A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams

January 9, 201414 Comments

A Hundred Summers. Finished 1-7-14, rating 4/5, historical romantic fiction, 357 pages, pub. 2013

Memorial Day, 1938: New York socialite Lily Dane has just returned with her family to the idyllic oceanfront community of Seaview, Rhode Island, expecting another placid summer season among the familiar traditions and friendships that sustained her after heartbreak.

That is, until Greenwalds decide to take up residence in Seaview.

from Goodreads

I fell in love with this story right away. The time period, Lily, the complicated friendships, Nick, the mystery of how it all unraveled. I was hooked. I love reading about people who used to take whole summers off somewhere outside the city. The rich and the idle are such interesting creatures and its fascinating to see how they spend their days. Only in books though I find the rich and the idle in real life pretty boring.

The love story of Nick & Lily was beautifully written. Nick was Jewish and while the world pre-WWII might have cared, Lily didn’t. Lily saw him and fell hard and we find out that Nick fell hard too. I couldn’t understand what could break them apart and then when I did find out I was a little disappointed because it seemed small in comparison to how they felt. But just like in real life, often misunderstandings or harsh words can cause more damage than they should.

I devoured this book faster than I expected (often books on my Nook only get read a few nights a week in bed) but it did fall apart for me toward the end. The soap opera like quality became too melodramatic for me and while I liked the end, it might have been nice to have more understanding of the characters than excitement over the weather. I wanted a bit more from Budgie and Lily’s mom.

I loved most of this one but it ended up just a little less than that for me, but I consider myself a new fan and am really looking forward to her first book, Overseas. It seems most bloggers who read both liked Overseas better. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this to any romance lover. Williams knows how to deliver romance for sure!

Question- If you got to spend every summer somewhere else where would you choose? I’ll reveal my answer in the comments 🙂

Guess who turns 6 today?

January 7, 201433 Comments

If you guessed Stacy’s Books give yourself a high five! I am so thankful that I discovered the blogging world those many years ago. What started out as a way to track what I read turned into a way to talk about my interests and make friends. I started this adventure without ever having read a blog so the first year (well okay, and every year after) was a major learning experience. Blogging takes time, time I haven’t always had, but whenever I think about stopping it’s doesn’t take me more than a few days to realize how much I’d miss having my own little spot on the web to say whatever I wanted about anything I wanted. I thank you all for your friendship, anyone who blogs knows that it’s the friendships you find that make it worth all of the work.

I want to give something away so I’m giving a $25 Barnes & Noble giftcard to one of you!!!!! All you need to do is leave a comment on one of my 6 all-time most viewed posts. Or all six, I’ll give you an entry for every one that you leave a comment on 🙂

Here are my most viewed posts of the past 6 years…

1. 5,000 piece puzzle of Florence (this has been viewed 7,678 times. maybe I need more puzzle posts?)

2. Rome pics (Seriously?! This post has no comments and is my 2nd viewed post. Weird. Click to see Jason and I in 2008)

3. Baby-to-be Update (the post after the first ultrasound where I asked for name suggestions. Funny, no one mentioned Gage!)

4. My book problem (2008 was the beginning of my yearly pic of unread books. Oh, how silly I was back then to think that TBR was too big)

5. Monday Movie Meme- Bring on the Heat (interesting that this is the first movie post that appears since it’s pretty much the opposite of hot everywhere right now!)

6. Venice pics (a few more pics from our Italian tour)

So, three of these are Italy related. Maybe I need to change the focus of Stacy’s Books. How does Stacy’s Italian Tour sound?

Anyway, I’ll have Gage choose a winner on Sunday. While I’ll accept kind comments on this post, the sweet talk will not get you an entry for $25 at B&N. You must leave a comment on one of the above posts for that (yes, I’m making you work for it :))

Weekends with Gage(‘s obsession)

January 5, 201438 Comments

When given a present to open on Christmas, Gage would take it and say, “There’s a train in here.” Oftentimes there was, but if there wasn’t not much time or attention was paid and he wanted the next gift because it still had the possibility of being the love of his 3-year-old life. He’s pretty single-minded in his love for trains and we’ve attempted to get him hooked on other things and sometimes it works, for a day or a week, but the trains always come back. In some of the reading we’ve done this last year it is often suggested to feed the obsession and we’ve been doing that but I am trained out. Yesterday we took Gage to his first model train show or as Gage thinks of it, heaven. Let’s look at how Gage spent two-and-half bliss-filled hours…

He was so intent that he did not want to take time out to smile for me. Trains are serious business!

Most of us are obviously crazy about books but is there another obsession that needs fed? Something that you love as much as Gage loves trains?

We have a WINNER and a charity $100 richer!

January 3, 2014January 4, 20149 Comments

Three years ago I started writing my 5 word movie reviews and asking for your input too, tying it to raising money for charity. I love seeing what you all come up with. The more participants the more fun!

We hit 100 reviews at 12:15-ish on January 1st and we have a repeat winner! Heather (Gofita’s Pages) topped the reviews this year with 28! Way to go Heather 🙂 And thanks to the other 16 of you who added your two cents (and $1 for charity). So where is the money going? Let’s hear from Heather…

My charity this year is the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. http://www.afsp.org/

I lost my brother to suicide this year and love that there are people and organizations out there who offer support for those affected by suicide and those in crisis, as well as destigmatizing mental illness in general.

I don’t know how many of you know Heather, but if you don’t you are missing out. When she lost her brother and a good friend weeks apart her post on them both touched me and I think it will you too if you have a few minutes to read it (Life and Death). As we start a new year (even if you are practically snowed in like we are) remember to give more hugs, laugh a little bit more and enjoy life. And if you know of someone who might benefit from this charity I hope you will pass it along to them. I am honored that I can help in some way – even if it’s only by donating $100 (money is never enough) in Heather’s brother’s name, Blaine.

The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories

January 2, 2014January 2, 201410 Comments

Tiny Little Book of Tiny Little Stories, Volume 1, 3.75 stars, 88 pages, pub. 2011

From hitRECord, the immensely popular open collaborative production company, and its founder, Golden Globe-nominated actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, comes The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories: Volume 1.

The universe is not made of atoms; it’s made of tiny stories.

To create The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories: Volume 1, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, known within the hitRECord community as RegularJOE–directed thousands of collaborators to tell tiny stories through words and art. With the help of the entire creative collective, Gordon-Levitt culled, edited and curated over 8,500 contributions into this finely tuned collection of original art from 67 contributors. Reminiscent of the 6-Word Memoir series, The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories: Volume 1 brings together art and voices from around the world to unite and tell stories that defy size.

from Goodreads

For my first read of the year, I also offer a confession. It’s not a well-kept secret of course, but it is why I was interested in this book. I’ve got a crush on Joseph Gordon-Levitt (not on him name though, I wish it were shorter. Maybe I can call him JG-L?) Not from his geeky days on that alien show, I didn’t watch that, but from his impressive diversity of movie roles. Okay, back to the book. A book with tiny stories like this (one or two pages long) wouldn’t usually say on my radar, but because of JG-L, I put it on my Christmas list and I was happy to find it in my stocking on Christmas Eve.

I could have read the whole thing in no time at all, but chose to read half on Christmas and half yesterday so it could be my first book of the year. I wanted to feel like I was accomplishing some reading goals right off the bat. I love everything about the physical book, the size (a hardcover that fits into the palm of my hand, the end pages full of the books illustrations and the actual black and white pages themselves. This is a great gift book and one that is perfect for the coffee table or guest room.

I liked most of the stories themselves, a few made me laugh out loud and many made me smile. What is a tiny story?

Visit here and you can see stories from volume 3 that came out in November and watch a 2 minute video of JG-L trying to sell it to you. Convinced me 🙂

Stacy's Books

books, movies, and boy

Month: January 2014