First Lines...

"I still use a manual typewriter ( a 1953 Underwood portable, in a robin's-egg blue) because the soft pip-pip-pip of the typing of keys on a computer keyboard doesn't quite fit with my sense of what writing sounds like. I need the hard metal clack, and I need those keys to sometimes catch so I can reach in and untangle them, turning my fingers inky. Without slapping the return or turning the cylinder to release the paper with a sharp whip, without all that minor havoc, I feel I've paid no respect to the dead. What good is an obituary if it can be written so peaceably, so undisturbingly, in the dark of night?"

... The Coffins of Little Hope by Timothy Schaffert coming April 2011

Memoir Monday presents... Reading Lips: A Memoir of Kisses by Claudia Sternbach

A new memoir came my way from those wonderful people atUnbridled Books! It's Reading Lips: A Memoir of Kisses by Claudia Sternbach, where Claudia writes about "the kisses - platonic and romantic - that shaped her life." Thinking about it, don't we girls remember certain kisses in our life?! From the pulblisher...

Kisses, even the ones that don’t happen, can be the trace of what’s constant when life changes. In childhood, when what seems to define everything is competition—for style, for knowing, for experience—a kiss is the first first. When a girl’s father moves out and chooses a new family, a kiss on the head from him may be the trace of constancy that she wants most.

Later, such things take on a different flavor. Sometimes the kiss she wants doesn’t come. Sometimes the one she wouldn’t have is forced upon her. From time to time, the one she has kissed before is lost to her.

Some kisses are final. When things are most hectic a kiss can be a celebration. And when circumstances grow threatening—to a woman, her family, her sister—a kiss becomes the reassertion of the most vital connections.

The rich story in these essays rings with good humor and with moving wistfulness. Throughout, Sternbach maintains a perfect balance between them as her story moves from the bittersweet desires of childhood on through loss and love.

Reading Lips is the tale of one woman who is just trying to get life right.

Reading Lips: A Memoir of Kisses by Claudia Sternbach will be published this coming April. It's already gotten some great pre-publication praise for Claudia's writing. Look for my review coming in February!

Safe from the Sea by Peter Geye... A Review

An Estranged Father and Son Attempt to Reconcile...

in Safe from the Sea by Peter Geye

As I opened the first few pages of Safe from the Sea by Peter Geye I could almost feel the chill in the air and smell the scent of the sea. The book opens with a prologue where we are sharing a moment on the midnight watch on the ore boat Ragnarok with the wheelsman and the officer in charge, some 20 nautical miles north of the Keweenaw Peninsula in water a hundred and fifty fathoms deep. There is a quiet to the moment as the captain reflects on the beauty of the sky before them and the birth of his son. There is a sadness to the moment too, as the captain reflects that his son was born just nine days ago, and here he was sailing away... The officer is Olaf, and the son born just nine days ago is Noah. It is their relationship, or lack of relationship, that makes Safe from the Sea such a powerful story. There is a yearning that comes across as Olaf and Noah struggle to reconcile their feelings as Olaf tells his son that he is dying...

From IndieBound... SAFE FROM THE SEA tells the story of Olaf and Noah Torr, a father and son whose long estrangement began after Olaf survived a shipwreck on Lake Superior. More than thirty years after the wreck, Olaf believes he is dying of cancer and asks his son to come home to his isolated cabin on the lake in order to help him die. Over the course of two weeks in November, against the backdrop of the dramatic upper Midwest landscape and weather, the men reconsider each other's lives, finally summoning the courage to confess, understand and forgive.

Noah's father finally tells his son for the first time the harrowing account of the wreck of Olaf's ore boat, the SS Ragnark, a horrible secret from that night, and the survivor's guilt that has dogged Olaf ever since and caused him to abandon his family. Noah's own struggle to make a life with an absent father finds its real reward in his relationship with his sagacious wife, Natalie, whose complications with infertility issues mark her husband's life in ways he only fully understands as the reconciliation with his father takes shape.

The story is powerful, and Peter Geye's writing is wonderful, with the emotionally charged dynamics between father and son, Olaf and Noah, subtlety floating off the pages. The story moves along with vignettes of Olaf and Noah in happier times, as Noah is growing up. It's these vignettes that pack a powerful punch as you contrast them against the present day, and wonder how a relationship can just slip away...

Part of the story in Safe from the Sea deals with Olaf sharing with Noah what actually happened on the Ragnark. When Olaf recounts the terrible wreck of the Ragnark, the ore boat Olaf was officer on, not only was Noah on the edge of his seat listening, so was I! What fantastic storytelling! You almost feel as though you are in that terrible storm, aboard the Ragnark. And that's one of the gifts of Peter Geye's writing- he can paint such meaningful images & feelings with his words.

Take a journey with a father and son as they discover if they have the ability to forgive... in a broken down house deep in the woods... with the memory of the past holding them together. Listen to the story of the shipwreck, the ships that sail the seas, and life onboard a ship... Listen to your heart as Noah also deals with the impending death of his father...

I enjoyed Safe from the Sea so much! Beautiful prose and a wonderful story. I want to thank Caitlin of Unbridled Books for sending along a review copy!

Guest Post with Peter Geye, author of Safe from the Sea

You may not be familiar with author Peter Geye yet, but if his debut novel Safe from the Sea is any indication of what we can expect from him I'm sure you'll be hearing quite a bit about him. Peter Geye was born and raised in Minneapolis, and Safe from the Sea is "set against the powerful lakeshore landscape of northern Minnesota". I'd like to welcome Peter to Chick with Books today, where he'll share with us a little bit about himself, and what he hopes to impart to the reader with his writing. Join me in a warm welcome to Peter!

As a junior in high school, I had a reputation among my teachers as something of a wise guy, someone quicker to joke my way out of trouble than think it. And it didn’t matter the subject, or even necessarily the teacher; any occasion warranted a sarcastic response.

Then one day I had a teacher tell me it was easier to be a smart ass if you actually did the reading. The book in question was Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms. I followed the teacher’s advice. His name was David Beenken, and I have him to thank for where I am today.

What I discovered in Hemingway’s classic was the transformative power of stories. I discovered the pain of doomed love, the horror of war, the importance of deep and abiding friendship. I discovered a new landscape and the seismic force of fate. And I knew, surely as I had done the reading, that there were a thousand more books to read.

Of course, there are way more than a thousand books to read, and still others to write, but I turn back to this memory as a way of reminding myself of the wonder and awe of a first favorite book. Never mind the sermons about how important reading is, what about how enjoyable and edifying it is?

When I began writing Safe from the Sea I reminded myself often to aspire to this, to try and imbue the story with as many moments of mystery as possible. Those moments, to my way of thinking, are what allow stories to engage many different types of readers. Whether it’s the suddenness with which the wind can change direction, ushering in an unexpected storm, or the way in which a simple, unabashed moment between characters not accustomed to each other’s company can transform their relationship by calling up a whole litany of memories, the moments in a story that rely on the reader’s imagination—as much as the author’s intention—are so often the best.

I hope there are plenty of those moments in my book, and I hope that its readers will find plenty of moments to pause and reflect on their own lives as they read about the lives of my characters. I’ve done my job if they do.

Peter Geye is currently touring virtually and on the road promoting his debut novel, Safe from the Sea, "a heartfelt novel in which a son returns home to reconnect with his estranged and dying father thirty-five years after the tragic wreck of a Great Lakes ore boat that the father only partially survived and that has divided them emotionally ever since. When his father for the first time finally tells the story of the horrific disaster he has carried with him so long, it leads the two men to reconsider each other."

Thank you Peter for guest posting today on Chick with Books! And sharing a bit of yourself and your inspiration for Safe from the Sea!

You can learn more about Safe from the Sea and the author himself, at Peter Geye's website. And to all my Chick with Books readers, I'll be reviewing Safe from the Sea by Peter Geye tomorrow!

BEA was H*O*T!

Book Expo America

May 25th - May 27th!

What an experience BEA (BookExpo America) was this year! I want to thank all the wonderful authors & publishers who shared their latest books, signed copies and chatted books. I met a lot of nice bookish people too! Including Vicky from Ohio who I got to know as we waited to see Sara Gruen and have her sign a copy of her new book Ape House for us.

For those of you unfamiliar with BEA, BookExpo America, is the largest publishing event in North America. With over 500 authors and 1500 exhibitors, it's a way to celebrate our passion for books, find out what's new in the publishing world and what's coming around the corner. There are forums and conferences, presentations and readings. There are luncheons with authors, and breakfasts too! It's a wonderful way to see a favorite author, but also to discover new authors! And I did both!

Some of the HOT books this year were Ape House by Sara Gruen, who wrote Water for Elephants, and which I absolutely loved. And The Passage by Justin Cronin. Helen Simonson was signing her book Major Pettigrews Last Stand, and Lee Child was also at BEA signing his newest Jack Reacher novel, 61 Hours.

The Mystery Writers of America had some great authors to meet at their booth , including Alan Orloff, Cara Black, and Deanna Raybourn. Next door to the Mystery Writers of America was St. Martin's Press and Jonathan Maberry signing copies of Patient Zero and The Dragon Factory, his supernatural thrillers (yes, including some zombies) starring his character Joe Ledger. Michael Connelly was there today, along with Tess Gerritsen and Debbie Macomber. Unbridled Books had their new books on display, of which Elise Blackwell's An Unfinished Score and Joyce Hinnefeld's Stranger Here Below are two that have been on my "watch list".

There was a little romance at BEA too! The Romance Writers of America had plenty to look at as well as Kristi Astor signing her book Winter's Desire, which also has stories by Amanda McIntyre and Charlotte Featherstone as part of Harlequin Spice imprint.

I was able to talk with Jennifer of Zenescope whose Graphic Novels have gotten a lot of great buzz. She shared with me Grimm Fairy Tales, and Tales from Wonderland, in which the artwork is incredible and the storylines are very creative & a great read! More on this later...

Finally, wrapping up the day I chatted with Sleeping Bear Press, which publishes a beautiful selection of Children's Books. And I came home with something special for this coming Monday's Memoir Monday too! Thank you Sleeping Bear Press for the wonderful treat!

I'll be highlighting these books & other great books I came across at BEA in the coming weeks with reviews and blurbs so you can be on the lookout for them too! There was so much excitement at BEA, and even though I didn't get to see everything in one day, I still managed to put more books on my TBR list! I'll share those with you too!

Were you at BEA this week? Let me know what exciting authors you met, or soon to be released books you spotted! In the meantime... Happy reading! Suzanne

The Sunday Salon... Week in review, Treats in the Mail, & Books with Buzz!

Imagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them, and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go. Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake....

It's that time of the week again where we sleep in late (wishful thinking), slow down a bit (hopefully), and chat about all the bookish things we enjoyed this past week and any bookish things coming up the week ahead. And there is plenty to talk about this week...

And the Winner is... Troubles by T.G. Farrell won the long overdue The Lost Man Booker Prize! In April I talked about The Lost Man Booker Prize, which is the prize created 40 years later to honor those Booker Prize nominees that fell through the cracks because in 1971 they changed the literary prize from a retrospective award to a best novel in the year of publication award, and moved the award given from April of that year to November. The longlist consisted of 22 books, the shortlist 6 and out of the six, Troubles has won! If you missed my blurb about it...

Troubles by J G Farrell... Major Brendan Archer returns from the Great War to claim his fiancee, whose family owns the Majestic Hotel in Kilnalough, Ireland. She is strangely altered, however, along with the hotel, which is in spectacular decline — cats roam its upper stories, the Palm Court is a jungle, and the last guests are little old ladies with nowhere else to go. Outside the formerly grand hotel, the British Empire also totters. There is unrest in the East, and Ireland itself senses the mounting violence of its "troubles."

If you'd like to read a sample, here's an excerpt of Troubles that Sophie from Orion Publishing was nice enough to send along AND last week I also received a copy of Troubles from Sophie! So, you can look forward to a review coming soon! Thanks Sophie!

For Sci-Fi & Fantasy readers, The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalup won the 2009 Nebula Award for best novel, which is presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and which is awarded to the best sci-fi & fantasy. What's it About? The Windup Girl... Anderson Lake is a company man, AgriGen's Calorie Man in Thailand. Under cover as a factory manager, Anderson combs Bangkok's street markets in search of foodstuffs thought to be extinct,hoping to reap the bounty of history's lost calories. There, he encounters Emiko. Emiko is the Windup Girl, a strange and beautiful creature. One of the New People, Emiko is not human; instead, she is an engineered being, creche-grown and programmed to satisfy the decadent whims of a Kyoto businessman, but now abandoned to the streets of Bangkok. Regarded as soulless beings by some, devils by others, New People are slaves, soldiers, and toys of the rich in a chilling near future in which calorie companies rule the world, the oil age has passed, and the side effects of bio-engineered plagues run rampant across the globe. Paolo Bacigalup has a great website to learn more about the book and his other writing. PLUS, he shares a website that Kindle owners might be interested in... Webscription.net is a Kindle friendly ebook retailer. You can download The Windup Girl there for $6.00! There's a easy to understand primer for getting those books on your Kindle there too.

Two other great books I received in the mail this week were...

Dismantled by Jennifer McMahon... Henry, Tess, Winnie and Suz banded together in college to form the Compassionate Dismantlers. Following the first rule of their manifesto – “To understand the nature of a thing, it must be taken apart” – these daring misfits spend the summer after graduation in a remote cabin in the Vermont woods committing acts of meaningful vandalism, and plotting elaborate, sometimes dangerous, pranks. But everything changes when one particularly twisted experiment ends in Suz’s death and the others decide to cover it up. Jennifer McMahon is going on a virtual book tour in June to promote dismantled and I'll be reviewing it for TLC Book Tours. You might remember Jennifer McMahon from another great book she wrote, The Island of Lost Girls, which my reading group read together. Dismantled is available now, and it was just released in paperback.* P.S. This Book is Kindle Ready!

The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors by Michele Young-Stone... Back of the Book, On a sunny day in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, eight-year-old Becca Burke was struck by lightning. No one believed her—not her philandering father or her drunk, love-sick mother—not even when her watch kept losing time and a spooky halo of light appeared overhead in photographs. Becca was struck again when she was sixteen. She survived, but over time she would learn that outsmarting lightning was the least of her concerns... In rural Arkansas, Buckley R. Pitank’s world seemed plagued by disaster. Ashamed but protective of his obese mother, fearful of his scathing grandmother, and always running from bullies (including his pseudo-evangelical stepfather), he needed a miracle to set him free. At thirteen years old, Buckley witnessed a lightning strike that would change everything... Now an art student in New York City, Becca Burke is a gifted but tortured painter who strives to recapture the intensity of her lightning-strike memories on canvas. On the night of her first gallery opening, a stranger appears and is captivated by her art. Who is this odd young man with whom she shares a mysterious connection? I want to thank Read It Forward for sending this to me for review! And you can look forward to a review soon too!

This week I also received in the mail the Unbridled Books Fall 2010 catalogue! What a treat! And filled with books to put on your Wish List! Here are a few that caught my eye...

Taroko Gorge by Jacob Ritari... A disillusioned and raggedy American reporter and his drunken photojournalist partner are the last to see three Japanese schoolgirls who disappear into Taroko Gorge, Taiwan’s largest national park. The journalists—who are themselves suspects—investigate the disappearance along with the girls’ homeroom teacher, their bickering classmates, and a seasoned and wary Taiwanese detective. The conflicts between them—complicated by the outrageousness of the photographer and the raging hormones of the young—raise questions of personal responsibility, truthfulness, and guarded self-interest. The world and its dangers—both natural and interpersonal—are real, changing, and violently pressing. And the emotions that churn in dark rooms overnight as the players gather in the park visitors’ center are as intense as in any closet drama. There’s enough action and furor here to keep readers turning the pages, and the cultural revelations of the story suggest that the human need for mystery outweighs the desire for answers. This sounds like such a great story! The cover is striking too! This book is coming July...

Stranger Here Below by Joyce Hinnefeld... In 1961, when Amazing Grace Jansen, a firecracker from Appalachia, meets Mary Elizabeth Cox, the daughter of a Black southern preacher, at Kentucky’s Berea College, they already carry the scars and traces of their mothers’ troubles. Poor and single, Maze’s mother has had to raise her daughter alone and fight to keep a roof over their heads. Mary Elizabeth’s mother has carried a shattering grief throughout her life, a loss so great that it has disabled her and isolated her stern husband and her brilliant, talented daughter. The caution this has scored into Mary Elizabeth has made her defensive and too private and limited her ambitions, despite her gifts as a musician. But Maze’s earthy fearlessness might be enough to carry them both forward toward lives lived bravely in an angry world that changes by the day. Both of them are drawn to the enigmatic Georginea Ward, an aging idealist who taught at Berea sixty years ago, fell in love with a black man, and suddenly found herself renamed as a sister in a tiny Shaker community. Sister Georgia believes in discipline and simplicity, yes. But, more important, her faith is rooted in fairness and the long reach of unconditional love. I love Joyce Hinnefeld's writing. I reviewed her last book, In Hovering Flight, last August and am thrilled that she's coming out with another book rooted in women's relationships. In Hovering flight we read about mothers & daughters, and now in Stranger Here Below we have 3 generations of women. We'll have to wait a little longer for this one, it's release date is Oct!

Blog Happenings?! Remember to enter GIVEAWAY's for The Secret Speech by Tom Rob Smith! And for Ravished by a Highlander by Paula Quinn! And the Reviews this week included Play Dead by Ryan Brown, zombies & football come together for an amazing first down! And the audiobook of The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova, which was such a wonderful listen! Monday's Memoir highlighted the book Alone: Orphaned at Sea about the murders of Terry Duperault's family while sailing on a family vacation and how 11 year old Terry survived the ordeal 4 days on the open sea! I finally did get my copy and am almost finished reading. The review should be up this week!

What are you reading!? What have you spotted on the shelf? Are you going to BEA? Share it all here! Have a great week! Suzanne

A Story of Love, Loss, Sacrifice & Obsession... AND another Great Giveaway for Chick with Books Blogoversary Celebration Day 3!

A Story of Love, Loss, Sacrifice and Obsession...

AND another great Giveaway for Chick with Books Blogoversary Celebration...

And the winner is... Helen of California! Congrats to Helen! And Thank you to EVERYONE who Entered, Tweeted and Blogged about the Giveaway!

Last summer there was a lot of buzz about a new author by the name of Emily St. John Mandel. Her debut novel was called Last Night in Montreal. I was in for a big treat because Caitlin of Unbridled Books sent a copy my way to read! The characters were so rich, and I was immediately drawn into the story. It was hypnotizing... It was like a jigsaw puzzle of people and places... and it was wonderful! Here's what I wrote about Last Night in Montreal when I reviewed it last July...

In the opening line of the book we read “ No one stays forever” and with this we begin unraveling the mystery behind Lilia... We first meet Lilia casually walking out the door of her apartment going for the paper never to return. She leaves behind Eli, who starts to notice the time and wonders where she is... then desperately realizes that she’s gone... her only mark on the apartment they share, a polaroid photograph of her when she was twelve, neatly removed from above the headboard.... From here we are thrown into Lilia’s life before Eli, as she was growing

up, constantly on the move with her father, changing names & identities, moving from state to state on an adventure of a lifetime, starting with a early morning ‘abduction’ in a snowy driveway, from a home she had known for 7 years into the arms of a recognizable stranger, bandages on her arms...

In a refreshing style, Emily St. John Mandel moves from present to past (and back again) from chapter to chapter with incredible continuity. Writing the story moving back and forth in time kept my attention. And made it so interesting! How parts of stories lead into other stories was amazing sometimes. The bits of information that were dropped like crumbs thru the story made me keep turning those pages to learn more. There are really 3 stories here, the story of young Lilia’s abduction and wanderings, the story of the detective who sacrifices his life looking for her, and the story of how everything in the past connects to the present day and how it all comes together in the end. The story rushes forward until the present and the past collide in Montreal....

With rich characters that are so human, so believable, so sad, I was drawn into their story. Their histories well developed. The writing done well. A story of love, loss, sacrifice and obsession. The story is moving. I recommend you pick it up and read it! You will enjoy it! (You can read the complete review to learn more about the book)

Unbridled Books joins the celebration by sponsoring a great giveaway for a copy of Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel for a U.S. reader of Chick with Books! Unbridled Books is dedicated to publishing high-quality works that are moving, beautiful, and surprising. Their name, Unbridled Books, was chosen to represent a publishing venture that is both energetic and independent. Thanks Caitlin and Unbridled Books for joining in on the festivities! Here's how to enter...

*For One Entry, leave me a comment with your email address!

*For One more entry, Blog or tweet about this giveaway and leave me the link.

This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.(No PO boxes). The book will be shipped to the winner directly from the publishers. Contest ends 11:59pm EST on Feb.27th, 2010. I will randomly pick the winners the next day and email them! Good Luck!

*P.S. Emily St. John Mandel's next novel is coming out this summer! More about that soon...