Juliette Fay's 5 BEST EVERS

Our guest today: Juliette Fay Why we love her: We love to curl up by the fire with her books!

Her latest: The Shortest Way Home

The Scoop: Sean has spent twenty years in Third World war zones and natural disaster areas, fully embracing what he’d always felt was his life’s mission. But when burnout sets in, Sean is reluctantly drawn home to Belham, Massachusetts, the setting of Fay’s much-loved Shelter Me. There, he discovers that his steely aunt, overly dramatic sister, and quirky nephew are having a little natural disaster of their own. When he reconnects with a woman from his past, Sean has to wonder if the bonds of love and loyalty might just rewrite his destiny.

Our thoughts: We think you'll fall in love with this one!

Giveaway: FIVE copies!  Leave a comment and you'll be entered to win.  We'll choose the winners on Sunday November 4th after 3pm PST.

Fun Fact: Smarty Pants alert!  Juliette has a master's degree in Public Policy from freakin' HARVARD.

Where you can read more about Juliette: Her website, Facebook and Twitter.

CHICK LIT IS NOT DEAD PRESENTS...JULIETTE FAY'S 5 BEST EVERS

First, I have to say that I have many favorites of all of these things -- I'm sure most people do -- so the following is just the first thing that jumped to mind. In that sense I guess it's my subconscious favorite, and as close as I'll ever come to the truth.

BEST SONG: Maybe I'm Amazed by Paul McCartney The most honest love song ever written. He wrote it for his wife, Linda, to whom he was utterly devoted, and it's about the panic-laced awe you feel when love truly has you in its clutches.

I remember lying on my bed in the dark, late at night as a preteen, listening to this song on the radio, and praying that someday someone would feel this way about me. (Post-script: someone eventually did, and I married him.)

Current Alternate: Beautiful Soul by Jesse McCartney

I am a complete sucker for this song, which always makes my teenage daughter crack up. Maybe a little part of me is still that preteen girl . . .

BEST MOVIE: The Family Stone My go-to Christmas movie about a quirky family celebrating together -- the love, the friction, the way they know one another so well . . . and yet there are secrets and surprises. It's hilarious and heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful. The acting is fantastic and there's a scene that involves raw eggs and brotherly brawling that always has me gasping with laughter.

BEST BOOK: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson Written from the perspective of a 76-year-old man with a much younger wife and a 6-year-old son. He knows he'll die soon, and the son, whom he loves desperately, will barely remember him, so he's compiling the family history for the boy. It's slow and beautiful and thoughtful. Reading it felt like I was witness to something verging on the miraculous.

I know it sounds weird and overly gushy to say a book is a miracle, but that's how it felt.

BEST LIFE MOMENT: On a bus in Seattle Okay, really? On a bus? Let's start with the obvious choices: the day I married a really  great guy, the births of my four children, the day my first book was published. But after those highlights, what jumps to mind is . . .

I worked as an emergency shelter counselor in Seattle right out of college, and then started a daycare for homeless children. Our Place Daycare was housed in donated space right by the Space Needle. It had been a particularly exhausting day, and I stood at the bus stop, wearing a white shirt (I can still see it -- I loved that shirt!) covered in spit-up and snot and baby drool.

The bus came and I got on. Waiting for it to pull away from the curb, I looked out the window at the springtime-bright green leaves against the perfect cerulean blue of a cloudless sky. And a thought came to me: For all its heartbreak, this world is a beautiful place, and God is watching, and it's going to be okay. It was a moment of utter peace that I'll never forget.

BEST PIECE OF ADVICE: "Just keep swimming." -- Dory, from Finding Nemo It's the last best thing to do when nothing is going right. Some days it's all you can pull off, and on those days, it's enough.

Thanks Juliette! xoxo, L&L

Llucia Ramis's 5 BEST EVERS

Our guest today: Llucia Ramis Why we love her: Barcelona is fabulous, and so is Llucia!

Her latest: Things That Happen To You in Barcelona When You're Thirty

The scoop: On the morning after celebrating her thirtieth birthday in Barcelona, a journalist wakes up to a hangover—and a magician in her bed—and wonders if she’s too old to be living as though she was still twenty years old. Her artist friend, Blai, has already immortalized the rest of their group on canvas. There’s man-eater Cati, drama-queen lesbian Neus, and wild-haired, poet turned teacher Nil. But as she enters a new decade of her life, the narrator remains “an idea for a painting that is yet to be defined.”

When she’s left looking after a stranger’s bag, she looks inside and finds a love letter that fires her imagination. The search for the truth behind the romantic clue leads her on a hunt through the bars of Barcelona. If she doesn’t believe in fate, why should she believe in the letter’s Prince Charming? And what should she do if she finds him? In a precarious era of flat-packed, ready-to-assemble lifestyles and disposable relationships, surprising stories are never too far away.

Our thoughts: Super fun!

Giveaway: Five eCopies! Leave a comment and you'll be entered to win!  We'll choose the winners after Sunday, November 4th at 3pm PST.

Fun fact: Llucia knows Barcelona--she moved there when she was eighteen!

Where you can read more about Llucia: Her author page, or Twitter.

CHICK LIT IS NOT DEAD PRESENTS...LLUCIA RAMIS'S 5 BEST EVERS

BEST SONG: “Young Adult Friction” by The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, because it puts me in a great mood and makes me feel like dancing and singing: “Don't check me out!” I also like “Almost Crimes” by Broken Social Scene, “I Wanna Fall in Love” by BMX Bandits, because it brings back memories of great happiness, “Beneath the Rose” by Micah P. Hinson, because it reminds me of other, more difficult moments, and “Estupendamente” by The New Raemon, because it’s the perfect soundtrack for Saturday morning hangovers in Barcelona after having failed, on yet another night, in the search for love. But most of all, I love Morrissey.

BEST BOOK: Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You, by Peter Cameron, is a tender, fun, and intelligent portrait of New York after 9/11. I also like Anne Sexton’s poetry, because it’s very visual and intense, and The Journalist and the Murderer, by Janet Malcolm. And Saul Bellow, J. M. Coetzee, Ann Beattie, Alice Munro, Antonio Di Benedetto, Daniel Clowes . . . I’m sorry, I can’t choose just one!

BEST MOVIE: The Usual Suspects, Being John Malkovich, and The Third Man, because they blur the line between reality and fiction, and you can see how they construct the story. And I also like Clerks and Diamond Flash, a very strange, disturbing, and shocking film by the Spanish cartoonist Carlos Vermut. I think he chose the actors through a casting by Skype. All of them are amateurs.

I also like Historias extraordinarias, by the Argentinian Mariano Llinás, a very long and original film that gives me the strange impression that, because of the way in which it’s told, it could have been me who wrote it. Or rather, I would have liked to have written it. In any case, my favorite film of all time is The Goonies. I want to be a goonie.

BEST LIFE MOMENT: Sitting on the balcony of my grandmother’s house, in Portocolom, just in front of the sea, where the boats are moored. And eating pan con tomate (bread slathered with tomato) for dinner there while the sun sets and my grandfather talks and talks, telling old family stories. Portocolom is a very sheltered and peaceful port in Majorca, in the Mediterranean. I have summered there since I was little, and those afternoons never change. All the summers of childhood are always the same.

BEST PIECE OF ADVICE: All problems have a solution. And if they don’t, don’t worry because therefore they’re not problems.

Thanks, Llucia!  xoxo, L&L

Julie Klam's 5 BEST EVERS

Today's guest: Julie Klam Why we love her: We first fell for her when we read her hilarious and lovable memoir (with the cutest dog you've ever seen on the cover!), You Had Me At Woof: How Dogs Taught Me the Secret of Happiness and we've devoured everything she's written since.

Her latest: Friendkeeping: A Field Guide to the People You Love, Hate and Can't Live Without Out today! (Which also happens to be Julie's bday! Happy Birthday!)

The scoop on it: With her inimitable wit and disarming warmth, Julie Klam shares with us her experiences, advice, and insight in Friendkeeping, a candid, hilarious look at some of the most meaningful and enjoyable relationships in our lives: our friendships.

After her bestselling You Had Me at Woof, about relationships with dogs, Klam now turns her attention to human relationships to great effect. She examines everything—from the curious world of online friendship to the intersection of friendship and motherhood. She even explores how to hang on to our friendships in the toughest circumstances: when schadenfreude rears its ugly head or when we don’t like our friend’s mate.

Klam relays a mix of brand-new and time-tested wisdom—she finds that longtime friends really can grow up without growing apart; that communication is key; that friendship is one of life’s great, free sources of happiness; that you’re not a friend, just a doormat, if you don’t get back what you give—and her discoveries range from amusing to deeply important.

Our thoughts: As BFF's for over 25 years, this laugh-out-loud funny and heartwarming book.

Giveaway: FIVE COPIES. Just leave a comment & be entered to win. We'll select the winners at 3pm on Sunday, October 28th.

Fun fact: Remember VH1's Pop-up Video? Julie not only wrote for that show, but earned an Emmy nomination.

Where you can read more about Julie: Twitter, Facebook and her website.

CHICK LIT IS NOT DEAD PRESENTS...JULIE KLAM'S 5 BEST EVERS

1. song- Baker Street by Gerry Raferty. I was looking at my itunes the other day and thinking I've probably bought that song a million times. It reminds me of being on the floor of my brother Matt's room in our house in Katonah and we were just groovin on our coolness -- I was 11 and he was 13 so all of the coolness was invisible

2. book - I've answered this question a lot lately - it's Fraud by the great David Rakoff. There just is no voice like his, he is the funniest writer ever. The first time I met him I gushed about it and he was so genuinely touched and moved and I thought 'wow, this must not happen to him a lot.' And then I learned half the world told him that.

3. movie- Close Encounters of the Third Kind - I loved it when I was a kid and then it was the first movie I bought as an adult. I'd just watch it over and over and over and over. I used to see Richard Dreyfuss in our diner and I felt like he was an old buddy. I once saw him eating with Richard Masur. I don't know if he had friends that weren't named Richard.

4. piece of advice - If someone is paying you to do something then it's a job and you have to do it the way they want it and on time. I think my pet peeve is people who get all artiste-y about their work. People pay you and people need your product to make money. And they count on you. Don't be a jerk. I think when I first started freelancing my aunt told me, no one wants to hear you bellyache.

5. life moment -First time I held my daughter - I had given birth c-section and had pre-eclampsia and she was a premie. So she was born and they whipped into the NICU and I was sent to a recovery room. It was 22 hours before I got to see her and hold her. I was ready to rip out my cords Hulk style and go get her but someone took pity on me. I couldn't believe her existence and how much I desperately loved her.

Thanks, Julie! xoxo,

Liz & Lisa

Photo credit: Sarah Shatz

Catherine McKenzie's 5 BEST EVERS

Today's guest: Catherine McKenzie Why we love her: She writes hilarious and smart novels that make us think.

Her latest: Forgotten

The scoop on it: Emma Tupper is a dedicated lawyer with a bright future. But when she takes a month-long leave of absence to go on an African vacation, she ends up facing unexpected consequences. After she falls ill and spends six months trapped in a remote village thanks to a devastating earthquake, Emma returns home to discover that her friends, boyfriend, and colleagues thought she was dead—and that her life has moved on without her.

As she struggles to re-create her old life, throwing herself into solving a big case for a client and trying to reclaim her beloved apartment from the handsome photographer who assumed her lease, everyone around her thinks she should take the opportunity to change. But is she willing to sacrifice her job, her relationships, and everything else she worked so hard to build?

In Forgotten, Catherine McKenzie tweaks a classic tale of discovering who we really are when everything that brings meaning to our lives is lost.

Our thoughts: From the time we read the premise, we were intrigued. Forgotten turned out to be even better than it sounded. It's now one of our favorite Catherine McKenzie novels!

Giveaway: FIVE copies. Just leave a comment and be entered to win. We'll select the winners after 3pm on Sunday, October 28th.

Fun fact: Catherine is also a lawyer!

Where you can read more about Catherine: Facebook, Twitter and her website.

CHICK LIT IS NOT DEAD PRESENTS...CATHERINE MCKENZIE'S 5 BEST EVERS

If you’ve read High Fidelity—and if you haven’t how come? It’s awesome—you’ll understand when I say that being asked to choose my favorite anything makes me feel like Rob Gordon trying to pick his top five songs of all time. I love so many songs, books, movies etc. that it’s hard to pick just one. So, with that being said, here are …

CATHERINE MCKENZIE’S TOP FIVE BOOKS, SONGS, MOVIES, LIFE MOMENTS AND ADVICE, WHICH MAY NOT BE HER TOP FIVE TOMORROW.

1. Favorite Book—Jeez. This is really hard. But I’ve said Pride and Prejudice before, so I’ll stick to that. I came to this book relatively late in life—I was one of those Jane-Austen-What’s-All-the-Fuss people. Then I saw Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle in the BBC version of the book (2nd runner up in favorite movie category), and I fell in love. After having read the book, it became clear that it was one of those perfect book-to-movie adaptations (as is High Fidelity—see, this is hard!), and that I had long misjudged Ms. Austen. I went on to read all her books, including the unfinished ones, and I read them about once a year.

2. Favorite Song—Oh boy. This one is even harder. Seriously. I can’t choose. So here is some of my favorite music to write by: Bob Dylan’s Biograph, Sarah Harmer’s You Were Here, MoZella’s Belle Isle, Eric Hutchison’s Sounds Like This, Matt Nathanson’s Live at the Point (awesome and hilarious). I tend to queue up one of these albums, or sometimes just one song, and play it over and over while I write. It helps me create a rhythm.

3. Favorite Movie—Did I mention this was hard? I think I’ll pick Bull Durham. I can pretty much quote it from beginning to end, and it makes excellent Movie Night viewing.

4. Life Moment—mmm, personal. But a pretty good one was when I got the call about getting my first book deal. And the funny thing? I couldn’t get anyone on the phone to tell them, which is exactly what happens to the main character in Arranged, a scene I wrote before I got my book deal. Do I have magical powers?

5. Piece of Advice—This one’s easy: Make time for the things you love. People always ask me how I have time to practice law and write books. It’s complicated, but simple really: you make time for the things you love. Don’t you? If not, please start doing so immediately.

Thanks, Catherine!

xoxo,

Liz & Lisa

Karen Bergreen's 5 BEST EVERS

Our guest today: Karen Bergreen Why we love her: She is freakin' hilarious, that's why!

Her latest: Perfect is Overrated

The Scoop: Think you want to be the perfect mom? Think again…..

Kate Alger has finally found the cure for her post-partum depression.  After years of suffering, all it takes to bring this mommy back to life were a few gruesome homicides!  When someone starts offing the alpha-moms from Kate’s daughter’s preschool, Kate—who worked as an Assistant District Attorney before she had Molly—realizes it’s time to get out of bed, dust off the skills and find out who is killing all the mommies she loves to hate.

Wickedly funny and slightly twisted, Perfect Is Overrated is a romp through the life of one very needy mom, her cockeyed family, gorgeous ex-husband, and the entire insane, entitled, over-dressed , over-zealous, eternally jealous parent body at The Hawthorne Preschool.

Our thoughts: We LOVED it-this one will totally relieve your Mom stress!

Giveaway: FIVE copies!  Just leave a comment and we'll choose winners on Sunday October 21st after 6pm PST.

Fun Fact: Karen is also a stand up comedian...no wonder we think she's so funny!

Where to read more about Karen: Her website, Facebook and Twitter.

CHICK LIT IS NOT DEAD PRESENTS...KAREN BERGREEN'S BEST EVERS

Best Song:  This is muy hard (I try to use a Spanish word at least once a day to show my worldliness), But I am going to have to go with Looking at You by Cole Porter. I am obsessed with Cole Porter, and in reality, it may not have been his best work, but it was my first dance at my wedding and I’m trying to suck up to my husband as our tenth anniversary approaches. I’m hoping for a pony.

Best Book: Again, a difficult one, but I love Bryce Courtenay’s The Power of One.  I love coming of age stories. I love the theme of the triumphant underdog, in this case the protagonist, Peekay. (PK is a term of endearment for his real name, Pisskop, Pisshead in Afrikaans.). The book is a good old fashioned sage, set in South Africa during the rise of Hitler.  We get to hate Nazi kids and love quirky characters.  The book, I recall, was long, but when it ended, I felt a sense of loss.

Best Movie: Can we have a tie between Tootsie and The Shawshank Redemption? I love Dustin Hoffman so.  When I was in ninth grade, I found his number in the telephone book and called it and hung up.  It was terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.  Tootsie made me realize that my love for him transcended his appearance –I would have dated him as woman.  The movie is hilarious-my favorite moment is when a depressed Tootsie tips over the mime in Central Park.  The song Something’s Telling Me it Might Be You is nice and sappy, the way I like em. I like the Shawshank Redemption because I like revenge. I’m very angry. Could someone hold me?

Best Moment: I wish I could say when my kids were born, but I was nervous and bloated. Maybe when I got engaged, but the happiness was mixed with relief.  I know. It was when I was sitting at a callback interview for a prestigious law job (I used to be a lawyer before becoming a comic). The interviewer was describing what my potential job entailed and I interrupted her and said, “Excuse me, I am so so  sorry to have wasted your time, but I am going to withdraw my application here so that I can be a stand up comic.”

Best Piece of Advice: This is the easiest one and it relates to Best Moment.  I had been in therapy when I decided to switch from law to comedy and the only thing holding me back was my fear of disapproval.  I remember asking my therapist, “What will people think?” And she said, “Why would you care?” I felt liberated.

Thanks Karen! xoxo, L&L

Sarah Jio's 5 BEST EVERS

We are so excited to have our friend and incredibly talented author, Sarah Jio, kick off our brand spankin' new feature today! We'll be asking authors about their "Best Evers" and the why behind them.  And don't be afraid to chime in with yours too! Our guest today: Sarah Jio

Why we love her: We fell in love with her debut, The Violets of March, and have been girl crushin' ever since!

Her latest: Blackberry Winter

The scoop: Seattle, 1933. Single mother Vera Ray kisses her three-year-old son, Daniel, goodnight and departs to work the night-shift at a local hotel. She emerges to discover that a May-Day snow has blanketed the city, and that her son has vanished. Outside, she finds his beloved teddy bear lying face-down on an icy street, the snow covering up any trace of his tracks, or the perpetrator's.

Seattle, 2010. Seattle Herald reporter Claire Aldridge, assigned to cover the May 1 "blackberry winter" storm and its twin, learns of the unsolved abduction and vows to unearth the truth. In the process, she finds that she and Vera may be linked in unexpected ways...

Our thoughts: Sarah does a beautiful job of weaving mystery into this thrilling tale. And we loved every page of it.  What are you waiting for-go grab a copy!

Giveaway: FIVE copies!  Leave a comment and you'll be entered to win.  We'll choose the winners after 3pm PST on Tuesday, October 2nd. Good luck! Remember, our giveaways are US/Canada only.  Thanks!

Fun Fact: Sarah rented a houseboat to write her next book.  Check out the pictures here!

Where you can learn more about Sarah: Her website, Facebook and Twitter.

CHICK LIT IS NOT DEAD PRESENTS...SARAH JIO'S BEST EVERS

Song: I have so many songs that are meaningful to me because of their significance at various times in my life, but a favorite would have to be something from U2, and it would probably have to be "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." I love the intro to this song, and I love how it tells a story of always being excited about what's around the corner in life, and the message to keep moving forward to be your best self and to accomplish new things. It's an incredible challenge, actually. (On a side note, if I ever make it into the big time, I want to make a significant contribution to Bono's One foundation--which is especially focused on improving the lives and health of the impoverished in Africa--and I would not be sad if he wanted to thank me by playing a teensy tiny, improvisational acoustic concert in my backyard for my closest family and friends. A girl can dream, right?) On that note, I also love, love, love "Here's to Life" by the great Shirley Horn. She sings, "I've had my share, I've drank my fill, and even though I'm satisfied, I'm hungry still, to see what's down another road, beyond a hill, and do it all again. … I've learned that all you give is all you get, so give it all you've got … So here's to life, and every joy it brings. So here's to life, to dreamers and their dreams…" When I'm 90 years old, I want to feel this way. I want to look back on my life and think, "yes, that was absolutely awesome." And then I want to put on some great shoes, and go out to a great restaurant, have a glass of wine and savor another amazing day.

Book: Maeve Binchy passed away recently, and honestly, the news hit me pretty hard. I began reading her books in high school and they resonated with me then, and now. I always look back on those reading experiences and credit her with teaching me so much about character development, story, plot and heart. She was a one-and-only. And her books "Tara Road" and "Quentins" will always be on my favorite list.

Movie: Absolutely and positively "Sleepless in Seattle." I'm going to tear up here, as Nora Ephron, the amazing woman who wrote the screenplay, also recently passed away. (Which means that I've lost two of my icons this year.) I think I was in junior high when I first saw this movie, and it was spellbinding for me—not only because I grew up in a community right outside of Seattle, but because of the beautiful love story of hope after great loss. I watch it every year, and it always has the same effect on me: wow. In some ways, it inspired the direction of my fifth novel, recently sold to Penguin, which takes place on a houseboat in Seattle. My husband, very generously, offered to rent me a houseboat on Lake Union in Seattle (just across the water from the actual houseboat where 'Sleepless' was filmed) as my writing "office" until New Year's, where I can sneak away and work on the novel. I'm loving it!

Life Moment: Wow, such an important question, and one that has many answers, so I will cheat and give you a mini-movie: The day I met my husband, and the day I married him; the day my first baby was born; the day that my grandfather died; the day I learned that my ovarian cyst was not cancerous; the day my son's blood test for leukemia came back negative; the day I stepped foot in Paris for the first time, all alone; the day I bought my first house; the day I walked into a bookstore and found my first novel on a shelf.

Piece of Advice: There are many mottos and words of wisdom that ring true for me, but in my writing life, I've learned to live by this very important principle (so, aspiring writers, this one's for you!): I'm a big idea person and am always (always!) coming up with a new novel idea (it's a blessing and a curse), but I learned a long time ago to only stick with a works-in-progress that a.) haunt me by day, and b.) keep me up at night. A story can be good, or it can be really, really good. And I've learned to differentiate the two by how much my characters grab me. If they just aren't, then I move on to another project. My reasoning is this: If a story can't hold my interest wholly and completely than I can never expect it to capture my readers in the same way. I truly take this to heart in my daily writing life, and I've given up on many novel starts for this very reason.

Thanks Sarah! xoxo, L&L