Waiting on Wednesday: Alice Bliss by Laura Harrington

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

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.





My teaser this week is from Beyond Black by Hilary Montel. From page 173:

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

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

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.






From page 80:

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

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

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

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

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.





From page 132 of One of Our Thursdays is Missing by Jasper Fforde:

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

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

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.




My teaser this week is from the recent Canada Reads winner, The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis. From page 70:

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

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:

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:

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.