publication Date: February 2006
Binding: Hardcover

Book Review: The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar

In the Space between us, Thrity Umrigar introduces us to Bhima and Sera Dubash. These are two women from vastly differing lifestyles whose lives become intertwined.

Bhima is a poor Hindu woman who is struggling to support herself and her granddaughter Maya. Maya has recently become pregnant while unwed, and will not admit to whom the father is. Because of this she is forced to drop out of collage which was the hope of her grandmother and her getting out of the slums.

Sera Dubash is an upper middle class Parsi widow. Her life seems perfect. She lives in a flat owned by her husband’s family; she has a beautiful and intelligent daughter. She can afford to hire Bhima as her house servant, to do cleaning around the house and to get things from the market for her. However, she is extremely unhappy. a state of being which has plagued her since her marriage to her late husband Feroz.

Despite their differences, Sera and Bhima develop a friendship of sorts over the twenty years that Bhima has been working for the Dubash household. Bhima brings her mistress‘ life a little bit of pleasure as she deals with her husbands uncontrollable rages. She becomes a surrogate mother to Sera’s daughter Dinaz, and brings cheerfulness into the household. Sera on the other hand finds in Bhima some one she can trust to soothe the bruises and hurt feelings, she treats Bhima’s granddaughter with kindness when she was brought to live with her grandmother in Bombay after being orphaned in Delhi. Over the years, Sera helps out Bhima when she can, she pays for Maya’s college tuition when it turns out how bright of a child she is.

Through the years, Bhima and Sera share heartbreaks, and joy, and love of a sort. Their world gets turned upside down when it is discovered that Maya has become pregnant.

Thrity Umrigar brings her readers to witness contemporary Bombay life with a fantastically crafted story. She uses her masterful writing style to bring us the readers into a world where life is a struggle. I was transported to a world that was very unfamiliar to me, and while the story is a sad one it ended leaving me with a haunting sense of longing to know more about the future of these two women. I was blown away by the depth of the characters and the descriptiveness of her phrasing. I haven’t read a book set in India that has grabbed hold of me and transported me across the globe like this one did, since I read A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry a few years back.

ISBN10: 0060791551
ISBN13: 9780060791551
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication Date: January 2006
Binding: Hardcover

Book Review: The Road to Paradise by Max Allen Collins

In his graphic novel Road to Perdition author Max Allen Collins introduces us to the character Michael O'Sullivan. The son of a mobster who's life changes when the mob turns on his family. In it's written sequel, Road to Purgatory we meet Michael again, now known as Michael Satariano. who is a young man, recently returned from WWII, and taking his fledgling steps into becoming a part of the Chicago mob. Road to Paradise is the third and final book in the Road to series that Max Collins has written. He once again masterfully brings us back into the life of Michael Satariano, this time not with images drawn, but images shared through descriptive writing.

In Road to Paradise, we are introduced once again to Michael, now middle aged, with his killing days far behind him. Michael runs a casino for the mob, and has a family he is raising in a small town near the California Nevada border. He is comfortable in his life, until exiled godfather Sam Giancana asks Michael to help him regain power in Chicago by committing a hit on one of the members of the Chicago mob. Michael refuses the job. The hit is done anyways, and Michael finds himself running from the mob with his family after being framed for the murder.

Max Collins crafts a suspenseful story following the Satariano family as they are moved around the country in the newly formed Federal Witness Protection Program. The book has on the edge of your seat action and excitement as we follow Michael as he tries to keep his family safe, prove that he was framed, and battle the "family" that has been such a huge impact on his life and lifestyle since he was a small boy in the 1930's. If you have not read either of the books prior to this one, you won't find yourself lost in the story. Collins gives the reader access to occurrences and past history from the other chapters in Michael O'Sullivan's life without bogging down the story of the present happenings to Michael.

I have been waiting for this conclusion to Max Collin's "Road" series as I fell in love with the story with the graphic novel Road to Perdition, every book since has made the story more and more real feeling. I really enjoyed this conclusion. It was a satisfy closing chapter in the life of Michael O'Sullivan (Satariano).

ISBN10: 0060540281
ISBN13:
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication Date: November 2005