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!
He ate, head down, not entirely in self-defense, every now and then glancing slowly at the people around him. One glance, the seat opposite was vacant; the next it was filled by a young man in cheap but laundered clothes and a black peaked cap slouched a la mode on one side of his blond head.
As you hopefully are already aware, Elizabeth Kostova, author of “The Historian” has a new book out called “The Swan Thieves.” I read and reviewed “The Swan Thieves” back in September. “The Swan Thieves” is a completely different sort of story than “The Historian,” but I could have told you I was reading a book by Elizabeth Kostova because of her gorgeous writing and the way she structured her story.
The official release date of “The Swan Thieves” is tomorrow, Tuesday, January 12th, but I have a giveaway for you today! Miriam at Hachette has offered copies of “The Swan Thieves” to FIVE first place winners. Oh, but that’s not all, because ONE lucky GRAND prize winner, will not only get a copy of “The Swan Thieves,” they will ALSO get a copy of Kostova’s debut book, “The Historian.” It is like, prize central here!
This is open only to residents of the US and Canada, no P.O. boxes, please.
You have until Monday, January 25th at midnight, Central time to enter.
I probably worked for about 6-8 hours total over the three days. Between my little baby and stuff for the Game On! Diet, I just didn’t have much time Saturday or Sunday. Daniel is not really into the whole ‘playing by himself’ thing right now, because he keep trying to crawl, and when he can’t go forward he gets mad, even though he goes every other directly.
I got a few reviews written, and did what I wanted with my challenges page. Sadly, I did not get to my tags and categories.
Mini-Challenges Completed:
Broken Link Hunt from Karin of Karin’s Book Nook – This one is easy for me to do, because I have a broken link checker plug-in. Pathetically, I hadn’t used it to check for broken links in MONTHS. This was a good reminder, probably took about half and hour.
I guess I sort of also did theFooters challenge from Pam of Bookalicious. She talked a lot about copyright in her challenge. I already had a footer on my blog that included a copyright, but it wasn’t included on every post. I found a WordPress plug-in that not only asserts copyright, but also creates a digital signature and verifies that you created that post at such and such a time. It is not only included on my posts, but also has a copy emailed to me for my records. The company keeps a copy of the verification as well, so I’m pleased with that.
Here’s to a better Bloggiesta next time, I hope you all got more accomplished than I did!
Um, so I’m way tardy on this post, but I’ll be participating in Bloggiesta this weekend, the 8th-10th. I’m going to try to get in 15 hours of blog work, but we’ll see how that goes, Daniel hasn’t wanted to do much playing by himself lately. Not exactly sure what I’ll be working on, probably on making more challenge pages and writing reviews and other posts
Edit: I’m starting now! I think I’m going to start by going through some of the mini-challenges, writing at least 2 reviews, and doing a little more organization with pages for my challenges.
Okay, all of you who think young adult literature is too fluffy or can’t be serious, go and read “The Adoration of Jenna Fox,” then come back and tell me what you think.
I’ll wait.
Biomedical ethics. Identity. Loss. Mourning. Parental attachment. What, in a young adult book? Hmm, I guess they aren’t all fluffy after all.
I don’t want to tell you too much about the plot line, because I think that would ruin the book, but you can get the basic idea of the themes from what I said above.
I really, really loved the storyline and the themes. That being said, I’m *so* over the disjointed, choppy narration that is prevalent in so many young adult novels. In this book, as in Wintergirls and Wake (the first of which I enjoyed, the second of which I did not), the choppiness is not a fault of the writing, but a deliberate decision. I know this, I accept it, I realize that this sort of style is actually perfect for Jenna in her mental condition. And yet, I’m still really over it.
Good book, well conceived, well executed, makes you think – so long as the style doesn’t bug you.
This review was done with a book received 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.
Weird book. Seriously, weird. Don’t believe me? Let me tell you a little bit about the plot.
World War II has just ended, and Erich and his younger brother Yeppi and his mother are leaving Germany, headed for Venezuela. Erich’s father died fighting for the Third Reich in Russia and his uncle bachelor uncle Klaus wrote to Erich’s mother, offering to marry her, so they are off to meet him in South America. When they arrive in Ciudad Bolivar, though, they discover that their mother and Klaus will have to marry under an assumed name, because Klaus is ‘on a list’ of people who did bad things during the war. The thought that his uncle did bad things during the war doesn’t phase Erich, though, because he was a big fan of Hitler and completely bought into the idea that the Jews are a drain on society.
Erich and his brother accept their uncle as their new father and got on a plane – for the first time! – with him to travel out to where Klaus would be working as the doctor of an oil field. As they fly over the jungle, though, a storm comes up unexpectedly and forces them to land in the river. After a hard night in the jungle, Erich’s family is discovered by a tribe of native Amazonians who, having never seen white men before, mistake them for freshwater dolphins who have temporarily become human.
There really is a lot going on in this novel: the attitudes of Nazis and Nazi sympathizers, communication problems, culture clash, grief, teenage hormones, you get the picture. My biggest issue with the book was that it was occasionally crude, particularly in terminology for genitalia. However, although it bothered me, I was able to attribute it to the sixteen year old male narrator, so it didn’t seem particularly gratuitous. The writing was gorgeous and the pacing of the novel worked well for me. It was occasionally odd to contrast the beauty of the writing with the brutality of the events of the book, but it seemed to be an intentional thing.
Even better than the writing was watching Erich grow as a person, becoming more aware of the reality of the world around him and more willing to challenge what he was being told by those in a position of authority, as well as to accept people for who they are, whether they are Germans, Jews, or Yayomi. In some ways, this is really a coming of age story.
Highly recommended, but not for the squeamish or easily offended.
This review was done with a book received from Erica at Harper Collins.
* 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.
Friends! Have you heard about the show Nicole of Linus’ Blanket is doing on Blog Talk Radio? It is called “That’s How I Blog” and every Tuesday night she interviews a different blogger. Tonight it is Lenore of Presenting Lenore, you can check the schedule to see when your favorite bloggers will be on, you can also get links to listen to podcasts of previous shows.
And, you know, if I happen to be one of your favorite bloggers, you can set aside 8:30 Eastern on the night of February 16th for a show starring little old me! I’d love for all of you to join me! In fact, if you go to that page now, you can set a reminder for yourself so you don’t miss it!
One of the really cool things Nicole is doing with this show is the 20 Minute Book Club. This is where Nicole and the blogger being interviewed both read the same book and talk about it at the end of the show. The conversations are the best when others read the book and call in as well. I chose one of my top books from last year, “City of Refuge” for my book. That was seriously an amazing book and I think you should all read it. If you do want to read it and participate in the 20 Minute Book Club, I have a surprise for you! HarperCollins has generously agreed to give away three copies to readers in the United States who plan to read it and call into the show.
To enter, please fill out the form below by January 14th, that way I can get the names to HarperCollins and the book can hopefully get to you in time for you to have 3 weeks to read it.
I really do only want to give these away to people who plan to call in and discuss them with us, so when you are filling out the form you will be asked for the name of another blogger whose show you have listened to or would like to listen to. If you can’t remember who has been on, you will have to check the schedule. No entries will be accepted without a valid answer.
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!
Apologies, you’re getting a long one this week, but this is one of the most memorable passages in “East of Eden” for me, sends shivers down my spine every time
I believe there are monsters born in the world to human parents. Some you can see, misshapen and horrible, with huge heads or tiny bodies; some are born with no arms, no legs, some with three arms, some with tails or mouths in odd places. They are accidents and no one’s fault, as used to be thought. Once they were considered visible punishments for concealed sins.
And just as there are physical monsters, can there not be mental or psychic monsters born? The face and body may be perfect, but if a twisted gene or malformed egg can produce physical monsters, may not the same process produce a malformed soul?
-East of Eden by John Steinbeck, p 71.
Don’t forget to join us in the readalong of East of Eden over at the Classic Reads Book Club! Discussion of the first section begins January 25th!
Do you know about SheKnows.com? I’m pretty sure I originally found them when entering a contest for hair products (oh, the things people try to get for free on the internet, don’t judge me, you know you’ve done it too). Anyway, SheKnows is essentially an online magazine for women. The actually cover a wide variety of topics. If Shape, Cosmo, Martha Stewart Living and ‘O’ got together and had an internet love child, it would be SheKnows.com.
“How does this pertain to books?” you might be asking. Well, they’ve actually had a books section for quite some time (it is called ‘Books and Chick Lit,’ which always perplexes me a bit, as I always thought Chick Lit tended to be in book format). However, in 2010 they are going to be putting more emphasis on books, and I’m always up for supporting any emphasis on books! They will be starting an online book club which will meet every other month, and, in between, will be promoting authors whose work will might be of interest to women.
The first book they are focusing on this year (not for the book club, just one of the books they are promoting) is not my usual fare – and I haven’t read it, so I can’t vouch for quality – but I thought it sounded very appropriate for the new year with everyone’s resolutions, so I thought I would share some information about it with you:
Get empowered to live the life of your dreams in 2010: Author and expert Marianna Olszewski tells you how
Wall Street money expert, life coach, mother and author, Marianna Olszewski, shares her secrets of success in her new book, “Live it! Love it! Earn it!,” in which she teaches women to be empowered – to live the life you want, to get control of your finances, to let go of stress, start your business, reach your goals and enjoy richer, happier lives.
Marianna grew up strapped for cash which motivated her to strive for financial abundance, independence and happiness and she exceeded all those goals by age 30. In her book, she shares everything she’s learned about managing money and following your dreams. She strives to empower women to focus on what they really want, how to get out of their comfort zones and act.
Marianna offers nine strategies that help empower women in the book, everything from starting your own business, to finding ways to say yes to yourself and reversing your worries. She also included true stories from women overcoming challenges: looking for a first job, climbing the corporate ladder, getting out of debt, changing careers in midstream, starting a small business and going solo after a divorce.
The book also includes insights from some well known successful and fulfilled women like designer Diane von Furstenberg, Jimmy Choo shoe mogul Tamara Mellon, Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn and more.
So what empowers this entrepreneur, author, life coach, savvy woman and mom?
#1 Starting my own business
#2 Earning the respect of colleagues in my industry which happened after I started by business
#3 Writing this book for women to follow their dreams
#4 Having a loving family and beautiful little boy
#5 Traveling around the world and seeing different ways of life
#6 Giving back by giving my time and resources to many charities and women’s organizations
# 7 Living a balanced life with quiet time for meditation learning and reflection
#8 Having supportive friends that are there for you through life’s ups and downs
You can check out Marianna’s book on her “Live it! Love it! Earn it!” website which has some of the tools she talks about in the book, like an easy 5 step business plan and The Worry Circle. And, check out her video interview on YouTube (below) about the book.
FTC notice: I have no financial stake in any of this. I didn’t even receive a copy of the book that could be sold for big bucks at a used bookstore, I’m just sharing some info.
Today I’m starting a game with a bunch of other book bloggers. It isn’t just any game, but a game to get healthy.
Really, the Game On! Diet is misnamed. It is less about ‘dieting’ than it is about building up healthy habits. Now, most people find most healthy habits to be a little, shall we say, boring. Do you think you’d find them less boring if you were COMPETING over them? Earning points and trying to beat your friends or family? Yah, I would too, and that’s the whole purpose of this game, and this book.
Contestants earn their points by living healthy habits every day such as eating 5 small, balanced meals, drinking 3 liters of water, getting 20 minutes of exercise and 7 hours of sleep. This game actually wants to make you all around more healthy, so you also get points for communicating with team members and opponents, and for starting one healthy habit and stopping one unhealthy habit. The book, by the way, is endlessly entertaining, especially for a diet book!
All of our teams have snack cake-based names. The winning team, the one I happen to be on, is the Ho Hos. The Twinkies and Ding Dongs will do great, I’m sure, but will sadly fall short of Ho Ho perfection.
Game On!
To follow progress on the other teams use the #gameondiet hash tag on twitter or visit the blogs teams:
The above link is an affiliate link, and if you buy your book here, I’ll make a small amount of money that will go towards my site. You will not pay anything extra
Please feel free to email me at jen(at)devourerofbooks.com for any questions or comments. I will accept certain books for review, however please read my review policy before contacting me to review your book.
Sponsors:
----------------------------------------------
Want to advertise here? It is easy! For more information, please see my advertising policy.
Grab your current read.He ate, head down, not entirely in self-defense, every now and then glancing slowly at the people around him. One glance, the seat opposite was vacant; the next it was filled by a young man in cheap but laundered clothes and a black peaked cap slouched a la mode on one side of his blond head.
Copyright protected by Digiprove © 2010
Follow Me!
Please feel free to email me at jen(at)devourerofbooks.com for any questions or comments. I will accept certain books for review, however please read my review policy before contacting me to review your book.