Banned Books Week: September 29 - October 6

This week, all readers need to observe Banned Books Week and share their opinions with non-readers. If you think it isn't important, take a look at the list of the Top 100 Banned Books in this decade. Fahrenheit 451... Brave New World... The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn... Harry Potter... To Kill a Mockingbird-- these books are just the tip of the iceberg.

Where they burn books, they will ultimately also burn people. (Heinrich Heine)

I cannot imagine living in a world where I'm told what I can and cannot read. I can imagine that many people who believe banning books is a Good Thing believe they are protecting their children. The truth is, they're doing the exact opposite. A child has to know what's out in the world in order to be protected. That doesn't mean you should pack up your kids in the SUV and drive to the closest street corner where they're selling drugs or where prostitutes are earning a precarious living. It also doesn't mean you teach them about terrorism by sending them off to Al Quaida Day Camp. Your child needs to know what's out there, and the safest way to impart that knowledge is through the pages of books. Want them to stay away from drugs? Let them read Go Ask Alice (#17 on the list). Guiding your child through trips to the library is an excellent form of protecting them in the months and years to come.

Of course, if you don't read, you're going to have a problem. Could be you're one of the folks trying to ban books. How do you know a book should be banned if you've never read it? Do the best thing you can do--for yourself and for a child--crack open a book and read it together. You'll find that they're not objects of fear. Books are really objects of knowledge, of power, and of fun.

If you're a person who reads but believes a child is too young to read about "that stuff", run that belief past a nine-year-old girl who's given birth, or a little boy in grade school who's been offered drugs. I'm going to share a very personal example with you. Puberty hit me hard, and I began to suffer from standing-at-the-edge-of-the-abyss depression. Thoughts of suicide were normal for me. Yet here I am, 53 years old, and with those thoughts far behind me. Did I go see a shrink? Couldn't afford one. Did I get put on some mood-altering meds? Nope. Still to expensive, and besides...I was convinced that I was weird and I was too ashamed to tell anyone of my problems. (I was so good at hiding my feelings that even my mother didn't know.) What saved me? BOOKS! A mother who let me read! My mother was a librarian, and was a firm believer in "If she's old enough to ask, she's old enough to know". If she couldn't answer my questions, she found the answers in books, and it wasn't long before I turned to them as well. Books literally saved my life because I found out that I wasn't alone. That other people had gone--and were going--through the same things I was. If I hadn't read those books, I quite simply wouldn't be here today, wondering why on earth people want to ban the very things that can save lives.

I sound a bit rabid on the subject, don't I? I am. And I'm not the only person with strong feelings about banning books. If you want to read more opinions, here's another reader's viewpoint.

REVIEW: Eclipse

Title: Eclipse
Author: Stephenie Meyer
ISBN: 9780316160209/Little, Brown & Company
Protagonist: 18-year-old Bella Swan
Setting: Forks, Washington, a small town on the rainy Olympic Peninsula
Series: #3
Rating: B

First Line: All our attempts at subterfuge had been in vain.

Since I received a small complaint about not including a spoiler alert with my review of New Moon, let me say this: I try my best not to give away major plot points in any of my book reviews. If you're a reader who doesn't want to know anything that happens in Eclipse, it might be a good idea for you to skip this review--or at least skip down to the last paragraph!

At the end of New Moon, Bella and Edward had been reunited, but there was still a serious threat from a revenge-seeking vampire focusing on Bella (which didn't live up to all the hype and suspense, if you ask me). In Eclipse, Bella just wants to graduate from high school and become a vampire so she can be with Edward for eternity. She also wants her friendship with Jacob Black to continue. Since Edward and Jacob are enemies, this isn't going to be the easiest thing to accomplish.

Once again, Meyer managed to suck me into the story, and I wasn't content until I'd finished the book. I'm still not quite sure how she does that because Eclipse had a huge "irk factor" for me. In the first part of the book, Edward is so controlling that I wanted to hit him upside the head with a tire iron--which just so happens to be a weapon that's mentioned later. Even as a teenager, I was fiercely independent, and if I'd hooked up with someone as controlling as Edward, it wouldn't have taken me long to point to the door. Hit the road, Jack...er...Ed. You may think you're the zoo keeper, but I'm not one of your big cats. Bella's low self-esteem also annoys me. Yes, it's pretty much guaranteed for most teen aged girls, but she goes overboard with it. It also doesn't help that I'm firmly in the camp that believes Bella has chosen The Wrong Guy. Yes, folks, I prefer Jacob. He's tall, he's good-looking (not beautiful--gag), and he's got a good sense of humor. (He made me laugh several times while reading Eclipse.) Edward is just too much a Pretty Boy and way too serious! I'll be reading Breaking Dawn with some interest. I know Jacob's going to get the short end of the stick, but I don't want it to be too short, if you know what I mean!

Mailbox Monday

I have no clue where this past week went. There must be a place for missing blocks of time like there is for all those missing socks! I received five books from Paperback Swap last week. (I've already read one!) Here's the list:

--No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay
--Confessions of a Pagan Nun by Kate Horsley
--Bunnicula, A Rabbit-Tale of Mystery by Deborah and James Howe (#1 Bunnicula mystery for kids)
--Death of a Musketeer by Sarah D'Almeida (#1 Musketeer mystery)
--The Wine of Angels by Phil Rickman (#1 Merrily Watkins mystery)

Last week it seemed as though none of the post office personnel was in any hurry to deliver Media Mail. I have over twelve books being mailed to me from Paperback Swap, so it just might take me a lot longer to type my next Mailbox Monday post!

What did you find in your mailbox last week?

REVIEW: Hot Water

Title: Hot Water
Author: Sally Gunning
ISBN: 0671728040/Pocket Books
Protagonist: Peter Bartholomew
Setting: present-day, small town of Nashtoba on Cape Cod, Massachusetts
Series: #1
Rating: C

First Line: Peter Bartholomew was having a bad day.

In his teens, Pete Bartholomew took a black marker to a piece of poster board, writing, "FACTOTUM: A person employed to do all sorts of work". Now he's all grown up, still living in his small hometown on Cape Cod, and Factotum is a genuine business which takes care of just about everything that needs doing in Nashtoba. Hired to catalog books at Edna Hitchcock's place, the last thing he expected to do was find her body in the bathtub. It looked like a clear case of too much booze and pills until Pete remembered that the bathwater had still been hot. He immediately goes to the police with the information and learns some of his own: his much-to-be-avoided ex-wife is back in town. Hired by Edna's daughter to do some research into the family history, it's an easy decision for Pete to make to stay out of the ex-wife's line of fire and to try to find out what really happened to Edna.

I enjoyed Gunning's The Widow's War so much that I tracked down this first in the mystery series she's written. All the pieces of a good series are there, but they don't gel very well. I recognized the killer the first time the character made an appearance. Although the setting is perfect for a series and Gunning has assembled a good cast of regulars, I felt as though I were kept at a distance from them all, especially Pete. That can be extremely frustrating for a character-driven reader. I was less than impressed with this debut, but the bone structure is a good one, so I'll be trying the next in the series. I know that Gunning is a very good writer, so Pete deserves a second chance.

Friday Fill-Ins #91

1. Temperatures that aren't in the triple digits, being able to use the stove without wearing a sweatband, the migratory birds moving back to Arizona, these are some of the things I'm most looking forward to in October.
2. Sometimes I just sits and rests!
3. Murphy is in charge of this loony bin and that's why there is a saying, "Never say never"!
4. When I'm down, I go look for critters to photograph.
5. Here at home--my Haven--is here you'll find me most often.
6. A rainy day is good for all living things here in the desert.

REVIEW: Bunnicula, A Rabbit-Tale of Mystery

Title: Bunnicula, A Rabbit-Tale of Mystery
Author: Deborah and James Howe
ISBN: 9781416928171/Aladdin Paperbacks
Protagonist: Harold the dog
Setting: the home of a typical American family
KidLit, Series #1
Rating: A

First Line: I shall never forget the first time I laid these now tired old eyes on our visitor.

Mr. Monroe is a college professor. Mrs. Monroe is a lawyer. They have two young sons, Pete and Toby, a family cat named Chester, and a family dog named Harold. One evening the Monroes go to the theater to see Dracula, and they find a tiny black and white baby bunny in Toby's seat. They bring it home, fix up a very nice cage for it, name it Bunnicula, and think they've just added another pet to the menagerie. But have they done more than that? A few evenings later, Chester the cat discovers Bunnicula sneaking back to his cage from the kitchen. In the morning, Mrs. Monroe finds a very strange-looking white tomato in the refrigerator. Chester becomes convinced that Bunnicula is a vampire, and he won't rest until he's saved his family.

I wish these books had been published when I was a child. I raised rabbits when I was young, and I would've loved these Bunnicula books. Steady, faithful Harold and bookish, paranoid Chester shine in this first book, which made me laugh out loud several times. Fortunately I seem to be going through my second (third?) childhood, because I'm certainly looking forward to the next book in the series!

REVIEW: Happiness™

Title: Happiness™
Author: Will Ferguson
ISBN: 1841952338/Canongate Books, Ltd.
Protagonist: Edwin de Valu, low-level editor for Panderic Press
Setting: present-day, an unnamed city that's the publishing center of the US
Fiction/Standalone
Rating: A-

First Line: Grand Avenue cuts through the very heart of the city, from 71st Street all the way to the harbourfront, and although it is eight lanes wide, with a treed boulevarde running down the middle, the Avenue feels claustrophobic and narrow.

Edwin de Valu, a low-level editor for Panderic Press, is usually stuck editing the self help books for the publishing house's catalog. He's also responsible for slogging through his fair share of the slush pile--all the unsolicited manuscripts that come to Panderic daily. Just before a meeting with the chief editor, Edwin takes a look at a gargantuan thousand-page typewritten manuscript. Not finding a self-addressed, stamped envelope in which to put the form letter turndown, he simply dumps the manuscript in the trash. At the meeting, he's told that the very foundation stone of their self-help catalogue, "Mr. Ethics" himself, has been arrested for income tax evasion (and for burying IRS agents in his backyard). Edwin is given the task of finding a self-help book to replace Mr. E's, and the only thing he can come up with is the monster he threw in the wastebasket. After all, there may be a way he can prune it down to 300 pages. He has no idea what he's about to unleash upon the country.

Canadian Will Ferguson credits a book publicist with the idea for his first novel. The publicist said, "I'll tell you one thing. If anyone ever wrote a self-help book that actually worked, we'd all be in trouble." I have to admit that I read the entire book with one particular friend in mind: one who openly expresses a loathing for self-help books. (They're not favorites of mine either.) By page 27, I knew I was hooked: Panderic publishes the "Chicken Broth" series of books, and book #217 is titled Chicken Broth for Your Fallen Arches. The chief editor of Panderic gathers awed looks and hushed whispers: he spent six years as a fact-checker for Tom Clancy.

Ferguson's thoughts on how a country could collapse if given a self-help book that actually works are funny and also very thought-provoking when carried through to the idea of what happiness really means. Although it bogged down a bit after the book was published and became a runaway success, I still found it a hilarious satire on the world of publishing and the human condition. A big Thank You to Jena for mentioning this book on her blog!

Tuesday Thingers--Where I Speak of an Uncommon Author

Today's Question from Marie at The Boston Bibliophile: Favorite Authors. Who do you have named in your LT account as favorite authors? Why did you choose them? How many people share your choices? Can you share a picture of one of them?

I have 52 authors named as favorites, and I don't have the energy to list them all. (I also figure you don't want to read them. If I'm mistaken, you can always take a look here.) I chose them because I greatly enjoyed more than one of their books. My favorites range from childhood ones to the present day. Not only that, but it's one of those things that I started and have yet to go back and finish. (Are they any closer to making that 30-hour day?)

There is one person who shares fourteen of my favorites--that's the highest one. If there'd been anyone who shared over thirty, I wouldn't know whether to be delighted or worried!

Instead of talking about how much I have in common with others when it comes to my favorite authors, I'd rather talk a bit about a favorite author of mine whom no one else shares--probably because no one's ever heard of her. I've been spending a lot of time trying to find a photo of her, with no success. Who is it? Dora Aydelotte. (I can hear all the "huh"s now!) She wrote historical fiction in the 1930s and 1940s, won some awards, and was most often compared to Willa Cather. What's so special about Dora Aydelotte? She spent much of her childhood in my little whistle-stop of a farm town in central Illinois, and two of the books she wrote were set there and in the surrounding farmland. I walked past the house where she lived whenever I went to visit my grandparents. When my mother was librarian there in town, she made sure that Miss Aydelotte's books were always on the shelves. She tracked down copies of the two set in Moweaqua and bought them for her own library. In the 1980s they finally moved the library to a new building. (It was about time: the old library building's floor had been held up by huge jacks in the basement for decades.) Mom and I had long since moved to Phoenix. One of our friends in town attended the library moving sale and sent us a gift: four more of Aydelotte's books. Yes, she was a local author. Yes, she wrote about the only place in the world named Moweaqua--but they sold her books. I have six of Dora Aydelotte's books now, and they will never be sold, although you find them occasionally online for over $100 a piece. It looks like no one else who belongs to LibraryThing owns her books. I don't mind. As long as I'm around, she won't be forgotten.

Mailbox Monday

I just found this meme at The Printed Page. I've been wanting to keep closer tabs on the books I receive each week so thanks, Marcia! I've been a member of Paperback Swap for almost two months. So far, I've sent out many more books than I've received, but being a member has definitely put the FUN back in opening the mailbox each day! Here's what I received last week:


--Winter Birds by Jamie Langston Turner (fiction)
--Happiness by Will Ferguson (fiction) I'm reading it now, and so far it's hilarious!
--Hot Water by Sally Gunning (mystery). I recently read Gunning's The Widow's War, and since I'm such a mystery fan, I thought I'd give one of her mysteries a try.
--These Three Remain by Pamela Aidan (fiction) Pride and Prejudice is one of my all-time favorite books, and I've really enjoyed the first two books of Aidan's trilogy written from Darcy's point of view.
--The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton (mystery) I read Morton's The House at Riverton a couple of months ago and enjoyed it, so I thought I'd try another by this author.

What appeared in your mailbox last week?

How's About Retraining the Bus Drivers?

Susan Mirabaud, owner of the 15th Century Bookshop in Lewes, Sussex, England, must think there's a HIT ME sign painted on her building. This is the second time in five years that it's been hit by a bus. Five years ago, a double decker bus clipped the bookshop and ripped off part of the roof and caused serious damage to the overhang. She's understandably concerned. She's lived in the building for over twenty years, and it's the last unaltered fifteenth-century building in Lewes. You can read the full article here.

The bookshop is on the High Street, which is supposedly for one-way traffic only. Then why was the building clipped--yet again--by two buses trying to pass each other? Instead of the authorities saying there's nothing they can do, perhaps they should see about retraining the bus drivers? Just a thought!

I've included two photos that I took in Essex and Suffolk--both of bookshops. The one on the left is in Saffron Walden; the one on the right in Clare. Just click on each one to view it full size.

British Dictionary Sending Words to the Scrap Heap

We sometimes hear of new words being added to a dictionary, but how many times do we hear about the words that are removed? There's an article in the Times Online about the compilers at Collins readying themselves to ax words from the newest edition of their dictionary. If you click here, you'll be taken directly to the article, and there's a link within it where you can vote for the words you want kept in the dictionary. Vote to save a word--and then come back to tell me which ones you voted for! (Inquiring minds and all that....)

I voted for caducity, fubsy and skirr. I've actually used two of them and feel honor bound to use the third (before caducity sets in).

REVIEW: Kissed a Sad Goodbye

Title: Kissed a Sad Goodbye
Author: Deborah Crombie
ISBN: 9780553579246/Bantam
Protagonist(s): Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James
Setting: the Docklands in London, England, 1999
Series: #6
Rating: A

First Line: He saw each note as it fell from his clarinet.

In this sixth book in the series, Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James are called out to the Docklands in London to investigate the murder of Annabelle Hammond, the director of an old family firm of tea merchants. She was a woman of tremendous beauty, talent and sexual appetite, but also the sort of harsh, abrasive woman who leaves behind plenty of people with motives for murder.

Deborah Crombie has turned out to be one of my favorite writers. She has the knack of combining a complex and interesting mystery with main characters who continue to change and grow. In Kissed a Sad Goodbye, she combines the aforementioned two with a compelling setting: the Isle of Dogs (now known as the Docklands) in the East End of London. I have all the books in this series except the latest, and I find myself trying to ration them very carefully. Normally I have no desire to plough straight through a series with no break. Crombie's books are an exception!

REVIEW: Shooting Elvis

Title: Shooting Elvis
Author: Robert M. Eversz
ISBN: 0802135013/Grove Press
Protagonist: Mary Alice Baker AKA Nina Zero
Setting: L.A. in 1996
Series: #1
Rating: A

First Line: I don't have any experience writing stuff down.

Mary Alice Baker knew she shouldn't have caved in to her no-good boyfriend Wrex and taken the briefcase to LAX--even if he did give her $200 to do it. Now she's on the lam, a bomb in the briefcase having blown up a terminal at the airport. A little reinvention is called for, so she cuts her hair, dyes it black and pierces her nose. She wants to know who's behind the bombing--of the airport and her life--so she manages to get hired by a couple of penny-ante P.I.s and begins her on-the-job training. In the mean time, she's also got to deal with Wrex, and the two publicity seekers from whom she's renting a room.

This book is a roller coaster ride. Nina is edgy, smart and learns fast--the type of complex character I really enjoy. The only small quibble I had with the book was knowing from the start how it was all going to end. I've already ordered the second book in the series, Killing Paparazzi, from Paperback Swap.

Curtsey to the Queen of Book Bloggers!

Amy, you pulled off this huge event with grace and aplomb. You more than earned a well-deserved rest. This has done so much to bring us together as a community, and as friends. I think my Google Reader is about to go under for the third time with all the new blogs I've added! Thank you, Amy, from the bottom of my heart!

If you haven't already, visit Amy here.

Poisoned Pen Pair at the Library of Congress

The Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, Arizona, is my absolute favorite bookstore, so I was happy to see that the owners, Barbara Peters and Robert Rosenwald, will be speaking at the Library of Congress next month. They will be the featured speakers at the Library of Congress at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, October 7, at an event that is part of the Books & Beyond author series sponsored by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. The evening's program, entitled "Books--Before and Beyond: Publishing in the 21st Century," is co-sponsored by the Center and the Mystery Writers of America.

Peters and Rosenwald will address how book and print technology has developed; how electronic manuscript submissions, e-books, digital ink and wireless reading devices have affected the industry; digital rights management; the interplay of Web and print media; video trailers for books; the popularity of graphic novels and gaming based on books.

Peters and Rosenwald founded the Poisoned Pen Bookstore in 1989. In 1997, they started Poisoned Pen Press, which has more than 600 titles in print and has published more than 100 authors. Peters is editor of the press; Rosenwald is publisher.

Thanks to Shelf Awareness for this bit of news!

As They Say in Zanzibar

Well, I've found another book to add to my wishlist: David Crystal's As They Say in Zanzibar: Proverbial Wisdom From Around the World. It is a compilation of more than 2,000 proverbs. Crystal says in the foreword, "Proverbs do more than express a general truth or a universal belief. Each in its own way adds a tiny bit more to our understanding of the world's linguistic and cultural diversity, and thus helps us grasp more fully what it means to be human."

It looks as though there are quite a few about books and reading, one of them being "A book holds a house of gold." (China)

Welcome to my wishlist, Mr. Crystal!

10 Books NOT to Read?

By now I'm sure most of us have heard of books like 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, or 1001 Places to See Before You Die. Obviously Richard Wilson of The Times Online has because he's written an article entitled 10 Books Not to Read Before You Die that I found funny. I hope you do, too! You can find the article here.

Craig Johnson Interview

If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you know I love to sing the praises of mystery writer Craig Johnson. I just found an interview he did with Rob Walker for Acme Authors Link. Check it out!

Friday Fill-Ins #90

A big thanks to Janet, for helping keep us entertained on Fridays!

1. There is no need to use that tone with me, missy!
2. Where in the heck did the summer go?
3. Keeping my sanity is all I managed to do.
4. Prospects for a top-notch autumn look splendid.
5. VOTE! is the message.
6. Simplicity and tranquility are no strangers to me.

Booking Through Thursday--Seasonal Reading Disorder?

Autumn is starting (here in the US, anyway), and kids are heading back to school–does the changing season change your reading habits? Less time? More? Are you just in the mood for different kinds of books than you were over the summer?

The change of the seasons doesn't change my reading habits at all. That probably hinges on two facts: (1) I don't have children or the sort of job that has seasonal differences, and (2) I live in Phoenix, which means that the seasons are basically recognized by the waxing and waning of the temperature. I read the same sort of books throughout the year, and the only major difference as the seasons change is where I read. When the heat waxes, I'm sitting in the pool in the shade close to a waterfall. When the heat wanes, I'm either sitting outside by the pool or inside on a daybed in front of the fireplace. Boring, eh?

BBAW: Blogging Tips

The award-winning Amy asked these questions as part of Book Bloggers Appreciation Week:

What is one thing you wish you knew about blogging when you started or what advice would you give a newbie blogger?

I wanted to say that I am a newbie blogger, so what on earth would I have to say that's of any value? But newbie or oldie, I think we all have something of value to share. Here's what tidbits of advice I can think of at this particular moment:

• Be true to yourself. The book blogging community is so large that your voice is just as important as anyone else's. Yes, look at other blogs, find the ones that you like, read them, and see how they do things. But the end result on your own blog should be your words, your opinions, your thoughts.
• Blogging can be addictive. If you don't want to be chained to your chair and computer 24/7, set aside blocks of time that allow you to blog--and still have a life. I don't know about the rest of you, but I want it all!
• Try to update your blog daily. Blog readers like to see that you have new things to say. (Now that I've said that, I'm wondering how to handle when my husband and I go on vacation! Although I can be very outspoken, I can still be a shy child and nervous about asking how to set up guest bloggers.)

What is your best blogging tip?

• If there's something you don't know how to do and you want to do it--ask! I wanted sections of my sidebars to scroll like Wendy's at Musings of a Bookish Kitty. I asked her, and she was more than happy to help me. Book bloggers are some of the most helpful people you'd ever hope to find. So if you want a 3-column layout, a slideshow, more traffic to your blog, or instructions on how to insert a link when you comment on someone else's blog, ask!
• You're going to have blogs that you want to keep track of, and setting up Google Reader is one of the best ways to do that. I know that it saves me a ton of time.
• I've found that two of the best ways to bring traffic to my blog is by participating in memes and by making thoughtful comments on other blogs. If someone takes the time to comment on something I've posted, you know I'm going to head on over to their blog to check it out. There are a ton of memes out there, so try to choose the ones that are a good fit for you and that won't overwhelm the rest of your content.
• I tend to be a very visual person and want my blog to look "just right". Trouble is, I don't want to be tinkering with it when someone might be trying to read what I've taken the time to write. I have a "dummy blog" set up just for tinkering and tweaking. I have it set to be invisible, and that way I can try new things without having a catastrophe on my "real" blog(s) or disturbing my readers. Which reminds me...I'm still trying to solve that stubborn header problem of mine...!
• Proofread...use your spellchecker!

Thanks, Amy, for posing such interesting questions! I know I've gotten some great tips by reading other bloggers' answers.

REVIEW: New Moon

Title: New Moon
Author: Stephenie Meyer
ISBN: 9780316024961/Little, Brown and Company
Protagonist: teenager Bella Swan
Setting: present-day Forks, Washington, and Italy
Series: #2
Rating: A

First Line: I felt like I was trapped in one of those terrifying nightmares, the one where you have to run, run--till your lungs burst, but you can't make your body move fast enough.

I let two weeks go by before I read New Moon. I have to admit that I felt a bit like Raymond Shaw in The Manchurian Candidate after reading Twilight. I also didn't think I could run headlong into another rhapsody about Edward's beauty. If there was one thing that bothered me in Twilight it was the non-stop references to Edward's suitability as the hunk of all hunks. Fortunately I didn't have to mute my gag reflex until I'd read three-quarters of New Moon. Instead, Bella is left high and dry, Edward-less, and feels like she's coming apart at the seams. It takes her a while, but she finds someone to fill the holes: Jacob, the young Quilete boy who lives in nearby LaPush. I like Jacob, probably because he isn't nearly as beautiful as Edward. I'm not going to say anything more about the plot just in case you happen to be one of the readers who hasn't read this series. I've been trying to keep on top of what's going on without actually learning the plot lines of the upcoming books, and it's very difficult. I'll just make a few comments about my reactions to this book.

These books are so...teenage...that it's amusing. I've lost my boyfriend, and all I want to do is die. Romeo and Juliet for the 21st century. Bella is some kind of addictive personality. She's so unsure of herself that she has to attach herself to someone she perceives as stronger and "better" than her. She can't have Edward, so she clings to Jacob instead. Her name--Bella Swan--tells everyone that she's meant for greater things. Bella? Beautiful. And we've all heard of the ugly duckling who turned into a swan, haven't we? I know she's meant for Edward, but I hope that Jacob isn't left in the lurch. (Don't anyone dare tell me what happens!)

In spite of clunky writing and endless descriptions of physical beauty, it was still almost impossible for me to put this book down. Why? Perhaps I'm reliving my own, rather boring, high school days. I know whom I've cast as Edward, but I'm having difficulty finding someone for Jacob....

REVIEW: The Eye of Jade

Title: The Eye of Jade
Author: Diane Wei Liang
ISBN: 9781416549550/Simon & Schuster
Protagonist: Private Detective Mei Wang
Setting: Present-day Beijing, China
Series: #1
Rating: B+

First Line: In the corner of an office in an old-fashioned building in Beijing's Chongyang District, the fan was humming loudly, like an elderly man angry at his own impotence.

Mei Wang had a short-lived career in China's Ministry for Public Security. Now she's a private investigator, circumnavigating her country's restrictions against such a business by calling hers an information bureau. A family friend, "Uncle" Chen, hires her to find a very valuable piece of Han Dynasty jade, and it doesn't take her long to find several leads. But when her mother has a heart attack, Mei finds herself trying to juggle familial duty with the job she's being paid to do.

Diane Wei Liang was born in Beijing. She spent part of her childhood with her parents in a remote labor camp. In 1989 she was part of the protest movement in Tiananmen Square. As I was reading The Eye of Jade, I felt as if I were in Beijing. Mei Wang is a complex and ultimately likeable character who is persistent, intuitive, and has a knack for listening to things both said and unsaid when she deals with others. Her relationships with her sister and mother are uneasy at best, but the reader understands the reasons why. The plot, the pacing, the setting, the characterization were all top-notch in this book. It was interesting to see the old and new sides of China as Mei followed the leads in the case. If anything, I felt that The Eye of Jade was too short, and I'm looking forward to reading more books in the series.

REVIEW: Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go

Title: Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go
Author: Dale E. Basye
ISBN: 9780375840753/Random House
Protagonist: 11-year-old Milton Fauster
Setting: Heck
Young Adult fiction
Rating: DNF

First Line: As many believe, there is a place above and a place below.

As I reported in an earlier article, I had high hopes for this book. Milton and Marlo Fauster are killed in a marshmallow bear explosion and find themselves in an otherworldly reform school with Principal Bea "Elsa" Bubb and teachers like Lizzie Borden and Richard Nixon. But something kept me from buying the book. Have you ever been tempted by the trailer of a new movie only to find that the best parts of the movie were in the trailer? The same thing can happen with books, and that's the type of feeling I had about Basye's book.

A friend succumbed to temptation and bought it. She wasn't too thrilled with it and very graciously lent it to me. I opened it today, hoping I was wrong...but I wasn't. I was almost immediately turned off by the writing style. The author did seem to be attempting to write Jasper Fforde for the youth market, and it just fell flat on its face for me. Perhaps Heck will be someone else's cup of tea, but I know of two people who didn't like the taste.

REVIEW: Mum's the Word

Title: Mum's the Word
Author: Kate Collins
ISBN: 0451213505/Signet
Protagonist: Abby Knight, owner of Bloomers, a flower shop
Setting: present-day; New Chapel, a small northwest Indiana college town
Series: #1 Flower Shop Mysteries
Rating: DNF

First Line: Most people hate Mondays.

Abby Knight, daughter of an ex-cop and a social-climbing mother, has flunked out of law school and invested the rest of her savings in a flower shop called Bloomers in her hometown in northwestern Indiana. Bright one Monday morning, she travels to work in her beloved 1960 banana yellow Corvette and parks it within view of Bloomers. Seconds later, a man runs out of an alley, jumps into his SUV, fires it up and rams right into the front end of Abby's 'vette. Shortly after that, she learns that a young man was murdered in an apartment down the same alley the man came running out. "I saw the murderer!" Abby shouts. (Hey, it can happen. My mother saw bank robbers changing cars in a parking lot across the street from the feed store where she was working once.) Abby goes to the police and is less than satisfied with their response. This being one of those cozy mysteries, you know that she's not going to be able to keep out of the investigation.

I thought I was in the mood for a cozy. Evidently it wasn't this one. By page 69 when I learned where the murder victim worked, I had it all figured out. Since none of the characters were grabbing me at the time, I flipped to the end of the book to see if my powers of deduction were still intact. They are. Abby may be right down someone else's alley, but she wasn't in mine.

Publishers Seeing the Light?

It looks as though book bloggers are indeed beginning to have an effect on the world of publishing. A recent article I read in The Guardian states that one publisher is so tired of sending books to newspapers, magazines and television programs for review and hearing nothing back that he's decided to give up on the media and send his books directly to his readers! There is also a blog article about this.

Let's hope more publishers see the same light!

Why Cowboys Read

I grew up in a library--literally. My mother was the librarian in our small farm town. So it shouldn't amaze anyone that I have a special affinity for these havens of books and readers. An article in The Economist makes me think that library lovers should all pack up and move to Wyoming, which has an excellent system in this day and age of struggling libraries. Read the entire article here.

A Reader's Artist: Deborah DeWit Marchant

Not only am I an unrepentant lover of books, I'm also a lover of nature, of light, and of art. I came across this artist's works in a calendar, and it was love at first sight. Deborah DeWit Marchant has a way of combining books, light and nature that is unique. After I received that calendar, it was only a matter of minutes until I was Googling away. A few minutes after that, I'd told Amazon to send me a copy of In the Presence of Books. It is one of my favorite books of art.

I sent an email to Deborah to ask permission to showcase some of her art on my blog. She very graciously consented. I intend to share periodically one of her works with all of you. The one you see today is The Reader, and it shows, not only a wonderful talent, but a little slice of heaven!

The Love of Books

If you're a true bookaholic, like I am, there's a magic in books that's difficult to describe to a non-believer. I ran across a fellow blogger's post a few days ago, and I think Corey does a wonderful job of putting that magic into words. Please check out his post, Ten Reasons I Love Books!

REVIEW: The Lone Traveller

Title: The Lone Traveller
Author: Susan Kelly
ISBN: 0749005416/Allison & Busby, Ltd., UK
Protagonist: Detective Chief Superintendent Gregory Summers
Setting: present-day Hungerford, Berkshire, England
Series: #1
Rating: A

First Line: This was a place of sacrifice, two millennia ago.

It's almost time for the summer fair in Hungerford, and the New Agers and the Gypsies are already in place. Tensions between the townspeople and the travellers are already strained, and when six-year-old Jordan Abbot goes missing from her home in Hungerford, the situation becomes explosive. It's up to Superintendent Gregory Summers to keep the warring groups from killing each other and to discover what happened to the missing girl.

I can't remember where I learned about this series. Perhaps I have too many resources at my disposal. (Too many resources for a bookaholic? Nah!) Wherever it was, I owe that person a big thank you. The plot is compelling, the pace is swift and sure, and there were several wonderful characters to sink my reading teeth into. Gregory Summers is a complex and likeable copper, and I'm looking forward to learning more about him as I continue reading this series.

Let the Festivities Begin!

The Official BBAW Giveaway List

If you follow along for the festivities of BBAW at My Friend Amy, you will find many chances to win LOTS of goodies! Like what? Well have a look below. All of these things will be given away between September 15-19. There will be a huge variety of ways to win them and giveaways will be announced constantly throughout the week. So be sure to check in often!


A HUGE thank you to Hachette Book Group, Penguin Group USA, Harlequin, The B&B Media Group, Shera of SNS Blog Design, WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group, Catherine Delors, Pamela Binnings Ewen, Andromeda Romano-Lax, Ceceilia Dowdy, Sormag, Book Club Girl, Savvy Verse and Wit, Cafe of Dreams, Fashionista Piranha, and Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin'?.

Daily Raffles:
Monday--Books and Chocolate sponsored by My Friend Amy and Hey Lady! Whatcha' Readin?
Tuesday--Books and Going Green sponsored by My Friend Amy
Wednesday--Books and Coffee sponsored by My Friend Amy
Thursday--Books and Charity sponsored by My Friend Amy and Fashionista Piranha
Friday--Books and Movies sponsored by My Friend Amy

Win a Book Club Girl Hostess Survival Kit!
Do you find it's your turn to host book club and not only do you not know what to serve but you don't know what books to offer up for the next month's selection?! Let Book Club Girl come to your rescue with the Book Club Girl Hostess Survival Kit.

One lucky winner of the kit will receive:

* A basket of cheese, crackers, cookies and wine for up to 12 people
* 5 great book group books to vote on for your group's next pick. And Book Club Girl will then donate 12 copies whichever book is chosen for your entire group to read.
* 12 Book Club Girl mousepads to give out as party favors that night
* 12 Book Club Girl bookmarks to mark everyone's favorite passages
* 12 Book Club Girl coasters to protect your coffee table from all those wine glasses!

TWO SORMAG Goody Bags containing books and more!


A Special Pamper Me Basket from Cafe of Dreams!
From Avon Foot Works
~ Inflatable watermelon shaped foot tub
~ 3.4 FL oz Watermelon Cooling Foot Lotion
~ 3.4 FL oz Watermelon Exfoliating Foot Scrub
~ 12 count Watermelon Effervescent Foot Tablets
~ An ARC of So Long At The Fair by Christina Schwarz
~ A variety of Hot Chocolate and Tea mixes

A pre-made blog template from SNSDesign!

A Subscription to Poetry Magazine from Savvy Verse and Wit!

BOOKS
Mistress of the Revolution by Catherine Delors
The Moon in the Mango Tree by Pamela Binnings Ewen
The Spanish Bow by Andromeda Romano-Lax
John's Quest by Cecelia Dowdy
Confessions of a Contractor by Richard Murphy
Acedia & Me by Kathleen Norris
The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell
The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks
The Book of Lies by Brad Meltzer
Supreme Courtship by Christopher Buckley
A Tale Out of Luck by Willie Nelson with Mike Blakely
The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent
When Will There Be Good News by Kate Atkinson
An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination by Elizabeth McCracken
Exit Music by Ian Rankin
The Smart One and the Pretty One by Claire LaZebnik
Gunmetal Black by Daniel Serrano
Isolation by Travis Thrasher
The Miracle Girls by Anne Dayton and May Vanderbilt
Every Freaking! Day With Rachell Ray by Elizabeth Hilts
Dewey by Vicki Myron
The Shiniest Jewel by Marian Henley
Keep the Faith by Faith Evans
The Book of Calamities by Peter Trachtenberg
A is for Atticus by Lorilee Craker
After the Fire by Robin Gaby Fisher
Mike's Election Guide by Michael Moore
War as They Knew It by Michael Rosenberg
Fixing Hell By Col. (ret.) Larry C. James
Wild Boy: My Life with Duran Duran by Andy Taylor
The Last Under-Cover: The True Story of an FBI Agent's Dangerous Dance with Evil By Bob Hamer
Border Lass by Amanda Scott
Insatiable Desire by Rita Heron
Hungry for More by Diana Holquist
Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee
Trespassers Will Be Baptized by Elizabeth Emerson Hancock
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not by Trish Ryan
Never Surrender by General Jerry Boykin
Dream in Color by Congresswoman Linda Sánchez, Congresswoman Loretta Sánchez
Beyond Belief by Josh Hamilton
Cobain Unseen by Charles R. Cross
Doing Business in 21st Century India by Gunjan Bagla
Branding Only Works on Cattle by Jonathan Salem Baskin
Launching a Leadership Revolution by Chris Brady, Orrin Woodward
How to Hear from God by Joyce Meyer
Knowing Right from Wrong by Thomas D. Williams
Pope John Paul II: An Intimate Life by Caroline Pigozzi
Pure by Rebecca St. James
He Loves Me! by Wayne Jacobson
So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore by Wayne Jacobson and Dave Coleman
Move On, Move Up by Paula White
The Rosary by Gary Jansen
Shoot the Moon by Billie Letts
The Choice by Nicholas Sparks
Right Livelihoods by Rick Moody
by George by Wesley Stace
The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold
Trunk Music by Michael Connelly
Hollywood Crows by Joseph Wambaugh
Dead Boys by Richard Lange
The Gifted Gabaldon Sisters by Lorraine Lopez
Sisterchicks Go Brit! by Robin Jones Gunn
Beyond the Night by Marlo Schalesky
With Endless Sight by Allison Pittman
Harlequin Titles: To Be Announced

Many other blogs are giving away books and prizes for BBAW as well! You can see the links to all of these giveaways here.

Interested in gaining entries into the daily raffles? Post this complete list on your blog with links and you'll earn two extra entries!

Friday Fill-Ins #89

1. I enjoy watching monsoon clouds build in the sky during summer afternoons.
2. Should I blog about that? is something I wonder about often lately.
3. In your heart, you knew you just couldn't resist me.
4. Take a camera, add a little critter, and you end up with some photographic magic.
5. Life has gifted me with many blessings.
6. A book is an instant vacation.

Happy Weekend, everyone! I'll be keeping one of the Target stores open for y'all (and doin' a little cookin', readin' and swimmin' as well)!

REVIEW: Unquiet Spirit

Title: Unquiet Spirit
Author: Derek Wilson
ISBN: 9780786718542
Protagonist: Parapsychologist Dr. Nathaniel Gye
Setting: present-day Cambridge, England
Series: #3
Rating: D+
First Line: It was a perfect night for a ghost hunt.

St. Thomas's College, Cambridge, is in deep financial difficulties, and all the rumors about ghosts on the F staircase aren't helping matters. A compromise of sorts is reached, and Psychic Investigation Unit is allowed to set up its equipment. Unfortunately a professor dies of a heart attack during the proceedings. Now the college is really in a bind with the press barrage and threats of being sued by the professor's widow. The Master of St. Thomas asks Dr. Nathaniel Gye to make discreet inquiries in an effort to ending the whole sorry business. A reclusive billionaire has offered to help the college out of its financial bind, and the Master doesn't want him scared off. Gye reluctantly finds himself investigating and finds that many strands of the mystery lead back to the supposed suicide of an undergraduate ten years previously.

I enjoyed the first book in this series, although it had very little of the paranormal within its pages. I found the character of Gye engaging enough to try another. Somehow I skipped the second and landed on this one, the third. It's incredibly short--a mere 187 pages--and although I've read shorter books that packed a satisfying wallop, Unquiet Spirit does not rank among them. Once again, although the series is touted as having a parapsychologist as the main character, nothing even slightly paranormal makes an appearance anywhere within the book--just "rumors". It's obvious that Gye doesn't give the paranormal even a passing glance before he begins to investigate. There are several plot threads that could have been pursued but were not. The question of fidelity between Gye and his wife was raised, but it felt as if that particular device was used more in an attempt to flesh out the anorexic characterization than anything else. (It failed.) The entire book read as if it were a feebly fleshed-out rough draft, or a book written in haste in the glare of impending deadlines. I was left so dissatisfied over this barely adequate book that I have no desire to read the one that I missed. All in all, a very promising series that failed to live up to that promise.

REVIEW: The Widow's War

Title: The Widow's War
Author: Sally Gunning
ISBN: 9780060791575
Protagonist: Lyddie Berry
Setting: Satucket Village on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, 1761
Historical Fiction
Rating: A-

First Line: Lyddie Berry heard the clatter of the geese and knew something was coming--Cousin Betsey, Grandson Nate, another wolf, or, knowing those fool birds, a good gust of wind--but when she heard the door snap hard against the clapboards she discounted all four of them; she whirled with the wind already in her skirts to see the Indian, Sam Cowett, just ducking beneath the lintel.

Fortysomething Lyddie Berry is no stranger to grief; she's buried four of her five children. But when her husband Edward drowns while whaling, she's not only thrust once more into the numbness of sorrow--she's tossed into a new life she wasn't expecting. Being married to a whaler had accustomed her to a life of being alone for long stretches of time. It had accustomed her to being self-reliant and to making her own decisions. But Edward's will merely gives Lyddie her traditional "widow's third"--one third use, but not ownership, of his estate. Lyddie is allowed only the things she brought with her to her marriage and is forced to live with her daughter, Mehitable, her grandchildren, and Mehitable's petty tyrant of a husband, Nathan Clarke. Clarke immediately decides to sell the Berry property, and Lyddie finds herself living in a small room in the Clarke house, trying to be a useful part of the family without antagonizing anyone, and begrudged the purchase of a pair of buckles for her shoes. Breaking completely from her family, Lyddie takes her belongings, moves back to her home, and decides to fight for her right to live how and where she wants. Along the way, she finds help from a lawyer, Ebeneezer Freeman, and her neighbor, the Indian, Sam Cowett.

Oh, Edward, she thought, how could you possess such knowledge of my flesh and so little of my spirit?

Gunning did a marvelous job of putting me in the eighteenth century Cape Cod setting. Never once did I feel hit over the head by her research. Almost any woman can identify with Lyddie's plight. I was certainly no exception. The only thing that annoyed me in this wonderful, page-turning book was Lyddie's indecision about the men in her life. Cast free from Edward and all she'd ever known, she just couldn't seem to make up her mind about any of them. In a way, it's understandable. She thought she knew Edward and had a huge shock delivered to her on a platter at his death. It's no wonder that she became suspicious and indecisive about male motives thereafter. I would've much preferred, however, that she hadn't led them on while she was trying to make up her mind.

I enjoyed The Widow's War so much that I went searching for Gunning's other books. She's written another historical, Bound, in which Lyddie makes another appearance, and she's also written a contemporary mystery series set in New England. Ah, my wish list will never know an end!

Booking Through Thursday--The Bad Guys

Today is the 7th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. I know that not all of you who read are in the U.S., but still, it’s vital that none of us who are decent people forget the scope of disaster that a few, evil people can cause–anywhere in the world. It’s not about religion, it’s not about politics, it’s about the acknowledgment that humans should try to work together, not tear each other apart, even when they disagree.

So, feeling my way to a question here … Terrorists aren’t just movie villains any more. Do real-world catastrophes such as 9/11 (and the bombs in Madrid, and the ones in London, and the war in Darfur, and … really, all the human-driven, mass loss-of-life events) affect what you choose to read? Personally, I used to enjoy reading Tom Clancy, but haven’t been able to stomach his fight-terrorist kinds of books since.

And, does the reality of that kind of heartless, vicious attack–which happen on smaller scales ALL the time–change the way you feel about villains in the books you read? Are they scarier? Or more two-dimensional and cookie-cutter in the face of the things you see on the news?

The bad guys have never been just movie villains to me. My grandfather fought in World War II and came home profoundly affected by what he had had to do and by what he had seen. I was four years old when that was brought home to me in a very chilling way. I loved my grandfather more than anyone else in the world, and I knew he wasn't a bad man; the "bad men" had done this to him. Fortunately my grandfather was able to overcome his war experience. I was eight years old when the bad guys struck again. I didn't want to watch John Fitzgerald Kennedy's funeral cortege, but Mom insisted. And it just kept happening over and over and over again. Robert Francis Kennedy in the hotel. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Vietnam War where American soldiers seemed to be every bit as bad as the bad guys they were fighting. The bad guys even reached out and touched me in the forms of a stalker and a rapist. Over and over and over again, but mainly everywhere else in the world--not America. Not my home. I remember the eerily quiet skies here in Phoenix during the days following 9/11-- the day America got a small taste of what so much of the rest of the world has been experiencing for years... decades... centuries.

Has always knowing that the bad guys are real changed my reading? No. I've always had an inquiring mind. I read about the natural world because it's so much a part of what makes me tick. I read history and see that, when it comes to the human race, there seems to be little new under the sun. We humans have such a capacity for either forgetting what's unpleasant or never forgetting it--to our detriment in years to come. I read biographies and see that extraordinary people from all centuries, from all walks of life and levels of society, have the power to reach out and touch my spirit, the power to teach me. I read fiction and non-fiction about my own culture and about the peoples and cultures of the rest of the world. We are so very similar and still can't seem to live together in peace! I read true crime and mysteries in an attempt to learn what makes the bad guys tick, to learn what it takes to bring them to justice, to learn how not to create them.

In all my reading, I read primarily to escape and to learn, and I do both in great measure. Through all the words, through all the pages, through all the ideas, I've also learned that I have a capacity for being a bad guy. We all do. It's what we choose to do that makes all the difference.

We've Been Robbed

For any Twilight fans, this is going to be old news. Someone got hold of a rough draft of Midnight Sun, Stephenie Meyer's newest book written from the point of view of Edward. As far as Meyer is concerned, the Midnight Sun project is on indefinite hold, and sounds as if it may not be written at all. You can read her statement on her website here.

I'm brand-new to the entire Twilight phenomenon, but I feel her pain. For whatever reason the rough draft was published, it was obviously done by someone who has no earthly clue about writers and writing. A rough draft is just that--rough. It can change in hundreds of ways before the final draft that goes to the publisher. Now that this particular rough draft is making the rounds, Meyer feels as though she's bound to that version and unable to change it. I can totally understand if Midnight Sun never sees the light of day. I wonder if the person who put the rough draft online is still proud of what he's done?

For those of you who could care less about this, look at it from a different perspective. Get a clear mental image of your favorite book. The one in which you couldn't turn the pages fast enough. The one that made you stagger, bleary-eyed, to work or school the next day. The one you reread over and over. The one that would be first in the suitcase when you went to that desert island. The one you always hoped would have a sequel because you just. Can't. Get. Enough.

Now picture learning that the long-awaited sequel is being written. Feel that incredible surge of anticipation? Picture yourself signing up for the pre-order on Amazon? See that countdown clock for the publication date you've got on your blog?

Now...how would you feel if someone got hold of the rough draft of it and posted it on the internet? How would you feel if the author said, "That's it. I'm not going to finish writing it." You'd feel gutted, wouldn't you? So this isn't just about some stupid Young Adult vampire book that's not worth your time. It's about everyone who loves books. It's about everyone who wants to be able to write with complete freedom, and it's about everyone who wants to be able to read those words.

When something like this happens, the author isn't the only person who is robbed.