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.
Support DevourerofBooks
If you purchase books through any of my widgets, or choose to donate through PayPal, you will be putting a small amount towards hosting, giveaway and other site-related costs.
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.
Buy this book from: Powells.*
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound.* Amazon.*
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
Oh, my friends, I feel as if I’ve been away from you for so long! I’ve been partially, but not completely unplugged. I actually have talked to some of you on Twitter, have commented on some of your blogs, and have even posted some reviews here, and yet I still feel like I haven’t ‘talked’ to you for a long time.
I don’t have nearly as many pictures to share with you as I would like, I need to get the pictures that my mom and mother-in-law took, because I, sadly, hardly took any pictures at all. Daniel had a great Christmas, though he got a little worn out and overwhelmed by all the running around from place to place we were doing from the Wednesday before Christmas to the Sunday after. We’ve tried to keep this week quieter to get him back on track. Here are a few lower quality pictures of his holiday:
And yay, I surpassed my goal for 200 books in 2009, I actually read 214! So far I’ve read two FANTASTIC books in 2010:
My review of “The Dolphin People” will be up on Wednesday, I my review of “Alice I have Been” will likely be going up Wednesday the 13th.
And have you heard yet about the Classic Reads Book Club? The idea is that bloggers come together and read one classic per quarter. We’re starting with East of Eden, which is my favorite book of all time. Discussion of the first section, chapters 1-11, will begin on January 25th.
Sandy
Beth F
Kathy
Stephanie
S. Krishna
Grab your current read.
Recent Comments