Boys Lie: Review and Giveaway

Lie #13: Don't worry, I won't show anyone these pictures.

Things have gotten worse. When I was a teenager, young girls worried about their reputations, getting pregnant, or catching venereal disease. Today there are many more dangers, including HIV, other STIs, and date rape drugs, and technology has created some risky new activities for teens, such as sexting. I'm glad I'm not a teenager in 2010! But I do have two teenage daughters, and I realize that raising them requires me to be aware of these dangers.

Belisa Vranich and Holly Eagleson are the authors of a new book for girls, published in 2010, Boys Lie: How Not to Get Played. The title of this book led me to ask this question: do boys lie more than girls? To be honest, I can't really answer that question. I think I was pretty lucky as a teenager. For the most part, the boys I met back then were decent, respectful guys, and didn't seem to lie any more than the average girl. In fact, I think in some ways they were more honest than girls, or at least a bit more open about their feelings. That being said, though, these are different times, and as I mentioned already, there are new risks and dangers for today's teens, and so as I read this book I changed the question in my mind from "who lies more?" to "how can this book help girls?".

Belisa Vranic is a clinical psychologist with over twenty years of work experience, and Holly Eagleson is a former features editor for Seventeen and Cosmopolitan magazines, and the author of a book for teen girls; together they do a thorough job of presenting lies, truths, and information in this book. Much of it pertains to sex and sexuality, and is quite candid. Each chapter starts with a lie told by boys. The authors provide a lot of explanation about the lie, and other ways that the lie might be told. Next they give ideas about what to say in response to the lie. Each chapter concludes with suggestions about what to do if you've already bought the lie. In this format, many common lies are presented in seventeen short, easy-to-read chapters that give girls the chance to think and prepare themselves to respond in strong ways to these lies and situations.

I shared Boys Lie with my daughters. Here are their very brief reviews:

Angela (age 13): Alright, I'm ready to revert back to kindergarten thinking... BOYS HAVE COOTIES.

Jasmine (age 17) : Boys Lie gives common sense advice and ways to deal with relationship problems in a very straightforward manner. I enjoyed reading it.

My thirteen-year-old is definitely too young for this book, and I think that my seventeen-year-old is as well--thankfully! Boys Lie is startling explicit at times, but as a source book it provides valuable information for teens about the very things that are so difficult to discuss with others. Information and knowledge are powerful, and lead to preparedness. This book is designed to make girls think about the consequences of their actions, and to develop a healthy sense of caution and responsibility about their sexuality, and in a more general sense. This is especially important for girls because they're the ones who seem to suffer the most and the longest as a result of impulsive actions; unplanned pregnancies can limit educational and financial success for years to come, and sexually transmitted diseases may be devastating. With such grave consequences it pays to think ahead, to plan, and to protect yourself or loved ones from these dangers.

Are you interested in reading this book, or do you know a teenager who'd benefit from reading it? Health Communications, Inc. is generously offering a copy of this book as a giveaway (U.S./Canada).

• To enter this giveaway, simply leave a comment.
  
• For an extra chance at winning, become a follower of this blog, or let me know that you're already a follower, or that you subscribe in Google Reader.
• For an additional chance, post about this contest on your blog, Facebook, or Twitter.

Enter by 5 PM PDT on Monday, August 2. One winner will be selected randomly and announced on Tuesday, August 3. Good luck!


Special thanks to Lisa from TLC for including me on this tour. For more reviews of this book, please visit the other stops on TLC's Boys Lie blog tour.

Cardboard: Review and Giveaway

"From the Safety of not eating I finally began to hear the double echoes, to scratch at the polite surfaces of words. I knew nothing deeper than what was visible. Or if I could see it I was unable to use any words to describe it."
~Cardboard, Fiona Place

First published in Australia in 1989, Cardboard: A Woman Left for Dead by Fiona Place is the story of Lucy, a young woman who has been suffering from anorexia nervosa for about eight years. Told by Lucy, Cardboard presents her inner world, an intimate a portrait of a woman with an eating disorder who's undergoing treatments that include hospitalization, drugs, and psychotherapy.

In conjunction with her eating disorder, Lucy suffers from anxiety and fears, concerning her future and employment (that dreadful, ever present 'e'). Having grown up in family that did not outwardly demonstrate affection, she craves physical closeness and a love relationship but is afraid of men, fearful of getting too close to or trusting someone. Lucy knows what she wants and needs but is not yet able to articulate her needs. And that seems to be at the heart of the matter.

"I knew there was more to life than the expression You are what you eat but I felt compelled to take it to its literal extreme."
~Cardboard, Fiona Place

The author believes that this eating disorder is closely related to an inability to understand subtexts of language, or to take things too literally. She believes that anorexia nervosa may really be a ‘communication disorder’, and that trained therapists can help patients decode the ‘subtexts’ of language and conversation.

Developed during the 1970's and 1980's by Australian Michael White and New Zealander David Epston, narrative therapy is a form of psychotherapy using narrative. The basic premise of this form of treatment is that a patient will benefit by telling his or her own narrative, under the guidance of a psychotherapist. This is what happens in Cardboard. Under Tim's care, Lucy begins her narrative. But she takes this one step further. Lucy incorporates poetry into her narrative, which adds another dimension to it.

"flattered
she had been
imagined real

hurt, knowing
she couldn't
be real"
~Cardboard, Fiona Place

By using poetry, a less "literal" language than prose, Lucy starts to allow more ambiguity in her interpretation of language, in her life. In fact, she is the very creator of this ambiguity! Slowly but certainly, through the actual process of writing the prose and poetry, Lucy starts to help herself, and to better comprehend language, with it's subtleties and subtexts.

"Writing didn't have to come up with a practical solution to anything, only an understanding, and as I penned, the words seemed to appear before my eyes, from somewhere unknown. An unknown that I hadn't explored."
~Cardboard, Fiona Place

To be honest, I wasn't sure how I'd be affected by a book about a young woman who is suffering from anorexia nervosa. I thought I might find it depressing or unpleasant. Fortunately, this book is a triumphant story of recovery and success. While Lucy does receive treatment and help from Dr. E. and Tim, it is through her very narrative, told in prose and poetry, that she is able to take control and responsibility for herself in many areas of life, and eventually recover from her eating disorder. Cardboard is a brilliant fictionalized account that illustrates the restorative powers of narrative psychotherapy. It's a unique combination of prose and poetry that shows the integration of logical, literal "left brain" language with creative, intuitive "right brain" language. Lucy writes herself into well-being.

Exciting news! To celebrate the recent release of Cardboard in North America, the author generously sent me a copy to review, and two additional copies to give away. This giveaway is open worldwide.

• To enter the giveaway for this book, simply leave a comment.
• For another chance at winning, become a follower of this blog, or let me know that you're already a follower, or that you subscribe in Google Reader.
• For an additional chance, post about this contest on your blog, Facebook, or Twitter.

Enter by 5 PM PDT on Thursday, June 10. Two winners will be selected randomly and announced on Friday, June 11. Good luck!

Please return on May 20 for an interview with Fiona Place. For another review of this book visit The Reading Life. Cardboard counts toward the Aussie Author Challenge and the Women Unbound Reading Challenge.

Letter to My Daughter: Review and Giveaway

Think about the letters you've saved over the years. Are they love letters? Are they the letters you got from home during your first summer away at camp? Do you have a box full of letters from best friends, full of events and compliments, or acceptances to schools or for jobs? You probably saved these letters because they touched your emotions when you first read them. Chances are good that they still affect you when you reread them.

An epistolary novel is a fictional book written as a series of documents, usually letters, although diary or journal entries, newspaper clippings, and other documents are sometimes used. In recent times, electronic "documents" such as email and even blogs have also come into use. The word 'epistolary' comes from the Latin word epistola, meaning a letter. The very first epistolary novel may have been the Spanish Prison of Love (Cárcel de amor) (c.1485) by Diego de San Pedro. Throughout the years, there have been countless books written in epistolary form, which became popular as a genre in the 18th century, fell largely out of use in the late part of that century, and then became popular again. Even Jane Austen tried her hand at epistolary writing, with her novella, Lady Susan, and Pride and Prejudice, which contains many letters, may have originally been intended as an epistolary novel called "First Impressions". Recently I read two epistolary books, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows (which I reviewed in epistolary form), and West From Home by Laura Ingalls Wilder (which I also reviewed). Epistolary novels often feel a bit more intimate, more revealing, and more passionate to me than regular novels, and I looked forward to reading a new book in this genre, Letter to My Daughter by George Bishop, published in 2010.

Letter to My Daughter is written as a letter from a distraught mother, Laura, to her daughter, Liz, on the eve of her fifteenth birthday. Liz has left home in the middle of the night in her mother's car after a fight with her. As Laura anxiously awaits her daughter's return, she writes a letter to Liz about her own past and the secrets she has kept hidden. In it, she reveals how at fifteen she fell in love with a Cajun boy, Tim Prejean, who was two years older than her. Her parents strongly disapproved of her relationship with Tim, and sent Laura away to a boarding school run by nuns, the Sacred Heart Academy in Baton Rogue. Tim has enlisted in the army during the era of the Vietnam War, and he and Laura continue their forbidden romance through letters in this coming-of-age story.

Imaginative and affecting, I was transfixed and transported by descriptions in Letter to My Daughter of rural Louisiana and could easily envision "the sticks" where "small houses stood scattered here and there among the trees" in a place with "dirt roads, dirt yards, and dirt gardens". The beauty of this book is in the details and the way the author captures feelings on paper (Tim's father, who lives in a camping trailer in the woods, is described as "desperately hospitable", offering can after can of RC Cola to Liz). Although it's short, the story is full of power and emotion. Like a treasured letter, this is a book to read and reread. It would be a very good choice for mother/daughter book clubs, and may even inspire some mothers to write letters to their own children--about things that are important but difficult to express face-to-face.

After reading Letter to My Daughter, I was curious about something and asked the author a couple of questions:

Why did you write Letter to My Daughter from the point of view of a woman, Liz's mother? What "advantages" and/or "disadvantages" did this give you as a writer?

Here is his reply:

Dear Suko's Notebook,

Thanks for hosting me here on your blog. Lots of readers have wondered about the female point of view in my novel Letter to My Daughter.

A few years ago I was working in India, and at the end of my job, I took a camel safari in the desert. I went to sleep in my tent one night, and I dreamed this whole novel, beginning to end. In my dream, the story was clearly told from the point of view of the mother. I heard the woman's voice, even. The odd thing is that I don't know anyone quite like Laura, the narrator in the story. She's not based on anyone in real life.

So I went into the novel with a strong sense of the voice and the story. Still, it took some time to overcome my doubts about writing from a woman's point of view. But eventually I realized that it wasn't all that different from a man's point of view. The big emotions--fear, love, hate, jealousy--are all the same no matter who you are. The challenge is in getting the details right--what a teenage girl sees when she looks at a boy she admires, for example. Things like this took some imagining. Happily, women who've read the novel seem to think I got it right.

~George Bishop

Fascinating! George, I enjoyed reading your answer in epistolary form.

Wonderful news! Random House is offering one copy of Letter to My Daughter as a giveaway (U.S./Canada).

• To enter the giveaway for this book, simply leave a comment.
• For another chance at winning, become a follower of this blog, or let me know that you're already a follower, or that you subscribe in Google Reader.
• For an additional chance, post about this contest on your blog, Facebook, or Twitter.
• For yet another chance, mention an epistolary book that you've enjoyed reading.

Enter by 5 PM PDT on Wednesday, June 2. One winner will be selected randomly and announced on Thursday, June 3. Good luck!



Special thanks to Lisa from TLC and Random House for sending me this book. For more reviews of this book, please visit the other stops on TLC's blog tour for Letter to My Daughter.

Live a Life You Love

My all-time favorite self-help books are How To Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie, Your Erroneous Zones by Wayne W. Dyer, and The Magic of Believing by Claude M. Bristol. I read them years ago, but refer back to them at times, and really feel that these books have helped me immeasurably with my relationships with others as well as with myself. That being said, though, I don't read a lot of self-help books, and I review even less. However, I was open to reading and reviewing Live a Life You Love: 7 Steps to a Healthier, Happier, More Passionate You because I felt it might offer some degree of empowerment, especially to women, which is one of the purposes of this site.

"For the first time in twenty-eight years, my perfect mask fell off and shattered into a thousand pieces around me. I confessed everything: that I'd made a mistake choosing Emergency Medicine as a specialty, that I had had enough of the huge workload, and how the antidepressants had helped at first, but didn't seem to be working anymore."
~Live a Life You Love, Dr. Susan Biali, M.D.

Live a Life You Love is a very personal book by Dr. Susan Biali. In it she talks about how she changed her own life. While working as a doctor, she liked helping people, but felt harried and oddly dissatisfied. Surprising those who knew her, she decided to leave the medical profession and pursue her passion to become a writer--and a flamenco dancer!

In the book she encourages us to think about changing our lives as well. She asks us if we are truly happy in our jobs, in our relationships, with our lives. She talks about the importance of nutrition and a healthy lifestyle. In a clear and simple way, she outlines seven steps to follow in sections titled:

• Allow Yourself to be You
• Learn to Love Yourself
• Honor Your Body
• Rescue and Revitalize Your Relationships
• Get a Life!
• Make Room for the Divine
• Make "Someday" Today

The author presents many ideas in this book, in an easy-to-read format. Even if you're not contemplating changing careers or making other major changes, Live a Life You Love has valuable ideas for making smaller but important changes. I found it interesting and inspiring.

Special thanks to Lisa from Online Publicist for sending me this book. Live a Life You Love counts toward the Women Unbound Reading Challenge hosted by Aarti, Care, and Eva.

The Girls from Ames: Review and Giveaway

"My friends are my estate."
~Emily Dickinson

Early in life, I discovered the joys of friendship. I had a best friend starting in second or third grade, a girl named Patricia who lived in my neighborhood. Our first meeting was outside of a pet store, where we'd both stopped to admire some puppies playing in the window, while walking home from school one afternoon. We became inseparable friends after that, spending time together at school and outside of school. More often than not over the years, I've had a best friend, a deep friendship that lasted a year or two (or until I made a new best friend). While I don't belong to a large group of very close friends at this particular point in my life, I do have many female friends, and have been able to reconnect with a majority of my former best friends on Facebook this past year.

Friendship has been very important to me since childhood. However, I honestly didn't know if I'd enjoy reading about other people's friends. Would I find reading The Girls from Ames: A Story of Women & a Forty-Year Friendship tiresome? I grew up in NYC--could I relate to a story about growing up in Ames, a small, college-town in Iowa, filled with cornfields? Were the girls boring goody two-shoes? I wasn't sure if this book would truly hold my interest.

Published in 2009, The Girls from Ames was written by Jeffrey Zaslow, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, who also coauthored the inspirational book The Last Lecturewith Randy Pausch, which I read and reviewed. The book began because one of the Ames girls, Jenny, sent Jeffrey an email in 2003 about her group of friends. Three years later, he started an enormous project: to write a book about eleven girls with a forty-year friendship.

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."
~Anais Nin

The author introduces each girl--Karla, Kelly, Marilyn, Jane, Jenny, Karen, Cathy, Angela, Sally, Diana, and Sheila--and provides a bit of family background. Most of the girls met each other in kindergarten or first-grade, and have stayed in touch in spite of moving from Ames to eight other states (all but one left Iowa), and starting their own families and careers.

"Friendship doubles our joy and divides our grief."
~Swedish proverb

Throughout four decades, the Ames girls have remained very supportive of each other. Although they no longer live close to each other, they stay in touch through email and other means, get together for special events in their lives, such as weddings, have reunions, and celebrate the joys in the group, such as children born to members of the group. They also experience their share of sorrows, of death and illness, including cancer. (Why are so many relatively young women getting cancer--or is it just early detection? I have many friends and acquaintances who are cancer survivors.)

The Ames girls are not goody two-shoes, and were as adventurous as I was while growing up. Many of the girls are quite frank and talk about the past and present in candid terms--about boys, cornfield "keggers", men, marriage, divorce, jobs, depression, children--and openly reveal their feelings. I'm of the "same vintage", more or less, as the Ames Girls, so I could relate to a lot in this book. I cried near the end of Chapter 7, The Intervention, and at other parts of the book as well. I really felt the connection between these women, and as I became immersed in their stories, I thought about my own friendships over the years. Like the girls from Ames, I recognize the importance of celebrating special moments; this year I've been attending birthdays lunches for a group of about ten women (some of whom I don't know that well yet, but friendship takes time to develop and ripen). For me, friendship is an absolutely essential part of a healthy life, and I read the book with an eye toward how I could improve the quality of my own friendships, and help my children flourish in this area of life.

As a journalist, the author realizes the value of presenting honest stories about real people, and I was totally absorbed by this book. The events in The Girls from Ames are even more touching because they are true, and the book is wonderfully written, and quite humorous at times. If friendship is a subject near and dear to your heart, then this book is for you.

Terrific news! Penguin Group is generously offering a copy of The Girls from Ames as a giveaway (U.S./Canada only).

• To enter this giveaway, simply leave a comment.
• For an extra entry, leave a comment about the role of friendship in your own life, or a favorite quote about friendship.
  
• For another chance at winning, become a follower of this blog, or let me know that you're already a follower.
• For an additional chance, post about this contest on your blog, Facebook, or Twitter.

Enter by 5 PM PDT on Thursday, May 6. The winner will be selected randomly and announced on Friday, May 7. You can also enter a different giveaway to win multiple copies of this book for your book club, so keep reading!

Special thanks to Lisa from TLC and Penguin Group for sending me The Girls from Ames. While reading this book, I thought it would be a great choice for book clubs. (I am not a member of a book club, although this book makes me wish I were.) If you take a few moments to register your book club with TLC by April 30, you could win up to 10 copies of this book in TLC's Book Club of the Month contest, a new feature at TLC! For more reviews of this book, visit the other stops on TLC's book tour for The Girls from Ames. To "meet" the Ames girls, please visit the official website for The Girls from Ames.

This book counts toward the Women Unbound Reading Challenge hosted by Aarti, Care, and Eva.

The Lotus Eaters: Review and Giveaway

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear."
~Ambrose Redmoon

The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli is the story of a brave, young woman, Helen Adams, an untrained but talented photojournalist who travels to Vietnam during the war years, determined to somehow understand more about the death of her brother, who died as a soldier there. As the first woman combat photographer, Helen is teased and not taken seriously by some of the men in the profession, but she manages to persevere.

Published in 2010, Tatjana Soli's debut novel starts with the fall of Saigon in 1975, and goes back in time to Helen's arrival in Vietnam 12 years earlier. Helen is seduced by the beauty of this country in Southeast Asia, with its azure skies and white sand beaches, and also by the Vietnam War (1959 - 1975) itself. For many combat photographers, including Helen, the war is like a drug, a source of adrenaline, fueled by risk and the closeness and presence of death, which give a new, heightened urgency to life. Like the lotus-eaters in Homer's Odyssey, who become addicted to the narcotic fruit and forget about returning home, Helen and other combat photographers become intoxicated by the war in Vietnam and find it hard to leave, even though they risk their lives by staying. In fact, they become adrenaline junkies, who thrive on the excitement, which is followed by brief moments of relief at their survival. In this state, Helen begins a love affair with a seasoned photojournalist, Sam Darrow, and a friendship with his assistant, an enigmatic Vietnamese man, Linh, and the story unfolds.

While I have read literature about World War II, this was my first novel about the Vietnam War, in which 3 to 4 million Vietnamese, 1.5 to 2 million Laotians and Cambodians, and about 60,000 American soldiers lost their lives. For me, it's always difficult to read about the devastation of war, although the writing in The Lotus Eaters is beautiful, and the story kept me up reading late at night (so much so that I became temporarily nocturnal). The author uses descriptive language, but she doesn't overdo it, so my imagination was ignited. Although I struggled to get through some of the violent parts--injury and death are omnipresent--I was rewarded by a rich and layered reading experience, by images as uncompromising and haunting as war photographs in Life magazine. Like the characters in the novel--Helen, Darrow, Linh, Robert, Matt, and others--I was fascinated and repulsed simultaneously by the events in this affecting book. (After reading The Lotus Eaters, I may need to read a sweet romance, or an English novel about manners, to recuperate from my Vietnam adventure.) Along with the violence, destruction, and death, Helen finds love, and a real sense of purpose in life.

Above all else, The Lotus Eaters is a story about courage. A story about a young woman who breaks into a field previously off-limits for women. A story about a woman who risks her life to give the world an honest look at the atrocities of war, and a few glimpses of humanity. A story about a woman who chooses to love, even though she is not sure that she will live to see another day. The Lotus Eaters is a riveting novel about having courage and hope even in the worst circumstances.

The author is generously offering a copy of The Lotus Eaters as a giveaway (U.S./Canada only).

• To enter this giveaway, simply leave a comment.
• For an extra chance at winning, become a follower of this blog, or let me know that you're already a follower.
• For an additional chance, post about this contest on your blog, Facebook, or Twitter.

Enter by 5 PM PDT on Monday, April 26. The winner will be chosen randomly and announced on Tuesday, April 27. Good luck!


Special thanks to Lisa from TLC for the opportunity to review an advance readers' edition of this novel (which is why I didn't choose a quote from the book; it's not the final version). For more reviews of this book, visit the other stops on TLC's The Lotus Eaters book tour. Please stay tuned for an upcoming exclusive interview with Tatjana Soli.




The Lotus Eaters counts toward the Women Unbound Reading Challenge hosted by Aarti, Care, and Eva.

The Body Scoop for Girls

Like many young women, I wondered if I was normal during my adolescence, I worried about many things, and I had countless questions about my body and the changes that were occurring. Instead of asking my mother all sorts of embarrassing questions, I learned a lot about myself by reading Our Bodies, Ourselves. Now I have two daughters, and while I try to be open and honest with them, it's difficult to discuss certain things with them. I felt relieved to find a new book which could help in this arena. Published in 2009, The Body Scoop for Girls: A Straight-Talk Guide to a Healthy, Beautiful You is a new book by Dr. Jennifer Ashton, M.D. with Christine Larson. Dr. Ashton is a board-certified ob-gyn who specializes in adolescent gynecology and is also a news medical correspondent with CBS. Friendly yet informative, The Body Scoop for Girls is a comprehensive reference book written for young adults, geared toward the special health concerns of young women, with answers to questions girls may ask and information about periods, breasts, hormones, moods, sex, and other health issues. I like that this book provides young women with the facts they need to make educated, informed decisions which will impact their future health. I think girls and their mothers will feel comfortable reading this book, together or separately, and will learn a great deal from it. The Body Scoop for Girls is easy to read and divided into three sections, What to Expect When You're Adolescent, Straight Talk on Sex, and Your Body's Lifetime Warranty: Staying Healthy for Life. After reading this book, I shared it with my daughters and asked them what they thought of it.


Angela (age 12): This book has some really great information in it. Some of it is a little old for me, but still, it's a good book to have. It's also great to look something up in it instead of asking someone or asking the internet. This author really tells you a lot about herself, and makes you feel like she is your own personal doctor. She makes you feel very comfortable! :)


Jasmine (age 17): The Body Scoop for Girls contains a lot of good information on basically everything and anything any girl could have while growing up (as well as valuable information for anyone who is curious). The book itself is written in a very casual, straightforward way which makes it more accessible, less embarrassing, and easy to understand for the target age group (14-18?). From information on STDs to mood disorders and everything in between, I found this to be an interesting and impactful read. It is an excellent source of solid, medical information regarding the "forbidden" topics that most teens dread and avoid asking adults about.

Thank you, Angela and Jasmine, for sharing your opinions. I think this book is suitable for girls 13 years and older. Although I'm always available to answer any questions, I hope my daughters will also use this book as a resource whenever they have questions or concerns.

Special thanks to Lisa from TLC for including me on this tour, and to the Penguin Group for sending me the book. For more reviews of this book, please visit the other stops on The Body Scoop for Girls book tour.

The Body Scoop for Girls counts toward the Women Unbound Reading Challenge, because it empowers women with the knowledge and information which lead to better health.

Shanghai Girls: Review and Giveaway

When was the last time a book made you cry? I mean really cry, so much that you worried about your tears wetting and ruining the pages? Shanghai Girls, a well-researched historical novel by bestselling author Lisa See, did that to me. There is one chapter fairly early in the book that's so heartwrenching I cried and gasped and felt sickened. I thought about this chapter for days. While I won't reveal what happens in that chapter, I will say that it has to do with life during wartime, which is brutal and atrocious and shocking, but also, I imagine, very true to life, because war is more awful than anything imaginable. But I don't want to discourage others from reading this book (although I think it's for mature readers only), because it's a brilliant novel. Just be prepared to experience some heavy emotion.

Published in 2009, Shanghai Girls takes place between 1937 and 1957. The book begins in Shanghai, and is the story of the Chin sisters, May, age 18, the little sister or moy moy, and Pearl, age 21, the elder sister or jie jie. They are "beautiful girls", which means they are models.

"We are young, we are beautiful, and we live in the Paris of Asia."
~Shanghai Girls, Lisa See

They pose for an artist, Z.G. Li, who paints them on omnipresent calendars, posters, and advertisements. (They also adorn the stunning cover of this book.) May is considered the more beautiful of the two because of her porcelain complexion, at least by her father, Baba, whereas Pearl, the more educated of the two, blushes easily and has "cheeks which capture the sun".

"Am I jealous of my sister? How can I be jealous even when I adore her? We share Long--Dragon--as our generational name. I am Pearl Dragon and May is Beautiful Dragon. She's taken the Western spelling of her name, but in Mandarin mei is one of the words for beautiful, and she is that."
~Shanghai Girls, Lisa See

Privileged in many ways, the Chin sisters earn money to spend on themselves, and live a life of relative luxury. Their father owns a rickshaw business, and the family is prosperous enough to employ seven servants. Beautiful, young, and idealistic, Pearl and May live in the present, and think things will always remain the same. Thoroughly modern girls who've escaped many of the old traditions, such as foot-binding, which has crippled their mother, they expect to marry for love. But their circumstances change suddenly and drastically, and with the onset of World War II, they must become survivors--rather than beautiful girls. In the book, which is told in the present tense by Pearl, the girls undergo many hardships, including a loss of financial status, the threat of arranged marriages, the Japanese occupation of China, and the need to leave their beloved Shanghai. Although their natures may be "set" by the Chinese zodiac--Pearl is a Dragon, strong and stubborn, while May is a Sheep, peaceful and adorable--throughout the book the sisters change and develop and mature. While May's great beauty continues to open doors, she also shows that she has intelligence and ambition, while Pearl displays her ability to adapt, and her softer side emerges. What doesn't change, though, is their love and support for each other, although there are the rivalries which may always exist between sisters.

Shanghai Girls has an intimate feel to it which drew me in from the very first page of the book (to determine if you'd also be drawn in, you can read an excerpt). I felt as if I were reading Pearl's diary. Lisa See's exquisite attention to detail cast me back in time to the exotic, international city of Shanghai (and later to other locales). I imagined myself pulled in a rickshaw, tasting savory dishes of shrimp with water chestnuts and dumplings or chia-tzu. In this novel, I learned about World War II from a Chinese perspective, and also about China's civil war, and deepened my appreciation for historical fiction. I discovered many things about Chinese culture and thought, such as that the Cantonese word for wife is fu yen, which means woman and broom--which should scare off even the most marriage-minded Chinese girl! There are a few surprises sprinkled throughout the novel, which made for an even more compelling read. Thankfully, there will be a sequel, because I'm quite eager to know what happens next.

Exciting news! The publisher is generously offering two copies of Shanghai Girls (the trade paperback version) as giveaways (US/Canada only).

• To enter this giveaway, simply leave a comment.
• For an extra chance at winning, become a follower of this blog, or let me know that you're already a follower.
• For another additional chance, post about this contest on your blog, Facebook, or Twitter.

Enter by 5 PM PST on Thursday, January 28. Two lucky winners will be selected randomly, and announced on Friday, January 29. Good luck!

Special thanks to Lisa from TLC for including me on this book tour, and to Kathleen from Random House for sending me the book. Having read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, which I adored and shared with my daughter, Jasmine, I was determined to read another Chinese-themed novel by Lisa See. For more reviews and other giveaways of this novel, please visit the other stops on the Shanghai Girls book tour.

Shanghai Girls counts toward Jennie's China Challenge, and the Women Unbound Reading Challenge, hosted by Aarti, Care, and Eva.

Love Your Body, Love Your Life

"Read this book and you will discover that there is only one beauty, and you are that."
~Deepak Chopra

How could I resist a book with this quote on the front cover?

I marveled at Deepak Chopra's first book, Ageless Body, Timeless Mind, published in 1993. Back then I was a new mom, and felt a sense of great possibility nurtured by Deepak Chopra's beliefs and ideas about how we may contribute to our own health and well-being.

In Love Your Body, Love Your Life: 5 Steps to End Negative Body Obsession and Start Living Happily and Confidently, body-image expert, speaker, and writer Sarah Maria, who has trained with spiritual and self-help teachers including Deepak Chopra, Dr. David Simon, and Wayne Dyer, presents ways to banish negative body obsession (NBO). Sarah Maria decided to write this book because she suffered deeply from NBO, eating disorders, and low self-esteem. She's certainly not alone. In fact, negative body obsession is a modern cultural epidemic, and the statistics for eating disorders are quite alarming. In America alone, nearly 10 million females and 1 million males are battling eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia, and millions more suffer from binge eating disorder. But there is hope. The author wants us to know that we can move beyond self-loathing, beyond the "Barbie doll-like" images we're bombarded with by the media. She stresses the value of being more gentle and loving with yourself, instead of demanding an unrealistic and unattainable standard of "perfection". Beauty comes in all sizes, shapes, and colors.

Love Your Body, Love Your Life provides a five-step plan to help people learn how to love their bodies and their lives. Without revealing too much of the book, here are the steps in the process, and a few related quotes from the book.

• Set a Powerful Intention ~ "The power of intention is the power of love."

• Identify and Detach from Negative Thoughts ~ "Proactively identify and detach from the negative thoughts that are keeping you trapped."

• Discover Who You Really Are ~ "As nature is, so am I."

• Befriend Your Body ~ "Experience the majesty of your own body."

• Live Your Purpose ~ "You were intended to realize your soul's highest potential."

I definitely recognize the influence of Deepak Chopra's special blend of new-age spirituality and thought on Sarah Maria's work. This book is empowering, especially to women, and counts toward the Women Unbound Reading Challenge. At the very core of Love Your Body, Love Your Life is the importance of changing your thinking--about food, about your body, about your very being. By changing your thoughts, you can change your life for the better.

Special thanks to Paula and Penny from AME for sending me this very positive book.

Jenny's Dream: Review and Giveaway

According to the Nevada Department of Wildlife, a very large black bear is on the loose in the Lake Tahoe community of Incline Village. Deputies say that he's the biggest bear they've ever seen, and may have caused $70,000 in damage this year. The bear has evaded traps and special night patrols sent to look for him, and has broken into an Incline Village home on several occasions.

When I read about this bear in the newspaper last week, it immediately brought to mind the giant bear in Jenny's Dream: A Family Saga in Bear Lake, Idaho, the third book in this series by Linda Weaver Clarke, published in 2009. Set in 1908, a ten-foot grizzly bear, Old Half Paw, is terrorizing the community of Paris, Idaho, killing sheep and making everyone more than a bit nervous. His story is based on the true story of Old Three Toes, a real grizzly bear. This is just some of the action in this historical novel, Jenny's Dream, which focuses primarily on Jenny Roberts, who's nearly twenty now and at a crossroads.

After two years away at college, Jenny is feeling restless and a bit confused about her future. With dreams of being a writer, she awaits news of a journalism job in Texas. An accomplished equestrian and excellent marksman, Jenny loves the great outdoors, and spends much of her free time in the meadow, getting lost in books and daydreaming about her future. She makes a new friend, Will Jones, and they become quite at ease with each other, but something is not quite right with Jenny. She's struggling with some issues from her past and the need to forgive those who have hurt her.

"It was a secret that she had kept from her family for years, something that was even too difficult to admit aloud. Jenny needed to forgive. But it was a difficult task to forgive those who had hurt her so deeply. The scars were too deep, and she continued to nurse them along. She felt certain the only solution was to run away."
~Jenny's Dream, Linda Weaver Clarke

I'll stop now, before revealing too much of the story, before I need to include a spoiler alert!

Once again, Linda Weaver Clarke's novel transported me back in time about one hundred years ago to the wild west. Her keen attention to detail brought this book to life, and I could almost feel the breezes and the rain, hear the thunderclaps and the bubbling streams. Like Jenny, I relish being outdoors and appreciate the grandeur of nature. The book focuses on the budding romance between Jenny and Will, as well as the continued romance between Melinda and Gilbert. Romances in this series are based on mutual respect and admiration, and present wonderful ideals. Jenny's Dream made me think about the role of forgiveness in my own life, and the need to forgive others for hurting me, both intentionally and unintentionally. All in all, I enjoyed this charming book and recommend it, especially to fans of historical fiction who savor more than a dash of sweet romance mixed in.

Jenny's Dream counts toward the Women Unbound Reading Challenge. Jenny is an independent, educated young woman with ambitions and skills beyond the usual for her day. Thanks to Aarti, Care, and Eva for hosting this challenge.

Linda Weaver Clarke has generously offered to give away one autographed copy of Melinda and the Wild West, the first book in this series, which was a semi-finalist for the "Reviewers Choice Award 2007". To find out more about this book, here's my review.

-To enter this giveaway, simply leave a comment.
-For an extra chance at winning, become a follower of this blog, or let me know that you're already a follower.
-For a third chance, post about this contest on your blog, Facebook, or Twitter.

Enter by Monday, December 7, 5 PM PST. The winner will be chosen randomly and announced on Tuesday, December 8. US residents only (sorry!). Good luck!




Special thanks to Linda Weaver Clarke for sending me Jenny's Dream.

Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict

"That's when I decide to order myself a large clam-and-garlic pizza and reread Pride and Prejudice. I would self-medicate with fat, carbohydrates, and Jane Austen, my number one drug of choice, my constant companion through every breakup, every disappointment, every crisis. Men might come and go, but Jane Austen was always there. In sickness and in health, for richer, for poorer, till death do us part."
~Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, Laurie Viera Rigler

English novelist Jane Austen (1775-1817) published her books anonymously, so she was not well known or recognized for her talent as a writer during her lifetime. After her nephew published A Memoir of Jane Austen in 1869, Austen's work was introduced to a larger audience. By the 1940s, Austen was regarded as a great writer of English literature by academia. Within the next decade, a Janeite fan culture began, which now includes JASNA (the Jane Austen Society of North America) and numerous websites devoted exclusively to Jane Austen, such as Jane Austen Gazetteer and simply, Austen.com. Stephanie's Written Word is currently hosting a special challenge for Austen admirers, The Everything Austen Challenge. Jane Austen even has her own Facebook page, with over 50,000 fans!

Last month, I won an autographed copy of the LA Times bestseller, Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, published in 2007, on Naida's blog, the bookworm. Laurie Viera Rigler, the author, inscribed it with a personal message to me. One of the perks of visiting book blogs is winning books. (Please don't be jealous because these book giveaways are frequent. I host and post about some, too.) This book fits the Women Unbound Reading Challenge in several ways. Briefly, it was written by a woman, and is about a woman writer, social commentator, and early feminist, Jane Austen. It's also more generally about the roles of women in different eras.

As I read Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, I immersed myself in the past with Courtney Stone, the main character, a present-day Jane Austen addict, who awakens bewildered one morning in a bedchamber in Regency England. Along with Courtney, I was transported to a different place and time. I imagined myself living in this past era and enjoying the pampering, such as being brought a tray of light refreshment while in bed, or having my hair done by someone else on a daily basis. Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict is quite a fun book to read. Humor abounds due to Courtney's surprising situation: she's a modern woman with modern ideas who suddenly and inexplicably finds herself transported back in time to an age full of lace and romance, but without many of the creature comforts and freedoms we take for granted today. A bath is a rare luxury in this time period, so body odor is omnipresent and unyielding. Barnes, her chambermaid, helps Courtney with the time-consuming productions of getting dressed and undressed, out of necessity, as laces and buttons are often located in the back of garments. (No thank you, I'm used to the ease of dressing myself in warm Southern CA.) In the romance department, Courtney meets the dashing Mr. Edgeworth, but isn't sure what to think or do, in an age when women are supposed to be demure and repressed. Courtney quickly perceives that women have very little freedom and choice in this world. They're constrained by society in many ways, and considered to be old maids if they're not married before the age of 25. Because career possibilities for women were so limited, women of this era were dependent on marriage for social status as well as economic security, a subject which Jane Austen herself wrote much about.

I appreciated the humor and cleverness in Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, but was glad that my excursion to Regency England was fictional, and that I live in this age.

Special thanks to Laurie Viera Rigler for sending me this autographed book.