Bookfoolery

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Patience and calm . . .

are required. I need the calm. I hope you'll bring patience. Here's Fiona in her favorite spot in the new house:

She's as calm and happy as I'd like to be, but we are truly scrambling to get our junk out of the old house. We had so much stuff. It's insane. And, our "renter" (from whom we have yet to get a signature on a contract) has already moved furniture into our den and changed his address. We have to be out by Sunday. That's assuming he signs something, otherwise I'm confiscating husband's key and refusing to let anyone in. Wish me luck. This is so weird.

Point being, I am running back and forth between houses and don't have time to write reviews or even twaddle, at the moment. I'll have two days off the moving for Tropical Storm Isaac (probably) but I can't say whether or not I'll have power. These storms do tend to knock out the power. So, I'll be back soon and when I do, there should be a mild avalanche of posts. At the very least, I should be totally done moving by Monday.

Your patience is appreciated! Happy reading!

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Fiona Friday - Twins . . . and an update

Isabel very politely posed in front of the mirror, for me. I love "twin" kitty photos!

Update(s):

We have finally started spending the night at the new house. Yay!
We have internet service there. Woot!
My laptop is a piece of junk so it's nearly impossible to post from the new house (I'm in the old one, at the moment). Boo!
Hopefully, we'll have the desktop moved over within the next couple of days. We're moving the kitties to the new house tonight! Wahoo!
If I can find the time, I'll bang out some mini reviews, this week. But, we may have a hurricane shutting us down. Ack!
Then again, you never know which way those storms will turn. So, we might very well be just fine. Squeee!
We had coffee on our new patio, this morning. Too awesome for words!

Best news of all:

The second round of medical tests all came back *negative* for the nasty auto-immune disease!! Wahoo! I will still go to a specialist and pepper him with questions, but judging from my research, the pain and joint swelling I've been experiencing are probably diet-related, as in food allergies. Gluten is highest on the suspect list. I've gone gluten-free, this week, and have a massive amount of energy, all of a sudden. We'll stay gluten-free and pure. Let's face it; we probably should have done this years ago. Our diet improved when I began going to the gym and I did manage to lose 25 pounds in the past year, but apparently that just wasn't enough. Onward!

Books??

I haven't finished any books in the past week! But, I'm on the verge . . . hopefully, tonight. Since this is a book blog, it seems only right to toss in a book pic.

The first book I recall falling in love with:

Jiggers is the story of a dog who becomes lost during a blizzard. I think. I haven't read it in a few years. Note that I keep my copy in a plastic bag. This is not the copy I had as a toddler. When I realized I didn't have my childhood copy, I became a bit obsessed with finding one and eventually located it on eBay at a reasonable price. Do you remember the first book you fell in love with?

©2012 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Tuesday Twaddle - with emphasis on our move, various bulleted book lists and a cat collage

I hope you can enlarge this photo to see how the cats have been into everything during our move:

I haven't updated our progress on the house in a while, primarily because I haven't been making any. I've been diagnosed with an auto-immune disease but am still in the preliminary testing stages and am obviously hoping the diagnosis is wrong. However, I've had enough trouble functioning that it's been all up to the man of the house to get nearly everything accomplished. In the photo below, I had to cover up the half-dressed person painting above our built-in entertainment center because he is Strongly Against having his photo uploaded to the internet. I left the hand with the paintbrush, though, so you can see he was hard at work.

The living area is almost done! It's been great to watch the yellow disappear. It was just not my thing. In the kitchen? The sunny yellow is tolerable with a lot of other color thrown in. In a living area, not so much. At any rate, we've managed to move our "good shelves", the IKEA Timmermans, and hope to load them up soon. We've been loaned a pickup truck for a week and this week will be more about hauling as much of the remaining furniture as possible rather than settling in, though. Most everything has been moved in CR-V loads, so you can see why our move has stretched out over 2 months, already. Here are the Timmermans, all sad and empty, prior to being moved to the new house:

Reading-wise:

The Sandcastle Girls was the last book I finished. Since then, I've been reading Miss Buncle's Book by D. E. Stevenson but it took me about 5 days to read 50 pages. I haven't found much time (or energy) for reading. I'm still reading Miss Buncle's Book and have added
The Stars Shine Bright by Sibella Giorello. I'm enjoying both. I love Sibella Giorello's mystery series. It's very unusual for me to like a series so much that I find it unbearable to pass up a new release but I can't bear to miss a book by Giorello.

Just walked in (the past week's arrivals with links to descriptive website pages):

The White Forest by Adam McOmber - from Simon & Schuster for review
The Map of the Sky by Felix J. Palma - from Atria via Shelf Awareness
The Other Half of Me by Morgan McCarthy - from Free Press for review
The Exceptions by David Cristofano - from Grand Central for review
Circling the Waggins and Born Without a Tail by Cayr Ariel Wulff - from author for review
Decorate by Holly Becker - purchase
The House at Tyneford by Natasha Solomons - from Paperback Swap

Some of the whys and wherefores:

Miss Buncle's Book sounded like an upbeat form of entertainment. I'm finding that it is; I just haven't been able to stay awake very long during my normal reading time.
The White Forest sounds like a perfect, atmospheric and creepy read for fall. I don't know whether I'll join in on the RIP Challenge or if it will even continue in 2012 (spooky reads) but Carl's challenge has become so ingrained that I tend to look for ghostly, paranormal, mysterious reads to begin curling up with in September even when I don't join in.
The Exceptions by David Cristofano apparently continues the story from The Girl She Used to Be, which I thought was quite nearly a perfect book, stylistically, although a bit disturbing.
I bought Decorate by Holly Becker and Joanna Copestick because I like Undecorate so much. They're actually not companions (not the same publisher, near as I can tell) but they look like they belong together and I need inspiration.
Bob Tarte, author of Kitty Cornered (whose wonderful book Enslaved by Ducks currently costs only $1.99 for Kindle) posted info about Circling the Waggins on Facebook and I commented that I'd be adding it to my wishlist. Bob apparently told the author that I write book reviews and she contacted me. I seldom accept books directly from authors but I trust Bob and his circle of friends. Ariel Wulff sent me both of her published books rather than just the new one.

I didn't realize:

Miss Buncle's Book is also published by Persephone Books. Cool. My copy is from Sourcebooks and I do love the Sourcebooks cover.

My sidebar is taunting me:

I have three books I need to review. Soon, I hope. Soon, soon.

Happy Tuesday from Bookfool!

Thursday, August 16, 2012

The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian and a Fiona Friday pic

The Sandcastle Girls is a dual tale of romance, betrayal and genocide in 1915, paired with the story of a modern woman uncovering her grandparents' past. It's told partly from the viewpoint of an American/Armenian couple and partly by their granddaughter, who serves as the fictional narrator describing her own story about her childhood and research to uncover her grandparents' experience in Aleppo, Syria in 1915.

I knew absolutely nothing about the Armenian Genocide of 1915 and that genocide is so deeply described that it's almost a character in and of itself. The truth about the genocide is not widely known (although I hope The Sandcastle Girls will help change that) and at least one country doesn't even acknowledge that it occurred; this I learned from the book and the extra materials I read near the beginning, when I was confused about who was killing whom, where and why. A little online research helped me to get into the story. The main characters are an American woman who has gone to Aleppo with some minor training in nursing and an Armenian engineer who managed to escape slaughter but lost his wife and daughter. What did they experience and why did they remain tight-lipped about those years?

Because their granddaughter is the narrator but the story switches from her viewpoint in 1st person to a 3rd person omniscient account, it is actually a little jumpy and can be confusing. The jumps in viewpoint and time period, although not the smoothest, didn't completely ruin the story for me, though. The addition of the granddaughter's emotions definitely added some impact. When she cried, I cried.

Recommended with a graphic violence and disturbing-situations warning. An emotional read, at once gripping, horrifying and romantic with three-dimensional characters, believable dialogue, and a unique setting. Be advised that even with the underlying romantic theme, The Sandcastle Girls is a tale of graphic violence and intensity. The images will stick with you.

I got my copy of The Sandcastle Girls from Goodreads for review (my first "win" from Goodreads!), so I promptly posted my review and then altered it a bit for the blog. After writing my own review, I read a few reviews at Goodreads because I was curious what others thought.

There was a 2-star review that I thought was particularly interesting and well-written. Even though I rated it 4/5, I agree with the reviewer that the alternating viewpoints were jarring. She also brought up the lack of maps. Since I looked up maps and information early in my reading of the book, I'd actually completely forgotten about how desperately I needed them. I had no understanding of the Ottoman Empire and where the events occurred. Going into the book, I really was completely confused. Maps and a bit more background info up front would definitely have helped. I set the book aside until I could make sense of the setting. But, it's not unusual for me to stop reading to look up additional information to round out the reading of a novel in a new-to-me historical setting.

Fiona Friday pic - Fiona thanks us for providing an additional place to scratch; Isabel finds the dolly simply smells interesting.

They are still totally into everything, here. The packing has slowed due to illness and I think the cats appreciate it. They don't like a lot of frantic activity. They like a little playtime, a little nap time, a little food. Anything else is just annoying.

Happy Weekend!

Bookfool

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

I'm probably very unusual as readers of The Prisoner of Heaven go, since I've yet to read the first two novels in the series, The Angel's Game and The Shadow of the Wind. I think I was a little intimidated by them, perhaps because I'd heard they were confusing. The Prisoner of Heaven stands alone fine, thank goodness.

In The Prisoner of Heaven, the year is 1957. Daniel Sempere is looking forward to his friend Fermin's wedding but Fermin has lost weight and seems unusually jumpy. When a stranger shows up and buys a very expensive copy of The Count of Monte Cristo then inscribes it with a mysterious note to Fermin, Daniel is curious enough to follow him. What does the stranger want and why is Fermin not himself? The answers lie, for the most part, in Fermin's complicated past and horrific experience as a prisoner in Montjuic Castle in Barcelona.

Having missed out on the first two books, there were occasionally little hints that I needed to go back to the beginning of the series to get to know the characters, the Sempere & Sons book shop in Barcelona and their history in the previous books; however, I really did feel like the story was complete, apart from the obvious hint that there was more to resolve in a fourth book. The Cemetery of Forgotten Books played a lesser role than I expected it to, and was a bit mystifying when the characters finally arrived there.

I found The Prisoner of Heaven quite breezy and hard to put down but in some minor ways a very tiny bit unsatisfying. It's clear that the series will continue. However, it was a book that I felt immediately drawn into and I remained happily immersed in the story, throughout. Because I haven't read the first two books, I can't say how The Prisoner of Heaven fits within the series and whether or not the tone remains the same, but I enjoyed the story so much that even when some little portion was wrapped up in a disappointing way, it didn't matter. I enjoyed the experience enough that I closed the book eager to find a copy of The Angel's Game and work my way forward.

Recommended - A surprisingly light book with several mysterious strands that stands alone well but leaves enough unsaid to make at least this reader desire to begin at the beginning.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Looking backward and forward - July reads, new books and the usual malarkey/twaddle

Just finally getting around to posting my July reads in review:

85. Kaytek the Wizard - Janusz Korczak

86. This Year You Write Your Novel - Walter Mosley

87. Truth Be Told - Larry King

88. Johnson's Life of London - Boris Johnson

89. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - Rachel Joyce

90. The Bond - Wayne Pacelle

91. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

92. The Knights of Derbyshire - Marsha Altman

93. Dreaming in English - Laura Fitzgerald

I didn't write much about any of them, but I liked every single one. Absolute favorites were A Town Like Alice, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Johnson's Life of London and The Knights of Derbyshire. Links lead to my reviews, such as they are. Some are a mere paragraph.

Moving did get in the way of reading, a bit, but I'm extremely happy to have read 9 books. Book time served as my escape when I had time to rest a bit and it helped me recharge for the next round of packing, painting or cleaning.

Recently finished but not yet reviewed:

The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Shadow Show, ed by Weller and Castle

The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving by Jonathan Evison

Enchanting Lily by Anjali Banerjee

I'm going to start cranking out those reviews, ASAP. Don't want to fall so far behind that I start forgetting what they were about.

Currently reading:

The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian - will finish this one, today

Looking ahead to future reading:

I've received enough books to make the husband lift his eyebrows in the past few weeks . But, I've also donated 2 bags of books, have swapped a few and have 6 more full bags lined up by the front door (this is a combination of justification and "thank goodness because books are heavy things to move"). I neglected to mention at least one week's arrivals, so brace yourself.

Recent arrivals:

Rock Solid Faith Study Bible in NIV, "for teens" came from Zondervan, for review.
Undecorate by Christiane Lemieux - purchase
Paris in Color by Nichole Robertson - purchase
Mrs. Queen Takes the Train by William Kuhn - from Harper for review
The Cutting Season by Attica Locke - from Harper for review
Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon - from Harper for review
Istanbul Passage by Joseph Kanon - from Atria, I think via their annual giveaway during Book Expo America
Khatyn by Ales Adamovich - from Glagoslav Publishing for review
The Mirrored World by Debra Dean - from HarperCollins for review
Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower - purchase
The Stars Shine Bright by Sibella Giorello - from Thomas Nelson for tour

Some whys:

Rock Solid Faith Study Bible - because I love study Bibles and am always interested in the extra info, which doesn't necessarily agree from one edition to another.

Undecorate and Paris in Color (<---that one's Bellezza's fault) - because I need inspiration for dressing up the new house and a bit of an eyeball feast -- I really love design books. I don't want the interior of my new home to just look like "Same old stuff; new space".

The Stars Shine Bright - Love this mystery series and can't bear to miss a release.

The Mirrored World - I confess I requested the title because I loved her first book so much. I didn't even bother reading the description.

Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned - was on my wish list along with several other books, all of which were short-listed for the Franklin O'Connor Award the year Simon Van Booy won (2009). I found this one at Off-Square Books in Oxford, MS, last week.

Oh, did I forget to tell you Kiddo and I drove to Oxford to wrap up some last-minute details before his big move? I was also sick with a summer cold, all week. It's lingering a bit, hence the lack of a Monday Malarkey or Tuesday Twaddle post.

Irritating book news:

Have you noticed Goodreads changed the "To Be Read" shelf to "Want to Read"? What do you think? My opinion can be summed up in one syllable: eck. "To Be Read" and "Want to Read" are two completely different concepts, in my humble opinion. If it's a TBR book, that means I already own a copy or am planning to chase one down as soon as possible. "Want to Read" is more a more wishy-washy kind of thing, in my mind. To me, it means I'm interested in a book but don't own it -- and who knows if I'll end up with a copy. I wish they'd just added a separate shelf instead of ditching "To Be Read".

Favorite headline and lead line from a news article, this week:

Nome resident opens fire on musk ox in defense of her dog

Authorities in Nome say it would be better for dog owners to fence their yards than rely on firepower now that large numbers of dog-hating musk oxen have taken up residence in and around the Western Alaska City.

--from the Anchorage Daily News

I don't know why; that just made me laugh.

Back with reviews as soon as I can find the time and muster the strength (or whenever I feel like it). :)

Thursday, August 09, 2012

Fiona Friday (a little early, again) - Izzy is comfy

Isabel took advantage of the new space on Grandpa's shelf, after I emptied it of books.

What I didn't manage to photograph, this week: Izzy snacking on carrot cake crumbs. Seriously, Isabel will eat absolutely anything. It's kind of disturbing.

Monday, August 06, 2012

Monday Malarkey - On to un-yellowing; mini reviews of Dreaming in English and The Aleppo Codex

Room #2 is done! Un-greened and . . . well, I'm not sure my choice of bedspread works very well with the rug we bought, but it'll do, for now. The TBRs have moved into our new bedroom! Wahoo! We've moved on to un-yellowing the living area, now.

We are getting to the crunch point on this moving business. Husband wants us out of the old house by the first of September because a friend is going through a divorce and tired of staying at a hotel; husband wants to rent our old home to him. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I want to get out of the old house as soon as possible but it's a bear of a job. We've been in this house for a long, long time.

Anyhow, if I disappear for a time, it's because we're rushing to finish the move. At this point, I barely have time to sit and take a break from packing, moving, cleaning, painting and lining shelves. I have, however, managed to finish a few books in the past 2 weeks.

Dreaming in English by Laura Fitzgerald is the sequel to Veil of Roses and stands alone fine but it's probably a lot more fun to read the two books in order because Dreaming in English does give away the entire plot of Veil of Roses.

In Veil of Roses, which I have not read, Tamila Soroush left her home in Iran and moved to the United States, joining the sister who had already moved to the U.S. and married. Her objective was husband-hunting so that she could leave Iran permanently.

If you plan to read Veil of Roses, the rest of this review will be a spoiler!!

At the end of Veil of Roses, the man Tami was on the verge of marrying asked her to make some unacceptable promises. Knowing she couldn't give in to his demands, she booked a flight home. But, the man she'd really fallen in love with swooped in and they married in Las Vegas.

In Dreaming in English, Tami and Ike begin their marriage rather badly, with a visit to his parents, who are dead-set against the marriage and think Tami is trying to use Ike to stay in the U.S. The newlyweds are determined to make their marriage work, though. They move into the cottage of a friend of Tami's and Tami gets a job working for her brother-in-law. Meanwhile, Ike assumes he'll have to give up his dream of owning a coffee shop when his father refuses to give him the promised funds. The marriage is the obstacle.

Tami knows Ike will never be content if he has to leave his dream behind, so she sets out to help make it happen. But, when Ike's old girlfriend returns to the country from Europe, Tami makes a huge mistake that may cause Ike to give up on Tami for good.

Dreaming in English is a nice, light, romantic read that genuinely surprised me. I figured it would be a little on the chick-littish side but there are constant challenges and the pages simply flew. Recommended when you're looking for a breezy read that isn't pure fluff -- just quick reading. Even though the first book has been spoiled by the reading of Dreaming in English, I liked it enough that I'd still happily read Veil of Roses, even knowing what's going to happen.

The Aleppo Codex by Matti Friedman is nonfiction, the true story of the author's quest to uncover what happened to the thousand-year-old Bible also known as the "Crown of Aleppo", which was kept safely hidden in Syria until the United Nations agreement after WWII that led to riots and the eventual end of the Jewish presence in Aleppo. How did the Codex travel from Aleppo, Syria to its current home in Jerusalem, Israel? Who brought the book to Israel and when did a large portion of the Codex disappear? Where did the missing pages go?

Because everyone was tight-lipped about all of the above questions, the author had to really dig to find the truth. And, the story of his investigation is absolutely fascinating. I was very impressed with Friedman's journalistic efforts and how he managed to put together the pieces of the puzzle.

The story of the Codex's journey and how the pages disappeared is engrossing. I highly recommend The Aleppo Codex to those who enjoy nonfiction, particularly history.

I've also finished reading The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, but I'll save that for another day. I don't want this post to go on forever.

Books that walked in, this past week:

Keeping the Feast by Paula Butturini - from Paperback Swap

The House at Riverton by Kate Morton - from Paperback Swap

If I can, I'll sneak in a mini review of The Prisoner of Heaven, in a couple days. If not, see you on Fiona Friday!

Bookfool, slightly overwhelmed in a good way

Thursday, August 02, 2012

Fiona Friday (a tad early) - Adaptation

First, a "What the heck happened to my climbing cabinet?" photo:

Both cats got this same look. They knew the cabinet was there and were totally baffled by its absence. But, they didn't think about it for long. Of course, if one nice climbing spot disappears, you have no choice but to look for alternatives.

Sometimes your sister finds the good spot, first.

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Tuesday Twaddle - Mostly yikes news

Our phone service (and, therefore internet -- and I have no smart device) has been down since Sunday and the robot who answered my service call said we won't be back up and running till Thursday. Can you believe that? This is the second time we've lost service for 5 days in the last few months. Ask me if I'll be choosing AT&T for my new home. Go ahead. Ask. ;)

So . . . I have no photos to upload and I'm in a coffee shop. I'm going to have to make this quick because I'm using Kiddo's laptop and he doesn't really feel like sharing.

Last week's reading . . .

Sucked eggs. I finished one book: Dreaming in English. I enjoyed it. More on that, later.

Right now, I'm reading . . .

Shadow Show, ed. by Weller and Castle - A book of short stories written in tribute to Ray Bradbury. I'm on p. 262 and finding the stories are stellar. Definitely loving this one.

The Aleppo Codex by Matti Friedman - Still enjoying this one, although I did take a break from it for a couple days. I hope to finish this one tonight, but I can't bank on that.

Cat news:

On days that the guys are around to move furniture, the poor kitties get a little frantic. But, otherwise, they're adapting just fine. They're still playing in boxes, climbing new spaces, checking out empty cabinets. As long as I spend a little time with them, they seem pretty happy.

Husband news:

Men should just stay out of the way and let their women decide how to do their own freaking packing jobs. Just saying the spouse could stand to leave his manager title at work, thankyouverymuch.

Worst news of the week:

My best friend and neighbor is now a widow. I'm bummed. I considered Mike a great guy, a friend and a man I respected and admired. The funeral was really uplifting and wonderful, though, so it turned something awful into a beautiful time of hope and reflection.

Update on the house:

We have a date on our mattress arrival and all that's left of the bedroom painting is a little trim work, then I can put the outlet plates back on and we can move on to the living area, our final paint job! Woot! We're getting pretty decent at this painting business, now. The bed frame has been put together and we've moved in quite a bit of furniture. We still haven't found a couch we agree on, so we sit on our one area rug, our IKEA chair (still just one comfy chair in the house) or a dining chair when we need breaks. The cats won't move into the new house till we do.

I'll mention book arrivals when my home internet is functioning. Wow, Kiddo is REALLY TWITCHY when you borrow his computer. Gotta run. Happy Last Day of July!

©2012 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Friday, July 27, 2012

Fiona Friday - Favorites from this week

Monday, July 23, 2012

Tuesday Twaddle - Including Un-greening and mini reviews of A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute and The Knights of Derbyshire by Marsha Altman

Hello! Monday Malarkey turned to Tuesday Twaddle because of an evening of painting at the new house.

We're all done de-pinking the "library". So, after cleaning the floor, we'll start bringing in shelves and books. Meanwhile, I've moved on to un-greening the master bedroom. Here's what the bedroom looked like when the previous owner was still in residence:

Oddly, she left that headboard in the garage.

I'm actually quite fond of green, but I prefer a neutral color in my bedroom so I can change bedspread/quilt colors without having to paint, again. Plus, I had a different color scheme in mind. We have to buy new linens because we are finally getting a new bed, after 29 years on the same old mattress and box springs. Woot! I am so ready for a new mattress!!! I'll show you the color I settled on, when the room is all painted and put together.

In other news:

Kiddo got the keys to his apartment in Oxford and took a load of his possessions, including his bed (without the frame), this weekend. He then came home and agreed with his father that they should put a twin mattress and box springs on his full-size frame, in spite of my noisy protests. Kiddo sat on the bed and promptly broke one of the slats. I have been heckling my husband the engineer about how he should have known the amount of stress would not have been spread as evenly over the slats and breakage was a likelihood. He responded that he's a better manager than engineer. Haha.

Kitty news:

Isabel has been sick, again!! Can you believe it? I don't know if she didn't get enough antibiotic or she's got something new, but she was sluggish all weekend (but smiling -- seriously, she stayed near me instead of hiding and seemed fairly happy, in spite of being miserable) so I took her to the vet, yesterday, and found that once again she had a fever, this time 104.2.

She got a shot of antibiotic, anti-nausea and something else -- not sure what. Well, it did the trick. This morning she was all bright-eyed and chipper. She chattered away at me, begging for head-to-tail rubbings and generally making a nuisance of herself. I was so thrilled to see her back to normal! She's angry with me, at the moment, since I took her to the Scary Place and she got an additional, long-lasting antibiotic shot to keep the magic going. Update: Isabel's huff lasted about an hour. I have been forgiven. :)

Mini reviews of books finished, this week:

A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute is a book I read for my Face to Face book group, although I didn't make it to the meeting because I got the meeting week wrong in my head and had only managed 100 pages by meeting time. It's about a woman named Jean who was captured during WWII in Malaya and marched around the country with a number of other women and someone else's baby till Jean manages to find them a place to sit out the rest of the war, working the rice paddies and dressing like the natives. She recounts her story after finding out she's inherited a large sum of money.

During her imprisonment, she met an Australian man who tried to help them and was killed for his efforts. Or, so she thought. It's a war story, a romance, a story of one incredible woman's strength. Although A Town Like Alice is fiction, it's based on a true story. If you haven't read it, grab a copy. You will absolutely love Jean. She's tough but kind, savvy but a woman who uses her abilities to help everyone, not just herself. Excellent, excellent book -- copyrighted in 1950 and no wonder it's still around. Highly recommended in a very pushy way, with fireworks and dancing. I've got a pending post of quotations to which I'll add my favorite bit from A Town Like Alice.

The Knights of Derbyshire by Marsha Altman is, I think, the fifth in her Pride & Prejudice spin-off series -- the only series of its kind that I have become addicted to. Seriously addicted. I absolutely love Altman's adventurous, witty tales.

In The Knights of Derbyshire, the Darcy's eldest son, Geoffrey, becomes the victim of dangerous men. Will he survive? Meanwhile, George Wickham the Younger rescues his sister from a marriage for her inheritance and is kicked out of Oxford for missing his final exams, then kicked out of his family's house for not happily sharing his inheritance with his mother, Lydia. There is the usual fun, tension, adventure and romance. The Knights of Derbyshire is definitely one of my favorites in this series, so far. You absolutely must read this series in order -- and should, if you have any interest in P & P spin-offs.

This entire series is highly recommended. Be advised that Altman has had several different publishers. The Knights of Derbyshire is available through Amazon, as are the rest of her books, beginning with The Darcys and the Bingleys. See my review of The Ballad of Gregoire Darcy for a link to all of my other reviews.

There are quite a few small errors in the new book, but I was forewarned by the author and told they will be eliminated. That was 2 months ago, so hopefully things have been fixed by now. The errors didn't get on my nerves; none were huge and I was expecting them.

Books that walked in, this past week:

Sin by Zakhar Prilepin - from Glagoslav Publications for review

The Lost Button by Irene Rozdobudko - from Glagoslav Publications for review

The Wild Princess by Mary Hart Perry - from HarperCollins for review

Shadow Show ed. by Sam Weller and Mort Castle - from HarperCollins for review

Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness - win from Amy at Life by Candlelight (Thanks, Amy!)

And, what am I reading, now?

I'm reading two books, one nonfiction and one fiction. The Aleppo Codex by Matti Friedman, which I got unsolicited from Algonquin Books (I love Algonquin -- the unsolicited books they send are often among my personal favorites). The Aleppo Codex is an adventurous tale of the author's search for the truth about how a book known as the oldest copy of the Bible was smuggled out of Syria and taken to its original home in Jerusalem.

My fiction choice is a backlist title: Dreaming in English by Laura Fitzgerald. It's another unsolicited book and it was kind of a satisfice. I wanted to read something light and I had a particular recent arrival in mind, Enchanting Lily. But, guess what? I took Enchanting Lily (and a few other titles) to the new house because I wanted to have some books on hand, in case I got stranded at the house in a thunderstorm. We had big storms popping up daily, for a while. So, when it came time to choose a new title to start reading, the book I wanted was at the new house . . . and I was at home in the old house.

I didn't read Dreaming in English when I received it because I read a review advising readers not to skip the first book, Veil of Roses. This time, I looked up Dreaming in English at Goodreads and found different advice: "It stands alone well, but it will totally ruin Veil of Roses, for you." Fine. I never did get around to finding a copy of the first book and Dreaming in English fit my needs, right now.

I'm enjoying both books -- reading slowly, of course, since we're still packing and painting and all that, but when I sit down to read I'm immediately swept away, regardless of which book I'm in the mood for.

Interesting development:

We have been asked to rent our house out to someone who works with my husband (temporarily) by September 1. Oh, dear. I thought we'd have a bit more time to get the place cleaned up thoroughly. The fellow who asked is going through a divorce and he's tired of staying in a hotel. So, we're probably going to say yes, just to be kind to him. If necessary, I'll take a blogging break but as long as I can keep up with two posts a week, I will.

What's up in your world?

Friday, July 20, 2012

Fiona Friday - Ceiling Cat Rules the Roost

I am currently emptying Ceiling Cat Fiona's cabinet. I got nipped on the finger for annoying her (probably for frightening her by reaching up to pet her from below -- cats are so sensitive, sometimes). We're going to paint that ceiling before we put the house up for sale, I swear. I know some of you have seen plenty of photos of that crappy, unfinished paint job. This is the room in which Fiona occasionally makes a rrrrrip noise that indicates she's yanking off pieces of wallpaper. Very helpful, since we also started removing the wallpaper and never finished. I don't even remember why that project went by the wayside, anymore.

So . . . how was your week? Mine was very sweaty and Smurfy. I'm a very sloppy painter and I even managed to flip my ponytail into the wet paint but our "library" walls are almost done:

We used one-coat paint, but you can see there are still some pink streaks so we'll go over it one last time with a roller and then we should be done with our first room (we're painting three of them) and will be able to start moving in books and the cabinets we plan to put them in -- which just happen to be like the one Fiona is on in the top photo.

This has been a pitiful reading week, so far, and the weekend will likely not be an improvement. I'm on the verge of finishing a book. One book. It's an excellent read, though. I found out a little too late in the game that my Face to Face book group was meeting this week (I thought I had one more week) and started reading A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute the day before the meeting. I only managed 100 pages and opted not to go because I was enjoying the book so much that I didn't want to risk having it potentially spoiled. I was sad to miss my F2F meeting but I'm glad I didn't risk potential spoilers.

There's not much other news, at this point. My life is all about boxes and tape, shelf liner and paint. I love my evenings, when I can finally settle in, read, roll jingle balls and get climbed upon by cats. They don't seem to be bothered too much by the upheaval, probably because there are loads of fun boxes to play in (I've turned one on its side and placed a towel over the front so they have a cool hideout), although they like it best when Mom is lazy and/or available for playing with lasers, giving luxurious head-to-tail rubs, etc. I love cats. They're so easy to please.

Happy weekend!

Monday, July 16, 2012

Monday Malarkey - De-pinking and reading and other jazz

This week made my head spin! We're almost done de-pinking the Pink Room in our new house. Woot! I'll post an "after" photo, when I get one. This is the textured wall before we taped and began painting -- the rest were just flat pink (including the closet). I know you've seen this awful room, before, but I'm pretty sure Huzzybuns doesn't want me to share pics of him painting, so . . . you get a step stool.

I'll take photos of our progress, as we finish things. Other than painting, I've cleaned and lined all of the kitchen drawers and we've managed to hang three decorative items: a clock and Portuguese bowl in the kitchen and a framed print a local artist gave me in the half bath.

Amazingly, in spite of driving to the house to take small loads and start the cleaning and painting process, I managed to finish three books, last week!

Books finished in the past week:

Johnson's Life of London by Boris Johnson - If you read my blog regularly, you already know this one is about people who have made an impact on the city of London, over its lengthy history. The link leads to a mini review.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce (on sale July 24, 2012) is the story of a man who sets out to mail a letter in reply to a woman who has written to tell him she's dying of cancer. He let her down, many years in the past, and decides that the letter just doesn't seem like enough. So, he keeps walking and decides that he's going to continue walking hundreds of miles to see her, thinking the anticipation will keep her alive.

What an amazing book! The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry could have easily been far-fetched or trite, but instead it is meaningful and incredibly believable. Harold and his wife are logically flawed and real. There was only one brief section that I found a little hard to swallow. Otherwise, the book is darn near perfect because the characters are so utterly human. Harold has his doubts, now and then, and the way he goes about his walk even changes from time to time. Along the way, he encounters helpful, kind people and some whose motives are not so noble. Wonderful, wonderful book. Highly recommended.

The Bond by Wayne Pacelle is subtitled "Our Kinship with Animals; Our Call to Defend Them" and it's authored by the current president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). The Bond is a difficult read. Most people think of the Humane Society as an organization that's all about rescuing dogs and cats. But, their reach extends to animals of all kinds, all over the world and the book is both about the bond between humans and animals and the various kinds of abuses HSUS is working at halting.

Like the recent books about food sources, The Bond will make you want to avoid the meat aisles at your local grocery -- not only because of the incredibly cruel practices of the meat industry but also because those same practices are dangerous to humans. Downer cows, for example, are still routinely allowed to slaughter. You know what that means, right? Downer cows can be cows that are exhausted from miserable treatment and dehydration during crowded rides to slaughter, but they may also be suffering from what's commonly known as "Mad Cow Disease". No cow that's unable to walk from trailer to slaughterhouse floor should ever become a part of the food chain, but they do . . . and with USDA officials present. I've only recently returned to eating beef (after the first Mad Cow death and the death of a friend from Mad Cow -- which was not publicized at all -- I decided the USDA couldn't be trusted, for quite a few years), but it didn't last long. I will not eat beef, again.

Other abuses discussed are puppy mills and why AKC or other pure-bred licenses do not guarantee that you're purchasing a healthy animal (and may even mean the opposite) that was raised by a caring breeder; dog- and cock-fighting, including why the HSUS chose to allow Michael Vick to speak out against dog fighting for the organization; the cruel treatment of chickens, cows and pigs by industrial farmers and why crowding and other poor conditions mean a danger to humans; the annual seal slaughter in Canada and why it's finally tapering off; why wolves and mountain lions are still being slaughtered in spite of the fact that they're necessary predators; how ending the killing of whales has led to tourist income; why one zoo no longer has elephants, and more. The politics of all this killing and mistreatment are mind-boggling.

There were times I thought the author didn't explain things well enough (for example, he didn't go into detail about why a certain practice may have caused the Asian avian flu epidemic) or left me feeling like a particular story wasn't thoroughly wrapped up. And, obviously the book is a painful read for animal lovers. But, it's a necessary one, definitely recommended -- especially to those who may want to become involved in protecting animals and who care about the sources of the food we eat in the U.S. A little preachy, at times, but that's probably necessary. And, I'm a little confused. Doesn't the Humane Society still euthanize healthy animals? I need to look into that.

Just walked in, this past week:

Personal Demons by Lisa Desrochers - from Paperback Swap (Kiddo already read this one and gave it two thumbs up)
The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving by Jonathan Evison - unsolicited from Algonquin Books

I am reading:

The Knights of Derbyshire by Marsha Altman. I believe this is the 5th in Altman's Darcy series. I started reading it in the midst of reading The Bond. I needed a little sweetness and light as an antidote to reading about the horror of animal cruelty.

Some animals have very cushy lives, thank goodness:

They give us their trust, companionship, love and loads of belly laughs. I'll always wonder how people can abandon animals. It's a mindset that makes no sense to me.

Wednesday will be our first day of curbside recycling!

Since we don't live in our new home, yet, I'm dragging my recyclable items along with me. Exciting!!!

I'm down to 2 posts per week, at best, right now. Will try to at least keep up the Monday Malarkey and Fiona Friday posts, if nothing else. Happy Monday to all!

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Fiona Friday - Pinks

Every kitty should have a quilt that matches her nose, don't you think?

Thursday, July 12, 2012

A Sentimental Centennial

I've been looking forward to July 12, 2012 all year because it signifies the 100th anniversary of the first item I'd grab (excluding humans and kitties, of course) in the event of a fire--a painting by my grandmother:

100 years old, today! When I was a wee thing, I used to climb up onto the crushed velvet chair in my parents' living room to admire that painting and, yep, when I finally settled into a permanent home, I pleaded with my mother to please, please pass it on to me. It was her favorite, as well, although it was in a closet by that point.

My grandmother was not a known painter, although she did teach art at university level for a couple of years. So her paintings have no monetary value. What makes this painting particularly special is not just the fact that it's one of the prettiest paintings I've seen by my grandmother but the fact that it was painted 5 months before her 12th birthday.

That's right. My grandmother painted this when she was 11 years old. Cool or what?

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Two Mini Reviews - Johnson's Life of London by Boris Johnson and Truth Be Told by Larry King

Johnson's Life of London: The People Who Made the City That Made the World by Boris Johnson is a book of mini biographies about the people who shaped the city of London, from ancient times to modern. Author Boris Johnson is currently the mayor of London and was reelected to a firestorm of rather humorous tweets, like this one:

Mark ‏@shadowsans

London, the rest of the country is looking at you in the same quizzical way they looked at the US when they re-elected George W.

I really know very little about Boris Johnson, although since that tweet I've read a little bit about him and find him a rather fascinating man. I'm very impressed with Johnson's writing. It's a delightful blend of erudition and humor. Thanks to his rocking vocabulary, I have a boat-load of words to look up and will just leave the Post-its in place, for now, since I'll be shy on time for a while. Here's a random paragraph from the intro about London Bridge:

By the time I get to cycle home, most of the morning crowds have tramped the other way. Like some gigantic undersea coelenterate, London has completed its spectacular daily act of respiration--sucking in millions of commuters from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m., and then efficiently expelling them back to the suburbs and the Home Counties from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. But the rift home is more staggered. There are pubs, clubs and bars to be visited, and as I watch the crowds of drinkers on the pavements--knots of people dissolving and reforming in a slow minuet--I can see why the city beats the countryside hands down. It's the sheer range of opportunity.

-- from p. 3 of Advanced Reader's Copy, Johnson's Life of London (some changes may have been made to the final print version)

Johnson's bios cover the following characters and their impact on London: Boudica, Hadrian, Mellitus, Alfred the Great, William the Conqueror, Geoffrey Chaucer, Richard Whittington, William Shakespeare, Robert Hooke, Samuel Johnson, John Wilkes, J. M. W. Turner, Lionel Rothschild, Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole (a shared chapter), W. T. Stead, Winston Churchill, Keith Richards and . . . rather oddly . . . The Midland Grand Hotel.

Some of these characters appear to be surprising choices and several may only be known vaguely by Americans. When I saw the name "Richard Whittington," my first thought was the story of Dick Whittington's cat, which he happily debunks. Johnson chose a variety of characters from science and engineering, the arts, politics, royalty, industry and health care so that everything from invention, the English language, eradication of disease, musical trends and law to the funneling of huge numbers of people throughout the city is covered.

Highly recommended to lovers of history, biography and the city of London, as well as general Anglophiles and anyone who enjoys a solid work of nonfiction. Johnson's Life of London is impressive. I need to reread it after I've defined all those vocabulary words. Definitely a 5/5.

Truth Be Told by Larry King is subtitled "Off the Record about Favorite Guests, Memorable Moments, Funniest Jokes, and a Half Century of Asking Questions."

In general, I figured Truth Be Told would be a gossipy book full of fun anecdotes about the many people Larry King has met and interviewed, over the years, thus a name-dropping sort of memoir. I'm not really a big fan of "star" memoirs but I like Larry King and the idea of reading anecdotes that go as far back as the years of Sinatra and Jackie Gleason was just too intriguing to pass up.

Truth Be Told is an interesting blend of narrative with sections entirely devoted to categorized anecdotes, many from friendships rather than the show itself. I found that I enjoyed the anecdotes better than the narrative portions, although the narrative offered plenty of interesting information.

When the author discussed music, for example, he talked about how Natalie Cole's visit to the show led to the donation of a much-needed kidney to Cole, his surprise at how beloved John Lennon was when the phone lines were jammed with crying people upon the news of Lennon's murder, and a time when Elvis bought a limo driver the car as his tip. There are stories about Sinatra getting involved in a pie fight at a diner and how Mel Torme wrote his beloved Christmas song (the one with "chestnuts roasting on an open fire") because it was so fiercely hot that he wanted to come up with something that would make him think cool thoughts.

He talked about broadcasting and how it's changed over the years, how news has gone from informative to dramatic. King also wrote one of the best descriptions of President Obama's election versus his presidency that I've read:

Obama did stave off a Depression. He passed the first major health care bill in seventy-five years. He pulled our troops out of most of the principal cities in Iraq. He bailed out General Motors, settled the economy, and made money for the government in the process. Those were all winners.

He inherited Afghanistan. I don't know how you win there. . . .

Colin Powell told me that what Obama lacked was a main attack. He said Obama would have been better off if he'd focused on the economy and fixing unemployment to the exclusion of everything else. Not that the other issues weren't important. But it would have put a spotlight on this one area that was vital to every American and given him a clear way to communicate his victories. It could have been a Now we can! that opened the door to the other issues, like health care, that were deeply important to him.

--from p. 145 of Truth Be Told

Some of his thoughts about the presidential election are already outdated as the book was copyrighted in 2011, but many are still relevant.

The only thing I really disliked about Truth Be Told was the final chapter about Larry King's plans to become a comedian. "I am funny," he says. The occasional arrogant-sounding statement, like King's flat claim that he's funny, is undoubtedly to be expected. People who've achieved fame on a level of being a household name tend to be pretty pleased about it, so I expected a little bit of that. But, Truth Be Told is amusing, entertaining, juicy fun and King balances his occasional pride with plenty of humility. He really sounds like a very decent guy and there's no escaping the fact that he has plenty of interesting tales to tell.

Recommended to fans of Larry King, folks who enjoy memoirs by the famous and those who are curious about the wealthy and famous people King has interviewed, over the years. I particularly enjoyed anecdotes from the earlier years.

In other news:

We have closed on our house (on Tuesday -- I think I'm still recovering)!! Yesterday, we bought a scaffold for painting because the ceilings are high and we took some cleaning supplies and a few other essentials like water, hand soap and towels to the house. We'll start painting, this weekend. It'll be a while before we actually move in, but it's exciting to have the paperwork finished.

Also, today is a very special anniversary day for an object in my house. I'll do a separate post about that, in a while.

I miss visiting your blogs! With all the running back and forth and more packing, painting and then repair of our current home to get it ready to sell, I have a feeling it could be months before I regularly visit bloggers, again. When I have time, I do dip into a few blog posts but I'm usually so staggering tired that I can't even manage to say, "Nice review," or whatever happens to be relevant. Wish me strength in the coming months. I'm doing my best to avoid taking a complete break from blogging because it does provide me with a little personal time to sit and purge my thoughts about books.

Happy Thursday!