TSS: Devourer in Wonderland

Jan 312010

tss picture

Yes, I know, that is a weird title, but there’s a good reason for it, I swear!

alice i have been picture

My bookish highlight of the week was going to the local launch party at The Bookstore in Glen Ellyn, IL for Melanie Benjamin and her book “Alice I Have Been” (title links to my review). I’ve been tweeting with Margie and Sue, two of the ladies that work at the story (@justbooks and @suejustbooks) as well as somewhat with Melanie (@MelanieBen), so it was really exciting to get to meet them all in person. Unfortunately I’m completely lame and totally forgot to bring my camera with me. I did try to take a couple of pictures of Melanie signing books and doing the reading with my phone, but Melanie is adorable and the pictures aren’t very good and don’t do her justice, so I’m not going to post them.

Let me tell you, if you have the opportunity to see Melanie live, definitely do it. As much as I loved reading her book myself, seeing her read it was a fantastic experience. She has some theatrical training, and you can definitely tell, because she just shines speaking in front of people and, during her reading, she BECAME Alice. I’m sure the narrator of the audiobook is fantastic, but this is one case where the author would have been spectacular narrating her own book. I also learned all sorts of fun stuff about Melanie and her writing process. She had two previous books that she doesn’t seem to be terribly fond of, which were written under another name (her maiden name, I believe?). When she moved to this work of historical fiction, she felt she needed to use a different name, so as not to confuse people, so her son offered to let her use his name as her last name – for $100. She agreed to pay him if the book sold, so he’s now $100 richer.

——

I read a lot this week, but didn’t finish nearly as much as I would have normally, because I was reading a thick, slow book that I’m currently thinking of abandoning. Here’s what I did finish, though:

If you’re thinking “Hey, didn’t you already read The Swan Thieves?” you’re right, this was an audio re-read.

How was your bookish week?

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and the Half Blood Prince

Jan 292010

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

**Caution: There may be spoilers**

Considering that I started to cry when listening to Cedric’s death in book 4 and I cry every time I read the ends of these two books, I was quite surprised not to cry at all while listening to either “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” or “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.” I’m really not sure why this is. Jim Dale’s performance was the first time that Cedric’s death has ever effected me like that, but didn’t bring tears to my eyes when Sirius and Dumbledore died. It seems quite odd. Then again, their deaths in the movies didn’t make me cry either, just when I read the books on my own. Perhaps I love those characters so much I just need to go at my own speed and linger over the words describing their deaths, otherwise it all goes too quickly.

By now I’m really, really enjoying Jim Dale as the narrator of these books. The voices he provides the characters have supplanted the voices of the characters in my mind, and I find the books coming to life for me again in a completely different way. Also, I can’t tell whether his Hermione has grown less obnoxious, or whether I am just used to her, but I don’t find that her whining is bothering me anymore.

I’ve always loved the Harry Potter series, and I’m really, really glad I decided to listen to them on audio.

This review was done with books borrowed from the library.

The Boneman’s Daughters – Mini Review

Jan 282010

The Boneman’s Daughter by Ted Dekker

Summary from the author’s website:

They call him BoneMan, a serial killer who’s abducted six young women. He’s the perfect father looking for the perfect daughter, and when his victims fail to meet his lofty expectations, he kills them by breaking their bones and leaving them to die.

Intelligence officer Ryan Evans, on the other hand, has lost all hope of ever being the perfect father. His daughter and wife have written him out of their lives.

Everything changes when BoneMan takes Ryan’s estranged daughter, Bethany, as his seventh victim. Ryans goes after BoneMan on his own.

But the FBI sees the case differently. New evidence points to Ryan being BoneMan. Now the hunter is the hunted and in the end only one father will stand.

I was really, really disappointed in this book. I don’t read a lot of thrillers, but when I do I expect them to be, well, thrilling. I didn’t find “Boneman’s Daughters” to be thrilling at all. I didn’t feel any suspense, I didn’t care whether any of the characters lived or died, nothing. This sort of sucked, because I had totally geared myself up for a thriller before reading this.

Okay, and then there was the fact that this was Christian fiction. I totally knew that and didn’t have a problem with it going into the book. Based on the beginning of the book I figured that, in this case, Christian fiction just meant ‘clean’ and not too gory (but why couldn’t we still have had thrilling without the gore???). Until I got to the ending. Suddenly the God/Christ/Devil analogies were completely in your face. Going from little to no talk of God to this made the ending seem totally heavy handed.

This one just really did not do anything for me.

Buy this book from:
Powells.*
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound.*
Amazon.*

This review was done with a book received from the publisher.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Hate List – Mini Review

Jan 272010

Hate List by Jennifer Brown

From the publisher:

Five months ago, Valerie Leftman’s boyfriend, Nick, opened fire on their school cafeteria. Shot trying to stop him, Valerie inadvertently saved the life of a classmate, but was implicated in the shootings because of the list she helped create. A list of people and things she and Nick hated. The list he used to pick his targets.

Now, after a summer of seclusion, Val is forced to confront her guilt as she returns to school to complete her senior year. Haunted by the memory of the boyfriend she still loves and navigating rocky relationships with her family, former friends and the girl whose life she saved, Val must come to grips with the tragedy that took place and her role in it, in order to make amends and move on with her life.

Oh my gosh, this book was so intense! The pain of Val going back to the scene of the tragedy, the way her family fell apart – and trying to figure out if that was a cause or result of what happened at the high school. For me, the hardest part of the whole story was not Val reliving what happened the day Nick came to school with a gun, it was her relationship with her father. He just could not believe anything but the worst of Val, and would not hear otherwise. It was extremely painful and, I would like to think, unrealistic. Sadly, it may not be completely unrealistic, as it almost seemed that he was using it as part of his excuse to pull away from his family.

This book was tough to read, but it was very good. While it is classified as a young adult book, I think it is one that many adults will find value in as well, seeing how a young girl could get caught up in something that ends in a school shooting, and also how she could be rehabilitated.

Buy this book from:
Powells.*
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound.*
Amazon.*

This review was done with a book I purchased.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Imprint-Based Challenges: Amy Einhorn and Reagan Arthur

Jan 262010

Before I started blogging, I could never in a million years have told you who published my favorite books. Even in my early days of blogging, perhaps the first year, I still didn’t really know or, at least, didn’t know the difference between what different imprints of a publisher might come up with.

That has really been changing for me in the last six months or so. If I am feeling iffy about a book I’ll check the publisher and imprint, and that often is enough to make my decision whether or not I want to read it, and I rarely feel that I’ve been led astray by this method.

There are two new imprints that are really pulling in a lot of well-deserved buzz, both edited by women who have been in the business for awhile and really want to be involved in what books they put their names on.

The first one to launch was Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam, an imprint of Penguin. This imprint debuted with “The Help,” which has been widely acclaimed and was a fabulous book. A few weeks ago a bunch of us decided on Twitter that we had read so many great Amy Einhorn books that we wanted to read them all, and thus was born the Amy Einhorn Perpetual Challenge. One thing that is really cool is that Amy Einhorn herself is excited about our challenge, she even guest blogged at Beth Fish Reads.

The other imprint that is getting buzz right now is Reagan Arthur Books, an imprint of Little, Brown. This imprint’s debut book, “The Unnamed” was recently released and already has bloggers raving. Kathy and Julie have stepped up and are creating a perpetual challenge for this imprint as well. This imprint is so new that I haven’t read any of the books yet, but based on reviews so far, I’m signing myself up for this one and am very excited about it!

There’s really something neat about deliberately reading the books from certain imprints, you start to feel that you know, or at least know something about, the different editors, and that is a very cool experience.

The Boleyn Wife – Book Review

Jan 262010

The Boleyn Wife by Brandy Purdy

“Another Tudor book?” you’re probably thinking, “I thought you had Tudor fatigue?” Well, yes, I sort of do, but I agreed to review this book before I said that. Plus, even though I have Tudor-fatigue, I still find it almost impossible to pass them by. In fact, I just requested another one. But I’m not just taking straight Tudor books anymore, they have to have an angle. The one I just requested centers around Elizabeth’s governess, and “The Boleyn Wife” is told from the perspective of Jane Boleyn.

Jane loves her husband George Boleyn beyond all reason. Unfortunately, the only woman he has eyes for is his sister Anne who is being courted by King Henry. Most of you know the story from there: Henry changes the religion of England to divorce his wife and marry Anne, Anne fails to produce sons and gets on Henry’s nerves, Henry looks for a way to get rid of Anne and Jane provides him with testimony that sends Anne, George, and others to their deaths. Three queens later, Jane helps Katherine Howard cuckold Henry with Thomas Culpepper and ends up in the Tower and on the block herself.

I have mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, it kept me very engaged, especially considering it is the umpteenth book about the Tudors I’ve read. On the other hand, there were certain things that really drew me out of the story. At one point Mary Boleyn is exiled to Hever pregnant with Henry’s child, a few pages later she is back at court participating in a masque with Anne. It wasn’t entirely clear how much time had passed, so it may have been that her exile had ended, but that wasn’t explained and confused for a moment. It also surprised me that Jane Boleyn would describe Jane Seymour as ‘housewifely,’ but looking into it, ‘housewife’ has evidently been in use since the 13th century, so I suppose that is not anachronistic as it originally seemed to me.

I’d say I would have really enjoyed it overall, but there were a couple of things that really bothered me. The repetition of the untrue rumor of Anne having a sixth finger is getting really old, and I wish novelists would stop repeating it. Then there was Jane Boleyn having Thomas Cromwell’s child. And Katherine Howard and Anne of Cleves as lovers. Those last two things almost made me wish the book had ended with Anne and George’s deaths.

I’m really torn, “The Boleyn Wife” was well-written and engaging, but there were some crazy additions that out-Philippa Gregory’d Philippa Gregory that really bugged me. If you don’t mind some pretty significant liberties taken with your historical fiction, then you’ll probably enjoy this book.

Buy this book from:
Powells.*
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound.*
Amazon.*

This review was done with a book sent to me from the author.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Teaser Tuesday – The Book of Fathers

Jan 262010

Grab your current read.

Let the book fall open to a random page.

Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.

You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!

Please avoid spoilers!

The little air that was getting through his throat was producing a dreadful, harsh wheeze. The doctor in Felvincz diagnosed diphtheria and with a resigned shake of the head by the skinny little lad’s bed said: “There is nothing more that I can do.”

-The Book of Fathers by Mikos Vamos , p. 58

Ask Claire Voyante – Guest Post from Lauren Mechling

Jan 252010

Lauren Mechling is the author of “Dream Girl” and “Dream Life” which I recently reviewed.

dream life picture

Greetings and salutations, book lovers! I’m Claire Voyante, the main character of Dream Life, Lauren Mechling’s rip-roaring detective novel (and no, it is not immodest to say that about a book you didn’t write but in which you star—I checked in one of my grandmother Kiki’s etiquette books).

Dream Life is all about what happened after I found out my best friend Becca had just joined a super-exclusive, centuries-old secret society called the Blue Moons. I figured out how to wiggle my way into the club, and, of course, much drama ensued. I warmly invite you to check Dream Life out—it’s available at a bookstore or Internet site near you.

When Dream Girl, the first book in the series, came out, my creator Lauren fielded questions from bloggers and journalists. Lauren is currently underground working on a secret project so I offered to step in and relief pitch. I’m taking a page from Ann Landers’s book and writing an advice column. The questions came from fans of the series. The answers came from the heart.

(Warning: I don’t have a degree in psychotherapy–use at your own risk!)

Dear Claire,

I’m having body issues. And no, I’m not one of those girls who thinks she’s fat. It’s that my arms are so long. I swear to God, sometimes I look in the mirror and I see a girl who might as well be a spider monkey. I’ve tried everything—stretching and swimming and wearing a shrug with too-long sleeves, which I like to think gives the illusion of normal-length arms. But none of it seems to work. Any tips?

Signed,

The Girl Who Reminds Herself Of A Spider Monkey, Medford, Mass.

Dear TGWRHOASM,

I’m going to overlook that you’ve come to me (a shorty to the millionth degree) for advice on dealing with being funny-shaped. I think I can be of some help.

First of all, you have a problem that you don’t even know about: the shrug. Shrugs are my least favorite piece of apparel. What is the point of two sleeves connected by a band that you wear around our upper back? I promise you: there is not a shrug on earth that will do you any favors. Off with it.

Now that you’ve tossed your shrug out, what to do? Nothing. Long arms are like long legs, only easier for other people to admire. You, my dear, are a fetching, long-limbed supermodel-in-the-making. Work it.

L’amour toujours!

Claire

Dream Life by Lauren Mechling — Trailer from Richie Williams on Vimeo.

TSS: A Week Without Internet

Jan 232010

tss picture

Okay, that wasn’t totally true, we HAVE had internet this week, but we have purposely had it off most of the day, 11 am to 8 pm. We’re trying to get our condo ready to sell and there is a lot of work to do on it. We figured that if the internet wasn’t available to us if we’re home during the day or when we get home from work, we’d get more work done. It is actually working really well, and I almost want to keep it up. Without so much of time on Twitter and futzing around the internet, I have been using ALL of my time more efficiently, both online and off. Daniel and I have got some really great playing time in, I’ve made dinner, as well as cooking myself breakfast and lunch, I have all my reviews scheduled for next week, and I got in a ton of reading. Here’s what I finished this week:

Don’t tell my husband, since he came up with it, but I think this ‘no internet from 11 to 8′ was really a great idea.

The Little Stranger – Book Review

Jan 222010

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

Dr. Faraday’s mother used to work at Hundreds Hall and he has always been fascinated with it, whenever she would take him there. His fascination persists, even as he has broken through his working-class ancestry to become a doctor. When he is called out to Hundreds when the maid is sick, it all comes screaming back to him. Eventually he manages to make himself all but indispensable at the house, and strange things begin to happen. First Roderick, the young World War II veteran begins acting strangely and becomes convinced there is a malevolent force in the house, then there is a tragedy involving the dog belonging to Caroline, Roderick’s sister. Things continue to get stranger and stranger, and skeptical, scientific Dr. Faraday finds himself in the middle of it without really knowing what to think.

Let me just start by saying this book was really, really great. There were a few parts that were a bit slow, particularly towards the beginning, but Waters succeeded in wrapping me completely in her story. I actually listened to the audio version of this book, narrated by Simon Vance, and it was just fantastic. Here are a few of the things I really appreciated about “The Little Stranger:”

The atmosphere: this was a totally spooky Gothic novel. Waters managed to create an atmosphere that creeped me out without going overboard or having to tell me that things should be scary.
Class issues: the intense struggles over class that happened in Britain post-WWII were woven very deftly into Waters’ narrative. This really made the book feel authentic in its time period. I actually frequently found myself in wonderment that this book was written recently, not 50 years ago because of how thoroughly I believed in the setting.
The ending (obviously don’t read this point if you don’t want to know!): Waters’ ending was totally ambiguous, but in a very satisfying way. We do know what happened to all the characters, just not exactly how or why, which leaves much open to the reader for interpretation. I do have my own theories about what happened, but I won’t post them here when they could potentially spoil it for someone else.

I would definitely recommend this book as great Gothic literary fiction. Now I want to read more of Waters’ work!

Buy this book from:
Powells.*
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound.*
Amazon.*

This review was done with a book borrowed from the library.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Older Entries

Devourer of Books

TSS: Devourer in Wonderland

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and the Half Blood Prince

This review was done with books borrowed from the library.

The Boneman’s Daughters – Mini Review

This review was done with a book received from the publisher.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Hate List – Mini Review

This review was done with a book I purchased.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Imprint-Based Challenges: Amy Einhorn and Reagan Arthur

The Boleyn Wife – Book Review

This review was done with a book sent to me from the author.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

Teaser Tuesday – The Book of Fathers

Ask Claire Voyante – Guest Post from Lauren Mechling

TSS: A Week Without Internet

The Little Stranger – Book Review

This review was done with a book borrowed from the library.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

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This review was done with books borrowed from the library.

This review was done with a book received from the publisher. * These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

This review was done with a book I purchased. * These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

This review was done with a book sent to me from the author. * These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

This review was done with a book borrowed from the library. * These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

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Sponsors:

Shelf Awareness for Readers eNewsletter

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Regular Features/Special Events

Check Me Out

This review was done with a book received from the publisher.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

This review was done with a book I purchased.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

This review was done with a book sent to me from the author.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.

This review was done with a book borrowed from the library.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.