Top 5 Tuesday - Top 5… Books with Ghosts

Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme that explores different topics. Originally created by Shanah at Bionic Book Worm, it is now hosted by Meeghan at Meeghan Reads. For a list of October topics you can click here. To participate, link your post back to Meeghan's blog or leave a comment on her weekly post.

Hope you're enjoying this month's focus on Halloween. Today, we are sharing Top 5… Books with Ghosts. Since my early Scooby-Doo days, I've loved a good ghost story. How about you?

Here are my choices:

When I first got into blogging, Jamieson Wolf was an author I followed. I think this is the first book of his that I read. Very creepy. Neglected by her parents, Mave Mallory goes to live with her grandmother, where she plays with ghosts in the attic and discovers a mysterious mirror her grandmother warns her never to touch. Or course, she doesn't listen, and is pulled into another world. 

This is a cute chapter book series. Two books were published in 2008. They are still available for purchase. Kimble is the ghost of a young girl who appears to Katie and asks her to help discover what happened to Kimble's mother. In the second book of the series, Katie finds a magic coupon that can turn Kimble human again. 

You knew this series was going to make an appearance, right? In the first book of the Tradd Street series, Realtor Melanie Middleton inherits this historic house on Tradd Street... and all its ghosts. When writer Jack Trenholm tries to woo Melanie because he believes diamonds from the secret Confederate Treasury are hidden in the house, he catches the attention of a hostile ghost. 

This is a touching ghost story romance. After her husband is killed in the line of duty, Nicole must pick up the pieces of her shattered life and figure out her next steps and care for her children. When strange things start happening, she is sure her deceased husband is trying to communicate with her.

Ghosts of Salem: Haunts of the Witch City takes readers through Salem's history. It also shares the opinions of residents about the ghosts who are said to call Salem home. It's been years since I read it, but I remember finding it a fascinating read.

What are some of your favorite books with ghosts?

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books that Should be Adapted into Netflix Shows/Movies

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

I have to start this week's topic by stating I don't watch a lot of TV or movies. That's changed a bit lately as we have spent more time at home, but I prefer to read than watch anything (with rare exception). Thanks to my Kindle Fire HD 10, however, I have binge watched the entire Fuller House series. Though this might seem odd, I am watching season 1 of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, which aired from 2010-2013. I've always been a fan of Scooby-Doo, so I wanted to check out a more recent adaptation. You can read some of my thoughts at my kid's book blog.

So, on to today's topic. These are my suggestions for Top Ten Books that Should be Adapted into Netflix Shows/Movies. Some of these would be remakes of other shows/movies, but I think modernizing these could gain new audiences.

One of my favorite TV mini-series, The Thorn Birds is overdue for a remake. Proving I don't follow Hollywood at all, I can only guess who would play the main characters. Maybe Chris Hemsworth or Henry Cavill and Anne Hathway or Kiera Knightly. I suggest less focus on Meggie's younger years and moving swiftly into her coming of age and the forbidden love between Meggie and Ralph.

In The Cutting by James Hayman, readers meet Detective Sergeant Michael McCabe, who moved from New York City to Portland, Maine to escape a dark past. Along with his partner, Maggie Savage, McCabe must find a sadistic killer of young, blonde women. McCabe and Savage return in The Chill of the Night, where they must discover who killed a young attorney and dumped her body at the end of the Portland Fish Pier. This would make a great series. Hayman already has six books for inspiration.

The Amish Bishop Mysteries by Vannetta Chapman started with What the Bishop Saw. Henry Lapp rushes to the scene of an out of control fire. He soon learns, however, that this fire is no accident and Vernon Frey is left dead. Not the most liked guy, there is no end of potential suspects. Henry must decide if he will use his God-given gift to set the record straight one someone he knows is innocent is implicated in Vernon's death. 

This is the first of a three-book series, but I think it would make a great regular TV series for cozy mystery lovers that is unique in setting and because of the main character's faith. 

Here is another great book series that would make for a fun TV series or movie. The House on Tradd Street introduces us to Realtor Melanie Middleton. She inherits the house on Tradd Street from a man she recently met, not knowing of the house's malevolent presence. We also meet Jack Trenholm and a cast of other great characters who appear in this series. I think this first book would make a great movie.

As I mentioned in an earlier Top Ten Tuesday, the 1993 TV series, Walker, Texas Ranger is being remade. Due to premier in January 2021, Walker is something I will be looking for. However, I would love to see fifth-generation Texas Ranger Caitlin Strong make it to Netflix as a series. Author Jon Land has given us 10 books of material to get started. Would be a truly superb series if done right.

The Madhatter's Guide to Chocolate by Rhett DeVane brings us up close and personal into the lives of Hattie Davis, Jake Witherspoon, Aunt Piddie, and all the other folks in Chattahoochee, Florida. Small town secrets always make for some good viewing. 

I know this will sound unusual coming from me, but I really enjoyed what I read of The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. I'm not usually into futuristic stories, but Cinder captivated me when I read it with the girls. This series would make great movies. 

In my not-so-humble opinion, Jessica Fletcher has been off television for far too long. New books are still being published featuring the former school teacher turned writer and amateur sleuth. Murder, She Wrote is way overdue for a new TV run or a new movie. 

I love everything about Charlotte Hubbard's work, but I feel A Mother's Gift would make for a special kind of movie. Leah Otto has never been comfortable with housework. She prefers to tend to her goats and chickens. Jude Shetler, a widower with three children, likes her non-traditional skills, but she is not prepared for all that goes into being a wife and mother. While struggling to keep their teenage daughters in line and care for a five-year-old who is desperately missing his mother, a new challenge arrives in the form of an abandoned baby on their doorstep. This book was wonderful from beginning to end. It would make a great faith-based TV movie.

One of the things that deters me from watching TV is that every show I enjoy is eventually canceled. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dawson's Creek had good runs, but Mercy Street and Cedar Cove barely got off the ground before they were pulled. If Netflix found a way to bring Cedar Cove, based upon Debbie Macomber's popular series back to life, I would eagerly watch each episode. 

What do you think of my list? Is there hope for any of these to be picked up? What's on your list?

Book Review: Falling Home by Karen White

From New York Times bestselling author, Karen White, comes a story of family, love, and coming home.

Fifteen years ago, Cassie Madison left Walton, Georgia with no intention of returning. She moved to New York City and reinvented herself, leaving no trace of the Southern girl who played pranks for attention.

But then the call came.

Cassie's father was dying and he refused to leave this world without seeing her one more time. The passing years haven't helped heal the broken heart Cassie suffered when her sister, Harriet, ran off with her fiance, Joe and got married. They have five children she has never even met. But Cassie's plans to leave immediately after the funeral are squelched when she inherits the family home.

She decides to stay in Walton long enough go through the piles of mementos in the attic and sell the family home. Will that be long enough for Cassie Madison to discover that Walton, Georgia and all the people in it are still dear to her heart?

Superb! Phenomenal! Outstanding! These words and more describe the moving story you'll discover when you pick up a copy of Falling Home.

I've been a fan of White's work since The House on Tradd Street. Each book of hers that I read reminds me why I love her work and encourages me to look for her new releases. Fully fleshed out characters who draw you into their stories, the charm and beauty of the South, and intricate plots that often include family secrets, fill the pages of her novels.

In this revamped version of the book originally published in 2002, White has taken what she's learned since the early years of her writing career and recreated Cassie's story, adding in two additional points of view--that of her sister, Harriet, and also of her oldest niece, Maddie, who many say is too much like Cassie not to be her daughter. I would love the opportunity to read the original version of Falling Home, as well as its sequel, After the Rain, which White also hopes to revise and release again.

There were moments while reading Falling Home that I laughed, and there were many times I cried. This is a beautiful story of coming home and discovering all the things that never let home truly leave your heart. It's a story of family, forgiveness, love, and secrets. Falling Home is a classic Karen White story. The only problem with it is that it is so addicting, no matter how late it is, you'll want to read just one more chapter.

Visit the author's website at http://karen-white.com/ to read about her next novel, The Beach Trees, which is due out at the beginning of May. She's also working on the third book in the Tradd Street series, and I'll definitely be looking for progress on that one.


Title:  Falling Home
Author:  Karen White
Publisher: New American Library
ISBN-10: 0451231449
ISBN-13: 978-0451231444
SRP:  $15.00

Also available in a Kindle edition!

The Girl on Legare Street by Karen White--Book Review

Those who enjoyed Melanie Middleton and Jack Trenholm in The House on Tradd Street will definitely want to pick up the next book in this series, The Girl on Legare Street.

Melanie Middleton's mother abandoned her when she was just a child, leaving her with a father she was forced to take care of through his bouts of excessive drinking. Now Ginnette Prioleau Middleton has returned to Charleston and moved into their ancestral home on Legare Street. She seeks Melanie's help to restore the historical home, but the more time Melanie and her mother spend together, the more Melanie is reminded of how Ginnette deserted her and how the only thing they have in common is their ability to communicate with ghosts.

Ginnette's return has awakened a dark spirit whose strength continues to grow and who is out for revenge. Determined to protect her daughter, with Jack's help, Melanie and Ginnette must work together to fight the malevolent presence and save their family.

What a superb addition to the Tradd Street series from Karen White! Beautifully written, and with all the charm and mystery of the South, The Girl on Legare Street is certain to please readers.

In this new book, released in November by New American Library, several of the characters from the original book return: realtor Melanie Middleton and writer Jack Trenholm, Melanie's friends Sophie and Chad, Melanie's father, Jack's parents and a few others. White has done an excellent job of developing these characters further, while adding new mysteries and new characters into the mix.

Bringing Melanie's long lost mother home and forcing Melanie to deal with all the feelings she has toward the woman who deserted her over thirty years ago allows for a great deal of conflict. Add that to the uncertain relationship between Jack and Melanie, which seems to hover somewhere between friendship and romance, and the dark presence which Ginnette's return has awakened, and you've got a paranormal romantic suspense novel with Southern flair that grips you from the very first page.

Again, I am impressed with the beauty of the cover art, and the history lover in me likes to read of the past of the ghosts--nice and not so nice--that inhabit these homes while Melanie is forced to deal with her own past.

A story that is spooky, yet tugs at your heartstrings, is what you will find in The Girl on Legare Street.




Title: The Girl on Legare Street
Author: Karen White
Publisher: New American Library
ISBN: 978-0451227997
SRP: $15.00

Read our review of The House on Tradd Street here.

The Lost Hours by Karen White--Book Review

Engrossing, powerful, and mysterious, The Lost Hours by Karen White is sure to win this talented author more awards.

When Piper Mills was only six years old, her parents died and she moved in with her grandparents in Savannah. Years later, her grandmother gave her a mysterious box that Piper and her grandfather buried in the backyard; an event that would soon be forgotten.

After the death of her grandparents, and now a grown woman, Piper seeks the answers to questions she never had the courage to ask while her grandmother was alive. Digging up the mysterious box from the garden, Piper sets forth on a journey that uncovers her family's secrets and tells a story of past hurts, regrets, and the need for forgiveness.

After reading Karen White's The House on Tradd Street--which we reviewed here--I was eager to read her next novel. White definitely did not disappoint.

The Lost Hours combines Southern living and style with friendship, tragedy, and a quest for the truth.

As with The House on Tradd Street, this novel's characters move the story forward. Told from multiple points of view, the reader is totally captivated by the story of three girlfriends who are separated by a monumental tragedy and the granddaughter seeking to learn more about the grandmother she never really knew.

The Lost Hours is a powerful story that involves Alzheimer's disease, race relations in the 1930's, a charm necklace, a scrapboook and a love of horses. Piper was an accomplished equestrian, until a horrific accident left her scarred and afraid to get back in the saddle again.

In addition to Piper, readers will find a host of interesting and multifaceted characters. Helen, a blind daughter living at Asphodel Meadows, who has a flair for fashion; Tucker, Helen's brother, who has left his medical practice after a family tragedy; and Mr. Morton, Piper's family's attorney who pretends he's deaf, but really hears every word you say.

Perhaps the best part of The Lost Hours is how White is able to combine all these people, their pasts and their presents, to create an emotional story that will leave you satisfied, but also feeling sorry that you've read the last page.

The Lost Hours will make you run out and buy every book written by Karen White.


Title: The Lost Hours
Author: Karen White
Publisher: NAL Accent
ISBN: 978-0-451-22649-5
SRP: $15.00 (U.S.)

Karen White's Article on Promoting Wisely

Southern fiction author, Karen White, is on a virtual book tour with Pump Up Your Book Promotion to promote her latest release, The House on Tradd Street. She wrote an article that appears at The Writer's Life about promoting wisely. Here is an excerpt:

"Once upon a time, I was a voracious reader. I was never without a book in my purse, in my hand, on my bedside table or all of the above. And in all the times that I went to a library or bookstore and saw all of those books on the shelves, it never occurred to me that I could be one of those authors.

Fast forward twenty-some years. While staying at home with my babies, I sat down one day and just started typing. I wanted to write the kind of book I like to read—characters who are real and emotional stories that mix a woman’s journey with a little romance and mystery thrown in. I entered that first manuscript in a writing contest, and I ended up winning. The finalist judge was a literary agent in New York and she offered to represent me. I signed an agreement and she sold the book to the second publisher she sent it to. And then it was all clear sailing, right? Wrong!"

Read the rest of the article here.

The House on Tradd Street by Karen White--Book Review

Brilliant and engrossing, The House on Tradd Street by Karen White brings the reader through Charleston's deep-rooted history and Confederate legends to uncover a story of passion, heartbreak, and murder.

Real estate agent Melanie Middleton visits with the elderly Nevin Vanderhorst just days before his unexpected death. Melanie isn't much into historic homes--even though she sells them for a living. She much prefers new construction, free of the ghosts that she's seen since childhood. When she inherits Vanderhorst's historic Tradd Street home she is less than thrilled, but their meeting and Nevin's letter about the mother he is sure would never have abandoned him encourage her to restore the house at 55 Tradd Street and try to unravel the mystery surrounding Louisa Vanderhorst's sudden disappearance.

In walks stunningly gorgeous Jack Trenholm, a true-crime writer obsessed with unsolved mysteries. He believes that the diamonds from the missing Confederate Treasury are stashed inside the house. Using Louisa's story Jack is able to convince Melanie to let him help with the restoration of the house in exchange for allowing him to perform research for his next book.

Neither of them quite knows what they are getting into. An evil ghost also resides in the house on Tradd Street and it doesn't want Melanie or Jack telling Louisa's story. How far will this spirit go to keep a secret?

This book captured me from the very first sentence. Steeped in Charleston's history and Civil War legends, The House on Tradd Street is a rare gem among paranormal mysteries. Exquisitely told, rich in descriptions, and filled with multi-faceted characters whose past lives are eloquently woven into each others, I was sad to read the last word of this moving novel.

White gets right to the heart of things by blending family secrets, love, legends, and the charm of the South, creating an emotional tale that will leave you begging for more. The cover art is strikingly handsome and truly completes one of the best novels I've read in my lifetime.

Lovers of southern fiction, paranormal mysteries, and moving stories that tug at the heartstrings will want to read The House on Tradd Street by Karen White.

Title: The House on Tradd Street
Author: Karen White
Publisher: New American Library
ISBN: 978-0-451-22509-2
U.S. Price: $14.00