The Book of Lost Names

I’m delighted to take part in the influencer campaign to spread the pub-week love for the paperback release of author Kristin Harmel’s The Book of Lost Names. 

Publisher: Gallery Books (May 25, 2021)

Language: English

Paperback: 416 pages

ISBN-10: 198213190X

ISBN-13: 978-1982131906

An instant New York Times bestseller and a Goodreads Choice Award finalist when it was published in hardcover last year, THE BOOK OF LOST NAMES—inspired by astonishing true stories from World War II—tells the tale of a young woman with a talent for forgery who helps hundreds of Jewish children flee the Nazis. 

The book has been called a "fascinating, heartrending page-turner" by Kristina McMorris and "sweeping and magnificent" by Fiona Davis. The Publishers Weekly starred review said: "This thoughtful work will touch readers with its testament to the endurance of hope." And who couldn't use a little hope right now?!

Eva Traube Abrams, a semi-retired librarian in Florida, is shelving books when her eyes lock on a photograph in the New York Times. She freezes; it’s an image of a book she hasn’t seen in more than sixty years—a book she recognizes as The Book of Lost Names.

The accompanying article discusses the looting of libraries by the Nazis across Europe during World War II—an experience Eva remembers well—and the search to reunite people with the texts taken from them so long ago. The book in the photograph, an eighteenth-century religious text thought to have been taken from France in the waning days of the war, is one of the most fascinating cases. Now housed in Berlin’s Zentral- und Landesbibliothek library, it appears to contain some sort of code, but researchers don’t know where it came from—or what the code means. Only Eva holds the answer, but does she have the strength to revisit old memories?

As a graduate student in 1942, Eva was forced to flee Paris and find refuge in a small mountain town in the Free Zone, where she began forging identity documents for Jewish children fleeing to neutral Switzerland. But erasing people comes with a price, and along with a mysterious, handsome forger named Rémy, Eva decides she must find a way to preserve the real names of the children who are too young to remember who they really are. The records they keep in The Book of Lost Names will become even more vital when the resistance cell they work for is betrayed and Rémy disappears.

An engaging and evocative novel reminiscent of The Lost Girls of Paris and The Alice Network, The Book of Lost Names is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the power of bravery and love in the face of evil.

Meet the Author: Kristin Harmel

Kristin Harmel is the New York Times bestselling author of a dozen novels including The Book of Lost Names, The Winemaker’s Wife, The Room on Rue Amélie, and The Sweetness of Forgetting.

She is also the cofounder and cohost of the popular web series, Friends and Fiction. She lives in Orlando, Florida.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I hope if you haven’t already check out this book, you’ll do so now. Doesn’t this sound like a heart-pounding story?

The Gringa by Andrew Altschul (+Giveaway)

It’s my pleasure today to welcome new-to-me author Andrew Altschul to Thoughts in Progress to talk about his latest release, THE GRINGA.

Thanks to the author and the fabulous Meg at Tandem Literary: Publicity & Marketing, I have a copy of this tantalizing book to giveaway. Please see more about the giveaway at the end of the post. This post is a little longer than usual, but well worth the read.

THE GRINGA is Andrew’s third novel and it was released by Melville House on March 10th. Andrew took eight years to write this magnificent novel and a year to plan his tour, only to have it released just as the global pandemic was declared.

Here’s a brief synopsis of the book:

A gripping and subversive novel about the slippery nature of the truth and the tragic consequences of American idealism.

          Leonora Gelb came to Peru to make a difference. A passionate and idealistic Stanford grad, she left a life of privilege to fight poverty and oppression, but her beliefs are tested when she falls in with violent revolutionaries. While death squads and informants roam the streets and suspicion festers among the comrades, Leonora plans a decisive act of protest—until her capture in a bloody government raid, and a sham trial that sends her to prison for life.

          Ten years later, Andres—a failed novelist turned expat—is asked to write a magazine profile of “La Leo.” As his personal life unravels, he struggles to understand Leonora, to reconstruct her involvement with the militants, and to chronicle Peru’s tragic history. At every turn he’s confronted by violence and suffering, and by the consequences of his American privilege. Is the real Leonora an activist or a terrorist? Cold-eyed conspirator or naïve puppet? And who is he to decide?

In this powerful and timely new novel, Andrew maps the blurred boundaries between fact and fiction, author and text, resistance and extremism. Part coming-of-age story and part political thriller, THE GRINGA asks what one person can do in the face of the world’s injustice.

Now please join me in giving Andrew a warm welcome as he answers some questions about his book and writing. Welcome, Andrew.

The Gringa is inspired by the real-life story of Lori Berenson, an American who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for terrorist activities in Peru in the 1990s. What about Berenson’s story inspired you to base this historical novel on it?

Andrew:

I lived in Peru for a couple of years in the late 1990s, soon after Berenson’s arrest and trial. Even though she was in a military prison, she was still in the news from time to time, and every time her name came up people went crazy – she was the most hated person in Peru, the foreigner who’d come to try and restart a war (or so the government alleged). I was intrigued by this, and also by the question of what had brought her there. She and I have certain things in common – we’re the same age, we both grew up in secular Jewish families in the New York area, went to great schools, etc. etc. I like to think of myself as a liberal or even a leftist, but I had never gone “all in” the way Berenson had, or really risked much of anything in the name of my political beliefs. So there was something about her story that was both chastening and frightening to me, and part of writing the novel was to try and understand why one of our lives went in one direction, and the other’s went in such a different direction.

How did it come to pass that you left the US to live and work in Peru in your 20s?

Andrew:

Oh, for the most clichéd reasons. I had nothing better to do, my writing career wasn’t taking off, I’d gone through a bad breakup, I had a little money saved up and I knew that I could live in Peru for quite a while on it. I was the stereotypical American expat: “finding myself,” and totally unaware of the ways my privilege made that possible. At the same time, it’s also true that I recognized something very sheltered in myself, something very American, and I wanted to change that, to become something more than your typical ignorant U.S. citizen who knows nothing about the rest of the world. It was the era of the Clinton impeachment, and as a young man I was slowly coming to realize just how limited and poisonous the American cultural and political discourse is. I wanted out – and I was lucky enough to have the opportunity and the resources to get out, so I did.

What did you learn about yourself and your country of origin from this experience of making your way in a foreign country as a young man?

Andrew:

Well, see above, for one thing. My privilege and shelteredness came home to me very quickly, as I came to understand the lives of my Peruvian friends – even those who came from privileged backgrounds in their own country. It’s simply impossible, from inside the U.S., to understand how profoundly the U.S. has shaped and altered the lives of people around the world, particularly in developing countries – and mostly for the worse. It’s impossible to understand how much resentment and cynicism there is toward our country – but not, usually, toward Americans themselves. Almost everyone I met was warm and open and accepting of me as an individual. But everyone had very strong opinions about the United States – and they all knew a hell of a lot more about our country and its actions than most Americans know about theirs. Little kids in Cuzco can recite the first ten U.S. presidents. I’ll bet there aren’t 5% of Americans who could name even one Peruvian president. (Come to think of it, I’ll bet most Americans can’t name the first ten American presidents!) It was sobering, and made me want to do better, and to be better.

The point of view in the novel is that of an American journalist living in Peru. How closely is that perspective based on your own life experiences?

Andrew:

Well, he’s sort of a “reluctant” journalist – he’s a failed novelist and a “refugee from George W. Bush’s” America, who gets strong-armed into writing the story of this paroled terrorist. He’s left the U.S. for a lot of reasons, and many of them are somewhat similar to mine. And his life in Peru, too, isn’t so different from mine – he thinks only of himself and his enjoyment, rather than trying to do anything to contribute to this country he claims to love. In that sense, he’s an exaggerated version of me, and I wanted to use Andres to both investigate this American propensity for self-centeredness and self-misunderstanding and to maybe think through what it might take to get Americans to think in more complex and responsible ways about the lives of people in the rest of the world.

In writing about the radical group the Shining Path, what common bonds did you see between them and the Weather Underground and other revolutionary movements?

Andrew:

Well, the Shining Path was unique in many ways. Though they split off from the Communist Party of Peru (PCP) and espoused a fairly boilerplate Maoist ideology, they were also a kind of personality cult, bent around the vision of a philosophy professor named Abimael Guzman. They were indiscriminately violent, and though they claimed to be waging a “peasant war” it was really the peasants who suffered most throughout the years of the conflict. Of course, Peru’s history of oppression, racism, and oligarchy created a fertile ground, which Guzman exploited – in this sense, the Shining Path was no different from most revolutionary movements, who see a monolithic political system in which the wealthy and powerful are not responsive to the needs of common people, a system which they see as impregnable to normal avenues of political change or protest and which therefore can only be changed through violent struggle. This is always the diagnosis, and I can’t say I disagree with it, given the stranglehold that the wealthy and the right-wing have on politics in our own country. That’s not to say I support violent revolution – I don’t – only that I understand how one comes to such conclusions.

What did you learn from researching and writing the novel about the ways in which people get involved with radical groups and how they transition from activist to radical?

Andrew:

I learned that it’s often, as Hemingway supposedly said about bankruptcy, “little by little and then all at once.” That is, not many people join radical groups in the hopes of killing people or blowing up buildings or hijacking planes – they join because they see these groups as dedicated to change and potentially more effective than traditional political avenues. The groups themselves usually start as “legitimate” political groups, and slowly evolve or factionalize as members grow dissatisfied with a lack of results. (Weather Underground split off from SDS precisely because they felt SDS wasn’t ready to do what it took to be effective). So someone who joins to take part in nonviolent protest, seeing that such protest isn’t working – and in fact is often provoking violent responses from the police or government – might slowly grow willing to consider… other tactics. Or they might not quite grasp how the group itself is changing around them, until suddenly the “actions” start to cross the line, but because of their dedication or solidarity they feel they have to stand with their comrades. I think the psychology varies.

Do you see any parallels between those groups in their time and the polarized climate in the US today?

Andrew:

Oh gosh, let’s not go there. I really hope not. I mean, there are plenty of people – like Thomas Piketty, for example – who warn that the skyrocketing levels of inequality in the West, the chokehold that the ultra-wealthy have on economic policy, and the refusal of governments to address this, will lead inevitably to social unrest. I hope not… but I certainly won’t be surprised.

Did you feel a burden to be 100% historically accurate in your depictions of the war and conflict in Peru?

Andrew:

In my depictions of the war and the history of Peru: yes. This is serious, life-and-death stuff, and a novelist has no business manipulating history to make a “better story.” That is, my protagonist and her colleagues in the group I’ve called the Cuarta Filosofía have some similarity to real-life persons, but the specific things they did and said are purely fiction. I did not set out to write about the “real story” of Lori Berenson, or the MRTA. But I placed them in a context which I took tremendous pains to keep accurate to the realities of the war, and to the reactions of the government and the Peruvian people. I had no right to do otherwise. At the same time, one of the most interesting things about writing the book was discovering that there is no “authoritative history” of the conflict – and in fact many people I talked to and many sources I read told very different stories, disagreeing even about “objective” facts like dates, statistics, etc. This was challenging for me, and really slowed down the writing – until one day I was talking to a Peruvian friend who’d been a student activist during this period, and he said, “But Andrew, that’s always how it is. No two Peruvians agree on what happened or why.” Once I understood this, I knew that my novel had to take precisely this approach, to look at the history of the war as something unstable, ever-changing, subject to manipulation and bias. It makes the novel more challenging, I think, but also, I hope, makes it “truer” to the experience of anyone who lived through the conflict.

How long did it take you to write this book? What was your writing and research process like?

Andrew:

It took eight years. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever written – largely because of all these ethical questions: How do you write about a war? How do you write responsibly about another culture, another history, particularly a history that claimed so many lives? I worked on it nonstop and made four or five extended trips back to Peru to talk to people and get to know Lima better than I had when I lived in Cuzco. But there were many times when I thought I wouldn’t be able to finish it, that I just had no business, as a privileged white American, trying to take on this material. “Who am I to write this?” I kept asking myself. “Who am I?” What finally turned it for me was a conversation I had with a journalist friend, who told me, “You’re Lori Berenson.” What she meant was that I, too, was an outsider, an interloper, a gringo, and so there was a direct analogy between my relationship to the material and Berenson’s relationship to Peru and its history. It was this realization – that I had to write it from the perspective of someone who doesn’t really know how to write it, and maybe has no business writing it, and that I had to cop to that in the form of the novel itself – that enabled me to finally finish writing it.

What has the experience been like of publishing your book in the midst of a global pandemic?

Andrew:

It’s been great! Ha ha. It’s been hell. I had five events set up during the week after publication, and ten more throughout March and April – but as I travelled from city to city I would get notified almost as soon as I arrived that the event was cancelled: Worcester, MA; Providence, RI; New York City, Denver, San Francisco… one by one, they all went down. I spent nearly a year putting this tour together and I’m crushed. And since then, I’ve spent all day every day trying to shore up the book through online events, social media posts, etc. It’s far more exhausting than the book tour would have been, and I feel like it’s just getting started. Still, there have been some nice things, one of which is forming a kind of unexpected fellowship with other authors in the same boat, sharing tips and experiences with them, recommending one another when we hear about possible events, etc. I’ve always been a big believer in the literary community, and the outpouring of support I’ve heard – for authors, for bookstores, for small publishers – has been a real silver lining through this difficult time.

What are you working on next?

Andrew:

Uncharacteristically, I have a number of projects going simultaneously, including what might be a cycle or collection of novellas that picks up where The Gringa leaves off, looking at American expatriates and the ways their lives intersect with the lives of people in their adopted countries. I’m also revising a short story collection and possibly working on a book-length essay about American masculinity. All very challenging in the age of coronavirus, of course… At some point, I’d like to work on getting some sleep and some exercise. Maybe this summer?

Author Andrew Altschul

Andrew, thanks for sharing this insight into your book and writing with us. For those like me who weren’t or aren’t familiar with Andrew, here’s a bit of background on him.

Andrew Altschul is the author of the novels Lady Lazarus (2008) and Deus Ex Machina (2011). His work has appeared in Esquire, McSweeney's, The Wall Street Journal, Ploughshares, Fence, One Story, and other publications, and in anthologies including Best New American Voices, Best American Nonrequired Reading, and O. Henry Prize Stories.

A former Wallace Stegner Fellow and Jones Lecturer at Stanford University, he has received fellowships from the Bread Loaf and Sewanee Writers Conferences, the Ucross Foundation, the Fundación Valparaíso, and the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center. He was the founding books editor at The Rumpus and is a Contributing Editor at Zyzzyva.The former director of the Center for Literary Arts at San Jose State University, he now directs the Creative Writing program at Colorado State University. He lives in Fort Collins, CO.

For more on Andrew and his writing, connect with him on his website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

GIVEAWAY

As I mentioned earlier, thanks to the author and the fabulous Meg at Tandem Literary: Publicity & Marketing, I have a copy of this tantalizing book to giveaway. The giveaway is open to residents of the US only. To enter the giveaway, click on the Rafflecopter widget below and follow the instructions. If the widget doesn’t show up, click on the link HERE and follow the instructions.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. While we are missing out on personal book signings due to the shelter-in-place situation, do you think online book tours are a good thing right now? If so, why and if not, why?

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The Beach House Cookbook {+ Giveaway}

◊ THE BEACH HOUSE COOKBOOK by Mary Kay Andrews

◊ Hardcover: 272 pages

◊ Genre: cookbooks, food and wine, south

◊ Publisher: St. Martin’s Press (May 2, 2017)

◊ Language: English

◊ ISBN-10: 1250130441

◊ ISBN-13: 978-1250130440

SYNOPSIS:

          You don’t have to own a beach house to enjoy Mary Kay Andrews’ recipes. All you need is an appetite for delicious, casual dishes, cooked with the best fresh, local ingredients and presented with the breezy flair that make Mary Kay Andrews’ novels a summertime favorite at the beach.

From an early spring dinner of cherry balsamic-glazed pork medallions and bacon-kissed Brussels sprouts to Fourth of July buttermilk-brined fried chicken, potato salad, and pudding parfaits to her New Year’s Day Open House menu of roast oysters, home-cured gravlax, grits 'n’ greens casserole, and lemon cream cheese pound cake, this cookbook will supply ideas for menus and recipes designed to put you in a permanently carefree, coastal state of mind all year long.

If you’re on the hunt for casual dishes that delight the taste buds this summer, look no further than THE BEACH HOUSE COOKBOOK by March Kay Andrews.

This Southern author knows the way to enjoy the season with dishes featuring fresh, local ingredients. Sharing numerous recipes and menu ideas, the author will have you enjoying a coastal state of mind regardless of where you reside.

From a delicious Tomato Pie to tasty Tybee Fish Tacos and Boy Howdy Baked Beans, you’ll find a wide variety of recipes to please the hunger crowds at your outdoor gatherings or family around the dinner table. Don’t forget the Red Rooster Cocktails or Frozen Lemon Granita to top off a meal.

The recipes are presented in an easy-to-read and follow method. The book is jam packed with beautiful color photos displaying the mouthwatering dishes (as well as a few coastal scenes). This cookbook will quickly become a favorite summer go-to for those perfect meals. It will also make the perfect gift for any occasion.

The author adds her Southern flare to the menus for a tantalizing touch. This book is filled with recipes to enhance your summer dining, as well as throughout the year.

The Beach House Cookbook by Mary Kay Andrews, St. Martin’s Press, @2017, ISBN: 978-1250130440, Hardcover, 272Pages

FTC Full Disclosure – A copy of this book was sent to me by the publisher. However, receiving the complimentary copy did not influence my review. The thoughts are completely my own and given honestly and freely.

Thanks to the lovely Meg @ Tandem Literary, I have a print copy of THE BEACH HOUSE COOKBOOK by Mary Kay Andrews to giveaway. The giveaway is open to residents of the U.S. only and will end at 12 a.m. (EST) on Friday, June 2

To enter the giveaway, just click on the Rafflecopter widget below and follow the instructions. The widget may take a few seconds to load so please be patient. A winner will be selected by the Rafflecopter widget and I’ll send an email with the subject line “Thoughts in Progress Giveaway.” The winner will have 72 hours to reply to the email or another winner will be selected. PLEASE be sure to check your spam folder from time to time after the giveaway ends to make sure the notification email doesn’t end up there. If you win and you’ve already won the book somewhere else or you just decided for whatever reason you don’t want to win (which is fine), once again PLEASE let me know.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Do you have a favorite summertime recipe that you go back to year after year but only prepare it during those warm months?

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The Beach House Cookbook

I’m always delighted to read that New York Times mega-bestselling novelist and "Beach Read Queen" (CNN), Mary Kay Andrews has a new book out ….. even if it is a cookbook.

The author released her first ever cookbook, THE BEACH HOUSE COOKBOOK: Easy, Breezy Recipes with a Southern Accent, yesterday (May 2) from St. Martin's Press.

Publishers Weekly has called this gorgeous book, "a true primer on Southern cuisine." You don't need to own a beach house to enjoy the author's recipes. All you need is a year-round appetite for delicious, casual dishes cooked with the best fresh, local ingredients. The book's 16 carefree, crowd-pleasing menu plans are designed around holidays and occasions ("Low Country Boil," "After a Day at the Beach," "Game Day Dinner," "Lazy Weekend Brunch"), but the 90+ delectable recipes can be mixed and matched to highlight your favorite apps, sides, mains, desserts, and beverages.

The author joins us today to answer some questions for me. Be sure to keep your eyes open as in a few days or so I’ll have a review of this tantalizing cookbook and a giveaway for you (thanks to Meg @ Tandem Literary).

Now join me in welcoming the author. Mary Kay welcome to Thoughts in Progress.

I have to ask the age-old question, what compelled you to write a cookbook?

Mary Kay:

My husband and I love to cook and entertain, especially at our Tybee Island beach house, which is a restored 1932 cottage on the ocean just outside Savannah. I've always had foodie elements in the plots of my novels, and readers had been asking for a cookbook, so it seemed like a natural transition.

What was the most fun element of writing this cookbook? What was the worst part of the process?

Mary Kay:

It was lots of fun--and definitely a learning experience, choosing, refining and testing family favorites and new dishes. I hired a seasoned recipe tester/food writer to help with the book, and boy did I learn a lot! The worst part was the weight I gained testing all those desserts!

What was the first cookbook you ever owned?

Mary Kay:

As a child, somebody gave me a Betty Crocker Kids Cook book. And as an adult, I received two copies of Joy of Cooking when I got married in 1976. I still use Joy as a reference.

Any advice to someone who is thinking about writing a cookbook?

Mary Kay:

Really think through what kind of a book you want to publish and work towards achieving that vision. In my case, I wanted a cookbook that would reflect my philosophy of life--fun, fresh, fast family favorite recipes that anybody could tackle. Relatable recipes that feature ingredients easily sourced at a vacation type grocery store, and yes--convenience foods like pre-made pie crust, purchased ice cream sandwiches and cocktail sauce. Hire the best professionals to help. The best decision I made was to hire the dream team--a food photographer, recipe tester and food writer, and photo stylist/creative director, all of whom had worked together on half a dozen other cookbook projects.

What can readers look forward to next from you?

Mary Kay:

I'm hard at work on next summer's beach book, a novel featuring an intergenerational cast of characters and an old, unsolved mystery set on a remote barrier island off the coast of Georgia.

Mary Kay thanks for joining us today and sharing this insight into how your cookbook came about.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Author Mary Kay Andrews

MARY KAY ANDREWS is the New York Times bestselling author of 24 novels, including The Weekenders, Beach Town, Save the Date, Ladies' Night, Spring Fever, Summer Rental, The Fixer Upper, Deep Dish, Blue Christmas, Savannah Breeze, Hissy Fit, Little Bitty Lies, and Savannah Blues.

A former features writer for The Atlanta Journal Constitution, she finds an outlet for her passion for cooking, entertaining, and decorating with vintage finds at the homes she shares in Atlanta and Tybee Island, Georgia, with her husband, Tom, and their two grown children, Katie and Andy, as well as grandchildren Molly and Griffin. THE BEACH HOUSE COOKBOOK is her first cookbook.

For more on Mary Kay and her writing, visit her website and connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Thanks for stopping by today during Mary Kay’s visit. Don’t forgot to keep an eye out for my review and the giveaway coming soon. What was the first cookbook you ever owned?

6 Fun Christmas Books {+ Awesome #Giveaway}

Just in time for Christmas, you have a great opportunity to win six Christmas books by six bestselling authors! There's enough here to keep some for yourself and to share the love by gifting some to your friends and family!

Thanks to the lovely Meg at Tandem Literary I have this awesome giveaway to offer you. See the end of the post for more giveaway details.

But first, let me tell you what books are included in the giveaway and then a bit about each. You can enter to win a copy of A LOWCOUNTRY CHRISTMAS by Mary Alice Monroe, CHRISTMAS BLISS by Mary Kay Andrews, THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS by Debbie Macomber, WINTER STORMS by Elin Hilderbrand, CHRISTMAS IN PARIS by Anita Hughes, and A SHOE ADDICT’S CHRISTMAS by Beth Harbison.

A LOWCOUNTRY CHRISTMAS by Mary Alice Monroe

In A LOWCOUNTRY CHRISTMAS New York Times bestselling author Mary Alice Monroe explores the story of a wounded warrior and his younger brother who discover the true meaning of Christmas in this timeless story of family bonds.

          As far as ten-year-old Miller McClellan is concerned, it’s the worst Christmas ever. His father’s shrimp boat is docked, his mother is working two jobs, and with finances strained, Miller is told they can’t afford the dog he desperately wants. “Your brother’s return from war is our family’s gift,” his parents tell him. But when Taylor returns with PTSD, family tensions darken the holidays.

          Heartbreak and financial stress threaten to destroy the spirit of the season until the miraculous gift of a service dog leads Taylor, his family, and their community on a healing journey to discover the true meaning of Christmas.

You can connect with author Mary Alice Monroe on Facebook.

CHRISTMAS BLISS by Mary Kay Andrews

‘Twas the night before Christmas, and Savannah was breezy. But there's trouble afoot - and it's heading toward Weezie.

Seems BeBe's been holding a big secret back that would make Santa's reindeer stop dead in their tracks.

Can these two best friends wriggle out of these twists? Will they do it in time to ensure CHRISTMAS BLISS?

Return to the wonderful world of Mary Kay Andrews' Savannah with Christmas Bliss.

You can connect with author Mary Kay Andrews on Facebook.

THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS by Debbie Macomber

Continuing in a festive annual tradition, Debbie Macomber returns with a new original holiday novel full of romance and cheer—and the magical prospect of finding love in the most unexpected places.
 

Friendly and bubbly, Julia Padden likes nearly everyone, but her standoffish neighbor, Cain Maddox, presents a particular challenge. No matter how hard she’s tried to be nice, Cain rudely rebuffs her at every turn, preferring to keep to himself. But when Julia catches Cain stealing her newspaper from the lobby of their apartment building, that’s the last straw. She’s going to break through Cain’s Scrooge-like exterior the only way she knows how: by killing him with kindness.

To track her progress, Julia starts a blog called The Twelve Days of Christmas. Her first attempts to humanize Cain are far from successful. Julia brings him homemade Christmas treats and the disagreeable grinch won’t even accept them. Meanwhile, Julie’s blog becomes an online sensation, as an astonishing number of people start following her adventures. Julia continues to find ways to express kindness and, little by little, chips away at Cain’s gruff façade to reveal the caring man underneath. Unbelievably, Julia feels herself falling for Cain—and she suspects that he may be falling for her as well. But as the popularity of her blog continues to grow, Julia must decide if telling Cain the truth about having chronicled their relationship to the rest of the world is worth risking their chance at love.

You can connect with author Debbie Macomber on Facebook.

WINTER STORMS by Elin Hilderbrand

Gather under the mistletoe for one last round of caroling with the Quinn family in this heartwarming conclusion to Elin Hilderbrand's bestselling Winter Street Trilogy.

Some of the stormy weather of the past few seasons seems to have finally lifted for the Quinns. After a year apart, and an ill-fated affair with the Winter Street Inn's old Santa Claus, Mitzi has returned to rule the roost; Patrick is about to be released from prison; Kevin has a successful new business and is finally ready to tie the knot with Isabelle; and best of all, there's hopeful news about Bart, who has been captured by enemy forces in Afghanistan.

That doesn't mean there aren't a few dark clouds on the horizon. Kelley has recently survived a health scare; Jennifer can't quite shake her addiction to the drugs she used as a crutch while Patrick was in jail; and Ava still can't decide between the two lovers that she's been juggling with limited success. However, if there's one holiday that brings the Quinn family together to give thanks for the good times, it's Christmas. And this year promises to be a celebration unlike any other as the Quinns prepare to host Kevin and Isabelle's wedding at the inn. But as the special day approaches, a historic once-in-a-century blizzard bears down on Nantucket, threatening to keep the Quinns away from the place--and the people--they love most. Before the snow clears, the Quinns will have to survive enough upheavals to send anyone running for the spiked eggnog, in this touching novel that proves that when the holidays roll around, you can always go home again.

Connect with author Elin Hilderbrand on Facebook.

CHRISTMAS IN PARIS by Anita Hughes

Anita Hughes's Christmas in Paris is a moving and heartwarming story about love, trust, and self-discovery. Set during the most magical week of the year, the glorious foods and fashions of the most romantic city in the world are sure to take your breath away.

Isabel Lawson is standing on the balcony of her suite at the Hotel de Crillon as she gazes at the twinkling lights of the Champs-Élysées and wonders if she’s made a terrible mistake. She was supposed to be visiting the Christmas tree in the Place de la Concorde, and eating escargots and macaroons with her new husband on their honeymoon. But a week before the wedding, she called it off. Isabel is an ambitious Philadelphia finance woman, and Neil suddenly decided to take over his grandparents' farm. Isabel wasn't ready to trade her briefcase for a pair of rubber boots and a saddle.

When Neil suggested she use their honeymoon tickets for herself, she thought it would give her a chance to clear her head. That is until she locks herself out on the balcony in the middle of winter. Thankfully her neighbor Alec, a French children’s illustrator, comes to her rescue. He too is nursing a broken heart at the Crillon for the holidays. With a new friend by her side, Isabel is determined to use her time in the "city of lights" wisely. After a chance encounter with a fortune teller, and a close call with a taxi, she starts to question everything she thought was important.

You can connect with author Anita Hughes on Facebook.

A SHOE ADDICT’S CHRISTMAS by Beth Harbison

From the author of the beloved bestseller Shoe Addicts Anonymous comes a heartwarming twist on a classic tale filled with holiday cheer.

Noelle is not a fan of the holidays and to make matters worse, she is at a crossroads in her life when it seems that love and adventure are no longer possible. When she stays late at her job in a department store on a snowy Christmas Eve she accidentally gets locked in after closing.

She isn’t too concerned about the prospect of spending the night in the store…until a woman appears out of nowhere and tells Noelle that she’s her guardian angel. Soon Noelle finds herself camped out in the shoe department facing several “ghosts” of Christmases past, present, and future...Will visiting the holidays of yesterday and tomorrow help Noelle see the true spirit of Christmas? And will the love she has longed for all her life be the best surprise gift of all?

You can connect with author Beth Harbison on Facebook.

Thanks to the lovely Meg at Tandem Literary I have all six of the books above to giveaway to one lucky winner. The giveaway is open to residents of the U.S. only (so sorry international visitors) and will end at 12 a.m. (EST) on Tuesday, Dec. 20.

To enter the giveaway, just click on the Rafflecopter widget below and follow the instructions. The widget may take a few seconds to load so please be patient. A winner will be selected by the Rafflecopter widget and I’ll send an email with the subject line “Thoughts in Progress Giveaway.” The winner will have 72 hours to reply to the email or another winner will be selected. PLEASE be sure to check your spam folder from time to time after the giveaway ends to make sure the notification email doesn’t end up there. If you win and you’ve already won the book somewhere else or you just decided for whatever reason you don’t want to win (which is fine), once again PLEASE let me know.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Have you read any of the books listed above? Are you familiar with all or some of these authors? Do you have a Christmas book you’d recommend to us?

a Rafflecopter giveaway