Tag: Books

Baron Thinks Dogs are People Too! by Laurie Dean, an Aunt Betty review

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Baron Thinks Dogs Are People Too!by Laurie Dean, Illustrator Kevin Collier, published 2008, 24 pages

Product Description
Cute and lovable Baron wants a best friend but in an effort to get his family’s attention, Baron’s lively antics take him in the wrong direction. After being whisked away to doggie school, Baron learns important lessons about behaving himself. But will he ever find the friendship his furry heart longs for?

Aunt Betty says

A dog truly is a man’s best friend and Billy’s too!  Opening our hearts to these loving animals, sharing warmth and love and our attention is a need of all dogs and this is conveyed well in the story. Baron wanted a best friend and he found one by being one himself. When Baron and Billy bond it gave this story a very happy ending!

Great for K-2nd grade

Do you want to know more about Baron and his human friends?  Visit his website, http://www.baronthinks.com/

My Aunt Betty has been an elementary school librarian for 24 years.  This is not surprising because she loves kids and kids appreciate her enthusiasm.  It is because of her that I enjoy a close relationship with my 7 cousins (later, 9).  She always had all of us over for sleepovers and other outings.  All 9 of us would cram into her Rabbit for trips around town.  You never see that anymore

I asked around for words to describe Aunt Betty and these are the words that came back the most…Happy, Caring, and Thoughtful.  As for me, my top three choices are Fun, Kind, and Full of Life.

Free Books for April

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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.  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. These have all been read a few times.

1. Kiss An Angel by Susan Elizabeth Phillips – contemporary romance – paperback in excellent shape- review here  for Mary

2. The Pleasure Trap by Elizabeth Thornton – historical romance – paperback in good shape – review here  for Gautami

3. Velocity by Dean Koontz – first-rate thriller – paperback in good shape – review here  for Bridget

4. Just One Look by Harlan Coben – another first rate thriller – book club hardcover in pretty good shape- review here  for Kathy

5. Behind the Mask No More by Byron Nease – memoir – trade paperback in excellent shape – I reviewed it here

Thanks for helping me clear some space on my shelves.  Happy Reading 🙂

Teaser Tuesday- Shantaram, again

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teasertuesdays2

  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! ;)

    •  

    I sat alone, on a boulder that was larger a flatter than most, and I smoked a cigarette.  I smoked in those days because, like everyone else in the world who smokes, I wanted to die at least as much as I wanted to live.

    Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts, Chapter 18

    Cover ImageThis is listed as being in pre-production, with Johnny Depp cast as the lead.  The man described in the above teaser.

    So, whatcha readin’?

    First Lines Quiz

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    Here’s how to play…Identify the first lines of these famous novels by telling me what book it’s from.  Leave a comment with the # of the first line and the title of the book and I’ll cross it off the list.  No Googling, that’s cheating and no fun!   Last chance to earn entries in the giveaway.

    HINT:  These books are all on my Top 100 list.

    1.  “It wasn’t a very likely place for disappearances, at least at first glance.”  Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, LuAnn

    2. “I was stunned by Mary Karr’s memoir, The Liars’ Club.”  On Writing by Stephen King

    3. “The small boys came early to the hanging.” The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, Jane

    4. “The last class of my old professor’s life took place once a week in his house, by a window in the study where he could watch a small hibiscus plant shed its pink leaves.”  Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom, Nicole

    5. “A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head.” A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

    6. A mile above Oz, the Witch balanced on the wind’s forward edge, as if she were a green fleck of the land itself, flung up and sent wheeling away by the turbulent air.”  Wicked by Gregory Maguire, Kathy

    7. My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie.”  The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, the word jar

    8. You think you know how this story is going to end, but you don’t”  Lamb by Christopher Moore, Donna S

    9. Howard Roark laughed.”  The Fountainhead by Ayne Rand, Tonya

    10. The naked child ran out of the hide-covered lean-to toward the rocky beach at the bend in the small river.”  Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel

    Durable Goods by Elizabeth Berg

    4 Comments

    Cover ImageFinished 3-28-09, rating 3.5/5, fiction, pub. 1993

    She couldn’t do a whole sentence; it took too much air.  So she would say pieces like that.  Sometimes, even if you were loving her so much, your fists clenched and your heart feeling like it had a tight peel around it, you would get mad like that.

    page 13 of the mass market paperback

    Katie is a twelve year old Army brat living in Texas with her abusive father and her older sister.Her mother has recently died and Katie crawls under her bed to have conversations with her and even harbors a hope that it was all merely a misunderstanding and that one day she will walk through the front door.  Her best friend, Cherylanne, lives next door and is two years older, so Katie learns about kissing boys and sex and shaving her legs from her,  Their conversation about sex was pretty funny.

    Katie is just  a girl trying to make her way in a world without a mother and a sister already halfway out the door.  She is every girl and it is easy to recognize yourself in her, of course, some things are scarier and more painful than others.  When she starts her period she thinks of it as a gift and is excited that she can now have a baby, something to call her own.  When her father tells them that they will have to move again she resists the idea because she would be moving to a place where her mother had never been.

    This is a powerful coming of age story.  I read the second book about Katie, Joy School, first, and liked it better than this one.  I understand her father and her sister now that I’ve read this one, but I did not like the story as much.   I still recommend it,  as I do with anything Elizabeth Berg writes,

    Behind the Mask…No More, by Byron Nease

    7 Comments

    Behind The Mask...No MoreFinished 3-27-09, rating 3.5/5, memoir, pub. 2008

    On the difficult days, denial helps, but denial ends.  Forgetfulness helps … a call from a friend helps me, a hug from someone I love, a stiff drink, a wonderful audience, but my forgetfulness ends.  And what I am left with is something I cannot create, cannot fabricate, cannot innovate.  It’s something that my grandmother called Grace.  It’s not about being good or bad, right or wrong.  It’s about being loved, anyway.

    page 60

    Byron Nease shares his life from the early days of abuse and abandonment, through his Broadway days in New York and Toronto, past his many trips around the world, all with the never ending courage of a man who finds out he  is HIV positive at a time when it is a death sentence.  He is a survivor and an inspirational one.

    I agreed to review this book because I love going to the theatre and Nease spent five years in Toronto in Phantom of the Opera and I wanted the scoop. What I found was the heartfelt story of his life told with heartbreaking honesty and vulnerability.  There were stories about his days on Broadway, but the purpose of the book is to paint a picture of a life full of opportunity and hope.

    The book is full of photos and family stories.  I also really appreciated Nease’s description of how he reconciled the religion of his youth as a preacher’s son to the reality of his life as a gay man.  He really is an interesting man and this book provides great insight into his over 20 year struggle with HIV and his strained family relationships due to his sexuality.  I think this would be great book if you are interested in either of these topics.

    I was a little disappointed in the Broadway part of the book only because it was such a small part.  What stories he does tell are fun and I enjoyed hearing about the wardrobe malfunctions and the antics on stage that the audience is not aware of .

    Byron Nease has led an interesting and truly inspirational life.  I am glad that he let us see behind the mask.  I’m better off for it.

    An Invisible Sign of My Own, by Aimee Bender

    2 Comments

    Cover ImageFinished 3-20-09, rating 4/5, fiction, pub. 2000

    The clock said noon so I went into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator but the food inside looked too complicated and I peered into the cupboards but I didn’t want turkey soup, or garbanzo beans, or tuna, and I wandered into the bathroom, and without even really thinking about it, unwrapped the spare package of soap that I kept in the cabinet beneath the sink.

    I bought the same brand my mother did.  A bright white bar, rocking on its back, friendly.  I brought it to the living room couch, and held it for awhile, smelling it, and there was a knife sitting on the side table from the previous day’s apple, which seemed convenient, and after a few minutes of just holding and smelling, I picked up the knife, sawed off a portion of the oval, set it sailing inside my mouth, and bit down.

    Chapter 1

    Mona Gray is a mess.  She is confused and confusing and bizarre and bizarrely lovable.  She has just turned twenty and decides to buy herself an ax for her birthday, which she takes into her elementary class and hangs it up on the wall.  Not surprisingly, this will lead to a few problems down the road.  She feels separate from the world, almost invisible, and this propels her to destructive and absurd behavior.

    All of this, as becomes apparent, is due to her father giving up on life when she was young and pulling her mother into his ever insolar world.  The only person who ever really saw her, flaws and all, was her math teacher, but he fails to see enough and she resents him for it.

    But now Mona has a chance of normalcy (the normalcy is relative) with a new job, students who challenge her, and a man who appreciates her unique appeal. 

    The book is charming in a twisted way.  It was a fun, quick read.  I think my favorite part was the first chapter which is a fairy tale her father told her when she was ten.  It was wonderful.  The only problem with the book was that all of the central players were so far removed from anyone that I know that it was difficult to really relate to Mona’s troubles.  I was happy to read her story, but not as personally involved as I might have been. 

    Aimee Bender has a unique voice and I look forward to reading more from her.

     

    Teaser Tuesday- An Invisible Sign of My Own

    15 Comments

    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!

    “The ax was clean and bright and manly.  There was a sick feeling in my stomach, this side of throwing up, but it had, within its center, the undeniable bubbling of excitement.  I could change my life, right here.  I could make my whole life different and I would be different that way for my whole life, forever, and this – right here – would be he moment where everything turned.”

    An Invisible Sign of My Own by Aimee Bender, Chapter 10

    Cover Image

    Hosted my MizB.  So, what do you think?

    Too Tall Alice by Barbara Worton, an Aunt Betty review

    2 Comments
    Too Tall Alice by Barbara Worton: Book CoverPublished March 2009, Hardcover, 32 pages

    From the Publishers-

    Alice is tall. Not T-Rex or Empire State Building tall. Just four inches taller than the other eight-year-old girls at her school. Her mom says she’s tall. Her dad says she’s tall. But Alice is worried that being tall isn’t okay. She cries and cries and wishes that she was just like everyone else, until her dream takes her to the place where the tall girls live, and she sees, really sees herself for the first time.

    Aunt Betty says…
    In this story it was refreshing to make Alice and others who feel like they need to “fit in” know that it’s okay to be a little different (whether it’s size, shape, etc.). This book reminds us that we are all unique and special in our own way. We all have our own special gift or talent to do something well. It encourages everyone to discover who they are and to discover your own unique gift or talent that you have to offer. We need more books like “Too Tall Alice” .
    Great for ages 8-12.

    My Aunt Betty has been an elementary school librarian for 24 years.  This is not surprising because she loves kids and kids appreciate her enthusiasm.  It is because of her that I enjoy a close relationship with my 7 cousins (later, 9).  She always had all of us over for sleepovers and other outings.  All 9 of us would cram into her Rabbit for trips around town.  You never see that anymore

    I asked around for words to describe Aunt Betty and these are the words that came back the most…Happy, Caring, and Thoughtful.  As for me, my top three choices are Fun, Kind, and Full of Life.

    Mary Doria Russell Book Giveaway

    8 Comments

    Cover ImageCover ImageCover ImageCover Image

    I will be giving one lucky commenter his or her choice of one Mary Doria Russell title.   She is a fabulous writer and if you haven’t read any of her books be sure to check them out and enter for a chance to win!

    Here is how to earn entires…

    1 – Comment on part one of her interview here.

    2 – Comment on part two of her interview here.

    3 – Get a correct answer on quiz one here (closed) and quiz two here (closed). and quiz three here.

    4 – Post about the giveaway and leave a link on this post.

     I will draw the winner on March 31st at noon.  I will ship anywhere.

    The winner was Renee G.!