What’s on my iPod: “Springsteen” by Eric Church

What I’m reading: Fifty Shades of Grey by E L James

The last person I followed on Twitter: @SoGlover

1.  The Arrivals Arrives at CostCo  

Meg Mitchell Moore’s The Arrivals will be available in CostCo locations in the near future.  Stay posted for when to grab the perfect summer beach read.  Congratulations Meg, way to kick off your book tour!

Meg recently sat down with Barnes & Noble to offer more details about The Arrivals and insight into her life.  “LS: How did you come up with the title of your book? MMM: Oh boy. This title went through so many meetings I have lost count. I started with the title Solace and the publisher first said, “No, too quiet.” We went around and around through a million other titles and came back to Solace only to find that another book had recently been published with that name. So So Far Away came into being. The funny thing is that in the Publisher’s Weekly review of the book, “solace” is the first word of the first sentence.”

MORE ABOUT THE ARRIVALS:

It’s early summer when Ginny and William’s peaceful life in Burlington, Vermont, comes to an abrupt halt. First, their daughter Lillian arrives, two children in tow, to escape her crumbling marriage. Next, their son Stephen and his pregnant wife Jane show up for a weekend visit, which extends indefinitely.  When their youngest daughter Rachel appears, fleeing her difficult life in New York, Ginny and William find themselves consumed again by the chaos of parenthood—only this time around, their children are facing adult problems.  By summer’s end, the family gains new ideas of loyalty and responsibility, exposing the challenges of surviving the modern family. And the old adage, once a parent, always a parent, has never rung so true.

MORE ABOUT MEG:

Meg Mitchell Moore is the author of The Arrivals and the forthcoming So Far Away. She worked for several years as a journalist. Her work has been published in Yankee, Continental, Women’s Health, Advertising Age and many other business and consumer magazines. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and their three children.

2.  Girl Unmoored Anchored With 7 Awards

Girl Unmoored continues to buzz not only in the blogger community, but in the book awards community too!  Congratulations to Jennifer Gooch Hummer for winning an impressive 7 awards for her debut YA novel to date.  Her latest awards include 2 from the International Book Awards.  Girl Unmoored received Finalist, Best New Fiction category as well as Finalist, Fiction: Young Adult category.

The Well Read Wife compares Girl Unmoored to Judy Blume’s 1970 novel, Are You There God?  It’s Me Margaret.  “(It) dealt with tough issues like religion, navigating the tween social landscape, and dealing with slowly developing into a woman.  Hummer’s novel deals with complicated and tough issues teens faced in the 1980’s and still face today.  Death, grief, infidelity, and alienation are just some of the issues Apron faces throughout the novel.”

Have you read this book yet?  What are you waiting for?

3.  Kathleen Shoop Graces Her Local Newspaper 

The Valley News Dispatch / Pittsburgh Tribune-Review caught up with Kathleen Shoop at her book signing event at the Oakmont Carnegie Library.  Kathleen was featured in their weekend edition on her success as a self-published author and her latest historical fiction novel, After the Fog.  

According to the feature written by Rex Rutkowski, “She (Kathleen) decided to self-publish, acquired a national publicist and hired a book-cover artist who designs for Simon & Schuster and other publishers. Last year, her debut novel, “The Last Letter,” sold more than 50,000 copies for the Kindle, and it won the Independent Publisher Awards Gold Medal. Described as “the novel for every daughter who thinks she knows her mother’s story,” it is set in the Dakota Territory of the late 1800s.”

“She believes that her strengths as a writer are in bringing a world to life, making readers feel like they are in the story.  “I like redemption tales,” said Kathleen.  “I love flawed, quirky people. I admire people who say what they mean, people who are strange, but don’t care, and people who have goals for a better life, but who can’t quite get things right.””

4.  Star Studded Review of After the Fog

Kathleen Shoop’s After the Fog was recently featured on Hanging Off the Wire.  “What a great read! I loved the authors first book, and this one is just as great! You are hooked from the beginning and cannot put the book down until you are finished! The author does a very good job of making you visualize the time and era. You become a part of Donora, and its people. A very good read!”

A friendly reminder to continue entering in Kathleen Shoop’s health and wellness basket giveaway that includes a $100 gift card to Whole Foods.  When you purchase After the Fog forward your e book or print receipt to contests@sparkpointstudio.com and you will automatically be entered.  You have until May 31st to enter.  Good luck!

MORE ABOUT AFTER THE FOG:

For every woman who thinks she left her past behind…  In the steel mill town of Donora, Pennsylvania, site of the infamous 1948 “killing smog,” headstrong nurse Rose Pavlesic tends to her family and neighbors. Controlling and demanding, she’s created a life that reflects everything she missed growing up as an orphan. She’s managed to keep her painful secrets hidden from her loving husband, dutiful children, and their extended, complicated family.

When astagnant weather pattern traps poisonous mill gasses in the valley, neighbors grow sicker and Rose’s nursing obligations thrust her into conflict she nevercould have fathomed. Consequences from her past collide with her present life,making her once clear decisions as gray as the suffocating smog. As the pressure mounts, Rose finds she’s not the only one harboring lies. When the deadly fog finally clears, the loss of trust and faith leaves the Pavlesic family—and the whole town—splintered and shocked. With her new perspective, can Rose finally forgive herself and let her family’s healing begin?

5.  Two Affairs, One Great Review

The San Francisco Book Review featured an amazing “double review” in their May issue for The Polski Affair  and the sequel, The Family Affair by Leon Gildin.  “In two of the most powerful novels I’ve read in a while, Leon Gildin explores the emotional consequences of surviving the Holocaust through the story of Rosa Feurmann and her family.”

MORE ABOUT THE POLSKI AFFAIR:

Winner of the International Book Award for Historical Fiction, The Polski Affair is the story of Rosa Feurmann and others who found themselves as “guests” of the Hotel Polski during the Nazi occupation of Warsaw. Rumor had it the Nazis were attempting to lure Jews out of hiding by the sale of exit visas from Poland; the Hotel Polski drew in Jewish survivors who wished to buy their way to freedom. Rosa, a Jewish partisan, goes undercover as a maid and infiltrates the hotel. She is detected and comes under the personal control of the hotel’s Nazi Commandant.

MORE ABOUT THE FAMILY AFFAIR:

How can a woman’s struggle to reconcile her guilt of survival both unite and divide her family for years to come? It is some two years since Anna Adler returned from a reunion of the survivors who were “guests” of the Hotel Polski after the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto. At the reunion, she was applauded for her courage in testifying against the Commandant of the Polski at his War Crimes Trial. Despite the accolades, Anna’s obsession with what took place at the hotel during her period of imprisonment continues to haunt her.

MORE ABOUT LEON GILDIN:

Leon H. Gildin is an award-winning author, producer and retired entertainment attorney. While practicing law in New York for more than 40 years, Mr. Gildin served as general counsel to actors, writers and composers, produced on and off-Broadway, and collaborated with authors and musicians in the development of scripts and musical material for the stage. Leon is the 2010 International Book Awards winner in the Historical Fiction category for his novel, The Polski Affair. The award-winning story continues in The Family Affair, scheduled for release in November 2011. Leon is not quite retired, always in creative pursuit of his next compelling writing project. He resides in Paradise Valley, Arizona, with his wife, Gloria.