Month: March 2009

Teaser Tuesdays

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 teasertuesdays3

 TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

  • Grab your current read.
    Let the book fall open to a random page.
    Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
    You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
    Please avoid spoilers.

I’m just starting this book today, so I have no idea what is going on.  I will be interviewing the author, Mary Doria Russell, when I’m done.  The interview will be be posted this Friday or next.

“He’s no better than this rabble.  He is a radical and a troublemaker who deserved prison.”

“He had every right to speak out against the war and the lies that got us into it.  He is a martyr for the Constitution!”

Hah!  He is a Communist and a subversive.”

This is from the novel Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell and it takes place at the 1921 Cairo Peace Conference, where world leaders have met to decide the fate of the Arab world.  It looks to be fascinating.

Cover ImageSo, what are you reading this week?

Hosted by MizB

What Woman Am I?

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Megan topped the list with 3 correct!  Thanks for playing 🙂

It’s Women’s History Month, so see if you know these women authors.
Here’s how to play…Identify the author and leave a comment with the # and the name and I’ll cross it off the list. No Googling, that’s cheating and no fun!

1. I was a successful playwright and had a 30-year love affair with author Dashiell Hammett?  Lillian Hellman, Nicole

2. I was 21 when I finished the first version of my now popular novel. It was titled First Impressions. I rewrote it fourteen years later and changed the title using alliteration.  Jane Austen, Megan

3. I was the first African-American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature for Beloved.  Toni Morrison, Kathy

4. I was considered the first female poet in the American colonies. – ANNE BRADSTREET

5. I’m the British author who finished my most famous novel, translated to screen many times, at the age of 19 and died in 1851 at the age of 53 of a probable brain tumor.  Mary Shelley, Mark

6. I am the last woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for fiction for my novel Interpreter of Maladies. Jhumpa Lahiri, Megan

7. We are noteworthy sisters who also wrote under the names Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. the Bronte sisters, ‘Nise  Does anyone know our names? Charlote, Emily, and…Anne

8. I am Chile born, but became a US citizen in 2003. I write in the magic realism tradition. A few of my novels are on Stacy’s Top 100 list 🙂  Isabel Allende, Nicole

9. I was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1921 with my novel about innocence.  Edith Wharton, Megan

10. I am the highest paid author in the world.  JK Rowling, Kathy

My blog is fabulous!

3 Comments

Jo-Jo over at Jo-Jo Loves To Read, presented me with this wonderful blog award.  Thank you 🙂  This is awarded to new bloggers or blogs that are new to me.  I received this a few weeks ago and passed it along to 3 bloggers, so this time I’ll pass it along to two who I have recently discovered.  So without further ado here are my nominees…

1. Meg at Write Meg!

2. Jenny at Jenny Loves to Read

They both have fabulous blogs and you should check them out!  Please pass this along to your favorite new blogs.

Time Traveling

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Since we jumped ahead in time this morning I thought I’d talk about some of my favorite time travel novels. 

Cover ImageMy favorite time travel series is by far the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon.  A WWII nurse walks through magical stones and finds herself in Scotland 200 years earlier.  This book has it all – love, war, death, hatred, jelousy, political intrigue…and yes, time travel.

Cover ImageI just read this book in January and loved it.  The narrator jumped ahead and saw what the world would become.  My review is here.

Cover ImageThis book, and series, is a childhood favorite.  The world of Meg, Charles, Calvin, and Mrs. Whatsit had me reading this book more than once as a kid.

Cover ImageI loved this outrageous book.  Arthur  and Ford’s galaxy tour was a laugh out loud riot.  I read the first few books of the series, but never finished it.  Maybe I should.

What are your favorite time travel novels?

The Rival, by Brenda Joyce

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Cover ImageFinished 3-6-09, rating 3/5, historical romance, pub. 1998

“Lionel was fourteen when he died.  It is impossible to say how he might look now, at the age of twenty-eight,” Garrick said

“Did Lionel die?”  The earl whirled from where he stood at a window.  It was raining yet again outside, and the gardens were shrouded in a wet mist.  “He vanished.  Without a trace.  Into thin air.  Or so you claimed.”

Chapter 12

It is 1760, West Sussex and Garrick De Vere  is a man set to become heir to his father, the earl of Stanhope.  As a child his older brother vanished and was long presumed dead.  After ten long years of banishment to Barbados, Garrick is summoned home to take his rightful place in society.  But society, and his fiance, view him as a murderer.

Lady Olivia Gray is married to hateful man and lives in seclusion at their country estate with her blind daughter.  They both have the gift of sight, able to see the future, see ghosts.  Olivia knows Garrick is innocent and the minute the two meet sparks fly.

After ten years, Garrick’s older brother and rightful heir, Lionel, returns home to take what is his.  But is it really Lionel?  Garrick doesn’t trust him although both of his parents welcome the prodigal son with open arms.

This is a different kind of romance.  First, the heroine is a married woman and the husband, although abusive, is still in the picture.  The typical sexual tension and falling in love pretty much takes place in the first third of the book.  The rest is about Lionel and finding a way to be together.  There are many subplots and characters that keep the story moving forward and they somewhat overshadow the love affair.  Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but unexpected.

I love Brenda Joyce, but this book fell a little short of her standard.  For me, the love story ended too soon and Garrick was not the greatest hero.  Also, there are many characters to dislike in this book, and none of them really get their due in the end.  I was excited to see who this Lionel really was and I really wanted Olivia’s husband and sister-in-law to be exposed for the awful people that they were. 

Overall, it was an interesting story, but not one I’d recommend.  Brenda Joyce has written so many books, but this may have been my least favorite so far.  But, to be fair,  I hold her to a higher standard.

Billy Budd, by Herman Melville

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Cover ImageFinished 3-4-09, rating 2/5, fiction, pub. 1924

Now there can exist no irritating juxtaposition of dissimilar personalities comparable to that which is possible aboard a great warship fully manned and at sea.  There, every day among all ranks, almost every man comes into more or less of contact with almost every other man.  Wholly there to avoid even the sight of an aggravating object one must needs give it Jonah’s toss or jump overboard himself.  Imagine how all this might eventually operate on some peculiar human creature the direct reverse of a saint!

Chapter 11

Billy Budd, called the Handsome Sailor because of his unmatched good looks, is an innocent soul on a warship full of hard men in the late 1790’s.  Through his genial and sunny disposition he wins them over, except for one.  John Claggart, the master-at-arms, showed Billy his smile, but secretly hated him.  This hate, born out of jealousy, would lead him to do an unthinkable thing to Billy and therefore seal his own fate.  Captain Vere, for his part in the story, tried to be fair, but even he was outsmarted by circumstance.

The story itself was good, but it was wrapped up in 114 pages of a hard to read draft.  This book was not published during Melville’s lifetime, and it did not see print until he had been dead for over 30 years.  The only other Melville work I’ve read is the short story Bartleby the Scrivener and I remember enjoying it.  Maybe I would have enjoyed this if it had been shortened.  Or maybe I just don’t appreciate Melville.  I almost gave up around page 10, but thought I could suffer through 114 pages.  I will remember the story itself, but do not plan on reading  more of Melville.

Ultra-Longevity:The Seven-Step Program for a Younger, Healthier You, by Mark Liponis, MD

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Cover ImageFinished 3-1-09, rating 3.5/5, health, pub. 2007

Aging is an autoimmune disease.  It is caused by your own immune system attacking you.Yes, that’s correct.  Aging is not a natural result of living too many years…

page 23

This book starts with a quiz.  Twenty-one questions determine how fast you are aging.  There are the expected questions about weight, smoking, and exercise, but then there are the unexpected questions about siblings, sex, jokes, and even about the time of year you were born.  Once I saw my score I immediately started reading the book. 

Just as our country’s defense system would be sorely tested if several invaders attacked simultaneously, so, too, when your body has to deal with many potential terrorists, the opportunities for breakdowns multiply.  This confusion leads to malfunction of the immune system, and that malfunction leads to bodily damage.

pages 55-56

The first section deals with your immune system and the many organs and cells involved in making it work.  This section is somewhat interesting and very detailed.  I don’t need that much information, but it is nice to have it explained in a relatively simple way.  This is also where he explains the CRP Test.  Essentially, this tests how active your immune system is and the less active the better.

The second section of the book discusses the seven steps you need to take to maintain a healthy immune system.  They are: breathing, eating, sleeping, dancing, loving, soothing, and enhancing.  I think it is interesting that he puts all of these areas side by side, with eating being equal to the others, not more important .  I thought this section was fun to read and easy to understand.  Who doesn’t like reading that a good sex life, singing every day, and massages can prolong your life? 

Many of these things aren’t new, but the immune system activation is a new way of looking at it.  I learned a lot and because some of these seven areas are easier than others you can start working right away on preserving your health.  It is a very holistic approach.

My main complaint is that is sometimes there is too much information.  I don’t need two pages about B-cells.  After a few paragraphs my attention starts to drift.  And while it’s nice to include studies to prove a point, they, too, can become  easy to skip over when there are too many.

Overall, I thought this was worthwhile and I took away lots of good information.  As for the quiz, I went back and decided what I needed to do to age at a slower pace, but because I live in Cleveland, am an only child, and was born in the fall, there are a  small number of things I can change.  But I’ll do what I can 🙂

Author Mark Liponis, MD, is the medical director of the Canyon Ranch Spa

Teaser Tuesday – Shantaram

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teasertuesdays3TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

  • Grab your current read.
    Let the book fall open to a random page.
    Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
    You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given    !
    Please avoid spoilers!

I told myself, as I watched the beating, that it was all too fast, that I was just dazed, and there was no time to react.  What we call cowardice is often just another name for being taken by surprise, and courage is seldom any better than simply being well prepared.

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts, Chapter 3

This is a big book and it will take me awhile to finish.  This isn’t the last time you’ll see it on a Tuesday 🙂

Cover Image

Free Books for March

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blog-free-mar-091

Leave a comment, tell me which book you want and I’ll get the book to you for FREE either by mail or personally if I’ll see you soon.  The first one to request each book wins.  These paperbacks have all been read a time or two, but are in very good shape.

Once you’ve ‘won’ the book I can get your shipping address if I need it.  Also, you can come back and get a free book every month if you want.

1. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe – old 1981 edition. great shape.  It’s a classic.  Especially great for the men in your life.  for Katie

2. Trail of Tears by Eileen Goudge – good women’s fiction. Review here.  for Renee

3. Lady Be Good by Susan Elizabeth Phillips – great romance with lots of humor.  Review here.  for Bridget

4. Chill Factor by Sandra Brown – she is a master of suspense.  Review here.  for Sharon

5. Left Behind by LaHaye & Jenkins – first of the series.  Review here.  for Drey

Thanks for helping me clear my shelves.  Happy reading 🙂