Book a Week 2016 - BW10: bicycles, beaches and books

[Jane in NC]

I am a doctor. I have to admit I didn't really pick up on that background ethical question in Jar City. At all. I'll chalk it up to being a bit sick as I was reading it instead of being really unobservant. 

 

In general on the ethical question, I'm not sure it's true. I think there is a fair amount of shame for people who are smokers or very obese. It depends a bit on where you are and the circumstances but we call alcoholism and drug addiction diseases and generally support treatment in ways that we wouldn't for a smoker. Or for someone who struggles with overeating. I'm a pediatrician so these aren't really issues I deal with as a doctor. Kids rarely if ever have disease that are a result of their lifestyle (can be because of familial lifestyle but we as a society don't blame a 7 year old for obesity in the same way we would blame a 27 year old). But I know in training that as a doctor we were taught to try to treat the disease and not focus on the choices that a person might have made to get to the point of the disease. That doesn't mean that you don't advise an overweight person to change their diet or a smoker to give up smoking. But it means that a person with lung cancer who smoked isn't somehow less deserving of sympathy, care and compassion than a person with lung cancer who never smoked. 

 

The background story line on the detective and his daughter is what gave me pause in this book. It was the daughter who said something along the lines of "Well look at you" to her dad.  So maybe it was not a huge ethical question that was raised by the author but a moment in which I said Wow. 

 

Funny how a book or character can do that.

 

[Kareni]

Earlier I finished Heidi Cullinan's Lonely Hearts which is the third book in her Love Lessons series.  I enjoyed it; however, one must start with at least book two in this series (and preferably book one) because much of the story is developed before this book begins.  (Adult content.)  Characters from the author's Dance With Me (which has stunning cover art) also made an appearance; it was fun to recognize them in this book. 

 

"With the quiet help of his wealthy family, Sebastian “Baz†Acker has successfully kept his painful past at bay. But as the end of college draws near, his friends—his buffer zone—are preparing to move on, while his own life is at a crippling standstill.

 

With loneliness bearing down on him, Baz hooks up—then opens up—with Elijah Prince, the guy Baz took a bullet for last year. The aftershocks of their one-night stand leave giant cracks in Baz’s carefully constructed armor. For the first time, the prospect isn’t terrifying.

Accustomed to escaping his demons by withdrawing into his imagination, Elijah isn’t used to having a happy herd of friends. He’s even less comfortable as the object of a notorious playboy’s affections. Yet all signs seem to indicate this time happiness might be within his grasp.

 

When Baz’s mother runs for a highly sought-after public office, the media hounds drag Baz’s and Elijah’s pasts into the light. In the blinding glare, Baz and Elijah face the ultimate test: discovering if they’re stronger together…or apart."

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Stacia]

Today is International Women's Day. So Happy IWD to all my cool & inspiring BaW gal-pals! :cheers2:

 

Also, in honor of IWD, Archipelago Books sent this:

 

In celebration of International Women's Day,
we invite you to take 70% off all of our titles written by women through the end of this week!

Simply use coupon code "WomensDay"
at check-out!

 

 

Fyi, here is a list of their books by author. I think I might be doing a little shopping.... :)

 

 

[MaeFlowers]

I loved that book, even more than The Dog Stars. But I also loved all of the descriptions. The entire book felt like a work of beauty, like a painting telling a story.

 

I read it a year ago, so some of the details of fuzzy for me. I don't often reread books, but I may reread that one. I had bought it when Amazon had it cheap. :) I would like to read his other books, but the library doesn't have them for Kindle. I may have to get the hard copies from there this summer.

 

I really want him to come out with a new book.:D

I'm so glad someone else has read this! I haven't read his other books. In reading reviews, it seems that so many people who loved Dog Stars, hated this book.

 

I just don't understand how I went from disliking the book to loving it. I also don't understand how I liked the main character so much. He wasn't a good guy, right? I mean, in real life, would I have liked this guy? How did the writer create a person who did so many wrongs (big ones) that you want to forgive?

[Kim in Appalachia]

I'm so glad someone else has read this! I haven't read his other books. In reading reviews, it seems that so many people who loved Dog Stars, hated this book.

 

I just don't understand how I went from disliking the book to loving it. I also don't understand how I liked the main character so much. He wasn't a good guy, right? I mean, in real life, would I have liked this guy? How did the writer create a person who did so many wrongs (big ones) that you want to forgive?

 

 

I don't know that I liked him, but I understood him.  I think the writer did an excellent job of showing how something can get completely out of hand and keep having repercussions.  The starkness of the area made it all seem very believable.  

[Ethel Mertz]

I finished Ann Howard Creel's While You Were Mine. It was one of the free books on Amazon. Not a bad light read, though it was predictable. I'm currently most of the way through Naomi Novik's Uprooted. I've been glued to it all day ... until the battery on my tablet needed to be recharged. 

[Kareni]

 I'm currently most of the way through Naomi Novik's Uprooted. I've been glued to it all day ... until the battery on my tablet needed to be recharged. 

 

That was a fun read!  I'm glad you're enjoying it (that is, assuming your tablet has been recharged).

 

**

 

I just finished an intriguing book.  I no longer recall what caused me to request this book; I likely came across the title in a list of epistolary books.  It's not quite what I was expecting, but it was interesting nonetheless.  I read about half of it, skimmed the rest, and listened to the accompanying CD.

 

For the Sender: Love Letters from Vietnam by Alex Woodard

 

"Dear Sergeant Fuller,

You won’t know me for another two years,

but I am your daughter.

 

So begins a letter sent decades into the past, from a daughter searching for answers to a soldier serving in war-torn Vietnam, in this true story of service and sacri­fice, love and redemption, and the power of forgiveness.

 

A box with Love Letters from Vietnam etched on the lid waits buried in a closet, holding scrawled thoughts written on Air Force stationery from a passionate yet deeply flawed soldier stationed outside Da Nang to his young wife in east Texas. Years pass before a fate­ful, deadly winter night leads the soldier’s daughter, Jennifer, to open the box, read the letters, and answer her father back in time. She tucks her letters into a package with no address, because she no longer knows where to send them.

 

Until she is sitting in a theater in Austin, Texas, at a performance by singer-songwriter Alex Woodard and hears him talk about writing songs inspired by letters. Her remarkable correspondence with her father takes Woodard on his first steps into the dichotomy between dark and light, as he imagines himself as Ser­geant Fuller in Vietnam and begins to write songs sung from Fuller’s heart.

 

Woodard’s quest to learn more about the man and the war he fights both in Vietnam and back at home evolves into an extraordinary journey, propelled by a companion album of songs that features Woodard as Sergeant Fuller and his friend Molly Jenson as Jennifer. Their voices carry the songs inspired by these beautiful, raw, revealing love letters not only sent from Vietnam, but as the story unfolds, beyond."

 

 

The book contains letters (historical and present day) as well as details of the author/songwriter's life and discussion of the plight of veterans.  And there's also the CD of songs inspired by the letters.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Alice]

The background story line on the detective and his daughter is what gave me pause in this book. It was the daughter who said something along the lines of "Well look at you" to her dad.  So maybe it was not a huge ethical question that was raised by the author but a moment in which I said Wow. 

 

Funny how a book or character can do that.

 

 

Yes, I saw that after you mentioned the ethical question. I just didn't see it on my own. But that's one of the great things about reading, and even more about discussing books with other readers. I often see different things in a book depending on what else is going on in my own life or what else I've been reading recently and I find that when I talk to others about books they see things I missed. 

[Stacia]

Also, if you're looking to meet the Nobel Prize Winner spot on the Bingo card, NYRB currently has two Patrick Modiano books on sale for 30% off.

 

Young Once

 

In the Cafe of Lost Youth

[Kareni]

Some interesting bookish posts from NPR ~

 

Yes, You Can Still Teach Kids To Love Books

**

 

Ethel Mertz, the next piece is about the author of Uprooted:

 

A Writer-Engineer's Historical Fiction Hack: Add Dragons

 

Who here feels that the first paragraph ends with the wrong word?

**

 

A Reference Guide To Reference In 'You Could Look It Up'

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

[Jane in NC]

(Cue up Chopin's Nocturne in C-Sharp Minor as background music for this post.)

 

Wow--Wladyslaw Szpilman's memoir The Pianist is a powerful book! 

 

Prior to WWII, Szpilman was employed as a musician by Radio Poland, back in the day when musicians performed live in studios.  As such, he was well known in Warsaw.  In his memoir, he bears witness to the fall of Poland, the construction of the wall containing Jews in Warsaw's ghetto, the anxieties of waiting and wondering what will happen as Jews from the countryside are relocated to Warsaw and confined to a small geographic part of the city.

 

As Szpilman's family is awaiting transport to Treblinka, Wladylaw's fame as a pianist is what initially saves him.  He is pulled from the queue and given life as a laborer in Warsaw under siege.  Despite this physically demanding job (performed on a minimum of calories), he smuggles ammunitions for the Polish underground and smuggles bread into the ghetto for starving people.

 

Eventually Szpilman must go into hiding with his survival dependent upon friends.  As Wolf Biermann notes in the epilogue,

 

If you hid a Jew in France, the penalty was prison or a concentration camp, in Germany it cost you your life--but in Poland it cost the lives of your entire family.

 

Szpilman's years in hiding give us a unique view literally from the windows and bombed rooftops of occupied Warsaw.  How this man continued to live another day and then another day is a testimony--one that could have come to an abrupt ending when he encountered a German officer.  But the latter asked a simple question, "What do you do?"  Szpilman said "I am a pianist", a statement that he was asked to prove by sitting at a piano where he played the piece I mentioned earlier, Chopin's Nocturne in C-Sharp Minor.

 

The officer was Wilm Hosenfeld, a man today recognized in Yad Veshem as one of the Righteous Among Nations. His intervention saved many from their deaths--yet he himself went on to die in a Soviet camp where he was imprisoned for war crimes.

 

Thank you Negin for the recommendation.  I look forward to seeing the film that Roman Polanski made of the book.  And listening to Chopin...

 

[CindyH in NC]

7. Gretel and the Case of the Missing Frog Prints by P. J. Brackston( Audio.  Finished it, but didn't really like it. Not as fun as I thought it would be and some elements just didn't work for me.)

8.  ​Room by Emma Donoghue (This is a title that I read early in January and just remembered - I really like that it was told from the child's perspective and that it delved into their lives after their rescue.)

9.  Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith (Psychological suspense.  I had seen the Hitchcock film many years ago, but am not sure it followed the book to the letter.  I think I will put it in my Netflix queue to rewatch. )

 

Currently reading The Good Girl by Mary Kubica and trying to decide between Negroland, The War that Saved My Life, and That's Not English:  Britishisms, Americanisms, and What our English Says About Us as my next book.  I will have to see what I am drawn to in a day or two. 

My current audio book is Meet Me in Atlantis by Mark Adams - so far I am just okay with this one.

 

[Butter]

Book #26: The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum.  I so love Baum's ability to use words to mean two things at once and for both of those meanings to work in the context of what he wrote.  It makes the Oz books so much fun to read.

[Ethel Mertz]

**

 

Ethel Mertz, the next piece is about the author of Uprooted:

 

A Writer-Engineer's Historical Fiction Hack: Add Dragons

 

Who here feels that the first paragraph ends with the wrong word?

**

 

 

 

Oh my. Indeed. Am almost done with the book, though DS has taken my iPad to his voice lesson and I can't wait until he gets back!

[Kareni]

Yesterday I read a western historical romance about which I'd heard good things; I enjoyed it.

Eyes of Silver, Eyes of Gold by Ellen O'Connell

 

There's a balanced review here, and I'll admit that these lines made me laugh: "I’ve frequently bemoaned the lack of diversity often seen in the historical romance category. Everything is set in the year 1815, featuring Lady Fluffinstuff and Mr. Feathersword."  For your information, this book contain neither Lady Fluffinstuff nor Mr. Feathersword!

 

 

Here's the book blurb:

 

"Eyes of Silver, Eyes of Gold is a story of romance and family conflicts set in Colorado in 1885.

 

Anne Wells has embarrassed her rigidly proper family since she was a child with occasional but grievous lapses from ladylike behavior. They blame those lapses for the disgraceful fact that she is a spinster at 28. Cord Bennett, the son of his father's second marriage to a Cheyenne woman, is more than an embarrassment to his well-to-do family of ranchers and lawyers - they are ashamed and afraid of their black sheep.

 

When Anne and Cord are found alone together, her father's fury leads to violence. Cord's family accepts that the fault is his. Can Anne and Cord use the freedom of being condemned for sins they didn't commit to make a life together? Or will their disapproving, interfering families tear them apart?"

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Ellesmere]

I am so late checking in on the thread this week. So much I wanted to respond to. Just a couple things:

NoseInABook, :grouphug:  on your foster. I'm glad the placement was for the best. You & your family have such generous hearts, in spite of knowing you have to endure the pain of goodbyes too. True heroes, you are.

 

Kathy (re: last week's thread), I'll send you Ajax Penumbra. (Btw, I kind of giggle now when I see that title because in the movie Deadpool, the 'bad guy' was named Ajax & there were some cracks made about his name & not trusting someone named after a cleaning solution, & so on. It's completely juvenile but it still makes me laugh.)

 

 

Although I try to finish my book club books, there are plenty I don't. I do think you are way more generous in that respect than me. :lol:

 

Here's my info about Love in the Time of Cholera (feel free to skip it if you don't want to read it)....

 

For years I thought I should read that book because a few people I knew raved about how it is the best book ever written & other superlatives of that extreme. I guess I did try it at some point, didn't like it & abandoned it. I apparently also completely & utterly wiped it from my memory. Years later, my book club chose it. I started reading it (having no clue or memory that I had ever even read it before) & just had the weirdest, eeriest feeling for the entire first half of the book since I already knew what was going to happen, etc... even though I was sure I had never read it. It took me forever to remember that I had actually tried it & I still wonder why I so completely bleached it from my brain...? :huh: (I usually don't forget books I've read. Plots maybe, but I could still tell you the book title or what the cover looked like or something about it). Here... just nada.

 

Anyway, I just didn't like it. I didn't care one iota for any of the characters, their choices, the plot seemed boring, & that's about as much as I can remember as to why I didn't like it. I think, mainly, I pretty much disliked every character. A lot.

 

However, so many people absolutely love that book. Maybe there's hope...? :leaving:  (I'm not reading it again, though. :tongue_smilie: )

 

I should be working on my banned/no longer banned New Zealand book but my brain feels fried & I find it such a chore to read a kindle version of anything. So I know I should pick it up & read, but I'm just not. Maybe I'll have to break down & acquire a hardcopy. Not sure.

 

My book club is going to read Bossypants so I need to start that soon. Various others I'm contemplating. But, my brain is just tired & I'm not even up for much reading these past couple of days.

 

Did get to go do another fun thing last night. Dd's big Christmas present was to get tix to the Cirque du Soleil show Kurios (fun steampunk-y theme), along w/ a friend. Since they needed a chauffeur <ahem... me>, I made sure the chauffeur got a ticket too. <grin> So, we have a fun girls night out for dinner, the show, & a super-late-night coffee afterward.

 

And, thanks again, all my BaW friends. :grouphug:  You have all been so kind, so supportive, & so wonderful as my life has been chaos for awhile. I'm happy to report that my dh is starting a new job tomorrow. (Unfortunately, it is in another state & pays a bit less than his previous job. We are not planning to relocate the family, but will need to find him an apartment or other accommodations.) But, still, it's an improvement. And, it's with a company he loves & really wanted to get into. There are quite a few other crazy & stressful things going on now too, so I'd certainly appreciate any continued good thoughts as 2016 progresses. But, thanks again, my friends. You all, you guys, y'all, or all y'all (or however you want to say it)  have been a tremendous help, support, & encouragement to me. I am humbled & grateful for the kindness of this group. Sending much love to each & every one of you.  :grouphug:  :001_wub:  :grouphug:

:grouphug: Best wishes for the new job and all the changes.
Kurios sounds so fun! One of my kids would love that!
I was going to read Love in the Time of Cholera. Might still give it a whirl, but am glad to hear your feedback on it.

 

 

Possibly something that could take us up to Prince Edward Island.  (If only there was a book we could read set there ...)

 

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruises?destinationRegionCode_ATLCO=true

Good choice --have always wanted to see P.E. Island!

 

[Ellesmere]

I really am trying to finish some books I'd already started, but at the beginning of the week, I started a quick children's book --  The Cat Who Came in off the Roof by Annie M.G. Schmidt, translated (from Dutch) by David Colmer. The kids were laughing about it last week, so I read it while I wasn't feeling well and needed something quick and cozy. Since it featured cats and was a bit quirky, it was a nice book for my little Catwings-loving child.

 

I'm still finishing the book of Agatha Christie's plays. And I

am finishing up Cosmos by Carl Sagan, which I had forgotten to put on my currently reading list. So hopefully at the end of the week I'll have finished those two but my list will only be down by one. Oh, well. One is better than none.

[Ellesmere]

Oops. Double post.

Edited March 10, 2016 by CaladwenEleniel

[Kareni]

Three bookish posts from the New Yorker ~

 

The Custodian of Forgotten Books by Daniel A. Gross

 

"A little over a decade ago, a forgotten book was suddenly remembered. Its second life began when a fiction writer referenced it in a book of her own. A blogger read the new book, then tracked down a copy of the old one, and wrote about all this on his Web site. An archivist read the blog post and e-mailed it to a small publisher. By 2009, Jetta Carleton’s “The Moonflower Vine,†first published in 1962, was back in print.

 

Most novels are forgotten. Glance at the names of writers who were famous in the nineteenth century, or who won the Nobel Prize at the beginning of the twentieth, or who were on best-seller lists just a few decades ago, and chances are that most of them won’t even ring a bell. When “The Moonflower Vine†resurfaced and ricocheted around the publishing world, it became an unlikely exception.

 

What’s strange about the journey of that book—and about our moment in the history of publishing—is that its rediscovery was made possible by an independent blogger, named Brad Bigelow. Bigelow, fifty-eight, is not a professional publisher, author, or critic. He’s a self-appointed custodian of obscurity. For much of his career, he worked as an I.T. adviser for the United States Air Force. At his home, in Brussels, Belgium, he spends nights and weekends scouring old books and magazines for writers worthy of resurrection."

 

**

From a couple of years ago:  Ghosts in the Stacks by Christine Smallwood

 

**

One Man’s Impossible Quest to Read—and Review—the World by Karan Mahajan

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Stacia]

If I appear to be 'drunk' posting anytime in the next two weeks, I promise I'm not drunk.

 

Just picked up my new progressive lenses & boy is it weird! This will definitely be an adjustment.

[Lady Florida.]

If I appear to be 'drunk' posting anytime in the next two weeks, I promise I'm not drunk.

 

Just picked up my new progressive lenses & boy is it weird! This will definitely be an adjustment.

 

Oh yes BTDT. Definitely weird. It takes a while but you'll get used to them.

 

 

I have to say I'm really enjoying Love in the Time of Cholera. I really loved One Hundred Years of Solitude and while I don't know that I'll say that when I've finished this one, I do love the writing. And I like the story a lot. I also love how Gabriel Marcia Marquez seamlessly weaves history into his stories without making it seem like he's giving you a history lesson (although I was one who loved history and don't mind history lessons). 

[mumto2]

Not much reading happening today due to lack of concentration. We are all down with the flu. Dh (fortunately dh is in the recovery phase) took the kids in to a clinic to confirm and get medications. Ds is really ill and it is his birthday. Poor kid. He seems to be doing a bit better with the anti nausea meds. Festivities are postponed until he can function.

[Chrysalis Academy]

If I appear to be 'drunk' posting anytime in the next two weeks, I promise I'm not drunk.

 

Just picked up my new progressive lenses & boy is it weird! This will definitely be an adjustment.

 

Wow, progressive lenses make one overshare, overreact, and post things one wouldn't otherwise?  Who knew.  Thanks for the warning.  ;)  :D  :001_tt2:

[Stacia]

Wow, progressive lenses make one overshare, overreact, and post things one wouldn't otherwise?  Who knew.  Thanks for the warning.  ;)  :D  :001_tt2:

 

:smilielol5:

[aggieamy]

If I appear to be 'drunk' posting anytime in the next two weeks, I promise I'm not drunk.

 

Just picked up my new progressive lenses & boy is it weird! This will definitely be an adjustment.

 

Wow, progressive lenses make one overshare, overreact, and post things one wouldn't otherwise?  Who knew.  Thanks for the warning.  ;)  :D  :001_tt2:

 

I think we need to watch out for crazy book reviews from Stacia.  If she starts raving about loving the Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood we'll know it's just the lenses. 

[aggieamy]

Not much reading happening today due to lack of concentration. We are all down with the flu. Dh (fortunately dh is in the recovery phase) took the kids in to a clinic to confirm and get medications. Ds is really ill and it is his birthday. Poor kid. He seems to be doing a bit better with the anti nausea meds. Festivities are postponed until he can function.

 

Bummer.  Hope you guys get feeling better soon.

[Stacia]

I think we need to watch out for crazy book reviews from Stacia.  If she starts raving about loving the Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood we'll know it's just the lenses. 

 

:lol:

[Stacia]

mumto2, :grouphug:  for all of you & especially your son!

 

Hope you're all feeling better quickly & can get on with celebrating your son's birthday!

[Kareni]

If I appear to be 'drunk' posting anytime in the next two weeks, I promise I'm not drunk.

 

Uh huh ....  That's what they all say.  And all those criminals were framed.

 

Not much reading happening today due to lack of concentration. We are all down with the flu. Dh (fortunately dh is in the recovery phase) took the kids in to a clinic to confirm and get medications. Ds is really ill and it is his birthday. Poor kid. He seems to be doing a bit better with the anti nausea meds. Festivities are postponed until he can function.

 

I hope you're all feeling well soon.  And   Happy birthday  to your son.

 

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Jane in NC]

If I appear to be 'drunk' posting anytime in the next two weeks, I promise I'm not drunk.

Just picked up my new progressive lenses & boy is it weird! This will definitely be an adjustment.

 

 

Uh huh ....  That's what they all say.  And all those criminals were framed.

 

Regards,

Kareni

So it's not the lenses, it's the frames?

[JennW in SoCal]

Just finished the free kindle mystery which Kathy (Lady Florida) mentioned last week, Talking to the Dead by Harry Bingham.  It was....OK? Pretty good? Not good enough, though, to make me want to read the next in the series. Kathy, if you plan on reading it, don't read on -- spoilerish musings ahead!!  I will be curious what you think.

 

The main character, a young female Detective Constable in Cardiff, Wales reminded me a bit of Kinsey Milhone from Sue Grafton's A - Z mysteries, and that was a good thing.  But the mystery was a bit rambling and unwieldy, and I'm tired of the old trope of the rouge detective with some deep trauma in her past.  The author did a nice job of slowly revealing her background, and at least the deep psychological trauma wasn't rooted in some horrific s*xual assault. But another old trope was rolled out, the ex-military commando friend, with a deeply troubled past of his own, who is there to protect her when needed, and who understands her better than she does herself. 

 

It was a good book to have on my phone's kindle app, though, as I was able to read during the unfortunate long stretches of down time at some rehearsals this week. 

 

[Kareni]

 So it's not the lenses, it's the frames?

 

I bow in admiration of your pun!

 

 

The main character, a young female Detective Constable in Cardiff, Wales reminded me a bit of Kinsey Milhone from Sue Grafton's A - Z mysteries, and that was a good thing.  But the mystery was a bit rambling and unwieldy, and I'm tired of the old trope of the rouge detective with some deep trauma in her past. 

 

A rouge detective, eh?  I'd heard of noir mysteries, but this is something new.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

This morning I finished the contemporary romance Controlled Burn (Boston Fire) by Shannon Stacey.  It was an enjoyable read.

 

"Meet the tough, dedicated men of BOSTON FIRE—and the women who turn their lives upside down 

Rick Gullotti lives the good life, fighting fires and dating beautiful women—though none for very long. And thanks to helping his elderly landlords, his rent is low. But when his concerns about their health lead to a long-legged girl appearing on his doorstep, life as he knows it starts getting away from him. 

Jessica Broussard has no interest in leaving sunny San Diego for the rougher side of Boston, but she's been dispatched to deal with grandparents she's never met. She's wholly unprepared for the scruffy-but-hot danger-junkie firefighter who lives upstairs. 

At first, Jessica is determined to get out of Boston Fire country as quickly as possible. All she has to do is talk her grandparents into selling their monstrosity of a house. But nobody's taking advantage of Rick's friends on his watch, even if that makes Jessica his adversary. Unfortunately for them both, the only thing more urgent than the matter at hand is their sizzling chemistry—and it's quickly becoming too strong to resist."

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Lady Florida.]

Just finished the free kindle mystery which Kathy (Lady Florida) mentioned last week, Talking to the Dead by Harry Bingham.  It was....OK? Pretty good? Not good enough, though, to make me want to read the next in the series. Kathy, if you plan on reading it, don't read on -- spoilerish musings ahead!!  I will be curious what you think.

 

 

 

Thanks. I didn't read on because I'm a few chapters in and will probably continue. I don't know if I'll finish but am not at a giving up point. I'm not loving it but not disliking it yet. I'm still in the middle of Love in the Time of Cholera so it will be a week or more before I get to this one.

[Robin M]

Hold the presses!  I might have (accidentally) made a Bingo! :svengo:

 

:lol:

 

Top row, across:

Female author: We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo

Published 2016: What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi (although I thought about saving this one for the Fairy Tale Adaptation space)

Number in the Title (thanks OUAT!): Ajax Penumbra 1969 by Robin Sloan

Dusty: The Three Trials of Manirema by Jose J. Veiga

Picked by a Friend (thanks to my friend idnib!): The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vasquez

:hurray:  :hurray:  :hurray:

[Robin M]

Hmm!  I wander how much it costs to rent a yacht?    :party:

 

 

[Kareni]

Here's a great post ~ 

Guest Post: Petticoats and Poison Apples – Romance and Fairy Tales

 

"This guest post is from Ellen, who studied folklore and mythology and has Many Thoughts about the myriad intersections between romance fiction and fairy tales. This is a longer entry that covers a brief history of fairy tales and how they’ve evolved, and then moves on to a bounty of fairy tale retelling romances to recommend."

 

 

Do read the comments if this topic interests you since there are many story recommendations there.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[mumto2]

Here's a great post ~ Guest Post: Petticoats and Poison Apples – Romance and Fairy Tales

 

"This guest post is from Ellen, who studied folklore and mythology and has Many Thoughts about the myriad intersections between romance fiction and fairy tales. This is a longer entry that covers a brief history of fairy tales and how they’ve evolved, and then moves on to a bounty of fairy tale retelling romances to recommend."

 

 

Do read the comments if this topic interests you since there are many story recommendations there.

 

Regards,

Kareni

Thanks for the great article. I found a couple of interesting potential series. I feel bad I couldn't locate the werewolf Cinderella. :( :lol:

 

Things are currently looking up on the flu front. Ds just ate some solid food. Such a relief!

[Butter]

Book #27: The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick.  As if I don't have enough other books in my to read pile, I decided to request this one from NetGalley because it sounded cute.  It is a sweet, slow-moving, lovely book.  I enjoyed it a lot.  My full review: https://mamareader.wordpress.com/2016/03/10/the-curious-charms-of-arthur-pepper-by-phaedra-patrick/ It'll be published on May 3rd.

 

edited because my silly dog managed to add random letters to what I wrote  :lol:

Edited March 11, 2016 by Butter

[JennW in SoCal]

 

A rouge detective, eh?  I'd heard of noir mysteries, but this is something new.

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

 

A case if IVS -- irritable vowel syndrome.  I'm constantly irritated by not getting them to stay put in a word where they belong!

[NoseInABook]

Mumto2, the book was Bella Forrest's A Shade of Vampire and it apparently is the start of a 20 book series. Was not feelin' it and I usually love vampires. And uh, oops, excuse my typo of Alexis Maccon instead of Alexia! Habit, as my legal name is Alexis though I never use it... Hoping you all feel better soon! 

 

Stacia, congrats to your hubs but I'll be praying things smooth themselves out for you. That's a lot of change! Yay for Tina Fey. I have a total girl crush on her. Haha.

 

Robin, ooohhhh, a cruise! I've never been but always have wanted to go on one! 

 

Bwahaha, Amy, it sounds like a great time though. My friend laughed at me when we had a couple of hours to kill before a movie and I'm like, "Let's go to the LIBRARY!" 

 

Pam, CLOSING?! Ohhhh myyyy goodness. I just panicked a little for you even knowing full well that you powered through that! 

 

Thanks for the love, ladies! We're settling into a new norm which is kind of nice. I'm sure it'll be mixed up again soon when the phone rings with another babe waiting. ;) Until then, we'll enjoy this relaxed time with just four littles. I finished the Heartless and The Unhurried Homeschooler. I'm in the middle of Shifting Shadows now and enjoying it even though I'm not typically a short story fan.

[mumto2]

I just got back from one of the best library trips ever. I picked up two books on hold that I have been waiting for since I read the last books in those series.

 

Marked in Flesh by Anne Bishop......The Others

 

When Falcons Fall by C.S. Harris......Sebastian St. Cyr

 

I have spent the last hour trying to decide which to read first, St. Cyr won. ;)

 

Everyone is doing better today. Tamiflu seems to have really helped the kids. For dh and I it was too late but Dd never really came down with it beyond a fever and Ds is recovering quickly when you consider how sick he was two days ago.

[Ali in OR]

I just got back from one of the best library trips ever. I picked up two books on hold that I have been waiting for since I read the last books in those series.

 

Marked in Flesh by Anne Bishop......The Others

 

When Falcons Fall by C.S. Harris......Sebastian St. Cyr

 

I have spent the last hour trying to decide which to read first, St. Cyr won. ;)

 

 

I picked up the first of The Others, Written in Red, from the library last Monday, and just picked up When Falcons Fall today! While I've started Written in Red, I'll be moving on to St. Cyr now because it's a 14-day book and I have four weeks for WiR. Plus WiR is a lot longer! Already enjoying both--good reading days ahead!

[Kareni]

This afternoon I finished a book I first read five or so years ago; I enjoyed it so much then that I saved it.  My memory is such that it was almost like reading a new book!  I enjoyed it once again. 

 

On the Edge by Ilona Andrews

 

You can find a balanced review here.

 

 

"The Broken is a place where people shop at Wal-Mart and magic is nothing more than a fairy tale.

The Weird is a realm where blueblood aristocrats rule and the strength of your magic can change your destiny.

Rose Drayton lives on the Edge, the place between both worlds. A perilous existence indeed, made even more so by a flood of magic-hungry creatures bent on absolute destruction."

 

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

 

[Momto4inSoCal]

Late to this thread I will have to go back and read the rest of it but I've read 2 books since I last posted. The first I thought would be a nice easy read after I had read The Bluest Eye but it wasn't quite the break I thought it would be. I picked my free book from amazon prime The Light of the Fireflies and while it was a quick and easy read it's subject matter was a little disturbing. I think I'm going to have to read the comments next time I pick one of the free books. I also read Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel Marquez . Someone here mentioned A Hundred Years of Solitude and it reminded me that I liked that book quite a bit so I grabbed this book hoping I would like it just as much. It's a book that deals with love, demon possession,  addiction and a neglected little girl. Honestly I think I need a break from books that deal with kids being abused. I can only handle so much and for some reason I keep picking books that deal with it. I think as a mom is makes it really hard to read things about abused children. Anyway I'm onto House of Seven Gables since I had it on hand. I'm about half way through. It's a Nathaniel Hawthorne book. So far I've really enjoyed it. The descriptiveness of his writing, the dark melancholy picture of an old house that has quite a history.  I don't know what it is with me and books written in the 1800's. I really enjoy anything from that era. I think it's the way the authors tend to write beautiful descriptions giving pictures that are probably more romantic that real life. It feel like a life that is slower than our quick paced lives of today. 

Edited March 12, 2016 by Momto4inSoCal

[Kareni]

A couple of book-ish posts ~

 

 

From the Modern Mrs Darcy blog:   The books you categorically don’t read.

 

 

From io9:   10 Books That Will Change How You Think About Fairy Tales

 

Regards,

Kareni

[idnib]

:seeya:

 

I'm still catching up after being gone from the boards, more or less, for more than a week. I'll probably find some time to update my (scant) reading tomorrow.

 

Every once in a while I just need to read a tale of espionage. Among my favorite writers in the genre are le Carre, John Buchan, Graham Greene and Alan Furst--all considered masters of the spy novel.  Here is a good list of ten top spy novels should any of our readers feel in the mood to don their fedora and shades...

 

Ah, a good spy novel. By mentioning Le Carre, you reminded me I still have a copy of A Most Wanted Man, which I picked up from the Little Library down the street. Not a spy novel, but similar. I rarely go see a movie before reading the book, but I went when it came out because it was Philip Seymour Hoffman's last work. Excellent film.

 

I have picked up The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker. It's on the third and last library renewal, so it has to be read or go back. The size of the book and density of the text is daunting, but the writing style seems readable so far. Maybe I'll make it all the way through without giving up. There are so many other fun books waiting for me...

 

It is daunting, which is why I let DH read it and I just asked him questions every couple of days!

 

Yes. It's entirely homemade and still very much a work in progress.  It looks like the first year is going to focus on ecology, evolution and natural history and be very field-based, and the second year will cover a bit more of the traditional ES material, but with an effort to focus on solutions - so, agroecology, sustainable forestry, etc., not just all doom-and-gloom.  It can be challenging. This is the field I work in so I feel comfortable pulling my own material together, but framing it in a way to feel encouraging and hopeful to a young teen is proving to be challenging for me.  But also healthy, ultimately.

 

Ohhh, I would love to hear more about this, it sounds wonderful!

 

Like you've I've given up on the audiobook of The Swerve. I should have listened to you before spending the time. I can't put my finger on why, but I just start tuning out. Maybe I'll try reading it instead at some point.

 

About the Master and Commander series...

 

 

Extra super awesome to find another fan of the series!! :hurray:  I want to take some time to savor the last few books in the series, too, as it will be sad to come to the end.  Eliana, from this group, sent me the link to this series of essays about each Master and Commander title by the sci fi author Jo Walton.  You might enjoy reading them, especially if you decide to do a re-read:

 

Jo Walton on rereading the Aubrey-Maturin series

 

 

Kathy, you and your dh might enjoy that series of essays, too, but beware that there are spoilers!

 

AND, if either on of you are ever in the San Diego area, our little Maritime Museum has the replica of HMS Surprise that was built for and used in the movie.  Most of that movie was filmed in the area and at a studio south of the border. A homeschool dad I know landed a role as one of the Surprise crew members, but he would have had to quit his job which didn't seem like the prudent thing to do.  

 

Yes, DH is into all things maritime and the first time we left the kids with my parents for a long weekend, we went to SD and did all the "seafaring" things. He also loves the Master and Commander series. I don't know how many times he has read all 20 books. Maybe 7 or 8?

 

Just a bunch of wild and crazy ladies out on the town ... checking out libraries.  

 

I assume there will be a limo so we can all stick our heads out the sunroof, like in a 1980s movie?

[Kareni]

I assume there will be a limo so we can all stick our heads out the sunroof, like in a 1980s movie?

 

I have this vision of us all with our tongues hanging out, panting like dogs.

 

 

Having moved house  this week, I rewarded myself with a novel in the exhausted gap between unpacking and starting a uni assignment :)

 

Happy new home/apartment/digs!

 

***

 

Last night I finished an enjoyable fantasy; it's the first of a trilogy and I'd be happy to read on (if only my library had more than book one!) ~

 

The Twelve Kingdoms: The Mark of the Tala by Jeffe Kennedy

 

There is a balanced review here.

 

"Queen Of The Unknown

 

The tales tell of three sisters, daughters of the high king. The eldest, a valiant warrior-woman, heir to the kingdom. The youngest, the sweet beauty with her Prince Charming. No one says much about the middle princess, Andromeda. Andi, the other one.

 

Andi doesn't mind being invisible. She enjoys the company of her horse more than court, and she has a way of blending into the shadows. Until the day she meets a strange man riding, who keeps company with wolves and ravens, who rules a land of shapeshifters and demons. A country she'd thought was no more than legend--until he claims her as its queen.

 

In a moment everything changes: Her father, the wise king, becomes a warlord, suspicious and strategic. Whispers call her dead mother a traitor and a witch. Andi doesn't know if her own instincts can be trusted, as visions appear to her and her body begins to rebel.

 

For Andi, the time to learn her true nature has come. . ."

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

 

[Stacia]

Oops. Double-post.

 

 

Edited March 13, 2016 by Stacia

[Stacia]

Having moved house  this week, I rewarded myself with a novel in the exhausted gap between unpacking and starting a uni assignment :)

 

Glad you found another place & have gotten moved. It's a huge job so it's nice that you treated yourself with a book.

 

:seeya:

 

I'm still catching up after being gone from the boards, more or less, for more than a week. I'll probably find some time to update my (scant) reading tomorrow.

 

 

Ah, a good spy novel. By mentioning Le Carre, you reminded me I still have a copy of A Most Wanted Man, which I picked up from the Little Library down the street. Not a spy novel, but similar. I rarely go see a movie before reading the book, but I went when it came out because it was Philip Seymour Hoffman's last work. Excellent film.

 

<snip>

 

I assume there will be a limo so we can all stick our heads out the sunroof, like in a 1980s movie?

 

Will look forward to what you think about the book A Most Wanted Man. Like you, I thought the movie was excellent.

 

Love the limo idea! My sister has all my old 80s clothes (her crowd hosts/goes to lots of retro parties). Too bad I don't fit into them anymore myself.

 

I think as a mom is makes it really hard to read things about abused children.

 

I agree w/ abuse/killing of children. I have a hard time w/ anything in that type of category, along w/ the same things re: animals.

 

I still remember reading The Lovely Bones when my dd was quite young. <shudder> I hated that book & still wish I could brain bleach it out.

 

Everyone is doing better today. Tamiflu seems to have really helped the kids. For dh and I it was too late but Dd never really came down with it beyond a fever and Ds is recovering quickly when you consider how sick he was two days ago.

 

Glad to hear everyone is on the mend!

 

Bwahaha, Amy, it sounds like a great time though. My friend laughed at me when we had a couple of hours to kill before a movie and I'm like, "Let's go to the LIBRARY!"

 

Awesome!