Book Review: This Book Will Change Your Life by Amanda Weaver

Members of the Vise Library were selected to review This Book Will Change Your Life.  We received a copy of Amanda Weavers's book for an honest review.

About the book:

Take a chance and change your life...

College is where Hannah Gregory plans to follow in her dad's footsteps as a chemistry prodigy-except she bombs her first test. And now her future isn't so certain. Worse, she's not sure she wants it anymore. Salvation comes from an unlikely place-a used bookstore and the sexy Ben Fisher, the passionate college senior who works there.

Ben is trapped in a life mapped out for him. Trapped in a future career as a lawyer to make his father happy. Trapped pursuing a girl he doesn't even like because she fits into a world he doesn't want but can't escape. But then he meets the beautiful and quirky Hannah. And for the first time, he knows what it means to truly want something.

So he gives in to being her friend. Then to wanting her. Then to kissing her. But freedom comes with a cost, and it isn't long before their carefully planned lives begin to fall apart...

Hannah and Ben are both on a path that they don't want to be on. Hannah feels obligated to be a scientist and Ben is being strong-armed to be a lawyer. Ben and Hannah meet at the bookstore that Ben works at. They strike a friendship over reading and realize there is more there. However, Ben doesn't want to admit it since he feels like there is someone else that he is meant to be with. This person he is interested in also wants to be a lawyer.  His life is a little complicated and he thinks that the person that isn't Hannah should be the person he ends up with.  Hannah has to let go of a dream that she has had since she was a little girl.  This dream has a lot of sentimental value to her and her father.  Ben and Hannah both have to find the courage to do what they want and it's harder for one of them. Hannah feels betrayed by Ben when he doesn't tell her something that is really important.  Ben has to come terms with what is important and what is expected of him.  You will love the connection of Hannah and Ben and how they are able to cope together.  This was a great read and I enjoyed the love of books!  A book really did change both Hannah's and Ben's lives.  I can't wait to read more from Amanda Weaver!

Buy the book:

     Amazon

       Barnes and Noble
  

About the author:

Ellen Sherman received her M.F.A. from the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop, and has worked as a journalist, editor, teacher, and training coordinator for literacy volunteers.

Connect with the author:

Website
Facebook

Twitter

Fall Reading Challenge: BIGLAW by Lindsay Cameron #FRC2015

This fall, members of the Vise Library are going back to school by participating in a Fall Reading Challenge. We have received copies of several books from publishers for honest reviews. We hope that you enjoy these reviews (and books)!

The book for our Law & Ethics class is BIGLAW by Lindsay Cameron.

About the book:

The Devil Wears Prada meets One L, BIGLAW provides an insider's view of the cut-throat world of big New York law firms.

Mackenzie Corbett has always dreamed of living in New York City. Now, almost two years into her job as an associate at a premier Manhattan law firm, she's living her fantasy--big salary, high profile deals, cute boyfriend, designer bag on her arm. The giant bags under her eyes from lack of sleep don't fit into the fantasy, though. To make matters worse, she's being tormented by a bitter, bitchy senior associate, her boyfriend is annoyed she never has time for him, and now she's stuck on the deal from hell with a partner whose biggest claim to fame is throwing a stapler at a cleaning lady because she touched his ficus plant. 

With the opportunity to secure a prestigious secondment on line, the overachiever in her is determined to endure whatever it takes to close the biggest deal in the firm's history. But when Mackenzie finds herself the focus of a devastating investigation her dream job begins spiraling into a nightmare. 

In this pitch perfect, frightening accurate novel, Lindsay Cameron throws back the curtain to this intriguing world exposing the truth about life in Biglaw.

BIGLAW gives the an inside view into living in the corporate New York law environment.  Mackenzie has always dreamed of being a big time lawyer.  She is living the dream in her designer shoes...or so she thinks. As Mackenzie gets further involved it hits her how much she is actually sacrificing for her "dream job."  She starts taking stock into all of the occasions she is missing with her family, friends and boyfriend.  The next thing Mackenzie knows is that she is being dragged into a meeting with federal investigators (uh-oh!!!!)  Mackenzie has to learn how to fight for herself and if all of the work is really worth what she is missing.  

This book is written really well and very fast paced.  This book makes you sympathetic to what Mackenzie is dealing with.  You also appreciate how strong she becomes by the end of this novel.  BIGLAW also gives great insight into why someone would leave a successful career as a lawyer and possibly pursue other ventures.  To someone on the outside it may seem crazy to throw all that time and schooling away, but, again, this book really dives into what the life is really like.  You will like some of the characters (in particular Mackenzie's secretary, Rita).  You will also not like some of the characters and the pettiness that is part of the culture.  There is a lot of great, witty dialogue that will make you continue reading this book despite having other commitments.  Even though I am not involved in the law profession, I am sure this story will hit home hard to the individuals that are!  Lindsay Cameron is an author that you want to look out for future books!

Buy the book:

·    Parnassus Books

·    Barnes and Noble

·        Amazon

About the author:

Lindsay Cameron is a graduate of the University of British Columbia School of Law. She worked for six years as a corporate attorney at large law firms in both the United States and Canada, including one of New York's most profitable firms. Deciding that writing was more fun than lawyering, she left the law behind to pursue a career writing novels while hunched over her laptop at Starbucks. She currently lives in New York City with her husband and two young children. BIGLAW is her debut novel. 

Connect with the author:

·        Twitter

·        Website

Book Review: The Girl from Krakow by Alex Rosenberg

Members of the Vise Library were selected to review The Girl from Krakow.  We received a copy of Alex Rosenberg's book for an honest review.

About the book:

It’s 1935. Rita Feuerstahl comes to the university in Krakow intent on enjoying her freedom. But life has other things in store—marriage, a love affair, a child, all in the shadows of the oncoming war. When the war arrives, Rita is armed with a secret so enormous that it could cost the Allies everything, even as it gives her the will to live. She must find a way both to keep her secret and to survive amid the chaos of Europe at war. Living by her wits among the Germans as their conquests turn to defeat, she seeks a way to prevent the inevitable doom of Nazism from making her one of its last victims. Can her passion and resolve outlast the most powerful evil that Europe has ever seen?

In an epic saga that spans from Paris in the ’30s and Spain’s Civil War to Moscow, Warsaw, and the heart of Nazi Germany, The Girl from Krakow follows one woman’s battle for survival as entire nations are torn apart, never to be the same.

The Girl from Krakow is a story about self-preservation, sacrifice and how far you are willing to go before you lose yourself entirely.  To me, this book makes you feel what it may have been line to live during such a frightening time, WWII.  This story takes you through the landscapes of several characters and their experiences in the war.  The main character, Rita, gets married as the war is approaching and as the book begins you learn more of backstory (and why she is hiding the fact that she is a Jew and why her story may interest a Nazi soldier).  By the end of the story Rita has a very hard decision to make concerning what she wants and what is best for another individual.  I won't give too much of the plot away of this book, but just know that this book shows how war can change people.  You also see how some people think they may not be capable of something during normal circumstances, but all of that changes when it comes to war.  

Buy the book:

     Amazon

       Barnes and Noble
      Parnassus Books

About the author:

When he's not writing historical novels, Alex Rosenberg is a professor of philosophy at Duke University.

Alex's first novel, "The Girl From Krakow," is a thriller that explores how a young woman and her lover navigate the dangerous thirties, the firestorm of war in Europe, and how they make sense of their survival.

He is working on his second novel, a murder mystery set in Oxford and London in the 1950s that takes the reader back to before, during and after the second world war in New York.

Before he became a novelist Alex wrote a large number of books about the philosophy of science, especially about economics and biology. These books were mainly addressed to other academics. But in 2011 Alex published a book that explores the answers that science gives to the big questions of philosophy that most atheists (and all thinking people) ask themselves--questions about the nature of reality, the meaning of life, moral values, free will, the relationship of the mind to the brain, and our human future. That book, "The Atheist's Guide to Reality," was widely reviewed and was quite controversia

Book Spotlight & Giveaway: Reading the Sweet Oak by Jan Stites

About the Book

 Along the banks of the Sweet Oak River, deep in the heart of the

Ozarks, a romance novel book club takes five women on stunning journeys of self-discovery. After losing first her husband, then her daughter, seventy-eight-year-old grandmother Ruby wants to teach her risk-averse granddaughter, Tulsa, that some leaps are worth taking, no matter how high the potential fall. Tulsa loves her grandmother dearly, but she has a business to run and no time for romance―not even the paperback version. But when Ruby ropes her into a book club, Tulsa can’t bring herself to disappoint the woman who raised her. Together with Ruby’s best friend, Pearl, as well as family friends BJ and Jen, the women embark on an exploration of modern-day love guided by written tales of romance. What they discover is a beautiful story that examines the bonds of friendship and the highs and lows of love in all its forms. 

*In order to be entered in a chance to win a copy of Jan Stites book, simply comment on this blog post!*

About the Author

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Jan Stites has been a screenwriter, a screenwriting instructor, a waitress, a secretary, a middle school teacher in both inner-city and affluent schools, a scuba dive travel writer, a journalist, a transcriptionist for doctors and for documentary filmmakers, and a volunteer teacher in Kenya and the Yucatan. She

considers the affirmative action plan she wrote for a maritime company to be perhaps her greatest work of fiction. Edgewise, set in a gritty Oakland setting, is Jan's debut novel. She's currently hard at play writing her next different book--a romantic comedy set in the Ozarks. Scheduled for release in the spring of 2014, Reading the Sweet Oak is a different, much lighter book involving small towns, good friends, rivers, herons and love in many forms. 

Book Review: Just the Facts by Ellen Sherman

Members of the Vise Library were selected to review Just the Facts.  We received a copy of Ellen Sherman's book for an honest review.

About the book:

When English major Nora Plowright finds herself staring at college graduation as if at the edge of a cliff, she decides to become a newspaper reporter--and right away, she manages to get a job at a local paper (which you could still do in 1978). Although fearful by nature, Nora pursues a tip from a stranger and soon is investigating corruption at the Maryland State Highway Authority regarding the controversial placement of a new freeway. The developing scandal, with its shady "players," tests both her budding reportorial skills and her appetite for danger. Also, her passion for storytelling makes it increasingly difficult for her to stick to the facts.

Humorous and poignant, Just the Facts is a coming-of-age novel about finding one's way in the real world that will resonate with anyone who has struggled with figuring out what to do when she or he grows up.

I'm pretty sure everyone will love Nora, the main character in Just the Facts.  She is very funny, quick witted, caring and smart.  She has started her first real job at the Anne Arundel Record as a newspaper reporter.  She has to learn a few things along the way.  She has to learn that there can be fake stories out there and that she needs to check up on the facts of the story that she is chasing.  Nora feels like her big break is about to happen when a little birdie informs her about about some possible corruption pertaining to politics and a potential freeway.  As Nora starts digging through the story, she puts herself in danger and learns that she is made from stronger stuff.  In this book, you get a lot of fun side characters and you will laugh out loud at some of the story's mishaps.  I think this book also has some underlying lessons attached to it as well.  It shows how actions of others (or your actions) can have an influence on the future.  You will love this story and how Nora manages to discover herself along the way.  

Buy the book:

     Amazon

       Barnes and Noble
      Parnassus Books

About the author:

Ellen Sherman received her M.F.A. from the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop, and has worked as a journalist, editor, teacher, and training coordinator for literacy volunteers.

Connect with the author:

Website
Facebook

Summer Reading Challenge: Star Craving Mad by Elise Miller

This summer, members of the Vise Library are participating in a Summer Reading Challenge. We have received copies of several books from publishers for honest reviews. We hope that you enjoy these reviews (and books)!

This week's book is Star Craving Mad by Elise Miller.

About the book:

Single, adorable Maddy, a 30-year-old teacher at a Manhattan private school, must come back down to earth when she gets a little star struck by her students' celebrity parents.

Maddy is a first grade teacher at a private school in New York.  She is a single mother and she is also very lonely.  There is a new student (Lola) in Maddy's class that has Maddy starstruck.  The student's father, Nic, is someone famous and Maddy can't quit thinking about him.  Before she knows it, her fantasies are becoming a reality when she starts a love affair with Nic (who is married).  Maddy is forced to hide their relationship and then starts second guessing the relationship.  She feels guilty about what this will do to Lola and how it is affecting her relationships with her family and friends.  Maddy is hard not to like even though she is doing something extremely inappropriate.  The relationship with Nic is not smooth sailing by any mean and Maddy does have a conscience.  You get to see how Maddy gets caught up into something big and it all feels so out of control.  Because she is so infatuated with Nic, she almost misses out on something better.  What makes this relationship even crazier is that Maddy even ends up spending time with Nic's wife Shelby.  Maddy eventually has to deal with the consequences of her relationship with Nic, but she almost ends up losing something she has worked so hard for.  

Buy the book:

     Amazon

       

About the author:

Elise A. Miller discovered her talent and passion for writing by accident, during a short-lived but rigorous acting pursuit in the late 1990s. She immediately began studying writing in earnest at Gotham Writers' Workshop in New York City, and hasn't looked back since. Elise completed courses in advanced fiction, memoir, novel writing, stand-up comedy and screenwriting. In 2000, she published her first piece in The Sun Magazine, and in 2002 she was one of the founding members of Little Red Writing Group in Brooklyn.

In the early 00s, Elise hosted and curated New York City's East Side Oral (the reading series your mother warned you about), which showcased the talents of Jonathan Ames, Ned Vizzini, Amy Sohn, Darin Strauss, Alix Strauss, Felicia Sullivan, Mike Albo, Kim Brittingham, Victoria C. Rowan, Rachel Kramer Bussell, Allen Salkin and many more.

Elise's first novel, Star Craving Mad, was published by Warner Books in 2004. In 2008, her personal essay Forgive Me was published in the anthology Because I Love Her. Other personal essays have been published on nerve.com, Papotage and Fresh Yarn. Chapters from her forthcoming novel have been published on Northern Liberties Review, Elephant Journal and in Wild River Review. A new and improved version of Star Craving Mad is being released in August, 2015 by SparkPress, the coolest hybrid pub-co and PR firm in the universe. 

Elise lives in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania with her husband, two kids and two teeny rescue dogs. She blogs about everything and anything at elisemiller.com.

Connect with the author:
Twitter

   Website

Book Review: Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between by Jennifer E. Smith

Members of the Vise Library were selected to review Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between.  We received a copy of Jennifer E. Smiths' book for an honest review.

About the book:

On the night before they leave for college, Clare and Aidan only have one thing left to do: figure out whether they should stay together or break up. Over the course of twelve hours, they'll retrace the steps of their relationship, trying to find something in their past that might help them decide what their future should be. The night will lead them to friends and family, familiar landmarks and unexpected places, hard truths and surprising revelations. But as the clock winds down and morning approaches, so does their inevitable goodbye. The question is, will it be goodbye for now or goodbye forever?

Charming, bittersweet, and full of wisdom and heart, this new irresistible novel from Jennifer E. Smith, author of The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, explores the difficult choices that arise when life and love lead in different directions.

Jennifer E. Smith's books are what I envision for the Young Adult genre.  They aren't to dark or heavy, but do have lessons of self-discovery and life mixed in.  They are clean and always great reads.  I was anxious to get my hands on her newest book and I was not disappointed.  Clare and Aidan are both leaving for college.  They have been dating for two years and are going to schools that are opposite coasts.  They are spending their last night reliving their relationship and deciding the future of it.  They go on a relationship scavenger hunt  to some of their spots.  They travel to the first place they met, first place they fought, first place they talked all night, etc.  Clare hopes these places will help them decide if they should stay together through a long distance relationship or break-up.  As they visit different spots a lot of memories are shared and new ones are made.  They meet up with friends and have some major drama along the way.  They discover truths about each other that they were not aware of.  The ending was not what I was expecting, but I thought it was perfect.

I loved the premise of this book and how each character evolves through the story.  They both have their own issues to work out and in a way they do.  Clare learns not to take the easy road and Aidan decides to just jump in to his life.  I like that there are struggles, because that is real life.  Everything isn't perfect with the characters, but again, that is life.  I enjoyed the message of hope and how, eventually, they were able to make rational, thought through decisions.  I felt good after reading this book and isn't that how we should feel after reading a book?  I can't wait for people to get their hands on this book and to read it.  I enjoyed it immensely and fans of Jennifer E. Smith will not be disappointed!

Buy the book:

     Amazon

       Barnes and Noble
      Parnassus Books

About the author:

JENNIFER E. SMITH is the author of Hello, Goodbye, and Everything In Between, The Geography of You and Me, This Is What Happy Looks Like, The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, The Storm Makers, You Are Here, andThe Comeback Season. She earned a master’s degree in creative writing from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, and her work has been translated into thirty languages.

Connect with the author:

   Facebook

   Twitter

   Website

Book Review: Shades of Doon by Carey Corp and Lorie Langdon

Members of the Vise Library were selected to review Shades of Doon.  We received a copy of Carey Corp and Lorie Langdon's book for an honest review.

About the book:

After cheating death, Veronica Welling is determined to savor every moment in her idyllic kingdom with both her true love and best friend by her side at last. At the same time, Mackenna Reid is enthusiastically building her new life and a theater with her prince. But just as their dreams of happiness are within reach, the world Vee and Kenna have chosen is ripped away, leaving them to face their most horrific challenge yet—their old lives.

Thrust out of Doon, the best friends are confronted with tormentors from their past and no way to return to their adopted land. When the MacCrae brothers rush to their rescue, the girls’ situation turns from nightmare to modern-day fairy tale. But their happiness could be short lived: unbeknownst to them, someone in their closest circle is aiding the witch of Doon in her bid to destroy the kingdom once and for all.

Last year we gushed over the second book in this series: Destined for Doon.  I'm afraid that I will be gushing just as much as I was last year.  This book continues where the second book left us.  Vee and Kenna are in Doon and enjoying their time there (especially with their love interests, Jamie and Duncan).  However, Vee is experiencing some strange health issues and both of the girls start see things from the modern world.  One morning while out shopping in the village, Vee and Kenna are transported to modern-day Scotland.  Because of Vee's planning, she has the two rings that make it possible for people to travel in and out of Doon.  The girls return to discuss with their closest friends what in the world is going on.  They all come to the conclusion that the witch from the first two books must be behind this.  One morning they are betrayed by someone they trusted (also their magic rings are stolen) and are sent to different places in the United States.  They manage to reunite with each other, but have no money or have any idea how to get to Doon since their rings are gone.  Surprisingly the two princes, Jamie and Duncan, find the girls and then are able to experience the modern world with them.  Eventually they make their way back to Doon and discover that things are changing (and not in a good way).  The witch definitely seems to be behind all of the bad things happening in Doon.  She eventually makes her appearance in the unlikeliest of forms and things really get crazy from there.  People are locked in dungeons, break out of dungeons, someone is sentenced to death, people escape out of Doon and then the book ends on a serious cliffhanger.  (Seriously, another year of waiting after that ending.  NOOOOOO!!!!)

This book was action packed and had a lot of plotting going on in it.  I loved the the adventures the girls went on in order to figure out who and what was causing all of the mayhem.  Of course the girl's personalities are always the best.  Kenna is hilarious as always and Vee learns to stand up to people that she never could in the past.  Also, how can you not love Duncan and Jaime??  They are hilarious in their own right and always thinking about what is best for Doon.  One of my favorite parts of the book is when they go shopping in the modern world.  I cannot wait to see what happens in the fourth and final book of this series, but am not looking forward to the wait! Our copy of Shades of Doon will be added to our Popular Collection, so make sure you keep your eye out for it!

Buy the book:

Parnassus Books

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

About the authors:

Carey Corp lives in the metropolitan Midwest with her loveable yet out-of-control family. Carey wrote her first book at the age of seven, and currently begins each morning consuming copious amounts of coffee while weaving stories that capture her exhaustive imagination. She harbors a voracious passion (in no consistent order) for mohawks, Italy, musical theater, chocolate, and Jane Austen. Carey’s debut novel for teens, The Halo Chronicles: The Guardian, earned her national recognition as 2010 Golden Heart finalist for best young adult fiction and was recently featured at the 2012 RT Booklovers Convention in Chicago in YA Alley.

Lorie Langdon has over ten years of experience writing online and print advertising for a Fortune 500 company, and left her thriving corporate career to satisfy the voices in her head. Now as a full-time author and stay-at-home mom, she spends her summers editing poolside while dodging automatic water-gun fire, and the rest of the year tucked into her cozy office, Havanese puppy by her side, working to translate her effusive imagination into the written word and continue to build the young-adult-focused blog, HonestlyYA.

Connect with the authors:

Carey Corp:

·        Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1qqj0BL

·        Twitter: https://twitter.com/careycorp

·        Website: http://www.doonseries.com/

Lorie Langdon:

·        Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1nagUFl

·        Twitter: https://twitter.com/LorieLangdon

·        Website: http://www.lorielangdon.com/