Early Birds Blog tour presents: The Castaways by Elin Hilderbrans

Thanks for stopping by on the last day of "The Castaway" Early Bird Blog Tour!!! I don't have my review ready yet, but hope to have it up soon!!! I love Elin Hilderbrand books!!!

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

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

Author Bio:

Elin Hilderbrand lives on Nantucket with her husband and their three young children. She grew up in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, and traveled extensively before settling on Nantucket, which has been the setting for her five previous novels. Hilderbrand is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and the graduate fiction workshop at the University of Iowa.

Make sure to visit the author's website for more information other books she has written:
http://elinhilderbrand.net/

If you're wanting another fun summer book to read, grab Elin's "A Summer Affair"...see my review for it here!

Here is a list of other bloggers doing reviews for "The Castaways" today!!

http://www.myspace.com/darbyscloset
http://kayespenguinposts.blogspot.com/
http://imbookingit.wordpress.com/
http://booksoulmates.blogspot.com/
http://www.morbid-romantic.net/
http://nisefunpages.blogspot.com/
http://tvandbookaddict.blogspot.com/
http://allisonsatticblog.blogspot.com/
http://wrightysreads.blogspot.com/
http://frugalplus.com/
http://www.mgpblog.com/

Thanks to Miriam for the book and blog tour!!

Early Bird Blog Tour: "Galway Bay"

Galway Bay
By Mary Pat Kelly

Description from Hatchette Books:

Here at last is one Irish family's epic journey, capturing the tragedy and triumph of the Irish-American experience. In a rousing tale that echoes the myths and legends of Ireland herself, young Honora Keeley and Michael Kelly wed and start a family, inhabiting a hidden Ireland where fishermen and tenant farmers find solace in their ancient faith, songs, stories, and communal celebrations. Selling both their catch--and their crops--to survive, these people subsist on the potato crop--their only staple food. But when blight destroys the potatoes three times in four years, a callous government and uncaring landlords turn a natural disaster into The Great Starvation that will kill one million. Honora and Michael vow their children will live. The family joins two million other Irish refugees in one of the greatest rescues in human history: the Irish Emigration to America. Danger and hardship await them there. Honora and her unconventional sister Maire watch their seven sons as they transform Chicago from a frontier town to the "City of the Century", fight the Civil War, and enlist in the cause of Ireland's freedom. The Kelly clan is victorious. This heroic story sheds brilliant light on the ancestors of today's 44 million Irish Americans.

View a letter from the author, Mary Pat Kelly.... here

Listen to the interview of the author on Blog Talk Radio... here


Some of the participants in Early Bird Blog tour:

http://www.myfriendamysblog.com/
http://bermudaonion.wordpress.com
http://luanne-abookwormsworld.blogspot.com/
http://thetometraveller.blogspot.com/
http://cafeofdreams.blogspot.com/
http://cherylsbooknook.blogspot.com/
http://wendisbookcorner.blogspot.com

Review:
I haven't finished the book yet, but I guess that will teach me to read two huge books in a row. When I have it finished, I promise a book review on it. I've heard only good things about the book, so please..pick up a copy and give it a read. Stop by the other blogs and read their reviews!! The history the book covers and how so many families were affected by the famine is eye opening.

Thank you to Miriam, Hatchette Books and Early Bird Blog Tours!!

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"DROOD" on the Early Bird Blog Tour

**Sorry for the delay..for some reason this Blog should have come out at 5am...but now home from work and somehow time changed to this evening at 839pm?? haha..well..its here now!! **

Book description from Hachette Book Group:
On June 9, 1865, while traveling by train to London with his secret mistress, 53-year-old Charles Dickens--at the height of his powers and popularity, the most famous and successful novelist in the world and perhaps in the history of the world--hurtled into a disaster that changed his life forever.

Did Dickens begin living a dark double life after the accident? Were his nightly forays into the worst slums of London and his deepening obsession with corpses, crypts, murder, opium dens, the use of lime pits to dissolve bodies, and a hidden subterranean London mere research . . . or something more terrifying?
Just as he did in The Terror, Dan Simmons draws impeccably from history to create a gloriously engaging and terrifying narrative. Based on the historical details of Charles Dickens's life and narrated by Wilkie Collins (Dickens's friend, frequent collaborator, and Salieri-style secret rival), DROOD explores the still-unsolved mysteries of the famous author's last years and may provide the key to Dickens's final, unfinished work: The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Chilling, haunting, and utterly original, DROOD is Dan Simmons at his powerful best.


Go HERE to hear audio and video clips for "Drood"

Early Bird Blog Tour presents..... "Drood" by Dan Simmons

If you are in to Charles Dickens, 800 page books and love historical events....then this book is for YOU!! With Victorian London as a backdrop, you will be taken away to the mystery of finding "Drood" by Dickens and his 'friend' Collins.

I was hoping to really get in to this book, but the length, for me, was just too long. I read about 200 pages and it just didn't grab me. I skimmed through the rest of the book and read the ending, but it isn't the same as reading the whole book. I don't like making a 'review' of a book that I don't read all of it. I will say you should at least give it a try! Everyone has different opinions of what books they do and don't enjoy. I have read many great reviews for this book and am sure many of you out there will love it. "One opinion should not make your decision on whether a book is good or bad..that decision is yours!"


Check out the other blog sites that are on the tour and see what they have to say about the book too!!!

http://hiddenplace.wordpress.com/
http://book-thirty.blogspot.com/
http://bermudaonion.wordpress.com
http://www.writeforareader.blogspot.com
http://thebookczar.blogspot.com
http://www.acircleofbooks.blogspot.com
http://luanne-abookwormsworld.blogspot.com
http://www.thetometraveller.blogspot.com/
http://www.bookthoughtsbylisa.blogspot.com
http://AllisonsAtticBlog.blogspot.com
http://linussblanket.com
http://www.chikune.com/blog
http://cafeofdreams.blogspot.com/
http://readingtoolate.net
http://www.myfriendamysblog.com
http://jennsbookshelf.blogspot.com/
http://ABlogofBooks.blogspot.com
http://Cherylsbooknook.blogspot.com
http://shootingstarsmag.blogspot.com
http://www.savvyverseandwit.blogspot.com
http://bestbookihavenotread.wordpress.com
http://www.bookishruth.com/
http://www.bookingmama.blogspot.com/
http://martasmeanderings.blogspot.com
http://dreyslibrary.blogspot.com
http://www.myspace.com/darbyscloset


Enjoy the tour!! Thanks to Hachette Book Group and Miriam!!!

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Flirting with Forty - Book Review and Lifetime Movie!

Thanks to Miriam at Hachette Book Group I was lucky enough to get Flirting With Forty to read for the Early Bird Blog tour over at Book Blog.

Jane Porter has written an amazing book about a woman caught in the middle of her life, 40, not knowing what direction her life is taking her. Jackie is a mother, ex-wife and alone, until her girlfriend gives her a trip to Hawaii for them to take for her 40th birthday. After her girlfriend has something come up and she can't make it, Jackie is once again alone with her thoughts about what is missing in her life. Not knowing what to do with herself, she finds Kai. He is handsome, tanned, younger, and a surfboard instructor. A passionate fling begins. Both think it will last only until the end of Jackie's trip, but it becomes much more than that. The distance in their separation is the pacific ocean, but this only intensifies their love. Will the differences of age and lives pull them apart? With all her friends against her, Jackie must make a decision...that may change her life forever!

I absolutely love this book. If I can start a book, not want to put it down and then think about the characters even when not reading...I know it is a GREAT book. Jane Porter has created great characters in her book that come to life from beginning to end. This story is much more than age difference, social status or older woman with a younger man. It expressed to me that two people who enjoy being with each other should work hard to make things work, no matter what conflicts they might face. The wit and wisdom Jackie showed in not giving in to 'just being' in a life that gave her no fulfillment, clicked on a lightbulb in my head (yes, I can relate being 44). Jackie's ability to step out of her comfort zone by taking surfboard lessons, opened new doors for her life to follow. We all need a little fun and relaxation in our lives, so make sure to have a marguerita by the pool sometime. You never know who might be walking by.....

Rating: 5/5 stars

Make sure to stop by these other blogs in the tour and read their reviews too!!! You might find a few new receipes too!!!
http://www.myfriendamysblog.com
http://BermudaOnion.wordpress.com
http://bookcritiques.blogspot.com/
http://sharonlovesbooksandcats.blogspot.com/
http://thetometraveller.blogspot.com/
http://printedpage.wordpress.com
http://luanne-abookwormsworld.blogspot.com
http://Books-Movies-Chinesefood.blogspot.com
http://AllisonsAtticBlog.blogspot.com
http://Skrishnasbooks.blogspot.com
http://blog.literarily.com
http://www.bookingmama.blogspot.com
http://cherylsbooknook.blogspot.com/
http://cindysloveofbooks.blogspot.com/
http://booksbytjbaff.blogspot.com/
http://exlibrisbb.blogspot.com/
http://www.marjoleinbookblog.blogspot.com
http://bookopolis.blogspot.com
http://www.anovelmenagerie.com
http://wendisbookcorner.blogspot.com
http://thebookczar.blogspot.com
http://www.thebookgirl.net
http://acircleofbooks.blogspot.com
http://01crazymomma.wordpress.com/
http://ablogofbooks.blogspot.com/
http://www.bookthoughtsbylisa.blogspot.com
http://enroutetolife.blogspot.com/
http://athomewithbooks.blogspot.com




Make sure to watch "Flirting w/Forty" on the Lifetime channel on Saturday Dec. 6th 9pmET/8pmCT

** Don't miss!! **
Jane Porter on Grand Central Publishing Blog Talk Radio Station on 12/5 at 1PM ET
Go HERE to hear it!!!

Elizabeth McCracken Tour by Early Birds Blog Tours

Early Birds Blog Tours would like to introduce you to Elizabeth McCracken's newest book called

"An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination: A Memoir"

Description of the book from Hachette Book Group:

"This is the happiest story in the world with the saddest ending," writes Elizabeth McCracken in her powerful, inspiring memoir. A prize-winning, successful novelist in her 30s, McCracken was happy to be an itinerant writer and self-proclaimed spinster. But suddenly she fell in love, got married, and two years ago was living in a remote part of France, working on her novel, andwaiting for the birth of her first child.

This book is about what happened next. In her ninth month of pregnancy, she learned that her baby boy had died. How do you deal with and recover from this kind of loss? Of course you don't--but you go on. And if you have ever experienced loss or love someone who has, the company of this remarkable book will help you go on.

With humor and warmth and unfailing generosity, McCracken considers the nature of love and grief. She opens her heart and leaves all of ours the richer for it.

******

Enjoy reading a chapter excerpt HERE!

Or an audio excerpt HERE!

Get to know Elizabeth better on Facebook HERE!

My Review:

This is a book of happiness, loss, sadness, recovery, joy and love. The loss of one child and the birth of another culminate the basis of this book of the emotional rollercoaster of Elizabeth McCracken's life during these events. It was not an easy book to read because of the subject, but for me the writing seemed a bit choppy and thoughts seemed incomplete. Many people seem to love the book, so more power to them. I do not take losing someone lightly, whether a child, parent or spouse (who I lost 3 yrs. ago), but the story/memoir as a whole just didn't grab hold of me. By reading this book , I think we all can learn a few things about ourselves and those around us that mean the most to us.

Here are the participating blogs on the tour for today. Check out the other blogs review of the book!!!

Megan of www.chikune.com/blog
Tricia of http://www.libraryqueue.blogspot.com
Corinne of www.corinnesbookreviews.blogspot.com
Antonette of http://01crazymomma.wordpress.com
Swapna of http://www.Skrishnasbooks.blogspot.com
Luanne of http://www.luanne-abookwormsworld.blogspot.com
Carrie of http://www.TheBookGirl.net
Susan of http://www.38thavedivareaders.blogspot.com/
Allison of http://www.AllisonsAtticBlog.blogspot.com
Bethany of http://www.exlibrisbb.blogspot.com/
Marie of www.bostonbibliophile.com
The Kool Aid Mom of http://www.thekoolaidmom.wordpress.com
Nicole of http://www.linussblanket.com

New additions:
http://abookbloggersdiary.blogspot.com/
http://bookingmama.blogspot.com/
http://blog.literarily.com

A big THANK YOU!! to Miriam Parker for all her hard work on getting this tour going!!!