I've decided to host my first book ring. I've really been looking forward to reading The Memaid Chair and I'm even more excited to be able to share it with others.

Here are the rules: Please PM me with your shipping preference. I'm limiting the ring to 10 bookcrossers. Since this is my first, I wanted to keep it on the smaller side. After the shipping order is determined, I will send the book along to it's first stop. Please be sure to journal it when you receive it, after you've finished it, and once you've shipped it out again. And please don't keep the book any longer than one month. Enjoy!

Book Description:
Inside the abbey of a Benedictine monastery on tiny Egret Island, just off the coast of South Carolina, resides a beautiful and mysterious chair ornately carved with mermaids and dedicated to a saint who, legend claims, was a mermaid before her conversion.

Jessie Sullivan’s conventional life has been "molded to the smallest space possible." So when she is called home to cope with her mother’s startling and enigmatic act of violence, Jessie finds herself relieved to be apart from her husband, Hugh. Jessie loves Hugh, but on Egret Island— amid the gorgeous marshlands and tidal creeks—she becomes drawn to Brother Thomas, a monk who is mere months from taking his final vows. What transpires will unlock the roots of her mother’s tormented past, but most of all, as Jessie grapples with the tension of desire and the struggle to deny it, she will find a freedom that feels overwhelmingly right.

What inspires the yearning for a soul mate? Few writers have explored, as Kidd does, the lush, unknown region of the feminine soul where the thin line between the spiritual and the erotic exists. The Mermaid Chair is a vividly imagined novel about the passions of the spirit and the ecstasies of the body; one that illuminates a woman’s self-awakening with the brilliance and power that only a writer of Kidd’s ability could conjure.

Please remember to journal the book when you receive it, after you've finished it, and once you've shipped it on to the next person. Also please don't keep the book any longer than one month. Keep it moving and ENJOY!

Mailing order: (Subject to Change)

BigBird2002 - AZ - Recvd 09-12-05, Sent 09-28-05
Everett-Reader - WA - Recvd 10-07-05, Sent 10-17-05
MysteryFan03 - MO - Recvd 10-21-05, Sent
snowy652 - Canada - Snowy652 asked to be skipped.
raralovestoread - FL - Recvd 01-05-06, Sent 01-26-06
Angelgrace217 - VA - Recvd 01-30-06, Sent 03-27-06
Shpriz1 - NY - Recvd 04-02-06, Sent 04-03-06
StoryChaser - UK - Recvd 04-09-06, Sent 04-25-06
Baileybird - UK - Recvd 04-26-06, Sent 07-26-06
Conto - Portugal - Recvd 07-28-06, Sent 08-25-06
Back to KimberleeV - Recvd 09-01-06

I really enjoyed The Mermaid Chair. The story struck a cord with me because I have a good friend who is struggling with many of the same issues in her marraige that Jessie struggled with in the book. Of course, she didn't fall in love with a monk though. I wasn't sure how the book was going to end, but was happy that it took the turn it did. It was a little bit of a tear-jerker in parts. It's been so long since I read The Secret Life of Bees, I can't say which book I enjoyed more.

Sent to BigBird2002 in Arizona today via Media Mail. Enjoy!

This book has arrived! I have another book that I hope to finish by the end of this week, then I will start on this one. I am really looking forward to it. Thank you for including me in the ring.

I tried and tried to really get into this book, but I could not. There must be something about the writing style of this author that I don't agree with. It is nothing that I can specifically identify, though. Both books by this author that I have attempted to read just really didn't grab me. I will be getting this in the mail in the next couple of days.

Bookring book, just arrived. thanks!

I enjoyed this book very much, although maybe not quite as much as Secret Life of Bees. The ending was satisfying and didn't fall into the trap of being as "pat" as I felt her other novel ended.

This story will probably interest readers who are in that time of their life when they are still wrestling with cares and concerns of an aging parent, family of origin issue as well as defining what the shape of their own lives will take. Nicely told story.

Thanks for sharing this book on a bookring!
Will go in Monday's mail to Mysteryfan03.

Got this in the mail today! I will read it soon after a couple of rings! thanks

I think I liked The Secret Life of Bees more, but this book was still pretty good. It did bog down in places, but I liked the ending. Thanks for sharing this.

Note: Snowy652 passed on this book.

This book arrived in the mail today. I am looking forward to reading it as I have enjoyed other books by Sue Monk Kidd. I will start it as soon as I finish the book I am currently reading.

Well, I liked The Secret Life of Bees better, but I thought this was a pretty good book. As usual, Sue Monk Kidd's writing style is very engaging, even though the story was not my favorite. Thanks, KimberleeV, for sharing this book with us!

Today I mailed this book to angelgrace217 in Virginia.

Received in the mail today and will start on it this week.

Sorry it took me so long to get this book finished. I am Mom to 14 week old twins and only got a few pages read at a time. It will go out in the mail tomorrow to the next person.

This was a really good book. I really enjoyed the ending and am looking forward to reading The Secret Life of Bees by her as well. It was definitely worth the time it took for me to get to.

This book is on a short, overnight stop-over in Brooklyn. It will start its Trans-Atlantic journey to England tomorrow.

Arrived yesterday safe and sound, (that was quick...). Will get to it in the next few days.

I did enjoy this book. Its not the sort of thing I would normally read, so it made a bit of a change. Thank you KimberleeV for sharing.
Posting off to baileybird tomorrow.

Received yesterday, thanks storychaser :0)

First of all let me apologise for keeping this book as long as I have, normally I would pass on bookrings as quickly as possible, but as this is wedding season and many of my friends are taking the plunge, I haven't had as much time as I had hoped!

Well I would have to say that this is something I perhaps wouldn't normally read, but as I had heard so much about the author I thought I would give it a go. The result was a charming and unusual story that after a few chapters did draw me in to the end. My only issue was that I found it quite hard to engage with the characters as I didn't feel I had much in common with any of them- and particularly felt the 'bored middle aged woman' theme quite difficult to get to grips with. Overall not bad, but am not sure I will read anything by the author again.

Have Pm'd Conto for address

In the post to Conto tomorrow morning- with a little bonus book to apologise for the delay. I've been paid now so can afford to send it on hurrah!!!

On hurrah indeed! Arrived safe and sound and with a wonderful sweet surprise!!! Thank you so very much, although you didn't need to, baileybird!

I'm just finnishing up one other book, but I think I'll be able to start this one some time over the weekend...

As I told KimberleeV I've finnished this one sometime in the beggining of the month but then, not knowing exactly who to send it to... kept waiting until now to report.
I was rather curious, because I liked The Secret Life of Bees so much but I'm afraid I must say that Sue Monk Kidd quite disappointed me. I didn't like this one half as much as I did the other, although one can recognise the author's finger in it... maybe it was the theme that just didn't grab me, or... the ending: I found it the most improbable of endings!
Liked the discriptions of the scenery, though and wished I could escape to a place a bit like that one on the island myself sometimes.

And now... it's going back to you, KimberleeV, sometime next week, with my deepest thanks for the opportunity to read it.
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25.08.2006 - Sent today, by surface mail, ok?

After a year on the road, The Mermaid Chair has returned home. Thanks to all who participated in the ring and kept it moving. I hope you enjoyed the book!