Guest Post: Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult

I received a copy of Jodi Picoult's new book in the mail a couple weeks ago and just knew my friend Amber would want to read it. I knew I wouldn't be able to get to it for quite some time so thought she would love getting a copy before it even hit bookstores. I asked her if she wouldn't mind writing a review for the blog and here it is!! Thank you so much Amber! You can find out more about Amber here on her own blog. And now without further ado...the Sing You Home review:

Hello On My Bookshelf readers! I’ll be honest when Holly asked me to write a review of Jodi Picoult’s new book I was a little intimidated. Holly and Allison write amazing reviews and a good part of what I read comes from their reviews and suggestions. I love to read but I’m not much of a reviewer. I have a very hard time finding the right balance of information to include in my reviews, but I’m giving it my best shot! I will admit I am a fan of Picoult (I believe I have read all of her books) so I had high expectations for this book. I was not disappointed.

Sing You Home centers around three characters, Zoe, Max and Vanessa. Zoe and Max have struggled with fertility issues throughout their marriage. A tragic turn of events causes Zoe and Max’s marriage to eventually fall apart. Zoe, a music therapist, focuses on the one thing that can make her feel better, her work. During the course of her work she meets Vanessa and they quickly become best friends. When Zoe finally feels like her life is falling into place and she is genuinely happy again her world is rocked to the core by the actions of her ex-husband. She suddenly is thrust into a world where her character and morality are being questioned.

A couple of interesting things about this book, since the main character in this novel was a music therapist Picoult wanted to include some original music as a soundtrack to the novel, the chapters correspond to the tracks on a CD included in the book. Picoult wrote all the lyrics and her friend Ellen Wilber provided the accompaniment and the vocals on the CD. I have not yet listened to the CD, but I will definitely be doing so. The other thing I found interesting about this novel is that because it is told from the point of view of three different characters, each character had their own font throughout the novel. It was a great way for me to keep track of which point of view I was reading. Since some of the parts could have been any of the three characters view point it was easy to distinguish the characters when I got wrapped up in the story.

While parts of this novel completely infuriated me, it was also those parts that made me want to read faster to find out what was going to happen. I really enjoyed this book, it was thought provoking and made me smile, laugh and tear up throughout its pages.

Sing You Home will hit stores March 1^st, 2011.

Source disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from the publisher after requesting it on Shelf Awareness.

Altar of Bones by Philip Carter

There are not too many reviews of Altar of Bones out there yet. I'm kind of surprised by this actually. Philip Carter is supposedly a pseudonym for "an internationally renowned author" according to Simon and Schuster's website. It seems to me that it would be promoted more already with less than a month to its release. As Book Faerie at Journey of a Bookseller noted, it does have a Dan Brown feeling to it. While reading I thought to myself that it kind of reminded me of The DaVinci Code minus all the random art historical/historical fact rambling.

Altar of Bones jumps around in the beginning quite a bit, but once you get to the nitty gritty of the story, it's a spy/treasure hunt/suspense thriller based on a Russian folk story. Somewhere deep in the frozen tundra of Siberia there is a frozen lake with a frozen waterfall hiding a cave that legend claims holds the Altar of Bones and a fountain of youth. One particular family, who are descendants of the "magic people" of the area, have passed the secret to the Altar of Bones from mother to daughter for centuries. One woman is known as the Keeper and she must protect the Altar of Bones at all costs. However, these women are tempted by love and the men in their lives tend to prove untrustworthy and only interested in finding the Altar of Bones.

Jump to the present day of the story and Zoe Dmitroff finds herself the most recent Keeper when she receives a letter from her grandmother. She starts on a world-wide journey to unlock family secrets. Along the way, she teams up with an ex-DEA agent named Ry O'Malley. Together the two of them travel to Paris, Budapest, and finally Siberia. All while being hunted by a crazy red-headed femme fatale, an old KGB official, and more. This book is chock full of action with car chases and gun fights with a little romance thrown in by the end. It also tries to offer a new conspiracy theory for a presidential assassination with ties to Hollywood.

All very interesting to ponder. The book was a tiny bit long for me and dragged a bit about 2/3rd in and picked up toward the end again, but overall was a fun read. I kept turning the pages to find out where the adventure took Ry and Zoe next, whether he would eventually double-cross her and what they would do once they finally found the Altar of Bones.

Source disclosure: This was an e-book galley from Simon and Schuster and will be available for purchase March 8, 2011.

I'm Stylish!

My friend Amber gave the book blog a Stylish Award! Super nice of her to include us. I think she's pretty stylish herself! She makes AWESOME birthday cakes! I mean seriously, she made Andy's bed from Toy Story as her son's birthday cake. She also makes fabulous jewelry at Links of Love! Check it out if you get a chance!

Now onto following the rules of acceptance -

1) Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award.

2) Share 7 things about yourself

3) Award 15 recently discovered great blogs/bloggers (The Versatile Blogger guideline was different the first time I received it so feel free to choose 10 or 15)

4) Contact the bloggers to tell them about the award

7 things you all don't know about me? Hmmmm

1. When I was in junior high, I wanted to be a writer. I LOVED writing stories and thought I might write a book one day.
   
2. I wrote my senior art history thesis about decapitation imagery in Baroque art.
   
3. When I was younger, I always wanted to own/work in a book store.
   
4. I think it might be kind of fun to be an art teacher in a non-school setting (like the Art Center, Community Center, etc.)
   
5. I wish I had the time and money to travel more often. There are so many people I've lost touch with because we don't live near each other.
6. I really want to travel to Italy with Andrew some day. We've always wanted to go there together. We've both been separately.
7. I will admit it...I still love Journey. Anyone who knew me in high school, knew I listened to them all the time. And yesterday, the Glee cast version of Don't Stop Believin' came on the radio and it made me smile.

So to pass the award along. Here are some pretty stylish ladies that I really admire.

1. Allison at The Whole Ball of Yarn(s)
2. Renee at Our Happenings
3. Kathy at Art Projects for Kids
4. Emily at My Little World
5. DrewB at Momtog
6. Katie at Adventures of an Art Teacher
7. Marce at Tea Time for Marce
8. Girl Detective
9. Charlotte at Charlotte's Web of Books
10. Lenore at Presenting Lenore

The Radleys by Matt Haig

MILESTONE ALERT! My last post on here was #600!! 600 posts! That's a lot of book rambling by me and Allison. :-) And we are at 192 subscribers when you combine our Google Reader and Blogger stats. Come on! Get us to 200 subscribers! I think a giveaway might be in the works if we d0 get to 200 subscribers.

Okay with that bit of boasting out of the way, let's get to today's regularly scheduled book review. :-)

Matt Haig's The Radleys is yet another entrant into the literary world of vampires. Let me digress for a moment. Why are vampires so popular these days? Seriously. What is the appeal of these bloodsuckers? Is it because they are supposed to be attractive? I admit, I was not one of those people who got sucked into Twilight. I read the first one and did not read anymore. I have watched the movies though just to see where the story went from there. I have not read any of the Sookie Stackhouse books, nor do I really want to. I have not watched True Blood...in fact, I was never even into Buffy the Vampire Slayer in my younger years. BUT, something about the description of The Radleys appealed to me. I think it was the idea that they were trying NOT to be vampires!

The Radleys lived on an ordinary street in an ordinary village in England. Peter was a doctor, Helen was a stay-at-home mom and an artist, and they had a son named Rowan and a daughter named Clara. They always seemed a little pale and the kids seemed a little strange to their high-school classmates. But other than that, just run-of-the-mill people. HA! They were actually abstaining vampires. Vampires, who didn't want to be vampires anymore! And their kids didn't even know they were vampires. Until Clara decides to become a vegan. The lack of red meat in her diet went against part of the Abstainer's diet and an incident at a party one night turns the family's whole world around. Long ignored family members start appearing and secrets are revealed.

I enjoyed this book for the most part. I think I might have liked it to be a bit more campy and lighthearted. The second half was pretty dark. But overall, Haig made a valiant effort in breaking into the vampire genre. This is a perfect book for a long airplane ride, a beach read, or if you happen to be stuck inside for a snow day with three foot drifts in front of your garage like some people in the Midwest today.

Source disclosure: I received a review copy from the publisher after sending a request from Shelf Awareness.

The Scent of Rain and Lightning by Nancy Pickard

Nancy Pickard's The Scent of Rain and Lightning was a truly enjoyable way to start off my New Year reading. It grabbed me from the very beginning and kept me interested all the way through to the big reveal at the end. And the end really packed a punch!

The book tells its story on two timelines. We start off in present day with Jody Linder, a 26 year old school teacher who suffered family tragedy as a three year old when her father was murdered and her mother disappeared. The book then shifts back 23 years so we can see what happened leading up to the murder. We gradually come back to present day when the man convicted of her father's murder is released from prison early and returns to the small town of Rose, Kansas.

The book seems to depict small town life accurately and the many characters are interesting from the Linder family to the town drunk convicted of her father's murder and his family. Pickard also weaves in an unlikely love story between Jody and the son of the man convicted of killing her father.

I spent much of the book trying to figure out the mystery of who really killed Jody's father. It seemed the man convicted was too drunk. But who?! It was such a small town and everyone else seemed accounted for. My theory was that her mom killed her dad and ran off. But, I was pleasantly surprised by the twist that Pickard threw in at the end. For once, there wasn't a totally cookie cutter ending to a book!

This is a highly recommended from me! And very close to a five-star rating. It's just a tiny bit too fluffy for me to make it five stars. I usually like to learn something along with having a fantastic story in order to give a five star rating....such as learning about the Japanese internment camps during WWII in The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet or the south during the 1960's in The Help. I need just a tiny bit more substance for a 5-star book. However, this is definitely a 4.75 for me.

Source disclosure: Purchased by me as an e-book.

Why do I have such a difficult time deciding what e-books to buy?

I have to admit. I'm glad the iPad was a gift to us because it has sat around for the last several days without even being turned on. Don't get me wrong. It's a very cool device. But I'm finding I prefer the NookColor to the iPad as an e-reader. I actually find myself using the iPad to stream tv and movies while I'm working. That feature is AWESOME! But the iPad is a bit bulky to hold for any length of time for reading. The NookColor is perfect for that!

After playing around with the NookColor for a bit now. I'm thoroughly impressed by what it has to offer. I could even be updating this blog from it if I wanted to. The only thing I've discovered it cannot do is stream/play video. I tried to get Netflix Watch Instantly to work through the web. But no go.

I've also discovered I'm cheap. Now, I usually have no problem shopping. However, I'm having a hard time choosing exactly WHICH books to buy as e-books. I received a Barnes and Noble gift card in the mail and I planned to use it to purchase a new e-book. But I kept looking at the Nookbooks available and thinking do I want this as an e-book? What if I like it and wish I had a hard copy of the book for my shelf in the instance that I want to read it again or pass it along to someone? I know some e-books can be borrowed. But very few people I know have e-readers, so that is not practical. I also had a hard time paying $10 for the e-book I was looking at. I'm not sure WHY as I had a gift card. And I will pay more than that for a hardcover of a book.

In the end, I decided to buy The Scent of Rain and Lightning by Nancy Pickard. It is my book club book for this month. I wasn't sure what I would think of it and I wouldn't be able to borrow the e-book from the library in time for book club.

The funniest thing about this, I could have just checked out the hardcover from the library and read the book that way. Not spent any money. And had the book in plenty of time for book club. Boy, these e-reader business execs sure know what they're doing, don't they? I just spent $10 (okay, it wasn't MY money, it was a gift card...but still) on a book, when had I not owned an e-reader, I would have just trotted down to the library and checked the book out.

Okay, that was my ramble for the day. :-)

Picture Book Thursday: Winter Fun

I thought snowy books would be appropriate for this week's Picture Book Thursday. Here in Minnesota, we're having the snowiest winter in 20 years. My kids are loving it, but I'm already hoping for an early spring.

Peter Rabbit: A Winter's Tale is a gorgeous picture book with a shiny sparkly cover, a fun story and an interactive pop-up at the end. Mrs. Rabbit sends Peter out to gather firewood one afternoon. He runs into his cousin Benjamin Bunny and the two run off to gather firewood together. But snowy fun lures them away from their duty. They sled and throw snowballs. While they are out running around the forest, they run into Tommy Brock who seems up to something. After seeing Mrs. Tittlemouse, the two rabbits realize Tommy Brock stole her babies! They are off to try and save them, all the while keeping an eye out for Mr. Tod, the sinister fox.

Throughout the book, your child will find little envelopes filled with a small shiny snowflake. At the end you can prop the book up, unfold the snowy fir tree and your child can hang their snowflakes on the tree. I would recommend this for about four years old. The snowflakes are too small for the younger set, though they can enjoy the story. You could save the interactive part for when they are old enough to handle it. I'm not sure younger than four will have the dexterity to hang the snowflakes by themselves (but you could always help them!).

Jan Bretty's Snowy Treasury contains four of her well-known stories all in one bound copy: Gingerbread Baby, The Mitten, The Hat, and The Three Snow Bears. I'm sure many of you are familiar with at least one of these stories. They are all beautifully illustrated and a delight to read. Set in beautiful landscapes all inspired by Jan Brett's hometown in the Berkshires or on her many travels including Switzerland and Scandinavian countries.

Source disclosure: These books were sent to me by The Penguin Group as review copies.

The Confession by John Grisham

John Grisham's latest was the first book of 2011 for me. I'll be honest, I was pleasantly surprised by this one. I believe The Client was the last book I had read by Grisham other than The Painted House and Skipping Christmas. I just haven't been into his legal thrillers since then. I read The Appeal and was very disappointed by it. I had heard that The Appeal was "old school" Grisham, but I felt it fell far short of his first books.

So I was leery to say the least going into The Confession. And really, the only reason I did read it was because my husband's uncle gave me a copy of the e-book and I wanted to play with my new e-reader.

Turns out the book was pretty good! Now, I'm not sure if that's because I went in with really LOW expectations or if it just intrigued me.

Keith, a Lutheran pastor receives a mysterious visitor in his office. Travis Boyette, a convicted serial rapist, claims that he killed a girl nine years earlier and now the state of Texas is going to execute an innocent man. Boyette has a deadly brain tumor and wants to come clean at the last minute. He wants Keith's help and guidance on how to proceed. Keith struggles with what to do next. Meanwhile, in Texas we meet Donte Drumm, the man who has been on death row for all this time vigilantly holding on to the belief that he his innocent.

The first two thirds of Grisham's book describe a race against the clock to prove Drumm is innocent before they execute the wrong man. All of this kept my attention and I "turned" each page as fast as I could to see if the execution would happen. Now, I'm not going to give away what happens. All I'm going to say is that I wish Grisham would have written a slightly shorter book or pushed off the climactic scene. Having one-third of the book left seemed a bit much and I found myself skimming through the pages. I felt the very end was satisfactory and I'm really glad that Grisham didn't reek more havoc on the pastor's life toward the end of the book.

This would make for a really great vacation or beach read (ah, the beach, doesn't that sound nice right about now?).

Source Disclosure: This e-book was shared with me by a family member.

YA Weekend - grab bag of series

Some 2010 housekeeping...didn't get these reviews up before year's end :)

The Sisters Grimm - The Inside Story by Michael Buckley: The penultimate book in the series, The Inside Story picks up after the girls have jumped into a book in search of their baby brother. In the acknowledgments, Buckley calls this the most difficult in the series to write, and it shows. Puck adds desperately needed comic relief from the action-packed plot, which hurtles from book to book without advancing the series in a significant way. Still, there are fun moments, as when the characters of Oz panic because Sabrina refuses to play along with the way the story is meant to go. Overall, Sabrina was less likable (and that's saying something!) in this entry in the series. Its main purpose is to set up for the finale, and I believe it does that well. A serviceable entry in a magical series.

Theodosia and the Staff of Osiris by R. L. LaFevers: I enjoyed Theodosia and the Serpent of Chaos, but found it hard to get into at first. This follow-up was even better. LaFevers seems more surefooted, Theodosia more evenly portrayed, and supporting cast fleshed out nicely. When a veritable army of stolen mummies is discovered at her father's museum, he is suspected of theft, and Theodosia must uncover the mystery of the traveling mummies, contend with a fierce cursed statue in the basement, and once again battle the Serpents of Chaos. This was great fun, very British and with an informative focus on ancient Egypt.

The Diamond of Drury Lane (A Cat Royal Adventure) by Julia Golding: "Cat" Royal was a foundling left at the Theatre Royal, and she haunts the backstage of the theater, whose staff and actors make up her unconventional family. An orphan in 1790 had a dismal life, and Cat isn't exactly pampered. She's more or less self-sufficient, sheltered by the theater and looked after by Mr. Sheridan, its owner. She holds her own (mostly) in the streets of London. When she finds out about a diamond hidden in the theater, Cat must try to protect it. At the same time, she makes friends with Pedro, an African boy and violin prodigy, and crosses swords with one of the nasty street gangs that rule London. Cat is plucky, the story is exciting and intriguing, and if 1790 London doesn't quite seem authentic, well, that's fine. There's plenty of adventure to distract from any oddities.

The 39 Clues: Into the Gauntlet by Margaret Peterson Haddix: A satisfying end to an uneven, but innovative series! The conclusion was not (at least to me) predictable, which after nine books seemed quite an accomplishment. I don't want to ruin the ending for those who haven't finished the series, so I'll just say that the conclusion was surprisingly complex and kept my attention nicely.

2010 Wrap-Up

It's still January, so I'm not so late on the 2010 State of the Reading report :) Here are the books I read in 2010, with links to reviews (or brief reviewlets if I didn't do a full review). I always get to the end of the year and look at my books by the star rating I gave them in LibraryThing and can't figure out why I'm overgenerous. So these are roughly in order of the best to the...least best...in each category.

The Very, Very Best: Fall Asleep Forgetting, Mr. Chartwell, An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England
Mystery: The Vanishing of Katharina Linden, Stieg Larsson, Louise Penny, The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag
Juvenile: Joy of Spooking: Unearthly Asylum, The Diamond of Drury Lane, The Red Blazer Girls

I still haven't managed to read my September Early Reviewers book, The Paris Wife. It's dreadful. I shall have to slog through so I can get a review up.

Books read by category

Literary Novels

Fall Asleep Forgetting by Georgeann Packard (will get a review up as soon as I can)
Mr. Chartwell by Rebecca Hunt
Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England by Brock Clarke (have I not reviewed this??? another great book club pick)
The Clouds Beneath the Sun by Mackenzie Ford

Plain Heathen Mischief by Martin Clark (book club pick, and a good one! disgraced preacher meets slick con man...hilarity and soul-searching ensue)
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
The Tale of Halcyon Crane by Wendy Webb


Mysteries

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson (Everyone else has gushed about them, and yes, they are THAT good)
Louise Penny's The Three Pines mysteries (a new favorite series), The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny, Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny
The Vanishing of Katharina Linden by Helen Grant
The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley
Arctic Chill by Arnaldur Indridason

Heat Wave and Naked Heat by Richard Castle: Must-reads for fans of the television show. Pretty much just plain fun.
Death at the Alma Mater by G. M. Malliet
The Anatomy of Ghosts by Andrew Taylor
The Seventh Witch by Shirley Damsgaard

Port Mortuary by Patricia Cornwell (in which Cornwell actually seems to...gasp!...care about Scarpetta, Marino, and Lucy again!)
Killer Cruise by Laura Levine
Killing Bridezilla by Laura Levine
Murder at Mansfield Park by Lynn Shepherd
Apple Turnover Murder by Joanne Fluke
Scone Cold Dead by Kaitlyn Dunnett
murder@maggody.com by Joan Hess
St. Patrick's Day Murder by Leslie Meier

Juvenile
Unearthly Asylum by P. J. Bracegirdle
The Red Blazer Girls: The Vanishing Violin by Michael Beil
The Diamond of Drury Lane by Julia Golding (review coming this weekend, I promise. Well, I hope, anyway)
The Case of the Gypsy Goodbye and The Case of the Cryptic Crinoline by Nancy Springer

The 39 Clues: Books 7-10
Grim Hill: The Family Secret by Linda DeMeulemeester

The SIsters Grimm: The Inside Story by Michael Buckley
Alison Dare: The Heart of the Maiden by J. Torres and J. Bone
Fablehaven: Keys to the Demon Prison

Nonfiction
Whip Smart by Melissa Febos

A Year in Review: 2010

According to my LibraryThing account, I read 35 books in 2010, exactly half of what I read in 2009. Although, this number doesn't usually count picture books I've reviewed. So overall, the count is probably a bit higher.

Here is the breakdown by star rating:

I RARELY give five stars. I hold on to that for the special book that I just simply couldn't put down, read while ignoring the children, or was simply just blown away. I usually give this to a book that I really can't find a single fault with.

Four and 1/2 stars is a very good book but maybe there were one or two things that bothered me.

And onward.

FIVE STARS:
The Help by Kathryn Stockett

FOUR 1/2 STARS:
Arcadia Falls by Carol Goodman
First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria by Eve Brown-Waite
Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman

FOUR STARS:
The Wake Trilogy (Wake, Fade & Gone) by Lisa McMann
Cryer's Cross by Lisa McMann
The Scarlet Stockings by Charlotte Kandel
Never Look Away by Linwood Barclay
Dog On It by Spencer Quinn
Zeus: King of Gods by George O'Connor
Calamity Jack by Shannon Hale
Stitches: A Memoir by David Small
Theodore Boone by John Grisham
Beautiful Malice by Rebecca James
Athena: Grey-eyed Goddess by George O'Connor
When Santa Fell to Earth by Cornelia Funke
Holiday Magic by Fern Michaels (clairfication: only read Terri Dulong's Cedar Key novella--rating is for that, not the entire book)

Three 1/2 STARS:
Over the Holidays by Sandra Harper
The House on Tradd Street by Karen White
We the Children by Andrew Clements
Thereby Hangs a Tail by Spencer Quinn
Caught by Harlen Coben
Still Missing by Chevy Stevens
Savvy by Ingrid Law
Brain Camp by Susan Kim
Stash by David Klein

THREE STARS:
The Gardner Heist by Ulrich Boser
ghostgirl by Tonya Hurley
ghostgirl: the homecoming by Tonya Hurley
Booth by C.C. Colbert
Look Again by Lisa Scottoline
The House at Sugar Beach by Helene Cooper
The Seventh Witch by Shirley Damsgaard

Year in Review by Genre:
Adult Fiction
Beautiful Malice by Rebecca James
Arcadia Falls by Carol Goodman
Caught by Harlen Coben
Never Look Away by Linwood Barclay
Over the Holidays by Sandra Harper
The House on Tradd Street by Karen White
The Help by Karen Stockett
Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman
Stash by David Klein
Holiday Magic by Fern Michaels

Adult Mystery
Still Missing by Chevy Stevens
Dog On It by Spencer Quinn
Thereby Hangs a Tail by Spencer Quinn
Look Again by Lisa Scottoline
The Seventh Witch by Shirley Damsgaard

Young Adult
Wake by Lisa McMann
Fade by Lisa McMann
Gone by Lisa McMann
Cryer's Cross by Lisa McMann
ghostgirl by Tonya Hurley
ghostgirl: Homecoming by Tonya Hurley

Middle-Grade
Theodore Boone by John Grisham
We the Children by Andrew Clements
The Scarlet Stockings by Charlotte Kandel
Savvy by Ingrid Law
When Santa Fell to Earth by Cornelia Funke

Children's Fiction
Superheroes: A Pop-up Book
How to Raise a Dinosaur by Natasha Wing
This School Year Will be the Best by Kay Winters
How You Got So Smart by David Milgrim
Dewey: There's a Cat in the Library by Vicki Myron
The Earth and I by Frank Asch
Fancy Nancy: Explorer Extraordinaire by Jane O'Connor
Say Hello! by Rachel Isadora
Hot Diggity Dog by Adrienne Sylver
Ladybug Girl at the Beach by David Soman
Red Green Blue by Alison Jay
Sleepover at Gramma's House by Barbara Joose

Graphic Novel
Calamity Jack by Shannon Hale
Zeus: King of Gods by George O'Connor
Stitches: A Memoir by David Small
Athena: Grey-eyed Goddess by George O'Connor
Brain Camp by Susan Kim
Booth by C.C. Colbert

Nonfiction
First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria by Eve Brown-Waite
The House at Sugar Beach by Helene Cooper
Gardner Heist by Ulrich Boser

Just for my own musings....
Books on this list--
Bought this year: 7
Advanced Copies/From the Publisher: 25
Borrowed from Library/Friend: 11 (Library), 3 (Friend)
E-books read: 2
Books already sitting on my shelf: 0 (boo!)

The gift of an e-reader

Awhile back (Oct 2009 to be precise) I rambled on about e-readers. At the time, I wasn't very convinced I needed one or wanted one. I was worried about the future of printed books.

However, a little over a year later, I may be singing a different song. I have to admit that I really had no desire for a Kindle or even a Nook (the original, e-ink version). A friend of mine let me borrow her Nook to try it out, and while it was a fun experience, it didn't really convince me I needed to take the plunge yet. THEN, the iPad came out and then NookColor. I really wanted an iPad. But I learned from both the iPod and the iPhone. I was going to wait until at least the 2nd generation iPad came out before convincing my husband we needed this gadget. After seeing and playing with the NookColor at Barnes and Noble one day, I was very impressed. I LOVE the idea of an e-reader that is multi-functional. One that you can listen to music on, or check your email or whatever. Our public library also recently jumped on the e-book bandwagon and now you can borrow e-books to your e-reader. A real plus in my book.

Borrowing library e-books would make an e-reader a little more useful to me. I do not buy many of the books I read, so I wasn't sure I was going to like purchasing e-books. I also knew I would never want a Kindle, because I didn't want to be married to one particular e-bookstore. The NookColor was appealing to me as well because of the Nook Kids aspect. E-picture books that could be read TO my kids. That is a pretty cool thing for travel.

So Christmas rolls around and I didn't ask for either an iPad or a NookColor because my husband bought me a new studio light for the photography business. I wasn't expecting to have anything fun to open on Christmas Eve day (when we open at our house). But, lo and behold, I had a fun package wrapped up for me. He'd actually been listening to me bather on throughout the last couple months about how cool the NookColor looked and he got me one! Oh goody goody goody! I could enter the e-book world and discover what it was all about. THEN, Christmas morning rolled around and we open our stockings. I didn't have a thing in my stocking this year, not a lick. But I had medium-sized box sitting on the mantle above my stocking. I opened it up and it was a new iPad. Holy s*#t! I couldn't believe it. Now, the iPad was really my husband's company Christmas gift. So, I'm not truly THAT spoiled. However, I felt extremely guilty having both.

I have played around with them and I actually like both of them ALOT. And think I might keep the NookColor too, even though it seems so excessive to me. I mean, really, how many gadgets does a girl need? My husband did point out to me that the iPad is technically his. So I shouldn't feel guilty that the NookColor is mine. It's just that the NookColor is so much smaller and can fit in a purse or the diaper bag for easier e-reading-on-the-go.

In the past week, I have discovered many things with both devices. I think maybe I'll share in some form of a weekly/monthly post. We'll see how my New Year's Resolution of better book blogging holds up. :-)

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all you faithful blog readers out there!!

Resolution #1: Be a better book blogger in 2011.

2010 kind of got away from me. With a new baby in January, obviously, much of my free time disappeared. Then, my photography business really took off the last five months of the year (not a negative overall, just a negative for free reading time). So my stack of review books has grown. I promised to stay up on Picture Book Thursday and that fell short by a mile.

I've thought a lot about the book blog in the last couple weeks. I thought about throwing in the towel overall because I felt like I couldn't commit to it like I used to. Because it is something I don't get paid for, it has fallen by the wayside as a priority. After thinking about it for awhile, I decided I would miss its existence. I would miss the fact that I could just jump on here to blab about something book related if I felt like it. I have missed being an active part of the book blogging world this year. I couldn't believe BBAW (Book Blogger Appreciation Week) passed me by this year and I didn't realize it until about two months later because my Google Reader had 1000+ posts waiting for me. I didn't get to participate in Carl's R.I.P. challenge this fall....did it even happen? I have no idea. I failed my goal at the Graphic Novel Challenge....actually, I read at least 6 graphic novels and therefore made the goal, but I only got three of them reviewed. I am three books behind on LibraryThing Early Reviewer books and have been since about July.

BUT, 2011 is a new year. I am going to try and participate in the book blogging world once again. Start reading blog posts again and commenting. I'm going to participate in BBAW and RIP VI in the fall. I'm going to get caught up on reviews and at least post a Picture Book Thursday post once a month. I'm going to move the book blog up the list a bit on priorities.

I can't speak for Allison, but I hope she joins me in getting this book blog back on track and make it something fun to read again on a more frequent basis!

The State of the Picture Book

Holly wrote a post a while back reacting to an NYT article that suggested that picture books are in decline.

Well, my friend Gwyneth alerted me to a rebuttal in Publisher's Weekly that really made me feel better about the whole picture book thing :) The article goes through the assertions made by the New York Times to support their theory and pretty effectively relieved my concerns about the loss of picture books. They're here to stay!

Mr. Chartwell by Rebecca Hunt

What an extraordinary first novel. Rebecca Hunt has taken an audacious, ambitious premise, and executed it in an insightful, rich way. Winston Churchill is a well-known depressive who referred to his sometime companion as The Black Dog. Hunt has personified The Black Dog with Mr. Chartwell, the new (canine) boarder at the home of librarian Esther, who is a widower. His presence is entirely unwelcome, yet strangely irresistible. Esther allows him to move in, but resents his presence. He has moved to be conveniently situated near Winston Churchill, who is reflective on the eve of his retirement from Parliament, but he has other jobs as well. This novel really should have been a disaster with this premise. A dog who walks on two legs and affects human manners (though not so well that he can resist chomping on a bone in the hallway) sounds laughable, and not in a good way. But Hunt approaches the subject of depression with sensitivity and deep understanding, and "Mr. Chartwell" embodies it nobly, with messy rudeness and plaintive pleas for understanding.

Hunt's language reveals a sensitivity to the nuances of depression, as well as an elegant precision. Churchill says that "the prospects of retirement could not yet be fully contemplated, being too full of awful passion. It churned the heart with thistles."*** Esther feels that "...the weeks of her life had drifted past as ghosts. There was the rare bump of pleasure, perhaps from a meal out or a visit to the cinema, but it was brittle and shattered under the lonely monotony of the ghost days." But she doesn't immediately recognize that her relationship with "Black Pat" is much more complicated than that of a landlord and boarder. He explains his "job" to her, nicely summing up the symptoms of depression: "With Churchill we know each other's movements, so we have a routine, I guess. I like to be there when he wakes up in the morning. Sometimes I drape across his chest. That slows him down for a bit..." Churchill speaks to Black Pat with familiarity, even affection, but also with bitter resentment. He always knew that Black Pat would return for Churchill's retirement, and he reluctantly accepts the presence.

Hunt's Churchill is fully believable and complex, a great man plagued by doubt, dreading retirement. Esther represents a different stage of visitation by depression, still adjusting to Black Pat's charms. She is also a well-developed character in her own right; a young widow still mourning her husband and coming to terms with loss while attending to new and old friendships and her job, which eventually leads her to Churchill's study to take dictation. Their encounter is the crux of the novel, beautifully exquisite and surprising.

I fully expect this to be my favorite novel released in 2011. Hunt's writing is utterly inventive and surprising, her story told with wisdom and sensitivity.

***All quotations are taken from an uncorrected proof and should be checked against a final copy, tentative publication date 2/22/11.

FTC Source Disclosure: I received an Advance Reader's Edition from the publisher.


An interesting discussion of Churchill's history with depression can be found here.

Superheroes: A Pop-up Book

I was absolutely delighted when I received a box in the mail from Little Brown and Company! It had some fun stuff inside that I hope to review in the next couple months. But there was one treasure in there that could not wait! I had to get this up, and it would have been posted sooner except I had to take photos of this AMAZING book!

Now, let's preface this by saying, I don't know the first thing about superheroes aside from watching the first couple Superman movies back in the day and the first couple Batman movies in the '90's. Oh, and I did happen to watch reruns of the original Batman television show when I was a kid in the summer when I visited my dad. I suppose, I might have a few Wonder Woman episodes stored somewhere in the deep recesses of my mind. Heh....maybe, I actually have more Superhero knowledge than I thought! ;-)

But now, I have a son. And I do feel like I will eventually have to be up on my Superhero speak. This book will certainly send me on my way!

There are about 6 or 7 different pop-up pages, each featuring a superhero. For instance, the first page is Superman.Each page contains smaller pop-ups on the side discussing various villains and superpowers. Here's an example:
The details in the pop-ups are incredible. Here's the Wonder Woman page and a detail:

Her lasso is made out of gold cord! This is the detail that really blew me away! I will admit, I'm relatively new to pop-up books so maybe many of them have real 3-dimensional details out of materials different than paper. But I couldn't believe it when I opened this page.

Then the grand finale of the book:
A collage of all the superheroes on one page, complete with little numbers and a legend identifying each character.

Still have a little boy to buy a gift for this week? This would be PERFECT! Run out and get it NOW! :-)

Source disclosure: Received unsolicited from the publisher: Little Brown & Company.

Teaser Tuesday - Mr. Chartwell

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

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

My teaser is from Mr. Chartwell by Rebecca Hunt:

Churchill stared out of the window at the green slopes below..."I've wondered on occasion whether you were there, waiting to stake your flag from the moment my soul entered the world."

"I didn't come until sent for." Black Pat's eyes were like leeches on him. "But I've been a companion to others around you, so I've never been far away." (ARC, p. 149)

The Anatomy of Ghosts by Andrew Taylor

The Anatomy of Ghosts by Andrew Taylor: Set a potboiler in 1786 Cambridge, and it instantly has more credibility as literature than say, The DaVinci Code. Funny how that works, that the "historical" classification adds gravity. The Anatomy of Ghosts is a historical potboiler, and a good one, but it is not transcendent literature. It is, however, a fun read, and a pleasant way to while away a couple of hours. John Holdsworth, a washed-up bookseller, is nursing the loss of his son, who drowned in an accident, and of his wife, who committed suicide after losing significant amounts of money to a "medium" who claimed to be in contact with the son. He is in dire straits when Lady Anne summons him to perform two jobs for her: to inventory her late husband's book collection and to bring her son, Frank, a Cambridge student, back from the insanity that claimed him after he supposedly saw a ghost. She feels Holdsworth is uniquely qualified to go to Cambridge and debunk Frank's "haunting" because the angry widower Holdsworth had written a scathing debunking of the spirit world called The Anatomy of Ghosts.

When Holdsworth arrives at Cambridge, he finds a strange array of clues in Frank's room, and Frank's roommate is missing. To complicate matters, a secret society called the Holy Ghost Club doesn't want Holdsworth (or anyone else) to find out what happened at Frank's "initiation" into their society the night before he went mad, the night an orphan girl and the wife of the master both died. Is one of these women haunting Frank? Or is something else afoot? What really happened the night Sylvia Whichcote died? What sort of depravity does the Holy Ghost Club get up to? Why does Frank insist on quacking? Throw in all this intrigue with a completely unbelievable "romance" (that, far from being romantic, was creepy and rather off-putting), and you have all the ingredients for a bestseller. Though I saw for the most part where the plot was going, I kept turning the pages to find out who really killed Sylvia Whichcote, and for Taylor's rich, lovingly described 18th-century Cambridge campus, whose narrow lanes and lush quads are the most realistic part of the novel. Taylor has a gift for evoking a time and place in the past, using language, descriptive passages, and perfectly phrased details to bring his setting to life.

Fans of historical settings will love Taylor's masterful depiction of Cambridge, and lovers of potboilers will enjoy the suspense, twisting plot, and depraved young men that populate it. All in all, a fun read.

FTC Source Disclosure: I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher.

The Joy of Spooking + contest winner

Some of you may recall that I reviewed The Joy of Spooking: Unearthly Asylum. And then I disappeared from the face of the blog-world. I am going to cite "personal reasons" and get on with a long overdue contest announcement!

I know there are those who swear by random number generators, but I am old-fashioned. I have yet to embrace Kindle or Nook, and I prefer pulling a slip of paper out of a hat. Actually, I have Lilah pull a slip out of the hat, a task she takes very seriously.

The winner is...drum roll...JenL! Thank you very much to all who entered. This is a delightful series. The third book, SINISTER SCENES, comes out next year, and I can hardly wait.

Teaser Tuesday - holiday murder mysteries

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

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

Kensington has a brilliant marketing strategy for their cozy mysteries. At the holidays, they release a hardcover collection of three short mysteries, one each from Joanne Fluke (the Hannah Swenson mysteries), Laura Levine (Jaine Austen), and Leslie Meier (Lucy Stone). Fans of each series will pick up the volume for their personal favorite sleuth, then get hooked on the two with which they're less familiar. I've sometimes read the Meier series, but I've read every Fluke and Levine. The Fluke entry was rather perfunctory this time, but the Levine is quite funny. My teaser is from the Laura Levine story/novella in Gingerbread Cookie Murder:

"Then, before I knew it, Edna grabbed the sparerib out of my hand and hurled it across the room at Preston, hitting him on his forehead, somewhere around his brow lift. As much as I hated to lose that sparerib, the guy had it coming." (p. 151)

Mystery Monday - Arnaldur Indridason

I received Arctic Chill, the fifth book in Arnaldur Indridason's mystery series set in Iceland, featuring Inspector Erlendur, as a LibraryThing Early Reviewer selection, and had no trouble jumping right in. The fifth was so well-written that I immediately snagged the first four in the series. I'm not going to do full-on reviews of the first four books; I just wanted to mention them to anyone needing something to fill the void left by the end of the Stieg Larsson trilogy! Though the books are very different, they seem to me likely to appeal to fans of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. The forbidding landscape, insular culture, and twisting mysteries are satisfying additions to my mystery shelf (shelves...who am I kidding?).

My review of Arctic Chill is right here.

Here are the first four, in order. The sixth is out in hardcover, and is called Hypothermia.

Jar City
Silence of the Grave
Voices
The Draining Lake

My overview of the series: These are excellent police procedurals, strongly rooted in solving the crime (the way I like it!), but with compelling police officers who become more nuanced with each entry in the series. Erlendur has two children, estranged until recently, and a tragedy hidden in his past that haunts him. Indridason's Iceland is bleak, insular, forbidding...and strangely captivating. When issues of racism related to immigration arise, I wondered what on earth would possess anyone to move there. Erlendur refers to "the usual Icelandic disappearances;" i.e., suicides in a casual fashion. Murders are rare and easily solved...but this series tests Erlendur's sleuthing abilities with more complex murders. Stark realism and nuanced characterization make this series stand out from a sea of procedurals.

A New, Spookier Deadline!

I was in a car accident this week, and am therefore spending my free time car-shopping. With that in mind, I've extended the deadline for the JOY OF SPOOKING giveaway. Creepy Halloween entry deadline: 11:59 pm EDT on Sunday, October 31! Retweet or post the new deadline on your own blog for an extra three entries!

Link to the contest!

How To Get Boys To Read

An interesting article on getting boys to read. Getting me to read was never my parents' problem; that would be getting me to stop! I do remember my mom struggling to find books that engaged my little brother so that he would love reading, too. Nowadays, he's a huge reader, so it must have worked, but back when he was little, there was a sense of desperation in the air.

Teaser Tuesdays - Silence of the Grave

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

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

I'm reading SILENCE OF THE GRAVE, the second in the Reykjavik thriller series by Arnaldur Indridason. The first line:

"He knew at once it was a human bone, when he took it from the baby who was sitting on the floor chewing it."

The Joy of Spooking: Unearthly Asylum by P.J. Bracegirdle

Sequels are tricky things, what with the balancing act of preserving what made the first book good while creating a fresh story. The more I enjoyed the first book in a series, the more anxious/hopeful I feel as I approach the second. A good first book could be a fluke, after all. As you can see here, I loved the first book in the Joy of Spooking trilogy, FIENDISH DEEDS. I will not keep you in suspense: the second book more than realizes the potential of the first to kick off a fantastic trilogy. Now I'm conflicted, because I can't wait for the third book, SINISTER SCENES, in Summer 2011, yet that will be the end of the series!

In FIENDISH DEEDS, we met Joy, a morbid yet likable young denizen of Spooking, her decaying hometown perched on a hill outside the perfect, cookie-cutter suburb of Darlington, where she attends school with the insufferable Darlings. Joy adores everything about Spooking and is convinced that her favorite horror writer, E.A. Peugeot, was writing about Spooking in his chilling tales. When the presumed bog of his stories is threatened by the ambition of the mayor's assistant, Octavio Phipps, she springs into action. In UNEARTHLY ASYLUM, Joy is out of sorts because her little brother/sidekick is occupied with a new friend and her mission to prove that Spooking was the home of Peugeot runs into a major obstacle. Meanwhile, Phipps has a new plan to destroy Spooking, involving the creepy old asylum (the possible setting for Peugeot's story, "The Asylum"). When her beloved pet frog turns up on the wrong side of the asylum wall, Joy mounts a rescue operation. Will she make it out in one piece? Will she find proof of Peugeot's presence in Spooking? Will she uncover the secrets of the strange asylum? Good heavens, you don't really think I'd answer these questions, do you? Go read the book.

The snappy dialogue and clever wit of FIENDISH DEEDS continue in the second book. I was delighted to find that Joy was not only as delightful as she was in the first book, but Bracegirdle has added new dimension to her character. In the first book, her loyalty to Spooking was unwavering; in the second, she begins to see that decay may also have a downside. She also considers the possibility that she might be mistaken about Peugeot having lived in Spooking. Phipps, Joy's nemesis, is also fleshed out further. We learn more about his past and the source of his hatred for Spooking. His interaction with Joy is a delight. As Joy's mother decides to send her to a psychiatrist, attitudes toward mental illness are touched on.

A sample of Bracegirdle's witty phrasing: "Her already excitable character had become impossibly effervescent, and like a shaken pop bottle, she seemed about ready to explode." (p. 158)

For more information about UNEARTHLY ASYLUM, now available in hardcover, see P.J. Bracegirdle's website
Like P.J. Bracegirdle on Facebook!

Source disclosure: I received a review copy of this book.

You want to read this book, don't you? Of course you do! Here's how to receive your very own, brand-new copy of UNEARTHLY ASYLUM (and since I expect you'll love Joy as much as I do, I feel moved to throw in a paperback copy of FIENDISH DEEDS if you haven't yet read it):

1. For one entry, comment on this post and tell me whether you've read FIENDISH DEEDS and/or your favorite mystery/horror story/novel.
2. For three entries, "Like" P. J. Bracegirdle's page on Facebook and post below that you did (yes, I WILL check, and I will be annoyed if you try to put one over on me).
3. For three entries, follow my book musings on Twitter and tell me that you did.
4. For three entries, follow this blog and tell me you did (or already do).
5. Come back every day this week and comment on posts - each genuine comment (no, "I'm commenting!" does not count; say something insightful or, at the very least, entertaining) will add one entry.

Yes, you CAN win with only a comment on this post...but don't be shy about upping your odds.

UPDATE! I was in a car accident this week, and am therefore spending my free time car-shopping. Therefore, you now have an extra week to enter the contest. Creepy Halloween entry deadline: 11:59 pm EDT on Sunday, October 31! Retweet or post on your own blog for an extra entry. Don't forget to include some way of contacting you.

Twitter

I have finally found a use for my long-neglected Twitter account. I often think I would post more often to this blog, but I never think my random book-related thoughts, news items, etc. really warrant a one-line blog post. Twitter is the perfect place for this sort of thing. Follow me by clicking here. Let's be ambitious - Follower #100 will get...something. Some kind of exciting book-related package.

Randomness for the day: Picture Books in Decline

Get ready....ahem...stepping up on soapbox now. Shelf Awareness published an article this morning discussing the decline of the traditional children's picture book. Oh, how this makes me sad! And makes me want to keep up the Picture Book Thursday post all the more! Also, makes more sense to me why Penguin has sent me picture book after picture book to review on here.

I can't even imagine a world without children's picture books. There are pictures books from my childhood etched into my brain forever, I remember them fondly and have shared many of those with my own children. I hope they will grasp onto a few books they love and share those with their children. How can parents go from board books to chapter books? Makes no sense! I know there's pressure for children to read at a younger age. But come on! Let children take the time to enjoy the wonderful illustrations and stories in picture books. Let them develop their reading skills by looking at the pictures and have them tell YOU the story. Just because kids CAN read chapter books, doesn't mean they SHOULD read them. We already schedule our children's activities to the hilt. They already learn things in kindergarten I didn't learn until first or even second grade. And now, we're pushing picture books out of the way. No wonder our children are blowing through childhood and growing up so much more quickly! I imagine if a child is destined to get into Harvard, it's probably going to happen regardless of what they are reading at age five. *stepping down from soapbox*

Here's the Shelf Awareness article:

Notes: Picture Books in Decline

Has the golden age of the picture book for children passed? The New York Times reported that the "picture book, a mainstay of children's literature with its lavish illustrations, cheerful colors and large print wrapped in a glossy jacket, has been fading.... publishers have scaled back the number of titles they have released in the last several years, and booksellers across the country say sales have been suffering."

"So many of them just die a sad little death, and we never see them again," said Terri Schmitz, owner of the Children's Book Shop, Brookline, Mass.

Justin Chanda, publisher of Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, observed: "Parents are saying, 'My kid doesn't need books with pictures anymore.' There's a real push with parents and schools to have kids start reading big-kid books earlier. We've accelerated the graduation rate out of picture books."

At Politics and Prose bookstore, Washington, D.C., children's department manager Dara La Porte said, "They're four years old, and their parents are getting them Stuart Little. I see children pick up picture books, and then the parents say, 'You can do better than this, you can do more than this.' It's a terrible pressure parents are feeling--that somehow, I shouldn't let my child have this picture book because she won't get into Harvard."

Picture books have earned their place in children's reading lives. Karen Lotz, publisher of Candlewick Press, suggested that, "To some degree, picture books force an analog way of thinking. From picture to picture, as the reader interacts with the book, their imagination is filling in the missing themes."

And Kris Vreeland, a book buyer at Vroman’s Bookstore, Pasadena, Calif., noted that "Some of the vocabulary in a picture book is much more challenging than in a chapter book. The words themselves, and the concepts, can be very sophisticated in a picture book."

The Times reported, however, that over the last three years, Scholastic has published 5% to 10% percent fewer hardcover picture books and Don Weisberg, the president of the Penguin Young Readers Group, "said that two and a half years ago, the company began publishing fewer titles but that it had devoted more attention to marketing and promoting the ones that remain. Of all the children's books published by Simon & Schuster, about 20% are picture books, down from 35% a few years ago."

Picture Book Thursday: How to Raise a Dinosaur by Natasha Wing

I was so excited about this picture book when I opened its envelope! Doesn't the cover just make you want to look inside? My 8-month old will love this as he gets bigger.

Natasha Wing seems to be most known for her "The Night Before" series of books: The Night Before Kindergarten, The Night Before Halloween, The Night Before Valentine's Day, etc. How to Raise a Dinosaur is a very different book from these! And a fabulous entry to her lists of books!

In the beginning, a young boy asks if you're thinking about getting a pet. Then he proceeds to "sell" you on a dinosaur complete with instructions in care, housing, and commands you should teach your dinosaur. On the last page of the book, he even suggests that you "Above all, give your dinosaur lots of love...or it will eat you!" :-)

This is absolutely adorable! And if I saw this laying on a bookstore table, I would snap it up immediately. Even more interesting than the text, the illustrations by Pablo Bernasconi make this fabulous. They are so rich in color and texture, they are sure to keep your child interested as each page is turned. The book also contains various flaps for further entertainment value.

This book is very HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

About the Author:
Natasha Wing has been writing children's stories since 1992 with her first publication, Hippity Hop, Frog on Top. She has also been published in children's magazines such as Highlights, Babybug, and Ladybug. After the first publication of The Night Before Easter in 1999, Wing was asked to make The Night Before into a series. Since then, the series has sold more than one million copies. As a girl, Natasha visited the Peabody Museum of Natural History and was fascinated by the dinosaur exhibits. She doesn't have a dinosaur for a pet, but does have a calico cat, Jemima, who shares a home with Natasha and her husband Dan.

About the Illustrator: Pablo Bernasconi has been published in many newspapers and magazines like the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Rolling Stone and Time. He has published seven children's books that he authored and illustrated, which have been translated into eight different languages.

Source Disclosure: This book was sent to me unsolicited by the publisher Running Press Kids.

Arctic Chill by Arnaldur Indridason

Arctic Chill is the fifth in Indridason's Reykjavik Thriller series, but it is the first I've read. Before I had even finished reading this book, I had placed an order for the first four. This novel has much to offer the mystery aficionado: a well-crafted police procedural, an unflinching indictment of modern culture, and a glimpse into Iceland's racial tensions and changing demographics. Erlendur and his two detectives, Elinborg and Sigurdur Oli, investigate when a young Thai boy, Elias, is found stabbed to death, his blood freezing his body to the ground outside his apartment complex. Elias's mother, Sunee, had been brought to Iceland as a bride in a marriage that ended in divorce, partly because of Sunee's insistence on bringing her older son to Iceland as well. Niran's difficulties in adapting to Icelandic culture provide the backdrop for a fascinating discussion on assimilation versus preserving one's own culture. Was this crime racially motivated? There is an abundance of liberal Icelanders whose hackles have been raised by the influx of immigrants who don't learn Icelandic and whose children scoff at learning Icelandic history in school. One of Elias's teachers is full of hateful rhetoric about "those people." Hints of a possible pedophile in the area, tensions between Icelandic and immigrant children at Elias's school, the disappearance of Niran, and whispers of a boyfriend for Sunee complicate the investigation.

Iceland itself is almost its own character in this novel. This is not a culture with which I was terribly familiar, and the insight was fascinating. In Iceland, disappearances are accepted as part of life in a country with an astronomical suicide rate. The Icelanders are welcoming of immigrants, but fear losing their dwindling culture. The climate is forbiddingly harsh, and it makes me wonder what keeps people there.

Subplots supplemented the central murder investigation. A second mystery, the disappearance of a woman, slips into the storyline as Erlendur receives strange phone calls. Erlendur broods on the disappearance of his brother decades before while awkwardly dealing with his son and daughter turning up, and his mentor is on his deathbed. The plots altogether added up to one of the bleaker mysteries I've read, but even a clunky translation can't diminish its compelling appeal.

Source disclosure: I received a copy of this book from Picador through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer Program.

Banned Books Week--Article

Lauren Myracle had a really good article posted on Shelf Awareness this morning. She discussed the issues behind two of her books and why they receive flack from people who want them censored. But the greater part of her article was very self-reflecting in how she is against censorship, but knows that she censors herself. And how she needs to work on that. Good stuff! You should read it!

And just as an added plug, here's a link to my review of Luv Ya Bunches from last year. I really enjoyed her book and thought it was very reflective of today's society.

Picture Book Thursday: Back to School!

Unfortunately, this feature is becoming more of a monthly item. But I'm hoping as the school year gets underway that I have a bit more time and can post more often. I have three books today that could fall into the "Back to School" category.

This School Year Will Be the Best! by Kay Winters is a fun little book perfect for the start of school! This one might be especially good for early grade teachers to read for story time. The children in one classroom each tell what they hope for the school year. Some are realistic things like getting a good report card, kicking the soccer ball into the right goal, or winning the science fair. And others are a little more far-fetched: hoping there is a chocolate water fountain or having a skateboard day. At the end, the teacher's hope is that she gets to know each one of the students. A great book for discussing YOUR child's hopes for the upcoming school year. And very fitting, my homework assignment this week for my first grader is to write down what our hopes and dreams are for her for first grade. :-)

David Milgrin's How You Got So Smart starts with a baby learning about everything by observing his/her world, then exploring it and tasting it bit by bit. Then, moves on to children making friends, asking questions, expressing themselves, and being confident in who they are. This book might actually be more appropriate as an end of year book. It could even be a graduation present a la Dr. Suess' Oh, The Places You Will Go. However, I'll feature it here because I think kids need to be reminded at the start of the year about everything they have learned and done so they can continue to be confident. Each year brings new challenges and if they are reminded of all the past challenges they've conquered, then maybe facing the new ones won't seem so hard.

Dewey: There's a Cat in the Library! by Vicki Myron and Bret Witter isn't really related to back to school, but it's about books and therefore, relates to school for me. Okay, that was a stretch but go with it! ;-) This is a cute picture book showing how Dewey tries to help people because he's a Library Cat. He helps shelve the books, helps read stories to the children and helps a sad little girl smile again. If your child is a big fan of cats/kittens this is a perfect book for them with highly realistic illustrations by Steve James.

Have you read any great books for back to school with your children? I'd love to hear what you've been reading! Happy New School Year!

Source Disclosure: This School Year Will Be the Best and How You Got So Smart both came to me from the Penguin Group. Dewey arrived via Little, Brown and Company.

Mystery Monday - Donna Andrews

Stork Raving Mad is the twelfth mystery in Donna Andrews's Meg Langslow series. Meg is eight months pregnant...with twins. But her home is in more chaos than just the usual visiting family members; Caerphilly College's heating plant has failed, and she's offered up her large house as a barracks for the displaced students. When her husband asks if she minds another houseguest, Meg assumes she won't notice one more. But Senor Mendoza, an elderly Spanish playwright, has come to visit Caerphilly because one of Michael's drama students is writing his dissertation on and staging a performance of one of Mendoza's bawdy plays. A pair from the college's administration turns up, accusing the student, Ramon, of having failed to complete the requisite paperwork for his dissertation topic. The more unpleasant of the two turns up dead. If all this sounds convoluted...well, it is. The premise isn't the best in the series, and the resolution of the mystery is a bit tedious. But after twelve books, Ms. Andrews is entitled to a weaker entry, and there is still plenty for fans of Meg and the Langslow clan to enjoy. The pregnant Meg on her constant search for a snack or a place to rest, is constantly sidelined by having to investigate. Rose Noire is taking her role as caregiver extremely seriously. I enjoyed her presence in this entry, including a key plot point. While Rob was absent, some of his employees were on hand, using Meg's basement as a place to test their new software. The students added an interesting dynamic as well. In all, a fun entry in one of my favorite series. Start with the first, Murder With Peacocks.

Source disclosure: I purchased this book.