The King’s Daughter by Christie Dickason – Book Review

Dec 142010

The King’s Daughter by Christie Dickason
Published by Harper Paperbacks, an imprint of Harper Collins

Feared by and fearful of her father, James I of England, life as a princess is not easy for Elizabeth Stuart. The biggest issue for her is that of her future marriage. A princess being married where is most beneficial for her country is nothing new, but Elizabeth is afraid that she will continue to be promised and have her betrothals snatched away again until it is too late for her, just as Henry VIII did to his daughter Mary before his death, and just like the game played by Elizabeth I. When Elizabeth’s incredibly distant mother sends her the ‘gift’ of a slave girl of African descent, it seems that Elizabeth may have actually found someone with whom she can discuss her unhappiness. Thalia realizes, as no one else does, that in some ways, Elizabeth is as much a slave as she is and that the two young women can help one another.

I have always tended to avoid historical fiction that focuses on James I, and “The King’s Daughter” definitely convinced me that I had been right to do so, because James came across as a bad king, and a worse person. Elizabeth, however, was a fascinating and well-realized character. “The King’s Daughter” was always easy to pick up, and I found that 50 or more pages had gone past every time I did so.

The only thing that I really did not like about “The King’s Daughter” was Dickason’s decision to occasionally tell a story from the point of view of James, Thalia, or Elizabeth’s beloved brother Henry. I would not have minded a few chapters from Thalia’s point of view, particularly if there had been more chapters and it had seemed a more deliberate decision. To have James and Henry narrate scattered chapters, however, simply felt like lazy storytelling in an otherwise very engaging book. I would have preferred that she found a way to tell the reader what she wanted me import about Henry and James through the action of the book.

Overall a book I truly enjoyed reading and an interesting look at the reign of James I. Recommended.

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

I read this book as part of a TLC Book Tour. Check out some of the other tour hosts for more reviews. Links go to the host’s site, not to their specific review.

Monday, December 6th: Scandalous Women

Wednesday, December 8th: excess baggage

Thursday, December 9th: Rundpinne

Monday, December 13th: Bookalicio.us

Tuesday, December 14th: Devourer of Books

Wednesday, December 15th: The Lost Entwife

Thursday, December 16th: Raging Bibliomania

Monday, December 20th: Peeking Between the Pages

Tuesday, December 21st: Shhh I’m Reading

Wednesday, December 22nd: Thoughts From an Evil Overlord

Monday, December 27th: Bookworm’s Dinner

Tuesday, December 28th: Life In Review

Wednesday, December 29th: Book Reviews by Molly

Thursday, December 30th: Calico Critic

* 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.

Announcing: BOOK CLUB with Devourer of Books and Linus’s Blanket

Dec 132010

It seems funny, but a little over a year ago, Nicole from Linus’s Blanket and I didn’t really ‘know’ one another. Then we worked together on a project for Buy Books for the Holidays, and we found that we worked very well together. As we began to explore one anothers’ blogs, we also learned that we had very similar tastes in books as well. Between those two things, a blogging friendship was born.

Since then, I helped out with That’s How I Blog, then we hung out together at BEA, started a podcast together, and spent countless hours together on google chat. And now, we are working together on a new project, one which you can become directly involved in:

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BOOK CLUB.

BOOK CLUB is an opportunity for people to get together to discuss great books from small presses. We both know that there are some fabulous books coming out all the time from small presses and we wanted to make a point to read more this year, and help raise awareness of these books and publishers in the realm of book blogging and beyond. During the first part of 2011, we will be working with Other Press and Graywolf Press to bring you some fabulous books.

We will be discussing a book on either my blog or Nicole’s on the 5256211791 676602e45d m picture fourth Tuesday of every month. During the second week of the month, both Nicole and I will give away 5 copies of the BOOK CLUB discussion book for the following month. For example, today we are each giving away five copies of “A Thousand Rooms of Dream and Fear,” which we will be discussing on Tuesday, January 25th at Linus’s Blanket. Whether you receive the book from one of us or pick it up yourself, we would love to have you join in the conversation.

Because Other Press will be providing the books for us to discuss, I ask that everyone requesting this book have either a blog where they plan to review it, a Twitter account where they discuss books, of that they post a review on either a bookish social media site (LibraryThing, GoodReads, etc.) or an online bookselling site (Powells, Indiebound, Amazon, etc). I also ask that you commit to reading the book and joining the discussion. We are limited in our shipping to US-only.

If you are interested, please fill out the Google form below. The first five people who do so and meet the above qualifications will receive a copy of the book from Other Press.

This giveaway is now closed. Please check back in the second week of January for our next BOOK CLUB selection

TSS: Let it Snow

Dec 122010

We’re in the middle of a winter storm until midnight tonight, although we’re only supposed to get 3-5 inches over all that time. Still, though, I think this is going to be sort of a quiet day at home. At the moment, Daniel and I are watching Elmo, hopefully that won’t be true the whole day long. He does like Elmo a whole lot, though:

I think that I’ll probably make my famous fudge (which is mostly just the same as the back of the marshmallow fluff jar, with a few alterations) for my work cookie exchange while Daniel is napping today, because this fudge takes a few days to set. We’re also going to go and make Christmas cookies with my mother-in-law and grandmother-in-law after Daniel’s nap. I’m sure that, on the way, we will play in the snow as well, because Daniel has been having a lot of fun with that this week.

Although I had lots of fun taking videos of Daniel this week, I didn’t get much reading done. In fact, I only finished two books, both of which I also reviewed already (covers link to post):

In addition to those two, I also posted the list for my List Exchange Challenge with Nicole, and reviewed these books:

Hopefully I’ll get a little more read this week

Little Rabbit’s Christmas – Saturday Story Spotlight

Dec 112010

Welcome to Saturday Story Spotlight, my new feature where I discuss books my husband and I are reading with our son, Daniel. These are books that he, we, or all of us particularly enjoy, since we are definitely reading more than one book a week!

Little Rabbit’s Christmas by Harry Horse
Published by Peachtree Publishing

All Little Rabbit wants for is a red sled and, once he gets it, all he wants to do is play with it himself. Those paints and tools his friends got? BORING. Who wants paints when you could go sledding? So, after being really fairly obnoxious in begging for/demanding the sled for Christmas, he wants nothing but to go and play with his sled by himself, he doesn’t want to play with his friends and their toys, and he certainly doesn’t want them to play with his sled. Until he runs into some trouble, and his friends come through for him and he realizes that Christmas is really about friends, family, and togetherness, not just getting things.

Harry Horse is really convincing with Little Rabbit’s greedy, obnoxious selfishness, so much so that I was actually worried at one point that he would continue to be obnoxious the whole book long. However, he was totally redeemed, and he was totally redeemed in a very realistic way. I really enjoyed this, and I’m looking forward to reading it with Daniel over the next few years. It was ever so slightly too long and with too many words on the page for Daniel right now at 18 months, but it still managed to keep his attention pretty well, because of all of Little Rabbit’s whooshing around on his sled.

Highly recommended.

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

Source: 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.

A Curable Romantic by Joseph Skibell – Book Review

Dec 092010

A Curable Romantic by Joseph Skibell
Published by Algonquin Books, an imprint of Workman

Set against the backdrop of early 20th century history, in “A Curable Romantic” by Joseph Skibell, we meet Dr. Jakob Sammelsohn, a young Jewish man struggling against his traditional religious background and the scientific progress of the new century. As a young man in Vienna, he falls in love with a young woman at the opera, a woman who is both a patient of Dr. Freud and, possibly, inhabited by a dybbuk of the dead wife Jakob never loved. As he continues to grapple with the inherent contradictions in his life, Sammelsohn is involved first with Dr. Freud, then with the Esperanto movement.

One of my favorite things about historical fiction is learning about topics about which I know nothing. Enter: the society around Dr. Freud and the Esperanto movement. Skibell does a fantastic job of making the time and place come alive. I felt that I could get a firm grasp on the broad historical strokes surrounding both Freud’s early work and the history of the Esperanto movement, and how both of these things attempted to bridge a gap between a past their leaders would see as superstitious and a future that might look upon both of them as naive. I also appreciated the look at the role of Jews in European society that felt real, without seeming too much like Skibell was trying to get across A. Message. My only qualm with this book is that it was 600 pages long, which was perhaps a little longer than it really needed to be.

Interesting, well-written, informative historical fiction. Recommended.

Thanks to Beth Fish Reads, who has helped me to become more aware of the imprints I love over the past year, beginning with her Amy Einhorn Perpetual Challenge. Follow her blog for regular spotlights of some of her favorite imprints.

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

Source: 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.

Barnacle Love by Anthony De Sa – Book Review

Dec 082010

Barnacle Love by Anthony De Sa
Published by Algonquin, an imprint of Workman

As a young man, Manuel feels the need to escape from what haunts him in Portugal: his overbearing mother, an abusive priest, and his dead father. While on a ship off the coast of Canada, Manuel goes overboard to avoid returning home and chooses instead to make his life in Canada. In the second half of the book, Manuel’s son Antonio takes over the narration, describing the difficulties of being a second generation immigrant when the first generation did not live up to its own dreams.

The Portuguese-Canadian immigrant community was not one I had ever considered before. I didn’t even realize there was a large Portuguese immigrant community in Canada. This actually helped me approach the idea of the immigrant experience from a fresh perspective, which made for a very interesting read. The beginning of “Barnacle Love” was somewhat challenging for me, De Sa’s writing style in the first half was somewhat distant and removed, making it difficult for me to connect to Manuel or the story in general. During the second half, however, the narration switched to first person from Antonio’s point of view, and I was able to become more invested in the story being told.

A fresh look at the North American immigrant experience, and one worth reading.

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

Source: 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.

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by – Book Review

Dec 072010

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey
Published by Algonquin Books, an imprint of Workman Publishing

While on vacation in Europe, Elizabeth Tova Bailey contracted some sort inexplicable illness. Doctors and specialists were unable to ever determine what she had come down with, unsure even whether her illness was viral or bacterial. From time to time, significant flare ups of her mystery disease left Tova Bailey bedridden for months at a time. On one such occasion, she was forced to leave the rambling old barn she called home to live in a sterile little apartment where she could be better taken care of. It may have been a convenient place for her caregiver, but it wasn’t a particularly life-affirming place for Elizabeth – until a visiting friend brought her a tiny woodland snail. Having a piece of the natural world at her bedside gave Elizabeth a purpose and rhythm to her days that was otherwise lacking.

The story of a chronic illness could so easily be fraught with distress and depression, and the story of a snail could so easily be boring. “The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating,” however, was simply lovely. The writing was straightforward but strong, and the insight into Tova Bailey’s thoughts, frustrations, and joys over the course of her convalescence was clear and meaningful. It was also amazing just how fascinating learning about a snail could be in Elizabeth Tova Bailey’s hands. Her intimate emotional connection to the subject matter was evident with every word, and that made this a very special and heart-warming read.

Highly recommended.

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

Source: 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.

List Swap Challenge 2011

Dec 062010

Inspired by Chris and Debi, by way of Amy and Hannah, Nicole of Linus’s Blanket and I decided to do the list swap challenge. Basically you choose five books for yourself to read and five books for your challenge partner to read, then one book to read together. My plan is to read one of the first 10 books each month, alternating between one Nicole picked for me and one I pick for myself. Faulkner will probably have to wait until we get through the book we’re reading together, though.

I’m really excited about the list that Nicole put together for me. Most of these books were not on my radar, but they all seem to be right up my alley.

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Kindred by Octavia Butler
Words by Heart by Ouida Sebestyen
Light in August by William Falkner
Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb
Swan Song by Robert McCammon

My list for myself is comprised of some of the books books I purchased from The Bookstore in 2010 and never actually got around to reading.

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Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
A Long, Long Time Ago & Essentially True by Brigid Pasulka
The Thousand by Kevin Guilfoile

What with What’s Old is New and another project we’re working on, Nicole and I will really be reading a whole bunch of books together. However, the book we are going to read for the purpose of this challenge is Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities.”

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Because we’re a bit overwhelmed with all of our projects, and because we’re nerdy enough that this really appeals to us, we’re going to read it as it would have been read originally: in installments. As an aside, it was remarkably difficult to find a schedule of how the installments were originally published. We ended up finding facsimiles of the originals and creating our own schedule. Here it is, for those of you who are interested, the installments are weekly:

Installment	Book:	Chapters
1	1	1 – 3
2	1	4
3	1	5
4	1	6
5	2	1 – 2
6	2	3
7	2	4 – 5
8	2	6
9	2	7 – 8
10	2	9
11	2	10 – 11
12	2	12 – 13
13	2	14
14	2	15
15	2	16
16	2	17 – 18
17	2	19 – 20
18	2	21
19	2	22 – 23
20	2	24
21	3	1
22	3	2 – 3
23	3	4 – 5
24	3	6 – 7
25	3	8
26	3	9
27	3	10
28	3	11 – 12
29	3	13
30	3	14
31	3	15

http://www.myfriendamysblog.com/2010/11/challenge-list-for-2011-and-my-list.html

Exley by Brock Clarke – Book Review

Dec 062010

Exley by Brock Clarke
Published by Algonquin, an imprint of Workman

When Miller’s dad leaves their family, he announces that he is going to join the war in Iraq, and Miller takes him at face value. Miller’s mother, on the other hand, is adamant that her husband could not possibly have gone to Iraq – after all he was too old, too out of shape, too lazy. When Miller continues to insist that his father is in Iraq and letters start showing up, ostensibly from his father, Miller’s mother put him into therapy. Miller’s doctor, who refers to him as M., is a bit pretentious but does seem to have M.’s best interests at heart – if only because he has a crush on M.’s mother. Everything comes to a head when Miller discovers that his father – or someone he assumes is his father – is lying unconscious in the Veteran’s Hospital. In order to return his father to health and to his own life, Miller decides that he must find Exley, whose fictional memoir, “A Fan’s Notes,” is the one thing Miller’s father is truly passionate about in life. He is certain that if he brings Exley to his father, his father will get well again.

Over the last weekend, I found myself in a bit of a reading funk. I had a hard time picking up or concentrating on anything, until I picked up “Exley.” As might be expected of an author whose first book is titled, “An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England,” Brock Clarke has, with “Exley,” written a quirky and fascinating novel. The most immediate thing that captured my attention was the question of whether or not Miller’s father really went to Iraq and whether he was currently lying unconscious in a hospital bed. This brought up an even more intriguing question: if he had not been to Iraq, was Miller simply misinformed and confused, or is he an unreliable narrator? There is, of course, the issue of the man in the hospital, as well as some letters Miller’s mother intercepted, which she believes that Miller wrote and had someone post from an APO address.

This is an incredibly quirky book, with Miller expounding on things his father taught him, which his father learned from Exley, and calling people by their initials and speaking in imprecise dates as his father and Exley both do as well. Although not for the easily offended, Exley is an immensely enjoyable book which I can highly recommend.

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

Source: 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.

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear (audio) – Saturday Story Spotlight

Dec 042010

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Bill Martin Jr., illustrated by Eric Carle, narrated by Gwyneth Paltrow in English and Adriana Sananes in Spanish
Published by Macmillan Young Listeners, an imprint of Macmillan

“Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?” companion or sequel to “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” Like “Brown Bear,” it has predictive text with each animal hearing another, which then hears another. In some ways, I actually prefer this one, because of the rich descriptions of animal noises (the boa constrictor ‘hissing,’ the elephant ‘trumpeting’). Plus, we’re huge Eric Carle fans around here, so anything he has written or illustrated is a big hit.

I will say, that even with my confidence in all things Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle, I was a bit hesitant to try the audio book with Daniel. For one thing, I was totally unsure how Gwyneth Paltrow would do as a narrator. What I didn’t take into account was that she is a mom who clearly has lots of experience reading to her own young children, because she read with spot-on ‘mom reading to toddler’ enthusiasm, fun voices and all. Because of this, Daniel definitely enjoyed the experience of listening to the audiobook while sitting in my lap and having me turn the pages. It isn’t an option I would use frequently at this age, but I can see doing it when I have a sore throat or otherwise don’t feel well.

One nice thing, though, is that there are three different options on the audiobook, depending on what age and level reader you have. The first track is simply the book being read without any interruptions, which works well for reading the book with a parents or potentially for an older child who can read along or determine when to turn the page through animal cues. The second track would be wonderful for an emergent reader or even a pre-reader, as there is a chime to indicate when the page should be turned. I can even see Daniel being able to turn the page at each chime on his own in a few months. The third track is in Spanish for bilingual families, or, I suppose, simply if you wanted to expose your child to another language.

I really appreciate that we can pick up just the book itself, or add the cd if need be. Although I don’t think we need any more audiobooks for Daniel for the stage he is in, I can definitely see him growing into this format on his own as an older toddler or preschooler.

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

Source: Personal copy
* 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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Devourer of Books

The King’s Daughter by Christie Dickason – Book Review

Announcing: BOOK CLUB with Devourer of Books and Linus’s Blanket

This giveaway is now closed. Please check back in the second week of January for our next BOOK CLUB selection

TSS: Let it Snow

Little Rabbit’s Christmas – Saturday Story Spotlight

A Curable Romantic by Joseph Skibell – Book Review

Barnacle Love by Anthony De Sa – Book Review

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by – Book Review

Exley by Brock Clarke – Book Review

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear (audio) – Saturday Story Spotlight

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