Love this Local Bookstore! Page 158 Books

I know this is for book reviews but it's a new year and there is so much reading time ahead for us all! Mostly I am reading my Book club choice this month, "Nobody's Fool" by Richard Russo. Even though I read it quite a few years ago and saw the adorable movie, I wanted to re-read it again. I try to do that as long as it's been a few years since I've had my eyes on it. Now that Christmas is behind us, there should be lots of time to indulge ourselves in the wonderful world of reading. I hope so at least. It may take another ice storm to give me the time I want, between my family, our store, Signarama/Raleigh, writing and oh, yeah, life. 

Living in Wake Forest, I love to support the local businesses as often as possible. The local restaurants seem to get the larger piece of my spending pie, but downtown is so lovely I try to get there as often as I can. I had been in Page 158 Books a few times but had not had the chance to talk with the owners. At a recent author book talk, I was fortunate enough to hear two wonderful authors discuss their books and many other things with owner, Sue Lucey. Sue does a great job with the interview and asked the questions that I wanted to hear answered, and many I had not thought of but also wanted to know. She had a community TV show at one time before moving here and it shows. She runs the author visits like the pro she is. 

But don't get the wrong idea, this is not a big, cold operation. When you enter the small store, you will get it. There are more books than you can shake a stick it, and Sue and Dave will help you find whatever you are looking for and more. When I went in that night in November for the book talk, I had only planned to buy Pat Conroy's last book, "A Lowcountry Heart: Reflections on a Writing Life." I am supposed to be on restrictions until I read some of my previous purchases. But after listening to the talk, and then talking to both Sue and Dave, I walked out the door with around 6 or 7 books! Don't judge, some of the books were gifts for Christmas and they had awesome suggestions. 

Sue escaped, like me, into reading at a young age and started and joined book clubs her adult life. When she and Dave moved to Wake Forest in 2007, she wanted to start a literary festival. When the Renaissance Center opened, she approached them and came up with Author Interviews once a month. At that time, she worked with Storytellers Bookstore to coordinate some of the events. One day she mentioned to the owner that she would love to own a bookstore one day and two days later the owner emailed Sue with an offer she and Dave couldn't resist - Page 158 Books was born. 

The name was suggested to them by a good friend, Andy Ellis, who owns a marketing firm in Wake Forest. You can visit them at 158 South White Street, Wake Forest! Can you figure out where the name came from? They are open on Monday - Wednesday from 10am - 6pm, on Thursday - Friday from 10am - 7pm and on Saturday from 10am - 6pm. They are closed on Sundays. They continue to use their name to promote the store by having their visiting authors sign their books on Page 158 which usually turns out to hold a turning point in their story Sue told me. And have they hosted some amazing authors, from Diane Chamberlain, to Vivian Howard and Ashley Christiansen. Check out their full calendar on their website or Facebook page. Sue recommended some of her favorite books for this blog, "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck and "The Bright Edge of the World" by Eowyn Ivey. I added that one to my To-Read List!  

Even though they love their location, a larger building across the street has caught their eye. Plans to refurbish it with a soda fountain and large upstairs room for author visits is on their wish list. But for now, they love being at 158 S White St. With bookclubs, adult coloring events, cookbook clubs, and author visits, there is lots to see and do at Page 158 Books. If you don't have time to get in, they can special order just about anything. Check out their amazing online store or call with requests. You can find them on Facebook, @Page158Books or on the web, page158books.com. Whatever you are looking for Sue and Dave can handle it. But more than anything after you meet them, you will know why they are a big success from the warm feeling and love for books and people that you will feel yourself when you walk away. Visit them today!  

Patty Pick for 1/12/17 is Happy New Year of Reading!

Winter is definitely here and that gives me a lot of time 
to write and read!! Finished "The Opposite of Everyone" by 
Joshilyn Jackson. She remains one of my favorite authors. 
This book tells another tale of a strong, but vulnerable woman with her heart in the right place. Joshilyn has written some of my favorite books like, "Between, Georgia" and "A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty" and "Gods in Alabama". 
I also loved her 2013 novel, "Someone Else's Love Story". 
It starts hard and fast with a robbery at the mini-mart and goes from there. You just 
can't go wrong if you like to read. A novel by her, with her quick Southern wit and terrific sense of family will be the ticket, they are not family in always the most typical form either. 

I also have a very special book awaiting my reading time, "Small Great Things" by Jodi Picoult. The first time I read one of her books, "My Sister's Keeper", I was blown away. 
Not your Southern genre per se, but she portrays amazing characters, situations, and endings. She always has a twist that you will not see coming and sometimes it will not come until the last few pages. Talk about page turner! My daughter gave me her latest book for Christmas and it is burning a hole in my reading schedule! I can't wait to get to it. She usually picks current topics and this one is about race relations, something we have all heard so much about lately. Too much - I thought we had come further in our country, but sorry to say that we have not. 

At least this weather gives me lots of time to work on my latest book, "One in a Million" 
about Lisa Shank's amazing recovery from a rare and deadly disease. You will not believe her story!  Hope you all are staying warm and dry and reading! When is Spring coming? 

Patty Pick for My One Word Resolution for 2017 is........

It's that favorite time of year for most of us! Between Thanksgiving and Christmas and 
on into New Years, we are all in festive moods, ready to spend time with our family
and friends. This time of year also bring memories of Holidays past. We seem to turn back to the childhood traditions that we loved when we were growing up. In my family we bake the same cookies, make the same time-tested and delicious recipes for our big meals, and never forget those traditions like movies on Christmas Day. This time of year can also lead us to turn the attention to our inner selves to think back over our year and assess what we did and where we went and the relationships we have. 

I always like to read a book with a Christmas theme and had picked out a good one from what I hear - "A Lowcountry Christmas" by Mary Alice Monroe. I wanted a pick-me-up and this heartwarming story and the author's lovely writing style seemed to fit the ticket perfectly. Unfortunately this year for too many reasons to mention, I failed to even do that. In fact, I seemed to have failed to read much at all. I could blame this on my writing, but I am not sure that is the complete reason. 

Our lives are constantly being challenged with electronic devices. Yes, we can read our 
book on our Kindles, Nooks and whatnot, but that is not what I am talking about. I seem 
to find myself online in some form or fashion and neglecting the very thing that I champion and work hard to be a part of - being an author. I write books, I am part of a book club, I usually read a couple of books a month. I blog for heavens sake about books! The point being that what is so mesmerizing that I am not reading as much -that darned internet. I am spending so much time trying to learn my craft, learn how to connect with my readers and other writers and yes, just having fun, that I am not writing or reading nearly enough.  

So my one word resolution for 2017 is Simplify.  I want to simplify my life, enjoy the
little things, read more, enjoy time with my family more and stop trying to do it all. 
I want to clean out the debris that is cluttering my desk, my store, my closet, and yes, 
my brain. I want to clean out, so to speak, manage to "spring clean" myself and my 
surroundings. I am hoping that this does not mean I clean up and then cannot find anything at all as has happened in the past. I plan to simplify what I do and stop trying to do everything and accept some help when I need it. I plan to simplify my writing and go back to what I love - long hand. I know that seems odd since you are reading my blog on a computer of some kind, but when I write a book or story, I need time for my brain and 
fingers to sync and often with a computer keyboard that syncing just seems hard to do. So back to my pen and paper style, that allows me to think at the same time. Eventually it will make it to the laptop but not until I have the first draft. 

I don't plan to just simplify my writing, I want to simplify my whole life so I can truly enjoy it. I hope I am successful but if not I will not beat myself up. Life can be hard enough without that. So let me hear what your one word resolution or your multi-word
resolutions are for 2017. And if you have any wonderful tips to share with me on ways to simplify my life, by all means please pass those along. I am going to need them!! 
Can't wait to hear from you all.
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year, 
Patty 

Best Books of 2016

Here we go, another list of Best Books of 2016 and I am so far behind in reading them! 
These books are pulled from multiple internet sources and my own personal 
"To Read" lists. I am going to include some of the best books that I have read this 
year too in a separate list. Please read my reviews for more information on these books. The fact is there seem to be more books out there that I want to read and less and less time to do so! 

I know you are all eagerly awaiting my own book, The Distance Between Us, to come out and hopefully 2017 will be the year. Keep your fingers crossed! There is also a fiction book in the works and a non-fiction book that I am writing with Lisa Satterfield Shank. She is a walking, talking miracle! If you liked Brain on Fire:My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan, you are going to want to read this book! Our tentative title is One in A Million. 
Now on with the lists: 

2016 Books Not to Miss: 
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanthi
The Mothers by Brit Bennett
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
small great things by Jodi Picoult
My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley
The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
Redemption Road by John Hart 
The Whistler by John Grisham 

Best Book Choices of what I've Read this Year: 
Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty
Before I Go To Sleep by SJ Watson
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
The Gates Manor Band by Jan Hemby
Just Mercy:A Story of Justice & Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
Pretending to Dance by Diane Chamberlain
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki 

I know there are others that need to be on this lists but browsing for your own 
books is always part of the fun! Happy Reading and here's to a wonderful 2017 
of books. Happy Holidays to all!

Thankful

There are many things to be thankful for on this glorious Thanksgiving Day, but today I want to
thank my family. My husband and my daughter who make this day and every day before
and after this one very special. They not only give me the most joy but they are my biggest cheerleaders.

When I told them I really wanted to write down the books and stories I had stored in my head over the years, they encouraged me to do it. My daughter suggested I start with a blog, find something else I love and just write and write. Thus this blog, bookreaderforlife, was born. How did she get so smart?

When my husband watched me write my first book longhand while using anything available to me - like an upside-down tray, while sitting in the bed, and just about anywhere else I could find a quiet
spot, what did he do? Buy me one of the most comfortable leather chairs and suggested I change our
old "computer room/extra bedroom" into my writing room. How do you compete with these two?

Yes, I am very blessed. The world is not perfect and everything does not always go the way you plan,
but at the end of the day if you have a family like mine you are very lucky indeed. Sometimes the news this world brings you and the meanness of people around you may be hard to bear, but just look around at your family and know that you are one lucky human being. So when life gives you lemons, hard knocks, or blessings, remember who to share them with. Your family will always be in your corner.
At least mine will, and I am very thankful.

Patty Pick for 11/18/16 is "Truly Madly Guilty" by Liane Moriarty

Liane Moriarty's latest book, "Truly Madly Guilty" was a good read! 
The book centers around an incident that happens at a neighborhood BBQ one afternoon on an ordinary street with ordinary people. Ms. Moriarty has a nice way of dancing around what really happened and keeping you in suspense until well into the book. You must keep reading to find out what the incident was and to see the effect on the characters as the chapters go by.  

One thing about her novels that I have thoroughly enjoyed is her 
character development. She has a way of writing, that most of the 
good writers do, that helps you live inside the character's head - to really imagine these people as someone you know. You develop a relationship with them and you get invested in their lives. In this book, I had a hard time finding one character that I liked at first, but by the end I like most of them.

You would think that tragedy would bind people together, but from personal experience I agree with the direction of this book that hardship and tragedy usually pushes people apart. Don't ask me to explain this strange human truism but it does work out that way more times than not. With Clementine, Sam, Ruby, Holly, Erika, Oliver, Vid, Tiffany & Dakota all in attendance at the meal in question, you get different points of view of the accident and different reactions. 

Not to spoil the plot for you, but it does take a while to get to the what actually happened. Along the way, you get to know the ends and outs of their lives and how they all ended up there that afternoon, but I really, really wanted it to get to the point. But 
by the end of the book, I got the point finally. The "getting there" is the story. It's really 
the story of all of us, how we cope, react, and go on after the bumps in our lives. 

So while this one doesn't use a sledge hammer to make the point, hang on until the 
end and you will get it. A solid 4 Stars!

Patty Pick for 11/10/16 is "Before I Go to Sleep" by SJ Watson

"Before I Go To Sleep" by SJ Watson engendered a lot of discussion among my book club members. We wanted to read a scary book for October, but a lot of us don't like bloody and scary. We once read a very scary book by Dean Koontz called, "Intensity". My advice is only read this one if you are not easily scared and serial killers don't bother you. I will never look at an RV the same again, on the highway or anywhere for that matter. But I digress, back to 
"Before I Go to Sleep." 

Christine is always on rewind. Every night as she sleeps, her memories are erased and she wakes up thinking she is a young 
woman with her life ahead of her. Instead, due to a traumatic accident, she is a forty-seven year-old woman with a husband she does not know or remember. As she wakes each morning, she is terrified and looks in the mirror at a person she does not know. Her husband has placed pictures and clues around the house to help her remember as she goes through her normal routine. Since the accident, she 
can not work, or barely leave the house.  

What her husband does not know is that Christine is meeting with a doctor most days 
to help her remember. His advice is for her to keep a journal as they go along and he 
calls her each morning to remind her to read the journal and then they talk or meet. As Christine reads the journal each morning, she begins to remember some of the same things. She is confused over what memories are true and what memories are just her imagination. Her husband tells her conflicting versions of what she wrote in her journal. 
Who is telling her the truth? And how did she get this type of amnesia in the first place? 


As we read along with Christine down her path to memories, we start to question
everything. I did not see the twist or the ending coming. Very good and it will keep you 
guessing until the final pages. 5 Stars!!

Reading Laine Moriarty's latest, " Truly Madly Guilty" now and not sure it's going to be one of my favorites. Love her writing, but these people are driving me crazy. And she usually 
leaves you one character to like, but I'm not sure if there is one in this novel for me. We 
will see.....