Waiting on Wednesday

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

Dead Reckoning (Sookie Stackhouse #11)
by Charlaine Harris
publication date: May 3, 2011


From Goodreads:
"With her knack for being in trouble's way, Sookie witnesses the firebombing of Merlotte's, the bar where she works. Since Sam Merlotte is now known to be two-natured, suspicion falls immediately on the anti-shifters in the area. But Sookie suspects otherwise and she and Sam work together to uncover the culprit - and the twisted motive for the attack. But her attention is divided. Though she can't 'read' vampires, Sookie knows her lover Eric Northman and his 'child' Pam well - and she realises that they are plotting to kill the vampire who is now their master. Gradually, she is drawn into the plot -which is much more complicated than she knows. Caught up in the politics of the vampire world, Sookie will learn that she is as much of a pawn as any ordinary human - and that there is a new Queen on the board . . . "

From Me:
I have been rereading this series after the recent ice storm kept me from the library. I love the books, but I was slightly lost while reading the last few entries when they came out because it had been so long since I read the earlier installments. So now I'm almost all caught up (8 out of 10 newly read) and I'm ready for the new book!

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:



•Grab your current read
•Open to a random page
•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

"When I'd stormed out, I hadn't been thinking about what would happen next. It's the ruin of a good exit when you have to go back and look in the phone book for a cab company."   page 109

-From Dead to Worse, Sookie Stackhouse #8
Charlaine Harris

Blogging updates

Oh, blogosphere, I have gotten lazy again and haven't posted in a while. My apologies. I finally finished Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, something that felt like it took forever. It was a great book, but it's a beast! (For full review, see today's review post.) Since then, I've been catching up on my pleasure reading - the last several months I've been reading books for school (particularly for my Materials for Youth class) or book group, most of which have been great. It's funny how satisfying it is to select the books you're reading when it's been a while since you had the luxury.

Anyhoodle, I first picked up a Jennifer Crusie book, Maybe This Time (see below for full review). And then, due to the Ice Storm of Death, or the Snowpocalypse, I wasn't able to get to the library to pick up my newest haul. So I started to reread the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris (if you're unfamiliar with this series, it inspired to uber-popular HBO show, True Blood). I loved this series, but I've only read it once through, and I often reread books I love. It's been a long time coming, and I have really enjoyed the process. I'm on Book 5, Dead as a Doornail, but will soon be turning to the afore mentioned library haul...that and our latest book club book, Still Life with Woodpecker.

To Read:
Still Life with Woodpecker, by Tom Robbins
The Looking Glass Wars (Looking Glass Wars #1), by Frank Beddor
Inkheart (Inkheart #1), by Cornelia Funke
Insatiable, by Meg Cabot

Book Review: Maybe This Time

Maybe This Time
by Jennifer Crusie
(*****)

From Goodreads:
Andie Miller is ready to move on in life. She wants to marry her fiance and leave behind everything in her past, especially her ex-husband, North Archer. But when Andie tries to gain closure with him, he asks one final favor of her before they go their separate ways forever. A very distant cousin of his has died and left North as the guardian of two orphans who have driven out three nannies already, and things are getting worse. He needs a very special person to take care of the situation and he knows Andie can handle anything…

When Andie meets the two children she quickly realizes things are much worse than she feared. The place is a mess, the children, Carter and Alice, aren’t your average delinquents, and the creepy old house where they live is being run by the worst housekeeper since Mrs. Danvers. What’s worse, Andie’s fiance thinks this is all a plan by North to get Andie back, and he may be right. Andie’s dreams have been haunted by North since she arrived at the old house. And that’s not the only haunting…

Then her ex-brother-in-law arrives with a duplicitous journalist and a self-doubting parapsychologist, closely followed by an annoyed medium, Andie’s tarot card–reading mother, her avenging ex-mother-in-law, and her jealous fiancé. Just when Andie’s sure things couldn’t get more complicated, North arrives to make her wonder if maybe this time things could just turn out differently….

From me:
It may seem strange to categorize this story as "Historical Fiction," but as you learn before the story starts, it takes place in 1992. "Because." In other words, no cell phones, no instant internet access - it's practically foreign territory nowadays! While this may be a ghost story, the real story is that of a woman trying to take care of, and then loving, two orphaned children. So maybe the fact that these kids are haunted by some disturbing ghosts mixes up this plot a bit, but it was the children that I found most compelling. And then there's the basic romantic element as our heroine Andie (short for Andromeda - her mom was either a hippie or just hippie like, I don't recall the particulars) has to contend with her fiance and the ex-husband she still has feelings for.

I often pick up Crusie titles, looking for a repeat of Agnes and the Hitman - one of my favorite books. This book contains Crusie's trade-mark humor, but it does seem to have a touch more seriousness than some of her other titles (and isn't quite as fantastic as Agnes). That may just be because children are involved in the dramatic bits, which makes it seem more serious. I don't know. But I loved it, all the same! Recommended.

Book Review: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
by Susanna Clarke
(*****)

From Goodreads:
Centuries ago, when magic still existed in England, the greatest magician of them all was the Raven King. A human child brought up by fairies, the Raven King blended fairy wisdom and human reason to create English magic. Now, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, he is barely more than a legend, and England, with its mad King and its dashing poets, no longer believes in practical magic.

Then the reclusive Mr Norrell of Hurtfew Abbey appears and causes the statues of York Cathedral to speak and move. News spreads of the return of magic to England and, persuaded that he must help the government in the war against Napoleon, Mr Norrell goes to London. There he meets a brilliant young magician and takes him as a pupil. Jonathan Strange is charming, rich and arrogant. Together, they dazzle the country with their feats.

But the partnership soon turns to rivalry. Mr Norrell has never conquered his lifelong habits of secrecy, while Strange will always be attracted to the wildest, most perilous magic. He becomes fascinated by the shadowy figure of the Raven King, and his heedless pursuit of long-forgotten magic threatens, not only his partnership with Norrell, but everything that he holds dear.


From me:
I finished it! I feel like I accomplished something major when I turned that last page. This book was excellent, but it was loooonnnggg. Do not read this book if you don't have time to devote to it - it's not one you can put down and pick up later. By the time I was half way through it I was having trouble remembering every character and every reference made, and I was reading it straight through. There's a lot of information here, but that gives this story it's depth.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell reads like Austen and it's the complexities of the characters and not the magic (which felt very commonplace, like it was the most natural thing in the world) that moves the story. I read this book for a book group, which I would only recommend if you have a long time between group meetings; it's just too bulky to read quickly. On the other hand, there is plenty to talk about, so a great discussion book. Highly recommended.

Waiting on Wednesday: The Peach Keeper

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.
This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

The Peach Keeper
by Sarah Addison Allen
publication date: March 22, 2011

From Goodreads:
The New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Who Chased the Moon welcomes you to her newest locale: Walls of Water, North Carolina, where the secrets are thicker than the fog from the town’s famous waterfalls, and the stuff of superstition is just as real as you want it to be.

It’s the dubious distinction of thirty-year-old Willa Jackson to hail from a fine old Southern family of means that met with financial ruin generations ago. The Blue Ridge Madam—built by Willa’s great-great-grandfather during Walls of Water’s heyday, and once the town’s grandest home—has stood for years as a lonely monument to misfortune and scandal. And Willa herself has long strived to build a life beyond the brooding Jackson family shadow. No easy task in a town shaped by years of tradition and the well-marked boundaries of the haves and have-nots.

But Willa has lately learned that an old classmate—socialite do-gooder Paxton Osgood—of the very prominent Osgood family, has restored the Blue Ridge Madam to her former glory, with plans to open a top-flight inn. Maybe, at last, the troubled past can be laid to rest while something new and wonderful rises from its ashes. But what rises instead is a skeleton, found buried beneath the property’s lone peach tree, and certain to drag up dire consequences along with it.

For the bones—those of charismatic traveling salesman Tucker Devlin, who worked his dark charms on Walls of Water seventy-five years ago—are not all that lay hidden out of sight and mind. Long-kept secrets surrounding the troubling remains have also come to light, seemingly heralded by a spate of sudden strange occurrences throughout the town.

Now, thrust together in an unlikely friendship, united by a full-blooded mystery, Willa and Paxton must confront the dangerous passions and tragic betrayals that once bound their families—and uncover truths of the long-dead that have transcended time and defied the grave to touch the hearts and souls of the living.

Resonant with insight into the deep and lasting power of friendship, love, and tradition, The Peach Keeper is a portrait of the unshakable bonds that—in good times and bad, from one generation to the next—endure forever.

Sarah Addison Allen creates stories rich with heart and magic. The world she creates is so real and wonderful, I want to pick up and move to her fictional small towns. Her first three books have become some of my favorites and I can't wait to get my hands on her latest novel!

Booking Through Thursday: Periodically

Booking Through Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by Should Be Reading.

This week’s Booking Through Thursday question asks:

Even I read things other than books from time to time…like, Magazines! What magazines/journals do you read?



Oh, I read a lot of magazines, but I'm cheap, so I love finding low-priced subscriptions to magazines. Really, you can get a full year's worth of magazines for the price of two issues!

My current subscriptions include Better Homes and Gardens, which besides being an awesome magazine full of recipes, decorating tips, and crafty things, also has an addictive website.

I also get Marie Claire, which has the expected fashion and love advice common to many women's mags, but it also provides current information about women's issues around the world.

Other magazines that I've subscribed to in the past or buy sporadically include Entertainment Weekly, Country Living, Self, Bon Appetit, and the occasional People double issue.

As for journals, I get the American Library Association's (ALA) American Libraries magazine and I read plenty of journal articles related to libraries and library science.

Waiting on Wednesday: Bossypants

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.


This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:





Bossypants
by Tina Fey
 
I've always been more of a novel reader, but I do love humorous books and that includes memoires. I enjoyed reading Kristin Chenowith, Chelsea Handler, and Amy Sedaris, and I have no doubt that Tina Fey's book will be hilarious. Shoot, even the Goodread's description is funny! And that cover!
 

I judge a book by it's cover,
and I judge that this cover
is awesome. 

Goodreads says:
Before Liz Lemon, before "Weekend Update," before "Sarah Palin" Tina Fey was just a young girl with a dream: a recurring stress dream that she was being chased through a local airport by her middle-school gym teacher. She also had a dream that one day she would be a comedian on TV.
 
She has seen both these dreams come true.

At last, Tina Fey's story can be told. From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately half-hearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoon from the beginning of this paragraph to this final sentence.

Tina Fey reveals all, and proves what we've all suspected: you're no one until someone calls you bossy.

(Includes Special, Never-Before-Solicited Opinions on Breastfeeding, Princesses, Photoshop, the Electoral Process, and Italian Rum Cake!)

Once in a generation a woman comes along who changes everything. TINA FEY is not that woman, but she met that woman once and acted weird around her.

PRAISE FOR TINA FEY

You'd be pretty if you lost weight. --COLLEGE BOYFRIEND, 1990

Tina Fey is an ugly, pear-shaped, overrated troll. --THE INTERNET

Mommy, where are my pretzels. --TRACY MORGAN

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR BOSSYPANTS

I hope that's not really the cover. That's really going to hurt sales. --DON FEY, FATHER OF TINA FEY

Absolutely delicious! --A GUY WHO EATS BOOKS

Totally worth it. --TREES

Do not print this glowing recommendation of Tina Fey's book until I've been dead a hundred years. --MARK TWAIN

Hilarious and insightful. Laugh-out-loud funny oh no, a full moon! No! Arrgh! Get away from me! Save yourself! --A GUY TURNING INTO A WEREWOLF

Musing Mondays (2)

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by Should Be Reading. This week’s musing asks…

Do you prefer deep, intellectual, “meaty” books… or light, “fluffy” books? Why? Give us an example of your preferred type of book.

I like books that entertain me, and "deep, intellectual" books rarely do that. I want something fun, something that draws me and makes me laugh or, occassionally, provides a good mope (that's where the Twilight series fits in for me, specifically New Moon - it's great for a good wallow). I particularly like books with a sense of humor, like Jennifer Crusie's Agnes and the Hitman or Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series. A book doesn't have to be "fluffy" to be fun - and I look for fun in my entertainment.

It's Monday, What are you Reading? (14)

It's Monday: What are you Reading? is a weekly meme from BookJourney.

That noise - that banging sound you may hear? That would be my head against the wall. I cannot get this book finished! It has nothing to do with the style or content - it's an excellent book and I've really enjoyed reading it. But it's sooooo loooonnnngggggg!!!! I have to have it finished by Friday, and I'm not sure I can do it. Which is really bad, since I'm leading the book group that's reading it...

So, I'm still reading Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. If you'd like more information about it, please see my last two It's Monday posts, as well as my last two Teaser Tuesday posts. Maybe someday I'll be able to post about a different book.

Bang.  Bang.  Bang.