Bridges of Paris and Giveaway

~ I received no compensation and opinions are 100% my own or my family. ~

Synopsis: Bridges of Paris is a large-format coffee-table book, with over 350 original color photographs, which casts new illumination on the City of Light. The 37 bridges over the Seine River emerge as beautiful, historic destinations rather than unnoticed thoroughfares. The book features stunning portraits of each bridge as well as intimate riverside moments. Once you’ve experienced this river tour, you will never see Paris the same way again.

Living as a Parisian for a year, author Michael Saint James left his American lifestyle and spent his days and nights capturing images from over, on, beside and under the bridges of Paris. With over 30 years experience as a photographer, educator and world traveler, Michael immersed himself in French culture to search out his authentic artist self. The result is a visual treasure to share with everyone.

One (or more) Sentence Summary: I was very interested in reviewing Bridges of Paris to learn more about Paris.  The book has so much more to offer.  There is a lot of culture, history, and interesting stories behind each section.  After reading A Photographer's Perspective at the beginning of the book, I realized there is so much more to a bridge than connecting one piece of land to another.  It took me back to my hometown, when "the Bridge (on Bridge Street)" was deteriorating and needed to be torn down.  The town picked a new site for the bridge (not anywhere near the original one) and the towns people were in an uproar.  After a long debate, the new bridge was constructed right next to the old bridge.  I never realized what a bridge could mean to a community until that time.  

My girls and I would read a section of Bridges of Paris and would discuss our favorite parts, pictures, and what we learned.  We had a blast.  My favorite was learning about the Love Locks.  Pont de L'Archeveche and Pont des Arts are the two bridges where lovers write their name on a lock and attach it to the bridge.  I absolutely love that, however, I don't like that the weight of the locks are putting a strain on the structure of the bridges.  

One of my girls really liked the Passerelle Leopold-Sedar-Senghor bridge.  She loved the bridge under the bridge and that there was a statute of Thomas Jefferson on the bridge.  She thinks it would be fun to walk the bottom bridge with all the steps….I have to say, I agree.  

My other daughter's favorite bridge was Pont de Grenelle.  She thought it would be amazing to see the statute "Liberty Enlightening the World" and the Eiffel Tower.  The photos are so amazing.  I too would love to experience crossing the Pont de Grenelle.  So much history in one place.

Bridges of Paris is more than just a "coffee table" book, there is so much you can learn about a historical city in this beautiful book.  

Fast read/slow read:  Bridges of Paris was a very easy book to read and is organized by bridges/areas around Paris. This makes it very easy to read and view all the differences in each bridge and the history behind each one.  

Cover:  Absolutely beautiful.

What Others Are Saying:  Makes sure you check out what others are saying about Bridges of Paris on the iRead Book Tour.

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Michael Saint James’ artistic pursuits include award-winning book design, film editing, and sound recording, as well as his first love, photography. Saint James is a world traveler, having visited more than 50 countries - doing everything from photographing penguins in Antarctica to trekking the Himalayas.

As an educator with California teaching credentials, he has taught media production and technology arts as well as photography, art history and visual storytelling. He is an expert speaker on Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art. Indeed, he walked in Vincent Van Gogh’s footsteps through the Netherlands, Belgium, and France in order to immerse himself in that troubled master’s vision.

The father of two grown children, Saint James once owned a café in Berkeley, California. He has bicycled from Las Vegas to Washington, D.C. and is rumored to play a mean blues harmonica.

Connect with Michael:  Website ~ Twitter  ~  Pinterest

Amazon |  Author's Website

Win one of 15 print copies of Bridges of Paris. (Open Internationally) Ends May 16

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Inside the O'Briens

~ I received no compensation and opinions are 100% my own or my family. ~

Synopsis (from Amazon): From the New York Times bestselling author of Still Alice Lisa Genova comes a powerful and transcendent new novel about a family struggling with the impact of Huntington’s disease.

Joe O’Brien is a forty-four-year-old police officer from the Irish Catholic neighborhood of Charlestown, Massachusetts. A devoted husband, proud father of four children in their twenties, and respected officer, Joe begins experiencing bouts of disorganized thinking, uncharacteristic temper outbursts, and strange, involuntary movements. He initially attributes these episodes to the stress of his job, but as these symptoms worsen, he agrees to see a neurologist and is handed a diagnosis that will change his and his family’s lives forever: Huntington’s Disease.

Huntington’s is a lethal neurodegenerative disease with no treatment and no cure. Each of Joe’s four children has a 50 percent chance of inheriting their father’s disease, and a simple blood test can reveal their genetic fate. While watching her potential future in her father’s escalating symptoms, twenty-one-year-old daughter Katie struggles with the questions this test imposes on her young adult life. Does she want to know? What if she’s gene positive? Can she live with the constant anxiety of not knowing?

As Joe’s symptoms worsen and he’s eventually stripped of his badge and more, Joe struggles to maintain hope and a sense of purpose, while Katie and her siblings must find the courage to either live a life “at risk” or learn their fate.

One (or more) Sentence Summary: WOW!  Lisa stuns me again with another amazing book.  I was not aware of Huntington disease before reading Inside the O'Briens. It was very eye opening and reminded me not to judge people…I am not walking in their shoes.  Lisa has that ability to put us right in the middle of the family and go through exactly what they are dealing with during the story.  Just like Still Alice, I am left in awe and Inside the O'Briens is one of those books that will stay with me for a very, very long time.

Favorite Character(s):  Katie and Joe.  Their relationship was so special.  We learn so much about Katie and her struggles.  We learn and "feel" the progression of the disease through Joe and his family.  It all comes together through their relationship.  What a strong father and unbelievable daughter.  She is willing to put her own happiness and future on hold for her family.

Setting:  Boston! Loved it!

Fast read/slow read:  So, so fast. I was hooked to Inside the O'Briens from page one.  I couldn't get enough or read fast enough.  Once I was finished with the book, I wanted more.  I have to know more about the O'Briens.  Lisa is one to write sequels, but this s a PERFECT story for a sequel (Please Lisa….consider it).

Cover:  It says, home and family to me!

What Others Are Saying:  "This heartbreaking book tells the whole story of how a major illness affects a family. Genova’s gift is to show that things do work out, in a sense. Her very human novel teaches us to keep living, to lean on each other and be there to be leaned on.” (Matthew Thomas, New York Times bestselling author of WE ARE NOT OURSELVES)

"This novel of siblings rocked by their father's Huntington's disease is a total tearjerker, but ultimately it's a tribute to family love." (Glamour)

"An intimate, heartbreaking look at life with Huntington's disease." (Marie Claire)

Would I Read Other Books by the Author: I always do.  My first Lisa Genova book was Still Alice (still need to see the movie), Left Neglected was my second and Love Anthony was my third.  I can't wait for her fifth book!

Lisa Genova is the New York Times bestselling author of Inside the O'Briens, Love Anthony,Left Neglected, and Still Alice. Her first novel, Still Alice, has been adapted into a film starring Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, and Kristen Stewart. Lisa graduated valedictorian from Bates College with a degree in biopsychology and holds a PhD in neuroscience from Harvard University. She travels worldwide speaking about Alzheimer’s disease, traumatic brain injury, and autism. She has appeared on Dr. Oz, The Diane Rehm Show, CNN, Chronicle, Fox News, and Canada AM and is featured in the Emmy Award–winning documentary film To Not Fade Away. She lives with her family in Massachusetts.

Amazon |  Barnes & Noble | Book Depository

Where'd You Go Bernadette?

Synopsis (from Amazon): Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom.

Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette's intensifying allergy to Seattle--and people in general--has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic.

To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence--creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's role in an absurd world.

One (or more) Sentence Summary: ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT.  This book had me laughing so hard and I couldn't wait to get back to the book.  The characters are all so crazy and just make the story.  Go get it today and make sure you have some time to sit down and read away!  You won't regret it.

Favorite Character(s):  Bernadette - absolutely loved her and her points of view.  Bee, Bernadette's daughter, Audrey, the crazy neighbor and Soo-Lin, Adurey's friend and the lady Bernadette's husband has an affair with are all other favorites.  Every character in the book just complete the whole story.  

Setting:  Seattle/Northwest and Antarctica - who writes a book taking place in Antarctica?  I have never one before! It added to the nuttiness of the book.

Fast read/slow read:  So fast and I was so sad when I was finished….I wanted MORE.

What Others Are Saying:  "Comedy heaven.... This divinely funny, many-faceted novel...leaves convention behind. Instead, it plays to Ms. Semple's strengths as someone who can practice ventriloquism in many voices, skip over the mundane and utterly refute the notion that mixed-media fiction is bloggy, slack or lazy.... The tightly constructed WHERE'D YOU GO, BERNADETTE is written in many formats-e-mails, letters, F.B.I. documents, correspondence with a psychiatrist and even an emergency-room bill for a run-in between Bernadette and Audrey. Yet these pieces are strung together so wittily that Ms. Semple's storytelling is always front and center, in sharp focus. You could stop and pay attention to how apt each new format is, how rarely she repeats herself and how imaginatively she unveils every bit of information. But you would have to stop laughing first."—Janet Maslin, The New York Times

"You don't have to know Seattle to get Maria Semple's broadly satirical novel.... Underlying the nontraditional narrative are insights into the cost of thwarted creativity and the power of mother-daughter bonds, although a reader may be having too much fun to notice."—O, The Oprah Magazine

Would I Read Other Books by the Author: Are you kidding? ABSOLUTELY! I found she wrote This One is Mine….I have to have it!

Maria Semple wrote for the television shows Arrested Development, Ellen and Mad About You. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker and The Los Angeles Times. She lives in Seattle.

Amazon |  Barnes & Noble | Book Depository

Twin Piques

~ I received no compensation and opinions are 100% my own or my family. ~

Synopsis (from Amazon): Forensic accountant Sloane Tobin and kooky pet psychic Willa may have the same face, but that’s the only thing these identical twins have in common. 

How she can read the hearts and minds of animals has always been a mystery to Willa, and her rotten luck with men is equally baffling. Although she’s been looking for “The One” for what feels like forever (A teenage marriage to a French mime and dating a guy named Spider seemed like good ideas at the time!), optimistic Willa refuses to give up on love. When she meets Brody, the handsome rose expert hired to save her grandmother’s garden, she’s instantly smitten, but why does he keep sending her mixed signals? Does he return her feelings, or is their attraction all in her fanciful head? 

Unlike her twin, Sloane has zero interest in romance. Her passion is her job, where she uses her gift for numbers to take down slimy embezzlers and asset-hiding spouses. When she’s assigned two high profile cases, Sloane feels confident the promotion she’s been angling for is within her grasp. But will her plan to climb the corporate ladder be thwarted by difficult clients, her co-worker-with-benefits, or – most surprisingly of all – her own sister? And how’s she supposed to stay focused on the drama at work when her childhood friend, Gav, moves in next door and the spark between them becomes impossible to ignore? 

To get what they both want, can Willa and Sloane band together and rely on each other’s strengths? Or will their differences drive them apart once and for all?  

Purchase now for only $1.99 at Amazon.

One (or more) Sentence Summary: I am on a reading roll!  Another amazing book and I loved it.  Sloane and Willa are so different (just like my own twins) and together they make a great story.  I really enjoyed how they both found love and neither were expecting it.  One never wanted it and one had bad luck.  Brody and Gav round out the story.  

There are also a lot of one/two liners throughout the book that are absolutely hilarious.  Keep your eyes open for them….Twin Piques is loaded with them.

Favorite Character(s):  Sloane….no doubt about it.  I am a CPA and just connected with her so much!  I love books when one of the main characters is an accountant….it seems so rare.

Setting:  San Fran, but could take place anywhere and it wouldn't have mattered.  

Fast read/slow read:  Fast.  Even though this is my busy season time and I couldn't wait to steal five minutes and read!

Cover:  100% perfect!  Sums up both girls just as I see them.

Would I Read Other Books by the Author:  Give me more.  I must read Blame It On The Fame and In Need Of Therapy.

An avid reader and writer, Tracie Banister has been scribbling stories since she was a child, most of them featuring feisty heroines with complicated love lives like her favorite fictional protagonist Scarlett O'Hara. Her work was first seen on the stage of her elementary school, where her 4th grade class performed an original holiday play that she penned (Like all good divas-in-the-making, she, also, starred in and tried to direct the production.) Her dreams of authorial success were put on the backburner when she reached adulthood and discovered that she needed a "real" job in order to pay her bills. Her career as personal assistant to a local entrepreneur lasted for 12 years. When it ended, Tracie decided to follow her bliss and dedicate herself to writing full-time. Her debut novel, the Hollywood-themed BLAME IT ON THE FAME, was released in January, 2012. And she's following that up with the fun summer read, IN NEED OF THERAPY. 

Tracie blogs about books and other fun stuff at http://traciebanister.blogspot.com/