A Better View of Paradise: A Novel
by Randy Sue Coburn
Hardcover, 368 Pages
List Price: $25.00
Published in 2009
ISBN-10: 0-345-49036-3
Publisher: Ballantine Books

About the book:
Dramatic, moving, and exquisitely written, A Better View of Paradise explores the tender bond between fathers and daughters, ponders the delicate nature of healing, and celebrates the redemptive power of forgiveness and love.

Thirty-six-year-old Stevie Pollack has come into her own as a celebrated landscape architect. Her designs, famed for their evocative natural beauty, reflect her upbringing amid the splendor of Hawai‘i. But when critics blast her latest efforts and her boyfriend abruptly ends their relationship, Stevie seeks solace in her roots among the dazzling flowers, and comforting traditions of the islands and their calming waters. Still, in the back of her mind, Hawai‘i holds troubling memories of a childhood with Hank, her emotionally distant father, and a reserved British mother.

Despite her irascible father’s presence, the trip home promises Stevie a welcome departure from her trials on the mainland. But the shocking news that Hank is dying forces the pair’s reunion into high gear. As father and daughter attempt to rekindle their bond, Stevie discovers sides of Hank she never knew, including family secrets that have shaped their lives. And what started as a holiday escape for the beleaguered architect becomes a chance for transformation, one as exciting as it is uncertain. Inspired by her father’s insight, and energized by the attentions of an attractive local veterinarian, Stevie learns to surrender her inhibitions and seize the day.

*****Guest Post:*****

When I began writing A Better View of Paradise several years ago, I worried about how the novel’s two major settings, were going to play off each other: Kaua`i, a spectacularly beautiful dot in the middle of the Pacific ocean where protagonist Stephanie Pollack spent the happiest part of her childhood, and Chicago, the tough-guy hometown of Hank, the difficult, demanding father who calibrated Stevie to achieve in the mainland world.
The two places are an odd mix—though the emergence of a President shaped by both Hawai`i and Chicago makes the combination seem less strange than it did at first. And the more I wrote, the more Chicago and Hawai`i seemed—in pop quiz parlance—to contrast and compare.
Take curses, for instance. Hank’s beloved Cubs have the Billy Goat Curse, which has allegedly kept them from winning a World Series for over a hundred years. There’s a curse associated with the Hawaiian volcano goddess Pele, too. An avalanche of lava rocks gets mailed back to Hawai`i every year by tourists who claim Pele has cursed them for stealing her creations as souvenirs.
In the course of my research, I discovered that not only did Frank Sinatra almost drown to death once in Kaua`i while filming a movie there, but this occurred soon after he had a big hit with “Chicago is My Kind of Town.” Plus baseball is very big in Hawai`i, where it can be played year round, and since tourism has replaced sugar and pineapples as the major island industries, it made sense for a Chicago-bred hotel man like Stevie’s father to be drawn there.
Stevie’s fractional Hawaiian blood comes from her mother’s side of the family. She had a Hawaiian great-great grandmother, though it was her lily-white, spiritually inclined British grandfather who gave Stevie her secret Hawaiian name—Makalani, which means “eyes of heaven.” Stevie is a complicated creatures, harboring more than the standard share of internal contradictions, but then the genius of Hawai`i is how it mixes things up from so many different cultures to invent its own variations. So really, she fits right in.

*****Guest Post:*****

Randy Sue Coburn is a former newspaper reporter whose articles and essays have been published in numerous national magazines. She is the author of Owl Island and Remembering Jody, and her screenplays include Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, the critically acclaimed Cannes Film Festival selection that received five Independent Spirit Award nominations, including Best Screenplay. She lives in Seattle. You can visit Randy Sue Coburn’s website at www.randysuecoburn.com.

*****Giveaway*****

One winner on August 24. Contest open to US addresses only. Book will be shipped by the publisher.

To win: Tell me a story.
It means that the first comment will open/start the story. The next comment will add to the story, and so on. You can enter as often as you like, just make sure to have a different commenter between your comments.

It’s all in good fun, have a go at it. Enjoy!

Tags: Dorothy Thompson, Pump Up Your Book Promotion, Randy Sue Coburn, story

I’ve been on a short vacation where we drive 12 hours each way, enjoy one day,and drive back again. It was fun because I like to drive and my kids thinks each gas station we stop by is a grand adventure. I just got back very late last night and well, here I am.

The Castaways: A Novel
by Elin Hilderbrand
Hardcover
List Price: $24.99
Published in 2009
ISBN-10: 0-316-04389-3
368 Pages, by Little, Brown and Company

Winner:

Lori Barnes

Please contact me with your mailing address. Thank you so much for the wonderful story.

I have so much fun reading the story. So, I’m going to do another one. Thank you guys. You have made me laugh, held me in suspense, and basically had fun waiting for the next installment. Here’s the story: Read the story after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Elin Hilderbrand, story

Look how much I’ve done since the last time. I’m halfway through David Copperfield audio, I finished Divine Justice and halfway through Stone Cold both by David Baldacci. I might actually finish this project yet. I’ve only got 400 rows to do. Yeah! I better finish it before school starts because it would be tough to find time then. I had to undo a whole row because I forgot to ‘slip two stitches, knit, and passed two slipped stitch over’. That wasn’t my favorite part of knitting!

The Impostor’s Daughter: A True Memoirby Laurie Sandell
Hardcover
List Price: $24.99
Published in 2009
ISBN-10: 0-316-03305-7
256 Pages
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

The winners are:

16   madeleine
11 cindi
13   MJ
17 Vicki
2   Katy

Please e-mail me your addresses (no PO Boxes please). If you have won this book from another site, please let me know so I may pick an alternate winner.

Here’s our story from the contest:
MJ

The sisters made a startling discovery. After their mothers’ death, as they were sorting through boxes of old photographs, a picture of their father that they had never seen caught their eyes.
The photo was clearly Dad standing beside a woman who was definitely not Mom. On the back was written, “Here comes the bride”, followed by, “For he’s a jolly good fellow.” Who was this woman? Had Dad been married before???

Dottie

As the girls continue to tidy up the loose ends that are left when a loved one leaves, another picture is found, this one of their dad and the same woman, but now she very pregnant, both smiling happily, arm in arm. The sisters look at each other and begin to question their lives as they know them. Could Dad not only have been married before their mother, but also had another family?

Happy

It is not so uncommon that a man could have another family. Especially a man who travel extensively and for such long periods of time. In fact, I know two close-friends of ours whose Dad has other family, but neither family knew of each other. Call me weird, but the first thought that comes to my mind is, “What would the neighbors think?”

CherylS22

After all, we had been considered one of the happiest families in the neighborhood. My mother & father adore each other and you can see the love in their eyes when they look at each other. Could my father possibly love another woman the way he appears to love my mother? Why would he keep such secrets from us?

MJ

We have an appointment at the bank to open the safety deposit box. We are relieved. At least there are no surprises in it!
Then, Mr. G., the bank manager asks, “who has the key to the other box?”

Cindi

Was Mr. G. really saying there was another safe deposit box?! It seemed the more we dug into our past, the questions kept multiplying. The confusing pictures of dad and the unknown woman and now more than one safe deposit box? What was going on?

MJ

A week later we were back at the bank with a court order allowing us access to the safety deposit box. My sister and I were both nervous. Would opening the box answer or questions or only raise more? Mr. G. opened the box and lay it on the table. He said, “I’ll give you girls some privacy” as he walked away.

Kristin

I turn to my sister with pleading eyes, just to find that she was looking at me the same way. Neither one of us wanted to be responsible for unlocking more secrets and questions. “OK,” I say, “Let’s settle this like we used to.” With one raised, mocking eyebrow, my sister puts her right hand behind her back. “Rock, paper, scissors…shoot!”

Vicki

With my heart racing I slowly unlocked the box. “Are you ready?” I asked my sister. “No, but it has to be done.” I lifted the lid and we looked inside. There, surrounded by a bunch of pictures was a locket and a Memorial Folder of the woman we had seen with our father. It said her name was “Elizabeth”. The info said she and her baby had died in childbirth. It also listed our father as her brother and only surviving relative. Relief washed over us, but we still didn’t understand why we’d never known about her. Maybe it was to painful for our father to talk about. The main thing was our opinion of dad was not shaken and we could hold onto the fact that our mom and dad were a truly loving, happy couple who were 100% devoted to each other!

Tags: knitting, Laurie Sandell, story, story together

The Castaways: A Novel
by Elin Hilderbrand
Hardcover
List Price: $24.99
Published in 2009
ISBN-10: 0-316-04389-3
368 Pages, by Little, Brown and Company

My Take:
My sincere thanks to Miriam of Hachete Book Group for my copy of this book. I’m not done reading this book yet. I’m enjoying it. The Castaways reads like a soap opera, or maybe even prime time drama like Grey’s Anatomy. There’s affairs and drugs and really great scenery in this book. I find myself cringing in some places. But then again, it’s hard to tell what one person will do unless faced with the same situation. It’s very easy to say, I would never do that. But what happens if you’re living that life?

I like how this story is told from different person’s perspective. I’m not a fan of books with affairs in the main theme, but a talented author can make me sit down and keep on reading even if it’s not something I would normally read. Elin Hilderbrand’s The Castaways is compeling enough that I am going to keep on reading until the end. I wanted to see how it all turn out.

About the book:
Greg and Tess MacAvoy are one of four prominent Nantucket couples who count each other as best friends. As pillars of their close-knit community, the MacAvoys, Kapenashes, Drakes, and Wheelers are important to their friends and neighbors, and especially to each other. But just before the beginning of another idyllic summer, Greg and Tess are killed when their boat capsizes during an anniversary sail. As the warm weather approaches and the island mourns their loss, nothing can prepare the MacAvoy’s closest friends for what will be revealed.

Once again, Hilderbrand masterfully weaves an intense tale of love and loyalty set against the backdrop of endless summer island life.

THE CASTAWAYS description
THE CASTAWAYS excerpt
THE CASTAWAYS book club

About the author:

Elin Hilderbrand lives on Nantucket with her husband and their three young children. She grew up in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, and traveled extensively before settling on Nantucket. She is the author of ten novels. Hilderbrand is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and the graduate fiction workshop at the University of Iowa. (from her website)

Other stops in this tour:

The Giveaway:
One winner on July 26.
US and Canadian addresses only. No PO Box address, please.
Please subscribe to my blog feed to find out if you’re a winner.

To win: Tell me a story.
It means that the first comment will open/start the story. The next comment will add to the story, and so on. You can enter as often as you like, just make sure to have a different commenter between your comments.

It’s all in good fun, have a go at it. Enjoy!

Tags: Elin Hilderbrand, story

THE IMPOSTOR’S DAUGHTER
by Laurie Sandell

Laurie Sandell grew up in awe (and sometimes in terror) of her larger-than-life father, who told jaw-dropping tales of a privileged childhood in Buenos Aires, academic triumphs, heroism during Vietnam, friendships with Kissinger and the Pope. As a young woman, Laurie unconsciously mirrors her dad, trying on several outsized personalities (Tokyo stripper, lesbian seductress, Ambien addict). Later, she lucks into the perfect job–interviewing celebrities for a top women’s magazine. Growing up with her extraordinary father has given Laurie a knack for relating to the stars. But while researching an article on her dad’s life, she makes an astonishing discovery: he’s not the man he says he is–not even close. Now, Laurie begins to puzzle together three decades of lies and the splintered person that resulted from them–herself.

The Giveaway:
Thanks to Anna for this giveaway.
Open to US and Canadian addresses. No PO Boxes please.
Five (5) winners will be chosen on July 10.
Make sure to subscribe to my blog feed to find out if you’re a winner. I’ll try to e-mail winners, but if you see it first, then go ahead and e-mail your address. It’s summer time, and five kids will make going online just a bit more challenging than usual.

How to Win:
Tell me a story. First commenter starts it anyway you please, and the next one builds on it. Make it at least 4 sentences long.
You can continue the story as often as you want, as long as there are 2 different comments between yours.

+1: Subscribe to my feed (current subscriber welcome)
+1: bring a friend. Make sure to tell your friend to mention your name when they leave a comment so I can add another entry with your name.
+1: blog about this contest, or add a link in your sidebar

Tags: Laurie Sandell, story