Book Spotlights

Good morning to you all! I’ve got a great giveaway to share with you this morning! I’ve got Syrie James newest novel, Nocturne, to give away. Now Syrie is the popular author of such books as Dracula, My Love, The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte and The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen. Her newest Nocturne, releasing on January 4, 2011, sounds like another utterly fantastic novel which is being described as A Haunting Story of Forbidden Love. I’m really excited to showcase the book today and be sure to pop back on January 10 of the new year as I’ll be reviewing the book for you.

About Nocturne (from Syrie James website):

Make sure to check out the excerpt of the book and the Reading Group Guide as well which makes it a great choice for your book club.

About Syrie James:

Syrie James is the bestselling author of the critically acclaimed novels Dracula, My Love and The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë, selected by the Women’s National Book Association as a Great Group Read of 2009. Her first novel, The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen, became an international bestseller and was named a Best First Novel of 2008 by Library Journal. Translation rights for James’s books have been sold in fifteen languages. James lives in Los Angeles and is a member of the Writer’s Guild of America.

Be sure to check out Syrie James website as well as her blog! Nocturne is available to pre-order here in the US and here in Canada.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS

I have 1 copy of Nocturne by Syrie James to share with you. To enter:

• For 1 entry leave me a comment with a way to contact you.
• For 2 entries follow my blog. If you do, let me know as the entry is yours as well.
• For 3 entries, blog or tweet this giveaway to spread the word.

This giveaway is open to US & Canadian residents only (no PO boxes) and I will draw for the winner on Tuesday, January 4, 2011. Good luck to you all!

© 2010, Darlene of Peeking Between the Pages. All Rights Reserved. If you’re reading this on a site other than Peeking Between the Pages or Darlene’s Feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.

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I was to have posted a review of Making Waves by Nicole O’Dell which is the fourth book in the Scenarios for Girls series but due to circumstances this week I was unable to. Nicole, being very kind and understanding, was nice enough to let me post a book spotlight while my review is still to follow. I read the first two books in this series: Truth or Dare (my review) and All That Glitters (my review) and I really enjoyed these wonderful books. These are Christian based books that portray the main character in a story and then give the reader two directions that the main character can take when she’s forced to face a tough situation. You can of course read both routes as I do. The reader gets to see what happens to the main character based on which decision she makes. These books carry many good messages for young girls as they address the pressures that young girls feel in this world today. I absolutely recommend these books and can easily say that without even having read this one yet.

About the Book (from Nicole O’Dell’s website)

Kate Walker joins the swim team and becomes obsessed with practice and making it through the championships with flying colors. What will Kate do when she s faced with pressure from her teammates to take an illegal substance that will help her swim multiple events in their championship meet? Girls ages 10 to 15 make the choice in this interactive story and see how the consequences of the alternate endings change Kate’s life. Includes a contract and prayer to remind the reader of the importance of making godly decisions.

Nicole’s Note: This was one of my favorite books to write. I was a swimmer and treasure my memories of the swim team. Like all of the books, I believe this one paints a realistic picture of what can happen when a teen feels the weight of the world in the pressure she carries on her shoulders. I hope to shed some light on the trappings of peer pressure, financial pressure and insecurity.

Check out the book trailer…

These are wonderful books for young girls and mothers to share. I myself have no kids but I really enjoy these books and the lessons they teach. In today’s world, kids can use all the help they can get. Watch for my review – it’s still coming!

You can purchase Making Waves (Scenarios 4) by Nicole O’Dell here in the US and here in Canada. Be sure to visit Nicole’s website and blog!

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I was to have posted a review of Magna by Nicole O’Dell which is the third book in the Scenarios for Girls series but due to circumstances this week I was unable to. Nicole, being very kind and understanding, was nice enough to let me post a book spotlight while my review is still to follow. I read the first two books in this series: Truth or Dare (my review) and All That Glitters (my review) and I really enjoyed these wonderful books. These are Christian based books that portray the main character in a story and then give the reader two directions that the main character can take when she’s forced to face a tough situation. You can of course read both routes as I do. The reader gets to see what happens to the main character based on which decision she makes. These books carry many good messages for young girls as they address the pressures that young girls feel in this world today. I absolutely recommend these books and can easily say that without even having read this one yet.

About the Book (from Nicole O’Dell’s website)

Molly Jacobs isn’t sure what she should do: Should she follow through with stealing some clothes for her friends from Magna, the trendy girls clothing store where she works? Or should she do what she knows is right, even if it means disappointing her best friends and possibly losing them forever? Girls ages 10 to 15 make the choice in this interactive story and see how the consequences of the alternate endings change Molly’s life. Includes a contract and prayer to remind the reader of the importance of making godly decisions.

Nicole’s Note: I’ve worked a lot of retail jobs over the years and just like Molly in this story, I was given a promotion to Assistant Manager in Training of a clothing store in the mall when I was 15. I was faced with some of the same challenges and pressures that Molly faces at Magna. Thankfully, I made the right choices–most of the time.

Check out the book trailer…

These are wonderful books for young girls and mothers to share. I myself have no kids but I really enjoy these books and the lessons they teach. In today’s world, kids can use all the help they can get. Be sure to watch for my review – it’s still on the way!

You can purchase Magna (Scenarios 3) by Nicole O’Dell here in the US and here in Canada. Be sure to visit Nicole’s website and blog!

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Today I was to have posted my review of South of Broad by Pat Conroy for his blog tour with TLC Book Tours but due to personal issues I am unable to. Lisa at TLC Book Tours was kind enough to agree to a book spotlight today and my review at a later date for which I am grateful. I have started the book and was enjoying it, just haven’t been reading a lot these past days. I’m sure when I get back to it, I will once again be drawn into the story. I certainly love the vivid descriptions of the Charleston area – it sounds so wonderful.

About the Book (from Pat Conroy’s website)

Against the sumptuous backdrop of Charleston, South Carolina, SOUTH OF BROAD gathers a unique cast of sinners and saints. Leopold Bloom King, our narrator, is the son of an amiable, loving father who teaches science at the local high school. His mother, an ex-nun, is the high school principal and a well-known Joyce scholar. After Leo’s older brother commits suicide at the age of thirteen, the family struggles with the shattering effects of his death, and Leo, lonely and isolated, searches for something to sustain him. Eventually, he finds his answer when he becomes part of a tightly knit group of high school seniors that includes Sheba and Trevor Poe, glamorous twins with an alcoholic mother and a prison-escapee father; hardscrabble mountain runaways Niles and Starla Whitehead; socialite Molly Huger and her boyfriend, Chadworth Rutledge X; and an ever-widening circle whose liaisons will ripple across two decades — from 1960s counterculture through the dawn of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s.
The ties among them endure for years, surviving marriages happy and troubled, unrequited loves and unspoken longings, hard-won successes and devastating breakdowns, and Charleston’s dark legacy of racism and class divisions. But the final test of friendship that brings them to San Francisco is something no one is prepared for. SOUTH OF BROAD is Pat Conroy at his finest, a long-awaited work from a great American writer whose passion for life and language knows no bounds.

This novel sounds like a great book club book pick and it just so happens that there is even a Reading Guide to help you and your book club along in your discussions.

About the Author (from Pat Conroy’s website)

Pat Conroy was born on October 26, 1945, in Atlanta, Georgia, to a young career military officer from Chicago and a Southern beauty from Alabama, whom Pat often credits for his love of language. He was the first of seven children.

His father was a violent and abusive man, a man whose biggest mistake, Conroy once said, was allowing a novelist to grow up in his home. Since his family had to move many times to different military bases around the South, Conroy changed schools frequently, finally attending the Citadel Military Academy in Charleston, South Carolina, upon his father’s insistence. While still a student, he wrote and then published his first book, The Boo, a tribute to a beloved teacher.

After graduation, Conroy taught English in Beaufort, where he met and married a young woman with two children, a widow of the Vietnam War. He then accepted a job teaching underprivileged children in a one-room schoolhouse on Daufuskie Island off the South Carolina shore. After a year, Conroy was fired for his unconventional teaching practices – such as his refusal to allow corporal punishment of his students – and for his personal differences with the school’s administration. Conroy evened the score by exposing the racism and appalling conditions his students endured with the publication of The Water is Wide in 1972. The book won Conroy a humanitarian award from the National Education Association and was made into the feature film Conrack, starring Jon Voight.

Following the birth of a daughter, the Conroys moved to Atlanta, where Pat wrote his novel, The Great Santini, published in 1976. This autobiographical work, later made into a film starring Robert Duvall, explored the conflicts of the author’s childhood, particularly his ambivalent love for an abusive and often dangerous father.

The publication of a book that so painfully exposed his family’s secret brought Conroy a period of tremendous personal desolation. This crisis resulted not only in his divorce, but the divorce of his parents; his mother presented a copy of The Great Santini to the judge as “evidence” in divorce proceedings against his father.

The Citadel became the subject of his next novel, The Lords of Discipline, published in 1980. The novel exposed the school’s harsh military discipline, racism, and sexism. This book, too, was made into a feature film.

Conroy remarried and moved from Atlanta to Rome, where he began The Prince of Tides, which, when published in 1986, became his most successful book. Reviewers immediately acknowledged Conroy as a master storyteller and a poetic and gifted prose stylist. This novel has become one of the most beloved novels of modern time; with over five million copies in print, it has earned Conroy an international reputation. The Prince of Tides was made into a highly successful feature film directed by and starring Barbra Streisand, as well as actor Nick Nolte, whose brilliant performance won him an Oscar nomination.

Beach Music (1995), Conroy’s sixth book, was the story of Jack McCall, an American who moves to Rome to escape the trauma and painful memory of his young wife’s suicidal leap off a bridge in South Carolina. This book, too, has been a tremendous international bestseller.

While Conroy was on tour for Beach Music, members of his Citadel basketball team began appearing, one by one, at his book signings around the country. When his then-wife served him divorce papers while he was still on the road, Conroy realized that his team members had come back into his life just when he needed them most. He began reconstructing his senior year, his last year as an athlete, and the 21 basketball games that changed his life. The result of these recollections, along with flashbacks of his childhood and insights into his early aspirations as a writer, became My Losing Season, Conroy’s seventh book and his first work of nonfiction since The Water is Wide.

South of Broad, Conroy’s fifth novel and ninth book, presents readers with a Conroy first: a totally lovable father for Leo Bloom King, the story’s central figure. The book is not only a love letter to the city of Charleston; it is a celebration of lifelong friendship.

Conroy currently lives in Fripp Island, South Carolina with his wife, the novelist Cassandra King.
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GIVEAWAY DETAILS

Courtesy of the publisher I have 1 paperback copy of South of Broad by Pat Conroy to share with one of my readers. To enter…

• For 1 entry leave me a comment with a way to contact you.
• For 2 entries blog or tweet this giveaway.

This giveaway is open to US & Canadian residents only (no PO boxes) as the book will be sent to you directly from the publisher. I will draw for the winner on Saturday, May 29, 2010. Good luck everyone! If you just can’t wait for your own copy you can purchase one here in the US and here in Canada.

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