Beyond The Highland Mist by Karen Marie Moning - #bookaday 12

Beyond the Highland Mist (Highlanders, 1)
Karen Marie Moning
Genre: Historical Fantasy

I was looking for a book similar to Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, but shorter. The description of this one sounded like it would work - girl goes back in time and meets a ruggedly handsome Highlander.  This was included the Fae so I thought, yeah, this could work.

The writing just wasn't the same. The take just wasn't the same. I guess I wasn't looking for a similar book, but the same book! I do own Dragonfly in Amber, the second book in Gabaldon's series, so I will just go with that one instead.

True Love by Jude Deveraux - #bookaday 9

True Love (Nantucket Bride, 1)
Jude Deveraux
Genre: Paranormal Romance

Not my usual fare. It's been a billion years since I read any Jude Deveraux. I'd been looking for a romance and I also wanted to read about Nantucket (never been but makes me think of summer) and someone on Goodreads had just finished this one. Luckily, they had it at the public library - on Overdrive.

Alix is an architect student who gets sent to live in the Kingsley House on Nantucket as part of the will of one of her mom's closest friends.  She can live there for a year and work on her culminating project for architecture school.

Kingsley House happens to belong to Jared Kinglsey Montgomery - a famous architect whom Alix admires and would love to have look at her drawings. (snicker). Jared would rather not, especially since he knows a great deal about Alix that he needs to keep secret.

Another resident of the Kingsley house is Jared's grandfather, Caleb. His five-times great, dead grandfather.  Caleb can only be seen by certain family members and he is hoping that somehow, he can connect with Alix and she can help him move on.

Despite the contrived storyline of past and present overlapping, this was fun.  I will actually read the second book.

Witness to Fitness by Donna Richardson Joyner - Review and Blog Tour

Joyner, Donna Richardson. Witness to Fitness: Pumped Up! Powered Up! All Things Are Possible. Harper One, December 2012. 304p. $25.99. 978-0062112552.

I am out of shape and overweight. I don't feel comfortable in my skin right now. So when the opportunity to review Witness to Fitness, a 28-day diet and exercise plan, opened up, I jumped on it. Donna Richardson Joyner's book promises to bring together fitness tips, a meal plan, and bible study. Sounded good to me.

The Layout
The first nine chapters are your background information on Joyner and how she approaches life and fitness. They are divided into 3 segments: Mind, Spirit, Body.  Then comes the 28 day plan.

Each of the first 9 chapters include: Tweets, Tidbits, Step Out!, and Sound Bites. These are supposed to help motivate you and included lots of "rhyming" 2-line phrases.

Chapter 7 - Eat to Live - includes suggestions for swapping. These were difficult to use in the actual meal plan since you had to hunt them down each time.  They were also repetitive in that she would list substitutions then take each of those substitutions and list those same substitutions again.

Half a 6-inch whole-wheat pita pocket

• 1 slice whole-wheat bread
• 1 light whole-grain English muffin
• 1 small whole-grain dinner roll
• 90 calories wort of whole-grain crackers

Looking at the swap for the slice of bread reveals all the same things again. Seemed to be just a way to add to the page count.

The Plan
Each day on the plan includes: Be Faithful (bible verse), Be Grateful (motivational story), Be Positive (2-4 line quips), Be Fruitful (meals), Be Joyful (song of the day), and Be Fit (exercise). This is followed by 4-6 pages of Joyner demonstrating strength and/or cardio exercises. At the end of each week there is some space to journal.  The meals include nutritional information and calorie counts.The calories switched from near equal lunch and dinners to lighter lunches and heavier dinners.  They also became more time-consuming.

The Verdict
Although I liked having a verse, song, and story each day, the rest of the plan proved too much for me.
The lack of a weekly menu plan, too many Shakeology shakes, the food expense, the time-consuming and impractical meals, and an overwhelming amount of exercise drowned me before I made it to the end.

I work full time so I go to the grocery store once a week.  I may go back midweek if I need something special but that's it.  I like to plan out what I'm going to eat and then I make the shopping list from that menu. I had to go through each day and write down everything! It would have saved so much time to have a shopping list at the beginning of each week!

The first three days, as well as most days throughout the plan, required you to drink Shakeology shakes or their equivalent. This reminded me so much of the Slim-Fast plan.  It was hard to get past the first two weeks.  It just seemed like a marketing thing since the shakes are by the company that represents Joyner. The food required was expensive.  Once those shake days are over, Joyner tries to incorporate lots of variety, almost too much. Sometimes a food was listed (1/4 slice of avocado) and not listed again that week. That would mean you would have to waste the rest of the avocado or you and your family would have to eat separately. Many items were also seasonal. As a single mom, I couldn't afford to keep up with the plan.  It was about 3 times my normal food budget!

The meals were time-consuming and impractical, especially the lunches.  I don't have time to cook cheeseburgers for lunch.  If this was something left over from a previous meal, it may have worked, but it wasn't.  I found myself making many substitutions to stay on track.  The snacks (when you weren't having shakes) were not something I was used to. 2 figs and 2 tbsp blue cheese with 1 oz ham? Turkey, toast, ad 1/8 sliced avocado?

Joyner called for a MINIMUM of 50 minutes to start and I'm ballparking on the low end.  Warm up 3-5 minutes, Cardio 30-60 minutes, Strength Training 15 min or more (she demonstrated these so not all had times just the number of repetitions and suggested number of circuits), Stretch 3 - 5 minutes.  Sure you can break these down and do part in the morning and part in the afternoon but for someone to go from sedentary to this could be overwhelming.  Some of the exercise times didn't even add up: Hold for 3 seconds, do 16 reps, then switch and repeat. Alternate sides for 1 minute. It would take a minimum of 48 secs to do ONE side. No way to do this in a minute.  Each week you also went outside. Not possible here during the winter since you were at a playground or doing jump rope. Joyner tells you not to work the same body part two days in a row but the exercises do just that.

I expected to do some modifications but not to the extent necessary to make this work. I gave up after two weeks because the cons outweighed the pros. I did remember to eat more often, which helped me eat better. I scheduled lunches and snacks each day which totally eliminated the need for either the snack basket or the pop machine! I give it 2 out of 5 copies - Read it maybe.

Check out these other blogs to see what they thought of Witness to Fitness:

Tuesday, January 22nd:  Miss Aleck & Co.

Thursday, January 24th:  DopeReads

Wednesday, January 30th:  Running with Spoons

Monday, February 4th:  Living Outside the Stacks

Monday, February 11th:  EmpowerMoments

Thanks to Harper and TLC Book Tours for this review copy. Don't forget to stop by TLC for more Witness to Fitness information and to see what other books are out on tour! 

12.21 by Dustin Thomason - Blog Tour

Thomason, Dustin. 12.21. Dial Press (Random House), August 2012. 338p. $27.00. 978-0-385-34140-0.

Genre: Mystery/Thriller (race against time)
Rating: Reminded me of a movie
TLC Blog Tours: blog tour stops

Gabriel Stanton, the go-to guy when it comes to prions, just received a call from Dr. Michaela Thane about a patient she has. She's sure that the patient has FFI, fatal familial insomnia. Gabriel tries to talk sense into Dr. Thane because this disease is so rare as to be impossible that someone would have it. But, the long-lasting full insomnia, the pinprick pupils, and the excessive sweating suggests that this case is real. Which is unfortunate, because FFI is not only fatal, it's highly contagious. 12.21 opens on December 11, 2012. We  meet Stanton and Thane and their fatal patient, and soon after, Chel Manu.  Manu, is called in to translate for Drs. Thane and Stanton. They need to find out where the patient has come from and all the places he's been in between. And they need this information before he dies. So we have a race against time to find out the origins of Volcy's, the patient's, FFI as well as the impending end of the Mayan Long Count, which could signify the end of the world.

Although not technically action-packed, the story of 12.21 compels you forward. You not only want  to know where Volcy is from but how he got sick.  As Stanton and Chel, each in their respective fields, try to track down the origins of the disease, we start piecing together all the pieces. Coincidentally, Chel, a leading expert on Mayan antiquities and epigraphy, has what she believes to be a codex from an early Mayan period. She also thinks that Volcy had something to do with this important historical artifact being in her possession. This book is filled with coincidences. The connections between the characters were a little unbelievable but the only way to have the story make any sense.  And Thomason's dislike of meat, or at least the way it's processed, was a little over the top and preachy.

12.21 was just okay for me.  Not good and not bad. It was like reading a version of the movie Contagion. The Mayan connection was very tenuous. It felt more like a sub-plot than the drive behind the novel.  That being said, I already know someone that will enjoy this and will be happily passing it along.

About the Author

Dustin Thomason attended Harvard University, where he studied anthropology and medicine. He won the Hoopes Prize for undergraduate writing, and graduated in 1998. Thomason also received his M.D. and MBA from Columbia University in 2003.

House of Shadows by Rachel Neumeier - Blog Tour

House of Shadows
Rachel Neumeier ( website)
Publisher: Orbit/Hachette Book Group (July 2012. 352p. $14.99. 978-0-316-07277-9)
Source: TLC Book Tours (more tour dates)
Genre: Fantasy (mages, magic pipes)
Buy It: ( amazon
| indie )

Eight daughters have to fend for themselves after their father dies suddenly. They are left with a house and money that is tied up in a business deemed worthless without the merchant to run things. They try to sell the business but no one is offering enough for survival.  They decide to sell two of their sisters instead.  They hope the girls can go to one of the best local Keiso houses, Cloisonne House. Half their dream comes true. Karah is immediately accepted but it was suggested that they take Nemienne to Mage Ankennes, where she is sold on a trial basis.  While the sisters adjust to their new lives, we are introduced to Leilis, a former keiso wannabe, and Taudde, a bardic sorcerer whose very presence in Lonne is cause for death. Taudde is blackmailed and the only way out is to assassinate the prince.

House of Shadows proved to be a slow read for me. I thought the prose repetitive and the names so similar as to be confusing.Throughout the book we get glimpses of the girl's characters; Karah is beautiful and naive and that protects her from permanent harm while Nemienne is plain but determined and that helps her make the tough choices.  Karah is envied for her beauty and constantly being taken advantage of, only to come out on top each time. Nemienne has a hard time learning the simplest of spells but can accidentally do some of the strongest magic.  Taudde is supposed to be clever and an accomplished bardic sorcerer. His goal is to make magic by studying the "music of the sea". And we are told this over and over.  The three of them, along with Leilis - who has been cursed for some reason that's alluded to but never revealed - uncover a plot even more dangerous than the attempted assassination. I learned more about the setting than the characters in House of Shadows. Neumeier's descriptions of the mountains, the water and the candlelight district were detailed and vivid. But, they didn't save the book for me.  I was disappointed in the end because everyone needed to be rescued by an unexpected and implausible source. The girls did not turn out the way I had hoped, strong characters that save the day, nor in a way that had been hinted at throughout the book. I didn't even recognize Nemienne in the ending scenes. And even though there are dragons on each chapter's beginning page (at least in the eARC I read), the dragon played such a minimal part in the book as to seem an afterthought. Neumeier's resolution was as expected down to the last scene, which suggests a book two. 

About the Author

Pic courtesy of TLC Book Tours

Rachel Neumeier started writing fiction to relax when she was a graduate student and needed a hobby that was totally unrelated to her research. Before her first novel hit the shelves, her only previous publications were in journals such as the American Journal of Botany. However, finding that her interests didn’t actually lie in research, Rachel let her hobbies take over her life instead. She now lives in southern Missouri with a large garden, a small orchard, and a variable number of extremely beautiful Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. You can find out more about Rachel and her books at www.rachelneumeier.com.


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Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker - Blog Tour

Age of Miracles
Karen Thompson Walker (website | facebook | twitter)
Publisher: Random House (June 2012. 288p. $26. ISBN 978-0-8129-9297-7)
Source: TLC Book Tours/Publishers
Genre: Science Fiction (days grow longer)
Rating: 3/5
Buy It: Amazon | Indiebound
Tour Stops: TLC Book Tours

Julia looks back to the fall of her eleventh year when the days started getting longer. The slowing was short at first, only an additional 56 minutes, but gradually each day became longer and longer. Soon the people are divided into Real Time people, who used the rising and setting of the sun to determine activities, and Clock People, who stuck with 12 hours for a morning and 12 hours for a night, no matter the lightness or darkness of outdoors.   Some people can handle the incessant hours of daylight but for some, it causes mental and physical breakdowns. Even the animals aren't spared in the environmental nightmare. And, of course, whatever was hidden by darkness, comes to light.

Age of Miracles moves slowly, perhaps to mimic the slowing of time in the book. "Time was harder to waste. The pace of living seemed to slow."  There was a lot of telling. This happened. This happened. This happened.  I felt as if I was reading this through a haze. Intentional? Julia's character felt older to me, I know she was looking back over a decade and that clouded her memories. How do we tell the story of our younger selves without the insight of now? That literary technique stopped me from getting to know Julia and so I didn't care about her story as much as I could have. Life as We Knew It (Susan Beth Pfeffer, 2008 ) takes on an environmental change, the moon getting too close to the earth due to a meteorite, and recounts the effects of this change through diary entries left by Miranda, the main character. Using the diary as device gave the story a sense of immediacy, a sort of "you where there" feeling that Age of Miracles lacked for me.

Watching how the time changes affects everything, we see the evolution from just a little worry to realizing that we can't fix this and need to deal with it.  The family becomes Clock people, buying blackout curtains, going to school/work in the middle of darkness (can we still call it night if it's actually 7am?) doing their best to act as if everything is normal. This separation of people eventually becomes a physical one as the Clock people become suspicious of the Real Time people and start to treat them differently.  I enjoyed exploring the idea of Clock People vs. Real Time People. Walker looked at the ways our biological clocks could change. Or not. Do we need a certain amount of sunlight? What about our food sources? Could we get the same nutritional value, or even output, using artificial means? I also liked when the people skipped a day, just like Samoa did December 30, 2011!

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Harriet Beamer Takes The Bus by Joyce Magnin - Review

Magnin, Joyce. Harriet Beamer Takes the Bus. Zondervan, 2012. $14.99. 320p. 9780310333555
Genre: Christian Fiction
Rating: 2/5

Every now and again we look up and wonder, what’s it all for? What is the purpose of my life? Well, in Harriet Beamer Takes The Bus, Harriet sets out to discover just that. 72 year old Harriet is a widow who lives alone in Bryn Mawr, PA.  When her son Henry and his wife Prudence discover that Harriet has fallen and can’t get up, they make a bet that if Harriet has broken her foot in the fall,, she has to come live with them. Clear across the country in Grass Valley, CA.  Give up the house her late husband built. Give up the friends she’s made. Give up her independence.  This, she does not want to do. But, the foot is broken. And Harriet is a bet-honorer.  

Harriet finds a buyer for the house, packs up her stuff, ships her dog Humphrey on ahead, and decides the only way she is going to California, is in her own way, in her own time. She's going to travel across the country using public transportation.

This adult road trip was not fun as it could be.  Harriet gets a Droid (just one of many name drops) and uses it to find hotels and transportation as she travels across country and she never once can't find a place to stay, no matter how last minute she calls.  She has a few small mishaps along the way – sometimes public transportation doesn’t run where she needs it and a couple attempt to steal her credit card – but she pretty much makes it all the way across the country no problem. Along the way she ships ahead the salt and pepper shakers that she collects. Meanwhile, Henry and Prudence, the son and daughter-in-law, face their own struggles. Henry has lost his writing mojo and Prudence is overworked. These problems too are easily overcome.

Along the way, I didn’t get a sense of the places Harriet visited or even Harriet herself.  She was your stereotypical spunky near-octogenarian, ala Betty White, but not near as funny. She spends such a little bit of time in each location that everything becomes a blur, both for Harriet and the reader.  The constant references to Amelia, the GPS in her phone, and YouTube, where a video of Harriet hitting a “hoodlum” with her tote bag has been uploaded, become tiresome instead of cute and affecting.  I really just wanted her to make it to Grass Valley already. Henry and Prudence are their own brand of bland. Nothing happened to reveal their characteristics so I had no idea what to expect from them and no emotional investment.

***SPOILER ALERT***

 I was, at first, interested in knowing if you could actually take public transportation across the country.  I was disappointed when Harriet suffered a heart attack before she could make the final leg of her trip. It was a baseless plot mover that led to me caring not caring whether she could make it or not.

***END SPOILER ALERT***

I would give Harriet Beamer Takes the Bus by Joyce Magnin a 2.  If I searched really hard, I could pass this along.

You might think differently,

Over on Goodreads - Harriet Beamer Takes The Bus - has a 4/5 stars as of 4/25/12.  If you think you might like this one, leave me an email address in the comments and I'll pass the ARC along. US Only.

Take a quick stop at Harriet's Blog to see her dog Humphrey and hear about her travels!

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Holiday Bookaday Update - Fall 2011

I'd listed several books I wanted to read over my 16 days off, 18 to be exact. I'm six days into the challenge and I've only finished 4 books! What's slowing me down? Two re-discovered loves; Twitter and Puzzles.

I picked up a puzzle of my favorite picture - Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte - and have been spending hours on it. I haven't done this in a very long time and it has been so relaxing!! I hope to find slightly smaller puzzles though, this one is 1000 pieces.

I've always been a fan of Twitter but I'd pulled back to read more - putting in a word here, a retweet there, but not really interacting. Since most of my tweeps are educators, we are all on break right now and the conversations have been awesome. So, less reading time but a touch more connection with self and others.

So, what have I finished?
Shelter by Harlan Coben - one of the LA teachers does a mystery unit each year, so I'm always on the lookout for new books for her to add to her repetoire. I haven't read any of Coben's adult books but this young adult one sounded intriguing and maybe it could be a gateway for some students.  Although Shelter started out well, despite having the stereotypical sidekicks - a nerd adn a fat girl - it had promise.  Coben did tend to tell too much, I never had to figure out anything, each question would be answered about 2 sentences later.  And then the ending was so far-fetched as to be impossible. The age of the alleged villian would make the antics impossible. My disbelief came crashing to the forefront and wiped away most of my good feelings about the book.  The good news is there can still be a good discussion about this one. Pair it with Virals by Kathy Reichs and then talk about craft and writing for a variety of audiences.

Until There Was You by Kristan Higgins - I had been looking forward to this one, as I enjoy sappy romance. While there were enjoyable moments, they got sidetracked by the author's frequent exclamation of "bieber" or "elvis presley". I mean efron, lautner, gosling - yeah, I can see that working once or twice, jk. Throw in how often she told us Liam was hot (in a stereotypical bad boy in leather jacket with motorcyle way) and I was just happy to finish.

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi - I had really been looking forward to this book! I like science fiction and this has girl protag! It started out slow and ended on predictable. But, the middle was fantastic. I just don't understand why she didn't use her undisclosed till later powers more.  Also, she never wore that awesome dress on the cover! Pair this one with Legend by Marie Lu and you are destined for a great conversation.

Darth Paper Strikes Back by Tom Angleberger - This follow-up to Origami Yoda focuses on Dwight and whether Yoda is helpful or hurtful. Dwight's nemesis, Harvey, makes a Darth Paper puppet and uses it to taunt this students, trying to convince them that Yoda is fake. The problems brought to Yoda this year seem much more serious. I like that turn. Obviously, pair this one with Origami Yoda and some actual origami.

Ok, back to reading! How are you doing on your reading goals?

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The Personal History of Rachel Dupree by Ann Weisgarber - Review and Blog Tourr

Personal History of Rachel Dupree
Ann Weisgarber
Penguin Books
2008

The Personal History of Rachel Dupree opens with Liz, Rachel Dupree's six year old daughter, sitting on a plank that's being lowered into a well.  Liz isn't being drowned, she's going down to get water for the family because the drought has left them with no other options.  Or so Isaac Dupree has convinced his wife Rachel there are no options.  They've been married a long time and Rachel is starting to lose faith in Isaac.  She's seen him put their land ahead of the welfare of the family too many times.  He will do ANYTHING for the land. Not so much for his family.

Rachel and Isaac have been married a long time.  They met when Rachel was a cook in Isaac's mother's boardinghouse.  He came home after the war and she fell in love. Isaac fell in love too, but not with Rachel.  More with the land she could give him.  He was determined to go west and make his fortune as a landowner and he was entitled to 160 acres.  He didn't want to marry Rachel but he could see how she felt about him.  And he did want her 160 acres - immediate land doubling.

So, they got married and both Rachel and Isaac thought they got what they wanted. They were both wrong.

Ann Weisgarber tells the Personal History of Rachel Dupree in alternating time periods but always through Rachel's eyes.  While Rachel's story of love making you blind is compelling, I find the setting is an even stronger character: the drought so strong they could only take sips of water, the lightning storm that promised survival on one hand but didn't quite make it, the landscape so harsh that all the neighbors were leaving them.  Rachel uses the weather as sort of a touchstone, it brings backs memories of other, mostly happy times. These times serve to give Rachel the strength to make some tough decisions.  Or at least to plan them.

I'm hoping that if I'm in the situation that Rachel is, where my husband continually proves that he doesn't actually love me but really loves the land, where my husband continually puts my children and me in danger, when my family is about out of food and my husband will not ask his mother for money, where there is never enough money, ever. I hope that I don't wait over 14 years to get strong. I hope that I'll pay attention to the signs that he gives me along the way.  That the ache I get from his disapproval - and my kids too - serve as a warning.

Even sort of knowing what's going to happen doesn't prevent The Personal History of Rachel Dupree from pulling you in. The vivid scenery descriptions place this book solidly in the 1900s. The tumbleweeds, the shack, the clothing - this is good historical fiction.

About the Author
Ann Weisgarber was born and raised in Kettering, Ohio. She was a social worker before earning a master’s degree in sociology at the University of Houston and becoming a teacher. She divides her time between Sugar Land and Galveston, Texas.


The Personal History of Rachel Dupree has been optioned for a film my Viola Davis who played Abilene in The Help.

Thanks to Penguin Books and TLC Book tours for the book!
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Remember Me by Cheryl Robinson - Blog Tour and Giveaways

Robinson, Cheryl. New American Library, 2011. $15.00. 400p. 978-0-4512-3338-7. (ARC reviewed was 508p)

Mia Marks-Glitch has always wanted two things: to be married and to be well off.  She finally has what she wants, so why isn't she happy? Danielle King has always wanted to be a writer. She wants to escape an oppressive life with her bigoted family and she will never look back.  She has all the success she's wanted.  What's wrong with her life?

When Alexandra Glitch and Tiffany Allen became roommates in college, they never knew their mothers were once best friends.  It takes an accident on the way back for the long story to come tumbling out.

Cheryl Robinson uses alternating chapters of flashbacks and present day to reveal Mia and Danielle's falling out.  The chapters also switch between the younger Mia and younger Danielle as well as their older counterparts.  The changes happen at each chapter and are noted by dates at the top.  It's still a little confusing.  I found this read more like a series of barely connected short stories. This kept me from getting to know any of  the characters well.  Consequently, I never bought Mia's anger over Danielle's or Frank's betrayal because I never cared for any of the characters. The constant switching seemed to slow the plotting down and made the story drag for me. Those things kept me from enjoying Remember Me as a whole but in parts this epic story of 30 years of relationships had it's moments.

For another side of the story, check out Book Club Classics take on Remember Me.


Giveaways
For You - Your own copy of Remember Me by Cheryl Robinson.  Comment with your email address.  US/Canada entries only.  Comments taken until August 7, 2011, 11:59pm.

For Your Book Club - OPENS SEPT. 1
Win 10 copies of Remember Me in September!  You would also win a Skype or phone chat with Cheryl, plus a gorgeous red velvet cake from Daisy Cakes (www.ilovedaisycakes.com)

Book Club of the Month Giveaway - Opens September 1st!

Cheryl Robinson Facebook
Cheryl Robinson Blog

TLC Tour Dates for Remember Me by Cheryl Robinson

Thank you to TLC Book Tours and Penguin Books for this ARC.


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Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart - Bookaday #10

Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart
Random House
2010

Love the title of this one.  Totally weird story about Lenny Abramov who falls in love with a young Asian girl, Eunice, while in Italy.  They get together shortly after she returns to the States.  Lenny works for this company that's involved in a little bit of everything but his department looks for HNWI, High Net Worth Individuals, to offer them a form of immortality.  There's a lot of talk about apparat's which are like high tech gadgets that go beyond the smartphone.  You can check out anybody's credit rating and in bars the level of attractiveness is weighed.  We learn a lot about Lenny and Eunice through their writing.  Lenny keeps a diary and Eunice emails her best friend, GrillB***h about everything. Oh, and books are to be skimmed, not read! That lowers your attractiveness!


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The Art of Forgetting by Camille Noe Pagan - Blog Tour

The Art of Forgetting
Camille Noe Pagan
Dutton
288 pgs/ARC

"Studies show that the more times a person recollects something, the less accurately she is able to do so; her memory becomes affected by other factors..."

The Art of Forgetting is the story of Marissa and Julia.  They've been friends since the age of fourteen with Julia always taking the lead.  After Julia is hit by a cab, she loses most of her memories of the past and Marissa now must take the lead and help Julia remember who she is.  As Marissa helps her friend recover, she realizes that she has resented Julia for a very long time and Julia, unwittingly, has brought this bitterness the fore. 

Camille Noe Pagan weaves the friends past into the story while we watch Marissa deal with both issues at work and a relationship she can't decide if she wants. Pagan also pulls in interesting information about memory and health as we learn about Marissa's work at a female-oriented magazine.  These elements all come together to create a well-written and entertaining story about the changing face of friendship. I look forward to more books from Pagan.

Read more about The Art of Forgetting and check out the book tour stops

Thank you to TLC Book Tours and Dutton for this ARC.
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A Game of Character by Craig Robinson - Blog Tour

A Game of Character
Craig Robinson
Gotham Books
2010

"You can lead others up the steps to where they need to go and maybe help open the door. But it's up to the individual to walk through it. Or not."

Craig Robinson is the basketball coach of Oregon State University. He credits his success in coaching, and in life, with the way his parents raised him and his sister. The self-esteem instilled in them by their parents allowed them to take risks that led to great success. Craig depended on the character instilled in him to get him from the south side of Chicago to Mount Carmel Academy and then to get him through Princeton.  At Princeton, Craig Robinson suffered a setback when his first report card showed extremely low grades, including an F. Craig was ready to give up but his parents, especially his dad, helped him call on the character traits they'd worked on his whole life; "self-esteem, enthusiasm, conviction, relentlessness, diligence" to pull himself together in order to play basketball and graduate.  Craig went on to start a family where he hoped to raise his children the same way. He sacrificed his love of basketball for his family and went into finance. After 10 years and a divorce, he found his way back to coaching, and the rest is history.

A Game of Character is written in a conversational style, it's like Craig Robinson is sitting here chatting with you. It's a great story of overcoming odds and setbacks and making it doing the job you love. It's easy to read and flows from one event to the next, showing not only the ups but the downs and includes pictures. Very inspiring.

Check out the rest of the TLC Book Tour.




Thank you to TLC Book Tours and Gotham Books for this PB.

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Thoughts Without Cigarettes by Oscar Hijuelos - Blog Tour and Review

Thoughts Without Cigarettes
Oscar Hijuelos
Gotham Books
6/2011 367pgs ARC

Thoughts Without Cigarettes is, as the author says, "told in so many parts--illness, sheltered messed-up childhood, death of father, subsequent struggles with identity and just surviving, my sometimes existence as a writer..."

Thoughts Without Cigarettes is like sitting down with an older relative, pulling out the photo album/scrapbook/netbook/picture place and having them tell you the history of each picture.  Each story brings back memories of the occasion and sparks other memories that are somehow connected in the storytellers mind.  Reading Thoughts Without Cigarettes is like strolling around the neighborhood, stopping to chitchat with neighbors, petting the animals, sort of ambling with a destination but no hurry to get there.

The prose, however rambling, is mostly beautiful.  We meet Oscar Hijuelos father, Pascual, early on as he's trying to get his brother to come visit New York from Cuba.  Uncle Oscar has a fatal accident for which Pascual forever after believes he caused and this sets the tone for the rest of his life, as well as that of the Hijuelo family.

"He'd wince with the realization that certain events cannot be undone, and, blaming himself for that tragedy, embarked upon a sea of regrets."

Another recurring aspect of the book is Oscar Hijuelos search for his "Cuban-ess".  Hospitalized at the age of four with few visits from family, he forgot how to speak Spanish.  This separated him from his family, both physically and culturally, and he would spend a large portion of his life "trying to become anything else but what I should have been, Oscar Hijuelos."

These two paths, his father's depression that becomes his own, and his struggle to reclaim  his Latino heritage are the main points of this dense, sad read.  The only uplifting portion of the book happens when Oscar Hijuelos travels to Rome, by way of Spain, for a fellowship.

"Rome...pressed so many wonderful buttons inside me that for much of my time there, I became a new and improved version of myself...really enjoying my life for a change."

It was a struggle to get through Thoughts Without Cigarettes due to Hijuelos tendency to get sidetracked.  These extra details served to slow the re-telling down and we'd have to backtrack to unravel the original thoughts.  Oscar Hijuelos takes those many episodes of his life and narrows them down to two sections - The Way Some Things Worked Out, his life from early childhood until the age of eighteen, and What Happened Afterward, his life as a grownup. We spend an inordinate amount of time in part one while Hijuelos sets up the illness that changed his life as well as his mother's consequent nagging of him and his dad. This left part two feeling rushed as he embarked on his writing life and subsequent Pulitzer Prize award.  Although I enjoyed the book, I would have appreciated it more if I'd known it was going to be more about his relationship with father and if it had been a bit more straightforward.

Check out the TLC Book Tour for other reviews.

Thanks to Gotham Books and TLC Book Tours for the opportunity to read this ARC.

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The Kitchen Daughter by Jael McHenry - Review

The Kitchen Daughter
Jael McHenry
Gallery Books/Simon and Schuster
272 pgs

"Only difficult people chuck warm biscuits at their dead mothers. I assume."

Ginny is having a hard time dealing since her parents died.  She never realized how much her mother did for her, she just remembers all the times she said no.

"Ma never let me drink alcohol, along with the other things she never let me do: go on dates, get a job, move out, travel to other cities alone...she always said we'd talk about it again...now she's not around to talk about it anymore."

Ginny's sister, Amanda, is resigned to help her.  She sets up a real estate agent to sell the house and told Ginny she would move in with her.  But Ginny doesn't think she needs anyone to take care of her.  She's a grown up.  She's normal.  She just has "a personality." So what if she likes to sit in the closet with her hands inside of her parent's shoes? She also likes to think of food and recipes to calm herself down.  "And the coping always worked."

The more Amanda tries to pack up her house, the more Ginny needs to find ways to cope.  And then the ghosts of cooking pasts start to show up.  And they have information to help her move forward.  And then she meets David, the grocery delivery boy. And she might have her first friend.  And then Gert, the housekeeper, asks her to help cook at the temple.  And she realizes she might be able to do those things her mother said no to.

The Kitchen Daughter is straightforward but not simple. Just like Ginny. The more we learn about her, we see how she has taught herself, with some help from her mom, to cope in a world where she feels uncomfortable and out of place.  The story moves forward as Ginny unravels a mystery that has always been in her face but she never noticed, because she feels better looking down.  The Kitchen Daughter is not just another book about a character with Asperger's.  It's about finding out who your are based on the past but not letting it define who you can be.  It's about moving beyond the label people want to put on you. But also about accepting your limitations without giving in to them. This was a fast read but it sticks with you.  I found myself wanting to know more about Ginny in the future. How will she make it if she doesn't move in with Amanda? Can she look after herself?  This book leads me to do more research into Asperger's.  Also, I want to make a ribollita.  Get this one. It's good.

I wonder if this novel is based on anyone.  I'm asking Jael McHenry and will update when she answers.

About the Author

Jael McHenry is a talented and enthusiastic amateur cook who blogs about food and cooking at the SIMMER blog.

Find Jael McHenry: The SIMMER Blog, Twitter, Facebook

Tour Dates

Thank you to TLC Book Tours and Gallery Books for this review copy.
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Spring Bookaday #3 - The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

The Eyre Affair
Jasper Fford
Penguin
374 pgs.

The heroine's name is Thursday Next.  Greatest Name Ever and reason I wanted to read this.  Plus, the author has two effs in his last name. Yeah, that's how I roll. 

Turns out Thursday works as a Literary Detective in SpecOps.  She's an SO-27, the higher the number the lower the status, or a LiteraTec.  They investigate when books change, when manuscripts are stolen, who wrote Shakespeare's plays, when people tried to sell fake versions of classics, etc.  Sounds awesome right? Well, two other members of Thursday's family are SpecOps too but different levels.  The coolest being her uncle Mycroft (don't you love these names!) who has created a Prose Portal, into which he sends his wife only to find out she's being hit on by Wordsworth.  This Prose Portal is stolen by a big bad company, Goliath, run by a guy named Jack Schitt.  No, I am not making this up.  There is also a dangerous criminal named Hades who has a brother named Styx.  So.Much.Fun.

There is an actual story that involves Hades and Jane Eyre and Rochester and kidnapping and killing and 8 people named Felix too.  Fforde includes passages from Jane Eyre and his version ends differently than ours.  I really liked this one.  If you get it, make sure you get one with big print though! I had a slow time reading it because the print was sooo small, I almost needed a magnifying glass.  Maybe if I had one, I would have been able to meet some famous characters!  I'm off to find the sequel to this one!


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Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel - Review and Giveaway

Beatrice and Virgil
Yann Martel
Spiegel&Grau (Random House imprint)
197 pg + 13 Games for Gustav

Henry has been working on his second novel.  More of a "flip book"; one half is a nonfiction essay and the other is the book.  Both cover the same subject and neither can do without the other.  Henry is being flown to the states to meet with a team regarding his book.  He's excited until he realizes they are not praising him.  Discouraged, he moves his wife across the ocean, somewhere abroad, to start over.

Throughout their stay, Henry takes a variety of jobs but not writing.  Until he receives a small package from someone near him.  They don't know how close he is especially since Henry has always used a pseudonym. The package contains a short story by Gustave Flaubert, an excerpt from a play, and a short cryptic note signed by someone also named Henry.  This Henry turns out to be a taxidermist, "it's dying. The taxidermy business is a dying business."

Let me just say, this is not what I had in mind.  Beatrice and Virgil includes lots of killing.  Lots and lots of animal killing that is described in detail.  It includes a play, titled Beatrice and Virgil, that I understood on a purely cerebral level but rejected emotionally.  Throughout, I alternated between seeing what Martel was trying to do, at least out of the corner of my eye, and trying to figure out why he was doing it.  Often, I just didn't feel I was bookish enough to appreciate what I'm sure was a complex and many layered tale.

It was a story about Henry the writer, wrapped around a story about Henry the taxidermist, tied up with a play about Beatrice and Virgil - all of which left me feeling creeped out.  There was a moment when I questioned whether the Henries were one and the same, that maybe writer Henry was so distraught he became taxidermist Henry to approach his story a different way.  I wasn't correct but I was close. Throughout the novel I felt Martel himself leaking into the story - telling me what to think and feel, a little too conspicuous. Overall, Beatrice and Virgil was thought-provoking and makes me want to read Dante but not anytime soon.

Giveaway
Random house is giving away a copy of Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel.  Please enter your name and email address in the form to enter the drawing.  Drawing ends Sunday, March 20, 2011 at 11:59pm.



About The Author

Yann Martel is the author of the internationally acclaimed 2002 Man Booker Prize winning novel Life of Pi.

Connect with Yann Martel
Beatrice and Virgil website
Yann Martel Facebook

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The Invisible Line by Daniel J. Sharfstein - DNF

The Invisible Line
Daniel J. Sharfstein
The Penguin Press
330 pgs + End Notes.
This book chronicles the lives of three black families that, for various reasons, decided their lives would be better if they passed as white. It's a topic that I'm fully committed to learning more about. But I couldn't finish the book at this time.

Sharfstein's writing is detailed and insightful with a touch of humor. Unfortunately, even though I set aside three days to read this only slightly longer than 300 page tome, I couldn't get into it. I need more time and less distractions.

I will return to this book in early summer but it's just not the right book for me right now.  Please stop by some of the blogs below for reviews and stop by the publisher's site to read an excerpt!

TLC Book Tours
BookNAround
Book Club Classics
Scraps of Life
Full Tour

Thanks to TLC Book Tours and Penguin Press for this HC.


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Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson - Review and Blog Tour

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
Helen Simonson
Random House
385 pg plus Interview and Reader's Guide

"He felt as if he was being left behind on the docks..."

Major Ernest Pettigrew just learned that his only brother has died. First his wife and now Bertie. "He felt as if he was being left behind on the docks..."  Jasmina Ali, who runs his favorite tea shop, stops by soon after Major Pettigrew receives the news. Due to a shared understanding of loss, an unlikely friendship arises. Their mutual love of tea and books lead to Sunday afternoon readings and walks along the cliff.  These small snippets of time are the most anticipated moment in lives that are slowly being changed by outside forces.

Jasmina's nephew has come to help her run the shop.  Women of her age are expected to step aside and let the men, and the younger generation, take care of them.  Abdul Wahid will know how to run the shop and Jasmina can "learn to be content at home".

Major Pettigrew's father left him and his brother Bertie one Churchill each.  The Major has always felt that he should have had both guns since he was the oldest.  The only saving grace was that when one of the brothers passed away, the guns would be reunited through the surviving sibling.  Bertie's family thinks there should be another solution.  Since Colonel Pettigrew never put his thoughts into his will, his wife and daughter believe they can do whatever they want with "their" Churchill.  And what they want is to sell it.  Roger, Major Pettigrew's son, agrees.  Unlike Major Pettgrew, Roger wants to get ahead as quickly and painlessly as possible and he's not above using the family name to do so.

The more time Major Pettigrew spends with Jasmina, sharing their troubles and Kipling's poetry, his affection for her grows.  Soon he's faced with a dilemma.  Jasmina has never truly been accepted in their small village but the major has no desire to upset the normal order.  He's an upstanding member of the local church and the local golf club.  She's a woman of color, an outsider, and a tradeswoman.  Her family is also involved in a small scandal.  Wouldn't it be better all around if they just went their separate ways?

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand unfolds slowly, mimicking the relationship of Ernest and Jasmina.  The major has a mostly full life of reading, golf, and friends. He's on good terms with the Vicar and he supplies wooden animals for the nativity, just as his father did before him.  Tradition is everything.  Tradition plays a huge part in Jasmina's life too.  Her late husband, Ahmet, left the shop to her, but she knows that it's time to step aside and move to Pakistan.  Despite their obligations, the objections of those around them, and their own hidden prejudices we are able to see Ernest's and Jasmina's relationship unfurl and blossom.  Major Pettigrew's Last Stand is worth the read.  I encourage you to pick it up, set aside a weekend, put on the tea and enjoy.

About the Author

Helen Simonson was born in England and spent her teenage years in a small village in East Sussex. A graduate of the London School of Economics and former travel advertising executive, she has lived in America for the last two decades. A longtime resident of Brooklyn, she now lives with her husband and two sons in the Washington, D.C., area. This is her first novel.

Connect with Helen:

• On her website
• On Facebook
• On Goodreads

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Thank you to TLC Book Tours and Random House for this book.
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The Alchemist (Graphic Novel) by Paul Coelho - Review and Blog Tour

The Alchemist
Paul Coelho
Harper One
unpaged

Santiago is a shepherd who has traveled the world and is ready to settle down. He falls asleep one night and is treated to a dream he had once before. In the dream, he is told he can find his treasure if he goes to a certain place. The dream is interrupted before he gets enough information. He decides to go to that place. He meets a king who helps him understand that his quest was given to him by God and that the universe wants to help him acheive his dreams. This help can take the form of good things or bad and Santiago has to learn to read the omens and must never give up.

My Thoughts

I own this novel in chapter book format so it was neat to get it in graphic novel format. For the most part, the pictures and words combine to portray the essence of Coelho's story. I think having it as a graphic novel will lead more people to pick up the book and may even encourage them to read the original version.

I had one moment of confusion when Santiago first gets to Africa, it was hard to tell him apart from the character he met in the bar. I finally figured out their hats were different.   The cover illustration combines the original color of the novel with the figure of the graphic novel.  Really cool! All in all, a great book.  Sampere and Ruiz do a great job of getting across the message.  I recommend this one to high school students and above.

About the Author

The Brazilian author Paulo Coelho was born in 1947 in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Before dedicating his life completely to literature, he worked as theater director, actor, lyricist, and journalist.

His fascination with the spiritual quest dates back to his hippie days, when he travelled the world learning about secret societies, oriental religions, etc. In 1982, Coelho published his first book, Hell Archives, which failed to make any kind of impact. In 1986, Paulo Coelho did the pilgrimage to Saint James of Compostella, an experience later to be documented in his book The Pilgrimage. In the following year, Coelho published The Alchemist.

Find out more about The Alchemist: A Graphic Novel and Paul Coelho HERE.

Connect with Paulo Coelho:

• On his website
• On his blog
• On Twitter: @paulcoelho
• On Facebook

TLC Book Tours

Monday, November 29th: One Book Shy
Thursday, December 2nd: The Zen Leaf
Monday, December 6th: There’s a Book
Friday, December 10th: Colloquium
Tuesday, December 14th: Wise Owl Book Review
Tuesday, December 14th: Sophisticated Dorkiness
Wednesday, December 15th: Jenn’s Bookshelves
Thursday, December 16th: In the Next Room
Monday, December 20th: Love, Laughter, and a Touch of Insanity
Wednesday, December 22nd: nomadreader
Thursday, December 23rd: she reads and reads

Thanks to TLC Book Tours and Harper One for the opportunity to review this hardcover.

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