Kristin Hannah Flash Giveaway!

Giveaway: 1 hardcover and 1 audio book copy of Fly Away

The scoop: Once, a long time ago, I walked down a night-darkened road called Firefly Lane, all alone, on the worst night of my life, and I found a kindred spirit. That was our beginning. More than thirty years ago. TullyandKate. You and me against the world. Best friends forever. But stories end, don’t they? You lose the people you love and you have to find a way to go on. . . .

Tully Hart has always been larger than life, a woman fueled by big dreams and driven by memories of a painful past. She thinks she can overcome anything until her best friend, Kate Ryan, dies. Tully tries to fulfill her deathbed promise to Kate---to be there for Kate’s children---but Tully knows nothing about family or motherhood or taking care of people.

Sixteen-year-old Marah Ryan is devastated by her mother’s death. Her father, Johnny, strives to hold the family together, but even with his best efforts, Marah becomes unreachable in her grief. Nothing and no one seems to matter to her . . . until she falls in love with a young man who makes her smile again and leads her into his dangerous, shadowy world.

Dorothy Hart---the woman who once called herself Cloud---is at the center of Tully’s tragic past. She repeatedly abandoned her daughter, Tully, as a child, but now she comes back, drawn to her daughter’s side at a time when Tully is most alone. At long last, Dorothy must face her darkest fear: Only by revealing the ugly secrets of her past can she hope to become the mother her daughter needs.

A single, tragic choice and a middle-of-the-night phone call will bring these women together and set them on a poignant, powerful journey of redemption. Each has lost her way, and they will need each one another---and maybe a miracle---to transform their lives.

An emotionally complex, heart-wrenching novel about love, motherhood, loss, and new beginnings, Fly Away reminds us that where there is life, there is hope, and where there is love, there is forgiveness. Told with her trademark powerful storytelling and illuminating prose, Kristin Hannah reveals why she is one of the most beloved writers of our day.

Our thoughts: Firefly Lane is one of our favorite books. So we loved diving back into that world again and reading more about Tully!

Just leave a comment to be entered to win! We'll choose the winners on Sunday, May 5th after 12pm PST.

Where you can read more about Kristin Hannah: Her website and Facebook.

Susan Wigg's 5 Firsts and Lasts

Our guest today: Susan Wiggs Why we love her: Her books are a great escape! (And how cute is she?!)

Her latest: The Apple Orchard

The scoop: Tess Delaney makes a living restoring stolen treasures to their rightful owners. People like Annelise Winther, who refuses to sell her long-gone mother's beloved necklace—despite Tess's advice. To Annelise, the jewel's value is in its memories.

But Tess's own history is filled with gaps: a father she never met, a mother who spent more time traveling than with her daughter. So Tess is shocked when she discovers the grandfather she never knew is in a coma. And that she has been named in his will to inherit half of Bella Vista, a hundred-acre apple orchard in the magical Sonoma town called Archangel.

The rest is willed to Isabel Johansen. A half sister she's never heard of.

Against the rich landscape of Bella Vista, Tess begins to discover a world filled with the simple pleasures of food and family, of the warm earth beneath her bare feet. A world where family comes first and the roots of history run deep. A place where falling in love is not only possible, but inevitable.

And in a season filled with new experiences, Tess begins to see the truth in something Annelise once told her: if you don't believe memories are worth more than money, then perhaps you've not made the right kind of memories.

Our thoughts: Dive into this one at the beach this summer!

Giveaway:  TWO copies! (US only) Leave a comment to be entered.  We'll choose the winners after 3pm PST on May 12th.

Fun Fact: Check out the cool pics of Susan's "Hell Ya" moment Honk Kong adventure!

Where to read more about Susan: Her website, Facebook and Twitter!

CHICK LIT IS NOT DEAD PRESENTS...SUSAN WIGG'S 5 FIRSTS AND LASTS

KISS

First: Ah, the magic happened at a school dance, with "Stairway to Heaven" (what else?) playing and the lights low and swirling with color. I was wearing a purple and amber jersey minidress (I always remember what I wore). He was shorter than me and he had a boner. Of course he did. We were thirteen and we were slow dancing.

Last: My amazing husband, who loves kissing as much as I do. We’re really good at it. And we do slow dance. It was not exactly like the first, but he did have a boner. (tmi, but you asked!)

BOOK I READ

First: THE CARROT SEED by Ruth Krauss. The simplest, most hopeful story ever. I was really little, age 4, I think, an early and voracious reader.

Last: PARIS: A LOVE STORY by Kati Marton. It’s a memoir. She was married to Peter Jennings and then to Richard Holbrooke, a diplomat whose untimely death made headlines. And she’s fascinating in her own right. I loved her short, heartfelt book about my favorite city.

RISK I TOOK

First: Gosh, I don’t recall the first. Being the middle child of three, every day was filled with risk. I had a big brother who dared me to do stupid things and a little sister who would tell on me. I recall making cardboard wings and jumping off a barn roof into a pile of hay. That didn’t work out so well. And skiing down a run marked “Experts Only” was fun but disastrous.  Another early risk had to do with writing. I read part of a story I’d written to a friend, and she begged to hear more. It was an amazing moment.

Last: It sounds cheesy, but every time I sit down to write, it feels risky. In writing a novel, you show so much of your heart, and you just have to trust that putting it out in the world like that is the right thing to do. This morning I wrote a scene involving a verbal fight between two characters, and it made me completely uncomfortable, which means it was hitting close to home. I only hope I can redeem these two.

HELL YA MOMENT

First: Being raised by “hell yeah” parents, I can’t recall the actual first time. I do remember that feeling at my very first rock concert. I was scandalously young and I followed my big brother to a Rolling Stones concert at Foret Nationale in Brussels, Belgium, where we were living at the time. There was a riot outside the venue, mounted police were being jostled on their horses, and someone drove a Fiat through the doors. The Stones started to play “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” and the world seemed to change color before my eyes.

Last: Doing shots of Jaegermeister and getting a tattoo in a divey parlor in Hong Kong. Really. Check out my right ankle next time you see me. Photos HERE!   (The symbol means "yes" so it definitely was a hell yeah moment)

AHA MOMENT

First: Wow, so many of my “moments” have to do with writing. This one–grade three, Mrs. Green’s class. I was way ahead in reading, so she let me read “Harriet the Spy.” PLEASE have your kids read this novel by Louise Fitzhugh, and never let them see the truly bad movie adaptation. It’s about a girl whose life is changed by writing. I wrote my first story then (photo here) I remember finally “getting” the shape of a story, which is so simple–beginning, middle, end–but so tricky to nail.

Last: Watching my dad’s struggles with Parkinson’s. He and my mom live in my town, not far from me. It’s a devastating illness, yet he greets every day with a smile, and lives his life. He sends emails to his grandkids, has people over, works on little projects, sits quietly with my mom. They’ve been married 59 years and the “aha” for me is this–life can always be wonderful, no matter what’s happening to you or around you. But sometimes you have to dig deep inside to find the joy.

The dedication page of THE APPLE ORCHARD is a little surprise for my parents. Think they’ll like it?

Thanks, Susan!

Jennifer Weiner's The Next Best Thing + Giveaway!

Today's author: Jennifer Weiner Why she rocks: Um, she's Jennifer Weiner + she's not afraid to speak her mind.

Her latest: The Next Best Thing (Out in paperback April 30th!)

The scoop on it: At three years old, Ruth Saunders miraculously survives the car crash that takes her parents’ lives on the icy Massachusetts Turnpike. Her eccentric grandmother, who comes out of Florida retirement to care for young Ruth, nurtures her through years of surgeries, feeding her home-cooked meals, dispensing irreverent wisdom, and telling Ruth she’s beautiful, even though her scars will stay with her forever.

After college, Ruth pursues her dream of writing to Hollywood, heading west with her grandmother in tow, hoping to make it big in the world of TV. After years of failure and a badly broken heart, Ruth gets The Call—her show has been green-lit.

But Ruth’s happy ending is only the beginning, as she struggles with how television gets made: terrified (and terrifying) executives and actresses with their eyes on bigger prizes than Ruthie’s show. Add in an unrequited crush on the man who has been her mentor. Add to that her grandmother’s impending nuptials, and Ruth’s big break might just break her.

A rollicking ride on the Hollywood roller coaster, The Next Best Thing is a heartfelt story about a young woman searching for her own happily-ever-after in the land where dreams come true.

Our thoughts: Loved it just as much the second time around!

Fun fact: Want to see Jennifer Weiner in person? She's going on a paperback book tour--see if she'll be near you.

Giveaway: One SIGNED copy. Just leave a comment and be entered to win. We'll select the winner after 12 pm PST on Sunday, April 28th.

What She Left Us by Stephanie Elliot

Today's author: Stephanie Elliot Her latest: What She Left Us

The scoop on it: Jenna and Courtney are dealing with the unexpected death of their mother in different ways. Jenna broke off her engagement to the man she thought she'd love forever, while Courtney headed back to college to take charge of a dorm-floor full of college students as a resident assistant.

Six months later, Jenna is fueled by panic over the news that the sisters may have the same disease that caused their mother's death and she makes an irrational decision - she packs it up and heads to college to be with Courtney. The timing couldn't be worse for Courtney, who's discovering love for the first time with Mitch, a sexy guitar player who may just be off limits.

Emotionally unstable, Jenna wonders if she made the worst mistake of her life by breaking off her engagement with Darren, and when he shows up to make amends, she can't help but second-guess her decision. But then there's Clay, the compassionate bartender at Klippy's who seems to understand everything Jenna's going through. And those hazel eyes just seem to see right through to Jenna's soul…

As the girls maneuver through their unpredictable futures, trying to manage their new health risks as well as tumultuous love lives, Courtney finds a disturbing photograph that indicates there may be more to their family than she ever imagined.

This stunning revelation could shatter the sisters to the very core, making them question everything they thought they knew about their family, their faith, their past and, most of all, each other.

Our thoughts: A fast-paced, engaging read. We absolutely love Stephanie and her books--definitely download this one!

Fun fact: You can read an excerpt of What She Left Us here and in the novel section, there's info about her upcoming book, Before the Beginning, out this summer!

Where you can read more about Stephanie: Her website, Facebook and Twitter.

2013 Club: Kimberly McCreight and Reconstructing Amelia

Our guest today: Kimberly McCreight

Why she rocks: Her debut is riveting! Think: Gone Girl

Her debut: Reconstructing Amelia

The scoop on it: In Reconstructing Amelia, the stunning debut novel from Kimberly McCreight, Kate's in the middle of the biggest meeting of her career when she gets the telephone call from Grace Hall, her daughter’s exclusive private school in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Amelia has been suspended, effective immediately, and Kate must come get her daughter—now. But Kate’s stress over leaving work quickly turns to panic when she arrives at the school and finds it surrounded by police officers, fire trucks, and an ambulance. By then it’s already too late for Amelia. And for Kate.

An academic overachiever despondent over getting caught cheating has jumped to her death. At least that’s the story Grace Hall tells Kate. And clouded as she is by her guilt and grief, it is the one she forces herself to believe. Until she gets an anonymous text: She didn’t jump.

Reconstructing Amelia is about secret first loves, old friendships, and an all-girls club steeped in tradition. But, most of all, it’s the story of how far a mother will go to vindicate the memory of a daughter whose life she couldn’t save.

Our thoughts: Could. Not. Put. It. Down.

Giveaway: One SIGNED copy. Just leave a comment to be entered to win. We'll select the winners on Sunday, April 28th, after 12pm PST.

Fun fact: Check out the story of how she became a writer here! (She did everything she could to avoid it!)

Where you can read more about Kimberly: Her website, Twitter and Facebook.

CHICK LIT IS NOT DEAD PRESENTS...2013 CLUB: KIMBERLY MCCREIGHT

DO'S: 3 things every aspiring novelist should do

First, join a writer’s group or take a class.  Good feedback is critical to making progress as a writer.  But please be sure that it’s a supportive group.  Cutting feedback that isn’t actionable—i.e. burn this, immediately—is worse than no feedback at all.

Secondly, read widely.  Being a great writer starts with being a good reader and that includes everything from classic literature to modern thrillers.  Seeing what other people do and how they do it—and what you like and don’t like—will help you find yourself as a writer.

Finally, keep writing.  For some people, their first novel comes out exactly right, for others it takes practice.  I certainly fell into the later group.  Just because your early efforts don’t pan out doesn’t mean that your next book won’t be a whole lot better.

DON'TS: 3 things every aspiring novelist shouldn't do

First, don’t chase trends.  Being aware that there exists a marketplace for books is smart, but deciding that you’re going to write Y or Z because A and B were so successful last year is doomed to fail.  First of all, you won’t be able to write anything good if your heart’s not in it.  There’s also a good chance the trend will have already passed by the time you’re done.

Second, don’t take early rejection to heart.  Every novelist gets rejected at one point or another—by an agent or an editor or a critic.  It’s just a part of the process and the best you can hope for is to learn from it.

Finally, don’t ignore thoughtful feedback.  While you don’t want to be derailed by negativity, you don’t want to ignore helpful insights that could be the key to writing a better book next time or making critical revisions now.

MUST HAVES: On your desk? On your Facebook feed? App on your phone?

On my desk are always a Diet Coke and sugarless gum and I consume far too much of both.  Don’t tell my children.  It’s a terrible example.

My friends are the most important things in my Facebook feed, nothing makes me happier than seeing what they’re up to, especially because some of my dearest live way too far away.

The apps I use most are Hopstop for train directions and WeatherBug.  When you spend a lot of time getting around on foot with two kids, you’ve got to be prepared.

LASTS: Song you listened to on repeat? Book you read? Time you laughed?

I actually have a playlist of about twenty of my favorite songs call “Kim’s Edits” and I play the whole thing on repeat.  It’s a really eclectic compilation of songs that I love.  One I did specifically play on repeat a lot was The Weary Kind by Ryan Bingham from the Crazy Heart soundtrack.

One book I read while revising was 11/22/63 by Stephen King.  His talents are so towering that reading him always inspires me to work that much harder.

And luckily my children keep me laughing all the time.  It helps enormously to have that kind of unbridled joy and deep silliness around when you’re writing about dark things!

HOW MANY: Agents did you query before you found "the one?" Hours do you write per day? Hours do you waste online when you should be writing?

My current agent is actually my third.  Because Reconstructing Amelia is my fifth completed manuscript, I probably queried hundreds of agents over the years with other projects before I landed with my current agent.  But I love her and I know she’ll be my last.

I work from 9-5:30, five days a week, though not all of that is working on my latest work in progress.  Sometimes, I’m doing things like this—answering fun questions—and sometimes I’m researching.

And “waste” time online?  I prefer the term research.  Deciding on a whim to spend two hours tracking down that best friend from fourth grade who you haven’t talked to for twenty-five years, that’s got to be research for something, right?

BESTS: Way to celebrate a book deal? Trick to overcome writer's block? Way to think of a book idea?

I think the best way to celebrate a book deal is with your family.  For us, it was such a long road in getting here and everyone—my husband, kids and myself—had to give up so much to make it happen, that all I wanted to do was share it with them.  The actual night it happened, I think we did something exciting like order a pizza from the “fancy” pizza place.  To be honest, the fact that it had happened was thrilling enough.

I think the trick to overcoming writer’s block is to make yourself write for your allotted hours or allotted page count every day even if it’s all a bunch of really crappy stuff.  Eventually, you stop caring and the stakes will feel lower and the words will start flowing again.  And then you can throw out all the garbage you forced out in those lean days.

Newspapers, nonfiction books and magazine articles usually provide the initial spark for most of my stories.

NEXTS: Show you'll DVR? Book you'll read? Book you'll write?

I’m DVRing Mad Men and I’m looking forward with a heavy heart to the end of Breaking Bad.  I’m excited for the new season of The Killing and I love the Walking Dead, even if it does scare the crap out of me.  I’m looking forward to reading Sonya Sotomayor’s biography, My Beloved World, as well as Lawrence Wright’s Going Clear.

On the fiction front, next up is Meg Wolitzer’s The Interestings and Becky Masterman’s debut, Rage Against the Dying.

As for my next book, I’m about three hundred pages into a first draft.  It’s another mystery with a deep emotional center and a character from Reconstructing Amelia even has a supporting role.  I’m very excited about it!

Thanks, Kimberly!

On our Radar by Liz

Lisa and I have been so knee-deep writing our next book that I've barely had time to come up for air!  But when I do--these are the latest things on my radar....

The Millionaire Matchmaker

Oh, how I love that beyotch Patti Stanger! Something about the way she puts those douchey millionaires in their place is addicting.  Yes, I have to try hard to ignore the fact that these gorgeous women would never even so much as glance at these guys unless they were loaded, but either way this is one hour of pure guilty pleasure for me and the hubs. (Shhh...don't tell anyone she watches it with me!) The best part of season 6? Millionairess Hello Kitty returns and redeems herself. (She's the one that gave that guy a hand job under the table...)  The worst part?  The creepy courtship of Patti and her new man. Ewww! Check out a clip below!

The Love Wars by L. Alison Heller

Out on May 7th---don't miss this Devil Wears Prada-esque tale of a divorce lawyer who, after becoming fed up with her insanely rich and spoiled(and just plain insane!) clients, goes against her high-powered boss and clandestinely represents a woman who desperately needs her help. Heller's narrative is a breath of fresh air--fun and quick witted. Delightful from beginning to end!

Hall of Fame--The Script

I'm loving this catchy song by The Script, one of my new favorite bands.  Whether I'm rocking out on the way to school with the kids or writing the latest chapter in our next book--I can't get enough of it!  Check it out!

Isagenix

So I'm doing the Isagennix 30 day cleanse in order to shed a few LBs for an upcoming trip.  And even thought I'm so hungry that I would consider beating your head in for a spicy tuna roll, it's okay.  I've lost 7 lbs int the last 12 days and it's getting a bit easier--the stuff they told me that tastes like "tea"(does NOT taste like tea!) doesn't even make me gag anymore.  This program is also good to cleanse if you have allergies or rashes.  But for me?  I just want to be able to stuff my face with warm brie and baguette in France next month without feeling like all those skinny french assholes are judging me.

#shipmypantscommercial #Kmart #controversy

I know some people have their panties in a wad about this Kmart commercial, but personally, I think it's hilarious.  And a big shout out to Kmart-who is now relevant for the first time in years!  Bravo!

Flash Giveaway! And Then I Found You by Patti Callahan Henry

Giveaway: FIVE copies of And Then I Found You by Patti Callahan Henry The Scoop: Kate Vaughan is no stranger to tough choices. She’s made them before. Now it’s time to do it again.

Kate has a secret, something tucked away in her past. And she’s getting on with her life.  Her business is thriving. She has a strong relationship with her family, and a devoted boyfriend whom she wants to love with all her heart. If Kate had ever made a list, Rowan would fill the imagined boxes of a perfect mate. But she wants more than the perfect on paper relationship; she wants a real and imperfect love. That's why, when Kate discovers the small velvet box hidden in Rowan's drawer, she panics.

It always happens this way. Just when Kate thinks she can love, just when she believes she can conquer the fear, she’s filled with dread. And she wants more than anything to make this feeling go away. But how?

When the mistakes have been made and the running is over, it’s time to face the truth. Kate knows this. She understands that a woman can never undo what can never be undone. Yet, for the first time in her life she also knows that she won’t fully love until she confronts those from her past. It’s time to act.

Can she do it? Can she travel to the place where it all began, to the one who shares her secret? Can the lost ever become found?

And Then I Found You gives new life to the phrase “inspired by a true story.” By traveling back to a painful time in her own family’s history, the author explores the limits of courage, and the price of a selfless act.

Our thoughts: So Intriguing! We loved this one and think you will too.

Leave a comment below to be entered and we'll choose the winners after 6pm on Saturday, April 20th.

Amy Shearn's 5 Firsts and Lasts

Our guest today: Amy Shearn

Why we love her: We dig her fresh narrative!

Her latest: The Mermaid of Brooklyn

The scoop: Formerly an up-and-coming magazine editor, Jenny Lipkin is now your average, stretched-too-thin Brooklyn mom, tackling the challenges of raising two children in a cramped Park Slope walk-up. All she really wants is to survive the sweltering New York summer with a shred of sanity intact. But when her husband, Harry, vanishes one evening, Jenny reaches her breaking point. And in a moment of despair, a split-second decision changes her life forever.

Pulled from the brink by an unexpected ally, Jenny is forced to rethink her ideas about success, motherhood, romance, and relationships. But confronting her inner demons is no easy task. . . .

Our thoughts: Dive in this witty and heartfelt novel this weekend! You won't regret it!

Giveaway: Two copies! Leave a comment and you'll be entered to win--we'll choose the winners on Monday, April 22nd after 8am PST.

Fun Fact: The Mermaid of Brooklyn is a Oprah.Com April book pick!

Where you can read more about Amy: Her website, Facebook and Twitter.

CHICK LIT IS NOT DEAD PRESENTS...AMY SHEARN'S 5 FIRSTS AND LASTS

Kiss

First: Let me just say that Jewish overnight camp in the Wisconsin woods circa 1992 was a heady time. The poignant Extreme ballad “More Than Words” was playing constantly, everywhere, as if piped in from the trees. And finally a boy liked me. I remember thinking I had been waiting forever for a boy to notice me. I was going into eighth grade. Obviously, it had been like MONTHS between the start of puberty and now – what was taking all the boys so long to notice a quiet, awkward, bookish girl who never spoke to them or even really looked at them? But finally this boy LIKED me liked me, and we were sitting outside by the creek and he leaned in and sort of smeared his mouth on my cheek area. Later that night, I was informed by my more streetwise cabin-mates that I was supposed to have turned my head to trickily French him. I was mortified, both at my lack of savvy, and at the idea of French-kissing him. Even though I didn’t really have any opinion whatsoever of this boy, I remember lying awake in my upper bunk aglow with that surreal excitement you get when your life seems to have gotten magical all the sudden.

Last: Tonight at bedtime, my two-year-old son announced he was a cat and then passionately licked my face. Not totally dissimilar to my summer camp kiss, actually. Except that I really, really love this boy.

Book

First: I taught myself to read when I was around 3 by obsessively staring at Mercer Mayer’s Just For You, which I assumed was the most hilarious and yet meaningful work of literature ever. I have a distinct memory of lying on the basement floor of my parent’s house, rubbing my feet over a rough place in the concrete, and having it all click, and realizing, with something like ecstasy, that I could read.

Last: I’ve just begun Jessica Francis Kane’s luminous short story collection This Close. It’s been a while since I read a collection of stories, and it’s such sheer pleasure. She packs tremendous insights into these narrative jewels.

 Risk

First: I have never been a risk-taker, really, so I had to wrack my brain here. I did have a much-cited (literally, almost every time I see my parents) misadventure in fifth grade, when, after watching 3 or 4 other kids do it, I went down the new banana-yellow twisty slide backwards. This was forbidden, and I got caught, and was benched. Benched! This horrifying punishment involved having to sit on a bench for a few minutes. It was my first and last time getting benched at Lincoln Elementary School. And that’s what you get for taking risks. Just kidding. Sort of.

Last: Writing this novel felt like a big risk. As noted above, I’ve always been a bit of a goody-two-shoes, an inveterate conflict avoider. Like every mother, I want to be seen as the perfect mom and wife, because of course I want to be the perfect mom and wife. But that whole parenting situation is just so difficult and fraught – honestly, even if you are a pretty happy mom, which I think I am -- that I wanted to write about how hard it is, taking care of small children and maintaining your sanity and sense of self. I wanted to say the things that all my mom friends say to each other, but that I had never read in a novel. And I wanted to inhabit a character who was trouble and difficult, because I find those characters interesting. But then, you know, you have to deal with people saying things like “I read your book and now I’m so worried about you! Is the main [depressed, manic, cheating] character you?”  Oy.

Hell Ya! Moment

First: The summer I was 20 I backpacked around Europe by myself, and I remember the whole time as one big HELL YA! I was breaking up with my long-time boyfriend, I was proving I was independent and brave, I was seeing the world and meeting people and I spent about $5 the whole time and I know the life-changing college trip is a total cliché but it was truly amazing. I have no idea how I did it. I don’t know that I could handle it now.

Last: My daughter is just starting to read on her own, and every time she reads a sentence or recognizes a word I do a little internal cartwheel. It’s so exciting to watch it all coming together, and to think of all the adventures that await her in library stacks.

Aha! Moment

First: I was probably 7 or 8 the day I was pestering my father while he was trying to write something and he handed me a notebook and said, “Here, you can start your own journal.” I wrote down some pertinent information about my cat, Daisy, and then reread it and enjoyed the process so much that I then wrote some more and then some more and soon I was filling notebooks with stories.

Last: As a mom-blogger, I’ve probably written 15 different essays/articles/blog posts about how moms shouldn’t be so hard on themselves, without truly internalizing this myself. It’s all very easy to say, but then…you know how it goes. Then the other night I realized I was having these crazy bedtime struggles with my 4-year-old for no real reason other than that I felt she ought to go to bed by 8:00pm and that in the back of my mind there was some voice – Super-Nanny, maybe – chiding me for not having enough control to maintain this bedtime. And then for some reason I had a moment when I asked myself if I really cared when she went to bed. If she’s quietly playing with paper dolls at 8, isn’t she maybe just winding down slowly? Since she has a hard time calming down to sleep, shouldn’t I let her do that work to learn how to calm herself down, as the end goal really is to have her know when she’s sleepy and put herself to bed? I realized that if she was busy coloring or something that I didn’t actually care when she went to bed, I just thought I should care, and that I was waging this nightly battle (that inevitably ends with me asleep in the toddler bed alongside her) for no real reason. So we did bath time, tooth-brushing, stories, all the bedtime things, and then I just let her chill out and tell the dog some stories until around 9 she told me she was ready for bed and wow, what a revelation! There’s motherhood in a nutshell: you don’t even realize that by trying to do something The Right Way you’re making yourself miserable. I’m always telling other moms not to be so hard on themselves, not to judge their parenting, to do what feels right. So maybe I should follow my own advice for once.

Thanks, Amy!

Blog of the Month: Booking with Manic

The 411:

Booking with Manic specifically features chick lit, women's fiction, new adult, humor, some self-help and memoir and the occasional dude-lit books. I vary how often I blog. I've been known to do blog-blitzing, where I'll post a book every day for a month (last year I did March Madness and it was CRAZY to keep up with 31 days of blogging and giving away 31 books in a month). I try to feature at least a book a week.

Why do people love Booking with Manic?

Every book featured includes a giveaway and I try to make each post personal and creative - bringing something from the book to connect to real life.

What is unique about Booking with Manic?

To enter to win, the reader has to answer a question that relates to something that has to do with the book -- whether it is something with the themes in the book, the title of the book, etc. For instance, for Meg Donohue's debut, How to Eat a Cupcake, the logical question I asked was "What is your favorite cupcake flavor?" (By the way, Meg's next book, All The Summer Girls is AMAZING!) But what I love the best about my blog and what I think is so unique about it is that since I do ask these personal questions, I feel like I really get to know the Booking with Manic readers, and I also share with them how I would answer the answer I'm asking. I learn stuff about them, and really do get to know them, which I love. It becomes more personal to me.

Where to read more about Booking with Manic:

Facebook and Twitter.

What inspires you?

Right now, honestly, my 11 year old son Luke is inspiring me. He was diagnosed with epilepsy last spring and to watch him just be a kid and know that he's getting through what he's been through -- that is inspiring. I'm so lucky to get to be his mom.

If you were stranded on a desert island, what celebrity would you want to be with you?

Ugh. I really wouldn't want a celebrity. I would want books. But I guess if I had to choose, it would be a toss-up between, and you may laugh, but I'm going to choose Vince Vaughn or Johnny Knoxville. I will probably take Vince though, because Johnny might be too scrawny.

What's one inanimate object you can't live without?

What's an 'inanimate' object? I'm seriously going to look that up... Oh, so you mean like not my family members, like an iPhone or something like that... I can live without makeup. I probably could live without my phone. I guess I would have to say my contacts. And pretty soon it's going to be those 'cheater' glasses. I just turned 44. It pains me to say that. Truth hurts.

What books are you adding to your bookshelf this year?

Love this question! Anything and everything written by: Jen Lancaster (Can't wait for her Martha Stewart Tao book!), Emily Giffin, Sarah Pekkanen, Sarah Jio (am waiting for a quiet stretch of time to read The Last Camellia), I'm excited to see this new one Allison Winn Scotch wrote, Covet by Tracey Garvis Graves, Laura Dave needs to come out with a new one, Dina Silver's Finding Bliss, I'd love to know if Sere Prince Halverson has another on its way - I loved The Underside of Joy, Julie Buxbaum - I'm waiting for YOU to publish another, Zoe Fishman needs to write faster... do I sound a bit demanding on the authors I want to have books published?

Thanks, Stephanie!

Deborah Cloyed's 5 Firsts and Lasts

Today's guest: Deborah Cloyed Why we love her: We've been fans since we read her debut novel, The Summer We Came to Life.

Her latest: What Tears Us Apart

The scoop on it: Love lives in the most dangerous places of the heart.

The real world. That's what Leda desperately seeks when she flees her life of privilege to travel to Kenya. She finds it at a boys'orphanage in the slums of Nairobi. What she doesn't expect is to fall for Ita, the charismatic and thoughtful man who gave up his dreams to offer children a haven in the midst of turmoil.Their love should be enough for one another-it embodies the soul-deep connection both have always craved. But it is threatened by Ita's troubled childhood friend, Chege, a gang leader with whom he shares a complex history. As political unrest reaches a boiling point and the slum erupts in violence, Leda is attacked…and forced to put her trust in Chege, the one person who otherwise inspires anything but.In the aftermath of Leda's rescue, disturbing secrets are exposed, and Leda, Ita and Chege are each left grappling with their own regret and confusion. Their worlds upturned, they must now face the reality that sometimes the most treacherous threat is not the world outside, but the demons within.

Our thoughts: A powerful novel!

Giveaway: Two copies! Just leave a comment to be entered to win. We'll select the winners on Sunday, April 14th after 12pm PST.

Where you can read more about Deborah: Her website, Twitter and Facebook.

CHICK LIT IS NOT DEAD PRESENTS...DEBORAH CLOYED'S 5 FIRSTS AND LASTS

KISS

FIRST KISS:  In third grade, a boy named Brant gave me the quintessential piece of paper bearing the Check Boxes of Like (yes or no), and with my affirmation we were officially in puppy love.  Sitting cross-legged on my parents’ living room floor, we put a blanket over our heads so he could peck me on the lips. Then we giggled like maniacs until my Mom came to see what we were up to.

LAST KISS:  I’m an early riser, my boyfriend a night owl.  He kisses me goodnight in the wee hours, to a groggy mmmmm-hmmmm-luvvvvyoutoooo, and I good-morning kiss him first thing in the morning to a similar refrain.  Which I just did.

BOOK YOU READ

FIRST BOOK I READ:  My childhood was a veritable blur of books.  The first one I remember being obsessed with was My Side of the Mountain.  I told my mom I would be living in the backyard from then on.  That she pretended to tolerate.  Cooking acorn pancakes in her kitchen, she did not.

LAST BOOK I READ:  I’m reading The International Bank of Bob, about a travel writer who put $20,000 into Kiva.org, one $25 microloan at a time, then goes to visit loan recipients across the world, including in Kenya (where What Tears Us Apart is set and where I lived before the election violence broke out).  Read this book!  The author performs a soul-searching yet inspirational examination of some of the world’s trickiest problems of poverty and violence.

RISK YOU TOOK

FIRST RISK I TOOK:  If you ask my older brother, I came out of the womb a reckless risk-taker.  I had a disturbing lack of fear of heights, spiders, the dark, claustrophobia, any of the usuals.   My earliest risk-taking memories, all before age five – of breaking my nose on a jungle gym, getting bit by a snake in a creek, falling out of a tree – it’s hard to remember which came first.  My parents put me in gymnastics and the whole family settled in for a lifetime of worry.

LAST RISK I TOOK:  Well, I calmed down a bit after two near-death drowning experiences in Central America (hence my debut book The Summer We Came to Life) in my twenties.  The risks I take now are of the more mundane variety.  Six weeks after foot surgery, I just hobbled up four flights of stairs balancing a tray of two flower vases, two wines glasses, two pizza boxes (don’t judge), and four coffee cups.  Nothing fell and broke, miraculously.  But in retrospect, that was pretty risky.

HELL YA! MOMENT

FIRST HELL YA MOMENT:  Funny but the first thing that springs to mind is when I learned to read.  As in – WHOA. There’s a whole world inside this book, and I can go in it all by myself. Like an empty amusement park.  And since I was a library junkie from age three, I knew it meant endless solo adventures to come.  I could picture it.  Hell ya.

LAST HELL YA MOMENT:  A cozy, snuggly Easter Sunday, with yummy food and good company, topped off by the Game of Thrones premiere?  Hell YA.

AHA! MOMENT

FIRST AHA MOMENT:  Thinking this through, I realize my first aha moment is the same as my first hell ya moment.  Such is life.

LAST AHA MOMENT:  I’ve been banging my head against the wall, working out the plot for my next novel.  Finally, last week sitting on my porch, I had the AHA moment I’d been waiting for.  An AHA that will make this an incredibly fun, eerie, epic book to write.  But that’s all I’m saying… for now.

Thanks, Deborah!

Liza Palmer's 5 Firsts and Lasts

Today's guest: Liza Palmer Why we love her: We've loved Liza since we read Conversations with a Fat Girl

Her latest: Nowhere but Home

The scoop on it: The strategy on the gridiron of Friday Night Lights is nothing compared to the savagery of coming home . . .

Queenie Wake has just been fired from her job as a chef for not allowing a customer to use ketchup . . . again. Now the only place she has to go is North Star, Texas, the hometown she left in disgrace. Maybe things will be different this time around. After all, her mother—notorious for stealing your man, your car, and your rent money—has been dead for years. And Queenie's sister, once the local teenage harlot who fooled around with the town golden boy, is now the mother of the high school football captain.

Queenie's new job, cooking last meals at the nearby prison, is going well . . . at least the inmates don't complain! But apparently small-town Texas has a long memory for bad reputations. And when Queenie bumps into Everett Coburn, the high school sweetheart who broke her heart, she wishes her own memory was a little spottier. But before Queenie takes another chance on love, she'll have to take an even bigger risk: finding a place to call home once and for all.

Our thoughts: We love her witty writing. And this story is the perfect blend of heart and humor.

Giveaway: 2 copies! Just leave a comment and be entered to win. We'll select the winners on Sunday, April 14th after 12pm PST.

Fun fact: Check out her blog where she reveals behind the scenes details about her books (including  the town her latest novel was based on) and her life.

Where you can read more about Liza: Her website, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

CHICK LIT IS NOT DEAD PRESENTS...LIZA PALMER'S 5 FIRSTS AND LASTS

Kiss

My first kiss was probably with some poor unsuspecting neighbor and my most recent kiss was… the same, some poor unsuspecting neighbor.

Book you read

The first books I read were some combination of Miffy at the Zoo, Fletcher and Zenobia, Where the Wild Things Are and Goodnight Moon.

And the last book (play?) I read was Much Ado About Nothing.  (And the Joss Whedon movie version…hello?!  Can it surpass the Italian tanned loveliness of the Branagh version?  WE SHALL SEE.  Here’s what I do now:  Fillion will definitely do better than Keaton as Dogberry.  “Let it be known that I am an ass”… I CAN’T WAIT.)

Risk you took

The first risk I took was my entire childhood.  My Mom has informed me that she should have invested in a ceremonial plaque that saved her preferred seat in the Emergency Room.

The most recent risk I took was ordering the Cobb Salad at the Westside Tavern.  It’s hard to do a good Cobb.  (Verdict?  Loved it.  Highly recommend it.)

Hell ya! moment

My first Hell Ya moment - I actually asked my Mom about this and she said, “What about when you decided not to go to Kindergarten.  Walked in through the front door and right back out the back.”  I asked her what brought me back – what convinced me to stay.  And she said they’d just started this new pilot program where kids could dictate stories and teachers would write them down and make books out of them.  I didn’t know that… very cool to know writing has always been there for me.

My latest Hell Ya moment?   I mean, that Cobb Salad was pretty great, but…  it was probably when Nowhere but Home came in the mail.  The package was on my stoop and I thought maybeeeee – tore it open – and there it was.  I got emotional immediately and I haven’t let it out of my sight since. There’s just nothing like holding that finished book in your hands.  Yes, I’m kind of crying even writing about it.  (NERD)

Aha! moment

My first AHA moment – I mean, you are giving little kids and moreover people’s memories a lot of credit here.  Okay, isn’t a baby’s first AHA moment just Peek-a-Boo?  Oh, there’s my mom!  She’s not gone… wait, she’s gone again!?!?  So, first AHA moment was playing Peek-a-Boo with my Mom.

My most recent was that I just needed to shut up and be happy.  I will over think everything and I realized (after over thinking it, of course) that I was thinking my way right out of pleasure and happiness.  To balance out the instability of publishing and writing, I had to make a concerted effort to take in beauty, get outside and shut my brain off.  Yes, that’s a beautiful sunset.  No, you don’t need to write an entire blog post about it or take a picture of it for Instagram.  Just… enjoy it.

Thanks, Liza!

Sarah Pekkanen's 5 Best Evers and Crazy Awesome Giveaway!

Many of you know that we've loved Sarah Pekkanen since the day she exploded on the publishing scene--her books are some of our all-time faves.  Not to mention she's probably one of the NICEST people you could ever meet!  So we can't just have any ol' giveaway when Sarah is visiting--we've got to have a CRAZY AWESOME one!

The CRAZY AWESOME prize package includes:

- A 50 page manuscript critique by Sarah Pekkanen

- A 30 minute PHONE CALL with Sarah about ins and outs of writing and publishing

-A SIGNED copy of The Best of Us

SO rad, right? We think this prize package is priceless!

To Enter:

1. Post this link: http://tinyurl.com/d2yl8ax to either Twitter or Facebook.  Make sure to tag Sarah! Twitter: @sarahpekkanen Facebook: hit @ and then type Sarah Pekkanen--her fan page will pop up in your post!

2. Include this review with the link: Publisher's Weekly called The Best of Us "A Deeply Enjoyable Page Turner".

3. Come back here and leave a comment telling us where you posted it! You will get one entry for Facebook and one for Twitter. So freakin' easy, right?

But act quickly!  This giveaway closes on THIS THURSDAY, APRIL 4TH at 5pm PST! We will choose a random winner after that. Good luck!

The Scoop on The Best of Us: An all-expense-paid week at a luxury villa in Jamaica—it’s the invitation of a lifetime for a group of old college friends. All four women are desperate not just for a reunion, but for an escape: Tina is drowning under the demands of mothering four young children. Allie is shattered by the news that a genetic illness runs in her family. Savannah is carrying the secret of her husband’s infidelity. And, finally, there’s Pauline, who spares no expense to throw her wealthy husband an unforgettable thirty-fifth birthday celebration, hoping it will gloss over the cracks already splitting apart their new marriage.

Languid hours on a private beach, gourmet dinners, and late nights of drinking kick off an idyllic week for the women and their husbands. But as a powerful hurricane bears down on the island, turmoil swirls inside the villa, forcing each of the women to reevaluate everything she knows about her friends—and herself.

Our thoughts: Our FAVE so far of hers--there's a little something of ourselves in each character and we couldn't put it down.  A MUST READ!

CHICK LIT IS NOT DEAD PRESENTS...SARAH PEKKANEN'S 5 BEST EVERS

BEST BOOK: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. I first read this book in college, and was stunned by how Capote took a real event - the murder of a Kansas family - and wrote a book that was every bit as seamless and riveting as the best fiction. Capote's genius inspired me to try to write narrative non-fiction myself, and eventually I began working as a reporter in the features department for The Baltimore Sun, spending weeks or even months on a single story, shaping and crafting, learning techniques like foreshadowing and micro-tension. It was terrific training for becoming a novelist!

BEST MOVIE: I love chick-lit flicks, like "Four Weddings and a Funeral" but for some reason one of my all-time favorites is "The Terminator"! Recently I got to read the treatment James Cameron created for the film, and it's an incredible piece of storytelling. The film hews really closely to Cameron's initial vision, but there's one big change I noticed. Instead of the class line, "I'll be back," the script originally has Ah-nold saying, "I'll come back." I guess "I'll be back" sounds more menacing!

BEST SONG:  "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor. Whenever life throws me a curveball - and we all get hit by them now and then, don't we? - something about this song helps get me through. Plus, when life is going well, it's really fun to sing.

BEST LIFE MOMENT:  Each of the three times I held my new babies. There are no words.

BEST PIECE OF ADVICE: Trust your instincts. This actually saved me and my children once: I was at the National Zoo in D.C. early one November morning, and it was nearly deserted. I went into the small reptile house, which was empty, and after we'd been there for a while, I noticed a man coming down the hallway toward us. Instantly I knew he meant to do us harm; my instincts were screaming. But my nice-girl mind tried to talk me out of taking action. "Oh, don't be silly, he just wants to ask you if you know what time it is," I told myself. Luckily, my primal instincts won out over my nice-girl mind. I had my infant in my Baby Bjorn, and I lifted my two-year-old onto my right hip. I couldn't outrun him, so I got ready to fight. When he was within two feet of me, my left arm shot out and I screamed at the top of my lungs, "STOP!" We locked eyes and I let him know with my expression that I would fight him - and win - because he was not going to touch my kids. He turned around and walked away without another word. Later I analyzed why my instincts had issued a warning (my "nice-girl" mind was still trying to tell me I'd overreacted). And I realized he had walked very quickly toward me, down a narrow hallway, without looking at the exhibits in glass cages on either side of him. And just before he reached me, he turned around for a quick look behind him. He wanted to make sure no one else was coming. I'm trying to teach my kids to listen to their inner voice and respect its warning. What's the worst thing that could happen if we're wrong? We'll be embarrassed. But that's a small price to pay, given the alternative. So to all the women reading this: Please, please, please let's vow to trust our instincts, in situations big and small, and keep ourselves safe. They're trying to protect us!

Thanks, Sarah!

Mary Kay McComas's 5 Firsts and Lasts

Today's guest: Mary Kay McComas Why we love her: Her writing is soulful...

Her latest: Something about Sophie

The scoop on it: Answering a call that summons her to a stranger's deathbed, a reluctant Sophie Shepard is too late to hear what he was so anxious to tell her. What was so important that a dying man would think of her in his final moments? With the help of Dr. Drew McCarren, Sophie begins to dig into her past, setting off a chain of events that chills the quiet town of Clearfield, Virginia to its roots.

With part of her wanting nothing more than to put Clearfield behind her and run back home, Sophie knows she won't rest until she discovers the truth. But growing closer to the residents also means uncovering their dark secrets: about the woman who gave her up for adoption, the mysterious part these strangers played, and the life she never knew she nearly had.

Something About Sophie is an unforgettable story about the power of love...and the things people will do, both right and wrong, to protect it.

Our thoughts:  A must read on your Spring Break!

Giveaway: 5 copies. Leave a comment and be entered to win. Winners will be selected on Sunday, April 7th after 12pm PST.

Fun fact: You can read an excerpt of Something About Sophie here.

Where you can read more about Mary Kay: Her website or Facebook.

CHICK LIT IS NOT DEAD PRESENTS...MARY KAY MCCOMAS' 5 FIRSTS AND LASTS

KISS

FIRST: Ugh. My first non-family kiss was an icky wet peck from a boy I didn't really like in 8th grade at our 'Graduation Dance'. We were slow dancing to The Beach Boys' Surfer Girl and to this day whenever I hear it, I get the willies.

LAST: My last kiss was so much better! My husband of 35 years and I kissed this morning before he left for work.

BOOK I READ

My first book was Dick and Jane. I memorized it: See Dick. See Dick and Jane go. See Dick and Jane and Spot. It was a childhood thriller that kept every first grader of my acquaintance on the edge of their seats. It ends well though: See Spot and Puff run and play.

The last book I read was Captain Vorpatril's Alliance by the clever Lois McMaster Bujold. It's the latest in the Vorkosigan Saga series, all of which are wonderful. And they're science fiction, which is incredible because I never read science fiction ... well, not the space alien, neuro-blaster, shuttleport kind. However, the hero of the Bujold books (many of the secondaries, too) define the word 'character' in its every sense and they're laugh out loud funny as well. Strong, distinct personalities and humor ... my kind of book in any dimension.

RISK I TOOK

FIRST: If this refers my first physical risk then there is an old family story of my dad being up high on scaffolding, painting our two story house and sort of keeping an eye on me at age 3 or 4 playing with my dolls on the lawn below. He got called away briefly -- "for 5 minutes" he always said -- and when he came back my pink baby bed was as white as our house and his paintbrush was in the grass beside it ... and not with the paint can, high up on the scaffolding, where he'd left it. My last huge physical risk was having a 9cm aortic aneurysm repaired a few years ago. It sort of put all my other physical risks in perspective.

But I actually think that emotional risks present themselves more often and have higher stakes. My first clear memory is of my first day of first grade and watching my mom drive away without me -- I didn't die on the spot, so I have to imagine that my first risk came shortly after that when I had to figure out how to cope with the teacher and the other kids. I was painfully shy.

LAST: I do, however, have a clearer memory of my last emotional risk which was to apologize to a friend. Not the 'oops, sorry' kind of apology that's mostly just good manners -- but a real act of contrition for being thoughtless and possibly hurting her feelings. I was fairly certain she'd forgive me but still, it wasn't easy.

HELL YA MOMENT

FIRST: I was the third of six kids and while I was never neglected I did sometimes feel a little ... overlooked. But I had this aunt who lived in Seattle and from the time I was about 10 years old she would ask me to come stay with her for a few weeks in the summer -- just me, no one else. I mean, ever. None of my sisters or brothers were ever asked to stay with her, just me. I felt very special and it was more than just a hell ya moment for me. Every year it was an Oh-hell-ya!-I'm-leavin'-and-you-all-have-to-stay-home-to-do-summer-chores! moment.

LAST: I think my most recent hell ya moments have involved my children. A college graduation -- hell ya it was worth the sacrifices. A good solid grownup job -- hell ya, you're ready and hell ya, they're getting the best guy for the job! And hell ya, I'm turning your room into my arts and crafts studio!

AHA MOMENT

I think my first Aha! moment -- the one that made the greatest impression on me anyway -- was when I finally realized that not doing well in school doesn't mean you're not intelligent, it just means your talents are elsewhere.

My latest aha! came a few weeks ago -- though I feel I should have pick up on it years ago. It explains SO much. My friends and I were out shopping -- for purses. I hate to shop, so naturally my more fashion conscious pals are responsible for making sure I'm not so tacky they feel they must sneak off and leave me in the ladies room. So ... purses ... they kept trying to foist these big bulky diaper bag looking things on me and I kept gravitating back to the clutch wallets. Finally, our purse guru stepped in and said, "She'll never carry one that big ... she's too tall." We stared at her. She held out her hands, it was Purse Shopping 101 to her. "She already feels like she takes up more than her fair share of space, a big bag only makes it worse." Well, I don't know if her theory is all that sound but the rest of the afternoon, and since then, I have been so aware that big and tall women tend to carry small to medium sized purses -- and that thin and average to short women carry suit cases. Just watch ....

Thanks Mary Kay!

Wendy Wax's 5 Best Evers

Our guest today: Wendy Wax Why we love her: Ever since The Accidental Bestseller, we've loved Wendy and her fabulous novels!

Her latest: While We Were Watching Downton Abbey (Out April 2nd!)

The Scoop: When the concierge of The Alexander, a historic Atlanta apartment building, invites his fellow residents to join him for weekly screenings of Downton Abbey, four very different people find themselves connecting with the addictive drama, and—even more unexpectedly—with each other…

Samantha Davis married young and for the wrong reason: the security of old Atlanta money—for herself and for her orphaned brother and sister. She never expected her marriage to be complicated by love and compromised by a shattering family betrayal.

Claire Walker is now an empty nester and struggling author who left her home in the suburbs for the old world charm of The Alexander, and for a new and productive life. But she soon wonders if clinging to old dreams can be more destructive than having no dreams at all.

And then there’s Brooke MacKenzie, a woman in constant battle with her faithless ex-husband. She’s just starting to realize that it’s time to take a deep breath and come to terms with the fact that her life is not the fairy tale she thought it would be.

For Samantha, Claire, Brooke—and Edward, who arranges the weekly gatherings—it will be a season of surprises as they forge a bond that will sustain them through some of life’s hardest moments—all of it reflected in the unfolding drama, comedy, and convergent lives of Downton Abbey.

Our thoughts: Even if you don't watch Downton Abbey, You'll fall in love with this book!

Giveaway: FIVE copies! (US only, please) We'll choose the winners on Sunday March 31 after 10am PST.  Good luck!

Fun fact: Wendy used to host a live radio show in the eighties called Desperate and Dateless!

Where to read more about Wendy: Her website, Facebook and Twitter.

CHICK LIT IS NOT DEAD PRESENTS...WENDY WAX'S 5 BEST EVERS

1. Favorite Song: Sorry, but songs are kind of like M&Ms and Lays Potato Chips for me. I’ve never been able to eat just one, and I don’t know how to pick one favorite song. There have been different ones at different times in my life.

“Stairway to Heaven” – I danced my very first slow dance to this song with a boy I had a major crush on, and I flash back to that moment every time I hear it. I also remember it from my days starting out in radio; it was long enough to leave the control room for a potty break!

Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” because it’s all about girl power. Disco may be over, but every time I hear it I want to go find all those guys who ‘done me wrong’ and tell them off.

My current favorite is Alicia Keyes’ “This Girl is on Fire” because it’s so powerful and because it’s exactly what I write. Women finding themselves. Discovering just how strong they are. Taking charge of their lives. It doesn’t hurt that it’s the final song played at my Zumba class, which means it’s time to cool down!

2. Favorite book: I have read and loved a lot of books in my day, but I will still give Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind first place. To be honest I like the first half best—before the war decimates everything and Scarlett throws so much of her life away mooning over Ashley Wilkes who could never make her happy instead of Rhett Butler who totally could. That woman could have eaten Ashley Wilkes for breakfast!

3. Favorite Movie:  Sorry, but I’m going to have to go with Gone with the Wind again. It’s one of the few movies I’ve seen that stayed emotionally true to the book. I used to watch it once a year and still resurrect it on occasion. I fell in love with Clark Gable the first time I saw it and was crushed to discover that he’d already been dead for a really long time (and thus unavailable for dating) by then.

4. Life moment: Hmmm…this is another rough one. Happily there have been a number of them: the birth of both of our sons, the sight of my first published book on a shelf. But I think it would have to be accidentally meeting the stranger who would become my husband on the Carey Bus in New York almost thirty years ago. Partly because when my mother, who was afraid I’d never get married kept asking, “Do you think you’re just going to be walking down the street one day and meet someone you want to marry?” I was finally able to say yes! : )

5. Piece of advice:  I may have said this here before, but I still think it applies. It’s advice I’m trying to follow myself, and that is, ‘Don’t sweat the small stuff!’ So much of what stresses us out and makes us unhappy on a daily basis is really small and unimportant. Unfortunately, we understand this best when the really big stuff happens.

Thanks. Wendy!

Anita Hughes' 5 Best Evers

Today's guest: Anita Hughes Why we love her: Her books provide the best escape--dive in, read and forget!

Her latest: Market Street (Out today!)

The scoop on it: Cassie Blake seems to lead a charmed life as the heiress to Fenton's, San Francisco's most exclusive department store. But when she discovers her husband, Aidan, a handsome UC Berkeley professor, has had an affair with a student, she flees to the comfort of her best friend Alexis's Presidio Heights mansion, where she wonders if she should give their marriage one more chance.

Whether or not she can forgive Aidan is not the only choice Cassie has to make. Cassie's mother is eager to have her oversee the opening of Fenton's new Food Emporium, which Fenton’s hopes will become San Francisco's hottest gourmet shopping destination. Cassie’s true passion has always been food, not fashion, and Cassie suspects her mother might be trying to lure her into the Fenton's fold by entrusting her with such an exciting opportunity. And then there is James, the architect designing the Emporium, who is quietly falling in love with her…

Giveaway: 2 copies! Just leave a comment to be entered to win. We'll select the winners on Sunday, April 1 after 12pm PST.

Fun Fact: She was born in Sydney, Australia!

Where you can read more about Anita: Her website, Facebook and Twitter.

CHICK LIT IS NOT DEAD PRESENTS...ANITA HUGHES' 5 BEST EVERS

BEST BOOK:  Old Sins by Penny Vincenzi. Penny Vinenzi is a British author who writes big fat books that move so fast you open the page and you are lost. I admit to having read Old Sins three times (and all her other books) and I can't wait for her new one.

BEST MOVIE: Les Ripoux starring a young Thierry L'Hermitte. It's a French movie about two detectives and was one of Thierry L'Hermitte's early roles. I admit it wasn't the movie as much as his blue eyes and French accent. He went on to star in Le Divorce with Kate Hudson - another of my favorite movies.  I still remember Les Ripoux and I have probably written at least one  male character who bear a resemblance to the male lead!

BEST SONG: The One by Elton John. I remember listening to it, driving from Santa Cruz to San Francisco with the top down and the Pacific glistening. Every time I hear it I can see myself in that car. It was a time when I had few responsibilities and a lot of dreams.

BEST LIFE MOMENT: When you're married with children it is impossible to pick one moment, but there is a time that stands out in my head. I had just arrived at Bard College and didn't know anyone. I enrolled in a class in 20th century Women's Fiction and the first book was The Group by Mary McCarthy. I remember sitting on the grass reading The Group and suddenly not worrying if I made friends. I was reading a great book and getting to sit around a big oval table discussing it with my professor and other students. I knew I was right where I belonged!

BEST ADVICE: I think you receive advice at different times in your life that really resonates with you. The best advice I've had recently is to write the book you want to read next. I love to travel to gorgeous locations but with children in school I don't get the chance. So I set my books in beautiful settings - Laguna Beach, San Francisco, Lake Como, and it's like taking mini vacations when I write each day - I hope my readers feel the same when they read my books!

Thanks, Anita!

Ellen Sussman's 5 Best Evers

Today's guest: Ellen Sussman Why we love her: She hooked us with her engrossing novel, French Lessons!

Her latest: The Paradise Guest House (Out March 26th!)

The scoop on it: A riveting and poignant novel of one woman’s journey to Bali in search of love, renewal, and a place to call home—perfect for readers of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love and Alex Garland’s The Beach.

It starts as a trip to paradise. Sent on assignment to Bali, Jamie, an American adventure guide, imagines spending weeks exploring the island’s lush jungles and pristine white sand beaches. Yet three days after her arrival, she is caught in Bali’s infamous nightclub bombings, which irreparably change her life and leave her with many unanswered questions.

One year later, haunted by memories, Jamie returns to Bali seeking a sense of closure. Most of all, she hopes to find Gabe, the man who saved her from the attacks. She hasn’t been able to forget his kindness—or the spark between them as he helped her heal. Checking into a cozy guest house for her stay, Jamie meets the kindly owner, who is coping with a painful past of his own, and a young boy who improbably becomes crucial to her search. Jamie has never shied away from a challenge, but a second chance with Gabe presents her with the biggest dilemma of all: whether she’s ready to open her heart.

Our thoughts: Big fans of Eat, Pray, Love, we also loved this novel about a woman searching for love.

Giveaway: 1 signed copy! Just leave a comment and be entered to win. The winner will be selected on Sunday, March 24th after 12pm PST.

Fun fact: You can read an excerpt of The Paradise Guest House here.

Where you can read more about Ellen: Her website and Facebook.

CHICK LIT IS NOT DEAD PRESENTS...ELLEN SUSSMAN'S 5 BEST EVERS

BEST SONG: Hey Jude. The Beatles. Who else? I was a crazy Beatles fan when I was a kid. I carried Paul’s photo in my wallet and told everyone he was my boyfriend. And then I grew up with them, changing my musical tastes with each of their albums. When Hey Jude came along I was knocked out by it. I played it over and over again until I had it memorized. It still plays in my mind in the middle of the night.

BEST BOOK: This is the hardest one for me. Every year I’ve got a few new best ever books. As a kid it might have been Nine Stories by JD Salinger. Let’s go with that one because it was probably the most influential. I learned so much about writing by reading those stories. And I read them many times, waiting for their secrets to be revealed.

BEST MOVIE: I’m going to cheat a bit here. My husband’s favorite movie is The Usual Suspects. He has watched it so many times that he knows every line by heart. I don’t re-watch movies – I see them once, love them and let them go. So I’ve seen Usual Suspects more than most movies (just to keep him company once in a while) and I’m wowed by it each time. Beside, I’m a little in love with Gabriel Byrne.

BEST LIFE MOMENT: My first day in Paris. Age 33, husband and baby in tow, second baby in the oven. Crazy time to move to Paris but why the hell not. I remember walking down those gorgeous streets, ogling those beautiful people, and thinking: this is my home. I live here.

And it felt like that almost every day for five years.

BEST ADVICE: Go Big or Go Home. A student of mine said that in class; I think I was the only one who had not heard the expression before. In my life I go big. In my writing I wasn’t challenging my characters to go big. So this one became my writing mantra.

Thanks, Ellen!

Jamie McGuire's 5 Best Evers

Our guest today: Jamie McGuire Why we love her: She's a total rock star with an inspiring self pub to traditional publishing story.  Not to mention she's an awesome writer too!

Her latest: Walking Disaster (our April 2nd!)

The Scoop: Finally, the highly anticipated follow-up to the New York Times bestseller Beautiful Disaster.

Can you love someone too much? Travis Maddox learned two things from his mother before she died: Love hard. Fight harder.In Walking Disaster, the life of Travis is full of fast women, underground gambling, and violence. But just when he thinks he is invincible, Abby Abernathy brings him to his knees. Every story has two sides. In Beautiful Disaster, Abby had her say. Now it’s time to see the story through Travis’s eyes.

Our thoughts: Whether or not you've read Beautiful Disaster, we think you'll love this.  Makes you feel like you're in back in college. (and who doesn't want to feel 21 again?)

Giveaway: FIVE copies BEFORE you can buy them!  Just leave a comment and you'll be entered to win. (Remember: our giveaways are US/Canada only).  We'll choose the winners on Sunday March 24th after 8am PST.

Fun fact: Jamie is married to a REAL cowboy and lives on 30 acres of land in Oklahoma!

Where to read more about Jamie:Her website, Facebook and Twitter.

CHICK LIT IS NOT DEAD PRESENTS...JAMIE MCGUIRE'S 5 BEST EVERS

Song: My dad was a member of the Nashville song writer’s association, and when I was little, he wrote a song called Jamie Dail. To hear my dad sing about how much he loves me … that is my all-time favorite song.

Book: Twilight is the only book I’ve read more than once. Even the hardback is well worn. The love story told in those pages is beautiful and simple and special, and it inspired me to write my first novel, Providence. Twilight inspired a lot of novels.

Movie: When I was in grade school, my mother was the manager of a video rental store. I used to lay on a pallet on the floor and pop in whatever VHS tape hadn’t been rented. I fell in love with scary movies during that time. Halloween, Cujo, Nightmare on Elm Street. But my favorite movie of all time has to be Aliens. I can recite almost every word of dialog in that movie. Sigourney Weaver is the baddest of all bad asses. I wanted to be Ripley when I grew up.

Life Moment: I can’t have just one. I have three children.

Piece of Advice: “Do what scares you.” I say it so often that my best friend made me a shadow box with that adage to put in my office. From sharing my stories with the public to transitioning into traditional publishing, something amazing came of my audacity.

Thanks, Jamie!

Gwendolen Gross's 5 Best Evers

Our guest today: Gwendolen Gross Why we love her: Her writing is beautifully lyrical!

Her latest:When She Was Gone

The scoop: What happened to Linsey Hart? When the Cornell-bound teenager disappears into the steamy blue of a late-summer morning, her quiet neighborhood is left to pick apart the threads of their own lives and assumptions.

Linsey’s neighbors are just ordinary people—but even ordinary people can keep terrible secrets hidden close. There’s Linsey’s mother, Abigail, whose door-to-door searching makes her social-outcast status painfully obvious; Mr. Leonard, the quiet, retired piano teacher with insomnia, who saw Linsey leave; Reeva, the queen bee of a clique of mothers, now obsessed with a secret interest; Timmy, Linsey’s lovelorn ex-boyfriend; and George, an eleven-year-old loner who is determined to find out what happened to his missing neighbor.

As the days of Linsey’s absence tick by, dread and hope threaten to tear a community apart. This luminous new novel by the acclaimed author of The Orphan Sister explores coming of age in the shadows of a suburban life, and what is revealed when the light suddenly shines in. . . .

Giveaway: FIVE copies!  Leave a comment and you'll be entered to win!  We'll choose the winners on Sunday, March 17th after 10am PST.  Good luck!

Fun Fact: Gwendolen LOVES horses--read her best life moment below to learn more!

Where you can read more about Gwendolen: Her website, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

CHICK LIT IS NOT DEAD PRESENTS...GWENDOLEN GROSS'S 5 BEST EVERS

BEST SONG: This is a complicated thing, music in general. I grew up listening to loud classical music, NPR, and the Beatles. I sat on the living room rug and mourned the fab four since I was born too late. I studied opera in college and loved it—but also loved a good U2 fest in the ‘sco.

Brandi Carlile’s “That Wasn’t Me” is a whole novel and makes me strong and weepy each playing. I’m a sucker for lyrics, I guess, but also for a hopeful melodic resolution. Folding up childhood and now, I’d say today’s favorite song is already almost an oldie, but so beloved for the lyrics and Jack Johnson’s absurdly sexy voice: “Do You Remember?” The locked bikes in the song, the piano that took up the living room—well, I met my husband in college, when we still rode bikes to class and cooked for 45 at the co-op, so I’m in love with that song every time I hear it the way I’m in love with my husband every time I see him.

BEST BOOK: This question stumps me every time, because books are like friends, and I don’t like to pick out a best. Still, here’s a best book I am considering this second: The Wife by Meg Wolitzer. Meg’s writing is so smart, funny, sly, and specific; I love all her books. But The Wife has the kind of slow-build-to-a-twist that makes me slap my thigh with delight just remembering it. She has a new one coming out soon—The Interestings. I can’t wait.

BEST MOVIE: “Singin’ In The Rain,” despite the odious apostrophe. I sing along, I dance it whenever there’s rain. So much lightness, so much joy in someone running up the walls and across the ceiling. I wanted to be in that movie. I was a short girl with a terrific voice and relatively little glamour, so Debbie Reynolds and her scarf wooed me. Funny faces and Moses Supposes—it never gets old to me.

BEST LIFE MOMENT: Many, many, especially birth of children and marriage proposal, but I’ll write about another one because I just watched the Budweiser Clydesdale commercial and it makes me ridiculously mushy:

When I was fourteen, my dad leased a horse for me for a month ($50, for you horse people out there). We didn’t have a trailer, so I rode George home from the farm to our summer house in Vermont, where I kept him in a cow barn at a neighbor’s house and rode him bareback every day. George was a huge, out of shape quarter horse, and I had to climb atop the hood of the car to get on his back. There was a lot of creative boredom in Vermont—my sisters and I read everything we could from the Greensboro library and concocted our own ginger ale (spicy! Exploding bottles!) and made face paint by grinding up rocks with other rocks. My sister was away the summer of George, and I remember one ride in particular (the visiting the neighbor’s new baby trip where he got stung by a whole swarm of bees does not rank in the best column!) where I went down the dirt road and over Barr Hill on a dirt track where we cross-country skied in winter. There was an old apple orchard where we stopped for a rest, the smell of timothy grass and banks of Shire-worthy moss, hills like green-back bears, and when George jumped over a fallen log, it felt like flying.

BEST ADVICE: Make mistakes. Having studied music—which, like many arts, has a history of perfectionist pedagogy, I know that sometimes the mistakes are the most beautiful interpretations. Sometimes they’re mistakes. Sometimes all the colors muddled together just doesn’t look good and you end up with mud, but sometimes the mistakes are where the joy lives. Also, I love being a beginner, because it gives me permission to screw up, and with permission to screw up, I’ll try jumping log to log and make it over the whole river in one breath. I seem to have lost my metaphor here, but what I mean to say is that fear of mistakes can keep you from ever leaving the ground. This works with kids, too—sometimes they have to do for the joy of doing, not because they’re always striving for best, most perfect, strongest, fastest, winning. Those things are not always the most interesting or enduring.

I hadn’t done much riding since George when my daughter decided she wanted to take lessons. Five years later, we have become crazy horse people, and we own a large pony/small horse who has dumped us in the dust because he’s afraid of a noise, or he doesn’t want to jump that crossrail, just enough times to remind us that it’s a collaborative process, flying across the earth. When I’m afraid of mistakes, he knows the minute I come to collect him in the paddock, and he is nervous, too. Confidence begets confidence, as long as there are no scary blue tarps rustling unexpectedly in the wind…

Thanks, Gwendolen!

Blog of the Month: Chick Lit Plus

We're excited to announce that we've selected Chick Lit Plus as the Blog of the Month for March! We love the ladies behind this blog: Samantha March and Sara Palacios! Welcome!

The 411:

Samantha March started Chick Lit Plus in October of 2009 as a seed of an idea – to help her become a published author. Already an avid reader, she loved expressing her views about books and talking about writing, so it seemed obvious to jump on the blog explosion. She first started reviewing books she found at the library, and after only one month of blogging was offered to interview Jackie Collins. Since then, Chick Lit Plus has expanded to include two associate reviewers, a blog tour company CLP Blog Tours, and a publishing company, Marching Ink.

Why do people love Chick Lit Plus?

Chick Lit Plus celebrates many aspects of books and women in general. We love giving shout outs to authors and bloggers alike, and we love to encourage people to make your own opportunities!

What is unique about Chick Lit Plus?

Chick Lit Plus doesn’t just focus on books and writing – this is where the “Plus” comes in. We also write articles on celebrities, fashion, beauty, and fitness.

Where to read more about Chick Lit Plus:

Facebook and Twitter

What inspires you?

Knowing there is no glass ceiling anymore. We live in a world where we make our own opportunities and strive to remember that every day.

If you were stranded on a desert island, what celebrity would you want to be with you?

Samantha: Channing Tatum – how obvious is that one, ladies?

Sara: Do I have to pick just one? I would go with Tim Duncan (Go Spurs Go!), Emily Giffin (huge fan) and Paula Deen (because there might be buttah on the island).

What's one inanimate object you can't live without?

Samantha: Laptop  - it is my life.

Sara: My iPhone. Hands down.

What books are you adding to your bookshelf this year?

Samantha: Waaaay too many list! I’m excited for Allie Larkin, Sarah Pekkanen, Sarah Jio, and Anita Hughes. Also I’m hoping to add another from Marching Ink’s Cat Lavoie, CLP’s own Sara Palacios, and possibly even myself this year!

Sara: 2013 is going to be a big year for Chick Lit and I am so excited for the following titles: The Accidental Husband by Jane Green, Covet by Tracey Garvis Graves, Revenge Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger and The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell

Thanks, ladies!

Jodi Picoult giveaway!

The author: Jodi Picoult The book: The Storyteller

The scoop: Sage Singer is a baker, a loner, until she befriends an old man who's particularly beloved in her community. Josef Weber is everyone's favorite retired teacher and Little League coach. One day he asks Sage for a favor: to kill him. Shocked, Sage refuses—and then he confesses his darkest secret – he deserves to die because he had been a Nazi SS guard. And Sage's grandmother is a Holocaust survivor. How do you react to evil living next door? Can someone who's committed truly heinous acts ever atone with subsequent good behavior? Should you offer forgiveness to someone if you aren't the party who was wronged? And, if Sage even considers the request, is it revenge…or justice?

The excerpt: Read an excerpt here >>

The giveaway: 5 copies! Just leave a comment to be entered to win. We'll select the winners this Sunday, March 10th after 12pm PST.

Where you can read more about Jodi: Her website, Facebook and Twitter.

Happy Friday, y'all!