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Who says 13 is an unlucky number? From April 18th through May 2nd, readers had the chance to win one of our five Bookreporter.com Mother's Day floral-decorated keepsake trunks filled with goodies Mom would just love, as well as one copy of ALL 13 of our featured books. Heartbreaking and humorous, inspirational and informative, these titles are sure to make wonderful gifts for moms on their special day in May.  Our featured Mother's Day titles are:
-ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver with Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver -THE BLUE STAR by Tony Earley -BODY SURFING by Anita Shreve -CHEZ MOI written by Agnes Desarthe, translated by Adriana Hunter -THE FRIDAY NIGHT KNITTING CLUB by Kate Jacobs -FRIDAY NIGHTS by Joanna Trollope -GIRLS IN TRUCKS by Katie Crouch -LOSING IT: And Gaining My Life Back One Pound at a Time by Valerie Bertinelli -PINK LADIES & CRIMSON GENTS: Portraits and Legends of 50 Roses by Molly Glentzer -WHEN THE HEART CRIES: Sisters of the Quilt, Book One by Cindy Woodsmall -WHEN THE MORNING COMES: Sisters of the Quilt, Book Two by Cindy Woodsmall -WOMAN IN RED by Eileen Goudge -THE WOMAN WHO IS ALWAYS TAN AND HAS A FLAT STOMACH: And Other Annoying People by Lauren Allison and Lisa Perry Click here to see our winners. |
ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE by Barbara Kingsolver with Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver 
Paperback: 400 pages Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (April 29, 2008) ISBN-10: 0060852569 ISBN-13: 9780060852566 $14.95 About the Book When Barbara Kingsolver and her family move from suburban Arizona to rural Appalachia, they take on a new challenge: to spend a year on a locally-produced diet, paying close attention to the provenance of all they consume. “Our highest shopping goal was to get our food from so close to home, we'd know the person who grew it. Often that turned out to be ourselves as we learned to produce what we needed, starting with dirt, seeds, and enough knowledge to muddle through. Or starting with baby animals, and enough sense to refrain from naming them.” ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE follows the family through the first year of their experiment. They find themselves eager to move away from the typical food scenario of American families: a refrigerator packed with processed, factory-farmed foods transported long distances using nonrenewable fuels. In their search for another way to eat and live, they begin to recover what Kingsolver considers our nation's lost appreciation for farms and the natural processes of food production. American citizens spend less of their income on food than has any culture in the history of the world, but pay dearly in other ways --- losing the flavors, diversity and creative food cultures of earlier times. The environmental costs are also high, and the nutritional sacrifice is undeniable: on our modern industrial food supply, Americans are now raising the first generation of children to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents. Believing that most of us have better options available, Kingsolver and her family set out to prove for themselves that a local diet is not just better for the economy and environment, but also better on the table. Their search leads them through a season of planting, pulling weeds, expanding their kitchen skills, harvesting their own animals, joining the effort to save heritage crops from extinction, and learning the time-honored rural art of getting rid of zucchini. Inspired by the flavors and culinary arts of a local food culture, they explore farmers' markets and diversified organic farms at home and across the country, discovering a booming movement with devotees from the deep South to Alaska. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, and complete with original recipes, ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE makes a passionate case for putting the kitchen back at the center of family life, and diversified farms at the center of the American diet. About the Author 
Barbara Kingsolver's ten published books include novels, a collection of short stories, poetry, essays, and an oral history. Her work has been translated into more than a dozen languages and has earned literary awards and a devoted readership at home and abroad. In 2000, she was awarded the National Humanities Medal, our country's highest honor for service through the arts.
Ms. Kingsolver grew up in Kentucky and earned a graduate degree in biology before becoming a full-time writer. She lives with her husband and two daughters on a farm in southern Appalachia. |
THE BLUE STAR by Tony Earley
Hardcover: 304 pages Little, Brown and Company (March 10, 2008) ISBN-10: 0316199079 ISBN-13: 9780316199070 $23.99 About the Book Eight years ago, readers everywhere fell in love with Jim Glass, the precocious ten-year-old at the heart of JIM THE BOY. Now a teenager, Jim returns in a tender and wise story of young love on the brink of World War Two. Jim Glass has fallen in love, as only a teenage boy can fall in love, with his classmate Chrissie Steppe. Unfortunately, Chrissie is Bucky Bucklaw's girlfriend, and Bucky has joined the navy on the eve of war. Jim vows to win Chrissie's heart in Bucky's absence, but the war makes high school less than a safe haven and gives a young man's emotions a grown man's gravity. When Bucky returns to Aliceville a fallen hero, Jim finds himself adrift in a once-familiar town where everything, including Chrissie, seems to be changing. With the uncanny insight into the well-intentioned heart that made JIM THE BOY a modern classic, Tony Earley has fashioned a nuanced and unforgettable portrait of America in another time --- making it feel even more real than our own day. This is a moving story of discovery, loss, and growing up, showing again that Tony Earley's writing “radiates with a largeness of heart” (Esquire). About the Author 
Tony Earley is the author of JIM THE BOY, HERE WE ARE IN PARADISE, and SOMEHOW FORM A FAMILY. He lives with his family in Nashville, Tennessee, where he is the Samuel Milton Fleming Associate Professor of English at Vanderbilt University. |
BODY SURFING by Anita Shreve
Paperback: 320 pages Back Bay Books; Reprint edition (January 15, 2008) ISBN-10: 0316067334 ISBN-13: 9780316067331 $14.99 About the Book At the age of twenty-nine, Sydney has already been once divorced and once widowed. Trying to regain her footing, she has signed on to tutor the teenage daughter of a well-to-do couple as they spend a sultry summer at their oceanfront New Hampshire cottage. But when the Edwardses' two grown sons arrive at the beach house, Sydney finds herself caught in a destructive web of old tensions and bitter rivalries. As the brothers vie for her affections, the fragile existence Sydney has rebuilt is threatened. With the subtle wit, lyrical language, and brilliant insight into the human heart that are the hallmarks of her acclaimed fiction, Shreve weaves a novel about marriage, family, and the supreme courage it takes to love. About the Author 
Anita Shreve is the author of thirteen critically acclaimed and bestselling novels, including A WEDDING IN DECEMBER, THE PILOT'S WIFE, which was a selection of Oprah's Book Club; and THE WEIGHT OF WATER, which was a finalist for England's prestigious Orange Prize. She lives in Massachusetts. |
CHEZ MOI
by Agnes Desarthe, translated by Adriana Hunter
Paperback: 272 pages Penguin (Non-Classics) (April 29, 2008) ISBN-10: 0143113232 ISBN-13: 9780143113232 $14.00 About the Book CHEZ MOI is the story of Myriam, a 43-year-old woman, who opens a small restaurant in Paris. She has no idea how to start a business; she knows only how to cook, with and out of love. Soon after she opens the restaurant, she is faced with more problems than she can handle, but those pale in comparison to the tidal wave of her painful memories. She had been a wife, a mother, and a lover. All the shattered pieces of her life gradually reassemble as her restaurant, called "Chez Moi" because she lives in it, not having enough money to pay two rents, becomes increasingly successful. Desarthe's novel is driven by its charming narrative voice, impressive and passionate food descriptions, and honest and emotional portrayals of human relationships. About the Author 
Agnes Desarthe has published six novels with Editions de l'Olivier since her first in 1993, three of which have been published in the U.K. by Flamingo. She has also written over 25 children's books since 1990, including picture books and novels for young adults. Desarthe translates for both houses that publish her work, Editions de l'Olivier and l'Ecole des Loisirs. Among the many authors she has translated are Lois Lowry, Alice Thomas Ellis, Anne Fine, Louis Sachar, Chaim Potok, Virginia Woolf, Aimee Bender, Jay McInerney, and Cynthia Ozick. Desarthe was born in France in 1966 and lives there still with her husband and two children. |
THE FRIDAY NIGHT KNITTING CLUB by Kate Jacobs
Paperback: 384 pages Berkley Trade; Reprint edition (January 2, 2008) ISBN-10: 0425219097 ISBN-13: 9780425219096 $14.00 About the Book “To know yourself, to know your friends, all you need to do is knit.” Walker and Daughter is Georgia Walker's little yarn shop is tucked into a quiet storefront on Manhattan's Upper West Side. THE FRIDAY NIGHT KNITTING CLUB was improvised by some of Georgia's regulars who had strolled into the yarn shop looking for tips on knitting and end up finding much, much more. Once a week they gather to work on their latest projects and chat --- and occasionally clash --- over their stories of love, life and everything else. As a single mom in her late 30s, Georgia has her hands full juggling the demands of running the store with the challenges of raising her spunky tween daughter, Dakota. Helping her out is her mentor and dear friend, Anita, a wealthy uptown widow. The rest of the members of the Friday Night Knitting Club are just as varied as the skeins of yarn in the shop's bins. There's Petra, a pre-law student turned handbag designer; Darwin, a somewhat aloof grad student in women's studies; and Lucie, a petite, quiet woman who's harboring some secrets of her own. Suddenly the shop's comfortable world is shaken up: James, Georgia's ex, wants to play a larger role in Dakota's life --- and possibly Georgia's as well. Kat, a former friend from high school, returns to New York as a rich Park Avenue wife, and uneasily renews her old bond with Georgia. Meanwhile, Anita must confront her growing (and reciprocated) feelings for Marty, the kind neighborhood deli owner. The women's lives gradually weave together stitch by stitch, and when the unthinkable happens, they are forced to realize what they've created: not just a knitting club, but a sisterhood. About the Author 
Kate Jacobs left her native Canada to earn a graduate degree at New York University – and made her home in Manhattan for a decade, where she worked at Redbook, Working Woman, Family Life, and LifetimeTV.com. Currently, she lives in Southern California with her husband. |
FRIDAY NIGHTS by Joanna Trollope
Hardcover: 336 pages Bloomsbury USA (April 15, 2008) ISBN-10: 1596914076 ISBN-13: 9781596914070 $24.99 About the Book It's Eleanor who starts the Friday night get-togethers. From her window she sees two young women with small children, separate, struggling and plainly lonely --- and decides to ask them in and see what happens. What happens is that a group gradually forms of six different and disparate women, who become a circle of friends. They range in age from Jules, who is twenty-two and wants to be a DJ, to Eleanor herself, who is a retired professional and walks with a stick. They include one wife, three mothers, three singletons, and five working women. All of them, variously, value Friday nights. And then one of them meets a man --- an enigmatic, significant man --- and the whole dynamic changes. The bonds that have been so closely forged are tested --- and some of them break. With wit and warmth, Joanna Trollope explores the complexities, the sabotages, and the shifting currents of modern female friendship. About the Author 
Joanna Trollope, the nationally bestselling author of seventeen other books, including SECOND HONEYMOON, BROTHER AND SISTER, MARRYING THE MISTRESS and THE RECTOR'S WIFE, lives in Gloucestershire, England. |
GIRLS IN TRUCKS
by Katie Crouch
Hardcover: 256 pages Little, Brown and Company (April 7, 2008) ISBN-10: 0316002119 ISBN-13: 9780316002110 $21.99 About the Book Meet Sarah Walters, a Charleston debutante with questionable manners and an inherited weakness for bad ideas. Sarah's brilliant older sister just dropped out of Yale to run off with an unstable graduate student from Africa. Her beautiful mother lectures her incessantly on the importance of good etiquette but tends to act cold and mysterious after she's had her nightly gin. Still, Sarah tries to follow the rules set by the Camellia Society, the creators of the debutante code. After all, this is Charleston. Decorum means everything. But it's not easy to be good, particularly in the summer when she and her friend run into wild Island boys in pickup trucks. When Sarah heads north to college and New York, she finds a world very different from the one promised to her by the Camellias. The girls don't say “ma'am”; the boys don't act like gentlemen. And then there's love, which comes to Sarah in the form of Max, a passionate yet emotionally closed older man who leads Sarah to her dark side and then leaves her alone to find her way back. Events bring Sarah back home to Charleston and give her a good, fresh look at her beginnings. The revelation of her mother's secret --- one of many sights now plain to Sarah's eyes --- shows her that the motto of her girlhood, “Once a Camellia, always a Camellia,” has more truth to it than she had ever guessed. GIRLS IN TRUCKS is an irresistible debut, carried by a funny, wise voice that heralds the arrival of an exciting new writer. About the Author 
Katie Crouch was raised in Charleston, South Carolina, where she attended Cotillion training but was never a debutante. The city of Charleston, its unique traditions, and its bounty of men with pickup trucks have provided inspiration for her fiction. She studied writing at Brown and Columbia Universities and now lives in San Francisco, but she returns home to Charleston often.
For more information about Katie Crouch, please visit www.KatieCrouch.com.
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LOSING IT: And Gaining My Life Back One Pound at a Time
by Valerie Bertinelli
Hardcover: 288 pages Free Press (February 25, 2008) ISBN-10: 1416568182 ISBN-13: 9781416568186 $26.00 About the Book LOSING IT is Bertinelli's frank, motivational look inside the life of one of TV's most adored actresses. It will tell the inspiring story of her young stardom as the girl next door cutie, Barbara Cooper, on the hit show, “One Day at a Time,” her complicated family life, her struggles to maintain a healthy self-esteem while coping with celebrity, her tumultuous 20-year marriage to rock star Eddie Van Halen, her struggle with depression, and her life-long battle with weight. With courage and candor, humor and emotion, she shares her fears, insecurities, and triumphs, including how she took control of her own life and gained happiness. Valerie takes us behind the scenes in her acting career and marriage, discusses the stresses and concerns of being a rock star's wife, the joys of motherhood; the challenges of divorce and becoming a single parent, and the fears she had to address so that she could start dating again, trust a new relationship, allow intimacy, and let herself feel loved again. Through it all are surprising, sometimes shocking anecdotes of the other celebrities she has known, as well as stories of her loyal family and friends who stood by her. About the Author 
Valerie Bertinelli has been acting since the age of fourteen, appearing in more than two dozen made-for-TV movies. Most recognizably, she appeared on the long-running sitcom, sitcom “One Day at a Time” and more recently on “Touched by an Angel.” Now a spokesperson for Jenny Craig, Bertinelli was raised in Wilmington, Delaware, and Van Nuys, California, and was married for 20 years to Eddie Van Halen (they split up in 2002). Currently, she lives with her son, Wolfgang, in Los Angeles.
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PINK LADIES & CRIMSON GENTS: Portraits and Legends of 50 Roses
by Molly Glentzer
Hardcover: 144 pages Clarkson Potter (April 22, 2008) ISBN-10: 0307352730 ISBN-13: 9780307352736 $22.50 About the Book Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet? Shaped like a miter's cap or delicately hued like the pearl-colored petticoats of a duchess, scented like honeyed almonds or nodding heavily in the wind, every old-fashioned rose possesses a unique character. And their names --- often drawn from history and mythology --- have stories as enchanting and evocative as the flowers themselves. This gorgeously photographed collection of fifty exquisite roses reveals how some of the world's most storied, beloved plants received their names, and how the names go hand in hand with the flowers' appearance and fragrance. It's a voyage of discovery for rose connoisseurs, garden enthusiasts, and anyone else who appreciates delicate blooming beauty. About the Author 
Molly Glentzer is the lifestyle editor of the Houston Chronicle and has written for Saveur, Food & Wine, and Good Housekeeping.
Photographer Don Glentzer's work is represented in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Witliff Gallery of Southwestern and Mexican photography. |
WHEN THE HEART CRIES: Sisters of the Quilt, Book One
by Cindy Woodsmall
Paperback: 336 pages WaterBrook Press (September 19, 2006) ISBN-10: 1400072921 ISBN-13: 9781400072927 $9.99 About the Book Despite being raised in a traditional Old Order Amish family, seventeen-year-old Hannah Lapp desires to break with custom, forgo baptism into the faith, and marry outside the cloistered community. She's been in love with Mennonite Paul Waddell for three years, and before returning to college for his senior year, Paul asks Hannah to be his wife. Hannah accepts, aware that her marriage will change her relationship with her family forever. On the evening of their engagement, tragedy strikes and in one unwelcome encounter, all that Hannah has known and believed is destroyed. As she finds herself entangled in questions that the Old Ways of her people cannot answer, Hannah faces the possibility of losing her place in her family, in her community --- and in the heart of the man she loves. About the Author 
Cindy Woodsmall is an author, wife, and mother of three sons. Her first novel released in 2006 to much acclaim and became a bestseller. Her real-life connections with Amish Mennonite and Old Order Amish families enrich her novels with authenticity. Cindy lives in Georgia with her husband and the youngest of their three sons.
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WHEN THE MORNING COMES: Sisters of the Quilt, Book Two
by Cindy Woodsmall
Paperback: 336 pages WaterBrook Press (September 4, 2007) ISBN-10: 140007293X ISBN-13: 9781400072934 $12.99 About the Book Her relationship with fiancé Paul Waddell in tatters, Hannah Lapp has fled her secluded Old Order Amish community in hopes of finding a new home in Ohio with her shunned aunt. Hampered by limited education and hiding her true identity, Hannah struggles to navigate the confusing world of the Englischers. Back in Owl's Perch, Pennsylvania, Paul is wracked with regret over his treatment of Hannah. Fearing for her safety, he tries to convince Hannah's remaining allies --- brother Luke, best friend Mary, and loyal Matthew Esh --- to help search for his love. Hannah's father, however, remains steadfastly convinced of her sinful behavior. His blindness to his family's pain extends to her sister, Sarah, who shows signs of increasing instability. Convinced her former life is irreparably destroyed, Hannah finds purpose and solace in life with her aunt and in a growing friendship with Englischer Martin Palmer. Will the countless opportunities in her new life persuade Hannah that her place is amongst the Englischers --- or will she give in to her heart's call to return home and face her past? About the Author
Cindy Woodsmall is an author, wife, and mother of three sons. Her first novel released in 2006 to much acclaim and became a bestseller. Her real-life connections with Amish Mennonite and Old Order Amish families enrich her novels with authenticity. Cindy lives in Georgia with her husband and the youngest of their three sons.
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WOMAN IN RED by Eileen Goudge
Paperback: 352 pagesVanguard Press (May 5, 2008) ISBN-10: 159315500X ISBN-13: 9781593155001 $14.95 About the Book Alice Kessler spent nine years in prison for the attempted murder of the drunk driver who killed her eldest son. Now she has returned home to Gray's Island to reconnect with the son she left behind. Her little boy, Jeremy, now an angry teenager, is wrongly accused of rape, and so mother and son are thrown together in a desperate attempt to prove his innocence. At the same time, Alice must battle the man responsible for putting her behind bars, who has since become the mayor of her hometown. She is aided by Colin McGinty, a recovering alcoholic and 9/11 widower. Colin has also recently returned to the island in the aftermath of the death of his grandfather, a famous artist best known for his haunting portrait, “Woman in Red,” which happens to be of Alice's grandmother. In a tale that weaves the past with the present, we come to know the story behind the portrait, of the forbidden wartime romance between William McGinty and Eleanor Styles, and the deadly secret that bound them more tightly than even their love for each other. A secret that, more than half a century later, is about to be unburied, as Alice and Colin are drawn into a fragile romance of their own and the ghost of an enemy from long ago surfaces in the form of his son, the very man responsible for sending Alice to prison. During those years in prison, she discovered inner resources she never knew she had. Now, as she summons those resources in her battle to save herself and her son, she must also meet what may be the biggest challenge of all: to let love into a heart so heavily guarded it has left her a prisoner of her own making. Can two broken people salvage enough from the ruins of the past to rebuild their lives as one and find the happiness denied their grandparents? That is the question Alice and Colin seek to answer as they hurtle toward their destiny. About the Author 
Eileen Goudge is the New York Times bestselling author whose novels include ONE LAST DANCE, GARDEN OF LIES and THORNS OF TRUTH. There are more than five million copies of her books in print worldwide. She lives with her husband, entertainment reporter Sandy Kenyon, in New York City. For more information, please visit www.eileengoudge.com, www.womaninredbook.com, and www.domesticaffairsbook.com. |
THE WOMAN WHO IS ALWAYS TAN AND HAS A FLAT STOMACH (And Other Annoying People)
by Lauren Allison and Lisa Perry
Paperback: 208 pages Grand Central Publishing; 1st Grand Central Pub. Ed edition (March 6, 2008) ISBN-10: 0446699632 ISBN-10: 9780446699631 $12.99 About the Book
About the Author 
Lisa Perry and Lauren Allison originally self-published THE WOMAN WHO IS ALWAYS TAN AND HAS A FLAT STOMACH (And Other Annoying People) in 2005, winning two awards in the categories of humor and best title from the Colorado Independent Publishers Association. Lisa Perry has a doctorate from the University of Denver and works as a clinical psychologist in private practice. Lauren has her B.A. from Monmouth College and owns an art business. In 2003, they teamed up to speak to women's organizations and businesses. They have appeared on television and radio programs across the country. Click here to see a video of the authors.
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