5 days until summer!
Annette Lyon is a Whitney Award winner, a two-time recipient of Utah’s Best of State medal for fiction, and a three-time publication award winner from the League of Utah Writers, most recently, the Silver Quill Award in 2013. She’s the author of more than a dozen novels, almost as many novellas, several nonfiction books, and over one hundred twenty magazine articles. Annette is a cum laude graduate from BYU with a degree in English. When she’s not writing, knitting, or eating chocolate, she can be found mothering and avoiding the spots on the kitchen floor. Find her online at blog.annettelyon.com and on Twitter: @AnnetteLyon.
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LDSWBR: What book or movie reminds you of summer?
ANNETTE: Definitely Anne of Green Gables, because I was first introduced to Anne over the summer before eighth grade. I’d just spent three years abroad, where finding books in English wasn’t the easiest. That summer, I spent hours and hours reading the first three Anne books, which were collected into a single volume that my best friend loaned me. As soon as I finished the first book, I HAD to see the movie, of course. Another friend had it (on VHS) at her house, and we watched it in her family room. Even now, thoughts of Gilbert and Anne remind me of that summer, including the very bed I read on. I ended up being a huge LM Montgomery fan, although Anne isn’t my favorite Montgomery character. I have a shelf full of her books, including her autobiography, her short stories, all five massive volumes of her journals, and a DVD with a ton of history and photographs. And a quote from her journal hanging on my writing desk! It’s safe to say that the summer of 1987 had a huge impact on me as both a reader and a writer.
LDSWBR: Do you hike during the summer? If so, where is your favorite place to hike?
ANNETTE: Not as much as I once did–I have a hankering to do a full-on, several-day Uintah backpacking hike again some day. But sometimes I’ll do a day hike with my kids, most recently, up to Stewart Falls (near Sundance) and up Y Mountain in Provo.
LDSWBR: What is the best book you’ve read so far this year?
ANNETTE: I Shall Be Near to You, by Erin Lindsay McCabe. I’m a sucker for historical fiction and women’s fiction. This book combines the two into historical women’s fiction and adds a haunting story with real characters and a great voice right along with heartbreaking history. It’s about a new wife who enlists in the US Army during the Civil War so she can be close to her soldier husband.
LDSWBR: Thank you, Annette!
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DESERET BOOK | SEAGULL BOOK | AMAZON | GOODREADS
On the surface, Ilana Goldstein leads an enviable life: a thriving career and a happy marriage to a handsome doctor. All that’s missing is a baby, an emptiness that will surely be filled with time . . .
Then, in an instant, her life falls apart. Now, beneath Ilana’s once flawless exterior hides a dark secret that may destroy the woman who seemed to have it all. Following a rapid succession of crushing trials, Ilana turns to prescription medications to take the edge off her agony both the ache of her body and the anguish of her soul. But when her desperation to dull the pain leads to the downward spiral of addiction, her friends in the Newport Ladies Book Club must do whatever it takes to save one of their own. Will Ilana’s devastating losses bring about her own self-destruction, or will the loving determination of friends and family lend her the strength to overcome?
Has a book or author ever impacted your life like Anne of Green Gables and LM Montgomery have impacted Annette’s life?
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**Book Prizes (as of 6/16/14 – more to be added to this list!)**
- Unraveled by Julie Daines (signed paperback)
- Any book by A.L. Sowards (choice of paperback or Kindle version)
- An autographed copy of any one Sarah M. Eden book of the winner’s choice
- Chances Are by Traci Hunter Abramson (signed/personalized paperback)
- Choice of The Inventor’s Secret (hardback or paperback) or The Avatar Battle (hardback or audio CD) by Chad Morris (signed copy)
- Missing Lily by Annette K. Larsen (ebook in .mobi or epub)
- Glimmering Light by Margot Hovley (personalized paperback or Kindle)
- Before the Clock Strikes Thirty by Aubrey Mace (personalized paperback)
- Tulips and Treason by Tristi Pinkston (personalized paperback)
- Luminescence by Braden Bell
- Falling For You by Krista Lynne Jensen (signed paperback)
- Ilana’s Wish by Annette Lyon (paperback copy, personalized if desired)
20 Responses to “Ilana’s Wish by Annette Lyon – Countdown to Summer 2014”
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When I first read James Harriet’s books, they made me want to be a Vet. He had such adventures and fun with animals! I wanted to be just like him :)
I’ve never heard of James Harriet. Obviously, he’s an LDS author, I assume :) Do you recommend his books to everyone?
Ages ago when I was a teen, Phyliss A. Whitney hooked me on reading. I loved her romantic suspense books.
I think I still have all of Phyllis Whitney’s books. And when I ran a library in Saudi Arabia, she was one of the favorites!
Besides the Book of Mormon being a huge impact on my life, my favorite author is James Michener. He makes learning the history and stories of other places amazing.
I’m sure that I have been affected by books, but I can’t think of a specific example right now.
Probably “Pride and Prejudice”. Just because it was a revelation to me that a book could be so romantic and so funny and so perfectly written.
Ya know, I’ve seen these Newport Ladies novels, but have never read them. Maybe it is time I start. :)
I’ve been thinking the same things for awhile now ;)
I’d have to say C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe. My teacher first read it to our class in first grade, then again in second grade–& I wanted to have a pet lion ever since. Still love CSL.
The book that most impacted my life as as child was “Nikoline’s Choice. Written by Margaret Maw in 1947, it told about a little Pioneer girl and the trials they encountered from her point of view. I guess that was the first time I, fully, realized what those early Saints endured. I read the book over & over & was, absolutely, thrilled to find it again after my mother died & I was cleaning out her house.
As a child, I really loved the Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander (The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, The Castle of Lyre, Taran Wanderer, and The High King). I purchased those from a school book fair in elementary school and I read them over and over again.
I really like jenni james, and ally carter. Their books make me laugh and think that really adventurous events can happen to everyday people, as odd as that sounds.
I was in college and couldn’t decide what to major in when I read “I’ll Find You” by Clair Poulson over a Christmas break. One of the characters in it is an accountant, which is a pretty minor detail of the story. But I went back to school in January, changed my major to accounting, and stayed with it till I graduated.
I don’t think any book has had quite the same impact that Anne had for Annette!
Books in general have greatly impacted my life in wonderful ways. I can never get enough good books to read, and love how a story can change the world I live in-even if for only a day or two.
Books have been a huge part of my life, although I don’t think I can pinpoint just one that’s had an impact on me. I definitely enjoy the Newport Ladies Book Club and really like the addition if this book to the series!
This is such a great series! I think about books I’ve read in the past that have influenced me and I can’t think of just one, but I know Victoria Holt and LM Montgomery were some of my absolute favorites that I’ve re-read over the years.
The first LDS fiction books I read were The Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites series by Chris Heimerdinger. I loved those books so much that I started reading just about every LDS fiction novel ever written and wanted to become an LDS author.
I don’t want to sound like I am taking the easy way out, but Anne of Green Gables also impacted my life growing up. After the Anne series I tried to find other books by L.M. Montgomery to read like Emily of New Moon and other series she did. I loved her writing style and still love to re-read those books.