Teaser Tuesday – Wolf Hall

Apr 132010

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!

“An hour from now he’ll have had a skinful and he’ll be back. He’d set the place on fire if he thought I were in it.”

-Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, p. 10

I am going to be reading Wolf Hall section by section and discussing it on Twitter at the hashtag #WHall with Erin Deedy of Peachtree Publishing. Here’s our schedule:

April 15th – Part 1, pages 3-38
April 19th – Part 2, pages 39-132
April 22nd – Part 3, pages 133-234
April 26th – Part 4, pages 235-342
April 29th – Part 5, pages 343-434
May 5th – Part 6, pages 435 – end

Feel free to join us!

A Parisienne in Chicago by Madame Leon Grandin – Book Review

Apr 122010

A Parisienne in Chicago: Impressions of the World’s Columbian Exposition by Madame Leon Grandin, translated by Mary Beth Raycraft

In July of 1892, Madame Leon Grandin and her husband boarded a ship in Le Havre heading for New York. They stayed for six weeks with relatives in New York, then headed across the country to Chicago, where her husband would be working on the Columbian Fountain project for the 1893 World’s Fair. “A Pariesienne in Chicago” is Madame Leon Grandin’s travelogue of her time in America, focusing extensively on social customs and societal norms in the United States and in Chicago in particular.

As I was reading Madame Leon Grandin’s account of her time in Chicago in 1892 and 1893, the quote about the past being a foreign country was continually running through my head. Madame Grandin traveled from Paris to the place that I live, but the Chicago of 120 years ago is nearly as foreign to me as it was to her, even discounting the changes in technology between then and now. The things that really got to me don’t seem like big things, but they were so unexpected I was just shocked, things like Thanksgiving being a religious holiday where people headed to church in the morning instead of watching parades and football.

Being as this was a translation of a 19th century travelogue focusing on social practices in Chicago, I was amazed at how completely engaging “A Parisienne in Chicago” was. I literally did not want to put it down because Madame Grandin’s voice was so engaging. I attribute this both to Grandin’s writing style (which included lots of exclamation points!) and to Mary Beth Raycraft’s skillful translation. I do think it is important to note that, the subtitle not withstanding, only a very small portion of the book actually deals directly with the World’s Fair, so if that’s your main impetus for picking this book up you may be disappointed. That being said, I think this was much more interesting for the social history it highlighted than it would have been if it were just Grandin’s impressions of the World’s Fair.

Highly recommended.

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

This review was done with a book received from the publisher for this blog tour.
* 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.

TSS: Themes in My Reading – Le Havre

Apr 112010

Hello! My Sunday Salon is very late this week, because I’ve been gone for the past 36 hours, we were down in Indianapolis for my grandma’s surprise birthday party. It was lots of fun and Daniel was a big hit.

What I really wanted to talk to you all about, though, is something that popped up in my reading a whole lot this week: Le Havre, France. I have never before heard of La Havre, but it popped up in THREE different books I was reading this week.

First, it was the home of Claude Monet and his family before he left his father and siblings to go to Paris and pursue his art in “Claude and Camille.”

Then, I was following Madame Leon Grandin and her husband from France to Chicago for the World’s Fair in “A Parisienne in Chicago,” her travelogue.

That it was in those two books was strange enough, but once I finished those, I thought I was done with Le Havre. Imagine my surprise when I started the audio of “My Life in France” and Julia and Paul Child voyaged from the United States to France by way of Le Havre as well.

That many instances in so few days and I had to learn something about the place! Here are some highlights from Wikipedia:

Founded in 1517 by King Francis I, originally called Franciscopolis in his honor (thank goodness they changed the name!)
Le Havre literally means ‘the harbor’ in French, which explains why Madame Leon Grandin and Julia Child both traveled through there on ship.
12th largest city in France
The city was destroyed by the Germans during WWII and rebuilt in the modernist style, then declared a World Heritage Site in 2005.

The Heart is Not a Size by Beth Kephart – Book Review

Apr 092010

The Heart is Not a Size by Beth Kephart

When Georgia sees a notice on the corkboard at the grocery store about a summer trip to Anapra in Juarez, Mexico, she knows immediately that she needs to go. The first step is to convince her best friend Riley to go, the next to convince her parents to let her go. Promising to spend the rest of her summer corralling her younger brother Kevin should do it, though. Georgia and Riley really need this escape from the ordinary; Georgia has panic attacks and Riley’s mother dismisses her as ‘average.’ Something seems particularly wrong with Riley, actually, she is disappearing almost before Georgia’s eyes. Although Ampara was a bit of a whim initially, it will end up touching the girls in a very special way.

Beth Kephart’s writing is, as always, gorgeous. There was a lot in this novel: eating disorders, panic attacks, poverty, invisible people, rape and murder and disappearances. One thing that was particularly interesting to me was that Georgia was supposed to be somewhat heavy – her friendship with the much smaller Riley being the origin of the title – but either the reader doesn’t get any hint of this until at least a third of the way through the book or I totally missed it until that point. I appreciated that, this wasn’t a ‘fat girl’ book, but a book about the live of a girl who just happened to be somewhat overweight, but whose weight is not her main attribute.

I sort of wish “The Heart is Not a Size” had been about twice as long as it was. So much really wasn’t explored as much as I would have liked: Georgia’s weight, her panic attacks, the lives of the people in Juarez and Anapra, the muertas, and more. However, none of those things was really the point of this book, and that’s okay. As with the other of Kephart’s books I read, “The Heart is Not a Size” was really about a regular girl finding irregular strength to deal with the difficulties that arise in her life.

I don’t think I liked “The Heart is Not a Size” quite as much as I liked “Nothing But Ghosts,” but that’s a little like saying I don’t like chocolate quite as well as chocolate mixed with peanut butter; both are fantastic, one is just ever so slightly more fantastic than the other. If you haven’t read anything by Kephart yet, you really need to get on it ASAP – she’s not just for the young adult audience, but for everyone who likes lyrical writing and thoughtful stories.

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

This review was done with a book received from a friend.
* 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.

Pearl of China by Anchee Min – Book Review

Apr 082010

Pearl of China by Anchee Min

Life was not easy for Willow, a young Chinese girl in a small village at the end of the 19th century. Her family had little money, and survived mostly on what she and her father could steal, until her father was taken under the wing of Absalom, the white Christian missionary in the area. As Willow’s father was becoming a leader of the Church under Absalom’s guidance, Willow is beginning a friendship with Absalom’s daughter, Pearl. Having lived in China since she was mere months old, Pearl feels more Chinese than American: hiding her blonde hair under black wool caps and singing traditional Chinese songs.

Willow and Pearl grow older, but they do not grow apart, even when Pearl has to return to the U.S. for college and other life events. Pearl begins to find her worth and her life’s work in writing fiction about China, but fiction that rings true to the experiences of the peasants she has lived among for nearly her entire life. Towards the middle of the 20th century, however, there is a crest in animosity towards foreigners, and Pearl is forced to flee to America. After Mao comes to power, Willow’s life is threatened by her lifelong friendship with the writer who is now being labeled a cultural imperialist.

I was initially slightly disappointed with this book, because in some ways it was more about Pearl’s semi-fictional friend Willow than it was about Pearl S. Buck herself. However, as I read it I became enamored of Pearl’s story set against the backdrop of turn-of-the-century China. Although it took some time for me to become fully engrossed in the story, I soon found myself lost in the lives of Willow and Pearl.

What really gave this book a special heart, I think, is Anchee Min’s own back story with Pearl S. Buck. Min was forced to denounce Buck as a youth during the Cultural Revolution. After she came to the United States and became a published author, she was gifted a copy of “The Good Earth” by a reader. Buck’s story touched Min so deeply that the idea for “Pearl of China” was born.

Highly recommended for a look at the history of modern China, as well as of author Pearl S. Buck.

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

This review was done with a book received from the publisher via LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer program.
* 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.

The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan – Book Review

Apr 072010

The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan

“The Dead-Tossed Waves” is the follow-up to “The Forest of Hands and Teeth,” which I reviewed in September of 2009.

Gabry has spent her life with her mother, Mary, at the lighthouse in Vista where they are in charge of disposing of the Mudo – the things that Mary calls the Unconsecrated – that wash up on the beach. Despite the fact that her world is filled with Mudo (zombies) that want to infect all of humanity, Gabry has a pretty good life; she has family, friends, and perhaps the affection of the boy she likes. Until she agrees to cross the Barrier with a group of friends, and everything changes. Now Gabry must figure out who she really is and what she really wants.

Yay! “The Dead-Tossed Waves” made me so happy! I liked “The Forest of Hands and Teeth” okay. I mean, I appreciated the writing and the basics of the world that Ryan created, but I really wasn’t a huge fan of Mary – I thought she was sort of distant and didn’t ever really get a good feel for her – and I thought that far too many questions about the world went unanswered. Part of that was the design of the storyline, but, honestly, it really bugged me. I like knowing what the rules and history of a world are, even if I don’t find out until the end of the book, not ever finding out is not really an acceptable thing in a book for me. And yet, the not knowing is what drew to me pick up “The Dead-Tossed Waves” even though I wasn’t crazy about “The Forest of Hands and Teeth,” because I had to hope that perhaps some of the questions from the first book were answered.

And they were! Yay! There is a little more that I hope she explores in the next book, but even if this is all that I get I am content. I also have to say, that I found Gabry a much more interesting and likeable character than Mary, perhaps because she was so much more vulnerable. She also developed more as a character than Mary did in “The Forest of Hands and Teeth.” Ryan’s writing is, as ever, quite good, and I was ever so pleased to see more of this post-apocalyptic world she has created. Bring on book three!

Recommended/high recommended.

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

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.

31 Hours by Masha Hamilton- Mini Review

Apr 062010

31 Hours by Masha Hamilton

As I read this book quite some time ago, I will be using my mini-review format, which means I will be using the publisher’s description instead of writing one of my own.

Publisher’s Description:

A woman in New York awakens knowing, as deeply as a mother s blood can know, that her grown son is in danger. She has not heard from him in weeks. His name is Jonas. His girlfriend, Vic, doesn t know what she has done wrong, but Jonas won t answer his cell phone. We soon learn that Jonas is isolated in a safe-house apartment in New York City, pondering his conversion to Islam and his experiences training in Pakistan, preparing for the violent action he has been instructed to take in 31 hours. Jonas s absence from the lives of those who love him causes a cascade of events, and as the novel moves through the streets and subways of New York we come to know intimately the lives of its characters. We also learn to feel deeply the connections and disconnections that occur between young people and their parents not only in this country but in the Middle East as well. Carried by Hamilton s highly-lauded prose, this story about the helplessness of those who cannot contact a beloved young man who is on a devastatingly confused path is compelling on the most human level.

I read this book for Julie’s appearance on That’s How I Blog. Hamilton tells an interesting story with interesting characters, and I was really intrigued with how she intertwined the lives of the different characters. Ultimately, though, I didn’t feel that there was enough justification presented for why Jonas behaved as he did, and that really kept me from loving the book.

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

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.

Teaser Tuesday – The Heart is Not a Size

Apr 062010

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!

“Jesus, G., what’s with you?” he said. Then we went to find the cafe. Kev didn’t care at all that I’d been scared, just thought I was being big-sister weird; and it would have done neither of us one bit of good to explain to our mom what had just happened.

-The Heart is Not a Size by Beth Kephart, p. 37

Sisters in War by Christina Asquith – Book Review

Apr 052010

Sisters in War by Christina Asquith

One thing I don’t ever remember hearing the mainstream media talking about when the decision was made to invade Iraq in 2003 is what it would mean for the women and children of that country. In fact, to this day I have still not seen much explored about the lives of women in Iraq and whether they have improved or not since the war began – until I picked up Christina Asquith’s “Sisters in War.”

Asquith follows the stories of 4 different women from different backgrounds in Baghdad: Shia sisters Zia and Nunu; Heather, the white US Army reservist; and Manal, a devoutly Muslim feminist Arab-American aid worker. We begin following the sisters’ story before the invasion happens, and their hope for their future after Saddam is absolutely heart breaking.

I really don’t want to say too much about what these women experience. Obviously it is no secret what has been happening with the Iraq War (“Sisters in War” spans from 2003 to 2006), but it is something completely different to experience it through the eyes of these four women.

I was so completely invested in these women’s lives, I didn’t want to stop reading until I found out what happened to them! Asquith completely made all of them real to me. Of course they are real, but sometimes nonfiction writers don’t bring their subjects to life in the same way that authors of fiction do – not the case with “Sisters in War.” I also appreciated that Asquith did not include herself in the story she was telling. That seems to be quite the fad in narrative nonfiction right now and it often works quite well, but I think this story packed a much greater emotional punch for not including her, it read somewhat like a documentary, I felt as if I was simply a fly on the wall with all of these women.

Not always emotionally easy read, but endlessly compelling storytelling, great writing, and a fascinating subject make me highly recommend this book.

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

This review was done with a book received from the publisher via LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer Program.
* 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.

TSS: Daniel’s Big Week

Apr 042010

Daniel had a lot of first this week, not just his first Easter.

First, his first time playing outside:
He was initially really unsure about playing in the grass for the first time

Shortly after this, though, he started zooming around like a crazy little crawler. He also found a big stick to play with.

Then, his first Easter egg hunt:

Next, his first haircut:

Happy Easter!

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Devourer of Books

Teaser Tuesday – Wolf Hall

A Parisienne in Chicago by Madame Leon Grandin – Book Review

This review was done with a book received from the publisher for this blog tour.
* 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.

TSS: Themes in My Reading – Le Havre

The Heart is Not a Size by Beth Kephart – Book Review

This review was done with a book received from a friend.
* 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.

Pearl of China by Anchee Min – Book Review

This review was done with a book received from the publisher via LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer program.
* 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.

The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan – Book Review

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.

31 Hours by Masha Hamilton- Mini Review

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.

Teaser Tuesday – The Heart is Not a Size

Sisters in War by Christina Asquith – Book Review

This review was done with a book received from the publisher via LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer Program.
* 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.

TSS: Daniel’s Big Week

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Regular Features/Special Events

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This review was done with a book received from the publisher for this blog tour. * 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 received from a friend. * 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 received from the publisher via LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer program. * 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 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.

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.

This review was done with a book received from the publisher via LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer Program. * 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.

Follow Me!

Sponsors:

Shelf Awareness for Readers eNewsletter

Recognition

Regular Features/Special Events

Check Me Out

This review was done with a book received from the publisher for this blog tour.
* 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 received from a friend.
* 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 received from the publisher via LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer program.
* 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 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.

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.

This review was done with a book received from the publisher via LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer Program.
* 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.