The wondrous Aimee Bender conjures the lush and moving story of a girl whose magical gift is really a devastating curse.
   On the eve of her ninth birthday, unassuming Rose Edelstein, a girl at the periphery of schoolyard games and her distracted parents’ attention, bites into her mother’s homemade lemon-chocolate cake and discovers she has a magical gift: she can taste her mother’s emotions in the cake. She discovers this gift to her horror, for her mother—her cheerful, good-with-crafts, can-do mother—tastes of despair and desperation. Suddenly, and for the rest of her life, food becomes a peril and a threat to Rose.
   The curse her gift has bestowed is the secret knowledge all families keep hidden—her mother’s life outside the home, her father’s detachment, her brother’s clash with the world. Yet as Rose grows up she learns to harness her gift and becomes aware that there are secrets even her taste buds cannot discern.

Kristin said… 6   I am a GFC follower.

Anonymous said… 11   If I won the lottery, I would immediately buy a new computer and sign up for a high speed connection! No more waiting forever for something to post. Might sell this house and buy another one in a cooler place-maybe. Give a sizable gift to the nearest children’s library. Oh-lots of things. Would probably have to make a list, priotrize it but after I buy a new computer and get a high speed connection!

An email has been to the winners and they have 48 hours to respond with their mailing information or another winner(s) will be chosen.

Kristin said… 6   I am a GFC follower.

Anonymous said… 11   If I won the lottery, I would immediately buy a new computer and sign up for a high speed connection! No more waiting forever for something to post. Might sell this house and buy another one in a cooler place-maybe. Give a sizable gift to the nearest children’s library. Oh-lots of things. Would probably have to make a list, priotrize it but after I buy a new computer and get a high speed connection!

An email has been to the winners and they have 48 hours to respond with their mailing information or another winner(s) will be chosen.

I am so excited about this giveaway!!!  Especially if you are like me!!!!  Do you run to the store at the last minute because you remembered you needed to send a greeting card?  A Get Well card, Birthday card, Thinking Of You card?  You get the idea.  Wouldn’t it be great to have these cards at your fingertips?  Then this is the giveaway for you!!!!! 

I am so excited about this giveaway!!!  Especially if you are like me!!!!  Do you run to the store at the last minute because you remembered you needed to send a greeting card?  A Get Well card, Birthday card, Thinking Of You card?  You get the idea.  Wouldn’t it be great to have these cards at your fingertips?  Then this is the giveaway for you!!!!! 

It’s the day after Labor Day, 2008, and the bottom is about the drop out of the economy. Hedge fund owner John Cutter is in the process of an ugly divorce and nearly in financial ruin, except for the assets he is hiding from his wife Mimi in the Cayman Islands. When he concocts a scheme to redeem himself, he enlists Lehman Brothers investment banker Blake Somerset as an accomplice. Blake is ripe for recruitment given that he too is on the verge of being in dire financial straits given Lehman’s decline and imminent bankruptcy. Blake’s socialite wife Grigsby is barely aware of her changing world to begin with, and has no idea of the perilous situation her husband is about to enter into. As autumn unfolds, Grigsby’s fairytale life starts to unwind. Meanwhile, John and Blake’s scheme comes to light when street-smart Renee Parker begins her new position as John’s executive assistant. Convinced something is amiss, she enlists her friend Sasha Silver, CEO of Silver Partners, to help her decipher what is happening. This story of expulsion from a modern-day Garden of Eden captures what happens when economic decline spells ruin for Manhattan’s pampered elite.