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Archive for September, 2008

Tuesday Book List of Repeats

Tuesday, September 30th, 2008

book-stack.jpgNot too much has changed from last week….

As you can see from my list, there are a good number of reviews coming up. You can thank Mr. JM for that. He’s taken to reviewing quite well and has a different style to me that I hope you enjoy. Eventually I would like to have he says/she says reviews, but I have to narrow down my to-do list a bit before that can happen…

As I mentioned before, while I have scheduled reviews for September, I am taking off October (and probably the rest of this year) from scheduled reviews so I can get caught up on my to be read list. There are authors who have generously donated me their books with no review date, and it’s only right that I make some time to read them.

So hopefully soon you will see my list grow smaller!

Remember to play the Monday game for your last chance to win the book Read Well, Think Well by Dr. Hal W. Lanse.

Reading:
Sabriel – Garth Nix
Savage Survival – Darrell Bain
In Bad Dreams – Horror Anthology – Edited by Mark Deniz and Sharyn Lilley
Xenocide - Orson Scott Card

Going to Read:
Dead Ringer – Mary Burton
Supernatural – Graham Hancock
Marwan: The Autobiography of a 9/11 Terrorist – Aram Schefrin
Neutron Star – Short story collection – Larry Niven
Firebirds – Fantasy/Sci-fi Anthology – Edited by Sharyn November
The Foreshadowing – Marcus Sedgwick
The Jaguar Legacy – Maureen Fisher
To Truckee’s Trail – Celia Hayes
The Redemption of Althalus – David and Leigh Eddings
The Serpent Bride – Sara Douglass
Loving the Goddess Within – Nan Hawthorne
Bad Girls Club – Judy Gregerson
Stand – Debbie Williamson
Season of Sacrifice – Tristi Pinkston
Copper Star – Suzanne Woods Fisher
Copper Fire – Suzanne Woods Fisher
The Lost Diary of Don Juan – Douglas Carlton Abrams

Upcoming Reviews:
Prosperity - by Deborah Woehr
Target: Caught in the Crosshairs of Bill and Hilary Clinton – Kathleen Willey
The Lab – Jack Heath
Remote Control – Jack Heath

So what’s on your list?

A Book by Any Other Name - Sky

Monday, September 29th, 2008

Welcome to this week’s A Book By Any Other Name!

The game works like this: Each week I will choose a word and offer a few titles that I’ve come up with containing that word in the title. Then it’s your turn to come up with book titles containing the same word, without duplication (yes, that includes my titles.) I would also like the author, but that is just so I can find the book if I want to read it.

The current challenge: I challenge you all to reach 32 titles containing the weekly word by midnight Friday, (with no more than 10 titles commented per person and not including *my* titles in the total.)

My forfeit? For this challenge I’d like to do a little something different that will hopefully have the both of us smiling. Right now, Dr. Hal W. Lanse is giving away copies of his book Read Well, Think Well which is a book about helping your child to increase his/her reading comprehension and critical thinking skills.

That’s right - by playing the Monday book game, you can enter for your chance to win a copy of this book. (You can also have more chances at getting a copy by going here.)

Whoo-hoo right? Right! As long as you leave a valid email address and are willing to give me your postal address to send the book, then we’re good to go!

So if you’d like a copy of this wonderful book, join in!

If you don’t reach the goal, we’ll try again next week. If you reach the goal, I’ll have a brand new challenge for you next Monday where you’ll get another chance.

(If you’re feeling pouty about the ten titles per person limit, why not get a friend to come and comment as well? The more, the merrier.)

The word this week is:

Sky

I Say: How the Stars Fell into the Sky: A Navajo Legend by Lisa Desimini

You Say…

Sunday Salon #2 – Reading on Vacation

Sunday, September 28th, 2008

Woohoo! This is technically my second Sunday Salon, but it’s my first one where I’m actually discussing books.

Very exciting, I know.

Because I’m going on vacation this week (this Thursday, to be precise), I’m thinking about what books I’ll take with me. Of course, like any vacation, I don’t know how much – if any – actual reading time I will get, but I must have books on hand just in case a stolen moment can involve reading.

As you can see from my reading list, I’m reading a few books at the moment and have quite a few more on my TBR pile (which has now turned into an entire shelf – eesh). I’m almost done with Sabriel, so I don’t think I’ll be bringing that one with (having finished it before I leave). I should really bring Xenocide. Savage Survival is unbound and would be a bit of hassle to bring with. In Bad Dreams is another one I should bring, especially considering that they are launching In Bad Dreams 2 at the writer’s conference I’m going to…

Do any of you bring books with you on vacation? Do you ever get hassled about it?

I’m going to a writer’s conference, so I’ll hardly get hassled. Even if I decide to take a rest from the conference and take some reading time. Ideally, I should take along books that are smaller and easier to tuck away into bags.

Decisions, decisions.

I’m sure I’ll have it all worked out before I leave.

I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend.

The Santa Letters by Stacy Gooch-Anderson – Book Review

Friday, September 26th, 2008

Just as life seems to be at its best, Emma and her children experience one of the most horrible experiences a family can face when Emma’s husband, William, is killed on Christmas Eve. One year later, and Emma finds she is barely able to function beyond providing for her family as she spirals deeper into depression.

But that all begins to change as Santa decides to show the Jensen family the miracles of Christmas…

When I started reading The Santa Letters, I had a bit of a hard time concentrating on what I was actually reading after the first chapter. After setting a nice family scene in the first chapter, we then read on to find William has died. Anyone who happens to be like me and has nightmares about losing their spouse should be warned this might bother you when you read this book.

Despite the rough, but necessarily so, beginning, The Santa Letters is a book filled with warmth and ways to work through grief to remember that there is more to Christmas than gifts if you let there be.

One thing that kept me from enjoying the book as much as I could have was the dialogue. I found that all the children sounded more or less the same as each other. What’s more is they all, for the most part, sounded like adults (with the exception of six-year-old McKenna on occasion). I kept getting the brothers mixed up and forgetting they were young.

Somewhat along the same lines, one particular scene on pages 52 and 53 bothered me. Emma is talking to little McKenna and says, “Something bad happened to Daddy because someone chose to do something wrong, but he wasn’t singled out and killed because he was hated, like Jesus was.”

I by no means think we should underestimate the intelligence of our children, but I can not imagine saying that to a six-year-old.

That all being said, this is still a good, inspiring book. It’s religious, but it doesn’t beat you over the head with it. It’s simply there and part of the book, and you can feel from the writing that Gooch-Anderson wants to get the good feelings in the messages across.

I think The Santa Letters would be perfect as a church reading group study book. The way it is broken up into sections and the content of the letters make it seem like the book was meant for that purpose.

I recommend this book to Christian readers – especially those who have a love for Christmas.

Booking Through Thursday - That was Different!

Thursday, September 25th, 2008

A new Thursday, a new question from Booking Through Thursday! This week we’re talking about the strange and weird books we’ve read…

The question(s):

What was the most unusual (for you) book you ever read? Either because the book itself was completely from out in left field somewhere, or was a genre you never read, or was the only book available on a long flight… whatever? What (not counting school textbooks, though literature read for classes counts) was furthest outside your usual comfort zone/familiar territory?

And, did you like it? Did it stretch your boundaries? Did you shut it with a shudder the instant you were done? Did it make you think? Have nightmares? Kick off a new obsession?

I have two books in mind for that one, but I’ll only talk about the good one (and not the bad one) because I reckon an author doesn’t need any more flack from a site after (well, technically ‘before’ in this case) receiving a bad review.

The best book that was unusual for me was Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. It wasn’t outside my comfort zone at all, but boy did that book ever make me think and think hard. Mind you, I probably took it to levels the average reader wouldn’t take it to, but the concepts Card presents in the book… Well, they can really take your mind places.

Occasionally when reading that book, I had to actually stop myself from reading so I could sit and have time to think about the book. I’ve never had to do that before with a book…

The Story Behind the Book “Dear God, Let Me Lose Fat, Amen” by Dr. J. R. Paine - Guest Author

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

WHY WE CHOSE TO WRITE ABOUT WEIGHT LOSS
“Dear God, Let Me Lose Fat, Amen”
Dr. J. R. Paine, D.SC., and Professor Dr. S. N. Gupta, Ph.D.

From 1956 to 2006, a span of half a century, we along with the world watched as a trickle of obesity and 32 obesity related diseases turned into a Tsunami of obesity and disease over 50 short years.

Data released by the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General, The Department of Health and Human Services, the Federal Drug Administration, The American Medical Association, the World Health Organization and many other federal and private organizations showed that in 2006, nearly 97 million Americans were obese or overweight along with a billion people around the globe in affluent nations.

We knew from our extensive research that the human brain forms a million new connections for every second of our lives. It is in these changing connections that memories are stored, habits learned and personalities shaped. By reinforcing certain patterns of brain activity like desire for survival, health, vigor and vitality, and losing the craving for nutrient-poor, killer calorie-rich, high-fat, high-sugar and high-salt fatty FAST DELIVERY, FAST FOODS and fluids with FAST DELIVERY, FAST FACT knowledge nutrition for the brain, the obesity nightmare could be ended. The hands of the death clock that took the life of one American every 2 minutes could be slowed and finally stopped.

We realized that unexplored horizons in health and weight control are within our reach. We were inspired and considered it to be our duty to share our vast treasury of knowledge with our fellow human beings and to do all we could to open new doors and windows for millions of people carrying the heavy burden of failing health, overweight and obesity. We paid heed to the cry of Carrie Latet, who said “My fat scares me. It is a ticking time bomb.” “Health is like money, we don’t know its value until we lose it.”

Given our extensive scientific and health issues expertise and our access to the thinking of great minds throughout civilization, the two natural questions we asked ourselves were:

1. 30 million diets, diet companies, books, weight loss articles, magazines, websites plus trillions of words and billions of pages to end the obesity nightmare nationally and globally have done what?

The answer struck us with the force of a hurricane. All this output fanned the flames, disappointed desperate dieters, and sadly turned a trickle of obesity in 1956 into a Tsunami of obesity in 2006. Why? The authors discovered that the answer is misunderstood science and stubborn insistence by the “experts” that the MOUTH that created the obesity pandemic problem is also the solution. The Laws of Nature say NO – that is not the way humans are programmed.

2. 50 years of starvation, food deprivation, risky diet pills, hormonal injections. liposuctions, surgical procedures, Botox injections, punishing workouts, recipes, despair, pain, anger, and frustration have done what?

The answer again held little hope for the future of obesity and failing health. Turning health care, weight loss and personal care, breakfast, lunch and dinner time into a war with food, hunger pangs and agonizing cravings is not a solution. To add insult to injury, fat loss has become emotionally and physically stressful. In brief, dieting is a day time NIGHTMARE.

The billion dollar question was “How did we get into such a severe health and obesity crisis and how do we get out of it?” The answer is: (a) For 5 decades, we have had 100% easy access to FAST FOODS and (b) ZERO, ZIP access to FAST KNOWLEDGE!

For this reason, Mankind’s challenge over the past 50 years has been to innovate a DELIVERY SYSTEM for healthcare and weight loss knowledge that carries 24/7/365 edible FAST DELIVERY, FAST FACTS nuggets of knowledge nutrition (FOOD FOR THE BRAIN) to every refrigerator, kitchen counter, dinner table, TV set, desk, den, bedside table, in every home in America and across the world as quickly and easily as FAST FOOD FOR THE MOUTH. This challenge also required that this monumental innovation should be available to everyone at a COST so affordable that even the poorest amongst us can also afford it.

In “Dear God, Let Me Lose Fat, Amen”, Fat Loss E-School, Inc., and its sister company, Zero Obesity America, Inc. have met this 50-year-old challenge with its “astonishingly innovative” (Quote from New York Times best selling author Ellen T. Marsh), 24/7/365, FAST DELIVERY, HEALTH SAVER, OBESITY ERASER, FAST FACTS NUGGETS OF VITAL KNOWLEDGE NUTRITIONAL BODYGUARDS as well as its “thinking” and “talking” diet Pinups that FEED THE BRAIN VIA NON-STOP EZ2SLIM® VIRTUAL TUTORS, TRAINERS (Patent Pending) for JUST A DIME A DAY.

“Dear God, Let Me Lose fat, Amen” houses 40 of our ready to clip, frame and display FAST DELIVERY, FAST FACTS nutritional Bodyguards, personal trainers and diet talk Pinups. Keep these invaluable and indispensable personal trainers and nutrition consultants on the refrigerator door, kitchen counters, dinner table, TV set, desk, den, or wherever you need them, loaded with 30-second absorption capacity.

The virtual personal trainers and tutors stay on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week for your lifetime. They never ask for a salary nor take a vacation. They are your dependable, loved fat loss friends.

Excerpt From Salt Warriors by Paul Cool

Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008

Find more about the book here.

Salt Warriors: Chapter 10: “Our county is in open insurrection.”

Despite the drought, 1877 was a profitable year for some local merchants. Charles Ellis expanded his operations in September, buying John Campbell’s large flouring mill and reportedly “doing a smashing business milling and merchandizing.” John Atkinson was likewise “doing a good business,” and so was El Paso merchant Don Ysmael Ochoa. By no means was the region booming. Ernst Kohlberg was vehement in his advice to younger brother Moritz to look elsewhere in America for his fortune, for “conditions here are not promising at present.” El Paso before the railroads was no place for a callow newcomer to elbow out the established merchants.

That year Father Bourgade’s parishioners broke ground on a new church, the fourth in San Elizario’s history. Flooding had seriously damaged the third structure, so the citizens first elevated the ground beneath the new structure’s foundation with dirt hauled to the site in their reliable carretas. In 1882, the graceful new chapel was consecrated. It stands today, a testament to the mound building.

Louis Cardis had big plans. In mid-September he stopped in Mesilla to complete arrangements for a coach line between that town and Paso del Norte, Mexico. The stretch represented a gap in direct stagecoach service between San Diego and San Antonio that Cardis intended to fill. He also made arrangements for his customers to be able to purchase tickets as far as St. Louis “at remarkably low rates.”

According to the Independent, “Mr. Cardis has met and overcome many obstacles in bringing about this happy result, obstacles that would have dismayed and discouraged a man of less energy; and he is not only entitled to great credit, but also deserves a liberal support from the traveling public.” Both his Texas & California Stage Co. and his El Paso Stage Line boasted four-horse Concord coaches and “good meals” at fifty cents each. In other good news, a telegraph construction crew guarded by the Army had brought the wires down from Mesilla to within twenty-seven miles of El Paso.

Saturday, September 29

Others might take Cardis’s stagecoach, but not Charles Howard. He stepped aboard his carriage for the two hundred-mile journey from Franklin to Fort Davis, where court business demanded his presence. He had two stops to make. (more…)

Tuesday Book List of Exhaustion

Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008

book-stack.jpgOnce again, I am exhausted. I was struck down Monday with a mysterious bug that left me needing to sleep for most of the day. I’m partially recovered now, but man… I don’t want that to happen any time soon.

As you can see from my list, there are a good number of reviews coming up. You can thank Mr. JM for that. He’s taken to reviewing quite well and has a different style to me that I hope you enjoy. Eventually I would like to have he says/she says reviews, but I have to narrow down my to-do list a bit before that can happen…

As I mentioned before, while I have scheduled reviews for September, I am taking off October (and probably the rest of this year) from scheduled reviews so I can get caught up on my to be read list. There are authors who have generously donated me their books with no review date, and it’s only right that I make some time to read them.

So hopefully soon you will see my list grow smaller!

Remember to play the Monday game for your last chance to win the book Read Well, Think Well by Dr. Hal W. Lanse.

Reading:
Sabriel – Garth Nix
Savage Survival – Darrell Bain
In Bad Dreams – Horror Anthology – Edited by Mark Deniz and Sharyn Lilley
Xenocide - Orson Scott Card

Going to Read:
Dead Ringer – Mary Burton
Supernatural – Graham Hancock
Marwan: The Autobiography of a 9/11 Terrorist – Aram Schefrin
Neutron Star – Short story collection – Larry Niven
Firebirds – Fantasy/Sci-fi Anthology – Edited by Sharyn November
The Foreshadowing – Marcus Sedgwick
The Jaguar Legacy – Maureen Fisher
To Truckee’s Trail – Celia Hayes
The Redemption of Althalus – David and Leigh Eddings
The Serpent Bride – Sara Douglass
Loving the Goddess Within – Nan Hawthorne
Bad Girls Club – Judy Gregerson
Stand – Debbie Williamson
Season of Sacrifice – Tristi Pinkston
Copper Star – Suzanne Woods Fisher
Copper Fire – Suzanne Woods Fisher
The Lost Diary of Don Juan – Douglas Carlton Abrams

Upcoming Reviews:
Prosperity - by Deborah Woehr
Target: Caught in the Crosshairs of Bill and Hilary Clinton – Kathleen Willey
The Lab – Jack Heath
Remote Control – Jack Heath
The Santa Letters – Stacy Gooch-Anderson

So what’s on your list?

A Book by Any Other Name - Snow

Monday, September 22nd, 2008

Welcome to this week’s A Book By Any Other Name!

The game works like this: Each week I will choose a word and offer a few titles that I’ve come up with containing that word in the title. Then it’s your turn to come up with book titles containing the same word, without duplication (yes, that includes my titles.) I would also like the author, but that is just so I can find the book if I want to read it.

The current challenge: I challenge you all to reach 32 titles containing the weekly word by midnight Friday, (with no more than 10 titles commented per person and not including *my* titles in the total.)

My forfeit? For this challenge I’d like to do a little something different that will hopefully have the both of us smiling. Right now, Dr. Hal W. Lanse is giving away copies of his book Read Well, Think Well which is a book about helping your child to increase his/her reading comprehension and critical thinking skills.

That’s right - by playing the Monday book game, you can enter for your chance to win a copy of this book. (You can also have more chances at getting a copy by going here.)

Whoo-hoo right? Right! As long as you leave a valid email address and are willing to give me your postal address to send the book, then we’re good to go!

So if you’d like a copy of this wonderful book, join in!

If you don’t reach the goal, we’ll try again next week. If you reach the goal, I’ll have a brand new challenge for you next Monday where you’ll get another chance.

(If you’re feeling pouty about the ten titles per person limit, why not get a friend to come and comment as well? The more, the merrier.)

The word this week is:

Snow

I Say: Snow by Uri Shulevitz

You Say…

The Forbidden Daughter by Shobhan Batwal - Book Review

Friday, September 19th, 2008

Alone but for the daughter growing in her womb and the five-year-old daughter by her side, Isha Tilak leaves the comfort and security of her recently deceased husband’s home to strike out on her own. Full of questions about her husband’s sudden, mysterious and violent death, Isha takes refuge in a convent and tries to get her life back together.

Help comes in the form of not only family but a doctor named Harish who meets Isha at the convent not long after Isha gives birth to her second daughter. With the help and kindness of others, Isha is soon living a content and happy life.

But not is all as it seems because Isha unknowingly holds the proof that could destroy the career and reputation of a doctor tempted enough by greed to perform abortions for a fee.

And he would do anything to get that information out of her hands…

This is the second book by Shobhan Bantwal that I have reviewed her – the first being The Dowry Bride – so I’ll try to keep this a review and not a comparison of the two.

Once again, Bantwal takes us to the beautiful yet gritty India for a close look at the triumphs and hardships of a strong, Indian woman. Isha is easy to sympathize with, being a mother who is willing to give up everything so her daughters can have a better life. She has her doubts and fears, making her even more real to the reader, but she trudges through for the sake of her children.

While The Forbidden Daughter has some familiar plot points – Indian women leaving home, conveniently placed men to help them, a kidnapping – to The Dowry Bride, I don’t think that takes away from being able to enjoy the book. The Forbidden Daughter brings together a serious social issue – female feticide – with a murder mystery and romance, and packages it all together as a women’s fiction novel.

To top that off, Bantwal has an easy-to-read writing style that takes second place to the story being told.

I would have liked to have seen more of the Indian culture worked in, but Bantwal is a people-focused writer and she doesn’t let anything weigh her down in that aspect.

If you’re looking for a ‘dense’ book about political stances and whatnot, then this probably isn’t the book for you. However…

I recommend this book, especially if you are a romantic, like books focused on people and their interactions, or both.

Booking Through Thursday - Changing Seasons

Thursday, September 18th, 2008

Woohoo! I’m finally getting my responses to one of these up at a reasonable time. (Yeah, it’s the little things that matter to me.) This week we have a question that is a bit location-focused – which doesn’t quite hold true for me being in Australia – but I will answer it the best I can.

The question:

“Autumn is starting (here in the US, anyway), and kids are heading back to school–does the changing season change your reading habits? Less time? More? Are you just in the mood for different kinds of books than you were over the summer?”

Well, spring is arriving here in Australia and I am loving it. Sunshine! Oh, how I have missed you.

I’ll take the simplest part of the question first and say that the type of books I read isn’t influenced by the seasons at all. I can’t really imagine my tastes changing based on whether I curl up in front of the fireplace (if I had a fireplace) with a book or whether I take it to the part.

As for my reading habits… If I weren’t a reviewer, I think I might be reading less in the first part of spring just because I would want to get out in the sunshine, take pictures, go for walks with my husband, etc. However, as spring turns into summer, then I want to read more because I like to escape the heat by going to the library.

But even then, even if I wasn’t reviewing books, I think how much I read wouldn’t be effected that much no matter what the change except for those first few weeks or so of spring sunshine.

**
As always, if you responded to this week’s prompt, be sure to leave a comment with a link to where you have posted your answer so I, and others, can visit your blog.

Tuesday Book List of Volunteering

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

book-stack.jpgToday I am going with my husband when he goes to work because I volunteered to help out. I do like volunteering, helping out, talking with the people there… I really just wish I could get a part time position there. One or two days a week just to come in and get those little things done…

Pout. So it goes.

As I mentioned before, while I have scheduled reviews for September, I am taking off October (and probably the rest of this year) from scheduled reviews so I can get caught up on my to be read list. There are authors who have generously donated me their books with no review date, and it’s only right that I make some time to read them.

So hopefully soon you will see my list grow smaller! For now it just grows a bit bigger…

Remember to play the Monday game for your chance to win the book Read Well, Think Well by Dr. Hal W. Lanse.

Reading:
The Santa Letters – Stacy Gooch-Anderson
Sabriel – Garth Nix
Savage Survival – Darrell Bain
In Bad Dreams – Horror Anthology – Edited by Mark Deniz and Sharyn Lilley
Xenocide - Orson Scott Card

Going to Read:
Dead Ringer – Mary Burton
Supernatural – Graham Hancock
Marwan: The Autobiography of a 9/11 Terrorist – Aram Schefrin
Neutron Star – Short story collection – Larry Niven
Firebirds – Fantasy/Sci-fi Anthology – Edited by Sharyn November
The Lab – Jack Heath
Remote Control – Jack Heath
The Foreshadowing – Marcus Sedgwick
The Jaguar Legacy – Maureen Fisher
To Truckee’s Trail – Celia Hayes
The Redemption of Althalus – David and Leigh Eddings
The Serpent Bride – Sara Douglass
Loving the Goddess Within – Nan Hawthorne
Bad Girls Club – Judy Gregerson
Stand – Debbie Williamson
Season of Sacrifice – Tristi Pinkston
Copper Star – Suzanne Woods Fisher
Copper Fire – Suzanne Woods Fisher
The Lost Diary of Don Juan – Douglas Carlton Abrams

Upcoming Reviews:
Prosperity - by Deborah Woehr
The Forbidden Daughter - Shobhan Bantwal
Target: Caught in the Crosshairs of Bill and Hilary Clinton – Kathleen Willey

So what’s on your list?

A Book by Any Other Name - Dance

Monday, September 15th, 2008

Welcome to this week’s A Book By Any Other Name!

The game works like this: Each week I will choose a word and offer a few titles that I’ve come up with containing that word in the title. Then it’s your turn to come up with book titles containing the same word, without duplication (yes, that includes my titles.) I would also like the author, but that is just so I can find the book if I want to read it.

The current challenge: I challenge you all to reach 32 titles containing the weekly word by midnight Friday, (with no more than 10 titles commented per person and not including *my* titles in the total.)

My forfeit? For this challenge I’d like to do a little something different that will hopefully have the both of us smiling. Right now, Dr. Hal W. Lanse is giving away copies of his book Read Well, Think Well which is a book about helping your child to increase his/her reading comprehension and critical thinking skills.

That’s right - by playing the Monday book game, you can enter for your chance to win a copy of this book. (You can also have more chances at getting a copy by going here.)

Whoo-hoo right? Right! As long as you leave a valid email address and are willing to give me your postal address to send the book, then we’re good to go!

So if you’d like a copy of this wonderful book, join in!

If you don’t reach the goal, we’ll try again next week. If you reach the goal, I’ll have a brand new challenge for you next Monday where you’ll get another chance.

(If you’re feeling pouty about the ten titles per person limit, why not get a friend to come and comment as well? The more, the merrier.)

The word this week is:

Dance

I Say: Dancing Shoes by Noel Streatfeild

You Say…

Sunday Salon 1

Sunday, September 14th, 2008

Yes, that’s right, I’m joining up with Sunday Salon.

For those of you who aren’t familiar…

What is the Sunday Salon? “Imagine some university library’s vast reading room. It’s filled with people–students and faculty and strangers who’ve wandered in. They’re seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them, and they’re all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go. Later they’ll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon’s literary intake….

That’s what happens at the Sunday Salon, except it’s all virtual. Every Sunday the bloggers participating in that week’s Salon get together–at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones–and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another’s blogs. Think of it as an informal, weekly, mini read-a-thon, an excuse to put aside one’s earthly responsibilities and fall into a good book. How to join the Salon.”

I decided that, while my Tuesday book list is all fine and good, I don’t actually talk about what I’m reading there. Hence, the Sunday Salon so I can talk about what I’m reading, talk to others about what they are reading and have a good time.

So today is just my introduction of sorts and to let you know that if you are participating in the Salon, let me know! I’d love to get to know you (if I don’t already) and talk about books with you.

I’m quite looking forward to this and talking more about what I’m reading.

I’ve just finished up with Shobhan Bantwal’s The Forbidden Daughter and the review will go up Friday. I haven’t yet been able to start the next book, so this will have to do for now for my Salon. Next week I’ll have more to say!

The Strand Prophecy by J.B.B. Winner

Friday, September 12th, 2008

This week Mr. JM has grabbed a book off my TBR shelf - yes, I have a shelf - and has reviewed it for today. His reviewing style is a bit different than mine, so enjoy…

The Strand Prophecy is a book with its roots in the now-culture; on the back cover it tells us it is the first of five books in the series, and that more information about graphic novels, comic books and STRAND electronic media can be found online. www.StrandTheBook.com could provide a central focus for a communal experience for readers – it probably won’t hurt book sales either.

The book opens with a graphic section and closes with pictures of characters and technology. I might have put the pictures into the book where the subjects come into the plot to assist readers in imagining them, but that’s just me.

The story is, like a good comic, fast and well-paced. At points it is gripping, particularly at the climax, when it’s Strand and compatriots against the rest. And it deals with an interesting subject when we consider how often these days we are being told the World is changing.

Global Warming, pollution, natural habitat encroachment – all these are evolutionary pressures on the natural world. If we consider the possible consequences of Man’s science and the possibility of something going wrong with genetic modification or other technologies, the Strand world is a distinctly feasible one.

Personally I think the book well worth a read, even with the criticisms I have. One is the lack of back story. This might be planned for later in the series but I found it slightly annoying to come in halfway through Steve Cutter’s life. I’d have liked some information about how he came to invent all these new technologies; I think it would have assisted me in feeling more sympathy towards him.

Also the reasoning behind why he felt so compelled to protect the innocent seems a bit light. While it’s likely someone would feel guilt at having not looked after their niece when a major accident almost cost her her life, the kind of driven reaction we see in Cutter is more usually fuelled by a more active involvement in what went wrong.

Although it’s in keeping with the comic genre, I’d also have liked some back story on the first ‘evolution’ scenario in Brazil. Having the event happen as it did, early on, was a good opportunity to go into just how these things might have come to pass. Instead I was left with the impression that suddenly, overnight, we have a fully developed survival system in place among several differing species.

Another nit-pick is one I had even as a teen reading the DC and Marvel comics – things are too simplified. I found in comics, the people tend to be a bit two dimensional and there’s a little of that here. But it does fit with the genre and I was never a normal reader. This may change as the younger writers mature and understand more of the world around them.

Overall, I enjoyed the read, there is some thought-provoking material in there and even though there are further books planned, the storyline is complete in and of itself. Yes, I can see where the later books could go in developing the scenario, but in this book, most loose ends are tied up and the conclusion is satisfying.

About The Book Stacks

The Book Stacks is the place to go for everything book-related. Here you will find librarian humor, books that are moving to the big screen, cover art, random trivia, reviews, news, games, videos, the occasional interview, and anything else I run across. What are you reading? Have a favorite book? Let me know.

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