Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia by Marya Hornbacher

Why would a talented young woman enter into a torrid affair with hunger, drugs, sex, and death? Through five lengthy hospital stays, endless therapy, and the loss of family, friends, jobs, and all sense of what it means to be "normal," Marya Hornbacher lovingly embraced her anorexia and bulimia -- until a particularly horrifying bout with the disease in college put the romance of wasting away to rest forever. A vivid, honest, and emotionally wrenching memoir, Wasted is the story of one woman's travels to reality's darker side -- and her decision to find her way back on her own terms.

As someone who has struggled through anorexia nervosa, it is very difficult to read books like this. The irony is that I am drawn to them, needing to find some connection with what other people have gone through with eating disorders. This was a wonderful book.

I love the author’s voice. She makes sure to be as stark about eating disorders as possible, not allowing for any romanticizing of these diseases, which can sometimes happen with other authors. There is nothing pleasant or mysterious about bulimia and anorexia and she does a great job showing this. She writes with an honesty and with a lack of self-pity that is astounding.

I don’t cry with books very often, but this one brought out all the fears, all the old sensations that having an eating disorder can bring. It was a harrowing experience to read it, but it is a MUST for anyone struggling through these diseases.

 

 

 

 

 

Book Trailer: The Tearings by V.C. Repetto

My sister put together this trailer for my friend, Vic, who just published her debut novel. When my novel comes out, she's definitely doing mine as well, because this one is awesome!

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

From The Tearings by V.C. Repetto

"Inside, it looked like no ambulance I’d ever seen, although to be fair, I hadn’t seen that many. There was a wooden bench on one side and that was about it."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Musing Mondays

Do you know of any local authors in your area, and –if so– have you met any of them?


Since I live in Miami, I get the chance of meeting lots of local authors at the international book fair we have here each year. We also have Books and Books, which always has a great selection of local authors who come and read or do interviews. I've met Jeff Lindsay, the man who writes the books on which Dexter is based.

Waiting on Wednesday

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted here, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

A great friend of mine is having her debut young adult novel coming out on Friday by Evernight Teen, so, although I've already read it, I will be purchasing a copy bright and early Friday morning! Can't wait! You can see her webpage here and the you'll be able to purchase the book through the Evernight Teen website.

This is the blurb from my friend's website:

From the moment the black vans appear to take the sick away, Maya knows there is something wrong. A high school sophomore, she seems to be the only one to question the sudden disappearances at school and the masks everyone is forced to wear to keep from catching the new disease spreading through the entire United States. Even when word of the new “healing centers” reaches the public, no one dares to ask what is happening.

But when Maya catches the disease, the one they call The Tearings, and is taken to one of these centers along with her mother, the truth becomes all too clear. She is separated from her family and forced to work, becoming one of the more fortunate ones who is not sent to the testing wings. Bullied by the guards to the point of death, she meets David Summers, the enigmatic young Captain who appears to loathe his position of power in the camp and who seems as drawn to Maya as she is to him.

When Maya suddenly becomes the disease’s only survivor, she must put her trust on David to find a way to escape the camp and get the truth, and the cure coursing through her veins, out to the world.  

 

 

Feature: The Tearings by V.C. Repetto:

I'm very happy to be featuring my friend's book on my site. She is a wonderful writer and this book is sure to leave you in chills!
It comes out on Friday from Evernight Teen, so be sure to get your copy bright and early Friday morning.

From the moment the black vans appear to take the sick away, Maya knows there is something wrong. A high school sophomore, she seems to be the only one to question the sudden disappearances at school and the masks everyone is forced to wear to keep from catching the new disease spreading through the entire United States. Even when word of the new “healing centers” reaches the public, no one dares to ask what is happening.

But when Maya catches the disease, the one they call The Tearings, and is taken to one of these centers along with her mother, the truth becomes all too clear. She is separated from her family and forced to work, becoming one of the more fortunate ones who is not sent to the testing wings. Bullied by the guards to the point of death, she meets David Summers, the enigmatic young Captain who appears to loathe his position of power in the camp and who seems as drawn to Maya as she is to him.

When Maya suddenly becomes the disease’s only survivor, she must put her trust on David to find a way to escape the camp and get the truth, and the cure coursing through her veins, out to the world.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

From The Tearings by V.C. Repetto


"Now the teachers no longer waited for the later symptoms. Like the principal had suggested, a cough got you sent to the nurse’s office, where, if you continued to cough or sneeze, you’d be picked up by one of the many new ambulances that had begun to appear through the city. They didn’t look like the regular 911 ones."

 

Musing Mondays

asks you to muse about one of the following each week…
• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it! 
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

A good friend of mine is having her first book published on Friday and I've taken up the banner of helping her promote it. It's called The Tearings, and it is a great, suspenseful young adult novel in the style of the movie Contagion, but with a great romance story in the middle. It is definitely a page turner that will truly make you aware of every little cough or sneeze you hear after reading it. Stop by tomorrow for a teaser!

Stay Up With Me by Tom Barbash

The stories in Tom Barbash's evocative and often darkly funny collection explore the myriad ways we try to connect to one another and to the sometimes cruel world around us. The newly single mother in "The Break" interferes with her son's love life over his Christmas vacation from college. The anxious young man in "Balloon Night" persists in hosting his and his wife's annual watch-the-Macy's-Thanksgiving-Day-Parade-floats-be-inflated party, while trying to keep the myth of his marriage equally afloat. "Somebody's Son," tells the story of a young man guiltily conning an elderly couple out of their home in the Adirondacks, and the young narrator in "The Women" watches his widowed father become the toast of Manhattan's mid-life dating scene, as he struggles to find his own footing.

The characters in Stay Up with Me find new truths when the old ones have given out or shifted course. In the tradition of classic story writer like John Cheever and Tobias Wolff, Barbash laces his narratives with sharp humor, psychological acuity, and pathos, creating deeply resonant and engaging stories that pierce the heart and linger in the imagination.

This was an interesting, literary, short story collection that delves deep into loss and how the human psyche deals with it.

All of these stories have a strong pulse through them, making the reader turn the pages. This is not easy to achieve in stories that really have very little action happening within them. I was never bored and I didn’t have the need to skip any paragraphs. The descriptions are kept to a minimum, which helps to move the plot lines along, and the dialogues sound real and not forced.

My favorite story in the collection has to be “Birthday Girl”. It is about a young woman who runs over another girl and takes her to the hospital, where she imagines herself as part of the girl’s family. It is so cleverly written that it was hard to put down. I think the weakest of the stories has to be “Somebody’s Son”. I just didn’t connect enough with the characters and whatever meaning the author tried to get across didn’t reach me.

If you love literary fiction and short story collections, then this one is for you.

 

 

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


From Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia by Marya Hornbacher

"An eating disorder is not usually a phase, and it is not necessarily indicative of madness. It is quite maddening, granted, not only for the loved ones of the eating disordered person but also for the person herself."

The October Country by Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury's second short story collection is back in print, its chilling encounters with funhouse mirrors, parasitic accident-watchers, and strange poker chips intact. Both sides of Bradbury's vaunted childhood nostalgia are also on display, in the celebratory "Uncle Einar," and haunting "The Lake," the latter a fine elegy to childhood loss. This edition features a new introduction by Bradbury, an invaluable essay on writing, wherein the author tells of his "Theater of Morning Voices," and, by inference, encourages you to listen to the same murmurings in yourself. And has any writer anywhere ever made such good use of exclamation marks!?

Ray Bradbury is known mostly for his sci-fi works, so it was a surprise for me to find that he had written a collection of scary stories. Each one, it turns out, is a complex little jewel that burrows under your skin.

Like all story collections, The October Country has some very good stories and some which are not quite so good. However, even the ones that are a bit less interesting are well written and full of suspense. The ones I enjoyed most were the ones that have an otherworldliness to them, with a deep sense of isolation. Those, for me, were the ones that made the most impact. In particular, I loved “Jack-In-The-Box”, since it felt like the protagonist really was completely alone in a strange world.

If you love short story collections that leave a chill in the air, then I highly recommend this book. Some of these stories will linger in your mind long after you’ve finished reading them.

Musing Mondays

asks you to muse about one of the following each week…
• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it! 
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

I started reading Stay Up with Me by Tom Barbash. It's a short story collection that is, so far, fabulous. All the stories are intriguing, delving deep into the human psyche. Definitely enjoying this one so far.

Follow Friday

 
 

Vlog Contest! Vlog about why you want to be next weeks feature! If you are too shy to put yourself on camera – tell us why you are sooo shy.


Well, I'm a poet, with my debut novel coming out next year, so it would be nice to be featured to get more potential readers. I'm not going to video about that, but I will include video of me reading one of my published poems!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snowblind by Christopher Golden

The small New England town of Coventry had weathered a thousand blizzards...but never one like this. Icy figures danced in the wind and gazed through children's windows with soul-chilling eyes. People wandered into the whiteout and were never seen again. Families were torn apart, and the town would never be the same.

Now, as a new storm approaches twelve years later, the folks of Coventry are haunted by the memories of that dreadful blizzard and those who were lost in the snow. Photographer Jake Schapiro mourns his little brother, Isaac, even as---tonight---another little boy is missing. Mechanic and part-time thief Doug Manning's life has been forever scarred by the mysterious death of his wife, Cherie, and now he’s starting over with another woman and more ambitious crimes. Police detective Joe Keenan has never been the same since that night, when he failed to save the life of a young boy . . . and the boy’s father vanished in the storm only feet away. And all the way on the other side of the country, Miri Ristani receives a phone call . . . from a man who died twelve years ago.

As old ghosts trickle back, this new storm will prove to be even more terrifying than the last.

Although the premise sounded fascinating, this book did not live up to its promise. It was classified as a horror story, but it had too dull a middle to make a great impact on the readers.

One of the biggest issues this book has is that t has too many characters. The author was trying to create a kind of small town feeling by introducing us to many people who lived through the blizzards in a particular town. This tactic works very well if you know how to go about executing it. Someone like Stephen King is a master at this. The problem in this novel is that none of the characters are developed enough to have personalities all their own, so they start to bleed into one another. As I read, I found myself wondering who a particular name referred to, which should not happen. The characters need to have unique voices that are not mistaken for other people.

The pace was also a problem. It started out well, with a nice balance of background information and action, but that started to unravel as we moved into the “twelve years later” section. The author had to pump us full of back-stories, showing us what each of the characters had been up to in that time. It slowed the action down too much to stay interesting. The book picked up again close to the end, but it wasn’t enough to make it the interesting read I thought it would be.

 

 

 

 

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


From The October Country by Ray Bradbury


"Her voice was so faint he could hardly hear what she said. 'But now you've seen, and you'll want to see more, and you'll always be curious now.'"

Musing Mondays

Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…
• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it! 
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!


I started reading The October Country by Ray Bradbury. It's a short story collection that has a number of disturbing and scary stories. They're mostly suspenseful, not gory, so it is a great read for those of you who like atmospheric and psychological horror.

Follow Friday

What book are you embarrassed to admit you LOVED?


Probably Exit to Eden by Anne Rice. It is erotica, with BDSM qualities. I have no problem reading erotica once in a while, but I'm not a huge fan of BDSM, which is why it surprised me that I actually enjoyed reading this particular book. I guess it helped that it had a good plot and wasn't just a bunch of bondage sex scenes pasted together.