Island of Lost Girls by Jennifer McMahon

This is one of those books that you're completely drawn to and then once you delve deep into the plot you want to keep reading because you're dying to solve the mystery, but at the same time your cringing your way through it thinking..."Please don't go there, please don't go there....oh its so going there."

The content this story addresses is not for the weak of heart. It's gut-wrenching stuff and quite honestly, very real too. I personally have known a few people close to me that have gone through similar experiences and though its ugly in every way, its really necessary for us to understand so that we can better empathize and comfort those who've suffered. This story is about a lot more than just an abduction. I tore through the last hundred pages and when I finally put it down, I felt so burdened and sickened that I had to watch a few episodes of Mad About You with my hubby to shake off the funk I was left in.

So all in all, a very well written story and extremely engaging. It took me a bit of work to keep the characters straight, since the chapters alternate between Rhonda Farr's childhood and the present tense, but once you find the groove its hard to put down.

Description: One summer day, at a gas station in a small Vermont town, six-year-old Ernestine Florucci is abducted by a person wearing a rabbit suit while her mother is buying lottery tickets. Twenty-three year old Rhonda Farr is the only witness, and she does nothing as she watches the scene unfold – little Ernie goes with the rabbit so casually, confidently getting into the rabbit’s Volkswagen bug, smiling while the rabbit carefully fastens her seatbelt.

The police are skeptical of Rhonda’s story and Ernie’s mother blames her outright. The kidnapping forces Rhonda to face another disappearance, that of her best friend from childhood – Lizzy Shale, whose brother, Peter just so happens to be a prime suspect in Ernie’s abduction.

Unraveling the present mystery plunges Rhonda headlong down the rabbit hole of her past. She must struggle to makes sense of the loss of the two girls, and to ask herself if the Peter she grew up with - and has secretly loved all her life - could have a much darker side.

Rating: ***

Recommend: not for everyone, the content can be very difficult to get through.

The Mighty Queens of Freeville by Amy Dickinson

Boy am I pumped up to review "The Mighty Queens of Freeville"! And not just because its my very first ARC (Advanced Reading Copy) from Hyperion (who-hooo!!! Doing my happy dance here), but also because I absolutely adored this memoir!!

I actually don't read that many memoirs, because I'm afraid I'll end up bored and trudging my way through it, but I found Amy Dickinson to be a pure delight. Some of you might know her from her advice column, "Ask Amy" that appears in more than 200 newspapers. The stories and events she would describe were not always easy to read, but what struck me the most was her amazing perspective and positive outlook even after such difficult circumstances. I truly believe that you can allow something devastating to destroy you by making you an angrier individual, or you can allow it to mold you and define your character, making you wise and stronger.

I was probably close to halfway through this book when my cat got really ill and I was so distraught that I could focus on nothing but her well being. And because of all this distraction, I had to take a bit of a break from reading for close to a week. Right after the chaos subsided, I eagerly picked it back up only to read Chapter 6, "Livestock In the Kitchen" and sat there on my couch with tears running down my face as she shared the story of her own sick cat Pumpkin. Holy cow. It was like my best girl friend sitting there sharing her story and we were laughing and crying together. That's really what I loved about Amy's writing, she wrote as if she were having a conversation with you one-on-one over a hot cup of coffee in your comfy sweats. I swear I was laughing with her one minute and crying the next.

Thank you Betsy at Hyperion for sending me this gem of a memoir!

Description: Amy Dickinson has made a career out of helping others, through her internationally syndicated advice column "Ask Amy." Readers love her for her honesty, her small-town values, and for the fact that her motto is "I make the mistakes so you don't have to." In The Mighty Queens of Freeville, Amy Dickinson shares those mistakes and her remarkable story. This is the tale of Amy and her daughter and the people who helped raise them after Amy found herself a reluctant single parent. Though divorce runs through her family like an aggressive chromosome, the women of her family taught her what family is about. They helped her to pick up the pieces when her life fell apart and to reassemble them into something new. It is a story of frequent failures and surprising successes, as Amy starts and loses careers, bumbles through blind dates and adult education classes, travels across the country with her daughter and their giant tabby cat, and tries to come to terms with the family's aptitude for "dorkitude." Though they live in London, D.C., and Chicago, all roads lead them back to her hometown of Freeville (pop. 458), a tiny village where Amy's family has tilled and cultivated the land, tended chickens and Holsteins, and built houses and backyard sheds for more than 200 years. Most important, though, her family members all still live within a ten-house radius of each other. With kindness and razor-sharp wit, they welcome Amy and her daughter back weekend after weekend, summer after summer, offering a moving testament to the many women who have led small lives of great consequence in a tiny place.

For more info, you can go to the website http://www.themightyqueensoffreeville.com/

Rating: ****

Recommend: Definitely.

When life gives you lemons...

...you make lemonade right! Well how the timing couldn't have been more encouraging to receive a Lemonade Award than this week!!

After my poor cat Banks getting really sick from her shots last weekend and then having someone steal all our lumber for the fence we were building, including an actual portion of fence already built, I received this lovely little award from Desert Rose Booklogue:

So in the tradition of receiving these lovely little awards, I'm passing it on to some of my favorites:

2 Kids and Tired Book Reviews

Book Escape

Booking Mama

Books on the Brain

Charlotte's Web of Books

Everyday Reading

Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin'?

Maw Books Blog

and there's a bunch more, but those are just a few that I love!

Best Discovery of 2008!

I've been on the lookout for a good used bookstore for as long as I've lived here in Nashville. And then one day my friend Alicia asks me if I've been to McKay's Used Books yet. Just before Christmas I was hoping to pick up a few classics for Jason's gifts and thought maybe I'd check them out first.

I'M SO GLAD I DID!

Best used bookstore ever!!!! The next time I went I brought Jason with me and found myself a mini grocery cart they provided and LOADED UP! I walked out of that place with 23 books and spent only $27!!!!!

I'm officially in love with this place :-)