• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Harper (June 5, 2012)
• ISBN-10: 0062197258
• Source: Publisher

Catherine Bailey is a young, attractive, single woman. When she sees Lee, a bouncer at a local club, she’s instantly attracted. He’s breathtakingly gorgeous and when they begin dating, her friends are envious Catherine’s luck at love. Each become just as smitten with Lee as Catherine has, the perfect man in every sense of the word.

However, there is a dark and secretive side to Lee. Uncertain as to what he does for a living during the day, Catherine is even more alarmed when Lee shows up at her apartment, wounds covering his face. He remains secretive, suggesting that he is doing it for her own protection. Their relationship grows, Catherine eventually giving Lee a key to her apartment. They rarely see each other during the week due to Lee’s work schedule, but Catherine repeatedly comes home to see that things in her apartment have been rearranged. Lee eventually admits to entering her apartment in Catherine’s absence. She is wary at first, but his undying affection and unfaltering commitment to her eventually convinces her his actions are harmless. Yet Lee grows possessive of Catherine, demanding that she wear certain clothing, angered when he sees her receiving attention from the opposite sex. Speaking of sex, what started out as passionate lovemaking has begun to frighten Catherine. When she speaks of her concerns to her friends they insist she is blowing things out of proportion. She has the perfect guy; relationships go through peaks and valleys and perhaps it’s just the natural progression of their relationship.

When Lee begins to abuse her, physically and sexually, Catherine attempts an escape. This action forever changes her life.

Fast forward four years later. Lee is in prison for nearly killing Catherine. Catherine now lives alone, post traumatic stress disorder and an obsessive need to check her locks have taken over her life. She meets Stuart, her upstairs neighbor, an attractive and kind man. She feels safe in his presence. He encourages Catherine to seek counseling for her disorders and she agrees, finally seeing the light at the end of a dark tunnel. Her life seems to be improving for the better…until she receives a phone call stating Lee’s sentence has ended and he will be released shortly.

Suddenly, Catherine begins to see Lee everywhere she goes. Additionally, she sees her former best friend out of the corner of her eye, a friend that testified against her in Lee’s trial. She comes home to her apartment to find things moved around, Lee’s trademark behavior. But rather than succumbing to the terror she once experienced, she uses the confidence and strength she’s built up in the recent months to stand up against the man who nearly killed her.

Told in alternating time frames, shifting between past and present, Into the Darkest Corner is a terrifying look at an example of domestic violence. This is Haynes debut novel, and she holds nothing back. She doesn’t sugar coat the details of the abuse Catherine faced. A police-intelligence analyst herself, Haynes uses her knowledge to portray a truly chilling, yet completely plausible, stalking situation. The terror Catherine feels is so real it comes through in the author’s writing.  Additionally, Catherine’s OCD is treated with compassion and, in reading of her treatment, the reader in turn learns a great deal about a disorder that is often downplayed.

The shifting of past and present may be a bit confusing to some readers, although each new passage starts out with a clear indication of the date. I found the side-by-side story lines incredibly ingenious; in the past we watch the progression of the abuse while in the present we watch Catherine become a stronger woman. It is if “present” Catherine is feeding off of Catherine from the past. She quite literally goes into the darkest corner of her soul to gain the strength and confidence to battle her horrific past.

I am truly astounded that this is the author’s debut novel. The talent she portrays in her writing, to me, appears to come from an author with decades of experience.

Bottom line: Into the Darkest Corner is a debut novel that I give my highest recommendation to, a novel certain to make my list of favorites for the year.

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for providing me the opportunity to participate in this tour. Please be sure to check out the full schedule of stops in this tour.

Note: violence, graphic scenes of a sexual nature

Review: Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes is a post from: Jenn's Bookshelves. Reproduction of this content is forbidden unless approved through prior written consent.

• Cards: 96 pages
• Publisher: Quirk Books; Crds edition (June 5, 2012)
• ISBN-10: 1594745692
• Source: Publisher

We’ve all seen tarot cards, whether in person or on screen. Imagine those tarot cards…zombiefied. This 78-card deck, along with a 96 page instruction manual, provides the user with tips on surviving the zombie apocalypse.

The instructions on the side of the box read:

In the event of a zombie attack: Get to a secure location, open this box, and consult the Zombie Tarot. This fully-functional 78-card deck offers valuable advice on life, love, family, friendship, automatic firearms, premature burials, cannibalistic children, and more.

The cards have a bit of a vintage look, making them appear as if they are relics from the past:

The illustrations, done by Paul Kepple are richly detailed without being too graphic.

The cards don’t guarantee to predict the future, but instead offer suggestions on how to survive a particular situation.  The accompanying instruction manual provides detailed explanations of each of the cards and the course of action one must take. For example, the Six of Cups card represents nostalgia, memories, old flames. The advice: “Someone from your past may come for a visit. Just don’t mistake a friendly kiss on the cheek for a zombie gnawing off your face.”

Bottom line: The Zombie Tarot Cards are a must-have addition to any zombie-apocalypse preparedness kit. Highly recommended!

Zombie Mondays: The Zombie Tarot: An Oracle of the Undead by Stacey Graham is a post from: Jenn's Bookshelves. Reproduction of this content is forbidden unless approved through prior written consent.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading This Week? This is a weekly event to list the books completed last week, the books currently being read, and the books to be finish this week. It is hosted by Sheila from One Person’s Journey Through a World of  Books so stop by and join in!

Books Completed Last Week

I Am Forbidden by Anouk Markovits (review)
In My Father’s Country: An Afghan Woman Defies Her Fate by Saima Wahab (review)
Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes

Currently Reading

I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga (audio)
The Cottage at Glass Beach by Heather Barbieri

Books to Complete This Week

The Yard by Alex Grecian

What are you reading this week?

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading This Week? is a post from: Jenn's Bookshelves. Reproduction of this content is forbidden unless approved through prior written consent.

Last week I noticed a trend in the books I read; each and every one of them  included a main character who rebelled against what was expected of her by society and instead sought out their own wants & desires. These books included In My Father’s Country by Saima Wahab, I Am Forbidden by Anouk Markovits and The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers.  My decision reading material made me think: do we seek out books that resemble our own lives or seek books that give us access to a world we don’t have? That’s not to say I feel I’m stuck in a life life imposed on me by society, but I do appreciate reading uplifting/life-altering books especially when my life seems to be a little crazy!

And crazy it is! We’ve had a whirl-wind of a weekend. I went on a field trip to the National Zoo with my youngest son’s first grade class on Friday. Yesterday, my oldest son’s Boy Scout troop constructed a pond and did some landscaping for a local elementary school, my youngest son had soccer, then a closing campfire for his cub scout troop.  Needless to say I’m a bit exhausted.

Also, I’m continuing to plan for my trip to NYC for BEA. If you are a Book Blogger and want to be added to the Book Blogger Contact list, check out this post & sign up. Also, while at BEA I will be on a BEA Blogger Con panel on demystifying the book blogger/publisher relationship. I’d love to hear if you have any questions you ‘d like answered!

So that wraps up my crazy week for me! I’m heading to my indie bookstore today for some serious relaxation time and then will hopefully get in some patio reading time.

How was your week? Get a lot of reading time in?

TSS: The Power of Women is a post from: Jenn's Bookshelves. Reproduction of this content is forbidden unless approved through prior written consent.

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Crown (April 24, 2012)
• ISBN-10: 0307884945
• Source: Publisher

Saima Wahab was just three years old when her father was arrested by the KGB at their home in Kabul, Afghanistan.  This was the last time she would ever see him, this action just the start of Saima’s painful early memories. Caught in the middle of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan, Saima’s mother was forced to raise Saima and her five siblings on her own.

When Saima was fifteen it was decided that Saima should go live with an uncles in Portland, OR so that she may receive an education.  Despite having to learn a completely new language Saima was able to graduate high school in just three years. While her education seemed to flourish,  Saima found it difficult to blend into the American culture. She also found it near impossible to blend her Afghan roots and culture with her new life in America.  This caused a great deal of turmoil for her emotionally.

Her hopes and prayers were answered in 2004 when she received a phone call, offering her a job as a translator to assist the troops stationed in Afghanistan.  In a sense her life had come full-circle, returning to the land of her birth, her role to enhance communications with U.S. forces and the local people.

Saima’s journey, from her departure from Afghanistan as a teen to her return as an adult, is truly a remarkable one. As citizens of the United States, the only view we get of this country is what the news stations decide to share with us. We often only get to see the dark and devastating aspects of a war-torn nation. We don’t get to drill down to the grass roots level and see what beauty does exist among on the turmoil.

Saima’s story opened up my eyes to a whole new world, a whole new Afghanistan. I am forever thankful for this glimpse at a nation I admit to being ignorant about. Additionally, the risks she took in order to fulfill her mission were quite high, there were many times she didn’t know whether or not she would come back alive. Saima’s story, her struggles, are empowering.  This, by far, is one of the most memorable memoirs I have ever read, Saima’s strength and dedication proving that so much is possible when one individual has a passion so great that it triumphs adversity. Highly, highly recommended.

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for providing me the opportunity to review this book. Please check out the other stops in this tour on the tour web page.

Review: In My Father’s Country by Saima Wahab is a post from: Jenn's Bookshelves. Reproduction of this content is forbidden unless approved through prior written consent.

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Hogarth (May 8, 2012)
• ISBN-10: 0307984737
• Source: Publisher

In Transylvania in 1939, Josef is just five years old when he witnesses the murder of his family at the hands of the Romanian Iron Guard. He is rescued by a maid who raises him as her own son. Just five years later he rescues Mila, whose family is also murdered. Mila is taken to the home of Zalman Stern, a leader in the Satmar community. Mila is raised as Stern’s daughter, a sister to his daughter, Atara.  Despite the two girls being raised together, they are divided by Mila’s intense loyalty to her faith and Atara’s need discover a world of knowledge forbidden to her as a female.

The family is moved to Paris after Communism begins to take hold in their home country. Satmar is desperate for his daughters to continue a life in faith, ignoring the beliefs of the city around them. Mila continues her path with faith, marrying a man who abides by the strict fundamentalist doctrine. Despite Stern’s attempts to keep Atara on the path her faith has decided for her, she continues to ignore the strict guidelines her faith has bestowed upon her and continues to bury herself in a world of books and forbidden knowledge. To do so, she makes the heartbreaking decision to leave her family. Her desire to be an educated woman outweighs the bonds of family.

The girls are reunited years later. Mila, unable to get pregnant, does the unthinkable and steps outside the bounds of her faith in order to conceive. Her decision, if every discovered, will force her, her daughter, and her daughter’s children to be shunned from the community, forced to become outcasts.

I Am Forbidden at its core, is a heartbreaking story of faith and the power of family. The experience that Markovits had in her youth, raised by Hasidic Jewish parents, adds to the believability and reality of Atara and Mila’s fate. She broke ties with her own family in order to avoid an arranged marriage, attending college and seeking an education herself. It’s not difficult to see bits of her own life in that of Atara’s, a girl so desperate to be given the same access to education as of boys of her faith.

This novel is a truly compelling one. Despite having little knowledge of this faith, I was drawn in within a few pages, obsessed with what happened to these two young girls. While there was a great deal of pain and devastation in the girls’ lives, there is also certainly an element of hope and exhilaration that shines through the darkness.

While the first portion of the novel is a bit confusing due to my unfamiliarity with the religion and its customs, the rest of the novel is a truly beautiful piece of work. I was so moved by the characters, the intensity of my devotion to them continued to grow as their lives progressed. Despite sounding cliche, they truly did become a part of me, I find myself forgetting they are fictional characters.  The way Markovits develops them as individuals, their growth so profound, I find myself viewing them as living, breathing women.

Markovits gives her readers the gift of a glimpse inside such a private and contained religious group. It opened my eyes to a culture that I’ve heard of, but never really knew much about. This book has moved me like none other and has inspired me to learn more about this culture. Highly, highly recommended.

Hogarth is a newly formed Random House imprint. If this book is any indication of the types of books this imprint plans on publishing, I cannot wait to read what else they have in store.

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for providing me the opportunity to participate in this tour. Please be sure to check out the official tour page to learn more about the author as well as visit the other stops in this tour.

Review: I Am Forbidden by Anouk Markovits is a post from: Jenn's Bookshelves. Reproduction of this content is forbidden unless approved through prior written consent.

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; Original edition (May 15, 2012)
• ISBN-10: 0062130803
• Source: Publisher

Set in the near future, terrorists have unleashed a deadly virus known as Maternal Death Syndrome (MDS ) affecting pregnant women, preventing their bodies from reacting to and fighting viral agents their body’s defenses would normally be able to combat. This virus kills the pregnant woman long before she is able to deliver, essentially causing the victim’s brain to deteriorate. Once scientists discover that everyone has been contaminated with the virus the future of humankind is indefinite. They begin implanting young girls with a form of birth control in attempt to eliminate any possibility of pregnancy.

Jessie Lamb is a sixteen year old girl, the daughter of a scientist attempting to find a cure for MDS. As many are at that age, she’s flirting with activism and joins a young group of her friends whose mission is to strike out against actions that are causing the world as they know it to deteriorate. She refuses to ride in a car or use public transportation, convinced that society’s footprints on the planet are aiding in the slow but eminent decline of the world. Her friends begin to join more radical activism groups: her best friend joins a feminist group while the object of her affection joins an animal rights faction. All groups are inspired to action when scientists reveal a program in which young girls are encouraged to turn their bodies over to science, to carry babies to term, knowing they will not survive. Once implanted, the embryos can be vaccinated against the virus but unfortunately no cure is available for those already infected. Volunteers need to be under the age of 16 1/2; the success rate drops dramatically for those individuals over this age. Jessie sees this new discovery as a means to make her voice heard, despite her parents pleas that she reconsider.

Told from Jessie’s narrative, a young girl who is just beginning to realize her own individuality and place in the world, the author is able to confront many issues already forefront in our society including the age of legal consent, the rights one has to make choices about one’s own body, animal testing, and more. Jessie is forced to deal with a reality so harsh that many youth her age would be unable to contemplate.  It is no shocker that this book has been long-listed for the Booker prize; it’s filled to the brim with discussion-worthy topics. My only desire would be to see the story from the point of view of other characters within the book, for since the reader is only allowed Jessie’s side of the story it seemed a bit limiting. Having more views of this harsh reality could have developed the story more, for I couldn’t help wanting to know more about the fate of this society.

Bottom line: The Testament of Jessie Lamb is a book that left me reeling, truly examining the way we as society view the individual’s right to choose. This is a book certain to make book club lists this summer and fall, full of topics to be discussed. Highly recommended.

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for providing me the opportunity to participate in this tour. Please be sure to check out the official tour page for other stops in the tour.

Review: The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers is a post from: Jenn's Bookshelves. Reproduction of this content is forbidden unless approved through prior written consent.

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (March 21, 2012)
• ISBN-10: 0446564656
• Source: Personal Copy

Two-thirds of humankind have been infected with ataxic neurodegenerative satiety deficiency syndrome (ANSD), the virus that causes individuals to lose all evidence of humanity, lurch when they walk, and crave human flesh. Dr. Stanley Blum is a neurodevelopmental biologist, researcher and zombie expert for the CDC (Centers for Disease Control). Infected with the virus himself, he volunteers to travel to an island controlled by the United Nations, Bassas da India, to autopsy “living” zombies in an attempt to isolate the pathogen causing the virus. The Zombie Autopsies, in a journal format, is Blum’s detailed studies of the cause of ANSD, including the symptoms, rate of growth, etc. His entries are supplemented with clinical drawings by another doctor infected with this horrible virus:

Rather than fill the novel with yet another zombie attack storyline, Schlozman instead provides a detailed, scientific examination of the zombie virus. Since the doctors performing these living autopsies are uncertain as to who will discover the journals after they have died,  while they are written with great scientific detail they can be understood by the average reader. The terrifying thing is that the author describes such a well-researched explanation of the cause of this virus that readers will become convinced that such an attack is possible. Kudos to Schlozman, a doctor himself, for granting zombie enthusiasts yet another unique book to add to their collection. Anyone who calls themselves a die-hard zombie enthusiast can’t afford to pass this one up! Highly recommended.

Note: many of the drawings are pretty graphic. The one pictured above is actually the tamest of them all. While the text itself is not overly gory, the drawings may not be suited for all audiences.

Zombie Mondays: The Zombie Autopsies: Secret Notebooks from the Apocalypse by Steven C. Schlozman is a post from: Jenn's Bookshelves. Reproduction of this content is forbidden unless approved through prior written consent.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading This Week? This is a weekly event to list the books completed last week, the books currently being read, and the books to be finish this week. It is hosted by Sheila from One Person’s Journey Through a World of  Books so stop by and join in!

Books Completed Last Week

Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir by Jenny Lawson (audio)
So Far Away by Meg Mitchell Moore (review)
The Secrets of Mary Bowser by Lois Leveen
The Zombie Autopsies: Secret Notebooks from the Apocalypse by Steven C. Schlozman (review)
The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers
The Haunted by Bentley Little (review)

Currently Reading

I Am Forbidden by Anouk Markovits
I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga (audio)

Books to Complete This Week

In My Father’s Country: An Afghan Woman Defies Her Fate by Saima Wahab
Hill Country by R. Thomas Brown 

What are you reading this week?

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading This Week? is a post from: Jenn's Bookshelves. Reproduction of this content is forbidden unless approved through prior written consent.

Happy Mother’s Day to all you Moms out there! Happy Sunday to everyone else!  I’m enjoying a nice breakfast in bed as we speak, thanks to my lovely husband & children.  Not sure how the rest of the day will play out but this is a good way to start!

I spent this week planning for BEA (Book Expo America), including planning my schedule, etc. Are you going to be in BEA? I’d love to meet up with you, whether it be over coffee, lunch, etc.  If you are going to BEA Blogger Con I’ll be on a panel on “Demystifying the Blogger/Publisher Relationship” so feel free to come up and introduce yourself! If you have any questions about this topic I’d love to hear them as well!

I had yet another fantastic reading week. Here’s just a quick recap:

• Review: Overseas by Beatriz Williams
• Frightful Friday: The Haunted by Bentley Little
• Going to BEA/BEA Blogger Convention? Let’s Meet Up!
• Review: The Lola Quartet by Emily St. John Mandel
• Review: So Far Away by Meg Mitchell Moore
• Reliving Morrison: My Path Down Memory Lane
• Zombie Mondays: Audiobook Review-Zombiestan by Mainak Dhar

Hoping everyone has a great Sunday!!

TSS: Happy Mother’s Day! is a post from: Jenn's Bookshelves. Reproduction of this content is forbidden unless approved through prior written consent.