Monday Malarkey - Books, Christmas Spirit, Cats in Trees

A little Christmas spirit for starters, today:

That's part of my mantle decoration.  

I had only received 2 books until today and then Kiddo came in bearing a stack of books.  He just happened to be outside when the mailman arrived.  

This week's arrivals:

• The Gods of Heavenly Punishment by Jennifer Cody Epstein from Norton for TLC Book Tour
• Brownie Groundhog and the Wintry Surprise by Susan Blackaby and Carmen Segovia - from Sterling Kids, for review (have already read this and I love it).
• The Dancing Master by Julie Klassen - from Bethany House for tour.  This one's an 8 1/2" x 11" bound ARC -- the early-early kind like what you get if you have a binding done at your local office supply store.  Haven't seen one of those in a long time!
• The Annotated Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana, annotated by Rod Scher -- Rod is husband to Les of Prairie Horizons.  It's a stunning hardback (sent by the publisher).  I can't wait to read it!  
• Reached by Ally Condie - via Paperback Swap

I can't currently load photos to my computer ("full hard drive" again!!!!) or I'd take a shot of those. 

Last week's posts:

• The Clockwork Scarab by Colleen Gleason (review)
• Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh (extremely gushy review)
• Fiona Friday - Comfy on the Couch (pic of Fiona)
• Labor Day by Joyce Maynard (review)

I'm currently about 5 reviews behind.  As soon as I finish my backlog, I'll probably shut down for the holidays, although there's no hurry.  Kiddo is home from school but working so I don't feel like I'm neglecting anyone.  

I am currently reading:

• The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure
• Ancient Egypt: Everyday Life in the Land of the Nile by Brier and Hobbs

Still haven't picked up the Calvino but I keep carrying it from room to room. I have the best of intentions.  I finished reading Jack Absolute by C. C. Humphreys and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, last week, and also read Brownie Groundhog and the Wintry Surprise pretty much the moment it arrived . . . in the rain . . . and the UPS guy didn't ring the doorbell.  I thought I had those guys trained!  Thank goodness for bubble-wrap envelopes.  

The cats have been holy terrors:

I have had to extract Isabel from the tree, at least twice.  We have a pre-lit artificial tree and I worry about those cords.  She's occasionally tried to bite them but when she hangs around the tree (only when it's lit, I've noticed) I'm always lurking . . . usually with the camera, of course, but also prepared to clap or use my stern voice.  If she ignores me, I reach for Izzy and she'll usually back away -- obviously not always or I wouldn't have had to pluck her from the tree at all.  Fiona has spent her time knocking rocks out of the fireplace and occasionally declaring herself Guardian of the Christmas Tree, which is actually helpful. She'll occasionally chase Isabel away.

That's all the malarkey I've got, for now.  Happy Monday!

©2013 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Monday Malarkey - Arrivals, last week's posts, things I'm reading and other malarkey

Time for some malarkey and this seems like a good place to start. I need a head pot. Seriously, I do.

I just think a pot like that would look terrific on my living room shelf.  That's a museum pot made by a potter from the Mississippian culture, sometime between the years 1200-1500 A.D.  Is it cool, or what?

Only two books arrived, this week (progress on restraint!):

• This Dark Road to Mercy by Wiley Cash - from HarperCollins for review 
• These Wonderful Rumours! A Young Schoolteacher's Wartime Diaries by May Smith - purchased

Great covers on both, don't you think?  Also, note the sticker on the cover of These Wonderful Rumours.  I had no idea this year is Virago Press' 40th year. Wahoo for Virago Books and Happy Birthday to you, Virago!

Last week was a heavy posting week as I've been attempting to do some catch-up:

• October Reads in Review - 2013
• November Reads in Review - 2013
• Tuesday Twaddle - A happy holiday and some fun reading
• N0S4A2 by Joe Hill (review)
• Before I Die by Candy Chang (review)
• The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories 3 by HitRECord and Fiona Friday (review and grumpy cat pic)

Since last week's Tuesday Twaddle, I've only managed to finish one book, but it was a good one:

• The Aftermath by Rhidian Brook - This one is showing up on some "Best of 2013" lists and deservedly so, in my humble opinion.

I am currently reading:

• Jack Absolute by C. C. Humphreys - Swashbuckling fun but a bit bloody. Love the Hamlet-quoting Iroquois, Jack's friend Até.
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - Yes, I'm just finally getting around to this one.  
• Another book I don't want to confess to reading till I get a bit farther because it's non-fiction and I'm such a pokey NF reader.

So what about that Calvino?

Sigh.  I keep looking at it and thinking, "Later, later."  But, I will tell you that while I was reading If On a Winter's Night a Traveler (before I hit overload), I found that it was inspiring me in the "giving me numerous writing ideas" sense, so I do plan to finish the book and I'll definitely save it for future rereads.  You should see the number of Post-its crammed into that book.  It's quite a sight.

In other news:

Friday was exciting as my delightful and incredibly-dapper author friend Simon Van Booy did a talk at TEDxBrooklyn.  The 2013 TEDxBrooklyn program was available for live streaming, so I got to see Simon's "How to Write a Book in 18 Minutes" and frantically took notes.  Of course, Simon was brilliant, as always.  What I wrote down is not entirely complete but hopefully the talk will show up in their video section eventually. I will undoubtedly need to make some corrections and/or additions to my notes and it's worth sharing so I'll let you know if/when it shows up. In the meantime, Simon's talk has me pondering my own writing, so I'm thrilled about that.

Also, last week I got my 5th Graze box:

In case you haven't heard of it, Graze is a healthy-snack subscription service and the per-shipment price is very reasonable. If you're looking for gift ideas for a college kid, I highly recommend getting your favorite university student a Graze subscription. After I got my first box and decided it's definitely a good deal, I got a second one for Kiddo.  He loves getting a parcel in the mail every two weeks (otherwise, he only receives bills). Kiddo told me he keeps one of the individually-wrapped snacks in his backpack for times when he can't make it to the cafeteria before it closes, which happens regularly on his busiest days.  I've got a couple friend codes remaining if anyone's interested in signing up.  Just write to my gmail account.

We're finally getting started on Christmas decorating.

While I was searching for some Victorian-style garlands that I bought in an after-Christmas sale last year, I came across a box with a label that made me laugh.  The box contains breakable items (I didn't bother looking inside to see exactly what kind of breakables because it was in an awkward place and, of course, I didn't want to end up breaking everything). On the outside of the box I wrote, "I will die if this box gets smashed." The contents of this box must be very important because elsewhere on the box it says, "Seriously, it will KILL ME if you damage this one." When I'm done decorating, I'm going to have to see what's inside that box . . . carefully, of course.

Happy Monday!

©2013 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Monday Malarkey - Arrivals, blog posts, things I'm reading, things I read

I spent my weekend shopping for furniture, moving a table, cleaning the empty space where the table formerly sat, doing laundry, chopping tree limbs, reading, and watching Dr. Who episodes.  We're just now finishing up Season 4 of Dr. Who.  I flipped through cat photos but never got around to finding a photo I liked for Fiona Friday, so we'll call this malarkey shot a "Fiona Friday on the Way Wrong Day."  It happens.

Writing fell by the wayside over the weekend so today I'm writing furiously, trying to get far enough ahead that Thanksgiving still won't interfere with reaching the NaNoWriMo finish line.  Apparently, I'm very determined to finish, this year.  There have been years that I've been lackadaisical about the whole thing.  This year, I am in a goal-setting fever.  As of 7:24 PM, I'm happy to say I've surpassed 5,000 words and am catching up with my previous goal very nicely.

The books shown with Izzy, above, are about 2-3 weeks' worth of arrivals:

• Going Home, Surviving Home and Escaping Home by A. American (apparently, the A stands for "angry"spelled "Angery"), 3 in a survivalist series.  I'm concerned that the author might be a little wacko, given his pen name and website claiming WWIII is coming, but I like to read about survival so I'm looking forward to the series, which I received for TLC tour.  I'm only required to review one but won't know which one I'll choose till I get into the reading.  It'll be interesting to see if they're appealing enough to read back-to-back.
• Somewhere in Time by Richard Matheson - from Paperback Swap was just added to my wish list a few weeks ago and a copy came available pretty quickly.  My last attempt at reading Matheson was a dud (and the reviewers agreed with me that it was not up to his usual standard) but I've enjoyed everything else I've read by Matheson. Somewhere in Time has the advantage of being known as a modern time travel classic.  And, yes, I've seen the movie.
• Rules of Civility by Amor Towles - received via PBS
• Free Bird by Greg Garrett - received via PBS after I read and reviewed The Prodigal and decided to dig into Garrett's backlist.
• Jack Absolute and The Blooding of Jack Absolute by C. C. Humphreys came from Sourcebooks for review.
• Savage Harvest by Carl Hoffman was sent by the author for review and had a nice note attached to the cover. 

I'm probably missing some arrivals since Monday Malarkey has been a sometimes-maybe thing, lately.  

Last week's blog posts:

• A review of my niece's book - Death Wish by Lindsey Menges
• Totally off-the-wall rhino pic
• My review of Perfect Ruin by Lauren DeStefano
• Review of The Tilted World by Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly

Currently reading:

• The Aftermath by Rhidian Brook - A tale of post-WWII.  I'm not sure where this is headed but I am about 46 pages in and besotted with Brook's writing. 
• A Good American by Alex George - A reread for my Face-to-Face book club, which meets this week.
• If On a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino - I haven't touched this one in at least 5 days but I love it; the writing is sharp and funny and sometimes a little mind-blowing. 

Last week I finished:

• The Inimitable Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse - because two friends just happened to mention Wodehouse within the same week and I needed a break from Calvino.  Faultlessly entertaining, that Wodehouse fellow.  Reading a little Jeeves & Wooster was the breath of fresh air I needed.
• Transparent Things by Vladimir Nabokov - A slim book at 104 pages but it packs an oh-my-Lord punch of Nabokovian brilliance.  It is fascinating and creepy. It left me with questions that, after some thought, I decided had already been answered.  I'm still a little afraid of Lolita (which I have not yet read) and yet, at the same time, Transparent Things made me crave more Nabokov.

That's all, for now.  What's up in your world?

©2013 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Monday Malarkey - Arrivals, reading, time change and a tree

Tree in Metuchen, New Jersey.  We have color, now, but not quite to this extreme.  

Happy Monday!

Today was the day I had to report for jury duty and it was over with quickly!  I spent an hour sitting on a courtroom bench and got in a little bit of reading, a little chatting with the woman next to me, before we were told to pass in our information cards and go home, no jury was needed, this week!  Wahoo!  That's particularly great because . . . 

I'm participating in National Novel Writing Month. I pushed myself to race ahead as far as possible (I'm not the speedy writer I used to be) so I could make up for lost days in advance.  So, I'm already 20% 25% finished with my word count at just over 10,000 12,500 words.  Hopefully, I'll keep up the momentum!  I'm having fun. 

I've gotten three books in the mail in the past two weeks:

• The Prodigal by Brennan Manning and Greg Garrett, sent to me by Zondervan at the latter author's request.  I'm already over halfway through The Prodigal, a modern retelling of the Biblical story, "The Prodigal Son" and enjoying it very much.  
• The Plot Whisperer by Martha Alderson (a purchase).  I haven't gotten very far into The Plot Whisperer but it has already helped me to step back a bit as I write and think about what I'm doing and what's missing from my normal thought process.  Hopefully, it will keep this particular NaNo book from being a hot mess, as my previous books have been.
• The Surrendered by Chang Rae Lee from my friend, Paula.

I'm participating in the read-along of Italo Calvino's crazy If On a Winter's Night a Traveler (a book I already had on my shelf).  I'm not very far into it but so far, I'm fascinated and enjoying the experience.  It's definitely a book you experience.

In other news:

I personally think the time change sucks.  Yes, I enjoyed that extra hour, even though I blame it for the past two days' early awakenings --  4:30 AM and 3:00 AM.  To be honest, jury duty was probably to blame for the latter.  I don't know downtown well so I printed out maps and drew solid and dotted lines to tell me where to drive down the confusing mess of one-way streets, where to park and which direction to walk to get to the courthouse ( I still managed to get turned around when I walked back to the parking lot.  I'm not so hot with directions.) And, then I set my alarm clock early but managed to continue panicking about whether or not I'd wake in time.

That's all for now.  Am I talking to myself, here?  Not many comments are happening, lately.  

©2013 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Monday Malarkey - Yes, we still have a kitten in the house and other stuff

The kitten is full of malarkey.  She has not yet taken a drink of my tea, but that's not for lack of trying.

This week was not a big week for reading and certainly not one for writing as I went out of my way to avoid the computer (somewhat successfully, although not entirely), but we'll start with what little there is to talk about, book-wise.  Appearances aside, this still is not a cat blog.  

Recent arrivals (2 weeks' worth):

We Go Together by Dunn & Sakamoto and

Rufus Goes to School by Griswell and Gorbachev - both from Sterling Kids for review and/or tour

Rufus is a pig.  PIG BOOK!  Sorry to shout.  Pigs are such fun.  And, a couple more . . . 

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent and

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt - both from Little, Brown and Co. for F2F discussion and review (the former in August, the latter in October). 

We only got 10 copies of each title, this time, and that's not enough to go around -- my F2F group is well-established and quite large, although attendance varies.  So, I had to set aside my plans to reread The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Gaiman to read Burial Rites.  We'll have to share so I wanted to get that done in time to give someone else a chance to read it.  It's excellent, in case you're wondering.  I'm really looking forward to the discussion.

Last week's reading:

As per my plan, I jumped into The River of No Return by Bee Ridgway and enjoyed my swim.  I hope to review that, soon.  I followed it up with a read of the pig book, Rufus Goes to School, pretty much the moment it walked in.  And, then I read Burial Rites by Hannah Kent.  After that, I started reading The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan and The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winter.  I'm close to halfway through the latter but not far into The Girls of Atomic City.  I'm enjoying both.  

The Last Policeman is a mystery -- a genre which most of you probably know I seldom read -- but this particular mystery has an unusual twist in that a single policeman (the hero, naturally) suspects murder and everyone else believes the death was a suicide.  Suicide is not particularly surprising or unusual in this story because Earth will be struck by an asteroid in 6 months. Everyone's going to die anyway.  So, a lot of people don't give a flip about the law and some people are choosing to go out sooner rather than wait for the Final Bang.  The Last Policeman is definitely a unique and entertaining diversion and The Girls of Atomic City is fascinating so it's likely I've got a pleasant reading week ahead of me.  

Kitten-wise:

Four weeks and counting.  Last week, we came to the conclusion that we'd done enough kitty juggling and it was time for the cats to spend time working out their differences.  So, Prissy (or River, depending on who you're talking to) has been out and about except at night when she goes back into her bedroom.  Things have not substantially improved, unfortunately.  The kitties can eat together but there's some growling on one side and threatening poses on the other.  The rest of the time, if Isabel's awake there is a great deal of chase/fight/hide going on.  Nap time is awesome.  The little one stays away from the kitty tree, where the two big girls hang out.  I think Isabel does wear herself out chasing poor Prissy/River and is napping a bit more than usual.  

The kitten also has resisted efforts to train her to scratch a cardboard or fabric scratching pad and has pretty much torn the hell out of our living room rug.  So, if she stays, it's likely she'll be the first declawed kitty we've ever owned.  We are against declawing, in general, but she is simply not getting it -- and we have scratching stations literally all over the house.  The other two kitties are very well-behaved when it comes to scratching in the right places.

We will have to make a decision about whether or not we can keep Prissy very soon because she's now about 16 weeks old.  Kittens are very adoptable; older cats are not.  If she's going to another home, she'll need to find a family before she gets too big -- and judging from her appetite, she's likely to be a very large, delightfully droopy cat.  Everyone loves her, so we're all wrestling with the decision but I think we all know in our hearts that it would be best for her to find a different home, if only because Isabel's attitude toward her is not softening.

Not much else is happening, here:

I'm hoping Huzzybuns will soon take a full week off work so we can work day and night getting the old house ready to sell.  Weekends alone are just not enough when you have two houses and yards to maintain and improve.  Everything we're doing is fairly minor but very time-consuming so a dedicated stretch of time would be really helpful.  Please pray or cross your fingers or send positive vibes that we'll quickly finish and get that house on the market . . . and that it will sell.  Although the housing market has improved elsewhere, houses do not appear to be moving at all in Vicksburg at the moment.  

Enough about me:

What's up in your world?  I'm sorry I haven't been able to visit other blogs.  That will probably continue at least until our old house goes on the market.  There's just too much going on.  Today, our excitement of the day was finding out we had a gas leak.  I would not have known, had the gas company not made a mistake on our bill that quadrupled the usual monthly cost.  So, thanks be to God Almighty that we didn't have to get blown up in order to find out about the gas leak.  I've never been so grateful for an erroneous statement in my life.  

Happy Monday!

©2013 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Monday Malarkey - Books, reading and a stalker kitten

I figured someone out there is hankering for a kitten photo, so here you go.  Prissy was stalking the laser.  

I've gotten quite a few books, recently.  Some are not very photogenic (one in terrible shape, two others ARCs with ugly covers) so I'll just list them:

From Paperback Swap:

The Confessions of Catherine De Medici by C. W. Gortner
Blasphemy by Sherman Alexie
Virginia Woolf: A Writer's Life by Lyndall Gordon

From AbeBooks:

Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson (this is the book that came in terrible shape; I ordered a "like new" copy but got a beat-up, dirty thing) for F2F discussion

ARCs:

Someone Else's Love Story by Joshilyn Jackson
Lighthouse Island by Paulette Jiles
The Tilted World by Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly
Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat
Paris Was the Place by Susan Conley
Goat Mountain by David Vann
Winning from Within by Erica Ariel Fox
The United States of Paranoia by Jesse Walker

I haven't requested a book for about 2 weeks and last book I requested has not yet arrived, but there should be a gap in arrivals after that shows up. I'm hoping I can stay on an "ARC diet" long enough to finish everything I've received.  That could take a while.  

Reading/review-wise:

I seem to be in a bit of a writing slump.  I've begun several reviews and am not satisfied with any of them, possibly because I've had a marvelous run of 6 wonderful books in a row.  I don't think that's happened to me in a very, very long time, so I'll just list my recent favorites and you can ponder them (or run as fast as you can to buy them) while I'm working on my reviews.

Books that have recently blown my mind, they were so awesome:

The Illusion of Separateness by Simon Van Booy - Love his writing so much.
The Keeper of Secrets by Julie Thomas - An emotional read; couldn't see for the tears, at one point.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman - He's an iffy author for me but I loved this book so much I plan to reread it before I review. I usually only do that with Simon's books.
Is This Tomorrow by Caroline Leavitt (my #1 - and that's really saying something, given the quality of this list)

And, two that were excellent:

To Be a Cat by Matt Haig (a middle reader)
Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O'Farrell

One more cat photo:

Not very good, but here's one of my first pics of Fiona with the kitten.  Izzy has not calmed down one bit.  Still hoping, though. It's nice that at least one of my girls doesn't mind Prissy.

©2013 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Tuesday Twaddle - A long weekend and a nice little pile of arrivals

We had a long and tiring weekend in which we drove to Nashville to help our eldest son move (meaning, we took on his junky old furniture, some of which he was supposed to return if he no longer wanted it . . . but we won't go there).  The first night was spent at our "vacation home" - Kiddo's apartment in Oxford, MS.  Of course we went to Square Books and Off-Square Books.  That's the Square Books staircase, above.  I took a picture of a pretty stack of Simon's new title on the new arrivals table:

That was Friday night.  On Saturday, all three of us bundled back into the car to drive on to Nashville.  On Sunday, we rented a small moving truck and the guys loaded up the furniture Eldest & DIL no longer wanted.  We drove back to Oxford and spent a second night in our vacation place then drove the rest of the way home, leaving Kiddo behind for the second summer semester at Ole Miss and dumping more than half the furniture on him. He's happy to have finally acquired the "family dresser" - an old 70's Early American-style dresser that's nicely built but pretty ugly.  Still, it's solid wood and you don't see that, anymore.

We stopped at a Farmer's Market in Bolivar, TN, on the way to Nashville. Husband asked me to take a photo of one of the peaches we bought because it was the sooo juicy and delicious.  I took a bite and it dripped on my camera.  Oops.

The rest of the peaches have been turned into a delicious peach cobbler.  They sat in the heat a bit too long and were ripening quickly so we decided we'd better use them before it was too late.

Recent arrivals:

I got 3 books, last week, and two more arrived, yesterday.  Normally, the latter two would go on next week's list of arrivals because it's not Monday, but they're sitting here so you might as well see them before I haul them off to sort, right? 

• Too Much Glue by J. Lefebvre & Z. Retz - Unsolicited from Flashlight Press
• Good Kings Bad Kings by Susan Nussbaum and
• Is This Tomorrow by Caroline Leavitt - both came from Algonquin Books.  They were originally sent unsolicited (I've been told) but never arrived. When I got an email about Good Kings Bad Kings, I said I really do want to read the books that didn't make it, so they were sent using a different shipping method.  Our government postal service sure does have a knack for making things disappear.  
• Godiva by Nicole Galland - from HarperCollins for review
• Everybody Has Everything by Katrina Onstad - from Gallery Books for review

I finished reading Astor Place Vintage by Stephanie Lehmann, over the weekend, and am about halfway through She Rises by Kate Worsley.  I hope to start catching up on my little backlog of reviews, tomorrow.  

The cats were cared for by Kiddo's girlfriend, again, so we came home to happy little furballs.  They love C.  She was going to go to her mother's house for the weekend but had no problem altering her plans to care for the kitties.  

In other news:

It's still hot.  Really, that's not news, but I can't think of much else to say.  :)  Happy Tuesday!

©2013 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Monday Malarkey - Arrivals and not much else

I'm having a whale of a time trying to get images to go where I want them to, so I'll just stop messing with them and tell you about my reading week.  I finished two books, last week: The Firebird by Susanna Kearsley and Festival of Death by Jonathan Morris.  Both were terrific reads for entirely different reasons.  I believe tomorrow is the tour date for Festival of Death (one of the books in the new Dr. Who Classics series), so you won't have long to wait for that review.

Three books arrived:

Simon's book!  Simon's book!  Hardback!  Buy it!

I've already read the ARC and written some thoughts about Simon Van Booy's latest book, The Illusion of Separateness but not a review that discusses plot and all that jazz.  

What I received this week was a finished hardback copy that I pre-ordered as soon as it was possible to pre-order.  It's beautiful and I can't wait to read the book a second time.  I'll take notes.  This always happens to me: The first time I read one of Simon's books, I become so immersed that I can't bear to stop long enough to pick up a post-it.  So, I always have to read them at least twice before I can review.  The Illusion of Separateness is no exception.  

Simon's Tour Dates - Simon's on tour, at the moment.  Go see him if he's near you and tell him Bookfool sent you, please!!!  I will not be able to see him on tour, this time, damn it.  So disappointed.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman came from HarperCollins for review.  I was in the mood for a quick and spooky read, yesterday, so this week's first finished read is already done and dusted.  

I was thoroughly creeped out.

I loved it.

The Bohemian Love Diaries by Slash Coleman came from the publisher after I was contacted by the author.  We had a pleasant conversation and have made an unofficial date for coffee if/when he comes through my area.  

I read the first chapter of The Bohemian Love Diaries and would have happily continued reading but last week was not the best reading week because my entire family was here -- Eldest down from Nashville, Kiddo still home from school (but he'll be leaving for the second summer session, soon), Kiddo's girlfriend already living with us (boy, did it surprise Eldest to find that C. was here, the morning after she moved in; apparently, we forgot to tell him she's staying for the summer). 

That's all beside the point.  The first chapter of The Bohemian Love Diaries is really something.  Looks like Slash Coleman has led a unique, quirky life that will make for delightful reading.  I'm anxious to return to this one.

In other news:

I just checked out one of the local library branches in itty-bitty (but lovely) Raymond, MS.  It was as expected.  The fiction section consisted of mostly Westerns, romance, Christian fiction, a smattering of popular fiction (usually the kind I dislike) and mysteries, exactly like my last library.  Fortunately, there are quite a few branches I've yet to check out, so hopefully I'll be able to find a bit more variety elsewhere.  

It's hot and occasionally stormy.  Progress on the old house is continuing.  The cats are happy.  That's about all the news.  Happy Monday!

©2013 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Pictures of Book Stacks and Fiona Friday

Book and kitty photo time!

Brittanie asked me to post photos of the books I bought in London.  In addition to books bought, I'm going to show you some Dr. Who books I got for review, while there, as well as the books that arrived at home, while we were away.

First, arrivals at the flat.  Some of you may have heard about the TLC Tours Dr. Who book promotion that's coming up.  I signed up to review two of the Dr. Who titles but the box came ripped, the books severely water damaged (one beyond hope, the others readable but ugly after being fanned out and left in front of the dehumidifier for a day).  I talked to the publicist and told her I was coming to London.  She loved the idea of shipping within London -- so much cheaper than shipping to the US!  So, these books were shipped in care of the friend who loaned us his flat:

Dr. Who books, top to bottom:

Players by Terrance Dicks
Festival of Death by Jonathan Morris
The Last of the Gaderene by Mark Gatiss
Ten Little Aliens by Stephen Cole.
Who-ology by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright

Kiddo has already read Festival of Death and Husband and I are both reading Ten Little Aliens, the two tour books.  The publicist kindly threw in two extra books to review when I mentioned how much my family loves Dr. Who.   

Huz and I used to watch black and white reruns on Saturdays, when we were in the dorm.  We're talking decades of fandom, here.  The guys were giddy at the sight of a stack of books, for once.  

Books purchased, top to bottom:

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
To Be a Cat by Matt Haig
Boy in the Blitz by Colin Perry
Mr. Brown's War: A Diary from the Home Front, edited by Helen D. Millgate
Spuds, Spam and Eating for Victory: Rationing in the Second World War by Katherine Knight
The English: A Field Guide by Matt Rudd

I've read The English, The Great Gatsby (a replacement -- couldn't find my ancient copy and decided I really, really wanted to read it now) and The 5th Wave.  All were enjoyable reads for different reasons and I'll elaborate on those, soon.

I looked up Matt Haig's books when he tweeted about his new book, The Humans, and decided I'd really like to read his children's book, first.  It was the only book I found that was on the list I took with me, other than the Persephone books and Itch Rocks by Simon Mayo, which I did not buy because it's a hardback and I prefer paperbacks.  The WWII books . . . I could have bought a lot more but had to restrain myself because we were limited to the three suitcases (two of them small) and two carry-on bags we took, but I'm happy with what I bought.  I purchased The 5th Wave because it was on my wish list, at home, and available in paperback!  I love that about English publishing -- you don't always have to wait a year for a book to come out in paperback.

Persephone books!  Top to bottom:

Greenbanks by Dorothy Whipple
Miss Ranskill Comes Home by Barbara Euphan Todd
Greenery Street by Denis Mackail

I took my Persephone Biannually along, marked up like crazy to show which books I already own (and which I've read -- just for fun), then narrowed down to the ones that interested me most and looked up ratings and reviews of those.  I highlighted the ones I was most interested in and wrote their ratings to the side, along with some additional notes (call me "Little Miss OCD"). At the store, you get a discount if you purchase three books, so I knew I'd buy three but left myself some leeway, in case they were low on any of the titles (which has been the case on one of our visits). At the store, they had plenty of books so I just had to make up my mind which titles I wanted the most.

I chose Greenbanks because Dorothy Whipple's books are among the most-loved Persephone titles and I figured I should grab a Whipple.  Greenery Street is a book P. G. Wodehouse adored and I'm crazy about Wodehouse, so I decided to trust his judgment.  And, Miss Ranskill Comes Home shines a light on the changes in England caused by WWII so it's my WWII choice of the three.

Persephone bookmarks:

The three at left match the inside covers of the books I purchased.  The other three are extra bookmarks I bought because I liked the designs.  

And, the review books that arrived at home while we were away, top to bottom (since for once I haven't already marched them off to the bedroom to sort by month):

Lotería by Mario Alberto Zambrano
Astor Place Vintage by Stephanie Lehmann
The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure
The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan
Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O'Farrell

Since I fell a bit behind, I've got 14 review books I need to read in June -- maybe 15.  Eeks.  Thanks to the backlog, I'm not accepting books for review for a while.  Gotta make sure I'm all caught up.

And, a Fiona Friday pic!

Last night, I realized I hadn't taken any photos of the cats at all, since we got home!  Weird!  I guess I was worn out or something. I took a few really bad photos of them, late last night, then looked at them and thought, "Okay.  Now, let's work on trying to get a decent photo."  So, there's the result.  Fi did not want to look at me, but I thought this photo was pretty interesting. She was sitting in the window.  

Happy Weekend to all!


©2013 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Back with a bit of Tuesday Twaddle

Hello!  I'm back!  Did you miss me?  We were on vacation in London, England, and it turned out I couldn't do what I expected to be able to do using husband's laptop, so I decided it would be best not to bother with an awkward computer situation and just enjoy the time away.  I will do my best to catch up on reviews, ASAP, but it might take me a few days to get back to normal.  We just returned yesterday.

I read 3 books while we were in London:

The English: A Field Guide by Matt Rudd - NF title about the English and their habits, which I purchased when I realized I didn't have any reading material for the train ride to Dover (where we saw the White Cliffs -- woot!).  

A Certain Summer by Patricia Beard - A review book from Simon & Schuster set a few years after WWII on an island off the coast of New York.  

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald - Another book that I purchased when I got stuck without reading material, this time in Uxbridge after visiting the Battle of Britain Bunker.  

And a few books arrived at the house:

Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O'Farrell - from Knopf for review

Astor Place Vintage by Stephanie Lehmann - from Simon & Schuster for review

Lotería by Mario Alberto Zambrano - from Harper for review

The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure - from Sourcebooks for review

The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan - from Touchstone for review

I bought plenty of books in England, as well, and since only one of the books I read was a review book and I'm currently reading yet another purchase I've thrown myself behind on the ARCs and will have to call a halt to accepting ARCs, again.  It never ceases to amaze me how the greed monster comes out when interesting books are on offer.  Time to get a grip on that little devil and just read, read, read what I've got. The bookstores in London seem awfully healthy, by the way, although I did see plenty of people reading e-books rather than physical books on this vacation.  

We flew on Memorial Day, which turned out to be unique in a couple of regards.  For one thing, we ended up flying back to Atlanta with Amy Grant and her band.  They'd played at a concert in Sussex.  Wish I'd aged as well as she has!  And, when we arrived in Atlanta, we ended up in the midst of a TSA drill.  They get irritable if you wiggle after they've told you to "freeze", haha.  I froze.  I am very well-behaved.  I think a couple people at the back of the line didn't hear the order to freeze, poor things.  

I've added a link to the NIV Devotional Bible sneak peek to my review post and hope to get that kitty book reviewed quickly.  But, quickly might be a little slower than it sounds.  I'm dragging, here.  Hope everyone had a fabulous week!

©2013 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Monday Malarkey - Probably should be "Monday Mailbox"

I don't have all that much to talk about, today, since I've been a little overwhelmed with errands and chores (our renter moved out of the old house -- the next couple of months will be spent preparing it to sell) and haven't read much.  I've been hacking away at Antonia Lively Breaks the Silence all week.  I'm finding it fascinating, love the writing, but my reading time has been so limited that it may take me another week to finish it.  We shall see.

UPDATE:  Just finished Antonia Lively because I woke up way too early.  More about that, another time.

This week's arrivals:

A Certain Summer by Patricia Beard - from Gallery Books for review.  The following summary is an altered version of the cover blurb:

Set in a small island colony off the coast of Long Island after WWII,  A Certain Summer tells the story of Helen Wadsworth, whose husband was declared MIA during an OSS operation in France.  Her teenage son wants to know what happened to his father, so Helen turns to her husband's best friend and partner on the mission, Frank, who is more interested in filling the void left by her husband. As her affection for Frank grows, so does her guilt when desire is stirred for Peter, a man who was tortured by the Japanese.

With her heart pulled in multiple directions, Helen doesn't know whom to trust -- especially when a shocking discovery forever alters her perception of both love and war.  Part mystery, part love story, and part insider's view of a very private world, A Certain Summer resonates in the heart long after the last page is turned.

The Weight of a Human Heart by Ryan O'Neill - from St. Martin's Press via Shelf Awareness for review.  I usually just delete SA newsletters, these days, to avoid temptation.  But, I do love short stories and this book caught my eye before I managed to hit the delete button.  

Ranging from Australia and Africa to Europe and Asia and back again, The Weight of a Human Heart heralds a fresh and important new voice in fiction.  Ryan O'Neill takes us on a journey that is sometimes comic, sometimes tragic and wholly original.

A young Tutsi girl flees her village on the brink of the Rwandan genocide.  A literary stoush--and an affair--play out in the book review section of a national newspaper. A young girl learns her mother's disturbing secrets through the broken key on a typewriter.

With imagination, wit and a keen eye, Ryan O'Neill draws the essence of the human experience with a cast of characters who stick with you long after you turn the last page of this brilliant short story collection.

The Measure of Katie Calloway by Serena Miller - received via Paperback Swap.  I think this acquisition may be Holly's fault.

The Civil War has ended, but in Katie Calloway's Georgia home, conflict still rages.  To protect herself and her younger brother from her violent and unstable husband, she flees north, finding anonymity and sanctuary as the cook in a north woods lumber camp.  The camp owner, Robert Foster, wonders if the lovely woman he's hired has the grit so survive the never-ending work and harsh conditions of a remote pine forest in winter.  Katie wonders if she can keep her past a secret from a man she is slowly growing to love.

With grace and skill, Serena Miller brings to life a bygone era.  From the ethereal, snowy forest and the rowdy shanty boys to the warm cookstove and mouth-watering apple pie, every detail is perfectly rendered, transporting you to a time of danger and romance.

I also purchased that copy of Henri, Le Chat Noir that I talked about on Friday . . . on a whim.  It was a good sort of whim.  

©2013 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.