Fairy Tale Interrupted: A Memoir of Life, Love, and Loss

The release date for this book is January 24th.
I am a self-proclaimed addict of the Kennedys, and I am not ashamed to admit it. I was in fifth grade when our only Catholic president was assasinated. I will never forget that day, November 22, 1963. Since then I have read several books about our late President and his family. I have Jackie Kennedy's new book on my list and now I will put this one there. Can't wait to find time to read these...

To everyone else, John F. Kennedy Jr. may have been American royalty, but to RoseMarie Terenzio he was an entitled nuisance—and she wasn’t afraid to let him know it. RoseMarie was his personal assistant, his publicist, and one of his closest confidantes during the last five years of his life. In this, her first memoir, she bravely recounts her own Fairy Tale Interrupted, describing the unlikely friendship between a blue-collar girl from the Bronx and John F. Kennedy Jr.
Funny, moving, and fresh, her memoir is a unique account by the woman who was with him through dating, politics, the paparazzi, and his marriage to Carolyn Bessette. Her street smarts, paired with her loyalty, candor, and relentless work ethic, made her the trusted insider to America’s most famous man.

After John and Carolyn’s tragic, untimely deaths on July 16, 1999, RoseMarie’s whole world came crashing down around her, along with her hopes for the future. Only now does she feel she can tell her story in a book that is at once a moving tribute and a very real picture of her friend and employer.

Many books have sought to capture John F. Kennedy Jr.’s life. None has been as intimate or as honest as Fairy Tale Interrupted, a true portrait of the man behind the icon—patient, protective, surprisingly goofy, occasionally thoughtless and self-involved, yet capable of extraordinary generosity and kindness. She reveals what John really had in mind for his political future, how he handled media attention, and the reality of life behind the scenes at George magazine. She also shares how she dealt with the ultra-secretive planning of John and Carolyn’s wedding on Cumberland Island—and the heartbreak of their deaths.

Fairy Tale Interrupted is a deeply loving story and a fascinating adventure, filled with warmth, humor, insight, and five years’ worth of unforgettable memories.

Group Picture-Before I Go to Sleep

Before I Go to Sleep was a great suspense-filled novel...definitely a page turner! Some things felt a little far fetched when we really thought about them, but still a good book. Congratulations to SJ Watson on a great debut novel!

2012 Reading Goals

Before we get too far into 2012, do you have any reading goals for the new year? I didn't do so well with my reading goals last year. Here they were:

1| Improve my # of books completed in the 52 Challenge (>30). I actually read <30 in 2011.

2 | Complete all 4 seasonal challenges this year. I was unable to read The Millenium Trilogy.

3 | Read at least 10 books from my 100 list. I didn't complete any from the list!

4 | Start at least one more new book club tradition. I'm sure there's something we can count for this!

5 | Apply my One Little Word, CHANGE, to my reading this year. I did start reading mostly electronic books; I guess that counts.

For 2012, I guess I need to set more reasonable goals!

1 | Read an average of 2 books per month; I'll shoot for 25.

2 | Read 3 books from my 100 list.

3 | Apply my One Little Word, ACCOMPLISH, to my reading this year.

Anyone else have reading goals for 2012?

Whispers from the Ashes [Kindle Edition] by Patricia Hester

Since we all have the ability to read e-versions of books I thought I'd hilight a book that could be delivered wirelessly. It's on Amazon for $4.99 or if you have their rime membership it's free.

Whispers from Ashes
What a delightful coming of age novel by a new author. It is a fast moving story about Molly, a young girl searching for answers from the past as she moves forward to the future. Molly is a member of close knit family in the 1950's. She has a loving mom who has so much love to give that she shares it with her children as well as the children of other family members. She has a warmhearted dad who is probably an alcoholic but she constantly forgives his binges because of her deep love and respect for him. Molly's stories of family hardships and good times are entwined with a family secret she is attempting to solve by eavesdropping on private family conversations and trips to the library searching old newspapers. This appears to be is an innocent novel but at times there are shocking revelations. A very good read.

February Book Choices!

It's already time to select our 2nd book of 2012!

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford | Paperback, 290 pages

In 1986, Henry lee joins a crowd outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle's Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has discovered the belongings of Japanese families who were sent to internment camps during World War II. As the owner displays and unfurls a Japanese parasol, Henry, a Chinese American, remembers a young Japanese girl from his childhood in the 1940s -- Keiko Okabe, with whom he forged a bond of friendship and innocent love that transcended the prejudices of their Old World ancestors. After Keiko and her family were evacuated to the internment camps, she and Henry could only hope that their promise to each other would be kept. Now, forty years later, Henry explores the hotel's basement for the Okabe family's belongings and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot even begin to measure. His search will take him on a journey to revisit the sacrifices he has made for family, for love, for country.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet has been an IndieBound NEXT List Selection, a Borders Original Voices Selection, a Barnes & Noble Book Club Selection, Pennie’s Pick at Costco, a Target Bookmarked Club Pick, and a National Bestseller. It was also named the #1 Book Club Pick for Fall 2009/Winter 2010 by the American Booksellers Association. It has a 3.89 rating on Goodreads.

Summer Sisters by Judy Blume | Paperback, 416 pages

In the summer of 1977, Victoria Leonard’s world changes forever when Caitlin Somers chooses her as a friend. Dazzling, reckless Caitlin welcomes Vix into the heart of her sprawling, eccentric family, opening doors to a world of unimaginable privilege, sweeping her away to vacations on Martha’s Vineyard, an enchanting place where the two friends become “summer sisters.”


Now, years later, Vix is working in New York City. Caitlin is getting married on the Vineyard. And the early magic of their long, complicated friendship has faded. But Caitlin begs Vix to come to her wedding, to be her maid of honor. And Vix knows that she will go—because Vix wants to understand what happened during that last shattering summer. And, after all these years, she needs to know why her best friend—her summer sister—still has the power to break her heart.

Summer Sisters is one of three adult novels that Judy Blume has written. She got the idea for the novel after spending a summer with her family at Martha's Vineyard. It has a 3.66 rating on Goodreads.

Joy for Beginners by Erica Bauermeister | Hardcover, 288 pages

At an intimate, festive dinner party in Seattle, six women gather to celebrate their friend Kate's recovery from cancer. Wineglass in hand, Kate strikes a bargain with them. To celebrate her new lease on life, she'll do the one thing that's always terrified her: white-water rafting. But if she goes, all of them will also do something they always swore they'd never do-and Kate is going to choose their adventures.

Shimmering with warmth, wit, and insight, Joy for Beginners is a celebration of life: unexpected, lyrical, and deeply satisfying.

Joy for Beginners was a Library Journal pick for top ten women’s fiction of 2011. It has a 3.62 rating on Goodreads.