One of my most favorite summer past times is reading. I am looking forward to taking breaks, as often as possible from my own writing to enjoy reading, especially these books:
A Delaware County girl, Melissa Ann Hopely is a well-accomplished international motivational speaker and mental health and anti-bullying advocate. She is a 2009 honors graduate of Immaculata University and speaks with Minding Your Minds’ speaking program about mental health specifically Depression, Anxiety, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, anti-bullying, positive coping and peer support and is on the board of the Philadelphia chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). She mentors a student run peer-to-peer support group called CogWell at the University of Pennsylvania and has been recognized for her advocacy work with numerous awards including the honorable mention Jerry Greenspan Student Voice of Mental Health Award given by the Jed Foundation of America at a gala in June 2009 in New York City.
Melissa’s first book “The People You Meet in Real Life,” which features her personal story and the amazing first-hand stories of local people she has found inspiration and hope from along her journey. The book is available now. Melissa is currently working with the non-profit organization iChoose2live (www.ichoose2live.com) on an anti-bullying and anti-violence campaign for the Philadelphia area and also working to release her first music single called “Hope Strong.”
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I was deeply affected and inspired by Melissa’s book.
Melissa has appeared on several local radio and television programs including 99.5 WJBR’s Sunday Morning show, the CW Philly’s Speak Up and a NBC10 special “Beyond Bullying” with News anchor Lori Wilson. She was also featured as Mark Wahlberg’s science student in M. Night Shyamalan’s film, The Happening and is involved with numerous national mental health organizations, which have given her the chance to host and attend many events where she has worked with celebrities and public figures such as Mariel Hemingway, Brittany Snow, Joey Pantoliano, Ron Howard and Glenn Close. She wrote the forward for Bristol boyz Stomp.
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A portion of the proceeds are going to a scholarship fund.
Another local author and another true story, Toni McCloe’s Rude Awakenings will be available everywhere August 5, 2014. Early copies are available through the publisher.
About the book:
My mother kept secrets. Don’t ever let your left hand know what you’re your right hand is doing, she would tell me when I was little. And I would watch her then as she plunged her hands into warm, soapy water or use them to stretch pizza or pasta dough for dinner, all the while wondering how one of her hands could not possibly know what the other was doing. But my mother knew. Her deepest secret the one concerning my grandmother’s death was the one she kept for more than seventy years.
Thus begins Rude Awakening, a story about growing up and growing old as it moves from the end of World War II to the post 9/11 world of today.
Nearing the end of a relationship, Toni finds herself left with an avalanche of feelings, feelings like abandonment, loneliness, and loss. Confused about relationships and desperate to heal a heart that is breaking, she turns to a therapist to help her wade through the debris.
I read this one in two days. Toni is a lyrical writer and I kept reminding myself, “this actually happened.”
https://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-63268-136-2
Rebecca Rasmussen is not a local author but she did spend time at Penn State, she is a facebook friend and I loved her first novel, Birdsister’s so I cannot wait to get my hands on her second novel EVERGREEN. This one releases July 15, 2014 and is available now for pre-order.
About the book:
It is 1938 when Eveline, a young bride, follows her husband into the wilderness of Minnesota. Though their cabin is rundown, they have a river full of fish, a garden out back, and a new baby boy named Hux. But when Emil leaves to take care of his sick father, the unthinkable happens: a stranger arrives, and Eveline becomes pregnant. She gives the child away, and while Hux grows up hunting and fishing in the woods with his parents, his sister, Naamah, is raised an orphan. Years later, haunted by the knowledge of this forsaken girl, Hux decides to find his sister and bring her home to the cabin. But Naamah, even wilder than the wilderness that surrounds them, may make it impossible for Hux to ever tame her, to ever make up for all that she, and they, have lost. Set before a backdrop of vanishing forest, this is a luminous novel of love, regret, and hope.
http://www.amazon.com/Evergreen-A-novel-Rebecca-Rasmussen/dp/0385350996
Lisa Scottoline is another Pennsylvania author and a local favorite. Lisa is the New York Times bestselling author and Edgar award-winning author of 22 novels, including her latest, KEEP QUIET. She writes a weekly column with her daughter Francesca Serritella for the Philadelphia Inquirer titled "Chick Wit" which is a witty and fun take on life from a woman's perspective.
About the book:
Jake Buckman’s relationship with his sixteen-year-old son Ryan is not an easy one, so at the urging of his loving wife, Pam, Jake goes alone to pick up Ryan at their suburban movie theater. On the way home, Ryan asks to drive on a deserted road, and Jake sees it as a chance to make a connection. However, what starts as a father-son bonding opportunity instantly turns into a nightmare. Tragedy strikes, and with Ryan’s entire future hanging in the balance, Jake is forced to make a split-second decision that plunges them both into a world of guilt and lies. Without ever meaning to, Jake and Ryan find themselves living under the crushing weight of their secret, which treatens to tear their family to shreds and ruin them all.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/keep-quiet-lisa- scottoline/1115382373?ean=9781250010094
