Friday, June 17, 2011

Friday Update, 6/17/11

Sorry I've been such a blogger slacker! We're in that transition between school and summer, and things get a little hectic.

A few quick things to share ...

• Had a simply magnificent lunch yesterday with my Long Island lit pals. Saralee thought to bring a camera (yay!), and so we captured the whole wonderful group ...



Standing, l to r: Alix Strauss, Ellen Meister, Saralee Rosenberg, Susan Henderson, Susannah Greenberg, Carol Hoenig
Seated: Brenda Janowtiz, Vivian Swift, Debbi Honorof


• Oh, Canada! Big thanks to Lisa D. Martinez for posting this glorious book review on Amazon.ca:



5.0 out of 5 stars
 
The Other Life: Simply: Wow., Jun 13 2011
By 
Lisa D. Martinez - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Other Life (Hardcover)
Wow is the first word that comes to mind in respect of this fabulous read by Ellen Meister. I downloaded the sample for my Kindle and I was hooked after the first sentence. I have never ordered a book so fast! 

The voice of this story is the voice of every parent who has ever held their child close and smelled the top of his head. This story is a book for every person who has lost someone close to them or made a decision and wondered, "What if..." 

While most of us do not have a portal into a parallel life hidden somewhere in our basement, every one of us has wondered what our life would be like if we had done things differently. This book is more about choices, love and finding your authentic self than it is about the possibility of a quantum escape-hatch. The sheer realness of Ellen's writing is captivating and evocative, and yes, I cried...I can admit it. Just don't tell anyone. 

If not for my own "real life" sleeping in his crib beside me, I could have easily made the decision to pull an all-nighter and read this straight through. It's that good. 

Am I raving? Just a little. As a writer myself, I tend to read books with a more critical eye than most and this book was, in my humble opinion, very rave-worthy. The author has a way of describing the simplest things that turns them into something spectacular. 

I cannot imagine anyone regretting the decision to read this book. I have officially added Ellen Meister to my list of "Authors Who Inspire Me".



• A special shout-out to LitChat for letting me host a Twitter discussion last week. What a blast!

• Last weekend was the BooksNJ festival in Paramus and it was a smash! Here's a recap.

• If you missed the summer newsletter I sent to my subscribers, you can view it here.

• Thanks to The Laughing Yeti for posting my quote on reading.

• Very excited to see  my cousin Lisa Kudrow interviewed in the Wall Street Journal today about Web Therapy's upcoming debut on Showtime. Great stuff and worth a read! Click here.

Have a wonderful Father's Day and a terrific weekend ...

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