Have you ever wondered what Carrie Bradshaws life was like before Sex and the City? Well wonder no longer! Candace Bushnell is releasing "The Carrie Diaries", due in stores April 27th 2010. The book will be coming out about a month before the second Sex and the City movie comes to theaters, and is a must have for any fan of the show.
Set during Carrie Bradshaw's high school years, the book details the budding fashionista's early relationships and how she began her career as a writer. According to the publisher, The Carrie Diaries will also focus on Bradshaw's first love, while the cover art specifically references an incident between the character and her mother.
The third in The Immortals series recently hit shelves and I was undoubtedly one of the first people to snag it. I have been eagerly awaiting this book since finishing Blue Moon a few months ago. As many of you know, Blue Moon was very well received and its cliffhanger ending left readers dying to know what would happen between Ever, our leading lady and Damen, her eternal love.
Ever and Damen have traveled through countless past lives—and fought off the world's darkest enemies—so they could be together forever. But just as their long-awaited destiny is finally within reach, a powerful curse falls upon Damen...one that could destroy everything. Now a single touch of their hands or a soft brush of their lips could mean sudden death—plunging Damen into a bleak afterlife in the Shadowland, an eternal abyss for lost souls. Desperate to break the curse and save Damen, Ever immerses herself in magick—and gets help from an unexpected source...Jude Knight.
Although she and Jude have only just met, he feels startlingly familiar. Despite her fierce loyalty to Damen, Ever is drawn to Jude, a green-eyed golden boy with magical talents and a mysterious past. She's always believed Damen to be her soul mate and one true love—and she still believes it to be true. But as Damen pulls away to save them from the darkness inhabiting his soul, Ever's connection with Jude grows stronger—and tests her love for Damen like never before...
Read my review of the first in the series Evermore here.
Read my review of the second in the series Blue Moon here.
In The Possibility of Everything, Hope Edelman chronicles a weeklong family vacation in Central America with a three year old daughter who has recently become attached to a very negative imaginary friend, Dodo, who is blamed for Maya's acting out which is also a recent development in the household. Impetuous, strong-willed Maya has always been vivacious and full of questions and imagination but now she hits and throws tantrums and tells her mom that Dodo doesn't like Mommy and tells her not to do things. Just before their planned vacation, Maya comes down with the croup, a common enough occurrence that they have Maya's recuperation planned to a science. Things go awry when Maya screams that Dodo doesn't want Maya to get better. Ration and logic based Hope is at wit's end trying to figure out what is going on with Maya. Her husband Uzi is more open in his thinking and wonders if Dodo is more than just imagination. Hope struggles with this thought process throughout the months preceding the trip but certain events point to Uzi's thoughts not being utterly ridiculous. Maya's Costa Rican nanny, who has a devout spiritual side, gives Hope instructions on how to get rid of Dodo. When Hope does as instructed, Dodo disappears for a few days before coming back stronger and inspiring more rebellion in Maya. Against her normal logic, Hope agrees to take Maya to a shaman when they arrive in Guatemala. Their appointment with a well known shaman falls through with their less than reliable flight service delaying them almost two days. When they visit another, Maya's reaction to his treatment is so intense that Hope flees with Maya, angering Uzi and again bringing Dodo back front and center.
Edelman writes with an almost hypnotically simple eloquence that had me hanging onto her words and her descriptions of their beautiful travels throughout. I am unfortunately disinterested in much history lately, much to my chagrin, but I found myself googling the places she mentioned and the history of them and being fascinated. She tells the story of her struggle through this situation, interspersing details of the visits, people they met on the journey and relaying her own motherless years after losing her mother to cancer as a teen. All in all, a beautifully written memoir that inspires approaching things with an open mind and not closing yourself off to beliefs out of your realm of comprehension.
Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner is a powerful bestseller about friendship, loss, and redemption. The story follows Amir, a young Afghan boy, through his childhood in Afghanistan and his escape to the United States. Distanced by a troubling secret, Amir must leave his best friend Hassan behind in the wake of a potent political environment and the uprising of the Taliban. Years later, Amir learns familial secrets that force him to return to Afghanistan in an effort to rectify injustices of so many years and finally make peace with himself.
In case you didn't get enough of Ozzy earlier in the decade with the MTV reality show "The Osbournes", Ozzy has taken pen to paper and written a memoir. Sometimes a gritty rock memoir can be a kick to read, but I have a feeling that we might have already heard all of these stories a few times too many. Looking forward to reviews on this one. Book hits shelves in January 2010.
Details from the Hachette International site:
The final word in sex, drugs and rock-and-roll, I AM OZZY is the heavy metal pioneer’s unbelievable story in his own words, for the very first time.
Take what you thought was “rock and roll excess”, double it, and you still wouldn’t be anywhere near the dizzying life of Ozzy Osbourne. Born into a life so poor that the whole family slept in one room, music was his salvation, and his band Black Sabbath went on to change the musical landscape forever. But along with the rock and roll came the inevitable sex and drugs, and Ozzy soon fell into an epic relationship with booze and chemicals.
The stories of Ozzy’s days on the road are now those of legend–biting the head off a live bat, the tragic plane crash that took took the life of his best friend and writing partner Randy Rhoades–but few know of the real heartbreak he suffered during those days of hard living. The stories are all here, and for the first time, told in Ozzy’s hilarious, witty and inimitable voice. In the end it was love that saved him: the love of his wife Sharon and kids Kelly, Jack and Aimee.
In his highly anticipated memoir, Ozzy finally comes clean.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born John Michael Osbourne in Birmingham, 1948, OZZY OSBOURNE is one of rock music’s most enduring figures. In the last few years he has also become one of television’s best loved personalities via the wildly successful hit MTV show ‘The Osbournes’.
Ashley's Picks
Holly- As an avid sarcasm enthusiast, Holly would be ticked pink by anyone who carries off sarcasm with aplomb. Ergo, Pretty in Plaid , or anything else written by Jen Lancaster would be my pick for her.
Dad- My dad is a closet reader. It takes a lot for him to own up to adoring a book. Specifically: Jimmy Buffett has to have written it. However, I've caught him a time or two slyly perusing other books. I did have to get my love of reading somewhere, and Buffett isn't churning out books like he does new Margaritavilles or music. He would be the toughest on my list, however I think for the Dad, I would need something fast paced, again throwing in twists and never pandering to formulaic writing : The Girl She Used to Be
Mac- My 14 year old brother is a lover of books who is not shy about it. However, he does split his time between his schoolwork, his gaming, and his sports. So I need something that will keep his attention without him having to worry about backtracking once he returns from another activity. I think Spellbinder would work perfectly for him.
Grandma- my grandma is a busy worker bee, and so doesn't have much time to sit and relax with a nice book. She's more of a movie person, but I think for her I would choose a Nicholas Sparks book. The Last Song on audio would be fitting.
Aunt Mary- My aunts and I have very similar book loves at times. My Aunt Mary and I have bonded over Pat Conroy and I think if she hadn't already purchased it, South of Broad would be a perfect fit.
Aunt Shannon- My Aunt Shannon and I also love some similar stuff. Jodi Picoult, heavier storylines. Her closeness with my grandma makes me think Bending Toward the Sun would appeal to her greatly.
Amy- My best friend Amy is a needy fickle reader, and I love that about her. She needs to constantly be entertained by the book and will cast it off if it doesn't hold her attention at any point. Any and all Chelsea Handler would be perfect for her.
Tracey- my good friend Tracey, from across the pond and I share a love of some darker subjects (we both adored We Need to Talk About Kevin and Nineteen Minutes and many many other Picoults). She also coaxed me into vampire/Sookie love. Given his dramatic flair, I think she would love Conroy's The Prince of Tides
Nicole- my work/workout friend has recruited me into her book club, and we've found that we have several in common interests. My Sister's Keeper-we both LOVED the book, though our opinions on the movie were nowhere near the same (she loved it, I wanted to punch a wall leaving. Cassavetes really let me down. Amy and I felt the same way about the book and the movie) She and I share a love of True Blood, however she won't go near the books for fear of being let down by the show afterwards. My first pick for her would be the Sookie Stackhouse series, but since she's adamantly opposed to it, I would acquiesce and get her Water for Elephants, a personal favorite of mine.
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