The end of summer is quickly approaching but our road trips continue to go on strong.

We’re still trucking along at full speed taking the opportunity to pit stop in various locations along the globe. 

This week our drivers have given us a wonderful array of goodies to experience:

Massachusetts
Bloody Bad: A Book Blog has author Thomas A. Hauck showcasing various locations outlined in his book Pistonhead

Tennessee
Kari at  Five Borough Books joined the trip by staking claim to this lovely state

Manitoba, Canada
Stella Matutina showcased  author Carol Shields

That’s all she wrote for this week friends!  As always, if you are a participant who is showcasing authors from a particular location please remember to submit a link to your posts via the Mr. Linky provided on the Literary Road Trip page on Galleysmith.com.

Until next week road trippers….safe travels!

Today is a day where I can’t wrap my mind around anything thinky so I’m going to give you all a bit of fluff to fill in the cracks….

This is probably way more than you want to know about me (in precursor to the forth coming inaugural Inside the Bloggers Studio post focusing on yours truly) so without further ado here is the ABCs Meme:

The Rules:
- Link to the person who tagged you
- Share your ABCs
- Tag three people at the end by linking to their blogs
- Let the three tagged people know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website
- Do not tag the same person repeatedly but try to tag different people, so there is a big network of bloggers doing this tag.

Available or single?
I’m all about me baby!  Livin’ the selfish life.

Best Friend?
Joyce, she lives in CT and is moving to London in a couple months *sobs*

Cake or Pie?
Cake — of the chocolate persuasion preferably.  Creamy fillings don’t really do it for me honestly so pie is out.

Drink of choice?
Water

Essential item for every day use?
Internet, it would be hugely disconcerting to be without it at this point.

Favorite color?
Blue

Google?
Yupper doodles.  Calendar, documents, groups, feed reader, email — all in one is where it’s at.

Hometown?
Andover, MA and I miss it terribly.  Quaint New England is my speed.

Indulgences?
Total and complete glutton for books (shocking to all my regular readers I know).  It’s an addiction I gladly admit to having and won’t treat.

January or February?
None of the above.  Lived in FL for five years (just moved back about a year or so ago) and my blood is so thin now that 60 feels like 20.  Pass on winter thankyouverymuch.

Kids and their names?
No kids for me but if I did have them I would name a boy Finn and a girl Della

Life is incomplete without…?
Family.  They are the most important thing in my life.

Marriage date?
That would be half past never, LOL.  Only kidding, I would marry under the right circumstances and it would likely be in the Fall.

Number of siblings?
I’ve got an older brother and older sister — Irish twins.  I was the big surprise 8 years later

Oranges or apples?
Apples.

Have you ever dipped them in cheese?  Totally takes the health factor out thus making it far more appealing.

Phobias and fears?
I won’t even start to get into this.  But yea, germs are not my friend.

Quote for the day?
I’d like to say something really profound and literary here but yea….not gonna happen.  I’m feeling very “Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill.” today so there you have it.

Reason to smile?
My niece Shelby.  A regular paycheck.  The fact that today is thankfully Friday.

Season?
Early Fall – it’s temperate, colorful and not as painful on the sinuses as spring.

Tag 3 people?
Debbie @ Debbie’s World of Books
Drea @ Book Blather
Sarah @ GreenBeanTeenQueen

But I want EVERYONE to answer this!!

Unknown fact about me?
They are unknown for a reason right?  Hee!

Just joking.   I have Lupus so I deal weekly with a myriad of medical issues.  As my friends and family say I’m one banana peel away from total catastrophe. Anyway, I’d been lucky to have been in remission until last year when I got pneumonia and my lungs have never been the same since.  I hope one day to be able to breath correctly for a couple hours.

Vegetable you hate?
All of them! I’m all about the carbs, starch and sugar.

Worst habit?
Wow, that’s hard.  Ummmm….some might say my clean freakishness.

Xrays you’ve had?
See the letter U.  Chest, chest and more chest (among others)

Your fave food?
Salt & vinegar chips — my thighs and ass hate me!

Zodiac sign?
Cancer.  Watch out for my pincers y’all.  Once they’re in they’re in.

So what are you waiting for?  Jump in and answer these for yourself and let me know the ABCs of you!

Title: Italian For Beginners
Author: Kristin Harmel
Genre: Chick Lit, Women’s Fiction, Contemporary
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing’s 5-Spot – ARC

Summary:
Cat Connelly is as unlucky in love as any single girl could be.  Perceptions tainted by the relationship foibles of her parents and a series of bad boyfriend experiences she feels fairly confident she’s destined to live the single life.  The trouble is Cat, like most women in their early thirties, still wants to find that perfect man.  That ultimate hero that lives in her hopes and dreams.  Longing for that connection, the love match with a soulmate that brings butterflies fluttering into her stomach and weakness to her knees Cat tries to remain hopeful that one day her moment will come.

Unfortunately, its the getting there that’s becomes a monumental struggle.  One where she endures increasing skepticism, a degree of condescension and ultimately degrees mocking by family, friends.  Treated as somewhat of an outcast by her peers and certain members of her extended family all feel it is Cat’s penchant for relationship sabatage that keeps her from marriage.  Her standards are too high, she’s too picky, nothing is good enough….blah, blah, blah.  Her newly married younger sister does little to support Cat and falls just short of an arranged marriage when she advises her to find an “acceptable man” settle down and be happy with what she is given.  Only problem is that Cat wants love and companionship, respect and admiration, and above all trust.

There is no greater foe to this grand romantic plight ,though, than herself.  Several of the central road blocks to making her dreams come true are of her own making.  A caretaker by nature she’s always putting the needs of everyone else before her own.  Most significantly Cat is beyond accommodating and supportive of her father and sister whom she took care of after her mother left them then passed away.  That is until she’d finally had enough and decided to pack things in and head to Italy.

Much to the chagrin of both her father and sister Cat nervously resigns herself to finally doing something for herself.  Getting away from everyone and everything It is here where her journey of self-discovery begins.

Opinion:
Italian for Beginners was appealing for many reasons.  First, I’ve read all of Kristin Harmel’s previous novels and enjoyed each one and knew that this too would provide that same level of entertainment and enjoyment.  I can happily tell you it did, in spades.

It was, however, a bit of a departure from her previous work.  I felt the story was more deeply emotional than her other novels.  Outside of Cat’s obvious (and warranted) trust issues she also owns a heaping case of low self-esteem.  Moreover, infused throughout the story readers are given insight into the instability of her life via some heavy underlying issues.  It’s these same issues that play such a significant role in shaping how her relationships with friends, family and potential lovers continue to be formulated and manipulated all the way through her time in Italy and back to the US again.

None of this is to say there isn’t a fair share of comedy and light-heartedness because there is plenty of that too, I wouldn’t want to paint Italian For Beginners as a dark or brooding story because it’s not.  For example, the eclectic group of friends Cat makes during her time in Italy provides an extremely happy place.  We also get some good chuckles out of the self-centered and somewhat clueless baby sister.  It’s just that much of this is not the heart of the story.

One of the reasons I believe this particular story resonated so deeply with me is that I felt Cat’s life, in some respects, mirrored my own.  I felt a kinship with her — Harmel wrote an exceptional character that allowed me to feel the vulnerability and pain she was experiencing.  I bonded with Cat and I can tell you that does not happen with me often.  She is a character that is deeply committed to her family and views herself as the primary caretaker.  She takes this role seriously but also to the extreme.  While at times certain people worked those traits to their advantage ultimately her family saw how important it was for Cat to strike out and make a life for herself.  A life that isn’t solely centered around them.

There wasn’t anything in the plot of Cat going to Italy to discover herself that I found unrealistic or particularly cliched.  I found her journey to be one of profound self-discovery.  More importantly it helped her become a better communicator.  She was forced to face a great many truths about herself and her family.  In doing so this book went away from the typical formulaic chick lit novel where woman meets man, woman is destined to be with man, then woman and man get together.  I mean, don’t get me wrong there was a fair share of romance but unlike many books in the genre that aspect took a back seat to the larger emotional issues.  As a reader I appreciated that Cat’s story wasn’t just about chasing men and “oh by the way I discovered myself on the way” plot points.  These elements were reversed and on Cat’s road to self-discovery she happened to find a man too.  I felt it was quite empowering for her and for the reader to know that yes a woman can survive adversity and still get it all in the end.  Not only that but she gets it all in a way that (I felt) prioritized the most important aspects of life first.  Get your own life in order, love and care for your family and friends (to an extent) and in the end romance will fall into place.

Speaking of ends falling into place I’m sure you can sense through this review that I encourage you to go out and grab a copy of Italian For Beginners it’s an entertaining and heart-warming read.

**sings**

Prizes….prizes….I’ve got some prizes!

In honor of the release of Kristin Harmel’s latest novel Italian For Beginners she and Hatchette Books have generously provided me goodies for this fabulous giveaway.

I’ve got five, count ‘em, five copies of Italian for Beginners to give away!  Woot Woot!

But wait, there’s more….

One lucky winner will get a grand prize pack of all four of Kristin’s novels — Italian For Beginners, The Blonde Theory, The Art of French Kissing and How to Sleep With a Movie Star.

This is how it’s going to work:

You’ll get one entry for commenting to this post to tell me a story about either (a) a life-altering trip you’ve made or (b) a life altering trip you’d like to make.

You’ll get one entry for blogging about this giveaway, the interview and/or review.

You’ll get an additional entry each for posting a link to this giveaway to Twitter, Stumble Upon, Technorati, Book Blips, Digg, Facebook, or any other social networking application you may choose.

You’ll get an additional entry each for posting a link to both the review for Italian For Beginners and/or Kristin’s interview here to any of the above mentioned social networking applications.

Just be sure to let me know that you’ve posted the link and where and I’ll be sure to account for it.  You have a week (starting today August 13th and ending Thursday August 20th) to pimp Kristin’s awesome work and my blog.  I’ll draw winners randomly for all prizes and announce them in a post here on August 24th.

Yay!  It’s my inaugural Waiting on Wednesday post.

*base is thumpin’*

Can you hear Fiddy cent telling me to party like it’s my birthday?  Cause I totally can.  Anywhooooo….

For my first post I have a book that I just read about tonight and I have to say I’m very intrigued to get the chance to read Love is the Higher Law by David Levithan.

Amazon summarizes this book by saying:

First there is a Before, and then there is an After. . . .

The lives of three teens—Claire, Jasper, and Peter—are altered forever on September 11, 2001. Claire, a high school junior, has to get to her younger brother in his classroom. Jasper, a college sophomore from Brooklyn, wakes to his parents’ frantic calls from Korea, wondering if he’s okay. Peter, a classmate of Claire’s, has to make his way back to school as everything happens around him.

Here are three teens whose intertwining lives are reshaped by this catastrophic event. As each gets to know the other, their moments become wound around each other’s in a way that leads to new understandings, new friendships, and new levels of awareness for the world around them and the people close by.

David Levithan has written a novel of loss and grief, but also one of hope and redemption as his characters slowly learn to move forward in their lives, despite being changed forever.

How can this *not* be spectacular? I mean really?  Social relevance, coming of age, and profound emotion.  I’m totally and completely in for this.

On a serious note, 9/11 is a very hard subject to topple and I imagine doing so from the perspective of a young adult makes it more so.  I remember everything about that day down to a T so I’m beyond interested to read how Levithan portrays it from their eyes.

Love is the Higher Law will be released August 25, 2009.