Subscribe via RSS Feed

Category: Friday Cravings

Friday Cravings – "Sugar" by Bernice McFadden

[ 1 ] November 27, 2009

Here’s the pick of the week!

Have a book that you’re craving to add to your collection? I’d love to hear from you! The books do not have to be new or upcoming releases. Leave a link to your own post in the comment area and link it back to Luxury Reading. If you don’t have a blog, just list the book and the author.

Pick of the Week

Bernice L. McFadden’s first novel begins with the brief, poetic description of a crime so startling that the reader is helplessly drawn in, as if a bright red door stood ajar on a bleak and forbidding house. Pearl Taylor’s daughter, Jude, has been found murdered and mutilated near a field at the edge of town. “The murder had white man written all over it,” writes McFadden. “But no one would say it above a whisper. It was 1940. It was Bigelow, Arkansas. It was a black child. Need any more be said?”

In the years that follow, Pearl catches sight of Jude in so many strangers that when Sugar Lacey comes to town and sets up her unwholesome “business” in the house next door, she doesn’t know whether to believe what she sees in Sugar’s face: a striking similarity to Jude, dead 15 years. In her sedate but supple prose–rising at times to a light, unforced lyricism in the description of landscape or character–the author perfectly renders the closed and protective society of a small Southern town, the superstitions, gossip, and prying. Although the men of Bigelow are happy enough to have Sugar around, the women do their best to drive her off. Only Pearl is drawn to Sugar, managing to look beyond the rumors surrounding her new neighbor, whose dismal life, she tells Pearl, “had no crossroads.” Eventually Pearl shows Sugar the ballerina-topped jewelry box in which she keeps snapshots of her dead daughter.

Slowly, the secret connections between Jude and Sugar unfold against a backdrop of suspense and the return of violence. This is an ambitious and feeling debut from a promising writer.

–Regina Marler (Amazon.com Review)

Digg!

View Post

Friday Cravings – "Hidden Buddhas" by Liza Dalby

[ 1 ] November 13, 2009

Here’s the pick of the week!

Have a book that you’re craving to add to your collection? I’d love to hear from you! The books do not have to be new or upcoming releases. Leave a link to your own post in the comment area and link it back to Luxury Reading. If you don’t have a blog, just list the book and the author.

Pick of the Week

According to Buddhist theology, the world is suffering through a final corrupt era called mappô. As mappô continues, chaos will increase until the center can no longer hold. Then the world will end. In Japan, many believe that Miroku, Buddha of the Future, will appear and bring about a new age of enlightenment.

From this ancient notion of doom and rebirth comes a startling new novel by the acclaimed author of Geisha and The Tale of Murasaki. Hundreds of temples in Japan are known to keep mysterious “hidden buddhas” secreted away except on rare designated viewing days. These statues are not hidden because they are powerful—their power lies in their being hidden. Are they being protected, or are they protecting the world?

In this novel, one Buddhist priest struggles with the dictates of his inherited orthodoxy, while another rebels. An American graduate student begins to suspect the mysterious purpose of the hidden buddhas, just as he falls in love with a beautiful Japanese artist who is haunted by an aborted child. The weaving of karma that brings these two together results in a tech-savvy half-Western, half-Japanese child who text-messages her way through the profane world to enlightenment.

Tracing the lives of its characters through the late twentieth century to the present, from Paris to Kyoto to California, Hidden Buddhas turns a cosmopolitan eye on discipline and decadence in religion, fashion, politics, and modern life.

Digg!

View Post

Friday Cravings

[ 0 ] October 16, 2009

Here’s the pick of the week!

Have a book that you’re craving to add to your collection? I’d love to hear from you! The books do not have to be new or upcoming releases. Leave a link to your own post in the comment area and link it back to Luxury Reading. If you don’t have a blog, just list the book and the author.

Pick of the Week

Tamsin Greene comes from a long line of witches, and she was supposed to be one of the most talented among them. But Tamsin’s magic never showed up. Now seventeen, Tamsin attends boarding school in Manhattan, far from her family. But when a handsome young professor mistakes her for her very talented sister, Tamsin agrees to find a lost family heirloom for him.

The search—and the stranger—will prove to be more sinister than they first appeared, ultimately sending Tamsin on a treasure hunt through time that will unlock the secret of her true identity, unearth the sins of her family, and unleash a power so vengeful that it could destroy them all. This is a spellbinding display of storytelling that will exhilarate, enthrall, and thoroughly enchant.

Digg!

View Post

Friday Cravings

[ 0 ] October 9, 2009

Here’s the pick of the week – found on PaperBackSwap.com!

Have a book that you’re craving to add to your collection? I’d love to hear from you! The books do not have to be new or upcoming releases. Leave a link to your own post in the comment area and link it back to Luxury Reading. If you don’t have a blog, just list the book and the author.

Pick of the Week

This spellbinding debut tells the tale of genetic rarities known as Violetsthe – a handful of violet-eyed individuals whose psychic power can blur the line between the living and the dead. Serving as channelers to the other side, the Violets provide testimony to the government from murder victims about their own killings. But now the Violets themselves are the target of a brutal serial killer, and one of them, beautiful Natalie Lindstrom, has been assigned to FBI agent Dan Atwater for protection. The killers terrible method of murder becomes apparent when the most recent victim, a little girl named Laurie, tells Natalie the horrible story of her own death at the hands of the Faceless Man. As other Violets suffer dreadful fates, Natalie and Dan search frantically for the demented maniac, hoping to find him wherever he may be among the living…or the dead.

Digg!

View Post

Friday Cravings

[ 1 ] October 2, 2009

Here’s the pick of the week!

Have a book that you’re craving to add to your collection? I’d love to hear from you! The books do not have to be new or upcoming releases. Leave a link to your own post in the comment area and link it back to Luxury Reading. If you don’t have a blog, just list the book and the author.

Pick of the Week

For dancer Zippora Karz, a rising young star with the famed New York City Ballet, being diagnosed with diabetes could easily have ended all her dreams. She was just twenty-one when she was plucked from the corps de ballet to dance solo roles like the Sugarplum Fairy in The Nutcracker. It was near the end of a grueling season when she became exhausted, dizzy, and excessively thirsty. Heavy pancake makeup covered the sores under her arms that would not heal, but still Karz neglected to return her doctor s urgent calls. When she finally went to the doctor, she learned that her blood sugar was excessively high. If she continued to ignore her symptoms, Karz risked heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, blindness, and amputation of toes, feet, and legs. Because she was over twenty, doctors misdiagnosed her with Type 2 diabetes, when in fact she had juvenile (or Type 1) diabetes. Her weight dropped and she became dangerously ill as a result of being prescribed the wrong treatment. Once correctly diagnosed and placed on an insulin regimen, she would inject herself with unsafe doses before going on stage in ill-judged attempts to obtain peak performance. The potentially fatal result of Karz s self-experimentation became all too real when she nearly put herself into a coma.

Balancing ballet and her blood sugar would be a long and difficult struggle for Karz, but eventually she learned to value her body and work with it, rather than rage at its limitations. In The Sugarless Plum, Karz shares her journey from denial, shame and mis-education about her illness to how she lead an active, balanced, and satisfying life as an insulin-dependent diabetic and ballet star. Through her fascinating story, those struggling with diabetes and other serious illnesses can find encouragement and inspiration as well as practical advice on achieving physical and emotional wellness.

After sixteen years with the New York City Ballet, Karz retired and took her passion and skills into a whole new arena as a diabetes educator and advocate, where today she inspires people to not just manage their illness, but to thrive and fulfill their passions. The Sugarless Plum takes readers deep into the heart and soul of a young dancer, and is a remarkable testament to determination and perseverance.

To learn more about The Sugarless Plum and Zippora Karz, visit the author’s website.

Digg!

View Post

Friday Cravings

[ 0 ] September 25, 2009

Here’s the pick of the week!

Have a book that you’re craving to add to your collection? I’d love to hear from you! The books do not have to be new or upcoming releases. Leave a link to your own post in the comment area and link it back to Luxury Reading. If you don’t have a blog, just list the book and the author.

Pick of the Week

This haunting debut novel explores the intense bond of sisterhood as a grieving twin searches for her own identity in the ruins of her sister’s past.

A LOST SHADOW
Moira Leahy struggled growing up in her prodigious twin’s shadow; Maeve was always more talented, more daring, more fun. In the autumn of the girls’ sixteenth year, a secret love tempted Moira, allowing her to have her own taste of adventure, but it also damaged the intimate, intuitive relationship she’d always shared with her sister. Though Moira’s adolescent struggles came to a tragic end nearly a decade ago, her brief flirtation with independence will haunt her sister for years to come.

A LONE WOMAN
When Maeve Leahy lost her twin, she left home and buried her fun-loving spirit to become a workaholic professor of languages at a small college in upstate New York. She lives a solitary life now, controlling what she can and ignoring the rest–the recurring nightmares, hallucinations about a child with red hair, the unquiet sounds in her mind, her reflection in the mirror. It doesn’t help that her mother avoids her, her best friend questions her sanity, and her not-quite boyfriend has left the country. But at least her life is ordered. Exactly how she wants it.

A SHARED PAST
Until one night at an auction when Maeve wins a keris, a Javanese dagger that reminds her of her lost youth and happier days playing pirates with Moira in their father’s boat. Days later, a book on weaponry is nailed to her office door, followed by the arrival of anonymous notes, including one that invites her to Rome to learn more about the blade and its legendary properties. Opening her heart and mind to possibility, Maeve accepts the invitation and, with it, also opens a window into her past.

Ultimately, she will revisit the tragic November night that shaped her and Moira’s destinies–and learn that nothing can be taken at face value–as one sister emerges whole and the other’s score is finally settled.

Digg!

View Post

Friday Cravings: Drawing in the Dust by Zoe Klein

[ 0 ] September 11, 2009

Here’s the pick of the week!

Have a book that you’re craving to add to your collection? I’d love to hear from you! The books do not have to be new or upcoming releases. Leave a link to your own post in the comment area and link it back to Luxury Reading. If you don’t have a blog, just list the book and the author.

Pick of the Week

Brilliant archaeologist Page Brookstone is convinced bones speak, yet none of the ancient remnants she has unearthed during her twelve years of toiling at Israel’s storied battlegrounds of Megiddo has delivered the life-altering message she so craves. Which is why the story of Ibrahim and Aisha Barakat, a young Arab couple who implore Page to excavate the grounds beneath their house in Anatot, instantly intrigues her.

The Barakats claim the ghosts of two lovers haunt their home, overwhelming everyone who enters with love and desire. Ignoring the scorn of her peers, Page investigates the site, where she is seduced by an undeniable force. Once Ibrahim presents Page with hard evidence of a cistern beneath his living room, she has no choice but to uncover the secret of the spirits.

It is not long before Page makes miraculous discoveries — the bones of the deeply troubled prophet Jeremiah locked in an eternal embrace with a mysterious woman named Anatiya. Buried with the entwined skeletons is a collection of Anatiya’s scrolls, whose mystical words challenge centuries-old interpretations of the prophet’s story and create a worldwide fervor that threatens to silence the truth about the lovers forever.

Caught in a forbidden romance of her own, and under constant siege from religious zealots and ruthless critics, Page risks her life and professional reputation to deliver Anatiya’s passionate message to the world. In doing so, she discovers that to preserve her future in the land of the living, she must shake off the dust of the dead and let go of her own painful past.

View Post

Friday Cravings – The Wet Nurse’s Tale by Erica Eisdorfer

[ 1 ] August 21, 2009

It’s time for my pick of the week!

Have a book that you’re craving to add to your collection? I’d love to hear from you! The books do not have to be new or upcoming releases. Leave a link to your own post in the comment area and link it back to Luxury Reading. If you don’t have a blog, just list the book and the author.

Pick of the Week

Susan Rose is promiscuous, lovable, plump, and scheming—especially when it comes to escaping life as a kitchen drudge in Victorian England. Luckily for Susan, her big heart is covered by an equally big bosom, and her bosom is her fortune—for Susan becomes a professional wet nurse, like her mother before her. But while scullery maids and cooks live below stairs, a wet nurse lives upstairs, and if she’s like Susan, she makes it her business to know all the intrigues and scandals that the upper-crust would prefer to keep to themselves.

When her own child is caught up in a family scandal, Susan must use her plentiful street-smarts to rescue her baby from the powerful mistress of the house. The scheme she weaves is bold, daring, and could spell ruin for her if she fails—but Susan Rose has no shortage of gumption. Bright, clever, and with a crackling wit all her own, Susan is an irresistible heroine.

The Wet Nurse’s Tale is a rich, rollicking portrait of love, life, and motherhood in Victorian England—where things are much less buttoned-up than they seem.

Related Posts with Thumbnails
View Post
Page 3 of 41234