Devourer of Books

The Heretic Queen by Michelle Moran

Nefertari is the orphaned neice of Queen Nefertiti.  Once adored, Nefertiti is now reviled as a heretic who banished the traditional gods of Egypt.  Unfortunately for Nefertari, the transgressions of Nefertiti have become a stain on her reputation as well. As the member of a despised family, Nefertiti is considered by many to be unworthy of wedding Ramesses II and certainly unworthy of being his chief wife.

Nefertari is an extremely likable, well-developed character. She seemed complex enough to be real and good and strong enough to be a character I wanted to root for. Not to mention that the story itself was extremely engaging.  As with “Janeology”, I read “The Heretic Queen” in less than a day and nearly forgot I was even reading.

Moran really made ancient Egypt come alive to me, and I cannot wait to read some of her other work.

Buy “The Heretic Queen” on Amazon.

A is for Atticus by Lorilee Craker

“A is for Atticus” is a fun book, as far as baby naming books go.  Craker provides background and entertaining commentary on each and every name.  Her personality really shone through - not something I would expect in a baby name book.  I must say, I grew a little bored while reading the boy names, though.  I just didn’t think that the boy names she had were nearly as appealing as the girl names.

This would be a great book to give to a literary-minded expectant couple, particularly as it isn’t just a boring list fo names and perhaps meanings.

I won this book during Book Blogger Appreciation Week, although I didn’t know that until it showed up in the mail the same day as another book I won during BBAW, both coming from Hatchette.  I guessed that perhaps that was the origin of this book and Amy was able to confirm it.  What was funny is that this book showed up the same morning that my husband and I found out we would need a book like this, mere hours after we found out, actually.

Buy “A is for Atticus” on Amazon.

Most of us book bloggers like to write book reviews- if we don’t love to write book reviews- but here’s today’s question. When it comes to LT (and your blog), do you review every book you read? Do you just review Early Reviewers or ARCs? Do you review only if you like a book, or only if you feel like you have to? How soon after reading do you post your review? Do you post them other places- other social networking sites, Amazon, etc.?

Every review that I write gets cross-posted onto LibraryThing, but not every book that I read gets reviewed.  I don’t have a hard and fast rule about what is reviewed and what isn’t, I don’t give passes to books I disliked or focus exclusively on books sent to me for review (although with the huge pile I have, that is a big percentage of what I read).  The books that get skipped are usually quick little things, children’s or young adult literature (although I do review some of those as well).  For instance, I read “The Twits” during one of the ReadAThons and never bothered to give it a review.

Once a book is reviewed here, I usually move a set of reviews over to LibraryThing every week or two.  Often my reviews here contain extra chatter or even more plot synopsis than I feel is necessary on LibraryThing where there may be many reviews for the book.  To correct for this, I generally only include a portion of my blog review in the LibraryThing review field.  I then link directly to the review on my blog at the end so that people can read the rest if they so desire.

When a book gets reviewed varies greatly, depending on how many books I’m reading and how much time I have to review.  Sometimes I’ll have books reviewed immediately but they’ll have to wait around for the reviews to be published because I simply have too many or I want to publish the review closer to the date the book is being released.  Other times I have to go and write a review for a book I have read relatively recently each day I want to post a review.  Either way I generally try to post reviews Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  If I have a huge backlog I will occasionally also post during the Sunday Salon.  That being said, I’ve been coming a bit short on the MWF reviewing in the past few weeks, but I now have a backlog of read books that need to be reviewed so, time allowing, I can return to my schedule.

Every so often I DO review on a different day, though.  In fact, I have a very special review coming up in an hour or so.

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

I feel like I’m pretty far behind the curve reading this latest collection of Lahiri’s stories.  “Unaccustomed Earth” came out during a time when I wasn’t really buying new books.  I asked the people at Half Price Books to notifiy me if a copy came in and I kept telling my husband that it would be a great ‘I love you’ gift, but he never took the bait.  FINALLY, a couple weeks ago, I walked into a Barnes and Nobles with a gift card and made a beeline for “Unaccustomed Earth.”

After all of that waiting and anticipation, I was a little afraid that “Unaccustomed Earth” would be a bit of a let down for me.  Evidently I forgot I was dealing with Jhumpa Lahiri.

“Unaccustomed Earth” is a masterful work of storytelling, one that eclipses even the fantastic “Interpreter of Maladies.”  I was extremely disappointed when I reached the end of the book and realized that there were no more stories for me to read.  Like “Interpreter of Maladies,” “Unaccustomed Earth” is comprised of stories about Indian immigrants.  The second half of the book actually contains what is essentially a small novel in stories.  Actually, each story felt more like a novel than a short story.  Most were perhaps closer to novella length and told a very complete story with much depth.

If you like high quality fiction, you will love Unaccustomed Earth.

Buy Unaccustomed Earth through Amazon.

Janeology by Karen Harrington (see Karen’s blog)

A mother attempts to murder her young twins and succeeds in killing one of them, as well as the family dog.  A father stands trial for his wife’s crime, accused of criminal negligance.  A lawyer employs a psychic to delve into the past of his client’s wife, determined to prove that she was genetically predisposed to injure her children, and her husband had no way of predicting it.  Oh, and the book is described by many as a thriller.  If that doesn’t sound like a great description of a book I would normally try to avoid and would probably dislike reading, I don’t know what does. 

Luckily for me, I read rave reviews from other book bloggers and participated in a LibraryThing author chat with the the author before I really heard all of the description above (I promise that nothing you read above is a spoiler, by the way).  I was also lucky enough to win a copy of this book direct from the author during the aforementioned author chat. 

Karen tells the story of Tom (the husband on trial) and Jane (Tom’s wife) with such ease and skill that at times I nearly forgot I was reading.  The story comes together so seamlessly that I really didn’t even have to stop to suspend disbelief about the workings of the psychic.  It probably helped that Tom was fairly skeptical himself, particularly at the beginning of their sessions.  I basically just latched on to Tom’s thoughts and emotions; I am not sure I have ever identified so strongly with a male main character, but everything he was going through seemed so real.  I would have perhaps liked to see him interact more with his surviving daughter, but it seemed realistic to me that the combined continuing disbelief of what his wife did along with the stress of his ensuing trial would give him a numb, internal demeanor. 

I don’t think I would really classify this as a thriller.  I think it is a fantastic story of family, dysfunction, pain, and the realization of how our actions effect other people.  Since I could barely put this book down and read it in less than a day, I would definitely say I recommend it.

Buy this book on Amazon.

Note:

Because of the first comment I got on this review, I wanted to add something.  I know lots of people are worried about having problems reading a book dealing with a mother killing her children.  This actually ends up not being a big problem with the way the book is written.  By the time we come into Tom’s life, both the crime and Jane’s trial have come and gone and we never directly see the events of that day.  In some ways, the crime is almost incidental to the story, it is more about whether Tom could know that Jane might have problems with mental illness and violent tendencies.  Don’t worry, you are not put through a graphic scene of fear with the children.

1. Do you have a favorite author?

Books, movies, songs, I never really have ONE favorite, usually a lot that I like.  These questions will work best with one author, though, so if I have to choose one I’ll say John Steinbeck, as he has 2 books in my top 5 favorite list (”East of Eden” and Grapes of Wrath”).

2. Have you read everything he or she has written?

I haven’t.  I still haven’t even read “The Pearl” or “The Red Pony,” as well as many of his lesser-known works.

3. Did you LIKE everything?

You know, I really didn’t like “Of Mice and Men” and I wasn’t all that crazy about “Cannery Row,” although I think I probably need to give both of them another shot.  It has been about 10 years since I tried either one.

4. How about a least favorite author?

My least favorite author is anyone who acts like a jackass online.  Read point two of this post by author John Scalzi about the correct way for authors to behave online.  I love this guy.  I need to read more of his books (Zoe’s Tale was awesome) so I can add him to my ‘favorite authors’ list, he already writes one of my very favorite blogs.  He’s got good/hilarious posts on the same topic here and here as well.

5. An author you wanted to like, but didn’t?

I can’t think of one off the top of my head…

Here are some of the keywords, including the ones that made me go ‘huh???’, that brought people to my site last month:

when will twilight be reviewed? Twilight the book has been reviewed innumerable times, including here by me.

bebook review I’m sorry, but I have no idea what this means.  You want to be a book?  Hopefully someone can enlighten me about this one…

englend book Uh…you’ll have to be a bit more specific.  And also learn to spell.  You want a book about England?  You can see some of the books I have read that take place in England here, but England is sort of a broad topic, you may need to narrow it down to find something helpful.

twilight book overrated A lot of people sure think so!

best book review blogs And you came here!  I’m flattered.

martha carrier related to john adams Martha Carrier was one of the women executed for witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials and was the mother of the main character of The Heretic’s Daughter (in fact, she’s the heretic of the title).  I haven’t heard anything about her being related to John Adams, but that would certainly be interesting if she is.

“swiftly tilting planet” devourer Either this person was specifically looking for a review of “Swiftly Tilting Planet” from me (in which case they will be disappointed, I read it a very long time ago and have not reviewed it), or I’m not sure I want to know what the search was for.

“the boy in the striped pyjamas” book report May I just say, please do your own homework.  You’ll learn more that way.

8 facts about the scarlet pimpernel storyline Again, this is your homework, not mine.

a wrinkle in time diorama I’m getting a little sick of saying this…

amazon reading machine You are probably thinking of the Kindle.  I’m not quite sure how this search term got you here, but if you really want to buy a Kindle, here’s a link.

as parents we must ban lord of the flies As parents you are certainly welcome to decide whether or not your child should read Lord of the Flies, but I think that right stops at banning the book (or any other) for other people’s children.  If you simply want to know why Lord of the Flies has been banned in the past, see this post.

devour books banned blog Well, my blog is not banned, but I did a whole series on banned books during banned books week.

does google think i’m fat? I’m glad I’m not the only one who wonders this.

i am your savior america Riiiight

important scenes in dracula the book I am seriously amazed by the number of students who use the internet to fake their homework.  Hopefully they aren’t finding any answers here.

Well, this is the fewest books I have read in a month since I started blogging, I only read 8 books, down one even from last month, mostly due to the lingering effects of my reading funk earlier this month.  Even worse, I have only reviewed 5 of the 8 books I read!  However, I don’t feel TOO terrible about that, because all three of those books were read in this last week of November with Thanksgiving, family, and other considerations abounding.  I’m fairly proud of those 3 books, though, because they (hopefully) signal that the funk is COMPLETELY over and that I have even the faintest hope of hitting 150 books read this year (well, from March through December, as I didn’t count before I started blogging).

So here they are, book titles are linked to reviews:

General Fiction

• Somebody Else’s Daughter by Elizabeth Brundage
• Janeology by Karen Harrington
• The Memorist by M.J. Rose

Short Stories

• Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri Review pending, but I liked it even better than “Interpreter of Maladies”

Historical Fiction

• The King’s Daughter by Sandra Worth
• Crossed: A Tale of the Fourth Crusade by Nicole Galland
• Cassandra and Jane by Jill Pitkeathley
• The Heretic Queen by Michelle Moran Review pending, LOVED it!

Favorite Book of the Month

This is a little pathetic, since I haven’t actually reviewed “The Heretic Queen” yet, but I think it definitely beat out some tough competition (particularly “The King’s Daughter,” “Unaccustomed Earth,” and “Janeology”) for my favorite book of the month.
The story of Nefertari, niece of Queen Nefertiti and wife of King Ramesses II, is an absolutely fascinating one, which Moran tells beautifully.

Buy this book on Amazon.

Blog Widgets. Do you use them? Do you have them on your blog? Do you know what I’m talking about? A blog widget is that list of books “From my LibraryThing” and such, that you’ll sometimes see on someone’s sidebar. If you use it, do all of your books show up or do you have it set to only show certain books? Do you have a search widget, which would allow your blog readers to search your library? Have you ever made a photomosaic of your book covers? You can find widgets and photomosaic information on the “Tools” tab in LibraryThing.

I do have a widget, right over there in the sidebar.  As I am fairly lazy, it is simply of all of the books in my library.  I would really like to exclude the wishlist/mooched away books, but I haven’t bothered to actually do so yet, so no guarantees that I actually have posession of anything you see.  Perhaps someday we will get ‘collections’ and then I can just use my ‘in library’ collection in my widget.  A search widget would be interesting, but I’ve got enough junk in my sidebars as it is.

I haven’t downloaded any of the photomosaic tools (I should though, that would be fun), but I have used the ‘all covers’ page to create a pseudo-mosaic: the header on the first iteration of my blog.  Unfortunately with the theme I have now, I can’t change my header so I can’t use it anymore, which is a shame, because I really liked it.  Hmm, maybe I still have it in my media to share with you all:

I’m not really sure how it got shrunk down, but that’s okay.  If I want to put another one up I’ll do a new one that actually uses covers of books I have reviewed instead of books I read before I started the blog.

Are you a widget-y person?

Cassandra and Jane by Jill Pitkeathley

Jane Austen and her sister Cassandra were the only two daughters in their family and neither of them married, resulting in a life-long close relationship between the two.  “Cassandra and Jane” is told from Cassandra’s point of view, after Jane’s death as Cassandra is looking through the letters they exchanged and looking back over their lives together.

For someone who knew little to nothing about Jane Austen’s life, “Cassandra and Jane” was very informative.  It imbued me with a new-found desire to go and read the rest of Austen’s books (particularly since all I have read is “Pride and Prejudice”).  In this sense, it is fantastic for the casual Austen-devotee.  I think, however, it is something that would be more enjoyed by Austen fantatics.  As I was not already deeply invested in Jane, I did not enjoy the book as much as I might otherwise have.  I had more of an “oh, that’s interesting” attitude than a desire to delve deep into the lives of Jane and Cassandra.

If you are so-so about Jane Austen, I doubt you’ll enjoy this book.  If you enjoy her but are not a super-fan, you’ll enjoy the book, but you needn’t run out to read it.  However, if you adore Jane Austen, I think that you will definitely want to read this well-written account of what Cassandra and Jane’s relationship may have been like.

Pitkeathley obviously has done her homework and clearly has great fondness for Austen and her work.  Even if you yourself are not an Austen fan, “Cassandra and Jane” could make a lovely Christmas present for the Austen addict in your life.

Buy “Cassandra and Jane” on Amazon.