Manic Monday Recaps (Week 2/15/10)

I hope y'all had a Happy Valentines weekend. I'm not much of big V-Day lover, but the hubs and I always do dinner and a movie and the only gifts I accept are the sappy romantic one's (like flowers or chocolate, nothing too fancy). This year he surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of tulips (my favorite) at work. So I had to take a picture of them just to share. Aren't they lovely? You can just imagine my surprise and joy when I got called up by my receptionist to pick up a fax and instead found these. We also went on our traditional outing of dinner and a movie. We saw Dear John... le sigh. It's more of a movie to go see with a girlfriend then with the hubs as I always get the eye-rolling when I start tearing up in a movie vs. your girlfriend holding your hand through the whole thing and balling right along with you. If you've read the book, there weren't too many changes. I thought it followed along nicely with some subtle changes that really didn't ruin it for me. I thought it was great... plus (ahem) Channing Tatum... and that's all I've got to say about that.

Here's what was on my countertop this Monday:
- Jordan by Susan Kearney - Hachette Book Group
- Eternal on the Water by Joseph Monninger - Pocket Books
- Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich - Harper Collins
- Brava Valentine by Adriana Trigiani - Harper Collins
- Love in the Air by Kim Wright - Hachette Book Group
- The Help by Kathryn Stockett {on loan}

Here's what I plan on reading this week:

(I have a couple of others that I plan on squeezing in there too, but I haven't decided which yet.)

Last week I read the following:
- Dark Desires After Dark - Kresley Cole
- Kiss of a Demon King - Kresley Cole
- Wake - Lisa McMann
- One Amazing Thing - Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
- The Bride Collector - Ted Dekker [review]
- Shutter Island - Dennis Lehane

I reviewed the following:
- The Mark - Jen Nadol [review]
- Fireworks Over Toccoa - Jeffrey Stepakoff [review]
- Wench - Dolen Perkins-Valdez [review]

The Bride Collector by Ted Dekker

FBI Special agent Brad Raines is facing his toughest case yet. A Denver serial killer has killed four beautiful young women, leaving a bridal veil at each crime scene, and he's picking up his pace. Unable to crack the case, Raines appeals for help from a most unusual source: residents of the Center for Wellness and Intelligence, a private psychiatric institution for mentally ill individuals whose are extraordinarily gifted.

It's there that he meets Paradise, a young woman who witnessed her father murder her family and barely escaped his hand. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, Paradise may also have an extrasensory gift: the ability to experience the final moments of a person's life when she touches the dead body.

In a desperate attempt to find the killer, Raines enlists Paradise's help. In an effort to win her trust, he befriends this strange young woman and begins to see in her qualities that most 'sane people' sorely lack. Gradually, he starts to question whether sanity resides outside the hospital walls...or inside.

As the Bride Collector picks up the pace-and volume-of his gruesome crucifixions, the case becomes even more personal to Raines when his friend and colleague, a beautiful young forensic psychologist, becomes the Bride Collector's next target.

The FBI believes that the killer plans to murder seven women. Can Paradise help before it's too late? [via GoodReads]

This is my first Dekker novel - don’t really know why I haven’t read anything by him before - but that is definitely soon to change. The Bride Collector was an edge of your seat suspenseful thriller that I really enjoyed. It started off a bit slow for me, but midway through the book I was completely hooked. I just had to know what would happen next. Raines and Paradise were both great. I enjoyed their interactions with one another. But I have to say that I was really taken by some of the residents of The Center for Wellness and Development. I loved the lightness they brought to the novel and I found them quite interesting in their own right.

There were many spiritual questions evident throughout the novel but the religion aspect is not so over powering as to take away from a readers enjoyment. It is not preachy or pretentious in any way, instead I found it to be thought provoking. Mr. Dekker's writing is fluid and I thought he did a fantastic job of blending a really freaky thriller (gruesome at times, but never gory), with Christianity.

All in all, this was a fabulous book that thriller fans should not miss out on.

This book was provided for review by Hachette Book Group.

Giveaway: Shadow Tag and Brava Valentine

Here is the most telling fact: you wish to possess me. Here is another fact: I loved you and let you think you could. When Irene America discovers that her husband, Gil, has been reading her diary, she begins a secret Blue Notebook, as much the truth about her life and her marriage as the Red Diary - hidden where he can find it - is a manipulative farce. Alternating between these two records, complemented by unflinching third-person narration, "Shadow Tag" is an eerily gripping read. When the novel opens, Irene is resuming work on her doctoral thesis about George Catlin, the nineteenth century painter whose Native American subjects often regarded his portraits with suspicious wonder. Gil, who gained notoriety as an artist through his emotionally revealing portraits of his wife - work that is adoring, sensual, and humiliating, even shocking - realises that his fear of losing Irene may force him to create the defining work of his career. Meanwhile, Irene and Gil fight to keep up appearances for their three children: fourteen-year-old genius Florian, who escapes his family's unraveling with joints and a stolen bottle of wine; Riel, their only daughter, an eleven-year-old feverishly planning to preserve her family, no matter what disaster strikes; and, sweet kindergartener Stoney, who was born, his parents come to realise, at the beginning of the end. As her home increasingly becomes a place of violence and secrets, and she drifts into alcoholism, Irene moves to end her marriage. But her attachment to Gil is filled with shadowy need and delicious ironies. In brilliantly controlled prose, "Shadow Tag" fearlessly explores the complex nature of love, the fluid boundaries of identity, and one family's struggle for survival and redemption.

As Brava, Valentine begins, snow falls like glitter over Tuscany at the wedding of her grandmother, Teodora, and longtime love, Dominic. Valentine's dreams are dashed when Gram announces that Alfred, "the prince," Valentine's only brother and nemesis, has been named her partner at Angelini Shoes. Devastated, Valentine falls into the arms of Gianluca, a sexy Tuscan tanner who made his romantic intentions known on the Isle of Capri. Despite their passion for one another and Gianluca's heartfelt letters, a long-distance relationship seems impossible.

As Valentine turns away from romance and devotes herself to her work, mentor and pattern cutter June Lawton guides her through her power struggle with Alfred, while best friend and confidante Gabriel Biondi moves into 166 Perry Street, transforming her home and point of view. Savvy financier Bret Fitzpatrick, Valentine's first love and former fiancÉe who still carries a torch for her, encourages Valentine to exploit her full potential as a designer and a business woman with a plan that will bring her singular creations to the world.

A once-in-a-lifetime business opportunity takes Valentine from the winding streets of Greenwich Village to the sun-kissed cobblestones of Buenos Aires, where she finds a long-buried secret hidden deep within a family scandal. Once unearthed, the truth rocks the Roncallis and Valentine is determined to hold her family together. More so, she longs to create one of her own, but is torn between a past love that nurtured her, and a new one that promises to sustain her.


GIVEAWAY: I have 1 copy OF EACH BOOK up for grabs - thanks to the folks at Harper.

As always, leave a comment for one entry. If you'd like extra entries just say so in your comment or separate comments (extra entries for followers, Twitter, sidebars, Facebook, etc.) ; and for putting my spiffy little button on your blog. Make sure to leave an e-mail address, especially if you are leaving a comment under Anonymous.

Rules: This contest is open to U.S. & Canada residents only. Winners will be drawn Friday, February 26.

Happy Valentine's Day!

[via A Traveling Journeyer]

Saturday Sayings [13]

[via Ache]

Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

wench \'wench\ n. from Middle English "wenchel," 1 a: a girl, maid, young woman; a female child. 2. A black or colored female servant; a negress; a colored woman of any age; a negress or mularess, especially one in service.

For several years now Lizzie has visited Tawawa House with Drayle in the summer. Tawawa House is like most resorts with its idyllic setting and Southern hospitality. But what is especially ideal at Tawawa are its quaint cabins that surround the property providing the isolation and privacy needed for the Southern gentlemen who vacation with their black enslaved mistresses.

Lizzie, Reenie and Sweet know that as long as they are their masters favorite, they will meet up in the summers. Here in Tawawa they are able to lead a more relaxed life, they can discuss their lives at their respective plantations, the hardships, their dreams and hopes. But when new girl, Mawu, joins them this summer they find that the prospect of freedom, even if running away is the only way of obtaining it, is something that they can't get out of their thoughts.

It must sound terrible of me when I say that I thought this book was fantastic when it deals with such a terrible thing as slavery. But Ms. Perkins-Valdez does such an amazing job of bringing these women to life. Half way through the book you feel as if they are your friends, you feel protective and downright insulted by their treatment. Slavery is something so unfathomable and even though the circumstances were quite brutal, I found that the story is told in a way were it didn't feel oppressive or difficult to read. On the other hand, I felt somewhat hopeful in the end.

Lizzie was, by far, my favorite character. Her narration was what really drew me into the book. Her struggles became my struggles - the fact that all she wanted was for Drayle to free their children and nothing for herself, really endeared her to me. I also found it interesting to read about Drayle's wife and how she acted towards Lizzie and their illegitimate children.

I thought this was a unique and realistic tale about the life of a slave mistress. Although not a happy subject, Ms. Perkins-Valdez's novel is one that I became fully engrossed in. It brought tears to my eyes and had me biting my lip with worry. But through it all I felt that I learned of a time in our history that I knew very little of. What more could I really ask for in a book?