This Perfectly Imperfect Life

Hello everyone and welcome back to my humble blog abode here! Today I'm sharing with you my thoughts on this delightful upcoming release, The Summer Of New Beginnings by beloved Southern author Bette Lee Crosby, due out next week. First off the Synopsis: "Aspiring journalist Meghan Briggs has always been the responsible one in the family. So when her father passes away unexpectedly, leaving behind his at-risk business, she steps up to save his legacy—even if that means putting her own dreams on hold. Tracy couldn’t be more different from her sister. She’s always been the rebellious type, without much direction in life. But in the wake of her latest romantic disaster, she finds herself moving back home as a single mother. As Tracy experiences the difficulties of new motherhood, Meghan faces her own struggle: trying not to fall for the stray puppy she rescued. This is no time for attachments—not to the adorable “Sox,” whose owner is bound to turn up any day, and certa...

Thank you Deep South Magazine and HarperCollins! A SheReads book of Spring. Thank you Penguin-RandomHouse! A SheReads book of Spring. Thank you Simon and Schuster! A SheReads book of Spring! Thank you Simon and Schuster! Currently enjoying this read and recent Kindle special thanks to SheReads rec! What are you reading this Spring?

Many of you know, and for those who don't, I moderate a Southern Lit Lovers group on Goodreads , which I created back in 2008. When it comes to 'genres within a genre,' Southern literature is a favorite near and dear to this Northeastern gals heart. (Something most of you know about me already as well!) Recently we read Long Man by Amy Greene . Like her debut novel Bloodroot , Long Man is transportive and engrossing. Amy's writing once again not only ensconced me in the souls of her characters, but in the soul of the places they live. I loved it! Last week I inadvertently turned our Southern Lit Lovers author chat with Amy into an interview. As both a reader and a writer, plus being a big fan of her writing, I couldn't help myself with all the Qs! Amy graciously gave me permission to share my part of the chat here with you when I asked. I hope you all enjoy my chat with Amy as much as I have! We often talk about 'genres within a genre' (for exam...

Taken from a 2012 post, which you can find here . You all know I am a big fan of purging - the de-cluttering and simplifying of ones surroundings - because it truly does a mind and soul a world of good. I can't recommend it enough! Well, I've been holding on to some specific items for years. Why? For many reasons, but mainly because I truly liked these things and I had hoped over time they would lose the negativity of situations and people from my past they were associated with. They didn't. It's been in the back of my mind since the end of November to finally get rid of these things. I was ready but, with a sick and passing kitty, and all the emotions I was going through with him, I wasn't ready. If that makes sense. This Saturday afternoon, I finally purged them. Hubbs and I had a spat just before I went back down to the basement to put a load of laundry in the dryer and start another in the wash. I was ticked off, to say the least. Plus I had been ...

Taken Sunday, July 7th, at our wee lakeside home. I always have such good intentions and big plans when it comes to my "Summer reading."  But, who am I kidding anymore?!  I take forever to find a book that I enjoy reading and still take more forever to finish reading it.  Not the case with the novel featured in this addition of Off The Shelf , which has been on my radar (aka to-read list) for a while now and is this month's Southern Lit Lovers group read & chat selection. The Lost Saints of Tennessee by Amy Franklin-Willis My (goodreads) rating: 5 of 5 stars From the Atlantic Monthly Press 2012 hardback edition:  (Spoilers Possible -->) "With enormous heart and dazzling agility, debut novelist Amy Franklin-Wills expertly mines the fault lines in one Southern working-class family. Driven by the soulful and intrepid voices of forty-two-year-old Ezekiel Cooper and his mother, Lillian, The Lost Saints Of Tennessee journeys from the 1940s to the 1980s ...

Greetings fellow Southern Lit Lovers : First off I'd like to welcome all of our new members!  Please drop by the "Come Sit For A Spell & Tell Us About Yourself" thread and say hello here .  No worries, we're a great bunch of folks who don't bite! Our May group read of Lee Smith's The Last Girls   is under way!  Join us here .  I've posted the thread for July group reads noms.  Please read my initial comment in the thread before you post your nom (I've added a new guideline).  Click here .  All past group reads are now archived in the Archived Group Reads folder here . Feel free to comment on any of the past group reads if you're reading one now! We've got lots to chat about in the following sections: Classic & Gothic Southern Lit Genres Within The Genre Set In The South, but... Buddy Reads & Favorite Authors We have a Midwest Authors & Book Discussions folder here .  What are you currently reading, just f...

As many of you know, I love Southern Lit! I have a Southern Lit Lovers group on Goodreads and I recently created a Twitter for it as well.  Today I decided to share here the monthly Happenings Newsletter I send out to members when it's time to ask for new group read nominations as a way to get the newsletter visible in a more creative way than via a Goodreads message.  Perhaps it will even encourage a few of you to join me there! I invite everyone, member or not, to click and see what we're all about.   Southern Lit Lovers Happenings, April 2013 Newsletter It's that time again! And what time is that you ask? It's time for (May 2013) group read noms! Please read my initial post in the thread before posting your noms here . Our April read & chat of Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones is going on now!  Click here to join us. If you're new to Southern Lit Lovers, please click here to drop in and say "Hello!" Are you on Twitter?  Well s...

(Having wifi in the house again + a cold = 'command central' for today!) As most of you know already, (and for those of you who don't), I don't write traditional book reviews.  I share my reactions to a book, especially ones I've loved and enjoyed. In today's Off The Shelf , I'm sharing with you an incredible debut novel,  The Silence Of Bonaventure Arrow by Rita Leganski . My journey with Bonaventure began  here  in February and though I finished reading the novel last night, I believe the magic of Bonaventure is far from over! (**Spoilers Possible -->***) Harper Paperback (c)2012 released 2/26/13 synopsis: "Conceived in love and possibility, Bonaventure Arrow didn’t make a peep when he was born, and the doctor nearly took him for dead. No one knows Bonaventure's silence is filled with resonance - a miraculous gift of rarified hearing that encompasses the Universe of Every Single Sound. Growing up in the big house oh Christopher...

(***Giveaway Closed***) Happy 7th Anniversary Diggin' Around! Seven years ago today, I started this blog.  I can't believe this ended up sneaking up on me again! I remembered last week (or was it the week before) and then promptly forgot about the anniversary again due to distraction. On one hand, I can't believe it's been seven years already and on the other, it seems like so very long ago.  This blog has evolved over the years, much like I have.  I can't tell you all how much Diggin' Around has meant to me over the years and continues to mean to me.  And what you all mean to me! There are no words! Usually, my blog-aversary comes and goes without much fanfare. Not this year! This year some exciting things have been happening which coincidentally coincide with my anniversary.  (Say that ten times fast!)  This year, I am prepared to celebrate and spread my love of reading at the same time! A couple of weeks ago, I was approached by Tw...

So far, 2013 has been a diverse and fulfilling reading year! I've since finished four books after The Language of Flowers (which I finished back in January, click here for my reaction) and now it's time to catch up on them with y'all! (Spoilers are likely, so proceed at your own risk!) Let's start with The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot: 5 of 5 stars. From the BroadwayPaperbacks/Publisher paperback edition : "Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells - taken without her knowledge in 1951 - became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, and more. Henrietta's cells have been bought and sold by the billions, yet she remains virtually unknown, and her family can't afford health insurance. This phenomenal New York Times bestseller tells a riveting story of the collision between ethics, race, and med...

Bed and Breakfast by Lois Battle My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is the December group read for my Southern Lit Lovers group  on Goodreads and my nomination for the month which means I'm leading the chat! I've had this book on my living room shelf for years , tried it a couple of times & never finished, but I kept it with my Christmas books because, honestly, I adore the cover! Am I glad I held onto it! I so enjoyed this novel! At times it reminded me of other Southern family novels I've read, but that didn't take away from it. I didn't want to put it down and didn't want it to end once I got there. And ever since visiting the Charleston & Folly Beach areas of South Carolina briefly early this year, I have a better appreciation for & now enjoy novels set in SC as a whole. I also liked the fact this wasn't the usual type Christmas novel I end up reading at this time of year; it's a Southern family novel that happens to take place aro...

The Tender Mercy of Roses by Anna Michaels My rating: 5 of 5 stars Debut novel by this author and another pleasant surprise! I'm not usually one for mysteries but again, I do love Southern novels and gave this a try based purely on the title. A side of Southern writing I'm not familiar with, woven with Native American Indian lore. Beautiful prose intertwined with a captivating plot and vivid characters. View all my reviews

The Beach House by Mary Alice Monroe My rating: 5 of 5 stars What an unexpected gem of a read!  I originally picked it because I've been focusing on novels with a sense of place more like where I live to try & help me with my own writing struggles with sense of place. Yes, I live in NJ and not in a traditional shore town, but, we are right on the coast & directly across the bay from a barrier peninsula.  (I'm still not over Hurricane Irene & the area of our Northwestern NJ home (inland) was hit worse than we were here on the coast! Anyhoo...)  My Aunt loved this book so I thought it was high time to give it a try.  Plus, I love Southern novels. I didn't expect to be swept up into the story of this novel, nor did I expect it to be such a touching & emotional read.  For many this has been & would be a great 'beach read' as it's often referred to!  For me, it touched on areas very close to home ( spoiler: one of the main characters...

The Southern novel I'm reading in the waiting area while Mom has her endoscopy, The Tender Mercy Of Roses by Anna Michaels, is in a word: Incredible. "When you leave home, even if it's just to go to the Piggly Wiggly for a loaf of bread, it's possible to become somebody else. It's possible for regret to fly out the window like a blackbird and something wonderful to fly back inside and perch on your shoulder. Something with yellow wings that sings a song you heard in childhood but thought you'd forgotten." With writing like that, it's a great distraction while waiting. For the most part anyhow. I'm definitely not liking Not being the patient and now feel awful that this is what Hubbs & Mom have gone through when I am. I'm praying it goes well, that it's easy on her afterwards and will show she won't have to have surgery on her esophagus, at least not right away, that with time and speech therapy, its' function will conti...

Whistlin' Dixie in a Nor'easter by Lisa Patton My rating: 3 of 5 stars Again, different than my usual contemporary southern lit read & pleasantly surprised I ended up enjoying the novel. Cute, light read. Once again also surprised that I'd like to read the follow-up! Back story as to why I bought this book earlier this month: Originally borrowed from my Aunt, I started this last year but returned it to her unfinished. (Timing is everything when it comes to a read for me!) Now that I lucked into the hardback edition for $3, (truth be told, I Love the cover!) it's one of those unfinished books haunting me so I'm determined to finish it once and for all. And I'm glad I did! View all my reviews

Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani My rating: 4 of 5 stars This was the first selection of 2012 for evening bookclub and a welcome change of pace from our many recent serious reads. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel! I loved the opening paragraph and once I was into the novel, I didn't want to put it down. I'd definitely like to read the others in this series which is unusual for me. Different than most contemporary Southern reads I've read. Leaning towards the chick-lit side but not so much that it turned me off. A cute, easy read despite a few sad parts. Her descriptive writing is vivid without being fluffy or wordy and she paints a beautiful picture of the mountains in West VA and gives a great sense of place. Just the change of pace I may have needed to give my reading rut the boot once and for all! View all my reviews

Miracle On I-40 by Curtiss Ann Matlock My rating: 5 of 5 stars Summary from Goodreads.com: "A journey home to the heart . . . Lacey Bryant is the ever-hopeful waitress at Gerald's Truckstop Restaurant in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a spot that is clear across the country from her home and family in North Carolina. It has been eleven years since Lacey, pregnant and unmarried, ran away from her angry father. Now she wants to go home again. A single mother struggling to raise her own children, she longs for her father's forgiveness, her mother's sweet embrace and to share with her aging parents the grandchildren they have never seen. Cooper is every inch a Scrooge who wants no part of traveling across country with two children, but he has promised to help out a friend, and so he loads Lacey and her brood into his eighteen-wheeler and carries them along with him on his trip down Interstate 40. As the miles roll under the big truck's wheels, it turns ...

Bloodroot by Amy Greene My rating: 4 of 5 stars Incredibly intense, often sad. Despite liking it a lot, sometimes I wanted to be done with it already but I couldn't read through this one quickly nor could I put it down. Amy's writing is simply beautiful and haunting. View all my reviews

The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove: A Novel by Susan Gregg Gilmore My rating: 4 of 5 stars A very good southern read. While it revisits some common themes found in southern fiction set in the 60's and at first I found myself thinking of The Divine Secret Of The Ya Ya Sisterhood, The Secret Life of Bees and Fannie Flagg, it surprised me by finding a voice and story all its' own. View all my reviews The Shack by William P. Young My rating: 1 of 5 stars I can appreciate the loss and re-discovery of faith after suffering a life altering tragedy. I can appreciate what the shack represents. I appreciate the idea of the book as a whole. What I don't appreciate is the writing, which I didn't like and found the tone be at times patronizing/condescending and even insulting. Overall, the story didn't work for me. The fact that “interest in making it into a move” is mentioned at least twice in the last pages at the back of the book as well as on the bo...

The Rock Orchard: A Novel by Paula Wall My rating: 5 of 5 stars An off-beat and sometimes racy (sexy) Southern read; one of the best southern novels I've read to date. More real, earthy and gritty, less sugar sweet and cliched than many southern reads. These characters will linger with me. (If you offend easily when it comes to 'sexy' stuff or sometimes colorful language, it may not be the read for you!) View all my reviews