Congratulations to the winners of the MY LITTLE PHONY Giveaway:

****JENNY ROOT and DAWN****

email me your mailing address at Jocelyn at Bookfinds dot com and I will have them sent out right away.

The first book I ever remember reading on my own, for a school assignment, was Mr. Popper’s Penguins. Jim Carrey has reportedly signed on to star as Mr. Popper in the film adaptation of the classic. Here is the release directly from The Hollywood Reporter:

The popular 1938 children’s book “Mr. Popper’s Penguins” finally is marching toward the big screen, with Jim Carrey starring as a businessman who inherits a flock of penguins.

Carrey’s casting follows a search for a lead actor that seemed to last longer than a forced march to the South Pole.

Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Owen Wilson were among those who circled an updated adaptation that will be produced by John Davis for Fox before talks with Carrey heated up this summer.

The film is on the fast track at Fox and will begin production in October in New York.

Mark Waters is on board to direct a script by Sean Anders and John Morris that modernizes the whimsical story.

In the book, a house painter who dreams of traveling writes a letter to Admiral Drake, who answers him on a radio show and then sends him a penguin captured near the South Pole. Then he gets a second penguin, and that leads to a dozen more and chaos at the painter’s house.

To pay for all this, the painter trains the birds to perform, but his adventure in showbiz doesn’t go well and he eventually travels with the admiral back to the North Pole to release the birds into the wild.

In the new version, Carrey plays a New York businessman who receives a half-dozen penguins who wreak havoc on his business and apartment before he finds important life lessons in their presence.

Carrey most recently was heard onscreen as the voice of Scrooge in the CGI remake of “A Christmas Carol,” which opened in December. His most recent live-action role was in Warner Bros.’ “Yes Man” which opened in late 2008 and grossed nearly $100 million in the U.S. and about $226 million worldwide, good for anyone else but only average for Carrey.

Carrey also has completed a starring role as a gay man in “I Love You Phillip Morris,” which screened last year at Sundance and Cannes and has opened overseas but does not have a U.S. release date.

Carrey had been rumored to be considering a half-dozen or more other movies, but his publicist said Friday that there are no other movies to which he is attached.

Taylor Schilling

Taylor Schilling (Mercy) beat out actresses including Abbie Cornish and Katie Cassidy to score the female lead opposite Zac Efron in The Lucky One, an adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks novel. The book tells the story of a Marine (Efron) who attributes his survival of three tours of duty in Iraq to a photograph he’s kept of a woman (Schilling) he doesn’t even know. When he gets back to the U.S., he sets out to find her. Dear John meets Cinderella. {New York Magazine}

Elle Magazine

Let’s Take the Long Way Home by Gail Caldwell

Juliet by Anne Fortier (front of book and elle.com)

The Wave by Susan Casey

Quiet as They Come by Angie Chau

The Book of the Dead by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson

Gold Boy, Emerald Girl by Yiyun Li

Room by Emma Donoghue

Strangers at the Feast by Jennifer Vanderbes

Salvation City by Sigrid Nunez

At the Dark End of the Street by Danielle McGuire (article)

Unbearable Lightness by Portia de Rossi

Some Sing, Some Cry, Ntozake Shange

Fall of Giants by Ken Follett

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

Delusions of Gender by Cordelia Fine

Brain Storm by Rebecca Jordan-Young

Vanity Fair

Nicholas Sparks profiled

Salvation City by Sigrid Nunez

Dogfight, a Love Story by Matt Burgess

Vida by Patricia Engel

All is Forgotten, Nothing is Lost by Lan Samantha Chang

The Honor Code by Kwame Anthony Appiah

Big Girls Don’t Cry by Rebecca Traister

Check, Please by AJ Stern

The Daily Show’s Earth by Jon Stewart

The Pleasure Seekers by Tishani Doshi (in brief)

Empire of Dreams by Scott Eyman (in brief)

A Secret Kept by Tatiana de Rosnay (brief)

The Odious Ogre by Norton Juster ( brief

Time For Dinner by Stang and Rosenstrach (brief

Dreaming in Chinese by Deborah Fallows (b_

Sarah: The LIfe of Sarah Bernhardt ( b

Working Together by Michael Eisner ( b

The Temptress by Paul Spicer (b

My Bright Midnight by Josh Russell (b

The Elephant’s JOurney by Jose Saramago (b

Skippy Dies by Paul Murray (b

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

O, The Oprah Magazine

Juliet by Fortier

I’d Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman

Designated Fat Girl by Jennifer Joyner

Hollywood by Larry McMurtry

The Lady Matador’s Hotel by Cristina Garcia

A Curable Romantic by Joseph Skibell

Bitter in the Mouth by Monique Truong

Ape House by Sara Gruen

Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay

Book of Days by Emily Fox Gordon

Getting to Happy by Terry McMillan

The Widower’s Tale by Julia Glass

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

Dreaming in Chinese by Deborah Fallows

Room by Emma Donaghue

The Wave by Susan Casey

Packing for Mars by Mary Roach

(Books that Made a Difference Brian Williams)

Isaac’s Storm

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid

No Ordinary Time

The Promise by Jonathan ALter

The Great Bridge by McCullough

Medal of Honor

Personal History

Taking Charge and Reaching for Glory by Beschloss

GLAMOUR MAGAZINE

Rock What You’ve Got by Katherine Schwarzenegger

(7 Best Literary Heroines of All Time)

Little Women

Jane Eyre

Harry Potter

Sula

Pride and Prejudice

Eva Luna

Lysistrata

Entertainment Weekly

Juliet by Anne Fortier

Mentor by Tom Grimes

The Good Daughters by Joyce Maynard

Last Night at Chateau Marmont by Lauren Weisberger

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem

Parallel Play by Tim Page

The Self Suffient-Ishe Bible by Andy & Dave Hamilton

The Sisters Sinai by Janet Soskice

That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo

Where the Money Went by Kevin Canty

Good Housekeeping

Juliet by Anne Fortier

Patti LuPone: A Memoir

Ape House by Sara Gruen

A Secret Kept by Tatiana de Rosnay

Vogue

Sarah: The Life of Sarah Bernhardt by Robert Gottlieb

Gold Boy, Emerald Girl by Yiyun Li

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

Grace Coddington, the creative director of Vogue and unexpected star of THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE is penning her memoir. Coddington said in an interview with WWD that she hopes the memoir will deal with the history of fashion and not just be about her. Leave it to Grace to put herself in the background and put the fashion up front. Anyone who watched the documentary about Vogue Magazine knows that Grace is the unrecognized star of Vogue. Coddington and her co-writer, Men’s Vogue editor-in-chief Jay Fielden, will be shopping the book around this fall. We will keep you updated on the status of what could be one of the most intriguing books on fashion from one of fashion’s most intriguing women.

To get you ready for back-to-school, we are running a SUPER SUPER giveaway. Two (2) copies of MY LITTLE PHONY by Lisi Harrison. The contest deadline is Friday, August 27th. The rules are simple. Leave a comment. If YOU have a blog, link to this post for an automatic THREE (3) entries.  (If you already entered in the previous post, don’t worry, you’re already entered…but feel free to comment again…it will only increase your odds)

For himself, he picked up the eagerly anticipated, highly praised and aptly titled “Freedom” by Jonathan Franzen. (This book does not go on sale for another two weeks but the store owner gave Obama an early review copy)

He even signed a copy of his book, “Dreams from my Father,” for a fourteen year old boy.

Such a Pretty Face

Cathy Lamb

Kensington

August 1, 2010

In this warm, funny, thoroughly candid novel, acclaimed author Cathy Lamb introduces an unforgettable heroine who’s half the woman she used to be, and about to find herself for the first time…

Two years and 170 pounds ago, Stevie Barrett was wheeled into an operating room for surgery that most likely saved her life. Since that day, a new Stevie has emerged, one who walks without wheezing, plants a garden for self-therapy, and builds and paints fantastical wooden chairs. At thirty-five, Stevie is the one thing she never thought she’d be: thin.

But for everything that’s changed, some things remain the same. Stevie’s shyness refuses to melt away. She still can’t look her neighbors’ gorgeous great-nephew in the eye. The Portland law office where she works remains utterly dysfunctional, as does her family—the aunt, uncle, and cousins who took her in when she was a child. To top it off, her once supportive best friend clearly resents her weight loss.

By far the biggest challenge in Stevie’s new life lies in figuring out how to define her new self. Collaborating with her cousins to plan her aunt and uncle’s problematic fortieth anniversary party, Stevie starts to find some surprising answers—about who she is, who she wants to be, and how the old Stevie evolved in the first place. And with each revelation, she realizes the most important part of her transformation may not be what she’s lost, but the courage and confidence she’s gathering, day by day.

As achingly honest as it is witty, Such A Pretty Face is a richly insightful novel of one woman’s search for love, family, and acceptance, of the pain we all carry—and the wonders that can happen when we let it go at last.

The Doctor and the Diva

Adrienne McDonnell

Pamela Dorman Books, Penguin

Release Date: July 2010

A breathtaking novel of romantic obsession, longing and one woman’s choice between motherhood and her operatic calling

It is 1903. Dr. Ravell is a young Harvard-educated obstetrician with a growing reputation for helping couples conceive. He has treated women from all walks of Boston society, but when Ravell meets Erika-an opera singer whose beauty is surpassed only by her spellbinding voice-he knows their doctor-patient relationship will be like none he has ever had.

After struggling for years to become pregnant, Erika believes there is no hope. Her mind is made up: she will leave her prominent Bostonian husband to pursue her career in Italy, a plan both unconventional and risky. But becoming Ravell’s patient will change her life in ways she never could have imagined.

Lush and stunningly realized, The Doctor and the Diva moves from snowy Boston to the jungles of Trinidad to the gilded balconies of Florence. This magnificent debut is a tale of passionate love affairs, dangerous decisions, and a woman’s irreconcilable desires as she is forced to choose between the child she has always longed for and the opera career she cannot live without. Inspired by the author’s family history, the novel is sensual, sexy, and heart-stopping in its bittersweet beauty.

SUMMER SHIFT

Lynn Kiele Bonasia

Touchstone Books, Simon & Schuster

Release Date: June 1, 2010

Forty-four-year-old Cape Cod clam bar owner Mary Hopkins is stuck in the cycle of her seasonal business; overwhelmed by the relentless influx of new names and fresh young faces, she feels as if life is passing her by.

In the first days of the summer season, a young waitress’s tragic accident stirs up unresolved pain from Mary’s past, leaving her longing for connection. At the same time, Mary’s life is further upended as she begins to suspect her beloved great-aunt, the one person in the world who loves her unconditionally, is descending into Alzheimer’s disease. Then, in walks Dan, a lost love—perhaps the greatest of her life— returning to the Cape after disappearing years before without an explanation. As Mary faces these challenges and losses, it’s her rekindled romance with Dan and her burgeoning unlikely friendships with a warm, eccentric collection of local characters that keep her afloat.

Set against the backdrop of Cape Cod sand, sun, and seafood, Summer Shift is the story of a woman’s struggle to find the peace, love, and human connection that have eluded her for decades.

Mothers & Other Liars

Amy Bourret

St. Martin’s Press

Release Date: August 3, 2010

Ten years ago, Ruby Leander was a drifting nineteen-year-old who made a split-second decision at an Oklahoma rest stop. Fast forward nine years: Ruby and her daughter Lark live in New Mexico. Lark is a precocious, animal loving imp, and Ruby has built a family for them with a wonderful community of friends and her boyfriend of three years. Life is good. Until the day Ruby reads a magazine article about parents searching for an infant kidnapped by car-jackers. Then Ruby faces a choice no mother should have to make. A choice that will change both her and Lark’s lives forever.

In some of her books, Gussin uses important social and historical events to set the turn of events like 9/11 or the 1967 Detroit Riots. Gussin also explores the boundaries of morality and empathy.  In her previous novel, The Test, when a billionaire dies, he tests his greedy relatives to see how far they will go to inherit his money.

In her upcoming novel, And Then There Was One, Gussin explores every parents’ worst nightmare.  Katie and Scott are blessed with triplets, but one night when the three daughters go to a movie and only one comes back.  This emotional novel deals with grief but also the guilt of the one child who remains.

Patricia Gussin is not to be ignored because her books will captivate, intrigue and keep you turning the pages with rapid speed. But Gussin will also make you think about the world you’re living in.