The printed page

Mailbox Monday has a new home

2008-08-03T09:35:00.001-06:00

Mailbox Monday has moved to my new home over at Wordpress. Don't forget to update bookmarks and blog links.

Come on over and check it out,

Marcia

New web address for The Printed Page... I've moved to wordpress

2008-07-31T12:45:00.002-06:00

** my f2f book club group our information will migrate in '09. continue to use this site until then **

The Printed Page here are Blogger is relocating to wordpress. Please update your readers, blogrolls and links to reflect the change in site host.

Stop by and check out the new home of The Printed Page.

There are some features at wordpress that attracted me and I decided a change was needed even though I've spent hours updating this site. I'll think of this site as my 2nd home and if for some reason things don't work out at my new primary home I can always move back. At last these homes are recession proof. It's always nice to have someplace to come home to.

There will be no changes at Up For Grabs

Novel Action ... changing the way book lovers share books

2008-07-30T10:54:00.000-06:00

Literally I just came across this site and thought I'd post for all you booklovers who swap, mooch and trade to check out.

Novel Action

The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music by Steve Lopez

2008-07-29T00:21:00.003-06:00

The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music
Steve Lopez
Putnam Adult, 2008
288 pages

From Amazon: Starred Review. Scurrying back to his office one day, Lopez, a columnist for the L.A. Times, is stopped short by the ethereal strains of a violin. Searching for the sound, he spots a homeless man coaxing those beautiful sounds from a battered two-string violin. When the man finishes, Lopez compliments him briefly and rushes off to write about his newfound subject, Nathaniel Ayers, the homeless violinist. Over the next few days, Lopez discovers that Nathaniel was once a promising classical bass student at Juilliard, but that various pressures—including being one of a few African-American students and mounting schizophrenia—caused him to drop out. Enlisting the help of doctors, mental health professionals and professional musicians, Lopez attempts to help Nathaniel move off Skid Row, regain his dignity, develop his musical talent and free himself of the demons induced by the schizophrenia (at one point, Lopez arranges to have Ayers take cello lessons with a cellist from the L.A. Symphony). Throughout, Lopez endures disappointments and setbacks with Nathaniel's case, questions his own motives for helping his friend and acknowledges that Nathaniel has taught him about courage and humanity. With self-effacing humor, fast-paced yet elegant prose and unsparing honesty, Lopez tells an inspiring story of heartbreak and hope.

*****

This is one book that I couldn't wait to get posted to my blog. It touched me on so many levels and in so many ways. I won't even attempt to put into words how I feel about this book because honestly I don't have the skills to get my thoughts and feelings across like I'd like to. It made me laugh, cry, believe, have faith and hope. It made me look at myself and those around me. It's one of those stories that I want to shout from the rooftops about. Talk about to everyone I come in contact with. I'm not a wordsmith like Mr. Lopez. I don't have the god-given musical ability of Mr. Ayers. But I do have my blog and I simply want to share it. It's a rare gem in a crowded field. Please read it, share it and pay it forward in any way that you feel is fitting.

Book Giveaway...Before I Wake: A Novel by Robert J. Wiersema

2008-07-29T00:17:00.000-06:00

New book giveaway at Up For Grabs. Check here for details

Before I Wake: A Novel by Robert J. Wiersema

From Amazon: In this impressive debut, Wiersema crafts an intelligent, contemplative supernatural thriller replete with well-rounded characters, artless dialogue and a plot that, while imbued with the unexplained, develops organically, revealing its secrets at just the right pace. In the novel's opening pages, three-year-old Sherry Barrett, an only child, is rendered comatose in a hit and run accident. What follows could have been a typical thriller full of cartoonish villains and escalating peril; it also could have been a treacly fairy tale about God's miraculous healing power. Happily, Wiersema steers clear of these well-traveled roads and, by way of multiple first-person narratives, tells an engrossing story of flawed but genuinely good people who must bear up under the stress of loss, betrayal, unwarranted miracles and unconventional spiritual warfare. Particularly well-imagined is the purgatory of sorts that Henry, the truck driver, must endure after he fails to come forward after the accident. Reminiscent of Wim Wenders's film Wings of Desire, Henry's nature, longings and environs paint a poignant picture of souls in need of redemption. While some readers may find one of the novel's final revelations less original than the rest of the story, Wiersema gets nearly everything else right, and the result is an engaging, emotionally resonant read.

Mailbox Monday

2008-07-28T00:10:00.001-06:00

So did you mooch a book this week? Maybe you swapped one or two? The ARCs caused a flood in your mailbox and the mail carrier cruses your name! If so let us know what books you got last week.

My mailbox last week gave me Swimming With Strangers by Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum. It's a collection of short stories. I'm not really a short story kind of reader but I'll give this one a fair shake.

Reading Journal ... the latest from the library

2008-07-26T17:59:00.007-06:00

The First Patient
Michael Palmer
St. Martin's Press, 2008
384 pages
Mystery, thriller
My impression: This is the first book by Mr. Palmer that I've read in years. After enjoying this one so much I'm wondering why I haven't kept up with his work. I definitely will read more of his back list. There was more than enough medical mystery, emerging technology and thriller to keep me turning the pages long after I should have been asleep. The sign of a good book for me is the length of time it takes me to read it ~ 2 days with limited reading time. Must have been a page turner.

The Map Thief
Heather Terrell
Ballantine Books, 2008
272 pages
Mystery, historical fiction
Book provided by Authors on the Web
My impression: This is a mystery within a mystery built around astonishing historical detail. Mystery one is the theft of the map itself and returning it to it's rightful owner. The second mystery revolves around which country lays claim to having completed the first world map ~ China or Portugal. This book is rich in historical detail and interesting facts woven around a real life mystery. I found the story of Zhi and his life fascinating and the most intriguing. The Portugal story line was less developed but played an integral part in history. The mystery of finding and returning the map didn't keep me on the edge of my seat as I felt it was pretty low key and didn't carry any real suspense. This is Ms. Terrell's 2nd book staring Mara Coyne. I intend to go back and read The Chrysalis as I did enjoy this one and would like to know more about the lead character's background. This was another one that only took me 2 days to get through with limited reading time

Friday Finds! ... 7/25/08

2008-07-25T11:43:00.001-06:00

Friday Finds! is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading

I actually came across two of my Friday Finds! this very morning at 5 Minutes for Books

Winter Haven by Atol Dickson

My Heart Remembers by Kim Vogel Sawyer

The Wishing Year: A House, a Man, My Soul A Memoir of Fulfilled Desire by Noelle Oxenhandler

Tuesday Thingers ... Recommendations

2008-07-21T23:40:00.000-06:00

It's Tuesday which means Tuesday Thingers hosted by The Boston Bibliophile. Today's topic: Recommendations. Do you use LT's recommendations feature? Have you found any good books by using it? Do you use the anti-recommendations, or the "special sauce" recommendations? How do you find out about books you want to read?

When I first signed up at Librarything I looked at the recommendations but didn't really find anything useful as it was mostly books I'd already read or had in a TBR pile. I was more curious than anything else. I also spent a lot of time on the Connections page looking at the books others were entering into their libraries to see if anything caught my interest. I've found that I don't use LT for recommendations. I find books that interest me through the blogs of fellow book bloggers, dedicated book websites, newsletters, magazines, newspapers, and my local library.

** I'm using new "Blogger in Draft" features so things go a bit haywire I apologize.

Reading Journal ... the latest from the library

2008-07-21T10:16:00.006-06:00

What Angels Fear: A Sebastian St. Cyr Mystery
C.S Harris
Signet, 2006
432 pages
Historical fiction, mystery
1st in a series
My impression: A solid historical murder mystery set in England in early 1800s. Not a cozy by any means ~ there are vicious murders and rape. I enjoyed this book start to finish and plan to read the others in this series.

Tribute
Nora Roberts
Putnam Adult, 2008
Womens fiction
464 pages
My impression: First of all I'm a big Nora Roberts fan ~ her mainstream fiction and the "In Death" series written as J.D. Robb. That said this one didn't grab me like most of her others have. Her writing style from the "In Death" series is starting to bleed over into her womens fiction work and I'm not sure that it suits these type of story lines. I'm glad I read it but I'm not raving about it. I'm also wondering if she's starting to write too much in a year and writing to meet deadlines.

Mailbox Monday

2008-07-21T00:10:00.000-06:00

Once again Monday is upon us and it's time to check those mailboxes. What did the mail carrier bring you last week? Maybe an ARC you forgot you requested? That giveaway book you won a month or so ago? Something you've been craving from Amazon?

My Mailbox Monday brought me two books this week.

1 ~ The Map Thief by Heather Terrell
2 ~ Soul by Tobsha Learner

Sorry I can't include book covers and links but Amazon is refusing to cooperate.

Reading Journal ... catching my breath ... July Blowout Challenge update #7

2008-07-19T13:18:00.012-06:00

It's been rather busy here between The Printed Page and Up For Grabs. A good kind of busy but busy so I thought I'd take this time to catch up and see how much I've accomplished over the last 6 weeks or so.

1 ~ Up For Grabs (UFG) is starting to take off. A small, loyal following of supporters are helping to spread to word and I truly appreciate them. UFG is holding it's first book giveaway in some shameless site promotion. The book is The Heretic's Daughter. There's also a bonus of an Amazon gift card if you enter, win and blog about either the book giveaway or UFG itself.

2 ~ I also started a new book event called Mailbox Monday (this link takes you to post from Monday 7/14). I know there are plenty of book events we participate in throughout the week but Monday was looking lonely and because Mondays seem to be the most dreaded day of the week I wanted to bring some fun to the start of our week.

There's nothing better than venturing out to your mailbox and finding books! We all love books especially those we've won through a giveaway or requested as an ARC. I won't have books to list every Monday but that doesn't mean that one of you hasn't gotten some little gem in the last week.

So if you've gotten some book love from the postal service, UPS, Fed Ex, Amazon or wherever in the last week let everyone know. You can post a comment with either a link to your blog and just leave the book titles.

Just today, Saturday, I got some book love in the mail but you won't find out what it is unless you check Mailbox Monday next week.

3 ~ July Book Blowout Challenge status. First off it's hosted by Mrs S over at Blue Archipelago. My personal goal was to read 13 books for the month of July. We're halfway through the month and I've read 8-1/2 books for a total of 2,861 pages and I'll be starting book #9 tonight. I'm doing much better than I anticipated given everything I have going on.

4 ~ I just realized I never posted June's stats after looking at my July update. For the month of June I read 10 books, no DNFs and 4,387 pages. See why I had to challenge myself to 13 books for July. My average is 10-12 a month so I had to set July's goal high.

I don't think there's much else books going on in my world so I'll sign off for today get back to reading.

Take care,
Marcia

We have a winner for Apples & Oranges by Marie Brenner

2008-07-18T11:45:00.005-06:00

And the winner is... Debbie!

To claim your book please contact me using the email contact on the right sidebar of my blog.

Thank you to everyone who entered. I will be hosting another giveaway over at Up For Grabs. The book is The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent. Details can be found here

Random Sequence Generator
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Timestamp: 2008-07-18 17:44:47 UTC

Friday Finds! ... 7/18/08

2008-07-18T11:01:00.005-06:00

Friday Finds! is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. It's a place to list all the great books new to you you've come across during the last week.

My Friday Finds! this week:

The Sweetgum Knit Lit Society by Beth Pattillo

Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell

Soul by Tobsha Learner. This is actually downloaded on my Kindle waiting to be read.

The Street of a Thousand Blossoms by Gail Tsukiyama

Books 1 & 2 I found through Mailbox Monday. The Sweetgum Knit Lit Society is courtesy of Alessandra and Beat the Reaper is courtesy of Kathleen.

Reading Journal ... the latest from the library

2008-07-17T14:28:00.008-06:00

The Innocent
Posie Graeme-Evans
Atria
432 pages
Historical fiction
1st in a trilogy
My impression: started slowly almost to the point of boring but picked up speed towards the end. I'll most likely read the second book.

The Warriors, Book 1: Into The Wild
Erin Hunter
HarperTrophy
288 pages
Young adult, fantasy
1st in The Warriors series
My impression: I don't read much, if any, young adult or fantasy outside of Harry Potter. I've wanted to read this series for a while now as my manor has 7 kittypets and 1 clan member. Loved it and plan to read everything in all three Warrior series, four if you include the Manga books.

Reading Journal ... blogging and books

2008-07-17T13:05:00.010-06:00

Over the past several months something had been bothering me regarding my reading and I wasn't sure exactly what it might. Just a niggling feeling that something was off. Maybe it was my reading selections ~ were they all running along the same genre, was there not enough variety? Maybe it was the pressure to read X number of books in a year ~ I had signed up for a lot of challenges and book-a-week group and this from a person who is not a goalsetter. I never have been nor do I ever intend to be one. Maybe it was feeling like just more thing I have to do along with everything else in my life. The top 3 biggies, of course, being working, eating, sleeping but in addition there are chores, blogging, getting the shows cleared off the DRV and this daily thing called living. Now was I going to let reading become just another thing on my mental to do list? Then it came to me ~ after reading all these wonderful book blogs from very talented people I was feeling pressure, self-imposed, I can assure you that I needed to come up with something insightful to post on my blog about all these books I was devouring. I mean why else blog, especially if it's out there for public consumption, unless you have something to say, really say?

I realized I was letting my blog get the upper hand. Letting my posts interfere with my reading pleasure. This blog started out as one thing and morphed into something else, taking on a life of it's own. Now I'm not a writer, that's my big brother's job and his blog is a sad thing to behold, (forgive your little sister please! I'll offer bribes next time I come visit) and I'm pretty certain that if an English teacher or two got a hold of my blog posts that they'd grammatical shred them. They'd also break down my thoughts and impressions about the books I read just to make sure I'd covered all the relevant points so that my readers could make informed decisions. I never set out the write book reviews. There are plenty of bloggers who do an outstanding job of it already. This was just a place I would use a reading journal to give my brain a little tap and remind myself what a book I'd read was about. Maybe it's just a matter of the semantics, or is that syntax, that I use for labeling some of my blog posts (book reviews). So for now I'm changing how I post to suit where I am in this blogging world. I'm also finding that I don't always have something to say about every book I read. Just maybe I want my reading to be for reading's sake and not because there's an underlying motive.

Yes, it's still a book blog ~ my book blog. It won't be going under drastic changes, no major overhaul. Just minor adjustments, baby steps. I'm giving myself permission to change course and see where the path takes me. The only thing I hoping to accomplish is getting back to reading purely for pleasure.

That's it for the pity partying this week. Two pity party posts are quite enough. I don't usually hold pity parties but I just needed to get a couple of things cleared out my brain so I could move past 'em. Done!

Marcia

A very big apology to readers of The Printed Page

2008-07-14T21:00:00.000-06:00

To those of you who have stopped by and left a comment here at The Printed Page over the last few months my humblest apologies are being offered here to you. I've broken a major rule of blogging and I think I've always known that. I just didn't know what the proper etiquette was, and, still, most often, is. Except for one person in my immediate world who blogs very little I have no one around who blogs nor reads blogs so I've been stumbling blindly trying to figure out the many pieces of this pie that make up blogging and blogging etiquette.

I truly haven't meant to ignore your comments nor offend you. I didn't understand the proper form of response and had no one close to ask for help. I've tried tracking down email addresses and responding that way. I've gone to blogs to look for appropriate posts to respond on and feel uncomfortable responding on just any post. I didn't realize it was proper to respond by leaving a reply to your comment on my post. I'm mending my ways and ask, in advance, forgiveness if I step on toes somewhere in my blogging journeys.

Tuesday Thingers ... Book-swapping: Do I or Don't I?

2008-07-14T20:44:00.001-06:00

I'm actually going to play early this week. It's 15 minutes before midnight so it's still technically Monday night. Usually I don't get my post written until very late on Tuesday nights. The details are this: Marie at The Boston Bibliophile hosts Tuesdays Thingers. This week's topic: Book-swapping. Do you do it? What site(s) do you use? How did you find out about them? What do you think of them? Do you use LT's book-swapping column feature for information on what to swap? Do you participate in any of the LT communities that discuss bookswapping, like the Bookmooch group for example?

The answer: Once upon a time I swapped. Now that I read exclusively on my Amazon Kindle I don't have books to swap anymore unless I receive one from a publisher or book rep and those I tend to giveaway. I have contest going right, until the 17th, see left sidebar. Sorry I digress, a bit of shameless site promotion there. When I was swapping I used Bookins. I'm sure I came across the site while surfing the net a little over a year ago. I signed on with them because they made everything so easy. Post the books you have for trade, wait for notification that someone wants your book, print postage & package book, drop in any mailbox. I'm all about easy and no hassle. Bookins fit the bill for me for when I was swapping.

BTW ~ If someone out there is a Bookins user I have 266 points just sitting there. If you'd like them let me know. If I get more than one response to the offer I will split them up as equally as I can among those who respond. Please comment by Saturday the 19th at 11am MST. I'll figure out the details and post an update.

I don't use LT's book-swapping column nor do I participate in any book-swapping community discussions.

Mailbox Monday

2008-07-14T10:58:00.007-06:00

There's nothing better than venturing out to your mailbox and finding books! We all love books especially those we've won through a giveaway or requested as an ARC. I won't have books to list every Monday but that doesn't mean that one of you hasn't gotten some little gem in the last week.

I know there are plenty of book events we participate in throughout the week but Monday was looking lonely and because Mondays seem to be the most dreaded day of the week I wanted to bring some fun to the start of our week.

So if you've gotten some book love from the postal service, UPS, Fed Ex, Amazon or wherever in the last week let everyone know. For right now you can post a comment with either a link to your blog and just leave the book titles. I'll be investigating Mr. Linky for upcoming posts.

Take care,
Marcia

P.S. feel free to use/copy/link the mailbox picture

July Book Blowout Reading Challenge ... update #6 ... includes The Where's Your Book Set meme answers

2008-07-14T10:30:00.002-06:00

First an update on my challenge status and then on to the meme answers (6-1/2 books read).

book #6
The Innocent
Finished - not raving about it

book #7
The Warriors, Book 1: Into The Wild
Started it last night. I've been wanting to read this series for a while now and decided to take a break from my steady diet of historical and popular adult fiction. As I'm a humble servant to 8 lords and ladies of the Larsen manor I thought this would be an appropriate choice.

The Where’s your book set? meme

1. Title and author of the book: The Warriors, Book 1: Into The Wild by Erin Hunter

2. What year is the book set in? Could be current day as there isn't a year specified

3. What happened on this day in that year? Go to google and type in the date ie 13 July 1952 and see if you can find a news item for that day: N/A

4. Where is your book set? The wilds beyond the twoleg houses.

5. Have you visited that place before? If yes tell us something about your trip. If no, look the location up on google and tell us an interesting fact about the city/country. N/A

Friday Finds! ... 7/11/08

2008-07-11T10:27:00.007-06:00

Once again Friday has rolled around and it's time for those gems I've come across this week to make themselves known to others.

The Accidental Santera
Irete Lazo

Bitter Sweets
Roopa Farooki

Sarah's Key
Tatiana de Rosnay

Book Giveaway...Free ARCs...Read It Forward...Random House

2008-07-10T15:18:00.008-06:00

The Printed Page has moved to Wordpress. The new blog address is: The Printed Page

Now that probably caught your attention. I know just the scent of free books makes me light headed and I have to head directly for the laptop and say "yes please, sign me up!" My email this morning held a pleasant surprise ~ a newsletter for the Read It Forward program from Crown Publishing via Random House. Well you don't have ask me twice if I'd like free books. I mean did Hell freeze over last night?

This month's books are:
Murder at the Bad Girl's Bar and Grill by N. M. Kelby

The Tenth Gift by Jane Johnson

The Spiritualist by Megan Chance

Plane Insanity: A Flight Attendant's Tales of Sex, Rage, and Queasiness at 30,000 Feet by Elliott Hester

2008-07-09T10:58:00.005-06:00

Plane Insanity: A Flight Attendant's Tales of Sex, Rage, and Queasiness at 30,000 Feet
Elliott Hester
St. Martin's Griffin
256 pages

Speed and altitude notwithstanding, flying in a commercial jet is not much different than riding in a Greyhound bus.
~ Something Smelly in the Air, Chapter 1, and so begins Plane Insanity ~

It's hard to believe that the stories in Plane Insanity, the hilarious book by Elliott Hester, are true. But they are. Before you read even a single page, you know you're in for a wild ride just from the subtitle: A Flight Attendant's Tales of Sex, Rage, and Queasiness at 30,000 Feet. Hester has encountered just about everything in his 15 years of flying the skies or "riding tin," and he recounts these laugh-out-loud encounters with plenty of attitude and self-deprecating humor. Not to spoil the fun, but a few juicy tidbits include Hester as the hapless victim of a child's projectile vomit, chasing a sparrow around the cabin, mistakenly putting a woman on the wrong flight, and recalling the unfathomable account of an inebriated man defecating atop a liquor cart, to the horror of passengers and crew. Just when you think the stories can't get anymore outlandish he outdoes himself with the titillating antics of amorous couples who vie for membership in the infamous Mile High Club.

I love travelogues. What better way to see the world when vacation is a distant blur on the horizon. There are some truly humorous stories in this book. What an insightful look at human behavior, especially when we aren't always at our best and having a beautiful, shining moment. It's the bad antics and boorish behavior that make this such a fun book to read. I might have taken this book in smaller doses instead of reading it straight through. It isn't a single story that flows from one chapter to another. It is a book filled with short snippets of outlandish human deportment. If you want to know just how the seemingly quiet person in the seat next you might behave when they've had one too many or their luggage doesn't fit in the overhead bin read this book.

** If you've read the book and posted a review on your blog feel free to leave the link in a comment on this post for others to check out **

July Book Blowout Reading Challenge ... update #5

2008-07-09T10:39:00.007-06:00

Through 5-1/2 books. I DNF'd a book. Usually I give a book 50+ pages before I do that but I just knew it wasn't going to get any better so I ditched it after the first chapter. Here's where I'm at since the last update.

Narrow Dog to Carcassonne (Kindle edition)
DNF'd it

Plane Insanity: A Flight Attendant's Tales of Sex, Rage, and Queasiness at 30,000 Feet (Kindle edition)
Finished

The Innocent (Kindle edition)
Just starting

Tuesday Thingers ... Summer plans?!

2008-07-08T23:58:00.005-06:00

Tuesday has rolled around again which means it must be time for Tuesday Thingers hosted by Marie at The Boston Bibliophile. This week is all about summer plans, specifically: Vacations, trips? Trips that involve reading? Reading plans? If you're going somewhere, do you do any reading to prepare? Do you read local literature as part of your trip? Have you thought about using the LT Local feature to help plan your book-buying?

Summer in our household is spent just like fall and spring ~ eating, sleeping and working. The only difference being my husband starts planning our annual winter vacation which for the past several years has been spent on the Mexican Rivera lazing around the pool, enjoying white sand beaches and snorkeling in beautiful crystal clear, blue water. Actually I let him do the all the reading and research about where we're headed and what we'll being doing once we get there. He actually enjoys it while I dream about parking myself in a lounge chair, pulling out the MP3 player, striking up the classical music, sticking my nose in a book while occasionally dragging myself into a handy pool or for a dunk in the ocean.

This year the only difference will be that I can pack as many books as I'd like and they'll only weigh 10.3 ounces ~ absolutely have to love that. See I bought myself an Amazon Kindle a couple of months ago with this in mind. No more heavy luggage and deciding what I have to leave behind because of those oh so many precious paperbacks snuggled at the bottom of my suitcase and stashed in my carry on. I'm sure he always wondered when the airline personnel were going to catch on and start charging me heavy baggage fees. I've managed to escape without paying over the years but not by much. Another key selling point for the hubby ~ I can download his travel books to Kindle and he'll have everything he needs right at his fingertips, bookmarked pages and all. Smart thinking on the wife's part.

Scene of the Grime by Suzanne Price

2008-07-07T12:11:00.005-06:00

Scene of the Grime (A Grime Solvers Mystery)
Suzanne Price
Signet
256 pages

I was crouched on an expensive Oriental rug under an antique walnut table outside Mr. Monahan's room, thinking.
~ First sentence, Chapter 1, and so begins Scene of the Grime ~

In her mid-30s and recently widowed, Sky Taylor left the big city for Pigeon Cove, a hamlet off the Massachusetts coast. Sky is re-adapting to single life-with a newspaper column and her knack for creative cleaning increasingly in demand. Then she discovers a patron of the Millwood Inn permanently checked-out.

Now Sky's juggling the police chief's questions with advances from the newest-and handsomest-crime reporter in town. But if she wants to clear her name, she has some scouring to do.

This was just an OK cozy mystery for me. Nothing special to write home about. My favorite character was Skiball the cat and he didn't play a very big part. None of the characters really jumped out and grabbed me. They didn't entice me to come back and visit again. I didn't think that the "character" of the murder victim was in keeping with the story. Also, too bad the murder wasn't related to his book collecting as much as it was related to his previous line of work. If the second in the series ever comes out in Kindle format I might wander over but not any time soon. Only makes the so-so section of my reading list for this year.

** If you've read the book and posted a review on your blog feel free to leave the link in a comment on this post for others to check out **

Before I Wake: A Novel by Robert J. Wiersema

2008-07-07T12:06:00.007-06:00

Before I Wake: A Novel
Robert J. Wiersema
St. Martin's Griffin
336 pages
Book provided by St Martin's Reading Group Gold

How do you hold a moment, knowing that it is the last? How do you take in enough to last you through a lifetime of absence? How do you remember enough to see you through?
~ Karen, Before I Wake, page 44 ~
(having lost my father 11 years ago these 3 simple sentences touched me)

After an unthinkable tragedy happens, an unbelievable miracle begins. . . Three-year-old Sherry is the adored only child of Simon and Karen Barrett. But when Sherry is critically injured in a hit-and-run accident, the fault lines in the Barretts' marriage begin to show. As her parents' marriage falls apart, it is discovered that Sherry has miraculous healing powers. As word of Sherry’s powers spread, her parents must decide how best to shelter their daughter and help the many sick and dying who are drawn to her side. At the same time, a larger battle is brewing-- one that has been raging for two thousand years, and one that might yet claim the lives of Sherry and her family.

Even after having finished this book several days ago I'm still having trouble deciding what to write. For the most part I enjoyed this book. The story lines dealing the Sherry, her accident and subsequent healing powers and the battle between good and evil were probably the most interesting. While I won't debate religion with others I am interested in their take on it. I felt the author handled the subject without shoving it down the reader's throat. I could have done without the marriage angst between the Barretts. In fact I felt that took away from the story.

It's light, fast-paced read and deserves to at least make it into your beach bag.

** If you've read the book and posted a review on your blog feel free to leave the link in a comment on this post for others to check out **

The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent

2008-07-07T12:01:00.015-06:00

The Printed Page has relocated to here. Please stop by and visit.

The Heretic's Daughter
Kathleen Kent
Little, Brown and Company
352 pages
Book provided by the Hachette Book Group USA through Shelf Awareness

The distance by wagon from Billerica to neighboring Andover is but nine miles.
~ Chapter One, Massachusetts, December 1690, and so begins The Heretic's Daughter ~ (ARC, uncorrected proof)

Martha Carrier was one of the first women to be accused, tried and hanged as a witch in Salem, Massachusetts. Like her mother, young Sarah Carrier is bright and willful, openly challenging the small, brutal world in which they live. Often at odds with one another, mother and daughter are forced to stand together against the escalating hysteria of the trials and the superstitious tyranny that led to the torture and imprisonment of more than 200 people accused of witchcraft. This is the story of Martha's courageous defiance and ultimate death, as told by the daughter who survived.

Kathleen Kent is a tenth generation descendant of Martha Carrier. She paints a haunting portrait, not just of Puritan New England, but also of one family's deep and abiding love in the face of fear and persecution.

I've often wanted to read about the Salem witch trials but could not ever find a book that fit what I was looking for. This one fits the bill perfectly. It's an engrossing read that follows the Carrier family over a 2 year period. The author starts the story showing us family life in Massachusetts in 1690 and then begins building, by speech and actions, those traits that led to the accusations of witch craft against this family and others throughout communities in the area. She does a wonderful job of taking family history and weaving a subtle, sinister tale. The descriptions of the trials and subsequent prison life are chilling. She shows how easily influenced, and influential, a group of young girls could be.

This debut book is a fine start to a writing career. I would definitely read more from this author. I recommend it for lovers of historical fiction.

** If you've read the book and posted a review on your blog feel free to leave the link in a comment on this post for others to check out **

The Aviary Gate by Katie Hickman

2008-07-07T11:57:00.008-06:00

The Aviary Gate
Katie Hickman
Bloomsbury USA
352 pages
Book provided by Bloomsbury USA through Shelf Awareness

The parchment, when Elizabeth found it, was the amber colour of old tea, frail as leaf mould.
~ Prologue, Oxford: the present day, and so begins The Aviary Gate ~

The story follows Oxford researcher Elizabeth Staveley as she uncovers the 400-year-old story of Celia Lamprey, a sea captain's daughter engaged to merchant-turned-diplomat Paul Pindar when she's lost in a shipwreck. Celia doesn't drown, of course. She becomes a concubine-in-training in Constantinople, where Paul serves as secretary to the British Embassy. When the embassy sends a gift to the sultan (a ship made of spun sugar), Paul finds out that Celia is alive and well. Meanwhile, the sultan's chief black eunuch has been poisoned and as his favorite concubine battles for supremacy with his mother, both women draw Celia into their intrigues.

As I've come to love reading historical fiction I was expecting good things from this book just by looking at the cover art work which is beautiful. Yes I'm guilty of attempting to judge a book by it's cover. Alas, it started a bit slowly while the author lays the groundwork for the various story lines. I did find it all a bit confusing until about 1/2 way through and almost put it down a couple of times. Once the author starts tying the story lines together it then picks up speed and becomes a rather enjoyable read. I always find the courtesan and harem lifestyles fascinating and no less so in this book. There is such an aura and sense of the secretive surrounding this way of life especially for the females.

While reading the book I kept feeling it was set in the 1800s instead of the very late 1500s and had to keep reminding myself of the time frame. I suppose this was due to the vocabulary and speech patterns of the main characters. In addition usually clothing and place descriptions are a good indicator of time frame and these didn't really set it for me either.

I did immensely enjoy moving between modern day Oxford and ancient Constantinople. I always love moving through history current and past and tying two story lines together. While it doesn't make my top reading recommendations of this year you should give it a try if you like historical fiction.

** If you've read the book and posted a review on your blog feel free to leave the link in a comment on this post for others to check out **

July Book Blowout Reading Challenge ... update #4

2008-07-07T10:59:00.007-06:00

Well here we are 7 days into July and I'm through 4 books (possibly 4-1/2) and counting. I'm waiting to see if today's mail brings another ARC or two before deciding what to read next.

Here are the last two books I've finished.

book #3 is:
Before I Wake: A Novel by Robert J. Wiersema

book #4 is:
Scene of the Grime (A Grime Solvers Mystery) by Susanne Price

Friday Finds! ... 7/4/08

2008-07-04T10:45:00.007-06:00

Friday Finds! is hosted by Miz B at The Book Zone

My Friday Finds! for this 4th of July holiday are:

Back Bay by William Martin

It Happened One Knife by Jeffery Cohen

Mistress of the Vatican: The True Story of Olimpia Maidalchini: The Secret Female Pope by Eleanor Herman

July Book Blowout Reading Challenge ... update #3

2008-07-03T16:18:00.006-06:00

Well I just finished my first book for the July Blowout reading challenge. While it isn't one of my top picks for this year it was a decent read. Slow starting out but picks up speed a little under 1/2 way through.

book #1 is:
The Aviary Gate by Katie Hickman.

I'll be starting my second book here shortly though I'll be taking time out to have dinner with friends and watch a movie.

book #2 is:
The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent.

Upcoming Book Giveaways...

2008-07-03T10:34:00.006-06:00

As I host Up For Grabs and post all these wonderful book giveaways and contests I've decided I should host my own giveaway ~ my very 1st at that.

The book is Apples and Oranges, My Brother and Me, Lost and Found by Marie Brenner. This is not an ARC, it is a hardcover that I received from Authors On The Web.

There is only one guideline: Once you finish reading the book I ask that you be willing to "pay it forward", host a giveaway for this book and let me post it at Up For Grabs. All you need to do to enter is comment to this post. Closing date is July 17th. The winner's name will be posted on July 18th. ** Minor details: please US and Canadian entries only **

Little blue boxes ... have you noticed them?

2008-07-01T15:55:00.004-06:00

So if you wandered around here at The Printed Page or over at Up For Grabs in the last week or two you probably noticed little blue boxes appearing next to the books that I've mentioned in both blogs. I think they're pretty cool and add a little somethin' for my visitors. I found book widgets while reading at Traci's Book Bag. She actually has the NY Times Bestseller List on her blog. I explored a bit more and across not only book widgets but smart links.

The little blue boxes, known as Smart Links, are better than "blue light" specials at that big chain retailer and are provided courtesy of AdaptiveBlue. AdaptiveBlue is a small, fast-growing company that allows bloggers to browse smarter. Most likely you're going to want more than just my thoughts or impressions of a book I've read or maybe you're so impressed by what I've written that you want to buy the book right now. Smart Links allow you to get all the little details just by clicking on the little blue box. Details such as purchasing this particular book at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Borders. Maybe you'd like to Goggle the book. Find links related to the book itself or the author. Lots of goodies are available through a smart link. Click on one or two and check 'em out.

I also have installed on The Printed Page's right-hand sidebar Amazon's current bestsellers with AdaptiveBlue's book widgets. As my blogs are book oriented I've only installed book related book widgets but AdaptiveBlue also has widgets for music lovers, movie watchers and wine aficionados to name just a few.

Tuesday Thingers ... Popularity of Books on LT, Part Three

2008-07-01T15:13:00.006-06:00

Hey it's Tuesday and I'm actually playing on the right day! Thanks go to Marie at The Boston Bibliophile for hosting Tuesday Thingers. This week's Tuesday Thingsers subject: Here is the Top 100 Most Popular Books on LibraryThing. Bold what you own, italicize what you've read. Star what you liked. Star multiple times what you loved!

So I knew by reading this list when I was cleaning it up to post here that anything the remotely looks, smells or tastes like a classic modern or otherwise wasn't going to be anything I've come within a 100 feet of. That most likely labels me a sheep or lemming as I'm appearing to follow the crowd but so be it.

1. Harry Potter and the sorcerer's stone by J.K. Rowling (32,484) ***
2. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6) by J.K. Rowling (29,939) ***
3. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Book 5) by J.K. Rowling (28,728) ***
4. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Book 2) by J.K. Rowling (27,926) ***
5. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3) by J.K. Rowling (27,643) ***
6. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Book 4) by J.K. Rowling (27,641) ***
7. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (23,266) *
8. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (21,325)
9. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7) by J.K. Rowling (20,485) ***
10. 1984 by George Orwell (19,735)
11. Pride and Prejudice (Bantam Classics) by Jane Austen (19,583)
12. The catcher in the rye by J.D. Salinger (19,082) ~ required school reading
13. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (17,586) ***
14. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (16,210) ~ required school reading
15. The lord of the rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (15,483)
16. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (14,566)
17. Jane Eyre (Penguin Classics) by Charlotte Bronte (14,449)
18. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (13,946)
19. Life of Pi by Yann Martel (13,272)
20. Animal Farm by George Orwell (13,091)
21. Angels & demons by Dan Brown (13,089) *
22. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (13,005)
23. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (12,777)
24. One Hundred Years of Solitude (Oprah's Book Club) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (12,634)
25. The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, Part 1) by J.R.R. Tolkien (12,276)
26. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (12,147)
27. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (11,976) *
28. The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings, Part 2) by J.R.R. Tolkien (11,512)
29. The Odyssey by Homer (11,483)
30. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (11,392)
31. Slaughterhouse-five by Kurt Vonnegut (11,360)
32. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (11,257)
33. The return of the king : being the third part of The lord of the rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (11,082)
34. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (10,979)
35. American Gods: A Novel by Neil Gaiman (10,823)
36. The chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis (10,603)
37. The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy by Douglas Adams (10,537)
38. Lord of the Flies by William Golding (10,435)
39. The lovely bones : a novel by Alice Sebold (10,125)
40. Ender's Game (Ender, Book 1) by Orson Scott Card (10,092)
41. The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, Book 1) by Philip Pullman (9,827)
42. Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman (9,745)
43. Dune by Frank Herbert (9,671)
44. Emma by Jane Austen (9,610)
45. Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (9,598)
46. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Bantam Classics) by Mark Twain (9,593)
47. Anna Karenina (Oprah's Book Club) by Leo Tolstoy (9,433)
48. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (9,413)
49. Middlesex: A Novel by Jeffrey Eugenides (9,343)
50. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire (9,336)
51. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (9,274)
52. The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien (9,246)
53. The Iliad by Homer (9,153)
54. The Stranger by Albert Camus (9,084)
55. Sense and Sensibility (Penguin Classics) by Jane Austen (9,080)
56. Great Expectations (Penguin Classics) by Charles Dickens (9,027)
57. The Handmaid's Tale: A Novel by Margaret Atwood (8,960)
58. On the Road by Jack Kerouac (8,904)
59. Freakonomics [Revised and Expanded]: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt (8,813)
60. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery - (8,764)
61. The lion, the witch and the wardrobe by C. S. Lewis (8,421) ~ too long ago/childhood
62. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (8,417)
63. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (8,368)
64. The Grapes of Wrath (Centennial Edition) by John Steinbeck (8,255)
65. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (8,214)
66. The Name of the Rose: including Postscript to the Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (8,191) 67. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (8,169)
68. Moby Dick by Herman Melville (8,129)
69. The complete works by William Shakespeare (8,096)
70. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond (7,843)
71. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris (7,834)
72. The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel (Perennial Classics) by Barbara Kingsolver (7,829)
73. Hamlet (Folger Shakespeare Library) by William Shakespeare (7,808)
74. Of Mice and Men (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century) by John Steinbeck (7,807)
75. A Tale of Two Cities (Penguin Classics) by Charles Dickens (7,793)
76. The Alchemist (Plus) by Paulo Coelho (7,710)
77. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (7,648)
78. The Picture of Dorian Gray (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (Barnes & Noble Classics) by Oscar Wilde (7,598)
79. The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition by William Strunk (7,569)
80. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (7,557)
81. The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, Book 2) by Philip Pullman (7,534)
82. Atonement: A Novel by Ian McEwan (7,530)
83. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (7,512)
84. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (7,436) *
85. Dracula by Bram Stoker (7,238)
86. Heart of Darkness (Dover Thrift Editions) by Joseph Conrad (7,153)
87. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (7,055)
88. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (7,052)
89. The amber spyglass by Philip Pullman (7,043)
90. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Penguin Classics) by James Joyce (6,933)
91. The Unbearable Lightness of Being: A Novel (Perennial Classics) by Milan Kundera (6,901)92. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse (6,899)
93. Neuromancer by William Gibson (6,890)
94. The Canterbury Tales (Penguin Classics) by Geoffrey Chaucer (6,868)
95. Persuasion (Penguin Classics) by Jane Austen (6,862)
96. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman (6,841)
97. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (6,794)
98. Angela's Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt (6,715)
99. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers (6,708)
100. The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli (6,697)

July Book Blowout Reading Challenge ... update #2

2008-07-01T14:38:00.004-06:00

July Book Blowout mini challenge #1

1. Describe yourself in one sentence:
The crazy cat lady. I am the humble servant to the lords and ladies of the Larsen manor

2. What book will you start the challenge with?
The Aviary Gate by Katie Hickman

3. Where is your favourite place to read?
Wherever I can steal 5 minutes of time

4. What is your favourite book of all time?
Too many to choose from, right now Somewhere In Heaven: The Remarkable Love Story of Dana and Christopher Reeve

5. Remind us all of your challenge target:
Lucky or unlucky number 13

I actually have an update from yesterday. I was at point where I had to start one of my chosen books before July 1st. I chose Somewhere In Heaven and blew right through it finishing at 1am this morning. Technically I was reading it on July 1st and it could count as 1/2 book but I holding back from counting it for now.

Somewhere In Heaven: The Remarkable Love Story of Dana and Christopher Reeve by Christopher Andersen

2008-07-01T11:27:00.003-06:00

Somewhere In Heaven: The Remarkable Love Story of Dana and Christopher Reeve
Christopher Andersen
Hyperion
216 pages
Book provided by Authors On The Web

When there's very little to hold on to, you need an absolute and complete faith in something. For us, it was love.
~ Dana Reeve ~

For all the millions of words that have been written about their public causes and private struggles following Chris's accident, little is known about the lives they led as passionate young lovers. Now, in the manner of his poignant-yet-stirring bestsellers Jack and Jackie, Jackie After Jack, An Affair to Remember, The Day Diana Died, After Diana, and The Day John Died, No. l New York Times bestselling author Christopher Andersen draws on those who knew them best to examine in touching detail the Reeves' unique partnership and the romance, faith, and fortitude that defined it.

Sometimes heartbreaking, often uplifting, always compelling, Somewhere in Heaven is more than just a portrait of a marriage. It is the profoundly human story of two souls whose brief lives made a difference, a bittersweet saga of tragedy, triumph, and loss, and--above all else--a love story for the ages.

If you want something to believe in, believe in the power of true love. I was a fan of the Superman films though I wouldn't say I was Christoper Reeve fan. I didn't follow his career. I knew nothing about Dana Reeve until the "accident" and even then I only knew of her as Chris's wife and mother to Will. I was heart broken, as were many, many others, by his accident and, to this day, I can't really explain why. It was then that I started following their lives and took an interest in their passions. I was devastated by his death but not surprised. Once I learned, along with everyone else, that she had lung cancer I knew how this story would end and I worried for Will.

This book brings to light their life together, their love and their struggles with compassion. It brings to the reader little known daily tidbits about how they choose to live before and after. They believed and supported many causes but most of all they believed in each other, their love and their marriage vows ~ in sickness and in health, for better or worse.

If you want to read a true love story, read Somewhere In Heaven. It makes my top 10 of 2008.

July Book Blowout Reading Challenge ... update #1

2008-06-30T10:51:00.007-06:00

Well I've done everything in my power not to start reading books included on my list for the July Book Blowout hosted by Blue Archipelago (complete details can be found here) but sadly I've come to a point where I have no choice. Hoping that I could hold out I've read one trashy novel and 4 J.D. Robb novellas, totaling 800 pages, in the last 2 days. I've exhausted my supply of short books to get me through to July 1st and it's still June! Knowing that it will be very quiet at work tonight I'm giving in and starting on book 1 ~ Somewhere In Heaven: The Remarkable Love Story of Dana and Christopher Reeve by Christopher Andersen. I got this book through Authors On The Web. Anna and Nicole are delightful people and truly wonderful to work with. As I have the next 5 days off for the holiday here in the States I should be able to make a dent in my list.

Happy reading all!

To Pleasure A Lady by Nicole Jordan

2008-06-29T10:35:00.006-06:00

To Pleasure A Lady: Courtship Wars
Book 1
Nicole Jordan
Ballantine Books
400 pages

I vow the new earl will drive me to distraction, thinking to marry us off like so much breeding stock. - Letter from Miss Arabella Loring to Fanny Irwin
~ First sentence, Chapter One, To Pleasure A Lady ~

Marcus Pierce, a strikingly handsome aristocrat with a wicked reputation, inherits guardianship of Arabella Loring and her two younger sisters–and immediately declares his intention to marry them off. But gorgeously defiant Arabella sparks frustration–and something deeply erotic–in Marcus. After matching both wits and swords with her, Marcus concludes that this beautiful and formidable foe must be his.

Having sworn off marriage and men, Arabella wishes to be left alone to run her finishing school for young ladies. To that end, she boldly accepts Marcus’s intimate challenge: If he can woo and win her within two weeks, she’ll take her place in his bed as his wife. However, if she can resist his considerable charms, the Loring sisters will be granted their independence. Thus an extraordinary game of seduction begins. . . .

Before we go any further I'm invoking the Reader's Bills of Rights, #5, 6 and 10.
#5 - The right to read anything
#6 - The right to escapism
#10 - The right not to defend your tastes

I wanted something that would provide me with a distraction before starting in on the July Book Blowout. I have a bunch of books lined up but can't start any of them until July 1st. This isn't my usual reading fare. In fact I've read only one other author who writes books in this genre, whose work I enjoy, so I thought I'd give someone else a try. I knew what I was getting into before starting this book so no surprises. While it did provide the needed distraction and, at times, I found myself starting to enjoy the predictable story line there was one scene, in particular, that I was thinking OMG! this would never happen in proper English society in 1817. It actually bordered on pornographic ~ I can't think of any other way to put it. Somewhere down the road I'm sure I'll read the other two only because I'm curious to know which sister ends up with which friend and how they get there. After that I'll probably drop this author and give someone else their fair chance to win my reading affection.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective by Kate Summerscale

2008-06-29T10:22:00.004-06:00

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective
Kate Summerscale
Walker & Company
384 pages
Book provided by Bloomsbury USA through Shelf Awareness

In the early hours of Friday, 29 June 1860 Samuel and Mary Kent were asleep on the first floor of their detached three-storey Georgian house above the village of Road, five miles from Trowbridge.
~ First sentence, Chapter One, The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher ~

Summerscale delivers a mesmerizing portrait of one of England's first detectives and the gruesome murder investigation that nearly destroyed him. In 1860, three-year-old Saville Kent was found murdered in the outdoor privy of his family's country estate. Local police scrambled for clues, but to no avail. Scotland Yard Det.-Insp. Jonathan Jack Whicher was called in and immediately suspected the unthinkable: someone in the Kent family killed Saville. Theories abounded as everyone from the nursemaid to Saville's father became a suspect. Whicher tirelessly pursued every lead and became convinced that Constance Kent, Saville's teenage half-sister, was the murderer, but with little evidence and no confession, the case went cold and Whicher returned to London, a broken man. Five years later, the killer came forward with a shocking account of the crime, leading to a sensational trial. Whicher is a fascinating hero, and readers will delight in following every lurid twist and turn in his investigation.

This is a very ambitious, interesting non-fiction read with a lot going on ~ 1. The murder and investigation into the death of a three-year old child, 2. The rise and fall of Detective Jack Whicher and beginnings of modern detective work, and 3. The rise of modern sensation and detective fiction.

For the most part the author skillfully weaves all three story lines together though at times I felt that main story got lost among the many and varied details that make up this book. The murder, it's investigation and Detective Whicher's rise and fall would have been enough to carry this book. When the author diverges off into writing about rise of sensation and/or detective fiction is where I feel the book takes on too much. While it is interesting it detracts from the main story. The book is rich with detail and you can tell the author spent a lot of time in the archives researching her story. She brings to life this English Victorian household with their secrets and coverups. She also brings to life constituted the justice system in 1860s England and subsequent prison life.

I would recommend this book to fans of historical non-fiction and fiction alike. While it doesn't make my top 10 list for 2008 it does make my recommended reading list for this year.

Friday Finds! ... 6/27/08

2008-06-27T16:45:00.006-06:00

I came across this great new book blogging event while visiting Wendi's blog at Caribousmom. It is hosted by Miz B. Complete details come be found here.

My Friday Finds!

Central Park in the Dark: More Mysteries of Urban Wildlife
Like her bestseller Red-Tails in Love, Marie Winn’s Central Park in the Dark explores a once-hidden world in a series of interlocking narratives about the extraordinary denizens, human and animal, of an iconic American park. Her beguiling account of a city’s lakes and woodlands at night takes the reader through the cycle of seasons as experienced by nocturnal active beasts (raccoons, bats, black skimmers, and sleeping robins among them), insects (moths, wasps, fireflies, crickets), and slugs (in all their unexpected poetical randiness). Winn does not neglect her famous protagonists Pale Male and Lola, the hawks that captivated readers years ago, but this time she adds an exciting narrative about thirty-eight screech owls in Central Park and their lives, loves, and tragedies there.

Black Wave: A Family's Adventure at Sea and the Disaster That Saved Them
In 2003, after two years at sea, the 55-foot catamaran sailed by the Silverwoods, a suburban California family that chucked it all to sail around the world, hit a reef off the South Pacific island of Scilly (now known as Manuae), putting the life of Jean and John and their four children (ages five to 16) in peril. The first part of the book is written from Jean's perspective as she opens with the wreck and then moves smoothly between the family's fight for survival and the story of their journey. By juxtaposing the two tales, Jean illustrates how the children's maturity and cohesiveness were not only a byproduct of the trip but also the keys to all the Silverwoods surviving their ordeal, especially John, who was critically injured by the falling mast. Jean wears her heart on her sleeve, and her writing about her marital problems or John's alcoholic relapses is honest. John's narrative is half as long as Jean's, underscoring his straight-to-the point personality and writing style. The saga from John's perspective lacks emotion, but his ability to interweave the story of the Julia Anne (a sailing ship that hit the same reef in 1855) gives an eye-opening account of how much and how little sea travel has changed in 150 years and accentuates the heroism of this family that overcame an extraordinary ordeal.

The Forbidden Daughter
Bantwal (The Dowry Bride) shifts her focus from arranged marriages to the high stakes parents place on producing a male heir in contemporary India in her middling sophomore outing. Isha Tilak and her husband, Nikhil, are counting on their second child to be a son. But when an ultrasound reveals she's carrying a girl, an illegal abortion is proposed, both by Nikhil's wealthy parents and by Isha's physician, Dr. Karnik. Nikhil staunchly refuses and soon turns up dead, and Isha can't help wondering if he may have been killed for not going along with the abortion.

July Book Blowout Reading Challenge ... includes a giveaway

2008-06-26T16:29:00.021-06:00

Blue Archipelago is hosting a July Book Blowout reading challenge that includes a gift voucher to Amazon for one lucky participant. Deadline to enter is July 14th. Deadline to post July reads is August 7th. Complete details can be found here.

Yes, I'm participating in this one! Now I just have to get together my list of books, quit blogging and start reading. I'm sure this will be easier said than done.

July's Blowout Books
1 ~ ~~The Aviary Gate~~ (ARC/historical fiction)
1/2 ~ ~~Somewhere In Heaven: The Remarkable love story of Dana and Christopher Reeve~~ (ARC) 2 ~ ~~Tribute~~ (Nora Robert's newest release/Kindle edition)
3 ~ ~~The Scene of the Grime~~ (A Grime Solvers Mystery/Kindle)
0 ~ ~~Narrow Dog to Carcassonne~~ (travelogue/Kindle) ~ DNF
4 ~ ~~The Innocent~~ (historical fiction/Kindle)
5 ~ Trace Evidence (forensic science/Kindle)
0 ~ ~~The Genizah at the House of Shepher~~ (Gave the book away)
6 ~ ~~The Heretic's Daughter~~ (ARC)
7 ~ ~~Before I Wake: A Novel~~ (ARC)
8 ~ ~~Plane Insanity: A Flight Attendant's Tales of Sex, Rage, and Queasiness at 30,000 Feet~~ (Kindle edition)
9 ~ ~~The Warriors, Book 1: Into The Wild~~ by Erin Hunter (Kindle edition)
10 ~ ~~What Angels Fear~~
(Kindle edition)
11 ~ ~~The Map Thief~~ (ARC)
0 ~ ~~Soul~~ (Kindle edition) ~ DNF
12 ~ The First Patient (Kindle edition)

I'm including some alternates just in case some of my ARCs/AREs arrive.
1 ~ Angel's Tip
2 ~ 5 Broadway travelogues
3 ~ Stealing Athena
4 ~ Sword

Tuesday Thingers...Least Popular Book

2008-06-26T15:25:00.004-06:00

Well Tuesday has come and gone but here's my take on the least popular book(s) in my Librarything library. First order of business is Tuesday Thingers is hosted by Marie at The Boston Bibliophile and second here is this week's question: Do you have any unique books in your library- books only you have on LT? How many? Did you find cataloging information on your unique books, or did you hand-enter them? Do they fall into a particular category or categories, or are they a mix of different things? Have you ever looked at the "You and none other" feature on your statistics page, which shows books owned by only you and one other user? Ever made an LT friend by seeing what you share with only one other user?

Well I don't have any books unique to my library but I have six books in my library that I share with one other LTer and each book is shared with a different LTer. 2 books are related to September 11th, 3 are fiction and, most likely, catalogued incorrectly after looking at what they are, and the last one is a non-fiction account of crossing Antarctica in 1999.

You and None Other was one of the features that caught my eye when I first joined LT. I do check it periodically just to see if the books have changed with the all cataloguing we LTers do and they haven't.

I haven't contacted the other LTers nor have I checked out what else they have in their libraries. Maybe I should go take a peek. You never know what you might come across.

The Broken Window: A Lincoln Rhyme Novel by Jeffery Deaver

2008-06-25T10:37:00.004-06:00

The Broken Window: A Lincoln Rhyme Novel
Jeffery Deaver
Simon & Schuster
432 pages

Something nagged, yet she couldn't quite figure out what.
~ First sentence, Chapter One, The Broken Window ~

Rhyme, a forensic consultant for the NYPD, and his detective partner, Amelia Sachs, take on a psychotic mastermind who uses data mining—the business of the twenty-first century—not only to select and hunt down his victims but also to frame the crimes on complete innocents. Rhyme is reluctantly drawn into a case involving his estranged cousin, Arthur, who's been charged with first-degree murder. But when Rhyme and his crew look into the strange set of circumstances surrounding his cousin's alleged crime, they discover tangential connections to a company that specializes in collecting and analyzing consumer data. Further investigation leads them to some startlingly Orwellian revelations: Big Brother is watching your every move and could be a homicidal maniac.

Major cases of identity theft gone murderously wrong. This is a chilling tale, frightening really when you get right down to it. To think that someone or someones know everything about you. Every little, minute detail of your life. And they steal it. They turn your life upside down. They murder, set you up to take the fall and they've done it perfectly. I've read every book in the series and this is my favorite to date. I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning because I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. This one grabs and doesn't let go. Engaging and suspenseful start to finish. Mr. Deaver is a master at his craft and this proves he's at the top of his game.

Marie-Therese, A Child of Terror: The Fate of Marie Antoinette's Daughter by Susan Nagel

2008-06-23T10:20:00.006-06:00

Marie-Therese, Child of Terror: The Fate of Marie Antoinette's Daughter
Susan Nagel
Bloomsbury USA
448 pages
Book provided by Authors On The Web

When Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I died without a male heir in 1711, the crown passed to his brother, Charles VI.
~ First sentence, Chapter 1 - Sex and Politics, Marie-Therese, Child of Terror ~

What was the fate of Marie-Thérèse (1778–1851) after the beheadings of her parents, King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette of France? Nagel, professor of humanities at Marymount Manhattan College (Mistress of the Elgin Marbles), relates the dramatic highs and lows experienced by the woman known as Madame Royale. Her uncle, the Austrian emperor, wanted her to marry his brother, when she escaped from the Temple Prison at age 17 after three hellish years. Instead, she endured a loveless and childless marriage to her Bourbon cousin the Duc d'Angoulême, but became the close political ally of their uncle, Louis XVIII, whom she joined in his peripatetic exile and saw in his triumphant return to France in 1814 as king. Marie Thérèse survived the 1830 abdication of her father-in-law, Charles X, and died in exile. Known for her kindness and wit, she also endured persistent rumors that she was not the real Marie-Thérèse and the constant threat of abduction and assassination.

A thoroughly engrossing non-fiction book that reads like a novel. It is filled with rich and exacting detail of Marie-Therese's life and no stone is left unturned. One would think that a book like this would be slow going, not so. The author brings the characters, times and places to life and you become enmeshed in the world around you. Marie-Therese was truly a remarkable woman considering what she went through as both a child and an adult. She forgave the people of France for the horrendous treatment of her family and always believed until the end that she would see her family restored and returned to glory. She never stopped loving her country. I very much enjoyed this book and recommended it to any lover of historical non-fiction or fiction.

Reading Journal ... the week past

2008-06-21T13:24:00.004-06:00

Time to catch up and review the past week. I finished two books and started a third. Not bad when it feels like I spend more time blogging than I do reading these days. Now that it's nice in Boise, actually hot ~ 95 right now, I take the furbabies outside and spend time doing a little of both.

I finished two books I would consider womens' fiction: The Richest Season by Maryann McFadden. I received this book through the Early Reviewers program at Librarything. This a debut author and I really enjoyed her work. My thoughts and impressions can be found here. The other book I finished this week is Barbara Delinsky's newest, The Secret Between Us. While I usually associate her with romance not so for this book. My thoughts and impressions can be found here. The Richest Season was a printed book and The Secret Between Us I read on my Kindle. Because I now own (1 month old) and love my Amazon Kindle I find myself having a hard time putting it down and picking up and reading a printed book. Being a dead hard bookaholic I thought I'd have a hard time adjusting but not so. Actually I find I'd much rather read on my Kindle than a printed book. Strange as that might seem it's true.

The third book I started this week is a non-fiction account of the life of Marie Antoinette's daughter. I received Marie-Therese, Child of Terror: The Fate of Marie Antoinette's Daughter by Susan Nagel from Authors On The Web. I thought this book might be a slow, dry read as it's non-fiction. I'm happy to say not so. It very much reads like a narrative story of her life and I find myself fascinated by this woman. The first part covers her childhood up her family's imprisonment, the death of her parents and brother, and her continued imprisonment for the next 3 years. The second half, which I'm currently reading, covers her life after her release. She is a remarkable woman.

I'm not sure where my reading adventures will take me this week. Once Marie-Therese, Child of Terror: The Fate of Marie Antoinette's Daughter is finished I don't have anything lined up. Not to say the downloaded book samples and saved for later list on the Kindle don't hold anything of interest, they do, just not sure whether it will be more historical fiction, maybe a cozy mystery, a travelogue, or something totally different. I'm also waiting for the mailman to deliver, hopefully, some of the many ARCs/AREs I've signed up for through Shelf Awareness. Got to love free books and I always promise to read and review in a timely fashion. I move any ARCs/AREs received to the top of my reading list. I believe that if a publisher is offering me a free book the least I can do is read and offer my thoughts & impressions in return.

Speaking of free books I've noticed that my book buying habit has improved greatly since buying my Kindle. It's actually saving me money! Costco had many, many books that I would have bought today, on the spot, but having a Kindle and being able to download book samples at no cost is saving me from buy books that sound interesting but actually turn out not to be or the writing style doesn't appeal. So no more monstrous TRB piles staring me down, calling my name and haunting me.

I also spend time every day working on my labor of love, the book giveaway and contest site, Up For Grabs. It's a bit slow going but seems to be gaining some momentum.

That's it for today. Back to reading...

Tuesday Thingers... Thursday thoughts on Friday

2008-06-20T18:31:00.007-06:00

Ok, so I've decided I should title these posts "Tuesday Thingers ... Friday Thoughts." It's been my intention to do this on Thursdays but that plan has been led astray these last few weeks. That aside I did travel through the Tuesday Thingers comments today and didn't find any big surprises. So here we go...

First: the details ~ Marie at The Boston Bibliophile hosts Tuesday Thingers every week. Second: this week's question: What's the most popular book in your library? Have you read it? What did you think? How many users have it? What's the most popular book you don't have? How does a book's popularity figure into your decisions about what to read?

What's the most popular book; have you read it; what did you think?: No surprises here or at least there shouldn't be: The phenomenon better known to the world as Harry Potter leads the way. Out of 31 responses the overwhelming majority had at least read this series, some several times, or own the series. In some cases LTers own multiple versions of the series. Seems that Harry has taken over. All seven Harry Potter books lead the Top Books listing at Librarything. Now we're a bit divided on the what did you think part . While some absolutely loved the boy wizard others thought it was merely a good read and there were a few that wondered what all the fuss was about, hadn't read the series and didn't intended too.

What's the most popular book you don't have: There seemed to be a majority here too. Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code was the next most popular book that most people didn't have and didn't have any interest in reading. Like some others I made a start and stop before I got through it. While it's been read by some in this group no one seemed to be ranting and raving about it.

Lastly: How does a book's popularity figure into your decisions about what to read? For most of us, me included, our reading selections are driven by personal preference. Yes, the most popular or talked about books tend to make it on to best sellers lists, TV & radio talk shows, book selection sites (Amazon), book blogs and eventually into movies. That in turn means that we're more likely to have heard about it, checked it out, seen or read the hype and made our own informed decision. Maybe something will induce us to give it a try, maybe not. We appear to be a group that trusts our instincts when it comes to picking a book that will interest us and don't necessarily jump on the bandwagon or follow the crowd.

The Secret Between Us by Barbara Delinsky

2008-06-19T11:50:00.008-06:00

The Secret Between Us
Barbara Delinsky
Random House
480 pages

They were arguing in the seconds before impact.
~ First sentence, Chapter 1, The Secret Between Us ~

On a rainy night, Deborah Monroe and her teenage daughter, Grace, are driving home when their car hits a man. The victim, who turns out to be Grace's history teacher, is unconscious but alive. Although Grace was driving, Deborah sends her home and takes responsibility for the accident when the cops show up. Deborah is juggling a lot: as a family doctor, she is in private practice with her über-demanding widower father, who is trying to hide a drinking problem; her son, Dylan, is vision impaired; her mother's death continues to affect the family; Deborah is still dealing with her ex-husband's new, separate life; and her unmarried sister, Jill, has just announced she's pregnant. Grace's guilt about not taking responsibility for the accident makes her withdraw from friends and family, and the accident victim turns out to have a more complex private life than anyone imagined.

This is a bit of a new direction for Barbara Delinsky. While I'm used to reading books from this author with the main focus being romance not so with this book. This book is more about family, how far parents will go to protect their children and the expectations that family members have for one another. It reminds me of another author whose work I enjoy, Jodi Picoult.

We all have expectations for the people around us. Expectations of how they'll behave, react, do things. Are those expectations ours alone or do others have some ownership? They most certainly drive how we react to others when our expectations aren't meet. For Deborah, Grace, Dylan, Jill and Michael their lives are driven by expectations, realistic or not, and when they aren't meet it implodes with unforeseen consequences.

This book is also about how far a parent will, or should, go in protecting a child from the consequences of their actions. While a parent may believe they are acting in the best interest of their child this book shows the ramifications of what happens when guilt sets in for both mother and child and how destructive it can become.

While the end is a little too easy overall I enjoyed this book. While not a parent myself I could understand Deborah's need to protect Grace. I most certainly understood the parent/child expectations between Michael and his daughters. If Ms. Delinsky continues to turn out stories as good as this one I'll continue to read her work.

The Richest Season by Mary McFadden

2008-06-19T11:05:00.003-06:00

The Richest Season
Mary McFadden
Hyperion
336 pages
Book provided by the Early Reviewers program at Librarything

The sky was still dark, as it was every morning when Joanna Harrison began walking the two-mile route that serpentined through the development where she lived.
~ First sentence, Chapter 1, The Richest Season (ARC) ~

After more than a dozen moves in 25 years of marriage, Joanna has become a "corporate wife" - an unofficial breed of single parent whose life is devoted to raising her children and watching her husband Paul, climb the corporate ladder. But now that their kids are grown, Paul's latest surprise transfer is finally too much. When the tiny voice inside her head becomes a shout - "Leave!" - Joanna listens. Committed to starting her life over again, she packs her bags and heads for a place she'd fallen in love with years before, Pawleys Island, South Carolina.

This is wonderful debut novel from a new voice in womens' fiction. Right off I'll say that I would read work from this author again. I'm still not able to pinpoint exactly what drew me into the story but it got a hold on me and didn't let go until the final page. I read late into the night wanting to know how Joanna and Paul's story would play out. It's a story about letting go and finding out that you don't have to keep up with Jones'. It's about the quality of the life you choose to lead not the quantity of the material things you own. One of the things that touched me with this book was not only did Joanna, the lead female character, come to realize what was truly important to her but her husband Paul, the lead male character, also plays a major role in the same way as Joanna and I found that refreshing. Instead of making Paul the bad guy he matures into a character with redeeming qualities. I was more drawn to his story than Joanna's as I usually don't see a male lead characterized and grow the way Paul does.

The side stories and secondary characters make a nice backdrop to Joanna and Paul's story. Grace, Joanna's housemate, and her story draw out what is happening in Joanna's life. Sarah and Timmy, the grown children, have a major impact on Paul and how he deals with what is going on around him.

In all the womens' fiction available out there today don't pass this one by.

Tuesday Thingers...Most Popular Book

2008-06-19T10:22:00.004-06:00

Marie at The Boston Bibliophile hosts the weekly Tuesday Thingers. This week's question: What's the most popular book in your library? Have you read it? What did you think? How many users have it? What's the most popular book you don't have? How does a book's popularity figure into your decisions about what to read?

First off I'm admitting I'm a bit late this week because it took me until yesterday to figure out how to get this fact. I was pretty sure I'd seen this somewhere on Librarything so I went searching when all the time it was right in front of me, literally. So as I guessed any of the Harry Potter books lead my collection. I've decided those shouldn't count as they are such a phenomenon. So moving past the HP books next up would be:

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

Have I read it/what did I think: Yes but it took a second start to get through it. The first time I read 50 pages and put it down. People kept telling me to stick it out. So I did eventually pick it up a second time. Not only did I finish but I ended up liking it much more than I thought I would.

How many other users have it: 23,352

Most popular book I don't have: Thanks to Marie at The Boston Bibliophile I can now answer this question. The Hobbit is the most popular book I don't have in my library.

How does a book's popularity figure into your decisions about what to read? I usually shy away from books that are wildly popular or receiving a lot of attention. On more than one occasion I've found myself very disappointed and wondering what all the fuss is about. I suppose I set some sort of expectations for a book getting an unusual amount of hype and then find once I've started reading wondering why? A couple of recent examples would be: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. I struggled and struggled with the abuse story lines and finally said "enough" and didn't finish. I still to this day don't understand the popularity of this particular book but so be it. Another fairly recent one would be The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue. It had received critical acclaim and good reviews. I finished it but didn't enjoy it. For me it was a torture to read. That's not to say I don't read popular books I do. My LT library is packed with popular books. I pick a book that appeals to me and settle in for a good read. If over time it becomes popular thats a good thing but I don't let it influence my decision to read or not.

Reading Journal ... the week past

2008-06-14T14:34:00.004-06:00

Reading picked up speed this week but then summer has finally made an appearance in Boise and I decided to turn off the DVR, take the furbabies outside and read while pretending to keep the children from going over the fence and corralled in the backyard.

I finished Abundance by Sena Jeter Naslund in anticipation of receiving Marie-Therese by Susan Nagel from Authors On The Web and posted my thoughts and impressions here.

I also started and finished 2 other books this week: Intuition by Allegra Goodman for my f2f book club and Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu by J. Maarten. Thoughts and impressions for Intuition can be found here and Getting Stoned with Savages here.

So I've spent time in France from 1767 to 1793, spent time in a medical research lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a couple semi pleasant years on island time. Of the three island time was my favorite.

My intention was to start Barbara Delinsky's newest, The Secret Between Us, and I'd even downloaded it to the Kindle last night in anticipation of kicking back today and reading, reading, reading. Those good intentions went right out door when my Early Reviewers book, The Richest Season by Maryann McFadden, from Librarything arrived today. I always give ARCs/AREs priority in my reading so the timing couldn't have been better. Speaking of ARCs/AREs I'm totally hooked on Shelf Awareness. This is a wonderful site with book related news and plenty of opportunities to request free books.

A bit of sad news: Up For Grabs melted down last night and imploded. I've resurrected it and put up a couple of polls so we'll go from there. It's a site for independent, non income generating, non commercial book bloggers to link book giveaways and contests. I really need to gage interest in this type of venture.

Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu by J. Maarten Troost

2008-06-14T11:40:00.005-06:00

Getting Stoned with Savages
J. Maarten Troost
Broadway
256 pages

I have been called many things in my life, but if there has been but one constant, one barb, one arrow flung my way time after time, it is the accusation that I am, in essence, nothing more than an escapist. ~ First sentence, Chapter One, Getting Stoned with Savages ~

Troost and his wife, Sylvia, move from busy Washington, D.C., to Vanuatu, a nation made up of 83 islands in the South Pacific. As Sylvia works for a regional nonprofit, Troost immerses himself in the islands' culture, an odd mix of the islanders' thousand-year-old "kastoms" along with imperialist British and French influences. This really means that Troost gets to live in a nice house while he gets drunk on kava; dodges "a long inferno of magma and a cascade of lava bombs" at the "world's most accessible volcano"; and checks out the "calcified" leftovers from one of Vanuatu's not-so-ancient traditions, cannibalism. At the end of the book, the couple move to Fiji so that Sylvia will have state-of-the-art medical care when she gives birth to their first baby. While modern-day Fiji provides little fodder for Troost's comic sensibilities, the birth of his son enables him to share some deeper thoughts and decide it is "time to stop looking for paradise."

While not a good as his first book, The Sex Lives of Cannibals, I still enjoyed Getting Stoned with Savages. I knew what expect of his writing style this time around. While his witty humor comes through it's a bit more difficult when he's living in more civilized places than an atoll in the South Pacific. He took what material Vanuatu and Fiji offered and applied his unique perspective. The chapter battling the foot-long centipede had me laughing out loud and provided one of the highlights of this book. The chapter on cannibalism offers an interesting take on a subject I'm sure most of us don't give daily thought to. He loves adventure and always makes sure to seek out local culture. He is usually willing to give every thing a try at least once and, maybe go back and back and back, if something appeals to him such as kava. I'm glad I went along for the ride and look forward to China his next destination in his quest to escape. I'm thinking China might not be quite the escape he has in mind with 2 children in tow.

Tuesday Thingers... Thursday thoughts on Friday

2008-06-13T17:39:00.005-06:00

Well here I am once again taking my weekly stroll through the Tuesday Thingers posts on Friday. My goal is to do this on Thursdays but life seems to take over on the first day of my weekend. The call center industry work week isn't tailored to a traditional M-F work week. This week's question was about tagging and not as in "tag ... you're it"

Marie at The Boston Bibliophile hosts Tuesdays Thingers. For those who missed the question here it is: do you tag? How do you tag? How do you feel about tagging- do you think it would be better to have standardized tags, like libraries have standardized subject headings, or do you like the individualized nature of tagging? What are your top 5 tags and what do they say about your collection or your reading habits?

So 29 LTers participated this week (yes, I read every comment) and we seem to be all over the board with tagging or not. Some are compulsive taggers and have multiple tags per single book. The compulsive taggers tag for things such as time & place, country of origin, author gender, year read, location in the (physical) library, genre, sub-genre, owned, borrowed, loaned, et cetera. Others of us tag very generally. We usually include just a tag, or maybe, two such as fiction, mystery, YA, fantasy, ER/ARC, TBR, owned, et cetera and call it good. And yet others don't tag or tag when they remember to and then very loosely.

We did seem to reach a consensus when it came to standardized tags: Not particularly interested in those. Most though not everyone liked the idea of individual tags and the freedom to tag as fits our own libraries and styles. If you tag it seems to say a lot, or little, about the books in your library, your reading tastes and, yes, you as an individual. A few thought standardized tags would be nice and could get an individual started with tagging, especially if there was a drop down list to choose from that might contain say, maybe, the 100 most popular tags at Librarything.

Intuition by Allegra Goodman

2008-06-11T11:10:00.005-06:00

Intuition
Allegra Goodman
Dial Press
400 pages

This intimate portrait of life in a research institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, revolves around a scientific mystery: the groundbreaking, too-good-to-be-true discovery of a virus that fights cancer. Cliff, the rakish, headstrong post-doc responsible for the discovery, is on the verge of dismissal when his tumor-ridden mice exhibit stunning rates of remission; meanwhile, Cliff's co-worker and former girlfriend, spurred by personal and professional jealousy, begins to harbor suspicions about his lab work.

This was fairly enjoyable read overall. The premise of the story and the look inside the world of medical research was interesting though the book did have some downfalls for me. First, I wish the discovery of the flawed data hadn't been tied into the doomed personal relationship between Cliff and Robin. I feel the story would have been better served if another character, without a strong personal relationship, had pursued the flawed data. Secondly the ending. I actually disliked the ending a great deal. For me the story just stopped dead and left me wondering if all the pages of the book were there. I felt like some vital piece of the story had been left out.

It's a light, fast read and if you're looking for vacation book this just might fit the bill.

Tuesday Thingers ... Tags

2008-06-10T10:36:00.003-06:00

Marie at The Boston Bibliophile hosts Tuesday Thingers. Today's question is about tags - do you tag? How do you tag? How do you feel about tagging- do you think it would be better to have standardized tags, like libraries have standardized subject headings, or do you like the individualized nature of tagging? What are your top 5 tags and what do they say about your collection or your reading habits?

My tags reflect my reading tastes and are largely general in nature with some breakdown. I tag by the main focus of a book such a General fiction, Non-fiction Mystery, Romance, Suspense, Memoir, et cetera. In some instances I will be break down my tags a bit more individually. My historical reading is tagged with Historical/[Country of origin] or Historical/[focus of the book such religious, royalty], Non-fiction/[book topic such as travelogue, sports, animals].

I like the individualized nature of tags in Librarything. Because of the ability to uniquely tag our libraries we can view other LTers libraries and get an overall sense of their reading tastes at a glance. By quickly scanning tags I can tell if that person's library is of interest to me or not. I believe standardized tags have their uses, especially in libraries and bookstores, where a wide variety of people are searching for a particular book or subject and have expectations that they will find "X" in a given place. Maybe LT could/(does?) offer standardized tags for users who want a simple and effect way to tag that would build consistency into their library while others could bypass such a feature and tag to match their particular tastes and needs. I have noticed there are some libraries in LT that are obsessively tagged right down to the tiniest detail.

The great thing about LT is the versatility and ability to build our libraries to meet our individual needs or expectations.

My top tags are: Suspense (162); Romance (133); DNF (117) - due to using LT as a reading journal; General fiction (100) and Romantic Suspense (92). If I exclude the DNF tag next in line is Legal Thriller (62). I expect some of those will be overtaken in the next year or so as my reading tastes are starting to gravitate more toward travelogues, non-fiction and historical fiction.

Abundance by Sena Jeter Naslund

2008-06-09T10:55:00.006-06:00

Abundance
Sena Jeter Naslund
Harper Perennial
592 pages

Like everyone, I am born naked.
~ First sentence, An Island In the Rhine River, May 1770, Abundance ~

Marie Antoinette was a child of fourteen when her mother, the Empress of Austria, arranged for her to leave her family and her country to become the wife of the fifteen-year-old Dauphin, the future King of France. Coming of age in the most public of arenas she warmly embraces her adopted nation and it's citizens. She shows her new husband nothing but love and encouragement, though he repeatedly fails to consummate their marriage and in so doing is unable to give what she and the people of France desire most: a child and heir to throne. Deeply disappointed and isolated in her own intimate circle, and apart from the social life of the court, she allows herself to remain ignorant of the country's growing economic and political crises, even as poor harvests, bitter winters, war debts, and poverty precipitate rebellion and revenge. The young queen, once beloved by the common folk, becomes a target of scorn, cruelty, and hatred as she, the court's nobles, and the rest of the royal family are caught up in the nightmarish violence of a murderous time called "the Terror."

This book had been languishing in my TBR pile and reading it was motivated by an offer of book about her daughter's life, Marie-Therese by Susan Nagel, that I'm receiving from Authors On The Web. I had read one other book about her life, The Hidden Diary of Maria Antoinette by Carolly Erickson, and a felt a bit of a refresher was needed. Overall, I felt, this book was a bit disappointing. It's written first person, diary-style, and I never really did adapt to the voice the author used for Maria Antoinette. The voice of the child she is when we start the book carries through until the royal family is forced to flee for their lives and the subsequent imprisonment and deaths of the King and Queen. Marie Antoinette never quites achieves adulthood in this book, and the country's troubles and unrest, are glossed over until it is too late. Once the royal family realizes that their days of power are numbered this book picks up speed and becomes an interesting read. You finally start to get a sense of the unrest in France and begin to understand the motivations of the common people to want to bring down the royal family. While I felt for the her children and the citizens of France I never did feel pity for the Queen.

If you're looking for a light overview of the her life and times then this book might appeal to you. If you're wanting somethinga bit more serious and in-depth this might not be your first choice.

Tuesday Thingers... Thursday thoughts on Friday

2008-06-06T12:59:00.005-06:00

I'm bit late this week taking my tour of the responses to this week's Tuesday Thingers question. For those who missed this week's question here it is: Why LT? Why did you choose to open and maintain an LT account? Do you/did you use other online cataloging/social networking sites, like GoodReads or Shelfari? Do you use more than one? Are they different or do they serve different purposes?

This week's responses weren't much of surprise ~ the 29 of us that responded are dedicated addicts of Librarything. The Tuesday Thingers meme, hosted by Maire at The Boston Bibliophile, came about because of a thread started as part of the Early Reviewers Group. We all basically signed up for the same reason which is to catalogue our libraries whether they be physical or virtual and LT is really, really good at their main objective. Over time though it's become a wonderful community of the book obsessed that offers many opportunities to socialize, join groups (book related or not), sign up for ARCs/AREs, browse recommendations, write reviews. I can tell you're getting the idea and you're tempted to check it out and sign up for your own LT account if you don't already have one.

After the first of the new year LT launched a cool new feature LT Local (LT down, can't link). LT Local is driven by LTers who enter information on bookstores, author signings, book fairs and all things related in their local city/area. If you're looking for a book related event in your city this is the place to stop by and check out the happenings. If you're traveling on vacation or business and need a book fix enter your destination city and there you go.

As to other book cataloguing or social sites some of us weren't familiar with Shelfari or Goodreads. If LTers did have accounts for these other sites they appeared to have been using them to socialize and meet up with friends. In some cases maintaining other sites have fallen by the wayside. And, for some of us, we couldn't even remember our IDs and passwords.

** To those of you who visit this site thank you. Rest assured I pay visits and read blogs I'm just not very comfortable leaving comments. **

Book Giveaways and Contests ... new site, part #2

2008-06-06T00:29:00.004-06:00

Wow! It's been quite an adventurous 24 hours launching Up For Grabs. As with any new venture things don't always go as planned especially when one has a lot of enthusiasm for the project and 2 hours of sleep between actually getting the site together and posting some of the first giveaways and contests. I headed to bed about 1am, tossed and turned until 2am running ideas around in circles. Bagging any notion of sleep I headed downstairs to fire up the trusty laptop, logged on and launched Up For Grabs. By 4am I was sure getting some shut eye wouldn't be an issue. Little did I know! I spent some very non-productive time tossing and turning until 5am thinking about the all the little details I hadn't covered. Finally blessed sleep arrived but not to last. Up at 7am working on those pesky details. Now mind you I have severe sleep apnea and need at least a solid 9 hours. I got exactly 2 hours and here I am again home from work at 1130pm Thursday night blogging away until the wee hours of Friday morning. Yikes it's 1am again only this time it's Friday. It seems I'm destined not to get any sleep tonight either.

For those of you aren't familiar with Up For Grabs here's the back story:

Up For Grabs is a site dedicated to listing book giveaways and contests for the independent, non commercial, non income generating blogger. We created this site as a place for readers to share their passion for reading and books with other like minded individuals. It actually started as an offshoot of the Librarything Early Reviewers group BooksANDBlog web ring.

Please feel free to pop on over and check it out. Let us know what you think. Maybe you'll find a giveaway or contest to enter, maybe you have one to post or, best of all, maybe you'll be inspired to do a giveaway or contest of your own.

And there you have it. It is was it is.

Book Giveaways and Contests ... new site, part #1

2008-06-05T09:09:00.006-06:00

Inspired by Tina at Bookshipper who hosts the Librarything Early Reviewers group BooksANDBlogs web ring and Marie at The Boston Bibliophile who hosts Tuesdays Thingers a LT book related meme I started Up For Grabs last night. A site dedicated to listing book giveaways and contests for the independent, non commercial, non income generating blogger. Up For Grabs is a place for readers to share their passion for reading and books with other like minded individuals.

So far I've listed 6 different book giveaways and contests for June. Please stop by and check it out. Stop by often as new giveaways and contests will be posted regularly. Even better subscribe to Up For Grabs through Goggle Reader or any other reader of your choosing.

If you like what you see here please spread the word to your book blogging friends. Add a link on your blog that leads back to Up For Grabs. We love new giveaways and contests!

Escape by Carolyn Jessop with Laura Palmer

2008-06-03T11:37:00.007-06:00

Escape
Carolyn Jessop with Laura Palmer
Broadway
432 pages

"Let's play apocalypse!" was the cry that set us off and running through the orchard of my uncle Lee's house.
~ First sentence, chapter: Child's Play, Escape ~

Seventeen years after being forced into a polygamous marriage, Jessop escaped from the cultlike Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints with her eight children. She recounts the horrid events that led her to break free from the oppressive world she knew and how she has managed to survive since escaping, despite threats and legal battles with her husband and the Church.

This book was rivetting, consuming, gripping and, many times, soul wrenching. It's like watching a really horrific event. You know you should look away but you can't. You're drawn again and again to watch this unbelievably mesmerizing story unfold. It is mind-boggling and the polar opposite of how I was raised. Coming from what is considered a normal upbringing and stable environment in the FLDS community to be given as a wife (she uses the term property) to a man because it has been deemed by the Prophet that he is the one she recounts years and years of untold mental and some physical abuse not only directed towards herself and her children but practiced on a regular basis in this household. Sister wives turning on one another to secure their place in the household. Children turning on children and the other mothers to secure the love of their Father. She reveals the beliefs and practices the of the FLDS religion. You watch as a religion is turned into a cult by a fanatic. Yet through all this comes the hope and knowledge that it is possible to regain your dignity and your self-esteem. To make a life for yourself and family that is good, kind and loving.

If you want a better understanding and first-hand look inside the FLDS religion read this book especially with what is happening in Texas right now.

Tuesday Thingers...

2008-06-03T10:41:00.005-06:00

Marie at The Boston Biblipohile hosts Tuesday Thingers. Today's Tuesday Thingers question is: Why LT? Why did you choose to open and maintain an LT account? Do you/did you use other online cataloging/social networking sites, like GoodReads or Shelfari? Do you use more than one? Are they different or do they serve different purposes?

This dovetails nicely with last week's questions about our LT catalogue. I joined Librarything in March of 2007. I don't remember how I came across the site but I knew from the short tour I took that it was something that would make an impact in my life. I choose to open an LT account to use it as a reading journal more than anything else. After touring last week's answers it appears that I'm in the minority in this sense. Most who answered last week are purists and only catalogue the books they own. If that was the case for me I wouldn't have an LT account. I don't have a physical library in my house. I don't keep my books as I rarely re-read. I choose to either pass them along or return them to library.

I was keeping an excel spreadsheet to track what I'd read. I'd been doing it for about 5+ years. It was simply a way to keep me from buying books that I'd already read. I wasn't tracking any other information. By the time I joined LT that spreadsheet was up to about 10 pages and I had to print an updated copy every time I'd go book shopping ~ not very convenient. Now I can check my library, when browsing a brick & mortar bookstore, using my cell phone.

I love LT. Not only do I catalogue the books I've read it's inspired me to start a reading blog, join the ER group, track reading stats (books read each month, # of pages per month, et cetera) and probably other things I can't think of right now.

I have not used another cataloguing site. I was a member for a very short time of social networking site but elected to leave as it's too much work and was taking away from other areas of my life, introvert traits making themselves known again. I've heard of the other sites such as Shelfair and Goodreads but haven't taken the time to investigate them. I'm not really into networking on a large scale on the Internet.

Tagged with the 6 Random Things About Me meme

2008-06-02T11:34:00.004-06:00

Allison at Allison's Attic tagged me with the 6 Random Things About Me meme. Allison's answers can be found here here.

Rules of the game - Link to the person that tagged you, post the rules somewhere in your meme, write the six random things, tag six people in your post, let the tagees know they’ve been chosen by leaving a comment on their blog, let the tagger know your entry is posted.

Here we go!

1. I'm a humble servant to the feline lords and ladies of the Larsen manor. My spouse and I live merely to serve their every need or so they think. Some of them can be viewed here at Larsen feline family.

2. I work for a major satellite entertainment provide. 'Nough said.

3. I've been married 16+ years. Longer than several friends and co-workers thought I'd be as my spouse had very cold feet. Some have been married, divorced, and married again in the time I've been married. I laugh when I think of all those losing bets.

4. I was a Senate Page during my sophomore year in high school.

5. I'm addicted to my DVR. We usually have upwards of 25 season passes. We have two DVRs in the house and have been known to set both to record when on vacation. We have the ability to record 4 TV shows at one time! We usually don't watch "live" TV anymore. We record just about everything and blow through the commericals.

6. I moved to Idaho 12 years ago after being a life long resident of Washington State.

7. I'm tagging these lucky bloggers:

1. Ohnosecond
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

TBD

Murder is Binding by Lorna Barrett

2008-06-01T10:39:00.005-06:00

Murder is Binding
Lorna Barrett
Berkley
288 pages

"I'll tell you, Trish, we're all victims."
~ First sentence, Murder is Binding ~

When she moved to Stoneham, city slicker Tricia Miles met nothing but friendly faces. And when she opened her mystery bookstore, she met friendly competition. But when she finds Doris Gleason dead in her own cookbook store, killed by a carving knife, the atmosphere seems more cutthroat than cordial. Someone wanted to get their hands on the rare cookbook that Doris had recently purchased-and the locals think that someone is Tricia. To clear her name, Tricia will have to take a page out of one of her own mysteries-and hunt down someone who isn't killing by the book.

This was a very entertaining book. I instantly liked the main character, Tricia Miles, as she's living out my dream ~ owning a book store in small town, sharing her life with good friends and a wonderful cat. Tricia has been accused of murdering Doris by the town sheriff who isn't interested investigating any other suspects as she has her own motives for wanting Tricia behind bars. While Tricia is busy spending her time proving she didn't commit the murder she also helps out a woman who is sure to become a good friend in later books and forms a better relationship with her older, somewhat self-involved sister. There are also side stories along the way that provide clever ways to hide clues. I'm not one to try and figure out whodunit. I purely read cozy mysteries for the fun of it though I did manage to get this one. The mystery of the pamphlets being left in books throughout Stoneham was funny and how they got even more so. I should have seen it but didn't. This is very good start to a new series and I'd happily spend time in Stoneham Village again.

Reading Journal ... Book Binging in May

2008-06-01T10:35:00.003-06:00

Here's my Book Binge list for May. I did better than I thought I would. Yeah for me!

1. Takeover by Lisa Black
2. Southern Fried by Cathy Pickens
3. The Hindi-Bindi Club by Monica Pradhan/f2f BC
4. Some Like It Hot Buttered by Jeffrey Cohen
5. The Sex Lives of Cannibals (Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific) by J. Maarten Troost
6. Patriot Hearts by Barbara Hambly
7. The Whole Truth by David Baldacci
8. The Dark Lantern: A Novel by Gerri Brightwell
9. Legerdemain by James J. Heaphey
10. Murder is Binding by Lorna Barrett

10 books & 3,487 pages

I didn't finish:
Apples & Oranges: My Brother & Me, Lost and Found by Marie Brenner

Tagged with an Author meme

2008-05-31T13:07:00.006-06:00

I was tagged by Kathleen at kbookreviews and Gwen at Litlicense to play this author meme.

Author Meme Rules: Link to the person that tagged you, post the rules somewhere in your meme, answer the questions, tag six people in your post, let the tagees know they’ve been chosen by leaving a comment on their blog, let the tagger know your entry is posted.

1. Who’s your all-time favorite author, and why?
Let's start with a tough one. I would say I don't have one all-time favorite author. I've had several over the years who have come and gone. As my reading tastes change so do authors who I would consider favorites.

OK, OK twist my arm. The "In Death" series by J.D. Robb is a long-time running favorite. I'm always on the hold list at the library for her newest in this series. Now though instant gratification will be mine. I'll be able to order the newest release through my Kindle on it's release date and have it in my hot little hands within a minute. No more waiting for me! And for a person with no patience this better than sliced white bread. 'Nough said. You're either fan or not.

2. Who was your first favorite author, and why? Do you still consider him or her among your favorites?
Marguerite Henry. I remember as a child going to our local library, literally a little two room log cabin, and checking out her books such as Misty of Chincoteague, Misty's Twilight, Stormy: Misty's Foal, et cetera. These stories transported me to world of wild island ponies and fed my girlhood imagine. Like most young girls I was enchanted with horses and went through quite a phase though I knew better to ask for one of my own! At the time I read, and re-read, everything by her that I could get my hands on.

3. Who’s the most recent addition to your list of favorite authors, and why?
Susan Carroll. I have been totally captivated by her Daughter of Earth series ~ The Dark Queen, The Courtesan, The Silver Rose, The Huntress and The Twylight Queen (to be released some time next year). For me this is good historical fiction. The story lines are a bit unique tying together elements of white and black magic with historical time and place.

4. If someone asked you who your favorite authors were right now, which authors would first pop out of your mouth? Are there any you’d add on a moment of further reflection?
In addition to some mentioned earlier in this post here are some all current & long-time favorites: Vince Flynn, Linda O. Johnson, David Baldacci, Deanna Raybourn, Shirley Damsgaard, Michael Connelly.

There aren't any I'd add right now upon reflection but I'm sure by the of the year some might go and some new names might appear.

5. I'm tagging:

1. Planet Books
2. Allison's Attic
3. Ticket to Anywhere
4. 1 More Chapter
5. A Novel Idea
6. Books on the Brain

Legerdemain by James J. Heaphey

2008-05-30T17:23:00.009-06:00

Legerdemain
James J. Heaphey
History Publishing Company
283 pages
This book provided by Lisa Roe ~ Online Publicist

We were surprised by one another.
~ First sentence, chapter 1, Legerdemain ~

Legerdemain is the story of deceit involving once major powers fading from the geopolitical scene and two new powers emerging from World War II and now competing for global dominance in the balance of power. It is set in Morocco, North Africa, but extends into Cyprus and the Middle East. The political problems of the era are hauntingly similar to the problems the U.S. faces today in that part of the world. ~ From the Author's note, Legerdemain ~

First off I knew going into this book that trying to keep all the players straight would be a tall order as it's difficult enough to do so in today's changing geopolitical landscape yet one that is set approximately 50+ years ago. That said I concentrated on story itself and what Mr. Heaphey was asked to do in his role as an undercover operative in the U.S. military. He had a very busy year in 1952. Everything from keeping his cover story in tact as managing editor of the base newspaper, The Minaret, to infiltrating cells of Istiqlal (Freedom Party struggling to free Morocco) to taking down a spy ring that was in his own backyard. Actually one of the spies was employed by Mr. Heaphey at the newspaper in addition to being married to a U.S. military officer.

Reading Legerdemain gives one an understanding of why the U.S. is, at times, viewed negatively in foreign countries around the world today and why certain fanatical off shoots of religious organizations desire to see the U.S. taken to its knees. There are dealings revealed in this book that weren't part of my history class in school. I now understand more about the cold war and U.S./Russian and U.S./French political relations than before. If you are a fan of U.S. military history this is one book that you might think about adding to your library.

Tuesday Thingers... observations of the responses for Tuesday, 5/27

2008-05-29T10:44:00.006-06:00

So I just spent the last half hour or so checking out comments posted to this week's Tuesday Thingers question hosted by Marie at The Boston Bibliophile. For those who missed this week's question here it is: how many books do you have cataloged in your LibraryThing account? How do you decide what to include- everything you have, everything you've read- and are there things you leave off?

I didn't comment on personal blogs this week so I decided to post my observations here. It was a very interesting tour of how one chooses to use Librarything. So far 30 comments have been posted and almost everyone is a "purist" in the sense that they log only those books they physically own just like a brick and mortar library. Some feel very strongly that LT should be used only to track those books they own and not for any other purpose. I find that view very interesting and will leave it there. That being stated if I only used LT to catalogue the books I own instead of using it as, let's say, a reading journal or reference resource, I wouldn't have a LT account. I don't have a physical book library in my house. I don't keep the books I've read and I seldom re-read books. I read a book and pass it on or read and return to the neighborhood library. Now I'll read a book, on my Kindle, and then delete the content when I'm done. I won't be passing those books along but they will be "kept" on my Amazon account so that I can download them again, at anytime, if I want.

I do remember reading a comment or two along the theme that they used LT to catalogue what they've read so if they're browsing a bookstore they can check their LT account to see if they've read or have in their TBR pile a book they're interested in buying so that they don't purchase a duplicate book. I too use LT this way. I'll be browsing the shelves at my local brick & mortar bookstore or even the virtual world of Amazon and come across a book that interests me. Now does it interest me because it fits my reading tastes or does it interest me because I've already read it and it was a really good book? So before I make that purchase let's just take moment to check LT. This has saved me on more than one occasion from purchasing duplicates and allowed me spend my $$$ on books I haven't read.

May we each use LT as fits our needs and move on. Personally I think it one's of the best sites around and love the book community all the more because it. One of the wonderful things it's done is allowed me to find others who share my passion for books and reading and share that passion though each of us does it in our own way.

The Dark Lantern: A Novel by Gerri Brightwell

2008-05-28T10:32:00.007-06:00

The Dark Lantern
Gerri Brightwell
Crown Publishing
336 pages

She sits stiffly on the seat of the cart, her whole self held in against the tumult of the city. ~ First sentence, The Dark Lantern ~

Devon-born housemaid Jane Wilbred has snared her new post with the Bentley family with a letter of reference she forged, omitting any mention of the possibly pertinent fact that her late mother was a notorious murderer. That, however, is trifling compared to the shady games being played both upstairs and downstairs at 32 Cursitor Road while the family matriarch lingers on her deathbed, especially the struggle between mysterious beauty Mina Bentley, wife of younger son Robert, and the wan stranger who claims to be the widow of older brother Henry (drowned recently while sailing home after years in India). Meanwhile, Robert is focused on a battle closer to his heart: winning official recognition for anthropometry, the science of identifying criminals by body measurements. Far from being an arcane digression, Robert's passion eventually figures into the intricate and surprising plot.

Another winning book for me. From the start I wasn't sure exactly what to expect with this story but what I got was a very entertaining, finely crafted read. Full of cunning, deception and intrigue. Every character in this book, especially the leading ladies have some secret to hide and carefully guard because it could be their downfall. Some are not above using what they know, or suspect, the bring others down to save themselves. While the characters may not be admirable and you may even despise them you have to admire their devious ways. The ending is a surprise and not where I thought I'd end up. If you are a fan of Deanna Raybourne's Lady Julia Gray books Silent in the Grave and Silent in the Sanctuary check out The Dark Lantern. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

The Whole Truth by David Baldacci

2008-05-28T10:29:00.005-06:00

The Whole Truth
David Baldacci
Grand Central Publishing
416 pages

"Dick, I need a war."
~ First sentence, The Whole Truth ~

Nicolas Creel is a man on a mission. He heads up the world's largest defense contractor, The Ares Corporation. Dick Pender is the man Creel retains to "perception manage" his company to even more riches by manipulating international conflicts. But Creel may have an even grander plan in mind.

Shaw, a man with no first name and a truly unique past, has a different agenda. Reluctantly doing the bidding of a secret multi-national intelligence agency, he travels the globe to keep it safe and at peace.

Willing to do anything to get back to the top of her profession, Katie James is a journalist who has just gotten the break of a lifetime: the chance to interview the sole survivor of a massacre that has left every nation stunned.

I loved this book. A gripping page-turner start to finish. From the minute Nicholas declares he needs a war to very end where Shaw and Katie have done their best to prevent Nicholas' war there is a whole roller coaster ride in between. One minute you think "Ok we've got 'em" then "they've slipped away again." Around every corner is another twist to the story. Watch out for the character(s) you least expect because they just might be the ones you should be watching closely. With society today being spoon fed what those in power want us to believe and manipulating the media to fit their needs I could envision some, if not all, of this happening. This is David Baldacci at the top of his game. I enjoy reading Mr. Baldacci's work and this is one of his finest. If you're a fan of Vince Flynn and his leading character Mitch Rapp you might just want to give Shaw a try.

Hopefully Shaw, Katie and Frank will be back for an encore just as he's done with the Camel Club.

Tuesday Thingers...

2008-05-27T10:57:00.003-06:00

Marie at The Boston Bibliophile asks: how many books do you have cataloged in your LibraryThing account? How do you decide what to include- everything you have, everything you've read- and are there things you leave off?

My LT library has almost reached the 1,200 book mark. It includes a combination of books I've read over the last 10+ years that I managed to track, books from my TBR pile and some wish list books. It does fluctuate as I've taken some TBR books out that I'll never read and donated to the local bookstore.

I mainly use LT to track what I've read or plan to read. I own very few of the books catalogued as I don't tend to re-read. I use to keep an Excel spreadsheet to track what I've read but it was getting out of control. Then I discovered LT about an year and half ago and I've been hooked ever since.

Patriot Hearts by Barbara Hambly

2008-05-24T14:22:00.004-06:00

Crowds started to gather outside the President's House not long after breakfast. ~ Patriot Hearts, 1st sentence.

Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, Dolley Madison and Sally Hemings: four exceptional women who prevailed over the dangers and hardships of a time like no other, as the men they loved fought for a young country's freedom.

This is a very ambitious book. It covers a 28-year span in the lives of these extraordinary women. For the most part it does a credible job though I feel that trying to cover these four very complicated lives is also a downfall of the book. At times I found myself having trouble keeping the players straight. Each main character has a large or extended family and, nicknames, in addition to given names are used interchangeably for several characters. Also, and I thought only British royalty had a claim to this, several characters go by the same name or a version thereof. I found myself losing track of which character was actually being referred to and their place in the story being told. I feel the story would have been better served covering either a shorter time frame in history or focusing on the most closely related relationships between 2 of the 4 main characters.

Also switching time frames was, at times, confusing. For each of these 4 leading ladies we spent time with them looking back into their earlier life and in the present as it relates to the story. While the author tried to set apart the change in place & time by separating the story sequences with a break it wasn't always clear to me that it had transitioned.

I felt she did a very credible job in setting time and place. Speech, characterization, descriptions, etc. all seemed to fit with the story. One can envision the British troops marching on the Federal City and setting fire to the Presidential Mansion. Just a one can see Thomas Jefferson forever renovating Monticello. Taking tea in the parlor with the ladies while the gentlemen smoke cigars and loudly discuss the political issues of the day, and there were many to be discussed.

Overall I loved the history included in this story and marveled at these 4 strong, independent, leading ladies. I would read more from this author and in fact have her book, The Emancipator's Wife stored on my Kindle for future reading.

My Kindle ... arrived today!

2008-05-22T19:24:00.007-06:00

It definitely felt like Christmas at my house today. Not only did I receive Apples and Oranges: My Brother and Me, Lost and Found by Maria Brenner in the mail today from Nicole at Authors on the Web but my Amazon Kindle arrived courtesy of the UPS man.

I haven't fallen in love this fast with a piece of technology before. I unpacked it, quickly read the users manual provided on the Kindle (paper copy also included), purchased a brand new best seller for $9.99 and had it delivered in under a minute. All of this start to finish took maybe 10 minutes, 15 minutes tops. I don't buy hardbacks. Normally I'm on the hold list at the library, waiting sometimes weeks or months for my turn to come around. Or I wait until the paperback version comes out a year later and then start haunting the used bookstores for a copy. Now instant gratification. For a person who lacks in the patience department this is the perfect toy. Another plus is no more overweight bags when going on vacation because I've loaded up on books which, of course, are necessities compared to, say, clothing and suntan lotion.

Having 200+ books at my fingertips is a reader's delight. All those wonderful titles to choose from and no waiting.

Reading journal ... Patriot Hearts & a quote

2008-05-21T13:05:00.006-06:00

Patriot Hearts, page 224

This is a very ambitious book attempting to cover the lives of Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, Dolley Madison and Sally Hemings over a 28 year period (1787-1815). While the history of our country during this time is undeniably fascinating the cast of characters is overwhelming and, at times, difficult to follow.

Reading Patriot Hearts brings to mind the following quote:

Anyone who says they have only one life to live must not know how to read a book. ~Author Unknown

I've lived several different lives and visited places I never could have gone if it hadn't been for my love affair with books. My books, soon to be an Amazon Kindle, can take me from the pressures and reality of every day life and allow me to create my own alternate universe right in the comfort of my own home. Reading has transported me to the royal courts of England during the reigns of Richard VIII, Elizabeth I and Queen Mary. I've been to future with Lt. Eve Dallas, Roarke and the always entertaining cast of characters from the "In Death" series by J.D. Robb/Nora Roberts. I was there for the building of the Taj Mahal, witnessing the inspiring and tragic love affair of a man and his wife in Beneath a Marble Sky by John Shors. Recently I spent 2 years living on an atoll in the South Pacific by reading The Sex Lives of Cannibals (Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific) by J. Maarten Troost. I discovered an atoll is probably not going to make my list of the top 10 places to relocate but it was a fun and wild ride. If I want to right injustices, take on the bad guys, kick some serious butt, be very opinionated, even with POTUS, and be the unassuming hero I only have to pick up the "Mitch Rapp" series by Vince Flynn.

Ah, to live another life and still enjoy the one I have is the best of both worlds. Nope, I wouldn't trade my books, or Kindle, for most anything you have to offer for denying myself the pleasure they bring is to live in a black and white world.

Tuesday Thingers...

2008-05-20T10:41:00.006-06:00

This week's topic: Discussion groups. Do you belong to any (besides Early Reviewers)? Approximately how many? Are there any in particular that you participate in more avidly? How often do you check?

So I actually had to stop by Librarything before answering just to check the groups that I'm either a member of or just watching. The total is 12. By nature I'm an introvert and that trait has followed me into the virtual world. I'm much more likely to listen, or in this case read, than actively participate. I like to hang back, mull over what's being discussed and then possibly offer something to the group. No jumping in feet first for me. I'm gatherer not a hunter. For me my most active group is the 50 book challenge and that's not really a discussion group as are most others so it fits my introverted personality. I usually check in 3 to 4 times a week just to see what's going on.

Thank you to Marie at The Boston Bibliophile for hosting this new LT meme.

Reading Journal ... Saturday, 5/17/08

2008-05-17T13:11:00.004-06:00

Patriot Hearts, page 35

This is a fictionalized story about Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, Dolley Madison and Sally Hemings. Usually my interest in US history runs to the Civil War but I figured this would be an interesting perspective on the early years of our country from the spouses of the Founding Fathers. It is a bit confusing with so many characters.

I finished The Sex Lives of Cannibals Friday night. The book, for the most part, is an absolute riot. A laugh out loud, side splitting romp through two years of living on an atoll in the South Pacific. For such a small place lots of mis-adventures take place.

I spent most of yesterday re-formatting my blog. The ER group at Librarything started a book blog web ring thread which lead to several of us adding blog links to our own sites. As I only had a 2-column blog I felt I needed a 3-column blog to accommodate all these links. It was a bit of an adventure as I'm not the slightest bit HTML savvy. It was easy to update to 3-columns thanks to Blogcrowds. The hard part was updating the color scheme to the look I was currently using. That's where being HTML savvy would have come in very handy. If anybody had stopped by during that process they would have thought I was on some serious mind altering drugs. I had to turn all text and tags outrageous colors and then work my way back to a pleasing color scheme.

This same group has also started a new group meme on Tuesdays which I didn't participate in this week. I'm a bit behind but look forward to joining next week.

The Sex Lives of Cannibals (Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific) by J. Maarten Troost

2008-05-16T11:55:00.007-06:00

"It can't carry water."

This was an interesting problem for a fire truck on an island without anything like hydrants. Tarawa's lone fire truck was of a certain age and long past its prime. It resided at the airport, where, to satisfy regulatory need, it was trotted out to edge of the runway to attend each landing and takeoff. That it could do nothing in case of fire was entirely beside the point. ~ The Sex Lives of Cannibals (Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific), page 84 ~

At the age of twenty-six, Maarten Troost - who had been pushing the snooze button on the alarm clock of life by racking up useless graduate degrees and muddling through a series of temp jobs - decided to pack up his flip-flops and move to Tarawa, a remote South Pacific island in the Republic of Kiribati. He was restless and lacked direction, and the idea of dropping everything and moving to the ends of the earth was irresistibly romantic. He should have known better.

Yes, he should have known better but luckily for us he didn't. What he and the beguiling girlfriend, Sylvia, encounter over the next 2 years is nearly unbelievable but true. Their adventures are delivered in humorous fashion for there is no other way to survive on an atoll. You must take everything that comes your way with a grain of salt. In some cases quite literally. Life on an atoll is beyond anything any one of us living in the States could comprehend much less live through. At times this book had me laughing out loud. Taking a "bath" in the ocean because you've spent the day cleaning water tanks, that still have no water, only to discover that your swimming buddy is a shark. Or listening to La Macarena for hours on end at ear-splitting decibels. It's one of those rare books that when you're reading in public trying to suppress your laughter and amazement those around you will turn and stare. And the fun doesn't end of here for he's written a second book, Getting Stone with the Savages, which as moved to right near the top of my TBR pile.

Cultural note ~ for those of you who are animal lovers and count among your family members the cats and dogs who share your hearts and homes you'll want to skip Chapter 14.

Reading Journal ... Wednesday, 5/14/08

2008-05-14T12:30:00.002-06:00

The Sex Lives of Cannibals (Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific), page 109

This book is absolutely a riot. It's one of those books that when you read it in public you better be prepared for people turn and look because you're laughing hysterically and just can't help yourself. Even the smallest situation in the hands of J. Maarten Troost becomes one of epic portions with just right amount sensibility thrown in just so you he hasn't completely lost it. The writing is as out there as his life on Tarawa. One of those books I just can't seem to put down and pick whenever the opportunity presents itself. Sneaking paragraphs and chapters in between email and answering that dang ringing phone. Don't my co-workers know that I have something better to do. Just the table of contents alone is full of his humor and gives one a taste of what's to come if you choose to step inside this adventure.

The scene where he encounters the shark while swimming off the reef, actually Tarawa' version of a bath after cleaning the water tanks, is priceless and well worth the money paid for this gem.

A sample of what's to come:

Chapter One
In which the Author expresses some Dissatisfaction with the State of his Life, ponders briefly prior Adventures and Misfortunes, and with the aid of his Beguiling Girlfriend, decides to Quit the Life that is known him and make forth with all Due Haste for Parts Unknown. ~ The Sex Lives of Cannibals (Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific), Table of Contents ~

Some Like It Hot Buttered by Jeffrey Cohen

2008-05-14T12:20:00.003-06:00

Some Like It Hot Buttered, Double Feature Mystery #1
Jeffrey Cohen

http://tobecontinued2.blogspot.com/2008/05/just-finished.html

Reading Journal ... Monday, 5/12/08

2008-05-12T10:29:00.001-06:00

The Sex Lives of Cannibals (Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific), page 30

Now tell me who could resist a book with sex and cannibals in title? I love travelogues. If I can't physically travel there then what better way is there to go then through a book. I'm starting chapter 4 this morning and already I've laughed more in the first 30 pages then I laughed at a book in a long, long time. They've barely gotten out of the states and the grand mis-adventure has begun.

Just finished Some Like It Hot Buttered by Jeffrey Cohen for the Yahoo! book group Cozy First Mysteries. It's a new series with, I believe, lots of potential. It contains movie references so it helps if one is a movie buff especially comedy, black and whites at that. Movie trivia aside I enjoyed the book and didn't figure out the villains until the main character did it for me.

The Hindi-Bindi Club by Monica Pradhan

2008-05-09T16:01:00.005-06:00

My great-aunt, widowed at fourteen, was a manglik. Three months after marriage, her husband was hit by a double-decker bus. He died instantly at the age of twenty-one. As custom dictated, she never again wore jewelry, or a tip (bindi) on her forehead, or sindoor in the part of her hair - all symbols of a married woman. Nor did she remarry, as widow remarriage was - still is, but to a much lesser extent - considered shameful in traditional Hindu culture. ~ The Hindi-Bindi Club, page 223 ~

For decades they have remained close, sharing treasured recipes, honored customs, and the challenges of women shaped by ancient ways yet living modern lives. They are the Hindi-Bindi Club, a nickname given by their American daughters to the mothers who left India to start anew - daughters now grown and facing struggles of their own.

For Kiran, Preity, and Rani, adulthood bears the indelible stamp of their upbringing, from the ways they tweak their mothers' cooking to suit their Western lifestyles to the ways they reject their mothers' most fervent beliefs. Now, bearing the disappointments and successes of their chosen paths, these daughters are drawn inexorable home.

I loved this book. It's one of my top choices so far in '08. It's witty, humorous, insightful, real. It's more than chick lit, more than mother-daughter relationships. It's about honoring family and tradition. The struggles and triumphs of blending two cultures vastly different from one another - Eastern beliefs with Western attitudes. Because the author was raised in a household very much like those of her characters this book is authentic. She knows of what she writes. She brings her characters to life and makes us care bout them. She involves us in their lives. I actually wanted to know these people, be a part of their world. I'd like to visit more with them. I want to know how their stories play out.

Just because people don't love you the way you want, doesn't mean they don't love you the best they can. ~ The Hindi-Bindi Club, page 19 ~

Reading Journal ... Thursday, 5/8/08

2008-05-08T18:23:00.004-06:00

The Hindi-Bindi Club, page 220

I'm so enjoying this book. Witty, humorous, insightful, real life. I could go on and on but need to save something for my review once I finish. At times I feel like I'm reading about my life or at least parts of it. I hope the book girls like it as much as I do.

May book binging isn't going as I hoped. I know it's only May 8th and I'm on my 3rd book but it doesn't seem like I'm getting much quality reading time. I figured once I got done with double shifts at work that I'd have my nose in a book in my spare hours but not to be. I'm trying to catch up on chores like grocery shopping and laundry. Also TV shows in the DVR queue need watching as they won't stay there forever or I'll get so far behind I'll never catchup.

Trolling one of my favorite book blogs today (Caribousmom) I came across a home for book bloggers: Book Blogs. I immediately signed up. What a wonderful way to come together, share my passion for reading & books with other who feel the way I do and find great book-related blogs in one place. I can feed my habit without having go to several different sites. I put a Book Blogs member badge on both my blogs.

Reading Journal ... Wednesday, 5/7/08

2008-05-07T10:37:00.004-06:00

The Hindi-Bindi Club, page 82

I usually stay away from Chick Lit style books but I have to admit this one is better than most. The mother-daughter expectations of the 3 main characters, daughters of immigrant Indian mothers, is very interesting. While for the most part the daughters are Americanized they struggle with their upbringing and heritage which is 180 degree different. Where this is headed I don't really know but the ride should fun.

Reading Journal ... Monday, 5/5/08

2008-05-05T10:46:00.006-06:00

The Hindi-Bindi Club, page 1

Just finished Southern Fried by Cathy Pickens. This is my 1st book for May's Book Binge. I'm between so-so and recommended on this one. I think it'll take reading the second in the series to get a good feel for the main character, Avery Andrews.

The next book to read was a toss up between The Hindi-Bindi Club and The Sex Lives of Cannibals. How does one pass up a travel memoir with a title that has sex and cannibals in it? The Hindi-Bindi Club won as it's my f2f BC book. Seeing as I didn't read the one for last month and we're having dinner next week I thought I'd better get started. The Sex Lives of Cannibals has been on my Amazon wish list for a while now so it's right at the top of the TBR pile, probably right after Some Like It Hot Buttered by Jeffrey Cohen for a Yahoo! book group.

Southern Fried by Cathy Pickens

2008-05-05T10:36:00.003-06:00

Southern Fried by Cathy Pickens
Southern Fried/Avery Andrews #1

http://tobecontinued2.blogspot.com/2008/05/just-finished.html

Reading Journal ... Book Binging in May

2008-05-03T20:26:00.007-06:00

I'm book binging in May thanks to Literaryfeline.

Here’s how it goes: For the month of May, participants keep track of each and every book you read. At the end of the month, everyone will blog their list of books. Simple, no?

For simplicity’s sake, and to allow people time to hear about it and sign up if they want, we’ll start on Monday, May 5th. We will all publish our lists on June 1.

Other rules:

- You can include books you re-read, so long as you re-read them in between May 5 and 31.
- You may also include books you start but don’t finish, just note the page at which you gave it up. Something like, “Quit, page 47 of 322″.
- You may only include books you read aloud to your children if they are at least 125 pages long.
- Students may include textbooks (if they’re at least 100 pages long).

Book Binge

Takeover by Lisa Black

2008-05-02T16:36:00.004-06:00

No cover image available, Early Reviewers book through Librarything

Forensic scientist Theresa MacLean is investigating a grisly murder when she gets word that her finance has been taken hostage with seven others in a bank robbery. Arriving at the scene, she discovers that the police have brought in Cleveland's best hostage negotiator. Handsome, high-profile Chris Cavanaugh hasn't lost a victim yet but Theresa wonders if he might be too arrogant to save the day this time around.

Wary of Cavanaugh, she seizes an opportunity to trade herself for her injured fiance. Once on the inside, Theresa will use all her wiles, experience, and technical skill to try to get control of the crisis. Yet nothing can prepare her what is about to unfold...

This is a very good first book from debut author Lisa Black. She starts right in the with suspense and doesn't let up until the hostage situation reaches it's final resolution. Tension builds and then backs off only to build up over and over again throughout the plot line. Ms. Black puts her background in the forensics field to good use and highlights a skill that you won't see on CSI on Thursday nights. This is one book where you must pay attention to the way characters say things as clues are hidden within the context of a statement.

You never know exactly what the hostages takers have in store for their victims nor do you clearly understand their motive until the end. Lead character Theresa MacLean is full of surprises of her own. She doesn't necessarily do the unexpected but she does lead down you an unexpected path to a co-conspirator.

This book kept me turn pages and I definitely look forward to reading more from this author.

Reading Journal ... Thursday, 5/1/08

2008-05-01T16:15:00.006-06:00

Takeover by Lisa Black, page 160 (no cover image available)

This a good read from a debut author. I'm about 1/2 way through. It's been moving along at a good pace with just the right amount of tension. The characters are an interesting mix and you never quite know what her lead character or hostage takers are going to do and what their ultimate plans might be. There is definitely suspense here and, I believe, she is achieving her writing goal.

I was able to play the Booking Through Thursdays (http://btt2.wordpress.com/2008/05/) meme today. I haven't done this in so long and really missed answering book(ish) questions. Today's was an easy one: At the airport, no book in hand, what do you do? Check out the link for answers.

April's reading stats below. While not the usual number of books for me, it's low ~ about 1/2 my usual consumption ~ I've taken into account I worked double shifts the whole month so I didn't do too bad.

1. The Appeal by John Grisham
2. A Rose for the Crown by Anne Easter Smith
3. Franklin and Lucy by Joseph E. Persico/Early Reviewers
4. The Venetian Mask by Rosalind Laker/Early Reviewers
5. Predatory Game by Christine Feehan

Mayday ... Booking Through Thursday - 5/1/08

2008-05-01T15:48:00.006-06:00

Quick! It’s an emergency! You just got an urgent call about a family emergency and had to rush to the airport with barely time to grab your wallet and your passport. But now, you’re stuck at the airport with nothing to read. What do you do??

And, no, you did NOT have time to grab your bookbag, or the book next to your bed. You were . . . grocery shopping when you got the call and have nothing with you but your wallet and your passport (which you fortuitously brought with you in case they asked for ID in the ethnic food aisle). This is hypothetical, remember….

I immediately head into withdrawal, tremors wrack my body and desperation sets in when I realize that I'm bookless. Only by heading to the closest book seller at the airport and surrounding myself with "friends" does the recovery process start. If I happen to be reading a current best seller I'll simply replace it. I have no problem buying a 2nd copy as it's for a good cause. If I can't replace my current reading selection I will start seeking out favorite authors in hopes that I can find a treasure in the form a book that I haven't read yet. If no replacement copy or favorite author I'll take a chance on a new-to-me author that I've been wanting to try and just haven't gotten around to due the towering TBR piles that have taken over my home office. As a last resort I'll buy a magazine. I can't leave empty handed. I must have something to read.

http://btt2.wordpress.com/2008/05/

Reading Journal ... Wednesday, 4/30/08

2008-04-30T15:19:00.003-06:00

Takeover by Lisa Black, page 60 (no cover image available)

This is a book I received through Early Reviewers at Librarything. It's a debut suspense novel due out in August of this year. So far, so good. She steps right into story and doesn't waste any time before the action starts. If it continues at this pace I'd be willing to read future work by the new author.

I joined a yahoo book group that reads the 1st book in a different cozy mystery series every month. As there are so many cozies out there choose from this takes all the decision making out of my hands and I get an excuse to get a new book every month. I know I wasn't going to buy any more books because I want a Kindle but I'm going through withdrawal. The group link is: Cozyfirstmysteries.

I've spent all day catching up on both blogs. I didn't realize how far I was behind until I started this morning. Now that To Be Continued... is updated it should just be maintenance and not consume as much time. There were things I wanted to do but couldn't with the hours I've been working. It's not only cut into my blog time but definitely cut down on my reading. It's been interesting to start a blog dedicated to a perpetual series reading challenge. It's a bit like re-inventing the wheel as so many other readers have their own series links from their regular blogs but over time I think it will take on a life of it's own. If it doesn't then it will become my own series blog and that's fine too. Actually that's kind of what it has turned out to be right now.

My goal was to read, read, read on these days off I finally have but life gets in the way again. Now it's TV so the DVR doesn't blow up from overload. I guess the books will always be there but the shows won't if the DVR starts deleting to make room for new ones. Having 15+ season passes for a dedicated book reader is way too many.

Predatory Game by Christine Feehan

2008-04-30T13:33:00.003-06:00

Predatory Game by Christine Feehan
GhostWalkers #6

http://tobecontinued2.blogspot.com/2008/04/just-finished.html

Reading Journal ... Sunday, 4/27/08

2008-04-27T10:56:00.004-06:00

Predatory Game, page 67

This the only paranormal style series that I read. This isn't my usual genre but I've enjoyed this series because it's grounded in reality with the paranormal mixed in as traits that could be possible in humans today. This series is heavy with sexual content so that might turn off some readers.

Just when I thought I was back on track to reading and writing work got in the way this past week. I'm not making as much progress as I usually do in a month but overall April hasn't been as bad as I thought it might be. I'm on my 5th book this month and moderately respectable 2,000+ pages.

I've finished both my books for Early Reviewers at Librarything and owe my thoughts on each. One fiction and one non-fiction. Franklin and Lucy is a look at the personal relationship of the Roosevelt's and the women in Franklin Roosevelt's orbit. The Venetian Mask is set in Venice in late 1700s and is based on the vendetta between 2 families.

I've been able to make some minor updates to my perpetual reading challenge blog, To Be Continued. I hope to get some more work done on this blog later this week.

The Venetian Mask by Rosalind Laker

2008-04-27T09:56:00.004-06:00

At the Ospedale della Petia, a music school for orphaned girls in Venice, Marietta Fontana and Elena Baccini meet and become like sisters to each other. As they leave their impoverished childhoods behind, their bond grows more complicated - Elena marries a scion of the powerful Celano family, while Marietta weds a wealthy widower who is the sworn enemy of the Celanos. When Elena secretly bears a child, then quickly gives it up to be raised by Marietta, a chain of events is set off that will test the true strength of their friendship and threaten every bit of security each woman has worked so hard to gain.

Overall I enjoyed this book but didn't find anything to set it apart from the wealth of historical fiction on the market today. The story line and the descriptions of the place (Venice) and time (late 1700s) were the things that kept my interest in this book. The writing could have been more polished and cleaned up considering this is a repackaged book originally released in 1993.

Franklin and Lucy by Joseph E. Persico

2008-04-20T12:44:00.002-06:00

While Franklin Roosevelt's official circle was predominantly male, it was FDR's relationships with women - in particular with Lucy Rutherfurd - that best reveal the human being beneath this towering statesman. In Franklin and Lucy, Joseph E. Persico explores FDR's long-term romance with Lucy. Persico's provocative conclusions about the relationship are informed by a revealing range of sources, including never-before-published letters and documents from Lucy Rutherfurd's estate that attest to the unrecognized scope of the affair. Persico also takes a meaningful look at the other women in Roosevelt's life, including his wife, Eleanor; his "surrogate spouse," Missy LeHand; and the obscure Margaret "Daisy" Suckley, his close confidante. In focusing on Lucy Rutherfurd and the other women who mattered in Roosevelt's life, Joseph Persico paints a more intimate portrait than we have heretofore had of this enigmatic giant of American history.

Not knowing more about the Roosevelts than both are great figures in American history I found this book interesting and very readable. It gives readers an inside look at the relationship between Franklin and Eleanor and how with it many twists and turns it allowed them each to become the great leaders they were. Their relationship, overall, appears to be one of two very strong minded individuals who came together not out of love but out of mutual respect and forged a relationship that allowed them to move beyond the confines of the traditional, conventional relationship of their time.

While a book of this type, is to some degree, based on conjecture as we weren't there and intimately involved with the subjects this isn't a gossipy tell all. The author has incorporated many well researched sources from family members to personal confidantes. It's a well written, fact-based biography citing conversations, journal entries, memoirs and letters between Franklin and Eleanor and their close circle.

Reading Journal ... Sunday, 4/20/08

2008-04-20T12:31:00.005-06:00

The Venetian Mask, page 51

I'm reading this for Early Reviewers at Librarything though I have to admit it really shouldn't be considered an Early Reviewers book when it was originally published in 1993! I just finished Franklin and Lucy, also for Early Reviewers at Librarything. I've had so little time to read with working double shifts at work that I've only managed 2 books in April. That's a disgrace for me but it can't be helped when one works 70 hour weeks.

I jumped in both feet first today and decided to host a perpetual reading challenge for series lovers. It's called To Be Continued... and can be found at http://tobecontinued2.blogspot.com. This is a 1st for me so we'll see how it goes.

I canceled my f2f book club this month. I'm so overwhelmed and busy. Besides, it doesn't make much sense to meet when the host hasn't even read the book! Oh well life should be back to normal soon.

A Rose for the Crown by Anne Easter Smith

2008-04-01T12:06:00.005-06:00

The two brothers circled each other cautiously, both heads covered in chain mail with bucklers on their left arms. Their swords glinted in the morning sun, and their armor clanked as they moved. Clarence suddenly charged and attempted to strike the first blow, but Richard's sword went up and parried it neatly. Clarence was stepping back to regain his footing when Richard sprang forward and delivered a thrust that caught Clarence's shield with a loud clang. Clarence laughed affably. "Nicely done, Dickon. I see you are no longer just my little brother, but I believe I must teach you a lesson." ~ A Rose for the Crown, page 322 ~

As Kate Haute moves from her peasant roots to the luxurious palaces of England, her path is inextricably intertwined with that of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, later King Richard III. Although they could never marry, their young passion grows into a love that sustains them through war, personal tragedy, and the dangerous heights of political triumph.

This was a new-to-me author the book cover and title having caught my eye while browsing in Target one day. It was a enjoyable story though maybe a bit long at 632 pages. The author does a credible job of bringing to life the complex story of Richard III and the mystery woman who bore him 3 bastards. Her name and story do not appear anywhere in archives yet the author takes what little is recorded and creates her lead character, Kate Haute. The story spans Kate's childhood, starting at age 9, up to Richard's death approximately 32 years later. The author spent many years researching her work and it shows in the writing style. The story is very descriptive of time and place. I would recommend this book to those who like reading historical fiction.

The Appeal by John Grisham

2008-04-01T12:04:00.003-06:00

At 11:00am, Tony moved the show south to McComb, the eleventh-largest city in the district. (Brookhaven ranked fourteenth with a population of 10,800.) Traveling in a newly leased Chevrolet Suburban, with a volunteer named Guy at the wheel, with his new but already indispensable first assistant, Monte, in the front seat and on the phone, and with Doreen sitting by his side on the rather spacious middle bench of the SUV, Ron Fisk smiled smugly at the countryside flying by him. It was a moment to be savored. His first foray into politics, and in such grand style. All those supporters, their enthusiasm, the press and the cameras, the heady challenge of the job ahead, the thrill of winning, all in just the first two hours of the campaign. The strong rush of adrenaline was only a sample of what was coming. He imagined a great victory in November. He could see himself springing from the mundane anonymity of a small-town law practice to the prestige of the supreme court. It all lay before him. ~ The Appeal, page 199 ~

The latest from John Grisham is all about buying the election of a supreme court justice. In this case big business throws huge dollar amounts around, they pick a unknown candidate to put up against an unsuspecting sitting supreme court justice, they spread lots misleading campaign information at the general public all in an attempt to buy themselves a verdict. This isn't a book full of fast paced action, there aren't any chase scenes, no big bad guys in black brandishing guns. This is a thinking book. It's about everyday people, you and me, doing something we know is right and hoping and praying that those we've elected, in the end, will also do the right thing.

While many have complained that Mr. Grisham writes for the masses and his work is formalistic I still enjoy his books. He never fails to entertain me and, really, bottom line that's what it's all about. He writes about the relevant topics of the day, brings them into our lives and lays them at our feet. I enjoyed it and I''m looking forward to his next book.

Silent in the Sanctuary by Deanna Raybourn

2008-03-28T10:46:00.006-06:00

I has passed Sir Cedric's door and had almost reached the Tower Room when I felt a rush of air against my face. I opened my mouth to exclaim, but before I could do so, a strong hand clamped about my wrist and dragged me into the room. The door was closed behind me and I was pushed up against it, the hand now firmly pressed over my mouth. ~ Silent in the Sanctuary, page 262 ~

Fresh from a six-month sojourn in Italy, Lady Julia returns home to Sussex to find her father's estate crowded with family and friends - but dark deeds are afoot at the deconsecrated abbey, and a murderer roams the ancient cloisters.

I found this book every bit as intriguing and entertaining as Silent in the Grave. She spends more time setting up the murder, it takes places half way through the story instead of right at the start. Clues are cleverly hidden in plain sight and you must be skillful in determining what is useful and what is not. I didn't uncover the murderer until it was revealed in the story nor did I see another twist that was coming for her aunt. All the same characters from Silent in the Grave are here along with some new ones. The relationship between Lady Julia and Nicholas Brisbane is interesting as you "watch" the give and take between these two. I'm all for keeping them at a distance letting the charged atmosphere swirl around them.

If you enjoy murder mysteries set in historical England add this author to your reading list. Personally I'm looking forward to the next Lady Julia Grey mystery.

Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn

2008-03-27T10:59:00.004-06:00

I dove after it, although I cannot imagine why. Did I think I would find scissors and glue pot secreted inside? Actually I rather liked the idea of Renard as villain. I had always found him distasteful, and the notion of dismissing him without either pay or character was wildly appealing. ~ Silent in the Grave, page 276 ~

Prepared to accept that Edward's death was due to a long-standing physical infirmity, Julia is outraged when Brisbane visits and suggests that Sir Edward has been murdered. It is a reaction she comes to regret when she discovers the damning paper for herself, and realizes the truth.

Determined to bring her husband's murderer to justice, Julia engages the enigmatic Brisbane to help her investigate Edward's demise. Dismissing his warnings that the investigation will be difficult, if not impossible, Julia presses forward, following a trail of clues that lead her to even more unpleasant truths, and ever closer to a killer who waits expectantly for her arrival.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It has many twists and turns, taking you places you don't expect to go and revealing a killer you'd, almost, never suspect. If you suspect the least likely character you might be right but then again you might not. This book is populated with all sorts of interesting characters and family secrets. You have the outrageously eccentric requisite family members, the quiet unassuming widow, and the lead investigator who has his own dark history. Put all this together along with scandal and murder and you have quite a story. I was pulled in from the opening chapters and not let go until the last page. There's plenty going on the keep a reader interested and turning pages. I so enjoyed this book, 1st in a series, that I immediately started reading the 2nd one, Silent in the Sanctuary.

Nothing to Fear but Ferrets by Linda O. Johnston

2008-03-27T10:25:00.005-06:00

I found myself aiming the Beamer down the San Diego Freeway towards Palms. And then cruising the street where Chad had lived. Why? Hell if I knew. But I was pretty frustrated that I couldn't just haul out some helpful facts and hand them to Noralles to get Charlotte off the hook. Maybe Yul, too. ~ Nothing to Fear but Ferrets, page 139 ~

Kendra knows that the furry ferrets her tenants keep are illegal, but she didn't realize they could be downright criminal. Nevertheless, when she finds a corpse in her renters' den, all clues point to the playful pets. The victim just happens to be dreamy Chad Chatsworth, the latest reality show sensation who has a lot of enemies both on - and off - camera. Kendra's pretty sure that all of his rivals were of the two-legged kind. Something smells funny about the supposed cause of death - and it isn't the ferrets...

This is series that I read for fun. I was a pet sitter for seven years so I identify with Kendra and her pet sitting escapades though thank heavens I haven't come across dead bodies. The book, 2nd in the series, is populated with fun, quirky, interesting characters. Kendra is forever stumbling in and out of trouble. I didn't figure who the murderer was until right before the revealing in the book. She does a respectable job of giving clues but not giving away the who done it. The books in this cozy mystery series are fun, breezy entertaining reads.

The Russian Concubine by Kate Furnivall

2008-03-23T11:04:00.003-06:00

The wind snatched at his words and the night sky swallowed them. Around him he could hear swords being drawn and the hiss of sharp breath, but none dared approach too close, and a callused hand had the sense to seize the dog by the scruff. Chang felt the power of the movement. It rose in him like typhoon, racing through his veins and driving all fear before it. He must enjoy this moment, taste its sweetness. It could be his last. ~ The Russian Concubine, page 246 ~

Junchow, China, 1928. Perhaps it's her red hair, or her hard life. Whatever the reason, Lydia Ivanova has a fierce spirit. Nothing can dim it, not even the foul waters of the Peiho River. Into the river's grime bodies are tossed, those of thieves and Communists alike. So every time she steals some marketplace treasure, the sixteen-year-old take her life in her hands. Her mother, Valentina, numbered among the Russian elite until Bolsheviks rounded them up. They took her husband, but Valentina managed to buy back her child and bring her to China.

Now, though mother and daughter live in the whites-only International Settlement, no walls can keep Lydia in. She escapes to meet Chang An Lo, a handsome youth with fire in his eyes. He returns her love, but other dangers threaten him. Chiang Kai-shek's troops are headed toward Junchow to kill Reds like him - and in his possession are the priceless jewels of a dead tsarina, meant as a gift for the despot's wife. Their all-consuming love can only bring shame and peril upon the pair, from both sides. Those in power will do anything to quell it. But Lydia and Chang are powerless to end it...

For the most part I enjoyed this book. It was a pleasant read though not anything that grabbed me and wouldn't let go. I thought the last 100 pages were the best by far. It falls somewhere between so-so and recommended. I couldn't relate the book's title to the actual story line which I think is what threw me from really enjoying this book. I kept expecting one plot line when it was something totally different. I found myself most interested in the culture and history of the time period rather than the story itself.

I would give this author another try though she's not at the top of my "have to read" list.