Strictly Letters

Unbroken: A World War Two Story of Survival, Resiliance, and Redemption

2011-08-18T16:44:00.000-07:00

Title: Unbroken
Author: Laura Hillenbrand
Rating: Two Stars OR 5 Starts

I just finished this book today, and I am not sure whether to rate it as a 2 or a 5.

This book recites the harrowing details of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic runner turned POW survivor. It depicts his life from birth until his now 90's- including shaking the hand of Adolf Hitler at the 1936 games in Berlin, his divine survival from 47 days of drifting in the Pacific Ocean on a raft, and turning to Christ to learn how to forgive his tormentors after surviving a Japanese POW camp.

Laura Hillenbrand is brilliant in her story-telling. I felt like I grew up with Zamperini as a close friend, and later that I was in Japan experiencing the torture that befell the POW's. That was the greatness and the difficulty of this novel.

Louis' story must be read. His story must live on forever- for us to remember not only all that we owe to so many men and women who lost their lives not only in WWII but in all other wars that have been fought, but also to remember the horrendous viciousness that occurs during war so that we can avoid it in the future. That is why it deserves a 5-star rating: a brilliantly told true story of a great war hero that should never be forgotten.

However, this is an incredibly difficult read. It embodies everything I dislike about WWII literature: I hate reading that there are people on this earth who are so cruel as to enjoy the severe suffering of others. In WWII, the Japanese were satanic in their punishments to their captives, and this book does not hold back in the retelling of the torture. The images of what they inflicted on other human beings makes me literally ill- and it was hard to read. Based on the subject matter and the perfect imagery that Hillenbrand created of this most despicable behavior, I want to rate it a 2- meaning, this is an incredibly hard read.

I really do believe every American should read this novel- it should be required reading in High School. But, I will never read it again. And if a movie comes out, I will skip that as well.

Has this review confused you enough?

The Cookbook Collector

2011-05-14T11:23:00.000-07:00

Title: The Cookbook Collector
By: Allegra Goodman

I do not think it is possible for me to describe how much I loathe this book, but I will try.

I was told this book was about two sisters and how their relationship evolves. Having several sisters myself, I thought I would be able to relate. Plus, several reviewers had said that Allegra Goodman was the new Jane Austen, so how could I go wrong?

Well, how could this book go so wrong? Or, what was right with this book? Nothing was right- it was all wrong.

Jane Austen would be appalled to find herself compared to Ms. Goodman. Ms. Austen's books told stories of love, patience, understanding, sacrifice. Goodman's book was the exact opposite- nothing but lust, greed, and selfishness.

It is the story of several characters and their experiences of the dotcom bust of the early 2000's. It goes through their rise and fall- from nothing to absolute wealth to nothing again. Several characters emerge- far too many to keep track of. All the characters sleep around with so called boyfriends or girlfriends, who then cheat on them, and then go on to their next romance based on lust and- not surprisingly- doomed for failure. One boyfriend betrays his fiancee's trust and confidence in order to obtain wealth and prestige for himself. Nice. Another character gets engaged to a man who doesn't even want his friends to meet her because she is half his age and not his type. He insists that he loves her, even though every time they are together all they do is have sex. I am sure that relationship will work out in the end.

Not only could I not relate to any of the characters, I had absolutely no desire to relate to any of them. I thought they were all disgusting people and in real life I do everything in my power to avoid people like them.

If this was a movie, it would be rated R. Based on the reviews, I gave a copy of this book to my mother-in-law for Christmas. I have had to apologize, and I am incredibly embarrassed that I gave her such a horrible book. Cuss words abound, and there is not one redeeming quality I can think of to describe this book.

I will give this book 1.5 stars. The ONLY reason it is getting that extra half star is because there is a Jodi Picoult book that I hate even more, and that book deserves the lowest rating of all.

Juliet

2011-04-25T07:58:00.000-07:00

Juliet by Anne Fortier

(I admit to stealing this review off of Amazon.com. I apologize for that, but for some reason I am not able to put into my own words my thoughts on this book other than I thought it was an incredibly fun read)

This is a very well thought out and well written debut effort by Ms. Fortier, in which she mixes Shakespear's Tragedy with a popular romance novel and a dash of the Da Vinci Code.

The story follows American Julie Jacobs on a quest to Siena, Italy to retrace her Ancestry. She soon discovers that she is a direct descendant of Giulietta Tomei, the inspiration for Shakespear's Juliet. She also finds the descendants of the two feuding families from the tale of "Romeo and Juliet" are still living in Siena and still feuding. Julie is helped in her attempt to uncover the past a contessa and the contessa's handsome nephew (love interest). There is also an assorted quirky cast of Italian police, mobsters, and locals.

Julie's search involves old paintings, a journal, old relics, and antique texts. A good part of the fun of this book is unraveling the mystery, but the the heart breaking love story is also well represented. If had to find fault with the book is it does not know quite what it wants to be, historical fiction or romance novel, but then again that was part of the fun!

The Irresistible Revolution

2011-03-30T14:50:00.000-07:00

The Irresistible Revolutioun: Living Life As An Ordinary Radical
By: Shane Claiborne

I am not exactly sure how to describe this book.

Revolutionary? Probably.
Thought provoking? Definitely.
Life-Changing? Hopefully.

This is a book about a man who is trying to live his life as closely as Christ would have him live as possible. That means, to him, that he goes to Calcutta to serve with Mother Theresa. He goes to Iraq to serve the victims of the war. He opens up a "community" house in the ghettos of Philadelphia where the homeless and the lonely are welcome. He dedicates his life to serving the poor- and in this book he teaches us the things he has learned along the way.

I found that he eloquently expresses many of the things that I have always felt. For example, he takes on the Christian Right for not only turning Christianity into politics, but in boiling Christianity to two issues: sex and abortion, while ignoring so many other tenets of the life Christ lived. This is something that has always bothered me, and I am glad somebody finally spoke up against it.

That is not to say that Shane is a democrat. In fact, he despises the democrats just as much. He calls himself "anti-politics" and on the 2004 ballot he wrote "Jesus" as the write-in candidate.

So this book is not about politics- though it is mentioned.

It is more a book about how we, as a society, have veered from the path that Christ would have us lead.

The book leaves you wondering not what it means to be Christian, but what it means to be a follower of Christ- and whether or not we, as supposed Christians, are living up to that ideal.

He talked about a survey he took of several hundred Christians. He asked them if Christ walked with and helped the poor. 80% said yes. Later in the survey, he asked if they had actually walked with the poor and physically served the poor. Only 2% said yes.

He says we, as a society, have set up layers so we don't actually have to interact with the poor- we can donate our money to our charity and feel good about ourselves, but we don't actually come in contact with a homeless person to understand their circumstances and understand why they are in this situation. He insists that if we did, poverty would end as we would literally open up our coffers to help those in need- just as Jesus has asked us to do, but so many of us are unwilling to actually do.

He quotes Gandhi who said, "I like your Christ. But I do not like your Christians- they are so unlike your Christ."

Many of his thoughts are things I have thought for years, and it is refreshing to see somebody live his life in exact preciseness to how he felt Christ lived. He doesn't just talk the talk- he walks the walk.

I live in the suburbs with my spare bedrooms and extra mattresses while there are single mothers with children sleeping under bridges.

So now this book has left me wondering: What can I do to truly serve the poor? Not just donate money- but actually serve them face to face. To let them change me- to change my heart- so that I become a better disciple of Christ.

Finding the answer is my next quest.

(I should point out that I do not agree with everything he says- I do not agree with all of his Biblical interpretations, and I certainly do not agree that he is a prophet, as some of his followers do. But, the overall message I do agree with, and that is why I highly recommend this book)

Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities

2010-10-12T17:15:00.001-07:00

By Amy Stewart

I know I'm not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but this book is just so pretty. And it doesn't end with the cover. The pages inside? Swoon. This book best resembles an old notebook kept by your talented artist/botanist/genius great-aunt. The pages have that faded, brown-edged look of an old book. (I know it's fake, but still.) The book is heavily illustrated; the etchings of each plant are just gorgeous.

The illustrations are a little, well, eccentric. They're by an artist that once worked for Tim Burton, so that should give you an idea. But I love the way this book looks.

The subject matter is engaging, to a point. About midway through the book, I felt like the book got a little repetitive as plant after plant induced nausea, heart failure and rashes. But it's an interesting read nonetheless, and if you forge on, the plants get a little more creative in their attempts to kill us all (impaling, exploding, devouring small creatures, etc.). I do have a residual feeling that maybe nature wants me dead, but I suppose I'll get over it. And the contents are divided into snippets, perfect for the busy mom that only has a few minutes at a time to read between (hopefully non plant-related) catastrophes.

Appearance: 5 stars.
Contents: 3 stars.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

2010-08-09T07:11:00.000-07:00

Hrm. Quick overview of this lovely trilogy..

And if you've not read any of these, this probably won't make any sense. So. Sorry. In advance.

Book one -

Men definitely hate women in this one - A LOT, Nazis and big corporations are the roots of all evil - OF COURSE, who needs big boobs anyway (or I mean boobs at all), or condoms for that matter, or to be faithful to one's spouse.., and all those names..good grief. My review of this one is here.

Book two -

The giant blond dude from Rocky IV/man who feels no pain from the Brosnan (slash fake) Bond movies makes an appearance and boy is he pissed, Lisbeth is actually in this one - like she does stuff and everything (I mean everything), again with the names...holy crap....but this one by far my favorite of the three.

Book three -

Lisbeth is in the hospital and now she's pissed, duct tape cures all ills (my husband slash life partner could've told them that!), hot Amazon women are attracted to middle-aged, over-weight men, Lisbeth is still in the hospital.., ack, those names! I wanted to ram my head into the wall they were so confusing, Salander is still in the hospital..., stalkers are always skinny nerdy men, Swede's like to use the word whore a lot, giant blond freak makes an appearance at the beginning and the exact end of the book - in between I completely forgot about him, wha? Salander finally leaves the hospital?? Just in time to save the day? Not really, and the mysterious sister? She never shows...ah, come on!!

A really funny take on this series is in The New Yorker. I laughed myself silly it was so. spot. on.

3 stars

Good Housekeeping: Family Vegetarian Cooking

2010-08-03T07:38:00.000-07:00

Title: Family Vegetarian Cooking

By: Good Housekeeping

I know it is strange to write a review on a cookbook, but I wanted to give a HUGE shoutout to this book!
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About a month ago my husband and I decided to go more vegetarian- we are absolutely not cutting out meat completely, but we wanted to try to incorporate more meatless meals into our family. I had no idea what to expect in trying this out, because we used to eat meat at EVERY meal except breakfast (and even then we had sausage sometimes).
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I was mostly worried that meatless meals would not be filling- for me, meat has always been the main course. Another major problem, was that I had approximately ZERO meatless recipes and nowhere to turn to get them.
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I came across this cookbook and I am absolutely in love with it!!!! There are lots of pictures (a mandatory requirement for me and cookbooks), the recipes are fairly easy and do not require a ton of prep, and it goes into the basics of being a vegetarian and how to still get all of the nutrients you need. The best part: Every recipe I have tried (except one) has been absolutely DELICIOUS- I kid you not, these are some of the best recipes I have ever made and we LOVE our food!!! I feel like a gourmet chef making these simple but exotic recipes. YUM! (One sad note: they have a smaller version of this cookbook with a recipe for Greek Feta Pitas- by far our favorite meal. Unfortunately, for some reason that recipe is not in this larger version, which is very sad. If you want that recipe, leave a comment and I will get your e-mail from Lula and send it to you!)
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Much to my delight, all the recipes leave us feeling full and satisfied- no more worries about needing meat to fill us up! The meals taste so much healthier- centered around grains and produce instead of meat. Honestly, both my husband and I now don't even really like to eat meat anymore- we much prefer the vegetarian meals. Another bonus: it's cheaper! Beans cost less than meat, so that has been a nice change as well.
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I am absolutely NOT trying to convert anybody into being a vegetarian- like I said, we are not vegetarians! But, if you are looking for more meatless meals, I HIGHLY recommend this cookbook. It is wonderful!
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Rating: 5 of 5.

The Disappearing Spoon

2010-08-01T19:50:00.000-07:00

By Sam Kean

I’ve been reading a lot of non-fiction lately, and for me, that’s really...well, unusual. If you had asked me a couple of years ago how I felt about non-fiction, I would have described it as eye-glazingly dull, a dry recitation of facts. But now I actually scour the non-fiction shelves at the library eagerly. I know -- it’s crazy!

The only explanation is that non-fiction has gotten better. (It can’t be me that’s changed.) The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean is a fine example of this better, more interesting non-fiction. Kean doesn’t skimp on the facts. He’s packed his book with oodles of information about the elements. What saves his book from being merely a mind-numbing collection of elemental characteristics may be gleaned from the book’s full title: The Disappearing Spoon and Other Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of Elements.

Yes, it’s the madness and weirdness that brings the elements to life, and Kean seems to have dug up a fascinating story for virtually every element on the periodic table. For example, the title’s disappearing spoon refers to a (nerdy) practical joke in which unsuspecting victims are given a gallium spoon to stir their tea. I was particularly interested in the stories surrounding the radioactive elements, which ranged from an ex-KGB spy that was murdered with polonium-laced sushi in 2006 to a boy scout that tried to build his own nuclear reactor.

Reading non-fiction like this is not only painless, but fun, and I’m convinced that I’m retaining all of those pesky little facts better that I normally would because I’ve so enjoyed learning them. Just wait until we meet at the next dinner party and I regale you with tales of elemental hijinks. If you’ve long despaired of enjoying non-fiction, perhaps now is the time to give it another try.

The Parenting Breakthrough

2010-07-29T07:33:00.000-07:00

The Parenting Breakthrough

By: Merrilee Browne Boyack

Her Website: http://www.boyacks.com/Merrilee/

This is a parenting book available through Deseret Book and I thought I would post a review because overall I thought it was really good. If you are looking for ways to teach your children to work and accomplish goals such as saving for a mission and college, this may be the book for you.

The premise is centered around "The Plan"- a list of accomplishments beginning at age 3 that you would like your children to master- everything from baking cakes from scratch to learning the difference between mutual funds and CD's. Basically, each year the children are required to learn life skills necessary for conquering the world.

I am quite sold on "The Plan." I really like it as an overall strategy to teaching children to work. I also like her take on allowances and dealing with money, which she goes into detail in the book.

Like most parenting books, however, there were parts I did not like/agree with. It felt like towards the end she was getting rather preachy, and that annoyed me. Also, some of her methods I would definitely not use- for example, she teaches that if your child does not make their bed or finish their morning chores, you take them out of school until they do finish. Being an educator, I want my children to know that education is vitally important, and so I believe they should be punished in some other way- having after school priveledges taken away, etc. Love and Logic has some great solutions for those kind of problems and I like their discipline program much better than hers (she does openly admit her book is NOT a discipline/behavior book, and I found that often when she touched upon discipline I preferred the Love and Logic methods much better).

I think in most self-help books there are parts to take away and parts that just don't quite work. I found this to be the case with this book as well. A very good book with some excellent, practical skills, and some parts that I would not use.

Overall: 4 out of 5.

The Half Way Mark..

2010-06-30T10:20:00.000-07:00

The year's half over..

Didn't summer just start?

Where has all the time gone..sigh.

Not that anyone cares, but I like to take stock occasionally, either to feel good about, or worse about how much time I've been reading instead of cleaning my house..

Book totals so far this year:

35 finished - including:

2 Young Adult

12 Non-fiction

5 are what I might call Romances which means, there may have been kissing..or other stuff..

6 Classics

1 book of Poetry by TS Elliot

1 Play by Tom Stoppard

1 Oprah Book Club pick , yesss, surprise, surprise..

And everything else would probably fall somewhere in with popular fiction, or where ever the wind was blowing me at the time.

My favorite so far?

Regular fiction - probably The Princess Bride. Hands down just as entertaining as the movie.

Nonfiction - I really enjoyed learning about Mary Todd Lincoln. She was a fascinating woman way ahead of her time. A fulfilling yet terribly sad life.

Currently~~

I'm in the middle of -

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver - totally loving this, dirty fingernails and all.

Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert (for bookclub)

Women and Authority: Re-emerging Mormon Feminism edited by Maxine Hanks. I'm reading this essay by essay over the summer

After these -

Bleak House by Charles Dickens

Team of Rivals by Doris Goodwin

Because my life isn't complicated enough. Apparently..

Anybody else want to share their favorites so far this year, please feel free. If not, then please go outside and soak up that stinking sun while it lasts! And turn the computer off for crying out loud!

The Convenient Marriage by Georgette Heyer

2010-06-25T06:12:00.000-07:00

Ah, those hazy summer days. Sitting on my porch rocking chair with my bare foot dangling lazily over the arm rest whilst I rest peacefully over the other one. So relaxed my eyelids hover within centimeters of each other..

*snort*

If only that were true. More likely scenario, I'm grabbing a few pages here and there while stuffing my face with Doritos and rubbing the skin off my sunburned nose while absentmindedly sort of watching my kids play/pretend not to drown in the neighborhood pool.

But alas, sigh, it's still the perfect time to read me some Heyer. The funniest one I've read of her's so far, this one did not disappoint. Taking place when England was at war with the soon to be United States, all the classic Heyer is included - kidnapping, mistaken identity, more kissing than usual, her favorite word, odious, among others - she has the knack for entering just the right word at just the right time. My heart swooned as always at her dashing, unaffected hero, and I laughed out loud more than once at a group of bumbling goofballs who in the end are at least as funny as Bottom and his acting troupe from A Midsummer Night's Dream, and that's saying something..

Yet again, I can't help but wonder: why aren't any of her books made into movies??

I'd be first in line if they were.
Sigh..
A great romantic comedy to read while on those cement beach sides. Just make sure a lifeguard is present lest you get distracted by those throbbing loins...

4 stars

Be sure to check out Book Review Wednesday's!

Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime by John Heilemann

2010-06-24T08:04:00.001-07:00

After reading this, I've learned something about myself...I love reading about other people's problems, especially famous, super rich people. I lap it up like a dog attached to a soup bone. I don't want to know what that says about me..

Some suspicions that were confirmed by this book:

- Bill Clinton is just as gross as I assumed he was. Smart, but ew. Ew. Eeewwww!

- Hillary swears like a f%$#^&king sailor. You rock,#^^$&#@*&, Hillary! And surprise, surprise, she may actually love her husband! Go figure!

- McCain had an affair in the 90's with someone my age.. oh.my. gosh. Can you imagine? Probably you shouldn't. That gag reflex is a hard one to control.

- Biden didn't get along too well during the campaign. Really?? By the way, where is Joe Biden? Sounds like a book name doesn't it. Has anyone seen Joe Biden on the news lately? What, he fall of the face of the Earth?

- My biggest surprise of the book?? I actually came off feeling slightly bad for Sarah Palin.. Yes, I know, I'm currently clutching my chest and breathing heavily at the thought of it.

Ah, you poor, poor multi-millionaires. Life would be rough without you for entertainment. As for me, I'd rather have my feet scraped than run for office...(And I'll mail you a pretend dollar if you know from what movie that last line is from...except you Suzette..)

A must read for any political junkie..

4 stars.

Death by Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries by Neil deGrasse Tyson

2010-06-10T06:21:00.000-07:00

If the fact that our sun will probably burn out in 4 billion years and our beloved Earth will turn into a huge ball of black rock because of it (until it's vaporized that is) bothers you, keeps you up in the night, this book might not be for you. If you're worried about an asteroid hitting somewhere between Hawaii and California in 2039 and Idaho becoming ocean front property (hmm, maybe an improvement?), then this book might not be for you. If you're worried about what might happen to you if you inadvertently get a little, tinsy bit too close to a black hole of death (even your atoms get pulled apart), I might not read this book.

Because, if you thought your ulcer was healing and you could eat salsa with your chips. Think again! A collection of essays about a myriad of cosmic topics from Natural History magazine written by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson (you've probably seen him on PBS, and no he's not the night sky guy with the weird voice), this book entertains. Frightens. Enlightens! And inevitably makes you feel much, much smarter for reading it. But believe me, sometimes this knowledge is a scary, scary thing! In fact, now I'd like to take some of it back. Oh, brain atrophy!

Except for a few about half way through that made my eyes start to glaze over, I found most of these essays really interesting and readable. Tyson is obviously one of those well known science professionals who is actually interested in, and good at, teaching (believe it or not!) instead of just doing research and publishing. So yes, they do exist..

Way, oh way back in the dark ages when I was in college I took a series of physics classes from an astronaut named Don Lind. He was a cocky ass who said stuff like, if you ever get a chance to fly in space.. . I wanted to slap him...anyway, I remember learning about prisms and color and how our brain interprets it, and thinking that was the coolest thing! I remember telling my twelve year old sister about it, about how a prism works and why we are able to see that myriad of colors without moving our eyes (look it up, it's really cool!). She looked at me like I was a martian from outer space who'd just landed and interrupted an episode of Get Smart, and made fun of me for years because of it.

Well, neiner neiner. Now I feel vindicated.
Sort of..
Crap, she's probably still making fun of me.
Oh well..
4 stars

Abigail Adams: A Life by Woody Holton

2010-06-01T10:05:00.000-07:00

Abigail Adams.
Doctor, therapist, teacher, entrepreneur, politician, mother, and wife, in no particular order at any particular time.
She was everything.
She was nothing.
And she knew it.

And it made me a bit sad for one main reason: in this age of the crappily short emails, texts, whatever, I thought of the lost art of letter writing. I learned an immense amount of really interesting, meaty stuff about the revolution and the people in it, specifically the women and their take on this war that affected them profoundly, because Abigail Adams was a fantastic, carefully opinionated letter writer.

If she hadn't been married to that great politician John Adams, if he hadn't been away from home as much as he was (and that was a lot, up to five years at a time - like half their married life), we wouldn't have this treasure trove of information. And it was really, really cool.

This is a good book, especially the second half when the war really picks up, how she deals with her children and family life, the rivalry between Adams and Jefferson, presidential life for wife and husband. Speaking of Mr. Adams, she rarely agreed with him. She was so feisty and opinionated for her time. An American Revolutionary heroine, a rambunctious feminist icon. The bread and butter of women's history.
4 stars

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

2010-05-17T13:59:00.001-07:00

This may date me a bit, but this book reminds me of an old classic (and I use classic loosely here) from the 80's, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure with Keanu Reeves (I swear he deserved an Academy Award for this one, for his hair alone) and some other "dude" whom no one can remember (and do we really want to).

Anyway, those two go back in time in a phone booth time machine....(good grief, was it really this dumb) to ace a book report, you know, because they're the get good grades type of students, obviously, and end up bringing back famous people from history. One was Abe Lincoln, looking remarkably like the real thing by the way, his voice was like..a grumbling, deep canyon of manliness, if that makes any sense. That's the voice that kept playing though my head during the diary portions of this book. "Let us have faith that right makes right..." or "A house divided against itself can not stand," and lest we forget "I want to kill vampires until every ounce of blood is drained from their bodies.." Er, yeah..some of the greatest lines in history were uttered by this man. I guess.

This book will make a fine companion to the biography of Mary Todd Lincoln I'm reading in June for book club. Hopefully Mary kicks some serious vampire booty too. And she'll do it all while hand sewing a handkerchief. Of course.

3 stars

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

2010-05-04T08:12:00.000-07:00

This was a very interesting book. Like I said previously, it has just about everything in it. Good, bad, murder, Irish wisdom, Chinese wisdom, familial tensions, lost love, suppressing parents, history, religion, and whorehouses. Lots and lots of whorehouses.
The major theme of this book is good vs bad. What makes someone good or bad? Is it our surroundings? Is it because of Cain and Abel? Is it due to what kind of parents we have? Or are we capable of choosing to be good or bad?
East of Eden follows two families through three generations and what constitutes the good and the bad of the family. At times, a very depressing book. I found myself unable to read because I just wanted the characters to grow and I was afraid they wouldn't. I found myself wondering how often I say "that is just who I am" or "I take after my father or mother". Is this reason enough for me not to change? I think it is hard to change the cycle of families. Those that do it, are the ones with real courage and that was the golden nugget from the book.
My one issue with the book is the female characters. There were not many redeeming qualities in the woman in the book. Maybe I was just being overly sensitive. I tend to like my woman strong and not crazy. There was redemption of this at the end.
I wish I had a book group to discuss the book with because there are many parts that would elicit interesting conversation. So instead I will share some facts on Mr. Steinbeck.
1. He considered this his greatest work even though it came at a time that critics suggest his writing was declining.
2.He grew up in Salinas, the setting for most of the book.
3.He had a falling out with a close friend and he wrote this a few years after the friend died. (There is so much brother tension in the book I just had to find a reason why. I don't know if this is true. Just hypothesising).
4.His book Grapes of Wrath, was the 6th highest book to be banned from 1990-2004.

He was a controversial writer and I would guess a controversial person in life. Very interesting.

It's a new month as well as a Monday. What are you reading??

2010-05-02T17:45:00.001-07:00

Hey, it's a new month and a new week! Now if it'd only be nice enough outside to maybe venture out occasionally it'd be a happy ending all way round! I swear I've never been this cold...brrrr. Check out what others are reading here.

This time of year my reading usually slows, not increases, again blame the weather and my anxious gardening fingers need something to do, so, why not turn pages instead I say.

I just finished:
Angelology by Danielle Trussoni.
Excellent haunting, brooding sort of book.

Sunshine by Robin McKinley
A fun vampire read where the vampires aren't really that nice., or attractive. Holy cow they were actually scary! What a concept.

We discussed The Help by Kathryn Stockett at book club. Another excellent book that took me back to a time period we must never forget.

I'm currently reading:
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
I'm liking this one more than I thought I would, and I saw the end of Hamlet the other night on PBS. The cornucopia of death scene. Got the tragedical juices flowing anyway. Can't wait for that to happen here...I guess..

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Graham-Smith
I liked his P&P&Z version, and this one is supposed to be better. Real photos this time! At least, they look real. Those damn vampires..

Abigail Adams by Woody Holton
In case you didn't know, Abigail was a 1776 feminist! There's Joan of Arc, then there's her.

Women and Authority: Re-emerging Mormon Feminism edited my Maxine Hanks
Stephanie and I are reviewing and leading discussions on these essays for a friend of ours who has a blog feministMormonhousewives. We're only just starting. It will probably be a summer long project.

So what are you reading? And, how do you keep your hands warm after they develop the pallor of a corpse? Just wonderin'.

Something I really want

2010-05-02T16:02:00.000-07:00

So I am using all of you a little today. I have talked about an author named Sarah Eden and how I really like her books. She is doing a giveaway of her fabulous book Seeking Persephone on her site. Not a big deal you might say, but it is the last copy she has of this book. You can't buy it anywhere. So I am linking her on this site for my own personal gain. She does have a book out "courting Miss Lancaster" that was just lovely. She reminds me of Georgette Heyer.
Here is her site.
Sarah M Eden

Angelology by Danielle Trussoni

2010-05-02T07:13:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure why I liked this book. Maybe it was the half naked man on the cover. Maybe it was the religious foreshadowing, the looming Gothic art and the mysterious passageways into long lost secrets, that moved my brain to crave it like a big bowl of the banana cream cake I just had after dinner.

I became slightly involved with this book. It haunted me a little. It haunts me still, and that surprises me, because there is very little romance, very few people die (but when they do die, they die spectacularly), the praise on the back cover catalogs words like: alluring, delicious, gorgeous, beguiling and holy, and I usually try to avoid books with so high of appearance adjective praise...they frighten me into disliking them.

So what was it then? The atmosphere. I became quite lost in this world she's created. A world that's deeply religious, mythological, and historical at the same time. A world where angels and humans are at war with each other. A world where if you really want to know what happens read Misfit Salon's excellent review of this book here. The plot is complicated and diverse, very descriptive and bordering on verbose, but still, I liked it.

But who knows, maybe it really was the naked man on the cover.
And now I really must get back to more cake...
4 stars.

Movie Update - Clash of the Titti-ans

2010-04-23T11:45:00.001-07:00

Finally saw this movie...okay, okay, I saw it in the first weekend..dork, dork, dork! We heard 3D was done after filming and added in post production so we skipped the 5 dollar charge (5 dollars more!!! What the cuss!) and saw it in plain ole 2D. Maybe we should've seen it in 1D. Is that cheaper I wonder? Or better yet 0D. Because that would mean we wouldn't have seen it at all. Pretty disappointing, although funnier than I expected. But...it wasn't supposed to funny. Duh!

They almost completely changed the story and added another female character, whom I sort of liked, but what?? And Perseus is practically bald - hair shaved completely off. And he's the only male character to have hair this way. What, he refused to at least wear a wig? He looked totally out of place. The Pegasus is black. Black for crying out loud. I guess that's better than red, orange..

The special effects are of course better, but a bit jarring sometimes. In 3D I probably would've been sick to my stomach and running to the bathroom and not because I had to pee. Although I had to do that too. Not that I would've missed anything..

Sigh.
Bummer.
Watch the preview instead. It's better.

1984, Brave New World and other depressing stuff

2010-04-22T06:41:00.000-07:00

Many a time we've participated as a family in the "No TV for a week" program at my children's school. Every year my kids, for the first few days, act like they're going to die a slow, retracted, terribly excruciating death. What? Read a book instead of watching SpongeBob? Play outside with our actual legs moving, our actual heart beating, instead of our fingers getting early carpel tunnel on a game console? But my "friends" won't know that I'm eating dinner, or that I ran an errand today! Perish the thought!

Until eventually, when the whining reaches a decibel only dogs can hear, it then, amazingly, stops. They adjust. They realign like a good hip joint slipping back into place. A miracle happens. We start to do more together as a family. We talk more around the dinner table because we're not in a rush to get back to the idiots on Survivor. Do we all fall in love again? No, this isn't The Cosby Show (hee hee), but really, by the end of the week we do connect again in almost a primal way. (Just kiddin. I do love my family anyway, sort of..when they're nice to me..)

I agree with Postman, we are now more Brave New World than 1984, in that we love the distractions, the silly minutiae that controlls us. I like OK Magazine just as much as I like Newsweek. Reading a book online and on the printed page is as aligned in my brain as peanut butter and jelly. But as our little tv and computer experiment shows, it is possible to get back to the prehistoric basics if we want to.

But do we want to?
That's the problem.
Brave New World here we come.

Written in the 1930's, I got the feeling throughout that Huxley wasn't a big fan of American capitalism, or was that just me. Hmm..

Have we turned out like he predicted? Are we sex-starved, atheist, gum-chewing, movie-watching, drug users who never want to be unhappy, at all costs? (Did I mention I like OK Magazine and Entertainment Tonight?)

Maybe not to that extreme, but we have evolved I guess. For better or worse, in this "marriage" of ideas who knows for sure. It probably depends on who you ask - which may also depend on who you voted for, and who you listen to on the radio. I tend to hope our country isn't headed straight down the crapper, but don't mind me - I'm high on my "soma" and am currently hanging out on Fantasy Island and getting a tan with Ricardo Montalban. Read the book and you'll get why I said that. Worth at least one try for its historical significance.

So, the year 1984 came and went without too many major government take overs. (Not really but let's pretend.) But we've made great strides haven't we? Currently, we can steal a person from their home claiming they've violated the rules of our country. They're an Enemy of the State not worthy of basic rights. A great danger to the norm we call our society. We torture them for answers they don't want to give. Tell them they're insane, that our way is the best way, the only way, until they break and the creases are permanent do we cure them of their vile ways. A shiny new American penny coming out clean on the other side. A carbon copy of ourselves and our ideals. Or so we think.

But what if instead of America, it's Oceania. In place of Guantanamo Bay, put the Ministry of Love. In the place of our government, put Big Brother.

Even I noticed the similarities.
And I'm a Democrat.
Scary, scary.
Anybody else have some thoughts on these books and the state of our current lives? What similarities do you see?

As for me, time to read something lighter, like Of Mice and Men before I run as fast as I can into a brick wall, or drive my imported car off a cliff.

The Fossil Hunter

2010-04-19T19:26:00.000-07:00

Dinosaurs, Evolution, and the Woman Whose Discoveries Changed the World

By Shelley Emling

This is a book about Mary Anning. What?!? You’ve never heard of her? But she discovered the first ichthyosaur; the first plesiosaur, too. She was well-known throughout Europe in the early 1800’s. In fact, Charles Dickens himself wrote an article about her. The tongue-twister, “She sells sea-shells by the sea-shore” was inspired by her.

Still doesn’t ring a bell? Well, no surprise there. I’d never heard of her, and I’m into this sort of stuff. It’s a pity that the woman who made so many great discoveries should be so forgotten. I was thrilled to stumble upon a book that might help rescue Mary Anning from obscurity.

Unfortunately, the circumstances that allowed Mary to sink into oblivion are the very reasons that this book is largely unsuccessful. Mary Anning was poor, had little formal education and adhered to a Dissenter faith. Worst of all, she was a woman, she was plain, and she was an old maid.

It’s a miracle that she overcame all of this to become a relatively well-known paleontologist in her day. She had to work harder than anyone else to do so, though, and that didn’t leave her any time to write journals or autobiographies. Few others felt motivated to write about her either (Dickens being one of the notable exceptions, but of course, he of all people would appreciate a Dickensian story of beating the odds).

Perhaps most detrimental of all, because she wasn’t even allowed to be a member of the Geological Society of London (women weren’t admitted until 1904), her discoveries had to be presented to that body by men, men that would, more often than not, be given credit for her discoveries. Occasionally, one of these famous (male) geologists would kindly mention Mary Anning in his writings, but it always had a subtle hint of condescension.

All of this leaves very little in the way of records about Mary, which, over time, has allowed her to fade into anonymity. Sadly, this has also left little for author Shelley Emling to draw upon, forcing her to resort all too often to supposition. Mary likely did this, and probably felt that. She might have done this, but she might have done that. All Emling can give us is a shadowy reflection of who Mary Anning might have been. After reading the book, all 213 pages of it, I felt like I hardly knew Mary Anning at all. And that is a real shame. Mary Anning deserves better.

The Age of Wonder

2010-03-11T19:51:00.001-08:00

How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science
By Richard Holmes

In 1768, Captain Cook and his crew set out to circumnavigate the globe, a journey that would open a whole new world up to Europeans and fuel a renewed interest in science and exploration. Just 63 years later, the Beagle embarked on an expedition that would culminate in Darwin’s theory of evolution, a theory that, it may be argued, has removed the romance from science and replaced it with cold, hard logic.

The years bookended by these two historic sea voyages are the time period explored in Richard Holmes’ book, The Age of Wonder. The first half of the book is absolutely brilliant. Exotic Tahiti, the early days of ballooning, and huge breakthroughs in astronomy are described with such enthusiasm and wit that I couldn’t get enough of it. The stories truly are fascinating. Don’t believe me? Consider the tale of the two balloonists that quarreled their way across the English Channel, a passage that ended dramatically with the men mostly naked and half-frozen (p. 149-152).

Unfortunately, the second half of the book was a bit of a bore for me. And allow me to emphasize the for me. In its second half, the book starts to delve more into philosophy. Is there a God? Why are we here? Does some part of us endure after death? You know, the age-old questions.

Problem is, I don't do philosophy. This is my secret shame. I really want to be philosophical and deep, etcetera, etcetera, but the minute someone mentions transcendentalism or existentialism, my brain shut right off. I can’t tell Plato from Socrates, and Descartes works better than Ambien for me. (And to be honest, I don’t even know if what I’ve written even has anything to do with philosophy, but it sounds pretty good, wouldn’t you agree?)

Holmes takes the traditional view that the horror of science is that it may one day turn on us (a la Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein) or that the scientific method has replaced wonder with cynicism and logic. I guess for me, the only horror lies in getting so caught up in wondering why science can’t tell us where we’re going or why we’re here that one forgets to enjoy the mysteries and beauty that science can expose.

First half of the book: 4 stars
Second half: 2 stars, but will appeal to those with a more philosphical bent

* Sorry, my comuter is acting up, and I can't seem to post pictures or comments. My apologies!

Author interviews

2010-03-09T07:33:00.000-08:00

Lula and I have briefly talked about the idea of having author interviews on the site. Would any of you be interested? Who would you want interviewed? And what kind of things would you like to know about them? It could be fun to learn about them, and the world of publishing and writing. Let us know what you all think

Warbreaker

2010-03-09T07:20:00.000-08:00

Lula you are always doing all the work on the blog. For that I say thanks and so I am feeling inclined to post so you don't feel like your the only one.

This is for all you fantasy lovers out there. Warbreaker is a story of people who return from death and become "gods". Living breath that can "awaken" people or objects and command them to serve the awakener. Colors that hold power of their own and the country that 1/2 loves and worships colors versus the other 1/2 that loathes color and thinks it to be abominable.

Sanderson is a fantastic writer. He weaves very complicated plots and complicated characters.

I like this world and the story. Political intrigue and religious debate abounds in this book. And your always wondering who is good and who is bad. What religion is right? What makes a "god"

In the midst of all this wondering you will find yourself laughing.

This is a full blown fantasy, even has a little scifi feel to it. I will say that I liked Sanderson's Elantris better. It felt like it was edited better and cleaner. There were aspects of Warbreaker that just didn't seem to make sense, like the whole color thing. So if you are a casual reader of fantasy I would say to read Elantris first. They are long, complicated stories, but they always keep me on edge.

I gave it 4 stars on goodreads for whatever that means to you.

The Spirit of Sweetgrass by Nicole Seitz

2010-03-04T05:59:00.000-08:00

There's something to be said about a well cast first sentence on page one of a novel - This is what I remember about that night - my last night alive.

Was the main character, 78 year old Essi Mae already dead then and telling her story from the grave? Why did she die? Who was she? I wondered all these things like a fish wonders what that worm dancing in the riffles would taste like. I was hooked. By that first sentence and the warm tones of that cover.

Essie Mae Jenkins is a sweetgrass basket maker who sells her finished products from a roadside stand on a tiny anonymous highway along the coastal islands of South Carolina. From there she sews her baskets, weaving in some of the sweetgrass and Gullah culture, and a little voodoo magic for good measure, all in the presence of her dead husband, Daddy Jim.

Like the vanishing sandy beach ecosystems that sustain that billowing native grass, so is the talent of making these unique baskets. Essie Mae wants to pass it on like it was passed on to her. But nature's forces are working against her, not unlike the forces of prosperity are working against the disappearing sweetgrass. Like all of us as we age, Essie Mae feels like she's slowly disappearing from the landscape as well.

Well-written in great Southern voice, The Spirit of Sweetgrass hits on many levels. It brings into sharp focus the fears that we all worry about as we age - of being forgotten and replaced. I wondered what I would leave behind for my family, suddenly wanting to take up a new skill or perfect the two or three that I have! And, I thought of what's been left for me in previous generations and I became both happy and melancholy at the same time. Memories, love, cherished mementos, and most importantly a knowledge of things particular to my family and friends always bring in torrents of emotion. We all wish for this, in any culture and time.

I enjoyed reading about other lifestyles and customs unfamiliar with my own. Now, if I could just get my hands on one of those baskets!

3 stars

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead A play by Tom Stoppard

2010-03-03T05:25:00.000-08:00

To be or not to be, that is the question.

We all remember that famous line from Shakespeare's Hamlet, that play of all plays. Was Hamlet really being told what to do by his dead father, or was he really insane after all? Did his mother know what was going on? Did his uncle really murder his father? Were Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Hamlet's friends from childhood, as funny and brilliant as they seemed?

What?

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. Hamlet from a different point of view. A play within a play, within a play! Two minor characters bewildered and apparently unable to accept their present condition are brought to life in such a way that I thought of Deep Thoughts on SNL and laughed out loud more than once. It was genius. It was thought-provoking, and as you see from my book - full of such excellent word play between the two characters that I should now buy stock in sticky notes.

A sample -

Inside where nothing shows, I am the essence of a man spinning double-headed coins, and betting against himself in private atonement for an unremembered past.

And -

We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered.

This clip from the movie is one of the best parts of many.

This play is an easier, and much, much shorter way, to view the struggles in Hamlet. It almost explains why it ended like it did - with a cornucopia of death.

We're tragedians, you see. We follow directions - there is no choice involved. The bad end unhappily, the good unluckily. That is what tragedy means.

I highly recommend reading this, and then watching the movie. You will never look upon Shakespeare's most famous play the same again.
5 stars
Thanks to the Good Books Club for recommending it.

Plants, Plants, Plants!

2010-03-02T11:18:00.000-08:00

Ah, I'm such a sucker for spring! It's almost here, in this part of the world anyway. I couldn't get to the backside of January and February fast enough. I'm one of those weirdo's who actually enjoys yard work, and despises house work.

Detests it.
Hates it.
Loathes it with a passion.
What does dish pan hands mean anyway..

When the weather warms so do my reading choices, almost against my will. If I can't physically get my hands dirty, I want to read about others doing so. I want to smell the fresh cut flowers through someone else's nose. If I must.

I've been rewatching this PBS series about two gardening sleuths. It is excellent!! And perfectly named.

And my reading choices for this month are:

Anybody else have any good gardening or outdoorsy sort of books they read this time of year? How does one fill that void of time and space that only a really good seed catalog can fulfill?

Suggestions?

The Tudors - The Good Queen, The Ugly Queen, and the Stupid, Stupid Queen. Season 3

2010-02-25T11:44:00.000-08:00

It's the 1500's in Tudor England. The King's wives keep dying, either from a broken heart, by losing a head or for giving their all while finally birthing the King a son. What's a poor grieving King to do? Marry a mysterious German princess of course, Anne of Cleves who happens to have a nose as long as the Empire State Building, poor girl. At least she had the sense to except his divorce and continue to live rather richly and quiet-like in England. Katherine Howard however, well, she just seems doomed to follow in her cousin's footsteps, or is it just me??

Season 3 of this series did not disappoint. As far as I can tell in my limited knowledge, they are following the actual story very well. You just can't write this stuff! It's unbelievable what happened back then, over 400 years ago. My only qualm of course, is King Henry's size. He was in fact quite hefty by his forties, and probably wasn't even close to the lion they portray him in the bedroom. But this is Showtime after all, not the History Channel.

Still though, very interesting to see it all played out on the screen. Aside from Cromwell's death however, which is horrible to read about, let alone see on tv. It's fun to see these people and times brought to vivid life. The next season will be the last. I wish they'd continue on into Queen Mary's and eventually Queen Elizabeth's life, both of whom were equally if not more interesting than their famous father.

But oh well, I'll take what I can get I guess.

I highly recommend this series if you like early English history at all.

Super Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner

2010-02-25T08:17:00.001-08:00

I should've known I wouldn't really like this book after I read the first line on the cover written all in caps:

THE EXPLOSIVE FOLLOW-UP TO FREAKONOMICS.

Whoopity-freakin-do.

Blah, blahblahblah, b-blah.

At least in this one I wasn't forced to read as a header to every chapter how ridiculously full of himself and his multiple accomplishments Steven Levitt is, Mr. "I was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal, awarded to the most influential economist in the history of the universe under the ripe old age of forty". And I'm personally over forty by the way, and that-is-not-young-by-any-standard. Hell, if you're a man you're already past middle age by that time. Practically on death's door for crying out loud. Get over yourself already man.

Their desire for the almighty dollar and their own ideas on politics came shining through throughout most of the book. I thought I'd be reading an unbiased account of the "facts". Apparently they didn't even check those. Isn't that what economists are supposed to do? Get to the very bottom of an issue. To the truth? After all, do numbers and statistics lie? I guess I was expecting more than bathroom reading material from this one.

Double ew-ew!

I did learn something though, economists are like emergency room doctors - they think they know everything about everything. I bet people are just lining up to talk to them at parties.

Or running in the other direction.

After reading this, it's not hard for me to guess which I'd do. But you decide for yourself. I'm just a regular old American who will continue to recycle and use her carseats regardless of what their "facts" say.

But then again, I haven't won any awards other than The Most Mischievous at girls camp.
2 stars

Remarkable Creatures - Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species by Sean B. Carroll

2010-02-16T09:06:00.000-08:00

The first part of this review is Stephanie's because her computer is broken and I stole this from Goodreads without asking her, because that's the sort of person I am..

The excellent Stephanie said..
Science has a reputation for being boring. I’ve made the acquaintance of many a science textbook in my time, and I can say that, in spite of my love for science, that reputation is not unwarranted. Textbook writers could stand to learn a thing or two from Sean B. Carroll, author of Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origin of Species.

In Remarkable Creatures, Carroll tells the stories of many of the men and women that have made great discoveries in the field of evolutionary science. It turns out that these scientists are not the stodgy, grey-haired stereotypes that we’d expect. Henry Wallace Bates lived 11 years alone in the Amazon. Alfred Wallace spent 10 days in a leaky lifeboat after his ship burned and sank. Paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews may be the real-life inspiration for Indiana Jones, right down to his fear of snakes and his ever-present pistol.

Their stories are fascinating, and while I read them, I couldn’t help but learn an awful lot about evolution. Perhaps if science was presented with a little more personality, more people would be interested in studying the sciences, or (if the threat of inhospitable environments and tropical diseases are just too daunting) at least reading about them.

The last two chapters leave the field behind and dwell almost exclusively in the laboratory where the science can get a little intense (I had to read those chapters very slowly and more than once), but otherwise, I think this is a book that almost anyone would enjoy.* *

Unless you aren’t a fan of evolution, but I probably didn’t need to say that, did I?

And Lula added...
Sooo.....we did evolve from apes. I knew it! That explains so many things, all the hair in unusual places, the urge to groom my husband, why my youngest hangs on me like a monkey. Carroll includes a quote on the last page of this book, talk is cheap, exploration and discovery is hard. Boy, oh boy is that true! Some people are just born to find stuff. Some people are just pre-made to tackle decades of dealing with sunburns, throwing up, fire ant bites, fevers, sea-sickness, more throwing up, starvation, bitter cold, gale force winds, spear-holding natives, being buried in sandstorms, and sore bums from riding donkeys. But I don't know, being the first to set foot in unexplored wilderness, places no humans have tread in thousands of years, if at all, may make it worth it. Just maybe...

A great group of mostly men (and a few briefly mentioned women - Mary Leakey), some tiny men (Darwin), some Indiana Jones types (Roy Chapman Andrews), and some nerdy, but cute multiple Nobel Prize winning scientists (Linus Pauling) are included along with several others in this book. I learned a lot of things I didn't know about some the greatest explorers of the last centuries. What trials they went through to make their discoveries. What great determination!

After reading this I felt a great urge to marry a determined explorer and let him take all the credit for my discoveries, or maybe take up rock collecting again, or visit the nearest fossil beds, as I live in Idaho and there are a lot of past tense creatures buried around here, not including our current state political leaders....

Ahem.

Read this book if you are the least bit interested in science, you've always wanted to discover something new, and if you've ever in your life hit a rock with a hammer with hopes of finding a diamond inside.

Just be sure to wear protective glasses if you do that.
Trust me I know.
4 stars.

I feel all giddy...

2010-02-13T12:06:00.000-08:00

We'll looky here...we have 30 followers!

I'm feeling all sheepish, and guilty.

Maybe we need to actually post something once in awhile...

Thanks everyone!

What are you reading Mondays....and good riddance January!

2010-02-01T14:42:00.000-08:00

I haven't done this in a while, but January is f-i-n-a-l-l-y over and I read a lot this month - take that you sunless, gloomy, depressing sky. I've read some fun books recently to release me from my doldrums. Check out J Kaye's book blog to see what other's are reading too!

I just finished -
The Last Dickens by Matthew Pearl
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Chocolat by Joanne Harris

All these took my mind off my extremely white skin!

And I'm just finishing up this week -

Rough Stone Rolling - A Cultural Biography of Mormonism's Founder Joseph Smith by Richard Lyman Bushman
This book is over 500 non-footnote pages of deep, dense material on the early Mormon church and its first prophet. Very interesting that's for sure.

Becoming Jane Eyre by Sheila Kohler
Short and sweet. I really love the cover of this one.

And Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
I finally got this one from the library. Whew! Collins has a way of hooking her reader from the beginning. I hear there's a cliffhanger at the end though. Drat...

So good bye January. I will not miss you even though reading brought me through the solitude of your gray skies.

Happy February 1st!

Fun things to do this month:

Light candles all over your home on Candlemas Day, Feb. 2.

Watch the movie Groundhog Day on Feb. 2 as well!

Invite your friends over for a Valentine's day tea party.

Read as much Georgette Heyer as you can.

Make a batch of fudge or heart-shaped suckers.

Rent Out of Africa and watch it while eating the fudge.

Wear read lipstick at least once - out in public even!

What are you going to read to ring in February?

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

2010-01-26T09:07:00.001-08:00

Lately my tastes have been straying away from young adult fiction, mainly YA fiction that's geared more towards adults than kids (which I think ruins it most of the time), but this movie looks pretty good, see here, so I decided to listen to the book first before I take my kids in February.

My review will be short.
It was okay.
But as a side note, I probably shouldn't have listened to it, as I was not a fan of the reader. His voices seemed too cartoonish, like they were straight off of Sesame Street, and kept reminding me this book was for kids (you know like Trix), and I think I'd have liked it better if I'd have just read it and invented my own voices in my head. I plan on reading the rest of the series eventually and see if my little theory holds true.

Kudos to Riordan for keeping the content in this one for young adults. Imagine a young adult book that is actually for young adults! Perish the thought!

As for content, just think Harry Potter/Greek mythology, but I like mythology (I am a huge Clash of the Titans fan after all), and even though it's not half as good as Harry Potter as far as predictability and character development goes, I will give it full marks for excitement. It was good fun. Any kid would like this book. And the movie looks even better. Maybe we'll even see it on the first weekend. For me that's really saying something.
3 stars.

The Rose of York - Love and War by Sandra Worth

2010-01-21T04:46:00.000-08:00

The more I read about the early monarchs, the more I'm convinced - a lot of them were loony birds. They were paranoid (probably because most of their extended families wanted them dead), often delusional, unable to form stable relationships after being raised by multiple people in multiple places usually amongst a war for dominance, forcing them to grow up too fast. I wonder, can they be blamed for their erratic behavior after such odd and bizarre upbringings?

Richard the III is no different from these. I've seen how he's depicted in Shakespeare's plays. His hump, his paranoid and murdering behaviors are legendary. Author Sandra Worth's depiction here argues that may not be true about him. Was Shakespeare's view skewed by the reigning, rival Tudors? He may have been handsome. A shy product of his violent environment. In love with a beautiful woman as depicted on the cover of her book, Love and War.

I'm a big fan of John Waterhouse paintings. A lot of authors use them for covers. In fact when I notice a Waterhouse on the front, I have a hard time resisting a book's contents, regardless of how good it may or may not be (the one below was on Mistress Shakespeare.)

His paintings of mainly women are so lovely and filled with emotion. He had a way with catching just the right expression, the slope of a shoulder, how their hands lay atop each other. And I've always wondered who the woman was he painted the most. Her face and red hair. Her absolutely flawless pink skin. Talk about giving me a complex!

While I thought the cover of this one beautiful, I had a hard time stomaching it as Richard III sitting there with his lovely Anne Warwick, the woman it took him nearly a decade to marry amidst the war between the Roses. I thought more of this knightly clad hero as his earlier ancestor, a younger John of Gaunt and his mistress and eventually third wife, the beautiful Katrine - who also had red hair. Worth's take on Richard and Anne is obviously modeled after their lives, and from a favorite book of mine by Anya Seton entitled Katherine, about their courtship and later marriage.

In truth, Love and War, is much more about the history of the epic battle between York and Lancaster than it is about Richard and Anne. And I liked that because I'm a big English history buff. But the love stories themselves seemed more like filler than anything, definitely running second to the battles and treason that took place during the time period. Maybe that story line evolves more in the second and third books in the series.

So don't be fooled by the cover! If you want a fantastic love story amidst war and strife, read Katherine. If you want to learn about the history of the War of the Roses, read this one, the first in The Rose of York trilogy.

And most importantly, wear sun screen so you'll have beautiful skin like the ladies in these pictures!

We can dream anyway...
3 stars

The Road

2010-01-14T11:01:00.000-08:00

By Cormac McCarthy

Generally speaking, I am not a fan of depressing books. Nor am I fond of loose ends and unanswered questions. The Road by Cormac McCarthy has all of those characteristics in plenty, but I kind of liked it.

None can argue that this book is very, very (very, very) depressing. Some horrible disaster (what kind of disaster is one of those aforementioned unanswered questions) has occurred, leaving the earth a desolate wasteland. There are no plants, no animals, just a handful of straggling humans who have been reduced to thievery, murder, and even cannibalism just to survive.

Our heroes are a man and his son. They have no names, but they are two of the “good guys” simply because they will never, ever resort to cannibalism. They are on a road, heading to the sea where they hope things will be better, scrounging for what canned food they can find and avoiding all other humans because as far as they know, they are the only good guys left. The father lives for his son, the son for his father.

This is one of the reasons this book appealed to me: that in spite of the desperation of the situation, there was a gleam of hope; that the love between a father and son could provide sustenance in such circumstances.

However, I must admit that the main reason I liked this book is that it supported one of my pet theories: that in the case of a widespread disaster, I am toast.

Allow me to explain. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a Mormon, My church encourages its members to have food storage. I love food storage, mainly because it looks so beautiful, all those jars and cans lined up on my shelves, but also because I can see its value for a short-term disaster or even in the case of unemployment. Unfortunately, I don’t think it will do me a bit of good in a disaster of Biblical proportions.

A major catastrophe will strip away the veneer of civilization. There are people that will do anything to survive, and I’m not sure I’m one of them. Even assuming I would have the nerve to kill a person for the good of my children (I’m pretty sure I couldn’t do it for myself), there are plenty of folks bigger and stronger and more ruthless than me. Sure, I’ve got my brains, but while I’m frantically trying to assemble a crude weapon out of a piece of bamboo and homemade gunpowder, someone with brawn is simply going to amble over and take me out with a large rock. And then they’ll take my food.

If you don’t believe me, read The Road. (But don’t read it if you dislike bleak stories, disturbing mental images, or the fall of human civilization.)

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein

2010-01-11T13:14:00.000-08:00

Having never heard of this book let alone Robert Heinlein (sorry my science fictiony meter must be running low, and I was concentrating on being born in the 60's and couldn't yet read), I had many assumptions about what the title meant before I read it:

- The moon was a hooker and the Earth her pimp.
- The moon was inhabited with an Amazon group of women who took over the Earth.
- And then Amazon women flew on a Wonder Woman spaceship and took over the galaxy, after killing all the men.

So, obviously, I really hadn't a clue what this book would be about, but now that I've read it the title makes perfect sense. It was ingenious really (the book did win a Hugo after all), as was obviously its famous author, Robert Heilein, a man so good at writing science fiction in the 60's, they named a Mars crater after him - no unnamed craters on the Moon I guess . That would've made more sense because....

Set in 2075, a former penal colony on the Moon (Luna) rebels against its masters on Earth. Having been transplanted, and some were even born there, on the Moon for so long now, this population of people have evolved almost into their own species (think Galapagos Islands) having there own novel ideas regarding marriage and family customs, some have their own dialects, and because of less gravity, they age slower and move their bodies differently than humans on Earth. Tired of being treated as second class citizens, a revolution takes hold.

Four unlikely cast of characters move this cause forward - a computer technician who can't figure out how he got dragged into this, a Marilyn Monroe type female anarchist who kisses instead of shaking hands, an elderly academic who probably wore tweed until his elbows wore through, and then there's Mike, a self-aware supercomputer who reaches his blinkety-blink orgasm by bombing things.

Will Luna be set free? Who will die in the process, because someone always dies if it wins a Hugo Award right?

It says in the book jacket - A great political novel and a great survey of the human prospect. I agree. This is a very forward thinking book, and it was written almost 50 years ago during the tumultuous 60's. A time when young people were battling against the hypocrisy of war, in academia, in government, and any authority that told them what to do. That spills over onto the pages here. But, Heinlein takes his time telling his story, and even though it's a mouthful, it still goes down smooth enough without too many rough edges.

Worth reading at least once. And I'm not even a Republican. (Oops, tea-bagger.)
4 stars.

2010-01-11T07:04:00.000-08:00

Here is a new author I have found. Her name is Sarah M Eden and I love her regency romance books. She is trying to get her name out there and she does these funny interviews on Fridays so take a look at her blog. Also, Lula I thought you should be a guest on her little blog. You get a stick figure drawing of yourself. Sarah has a new book coming out in March and if you like regency romance you won't be dissapointed. Follow the link and have a grand day.

Sarah M Eden

Yes I know I'm a dork - I can't wait for this movie.

2010-01-03T15:54:00.000-08:00

Oh, so long ago, almost thirty years - gasp, included within the ranks of Grease, Sound of Music, Xanadu, and Star Wars I had one other favorite movie: Clash of the Titans

I almost wore out the book pages back to the dust from whence they came.
Witness the beautiful original movie trailer below, and don't hurt yourself in your rush to push play.

Awe inspiring isn't it. Harry Hamlin did have great hair didn't he. Sigh..
They just don't make movies like that anymore.
But alas, my Lord of the Rings void may soon be filled. They've remade Titans and it's coming out the end of March.

I think I'm going to pee my pants with excitement.

Yes. I truly am a dork.

Lula's Best Reading Year Ever!

2009-12-29T21:38:00.000-08:00

Woo-hoo. 97 books read this year. Messy house and all. But who am I kidding? It would've been messy anyway, so why not enjoy myself a little. So instead of cleaning, cooking, bathing...I took much remembered trips back in time to Germany during WWII, the court of Henry the VIII, colonial New England, and pioneer Arizona. I went to Hogwarts and knitting clubs, high school with werewolves and time jumping hot guys, and a smoldering vampire viking named Eric. I discovered one of my all time favorite authors. It's been a great year for reading at least.

Some stats

Non-fiction: 16

Romances: 35

Classics: 12

Teen fiction: 16

Poetry: 1

Graphic novels: 3

Female authors: 61

Male authors: 36

Favorites: My Dear Cassandra - The Letters of Jane Austen, Black Sheep, Bird by Bird, Flowers from the Storm, and The Complete Maus

Really disliked - City of Bones, Same Kind of Different as Me, and The Shack

What about you? How about posting some stats people.

(Holy cow! I beat Tanja this year?? That can't be right.)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

2009-12-09T14:02:00.000-08:00

The inside of this book jacket (along with mention of it's eleven book awards with names like the Dagger) included a brief description of the contents as follows:

"A spellbinding amalgam of murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue."

I've always loved the word amalgam. It's just fun to say. Amalgam. A mixture of equal parts. How you get that out of amalgam I have no idea. So I asked myself the question, is this popular book by Swedish author, Stieg Larsson, who unfortunately died of a heart attack right after delivering the manuscripts of the three books in this series, a fine-tuned mixture of mystery, saga, love, and intrigue?

It is, at its heart, a family saga with the main point being - What happened to 16-year old Harriet Vanger who vanished without a trace forty years ago? Her grandfather, Henrik Vanger, has hired a down on his luck journalist and magazine editor, Mikael Blomkvist, to dig up the skeletons in his family tree and find out what happened to her. But, Blomkvist has his own set of problems: his girlfriend is married to another man (must be a Swedish thing), he's been forced out of his current job and is therefore running out of money, and he's about to start a three month prison sentence after being convicted of slander against a dirty corporate industrialist that took him to court over a story he wrote. (Yes, pant, pant. Just like the book...)

Blomkvist takes the job for Vanger because he needs to get away, and, of course, the money won't hurt. For help, he recruits a computer hacker with a dragon tattoo on her neck, a girl named Lisbeth Salander, who is by far the most interesting character in this series of books. Think of a tinier, craftier Laura Croft with an even worse attitude and she's your gal.

Next then, mixed thoroughly throughout is plenty of mystery and intrigue, some of which is in the form of tons of backdrop on the world of finance (the first 100 pages or so bored me to tears), then throw in some magazine and journalist type lingo, some Nazi backstory, and lastly the occasional political statement that jolted me from the story when I started to doze off. There's also a whole lot of violence. Really terrible violence. I've heard the original title in Swedish was Men Who Hate Women. After reading this book, I believe that was entirely appropriate.

And love? I would never think of this as a love story. Not. At. All. For instance, our main character's girlfriend's husband has no problem that she and Blomkvist still "see" each other on a regular basis.

Hmm...
Right.

Really there's just a whole lot of sleeping around by pretty much everyone, married or no. It's like a magical, casual sex fairy land where condoms aren't even necessary and no one worried about diseases. Again, maybe that's a Swedish thing.

Aside from what I've just mentioned, when taken as a whole, I will admit this was an interesting book. It improved as it went along until, aside from bathroom breaks, I had a hard time putting it down. It was well-written and moved at a great pace. All the characters are well-defined, complex and super meaty. Larsson had no problem weaving together the story lines, and I didn't even have too hard a time keeping track of all the Swedish names, like Gregor, Gottfried, Gerda, we're talking umlaut central here. You just have to somehow get through all the violence against women and casual sex.

Good luck!

So now I feel all Swedishized! Meatballs recipe anyone?
3.5 stars.

Be sure to check out Cym Lowell's Kindle giveaway!!

A Vampire Reunion

2009-12-07T09:42:00.000-08:00

Too funny Stephanie!

For all you vampire lovers, see here.

And, speaking of vampires, where's my review of the recently seen----

New Moon - The Twilight Saga?

It doesn't exist because I want to keep my friends.

(Whom I had a most excellent time with by the way.)

I only have my evil man twin's review -

Bella was hot! And boy can she act!

(In The Panic Room)

The end.

Masterpiece Classic Begins Again December 20th!

2009-12-07T08:06:00.000-08:00

It looks to be a great new season on Masterpiece Classic this coming year, starting with something to make that long Christmas break go by a little faster! An encore presentation of Cranford starting December 20th! I loved this movie when they aired it the first time, and am really looking forward to being involved in the lives of these crazy ladies again.

This year I want to read the books again as well, starting with this blurry covered one. Along with the yellowing pages and mysteriously stained lines, hopefully the writing with be legible at least. I'm a sucker for a good yarn.

Set your timers and tape this one, those of you who still own a V-C-R that is, because it's excellent!

Intimations of Austen by Jane Greensmith

2009-12-01T21:58:00.000-08:00

Intimations. For the longest time I thought that said Imitations of Austen, which means to copy actions, appearance, etc., but the word, Intimations, well, it just sounds more English doesn't it? I almost travel back in time as it rolls off my tongue like liquid butter dripping off a hot muffin when I say it.

Intimations.

Sigh...

I'll admit, gulp - I had to look that one up. I suspected it held a similar meaning to its root, intimate, which means marked by close acquaintance or familiarity and that would perfectly describe how I believe the author feels about Jane Austen, but the word choice of intimation, I was happy to discover, brings Greensmith's ardor into even sharper focus.

Intimations of Austen by Jane Greensmith - A collection of short stories inspired by the words of Jane Austen. A hint, a glimmer. An inkling of Austen even. A whisper on a sun-drenched afternoon. These would've been perfect to read in summer, but winter it turns out was just as good. Better to drink it in with a hot, steaming beverage.

These stories are perfect for anyone who likes Austen even a tiny little bit. Perfect for anyone who has read these classics over and over again and wondered, what happened after the last word. Or even better, what happened before the first one! What made Frederick Wentworth return to Kellynch Hall in the first place? What if Elizabeth Bennet (holy cow gasp!) had married Col. Fitzwilliam instead of Mr. Darcy? What was going through Mr. Darcy's mind as he wrote that letter to Elizabeth after she'd rejected him? And the relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Bennet? Greensmith even tackled that one with a conclusion that brought a smile to my face.

Altogether a delight. And most importantly, she did not rehash the novels, a common complaint that drives me nuts with Austen fan fiction. All were very original and well written. But the highest praise I can give? After reading these, I had to watch and wanted to read Northanger Abbey and Persuasion again with a fervor.

So to that I say, a job well done then Greensmith.
4 stars

A special thanks to the author for sending me this book because my library had no copy. I'll pass it on to anyone who wants it.

Also, be sure to check out Cym Lowell's Kindle giveaway on his Book Review Wednesdays! He always gives away the best stuff!

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

2009-11-18T06:17:00.000-08:00

There's something about Autumn that brings out the spook in all of us. Perhaps it's the smell of dead and decaying leaves, or the crunching sounds they make beneath the feet of our children when they race to school in the early mornings, blowing circles of frozen carbon dioxide from their mouths in round o's.

But at the same time, Fall is one of the most beautiful and colorful times of the year. Bold reds, yellows and golden browns give one last blast of fireworks before a change occurs from life to death, almost overnight. We expect it. We know it will happen besides. Maybe that's why we're so easily able to allow a little of the scary in, the supernatural. Or even the wicked, into our lives. Reminded a bit of our own mortality, our darkest fears hover a little closer to the surface. Waiting to be exploited.

We all worry about different things, every day, like money, health, what to make for dinner, etc., but our most primal fears I believe remain the same for all of us. Fears of growing older, fears for our children and their safety, and almost always, regret. Guilt. These things haunt us all don't they? Such is the theme of Bradbury's timeless classic -

Something.
Wicked.
This.
Way.
Comes.

Taking place within a slice of Americana in the 20's or 30's, our story begins with two 13 year old boys, Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade. Born within minutes of each other at the end of October, these two are perfect mirror images of each other, not the same, but identically different. You can't have one without the other. They know this and love each other for it.

It's one week till Halloween and a mysterious autumn carnival has come to town, but this in no ordinary carnival. It feeds off a town full of fear, regret and chaos. What I found funny is that the boys, and even most people in the town sense this, yet still they can not stay away. What the boys see while there frightens them, a mysterious merry-go-round that can reverse age, or increase it, as it circles around. The side show acts, like the Human Skeleton, the Witch, the Dwarf, and most especially, the Illustrated Man, Mr. Dark, all scare the boys out of their wits.

Will's father, Charles, a man haunted by his own demons of getting older and wanting to be young again, his regret already continually eating away at his ever growing loose skin, discovers the truth about what's going on. That the carnival means to feed off the town's regret, fear and greed, as they have done for centuries. A battle ensues where in the end, Will and Jim, and most especially Charles, must battle their own demons to overcome the temptation to have what they most desire, for what is right.

This is my first Bradbury novel, and I loved it. L-o-v-e-d it! Long before Stephen King became a master of greed and the horror's that follow, Bradbury brought us a classic tale of regret, desire and redemption.

Even though Disney made a pretty scary movie version of this, it's not a children's book. In fact, I would agree that the main character is probably Will's father, Charles, and the main point being the life's lessons he learns about what's really important for true happiness in this life. I couldn't help wondering what Bradbury's age was when he wrote this. Was he going through a mid-life crisis as well, looking for a way to cope?

Thanks to the Good Books Club for recommending it.
Despite the creepy nightmares it gave me, this is an excellent book.
4.5 stars

November - What are you reading Mondays?

2009-11-16T07:02:00.000-08:00

November is marked by half! This month has flown by. I've not turned too many pages this month, too distracted - holidays, children that demand to be fed, other pursuits, future hand modeling career, you know, basic stuff.

But I did manage to finish this last week -

A classic horror -

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

A brilliantly etched, gripping novel -

Something Wicked This Way Comes - by Ray Bradbury

And a current cult hit -

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - by Stieg Larsson

These were some entertaining reads. I feel thoroughly philosophised! But on to new ventures!

I just started a book mailed to me by the author that I'm really looking forward to -

Intimations of Austen by Jane Greensmith

And continuing on my young adult kick -

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

and

Witchchild by Celia Rees

But what are you reading this month?

Be sure to check out others at J Kaye's book blog!

Speaking of Frankenstein - Meet the Franks

2009-11-10T06:16:00.000-08:00

I tried to embed this but I could only post the link here.

You're right Suzette. This was extremely funny.

Frankenstein

2009-11-08T19:52:00.000-08:00

By Mary Shelley

Even if you’ve never read Frankenstein, you know its story: man uses science to create something, then that creation runs amok. You’ve seen it over and over again, too, in the Terminator movies, in Jurassic Park, in The Matrix (and its abominable sequels) and I am Legend, not to mention the numerous Frankenstein movies including my favorite, Young Frankenstein. There are few books that have had such a far-reaching and lasting influence.

In spite of this, the book was a constant surprise. Most noticeably, there is no triumphant, “It’s alive!” moment in the book. On the contrary (spoiler ahead), Victor Frankenstein flees in terror the moment his creature takes its first breath, setting in motion all the tragic events that occur thereafter.

Therein lies my problem with this book, the reason that I did not give it five stars. The truth is, Frankenstein is a selfish coward and a hypocrite and I despised him throughout the book. The book was difficult for me to read, let alone enjoy, because I was struggling with anger and disgust almost from beginning to end. (If you want to know how I think Frankenstein should have behaved, simply watch Young Frankenstein!)

In spite of this, it is clear to me why Frankenstein is a classic. I’m no philosopher, but even I found myself considering some big questions. What makes us human? What is our relationship with God? Is science evil, or only when scientific advancement is pursued recklessly with little thought of morality or responsibility? These are issues that resonate with all of us.

Frankenstein's relevance, longevity, and influence definitely make it a five star classic, but it was a four star read for me.

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters

2009-10-29T06:52:00.000-07:00

It's official! Jane Austen has no doubt rolled over, and over, and over again in her grave. In fact, she's probably kicking and screaming, pounding the walls of her underground wooden solitude using words like, it is not merely this affair on which my dislike is founded!

Perhaps to make her works more appealing to MEN, her tales of love and romance have been mercilessly invaded by first, the brain-eating, the scab-forming, walking corpses of gray loose and rotten flesh. Now it's muscular green Stretch Armstrong sort of men with tentacles where they shouldn't be, and I have no doubt aliens will be landing with Anne and Captain Wentworth in Lyme by this spring.

I'm not the first to notice this modern manification, or shall we call it - the "Horrification of Jane Austen", Misfit Salon also has a great link on this here, and I really can't complain because I gave the first offshoot 4 stars for crying out loud, but this one...well, I'm sorry to say it was hard for me to finish. Painstakingly hard. Not because of the writing. Ben Winters is a good writer, by my standards anyway. Maybe my normal tolerance level to B Movie Austenite violence was breached like the hull of a sinking ship after Zombies.

Illustration by Shane Harrison

Maybe I just didn't find the idea of sea monsters, such as man-eating octopii, hammerhead sharks, giant clams, amoeba-ish creatures absorbing unsuspecting humans whole, etc., trying to kill all the main characters, again and again, interesting enough after the first 100 pages or so.

Maybe not enough of the original story was included in this sea monster dance of death to hold my attention throughout. I believe this was mainly the case. I've read the original novel numerous times, and although it's not my favorite, not even close to being as witty as her others, I still enjoy many elements of this story, and I absolutely love the movie versions. The romance, the betrayals, they play out well on the screen. Here, although initially fun, it got old after the first ten deadly encounters or so.

If you like this sort of thing, then this book is for you. For me, it just wasn't a good fit for this particular story.

Maybe it's because I don't like to eat sushi, or shrimp, or lobster, or any other poor sea creature! But I would love to learn to knit! That counts right? Maybe?
2.5 stars

Helluva Halloween Challenge
Everything Austen Reading Challenge

I'm a Winner! True Compass by Edward Kennedy

2009-10-28T12:42:00.000-07:00

Woo-hoo! My unlucky streak must be over...yeah right, but several hundred people entered this contest and I was one of the lucky three to win a brand spanking new copy of this book.

I believe we lost a great man this year and I'm really looking forward to reading more about this political icon, this "lion" of the Senate. Unlike some who've recently published memoirs..., ahem, Ted Kennedy had a captivating and full life. I'm sure I won't be disappointed. Has anyone else read this yet? I'm curious what people think about it.

Special thanks to Bookin' with Bingo for hosting this giveaway.

nanowrimo

2009-10-27T08:39:00.000-07:00

Seems like a lot of jibberish I put in the title, but it is national novel writing month in just a few days. Lula, I don't know if you want to host something here on the blog. The goal is to write 50,000 words in thirty days. An entire novel, not exactly good, in one month. Do you accept the challenge? Check out this site www.nanowrimo.org for more information. It could be fun.

The Ramshackle Knight

2009-10-25T10:34:00.000-07:00

A classic regency romance. Boy meets girl, a dillema arises, and the final question is 'will they fall in love?'. I completely enjoyed this book. It may be the startling contrast to the other books I have been reading this month(books on serial killers, ghosts, soul snatching, maze running) and this was a sweet, witty, romance. You can't help but like the main characters, even for their faults, and you definitely hate the bad guy. He is evil from beginning to end. Most of all, I love the words the characters use like crush for a party and brain box for head. Insults were not quite the same, for instance, "what a bumblebroth" and "dandy" and "what a nuttlehead". Not really great insults, but fun to read. The story takes place in early 1800s London, upperclass individuals, and a poor girl brought into it all.
This is a perfect book to read:
if you are sick, which I am
if it is crappy weather, which it is here.
if you need a quick escape from real life, which I always do.
or really anytime at all.

Lula I am interested in what you think of her writing. I know you have read many regency romance novels and I wonder how she compares in your opinion. For me I look forward to reading more.

Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut

2009-10-19T04:54:00.001-07:00

While reading a great selection by Padfoot and Prong's new online Good Books Club, I discovered yet another embarrassing fact in an unendable list of uninteresting facts about myself: I've never read Kurt Vonnegut. I can barely even spell his name. And I have just one word to say about that:

Wow.

What a great book. In Mother Night Vonnegut makes fun of the landscape of war and peace, a social commentary of what makes us who we are and why. Are we truly what we seem or are we all masking our own indifference in a world we believe should only revolve around ourselves? We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.

Howard Campbell Jr. is a great pretender. An American who became a notorious Nazi propagandist during WWII, Campbell is concerned about one thing: himself. A writer and one-time playwright (for no one is a better liar than a man who has warped lives and passions onto something as grotesquely artificial as a stage), recruited early on in the war by the American government to use his popular broadcasts to relay secret information to their operatives, Campbell is a spy in every sense of the word. He's a ghost of man. An empty shell. In his own words: a nationless person by inclination. Now twenty years later and a war criminal imprisoned for encouraging millions of Nazis in their crimes, Campbell is writing his own autobiographical play, his confession of sorts. In his dedication he calls himself a man who served evil too openly and good too secretly, the crime of his times.

Sounds serious right? It is, and darkly funny at the same time. Vonnegut, like Joseph Heller has a way of weaving the hardness and blackness of war and its aftermath, and making you laugh despite the circumstances. Who can do that I wonder, who can create a person who is both vile and sympathetic at the same time, a character I can't decide if I like or hate? A gifted storyteller can, and Vonnegut stands in league with those few that separate truth and fiction with great skill.

He concludes his introduction with yet another moral to this tale: When you're dead you're dead. And make love when you can. It's good for you.

Yesterday is not soon enough for me to read the rest of his books.
4 stars

Other great reviews:
Hamilcar from 5-squared
ELFay from This Book and I Could be Friends
25 Hour Books
Ooh.. Books!

Extreme Pumpkins by Tom Nardone

2009-10-18T07:41:00.000-07:00

Gourd artist, Tom Nardone, is wondering when pumpkin art went from scary to cute. He's written and illustrated a book attempting to set the record straight, reminding us that Halloween is supposed to keep us shaking in our boots! Want your neighbors to think your crazy? Insane? Not playing with a full deck? That you're bored with too much time on your hands? If your a man, that you can't get a girlfriend? Ever.
Check out these ideas here.
If you dare that is..

Nothing says Halloween like a pumpkin a flame on your porch.

I guess.

Helluva Halloween Challenge

Wuthering Heights and pie.

2009-10-16T09:36:00.001-07:00

I love old books. Even old paperbacks, and yes I know they can be pretty gross, but something about the brittle, yellowed pages and the unknown stains help set the mood for me, especially with an old classic. I've been collecting them for a while now.

My favorite find is Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.
This particular copy is from 1943. It includes the original Biographical Notice and Editor's Preface, both written by Currier Bell (Charlotte Bronte), and has wood engravings throughout by Fritz Eichenberg.

I love this cover of Cathy Earnshaw.

Aren't they the coolest? This book is one of my all time favorites. My mother loves it. My grandmother loved it! And my daughter better love it too. It's in her blood!

And since I obviously have a problem with this...

(Seriously I NEED HELP!)

I can't seem to quit canning.

And because there's nothing like pie and a good read, I made this because I like to torture myself.

Here's the recipe for this fantabulous apple pie filling!

5 cups sugar

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of cornstarch

10 cups water

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp salt

Cook until thick and bubbly.

Add 1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice.

Pour over sliced apples in 7 quart jars to within one inch of the rim.

Process and seal 25 minutes in a hot water bath.

Books and pie: A lethal combination.

Dead to the World and Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris

2009-10-15T08:51:00.001-07:00

Yes, that is Sookie riding piggy-back on Eric's back all black spaceshuttle-like, and yes his feet look like little white flames shooting out the bottom of his pants.

That's just one of the many positions the two of them take in this book.

*cough*
(Sorry, I have the swine flu..)

First things first. Bill's in Peru.
(Feel free to celebrate here.)

Second, witches finally make a long over due appearance in this series, and they're mad at the local vampire sheriff, Eric. They've taken his memory and now he's on the run, shirtless....

Ah, sorry, ah, were was I, oh, he's on the run straight to Sookie's house, soon to be the house of love.

Woo. Woo.

An amnesic Eric is an irresistibly hot Eric. And Sookie isn't exactly known for resisting. Anybody. In grand Harris style expect an epic battle between witches, werewolves, and vampires in the last chapter. Sookie will be in danger and may or may not get beaten up. Again. Even so, I liked this one. It's my favorite in the series so far, for ah, obvious reasons, and I don't feel the least bit guilty about it!
4 stars

Dead as a Doornail? Hmm, it was okay, because everything after this last one would pale in comparison. Someone is using shape-shifters as target practice and it's up to Sookie to get to the bottom of it, before her own bottom is shot off that is. Her brother Jason is suspected in the shootings. What? Jason is a suspect? That hardly ever happens.

Want to know about the politics of werewolf land? A lot is thrown into the big pile of hairy debris here, and many new characters are introduced. Why do I like these books (I keep asking myself this over and over, and over)? Sookie's character just gets more interesting with each novel. Having grown up in a semi small town myself, I enjoy the small towny sort of feel of this series. So far, it hasn't taken itself too seriously, but we'll see what happens in the future. Until then, I'll enjoy my guilty pleasures. Albeit, a little guiltily.
3 stars

Helluva Halloween Challenge and the Sookie Stackhouse Reading Challenge

The Four Feathers by A.E.W. Mason

2009-10-14T06:02:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting here watching Star Wars with my youngest son, and trying to think of a way that it relates to this book on the dynamics of men who fight for their country and those they leave behind, all woven within the melodious sounds of trumpets blaring and lasers blasting. Nothing inspires war like a rousing soundtrack.

I thought this book would be about England in the 18th and 19th century and their quest to dominate Africa and the surrounding countries, but truly it was hardly about war at all. Not war itself anyway, but the effects of war on its soldiers and their loved ones.

Harry Feversham is the child of many glorious war heroes. Much is expected of him when he joins the British Army, but when actual war in Africa is imminent, the newly engaged Harry opts out to relieve his fiance from having to be without him for several years, and because basically, he believes himself unequal to the task. In a nutshell: He's afraid.

Three of his Army friends find this unacceptable and they answer his resignation with the universal symbols of cowardice: three white feathers. His fiance Ethne, upon finding out he has resigned from the Army, breaks off their engagement and gives him the fourth feather. Harry is crushed, and upon his shame reaching its pinnacle he makes a decision: He means to redeem himself and restore his honor by saving the life of his three friends who are currently serving in Africa.

I haven't mentioned a fourth friend, Captain Jack Durrance. On the sidelines he is Harry's greatest ally and also in love with his fiance, Ethne. Unlike the recent movie version with Heath Ledger remaining the hero throughout, the bulk of the actual story is from the point of view of Captain Durrance who has no idea why Harry has resigned, nor that anyone has accused him of being a coward as he is steadfastly defending England's interests in the Sudan until he becomes permanently injured and must return home where he and Ethne reunite. While recovering from his injury, he begins to piece together what has happened to Harry who seems to have disappeared, and with the help of some of Harry's remaining friends, makes a steadfast resolve to hear news of him in Africa and help him however possible from England.

This book, in all actuality, is about sacrifice. Durrance's physical sacrifice for the country of his birth, as well as giving up the woman he loves for his best friend. Harry's sacrifice of giving up six years of his life for Ethne and the three friends he feels he must prove his worth to. It is also about honor in war. There once was a time, probably up until the end of WWII, that service to one's country was of paramount importance. If you did not jump at the chance to live, and die, at your nation's defense, you were looked down upon. Not just in England. I would say here in America too. Having seen the pictures of the lines of people cheering along homeward bound railways, being at war was a national effort, a means of pride and ownership of the task at hand.

Does it seem that way now to you? Here in America, serving in the military is no longer a requirement, and if you chose not to do it, no one really cares. Why is that I wonder. Are we different as a nation? As a world population? The answer is obvious. Yes. We are a different generation, who up until recently haven't had to give up much for our country, and it shows.

Even Star Wars isn't just about war between the Alliance and the Empire, or how cute Han Solo is, or Princess Leia's cinnabon hair (although that stuff is important!). It's about people. It's about what friends will do for each other in a time of crisis. Even that show is about honor. No matter what we do, we can't quite get away from it. Do we want to?
4 stars

Classics Reading Challenge

What are you reading Mondays..

2009-10-12T05:47:00.000-07:00

Ack, it's that time of month again. October Monday reads over at J.Kaye's book blog. What a great time for some playful, and frightening spookiness.

I finally finished this week -

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

The Four Feathers - by A.E. Mason

The Pit and the Pendulum and A Tale of the Ragged Mountains - by Edgar Allan Poe

More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark - by Alvin Schwartz

And I finally finished the audio version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows! Finally! That took f-o-r-e-v-e-r!

This week I have three I started weeks ago and am still trying to finish --

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters - by Jane Austen and Ben Winters

The Poisonwood Bible - by Barbara Kingsolver

Mother Night - by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Reading anything good this week?

Come on! Throw me a bone here..

Benny and Joon and a step back in time.

2009-10-11T20:15:00.000-07:00

Long before Johnny Depp was that, you know, that one guy (who I hear is making another movie by the way):

Wait, sigh....

He was this, many, many, I mean many years ago, and many cigarettes earlier:

Benny and Joon was on my little tv again this morning. What a great movie. Early 90's cinema at its best. A little bit of trivia here, and who could forget the ironed grilled cheese at just the right setting. Silk would be to soggy. Cotton would burn it.
And the death scene. Oh my gosh I was crying I was laughing so hard.

They just don't make movies like this anymore.
Watch and feel decades younger.

The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James

2009-10-10T22:21:00.001-07:00

What? A memoir written by our dearly departed Jane Austen has been found? Whew, now all our questions will be answered, like: What was up with Tom Lefroy anyway, was he maybe batting for another team? Who inspired that droll Mr. Collins Endless Summer sort of sex appeal? Did her home fires ever burn wildly for a special someone named Fitzwilliam? We're saved!

Alas, no..not exactly.

But for the most part, this was an okay attempt. Not very original, but isn't it a pretty cover? This is not the first to tackle the long lost correspondence of the famous author, Jane Austen Ruined My Life is one I've read recently, and I'm certain it won't be the last. I find the concept very interesting. The letters that still exist are amazing! Loved the book by Penelope Hughes-Hallett. Imagine what we could gain from such a find? Besides glory, wealth beyond your wildest dreams, unfound fame, etc.

Written more in novel than diary form, in Lost Memoirs we learn what happened to Jane during the lost years while she lived in Bath with her family, and an occasional memory from earlier on. A time when she supposedly was reworking what was to become Sense and Sensibility.

And there's a man in her life, a Mr. Ashford, who instead of, according to historians, being the poor curate from Lyme and dying like he's supposed to, we'll...he made a miraculous recovery. And guess what, not only are he and Edward Ferris almost identical twins, but he's the one that encouraged her to start writing again! The parallels between what James has made of Austen's life and that particular novel are almost one in the same. Not very original, right down to people's names, incidents, phrases from her novels, etc. Which I can understand her borrowing, with the - did Jane Austen write what she knew kind of questions, but it was a little much for me by the end.

The writing is good though, and I'll still admit, birthday cakey fun. Did I mention the pretty cover? I love Jane Austen's story. Reading this did not hurt my infatuation with the woman's life. I want to know more about her, and Syrie James obviously knows her stuff, and like her book on Charlotte Bronte, included some Austen extras in the back. My problem is I'm now not sure what is fact or what is fiction. I want the mashed potatoes and gravy, I want the filling peanut butter sandwich on whole wheat bread, because sometimes too much birthday cake just makes me break out, and hungry again in an hour.

But you know what, I still almost always inevitably eat it.

Always.

3 stars

Everything Austen Reading Challenge

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

2009-10-07T07:21:00.001-07:00

There's something you should know about me: When it comes to books, well... I cheat. I often look at the last pages of a novel before I finish it. I knew Tess died. I knew Dumbledore died and what happened to Snape. Same with tv - Buffy died three times? I knew it before I saw it. Sometimes the anticipation is just too much. It becomes a distraction from my enjoyment. Sometimes I just have to know!

This branches like a big, old withered Department 54 Halloween tree into all aspects of my life. I'm generally an impatient person.(Well, duh?) I'll never do cross-stitch, make jewelry or do anything that involves intense small movements for increased periods of time. I've come to accept this fact about myself, that I'll never be able to tie a knot with a pair of tweezers, let alone use them to pluck the hairs from my chin, but with my reading I must inject one strange, bizarre anomaly.

Agatha Christie.

That master of suspense. That seller of a half a billion books, and no I didn't make that up. The "champion deceiver of our time." I've only read two of her novels, this one and Murder on the Orient Express, and I must say, both times I was peeing my pants with suspense, dying to know what happens, canvasing for clues, hidden red herrings, but...did I look ahead as a result of my heart palpitations?

No.

I couldn't do it. I couldn't look ahead. I didn't want to know. Christie is different. Whether it's true or not, my mind is under the delusion that she's leaving me clues along the way. That somehow I can figure out who the killer is. Maybe it's because I secretly think I'm Nancy Drew right down to the Aquanet hairdo and I can solve the mystery of the skeleton key, or, ah..I mean who was the mastermind behind these evil plots.

Just like in Murder on the Orient Express, I was sure who the murderer was (I was wrong, of course). I wondered aloud and often about the fates of the ten people invited to Indian Island under suspicious circumstances by a mysterious stranger whom no one could identify. One by one, they are grimly advanced upon, following the pattern of a grisly nursery rhyme, Ten little Indian boys went out to dine...

Needless to say, it's a nail biter from beginning to end. Her cast of characters was so ingenious, honestly I don't know why she lists them in the front of the book. They're so well described, so distinguished from the rest, that it's impossible not to know which was which with perfect clarity.

It reminded me of one of my all time favorite movie's, Clue, which now I know is loosely based on this book.

An excerpt -
Mrs. Peacock: What are you all staring at?
Mr. Green: Nothing.
Mrs. Peacock: Well who's there?
Colonel Mustard: Nobody.
Mrs. Peacock: What do you mean?
Wadsworth: Nobody. No body, that's what we mean. Mr. Boddy's body, it's gone.
Mrs. White: Maybe he wasn't dead.
Professor Plum: He was!
Mrs. White: We should've made sure.
Mrs. Peacock: How? [muttering]
Mrs. Peacock: By cutting his head off, I suppose.

Ah, music. Sweet music.
I highly recommend this book.
4.5 stars

Check out others and add your own to Cym Lowell's Book Review Blog Party!

Helluva Halloween Challenge and The Classics Reading Challenge

In a dark, dark wood...Can You See What I See? On a Scary Scary Night by Walter Wick

2009-10-06T06:50:00.000-07:00

I'm a big fan of the I Spy series, especially this one released last year by Walter Wick. Set to the tune of In a dark, dark wood.... our story begins outside a village with a grand castle in view. Each set piece and page moves us closer to solving the riddle, to the village, to a building in that village, to the stairs, a cabinet, an item in the cabinet - okay you get the picture, until the set is so small, so intricately photographed. It's amazing! The details are spectacular. The riddles are of course, excellent, and yes, some items are a challenge to find - even for smart adults, and not so smart ones like me. This is a great Halloween read for kids, and adults looking for some spooky fun this October! It's on Amazon here.

My second favorite would be the original I Spy Spooky Night. Our copy of this is barely hanging on by a thread it's been looked over so much, and I only bring it out in October! Again the pictures are fun and rich with the kind of details that fanciful dreams are made of.

I guess that's why I like these books so much. They remind me of being a kid, when things were simpler. They encourage imagination and wonder, and as an added bonus, they make us use our brains by tricking us into learning how to problem solve, how to think outside the box.

Perfect for kids and adults this time of year.

5 stars

Anyone else have a favorite Halloween read for kids? I'm always looking for new ones to add to our haunted library.

Helluva Halloween Challenge

The Lost Symbol

2009-10-05T15:03:00.001-07:00

by Dan Brown

Robert Langdon is asked by a friend to come to Washington, D.C. to deliver a lecture at the U.S. Capitol Building. Once he arrives, Robert realizes things aren't as they should be and he is once again dragged into a race against the clock to solve a puzzle that is life or death.

I did enjoy this book but not as much as the other two Robert Langdon novels. I found this one to be a little strange. The other two have their odd moments as well but I was able to get past them. This one was harder to get past. It has a lot to do with the Masons and a field of science called noetics and I had a hard time grasping either one. They are both filled with some very odd things and although Brown does his best to explain them they still came across as very bizarre for me.

Although I had a hard time with some of the context of the book I still enjoyed it and it was a page turner with only the middle of the book being a little slow. Brown definitely does his research and I enjoyed learning new information about a city I have visited. I liked that I could actually picture where he was and what he was looking at. Something I couldn't do in the other novels. I just wish he would have involved the city more like he did in the previous two novels.

All in all, it was a pretty entertaining book.

3 stars

Pie Friday

2009-10-02T18:00:00.000-07:00

Reading These is My Words got me thinking about food. Warm food that grows in warm places, and for some reason that made me think of soft, velvety peaches filled with orange creme flesh.

Hence, the best fresh peach pie recipe evah!

Combine ¾ to 1 cup sugar

3 tablespoons flour
¼ tsp nutmeg or cinnamon

a dash salt

Add to 5 cups sliced fresh peaches

Line 9-inch pie plate with pastry

Fill with fruit

Dot with 2 tablespoons butter

Adjust lattice, seal, crimp edges

Bake in hot oven 400 for 45-50 or till done

Easy as....well, pie.

October Short Stories - The Pit and the Pendulum and A Tale of the Ragged Mountains by Edgar Allan Poe

2009-10-02T06:49:00.000-07:00

Words that came to mind while I was reading The Pit and the Pendulum – horror, terror, darkness, despair, nightmarish. What a creepy story. Short, yet so effective. As the narrator’s doom literally sinks towards him, I felt glued to the page. My heart beat faster with each painstakingly described moment.

The man, his all-white judge and jury, his sentence of death and the delirium that follows, all unbearable to witness, but even in this darkness of thought, he perseveres with a little bit of luck by avoiding the death trap in the middle of his prison.

I saw clearly the doom which had been prepared for me, and congratulated myself upon the timely accident by which I had escaped.

His captors are not so easily foiled. A new nightmare awaited, much worse than the first.

Having failed to fall, it was no part of the demon pan to hurl me into the abyss, and thus (there being no alternative) a different and a milder destruction awaited me. Milder! I half smiled in my agony as I though of such application of such a term.

The steel blade of the pendulum perceptibly descended. And still they tempted him with food barely within reach. The rats! His torture was complete, but in the last moment his tormentors were his saviors, and he was free of the bindings that held him in place of certain death.

Or so he thought.

What a story!

In A Tale of the Ragged Mountains, Poe delves into the truly weird and uncanny with a story about a man named Bedloe who gets lost while traveling in mountain passages on a day out from his home. He finds himself in a dream-like state in a completely different land and time period, caught in a battle with a people the likes of which he has never seen in his life.

He believes himself killed in this battle, but then he awakens, and finds his way back to his village, still alive, still breathing much to his amazement.

But why was he thrust back into this particular time and place? Was it time travel or reincarnation, or even just an odd dream? All is explained by the end of the story. I had no idea Poe wrote anything thing the likes of which could be called science fiction.

If you're looking for some great October spookiness, these stories are thoroughly engrossing and not that hard to read. Be sure to put in your order for dark stormy skies before hand though, thus ensuring you'll never go to sleep again! Ha.

Up next: The Murders in the Rue Morgue and The Purloined Letter

Helluva Halloween Challenge and the Classics Reading Challenge

First love burns brightest. Sigh....

2009-10-01T19:55:00.000-07:00

Am I the last person on the planet to know about this one?

Bright Star
A movie about the three year relationship between 19th Century poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne. Anybody who knows anything about Keats knows this will be a tear jerker.
But I'll still see it.
What is wrong with me?
Get a tissue ladies.

Pumpkin Jokes -

2009-10-01T12:47:00.001-07:00

How do you fix a jack-o-lantern?

With a pumpkin patch

Who won the skeleton beauty contest?

No-Body

When is it bad luck to meet a black cat?

When you're a mouse.

What is a pumpkins favorite sport?

Squash
Why do pumpkins never quarrel?

Because they don't have the stomach for fighting.

Hee-hee

Got any good jokes?

These is My Words - The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine by Nancy Turner

2009-09-30T01:57:00.000-07:00

A nice girl should never go anywhere without a loaded gun and a big knife.

Inspired by her own family's memoirs, Nancy Turner has brought to life one of the strongest female characters since Scarlet O'hara in Gone with the Wind. In Sarah Prine, a woman born and raised in the Arizona Territories in the late 1800's, we have an unlikely heroine of the ages, as we follow her teenage years on the harsh pioneer trails, her dedication to improving herself by learning to read and write, her ability to take on extreme challenges, death even, straight on in the face, and eventually while she raises her own family during a time when being on your own really meant just that. A time when you did what you had to to survive, or you died. It was as simple as that.

If the center of this story is Sarah Prine, then the biggest star that revolves around her is Captain Jack Elliott, probably the best male lead character I've ever had the pleasure of reading about. And not because he's perfect. Because he isn't, in fact he's far from it. He loves Sarah, yet remains ever more who he is, and I liked him better for it. Their relationship was engrossing to the point of distraction, it was heart felt, overwhelming, tender beyond words. I shudder even now as my mind returns to it again. It's so good, it lingers long after it's gone, like the hovering scent of a really mouthwatering chocolate chip cookie that you'd eaten hours before.

Turner has said she pictured a younger Sam Elliott as the Captain. Is it really hard to see why? This guy is the quintessential cowboy. And that mustache? Oh my!

This is a really good book. I liked it for a multitude of reasons. I come from pioneer stock on both sides of my family so I could appreciate the honest telling of the sacrifice and hardship that went into the making of the early American West. Turner doesn't sugar coat these experiences in the least here. The diary format took some getting used to, but it was faithful to the time period, and remained that way until the end of the book. No dialogue in quotes here, and for me it made the writing more effective, like a real diary. Like I really was perusing a dusty and yellowed slice of history. Maybe something I'd found hidden in my attic in an old rust-covered trunk.

When asked if she had further reading suggestions, Nancy Turner has said:
The best book is one that ends with an almost audible gasp, an immediate twinge, that "oh, no, it's really over," combined with the hollowness of letting go, and a slightly bitter, envious voice from somewhere that murmurs, "I wish I'd written that!"

Here here, Ms. Turner.
Mission accomplished.
4.5 stars
(Thanks for the quotes Suzette!)

And check out a Book Review Blog Party below -

Mr. Darcy, Vampyre by Amanda Grange

2009-09-28T05:11:00.001-07:00

November 1802

My dearest Jane,

Be not alarmed by this quick correspondence, my new, dearly married sister, I just wanted to keep you well-informed of the going's on of the new Darcy household. I hear Pemberly's beautiful this time of year, but I, of course, have yet to see it! Darcy has drug me off to France and Italy on our "honeymoon tour" and yes I didn't know what that meant either. Apparently it means we get to travel to distant lands and castles and meet strange people with pale skin.

He's quit changed, my Mr. Darcy is, in fact I would say he's been a completely different person from our wedding day on. I hardly know what to make of him, all this brooding and melancholy. And yes, I know he was that way before, but we're married now. It's supposed to be different, isn't it? He leaves me quite unattended in the evenings, until I have no idea what he's about. I find his room empty with nothing but bats lingering outside his windows. Jane, bats! I have no idea what to make of it. Could he be a bat whisperer?

As far as our marriage bed is concerned, he has yet to know me in the traditional sense, instead when he touches me he looks pained and pale, and dark red blood trickles down his mouth in such a way I can hardly control my wanting to thrust the nearest wooden chair leg through his chest. Yet he doesn't yield. I don't know, but I'm sensing that's not a good sign. Perhaps there is a waiting period I know not of. Will you consult with your Bingley on the matter?

Care not though, Jane, I've met a variety of interesting people on our journey. Counts, and princes, and people so longing to woo me and kiss my neck, and I've only been chased by an angry mob with dogs and horses once, so you need not fear for my safety as you know what a fast runner I am in a long flowing dress.

When we shall be returning, I know not, but one of us needs to change and soon or I fear this marriage is doomed from the start. I'd hate to spend eternity with a man such as this. I will come to you as quickly as I can, but who knows Jane, when I return to England I might not be the sister you once loved for so many years. I may be quite changed.

I may be...dead.

Just kidding.
See ya soon sis.
Your beloved Elizabeth (sort of) Darcy
3 stars

Helluva Halloween Challenge and the Everything Austen Challenge

What to do with fresh basil besides sucking it up your nose it smells so good...

2009-09-27T08:51:00.000-07:00

Homemade Garlic Pesto Sauce

4 cups lightly packed fresh basil leaves, rinsed and patted dry

4 garlic gloves

1 cup olive oil

1/2 cup pine nuts

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese

In a food processor, combine all ingredients except cheese. Process until smooth and well blended. Stir in the cheese if you're eating it right away. If you're going to freeze it for later use, I wait to add the cheese.

Then, like the Italians, eat it with a supreme look on your face! (I try not to moan too loud.)

Living Dead in Dallas and Club Dead by Charlaine Harris

2009-09-26T05:26:00.000-07:00

Sookie, Sookie, Sookie...what are we going to do with you? Everyone's bossing you around, telling you what to do. How long are you going to take it? And what of you and vampire Bill? Meh...

Pretty Sookie from small-town Louisiana finds herself in all kinds of sticky messes in Living Dead in Dallas. Right off the bat, her good friend from work is found murdered (yes that happens again) and she and Bill (and her mind reading abilities) have been farmed off to Dallas by Bill's boss, Sheriff of Nottingham - ah, I mean Eric, to find a missing vampire kidnapped by an anti-vampire cult. Trouble ensues..

I thought this one was better written than the first, it was quicker and more fast-paced, but I'm discovering Harris likes to wrap up her plot threads in the last page or two of her books. For instance, here Sookie's good friend is murdered in the first few pages, then we don't hear much about that again until the very end of the book. I kept wondering what happened.

And Bill? Sigh...
Like Harris must've been, I'm losing interest. Fast.
Eric on the other hand-
Hmm...(Parts of me are humming. I won't tell you which. Okay, it's my toes - I'm standing on a heat vent.)

In Club Dead, Bill becomes distant and disappears for most of the novel, and in grand Harris tradition you're not going to find out what happened to him until the very end. But did I mention that this one was my favorite so far? Eric thinks he knows what's happened, and he and Sookie leave town again to try and find Bill, even after I tried to will them to stop. Throw in another hot werewolf and you've got, Twilight, no I mean good times at Club Dead!

Sookie really comes into her own in this novel. She's getting stronger, more independent and while getting to the root of her problems, actually tries to solve them - all by herself. A novel concept! You go Sookie!

But now I'm torn. If I hadn't seen the first in the TrueBlood series I know I wouldn't be, but these are two really cute men. Like Sookie I can't seem to be able to decide who I want to be victorious. Eric or Bill. (Or now Alcide even, but I've leaving him out here.)

Which to chose, which to chose...the dark-haired, brooding Civil War veteran Bill Compton, or the blue-eyed, blond Viking, Eric Northman. Is it really that hard of a choice? (And no, Edward Cullen is NOT even in the running here.)

Helluva Halloween Challenge and the Sookie Stackhouse Reading Challenge

"It was a dark and stormy night..."

2009-09-24T12:02:00.001-07:00

An international literary parody contest, the competition honors the memory (if not the reputation) of Victorian novelist Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873). The goal of the contest is childishly simple: entrants are challenged to submit bad opening sentences to imaginary novels. Although best known for "The Last Days of Pompeii" (1834), which has been made into a movie three times, originating the expression "the pen is mightier than the sword," and phrases like "the great unwashed" and "the almighty dollar," Bulwer-Lytton opened his novel Paul Clifford (1830) with the immortal words that the "Peanuts" beagle Snoopy plagiarized for years, "It was a dark and stormy night."

See all the hysterical winners of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest 2009 Results here.

My favorite -

Winner: Science Fiction

The golden, starry wonders of the dark universe unfurled before the brave interstellar vessel "Argus" like a black flag of victory with a whole bunch of holes in it as the mysterious mission buoyantly commenced that would one day resolve critical questions about space, time, and the appropriate ratio of nuts to chips in a perfect chocolate chip cookie.

Robert Friedman Skillman, NJ

Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich

2009-09-23T02:40:00.001-07:00

Lula (my favoritely named person) is having a bad day. She witnesses the murder of a barbecue king by some decapitating-happy psychopaths and wants deep-fried chicken with a side of doughnuts but can't find any. Now the killers are looking to put her in a similar headless position.

So what's a girl to do? Recruit her good friend Stephanie Plum of course, and with the super-duper help of Grandma Mazur, enter a national barbecue sauce contest to track down her would be axe murderers. But Stephanie has her own set of problems at the moment. Ranger's got a mole in his security operation and is need of her, ah...expertise. And even worse, no proud Jersey girl looks good in black.

Anyone who has ever read a Stephanie Plum novel knows "Death in the Burg was like pot roast at six o'clock. An unavoidable and perfectly normal part of the fabric of life. You got born, you ate pot roast, and you died."

This one is no different in that regard. Let's check the rest of my list of Stephanie Plum requirements to see if Finger Lickin' Fifteen passed the acid test of sexy absurdity:

-Car explodes or burns up, or get squished by a dump truck. Check
-Ranger calls Stephanie "Babe". Check ++
-Rex changes his address. Again. Check
-Morelli has the best buns in all of Jersey. Check super ++
-Lula and Grandma Mazur reek havoc at a funeral. Lid lifted? Check
-Morelli and Stephanie are fighting. Again, and again. Sheesh. Check
-The Buick makes an appearance. Check
-Joyce Barnhardt wants to do Morelli. Check
-Stephanie moves into Ranger's apartment, but nothing actually comes of it. You know what I mean ladies...Check
-Lula's hungry. I'm talking super hungry!!Check +++
-Ranger wears black shirts, black pants, black hats, black socks, pink underwear. No, wait, that's not right...Check

And then there were some new (spoiler) developments that I found not the least bit Plumish. There's a lot of farting and other forms of bowel discontentment. Good grief! Is this what one of my favorite series has evolved into?? Farts for laughs? And another thing, the flirting is sub-par, I would even say non-existent between Ranger, Morelli, and Stephanie. N-O-T-H-I-N-G happens. If Evanovich thinks I'm reading these for only the fart jokes then she's got another thing comin' Burg girl!

So, overall then, I was disappointed with this one, and probably with where the series is headed in general. Time for Stephanie to move on with her life. Introduce a new love interest, get her married, something. Anything, but this. Until then, I'll stick with books 1-10, by far the best in this tried and true tale of a curly-haired, blue-eyed babe from the Burg.

And since the barbecue sauce was a main character of sorts, I was hoping she'd include a recipe at the end (but then I remembered the super rich Janet doesn't cook), so I decided to add my own version here. Feel free to - like in the book: explode it, smash it, crash it, and cover the ceiling with it. It'd probably taste better that way.

Barbecue Beans -

6 strips of bacon, cooked

2-3 cans Pork n' Beans

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp garlic salt

1 tablespoon dried onion

2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

salt and pepper to taste

Heat in oven until bubbling.

Eat on toast, with a hot dog, in a bread bowl or all by its little self.

2 stars

The Stephanie Plum Reading Challenge

When You Are Engulfed In Flames by David Sedaris

2009-09-21T06:20:00.001-07:00

I wish I was rich. I kept thinking that over and over while I was perusing David Sedaris’s new book with the initial intensity of a child who had found a bag of old Valentine candy, knowing I’d try it no matter how old and sticky they looked. I couldn’t help not thinking it. Other than an occasional essay in the New Yorker, you know on my frequent business trips when I fly around the world…I’ve not read much Sedaris, but I’ve heard great praise for his work, so I wanted to try out his new collection of essays.

Don’t get me wrong here. Most were hysterical. He has a gift of making the mundane, the ludicrous and the little issues that hide in corners of our everyday relationships, bone-ticklingly funny. Almost every essay discusses his boyfriend Hugh in some way. Keeping up with Hugh who walks way faster than he does, putting up with the 200 year-old skeleton Hugh wants to hang in their bedroom, you know, typical relationship stuff, although I try to keep my skeletons in my closet, not hanging over my bed.

*ahem.

When he’s not discussing Hugh, he writes about early Sedaris family life, his parents art collection growing up, his parents cork-lined paneling, how he and his siblings survived the white trash babysitter. Interspersed in little increments throughout we hear about his multiple homes in France, his many travels by plane, his many book readings, and in conclusion, how he spent 20K on three months in Japan while trying to quit smoking. I’ll admit by that point I was tired of it, almost bored. David Sedaris, the person, seemed a little to full of David Sedaris, the writer.

The clincher might have been his bio on the last page: David Sedaris half-dozen books have been printed in 25 languages, including Estonian, Greek, and Bahasa. What? Bahasa? I guess that means he's not just famous, but really super world famous. Or maybe he's just being funny. That's the thing I'm figuring out about this man. You can never tell for sure.

But, I hear his earlier stuff is great, so maybe he’s reached a point in his career where he tries to provide his own fodder and now it feels forced? Unnatural maybe? I’m not really qualified to make that assumption, but I do know I will try his earlier stuff as I hear Naked and Holidays on Ice are some of his best, most sincere early work.

Who knows, maybe back then he only lived in one house and traveled by horse-drawn buggy. Well, I can dream can't I?

3 stars

The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte by Syrie James

2009-09-20T06:41:00.000-07:00

“Would you love me?” asked Jane Eyre at one point in her famous novel. “I am poor and little and plain.”

I quote that line a lot, but it’s not hard to imagine Charlotte Bronte saying the same thing about herself. She was never considered very attractive, and until Jane Eyre was published and became a huge success, her life didn’t account for much in the world. Words like, harsh and cruel, might be used to describe her life, with complete happiness arriving almost too late for her to truly enjoy it. Would we have had her great novels had her genius not been finely tuned by her grief and despair, if her life had been common and usual? Thankfully, the Bronte’s were far from usual in that sense. Their sorrow was our gain.

The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte is a noble concept, for it ventures that Charlotte may have kept a diary of her thoughts; an account of her life, beginning long before Jane Eyre was published, but after her time in Brussels, until her death. We learn of her four marriage proposals, the last of which from a Mr. Arthur Nicholls, a poor curate who worked for her father for 8 years. A man so shy she never knew he was in love with her. Can you imagine if such a diary as this still existed? We are lucky enough to have her biography written by her close friend, Elizabeth Gaskell not long after her death, and we have her poetry and correspondence. It is through the latter that we know how she felt about Jane Austen and her novels:

What sees keenly, speaks softly, moves flexibly, it suits her to study, but what throbs fast and full, though hidden, what the blood rushes through…this Miss Austen ignores…if this is heresy – I can’t help it.
12 april 1850 to William Williams

But a diary, that would be something. James does a good job of including the known facts of the Bronte’s life. She leaves none of the dreaded details out here, and we all know how sad those details were, but at the same time she speculates that there was happiness in that household, as there only could have been between three kindred sisters who loved their wayward brother and their partially blind father.

My only complaints about this book would be that she borrowed lines from the Bronte’s novels, probably using them to mimic styles and patterns of speech familiar with Charlotte and her sisters. (For me, this is a common issue I have with books of this type. It feels like cheating.) Also, the whole Pride and Prejudice feel of the storyline. In the end, knowing her particular thoughts on Austen, I wondered if Charlotte Bronte was rolling over in her grave.

But that aside, my favorite part by far was the inclusion in the Appendix of some of Charlotte’s correspondence, a real treat to read, and some selected poetry by the Bronte sisters. Emily’s especially, were brilliant, passionate, and fascinating. How could anyone doubt she ever wrote one of my all time favorite novels, Wuthering Heights.

Then did I check the tears of useless passion –
Weaned my young soul from yearning after thine;
Sternly denied its burning with to hasten,
Down to that tomb already more than mine.

and -

“O mortal! mortal! let them die;
Let time and tears destroy,
That we may overflow the sky
With universal Joy!

“Let grief distract the sufferer’r breast,
And night obscure his way;
They hasten him to endless rest,
And everlasting day.

“To thee the world is like a tomb,
A desert’s lakes shore’
To us, in unimagined bloom,
To brightens more and more!

“And, could we lift the veil, and give
One brief glimpse to thine eye,
Thou wouldst rejoice for those that live,
Because they live to die.”

Reading those words alone made this book worth the reading.
3 stars.

Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously

2009-09-17T16:55:00.000-07:00

By Julie Powell
Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously is like a very, very rich dessert.

What, you didn’t think I could review a book about cooking without resorting to a lame food simile, did you?

Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously is Julie Powell’s account of her attempt to cook all 524 recipes in Julia Child’s famous Mastering the Art of French Cooking in one year. As I said before, it's like a very, very rich dessert — a dessert I wouldn’t normally order, but I got it for free¹ so I dove in with enthusiasm. And it tasted pretty good.

But even as I ate it, I felt vaguely guilty. Being a supremely rich dessert, it had no nutritional value; it was mainly fluff, really.² And as I scarfed it down, the richness started to get to me, and each bite got just a little harder to swallow. This didn’t keep me from finishing the dessert, naturally, but when I finally did polish it off, I was left with a mild feeling of queasiness.^{3, 4}

I have the feeling that this was supposed to be a gourmet dessert. You know, the kind they talk about on Top Chef, the kind with complexity and nuances and layers. Whatever. When foodies start talking like that, all I hear is Swedish chef-style “Bork! Bork! Bork!”-ing. Frankly, all those subtle nuances go right over my head (or over my tastebuds).⁵
All of which is rather ironic, since I just used a simile to describe my impressions of the book. Bah.⁶

Similes aside, Julie and Julia rests firmly in the category of “guilty pleasures.” Powell’s madcap culinary adventure is often funny, and equally mouth-watering and repellant. (brains, anyone?) It wanders much too often away from the food, which is where the book is at its best, and it's way too long, but it was generally fun to read. It didn’t change my life. I didn’t learn any life lessons. I’m okay with that. Every now and then, a little indulgence is a good thing.
Readers should note, however, that Powell curses a lot and holds some moral views that really bugged me
Footnotes for the symbolically challenged:

¹ I actually won it in a GoodReads drawing!

² This book is a fun read, but lacks real substance.

³ Powell speaks very frankly about herself and her friends and family, which makes for some juicy reading but left me feeling vaguely uncomfortable, like maybe I have no business knowing this much about people I don’t really know (I call it the “TMI Syndrome,” but I think this is becoming an increasingly rare condition in this day of tell-all blogs and reality TV exhibitionism).
⁴ Plus Powell is awfully annoying sometimes.

⁵ I am fairly certain that Powell was trying to write a book with deep meaning, weaving Julia Child and cooking with the events of her own life to make very astute observations about life, but I didn’t feel like taking the time to figure any of that out. For crying out loud, Julie Powell, you’re a self-proclaimed “government drone,” not Shakespeare!

⁶ Hence the footnotes, to atone for my hyprocisy.

Something else to do with all those tomatoes..

2009-09-17T08:00:00.001-07:00

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce -

2 cups (2 large) chopped onions

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/3 cup olive oil

8 cups (12 medium) coarsely chopped, peeled tomatoes

1 1/2 tablespoon oregano leaves

1 teaspoon sugar

2 teaspoons basil leaves

1 1/2 teaspoon rosemary leaves, crushed

1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

1/2 tsp pepper

2 cups water

1 12 oz. can tomato paste

In a 4 quart sauce pan, saute onions and garlic in oil until tender. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Store in refrigerator up to 1 week or freeze for up to 6 months.

I expound on this by stealing from my friend Tanja's recipe:

When I'm actually cooking if for the family and not freezing it for later use, I saute some carrot and celery in butter and add that along with some more tomato paste(if it's too runny) and cream for flavor.

It's outstanding!

Yes, I am supreme queen canner of the universe!

2009-09-15T08:45:00.001-07:00

Boy, I've been busy, but hey, aren't they pretty??

Welcome to the tyranny of way too much summer produce. According to a National Gardening Association poll sales of canning jars jumped 28 percent this year. More people are trying out gardening now since WWII, a jump of 7 million this year alone, and now even more are canning!

Oh, jar of glass,

how I love you so.

You give me pickles,

you give me peaches;

Hopefully the one that puckers,

isn't the one that slithers and tickles.

Anybody else putting up produce? Have any creative ideas for filling shelves?

What are you reading Mondays.....

2009-09-14T06:31:00.001-07:00

Hey, it's that time of week again, and since not many of you are posting what you've been reading, it's time to spill the beans! (hint, hint) Check out what other pages are turning on J. Kaye's blog too.

I finally scored at the library this week with two I've been waiting in line for for months! Woo-hoo! I'm so excited and am crossing my fingers that they will be excellent.

Mr. Darcy, Vampyre by Amanda Grange

Of course, he was a vampire! Of course. It makes perfect sense. This one shows some promise and is apparently all the rage right now. I've read her other book, Mr. Darcy's Diary and liked it okay. I'm hoping for lots of blood in this one!

Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich

I'm a big fan of the Plum novels, but am hoping something new happens in this one like, maybe her car explodes or she can't choose between Morelli or Ranger. You know something new...Will this one be spicy hot sauce or bland bean burrito? We shall see.

I just finished some good ones yet to be reviewed -
The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte by Syrie James
Club Dead by Charlaine Harrie
The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James

And yes my tastes are diverse..
So what are you reading?

The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman

2009-09-12T06:18:00.000-07:00

"The Jews are undoubtedly a race, but they are not human."

Adolf Hitler

Probably the most powerful narrative I've ever read about the Holocaust, the Pulitzer-Prize winning The Complete Maus should be required reading in high school. It should be required reading before entering the Holocaust museum in D.C.

Written and illustrated in graphic novel form, Art Spiegelman has related the history of his Jewish parents and their horrific experiences during WWII with tiny pictures. Pictures and words that impact your very soul.

Told through the eyes of himself, the child of survivors, and his father, Vladek Spiegelman, Maus begins, and is interspersed with, an account of his relationship with his father in Vladek's later years, and then travels back in time, to Poland in the 1930's as his father remembers in great detail what happened to his mother, his brother, and the rest of his family during the war.

I cried.

It was gut-wrenching.
It was horrific.
It was interesting and historical.
When discussing his current relationship with his father, it was even funny.

To look at its cover, you'd have no idea of the epic beneath. A comic book about the Holocaust, who would've thought? The perfect outlet for adults and especially children to learn about one of the most tragic events in world history.

In an age where the term "Nazi" is thrown around like the word "the" nowadays, a book like this brings back the harsh reality of the insurmountable error of using a term that caused such misery and suffering to millions upon millions of people, and not just them, but their descendants.

This book is a triumph to the human spirit and what we are capable of enduring and surviving as a human race. Probably the best book I've read so far this year.

5 stars

Hey! It's official now, we're literary!

2009-09-09T06:23:00.000-07:00

I feel warm and tingly all over. BlackSheepBooks gave us an award for our diverse choice in books and hot guys! Woo-hoo! Thanks Black Sheep Books for giving us a nod, and for not "nodding" off while reading our reviews (hence the hot guys - they help)!

The Literary Blogger Award acknowledges bloggers who energize & inspire reading by going the extra mile. I'm not quite sure we fit into that category but are happy to receive it just the same. I wonder if they have a - Tired Moms Looking For An Excuse To Not Atrophy Their Minds By Reading award?

We pass it on to -
Fifty Books Project 2009 - This group of readers is very diverse in their choices, and their reviews are interesting and informative, and not too long. Perfect.
The Georgette Heyer Challenge - I love this blog, probably because I love Georgette Heyer! A great site for filling that historical romance void. I salivate after every review, wanting to head straight to the library!
The Zen Leaf - Amanda works harder than anyone on her blog. She posts something every day, and gives well thought out reviews on a variety of books (almost every day for crying out loud), and to top it off, she even has a nice way of saying she hates a book, until you go away thinking, maybe she secretly liked it! Maybe there's hope! If speed reading had its own award, she'd win that one too.

And now in honor of BlackSheepBooks who I know lives in Europe, we offer a tasty treat look at a select few stud muffins who live on her continent. Or at least closer to it than me.

And the Best Europe hottie is?

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The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck

2009-09-07T21:04:00.000-07:00

There’s something about working the land, about farming it, about feeling the earth deep under your fingernails and when mingled with sticky sweat, rubbed permanently into the grooves of your skin, soap never seeming gritty enough to remove it. I’ve seen it happen to people over and over again, my grandparents especially, and they would all probably say the same thing: It’s renewing. It’s satisfying and fulfilling. Working in the dirt, making things grow, it fills a void where none else can fill.

But where something is given, something is also taken away. Ask anybody whose ever tackled gardening. We are tied to the Earth and she is tied to us, like irremovable shackles, each one affected by the moods and actions of the other. In The Good Earth, a novel about life in pre-revolutionary China at the beginning of the 20th century, the farmer Wang-Lung understands this. He feels it in his bones, in his heart, even his very soul. When speaking of his family he says:

“Well, and they must all starve if the plants starve.” It was true that all their lives depended upon the earth.

At its very core, I believe that statement describes one of the main underlying principles of this novel. Just skimming along under the surface of the main characters lives, almost controlling their actions, it seems to make them like puppets in some grand unknown scheme.
We follow the life of the honest farmer Wang-Lung, his long suffering first wife O-Lan who bemoans her lack of beauty and his second wife, the beautiful Lotus, an orphan sold into prostitution, and later his relationships with his children and extended family, but mainly I think this novel explores the complex relationship Wang-Lung develops with his land and the consequences thereof. The consequences of success and failure with it.

Heavy, heavy stuff. It was sometimes difficult to take an honest look back in time, the poor treatment of women especially, toward principles that still lay sway today even, decades later. Are we really that predictable of a race? Are we capable of even tiny change? As a whole the book was thought-provoking and yet like its main characters, simple and true. In the end we are left wondering, do things change “when the poor become too poor and the rich are too rich?” When do the poor become justified if they must steal to survive, as Wang-Lung did at one point in the novel? What about later when his wealth ruins his children, making them greedy and complacent? Is it possible to be too rich?

I don’t know, but after reading this book, I feel not so far away from an answer. But then again, do I really want to know?

Or maybe it's more simple than that. Maybe it's like my good friend Suzette said:
It sucked to be a woman in 19th Century China, or anywhere else for that matter.

Either way, still an excellent read.
4.5 stars

A thousand apologies...

2009-09-01T07:52:00.000-07:00

I beg your humble pardon Miss Suzette for forgetting your birth day, August 31st right?

Let's celebrate late by looking back on this date in history:
- Trinidad and Tobago became independent
- The first news radio broadcast was on this date
In 1967 -
- Gas was 33 cents a gallon (holy @#@$@)
- Minimum wage was $1.40
- Average house price was $3,840
- A new car was $2,750
- Popular tv shows were The Fugitive and The
Monkeys
- Pinky Tuscadero's biggest fan was born

What a year! Happy Birthday girlie!

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

2009-08-31T15:31:00.000-07:00

by Lisa See

This novel follows the life of 80-year-old Lily in 19th century China. It centers around her relationship with her Lao-Tung (best friend) Snow Flower and the circumstances of their lives since childhood. It includes their trials with foot binding, arranged marriages, the Taiping Rebellion, and the pressure to give birth to boys.

I LOVED this book and highly recommend it, especially if you are at all interested in Chinese culture and history. Lisa See is a captivating author, and I found myself unable to put this book down. She vividly described the lives of these girls in such a way that I could literally feel their pain and picture exactly what they were going through. Rarely do I find a book that grabs my attention from the first page all the way through the end, but this book accomplished it. 5 of 5- easily.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians Book One: The Lightning Thief

2009-08-30T21:11:00.000-07:00

by: Rick Riordan

Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson never really fit in at school. Trouble always seemed to follow him. His mother ends up taking him to the only safe place for him, Camp Half-Blood, where Percy finds out he is a half-blood (or hero). He is the son of a mortal woman and a Greek god. That's right, a Greek god.

At camp Percy learns that all of the stories from Greek mythology are actually true and that the gods and godesses are still alive. He also finds out that the monsters from the stories (Medusa, the Minotaur, etc) are also still alive and are constantly trying to kill the half-bloods.

Someone has stolen Zeus's master lightning bolt and Zeus believes Percy took it. To find the real culprit Percy and his friends must go on a quest and discover the truth, fighting monsters all along the way.

First off, thank you Suzette for introducing me to this series. I am loving it so far. This book was a lot of fun, exciting and cleverly written. It was a very fast read and it kept me entertained the entire time. I always loved learning about Greek mythology when I was younger so I thought it was fun to read about them again and to see how the author has creatively added them to this book. I did find it to be similar to the Harry Potter novels, just like you Suzette, but I didn't mind it either. I think he did a good job of making it his own.

I can't wait for the movie.

4.5 stars

I'm afraid I've been Buffy-ized against my will....

2009-08-30T08:38:00.000-07:00

Behold my hero and thy name is Buffy. I can't believe I've never watched this show until now, a true Buffy virgin. What was I doing in the late nineties besides giving birth, working and going to school...hmm, nothing important, so how did I not find the time to watch this glowing, bloody gem?? Ah, the witty dialogue, the kung-foo fighting in high-heels, the vampire smooching, what's not to like I say. Don't know how I survived this long, but I'm perplexed. I don't know which man hunk to worship. Just like Buffy, I like them all. But who's the best?

Ah, Spike. I'm afraid I like you the best, but that blond hair? If it was dark I'd probably be peeing my pants.

Angel - You don't show much emotion but you sure are hot! Although I hear your spin-off series wasn't so great. Thank goodness Cordelia went with you though. She drove me nuts!

Riley, Riley, Riley. You're cute, tall and and oh, so muscular. Sheesh..

Giles - Hold off on the serious poses. This pic made me laugh outright, but that accent! That singing voice! Be still my rapidly beating heart.

Zander - You're insane but have the best pouty lips ever!

The Actor and the Housewife

2009-08-27T11:21:00.000-07:00

by: Shannon Hale

Becky, a housewife who is pregnant with her fourth child, goes to LA to sell a movie script she wrote and accidentally meets her favorite celebrity crush, Felix Callahan, and they end up becoming best friends.

I really liked Austenland so I was excited to read this, but I was incredibly disappointed with this book. I already knew it was going to be unbelievable. It being about a super famous actor (think Brad Pitt) and a housewife from Utah being best friends and all, but I almost quit reading it after 50 pages (and oh, how I wish I had!) because it was so incredibly unbelievable. In short, I also found it depressing and the ending... ugh... the ending! I thought if it ended a certain way it would at least be an okay book. But after the ending I thought two things. 1. What was the point of this book? and 2. What a waste of completely good and precious reading time. . .

SPOILER ALERT!!

Would any husband be okay with his wife being best friends with an incredibly famous, handsome actor, who she used to lust over in his movies? No. Would he be okay with her talking to him late at night on the phone? No. Or when she giggles and gets all excited when he calls, would that be okay? No. Yes, the author tried to cover this but I just didn't buy it. I still don't think a husband would be okay with this, no matter what his wife tells him. I, personally, found the whole relationship completely inappropriate and I found Becky to be incredibly selfish. Sure I think it is okay for married women to have guy friends but they went way beyond just good friends.

The most unbelievable part for me was when Becky ends up starring in a movie opposite Felix. Ha!!! I laughed out loud at that part. Talk about far-fetched. You know movie companies always cast completely unknowns who haven't really ever acted before to star in big budget movies... sure...

Felix getting divorced and Becky's husband dying were both very predictable but his death was incredibly depressing. The book just became a downer for me for the rest of it. I thought maybe the end could save it but Becky and Felix don't even end up together!!! What?!?! What was the point of this book then? That after your husband dies you will be in a complete depression for over 3 years and you won't even be able to fall in love with your best friend because you can't get over the husband you lost. So... pretty much you will be alone for the rest of your life... Yippee!

UGH... 1.5 stars

Scary Buffy! Scary Buffy!

2009-08-26T08:43:00.000-07:00

Note to self:
Don't watch Buffy late at night when the husband's out of town. That heavy breathing you think you hear just outside the open window may well be the harbinger of death ready to drain your body of blood or worse, tell you a bad joke.

The season four finale creeped me out!
Imagine shuddering here -

Mr Darcy's Diary by Amanda Grange

2009-08-26T06:51:00.001-07:00

Oh, know. Oh, know. Oh, know.

After reading this book, I've discovered a little known fact that I never wanted to know, gasp: Mr. Darcy was one boring dude.

Kill me now.

Unfortunately, this harsh reality makes perfect sense, I mean, look how Austen portrays him in Pride and Prejudice? He rarely speaks unless spoken too, he's horribly shy amongst strangers, and nobody interesting, except Bingley of course, can stand to be around him he's so haughty and full of himself.

I thought the concept of Mr. Darcy having a diary had great potential. What little tidbits would we find out about, I wondered. Like, what was he doing before he met Elizabeth, how exactly did he fall in love with her, what were his experiences with his sister and Bingley, etc. Exciting stuff, right? Well, no. In truth, I found him completely uninteresting and dull for about the first half of the book, and then when he drove Bingley from Jane Bennet, I thought him just plain mean. When he does begin to see Elizabeth in a different light I of course, liked it better. A few more details here and there helped it become interesting enough by the end, but by then I was almost mad.

Is that the author's fault? Is it even possible to make the true Mr. Darcy of Austen's novel the dashing romantic hero of almost every females dreams? Do we have the mini-series to thank for our obsession? Many,many years ago, long before 1995, I did my senior thesis on Jane Austen, and more specifically, Pride and Prejudice and Emma. I read both books and remember thinking them okay, not my favorite novels at the time - I was very young, but I don't remember thinking one way or the other about Darcy. In fact, I probably thought very little about him at all. Because that's how he's written. Elizabeth is the hero of Pride and Prejudice. It is she we come to love and admire first and foremost.

And then along came the mini-series and Colin Firth. Ah....sigh. That changed everything didn't it. Now we've come to expect more from the man than what was really there. We invent truth were none exists. We invent, feelings and emotion expressed. We invent the feelings we saw on Colin Firth's face when he looked at Elizabeth, the dimple in her chin, the curve of her shape. In essence, we brought the book to life perfectly. But real life is never perfect. Expectations are never met, there is always let down. Rarely are men capable of jumping on the same romantic plane as women, because seriously we as a sex always expect too much, don't we?

That was my main problem with this book. Like all my relationships I probably expected too much. I'm afraid Mr. Darcy I might have to break up with you after all these years.

Sigh...
Just kidding.
3 stars.

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

2009-08-25T07:47:00.001-07:00

Sookie Stackhouse, cleavage-showing and nicely-tanned ,waitress extraordinaire, lives a boring life...for the most part. Aside from her unique gift of being able to read minds, her life borders on the uninteresting and bland, until a sexy vampire named Bill wanders into the bar looking for some bottled synthetic blood.

You see in Louisiana, vampires are "out of the coffin" so to speak. She's intrigued. Who wouldn't be by a walking cold corpse I say. But she likes him instantly because his mind is as quiet as...well, death.

Upon his arrival, bad things start to happen. Big, ugly, bloody murders. People seem to be dying left and right. Could it be Bill? Sookie wonders, or the new trio of vampire nesters that have deposited themselves in the town, much to the locals dismay. Or maybe it's someone else entirely like her mysterious boss who currently has the hots for her as well. When her wayward brother is suspected, Sookie means to solve these murders on her own, with or without her dead-slash-suspect boyfriend.

I hoped she hadn't dropped her health insurance in these harsh economic times.

I thought the plot would be simple enough. Big strong male rescues female. Again. But it turned out slightly different than I thought it would. Overall I guess, this book was entertaining enough to fall into my quick-read category. I like stories that take place in the South. Stories with an atmosphere so thick I can hear that Southern twanginess in my mind when I read the dialogue.

While I would say, "Sookie" (think cookie), vampire Bill would say, "Soo-kay," with long drawn out, silky syllables that come out so smoothly, you're not sure if he said sex or Sookie.

I found this cover interesting, I might even call it cute. Innocent. Almost cartoonish, perhaps for a younger audience, but the only thing innocent about this book is.....hmm, I can't think of anything. Whole lots of blood oozing, blood sucking, death, burned-up stinky bodies, and sexiness all rolled into a big pot of shrimp gumbo. So if you like ah, shrimp gumbo then by all means, eat. 3 stars

The Historian

2009-08-21T13:43:00.001-07:00

by: Elizabeth Kostova

A 16 year-old girl finds an old book in her father's library which doesn't have any writting in it, but has a picture of a dragon with the words "Drakulya" in the center of the book. She questions her father about the book and he goes on to tell her the story of how he found the book and what happened to him afterwards.

He begins by telling her that when he first received the book he confided in one of his professor's at his university about it. That professer had an intriguing story that included him saying that he believed Dracula was still alive. Hours later that professor mysteriously disappeared.

I had a hard time with this book. I liked it at first, then it got slow. Then it picked up again and I liked it, then slow again, etc. I wanted to know what was going to happen but I just couldn't seem to make myself get through it. It was like wading through a swamp. I wanted to get to the other side but my legs kept getting stuck in the mud and every step was labored.

I enjoy history and research, which is the majority of this book, and I found a lot of it interesting, but it began to get very tedious and I found myself not really paying attention. The author was very good at giving me the heebie jeebies though. Many a night while reading alone in the recliner I got the creeps and didn't want to open the door to put the cat out.

By the end I was all into it again and thought the whole book was worth it. All the build-up and suspense. I couldn't wait to see what happened. And then... major let down. The ending for me was very anticlimactic. I was disappointed. I was expecting more.

2.5 stars

Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

2009-08-21T06:39:00.000-07:00

A girl washes ashore from a distant land. Shipwrecked and unsure of her surroundings, unsure if her twin brother is still alive as well, she (Viola) disguises herself as a boy (Cesario) to be presented to the love-sick Duke Orsino who pines for the mourning Olivia - If music be the food of love, play on. Orsino-1.1.1

Sad Olivia has no interest in seeing anyone now even though her drunken Uncle Sir Toby means her to be wooed by one Sir Andrew. But she will see none but the Duke's new messenger, Cesario who is trying to plead the Duke's case to her. She'll have none of it and instead falls in love with "him", much to Cesario's distress.

Sir Toby and Sir Andrew, and a sneaking handmaid Maria contrive to play a joke on their arch enemy Malvolio, the right hand man of Olivia. They fake a letter in Olivia's hand proclaiming her love for him, and that he must wear yellow socks in her presence - something of course, Olivia really detests. He grandly imagines himself the next Lord of the castle and does as the letter requests - Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em. Malvolio-2.5.149-50. She, of course, not knowing why he does what he does, has Malvolio declared insane and locked in a box, much to Sir Toby's and Sir Andrew's glee.

Meanwhile, Sebastian, Viola's look alike brother has also been saved from the sea by the pirate Antonio. They become friends and travel to the land of the Duke not knowing that Viola is also alive and looking very much like her brother.

Trouble ensues...
Will Cesario have to marry Olivia? What will happen to the poor Duke? Will the two twins ever be reunited? Is Malvolio doomed to spend his life in a box?

Reading a Shakespeare play and seeing a Shakespeare play on the stage is almost two completely different things. With one you smile a few times, with the other you laugh until you fall off your seat. Same words, different reactions. Without being able to witness the facial expressions, the mannerisms, and tones of voice of a good actor, it's almost easy to get lost in the language one must concentrate on so hard for the meaning. At least for me. Seeing it performed brings the words alive in perfect clarity.

Having both read and just attended a production of Twelfth Night, what would I say Shakespeare thought of love, romance and human nature? In this play, and I'd venture in most of his comedies, I'd say love and romance always has a tidy ending, no matter how untidy it's beginning and human nature, well, we are all pretty fickle I guess. Throw in that and fool and you're set. I'll leave the true nature of love to Romeo and Juliet.

I had so much fun watching this it now rates a close second to A Midsummer Nights Dream. It was that good. A warm summer evening, good food, good friends and a Shakespeare play. Seriously, what more does a person need? Little else.
Read it - 4 stars
See it - 5+++stars

Catch - 22 by Joseph Heller

2009-08-17T21:56:00.000-07:00

I finally finished this book! I feel like I've just run a marathon, my mind and emotions feel all rubbery and slack. I'm tired. This novel was a workout for my brain neurons; a serious digestion of word play, some almost too big to swallow, some going down smooth as butter, some felt like I was eating knives.

With one hundred pages left, I saw the end in sight, like one sees a lighted tunnel in the distance, but instead of getting closer, I felt stagnant, maybe even farther away than when I started, like some weird psychedelic dream. I was sure I was reading at least 10 pages at a time, but it was really only one or two! I wanted to scream by this point, until – finally - I crossed the threshold and the story progressed, coming to a climax that I expected not at all. I breathed a sigh of relief, reigned my emotions back in, took a Midol and went to bed.

What a book.

Our setting is off the coast of Italy towards the end of WWII, and flight bombardier Yossarian (no one in this story has a first name, that I remember anyway), the hero, I think…is quite inventive in his schemes to never get in a plane again. He's sure someone is trying to kill him, the Germans, every whore in Italy he’s in love with, his comrades, even his commanding officers are out to get him. His problem is the Catch-22. If he’s sane enough to be afraid of dying then he’s really not insane after all. Go figure.

Yossarian is the center of the story that everyone seems to revolve around; the one plot point in this isosceles triangle of a novel. Or should I say Bermuda Triangle. I liked it though. Except for that part I got stuck, I liked it a lot. Eventually every point connects to a part that makes sense. I enjoyed Heller’s writing style immensely, but it was a work out. He’s a master of word choice. The way the enlisted men talked to each other reminded me of my grandfather, a WWI vet who served in England. He talked just like these men, this sarcastic dry wit that emanates throughout the book. Perhaps it’s a way people deal with the stress of war. Each character’s personality was perfectly defined and unique, until I recognized their behavioral traits before their names. Some were hysterical. Some were sad. Some were just vaporless filler.

One part lunacy, one part humor and one part heaviness, Catch-22 is a novel for the ages. Everyone should read it at least once. Keep the headache medicine close though. 4 stars

Julie and Julia: A tale of bread, cheese, and a scary duck!

2009-08-11T06:44:00.000-07:00

Every once in a great while I get to go to a movie without children. Really, truly a whole movie without potty breaks! Me, and about 100 other mostly women in the over 60 crowd, out on the town with their girlfriends, snuggled in tightly to our dusty seats and sticky armrests, we leaned back and listened to the hum of the previews and some old man with the black lung coughing behind me, and after 15 minutes of watching a bad - ah, killer - stepfather and the world ending in 2012, finally got to watch a truly charming movie about an American legend and a blogger. Of course I was hooked.

Julie and Julia is a great movie. I laughed multiple times and even got a bit teary in parts, no small feat for me anyway. Unlike most of the audience members sitting around me, my only real remembrance of Julia Child is from Dan Ankroyd's depiction of her on Saturday Night Live. A treat we got to see again in the movie. I won't bore with details regarding plot here since I'm sure most know what the movie is about, other than to say it revolves around the lives of two women in two different time periods with exactly the same problem: Finding purpose and meaning in their lives. The separate plots weave together effortlessly, with real laughter and real moments of sweet emotion. Nora Ephron is in top form here, no doubt taken from an excellent memoir that I hope to be reading soon, Julie and Julia - My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell.

From hence forth, Meryl Streep is Julia Child. Fantastic acting. I felt inspired to cook after watching this show even though most of the dishes both Julie and Julia prepared were with meat! Duck even. Good grief she de-boned a duck! I could only survive in France on cheese I guess. Cheese...ah... blessed cheese, sounds good to me! Food is a uniting force isn't it? It is the glue that holds family together; friends together even. It's the jelly on the peanut butter sandwich. Speaking of food, at the beginning of the movie, the main character Julie is preparing and enthusiastically eating some bruchetta on wonderfully butter encrusted, toasted bread. It looked so fantastic I kept thinking and salivating about it the entire movie, plotting and wondering if I had all the ingredients to make this when I got home.

And believe it or not the stars aligned and I DID, right down to the multi-colored tomatoes and basil growing in my garden!

Bruchetta-Lula style
5 perfectly ripe tomatoes (yellow and red)
1 glove crushed garlic
1/2 red onion, chopped
salt to taste
A drizzle of olive oil
A handful of chopped fresh basil

Mix together and put on sliced asiago bread that's been toasted on both sides with olive oil and lots of butter in a pan.

You know that toast they give you with a baked potato at Sizzler? This toast is totally better than that!!

I ate like four of these and panted for more. If you're looking for a great end of summer treat this, like this movie, is perfect for an empty stomach in search of something satisfying. Bon appetit!

Flowers from the Storm by Laura Kinsale

2009-07-30T07:39:00.000-07:00

I know what you’re thinking –
Pec-tabulously perfect nipples!
Oh Fabio, if only you’d never uttered the word butter. That ruined you for me.
Do they still make shirts without buttons? How inconvenient on a cold day.

I thought of all these things and more when I saw this cover. I laughed and laughed. You’ve got to be kidding! And laughed some more. But I wasn’t supposed to laugh. This is a serious historical romance, not a comedy. Luckily, it didn’t take much to remove this hot-buttered Fabio from my thoughts as I imagined the tortured hero from this novel, and while only tentatively dipping my toe in at first I quickly jumped in whole-heartedly. This book consumed me.

Christian Langland, the Duke of Jervaulx (pronounced Shervoh) is London’s most notorious rake. An extremely intelligent and rich rake, but a rake none the less. Of course he is. Aren’t they always – sigh... When challenged to a duel by the husband of one of his ah, dalliances, he suffers a stroke that’s been coming on for weeks. All but his immediate family believes him dead, when in reality he’s been ensconced in a mental asylum under the presumption that he’s gone insane. Enter Maddy, a Quaker of the strictest kind and the daughter of the mathematician who’d been working with Jervaulx before he’d disappeared. Quite by accident she discovers him there, and over a period of months she strives to relieve him of his madness. Because he isn’t mad at all of course, just seriously ill. But don’t worry, all his parts are in working order soon enough. Or are they? Hmm...

What happens next is so stinking good I just don’t have the heart to spill the beans, sorry, but kudos to Kinsale for giving us a hero who can’t talk. She takes him to his barest self, almost stripped of everything; a naked spirit - See! I’m obsessed with skin after reading this book. I got a great sense of his frustration, his all out fury with his illness, and then Maddy as she wrestles with her growing feelings for him and her strict religion. It was well written. It was engaging. At times, it held me by the throat.

If you like a heady romance, this is as good as they come. You’ll be singing hallelujah before you reach the last page, no doubt, Fabio or no. You can take that to the bank. 4 stars

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

2009-07-28T06:57:00.000-07:00

I love modern English lit. I love the way the characters talk. Brief, quick sentences full of meaning. For example,
“Loosen up, Sis. Mycroft is a brainbox and Polly, well, she does have a fat arse,”
or –
“Thursday!—” shouted Bowden against the rasp of the engine.
“What?”
“Road.”
“Road?”
“Road.”

Perfectly timed and perfectly witty, this was a really funny book. The Eyre Affair is a heady amalgam of comedy and crime, and I guess alternate history, two words together I’d never heard of. Enter the world of Great Britain circa 1985 where time travel is common place, dodo’s are the pet of choice, Richard III is performed nightly with as much excitement as The Rocky Horror Picture Show and people vacation in their favorite novel. But now someone is stealing original manuscripts, kidnapping characters and permanently altering the stories. Hot on the trail of this slippery slope killer, such is a day in the life of Thursday Next, Special Operative in the literary detection division, until her beloved Jane is stolen from the pages of Thornfield Hall. Now she really means business.

Think Stephanie Plum with less hair spray and clothes that don’t glow in the dark. Instead of the rat, think dodo bird. Instead of the psycho grandma, insert time traveling father whose face could stop a clock. Landon is no Morelli (not even close), but there is a Vampire Spec Op agent who is dead-pan Ranger with dread locks and the cool shades.

Enough comparison though, I liked this book all on its own. In its own way it was original and funny, even bizarre at times. With names like Thursday Next, Captain Braxton Hicks, Jack Schitt, and Filbert Snood how can you go wrong I say. I laughed outloud multiple times.

The plot moved along rather swiftly for me, keeping me interested most of the time, with my only problem being it taking to so long to actually get to the Eyre affair. A lot of weird stuff happens before then, in fact I thought it might be better named The Eyre Affair, cont., but it is all wrapped up swimmingly, and like a good Bronte novel, ended with just the beginning. Be sure to read it with a cup of herb tea and a cucumber sandwich. 4 stars

Fire of the Covenant By Gerald Lund

2009-07-21T12:01:00.000-07:00

"Come, come, ye saints" This song has been going through my head for the last week. I started this book forever ago (about 5 months). I will be honest and say it took me about 100 pages to get into the story. Then I was hooked. And all I have done for the last week is read this 760 page book. I know a bit about the martin and willie handcart companies. I have ancestors that were apart of both companies and survived. I have read their journals and been to martin's cove. This only added to my experience with the book. This is a story about the pioneers who pulled handcarts. They came late in the season and had terrible weather, no food, and many obstacles to overcome. If you don't know much about these pioneers than I suggest you find out. Lund does a good job showing many of the ways pioneers suffered and how they had joy along the trail. If you go back and study the history it was actually a lot harder than it was portrayed in the book. I have always felt more desperation when reading my families account of the experience, but most of the journals come from the Martin company and most of the book focuses on the Willie company.

The best part of the book, in my opinion, is the chapter notes. You get little portions of the pioneers journals. I was astounded, as I always am, at the strength these people had. Could I have made it? No! Is it easy to look at the situation and criticize the fact that they came? Yes. But we would be wrong.

One of my favorite quotes from a member of the martin handcart company- it is a response to criticism about the companies-

Francis Webster:

"I ask you to stop this criticism. You are discussing a matter you know nothing about. Cold historic facts mean nothing here, for they give no proper interpretation of the questions involved. Mistake to send the Handcart Company out so late in the season? Yes. But I was in that company and my wife....

I have pulled my handcart when I was so weak and weary from illness and lack of food that I could hardly put one foot ahead of the other. I have looked ahead and seen a patch of sand or a hill slope and I have said, I can go only that far and there I must give up for I cannot pull the load through it. I have gone to that sand and when I reached it, the cart began pushing me! I have looked back many times to see who was pushing my cart, but my eyes saw no one. I knew then that the Angels of God were there.

Was I sorry that I chose to come by handcart? No! Neither then nor any minute of my life since. The price we paid to become acquainted with God was a privilege to pay."

Sorry for the long post

The Wives of Henry the VIII by Antonia Fraser

2009-07-21T08:26:00.001-07:00

King Henry the Eighth liked to have sex. Let’s just get that out of the way.

*blink*

He thought himself the cat’s meow, a stud muffin, God’s gift to women even after his weight increased dramatically and a sore on his swollen leg reeked of disease. After all, he was King of England. But unlike other monarchs at the time whose spouses were selected from political standpoints and strategic alliances, King Henry in all cases but Anna of Cleves and even then he liked her picture, picked his own wife based on his heart. Forget the fact that he’s famous for treading over corpses; King Henry thrived on being in love. He wanted to control someone. He wanted an object of desire.

Towards the end of his life, for the women in court this was a scary business, especially as the list piled on from his previous wives…divorced, beheaded, died…divorced, beheaded, lived. No one was exactly lining up for the job. This is why I admire his last choice Catharine Parr so much. She must have been very brave considering his track record.

Antonia Fraser’s The Wives of Henry the VIII is a faithful, exhaustive gathering of information on the political goings on at the time, the religious fervor in England, and how this played into the stereotypes and backgrounds of his six wives: Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anna of Cleves, Katherine Howard, and Catherine Parr. Did they really fit the profile that has descended down through history: The Betrayed Wife, The Temptress, The Good Woman, the Ugly Sister, The Bad Girl, and The Mother Figure. By the end of this book you have a pretty good idea.

A quick overview –
Catherine of Aragon. The most royal of all of his choices, a descendant of Spain and England (both were related to John of Gaunt), Queen Catherine truly was the betrayed wife. And she wasn’t going to go quietly. He was horribly mean to her and their daughter, and her life could’ve been so easy, if she’d just have agreed to a divorce. She refused over and over again. I wanted to cheer at the end of that chapter, “You go girl!” Fraser and many others asked the question, how would things have been different in England if she’d had a son? Would the religious reformation have taken place? Fraser and other scholars agree, probably eventually yes. The conditions were ripe at the time for change. The people wanted more of a voice in their own religion, scripture in English, etc. It was inevitable.

Anne Boleyn. One of the smartest women on her age. Her story is a well-chronicled one. One of desire, one of love, one of temptation. Was she really as calculating as some believe? Fraser says probably not. Her main mistake was not having friends in the right places like Catherine did, and most of all not producing a son. Is it any wonder these women had miscarriage after miscarriage? I can hardly imagine such pressure to procreate as that.

Jane Seymour. Lucky girl, she died quickly. She was Henry’s new fresh start. A clean slate. He always claimed she was his one true wife. Why? Because she gave him his only living son. Does she deserve the title of The Good Woman? Fraser speculates she was probably just as human and paranoid as the rest of the women in his life.

Anna of Cleves. King Henry was in a very bad mood when he married her. His first choice had laughed him off. This daughter of Cleves was his second choice, based on liking her portrait, and merely a convenient political alliance. When he saw her he changed his mind, not thinking she was the least bit pretty. This was his reasoning for a quick divorce – that she was not able to rouse him. But unlike Catherine of Aragon, Anna agreed almost immediately, perhaps fearing for her neck, as long as she could stay in England. He rewarded her with her own house and money. She was still alive and rich. Not too bad I say.

Katherine Howard. Half his age, and a cousin to Anne (that should’ve been the first bad sign), Katherine was not too bright, but she must’ve been very pretty – according to Fraser we're not sure if there's a picture of her. It’s widely guessed that the king was quite taken with her, but therein lies the thorn on the rosebush: He wasn’t the only one. This rose had been plucked before, poor girl. I believe Katherine’s only crime was being so young and naïve. Whom would you pick between if you were nineteen: an old, really large man with a smelly leg and a general attitude of importance, or a young dashing rogue who told you everything you wanted to hear? Not too tough of a choice.

Catherine Parr. Finally an older (she was in her mid-thirties), wiser widow. No more questions about whether or not she’s had sex before. This woman was safe. She definitely spoke her mind on occasion, was a stand in mother for his children and probably just as Protestant as Anne Boleyn, but knew her limits. She wasn’t stupid after all. Nothing was worth death.

So, along with this being a fascinating read, there are wonderful pictures of the king and his wives and offspring, as well as key political figures and places at the time. I recommend this to anyone interested in this period of history and women studies.

I’ve seen The Tudors on Showtime and have often believed, besides the fact that the casting of Henry was way off base as far as looks go, they made some of the storyline up. It’s just too much of a soap opera to be true. I don’t think that anymore. What came around really did go around. Who would’ve thought? I loved it, but I love the National Enquirer too, so it wasn't much of a stretch. 4 stars

Strictly Letters

Unbroken: A World War Two Story of Survival, Resiliance, and Redemption

The Cookbook Collector

Juliet

The Irresistible Revolution

Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

Good Housekeeping: Family Vegetarian Cooking

The Disappearing Spoon

The Parenting Breakthrough

The Half Way Mark..

The Convenient Marriage by Georgette Heyer

Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime by John Heilemann

Death by Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries by Neil deGrasse Tyson

Abigail Adams: A Life by Woody Holton

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

It's a new month as well as a Monday. What are you reading??

Something I really want

Angelology by Danielle Trussoni

Movie Update - Clash of the Titti-ans

1984, Brave New World and other depressing stuff

The Fossil Hunter

The Age of Wonder

Author interviews

Warbreaker

The Spirit of Sweetgrass by Nicole Seitz

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead A play by Tom Stoppard

Plants, Plants, Plants!

The Tudors - The Good Queen, The Ugly Queen, and the Stupid, Stupid Queen. Season 3

Super Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner

Remarkable Creatures - Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species by Sean B. Carroll

I feel all giddy...

What are you reading Mondays....and good riddance January!

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

The Rose of York - Love and War by Sandra Worth

The Road

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein

Yes I know I'm a dork - I can't wait for this movie.

Lula's Best Reading Year Ever!

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

A Vampire Reunion

Masterpiece Classic Begins Again December 20th!

Intimations of Austen by Jane Greensmith

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

November - What are you reading Mondays?

Speaking of Frankenstein - Meet the Franks

Frankenstein

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters

I'm a Winner! True Compass by Edward Kennedy

nanowrimo

The Ramshackle Knight

Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut

Extreme Pumpkins by Tom Nardone

Wuthering Heights and pie.

Dead to the World and Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris

The Four Feathers by A.E.W. Mason

What are you reading Mondays..

Benny and Joon and a step back in time.

The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

In a dark, dark wood...Can You See What I See? On a Scary Scary Night by Walter Wick

The Lost Symbol

More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz

Pie Friday

October Short Stories - The Pit and the Pendulum and A Tale of the Ragged Mountains by Edgar Allan Poe

First love burns brightest. Sigh....

Pumpkin Jokes -

These is My Words - The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine by Nancy Turner

Mr. Darcy, Vampyre by Amanda Grange

What to do with fresh basil besides sucking it up your nose it smells so good...

Living Dead in Dallas and Club Dead by Charlaine Harris

"It was a dark and stormy night..."

Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich

When You Are Engulfed In Flames by David Sedaris

The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte by Syrie James

Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously

Something else to do with all those tomatoes..

Yes, I am supreme queen canner of the universe!

What are you reading Mondays.....