It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Lordy lou does my unreviewed list of books just get longer and longer and yet appallingly longer! The computer guy couldn't locate the gremlins that make it difficult to get online and suggested we spend more money replacing bits and pieces to see if that would potentially help. Obviously I haven't gotten around to doing that. ::sigh:: And for some reason, my reviewing mojo has ebbed at the mo'. I know it will eventually return though so it's good to know that I will have so much to keep me occupied when it does, right?! (I'm trying to be a more optimistic person, can't you tell?) I didn't read as much this week either so at least I didn't get too much further behind on the unreviewed list, I guess. This meme is hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey Through a World of Books.

Books I completed this week are:

How to Tame a Modern Rogue by Diana Holmquist
Street Gang by Michael Davis
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
The One That I Want by Allison Winn Scotch

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
Great Lakes Nature by Mary Blocksma (this is going to take me all year as I read her year's entries on the corresponding days of this year)

Reviews posted this week:

Billie's Kiss by Elizabeth Knox
Hardly a Husband by Rebecca Hagan Lee

Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):

Critical Care by Theresa Brown
College in a Nutskull by Anders Henriksson
After the Rain by Karen White
Spellbinder by Helen Stringer
Little Bee by Chris Cleave
The Season of Second Chances by Diane Meier
The Mercy Papers by Robin Romm
A Mountain of Crumbs by Elena Gorokhova
Petals from the Sky by Mingmei Yip
The Writing Circle by Corinne Demas
Blame by Michelle Huneven
Sphdz Book #1: Spaceheadz by Jon Scieszka and Francesco Sedita
On Folly Beach by Karen White
Cheap Cabernet by Cathie Beck
Nothing But Ghosts by Beth Kephart
How to Tame a Modern Rogue by Diana Holmquist
Street Gang by Michael Davis
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
The One The I Want by Allison Winn Scotch

Monday Mailbox

One of these weeks my mailbox is going to be empty enough that I can start making inroads into all the great books I already have stacked up to read. This past week was not that week. I got another slew of great sounding books. This past week's mailbox arrivals:

The One That I Want by Allison Winn Scotch came from Crystal at BookSparks PR.
A woman whose life seems perfect after early heartbreak, Tilly is given a gift of clarity, allowing her to glimpse the future. But it's a future she doesn't want to see and certainly not one she wishes to have come true. Imagine the possibilities here!

The Patience Stone by Atiq Rahimi came from the publisher.
The 2008 Prix Goncourt winner, this is the story of a Muslim woman who is nursing her comatose husband and confessing secrets to him as she cares for him. One review mentions Duras, Sartre, Beckett, and Hemingway and I'm curious to see how this fits in the footsteps of such giants.

The Last Rendezvous by Anne Plantagenet came from the publisher.
The fictionalized life of a female French romantic poet, I enjoy reading about literary figures who might not have crossed my path before and this one sounds great.

The Quickening by Michelle Hoover came from the publisher.
Two midwestern farming couples during the Depression, the jacket copy and the cover art make this sound like a Dust Bowl kind of book, something quite unusual these days at least as far as newly published books go. And I'm always interested in reading the exceptions to the trends.

As always, if you'd like to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Marcia at The Printed Page and enjoy seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.

Saturday Shout-Out

On my travels through the blogging world, I find many books that pique my interest. I always add them to my wish list immediately but I tend to forget who deserves the blame credit for inspiring me to add them to my list (and to whom my husband would like to send the bill when I get around to actually buying them). So each Saturday I'm going to try and keep better track, link to my fellow book ferreter-outers (I know, not a word but useful nonetheless), and hopefully add to some of your wish lists too.

The Only Boy For Me by Gil McNeil was mentioned on Booklust.

Ape House by Sara Gruen was mentioned on Bibliophile by the Sea.

What goodies have you added to your wish lists recently? Make your own list and leave a comment here so we can all see who has been a terrible influence inspiring you lately.

Review: Hardly a Husband by Rebecca Hagan Lee

The third book in the Free Fellows series, this Regency-set romance tells the story of Jarrod, the fifth Marquess of Shepherdston and curate's daughter Sarah, who has had a crush on Jarrod her entire life. After Sarah's father dies, his living is given to an unpleasant man whose family thinks they can claim Sarah's possessions and use her as an unpaid governess. Lord Dunbridge, the nobleman with the power to grant the curacy, has intentionally put Sarah in this position to force her to marry him. But Sarah has other plans, fleeing to London with her aunt. She calls on Jarrod, asking him for help in becoming a courtesan, something she finds preferable to marriage with Lord Dunbridge. She has decided on this course because she refuses to marry of she can't marry the love of her life (Jarrod, of course). He, despite being completely and one hundred percent against marriage as a result of his own parents' disastrous union which scarred him deeply, finds he cannot tolerate the idea of Sarah in anyone else's arms. There is a brief and unsatisfactorily abrupt subplot between Sarah's aunt and Jarrod's godfather here as well but the bulk of the novel concentrates on the main romance. As Jarrod is a member of the Free Fellows League, there is also brief mention of his spying and his obligations to them.

This is not as well done as the previous novels in the series. The characters are not entirely believable in their decisions. Jarrod goes from not recognizing Sarah, who is described as a good childhood friend whose father taught Jarrod, to being wrapped in a pretty steamy embrace with her in a matter of minutes. Sarah, as the upstanding and moral daughter of a good man, seems to have no qualms about potentially becoming a courtesan. The sole nod to a conscience is that she didn't tell her aunt her plan, knowing that it would meet with disapproval. Not exactly the considered and difficult decision of the kind of character she's purported to be would be making. The Free Fellows League plot line felt much more forced and out of place in this novel than in the previous ones, as if it is merely a placeholder for the next to come. Over all I was disappointed in this one but those more engaged by the concept laid forth in the first two books will probably find this one to be perfectly fine.

Review: Billie's Kiss by Elizabeth Knox

I first stumbled upon Elizabeth Knox through her first novel The Vintner's Luck. I'm not sure what about it captured my imagination--okay, I'll admit to being shallow and tell you that sharing her last name was the first impetus for picking her book up at the bookstore--but something about that cover copy and the picture (plus her name) grabbed me and I ended up taking the book home with me. I absolutely wallowed in it. It was exquisite and I knew I would obsessively buy her books as I saw them come out. So when I found this one, I immediately snapped it up and promptly stowed it on a shelf to be forgotten in the mists of time. Seriously, I've owned it unread since 2002. But it seemed like the right time to blow the dust from the top edge and actually read it. I was hoping for another transcendent reading experience. Sadly I was disappointed. That is not to say that it isn't a good book, after all, how many times in one life can an author be transcendent, right? But I wanted to be blown away here and there was something holding me back from that sort of over the top reaction.

Billie is a young woman traveling with her very pregnant sister and brother-in-law to his new place of employment as a cataloguer for Lord Hallowhulme on a remote Scottish island. The trip has been long and rather arduous given pregnant Edith's desperate sea-sickness. Just minutes from landing, Billie and her brother-in-law kiss and Billie jumps from the ship. A heartbeat later, the ship explodes and many of the people on board are drowned, including Billie's sister Edith. Murdo Hesketh, a distant kinsman of Lord Hallowhulme's, undertakes an investigation into the explosion, initially convinced that Billie has had a hand in sabotage. While the mystery of the exploding boat weaves desultorily through the novel, the book as a whole is more a character study of Billie and Murdo, examining their past lives, ferreting out the secrets that have formed them into the remote, solitary beings they are in the pages of the novel.

With a narrative akin to swimming through layers of viscous liquid, this is a slow moving and awkwardly paced novel. Knox has pegged the desolation and spare beauty of the setting very well. The spareness is echoed in the characters' interactions with each other and the personal connections between them, main characters and supporting characters, needed more to make them real. A few of the drowned characters, those closest to Billie and Murdo, are given backstories but for the most part, even with backstory, they remain almost as enigmatic as the main characters do. After a languid investigation, the truth about the explosion comes out. Unfortunately it comes out quickly and cursorily, which leaves it at odds with the pace of the rest of the book. It also rather comes out of left field, disconcertingly enough. Despite these problems, Knox is clearly an impressive writer, having a lovely way with words. She submerges her reader deeply into the narrative and has recreated beautifully the turn of the twentieth century, drawing characters who exist comfortably within their time period. This may not have struck me the way that The Vintner's Luck did, but I will still look for Knox's other works (maybe even on my own shelves again?).

Facebook shorts

I haven't bored all of you with my Facebook status shorts lately so it's time for another (not so) quickie of things I've been posting lately:

K. wonders what it is about her family that makes arm pits an acceptable, nay, appealing topic at the dinner table for them.

K.'s nose was a tad bit bloody this morning. I think the dog kicked me while I was sleeping last night!

K. decided that the humidity today is unpalatable and therefore I will wait to run. This is merely delay tactic #1 for the day. Facebook, is, quite obviously, delay tactic #2.

K. knows it is plain pitiful she can start the dryer, head out for a run, and get back long before the dryer is even close to finished.

K. learned how to drive on two wheels today and can make really cool peel-out noises now too. A dance private lesson, two tennis matches (one loss, one win) in two different places, a last minute trip to Target for a gift card, and dropping the boys at the birthday party destination in a mere 3 hour time frame and I now drive like a teenaged boy.

K. is moving slower than usual today. Might just be going in reverse. Wonder if that means my age is going backwards too?

K. hates swimming up through the viscous layers of sleep when battling out of a nightmare. Not a nice way to start the day.

K. didn't think people really put dish soap in the dishwasher but the cleaning lady today proved me wrong. Maybe she just thought she'd use all the extra bubbles on the floor to mop it. And yes, dishwashers really do spew bubbles (and not clean dishes) when you use the wrong kind of soap in them.

K. doesn't recommend fermented avocados.

K. knows that nature abhors a vaccuum but would it be too much to ask to have the bed to myself when D. is out of town?

K. doesn't want you to envy her glamorous stay at home life too much. You too could spend your day wiping up dog vomit if you only wanted.

K.'s daughter brought home yet another dust collector from yesterday's competition. Good show R.!

K. is raising Eddie Haskell. T.'s take on why other adults think he's charming? "Of course I'm polite to my friends' parents. I want to be invited back."

K. has a very enterprising kid. Since I didn't get his shorts dry last night, I found him aiming the hair dryer at his butt this morning so he could wear them anyway.

K. refuses to buy pants a size larger therefore she needs to get back on the weight loss plan or she's going to be one of those middle-aged women sporting a camel-toe, especially after the gluttony of the weekend.

K. is half way through the middle school book fair. I think there are more hormones in the room than books (and we're holding it in the library).

K. is a little tired of being told her daughter is gorgeous and her mother is gorgeous and then hearing the crickets chirp as the source of this gushing absorbs the whole idea of things skipping a generation.

K. thinks that her husband is the only person around who can go to the bathroom in a bar and come back with a business contact and a potential meeting. Normal people just don't strike up conversations with others in bathrooms, especially in men's bathrooms, right?!

K. is excited for her mom to pick up the little Gatsby girl. Poor Daisy has no idea what stress is about to come into her life.

K. wonders about the compulsion to make her bed whenever a service person is scheduled to be at the house. Unless we're talking about a plumber for the master bath, none of these folks get anywhere near the bedroom and yet the bed Must. Be. Made.

Men and Dogs giveaway

Last night I went to Katie Crouch's reading at Park Road Books. It was an intimate event and although it would have been nice to see more people there, the smallness was nice too since we all got to chat comfortably after Katie finished reading a couple of selections from her book. It cracked me up when Katie said that the inspiration for the story was her grandfather's disappearance on a fishing trip and then she added that his disappearance made him more interesting than he'd otherwise have been. I know the book bumped up in my tbr stacks for sure after hearing snippets and I'm still kicking myself for not taking my copy of her first book, Girls in Trucks, to have it signed as well. (That's what I get for making a cursory grab at the bookshelves as I raced out the door.) For those of you in the Raleigh area, you have the opportunity to go to a reading tonight or tomorrow night and you should definitely take the opportunity:

May 26th, 7pm
Regulator Books in Raleigh-Durham

May 27th, 7pm
Barnes and Noble, Cary Commons, in Cary

But enough teasing those of you who can't magically appear in NC to hear her read, right? Henry from Hachette graciously offered to let me give away three copies of the book in conjunction with this southern portion of Katie's tour. Thanks to a random number generator, the winners are commenters 10, 20, and 8:

Tina
Dawn M
DarcyO

Congratulations and I'll be sending out e-mails asking for your addresses. Those of you who didn't win, you'll want to make sure you pick up a copy of this book from your local bookseller.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

I continue to read more books than I get reviewed so the review backlog is mushrooming out of control. Maybe this week after I get someone in to work on the sporadic internet connection, I will manage to get through enough reviews to look respectable again! Then again, maybe I'll just lose my good excuse for the appallingly long list. This meme is hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey Through a World of Books.

Books I completed this week are:

Blame by Michelle Huneven
Sphdz Book #1: Spaceheadz by Jon Scieszka and Francesco Sedita
On Folly Beach by Karen White
Cheap Cabernet by Cathie Beck
Nothing But Ghosts by Beth Kephart

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
Great Lakes Nature by Mary Blocksma (this is going to take me all year as I read her year's entries on the corresponding days of this year)

Reviews posted this week:

You Suck by Christopher Moore
The Mediatot 6: Twilight by Meg Cabot
The Boy Who Loved Tornadoes by Randi Davenport

Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):

Billie's Kiss by Elizabeth Knox
Hardly a Husband by Rebecca Hagan Lee
Critical Care by Theresa Brown
College in a Nutskull by Anders Henriksson
After the Rain by Karen White
Spellbinder by Helen Stringer
Little Bee by Chris Cleave
The Season of Second Chances by Diane Meier
The Mercy Papers by Robin Romm
A Mountain of Crumbs by Elena Gorokhova
Petals from the Sky by Mingmei Yip
The Writing Circle by Corinne Demas
Blame by Michelle Huneven
Sphdz Book #1: Spaceheadz by Jon Scieszka and Francesco Sedita
On Folly Beach by Karen White
Cheap Cabernet by Cathie Beck
Nothing But Ghosts by Beth Kephart

Giveaways on the blog this week:

Men and Dogs by Katie Crouch ends today so get your entries in asap!

Monday Mailbox

This past week's mailbox arrivals:

Unplugged by Ryan Van Cleave came from the author.
I'm not terribly likely to sink into a video game addiction myself (too easily bored really) but I am always curious to read about obsessions/addictions that are far afield from my own experiences.

The Queen of Palmyra by Minrose Gwin was a contest win from Nat at Book, Line and Sinker.
Southern white girl, black housekeeper, civil rights era. Why would you not want to read this one?

Rumor Has It by Jill Mansell was a contest win from Terra at Yankee Romance Reviewers.
I have loved Jill Mansell ever since I discovered her (when you still had to send over to the UK to get copies of her books) so I was thrilled to win this one about gossip and rumors.

The Secret Confessions of Anne Shakespeare by Arliss Ryan came from Elizabeth at Penguin/NAL.
I am fascinated by the idea of what a marginalized historical figure might have thought. And the ways in which Anne Shakespeare might have contributed to the plays we know and love today is a topic that is wide open so this one really piques my interest.

As always, if you'd like to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Marcia at The Printed Page and enjoy seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.

Sunday Salon: Middle School Book Fair

I have spent the past week surrounded every day by loads of books and generally awkward, hormonal kids displaying varying amounts of enthusiasm for said books. In short, I've been working at the middle school book fair. Actually, I am the chair so I've been at the school all day, every day. When I was in school, I loved the book fair. It was a pass to indulge my nerdy book-aquisition-loving self at school. I pored over the fliers that were sent home, nagged to have the appropriate amount of money (roughly equivalent to half the national debt--and it was only half because I was still young, now my book budget exceeds the full amount), and cheerfully loaded up with any and all books that came into arms' reach.

Let's just say that kids today are not like I was. Of course, I actually chose to dress-up as a bookworm one Halloween (must dig that picture out of mom's photo album and post it sometime) and was one of two kids invited to the elementary school librarian's wedding so maybe parents don't really want their kids to be treading down the same path I did as a kid. It is tough perpetually wearing a "kick me" sign after all. But sheesh, a little more enthusiasm would be okay and would ultimately benefit the school at a time when budgets are being slashed almost into non-existence.

With middle school, it is very easy to tell what grade is arriving to browse the bookfair at any given moment. The sixth graders retain much of the enthusiasm you find at elementary school book fairs. Many of them do choose a book to buy although the big draw for them is the extraneous junk that comes with the books. They do all swarm the summer reading table, anxious to know what they will be required to read for the project that is due back shortly after school starts in the fall.

The seventh graders sometimes manage to muster up a few shreds of enthusiasm and a couple of them also purchase books although their purchases are almost entirely required summer reading books. They are cynical enough that every last class had multiple students who looked over the summer reading choices (only two books to choose between), picked the books up, and commented loudly on the difference in size of the books. Almost every last child chose the shorter book. The joke's on them though as the shorter book (The Alchemist) is one of the most painful and dull reading experiences available and will take them all summer to read. The longer book (the last Harry Potter) would take them much less time to read. But I suppose that everyone needs to learn that shorter isn't always the better choice. My own rising eighth grader wasn't given a choice. He will be reading Harry Potter (again) because I have no desire to live through the pain and suffering, moaning, whining, and complaining that is sure to accompany The Alchemist. No worries though, as a child of mine, he'll be reading many other things during the summer too so re-reading one book instead of reading something new won't matter in the grand scheme of things.

The eighth graders have mastered apathy. They are ready to go off to high school and they are clearly jaded by having been the kings and queens of the school for the year. There were several eighth grade classes that bought not one thing. No books. Not even some of the extraneous junk. They meandered over to the summer reading table, casually dismissing the need to read any of their "recommended" choices, while desultorily flirting with each other. Books are clearly not high on their hormone-fueled lists of priority. It was the eighth grade classes that were the rudest, sassiest, and least likely to pay attention when I was giving them my twenty second run-down about the fair. They left me wondering if I can kill and eat my young before they reach this age.

We didn't have a wonderfully successful fair although my unrestrained book buying did help boost sales fairly significantly. I took it as a personal challenge to amass a mountain of books to run past my own crew (including the elementary-aged kid since he's a top notch reader) in hopes of instilling in them the idea that reading and books are worthwhile no matter what the attitude of their peers. I think I only half succeeded since they did look through the mountain and agree to many of my choices (adding some I hadn't considered) but they weren't willing to do it during their class buying time, only browsing after school as they waited for me to tally our sales at the end of each day.

The few kids who were obviously avid readers were so outnumbered by the uninspired it was almost depressing. Add to that the Language Arts teacher who actually told her class to just buy their reading on amazon instead because they could get it cheaper there, and, well, it makes you wonder. Maybe what's wrong with our schools right now isn't just the plethora of pointless testing but a general lack of enthusiasm for the big important things in life like reading and education for learning and pleasure's sake alone. Here's hoping that what I saw this week was just a seasonal malaise and end of the year burn-out and that the fall book fair will generate more enthusiasm and inspire happiness in far more kids.

Trapped at the bookfair as I was, it is a little ironic that I didn't get more of my own reading accomplished. But I did do some. I watched as an alcoholic professor who killed a mother and daughter sobered up and tried to live a life of atonement. I met alien SPHDZs along with the new boy in school. And I eagerly immersed myself in the mystery of 60 plus year old marginalia discovered in random books by a young woman widowed by the war in Afghanistan after she buys a bookstore and attempts to rebuild her life. No telling where my books will take me this coming week.

Saturday Shout-Out

On my travels through the blogging world, I find many books that pique my interest. I always add them to my wish list immediately but I tend to forget who deserves the blame credit for inspiring me to add them to my list (and to whom my husband would like to send the bill when I get around to actually buying them). So each Saturday I'm going to try and keep better track, link to my fellow book ferreter-outers (I know, not a word but useful nonetheless), and hopefully add to some of your wish lists too.

Stay by Allie Larkin was mentioned on Caribousmom.

Promises to Keep by Jane Green was mentioned on Caribousmom.

Spoon Fed by Kim Severson was mentioned on Breaking the Spine.

Cakewalk by Kate Moses was mentioned on Breaking the Spine.

The Lady and the Poet by Maeve Haran was mentioned on Constance Reader's Guide to Throwing Books With Great Force.

A Beginner's Guide to Acting English by Shappi Khorsandi was mentioned on Lost in Books.

Brother of the More Famous Jack by Barbara Trapido was mentioned on Stuck in a Book.

Simply From Scratch by Alicia Bessette was mentioned on Crazy for Books.

The Blind Contessa's New Machine by Carey Wallace was mentioned on The Crowded Leaf.

Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay was mentioned on The Book Case.

What goodies have you added to your wish lists recently? Make your own list and leave a comment here so we can all see who has been a terrible influence inspiring you lately.

Review: The Boy Who Loved Tornadoes by Randi Davenport

This is a heartbreaking memoir about a mother who struggles with her developmentally delayed son and finding the best possible doctors, home, and care for her loved boy. Davenport's son Chase has been labelled with a veritable plethora of diagnoses over the years but none of them seems to be comprehensive enough or accurate enough to explain everything that is going on in Chase's world, especially as his symptoms change, weaken, or intensify with all sorts of internal and external stimuli. As this is a memoir, there is no fairy tale ending here, just the uncertainty and sorrow of watching and loving a son who is often unreachable. Davenport swings from the early years when Chase started showing indications that he was delayed to her more recent struggles to find an appropriate facility to house Chase and all the bureaucratic mess involved in holding the state accountable for what they needed to provide for this indefinable boy/man. She delves into the possible genetic connection, hinting that her ex-husband suffered from instabilities and mental health issues that intensified when manifest in Chase. She examines the impact of a child like Chase on a typical sibling, especially when she, as a single parent, must focus so much of her attention on Chase's care leading to guilt over her perceived neglect of Chase's younger sister Haley.

This is a memoir of difficulty and caring, frustration and love, despair and intensity. It is completely raw and unflinchingly emotional. Hard to read because of the freighted content, this is also the story of a mother fighting for what is best for her son, of perseverance and a dogged persistence that has given Chase the chance to live a life as unfettered as it is possible for him to live, not vegetative from drugs, not locked up as if criminal, but cared for and progressing along his own timeline. The writing is stark and precise and weighted by the depth of Davenport's emotion but it is beautiful and terrible and sad all at once.

Review: The Mediator 6: Twilight by Meg Cabot

I am typically incredibly finicky about reading series in order. I scowl and grump if my book club even considers picking a book that is mid-series. I rarely agree to review series books if the entire series isn't offered up for my perusal. This sounds like I'm being a snob or don't like series. This could not be farther from the truth. I thoroughly enjoy series and love the idea that when I stumble on a good one, I will have countless books and hours to spend with much loved characters. But, I like to build my relationships up slowly, to start at the beginning, and to learn the whole back story of each major character as it is revealed. So I was surprised to find that I had inadvertantly grabbed the sixth book in Cabot's Mediator series from the school library book buzz pile. The fact that the library didn't carry books 1-5 made it nigh impossible to read up on the series (well at the very least, without going to the county library and as I am trying hard to work through my own backlogged books, I didn't want to commit to reading 5 other books prior to tackling this one). So I crossed my fingers, prayed that jumping in mid-series wasn't going to be the kiss of death, and opened the book.

Luckily, plunging into this book without having read the previous entries in the series turned out to be fine. I'm sure that I would have enjoyed knowing Suze, Jesse, and Paul's earlier interactions and that would have enhanced the book but it worked decently as a stand-alone. Suze Simon, who lives with her mother and step-father, is a mediator. This means she can not only talk to ghosts but she helps them move on in the afterlife. Suze is not the only mediator around though. Paul, a boy at her school, and his ailing grandfather, are also mediators. But Paul's moral compass is not exactly aligned with Suze's and they are incredibly adversarial and contentious with each other. Their touchy relationship isn't helped by the fact that he's trying to discover a way to go back in time to prevent Suze's ghostly nineteenth century boyfriend, Jesse, from ever becoming a ghost, thereby winning Suze for himself. Suze is torn, wondering if Paul preventing Jesse's murder is the right thing and if she's being selfish wanting to preserve her meeting with Jesse 150 years after his death. It's a race between Suze and Paul to figure out how to travel backwards in time and either let history repeat itself or change the outcome entirely.

Cabot has written a fast paced and entertaining book with an interestingly unique premise. The tension between Suze and Paul is biting but realistically teenaged. Suze is perhaps a bit too good but her strict and somewhat simple moral center is nicely balanced by the fact that Paul is multi-dimesional, shades of black and white, and not easily dismissed as the stereotypical villain. Ghostly Jesse is a little thin but the real story swirls around him rather than centering on him. I suspect that knowing the full backstory would have rounded out the characters better for me, especially Suze's relationship with her dead father, but over all it was okay not to have the full disclosure in my reading past. Teens who like un-creepy paranormal reading will fully appreciate this one and may want to start with book one.

Review: You Suck by Christopher Moore

Following on Moore's hilariously warped Bloodsucking Fiends, this novel takes up where that one ends. Opening with Tommy chastizing (probably too polite a term, incidentally) his girlfriend, Jody, for turning him into one of the undead himself, this is really a long and twisted look at Tommy and Jody's evolving relationship and the mundane details of life as vampires. For instance, it is incredibly important, when a vampire, to have a minion to whom you can delegate your daylight hours tasks. In Tommy and Jody's case, now that Tommy is himself a vampire, they recruit the cheerful and therefore inauthentic goth girl, Abby Normal. She is to do their bidding and protect them from the vampire hunting Animals, former Safeway night stockers and pot heads with whom Tommy used to work. Many of the characters from the first book make appearances in this one with the addition of some completely new kooky folks. There's Blue, the money hungry and completely sadistic prostitute who has dyed herself entirely blue. There's a homeless alcoholic with a fat cat who provides a reasonably stable blood source for Tommy and Jody as long as they keep him supplied with alcohol (nevermind that his blood makes them beyond tipsy). There are more twists than in a bag of pretzels as the vampire population in the Bay area explodes with unintended consequences and a completely original resolution.

In true Moore fashion, there are giggles and nuttiness and entertainment galore in the pages of this one. I will say that I didn't love You Suck as much as I did Bloodsucking Fiends, but I have high hopes for the third (Bite Me) as not only was the end of this one left gapingly wide open but it was also a bit rushed. I was slow to warm up to Abby Normal herself and found her early journal entries ridiculous and overwrought but as the novel progressed, I realized that they were written this way intentionally and that her fawning over the whole concept of vampirism making way for cool appraisal and steely nerves was itself a major plot development. In the end, I enjoyed the book and will be curious to see where the madcap vampire series careens next. Moore has a very warped sense of humor and he's not for everyone but I think he's a kick. More discerning and sensitive folks will want to know about the profanity, graphic vampire sex, and complete crassness that dots the pages of the book. But if this sort of thing doesn't bother you, you're in for a ride.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

I don't know what's been up with me this past week. I have started a million books and finished only a few. I haven't been able to marshal my thoughts to produce coherent reviews. In short, I have been scattered and this round-up definitely shows that! This meme is hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey Through a World of Books.

Books I completed this week are:

The Season of Second Chances by Diane Meier
The Mercy Papers by Robin Romm
A Mountain of Crumbs by Elena Gorokhova
Petals From the Sky by Mingmei Yip
The Writing Circle by Corinne Demas

Bookmarks are still living in the middle of:

The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
Great Lakes Nature by Mary Blocksma (this is going to take me all year as I read her year's entries on the corresponding days of this year)

Reviews posted this week:

Venetia Kelly's Traveling Show by Frank Delaney
The Girl Next Door by Elizabeth Noble

Books still needing to have reviews written (as opposed to the ones that are simply awaiting posting):

You Suck by Christopher Moore
The Mediator 6: Twilight by Meg Cabot
The Boy Who Loved Tornadoes by Randi Davenport
Billie's Kiss by Elizabeth Knox
Hardly a Husband by Rebecca Hagan Lee
Critical Care by Theresa Brown
College in a Nutskull by Anders Henriksson
After the Rain by Karen White
Spellbinder by Helen Stringer
Little Bee by Chris Cleave
The Season of Second Chances by Diane Meier
The Mercy Papers by Robin Romm
A Mountain of Crumbs by Elena Gorokhova
Petals from the Sky by Mingmei Yip
The Writing Circle by Corinne Demas

Giveaways on the blog this week:

Men and Dogs by Katie Crouch

Monday Mailbox

This past week's mailbox arrivals:

Huck by Janet Elder came from Angela at NAL.
I am a total sucker for dog books. One that promises hope and community and a happy ending is just icing on the cake.

After the Fall by Kylie Ladd came from LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
A book about friendships and marriages blown apart by infidelity, this sounds like a devastating and powerful read.

The Ocean Between Us by Susan Wiggs came from Chelsy at Big Honcho Media.
A military family grappling with the sacrifices and life that they have led for years face up to a long held secret on the eve of their father's latest deployment. I'm looking forward to seeing what military life is like.

As always, if you'd like to see the marvelous goodies in other people's mailboxes, make sure to visit Marcia at The Printed Page and enjoy seeing how we are all doing our part to keep the USPS and delivery services viable.

Sunday Salon: Keeping Up with the Vanderbilts

My husband arranged to take me away for the weekend to celebrate our anniversary. His location of choice was the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC both because it wasn't too far away and because he knew I was interested in seeing the famed house. While I enjoyed the house tour, imagine my glee when we walked into the library and discovered that I am a mere thousand or so books behind the Vanderbilts. And I assure you that my house doesn't come close to the grandeur of the Biltmore. But I have almost as many books stashed in every corner of my house. Heh. :-) I was also most disappointed that the velvet ropes ensured we unwashed masses couldn't read the spines of the books, most of which looked unread to my always discerning eye.

After our tour of the house and grounds, we went back to our hotel, cheerfully grabbed our books, headed out to some likely looking chairs, and settled in to read. Imagine my surprise when a friend and neighbor found us there. She was walking past on her way back to her room and thought my profile looked familiar. The fact that said profile was completely engrossed in a book clinched the deal for her. D. thinks it is hilariously funny that we can be a couple of hours away from home and what makes a friend certain that it is me is the ubiquitous book. She even managed to take a couple of pictures of us reading that we never noticed being taken. How's that for immersed in a book?

I did manage to read a few more books this week than I thought I'd get through thanks to our mini vacation. But per usual, I took far more reading material than I needed. My husband pretended outrage that I would take four books for what was supposed to be a romantic long weekend but he knows me well enough to know that was positively restrained for me (I only finished two but started the third). After all, I took 10 books on my actual honeymoon so it's not like anything has changed about me in 15 years (well, nothing that can't be directly laid at the feet of gravity, age, and children!).

Saturday Shout-Out

On my travels through the blogging world, I find many books that pique my interest. I always add them to my wish list immediately but I tend to forget who deserves the blame credit for inspiring me to add them to my list (and to whom my husband would like to send the bill when I get around to actually buying them). So each Saturday I'm going to try and keep better track, link to my fellow book ferreter-outers (I know, not a word but useful nonetheless), and hopefully add to some of your wish lists too.

Sweet Misfortune by Kevin Alan Milne was mentioned on Bookworm With a View.

Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English by Natasha Solomons was mentioned on Bookworm With a View.

A Pearl in the Storm by Tori Murden McClure was mentioned on Library Love Fest.

The Summer We Read Gatsby by Danielle Ganek was mentioned on Booking Mama.

What goodies have you added to your wish lists recently? Make your own list and leave a comment here so we can all see who has been a terrible influence inspiring you lately.

Review: The Girl Next Door by Elizabeth Noble

An ensemble piece, this novel by Noble invites readers into the lives of very disparate characters connected only by the fact that they live in the same co-op building in New York City. There's Eve and Ed who have moved to New York from England for Ed's job. There's Violet, an elderly British woman who has kept herself aloof from others in the building until she meets the desperately lonely Eve. There are the Kramers and the Schulmans, both of whom are suffering marriage crises of different kinds. There's the disolute, unemployed, mid-twenties son of wealthy parents who falls in love with a gorgeous, driven woman in the building. Charlotte is a shy romantic who lives vicariously through her friends. Madison is a predatory man-eater whose major goal in life is to snag a wealthy husband. And these are only a few of the residents. Some of their stories intersect but not all of them do, with characters living tandem lives that never touch.

The vast cast of characters and plot lines give this an episodic feel as each chapter focuses on the lives of different residents of the building. The danger, of course, is that some characters get short shift and that is definitely the case here. The lives of the characters vary in their ability to interest the reader as they range from everyday issues to bigger problems like infidelity and great tragedy. Because the narrative moves back and forth so frequently, it is difficult to become fully engaged with any of the story arcs although, British transplant Eve seems the most fully realized and her story the most engrossing overall. The biggest disappointment for me was the superficiality of each segmented part as the characters moved from hurdle to hurdle in their own rather insulated lives. The writing was reasonable though so this might make a decent beach read for those so inclined.

Katie Crouch in North Carolina and a giveaway

Do you live in North Carolina? Author Katie Crouch, whose books are set in South Carolina, will be in the Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham areas in two weeks to promote her latest book: Men and Dogs.

From Booklist via amazon:
Following her embraced debut, Girls in Trucks (2008), Crouch offers another southern tale in which Hannah Legare finds herself back in her hometown, Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, as her marriage, business, and life in San Francisco crumble. She soon begins to puzzle over an old mystery: her father Buzz’s mysterious disappearance more than 20 years earlier. Hannah retraces old ground, hoping to glean insights from the recollections of her mother, stepfather, brother, and family friends. Yet most residents of the town prefer to remember Buzz fondly, and view his disappearance during a routine fishing expedition as a tragic accident. Hannah, however, is still haunted by her father’s absence and the thought of the family dog drifting alone in the boat. Her quest to discover her father’s true fate provides clues to Hannah’s current problems, including her trouble being faithful to her husband, even as she realizes she may find information she never wanted to know. At least she will finally begin to piece together her own story.

Ms. Crouch's North Carolina appearances are:

May 25th, 7pm
Park Road Books in Charlotte

May 26th, 7pm
Regulator Books in Raleigh-Durham

May 27th, 7pm
Barnes and Noble, Cary Commons, in Cary

I know I plan to be at the Park Road Books event (even though it is my anniversary) and thought that if anyone else was going to be in the area, we could meet and maybe catch dinner, if we find time amongst all the book browsing (since I am congenitally unable to go into a bookstore without shopping).

And if a fun author opportunity isn't enough, Henry at Hachette Book Group has offered to let me host a giveaway of Men and Dogs. I have three copies of the book to giveaway to folks with a US or Canadian address (sorry no PO boxes). To enter, just leave a comment below. Entries will close at midnight on May 24th.

While you gear up for the event, check out Katie Crouch's author website. I suspect that her canine assistant probably isn't making the southern leg of her tour, but she does have one gorgeous dog. Go look!

Review: Venetia Kelly's Traveling Show by Frank Delaney

Perhaps my Irish blood has been too diluted or maybe it has been recalled entirely but I don't seem to enjoy Irish storytelling with all of its attendant divagations as much as I probably should given my heritage. Odd this, given my own propensity for rambling far afield of the topic. But the wandering digressions present in this book, as in so many Irish tales, made for a slow and meandering read for me. Couple this with much information about the political situation in Ireland in the 1930's and, well, I put the book down as often as I picked it up. Of course, the narrator tells us early on that both digressions and frank discussions of politics are deeply woven into the heft of the Irish character. Obviously my own sketchy connection to Ireland, traced back to a single great grandparent, is too small to count anymore since these two things are as scantily represented in my reading as possible. Occasionally I even forget to wear green on St. Patrick's Day for heaven's sake.

Ben MacCarthy is only 18 when his father takes him to see a traveling show. His father is enamoured of the show's headliner, Venetia Kelly, a young woman magnetic, charming, beautiful, and far too young for him but who welcomes the older MacCarthy into the crew of the show that evening, leaving young Ben to go home alone and break the devastating news to his mother. Ben's mother asks the impossible of her only son: to go and bring his father home. And so begins Ben's adventure through the world of vaudeville, dirty politics, and a doomed, incendiary love affair. While Ben grapples with his father's obsession for Venetia, a political charlatan and proponent of Fascism is stealing the family farm from right under Ben's mother's nose. Flipping between the situation with Venetia and that of the farm, Delaney weaves the personal and the political together tightly.

The narrative is being told by Ben many years after the events of the story and includes research about the people involved which he didn't know when he was freshly 18. The form works although it does allow for increased digressions and less of a sense of urgency than would have been likely had his character been telling the story in the thick of the events. There is an large cast of characters as well and the narrative jumps around to follow different people as their impact on the story waxes and wanes. So while it is told in a basically linear fashion, there are all sorts of tendrils creeping away from the central plot line. Ben's character addresses the reader throughout the narrative, making the reader feel as if he or she was sitting listening to a master storyteller beside the fire. And while the scope of the novel is sweeping, Delaney's narrative choice makes if feel smaller and more personal than it might.

As I mentioned above, I personally had some difficulty with the meandering of the tale but many other reviewers found the digressions added immeasurably to their experience. In pulling in so many greater issues, in terms of the politics and the national character of the Irish, I found myself at a remove from the characters which made it hard for me to feel sympathy for them in their situations, even when the most naive and trusting among them were being manipulated. Although the ventriloquist's dummy named Blarney was important symbolically, his inclusion outside the parameters of the show itself was a bit disturbing. Over all, I have to say I was a little disappointed in the book, perhaps less for what I read than for the loss of my expectations. And maybe I should go back and check my Fran's nationality again because I don't seem to have inherited the Irish adoration of theater, politics, and divagation along with my freckles.

Thanks to LibraryThing Early Reviewers for my copy of this book to review.