This is my symphony

What I read & what I lived …

The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches (NetGalley)Alan Bradleyrelease date: January 14, 2014 SPOILER ALERT: Don’t read a word further if you’re worried about a spoiler because on page 4 we find out about Harriet, and the rest of the novel turns on that news. I’ve included a jump break for your protection. Father’s last words …

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Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock (NetGalley) Mathew Quick First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.  The blurbs on this YA novel are pretty impressive: “riveting”, “harrowing”, “beautifully written”. And with a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly and a movie deal in the works, I worried the hype …

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Noah’s Rainy Day (NetGalley) Sandra Brannan release date: Sept. 3, 2013 Although normally being called a vegetable or broken might hurt my feelings, for the first time in my life, I was relieved that someone thought of me that way. I knew that if the scaredy-cat neighbor believed I couldn’t think or speak -being nothing more than a vegetable–the …

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I’m guessing if you read my post from about a year ago, it would sound very much the same as this: the summer is waning, I’m hustling to get ready for school, my reading has slacked off, I’m behind posting (read: I haven’t blogged a darn review all month!). Am I right?! So here are …

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Clara’s Heart (NetGalley) Joseph Olshan ebook released July 2013 Joseph Olshan’s Clara’s Heart is probably best known as the 1988 movie starring Whoopi Goldberg, which, coincidentally, I’ve not seen. So it was with fresh eyes and ears that I read the novel, recently released as an ebook. The story centers on David and his parents as …

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Gloria (NetGalley) Kerry Young release date: July 16, 2013 Gloria’s story covers nearly thirty years, from the horrifying murder at the novel’s beginning to her discovery of a brother she never knew at its end. And in between is a series of hills and valleys, losses and gains. A runaway at sixteen, Gloria raises her …

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The DressmakerKate Alcott A poor, but talented (and spunky!), young seamstress; a wealthy (and imperious!) fashion designer; the doomed Titanic and overcrowded lifeboats–what’s not to like? Kate Alcott’s The Dressmaker is a novel with the same flavor as The Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie Society. Base it on historical fact, populate it with sympathetic characters, …

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How it all beganPenelope Lively Ever since I turned the last page of Penelope Lively’s Booker Prize winning novel Moon Tiger nearly 25 years ago, I was hooked. Her peek inside modern British culture was a look at a world that probably no longer exists. Lively’s characters are complex–especially her women–and drive the story; I’ve often …

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