Wednesday A-Z

Wednesday A-Z is a meme hosted by Vicki at Reading at the Beach.


Post:
1~ a photo of the book
2~ title and synopsis
3~ link(amazon, barnes and noble etc.)
4~ Come back here and leave your link in the comments.

This week begins with the letter L. Here is my book.

The Lady and The Poet by Maeve Haran


Synopsis (from B&N):
Set against the sumptuousness and intrigues of Queen Elizabeth I’s court, this powerful novel reveals the untold love affair between the famous poet John Donne and Ann More, the passionate woman who, against all odds, became his wife.

Ann More, fiery and spirited daughter of the Mores of Loseley House in Surrey, came to London destined for a life at the court of Queen Elizabeth and an advantageous marriage. There she encountered John Donne, the darkly attractive young poet who was secretary to her uncle, the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. He was unlike any man she had ever met—angry, clever, witty, and in her eyes, insufferably arrogant and careless of women. Yet as they were thrown together, Donne opened Ann’s eyes to a new world of passion and sensuality.

But John Donne—Catholic by background in an age when it was deadly dangerous, tainted by an alluring hint of scandal—was the kind of man her status-conscious father distrusted and despised.

The Lady and the Poet tells the story of the forbidden love between one of our most admired poets and a girl who dared to rebel against her family and the conventions of her time. They gave up everything to be together and their love knew no bounds.



I missed last week what with my daughter's wedding and all. So now I am reading this during my leisure time in between reading specific  books for review. When I eventually finish this book, picked up from Barnes and Noble, I will post a review. Hope you all have a great week.

Wednesday A-Z

Wednesday A-Z is a meme hosted by Vicki at Reading at the Beach.

Post:
1~ a photo of the book
2~ title and synopsis
3~ link(amazon, barnes and noble etc.)
4~ Come back here and leave your link in the comments.

This week begins with the letter J. Here is my book.

Joe Jones by Anne Lamott

Synopsis (Barnes and Noble)
Joe Jones is Anne Lamott’s raucous novel of lives gathered around Jessie’s Cafe, “a restaurant from another era, the sort of broken-down waterfront dive one might expect to find in Steinbeck or Saroyan.” Jessie, “thin, stooped and gorgeous at seventy-nine,” inherited the cafe years before and it has become home to a remarkable family of characters: Louise, the cook and vortex, “sexy and sweet, somewhere on the cusp between curvaceous and fat”; Joe, devoted and unfaithful; Willie, Jessie’s gay grandson, (“I thought he just had good posture,” said Jessie); Georgia, an empress dowager who never speaks; and a dozen others all living together in the sweet everyday. Lamott’s rich and timeless themes are also here: love and loyalty, loss and recovery, staying on and staying together, the power of humor to heal and to bind. Out of print for fifteen years, Joe Jones is a novel of hilarity and joy.

Wednesday A-Z

Wednesday A-Z is a meme hosted by Vicki at Reading at the Beach.

Post:

1~ a photo of the book
2~ title and synopsis
3~ link(amazon, barnes and noble etc.)
4~ Come back here and leave your link in the comments.

This week begins with the letter I. Here is my book.

Ines of My Soul by Isabel Allende

Synopsis:

This magisterial work of historical fiction recounts the astonishing life of Inés Suárez, a daring Spanish conquistadora who toiled to build the nation of Chile—and whose vital role has too often been neglected by history.


It is the beginning of the Spanish conquest of the Americas, and when Inés’s shiftless husband disappears to the New World, she uses the opportunity to search for him as an excuse to flee her stifling homeland and seek adventure. After a treacherous journey to Peru, she learns of his death in battle. She meets and begins a passionate love affair with a man who seeks only honor and glory: Pedro Valdivia, war hero and field marshal to the famed Francisco Pizarro. Together, Inés and Valdivia will build the new city of Santiago and wage a ruthless war against the indigenous Chileans. The horrific struggle will change them forever, pulling each toward their separate destinies.

Inés of My Soul is a work of breathtaking scope, written with the narrative brilliance and passion readers have come to expect from Isabel Allende.

Wednesday A-Z

Wednesday A-Z is a meme hosted by Vicki at Reading at the Beach.

Post:
1~ a photo of the book
2~ title and synopsis
3~ link(amazon, barnes and noble etc.)
4~ Come back here and leave your link in the comments.

This week begins with the letter H. Here is my book.

The House at Riverton by Kate Morton

Synopsis from Barnes and Noble:


Grace Bradley went to work at Riverton House as a servant when she was just a girl, before the First World War. For years her life was inextricably tied up with the Hartford family, most particularly the two daughters, Hannah and Emmeline.

In the summer of 1924, at a glittering society party held at the house, a young poet shot himself. The only witnesses were Hannah and Emmeline and only they-and Grace-know the truth.

In 1999, when Grace is ninety-eight years old and living out her last days in a nursing home, she is visited by a young director who is making a film about the events of that summer. She takes Grace back to Riverton House and reawakens her memories. Told in flashback, this is the story of Grace's youth during the last days of Edwardian aristocratic privilege shattered by war, of the vibrant twenties, and the changes she witnessed as an entire way of life vanished forever.

The novel is full of secrets-some revealed, others hidden forever, reminiscent of the romantic suspense of Daphne Du Maurier. It is also a meditation on memory, the devastation of war, and a beautifully rendered window into a fascinating time in history.

Originally published to critical acclaim in Australia, already sold in ten countries and a #1 bestseller in England, The House at Riverton is a vivid, page-turning novel of suspense and passion, with characters-and an ending-the reader won't soon forget.

(I read this book through a B&N First Look club and thoroughly enjoyed it. I recently read and reviewed her second novel The Forgotten Garden. So far I have enjoyed reading this author's work. Have a great Wednesday.)

Wednesday A-Z

Wednesday A-Z is a meme hosted by Vicki at Reading at the Beach.

Post:
1~ a photo of the book
2~ title and synopsis
3~ link(amazon, barnes and noble etc.)
4~ Come back here and leave your link in the comments.

If you've already reviewed this book you can add it also.
Be sure to visit other participants to see what book they have posted and leave them a comment.

This is my "G" book:

Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

Synopsis:

The Waverleys have always been a curious family, endowed with peculiar gifts that make them outsiders even in their hometown of Bascom, North Carolina. Even their garden has a reputation, famous for its feisty apple tree that bears prophetic fruit, and its edible flowers, imbued with special powers. Generations of Waverleys tended this garden. Their history was in the soil. But so were their futures.

A successful caterer, Claire Waverley prepares dishes made with her mystical plants - from the nasturtiums that aid in keeping secrets and the pansies that make children thoughtful, to the snapdragons intended to discourage the attentions of her amorous neighbor. Meanwhile, her elderly cousin, Evanelle, is known for distributing unexpected gifts whose uses become uncannily clear. They are the last of the Waverleys - except for Claire’s rebellious sister, Sydney, who fled Bascom the moment she could, abandoning Claire, as their own mother had years before.

When Sydney suddenly returns home with a young daughter of her own, Claire’s quiet life is turned upside down - along with the protective boundary she has so carefully constructed around her heart. Together again in the house they grew up in, Sydney takes stock of all she left behind, as Claire struggles to heal the wounds of the past. And soon the sisters realize they must deal with their common legacy - if they are ever to feel at home in Bascom - or with each other.

Wednesday A-Z

Wednesday A-Z is a meme hosted by Vicki at Reading at the Beach

Post:

1~ a photo of the book

2~ title and synopsis

3~ link(amazon, barnes and noble etc.)

4~ Come back here and leave your link in the comments.
If you've already reviewed this book you can add it also.
Be sure to visit other participants to see what book they have posted and leave them a comment.

This is my "F" book:

Feather Man by Rhyll McMaster

Synopsis from cover:

Set in Brisbane during the stultifying 1950s and moving to grubby London in the 1970s, Feather Man is about Sooky who, ignored and misunderstood by her parents, is encouraged to make herself scarce and visit Lionel, their elderly next door neighbor.
.......

Following Sooky from her neglected childhood to womanhood and her entry into the art world, the book combines comedy with emotional intensity.  When Sooky's attraction to Redmond leads her to London, her past follows her into the future with a deadly confrontation.