Month: November 2010

Teaser Tuesdays

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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  The idea is to give everyone a look inside the book you’re reading.

Play along: Grab your current read; Open to a random page; Share two teaser sentences from that page; Share the title and author so that other participants know what you’re reading.

Having finally finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last night, I’m happy to be starting The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann.  Let’s start with the preface shall we.

“I pulled the map from my back pocket.  It was wet and crumpled, the lines I had traced to highlight my route now faded.” (page 6 of 325 on Nook)

Monday Morning Sunday Salon

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I was planning to post a Happy Thanksgiving note last week, but thanks to a weather front creeping slowly towards the East Coast, we got in the car Wednesday night instead of Thursday morning and made the trek to PA snow free and I never got around to posting anything.  So happy belated Thanksgiving everyone.  🙂

I was also planning to have something to post for the Sunday Salon yesterday but my husband is leaving for Denver this morning and I spent the day with him trying to figure out how to fit suits and heavy sweaters into one suitcase and never put butt in chair.

So today it is and we’re going to go about this bullet style so I can cover several topics and not have to worry about coming up with pithy transitions.

  • I honestly didn’t get much reading done, and a week later, I’m still reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.  Between visiting relatives and a holiday, reading time was almost nonexistent the last week but I’m actually enjoying this slow meander through the wizarding world.  While I won’t say that the Order of the Phoenix is my favorite of the Harry Potter books, I will admit to it being a nice holding place.  A lot happens in this installment but it’s also where Harry tries on male crankiness and I tend to get sick of brooding easily so parts of this one don’t always appeal to me.  That said, I’m still enjoying it.
  • Thanks to a staff retreat, I had the chance to visit the Frederick Douglass house in the Anacostia neighborhood of Washington, DC last week.  If you need a refresher on Douglass, the Wikipedia page can help you out.  I was planning to share a few photos but I was using my cell phone and don’t have time this morning to pull them off so if you’re interested in photos, the Park Service site has a few.  Going into the tour, I only knew what I remembered from school, which I hate to admit was not a lot, so I was looking forward to the guided tour from the Park Service.  The house, which is an amazing place, contains 70% of the original pieces of furniture and artwork which Douglass used during his time at the house.  It drips with history and makes you feel as though you’ve stepped back in time.  With a portrait of Abraham Lincoln hanging over one fireplace, you feel the immense burden that Douglass shouldered and the fight which he made personal for all those that would listen.  I think we may have a copy of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave on the shelves somewhere and I need to find it.  I almost bought it at the bookstore but decided to check the house first since I remember seeing it recently.
  • Pictures.  I had several that I was planning to share but again, on the cell phone and don’t have time (really it probably has more to do with patience but whatever) so if I can get myself in gear at some point in time this week, I’ll share.

That’s it for me this morning.  I’m hoping to catch up with some blog reading this week too.  I took a look at my email and blog feeds and let’s just say it was overwhelming and I may just hit delete and start over but I plan to read as you all out there give me some great book selections and I feel I can’t miss even one.  Enjoy the week.

The Distant Hours

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The Distant Hours

By Kate Morton

Atria Books

ISBN: 978-1-4391-5278-2

4 stars

Kate Morton is a new to me author.  I’ve read some mixed things about her books, and about half way through The Distant Hours, I felt I understood some of those reviews.  In the end, I did enjoy it with the exception of one odd thing that left me wondering which I’ll explain later.

Edie Burchill’s mother never cries so when a letter arrives that leaves her mother in tears, Edie wonders, almost obsessively, what was in the letter.  She finds out, after a lot of questioning, that her mother was a child evacuee during WWII.  Her mother, Meredith, was relocated from London to Milderhurst Castle in the deep countryside and found a life there she never imaged possible.  Unfortunately, it was also during this time that her greatest heartache occurred.  Edie finds herself researching the Castle and its three spinster sisters, Percy, Saffy, and Juniper, with the hope that she’ll be able to understand her mother better.  What she finds is a mystery neatly wrapped up in the pages of a children’s book.

A lot goes on in The Distant Hours but it all happens very slowly.  Morton takes her time un-wrapping the story which in some ways can be infuriating and at other moments it’s lovely.  Her writing style lends itself to long, meandering stories which The Distant Hours definitely is.  I liked that Edie was in publishing and had a deep appreciation for words and books.  It made her research and reading, which she does a lot of, fit seamlessly in but as you can imagine, it doesn’t offer a lot of action.  The story didn’t feel slow so much as weighty though and this book is over 500 pages so it’s a literal and figurative heaviness.

So what left me with an odd feeling?  Everything is this book comes to some sort of conclusion.  Every mystery, every thought, every wonder that Edie had about her mother’s life, the sisters of Milderhurst Castle, all find a neat ending.  I’m not opposed to tidy endings but I wasn’t left wondering at all — about anything.  Honestly, I think I would have liked the book more if some of my questions weren’t answered.  Even some of the peripheral sub-plots were tied up.  I almost felt a little ripped-off because I didn’t get the chance to wonder how certain things turned out — Morton told me everything.

But you’ll notice I still gave this book a rather high rating.  I did that because I enjoyed Morton’s writing and I did find myself at times unable to put the book down.  Parts of the story are wonderfully hypnotic, especially those that take place at the castle.  The sisters’ story is sad, almost as decrepit as the castle itself, and yet romantic.  The story is about love lost and love found.  It’s also about endurance (which is handy when reading a book of this size).  For these reasons, I enjoyed it.

This book was sent to me by the publisher for review.

Teaser Tuesdays

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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  The idea is to give everyone a look inside the book you’re reading.

Play along: Grab your current read; Open to a random page; Share two teaser sentences from that page; Share the title and author so that other participants know what you’re reading.

My teaser today comes from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

“Harry had been looking forward to the weekend trip into Hogsmeade, but there was one thing worrying him.  Sirius had maintained a stony silence since he had appeared in the fire at the beginning of September; Harry knew they had made him angry by saying that they did not want him to come — but he still worried from time to time that Sirius might throw caution to the winds and turn up anyway.” (332-333)

Magic Bleeds

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Magic Bleeds

By Ilona Andrews

Ace Books

eISBN: 978-1-101-18776-0

4.75 stars

Magic Bleeds is the fourth book in the Kate Daniels series.  And, let me tell you right here how much I love these books.  I put off buying this one when it came out this summer (Why I don’t know?  I think it had to do with a book buying ban or some other foolishness.) but I gave in when I knew I would be traveling for work.  I wanted something that would suck me in, entertainment, and leave me searching out places to read.  Andrews provided me that little respite with this book, and also, how happy was I to find out there are three more books to come after this one!  So, now the gush is over…the review.

Kate Daniels is making good on a bet she lost to Curran, the Beast Lord.  When he stands her up, she does her best not to make her way to the Keep and rip his head off knowing that as an employee of the Order of Merciful Aid which deals with all magical problems, it would make relations between the Pack and the Knights of the Order even more difficult.  Instead she goes about her days cleaning up magical messes trying not to think about Curran.  Without knowing it, she stumbles onto a strange phenomenon, magically poisoned individuals that emit plagues.  These infectious people start showing up all over magic-ridden Atlanta and all seem to become her problem.  While trying to deal with and contain a possible plague, Kate’s aunt, a god who loves to demolish worlds, appears and it’s not a happy family reunion.  In the midst of trying to figure out how to kill her aunt, she finds herself falling harder for Curran who seems intent on making her his mate.

As the fourth book in the series, I will say this — you can read this book on its own because much is explained and the story here is self-contained enough to make it easy to follow — but why would you do such a thing?  There’s too much fun to be had reading them all.  What I love about this series is the world itself.  The Atlanta in these books is subject to waves of magic that flood the city with craziness.  There are shapeshifters, vampires (But of a different type than most are used to so don’t let that turn you off.), mages, beasts, and everything else you can possibly think of.  Kate is crass, hardheaded, crazy, and funny.  She cracks jokes at the most inappropriate times and she makes the story fantastic.  It’s an odd mix I’ll grant you but you have to trust that somehow all of the ways in which magic makes things happen in these books will work and it does.  Andrews takes a number of fantasy elements and staples and tweaks each one so that it becomes gritty and dark.  For me, it’s like brain candy of the highest caliber.

The love story between Kate and Curran finally comes to some understanding in this book and I couldn’t wait for it to happen.  In fact, I had been waiting for three books for this one so without wanting to ruin this if you haven’t read it yet, I won’t say more.  While I’ll admit to not always being a huge fan of love sub-plots, this one worked for me.  Kate and Curran are two great characters and the reason I keep reading this series.

If you’re looking for different, dark fantasy, you might want to try these.  It’s not your standard fantasy telling but this is a world that will pull you in and you won’t want to put the book down.  The three previous books in this series are: Magic Bites, Magic Burns, and Magic Strikes.

The Sunday Salon

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We had visitors this weekend so not much reading was done. I did get in a few chapters here and there but mostly it was filled with football games and touristy things.

In the last week, I finished The Distant Hours by Kate Morton, The Sherlockian by Graham Moore, The Exile by Diana Gabaldon, and started Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling so even if I didn’t get to read this weekend, it was still a good week overall.

I don’t have much to say today which is probably due to the lack of sleep I’ve had the last few nights.  Even the nap this afternoon didn’t help so I’ll be making this a very short salon today.  I was planning to talk about cleaning off the bookshelves or maybe even holiday reading but I don’t have it in me today.  🙂

Happy Sunday.

Today’s Book

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I finished The Sherlockian by Graham Moore last night which has left me with a craving for some Sherlock Holmes tales but I’m going to pass on detective stories for the moment (although The Sign of Four is on my TBR to be read sooner rather than later) and move onto The Exile by Diana Gabaldon.

The Exile is a graphic novel based on Gabaldon’s first book, Outlander.  I’m excited about this book especially after hearing her talk about it at the National Book Festival back in September.  Outlander ranks high on the favorites list and the only problem I expect to have is being annoyed that the characters don’t look like the ones that have already been established in my head.  I’ll get over it but there’s always that initial shock of, “Hey, that’s not what Jamie Fraser looks like.”

Peter Pan

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Peter Pan

By J.M. Barrie

Barnes & Noble Classics

eISBN: 978-1-411-43289-5

5 stars

My mom once told me that as a child I wouldn’t sleep until she read me Peter Pan.  It usually took three or four reads since I was a child who didn’t care much for sleep.  My mom had the story memorized and said if she turned the page too early, I would stop her to let her know she wasn’t done with the page yet.  Apparently, I also had the story memorized. 🙂  The version I was read while tucked snuggly in bed was not this version but rather an illustrated book probably courtesy of Disney.  Whatever version of the book I was read as a child, this one held true for me and every bit of it was fantastic.

Peter Pan is a young boy who simply refuses to grow up.  He lives in Neverland with the Lost Boys, the Piccaninny tribe, the mermaids, pirates, a ticking crocodile, and of course, Hook.  Peter is the captain of the boys and they do whatever he tells them to.  One night, he meets Wendy and her two brothers, Michael and John, and takes them all away to Neverland to share in his adventures.

One thing I noticed about the book was the violence.  There’s open talk of killing Hook, Peter is not shy about telling anyone that he cut off his hand, and that he plans to finish him.  While no one says what happens to the Lost Boys that get too old, one doesn’t have to look very far for the reason for their disappearance.  Peter is extraordinarily arrogant (Maybe that’s not the right word for describing a child; cocky?) and nothing happens without his say.  Even when danger lurks, not one of the Lost Boys questions his authority even when they are told to kill the pirates.  That astounded me and made me happy to see that Barrie didn’t dumb this story down.  Bad things happen in life and he brought it down to a level that was understandable for a child.  As an adult, I obviously have a different view but was interested in the way he portrayed Peter and the fact that even though he was just a boy, he was a boy with responsibilities for others even if he didn’t think much about it in those terms.  Well, at least until he brought in Wendy to be the mother which solved some of his responsibility issues.

Wendy is playing the mother of the Lost Boys and Peter is somewhat the father as Wendy does say to him often how wonderful their boys are.  It’s slightly odd but I overlooked my wiggly feeling about it.  The boys so badly want someone to love them, and when Wendy comes along, they cling to her like no one else.  It’s almost sad how starved they are for love and attention.  She delights in telling them stories of her parents and tests them frequently so her brothers will remember.

Most of all, this story is all whimsy.  It’s beautifully told with an almost poetic quality to it at times.  It can be harsh and it can be so simple in the way it describes the games the children play.  It’s both amusing and sad reading it as an adult.

I did a few Google searches to find out more about Barrie and it turns out the idea for Peter Pan is based on a brother who died in childhood.  In his mother’s eyes, his brother always remained 14 years old, the age at which he died.  That made me so very sad but if this was the way he finally managed to immortalize his brother, it’s a wonderful tribute.

I wondered how I would feel about this story as an adult and I can honestly say that for me, it will always be a favorite.  It’s magical and I’m glad I got around to reading it again.  I had a whole new perspective as an adult and it gave me a greater appreciation for the story.  I do wonder what my mom would think of it now though…