BookBound

Goose Lane Editions launches new website

2012-01-31T06:00:00.000-05:00

[Fredericton, NB] In 1994, still in the birthing years of the Internet, Goose Lane Editions, Canada’s oldest independent book publisher, made history by becoming one of the first publishing houses in the world to launch their own website. After 18 years, the site has gone through numerous transformations, changing to suit our evolving culture as technology improved and users became more computer-savvy. Now, we are proud to announce the newest iteration of www.gooselane.com, with new features, new content, and a new promotion to kick off the launch.

In addition to a complete visual redesign, we have added new website elements such as twitter feeds and ongoing blog posts by our many employees. Sample chapters are available for many books, and an ongoing stream of events and notices is added to the main page every day.

To celebrate our launch, we’d like to extend a special offer. For every day the week of January 23, we will be offering one book a day at a special highly-discounted price. Roadsworth, YOU comma Idiot, The Famished Lover, Miller Brittain, The Black Watch, Beaverbrook: A Shattered Legacy, and Ganong: A Sweet History of Chocolate will each take over one day of the week with a drastically discounted price to help celebrate our new look and attitude. All this, in addition to our regular feature of free shipping on orders of $60 or more. To take advantage of these offers, simply create an account with Goose Lane. By doing so, you’ll also ensure that you are regularly updated on upcoming special offers.

We’ve been around a long time, both physically and electronically. Here’s to many more years together.

Mailbox Monday January 30, 2012

2012-01-30T06:00:00.000-05:00

In January Mailbox Monday is being hosted by At Home With Books.

Last week I received The Bedlam Detective by Stephen Gallagher. The blurb on the book reads:

Sebastian Becker, a former Pinkerton man, lives in England and investigates wealthy eccentrics who may be too insane to care for their own affairs. He is asked to investigate rich landowner Sir Owain but arrives to discover two young girls have been murdered. It is not the first time children have come to harm in this small town. Owain's sanity is in question after a disastrous adventure that killed his family and colleagues, and Becker suspects him of the killings. A smart young suffragette and the wild daughter of a horse trainer had a frightening childhood experience that may hold some of the answers Becker seeks, but only if Becker can convince them to trust him in time.

Madmen and monsters both real and imagined abound, and Becker faces immense danger in his hunt for the truth-and in the process he will have to face murderers, tragedy, and the tempestuous depths of his own mind.

Review: The Placebo Effect and Q & A with author David Rotenberg

2012-01-20T06:00:00.000-05:00

I love to discover authors whose writing I like, and I’m especially delighted when I discover a new series that I enjoy. The Placebo Effect fills both of those niches for me.

David Rotenberg's first book in a series called The Junction Chronicles follows Decker Roberts as he struggles to deal with his unique gift of detecting when other people are telling the truth. In other words, he’s a human lie detector. (I had visions of being able to do this all the while reading this book!) To make extra money Decker hires himself out to companies who will pay well for his services, determining for instance whether a potential employee is telling the truth about themselves. Life is going along swimmingly until Decker finds himself dealing with more than just the usual odd assortment of characters.

This book moves at lightening speed. I literally could not put it down. Every event in the plot plays out to an exciting ending. The idea of being able to detect when someone is lying is interesting in the first place. Add to that an unknown creepiness and it makes for a really fun read.

I especially enjoyed the main character. He was well fleshed out – the use of his background in the acting profession was an interesting twist. His family is not the perfect one either, dysfunction is the norm and I think it many readers will relate.

Without giving away too many details, I also really liked the role that corporations played in this novel. By their very nature, they’re large entities that seem untouchable but the author managed to give them a human face. Another aspect that I liked was the fact that the events moved around a good deal. Some of the action takes place in Toronto, some in New York City and Cincinnati. For me these are details that make a book more than just readable and The Placebo Effect was just that.

Read on for a Q & A with the author of The Placebo Effect, David Rotenberg

Q. How long did it take you to write Placebo Effect?

A. Pretty much 18 months, give or take two or three.

Q. I was struck by Placebo Effect's complex twists and turns. How did you keep track of all the details involved? Do you have a particular method that you use?

A. When I was younger I could actually recite whole swaths of my books-can’t do that anymore but I’m still able to keep track of the plotting events, and often surprise myself at my ability to recall very, very specific facts from previous drafts

-I don’t chart-my publishers wish I did, but I don’t.
-I think in the shower and very late at night-I’m not such a good sleeper.
-I know that I’m on to something when I begin to dream it.

Q. Was there a scene (or part of the book) that you enjoyed writing more than others?

A. A lot of the stuff about Seth pleased me. Also it’s fun for me to re-visit the New York City world that was mine for almost 15 years.

Q. There is something about the name of the main character that I find very appealing. How did you come up with Decker Roberts?

A. Do you know Blade Runner? Check out Blade Runner and you’ll see at least the origin of his first name.

Q. Have you started work on your next book?

A. Second book in The Junction Chronicles: A Murder of Crows is complete and with the publisher. Two other books (a sub series) called Seth’s Dream are also pretty much completed.

Tuesday Teaser: The Drop by Michael Connelly

2012-01-17T06:00:00.000-05:00

There were no other customers about, so Bosch took the bottle of salsa with him back to the car. He knew that when it came to truck tacos it was all about the salsa.

Mailbox Monday January 16, 2012

2012-01-16T06:00:00.000-05:00

In January Mailbox Monday is being hosted by At Home With Books.

Last week I received White Horse by Alex Adams. The description of this book reads:

Thirty-year-old Zoe leads an ordinary life until the end of the world arrives. She is cleaning cages and floors at Pope Pharmaceuticals when the President of the United States announces that human beings are no longer a viable species. When Zoe realizes that everyone she loves is disappearing, she starts running. Scared and alone in a shockingly changed world, she embarks on a remarkable journey of survival and redemption. Along the way, Zoe comes to see that humans are defined not by their genetic code, but rather by their actions and choices. White Horse offers hope for a broken world, where love can lead to the most unexpected places.

Tuesday Teaser: A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

2012-01-10T06:00:00.000-05:00

The publication of Origin prompted me to look for it, and if such a book existed, Elias Ashmole would have bought it. He had an uncanny ability to find bizarre manuscripts.

Mailbox Monday Janurary 9, 2012

2012-01-09T06:00:00.000-05:00

In January Mailbox Monday is being hosted by At Home With Books.

Over the holidays I received Dancing with Colonels, letters by Marjorie Havreberg, edited by Judy Barrett Litoff and compiled by Sally Enstrom. The book description reads (from the South Dakota State Historical Society Press website:

Struck with the desire to see and do more with her life, a young South Dakota woman left the family home in Redfield to go to work for Senator Peter Norbeck in Washington, D.C. When the position ended, she quickly found she had grown accustomed to the bright lights of the capital and soon joined the military as a civilian secretary. With World War II in full swing, she found herself traversing the globe en route to Ankara, Turkey.

Once in Turkey, ostensibly a neutral country during the war, Marjorie Havreberg found herself swept up in the relatively glamorous world of military attachés, embassy soirees, and secret government correspondence. Her letters, sent home to her family in Redfield, South Dakota, cover the years in which she worked for Norbeck in Washington, D.C., and her career with the military. Her writing is witty, charming, and full of astute observations, and Dancing with Colonels serves as an excellent window into life in the 1930s and 1940s, including the often under-illuminated social side of wartime Turkey. With her small-town background, Havreberg provides the reader with a marvelously fresh look at her surroundings.

An Introduction from Judy Barret Litoff, who edited the letters, places the correspondence in the larger context of society at the time. Litoff is professor of history at Bryant College in Rhode Island. She has written extensively and is an expert on letters from the World War II era.

Sally Enstrom saved the letters, compiled this volume, and provided a brief memoir of her great aunt, highlighting Havreberg’s personality and zest for life.

Tuesday Teaser:

2011-12-13T06:00:00.000-05:00

Assuming the girls - especially Garnet, whose mind was particularly interesting to Reseda - eventually fell asleep, she thought she might visit the basement. She might see for herself the door that was of such interest to the captain and try to get a sense of what might have attached itself to him.

Mailbox Monday December 12, 2011

2011-12-11T23:44:00.005-05:00

In December Mailbox Monday is being hosted by Let Them Read Books.

Last week I received The Whisperer by Bonato Carrisi. The description (from the back of the book) reads:

Six severed arms are discovered in a clearing. Buried in a mysterious circle, each appears to belong to young girls who have been recently abducted. Alive or dead, the remainder of the girls' bodies are missing.

By-the-book Criminologist Goran Gavila is paired with Officer Mila Vasquez, whose reputation for insubordinate behavior is counterbalanced only by her ability in cases involving missing children.

Faced with the task of locating a mass murderer and recovering any of the girls who might still be alive, Gavila and Vasquez find themselves confronted with a killer who is clearly guilty but raises a new set of questions regarding the case that don't add up.

Mailbox Monday November 28, 2011

2011-11-28T06:00:00.002-05:00

In November Mailbox Monday is being hosted by the person who originally began this meme - Marcia at Mailbox Monday.

Thanks to Hachette I received The Drop by Michael Connelly in the mail last week. From the author's website:

Harry Bosch has been given three years before he must retire from the LAPD, and he wants cases more fiercely than ever. In one morning, he gets two.

DNA from a 1989 rape and murder matches a 29-year-old convicted rapist. Was he an eight-year-old killer or has something gone terribly wrong in the new Regional Crime Lab? The latter possibility could compromise all of the lab’s DNA cases currently in court. Then Bosch and his partner are called to a death scene fraught with internal politics. Councilman Irvin Irving’s son jumped or was pushed from a window at the Chateau Marmont. Irving, Bosch’s longtime nemesis, has demanded that Harry handle the investigation. Relentlessly pursuing both cases, Bosch makes two chilling discoveries: a killer operating unknown in the city for as many as three decades, and a political conspiracy that goes back into the dark history of the police department.

Happy Thanksgiving and a guest post!

2011-11-24T06:00:00.002-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends!

A Different Thanksgiving Conversation: Eight Questions to Ask Your Elders

By Karl A. Pillemer, Ph.D.,

The following is dapted from 30 Lessons for Living: Tried and True Advice from the Wisest Americans"

A famous picture by Norman Rockwell shows beaming grandparents serving turkey to a crowd of smiling extended family members. This idealized image represents reality in this way: Thanksgiving is one event that traditionally brings the generations together. So what’s a good way to spend this precious intergenerational time?

Here’s one you may not have thought of: How about asking your older family members to give the younger ones advice for living? I’ve spent the past six years conducting a research project in which we asked older Americans: “What are the most important lessons you’ve learned that you would like to pass on to young people?” The results were fascinating, and yes, you can try this at home! So I’m proposing that we all use Thanksgiving to ask our family’s elders to share their wisdom.

Why try it? Because it’s an interesting and enjoyable thing to do. Younger people have a lot to gain by seeking the life wisdom of older people. We can take advantage of years of lived experience, perspectives that defy contemporary “common sense,” and experiential knowledge that comes from having been tested in almost every type of stressful situation. Have they been married for 50 years? Ask them what makes a marriage work. They raised a family, so ask them their advice for raising children. And don’t forget to ask their advice about aging well!

On this holiday, we can all be thankful that our elders are so full of wisdom, and willing to share. Below are some “conversation starters” to use around the dinner table this Thanksgiving. While you’re digging into your turkey and mashed potatoes, you can profit from the valuable lessons that those around you have have learned first-hand over their lifetimes.

1. What are some of the most important lessons you feel you have learned over the course of your life?

2. Some people say that they have had difficult or stressful experiences but they have learned important lessons from them. Is that true for you? Can you give examples of what you learned?

3. As you look back over your life, do you see any “turning points”; that is, a key event or experience that changed over the course of your life or set you on a different track?

4. What are some of the important choices or decisions you made that you have learned from?

5. What would you say you know now about living a happy and successful life that you didn’t know when you were twenty?

6. What would you say are the major values or principles that you live by?

7. Have you learned any lessons regarding staying in good health?

8. What advice would you give to people about growing older?

I hope you will give these a try. We do sometimes ask older people for their life stories, but it can actually reach deeper and be more rewarding to ask them their advice for living.

This is how knowledge for living was once transferred; the experience of interlocking lives, intertwined over generations, was passed along and remained alive in the telling. This wisdom exists in people you know, right here, right now. And it’s your for the asking this Thanksgiving.

And if you learn something valuable from an elder, or your own family elders would like to share their advice, you can add it to our website at Share Lessons To Win and be entered for a chance to win $100 Amazon gift card, now through December 4th!

Mailbox Monday November 21, 2011

2011-11-21T06:00:00.000-05:00

In November Mailbox Monday is being hosted by the person who originally began this meme - Marcia at Mailbox Monday.

Last week I picked up:

Gideon's Sword by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

The Baker Street Letters by Michael Robertson

Mailbox Monday November 14, 2011

2011-11-14T06:00:00.000-05:00

In November Mailbox Monday is being hosted by the person who originally began this meme - Marcia at Mailbox Monday.

Last week I received The Placebo Effect by David Rotenberg. From the back of the book:

Decker Roberts has the dangerous gift of detecting the truth. For years this talent proved to be a lucrative sideline to his acting teaching. Only his closest friends know, and he deeps his identity secret from the companies that pay him to tell them if the people they are planning to hire are truthful.

But Decker's carefully compartmentalized life starts to fall apart. His house burns down, his credit cards are cancelled, his bank loan is called and his studio is condemned. He realizes that he must have heard something in one of his 'truth telling' sessions that someone didn't want him to know.

Decker has to go on the run and figure out why he's been targeted. There's also a government agent hunting him who seems to know absolutely everything about Decker Roberts' identities, real and false-and other people of "his kind."

How will Decker find out which truth was endangering his life? Who betrayed him and revealed all his secrets? Decker needs to find answers quickly, before knowing the truth turns from a gift into a deadly curse.

Tuesday Teaser: River of Smoke

2011-11-08T06:00:00.000-05:00

'You must know, Barry,' he said in a low voice, 'that we are facing a crisis of unprecedented magnitude. It should come as no surprise that the Grand Manchu has decided to demonstrate his omnipotence by prohibiting the entry of opium into this country.'

Mailbox Monday November 7, 2011

2011-11-07T06:00:00.000-05:00

In November Mailbox Monday is being hosted by the person who originally began this meme - Marcia at Mailbox Monday.

Last week I received Assassin of Secrets by Q. R. Markham. From the back of the book:

Jonathan Chase, the CIA's top field agent, is sworn to protect and serve the United States at all costs. But after a brutal period of captivity during the Korean War, Chase developed an agenda of his own: to use his mastery of war to create peace.

His new target: the Zero Directorate, a cabal of rogue assassins who have embarked on a campaign to systematically interrogate and kill seasoned secret agents across the globe.

But the Directorate has set an elaborate trap, and for Chase, the world's preeminent operative, the whole mission involves and inescapable paradox: the closer he gets to the cabal, the closer the cabal gets to its primary target.

We have a winner!!!

2011-11-01T07:40:00.005-04:00

I used random.org to determine the winner of an autographed copy of Rules of Civility by Amor Towles (read my review here). The winner is:

Debra S.!

Thank you to all who entered!

Mailbox Monday October 31, 2011

2011-10-31T06:00:00.000-04:00

In October Mailbox Monday is being hosted by Savvy Verse & Wit.

Last week I attended the book launch for Yellow Mini by Lori Weber. The description of Yellow Mini reads:

Mark, Mr. Popularity, tools around town in the yellow mini left to him by his recently deceased father; his new girlfriend Stacey can’t believe her luck, but doesn’t understand Mark’s odd need to disappear into the woods from time to time; her former friends Mary and Annabelle try to find their place in the world – shy Mary transforms into a concert pianist and Annabelle into an world-changing activist with the idealistic and adoring Christopher by her side. In the background, the teens’ parents struggle with their desire to protect their children, yet give them room to grow into the adults they must become. Each voice tells his or her story in powerful free verse.

This book is written in verse - the first of its kind that I've read. I started reading it and it's hard to put down! It just flows. This is a great YA novel!

Mailbox Monday October 24, 2011

2011-10-24T07:55:00.002-04:00

In October Mailbox Monday is being hosted by Savvy Verse & Wit.

Just one book came into my house last week - The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens. From the author's website:

A snowy winter's night. Three small children are chased from their home by the forces of a merciless darkness. Ten years later, Kate, Michael and Emma are no closer to the truth about what separated their family.

The answer lies with an enchanted atlas.

Brimming with action, humor, and emotion, The Emerald Atlas is the first stage of a journey that will take Kate, Michael, and Emma to strange, dangerous lands and deep within themselves. It is the story of three children who set out to save their family, and end up having to save the world.

Waiting on Wednesday: I Am Half-Sick of Shadows

2011-10-19T06:00:00.001-04:00

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Coming out on November 1st I Am Half-Sick Of Shadows is the fourth installment of the Flavia de Luce series by Alan Bradley. From the Random House website the book's description reads:

Colonel de Luce, in desperate need of funds, rents his beloved estate of Buckshaw to a film company. They will be shooting a movie over the Christmas holidays, filming scenes in the decaying manse with a reclusive star. She is widely despised, so it is to no one''s surprise when she turns up murdered, strangled by a length of film from one of her own movies! With a blizzard raging outside and Buckshaw locked in, the house is full of suspects. But Flavia de Luce is more than ready to put aside her investigations into the existence of Father Christmas to solve this yuletide country-house murder.

I love this series and can't wait to get my hands on this one!

Tuesday Teaser: What Was Lost

2011-10-18T06:00:00.000-04:00

Every now and then, perhaps bristling at the unwavering flow of hatred directed at it, the lift would suddenly disregard all floor requests and plunge at high speed down below the ground floor into an unused subterranean extension of the shaft, where it would sulk in its hole for anything from thirty seconds to, on one occasion, two hours (inevitably, in that instance containing Unlucky Kieron from the stockroom). Most staff had experienced this petulance at some point and, as the lift had started its swift descent, all without exception had been momentarily convinced that the cable had snapped and they were racing towards a concertinaed end.

Mailbox Monday October 17, 2011

2011-10-17T06:00:00.000-04:00

In October Mailbox Monday is being hosted by Savvy Verse & Wit.

I ordered this book a couple of weeks ago - I couldn't find it locally so ordered from Book Depository. Relic is the first book in the Pendergast series by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. If you're a fan of thrillers, I highly recommend these books.

Review: The Kitchen Counter Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn

2011-10-12T06:00:00.000-04:00

I’m a closet foodie and I love to cook and bake, but after working all day I don’t have the energy. After reading this book I realized I’m far from alone.

For The Kitchen Counter Cooking School project, author Kathleen Flinn recruited nine volunteers who needed help. Each had something that needed improvement - they were cooking unhealthy food, buying take-out and resorting to what they thought would be the fastest and most convenient method of food preparation. All the volunteers were women and I could relate to all of them to some degree.

At the start of the book, the author introduces each volunteer by describing a visit to their homes and in particular their kitchens. There were issues with outdated food, too much food as well as content. Food labels were looked at, cooking methods discussed and even storage issues confronted. Each woman was surprised when a spotlight was pointed at their fridge and cupboards. Sometimes it takes an outsider to say, yep, storing 15 boxes of pre-made pasta dinners at this cost doesn’t make sense when you can make something yourself for a fraction of the price, is much healthier and doesn’t take nearly as much time as you’d think if you know what you’re doing. The author rented a kitchen and once a week the volunteers learned how to do exactly that.

The book is divided into parts and each describes a food product or group and how best to prepare it. The volunteers were given the tools and instructions and were encouraged to experiment. Their delight in discovering that they could produce healthy and attractive dishes was evident. I like how the self-esteem of a person can be raised just by learning a method of cooking they previously thought had been impossible to master. At the end of the book, I enjoyed seeing how each volunteer benefited from what they’d learned during the lessons.

Each chapter ends with the recipes that are taught in the class. I found the chapter on meat to be especially instructive and after reading about how many hormones and antibiotics are fed to livestock, I want to learn how to cook more vegetarian dishes!

People may dislike cooking or simply don’t cook for various reasons. Perhaps they were never taught properly, or as children they were shooed out of the kitchen. Maybe their spouses like doing it more than themselves. Whatever the reason, I recommend this book. It shows how anyone can learn to prepare nutritious and cost-effective meals even if they’ve always thought the task a daunting one. The recipes are simple and fast and there’s something for everyone in The Kitchen Counter Cooking School.

Click here to watch the book trailer and here is where you can find bios of the volunteer participants.

Tuesday Teaser: A Single Shot by Matthew F. Jones

2011-10-11T06:00:00.000-04:00

Past the two-foot space between the edge of the screen door and the outer wall, he tentatively places a foot into the darkened house, which smells like the molasses earlier flavoring his fingers, varied manures, and gunpowder's pungent smoke. Though he can't see much of it, the room has the eerie sense of being alive.

Mailbox Monday October 10, 2011

2011-10-10T06:00:00.000-04:00

In October Mailbox Monday is being hosted by Savvy Verse & Wit.

Last week I received The Orphan of Awkward Falls by Keith Grades. From the back cover:

Thirteen-year-old Josephine is not exactly thrilled to move to Awkward Falls, a town known only for its sauerkraut and its insane asylum, but she can't resist snooping around the dilapidated mansion next door. She finds more than she bargains for when she is captured by the strange characters who live there: an ancient automaton who serves as a butler, a cat patched together with a few odd parts, and a boy genius named Thaddeus. Meanwhile, Fetid Stenchley, the most feared patient in the Asylum for the Dangerously Insane, has escaped and there is only one thing on his mind...revenge. Unfortunately for Thaddeus and Josephine, he's headed their way, and his arrival will reveal more than a few secrets about Thaddeus's mysterious past. Can these unlikely friends stop Stenchley and save Thaddeus from his greatest fear - the orphanage - before it is too late?

Mailbox Monday September 26, 2011

2011-09-26T08:00:00.003-04:00

In September Mailbox Monday is being hosted by Amused by Books.

Although I didn't receive any books in the mail last week, I was the lucky recipient of four books from my friend Tina of Bookshipper. She gave me:

The Price of Silence by Kate Wilhelm, L. A. Mental by Neil McMahon, We All Fall Down by Michael Harvey and Flash and Bones by Kathy Reichs.

Thanks, Tina!

Rules of Civility GIVEAWAY!

2011-09-12T06:00:00.003-04:00

Not too long ago I enjoyed and reviewed Rules of Civility by Amor Towles. This book is on my top ten favorites list. Referenced throughout the novel are George Washington's rules and the entire list is printed in the back of book. The rules are bits of insightful wisdom that I know I could benefit from revisiting. Here are some examples:

Taken from George Washington’s Rules of Civility:

● (1st) Every Action done in Company, ought to be with Some Sign of Respect, to those that are Present.

● (12th) Shake not the head, Feet, or Legs rowl not the Eys lift not one eyebrow higher than the other wry not the mouth, and bedew no mans face with your Spittle, by approaching too near him when you Speak.

● (50th) Be not hasty to beleive flying Reports to the Disparagement of any.

Even though the language is a bit dated, they still resonate with me. However, another list has been provided to me from the good folks at Penguin that are more contemporary and very apropos:

New RULES to Live By Today:

● Let electronic communication not be used when discussing serious matters. Though you were to use a surfeit of emoticons, they would not aid your success. Such electronic methods include (but are not exhausted by) G-chat, IM, Twitter, e-mail, and Facebook.

● Do not neglect to send thank you notes when someone has done you a kindness.

● Upon public transportation, do not make a pretense that you are unaware of the elderly patron, the person with a cane/crutches, or the profoundly pregnant woman standing nearby. If you be of able body, it is right for you to relinquish your seat.

● In all shared partnerships each party should strive to accomplish 75% of the toil and maintenance thereof. Thus does one ensure a happy life.

● No sidewalks are to be found wide enough that three persons are able to perambulate side-by-side-by-side. Be conscious of your surroundings.

I'm very pleased to announce a giveaway of a signed copy of this book to my readers. All you need to do is leave a comment with your own 'rule of civility' as well as your email address. The winner will be chosen using random.org. Deadline is October 30th. I guarantee you won't regret spending time with this awesome book! Good luck!

Review: Fiendish Deeds by P. J. Bracegirdle

2011-09-08T06:00:00.001-04:00

I don’t review a lot of middle grade books but if something looks particularly good and is in a genre that I would normally enjoy in adult literature then I am drawn to it. Fiendish Deeds by P. J. Bracegirdle, the first book in the The Joy of Spooking trilogy, (the others are Unearthly Asylum and Sinister Scenes) could easily pass as a younger version of the type of novel I really like.

First there’s a strong female character. She’s plucky, resilient and smart. Check, check and check. She’s not perfect. Check. She’s a bit quirky. Excellent! This means she’s not the same as every other pre-teen protagonist populating the books coveted by young readers. In fact, I was surprised to find out that the author is male since he has written the female character, Joy Wells, with great perception into the mind set of a twelve-year-old girl that is completely convincing.

Another plus for Fiendish Deeds is the story. It’s full of adventure and great action. It’s got the page-turning factor in spades. And even though this is middle grade, it’s still got over 200 pages – so the story has a chance to play out well. It’s got depth.

So, this novel for young readers has everything going for it. But for adults, there’s more. What kept me thoroughly entertained is the humour. Fiendish Deeds is imaginatively funny! It’s got whimsy (a confused bullfrog who thinks it’s a bulldog and so runs around in circles and barks), plenty of allusions to Edgar Allen Poe and the sort of quirkiness that I love to come across unexpectedly when reading.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the author of this great new series lives in my home town. Fans new and old are invited to a launch party for the final book in the Spooking trilogy, Sinister Scenes, on Saturday, September 17th from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. at Shaika Café, 5526 Sherbrooke Street West in Montreal, QC. Copies of all three books in the series will be available at the party. To find out more about the Joy of Spooking trilogy head on over to P. J. Bracegirdle’s website or facebook page.

Tuesday Teaser:

2011-09-06T06:00:00.000-04:00

He'd known that Pendergast and Esterhazy had hunted at Kilchurn before, of course-Esterhazy had mentioned as much in one of the interrogation sessions-but the fact that Grant had taken them out and could vouch for Esterhazy's being an excellent shot was news to him. Esterhazy had always played down his skill.

Mailbox Monday September 5, 2011

2011-09-04T15:59:00.006-04:00

In August Mailbox Monday is being hosted by Leah at Amused by Books. Head on over to Leah's blog to add your link!

Last week I received Kitchen Counter Cooking School" by Kathleen Flinn. The description of this book reads:

THE KITCHEN COUNTER COOKING SCHOOL is essentially “What Not to Wear” meets Michael Pollan. Inspired by a supermarket encounter with a woman loading up on processed foods, Le Cordon Blue graduate, and author of The Sharper Your Knife the Less You Cry, Kathleen Flinn decided to use her recent culinary training to help a group of nine culinary novitiates find their inner cook. These students invited Kathleen into their kitchens where she took inventory of each person’s refrigerator, cabinets and eating habits. After kitchen “makeovers” and a series of basic lessons where they learned to wield knives, trust their taste and improve their food choices, the women found a common missing ingredient—confidence. In this new book, Flinn follows these women’s journeys and includes practical, healthy tips to boost readers’ culinary confidence, strategies to get the most from their grocery dollar and simple recipes to get readers cooking.

Review: Flashback by Dan Simmons

2011-09-01T06:00:00.000-04:00

Every now and again I get the urge to pick up a science fiction novel – especially if it’s been recommended by my husband or it’s written by an author I like. I can’t say enough good things about Simmon’s previous books, Drood and The Black Hills, both of which are very different books from Flashback. Happily I was not disappointed with this new novel.

Ingesting the substance called flashback allows the user to relive personal events in their past as many times as they have enough drug for. The protagonist, Nick Bottom, is an ex-detective with a nasty flashback habit and uses the drug to revisit times spent with his now dead wife, Dara. When he’s called upon to solve the murder of a government official’s son, Nick’s main concern is how much flashback the case’s fee will buy him. It turns out that the case has much more going on than Nick is lead to believe.

When I first started reading about flashback and its affects I thought it was too unbelievable. How could a drug exist that could take someone into their past to relive their best memories? But the more I read, the more I came around to thinking it could happen. The way the author presents the drug and how it’s used started to make perfect sense. The world in the not-too-distant future as described by Dan Simmons is a changed one and I could easily see how so many people would want to escape from the present into their much happier pasts.

I really enjoyed this book. It’s one thrilling ride after another. But it’s also a chilling example of what could happen to our world if economies, politics and cultures take a huge downswing in their evolutions. There were a couple of spots that I couldn’t understand very well – an explanation of how the economy ended up as it did and parts of the political situation were a bit difficult for me to envision but overall this did not detract from my enjoyment of the story.

This is another Dan Simmons book that I highly recommend. I’d even go so far as to say that Flashback would make an excellent choice, though maybe a bit of a departure, for book clubs. Though it is set 30 or 40 years into the future, there are many issues touched on that would be relevant to today’s world.

Tuesday Teaser: The Best of Everything by Rona Jaffe

2011-08-29T18:07:00.004-04:00

After work she met Dexter at his apartment. She sat on his sofa and allowed him to put a cold drink into her hand, and the entire time she was savoring the last instant of special secrecy before she would share her news.

Mailbox Monday August 29, 2011

2011-08-28T23:09:00.007-04:00

In August Mailbox Monday is being hosted by Staci at Life in the Thumb. Head on over to Staci's blog to add your link!

I'm having a few technical difficulties with my blog post for Monday because of a power outage due to the torrential rain and wind caused by Hurricane Irene. I'm using an iPad which I don't find all that easy to use when posting pics and other beyond-the-basic computer activity. However, I'm going to try my best to do my Mailbox Monday post despite my unease with this darn iPad.

Last week I received a book in the series The Joy of Spooking called Fiendish Deeds. Written by P.J. Bracegirdle, the synopsis of this book for kids (young and old) reads:

Joy Wells is a proud resident of Spooking, the terrible town at the top of the hideous hill. At the bottom of the hill is Darlington, a plastic "paradise" where Joy and her brother go to school. When the mayor of Darlington announces that a water park is going to be constructed over the Spooking bog, Joy is horrified. She decides that she has to save the mysterious bog and the endangered species in it-even though it seems someone is determined to stop her!

Tuesday Teaser: Cold Vengeance

2011-08-23T06:00:00.000-04:00

After a moment I realized I wasn't sinking farther-that my feet had come to rest on something only a few feet beneath the surface. Soemthing soft and buoyant, a carcass I believe.

Waiting on Wednesday: The Virgin Cure by Ami McKay

2011-08-17T06:00:00.000-04:00

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

The Virgin Cure by the author of The Birth House, Ami McKay, will be published in Canada on October 25th. The following description of the novel is from the author's website:

“I am Moth, a girl from the lowest part of Chrystie Street, born to a slum-house mystic and the man who broke her heart.” So begins The Virgin Cure, a novel set in the tenements of lower Manhattan in the year 1871. As a young child, Moth’s father smiled, tipped his hat and walked away from her forever. The summer she turned twelve, her mother sold her as a servant to a wealthy woman, with no intention of ever seeing her again.

These betrayals lead Moth to the wild, murky world of the Bowery, filled with house-thieves, pickpockets, beggars, sideshow freaks and prostitutes, where eventually she meets Miss Everett, the owner of a brothel simply known as “The Infant School.” Miss Everett caters to gentlemen who pay dearly for companions who are “willing and clean,” and the most desirable of them all are young virgins like Moth.

Through the friendship of Dr. Sadie, a female physician, Moth learns to question and observe the world around her, where her new friends are falling prey to the myth of the “virgin cure”–that deflowering a “fresh maid” can heal the incurable and tainted. She knows the law will not protect her, that polite society ignores her, and still she dreams of answering to no one but herself. There’s a high price for such independence, though, and no one knows that better than a girl from Chrystie Street.

Tuesday Teaser: I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore

2011-08-16T08:32:00.004-04:00

'After she leaves we immediately start unpacking the truck. Depending on how quickly we leave a place, we either travel very lightly-usually Henri's extra computers and equipment, which he uses to set up a security perimeter and search the web for news and events that might be related to us.'

Mailbox Monday August 15, 2011

2011-08-15T06:00:00.000-04:00

In August Mailbox Monday is being hosted by Staci at Life in the Thumb. Head on over to Staci's blog to add your link!

Last week I received A Single Shot by Matthew F. Jones. Originally published in 1996, this novel is being re-released by Mulholland Books (an imprint of Little, Brown and Company) on September 19th. From the publisher's website the description of this book reads:

After the loss of his family farm, John Moon is a desperate man. A master hunter, his ability to poach game in-season or out is the only thing that stands between him and the soup kitchen line. Until Moon trespasses on the wrong land, hears a rustle in the brush, and fires a single fateful shot.

Following the bloody trail, he comes upon a shocking scene: an illegal, deep woods campground filled with drugs, bundles of cash and the body of a dead young woman, killed by Moon’s stray bullet.

Faced with an ultimate dilemma, Moon has to make a choice: does he take the money and ignore his responsibility for the girl’s death? Or confess?

But before he has a chance to decide, Moon finds himself on the run, pursued by those who think the money is theirs. Men who don’t care about right and wrong and who want only one thing from John Moon: his body, face down in a ditch.

Matthew F. Jones’ A Single Shot is a rare, visionary thriller reminiscent of the work of Tom Franklin, Ron Rash, Daniel Woodrell, and Cormac McCarthy.

Mailbox Monday August 8, 2011

2011-08-08T06:00:00.003-04:00

In August Mailbox Monday is being hosted by Staci at Life in the Thumb. Head on over to Staci's blog to add your link!

Last week I received Cold Vengeance by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child courtesy of Hachette Book Group. From the authors' website the description reads:

Devastated by the discovery that his wife, Helen, was murdered, Special Agent Pendergast must have retribution. But revenge is not simple.

As he stalks his wife's betrayers-a chase that takes him from the wild moors of Scotland to the bustling streets of New York City and the darkest bayous of Louisiana-he is also forced to dig further into Helen's past. And he is stunned to learn that Helen may have been a collaborator in her own murder.

Peeling back the layers of deception, Pendergast realizes that the conspiracy is deeper, goes back generations, and is more monstrous than he could have ever imagined-and everything he's believed, everything he's trusted, everything he's understood . . . may be a horrific lie.

Review: Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

2011-07-28T09:45:00.002-04:00

I don’t read a lot of ebooks – I’m very much a paperback reader. With ebooks I lose some sense of where I am in a book by not being able to look at it physically. I find it easier to flip back to find some plot point that I want to check or the context in which a character first appeared. So, when I was offered a chance to review Rules of Civility by Amor Towles in an ebook format, I hesitated. But drawn in by the book’s description on the author’s website I took a chance. I am so glad I did. Despite the format, I adored this book!

The setting is Manhattan in the late 1930’s. The threat of the Second World War is in the distant future and life, for the most part, is good. The reader sees what New York City was like during that era through the eyes of a young woman surviving quite well on her own in that large metropolis. The author did a fantastic job describing the culture of the young and carefree in an exciting city - so much so that the city takes on a character all of its own. Cocktails, bars, apartments, neighbourhoods and iconic buildings all figure prominently in this book. If you love the romance and cultural aura of New York City, you’ll find plenty of it here.

I really liked the protagonist, Kate Kontent. She’s a well-written character – smart, sassy, independent and with a good dose of subtle humour thrown in. She’s isn’t perfect; I picked up hints of envy in some situations and loneliness in others. It’s not that much was said, but rather shown (which I think is one of the trickiest talents a writer can develop and Amor Towles has it in spades). But Kate isn’t a wallflower; she acts on her instincts so that when she isn’t happy about something she takes steps to change it. And this is one of the reasons why the story moved along quickly and flowed so well. Dialogue between Kate and her contemporaries was also well done.

I also really liked the portrayal of women in this era. It seems that women in the 1930’s are much further along in society than their later counterparts. The freedom of the earlier era was gone by the 1950’s as the standard of a woman’s worth was depicted with the iconic housedress-wearing female staying home and having babies. But perhaps that was the sign of prosperity. In any case, this freedom surprised me too – I’ve always assumed that any era before the 1950’s had to be a worse one for women in general, but I didn’t pick that up from this novel at all.

I loved this book because I like NYC and I found the 1930’s era so interesting to read about. But to enjoy Rules of Civility you don’t have to like those things too because it offers so much more. This book is a well-written, well-rounded great story from an author that I’ll be putting on my must-read list for future books.

Local Blogger Meet-up!!!

2011-07-25T16:33:00.001-04:00

As you may have seen on a few other blogs by now, a baker's dozen of Montreal bloggers got together last weekend over lunch to talk about books, publishers, authors and all sorts of book-industry related events and how we as bloggers in Montreal could encourage more book related activity to occur in our city. I had a fabulous time and was very surprised when I realized it was time to go! The afternoon passed by in a flash.

Our facebook group started small with just a couple of bloggers (was it Cat and Lucy?) but quickly grew to fifteen. And we know there are others out there! If you'd like to look around and see what book events are happening in the Montreal area and to keep updated on future ones, please visit our page, Montreal Book Lovers, and like us! The photo below was taken by our very accommodating waiter at Guido and Angelina's restaurant in downtown Montreal.

Pictured from left to right are:

Avis from she reads and reads, Amanda from Tales & Treats, PK from Aisle B (I'm going to say that's a fuchsia-coloured dress she's wearing), Melissa from YA Bookshelf, Cindy from Cindy's Love of Books, Jennifer from Mrs. Q: Book Addict, Cindy from Tynga's Reviews, Cat from Beyond Books, Lucy from Moonlight Gleam (thanks for those name tags, Lucy, they were awesome!), Lisa from starmetal oak book blog (cool name, I'd like to know how you came up with it), me, Laura from Library of Clean Reads, and Tina from Bookshipper.

It was a fabulous afternoon! Thanks to Tina and several publishers, our group members walked away with quite a few books. As a matter of fact, there were several that we had to draw for! Many, many thanks to these publishers:

This is what I brought home:

From Harper Collins Canada: The Power of Six by Pittacus Lore

From Random House Canada: The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollingshurst

From Simon and Schuster Canada: The 34th Degree by Thomas Greanias and Carte Blanche by Jeffery Deaver

From Tina: Dreams of the Dead by Perri O'Shaughnessy, The Survivor by Sean Slater, The Money Pit Mystery by Eric Walters, Long Gone (via Avis) by Alafair Burke, The Third Rail by Michael Harvey, An Unquiet Grave by P. J. Parrish

I'm very much looking forward to our next meet-up. Hopefully the two bloggers who couldn't make it this time will be there as well. Until next time ladies!

Mailbox Monday July 25, 2011

2011-07-25T06:00:00.001-04:00

In July Mailbox Monday is being hosted by A Sea of Books.

Last week I received The End of Everything by Megan Abbott. Published by Reagan Arthur Books, The End of Everything is available now. The following description of the book is taken from the author's website:

In a placid 1980s suburb in the Midwest, thirteen-year old Lizzie Hood and her next door neighbor Evie Verver are inseparable, best friends who swap bathing suits and field-hockey sticks and between whom, presumably, there are no secrets. Together they live in the shadow of Evie’s glamorous older sister Dusty, who provides them a window on the exotic, intoxicating possibilities on their own teenage horizons. To Lizzie, the Verver household, presided over by Evie’s big-hearted father, is the world’s most perfect place.

And then, one afternoon, Evie disappears. The only clue: a maroon sedan Lizzie spotted driving past the two girls earlier in the day. As a rabid, giddy panic spreads through the balmy suburban community, everyone turns to Lizzie for answers. Was Evie unhappy, troubled, upset? Had she mentioned being followed? Would she have gotten into the car of a stranger? Would Evie have gotten into a car with a man?

Compelled by curiosity and a desire to rescue the enchanted Verver household from ruin, Lizzie takes up her own furtive pursuit of the truth. Her days spent with a shell-shocked Mr. Verver, she devotes her nights to prowling through backyards, peering through windows, pushing herself to the dark center of Evie’s world. Haunted by dreams of her lost friend and titillated by her own new power as the center of the disappearance, Lizzie uncovers secret after secret and begins to wonders if she knew anything about her best friend at all.

Review: The Taker by Alma Katsu

2011-07-21T09:44:00.005-04:00

I vowed this summer that I would read at least one good, intoxicatingly fun book. The kind that would make me forget about everything else whenever I picked it up. This book would have to have a little of everything that suits my tastes – a sprinkling of fantasy, intrigue, mystery and some history to top it off. Well, The Taker by Alma Katsu is that book.

The main character, Lanore McIlvrae, is written with a lot of heart. She’s far from perfect and made so many wrong choices it was difficult to feel sorry for her when she ended up in trouble. On the other hand, she showed compassion and empathy in relation to other characters and that made her likeable despite her faults. I also liked that Lanore was written honestly – she’s self-aware and admitted to herself when she failed.

Much of the story is set in the early 1800’s and takes the reader from St. Andrews, a small and newly settled town in Maine, to Boston with its teeming masses of the well-to-do and the less fortunate. It is between that time and the present that the story unfolds with a short detour to the 1300’s as the author delves into lineage of Adair, another character vital to the storyline. It was Adair that had me shivering and checking the locks on my doors!

I enjoyed this novel for many reasons - one of the main ones being its sense of time and place. Of course, the building excitement was good too! I recommend this The Taker to everyone that enjoys a well-developed and exciting summer read. Also, I just found out that The Taker is book one of a trilogy! I thought while reading it that there would be more to this story! YAY!

You can view the youtube trailer for The Taker here.

Tuesday Teaser: The Rules of Civility

2011-07-19T09:23:00.003-04:00

-When you're speaking, are you ever not lying?

-Was that a double negative? I'm not too good with those.

I'm half way through this novel and the pages are turning fast! I'll be posting my review soon.

Mailbox Monday July 18, 2011

2011-07-17T15:53:00.009-04:00

In July Mailbox Monday is being hosted by A Sea of Books.

I received two books last week. The first is Flashback by Dan Simmons. I love this author (I've read Black Hills and Drood by him) and I'm really looking forward to reading this book. From the Hachette Book Group's website:

The United States is near total collapse. But 87% of the population doesn't care: they're addicted to flashback, a drug that allows its users to re-experience the best moments of their lives. After ex-detective Nick Bottom's wife died in a car accident, he went under the flash to be with her; he's lost his job, his teenage son, and his livelihood as a result.

Nick may be a lost soul but he's still a good cop, so he is hired to investigate the murder of a top governmental advisor's son. This flashback-addict becomes the one man who may be able to change the course of an entire nation turning away from the future to live in the past.

The second book is Kill Alex Cross by James Patterson. Another great author to read this summer. From Hachette's website:

The President's son and daughter are abducted, and Detective Alex Cross is one of the first on the scene. But someone very high-up is using the FBI, Secret Service, and CIA to keep him off the case and in the dark.

A deadly contagion in the water supply cripples half of the capital, and Alex discovers that someone may be about to unleash the most devastating attack the United States has ever experienced.

As his window for solving both crimes narrows, Alex makes a desperate decision that goes against everything he believes--one that may alter the fate of the entire country. KILL ALEX CROSS is faster, more exciting, and more tightly wound than any Alex Cross thriller James Patterson has ever written!

Waiting on Wednesday:

2011-07-06T06:00:00.000-04:00

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

I am really looking forward to the new George R. R. Martin book, A Dance With Dragons to be published on July 12. Is anyone else addicted to the TV series?

Tuesday Teaser: Rebel Angels by Libba Bray

2011-07-05T06:00:00.000-04:00

Tom nods. "One of our patients, Mr. Osborne, fancies himself a poet worth a small fortune. He is quite affronted by our efforts to keep him here and writes daily letters to his publisher and the Duke of Wales."

Mailbox Monday July 4, 2011

2011-07-04T06:00:00.001-04:00

In July Mailbox Monday is being hosted by A Sea of Books.

I didn't receive any books in the mail last week so I'm profiling a book I picked up at BEA in May. Published by Algonquin Books, It's When She Woke by Hillary Jordan. About this book (taken from the author's website):

Faith, love and sexuality have fallen prey to politics in this stunning creation of America in the near future, from the author whose international bestseller, Mudbound, so hauntingly recreated America’s past. Hannah Payne’s life has been devoted to church and family, but after her arrest, she awakens to a nightmare: she lies on a table in a mirrored room, covered only by a paper gown, with cameras broadcasting her every move to millions at home, for whom observing new “chromes”—criminals whose skin color has been genetically altered to match the class of their crime— is a new and sinister form of reality TV. Hannah is a Red; her crime is murder. The victim, says the state of Texas, was her unborn child, and Hannah is determined to protect the identity of the father, a public figure with whom she shared a fierce and forbidden love. Inspired by The Scarlet Letter, When She Woke is a dark fable about a stigmatized woman struggling to navigate a dystopian, theocratic America of the not-too-distant future, where convicted felons are no longer imprisoned and rehabilitated, but “chromed” and released back into the population to survive as best they can. In seeking a path to safety in an alien and hostile world, Hannah unknowingly embarks on a journey of self-discovery that forces her to question the values she once held true and the moral authority of a country that politicizes the personal.

Review: The Map of Time by Félix J. Palma

2011-06-30T10:46:00.007-04:00

The title and the cover of this novel piqued my interest even before I knew what it was about. A faceless man dressed in period clothing standing or walking in the doorway of a library holding a pocket watch. And, after a closer look, what I thought was a fog or mist appears to be an angel hovering behind him.

The Map of Time - the title holds all sorts of possibilities as well. The word ‘map’ indicates travel to exotic and mysterious destinations and the word ‘time’ – well, obviously, there’s some time traveling going on inside those pages. How fun is that!? Waiting for this book to arrive in my mailbox, I felt that shiver of anticipation I always get when I know it’s only a matter of time before I’ll be lost in a great story.

I had all sorts of imagery running through my mind about angels and ghosts but as it turns out I’m very bad at puzzling plots out based on covers! Happily, despite my incorrect assumptions, I quite enjoyed The Map of Time. The book is divided into three distinct, yet connected, parts and there is a nameless narrator (the figure on the cover?) who addresses the reader directly, and at times, humorously, at the beginning of each section and occasionally within the sections. Time travel and H. G. Wells figure prominently in each and one or more of the protagonists in one part will make an appearance in another. It always fascinates me when an author manages to tie a plot together using this story-telling device. It must be difficult to pull off but Mr. Palma does it exceedingly well.

Each character is well-fleshed out. There is background story and context and motivations are clear. The story is filled with the atmospheric squalor that was sometimes Victorian London. Prevailing attitudes regarding women are spot on and speculation by the characters about what the distant future would be like was interesting and sometimes quite funny.

If I were to categorize this book I’d put it in with Drood by Dan Simmons and The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova – just for the attention to detail and the ability of the writer to take a reader on an adventurous journey not soon forgotten. The Map of Time is loaded with atmosphere and imagination and I highly recommend it.

The Man in the Rockefeller Suit by Mark Seal

2011-06-23T06:00:00.001-04:00

I don’t read a lot of true crime fiction but The Man in the Rockefeller Suit by Mark Seal had me interested from the moment I found out about it. I recalled hearing about the man who called himself Rockefeller and his actions concerning the kidnapping his own daughter. I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard that the little girl had been found unharmed (well, at least physically; I imagine her father’s behaviour would leave some sort of mark on her).

The story written by Mark Seal is fascinating. He takes the reader back to the beginning of Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter’s life and the spark that may have been the start of his lifelong addiction to being someone who he is not. This imposter played various roles so well he fooled literally everyone around him. He told so many lies, it’s amazing how he was not caught sooner. Though when the people around him did start to suspect the truth, he would simply disappear from their lives and reappear elsewhere sporting another fake persona.

Mark Seal did his homework. One remark here or a document there led him across the United States and even to Christian’s hometown in Germany where Mr. Seal spoke to locals who remembered the imposter and knew his family. The author followed every lead that came his way (and I suspect much more was edited out for publication). I can’t say enough how amazing it is that Christian Gerhartsreiter was able to fool almost everyone - including his wife, the upper-crust denizens of New York City and Boston to name just a few. He was, as various people interviewed for this book said, very good at what he did. This is identity theft at its worst.

The sense and feeling of the imposter came through in the telling of this story. And though in the end the imposter is brought to justice, I have a feeling the world has not heard the last of Christian Gerhartsreither.

Tuesday Teaser: Alice Bliss

2011-06-21T06:00:00.001-04:00

There are still Transformers on the shelves and the complete set of Harry Potter. She knows if she opened the drawer to her left, Henry's collection of arrowheads would be there, perfectly labeled, right next to the tackle box with all his stuff for tying flies.

Mailbox Monday June 20, 2011

2011-06-20T06:00:00.000-04:00

In June Mailbox Monday is being hosted by The Bluestocking Guide.

Last week I received The Devil All The Time by Donald Ray Pollock. From the back cover:

Set in rural southern Ohio and West Virginia, The Devil All the Time follows a cast of compelling and bizarre characters from the end of World War II to the 1960s. Willard Russell is a tormented veteran of the carnage in the South Pacific who can't save his beautiful wife, Charlotte, from an agonizing death by cancer no matter how much sacrificial blodd he pours on his "prayer log." Carl and Sandy Henderson, a husband-and-wife team of serial killers, troll America's highways searching for suitable models to photograph and exterminate. The spider-handling preacher, Roy and his crippled virtuoso-guitar-playing sidekick, Theodore, are running from the law. And caught in the middle of all this is Arvin Eugene Russell, Willard and Charlotte's orphaned son, who grows up to be a good but also violent man in his own right.

Tuesday Teaser: The Map of Time by Félix J. Palma

2011-06-07T06:00:00.000-04:00

"Joseph is happy here," declared Treves, in a suddenly thoughtful voice. "The examinations we carry out on him from time to time are fruitless, but that does not seem to worry him.

Mailbox Monday June 6, 2011

2011-06-06T06:00:00.002-04:00

In June Mailbox Monday is being hosted by The Bluestocking Guide.

Instead of books received in my mailbox, I thought I would highlight some notable books I picked up at BEA.

The first book is When Tito Love Clara by Jon Michaud and published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. About the book (taken from the publisher's website):

Clara Lugo grew up in a home that would have rattled the most grounded of children. Through brains and determination, she has long since slipped the bonds of her confining Dominican neighborhood in the northern reaches of Manhattan. Now she tries to live a settled professional life with her American husband and son in the suburbs of New Jersey—often thwarted by her constellation of relatives who don’t understand her gringa ways.

Her mostly happy life is disrupted, however, when Tito, a former boyfriend from fifteen years earlier, reappears. Something has impeded his passage into adulthood. His mother calls him an Unfinished Man. He still carries a torch for Clara; and she harbors a secret from their past. Their reacquaintance sets in motion an unraveling of both of their lives and reveals what the cost of assimilation—or the absence of it—has meant for each of them.

This novel was published in March and is getting excellent reviews.

The second book I'm featuring is The Soldier's Wife by Margaret Leroy. It's published by Hyperion. From their website the description of this novel reads:

A novel full of grand passion and intensity, The Soldier’s Wife asks “What would you do for your family?” “What should you do for a stranger?” and “What would you do for love?”

As World War II draws closer and closer to Guernsey, Vivienne de la Mare knows that there will be sacrifices to be made. Not just for herself, but for her two young daughters and for her mother-in-law, for whom she cares while her husband is away fighting. What she does not expect is that she will fall in love with one of the enigmatic German soldiers who take up residence in the house next door to her home. As their relationship intensifies, so do the pressures on Vivienne. Food and resources grow scant, and the restrictions placed upon the residents of the island grow with each passing week. Though Vivienne knows the perils of her love affair with Gunther, she believes that she can keep their relationship—and her family—safe. But when she becomes aware of the full brutality of the Occupation, she must decide if she is willing to risk her personal happiness for the life of a stranger.

This one has an interesting Q & A with the author at the back (I don't know why but I often read these before the book to get a feel for the background story).

That's it! I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone got in their mailboxes last week.

BEA 2011 and NYC

2011-05-30T07:34:00.001-04:00

Once again I was very pleased to be able to attend Book Expo America in New York City. I arrived in New York on Saturday evening with plans to go to the Javits Convention Center on Tuesday morning. There were a few hiccups with my accommodations but once that was sorted out everything with my trip went smoothly.

Tuesday morning came and I caught the shuttle bus going to the Javits from my hotel. That shuttle is so convenient - one of many that services convention attendees. The bus let us off at another entrance to the building than the one I'm normally used to going into. I'm not sure if that's because the building is undergoing renovations or because it's just less congestive. In either case, I found the registration line for check-in easily. There were maybe five people in line ahead of me but the process was so quick - less than a minute a person - that I received my badge in no time. I made my way into the main exhibition hall and picked up a tote. It was about 9:30 by that time and the hall was already quite crowded.

I spent the following hours visiting booth after booth, chatting with publicists, authors and other bloggers. I don't know if it was just me, but I found the hall a bit smaller than in previous years. When I realized that it was split into two sections due to the renovations I lost perspective of how big it really was. No matter, I found what I thought were the missing publishers when I discovered the hallway leading to the other part of the center.

I ended up bringing home about 30 books in all. I took only books that I thought I or my fellow Montreal blogger friends would like. Of course, given that there are six of us, that would add to more than thirty books but I only attend the conference for one day and so didn't pick up any of the available books on Wednesday or Thursday.

And that brings me to the only negative part of my trip. Last year Avis of She Reads and Reads, Cindy of Cindy's Love of Books, Linda of Better with Books and Tina from Bookshipper (Amanda from Tales and Treats is relatively new to our group and did not attend BEA with the rest of us last year) all traveled to New York along with my husband and I. We had a fabulous time and I missed having them there this year. Fortunately we're already talking about BEA 2012!

NYC May 23, 2011

2011-05-23T09:15:00.004-04:00

I arrived in New York an hour late on Saturday night (train delay) and aside from the cold, cloudy weather (it's supposed to warm up tomorrow) we're having a blast! The picture is the view from our hotel window. Times Square is hopping as usual!

We've had a few adventures already (change of hotels after one night in the one we had reservations at didn't work out) and are absorbing with great gusto all of the atmosphere!

I will be heading to the Javitt's Center tomorrow morning for BEA and will try not to forget my camera!

Mailbox Monday May 23, 2011

2011-05-23T06:00:00.000-04:00

In April, Mailbox Monday is being hosted by Mari of Marireads.

Last week I received two books in the mail. The first is Erik Larsen's latest, In the Garden of Beasts.

The second book is The Man in the Rockefeller Suit by Mark Seal.

Review: Fool's Republic by Gordon W. Dale

2011-05-19T06:00:00.000-04:00

The back cover of Fool’s Republic has the novel's genre described as Fiction/Political Thriller/Mystery. I agree with those categories but I think one was left something out: intellectual thriller. A good part of the narrative of Fool's Republic is taken up with hints and clues about the crime the protagonist has supposedly committed but he does not admit to. The author dances around the charges against Simon Wyley so that the reader is never sure what transgression he is guilty of - only that is must be very bad. The protagonist’s wry sense of humor in the face of dire physical and mental conditions gave me a sense of relief. I liked Simon very much and rooted for him to survive. The story of Simon’s situation are told through a series of flashbacks giving details about his life and the circumstances which lead him into trouble.

When I saw the front cover of this book I was a bit leery. It’s mostly white with a barbed wire fence depicted on the lower half. For some reason, this cover reminds me of self-published books but I can’t say exactly why. I was pleasantly surprised when I started reading it however. It’s well-written and suspenseful which, for a thriller fan, is key. But I’d go farther than that – I’d say this is a sophisticated thriller – not the run-of-the-mill, read something like it a hundred times before story. This was different in that it was about an average guy in extraordinary circumstances.

I went to Gordon W. Dale’s website and started reading his current work-in-progess, What We Remember, and though quite different from Fool’s Republic, I found it to have the same high quality writing and the story had me engrossed right from the start.

I am very pleased to have discovered this new-to-me author. For anyone who enjoys thrillers and just plain good writing, I highly recommend Fool’s Republic.

BEA and New York!

2011-05-14T11:09:00.007-04:00

For the third consecutive year I will be heading to New York to attend Book Expo America and be a tourist in New York City. The first year it was just my husband and I but last year we went with four other Canadian bloggers - Avis from She Reads and Reads, Cindy from Cindy's Love of Books, Linda from Better with Books and Tina from Bookshipper. We took the twelver-hour train ride there and back together and I have very fond memories of those hours!

BEA was and is a huge treat! It's a chance to meet other like-minded individuals and confirm a strong connection in a very real way with the book industry. I have not had the opportunity to attend the Book Blogger Convention held during the same time period, but I'm told that it's also a great opportunity to meet other bloggers and receive all the dos and don'ts of blogging.

And then there's New York of course. I'm planning on seeing two Broadway shows, visiting museums, The Strand and Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, Central Park...well, the list goes on and on!

I'll miss being with my Montreal blogger friends this year, but hopefully they'll (or some of them) be attending BEA in 2012. And to anyone else who is going, I'm looking forward to meeting you all!

Tuesday Teaser: The Chef's Apprentice by Elle Newmark

2011-05-10T06:00:00.000-04:00

"Do you think it's smart to go there? I'd think the police would have tracked you to your hotel by now."

Mailbox Monday May 9, 2011

2011-05-08T14:06:00.006-04:00

In April, Mailbox Monday is being hosted by Mari of Marireads.

I received two books last week. The first is Alice Bliss by Laura Harrington. From the author's website, a description of Alice Bliss reads:

Alice Bliss is a profoundly moving coming-of-age novel about love and its many variations: the support of a small town looking after its own; love between an absent father and his daughter; complicated love between an adolescent girl and her mother; and an exploration of new love with the boy-next-door. These characters’ struggles amidst uncertain times echo our own, lending the novel an immediacy and poignancy that is both relevant and real. At once universal and very personal, Alice Bliss is a transforming story about those who are left at home during wartime, and a teenage girl bravely facing the future.

The second book I received is American Heiress (called My Last Duchess in the UK) by Daisy Goodwin. The description of this novel reads:

Be careful what you wish for. Traveling abroad with her mother at the turn of the twentieth century to seek a titled husband, beautiful, vivacious Cora Cash, whose family mansion in Newport dwarfs the Vanderbilts’, suddenly finds herself Duchess of Wareham, married to Ivo, the most eligible bachelor in England. Nothing is quite as it seems, however: Ivo is withdrawn and secretive, and the English social scene is full of traps and betrayals. Money, Cora soon learns, cannot buy everything, as she must decide what is truly worth the price in her life and her marriage.

Review: The Guilty Plea and Q & A with author Robert Rotenberg

2011-04-27T06:00:00.000-04:00

One definition of a good book for me is a likeable protagonist. The antagonist can be as bad (or not) as the author can imagine him or her to be but the main character should be someone I believe I could have a rapport with in real life. Then I will enjoy the story without being distracted by a protagonist with all the attraction of a (choose your own word here (I was thinking slug)). In The Guilty Plea, authorRobert Rotenberg has a winner with Ari Greene. I liked him for all sorts of reasons – he’s smart, works hard, is responsible (looks after his Dad) – but what I found most appealing is his failure to be intimidated. And, obviously, being a homicide detective puts him in contact with all sorts of intimidating people of the criminal variety. I also enjoyed the rapport Ari Greene shares with other characters – it has the ring of truth to it and there is a smoothness to the dialogue. I especially liked the straightforward relationship between Ari and his ‘sidekick’ Daniel Kennicott.

Another important definition of a good book is plot and again Mr. Rotenberg hits the right notes. The story line took me from one to clue to the next until the end where I still hadn’t guessed the culprit (I kept wondering is the main suspect really innocent after all?). The plot was intricate and with a few red herrings thrown in, it kept me speculating until the surprise finale.

I haven’t yet read the first book in this series, Old City Hall, but it’s now on my shopping list for my next bookstore visit. Please read on for a Q & A with Robert Rotenberg.

Q & A with author Robert Rotenberg

Q: Do you have a favourite character in your books and are any based on real people?

Absolutely I have a favourite character. It’s always the same. Whichever character I am writing about is always my favourite.

Best way to answer the second part of your question is to tell a funny story. After Old City Hall came out, a judge stopped me in the hall one day and said: “Robert, that lawyer in the book, Nancy Parish, I know exactly who you based her on.” “Oh,” I said, smiling a bit to myself I must admit, “Who?” He then named a female lawyer. “Funny you should say that,” I told the judge. “You know, I’ve never heard of that woman in my life.” We both laughed. Here’s the kicker – it was true. I had no idea who she was.

Q: Given that you’re an attorney, did you still have to do research on any of the methods used by the professionals who investigated the crime in The Guilty Plea?

Most of my research is listening to people. Going to the places I write about. Hanging out. But for the technical legal and investigative stuff I am fanatical for detail and accuracy. For Old City Hall, I spent days and days at the police FIS bureau learning everything about fingerprints. Same for medical stuff. I consult with a whole team of doctors. And one of my best friends is a former homicide cop, turned private investigator (let me know if you have a problem) and we spend countless hours going over the police procedure stuff, as if we were preparing for a trial.

Q: How long did it take you to write The Guilty Plea?

Well the better answer maybe is this: It took ten years to write Book X. My first book that is living happily in a drawer. Old City Hall took seven years. The Guilty Plea took two years (a year longer than it was supposed to take). Fortunately, Simon & Schuster wants lots more books from me. But they want one a year. So Book Three is due July 1, 2011. Book Four July 1, 2012. Want to help?

Q: I was particularly curious about the character, Daniel Kennicott. Will his particular situation (i.e., the unsolved murder of his brother and questions surrounding his parents) be explored more fully in a future book?

The great thing about my fictional friends is that I know more about them than their friends and family do, and even better, I know things about them they don’t know themselves.

The short answer is yes. The long answer is it is going to take a lot of books, and a lot of unexpected turns for him, and I hope my readers, to get there.

(Secret – don’t tell anyone. I actually know how the whole series will end in the year 20……)

Q: Who are your favourite authors?

Too long a list of course. So easiest is to mention who I’ve been reading lately. Just finished the new John LeCarre. Amazing. Have fallen in love with Tim Winton. And read through all of Andrea Camilleri’s wonderful Sicilian mysteries. Can’t wait to read David Bezmogis’ new book. And then there’s my brother David Rotenberg. Hey, he’s my BIG brother.

Thanks to Simon and Schuster and author Robert Rotenberg for a great book! To learn more about this author and his legal thrillers, click here. For a fun and interesting look at some of the areas visited in the book, check out foursquare.

Tuesday Teaser: The Tiger Claw by Shauna Singh Baldwin

2011-04-26T07:21:00.002-04:00

Noor snatched up pen and paper and began to record the letters she was reading from the flashing lights. Who was the sender?

Tuesday Teaser: Mothers and Daughters by Rae Meadows

2011-04-19T08:40:00.003-04:00

Iris decided that her birthday would be a good day to die. That gave her three more weeks.

Mailbox Monday April 18, 2011

2011-04-18T06:00:00.000-04:00

In April, Mailbox Monday is being hosted by Amy of Passages to the Past.

I received Fool's Republic by Gordon W. Dale last week. I opened the book yesterday just to read the first page (I've currently got three books on the go so this one was going to wait until I've finished at least one other) but before I knew it I was on page 60 and had trouble putting it down! The description of this book from Gordon W. Dale's website:

As Fool’s Republic opens, Simon Wyley floats in a tiny all-white cell. A short-order cook with a genius-level IQ, Wyley has had a steady job for twenty years, paid his taxes, kept to himself. A dedicated husband and father, he’s a model citizen.

So why is he being held?

Wyley is accused of committing crimes against the state—the charges are always implied, never specified—and is being held without formal charge, benefit of counsel, or due process of law. He confuses and confounds his interrogators using the only weapons at his disposal, irony and whimsy, to challenge their arrogance and false assumptions.

As Wyley’s journey proceeds, we develop a deeper understanding of the man behind the wisecracks and of the society that has inexplicably imprisoned him. Exhibiting a crackling narrative energy and vivid prose, Fool’s Republic is about freedom—freedom of action, freedom of thought and, ultimately, the freedom to be human. It is the story of a man’s struggle to come to terms with himself and the culture in which he lives.

Tuesday Teaser:

2011-04-12T06:00:00.000-04:00

"...And if I may beg another favour, keep your distance from the servants," she said, as she settled back at her desk. "They won't respect you if you treat them as equals. I don't know why you persist in that."

Mailbox Monday, April 11, 2011

2011-04-11T06:00:00.000-04:00

In April, Mailbox Monday is being hosted by Amy of Passages to the Past.

Last week I received two books. The first is The Taker by Alma Katsu. From the author's website the description reads:

Dr. Luke Findley is on the midnight shift in the emergency room when the police bring in a young woman. Few strangers come to this remote town in northernmost Maine in the winter, and this stranger is accused of a bizarre crime: killing a man and leaving his body in the Great North Woods. The young woman, Lanny, tells the doctor that she and the man in the woods lived in this town at its founding two hundred years ago, until fate sentenced them to an eternity of unhappiness until they atone for their sins.

The man in the woods is Jonathan, son of the town's founder, and the love of Lanny's life. After Lanny commits a terrible sin in the hope of claiming Jonathan for her own, she's banished from town and sent to Boston to serve her penance. In Boston, she falls in with a beguiling yet frightening man, Adair, who has otherworldly powers, including the ability to confer immortality. His world is one of unknown sensual pleasures and seemingly limitless power, but at what price?

Adair wants to add Jonathan to the collection of treacherous courtiers who do his bidding (but for unknown ends) and sends Lanny back to Maine to collect him. It seems like the answer to Lanny's deepest desire—to be with Jonathan forever—but once Jonathan has joined Adair's pack of immortals, she sees that Adair is not what he seems and his intentions toward Jonathan are far worse than she imagined. And now it is up to her to save her beloved—and herself—from a terrible fate designed to last for all eternity.

If you like a creepy story, then this one sounds like it will fit the bill!

The second book is one that I profiled last Wednesday and received in the mail on Thursday - The Civilized World by Susi Wyss. The synopsis reads:

When Adjoa leaves Ghana to find work in the Ivory Coast, she hopes that one day she'll return home to open a beauty parlor. Her dream comes true, though not before she suffers a devastating loss—one that will haunt her for years, and one that also deeply affects Janice, an American aid worker who no longer feels she has a place to call home. But the bustling Precious Brother Salon is not just the "cleanest, friendliest, and most welcoming in the city." It's also where locals catch up on their gossip; where Comfort, an imperious busybody, can complain about her American daughter-in-law, Linda; and where Adjoa can get a fresh start on life—or so she thinks, until Janice moves to Ghana and unexpectedly stumbles upon the salon.

The first chapter of this novel is beautifully written and has already pulled me into the story. What's in your mailbox?

Waiting on Wednesday: The Civilized World by Susi Wyss

2011-04-06T06:00:00.001-04:00

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

I'm really looking forward to reading The Civilized World by Susi Wyss. This novel looks fantastic! The book's description reads:

When Adjoa leaves Ghana to find work in the Ivory Coast, she hopes that one day she'll return home to open a beauty parlor. Her dream comes true, though not before she suffers a devastating loss—one that will haunt her for years, and one that also deeply affects Janice, an American aid worker who no longer feels she has a place to call home. But the bustling Precious Brother Salon is not just the "cleanest, friendliest, and most welcoming in the city." It's also where locals catch up on their gossip; where Comfort, an imperious busybody, can complain about her American daughter-in-law, Linda; and where Adjoa can get a fresh start on life—or so she thinks, until Janice moves to Ghana and unexpectedly stumbles upon the salon.

At once deeply moving and utterly charming, The Civilized World follows five women as they face meddling mothers-in-law, unfaithful partners, and the lingering aftereffects of racism, only to learn that their cultural differences are outweighed by their common bond as women. With vibrant prose, Susi Wyss explores what it means to need forgiveness—and what it means to forgive.

Author bio:

Susi Wyss's fiction is influenced by her twenty-year career managing women's health programs in Africa, where she lived for more than eight years. She holds a B.A. from Vassar, an M.P.H. from Boston University, and an M.A. in fiction writing from Johns Hopkins University. The Civilized World is her first book. She lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Tuesday Teaser:

2011-04-05T06:00:00.000-04:00

I chewed on the cloth and kept the liquid it yielded in a cheek pocket, like a country-boy pitcher on the mound. Faintly herbal, a little like turkey stuffing, not unpleasant.

Mailbox Monday April 4, 2011

2011-04-04T06:00:00.000-04:00

In April, Mailbox Monday is being hosted by Amy of Passages to the Past.

Last week I received Mothers and Daughters by Rae Meadows. The back cover of the book reads:

When a box of Iris's belongings arrives on Sam's doorstep, she discovers things about her mother she never knew - or could even guess. But she is puzzled by much of what she finds. She learns that Violet, the woman she knows as her grandmother, left New York City as an eleven-year-old girl and found a better life in the Midwest. But what was the real reason behind Violet's journey? And how could she have come that far on her own at such a tender age?

Mothers and Daughters is a luminous novel about three generations of women, the love they share, the dreams they refuse to surrender, and the secrets they hold.

I've already read the first few pages and it has me very interested! Happy spring reading everyone!

Waiting on Wednesday: Alice Bliss by Laura Harrington

2011-03-30T06:00:00.001-04:00

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Most of us know someone who has been affected by war in some way. I sure do. The premise of this soon-to-be published novel is something I can relate to. From Laura Harrington's website, the book's description reads:

When Alice learns that her father is being deployed to Iraq, she’s heartbroken. Matt Bliss is leaving just as his daughter blossoms into a full-blown teenager. She will learn to drive, shop for a dress for her first dance, and fall in love all while trying to be strong for her mother and take care of her younger sister. Alice wears her dad’s shirt every day, even though the scent of him is fading and his phone calls are never long enough. Life continues without him, but nothing can prepare Alice for the day two uniformed officers arrive at their door with news.

Alice Bliss is a gorgeous, transforming novel about the support of a small town looking after its own in times of loss; the love between an absent father and his daughter; the complicated love between Alice and her mother, Angie; and first love between Alice and the boy next door. It’s a universal story and yet it touches on something very personal: these characters’ struggles amid uncertain times echo our own, lending Alice Bliss an immediacy and poignancy that are both relevant and real.

Alice Bliss will be published by Pamela Dorman Books/Viking on June 6th. I'm looking forward to it!

Tuesday Teaser: Beyond Black by Hilary Montel

2011-03-29T06:00:00.001-04:00

Meanwhile, Colette moved scornfully on her trajectory, helpfully clearing an ashtray or righting an upturned Hobbit; anything to allow herself to lean in close and listen. She eavesdropped on Cara, Cara with her cropped head, her pointy ears, her butterfly tattoo: your aura's like your bar code, think of it that way.

Mailbox Monday March 28, 2011

2011-03-28T06:00:00.000-04:00

In March, Mailbox Monday is being hosted by I'm Booking It.

Last week I received A Trail Of Ink by Mel Starr. The book's description from LibraryThing reads:

Some valuable books have been stolen from Master John Wyclif, the well known scholar and Bible translator. He calls upon his friend and former pupil, Hugh de Singleton, to investigate. Hugh's investigation leads him to Oxford where he again encounters Kate, the only woman who has tempted him to leave bachelor life behind, but Kate has another serious suitor. As Hugh's pursuit of Kate becomes more successful, mysterious accidents begin to occur. Are these accidents tied to the missing books, or to his pursuit of Kate?

One of the stolen books turns up alongside the drowned body of a poor Oxford scholar. Another accident? Hugh certainly doesn’t think so, but it will take all of his surgeon’s skills to prove.

So begins another delightful and intriguing tale from the life of Hugh de Singleton, surgeon in the medieval village of Bampton. Masterfully researched by medieval scholar Mel Starr, the setting of the novel can be visited and recognized in modern-day England. Enjoy more of Hugh’s dry wit, romantic interests, evolving faith, and dogged determination as he pursues his third case as bailiff of Bampton.

So far the reviews for this book have been excellent. It's exactly the kind of book I'm attracted to so I'm excited about reading it.

Tuesday Teaser

2011-03-22T08:29:00.003-04:00

She hated the Asswiper Support Group, but her mother dropped her off at the Methodist Church downtown at one o'clock every Saturday afternoon. The Asswipers met in a dank basement that had one of those floors covered with tan linoleum squares that had been there since the dawn of time, or since the 1950s, and there were black scuff marks all over the floor that Ava stared at while the other people were talking - the guys were talking, because it was only her and a bunch of losers.

Mailbox Monday March 21, 2011

2011-03-21T06:00:00.001-04:00

In March, Mailbox Monday is being hosted by I'm Booking It.

Last week I received and I shall have some peace there by Margaret Roach. The book's description reads:

Margaret Roach worked at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia for 15 years, serving as Editorial Director for the last 6. She first made her name in gardening, writing a classic gardening book among other things. She now has a hugely popular gardening blog, "A Way to Garden." But despite the financial and professional rewards of her job, Margaret felt unfulfilled. So she moved to her weekend house upstate in an effort to lead a more authentic life by connecting with her garden and with nature. The memoir she wrote about this journey is funny, quirky, humble--and uplifting--an Eat, Pray, Love without the travel-and allows readers to live out the fantasy of quitting the rat race and getting away from it all.

Review: One of Our Thursdays Is Missing by Jasper Fforde

2011-03-17T06:00:00.000-04:00

Normally I like to read a series in order. When it happens that I don’t, (i.e., the Richard Jury series by Martha Grimes), I’m often pleasantly surprised at reading the next (or the first) book in the series and having ‘aha!’ moments of figuring out why things happened the way they did in the book I did read.

I’d heard about the Thursday Next series for awhile before I bought the first in the series and added it to my TBR pile. The concept of the books appealed to me – characters in the books come alive and deal with ‘BookWorld’ issues. So when I was offered an opportunity to review the sixth book, One of Our Thursdays is Missing, I thought it was the chance to get down to reading them. It turns out my first foray into Jasper Fforde’s BookWorld was a fascinating journey that I’m so pleased I took.

Thursday Next (the written Thursday) is a wonderfully unassuming character. With just the right amount of self-deprecation, she leads the reader (in more ways than one and no pun intended) through the search for the missing Thursday referred to in the title. How she deals with other characters and situations is some of the most entertaining reading I’ve done in awhile. This book has loads of humour, double-entendres, numerous plays on words, and very cleverly written passages. From page 130:

I’m Captain Phantastic, by the way, but you can call me ‘the Captain.’ You and I haven’t met, but the real Thursday and I go back a ways - even partnered together during the whole sorry issue surrounding The Cat I the Hat III-Revenge of the Things. Did you hear about it?”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t.”
“No matter.” And he sniffed at me delicately for a moment with his trunk.
“Do you have a chicken living in your house?”
“A dodo.”
“Would that be Lorina?”
“We call her Pickwick these days, but yes.”
“Tell her Captain Phantastic is still waiting for that date she promised.”
I wasn’t aware that Pickwick dated elephants - or anyone, come to that.
“Did she promise you recently?”
“Eighty-six years, three months, and two days ago. Would you like me to relate the conversation? I can do it word for word.”

There are many passages like this - some amusing and witty, always very unexpected and highly imaginative. This book is funny, whimsical and a pure joy to read. I highly recommend it.

Waiting on Wednesday

2011-03-16T06:00:00.001-04:00

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

A new Miriam Toews book will be coming out on April 5th. It's called Irma Voth and the description from Random House reads:

Irma Voth entangles love, longing and dark family secrets. The stifling, reclusive Mennonite life of nineteen-year-old Irma Voth - newly married and newly deserted and as unforgettable a character as Nomi Nickel in A Complicated Kindness - is irrevocably changed when a film crew moves in to make a movie about the community. She embraces the absurdity, creative passion and warmth of their world but her intractable and domineering father is determined to keep her from it at all costs. The confrontation between them sets her on an irrevocable path towards something that feels like freedom as she and her young sister, Aggie, wise beyond her teenage years, flee to the city, upheld only by their love for each other and their smart wit, even as they begin to understand the tragedy that has their family in its grip.

Tuesday Teaser

2011-03-15T06:00:00.000-04:00

I looked at th small card he had given me. It read, "Avoid eating oysters if there is no paycheck in the month," which is one of those generic pieces of wisdom that Mechanical Mystics often hand out, along with "Every chapter a new beginning" and "What has a clause at the end of the pause?"

Mailbox Monday, March 14, 2011

2011-03-14T06:00:00.000-04:00

In March, Mailbox Monday is being hosted by I'm Booking It.

I received A Map of Time by Félix J. Palma from Simon & Schuster last week. This book was originally published in Spanish and unfortunately I can't find a cover image in English. The cover of the ARC is gorgeous and I assume it will be the published North American cover. The blurb on the back of the book reads:

Set in Victorian London with characters real and imagined, The Map of Time is a page-turner that boast a triple play of intertwined plots in which a skeptical H. G. Wells is called upon to investigate purported incidents of time travel and to save lives and literary classics, including Dracula and The Time Machine, from being wiped from existence.

What happens if we change history? Félix J. Palma explores this question in The Map of Time, weaving a historical fantasy as imaginative as it is exciting - story full of love and adventure that transports readers to a haunting Victorian London for their own taste of time travel.

If anyone happens upon the English cover version, please point me in the right direction!

Tuesday Teaser: The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis

2011-03-08T06:55:00.003-05:00

I followed his extended index finger carefully, as I wouldn't know a spanner from a drill press. I handed him the wrench, and he contorted himself again into the inverted vertical position.

Mailbox Monday March 7, 2011

2011-03-07T06:00:00.002-05:00

In March, Mailbox Monday is being hosted by I'm Booking It.

I won two books from Laura at Library of Clean Reads! Old Photographs by Sherie Posesorski and The Way It Is by Donalda Reid. Both books are published by Second Story Press. Thanks, Laura!

Last week's Mailbox brought:

I received The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan. My daughter has been reading these books fast and furiously and her interest in them has been contagious so I ordered my own copies.

Waiting on Wednesday:

2011-03-02T06:00:00.004-05:00

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

I saw Alexander McCall Smith give a talk and sign copies of his latest book a couple of years ago. He was hilariously entertaining and I've been a huge fan ever since. His latest novel in the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party, will be coming out on March 22nd.

Tuesday Teaser:

2011-03-01T06:00:00.000-05:00

Tuesday Teasers is hosted by Should Be Reading. The rules are as follows:

Grab your current read and let the book fall open to a random page. Share two sentences from somewhere on that page and the title of the book that you’re getting the teaser from. Please avoid spoilers! Read the official Tuesday Teaser Rules.

I recently went to see Linden Macintyre read from his novel and have him sign my copy of The Bishop's Man. It was standing room only when a friend and I arrived at city hall. We were grateful when someone went to find more chairs and we ended up sitting right at the front of the room.

From page 142:

Sitting alone in my darkened living room, staring out over the black bay with my second large whiskey in my hand, I realized that, one day, I'd have to tell them everything. Probably for my own good.

Mailbox Monday February 28, 2011

2011-02-28T06:00:00.000-05:00

In February, Mailbox Monday is being hosted by Laura of Library of Clean Reads.

Last day of February!!! YAY! (Just felt the need to celebrate...)

I received The Guilty Plea by Robert Rotenberg last week from Simon & Schuster. I will be participating in the blog tour for this book which takes place in May when it will be published. The description of this book is taken from the blurb on the back cover:

On the morning that his headline-grabbing divorce trial is set to begin, Terrance Wyler, youngest son of the Wyler Food dynasty, is found stabbed to death in the kitchen of his million-dollar home. Detective Greene arrives minutes before the press and finds Wyler's four-year old son asleep upstairs. When Wyler's ex-wife, a strange beauty named Samantha, shows up at her lawyer's office with a bloody knife, it looks as if the case is over.

But Greene soon discovers the Wyler family has secrets they'd like to keep hidden, and they're not the only ones. If there's one thing Greene knows, it's that the truth is never that simple.

Waiting on Wednesday: Ghost Story by Jim Butcher

2011-02-15T22:15:00.003-05:00

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Being published in July 2011:

When we last left the mighty wizard detective Harry Dresden, he wasn’t doing well. In fact, he had been murdered by an unknown assassin.

But being dead doesn’t stop him when his friends are in danger. Except now he has no body, and no magic to help him. And there are also several dark spirits roaming the Chicago shadows who owe Harry some payback of their own.

To save his friends — and his own soul — Harry will have to pull off the ultimate trick without any magic…

Tuesday Teaser: One of Our Thursdays is Missing

2011-02-14T21:05:00.005-05:00

'Anyone from Classics had a clebrity status that outshone anything else, and I'd never had anyone even remotely famous pass through before. I suddenly felt a bit hot and bothered and tried to tidy up the house in a clumsy sort of way.'

Mailbox Monday February 14, 2011

2011-02-14T06:00:00.000-05:00

In February, Mailbox Monday is being hosted by Laura of Library of Clean Reads.

Last week I received The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady by Elizabeth Stuckey-French. The blurb on the front cover by Lee Smith says: "If you liked the film Little Miss Sunshine, you'll abslutely love this novel..." Well, I did enjoy that movie and this book looks just like my sort of entertainment. This novel has quite an amusing book trailer.

The description of this book is taken from Random House's website:

Seventy-seven-year-old Marylou Ahearn is going to kill Dr. Wilson Spriggs come hell or high water. In 1953, he gave her a radioactive cocktail without her consent as part of a secret government study that had horrible consequences.

Marylou has been plotting her revenge for fifty years. When she accidentally discovers his whereabouts in Florida, her plans finally snap into action. She high tails it to hot and humid Tallahassee, moves in down the block from where a now senile Spriggs lives with his daughter’s family, and begins the tricky work of insinuating herself into their lives. But she has no idea what a nest of yellow jackets she is stumbling into.

Before the novel is through, someone will be kidnapped, an unlikely couple will get engaged, someone will nearly die from eating a pineapple upside-down cake laced with anti-freeze, and that’s not all . . .

Told from the varied perspectives of an incredible cast of endearing oddball characters and written with the flair of a native Floridian, this dark comedy does not disappoint.

Review: Separate Beds by Elizabeth Buchan

2011-02-10T06:00:00.000-05:00

I like the cover of this book but it’s another one that threw me off the real content of Separate Beds. For some reason, I expected more humour in Separate Beds. That cover strikes me as a bit funny in a 'chick-lit' sort of way - but I don't think it was meant to be that at all. I'm not sure if that's my (wrongful) misinterpretation or more the fault of whoever chose the cover. In any case, what I read was a thoughtful and intense family drama. Despite not being the read I expected this was a great book.

This book was set in the UK and I think that reflects in the author’s non-sparing dialogue. The characters responses are short and to the point – the diaglogue treats the reader intelligently and does not overly describe the action. The characters are both good and faulted and it’s difficult to dislike them – even the absentee (and judgmental) daughter.

Elizabeth Buchan paints a very real picture of a family in crises dealing with true-to-life problems that have plagued many families, especially so in recent years. Unemployment, parenthood and marriage are some of the issues the Nicholsons face. How they deal with these problems as a family and individually present very interesting scenarios. There is good and the bad, maturity and childishness. I didn’t like the behaviour of some of the characters (and at times felt frustrated at their reactions to their problems and to each other) but nevertheless, I could understand them. And honestly, I couldn’t claim to behave any better given the same circumstances.

The plot was well done and whenever I put the book down I was anxious to get back to it. I rooted for this family and was pleased at their successes and disappointed at their failures. It’s a story everyone can relate to.

I recommend to all who enjoy a good family story intelligently done.

Mailbox Monday February 7, 2011

2011-02-07T07:07:00.001-05:00

In February, Mailbox Monday is being hosted by Laura of Library of Clean Reads.

The description of Jasper Fforde's latest installment of his Thursday Next series, One of our Thursdays is Missing, is from Penguin's website:

Jasper Fforde's exuberant return to the fantastical BookWorld opens during a time of great unrest. All-out Genre war is rumbling, and the BookWorld desperately needs a heroine like Thursday Next. But with the real Thursday apparently retired to the Realworld, the Council of Genres turns to the written Thursday.

The Council wants her to pretend to be the real Thursday and travel as a peacekeeping emissary to the warring factions. A trip up the mighty Metaphoric River beckons-a trip that will reveal a fiendish plot that threatens the very fabric of the BookWorld itself.

Once again New York Times bestselling author Jasper Fforde has a field day gleefully blending satire, romance, and thriller with literary allusions galore in a fantastic adventure through the landscape of a frisky and fertile imagination. Fans will rejoice that their favorite character in the Fforde universe is back.

Review: 13 , rue Thérèse by Elena Mauli Shapiro

2011-02-03T06:00:00.001-05:00

I almost always start my book reviews as soon as I’ve finished reading, while the story and characters are fresh in my mind. I’m having a bit of trouble with
13, rue Thérèse though because I’m unsure if I’ve caught everything there was to catch. I think I need to re-read from the perspective of having finished the book and discovered what the puzzle was. Because it was a puzzle. Part of a small blurb on the front cover says:

‘A puzzle novel that gave me the same fizzy satisfaction as completing a Sunday crossword.” – David Ebershoff

I agree with that sentiment except for the completing a Sunday crossword part. I’ve never been good at the Sunday puzzles!

This was a unique novel in many ways. The story, with its different perspectives; the narrator was one, the American professor another and a third person viewpoint that doesn’t seem to be from either of the former ones. The concept of a box full of mementos from the First World War and the history behind them is explored and beautifully imagined. I liked that the mementos formed so much a part of the story that they were illustrated throughout. It made the reading experience that much more different and interesting. The photographs were also a nice added touch. Who were those people, really?

When I came to the end of the book I was stymied by what I knew I was reading and what I thought the ending was supposed to be. And this is where I was surprised so that I feel I need to read this novel again from the perspective of what I know now and pick up on the tiny clues dropped here and there about what is really going on. I’ve already gone back to re-read some passages (if you’ve already read this book, you’ll probably know which ones I’m talking about).

The writing is consistent with the rest of the book’s structure. Here and there the sentences are off-set and have a poetic flair – another high point for me. At some points the writing is quite sensuous; Elena Mauli Shapiro definitely has a flair for descriptive narrative.

I would recommend this book to readers who like something a bit different from your everyday novel. It’ll keep you wondering and puzzling until the last page.

This is a Reagan Arthur Book and therefore meets my Reagan Arthur Book challenge requirement. This is my kind of challenge since there's no pressure and the books are ones I enjoy.

Waiting on Wednesday: The Peach Keeper

2011-02-02T06:00:00.001-05:00

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen will be published on March 22nd. The blurb from Random House's website reads:

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

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

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

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

Tuesday Teasers

2011-02-01T06:00:00.000-05:00

Tuesday Teasers is hosted by Should Be Reading. The rules are as follows:

Grab your current read and let the book fall open to a random page. Share two sentences somewhere on that page and the title of the book that you’re getting the teaser from. Please avoid spoilers! Read the official Tuesday Teaser Rules.

My teaser is from Separate Beds by Elizabeth Buchan. From page 84:

'Then, with a slightly sick feeling, she realized he had struck some crazy deal with reason. If he couldn't hold his job, at least he could do this, was probably what he was telling himself, and she was so fearful she could barely speak.'

Books of Note: Twin by Allen Shawn

2011-01-28T06:00:00.000-05:00

Twin, the recently released memoir about Allen Shawn's struggle with his sister's autism has caught my eye. In today's world, public consciousness of the various forms of mental illness has awakened and society is not usually so quick to institutionalize people with these illnesses as it once was. Published by Penguin, the following description is from their site:

A heartbreaking yet deeply hopeful memoir about life as a twin in the face of autism.

When Allen Shawn and his twin sister, Mary, were two, Mary began exhibiting signs of what would be diagnosed many years later as autism. Understanding Mary and making her life a happy one appeared to be impossible for the Shawns. At the age of eight, with almost no warning, her parents sent Mary to a residential treatment center. She never lived at home again.

Fifty years later, as he probed the sources of his anxieties in Wish I Could Be There, Shawn realized that his fate was inextricably linked to his sister's, and that their natures were far from being different.

Twin highlights the difficulties American families coping with autism faced in the 1950s. Shawn also examines the secrets and family dramas as his father, William, became editor of The New Yorker. Twin reconstructs a parallel narrative for the two siblings, who experienced such divergent fates yet shared talents and proclivities. Wrenching, honest, understated, and poetic, Twin is at heart about the mystery of being inextricably bonded to someone who can never be truly understood.

Review: Bird Cloud by Annie Proulx

2011-01-27T06:00:00.000-05:00

On the inside of this book, the title is accompanied by the words ‘a memoir’. Unless I’m completely wrong about the meaning of the word ‘memoir’ I think that that is somewhat of a misnomer.

Bird Cloud is a collection of essays loosely connected by themes of home. Annie Proulx gives a recounting of her own place on earth via her genealogy. That section was just skimmed over with not much detail. She relayed what information she had, but that was given to her by someone she hired to track it down. She didn’t do her own research. If she had and then described that discovery process in an essay I would have found it more absorbing – as it was I thought that particular essay only mildly interesting. Another essay recounts the many birds that populate her area of Bird Cloud and how she came to know them. She mentions that she isn’t a ‘list-maker’ and does not make note of every bird that crosses her path. And that’s fine – but (and perhaps I’m being too sensitive here) I disliked the sense that there’s something wrong with making a ‘I’ve seen this bird’ list.

This book is also about history and how Bird Cloud (the 640 acres where Annie Proulx built her house) itself came to be in the author’s hands. She writes about its early history and more recent events concerning overgrazing. I would have enjoyed seeing photos of the areas she described and this is where I think the book is missing most. There are small, hand-drawn pictures and diagrams at the beginning of the chapters but real photos of the area and perhaps the people she spent the most time talking about would have been an added bonus.

What I liked was the description of buying the land and building on it. The people she described, the weather, the impassable roads – all was well done. Having gone through a building process myself, I could easily relate to the big and small hiccups. Her foray with friends onto the land to look for historical remnants of previous inhabitants was also quite interesting. There’s nothing better than a fossil hunt!

What I most liked most of all about this book was the author’s writing. She has a way with words and knows how to put them together and that, above all else, is what kept me reading. This woman can write! While I don’t think this book is what I expected it to be I will read another Annie Proulx book (this was my first) simply for the joy of reading great prose.

Waiting on Wednesday: A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley

2011-01-26T06:00:00.000-05:00

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

I love these books and can't wait for A Red Herring Without Mustard to come out this February 8th. This delightful series written by Alan Bradley is described on Doubleday's website:

In the third installment of this bestselling, award-winning, sister-poisoning, bicycle-riding, murder-investigating, mad, merry, and utterly captivating series, Flavia de Luce must clear a woman''s name to prevent a grave injustice, while herself trying to avoid an early (and unjust) grave!

Flavia de Luce has enraptured critics, scooped up accolades, and enchanted readers the world over . . . all before her thirteenth birthday! In this wild, wonderful mystery - the third is this madcap series - Flavia comes to the rescue when a gypsy is charged with the abduction of a local child. Flavia must draw upon her encyclopedic knowledge of poisons - and gypsy lore - to prevent a grave miscarriage of justice, and to solve a greater - and far more personal - mystery: What really happened to her long-vanished mother?

Tuesday Teasers

2011-01-25T06:00:00.000-05:00

Tuesday Teasers is hosted by Should Be Reading. The rules are as follows:

Grab your current read and let the book fall open to a random page. Share two sentences somewhere on that page and the title of the book that you’re getting the teaser from. Please avoid spoilers! Read the official Tuesday Teaser Rules.

This week's teaser is from Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. From page 79:

There's a special slight of hand that's peculiar to policeman: the conjuring trick that palms and conceals banknotes with a skill that experienced shell-game swindlers envy. The big man collected the money with a two-handed handshake, smeared a palm across his chest as if brushing away crumbs after eating a sandwich, and then scratched at his nose with practiced innocence.

Mailbox Monday January 24, 2011

2011-01-24T06:00:00.000-05:00

In January, Mailbox Monday is being hosted by Rose City Reader.

I received Separate Beds by Elizabeth Buchan in the mail last week. From the author's website:

Tom and Annie have everything – children, home, rewarding jobs. Yet, beneath the surface all is not well which ensures that they are sleeping in separate beds. Then Tom drops his bombshell… A novel of second chances.

It looks to be a great book and this one is next on my TBR list.

Cindy from Cindy's Love of Books also gave me a YA novel - Trapped by Michael Northrop. I like the cover of this one. Makes me want to curl up with a blanket, a cup of tea and this book. Thanks, Cindy!

Tuesday Teasers

2011-01-18T06:00:00.000-05:00

'In the corridor, I almost collided with the young Englishman, Signor di Bedfordi, who struck me as being rather agitated; perhaps because, having transferred his effects to another chamber, he had not been present for the chirurgeon's diagnosis. This guest was dragging himself along slowly and seemed unusually afflicted.'

Mailbox Monday January 17, 2011

2011-01-17T06:00:00.001-05:00

In January, Mailbox Monday is being hosted by Rose City Reader.

Last week I received A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. I can't wait to start this one - it's been compared to The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, one of my very favourite novels.

I also received a book I bought from Book Depository. I saw The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie recommended somewhere (I think it was viaLibraryThing). This is the first book of a trilogy that just looked too good to pass by.

Last, but not least, I received five books from Cindy:

The Snow Globe by Sheila Roberts

Two Tickets to the Christmas Ball by Donita K. Paul

Finding Father Christmas and Engaging Father Christmas both by Robin Jones Gunn

and:

Simon's Cat by Simon Tofield

Thanks for all the books, Cindy!

Review: The Poison Tree by Erin Kelly

2011-01-13T06:00:00.000-05:00

I dislike having to say I enjoyed a book like The Poison Tree by Erin Kelly because the subject matter is a bit grim. But I did like it. It’s got loads of atmosphere, believable characters and a great writing style. Some of the imagery really stood out for me. On page 36:

‘When she turned around, I saw her costume actually was a wedding dress: the dirty train trailed perilously near to the flickering flames, and like a dutiful bridesmaid I gathered the grubby satin in my arms, out of fire’s way. Her vertebrae protruded like a string of pearls suspended between her shoulder blades.’

The main female character brought to mind a couple of people I encountered during my adolescence and, as I recall, was appalled by. The setting where the action takes place, an old and very large house in a state of vast neglect and disrepair, had a personality all its own.

I think the prologue threw me off a bit. I expected at some point that the author would go back to it and all would become clear but that didn’t happen until the end. Which was fine – I was just very curious what the prologue had to do with the rest of the story. The ending was somewhat abrupt but I didn’t see it coming. (I’m not that good at guessing endings though I do try anyway!)

I'm not sure if it was because I was reading an ARC, but I had a small bit of trouble with the jump between the past and the present. There didn't seem to be enough 'separation' - one paragraph might be in the present and the next in the past. Perhaps the finished book would have more of a split between the two.

I definitely recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys suspense and twisty-type endings.

Tuesday Teasers

2011-01-11T06:00:00.000-05:00

'Dippy Dora displayed the true dimensions of her monumental ignorance at breakfast when she announced with giant confidence that she was hitherto only eating white food. She claims that she has been reliably informed (Heat Magazine, I suspect) that should one limit oneself to only a singular colour of food, one will certainly lose weight.'

Mailbox Monday: January 10, 2011

2011-01-10T06:00:00.000-05:00

In January, Mailbox Monday is being hosted by Rose City Reader.

I received three books in the mail last week. The first is very nice hardcover memoir written by Annie Proulx called Bird Cloud. From Simon and Schuster's website, the description reads:

"Bird Cloud" is the name Annie Proulx gave to 640 acres of Wyoming wetlands and prairie and four-hundred-foot cliffs plunging down to the North Platte River. On the day she first visited, a cloud in the shape of a bird hung in the evening sky. Proulx also saw pelicans, bald eagles, golden eagles, great blue herons, ravens, scores of bluebirds, harriers, kestrels, elk, deer and a dozen antelope. She fell in love with the land, then owned by the Nature Conservancy, and she knew what she wanted to build on it—a house in harmony with her work, her appetites and her character, a library surrounded by bedrooms and a kitchen.

Proulx's first work of nonfiction in more than twenty years, Bird Cloud is the story of designing and constructing that house—with its solar panels, Japanese soak tub, concrete floor and elk horn handles on kitchen cabinets. It is also an enthralling natural history and archaeology of the region—inhabited for millennia by Ute, Arapaho and Shoshone Indians— and a family history, going back to nineteenth-century Mississippi riverboat captains and Canadian settlers.

Proulx, a writer with extraordinary powers of observation and compassion, here turns her lens on herself. We understand how she came to be living in a house surrounded by wilderness, with shelves for thousands of books and long worktables on which to heap manuscripts, research materials and maps, and how she came to be one of the great American writers of her time. Bird Cloud is magnificent.

The other two books I received were my LT Secret Santa gifts. I'm a die-hard Margaret Atwood fan so I was very pleased to receive The Robber Bride. The second book is What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn. This is one of those titles that I'm sure I've seen before but I don't know where. It looks very interesting though and I'm looking forward to reading both books.

I've found that doing the annual Secret Santas are loads of fun but also a bit stressful. On the one hand it was exciting to search for and then choose a couple of books for my Santee and on the other the wait to find out if s/he would like what I chose is a bit nerve-wracking. This year was exceptionally bad in that regard since the packages of books for LT's SantaThing were quite late and even now many people are still waiting for their books to arrive!

Regardless, thanks to my Santa for choosing books that I know I will enjoy!