Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson (Young Adult)

From the publisher:
“Dead girl walking,” the boys say in the halls.
“Tell us your secret,” the girls whisper, one toilet to another.
I am that girl.
I am the space between my thighs, daylight shining through.
I am the bones they want, wired on a porcelain frame.
Lia and Cassie are best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies, competitors in a deadly contest to see who can be the skinniest. But what comes after size zero and size double-zero? When Cassie succumbs to the demons within, Lia feels she is being haunted by her friend’s restless spirit.

In her most emotionally wrenching, lyrically written book since the multiple-award-winning Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson explores Lia’s descent into the powerful vortex of anorexia, and her painful path toward recovery.

About the Author
Laurie Halse Anderson is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel Speak, as well as Catalyst, Prom, and Twisted. She is the recipient of the prestigious ALAN Award (2008), which honors those who have made outstanding contributions to the field of adolescent literature. Ms. Anderson lives in northern New York State with her husband.

Get it at Amazon.

Lake Overturn by Vestal McIntyre

From the publisher:
Eula, Idaho, is a cluster of steeples, oak trees, and boxlike homes sandwiched between golden fields and a wide-open sky. It freezes in the winter and bakes in the summer, but the air is so dry that neither extreme gets under your skin. It has never seen a battle, or an earthquake, or a Democrat in City Hall.

Still, life in Eula is anything but simple.

Lina and Connie are single mothers, neighbors in Eula’s trailer park. Lina, the daughter of migrant Mexican farm workers, is trying to cope with her angry teenage son Jesús, newly returned after living with wealthy white foster parents. Connie, long abandoned, struggles with her literal reading of Old Testament laws against remarriage, especially when a handsome missionary visits her congregation. The women’s younger sons, Enrique and Gene, are misfits whose mutual love of science offers stability and respite from schoolyard cruelties.

Determined to win the statewide science fair, Enrique and Gene devise an experiment involving “lake overturn,” a real scientific phenomenon in which deadly gases collect and eventually erupt from a lake’s depths. In their quest to discover if Eula could suffer from such an event, the boys come into contact with an odd assortment of locals, including the frail-hearted school principal with grand ambitions, a rich but lonely lawyer who finds love outside his marriage just as his wife is succumbing to cancer, and a woman tortured by a past of abuse and addiction who decides to turn things around by offering herself as a surrogate mother.

With sweeping perspective and a Victorian wealth of character, Lake Overturn exposes small-town America in all its beauty and treachery, sunshine and secrets.

Get it at Amazon.

Author Sheila Curran, of the cool Girlfriends Cyber Circuit, is swinging by A/B, where the temp is always a perfect 72 degrees with no humidity! Join me in welcoming Sheila and congratulating her on her new novel EVERYONE SHE LOVED, which is in stores now! Find out more about Sheila and her novel at www.sheilacurran.com.

1. If Oprah invited you on her show to talk about your book, what would the theme of that show be?   Who would you pick to take care of your children if you were to die, and what sort of issues might you fear most about another mother raising your kids.

2. Perfect women’s topic for O’s audience! What was the most fun scene in your book to write? A really good sex scene. The most difficult?  Whenever the characters I love are in danger of being hurt, even just emotionally.

3. Do you have a muse, good luck charm, writing vice?  Does coffee count?  Also, I sit in a nice comfy armchair and put my feet on an ottoman, computer on my lap, and repeat to myself “seat of the pants to seat of the chair.” 

4. I say nothing like “kicking back” while writing. I’m sure more blood flows to the brain that way. What do you write on (type of computer, or notebook, etc.) and where do you write?  I write on my laptop and I have a bedroom set aside as my study, where I inhabit the aforesaid armchair.

5. Have you had a “rock star” moment regarding your writing career?  Alas!  The closest I came was walking on the beach and seeing someone reading my book.  And she looked pretty involved in the story.

6. Lordie, I would’ve snapped a picture. Very cool stumbling upon a scene like that. What do you do to celebrate your writing successes? Champagne with my husband and any friend I can get to come over and bask with me.

7. Bubbly is always good. And I’m all for basking!!! Describe your personality with five adjectives that would make your 5th grade English teacher proud.  Imaginative, shy, persistent, intuitive, histrionic.

Then here’s to “histrionic” success to you Ms. Curran. We’re cyber-toasting your launch and best of luck with EVERYONE SHE LOVED. 

We’re back with lots of great goodies for your consideration. Hurry, your last chance to win the June prize pack is Tuesday, June 30th at Midnight, so leave a comment on THIS post, or on any JUNE blog post over at Malena Lott’s web site for a chance to win two arcs, the new Robin Thicke CD and a book bag. Next up is our JULY prize pack, which will include an arc giveaway of EASY ON THE EYES by Jane Porter, plus other cool books and prizes. 

This week in Books in Bloom:

Easy on the Eyes by Jane Porter PUB DATE: JULY 22, 2009

From the publisher:

At 38, Tiana Tomlinson has made it. America adores her as one of the anchors ofAmerica Tonight, a top-rated nightly entertainment and news program. But even with the trappings that come with her elite lifestyle, she feels empty. Tina desperately misses her late husband Keith, who died several years before. And in a business that thrives on youth, Tina is getting the message that her age is starting to show and certain measures must be taken if she wants to remain in the spotlight. It doesn’t help that at every turn she has to deal with her adversary–the devilishly handsome, plastic surgeon to the stars, Michael Sullivan. But a trip away from the Hollywood madness has consequences that could affect the rest of her life.

pre-order at Amazon: 

The Actor & the Housewife by Shannon Hale

From the publisher:

A very different kind of fantasy from New York Times bestselling author Shannon Hale.

What if you were to meet the number-one person on your laminated list—you know, that list you joke about with your significant other about which five celebrities you’d be allowed to run off with if ever given the chance? And of course since it’ll never happen it doesn’t matter…

Mormon housewife Becky Jack is seven months pregnant with her fourth child when she meets celebrity hearththrob Felix Callahan. Twelve hours, one elevator ride, and one alcohol-free dinner later, something has happened…though nothing has happened. It isn’t sexual. It isn’t even quite love. But a month later Felix shows up in Salt Lake City to visit and before they know what’s hit them, Felix and Becky are best friends. Really. Becky’s husband is pretty cool about it. H er children roll their eyes. Her neighbors gossip endlessly. But Felix and Becky have something special…something unusual, something completely impossible to sustain. Or is it? A magical story, The Actor and the Housewife explores what could happen when your not-so-secret celebrity crush walks right into real life and changes everything.

Order from Amazon.

The Rating Game by Reba Toney

First line: “Back in 2004, my closet was already jam-packed.”

Before you roll your eyes and say, “not another dating book,” hear me out. This one is not a me-too, knock-off on how to find a man. This is a psychology book packaged in a marketable formula. Okay, it’s a slight stretch to call it a pysch book but if you look beneath the layers, it’s evolutionary psychology at its finest. People choose people who are on the same level as they are. This is why I believe in the mantra, “someone for everyone.” In the “rating game” there is someone for everyone. Twos can unite with twos and tens with tens. Toney goes so far as to review celebrity pairing to tell us who is “dating up” and who is “dating down”. A third category, she says, is called “dating denial.” Either you aren’t dating enough or are in denial about why you are frustrated with dating, which she claims is because you aren’t dating someone on the same “level” as you are. Toney’s system breaks the rating game into four categories – face, body, life situation and personality. You don’t have to be a match for each category, but when you add up your points and divide by 4, she insists the closer you are in numbers, the better your chance for survival. 

I actually saw this type of experiment on a science show on cable recently, and just like in real life, the “numbers” tried to match with someone who ranked higher than their own number, but ended up matching with someone on the same level, or one ahead or one behind their own number. Fascinating.

This makes total sense to me. While I may disagree with her assessments on celeb pairings such as her claim that Jennifer Aniston was “dating down” with Brad Pitt (I think it’s the other way around), I do think finding our “equal” to share a life with is important and we do consider things such as looks, personality and success. If we assess our goals, then we are more certain to attract and stick with the “right person” versus the “good until something better comes along” person. 

Toney’s writing is extremely readable and easy to absorb. I read it in an evening and I enjoyed doing the “match” profile for my husband and me. Yeah, we’re well-matched, which is evidenced in our fifteenth anniversary this summer. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR THE SINGLE READERS! 

For: Finding and improving your chances of success based on rating yourself and your potential partners. Time to play the rating game! – Malena Lott

Get it at Amazon.

Real Life & Liars by Kristina Riggle

Mira is a pot-smoking grandma with perspective. She’s going out her way, and she’s not relinquishing control of her body to the doctors just because she’s been diagnosed with breast cancer or because her family might try to talk her out of her decision. 

REAL LIFE is Riggles’ debut novel and it’s a doozy – a wonderfully-crafted family drama with all the trimmings– a rich cast of characters, all on the edge of their lives, culminating in Mira and her husband’s anniversary weekend. We get to know the family, told in alternating points of view. Mira, her social-climbing eldest daughter whose marriage and three children are not the picture-perfect family she’d like the world to believe, her son, a struggling songwriter who is unlucky at love, and the baby of the family, newlywed and newly (but not happily) pregnant. The story unfolds nearly in real-time, as each character learns more about him/herself and how to move forward. REAL LIFE is ultimately about the individual decisions we make for our lives and how they impact those who love us the most. Riggle will be on my must read list from now on.

For: A beautiful read about family dynamics and life’s greatest lessons. Highly recommended. -Malena Lott

Get it at Amazon.