Picture Book Thursday!

Today, we have Halloween Part 2!
We were at story time on Tuesday morning this week and Goodnight Goon by Michael Rex was featured. This was a lot of fun! As you can guess, it is a take off of Goodnight Moon. It follows the same rhyming patterns as Goodnight Moon and the illustrations are so fun! Just like in the classic book, you can look through the pictures and find all the things the text is talking about. Just a really fun Halloween book, in my opinion. My five year old loved it!

Go Away, Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley is a year round favorite in our house by both my 3 and 5 year olds. With each page, you "build" the monster's face. The pages layer onto each other with cut-outs so each page you turn adds two eyes, or a nose, through all the different facial features. Once the face is created, you get to tell each piece to "Go Away" and eventually, "Go Away, Big Green Monster, and DON'T COME BACK!". My older daughter is in speech therapy and one of her sounds this past year was the initial "G" sound. This book was a fantastic book to do with her because the second half she would say "Go Away!" with me on every page. This is a good book for younger kids too. I would say ages 2 and up. The text is very simple and not much on each page. And it would be a good book to over different facial features with really young kids.

We received this book for Halloween from my mother-in-law a couple years ago and it was so well liked, the pages were ripped and taped together and ripped again. Obviously, our copy is a bit mangled. But its a very cute little book and a great one for toddlers and preschoolers. Fun illustrations of the kids in their costumes with rhyming text in short little spurts. A good one, especially if you're looking for a counting book.

AND if the books we've reviewed have left you wanting more, Barnes and Noble actually has a really great list of Halloween books on their site. You can check it out here.

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Spot's Halloween, by Eric Hill, is a Halloween book in the Spot tradition. Spot can't decide what to dress up as for Halloween. The typical illustrations show Spot wearing each possible costume, and at the end, he and his friends go trick-or-treating. Lilah loves Spot, and this is a cute book in our Halloween collection.

Corduroy's Trick or Treat is illustrated by Lisa McCue, an illustrator we love for beyond-adorable fuzzy animal pictures that are more true-to-life than than the usual board book animals. Corduroy and all his friends are sweet in their costumes at the Halloween party, and simple text describes the usual Halloween activities. If the text lacks the magic of the original Corduroy, the cute illustrations make it a sweet, fun addition to the Halloween library of a younger child.

Baby Snoopy's Pumpkin is adorable! Each page is a different shape, with the largest being Snoopy's head. Baby Snoopy and Baby Woodstock plant a seed, watch is sprout and get bigger, and finally produce a pumpkin. On the last page, they decorate it. This is as much about gardening as Halloween. Lilah likes the differently shaped pages, Baby Snoopy and Baby Woodstock, and the bright orange pumpkin, and it's a fun little book to read (and, if you happen to have a flight coming up, is very small and portable!).

'Tis The Season

I love this time of year! Halloween decorations, the nip in the air, the gorgeous fall colors. It's the perfect time for snuggling under the covers and reading something spooky. I've been reading Shirley Damsgaard mysteries again; once I discovered she had written five, I had to read them all. The sixth, The Witch's Grave, comes out in December (memo to Avon Books: why not October?).

My review of Witch Way To Murder, the first in the series.

My review of Charmed To Death, the second in the series.

The third in the series is The Trouble With Witches, in which a journalist friend asks for Ophelia's help investigating the disappearance of a girl involved with a possible cult in Minnesota that concerns itself with psychic abilities. Naturally, Abby and Darci help her out. They encounter a strange girl named Tink who is being raised by her aunt and uncle (Jason and Juliet), the leaders of the group. Abby and Ophelia can sense the presence of evil at a strange cabin in the woods: who is behind it? The strange Native American man who hates whites? Tink, who clearly has unrealized power? The strange man they've seen in the area? And did the missing girl leave under her own steam, as Juliet and Jason insist? There's a lot going on in this entry in the series, but it's balanced very well between the paranormal and the mystery. The scenes at the cabin are downright creepy. The character development continues to be consistent, yet interesting, as Ophelia learns more about her heritage and how to use her gifts.

The fourth in the series is Witch Hunt, in which a biker gang has descended on Summerset. Darci's cousin is accused of murdering one of the bikers, and she begs Ophelia to investigate. Though Ophelia has her hands full with her foster daughter, Tink, she reluctantly agrees. This entry took a little more work for me to get into, and I'm not sure exactly why. Biker gangs are not one of my favorite plot devices, so that may explain it. Darci's boyfriend really stretched credibility a bit--though Damsgaard takes pains to have Darci explain the attraction to Ophelia, I had trouble believing that such a strong, self-aware character would submit to her boyfriend's fashion preferences and behavior modification. I really wanted Ophelia to smack Darci and say "Snap out of it!" though I understand her point that it wouldn't have done any good. And, given what I've read about domestic abuse, Darci's slowly changing behavior and defense of her boyfriend's controlling nature are pretty accurate. That doesn't make it less frustrating, though. At any rate, though this wasn't my favorite in the series, it was still an enjoyable read. The added dimension of Ophelia's mothering really stretches her character in a delightful way, and her challenges in dealing with a teenager who is also a talented medium are well-handled.

The fifth in the series is The Witch Is Dead, in which a funeral director dies just after Tink senses something "icky" about him. When her dog pulls a skull out of the woods, Tink feels she's being punished for failing to prevent the funeral director's murder. Meanwhile, Abby's Aunt Dot (who sees fairies) has come to town, Darci has bullied Ophelia into speed-dating, and the hyper-organized Gert is taking Darci's place at the library while Darci goes back to school. Again, all these elements are balanced very well, and when Tink disappears in the midst of Ophelia's finalizing the adoption, the mystery is gripping.

Oveview of the series so far: Damsgaard is an excellent writer, and the paranormal elements are balanced perfectly with the traditional arc of a cozy mystery. One of the best parts about cozy mystery series is the reader's ability to watch the characters grow over time, but after several books, characters can become stale. That's not a problem here. Damsgaard brings tertiary characters in and out of the books to keep them fresh and to challenge the main/secondary characters, forcing them to grow in believable ways. Even better, she defies the cozy mystery convention that a single woman in a cozy series must be in want of a boyfriend. Although Ophelia dates/makes connections with men in the books, there's no annoying, dragged-out love triangle, and no romance that must be stalled in contrived ways to keep the heroine from being married with five kids by book 3. Even better, Abby, Ophelia's grandmother, has a romance in the books, a sensitive portrayal of an older couple that is neither chaste nor the butt of jokes. Darci, the bubbly blonde, defies dumb blonde jokes with her insight and perseverance, and she brings the more serious Ophelia out of herself in fun ways. The plotting of the mysteries is tight and the paranormal elements appropriately creepy. All five books in this series are fun, spooky, gripping reads with well-developed characters and intriguing plots. I highly recommend them to cozy mystery fans, even those who are unsure of a paranormal series.

Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer

I really didn't like the first collaboration between Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer, though I'd loved previous Crusie books. The mix of military/action and romance/mystery/humor was just not well-executed. When I read positive reviews of Agnes and the Hitman that began, "I didn't like Don't Look Down, but..." I knew I wanted to give the duo another try. And, really, they're a likable pairing. Check out their website. Click on "How it happened" and "How it works." Funny stuff (and actually, it explains a lot). But on to the book!

Columnist and cookbook writer Cranky Agnes has a history of whacking guys upside the head with frying pans. This is understandable, since she's been engaged to some real jerks. But the most recent whacking, of a lowlife out to steal her dog, ends in death when the whack-ee falls into a previously hidden basement, possibly the site of the murder of an old mob guy. Confused yet? This plot is a doozy, but it's masterfully controlled, unlike the convoluted mess of Don't Look Down. Agnes got her house in a deal with Brenda Fortunato, in exchange for planning Brenda's granddaughter's wedding, and it looks like Brenda may be trying to renege by sabotaging the wedding. Agnes's fiance is starting to look like he could use some frying-pan action. And her basement may be the site of an old mob boss's murder (and the hiding place for $5 million). So her hands are pretty full when Shane, attractive and sensitive hitman, shows up. There is still a ridiculous body count, intrusive military speak, and unbelievably cruel treatment of bad guys, courtesy of Mayer, but either he's getting better at this chick lit thing, or Crusie had the plot more under control this time, because it's a pretty fun read. Lisa Livia (Brenda's daughter) is a fantastic character, Shane is actually a nice guy, so you can see the attraction for Agnes, and Agnes herself is a lot of fun.

Fans of Jennifer Crusie can rejoice in this one, and I think Evanovich fans would get a kick out of it, too. The authors have outtakes right here, but they have spoilers, so read the book first.

My review of Don't Look Down

The Thief Lord

I don't know why I hadn't read The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke awhile ago, since I had read Inkspell and Inkheart and loved them, but I read it last week and loved it. I probably enjoyed it more than most people because I feel the same way about Venice as Prosper (the main character in the book) does. The book is set in Venice - it's about two brothers who run away from their guardians - an aunt and uncle. They go to Venice because their mother always told them how wonderful Venice is. They end up living with three other children (orphans) in an empty abandoned movie theatre. The Thief Lord finds the theatre for them and supposedly steals items and then sells them to support the children. The Thief Lord is a child himself - probably about 12 or so. He comes to visit them and eats with them, but never spends the night.

The aunt and her husband come to Venice (they're German) as they've heard that Prosper and Bo are there. They hire a detective (who loves disguises of all kinds) to find the boys. The aunt only wants Bo because he's about five and looks like an angel with blond curls. Prosper or Prop as he's called is too old at 11 thus he will be sent to a boarding school. The boys are inseparable, so they ran away and ended up in Venice.

The other children - a bookworm girl about Prop's age and two boys - one who likes to steal and one who isn't wanted at home all get along well with Prop and Bo. The Thief Lord sells his stolen items to a greedy antique dealer, who offers him a job from a count. It involves a lady photographer and a old wing from a lion on a carousel. The carousel is magic.

Of course, the Thief Lord actually is a spoiled little rich boy who wants to be a grown up and is only pretending to steal things from his father's house. There are multiple mini-plots which make this an eventful and fascinating book. The references to the churches and plazas of Venice just added to my enjoyment of the book.

Eventually all the pieces of the plot are resolved - some expected and some unexpectedly. I highly recommend this as a teen adventure/action book with enough twists for everyone.

A Katherine Neville Winner!

I went to random.org this morning and #37 won! Jennifer come on down! You are the winner of the Katherine Neville contest and now the rightful owner of The Eight and The Fire.

Could you please email me (hollybooknotes[at]gmail[dot]com) with your full name and mailing address? I'll get those in the mail to you yet this week!

Thanks to everyone who participated!!

More Giveaways

Dewey over at Hidden Side of the Leaf is giving away a whole box of spooky books for Halloween from the Hachette Book Group! Run on over now to throw your name in the hat! The giveaway ends tomorrow (Friday) at noon!

And don't forget to enter our giveaway for the set of Katherine Neville's books: The Eight and The Fire! You have until Sunday!

Picture Book Thursday: Halloween Part I

We have so many Halloween books...it's hard to choose which to feature. Good thing we have two weeks in a row of Halloween books!

Where Is Baby's Pumpkin? by Karen Katz: We've been reading Karen Katz's lift-the-flap books to Lilah since she was tiny, and she continues to enjoy them. If you've read the previous holiday entries in this series, you know the drill. With seasonally appropriate substitutions, this is the same as Where Is Baby's Valentine? and Where Are Baby's Easter Eggs? Like those books, Where Is Baby's Pumpkin? features shiny, sparkly details in the items Baby finds beneath the flaps. Baby is looking for her pumpkin so she can go trick-or-treating. She looks in a variety of locations, finding other Halloween-related items (a black cat, a ghost, some bats)...will she find her pumpkin on the last page? These are simple and predictable, but fun for little ones. Lilah loves lifting flaps and the sparkles definitely add something to the holiday books. Baby is adorable in her little kitty costume. A winner!

I hadn't encountered Spookley the Square Pumpkin until Barnes and Noble gave us a free Spookley bag for buying three Halloween books. Spookley the Square Pumpkin: Colors and Numbers is two books in one (finish reading the first, then flip the book upside-down to read the second. Lilah is in a very colors/numbers oriented place right now, plus she adores pumpkins, so this was a big hit. It's pretty straightforward. Colors shows one pumpkin on each page with a little rhyme telling what color the pumpkin is. Numbers shows an increasing number of pumpkins until we reach 10. My only quibble with this is that Numbers doesn't show the same pumpkins on each page and just add one new one. Except for Spookley, all the pumpkins change on each page, if that makes sense. I think for counting, it would make more sense to have Spookley for #1, Spookley and Green Pumpkin for #2, Spookley, Green Pumpkin, and Red Pumpkin for #3, and so one. Instead, you have Spookley and an ever-changing array of different pumpkin friends. Anyway, Lilah loves this one, and it's pleasant to read aloud. A bonus: unlike practically every other Halloween book we have, there is NO mention of candy!

Monster Tales: Pumpkin Patch Party is a tiny (couple of inches) board book with flaps. Since the whole book is tiny, the flaps are too small for little fingers to pry up, so parents will need to loosen them the first time. This is one of our traveling on the plane books because it takes up almost no space in the diaper bag, but takes a while to read (sometime, I'll have to post our favorite books for plane travel--it's funny to watch me calculating the space taken up versus length of time it keeps Lilah entertained). It features Lilah's favorite Sesame Street characters at a Halloween party. The flaps reveal the monsters beneath the costumes. Kids who love flaps, costumes, or Sesame Street will probably love this one--Lilah adores it.

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One of my 5 year old's favorite Halloween books is Harriet's Halloween Candy by Nancy Carlson. We got this book from the library last year and she still loved it when I brought it home again this year. Harriet gets quite a haul trick-or-treating and even though her mom asks her to share her candy with her little brother, she hides it all (except for one piece of coconut candy that she doesn't like anyway). Throughout the next day, she eats some candy and then moves her stash to a new hiding place until she just decides she should eat it all. By the end of the book, her tummy is telling her she's had enough candy and eventually shares with her brother. It's a fun little book with a nice lesson that maybe we shouldn't eat ALL our Halloween candy in one sitting. :-) This is a nice Halloween picture book and the illustrations are fun.

Halloween Hats by Elizabeth Winthrop is a cute Halloween picture book. It opens with children finding their costumes (and hats) in a attic. As you turn the pages, you see children in all different costumes with hats. Some of the same children appear on several pages so you can have fun looking through the book and recognizing the kids from the previous pages. In the last two pages everyone throws their hats up in the air to become someone new. The text is short, simplistic rhyming and perfect for the younger end of picture book listeners. The story is nice here, but I think the illustrations make it really fun.

That's it for today! Stay tuned next week for another roundup of Halloween books!

Another WWII winner

I just finished Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. I received this as an ARC from Random House/Ballantine Books. It won't be released until January 27, 2009. BUT, if you can get your hands on a copy now, do it! I rarely give five stars to a book. I save that rating for books that really amaze me or have some quality that make it an instant favorite of mine. This is THE best fiction book I have read in 2008. AND this is a DEBUT novel by Jamie Ford. Really, I'm just wowed.

For some reason, WWII books are finding their way to me lately, first The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, now this book, and I just received Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay in the mail. Okay, so now that I've built Ford's book up so much, I hope you aren't disappointed when you do read it. But I don't know how you could be.

Now on to Hotel on the Corner. The story flip-flops between Henry Lee age 12 in 1942 and Henry Lee age 56 in 1986. The young Henry is struggling to fit in as a Chinese American in Seattle going to an all-white prep school. His parents are extremely traditional (they do not even speak English) and he has a hard time relating to his father. Henry is on scholarship at the school and helps out in the kitchen and after school. He is caught between not fitting in at his school and not fitting in with his community because he does not go to the Chinese school. One day, a Japanese girl named Keiko joins him in the school kitchen and the two start a wonderful friendship. Henry's parents do not understand or approve of him befriending a Japanese girl on the eve of the rise of Japanese internment camps. As she is sent away, he tries his hardest to save her and not lose her, the first girl he has ever loved.

The Henry of 1986 is mourning the death of his wife after spending seven years caring for her while she suffered through cancer. He finds history repeating itself slightly with regard to his relationship with his son. They are not very close and in fact do not see eye to eye on many thing. A relationship of misunderstanding. However, as Henry starts to get on with his life after his wife's death, he finds himself thinking of Keiko and what happened to her. Surprising to Henry, his son helps him work through his feelings.

There is a cast of colorful characters throughout the book in both time periods. A few follow throughout the time line. Ford crafted a wonderful and realistic story of a tumultuous time in history. He's created a social history of Seattle during the war. A story of race, culture, family, friendship, love and hope. I was hooked from the beginning and whipped through the pages to find out if Henry and Keiko ever found each other again. You must read the book to find out! ;-) No spoilers here. Ford also brings in a bit of the jazz scene of Seattle in the '40's. I think the flow of this book is really good, even going in and out of the different time periods. I just love all the relationships portrayed and the history is interesting and there without being too distracting. The people in the book are at the forefront not the events.

Now, go find your "to be read" list and mark this book down as the first TBR of 2009!

A New Contest!

I was just sitting here doing my morning blog reading on the computer, when it hit me! It's Tuesday! Contest time!

It's actually Tuesday, October 14th, which is the official publication date for Katherine Neville's The Fire!

I have a copy of The Eight and an ARC of The Fire that we are giving away here this week! My reviews are here and here, respectively.

To enter the contest, do one or all of the following:
1. Leave a comment saying you would like to be entered.

2. Answer these questions for one bonus entry each:
a. Do you play chess?
b. What adult adventure/treasure books or authors do you recommend to other readers?

3. Post about this contest, leaving me the link in your comment and receive THREE extra entries!

Post your comments by Sunday, October 19th, 11:59pm Central Standard time.

Mystery Monday!

Vacation blogging is always hit or miss with me, so I have several mystery reviews to post today. I will have to put up a post-vacation-book-shopping photo (despite my piles of TBR books, authors and publishers insist on producing more books). I haven't yet put my TBR books into my LibraryThing catalog, but I really need to start doing that.

Little Shop of Murders by Susan Goodwill: This is the sequel to Brigadoom! and the second Kate London mystery. I've concluded that these are best read once a year (and it's a good thing they come out in the spring, since Plum books are July releases). I still enjoyed this entry, but since I read the first book quite recently, the ghost of Stephanie Plum seemed more insistent this time. A couple of details in particular nagged at me: Kate has an eye twitch to which the author alludes several times, and Aunt Kitty's knobby knees are mentioned when she wears age-inappropriate clothing. Throw in a crazy old guy robbing a bank, and amiable repo man, and a sweetly inept biker gang impersonating hardened criminals, and you have quite a rash of coincidental echoes of Evanovich. And yet...I can't NOT recommend this book.

Aunt Kitty is staging Little Shop of Horrors in the Egyptian Theatre. She and Kate are in line to deposit quite a bit of cash at Mudd Lake Savings Bank when it's held up by Kitty's boyfriend, who makes off with the money the Egyptian needed to pay for its Audrey puppets. A repo man camps out next to the theater, waiting for his chance. Kate (and Kitty and Verna, of course) decide to investigate since the opening is mere days away. When the Audrey puppeteer quits, stage-fright stricken Kate takes over, mowing down the actors in the unwieldy puppet. A convoluted plot unfolds, involving a biker gang, a master criminal with a corporate attitude, and funny money turning up all over Mudd Lake. Will Little Shop of Horrors be an unmitigated disaster, ruining the Egyptian's chances of recovery?

I enjoyed the first book, and I thought this one was quite fun as well. If you think the Stephanie Plum similarities will drive you crazy, maybe check out the first at the library and see how it goes. These are well-written, madcap mysteries with lots of humor and a touch of romance. I really like the characters and the locale of Mudd Lake, and I think there's a lot of originality in the series...just not quite enough.

The Tale of Hawthorn House by Susan Wittig Albert: This is a series I never fail to call "utterly charming" whenever I mention it, but it's not for everyone. If you prefer pulse-pounding suspense or bloody murder scenes to talking animals, fairy folk, precocious children, and details of village life, definitely look elsewhere. I think this is a series I would love to read out loud when Lilah is a bit older--that's how tame it is. There's little death and violence, and the narrator is so sweetly, conversational that these feel (as they are meant to) like Beatrix Potter tales recast for grown-up (and advanced children) to read. They are based on Beatrix Potter's life after the death of her fiance, when she purchases Hill Top Farm in the Land Between the Lakes (in defiance of her parents, who do not want her to be independent of them). Albert uses real and imagined characters to give richness and authenticity to the supposed village mysteries solved by the fictionalized Miss Potter. In this, the fourth entry (the first is The Tale of Hill Top Farm), Miss Potter finds a baby on her doorstep. She sets out to find the parents of Baby Flora. Meanwhile, Jemima Puddle-Duck is sitting on a clutch of eggs that are taking far too long to hatch, Dimity's romance moves along, the village gossip mill gets several things dead wrong, and Miss Potter notices her feelings for Mr. Heelis seem a bit different. The reader knows the answer to Baby Flora's parentage, but Miss Potter, not having read the Prologue, has to use some inventive sleuthing, along with her friend Sarah Barrows. I recommend this to adults who enjoy a gentle mystery amidst richly described village life, and to children who are strong readers and enjoy mysteries.

My review of The Tale of Hill Top Farm

A Holly Jolly Murder by Joan Hess: This was not what I expected at all, but it was fun. The twelfth in the Claire Malloy mystery series (the first in Strangled Prose) sees Claire, accusing by boyfriend Peter as set in her ways, impulsively accepting an invitation to a winter solstice celebration by neo-Druids (Farberville has everything!). This drags her into a contentious group with different worship ideas and hidden agendas, culminating in Claire's finding yet another body. Claire cannot resist the pleas that she solve the mystery, and she snoops and pries as usual. Meanwhile, Caron and Inez have taken on jobs as Santa's helpers at the mall, with predictably (though enjoyably) disastrous results. Claire and Peter's relationship gets thrown for quite a loop, so if you can't stand the cliffhanger, have #13 ready.

A Conventional Corpse by Joan Hess: Can it be possible that Joan Hess has yet to target the mystery convention? It's a scene made for Claire Malloy's acerbic observations and snooping. All Claire wants to do is make a mint selling books for signings at Farber University's first annual mystery convention. But with Sally Fromberger felled by illness, Claire takes the reins of the convention, managing a group of contentious, demanding authors who are thrown for a loop by the appearance of an editor with ties to all of them. The individual authors are funny, but their crass response to tragedy (constantly speculating as though the death were fictional) was a bit tiresome. Caron, Arnie, and the spoiled hell-cat were very funny. The subplot of Claire's relationship with Peter meanders some more, an indication that thirteen books is a long stretch to keep a romance up in the air. But that's never been the central part of this series for me, so that was fine. What I enjoy about the Claire Malloy books is her wordplay, clever observations, and unapologetic snooping, and those were evident in abundance.

Out on a Limb by Joan Hess: Miss Parchester has decided to live up in a tree in the 14th book in the Claire Malloy series. No, she hasn't gone crazy; she's representing the Farberville Green Party, protesting a development that plans to remove the old tree. Meanwhile, Caron finds a baby on the doorstep, and when Claire is seen diaper-shopping, rumors fly that Caron is the mother. Caron, always overdramatic, is really funny in this situation, and when the mother of the baby is arrested for her father's murder, the plot is engaging. There's an evil developer, always a fun potential villain, Miss Parchester clearly hiding something, and Caron acting a bit grown up in her concern for the baby. This was a fine entry in the series.

Masterpiece by Elise Broach

I won a signed copy of this book in a giveaway hosted by A Patchwork of Books. I was so excited to win. It sounded right up my alley. And I wasn't disappointed!

Masterpiece is a story of friendship mixed with a little art history and art theft. A lonely little boy named James, who is all but ignored by his mother and stepfather, discovers a little beetle named Marvin has a wonderful artistic gift. James receives a pen and ink drawing set for his birthday from his artist father. During the night, Marvin discovers the new set on James' desk. Curious, he starts dipping his front legs into the ink and creates a wonderful little drawing of the scene outside James' bedroom window. Delighted by the drawing, James discovers Marvin created it and an unlikely friendship is formed. The adults in James' life think he created the tiny, intricate drawing and are in awe of his new found talent. Upon a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, James is asked to create a copy of a famous Albrecht Durer drawing. His copy is so close to the original that the museums curator develops a plan to try and catch an art thief. Throughout the story, Marvin and James work together first to create the drawings then to help solve the art mystery.

This book was a delight for me to read. It was fun to see art history woven into the story and I'm thrilled that this book might spark an interest in art history for children reading it. Though the friendship between James and Marvin is unlikely, it seems to work for this book. It is fun to read about Marvin's world and how the beetles view humans. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys juvenile fiction. You won't be disappointed! And Kelly Murphy's pen and ink illustrations are so lovely. They fit right along with the story so well. Oh, this one was so fun and I look forward to reading more of Broach's books in the future.

Broach also wrote Shakespeare's Secret, which Allison reviewed here.

Giveaways

Here are a couple giveaways going on:

The Literate Housewife if giving away 3 copies of The Witches Trinity by Erika Mailman.

Bookish Ruth is also giving away a copy of Tethered by Amy MacKinnon.

Run on over and check them out if you're interested! :-)

More Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

I borrowed this charming novel by Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows from Allison. Her review can be found here. I feel like this book has been all over the place and Allison wrote such a wonderful review that I won't rephrase the story.

It took me a bit to get into the book and get used to the style of writing. In Part 2 of the book, we follow Juliet to Guernsey in the Channel Islands. I enjoyed this half of the book more than the first half, which took place in London. I loved the quaintness of Guernsey and the various characters, especially Isola and Dawsey. I found the overall story of the German occupation very interesting. Juliet's male companion, Mark really annoyed me with his arrogant attitude. I was pleased when she finally made a decision regarding her future with him.

Many people suggest this book would be a good book club choice. I agree, the historical content is interesting and the characters are intriguing. More Guernsey Literary... reviews: Charlotte's Web of Books, Lesa's Book Critiques, and Thoughts of Joy.

Sidenote: Stay tuned next Tuesday for another giveaway!

Picture Book Thursday!!

Our theme this week is Friendship. I'm going to start with one book that I think is adorable: Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity by Mo Willems. This is the sequel to Knuffle Bunny. In this book, Trixie takes her beloved Knuffle Bunny to school with her and realizes another little girl has a Knuffle Bunny too! They argue over whose Knuffle Bunny is better until the teacher puts the Knuffle Bunnies on timeout. At the end of the day, they each get a Knuffle Bunny back to take home. In the middle of the night, Trixie discovers that the Knuffle Bunny she has is NOT hers! She insists on making an exchange in the middle of the night. At the end of the book, the two little girls become good friends and play with both their Knuffle Bunnies together. It's a sweet tale and the pictures are animations over photographic backgrounds. Very cool! The first book is great as well, you should check out both of them. We have a couple beloved animlas in this household so these books really spoke to my daughters.

Another great picture book about friendship: Owen & Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship by Craig Hatkoff. Owen, a baby hippo is displaced during the Dec. 2004 Tsunami. People worked to save him, but it wasn't until he befriended Mzee, a 130-year old turtle that Owen became happy. He actually thought she was his mother. :-) The two adopted each other and do everything together. Their story was turned into a picture book after photos of them were passed around the email world, making them celebrities. Great story accompanied by photographs of the two friends. Also a nice way to show children that two friends do not have to be just like each other. Also check out the sequel: Owen & Mzee: The Language of Friendship; and board books: Owen & Mzee: Best Friends & Owen & Mzee: A Day Together.

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I'm featuring three board books for younger children today, each from a series all three of us love.


Gossie & Gertie by Olivier Dunrea is the second book in a series that begins with Gossie. The story couldn't be simpler or more enchanting. Gossie and Gertie are best friends, and Gertie always follows Gossie around...until one day, she doesn't! The text is simple, with effortless rhyming and a readable rhythm, and lots of repetition for little ones. The message about friendship is sweet: Gossie doesn't get mad when Gertie decides not to follow her one day. The illustrations are simple line drawings with primary colors, and little details like beetles and turtles that really add to the scene. Gossie and Gertie's world is the barn and farmland, and Gossie and Gertie have fun with a variety of wholesome, non-video-game activities, always a bonus. Lilah requests these frequently: "Read ducky book!" (Gossie and Gertie look a lot like ducklings, and I have yet to convince Lilah they're not!)


Little Quack's New Friend by Lauren Thompson, illustrated by Derek Anderson, is another fun toddler book. In this entry in the series, Little Ribbit, a small green frog, asks Little Quack and his siblings to play. Only Little Quack agrees to play with the newcomer; his brothers and sisters dismiss Little Ribbit as too green, too small, and a FROG. As they watch Little Quack and Little Ribbit have a great time, the siblings decide to join in, concluding that it doesn't matter how different Little Ribbit is, they "all like to play!" The sounds the friends make while playing ("plunka splunka" jumps to mind) complement the exuberant story and are really fun to read aloud. This is much more text-heavy than the Gossie books, but it keeps Lilah's interest (as do the others in the series) until the end. The illustrations are lush and bright; the scene is the ducks' pond, with reeds, mud, and lily pads, and the motion is depicted really well--these ducks and frog are clearly having a great time. The lesson is certainly not unique in children's literature, but it's done here with great exuberance and fun, so I would call this a stand-out.


The "How Do Dinosaurs...?" books by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague are cute, fun reads, with lilting rhymes and clear messages. How Do Dinosaurs Play With Their Friends? is no exception. Dinosaurs are surprisingly considerate, taking turns and sharing, and NOT moping or pouting. The illustrations are funny, with distinct dinosaur species represented as the children, and smaller humans as the parents. Each dinosaur species is written in the drawings for children who are getting dino-crazy. Lilah loves dinosaurs (she actually stomps around like a dinosaur when carrying a dino stuffed animal), but I imagine these books are great for parents of boys who may be less interested in sitting still to read. The message in this book is very simple: share, take turns, and be nice to your friends, but it's so fun to read and accompanied by such rich, detailed images of dinosaurs that children won't find it preachy.

Schooled by Anisha Lakhani

I was selected to receive this book last June for LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program. Through a series of errors from the publishers, some people didn't receive their copies until last week. I was one of those people and was excited to see it show up in my mailbox, finally. I have been in the mood for light fare lately so I jumped right in.

This is the story of Anna Taggert, a first year teacher at a prestigious Manhattan private school. There is a note in the beginning of the book that says Lakhani did indeed teach in private schools, but that the characters and their actions in this book are entirely fictionalized. Riiiight. Remember The Nanny Diaries and The Devil Wears Prada. Yeah, those were both fictionalized accounts as well, yet, the authors of Nanny Diaries were nannies and the witchy editor in Devil Wears Prada closely resembles the editor of Vogue (was it Vogue, I can't remember now, but some real-life editor of a high-end fashion magazine). So, I believe there is probably some truth to this outrageous story of spoiled rich seventh grade students who seem to have tutors who do all their work and attend multiple bar/bat mitzvahs in one weekend.

Anna starts out as a fresh faced 22-year-old ivy league graduate excited at the prospect of molding young minds, even if she's not getting paid a major league salary. Within two months of working at the private school, she has figured out teaching there is a no-win situation. If she teaches her students too much, the parents call saying their child is overworked. If she relaxes on the teaching, she finds that her students are spending their days watching movies and working on other homework during her class time. Not really the experience she had in mind. She stumbles into the world of tutoring and discovers she can make her whole month's teaching salary in one week tutoring just a few hours. She is seduced by the money, freedom to move out of her crappy apartment, buy designer clothes, and the change in her students' attitude toward her. She was now the "cool" teacher they all loved. But the tutoring begins to take its toll on Anna both morally and physically. She has to decide if she wants to keep up with her lavish yet empty lifestyle or actually teach the children something.

This book was very light and fast. I felt like the story was a bit tired though. As I mentioned, it is quite similar to The Nanny Diaries and Devil Wears Prada. Or actually, maybe a combination of both of those. We get a look at the world of the rich and their children. We also are treated to an array of designer names thrown out at us. The story of a homely, somewhat naive middle-class woman being seduced into the world of the rich, but will she give up her morals and everything her parents taught her about being a good person, in order to have the latest fashion trend? This is a good read for vacation or after a particularly hefty book, but it is predictable and lacks real substance.

Picture Book Thursday!

Allison and I are going to start a new feature on the blog! Picture Book Thursday! Since she and I are constantly reading books to our little ones, we thought we'd share some with you! I'm sure we have some parents reading the blog who might be looking for a new fun book to read to their kids. Or perhaps others have kids they know and would like gift ideas. At any rate, hope you enjoy it! :-)

I think we decided on a bear theme for our first installment of Picture Book Thursday, which is very fitting for the first book I've chosen to review! My daughter Lily turned three this weekend and she received several books as gifts. One of them was The Bear with Sticky Paws by Clara Vulliamy. In the book, a little girl named Lily is being defiant to her mother. She won't wash her face, brush her hair, or get dressed. And "No!" is her favorite word. After her mom leaves for the day, a little white bear shows up at the front door. Lily and the bear have fun snacks and play making a big mess in the house. When Lily tries to get the bear to take a bath, brush his fur and go to bed, all he says is "No!" Then he leaves and in comes Mom! Lily then tells her mom she will clean up the mess, wash her face and brush her hair. I think the illustrations are really sweet and have a bit of a nostalgic feeling to them. They are a nice change of pace from the many television derived books in our house (Dora, Little Einsteins, the new Curious George books, Disney Princess, etc.). This adorable book is perfect for the ages 3-5 years (Even though the publisher says 4-8 years, it's not too wordy for a toddler who enjoys being read to.). And perfect for MY Lily who is in a bit of a defiant stage herself! :-) And her favorite thing in the world is her Bear snuggle blanket.

Another favorite in our house is We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury, which Allison actually gifted to us last year! (Thanks Allison!) Both my girls just love this book! A family decides to go looking for a bear on a beautiful day. They come across many obstacles such as a grassy field, a river, mud, and wind. Each page contains the same pattern and has great words for describing the sounds like "squelch squerch" for going through the mud or "whoo hooooo" for the wind. In the end the family decides maybe a bear hunt isn't the best idea. :-) The book is supposed to be for 4-9 year olds, but my then 2 year old loved the board book version too.

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Bear Feels Scared is the latest in a series by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman, and is perfectly timed for Autumn/Halloween. Matt, Lilah, and I all adore Bear Snores On, the first in the series, in which a hibernating Bear sleeps on as his friends have a party in his lair, so we picked up Bear Feels Scared from the B&N Halloween section. It's adorable, as expected from this author/illustrator team. Wilson's rhyme scheme and rhythm are gentle and lilting, easy and fun to read aloud, with the first line "In the deep, dark woods by the Strawberry Vale, a big bear lumbers down a small, crooked trail." Bear gets lost in the autumn woods and is frightened by sounds and the dark, but his friends find him and take him back home. I don't think it's overly frightening, just enough to be a relief when Bear's friends arrive. Lilah loves this one, and listens to the entire book (which she doesn't do for all text-heavy books). It's billed as for ages 4-8, but Lilah, at 21 months, has been a fan of the Bear books since I can remember. They're a delight for parents to read out loud, and a hit with kids. Chapman's illustrations are just beautiful, with Bear and other animals rendered in a fairly realistic style, but with abundant facial expressions, and the autumnal backgrounds in this one, with winds blowing and leaves swirling, are gorgeous. Readers of the other Bear books will notice marked similarities among the books as far as rhythm and rhyme scheme, but this doesn't bother me; instead, the familiarity is pleasant, like returning to visit old friends Bear, Badger, Hare, and others.

Lilah likes to read thematically--she'll grab a stuffed duck and hand us all her books featuring ducks. Another favorite are "Brown bear books!" We read several books in a row, all featuring brown bears, so naturally, my "bonus" bear book for the day is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle. It's a classic for a reason. We have it in tough board-book format, and Lilah loves pointing at the animals and telling us what they are (and their colors). When she was younger, she would point and have us tell her the animal names and colors. Carle's modern-art illustrations are gorgeous, rich, and colorful, a sure hit with little ones, and the repetitive nature of the text is perfect for children learning to read.

Back to High School

I have been interested in checking out graphic novels lately. I see them reviewed here and there in the blogosphere (almost always highly rated) and the idea of a graphic novel that is not based on a superhero intrigues me. The Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci has popped up on several blogs I read so I thought I would start there.

The book starts out with high-schooler Jane being a victim in a random bombing in Metro City, similar to the 9/11 attack. She becomes attached to another victim, John Doe, who is in a coma, visiting him on a regular basis. Her parents now scared that Metro City is unsafe, move Jane to a suburban neighborhood far away. She tries to fly under the radar in her new school just waiting to graduate so she can get back to the big city. Refusing to assimilate into the popular group, she chooses to sit at a lunch table filled with more Janes (Jayne, Jane, and Polly Jane). Inspired by John Doe's sketchbook entitled "Art Saves", Main Jane (as she becomes known) decides to do an art installation in a construction site. She enlists the help of the other Janes who each bring their own attributes to the installation. They form P.L.A.I.N. (People Loving Art In Neighborhoods). With each covert installation, the town gets more worked up seeing the art as vandalism and even equating it to terrorist attacks. Curfews and rules try to curb P.L.A.I.N., but the girls somehow get around them all, until the end. I really enjoyed this and I think its an interesting commentary on art installations. At my small college, each spring we would find various art installations pop up around campus, they always provoked spirited discussions about what art really is. In the Plain Janes, I think P.L.A.I.N. becomes a way to help Main Jane heal emotionally from her experience in Metro City. The sequel, Janes in Love just came out September 23rd. Publisher Minx Books, a division of DC Comics, has several other titles similar to this one. These might be good choices for reluctant female middle school age readers (the publisher suggests grades 7-10). Unfortunately, in looking around at Minx Books on the internet, I came across this article detailing the failure of Minx. It's really too bad they couldn't give it a go awhile longer. I think it is a really neat idea to create graphic novels geared toward girls.

Other reviews of The Plain Janes can be found here: Girl Detective, The Hidden Side of a Leaf, So Many Books, So Little Time, and Presenting Lenore.

Although, I was attempting to link two books with the theme of high school, this next book is drastically different from Plain Janes. I recently finished The Power of Three by Laura Lippman, an adult crime novel. Lippman writes the Tess Monaghan series, which I haven't read, but would like to get to some day. The Power of Three is one of her stand alone books. We open with one girl hiding a gun in her backpack. Then, there is a school shooting. One girl is dead, one is injured in her foot, and the third (presumably the shooter) a botched suicide attempt. The whole book centers around trying to figure out what exactly happened in the bathroom to make three best friends become victims/enemies. There are flashbacks throughout the book to see the girls' friendship throughout the past ten years. Lippman does a wonderful job with character development. I feel like we really get a sense of who each of these girls are, what makes them different from each other and the rest of the high school crowd. Lippman guides us along in the investigation of the shooting letting us in on secrets here and there. I spent much of the book thinking I could figure it all out and I somewhat did, but I think I did at the pace that Lippman wanted her readers to figure it out. It was nicely predictable. And there was a tiny bit of a twist at the end as to who the "fourth girl" really was when the shooting took place. Any fans of Harlan Coben would most likely really enjoy this one. I found Lippman to sort of be a female version of Coben. I still have What the Dead Know sitting on my shelf and I'm looking forward to getting to that one as well.

Mystery Sequel Round-Up

Dead and Berried by Karen MacInerney: I liked the first in this series, Murder on the Rocks, though there were a couple of annoyances, mostly related to Natalie's brain falling out her head on occasion. Natalie continues to suffer from this malady in the second entry, but I still liked her. Natalie's ex-fiance is visiting from Texas to woo her back to Texas and a life with him. Candy is visiting the Gray Whale Inn to gather tips for opening her own B&B. A possible subdivision has Cranberry Island's preservationists up in arms. And Natalie's best friend is acting distant ever since she started dating the new priest and shunning Natalie's brownies for her diet. Natalie tells us right away that the ex-fiance is an ex for a reason, actually a few reasons, all of them curvy and attractive. So it's hard for me to understand why she doesn't just kick his butt out (he'd made his reservation under a fake name), especially when he and Candy are flirting outrageously in front of Natalie and Natalie's island sort-of-boyfriend, John, is understandably upset about the ex's presence. A whiff of his cologne is apparently enough to make her forget what a cheating jerk he was. Anyway, this drove me up the wall. Natalie also charges off to check things out AGAIN and gets bonked on the head a few times. Does this woman not get that she needs to let someone know where she's going at all times? The mystery was pretty good, not predictable, and I enjoyed the visit to Cranberry Island and its varied inhabitants. And if I didn't like Natalie, I wouldn't be so annoyed that she's being an idiot about her ex. And the Peach Sunrise Bread sounds absolutely amazing--I can't wait to try the recipe. So, all in all, a decent second entry, and I'll give #3 (Murder Most Maine) a try when it comes out in a month or two.

My review of Murder on the Rocks

Charmed to Death by Shirley Damsgaard: I really liked the first entry in this series, Witch Way to Murder, which surprised me--I'm not usually a fan of paranormal mysteries, as the paranormal is either cheesy and annoying or interferes with the mystery. Damsgaard absolutely nails the balance in her series about Ophelia and her grandmother, Abby, both psychic and with their own special powers. In the second entry, Ophelia must face her past, the horrible death of her best friend five years earlier, to prevent more murders. In the first book, Ophelia had rejected her gifts, and by the end, she's accepted them and decided to develop them with her grandmother's help. So in book 1, Ophelia is rather abrasive and not overly likable. I was a bit concerned that we would see some backsliding in book 2, but I was very pleased that the character development was consistent. The suspense in this one was fantastic. I did guess the killer, but I don't think it was horribly telegraphed. Ophelia's continuing relationship with Darci was fun to see, and other returning characters behaved in a consistent, yet interesting, manner. I really like this series, and I'll be picking up the next one soon.

My review of Witch Way to Murder

Busy Bodies by Joan Hess: I love the Joan Hess books starring bookstore owner and busybody Claire Malloy. The first is Strangled Prose. In this entry, Miss Parchester asks for Claire's help--she has a conceptual artist living on her street, blocking traffic and causing protestors to assemble outside his house over his provocative yard displays. Hess quickly explains that the police won't stop him (in a way I didn't really buy, but that's fine--she at least addressed the concern). and Claire sticks her erudite nose into the situation, becoming involved with the mysterious writer, angry neighbor, the born-again protestors, and the artist himself (along with his hangers-on). Claire was extra nosy in this one, but that's fine. Caron and Inez getting picked up by Animal Control while wearing gorilla suits was hilarious. I always enjoy a visit to Farberville and Claire's antics, and I thought this, the 10th entry (I think) was quite funny and well-plotted.

Closely Akin to Murder by Joan Hess: This one was a little different. Claire gets a phone call from her cousin Ronnie, asking for Claire's help. The weird part? Ronnie died a couple of decades ago. Claire learns that Ronnie spent several years in a Mexican jail for killing famous movie producer Oliver Pickett in self-defense. Once she got out, she changed her name and began a new, very successful life. Except someone is blackmailing her now. Claire takes Caron to Acapulco, where she encounters several people involved in the events of 20+ years before. Her search leads her to Arizona (with a hilarious scene in a convent) and Illinois, before she finds the truth. Lies upon lies make her investigation a challenge, but it's Claire, so she gets there in the end. Masterfully plotted with the more disturbing elements (Caron kidnapped, Claire facing a Mexican jail) lightened by Claire's trademark humor, this is an outstanding entry in a delightful series.

The 39 Clues: Maze of Bones

Holly's review here.

The first entry in this much-hyped multimedia series was written by Rick Riordan, but fans of the Percy Jackson series may not recognize it. This isn't Riordan's fault: he has a lot to accomplish in this book and not many pages (220) in which to do it, so little things like character development sort of fall by the wayside in favor of a DaVinci Code-like frenzied plotting along with some necessary backstory. All this might sound like I have a negative review, but I really kind of liked it, and I'm regretting that I didn't pick up a few of those trading card packs :)

Amy and Dan's grandmother, Grace, has died and assembled her heirs (an eyebrow-raising group of hundreds, from Korean to Russian to an American reality TV star) to offer them a choice: one million dollars or a single clue. The clue will lead them to other clues, which will lead them to the source of the family's power (most notable historical figures are Cahills, whether or not they know it). Several groups accept this challenge, including Amy and Dan, who convince their babysitter (their parents are dead, of course) to accompany them on their globe-trotting adventure. They are at a disadvantage as the poor Cahills: the Holts are athletic; Irina, an ex-KGB agent, has poison injectors hidden by long fingernails; the Kabras are worldly; Jonah is loved by millions who watch his show; Uncle Alistair is wily; the Starlings are...rich, I think. There are a lot of secondary characters and they never get beyond a single dimension. Amy and Dan were Grace's favorites, so the other teams think Grace must have given them inside information, so they're in danger almost from the beginning. They figure out the clue and head out to find more while avoiding the other relatives. There's a lot of information about Benjamin Franklin, which was interesting and fun. There were some puzzles (look for the page number one!) that were entertaining. It reminded me distantly of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, which i loved as a kid. This is much slicker and shinier (and not on a slow, monochrome computer screen), but the same spirit of adventure and clue-assembling pervades the book/website.

The book comes with six of the collector's cards, and you can buy more. The cards have a code on them so you can create an account and enter them into the web game. Kids ages 6-14 are eligible to win prizes. The website assures parents that there is no communication between players, so it's a safe internet zone for children. While a forum to build teams and share information would be in the spirit of the book (several teams form brief coalitions against their enemies), it's best that they didn't structure it this way. I didn't spend much time on the website, but it seems like a lot of fun. All your cards are displayed, and some have puzzles you can solve for further clues. I would have really gotten into this as a child, and it could be a great spur for reluctant readers to crack open a book. I'll definitely read the second book, which comes out in December.

Staggerford by Jon Hassler

A simple synopsis of this book sounds very boring, but a longer synopsis is tough to flesh out. It's a week or so in the life of Miles, a high school English teacher in Staggerford, MN. Hassler uses selective repetition as part of his humor (example: Coach tells the same story about his wrestling lineup a few times--he seems incapable of thinking about anything else, and his obsession becomes funny through repetition). Miles has been teaching for twelve years, and it's starting to feel a bit on the futile side. He rents a room from the delightful Miss McGee, a spinster who teaches at the Catholic school and laments Miles's loss of faith. Beverly, a student from the wrong side of the tracks, is fixated on Miles, who is attempting to take his sort-of relationship with Imogene Kite to some other level. Call it a portrait of small-town life with a startling plot twist. I wasn't sure the ending, which is quite abrupt, was fair to the reader, but after some reflection, I think it's symbolic of small town life. There are several books in the Staggerford series, and I'm interested in returning to see what happens with the characters.

The Fire by Katherine Neville

My review of The Eight here.

Twenty years after first publishing her bestselling novel The Eight, Katherine Neville has written its sequel, The Fire. In reading the sequel, we enter the Game again, and meet up with several characters from the first adventure.

We pick up the story 20 years after Catherine (Cat) and Solarin believe they have put a stop to the Game. We find they now have a 12-year old daughter, Alexandra who is a chess-playing prodigy. Unfortunately, at the tournament that could make Alexandra the youngest chess grandmaster ever, Solarin is killed. Alexandra never plays chess again and Cat squirrels her away to a retreat in Colorado. We fast-forward ten years to find that Alexandra is now working as a sous-chef in a Basque restaurant in Washington, D.C. and has not seen her mother in five years. She then receives an unusual invitation to her mother’s birthday party in Colorado. This is unusual because Cat never celebrates her birthday and when Alexandra arrives, her mother is nowhere to be found. Then, Alexandra learns her mother has assembled an interesting crew of people (some characters from The Eight, others new to the Game), which sets the Game in motion again and Alexandra on a cross-country escapade to find her mother and more.
The present day story is again interwoven with a storyline nearly 200 years before. This time we meet a young girl named Haidee who finds herself part of the Game, which also involves Lord Byron as well as others from the previous book.

Having just finished The Eight two weeks ago, I was a little nervous to start The Fire. The Eight took me a month to get through and was so complex and dense, I was worried this would be more of the same. I was pleasantly surprised with The Fire. I delved into it and was excited to see where everyone was 20 years later. I was interested to learn what Cat and Solarin’s daughter was like and I was curious where Neville could be taking the story. It seems Neville has learned a few things as an author in the last 20 years. She learned to edit a bit. There was less of the story in the past than in the first book. There were a few less characters to keep track of and a good part of Alexandra’s journey took place just in the United States. I was quite intrigued by the puzzles and story through two-thirds of the book. From the beginning, Alexandra doesn’t know who she can trust, even people close to her. She has no idea where her mother’s clues are taking her or what is involved. We learn as she learns. My only complaint is the last third of the book seems to fizzle compared to the first two-thirds. I started losing interest and felt bogged down in random facts. I also don’t think Alexandra is quite as strong as Catherine was in the first book. But I think that just reflects generational differences somewhat. Whereas The Eight was incredibly complex and intriguing, I found The Fire to just be interesting. There were sections I was incredibly engrossed in, such as the description of the philosophy behind the city plan of Washington, D.C. There was information on Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. I found this whole section fascinating. I also really liked her explanation of balance where heaven and earth meet, ying-yang, the marriage of the black team and the white team in the Game. But Neville failed to grasp my attention throughout the entire book and I found myself speeding through to get to the end. I think I give this 3.75/5 stars.

This book has a bit of everything, mystery, suspense, action, historical fiction, and even a touch of romance. Neville also does a nice job of explaining some of what happened in the first book. I believe you could read The Fire as a stand-alone book and be satisfied.

Another review here at The Book Nest.
You can get a copy of The Fire on October 14th when it hits the shelves of your nearest bookstore.

If you need some laughs with your mystery...

Brigadoom! by Susan Goodwill: This book was hilarious, and a good mystery to boot. Just ignore the Evanovich echoes. (I just had to look up that phrase, "to boot," which seems to make no sense. I found: "This term has nothing to do with footwear. The 'boot' is thought to be a derivative of the earlier 'bat' meaning 'good or useful'. This is also the root of the word 'better'." on this highly useful site (if you're a big English nerd). Moving on...

Kate London is sent to anger management class after hitting her cheating fiance, Mayor Ronnie Balfours, (in a port-a-john) with a golf cart. Meanwhile, she has a month to get the family legacy, a crumbling Egyptian theater (newly condemned by an angry mayor), in shape for a production of Brigadoon her crazy Aunt Kitty is putting on. When Mayor Ronnie turns up dead in Kate's car, she's dragged into a mystery involving vandalism of the Egyptian, dumpster diving, real estate intrigue, and a fellow anger management student. Susan Goodwill is really funny, the writing is snappy, and the mystery well-plotted. If Aunt Kitty and her friend Velma remind you a bit of Grandma Mazur and Edna, well, that's okay. There are echoes of Plum, to be sure, but the story is original, and the characters well-developed. (Dr. Al the pissed-off anger management teacher is a gem!) I had fun reading this, and I recommend it to anyone fond of a humor/mystery combo.

Back to the usual

It's time to get caught up on reviews! I'll start with the juvenile puzzle mystery type books. This is the companion post to this post right here., in which I reviewed The Mysterious Benedict Society and The Puzzling World of Winston Breen. I set out to read several juvenile novels in a similar vein, but the third was mis-printed, thus missing many pages, so I had to wait for the replacement. It sort of derailed my whole plan, but I've finished Chasing Vermeer, Shakespeare's Secret, and The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World. The interesting thing to me about reading all five in a short-ish period of time is that I had lumped them all into one category, but they're really quite distinct from each other.

Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett: I've read that this is like DaVinci Code for children, but it's far better written, and there are elements of Magnolia as well. It takes place at University of Chicago Laboratory School, which was a lot of fun for me because I lived near there for three years, and Matt, who lived there as a child, actually went to Lab School. Petra and Calder, two U School students, are brought together by an eccentric elderly woman, mysterious letters, a troubled teacher, and the theft of a Vermeer painting by a thief who ostensibly has ideals. The crime has baffled the FBI--can two precocious children solve it using puzzles and coincidences? I enjoyed the highly improbable mystery and the unfolding coincidences. It takes a while for everything to come together, but Petra and Calder's budding friendship gives the reader something interesting while we wait. I would have loved this book as a child, with all the puzzles to figure out and a very complicated plot that doesn't underestimate its readers. The added element of learning art history is fantastic--like the world seized by interest in Vermeer in the book, children reading this will be sucked right into learning about Vermeer, and it could spark an interest in other mysterious artists.

Shakespeare's Secret by Elise Broach: This was similar to Chasing Vermeer, but the focus here is on never-popular, unassuming Hero Netherfield, named after the Much Ado About Nothing character by her Shakespeare scholar father, and her developing confidence as she grows into her name and begins to make friends. The plot is much more simple, even stripped-down compared to Vermeer, more a crossword puzzle than a Dan Brown potboiler. Hero's new house, she learns from her next-door neighbor, Mrs. Roth, has a mystery: a diamond that was supposedly stolen may still be hidden there. As her friendship with Mrs. Roth grows and she is drawn into the mystery, Hero begins to learn about Shakespeare and the mystery surrounding his identity (along with some history of the time period), while making friends with the popular Danny Cordova. The story is more plausible and understated the the slick-by-comparison Chasing Vermeer, and the characters are more developed, leading to a surprisingly touching conclusion. Like the art history in Chasing Vermeer, the literary history in Shakespeare's Secret is sure to lead at least some readers into further research.

The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World by E. L. Konigsberg: I loved E. L. Konigsberg as a child. I checked all her books out of the library, and read From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler a dozen times, not to mention Jennifer, Hecate, MacBeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth (Konigsberg does not shy away from the long titles), and more recently, I had loved The View From Saturday, so I was the most excited about this book, but it was the one in the group of five that I liked the least. Amedeo wants to distinguish himself by discovering something, anything, of significance. He ends up helping a classmate, William Wilcox (who HAS actually discovered something important), prepare eccentric neighbor Mrs. Zender's house for an estate sale. He finds a sketch signed by Modigliani, who was reviled in Nazi Germany. Coincidentally, his godfather is working on a Degenerate Art exhibit at his museum. It takes forever for everything to come together, and the writing seemed odd to me. Very stilted dialogue, almost stylized and theatrical, with odd repetitions. I didn't really sympathize with Amedeo and William the way I did in the other four juvenile mysteries I read because they didn't feel real and fleshed out. The sections from Peter's (the godfather) point-of-view seemed out of place in a children's book. Mrs. Zender was more pathetic than anything, and a most unsympathetic character. The history lessons with Nazi treatment of art were interesting, however. Maybe I just missed the point on this one.

You're all winners!

Actually, that's not true in the sense of winning the remaining BBAW giveaways, though I'm sure you all have your good qualities. I had a lot of fun with BBAW, and I appreciate everyone who came by to visit. Thank you for entering!

The winner of the Chelsea Cain giveaway is Wendy!

Only three of you bothered to do the treasure hunt, which was sort of disappointing, since I thought it was kind of fun. The winner of the treasure hunt is Lauren, who will soon receive a box of goodies, plus America America. I decided to name the other two entrants runners-up since they did all the work, too. Gwendolyn will receive the mystery books and Carol will receive Lookin' Back, Texas.

The guess-how-many-books-in-my-piles was disturbing, as it made me actually do a count. I lost count a couple of times, and thought I was done prematurely, when I would suddenly remember that small pile in, say, the guest room closet. Anyway, the number is 96. I know! Isn't that ridiculous? A chunk of that is made up of mysteries; for example, I have all 18 or whatever Pennyfoot Hotel mysteries and haven't read them yet. Not sure if that makes the pile number seem better or not. Darby, who guessed 94, is the winner and will receive Wife in the North.

Thank you to everyone for entering! My postage budget for the month is pretty shot, but I think you can count on future giveaways here. We had a lot of fun doing this.

And now, for a winner!

I just realized the Sundays at Tiffany's contest is over! I'm off to pick a winner......

Okay, I'm back...and the winner is BECCA!! Congratulations!

Just as an FYI:
It was close between Friday and Saturday for most favorite day of the week. Friday won out though. Sunday and Tuesday came next, then Monday, and last with one vote each, Wednesday and Thursday. :-)

Thank you to everyone who participated! Hope you all have a good week!! And please visit us again. We'll be hosting more giveaways in the future! And I believe Allison still has one or two contests open here!

BBAW wrap-up!

Today is the last day of Book Blogger Appreciation Week! We will, however, continue to appreciate you after today, so do come back to see what we're up to.

I had decided that yesterday's post would be the last giveaway of the week (unless Holly thought of something) but instead, I'm going to do one more, just for fun. The winner will get the book(s) not claimed by the Treasure Hunt prize winner.

One question: How many books do I have in my TBR piles? (Yes, that's "piles"--plural.) The person to get closest to the real number wins! Post your comment with your guess no later than Monday, September 22 at 11:59 p.m., EDT.

And some more appreciation!

Today's theme for Book Blogger's Appreciation Week is Brag on Yourself. We're supposed to pick favorite past posts and link to them. Then you go back through our archives and get to know us a little better. I thought of something a teensy bit different that still gets to the same end result. (Holly, are you up for linking to your favorite reviews later today?) I'm going to send you on a little treasure hunt through the archives. I've decided to let you choose your favorite book: an ARE of America, America by Ethan Canin, Lookin' Back, Texas by Leanna Ellis, Wife in the North by Judith O'Reilly, or a Mystery Combo: May Day by Jess Lourey AND Cooking Up Murder by Miranda Bliss. And since I'm making you do so much work to enter, I'll throw in a few goodies: homemade jam, scones, and tea to enjoy with your new read (note: poor wording aside, the tea will NOT be homemade). Use the tags or my LibraryThing link to help you out.

If that's too involved for you, don't forget our Chelsea Cain contest (ending tomorrow night) and our Sundays at Tiffanys contest.

1. Which blog-based memoir did I prefer, Queen of the Road or Wife in the North?
2. True or false: I am a Jane Austen addict.
3. Which of these is NOT one of my favorite mystery authors
a. Joan Hess
b. Joanne Fluke
c. Kate Kingsbury
d. Donna Andrews
e. I'm a mystery junkie and I love them all
4. Find one book I said I couldn't finish reading.
5. Find a juvenile fantasy series I've reviewed and name one thing I like about it.

E-mail your answers to hollybooknotes AT gmail DOT com (we don't want anyone cheating off your answers, now, do we?) no later than Monday, September 22 at 11:59 p.m. EDT. Include your first and second choices for prizes (if there's room in the flat rate box, I'll chuck in your second choice, too). All entries with five correct answers will go into a random drawing with five entries (one per answer). For an extra THREE entries, blog about this contest and tell me that you did. I'm going to open this one up to anyone, anywhere, but if someone without a US mailing address wins, I'll split the prize--the international winner gets their first choice of book, and I'll choose a second winner to receive their choice of the remaining two books, plus the goodies. Have fun!

Another Contest!

Since it's Wednesday, I thought I would tell you all we are having another giveaway, just to lighten your spirits for hump day and help you get through the rest of the week!

We are giving away a hardcover copy of Sundays at Tiffany's by James Patterson! A quick read about a girl and her imaginary friend meeting again once she's grown up.

And here's what you can do to win:

1) Leave a comment here saying you would like to be entered and answer one of the two following questions: A) What's your favorite day of the week and why? or B) Did you have an imaginary friend growing up? Tell us about him/her. :-) If you answer BOTH questions you will get TWO entries.

2)Receive THREE extra entries if you blog about this contest and send me the link.

In the spirit of BBAW and our blog readers world-wide, I will open this contest to both US and international folks! Happy Wednesday! The contest will close at 11:59pm on Sunday, September 21st. Even though BBAW ends on Friday, I think we need to leave this one open until Sunday because its just so fitting with the book title. :-)

If this particular title doesn't interest you, check back tomorrow because I think we'll be hosting one more contest before the end of the week!

Mystery and Attempted Mystery

I love cozy mysteries, and I'm always on the lookout for a new favorite series. I really enjoy watching a character develop in the course of a series, revisiting favorite places, and reading a good mystery. This post is about four different first novels in mystery series, three delightful and one...meh.

Death of a Cozy Writer by G. M. Malliet: This is the first St. Just mystery, written in classic drawing-room mystery style, with contemporary sensibilities. Malliet's prodigious wit is used to great effect in this novel, and she's a fantastic writer. I laughed out loud several times (at least twice with a very uncouth snort). The children of mystery writer Sir Adrian are dragged back home to witness his marriage to (they assume) one of his bimbos. Even Ruthven, widely known as the favorite, has little love for his father. When Ruthven is found dead, DCI St. Just and Sgt. Fear try to untangle the web of family secrets and lies before another murder is committed. The mystery was complex and satisfying, with several unpredictable twists, and St. Just and Fear are likeable but funny investigators. I thoroughly enjoyed this, and I'm looking forward to the next installment, Death and the Lit Chick.

Murder on the Rocks by Karen MacInerney: This was a promising debut mystery, not a slam-dunk like Death of a Cozy Writer, but a lot of fun and interesting enough that I'll pick up #2, Dead and Berried. Natalie has put all her life savings into the Gray Whale Inn, located on remote Cranberry Island, off the coast of Maine. I have always wanted to go to Maine, although my only exposure to Maine is through Stephen King novels and Murder She Wrote reruns. Bernard Katz, a developer with plans to put a resort on Cranberry Island, is staying at the inn. The scenes with Katz remind me of why I shouldn't own a B&B...customers, ick. Katz's son and daughter-in-law live on the island, but they've had a falling-out; hence, Katz's booking with Natalie. When Natalie finds Katz's body, the local law enforcement, her friend John, knows she had nothing to do with it, but he doesn't have any real power in the investigation--and the sheriff is convinced of her guilt. Natalie decides to investigate in between batches of cranberry scones and blueberry coffee cake. I really enjoyed Cranberry Island and its inhabitants, and for the most part, I liked Natalie. I had a couple of quibbles with this mystery--I'm not a fan of the amateur-sleuth-withholds-evidence-from-authorities device. Even with the sheriff suspecting her, there was no good reason not to tell John everything she knew. The other is that she stumbles into a dangerous situation out of pure stupidity. It's like her brain fell out of her head for half a chapter. But I liked this well enough to seek out the second in the series.

Witch Way to Murder by Shirley Damsgaard: This one was a real surprise for me. I've tried paranormal mysteries before (Madelyn Alt) and didn't like them, but this was a well-written, complex mystery with well-developed characters. The paranormal elements complemented the mystery well. Ophelia is a small-town librarian, having left the big city after her best friend's murder, and returning to be near her grandmother, Abby, an Appalachian wise woman. Ophelia herself has "the sight" but she's turned her back on her gift, unlike her grandmother, who is a healer and herbalist. A mysterious stranger comes to town asking questions in the wake of drug-related thefts plaguing the town. Abby senses a greater evil at work and warns Ophelia that she's at the center. I adored Abby and Darci (who turns the ditzy blonde stereotype on its head), even if Ophelia was a bit hard to like at times. She really grew on me by the end, though, and it's clear she'll be more likable in future books. The mystery was decent, if a little pedestrian despite the paranormal elements. I'll be picking up #2, Charmed to Death. There are currently five of these out, yay!

Cooking Up Murder by Miranda Bliss: This one just didn't do it for me. I trudged through 100 pages before tossing it aside. I didn't even bother to flip to the end to see what ended up happening. Mysteries are supposed to be fun and entertaining for me, not feel like work. Annie's best friend, Eve, signs the two up for cooking lessons as a way of cheering up Annie, who still hasn't bounced back from her divorce. Eve is a flirtatious dimwit who takes credit for everything Annie does, and dates half the town. Annie expresses contempt for Eve, supposedly her best friend. They overhear Beyla, a fellow student, arguing with the leather-clad Drago. They also witness an altercation between Drago and the owner of the store hosting the cooking classes. Annie hears Drago's last words, and Eve leaves out important information when talking to the cops because the cop is her ex-fiance's new woman. Annie, who is apparently a total doormat, goes along with this felonious obstruction of justice, so the women feel compelled to investigate. I could see where the plot was going, and I just didn't care. I didn't like Annie or Eve, and the mystery felt like it was going to be ridiculous and contrived. That's it for me on this one!

Another Winner!

Anna, of Diary of an Eccentric, has won Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict! I hope you enjoy the book.

Thank you to all who entered!

BBAW

It's finally here! Book Blogger Appreciation Week hosted by fellow blogger My Friend Amy! If you participate this week, you could win one of these great prizes or books!

Daily Raffles:
Monday–Books and Chocolate sponsored by My Friend Amy and Hey Lady! Whatcha’ Readin?
Tuesday–Books and Going Green sponsored by My Friend Amy
Wednesday–Books and Coffee sponsored by My Friend Amy
Thursday–Books and Charity sponsored by My Friend Amy and Fashionista Piranha
Friday–Books and Movies sponsored by My Friend Amy

Win a Book Club Girl Hostess Survival Kit!
Do you find it’s your turn to host book club and not only do you not know what to serve but you don’t know what books to offer up for the next month’s selection?! Let Book Club Girl come to your rescue with the Book Club Girl Hostess Survival Kit.

One lucky winner of the kit will receive:

* A basket of cheese, crackers, cookies and wine for up to 12 people
* 5 great book group books to vote on for your group’s next pick. And Book Club Girl will then donate 12 copies whichever book is chosen for your entire group to read.
* 12 Book Club Girl mousepads to give out as party favors that night
* 12 Book Club Girl bookmarks to mark everyone’s favorite passages
* 12 Book Club Girl coasters to protect your coffee table from all those wine glasses!

TWO SORMAG Goody Bags containing books and more!

A Special Pamper Me Basket from Cafe of Dreams!
From Avon Foot Works
~ Inflatable watermelon shaped foot tub
~ 3.4 FL oz Watermelon Cooling Foot Lotion
~ 3.4 FL oz Watermelon Exfoliating Foot Scrub
~ 12 count Watermelon Effervescent Foot Tablets
~ An ARC of So Long At The Fair by Christina Schwarz
~ A variety of Hot Chocolate and Tea mixes

A pre-made blog template from SNSDesign!

A Subscription to Poetry Magazine from Savvy Verse and Wit!

BOOKS
Mistress of the Revolution by Catherine Delors
The Moon in the Mango Tree by Pamela Binnings Ewen
The Spanish Bow by Andromeda Romano-Lax
John’s Quest by Cecelia Dowdy
Confessions of a Contractor by Richard Murphy
Acedia & Me by Kathleen Norris
The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell
The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks
The Book of Lies by Brad Meltzer
Supreme Courtship by Christopher Buckley
A Tale Out of Luck by Willie Nelson with Mike Blakely
The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent
When Will There Be Good News by Kate Atkinson
An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination by Elizabeth McCracken
Exit Music by Ian Rankin
The Smart One and the Pretty One by Claire LaZebnik
Gunmetal Black by Daniel Serrano
Isolation by Travis Thrasher
The Miracle Girls by Anne Dayton and May Vanderbilt
Every Freaking! Day With Rachell Ray by Elizabeth Hilts
Dewey by Vicki Myron
The Shiniest Jewel by Marian Henley
Keep the Faith by Faith Evans
The Book of Calamities by Peter Trachtenberg
A is for Atticus by Lorilee Craker
After the Fire by Robin Gaby Fisher
Mike’s Election Guide by Michael Moore
War as They Knew It by Michael Rosenberg
Fixing Hell By Col. (ret.) Larry C. James
Wild Boy: My Life with Duran Duran by Andy Taylor
The Last Under-Cover: The True Story of an FBI Agent’s Dangerous Dance with Evil By Bob Hamer
Border Lass by Amanda Scott
Insatiable Desire by Rita Heron
Hungry for More by Diana Holquist
Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee
Trespassers Will Be Baptized by Elizabeth Emerson Hancock
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not by Trish Ryan
Never Surrender by General Jerry Boykin
Dream in Color by Congresswoman Linda Sánchez, Congresswoman Loretta Sánchez
Beyond Belief by Josh Hamilton
Cobain Unseen by Charles R. Cross
Doing Business in 21st Century India by Gunjan Bagla
Branding Only Works on Cattle by Jonathan Salem Baskin
Launching a Leadership Revolution by Chris Brady, Orrin Woodward
How to Hear from God by Joyce Meyer
Knowing Right from Wrong by Thomas D. Williams
Pope John Paul II: An Intimate Life by Caroline Pigozzi
Pure by Rebecca St. James
He Loves Me! by Wayne Jacobson
So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore by Wayne Jacobson and Dave Coleman
Move On, Move Up by Paula White
The Rosary by Gary Jansen
Shoot the Moon by Billie Letts
The Choice by Nicholas Sparks
Right Livelihoods by Rick Moody
by George by Wesley Stace
The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold
Trunk Music by Michael Connelly
Hollywood Crows by Joseph Wambaugh
Dead Boys by Richard Lange
The Gifted Gabaldon Sisters by Lorraine Lopez
Sisterchicks Go Brit! by Robin Jones Gunn
Beyond the Night by Marlo Schalesky
With Endless Sight by Allison Pittman
Harlequin Titles: To Be Announced

And today we've been asked to post about book blogs that we love to read but didn't make the list of nominations for awards. Here are a couple blogs I really enjoy:

The Optimistic Bookfool: I found this blog through LibraryThing. Its owner, Kelly and I had more than 70 books in our library that were similar so I figured her blog was worth a look! And glad I did!

And for YA and kid lit books, I really enjoy Abby the Librarian and BookMoot.
Otherwise, many of the blogs I read were nominated for awards.

And there are a ton of giveaways going on right now. Here is the list!