All About the Books

A while back I received a HUGE surprise when I got home. A large box was waiting for me. Birthday? Nope. Christmas? Nope. Who was sending me something?

Turns out, I won tons of books from Reading Group Choices. After I started a book club here with some co-workers, I went searching for some websites for book clubs. If you've never checked out this website before, head on over there. They've got a great newsletter that I receive and obviously have contests for books as well. This month is National Reading Group Month and they have a fabulous website set up for it. This is a great resource so go on and register.

Oh. Here's the stack of books I won:Yeah, wow right? My husband just shook his head at me and wondered where we were going to house all the new books. He then proceeded to dig and in and has read three or four of them already. Sheesh. :)

I've read one and will be posting the review up soon.

Oh. This month's newsletter linked to this literary quiz. Seriously hard. I won't tell how many I got right or wrong...

This is the end of Banned Book Week (Sept 26-Oct 3). Take a look at the ALA's website on some of the frequently banned classics. Wow. Some of these are some of my all-time favorites.

Also, the book The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson won the Sunburst Award this year. I read this book awhile back and have yet to do a review. Let me just say I LOVED it so...yeah. Will definitely get that up.

I'm looking forward to seeing who this year's Man's Booker Award winner is. I have honestly never read any of the books by the authors in the running...but I THINK that Sarah Waters and A.S. Byatt will be two of next year's favorite all-time authors.

And while you are at it, go vote for the favorite National Book Foundation book. It's a goal of mine (if you hadn't noticed Rachel's and my National Book Award Challenge) to read a lot more of those award winning books. I LOVED Three Junes...just saying...

And that's all for today!

Thursday's Tunes

I totally forgot to post the Thursday's Tunes yesterday. So Happy Friday! Check out S. Krishna's post (hope she doesn't mind me playing along).

This is the song that has been in my head this week. Belle and Sebastian are one of my favorite bands. They are a Scottish band and formed during the mid-1990s. They have a different sound. They remind me of my dad's old folk music records from the 1960s/70s.

I love this video's home-movie look:

The Coral Thief - Rebecca Stott

I recently received The Coral Thief by Rebecca Stott from Random House to read and review. I wanted to review this one because I love historical fiction novels which are set in periods of revolution and change.

The Coral Thief is set after the battle of Waterloo which marks the end of the reign of Napoleon. Now I've read books set during the French Revolution (Mistress of the Revolution is awesome) but nothing set during this time period.

I'm a little torn over this book. I love the historical setting. And I wanted to love the characters...but somehow I just couldn't get close to them. There's a bit of romance, a bit of action, and a bit of Les Miserables going on.

So here's the story:

Daniel Conner, a student from Scotland, is on his way to Paris to study anatomy under the prestigious Jardin des Plantes. During the late night coach ride into the city, Daniel notices among the other passengers an attractive woman with a small child. He naturally strikes up a conversation with this lady on the long trek to Paris. The next day, he awakens on the coach to find the letters of introduction to the school missing as well as some coral specimens which were meant to be a gift for the school. Embarrassed and annoyed at his loss, he wants to know who this lady was and why she would steal these things. Daniel's quest for takes him into fascinating territories of post-Napoleon Paris.

I loved aspects of this novel. I was fascinated by the historical era this book takes place in. Rebecca Stott really made post-Napoleon Paris come alive. The characters were also so interesting. There was naive Daniel who really evolved and grew up throughout the story. The heroine of the novel - the coral thief - well, I just loved her. What a strong leading lady. And then the whole Les Miserables aspect (there's a Cosette type child and Javert type police inspector).

But the characters are the only problem with this story as well. They are a bit slippery. A bit mysterious. I couldn't quite get a grasp on them. Like the Coral Thief...I wanted to love her. She could really be one of my favorite literary characters...but the author kind of keeps her distance on the whole story. And I couldn't quite get what she was doing with Daniel.

A Girl Walks into a Bookstore reviewed this as well and mentioned that the writer seemed "emotionally detached" from the story. I totally understand what she meant. I'd love to see this story expanded and/or adapted into a movie or something. I would still recommend it for the historical time period it covers. And the Coral Thief...we'll, she's still a really cool character.

Also Reviewed by:

A Girl Walks into a Bookstore
Under the Dresser

September Wrap Up

Ok. So I have a suspicion that I'm not going to get this one completed but I'm going to try! I'd have to read at least 13 books each month for the next three months. Yikes!

Well...we'll see.

Here's how I did this September:

September
57. The Harrowing - Alexandra Sokoloff

58. Dark Star - Alan Furst

59. The Seamstress - Frances de Pontes Peebles

60. The Romanov Bride - Robert Alexander

61. Gone Tomorrow - Lee Child

62. The Return - Victoria Hislop (review coming soon)

While these were all pretty good reads, I have to say that my favorite was The Seamstress by Frances de Pontes Peebles.

What was your favorite book read this month?

Dark Star - Alan Furst

Awhile back a friend of mine who used to work in the publishing industry recommended that I check out books by Alan Furst. He said Alan Furst is who I should turn to for good historical fiction/spy novels/war novels/etc.

So I borrowed his copy of Dark Star. It's a good spy novel but a bit overwhelming because it's so heavy on the history...and I was a history major in college!

The story takes place pre-World War II, in 1937. Andre Szara is a Polish-born journalist working for the Russian newspaper Pravda. While just doing his job, he gets coerced into working with the NKVD (Soviet secret intelligence). Setting up base in Paris, Szara becomes pretty much a spy for Russia. He travels across Europe as a spy and a journalist, enlisting the help of an agent in Berlin with whom he develops romantic connections.

Ok. So a spy novel. But Furst knows his history...sometimes a little too much. But I loved the cloak and dagger feel of the book and the time period was just crazy. I can't imagine traipsing around Europe right before WWII.

I'm going to definitely check out his other books. I recently won another one of Furst's books, The Spies of Warsaw, over at Medieval Bookworm so I'll let you know how that one goes.

You can preview Dark Star over at Google Books to see if it's something you might want to check out.

Have you read any Alan Furst novels or other good spy novels?

Gone Tomorrow - Lee Child

All I have to say is that sometimes book promotions work. Very well. I get Random House's eNewsletter and they had an excerpt of the first chapter or so of Lee Child's latest Reacher Novel #13, Gone Tomorrow. Like the sucker that I am, I read it and was hooked. I posted the first sentence on my Friday Firsts posts last week.

First off, I must tell you I've never read a Lee Child novel and obviously have never read the first twelve Reacher books. That said, I don't think it makes a big difference if you had. It's like jumping into a Bond movie...you don't really have to have watched the first ones.

Jack Reacher is ex-military. He really lives nowhere. He has no luggage, no change of clothes. He's kind of substance living in the city...a.k.a. cheap hotel rooms and just living day to day. (Really, he is an interesting character. Makes me want to read the first book in the series.)

Anyway, here's Jack sitting on the 6 train heading uptown in the early early morning. Five people are on the train car with him and one is probably a terrorist. He then proceeds to break down the signs of what a terrorist looks and acts like. And she (it's a she) fits the bill to a T.

And that's what hooked me. It was really fascinating. And what kept me interested in the story was Jack's continuous snarky observations of New York and its people. Sometimes they cracked me up and usually I was like "YES!" that is totally what it's like. For instance, as he's scrambling to get away from (or follow someone, I forget), he gets bogged down by one of NYC's many Double Wide baby strollers for twins, triplets, etc. And I was like "YES! Have you ever been to the Upper West on a Saturday morning?!" And apparently he has.

So it was a good action book with a odd snarky lead character and it was fun. And he made fun of tidbits of NYC life which made me laugh.

Have you read any of the Reacher books?

Random Charlie Photo

I posted this via Twitter last night but thought I'd put it here too.

This is what our Charlie Dog loves to do all night long. He scopes out the 'hood. Burglars beware.